New member introduction

From the Bhakti List Archives

• February 9, 1996


Dear friends,

I am S.A. Shivashankar, a member of the Faculty of the Materials Research 
Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

I was brought up (nominally) as a Shaivaite, but very much under the pall 
of the great Purandara Daasa, whom my father admired greatly. In 
college, I learnt Sanskrit from Prof. Varada Desikachar, whom some of you 
might now know as Swami Rangapriya. He, as a scholar of all three schools 
of Indian philosophy, instilled in us a reverence for our scriptures 
(through interactions outside the classroom !).

I was a colleague of Dr. V. Sadagopan, the regular contributor to this 
network, at the IBM Research Centre in NY from 1980-90. He would often 
read some of his essays to me by translating them to English (from 
Tamil). He has been kind enough to share many of his essays with me over 
the years. I have thus learnt a little bit about Sri Vaishnava philosophy.

I am afraid I can not contribute much to this erudite group. It is evident 
from 
the postings I have already received that I would be learning much from it.

Thank you very much.................///Shivashankar