Guru Paramparai-2

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Sattva samhita, Paushkara, Jayakhya(Ratna traya), Ahirbudhya Samhita, Paadma

samhita, Parameshwara samhita and lakshmi tantra. We all know that Sri Ramanuja

wrote a Bhasyam to the Brahma Sutra. Let us now see what is Brahma sutra. Sri

vedavyasa split the Vedas into two parts. The Upa anga of the Vedas are the

Mimamsa, split as Poorva or karma Mimamsa (16 chapters given by Jaimini a

shisya of Veda vyasa) and the Uttara or Brahma Mimamsa(4 chapters given by Sage

Badarayana i.e Vyasa himself). These two Mimamsas are nothing but the vyakyanam

to the Vedas. Jaimini dealt with the meanings of those part of the Vedas which

talked about the vedic karmas and Vyasa dealt with the Jnana paagam which is

otherwise called the Brahma Sutra. Though there were earlier commentaries on

the Brahma sutras like the Bhodayana Vrithi which was a vishistadvaita

commentary and many more not found now (but have their references in the

sankara and sribhashyams), the earliest known to us is the Sankara Bhasyam.

There were several errors in the Bhasyam made by Sankara which were questioned

and proved by Sri Ramanuja in his SriBhashyam. Other than these two which are

quite famous there are also other bhashyams to the Brahma Sutras. The Brahma

Sutras have 4 chapters each chapter has four Paadams and there are totally 545

sootras. The first chapter talks about the creation, sustenance and destruction

of the world . The second deals with contending the other philosophies and

proving that Brahman is the sole reason behind creation, sustenance and the

destruction. The third deals with the path to attain Brahman and the final

chapter deals with the goal to be attained. Thus our vaithika matham regards

the Prastana Trayams(Vedas /Upanishads, Brahma soothram and the Bhagavat

geetha) as the most important texts for the Sanathana Dharma. In the next

posting we will continue to see the various systems of philosophy. Adiyen

Ramanuja Dasyai Sumithra Varadarajan

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