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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00062 Jan 2003

 
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Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 15:24:59 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Narasimhan Krishnamachari" <champakam@xxxx> | This is 
Spam | Add to Address Book 
Subject: Re: [SriRangaSri] visishtadvaita philosophy 
To: "sadagopaniyengar" <sadagopaniyengar@xxxx>, "b vaidya 
nathan" <vaidyanathiyer@xxxx> 
CC: kpnarasimhan@xxxx 




I had tried to stress the same point to SrI Vaidyanathan, without 
much success. There are vedic quotes that advaitins use to bring out 
their philosophy, and so also the dvaitins and the viSishTAdvaitins 
have vedic declarations to support their positions. A public forum 
like this is not the place where one can get into arguments trying to 
establish the validity of one system or the other, partly because we 
are not "inventing" new grounds here. Our AcArya-s have analyzed 
these points in thorough depth over 800 years back. The best 
starting position for all of us is to accept a position, and live by 
it, based on our elders' instructions and our AcAryas' guidance. If 
we want to learn about a different faith, we should be sincere in 
trying to learn the other sampradAyam, and not approach the "learning 
process" by questioning the basics of the sampradAyam. We don't need 
to accept the other sampradAyam, but we should be sincere in our 
desire to learn. There is a book titled "sarvArtha siddhi of SrI 
ve'nkaTanAtha" by SrI v.n. SeshAdri AcArya, which I think is availble 
from the ahobila maTham USA. This is a very easily readable book, 
and gives very clear exposition of the differences between the 
advaita and the viSishTAdvaita philosophies. The liks of rAmAnuja 
and deSika spent a lot of their time thoroughly mastering advaita 
before commenting on it and rejecting it. They did not postulate 
their own positions first, and then kept arguing only for their 
positions. Instead, they stated the advaita position, they quoted 
the words of Sa'nkara, and then gave reasons why they do not agree 
with this position - based on vedic pramANa-s, and then gave their 
positions - based on vedic pramANa-s. We should not make light of 
these great AcArya-s by just writing at our level what we feel and 
what we think. I personally respect Sa'nkara for his contributions 
in resisting the spread of buddhism etc, at his time, but, based on 
our AcArya-s, I also accept the position declared by our AcArya-s 
based on their deep analysis of all the different faiths. 

-Krishnamachari 

sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar@xxxx> wrote: 

dear shri vaidyanathan, i do not use my yahoo id anymore and saw your 
mail
only today. here is my reply.
in the Vibhuti Yogam of Bhagavat Gita, the Lord says that he is the 
best of
all creatures in each class. thus he says he is the peepal tree among 
trees
and the whale among fishes. similarly, he says that he is shankara 
among the
rudras. by this token, if you were to equate Him with shankara, you 
would
have to equate Him with the peepal tree and the whale too.
Sri Rama's worshipping the lingam at Rameswaram lacks authenticity 
because
of its non-mention in Srimad Valmiki Ramayanam, which is acknowledged 
to be
the only authentic account of Sri Rama's life.
as to the nayanmars' views, they are shaivites and cannot be expected 
to say
anything else. if you examine impartial accounts like the Vedas, 
Satvika
Puranas, the Bhagavat Gita, etc., and even ancient Tamil literature 
of the
Sangam age, you will find Sriman Narayana being extolled as the 
Parabrahmam.
whether we are an iyer or an iyengar, we would do well to stick to 
the way
our forefathers have travelled, rather than strike out independently 
for an
egalitarian approach in matters of spirituality.
the correct approach should be to identify and build on points of 
agreement,
while staying faithful to one's own tradition. nothing prevents us 
being
friends and share divine experiences, while being steadfast in our own
faiths.
thanks and regards, sadagopan





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