[sri ramanuja] Caste Creed and Varna in Srivaishnavam(Request for Poorvacharya Vaibhavam with a Focus)

[Guest guest]

dear swami senthil

please add a lot of pramanams to this context. Swami Koorathazhwan's vaibhavam would be a real guiding point.

Adiyen in this context, I feel one thing. Why cant we start a thread that speaks about poorvacharya vaibhavam, each day or for a sequence of days a poorvacharya is taken, his nithyanushtanam is analyzed and what should be understood by us as a part of nithya anushatanam and vishesha dharmam. If its better we can start with Vaartha Maalai.

This is very imperative since, if all of us have a recorded message topic for Poorvacharyas, I think we can get rid of individual questions on how to lead a ideal srivaishnava life.

The focus of each acharya's vaibhavam should be

1) How we should have Acharya Prathibakthi?

2) How we should have Bhagavatha Prathibakthi?

3) What is the gunam which that poorvacharya has strictly insisted to avoid? (Thadai aaki thokiyalum Oozhvinai)

All the above for even a commoner to understand.

If we have this each acharya vaibhavam with enough pramanams from Sri sukthis of our azhwars and acharyas, I think the final benifit would a full fledged srivaishnava kulam with a clear thought process.

adiyen

Dasarathy Elayavilli Ponnappan

 

B.Senthil kumar <b_senthil2002 (AT) (DOT) co.in>

ramanuja

Tuesday, 17 October, 2006 9:30:02 AM

[sri ramanuja] Re: Caste Creed and Varna in Srivaishnavam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear BhagavathAs,

 

 

 

AdiyEn dont want to find fault with any people, who is not abiding

 

the poorvAchAriyars sayings. The thing is that, we have to find out

 

where we are lagging in obeying the SriVaishnava dharmA. Its clearly

 

stated by Thiruvarangath- amudanAr in Ramanusa NoortrandhAdhi,

 

he is a great disciple of Swamy KoorathAlwan. In the paasuram, he

 

explains about the kalyAna gunA of his AchArya KoorathAlwan.

 

 

 

"mozhiyaikadakkum perumpugazhAn vanchamukkurumbAm

 

kuzhiyai kadakkum namkoorathAlwan saran koodiyapin ......."

 

(Ramanusa NootrandhAdhi)

 

 

 

As we recite this daily in nithyAnusanthAnam, probably most us know

 

its meaning. Anyhow adiyEn want to relate this with the SriVaishnava

 

gunam. If one wants to know, how a SriVaishnavite should be , then he

 

has to know the Vaibhavam of Swamy KoorathAlwan.

 

 

 

In the above pAsuram, amudanAr says that, his achArya had crossed

 

the big pit (padukuzhi). This kuzhi is nothing but thinking a

 

bhAgavthA that, "he is inferior than me with respect to ishwaryam

 

(dhanam), studies (vidhyA), kulam (abijanam)". If one starts thinking

 

like that, then it will push the person in to the great pit, which is

 

not possible for anyone to pull out him from that.

 

 

 

KoorathAlwan doesn't had this three madhams(dhana madham, vidhyA

 

madham, abijana madham).

 

 

 

1) Even though he was a great rich person in Kooram divyadeam,

 

he left all the wealth in order to surrender under the lotus feet of

 

Swamy EmperumAnAr.

 

 

 

2)Eventhough his gnAnam was great (he had great brahma gnAnam

 

– his vaibhavam of remembering the entire "Brahma Sootram" of

 

VedhavyAsar, which was lost during the trip to Kashmir while writing

 

Sri BhAsyam by Swamy EmperumAnAr) , he said that, all his gnAnam

 

was due to his AchArya sampandham.

 

 

 

3)Eventhough he born in higher caste (he is called as hArItha kula

 

thilagam) he never shown that, and always said that, he was born as

 

small particle under the lotus feet of Swamy Ramanujar.

 

 

 

That was vaibhavam of Swamy KoorathAlwan. AmudanAr says, "No one

 

can explain the vaibhavam of KoorathAlwan by using any language".

 

(mozhiyaik kadakkum perumpugazhAn) . Since he doesn't had this

 

dhana madham, vidyA madham, abijana madham (vanchamukkurumbAm)

 

Swamy koorathAlwan was said to, crossed the pit (kuzhiyai kadakkum).

 

 

 

Hence it was the duty of every Sri Vaishnavaite to cultivate the

 

kalyAna gunA and get rid of these three madhams(dhana madham, vidyA

 

madham, abhijana madham). If you are not getting out of this three

 

madhams, this will PUSH YOU INTO THE GREAT PIT. No one can save you

 

from that.

 

 

 

When this was explained by Sri.U.Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swamin in his

 

upanyAsam, he compared the situation of those who can't able to rid

 

out the three madhams with the following situation!

 

 

 

"Think of a monkey (monkey gunA we know well), if it drank liquor,

 

and was bitten by scorpion and hence became mad. Then think of the

 

situation and the behaviour of the monkey?!."

 

 

 

Here the monkey was related to our gunA. Already due to our poorva

 

paavams, our Atma gunA is not good. If we had dhana madham with that,

 

(drinking liquor), added with vidhyA madham (bitten by scorpion),

 

and abijana madham(WE WILL BECOME MAD). Finally our activities will be

 

the kind of monkey which drank liquor, bitten by scorpion and finally

 

became mad.

 

 

 

Hence its the duty of every Sri Vaishnavite to cultivate their kalyANa

 

gunAs and definitely our AchArya's are there (thiruththi panikolvAr)

 

to grace on us for improving ones kalyAna gunAs'!

