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From the Bhakti List Archives

RANGASWAMY • July 28, 1997 


Dear Friends,

Sri Keshava Prasad raised a few questions about the purpose of the 
Bhakti list and whether the group has been successful in meeting its 
objectives. This caused me to go back and look at the charter of the 
group in Mani's archives. To my knowledge, the postings of learned 
scholars like Srimans Sadagopan, Anbil Ramaswamy, T.S. Sundara Rajan, Dileepan, 
KrishNa KalaLe, Sampath Rengarajan, Vijay Srinivasan, Sudarshan, Jaganath, 
Bharadwaj, Mani Varadarajan, Smt. and Sri Krishnamachari, Smt. Nagu Satyan, 
Smt. Vaidehi, and Prof. Vasudha Narayanan have been consistent with the 
group's charter and have provided more information than can be obtained in any 
book. Sri Sudarshan and Sri Govind Rengarajan have very eloquently addressed 
the issue of consistency of the posts with the group's objectives. Therefore, 
I shall not address this issue further. 

I would like to focus on Sri Keshava Prasad's reference to "posts on the 
group resembling presentations in a book". It is truly unfortunate that 
Sri Prasad makes this reference. I think he has missed the analyses and 
insights provided time and again by learned scholars on this group, who 
have devoted a lot of their personal time and energy to share with us 
their extensive knowledge about our Kula Dhanam. For example, Sri. 
Sampath Rengarajan's posts on Tala PuraNams contains hard-to-come by 
information which is not found in any book. However, these posts seem to have 
escaped the all-discerning eyes of Mr. Prasad. I would also request Mr. 
Prasad to point me to the book containing the insights about the Lord's 
Sudarshana Chakram provided by Sriman Sundara Rajan, the Lord's Padhukas 
provided by Sriman Sadagopan, the Rahasyarthas summarized by Sriman 
Ramaswamy, the Paramapada Sopanam by Sriman Sudarshan or the brilliant 
Daya Shatakam summary by Sriman Vijay Srinivasan or the TiruveLLikeNi 
Perumal Anubhavam by Sri Vijay Triplicane and Smt. Vaidehi.

Being so far away from India, not all on this group may have access 
to all the books containing information about our Kula Dhanam. Therefore, even 
if members of the group summarize from published books information pertinent 
to our Sampradayam, it is a wonderful labor of love for which the contributors 
must be congratulated and appreciated. Furthermore, not all of us have 
ready access to Acharyas and their Upanyasams to clarify any questions we may 
encounter about our traditions. In this regard, Srimans Sadagopan, Ramaswamy 
and Sundara Rajan are providing us an extremely valuable service. They 
do not expect any rewards, appreciation or compliments and go about their 
task in the spirit of Kainkaryam to the Lord. I request the above mentioned 
scholars not to take such criticisms (as the present one by Sri Prasad) 
to heart and continue to share with the rest of us their vast expanse of 
knowledge. For the likes of Mr. Prasad, the "delete" key option is 
ubiquitous as stated by Sri Sudarshan. 

Finally, several members of the group have longstanding relationships with 
Acharyas. As a result, their posts contain tremendous insights about various 
aspects of our Kula Dhanam, which goes way beyond mere book knowledge. 
However, these may not be evident to those with myopic vision. The group 
as a whole, and I personally, will be poorer if the above mentioned members 
cease to post on the list. Therefore, I request all contributors to the list, 
particularly, those with ties to our Acharyas, to continue their efforts. 
I am extremely thankful to them and they can rest assured that a majority 
of members are appreciative of their efforts with the exception of a 
recalcitrant individual or two.

Namo Narayana,

Muralidhar Rangaswamy