Ashtaaksharam on Thirukkoviloor Gopuram

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Sri:

 

Dearest Sisters and Brothers,

 

Few of us were discussing on the glory of "ashtaaksharam" and its

sacredness and secretness.

 

It reminded me of an incident during my last vacation and I narrated

that. I am posting here also in bhakti list (as "order"ed by a dear

Srivaishnava friend of mine)

 

I noticed on top of Gopuram of Thirukkoviloor temple, a big metal plate

having our Great "AshtAkahsram" in full, including PraNavam. When I read

it, my son also noticed; (nothing escapes his eyes; and there as usual

arises a string of questions in him)

 

He asked "thaattha and you were talking regarding this astaaksharam,

dwayam and charama slokam, and all three should be kept a secret sacred

manthra etc.. Why "they" have allowed this displayed like this?

 

I just smiled and answered (I don't know if it is right even- but I need

to silence him on the street) "No doubt, they are all sacred secret

mantra; and they need to be learnt from AchAryans; etc.. etc.. But, how

many people are bequeathed with the AchArya sambhandham; Take for that

matter this vendor (a vegetable seller who was walking, and who

prostrated to the Gopuram on that very road itself in my presence); he

prostrates and reads this ashtaaksharam loud; Is it wrong? Do you think,

Sriman Narayanan will NOT be pleased? Do

you think He will get angry and punish for going against AchAryAs'

words?

 

This vendor does not even know that this is to be kept secret; For this

guy, Sriman Narayanan is the Lord; and this ashtaaksharam is like

uttering "GovindhA".

 

That's all! My son nodded and at that moment kept quiet.

 

In fact, my doubt intensified further when I was glancing Sri Nrusimha

priya later, wherein a sponsor had advertised on a page (inside) with

"Ashtaaksharam" printed on the top. How Sri Ahobila Muth permits this? -

I was wondering.

 

Srirangam temple puts this manthra and Dwayam in Public address system;

No doubt, it is secret; But, when I listen that slow, divinely

utterance, in PA system in the temple, IT IS SO BLISSFUL and satisfying.

 

NamO Narayana

 

Regards

 

Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

 

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[Guest guest]

Sri:

 

Dearest Sisters and Brothers,

 

I received a private reply from our dear bhAgawathA Sriman Sampath

Rangarajan and his inimtable style of narration is always palatable to

us. His kaimkaraym thorugh excellent posts of Thiruppaavai inner

menaings is simply superb and we are indebted to him for such posts.

 

His repsonse is appended below: (and then my little worthy comments

below that)

 

As similar to Sri Nrusinha priya having an ad in

which the ashtAksharam is printed in english, there

are publications from other Ashrams including Sri

Poundrika puram Ashram on Srimad Rahasya trya sAram

that discusses even the esoteric meanings in details.

It doesnot mean that one can learn from them

directly instead of learning from an AchAryAS.

In olden days the secrecy was maintained as the

printing press was not there and mantras and

their meanings were passed from one generation

to the other through their ears. The capacity

of the ordinary folk to keep these meanings in

their mind through out their life was so strong

and that they donot forget any of these, those days.

As Kali is riping the normal faculties of jivAtmAs

are falling behind and they donot remember many of

the things they learned under the AchARyAs

all the time. In fact they are so busy in lowkeeka that

they even forget the meanings and others. In order to

facilitate an ever prevailing knowledge of these mantras

and their menaings in the minds of samsAris who have received

them from AchAryAs, due to their infinite mercy

they have allowed publication of these rahasya granthas.

Hence those who have learned from a qualified AchAryAs

can treasure it and re-read it remember it and dwell on it

when ever they forget it. While all these publications

serve as a way of preserving or as a file copy, it in no means

authorise the learning of the mantras from

them directly. First of all the *good effect* of the mantram

will not be there if it is stolen from public utterances.

Secondly how do you ever know if that vendor

(may be he is a vEndAr ?) is succesful in all that

he is doing and that he is hitting home run all the

time ? You have seen him only for a moment and the

very fact that he is not knowledgable to keep this mantram

secret makes us know that his karma is still taking the toll on

him. So he may not be an ideal example. As a person

who has learnt the secrecy of the mantra one must

have prevailed upon him to find out if he has learnt

it from AchAryAs and if so one may have told him

to keep it low when he is chanting. If he has not (learnt

from an AchAryA), one may advise him about the importance

of leanring this from the AchARyas and also to inform him

the merits of keeping this mantra sacred by chanting it within.

On the other hand letting our strong minds stray after

this incident may only bring in "kalakkam" and not

theLivu to our mind.

thanks.

