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Re: Sri Kottamangalam Varadacharya

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan • March 7, 2000 


Dear Bhaghavata UttamAs:

Very thought-provoking observations by s/shri Krishna Kalale, Sampath and 
Madhavkkannan.  It is extremely relevant that we discuss and think on those 
topics.

There are several instances where efforts to preserve the knowledge and 
wisdom of our present day Sampradayic giants are well underway.  One such 
project is the popularization of Swami Vedanta Desika's works.  Eminent 
scholars are invited on Sravanams and their upanyasam is recorded and 
distributed.  So far about 20 to 25 different topics have been covered.  
This work is being organized by Shri Anantha Narasimhachar Swamigal under 
the stewardship of PoundarIkapuram Swamigal. The project is looking for more 
support and if you are interested please e-mail me.  Thanks.

dAsan

Vijayaraghavan
Buffalo, NY

>From: Krishna Kalale 
>Reply-To: "kkalale1@san.rr.com" 
>To: "bhakti-list@egroups.com" 
>Subject: Sri Kottamangalam Varadacharya
>Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 20:18:46 -0800
>
>I thank Sri Sadagopan for the description of his experiences on such a
>momentous trip involving his "prapatti".  I just wanted to mention Sri U Ve
>Kottamangalam Varadacharya is held in great esteem by even reknowned
>pundits such as SMS Chari (author of several books on Vedanta in English).
>  Adiyen had the good fortune of meeting Kottamangalam Varadacharya few
>times since he used to visit his daughter in Bangalore who was our neighbor
>for a few years.
>
>At this juncture, I would like to request all of you and particularly Sri
>Sadagopan, who is so capable, to start a new project to somehow collect and
>protect the writings of great pundits who are back there.
>
>  I bought several great works from parakala mutt in mysore long time back.
>  They are of course products of the students of the great Abhinava 
>parakala
>mutt jeer who wrote gudartha dipika. THose books are almost lost since they
>are out of print.  They have to be re-printed.  About 20 or 30 books of Sri
>Uttamoor viraraghavacharya have to be re printed.  I was going through VKNS
>Raghavan's visistadvaita literature bibliography.  Most of these works are
>not in print.
>
>I personally feel that the single most significant failure of our community
>to date is :  "that we have some how not doing enough to protect the
>knowledge offered by our acharyas and obviously our own children will lose
>all that knowledge".  Personally,  I agree that temples have to built.
>  Archamurthis have to be honoured and decorated with ornaments to express
>our love and devotion.  Archa form is obviously the nearest form of that
>divine lord which is accessible to us right here on earth.   However, the
>most important duty for all of us is protection of vedas, mantras,
>shastras, bhasyas, vyakhyanams and translating them to a language and
>medium ( books in different languages, cassettes,  CDs, video cassettes
>etc.).  With so much technology available I dont want to even think of the
>idea that 3 generations after us,  one young person might say aloud " my
>ancestors screwed up reall bad!  they were so stupid that with all the
>technology available to them they did not protect and preserve the eternal
>knowledge offered to them by acharyas".
>
>I want to see the age wherein "distance learning classes" are offered to
>anyone even on a part time basis so that people can just dial in on the
>internet or on some medium and listen to our shastras.  We should educate
>our next generation in a suitable way with appropriate depth and language
>so that they dont think that is boring.  There are several thousand people
>who are not even near temples.  Those people should also have the benefit
>of learning about our rich tradition by getting pundits to visit and teach
>these shastras.  There should be no book in our system of philosophy which
>is out of print!
>
>It is so clear that every 30 years a new generation is born and the old
>generation departs from this earth.  The thoughts are in human brains and
>they have to be transmitted before such brains become dust or ashes.  Most
>of these brains are in India and some master plan has to be undertaken to
>record such divine thoughts of these luminaries.  While I am writing this,
>  I feel devastated by that thought that as time passes we may never 
>recover
>such divine thoughts of our older pundits.
>
>We should build temples.  in fact these temples are the places where people
>come for solace and knowledge.  Where does the knowledge comes from?  it
>has to be imparted from another human being unless someone is so lucky as
>to get an instruction straight from an archa murthy!
>
>As these thoughts rush to my mind, statements from shastras " na hi jnanena
>sadrisham pavitram iha vidyate"  ..( there is nothing more sacred than
>knowledge here in this world" ( bhagavadgita)...  shreyo hi dravya mayat
>yajnat jnana yajnah parantapa... ( greater is the merit of offering of
>knowledge than the offering of material things".  " marva menba dor koil
>amaitthu.. madhavan ennum daivatthai naatti  arvam enbador poovida
>vallaarkkarava dandattil uyyalumaame - Perialwar pasuram" ( in the temple
>namely our heart  establish that God namely Madhavan and offer the flowers
>of devotion.   Shraddha nadi vimala chitta jalabhisekhaih nityam samadhi
>kusumaih apunarbhavaya - ( The water is our pure mind.  Shraddha or
>devotion is the river.  Take that water, namely pure mind and offer it to
>God everyday in addition to the flowers which is samadhi (or deep continous
>unmixed meditation on God).
>
>All these indicate that devotion and knowledge is real stuff needed. How
>can the next generation or anyone of us here get devotion or knowledge?
>   There is only one way.  Learn under an Acharya and attain knowledge from
>books written by them. Tranmission of knowledge is the key for survival of
>our system of thought.  Such a transmission can only be done by instruction
>of appropriate information.  How many temples are there?  There are some
>temples.  How many Visistadvaita Universities or Centers of Study are
>there?  just a few.  There should be an center of Visistadvaita study in
>every city so that next generation benefitted.  Once bhakti cannot be
>imparted to the next generation what is the use of temples?  If a person
>does not have bhakti he cannot help considering temples as only material
>buildings and things made of metals, concrete and stones rather than our
>  Great Divine God who is the fountainhead of all life in this universe.
>
>Hence dear atmabandhus,  please let us undertake a large project to reprint
>all the great books and let us invite great thinkers and pundits to come
>and help us.  "A no bhadraha krathavo yantu vishvataha - let noble thoughts
>come to us from all directions".
>
>I request all of you not to mistake me for my request.  I am not condemning
>or criticizing anyone here.  I feel that our generation should avoid some
>great mistakes. It hurts me when I think about the disaster that can befall
>on all of us and future generations. One might think after reading this
>email :  " this guy (adiyen) is thinking too much of himself and trying to
>advise all the rest.  There are much more intelligent and educated people
>than this guy who is trying to point out mistakes in others.  In fact he is
>the guy caught in the quagmire of material pursuits and it is funny that he
>is giving advice to others like a devil quoting from the scriptures!".
>
>  All I can say is that we have to work together.
>
>adiyen Krishna Kalale
>
>
>vadigale saranam -
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