Advaita and Vaishnavam

[Ravi]

--- Ravi <miinalochanii at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> But this aiyar-aiyangar problem is quite deep and many many aiyars
> (at
> least my friends) do not realize that they are smArta-s and align
> themselves with vaiShNava-s. I did that once. I used wonder once (in
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^ This should read as shaiva-s

> the past) why there are so many Narayanans and Srinivasans in my
> family
> why we dont stay loyal to shiva and keep his name. As often,
> fanatacism
> is rooted in ignorance. Later as I learned more, I grew out of it.
> And
> God was merciful to give so many good iyengar friends, to heal me of
> my
> inner inconsistencies  in this regard.
>
> One greatest beauty of advaita-vedAnta is whether one worships allaH,
> christ, shiva or viShNu fanatically, we can peacfully go to his
> mosque,
> church, or temple, and worship the One supreme being that name and
> form.
>
> I will stop here, as this one problem I have personally gone through
> I
> still have those vAsana-s left in me. Whatever said in this post only
> reflect my state of ignorance at this point of time.


Ganesh Deivashikamani,

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote an article on panchAyatana pUja
sometime back. Please refer to that article.

Regarding your question about smArta-s, they are so called because they
follow smr^iti-s. Even before the advent of shrI shankara, smArta-s
were there, as smR^iti-s are ancient. We can say that shrI shankara was
also a smArta. But he being an amsham Lord shiva, such classification
may not truly apply to him.

On this point, it was those who were smArta-s later embraced
shrIvaishNavam after the advent of rAmunjAcharya. In that sense they
were also smArta-s.

It is said that shruti and smR^iti are two eyes of a person. The word
nayana comes from the root naya which means "to lead". The purpose of
physical eyes is to lead a person while walking, etc. Since shruti and
smriti-s lead every one to mokSha, they are compared to eyes. It is
said that a brahmana who does not know these are blind even if he has
physical eyes (I read this verse in Sai sat charitra). I think this
should extend to every one.

In this world (at all times) only a few follow shruti and smriti
correctly. In that sense most of us are blind. That is why Lord Krishna
say only one in a thousand seeks me and among those one in a thousand
attains me. Here thousand implies a huge number.


Besides this coming back to your point on panchAyatana pUja, in Tamil
Nadu, since most people worship Lord shaNmukha with deep love, some
tamil smArta-s include vEl (shakti Ayudham of Lord skanda) along with
shiva, viShNu, ambaaL, ganesha and Aditya. There is talk on this
subject in the book Dharma which is a translation of talks of kAnchi
periyava.


Ravi

_____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Free instant messaging and more at http://messenger.yahoo.com