Intro

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members-

Hari OM and my respectful greetings to all of you Bhakta Jans. My name is

Srivilliputhur Gopalan Srinivasan and I'm a graduate student in Materials

Science and Engg at the Univ. of Washington, Seattle. This is my first

posting to this list and I wish to thank Sri. Mani Varadarajan for making

aware of its existence. I've already received a couple of digests and am

glad to have joined this group.

 

I was born in Kumbakonam (native place of my Maternal Grand-Parents); my

father's family is from Srivilliputhur. However, I spent my life

in Thiruvananthapuram; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Bombay and

Seattle.

 

My parents follow Andavan Swamigal of Srirangam. Most of my early years,

I've been disillusioned by the double standards, other inexplicable and

seemingly meaningless ritualisms of contemporary "Hinduism" (I use this

word rather loosely). This made me an agnostic until my BHU days. During

this period I was exposed to the Bhagavad Geeta Lectures of my Institute Prof. T.R.Anantharaman and to the Advaita teachings of Swami

Dayananda (a contemporary of Swami Chinmayananda). This association

helped me dispel a lot of false notions about the Sanatana Dharma and

made me a believer ! The path of Jnana had an appeal for me because of my

rational scientific background. But the introductory words of Rajaji in

the Bhajagovindam Cassette of M.S.Subbulakshmi, "..... shows that Jnana and

Bhakti are one and the same" always kepts haunting me. Later on, I came

to follow the teachings of Mata Amritanandamayi, a realized spiritual Master

from Kerala. She also teaches Advaita but with a tilt towards Bhakti

Marga. She says, "Knowledge without Bhakti is like chewing stones".

I've no knowledgeable familiarity with Vishistadvaitam; but with what I

know I feel that it has a right blend of both Jnana and Bhakti and has

gotten me all fired up.

 

In one of the postings somebody (Mani?) lamented the lack of Social

vision of the present day Vaisnava Acharya's. I remember an adage in

Sanskrit, "Yatha Raja Tatha Praja". The converse also holds (as we live

in a democracy !). We can extend this by substituting "Acharya" for

"Raja" and "Vaishnavas" for "Praja". We have deviated from the path of

our illustrious Acharyas like Ramanujacharya and have become very

parochial, egotists and egoisitic. We treat the divine Vaishnava

teachings as our personal properties instead of taking it to the masses

and making the message serve as a a vehicle for Social Change. This is

the main reason people are not very familiar with these even in the

Divya-Desas (as pointed out by another posting- Badri ?).

 

I remember a old joke that said "There are three ego states; I, Iyer,

Iyengar; (HIGHER)Iyer you go Iyengar you become". As Baghwan Ramana

Maharshi points out, all the schools of Vedanta unanimously declares the

undesirability of ego in a spiritual seeker. This is what we have not

accomplished.

 

I'm very glad to find some serious and open-minded discussions in this

list and pray that this will continue. I really hope to benefit from your

collective erudition.

 

-Srinivasan

 

PS: The purpose of my mail is not to ridicule Brahmins. So please don't

misread my intentions.

 

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S. G. Srinivasan email : sgsrini

Graduate Student

Dept. Of Mater. Sci. & Engg.

University Of Washington Phone : (206)-368-2649 (H)

Seattle, WA 98195 (206)-685-3851 (W)

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LOKAHA SAMASTAH SUKHINO BHAVANTU. OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIH.

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