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Re: Are you a True Sri Vaishnavite ?

From the Bhakti List Archives

Praveena • November 30, 1999 


SrI:

Shri Raghu wrote -------------
Can you please list all the necessary and
important daily things that a so called
Sri Vaishnavite has to do in order to truly
become one?
-------------------------

Shri Sampathkumar replied ------------
Very good question. And something which all
SriVaishnavas must ask themselves periodically and
honestly.

What a Sri Vaishnavan must do daily is listed in works
like "Sri Vaishnava dinachari" written by our great
"AchAryA-s" like Swami Desikan and others.

But in adiyEn's humble view the following would be the
bare minimum of things that a Vaishnavan will do in a day:
----------------------

adiyEn would like to give a brief on the Sri Vaishnava dinachari
of Swami Desika as written by Shri V.V. Srinivasa Aiyangar and
Shri A. Srinivasa Raghavan.

First of all the Obligatory duties => the nithya (daily) and
naimittika (occasional) have to be performed. Kamya karmas
are optional.

pAncharAtra samhita which has been revealed by Sriman Narayana
himself has prescribed certain acts which are to be performed in the
various parts of the day from morning till night.

According to this scheme the day is divided into five parts, abhigamana,
upAdana, ijya, svadhyaya and yoga.

1. Abhigamana means going to the Lord with humility and reverence.
In this period the Sri Vaishnava wakes up before day break (Brahma
muhurtam) with Hari's name in his lips and performs the nithya
and naimittika karmas for that day which are but a form of worship
to Bhagavan Sriman Narayana. Then he approaches the Lord and
offers himself at the Lords feet and prays for a faultless day in his life
so that he may please the Lord.

2. upAdanA period is set apart for gathering materials for the worship
of the Lord. The materials acquired should be suitable and pleasing to
the Lord.

3. During the ijya period the Sri Vaishnava with love and devotion,
pure mind and clean body goes to worship the Lord with all the
materials gathered.

4. Svadhyaya is the study period.  The Sri Vaishnava spends his time in
the repetition of the mantras concentrating upon their meaning and
Bhagavan and also reading the scriptures -Itihasas and puranas and
works of Alwars and Acharyas and thus gains more and more intimate
knowledge of the forms and qualities of the Lord who is the object of
worship in the Ijya.

5. Yoga  (Meditation) is done in the last part of the day at night. He
thinks of the mercy of the Divya Dampati. He goes to sleep placing
his head at the feet of the Lord to wake up at Brahma muhurtam and
spend another useful day in his life in the worship of Sriman nArAyaNA.

This in short is the daily life of a Sri Vaishnava portrayed in Vaishnava-
dinachari.

------------ Shri Sampathkumar wrote --------

(2) Have bath quickly and perform "sandhyAvandanam"
with at least 10 "gayatri" japam with deep respect for
the devata who is our true mother. This must be done AT ALL COSTS.
^^^^^^^^^^^
-----------------------------------

adiyEn would just like to clarify a point here -----------

A Sri Vaishnava ( Prapanna) does not worship gayathri as a devata.
A prapanna during meditation worships only the Lord SrIman nArAyaNA,
who resides as an antaryAmi of "gAyatri dEvi".
You can refer to Shri Anand Karalapakkam's article in the
May 1999 archives.

------------ Shri Sampathkumar wrote --------
(6) Recite "Vishnu-sahasranAmam" loudly and clearly.
-----------------------------------------------

To adiyEn's knowledge this is not prescribed as a every day
duty of a Sri Vaishnava. Of course adiyEn understands your
intention of trying to be in Bhagavad anubhavam..

A Sri Vaishnava (after samasrayanam) should perform mAnasika
Aradhanam in addition to Ijya.

Shri Raghu wrote -------------
Also can you please describe the activities one has to do
1. In the afternoon
2. In the evening
3. In the night
--------------------------------------------

All these are explained above (though briefly).

Shri Raghu wrote -------------
4. Any regular penance that one has to follow apart from doing Ekadasi? If
so please describe the procedures to do them.
----------------------------------------

Dvadasi pAranai is as important as yEkadasi vratam. You would ofcourse
be knowing about ammAvasai etc..

Shri Raghu wrote -------------
7. In this world of Double-Starndards (may be triple or even more) when
people are trying to play games and politics with you and you cannot hurt
them as you are not bought up that way, what is the true thing that a
Sri Vaishnavite should do, apart from praying God to correct their behavior.
---------------------------------------------

adiyEn has read in the "Tattva Rahasyartha Sangraha" ( An English
Translation
of Upayuktha sangraham by Sri Koliyalam Swami) that a Sri Vaishnava should
posses a clear and happy mind free from anger so as to derive maximum
pleasure
out of his kainkaryam to Lord. He should not get angry by any provokation.
He should remember that all Jivas are bound by Karma and all the actions are
controlled and directed by God.

Shri U.Ve Karunakaran Swami explained the situation that you had mentioned
and also gave a solution to it during one of his upanyAsams.
When somebody abuses us, our sins gets transferred to them. So when somebody
tries to play games and politics with us... we should ( in reality) get mAhA
karunai
( abundant mercy) on them... because they already have tons and tons of sin
and in
addition by playing politics on us they get additional sins ... what a
pity!!!
So, a Sri Vaishnava should be full of sympathy to such people...

Azhyagiya SIngar ThiruvadigalE saranam
Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi
30th Nov 1999