Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy's Visit to Denver

[Guest guest]

The community of bhAgavathas in Denver and its surrounding Front Range

Metropolitan Area were truly blessed to be able to host Sri Velukkudi

Krishnan Swamy, his family, and disciples during their brief visit to

the area as part of their first tour of the USA.

 

Swamy conducted four programs during his stay from the evening of May 10

through the afternoon of May 12:

 

 

* Interfaith discussion on the Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita

(English)

* ThiruvArAdhanai; discourse on the vaibhavam of NammAzhwAr,

Nathamunigal, AlavandAr, and Sri Ramanuja (Tamil)

* Tenets of SriVaishnavam as exemplified in Sri Ramayanam (English)

* ThiruvArAdhanai at Sri RadhaGovinda Temple; discourse on Rukmini

svayamvaram (English)

 

The highlight of the visit for us was Swamy's precedent setting

interfaith discussion, which brought together representative members of

some of the world's major religions, including Gaudiya Vaishnavam,

B'hai, Judaism, Unitarianism, and Evangelical Christianity. It

was interesting to not how all theistic faiths found the same answer for

True Happiness, faith and love for the Divine that expresses itself in

service to all beings. This discussion marked the first time in Denver

that a scholar of this calibre shared the wisdom of our Ramanuja

Darshanam with people of Western background. With Bhagavad Ramanuja's

Grace, this wonderful discussion will serve to open doors for continuing

inter-religious dialogue between our tradition and other theistic

faiths.

 

We are planning on releasing CDs of all these lectures in the very near

future and will keep everyone posted on how they can be obtained.

 

On behalf of the International Ramanuja Society and the members of

Denver's religious communities, I would like to exress my sincere

thanks to Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swamy for sharing with all us of the

treasure-house of wisdom that is SriVaishnava siddhAntam. I would also

like to thank Sri Sampath Kumar and family, and Sri Sudarshan for their

kind support in making this visit possible. I would also like to convey

our thanks and compliments to Sri Krishnan Swamy's wife and sons, who

together with Sri Krishnan Swamy exemplify in every way the ideal of

SriVaishnava family life as taught to us by our poorvAchAryans.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Mohan