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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00089 May 2003

 
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sri:

Srimate Ramanujaya Namah:

Dear Sri Srinivasan Swamin,

My humble pranams to you and the elders on this group.

Adiyen would like to address your question on the recitation of the 
mantrapushpam and its relevance to Vaishnava Sampradayam.Before I proceed 
further to discuss that portion of the question, it is key to understand the 
foundations of the sampradayam propagated by Sri Ramanuja . 

The foundation or basis for this school of thought are : 

1. The Prasthana Traya - 3 fundamental sources of ideas as follows : 

The Vedas and Upanishads 
Brahma Sutras by Sage Badarayana 
The Bhagavad Gita 

2. The Nalayira Dhivya Prabhandam 

A compilation of 4000 Hymns by the 12 Azhvar Saints ( mystic poets of South 
India) who are held in high esteem as divine manifestations of Lord Vishnu's 
eternal companions in his celestial abode known as Vaikunta. The hymns are 
composed in Tamil language and mirror the concepts of the Vedas and Upanishads; 
therefore earning the name of 'Dravidia Veda'. The beauty of Dravida Veda is 
that it is open to people of all backgrounds regardless of caste,creed,color or 
gender.The rules for the recitation of Dravida Veda are minimal. For the 
chanting of Veda, several stringent rules apply and this restricts the study of 
Veda to certain groups of people.This is not the case with Dravida Veda. 
Ramanuja therefore placed heavy emphasis on Dravida Veda and used it as a 
unifying force to bring together the community of devotees. 

3. Vaishnava Agamas

The Agamas are texts derived from various concepts in the Vedas dealing with 
worship. The Agamas describe in detail the various forms of God , the methods 
of temple worship, home worship, fire sacrifices offerings and other related 
ideas. The Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya accepts two Agamas only as authoritative 
and non conflicting with Vedas. They are : Pancharatra Agama & Vaikhanasa Agama 
. Of the two Pancharatra is the pradhana or main source of authority for the 
Sri Vaishnavas. Vaikhanasa Agama is highly utilized for temple worship only and 
is restricted to a certain group of Vedic priests. Pancharatra is more 
universal and used extensively by the Sri Vaishnava Acharyas to propagate 
worship of Vishnu among the masses .

The beauty of The Vedic System is summarized very nicely by Sri Parasara 
Bhatta, ( an acharya in the post Ramanuja Period ) the Uttarasataka ( Verse 14 
) of his Sri Rangaraja Stava as follows: 
" The Vedantic View is that the Vedas are aupurusheya and that they are 
recollected and uttered by the Lord Himself from time to time.This itself 
imparts a pre-eminent position to the Vedas, the highest authority on which are 
based all other texts.The Fifth Veda ,namely the Mahabharata itself declares 
that schools like the Sankhya,Yoa and Pasupata are valid only in part and the 
pancaratra,being the spoken word of the Lord Himself,is valid in toto " 

* source : Parasara Bhatta ,His contributions to Visishtadvaita,Dr 
S.Padmanabhan.P79,Sri Vsisishtadvaita Research Centre,Madras

In the traditional Vedic form of worship, there are a standard set of 16 steps 
observed in worship called Shodasa Upachara .The 6 fold method of 
Thiruvaradhanam is structured around these 16 basic steps( there a few 
variations to this list) . They are :

a.. Avahanam - invocation
b.. Asanam - offering a seat for the Lord and His eternal consort Sri
c.. Padyam -offering of water to wash the feet of the divine couple
d.. Arghyam -offering of water to wash the hands of the divine couple
e.. Achamaniyam -offering of weater to rinse the mouth 
f.. Snanam -the offering of the ceremonial bath 
g.. Vastram - offering of clothes
h.. Yajnopavitam -offering of the sacred thread
i.. Gandham - offering of sandalwood pulp scented with camphor and saffron 
strands
j.. Pushpam -fresh fragrant flowers to the recitation of the namavalis of the 
Lord and His eternal consort
k.. Dhupam -incense
l.. Deepam -lamp with ghee wick
m.. Neivedyam -food offering 
n.. Thambulam -betel leaves and betel nuts
o.. Neerajanam -mangala aarati
p.. Mantrapushpam - final offering of flowers with gratitude to the Lord
The Mantrapushpamin temples or Yajnas is generally chanted when flowers are 
offered to the Lord in a ceremonial process called " pushpanjali" at the end of 
the puja or yajna .The Mantra Pushpam is a melodious vedic prayer and chanted 
in temples and homes by those who follow Vedic Tradition.Therefore there is no 
conflict between Chanting the Mantrapushpam and following Vaishnava 
Sampradayam.The Ramanuja system of theology is based on Vedas only and all 
those who have formal vedic initiation should continue the Vedic tradition by 
learning and reciting them through an acharya.

Though not a vaidika brahmana, by birth or qualification, adiyen wishes to take 
this opportunity to appeal to one and all who are following the Vedas to 
continue the practice of preserving the Sacred Hymns revealed by the great 
Rishis .Learning Vedas - It is not an opportunity that everybody receives. 
Let's treasure our sacred Vedas and work towards preserving them . 

Forgiveness is sought at the feet of the elders & Lord Srimannarayana , if I 
have committed any errors in this post. 

Sarvapacharam Kshamasva.

Adiyen

B.Haresh,Singapore





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