Preserving the Tradition!

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavathas,

Many of you would have read thro' the posting 'Emberumanar Darsanam' in these

columns. These points arose out of a meeting held at Chennai on the 20th

August,were grouped under different headings and circulated with a copy to

Adiyen.A further meeting was held to get a consensus on a plan of action.Sri

Velukkudi Krishnan and Sri K.Sampath Kumaran are convening and coordinating

these laudable efforts which deserve the support of all right thinking

SriVaishnavas.

 

Adiyen would stress on two points here for the benefit of the mostly overseas

members of this list.

 

Firstly the support for the upkeep of such Divya Desams as are in dire straits

and need financial assistance for the Bhattacharyas,Madappalli

Kainkaryaparas,Security&(last but not the least)Thaligai.As mentioned earlier in

these postings adiyen is willing to coordinate your contributions thro' proper

Trusts already functioning in this regard.Now is the time for action for those

who have time and again expressed their anguish (in these columns or elsewhere

)about the derelict state of many of our Divya Desams to come forward and do

something concrete.Adiyen is waiting!!( am planning to adopt one Divya Desam on

my own)

 

The second is a point already referred to in my postings i.e., the need to

integrate all SriVaishnavas without any discrimination.Now they are classified

as 'Srivaishnavas' and 'Bhagavathas '.This will no doubt arouse very serious and

stubborn and maybe violent resistance from many quarters but this is , in my

humble opinion, the single most important and revolutonary step to be taken and

taken now apart from relaxing the dress code.

 

All talk of preserving the SriVaishnavaite Tradition or Heritage is absolutely

meaningless if we don't understand that SriVaishnavism has to be preserved in

the Villages first and for this we need to accept that there are no Bhagavathas

and that there are only SriVaishnavas - all of them without any

distinction.There are small towns in TN where small children recite the entire

Thiruppavai with proper swaram as in a Goshti and these are not Brahmin children

i am talking about.Yet these classes are not to recite Thiruppallandu in even

such temples where no 'SriVaishnavas' are there to do this Kainkrayam.There are

525 Vaishnava Sabhas spread all over Tamil Nadu in villages and these are

integrated into a Vaishnava Peravai and 90% of these are Bhagavathas( if you

like to call them).

 

In adiyen's opinion these Bhakthas have done as much if not more to preserve our

heritage as anyone else and that includes all our Institutions and the time has

come for to acknowledge this and to integrate them in the mainstream as

otherwise all our efforts in this regard will be infructuous.We are facing

extinction in maybe 50 years' time unless we act now.I have so far dealt with

only the internal issues so far and there are external ones which can be tackled

only if the entire SriVaishnavaite community acts as one.

 

I will leave you with these thoughts for now.

 

Regards.

 

RR.

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Mani Varadarajan,

 

Thanks for your mail.

 

The point is more easily stated than done and is going to be herculean task

where the lead has to come from our Acharyas who also happen to be the Heads of

Mutts and Asramams and whose words are "law" as far as hundreds of thousands of

SriVaishnavaites are concerned.

 

As far as i am concerned i have already started a subtle but firm prayers to my

H.H to relax these either all of a sudden or gradually as He may deem fit at

least in our Asramam to start with.

 

I am sure that the Padukas will make this possible at the earliest.Already the

first few delicate steps are being thought of and we will keep at it till the

Padukas grant this.

Thanks again.

 

Regards.

 

RR.

 

mani wrote:

 

> The second is a point already referred to in my postings i.e.,

> the need to integrate all SriVaishnavas without any

> discrimination.Now they are classified as 'Srivaishnavas' and

> 'Bhagavathas '.This will no doubt arouse very serious and

> stubborn and maybe violent resistance from many quarters but

> this is , in my humble opinion, the single most important and

> revolutonary step to be taken and taken now apart from relaxing

> the dress code.

 

Dear Sri Rajagopal,

 

I have been saying the same thing for years and I am overjoyed

that someone in a responsible position finally agrees with me.

This is the only way to preserve our tradition. What's more,

it is the morally correct thing to do, in the spirit of Bhagavad

Ramanuja.

 

What can we do to achieve this?

 

IMHO, relaxing the dress code is far less important than accomplishing

the integration of Sri Vaishnavas of all castes into one goshti.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

Mani