Sri Vaishnava

[Guest guest]

Dear Prapatti Group Members:

 

Thanks to Chandrasekhar for his comments. I think my question needs a

little elaboration. What I had in mind was the following:

 

(1) Virtues or Atma-Gunas: One can list 1000s. Be truthful, Be helpful,

Be sincere etc. What should be most prominent in a Sri Vaishnava. For eg:

Ben Franklin developed a list of 12 virtues that he tried to practice.

 

(2) Anushtanam: What is the minimum standard that can be expected (doing

Sandhya Vandanam etc.). What about women (like drawing a kolam, chanting

the names of the Lord while cooking, lighting the lamp daily). Learning

scriptures?

 

(3)Ahara Niyamanam (Minimize Eating out? How far this is practical)

 

(4)Duties towards Temple and Acharyas (muslims have a rule that they must

set aside certain % of their earnings for religion)

 

(5)His position regarding Anya Devata worship (This question, however, has

been discussed many times and therefore I would request you to downplay

this one).

 

In short the way of life that is expected to be lead by a SriVaishnava who

is striving to strike a balance between the secular and spiritual life

(unlike the good old days).

 

Once we generate these ideas they can perhaps form the basis for developing

a curriculum of some sort for a summer school for training our children

living in the US. The goal may sound unrealistic but as the old chinese

adage goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

 

Vijayaraghavan

[Guest guest]

Dear bhAgawathAs,

 

On the question "What is expected of me as a Sri VaishNava?" I can

think of a very simple answer.

 

"You are expected to follow the sAstras 100%."

 

The answer may be simple but it is impossible to implement. I say it

is impossible because a sAstraic life requires 100% of our time and

more than a 100% of our dedication, and this is unlikely with our

materialistic schedules. Theoretically, a mortal being like me cannot

be a true Sri VaishNava. However there are some things we can do to

alleviate the situation just a wee bit.

 

1. aanukoolyasya sankalpah: The sAstras say: "Be anukoolam to the

Lord." When translated this means: Do your nithya and naimittika

karmas in as timely a fashion as possible ... these include trikAla

sandhyavandanam, thiruvArAdhanam for males (depending on your varNa),

and other karmas like tarpaNAs, shrAddha, upAkarma, etc. For women,

sookshma thiruvArAdhanam has been prescribed and there is a krama

(method) to perform Aradhanam to bhagawAn in sAligrAma form. (For

this please refer to sri vaishNava Ahnika Grantha by Sri Villivalam

KrishNamAcharya Swami - now the 46th jeer of the Ahobila Matham).

Now, one might ask: Is there a way to do detailed sandhyavandanam

when travelling by aeroplane? How can we do arghyam and other such

kAryams? I presume one can do the whole sandhyavandanam mentally (in

sookshma form). Set aside about ten minutes of your time on the plane

and just think of the Lord and how he is related to you. Then do a

mental sandhyavandanam (one could do more number of gAyathri japams as

a prAyaschittam). Similarly, thiruvAradhanam also can be done in a

non-bahya form (non-outwardly). In fact, when we do regular

thiruvAradhanam we do in both forms (mAnasika - mental and bAhya -

outward). Also, think of his mercy and ask his forgiveness for

divasakruta paapam (sins during the day) and raathrakruta paapam (sins

during the night). Also, think of how merciful the Lord has been in

giving us everything we need to gain spiritual upliftment, e.g, a body

to do the right karma, a decently good health, food, water, shelter,

and in some small way a mind to think about him. Also, be ever

grateful to the Acharya whose grace has led you to this "nirbhaya and

nirbhara" (fearless and burdenfree) state. So, Acharya-taniyan

should be recited.

2. prAtikoolyasya varjanam: Do not do things that displease the Lord.

One of that is bhAgawatha apachAram. Do everything you have to do by

offering it to him and for his pleasure, never for your pleasure. Is

this possible? Well, we should at least try. We might not be perfect

in being selfless, but we can at least make an attempt at it. Other

things that have to avoided are kAma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, and

mAtsarya. Again remember that we may not be perfect but if we advance

one step towards Him, he will come ten steps closer to us.

3. dharma (duties): As a sri-vaishNava, one should execute all of

his/her sastraic duties during his/her life. This includes duties

towards parents, wife/husband, Acharya, friend, guest, etc. (As the

sruthi (taittiriyopanishad) says: mAtru devo bhava | pitru devo

bhava | Acharya devo bhava | atithi devo bhava | ). - treat all of

these as god himself.

4. dhyAna: Always think about the Lord. Is this practical? When you

are at work, you most likely will not be thinking about god. That is

the nature of the work we have got entangled in. The work we do is

not prescribed in the sastras and has rAjasic and tAmasic guNas

associated with it. So, the practical thing would be to set aside

some time everyday (may be an hour or so) and just contemplate and

think about Him. You may recite your favorite slokas at that time, or

just plain and simple contemplate about his lustrous form as described

by some of our poorvAcharyas.

5. bhAgawata-sambandham: Try as far as possible to stick around

bhAgawatas. The effect of a good sangham cannot be over-emphasized.

Having such a sambandham may or may not be possible during the most

productive part of a week day. So, weekends (or at least some

weekend) may be a good time to visit a temple near by and try to

associate with some bhAgawathas. Also, do not be involved very

closely with non-bhAgawatAs. The effect of bad company is as strong

as the effect of good company. As Sri Krishna says in the BG:

"sanghat sanjAyate kama | ... buddhi nAshat praNasyati |"

6. aahAra (food): We should eat only bhagawadprasAdam. On a daily

basis, this would mean that we should offer food to the Lord and then

partake of it (and that too for his pleasure). We should avoid eating

outside if we can. On most days this might be very easy to practise.

However, there are times when we have to go to lunch with others at

work. This is something very difficult to beat especially in

corporate America (may be true even in corporate India). So, my

solution (if you want to call it that) is this: just before taking

the first bite, think about Him and offer the food to him (a mental

parisinchanam could be done ... this will not take more than 30

seconds). Many orthodox readers may object to the idea of eating

something the Lord has not been offered and which others have already

eaten. I fully realize that this is only a compromise, not a

solution. But, there are some things that are very hard to resolve.

7. anya devata pooja: I think this can and should be avoided at all

costs. Why do we need any other demi-god when we have the grace of

sAkshAt parabrahman Sriman NArAyaNa. An Acharya told us once that one

of the relationships we jeevAtmAs share with the paramAtma is that we

are his wives. Just as a pativrta wife is devoted to the husband and

husband alone, so should we be devoted to only Sriman NArAyaNa.

Besides, this relationship is eternal (through his satya sankalpa)

and factual (yathArtham). In fact, no other relationship is as true

as this one. So, why should we want to go to the manager when we have

the grace of the CEO? (The analogy is only to make a point ... no

offense or apachArams meant to any anya devatas. In fact, siva is

considered a bhAgawatottama and is an important contributor to the

prapatti sAstra. At all costs, I would not like to violate point 2.)

Anyway, since there have been some excellent postings that have been

dedicated to this very subject, I do not want to belabor this point.

 

Please forgive me for any errors that might have creeped into this

posting. Also I would like to point out the extreme humility of the

members of the group who, despite having the capacity to provide

authoritative solutions to their questions, have nevertheless chosen

to share them in public. Having said that, I would like to thank them

for an opportunity to contemplate on spiritual matters, and to express

and strengthen my views on our sampradAyam.

 

Adiyen,

Murali Kadambi

 

sarvApachArAn kshamaswa |

sarvam sri krishnArpaNamastu |