Swami Ramanujar Story in Tamil – Weekly Series in Dinamalar

For those who wished to read the story of Swami Ramanujar in Tamil, leading daily DinaMalar has started a Story series on Swami Ramanuja in Tamil. The first part was published in Aanmeega Malar (a free supplement on every Saturday) last week. The story is written in a simple & engaging manner. The first part can be read in the link below. The series is published every Saturday in Aanmeega Malar, Dina Malar.

Swami Ramanujar Story in Tamil, Part 1.

Links for remaining parts will be posted in the Twitter Feed.

Watch Sri Venkateswara Bakthi Channel online

SVBC channel Online

A Darshan of Tirumala Lord Srinivasa is always an wonderful experience. The Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel brings home the Lord to our homes daily. Now the channel can now be watched on-line in the TTD Site – www.svbcttd.com

Sri Nammalwar Thirunkashatram

Sri Nammalvar

Today is the Thirunkashatram of Swami Nammalwar, the foremost of all Alwars. The greatness of the Namalvar can be known from the fact that while all other Alwars went to various Divyadesams and sung on the Perumals, for Nammalvar all the Perumals came before Alwar so that he can sing on Them. Here are a couple of Upanyasams on Nammalwar.

Upanyasams in acharya.org site

Nammalwar Vaibhavam by Sri PB Annangrachariar Swami

Thiruvaimozhi Saram by Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swami

Apoorva Ramayanam by Annangarachariar Swami

In the 1970′s, the great Sri U Ve  Annangarachariar Swami wrote a work called Apoorva Ramayanam. This is a unique way of looking at entire Sri Ramayanam through the questions asked by Valmiki to Narada about 16 auspicious qualities of Sri Rama. The divine qualities that Valmiki asked to Narada are sixteen in number. Since the Moon has sixteen phases, Sri Rama with these sixteen qualities is known as Ramachandra. In explaining the sixteen qualities and showing how Rama exhibited these, one can cover the entire Sri Ramayanam.

The above work by Annangarachariar Swami has been translated in English by Swami TCA Venkatesan of acharya.org. Interested people can subscribe to acharya.org  newsletter and receive e-mails as and when they are translated. Below is an excerpt from the translation of Apoorva Ramayanam sent by e-mail.

Image via Wikipedia

There are some that say that the Lord can never be said to suffer and that suffering is to be rejected. There are two types of suffering: svArtha and parArtha. When one suffers due to a misfortune that fell on one’s self, it is called svArtha du:kha. When one suffers seeing the misfortune of another, it is called parArtha du:kha. The former can be rejected but not the latter. The latter is a great quality. We see in this world, when someone suffers, if a person looks at that and remains unaffected, he is called stone-hearted. On the other hand, a person who is affected seeing anothers suffering is celebrated as kind hearted. Therefore, if He is affected by seeing someone’s suffering, it is to be celebrated and not rejected. Allowing other great qualities but rejecting this one alone is even not acceptable.

One thing may be said here. In this world, we may be affected seeing anothers suffering because we are unable to remove that suffering. The Lord who is known as praNathArtihara has the ability to remove the suffering. Why would He be affected then? The quality of suffering when seeing anothers hardship and the ability to remove that hardship are not opposed to each other. As an example – when a child has a hardship, even though his mother has the ability to remove that immediately, we see that she still suffers saying ‘It is my duty to protect this child from all hardships; yet I missed it and allowed the child to suffer; how could I have done that?”

When Draupathi suffered at the hands of Duschasana, Sri Krishna removed that and yet continued to regret that He was far away and not present physically there to remove her misery. He said that He was in her debt always for not saving her prior to the event taking place. He felt the same way with the elephant Gajendra after killing the crocodile that attacked it. Azhvars and Acharyas have melted thinking of His state after this event. Thus, His grace in suffering seeing the hardship of others cannot be questioned. This quality can also be seen in Sri Ramayanam.

Interested people can click here to subscribe to acharya.org newsletter to recieve the entire series of Apoorva Ramayanam translation.

Why is the Lord in different postures? Beautiful article from The Hindu

A really beautiful article from The Hindu about the various postures of Lord in different temples.

If we visit a house, and the lady of the house says that her husband is away, and will be back only the next day, we wait for his return. And since we have to wait a long time, we lie down on the pyol at the entrance to the house. If the man will join us shortly, we sit outside the house, waiting for him to join us. If the man is ready and will be with us in a few minutes, we await him standing.

Just as our posture changes according to the situation, Lord Narayana’s archa from also is seen in different postures in different temples, depending on the circumstances. Lord Srinivasa of Tirumala is seen in a standing posture, because He is not content with the fact that there are reformed souls, whose only thoughts are of Him. He wants to bring under His fold every one of us. Imagine a greedy man who has a sack full of coins. Even if one coin drops out of the sack, he will not go his way, thinking that after all when he has a sack full of coins, a single coin does not matter much. He will stoop to pick up the coin. So also is Lord Srinivasa greedy when it comes to saving us. There may be many who adore Him, but He will not let go those who have not realized the path to salvation.

It is in order to instantly lend a hand to the person who slips from the path of righteousness, and put him back on track, that Lord Srinivasa is in a standing posture in Tirumala.

The complete article can be read here – www.hindu.com/2009/10/19/stories/2009101960191200.htm

Life of Swami Ramanuja in Pictures…

I always longed for something like this, Vaishnava stories in pictures. Sriman Narayana had just given that; story of Swamy Ramanuja in pictures. The people at antaryami.net have put up these wonderful images in Picassa Web Albums. The albums can be seen by anybody and Sign in is not require to view the album. Here is the link to the album -

http://picasaweb.google.se/antaryami.net/LifeOfSwamiRamanuja#

More Sri Vaishnava photos can be found in other Albums of Antaryami.net – http://picasaweb.google.se/antaryami.net

Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy’s interview in The Hindu

The Hindu newspaper carried a wonderful interview with Swami Velukkudi Krishnan. Here are some excertps

“My grandfather wanted at least one of his five sons to be brought up the traditional way, acquiring knowledge in Vedanta and Sastra and spreading Dharma…”

Swami begins the interview with the above words. When asked about quitting a well paid job in an MNC to be more involved in Upanyasams, Swami said

“Please don’t call Upanyasam my profession. It is just sharing my own experience. It is neither a trade nor a job. Experiencing the Brahman is bliss and I only want to share it with everyone. Spiritualism does not need special skill or intelligence. Nor can you achieve salvation by memorising the 4,000 verses. The Lord only expects unconditional love. Throughout his life, my father was only trying to make people understand this. If you read the works of the Acharyas, Azhwars and Nayanmars you will see that love was the underlying factor of all their immortal works.”

Swami says the following words when asked about his 2 sons,

“My duty is to make them enlightened bhaktas and not trained orators.”

Through the above words, Swami subtly tells how a Sri Vaishnaav should live. As a Sri Vaishnava it’s one’s duty to teach his children the way of Bakthi and the irrelevance of this materialistic world. But deciding on what finally they should become is in hands of Sriman Narayana. We should just do our duty of teaching to our children and leave the rest to Sriman Narayana. Swami finishes the interview with the following words

“Many feel that Bhakti is for the old. On the contrary, one should attain Atma Gnanam at a very young age like Prahalada. The Bhagavad Gita is one text that should be read by everyone. Assimilating the content may be a difficult task initially, but constant reading will lead to eternal bliss. Tiruppavai too helps in fostering Gnanam.”

The complete interview can be read in The Hindu Website – www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/article554281.ece