You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - May 2005

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00053 May 2005

 
May 2005 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


SrI:
SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama:
SrI krishNa parabrahmaNE nama:
SrImAn nArAyaNa charaNau saraNam prapadyE

dear vaishNavAs,

SrImAn sampath kumAr rised a point which haunted me also some time 
earlier. I understand that I am extremely unqualified to speak on 
matters of this depth, hence instead, I would like to eloberate the 
question framed by SrImAn sampath kumAr. Please feel free to 
disagree with me if you see anything absurd in my presentation.

Here we have two positions infront of us, a SrI vaishNava assertion 
of SrImAn nArAyaNa as the one and only Supreme Lord whose vaibhava 
form is SrI krishNa, on ther hand vallabha and gaudiya vaishNavAs 
assertion of SrI krishNa as the One and only Supreme Lord whose 
purusha or vilAsa avatAra is SrImAn nArAyaNa. For anyone it so 
appears that both the parties have their favour for one specific 
form of bhagavAn and are arguing in the support of their cause. It 
is also true to some extent, but inherently there is a big 
difference even about the relative positions on the para form and 
the avatAra form of bhagavAn. Let me make it clear. 

For a SrI vaishNava: The Supreme Lord SrimAn nArAyaNa appeared on 
earth in His full opulances as SrI krishNa, and KrishNa being 
absolutely non-different from SrImAn nArAyaNa in all respects 
including all rasAs. The other avatArAs of SrimAn nArAyaNa and SrI 
krishNa avatAr are different in the sense that Lord chose to 
manifest all His vibhUtIs to attract the jIvAs in KrishNa avatAr. 
All the other avatArAs of bhagavAn also possess all vibhUtis but are 
not manifested by the Lord, because of His own free will. The para 
tattva, ie., SrImAn nArAyaNa manifests all His opulances in SrI 
vaikuntha, the paramapatham (the highest abode), so also SrI krishNa 
on earth. For that matter, SrI krishNa's original form (swakam 
roopam) is four armed rather than His two armed soumya roopam(SrImad 
bhagavad geetha 11.50). Even the gOpis in vrindAvan got the bhAgyam 
of conceiving the Lord so closely by their unparallelled bhakti 
towards the nArAyaNa ashTAkshari mantra. We can see references in 
SrImad bhAgavatam, how the residents of vrindAvan devoted to Lord 
nArAyaN. It just proves that by worshipping SrImAn nArAyaNa with a 
specific rasa, one conceives the Lord in that rasa. Because the 
brajabAsis are so ardent devotees of SrimAn nArAyaNa, the Supreme 
Lord manifested as one among them. That is to say that, worship of 
SrImAn nArAyaNa gives us the highest bliss of associating with the 
Lord in whatever rasa we approach Him. All of this is to assert the 
fact that SrImAn nArAyaNa is dealing with devotees of all rasAs, as 
He does in SrI vaikuntha also.  Hence, SrI krishNa and SrImAn 
nArAyaNa are absolutely at the same platform for SrI vaishNavAs, 
although one form is para and the other is vaibhava.

vallabha gaudiya sAmpradAyAs: SrI KrishNa, the Supreme Person, the 
para tattva, the primordial Lord, manifests different vilAsa or 
purusha avatArAs to maintain the material creations. Although, 
vilAsa forms also have full potencies as Sri krishNa Himself, some 
of them are unmanifest, as the Lord chooses so. SrImAn nArAyaNa is 
also one of the purusha avatArAs, although capable of exhibiting all 
the rasAs doesnot exhibit them in His paramAtma form, which is not 
complete realisation of bhagavAn. Only the realisation of SrI 
krishNa form in His two armed form carrying flute along with SrImati 
rAdhika is the complete realisation. There is even a difference in 
the quantity of bliss one experiences by krishNa realisation in 
vrindAvan and SrImAn nArAyaNa realisation in SrI vaikuntha. 
Moreover, SrI krishNa's abode gOlOka vaikuntha is beyond many many 
vaikuntha planets. Especially, SrImAn nArAyaNa form *lack* four 
principle characteristics which only Lord KrishNa possess. (based 
bhakti rasAmrita sindhu, written by a gaudiya AchArya, SrI rUpa 
gOswAmi)

Here I end the eloberation of respective positions of the view 
points. The main point I tried to bring forth from the above 
discussion is that, in the case of SrI vaishNavAs, although they 
argue that SrI krishNa is a vaibhava avatAra of SrImAn nArAyaNa, 
they nevertheless agree that if one realises the supremacy of SrI 
krishNa, one gets the highest bliss. Where as in the case of 
gaudiyAs, they argue that, because SrImAn nArAyaNa is just one of 
the vilAsa avatArAs of the Lord, there is still more to realise even 
after one realises the Supremacy of SrImAn nArAyaNa. Only when one 
does become devotee of krishNa form of bhagavan, the one becomes 
fully realised. But they do not envy the realisation of nArAyaNa, 
just that they do not suggest it.(brihad bhAgavata katha, gOpa 
kumAra story, written by a gaudiya AchArya).

Whaever I presented here now is what I understood from my analysis, 
hence it is prone to have errors. If there are any ambiguities or 
illogical comments, please correct me. I shall continue on this 
subject in one more mail. 

dAsOham,
SrIperumbUdUru vEnkaTa vinOd.




--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Janaki & Sampath Kumar" 
<janasampath@xxxx> wrote:
> Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
> Srimathe Vedhantha Desikaya Namaha
> Srimath VaraVara Munaye Namaha
> 
> Respected Sri Vaishnava Baghavathas
> 
> Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan Sampath Kumar. This is my first question in 
this
> scholarly forum. 
> 
> In our SriVaishnava Sidhantham it is established that Sriman 
Narayanan
> residing in Vaikunta Lokam is parathvam and Krishna is avatharam
> (Vibhavam) of Sriman Narayanan and Krishna is an expansion of 
Sriman
> Narayanan. However, there are other schools of Vaishnavism 
(especially
> Gaudia Vaishnavism) which staunchly advocate that Krishna is the
> parathvam and Narayanan is a subform of Krishna. Even though both
> these schools accept Sriman Narayanan and Krishna, why this
> fundamental difference arise and which is correct?
> 
> Kindly accept adiyen's appologies if my question is inappropriate.
> 
> Adiyen
> 
> Ramanuja Dasan
> 
> Sampath Kumar...






azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam
 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ramanuja/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ramanuja-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list