Prof.Abdul Kalam on rAmAnuja/AzhvArs/mElukOte

[Guest guest]

dear maNi,

 

this is not exactly the right material for the core

bhakti-list, and belongs more in the sv-general

category i feel.. Howerver, in the interest of

reaching a bigger audience, I am sending it to the

bhakti-list core list. Please use your judgement,

and if you feel it is appropriate, allow it

on bhakti-list.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

varadhan

 

 

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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

As most of us in the forum know, Prof.APJ Abdul

Kalam is a truly unique inspirational leader and

a great son of India/the world. His insights and

his thoughts are truly amazing. His interests

range from missiles/nuclear devices to developing

artificial material for prosthetic devices to

leadership and many other things.. He is a deep

reader of the Koran as well as the BhagavadgIta!.

The following is an excerpt from a speech given

by him. It truly attests not only to the greatness

of Prof. Kalam, but more importantly attests to

the universality of our dear rAmAnujA's teachings

and the wonderful sprit of the AzhvArs, and

of course, the greatness of mElukOte.

 

this can be found on www.abdulkalam.com and

in the section called "Speech".

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

varadhan

 

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Our Life And Culture

 

 

The second incident was a happy and divine one. I have

a friend called Mr. Lakshmi Tathachar, who is the of Sanskrit Research centre, Melukote in

Karnataka. he is an expert in Tamil and Sanskrit. i

have an interest in the Panini grammer, based on that,

 

some research is being done at the Sanskrit Researxh

Centre. He invited me to Melukote, where 'Acharya

Ramanujar' walked a thousand years ago. I got an

opportunity to go to Melukote on 26th July

 

I felt strange sensation of happiness filling in me

as soon as I reached Melukote. As I remembered that

this was the same place where Ramanujar walked and the

 

showed the spiritual path to the world. While walking,

 

I felt a divine satisfaction filling in me. I saw

Tathachar's research centre, his beautiful garden and

the famous Sri Narayanar temple in Melukote. I found

there is a link between history and the spirituality

as that temple, a historical place, tells the story

that happened a millenium ago.

 

After seeing the temple, Tathachar took me to his

enchanting garden. I can not forget the scenic beauty

 

and the happiness on seeing it. I saw greenery

wherever I turned, with a loss of flowers , trees,

herbal plants, vegetables and fruits. There were

amazing varieties of flowers with so different

colours. The combined nice smell of flowers, the honey

 

bees circling the flowers, bewitching butterflies,

singing birds, dancing peacocks, merrily jumping deers

 

and a pond full of anxious fishes poped up on top of

water level to see Tathachar and his guests! All these

 

scenic beauty gave me great happiness. What a

wonderful scene! Amidst such wonderful scene, saints

from the Sanskrit research Centre were chanting

mantras on 'Purusha Shuktham'. I wondered whether 'was

 

this called a divine paradise' ? There was an obvious

divine satisfaction at that place where the Almighty

and Nature mingle with each other. I saw the

vegetables, fruits and flowers were all the result of

hard labour and sweat. All plants were grown using

natural manure and I soon realised that the hard work

and the sweat only bloomed as beautiful flowers and

spread the scent everywhere. When the spirituality is

mingled with hard work, there we can certainly see

such a paradise on esrth.

 

Later I was taken to his library. I spent an hour

seeing the old manuscripts on a palm leaves, carefully

 

preserved for over thousand years. I had an

opportunity to see the rare collections of books both

old and new in the same library. I was amazed

to see Tathachar using his laptop computer, sitting on

 

rock in a typical 'Kurukal' atmosphere explaining the

results of the research on the computer. This is an

indication to our generation to preserve our culture

and tradition and at the same time to be modern in

thoughts and attitude. Our Indian culture is keep on

growing and refining. While the essence of our culture

 

and tradition is retained, the way of life of modern

and future times are adopted. Even after reaching

Delhi, the imprints of Melukote did not leave from my

heart.

 

The divine light of Melukote

 

Ramanujar preached a philosophy for the whole mankind.

 

He said everyone should live amicably and not to find

any difference with each other. I heard the philosophy

 

reverberating in my ears while at Melukote. I also

heard through the saints of Melukote, the incident

that happened in Ramanujar's life. Ramanujar was

initiated by his Guru with the mantra which would take

 

him to attain the 'Moksha', but he wanted every one to

 

attain 'Moksha' and unrevealed the same to everyone.

 

The wonderful scenes I saw at Melukote was also

depicted as a song in 'Andal 's Thirppavai' . Andal

was the only woman among the Alwars, lived much before

 

Ramanujar

 

"Let us all sing in praise of the lord who

measured this world

With love and affection we bathed the lord

in pure water

Blessed to have rain thrice every month, our

sins washed out

Well grown paddy bore the finest grain

Fishes jump out, while honey bee sleept on

lotus flower

Let us all be prosperous and praise the lord.

 

 

As depicted about the divine power in the song, I also

 

realised in the temple of Sri Narayanar temple at

Melukote , an echo of Ramanujar calling the deity 'my

little daughter come' , then the deity started walking

 

towards Ramanujar!

 

Alwar means one who is immersed in the experience of

god. They have demonstrated the fact to the world,

whoever immerses in deep thoughts to attain the

highest goal, will certainly attain it. There were 12

Alwars, came from all walks of life and all strata of

society. They have also shown the way if we are not

finding any difference with each other and have a big

common goal, weall can certainly raise and realise the

 

same. Alwars lived as role-models thousand yeasrs ago,

 

we all should united and have one big aim to see the

prosperous developed India. There are villages and

small townships like Melukote everywhere in India.

There is happy and prosperous life to make the people

attain as what could be called as a good, satisfying

life. India is still a Developing Country even after

50 years. We all should bring forth the spirituality

lying inside each one of us, with that we work hard

with a vision for 20 years to make bloom India as a

Developed Country.

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