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Prof.Abdul Kalam on rAmAnuja/AzhvArs/mElukOte

From the Bhakti List Archives

tavaradhan • June 17, 2002 


dear maNi,

this is not exactly the right material for the core
bhakti-list, and belongs more in the sv-general
category i feel.. Howerver, in the interest of
reaching a bigger audience, I am sending it to the
bhakti-list core list. Please use your judgement,
and if you feel it is appropriate, allow it
on bhakti-list.

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan


-------------
srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

dear bhAgavathAs,

As most of us in the forum know, Prof.APJ Abdul
Kalam is a truly unique inspirational leader and
a great son of India/the world. His insights and
his thoughts are truly amazing. His interests
range from missiles/nuclear devices to developing
artificial material for prosthetic devices to 
leadership and many other things.. He is a deep
reader of the Koran as well as the BhagavadgIta!.
The following is an excerpt from a speech given
by him. It truly attests not only to the greatness
of Prof. Kalam, but more importantly attests to
the universality of our dear rAmAnujA's teachings
and the wonderful sprit of the AzhvArs, and 
of course, the greatness of mElukOte.

this can be found on www.abdulkalam.com and 
in the section called "Speech".

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan

---

Our Life And Culture
 

The second incident was a happy and divine one. I have
a friend called Mr. Lakshmi Tathachar, who is the 
Director of Sanskrit Research centre, Melukote in 
Karnataka. he is an expert in Tamil and Sanskrit. i 
have an interest in the Panini grammer, based on that,

some research is being done at the Sanskrit Researxh 
Centre. He invited me to Melukote, where 'Acharya 
Ramanujar' walked a thousand years ago. I got an 
opportunity to go to Melukote on 26th July

I felt strange sensation of happiness filling in me 
as soon as I reached Melukote. As I remembered that 
this was the same place where Ramanujar walked and the

showed the spiritual path to the world. While walking,

I felt a divine satisfaction filling in me. I saw 
Tathachar's research centre, his beautiful garden and 
the famous Sri Narayanar temple in Melukote. I found 
there is a link between history and the spirituality 
as that temple, a historical place, tells the story 
that happened a millenium ago. 

After seeing the temple, Tathachar took me to his 
enchanting garden.  I can not forget the scenic beauty

and the happiness on seeing it. I saw greenery 
wherever I turned, with a loss of flowers , trees, 
herbal plants, vegetables and fruits. There were 
amazing varieties of flowers with so different 
colours. The combined nice smell of flowers, the honey

bees circling the flowers, bewitching butterflies, 
singing birds, dancing peacocks, merrily jumping deers

and a pond full of anxious fishes poped up on top of 
water level to see Tathachar and his guests! All these

scenic beauty gave me great happiness. What a 
wonderful scene! Amidst such wonderful scene, saints 
from the Sanskrit research Centre were chanting 
mantras on 'Purusha Shuktham'. I wondered whether 'was

this called a divine paradise' ? There was an obvious 
divine satisfaction at that place where the  Almighty 
and Nature mingle with each other. I saw the 
vegetables, fruits and flowers were all the result of 
hard labour and sweat. All plants were grown using 
natural manure and I soon realised that the hard work 
and the sweat only bloomed as beautiful flowers and 
spread the scent everywhere. When the spirituality is 
mingled with hard work, there we can certainly see 
such a paradise on esrth.

Later I was taken to his library. I spent an hour 
seeing the old manuscripts on a palm leaves, carefully

preserved for over thousand years. I had an 
opportunity to see the rare collections of books both 
old and new in the same library. I was amazed 
to see Tathachar using his laptop computer, sitting on

rock in a typical 'Kurukal' atmosphere explaining the 
results of the research on the computer. This is an 
indication to our generation to preserve our culture  
and tradition and at the same time to be modern in 
thoughts and attitude. Our Indian culture is keep on 
growing and refining. While the essence of our culture

and tradition is retained, the way of life of modern 
and future times are adopted. Even after reaching 
Delhi, the imprints of Melukote did not leave from my 
heart. 

The divine light of Melukote

Ramanujar preached a philosophy for the whole mankind.

He said everyone should live amicably and not to find 
any difference with each other. I heard the philosophy

reverberating in my ears while at Melukote. I also 
heard through the saints of Melukote, the incident 
that happened in Ramanujar's life. Ramanujar was 
initiated by his Guru with the mantra which would take

him to attain the 'Moksha', but he wanted every one to

attain 'Moksha' and unrevealed the same to everyone.

The wonderful scenes I saw at Melukote was also 
depicted as a song in 'Andal 's Thirppavai' . Andal 
was the only woman among the Alwars, lived much before

Ramanujar 

"Let us all sing in praise of the lord who 
                            measured this world
  With love and affection we bathed the lord 
                                   in pure water
   Blessed to have rain thrice every month, our 
                                   sins washed out
     Well grown paddy bore the finest  grain
   Fishes jump out, while honey bee sleept on 
                                lotus flower      
   Let us all be prosperous and praise the lord.  


As depicted about the divine power in the song, I also

realised in the temple of Sri Narayanar temple at 
Melukote , an echo of Ramanujar calling the deity 'my 
little daughter come' , then the deity started walking

towards Ramanujar! 
 
Alwar means one who is immersed in the experience of 
god. They have demonstrated the fact to the world, 
whoever immerses in deep thoughts to attain the 
highest goal, will certainly attain it. There were 12 
Alwars, came from all walks of life and all strata of 
society. They have also shown the way if we are not 
finding any difference with each other and have a big 
common goal, weall can certainly raise and realise the

same. Alwars lived as role-models thousand yeasrs ago,

we all should united and have one big aim to see the 
prosperous developed India. There are villages and 
small townships like Melukote everywhere in India. 
There is happy and prosperous life to make the people 
attain as what could be called as a good, satisfying 
life. India is still a Developing Country even after 
50 years. We all should bring forth the spirituality 
lying inside each one of us, with that we work hard 
with a vision for 20 years to make bloom India as a 
Developed Country.            
-------------------

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