Kalashepam

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Srimad varavara munayE namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

Pranams,

This is just to share my own experiences in the lotus feet of the Geethacharyan. There may be some errors in my humble attempt, but let the learned members of this group kindly forgive and ignore them, considering the fact that, this is only a small step in attempting to talk about the kalyana gunas and charm of the lord.

Even the Vedas are not able to find the end to the kalyana gunas of the lord. When trying to find an end to the 'Aananda' guna of the lord, the Vedas return saying that I am unable to do it 'Nethi Nethi'. So no one can object that, there is no end for the anantha kalyana gunas of the Paramatma.

Then what in the world are the Sri Vaishnavas doing, talking about the kalyana gunas of the lord when they know it is never ending. What are they going to achieve by doing so?

It is true that we cannot reach the end, but each and everyone can enrich themselves by trying to reach the maximum. This should be the goal of each and every Sri Vaishnava and they should be proud to be one, who has a great task on hand to do without retirement, till their end and whatever they do will have a palan. What palan? We get all the joy in this world without worrying about the Samsaric pressures though we are a samsari and also the most successful one since as Geethacharyan says 'ananyat chintayan tho mam ye jana par yupasathe dhesham nithyabeyukthanam yogakshemam vahamyeham'. When he takes care, we can just enjoy, as a child will do in the hands of its mother. Our esteemed Acharyas say, a child walking on by itself may slip and fall but a child carried by the mother will never fall, similarly as long as we take care of ourselves we may fail, but not when Sri Parthasarathi is taking care of us. Thats how the Geetha also ends. 'Yathra Yogeshvara Krishna: Yathra Partho Danurdaraha: thatra sri vijayo bhoothir druva netir matir mama'. Wherever krishna is present and wherever his devotees(Arjuna) are present, victory is assured.

So that is why Sri Vaishnavaites feel kalashepam is their duty. Again the word kalashepam actually means spending time. Time can be spent in umpteen numbers of ways, but kalashepam in sampradayam actually means spending time in a useful way talking about the kalyana gunas of the bhagavan.

A Sri Vaishnavan after performing prapatti need not do anything but just think of the lord, talk about him and listen to the kalyana gunas of the lord. This is just an introduction to show why I am really posting this. It is just a duty of each and every Sri Vaishnva to talk about the Lord and it can be done in many ways.

Let us continue in the next posting.

Adiyen Ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan