But, what is the proof of the Lord's intense love for the jivas? The biggest proof of the Lord's grace towards his jivas is that of life itself. The evolution of the microcosm, the human body, is the biggest proof. It reveals that a supreme personality is out there who has decided to extend His grace to the pure-personalities now sunk and embedded into matter, and implement a policy of creation--one that guarantees the development of the consciousness of the jiva by providing it with all the tools necessary to support that consciousness. For, surely, even though the jiva is by nature jnanamaya, fallen into matter, it becomes a material unit and totally unconscious (jadapraya). Its intrinsic (personality) modes of afference and efference are without support and there is blackness all around. In order to enable the jiva to attain to a knowledge of its true self and to show it the path to redemption, Isvara must first supply the jiva with supports derived from material nature itself. In other words, Isvara must equip the jiva with a material body. This development or rather the evolution of life is the first prerequisite of any revelation. For there can be education only when there is life, when there exists a living receptor, an organism, a human being.
Isvara's supplying to his jivas a material body as a support to their dormant consciousness (in order to facilitate its expression) is surely the biggest act of kindness shown by the Lord towards His creatures.
Again, without a general policy of preservation, mere creation would have no meaning. Imagine a scenario where we have babies (or foetuses, for that matter) taking birth and then dying (or passing out of existence) within micro-seconds of their coming to life! The Lord (who is Visnu) must also implement a policy of preservation in order to sustain the jivas. He has to ensure orderly working of the various mechanisms and processes of the body at least till some stage of maturity of the pinda-brahmanda. This also the Lord does. This is His second big act of grace to his jivas.
Sankaradeva says in his rendering of the Bhagavata that 'the Lord does the work of preservation by Himself' (isvare apuni palanta) which probably means that unlike in the case of creation--where there may be involved, after the phase of primary creation is over, a material unit like Brahma, to preside over the unfolding of the process of (secondary) creation--the involvement of the Lord in the implementation of His preservation-policy is direct and more active.
Can there be a more direct proof of the Lord's grace towards us jivas? Our life itself is the biggest proof and reminder of the reality of Krsna's love for us. Sankaradeva in his Bhakti Ratnakara has eulogized the human body (nara tanu) and devoted a whole chapter to it, The Glory of the Human Body (nrdeha mahatmyam). Madhavadeva, in his Nama Ghosa, has devoted verse after verse to the singing of the glories of that Lord who, as Paramatma, is personally associated with His creatures and whose grace is felt by the jiva in each and every stage of development of his consciousness. The Nama Ghosa, it must be remembered, like the Bhagavata, is an intensely paramatmic text. It sings the glory of the immanent Lord.
It is in the light of this supreme kindness of the Lord that we jivas must take eka-sarana or sole-refuge in Krsna. For it is for the realization of this supreme truth and for receiving this supreme teaching that we have been equipped with our material supports in the first place. If we fail to take sole-refuge and lay to waste this opportunity, then this human body, this most precious nara tanu, will, undoubtedly, have gone in vain.
Isvara's supplying to his jivas a material body as a support to their dormant consciousness (in order to facilitate its expression) is surely the biggest act of kindness shown by the Lord towards His creatures.
Again, without a general policy of preservation, mere creation would have no meaning. Imagine a scenario where we have babies (or foetuses, for that matter) taking birth and then dying (or passing out of existence) within micro-seconds of their coming to life! The Lord (who is Visnu) must also implement a policy of preservation in order to sustain the jivas. He has to ensure orderly working of the various mechanisms and processes of the body at least till some stage of maturity of the pinda-brahmanda. This also the Lord does. This is His second big act of grace to his jivas.
Sankaradeva says in his rendering of the Bhagavata that 'the Lord does the work of preservation by Himself' (isvare apuni palanta) which probably means that unlike in the case of creation--where there may be involved, after the phase of primary creation is over, a material unit like Brahma, to preside over the unfolding of the process of (secondary) creation--the involvement of the Lord in the implementation of His preservation-policy is direct and more active.
Can there be a more direct proof of the Lord's grace towards us jivas? Our life itself is the biggest proof and reminder of the reality of Krsna's love for us. Sankaradeva in his Bhakti Ratnakara has eulogized the human body (nara tanu) and devoted a whole chapter to it, The Glory of the Human Body (nrdeha mahatmyam). Madhavadeva, in his Nama Ghosa, has devoted verse after verse to the singing of the glories of that Lord who, as Paramatma, is personally associated with His creatures and whose grace is felt by the jiva in each and every stage of development of his consciousness. The Nama Ghosa, it must be remembered, like the Bhagavata, is an intensely paramatmic text. It sings the glory of the immanent Lord.
It is in the light of this supreme kindness of the Lord that we jivas must take eka-sarana or sole-refuge in Krsna. For it is for the realization of this supreme truth and for receiving this supreme teaching that we have been equipped with our material supports in the first place. If we fail to take sole-refuge and lay to waste this opportunity, then this human body, this most precious nara tanu, will, undoubtedly, have gone in vain.
