KNOWING HINDUISM - The Great Master

The Great Master 

Books have been written aplenty in any school of thought in Hinduism. 

Abstract treatises abound on any strand of thinking. 

Even on Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya, the books I have may fill up a library. 

But all the books, all the treatises, on all the schools have their bearing, have their anchor in Vedantha. 

Even the Agamas which centre their ideology on temple worship and theology have their locus in Vedantha. 

Knowing Vedantha is knowing its methodology. Knowing Vedantha is explicating the world of Upanishads into consistent study of the Ultimate Truth.  

The commentaries of the old, tutor this methodology and  inculcate the Vedanthic thinking. 

But we have a blessing in Swami Vivekananda. He is the great Master of Modern Hinduism. 

His complete works provide a cogent text book of Hinduism and lends an efficient work table to improve oneself upon. 

For the young generations and coming ages there is no other workable hypothesis better than reading the Great Sage. 

Fortunately his works are online here 

http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_1/vol_1_frame.htm 

***

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

*

Some of my poems (contd..)

Again these are some more melodies from the eternal harp. The fingers are fragile. The fervor is a bit too assuming. But does a child know that its prattles lack a grammar? So be these to those timeless years.

11) Month of Margazhi 

It was a premature morn; 

A simple thought was stirring in my mind. 

The slow eyes beating the slipping wake; 

The cow is calling in the courtyard; 

The cow-herd cajoling the animal tethered; 

The streets have become midwives 

of the new-born morn; 

The twenty ninth song of Tiruppavai 

cradling the craving sky air-borne. 

'in the little small early dawn 

having come to thee and worshiped' 

Slowly I opened a corner of the blanket, 

the childish morn caught my neck 

and kissed my cheek to daily chores. 

Morn-caught murmuring I came out to the doors. 

The cow was all Lakshmi bathed in fresh rays. 

The twenty ninth day was born. 

*** 

12) Dream 

The loud-cry lone-crowd of myself, 

Transporting structures in shambles 

from the out world in. 

Dreaming, suddenly in action 

in strange and similar plots, 

some thickness of impasse; 

Dropping horizons in the back, 

darkly visible stretches ahead, 

I expand the space around; 

Is it mental? who said? 

Duplicating myself? 

Me from one medium to another; 

The web in-weaved in memory; 

A return aggression of the world onto the self; 

Is it a wake of the sleep, 

in the sleeping waking world? 

Dream -- 

Is it reality-not-happened ? 

Or happened-reality not in space-time? 

Or unreal happening in space and time? 

Yea it is easier to dream 

than to theorize it. 

*** 

13) Poetry 

Don't tell me children are god; 

They are too childish to be one. 

May be you mean to say 

Gods are like children. 

Quite likely, they never grow in time. 

Don't tell me you write the poems; 

Poems are not written that way. 

Perhaps you mean to say, 

Poems are written through you. 

May be you have a point there; 

Poems do but reflect You, 

That is inscribed in those through you. 

***

14) Elusive Pursuit 

The telephone was ringing; 

I wanted to answer hello, 

Reached out to the receiver, 

when the ringing stopped. 

I'm sure it was you. 

I saw you across a street, 

I wanted to talk to you, 

Rushed only to go past you, 

turning to find that you were not there, 

but somebody like you. 

I heard your voice in a mob; 

I came and searched every moving face; 

The crowd dispersed; 

The voice was heard no more; 

But the doubt lingered behind the crowd. 

How to meet you? 

Where to see you? 

Whom to ask? 

Which door to knock? 

Knowing nothing 

I am not equal to the task. 

Suddenly I heard you somewhere 

Felt your presence neighboring mine; 

Yet I saw you not, 

knew not where to find you, 

The same, the same, the self-same you. 

Me, the one following you; 

You, the self-same elusive you. 

***

15) The Wakeful Night 

It is night; 

The society has slept; 

perhaps the people are dreaming 

in the multi universe of their minds. 

The crows are steeped in leafy silence; 

The dogs have left an interval in their barking. 

Vehicles have become sparse; 

There is traffic of smells in the air; 

I am awake 

and the sky is all eyes. 

The thoughts have become audible 

and the wind has overheard 

and afoot to spread the secrets wide. 

Space is warming its wings of expansiveness. 

It is leisure time, 

the night, 

but business time 

for elemental things of the world. 