 

adiyEn

SR

 

___

 

I just referred to an advertisement (by a sponsorer) in Nrusimhapriya

and that has no connection to any article or upadEsam from any

srivaishnava. Any article or upadEsam or translation can have the

Ashtaaksharam; my only surprise was: why an advt? I am sorry, if it has

hurt you, Swami. I fully understand that the book that talks about

Rahasyathrayasaaram or SillaRai rahasyangaL has to print ahstaaksharam

and that does not at all make the esoteric manthras less sacred, of

course. As you rightly said, it is only for us, the aimless wanderers to

notice and get to know ITS essoteric meanings.

 

Your comment on that vendor- Whatever he may be- Whatever may be his

intention, or lifestyle- or sins- or sufferings- he DID stun me with his

spontaneous prostration on the muddy street, where even dog's shit was

there. I am not blessed with that attitude, dear rengi. I pray to Divya

dampatis to bless me with Thier grace for getting that bent of mind.

 

As NammAzhwAr said "whoever may be, if they are (show off even any

bhakti towards being a ) bhakthAs of Sriman Narayana, I am their

servant's servant's servant's servant's servant.

 

All of you, please forgive me if there is anything hurting in any of my

words- statements.

 

NamO narayana!

 

Regards

 

Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

 

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[Guest guest]

Dear Sri MadhavakaNNa,

 

Thanks for you reply. I undertook a nOnbu not to participate in

any public debate untill the mArgazhi thiruppAvai kaimkaryam

is completed. That is the main reason i didnot reply to many

who wrote to me follow ups on thirup pAvai postings. I

apologise to many of the readers as well for not having replied thus.

I want to reply you briefly on the subject of AshtAksharam

and its public utterances. Please view the following as something

related to the issue (whether to chant Sri AshtAksharam in public

or not) and not against you or anyone.

..

On Jan 27, 3:52am, Madhavakkannan V wrote:

> I fully understand that the book that talks about

> Rahasyathrayasaaram or SillaRai rahasyangaL has to print ahstaaksharam

> and that does not at all make the esoteric manthras less sacred, of

> course.

 

On the same token, the ad in "Sri Nrusimha priya", the book that prints

achAryAs aruL mozhigal and dissiminate AchAryAs vyAkyAmams including

Srimad Rahasy trya sAram for several years doesnot make the mantra

less scared. In fact it (sri nrusimha priyA) is a forum for those

who are initiated from AchAryAs and it cannot be simply referred when

we are talking about narration of public chanting of a sacred mantram

by a vendor.

 

>

> Your comment on that vendor- Whatever he may be- Whatever may be his

> intention, or lifestyle- or sins- or sufferings- he DID stun me with his

> spontaneous prostration on the muddy street, where even dog's shit was

> there.

 

 

May be he did stun you for prostration on a muddy road.

He will never stun adiyEn if he has to chant Sri ashtAkshara

mantram on the road loudly, which anyway was the reference

stated in your first mail. It is the view of resepcted seers

that, respect to adiyArs is most required

as per Srivaishnava sidhdAntham and that such

is the first step. But I am taught by elderly bAgwathAs that

if an adiyAr has to cross the limits set

by our AchAryA we are not to take him as an ideal example

whatever humility such adiyAr may express in a public place.

We donot hate them but we identify them as "vEndAr" ie follow

paNNa vENdAthavar because if we ought to follow his example

we ought to stray from our AchAryAs path. adiyEn would

rather not stray from the AchAryAs path to the best of my ability.

 

 

Our 45th jeer expressed in a recent tele upanyAsam that if one will

not have the AChArya and perumAL bhakti and donot follow the teachings

of AchAryAs (including believing that one should not chant

Sri AshtAksharam mantra in public place) they may not be able

to get to the truth of the Lord that easily.

He compared as to how Sri Sanjayan and DihirdarAshtran had the

same AChAryAs ie Sri VyAsar but one had the bAgyam of receiving

the nyAna drishti and the other didnot. This is the same reason

that the vendor who donot follow the teahcings of my

AchAryA (whether he knows my Acharya or not) is not an

ideal example for me.

 

 

If i have to pick an exmaple for an adiyAr, I will pick from any of

those kaimkarya pArAL who serve the AchArya day in day out

as the adiyArs and toil in all weather conditions simply to serve

the AchAryA. I Will pick the one who carried the umbrella to

Sri PP Andavan on that scorching sunny day in the month of May

when he has to bear the umbrella and walk barefooted from

Sri DasAvathAra sannithi to his ashram. I watched this

and he stunned me. I thought may be I should volunteer to

do it next time.

 

 

In my view whether the vendor received the mantram

from an AchAryA or not he still didnot fit in the norms

of what our AchAryA wanted us to follow as a protocol for

those who are initiated with the holy

mantram. Sillarai rashyam of Sri Poundriha puram Ashram

has abundant examples to relate to these

two contradicting behaviours of one.

