Introduction

[Guest guest]

Thanks mani for all the introductions. I had earlier known

of this group thanks to Dileepan (who had at least once

mailed me what he was sending to this list). I had

previously thought that this group was kind of "elite"

visitadvaitins and I, an ignorant person, had no place in

it. Mani persuaded me and added my name to the mailing

list and asked that I introduce myself to the group. I

still could not make myself write an introduction. I was

not even sure what to write! After seeing all these

introductions, I have gathered enough courage to write

something. Pardon me, if this happens to be too long.

 

My name is Badrinarayanan - the name was conceived perhaps

a full 10 years before my self, well before even my parents

got married. My grandparents, in their old age, on a

pilgrimage to badrinath, got into a rather horrible

accident and prayed to the lord of badrinath that they

would name their grandson if only they would escape the

accident. And they did survive with His grace and hence the

name (I was born in the year 1970).

 

My parents (and their parents and their parents... which

reminds me of the beautiful lines of periyaazhvaar

 

endhai thandhai thandhai thandhai

tham mooththappan Ezh padikkaal thodangi

 

my father, his father, his father, his father,

his grandfather - thus starting from 7 generations before)

 

are devout vaishnavites - not through `reason' but having

been born in such a family. None of them probably knows

what Ramanujar's philosophy is and I have a feeling that

they care not for such a thing. They have completely

surrendered - like the true sishyas of Sri Ramanuja - to

the acharya who in turn will negotiate with "innamudhath

thirumakaL" and through her with "emperuman", to secure a

place in vaikuntha!

 

Living amidst such vaishnavas in a small town called

Nagapattinam, I had learnt to go to temples - mainly to eat

the tasty prasadam. But such visits also made me slowly

absorb the wonderful poems of aazhvaars known as divyap

prabandham. Until my high school, I was an obedient child,

learning whatever my mother asked me to learn, be it the

tongue twisting beauty from swami Desikar, sudarsanashtakam,

or the mellifluous poems of the aazhvaars.

 

Then I joined IIT Madras to do my Bachelor's in Mechanical

Engineering. Away from the family, the days I spent in IIT

made me think that the religion that I was supposed to

follow was just not right! I was not getting the right

answers to the questions I posed from anyone in the family.

I was pretty much becoming an agnost in the absense of a

right guiding force.

 

After my bachelors, I came to Cornell University in the

fall of 1991 where I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. I hope

to finish my Ph.D by May 1995. Ironically, it was at

Cornell University libraries that I found the right kind of

materials to read. I am now enjoying the vedanta philosophy

propounded by the various upanishads and sri ramanuja's

views on them. I should honestly admit that I have not even

understood a fraction of what I have read and I have not

even read a fraction of what is there in the library - and

who knows the magnitude of what our sages wrote that is not

in any of these libraries!!

 

I am in a learning phase and I do not even know whether I

would in the end to the visitadvaitic philosophy.

I have, after reading sections of sri bhashya's explanation

of Brahma sutras, completely come to respect Sri Ramanuja

as one of the greatest thinkers. That is all I can say at

this stage. I have somehow a lot of misgivings about the

concept of "total surrender" and all the associated

philosophies of Ramanuja as I feel that is quite

contradictory to his aim of learning the brahman - in fact

I am so vague that I can not even pose the right question.

I hope, I will get some kind of clarification in due course

of time - as I get older and older and more mature and with

the help of some of you in this group.

 

Outside of all these philosophies, I am immensely attracted

to the beautiful aazhvaar paasuram. I would go so far as to

say that my love and respect for thamizh went up by a few

degrees after I started appreciating the divyap prabandham.

I would very much like to know in what way sri ramanuja was

influenced by the aazhvaars.

 

Thank you.

 

--badri

 

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S.Badrinarayanan

Graduate Student

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Cornell University

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