Re[2]: keeping our tradition alive

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri RR

 

You have said the following and here are my doubts

 

"I offer these points for careful consideration by the Bhagavathas:

 

i)the practice of Sri Ramanuja Darsana has become very very

complicated, costly and confined to the privileged few,"

 

What do you think is costly here. Please do not think that this an

arrogant question. adiyEn believes that there is no cost involved at

all in following Sri Ramanuja Darshana. On the other hand, I believe

this is the low cost sampradhayam. We need not even offer anything

from our end to Sriman Narayanan. Why? That will be a very big answer

and needs to go into the details of the sampradhAyam. However to put

it simply, Sriman Narayanan doesn't expect anything from us. He only

expects the love and affection from us towards Him. You call Him and

He is here to help you. Remember the case of GajendrAzhwAr.

 

"ii)the world has changed more in the past 10 years than it has in

the previous 100 years and people want fast solutions for

eveything,"

 

Agreed but what we need to do is, we should bring all the youths who

are going wayward by explaining the greatness of the sampradhAyam. It

lies only with the elders of this day to make the elders of the

future. We don't even bother about educating our offsprings in our

SampradhAyam and then if we say people want fast solutions then we are

to blame ourselves. In this case, as adiyen once said that let us give

the sampradhAyam to those who want it and like it. We cannot expect a

non-Srivaishnava to immediately understand our tenets and embrace our

sampradhAyam. And naturally learned people in our sampradhAyam knows

that we are not to demand anything from Him. If we are not to demand

anything there where is the question of getting a fast solution. If we

consider every happening as His thiruvuLLam then why should we bother

about the happenings.

 

iii)in an environment where there is constant pressure on every

aspect of a person's existence,people expect solace and

fulfilment of the soul which they think they get in these

institutions and not in ours,

 

I agree with you in this point. However, it will be only those people

who does not understand the basic tenets of our sampradhAyam, who go

to these institutions. The reason , if they belong to a SriVaishnavite

family, is they have not been taught about our sampradhAyam properly

by their elders.

 

iv)the daily rituals are seen as very very elaborate and complex,

they are unable to have an access on a one to one basis to seek

any answers to the doubts that they have as these Acharyas are

always busy with their duties,

 

Yes on an overview it looks though it is very elaborate and complex.

But remember that there are very easier ways that even Swamy NampiLLai

followed to do thiruvArAdhanam. His thiruvArAdhanam is only the Dvaya

mantram , with "Sarva MangaLa vigrahAya" in between the poorva and

utthara vAkya. Also Sri Krishna says, "patram, pushpam, palam,

thOyam..", whatever you give I accept. But give it with a purity of

heart. So it all lies in our thoughts. I could even say that there is

no other sampradhAyam that is as easy as our sampradhAyam. The

easiness, one sees in the other institutions are purely illusional and

attributes once again to the lack of understanding of our

sampradhAyam.

 

AdiyEn tends to disagree with the point that our AchAryAs are always

busy with their duties and that they do not respond to our doubts

immediately. Yes as an Acharya and a guide for other people to attain

salvation he has some prescribed duties and he needs to do them. But

adiyEn knows very much that they respond to all our doubts and even

some times take personal interest and explain to us. My personal

experience with Sri Velukkudi Krishnan swamy is an example to this.

Inspite of his very very busy schedules, he did gave me more than 30

mins of his precious time when adiyEn had some doubts (he had not even

met me earlier nor had any acquaintance with me) and so is Dr.Sri M.A.

Venkatakrishnan swamy of ThiruvallikkENi, who is equally busy.

It is only we who has to approach them correctly.

 

v)only via some Upanyasams and Kalkshepams are they able to get

some insight into the deeper meaning into all these but mostly

they are unable to understand these,

 

adiyEn was exactly in the same mind frame before attending upanyAsams.

I thought, it will all be sanskritized tamizh and I will not

understand anything and hence did not attend any upanyAsam. Then a

very good friend of mine said that, we can understand it without any

problem, but only thing is that we should attend it regularly, in the

initial stages even though we fail to understand certain words or

philosophical ideas. Yes, that was true. After I attended some

upanyAsams initially, of course with out understanding some points,

now adiyEn is in a position to understand most of the things that is

said in an upanyAsam. " Chithiramum kaip pazhakkam".

 

vi)thus the Guru - Sishya exchange is getting narrower and

limited,

 

Yes, it is getting narrower, but only because of the lack of knowledge

on the relationship of the sishyA with his guru. So if we correct

ourselves, I think we can really get rid of this problem.

 

vii)the case of the overseas Bhagavathas is even more difficult

as very very limited numbers ( out of many thousands of

ourpeople) actually visit these Asramams or Mutts that too out of

parental compulsion!

 

adiyEn totally tends to disagree with this point. In fact many

bhAgavathAs who come to India from overseas, spend most of the times

with only their achAryAs and divya dEsams. I do know of Sri Dileepan

Parthasarathy, who once went to India for a month long trip and all

that he did was just sit by the side of Sri Ahobila matam jeeyar

swami, his Acharyan and spend time in his kainkaryam. Someone may say

that he is an exception, but adiyEn says that he is only one of the

examples.

 

 

It is possible to highlight many more issues here but we have to

realise that for every Mani Varadarajan or Shyamsundar

Sreenivasan or M.S.Hari in our fold there are hundreds of equally

talented, brilliant and committed youngsters going elsewhere.The

question is whether we are ready to come together and form a

common platform to motivate and to organise a movement back to

the basics and this is a very very difficult issue.

 

Agreed, that is why it becomes more important that we should atleast

cultivate the understanding about the sampradhAyams to our future

generations. Sow the seeds earlier and reap it earlier too. But

regarding the ones who have gone way ward now, yes, it is a difficult

task but nevertheless we should try and find a way to get them also

into understanding the sampradhAyam.

 

Once again, adiyEn feels that it is the self realisation and a proper

guidance which will bring an end to all the above problems and will

lead us to the salvation path. With out giving a proper guidance to

those people there is no point in saying that our sampradhAyam needs

to change or relax its principles.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

 

Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh