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SandhyAvandhanam - Bhagavadhkainkaryam

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T.V.Venkatesh • July 26, 1999 


                     Srimathe Narayanaya Namaha

Dear Sri Madhavakkannan,

On this topic you wrote ,
                            ---Quote---
Swami always talks about the essentiality of performing 
Sandhyavandhanam, without which whatever one does - be it 106 > 
Divya Desam visits, or 108 pradhakshinam of PerumAL Koil, it will 
not equal. He is Karma 
chaNdaaLan. He has nithya theettu and is not even qualified to 
enter the 
temple, actually. It is the aajnyA karma. One has to perform. Any 
other 
prayers, japam, will not please Him. 
                           ---Unquote---
                                  
While I am not an authority in disputing a statement given by such 
a mahAn, I would like to point out what our dear AzhwArs say on 
this, especially on the sandhyAvandhanam part.

In Mudhal ThiruvandhAdhi, poigaiyAzhwAr very clearly states that 
there is no point doing sandhyAvandhanam (even at the appropriate 
time ) while it is actually the time for doing kainkaryam to our 
perumAl. 

The  pAsuram is
" NagaramaruL purinthu nAnmugarkkup poomEl
  pagara maRai payandha paNbhan peyarinayE
  pundhiyAl sindhiyAthu Odhi uruveNNum
  andhiyAlAm payanangen?"

Translation

Nagaram --> A place to live
aruL purinthu --> to give (in this context)
marai payandha --> teaching the vEdham. 

So the gist of first two lines are "Our emberumAn gave a place for 
Brahma to live, in the lotus from His nAbikkamalam, and taught 
him the vEdas"

peyarinayE pundhiyAl sindhiyAdhu --> while this may just be said 
as just uttering the ThirunAmam of emberumAn it is interpreted by 
our achAryas as doing kainkaryam for our perumAL, be it of 
whatever nature.

Odhi uru-eNNum --> This refers to the gAyathri japam. uru-
eNNudhal means counting and repeating a sloka. 

andhiyAlAm payanangen? --> Here the word andhi refers to the 
sandhyAvandhanam. So the meaning is what is the use of such 
sandhyAvandhanam. 

Summarising, the AzhwAr says very clearly " What is the use of 
doing sandhyAvandhanam and other such karmAs when actually 
perumAL kainkaryam gets the priority and importance".

This is even supported by Thondaradippodi AzhwAr in ThirumAlai, 
in the pAsuram "mEmporuL pOga viTTu...." which is the heart of 
the entire work of ThirumAlai. I would like our members to go thro' 
the archives of 1996 where our Sri T.A Varadhan has given an 
excellent translation of Sri Periya  vAchhan piLLai' s vyAkhyAnam 
for this. Here the AzhwAr says, perumAL loves and grants 
mOksham to those lazy people, who renouce all the worldly 
desires, realize that He(Sriman Narayanan) is THE ONLY reality, 
and control all their senses and just do kainkaryam or even nothing 
("sOmbharai ugathi pOlum...").

Whatever I have quoted on Mudhal ThiruvandhAdhi above is as 
heard from Sri M.A Venkatakrishnan swami's upanyAsam on Sri 
vachana bhooshanam. However if there are any mistakes in my 
writing it is entirely due to my lack of listening skills and henceforth 
should not be shortcoming on his knowledge.

So the point is that one can even forego all his duties, like 
SandhyAvandhanam and give importance only to PerumAL 
kainkaryam. All other duties, though prescribed in shAstrAs are 
only secondary. It is only for this sake that in sandhyAvandham 
there is a chapter on PrAyachittham, which we, nowadays, 
basically to use to support our laziness to get up early in the 
morning and our inability during the noon and evening due to other 
office works etc.,

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

Regards

T.V.Venkatesh
E-mail : TVV@SANMARGROUP.COM
Phone: 91-44-4960455 extn. 5218
Fax      : 91-44-4960913
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