Re: keeping our tradition alive
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 5, 2000
The issue started with a Bhagavatha lamenting about the current state of affairs wherein many persons from our community find solace in offering their worship and allegiance to 'demi-gods' and in particular he used some very strong words about a self styled 'Bhagavan'.The issue is very sensitive and has to be handled with tact and respect. Let us examine some of the reasons as to why so many people flock to that institution.(Ms.Subha has already elucidated on some of these).Some of my eminent friends like say Dr.S.S.Badrinath and his friend,the great Nani Palkhivala (the list is endless)are ardent devotees of this person.Badri has been there on many occasions and had also given them valuable advice when the Sathya Sai Institute of Superspecialities was set up at a cost of over Rs.300 crores(appr.$66 million)where EVERYONE is treated free regardless of caste or creed.I know of many many other eminent personalities who are His ardent devotees and obviously something about his organisation and its activities attract these persons to go there, offer their respects and thereafter do something constructive which gives them solace and satisfaction and at the same time benefits the society immensely. Regarding the Bhajans and prayers, Ms.Subha has dealt and there is no need to repeat the same points.Suffice it to say that, with some exceptions as always, all persons are welcome there to take part in their prayers, offer voluntary kainkaryams in all parts of their Shanthi Nilayam(I know of Expats. coming there with an appointment fixed an year in advance,go there and just sweep the prayer hall and then return without even getting an audience or a darshan).There is a system which seems to work in a very subtle and quite manner and one which we are unable to replicate in any of our Asramams or Mutts.Above all the prayers and their aftermath are conducted in a profoundly silent manner which contrasts with the tremendous noise and pandemonium that marks all our functions and there is very little discipline particularly amongst the priestly class who hold these gatherings to ransom as it were. These are strictly not comparable as ours are different types of institutions. We proceed on the fundamental thesis that an Acharya - Sishya relationship is a personal one, we are taught in the Kalakshepams about all that is to be learnt at the Lotus feet of our Preceptors who are eventually responsible to show us the path of salvation and get us there ( via the Saranagathi or Bara - Samarpanam ).I am dealing in a most superficial manner about these as our focus is on something else. Adiyen had already issued a further posting on the same subject wherein some vital questions were asked and Sri M.S.Hari elucidated on the Acharya - Sishya structure.Sri Velukudi Krishnan was kind enough to respond.But the point is not to get into a question and answer session but to find out why the sishyas are leaving us in such large numbers to find solace elsewhere.If they don't go Sathya Sai, they go somewhere else.In these columns, a Bhagavatha objected to a very simple suggestion that we relax the Dress Code !! I am not going to suggest any answers and the points i am making in these columns are something i have advocated for a long long time in our own Asramam and i am famous or notorius (as the case maybe)for speaking out my mind! I offer these points for careful consideration by the Bhagavathas: i)the practice of Sri Ramanuja Darsana has become very very complicated, costly and confined to the privileged few, ii)the world has changed more in the past 10 years than it has in the previous 100 years and people want fast solutions for eveything, iii)in an environment where there is constant pressure on every aspect of a person's existence,people expect solace and fulfilment of the soul which they think they get in these institutions and not in ours, iv)the daily rituals are seen as very very elaborate and complex, they are unable to have an access on a one to one basis to seek any answers to the doubts that they have as these Acharyas are always busy with their duties, v)only via some Upanyasams and Kalkshepams are they able to get some insight into the deeper meaning into all these but mostly they are unable to understand these, vi)thus the Guru - Sishya exchange is getting narrower and limited, vii)the case of the overseas Bhagavathas is even more difficult as very very limited numbers ( out of many thousands of ourpeople) actually visit these Asramams or Mutts that too out of parental compulsion! viii)there is this nagging feeling, though wholly incorrect, that our activities are being focussed on the privileged sections and the hoi polloi are there just to add numbers. It is possible to highlight many more issues here but we have to realise that for every Mani Varadarajan or Shyamsundar Sreenivasan or M.S.Hari in our fold there are hundreds of equally talented, brilliant and committed youngsters going elsewhere.The question is whether we are ready to come together and form a common platform to motivate and to organise a movement back to the basics and this is a very very difficult issue. I will leave you with these thoughts for now and we have to go into these in great detail.I will come back again with some more thoughts later on. Regards. RR. mani@alum.calberkeley.org wrote: Dear Sriman Rajagopal, You had written: I would not like to condemn these persons with the adjectives used by our brother but would like all of you to indulge in serious introspection here and examine what should be and can be done to arrest this 'sishyas" drain' which if left unchecked will deplete our ranks more and more in the years to come.As my revered friend Sri S.V.S.Raghavan says very often, this should be our top priority and we should all get together and assess in the manner in which we run our Asramams and Mutts if we have to hold our people in line and not lose them to the above said Samaj, otherwise SriVaishnavism as a heritage is itself in danger. I have more to say in this matter if Mani will let me do so in these columns. I invite you to write more about this as this is a very important topic. Please do lead a discussion on this subject. dAsan Mani -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@eGroups.com Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information
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