SrI: SrImathE rAmAnujAya namaH SrImathE vEdAnta guravE namaH namO nArAyaNA! SrI Manohar, You opined: > I agree with Sriman Murali Sampath that what one > eats is matter of > personal choice. In the Gita the Lord says, "offer > all that you do and > eat." He does not put any conditions like no > MacDonald french fries > etc.. Ours is a religion of upadesa not > commandments. No one is born into any religion, whether it is Srivaishnavam or anything else. Only when one accepts the "upadesa" of the preceptors of the religion "as commandments" does he / she become a follower of that religion. As far as a Sri Vaishnavam is concerned, the Supreme Lord comes down as AchAryAs and gives upadesam to those who are sincere. It is upto one to take the upadesams as commandments or not; Yes it's a matter of personal choice. But onething - when you don't accept the commandments of Sriman Narayana (or SrI vaishnava AcharyAs) you are not deemed to be called as a Sri Vaishnava. You opined: > Someone those outside sri sampradaya have no reason > lecturing us, > considering that their original motive in > participating in this forum > is to learn Sri Vaisnava theology. Soon we will have > the likes of the > Talibans and Fundamental Baptist instructing us on > what to eat and > offer God. > Whatever SrI Jai Simman said in regards with eating prasadam is in line with SrI Vaishnava AchAryas' upadEsams. Hence there is no reason for you / me to discourage him or the likes of him to write in this forum. If he were to advocate something that is not inline with our philosophy, then its a different story. You opined: > First, I like to clarify that the term "demigods" > was coined by > Prabhupada. This word he 'borrowed' from Greek > mythology and > 'mis-used' it to refer to the devas. The term > demigod is only > applicable to someone like Arjuna. > Pray, what would be the correct term for devAs then? When you can borrow the english word "God" to equate with BhagavAn Sriman NarAyaNa, while the word God in noway can be equal to "BhagavAn", I don't think there is anything wrong in using the word "demigod" for devAs. You opined: > On the issue of mental offering, there is a story in > the Srimad > Bhagavatam, where a rishi mentally prepares an > offering for the Lord. > The rishi puts his finger into maenatlly visualised > preparation and > gets his fingers burnt. This story is an > illustration on the power of > an offering done mentally. > > On the issue of sattvic and non-sattvic etc. Hitler > was a vegetarian > but he killed millions of Jews, and minorities like > homosexuals, > gipsies etc. The leaders of a world famous Krishna > cult, are/were > 'pure vegetarian' who only partook bhagavad prasadam > prepared > according to 'shastric code'. But did that prevent > them from molesting > young children and having sexual affairs with their > female and male > disciples (which are still very rampant in that > movement). Did their > consciousness change from eating bhagavad prasadam? > Your kudharkAs (illogical arguments) can only be considered under pure "Sectarianism". You opined: > On the issue of killing silk worms and insects > ....blah blah. Our sri > vaisnava acaryas have not included insect/worms etc > in the category of > sentient beings, and for practical reason we do not > try and emulate > the Jainism concept of ahimsa. Can some learned SrI Vaishnava scholars clarify if insects/worms are not considered as sentinent beings by our AchAryAs? > > Rules and regulations are used by some 'groups' as a > means to achieve > the end Goal - Sriman Narayana. But for sri > vaisnavas the means and > the end is one and the same. Acknowledging, that we > are not capable of > following all these rules and regulations of bhakti > yoga, our alvars > and acaryas have showed us the easy path, Prappatti, > as taught by Lord > Krishna Himself in the Gita. While I agree with this point by you, it is not written in its correct context. If you were to think eating in McDonalds or Steak House is allowed for a prapanna, I am compelled to write this: Prapatti is not an escape for not following the rules of ShastrAs. Prapatti has its own set of rules and regulations albeit much easier ones. Infact, one of the angas of prappati is taking the resolve to not to do anything against shAstras (Sruti & Smruti), which are verily the commandments of AchAryas, and another anga is following the rules and regulations of the Shastras. I request learned scholars to correct my mistakes in this mail, if any. aDiyEn ramanuja dAsan, lakshmikumAr. Srimad Azhagiya Singar thiruvadigalE saranam! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices http://auctions.yahoo.com/
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |