SDDS panel discussion

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri.Mohan Sagar,

I learn that you will be moderating one of the group discussions at the

forthcoming SDDS conference. I also learn that you are presently seeking

feedback from interested members on how the discussion panel should (in your

own words):

">address a topic that is of concern to many of us, how to inculcate knowledge

>and appreciation of our rich heritage in our western raised youth."

 

and also, how to

 

">to>maintain their spiritual inclinations towards Him in this demanding secular

>world.

 

In response to your following appeal :

>I would also like to ask the fellow members of the panel to provide me with

>input as to what specific topics should be addressed during the panel

>discussion.

>Mohan

 

Although I have bid farewell to this forum, I have still not entirely

departed and I take pleasure in sharing a small thought with you which you

might like to read to/share with/ and/or expand on in your group/panel

discussions. Here it is:

 

Most young people outside India who are desirous of learning about

SriVaishnavism begin with the premise that it is all about a branch of

philosophy called "VisishtAdvaitam" (did you know that not once has

SriRamanuja used this phrase in any of his works!). The second premise is

that the philosophy, and its attendent theology, by itself will provide for

us simple and easy-to-digest answers for all the problems we face, or are

likely to face, in the world and in our day-to-lives.

 

Nothing could be further from truth. SriVaishnavism is not a quick-fix

solution to the problems of the present times. It was not propounded 1000

years ago by Sri Ramanuja to help people fix their personal, family and

professional problems.

 

SriVaishnavism is primarily a human world-view. It offers a means for

ordinary minds to gain an extraordinary insight into eternal questions of

the spirit:

Who am I ? Where do I come from ? and Where am I going ?

 

At a purely philosophical level, SriVaishnavism thus can only offer us

insights into "bhAgavath-dharma" a subject which only minds of a deeply

spiritual or philosophical bent can understand and relish.

 

Now, most of us tire easily in our pursuit of such deep philosphical quests

because we are mentally ill-equipped for it. SriVaishnavism can then be a

total "turn-off" and sound to us like a lot of mystic clap-trap.

 

We must be therefore honest with ourselves. We must first accept within

ourselves that what we are really interested in are not the eternal

questions SriVaishnavism seeks to address but only its "prescriptions" for

practical day-to-day living. We MUST admit that all we are really curious to

know is if SriVaishnavism recommends an "alternate life-style" that is

different from several of those that we have been forced to adopt in our

lives by social compulsion and personal circumstance.

 

Now if you think deeply about it, on this "alternate life-style" which we

romantically fantasize SriVaishnavism can offer us, we often begin to make

unreasonable demands. We begin wanting it to be not only as "noble" as it

seems it certainly was in the times of SriRamanuja but we also want it to be

eminently "practical and workable" for the present times in which we live

and work.

 

In our search into SriVaishnavism for one such magical "life-style", where

the "gentle nobleness" of our "purvAchAryA-s" co-exists with the frantic,

workaday pragmatism of American/Arabian Gulf life CIRCA 1997, we find to our

terrible disappointment that often the "ideal" gets confused with the

"wishful", romanticism with realism, "bhAgavatha-dharma" with "lOka-dharma",

10th-century "value-systems" with 21st-century "life-styles" !

 

It is then that SriVaishnavism begins to lose its lustre for us. We begin to

feel that it is nothing but "man-made mumbo-jumbo"; that it is not really

"relevant" for our "present-day reality"; it has no appeal to "youthful"

minds; it needs to be drastically "simplified", "modified" and

"re-interpreted" to suit modern circumstances!

 

When we begin to talk or think like that about matters of Faith we always

begin to use the citric language of "disillusionment". Once we are in that

kind of mood we like to think that we are making an impassioned and sensible

plea for the "re-engineering" or re-furbishing of an old faith to make it

look attractive and acceptable to present times. But little do we realise

that in talking like that we are fooling nobody but ourselves.

