VaishNav Basics

[smaranam]

Namaste

I am putting here what i understand as VaishNav Basics as requested by some new members interested in VaishNava Bhakti. Please forgive and correct any errors of mine. I shall edit the info accordingly.


VaishNava Basics


Devotion to the Supreme Lord , BhagavAn VishNu , KRshNa - PurNapurushottam.
Other names : Hari, NArAyaNa, Govind

Primary Scripture to begin with : Bhagavad Gita, and also Shrimad BhAgvat MahaPurAN

Major VishNu avatArs (God descending in human-like form among humans on earth) : The ten - DashAvtAr

Most popular Deity forms :

LAkshmi-NArAyan
RAm LakshmaN SItA
RukmiNi-DwArkAdheesh
RAdhA-KRshNa
Shri NAthJi ( KRshNa as a young boy)
Laddoo GopAl , BAl GopAl
Yogeshwar KRshNa
Lakshmi-Narsimha


Hari KathA : 1. Story/words about Hari (e.g. Shrimad BhAgavat PurAN)
2. Story/words spoken BY Hari e.g. Bhagavad Gita , Uttar Gita (Mahabharat), Uddhav Gita (Shrimad BhAgvat Canto 11)

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Navadha Bhakti : 9 forms of practicing devotion , as instructed by Narada Muni and Prahlad Maharaj

SB 7.5.23-24:śrī-prahrāda uvāca
śravaṇaḿ kīrtanaḿ viṣṇoḥ
smaraṇaḿ pāda-sevanam
arcanaḿ vandanaḿ dāsyaḿ
sakhyam ātma-nivedanam
iti puḿsārpitā viṣṇau
bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā
kriyeta bhagavaty addhā
tan manye 'dhītam uttamam

Prahlāda Mahārāja said: Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form, qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Viṣṇu, remembering them, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words) — these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service. One who has dedicated his life to the service of Kṛṣṇa through these nine methods should be understood to be the most learned person, for he has acquired complete knowledge.

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1. ShravaNam - hearing the glories and instructions of Hari KathA
2. KIrtanam - chanting, singing, reciting, relating Hari Katha (names, glories, truths)
3. smaraNam - remembrance or thinking of Shri Hari , His pastimes and all about Him (this word is also used to refer to the esoteric process of automatic yog with His pastimes)
4. vandanam - prayer and glorification
5. pada sevanam - serving His Lotus Feet (this word is packed with meaning )
6. archanam - Deity Worship
7. dAsyam - service, servitude - development of ; towards Bhagvan and His devotees
8. sakhyam - considering the Lord one's best friend
9. atma nivedanam surrendering everything (AtmA) unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the body, mind and words)

Formal Deity Worship i.e. pujA , archanA is not recommended without guidance by a Guru. A beginner is recommended to use good framed pictures of the Deity for offering food, arati or any other worship. Advanced worship includes Shalagram Shilas)


4 major sampradayas

1. Shri / Lakshmi : Shri VaishNav (Ramanujacharya, vishishta advaita)
2. BrahmA : TattvavAda and Gaudiya (Madhvacharya - dvaita - Udipi Krishna ; Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - achintya bheda abheda - Radha Krshna )
3. Rudra : Vishnuswami , Vallabhacharya - shuddha advaita, PushtiMarg, Shri NAthJi , BAl KRshNa , laddoo GopAl
4. Kumar : NimbarkAcharya , dvaita-advaita - Taking shelter of Shri Radha.

Swami HaridAsJi , a great singer , of the 4th (Kumar sampraday) , started a wonderful tradition of Radha-KrshNa Nikunja Seva in 'Sakhi bhaav' - the sentiment of Radha's girlfriends.


Om Namo Bhagavate VAsudevAya

[smaranam]

SAMPRADAY WEBSITES AND BASIC INFORMATION

Some Basics
PURE BHAKTI
Offering Food to Krishna
Activities and Attitudes Unfavorable for Bhakti
Activities and Attitudes favorable for Bhakti

Shri VaishNava Homepage

PushtimArg: The Path of Grace

Nimbarka Sampraday
http://nimbark.org/2008/03/27/introd...k-dham-ashram/
Haridasi Sampraday - a branch of Kumar - Nimbarka sampraday
Bankey Bihari Mandir

Other VaishNav Groups :

http://www.yogeshwar.org/
About LeelaTai, Shakti through whom KRshNa communicates
SHREE KRISHNA LEELA CENTRES



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FINALLY, This will help understand how Lord Chaitanya incorporated the essence of the 4 major sampraday into His Gaudiya VaishNav tradition:
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...34&postcount=5

Om Namo Bhagavate VAsudevAya

[smaranam]

Holy Names of BhagavAn

japa - chanting on beads
kirtan - singing melodiously
sankirtan - congregational or group singing

1. MahAmantra : Hare KRshNa Hare KRshNa KRshNa KRshNa Hare Hare
Hare RAm Hare RAm RAm RAm Hare Hare
OR
Hare RAm Hare RAm RAm RAm Hare Hare
Hare KRshNa Hare KRshNa KRshNa KRshNa Hare Hare

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...7158472488155# (Here - A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami PrabhupAd sings a few prayers - some very specific, before Mahamantra)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z4DQ...eature=related (Mahamantra - Jagjit Singh)

2. Om Namo NArAyaNAya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBy0nU2rPEY - beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ3yb...eature=related

3. Om Namo Bhagavate VAsudevAya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKjJPSbBZys - This is a bhajan but it includes the mantra.

[Darji]

Thanks Smaranam, I think this will be a good place to start. Now we ned to sticky it and have someone make a Shivaism one

[devotee]

Very good series of posts on Vaishnavism, Smaranam ! Thanks !!

