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Significance of Sandhyavandanam

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first | < previous | next > | last showing 1-10 of 2710/3/05Bharath

Significance of SandhyavandanamAs far as i know it, Sandhyavandanam is the duty of every person who is entitled to do it. Iremember hearing in one speech that if actually do sandhi we dont gain punya and all but if we donot do it then we incur a lot of sin. This just reinforces the point that it is the duty of each brahminto do sandhi regularly.P.S.:- I dont have full fundaes on step-by-step significance of sandhi. I think Amuthan will knowmore...10/5/05Srinivasanexactly... even i have encountered many such queries ; like ppl asking me questions "why do youactually do it?".....bharath! even i know as much as you know........But 1 thing is for sure ; i canfeel i can gain a lot of energy and freshness in me once i perform it... amuthan plzzz respond toour queries..10/5/05AnonymousPart I - Introductionsorry for not replying earlier. nowadays, i don't use orkut very frequently. coming to the point, thesignificance of sandhyAvandanam is too much to be discussed in one post. it can be done onlyafter a sufficient understanding of indian philosophy is done. so, i'll provide the basics of indianphilosophy as much as is required for this purpose. (the mail is bound to come in multiple partssince each one can have only 2048 characters. so junta, please be patient.)

sandhyAvandanam can be interpreted at various levels from the viewpoints of varioussampradAya-s existing presently in India. i'll limit myself to the best possible interpretations. butthere are certain common ideas in all the various lines of thought in indian philosophy and i'll trymy best to show the similarities.

one more note: i'll use a transliteration scheme (itrans,see encoding for devanagari inhttp://www.aczoom.com/itrans/) to represent samskR^itam words in english. please get familiarwith this, else u may end up seeing words with strange spellings. this is done to maintain the purityof samskR^itam words in an english essay like this.

by indian philosophy, i mean vedAnta. since vedAnta is the essence of indian philosophicalthought, i'll be interpreting sandhyAvandanam based on vedAnta and not on other darshana-s likemImAmsa, sA~Nkhya etc.

with this background, we can proceed to understanding the basics of vedAnta. these will be thesubject of the next post.

(to be continued)amuthan arunkumar r.

10/6/05AnonymousPart II - basics of vedAntain this post, i'll concentrate on the basics of vedAnta. i'll limit myself to the common aspects ofvarious siddhAnta-s and later talk about advaitam and vishiShTADvaitam, the two vedAntadarshana-s i'm familiar with. one thing must always be kept in mind. vedAnta is incomplete, if notuseless, unless it is put into practice. practice without proper understanding will take a long time tocome to fruition and theoretical understanding without practice is as good as not knowing it at all.both vedAnta j~nAnam and abhyAsam are essential and they complement each other.sandhyAvandam is an excellent way to get started on abhyAsam. this will become clear later on.

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so, don't miss ur sandhyAvandanam at any cost. do them to your best. (sorry for being pedantic,but that's helpful here.)

now, to the basics. the first quality to develop is vivekam. vivekam means insight; insight into thenature of things. unless we see things as they are and not as we want them to be, unless we havean open mind to accept the truth as it is, there won't be much progress in vedAnta. vedAnta is nota smooth and nice thing for beginners. it will radically change ur present world view. so, u must be

prepared for that.

let us start with the nature of this world, so familiar to us. in shrImadbhagavadgItA, SrI kR^ishNadescribes the world using two adjectives, "anityam asukham" and elsewhere in the gItA as"duHkhAlayam ashAshvatam". both mean the same thing. the world is both filled to the brim withsuffering and all things are impermanent. this is not a pessimistic view of life. it is a fact which canbe verified by everyone of us. this twin nature of the world as anityam and asukham has to bedeeply reflected upon first. this discerning knowledge is called vivekam. it is very important todevelop this first. the nature of the world as anityam and asukham will be dealt with in the nextpost.

