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RAMANUJA/RAMANAND

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V.Srimahavishnu • February 8, 1999 


       Om SrI KrishNAya namah.
       SrI lakshmI nrusimha parabrahmaNE namah.
     dear BhAgavatas,
           namo namah.
        Thanks to SrI Tandy for the info about great svAmIs like SrI 
payAhArI.
       It is widely believed and accepted that both TulasIdAs and mIrAbAi
belonged to the disciplic succession of SrI rAmAnanda.however, rAmcharit
mAnas by TulasIdAs does not appear to be a core VaishNavite text whose
very first SlOka is a prayer to sarasvatI and vinAyaka together (vANI
vinAyakau) and where the author says in one of the kAndas that worship of
Lord Siva is as imp as worship of Lord Rama.
       most of the rAmAnandIs are not very much interested in spititual 
education
and study of scriptures. they are also called bairAgIs. their slogan is
"padhE likhE babbhan kA kAm bhaj bairAgI sItArAm". This can be roughly
translated as that reading and writing alphabets like "ta, tha , da, dha,
na, pa , pha, ba, bha, ma" is useless and it is better to chant
sItArAm (my favourite slogan whenever i am bored with studies!).they do
consider SrI rAmAnujA as their pUrvAchArya and revere him a lot.I have
seen many pictures of svAmI rAmAnand at ayOdhyA and these tell us that he
is a SrI VaishNava.their tilak is also same as that of SVs.rAmAnandIs also
had a few mutts in S India like the famous HathI rAm mutt of Tirupati
which later became infamous.
     for rAmANandIs, samASryaNam is not a must and doing harinAm is the 
most importent thing.for rAmAnujIs it is compulsory. most of the
rAmAnandIs have "dAs" at the end of their initiated name while rAmAnujIs
normally used to have "AchArI".for rAmAnandIs, study of  rAmcharitmAnas
is the most important duty.For rAmAnujIs, VAlmIki rAmAyaN is the only
authentic rAmAyaN.thus there are a few differences and first one is very
big.
    there are some learned scholars among rAmAnandIs and they depend on
AchArya rAmAnuja's works only and don't have their own commentaries on
scriptures nor follow those of SankarAchArya or madhvAchArya.i know of a
school at ayOdhyA which in the past taught rAmAnuja bhAshyam to sAdhus of
both the sects.the great panchanadIya(punjAbI) "badE" sudarSanAchArya, a
disciple of Vrindavan svAmI of that time, wrote many books in sanskrit and
Hindi and this educated many rAmAnujIs and rAmAnandIs of N India to
understand the darSanam of Bhagavad rAmAnuja.          
                                               rAmAnuja dAs
                                             V.Srimahavishnu
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		V. Srimahavishnu, M.Tech (Structures)
		 	C - 211 , Hall - IV
		       I.I.T. Kanpur - 208 016
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                        Email : vsri@iitk.ac.in
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