Saints Of India - Their Contribution To Hinduism-Part VI

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, May 26, 2009, 15:51

We have Vallabhacharya who gave us the Pushti Marga, which mostly Gujarathis and in the North you have this following. Though Vallabha was born down South he moved over to the North and spread this Marga, wherein Pushti means nourishment. Unfortunately today people think nourishing means nourishing the body and offer the best neivedya to the Lord and become fat thereafter. Unfortunately we have totally misunderstood our religion. 'Pushti' means nourishment of the soul. That is what the soul wants. I have always talked about this to my audience where I have spoken of the Lord.

We build beautiful houses, architects are brilliant nowadays and most of them have great imagination. Suppose you build a beautiful house with the best interior decoration, the best swimming pool, the best sofa set and the best lights and the best gardens and you leave the man in the house hungry. How would it be? What justice would you be doing.? That is exactly what we are doing. We have clothed the body and beauty parlours clothe them more and more, and the older we are, we want to look more beautiful, the older we are the younger we would like to look. Finally the soul is hungry; when will you feed me? It is only this convention which will feed your soul, dear youth. Only this convention. because this is the only place where you can feed your inner being. This is what Vallabhacharya meant when he talked of the Pushti Marga.

A little later alongside with him we have the great Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who has become more popular through the "Hare Krishna" movement which you see now all over the world. When I met Prabhu Padaji twenty two years back, I told him, Sir, this is exactly what our Gopis did in Brindavan, when they took pots of butter and ghee and went down the streets of Brindavan, not going to Harvard Schools of Management to learn profit making and yet they sold "Govinda Damodhara Madhavethi". Now you bring back the same "Govinda Damodhara" with an imported tag and that is why it sells. Exactly how religion has become popular because it had to go west and come back to east. This is what Chaithanya Maha Prabhu wanted. 'Nama Sankeertana'. He felt that the name of the Lord could take you into ecstasy and make you purified.

These are the five great Acharya tradition in the saints in the ageology of India wherein we have known that these great men stood for what is actual religion, live religion, vivified religion, buoyant and vibrant religion. Not religion of the scriptural text book, not Vyakarna and teeka and mere 'charcha' in sadas. Most of us feel that religion is over across the table or perhaps in a mutt where great men sit and talk to each other or talk at each other and try to outwit each other. Real religion is going down to the masses and believing in the Lord as part of one's own existence.

My dear youth you will be surprised to know that in the life of Saint Chaithanya. a great incident has been recorded which will move all of us. Most of you submit treatises, don't you? Research treatises and the moment the treatise is ready, the moment the thesis is ready you hold on to it, as if it is a beall and end all of life. You want to hold down on to it. Something into which your heart and soul and head have gone in.

One day the great Saint Chaithanya had written a book on logic. Unfortunately his elder brother whose name was Raghunatha, also a logician was paling into insignificance after the younger brother's book came out. When 'Nimaya' as Chaithanya was called, saw that his elder brother was disappointed, he took the treatise and threw it into the river. "I will not hurt my elder brother academically". He believed that the greatest treatise was the name of the Lord. This is how great men have outgrown small petty jealousies. They don't come into our little arenas. For them the world is the arena.

About the author

Prema Pandurang

She is the founder President of Samskriti (Home of Culture) and Kshetropasna Charitable Trust and the Founder Trustee of Shree Chakra Foundation. Kshetropasna Trust was founded by Pujya Prof.Prema Pandurang and Dr.P.R.Krishnakumar with the noble purpose of establishing a unique organization to revive the values and ideals of our Indian culture in India & Abroad. This Trust encompasses several activities. She wields a powerful pen and has a God-given gift of magnificent eloquence. She has to her credit a number of articles in various popular journals. Her writing always stimulate thought and inner peace. She speaks on God with fervor and conviction.