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> Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> writes:
> > Certainly many more people would find Vivekananda's teaching relevant than
> > Ramanuja's teachings, which are pretty much confined to Iyengars, who
> > themselves are a minority in the brahmin population itself. But I am sure you
> > wouldn't use that as a yardstick to judge Ramanuja's philosophy, would
> > you? :-)
>
> If I may say so, you are completely misstating the issue.
> Is Vivekananda and his legacy relevant to the average,
> non-alienated Hindu, who happens to be in the vast majority?
Is the philosophy of Ramanuja any more relevant to the non-alienated
Hindu? Certainly not. It's confined to the a section of the brahmins
mainly.
> I don't think there is any question that he is not.
> I am not speaking of the absolute value of Vivekananda's
> philosophy. While I don't think much of that either,
> it is not what we are discussing.
>
> Is Ramanuja and his legacy relevant? Let's see.
>
> Without Ramanuja, there would be no Divya Prabandham, no
> temple festivals in the style and variety that we have today,
> the Tirupati temple would not be the great kshetram that
> it is, and the religion of the masses, i.e., emotional
> attachment to God, would not exist as we know it.
1. You forget the songs of Manickavachagar, Appar et al who are shaivite
saints and equally emotional (whether you agree or not).
2. The divya prabhandam has no relevance to anyone other than
srivaishnava-s, Even inside Tamil Nadu the shaivite canon has a greater
following.
3. Temple worship etc are described in great detail in the shaiva
Agama-s.
4. Whether Tirupati would have been famous or not if Ramanuja had not
been born is only mere speculation. I can claim that it would have been
famous even if Ramanuja had not been born.
> Where would we be if it were not for the great influence of
> Ramanuja on successive saints, such as Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa,
> Ramananda, and Chaitanya? Would Vaishnavism be the same?
To each guy his own. Ramanuja is hardly relevant even for the Madhva-s
who are next door.
Please do not misconstrue my words as disrespect for any of the persons
you mention. The same holds true of sha.nkara also, who I follow.
Ramakrishnan.
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