From Sri Sampath Rengi

From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 24, 1997


I am posting this on behalf of Sri Sampath Rengi...
(His workstation is not up...)
-Viji

> *****************************************************
> Dear bAgawathALs, on this panguni uththiram day
> I pray to thAyAr ranganAyakai and lord ranganAtha
> and wish to add some observations to the current discussions.
> I am not an expert to comment on this. However, based
> on some fundamental strength in tamil language, i thought
> i can present my observation.
> I was also little surprised when I read sri varadhan's
> preceeding noted. Then I said to myself that as per
> thiru vaLLuvar Gunam naadi kuRRamum naadi migai naadi
> mikkak kOLaL, I forgot this comment as i was immersed in
> the worship of kanchi varadhar and the garuda sEvai that
> he presented so very well. Without taking any side
> i simply want to give one observation Sri Varadhan's 
> explanation and Sri PD's question. The last line of
> Sri PBA says 
> 
> "enRa palavakaippatta pramaaNankaLuL aazhwaar aruLicheyaLkaLaana
> divyap prabhandhankaLukkE adhisayiththa praamaaNyamuLLathenRu
> koLLupavarkaLE sri vaishnavarkaLenpaar. annavarkaLayE ikkaaraNam
> paRRiyE thennaachaaryarkaLenpadhu"
> 
> ie among the several pramAnAs considering azwaar's aruLicheyal
> as the one with special pramAnAs are considered Sri Vaishnavar.
> The qulitative assessment comes in the mind when we undersatnd 
> pramAna as prominent among. for example this can be meant that
> "those who consider azwaar aruLicheyaL to be the one with
> most inner meanings[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D prominent and inner meanings may be considered as srivaishnavALs.
> Here the pramAnam is taken as the prominent content and inner meanings
> than on a comparison scale among the others. ie the pramAnA can be applied
> to itself for its prominent meanings and inner meanings than saying that
> this itself as whole is more prominent than others. when reading
> the everything togather it applies that azwaar aruLicheyal has the
> most prominent meanings and inner layers than the others sruthis,
> and smruthis and ithihaasaas. Swami desikan clearly vouches this
> when he said theLiyAtha maRai nialagaL theLiya OOthi"[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[C[C[C[C
> and also when he said on nammazwaar that all saints (includes veda
> vyasa and vishishtaas) and their messages all puttogether are no
> match to nammazwaar's aruLich cheyaL. Hence as per swami desikan
> what PBA had mentioned about the richness of aruLichcheyaL is a
> valid statement. However the norm thenAchAryAL if referred to only
> a particular sect of Srivaishnavas at the time Sri PBA was saying
> this is questionable. I guess all thise who consider drAvida vedam
> to be their most prominent nool or literature may be considred
> as thenachAryALs themselves. In that case Swami dEsikan whose
> magnum opus srimad rahasya trya saaram that we vadaklais follow
> all the time is itslef totally derived from 4000 and azwaar aruLi
> cheyaLs on the three rahasya granthhaas. Sri Ramanuja paved way
> for our sidhdantham and even he himself would put azwaar aruLich
> cheyal and 4000 first in our temple vazhi muRai than vedam.
> There is also enough proof that though emperumaanra Sri RamAnujar
> initiated our sidhdhantham, he himslef derived the basis for the
> same from 4000 and azwaar aruLich cheyaL. Recently some one out of 
> enormous love for Sri Ramanuja wrote in the forum that what ever
> beautiful the azwars works may be for us emperumaanar sri ramanujar
> is thge most important. This is very incorrect even as per Sri Ramanujar
> himself. What ever vedam we have tamil vedam is the most prominent
> for all of us born in kaliyugam in sri sampradayam. Azwaar and their
> aruLichcheyaL are the most prominent for all of those acharYALS
> like Sri ramanujar and Swami Desikan and for those who follow
> their teachings as well. 
> At the outset my observation once again reitreated is that
> pramAnyam ULLthenRU koLLu parkaLE means those who consider
> that the azwaar arULicheyaL has the most prominent and inner
> layers of meanings. Here the word uLLathenRu should be 
> taken for what it contains ie the prominet meanings and
> inner layers. 
> Sri ranganAyikA samEtha sir ranganAtha perumAL padhukaE charaNam
> Sampath Rengarajan