Re. Final Clarification

[Guest guest]

>

> Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan [vijayaraghavan_s]

> Tuesday, October 26, 1999 9:40 AM

> Re. Final Clarification

>

>

 

Dear Sri Vijayaraghavan:

 

It is not my intent to prolong this, as it is we have prolonged it enough.

But since you have rehashed your points once again let me take the

opportunity to provide some final clarifications as well.

 

 

>

> All I meant was there are various schools within Sri

> Vaishnavism (within DEsika Sampradayam). One orthodox

> school limits the worship to celebrating only Rama Navami,

> Sri Jayanthy and KrittikA deepOtsavam (and ofcourse all

 

Which orthodox school is that? To my knowledge no authentic Sri Vaishnava

school says the above, including Sri Ananthanarasimhachar. This was

directly clarified with Sri Ananthanarasimhachar and he has confirmed that

there is no such limit as you are suggesting.

 

BTW, sincere and respected Sri Vaishnavas, who demand a very high standard

of anushtAnam for themselves, feel their anushtaanam does not measure up to

the standard required for daily aradhanai of Lakshmisrisimha salagrama and

the like. Therefore, they keep other salagramas. But these sincere and

respected Sri Vasihnavas do celebrate Nrsimha Jayanti and the like and do

worship Nrisimha in temples, etc. This is again verifiable from any

scholarly source in India. Presenting an incomplete picture only confuses

sincere bhagavathas. There is nothing more important in the net than not

mislead our members.

 

 

> The question is where do we draw the line.

> There is no end to this narrowing down process and we will only

> end-up in a Nirguna Brahaman of Advaitin.

> Also acharyAs themselves differ in many points and

> irrespective of that we pay respects to all achAryAs.

 

Differences in minor points do exist among institutions, such as Acarya

nishtai among Munithrayam and ukthi nishtai among Sri Sannithi sishyas, etc.

But to say there is a narrowing down to the extent of ending up with Nirguna

brahmam is ludicrous. Further, when it comes to anya-devata worship there

is absolutely no difference among all acAryAs irrespective of even kalai.

Implying such a difference is a great disservice to our acaryaas.

 

 

> I celebrate Nrusimha Jayanti, offer special

> arAdhanam for MalOlan and I celebrate Saraswati Puja for the sake of my

> children and I sometimes join smArta Pujas. My love for EmperumAn, my

> achAryAs and our sampradAyam has not diminished because of this.

 

This is the whole point. As followers of Desika Sampradayam our ideal is to

please the lord and be acArya thiruvadi. All our AcAryAs say in one voice

that anyadevata prayer must be avoided. Then, joining smArta puja (not sure

what you mean by this, perhaps anyadevata is what is meant) is against the

wishes of our acaryas. How can going against acarya's wishes be pleasing to

the lord or a characteristic of being acaraya thiruvadi.

 

Please do not misunderstand me. What you do is your business. But please

do not advocate it here in Malolan Net as it is directly against our

sampradayam as taught by our acharays starting with Nammazhvar.

 

 

>

> All I am saying is that the point of anya-dEvata worship is

> over-played by Sri VaishnavAs, as though that is the only

> yard-stick to measure Sri Vaishnavatvam in a person.

> On the otherhand it requires de-emphasis if we

> have to make it more welcoming.

 

In fact, the emphasis on exclusive worship of Sriman Narayana could very

well be the thing that motivates a new comer. De-emphasizing this may

indeed turn them away, the very people who are more sincere, the ones who

may very well be the foundation for the future.

 

Further, during my last visit to India adiyEn was fortunate enough to listen

to Srimad Azhagiya Singar giving short upanyasams at the end of Abhigamanam.

If there is one message that HH repeated every time, it was avoiding anya

deveta worship. From Periyasramam shishyas adiyEn has heard that Srimad

Srimushnam Andavan Swami also emphasizes this principle. Similarly, adiyEn

has heard from shishyas of Srimad Paunbdarikapuram Andavan that HH's view is

also the same. Thus, all the acaryas do think this is important enough to

be stressed repeatedly. If you think it must be de-emphasized, then you are

out of sink with our acaryas.

 

You have made another unsustainable charge about yard-stick of sri

vaishnavam. No one said that is the only yard-stick. Please read my last

post again. Sure, it is one of the most important yard-stick. That is

because it goes directly to our atma swaroopam. No acarya has advocated

that it must be down played. As we all know, Sri Koorattazhvan gave his

eyes for this principle and Sri Periya Nambi gave his life. Those who wish

to downplay it must think about this.

 

 

> Please note that I am NOT advocating that it should be given-up.

> Once people come to EmperumAn's fold they will automatically

> adopt exclusive worship of EmperumAn and this will come as a

> by-product.

 

If this is so why do so many Sri vaishnavas who were born and brought up in

Sri Vaishnava environment, i.e. being raised in EmperumAn's fold, are now

enamoured by the likes of Sai Bhabha? Perhaps your contention is that it is

because of the over emphasis on exclusive Sriman Narayana worship. But that

is pure speculation. On the contrary, the emphasis on exclusive worship is

probably the reason for the revival of Sri Vaishnavam among so many of us.

 

 

 

> It cannot be pushed down the throat of

> someone and it is an internal process and we must allow time

> to work its way.

 

Nobody pushed anything down anybody's throat. You keep repeating this

without any basis. It is funny that you see a defense of exclusive worship

as " pushing down the throat " . Please prove it or else stop repeating it.

 

Let me explain this one more time. Almost all of the Malolan Net members

are already exclusive Sriman Narayana worshippers. Therefore equating a

discussion of this topic here to pushing anything down the throat is simply

not correct.

 

From time to time we the members of this divine net are confronted with

criticism of exclusive worship. Therefore, it is important that we discuss

this issue often so that the member are able to counter the criticism.

 

My original post was in the form of questions and answers, intended for our

members to get clarified and defend their practice against possible

criticism from sources ambivalent or hostile. Only the so called Sri

Vaishnavas who wish to continue with anya devata prayer, for whatever

reason, oppose even the simple discussion of this topic even among the

already staunch followers.

 

srimad azhagiya singar thiruvadi dileepan