SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
Instruction 43
prasAdhE pAvanE vishNO: sarvapApa harE harE: |
kadhAchidhapi chOchchishta prathipaththim na kArayEth ||
Simple explanation: bhagavAn’s prasAdham which can eliminate our sins and purify us, should never be ignored and abandoned thinking that it was already distributed to someone else. We see in the temples or in the mutts prasAdham is distributed, where the process being, one person will bring out the prasAdham in a big plate or a vessel and using his hands give it to one person at a time. It will be given in a sequence. So, when we get that prasAdham after 10 or 15 people have already received, we should not think that we are getting their remnants, or the leftovers from other people who have already accepted that prasAdham, rather we should just treat that as real prasAdham from bhagavAn. This is the point being emphasised because often people may think that we should get the prasAdham first. If someone else gets before us, then we may think that the other person has already taken the prasAdham and in our sampradhAyam it is said that we should be very cautious about accepting the remnants of other persons. So, because another person has already received the prasAdham and maybe they have eaten too and now that we are receiving in the queue after a while it is already consumed by someone else. Thus, we may think that we should not be consuming this. That thought should not come in our mind. That is the essence of this instruction.
In a temple or mutt setup when we are distributing prasAdham to many people, some of them may be bhAgavathas and others may not be bhAgavathas. Still when distributing prasAdham to others and after that if prasAdham is distributed to a bhAgavatha, it does not count as remnants of that other person. It is still prasAdham from bhagavAn. So that should be firmly understood and kept in our mind that we should not reject prasAdham just because it was already given to someone else in the line.
If someone consumes the prasAdham and gives us the remnants from their hands to us, we have to be cautious and analyse who the person is and whether we can accept the prasAdham from them. But in general, in the distribution there is no such restriction and we should accept the prasAdham without any hesitation.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/0DXqZRe6PiM?si=zkbl0dLJmYnAnf_0
Instruction 44
sannidhau vaishNavAnAm cha svaguNAn naiva kIrthayEth ||
Simple explanation: We should never praise ourselves or our own greatness in front of SrIvaishNavas. In our pUrvAchArya granthams it is explained how we should behave in front of bhagavAn, AchAryas, SrIvaishNavas and so on. In front of bhagavAn we should reveal our total dependence, and humility. In front of AchAryas we should reveal our ignorance so that they will reform and correct us and in front of SrIvaishNavas we should reveal our servitude and humility. Here it is said that we should never glorify ourselves in front of SrIvaishNavas because oftentimes when we talk to others, especially SrIvaishNavas, we feel very happy to highlight our own accomplishments, greatness, our qualities and so on. As a human tendency, we may self-gloat stating our accomplishments, we may say how we wake up early in the morning or perform all anushtAnam (duties) perfectly, or that we don’t deviate from sampradhAya principles. So, in this manner we speak about our own glories. It is human tendency to speak about one’s own greatness so that others will respect us. The expectation here is that if we tell others about our own greatness, others will look at us in great awe and they will appreciate us or celebrate or glorify or honour us. We all seek this recognition and glorification. But that is very materialistic. We should not run behind name, fame and wealth. Rather we should be totally submissive. We should be totally dependent on other SrIvaishNavas and praise them instead. We should always praise other SrIvaishNavas when we see them. We should highlight their glories. That is how our pUrvAchAryas have shown.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/o9dlcidn7ns?si=-MAhJeUrxPz-rBmT
Instruction 45
SrIvaishNavAnAm sAnnidhyE nAnyam paribhavEjjanam||
Simple explanation: In front of SrIvaishNavas we should not insult even worldly people. Here it is emphasised that we should not insult even worldly people. In general we will not offend or insult SrIvaishNavas because it is said in SAsthram that bhagavath apachAram, that is doing mistakes towards bhagavAn is bad, bhAgavatha apachAram, that is mistakes against bhAgavathas is worse. So naturally being SrIvaishNavas we will hesitate before insulting other SrIvaishNavas. But we may think that we can insult ordinary people just because they are not following SrIvaishNava sampradhAyam. But here it is emphasised that we should not do that because as SrIvaishNavas we should maintain complete dignity. We should not be emotional or angry or show our frustration. We should know how to control these aspects. Even materialistic people should not be insulted in front of SrIvaishNavas because SrIvaishNavas, being kind-hearted and soft natured, will get offended if we insult anyone irrespective of whether they are SrIvaishNavas or others. Also, it will have two effects. One is, by losing our temper or grace, if we commit mistakes towards ordinary people that may spiral up to committing mistakes towards bhAgavathas too. This is because if someone there supports those worldly people then we will try to put them down too. So, we’ll end up committing offense towards SrIvaishNavas as well. Second, when these materialistic people see SrIvaishNavas insulting them or making fun of them or scolding them, they will get a bad impression about SrIvaishNavas and they will behave badly with other SrIvaishNavas because of this impact. Therefore, we should try to avoid all of that and we should be very gentle and we should avoid insulting anyone in front of SrIvaishNavas.
Video link: https://youtube.com/shorts/UGQKOxzKa58?si=LxeBZhc1_E6w0ZQO
adiyEn vidhyA rAmAnuja dhAsi
Proofreading done by – vEnkatESa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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