Digest Number 416: On Sri Srinivasa Raghavan's Remarks

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/aum namO nArAyaNAya |

 

I am writing to add a remark on Sri TCA Srinivasa Raghavan's comment in Digest

No. 416 (Message #2). This message was itself a remark on Message No. 4 of Smt.

Nappinai in Digrst No. 414.

 

The remark of Sri Srinivasa Raghavan concerned temple worship and maTams, that

these forms of worship and religious work are not explicitly stated in the

vEdAHs, that they are later additions to meet the needs of the times, and that

they are institutionalized forms.

 

This I agree with. But the remark seemed to suggest that /sanyAsaH is replaced

by the /mATam priniple and that institutions are the ultimate in religious life.

This I am not sure of. I think our religion does not have a name, because it

goes beyond the institutional form. Only the individual standing alone anchored

by God is of the highest order and there is no substitute for it. Sometimes such

a person creates new instititutions, yes. And surely bhagavad Sri RamanujaH and

Sankara bhagavadpAdaH are examples. Even though they created institutions, they

were beyond that.

 

An outstanding example of our times is Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji was not even a

member of the Congress party beginning 1935. He did not have any institutions.

His /Ashrams were for personal living only. And he was beyond them.

 

By placing an individual anchored in God above institutions, we are able to

experience new ideas and new manifestations of God's infinite power and

knowledge. Again Adi Sankara, Bhagavad Sri RamanujaH and Gandhiji are examples.

 

I do not think that it is 100 % correct to think that bhagavad Sri RamanaujaH

was persecuted by the Saivaites. What is true is that when new ideas blossom and

are enthusiasticaly received by the people and it represents a threat to an

existing order, then there is persecution. In the case of Sri rAmAnujaH, it

happened to be a society where a Saivaite king ruled.

 

In the case of Adi SankaraH, he did not live long enough to suffer the

consequences of a movement, which really did not take shape during his times.

Adi SankaraH was a deeply religious poet, a philospopher and a theoretician who

establshed 4 mutts in the four corners of India. He lived a mere 31 years.

Compare with Sri rAmaAnujaH who lived 120 years and established at least 70

mutts. His was a movement reaching into society.

 

Other examplea are Jesus of Nazareth and also the Apostle Paul. Both were social

reformers as well as religious reformers and that is what led to perscution. And

I do not think there will be a need to remind that Gandhiji spent several years

in prison. In fact one of his best disciples Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru spent 18

years in prison.

 

/vantanam.

 

Visu