 

Having sought to receive a secret mantram under an AchAryA

one must follow the teachings of the AchArya to the best of one's

ability. I was talking to a bAgwathA recently about following

AchARyAs teachings. According to him, parrotting what we heard from

AchAryAs is nothing wrong and should not be viewed as one is

trying to imitate an AchAryA himself. While those who may

adress something contradictory to their AchAryA may be

the other way. Mixing with emotions (watching one prostrating

in a muddy street) and protocols (looking at the same adiyAr

violating the code prescribed by our AchAryAs that one should

not do this loud chanting of sacred mantrA) may not

do justice to our AchAryAs teachings whatever Ashram or mutt

we may be.

 

It may be a goivinda nAmam for some, but If we were to refer to

incidents such as this in a debate on Sri AhstAkshara mantram

one can hardly justify chanting AshtAkshram in public places.

Such chanting is vioaltion of the norms as per our poorvAchAryas.

 

thanks for your patiece.

 

Best Regards

Sampath Rengarajan

[Guest guest]

On Jan 26, 3:43am, Madhavakkannan V wrote:

>

> I fully understand that the book that talks about

> Rahasyathrayasaaram or SillaRai rahasyangaL has to print ahstaaksharam

> and that does not at all make the esoteric manthras less sacred, of

> course.

 

On the same token, Sri nrusimha priyA is serving the intiated

ones as a forum for long. It carries AchAryAs aruL mozhigaL for

his shishyAs. There is nothing wrong in the

Sri AshtAkshra mantram appearing in it, in any page. Sri NP is not

similar to a public street in thirukOviloor.

 

> Your comment on that vendor- Whatever he may be- Whatever may be his

> intention, or lifestyle- or sins- or sufferings- he DID stun me with his

> spontaneous prostration on the muddy street, where even dog's shit was

> there. I am not blessed with that attitude, dear rengi. I pray to Divya

> dampatis to bless me with Thier grace for getting that bent of mind.

>

 

The vendor may have stunned you. But he will not stun me

if he has to chant Sri AshtAkshara mantram in public street

loudly. No doubt one has to respect adiyArs in Srivaishnavam

but as per our AchAryA if an adiyAr violates the norm of

our AchAryA we need not take him as the best example to follow

no matter what humility one expresses in a public place.

 

If adiyEn has to select between the teachings of Our AchAryA

and an adiyAr who on one hand display humility and on

the other hand violates the protocols of our AchAryA, I will

choose to avoid taking such adiyAr as an example. I will not

hate him but according to the teachings i received

from seers i have to identify him as

"vENdAr" ie follow paNNa vEdAthavar. If I have to admire him

for his humility and accept his other acts as well, then

I will be violating the norms set by our AchAryA to me and

I may be straying from the path of the AchAryA.

So I would rather not take him as an example and follow

my AchArya to the best of my ability.

> he

> reads this ashtaaksharam loud; Is it wrong? Do you think,

> Sriman Narayanan will NOT be pleased? Do

> you think He will get angry and punish for going against AchAryAs'

> words?

>

> Narayana dAsan Madhavakkannan

 

This comes to the question of where do you draw a line

when you have AchARya bhakthi and emotionally open minded.

Our 45 th jeer mentioned in a tele upanyasam

recently as to how one will have to have

AchArya and perumAL bahkti and follow the teachings of the

AchArya. HH compared Sri Sanjayan and DridarAshtran both of whom

had the same AchARyA but only Sri Sanjayan had the nyAna drishti.

The vendor whether he knows my AchAryA or not, didnot follow

my AchAryAs directions in keeping the Sri AshtAkshrama mantram

secret. So I would rather follow Sri Sanjayan and not the other.

 

Reg being adiyArs adiyArs,

If i have to pick an example on "adiyAr",

i will rather pick from those

kaimkarya pArAL who serve the AchAryA day in and day out

and toil in all conditions. I would pick that bAgawthA

who was carrying the umbrella for Sri PP ANDAVAN from

Sri dasavAthAra sannithi to the ashramam on that sunny

scorchy day in the month of May in Srirangam. He was

barefootted and and was carrying the umbrella for

HIS AchARyA in 110 deg F. I thought i must do it next time.

 

In a public debate, mixing emotions (getting thrilled by

someone prostrating in a muddy street) and protocols (the

same person violating the norms by chanting Sri AshtAkshram

mantram in public plcaes loudly) cannot justify chanting

the holy mantra in public. Such will only send a confused

message to many.

 

If one is in doubt please read the abudant examples in sillarai

rashyam publications by Sri PP Ashram on these type of

conflicting behaviors of adiyArs in virOdha parihAram and other

chapters.

 

Best Regards

Sampath Rengarajan