Response to question on the relevance of Mantrapushpamto the Vaishnava Sampradayam

[Guest guest]

sri:

 

Srimate Ramanujaya Namah:

 

Dear Sri Srinivasan Swamin,

 

My humble pranams to you and the elders on this group.

 

Adiyen would like to address your question on the recitation of the

mantrapushpam and its relevance to Vaishnava Sampradayam.Before I proceed

further to discuss that portion of the question, it is key to understand the

foundations of the sampradayam propagated by Sri Ramanuja .

 

The foundation or basis for this school of thought are :

 

1. The Prasthana Traya - 3 fundamental sources of ideas as follows :

 

The Vedas and Upanishads

Brahma Sutras by Sage Badarayana

The Bhagavad Gita

 

2. The Nalayira Dhivya Prabhandam

 

A compilation of 4000 Hymns by the 12 Azhvar Saints ( mystic poets of South

India) who are held in high esteem as divine manifestations of Lord Vishnu's

eternal companions in his celestial abode known as Vaikunta. The hymns are

composed in Tamil language and mirror the concepts of the Vedas and Upanishads;

therefore earning the name of 'Dravidia Veda'. The beauty of Dravida Veda is

that it is open to people of all backgrounds regardless of caste,creed,color or

gender.The rules for the recitation of Dravida Veda are minimal. For the

chanting of Veda, several stringent rules apply and this restricts the study of

Veda to certain groups of people.This is not the case with Dravida Veda.

Ramanuja therefore placed heavy emphasis on Dravida Veda and used it as a

unifying force to bring together the community of devotees.

 

3. Vaishnava Agamas

 

The Agamas are texts derived from various concepts in the Vedas dealing with

worship. The Agamas describe in detail the various forms of God , the methods of

temple worship, home worship, fire sacrifices offerings and other related ideas.

The Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya accepts two Agamas only as authoritative and non

conflicting with Vedas. They are : Pancharatra Agama & Vaikhanasa Agama . Of

the two Pancharatra is the pradhana or main source of authority for the Sri

Vaishnavas. Vaikhanasa Agama is highly utilized for temple worship only and is

restricted to a certain group of Vedic priests. Pancharatra is more universal

and used extensively by the Sri Vaishnava Acharyas to propagate worship of

Vishnu among the masses .

 

The beauty of The Vedic System is summarized very nicely by Sri Parasara Bhatta,

( an acharya in the post Ramanuja Period ) the Uttarasataka ( Verse 14 ) of his

Sri Rangaraja Stava as follows:

" The Vedantic View is that the Vedas are aupurusheya and that they are

recollected and uttered by the Lord Himself from time to time.This itself

imparts a pre-eminent position to the Vedas, the highest authority on which are

based all other texts.The Fifth Veda ,namely the Mahabharata itself declares

that schools like the Sankhya,Yoa and Pasupata are valid only in part and the

pancaratra,being the spoken word of the Lord Himself,is valid in toto "

 

* source : Parasara Bhatta ,His contributions to Visishtadvaita,Dr

S.Padmanabhan.P79,Sri Vsisishtadvaita Research Centre,Madras

 

In the traditional Vedic form of worship, there are a standard set of 16 steps

observed in worship called Shodasa Upachara .The 6 fold method of

Thiruvaradhanam is structured around these 16 basic steps( there a few

variations to this list) . They are :

 

a.. Avahanam - invocation

b.. Asanam - offering a seat for the Lord and His eternal consort Sri

c.. Padyam -offering of water to wash the feet of the divine couple

d.. Arghyam -offering of water to wash the hands of the divine couple

e.. Achamaniyam -offering of weater to rinse the mouth

f.. Snanam -the offering of the ceremonial bath

g.. Vastram - offering of clothes

h.. Yajnopavitam -offering of the sacred thread

i.. Gandham - offering of sandalwood pulp scented with camphor and saffron

strands

j.. Pushpam -fresh fragrant flowers to the recitation of the namavalis of the

Lord and His eternal consort

k.. Dhupam -incense

l.. Deepam -lamp with ghee wick

m.. Neivedyam -food offering

n.. Thambulam -betel leaves and betel nuts

o.. Neerajanam -mangala aarati

p.. Mantrapushpam - final offering of flowers with gratitude to the Lord

The Mantrapushpamin temples or Yajnas is generally chanted when flowers are

offered to the Lord in a ceremonial process called " pushpanjali" at the end of

the puja or yajna .The Mantra Pushpam is a melodious vedic prayer and chanted in

temples and homes by those who follow Vedic Tradition.Therefore there is no

conflict between Chanting the Mantrapushpam and following Vaishnava

Sampradayam.The Ramanuja system of theology is based on Vedas only and all those

who have formal vedic initiation should continue the Vedic tradition by

learning and reciting them through an acharya.

 

Though not a vaidika brahmana, by birth or qualification, adiyen wishes to take

this opportunity to appeal to one and all who are following the Vedas to

continue the practice of preserving the Sacred Hymns revealed by the great

Rishis .Learning Vedas - It is not an opportunity that everybody receives.

Let's treasure our sacred Vedas and work towards preserving them .

 

Forgiveness is sought at the feet of the elders & Lord Srimannarayana , if I

have committed any errors in this post.

 

Sarvapacharam Kshamasva.

 

Adiyen

 

B.Haresh,Singapore