Thengalai/Vadagalai
From the Bhakti List Archives
• October 6, 1994
Thengalai/Vadagalai: about some settings related to the concepts as heard from elders. Part 2, contd. The desire 'to be' and the desire 'to do' are base urges of all human beings. What 'to be' and how 'to do' have been the primary concerns of the spiritually inclined in elevating themselves with the guidance of whatever spiritual instructions they were exposed to. The three Acharyas were fully conscious of their role in this guidance but their methods were based on their own disposition towards their sishyas and followers, appropriate to the Samskaras, the environment, and the Purusharthas of the syshyas and followers themselves. In this regard, Acharya Ramanuja demonstrated remarkable ability in opening up to the aspirants, the appropriate paths suitable for them. He tried to harmonize their 'needs to be' with their 'will to do' without imposing nothing more than their capacity to accomplish their goals in the most gratifying and pleasant way imaginable. He was master_minded in the art of devising individual salvation without compromising the tranditional values of the Vedic dictates, the Pancharathra principles and antecedents, the 'be and do' of the Bhagavat Gita, the glorious humanism of the Bhagavata, the tempered rigor of the Upa-Sashtras and the Saramsas of the Ithihasas and Puranas, all centered around the prevailing human concerns and cast into methods flexible enough to absorb their evolutionary patterns at the social level. This style of the unique and all-embrazing approach has never been seen before in human history. During the Acharya's life time and the period of several decades that followed, the revolutionary and evolutionary methods outlined were exposed to scathing criticisms and attacks with a view to eliminate the entire system out of existence. The initial royal support the system had received from the Chola kings, often went through subsequent phases of push and pull to varying degrees. The well-routed existing systems and practices of the brahmin-theocrats, the mis-interpreted, mis-represented but well-meaning preachings of holy and poly 'Azhwars' as well as the Thirthankaras, miscellaneous sects of Jains, Adeenams, the residual Buddhist-agnostics and a whole host of spiritual peddlers who had a strangle hold on the various sections of society, women as a class and the down-trodden were finding in the new force, either a threat of their existence or the hope for a healthy change. This resulted in many actions and reactions of every kind. The society was in great flux. Apart from this sort of reactionaries, even the spiritually conscious but unstable section were polarized by sheer tradition or otherwise into the overly 'be's and the overly 'do's. I shall call them the 'bebes' and the 'dodos'. The balance was missing. These polarizations were the result of the socalled Vedantins in action and simplistic Vaishnavas in reaction. I shall cover this situation in the following section. To be continued... venkat v.rao, Oct.6,1994
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