Soundarya Lahari - Part 127

 

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This perhaps is the strategy of  ambaal ! Desire, Anger and the whole gang of bad things are Her own Grace to us in the form of authentified ‘rings’, so that we may go to Her soon. Once Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, asked Krishna to keep giving her difficulties and miseries all the time so that she will never forget the Lord ! In other words, in the mystery of creation, unhappiness  itself is a divine blessing in disguise.

Again, the opportunity of showering Grace on an individual does not stop with that person. It continues to pour  on all the offsprings of that person in the same way.

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 126

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Once there was  a king. An ordinary commoner was told by him, on an important mission,  to come and see him in his camp. But the commoner entreated the king to give him some kind of an authentification, like a ring or something, which would gain him the entry to the kingís presence when he presented himself at the camp. The king gave him such a ring; but the ring did not have his (the king’s) seal. It had the seal of the enemy king. The commoner was perplexed. Why is  this king giving him a ring which would only  be identified as the enemy’s? 

The king himself removed his doubt by saying: ‘There are so many of my own couriers and courtiers who have obtained from me my authentified ring so that they can meet me any time they like. The line of such people would be so large at any time, that you would not get anywhere near me  when you come to meet me. But if they see the seal of the enemy king in your hands they would take you to be a spy and would present you before me in no time !’

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 125

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Even if millions of people do not go the right way what is of significance is that one of them will see the difference between good and bad and make the total surrender to Her and get Her shower of Grace for

him to see that he (the jIva) and the Ultimate are one. Not all the seeds of the fruits of a tree grow into a full tree. In the whole world of living beings even if one in a million achieves that Infinite fullness of Man the purpose of Creation is fulfilled. That  probably is ambaalís idea of Creation.

But again, those who do not so achieve the Fullness are not to be considered wasted or damned. There is no eternal damnation in our scriptures.  Acharya Madhva propagated that idea. Maybe he thought that at least the dread and fear of eternal damnation would motivate people into reforming themselves to be good. Even an extremely sinful person has a way of ultimate redemption  -- that is the creed of our

religion. 

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 124

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On top of this all there are two important things to note. One is the Lord’s shower of Grace; and the other is our surrender to Him. Both are products of Creation; without the existence of evil and the necessity to fight it, Grace and Surrender have no meaning. On His side, the highest He does is ‘Grace’ or Anugraha. On our side, the highest we can do is ‘Surrender’. 

TO ACCEPT THAT WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING EXCEPT TO SURRENDER TO HIM IS THE APEX OF ALL  THAT WE CAN DO ! You will know it when you do it !

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Soundarya Lahari - Part 123

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Note another interesting marvel. What we consider as ‘good’ has something ‘bad’ in it and vice versa. To understand this subtlety of Creation and carry on our struggle in this drama of the world is the art of living in fullness. Desire (kAma)  and Anger (krodha) are wrong; but this is only a generalised statement.  

Looked into deeply, even they have ‘good’ in them. There should be a ‘desire’ for ‘good’  and ‘anger’ against ‘bad’. In fact it is not only not wrong, but essential. In the same way, what appears to be ‘good’ will have ‘bad’ hidden in it.

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