Why BOOKS ? - IMPORTANT

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees,

 

It is high time, we as a unified Sri Vaishnava community -should gear our

Resources of money and intelligence that Srimann Naarayanaa has given us ,

towards Publication of important granthaas and books.

 

Let us think very carefully and look arround us. What do we see?

We see students, college and university hopefuls, school kids , all of them

imbibing different ideas of Religeon and Philosophy.

They are getting varied perspective of various Role Models who have had

their own ideas of God and Religion. Note this - Most of these ideas are

Non Shaastraic and are driven by Sentiments/Emotional Experience/Trauma

Effects- and these ideas get talked about in the circle of our younger

generation; - Results are- The younger generation get more and more decided

about what they want to follow and Will not Listen to anything we have to

say- because we did not take the time to spend with them, in teaching them

the basics of our Rich traditional and so Unique system of thought!

 

Today our ancient Vedic, Upanisadic & Smrti texts have been mixed and

remixed and yet again remixed with the various hotch potch systems and

ideas of so many Gurus, Pandits from all over the planet, that nothing

original is spared.

English language , the easiest and most popular medium of instruction has

been used to maximum by all other so called systems of philosophy, and the

victims are the younger generation of would have been SriVaishnavaas !

 

While it is a Bhakta's ardent desire to see his /her Ishta Devata/ Archaa

Murti decorated in the best of attire,with the best of Jewels/Gems- for of

course it is with pride we say Raamam Ratnamayam Peete Saha Seetham....",

but how many of our children know that IT IS RAAMA THAT WE NEED TO SEEK AND

NOT JUST ANY ABOUT ANY ANYA DEVATA OR A CHARACTER FROM THE POKEMON SERIES?

 

Our Achaaryas are working so hard in maintaining the Traditiional Religious

standards and creeds in our Mathams, they are preaching too, all the works

of generations of Poorvacharyas and other Granthams-like Gita, Upanishads-

but not all of us are fortunate in residing in SriRangam/Melkote to enjoy

the Rasas of these activities. But we can bring out the books written by

great stalwarts in our Sampradaya, like Uttamoor Swamy, Dr.NSA and Dr.SMS

Chari, and so many other stalwarts ; We can bring out the Light in their

books, by printing more of these books, bringing out English Versions of

Most of our Texts- IF our younger generation can read easily and understand

easily, what this life is all about, what are our aims and how do we attain

them?- Soon they will be enthused to learn more and seek more and find

more......

 

The western world, particularly and to some extent India, is so linked on

all sides today by communications of all sorts, has become a Theme Park of

Philosophical Joy rides for our younger generation, which are provided by

so many institutions that have diluted strong Shaastraic knowledge to

concoct their own stong theories-

 

Recently I was talking to one young man who says he left Sri Sampradaaya

because His parents never had time to explain the meaning of any of the

Paasurams/Desika Stotrams to him, and since he grew up in Bombay, he could

never learn Tamil/Sanskrit and English was the only comfort zone for him.

Thanks to us , elders , who are busy trying to raise funds for

Alankaaram/Aabharanam for our chosen deities/temples, when our Children in

our own backyards are recieving books/booklets/songs/cultural debuts/and

other parephernalia that is geared to make devotees of them of other

sampradaayas!

 

Please do not mistake me, I know that building Temples / adorning Deities

with Opulent Materials is the Delight of Every Devotee, but we need to make

Devotees out of our young kids first!

Books are the only way, especially English/Sanskrit and Tamil/English

versions are very important tools for all of us to see why our Raamanuja

Sampradaaya is the Best- So much has been done for us by our

Purvaachaaryas, let it not go to waste!

 

This is very serious, and while I am as liberal as I can possibly be, ( I

am raising two kids in this land away from everything I learnt and loved )

I am Scared as I think of their future in the midst of so many theosophical

ideas , and wonder "what will they choose?"

