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Dallas Dikshitar Information

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Tatachar • October 18, 1997 


Thanks Sri Krishna Kalale's for info on the availability of Krishna Premi
tapes.

Here is some info on Sri Yagna Rama  Dikshitar (YRD) of Dallas, nephew of
Sengallipuram ARD.  YRD's phone number is 972-594-1267. If you can not reach
him there,  a close friend, Dr. A.S. Gopalakrishnan (713-790-9282) of
Houston, generally keeps track of his whereaboutsI had the good fortune of
meeeting YRD during a Puja at our friend's place (Palace, I should say) in
Barlesville, Oklahoma in October 1995. 

I invited Sri YRD as one of the priests at our temple pratishtapana
celebration during this year's Memorial week end.  We hosted him for 5 days
and the only thing- these were some of the best 5 days of my life. The man is
fun to be around. A great scholar of Tamil and Sanskrit and OUR (Sri
Vaishnava's included) Shaastras, Veda- paraayanam, and sampradayams. His
mature humor is a product of Information, Knowledge,  and Wisdom. His
Kannada, as a result of his long carreer in Bangalore, is  lots of fun too. 

I will share one anecdote about the origin of the name APASTHAMBHA Rishi,
whose Sutra many of us say in our
Abhivaadanams.

Apashtambha Rishi  got his name as follows:

This Rishi was a great shaastrajna. Even the gods 
wanted to test him. At one time, two devathas
 in human form sat by his either side for  bhojanam. 
The gods in human form went on eating, 
while our Rishi was full and couldn't have anymore.

 As per our shaastraas, we are not to break
 the pankthi- meaning wait till others are 
also done eating. Also we are not to sit
 (waiting for others to finish up) 
with a dryed up hand (as we are not to
 lick too much either). This really put our
 Rishi to test. Afraid of breaking theShaastraas, 
Rishi came up with an ingenious plan- 
of course based on our shaastraas.

Our Shaastraas also say that if people
 are separated by   a stream (river, creek or eater), 
then they are not in the same pankthi.
He used this shaastra jnaanam and came up 
with the following solution: He took bowl full 
of water and made a water line with it on
 either side. Now he was in a seperate
 pankthi from the people sitting on his 
either side. He walked out without breaking
 any shaastra. Because he drew lines 
with water (sort of pillar), he got the name 
AAAPA(water) STHAMBHA(pillar).

Daasan,

K. Sreekrishna (Tatachar)
tatachar@aol.com