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recent discussions regarding kalai bedham

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varadhan • October 13, 1999 


srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

dear bhAgavathAs,

adiyEn has a few thoughts that adiyEn would like to share
with the members of this list on the recent discussion
regarding kalais. adiyEn might be the most unqualified
person to talk about the issue - having grown up in
kAnchipuram, probably the divya dEsam with the mOst
kalai polarization.

We all are very very fortunate to be associated with the
rAmAnuja sampradAyam. Just imagine - we have 5 billion people
on this earth - There are billions and billions of other
chEtana vasthus on this planet alone - In bahagavAn's
leela vibhUti, our earth probably forms a miniscule part -
Given the probability of being associated with the rAmAnuja
sampradAyam, we all are extremely fortunate - It is nothing
but emperumAn's jaaya maana kaala kataaksham that has made
this happen - as AzhvAr says - aduvum avanadhu innaruLE -
Given that, it is very unfortunate that we srIvaishNavAs,
instead of feeling elated about this, and feeling totally
unqualified for the kindness that perumAL has bestowed upon
us, spend our time in claiming that one AchArya parampara
is somehow better than another AchArya parampara! What would
the respective AchAryAs think of us?

The fact that only one sARRumurai is recited in the divya dEsams
should not stop us here from according the due respect to
both svAmi maNavALa mAmunigaL and svAmi dEsikan. adiyEn
has been fortunate enough to visit the ChicagO temple
often - The gOshti there consists of both thenkalai and vadakalai
srIvaishNavAs. The fact that makes that temple very special
for all srivaishnavas is that *both* the sArrumurais are recited
there every day. That should be an example for us.

Many of us are fortunate to be born in families that trace their
lineage back to great AchAryAs. How many of us have the knowledge
or the bhakti or the vairAgyam that those AchAryAs had?
ALavandAr says in stOtra ratnam - janitva aham vamsE mahati
jagati khyaatayasasaam suchInaam yukthaanaam guNapurusha tattvasthiti
vidhaam - nisargaadEva tvat caraNa kamala EkAnta manasAm adhOdhap
paapaatmaa saranagatha nimajjaami tamasi - {oh Lord that gives
refuge - Even though I was born in the vamsam of people who
were famous throughout the world for their bhakti, who were pure,
who knew the acit, cit tatvams and their svaroopams and svabhaavams,
and whose minds by their own nature were engulfed with your
lotus feet, I am the incarnation of all sins and I am going
deeper and deeper in this prakriti} - Where is ALavandAr?
Where are we?  If ALavandAr calls himself paapaatma, what
shoud we call ourselves? If aaLavandaar is going deeper and
deeper into samsaaram, what about us who are already deep
into the samsaaram? Instead of thinking about perumAl and
getting out of the bottomless pit of samsaaram, we are even
digging deeper into it by spending our time in useless
kalai bEdhams.

AzhvAr says in the nedurmaarkku adimai pathigam -
pon aazhik kai en ammaan neekkam illaa adiyaar tham adiyaar
adiyaar adiyaar adiyaar engOkkaL - avarkkE kudigaLaaych
sellum nalla kOtpaadE - AzhvAr wants to have the opportunity
to be born in the kulam that does servitude to the servants
of servants of servants of servants of the servants of perumAL -
We all call ourselves srIvaishNavAs - do we even follow what
our nammAzhvAr says? Do we even think about that?

It looks like all of us have some gnyaanam allright -
as aazhvaar says - poi ninRa gnyaanam - All of us
have some discipline - pollaa ozhukku - both useless for the
ultimate goal - When can we as srIvaishNavAs say to emperumAn
- inninRa neermai ini yaam uraamai - imayOr thalaivaa -
mey ninRu kEttu aruLaay? adiyEn thinks of all the time that
adiyEn has wasted, thinking about kalai bEdham and adiyEn
is even more sinful - having grown up in the divya dEsam of
imayOr thalaivan and spending a lot of time on this
poi ninRa gnyaanam and pollaa ozhukku.

Let us all make a determined effort to take this kalai bEdham
out of the srIvaishNava world - Let us not spread rumours
that perumAL A had vadakalai/thenkalai thirumaN on His
forehead and during a fire/storm/whatever vadakalais/thenkalais
changed the thirumaN on His forehead! Let us not try to
identify ourselves to "vara vara muni sampradAyam" or
"dEsika sampradAyam" - We all are fortunate to be in the
rAmAnuja sampradAyam - Let us focus our efforts on doing our
best possible kainkaryam to ALL divya dEsams irrespective of
whether it is vadakalai or thenkalai - And most importantly,
let us all give the proper respect due to ALL achAryAs -
Let us not disrespect AchAryAs by ignoring them - We have a great
lineage of AchAryAs before and after emperumAnAr - We have great
AchAryAs after emperumAnAr such as  embaar, bhattar, nanjeeyar,
vadakku thiruveedhi piLLAi, periyavaccan piLLAi, thiruvAymozhip piLLAi,
maNavALa mAmunigaL, piLLai lOkAchAriAr,azhagiya maNavALap perumAL
nAyanAr,
erumbiyappa, PB ANNan, mudaliyAnDan, koorattAzhvAn, thirukkuRugaip
piraan piLLAN,
kidaambi achchaan, nadAdur ammaL, engaL AzhvAn, svAmi dEsikan. We also
have
unbroken lineages from emperumAn himself through emperumAnAr
to our present day AchAryans - Which other religion in the world
can have that claim?

Which other practitioner of the religion in the world can claim to
have the kindness of perumAL as we do? Even Indra, the athipathi
of just a miniscule portion of the universe, is embarassed to
come to this earth to accept our offerings during yaagams -Our
pUrvAchAryAs say that even he expreiences great revulsion while
coming toearth and accepting our offerings - Above Indra, we have
tons of layers before perumAL, who is the athipathi of
nitya vibhUti and leela vibhUti. What is the necessity for Him
to come to this leela vibhUti and save us? He does it out of
His great kindness and love for us. Let us not make Him feel
sad. We have only one perumAL - If we make Him sad, it is like
making our parents sad. He has given us intelligence, AchArya
paramparAs, AchAryAs to teach us - If we do not learn from ALL
our AchAryAs, would He not feel sad? We actually are the
smartest people in the whole universe - We are able to ignore
all the help that perumAL gives us, all the things that He places
before us every second of time to remind us of Him, and think of
useless fights to pick on - And we have the audacity to claim that
we are doing this to "save" a AchArya paramparai - Surely, perumAL's
kindness is limitless that He, inspite of our actions, still gives
us everything to think of Him!

unakku aatpattum adiyEn innum uzhalvENO?

manaththilOr thooymay illai vaayil Or insol illai
sinaththinaal seRRam nOkki theeviLi viLivan vaaLaa
punaththuzhaay maalayaanE ponni soozh thiruvarangaa
enakku ini gathi en sollaay ennai aaL udaya kOVE?

aparaadha sahasra baajanam patitam bheema bhavaarNava udharE
agatim saranaagatam harE! krupayaa kEvalam aatmasaatkuru!

AzhvAr emperumAnAr dEsikan jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,
adiyEn madhurakavi daasan,
Thirumalai Anandanpillai Varadhan