recent discussions regarding kalai bedham

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srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

adiyEn has a few thoughts that adiyEn would like to share

with the members of this list on the recent discussion

regarding kalais. adiyEn might be the most unqualified

person to talk about the issue - having grown up in

kAnchipuram, probably the divya dEsam with the mOst

kalai polarization.

 

We all are very very fortunate to be associated with the

rAmAnuja sampradAyam. Just imagine - we have 5 billion people

on this earth - There are billions and billions of other

chEtana vasthus on this planet alone - In bahagavAn's

leela vibhUti, our earth probably forms a miniscule part -

Given the probability of being associated with the rAmAnuja

sampradAyam, we all are extremely fortunate - It is nothing

but emperumAn's jaaya maana kaala kataaksham that has made

this happen - as AzhvAr says - aduvum avanadhu innaruLE -

Given that, it is very unfortunate that we srIvaishNavAs,

instead of feeling elated about this, and feeling totally

unqualified for the kindness that perumAL has bestowed upon

us, spend our time in claiming that one AchArya parampara

is somehow better than another AchArya parampara! What would

the respective AchAryAs think of us?

 

The fact that only one sARRumurai is recited in the divya dEsams

should not stop us here from according the due respect to

both svAmi maNavALa mAmunigaL and svAmi dEsikan. adiyEn

has been fortunate enough to visit the ChicagO temple

often - The gOshti there consists of both thenkalai and vadakalai

srIvaishNavAs. The fact that makes that temple very special

for all srivaishnavas is that *both* the sArrumurais are recited

there every day. That should be an example for us.

 

Many of us are fortunate to be born in families that trace their

lineage back to great AchAryAs. How many of us have the knowledge

or the bhakti or the vairAgyam that those AchAryAs had?

ALavandAr says in stOtra ratnam - janitva aham vamsE mahati

jagati khyaatayasasaam suchInaam yukthaanaam guNapurusha tattvasthiti

vidhaam - nisargaadEva tvat caraNa kamala EkAnta manasAm adhOdhap

paapaatmaa saranagatha nimajjaami tamasi - {oh Lord that gives

refuge - Even though I was born in the vamsam of people who

were famous throughout the world for their bhakti, who were pure,

who knew the acit, cit tatvams and their svaroopams and svabhaavams,

and whose minds by their own nature were engulfed with your

lotus feet, I am the incarnation of all sins and I am going

deeper and deeper in this prakriti} - Where is ALavandAr?

Where are we? If ALavandAr calls himself paapaatma, what

shoud we call ourselves? If aaLavandaar is going deeper and

deeper into samsaaram, what about us who are already deep

into the samsaaram? Instead of thinking about perumAl and

getting out of the bottomless pit of samsaaram, we are even

digging deeper into it by spending our time in useless

kalai bEdhams.

 

AzhvAr says in the nedurmaarkku adimai pathigam -

pon aazhik kai en ammaan neekkam illaa adiyaar tham adiyaar

adiyaar adiyaar adiyaar engOkkaL - avarkkE kudigaLaaych

sellum nalla kOtpaadE - AzhvAr wants to have the opportunity

to be born in the kulam that does servitude to the servants

of servants of servants of servants of the servants of perumAL -

We all call ourselves srIvaishNavAs - do we even follow what

our nammAzhvAr says? Do we even think about that?

 

It looks like all of us have some gnyaanam allright -

as aazhvaar says - poi ninRa gnyaanam - All of us

have some discipline - pollaa ozhukku - both useless for the

ultimate goal - When can we as srIvaishNavAs say to emperumAn

- inninRa neermai ini yaam uraamai - imayOr thalaivaa -

mey ninRu kEttu aruLaay? adiyEn thinks of all the time that

adiyEn has wasted, thinking about kalai bEdham and adiyEn

is even more sinful - having grown up in the divya dEsam of

imayOr thalaivan and spending a lot of time on this

poi ninRa gnyaanam and pollaa ozhukku.

 

Let us all make a determined effort to take this kalai bEdham

out of the srIvaishNava world - Let us not spread rumours

that perumAL A had vadakalai/thenkalai thirumaN on His

forehead and during a fire/storm/whatever vadakalais/thenkalais

changed the thirumaN on His forehead! Let us not try to

identify ourselves to "vara vara muni sampradAyam" or

"dEsika sampradAyam" - We all are fortunate to be in the

rAmAnuja sampradAyam - Let us focus our efforts on doing our

best possible kainkaryam to ALL divya dEsams irrespective of

whether it is vadakalai or thenkalai - And most importantly,

let us all give the proper respect due to ALL achAryAs -

Let us not disrespect AchAryAs by ignoring them - We have a great

lineage of AchAryAs before and after emperumAnAr - We have great

AchAryAs after emperumAnAr such as embaar, bhattar, nanjeeyar,

vadakku thiruveedhi piLLAi, periyavaccan piLLAi, thiruvAymozhip piLLAi,

maNavALa mAmunigaL, piLLai lOkAchAriAr,azhagiya maNavALap perumAL

nAyanAr,

erumbiyappa, PB ANNan, mudaliyAnDan, koorattAzhvAn, thirukkuRugaip

piraan piLLAN,

kidaambi achchaan, nadAdur ammaL, engaL AzhvAn, svAmi dEsikan. We also

have

unbroken lineages from emperumAn himself through emperumAnAr

to our present day AchAryans - Which other religion in the world

can have that claim?

 

Which other practitioner of the religion in the world can claim to

have the kindness of perumAL as we do? Even Indra, the athipathi

of just a miniscule portion of the universe, is embarassed to

come to this earth to accept our offerings during yaagams -Our

pUrvAchAryAs say that even he expreiences great revulsion while

coming toearth and accepting our offerings - Above Indra, we have

tons of layers before perumAL, who is the athipathi of

nitya vibhUti and leela vibhUti. What is the necessity for Him

to come to this leela vibhUti and save us? He does it out of

His great kindness and love for us. Let us not make Him feel

sad. We have only one perumAL - If we make Him sad, it is like

making our parents sad. He has given us intelligence, AchArya

paramparAs, AchAryAs to teach us - If we do not learn from ALL

our AchAryAs, would He not feel sad? We actually are the

smartest people in the whole universe - We are able to ignore

all the help that perumAL gives us, all the things that He places

before us every second of time to remind us of Him, and think of

useless fights to pick on - And we have the audacity to claim that

we are doing this to "save" a AchArya paramparai - Surely, perumAL's

kindness is limitless that He, inspite of our actions, still gives

us everything to think of Him!

 

unakku aatpattum adiyEn innum uzhalvENO?

 

manaththilOr thooymay illai vaayil Or insol illai

sinaththinaal seRRam nOkki theeviLi viLivan vaaLaa

punaththuzhaay maalayaanE ponni soozh thiruvarangaa

enakku ini gathi en sollaay ennai aaL udaya kOVE?

 

aparaadha sahasra baajanam patitam bheema bhavaarNava udharE

agatim saranaagatam harE! krupayaa kEvalam aatmasaatkuru!

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr dEsikan jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

adiyEn madhurakavi daasan,

Thirumalai Anandanpillai Varadhan