The most wonderful result of the Lord’s avatars apart from the main purposes, protecting the good, destroying the evil and establishing dharma, is the fact that all including the learned and the unlettered are given a chance to realise the Supreme Brahman. This is exemplified in the soul stirring hymns on deities such as Rama, Krishna, Subramanya, Sharada, Bhavani, etc, of Adi Sankara, pointed out Sri K. Srinivasan in a discourse.
Reputed for his brilliant expositions of the highest Vedantic texts wherein reason and logic are handled by him to establish the Advaita doctrine of the oneness of Brahman, these stotras reveal the fact that worship of one’s favourite deity, the Ishta Deivam is also a form of Brahma Upasana. At the outset of the famous Rama Bhujanga Stotra, the acharya states that this hymn is the essence of the Vedas. It is held that the Vedas descended in this world as Ramayana during Rama avatar. By worshipping Rama one can easily imbibe the essence of dharma and thereby attain the highest, Brahman. So the upasana is by reading this hymn and always thinking about Rama.
It is reiterated that Rama in human form is also simultaneously the eternal Brahman of the very Sat-chit-ananda essence. This ananda swaroopa is not a quality but is His very essence. There is no God greater than Rama. To seek Him should be one’s purpose in life. He alone is enough to help us through our life in this world and also guide us to salvation. But all this is attainable only through His grace. Human effort is only as far as sincere meditation is practised. It is every individual’s good samskaras that prompt one to be aware of the higher truths and He enables this to happen. From this awareness one is led to pursue them in earnest.
