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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00168 Oct 2005

 
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SrI:
 
Today I went to the Local Venkeshwara temple, run by the PudigE Mutt of the Madhwa Sampradayam. As a routine, the priests sing songs and they allow the devotees to sing too. An elderly Iyengar (I don't want to call her a Srivaishnava) lady sang a wonderful song which was pleasant to the ears, which to my shock, ended with words glorifying sai baba!!
 
Becoming distraught, I asked her if she had taken "bharanyasam" as she is born in a family which is supposed to follow Desika Sampradayam (which they don't as it is apparent), and she says "no, but I intend to, I have taken samashrayanam though, but Sri Saibaba is my main guru". I told her, "please consider me as your grandson when I say please follow ONLY Sri dEsikA the great and nobody else", although I am born in a Thenkalai family, it still pains me, as in a larger scheme, we should all follow Ramanuja, and Swami Desikan/Swami MM are representatives of Him, anyway,  the elderly lady got offended!!! And her daughter was even more upset, let me not get to the details of our conversation. All I am asking is a vadakalai person to follow HER own sampradayam!!.
 
This is the fate of our sampradayam, the fact that pains me the most is NOT MANY of Our AchAryAs of either school stretch the importance of ananya-bhakti, and Samashrayanam has  become just a mere symbolic affair. Although I have my disagreements with ISKCON, I have seen the way the Gurus of ISKCON stress the importance of surrender ONLY to Lord Krishna while decrying demi-god or any other man-god, god-man etc worship, and in a way they inspire me a lot. Why can't we do that in our sampradayam?? Whom are we afraid of?? Why can't our AchAryAs say, "hey!! just worship Lord Sriman nArAyaNA and nobody else", why simply can't they??
 
First of all, charity begins at home; all of us who are convinced about the path of Sri Ramanuja, should STRESS the importance of our SiddhAnthA to all our near and dear ones, talk to them about importance of ananya  bhakti, discourage them from worshipping anybody but Sriman nArAyANA. Also, learn from the ISKCON devotees. We should give up coffee/tea, onion and garlic, no questions asked. If a Russian or a Polish guy can give up everything and try to follow our sampradayam, why simply can't we?? Are we so shamelessly out-of-control that we can't give up these mundane addictions?? I for one, firmly believe in this: Even a little compromise leads to the greatest degeneration, as we can see what is happening now.
 
I am not talking about leaving everything and going back to the villages. Lord Sri Krishna talks repeatedly about doing, nay, excelling in one's duty, but as an act of sacrifice to the Lord Himself.
 
The problem is that we are not prepared to give up anything, not prepared to educate/get educated, but then we cry hoarse about the "degeneration of our sampradayam", or worse, jump at every chance to get into a "kalai" fight. 
 
Again, I got some mails saying that I insulted DEsika, etc.. No, never. All I am saying is that only should not blindly make statements without knowing the facts in-toto. My aim was to attack not the great Sri Desikan, not even the Vadakalai Sampradayam, but only the author whose words were filled with utter dichotomy, thinking that he can get away with whatever he says/writes. I would anyday take the association of a sincere Desika Sampradaya person than an also-ran Thenkalai Iyengar.
 
Dasan,
Kidambi Soundararajan.


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