Meaning of the word vaisnava, autorities, sastra.
1) The meaning of the word Vaishnava
The word Vaishnava comes from the name of God Vishnu. Vaishnava means literally "of Vishnu".
He who accepts the supremacy of Vishnu over the creations, in other words he who accepts that Vishnu is the creator, maintainer and destroyer or the creation is a Vaishnava.
As we'll see in the following chapters, Vishnu loves to take multifarious shapes, and for this reason many ignorant scholars conclude that indian philosophy is not monotheistic. Actually God is
one, but He takes many forms.
Many types of Vaishnavas are there because they prefer to worship a form of Vishnu instead of another. But they are all Vaishnavas. This is why there are so many schools of thought.
A type of Vaishnava is the devotee of Krishna. Basing his convinciton on the scriptures, he hols that Krishna is the original Godhead, and that even Vishnu comes from Him. Actually Vishnu is
another name for Krishna. Although the authors of this Internet Page are devotees of Krishna,
the call themselves Vaihsnavas.
2) The authorities
In the Vaishnava philosophy the authorities considered infallible are two:
a) the sacred books (sastra)
b) the saints (sadhu)
The sastra
The scriptures of Vaishnavism are called Veda, from the sanskrit root vid, to know. Veda therefore means knowledge. This book are considered of divine source and therefore the are deprived of possibilities to be mistaken. For this reason the scholar almost always debate citing verses from different Scriptures. The debate is won by the person who is able to sustantiate his thesis with the aid of the Vedas. Those Vaishnavas who do not accept the Vedas as pure and perfect knowlegde is considered apasampradaya, or one who is rejected by the Vaishnava comunity.
The original Vedas are for:
1) Yajur Veda
2) Rig Veda
3) Atharva Veda
4) Sama Veda
Their author is Sri Vyasadeva. Actually it was not he who created vedic knowledge but he put into writing a knowledge who had been handed down from millenniums by great sages. He gave some order to that knowledge. For that reason he was calle Vyasa, which means exactly "organizer". The four Vedas contains many different subject matters regarding the phenomenic world. Sections of the Vedas are called Upanishad. They analize many different philosophical problems, mostly of the non material worlds. For this reason, as the sages prefer to take into consideration The Upanishad over other sections of the Vedas. But Sri Vyasa did not consider the Vedas clear enough, so he compiled the Vedanta-sutra, which are codes of philosophical conclusions. The extreme difficulties of comprehensions of these verses made the Vedanta-sutra one of the most debated and studied book of the world. To have even a slight understanding of the Vedanta-sutra is pratically impossible without a bonafide commentary. All different indian schools have their own commentary on this sastra. The Vaishnavas have theirs. Remarkable are those of Madhva, Ramanuja and Vallabha. But the Gaudiya Vaishnavas accept the Govinda-bhasya, compiled by Sri Baladeva Vydyabhusana, as their Vedanta commentary. Vyasa thewrote other book, as the endless Puranas, the Itihasas (which are basically the Maha-bharata and the Ramayana). From the Scriptures themselves we came to know about some disatisfaction of Sri Vyasadeva about his own work and could not explain the reason of his sadness. Sri Narada Muni came to explain that he did not compile the most important of all vedic literature, which i Srimad-Bhagavatam, also called Bhagavata Purana. In this scriptur it is clearly explained the essence of all knowledge. These are the basic original authorities, but they are so numerous that is impossible to list all of them.
The saints
There is a close connection between the saints and the scriptures. Infact the scriptures have been written, explained and exemplified by the sadhus, without whom all vedic knowledge would have remained a deep and impossible mystery. This is why the Scriptures themselves gives the utmost importance to the search of genuine saints. These are called gurus, acaryas, sadhus, to mean the same thing: someone who is qualified to instruct others on the science of transcendence. Without them, says the Vedas, all spiritual advancement is a chimera. Every master has to have a master by whom he took knowledge: no guru can be accepted if he did not have a guru by his own. Although transcendental knowledge may come from the core of the heart when comletely purified, still Sri Krishna Himself ordered this system to be observed forever in the world of men. And to give an example, He Himself take a gurus when incarnates on the Earth. In each and every incarnation, the Original Godhead had a spiritual master. This system being applied, it came into being chains of Masters and disceple who handed down Knowledge from time immemorial. This chain system is called parampara, or sampradaya. According to the Vedas, in this Kali-yuga there are only four authentic paramparas. 1) The one who originates from Brahma who elected Madhva as the main Acarya is called Madhva Sampradaya;
2) The one who originates from Kumaras who elected Nimbarka Swami as the main Acarya is called Kumara Sampradaya;
3) The one who originates from Laksmi who elected Sri Ramanuja as the main Acarya iscalled Sri Sampradaya;
4) The one who originates from Siva who elected Visnusvami as the main Acarya is calledRudra Sampradaya.
Therefore one who is sincere about his search of the Truth should seek a bonafide spiritual master who comes from one of these four sampradayas.
The thign to be said is that at the origin of all bonafide
Sampradaya there is always the same Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna Himself
Of course, being an initiated member of a authentic chain of spiritual masters doesn't make anybody automatically qualified. The qualification has to be factual.
