a plea for action - please read this mail

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SrI:

SrImatE rAmAnujAya nama:

SrI lakshmI narasimha parabrahmaNE nama:

 

Dear SrI vaishNavas,

 

Before the Islamic invasion sliced off religious

freedom, British culture corroded the integrity and

self esteem of our men, media’s hypnotizing secular

slogan diluted the vigour of religious beliefs and

finally modern education baselessly irrationalized the

fault-less scriptures of ours; Vedic religion used to

rule the lifestyle and destination of bhArat-varshis

(the inhabitants of the land of bhArata). In the karma

bhUmi, dharma used to be followed by majority of men,

who were guided by the sAmpradAyic Acharyas in

disciplic succession. Under the supervision of

fatherly kings, people flourished without experiencing

any hardships. Even when the unworthy kings ruled,

people retained their strong culture and sustained in

hard-times. Irrespective of economic growth, people

were always full of purpose in life.

 

Times have changed so also social, political, economic

and religious situations during the last millennium.

Economics dominates lifestyles than ethics.

Importantly, states have become secular, to be more

precise, anti-religious. Religion is completely

isolated from academics intentionally or

unintentionally and people have no possibility to hear

about religion in any organized manner unless and

otherwise influenced by special situations; resulting

in surfacial superstitious beliefs if not complete

loss of religion.

 

In hard times like these, it is no easy to spread the

good word of God, where the entire money and machinery

is under the hypocritical greedy people. Even in such

upstream conditions, the compassionate AchAryas are

trying their best to reach all men with the sole

purpose of redeeming them, and are preaching the

philosophy of self surrender. Every politician, news

network, scientist,… promises to give freedom to the

people, and sufficient food for their senses, sothat

they are always busy not to find that they are bound

in sense enjoyment. And the poor AchArya has to

convince the people that their freedom is in surrender

to the supreme Lord, SrImAn nArAyaNa. Alas! We always

shut doors to our well wishers, to paramAtma and

AchAryas.

 

Even among the demons, great personalities like

prahlAda and bali appeared; fortunately so, some

vaishNavas are still remaining in this kaliyuga 5000

years after parikshit maharaja left for SrI

vaikuntham; which is why this mail finds some purpose

and audience. Our pUrvAchAryas appeared on the face of

this planet to grace their genuine mercy upon us and

give us the path to retain our swaroopa (our original

configuration, i.e., servant of the Lord). We are the

lucky few to notice the generosity of our AchAryas

(adiyEn sincerely feels myself unfit to receive such

mercy, which is simply causeless[nir-hetuka]), and

have a vague idea of the incalculability of their

gift.

 

1. What is the value of a great gift which we cannot

be utilized to yield us the desired result

(un-interrupted Service to the divya dampati)?

2. What is the value of a great gift whose value

cannot be shared with other needy fellows?

 

First of all, we have to realize that we are offered

an invaluable gift by the AchAryas in the form of

prapatti mArga. Once we make ourselves clear about

this, we automatically develop the urge to utilize the

opportunity and also to pass it to others. In the

present context, the gift is devotional service unto

SrIya: pati SrImAn nArAyaNa. How can we cultivate this

gift? By simply, performing devotional service. The

easiest way to perform devotional service is by

executing the instructions of the AchArya, i.e.,

chanting the mantras into which we are initiated, by

always doing hari nAma smaraNa; by doing his bhajans

(praises); these we can cultivate better, if we find

the company of people who are having similar goals.

Which is why, AN ASSOCIATION OF SrI vaishNavAs is

necessary. This is important for all SrI vaishNavAs

living in India and abroad; and especially for those

who live in abroad.

 

In bhagavad geeta, Lord KrishNa says, ‘by associating

sense organs with their objects, one develops lust’.

In this world, we always find sense objects which

attract the attention of our senses, no matter how

hard we try to control them. This being the case, we

can best regain our normalcy by being in touch with

other vaishNavas who remind us of our dharma. Another

important activity for all vaishNavas is to praise the

Lord with songs and bhajans. This is also best carried

out in the association of other vaishNavas.

 

Before the colonial rule, people were good at their

mother tongue and AchAryas like rAmAnuja insisted on

bhajans in the language which people can understand.

Hence all the Tamil hymns became part of sankeertans.

Most importantly, aLwars sang in praise of our perumAL

in this very language. Hence Tamil has been the main

language of worship. However, now, by the tireless

efforts of our AchAryas, SrI vaishnavism crossed the

boundaries of Tamil speaking lands; and it becomes an

absolute necessity to let the other language devotees

understand our philosophy and sing our hymns. English

slowly claiming its universality, it becomes a

necessity to make scriptures available in English

translations.

 

If we want to eradicate confusions, and confirm

uniformity in the practices; it is at most important

to make scriptures like SrI Bhagavad-Gita with SrI

visishTa advaita commentary available freely to every

one(probably online versions) and promote every one to

read them. It is also important to distribute the

basic level information to every one in the form of

books in simple language. Even if the people cannot

read the books right now, even then, they have to be

distributed now, sothat one fine morning they can open

it and read. The priority is not just to publish many

books but also to make people learn the minimum

things. This can be done more at a personal level, by

teaching to the family members, relatives and friends

and others about the vitality and significance of

practicing SrI vaishNava life. We must take this

responsibility, each one of us. If we realize that we

are gifted to practice a SrI vaishNava life, we

automatically try to share it to others, because, we

do not enjoy great things alone. Soulabhyam

(availability) is the greatest quality of nam-perumAL.

Hence, we should work keeping His scheme of things in

mind.

 

 

How to form an International SrI vaishNava

association:

 

Here is a prototype to form a fully connected

progressive International SrI vaishNava

association(using small world networks model).

 

1. List all the vaishNavas that are associated with

you and make them part of your personal association.

Try to be personally associated with them, share your

devotional life with them. You should associate at

least with 2 other vaishNavas.

2. Inform your associates to do the step 1 in their

vicinity

3. Make one vaishNava(who is not already in your

group) in your group member’s group as your own group

member.

4. Ask your group members also to include one member

like in step 3.

 

In a little amount of time, this kind of network can

connect any 2 vaishNavas within a chain of few

(probably less than 5 members) people. When we develop

SrI vaishNava association, we can also reclaim all the

SrI vaishNavas who are currently associated with other

organizations like ISKCON.

 

 

It is not just sufficient for us to exercise prapatti

ourselves, but have to inform many unfortunate people

who are least aware of the transcendental nature of

paramAtman. We can inform people about our sidhAnta as

much as they can digest, and bring them little more

closer to Emperumanar.

 

There is a great interest in the western world about

the philosophy of east, which allowed gaudiya

vaishNavas, advaitins, neo- vedantins and budhism

produce in-roads in to the western countries. This

example should be seriously considered by SrI

vaishNavas, as we are bound by AchArya rAmAnuja’s

instructions to spread his SrI bhAshya far and wide.

 

 

Main points:

1. Books in simple English a.bhagavad gIta b.

Important upanishads c. puranas and acharya's

literatures

2. Simple keertans from poorva AchAryas

3. association of sri vaishnavas, need to form a

distributed networks, and getting to know each other

better

4. teaching visishTa-advaita to relatives and friends

as a customary effort to let know

5. spreading sri vaishnavism to the European and

Western frontiers

reclaiming sri vaishnavas who are in other

organizations like ISKCON by providing them SrI

vaishNava association

 

 

 

dAsOham,

SrIperumbUdUru vEnkaTa vinOd.

 

 

 

 

 

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