(to be continued)Amuthan Arunkumar R.10/7/05AnonymousPart III - basics of vedAnta (contd.)most of this post will be centered on the nature of the world we experience as anityam andasukham. anityam means impermanence and asukham means lack of happiness. to understandthis more clearly, let us consider the common viewpoint held by many people (traditionally, theupholders of this view are called laukIka-s). the laukIka-s assert that the aim of life is to be happy.in order to achieve happiness, they indulge themselves in various activities to gain wealth andenjoy their life. this view, though highly attractive, is severely flawed for the following reasons. weexperience pleasure or pain either through association or lack of association with objects of thesenses. by the senses, the five senses and the mind are meant. it makes sense to yearn for anobject of pleasure if the both the object seeked for and the happiness resulting from it arepermanent. but the fact is that all objects change with time. a little reflection on the nature ofobjects we know will be sufficient to establish their impermanent nature (anityatvam). thus, thereis suffering while working hard for gaining an object of pleasure, there is fear of loosing it once it isobtained since it is impermanent and there is suffering once it is lost. as if this were not enoughreason, the faculties with which we enjoy the various objects of pleasure - the five senses - arethemselves impermanent. again, what is pleasurable at one moment of time is not at another. forinstance, one may relish a particular dish very much. but if it is offered to him when someone dearto him has died, will he still enjoy it? or take the instance of a man who has lost some of his limbsin an accident or one who has become old and the body has withered. will he still delight in theobjects of the senses? the point here is this: both the body through which we enjoy objects andthe objects themselves are impermanent. hence, the happiness resulting from acquiring objectsare impermanent. what is impermanent is not worth striving.

(to be contd.)amuthan.10/7/05

AnonymousPart IV - basics of vedAnta (contd.)what is impermanent is not worth striving for. the happiness resulting from acquistion of favorableobjects or removal of painful objects, is only misery in disguise since it is impermanent. take anyinstance of your life when you are happy. ask yourself the question: is this permanent? if no,immediately drop it. the same with any other emotional state. happiness and sadness are just twodifferent states of the mind. what you consider as happy or sad depends on the way you havebeen brought up and other factors like the society. it is just a habit. the wise, knowing theimpermanent nature of both happiness and sadness, the objects of the world and the body,renounce these and remain calm. it is by such renunciation alone that the truth can be found. this

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freedom of one's mind from rAga (attachment to favorable objects) and dveSha (aversion tounfavorable objects), which results due to proper vivekam, is called vairAgyam (detachment).vivekam slowly matures into vairAgyam. when vairAgyam is firm, the mind does not run towardsthe objects of the world. knowing the everchanging nature of the world, it abandons bothhappiness and sadness and remains calm.

developing vairAgyam is essential to the study of vedAnta. whenever happiness or sadness arises

in the mind, it should immediately be calmed down by reflecting on the nature of the world asanityam and asukham. there is no point in searching for happiness in the world since it isimpermanent and full of misery. this should become strongly rooted in the mind. one very strongway to develop vairAgyam is to just reflect on the nature of this body. what is this body composedof? blood, flesh, bone, filth etc. if these things are offered to you, you would immediately shunthem with disgust. but the body is just a collection of these covered with a skin. knowing thedisgusting nature of the body, one must repeatedly train oneself to be detached from the body. itis difficult initially. but if done with perseverence, vairAgyam becomes firm.(to be contd.)10/7/05Anonymouspart V - basics of vedAnta (contd.)i don't know if the previous message was quite severe in it's content. but they are true. tosummarize the development so far, vivekam, which arises from a close inspection of the world,leads to vairAgyam. when vairAgyam is steady, the mind is calm and is not disturbed by theobjects of the senses. it is with such a calm mind that the truth can be found. in fact, in the earlierdays, people used to study vedAnta only after taking up sannyAsam. but the most important thingis vairAgyam. it doesn't matter if u wear normal clothes or ochre robes. develop vairAgyam. thenthe world can no longer trouble you.

now, when sufficient vairAgyam is developed, one should develop sattva guNams like ahimsA,satya niShThA, brahmacharyam etc. and renounce activities prompted by desires (kAmya karma-s). in other words, one should live a pure life, established in morality. this is easy if one hasvairAgyam and if one lives a morally pure life, vairAgyam results. thus, they complement eachother - living as per vaidhika dharmam and vairAgyam. such a life is a life of tapas and is the sortof life great AchArya-s like svAmi deshikan lived. one more point (this logically follows from theprevious discussion, but it is worthwile repeating it): since we do various types of karma-s, karmaphala-s in the form of punyam and pApam accrue. since both karma and karma phala areanityam, we must not have attachment to the fruits of our action. to remain without doing anythingis impossible. so, whatever you do, do it without expecting the fruits of that action. this however,should not lead one to laziness. this is beautifully brought out by shrI kR^iShNa inshrImadbhagavagItA in the shlokam "karmaNyevAdhikAraste mA phaleShu kadAchana. mAkarmaphalahetuH bhUrmA te sangostv.akarmaNi..".

now, the stage is set. once we are established in a life of dharmam (i.e. vaidhika dharmam), withvairAgyam, we are ready to plunge into the basics of vedAnta. in the next post, the basics ofvedAnta will be discussed.

