Advaithis and Sriman Narayana

[Guest guest]

2. All advaitins hold that nArAyaNa is bhagavAn. There is no question

about that. Siva is also held to be ISvara and as a guru. Similarly,

kRshNa is also regarded as a guru. However, ultimately, from the

standpoint of advaita, we are not interested in drawing devatA-tAratamyas

or describing deities other than vishNu as cillarai devataas, and so on.

This is because our standpoint is abheda at the end, and there is no point

in emphasizing bheda all along the way, beyond the minimum necessary. Even

if one has some sort of hierarchy in one's own mind, for example, if one

can regard Siva only as a guru, then one should always respect the guru

equally with God.

 

This is really confusing me for many years. My close friend who is a advaithi

also have always told me this. I am unable to understand why/how the Kanchi

Sankaracharyal Mutt and all others could use Thiruneeru, Vibhudhi (ashes)

instead of Thirumankappu (Oordhavapundram) and still be a devotee of Sriman

Narayana. I think there is a strong link between Lord Shiva and the use of

Vibhudhi. This practice becomes even more complicated(atleast for me) when the

archakas in all the Kerala Temples dedicated to Srman Narayana some times adore

Vibhuthi and sometimes Gopi (Sandal and kumkum which is Lord Krishna's) If you

clearly want to adore Vibhuthi how can you call yourself adiyar of Sriman

Narayana.

These questions arise solely due to my ignorance ( Adiyen SiriyaNyanathan ) and

inability to comprehend things. So if some one has an explanation I will be

grateful (Thalayallal Kaimarillene).

 

Azhwar Emberumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Charanam.

 

 

Adiyen

Murali Vanamamalai

[Guest guest]

As regards use of Vibhuti by advaitins -

 

For all advaitins, the prime issue is vaidika-dharma-mArga. Worshipping

nArAyaNa or worshipping Siva can be done in various ways, but orthodox

advaitins will only endorse the vaidika way of worship.

 

All brahmacArins are supposed to do samidAdhAnam after sandhyAvandanam

daily. At the end of this fire ritual, the bhasma from the homa-agni is

applied on different parts of the body, uttering the words medhAvI

bhUyAsam, tejasvI bhUyAsam etc. Before this, the ashes are mixed with

water, uttering a prayer to rudra (mAnastoke tanaye etc.) Granted, this

prayer asks rudra not to harm us, but it also requests rudra to show us

the benevolent side. There you see, here is a 100% vaidika rite which

involves application of bhasma, after praying to rudra.

 

Just before the samidAdhAnam, at the end of the sandhyAvandanam, we

worship nArAyaNa as the savitRmaNDala-madhyavartI, dvArakAnilaya etc, and

finish the sandhyA by dedicating everything to nArAyaNa (kAyena vAcA

etc.). This is also vaidika karma.

 

Now, in terms of philosophy, advaita will hold jnAna superior to karma,

but within the realm of karma, vaidika karma is superior to the rest. We

stick to this standpoint. I see absolutely no contradiction between

worshipping nArAyaNa and wearing bhasma on the forehead. There is no

contradiction in the different vaidika nityakarmas and there is no

contradiction in the smArta practice.

 

A learned member of this list, like SrimAn Sadagopan, might have more to

say in this regard.

 

Vidyasankar