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previous | next > | last showing 1-10 of 27 10/3/05 Bharath Significance of Sandhyavandanam As far as i know it, Sandhyavandanam is the duty of every person who is entitled to do it. I remember hearing in one speech that if actually do sandhi we dont gain punya and all but if we do not do it then we incur a lot of sin. This just reinforces the point that it is the duty of each brahmin to do sandhi regularly. P.S.:- I dont have full fundaes on step-by-step significance of sandhi. I think Amuthan will know more... 10/5/05 Srinivasan exactly... even i have encountered many such queries ; like ppl asking me questions "why do you actually do it?".....bharath! even i know as much as you know........But 1 thing is for sure ; i can feel i can gain a lot of energy and freshness in me once i perform it... amuthan plzzz respond to our queries.. 10/5/05 Anonymous Part I - Introduction sorry for not replying earlier. nowadays, i don't use orkut very frequently. coming to the point, the significance of sandhyAvandanam is too much to be discussed in one post. it can be done only after a sufficient understanding of indian philosophy is done. so, i'll provide the basics of indian philosophy as much as is required for this purpose. (the mail is bound to come in multiple parts since each one can have only 2048 characters. so junta, please be patient.) sandhyAvandanam can be interpreted at various levels from the viewpoints of various sampradAya-s existing presently in India. i'll limit myself to the best possible interpretations. but there are certain common ideas in all the various lines of thought in indian philosophy and i'll try my best to show the similarities. one more note: i'll use a transliteration scheme (itrans,see encoding for devanagari in http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/) to represent samskR^itam words in english. please get familiar with this, else u may end up seeing words with strange spellings. this is done to maintain the purity of samskR^itam words in an english essay like this. by indian philosophy, i mean vedAnta. since vedAnta is the essence of indian philosophical thought, i'll be interpreting sandhyAvandanam based on vedAnta and not on other darshana-s like mImAmsa, sA~Nkhya etc. with this background, we can proceed to understanding the basics of vedAnta. these will be the subject of the next post. (to be continued) amuthan arunkumar r. 10/6/05 Anonymous Part II - basics of vedAnta in this post, i'll concentrate on the basics of vedAnta. i'll limit myself to the common aspects of various siddhAnta-s and later talk about advaitam and vishiShTADvaitam, the two vedAnta darshana-s i'm familiar with. one thing must always be kept in mind. vedAnta is incomplete, if not useless, unless it is put into practice. practice without proper understanding will take a long time to come to fruition and theoretical understanding without practice is as good as not knowing it at all. both vedAnta j~nAnam and abhyAsam are essential and they complement each other. sandhyAvandam is an excellent way to get started on abhyAsam. this will become clear later on.

so, don't miss ur sandhyAvandanam at any cost. do them to your best. (sorry for being pedantic, but that's helpful here.) now, to the basics. the first quality to develop is vivekam. vivekam means insight; insight into the nature of things. unless we see things as they are and not as we want them to be, unless we have an open mind to accept the truth as it is, there won't be much progress in vedAnta. vedAnta is not a smooth and nice thing for beginners. it will radically change ur present world view. so, u must be prepared for that. let us start with the nature of this world, so familiar to us. in shrImadbhagavadgItA, SrI kR^ishNa describes the world using two adjectives, "anityam asukham" and elsewhere in the gItA as "duHkhAlayam ashAshvatam". both mean the same thing. the world is both filled to the brim with suffering and all things are impermanent. this is not a pessimistic view of life. it is a fact which can be verified by everyone of us. this twin nature of the world as anityam and asukham has to be deeply reflected upon first. this discerning knowledge is called vivekam. it is very important to develop this first. the nature of the world as anityam and asukham will be dealt with in the next post. (to be continued) Amuthan Arunkumar R. 10/7/05 Anonymous Part III - basics of vedAnta (contd.) most of this post will be centered on the nature of the world we experience as anityam and asukham. anityam means impermanence and asukham means lack of happiness. to understand this more clearly, let us consider the common viewpoint held by many people (traditionally, the upholders of this view are called laukIka-s). the laukIka-s assert that the aim of life is to be happy. in