(No subject)

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

Sri Keshava Prasad raised a few questions about the purpose of the

Bhakti list and whether the group has been successful in meeting its

objectives. This caused me to go back and look at the charter of the

group in Mani's archives. To my knowledge, the postings of learned

scholars like Srimans Sadagopan, Anbil Ramaswamy, T.S. Sundara Rajan, Dileepan,

KrishNa KalaLe, Sampath Rengarajan, Vijay Srinivasan, Sudarshan, Jaganath,

Bharadwaj, Mani Varadarajan, Smt. and Sri Krishnamachari, Smt. Nagu Satyan,

Smt. Vaidehi, and Prof. Vasudha Narayanan have been consistent with the

group's charter and have provided more information than can be obtained in any

book. Sri Sudarshan and Sri Govind Rengarajan have very eloquently addressed

the issue of consistency of the posts with the group's objectives. Therefore,

I shall not address this issue further.

 

I would like to focus on Sri Keshava Prasad's reference to "posts on the

group resembling presentations in a book". It is truly unfortunate that

Sri Prasad makes this reference. I think he has missed the analyses and

insights provided time and again by learned scholars on this group, who

have devoted a lot of their personal time and energy to share with us

their extensive knowledge about our Kula Dhanam. For example, Sri.

Sampath Rengarajan's posts on Tala PuraNams contains hard-to-come by

information which is not found in any book. However, these posts seem to have

escaped the all-discerning eyes of Mr. Prasad. I would also request Mr.

Prasad to point me to the book containing the insights about the Lord's

Sudarshana Chakram provided by Sriman Sundara Rajan, the Lord's Padhukas

provided by Sriman Sadagopan, the Rahasyarthas summarized by Sriman

Ramaswamy, the Paramapada Sopanam by Sriman Sudarshan or the brilliant

Daya Shatakam summary by Sriman Vijay Srinivasan or the TiruveLLikeNi

Perumal Anubhavam by Sri Vijay Triplicane and Smt. Vaidehi.

 

Being so far away from India, not all on this group may have access

to all the books containing information about our Kula Dhanam. Therefore, even

if members of the group summarize from published books information pertinent

to our Sampradayam, it is a wonderful labor of love for which the contributors

must be congratulated and appreciated. Furthermore, not all of us have

ready access to Acharyas and their Upanyasams to clarify any questions we may

encounter about our traditions. In this regard, Srimans Sadagopan, Ramaswamy

and Sundara Rajan are providing us an extremely valuable service. They

do not expect any rewards, appreciation or compliments and go about their

task in the spirit of Kainkaryam to the Lord. I request the above mentioned

scholars not to take such criticisms (as the present one by Sri Prasad)

to heart and continue to share with the rest of us their vast expanse of

knowledge. For the likes of Mr. Prasad, the "delete" key option is

ubiquitous as stated by Sri Sudarshan.

 

Finally, several members of the group have longstanding relationships with

Acharyas. As a result, their posts contain tremendous insights about various

aspects of our Kula Dhanam, which goes way beyond mere book knowledge.

However, these may not be evident to those with myopic vision. The group

as a whole, and I personally, will be poorer if the above mentioned members

cease to post on the list. Therefore, I request all contributors to the list,

particularly, those with ties to our Acharyas, to continue their efforts.

I am extremely thankful to them and they can rest assured that a majority

of members are appreciative of their efforts with the exception of a

recalcitrant individual or two.

 

Namo Narayana,

 

Muralidhar Rangaswamy