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Re: the meaning of pranavam

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Lakshmi Narasimhan • April 29, 2003 


Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Dear Shri Balaji,

> ohm is the begining of all,including brahma,vishnu and shivan.it is 
> this shakti which makes all gods do their functions like brahma 
> does the job of producing,vishnu does the job of protecting and 
> shiva does the job of destroying.

The above philosophy that you have mentioned is proposed by the 
Vyakarana Shastram(The science/study of Grammar, Phonetics i.e 
basically the Sanskruth language). It separates the pranavam from the 
Supreme lord and says that pranavam is the lord and the supreme 
beings work by its power. This philosophy is strongly condemned by 
Shri Vyasa Maharishi for separating out the pranavam from the 
supreme. The supreme, Shriman Narayanan is the "Parama-atma" i.e 
the "supreme-being", please note the word "being" which means a 
faculty. This faculty possesses infinite attributes and manifests in 
infinite forms(Sahasra sirsha purushaha). Out of these forms, amongst 
the shabdas i.e the sounds, HE manifests as the pranavam i.e HE binds 
HIMSELF directly to it. But, this by no way means that the pranavam 
is the base power for HIM. It is like calling a person by name. While 
other namams i.e the names refer to one form or the other of the 
supreme, the pranavam "directly" refers to the supreme being as a 
whole and does not refer to any of HIS forms.

I humbly request learned scholars to correct me for my mistakes.

Yatheendra Pravanam Vandhe RAMYA Jamataram Munim

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan,
Lakshmi Narasimhan



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