 

We make fools of ourselves then because :

 

-- in the first place, it was our fault, and not that of SriVaishnavism --

that we began to search in it for an alternate "life-style" when all it ever

promised to deliver was an eternal "world-view" for man

 

-- it was our fault -- and not that of SriVaishnavism -- that we began to

"romanticise" its tenets, turning them into some kind of Universal and

All-time "quick-fix" for all our secular problems, when all it ever promised

its adherents was means to go and look beyond the secular world into a

higher order of reality.

 

-- it was our fault -- and not that of SriVashnavism -- that we began to

search into it for "lOka-dharma" when it all it remains primarily concerned

about, even today, is "bhAgavatha-dharmA".

 

The question next is "Okay, granted that we are not interested in the more

philosophical pursuits of SriVaishnavism, and granted we are really only

looking for an "alternate life-style", where do we find one ? If not in

SriVaishnavism, then where else ?

 

The answer to that question is : you find it in our "itihAsA-s" and "purANa-s" !

 

The answers to our mundane questions of "life-styles", "values-systems",

prescriptions for day-to-day living, "quick-fix" tips, "100 ways to win

lovers and friends!", and so on an so forth --- all that which we seek, all

that which can be called "lOka-dharma", cannot be found in SriVaishnavism

proper but only in the body of our great "itihAsA-s" and "purANa-s" like the

Mahabharatha and Ramayana.

 

Ramanuja's SriVaishnavism was not meant for "lOka-dharmA" but for

"bhAgavata-dharmA" -- the "dharma" of those who have ceased to search for

such things in life as "life-style", "1000 ways to win friends", "how to be

a productive manager or great husband" etc. Ramanuja's Vaishnavism was meant

for those who have learnt to look beyond the "practicality" of life and have

instead begun the long search for the "Life they have all lost in living" !

 

The next question is : OK, we want "lOka-dharmA" and are willing to go to

the "itihAsA-s" for it ! But there is a limit upto which one can read the

"itihAsA-s" and "purANa-s" ! They are after all only stories ! What can we

go on learning from it ? A story, even a masterpiece, does get boring after

a while!

This is where we must learn to fall back upon the "vyAkhyAnam-s" or

commentaries of our great "purvAchAryA-s", litterateurs and poets in the

SriVaishnava tradition --- beginning from the Alwars through poets like

Swami Desikan, commentators like PeriAchAn pillai, to present day

"upanyAsa-chakravartis" like Sri.Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar !

 

We must first realise that but for the glorious poetry of the Azhwars or

Desikan and but for the eminently lucid commentaries or "vyAkhyAnam-s" of

our "pUrvAchAryA-s" and present ones, it would never be possible at all

today for us to discern, let alone realise, how skillfully indeed, many fine

but clear threads of VisishtAdvaitic-thought are woven around the dramatic

contexts of "ithihAsA-s" and "purANA-s". In their works we not get only

ideas of "bhAgavatha-dharma" but also "lOka-dharma" ! But to appreciate that

we must first be patient enough to carefully read through their works with

utmost diligence and understand their minds and intellect.

 

There is no short-cut to an appreciation of the treasures of the

"itihAsa/purANa-s" without going to the literary sources of our

"pUrvAchAryA-s"; there is no short-cut to a knowledge of the "lOka-dhrma" of

SriVaishnavism without going to the "itihAsA-s/purANA-s"; and there is no

short-cut either to the profound philosophy or "bhAgavatha-dharma" of

SriVaishnavism without first going to the "itihAsA-purANa-s". We cannot

escape this path. We cannot be impatient during this long journey.

 

Also, while examining ancient texts as rich in the lather of ideas as the

poetry and commentaries of the old Masters really are, we cannot take the

liberty of "jumping the gun". In other words, we cannot proceed to directly

review the deep philosophical basis of the commentaries without first

closely following and properly understanding how the "AchAryA-s" skillfully

weave a web of references and allusions to incidents/episodes/situations in

"itihAsA-s" and "pUrANA-s", developing them gradually to use later in

underpinning deeply philosophical positions of theirs.

