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Re: iyer/iyengar

From the Bhakti List Archives

K K • May 7, 1999 


Hi Here are some answers for your questions, 

#1) All iyengars are srivaishnavas but all srivaishnavs
> are not iyengars.Am i
> right?

Answer: First of all, All Iyengars are not SriVaishnavas, some Iyengars
still pray to demi gods, like Ganesh, Siva, etc.. If they do so, then
they are not srivaishnavas...  
Sri Vaishnavas are devotees of Sriman Narayana, and sri Mahalakshmi..
They pray only to Him and His manifestations, and none other than that.
You are partly right on that question, All Srivaishnavas are not
Iyengars.. Becasue anyone can become a sri Vaishnava...

Question #2) Like people get  converted into chiristianity ,islam
> and buddhism can
> anybody get officially converted as iyengar or
> srivaishnava.I think the term
> srivaishnavas can be used for all brahmins
> as even most smarthas worhip sriman naryana.

Answer : Srivaishnava term can be used to anyone, not necessarly be
only to iyengars.. even if someone converted from christianity to
srivaishnavism and strictly pray only to Sriman Narayana,yes they are
also srivaishnavas, but if you are praying to Narayana and as you said
some smarthas also pray to him but they inturn also worship other devi
devathas, they are not called as sri vaishnavas.. 

See for instance, among doctors, everone is a doctor, but he is called
a surgen only if he specializes in surgery, just as that, everyone
prays everyone, but in order to attain moksham, one should pray one and
only to Narayana, becasue Moksham itchat Janardhana, because He is the
only one who give Moksham. The only thing that everyone should
understand is, that If he could give Moksham then he can give anything
and everything in Life... Becasue there is nothing beyond or greater
than Moksham, for this jeevathma.

Ok last but not least, When we say svayam acharyas, they were not
necessaryly from Sri Ramanujas diciples, it was even exsisting even
before him, for example yamunacharya had 15 diciples, and manakal nambi
had 5 diciples, and Nathamuni had 10 diciples, and if they had
continued thier tradition and kept giving smasrayanam and bharanyasam
through their family decendents, it was then carried out, like that,
well not only that just to give you an other quick reference, Sri
Ramanuja spreaded Sri Vaishanavism, not only through 74 simhadhi
pathis, who are swayam ahcaryas, he also established almost 700
aharyas, throughout the India where ever he went to bless the devotees
of lord Sriman Narayana, to get Smasrayanam and Bharanyasam... so if we
analyse the statistics, what happened was, the amount of devotion and
the acaryam they have to follow slowely got diminished and then instead
of forwarding the tradition of swayam ahcaryas, they inturn went to
great Acharyas like Ahobilamutt, Sri Andavan, Parakalamutt, and also
like Sri Tridandi jina jeeyar swami, etc... so its basically carried
out through them and now we have only a few of those parampara, who are
carriying this out in thier life.... 

to answer your final question, yes the 74 Acharyas, were all bramhmins,
and Vaishnavas.  Sri Ramanuja did give Vaishnavism to anyone who is
interested in it, and who were not neccessaryly be Brahmins, i agree to
it, but the acharya purushas who were 74 were all brahmins, because,
its like this, no one is a brahmin unless he goes through the process
of upanayanam, at that stage he is called a dvija, which means its his
second birth, though he was born in a brahmin family he will not be
one, if he didnt get that process done, and secondly even after getting
it done, if he dosent follow the basic principle of doing sandhya
vandhana, then he is not qualified for that either, because the
necessary qualification of a brahmin is to obtain brahmha gnyana, and
thats through sandhya vandana, etc.. so one has to analyse these things
too.. well you can say how many are following these rules, believe it
or not, there are quiet a few, even in america who still goto work and
do their jobs, yet at their regular life style they have all these
proceess, going on... So hope i was a help, and if you have any
questions at all, please donot hesitate to email any questions.. i will
try my best to explain...
by the way these explanations are confirmed and true to my best of my
knowledge...

Adiyen
krishna 

--- Sugantha Jagannthan  wrote:
> Namaskaram
> 
> Iam really confused by the terms srivaishnavas
> ,iyengars,iyers etc.
> 
> All iyengars are srivaishnavas but all srivaishnavs
> are not iyengars.Am i
> right?
> 
> Like people get  converted into chiristianity ,islam
> and buddhism can
> anybody get officially converted as iyengar or
> srivaishnava.I think the term
> srivaishnavas can be used for all brahmins
> as even most smarthas worhip sriman naryana.
> 
> Suyamacharys is term used for srivaishnavas who
> where th e descendants  of
> the original 74 disciples  of ramanuja  and who
> donot have an acharyan
> outside their family?
> 
> Where these 74 brahmins?
> 
> Are  most iyengars   brahmins  by birth?.Because
> some people say that
> ramanuja converted people belonging to different
> race, caste and even
> religion as brahmins and called them as iyengars and
> so if u trace out the
> hereditory of iyengars none of them would have been
> brahmins by birth.Is it
> true?
> 
> srimath
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



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