Welcome Thoughts

[Guest guest]

> Dear Ms Manjula Sriram,

>

> Yr message of to-day. There is no need to ask for 'forgiveness' or

> anything for yr entering the discussions. I think you have made some

> very valid points about the responsibility of the elder generation to

> convince the younger members of the community that the SrIvaishNava

> religion is a source of genuine consolation and joyful living, and that

our oral traditions and recorded literature constitute the best gifts

available to humanity. Owing to the several distractions of historic (and

partly unwholesome) changes of the last half a century, this responsibility

has not been discharged; this is why your note is quite valid, even though

your point could register with a little practice.

> I myself plan to write on the point touched by you. It is in fact an

> issue of 'generation gap' which is bandied about as a cliche, but stands

for a serious breakdown which, however, can be remedied.

> A feedback from the younger ones of yr age-group is important, as

> without it all the abstruse discussions on our network would become

> meaningless.

>

> Best wishes from T.S. Sundara Rajan, at Memphis.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

As for the propriety of asking questions, please remember that two of

our upanishad (viz. kEna and praSna) are actually named after this

necessary spiritual exercise of asking questions. The praSna starts

with the anecdote of the group of rshi seeking out bhagavan pippalAda,

who sets the right mood for the ensuing dialogue, by saying,

"yathA-kAmam praSnAn prcchatha, yadi vijnAsyAmah, sarvam ha vo

vakshyAma" ("Do ask your questions as you please and we shall tell you

all, if we [ourselves] understand them!") The venerated dialogue of

SrImad-bhagavad-GItA occurred as a consequence of a simple question

put by arjuna in frustration: "kim nO rAjyEna GOvinda, kim bhOgair-

jIvitEna vA?" ("What if I gain the kingdom, oh Govinda, or the

pleasures; or What of living itself?") ~~ a fundamental question which

pushed the entire run of nineteenth century existentialists (right down

to Jean Paul Sartre) disconsolate. The Book of Isaiah (in Old

Testament) contains a call in the same spirit of invitation to a

dialogue, asking and considering and answering and again considering and

ingesting: "Come, let us reason together! If your sins be red as

scarlet, they shall be washed white as snow!"

 

No restraints, therefore, on questioning! We have only to remember

pippalAda's three preconditions for the questioning: "tapasA,

brahmacharyENa, SraddhayA!" (It just won't do to translate these

terms into English!)

 

aDiyen rAmAnujadAsan, T.S. Sundara Rajan.