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swamy swarna • February 17, 2002 


Dear Bhagawat Bandhus,

Shri Gururaj Rao is right when he says that each
should uphold his own dharma but be tolerant to others
and try to see what is common to all instead of trying
to see the differences. Differences in perception
shall be a matter of interest and should reinforce our
faith in the variety of His Leelas.

Next, when we criticise (or shall I say when we are
trying to submit a differenct perception), we can do
it in two ways. We can be very forthright or we can
slightly sweeten the pill. Sometime ago, I came across
a Sanskrit Sloka: "Satyam Brooyat, Priyam Brooyat, Na
Brooyat Satyamapriyam". I hope I am able to convey the
phonetic pronounciation correctly. It means, "Speak
truth, speak sweetly, don't speak truth which is not
dear." And when we follow the later approach, we find
that our views are well received and the others try to
understand us better.

I am also a 'guest' in the sense used by Sri Gururaj
Rao. I have been brought up in the Smartha tradition,
and am influenced by Sri Adi Sankara. But when I
recently read the biography of Sri Ramanuja, I
developed a lot of liking for His teachings and His
humility and Love to all. And yesterday, I had the
good fortune of reading a small biography of Sri
Madhwa, so now I am really blessed. 

The marga of Bhakti is open to one and all,
irrespective of their mental conditioning. At the same
time, knowing more about the great Acharyas of one's
own tradition is very important and this forum is
doing a great job.

And by the way, while most of you did visualise me as
a male, Sri Malolan thought of me as a lady. No
offence, but I am a man. I am from Haritasa Gotra,
Andhra, Brahmin, engineer by profession, 53 years now
and working in a Govt. of India Organisation in India.
My full name is Swarna.Venkateswara Swamy. Swarna of
course means gold, but in this case is my surname, and
happens to be the name of a vilalge from which our
ancestors hailed. I have not seen that village!)

This forum is indeed useful and I am getting a lot of
benefit.

May Sri Hari shower His grace on all. Hari Om.

Swamy
(I use this as a short form of my name and not in any
spiritual sense. I know that Swamy means a Master. I
am a Sadhaka with a long way to go.)

--- gururaj rao  wrote:
> Dear Sri Malolan Cadambi, Sri Lakshmi kumar
> and Sri Mohan TL
> 
> I have read with lot of interest your
> recent writings in the Bhakthi list.
> I may not agree entirely with your
> views, nor I intend imposing my
> views on you.But I have the following
> candid observations:
> 1) I definitely agree that this is a
> forum wherein you would like to predominantly
> discuss Sri Vaishnavism ( Vishistadvaita).
> We are like guests at your forum, and please bear
> with us, if we have little bit of a divergent
> view. Tolerance is a great Virtue.
> Very important, we are also learning a lot from
> this forum.
> 2) Basically followers of every Acharya
> feels his is the best and is the true interpretation
> of Vedas. We, with our limited faculties, there
> is know way we can say, who is correct
> and who is wrong.
> 3) Born in an extremely orthodox Madhwa
> Brahmin family, I was taught that MadhwaÂ’s
> teachings are the best, and only Madhwas
> can attain Mukthi. When I was a young boy
> I was totally confused and did not agree
> with this concept of ours. I used to think
> how can this be, everybody feels his
> is the best. 
> I will give you another example, Protestants feel
> Catholics are no good . And Protestants feel they
> truly represent Christainity. Who represents true
> Christainity nobody knows.
> 4) This is where I agree with Sri Mohan
> wherein he says Anubhavam is more
> important.You please tell me
> which of the three Acharays the
> following Bhakthas followed,
> You have Sri Tulasidas in the north,
> You have Jalaram Bapa in Gujarath,
> You have Sant Tukaram in Maharastra,
> You have Saint Thyagraja in the South.
> You mean to say they were not 
> Bhagawath Bhaktas. Not to forget
> Sri Shirdi Saibaba, or Guru Nanak.
> You mean to say whatever they preached
> was wrong and they had no following.
> 
> Please donot mistake this message
> of mine. 
> 
> TO CONCLUDE : I FEEL WE  SHOULD FOLLOW
> THE FAITH IN WHICH WE ARE BORN, AND LEARN
> TO RESPECT OTHER FAITHS ALSO.
> 
> Not to forget Sri VishnuÂ’s LilAs are Achinthya
> and Adbhuta. He is capable of lifting anybody
> with his Devine Grace. Nobody can have a Monopoly
> over Lord Vishnu. 
> You see Ravana was a great Pundit a great
> Scholar, with all this he did a wrong thing,
> by abducting Mata Sita. I am not going into
> merits of this, he (Ravana) was born under
> curse and is a Vishnu Bhaktha and all that,
> all this every body knows. But what I want
> to say is with all his Panditya, he has the 
> wrong Anubhawams, and he did wrong things.
> 
> Anubhawams are preordained, we get the
> Right Anubhawams only with the devine
> Grace of Lord Sri Hari.
> With regards
> Sri KrishnArpana Masthu
> NS Gururaj
> 
> 
> 
> __________________________________________________
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> 
>
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           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
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