NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text may need to change their encoding to UTF-8. --------------- srI: SrI upakAra sangraham â?? 32 --- adikAram â?? 1 poorva upakAra paramparai (The Foremost Series of Favours) --- SECTION â?? 5 (4) (27 Favours of the Lord leading to the means for MOKSHAM) ----- The next favour of the Lord, taken up by SwAmi Desikan is the creation of a lineage of AchAryas: (4) pravartaka-paramparai-yai srushtittavum; Pravartaka means, setting on foot, founding, advancing, promoting, furthering, producing, causing, prompting, urging, inducing, instigating (in a bad sense) (ref: Apte's dictionary) Of these, advancing, promoting, furthering, prompting and inducing may be suitable to understand the mind of SwAmi Desikan. We may be able to fix the exact meaning of this word if study the other word used by him: Paramparai -- means an uninterrupted series, succession, lineage etc. All these will fit in this context. So, pravartaka-paramparai can be understood as a lineage for furthering, a succession to promote, a un-interrupted series for furthering. SwAmi Desikan says it is the Lord's another favour to create a lineage for furthering, a succession to promote, a uninterrupted series of AchAryas for advancing. The question may arise as to what is to be promoted, what is to be advanced and what is to be furthering. We can arrive at the conclusion that SwAmi Desikan means to say that the Lord created a succession of leaders for propagating the ideals spelt out by the Scriptures which He had created earlier. Since the Lord's compassion is unlimited, he wanted to ensure that the virtues and the conduct as proposed in the scriptures continue to be followed by the generations to come in the future. Without a strong succession of personalities who are of good nature, these ideals cannot be promoted. People will go astray if there are no proper guides to take them on the right path. Then only, the Lord can help individual souls to turn towards Him to get them-selves liberated. This series of AchAryas has to begin with SrIman nArAyaNa Himself as He is the Supreme Lord of all the worlds, having cit (the sentient ) and acit (the non-sentient - matter) as His inseparable attributes. He is the "advaita-tatvam", the sole Reality, one without a second. It is also an established fact that He alone is the goal to be attained by one and all. He also stands as the means to salvation. SrIman nArAyaNa is the ultimate Reality. SrI is LakshmI. SrI and nArAyaNa are inseparably united and constitute the highest Brahman. So, He is referred to SrIman nArAyaNa and as the "SarvEshvara", the Lord of all. He is also the first Guru, Teacher. It was He who first gave the Vedic knowledge to Brahma even before the creation of all the lives began. The Lord, who is the paramAcharya, taught the VedAs to Brahma and restored them to him when they had been snatched away from Brahma. He also gave out all the scriptures through Brahma. It was He who made Brahma's sons, Sanaka and others, to spread the dharma in the worlds. Similarly, He ensured the succession of Gurus to continue the transfer of spiritual knowledge through the sages, like nArada, ParAsara and others. He Himself took the incarnation as KrushNa DvaipAyana VyAsa to produce various scriptures and the MahAbhArata and Brahma-sootras. The Lord Himself took various incarnations including Sri Krishna to teach the Scriptures such as Bhagvadgita etc., to the world, out of compassion. The Lord also ensured that His teachings are established on a strong basis through highly knowledgeable men like SrI BhIshma. The importance of AchArya to acquire the right knowledge has been highlighted in VedAs and other scriptures. For example, the MuNdakopanishad says, "tadvij~nAnArtham sa gurumEvAbhigacChEt" (MuNdakOpanishad, 1-2-12) (One should approach a teacher for knowing the Brahman.) and also, "AchAryavAn purushO vEda" (Only he who has a good AchArya can realize Brahmam) The lineage of AchAryas go up to the Lord. This has been stated in another scripture: "sa ca AchAryavamshO j~nEyO asrAvasaviti AbhagavataH" (RahasyAmnAya BrAhmaNam) (One should think of the line of his AchAryas upto the BhagaVan.) This line of teachers has continued through the ages and the great ideals have been kept up till today. Thus, SwAmi Desikan points out that this un-broken succession of AchAryas is also a favour conferred upon us by the Lord. (To continue) dAsan Anbil S. SrInivAsan ---------- ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs Oppiliappan Koil Varadachari Sadagopan http://www.sadagopan.org Yahoo! 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