Swami Desikan's view on chanting rudram Ref: Re chanting Rudram......

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SrimathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

SrimathE Sundara Sowmyanarayanaya Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

SrimathE Ramanujaya Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

SrimathE Sowmyanarayana Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

 

 

SrI:

 

 

 

Sri Venkata Ramani had asked a doubt regarding my previous email on chanting

rudram. Adiyen requested asmad acharyan, U. Ve SowyaNarayanachariar swami -

maruman and sishya of Sri ghostipuram Ramanujacharya swami, to kindly clarify

this. He merely out of his "nirhEtuka krupa" beautifully elucidated the subject

in question without minding me disturbing him late in the night! This kaarunyam

is swaroopa niroopaka dharmam of all our srivaishanava sadacharyas!!! Adiyen

shall try the best to translate asmad acharyan's words in English.

 

 

 

 

 

As I had mentioned in my previous email, none among the thraivarnikas can

refrain from chanting veda bhagams, be it a prapanna or non-prapanna, just

because it has SEEMINGLY devathaantra namas. Sri-Visishta- Narayana is the

only Veda- ArAdhya devathai. All others like Brahma, Siva, myself, yourself and

others are EQUALLY irrelevant when it is the question of Vedic worship. All

namas represent Him only. When the Nithya and Naimithikka Karma mantras are

chanted one should understand that it is only sriman narayana who is being

praised. So it does not endanger "Svanishta" of a prapanna by any means.

 

 

 

A prapanna is not supposed to have any sort of association with devathantra

under situations not related to Nithya and Naimithikka karmas like

sandhayavandanam and tharpanams. Swami desikan asserts this with the strength of

the following pramana from "Sandilya smrithi" mentioned in "Charamasloka

adhikaram" of Srimad Saram.

 

 

 

 

 

Budhha-Rudraadi vasatim smaSAnam savamEva cha |

 

atavIm rAjadhAnim cha dhoorata: parivarjayEth || ( PRAMANA A)

 

 

 

Meaning : Refrain yourself completely ( parivarjayEth) from the place where

bhuddha and rudra resides, graveyard, dead bodies, dreadful forests and capital

of a country.

 

 

 

Here Buddhaa, though a vishnu avathara, has to be discarded because of his

"Mohana saastra pravachanam" to disuade the aasura prakruthis who do apacharams

to his bhaktas. Rudra also did "Mohana saastra pravachanam" to disuade the

people who committed apacharam to Goutama maharishi. Also he lacks

Subhaasrayatvam and will only plunge us deep into samsaric whirlpool !!( there

are pramanas for this too, which I shall not quote here for brevity).

 

 

 

When saastras say that we should keep away from shiva temples by "dandaappUpa

Nyayam" it also applies to the names by which he is addressed.

 

 

 

In my previous email I had mentioned that a prapanna does not say " siva rudra"

while he sits instead of madhava, madhu soodhana. As there are spasta

vachanams that prescribes the namas to be chanted while performing various

actions. While going out of one's gruham " Kesavan " is to be meditated. While

partaking prasadam - Govinda nama. While going to "yoga nithrai" a prapanna

meditates on Madhavan and while getting up chants "hari " nama 7 times ( the no.

of times is also mentioned ). Both hari and madhava are Sriman Narayana's nama

only but a srivaishnava never chants hari nama instead of madhava while going to

yoga nithrai. For example, in Munitraya sampradaya pravartakar Gopaladesikan's

aahinkam it is mentioned " madhava sabdEna bhagavantam keertayan ... tamEva

hrudi dhyaayan sukena sayitha" and while getting up " brahma moorthe samprApthE

nidrAm parityajya, saptakrutvO harisabdam keerthayan...". So when there is

spasta vachanam to chant the particular nama one does not take

recourse to " yukti" and chant inappropriate namas. This is asserted by swami

desikan, in his Sri chatusloki bhashyam, as "vachana virOdhE

nyAyasyAnavakAsAth" that is when there is spasta vachanam to chant a particular

nama he does not bring in Jaimini and a whole lot of nyayas and chant rudra or

any other nama. Micheal jackson is also Sriman Narayana's thirunamam according

to jaimini but no one does deva rishi pithru tharpanam employing this name!

 

 

 

So a prapanna is not bothered about all these. He strictly goes according to

saastras. saastraas say you have to perform all naimitha karmas and all these

karmas are nothing but aradhana of emperuman, so he performs them. At the same

time the pramana A quoted above, forbids him to have devantara sambandam so he

relates this pramana to situations other than Nithya Naimithikka karmas so as

not to discard any pramana. It is Sri Bhagavad Ramanuja sampradaya to avoid

discarding a saatvika pramana against another saatvika pramana and give

consistent explanation for both of them.

 

 

 

 

 

Also for anyone be it prapanna or a non-prapanna "sishtaachaaram" ( that is

anushtanam of poorvikaas) is more important than vedas itself. Thats why

Apastamba maharishi said " dharmasya samaya pradhanam vedaas cha". Andal

beautifully said " saiyaadana chaiyOm". i.e. we won't do something that our

poorvikaas avoided, even if it hailed as a superior dharma by vedas. We know

that Ramakrishna and venkataramani are undoubtedly sriman narayana's nama but do

we find a Sri sampraya vaishnava having that nama? NO! because it is not in our

sishtaacharam! In sishtaacharam we never saw an sadaacharyan chanting rudra nama

during a nama sankeertana. If our sishtacharam prescribes one nama for a

particular thing one obeys it!! That is the greatness. The profit is you won't

be misled if you follow the footsteps of our great sath sampradaya poorvikaas!!

 

 

 

These days there is too much of clamouring about devathantra sambandam in the

egroup. There can't be a worse apacharam than to ask a prapanna why he avoids

devatantra sambandam. It is like arguing against a pathivrathai regarding her

pathni sambandam only with her pathy. It will only insult them! But this email

by Sri Rajaram Venkataramani, I can understand is rather academic and

inquisitive aimed at clarifying one's own doubts.

 

 

 

Whatever correct thing written above undoubtedly can only be attributed to

asmad acharyan who taught me all this in detail and whom I love more than mere

respect!! The mistakes are only mine.

 

 

 

AcharyALum BhagavthALum KatAkshikkavEnum.

 

 

 

AdiyEn,

 

PAdhukAdAsan

 

Aravindalochanadaasanudasan

 

 

 

 

Rajaram Venkataramani <v_raja_ram wrote:

Sri Aravind, It is an intelligent post. You said :

 

then why does not a prapanna chant those names in circumstances other than vedic

or nithyakarmas ? This is forbidden by Swami desikan with the strength of

pramanas. Unless there is a situation like vedic chanting/ nithya karma like

sandhyavandanam, a prapanna does not employ those namas! for example while

sitting down instead of " madhava madhusoodana " he does not say " Rudra siva "

)

 

1) If rudra, siva are names of vishnu only as it is in vedas, sahasranama etc.,

why does a prapanna not say that ?

 

2) What are the pramanas quoted by Swami Desikan ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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moodamathis worshipping govinda and other forms of vishnu should learn to not insult other deity-worshippers ;Their intolerance of other deity- worship is akin to islam , notr a very favourable comparison