RAMANAND PHILOSOPHY

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SrImatE rAmAnujAya namah.

dear BhAgavatas,

namO namah.

The question raised by SrI Tandy is very much

interesting.In one of the verses of rAmcharitmAnas,TulasIdAs in fact says

that rAma is the origin of thousands of VishNus and sItA is the origin of

thousands of lakshmIs.This is a prArthanA SlOka in sanskrit at the

beginning of one of the kAndas.However, it is acknowledged in the core

text of rAmcharitmAnas that SrI rAm is an incarnation of VishNu.hence

what TulasIdAs wrote can be taken in a poetic sense.Also the

supremacy of nArAyaNa is upheld.however, tulasIdAsjI says worship of Lord

Siva is equally imp.This may be due to that Siva is a great BhAgavata.

All rAmAnandIs respect tulasIdAs a lot and consider him to be in

the disciplic succession of rAmAnand only.This can be taken as official

position of rAmAnandIs though I am in no way connected to them, except

that I revere them because of their having Urdhva pundra on their forehead

and their ananya bhakti for SrI rAm.mIrAbAI, a great krishNa bhaktA, is

connected to this paramparA

thru sant ravidAs, a cobbler who became a great haribhakta due to AchArya

krupA.It is also believed that mIrAbAI and tulasIdAs were contemporaries

and respected each other a lot.The influence of SrI sampradAyam can be

seen in mIrAbAI's kIrtans.She addresses Him at many points as

nArAyaNa,rAma etc.

SrI maNi may be right in saying that SrI piLLai lOkAchAriar comes

in their pUrvAchARya paramparA.Their Urdhva pundra is akin to that of

Tengalai disciplic succession with a middle red line and a pAdam below the

junction of marks of His feet.

One more evidence to show that they are more of haribhaktas , is

their being the trustees of Tirumala temple for about more than hundred

years.The founder of hathI rAm mutt was a great devotee of

SrI VEnkatESwara.The mUlavar of SrI varAha svAmI was installed in the

present upAlaya by mahant prayAg dAs, a pontiff of the mutt..Similarly it

is learnt that SrI

vyAsarAya of madhva paramparA did the pratishthA of bEdi AnjanEya svAmI of

Tirumala temple.It is to be noted here that JIyars of Tirupati are the

permanent Vedic trustees of the temple (SASvata vaidika dharmakartAs).

I don't think rAmAnadIs belong to nirguNa school.Theirs is

saguNa school only.KabIr is considered to be a disciple of SrI rAmAnand

but preached a totally different philosophy.His followers are called

kabIr panthIs and theirs is nirguNa school.

rAmAnujasysa charaNau SaraNam prapadyE

VaishNav dAs

V.Srimahavishnu