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Dear Sadagopanji
Yet another thought provoking master piece article.
with all hard labor done for a full year the boy sees his results and feels
happy that he got the fruits of labor and all his prayers have been
answered; but within hours he notices that he missed admission under merit
list by visker.Without choice the daddy for the first time finds use for the
costly big leather vallet (which he had got in one
of his official seminars).
quote
We thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings are but flashes in the
pan, transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us for long.
unquote.

It is really interesting to learn the meaning for the word " yoga" - it is
sometimes understood as "be in union" or " unprecedented good fortune" or a
mind without desires and so on. Sometimes we say "yogam" in our day to day
usage. Probabaly the word carries meaning to the context - seek some
clarification-

I have heard people saying " pleasure is an interval between pains" or one
can look at the life as a dark night between two days or a bright day
between two nights. Pleasure and pain is like day and night.

Lord gave up His Lordliness and pose Himself as mortal to kill
Ravanan; Krishna had to be with the Cows at
Midnight; for the sake of little butter. Lord accepted His defeat for the
Love of His devotees by leaving the Vaikunta and came down while Jaya and
Vijaya still arguing to let the Rishies in ; Mahabali finally offered
himself accepted his Defeat; Great saints and sages gave up their pursuit
and resorted to surrender. This ping- Pong goes on and on . Nobody is a
winner!

I would think the real " yoga Kshemam" was for Gopikas of vrindavan. Others
thought Krishna is just a magician , but the Gopikas spotted Him as the
Paramatma thru their Intense Love for HIM and Lord could not hide His
Lordship from them. The lady luck kept smiling on the ladies of vrindavanam.

" If we have understood that we cannot understand Him; then we have
understood Him"
( the statement made by a mystic boy in chennai when I happened to meet him)

Learned members of this forum may kindly bear my scribbles.

Srimate Ramanujaya Namah
Srimate Vedanta Gurave Namah
Sri Satakopa Ramanuja Yathindra Mahadesikaya Namah

Vijayaraghavan V K


----- Original Message -----
From: "sadagopaniyengar" <sadagopaniyengar@xxxx>
To: "SriRangaSri" <SriRangaSri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<malolan_net@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "tiruvengadam"
<tiruvengadam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Oppiliappan" <Oppiliappan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
"radha jagannathan" <radha@xxxx>; "j.srinivasan"
<j.srinivasan@xxxx>; "cs.srinivasan" <chetlurvas@xxxx>; "padmaja"
<ayodhyarama@xxxx>; "sukanya Murali" <sukanyamurali@xxxx>;
"mythily ramadesikan" <r_mythily@xxxx>
Cc: "sadagopaniyengar" <sadagopaniyengar@xxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 4:53 AM
Subject: [SriRangaSri] "Many A Slip..."


