Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Realized Souls

The other day I watched a Rajni movie - Shri Raghavendra. There were a couple of questions that came to mind. The foremost being that why should a realized soul lose material things rather than give it up. Isn't renunciation all about giving everything up? I am not questioning the greatness of the saint. He did give up his wife and son. That is my other question. Why should great souls neglect the resposibility they undertake. The movie justified it as the saint's previous birth karma. Shri Raghavendra is considered to be an incarnation of Prahalada. But doesn't the unwritten law of karma say for every action there is a result? So what is the result of abandoning resposibility?

Are these great souls born again after they take samadhi? May be.... Prahalada was one of the greatest devotees of the Lord. He was reborn! Even God takes birth in every yuga, then what for us insignificant parts of the whole?

Why is it that most of the great souls end up in the body of a man? Why not a woman? May be it is more difficult for men to give up all that they have. For women, they give up something at every stage of life. That sounds feminist. But that is the only explanation I can come up with.

Anyway I am yet to meet a realized soul in this life...may be he/she would be able to answer these questions....

3 comments:

Dr. L. Ramakrishnan said...

Hi Indhu,

Good Post...

Human beings are not perfect and if realized souls take birth as human beings, they cannot be perfect....even Rama and Krishna were not perfect...as we see the world through our five senses, we are constrained to look at things from a narrow perspective and often we jump to wrong conclusions.

It is likely that your analysis of Raghavendra changes over a period.

As for women, have you forgotten many women saints (Karaikal Ammaiyar, Andal, Avvayyar, Mira, Mother...others); now you have Ma Ananda Mayi...Of course you will have the gender bias....that will take millions of years to correct.

Love

Appa

Maya said...

i am a realised soul??? did u forget tht i exist????

Seeta Veeraghanta said...

I liked all the questions you pose here. I have been giving it a lot of thought lately (you know this) and here is what I have ... Perhaps the call is stronger, greater and irresistible that he didnt think twice about his wife and son. Perhaps there was no choice for him? If something so sublime (I seem to be addicted to this word these days) and divine called , perhaps I will shed all that I have and leave? Even my beautiful children?

On the other hand, my bhouthik karma dictates that I stay and complete my responsibilities as grhasta and then pursue my own enlightenment. Is that what the Varnashrama dharma was all about? The movement from Brhmacharya to Sanyasa? Did Raghavendra get a free pass from his grhasta responsibilities?

What will I do if the call comes to me? I have more questions than answers. :)