English
13 April 2024
Srila Ramanujacharya Appearance Day
Speaker: HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj
om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
cakshur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah (Sri Guru Pranama)
Translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine (Srila Prabhupada Pranati)
Translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is very dear to Lord Krishna, having taken shelter at His lotus feet
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Translation: Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Chaitanyadeva and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
panca-tattvatmakam krishnam bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam namami bhakta-saktikam (Sri Panca-tattva Pranama)
Translation: I offer my obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Kirishna, who is nondifferent from His features as a devotee, devotional incarnation, manifestation, pure devotee, and devotional energy.
All Glories to the appearance day of Srila Ramanujacharya! Around 1007 years back, Srila Ramanujacharya appeared at Pedembedur in Chennai (Madras). He was a very glorious spiritual master. Very few spiritual masters have the same calibre as him.
There are four main Acharyas belonging to four different bonafide Vaishnava Sampradayas. He was the first one to appear, followed was Nimbarkacharya. Why was his appearance glorious?
The younger brother of Lord Sri Rama is Rama-anuja. He was partial incarnation of Lord Lakshmana himself. Lakshmana is Balarama or Nityananda prabhu. Lakshmana represents the spiritual master.
He played a very significant role as an acharya or the spiritual master. Even Lord Buddha had appeared. I don't have much details to research on this but I can share the details which we have.
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśhāya cha duṣhkṛitām
dharma-sansthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge (BG 4.8)
Translation: To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age.
Lakshmana had to appear in this world to establish the religious principles.
yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham (BG 4.7)
Translation: Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion---at that time I descend Myself."
This task falls under the responsibility of the Lord and his devotees also.
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ (BG 18.66)
Translation: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.
1000 years back we were facing the same decline in the religious principles. People were busy following the Karma Kanda and they were brutally performing animal sacrifices. Then the Lord had to appear as Buddha Dev and he preached the principles of Ahimsa, Non violence.
ahimsā paramo dharmah sarvaprāmabhrth smrtah
tasmāt prānabhrtah sarvān na himsyād brāhmanah
kva cit (Mahabharata Adi Parva)
Translation: Verily the highest virtue of man is sparing the life of others. Therefore a Brahmana should never take the life of any creature.
He said, forget the scriptures if they are inspiring you to kill these animals and the people followed. But leading life without Vedas is not vain. A person who is not following the Vedas is an atheist. Thus Buddhists and Jainism all fall in the same category. They preached the philosophy of voidism. Then Lord Shiva appeared as Shankaracharya and he preached impersonalism.
Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda)
Translation: "I am Brahman", or "I am Divine".
The Lord is omnipresent and formless. Also the goal of our life is to merge into this formless divine form. Aham Brahma Asmi! That Brahma has no form, quality or pastimes. When there is no form then what will he do in the places like Vrindavan, Ayodhya or any other Holy Dham. And to consider this body as ourselves is an illusion and we will get freed from this illusion, when we will get out of this body.
namaste saraswati deve
gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi
pashchatya-desha-tarine (Srila Prabhupada Pranati)
Translation: Our respectful obeisances are unto you, O spiritual master, servant of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami. You are kindly preaching the message of Lord Caitanya and delivering the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism.
The Lord has no special quality such as voidism and impersonalism. Before the appearance of Ramanujacharya, these two philosophies were dominating the society.
There were twelve Alwars. There is a place called Alarnath, near Jagannath Puri where these Alwars used to worship Lord Krsna. It's then that Srila Ramanujacharya appeared. A person is accepted as an Acharya only when they could write a commentary on Vedanta Sutra.
Madhvacharya, Nimbarkacharya, Vishnu Swami and Ramanujacharya all of them had written a commentary on Vedanta Sutra. And then fifth Sampradaya arose - the Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya and Srila Baladev Vidyabhushan wrote the commentary on Vedanta Sutra from our Sampradaya.
The commentary which was written by Srila Ramanujacharya, that was named as Sri Bhasya.
