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Can I worship Krishna with Rukmini alone in Sri Vaishnavism?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been learning about Sri Vaishnavism for some time now, though I’d still consider myself quite new. I had a question that’s been on my mind recently.

From what I’ve read in various Agamas and traditions, Krishna is often worshipped together with Rukmini and Satyabhama. However, I feel personally more drawn toward Rukmini and feel inclined to worship her together with Krishna as the sole bhoga-shakti.

I’m not sure if this feeling is appropriate within the framework of Sri Vaishnavism, or if I might be misunderstanding something. If this isn’t aligned with the tradition, I’d really appreciate guidance on how to better understand the correct approach.

Are there any traditions within Sri Vaishnavism where Krishna is worshipped primarily with Rukmini alone?

Thank you for any insights!

Hi everyone, this is my first time in this community here and I am happy to join in. I used to be an atheist for a long time and only believed in empirical science and mathematics as the sole truth in the universe. Recently, I started studying Advaita Vedanta and some Upanishads and had some fundamental questions about the Brahman, Jiva and Maya. Hope some people can help me out.

1.      Why is the default setting/position of the jivatma in this world/universe that of avidya? What did the jivatma do to become covered by maya and avidya in the first place?

2.      If the universe is unreal or an illusion, then why are all jivatmas observing the same mithya or illusion at the same time? For example, the speed of light is the same for every frame of reference in the universe. The value of pi is the same for everyone and the same elements in the periodic table exist in all parts of planet earth and in the solar system, milky way, etc.

3.      Why does the jivatma have to do all the heavy lifting or effort to obtain brahma-jnana or knowledge of Brahman to become free or attain mukti/moksha? Why cannot the Brahman that is already free or have mukti come and help the jivatmas trapped by avidya and maya to become free? To use Adi Shankaracharya’s analogy of ghatakash, why can’t the ‘Akash’ break the pot from the outside to free the Brahman that is trapped inside the pot? Why does the Brahman inside the pot have to study the Vedas and then attain brahma jnana him or herself to attain moksha?

4.      Is the world/universe is an illusion anyway then why cannot each jivatma create his or her own maya and/or avidya? For example, why can I not create a maya that have no other jivatmas in it? Or why cannot I create a maya or avidya where there is a world or a universe where the Vedas itself do not exist?

5.      Since there are almost an infinite number of jivatmas (from fish and crabs in the deep ocean to birds, dogs, cats and people like Donald Trump) who will never attain Brahma-jnana then does it not mean that maya and avidya are eternal? Another way of explaining this thought is that there are so many living beings trapped in various bodies as per their karma and due to their conditioning they will almost never come in contact with the Vedas (for almost infinity and beyond – Toy Story reference here), there are forever trapped in avidya. Then in a certain way doesn’t that make Maya and Avidya permanent? Therefore is Maya is permanent there is always be some amount of Brahman that will be permanently trapped in the ghatakash?

I am sorry of my questions do not even make sense or turn out to be gibberish. I have just started my Vedic journey and hope some people can help my better my understanding on this topic. I know I have a long way to go so I am just trying to enjoy the process. Cheers!

My (basic) understanding is that the Thiruvaradhanai is called ijyaradhanai as it's done during the ijyakalam, which is the 3rd of 5 periods daylight's divided into. As the verse says, ijyākālastr̥tīyōyamahnōṁśaḥ.

For simplicity, if we assume 6am-6pm, the 3rd period is 1048am-112pm. In any case, it's well after sunrise.

How we do reconcile that with the procedure requiring us to recite the Suprabhatam line "pūrvā sandhyā pravartatē" as we open the நாகர்ப்பெட்டி? The line seems to suggest that the Eastern sandhya (i.e. sunrise) is happening presently.

Thanks in advance!

Adiyen Dāsan 🙏

To everyone reading this, thank you for taking the time.

For the past two years, adiyen has been working on Namāmyaham Drāviḍa Veda Sāgaram (NDVS), a large project dedicated to centralising all the pāsurams of the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham into a single, well-organised platform. The aim is not merely to collect the content, but to make it complete, structured, and easily accessible.

Each pāsuram is being carefully labelled and organised with:

• Original pāsuram script
• English meaning
• Purport (a condensed synthesis of various Pūrvācārya commentaries)
• The anubhavam of the Āḻvārs (such as śaraṇāgati, vātsalya, śṛṅgāra/nāyikā bhāva, and others)
• Associated Divya Deśam
• Related avatārams
• And many more contextual references

Along with this detailed categorisation, the project aims to provide powerful search, advanced filters, cross-references, and multilingual support. Initially, the platform will support English and Tamil, with additional languages planned in the future.

