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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00026 Sep 2002

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Dear Sri Venkatesh,

Before putting forth some of the points I know(learnt till now) 
let me tell all the bhagavatas of the group that this mail is limited 
to my ignorance and lack of understanding. So I beg the pardon of all 
for any unintentional mistakes.

vinjamoor_venkatesh wrote:

>>Are you really sure about this? I am sure that this is not the case. 
The nitya karma et al are to be fulfilled only for the sAdhana 
bhakthi nishTars. For the prapannAs who have put all their burden on 
Sriman Narayanan, where is the time of doing all these nitya karmAs. 

According to what adiyen has heard anyone born in all three varnas(brahmana, 
kshtriya and vaishya) are supposed to do their nitya karmas regularly. But 
there are two types of dharmas. One is sadarana/sAmAnya dharmam and vishesha 
dharmam. There is one legend in our guru paramparai. Sri Parasara bhattar had 
a practice to go at the back of Sri Namperumal during perumal's purappadu. 

Once the purappadu was going on and it was time for the sAyam sandhya. 
When nanjeeyar asked bhattar about it bhattar replied, "edhai chitra guptan 
kanakkile ezhudamattan"(this will not be calculated as a sin). So according 
to our acharyas namperumal purappadu and kainkaryam to perumal and bhagavatas
was considered as vishesha dharmam and other nithya karmas to be sAmAnya 
dharmam. Whenever there was a clash between the sAmAnya dharmam and vishEsha 
dharmam they gave more preference to vishesha dharmam and never felt for 
leaving the sAmAnya dharmam. But never did they say leave the sAmAnya dharmam 
just because you are a prapannan. Remember Sri Ramanujar even in his last days 
when he was very old never forgot to go to kaveri to do his nithya karmas. 

Even after doing saranagathi(gathya trayam) in front of the divine couples he 
continued his karmas till his final breath. If we are always involved in 
Bhagavat kainkaryam then it is ok but then do we do it today. Ofcourse none of 
our acharyas did the nithya karmas as a way to attain moksha they did it as a 
kainkaryam too. As bhagavan says, "sruthi smrithi mamai agjya....agjna chEbhi 
mama drOhi". So if a prappannan leaves the karmas specified by bhagavan in the 
shastras he becomes drOhi(cheat to bhagavan). So prapannas do the nithya karmas 
for following bhagavan's words as a kainkaryam to him and not as a upayam to 
attain moksha. Here we have to remember both what lakshmana and bharatha did 
were kainkaryam to Sri Rama. Lakshmana was near perumal but bharatha did 
kainkaryam by acting according to perumal's words. So listening to what he says 
and doing things accordingly(parathantriyam) is considered to be a great 
kainkaryam. Both sesashatvam and parathanthriyam are regarded equally important 
by our poorvAcharyas. 


>>As Sri Krishna says in Bhagavat Gita, the bhakthi and hence the 
concentration on him should be continuous without any break just like 
the flow of oil (sloka: 'thailadhArA....'). So where is the time for 
one to do his nitya karma. 

Krishna in bhagavat geetha also says that each one has to do their duty 
"karmamyEva dekA rasthE mA pAlEchu kadAchana". If we really do bhakthi non stop 
then it is ok if we miss nitya karma. Once koorathazhvan was involved in some 
bhagavat vishayam that he even forgot to do thiruvArAdhanam to bhagavan. Such 
should be the concentration. Do we all possess the same? Then where comes the 
question of leaving our nitya karmas?

>>Another standing example, quoted from vArthAmAlai of Sri pinbazhagiya 
perumAL jeeyar (Sorry I do not have the number of 'vArthai' correctly 
as I am away from home). Once on a dwAdasi day, Sri Bhattars mother 
comes to him (This is after Sri kUratthAzhwAn attaining paramapadham) 
and asks him for perumAL thIrtham to end her EkAdasi upavAsam 
(fasting), for which Sri Bhattar questioned, "Do you have so much 
time and vairAghyam to even forget perumAL and get involved in all 
these vrathams". What a word. What does this signify for a 
kainkaryapara or a prapannA, the only duty to keep all the burden on 
Sriman Narayanan and live at His mercy.

