Smarthas are Shaivites/Shaktas 2

[raga.iyer]

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Hello! After a lot of thinking and reflection, I've now come to understand something about the Smartha culture. As I said in an earlier post, It is Shaivite. Let me explain.

(1)Shankaracharya is believed to be an avatar of Shiva.

(2)Shiva is a strict God with no mercy, as opposed to the over-flowing mercy of Lord Vishnu. Shankaracharya's teachings are ridiculously rigid and non-adaptive.

(3)Shankara exhorts us to attain Brahman through the Jnana marga. Shiva-Dakshinamurthy is a symbol of Jnana. Bhakti is to be discarded at the earliest....Hari is symbolic of Bhakti (He's the source of all yogas but that's beyond the scope of this post). So one has to discard Lord Vishnu at the earliest.Nama japa is only the means unlike in Bhagavatha dharma where nama is both the means and the end (c.f Srimad Bhagavatham, Rama Rahasya upanishad and the compositions of Sri Thyagaraja/Purandaradasa)....So one attains Brahman through Shiva.

(4)Renunciation is supreme in this samradaya. Shiva/Rudra is the god of renunciation. Thus follow Lord Shiva's example.

(5)There is no Vishnu panchayatana puja. Shiva panchayatana puja alone is performed.(I have yet to come across a Vishnu panchayatana puja in both books and online resources). Even if there is a Vsihnu/Rama/Krisna/Narasimha panchayatana, the namavali for Shiva/Parvathi is from the Vedas while that of Hari from the puranas. Spiritually, the puranas aren't on par with the Vedas.

(6)We don't seem to have agamas but it 's Shaiva/Shakta agamas that is taught to us Smarthas when needed. My grand uncle who's a Sri Vidya upasaka told me so. No Vaikhanasa agamas.

(7)There is no spiritual discipline similar to Sri Vidya for devotees of Lord Narayana/Goddess Lakshmi. Shankaracharya himself is said to be the father of Sri Vidya, later developed and consolidated by Bhaskaraya Swami.

(8) Easwara actually means God/Bhagavan. But a lot of poeple say, by Easwara, Shankara meant Mahadeva. Also in Nirguna manasa stotram, he worships Nirguna as Shiva.

(9) Another reason why many Smarthas are Shaivites is because of the Adeenams or Shaiva mutts. Shaiva Siddhantam is very similar to Advaita. Also these so called mutts propogated the Saiva religion through a lot of Smarthas. Evangelism, thats what it was. Tiruvaduturai is an exception.

So I've decided to embrace the Madhva Sampradaya. My reverence for the Dasa/Vyasa Koota is on par with Sadguru Thyagaraja Swami. I'm equally impressed by the philosophy of the Vadakalai sampradaya. Vedanta Desika's philosophical expositions are outstanding to say the least. They also brim with devotion.

 

[KRS]

Dear Sri ragaiyer Ji,

I have read your above post with incredulous amazement.

Shankara worshipped 'Nirguna' as 'Shiva'? Is this not a contradiction in terms?

Smarthas means 'keepers of Smrithis'. Not just 'Shaivite' smrithis but ALL smrithis.

This is why a lot of Smarthas Ishta Daivatha (If not Kula Daivatha) is Tirupathi Vankatachalapathy.

Who composed 'Baja Govindam'?

This splitting of theological hair is the problem that leads to disunity.

If following Madhvacharyal appeals to you, please do so, without bringing down other sampradhayams. This type of discussion about Sri Shankara being a 'shaivite' may be acafemically interesting, but one has to remember that both Visishtadvaitham and Dvaitham followed him. Please remember, Sri Sankara united all six different then sambradhayams and established notably maths in Puri and Dwaraka in to one single fold.

Regards,
KRS

 

[Ramacchandran]

Vedams were discussed and formed as Rigs, the Two lined poems. This was written by few groups which were identified as Smarthas.

In Agama Section The Meaning of Agama is Agnivesh, the activation, pumping energy in to a material that activates.

The Agama was created only for Temples which on later date spread to Rathams, Houses and Palaces.

The persons who authored this Agama is Aapasthambha and the Srutha Suthra group of Yajur Veda is mastered in this.

Rig Veda is a sloka, that was written after discussing on various forms, this formed as Yajur, the application,(When to apply and where to apply and how to apply) Sama Vedas are for calculations, the speed of the waves the light has and analysis the same, Hithavarna mala is the one that recommended the samiths that should be used for particular yagnas.

For every ceremony the Samiths/ the Herbal sticks differ.

But present day the prohit put the available samith

These were taught in 18 Schools till B.C 1500. In B.C.100 Sukla Yajur Veda formed and taken to various places, that includes WEST.

In Old Testament they quote about Various Gothrams.

In 1953, a kashmir professor of Sanskrit did his PhD in Rishi Parambhara, where he gave the reasons and justify the same for every gothra.

Once Viswamithra visited China and spread Hinduism there. He was deported by his father yayathi for not offering his youth to him. This text is available with Harappa civilisation.

So if further research is undertaken we can dig many valuable texts.

 

[pbkhema]

The risihis of the Vedas have nothing to do with Smartas.The difference between Smartas and Vaishnavites is more pronounced in the Soth of the Vindyas.All smartas cannot be termed saivaites.Smartas have their ishta devata and kula devata.
In fact for many Smarta (Iyer) families in Tamil Nadu their Kuladeivam is Venkatachalapathy

 

[Ramacchandran]

I think Risis are the persons who were running the Vedic schools and hope every risi is attached to one school., and created Vedas., there are ample evedences that so many Risis had written Vedas a two line Kural. This Shrine of Venkatachalapathy, once it was a Subramanya Temple which in Sayana's period / Ramanuja visited and put Chanku and Chakra on the god and covered its eyes.( It was controlled by Sringeri mutt) British also found few inscriptions and in this connection and they don't want to enter in it as it gave them good revenue.

