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Re: Vishnu and Lakshmi
In article <4htuj6$9ke@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
Sankar Jayanarayanan <kartik@Eng.Auburn.EDU> wrote:
>spouse, is pleasure. But why thus diffusely enumerate their presence? It is
>enough to say that of gods, animals and men, Hari is all that is called male;
>Lakshmi is all that is termed female: there is nothing else than they."
Although a nice article, I hope this isn't being posted with the idea that it
supports advaita. For one thing, from such a literal perspective, it reduces
everything to two, not one, which is what advaita would need.
Furthermore, there is a similar series of verses in the 10th chapter of the
Bhagavad-Gita. However, from the context, it is clear that these are meant to
be metaphorical.
The statement "there is nothing else than they" probably means this in the
sense that there is no other worshipable object other than Lakshmi-Narayana.
We know, for example, that we as individual conscious living entities exist,
and we know that the world around us does exist (although its existence is
temporary, and thus compared to an illusion). To say that there is nothing
else that exists other than the Lord and His consort (in other words, to treat
this literally when such an interpretation is not warranted) would be to
limit the Lord, by saying that He has created nothing.
Once again, this illustrates the need for learning these things through the
transparent via medium of a qualified guru.
regards,
-- HKS
