suggestions---invited by "SriKainkarya" Soundararajan Desikan

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Soundararajan SwAmin,

 

Your mail below is an eloquent tribute to Vedaviths

and to the VedAdhyAyana tradition. You have very

rightly focussed on waning tradition of "vEdAdhyAyana"

amongst SriVaishnavites these days. The situation is

so bad that very soon, as you rightly pointed out,

none amongst the SriVaishnavite community would ever

deserve the honorific of Ubhaya-vedantin.

 

In Kuwait, the Tiruvenkatam group here consists of

about 20 persons who are regularly practising

"vEdAdhyAyana" since the past 5 years. Although they

are all working men in different 'laukika' professions

and vocations, still they have all decided to dedicate

part of their evening after-office hours to regular

"adhyAyana" classes being conducted by an equally

dedicated and learned "adhyApakar" (a devout

SriVaishnava himself) who also is living and working

here in Kuwait for the past 5 years. This group now

has achieved reasonable fluency (not professional

excellence) in chanting the following:

 

Pancha sooktham

Taittiriya Upanishad (all 4 "vallis")

Udhaka shAnti (full)

Pancha shAnthi

Rudram, chamakkam

Narayana Upanishad

 

The group is now going to eagerly embark soon on a new

curriculum starting from the Tamil New Year Day (April

14th). The "adhyApakar" will begin "adhyAyana" in

"acchidram" to be followed by "arUNam" later.

 

This group of Veda "vidyArthIs" here in Kuwait is

engaged in "vedAdhyAyana" for no other purpose other

than enjoyment of the spiritual bliss that one gets

while chanting the Vedas. The "adhyApakar" also does

not expect anything in return for his effort except

unfading enthusiasm from his students. And none of us

are aspiring to the title of "Ubhaya Vedantins" or any

such great honorific. For us, the effort of

"vEdAdhyAyana" is its own reward. We consider it a

blessing in itself that God has given us an

opportunity in this lifetime to learn at least a very

small part of the sacred Vedas.

 

I am explaining all this to you, and sharing it too in

the SriVaishnava cyber-groups, not to show off our

group's effort or to boast about it and feel great

that we are all "holier than thou".

 

I am saying all this only to drive home the point that

where there is "bhagavath-sankalpam" at play, it will

certainly operate through the enthusiasm and diligence

of persons who make a firm decision to begin learning

the Vedas. It does not matter whether such effort

takes place in India, our motherland, or elsewhere in

the world where SriVaishnavavas have chosen to live

and settle down. What matters is that, as you have

rightly pointed out in your message, there must be a

firm will on the part of SriVaishnavas to dedicate

some part of their lifetime to undertake

"vedAdhyAyana" themselves. Contributing money to

"veda-patashalas" and sponsoring students in such

schools is one valuable form of doing one's duty by

the Vedas. But it is not enough in my opinion. It is

far more important for each and every SriVaishnava to

set personal examples and undertake "vedAdhyAyana"

himself, even during the prime part of his 'laukika'

life and career.

 

Even if the "adhyAyin" does not know Sanskrit, and

even if he struggles with "akshara-shuddham" or

"vAng-manas shuddham" (as pointed out by you), he must

still relentlessly pursue "adhyAyana" and persevere at

it. In Kuwait, in the tiruvenkatam "adhyAyana gOshti",

for example, not everybody is comfortable with

Sanskrit and yet that does not dampen or impair their

learning effort or resolve. The "adhyApakar" also

takes great pains to somehow teach such students

properly even if their Sanksrit enunciation is found

faulty or deficient.

 

All that it really takes to perform "veda

samrakshaNam" is firm resolve on the part of

SriVaishnavas that they will go ahead and do

"adhyAyanam" even in the face of all kinds of

obstacles in life, big and small. It is only a matter

of personal choice to be taken without expectation of

any personal reward of "prati-phalan". If a

SriVaishnavan does this, he can rest assured he is

doing his little bit indeed for the protection of

Vedas. If he does not do this, for whatever reasons he

may skillfully put forth, I am sure he will continue

to feel guilty of a grave duty-lapse till the very end

of his days on earth no matter how much money he may

otherwise contribute to God knows how many

veda-pAtashALas...

