What is a billion dollars anyway
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 25, 1999
Dear Mani and fellow BhaghavatAs: I would seek the forgiveness of Shri Sadagopan and other bhaghavatAs who wish to place this issue behind and concentrate on more positive aspects of Sri Vaishnavism. However, I would like to bring my part of the discussion to a closure by responding to Shri Mani (whose intention like most others is to see unity among all of us). These are my questions to Mani: I don't get you quite correctly on the above issue. Are you saying that we should encourage and allow to flourish in India the very same traditions... that we wish to break away from, in the USA. My question is simple - Why can't the Melkote model be followed in all divya dEsams in India and why not we make a concerted effort to stop encouraging those divya dEsams that resist this change. Most divya desams are in dire need of funds and it is a opportune time now to bring about a change by making the donations conditional. Eventhough nothing of this sort may happen in the foreseeable future, I see Shri Narayanan already drawing a cold feet by the very mention of two Sattrumurais. I was also surprized that the spirited reply of Vijay (of Triplicane) and that of Varadan (?) on this issue has totally ignored what Shri Narayanan had to say. People who have visited the divya desams feel that kalai issues are more prominent in those places than say taking care of perumal or the archakAls. After my recent visit to the Srirangam temple I felt that the temple is spending more money on glossy paintings of the nAmams than on other essentials. I equally find the practice of 'mudal' theertham etc. undesirable. I sincerely feel we have to do something about reversing this trend in India. I personally feel that we should fund a scheme where two or three bus-loads of well trained sattrumurai reciters should go around all divyadesams and 'shout' both sattrumurais to their hearts' content and that such voice of 'unity' should reverberate through the ears of people like Shri Narayanan who still want to cling onto a divisive tradition. Whether we are in the US or in India we are all products of the same tradition. A disease cannot be cured if we are afraid of getting to its source. People who now want Ranganatha temple in the US to follow both Sattrumurais, what have they done to forge equal representation of kalais back in India. What have they done to institute recitations of 'both' sattrumurai back in our divya dEsams. The defect with equality is that we desire it with our superiors. When the divya-dEsams are obviously in favor of one kalai in India, the voice of reason and fairness that is so prominent here to have equal 'kalai' representation - is unfortunately silent when it comes to advocating the same in India. I think we lose our 'sense of fairness' if we insist that we allow traditions to flourish in India and then in the same breath we say that we break-away from it in the USA. Being power-less to do anything about it in India doesn't provide us a license to acquiesce to it (if we sincerely think it is wrong). dAsan Vijayaraghavan Buffalo, NY ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
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