Samasrayana

Samasrayana or Pancha Samskara (meaning Five Purifications) is a rite in Sri Vaishnavism. Samasrayana means 'to approach with all sincerity and truthfulness to Acharya'. During this rite, the AchAryA initiates a person, irrespective of sex, caste, social status etc. as his or her sishya. It is a commitment from the disciple that he or she will live as per the wishes of the AchAryA. Thus the person gets the link to the Sri Vaishnava tradition. During samasrayana, Pancha Samskara (Five Purifications) is performed and he or she becomes a "Sri VaishnavA".

Overview

The five samskArams (in ITRANS transliteration) and its main purposes are:

1. tApam - to emboss the impressions of heated (hot) sha~Nka and chakra on the arms (near the shoulders).
2. punDraM - to wear the dvAdasa Urdhva pundram (12 Thiruman & Srichoornam)
3. nAma- to be christened by the AchAryA afresh as "RAmAnuja dAsan"(addition of 'dAsA'at the end of ones name) to indicate that one is forever a servant of the Supreme Lord Sriman nArAyanA and bhagavAn rAmAnujA.
4. mantraM - to get the initiation of "Rahasya Traya MantrAs" - AshtAksharam, Dvayam and charama slokam.
5. IjyA - to learn the worship of Sriman nArAyanA in proper form (Bhagavad ThiruvArAdhanam).

References

vriddha hArita smriti contains detailed instructions on samasrayana by Acharya

External links

• http://www.ahobilamutt.org/samas.html
• http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/apr2000/0082.html
• http://www.srivaishnavam.com/faq.html
• http://www.saranagathi.org/articles/samasrayanam.htm
• http://www.srivaishnavam.org/samasraya.htm