***

16) Flower and mind 

A flower in the green; 

Yea, a flower in the green; 

Like a mind in the flesh. 

Beautiful to see 

Sublime to understand 

Profound in implications 

A flower in the green 

Not for the sake of me 

has it blossomed forth 

But out of its inherent laws. 

A flower in the green. 

Yea a flower in the green 

Like a mind blossoming in the body. 

***

17) A New Grammar 

Pedagogic grammar is easy to know; 

But what is this? pediatric grammar! 

It is so hard; 

One way it makes sense; 

In another way strange. 

My father and mother 

gave birth to a child; 

The child was me. 

Me, who am now a man. 

OK got it. 

My father and mother gave birth to me 

And I was born to my parents; 

Strange. 

Does it make sense? 

Yea this pediatric grammar, 

Again listen,...My father and mother... 

***

18)  The Immortal's sarcasm

Eastern morn, 

The early Sun, 

The sulking rays 

surfacing the horizon. 

Festive air 

Was full of joy 

Spreading wide 

The flowers' puberty 

The spanning sky 

Was full of song 

Birds in flight 

Were full of dance. 

Am I the Poet full

of the Poetry of the Heaven? 

Can you the reader fulfill then? 

Poetry Poet Reader 

Triangular meaning in orgasm 

Living life embodied 

Is but the Immortal in sarcasm. 

*** 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

*

Some of my poems

I intend to record here some of my poems written long back and turning brown in paper. May be online, they remain fresh. Is it not? 

1) A Cyclist's Anthem 

Space is dynamic 

Time is adjustable 

Legs weave miles into minutes 

Threading destinations and recreations 

I take a kind of Viswaroopa 

Roads roll into me. 

And my eyes spread the world before me. 

The wind towels me like a mother; 

Smells converse with my nose; 

Sounds are parabolic off my ears; 

It sweats into dryness; 

People are transient 

Places adhere, 

Time becomes a vector, 

Thoughts sojourn; 

Water burns the travel 

With the fueling food; 

Man is different from the animals; 

Repetition begets progression; 

Nose goes in search of smells; 

Senses visit the perceptions; 

Poetical transportation 

Of pious rowdyism indulging nature 

Pedaled philosophy of imagination two-wheeled. 

*** 

2) Books  

Friends penned and bound; 

Memory in paper; 

Thoughts await forever 

The prying lens of mind; 

Past in backups 

Formatting the future; 

Algorithams of human endeavor 

Flow-charts of experiences 

Verbal hearts into written minds 

Eternal giffs of ephemeral lives. 

*** 

3) Viswamithra for a second time 

Uparishravas! Don't fall down! 

After all you have spoken the truth; 

Why should you be pushed down, 

so ruthless by Indra? 

Uparishravas:-- 

How can I ever stop, 

When Indra is at the top? 

The wrath of Indra has wrought my fall; 

He asked me 'Who is the greatest on earth?' 

I told him, "I don't know; 

When I was down there 

people used to say of me so.' 

He got wild. 

'Are you my equal? 

Dare you sit by me? 

Down below is your place; 

Drunk of your ego, 

you've lost your grace;' 

His wish tumbled me down 

Too quick even to frown; 

Uparishravas! Don't fall down! 

Tell that retail trader 

That you are way beyond his exchange; 

Tell him that he after all 

shines on glory dearly borrowed; 

stand firm on your humanity. 

To be a deva need not to be divine; 

Uparishravas:-- 

Who are you, so kind and fair? 

What can you do to stall my fall? 

If anything please do it now; 

Otherwise, pray! pity me not; 

Pursue thy way and forget me what; 

I am Viswamithra, friend of the world; 

I can stop your fall, 

Reverse you back 

And rend asunder the gates of heaven; 

No no Sage! don't send me back. 

Rather make me born on earth 

Fie you! a simple lover of earth? 

mundane got you bound? 

mortal flesh hath eaten thee mind and soul? 

Nay Nay Sage! not so base; 

Never the putrid taste of sensual 

But I want to be born in the isle of Sriranga. 

I heard my case argued by the great 

Bhatta Parasara of Kuresa born; 

That put me into shame 

for all the pride I had 

about my friendship with the deva-gang; 

Only He, the Father, Mother and Friend of all 

Will rejoice and rejoice still more, 

When His child excels, shines and outshines; 

Others will scale in envy, 

and scape his fall with wrathful eyes, thousandfold. 

