Q - Ramanuja Muni and gopis "different" ways to Sriman Narayana?

January 27, 2003

Namo Narayana!

Srimate Bhagavad Ramanujaya namah!

It´s so funny to realize the supreme behaviour of great nityasooris and their

example in so many different ways to explain the same thing: LOVE TOWARDS

SRIMAN NARAYANA! Our Swami Ramanuja Muni explain the path to Narayana through

observing our regular duties, chanting the dwaya, reciting the Prabhandams,

Gadyams and so on. Our equaly Acharyas, the Gopis, Jada Bharat, explained the

same love and Saranaghati towards Perumal, but by not following the rules.

Knowing that both paths are perfect, since were instructed by ever perfect

devotees, how could explain these "different" paths? Are they the same, at the

same time they seem so different? Who should follow one or other, if they are

different?

adiyen,

raghuram

January 29, 2003

Dear Sri Raghuram,

Based on my understanding, the reason for the seeming difference in paths is due

to the fact that the Azhva:rs, go:pis, and Acha:ryas are at quite a different

level than the rest of us.

To them, Sriman Narayana is everything, they are no other goals than to serve

Him, and no other means to achieving this goal other than Himself.

Consequently, whether or not they followed prescribed duties or not is really

moot, because all their actions were inspired and were an expression of their

pure love for Him.

For the rest of us, however, who are struggling with the complexities and

vagaries of worldly life while at the same time trying to cultivate love for

God, pure Love is something we have yet to define, yet to completely understand,

what to speak of knowing how to express it to the Lord in the proper way.

Consequently, if we were simply allowed to do as we please, we probably would

succumb to our material desires and selfish aims out of of our ignorance and

leave God out of the equation completely.

It is because of their recognition of this that our wise Acha:ryas have provided

us with a "cookbook", a guide of practices and principles called samprada:yam,

that will, if followed with good intentions and to the best of our abilities,

lead us to the same natural state of pure love that the gopis felt for Sri

Krishna.

What is interesting to reflect upon is that what we now see as mere rituals and

disciplines of a prescribed path are in actuality a crude imitation of what the

pure devotees probably engaged in and of themselves as a natural expression of

their love for Him. It is only a matter of time for us before the ritual and

the love become one and the same. Until then, we should simply follow what our

Teachers have shared to the best of our abilities, in the mood of respect for

them.

I hope this helps.