Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha Dear All, I have something to share in this context. I don't understand who ever floated the idea that "prapatti was a concept developed fully by later Vaishnavas--not Acarya Ramanuja himself"... I have heard about this from many people. I am wondering how could this kind of mis- conception even araise. And I also found out the answer for that. The reason why people are still floating these type of misconceptions is because, not many have really tried to understand the fundamentals of the Vaishnava sampradayam. Here is something that explains Shri Ramanujar DID follow prapatti (forget, Shri Ramanujar, this was followed by every acharya who existed before him). Fundamentals First.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thirumanthram - "Om Namo Narayanaya" - Explains Athma Swaroopam Dwayam - "Shriman Narayana Charanou Sharanam PRAPATHYE Shrimathe Narayanaya Namaha" - Explains the concept of Prapatti and more. The above two were maintained as a rahasyam across the Shri Vaishnava acharya paramparais. Shri Ramanujar walked from ShriRangam to Thirukkoshtiyur 18 TIMES to learn these manthrams from Thirukkoshtiyur Nambi. At the last time, Swami Thirukkoshtiyur Nambi felt happy about Shri Ramanujar's dedication and did a manthra upadesam(advice/explanation) on the above mentioned rahasyams and their arthams(meaning). Shri Ramanujar was so happy to hear this concept of prapatti and immediately realised that this was not just for brahmins(the then aryas), but for everyone. He immediately went up to the Kovil gopuram and shouted towards EVERYONE(caste/creed no bar) to come and hear the same. This is well depicted in Shri Manavala Maamunigal's Upadesa Rattinamaalai: "aasayudayorkkellaam aariyargaal kooorum endru pesi varambarutthar pin" - meaning "he told the aaryas(the then brahmins) to tell about these rahasyams to ALL THOSE who wanted to know and thus he broke the border/fence there by letting this concept reach EVERYONE. Points to note from the above: 1) Prapatti existed from time immemorial(Dwayam was initially told by Lord Shriman Narayana to Periya Prattiyar) and hence there is no doubt that Shri Ramanujar was aware and was following PRAPATTI 2) Just because Shri Ramanujar did not do a separate work on Prapatthi it never meant that he did not follow prapatthi. He followed so many things, but didn't have to write. He wrote nothing on any of the 4000 Divya Prabandhams, but it never means he didn't respect them. Shribhashyam was more to encounter the advaitic and other notions because of the misinterpretations, the latter ones had published, on Vedas. Shri Ramanujar's works were to make the brahmins understand well about the Vedas/Gitas etc while what he actually deviced and practiced was the concept of Shri Vaishnavam and Prapatti (the pancha samaskaram, the thiruman, prabandha, veda goshti etc) that was for everyone. 3) We must first try to learn the very FUNDAMENTALS of our sampradayam before even trying to float/ask a question on something that may or may not be true(I am sorry to be aggressive via this statement, but this is a bitter truth. Not many of us ask questions after knowing the fundamentals. Sometimes we ask questions based on some misinterpretations or misinformation provided by others. If we are interested in the sampradayam, the first thing we need to do is find out an appropriate acharya and try to get to know the basics and once we are done with this, trust me, we would start understanding everything) No offense intended by this mail to anyone, and in case I have hurt anyone, my sincere apologies. Thanks to Shri Pattangi swami for giving me an opportunity to post this mail in addition to what he has written in reply to someone's mail. All, Kindly feel free to correct me if you feel I were wrong. Yatheendra Pravanam Vandhe RAMYA Jaamaataram Munim Adiyen Ramanuja DAsan, Lakshmi Narasimhan --- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Pattangi <danp@xxxx> wrote: > sri: > > Dear Devotees: Please accept adiyEN's humble pranams. > > Sri Vikram, these days normally, adiyen stays away from discussions as > there is so much to learn and experience by HIS grace, your mail > got me going on my thought process. > > You Wrote: > :> Lipner, also upholds the view that sudras will have to wait > :> additional lifetimes to get moksham. Vedic knowledge is an ABSOLUTE > > THIS IS NOT TRUE, As PER SRI RAMANUJA and his works, please read > Sri Saranagathy Gadya by Sri Ramanuja (with exaplnations) > > ALL LIVING BEINGS (NOT JUST HUMANS) are allowed moksha regardless their > caste, creed or specie. > > :> Also, prapatti was a concept developed fully by later Vaishnavas- -not > :> Acarya Ramanuja himself. His Gita exegesis states nowhere that sudras > :> can get moksham in this lifetime. The way out of it is (perhaps) to > > No No You got that wrong, > Yes Acharya Ramanuja had the concept of Saranagahty foully documented > and showed us how to, by HIS grace and sambhandam(relationship) only > we are all able to go to moksha today. > > You are confusing, Bharanyasam as a seperate procedure, (apart from > surrender, Samashreyanam) > has not been detailed by ramanuja or practiced by his immediate disciples > > (This is not the same as surrender), Surrender (saranagathy) > (is open to all beings, at any time that the being is ready, through a > qualified acharyan) > > Sri Bhashya was written for the VEDIC educated elite, (are any of us in > that category today to understand this fully as intended) > > ======================================================= > All the above is my personal opinion only, learned scholars may want to > add their points and correct adiyen where appropriate, > > adiyEN Ramanuja Dasan > Mukundan V. Pattangi > > www.radioramanuja.com
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