Search:
Bhakti List Archives

My dream is coming true: regarding gita: thanks to SMS Chari

From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishna Kashyap • March 28, 2002 


25 years back,when my grandfather was teaching Bhagawadgita as per Sri
Ramanujacharya, Shankaracharya and Madhvacharya, he had imparted to me very
deep thoughts regarding the greatness and appropriateness of our sampradaya.
At that time I had a dream that I should write a commentary based on such
rich insights to let the world know the greatness 0f Bhagavadgita and our
sampradaya. Soon I realized that I was incapable of doing that.

However, just few days back, SMS Chari came to San Diego and showed me the
draft of his new book:

The Philosophy Of The Bhagavad-gita

A Study Based on the Evaluation of

Comments of Samkara, Ramanuja and Madhva

This is turning out to be an amazing work. Most of the books on Gita are
usually expositions of a single school of thought or an independent work of
the author. There is no book that deals with all the major schools and
compares them.

The book is written with such great effort and expertise that it will be
surely a masterpiece. The book is not finished yet. Draft of 18 chapters are
over. He has to write a synopsis of assessment of the entire gita
literature. He is doing that right now.

The content of this book is very unique. For example in the 12th chapter you
can find the question of arjuna: evam satata yukta ye bhaktastvam
paryupasate echapyaksharam avayaktam tesham ke yogavittamah" - here the
question is about who is better - the person who meditates on sri Krishna or
Akshara?  what is this akshara? - it is nirguna bramhan as per
Shankaracharya and Prabhupada, it is Lakshmi as per Madhvacharya. It is
jeevan as per Ramanujacharya. why this difference of opinion?. who knows
12th chapter or gita correctly? How come Prabhupada, who is supposed to
follow Madhvacharya uses a sort of non-madhva bent here? how does
Ramanujacharya derive the jeeva meaning here? how can that position be
supported?. I am sure these issues will not matter to a person who is not
deeply interested or I should say is "troubled" if he does not know the
answers. No wonder hardly anyone speaks to SMS chari to find out more. I am
sure getting caught up in karma is a major distraction for even the true
seekers .

An interesting incident happened. SMS chari said that he found a great truth
after a lot of effort - ie. clear proof that jnanayoga is a necessary
prerequisite for bhaktiyoga, after a lot of research. I pointed out  that
information in a small foot note by Uttamur viraraghavachar. SMS was
surprised and said that, if I had that Uttamoor viraraghavchar's edition
handy, I could have saved some 10 or 12 sleepless nights!. Such is the
greatness of Uttamoor viraraghavachar. Such a great work from Uttamoor
viraraghavachar is OUT OF PRINT!. The modern trend is "forget the difficult
shastras, who wants them. Just go to temples and enjoy the bliss of pujas.
This is a sorry state of affairs of visistadvaita. We should go to the
temples but not throw away shastras. In the next few generations it probably
will be even worse. The focus on the prasthana trayas is becoming soon
extinct.

SMS Chari has given me the draft of his book for further review. It is my
pleasure that such a responsibility has landed on such an undeserving person
like me.

I know that I never will be able to write such a book. However, the by this
great turn of events, I will never need to write such a book, since SMS
chari has done it in an inimitable way. he has done kalakshepam under
puttamkotai swamy, who was an expert on gita, madurantakam swamy etc.

If you need to reach SMS chari you can call him at 818-348-8182 from
tommorrow onwards. He is now traveling to Los Angeles from San Diego. I had
a chance to sit down with him and review chapters 2,6 and 12.

Krishna Kashyap




--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/