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From the Bhakti List Archives

usdeiva • October 3, 1997 


Dear friends of 'bhakti list',


This is a farewell note.

My wife and I are booked to leave on Oct 7 (Tuesday)on our return
journey to Srirangam.

I'm taking leave of you merely since I have no inter-net access back
home.  I have enjoyed being with you all in this conversation over the
theme dear to our heart, namely the 'SrIvaishNava' religion. Most men
seem to like their own persuasion, not because they have been
'persuaded' in any sense of the term, but merely because they were born
into it; they could not be faulted for it though.   All the same, the
'SrIvaishNava' community owes to itself to develop some specific skills 
in order to preserve whatever is valuable in its inheritance, not to
lodge the values in good museum space but imbibe them, so to say, in the
bloodstream. Religion flourishes when intellectual curiosity 
[the 'why' of things  ~ jijnAsA] and emotional insights constantly
inform each other.   The 'SrIvaishNava' has therefore a primary duty to
docket basic facts, duly corroborated, and also cultivate a good
dilettante reading as preparation for approaching the philosophical
core.  We stay with the English language not on account of any natural
proficiency in it but simply that the internet system is not sensitive
to any other language script.   All the more is the need to use this
Anglo-Saxon medium with care and sensitiveness when discussing things
vEdic. 

The 'divya-dESam' temples of yore, hymned by AzhvAr, are the best
definitions there be of human civilization.   Every SrIvaishNava should
constantly think out how best to protect them from creeping
encroachments that have been obtaining for the last four decades.

I thank Messrs Vidyasankar Sundaresan, Shree and Srikanth for their
comprehensive advice on my problem of reaching for a proper 'dEvanAgari'
font.  Many others like Messrs oppiliappan sannidhi Sadagopan, Mohan
Sagar, K Srinivasan of Quebec, Krishna Kalale, Mani Varadarajan, Vijay 
Triplicane, and Prof Vasudha Narayanan, have been kind enough to send me
personal messages, each of them enriching the internet conversation.

I send my best wishes for purposeful and information-based interaction
in the ensuing SrIvaishNava conference in Denver billed for Dec 25.
 
I wish every one of you fulfilment in your lives.

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan, 
T.S. Sundara Rajan