Tatvavada - Tenets of Dvaita philosophy

By Sri Chiraan 2009/10/04

ShrIman.h madhva-mate In Sriman Madhva’s doctrine 

1> hariH parataraH - Hari (Vishnu) is Supreme
2> satyaM jagat.h - The world is true (real)
3> tattvataH bhedaH  - The differences between soul God and non sentient are real
4> jIvagaNAH hareH anucharAH - The sets of souls are dependent on Hari
5> nIchochcha bhAvaN^gatAH - And differ in the status even in the Mukti
6> muktiH naija-sukha-anubhUtiH - Mukti (liberation) is the experience of the joy of one’s
own nature
7> amalA-bhaktiH-cha tat.h sAdhanaM - That is achieved by flawless devotion and Yathartha Gyana correct understanding]
8> axAditritayaM hi pramANaM  - [Perception ] anumana [Logic] and agama [Scriptures] etc.,are indeed the sources of knowledge
9> akhila-AmnAya-eka-vedyo hariH - Hari alone is conveyed in all the Veda

A tatva is a real entity. A entity [object] when perceived as it exists [a thing in itself] it is said to be real.
For example a rope is perceived as rope [only] then the object rope is a real entity. But if it is perceived as snake, then the object snake is superimposed perception and not real.
All the entities which convey themselves in real are known as tatvas.
Tatvas are of two types, Svatantra and asvatantra [paratantra].
Independent and dependent.
Supreme God Vishnu alone is svatantra independent.
And all others are dependent on HIM.
The paratantra is again divided into BHAVA and ABHAVA.
Bhava is of two types Chetan and ACHETANA.
Chetana is of two types:
One afflicted by sorrow and one untouched by sorrow.
Goddess Laxmi devi is Nitya mukta and untouched by sorrow.
She is the consort of Vishnu.
The other type those afflicted by sorrow are of two types:
Muktayogya and Muktiayogya.
Muktiyogya are those liberated and unliberated.
Rest are of two types, Neech madhyama [Tamoyogya and nityasamsari].

Muktiyogya are Devata rishi Pitru Raja narottama
Tamoyogya are classified as
daitya rakshas pishacha and naradhama four types.
Muktiyogya reach Vaikuntha and tamoyogya reach andhatamisra.
Both worlds have no return.
Mukti is achieved by Nirmal Bhakti towards the Supreme
And unmixed hate guarantees the andhatamisra.
It is the intrinsic nature of the soul to be under a class.
Achetan is classified as Nitya Anitya And nityaanitya,
Veda akshara and Avyakrut akasha are all nitya.
Purana, kala and prakruti are all nityanitya.

Krishnarpanamastu 

Kojagir Purnima

By Sri Chiraan 2009/10/04

People born on Purnima are learned, handsome, agreeable personalities, and usually a leader among their kinsmen. But as moon happens to be in kendra for the Poornima birth, the wealth and prosperity and intelligence of the individual will not come out to full potential. Only when Moon is in apoklima to sun the individual reaps his destiny to the full is the dictum of classics. 

The same Moon [full moon] if it is vargottama gives rise to a man who is prominent in his profession. If such a full moon vargottama has an aspect of four or more planets gives rise to a unique Rajyoga. The subject rules a vast land with four types of army under his rule.
C RAJAGOPALACHARI had this combination, and even during British rule he was chef minister [akin to] Madras presidency, and then became first GOVERNOR GENERAL of INDIA after the British left, and Dr Rajendra Prasad took over as President of INDIA. The Rajyoga operates irrespective of world scenario.

Ashvayuja Purnima is also known as KOJAGIR Purnima, KUMAR Purnima or Sharad Poornima. Goddess Laxmi manifested on this day. People facing financial problems can be assured of relief from poverty and excessive expenses by praying Goddess Laxmi on this night just by staying awake.

Unmarried girls can get handsome mates on this day praying Kumar Kartikeya. This day the moon is brightest and such a full moon has inspired many a poets in comparing the characters with richness of moon light.

Madhvacharya, Vyasa teertha and Raghavendra Swamy all of them have been  compared with Sharad indu in bestowing beacon light to those who were strayed in darkness of ignorance. Just as the Sharad Purnima moon these great teachers have shown the path to the people on the earth to regain their self and direct their sadhana towards the Moksha.

