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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00026 Mar 2001

 
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Dear Bhagavatas:
In message # 107 dated 27th February 2001, I had announced that I 
would be away for about a fortnight at Indianapolis, where I did not 
have Internet facility, that I would not be able to post anything 
till 9th March 2001 and that regular postings would resume only from 
10th March 2001. Some of the correspondents seem to have overlooked 
this message.

I had also made it clear that while I might be able to peruse mails, 
I could reply only after getting back to Atlanta. However, with a 
moment of brief help of someone's laptop computer, I managed to post 
the concluding portions of "Greatness of Bhagavad RamAnuja Darsanam" 
which had already appeared in other internet sites.

In the meanwhile, our site has been flooded with messages on the 
subject of the appropriateness of the term "Idol" to describe 
the "ArchA Vigraha" of the Lord. Having allowed the first few 
postings, I would have been accused of being discriminatory, if I had 
disallowed the rest, though some of them were off the mark and 
tangential. Reluctantly, I had to approve them.

I wish to remind that the objective of the group has been set forth 
clearly in the Preamble:
"This is a group for studying the Visishtadvaita philosophy and 
practices as laid down by AzhwArs and AchAryas. Articles and 
discussions are welcome subject to the general norms of tolerance and 
mutual respect within and without the realms of the above philosophy 
and practices". 

One of the reasons for requesting feedback to be addressed 
to "Sri_ranga_Sri@xxxx" and not to the "Yahoogroup address" is 
to avoid tangential postings and give some leeway for the Editor to 
censor such materials.

This is because "Sri Ranga Sri" is mainly a Journal and NOT a general 
discussion group as rightly pointed out by Sri Malolan Cadambi, Sri 
Anand Karalapakkam and Sri M.K.Sudarshan. My heartfelt thanks to 
these Bhagavatas for clarifying the focus of "Sri Ranga Sri"

I may add that "Sri Ranga Sri" is meant primarily for educating our 
Srivaishnavas who may have lost their moorings from our Sampradayam 
due to extraneous circumstances by living for long, and far away from 
the mainstream as also the 2nd and subsequent generations who have 
had no opportunity to be initiated into our Satsampradayam.

Others interested in learning are also welcome provided they approach 
in the spirit of honest yearning as conveyed in the Gita SlOkam "Tad 
viddhi prathipAdEna pariprasnEna sEvayA", not in an attempt to nit-
pick, based on the idiosyncrasies of traditions outside (VedabAhyas) 
the pale of our ParamaVaideeka matham of SrivaishNavam 

Each language has peculiar idioms. Translation into another language 
can never bring out the exact import of the original. The noblest 
translation as someone said can only be "from gold to lead", "from 
the sublime to the ridiculous" or "from Idiomatic to idiotic" 

The best way to arrive at meanings is to refer to some standard 
dictionaries. There is nothing derogatory about the word "idol" as 
seen from the meaning for the word "Vigraha" given in different 
standard dictionaries like - Roget's Thesaurus, Monier William's 
dictionaries (both Sanskrit to English and English to Sanskrit), The 
dictionary published by the Sanskrit Education Society, Madras, The 
Great Lifco Dictionary (both English to Tamil and Tamil to English). 

Also, the word "Idol" has been adopted by great Scholars proficient 
in both Sanskrit and English (e.g.) Sri C.R. SrinivAsa Iyengar Swami 
who has translated Srimad VAlmiki RAmAyaNam in English and Tamil, 
Prof. A. SrinivAsarAghavan Swami who has translated almost all works 
of Swami Desika, Sri M.R. RAjagOpAla Iyengar Swami who has 
translated faithfully Srimad Rahasya Traya Saram in English and many 
more.

We need not be carried away by what some Westerners or their 
scriptures say or dictate what we should think or say. We are not 
interested in proselytization or conversion to our faith. If "Idol" 
is wrong, so is "Icon" because we come across "iconoclast". Buddha 
who started as an "Iconoclast" ended up as being an "Icon" himself 
and as we see his icons (idols?) being destroyed by Taliban fanatics. 

If one needs to know how "Islam" views those whom they 
call "Infidels" (including us), you will be startled by the 
revelations in the site- http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/ 

We need not bend ourselves backwards to oblige their views. We need 
not chip off our head to suit the cap while it should really be the 
other way about. This is like the fad with some of our NRIs 
mutilating their beautiful given names to suit the disability of the 
aliens in pronouncing them! When they can pronounce such long winding 
names as "Stephanapoulus" etc, what difficulty can they have in 
pronouncing our names and why should we oblige them by mutilating our 
beautiful and meaningful names?

The learned Professor has pointed out our adopting the Western 
Calander, observing Christmas or cutting cakes on our birtdays etc. 
I would like to point out that there are two different and mutually 
exclusive concerns in society viz., "Social" and "Religious". 
These are at best merely Social events. 

But, when we do our sankalpam in our religious obligations, we do it 
citing Thithi, vAra, nakshatra, yoga and karaNa etc. of our 
PanchAngam and not some western almanac.

I still feel that the word "Idol" is not taboo, so far as we 
Srivaishnavas are concerned. Those who are comfortable with "Icon" 
may use the term and those who feel comfortable with "Idol" may 
continue with the same.

Anyway, I would request that the discussion on this subject may be 
terminated and let us move on to study our glorious Satsampradayam as 
indicated in the "Statement of objective of Sri Ranga Sri" mentioned 
in the preamble.
Dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy









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