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Re: sandhyAvandanam and Sri.Shridhar Srinivasan

From the Bhakti List Archives

Murali Kadambi • August 9, 1999 


Dear BhagawatAs,

--- Venkatesh.T.V wrote:

> The important point in our Sri VaishNava philosophy
> is the Karma , kartrutva, phala tyAgam. If only
> we sacrifice these three we can become such
> exalted souls, by virtue of which we shall all
> remain sOmbhars and attain His Thiruvadi. It is
> only these three sacrifices that our Sri Krishna 
> says in " Sarva dharmAn parityajya .." Here 
> there dharmA refers to the Karmam, Kartrutvam and
> Palam, and Parityajya is doing the sacrifice.

I guess this issue has been debated by many of our esteemed members. 
Despite being on the lowest rung of the ladder of knowledge, I could
not resist sharing a view or two of mine however unsophisticated they
are.

I do not think that the "sarva-dharmAn-parityajya" statement refers to
giving up of all karmas including nitya karmas.  The "parityajya"
refers NOT to a vidhi (injunction) but rather an anuvaada (after-fact).
 If the "parityajya" is taken as an injunction, then we have
essentially performed in one shot a tilAnjali - yeLLu taNNi - sacrifice
not only to all that Krishna says about karma-jnAna-bhakti yogas but
also to all vedic and upanishadic injunctions ... if you know what I
mean.  So, let us preserve the true meaning of the statement without
contradicting what RAmAnuja has been saying as Krishna's tiru-uLLam for
the past 18 chapters.  Let us not turn the weapon we used to annihilate
advaita onto ourselves.  If there is any injunction in that statement
it is the word "vraja" as in "mAm ekam saraNam vraja."

The "sarva-dharma" that is referred there is to bhakti-yoga (and its
angas), not to nitya karmas.  Please view the statement in the context
it appears.  It appears in the context of bhakti-yoga and in the
context of Arjuna's great anguish when he realizes that bhakti-yoga is
an extremely arduous and drawn-out path to paramAtma sAkSAtkAra.  So,
Krishna's tiru-uLLam (according to our pUrvAchAryas) is this: "Having
relinquished bhakti yoga as a sAdhyOpAya, resort to me alone ... (that
is, perform bhara samarpaNam). I, the universal siddhOpAya, will stand
in place of bhakti yOga and rid you of all your sins."

Note that a bhakti yOgi performs two kinds of tyAgas.
1.  phala tyAga - relinquishing the fruits of action.
2.  svaroopa tyAga - relinquishing the notion that Atma is his.  He
however will take it upon himself to perform bhakti yOga as a
sAdhyOpAya and hence does not perform bhara samarpaNam.  So, what
Krishna is saying that if bhakti yOga is undoable, relinquish the
bhAram of bhakti yOga.  There is no pramANa there (or anywhere else)
that includes the tyAga of nitya karmas into Krishna's statement.

To summarize, whatever the original context of this thread, this is the
bottom line: Krishna paramAtma does not advocate relinquishing nitya
karmas.  Besides, why else would they be called nitya karmAs in the
first place?  If our pUrvAcAryas and ALvArs have made statements that
might be interpreted to the effect that nitya karmas can be
relinquished, then we must examine and re-examine their context before
making any determination of what they (our AcAryas) intented.

-- muraLi kaDAmbi

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