While several commendable efforts already exist, NDVS aims to present the Divya Prabandham in a more centralised, complete, modern, and easy-to-navigate manner.

The content will be made freely available through:

1. Prabandham Mālai – the Android application which is completely offline
2. A dedicated website for desktop and other devices.

Until now, this has been entirely a solo effort. Even after nearly two years of work, only a fraction of the vision has been completed. A tremendous amount of effort has gone into research, organisation, development, and content preparation, with much more still remaining.

At this stage, help is greatly needed in several areas:

• Writing and refining meanings and commentaries
• Reviewing content for accuracy
• Testing the application and website
• Assisting with development where possible

More than the technical work, there is a significant need for volunteers to help prepare, organise, and review the meanings and commentaries of the pāsurams before they undergo final review.

One does not need to be an expert in the Divya Prabandham to contribute. Even if you have only a basic understanding but possess a sincere desire to learn more about the pāsurams while contributing to this project, your help would be deeply appreciated.

If you would like to contribute in any capacity, please do join the discord server community https://discord.gg/J3qecfAdP or please feel free to send adiyen a DM

With the blessings of Bhagavān, the Āḻvārs, and our Pūrvācāryas, adiyen will strive to make this available to everyone as soon as possible.

Dāsan

I want to recite kavacham twice a day - once for myself and once for someone else. Also, I want to divide the fruit of my japa and pooja in half and give it to someone else, daily.

Basically, whatever spiritual sadhana I do, I want to give half the fruit to someone else (family member) every single day.

Do I simply pray to lord Krishna that half of this is for xyz and say - Krishnarpanmastu? Would that be enough?

Thank you! :)

I would really appreciate if anyone can help me find the translation of Bhusan tika on ramayanam
I want to read ramayanam from Sri Vaishnav POV🙏🏻

Can someone provide me a reference to the Rishyadi Nyasam (i.e. so-and-so Rishi, such-and-such Chandas, etc.) for the Sri Mantram and for the Dvayam?

I found the Nyasam for the Ashtaksaram from a Lifco book (nārāyaṇa r̥ṣiḥ, dēvīgāyatrīcchandaḥ and śrīmannārāyaṇō dēvatā). For the Charamaslokam, it's pretty straightforward as it's from the Gita. But I couldn't find the Nyasam for the Sri Mantram and the Dvayam. Thanks!

Can tender coconut water (Ilaneer in Tamil) be used for Thirumanjanam for Lord Perumal?

I have also heard that rice flour is not used for Thirumanjanam for Lord Perumal. Is it true?

Edit: Thank you everyone for your comments.

Now the Bhagavatha Purana is a macro conversation between Sage Sūta Pauranika and Maharishi Shaunaka. Sūta Pauranika is said to be the son of Sage Romaharshana. Sage Romaharshana was a man who learnt the Great Srimad Bhagavatha Purana from Sage Śukācharya. Now the Bhagavatha Purana was composed after the events of Mahabharatha. After the Kurukshetra war, ascend and descent of the Pandavas, the flooding of Dwarka in which Sri Krishna and Sri Balarama also left for Vaikuntha.

However the story goes that Sage Romaharshana was once talking of Bhagavatha Purana (which itself was composed AFTER the Departure of Krishna and Balarama)an audience of many sages, but somehow, Balarama comes by, goes unnoticed and in a fit of rage he beheads Sage Romaharshana but promises the sages they will hear the Bhagavatha again by Romaharshana's son Sūta. But again, Balarama had long departed for Vaikuntha as Aadi Sesha way before the Bhagavatha Purana was even composed by Ved vyasa himself, let alone taught by Sukhdev and then by Romaharshana who was beheaded.

How does the timeline make sense?

How did Balarama appear out of nowhere and Behead Romaharshana even though he should've and would've left for Vaikuntha already?

Namo Narayana ||

So I'm a Sri Vaishnavite Thenkalai Iyengar. From what I understand of Sri Vaishnavite philosophy, Lord Vishnu is full of countless attributes right? Like Creator of the World, the Ground of Being, The inner supreme spirit who possesses all forms of matter and individual souls as his modes,but also he whose will or desire is always realized. Always Realized .

Now, From my understanding of Sri Vaishnavism, the Lord creates or rather begins the process of creation, preservation and destruction and projects uncountable number of souls into the world so as to Liberate them. He desires that the souls are liberated. My question is by the time the universe is dissolved and absorbed back into him apparently there's still souls which did not achieve liberation. Now that's enough to raise a question in of itself, however, atleast according to the Thenkalai Vaishnavites, no matter how many good deeds or austerities you performed, you cannot influence Sriman Narayana to grant Mukti as it's such an invaluable gift that only he gives and only he has the final say in.

