Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya nama: Humble pranams to you. As I have expressed umpteen number of times that I am a beginner in our sampradayam,I would love to know what "exactly is" the stand of SV with respect to varNAshrama Dharma. I preseme that many devotees of this forum would have had the opportunity to attend upanyAsams by great upanyAsakas and AcAryAs. It is my humble request to those devotees to shed light on this subtle topic. This post is not,in any way,connected/response to people who have already expressed some views on this. Whatever contents that is reflected here,has been in my mind for long and hence seek clarification/answers from the perspective of "anuShTAnam" of SV sampradAyam. : 1. What "exactly" Sri VaiShNavism targets as compared to the shruthi? 2. If one goes by EmperumAnAr's SriBhAshya statement on varNAshrama Dharma,why not follow the same EmperumAnAr who "did not" make "any" reference to AzhvArs and their works in all his samskrt works? So should one reject AzhvArs outrightly?[Although AcArya Hrdhayam suthra 65 declares that emperumAnAr wrote Sri BhAShya with the help of dhivya prabandham only]. SriRangam Sri Narasimhachar swami,on Sri BhAShya,said that EmperumanAr also has said that women and shUdrAs are not allowed to learn. If this be the case,why do we see NammAzhvAr and other AzhvArs wearing yagnyOpavItham in all dhivya dhEsha sanniDhis? Is this not in direct conflict with Shruthi? I am sure if AzhvArs(4th and 5th varNAs) were baddha jIvatmas,they would not have worn yagnyOpavItham while they were in this lIla vibhUthi. If this yagnyOpavItham was adorned by them after they attained mOksha(after gaining sArUpyam),then are there two shruthis which are valid,one before attaining mOksha and one after attaining mOksha? I have heard that when EmperumAnAr was young,he had put the yagnyOpavItham for some of his friends who belonged to the unfortunate varNAs. Is this true? 3. Every prapanna is a sri VaiShNava. What about the converse? Also answer keeping in mind Sri PL's words:a person following karma,jnAna and bhakti mArgas(who enjoy certain things) and those follow(or try to) prapatti(who shudders to sleep with his own wife) and also Sri ParAshara Bhattar's statement "an SV is superior to vEdhAnthin". Sri ParAshara Bhattar,once by mistake addressed his wife as ammA and the wife thus replied:"swami I am your wife and hence your servant". sri Bhattar's reply was: "Oh,Did I address you as ammA(may be perumAL's tiru uLLam)? okay,from now on I will treat you also like a mother". If we strictly go by Sri PiLLai lOkAcAryA's "code of conduct for prapanna",how many prapannas would be there in this world? EmperumAnAr told UyyakkoNdAr that "one has to have a taste for prapatti which in turn requires PerumAL's anugraham". Does this mean that SriVaiShNavism,which is built on prapatti,is hard to impliment? 4. I am not talking about every brAhmaNA marrying someone outside his caste! But I'm talking about a Sri VaiShNavan. Can a Sri VaiShNava (brahmin/non brahmin)guy marry a SV(non brahmin/brahmin)gal? Someone told me that "it can not be done"(and it was a shock for me because till this day I have been telling my friends that Ramanuja sampradAyam is the superset of all sets,encompasses every damn thing in this Unierse blah blah blah). What is the point of marrying a "name sake" SV Iyengar brahmin who questions:"why do you need to know about the sampradAyam & God in detail at this age and also he (worse than SisupAla) is jealous of attention given to God!)? Is not zillion times better to marry a non-brahmin person(boy/girl) who believes in our faith and wants to know about our sampradAyam? I honestly do not know,how accurately Patricia Mumme presented Swami Desikan's views in her book. According to the contents of the book,Swami Desikan was of the view that "there is a distinction between Brahmin devotee and shUdra devotee;and shudra devotee should be given respect only as per varNAshrama Dharma". 