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re: hagiologies etc.

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tavaradhan • December 2, 2001 


srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

dear maNi,

You had correctly brought out the reason behind the 
"hagiologies" present in our sampradayam. The 
reverence  with which one holds such an AchArya as 
svAmi maNavALa  mAmuni is increased multiple fold when

one understands  His true nature. These incidents get 
one to appreciate the Lord even more - He is so kind, 
and His grace is  limitless, that He has sent His 
foremost servant not  once, but twice to create 
awareness among people.

With due respect, I disagree with you on your 
following position

--excerpt from maNi's post
*none* of these things <...deleted....>
(b) has any *real* value in philosophical discourse,
other than to increase devotionalism, and that too,
only in a minor, secondary manner.
<....deleted for brevity sake...>
For, no matter how many times one simply declares (no
matter what Pillai Lokam Jiyar wrote) that Manavala
Maamunigal
was the veritable reincarnation of Sri Ramanuja, or
that
Swami Desika was the ghaNTA incarnated, these
contribute
*nothing* to our understanding of either acharya's
*true*
contribution to our tradition.
----

The above is not accurate at all. That svAmi maNavALa
mAmuni is the reincarnation of rAmAnuja serves a very
important purpose - it takes away ones' ego in trying
to misinterpret svAmi MM's teachings as different from
svAmi rAmAnuja. The same holds good for dEsikA too. 
That
he is the ghantAvatAra means that he will not tell us
something different from what rAmAnuja said, or for
that matter what svAmi maNavALa mAmuni said. These
hagiologies serve to reinforce our focus on the
commonality of thought among the AchAryAs rather 
than focus on the minute differences (which may be
because of their difference in style, and their
intent being to reinforce a specific point in the
sampradAyam vs. some other for a different AchArya).


--maNi wrote
I am rather disappointed so far that the series on 
Swami Manavaala Maamunigal's vaibhavam has
concentrated 
more on these hagiological details rather than his 
actual, concrete contributions.
-----

The current series is nothing but a paraphrsing of
yatIndrap pravaNap prabhAvam, which is the biography
of svAmi maNavALa mAmuni. Obviously, a biography is
going to consist of such information. I think we are
looking in the wrong place for the information we 
need. 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan


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