Are you a True Sri Vaishnavite ?

[Guest guest]

SrI:

 

Shri Raghu wrote -------------

Can you please list all the necessary and

important daily things that a so called

Sri Vaishnavite has to do in order to truly

become one?

-------------------------

 

Shri Sampathkumar replied ------------

Very good question. And something which all

SriVaishnavas must ask themselves periodically and

honestly.

 

What a Sri Vaishnavan must do daily is listed in works

like "Sri Vaishnava dinachari" written by our great

"AchAryA-s" like Swami Desikan and others.

 

But in adiyEn's humble view the following would be the

bare minimum of things that a Vaishnavan will do in a day:

----------------------

 

adiyEn would like to give a brief on the Sri Vaishnava dinachari

of Swami Desika as written by Shri V.V. Srinivasa Aiyangar and

Shri A. Srinivasa Raghavan.

 

First of all the Obligatory duties => the nithya (daily) and

naimittika (occasional) have to be performed. Kamya karmas

are optional.

 

pAncharAtra samhita which has been revealed by Sriman Narayana

himself has prescribed certain acts which are to be performed in the

various parts of the day from morning till night.

 

According to this scheme the day is divided into five parts, abhigamana,

upAdana, ijya, svadhyaya and yoga.

 

1. Abhigamana means going to the Lord with humility and reverence.

In this period the Sri Vaishnava wakes up before day break (Brahma

muhurtam) with Hari's name in his lips and performs the nithya

and naimittika karmas for that day which are but a form of worship

to Bhagavan Sriman Narayana. Then he approaches the Lord and

offers himself at the Lords feet and prays for a faultless day in his life

so that he may please the Lord.

 

2. upAdanA period is set apart for gathering materials for the worship

of the Lord. The materials acquired should be suitable and pleasing to

the Lord.

 

3. During the ijya period the Sri Vaishnava with love and devotion,

pure mind and clean body goes to worship the Lord with all the

materials gathered.

 

4. Svadhyaya is the study period. The Sri Vaishnava spends his time in

the repetition of the mantras concentrating upon their meaning and

Bhagavan and also reading the scriptures -Itihasas and puranas and

works of Alwars and Acharyas and thus gains more and more intimate

knowledge of the forms and qualities of the Lord who is the object of

worship in the Ijya.

 

5. Yoga (Meditation) is done in the last part of the day at night. He

thinks of the mercy of the Divya Dampati. He goes to sleep placing

his head at the feet of the Lord to wake up at Brahma muhurtam and

spend another useful day in his life in the worship of Sriman nArAyaNA.

 

This in short is the daily life of a Sri Vaishnava portrayed in Vaishnava-

dinachari.

 

------------ Shri Sampathkumar wrote --------

 

(2) Have bath quickly and perform "sandhyAvandanam"

with at least 10 "gayatri" japam with deep respect for

the devata who is our true mother. This must be done AT ALL COSTS.

^^^^^^^^^^^

--

 

adiyEn would just like to clarify a point here -----------

 

A Sri Vaishnava ( Prapanna) does not worship gayathri as a devata.

A prapanna during meditation worships only the Lord SrIman nArAyaNA,

who resides as an antaryAmi of "gAyatri dEvi".

You can refer to Shri Anand Karalapakkam's article in the

May 1999 archives.

 

------------ Shri Sampathkumar wrote --------

(6) Recite "Vishnu-sahasranAmam" loudly and clearly.

--------------

 

To adiyEn's knowledge this is not prescribed as a every day

duty of a Sri Vaishnava. Of course adiyEn understands your

intention of trying to be in Bhagavad anubhavam..

 

A Sri Vaishnava (after samasrayanam) should perform mAnasika

Aradhanam in addition to Ijya.

 

Shri Raghu wrote -------------

Also can you please describe the activities one has to do

1. In the afternoon

2. In the evening

3. In the night

-----------

 

All these are explained above (though briefly).

 

Shri Raghu wrote -------------

4. Any regular penance that one has to follow apart from doing Ekadasi? If

so please describe the procedures to do them.

-------

 

Dvadasi pAranai is as important as yEkadasi vratam. You would ofcourse

be knowing about ammAvasai etc..

 

Shri Raghu wrote -------------

7. In this world of Double-Starndards (may be triple or even more) when

people are trying to play games and politics with you and you cannot hurt

them as you are not bought up that way, what is the true thing that a

Sri Vaishnavite should do, apart from praying God to correct their behavior.

------------

 

adiyEn has read in the "Tattva Rahasyartha Sangraha" ( An English

Translation

of Upayuktha sangraham by Sri Koliyalam Swami) that a Sri Vaishnava should

posses a clear and happy mind free from anger so as to derive maximum

pleasure

out of his kainkaryam to Lord. He should not get angry by any provokation.

He should remember that all Jivas are bound by Karma and all the actions are

controlled and directed by God.

 

Shri U.Ve Karunakaran Swami explained the situation that you had mentioned

and also gave a solution to it during one of his upanyAsams.

When somebody abuses us, our sins gets transferred to them. So when somebody

tries to play games and politics with us... we should ( in reality) get mAhA

karunai

( abundant mercy) on them... because they already have tons and tons of sin

and in

addition by playing politics on us they get additional sins ... what a

pity!!!

So, a Sri Vaishnava should be full of sympathy to such people...

 

Azhyagiya SIngar ThiruvadigalE saranam

Praveena nAmni Ramanuja dasi

30th Nov 1999

[Guest guest]

--- Praveena <may2192 wrote:

> ------------ Shri Sampathkumar wrote --------

> (6) Recite "Vishnu-sahasranAmam" loudly and clearly.

> --------------

>

> To adiyEn's knowledge this is not prescribed as a

> every day> duty of a Sri Vaishnava. Of course adiyEn

> understands your> intention of trying to be in

Bhagavad anubhavam..

 

Smt.Praveena may be technically right here but she

also wrote the following:

 

"Svadhyaya is the study period. The Sri Vaishnava

spends his time in the repetition of the mantras

concentrating upon their meaning and Bhagavan and also

reading the scriptures -Itihasas and puranas and works

of Alwars and Acharyas and thus gains more and more

intimate knowledge of the forms and qualities of the

Lord who is the object of worship in the Ijya."

 

adiyen now offers the following for thought:

 

For a SriVaishnavan what better way of performing

"svAdhyAya" than to chant "Vishnu-sahasranAmam" -- the

1000 names of the Vishnu? The SahasranAmam is also

"purANa". It is replete with embedded "mantrA-s" and

hallowed "beejAksharas". It is also the work of a

great "achAryA"... the venerable BhishmAchArya, known

in his times as an "agrEsarar" amongst "gnyAni-s". It

is the work of a great yogic "rshi" -- Sage VedavyAsa

who penned it. And certainly what easier way to gain

"intimate knowledge" of the "qualities" of Bhagwan

than to know the meaning of his thousand appelations?

 

I agree with Smt. Praveena's observations in "letter",

but in "spirit" would however have no hesitation in

continuing to strongly urge all members to recite the

VS as if it were really part of SriVaishnava

"dinasari".

 

dAsan,

Sampathkumaran

 

 

 

 

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