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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00109 Feb 2004

 
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Dear Sri Srinivasachary,
The question boils down to "Can gAyatrI upAsanA yield moksha?" I was 
deliberately avoiding this issue, as it would mutate into other 
unrelated discussions like bhakti/prapatti, sahEtuka krpA/nirhEtuka 
krpA etc. etc.

I don't think we can afford to say, gAyatrI upAsanA cannot yield 
mOksha because it directly contradicts chAndOgya brAhmaNam and we 
have a (probably unnecessary :-)) baggage of affiliation with vaidika 
dharmam. If we do so, advaitins and mImAmsakas (if they still exist) 
will have a field day and rip our sampradAya apart charging us with 
the crime of going against vEdas.

Moreover, gAyatrI vidyA is one among many vidyAs mentioned in the 
upanishads along with others like bhUmA vidyA, dahara vidyA, madhu 
vidyA(*) etc.

There is then a tricky issue of our TK sampradAyam - whether any of 
these can constitute an upAyam for mOksham, as a jIva is utterly 
dependent on the lord and any conscious effort on jIva's part is 
against his nature. 

The madhu vidyA is of particular interest to me as it is directly 
traceable to the Rg & Atharva samhitas, hinted in the context of 
pravargya ritual in shathapatha brAhmaNa apart from being described 
in madhubrAhmaNa of brhadAraNyaka upanishad. (This in turn confirms 
my observation - the division of vedas into 
samhita/brAhmaNam/AraNyakam/upanishad is not entirely true and vedas 
themselves do not know of karmakAndam/gnyAnakAndam division). The 
only valid division (at least according to me) is matras & brAhmaNas. 
This should be a separate thread.

Good that you brought up our shrutaprakAshar sudarshana sUri. He has 
written commentary on Apastamba grhya sUtra called tatparyadarshanam 
and refutes views of an earlier commentator haradatta. This haradatta 
has written a commentary on the entire Apastamba kalpa sUtra, 
including the dharma sUtra. I don't know whether sudarshana sUri 
commented on dharma sUtra. He is supposed to have written 
sandhyAvandana bhAshyam, commentary on Apastamba mantra pATham and 
chAndOgya upanishad and subAla upanishad.

Probably, his sandhyAvandana bhAshyam might throw more light on how 
our early AchAryas viewed nitya karmas. I did not have the bhAgyam of 
reading it.

Regards,
Kasturi Rangan




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