 

Your email message, SwAmin, is a very timely wake-up

call for SriVaishnavas all over the globe not to let

the tradition of "vedAdhyAyana" slip into desuetude

and apathy. Let us not forget that the very soul of

Ramanuja "siddhAnta" is "ubhaya-Vedanta". The day

"vEdAdhyAyana" ceases in the SriVaishnava

"sampradAya", that day will signal the end of the

"sampradAya" itself.

 

Sir, I salute your efforts to bring this situation to

the awareness of the community all over the world

through your email. I share your concerns and endorse

your views fully.

 

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

--- soundararajan desikan <srikainkarya

wrote:

 

>

> Dear Swamin

> Sri Vaishnavas are commonly

> honoured with prefix" Ubhaya Vedanthis"_ which,

> among other things , represent Vedas and Divya

> prapandhas.In other words, they are vidwans of both

> Vedas and Divya prapandhas, though they have not

> learnt all Vedas/their Veda as per their sakha(

> yajus sakha etc) and all 4000 Divya prapandhams

> > Dasan

> Srikainkarya

> Thiruvaheendrapuram Uruppattur Chakravarthi

> Soundararajan

>

 

 

 

________

India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://.shaadi.com

[Guest guest]

Dear Swamins:

 

I appreciate the e-mails. Adiyen has some views on the subject which I

would like to place for your consideration:

 

First and foremost - anyone aspiring to learn Vedas should be punctual in

doing SANDHYAVANDANAM. He should take a sankalpa to do 108 gayatri Japa

every day.

 

Secondly, we need to create different levels of learning portions of Vedas

and set up an 'order' to learn them - starting from the most frequently

recited mantrAs to the more difficult ones.

 

For eg.: Pancha Sooktas may be the basic level. After that, should one

learn Agni-Sandhana MantrAs or Taittiriya Upanishad or Udaka Shanti? I

think one should learn all the Vedic Mantras required for Nitya

Karmanushtanam. For eg.: my acharya was very particular about having me

learn the Punyahavachana mantram, and the agni-sandhana mantrams. Also

those of us living in the USA participate in chanting at temples. Mantras

like Ghosha-Shanti, asheerwada mantrams, general homa-mantrams etc., become

important.

 

We should discuss these with great achryas and arrive at a syllabus for the

different levels. We can then start "summer-schools" for different levels

identified to train our young Sri Vaishnavites so that when they come abroad

they have a good basic knowledge to participate in the home/temple functions

and make the experience 'divine' and enjoyable for every-one.

 

We can dedicate ourselves to raising money for the summer schools.

 

S. Vijayaraghavan

Buffalo/NY

 

 

Dear

 

 

>sudarshan madabushi <mksudarshan2002

>tiruvenkatam

>tiruvenkatam, ,

>oppiliappan

>Re: [t'venkatam] suggestions---invited by "SriKainkarya"

>Soundararajan Desikan

>Mon, 10 Apr 2006 13:42:26 +0100 (BST)

>

>

[Guest guest]

Dear VedAbhimAnIs,

 

The joy of a shrOtrIya is stated in the taittirIya upaniSHad as

"shrOtriyasya chAkA mahatasya" compared to that of any other

person we can think of!

 

One thing to consider to include is to get the audio version of the kReSHNa

yajurvedam

(roughly 39 hours), available from the veda prasara samithi

(C/O of Mr. A. Krishnan of Srirangam) and listen to it regularly as often and

as much of the portions as possible.

 

dAsan

 

K.S. tAtAchAr

 

 

sudarshan madabushi <mksudarshan2002

tiruvenkatam; ;

oppiliappan

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 13:42:26 +0100 (BST)

Re: suggestions---invited by "SriKainkarya" Soundararajan

Desikan