Krishnarpanamastu 

Note :Chiraan also came into this world on Ashvayuja Purnima!

Pitru Vatsalya - The story of Bhagirath

By Sri Chiraan 2009/09/30

If the lagna of father is 10th to that of son, son will have extreme devotion towards his father and ancestors. Similarly, pitru pada and lagna pada are in mutual kendras there will be extreme affection between the son and the father. 

Sanatan dharma [Vedic way of life] stresses extreme importance of the kartavya [duties] towards our Pitru [father and ancestors]. Pitru tarpan and solace to ancestors departed is very essential to the happiness and general well being of the family. However it is quality of followers of dharma that they perform duty out of consciousness of Dharma coupled with love towards Pitrus rather than greed of well being. This is known as Pitru vatsalya.

The story of Sagar putra is good example of this vatsalya as how generations together a dynasty struggled to free its ancestors from sin and curse. This is a great lesson to us that we our actions affect our Pitrus and vice versa. So one must be careful with one’s karma as it affects 7 generations prior to us and seven generation following us. A man can suffer himself but cannot bear to see his children and manes suffering owing to him.

Once there lived a very pious King named SAGAR. He had two wives, one son named ASAMANJAS from one wife and 60000 from other. Asmanjas grew to be very cruel, he threw the children of the city into Sarayu river. The subjects complained to the King and King abandoned Asamanjas. Asamanjas had developed 'vairagya' and wanted to take sanyas and leave the world. But as Sagar was intent on making him King, He acted like cruel, once abandoned he made his real intention clear and brought back all the children from Sarayu river.

Many years later Sagar decided to perform Ashwamedha yagnya. The horse of Aswamedhayagnya was stolen by Indra and tied it near Kapila Muni in patala loka. 60000 sons of Sagar went to search the horse. In their attempt to reach Patal they dug the entire earth. This resulted in lowering of the land and samudra [ocean] surrounding jambu dweep entered the earth and thus we could see formation of SAAGAR [sea]. As samudra gave way to smaller sea [this was due to Sagar sons’] and thus named SAAGAR.

Now as they reached Patala loka, they thought Kapila muni himself has stolen the horse, in ignorance like patanga insects attacking fire flame  attacked Kapila. [Kapila is form of VISHNU] Lord Kapila opened his eyes and all the 60000 were reduced to ashes. [Lord who is capable of bringing pralaya and reducing entire creation to ashes, this act is no surprising].

Asamanjas ‘s son Anshuman went looking for the horse, As he came to Patala, he prayed Lord Kapila and asked his forgivance towards his uncles. Lord blessed Anshuman and gave him the horse, also told him that only Ganga if brought down on earth to Patala, when flows over the ashes of the Sagar sons will ensure them a place in swarga.

Anshuman took the horse and Sagar completed the yagnya. To give solace to his pitrus, Anshuman started a penance to bring the Ganga to the earth. Even before achieving the task, he left the world. His son Dileep also went into forest to bring the Ganga, but died before achieving the task in his life time. [Imagine spending a lifetime in penance and giving life in the pursuit to bring solace to Pitrus].

Dileeps son Bhagirath  too went into forest and after a penance of 1000 years to Bramha asked the Ganga to be brought down to the earth. Ganga expressed her force was too heavy and would split the earth if she falls unchecked and hence would require someone to control and check her flow. Bhagirath went into penance for another 1000 years to Lord Shiva and requested him to take it into his jata. But AS GANGA FELL INTO THE JATA , to teach ganga a lesson and relieve her from ego, Shiva tightened his jata that not a single drop flew out of it. Bhagirath again prayed for many years to request Rudra to release ganga. 

Shiva released a strand and with great flow Ganga fell on Himalayas. Bhagirath the noble minded in order to make many places pure and blessed, took Ganga to trace a long track around earth to Patala. On the way, Ganga's flow disturbed Agastya muni and Sage drank entire ganga. Bhagirath again prayed to the sage and sage brought out the River through his ears. [Thus all Bramhins are said to have sannidhi of ganga in the ear].