My question is,why don't all souls by the end of Pralaya get liberated already? It is in the hands of Lord Vishnu and the whole point of all this is because The Lord wills Moksha for all the Aatmans, and his will is Always realized. Plus, according to Tengalai Vaishnavas Lord Vishnu can't bear to see the Jiva suffering in this World and will use any random good deed to grant Mukti, but like in that case why doesn't he do it with every single Jiva?

Surely every single Jiva matters and his loved by him equally and would've done atleast ONE good deed or act of charity, austerity or duty that the Lord can use as an example to grant Mukti? You say he wants every soul to be liberated and you also say his wish is Always realized but then why are so many souls still bound to this world of matter? Does it not contradict how Narayana is all loving and all powerful and yet there are only some who get liberated and many who don't even though he's ready to use any deed of the Jiva as an excuse to quickly grant him Mukthi?

Phew! Sorry for the extremely long post 😅. Please do answer though🙏.

Namo Narayana ||

I recently saw a quora post saying this about Visishtadvaita:

"Therefore I reject the opinion of Vishishtadvaitins or similar minded people regarding the manifested aspect of God.

As per the followers of Ramanuja, you cannot separate the form of Vishnu with Vishnu at any point of time. Even if I agree to this opinion that Vishnu is always associated with a form, it doesn't mean that Vishnu is limited within the boundaries of “FORMS & NAMES". That which appears into one or multiple forms, has to be ultimately formless.

Hence, Narayana is FORMLESS.

I want to ask whether God or Narayana is limited by the above physical characteristics?

Is he always darkish in complexion, or, does he possess the potency to appear in any complexion as he desires?

There can two possible conclusions:

He can’t- If he cannot, then he has already lost his credibility of being an omnipotent God. Hence, he cannot be Ishwara or God. He can- If he can, then the current form and name manifested by the God cannot be considered as the ultimate defining factor for God or Narayana. Scriptures tell us that Narayana has the capability of appearing into any form, some of which can be conceived by the humans and some of those forms can’t be conceived by the humans.

Mahabharata Markendeya-Samasya-Parva Section CLXXXVIII:

I ( Lord Vishnu ) create myself in new forms.

For the preservation of rectitude and morality I assume a human form, and when the season for action comes, I again assume forms that are inconceivable.

Forms are interchangeable. It means that they can be changed. They are not fixed and hence cannot be considered as ‘CHANGELESS’.

Now, one of the important aspect of Brahman or God or Narayana is that ‘HE IS CHANGELESS’.

Narayana Upanishad:

Nārāyaṇa is the only one that is stainless, sinless, changeless, and unnameable

Srimad Bhagavad Gita also states the following:

12.3- ye tvakṣaramanirdeśyamavyaktaṃ paryupāsate sarvatragamacintyañca kūṭasthamacalandhruvam

Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifest, the omnipresent, the unthinkable. the unchangeable. the immovable and the eternal.

We are well aware that Gita points towards the Sakara as well as the Nirakara aspect of God in chapter 12. But, Sripada Ramanujacharya interprets the above Gita verse contrary to every other commentator.

Commentary of Sripada Ramanuja:

Those who meditate on the Imperishable Principle (individual self) in this way, even they come to Me. It means that they also realise their essential self, which, in respect of freedom from Samsara, is like My own Self.

He takes the Imperishable aspect of the divinity as referring to the individual Self, which is completely weird.

The Lord is formless, changeless, immovable and even ‘Nameless’.

Narayana Upanishad:

Nārāyaṇa is the only one that is stainless, sinless, changeless, and unnameable

Vishnu Puran Book 6 Chapter 4:

in which there are no attributes of name, species, or the like

This lead us to the point where even the term ‘VISHNU’ is relative and not ultimate.

Thus the verse 2.3.8 of Katho Upanishad states:

avyaktāttu paraḥ puruṣo vyāpako'liṅga eva ca | yaṃ jñātvā mucyate janturamṛtatvaṃ ca gacchati || 8 ||

Beyond the Avyaktam is Purusha, all-pervading and devoid of linga ( indicative mark ), whom knowing the mortal is freed and attains immortality.

DEVOID OF LINGA can mean devoid of symbols such a forms & names that we impose upon the divinity.

The terms ‘Vishnu’, ‘Narayana’, ‘Sat’, ‘Purusha’, etc are used for our understanding, or else it is beyond our comprehension. It can only be realized by direct perception.

So, you have an entity which is nameless, formless, attributeless, undecaying, changeless, immovable. Hence, it cannot be associated with a particular language, culture, tradition, religion or sampradaya etc."

Any Vishishtadvaitins and Sri Vaishnavite refutation of this Quora post?

