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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00014 Sep 2001

 
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srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImadh varavara munayE namaha

Sri Krishan Swamy.

Thanks a lot for your wonderful message. This message is like a rain 
for the water starved Chennai-ites. Yes, all along after starting 
this list, we were only discussing some disputes with respect to 
another list and were waiting for some enlightening posts regarding 
the sampradhAyam. Now we have started getting it. 

Dear Members, if another great swamy of the list, Sri. 
M.A.Venkatakrishnan swamy also starts pouring in, then I am sure this 
list will not be starved for want of information on the sampradhAyam.

We hope this cloud too bursts soon.

We request you both make periodical or very frequent postings so that 
we all get enlightened.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh
---- Begin Original Message ----

From: "Velukkudi Krishnan" <velukkudi@xxxx>
Sent: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 21:42:57 +0530
To: "Ramanuja Group" <ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ramanuja] 


Respected Bhagavatottamas

Adiyen's best wishes for the new group named after the great Acharya 
Ramanuja. We all take pride calling ourselves as Sri vaishnavas and 
more as Ramanuja Dasan / Dasi. When there were so many acharyas 
before and after Swamy Ramanuja, what is the uniqueness about 
Ramanuja. Let me share some of them with you. 

 a.. All acharyas before Ramanuja were called anuvritti prasanna 
acharya i.e. one who imparts knowledge to sishyas who have passed all 
the criteria in terms of basic knowledge, anushtana, perseverence 
etc. But Ramanuja broke this chain (oraNvazhi) and introduced a 
simple criterion - " Desire to know". (This was a boon to people like 
us) Hence he was the first one to be hailed as Kripa mAtra prasanna 
acharya. Manavala Mamunigal in Upadesa Rattina malai - "Asai 
udayorkkellam AriyarkAl kUrumenru pEsi varambaruttAr pin"

 a.. Ramanuja was the only one to whom Sri Ranganatha submitted both 
his vibhUtis , nitya and leela and gave the authority  of granting 
moksha. Quote "Vishnu lOka maNi mandapa mArga dAyi" Kanchi Devaraja 
has reinforced this authority by advising Tirukkachi nambigal that 
moksham for nambigal is due to his connection with Ramanuja. 

 a.. Ramanuja was the only one whom Nammalwar acknowledged. He has 
given the divine statue of Ramanuja to nAthamunigal. And this divine 
vigraham is the deity at Ramanuja sannidhi at Alwartirunagari even 
today. Quote " bhavishyadAcharya varaswarUpam sandarsayamAsa - tam 
kAri sUnum Saranam prapadye". This vigraham was held by all our pUrva 
acharyas in their tiruvaradhanam. 

 a.. Ramanuja is the only one  to whom the revered title "Swamy"  is 
apt. We do call many other acharyas also with this title. But see 
this - All temples are koils but just the word "koil" will stand for 
Sri Rangam only. All birthdays of perumal are jayantis but "jayanti" 
would stand only for Sri Krishna Jayanti. All jeers are jeers but 
just "jeer" or "Peria jeer" is only for Manavala Mamungal. (At the 
beginning  and end of every santhai session, we all chant "Alwar 
emperumanar "jeer" tiruvadigale saranam"). Similarly, just "Swamy" 
stands for Ramunja alone. For others we must add their name also to 
identify them. 

 a.. Ramanuja was the first to document in as many terms the 
VisishtAdvaita sampradAya. The works of all other acharyas followed 
his footsteps. Thus our darsanam is till today called as "Emperumanar 
darsanam" or "Ramanuja Darsanam". The concept of Sarangati as 
developed by alwars, nathamunigal and Alavandar was also documented 
by Ramanuja both in text and practice. 

 a.. Ramanuja is the only acharya who was referred with respect / 
followed by  other  schools in vaishnavism like chaitanya, 
vallabhacharya, Swamy narayan .  

 a.. All the acharyas after Ramanuja have pointed their fingers and 
sung in praise of Ramanuja only. Even though acharyas like Swamy 
Pillai lokacharya, Swamy Desikan and Swamy Manavala Mamunigal  1. are 
much later in time to Ramanuja, and 2. have their own acharya, still 
they refer to Swamy Ramanuja only as the ultimate acharya. Pls note 
this point " Our moksham is not guaranteed only with the sambandham 
of any other acharya - but Ramanuja".   Our daily chant is " 
RamanujArya divyAgya vardhatAm abhi vardhatAm. " It is only he who 
can command and all our acharyas and we follow his command. 

 a.. Whoever has samasrayanam he is first taught to chant  (by his 
own acharya) "Adiyen Ramanuja dasan" when he prostrates before 
elders. 

 a.. Ramanuja was the only one adept in all fields like vedanta, 
rahasyas, vaishnavism, politics, upliftment of downtrodden, arts, 
culture and what not. He was a perfect mix of gnana and bhakti after 
alwars. 

 a.. Finally, let me cite a happening from Koorathalwans life. Once 
there was a debate near kaveri as to who would be the greatest 
acharya on earth. there were arguments and counter arguments. 
Koorathzhwan could not bear this any more. He walked in to kaveri 
water and vowed with raised hands " satyam satyam puna: satyam 
yatirAjo jagatguru: - sa eva sarva lokAnam uddharta na samsaya:" 
Yatiraja is the only Acharya to this world. He is the only one who 
can bring us out of the sufferings of this materialistic world. 

So let us take pride that we are Ramanuja dasa, let us be without any 
confusion as we are Ramanuja sishyas, let us be assured of a birth in 
Sri vaikuntha as we are Ramanuja sambandhis. I pray to divya dampatis 
for Ramanuja groups to reach greater heights in the service to 
humanity. 

Srimate Ramanujaya Namaha. 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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