A few words...

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Vaishnavas,

 

adiYen is getting the feeling that adiYen's active presence and

contributions are not liked by the distinguished members of this

list(even if it was the truth).However adiYEn would like to thank Sri

Mani for providing me with the opportunity to participate and

grasp the status of things in its true light.AdiYEn also thanks Sri

Madhavakannan for his outpourings on Thiruvaimozhi, Sri V.Sadagopan for

his erudite presentation on so many subjects and also to the numerous

others who made participation an interesting experience.

 

adiYen feels, adiYen has maintained his station properly by sticking to

the discussion on the qualities of a vaishnava and also by not quoting

from any of the shastras which according to the group, non-brahmins by

birth are not allowed to quote(Maha Rahasyams).

 

adiYen has decided to be a passive member from now on(If permitted).

 

However adiYen expresses his sincere thanks for all those who wrote to

me that they were benefitted and inspired by my posts.

 

Humbly Yours,

 

Sriram,Balaraman

 

P.S

 

some tips

 

* Sugar is filtered thru Bones of the Cow.(Hearsay)

* Veggie Pizza contains Beef powder.

* Milk contains Fish Oil.

* Some cows were fed Non-Veg items which resulted in the

develoment of Mad Cow disease.

* 600 cows are slaugtered a minute in Texas in their

steak houses.

- Any "Go Shala" project will be welcome apart from

other Kaimkaryams.

 

 

 

____

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[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Balaraman Sriram,

 

you certainly have stirred up the proverbial coals in the few short weeks

that you have been a member of this group. For that, both my compliments

for bringing out some interesting conversation and a few well-meaning words

of advice from one who had to learn his own lessons about the group the

hard way.

 

My interest in SriVaishnavam goes back to times long before this Bhakti

group and long before what I hope is more than just a fad resurgence in

SriVaishnavam in the US cities of late. So, when I joined Bhakti, I

brought with me an attitude of a self-proclaimed expert with a chip on his

shoulder. In my sense of bravado, I challenged good bhAgavathas like Sri

Dileepan, Sri Sadagopan, and many others, thinking that after 10 years of

book knowledge, I knew something that all these new acquaintances, who at

the time were known to me more as e-mail text than people, did not know.

 

My lessons did not come easy, as I was asked on more than one occassion to

directly quote from the AchAryans' teachings, as these learned individuals

can do, to justify my oftentimes overly idealistic view of things.

Obviously, with my US upbringing and my limited familiarity with Sanskrit

or Tamizh, I was unable to do so. But, I did not let this stop me from

taking the good advice of local SriVaishnava friends to maintain an

open-minded learning attitude when participating in this forum.

 

All this continued until last year, when on two occassions I had the

bhAgyam to meet the people of this forum in person. I discovered people

who were in many ways like myself, trying to balance their eastern

spirituality with the pressures of western/modern life. But, I also found

people who could do so with much more ease than I because of their faith in

the teachings of their respective AchAryans, and in the vision that

EmperumAnAr has given to all of us. Such a viswAsam is something that I

began to admire in each and every member of this group, and it is this

faith, and the humility that comes with it, that brought me down to earth

(hopefully :-). It is this faith that made them stay up all night - as Sri

Sadagopan did - transliterating and translating nityAnusandhAnam so that US

raised people like myself could participate in the ghOshti. It is this

faith that gave the strength to many learned bhAgavathas like Sri Dileepan,

Sri Jaganath, Sri Madhavan, Sri Vijayaraghavan, and many others who

attended the Denver Conference, such that they were able to go with only an

hour or so of sleep each night for four days, and still wake by 4:00 AM to

do kainkaryam to the Lord.

 

Yes, it is true that none of us are perfect. If we were, we would be in

paramapadam, or in one of our divya dEshams, and not here in this samsAram.

We all have to gulp down a slice of pizza now and then, and the vast

majority of us cannot go without a cup of coffee in the morning. But, I

personally do not think that this should be used to downplay our interest

in our tradition or in our desire to serve Him.

 

Just a few words in return....with all due respect.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

 

Mohan