Satan Quoting The Vedas....... Again!

Dear Kamla,

Your asking Satan to reveal himself is a bit too much and I dont Satan, in his senses, will ever oblige you.

Yes, Kamla, this is the effect of the What to Pray For Thread started by Puja almost a year ago. As I told you the thoughts expressed therein was so powerful that I have written a whole book about that. But still I am not satisfied and hence I grabbed another opportunity to post similar thoughts.

When we are in trouble sure, we can seek God's help. We can pray for our deliverance. We can pray that we may be shown the way. At least at this stage we cannot go beyond that. But to start with, we should, when we are not in the midst of fire or drowning in water, when we are comfortable with what we have, we should stop praying for longer cars, larger houses and more sparking jewellery or more money or fame or whatever it is.

And while we can pray with our shopping list, once in a way we should learn to see God not as a benevolent shopper or Alladin's Genie and just pray. Period. Not to pray for this or that, just pray. That will be a prayer in adoration. And adoration, as Rabia said, not out of fear of hell or desire for paradise, but adoration for the sake of adoration. Then God will not deny to us Her eternal beauty.

And in all this....Poor Rajathilakam...I cannot but help feeling sorry for her Varalotti !

And if you had seen her much later you would have changed your expression, Poor Varalotti. Rajathilakam is a standing example in my life to remind me that while God shows his love by answering our prayers, he reveals His even more profound love to us by denying our prayers.

Whenever I see someone far ahead of me in life (I see so many people of late, in this category) and start praying God for something similar to what that person has, Rajathilakam appears before me in all her splendour and reminds me of God's love. I correct myself.

Thanks Kamla by adding charm to this thread with your post.
Love,

 

Dear Manju Reddy,
What more proof do you need about the identity of Satan? I delayed replying to your post, a really eloquent post, in this thread for days on end, while your Naidu Hall thread elicited an instantaneous reply from me.


"If Adoration is only a Pavlovian response to concepts of Reward and Punishment, then I think it is bound to be inherently fickle and patently superficial, quite susceptible to any Mephistophelean bargain that may come its way. It may as well give itself a more fitting name. "Trade", perhaps ?"

Well, Madam, the above passage is clearly beyond my ken. If you can kindly translate it into plain English for the benefit of "paamarans" like me (there are lots of my species here in IL) the entire specie will be grateful to you.

But prayers and praying do have their value and ,as mere mortals, we cannot abjure prayers. We instinctively turn towards a Cosmic Power we consider greater than ourselves in times of need. But it is within ourselves to recondition our attitude to Prayer. By acknowledging with full faith that the Cosmic Power is actually within us, we being part of it, we can learn to use prayer as a stairway to reach the vast storehouse of potential, capabilities and strengths that lie within ourselves, instead of just pestering a god to give us this , that or the other.
A powerful truth eloquently stated. I am not denying the power of our petitionary prayers. I am only saying that once in a way we should get used to adoratry and grateful prayers.

Ramana Maharishi, replying to questions of the philosopher M.Sivaprakasam Pillai ( in 1902) said : " We know that the train carries everything, passengers and their luggages. Why should we, the passengers in the train, carry our bags and bundles on our head to our own discomfort ( " sumappaanen ?") when we can put it all down for the train to carry and just feel at ease ?"

Ramana's example is powerful in its own way. While on this I suggest your reading Ramana's Tamil poems. Two of his works are powerful - Upadesa Undiyar and Ullavai Narpathu. These two have been haunting me even now, though it was 16 years back, when I read them for the first time.

Thanks, Manju Reddy for a very good, a very eloquent post. Eagerly waiting for your plain English translation of the para cited above.

regards,

 

Dear Veda,

What you say is profoundly true. God is not in stones or other external forms. He is in us. He is us and we are Him (or Her). But we have this forms as a means of convenience.

Think of a lover who is separated from her beloved. Will she not use her beloved's picture to somehow mitigate her sorrow? God in the form of a stone is the picture of our beloved. And till we realise that God is in us and God is us, till the beloved is present in person, there is no harm in using a picture or a statue.

The problem arises only when we tend to be absorbed in the form when the reality is there. Take the above example. If the beloved has come back and the love birds are sitting in a park. Suppose the lady now is staring at the picture of her beloved ignoring his direct presence then it is a serious problem.

Just by repeating his names or chanting the slokas mindlessly we cant get an inkling of experience of God. The same saint whom you have quoted has said else where,

chutta chatti sattuvam karichuvai ariyumo?

Meaning the pot used to cook delicious food, the spoon (sattuvam) will never know the taste of food though they are in constant touch with the food.

Yes surrender has to be total. And while surrendering to His supreme love we should not even expect that he would accept us. We will surrender. And let him abandon us totally. Even that would not change our attitude of surrender to him.
Thanks Veda for the thoughts.
regards,

 

Hello Abha,
As I told Kamla, if you cant find out who is Satan, Satan is not going to come out of hiding and shout, "Here I am." Satan does not have that courage. So let's leave him out.

"I do not have a wish list and believe that whatever happens happens for the best. Even if sometimes what may appear as bad happens,I take solace from the fact that God who is the ultimate sutradhar or master planner has planned it for my good. This is my personal experience."

that's a loving attitude towards our maker. If only all of us can live like that, it will be a great world.
thanks
Regards,

Abha.[/quote]

 

After having read your replies here as well as in Ambalainga Samacharam thread I very badly miss Vidyasarada.
VS, where are you? Save me from MR.