order to achieve happiness, they indulge themselves in various activities to gain wealth and enjoy their life. this view, though highly attractive, is severely flawed for the following reasons. we experience pleasure or pain either through association or lack of association with objects of the senses. by the senses, the five senses and the mind are meant. it makes sense to yearn for an object of pleasure if the both the object seeked for and the happiness resulting from it are permanent. but the fact is that all objects change with time. a little reflection on the nature of objects we know will be sufficient to establish their impermanent nature (anityatvam). thus, there is suffering while working hard for gaining an object of pleasure, there is fear of loosing it once it is obtained since it is impermanent and there is suffering once it is lost. as if this were not enough reason, the faculties with which we enjoy the various objects of pleasure - the five senses - are themselves impermanent. again, what is pleasurable at one moment of time is not at another. for instance, one may relish a particular dish very much. but if it is offered to him when someone dear to him has died, will he still enjoy it? or take the instance of a man who has lost some of his limbs in an accident or one who has become old and the body has withered. will he still delight in the objects of the senses? the point here is this: both the body through which we enjoy objects and the objects themselves are impermanent. hence, the happiness resulting from acquiring objects are impermanent. what is impermanent is not worth striving. (to be contd.) amuthan. 10/7/05 Anonymous Part IV - basics of vedAnta (contd.) what is impermanent is not worth striving for. the happiness resulting from acquistion of favorable objects or removal of painful objects, is only misery in disguise since it is impermanent. take any instance of your life when you are happy. ask yourself the question: is this permanent? if no, immediately drop it. the same with any other emotional state. happiness and sadness are just two different states of the mind. what you consider as happy or sad depends on the way you have been brought up and other factors like the society. it is just a habit. the wise, knowing the impermanent nature of both happiness and sadness, the objects of the world and the body, renounce these and remain calm. it is by such renunciation alone that the truth can be found. this

freedom of one's mind from rAga (attachment to favorable objects) and dveSha (aversion to unfavorable objects), which results due to proper vivekam, is called vairAgyam (detachment). vivekam slowly matures into vairAgyam. when vairAgyam is firm, the mind does not run towards the objects of the world. knowing the everchanging nature of the world, it abandons both happiness and sadness and remains calm. developing vairAgyam is essential to the study of vedAnta. whenever happiness or sadness arises in the mind, it should immediately be calmed down by reflecting on the nature of the world as anityam and asukham. there is no point in searching for happiness in the world since it is impermanent and full of misery. this should become strongly rooted in the mind. one very strong way to develop vairAgyam is to just reflect on the nature of this body. what is this body composed of? blood, flesh, bone, filth etc. if these things are offered to you, you would immediately shun them with disgust. but the body is just a collection of these covered with a skin. knowing the disgusting nature of the body, one must repeatedly train oneself to be detached from the body. it is difficult initially. but if done with perseverence, vairAgyam becomes firm.(to be contd.) 10/7/05 Anonymous part V - basics of vedAnta (contd.) i don't know if the previous message was quite severe in it's content. but they are true. to summarize the development so far, vivekam, which arises from a close inspection of the world, leads to vairAgyam. when vairAgyam is steady, the mind is calm and is not disturbed by the objects of the senses. it is with such a calm mind that the truth can be found. in fact, in the earlier days, people used to study vedAnta only after taking up sannyAsam. but the most important thing is vairAgyam. it doesn't matter if u wear normal clothes or ochre robes. develop vairAgyam. then the world can no longer trouble you. now, when sufficient vairAgyam is developed, one should develop sattva guNams like ahimsA, satya niShThA, brahmacharyam etc. and renounce activities prompted by desires (kAmya karmas). in other words, one should live a pure life, established in morality. this is easy if one has vairAgyam and if one lives a morally pure life, vairAgyam results. thus, they complement each other - living as per vaidhika dharmam and vairAgyam. such a life is a life of tapas and is