Our aim in life must be to attain the feet of the Supreme One. To this end, we must keep the company of only those who will assist in this spiritual journey. We should keep our distance from those who distract us from our goal. One should seek nothing but the Lord’s proximity, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi, in a discourse.
The atma belongs to the Supreme One. All atmas have just one name — ‘dasa’, that is ‘servant.’ The Supreme One should be served by the atma, which is nothing but His servant. It is in this spirit that all great men approach the Lord.
The temple in Thirukannamangai, in Tamil Nadu, is an ancient one. Thirukannamangai Andaan lived here. One day he saw two dogs fighting with each other fiercely. In the course of the fight, one dog killed the other. The owners of the two dogs arrived on the scene. The owner of the dog that had been killed picked up a quarrel with the other man, and soon the two men began to fight with each other. In the course of this fight, one of the men killed the other. Horrified by what he had done, he then killed himself. So what had begun as a fight between two dogs ended in the death of two men. The men had died because of their love for their dogs.
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Thirukannamangai Andaan, who had been witness to all this, thought to himself, “If two men can be so fond of their dogs that they will give up their lives for their sake, how much more will the love of the Supreme One be for those who surrender to Him?” That thought was enough to make him surrender to the Lord that very instant.