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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00038 Feb 2004

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha



How to come out of this cycle of life and death? This question lies in most of 
our minds where to find the answer? Emperuman who has so much grace on us will 
never leave us in darkness so he gifted us with the Vedas that alone can clear 
all our doubts. Once Indra and virOchanan approached brahma and asked, "Please 
let us know about the athma (nature of the soul)?" Brahma replied, "that which 
you see with your eyes is the athma". Virochanan accepted the same without any 
further questioning and believed that the body visible to our eyes to be the 
athma but Indra analysed a little deeper and came to brahma again and asked the 
same question. Now brahma told him "consider your prAnan (breath) to be the 
athma. Since the body has life only when there is inhalation and exhalation". 
Again Indra started to think and couldn't get satisfied. So he went back to 
brahma and enquired. Brahma said," consider your mind to be the athma" In this 
way Indra refused to accept each time and kept on questioning brahma and 
finally brahma told him the truth that the soul who is a seshan (servant) to 
the emperuman and he who is jnanasvaroopan (personification of knowledge) is 
the actual athma. So to learn the truth we have to analyse and not accept 
whatever one says. The Vedas are the text that does these analyses in depth and 
provides us all the final facts. Thirumangai azhvar feels his utmost gratitude 
towards emperuman to have granted the Vedas with full mercy on each one of us. 
So Azhvar next calls emperuman as (vEdam nAngAi) Oh! Lord the 4 vEdas are none 
other than you yourself. Emperuman himself declares this as, "vedaischa sarvai: 
ahamEva vEdhya:" (I am the prime topic of all the vedas and hence I am well 
understood only through the sastras). Among the three accepted pramAnAs, 
prathyaksham, anumAnam and sabhdham only the sabhdha pramAna (the Vedas) can 
actually show us the paramatma.



But does the Vedas show only the paramatma Sriman Narayanan? No. It gives 
references to number of devas and even states them to be the supreme. Not only 
that the Vedas also specify a number of karmas and ways to attain the supreme. 
Why are the Vedas not clear and why are they confusing? True. The Vedas do talk 
about a variety of things. Why? That's because not all of us are equal in 
knowledge and practice. Each one of us differs in different manner. Our 
interests are different. Our understanding capacities vary. So the Vedas that 
are common to all show different things suitable to different adhikAris 
(categories of people). The same is done by our dear geethAcharyan also in his 
divine bhagavat geetha where he talks about karma, jnana, bhakthi and 
prapaththi yoga to suit different adhikaris (categories of people).



GeethAcharayan says in the second chapter,

"triguNya vishayA vEdA: nistraigunyO bhavArjuna I

nirdvanthvo nithya satvasthO niryOgakshEma AthmavAn II" (2-45)



(Oh! arjuna the Vedas say the good for people with all three gunas. But you can 
climb a step higher. Overcome the doubles viz., joy and sorrow, hot and cold, 
profit and loss, victory and defeat. Let your satva guna grow day by day. Leave 
the yoga, effort in obtaining other objects other than the athmasvaroopam and 
the kshemam, effort put in preserving the obtained objects and get involved 
with the upliftment of the soul alone)



"yAvAnartha udhapAnE sarvadha: sampluthodhakE I

thAvAn sarvEshu vEdhEshu brAhmanAsya vijAnatha: II



(In a big river (water source) a person who is thirsty can drink only the 
required amount of water similarly out of all the Vedas whichever part is 
necessary for a vaidhikan/mumukshu he has to choose that much only. Not all 
will be applicable to everyone.)



Now arjuna didn't really know which he has to choose and hence krishna himself 
guides him in the next sloka:



"karmanyEvAdhikArasthE mApalEshu kadAchana I

mA karmapalahEdur bhoo: mA thE sankOstva karmani II"



(For a mumukshu like you, your concentration should be on your nithya naimithya 
karmas but never think about the lowly results of svargam etc as your result to 
be obtained. Don't consider yourself to be the reason for both the karma and 
result. Don't get involved in not doing the karma that results in moksha)



In this manner geethAcharyan instructed arjuna the importance of karma yoga. In 
this manner emperuman stands as the four vedas to show the right way to each 
one of us so that all of us will get uplifted from this samsAram gradually. 
Karma yoga is the first step that will lead to purification of our mind that 
will in turn lead to Jnana yoga that will help us in attaining athma 
sAkshAtkaram (knowing the soul) and then we will be able to indulge in the 
ultimate enjoyment of the soul and permanently mediate on it. This is the crux 
of the first six chapters in geetha. 



(To be continued)



Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam



Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan





























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