82 GOLDEN RULES OF SRI RAMANUJACHARYA In his death bed Sri Ramanuja is said to have articulated 82 statements to his disciples. It is not an exaggeration to present these statements as the essence of Sri Vaishnavam. To our understanding, they were meant to be moral aids to his disciples in their relations to God, men and devotees. (Commentaries in English by Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan, Muralidharan Seshadri) Golden Rule 50 - Do not associate with men, who love their bodies. Sri Krishna says: avyaktadini bhutani vyakta-madhyani bharata avyakta-nidhanany eva tatra ka paridevana (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 28) O Arjuna, of created beings before birth is unknown, between birth and death is known and after dealth is again unknown, therefore, what is the cause for lamentation? Sri Ramanuja says: “Living entities like human beings though eternally existing due to the auspices of each ones eternal soul have an unknown origin before birth, a manifest condition from birth to death and proceed again to an unknown existence at the termination of the physical body. Such alternations constitute material existence and are a natural law. Then, why should men love their bodies, which are purely material and liable to destruction sometime or other. Golden Rule 51 - Do not associate with men wearing the Name and other Vaishnava symbols for purpose of deceit. Hypocrisy is a great vice and destroys spirituality. Sri Ramanuja, therefore, warns his disciples against such emulation. In Bhagavad Gita, Verse 6 of Chapter III, Sri Krishna calls men, who controlling their external senses, allow their minds to roam in the wilderness of material desires are hypocrites. karmendriyani samyamya ya aste manasa smaran indriyarthan vimudhatma mithyacarah sa ucyate Anyone who having controlled the five working sense organs remains thinking within the mind about sense objects, that foolish being is known as a hypocrite. Sri Ramanuja says: “Whosoever without first unburdening themselves of all their sins, who without having first gained mastery of their senses and without having first achieved self-control of the mind. If such a person pretends to strive for atma-tattva or self-realisation of the soul, with their thoughts dwelling on sense objects due to attachment for them instead of focusing on the eternal soul. Then the conduct of such a one is duplicious and false. Any person acting in this way is only deceiving himself by his own deception and surely will never succeed in realising the eternal soul”.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:30:57 +0000
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