True. A true prapannan should be like that only. It is a idealistic case. Even 
our acharyas did not leave all the nitya karamas and live like that.

>>This is what exactly Sri ThoNdaradippodi AzhwAr says in ThirumAlAi 
pAsuram 'mEmporuL pOga viTTu.........vAzhum sOmbarai ugatthi pOlum 
madhiL thiruvarangatthAnE'. Look at the words 'vAZhum sOmbar'. This 
pAsuram is the lifeline of ThirumAlai, just like the Charama slOkam 
for Sri Bhagavadh Gita. In this pAsuram the AzhwAr asks all of us to 
renounce everthing and just do nothing to earn anything. It is only 
His mercy and grace which will give one the mOksha.

I accept that we should not do anything to earn anything but then we should do 
all the karmas as kainkaryam to bhagavan. Sure nothing we do can earn us moksha 
only his nirheduka krupai can but then why did the alwars sing paasurams and 
cry since once we are involved in bhakthi we cannot just sit. We do everything 
for his sake and enjoy seeing him smile at what we do(padiyai kidandhu vun 
pavala vAi kAnbhEnE) 

******** Quote ********
>>There was an AchAryA who lived true to these above words. He is Sri 
ThirukkaNNamangai ANdAn. His story is very well known to everybody as 
it is quite often quoted in Sri Vachana BhooshaNam et al. He once saw 
two masters fighting and dying over the death of a dog. Then he 
realized, "if for the sake of just a lowly animal like dog, its owner 
can enter into a fight and die, will the emberumAn who is the owner 
of this lowly animal that is me (what a humility on part of him), not 
take care of me and give me the mOksham". Thinking so, he just 
remained without doing anything to earn the mOksham and eventually 
got it.
********End Quote ********

True the acharya didnt do anything to earn moksham but did he leave his nithya 
karmas and kainkaryams. Sri Venkatesh adiyen understands what you are trying to 
convey but then your words may highly mislead others. 

>>Accepted. But how do you know, what you are doing is pleasing him? 

When we act according to the words of bhagavan in the sastras and in the 
bhagavat gita it surely pleases him.

******** Quote ********
>>Does He come and tell you in person that, 'I liked this deed of 
yours. So continue this'. No not at all. 
********End Quote ********

I strongly abjuct to this. Do you think perumal doesnt have the capacity to 
guide us when we consider him as our driving force? A prapannan acts according 
to the orders of perumal and do you think perumal cannot point out our mistakes 
when we look at him for clarification. When we consider emperuman as 
everything, surely emperuman answers our queries and guides us in the right 
path. Sri Parthasarathi in gita declares that he does so. "Ananyath 
chintayanthOmam yE jana par yupAsathE thEsham nithyAbhiyukthAnAm yOgashEmam 
vahamyaham" So whatever kainkaryam we do is only to please him. Kainkaryam is 
for his happiness and not for ours. So whatever we do should be aimed to please 
him only. We are not impossing anything on him and we can never do so. We do it 
for the sake of pleasing him and by his apara karunyam he gets pleased that is 
it. He is a svathantran getting pleased or not is left to him but he also has 
karunyam which makes him accept our even small bit of kainkaryam and get 
pleased with the same. As you have said acharyas do show us the right path but 
even they are given to us only by the emperuman. True in our sampradayam 
acharyas are considered as par or even more than bhagavan himself but whatever 
the acharya preaches is also only to please the bhagavan nothing against it. 
Again we prapannas do not thing pleasing perumal to be a upaya to attain 
moksham it is just the gratefulness we show for what all he has done for us to 
the extent we can or rather we should call it to be our svabhavam to do 
kainkaryam to bhagavan and please him rather than for anything else. Like our 
acharyas say that nammazhvar's bhakthi was not sadhya bhakthi or sadhana 
bhakthi it was sahaja bhakthi. It was his svabhavam to do bhakthi. 

Sri Venkatesh adiyen totally know what you feel and what you wanted to convey. 
But then in some places adiyen felt that your words may mislead others so just 
to clarify, this mail.

Any mistakes may be please pardoned and corrected by the learned bhagavatas.

Alwar EmperumANAr jEEyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan




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