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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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