Never I thought of Him; 

Never I worshiped my own Father; 

Never I slept on my own Mother's laps; 

Never I cared for the One and Only Friend of men; 

How many births I want to be born to make amends! 

So my Sage! so be thy grace; 

Your falling tears shall consecrate the blessing. 

***

4) Agnihotra 

Brahma Muhoortha. 

Hour of gods. 

Darkness about to beget its dawn 

The early hours have begun their roads to morn. 

The darkness is too thick and visible 

The stove has begun to burn in the kitchen; 

The flames remember the setting sun, 

Tamed by the bowl of milk placed on. 

I thought somebody was at my doors; 

Some friend to chat in dhyan; 

I came out to see 

The East about to light its oven. 

Perhaps it was the east that tapped my doors; 

Ah me! I have forgotten my stove in the kitchen... 

Oh! the milk has kissed the flames 

and dropped to the stone beneath the burner. 

I put it off and came to the front yard 

to close the doors. 

Who forgot to put off in the East? 

The milk of Sun has kissed the Sky 

And dropped to my doors beneath. 

Who delivers the milk over there? 

And where is agnihotra? here or there? 

The calves are licking the dripping teats; 

The rays of Sun touch everything 

Agnihotra is complete. 

***

5) Aging 

Scaling the walls of Time 

The tender feet turn into tottering legs. 

The big boy turns grey 

Revenging all the big things of his early life; 

A pralaya measured from birth 

Maturing in the mortal death. 

Time universal metered in subjective stops; 

The shrunken space is tanned again to distances; 

Consciousness unawares being drawn 

into several maps of experience; 

mentally constant in a physical change 

turns the code to a physical stop; 

Mind walks where the legs were once 

Dreaming through miles of spatial joy; 

Man born as a little being 

Grown tall to become a child again; 

Vamana grows into Vikrama, 

Becoming back again a Vamana, 

Measuring the world in triple ways 

Through body, mind and soul; 

Leaving all he learnt 

As the giant soul of the textual world, 

Mahabali, the ever present scribe. 

*** 

6) Markets  

Markets are marvelous in a way; 

Poets dislike them they say; 

But I find them homely 

And I can write their charms; 

Anyhow they do me no harm. 

A corner in a market is my coveted place; 

The jostles surround 

Leaving a sort of calmness in that bay; 

Perhaps the left-over of everybody 

Or further still the lost for ever of many; 

The shops make you feel differently 

Each in their own way uniquely; 

One will make you feel an icon of style; 

another one will make you a glutton; 

still another makes you a flying angel; 

yet another making you a connoisseur of arts; 

But one shop is there, which I dislike; 

The repair shop of anything; 

What you have valued so far 

is devalued with a vengeance there. 

The road-side shops  breathe 

an air of anti-establishment, cheap and fair. 

The soul of market is ennobling somehow; 

I like to sit in a corner, 

Where the passing jostles surround, 

Leaving the bay in calmness. 

***

7) Knotted fine little thread 

Who is greater? 

God turned into a man; 

Or a man turned towards God; 

Or a man whose God is a Man of God? 

God descends to man 

As an answer to abundant prayers; 

Man ascends to God 

By the rising call of aspiration; 

A man devotes himself to a Man of God 

Out of what? 

The knotted fine little thread, 

Not enough to tie, 

The reason, do you know why? 

Which is greater? 

The knotted fine little thread 

Or the reason that is behind? 

None can say 

or who can say? 

Or how can anyone say? 

*** 

8) The story of Yayati 

The story of Yayati 

in two words 

once more 

in one word 

again 

in one letter 

Z 

wordless 

dot dot. 

Youth begetting old age, 

getting a lease of youth 

again to become old 

forever. 

***

9) May be 

May be.... 

Sometimes you are made to think 

It's better to be a petty-shop wala 

Than to be a great soul. 

Sometimes you feel... 

May be. 

***

10) Darkness is soluble 

Power-cuts for two evenings 

Unbearable 

wretchedness man-made 

Darkness tangible stretching time 

till midnight 

downloaded from the sky 

and the sparks uploaded 

overseeing our avastha. 

Thick of guilt is tanned 

by the invisible hands. 

Consciousness made more visible 

Cosmic scales rehearse the final showdown 

Blinkers in the sky 

bear the contrast 

for the dotted darkness around the candles. 