Bhagirath brought the Jhanhvi [being daughter of King Jahnu, Ganga is also known as Jahnvi] to Patala to flow over his mane’s ashes, Sagar sons went to swarga.

Ganga had come into existence by the touch of foot of Lord Trivikrama [haripada]. So Ganga is HaripadaUdaka, and thus by the touch of sacred pada of the Lord, it can destroy many sins and purify Sagar’s sons and absolve them of the sins. Here there should not be any doubt then that Pada of Hari himself when resorted to can destroy many a sins and purify us.  Thus shravan manan and kirtan [listening to, meditating on lords’ feet] will definitely give Moksha.

Krishnarpanamastu 

Sri Ramchandra Vishwaroopa - Triumph of Sri Rama Over Ravan

By Sri Chiraan 2009/09/28

Dassehara marks the muhurta Vijaya in which Ravana was killed by Sriram. This muhurta Namely Vijaya is very auspicious and brings only success. No planetary position is to be studied to start any work /venture on this day. The venture [shubh karya] on this day is definitely successful. 

Normally Vishwaroopa word is associated with Srikrishna avatara only. But even in Ramaavatara lord has shown Vishwaroopa of different kind astonishing to the entire world of humans devatas and rakshasas.

After the death of Indrajit, Ravan sent his moola bala [the core army] to fight the vanar sena of SriRAMA.

What was moolbala?

Moolbala of Ravan was 36000 akshouhini in number. Each member of this army was as powerful as Ravan himself. These were unassailable by the boon of BRAMHA. These are huge in number Lanka had no space to keep it so Bramha had given another boon to hide hem in a cave.

36000 akshouhini is a huge number [Note: many people feel Ramayana war was  simple war with limited warriors! but this is not true, the magnitude of Ramayana war was multitude times more larger and difficult than Mahabharata war. Mahabharta war was fought among only 18 akshouhini soldiers. But imagine 36000 akshouhini soldiers attacking simultaneously]. In few minutes Srirama killed entire moolabala. HOW?

Army like a ocean of elephants with waves of chariots driven by horses like wild amphibians rushed towards a fire of volcano namely SRIRAM.

Like a flames of weapons surrounded by smoke of dust the army moved like the fire [sanvartak agni] during pralaya. Such army like a tornado swirled entire trees and vanar [monkeys] alike in its whirl. The entire kapi sena succumbed in this davagni.

Seeing their army being rooted, fallen and perishing, Sugriva Neel and Angad ran to protect it. But their efforts seemed like a twig struggling in the tsunami. The boon of Bramha to the army of Ravana was making it unstoppable and slowly overpowering the monkeys were proceeding towards the Lord Rama like a patang insect running towards the fire.

The army fought with Rama with shataghni, shakti, parigh shool, gada, khadga, tomar, pattish, bhindipala and arrows and astras.

This scene created various thoughts in the minds of people [according to the quality, nature of the soul, their thoughts varied wrt Sriram faced with 36000 X 108 crore army. It was one man versus 38880000 million soldiers].

Some thought how can one man fight with such a huge army?

While some others thought Perhaps Lord will win over this!

While knowledged thought Sriram will kill all these playfully.

According to the jeevas and their intrinsic nature, tamas souls doubted Ram’s ability. Rajas souls were confused as regards to Ram, and Satvik souls had complete faith in Ram. As Ram took his arrows onto his golden bow it brought happiness to suras and unhappiness to asuras.

In single instance Ram delivered infinite arrows, it hit some of the elephants in the head, some in the trunk and some in the legs and finished the army section by section even before it approached the Lord.

The soldiers on the Horses and chariots who never faced defeats earlier fell from their horses and chariots like the souls falling from swarga after the exhausting punya. Like terrific waves calming at the shores the waves of the soldiers emanating from the Ravana ‘s army silenced at the footsteps of RAMA. Just as the heavy rains settles the dust on the earth the infinite arrays of arrows from Ram settled the rows of soldiers with swords running towards him. THE HEADS OF  senapatis who could vanquish the Devatas in previous wars rolled due to the use of Javelins by Ram.

But the onlookers could never see Ram taking the arrow, pulling the string or releasing the arrows towards the army, they could only see the Ram in a static position. At times they could see various positions of Ram.

