Acharya vaibhavam - 52- Bhagavad Ramanuja's greatest upakaaram through his sreesookthis...

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

Let us continue to enjoy the greatness of our

Paramacharya Sri Ramanujamuni. Swami Desika says in

the sloka 10 of YathirAja Sathathi:

 

praNAmam lakshmaNa muni prathigrhNaathu maamakam |

prasaadhayathi yathsookthim svaadheena pathikaam

sruthim ||

 

May Sri Ramanuja-muni, accept my humble prostration -

he whose works performed the service as the woman-

attendant for the Veda- lady (who has captivated the

Lord and is His consort), this Veda- lady holding the

Lord under her spell, in a dependent manner- so to

say.

 

May the Great Acharya Ramanuja acknowledge my

saluatations! Sri Ramanuja’s pristine teachings have

been the most perfect and accurate interpretations of

the Sruthi [Vedas] and so she [surthi] becomes

swaadhinapathikaa.

 

Swaadheenapathika means a naayika [heroine] who has

restored her Lord within her control. Here since Sri

Ramanuja has interpreted the vedic texts rightly and

most accurately, Veda maatha is said to have held her

Lord within her bounds.

 

[From asmadhAcharyan’s Tamil commentary of Swamy

Desikan’s YathirAja Sapthathi – translated into

English by Sri CG Balaji Swami]

 

The great treatises of Bhagavad Ramanuja like

Sribhashyam, Vedartha Sangraham and others give a

clear and faithful explanation to the Upanishats.

There are many varieties of Vedic statements. Some of

them state the differential nature of Brahman and

Jivan by saying that the Brahman and Jivan are

distinctly different. While others state the

non-differential or the unified nature of Brahman and

Jivan by saying that the Brahman and Jivan are one and

the same. There are some, which state that Paramatman

has no attributes while others

state that he is qualified with infinite auspicious

attributes. There are some shruti statements, which

state that Paramatman stands hidden inside each and

every object as its in-dweller. Of these, the

Advaitins maintain the stand that the shruti

statements stating the attributeless nature of Brahman

are the only ones that can be considered as authority.

They also maintain that the other statements

signifying the qualification of Parabrahman with many

auspisicious attributes and also the statements

stating the distinct nature of Jivan and Paramatman

are nothing but fallacy.

The imperial Vedams and the conduct and anushtanams of

our ancestors are our guiding lamps and authorities.

Strict adherence to this way of conduct is nothing but

‘sanaatana dharmam’. This being the case, it would be

improper and against anushtanam and sanatana dharmam

to quote that one division of the Vedams depict the

truth while the other depicts fallacy. Sri

Ramanuja sorts out all these conflicting views using

Vedic statements alone.

 

Ramanuja maintains the stand that it is totally absurd

to say that, Paramatman is true but everything else

apart from that is false. Ramanuja’s philosophy says

that Paramatman as well as every other thing is

absolutely true. The Vedic statements qouting

that Paramatman has attributes intend to say that

Paramatman is replete with infinite divine auspicious

attributes. At the same time, the statements stating

that Paramatman is attributeless intend to say that

Paramatman does not have any blemishes and

iniquitous qualifications. Similarly, the

non-differential statements or the abheda shruti state

that Paramatman stands hidden inside every object as

its in-dweller and has everything in Himself by having

everything as His shariram or body. This way

He remains one and only one.

 

Consider the following statement. “Rama wearing a silk

robe with a golden necklace, carrying a child in his

hand and a flag is coming alone”. Here, apart from

Rama, the robe, the necklace, the child, the hand, the

flag are all true and do not become false

just because the statement says that he is coming

alone. The coming of Rama with all these

qualifications is what we actually interpret.

 

Since all the faculties of the body function as per

the will of the Jeevatman, the body is known as

‘shariram’. Similarly, in all Jeevatmas as well as

inanimate (jada) objects, Paramatman stands hidden

inside as the in-dweller and the Vedas proclaim

the universe as the shariram of Paramatman since

everything functions as per his will. This is learnt

from the ghataka shruti or the concordant passages of

the Vedas that extol Paramatman as the in-dweller of

all objects.