(to be contd.)amuthan.10/7/05Bharath

Knowledge is infinite......I never knew many things in this...thanks amuthan10/8/05Anonymouspart VI - basics of vedAnta (contd.)now that some of the practical prerequisites for approaching vedAnta have been covered, we willenter into a discussion of some the fundamental ideas that vedAnta gives us. this is predominantlyan intellectual task and fluency with the concepts and ideas of vedAnta come only with deepreflection on the various issues.

as mentioned in the previous posts, this world is both anityam and asukham. now, is there a way

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to get out of this world, so full of suffering? vedAnta says yes and that's why it's important to us. inorder to know the way to freedom from misery, we need to first know what vedAnta deals with. inshort, vedAnta deals with the absolute truth behind all existence. this is called brahmam invedAntic parlance. the taittirIya upaniShad defines brahmam as "that from which the universe hasit's origin, that in which it remains and that into which it dissolves after destruction". vedAntaasserts the brahmam, which is the substratum of all existence, exists. this is the definingcharacteristic of vedAnta. buddhism for instance, asserts that there is no fundamental truth behind

all existence. i.e., it denies the existence of brahmam. since we deal with vedAnta here, let us notworry about avaidika matams like bauddham and jainam. it is the knowledge of brahmam(brahma j~nAnam) that is the goal of all systems of vedAnta.

let us get used to some vedAntic jargon. the innermost essence of our very being is known as theAtman. the world that we see and experience (including mental creations) is known as jagat. jagatis also known as prakRîti, in its gross form. prakRîti stands for the totality of all matter andenergy. prakRîti is not a conscious entity and hence, it is known as achit or as jaDam. theindividual soul, i.e. we, are known as jIvAtmA and god is known as Ishvara or as paramAtmA. ascontrasted with prakRîti, which is achit, AtmA is chit, i.e. conscious in nature. the state ofcomplete freedom is called moksham or mukti.

(to be contd.)10/8/05AnonymousPart VII - basics of vedAnta (contd.)all systems of vedAnta deal with the following. the nature of jIvAtmA, the nature of brahmam, thenature of prakRîti, the relation between these three, the meaning of mukti and the means toattain mukti (this is known as upAyam).

in this group, as there will be people from various sampradAya-s, it will not be fair to stick on toone system of vedAnta. hence, from now on, i'll provide basic information on both advaitam andvishiShTAdvaitam. since i don't have much knowledge about dvaitam, i'll not touch that. but iguess most of the people in this list fall either into advaitam (aiyar-s or smArta-s) andvishiShTAdvaitam (aiyangAr-s). hence i guess this will do some justice to the people in the group.

next, we will move on to study advaitam and vishiShTAdvaitam to as much detail as is requiredhere. i will not be entering into a comparative study of advaitam and vishiShTAdvaitam. that, ileave it to you. i'll restrict myself to saying what the two systems are, so that the interpretation ofthe main aspects of sandhyAvandanam will be clear to people of both sampradAyam-s.

first, i'll cover vishiShTAdvaitam, since it is much more easier to understand than advaitam. bothhowever, are quite deep and a full understanding of them will require proper learning under acompetent AchArya. for our puposes, a cursory understanding of these darshana-s is sufficient.one more note, i'll not be covering the historical and sampradAyam aspects of these darshana-s,but only the content of the two philosophies as that is what is relevant to us.

in the next post, i'll start with the basic ideas of vishiShTAdvaitam.

(to be contd.)

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Significance of Sandhyavandanam

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first | < previous | next > | last showing 11-20 of 2710/8/05Srivatsan.very impor duty for brahminvery imprortant duty for all the brahmins 10/8/2005 8:39 PMi perform my Sandya Vandhhanam 2 times daily,Being a brahmin it is the main duty(i mean the

responsibilty of the person) to perform the sandhya vandhanam.According to velukudi krishnanswamiji all ur spirtual works start gaing it's importance after u start performing ur sandhyavandhnam regularly.one more thing wht i thought important in sandhya vandhnam is Gyathrijapam,which we tell(the japam is the most strongest japam to improve ur confidence n selfcontroling capability).i would like to more detalis abt vistaadvaitam n advaitam...10/9/05AnonymousPart VIII - vishiShTAdvaitamshrImate rAmAnujAya namaH.shrImate nigamAnta mahAdeshikAya namaH.

