Guest guest Posted July 20, 1999 Report Share Posted July 20, 1999 Dear members, So many of you have sent me e-mail messages expressing appreciation for the "brilliant" and "scintillating" quotation of the anonymous "AchAryA". Thank you one and all! While I cannot take any credit for the "brilliance" of the quote itself, I guess I can certainly take delight in the fact that I could come up with something appropriate for the occasion and which immediately struck a sympathetic chord in all of you. Vedic idealism has not died; it is still burning bright in spirit and its fire still flickers, even if faintly, in the hearts of so many young people in India and across the globe. One day perhaps there will be a great all-round Vedic resurgence… and the fire that now flickers might then roar and glow with glory again…. It is important that all of us should be very keen to stay abreast of what great "AchAryA-s" of our tradition, both past and present, have said and opined (or are now saying and opining) on various matters of "dharmA" and "sAstrA". It is important we take effort to study their utterances and also the trouble to ruminate on them. Without the benefit of their directions and wisdom not many of us will be able to find our way through the maze of life. On the contrary, we can easily be either misled or get completely lost on the way. For many years, I had never really understood why Swami Desikan had stuck so stubbornly to the values of "vairAgyam" for which he has become an especial legend for us today. I have often wondered why Swami also was so firm in rejecting the offer of a royal sinecure that his Advaitin friend, VidyAranyar, offered to procure for him at the court of the Rayar king then reigning. On reading the "vairAgya-panchakam" I have often wondered what did Desikan personally achieve by his almost cussed insistence on leading a life-style … in Thoopul, Aindai and SriRangam… a life-style that by today's standards seems hopelessly "third-worldly". What did Desikan stand to gain by all that show of "vairAgyam" except perhaps the posthumous glory that posterity today covers him with? Was Desikan's "vairAgyam" a blessing or a burden on his family? Did his disciples … his "gurukula-vAsi-s" …too suffer discomfort in his austere and spartan household? Had Desikan no thought at all for his son, NainAchArya's future? All such questions of mine stood answered when I first read the speech of the "AchAryA" I just quoted yesterday in my post to you. The following passage from it, particularly, clearly explains (to me at least) why Swami Desikan behaved the way he behaved when he asked his wife to trash the gold-filings they found in the rice she was husking one day at home in Kanchi: "….brahmins alone are permitted by the sAstrA-s to beg for a living ("Unchavrtti"). But the sAstra also has it that the brahmin must not accept more charity than what is needed for his bare sustenance. If he received anything in excess, he would be tempted to seek sensual pleasures and thereby an impediment would be placed to his inner advancement. There is also the danger that he would become submissive to the donor and of his twisting the sastrA to the latter's liking." ********** ************ *********** Some members, I notice, have quoted Vedic and "itihAsi-c" sources to show that wealth acquisition is not outright prohibited for a "gruhastA". Brahmins are permitted to earn, they seem to say, as much as they want in any which way as long as it is not dishonest or unrighteous. Also, such wealth, once acquired, must not be hoarded but judiciously given away in charity and for noble social purposes. Now, I have no disagreement with what the members have said above. What they have quoted, I concur, is indeed the intention of the Veda-sAstrA (to the meagre extent to which I am acquainted with it). But it must not be forgotten that the Vedic precepts these members have referred to have an underlying assumption: that the system of "varnAshrama" is being wholly practised by society. The Vedic exhortation to acquire wealth and spend it wisely is meant for castes other than "brahmins"… it is intended generally for the "vaisyA" and "kshatriya" castes. For the brahmin, however, the "veda-sAstrA" unambiguously prescribes nothing but bare sustenance and a life of constant spiritual endeavour… and "bare sustenance" has been well defined by my good, old friend SrimAn Vijayaraghavan of Praxair in his little post yesterday. If brahmins had been allowed by veda-sAstrA to accumulate wealth and then if they were to be preoccupied the rest of their lives with how to put it to use wisely, they would all be fit to work only as "economists" and "investment-bankers" … not vedic practitioners. ********** ************* ************ My good friend Sri.Vijayaraghavan (to whom I am grateful for gifting me two years ago with cassettes of Poundarikapuram swami's upanyAsam on "yatirAja-saptati")also wrote: "The net result (of all these discussions) is: We will continue to do what we are used to do (may be with a little more guilt). In my opinion, we carefully listen to all those wonderful sayings and thoughts and even before they start to bear any influence we carefully bury them and proceed to do what we are habituated to." How right he is!! But then that is the choice we all have to make in life, isn't it? To deal with 'guilt' or to deal with 'life'? "To be or not be, is the question!", said the tragic hero in Shakespeare's "Hamlet". ************** ************ ********* Finally, many of you, dear members, were curious to know the identity of the "AchAryA" I had quoted. Even at the risk of being seen to be "praising him personally" on the "bhakti-list" and earn thereby all your displeasure, I wish to reveal that the "AcharyA" I quoted was none other than the great AdvaitAchArya of Kanchipuram (Swami Desikan's native place!): Sri ChandrasekharEndra Saraswati (popularly known to his disciples as "Kanchi-periavA"). adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan, Sudarshan ____ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 21, 1999 Report Share Posted July 21, 1999 Dear Bhagavatas, namO nArAyaNA. Even though I have a strong distaste for Advaita (the philosophy), I have respect for the great Yogis (that adhered to Advaita.) ( Note I consciously avoided the term Acharyan.) I think the quote speaks nothing but the candid truth. So far, all follow up posts have been quite honest but pessimistic, with bhagavats merely saying I know I am living a lie, but I cannot do anything about it. I feel (this is my opinion, which may or may not be not be in accordance with fact) this is not a good attitude. The mumukshu should exert his will to pursue a course of life that will minimize the oscillation between happiness and sadness. By perusing a course that minimizes the oscillation, a jiva will be able to get the best of both worlds; i.e., the jiva minimizes the misery in the present birth, and at the same time is guaranteed eternal bliss upon leaving the body (assuming prapatti is performed.) Transitoriness is misery; the dictates of the shastras, specify a course of life for the brahmin that seeks to minimize transitoriness. The grip of avidya-karma in the kali Yuga may be high, but we still have free will! We can all act to minimize transitoriness and aim for the ultimate goal of living according to the shastras, the results however are or not in our hands. How far each one gets towards this ultimate goal ultimately depends on the will power and the prarabdha of that jiva (for the paramAtman controls the fate of jivas in accordance with prarabdha karma.) However, failure to act is nothing but shear cowardice! adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan, Venkat krishNArpaNam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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