Prometheus deceived by men 

And Zeus in laugh over the unchained god. 

Is that the laugh? 

Or perhaps the aeroplane is on. 

Whatever, darkness is soluble in poetry. 

***

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

***

Knowing Hinduism -- Triple Lights

THE TRIPLE LIGHTS 

Divine Revelation 

Debating Reason 

Devotional experience 

These are the triple lights that form the basic canons of Hinduism. 

Vedas or Shruthi is the light of Divine Revelation. 

Brahma Sutras is the light of debating Reason. 

Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the light of Devotional Experience. 

All the three lights bring to vision the same reality. 

What Reason understands of the Revelation, Experience confirms. 

Shruthi, Yukthi, Anubhava are the words used by the great Adisankara for Revelation, Reason and Experience. 

But what is the basic proof of Religion according to Hinduism? 

Is it reading, debating, being emotional, building an empire of the faith? 

Not anyone of these. They mean nothing, if the basic proof is not there. 

The basic proof is not believing something. 

It is 'Seeing God'. 

To see God is the basic proof of Religion. 

 

It is the Vision, which the words explicate. 

Beholding is the base, believing may be only a prop on the way. 

The Vision is not concrete. It is the Transcendental Vision. 

Words are not mundane but they descend to the earth carrying the pure warmth of Divinity, only to form the ascend back along with men. 

Some years back I wrote in the series "ethu bhakthi?" dealing with what is devotion this observation -- 

Unless and until one understands that Bhakthi is something which encompasses man's reason totally, it should be understood that his dawn is yet to come. 

Hinduism is the project of man, which started when he discovered that there is really, God. 

*** 

Knowing Hinduism -- 6

All the world religions talk about something in Heaven, which man must reach. 

Religion is other-worldly, according to them. 

They compensate that aspect of their religions by doing social service, as the main practice of their faith. 

Of course they combine it with propaganda. 

But the main idea is that Divinity is something from above into man or from outside into man's life. 

So religion as an institution of training men to mourn and wish for a super reality is inherent in world religions. 

But Hinduism never talks of religion as such. 

It always speaks of Dharma. 

Dharma is the reality as it is in principles. 

From atom to cosmos Dharma runs like a golden thread. 

The sustained, becomes the sustainer, through out nature. 

It is best for man to find out as early as possible his place in this universe. 

Fulfill your place in nature and that in turn will fulfill your nature as a man. 

According to Dharma, you have the final beatitude always in you, carrying it through all stages of the growth. 

The troubles start when you act in neglect of your value in Dharma. 

Divinity is not somewhere. It is, has been, and will be shining in your heart. 

In the heart of every being, He resides and moves the world. 

*** 

 

Knowing Hinduism 5

To speak of abstractions is good. 

But life happens to run on details. 

That too daily, domestic concerns and cares. 

We are impelled to actions more out of necessity than out of intellectual commitment. 

Human being is an acting being as much as a willing being, as much as a knowing being. 

To know, to will and to act form the three facets of the self-same soul. 

Jnathruthvam - the faculty of knowing; 

karthruthvam -- the faculty of acting; 

bhogthruthvam -- the faculty of enjoying 

describe the three facets of the Soul. 

These three facets form the basic psychology of any individual. 

So any spiritual practice must incorporate in itself different strands of these triads. 

Hinduism has devised four such modus operandi -- viz., 

the four Yogas -- the Jnana Yoga, the Karma Yoga, the Bhakthi Yoga and the Raja Yoga or the psychological Yoga proper.

*** 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

*

Knowing Hinduism 4

It is great and grand enough to be universal and all inclusive, just like the Sky and the Sea. 

Hinduism is of course a beautiful circle. 

But are there any books of reference, in times of preparatory years and the beginning steps of one's spirituality. 

Any definite anchor to stay floating and not to drift aimlessly. 

Even birds which fly inter-continentally, do carry some chart of instincts in their flights. 

The Soul after all, does have its beginning in self-realization, in the mortal coil. 

Books are indispensable in any religion, even in those religions which have dispensed with gods. 

Hinduism prescribes three prime most important books. 

It has garnered all its spiritual values in there, in those three books. 

Upanishads, 

Brahma Sutras 

Bhagavath Gita. 

Upanishads proper are called the Vedantha, the culminations and conclusions of the Vedic inquiries. 

Vedanthas are also called the Sruthis, the Revelations heard. 

