My thoughts : 100 Rupees for a coffee & 100 lakhs for a car.

I read a book and some ideas in it have made me think quite a deal. The book said this – Wealth is known as Goddess Lakshmi, the divine consort of Lord Sriman Narayana. God expects us to use this wealth to please him and for good reasons. This obviously means that using this wealth (i.e. Goddess Lakshmi) for materialistic and worldy pleasures is a sin and using it for worldly benefits, only brings in more misery.

Now we are in a time when there are a zillion ways to spend money for worldly benefits. Right from 100 rupees for a coffee to 100 lakhs for a car, we can spend money, in wasteful ways. Sriman Narayan will be happy when the wealth he has given us is used in righteous ways. Otherwise it brings in only misery, which we are seeing daily. A rich man might have a many cars, but the doctor might have instructed him to walk daily because he is obese. Another person might have a sweet shop, but wouldn’t be able to have any because he is diabetic. Now, the money has brought in only misery. Apart from spiritual reasons, it is also morally wrong to spend so much money when millions struggle for single meal a day.

So should we stop having our favourite cup of cappuccino? YES! But we need not stop it right away forcefully. We can start by reducing the frequency of having our 100 rupees coffee and slowly give it up. And there is one more thing we can start doing right away. Whenever we spend 100 rupees for a coffee we can spend some more money (or atleast the same amount) for pleasing the God. This doesn’t necessarily mean giving the money to a temple (which is always good); The money can be used to feed poor people, given to orphanages and there are more ways money can be put to good use.

When we use money to please God and for righteous reasons, God is happy with us and he keeps us happy. We also feel morally right when our money is put to good use.

The book I read was Elevation to Krishna Consciousness, about which I have said in one of my older posts.

Matrimonial service from Kinchitkaram Trust

Kinchitkaram trust has launched a matrimonial service called “Vivaham” through their website. This service is unique as it caters only to spiritually inclined people who would practice Sri Vaishnavam after marriage. The effort has to be appreciated as getting a like-minded partner is not very easy these days. Having a like-minded partner will be very useful in following Sri Vaishnava principles through out our life. This is a free service and anyone looking for a spiritually inclined life partner can sign up.

Link for the “Vivaham” page – http://www.kinchitkaramtrust.org/matrimony.home.action

Sri Ramanuja Vaibhavam (Life Story)

We all know about Sri Ramanuja, but there are instances where we might have not known all the incidents that happened throughout his life and incidents before his birth. A detailed life history of Sri Ramanuja is not readily available. Now I have come across a blog which has a detailed life history of Sir Ramanuja, neatly split into chapters. The blog is created by the people behind the SrirangaPankajam website. Please use the link at the end to visit the blog and read the complete story.

From Chapter 001

LORD Sriman NARAYANA made this world and the worldly living beings. To know about the world affairs and get rid of the same, HE inducted the Vedas. To know the inner meanings of Vedas HE made the Sastras which are the parts and parts of the Vedas.

All these were turned to be fruitless like the torch given to a blind man. LORD decided to get along with the worldly beings and personified himself into various avatars. Even by staging HIS various manifestations worldly beings were reluctant to understand and were not curios to know about the eternal bliss (‘Moksha’).

Like using a dear to capture a dear and using an elephant for capturing an elephant, HE embodied HIS armory (‘Divya Ayudas’) as Azhwars for spreading the curiosity of Moksha among us – the earthly beings. But even the Azhwars viz, Poigaiyar, Bothathaar, PeiAzhwar, Thirumazhisaiyar, NamAzhwar, Kulasekarar, PeriyaAzhwar, Thondaradipodi, Thirupanar and Thirumangai Mannan, were not able to achieve the purpose of spreading the wisdom among the community as they themselves were drawn in HIS divine nature and character (‘Kalyana Gunas) and spent their entire life time on singing Pasurams. Same with the case of Andal and MadurakaviAzhwar as they also attained Moksha by way of their Acharya Bakthi.

Link for the blog – http://srirangapankajam.blogspot.com/2007/11/ramanuja-vaibhavam-chapter-001.html

Swami Nanjeeyar Thirunakshatram (Tomorrow)

Tomorrow is the Thirunakshatram of Swami Sri Nanjeeyar. Tomorrow is also the Thirunakshatram of Periya Piratti, so we will have a brief episode from Nanjeeyars life today itself.

Sri Nanjeeyar was the disciple of Sri Parasara Bhattar, the son of Sri Kurattazhvan and the acharya of Sri Nampillai. He was the first acharya to write Vyakhyanams for both Thiruvaymozhi as well as prabandhams of other Azhvars. He was the first to write vyakhyanams in the style of explaining each word and phrase of the azhvars and quoting other acharyas in detailing their meanings.

Swami Nanjeeyar was born in Thirunarayanapuram (Melukotte). Nanjeeyar’s original name was Madhavacharyar. Since he had outstanding knowledge of the Vedantas, he was called as Vedanti and was renowned in the Advaitic tradition. Swami Ramanuja before leaving this world called Bhattar and told him about Vedanti and asked that Bhattar correct him and being him into the Srivaishnava samparadhayic fold. This shows the greatness of Nanjeeyar. Ramanuja had already done a similar act with the advaitin Yajnamurti, who was renamed Arulala Perumal Emperumanar. However, due to old age Ramanuja was unable to do the same with Madhavacharyar and therefore gave the task to Bhattar.

Bhattar met Nanjeeyar and they both debated for 10 days. At the end of 10 days Nanjeeyar accepted that Visishtadvaitam was the true philosophy. He surrendered at the divine feet of Bhattar who then performed pancha samskaram to him and returned to Srirangam.

The above article is written with reference from the site acharya.org. For a  detailed vaibhavam of Sri Nanjeeyar visit the following link http://www.acharya.org/acharya/nanjeeyar/snjv.html

Significance of Panguni Uttiram

Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy has written about the significance of Panguni Uttram in his site. Here is a portion from the article. Please read the complete article from the Swami’s site using the link given at the end.

Panguni Uttiram is one of the most significant days for every Sri vaishnava. It wins a unique place in many aspects of visishtadvaita philosophy and Srivaishnavism. It is also distinctly remembered along with Srirangam, the Bhooloka vaikuntham…

… Vibheeshana was returning to Lanka along with the vimana and on the way he noticed that panguni festival was due and there was not enough time to reach lanka. While flying above Srirangam he saw its serene beauty and decided to descend. He temporarily sanctified the vimana and Perumal in the island between kaveri on a saturday, the seventh day of the waxing moon, in the month of panguni when the moon was in rohini and guru was in revaty. It was then this deity became revered as Sri Ranganatha. After the festival, when vibheeshana was preparing to leave with the vimana, the then chola king Dharma varma pleaded to leave it along with Peria Perumal at Srirangam. Vibheeshana yielded when we realized that it was also the wish of Sri Ranganatha and Perumal promptly reciprocated by facing South towards lanka. From that day the reclining deity, Peria Perumal and the standing deity Namperumal along with Sri Ranga nachiar are bathing the devotees in spiritual ecstasy during the Panguni festival especially on the Uttiram day. Therefore, the dawn of Srirangam and Peria Perumal are profoundly related to Panguni uttiram.

Link for the complete article http://www.kinchitkaramtrust.org/topic.of.month.action