in this post, i'll concentrate on the basics of vishiShTAdvaita darshanam.

according to vishiShTAdvaita, there are three tattvam-s - chit, achit and Ishvara. chit meansconsciousness and here, it refers to the jIvAtmA-s. achit means prakRîti or this world (jagat).Ishvara stands for brahmam which, according to vishiShTAdvaitam is the same as shrImannArAyaNa. it is important to note that the term Ishvara is nowadays used with reference to shivaexclusively. but this is NOT the meaning of the term in vishiShTAdvaita texts. Ishvara means onewho looks after everything and in vishiShTADvaita, this term is used as a synonym for god, i.e.viShNu.

all entities can be classified into one of the three categories - chit, achit and Ishvara. these threeare not independent. their inter-dependency is technically called sharIra-sharIri bhAvam orsharIrAtma bhAvam. we will consider that a little later, since that requires a little moreunderstanding of the tattvam-s. once this is done, the meaning of shrI rAmAnujAchArya'sshrIsUkti "svAdhIna trividha chetanAchetana..." will become clear.

let us take a bird's eye view of the tattvam-s. just get used to the jargon. don't worry if u don'tunderstand it at the first attempt. achit (or achetanam) can be further subdivided into threecategories - prakRîti, kAlam and shuddha sattvam. chit (or chetanam) is again subdivided intothree subcategories - baddha-s, mukta-s and nitya-s. Ishvara, who is the same as shrImannArAyaNa, is the AdhAram (support), niyantA (ordainer/controller) and sheShi (one for whosepleasure other things (sheSham) exist) for the other two tattvam-s - chit and achit. chit and achitform the body of Ishvara, who is the owner of both of them. thus, there is only one reality -shrIman nArAyaNa, who includes all living and nonliving things in his body. Ishvara is the AtmA ofboth chit and achit, which forms his sharIram. this is known as sharIrAtma bhAvam.

(to be contd.)10/9/05AnonymousPart IX - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.)

as seen in the previous post, according to vishiShTAdvaitam, there is only one underlying realitybehind everything - brahmam, which is the same as shrIman nArAyaNa, who is the paramAtmA,who includes all entities - chit and achit - as his sharIram. since there is only ultimate reality, thisdarshanam is advaitam. but since there are internal division like chit and achit, it is a special(vishiShTham) form of advaitam and hence, it is called vishiShTAdvaitam. this is the meaning ofthe term vishiShTAdvaitam. one more thing - according to vishiShTAdvaitam, moksham or muktiis eternal service (kai~Nkaryam) to shrIman nArAyaNa (= para vAsudeva) in vaikuNThAm.

now, let us consider the three tattvam-s one by one in some detail. first let us take achit. asmentioned earlier, achit consists of prakRîti, kAlam and shuddha sattvam. prakRîti is the totality

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of all matter and energy. prakRîti is in turn subdivided into twenty four categories. but that will betoo much for a first study of vishiShTAdvaitam. we'll get into that later, if necessary. prakRîti isalways changing (anityam) and is characterized by three guNa-s - sattvam (equilibrium), rajas(activity) and tamas (inertness). these three guNa-s are always present in prakRîti, though invarying proportions. kAlam means time. kAla is subdivided into three categories - past, presentand future. shuddha sattvam is the substance of shrI vaikuNTham and bhagavad sharIram (thebody of viShNu when he incarnates on earth). it is nityam. shuddha sattvam is svayam

prakAsham (i.e. shines forth by itself or self-revealing). as contrasted with this, both kAlam andprakRîti are not svayam prakAsham. if a question be asked why is that we do not perceiveshuddha sattvam though it is svayam prakAsham, the answer is that it is ever present around us,but we do not perceive it due to anAdi avidyA (beginningless ignorance). once this ignorance isdestroyed, we attain mukti and perceive shuddha sattvam and much more, shrIman nArAyaNa.