Because the main worshipable deity of their Sampradaya is Goddess Lakshmi. The Lord and everyone else is one. The Lord is Lord and I can make you the Lord. But Srila Prabhupada said, The Lord is Lord and you can never become Lord.
ekale īśvara kṛṣṇa, āra saba bhṛtya
yāre yaiche nācāya, se taiche kare nṛtya (CC Ādi 5.142)
Translation: Lord Kṛṣṇa alone is the supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so.
Ramanujacharya was the first Acharya to declare that we are two separate units, the Supreme Lord and the soul - the eternal servant.
Buddha said, zero. Shankaracharya said one and then Ramanujacharya said two. Madhvacharya placed special emphasis on these three - The Supreme Lord, Jiva and third is the devotional service. So the proper process of devotional service was given by Srila Ramanujacharya first.
At the age of 12, Srila Ramanujacharya got married. And after the death of his parents he shifted to Kanchipuran. He had five main spiritual masters. He was accepting teachings from a person named Yadav Prakash but as soon as he got to know that he was preaching impersonalism then he gave up on him. Yadav Prakash was very displeased with him and he wanted to kill Ramanujacharya but the Lord saved him.
And at the later stage, he himself accepted Ramanujacharya as his spiritual master. Ramanujacharya accepted Yamunacharya as his initiating spiritual master.
One day he received this news that his spiritual master has left this world. Thus he went to Sri Rangam and had the last darshans of his spiritual master. He was very morose, experiencing the pain of separation from his spiritual master
pāṣāṇe kuṭibo māthā anale paśibo
gaurāńga guṇera nidhi kothā gele pābo (Je Anilo Prem Dhana 4)
Translation: I will smash my head against the rock and enter into the fire. Where will I find Lord Gauranga, the reservoir of all wonderful qualities?
je anilo prema-dhana koruna pracur
heno prabhu kotha gela acarya-thakur (Je Anilo Prem Dhana 1)
Translation: He who brought the treasure of divine love and who was filled with compassion and mercy—where has such a personality as Srinivasa Acarya gone?
He observed that his spiritual master's three fingers were in an folded position. He understood that these three fingers represented his spiritual masters three unfulfilled desires. He knew what those desires were and he spoke them out as his own responsibilities. He said,
- I will refute the Mayavada Philosophy.
- I'll write a commentary on Vedanta Sutra
- I'll name one of my disciples as Parasara Muni
And thus with each announcement, Yamunacharya's each finger continued to unfold. And he could understand the heart of his spiritual master.
cakṣu-dān dilo jei, janme janme prabhu sei,
divya jñān hṛde prokāśito
prema-bhakti jāhā hoite, avidyā vināśa jāte,
vede gāy jāhāra carito (Sri Guru Carana Padma 3)
Translation: He opens my darkened eyes and fills my heart with transcendental knowledge. He is my Lord birth after birth. From him ecstatic prema emanates; by him ignorance is destroyed. The Vedic scriptures sing of his character.
When he was given the secret mantra at the time of his initiation, he heard the glories of that secret mantra. That secret mantra has the potency to deliver the fallen souls from the clutches of this material world. But if this Mantra is shared with any unqualified person then, the person who shares it would go to hell.
As soon as Srila Ramanujacharya heard this, he went onto the roof of the temple and made an announcement. He told all the villagers to chant this mantra. It's the same mood as that of Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakura Prabhupada who spoke about establishing a market place of the holy name and calling out to all the faithful people.
nadiya-godrume nityananda mahajana
patiyache nama-hatta jibera karana (Nadiya Godrume 1)
Translation: In Nadiya's Godruma the great soul Lord Nityananda has opened a marketplace to sell the holy name to the conditioned souls.
And thus he shared the mantra with all the people around, without bothering least about himself. Then he continued to stay in Sri Rangam worshiping Lakshmi Narayana. Also he travelled to different places of pilgrimage.
About 200 years prior to the appearance of Ramanujacharya, Shankaracharya appeared. Ramanujacharya had 700 Sanyasi Disciples and 12000 Brahmacharis. And thousands of Grashtha disciples and all of them were helping him to preach the glories of the Lord throughout.
Prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama
sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama (CB Antya-khanda 4.126)
Translation: In every town and village throughout the world," said Lord Caitanya, - the chanting of My holy name will be heard.
