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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00064 Apr 2003

 
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Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:

Dear Sri Venkatesan,
Please accept my pranams and promise me that you
won't offer any more apologies in future with an
assumption that you might have offended my feelings. 

You are correct. I did not offer my comments based on
Ramanuja Sampradayam. As you pointed out I am agnostic
- even boderline atheist. I do not believe in a
personal God or God is somebody who listens to our
prayers.

You can then ask, what I am doing here if I don't
believe in God. Well, I am a nominally a
Shri-Vaishnavan in the tradition of Shri Ramanuja and
Shri Manavala Mamunigal. I have a soft corner for
Desikacharya too ( and I am aware of the differences
between us and vadakalais ) and I've read his
commentary on Ramanuja's Gita Bhashyam and Gitartha
Sangraha Rakshai ( part of the reason for my reverence
- the rest being his acumen as a chitra kavi in
Paduka Sahasram and rightly you may infer, I have a
soft corner for Bharavi and kiratarjuneeyam ).

My loss of faith is a different story. I wrote the
previous paragraph, so that I don't want to give out a
vibe of "modern young kid knowing nothing of our
sampradayams - brash and self-righteous - but
ultimately lost" :-). To keep my ramblings short, I
joined this group to get in touch with my "roots".


> What we need is complete faith in Sriman Narayana,
> in
> our sampradhayam and why we are here today and 
> following what we do. If we start thinking that
> others
> too are equally right because they are convinced by 
> what they do, then we will get nowhere.

I *do not* believe that "all religions are equal" or
the corollary, the religions are interchangeable. But
you have to agree that a christian has equally strong
if not more conviction regarding his religion as a
Shri-Vaishnavan has. So, as a neutral third party, why
should I choose Narayana instead of Jesus or vice
versa?

> 
> Other religions might propagate fast - but this too
> is His leela. Azhvar says "elleerum veedu peRRAl
> ulagillai enRE". Therefore, it is His game to keep
> this world going as it is. That does not mean, we
> simply do nothing. We need to follow what our
> acharyas and scholars teach us and continue to do
> our duty.
>

Even if we become a minority and become an object of
ridicule ? Don't tell me it won't happen. It happened
in Kashmir. It happened in North-East states. It is a
matter of time before it spreads to the rest of India.
I am not prepared to take a defeatist stance that "It
is all his will". ( You may see a contradiction - If I
don't believe in God, why should I be bothered if
Christianity wipes out Vaishnavism. I'll explain later
)

> Finally, there is a leap of logic in saying that
> since we cannot comprehend the universe, the 
> universe is practically meaningless. The statement 
> by Smt Nappinnai clearly had implied that the 
> universe cannot be fully comprehended by us who are
> a small part of it. It is however well understood 
> by one who Himself is the universe. Therefore, it
> is meaningful to at least one. And, certainly there
> are others (in many worlds) who have a far greater 
> understanding than us of the universe. The danger 
> lies in thinking that with our limited faculties 
> and tools that we can comprehend everything; and 
> when failing to do so, give up and say that the 
> whole thing is meaningless.
>

I've seen this sort of explanation before. My comment
on this would warrant a lengthy post. So, I'll come
back to this when time permits.


Warm Regards,
KK


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