From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 12, 1996


I thank Sri P.Dileepan for clarifying his position. As I had mentioned in my
posts, I had myself argued on the basis of these sources as a beginer. ie I was
reading Swami SithBavaanandhaa's geetha commentary , Gayathri manthram
commentary in Tamil, and the commentary on "udhdhava geetha" namely the last
message of Sri Krishna, (known to be the literal narration of Geetha by Sri
Krishna HIMself to uddhavaa. Actually this comes in the 11th canto of Srimath
Baagawatham and is more narrative in nature especially such that Lord Krishna
reveals more of attributes than what was told in Sri bagwath Geetha). I liked
Swami sithbavaanandaa's book on geetha as it was simple and with many quotes
from various faiths and it was by itself neutral and I cannot charecterise it
advaitin. (My wife used to read it and sometimes quoted to me from that!. She
is now reading selective postings from this group. But while posting in this
group as a forum and we collectively as srivaishnava bakthaas must stay on path
and seek to find our core thathtuvams as told by our poorvaachaaryaaLS only. It
is my sincere opinion that if we do neglect them (works of poorvaachaaryaaLS)
sooner or later we may not find many of them. As we have done electronic
version of 4000, desika prabandam, desikan sthOthrams, we must also try to
bring them to the electronic version by writing about them either with the
literal meanings or with some analysis. Dr.SadagOpan is doing a great service
towards this goal).

	However,I have my own personal collection of very few of RK mutt books
that I
acquired in early stages such as this, I was also very interested in Srila
prabupaadaa's "Bagwath Geetha as it is". By, the very look at Geethaartha
sangiraham by Sri Aalawandar, I was attarcted to it and I did carry out some
analyses and attempted for "simplification" based on Sri SadagOpan's excellent
translations and discussions of GS. However, since I was afraid if it may
deviate the course of our discussion and hence never posted them. On seeing Sri
geetha baashyam by Sri Raamaanuja, I oriented myself to it as I stronlgy felt
that he was the only one who was awarded the title of "sri bahsyakaarar". And
he is the only (adi)sEshan (who was never separated from HIM) and that who will
know the "inner details" of both sEshththuvam (the ultimate state of
non-separation from paraththuvam as mentioned in SRivishishtaaddvaitham) and
also the "path" to attain such state. (saranaagathi as told by Sri Bagawth
geetha).I am myself attempting to read it now and it will take a long time for
me to comprehensively understand it. I wish Sri Krishna KalalE posts his
expeirence as he is being guided by a learned scholar on this. But it is my
opinion that learned scholars like Sri Krishna KalalE and Sri Muralidhar
Rangaswamy and Sri Jagannath will "actively particpate" only in forums which
donot belittle our achaaryaaLS.

	Please note that my comments are meant for books on our core
thaththuvams and life of our poorvaachaaryaaLS only, and RK mutt has their own
speciality on many other areas which Iam not commenting but simply praising
them for their service. However, when RK mutt books are referred in this forum
on matters of our core thaththuvams and life history of poorvaachaaryaaLS, one
may want to be careful not to be negligent of the complete details of it and
not to err on the mandate of our achaaryaaLS. It is my opinion that 3000 or
6000 or  padi gurupaarampariyam and other such  guidelines delivered by our
poorvaachaaryaaLS themselves cannot be substituted by other books. When one can
read from any of their choice, please attempt to read and post from our
poorvaachaaryaaLS books for providing a comprehensive understanding of our
thaththuvams to the majority of users of this forum who gains some basic
 knowledge from here.

Regards
Sampath Rengarajan