(to be contd.)10/10/05SrinivasanI have attained a great amount of knowledge from Amuthan's writings.. Also i would encourage toparticipate and raise their own doubts and questions for clarifications about sandhyavandhanam...10/10/05Anonymousa small noteit may take quite some time before we actually get to appreciate the significance ofsandhyAvandanam. i'm not sure how long the basics of vedAnta r going to take for completion. doNOT wait for full fundaes before u start doing sandhyAvandanam. KEEP DOING IT ASREGULARLY AS POSSIBLE. by the time u gain fundaes, u will have enough practical experiencein sandhyAvandanam that u can right away start doing sandhyAvandanam properly, knowing it'ssignificance as u do it.10/10/05AnonymousPart X - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.)we'll move on to chit or chetana-s. chetana-s include all jIvAtmA-s. jIvAtmA is j~nAna svarUpam,i.e. of the nature of consciousness. consciousness is a tricky word and has to be used carefully. itis better to retain the saMskRîtam original, j~nAna svarUpam. this j~nAnam is not the same asthe knowledge in the mind. it is a sort of awareness that is intrinsic to the AtmA. AtmA is svayamprakAsham, i.e., it does not require the help of another entity to know itself. for instance, if there isa table in your room, u need to see it to know that it exists. in other words, it depends on ur sightfor knowledge of it's existence. if u enter the room blindfolded, the table does not automaticallyannounce it's presence. thus, the table, which is achit, is not svayam prakAsham. AtmA hasneither form nor substance. it is not tangible and is not subject to any change, i.e. it is nityam. it isneither created nor destroyed. it just exists. our actual nature is that of the Atma svarUpam. due toanAdi karma, we wrongly associate ourselves with the body and the mind and call it ourselves. weare neither the body nor the mind. we are the pure AtmA, which is beyond all names and forms.just as we, the jIvAtmA own this body, this jIvAtma itself is the sharIram of paramAtmA. thus, ourAtmA's AtmA is viShNu. this is the single, most important fact of vishiShTAdvaita siddhAntam. theAtmA is not reachable by the mind. words cannot describe what it is. it can be known only bydirectly experiencing it. AtmAnubhavam, or being firmly established in one's essential nature, isknown as kaivalyam. according to vishiShTAdvaita, there r infinite number of jIvAtmA-s. all these

AtmA-s form the sharIram of paramAtmA, which is one only. as mentioned earlier, AtmA issvayam prakAsham and hence knows itself. this knowledge is known as dharmi j~nAnam. theknowledge by which it knows entities other than itself is known as dharma bhUta j~nAnam.jIvAtmA is aNu, i.e. it is extremely subtle.

(to be contd.)10/10/05AnonymousPart XI - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.)the jIvAtmA is inseparably related to the paramAtmA as the latter's sharIram. this relationship is

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technically called apRîtak siddhatvam. to understand what apRîtak siddhatvam is, consider arose. when u see a rose, u also perceive that it is red. the quality of redness is inseparably relatedto the rose. this relationship is known as apRîtak siddhatvam.

it is important to remember that it is only due to avidyA (ignorance) that we identify ourselves withthe body and mind. we by our own nature, i.e. as AtmA, neither have a body nor a mind. we are ofthe nature of pure awareness. our identity is in the AtmA and not in the body or the mind.

let us now consider the various classifications under chit. all chetana-s r divided as baddha-s,mukta-s and nitya-s. baddha-s refer to us, we who r caught in this world full of misery andsuffering (samsAram). the mukta-s r those who were baddha-s, but got liberated and attainedmoksham. nitya-s r those who r eternally free. they r a special class of jIvAtmA-s who never gettrapped in the samsAra sAgaram. the nitya-s include garuDa, vishvaksena, AdisheSha etc. who reternally present at shrI vaikuNTham. it is important to note that the concept of nitya-s exists onlyin vishiShTAdvaita - they do not exist in other sampradAyam-s.

next, we will consider Ishvara svarUpam. in vishiShTAdvaitam, no distinction is made betweenIshvara and brahmam. this is not the case with advaitam, for instance. Ishvara is the AtmA andeverything other than Ishvara forms his sharIram. sharIram is defined as follows: if B is thesharIram of A, then 1. B has A as it's basis for existence, 2. B is controlled by A and 3. B exists forthe purpose of A. the first relation is called AdhAra-Adheya sambandham. the second relation iscalled niyantA-niyAmaka sambandham. the last one is called sheShi-sheSha sambandham. thefirst in these represent A and the second, B. thus, the reality is only one - chidachidvishiShTabrahmam - brahmam which has chit and achit as it's sharIram.

