Re: Santhyavadanam and Gayathri mantra

From the Bhakti List Archives

• December 11, 1998


In the ashtAkshara, I thought only the Pranavam is Veda Manthram. The rest of
akshara can be recited by any varna. In Divya Prabandam, I see 
namo nArAyanA in Thirupallandu, also in "vAdinEn varunthinEn Manathal".

dAsan.
Govindarajan.

Ram Gopalaswamy wrote:

>Only that much should be understood from the incident, nothing more - that 
SrI rAmAnujAcArya is a very compassionate AcArya, who freely
distributed the mercy of SrIman-nArAyaNa to any samsArin, regardless
of their varNa. But the sanAtana varNASrama-dharma SAstric restrictions 
are also there.  
Since the ashThAkshara is of vEdic origin and contains praNavam,
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SrI rAmAnujAcArya would not have probably whimsically shouted it out,