caitradram sambhavam visnor darsana-sthapanotsukam

tundira-mandale sesa-murtim ramanujam bhaje

I worship Sripad Ramanuja, the incarnation of Ananta, who took birth in the
month of Caitra (April-May) under the sixth lunar mansion in the Tundirades, an
d who came upon this earth to establish the philosophy of Sri Visnu.

On his death bed Sri Ramanuja is said to have articulated 82 statements to his d
isciples. It is not an exaggeration to present these statements as the essence o
f Sri Vaishnavam. I give below excerpts of these, translated from "Sri Ramaanuja
r," pi. sri, sudhEsamitthiran, pp. 250 - 259, aagaStu 1964 . I apologise for the
lack of lucidity of my translation. (written by Sri Parthasarathy Dileepan).
1. Serve God and God's devotees. Serve all devotees without regard to their stat
us.
2. Have faith in the teachings of AchAryAs.
3. Do not succumb to sensual pleasures.
4 & 5. Do not put your conviction on trivial saasthraas, have conviction on the
saasthraas that deal with God.
6 - 8. Protect yourself from the five senses.
9 & 10. Praise the name of the Lord and AchAryAs.
11. All the knowledge you may have will not protect you if you choose sensual pl
easures.
12 & 13. It is not enough to control your sensual desires, you must surrender to
the Lord.
14 - 17. Do not be disrespectful of sri vaishnavaas for any reason, including ag
e, caste, etc. You must show respect to them all.
18. When you rise from your bed meditate upon your ancestral line of AchAryAs.
19. In front of the sanctum of our Lord, amongst sri vaishnavaas utter the words
of dvayam - mentally (Do not utter loudly, as they are rahaysyams)
20. Praise the auspicious qualities of our Lord and AchAryAs.
21 and 22. Welcome sri vaishnavas with open arms and praise. Do not praise ordin
ary people for the sake of material gain.
23. Pay respect when you see the gOpuram of a temple.
24 - 25. Have undying faith in Lord Vishnu.
26. Do not find fault with praise of the Lord or devotees.
27 - 29. Pay at most respect to sri vaishnavaas.
30 & 31. Among sri vaishnavaas do not discriminate between poor and rich.
32. Ignore the faults and praise the virtues of sri vasihnavaas.

33 - 35. Consume Sri paadha theertham with respect.

36. Do not consider yourself as equal to other devotees. Think of yourself as th
eir servant.
37 - 39. To purify your sins consume the sri paatha theertham of great saints. F
or this, do not consider the caste of those saints.
40 & 41. Duties of families. (Not described in the text)
42 - 44. Visiting temples and securing prasaadam is important.
45. Do not boast about your virtues.
46. Do not scorn a devotee.
47. Do not ignore serving devotees.
48. Praise the auspicious qualities of the Lord daily.
49. Recite prabhandams like thiruvaaymozhi daily.
50 - 58. Do not associate with the ones who only pretend to be sri vaihnvaas. Do
not associate with the ones who find faults with others. Do not even look upon
those who belittle devotees. Associate with those who wish to surrender to the L
ord.
59 & 60. Ignore the harsh words of other sri vaishnvaas. Always do good to them.
(From this point onwards I am unable to give numerical listing as the original t
ext does not give the numerical ordering.)
Do not think of the deities of the Lord as just stone or wood. (my note: In as m
uch as we give respect to the cloth (the flag of a nation) as the nation itself,
we need to consider the Divya mangaLa vigraham as the transcendental form of Em
perumaan Sriya:pathih Sriman Narayanan Himself.)
Do not think of your guru (AchArya) as just an ordinary person. Even simply sayi
ng out loud the caste of a sri vasihnavaas is a sin.
Do not consider anything related to our Lord as ordinary. There is nothing great
er than making our Lord and his devotees happy. Insulting a devotee is a greater
sin than not praying to the Lord. Your duty is to surrender to our Lord. Try to
live in Thiru naaraayanapuram (mElkOte) at least for some time. If you are unab
le to, where ever you are, live with dvayam in your tongue. If you are unable to
do even this, serve other srivaishnavaas.