The wonder of it all.(A)

The ordinary consciousness takes for granted the things that exist as they are. It does not question; it finds everything very natural and as a matter of course. It sees and expects to see the same old familiar things repeated and is not struck by any  extraordinary note in them. that is the unconsciousness of the ordinary consciousness. But when you begin to be conscious, when you look about and gaze at things, you awake, as it were from sleep, and begin to question, to wonder: why is it like this, how is it so, what is it, to what purpose etc etc. Normally you see the sun rise, rain fall, earth rotate but you do not spend a thought over any of these happenings, except that they are useful or simple nuisance. But when there is a light in you and you become conscious, conscious of yourself and the things around you then every thing acquires an importance, a sense and you are full of wonder, wondering at the wonderful creation. The more you advance the more the light grows in you. now all the more the wonder increases. As awareness increases, your interest too increases. a new beauty surrounds, flows out of every object and event. You do not take things for granted and let things pass mechanically, but meet with every one of them as a guest, with whom you wish to make acquaintance and be familiar, each one having a message for you and yourself something to deliver. that is the source of inexhaustible delight and of ever increasing knowledge.   

The Succession after Ramanuja.

According to the Tengalai accounts, Ramanujar appointed Parasara Bhattar his successor as Acharya. Bhattar wrote several Sanskrit hymns he also wrote in Sanskrit commentary on the ancient Vaishnava works the thousand names of Vishnu and a manual of daily worship.
The Vadagalai bographies state that Ramanujar appointed his Uncle Tirumalai Nambis son Tirukkuruhai Piran Pillan (Kuresa as his successor in the authoritative exposition of both the sanskrit and tamil scriptures. The very first of the written commentaries on the tamil hymns written in heavily sanskritized tamil is said to have been written by Pillan on the basis of Ramanujas own lectureson the hymn. earlier evidence however proves Parasara bhattar to be the successor. But it can be seen as a genius of Ramanujar that he set his disciples to different tasks depending on their talent and also his view of the needs of the community. today it however seems strange that the person who the northern school believe to be his successor had written the work assigned to him in Tamil and the Southern school believer  to have written in Sanskrit. and what goes to prove is that Ramanujar foresaw the change in the tradition of the teachings being orally handed down to be over taken by written literature. therefore he assigned his disciples duties so that each of them could see the greatness of both the Alwars works and the Vedic tradition to make it clear that he preached Ubhaya Vedanta. Ramanuja was not the originator of the traditions he articulated or the founder of the distictive sri Vaishnava community, but he had much to do with articulating those traditions in their synthesis in a way that made them known all over India and with the enlarging the Sri vaishnava community.

The recorded teachings of Ramanujacharya.

People outside of the Sri Vaishnava community in India and the west too know Ramanuja only as the author of the theistic commentary on the Vedanta Sutras called Sri Bhashya. and that too many have read only the very first sutra which itself is a wide ranging essay which is so comprehensive that they feel it is the summary of all of his works and his philosophy. a smaller group outside may also know of his commentary on Bhagvad gita yet again few among them may know that he has authored Vedartha sangraha a summary and meaning of the Vedas.
However within the two schools of Sri Vaishnava community there is agreement that he has authored nine works all in Sanskrit. Besides the above mentioned there are two brief commentaries on the Vedanta sutras, three gadyas and a manual of daily worship.
Divya Suri Carita containing a poetic history of the Sri Vaishnava saints and teachers gives the list in one verse. but this work seems to have ended before the end period of Ramanujacharya. The Author Garuda Vahana Pandita. has written a poetic drama giving the above details. but there is a doubt that this work may have been written 200 years later by one having the same name belonging to the same family it may be actually a title held by the family.
The first authentic reference is there fore by Sudarshana suri the last of the great teachers before the split of the Northern and Southern schools of the Sri vaishnava community.
But it is known that Sri ramanuja lectured in Tamil commenting on the hymns of the Alvars especially  the Tiruvaimoli. the first written commentary of this is said to have been written by one of his own disciples at his behest. It is written in a heavily Sanskritized Tamil called Maniparvala and many of the phrases are characteristic of Ramanuja.
The six thousand and the thirty six thousand etc have many of Ramanujas opinion scattered all over. Another work called Varttamalai which has a record of conversations of a number of earlier acharyas gathered together.this too shows no work in Tamil by Sri Ramanujacharya.
to be continued.

Ramanuja as leader of the community.