These three books are called Prasthana Thraya. 

Three Books based on the primacy of three facets of spiritual quest. 

What are those? 

Sruthi, 

Yukthi, 

Anubhava 

Revelation, Reasoning, Experiencing. 

The Book that is based on the Revelation is Vedanthas or Upanishads. 

The Book that is based on Reasoning is Brahma Sutras. 

The Book that is based on Experiencing is Bhagavath Gita. 

Man comes to know of God only when He informs of His presence through some ways. 

He is not of the category of concrete things. 

He is definitely abstract. 

He is the abstraction of abstractions. 

So He is known more clearly through Words. 

For only words can connote more than concrete the abstractions. 

Hence the Book of Revelations. 

Then comes the Book of Reasoned out arguments on the Upanishadic concepts. 

Human Reason is given full scope to analyze and understand the Heard Book of The Divine. 

Textual exegesis and hermeneutics form very important tools along with the philosophical understanding of the Grammar. 

Only then ensues the study of Brahma Sutras or Vedantha Mimamsa. 

Then comes the Book of Experiencing, viz., Bhagavath Gita. 

The whole Gita pours out of the involved experiencing of Sri Krishna, the greatest Vedanthic teacher ever born. 

*** 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

*   

Knowing Hinduism - 3

The Devotee's passion is to see his Chosen God as the Ultimate and God Almighty of the universe. 

The Jnani's passion is to merge in the Ultimate. 

Both ways are seeing the same thing from different perspectives, provided, you don't get sabotaged by fanaticism or snobbery of intellectualism. 

If by becoming narrow in your chosen devotion, you become more spiritual, then your narrowness is blessed. 

If by becoming more universal and more abstract in your inner most mind, you go nearer to the Ultimate Soul, then your universal and abstract outlook is blessed. 

What matters is, are you going towards the Centre? 

If the circumference takes you towards the centre, then it serves its central Soul. 

If the radii take you away from the Centre, then the radius is wretched. 

But Hinduism is a Beautiful Circle. 

The radii never take you away. 

And the circumference never makes you dry. 

Did I say a beautiful circle? 

Yes, and more than that, an enchanting spiral and an engulfing spherical. 

An expert artist is fond of free variations of his tunes. 

Never is he content in striking a mono chord. 

The God of the Hindus is highly aesthetic. 

Art seems to be Its passion. 

It rejoices in the sight of the ardent soul. 

It comes unseen as the abstract vastness. 

It hides Itself in the heart as the possessing Love. 

Treading the solo path, the soul takes to wings every now and then. 

To arrest it in any single walk may become an injustice to the Infinite. 

To feign a vastness where you have to feel pangs of Love may be an act of deserting the Centre. 

Who knows which soul is in what delicate equilibrium of spiritual growth? 

It is this mystical humility, the real concern imbued with  spiritual expectation, that is at the heart of all the systems and paths of Hinduism. 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

*** 

Knowing Hinduism - 2

The meaning of the word Ishta Devatha Nishta is - 

Ishta - one's own liking; 

Devatha -- Godhead 

Nishta -- deeply involved practice. 

So this 'deeply involved devotion towards one's Choice of Godhead' is never allowed to become, in any way, fanaticism. 

Because, even from the Vedic times, the Universal Idea has been firmly implanted in the Hindu's mind. 

'There is but one Truth; Sages have been calling it by different names' 

'The water falls from the Sky and flows through many ways to the self-same Sea; likewise the devotions towards many Gods ultimately reach the self-same Kesava' 

The same thought is given in a sloka of Siva Mahimna stotra. 

So the General and Universal aspect of Hinduism always worked in tandem with the individual worships of Chosen Gods. 

This two layered structure was organic rather than artificial. 

It was not an outwardly agreed upon arrangement but something which was evolved through the internal exercise of coupling the vast spiritual freedom with inevitable human limitations. 

The human nature was at no time ignored. 

The transcendence of abstractions was at no time lost sight of. 

The whole field of Religion was a veritable education for the Hindus. 

Any human being can start anywhere and go by his own path unhampered by any sort of sojourners' pressure. 

You unto your path 

Me unto mine 

And for us there is 

Always the Divine. 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

***

Knowing Hinduism - 1

I was thinking of starting something on 'What is Hinduism?'. 

For long it was getting postponed, one thing or another came in to cause the delay. 

