Re. Recent Discussions
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 20, 1999
Dear Bhaghavata UttamAs: The recent debate on Kalais and Sri VaishnavaÂ’s authentic practices is very dear to my heart. My personal opinion with the concept of anya devata worship or friendship with anya devata worshippers seems to be a point of minor importance in the overall scheme of spiritual development. Willingness to serve, developing atma gunam along the lines of (Ahimsa pratamam pushpamÂ….) have a much higher priority for a Sri Vaishnava if he has to earn EmperumanÂ’s divya kataksham. We seem to waste too much energy emphasizing this point again and again. For many, it is a matter of personal choice that we must respect in others. Some external behavior may not represent what is truly in oneÂ’s heart. Eventually, EmperumAn will lead us to understand the spirit behind what our great achAryAs had to say on this matter. The general trend among Sri VaishnavAs has gone so much wayward on this point that even prominent Sri VaishnavAs in India seem to de-emphasize this point. Coming to kalai differences, I agree with Mani as well as Shri Sadagopan that we must strive for unity. DileepanÂ’s note also speaks of unity. Personally, I do not mind wearing the tenkalai nAmam (once in a while) eventhough I am a vadakalai. For me the contributions of Manavala Mamunigal are as valuable as that of Swami Vedanta Desika. From whatever little I gather Mamunigal had a great respect for Vedanta Desika and equally Vedanta Desika would have loved to have a sishya like Manavala Mamunigal (who constantly did saranagati or bharanyasam through continuous dvaya mantra japam). Even from a practical standpoint unity among kalais is very important. Like Rajaji once implied, we will only benefit smArtAs if we fight among each other. This point may not be relevant in the USA but still may be true in India. I find this somewhat paradoxical that - sometimes the call for unity does bring out the differences into much more focus. Suddenly, oneÂ’s attention is drawn into things that one would not care to focus. Till now whenever I visited a temple I never cared to know whether it was a vadakalai or tenkalai temple. Like me, most of us just went to have a darshan of the Lord. If somebody asked me a contribution at the Srirangam temple in India the thought didnÂ’t even pass my mind that tenkalai sampradayam is followed in the temple or tenkalai sattrumurai is recited. But now my perspective has changed. These divyadesams in India has come to only perpetuate the kalai differences. Blaring display of Namams, adherence to sattrumurai etc. as a means to attest oneÂ’s control over the temple etc., seem to be the dominant factor in the religious administration of the temple. I was also somewhat appalled to see that none of Swami DesikaÂ’s work (like Daya Satakam) is recited in the Tirupati (neutral) temple or Desikan Sattrumurai. It somewhat pained me. These aspects caught me only recently though. Therefore, this is what I want to ask those who live in India and quote Melkote temple as a model for US temples. Well why canÂ’t they advocate the Melkote model to all the divya desams in India first. And this is the challenge I pose to them as well as to us. If you are sincere to eliminate the Kalai differences in the temples, are you willing to match your words with action by adopting the following resolution: (1) We will not visit those Divya Desams (all 106 of them included) and monetarily support them, if they donÂ’t adopt both kalais, including the nAmam and Sattrumurai. I think anything less is a mere word and we are only trying to approximate the reality to find hotchpotch solutions. Vijayaraghava Dasan Buffalo, NY ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
- Next message: Kalyani Krishnamachari: "nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL 1"
- Previous message: Krishna Kalale: "RE: When posting appeals..."
- Next in thread: narayanan.k.m_at_in.pwcglobal.com: "Re: Re. Recent Discussions"
- Maybe reply: narayanan.k.m_at_in.pwcglobal.com: "Re: Re. Recent Discussions"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]