Ramanujacharya became an ascetic and established his own math near the temple in Kanchi. His first disciple was his elder sister's son Mudali Andan (Dasarathi) and a scholarly and wealthy Brahmin called Kurattalvan (Kuresa) Also called Sri Vatasanka who gave away his wealth and lived with his wife in great simplicity. also Nadadur Alavan the son of his other sister is considered one of his early disciples. Next in line was his former teacher Yadava Prakasa. who was given a new name Govinda Jiyar. He was asked to write a book by Sri ramanuja on the rules for Vaishnava ascetics (Yatidharma samuccaya)
Now the Yamunacharya disciples of Srirangam when they heard that Ramanujacharya had become an ascetic and had started his own muth. they had the temple authorities to send a message in the name of the temple diety Lord Ranga to the temple diety of Kanchipuram Lord Varada requesting permission for Ramanujacharya to leave the service of Lord Varada and Join the Service of Lord Ranga. at his temple. The first request was declined by Lord Varada speaking through his priests. Then a senior disciple of Yamuna, Thiruvarangattu perumal Ariyar succeeded in the second attempt by so charming Lord Varada through his singing and dancing, while reciting five verses of Alwars in Lord Varada's praise that the Lord promised him any boon he required. Thus Ramanujacharya reached the sacred Srirangam he was met by Periya Nambi (MahaPurna) and other disciples and also by a procession from the temple headed by the image of Visvaksena, the commander of Lord Vishnu's army. He was led through to the central shrine. where he sang the famous Alwar hymn Tirupallandu and two verses from Yamuna's Stotraratna. It is said Lord Ranga addressed him as follows."We have given the wealth of both our realms (this world and the eternal world, ubhaya Vibhuti aisvarya) for you and your people. After examining everything manage all the works of our house" whereupon Ramanujacharya turned to Periya nambi and quoted a verse from Nammalvar's Tiruvaymoli(10-6-10) meaning "If you are connected with great people, you can attain even a good that is both great and difficult" (I owe this honour to you as my acharya) to this Periya nambi replied with another line from Tiruvaymoli (5-2-1) meaning "You will see that this Kali is going to be destroyed.' this prophecy is now fulfilled, take up what the Lord has commanded.
Ramanuja then examined the treasury, he then inspected the supplies of rice, sandal paste, flower garlands and lights, looked into the duties of higher and lower servants of the temple, attended to repairs of the ramparts and examined the maintenance of flower gardens. He took Akalanga Nattalvan a non brahmin headsman of a nearby village as his disciple and made him the supervisor of the daily periodic rites in the temple. this may have been in the interest of honesty.
Ramanujacharya proceeded to reorganise the temple administration little at a time. It did result in the displacement of some temple functionaries while curtailing the power of others. gradually some posts were allotted to his disciples of which some were related to him as they belonged to a different group of brahmins. this angered the temple archakas and there was an attempt to poison Ramanujacharya. He therefore retired to Tiruvellarai for two years when what he was trying to do became clear and the temple servants repented. they now sent Yamucharya's senior disciple (T P Ariyar) to persuade Ramanujacharya to come back. Ramanujacharya conceded and returned but he still found that the Periya Koil Nambi (High Priest) still held the key to the temple. this led to conflict of power. The High priest opposed Ramanujas plan to change from five fold to ten fold divisions of the temple servants.(Parijanas). Here Lord Ranganatha appeared in Ramanujacharyas dream and pointed out that The Periya Koil Nambi has entrusted himself to our care, but he could do as he wished. In the morning Ramanujacharya called for his disciple Kurattalavan and related his dream and said "The existence of our enemy appears to be agreeable to the Lord Ranganatha let us go to Kanchipuram. He was pacified by Kanchipurna saying Gad may have greater design and that they should be patient. Kurattalavan succeded in persuading the high priest to seek Ramanujacharya as his guru. there is a small story behind how this is done. Ramanujacharya was pleased and gave the Periya KoilNambi a new name Amudanar. The same Amudanar is considered to be the author of a hundred stanzas of the Tamil poem in praise of Ramanuja. The original works contained ample descriptions of Ramanujacharya and his greatness his qualities and deeds. Ramanujacharya disapproved of it and they were dropped in the final presentation. It comes as no surprise that Ramanujacharya was so highly praised by the same person whose authority in the temple he had so seriously diminished. This only goes to prove how great our Ramanujacharya was. No small feat this happening time and again proving he was just and fair to all concerned. He thus brought about a sort of cooperation between brahmins and non brahmins in the temple administration.
Every Sri Vaishnava is competent to perform worship to his own household image of the deity. Ramanujacharya had not been instructed and initiated into the esoteric lore of the sect by Yamuna charya, he had to receive this instruction from his disciples. His entire education upto this point had been in the sanskrit scriptures alone thus he had to be thoroughly instructed in the tamil hymns from the time of Nathamuni to that of Yamunacharya's time.
Periya Nambi or Maha Purna was the first who taught him for six months initiating him into Sri Vaishnava sampradaya. this had to be abruptly stopped due to the quarrel between their wives. By then they had covered the first 2000 of the four thousand hymns.
Tirukottiyur Nambi or Gosthi Purna who instructed Ramanujacharya into the first of the rahasya mantra. an interesting story is spun round this learning which brings out the greatness of Ramanujacharya.
TirumalaiAndan or Maladhara taught Ramanujacharya the four great works of Nammalvar.
Tiruvarangattu Perumal Araiyar taught Ramanuja charya the secret of Guru Prapatti i.e. total reliance on the Guru who is to be regarded as god himself.
Periya Tirumalai Nambi or sri Saila Purna his own uncle was his final treacher who taught him the meaning of the Ramayana.
all the teachers found Ramanuja to be an argumentive pupil who would not simply accept what was being taught until he was convinced that it was right and was as per what was Yamunacharya's principle.
With all of the five Yamunacharya's disciple Ramanujacharya began as an obedient disciple but then proceeded to demonstrate his own special gifts and finally his unique authority. all his mediators committed one or more sons to Ramanujacharya's care to be his disciples.