On transfer I had to commute between a far off village and my residence. It was taking me more than one and a half hours of train journey. 

How to kill time and boredom? 

Books, yea, they have been my very good friends all along. 

So some book or another came to my help and kept me company, in a great way. 

So it started I think in that way. 

Young students, IT boys and girls, talking about sundry things, how we locked into this interest, into What is Hinduism? It is difficult to recapitulate now. 

Some body asked something like 'Was there anything like Hinduism in the past?' Is not the name itself  something new and given by others? 

May be . What of that? In fact no religion bears the very same name which it had in the beginning. Was Christianity called so by Christ and the disciples? 

Buddha himself called his path as Arya Dharma, not Buddhism. 

Therefore can we say 'There was not any Buddhism in the past'? 

The same holds good for Hinduism. 

Why should double standards be adopted whenever Hinduism is talked about? 

Perhaps some vested interests at home and abroad have their own reasons to pop up such doubts in the minds of the Hindu people themselves. 

While talking about Hinduism we will be careful enough not to fall a prey to such shifts in approach. 

Also we must give Hinduism all the margins that we allow for other religions. 

And another point. Who am I to explain about Hinduism? 

Am I any realized soul? No. 

I am born in Hinduism. I was brought up by my parents, taught by my teachers and I grew in Hinduism. 

I have grown in Hinduism and Hinduism has gone into my feelings and emotions. 

Of course I have studied a lot. Right from the Vedas, across the scriptures of the World Religions, lots of literature, philosophy, science -- enough to make a talkative of me. 

But always I shy away from imposing my ideas on others. 

Management theory may say, 'Hey! you lack the basic quality of management'. 

But what to do? men are different. And I prefer to stay as myself. 

Perhaps that was the reason why those young minds were fond of asking me such questions and also pursuing in getting my replies. 

Anyhow it was gala time and my travel was a joy. Otherwise what a boredom would have set in the two and a half years commuting. 

Thank you little hearts. You all sweetened my time.

* 

What is Hinduism? 

If you call it a Religion, then why are there so many religions within it? 

Any religion, does it not fall into a simple formula like, say, 'one God, one Book, one Master'. 

Can you say that Hinduism has this simple pattern? 

If yes what is that? 

If no, then, can you explain how Hinduism can be called a religion? 

One religion is not like another religion. 

There are some common aspects, but again there are aspects peculiar to that religion alone. 

We can't say Christianity is exactly like Islam, or like Buddhism and so on. 

That too, when we are talking about a very great ancient religion, passing through various times of Hindu society, we can't apply blindly this formula. 

There are very real structural differences between religions. Thats the point. 

Seemingly there is a similarity, like -- God, Book, Master. 

This GBM formula holds good for the various paths within the fold of Hinduism. 

SriVaishnavism, Saivism, Saktham, Kaumaram, Ganaapatyam, all so many separate paths or Sampradayas or Samayas, they all fulfill this formula viz., GBM -- GOD, BOOK, MASTER. 

Just ask any devotee of Vishnu. He will say clearly what is his chosen God? what are his prescribed books? and  Who are the Masters of his path? 

He will be as clear as any other religious devotee. 

The same with a Saivaite, he is very clear about his books, God, Masters. 

A Saktha is also like that. 

But in Hinduism these devoted worships of the Chosen God are called Ishta Devata Nishta. 

Is this Ishta Devata Nishta in any way a form of fanaticism? 

Most definitely not. 

Because in fanaticism, what you choose to follow, you begin to think as the only truth. And all other religions become so many barren paths in wilderness. 

Your duty becomes changing other people. 

To tolerate such blasphemies becomes a sacrilege, according to what has been preached to you. 

You become bad in the eyes of your Most Righteous God, if you don't obey your scriptural commands, exhorting you to make the world, a uniform place for your One and Only God. 

Such a mentality is fanaticism. 

But in Ishta Devata Nishta, the idea is 'I want to worship the Ultimate Soul in this form. I know that it is really He, who resides in everything and also is the soul of others' Gods. He has assumed various forms to cater to the devotions of various types of religious people throughout the world. But this is my chosen Ideal. I prefer to worship in this way. In the same way, I do understand your choice of your own God. I respect your right to your chosen way of worship. Afterall is it not true, that all worships go to my Beloved in reality? Then why should I not wish you good luck in your spiritual endeavours. God speed! 

Srirangam V Mohanarangan 

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