Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Re: a ? on vaishnavism

From the Bhakti List Archives

tvv1 • June 11, 2001 


Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha

That was a nice narration from Sri Mohan Sagar , Sri Vijayaraghavan
Bhashyam and Sri T.S.Sundararajan though on a different subject. To add a
few lines to Sri Mohan Sagar's mail please read as follows:-

                    


Another way of cultivating devotion is to recall His Accessibility.  He is
described in the Vedas as the Great Mystery of Mysteries, a Light that
pales a
myriad of suns.  The entire Universe depends on His smallest Compassionate
Glance for its very existence.   And, yet, in our purAnas we see Him
serving
rishis, fighting wrondoers,  caring for simple village folk, and going
through
immense pain and sacrifice, all for the sake of making Himself accessible
to
His devotees.  Just thinking about this Great God of gods allowing Himself
to
be tied to a mortar by His mother Yashoda, or serving as a humble servant
to a
Arjuna, gives us only a hint of  how much love and compassion He has for
each
and every one of us.  No other deity that I know of takes this much effort
just
to be with us.  How then can we avoid our natural instinctions to feel love
for
the One who Loves us so much.

                    

This is precisely what Sri NammAzhwAr has said in Thiruviruttham , 1st
pAsuram.

"....uyiraLippAn enninRa yOniyumAi piranthAi.." meaning He takes birth in
any form to help His devotees to attain the salvation. That He is the
birthless but takes birth to help His devotees is revealed by the Purusha
sooktha mantram "ajAyamAnO bahudA vijAyathe". His births are not bound by
the karmA but only due to His wish. His divine form is not made of
prakruthi but is made of Suddha satva.

Sri NammAzhwAr again in his Periya ThiruvandhAdhi, says " un adiyArkku en
seivan enRE irutti nee.." meaning He is always waiting to do something good
for His devotees and all that He needs only a go ahead from us.

Now adding to those wonderful verses quoted by Sri Vijayaraghavan Bhashyam,
as told by Siva,  in the most famous Vishnu Sahasranamam, Siva tell
Parvathi, when questioned by her as to what is the mantra that will make
the jeevas attain mOksha, "Sri rAma rAma rAmEthi ramE rAmE manOramE,
sahasranAma tatthulyam rAma nAma varAnaneE". The meaning is not required as
it is self conveying.

I request all to recollect my statements in my earlier postings regarding
the claims by the later day saivites that Rama worshipped Siva to get rid
of Brahmahatti dOsha at Rameswaram. Logically is it possible for the
para-brahman to worship His fellow devotee when Siva himself hails Sri rAma
nAmam as the one which clears all the sins of the fellow jeevAs and make
them attain salvation.

On the otherhand the purAnAs behold that Siva worshipped Sriman Narayanan
at ThirukaNdiyur to get rid of his brahmahatti dOsham when he cut the fifth
head of BramhA, his father. This is well brought out by Thirumangai AzhwAr
in His ThirukkurunthANdagam "piNdiyAr maNdai yendhi pirar manai thiri
thandhuNNum uNdiyAn sAbam theertha oruvanoor, ulagamEthum kaNdiyur..."
[When Siva cut the fifth head of BrahmA in anger, BrahmA gives a curse that
due to the Brahmahatti dOsham the kabAlam will stick on to his hands. Siva
prays to Sriman Naryanan at ThirukkaNDiyur to get rid of this sApam]

Going thro all these verses I hope it will be clear that why Srivaishnavas
say they should not worship any other god as they have THE SUPREME BEING as
the god of their sampradhAyam.

I also invite attention to Sri T.S.Sundararajan's mail where he writes :-

                         
"SuklAmbara-dharam vishNum SaSi-varNam chatur-bhujam
 prasanna-vadanam dhyAyEt sarva-vighnOpa-SAntayE",

is recited at the commencement of any auspicious rite, vaidika-kriya, as
invoking vishNu as 'vighna-hartA', to quell the impediments.

It is curious that Sri SEnkAlipuram ananta-rAma dIkshitar, as well as
the Ramakrishna Mission, have carried this SlOkam in their publications,
but constantly translating 'vishNu' into Tamil as 'piLLaiyAr'.    This
unethical newspeak has become so prevalent that Sri Krishna Premi svami
was obliged to clarify in Srirangam (in his current series of lectures
on 'tiru-c-chhanda-viruttam') on Saturday (June 9 2001) that 'vishNu'
occurring in the dhyAna-SlOkam "SuklAmbara-dharam vishNum" stands for
'vishNu' and not for (the later-day Saiva cultist) 'piLLaiyAr'.

This strategy of disinformation extended to appropriating for later-day
icons the role-names ["nAmAni gauNAni...mahAtmanah, r*shibhih
parigItAni"] of the One God drawn from ancient texts
['gaNAnAm tvA gaNapatim', 'vishvak-sEnO', 'SastA' etc], and hurriedly
putting together a kitsch-n-pastiche mythology to 'enhance' such icons.

                         

This is a standing example of how the later day saivites created false
stories to uphold their claim of Siva's supremity against that of Sriman
Narayana.

Also Sri T.S.Sundararajan writes :-

                         

It is a sad irony that the SrIvaishNava community had neglected to know
about the 'prasthAna-traya bhAshyam' of SrI Sankara-bhagavat-pAdAh;  SrI
Sankara is indeed a beacon-light of vaishNava religion.  The AchArya
propounded 'advaitam' and remained a profound vaishNava;  for that
matter, krshNa-miSra the author of the
allegory play 'prabOdha-chandrOdayam', and mahApurush SrI SankaradEva of
Assam, were also vaishNava and advaiti-dialecticians at the same time.

                         

This is THE fact regarding Sri Adi Sankarar. The present day photographs of
Sri Adi Sankarar shows him sporting a vibhooti. But one of his immediate
sishyAs (if I remember right it is Sri Vidyaranya) who wrote a sloka on Adi
Sankara, at the end says that Sri Adi sankara never sported a Vibooti on
his forehead. Sri Sankara, beyond doubts, established the supremacy of
Vishnu in his PrashthAna thraya bhashyam. For examples, please refer to
"Sankararum Vaishnavamum" by Sri Puttur Krishnaswamy Iyengar. There may be
many other books including the bhashyams themselves, but I read the above
book and hence am suggesting the same as I know only that book.

Hence it is established beyond any doubt that Sriman Narayanan is the one
and only Supreme being and when He is on our side why should we worship
other gods.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh










                                                                            
 Add a Standard Disclaimer Text                                             
 Here........................................................               
                                                                            






--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/