Guest guest Posted September 7, 2001 Report Share Posted September 7, 2001 srImathE rAmanujAya namah, dear bhAgavathAs, srI. guNaseelan venkatAchAry wrote >It means that we are also following SAstras > for doing our karma and > only inthe case of Bhagavan's Kaimkaryam we do > consider all are same. Here is adiyEn's view on that - by no means am I erudite/learned, but this is what I have seen/ learnt/deduced from elders.. there is a dichotomy in the practices that we follow - karma , varnAshrama dharma and other associated, traditionally brahminical concepts are definitely not in consonance with what our AzhvArs/religion says - after all, if perumAL is so kind, then why all this differentiation, why should there be this karma stranglehold on anyone? why this dependence on birth for many things? our salvation seems to be differnt from our real life - perumAL is our salvation - but, in real life, we seem to be bound by age old traditions - in many cases we may not even know the origin of those, but we just follow them as somone attributes them to some sruthi/smriti, and we, not knowing what the sruthi/smriti is, accept the practice and propagate it. As a community, we do a good job of talking a good talk - all bhAgavathAs are equal, thirumangai AzhvAr says that anyone who is not an advEshi towards perumAL is a bhAgavathA and all the associated "good things" to say, but when it comes to real practice, we, especially those born in "brahmin" families, tend to follow the age-old discriminatory practices - after all, in how many temples do we allow non-brahmin bhAgavathAs to be a part of the gOshti, let alone talk of bringing them to our home and eat with us. And even among "brahmin srIvaishNavAs", many people will not eat in front of all "brahmin srIvaishNavAs" for whatever reason. One other thing we need to keep in mind is the difference between the rituals and religion - all of the rituals (srArdha etc..) are common to all brahmins (vEdics??) - our AchAryAs tried to modify some of thsoe rituals to make it more in accordance with the religion, but went only half-way due to whatever reason - even to this day, there are tons of differences among srIvaishNava families as to how they conduct certain rituals - these can be traced generally to the sect of brahmins that these families originate from, as well as the adaptation of local customs wherever these families settled. coming to your specific question about srArddha, the version we perform is the common brahmin custom, and it necessitates the presence of a brahmin - our AchAryAs have tried to modify that a little bit, started calling it thiru adhyayanam, and introduced the practice of offering amsai, taking srIpAdha theerhtam from our AzhvAr AchAryAs on that day also - but, obviously, did not go all the way in taking out the caste of the person out of the equation for whatever reason that we do not know. It is interesting to see that even to this day, in some srIvaishNAva families, they do not take srIpAda theertham from AzhvArs during that day, and many people quote different reasons for that - adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan, Varadhan Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Messenger http://im. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 7, 2001 Report Share Posted September 7, 2001 > Does it mean that performing Karma is holding high > position than the > Bhagavada , adiyEn missed the following in writing the previous mail - The answer to above is dependent on what you want to follow - if a person A holds the karmA/varnAshrama dharma et all to be the highest thing, then they will have the highest regard for anyone that follows those things perfectly, and potentially will feel that such a person is better than a srIvaishNava that does not follow all the varnAshrama dharma stipulated behaviours. if a person B holds the view that what really matters is devotion/service to the Lord and His people, and do service to ALL of His people, then, s/he will obviously hold such a person in higher regard than someone that just performs the varnAshrama dharma stipulated behaviours. the varnAshram dharma/karma line is not valid in the present context anyway - after all, how many "brahmins" follow the stipulations that are laid down? Then what gives us the right to question/discriminate against others? adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan, Varadhan Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Messenger http://im. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 7, 2001 Report Share Posted September 7, 2001 srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha srImadh vara vara munayE namaha Sri Varadhan wrote : ====================================================== the varnAshram dharma/karma line is not valid in the present context anyway - after all, how many "brahmins" follow the stipulations that are laid down? Then what gives us the right to question/discriminate against others? ======================================================= May be Varadhan is absolutely right. Are we, the present day brahmins, really follow the stipulations that have be laid down. If yes, to what percentage? I bet, no answers for this. Let alone the Varnashrama dharma, even within the Srivaishnava families, one lineage will consider the other lineage, a shade inferior to them. Why this discrimination? Atleast emberumAnAr did not expected this when he created the 74 SimhasanAthipathis. This thought is more prevalent amongst the SwayamAchArya families. I too belong to a SwayamAchArya lineage. What a SwayamAchArya mean? In a broad sense, he can perform the samAsrayaNam and other rites, by himself to his family, and also to his sishyAs. So please do think what should be the qualification of this person, how strict he should be in observing all that our pUrvAchAryAs have laid down. Considering this if I look back at myself, am I even worthy to call myself as a one belonging to the swayamAchArya family. This problem is more towards the attitude and the false prejudice of the families and their lineage to which we belong to. If at all our SrivaishNavam has to grow, this attitude is the first hurdle one should over come. The remaining are fairly easy, as if one overcomes this hurdle, he/she is obviously overcoming the greatest mental hurdle of AhankAram and mamakAram. But when ? AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan, Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh Enjoy being an Indyan at http://www.indya.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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