Saints Of India - Their Contribution To Hinduism-Part V

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Staff

By Staff

Friday, May 22, 2009, 16:13

The Saints and their works are living examples of tolerance, of patience, of tenacity and of faith, above all humility and service. Trying to talk on Saints of India is like choosing one flower in a garden in bloom. Whether there has been a equitable distribution of economic wealth in India or not, I am not qualified to say. But there has been an equitable distribution of Saints all over India-East and West. North and South. Every bit of India is flooded with Saints and till today you have holy places and holy men all over India. Life would be dull without them. Insipid would existence be, because they are the crown of humanity and what the Bible said: "The Salt of the Earth". Without them life will be totally insipid.

Today's youth, if he is asked, "What do you want?" He says: "Swiss Bank a/c and BMW Car. That is all there on their career graph. Beyond that man has not been able to see anything called a "career". The relevance of Saints to modern youth is the life and teachings of these Saints. They believed in a life style which was perfect and did not compromise at any level. Our three great Acharyas,of course we have had the upanishadic seers, you have the great Yagnavalkya, you have the great seers who have come down to us they have had through the upanishads, through the sayings of the upanishads and the statements of upanishads with a great impact on us.

Then we have had our three Acharyas, mainly the first three Acharyas. You have had Sankaracharya. talking of the oneness of man. He was a stalwart in Religion.asking of the Supreme reality as one to be seen in every one, and the world whose temples and towns fade away as a beautiful dream. He saw established divinity in all human beings, to bring about a new revolution in thought. He saw one who insisted on a wholesome combination of Gnana, Karma and Bhakthi.

With Ramanujacharya. the seer came closer to society having known the secret mantra of 'Narayana', he decided to share it with one and all. For him suffering humanity and its salvation was more important than himself. So in spite of being told that the mantra was very very secret, he stood on the temple walls and cried out to the public. 'This is the secret of the great Master, "Even if I go to hell, let hundred thousands go to Heaven". That was his commitment to public. He went to the lowest and the lowest of society converting them into his conviction. His doctrine of total surrender finds a later counterpart in the Christian theory of blanket forgiveness. He wanted that all should proceed towards the Lord with poise and power of faith.

Acharya Madhwa, coming third chronologically, saw the need to make man realise the truth of his life and that is in his own arena of the soul, namely the world itself. In that context for Acharya Madhwa life was not a dream. Otherwise all our actions would be dream and paapa and punya would be dream. So Acharya Madhwa saw life as true and he insisted that life should be like a bird with two wings - having one as Gnana and the other as Bhakthi. He saw that all creatures although they look the same are not the same. He is the first Acharya who saw difference between man and man. Not only man and man. He spoke of five types of differences between Jeeva and Jeeva, between God Eswara and Jeeva, between Eswara and Jada, between Jeeva and Jada, between Jada and Jada. These are the Pancha Vedas. These are the five differences which came down from Acharya Madwa to tell us that basically people although they look alike, they are not alike even spiritually.

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.