Note: here author of Mool Ramayana is explaining the existence of persistence of vision in humans. When killing crores of people the arrows have to be shot in multitudes and at a pace faster than the 1/10 th of a second. That means Ram was shooting arrows in less than the 1/10th of seconds and he was shooting thousands in seconds, as human eyes cannot distinguish any events taking place within 1/10 th of the second, the events of RAMA taking arrows and releasing it through his bow were not witnessed by the onlooker's, they could only see the army vanishing and dying but Rama was still to their eyes.

[For example when a wheel with spokes is rotated with speed , the spoke becomes invisible]

Suddenly SRIRAM took in a single moment 100, 1000, lakh, crore, kharva, mahaougha number of arrows and released them without missing the aim.

sa yougapadyen shatam sahasram laksham cha saakshad vilaksha eiva |

kotim cha kharvam  cha mahaugham munchannishonesha ripun jhaghaan ||

This shloka of Ramayana shows that there were more than mahougha i.e. 1000 crore soldiers which Rama killed in single attempt.

Then even if he could kill these soldiers with his single roopa, Lord to show his prowess showed Vishwaroopa. This was different than the vishwaroopa of Srikrishna avatara. Srikrishna showed in one single roopa showed entire universe, but here ShriRAm showed many infinite roopas at a single instance.

Rama suddenly multiplied in his roopa.

Rama on the earth, Rama in space far away Rama, near by Rama, Rama among the shatru sena. Rama among the monkeys, every where there was Rama. There was no space left where he could not be seen.

Ramah purastat partopi ramo ramah param dikshu vidikshu ramah |

ramairanatairiti vishvarupo nighnannaratin virraj ramah ||

Looking at anant Rama and looking at infinite qualities in each of the infinite Rama devatas were happy and remained in a meditative pose. Rooting the enemies Rama with lotus like eyes and bluish hue of Indraneelamani was prayed by the people gathered to witness this astonishing event.

Some Ram roopa were holding the arrows and bow, some were destroying enemies, some were observing the war themselves. This scene was very illusive to the three worlds [it was akin to Krishna seen simultaneously with all 16108 wives].

Some Rakshas who had opened mouth to eat monkeys, Rama had already shut them with arrows. Seeing the enemies perishing some Rama roopas were clapping and enjoying. Some were smiling. The presence of monkeys and their army was really of no use to Sri Ram to fight Ravan. This astonishing act of Rama established it.

As one lamp can lit the many lamps and all these lamps will alight alike, so did Rama emanate from one roopa to infinite vishwaroopa. They were all equal and Rama only and no different from him. As larger wick gave larger light and smaller wick made smaller light, so did the various roopas differed in size but yet they were all Rama, and were no different from Lord Rama the supreme. They were deathless, beautiful and complete with infinite qualities.

Rama also merged all the roopas into one again. Just as all the wicks when brought together merge as single large lamp. Thus Lord proved he was special and different from others.

Ravan after hearing the destruction of his moolabala, prepared himself for his death. He was totally devastated. He proceeded to war. Ravan hit by the arrows of Rama fell unconscious for 48 minutes. In the meanwhile agastya muni came near Rama and asked him to recite aditya hrudaya [Sriman Narayana as present in Surya] Aditya hrudaya is vyakhyana for dheya sada… dhyan shloka of Gayatri dhyana..

To show to the world that Aditya hrudaya is best shatru mardan mantra Rama recited it, and not that Rama could not kill Ravan without it. Rama himself is the light in the Sun.

Ravan got up and used various astras on Rama, Ram cut all the ten heads of Ravan. But they sprang back by the boon of Bramha. Earlier such a incident had never taken place, i.e. heads of Ravana had never been cut earlier by any devata or manav. So only to show that Bramha had given such a boon to Ravan, Rama made scope for such event. Finally when all the devatas prayed, SHRIRAM used Ram bana and RAVAN fell to this very special arrow greater than bramhstra. The mukhyaprana is the abhimani devata of Ram bana. Thus After killing RAVANA it went into the earth and then came back to the Ram. Thus Ram showed he uses only Vayu to punish the evil in this world.

Happy Dussehra! 

Krishnarpanamastu