Salutations to the contributors to this group. -> SRI MANI'S REQUEST

[Guest guest]

In his posting of July 27, 1997 4:47 PM, Shri Keshava Prasad says:

>

>Frankly, when I joined the group, I was very enthusiastic about being able to

>participate productively and felt being privileged to be in the good company

of

>so many erudite people.

 

Very True ... I am proud to be an audience to such distinguished

contributors.

>Now and then, I was able to express my voice about a

>topic under discussion. The enthusiasm has now worn off however, partly

because

>time and again I have felt out of place with the group's objectivity. If

there

>was one, I think the group has lost it.

 

Definitely not. The charter of this group is to discuss issues relating to Sri

Vaishnavism. And this group has never so much adhered to this purpose as now.

If you have issues relating to the marketing of this doctrine, then please

bring your ideas to the table.

>I have tried but unsuccessfully, to

>get some of the youth members of our society to to the group. They

>came forward but backed off after a short while. The reason given to me was

that

>the postings were too lengthy, repetitive, too abstract and at times too

>outdated in some ways. Though I do not totally agree with this point of view,

I

>surely think that there is more truth to it than meets the eye.

>

 

The typical youth of today are used to fast food and fast life. If they can

not sit back and enjoy a couple of pages worth of true Sri Vaishnavite

literature, then they are the ones to loose. Sri Vaishnavism is too deep.

Shri M. K. Sudarshan has proven that so right with his twenty odd postings

illustrating two verses of ShrI BhIshma sthuthi. And these postings are

typically no longer than two to three typed pages with line wrap set at 60

characters. We are also gifted with some outstanding writers, who make the

illustrations easy to understand maintaining the line of thought. If the youth

of today, feel that these passages are too long to read, then you should

complement it with the thought as to how long it took for the contributors to

compose and post them.

>The discussions and parables that figure in the discussions do not seem to

have

>a message for them. It might be argued that only if one is interested and

stays

>long enough will appreciate the depth of information being put out. The

purpose

>of the discussions does not seem to focus on winning new followers but for

some

 

Not true again. I have had more arguments among friends than I can remember

about the concept of worshipping srIman nArAyaNa alone. And when I posed my

question to this sathas, there was an outpouring of "gnana-amritham". I will

shortly be summarizing these contributions, but the discussions here do have a

serious message.

>If the format or the material is the same as

>or similar to what can be found in any book, we do not need a mailing list

such

>as this.

 

I am surprised you said this. I have never found the rich knowledge presented

here in any single book. In fact some of these books are either out of print

or the publishers no longer exist. In very crude terms, this group even serves

as a source for book reviews.

 

Although the request that people space out their postings was long overdue, I

was hoping it would stay postponed. It is quite amazing how with all the

demands of modern day's life, attention to family and business matters, people

like ShrI Sadagopan, shrI Sudarshan, shrI Krishna Kalale and others (pardon me

for not mentioning your names) make a commitment to contributing to this group.

Similarly, I have made a commitment to try and keep up with them however hard

it may be.

 

Our lives are too short to understand the complete concept of ParaBhrahman.

This reminds of the story of the devotee who had nothing to offer to the Lord,

but his heart (Refer to shrI BhIshma sthuthi by shrI M.K.Sudarshan part 13).

He had so much understood the concept of shrI Vaishnavism. It is not about

offering coconuts and betel leaves and "akkara vadasal" to perumAl, but to

offer him one's heart and soul.

 

The Lord says in the bhAgavat gItA "yAnti mad-yAjinopi mAm", "meaning those who

worship Me reside in Me". (BhAgavad gItA 9.25). In the erudite definition of

the purpose of this group shrI maNi varadarAjan has described the Lord's

infinite existence and His unfathomable activities. Great saints have

explained this Infinite Cosmos to us through the "srImad BhAgavadam" and other

sacred texts, and still we fail to understand Him. The contributors to this

group make this even more clear to us. Great souls are indeed many - Thanks to

every one of them ("endarO mahAnubhAvulu - andariki vandanamu" - St.

thyAgarAjA). Let's not deride their deeds.

 

"All the goodwill in our deeds are solely due to the influence of our AchAryAs

on us, and all our deficiencies, are solely due to our own shortcomings". In

the same spirit, the people who give us the knowledge on this Mail List are the

equivalent of maha yathis, even comparable to the greatest yathis of all time.

They deserve a lot more respect from us. Let us focus our efforts in that

direction with the singular inference that the only reason that today's youth

do not gravitate toward this group is because of the kind of marketing we

direct towards them.

 

With that I would like to conclude this post with the following quotation from

shrI yathirAjasapthathi:

 

upavIthina-m-Urdhva pundravantham

thrijagath punya phalam thrithanda hastham

sharanAgatha sArthavAhamItE sikhayA

sEkhariNam pathim yathInAm

 

After saluting the guru paramparA lineage, shrI dEsikan says that I salute the

yathi, the greates one of all, the one with the supreme upavIthinam across his

body and the clean thirumaN kAppu on his forehead, the one who is a thrithandi,

the one who seats himself at the foot of the Lord performing sevai to the Lord

and periya pirAtti. I salute him who has spread His word and I salute him who

has performed the supreme sEvai to the Lord's devotees - thathiyA, by spreading

the word of God, for there is no greater sEvai than sEvai to the Lord and his

devotees (thathiArAdhanai).

 

For truly people like shrI SadagOpan, shrI sampath rangarajan, shrI sudarshan,

shrI maNi varadarAjan, shrI dileepan, etc (pardon me for those names I left

out) perform a thankless task, although extremely spiritually satisfying. They

deserve quite the same level of respect we extend to our great AchAryAs.

 

adiyEn

 

Raja Krishnasamy

raja