SandhyAvandhanam - Bhagavadhkainkaryam

[Guest guest]

Shri Venkatesh

The interpretation that you had given to Azhvaar's paasuram was indeed

surprising !

 

" What is the use of doing sandhyAvandhanam and other such karmAs when

actually

perumAL kainkaryam gets the priority and importance"

 

Its true Perumal Kainkaryam gets a priority over Sandhyavandhanam. That's

only in a comparitive sense. When it is Sandhya kaalam and at the same time

if you have to perumal Kaimkaryam, then give preference to Kaimkaryam but

still you need to perform your sandhyavandhanam with Prayachistham. You

still need to perform but could not neglect it. Is that not the reason why

it is called as "Nithya anushtanam" ?

 

No words could explain the importance of Gayathri japam. The learned

members of this list should be able to explain much more. Adiyen being

ignorant would like to just keep it short. It is Vedas that help us the

identify Emperuman. As we are not capable of doing all the veda adhyayana,

Mother Gayathri recites them for us(the three veda during the three sandhya

kaalams) and we do Gayathri japam or indirectly praise Emperuman with those

Vedas. Is that not why you call the upanayam as "Brahmoupadesam" - Calling

you closer to show and understand the brahmam ?

 

The best standing example is none other than Emperumaan in Vamana Avatharam.

The reason behind he undergoing the Upanayanam and Brahmoupadesam is to only

insist the importance of the samaskara. Emperumaan continued this shining

example as Rama(Ref: Balagandam as well Yuddha Kandam where Aditya Hrudyam

is being refferred) and further in his Krishna Avatra (Refer Story of

Kandharva who distracted Krishna from Sandhyavandhanam). Is that not why we

say "Yagnobhavitham PARAMAM pavithram" ? The prefix "Parama" or the most

sacred one is given to the superlative - Paramapurusha , Paramathma and

Paramapavithra.

 

Adiyen if truly of the opinion that Kaimkaryam takes only precedence but

cannot replace Sandhyavandhanam and Japam.

 

Daasan

Muralidharan

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Venkatesh:

 

I think there is a slightly different interpretation to mEmboruL

paasuram than the one you provide below, a distintion that is

nevertheless quite important.

 

mEmboruL pAsuram, which is the dvayArtha prathipAdakam, in Sri PVP's

words, is to thirumAlai what the charama slokam is to mahAbhAratham.

>

> 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...").

>

 

However, the sOmbhar referred to above are not those who have turned

their back on nithyAnusandhAnam or karma that one has to perform

as part of their ordained duties. The sOmbhar above refers to

exalted souls who have realized that they are SrimannArAyaNA's

property, those that have given up anya-sEshatvam and sva-sEshatvam

to seek bhagavat and bhAgavatha sEshatvam.

 

The reference here is to

karma phala and phala sanga thyAgam rather than karma thyAgam. They

display total dereliction (laziness) when it comes to taking care of

themselves in that they have realized it is srImannArAyaNA who is

going to be their ultimate care-giver, upAyam and purushArtham

(Aamparisu arinthukoNDU). They have realized that even this

realization is a consequence of His nirhEthuka krupa (athuvum

avanathinnaruLE) in that they display a total lack of

swa-bhOktrutvam.

 

Also, the reference to sOmbhar in the mEmboruL

pasuram has to be used in the context of the meaning of the overall

pasuram because Azhwaar clearly delineates the state of awareness of

those that have found srImannArAyaNA as siddhOpAyam (the very essence

of dvayam) before extolling such sri vaishNavAs as sOmbhar. That is

the reason you have the first three lines describing the so called

'sOmbhar'.

 

As our dear lord KrishNa delineates in bhagavad geetha, one cannot

and should not dissociate oneself from one's ordained duties, the

duties that we have accepted as the basis for our existence. It is

said that emberumAnAr performed arghya pradhAnam as part of

every day sandhyavandanam even at a very advanced age (greater than

a hundred years), in spite of being debilitated due to the the

effects of physical aging, with the assistance of his shishyas.

Clearly, given his gnyAna, bhakthi, vairAgyam, it would hardly have

mattered if he had decided not to persist with all the aspects of

nithyAnusandhAnam, but obviously, he chose to toe the line of what

was ordained by shAstram as part of kula dharmam.

 

The meanings to these words of dissociation with action that Azhwaars

and Acharyas have used stem from an awareness of Akinchanyam,

pArathanthryam and ananyArha sEshatvam and does not describe people

(like some of us) who are all too willing to give up on our

nithyAnusandhanam for reasons of materialism and convenience.

 

Azhwaar EmberumAnAr Jeeyar thiruvaDigaLE sharaNam

 

sridhar

[Guest guest]

Srimathe Narayanaya namaha:-

 

I believe my wordings were not clear and hence failed to

communicate properly. In fact adiyEn had written in the same lines

as Sri Muralidhar Rangaswamy and Sri Muralitharan.