 

 

 

In next mail adiyEn will add the pasuram from GnAna sAram by ArulAla

 

perumAl emperumAnAr, in which he relates how to react with the peoples

 

who are having abhimAnam with their caste, creed et.c,..

 

 

 

adiyEn,

 

senthil.b

 

 

 

ramanuja@ s.com, "Dasarathy" <epd40 wrote:

 

>

 

> Dear All,

 

> A subtle thought process in the lineage of a question being raised by

 

> one of my kin. Question pertains to varnasrama in Srivaishnavam.

 

> I had few thoughts with respect to the question. I request our people

 

> to clarify, correct any mistakes with pramanam for the answers I had

 

> given.

 

>

 

> Question by my Kin:

 

>

 

> "The below thing I wrote when I was a part ramanuja.org discussion

 

> list. I didn't get any answer for this. Still I am searching the

 

> answer for this. Do anyone of you have?

 

>

 

> Respected Sir,

 

> kulanthaangu saathikaL naalilum keezizinthu,

 

> etthanai nalanthaa nilaathasaN daaLasaN daaLarka Laakilum,

 

> valanthaangu sakkarath thaNNal maNivaNNaR kaaLenRuL kalanthaar,

 

> adiyaar thammadi yaarem madikaLE.

 

> If an individual is a devotee of Lord Vishnu, then, even if he belongs

 

> to a lowly caste, you must consider his devotee's devotee as your

 

> lord. I'm quoting this paasuram from tiruvaymoli. I have quoted the

 

> explaination from our own web site www.ramanuja. org.

 

>

 

> Whatever i understood from the above paasuram according to my

 

> intellect is that if a person is a devotee of shriman naarayan to

 

> whatever castes he/she belongs should be given enough respect. Then

 

> why in our sampradaayam it is so that in the name of achaaram we

 

> discriminate among our own people. Even if they are great devotees of

 

> lord naarayan they are not given enough respect just because they

 

> belong to low caste. I have seen many people who are brahmins and shri

 

> vaishnava but they do not follow any rules and regulations of what

 

> shri vaishnava should follow.But even then they get respect in the

 

> society as well as by high intellectuals since they belong to high

 

> caste. Should it be not like this that the discrimination should be

 

> made only on this basis whether a particular person is a devotee of

 

> shriman naarayan or not rather than caste.Is our sampradaayam

 

> emphasize on casteism. I also felt that casteism is one of the main

 

> reason that our sampradaayam' s message is not widely spread. If by

 

> mistake i have written something wrong due to ignorance then i am

 

> extremely sorry for that.

 

>

 

> with regards

 

> charchita

 

>

 

> Answer:

 

> Dear Charchita

 

> The message is apt but the concept of varnasrama should or could not

 

> be confused here.

 

> Varnasrama Dictates Rules For

 

> 1) Individual's Work in society

 

> a) Bhramins - Bhramanosya Mookam aaseeth. Bhramins come from face

 

> of vishnu. Let them be responsible for learning Vedas, chanting it,

 

> and spreading it. By no means they can enter

 

> i) Trade

 

> ii) Warfare

 

> iii) Cultivation or any means of procurement

 

> b) Kshatriya - Baaho rajanya krutaha: By the muscle power let the

 

> rajans rule the world. They should

 

> i) Conquer and control teritories

 

> ii) Learn Vedas and not teach / preach them

 

> iii) Be the sole properitor of wealthiest items in his teritory

 

> c) Vaysya - Vaysyo Dhana samridhasyad - Let the merchants trade and

 

> earn money. Let them use thier strength in thighs to travel far off

 

> and bring money.

 

> i) They cannot learn/preach vedas

 

> d) Shudra - Shudra sukam avapnuyaad - Let the fourth caste people do

 

> the job of line men, agriculture, hunting and all work of building

 

> assisting kings in army. Thereby they are not directly responsible for

 

> any decisions but enable decision makers to fulfill the objective of

 

> society. They can

 

> a) Have multiple marriages, have food without bath, can kill animals

 

> and move from places to places.

 

> Now the key point is Narayana bhakta

 

> He who is intrested in bhramagnana is above these 4 castes which come

 

> by birth and has to be respected alteast equivalent to vishnu,

 

> If currently bhramins/ sri vaishanavas are not doing it its solely the

 

> fault of the individuals and not that of the sampradaya

 

> Instances:

 

> Ramanuja before bath used to hold hands of mudaliyandan (Bhramana

 

> sreshta)and later after bath hold the hand of pillai uranga vali dasar

 

> (4th caste person)

 

> Nampillai called one dasar to submit the food he prepared for perumal

 

> fearing the atma guna poorthi of his second wife.

 

> Lot of instances where disciples were of 4th caste but they were

 

> deciding people of sampradaya,

 

> Our great Acharyan Manavala maamunigal got the greatest of rahasya Sri

 

> vachana bushana from the mouth of an acharya called koora kulothama

 

> dasar who by his birth is the care taker of burial ground (Sandala

 

> vargam). Note: Please correct the name of our poorvacharya who did the

 

> kalakshepam of Srivachana bhushanam to maamunigal.

 

> Points:

 

> We have to take sree pada theertham from the lotus feet of any sri

 

> vaishnava of any caste if he shows atma guna poorthi. abiding the

 

> faith on manavala maamunigal and ramanuja if we fail to do so we dont

 

> call ourself sri vaishnava and because of hypocrats pure sampradayam

 

> is getting dis illusioned as the caste oriented system.

 

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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