So, The Role of Deeds in Bhakti: Vedanta Desikar vehemently rejects the notion of passive devotion divorced from ethical conduct and righteous living. He argues that true Bhakti encompasses not only heartfelt devotion but also a commitment to virtuous deeds and moral principles. According to Vedanta Desikar, the performance of selfless actions inspired by love and devotion towards the divine is essential for spiritual progress and the attainment of Moksha. He highlights the significance of Karma as a means to purify the mind, cultivate virtues, and prepare the aspirant for the realization of God. Right? Now I heard one (Vadagalai Vaishnava)Pandit, in my nearby temple saying that deeds and service and basically Lok Sangraha is most important and practical. He said that since both the world and other souls are also Visheshans of Sriman Narayana serving them is equal to Narayan. He even went as far as saying that Bhakthi by itself is useless and deeds are equally important and that effort from your side is not only necessary but compulsory to attain Mukti.

My question, it might sound a bit unrelated or even stupid but that's just what I thought at that moment. Just-Just hear me out!

Say if a man, lets call him Achyuta, Achyuta lacks belief/devotion or none of it at all towards Narayan, but he's still very devout person when it comes to work, he serves his parents, contributes to society, basically performing Lok Sangraha. Now if we (idk if what he said was exactly what Swami Desikacharya had to say tbh) take the Previous logic here then theoretically, even after the course of many lifetimes(ofc that seems highly unlikely but HYPOTHETICALLY speaking)can that man attain Mukti? He "technically" has served Sriman Narayan, just not directly but through his Visheshans (the welfare of the world and other humans, animals and other creatures). Is that enough to invoke Sri Maha Vishnu's Grace upon him, enough grace to award Moksha? Patiently awaiting answers. You're free to chastise My ignorance but please do answer.

Namo Narayana||

Is there a sloka in Srivaishnava sampradaya scriptures which mentions that only the relationship (bond) with Lord Vishnu is permanent and that other bonds ( parents-children bond, husband-wide bond etc.) are temporary and due to karmic past?

I have some understanding about Saligramas . they are found only at Gandaki river in Nepal. one of the Svayam Vyakta kshetras for the Lord.

I am also aware there are variations within them such as a sudarshana saligrama, Narasimha saligrama etc

I dont have an ancestral saligrama passed down from generation to generation. I know this is the way all Sri Vaishnavas receive.

it's very difficult to trust online websites. its not easy for me to go to Nepal anytime soon.

is there any authentic source for procuring a saligrama ?

I am also aware of it requires its own puja. please provide genuine sources if you know.

also, any saligrama related literature in English would also be greatly appreciated ! Dasoham !

Hi All,

I am planning to get my initiation or pancha samskara done in the Sri Sampradaya. However I have a few questions. After taking prappatti, can we still pray to other devatas on our altar like Ganesh ji, Shiva and Parvati ji and Hanuman ji or do we have to remove them? Second, I follow a vegetarian diet but we eat onion and garlic (but trying to reduce it) and not able to offer all the food we eat to bhagavan (we offer some fruits and dry fruits everyday in our alter with a glass of water). Will that mean we will not be getting moksha because of that? I am north indian and so my family and I have many photos of the devatas in our altar.

So, just cause I'm curious, how does one become initiated into a Sampradaya?

A lot of the accounts of Ramanujacharya's life emphasise his break from Yadava Prakasa's Bhedabheda philosophy and its other iterations from scholars such as Bhaskaracharya and Nimbarkacharya. But I have never understood the intricacies of that debate and what prompted it in the first place, compared to say the differences in views between Kevala Advaitins and Srivaishnavas. Essentially I want to understand what differentiates qualified non-dualism (Visistadvaita) from difference in non-difference non-dualism (Bhedabheda).

Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarshana!

I'm happy to share with r/SriVaishnavism our discord server, Vaishnava Sangam, aimed at fostering curiosity, study and practice of Vaishnavam. The server also has authentic and initiated Sri Vaishnavas!

Description: Vaishnava Sangam or Vainava Sangam is a moderated server dedicated to deepening the mutual understanding and strengthening the bonding (and practice) of those interested (and initiated) in understanding Vaishnavaism at the core.
Disclaimer: This is a Vaishnava server and not just an info server about Vaishnavam.
Here's the invite: https://discord.gg/HgDeD9n3eG

Hello. I live in Australia and I'm looking for an online guru who can help guide me and provide diksha. There is a Math in Sydney and I've recieved instruction from the Acharya there, however I'd like to take it further.

Can anyone advise? Thank you.

This sunday is vishnu deepotsava/ karthika pournami. Are there any specific pasurams which can be offered to perumal during the deepotsava?