Cling to truth.

The Life Divine is the life of Truth. It is based on truth it is truth body and substance truth absolute pure and simple. to find the truth we must begin by finding it in its purity and living it. Our steadfastness, our faithfulness must be unalloyed, our sincerity of utmost purity. It is truth alone that leads to truth. Remember "Do not imagine that truth and falsehood, light and darkness, surrender and selfishness can be allowed to dwell together in a house consecrated to the Divine.The transformation must be integral.

consciousness.

What is consciousness and what are its dimensions?
You are conscious of things when you are aware of them, aware of their presence. When you are not aware when you do not perceive you are unconscious. It is the difference between being sleep and awake. When you are asleep things are lost, you become unconscious of them; when you are awake things reappear and you are conscious of them it is analogous to day and night. Night in its darkness swallows up things, annihilates them as it were this is unconsciousness the day dawning brings forth the things and gives them their normal concrete form tangible reality this is consciousness. so consciousness is light, creation and unconsciousness is darkness annihilation.
The essential consciousness is an unchanging reality existing everywhere in the universe but it expresses itself in different modes and apparent forms, its essential quality does not change but acquires a different colour and vibration in accordance with its degree and level of expression. Now consciousness because of inadequate expression becomes blurred or faint etc. You have simply to shake off the outer coating to allow the inner reality to shine forth in its own nature.
Consciousness is not merely consciousness, simple awareness, it is also power energy. The vedic word is cit-tapas, conscious energy. It is not like knowledge is power. it does not mean that consciousness has power or gives power. but consciousness is power. its more likely comparable with light energy which does not merely illumine, it energises, activates, moves things. the inherent quality of light is energy. in the same way consciousness is also a vibration of energy. It is the self-impulsion of consciousness. This impulsion need not always go out, cast or speed itself in outward expression or activity. it may be stilled self contained impulsion. It is say awareness pregnant with power. Consciousness is luminosity, consciousness is energy, consciousness is also delight. The very soul of consciousness is happiness, a gladness absolute and inviolate, the delight which is love in its supreme mode. Saccidananda. The vedic rishi says it is one it is called variously as Light, Infinity, Harmony and Delight.

Mind and Matter.

Material space is not the same as mental space and the speed of light and the speed of thought are not commensurable.The mental world, the world of thoughts, is a world in itself. It is autonomous. It moves with its own way with its own laws. In the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo he says We human beings believe that it is we who think, that is produce or create our thoughts, that we are the makers of our notions and ideas. but in reality it is not so. Thoughts notions ideas all movements of the mind are self existent realities. They go about or flow on like the waves of a vast sea. Human beings are mere instruments, receptacles that capture or seize some mere instruments, receptacles that capture or seize some undulations of this vast ocean. Man a mental being in him the brain is developed to such an extent and in such a manner that it serves as antennae or as an aerial to receive vibrations from the mental world. Indeed an ordinary human mind is a sort of crossroads where all kinds of thoughts from all places meet, cross one another and make a ideal market place. In fact, an individual does not possess any thought-movement which can be called his own. He only catches a contagion. And like a contagion thought-movements pass from one person to another although one may think or feel that the movement is one's own.
In order to have one's own thought, in order to think by oneself, a long process of education and training is necessary. A growing personal individual consciousness is the first requisite and for that one must do what the vedic rishi sought to do, gather the thoughts that one has, collect them, sift them and try to have a control over them. One must develop the habit of admitting certain thoughts and rejecting others. Thoughts that are useful, that carry light and peacefulness and happiness, are necessary those that are worth accepting.Those that are of the contrary nature should be pushed out. This is an exercise that develops the individual consciousness and the individual will.
One may try to recognise thoughts that are of a different category, that do not seem to belong to the accustomed level of consciousness but carry a vibration that is of elsewhere, that seem to come down from higher ranges of consciousness. this means an elevation of consciousness, your being rises into higher realities.
The true individual, the being who is capable of living and creating independently, is formed of a stuff that lies in these higher regions.
Mind is a force, thought and energy but that can be truly and fully effective when it is organised, directed, it then becomes a guided missile. In an ordinary mind the thoughts are dispersed they go about in all directions, to all objectives therefore their efficacy is at its minimal. For example like Light energy which becomes immensely, incredibly powerful when it is concentrated or gathered to one point. so also the thought when focused shines in the knowledge of the real truth. example
Usually when we think of a person or a thing, our thought vibration reaches its object but because the vibration is diffuse - i.e. not polarised it touches or just brushes its object very faintly without almost any reaction from it. Where as an organised, truly individualised consciousness has its thoughts- movements too, so organised and controlled and directed that it moves with a clear and forceful momentum. A mental vibration a thought movement becoming fully dynamic, totally effective then it gets its support from the vital which too is organised then the individualised personality loses its capriciousness and lends its support to the directing consciousness.