Uttamoor Swamy's books : Reprinting is IMPORTANT

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Dear friends, PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT REQUEST and HELP.

 

Protection and transmission of shastraic knowledge is very important. When

we get into a dilemma of " to do or not to do " shastraic knowledge is what

comes to use in every walk of our lives, as stated in " tasmat shastram

pramanam te karyakarya vyavastithau " - Bhagawat Gita. Each of us have to

be exposed to knowledge of shastras, vedas, upanisads, Gita, puranas,

itihasas, stotras, naalayiram and other prabandhams. Our next generation

should be introduced to " spiritual knowledge " . This is possible if we

protect all the great books written by our great acharyas and gurus. To

reprint all the out of print books and translate them to popular languages

cost much less than other expensive kainkaryams which are predominantly in

the form of material contributions. Currently, in general, funds allocated

for reprinting books and writing new ones is probably just 1 or 2% of the

total funds utilized for real estate / temple renovation / ornaments to

archamurthis (which is also important). However, we definitely have to

change this wide gap and imbalance in the funding for religious purposes.

This is the reason for visistadvaitic pundits are becoming slowly extinct.

How can we protect our system of thought? Most of our traditional

philosophical books are vanishing quickly. How can we sit quietly and not

do anything about it? If we do not work on this project no amount of Gold

or Silver or Ornaments is going to bring them back once these living

pundits are gone and the books are completely destroyed without originals.

I am sure if Lord srimannarayana wants, he can bless us with anything he

wills, like how he allowed sri Nathamuni to bring back naalayiram from

extinction. However, adiyen feels that we have to make a conscious effort

to protect books and work on the transmission of their rich contents

worldwide.

 

When people are suffering in this world in different places, on a day to

day basis what brings peace of mind is clearly " right knowledge " . This

" right knowledge " is obtained through the instructions of our preceptors

and books pertaining to them. It is our fundamental duty to support our

acharyas and books.

 

Sri Vaishnava Seva Samithi (SVSS) was established in 1998 to nurture the

important and urgent kainkaryams like Books Publication, Vedic Studies,

and also Divya Desams maintenance. We have made slow progress in this

regard.

However, the SVSS volunteers are concerned about the slow obsolescence

of scholars, and the lack of support for books publication.

 

In this regard, we are honored and excited to inform you all that we

will be focusing on two major projects.

 

1. Support for Sri Parakala Mutt (details on the plan will follow)

 

2. Publication of Sri Uttamar Swami's Books

 

SrI Anand Karalapakkam representing " Sri Uttamur Viraraghavachariar

Centenary Trust " has given us the details about the Printer's quotation

regarding the cost of publication of certain books.

 

The vidvAns in India are extremly happy about the re-printing work. Some

are frustrated that our ViSishtAdvaita classics (esp. with the

outstanding insightful commentry of UtttamUr SwAmi) are not in

circulation. For instance, during the recent Sri MadhurAntakam SwAmi

Centenary celebration at SrIrangam, one of the leading vidvAns of our

sampradAyam named SrI U.Ve. KAniambAkkam DEvanAthAchArya, a chatur

sAstra pandita, working at the Kendriya VidyApeet at tirupathi as a

professor in VEdAnta has passed on his concerns to SrI Anand

Karalapakkam. This scholar was very upset about the status of our

granthams. He stated that, Satadushani of Sri Vedanta Desika, which clearly

establishes the rational superiority of Visistadvaita over Advaita is out

of print currently. . However, he added, a recent advaitic work of Anantha

Krishna Shastry, SatabhUshani, which is supposed to be an answer to

Shatadushani or Sri Vedanta Desika is in wide circulation and about 5000

copies were distributed to every nook and corner of the philosophical

world.

 

In contrast, the invaluable jewel

" ParamArtha BhUshanam " , which is a befitting reply to Satabhusani, written

by UttamUr SwAmi is not even in many libraries

and doesn't have much publicity also. We are letting our generation and the

next generation be influenced by " anti visistadvaitic " literature and hence

facilitating them to embrace Advaita and other viewpoints just because of

lack of availability of visistadvaitic books.

 

The same is the case with many of

UttamUr SwAmi's works. He, (SrI U.Ve. KAniambAkkam DEvanAthAchArya) very

much wanted to bring out the books of

UttamUr SwAmi to make the whole philosophical world know about the

unparalleled soundness of ViSishtAdvaita.

 

In the Gita Lecture sessions, we have studied most of Sri Uttamoor

Viraraghavacharya's comparitive analysis of Advaita, Dvaita and

Visistadvaita Bhasyas. Uttamoor Viraraghavacharya's shastraic knowledge is

unquestionable and indeed so useful for all of us to really understand the

beauty of Visistadvaitic interpretation. No wonder that he was given a

title - Abhinava Desika - He has clearly established the appropriateness of

Visistadvaitic commentaries as opposed to other systems. I hope we will

not be standing still at a time when such wonderful books are no longer

available and even the few copies available are getting destroyed due to

the neglect and ageing. Eventhough some of these works are completely in

sanskrit, which many people may not understand well, it is important for us

to save these books and get some scholars to translate them to different

popular languages.

 

The following are the books of immediate interest to be re-printed:

 

1. SrImad Bhagavad GIta, with Bhagavad RAmAnuja's commentary.

GItA BhAshya and SwAmi dESIkan's gloss " GItA TAtparya Chandrikai " ,

alongwith Uttammoor swamy.'s tippani and bhUmikai.

 

Around 680 pages totally; Costs around $3000.00 for 1000 copies.

 

2. ParamArtha BhUshanam, as refutation to SatabhUshani of

MahAMahApodyAya Ananthakrishna SAstri.

 

Around 1110 pages (length and breadth as that of magazines like

Nrusimha Priya etc); Costs around $2750.00 for 1000 copies.

 

3. TattvamuktA KalApA, along with SarvArthasiddhi of SwAmi dESIkan and

U.S.'s gloss.

 

Around 850 pages; costs around $3250.00 for 1000 copies.

 

This is the first phase for this kainkaryam. There are two to three

other books on upanishads (with the commentaries and gloss of various

Upanishads printed in one book) costing around $2700 each to complete

the Upanishads section. Then comes other granthams like ParamArtha

PrakASika (a vAda grantham like ParamArtha BhUshanam <PB> against

Advaita, written prior to PB, in refutation to AdvaitaModa),

SatadhUSaNi, Tattvateeka of SwAmi DESikan, NyAya SiddhAnjanam etc.

 

We request all Srivaishnavas to come forward and contribute liberally

to the individual's capability towards this great kainkaryam. We also

request you to kindly come forward even individually for sponsoring the

publication cost of the whole book(s), if one is capable of doing so. We

need volunteers who can individually take care of each of these book

publication responsibilities by contributing or raising contributions from

close friends and relatives.

 

" Na hi jnanena Sadrisham Pavitram Iha Vidyate " - There is nothing more

sacred than knowledge - according to Bhagawadgita. Hence this is priority.

 

Contributions should be sent by check payable to SMSA Inc (non profit tax

deductible organization) and be mailed to

 

Nagu Satyan

Sree Vaishnava Seva Samithi

7821 West Alder Drive

Littleton

CO 80128-5522

 

adiyen Krishna Kalale, Nagu Satyan, Anand Karalapakkam