Easy-to-read books about Madhva?

[Guest guest]

Bhaktas:

 

Recently, I visited a Maadhva family near Washington DC. A conversation on

philosophical issues soon started, and I was shocked to discover that my host

did not know any details of the life of Acharya Madhva. On the contrary, he

quizzed my son about various details of Sankara's life. I immediately

intervened to say that the starting point in our quest should be our own

faith. To which his defense was that there is no easily available Maadhva

material in English! I probed further to see how he had come to know about

Sankara. The source turned out to be the local Chinmaya mission. He also

added, " Since there is no Maadhva activity here, it is better to learn

something about Indian culture than to live in a vacuum " .

 

The point of writing about my visit is this: while a number of Maadhvas are

studying the scriptures, in Kannada and wherever possible, in Sanskrit too, a

large section of our tradition is blissfully unaware of the fundamental

tenets of Dvaita. If any of you are aware of easy-to-read books about

Acharya MAdhva or his philosophy, please let me know. In particular, if

there are Amar Chitra Katha type of books, I would like to purchase a large

number of copies for distribution.

 

We need to act urgently. Otherwise, our tradition will disappear.

 

Regards,

Arvind Acharya

[Guest guest]

AsifJah wrote:

 

> AsifJah

>

> Bhaktas:

>

> Recently, I visited a Maadhva family near Washington DC. A conversation on

> philosophical issues soon started, and I was shocked to discover that my host

> did not know any details of the life of Acharya Madhva. On the contrary, he

> quizzed my son about various details of Sankara's life. I immediately

> intervened to say that the starting point in our quest should be our own

> faith. To which his defense was that there is no easily available Maadhva

> material in English! I probed further to see how he had come to know about

> Sankara. The source turned out to be the local Chinmaya mission. He also

> added, " Since there is no Maadhva activity here, it is better to learn

> something about Indian culture than to live in a vacuum " .

 

Aravind,

Thanks for your comments. Lack of availability of such information in

English

is a valid comment, but it should not be an excuse. There are lot of useful

information

in the Dvaita web page, Dvaita FAQ and Dvaita list archives. One may have to

do some investigation

and spend some time to get information. As people say, where there is a

will,

 

there is a way. I agree that, we as a community, should address the issue of

easily accessible information about mAdhva religion, philosophy, biographies

of

saints for lay people. See below for my suggestions.

BTW, I don't where the person lives, but there is a very active madhva

community

in Washington DC. Please ask him to get in touch me or several others in

this

area.

 

>

>

> The point of writing about my visit is this: while a number of Maadhvas are

> studying the scriptures, in Kannada and wherever possible, in Sanskrit too, a

> large section of our tradition is blissfully unaware of the fundamental

> tenets of Dvaita. If any of you are aware of easy-to-read books about

> Acharya MAdhva or his philosophy, please let me know. In particular, if

> there are Amar Chitra Katha type of books, I would like to purchase a large

> number of copies for distribution.

>

> We need to act urgently. Otherwise, our tradition will disappear.

>

> Regards,

> Arvind Acharya

 

 

I agree that there is great need for easy to understand books that explain

the

basic principles of madhva philosophy

and religion, lives of its saints etc. We need to emulate the ISKCON's

excellence

in publishing.

 

Unfortunately there are no easy answers. There is a small book by K.T.

Pandurangi that gives the overview of Dvaita Philosophy, but that may be little

bit beyond the reach of a lay person. The book by Sri Padmanabhacharya on sri

madhvacharya is quite good, but I am not sure about the details of obtaining the

book.

 

We may need to help our selves and solve the problem. We need to formulate

a group of volunteers here and in India to publish small booklets. So, instead

of just bemoaning the lack of such

books, I suggest that we take the first small steps towards the solution. In

the age of Internet publishing, we don't have to worry about the lack of support

for printing, distribution etc. Internet has solved that problem very neatly.

 

Let me make a proposal and others can give comments. I suggest that we do

two

booklets to start with. They don't have to huge. To start with, they can be

small

and around 5-10 pages. Then we can incrementally add more details later on.

The booklets I suggest are:

1. Introduction to Dvaita Philosophy and religion.

2. Life and works of sri madhvacharya.

 

We need a group of 3-4 volunteers who can work together to produce these

booklets in about 2-3 months time. There is no shortage of qualified people

here

and on Dvaita list to review and make sure that the information is correct. This

does not solve the problem, but goes some way towards to addressing such needs.

Please E-mail to me (not to the list) if you are interested in helping out.

Perhaps we can discuss this in more detail at the VMS conference that is coming

up at the end of this month.

 

Regards,

Vasu

 

--

=================================

Vasu Murthy

Bell Atlantic Global Networks

web page: members.xoom.com/vmurthy

vmurthy

W:703-247-7314 Fax:703-247-7359

==================================