Page 20 - Ramanuja and Equality Book.pmd
P. 20
form worship at home, which is a daily duty for a Sri Vaishnava.
The presence of a personal deity at home provides an opportunity
for everyone to serve the Lord when every activity and its result,
and every service is dedicated to Him. It also brings immense
peace and happiness, if everyone in the home thinks of the
personal deity as their Lord (manager!), and report everything
to Him, with the belief that He will take care of any disputes and
issues. Then the entire household will be free of disturbances and
fights (this is like how, in an office, when the manager is present,
the employees do not fight and request the manager’s help in
mediating any dispute).
Equality of Language
Alwars, the ones deeply immersed in the Lord, were great
devotees of the Lord. Their compositions in the Tamil language are
known as the Nalayira Divya Prabhandam (four thousand divine
verses), or the Dravida Veda. These verses are an outpouring of
their intense love and devotion to the Lord, containing deep and
rich meanings about the Supreme Being, and our relationship
with Him. Sriman Nathamuni, an Acharya earlier to Ramanuja,
had compiled these and made them an inseparable part of the
Sri Vaishnava tradition, but the usage was not widespread. In
those days, most of the spiritual activities both in temples, and in
homes, were done in Sanskrit language primarily.
Ramanuja, learning the sacred Tamil Veda given by the Azhvars
19