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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00000 May 2002

 
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Dear friends,

Our good friend and 'tiruvengadam' member in Kuwait, SrImAn
Rajagopalan Raghunathan recently celebrated his son's birthday on
Thursday, 2 May. The boy Chi.Sriram, is now 4 years old and it was an
occasion that his parents, like parents of all children in the world,
were truly proud and pleased to observe and celebrate. 

It was heartening to note that Sri.Raghunathan chose an
extraordinarily different way to mark the occasion. He invited the
students of SriIVK Chary's 'upanishad adhyAyana' class over and had
them chant the entire 'taittiriyam' for well over an hour! After the
'pArAyaNam', the students were duly honoured with 'sambhAvana' in the
traditional style. The amateur "vEda-pArAyAna-gOshti" was delighted
and so were all the guests who had gathered on the occasion.

Adiyane is sure that the little boy, Chi.Sriram, could not have asked
for a better 'birthday party'. There were no candles to blow, cakes 
to cut or "happy birthday" song to chorus... Instead it was the
sonorous chanting of Veda 'mantra' that filled the air and brought
down blessings of a rare and divine order upon the little child!

Adiyane sincerely wishes that more NRIs in Kuwait and elsewhere in
the world would emulate the example of Sri.Raghunathan. Instead of
spending money on party bashes, on cakes, candles, baloons,
invitation cards, gifts and festoons, I wish we Indians everywhere in
the world went back to celebrating our children's "tirunakshatram" in
a more Indian and less ostentatious way. If the practice of inviting
Vedic chanteurs to grace all children's birthdays were to be
mandatorily followed by all Indian families all over the world
(including India), imagine how the Vedas would flourish! And how it
would also ensure a decent livelihood for Vedaviths everywhere!

The modern manner of celebrating children's birthdays with cutting of
cakes and blowing of candles is utterly alien to Indian or Vedic
ethos. It is a hangover of our anglicised and colonial past. It is
being practised these days by Indian families (especially NRIs) more
to 'keep up with the Joneses' than for any other purpose. Let us
resolve to shed this slavish mentality. By doing so let us be assured
that we will not in any way be depriving our children of joy. Instead
by celebrating their "tirunakshatram" in the solemn and traditional
way (as Sri.Raghunathan has done) we will be instilling in our
children a far greater joy --- the joy of taking pride in the Indian
heritage and of showing due reverence to the Vedic way of life.

Thanks and regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan 


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