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Saraswati&HanumAr

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Sriram Ramanujam • February 7, 1996 


Dear members:
Of all the days this morning as I was nearing the end of sandhyavandham,
as strange question cropped up. Well I don't know if all the different
veda sandhyavandanams follow this, but according to what I follow I
turn around to pay obeisence to dEvi gAyathri, sAvithri, saraswati
etc..  I was wondering what saraswati's position is in our vaishnavite
philosophy. I always thought of her to yet another exalted nityasuri,
being Brahma's consort. But we do worship her, some on a regular basis
as 'Viday dEvi' and few others only probably on saraswati puja day normally
at the end of navaratri.
Given the fact that traditionally vaishnava's have never been known to have
named any of the kanyas after saraswati (of course there might be some
exceptions, but the very traditional ones don't) goes to say that she sure
is a nityasuri too, but this might not be too logical because we do have
poeple named after the others like Sesha, Ramanuja etc..
But would'nt she be the one other nityasuri other than
Anjaneyar that we people formally worship. But I fail to understand the unique
position granted to her, is it just because she has been potrayed to be an
embodiment of learning and gyAna, that we prapanna's strive towards?

The other nityasuri(should I say this?) that we all happen to worship even
with temples built after is Anjaneya. Is'nt this because we would probably
say he was our 'ParamAcharya' much before our bAshyakArar and alwars who
laid the foundation  of prapatti. 
The clarification I need reagrding Anjaneyar is : Was it that Anjaneyar was
just another karma baddhan just like any of us and attained the exalted status
with nArayaNa by serving him during rAma avatharam ? If not was he another of
the nitysuri come down with nArAyaNa just like Lakshmana, to show to us
what service to the supreme being would mean? 

A karmi as I am, I tend to forget to think of nArAyaNa somtimes during
the day, but this sat-sangh through emails tends to remind me of him, 
though I steal a little more than a couple of minutes off from work 
every time there is a mail. Thanks for all this!!

-sriram