The word Vaishnava comes from the name of God Vishnu. Vaishnava means literally "of Vishnu".
He who accepts the supremacy of Vishnu over the creations, in other words he who accepts that Vishnu is the creator, maintainer and destroyer or the creation is a Vaishnava.
As we'll see in the following chapters, Vishnu loves to take multifarious shapes, and for this reason many ignorant scholars conclude that indian philosophy is not monotheistic. Actually God is
one, but He takes many forms.
Many types of Vaishnavas are there because they prefer to worship a form of Vishnu instead of another. But they are all Vaishnavas. This is why there are so many schools of thought.
A type of Vaishnava is the devotee of Krishna. Basing his convinciton on the scriptures, he hols that Krishna is the original Godhead, and that even Vishnu comes from Him. Actually Vishnu is
another name for Krishna. Although the authors of this Internet Page are devotees of Krishna,
the call themselves Vaihsnavas.
2) The authorities
In the Vaishnava philosophy the authorities considered infallible are two:
a) the sacred books (sastra)
b) the saints (sadhu)
The sastra
The scriptures of Vaishnavism are called Veda, from the sanskrit root vid, to know. Veda therefore means knowledge. This book are considered of divine source and therefore the are deprived of possibilities to be mistaken. For this reason the scholar almost always debate citing verses from different Scriptures. The debate is won by the person who is able to sustantiate his thesis with the aid of the Vedas. Those Vaishnavas who do not accept the Vedas as pure and perfect knowlegde is considered apasampradaya, or one who is rejected by the Vaishnava comunity.
The original Vedas are for:
1) Yajur Veda
2) Rig Veda
3) Atharva Veda
4) Sama Veda
Their author is Sri Vyasadeva. Actually it was not he who created vedic knowledge but he put into writing a knowledge who had been handed down from millenniums by great sages. He gave some order to that knowledge. For that reason he was calle Vyasa, which means exactly "organizer". The four Vedas contains many different subject matters regarding the phenomenic world. Sections of the Vedas are called Upanishad. They analize many different philosophical problems, mostly of the non material worlds. For this reason, as the sages prefer to take into consideration The Upanishad over other sections of the Vedas. But Sri Vyasa did not consider the Vedas clear enough, so he compiled the Vedanta-sutra, which are codes of philosophical conclusions. The extreme difficulties of comprehensions of these verses made the Vedanta-sutra one of the most debated and studied book of the world. To have even a slight understanding of the Vedanta-sutra is pratically impossible without a bonafide commentary. All different indian schools have their own commentary on this sastra. The Vaishnavas have theirs. Remarkable are those of Madhva, Ramanuja and Vallabha. But the Gaudiya Vaishnavas accept the Govinda-bhasya, compiled by Sri Baladeva Vydyabhusana, as their Vedanta commentary. Vyasa thewrote other book, as the endless Puranas, the Itihasas (which are basically the Maha-bharata and the Ramayana). From the Scriptures themselves we came to know about some disatisfaction of Sri Vyasadeva about his own work and could not explain the reason of his sadness. Sri Narada Muni came to explain that he did not compile the most important of all vedic literature, which i Srimad-Bhagavatam, also called Bhagavata Purana. In this scriptur it is clearly explained the essence of all knowledge. These are the basic original authorities, but they are so numerous that is impossible to list all of them.
The saints
There is a close connection between the saints and the scriptures. Infact the scriptures have been written, explained and exemplified by the sadhus, without whom all vedic knowledge would have remained a deep and impossible mystery. This is why the Scriptures themselves gives the utmost importance to the search of genuine saints. These are called gurus, acaryas, sadhus, to mean the same thing: someone who is qualified to instruct others on the science of transcendence. Without them, says the Vedas, all spiritual advancement is a chimera. Every master has to have a master by whom he took knowledge: no guru can be accepted if he did not have a guru by his own. Although transcendental knowledge may come from the core of the heart when comletely purified, still Sri Krishna Himself ordered this system to be observed forever in the world of men. And to give an example, He Himself take a gurus when incarnates on the Earth. In each and every incarnation, the Original Godhead had a spiritual master. This system being applied, it came into being chains of Masters and disceple who handed down Knowledge from time immemorial. This chain system is called parampara, or sampradaya. According to the Vedas, in this Kali-yuga there are only four authentic paramparas. 1) The one who originates from Brahma who elected Madhva as the main Acarya is called Madhva Sampradaya;
2) The one who originates from Kumaras who elected Nimbarka Swami as the main Acarya is called Kumara Sampradaya;
3) The one who originates from Laksmi who elected Sri Ramanuja as the main Acarya iscalled Sri Sampradaya;
4) The one who originates from Siva who elected Visnusvami as the main Acarya is calledRudra Sampradaya.
Therefore one who is sincere about his search of the Truth should seek a bonafide spiritual master who comes from one of these four sampradayas.
The thign to be said is that at the origin of all bonafide
Sampradaya there is always the same Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna Himself
Of course, being an initiated member of a authentic chain of spiritual masters doesn't make anybody automatically qualified. The qualification has to be factual.
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