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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00031 Mar 2003

 
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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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