Dear Bhagavatas: Dear Bhagavatas:It is like a whiff of fresh air to hear the way Sri Rajagopalan Raghunathan celebrated his son's Tirunakshatram. I wish that every parent everywhere in the world takes note of this pointer and emulates his example. I am sure this may be one of the first steps but definitely a giant leap in reclaiming the hoary glory of our Vedic religion and inculcating the same in the minds of the impressionable youth. "Catch them young" is equally applicable to this kind of effort, if we are to catch up with and rediscover the spirit behind it.
All the best to Sri Rajagopalan and family for this trend-setting event. Dasoham Anbil Ramaswamy
From: sampath kumar <sampathkumar_2000@xxxx> Reply-To: tiruvengadam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxTo: tiruvengadam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, srirangasri@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Oppiliappan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSubject: [t'vengadam] Birthday cakes, candles and "tirunakshatram" Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 01:32:00 -0700 (PDT) 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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com Namo VenkateshAya namah: To Post a message, send it to: tiruvengadam@xxxxxxxxxxxTo Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: tiruvengadam-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxYour use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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