By
Narayanan Sampath
India is a land of various cultures and several religions. In fact each state under the Indian Union has its own culture, food habits, language and administration. Each of these religion(s) have their own Guru or leader equivalent to that of Bishops or Cardinals or the Pope of the Vatican. Sri Raamaanuja is one such Guru of a sect in the Hindu community.
There was a time when Buddhism, Jainism and similar other small religions were getting stronger at the expense of Hinduism when Adi Sankara decided to revive Hinduism in the seventh century. He preached Advaita or monoism i e. God only is true. At that time, the vedic texts, which came down to the Indian community, were studies orally and was a monopoly of a certain class. Sri Raamaanuja Charya of the 12 century preached a blend of monoism and dualism (Vishishtaadvaitham). It believes God is the soul of the Universe. Hence, He is real and his creation human soul is also real. Whereas Madhvacharya (1238 AD) believed (in Dvaitham) that the Universe is a playfield of God and the man is only a tool in His hands.
The meaning of Raama+anujan means younger brother of Sri Raama i.e. we are referring to Lakshmana here. Sri Velukudi Krishnan Swamy preaches that saying Om Raamaanuja is even superior to saying Om Narayana.
Sri Raamaanuja observed that there we so many divisions in the Hindu religion based on their occupations and hence wanted introduce some reforms. Sri Raamaanuja (born in 1017 A.D.) appeared on the spiritual scene of South India ignited by the devotional revolution started by the Azhvaars. He came from a pious Brahmin family and studied all Holy Scriptures as was the practice. But he could not reconcile to monistic system and interpreted Brahma-sutras and Bhagavadgita in his own volition of synthesising devotion and knowledge. According to him, God, the soul, and the universe together formed one reality. God is all pervading supreme spirit. The universe comes out of Him and returns to Him in cycles. He said that God-realisation was possible only through Bhakthi, which was a spiritual discipline.
Such Bhakthi was evident in the Raamaanuja Jayanthi celebrations held on 07 May 2011 at the Boys Scouts Hall on Plympton Road Carlingford, starting sharp at 06.00 pm. In the absence of Sri Hrishikesh Bhattar, Sri Suresh Varadarajan initiated the proceedings by invoking God. The invocation was followed by Pallandu, Raamaanuja Nootrandhadhi, Yathiraja Vimsathi, Sri Raamaanuja Ashtothram, Saatrumurai and Mangalam. A Haarathi was done in the end for all the devotees to offer their respects to the Lord through the oil lamp.
A sumptuous prasadham was served to all the devotees who attended the celebration. It was feast to the soul and the stomach. This involved a lot of organisation and effort and would not have possible but for the work put out by Suresh and a few close friends of his.