maNi's question

[Guest guest]

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

The following is a write-up written by srI. embAr

rangAchAriar svAmi. This is with respect to a question

that was raised by maNi a few weeks back regarding the

 

necessity of an AchAryan for attaining salvation. -

The question, stated in simplest terms, basically

was "Is an AchArya a *necessary* condition for perumAL

 

to shower His grace on a soul?"

 

For the benefit of people on this list, here is a

brief

biography on srI. rangAchAri svAmi. Dr. rangAchAri,

(also known as bAbu mAmA to many people on this list)

hails from the thirunAngUr area. He learnt the

sampradAyam in his early years in thirunAngUr from

some of the greatest teachers of the rAmAnuja

sampradAya in this century, hailing from the

thirunAngUr PrativAdi bayankaram families, as well as

scholars from the thiruvAli thirungari divyadEsams. He

 

moved to thiruvalli-k-kENi for his lowkeeka life, and

in his lowkeeka life is an internationally renowned

scholar in mathematics. He retired as the head of the

 

department of mathematics (ramAnujan institute?) of

the University of Madras, and is one of the key forces

 

behind the Indian Mathematical assocaition.

 

bAbu mAmA is a very learned scholar in the nAlAyira

divya prabhandham, rahasya granthAs, pUrvAchArya

stOtrAs, prasthAna trayi as well as the commentaries

of our pUrvAchAryAs - His uniqueness lies in his

ability to separate the ritualistic portions of the

sampradAyam from the concepts/spirit of the

sampradAyam and relate the concepts to the present day

 

world. A few of us are very fortunate to be learning

the divya prabhandham from him. It is indeed a great

joy to learn from someone that is so learned, and one

that has a unique clarity of thought, and more

importantly, one who does not deviate from our

AchAryAs' teachings, but makes it easy for us to

understand.

 

bAbu mAmA also represents the embAr AchArya purusha

lineage and has numerous shishyAs to who, and whose

families, he performs samAsrayaNam. Given that he is

an AchArya, he has unique insights into the role of an

 

AchAryan, especially in the present days' context.

 

Needless to say, any mistakes in the following are

mine, and mine only. I have attempted to paraphrase a

few of bAbu mAmA's words, but for the most part have

stuck to his original script.

 

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

Varadhan

 

 

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

 

 

Your query about SaraNAgathi needs to be answered step

by step.

 

part 1:

 

First, SaraNAgathi, equivalently termed as prapatti,

needs to be properly interpreted. The oft quoted

thiruvAymozhi pAsuram 6.10.10, akalakillEn, ends

with "adi-k-keezh amarndhu pugundhEnE". Clearly the

words "amarndhu" and "pugundhu" are NOT physical acts

of the AzvAr. They can only be mental attitudes. This

is made clear in the onbadadinAyira-p-padi,

irupaththu-

nAlAyira-p-padi and eedu vyAkhyAnams. aaraayira-p-padi

 

is very brief, but it indicates that SaraNAgathi

removes the obstacles for reaching the Lord and yields

 

kainkaryam all time, and in all forms. Again, this

means that only the Lord, through His consort, who is

krpA personified, removes the virOdhis {vEri maaRaadha

 

poo mEl irup-p-AL vinai theer-k-kumE - thiruvAymozhi},

 

and sanctions sarvakAla nitya kainkarya (again,

perhaps possible only in the Lord's abode) Himself.

 

To put it briefly, aaraayira-p-padi too is of the

opinion that the Lord is the upAya. It is interesting

to note the interpretation of the words "amarndhu"

and "pugundhu" in the other commentaries. They are all

 

in consonance with the eedu vyAkhyAnam, and we shall

look into the same.

 

For "amarndhu", eedu says "avanukku oru sahakAri

vENdudhal, than thalaiyilE upaayaBhAvam kidaththal

seyyiliRE, nadu oru vyavaDhAna viLambaNgaLukku hEthu

uLLadhu" - "vyavadhAna viLambam" means "delay in

putting". - i.e. there is a cause for delay in the

process if one looks for a sahakAri (facilitator) for

 

the upAya, or if one puts the process of "performing"

the upAya on oneself.

