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Bhakti and sharanaakathi before Ramanuja

From the Bhakti List Archives

Malolan R Cadambi • June 29, 2002 


Sri:
Thirukkurhur sadagOpan vazhiye!!

anbUlla thiru.ulaganAdan avarkale,

adiyenin pranAmam.

(Dear Members, first we should heartly welcome Thiru.UlaganAdan to
this forum. Thiru.UlaganAdan's reputation has precceded him to this
forum. He is consider a scholar of great calibre on the vast tamizh
literary works)

I have had the pleasure of exchanging scholarly posts with him in a
forum elswhere on the WWW. I take pleasure in doing so again. It also
gives me great encouragement to interact with a person of his
calibre.

I would be happy to provide the facts as seen by many other scholars
researching/studying the field of bhakti before rAmAnusar.

Dr.UlaganAdan wrote:
> While granting all these I am not sure whether Bakti as total self
> surrender to BEING is something these Vedanta texts mention or
>elaborate. Bakti as saraNaakati, as self surrender belongs
>essentially Tamil developments in spirituality and this is
>something developed during 6th cent. A.D. against the desiccation
>of genuine spirituality introduced by the positivistic Buddhists
>who developed LOGIC at the expense of deep understanding of genuine
>metaphysics.
 
> Bakti arose along with Hymnology where the divine melodies
>combined LOVE with spirituality and through that MELTED the heart
>and through that spiritualized self. This was ABSENT during the
>Upanisadic period and very clearly Ramanuja, in enthusiasm perhaps,
>is READING into the Vedanta Texts what he has learned from the
>Tamil Bakti poetry. This is an error in Vedanta exegetic -- reading
>into them what is not there in fact.

The Ghasundi inscription which is dated to 200 BCE (i request members
to refrain using BC and AD. Please use BCE and CE instead).
The Ghasundi inscription mentions the shrine of Shankarshana and
Vaasudeva worshipped in a theistic form. This essentially means that
a theistic form of devotion exsisted much before the advent of Adi
Shankar or for that matter, the Alwars, Nayanmars and Ramanuja.

Whether the Buddhists introduced 'positivistic' thinking is a topic
beyond the scope of this forum. I will concentrate on what the
environment in the periods before the advent of Gautama Buddha had to
say about bhakti and sharanAgathi.

Bhakti and sharanAgathi is deeply rooted in the vedAs. The rig vedam
is replet with the concept of sharnAgathi. I quote from
Dr.Sadagopan's mail: 

"The selected pramANams that have Vedic Roots on
Bhaara NyAsam/Prapatthi/Aathma SamarpaNam/sharanAgathi/Bhakti et al
thus commence from the ancient Rg Vedam and goes forward:

Rg Vedam : X.4.4, I.189.1 , III.20.4, III.14.2, VI.29.3, VIII.92.32,
X.133.6,X.4.1, X.63.10, VIII.45.20.

SvEtasvatara Upanishad: 6.17, ChAndhOgyam : 2.23.3-4 ,2.23.1
MuNDakam: 2.2.4 , Bhagavath GithA : 7.14, 7.15, 18.62
NS 18.66, AzhwAr Paasurams as Tamizh Vedams et al."

The concept of bhakti and sharanAgathi in the Tamizh Murai of the
Alwars and Nayanmars do not differ from those seen in the Vedam and
the Upanishads.

This begs the question, if the concepts were rooted in the vedams,
did they then serve as a source of inspiration for the Tamizh
literary opi? One has to understand that no one is following a
'patent' my works fundamental here. The experiences of the inspired
rishi and the great alwars and nayanmars are what we humans with our
limited intellect fail to understand.

Then again, we have marxist historians, christian missionary
historians (that is a paradox within itself, one can't be a christian
missionary while trying to be a scholarly historian) and so called
secular historians who date the advent of the alwars and nayanmArs
beyond their traditional dates.

For example, the King James version of the bible was inspried by a
Jewish commentary on the Torah, although christian missionaries
vehemently reject this fact.

This is a forum where the traditionally accepted history as evident
in the vast ocean of tamizh and samskrutam works supersedes that of
any other 'western' commentaries/explanations.

The vedAnta is essentially eisegetic is nature, although elements of
exegesis exsist from time to time. veDanta does not say one has to
avoid societal values all together. The upanishads inspire the
mumukshu (one who seeks to be librerate) and the bubukshu(one who
seeks to lead a just life on earth) equally. This is why the emphasis
is placed on dharma, artha, moksha and kama which are the four highly
important purushArthas (goals for humans).

This is clear that there was no polemic between the vast tamizh
treasure of the alwars, ilAngo vadigal, nAyanmArs and the samskrutam
treasures. Of course, both of benefitted from mutual cross
fertilization. The works of the alwars and the nAyanmars enable the
common man to understand the essence of the upanishads. The upanishad
scholar deeply cherises the bhakti laden works of the alwars and
nayanmArs.

To sum it all up, the concept of bhakti and sharnAgathi are also
found in the upanishads. The bhakti movement as we popularly know it
arose as a criticism of the buddhist and jain ascetic way of life.
The concepts of renouncing society out right without engaging it is
found more in buddhist and jain works. Obviously the buddhistic and
jain ideals was repugnant to the vast section of humanity who were
overwhelmed by the bhakti movement.

As thiruvalluvar would say, knowledge is always slippery. Knowledge
is like sand in our closed fist, all of it escapes from our grip
easily, we shold make constant efforts to learn all the time.

Adiyen ramanuja dasan,

Malolan Cadambi









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