 

Moreover the very name Brahman, confirms the existence

of many objects as well as Jeevatmans. Brahman means

something that is big or enormous. This intends to say

that Brahman is one that has boundless splendour with

its essential nature (swarupam) and characteristic

attributes (kalyana gunams).

When we say big or enormous, then is it possible to

say so without having something smaller than that?

Here Jeevatmans are the smaller ones or the diminutive

ones possessing infinitesimal swarupam. The very fact

that Brahman is infinitely

greater in knowledge and in every other aspect

compared to all animate and inanimate objects

establishes that the existence of all other objects is

definitely true. This is the reason as to why

the bheda shruti or differential statements quote the

existence of Brahman and Jivan as distinct entities.

Abheda shrutis on the other hand quote the Brahman

having all animate and inanimate objects as its body

or sareeram.

 

Due to the establishment of all the true purports of

Vedas by Bhagavad Ramanuja without any mutual

contradictions and in a manner acceptable to every

one, Swamy Deshikan extols the works of Bhagavad

Ramanuja as Sairandhri (royal female attendant) and

the shruti texts as Svadhinapatikaa (one who has

full domination on her husband).

 

“Svadheenapatika” – The kings in olden days would have

many wives. They were known to have existed in eight

forms. Amongst all of them one is known as

Svadhinapatikaa. She is one who has won over her

husband completely and keeps him in her control.

The king would always remain in her quarters and see

to it that all her needs are properly attended to and

would always engage himself in making her happy. He

would appoint a female attendant to bedeck and

beautify this queen of his. This female attendant is

known as Sairandhri. This attendant would give her

queen a good bath, apply fragrant oil to her hair,

would sort out all the tresses taking care to see that

not a single hair would come apart and would then comb

her hair beautifully and dress it up with utmost care

with beautiful fragrant flowers. She would

also bedeck her with precious jewels to the delight of

the king. In the same way, here the shruti is the

Upanishat nayaki or the queen. Her master or the king

is Brahman or Purushottaman. The very word Upanishad

means one that stays close to the Brahman.

 

Kannan in His Bhagavad Geetha says that He alone is

known through all the Vedas.

 

vEdAksharANi yaavanthi patithAni maneeshibhi: |

thAvanthi hari nAmAni keertthithAni na samsaya: ||

 

The above verse clearly portrays that every word of

the shruti talks only about Paraman. Paraman, the Veda

nayakan would always remain with Veda nayaki without

any moment to spare. Many preachers and followers of

other mathams or beliefs brought disgrace to Vedas by

defiling its grace and glory with

misinterpretations and went even to the extent of

saying that these Vedic statements were not statements

of authority and that they were untruth (mithya) and

fallacious. A few of the Vedic

statements suffered ignoble interpretations. Sri

Bhagavad Ramanujas worded gems or Srisooktis that are

like the Sairandhri, in order to remove this

contemptible falsehood, applied the fragrant oil of

Mimamsa-nyaya (rule of exegesis) to these tressed

statements of the imperial Vedas and freed it from

the locks and dirt of misinterpretations and ignoble

renditions.

 

Srimad Ramanuja’s sri-sooktis then upheld the true and

genuine nature of veda-vedya Parabrahman Sriman

Narayanan along with his rupa, kalyana guna, vaibhavam

and the sub-servient Jeevatmans. Also Ramanuja’s

sri-sookti or Sairandhri celebrates

the Lord along with Vedanayaki and extols the beauty

of their divine communion for all of us to take

delight in.

 

Swamy Deshikan says “What returns can I offer to

Ramanuja, the great sage who has done great service to

us by bringing to light making known the Pramana, the

Prameya and the Pramatha. Though I am not in a

position to offer anything to match his great favour

or service, I shall at least bow down at his feet in a

reverential prostrate. Let my master Sribhashyakara

accept my plead and shower his benevolence on me”.

 

Great verse, isn’t it? let us see what are his works?

RamanujAchArya ThiruvaDigaLE SaraNam

Regards

namo narayana

dasan

 

 

 

 

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