You are here: SriPedia - Ramanuja - Archives - Feb 2004

Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00105 Feb 2004

 
Feb 2004 Indexes ( Date | Thread | Author )
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]


Dear Sri Srinivasa chari,

Accept my praNAms. Seems like you are not convinced about gAyatrI :-).
First of all the sAvitrI mantra is not for everybody and you are 
right in that our sampradAyam promises something more - eligibility 
of women, shUdras and avarNas (no offence is meant for any category). 
If I am right, only the twice-born were eligible for seeking brahma-
gnyana according to advaitins.
I don't have the 'nityam' work by rAmAnuja with me right now but 
remember seeing brahma yagnyam, vaiswedevam etc. apart from sandhya 
as daily duties. Let us go from here.

#1: pAncharAtra samhitas have a distinct vaishNava type 
sandyavandanam. There the gAyatrI mantra is not chanted, but vishNu 
gAyatrI in morning, dvAdashaksharI in afternoon and ashtAksharI in 
the evening.
Our pUrvAchAryas did not throw away the existing 'vedic' sandhya into 
dustbin, right? Perhaps, throwing it away and replacing with Agamic 
practices might be a good idea. Subsequent generations may not be 
squeamish about worshipping 'various vedic deities' apart from 
nArAyaNa and 'can have the right bhAvam', because worship of nArAyaNa 
is explicit instead of as a hidden antaryAmi in vedic savita, agni, 
mitra, varuNa, indra etc. :)

#2: What is the scope of rAmAnuja sampradAyam? Was it vedanta or 
elucidation of dharma sUtras? It isn't necessary to go over dharma 
sUtras, shruti etc. once again, as we accept them as pramANas (unlike 
bauddhas and jainas who reject them). Our issues are with mImAmsakas 
who relegate gnyAna kAndam as mere artha vAdam and hence unnecessary 
(though we may agree with them with respect to karma kAndam) and 
advaitins, who according to us give distorted meaning for 
upanishads :). 

#3: If a shUdra or avarNa is guaranteed eligibility for brahma gnyAna 
and moksha, what is the necessity to do any of the vedic practices? 
At most, by forsaking them, a dvija will be a bhrashtA, but still 
have eligibility for brahma gnyAnam & moksham, in our sampradAyam, 
right? Why then sandhya is included in the nityam?


Forgive me if I seem to be beating around the bush. My understanding 
(may be incorrect) is that rAmAnuja need not and would not 
say 'gAyatrI upAsana' is be all and end all, because that would 
exclude women, shUdras and avarNas. However, that automatically 
doesn't imply that those who are eligible should go ahead and 
foresake it, as he includes performance of them in his nityam. 

He doesn't need to re-describe the efficacy of them, because it was 
already done so by vedas, by our rishis and sUtrakAras. We don't have 
any objection to the works of sUtrakAras. (We go to the extent of 
allowing animal sacrifice in the context of srauta yagnyas and do not 
accept the pishTa pashu (flour animal) replacement that madhvas use. 
Remember, suggestion of pishTa pashu (jain polemic nIlAkshi for e.g., 
vayu purANam) was there for a long time and rAmAnuja had an option of 
adopting it).

However, nowhere it is said that you can go ahead and ignore all 
others except sandhyA. The subtle difference as pointed out by Shri 
Venkatesan is, "even if you ignore all others, do not ignore sandhyA".


Regards,
Kasturi Rangan

--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, srinivasa chary <srinivasadasa@xxxx> 
wrote:
> Dear Shri Kasturi Rangan,
> Thank you for very informative posts on Sandhya, Gayatri 
and related issues from Brahmanas, Dhramasutras, etc. Needless to say 
the evidence is overwhelmingly in your favour. I would still have 
preferred for pramanas from within Sri Ramanuja sampradayam as done 
in postings of some of the bhagavathas. While there is no intention 
here to argue that Sri Ramanuja sampradayam is out side the pale of 
Dharma sUtra, is n't it true that the sampradayam promises something 
more than Gayatri to its votaries, and that something should be 
focussed on? Or should we follow Gayatri Upasana, so gloriously 
praised in Brahmanas, as the be-all-and-end-all? 
> Just to tempt you to disseminate more information from your 
Vedic research!
> Regards,
> Srinivasadasa 
> 




[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index ] [Thread Index ] [Author Index ]
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia
ramanuja-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To subscribe to the list