The Present Vekatachalapathy is the name from Sayana's father/ Brother Venkata Madhava, who edited Rig Vedas and published in his name! Some of the text is quoted in a book published in 1933 from Lahore.
The relation ship between Sringeri and Sayana was stained and become a war, where the King asked Sringeri Mutt to hand over the Tripathy shrine to Sayana which he did.

If want evedences if you come to my house I will shoe everything in black and white.

The Deity is made with Pure Saligrama Stone, and the entire hill is faced under Saturn's rays, and hence the popularity.

No doubt the god, the Venkatachalapathy is the Gula Devatha for Smarthas as it belogs to AApastabha School in pre Sayana's period.

The religion started for money.

On those days, tolls were collected through temples and deposited in the underground room constructed under Garbhagraha. For each temple there was a chief prist who was named a Jeer. The collected money was sent to treasury and during war time the taxes were collected in billions.

The merchants were given loan at the interest rate of 50% per month, which were accepted as donations as ornaments, construction of hospitals, growing of Herbal Plants, Maintaining of hospitals etc.,

When Malikaffore in A.D. 1310 entered Trichy and Madurai, after visiting Karnataka demolished the Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai, and Madurai temple in search of gold only. They taught that to milk a man and grab money is possible if he follows their religion. So they wanted to converted him in to their religion and grab money! ( At that time of Malikaffore robbed anf left for delhi, he had more than 300,000 females and children as slaves and 13,000 elephants that carried the treasure that was robbed from the Temples. Temples used to collect money in the name of God.

Here I wish to place an example. You are going to a temple and ask for abhishegam Ticket, you are given a ticket and charged by 1000 rupees. Like you there are ten devotees. Now Multiply that 10X1000= Rs 10,000.

The temple admin will spend only for one abhishgam and the rest is for the temple management.
(Here is one more example. In Samayapuram Mariamman Temple, there is a Stala Virusha. There you can see a man seated with a token, a paper etc., He will say write your prayers in this paper and throw that to the Tree your problem will be solved. For this the temple admin charges Rs 5 per request! So the religion is only for making money on which few hundreds live robbing millions.)

British visited Tirupaty temple, saw the cash inflow and the money it received, They wanted all the moneies at free of cost and robbed them.
At that a letter was sent to India from the British says that "If (the Priest) Warden of the Church want to wear a Kavi let him wear them and attract people, so that from the people we can extract money!.

Secondly when Sankaracharya was there only four mutts were there. But to day we see at least 10 Sankaracharys.

When men see that a man will do miracles immediately they formed an association, constructed a house for him, invited others to have Dharshan and tell his problems which was rectified in due course. For this they collected fees as Guru Dakshina or Sambhavana.

If there is a difference of opinion in handling the power and money they divided them selves with a statement that they are the original, like present day politicians.

What they need is nothing but a group of people, preferably Scapegoats.

The fear for God and punishment, the obedience to the Gurus of the religion made genius men, but the navigators turned robbers.

So the competition in conversion is only to earn money!

 

[Ramacchandran]

The Present Vekatachalapathy is the name from Sayana's father/ Brother Venkata Madhava, who edited Rig Vedas and published in his name! Some of the text is quoted in a book published in 1933 from Lahore.
The relation ship between Sringeri and Sayana was stained and become a war, where the King asked Sringeri Mutt to hand over the Tripathy shrine to Sayana which he did.


I request our members to visit Archeological Survey of India Office at Fort, You can find a book. "G.O. No.678 & 679, public 12th Aug 1904"
Letter from: M.R.Ry. V.Venkaiah Avargal, M.A.. Officiating Government Epigraphist,
To : Chief Secretary to Government
Dated : Ootakamund, 4th July 1904.
Mr.V.Venkaiah visited Tirupaty on June 1903, and Submitted a report.
You can see the details in Pages 4and 5, details about Tirupaty.

So based on the investigation it is very clear that the Gula Devatha of Smartha from North is Tirupathy / Tirumala. I totally support the version made by PBKHEMA that he is 100% right.
My father at the time of his death said Please do visit the temple at Tirumala see that as Lord Subramanya and pray. You need not see him as Perumal, but as Peruman.

I thank my friends for permitting me to share my views here and thank PBKHEMA.

 

[vikrama]

Some fifty years ago, I heard from a NB Vaishnavite scholar, that smartha meant a follower of smritis which are numerous and which get changed according to times. In contrast, vedas do not change.The name smartha was given by Vaishnavas who claimed that they are the true followers of Veda because Siva is not a Vedic deity.

To verify his statement, I went through the English translations of Rik and Yajur Veda Samhitas. Yes, There was no mention of Siva as a deity. The word Siva occurs there many times but on every occasion it invariably means auspicious and never indicates a deity of that name. May be, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads declare Siva as a deity. But I took up the above since they are the oldest parts of Veda. These contain the name of Vishnu as a deity.
You can get more information on this from the e-book, 'Vedaneriyum Saivathuraiyum' available at www.sangapalagai.com
vikrama

 

[RVR]

Smartha`s worship all the six Gods identified by Sankaracharya. They have adjusted both with saivites (Gurukkal) and vaishnavites. Pooja`s in Siva, Parvathi, Vinayaga, Muruga and Surya temples are performed by gurukkal only and generally smartha`s are not permitted to do it. Similarly only Bhattacharya`s (Iyengars) perform pooja in the Vishnu temples and smartha's are not permitted to do it. Hence identifying smartha's with both
saiva's and vaishnava's are not correct. Leave smartha's as smartha's and don't try to reclassify them