Exchanges on Soundarya lahari

[Guest guest]

Dear Shri Rajan,

 

Namo Narayana

 

This mail is a supplement to Sri Madhava Kannans reply.

 

You wrote :

 

I have had occasions to study religious writings of repute and have

alwaysobserved this. The God in praise of whom the work is done is always

elevatedand all others depicted as subservient to Him / Her. Srimad Bhagavatam,

DeviPuranam, Skanda Puranam are a few examples in point.Similarly the relative

positions or grade given to the Trimurthis.

 

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I would like to make a few clarifications. There are 18 puranas, which are

classified as Satvik, Rajasic and Thamasic in nature. The first 6 the sathivika

puranas are the most authoritative, they are as follows.

1. Vishnu Puranam

2. Sri Bhagavatam

3. Narada Puranam

4. Padma Puranam

5. Varaha Puranam

6. Garuda Puranam

 

The other puranas for example the Skanada Puranam and Siva Puranam are

not authoritative works. (You can refer to the book "Dialogue on Hinduism by

Sri. Gopala Desikan and published by the Visishtadvaita Research Center).

 

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You wrote :

 

Once I read an episode in a commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam where Siva

wassupposed to have taken refuge with Sri Mahavishnu. I couldn't the relish

theway the commentary expanded on the slokam. It was all in praise ofSriKrishna

and Lord Siva was shown as asakthan.

 

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It is not portrayed that Sivan is an asakthan. It is to show that such a powerful

deity as Sivan is also a Bhagavatha subservient to perumal. There are numerous

occasions to highlight this point.

 

Tulasi das initially began writing Ramayana in Sanskrit, every night he would

complete a set of slokas and the morning when he gets up, all the slokas would

have disappeared mysteriously. One night he pretended to be asleep and waited

to see who is stealing away all his slokas. In the midnight he could feel the

presence of some body and opened his eyes to see that Kasi Viswanathar in

all his glory standing besides him. It was at the behest of Sivan that Tulsi das

took to writing Ramayana in the local spoken language Hindi.

 

In Mantraraja Parastotram shiva himself says "All Jivas are for the Lords service

and he also belongs to the lord". (Dasaboothas swathas sarvae Hiyathmanah

Paramathmanaha).

 

Sri. Madhava Kannan had also mentioned about the sanctity of Rama Namam

and the upadesam given to Parvathi by Siva.

 

Kasi is believed to be a place where any body who attain kalagadhi attains

Perumal Thiruvadi. This sounds slightly out of the blue, but the reason is that

Lord Siva chants Shri Rama Nama in the ears of all living beings including animals.

Therefore any living being that breaths the last in Kasi is believed, to attain Perumals

Thiruvadi because they listen to Rama Nama during their anthima swasam (last breadth).

 

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You wrote :

But we also see the same author praising various deities with similarimportance

in his various works. May be this is a poetic convention. May beI am too

simplistic in coming to such a conclusion.

 

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It is true that a lot of poets tend to praise the presiding deity, but i think

we should give it only the right place that it deserves as poems with artsitic and

as a good piece of literature. We do have a lot of works which are authoritative

and non deviating from our sampradaya. Going through such works would be

the preferred option. In Upagarasangraham Swami Desikan lists the help

that Perumal has done us and he says we thank the almighty for not making

us have sinful thoughts as if we were paramathma himself. So going through

such works not connected to our sampradaya would only create unnecessary

doubts, confusion and under very unique circumstances if the reader is not

strong willed would even be a reason to change track.

 

AzhvAr tiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi

Ramanuja dasan Mahesh