the sort of life great AchArya-s like svAmi deshikan lived. one more point (this logically follows from the previous discussion, but it is worthwile repeating it): since we do various types of karma-s, karma phala-s in the form of punyam and pApam accrue. since both karma and karma phala are anityam, we must not have attachment to the fruits of our action. to remain without doing anything is impossible. so, whatever you do, do it without expecting the fruits of that action. this however, should not lead one to laziness. this is beautifully brought out by shrI kR^iShNa in shrImadbhagavagItA in the shlokam "karmaNyevAdhikAraste mA phaleShu kadAchana. mA karmaphalahetuH bhUrmA te sangostv.akarmaNi..". now, the stage is set. once we are established in a life of dharmam (i.e. vaidhika dharmam), with vairAgyam, we are ready to plunge into the basics of vedAnta. in the next post, the basics of vedAnta will be discussed. (to be contd.) amuthan. 10/7/05 Bharath Knowledge is infinite......I never knew many things in this...thanks amuthan 10/8/05 Anonymous part VI - basics of vedAnta (contd.) now that some of the practical prerequisites for approaching vedAnta have been covered, we will enter into a discussion of some the fundamental ideas that vedAnta gives us. this is predominantly an intellectual task and fluency with the concepts and ideas of vedAnta come only with deep reflection on the various issues. as mentioned in the previous posts, this world is both anityam and asukham. now, is there a way

to get out of this world, so full of suffering? vedAnta says yes and that's why it's important to us. in order to know the way to freedom from misery, we need to first know what vedAnta deals with. in short, vedAnta deals with the absolute truth behind all existence. this is called brahmam in vedAntic parlance. the taittirIya upaniShad defines brahmam as "that from which the universe has it's origin, that in which it remains and that into which it dissolves after destruction". vedAnta asserts the brahmam, which is the substratum of all existence, exists. this is the defining characteristic of vedAnta. buddhism for instance, asserts that there is no fundamental truth behind all existence. i.e., it denies the existence of brahmam. since we deal with vedAnta here, let us not worry about avaidika matams like bauddham and jainam. it is the knowledge of brahmam (brahma j~nAnam) that is the goal of all systems of vedAnta. let us get used to some vedAntic jargon. the innermost essence of our very being is known as the Atman. the world that we see and experience (including mental creations) is known as jagat. jagat is also known as prakR^iti, in its gross form. prakR^iti stands for the totality of all matter and energy. prakR^iti is not a conscious entity and hence, it is known as achit or as jaDam. the individual soul, i.e. we, are known as jIvAtmA and god is known as Ishvara or as paramAtmA. as contrasted with prakR^iti, which is achit, AtmA is chit, i.e. conscious in nature. the state of complete freedom is called moksham or mukti. (to be contd.) 10/8/05 Anonymous Part VII - basics of vedAnta (contd.) all systems of vedAnta deal with the following. the nature of jIvAtmA, the nature of brahmam, the nature of prakR^iti, the relation between these three, the meaning of mukti and the means to attain mukti (this is known as upAyam). in this group, as there will be people from various sampradAya-s, it will not be fair to stick on to one system of vedAnta. hence, from now on, i'll provide basic information on both advaitam and vishiShTAdvaitam. since i don't have much knowledge about dvaitam, i'll not touch that. but i guess most of the people in this list fall either into advaitam (aiyar-s or smArta-s) and vishiShTAdvaitam (aiyangAr-s). hence i guess this will do some justice to the people in the group. next, we will move on to study advaitam and vishiShTAdvaitam to as much detail as is required here. i will not be entering into a comparative study of advaitam and vishiShTAdvaitam. that, i leave it to you. i'll restrict myself to saying what the two systems are, so that the interpretation of the main aspects of sandhyAvandanam will be clear to people of both sampradAyam-s. first, i'll cover vishiShTAdvaitam, since it is much more easier to understand than advaitam. both however, are quite deep and a full understanding of them will require proper learning under a competent AchArya. for our puposes, a cursory understanding of these darshana-s is sufficient. one more note, i'll not be covering the historical and sampradAyam aspects of these darshana-s, but only the content of the two philosophies as that is what is relevant to us. in the next post, i'll start with the basic ideas of vishiShTAdvaitam. (to be contd.) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PAGE-2 of the thread