 

onbadhinAyira-p-padi - "en thalai-k-kum

thiruvadiGaLukkum naduvu viLa-k-kuvAy theriyAdhapadi

seRindhu pugundhEne". If prapatti were a physical

process, it is deemed then as a sahakAri (facilitator)

 

and the person adhering to this process has a upAya in

 

hand, and that goes against the the above

interpretation of the words "amarndhu" and "pugundhu"

as written above.

 

vEdAnta dEsika, in his dramidOpanishad sangathi,

mentions this briefly through the phrase "svam

akincanatvam". eedu explicitly states "pugundhEnE"

signifies "avanE upAyam enkira adhyAvasAya gnyAnam"

and also states *"oru pOkkuvaraththu uNdAyanRu"*.

 

The equivalent phrase for the above concept in

sanskrit is "sva pravrtti nivrtti", and the anecdotes

of vibheeshaNa, gajEndra and draupadi are usually

cited in support of this interpretation.

 

The above interpretation of prapatti is in agreement

with logical analysis. If prapatti is a physical

process, it is then a ritual either (i) to attain the

goal of the spirit of prapatti, or (ii) to please the

Lord through the physical process so that some other

goal can be "received" from Him.

 

If prapatti were to afford the spirit, this spirit

being a mental attitude, it does NOT need any physical

 

process, since it might happen such that the physical

process alone is executed without any impact on the

mindset.

 

If the physical act were done to please the Lord, then

His quality of having no wants (avAptha samastha

kAmathvam, more aptly kuRai oNRum illAdhavan") gets

affected. nammAzhvAr, for example, uses the

word "pazhudhil thol pugazh", and also says "thozudhu

mAmalar neer sudar thoopam koNdu ezhudum enRum idhu

migai" {thiruvAymozhi 9.3.9}.

 

Thus, there can be no doubt that prapatti is a mindset

and NOT a physical process. This mindset requires

only a *conviction* that the Lord gives salvation

at the time found by Him to be appropriate for the

soul, and adhere to the vaazhvinai of (i) remembering

His qualities and (ii) doing service to our fellow

beings who are advEshis (i.e. those who are not

"naNNAdhE iruppAr", as per thirumangaiAzvhAr) in

the sense that they are NOT AVERSE to thinking about

Him, or going around His temple etc..

 

part 2:

 

In fact, the answer to your query is implicit in the

above. But, let us go into the definition of

"AchArya" that is crucial to the query. The best

definition is present in srI. viLAnchOlai-p-piLLai's

sapthakAthai -

 

"amponarangaR-k-kum aavi-k-kum antharanga sambandham

kA-t-tith thadai kA-t-ti, umpandhivam ennum

vaazhvu-k-kuch sErndha neRi kA-t-tum avan anRO

AchAriyan"

 

i.e. the one that shows the relationship between

the the parama purusha and the soul, the obstacles,

and the means of attaining Him is the AchAryan.

 

This is based on the thaniyan for thiruvAymozhi

blessed by srI. parAsara bhattar svAmi -

 

"mikka iRai nilaiyum meyyAm uyir nilayum,

thakka neRiyum, thadai aagith thokkiyalum

oozhvinaiyum, vaazhvinaiyum oodhum kurukaiyar kOn

yaazhin isai vEdhaththu iyal"

 

mikka iRai nilai - kuRai onRum illAdha gOvindan,

besides other qualities implicit in this phrase, like

svAmitvam, sousIlyam etc; meyyAm uyir nilai -0 sEsatva

 

of ths soul to the extent of being "kadaith thalai

irundhu vaazhum sOmbar" as thoNdar-adi-p-podi azhvAr

says in thirumAlai; thakka neRi - upAya, i.e. the

Lord

Himself; thadai aagith thokkiyalum oozhvinai -

virOdhi, ahamkAra, mamakAra; vaazhvinai - implicit

faith (mahAvisvAsa) that the Lord will never fail

to give us salvation, praising Him and His qualities,

and performing service to His devotees.