 

Please read the following which is the last para of my message

> 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.,

>

 

If this is not clear, let me explain. AzhwAr does not say, "don't do

sandhyAvandhanam and do only perumAL kainkaryam". If he would

have said so, there would not have been any such Nitya-

anushTAnam for us now. What I meant to say was, perumAL

kainkaryam takes priority. Meaning, even if it is sandhyA kAlam,

you have to postpone your sandhyAvandhanam to do perumAL

kainkaryam. However to compensate for this postponement you

can do prAyaschittam which is also there in the

sandhyAvandhanam. Probably the word "forego" (certainly a wrong

usage) in my earlier posting has caused this confusion.

 

Again, another confusion is what I created within myself on Sri

Madhavakkannan's posting. I misread the same as (summarizing)

only Nitya AnushTAnam takes priority more than the Bhagavadh

Kainkaryam. That's adiyEn's fault. I request sincere apologies from

our members for this fault of mine.

 

However nothwithstanding the above, one more thing what

prompted me to write the above is, I saw some Sri Vaishnavites,

who are indeed very orthodox, saying the we have to do the

SandhyAvandhanam at the correct time only and only after doing it

we have to do perumAL kainkaryam. Which I believe is not right

from the AzhwAr's pAsuram.

 

Once again my sincere apologies for the confusion.

 

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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[Guest guest]

Dear Bhaktas,

 

This whole discussion has operated under the assumption

that sandhyAvandanam is something different from bhagavat-kainkaryam,

and that one has to make a choice between the two. Correct

me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the trikAla sandhyA

and other nitya-karmas must be *included* in the category

of bhagavat-kainkaryam, so much so that the whole issue of

conflict between kainkaryam and nitya-karma per se should

not arise. Do we not declare our nitya-karmas as "bhagavat-kainkarya

rUpam" and "bhagavat prItyartham"?

 

Now, if we say that there may be a conflict between viSesha-kainkaryam

and nitya-kainkaryam, or between temple kainkaryam and kainkaryam in

the form of anushThAnam, well, then I see how this needs to be

resolved.

 

Mani

[Guest guest]

Sri T.V. Venkat had written:

> 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?"

 

Dear Sri Venkat,

 

May I ask the source of your explanation of this paasuram?

The meaning is interpreted in a very different and more

straightforward manner by Periyavaaccaan Pillai and others.

Their interpretation is that performed sandhyAvandandam

and other karmas without thinking of PerumaaL is pointless.

 

PVP: allaadhavaRRai OdhiccenRu avvuruvai eNNum

sandhyAvandhanaadhigaLaal enna prayojanam uNdu?

kEvala sandhyai vyartham.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

The underlined phrase means "ordinary sandhyAvandana is

pointless."

 

Swami Appillai has also written a brief 'urai' or explanation

of this thiruvandhaadhi. His comments here are very clear:

 

The Alvar says that all religious acts including

sandhyAvandanam are pointless if they are not done with

PerumaaL in mind.

 

emberumaanai uLLeedaaka koLLaadhE paNNum sandhyaavandhanaadhi

karmaanushtaanam nishprayOjanam engiRaar.

 

[ Please pardon me if I have not translated this exactly. As

most of you know, my Tamil is very rough. ]

 

Explaining further, Sri Appillai writes:

 

Without internally reflecting on his holy names, which

speak of the His having qualities such as gracious

condescension, etc., what is the point of merely

verbally reciting (mantras) when engaged in sandhyAvandana

and other religious duties?

 

sowseelyaadhi guNangaLai udaiyavan aanavan udaiya andha

guNangaLai vaacakamaana thirunaamangaLai manassaal anusandhiyaadhE

vaangmaathraththaalE japiththu, idakkai paRRikkondu

anushtikkiRa sandhyaavandhanaadhi karmaanushtaanangaLaal

avvidaththiluNdaana prayojanam Edhu?

 

[ I ask those knowledgable to translate better. I don't know

what 'idakkai paRRikkondu' means here. ]

 

Anyway, you get the message. It seems clear that Alvar is not telling

people to chose between kainkaryam and sandhyAvandanam, but only to

perform sandhyAvandanam, etc., thinking only of PerumaaL, for otherwise

these rituals are pointless.

 

adiyEn raamaanuja daasan

Mani

[Guest guest]

Dear Members,

 

I had forgotten some crucial words in my

previous post of Swami Periyavaccaan Pillai's

comments. The last line of the excerpt should read:

 

PVP: emberumaanukku udalallaadha kEvala sandhyai vyartham.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I regret the error.

 

Mani

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Mani,

 

Your wrote :-

> Anyway, you get the message. It seems clear that Alvar is not

> telling people to chose between kainkaryam and sandhyAvandanam, but

> only to perform sandhyAvandanam, etc., thinking only of PerumaaL,

> for otherwise these rituals are pointless.

 

Indeed adiyEn had checked the vyAkhyAnam once again even before

reading your message. Whatever you have written is absolutely right.

It is only adiyEn's total misunderstanding of the words which led to

this confusion. I sincerely apologise to all our members for the

confusion caused.

 

adiyEn RAmAnuja dAsan

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

>

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>

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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