He was the leading spiritual master, 1000 years back.
evam parampara-praptam
imam rajarsayo viduh
sa kaleneha mahata
yogo nastah parantapa (BG 4.2)
Translation: This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.
So one should receive the spiritual knowledge from a bonafide Sampradaya only.
sampradaya-vihina ye mantras te nisphala matah
atah kalau bhavisyanti catvarah sampradayinah
sri-brahma-rudra-sanakah vaisnavah ksiti-pavanah
catvaras te kalau bhavya hy utkale purusottamat (Padma Puran)
Translation: Any mantra that does not come in disciplic succession is considered to be fruitless. Therefore, four divine individuals will appear in the age of Kali to found disciplic schools. The founders of these four Vaisnava sampradayas are Laksmi or Sri, Brahma, Rudra and Sanaka Rishi, and the acaryas of the Kali Age who follow their lines will appear in the holy city of Purusottama in Orissa.
Otherwise the acquired knowledge wont be fruitful. Prior to the appearance of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all these different acharyas from the four bonafide Sampradaya appeared.
bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ (BG 7.19)
Translation: After many births of spiritual practice, one who is endowed with knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be all that is. Such a great soul is indeed very rare.
A spiritual master means a Vaishnava, worshiper of Lord Vishnu only. We need to go back to Goloka Vrindavan Dham. But these impersonalists have only the aim of merging into the existence of the Lord. And the worshippers of demigods and even the worshippers of ghosts will go back to their worshipable deities.
yanti deva-vrata devan
pitrn yanti pitr-vratah
bhutani yanti bhutejya
yanti mad-yajino 'pi mam (BG 9.25)
Translation: Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me.
The person who is not worshiping Lord Vishnu, he can't be the spiritual master. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepts two qualities from each bonafide Sampradaya. From Sri Sampradaya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted the principle of unalloyed devotional service.
advaitam acyutam anādim ananta-rūpam
ādyaṁ purāṇa-puruṣaṁ nava-yauvanaṁ ca
vedeṣu durlabham adurlabham ātma-bhaktau
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi (BS 5.33)
Translation: I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is inaccessible to the Vedas, but obtainable by pure unalloyed devotion of the soul, who is without a second, who is not subject to decay, is without a beginning, whose form is endless, who is the beginning, and the eternal puruṣa; yet He is a person possessing the beauty of blooming youth.
Unalloyed devotional service of the different incarnations of Lord Vishnu/Vasudev/Krsna.
kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ
prapadyante ’nya-devatāḥ
taṁ taṁ niyamam āsthāya
prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā (Bg. 7.20)
Translation: Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures.
No offences unto the Vaishnavas and serving them nicely (Vaishnava Seva). We were welcomed very nicely on our visits to Sri Rangam. Sri Rangam is the only place where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stayed for four months on his visit to South India. Thus even he could experience that hospitality when he stayed at the place of Sri Ventak Bhatta, everyday he would go to have Darshans of Lord Ranganath, then he would perform Sankirtan and make the people dance.
Venkat Bhatta's younger brother became the follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and after initiation he got the name as Prabhodananda Thakura. And also Venkat Bhatta's son, became Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's disciple and both of them shifted to Vrindavan in later part of their lives. The son became Gopal Bhatta Goswami. Srila Prabhodananda Thakura writes, I was cheated, I was cheated. I was given no clue of this ocean of nectar.
vancito smi vancito smi
vancito smi na samsayah
visvam gaura-rase magnam
sparso’pi mama nabhavat (Caitanya-candramrta 46)
Translation: I have been deprived, I have been deprived, surely I have been deprived! The whole world became immersed in love for Sri Gaura, but alas! my destiny is such that not a drop of that love has touched me.
And he gave the conclusion that, this nectar of Radha Krsna's divine love and conjugal pastimes is the topmost. We can understand the significance of Sri Ramanujacharya's appearance in establishing and preaching of Vaishnavas Dharma. He was in Sri Rangam in his last days.
Though he left the planet, but his body (Vapu) is still present in Sri Rangam in the sitting position. He was not given a samadhi under the ground. Many times I have taken his darshans, there is a separate temple built for him.
All Glories to the appearance day of Srila Ramanujacharya!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
