Ramanuja's Golden Rules

[Guest guest]

On Monday, 30 October 1995 9:27am ET Jaganath said:

>Can someone post on email the 72 rules that Ramanujacharya laid down

>for Srivaishnava conduct?

>

 

 

Here is an article I posted in Soc.Culture.Tamil

a long time ago in response to a statement from

a learned individual that all religion are evil

organized religion is organized evil.

I got into trouble on a couple

of points. (1) should we blindly accept what our

acharyaas say, (2) why respect only sri vasihnavaas,

what about others. We have discussed these two points

here in this forum as well. Therefore I will not

go into them. I simply reproduce my earlier artcle

here.

 

-- Dileepan

 

 

=========Start of article==============

This is about whether or not religion is

evil. I wish to submit what I consider

the essence of my religion, Sri

Vaishnavam. The principles put forth

here are not unique just to Sri

Vaishnavam. After reading this I hope

you will agree that religion is not

necessarily evil.

 

In his death bed Sri Raamanuja is said

to have articulated 82 statements to his

disciples. It is not an exaggeration to

present these statements as the essence

of Sri Vaishnavam. I give below

excerpts of these, translated from \bt

"Sri Raamaanujar," pi. sri,

sudhEsamitthiran, pp. 250 - 259, aagaStu

1964 \et. I apologize for the lack of

lucidity of my translation.

 

 

---------------

1. Serve God and God's devotees. Serve

all devotees without regard to their

status.

 

2. Have faith in the teachings of

acchaaryaas.

 

3. Do not succumb to sensual pleasures.

 

4 & 5. Do not put your conviction on

trivial saasthraas, have conviction on

the saasthraas that deal with God.

 

6 - 8. Protect yourself from the five

senses.

 

9 & 10. Praise the name of the Lord and

aachaaryaas.

 

11. All the knowledge you may have will

not protect you if you choose sensual

pleasures.

 

12 & 13. It is not enough to control

your sensual desires, you must surrender

to the Lord.

 

14 - 17. Do not be disrespectful of sri

vaishnavaas for any reason, including

age, caste, etc. You must show respect

to them all.

 

18. When you rise from your bed

meditate upon your ancestral line of

aahaaryas.

 

19. In front of the sanctum of our Lord,

amongst sri vaishnavaas utter the words

of thiru manthiram and dvayam.

 

20. Praise the auspicious qualities of

our Lord and aachaaryaas.

 

21 and 22. Welcome sri vaishnavas with

open arms and praise. Do not praise

ordinary people for the sake of material

gain.

 

23. Pay respect when you see the gOpuram

of a temple.

 

24 - 25. Have undying faith in Lord

Vishnu.

 

26. Do not find fault with praise of the

Lord or devotees.

 

27 - 29. Pay at most respect to sri

vaishnavaas.

 

30 & 31. Among sri vaishnavaas do not

discriminate between poor and rich.

 

32. Ignore the faults and praise the

virtues of sri vasihnavaas.

 

33 - 35. Consume Sri paadha theertham

with respect.

 

36. Do not consider yourself as equal to

other devotees. Think of yourself as

their servant.

 

37 - 39. To purify your sins consume the

sri paatha theertham of great saints.

For this, do not consider the caste of

those saints.

 

40 & 41. Duties of families. (Not

described in the text)

 

42 - 44. Visiting temples and securing

prasaadam is important.

 

45. Do not boast about your virtues.

 

46. Do not scorn a devotee.

 

47. Do not ignore serving devotees.

 

48. Praise the auspicious qualities of

the Lord daily.

 

49. Recite prabhandams like thiruvaay

mozhi daily.

 

50 - 58. Do not associate with the ones

who only pretend to be sri vaihnvaas.

Do not associate with the ones who find

faults with others. Do not even look

upon those who belittle devotees.

Associate with those who wish to

surrender to the Lord.

 

59 & 60. Ignore the harsh words of other

sri vaishnvaas. Always do good to them.

 

(From this point onwards I am unable to

give numerical listing as the original

text does not give the numerical

ordering.)

 

Do not think of the Lord's idols as just

stone or wood.

 

Do not think of your guru as just an

ordinary person.

 

Even simply saying out loud the caste of

a sri vasihnavaas is a sin.

 

Do not consider anything related to our

Lord as ordinary.

 

There is nothing greater than making our

Lord and his devotees happy.

 

Insulting a devotee is a greater sin

than not praying to the Lord.

 

Your duty is to surrender to our Lord.

 

Try to live in thiru naaraayanapuram at

least for some time. If you are unable

to, where ever you are, live with dvyam

in your tongue. If you are unable to do

even this, serve other sri vaihnavaas.

 

--------------

 

These ideas and principles make up my

religion. For the life of me I am

unable to see even an iota of evil in

this religion.

==================End of article================