SandhyAvandhanam - Bhagavadhkainkaryam

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Srimathe Narayanaya Namaha

 

Dear Sri Madhavakkannan,

 

On this topic you wrote ,

---Quote---

Swami always talks about the essentiality of performing

Sandhyavandhanam, without which whatever one does - be it 106 >

Divya Desam visits, or 108 pradhakshinam of PerumAL Koil, it will

not equal. He is Karma

chaNdaaLan. He has nithya theettu and is not even qualified to

enter the

temple, actually. It is the aajnyA karma. One has to perform. Any

other

prayers, japam, will not please Him.

---Unquote---

 

While I am not an authority in disputing a statement given by such

a mahAn, I would like to point out what our dear AzhwArs say on

this, especially on the sandhyAvandhanam part.

 

In Mudhal ThiruvandhAdhi, poigaiyAzhwAr very clearly states that

there is no point doing sandhyAvandhanam (even at the appropriate

time ) while it is actually the time for doing kainkaryam to our

perumAl.

 

The pAsuram is

" NagaramaruL purinthu nAnmugarkkup poomEl

pagara maRai payandha paNbhan peyarinayE

pundhiyAl sindhiyAthu Odhi uruveNNum

andhiyAlAm payanangen?"

 

Translation

 

Nagaram --> A place to live

aruL purinthu --> to give (in this context)

marai payandha --> teaching the vEdham.

 

So the gist of first two lines are "Our emberumAn gave a place for

Brahma to live, in the lotus from His nAbikkamalam, and taught

him the vEdas"

 

peyarinayE pundhiyAl sindhiyAdhu --> while this may just be said

as just uttering the ThirunAmam of emberumAn it is interpreted by

our achAryas as doing kainkaryam for our perumAL, be it of

whatever nature.

 

Odhi uru-eNNum --> This refers to the gAyathri japam. uru-

eNNudhal means counting and repeating a sloka.

 

andhiyAlAm payanangen? --> Here the word andhi refers to the

sandhyAvandhanam. So the meaning is what is the use of such

sandhyAvandhanam.

 

Summarising, the AzhwAr says very clearly " What is the use of

doing sandhyAvandhanam and other such karmAs when actually

perumAL kainkaryam gets the priority and importance".

 

This is even supported by Thondaradippodi AzhwAr in ThirumAlai,

in the pAsuram "mEmporuL pOga viTTu...." which is the heart of

the entire work of ThirumAlai. I would like our members to go thro'

the archives of 1996 where our Sri T.A Varadhan has given an

excellent translation of Sri Periya vAchhan piLLai' s vyAkhyAnam

for this. Here the AzhwAr says, perumAL loves and grants

mOksham to those lazy people, who renouce all the worldly

desires, realize that He(Sriman Narayanan) is THE ONLY reality,

and control all their senses and just do kainkaryam or even nothing

("sOmbharai ugathi pOlum...").

 

Whatever I have quoted on Mudhal ThiruvandhAdhi above is as

heard from Sri M.A Venkatakrishnan swami's upanyAsam on Sri

vachana bhooshanam. However if there are any mistakes in my

writing it is entirely due to my lack of listening skills and henceforth

should not be shortcoming on his knowledge.

 

So the point is that one can even forego all his duties, like

SandhyAvandhanam and give importance only to PerumAL

kainkaryam. All other duties, though prescribed in shAstrAs are

only secondary. It is only for this sake that in sandhyAvandham

there is a chapter on PrAyachittham, which we, nowadays,

basically to use to support our laziness to get up early in the

morning and our inability during the noon and evening due to other

office works etc.,

 

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

 

Regards

 

T.V.Venkatesh

E-mail : TVV

Phone: 91-44-4960455 extn. 5218

Fax : 91-44-4960913

Visit : http://www.sanmargroup.com

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