 

The common human being may not have exposure to the

above concepts, and it may require another human

being who is convinced of those concepts

{aruL perRuvAr adiyAr - thiruvAymozhi 10.6.1} to

expose him to these concepts. If the person that

is looking for exposure is convinced of these ideas,

and decides to act according to them, then the latter

becomes the former's AchArya. The former shows

his abhimAnam (great respect, evaluation, - NOT

some ritual like sambhAvana etc,. but a real concern

that such a great man should NOT be made to look

after his mundane requirements by himself,

bus should be spared time to expose the concepts

to others, and influence them too in their own

interest).

 

Phrases like "AchArya abhimAnamE thAraka," need to

be interpreted in this manner. In this context,

the epithet about ahamkAra mamakAra by srI. piLLai

lOkAchArya is relevant.

 

It may be noted that the AchAryAs following the

AzvAr's "andhiyaal aam payan angen?" -

{mudhal thiruvandhAdi }

did NOT advocate the ritualistic or mantric aspect

of any idea. For example, srI. parAsara bhattar

interpreted the astAkshara, dvaya and carma

slOka as giving out the concepts/ideas for

salvation than as pure mantrAs. Similarly, he

commented on srI vishNu sahasranAmam as giving

out the qualities of the Lord.

 

Any ritual brings in excuses/reasons like lapses

in performance etc., if the desired objective

is not realized. And this goes against the

main thesis - that is the Lord is kuRai onRum

illAdha gOvindhan, and if He expects something

in return giving something, then it is a kuRai.

 

The concepts mentioned above may occur to a person

without the intervention/help of a third person,

entirely by the grace of the Lord. This should

have been the case for srIman nAdhamuni, for whom

the "ArAvamudhE" decade of thiruvAymozhi

would have given these ideas. periyAzhvAr

explicitly states in periyAzhvAr thirumozhi -

"peethaka aadai-p-pirAnAr pirama guruvaagi vandhu

ennaip payiRRi paNi seydhu koNdAn - periyAzhvAr

thirumozhi. Thus, there could be cases of

a living being among ourselves NOT having a

*contemporary* human being as the AchArya.

 

The present system, in the thennAcharya

sampradAya, as well as the vadakalai sampradAya,

tends to make the AchArya a ritualistic head for

most people, and rarely gives scope for a

detailed dialogue between the sishya

and the AchArya, so that the former is convinced

of the upadEsa of the latter. The relationship

is quite formal in most cases.

 

If one has understood the arthapanchaka through

the Lord's grace, by studying the nAlAyira divya

prabhandham, vEdAs, upanishads etc., and adheres

to these concepts, then there is no need for

a human AchArya for him.

 

part 3:

>From the two parts above, it should be clear that,

technically, a human AchAryA is NEITHER necessary

NOR sufficient for salvation. It is God's grace

that creates in a person the mAhAvisvAsa that God's

immense concern for the soul (even those of the

thiryaks - anRu sarAsarangaLai vaikunthaththu

Eththi, perumAL thirumozhi yy) will surely end their

cycle of births.

 

The necessity for an AchArya is for those who

have no exposure to the concepts of arthapanchaka

through the Lords' grace {and that is everyone

of us!}. The conviction in the arthapanchaka

is then created by the AchArya in his shisya,

that too only through the Lord's grace.

 

Thus, it is the Lord who gives us salvation.

nammAzhvAr aptly describes that in

"veRidhE aruL seyvar seyvArgatku ugandhu" -

avan aruL seyya ninaippavargaLukku,

ugandhu, veRidhE aruL seyvaan.

 

------

 

 

 

 

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