Significance of Sandhyavandanam Home > Communities > Sandhya Vandhanam performers > Forum > Messages

first | < previous | next > | last showing 11-20 of 27 10/8/05 Srivatsan. very impor duty for brahmin very imprortant duty for all the brahmins 10/8/2005 8:39 PM i perform my Sandya Vandhhanam 2 times daily,Being a brahmin it is the main duty(i mean the responsibilty of the person) to perform the sandhya vandhanam.According to velukudi krishnan swamiji all ur spirtual works start gaing it's importance after u start performing ur sandhya vandhnam regularly.one more thing wht i thought important in sandhya vandhnam is Gyathri japam,which we tell(the japam is the most strongest japam to improve ur confidence n self controling capability).i would like to more detalis abt vistaadvaitam n advaitam... 10/9/05 Anonymous Part VIII - vishiShTAdvaitam shrImate rAmAnujAya namaH. shrImate nigamAnta mahAdeshikAya namaH. in this post, i'll concentrate on the basics of vishiShTAdvaita darshanam. according to vishiShTAdvaita, there are three tattvam-s - chit, achit and Ishvara. chit means consciousness and here, it refers to the jIvAtmA-s. achit means prakR^iti or this world (jagat). Ishvara stands for brahmam which, according to vishiShTAdvaitam is the same as shrIman nArAyaNa. it is important to note that the term Ishvara is nowadays used with reference to shiva exclusively. but this is NOT the meaning of the term in vishiShTAdvaita texts. Ishvara means one who looks after everything and in vishiShTADvaita, this term is used as a synonym for god, i.e. viShNu. all entities can be classified into one of the three categories - chit, achit and Ishvara. these three are not independent. their inter-dependency is technically called sharIra-sharIri bhAvam or sharIrAtma bhAvam. we will consider that a little later, since that requires a little more understanding of the tattvam-s. once this is done, the meaning of shrI rAmAnujAchArya's shrIsUkti "svAdhIna trividha chetanAchetana..." will become clear. let us take a bird's eye view of the tattvam-s. just get used to the jargon. don't worry if u don't understand it at the first attempt. achit (or achetanam) can be further subdivided into three categories - prakR^iti, kAlam and shuddha sattvam. chit (or chetanam) is again subdivided into three subcategories - baddha-s, mukta-s and nitya-s. Ishvara, who is the same as shrIman nArAyaNa, is the AdhAram (support), niyantA (ordainer/controller) and sheShi (one for whose pleasure other things (sheSham) exist) for the other two tattvam-s - chit and achit. chit and achit form the body of Ishvara, who is the owner of both of them. thus, there is only one reality shrIman nArAyaNa, who includes all living and nonliving things in his body. Ishvara is the AtmA of both chit and achit, which forms his sharIram. this is known as sharIrAtma bhAvam. (to be contd.) 10/9/05 Anonymous Part IX - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.) as seen in the previous post, according to vishiShTAdvaitam, there is only one underlying reality behind everything - brahmam, which is the same as shrIman nArAyaNa, who is the paramAtmA, who includes all entities - chit and achit - as his sharIram. since there is only ultimate reality, this darshanam is advaitam. but since there are internal division like chit and achit, it is a special (vishiShTham) form of advaitam and hence, it is called vishiShTAdvaitam. this is the meaning of the term vishiShTAdvaitam. one more thing - according to vishiShTAdvaitam, moksham or mukti is eternal service (kai~Nkaryam) to shrIman nArAyaNa (= para vAsudeva) in vaikuNThAm. now, let us consider the three tattvam-s one by one in some detail. first let us take achit. as mentioned earlier, achit consists of prakR^iti, kAlam and shuddha sattvam. prakR^iti is the totality

of all matter and energy. prakR^iti is in turn subdivided into twenty four categories. but that will be too much for a first study of vishiShTAdvaitam. we'll get into that later, if necessary. prakR^iti is always changing (anityam) and is characterized by three guNa-s - sattvam (equilibrium), rajas (activity) and tamas (inertness). these three guNa-s are always present in prakR^iti, though in varying proportions. kAlam means time. kAla is subdivided into three categories - past, present and future. shuddha sattvam is the substance of shrI vaikuNTham and bhagavad sharIram (the body of viShNu when he incarnates on earth). it is nityam. shuddha sattvam is svayam prakAsham (i.e. shines forth by itself or self-revealing). as contrasted with this, both kAlam and prakR^iti are not svayam prakAsham. if a question be asked why is that we do not perceive shuddha sattvam though it is svayam prakAsham, the answer is that it is ever present around us, but we do not perceive it due to anAdi avidyA (beginningless ignorance). once this ignorance is destroyed, we attain mukti and perceive shuddha sattvam and much more, shrIman nArAyaNa. (to be contd.) 