essence of Sri Vaishnavism

[Guest guest]

In his final moments Sri Ramanuja is said to have

articulated 82 statements to his disciples. It is not

an exaggeration to present these statements as the

essence of Sri Vaishnavism. I give below excerpts of

these, translated from "Sri Ramaanujar," pi. sri,

sudhEsamitthiran, pp. 250 - 259, aagaStu 1964 . I

apologise for the lack of lucidity of my translation.

(written by Sri Parthasarathy Dileepan).

 

1. Serve God and God's devotees. Serve all devotees

without regard to their status.

 

2. Have faith in the teachings of AchAryAs.

 

3. Do not succumb to sensual pleasures.

 

4 & 5. Do not put your conviction on trivial

saasthraas, have conviction on the saasthraas that

deal with God.

 

6 - 8. Protect yourself from the five senses.

 

9 & 10. Praise the name of the Lord and AchAryAs.

 

11. All the knowledge you may have will not protect

you if you choose sensual pleasures.

 

12 & 13. It is not enough to control your sensual

desires, you must surrender to the Lord.

 

14 - 17. Do not be disrespectful of sri vaishnavaas

for any reason, including age, caste, etc. You must

show respect to them all.

 

18. When you rise from your bed meditate upon your

ancestral line of AchAryAs.

 

19. In front of the sanctum of our Lord, amongst sri

vaishnavaas utter the words of dvayam. (mentally' Do

not utter loudly, as they are rahaysyams)

 

20. Praise the auspicious qualities of our Lord and

AchAryAs.

 

21 and 22. Welcome sri vaishnavas with open arms and

praise. Do not praise ordinary people for the sake of

material gain.

 

23. Pay respect when you see the gOpuram of a temple.

 

24 - 25. Have undying faith in Lord Vishnu.

 

26. Do not find fault with praise of the Lord or

devotees.

 

27 - 29. Pay at most respect to sri vaishnavaas.

 

30 & 31. Among sri vaishnavaas do not discriminate

between poor and rich.

 

32. Ignore the faults and praise the virtues of sri

vasihnavaas.

 

33 - 35. Consume Sri paadha theertham with respect.

 

36. Do not consider yourself as equal to other

devotees. Think of yourself as their servant.

 

37 - 39. To purify your sins consume the sri paatha

theertham of great saints. For this, do not consider

the caste of those saints.

 

40 & 41. Duties of families. (Not described in the

text)

 

42 - 44. Visiting temples and securing prasaadam is

important.

 

45. Do not boast about your virtues.

 

46. Do not scorn a devotee.

 

47. Do not ignore serving devotees.

 

48. Praise the auspicious qualities of the Lord daily.

 

 

49. Recite prabhandams like thiruvaaymozhi daily.

 

50 - 58. Do not associate with the ones who only

pretend to be sri vaihnvaas. Do not associate with the

ones who find faults with others. Do not even look

upon those who belittle devotees. Associate with those

who wish to surrender to the Lord.

 

59 & 60. Ignore the harsh words of other sri

vaishnvas. Always do good to them.

 

(From this point onwards I am unable to give numerical

listing as the original text does not give the

numerical ordering.)

 

Do not think of the deities of the Lord as just stone

or wood.

 

Do not think of your guru (AchArya) as just an

ordinary person. Even simply saying out loud the caste

of a sri vaishnava is a sin.

 

Do not consider anything related to our Lord as

ordinary. There is nothing greater than making our

Lord and his devotees happy. Insulting a devotee is a

greater sin than not praying to the Lord. Your duty is

to surrender to our Lord. Try to live in Thiru

naaraayanapuram (mElkOte) at least for some time. If

you are unable to, where ever you are, live with

dvayam in your tongue. If you are unable to do even

this, serve other srivaishnavas.