>
> Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
>
>
>
> Many A Slip..
>
>
> People say that Fortune smiles upon us at times. Whenever it does,
we are favoured with good things, be it winning a lottery, getting a seat in
college, landing a rich and good-looking bride or something else equally
desirable. Thus when the usually stern father is in a mellow mood on the day
the dull boy's report card arrives, when the usually argumentative wife
agrees to the husband's proposal without demur, when the habitually terrible
cook refrains from burning the breakfast again-all these are occasions when
Fortune wears a benign smile, instead of the usual slings and arrows it
reserves for us. However, this smile never lasts long, and we end-up losing
in a jiffy whatever gain we notched up earlier. The next month's report card
finds the stern father in his usually foul mood and the punishment is all
the more severe: the wife resumes wordy duels with a vengeance and the
kitchen-help picks up where she left off in overexposing food to fire. We
thus see that most of fate's apparent blessings are but flashes in the pan,
transitory as the lightning and fail to enthuse us for long.
>
>
>
> We wish therefore for a continued run of good luck, or the
preservation and continuation of the blessings showered upon us occasionally
in this otherwise humdrum and pedestrian existence. It is thus as important
to us to have strokes of good luck as to have them with us on a firmer
footing.
>
> While defining "YOgakshEmam"(in the Gita sloka)-
>
> "ananyA: chintayantO mAm yE janA: paryupAsatE
>
> tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"
>
>
>
> Sri Ramanuja takes Yoga to mean unprecedented good fortune and KshEma to
connote the continued enjoyment of that slice of good luck. What is the use
of Lady Luck smiling upon us, if it were to last just a fleeting second? How
desirable would it be to have Fortune smile upon one always, akin to the
fixed and phoney smile politicians habitually wear on their faces!
>
>
>
> The TaittirIya Upanishad says, "annavAn annAdO bhavati", blessing the
fortunate one with sumptuous food that never diminishes with time or
consumption. But what is the use of plentiful food, if one is unable to
partake of it? We often come across the ironical spectacle of the extremely
affluent, with a breakfast of mouth-watering delicacies spread out in front
of them, but unable to eat even a morsel of the tempting fare, due to
crippling complaints like Diabetes, Ulcer et al. Is it not a case of "Water,
water everywhere, but not a drop to drink!" The true blessing therefore is
not only to have one's heart's desire, but to enjoy it too. This is why the
Upanishad showers a blessing not only for possession of plentiful food, but
also the requisite health and connoisseurship to enjoy its
consumption-"annAdO bhavati".
>
>
>
> History is replete with instances of slips between the cup and the lip, of
people favoured with a beaming smile from Fortune, only to have it disappear
in a trice, leaving them in a condition worse than before. One such instance
Azhwars have waxed eloquent about concerns the lament of Devaki, faithfully
rendered in verse by Sri Kulasekhara Perumal.
>
>
>
> It is common knowledge as to how Sri Krishna was born to Devaki and
Vasudeva in Kamsa's prison, on that stormy night. However, after favouring
His parents with a sight to gladden their hearts, He departed the same night
to the safer haven of Nandagokulam, situated across the Yamuna. To Devaki,
from whom seven earlier children had been snatched away by a merciless
Kamsa, the departure of Sri Krishna was the final blow and she could hardly
reconcile herself to the loss of the beloved child, whose arrival the
entire world had awaited with bated breath. She too had looked forward so
much to this child, and when He did arrive, She was wonderstruck at His
beauty and magnificence-His lovable lotus eyes, His radiant face resembling
a thousand Suns shining simultaneously, the tiny red lips resembling a ripe
red fruit, the cute little feet which were the refuge of the whole world and
the deep navel from which the entire Creation had blossomed forth. Who would
willingly part with such a magnificent and bewitching specimen of childhood?
But part with she did, in the sole interests of the enchanting infant, who
would meet with instant end, if Kamsa came to know of His birth.
>
>
>
> Thus, though blessed with a child beyond any mother's wildest imagination,
Devaki did not have the good fortune to keep Him, to subject Him to the
smothering love and care of a doting mother, to watch Him take His first
unsteady steps, to witness His innumerable acts of mischief and misdemeanour
which endeared Him so much to the Gopis, to feed Him with a breast full of
milk which bore the distilled essence of maternal love and affection, to