(to be contd.)10/10/05SrinivasanPardon my ignorance; yet a doubt....Pardon my ignorance; as we all are well aware of the fact that there had been manycircumstances where we could not perform sandhya vandhanam. Let's say I had an exam at 9:00and i woke up 8:30 where in i cannot perform the entire sandhya vandhanm....So is there anycompressed or a compensated version for it?....This wud definitely wud motivate ill notions ofperforming compressed version though we have time; but then i am talking about the kind ofinevitable situations like when we are travelling in train for 2-3 days .... Then how does themethods vary?....Please answer my query.10/12/05AnonymousPart XII - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.)in this post, we will study more about brahmam, as per vishiShTAdvaitam. brahmam is uniquelydefined by it's svarUpa lakshaNam which consists of satyam, j~nAnam, Anandam, anantam andamalam. these will be taken up one by one. satyam means being eternal, in this context. thebrahma svarUpam is eternal and not subject to change. j~nAnam meansknowledge/consciousness/awareness. brahmam is j~nAna svarUpam. Anandam means bliss.brahmam is not an inert thing. it has Anandam as it's attribute. anantam means infiniteness.brahmam is not limited by anything. it is infinite by every means. amalam means purity. these fivequalities clearly define brahmam. in addition to this, in vishiShTAdvaitam, an additional attribute ismentioned, i.e. shriyaH patitvam. brahmam is identified with shrIman nArAyaNa. this is very

important since in other matam-s like advaitam, this identification does not exist. invishiShTAdvaitam, there is no difference between brahmam and Ishvara. once brahmam isestablished as shrIman nArAyaNa, there are additional characteristics of brahmam which areknown as nirUpita svarUpa visheShaNam-s. these are infinite in number, but, for the purpose ofelucidation, six qualities, j~nAnam, balam, aishvaryam, vIryam, tejas and shakti, are givenimportance. there are innumerable others like shaushIyam, vAtsalyam etc. here, it is sufficient tonote that shrIman nArAyaNa is full of auspicious qualities. this equation of brahmam with apersonal god is another distinctive feature of vishiShTAdvaitam. brahmam is saguNam (withqualities) and exists in five modes (not exclusive of each other). these are param, vyUham,vibhavam, archa and antaryAmi. param means the para vAsudeva in shrI vaikuNTham. vyUham

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refers to certain forms of viShNu like aniruddha, sha~NkarshaNa etc. vibhavam refers toincarnations like rAma and kR^ishNa. archa refers to the vigraha-s in the temples. and finally,antaryAmi refers to the omnipresent brahma svarUpam.

(to be contd.)10/12/05Anonymous

Part XIII - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.)the antaryAmi form of brahmam is present everywhere and at all times. it is also known asdivyAtma svarUpam. this can be perceived only by the yogi-s in the samAdhi stithi. the details ofyoga and samAdhi will be taken up after discussing advaita and vishiShTAdvaita. for now, itshould suffice to say that samAdhi is a very subtle state of existence where the truth can beknown directly.

one important note: in vishiShTAdvaitam, only viShNu is brahmam. even shiva and brahma arejIvAtmA-s. hence no deity is equated with viShNu. this is not the case with advaitam, for instance.

according to vishiShTAdvaitam, mukti or liberation consists of eternal and loving service toshrIman nArAyaNa at vaikuNTham. to attain mukti, the means adopted is known as upAyam. twotypes of upAyam are admitted here - bhakti yogam and prapatti. bhakti yogam is the same asaShTA~Nga yogam and this will be taken up when we discuss yoga. prapatti refers to completeself surrender to shrIman nArAyaNa. prapatti is also known as sharaNAgati. in essence, it is thesurrender of the notion of "i" and "mine" (aha~NkAram and mamakAram) to Ishvara. oncesharaNAgati is done, all actions are done for the sake of shrIman nArAyaNa's pleasure and one'sentire focus shifts on doing service (kai~Nkaryam) to him. a life of sharaNAgati is marked by threequalities: kartR^itva tyAgam (renunciation of aha~NkAram), mamatA tyAgam (renunciation ofmamakAram) and phala tyAgam (renunciation of the fruits of action). thus, all activities are doneas per one's varNa and Ashrama and they are done for shrIman nArAyaNa's prIti (pleasure).

to sum it all, according to vishiShTAdvaitam, there is only one ultimate reality - shrIman nArAyaNa- who is the AtmA and who has all the jIvAtmA-s and the universe as his sharIram (body).

this much knowledge of vishiShTAdvaitam is sufficient for our purposes. from the next post, wewill concentrate on advaitam.

(to be contd.)

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