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Issues before Srivaishnavism - 2

From the Bhakti List Archives

TCA Venkatesan • April 24, 2001 


Dear BhaktAs,

I want to point out one thing about my last 
email and this one. It is not meant to point
to any specific person or group of people.
If my message inadvertently comes across
that way, I beg everyone's forgiveness for
that.

There are true bhAgavatAs and AchAryAs walking
amongst us and guiding us. They are not
affected by the silliness that happens around
them. However, there are others who fan the
wrong ideas; and my hope is that we find
ways to counter their behaviour and counter
them now.

In this mail, I want to talk about the recent
happening at Srirangam with the attempts to
remove Mahalakshmi from the chest of Lord
Ranganatha. I remember the outrage I had
felt at that time from myself and members
of these egroups and the tremendous response
it had evoked from a lot of people. But,
upon my visit shortly thereafter to India,
I got the feeling that the response it
had evoked there, particularly in Chennai,
had been rather poor. As I was talking
about it to a few people I thought I would
hear strong reactions, but most people
appeared to be taking it in their stride.
This was from people living in no less a
place than Tiruvallikkeni. I do believe
that some folks had responded; but there 
appears to have been no collective attempt 
to do something. There are lots of people
still in positions of power that could
have exerted pressure on the situation
but appear to have remained unaffected
in general.

But, spread a rumor about kalai difference
of opinion in Srirangam or Kanchipuram and 
lo behold, there is an immediate collective
response! The same people have no problem
dropping everything and getting to these 
places to get into a fight or go to the
courts. I heard of stories where the
police had marched into the sannidhis in
these places to maintain order.

For long, we have heard about apathy from
the younger/newer generations to Srivaishna
traditions. And yet, we find that the
typically younger audiences of the internet
are reacting far stronger to Srivaishnava
causes than others. Far from acting on
important issues facing us, several 
seniors actually are showing marked apathy 
in facing common issues.

As I had mentioned in my last email, if we
can all come together, be aware of the 
nobility and works of our entire sampradhAyam
without differences, then we may collectively 
face and address all the issues facing us. 
More importantly, we can address these issues 
ourselves and not have to run to a third party 
or the courts and open ourselves to further 
division and a larger loss.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
T.C.A. Venkatesan

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