 

Often, as serious students of SriVaishnavism, we may find that our

respective "guru" or "teacher" to whom we have gone to learn "philosophy",

might strongly advise us that we have no choice but to first, again and

again, re-learn, re-visit "itihAsA"/"purANA" scenes; the "guru" will urge us

to re-construct and re-analyse such scenes in our minds, TIME AND AGAIN, for

MANY, MANY YEARS before we are seen to be ready to absorb the philosophical

import of those "purANi-c" or "itihAsi-c" incidents.

 

The unique feature of Vedanta, and more especially VisishtAdvaita --

"AchAryA-s" themselves tell us -- is that it is in many ways deeply

inter-woven with the "pramANam" of "itihAsA"/"pUrANA". It is at the altar of

"itihAsi-c" commentary that our great "AchAryA-s" consecrate the wedding

between the handsome groom of "philosophy" and the coy bride of "literature,

lore, history, legend and social saga". The 'grand union' thus presented is,

indeed, one HOLISTIC but magnificent mosaic of ideas that commoners amongst

ourselves, too, although unlettered in the "veda-vedantic" experience can,

nonetheless, share wholesomely in it.

 

However, if we were to become impatient or fretful with the texts of our

"AchAryA-s" and rashly attempt to vault over the step of "philosophy"

without first climbing the preceding one of "literature", then, we are more

than likely to not only "fall flat" on our intellectual posteriors but also

"land up" in the doubly distressful situation at the "bottom-most" levels

(pun unintended!) of human experience : the levels where we are unable to

grasp the essential beauty of "itihAsA-s"/"purANA-s" and still worse, have

the meaningful truth underlying their philosophy continue to elude us. Both

"lOka-dharmA" and "bhAgavatha-dharma" will elude us.

 

If that were to be the situation, we will find we are unable to relate to

our "itihAsA-s"/"purANA-s" as anything more than a pack of "grandma-yarns"

and "meaningless parables".

 

We will then be able to speak of our "glorious scriptures and tradition"

with neither passion nor clarity, neither certainty nor gusto, neither

imagination nor sure-footedness, neither drama nor depth.

 

We will then find that whenever we open our mouths and mind to begin to

extol our "great SriVaishnava "siddhAntam" ("vAyAl pAdi, mannathinAl sindikka!"

-- as per our dearest AndAl), try as hard as we might, we are never able to

do anything about the hollow ring our "wooly ideas" and "weak convictions",

sadly, will assume.

 

My final submission to you and your panel members, Sri.Mohan Sagar,

therefore is this :

 

1) Think carefully as to what you are really looking for in SriVaishnava

faith. "Quick-fix solutions", "altenate life-style" or "answers to deep

spiritual problems" ?

 

2) Do not confuse your longing for a "life-style" ("lOka-dharmA") with what

you mistakenly think are your so-called "deeply spiritual" longing for

ultimate truth !

 

3) Begin your pursuit of SriVaishnavism not at the "deep-end of the pool" by

diving into its "philosophy" or "siddhAntam" but into its "safe end" of

"itihAsA/purANa" where you have so much to learn about rich "lOka-dharmA".

 

4) Study diligently the works of our great "purvAcharyA-s" --- their poetry,

commenatries and "upanyAsam" and "kalapshepam". These will give you lots and

lots of ideas on "lOka-dharmA" as well as "bhAgavatha-dharmA".

 

5) If you have reached a state where "itihAsa-purANa" have taught you all

that the "purvAchAryA-s" say they collectively do, then, by all means go

ahead, start getting into the mysteries and mysticism of SriRamanuja

'sidhhAntham'.

 

But until then be humble for, believe me, you have no choice but to plod

along with the simple, child-like "parables" and grandma-yarns in our great

epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharatha.

 

adiyEn/dAsan,

sudarshan.