Dear Sri Sampathkumar Swamin,
While I am thankful for your kind words, let me please mention that I am a nobody in front of people like Sri TCA Swamin, Sri Padmanabhan Swamin, Sri Sadagopan Iyengar or Sri Madhavakkannan Swamin. In fact, I consider Sri TCA Swamin to be one of my gurus as it was his acharya.org website that kindled my strong interest in the sampradayam. I request every member of this forum to visit the website and read all the contents.
Talking of the degeneration, I just saw one of the venerated "Sri Vaishnava" scholars addressing Muruga as "MAL marugan". What can I say!!
I openly welcome your comments, but kindly allow me to address those.
Quote >>
However, adiyen beg to differ with you that
our sampradhayam is in a bad state. Adiyen for once
feel confident that our sampradhayam is in a strong
state. However, the 'true membership' has dwindled.
Adiyen wish to present three points.
>> End quote.
Well, I speak for our whole Sri sampradayam in general, I hate to differentiate between rAmAnuja/dEsika sampradayams at this juncture. Well, kindly look at all the languishing divyadesams or even look at the current interest of the present crop of "Iyengars". True, lack of encouragement from the rulers as in those days started to dwindle and hence forced our forefathers start looking for materialistic pursuits, and the trend continued and as generation passed on, we have people with Srivaishnava names doing anything bhagawath kainkaryams. I think it is for everyone to see, how many of our cousins/friends are even interested in our sampradayam, or can even chant the SrisailEsa mantram completely? Well, I don't have to reiterate the number of times we've seen the so-called Srivaishnava priests doing totally unwarranted acts. We have pan-parag chewing priests, cigarrette-smoking "vAdhiyArs", and ofcourse "Srivaishnava" Bhattars of our temples sporting "Sabarimala"
attires. Not to forget the Saibabas and Kalki bhagawans in our midst. I strongly believe that if there is not an overhaul to be done, our sampradayam will be reduced a bunch of ritualistic brahmins who perform ceremonies for money.
>> You said.
1. What is our bench mark to evaluate the state of our
sampradhayam?
One belongs to Srivaishnavam if one's objective is
Moksham (eternal bhagavath kainkaryam) and moksham
only. If someone is not with that objective how can we
say that they belong to our sampradhayam? In this
light, the experience swamin had with that lady,
singing about a baba or dhabha, she obviously is NOT
interested in moksham and interested in other
materialistic things. How can we say that she belongs
to our sampradhayam? These 'askthika nasthikas' should
simply be ignored as 'moorkas'. Why do we even
evaluate our sampradhayam based on these people? If
this is our bench mark, yes our sampradhayam is in a
bad state.
It is unneccesary for me to say that no one becomes a
SriVaishnava by birth, whatever is the family
background. After going through the samsaric cycle for
many many births and deaths, through bhaghavatha
sambhandham one gets acharya sambhandham. And
eventually acharya sambhandham leads us to maha
viswasam and finally to Emberuman sambhandham. And all
this happens by His nirhetuka krupai only. Adiyen
would view that lady's state as some one who is in
lower rung of this ladder and pray to Emberuman to
make her move faster. But I am not going to evaluate
our sampradhayam based on her, becuase there are
billions like her.
>> End quote.
I agree with you totally in this regard. I don't want to refer that lady as a Srivaishnava. My bad. An "Iyengar" is not a Srivaishnava. Only a person surrendered to RAmAnuja is a Srivaishnava. This is my understanding.
You said
>>
2. Why are we in the state we are now?
Swamin raised a question that why can?t our acharyas
stress that we should worship ONLY Sriman nArAyaNA and
nobody else. But, it is beyond doubt and with
absolutely no uncertainty that our acharyas have
stressed this point. However, this message is not well
circulated amongst us. That is becuase our
poorvacharyas vyakyanams and exceptional works are in
a state not easily understandable by present
generation. For example, how many of the younger
generation today would even dare to open and read one
page of 'Edu' and try to understand? This is where the
success of ISKCON is obvious. Sri.Prabhupadha made
'all' of their sampradhaya messeges so easily
available in simple english. Adiyen personally know
many many gaudiya vaishnavas follow that sampradhayam
becuase it is presented to them in an easier way.
There is a set of books called ?Eettin Thamizhakkam?
(meaning Edu in
simple Thamizh). These books are
written by a scholar about 30 years before and
published by University of Madras in a set of 10
volumes and provide ?Edu? in a simple Thamizh style.
However, this is not available any more. During my
last trip to India, I had to do lot of digging in
University book store to trace some of the volumes of
this book. I found few volumes with total damage lying
in a corner of the room on floor, where as mundane
novels are protected in moisture proof containers.
That is the state of our sampradhayam. So, our focus
must be on bringing in to light these kinds of works
more and more to lime light and strengthening our
foundation. May be even that lady would change.
>> End quote.
Well, if our AchAryAs (not the poorvAchAryAs, but the current initiating achAryAs) to give clean instructions, why do we have the so-called SrivaishnavAs doing non-sensical things EVEN after samAshrayanam?? For example, the lady I mentioned had already taken SamAshrayanam. Likewise, if you look around, you cannot see many people practising standards that are expected from a prapanna. Strictly speaking, people having taken samashrayanam should not even eat outside, is it the real case??
You said>>
3. Why are we still arguing about our internal
differences?
Any sampradhayam is bound to have different view
points. As long as the fundamentals and final
objective are the same, these differences in approach
and practice must be viewed in a healthy and positive
way with mutual respect and cooperation. However, even
today in our sampradhayam, I see elders twice my age
from both the schools try to score victory over the
other as if this is a contest. If today?s elders
realize that even after one life time, they could not
dissolve the differences, at least they need not pass
it on to the next generation. May be over a period of
time these differences will die themselves. I don?t
want my grand son or grand daughter to be still
classified as some ?kalai? instead of simply
SriVaishnavas.
>> End quote.
I totally agree this TK/Vk fight is a useless waste of time when one considers that both the schools are facing erosion. As for me personally, I don't care for these kalais, etc. Yet, I do love Swami MM and PL a lot and would do anything to defend their greatness, that was why I was hard on my mail discussing Anbil Swamin. Few people realize that without Swami PL or MM, Srirangam would've become another al-aqsa by now.
You said >>
Swamin, kindly accept adiyen?s apology for any
apacharams. It is not my intention to prove a point or
anything. Adiyen personally feel that if Emberuman
could choose even some one like me to surrender unto
him unconditionally, our sampradhayam is not in any
danger. Even though I am an elementary level student,
I am not young. I am almost 40 (half the well is
crossed) and still in a beginning state. May be that
is the state of our sampradhayam.
>> End quote
Swamin, age is nothing but a number. It is never too late, especially when one just wants to surrender to Sri emperumAnAr. Even ajAmilan was saved by the Lord when he was at his deathbed. He was a sinner even until that moment.
Dasan,
KidAmbi Soundararajan.
Azhwar Emberumanar Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam
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