Report on Sri BG's visit to Houston

[Guest guest]

Report on Sri BG's Houston visit by Raghavendra Shenoy

et al.,

 

|| Sri Gurubhyo namaH hariH Om ||

VMS-Texas had the pleasure of hosting Vidyavachaspati

Bannanje Govindacharya at Houston from 24th October to

27th October. We were fortunate to have Sri Bannanje

with us on the occasion of Sri Madhwa Jayanthi.

 

Sri J V Acharya's hosted Sri Bannanje during his

visit. Sri Bannanje flew down to Houston on Wednesday,

25th Oct. and was gladly received by the VMS-TX

sAdhakas. After initial kshema vicharane and a brief

break for refreshments, Sri.Bannanje started taking

questions. The discussion started with a question

about the origin of tArAtamya in the upanishads. Sri

Bannanje clarified that many portions in the

upanishads that speak of tAratamya have been lost or

have been deliberately tampered with. However, there

are still some portions prevailing, as the one in

taittriya Aranyaka.

 

Later, we all set out for an evening walk.

During that time, we also raised the question that was

very hotly discussed a while ago in the Dvaita list

that Sri.MadhvAchArya did not convincingly refute the

mImAmsakas in his BrahmasUtra Bhashya. Sri.Bannanje

clarified that the mImAmsakas were more or less rooted

out during that time and there was no need for Sri.

MadhvAcharyA to go in detail to condemn the

mImAmsakas. He also explained about some intricate

details in PurandaradAsara dEvaranama " Kanninolage

nOdO Hariya, " that deals with yOga shAstra and briefly

explained some basic details about YOga shAstra.

 

As we came back, Smt and Sri Sunder visited to take

Sri.Bannanje's blessings and with more questions on

Swatantarya of the jivAs, buddhAvatAra and on the

bimba-prathibimba relationship advanced by

Sri.MadhvAchArya. Sri Bannanje answered each of the

questions in his own scholary and convincing way. At

this time, Sri.Ajaya and family joined us. The day

finished with a very sumptuous dinner prepared by Smt.

GirijA AchArya.

 

On the morning of 26th Oct, Sri Bannanje reminesced

about some of his old pravachanas on our request. He

answered more points on Madhva shAsthra. We all drove

to Sri Santosh's house who hosted Sri.Bannanje in the

afternoon. Sri.Santhosh's parents welcomed

Sri.Bannanje. We all were treated with an excellent

lunch. As usual, after lunch, the discussions started.

The questions ranged from seeking an explantation

about devara Avesha on individuals to why women are

not required to study vedas in their quest for mokshA.

Sri.Bannaje was very clear and convincing in his

replies. Citing evidence from the medical world, Sri

BG opined that serious practice of vedic mantras, OM

etc can weaken the uterus in women, hence the

restriction on women practicing OM, Gayatri mantra

etc. He opined that for woman it is important to

strengthen the uterus and pave way for healthy and

strong and progeny rather than strengthen the mind

with vedic mantras and weaken the uterus.

 

After this, we had a brief break . In the evening,

after tea and refreshments, we all moved to the

residence of Smt and Sri RAmarao. As it was Sri Madhwa

 

Jayanthi and Vijayadashami the following day, Sri

Bannanje delivered upanyasa on " Sri MadhwAchArya's

Vijaya. " After briefly touching upon the established

thought processes that had substantial following in

the Indian Philosophical scene at the time of advent

of Sri MadhvAchAryA, Sri.Bannanje started listing

out the unique constributions of Sri MadhwAcharya to

the Indian philosphical thought. The audience were

wonder-struck to learn the contributions of

Sri.MadhvAchArya not only to the field of philosophy

but also to physical, biological sciences (atoms

consist of innumeralbe sub-particles, sky has

invisible deep blue color - reference to ultraviolet

rays, plants have life/soul etc). He called for

removing the misconceptions about Indian philosophy

and Sri Madhva's philosophy in particular by

explaining the deep truths embeded within and bringing

out subtle scientific facts.

 

He also answered a wide variety of questions from the

audience and requested that in the future, efforts

should be directed to invite scholars to this country

to deliver lectures about shAshtra. At the end of

this, we all had dinner.

 

On Friday, 27th Oct, Vijayadashami and Madhwa Jayanti

were celebrated at the residence of Sri J V Acharya.

Sri.Sharat took Sri.Bannanje to NASA in the morning.

On his return, Sri.Bannanje performed mahAmangAlarthi

to the SarvamUla granthAs and had thIrtha prasad with

the assembled devotees. It was a thrilling experience

to observe Sri Madhwa Jayanti and Vijaya Dashami in

the presence of the Acharya.

 

After a brief rest, we all set out to Sri Meenakshi

temple in the evening where Sri.Bannanje delivered a

upanyasa on " Understanding Hinduism. " In this

upanyasa, he briefly explained the contribution of

Hinduism to the world and emphasised on the fact that

the parents should educate themself with basic

knowledge about Hinduism so that they can convincingly

inculcate the concepts to children of present

generation. At the end of the upanyAsa, he answered a

variety of questions from the assembly. Nearly 50

people turned up for the upanyAsa. Dinner was served

at the end of the upanyAsa to the devotees.

 

Throughout his stay, Sri.Bannanje repeatedly advised

all of us the need to present the contribution of

Srimad MadhvAchArya to the Indian Philosophy without

passing bad remarks about other schools of thought. He

warned that unless we preserve our mother-tongue

(Sanskrit, Kannada etc) and our spiritual knowledge, a

day might come when foreigners will have to impart the

knowledge of these back to us !

 

To summarize, Sri Acharya's short visit was a blessing

to all of us; it contributed to increasing the

understanding of our shAshtra manyfold; it also

strengthened our quest for increased sAdhane.

 

|| bhArathiramana mukyaprAnAntargata sri

krishnArpanamastu ||

 

 

 

 

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