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Re: Share your thoughts on Sri Ramanuja's tirunakshatram: April 18

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Varadarajan Sourirajan • April 18, 2002 


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Srilaisesa dayapattram deepakdyadi gunarnavam, 
Yatindrap pravanam vande ramyaja mataram munim.

Dear Bhaktas,

Eventhough we cannot speak in entirity of our esteemed Acharya,
Sri Emperumanar's legendary works in our Vaishanavism, i just
wanted to make an humble attempt to Scale the height of our
Emperumanar's contribution to the upliftment of the downtrodden
masses. We being Sri Vaishanavites, can speak volumes on
Emperumar's qualities and works, but what amazes me is his
greatness, even, in the eyes of Nastikas. I dont want to make an
explicit mention of the leader, who has explicitly quoted our
Ramanuja, as the forerunner in "Samatuvapuram". (Which is the
concept, which has peeped up recently in Tamil Nadu, where
people, irrespective of caste and creed, live in societies in
unison.(Old Butter milk in a new bottle).

The greatest quality, which makes me dumbfounded, is his
practical implementation of the concept "Equality of men, in the
eyes of Emperuman". Many people and leaders speak for hours
together in Stages on this topic, but the fact is, this remains
only as a topic in books and never implemented among men. When he
opened up the gates of the temple of Melkote, to all the masses,
people would have really began to think, that God definitely
belongs to all of them and not only to a certain section of the
society.

Another incident, which speaks of the same, will be the
proclamation of Thirumandiram to all the people of Thirukottiyur
by our Emperumanar, even after he had made an explicit promise to
his acharya that he wont reveal it to anyone. When his Acharya
explained that he had done a great Acharya Nindanai, and the cost
he would be paying will be, entering the abodes of "Narakam". The
reply, which our Emperumanar gave to his acharya, makes him a
Supreme being, for which, the whole world can follow him. "I
donÂ’t mind going to the abode of Narakam, when thousands of
people who had heard this, can reach the lotus feet of
Emperuman".

Like this, we can keep compiling the incidents, in the life
history of Emperumanar into a voluminous book. I will stop with
this and would like to hear from many other bakthas about our
Udayavar.

If I had committed mistakes in any of my above statements, all of
them belongs to me and if I had managed to add, even a small
petal to the greatness of our Ramanujacharya by sharing the above
article, it all belongs to the Thiruvadi of this great Acharya.

Adiyen,

Ramanuja Dasan,
Varadarajan

Azhvar Emperumanar, Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam.


[ For the sake of historical accuracy, the following should be
  noted. The story of Ramanuja climbing the gopuram at Tirukkottiyur 
  and declaring the ashTAkshara mahAmantra has been discussed
  in detail on this list before.  The general conclusion that
  we have come to is that the earliest biographical evidence 
  indicates that Ramanuja did not shout out the mantra itself, 
  as has become popular legend. Rather, he taught the sacred *meaning*
  of the mantra openly to those who were around him, without
  regard to their qualifications. This meaning (mantrArtha) was, 
  in fact, the secret that Tirukkottiyur Nambi had Ramanuja
  promise not to reveal. This in fact is an act of greater
  compassion and does not compromise Ramanuja's catholicity in 
  any manner. It is to be noted, however, that the earliest 
  authorities do not say anything about Ramanuja revealing the 
  *mantra* itself. -- Moderator ]


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