Venu Menon
Wellington, April 15, 2023
Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji held a mixed audience of devotees, Telugu community members and the wider diaspora spellbound with his exposition of the Vedic way of life at the High Commission of India premises in Wellington on April 13, 2023.
“We belong to the Vedic culture,” Chinna Jeeyar Swami said in his opening remarks, adding, “ I think everyone on this Earth belonged to that culture once upon a time.”
The Swami invoked Guru Ramanuja Acharya who lived some 1000 years ago and dared to preach equality at a time when strict religious orthodoxy forbade it.
Holistic View of the World
The discourse veered toward Maharishi Veda Vyasa’s Bhagavad Gita and its holistic view of the world. “We humans are not the only ones who exist on Planet Earth. There are animals, birds, insects, bacteria, fungi, plants, trees, mountains, valleys, rivers and oceans.”
“Both the animate and inanimate contain the soul, which is controlled by the Supreme Being [God].”
The Swami cited the Sama Veda to shed light on the nature and origin of matter.
“The Supreme Being enters an object and the object acquires a name and a form,” he explained, adding: “The minutest parts of the atom contain a soul and God’s presence.”
The discourse dwelt on the common misconception of “devatas” as celestial beings. “Lord Krishna makes it clear in the Bhagavad Gita that you are living here (on Earth) along with the devatas.”
“Who are the Devatas?” the Swami asked.
The agencies that support life are called devatas, he explained. Living in harmony with the elements is a way of communing with Devatas.
“Can you survive without air?” he asked rhetorically. Yet, the air (Vayu) fulfils its role of supporting life on earth with ease, with no undue effort.
To elucidate this, the Swami drew on the analogy of the fan: “If you have to fan yourself for some time [to stay cool], you have to shift hands because your hand starts to hurt.”
The Unseen Controller
Yet Vayu moves around the earth tirelessly.
“But there is an unseen controller behind the movement of air,” the Swami reminded his audience.
To the sceptics who say seeing is believing, he posed the question: “Can you see your own face with your eyes?”
“Without the aid of an inanimate mirror, you cannot see your own face.”
The conclusion is starkly clear: the three-dimensional vision of humans limits their vision of reality.
When Krishna manifested his multi-dimensional form to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna was perplexed.
The Vedas called the power behind air Vayu Devata, and the power harnessed in water Varuna Devata.
“Humans are abusing both,” the Swami said.
Humans are blessed with mind and language but are in disharmony with the forces of nature. Other creatures are in tune with them.
“The presence of God is there in every object of this Universe,” the Swami stressed, citing the Vedas as saying: “Let the four-footed, two-footed and multi-footed live in unison and in peace.”
He added: “Clean and green are what the Vedas taught us thousands of years ago.”
Serve all beings, the Swami exhorted the assembly.
Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji concluded his discourse with a general appeal to pay homage to the great sage Vyasa, the father of the Vedas. He urged those gathered to visit Hyderabad in India to see the Statue of Equality dedicated to Ramanuja Acharya.
The discourse was organised by the Jeeyar Educational Trust of New Zealand.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Wellington.
Editor’s Note: Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji is now in Auckland, giving discourses and meeting devotees at various homes. He participated in the Sita Rama Kalyanam Festival held at Shri Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan in Onehunga, Auckland this Morning (April 15, 2023) and will return to the same venue tomorrow (April 16, 2023) at 9 am to conduct Lakshmi Narayana Pooja and address a meeting of Sponsors and Volunteers at 6 pm.
On Monday, April 17, 2023, the Swamiji will conduct Samsarayanalu or Initiation into Vaishnavism, including the Pancha Samskara or Five Purifications. Details of this Programme can be obtained from Jeeyar Education Trust New Zealand President Madhavi Padullaparty by email: president@jet.org.nz