sing Him to sleep with the sweetest of lullabies, to watch over His docile,
sleeping form with pride tinged with worry of the evil eye befalling Him and
doing a hundred other things that provide unending enjoyment to mothers.
>
>
>
> Sri Kulasekhara Perumal records Devaki's dismay at her loss, in all of
ten pasurams in his Perumal Tirumozhi. Sri Andal hints at the irony of fate,
at the paradox of the surrogate mother snatching away the rightful enjoyment
of the natural one, with the lines 'orutthi maganAi pirandu, Oriravil
orutthi maganAi oLitthu vaLara". Thus though Devaki's cup of happiness was
momentarily full, it emptied itself before it could be conveyed to her
thirsting lips. Fortune, after casting a fleeting smile at Devaki, turned
stony-faced again, leaving her to her travails in Kamsa's gaol, and turned
its beaming face towards Yasodha, giving her the full treatment. As a
result, all the happiness and glory, which ought to have accrued to Devaki
and Vasudeva, by virtue of their being the Lord's parents, is appropriated,
albeit unwittingly, by Yasodha and Nandagopa. The Lord is described
variously as "Yasodai iLam singam" "Nandagopan kumaran" etc., identifying
Him more with His foster parents, than the original ones. It is Yasoda who
attains the maximum enjoyment out of her motherhood-"tollai inabatthin irudi
kandAL", than poor Devaki, forced to part with her beloved within hours of
His birth and before even the cut umbilical cord could properly dry and
heal.
>
>
>
> Food is verily regarded as the Supreme Lord Himself, as the Upanishad
vakya testifies-"annam Brahma iti vyajAnAt". This is the advice of Varuna to
his son Bhrigu Mahrshi, when the latter seeks clarifications on the
Ultimate. If we use this definition, of food being Brahma, in the aforesaid
Shruti vAkya, "annavAn annAdO bhavati", substituting "Brahma" for "annam",
we arrive at the vEdic benediction that the true knower not only attains the
Lord ("annavAn bhavati") but also gets to enjoy all the glorious facets of
His magnificence, performing constant kainkaryam to Him, deriving
indescribable bliss in the process ("annAdO bhavati"). Having realised the
true nature of the Lord, the bhakta is rewarded with pleasurable service and
boundless bliss, never losing himself again in the bewildering maze of
samsara. The nectar of Bhagavat anubhavam is indeed conveyed to the lips,
without being lost in the process, without slipping in transit, as happened
in the case of Devaki.
>
>
>
> Another case of the contents of the cup slipping before reaching the lips
is the asurAs' Herculean efforts to obtain immortality by imbibing Ambrosia.
After all the interminable troubles they went to in positioning the Mantara
parvatam in the Milky Ocean, harnessing the poisonous VAsuki as the churning
rope, persuading the Lord Himself to act as the bedrock, and putting in all
their efforts for churning up the ocean, when indeed Nectar did emerge, the
asurAs find themselves cheated out of it by DevAs, with the active
connivance of the Lord in His MOhini avataram. For all His professed
impartiality, ("DEvAnAm dAnavAnAm cha sAmAnyam adhi daivatam"), the Lord
indeed tilts towards the Devas, and with good reason too-for, the world
would be a hard place to live in if free reign is given to the evil-minded.
>
>
>
> All this goes to demonstrate the truth of Sri Bhashyakara's words on Yoga
and Kshema-attaining some hard-to-get good fortune and also getting to enjoy
it fully. While some are lucky to achieve their mind's desire, it is only a
few who stand to benefit immensely from their attainment. Others only suffer
double disappointment, for the blow of not being able to enjoy the fruits of
their labour is indeed worse than not having achieved the goal itself. The
Gitacharya Himself tells us what we should do for attaining the Ultimate and
also deriving the accompanying bliss-
>
> "ananyA: chintayantO mAm, yE janA: paryupAsatE
>
> tEshAm nitya abhiyuktAnAm yOgakshEmam vahAmyaham"
>
>
>
> For those who reserve their thoughts solely for the Lord, with nary a
notion for anything else, hold Him dear to their hearts with an overwhelming
devotion and worship Him with the unadulterated adulation He deserves, the
Lord Himself takes care of their requirements. He ensures that they are
blessed with the most wonderful of good fortunes (that of realising
Emperuman in all His glory and splendour) and of deriving boundless bliss in
His company and kainkaryam.
>
> It is He who puts the cup of joy in our hands and steadies it too, so that
it doesn't slip while being conveyed to the lips.
>
>
>
> Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana
Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:
>
> Dasan, sadagopan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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>









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