OM

[grames]

Dear Smaranam,

Its wonderful and nice of you to compile this informational messages for interested people and i am very happy to read this.

Also, i want to add this note to this nice mesasge that the fifth sampradaya that you mentioned is just your personal opinion and technically the HariDasi sampradaya is not a new one but an offshoot of Nimbarka's if i am right. Correct me if it is wrong.

These are the four authentic Sampradayas..

vamanas vidih sesah sanako visnu vakyatah dharmartha hetave caite bhavisyanti dvijah kalau
visnuswami vamanangsastatha madhvastu brahmanah ramanujastu sesangsa nimbaditya sanakasya ca
ete kalau yuge bhavyah sampradaya pravartakah samvatsare vikrama catvarah ksiti pavanah
sampradaya vihina ye mantraste nisphalah smritah tasmacca gamanang hyasti sampradaya narairapi


The last two lines of the above can be translated as this...
These four authorised and empowered spiritual channels of disciplic succession are to be fully accepted by all beings; as any word, combination of words or formulation of sound frequencies, invoked or addressed, audible or inaudible, secret or revealed, ancient or contemporary outside their auspices prove to have absolutely no efficacy.

Hare Krshna!

[devotee]

Namaste Grames,

You have come on the scene at the right opportune !

One of the members here wanted to know more about Nimbarka Sampradaya of Vaishnavism. I couldn't help him. Can you throw some light on this for the benefit of all who are interested in this path ?

OM

[smaranam]

Darji and Devooteeji, you are welcome. I am glad to be of any service to you, it is service to KRshNa.

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GramesJi, thanks for correcting that, the post has been edited. Actually, adding it as the 5th sampraday was an after thought - because it had to be mentioned somewhere, but initially i had put them under 'Other VaishNav groups'.

Now i remember reading some time ago that Swami HaridAsji who is Lalita Sakhi , follows the Kumar (HaMsa) Sampraday (Acharya - Nimbarka) - owing to the Radha sakhi focus.
Just as , although Vallabhacharya started PushtiMarg, he goes all the way back to VishNuswami's Rudra sampraday.

"Swami Haridas, the great Krishna devotee, belonging to the Nimbarka sampradaya discovered the image of Banke-Bihari in Nidhi Vana."
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Vrindavan (See subtitle "Temples")

Musical Tansen - Swami HaridAs
http://music.indobase.com/classical-...i-haridas.html

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At this point it is worth mentioning that Lord Chaitanya is the avatAr (incarnation) of KRshNa in the mood of Radha, and touched base with each of the 4 acharyas even before He took avatar. Then they all were reborn in His Gaudiya sampraday as close associates.


About Nimbarka Sampraday : There is a web link to their home page in post #3.

About : http://nimbark.org/shri-nimbarka-sampradaya/
Basically it was led by Sanak Kumar (Sanakadi) who was born as Nimbarkacharya. Devarshi Narad initiated Nimbarkacharya into teachings propounded by the HaMsa avatAr of Shri VishNu. Hence it was also called Hamsa sampraday. HaMsa Bhagvan --> 4 Kumars ---> Devarshi Narad ---> Nimbarkacharya (who is said to be avatAr of Sudarshan Chakra on this site)

Each of the 4 sampraday came from BhagavAn Shri KRshNa Himself.
visnuswami vamanangsastatha madhvastu brahmanah
ramanujastu sesangsa nimbaditya sanakasya ca
Visnuswami, Madhvacarya, Ramanuja and Nimbaditya will appear respectively as a portion of Vamana, Brahma, Ananta Sesha and Sanaka Kumara.
Garga Samhita, Canto 10, chapter 61, verse 24

Nimbarka (Kumar) sampraday focuses on Golok Dham Radha Krshna worship, by taking shelter of Radha. Swami Haridasji , the musical one,(weblink in post #3), takes this further to specialized Nikunja Seva of Radha-KRshNa in sakhi bhaav . The philosophy of Nimbarkacharya is "dvaita-advaita".....
..... but nothing like hearing VaishNav nectar from Gramesji. Looking forward to it

(About Deity Worship next....)

praNAm

Om namo Bhagavate VAsudevAya

[Philippe*]

2. Om Namo NArAyaNAya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBy0nU2rPEY - beautiful

Thank you very much smaranam for this video. I find it spiritually deep and very powerful. It inspires me a lot.

Regards,

Philippe

[smaranam]

At this point it is worth mentioning that Lord Chaitanya is the avatAr (incarnation) of KRshNa in the mood of Radha, and touched base with each of the 4 acharyas even before He took avatar. Then they all were reborn in His Gaudiya sampraday as close associates.

Hare KRshNa

The state of Maharashtra also saw a major growth in KRshNa bhakti - KRshNa as "Vitthal" or "PAnduranga" , affectionately called "Vithoba", with His consort, first queen RukmiNi - as "VithobA RakhumAi".

Sant TukAram (like DnyAneshwar, NAmdev, GorA KumbhAr, JanAbAi etc.) spread the tradition of sankirtan in Maharashtra-Karnataka area. It is called the VArkari sampraday/tradition .

VAr = trips kari = doer.
VArkari = piligrim on his/her way to see the Lord at His TIrtha (in this case PandharpUr).

Sant TukArAm, a mystical poet singer devotee of Vitthal (who composed numerous bhajans called "abhanga") said he was initiated in his dream by "Raghava Chaitanya Keshava Chaitanya". It was evident that this was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who had come to bless him. Chaitanya is RAghava (Shri RAm) as well as Keshava (Shri KRshNa).

PAnduranga Hari Vitthal ~