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Re: AchArya paramparA and other

From the Bhakti List Archives

Anand Karalapakkam • May 7, 1999 


SrI:
SrI Lakshminrusimha ParabrahmaNE namaha
SrI Lakshminrusimha divya pAdukA sEvaka SrIvaNN-
SatakOpa SrI nArAyaNa yateendra mahAdESikAya namaha

Dear devotees,
 namO nArAyaNA.

Sri Sadagopan wrote :
> It is in this context , we worship Sage VyAsA
>during VyAsa PourNami /Guru Pournami
>as Loka Guru ( LokAchAryan ).

  Sage vyAsar though  not in our guruparamparA as such,
 he is very much an AchAryA for SriVaishnavAs through
 his works like Brahma sootram, purANAs etc. SrI Mani
 has already explained the difference between the stream
 of AchAryAs recognized in our gurumparA ( like
 nammAzhwAr, nAthamunigaL ...)  and the AchAryAs
 like vyAsar, bOdhAyanar, tanka etc who also only propagated
 vEdAntA ie. VisishtAdvaitA.

 As far as adiyEn knows, SriVaishnava AchAryAs/SannyAsIs
 does not perform worship to Sage vyAsA during the
 vyAsa/Guru PourNami. If adiyEn's memory is right, advaita
 sannyAsins during their chAturmAsya sankalpa perform
 vyAsa pUjA since vyAsar is recognized as an AchAryA
 of their guruparamparA. Similarly, there are some other
 sampradAyams which have vyAsar specifically in their
 guruparamparA and thus celebrate vyAsa pUjA. Anyway,
 SrIvaishnavAs also have great reverence for vyAsar because
 of  many  reasons (this has been explained  well by
 Sri SadagOpan) , though some formal worship may not be
 performed.

 adiyEn has heard in a kAlakshEbam that Sage vyAsar is a
 SrIVaishnavA / ParamaikAntin. That AchAryA explained that
 Rishis like vyAsar played a different role than that of AzhwArs,
 though the fundamental principle is same for both of them.
 Many rishis catered to the needs of all the people viz. dharmam,
 artham, kAmam and mOksham. So, they also spoke about,
 say, the glories of some anya dEvatAs , performing worship
 to anya dEvatAs for certain benifits etc also, in addition to
 the way mumukshu (seeker of moksham) should be. But,
 AzhwArs taught us only about the pathway to moksham viz.
 uninterrupted kainkaryam to the Divya Dampati and thus the
 focus of  AzhwArs is different ( ofcourse, if someone recites divya
 prabandham etc, with the intention of getting more money
 PerumAL will grant it ) . Philosophically, vyAsar and AzhwArs
 say the same thing , but, the focus of their writings/teachings
 varied according to the role they took. vyAsar is vishnu's
 avatAram (ie. that jIvAtmA was given extrordinary powers
 by PerumAL)  intended for achieving certain things and
 the incarnation of AzhwArs was for achieving certain things.

 But, seeing from a different angle, using the nahi nindA nyAyam
 (ie. just to glorify someone and _not_ to deride other), AzhwArs
 are said to be superior to rishis since AzhwArs sung only about
 SrIman nArAyaNA. This statement needs to be properly
 understood with the background of all the things written above.

 adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
 ananthapadmanAbha dAsan
 krishNArpaNam