10/10/05 Srinivasan I have attained a great amount of knowledge from Amuthan's writings.. Also i would encourage to participate and raise their own doubts and questions for clarifications about sandhya vandhanam... 10/10/05 Anonymous a small note it may take quite some time before we actually get to appreciate the significance of sandhyAvandanam. i'm not sure how long the basics of vedAnta r going to take for completion. do NOT wait for full fundaes before u start doing sandhyAvandanam. KEEP DOING IT AS REGULARLY AS POSSIBLE. by the time u gain fundaes, u will have enough practical experience in sandhyAvandanam that u can right away start doing sandhyAvandanam properly, knowing it's significance as u do it. 10/10/05 Anonymous Part X - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.) we'll move on to chit or chetana-s. chetana-s include all jIvAtmA-s. jIvAtmA is j~nAna svarUpam, i.e. of the nature of consciousness. consciousness is a tricky word and has to be used carefully. it is better to retain the saMskR^itam original, j~nAna svarUpam. this j~nAnam is not the same as the knowledge in the mind. it is a sort of awareness that is intrinsic to the AtmA. AtmA is svayam prakAsham, i.e., it does not require the help of another entity to know itself. for instance, if there is a table in your room, u need to see it to know that it exists. in other words, it depends on ur sight for knowledge of it's existence. if u enter the room blindfolded, the table does not automatically announce it's presence. thus, the table, which is achit, is not svayam prakAsham. AtmA has neither form nor substance. it is not tangible and is not subject to any change, i.e. it is nityam. it is neither created nor destroyed. it just exists. our actual nature is that of the Atma svarUpam. due to anAdi karma, we wrongly associate ourselves with the body and the mind and call it ourselves. we are neither the body nor the mind. we are the pure AtmA, which is beyond all names and forms. just as we, the jIvAtmA own this body, this jIvAtma itself is the sharIram of paramAtmA. thus, our AtmA's AtmA is viShNu. this is the single, most important fact of vishiShTAdvaita siddhAntam. the AtmA is not reachable by the mind. words cannot describe what it is. it can be known only by directly experiencing it. AtmAnubhavam, or being firmly established in one's essential nature, is known as kaivalyam. according to vishiShTAdvaita, there r infinite number of jIvAtmA-s. all these AtmA-s form the sharIram of paramAtmA, which is one only. as mentioned earlier, AtmA is svayam prakAsham and hence knows itself. this knowledge is known as dharmi j~nAnam. the knowledge by which it knows entities other than itself is known as dharma bhUta j~nAnam. jIvAtmA is aNu, i.e. it is extremely subtle. (to be contd.) 10/10/05 Anonymous Part XI - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.) the jIvAtmA is inseparably related to the paramAtmA as the latter's sharIram. this relationship is

technically called apR^itak siddhatvam. to understand what apR^itak siddhatvam is, consider a rose. when u see a rose, u also perceive that it is red. the quality of redness is inseparably related to the rose. this relationship is known as apR^itak siddhatvam. it is important to remember that it is only due to avidyA (ignorance) that we identify ourselves with the body and mind. we by our own nature, i.e. as AtmA, neither have a body nor a mind. we are of the nature of pure awareness. our identity is in the AtmA and not in the body or the mind. let us now consider the various classifications under chit. all chetana-s r divided as baddha-s, mukta-s and nitya-s. baddha-s refer to us, we who r caught in this world full of misery and suffering (samsAram). the mukta-s r those who were baddha-s, but got liberated and attained moksham. nitya-s r those who r eternally free. they r a special class of jIvAtmA-s who never get trapped in the samsAra sAgaram. the nitya-s include garuDa, vishvaksena, AdisheSha etc. who r eternally present at shrI vaikuNTham. it is important to note that the concept of nitya-s exists only in vishiShTAdvaita - they do not exist in other sampradAyam-s. next, we will consider Ishvara svarUpam. in vishiShTAdvaitam, no distinction is made between Ishvara and brahmam. this is not the case with advaitam, for instance. Ishvara is the AtmA and everything other than Ishvara forms his sharIram. sharIram is defined as follows: if B is the sharIram of A, then 1. B has A as it's basis for existence, 2. B is controlled by A and 3. B exists for the purpose of A. the first relation is called AdhAra-Adheya sambandham. the second relation is called niyantA-niyAmaka sambandham. the last one is called sheShi-sheSha sambandham. the first in these represent A and the second, B. thus, the reality is only one - chidachidvishiShTa brahmam - brahmam which has chit and achit as it's sharIram. (to be contd.) 