Guest guest Posted March 9, 1996 Report Share Posted March 9, 1996 Here is a paragraph that is worth thinking about. It is from a private email sent to me from someone who shall remain unnamed. > In my understanding, any discussion however speculative, > if it will trigger sincere aspiration to see for oneself > the Truth and even a glimpse of it, is more important > than a thousand pages of verbatim quoting of poorvacharyas, > forgeting to focus on the essence and latching on to > the outmoded forms. Mani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 11, 1996 Report Share Posted March 11, 1996 On Sat, 9 Mar 1996 12:41:06 -0800 Mani said: > >Here is a paragraph that is worth thinking about. >It is from a private email sent to me from someone >who shall remain unnamed. > >> In my understanding, any discussion however speculative, >> if it will trigger sincere aspiration to see for oneself >> the Truth and even a glimpse of it, is more important >> than a thousand pages of verbatim quoting of poorvacharyas, >> forgeting to focus on the essence and latching on to >> the outmoded forms. > Quoting verbatim to impose blind faith upon others is not good. I am sure that was not meant by the author. While we may be technologically advanced compared to the days of our poorvaacharyaas, when it comes to the question of faith, the arguments for and against have not changed fundamentally, IMO. Mahathma Gandhi was criticized for his view that natural calamities are punishments from God. MG's view on this matter does look rather ridiculous. But upon closer examination it does not look that crazy, at least to me. I am not convinced that suspending logic is absolutely an illogical thing to do. Sincerity of aspiration may very well lead to suspension of logic for some of us. Truth may very well be illogical. Outmoded forms, however out of fashion, may very well be the essence upon which we must focus. Let me narrate a story from Sri Ramanuja's life illustrative of blind acharya bhakthi. Needless to say, I am not advocating acharya bhakthi to be an universal panacea for all. This story involves Vaduga Nambi and his unebbing devotion for his acharya, Sri Ramanuja. Whenever Vaduga Nambi was in the presence of Sri Ramanuja, nambi would not take his eyes away from his achraya, even in the presence of our Lord's archa moorthy. One day in the presence of our Lord Ranganatha Sri Ramanuja quoted ThoNdaradippodi "pavaLa vaay kamalach sengaN" and directed Vaduga Nambi to look upon our Lord and appreciate our Lord's beautiful lotus eyes. To this, Nambi quoted ThirppaaNaazhvaar "en amudhinaik kaNda kaNNgaL maRRonrinaik kaaNaavE" and fixed his gaze firmly at the feet of Sri Ramanuja. In today's increasingly doubting world stories of such devotion brings to mind the specter of misplaced faith in false gurus, not just in the Christian faith. Whether our Sri Ramanuja dharsanam will spawn a false guru, there are no 100% guarantees, but I am willing to bet it won't. -- dhaasan Parthasarati Dileepan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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