For it is a Choice that we all make in choosing our Spiritual goals and

Paths- I am not saying, we should force our kids to blindly accept

Sharanaagati- No- but we need to show them why Sri Raamanuja did what he

did, and what do we lose in not accepting the Nectar of Prapatti- and then

we can see our children decide- they will be running (flying) to SriRangam,

like Sheep to the Shepherd-for that is what we are , sheep and our Achaarya

is our Shepherd , who with his stick, leads us to SriMann Naaraayana!

 

But this tale will not have such a happy ending , if we do not prioritize

our efforts in funding the right projects- Todays urgency is in Publication

of Books- we need to know this and work for this alone for some time-

Youngsters like Anand Karalapakkam, who is working so hard to bring out

these texts of his revered grandfather, have to be supported.

 

Please join SVSS and help LIGHT UP THE ARENA OF KNOWLEDGE, for with all the

books that the world has today, it is still VERY DARK !!!!!

 

Asmad Gurubhyo Namah,

 

Krishna Priya

[Guest guest]

>Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan [sMTP:vijayaraghavan_s]

>Thursday, March 23, 2000 5:56 AM

>kkalale1

>Re: Why BOOKS ? - IMPORTANT

>

>Dear Kalale and other BhaghavatOttams:

>

>The spirited writing of Krishna are always inspiring. His appeal concerns

>prioritization of our resources. Preserving the works of our great

>achAryas

>is fundamental to our faith.

>

>On the issue of publishing or printing more books, my personal opinion is:

>There are probably lots of books but we have lack of readers. We can

>probably circumvent this problem by starting small study-groups (like the

>Gita session of Shri Kalale). Create

>interest in these subjects and people will automatically come forward to

>encourage these programs.

>

>On the issue of abharanams, I respect the views of Shri Sadagopan. My

>mother and other family members feel that way. However, personally I

>think, provision of clean water facility, a nice bathing ghat in the pond

>(kulam), fans & lights inside the sannidhys, elimination of cockroaches

>inside the sannidhy etc., a ayurvedic dispensary in our divya desams to

>help

>the poor, require greater priority. Cleaniness is next to Godliness is

>probably not very much appreciated in our system (probably due to the

>weather?).

>

>AdiyEn

>

>Vijayaraghava Dasan

>Buffalo, NY

>____

>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

>

>

 

____

[Guest guest]

Dear bhAgawatas,

 

I CANNOT BUT AGREE with this e-mail. Speaking of

books ... when I returned from India this time I

brought with me three complimentary copies of the

beautiful Kannada book entitled "Ramanuja sookti

muktAvali" written by the famous U. Ve. (Dr.) N. S.

Anantharangachariar of Bangalore. The book gives in

simple readable Kannada the entire doctrine of

VisishtAdvaita as expounded by Ramanuja. The

interesting feature of the book (from what I have

read) is that it refers only to Ramanuja's words and

works and none else. (Others who have read this book

and find otherwise, please correct me.) So, the book

can verily be considered a sri-sukti of our dearest

Ramanujacharya in Kannada.

 

The SVSS was involved in the noble cause of raising

funds for this book, and there were several donors in

that effort. I REQUEST the donors kindly to provide

me their postal address and other details either on

this list or via personal e-mail so that I can go

ahead and ship them a copy each. I should be able to

ship to addresses within the US (and possibly Canada).

 

SrImAn U. Ve. Anantharangachariar swAmin was more than

delighted to send copies of his book through me for

the benefit of readers in North America, and in fact

had brought along with him many more than my luggage

bag could fit.

 

May the effort to print books on our philosophy take

on greater momentum because if we lose books, we will

have nothing more than anecdotes and blank faces to

offer to our next generation.

 

|| rAmAnujArya divyAj~Na vardhatAm abhivardhatAm ||

 

-- aDiyEn, muraLi kaDAmbi

 

 

 

 

Talk to your friends online with Messenger.

http://im.