10/10/05 Srinivasan Pardon my ignorance; yet a doubt.... Pardon my ignorance; as we all are well aware of the fact that there had been many circumstances where we could not perform sandhya vandhanam. Let's say I had an exam at 9:00 and i woke up 8:30 where in i cannot perform the entire sandhya vandhanm....So is there any compressed or a compensated version for it?....This wud definitely wud motivate ill notions of performing compressed version though we have time; but then i am talking about the kind of inevitable situations like when we are travelling in train for 2-3 days .... Then how does the methods vary?....Please answer my query. 10/12/05 Anonymous Part XII - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.) in this post, we will study more about brahmam, as per vishiShTAdvaitam. brahmam is uniquely defined by it's svarUpa lakshaNam which consists of satyam, j~nAnam, Anandam, anantam and amalam. these will be taken up one by one. satyam means being eternal, in this context. the brahma svarUpam is eternal and not subject to change. j~nAnam means knowledge/consciousness/awareness. brahmam is j~nAna svarUpam. Anandam means bliss. brahmam is not an inert thing. it has Anandam as it's attribute. anantam means infiniteness. brahmam is not limited by anything. it is infinite by every means. amalam means purity. these five qualities clearly define brahmam. in addition to this, in vishiShTAdvaitam, an additional attribute is mentioned, i.e. shriyaH patitvam. brahmam is identified with shrIman nArAyaNa. this is very important since in other matam-s like advaitam, this identification does not exist. in vishiShTAdvaitam, there is no difference between brahmam and Ishvara. once brahmam is established as shrIman nArAyaNa, there are additional characteristics of brahmam which are known as nirUpita svarUpa visheShaNam-s. these are infinite in number, but, for the purpose of elucidation, six qualities, j~nAnam, balam, aishvaryam, vIryam, tejas and shakti, are given importance. there are innumerable others like shaushIyam, vAtsalyam etc. here, it is sufficient to note that shrIman nArAyaNa is full of auspicious qualities. this equation of brahmam with a personal god is another distinctive feature of vishiShTAdvaitam. brahmam is saguNam (with qualities) and exists in five modes (not exclusive of each other). these are param, vyUham, vibhavam, archa and antaryAmi. param means the para vAsudeva in shrI vaikuNTham. vyUham

refers to certain forms of viShNu like aniruddha, sha~NkarshaNa etc. vibhavam refers to incarnations like rAma and kR^ishNa. archa refers to the vigraha-s in the temples. and finally, antaryAmi refers to the omnipresent brahma svarUpam. (to be contd.) 10/12/05 Anonymous Part XIII - vishiShTAdvaitam (contd.) the antaryAmi form of brahmam is present everywhere and at all times. it is also known as divyAtma svarUpam. this can be perceived only by the yogi-s in the samAdhi stithi. the details of yoga and samAdhi will be taken up after discussing advaita and vishiShTAdvaita. for now, it should suffice to say that samAdhi is a very subtle state of existence where the truth can be known directly. one important note: in vishiShTAdvaitam, only viShNu is brahmam. even shiva and brahma are jIvAtmA-s. hence no deity is equated with viShNu. this is not the case with advaitam, for instance. according to vishiShTAdvaitam, mukti or liberation consists of eternal and loving service to shrIman nArAyaNa at vaikuNTham. to attain mukti, the means adopted is known as upAyam. two types of upAyam are admitted here - bhakti yogam and prapatti. bhakti yogam is the same as aShTA~Nga yogam and this will be taken up when we discuss yoga. prapatti refers to complete self surrender to shrIman nArAyaNa. prapatti is also known as sharaNAgati. in essence, it is the surrender of the notion of "i" and "mine" (aha~NkAram and mamakAram) to Ishvara. once sharaNAgati is done, all actions are done for the sake of shrIman nArAyaNa's pleasure and one's entire focus shifts on doing service (kai~Nkaryam) to him. a life of sharaNAgati is marked by three qualities: kartR^itva tyAgam (renunciation of aha~NkAram), mamatA tyAgam (renunciation of mamakAram) and phala tyAgam (renunciation of the fruits of action). thus, all activities are done as per one's varNa and Ashrama and they are done for shrIman nArAyaNa's prIti (pleasure). to sum it all, according to vishiShTAdvaitam, there is only one ultimate reality - shrIman nArAyaNa - who is the AtmA and who has all the jIvAtmA-s and the universe as his sharIram (body). this much knowledge of vishiShTAdvaitam is sufficient for our purposes. from the next post, we will concentrate on advaitam. (to be contd.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------