Sri: Srimathe Ramanujaya nama: Dear bhAgavathAs, Humble praNAms to all. I am sharing my views wrt the following mail by Sri Ramachandran. Sandhya being mandatory depends on the religious faith one follows. If I know little bit about TK sampradAyam(bhAgavathAs can correct me if I'm wrong),sandhya can be forsaked at the cost of temple kaimkaryams,AzhvArs pAsurams etc. My own father doesn't do sandhyavandanam. He says it's boring and I perfectly agree with him. Instead he indulges himself in AzhvArs pAsurams and he cribs that 24 hrs is not enough. We only do it as a service to God and not for the sake of benefits and sandhyavandanam can be put aside if it conflicts with temple worship and prabandham recitation. Coming to psychological aspect,I don't agree to what sriman ramachandran had mentioned in his mail that there are scientific evidences for gayantri chanting. Scientists don't even understand matter completely how are they going to understand the mind. Brain is a mechanical device but not mind. Mind(especially in the case of men!!!) can only concentrate on one thing at a time. In the case of women,it is different and infact they dissipate their energy by "divided" concentration. Precisely for this reason,you don't find women experts in many areas of life:-) Sad though! So,if somebody concentrates on chanting,gayatri namely,I will bet that that person will not able to give 100% concentration to think about Lord's qualities. What vishnu said is correct. Since sandhya is time bound ritual,it is highly unlikely that the person does both chanting and contemplation skillfully. Even ordinary action produces reaction/result,so why should one be amazed by the vibrations produced by the gayatri. Sri Ramachandran's writings in the last paragraph clearly shwos that he is not well informed about Sri Ramanuja sampradAyam. We don't have to go out of our Sri Ramanuja sampradAyam to find any truth/answers. Whoever wants to perform sandhyavandanam,please continue to do so. Nobody is stopping them. Sriman Ramachandran makes sandhyavandanam sound so rigid that whoever doesn't perform it will ONLY go to hell. I will invite an open challenge to those who perform sandhyavandanam to prove to me "scientifically" that they are gonna get liberated. They CAN'T prove. Anyways,our kAruNya sindho Ramanuja has extracted a promise from Lord Sri Ranganatha that whoever is associated with him should get liberated. So,I know for certainty that my father,who doesn't do sandhyavandanam, is liberated in this very birth. As long as a person follows his own tradition and doesn't force his tradition on others,he is doing fine and so are the rest. We go by nirhetuka krpa of the Lord. It's His goal to liberate the jIvAtmAs and not my goal to liberate myself! So, till this body wears off,our job is to indulge ourselves in His anantha kalyANa guNAs (even this is not a compulsion!!!) and not do any rituals with the thought that it produces calmness or some benefits etc. and once again all these nitya karmas like sandhya vandanam can be relegated to the back door for the sake of temple worship/recitation of prabandham. No offense intended at anyone or any religion. I respect all religions(being an academic person) but worship only Sri Ramanuja sampradayam. Best Regards AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam NC Nappinnai > It is therefore, extremely critical and mandatory for the > Sandhya to be performed without fail. It is quite > surprising that Shri Vishnu has questioned the efficacy of > Sandhya and perhaps thinks of replacing the Sandhya with 'namaa' > chanting. Come what may, the Sandhya is a nitya karma ordained by > the Vedas and no one is excused. Dilution of Sandhya > requirements are therefore out of question. One may dilute all > other rituals, worship etc. but not the Sandhya. > Dear Sriman Narasimhan, > > I agree with what you have said. I think Alwar suggests here thinking > of BhagavAn's guNas and not nAma alone. Please correct me if I am wrong. > > Whatever is said on ashtAksharI applies very well to gAyatrI. here > also meaning is important and one can have faith in that meaning if > convinced. adiyEn will try to get the meaning of gAyatrI as given in > rAmAyaNa commentary of gOvindarAja. > > I have a doubt. sandhyAvandanam itself is a ritual performed in > limited time and chanting of gAyatrI is a part of it. So one cannot > think of His qualities while repeating gAyatrI. So is it not better to > devote some time to read some pASurams with their meanings or > bhagavadguNa darpaNam (sahasranAma commentary) rather than spending > time in rituals e.g. sandhyAvandanam? > > adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan > Vishnu >
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