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I was asked by Sri Vijay Srinivasan what we can do to revive the

enthusiastic celebration of festivals. I was under the impression that most

members of this group were already steadfast in anushtana, to the best of

their abilities in this country. I'm afraid I have no special thoughts

about how we can do this -- I am also one struggling to juggle the special

need to keep some vestiges of our practices along with the overwhelming work

that all of us have. However, there are small things I started doing when

my children were born -- they are nothing special, nothing new, nothing

worth speaking about, but I will briefly mention the most "successful"

efforts. I measure the success only on one criterion here-- the degree of

spontaneous joy with which my children (Desika is 16, Ramanujan is almost

11) do it and how it has helped other children in the community be aware of

some aspects of our tradition. (1) By the time the children started to

speak I started teaching them to "loudly" recite simple prayers like

Jnanaananda mayam devam, verses from Tiruppavai etc. The physical beauty

and rythmn of the words (not to mention the meaning) is enough to enthrall

children and when they learn these at 2 years, they are not going to forget

it. It is very, very comforting for them to say these throughout their

lives. (2) My second son was born on Bhootatalvar's tirunakshatram; it

happened to be Saraswati Pujai in 1985. The following year I revived

celebrating navaratri, just as my mother and grandmother did, even though my

friends told me I don't have to if I don't have daughters. The kolu was

very simple the first few years; now more than 100 south Indians come with

friends from all over north central Florida to hear the music and see what

special themes are on each year. We try to do some new scenes, and recycle

old ones; in the past we have done Sri Venkateswara Kalyanam, Andal

kalyanam, Ramayanam, Stories of Krishna etc. I made the boys identify scenes

from our epics, make dolls for the characters and tell me why they liked

these scenes. Starting them young helped; I don't think they would start

doing it after they are older; friends brought their children to help, and

of course, our kids will do anything their friends do! (It is a major

investment of time). Again, it is important for both parents to show

interest, even if one does not have the time; so the father *or* mother can

take the major responsibility, and the other should be encouraging.

Likewise, the children seem to enjoy drawing Krishna's little feet for Sri

Jayanthi etc. even now. The kolu has a universal appeal and kids from all

Indian families look forward to it and I hope, learn from it. Major lack of

success: my kids do not appreciate Carnatic music the way we want them to.

Hopefully it will change some day. I am sorry for this long post; however,

my children do not understand or care about the subtleties of our

philosophy, and I grope at what I can to tune them in. Suggestions from

other parents on what we can do will be accepted with joy.

 

I have one comment to make on the intersting discussion going on about the

secret/public nature of the meaning of the rahasyas. I am fascinated

because I did not find this discussion when the great books went to print,

or the vedas were made into cassettes-- in short, there is public

dissemination of all this material, including meaning, in the great

commentaries of Uttamur Viraraghavacharyiar swami, Oppiliappan Swami, Sri

Prativadi Bhayankaram Annangarachariar, et al. Again, one can read these

when one is ritually or physically impure, and for any number of reasons,

including criticize them. But everyone has noted, and I think this is the

most relevant point, that there is no equal to studying under an acharya.

When that privilege is not here, we all learn from each other, and our

enthusiasm and desire to learn (the ruchi) gives us at least some sense of

minimal adhikara. We have come together because of grace; we should not

forget that. I would like to recount a small incident which humbled me. In

1975, I was doing my Ph.D (the topic was "The Srivaishnava understanding of

bhakti and prappati: Alvars to Vedanta Desika"). There was no problem to

study alvar pasurangal and the commentaries of Periyavacchan Pillai etc; my

grand uncle, Sri V.S. Jagannathan who was involved with the Vishistadvaita

Pracharini Sabha introduced me to Sri C. Jagannathachariar of Vivekananda

College. It was my fortune to study the commentaries and later, Sri Vachana

Bhushanam with him. But when I wanted to study the commentaries of Swami

Desikan on Stotra ratnam, Gadya trayam and Chatussloki, Sri M.S.

Rajagopalachariar, the resident pandit at Sri Desika bhavanam (Madras) kept

telling me he was busy. He made me ask him several times over two months;

later on, he taught me all of them. I learnt several years later that he

knew it was not correct to teach an unmarried girl (I had no "initiation")

doing a Ph.D these texts which involved explanations of the rahasyas as

well. Eventually he apparently took the problem to Andavan Swami, who after

hearing about the quandary, said that if I was really interested, to teach

me, and that it was necessary to teach those who were keen. Please note

that the issue was not learning from live teacher vs. learning from book or

internet; it was that of adhikara based on initiation, marriage, studying

for a Phd and not exclusively for a spiritual quest. But the general point

is that there was compromise on the part of the acharyas on these important

principles, and they were willing to be flexible on some counts. I think

this kind of group is a good substitute for us living in the diaspora. At

least, unlike books, we can ask each other questions, as we can ask our

teachers; also we all know the limits of our knowledge and authority and

know we can only lead people in the general correct direction with the words

of our purvacharyas. Please forgive me for this long post. Vasudha Narayanan