5. I learnt kOil tiruvAymozhi from a bhAgavatha who is a telugu SV (not a brahmin). I'm a brahmin because my ancestor is a brahmin by birth/caste. Does Sri sampradAyam/SV-ism say that I(brahmin by birth/caste or whatever) should give respect to the bhAgavatha(non- brahmin) only "within" the grounds of varNAshrama Dharma? Are there any written records that EmperumAnAr(brahmin) did not fall at Tirukkacci nambi's feet(a shUdra)? This question is raised because I have read posts claiming that even EmperumAnAr respected a bhAgavatha as per varNAshrama Dharma only! 6. Is not this varNAshrama(that requires individual's effort through bodily means and which also gives rise to ego) contrary to prapatti which goes by shEshathvam and pArathanthriyam? This ego follows the person like a shadow(in 99.999999999% case this is true) and does it not stand in the way of shEshathvam? Is not SV built on the prapatti? If so,why there is a need to give importance to varNAshrama,(since it is difficult to develop "shEshathvam and pArathanthryam" through karma,jnAna,bhakti mArgams and one in a kOti may succeed)? Please address this from the stand point of AcArya Hrdhayam(sUthra 57- 62,where Swami Azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr declares the greatness of NammAzhvAr over others viz., vAlmIki,vyAsa,rShis, yOgis,munis..),Sri Vacana BhUShaNam and Mumukshuppadi. 7. There are many foreigners who are getting into the fold of our sampradAyam by Sri Chinna Jeeyar swami which is contrary to the view maintained by some people that "in our sampradAyam we don't preach or spread". The "so called" 74 simhAsanAdhipathis were appointed by EmperumAnar for this task only. Strictly speaking,if we go by Sri PiLLai lOkAcArya's Mumukshuppadi (explanation for Carama slOkam),all the mArgams(by shruthi,smrthi etc) other than prapatti,are "aDharmA" only. Correct me if I'm wrong. I have put forth all the above questions because the main reason is,I have observed in my extended family circle(who all come under AcArya puruShA families only! one of my cousin is a disciple of Sai Baba),that they have different views when it comes to talking about SV sampradayam and practising it. Their behaviour is somewhat similar to that of EmperumAnAr's wife towards Sri Tirukkaci Nambi. The second reason is personal. I come from a "double" AcArya puruSha family(both maternal and paternal) and yet my parents are very very very liberal in caste issues. My mother was more orthodox than my father,used to tie only madisAru from day one of her marriage,would not even eat in some AcArya puruShas houses(they eat onion and garlic and the reason given is that these have medicinal value) because she was very specific about food and also would not want to trouble others unnecessarily. She enforced her orthodoxy only on us and not on the outsiders. If Sri ParAshara Bhattar was the one who gave importance to the beggars of SriRangam,then my father also follows the footsteps of Sri Bhattar. If my mother had not sold her silver articles,my parents would have fed the beggar in a silver utensil also(right now the scenario in our house wrt beggar is foodin vAzha ilai and water in stainless). My parents are alike in thoughts and we have been brought up in the same atmosphere. My father would wear a "azhukku/dirty" vEshti at home or even outside sometimes but would give generously his "mayil kaN vEshti" to guests. Both my parents are weird characters and I'm indebted to God for making me born to such parents. Hence I am unable to understand the mentality of the people (belonging to our sampradAyam) having a totally different view when it comes to talking and practising Sri VaiShNavism. Kindly address these questions of mine,giving references from AcAryAs works to elucidate the same so that I would know where exactly our sampradAyam stands wrt varNAshrama Dharma. Last but not the least,let us not forget the fact that, in this current age, only 0.000000001% of the brAhmins(applies to other caste too) would strictly follow the rules of varNAshrama Dharma. It is my conviction that the one sect that divided into two is mainly,not because of doctrinal differences, but due to varNAshrama Dharma. It is my guess that many would not have liked Ramanuja accepting everybody(I have listened to my own realatives' words:Ramanuja put nAmam/thirumaN for all passers-by!) into the fold due to this conflicting views on varNAshrama and hence would have divided and all these doctrinal differences as a "reason" would have come much much later say one/two centuries after Sri MaNavALa mAmunigaL's period. I could be absolutely wrong about this (since there is no precise reason for the division of sect,it gives me some freedom to speculate too!) and hence forgive for the same. Please kindly forgive if i,unintentionally, hurt anyone's feelings and also sorry for the lengthy post(couldn't help it). AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam NC Nappinnai
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |