Page 20 - Ramanuja and Equality Book.pmd
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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


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