Humility and the Vaishnava

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I offer my sincere Obeisances and Namaskarams to all the members

of this divine forum. First of all, my name is not Narasimhan, I

am his saha-udhara. Since my brother is in the merchant navy, I

keep checking emails for him, and in the process, get myself

enlightened.

 

I was rather appalled or dismayed by the attitude exhibited by

some of the "So-called" Srivaishnavas towards a sincere person

like Shubha ( I know her as a friend). I can tell that she is a

simple person, and for sure, she is not the type of person to

display Pizzaz or raise disharmony with words.

 

I am a SriVaishnavite myself, and I follow the basic decorum that

are required. Although I am happy that I am a Srivaishnava, at

times I fell embarrassed thanks to people like I see here. I have

some questions for some of the members here, and since I am an

Iyengar myself, I hope I may be excused for my ignorance.

 

Whenever one says 'Adiyen', does he really mean it?? It doesn't

seem like it! All through my life so far, I have found that

HUMILITY is one quality that is sorely lacking in many Iyengars,

even though it is such a fundamental part of our philosophy. In

actuality, many of us Iyengar simply think that because we are

born in an Iyengar family, we are. We get a "Holier Than Thou"

attitude. If any sane person has such thoughts, isn't it high

time for him to feel ashamed of himself and his behaviour?? We

are supposed to be followers of "Thondaradi-podi" Alwar, and

instead we often display utter arrogance.

 

Whenever there is some kind of a discussion or arguments, many of

us Iyengars on this list think that they are the sole

representatives of SriVaishnavism!! I have seen countless such

arguments in my life, and I could just pity them for they are

trapped in a "Cocoon" of self-hypocrisy. They are cheating

themselves, no matter if they know the Naalayiram or

Paduka-Sahasram. They all become miniature "Sarva-Tantra

Swathanthra"s!! In the process, they don't succeed in convincing

the opposite person, and end up with just huffing and puffing,

and not to forget the acrimony!!

 

Pray, please let us leave this pugnacious attitude!! Just

because of circumstances of birth, one doesn't have to get his

egos boosted (in fact, the contrary should happen)!! The story

of Narada vs the Cobbler befits the mood, methinks!!

 

I don't want to pinpoint names here, but I must say the

following. One of our erstwhile most vociferous and regular

posters (as well as a few others) confronted (or shall I say

ill-treated) many of the new visitors, so much so that I

personally know many of them either signed off or are not

monitoring this forum. And we all had seen a rather sorry display

of attitudes just recently.

 

Some of these regulars, no matter how learned they are, appear

to be filled with pure egotism and absolute religious illiteracy,

for they are found lacking in a character that is coined by the

term called "Humility", which is one of the basic pillars of any

religion, be it Sanatana Dharma, Shintoism or Animism.

 

Why must we call names when answering questions?? If you people

want to discuss advanced works of Yamunacharya, but can't answer

some simple, sincere questions in a nice way, I think you've not

got your fundamentals right!!

 

This kind of attitude is not unique to Iyengars alone. A lot of

people belonging to different schools of Vaishnavism exhibit a

behaviour of incredulous arrogance. If the goal is to spread the

doctrines of Srivaishnavism, working on one's patience and

humility will help both his self and his cause.

 

Adiyen

Vimal (Soundararaja Sharman)