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Re: "tiruppAvai" and Mahatma Gandhi

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Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan • January 25, 2000 


Dear Sampath:

I entirely agree with your sentiments.  Group singing of Bhajans, Goshti 
Parayanam of Vedas and Divya Prabandham all add to the great joy of enjoying 
EmperumAn.  There is a great emphasis on praying together in Sri 
Vaishnavism.

I have always seen that whenever we work in groups, it provides us an 
opportunity to shed our ego and understand each other better.  We realize 
that we are all united by the 'Vasudeva Tatva'.  To borrow from Covey, as we 
evolve from dependance (Dvaita) to independance (Advaita), we soon realize 
that the process of evolution ends in inter-dependance (VishishtAdvaita).

There are also thoughts from great thinkers that spiritual progress is made 
in loneliness - "Souls are not liberated in bundles" - Emerson.  May be, we 
must achieve a good blend of everything - Bhajans, Japam, Dhyanam etc..

Dasan

Vijayaraghavan
Buffalo, NY


>From: sampath kumar 
>To: bhakti@lists.best.com
>Subject: "tiruppAvai" and Mahatma Gandhi
>Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 00:06:45 -0800 (PST)
>
>Dear friends,
>
>In the "tiruppAvai", AndAl has the "aayarpAdi" girls
>waking up each other and first congregating and only
>then proceeding in assembled procession to God's
>doorsteps.
>
>The principle of "worshipping together" is greatly
>stressed through the phrase: "koodi-irundu...
>kuLirnthu...mahizhirndu..." etc.
>
>In the whole of the "tiruppAvai" adiyen notices that
>the girls never even once speak in the first person
>singular! They all speak in one voice but never
>individually!
>
>The pursuit of God according to AndAl cannot be
>undertaken in solitude. Like most things in life,
>achieving God too requires "team work"... the ability
>to work with other people, communicate with other
>people and share with other people.
>
>Mahatma Gandhi, who may not have been a SriVaishnavan
>bearing the marks of "samAshrayanam", but who was
>deeply religious in outlook, once seemed to echo
>exactly the very same sentiment of the "tiruppAvai".
>He said, "I want to find God, and because I want to
>find God, I have to find God along with other people.
>I don't believe I can find God alone. If I did, I
>would be running to the Himalayas to find God in some
>cave there. But since I believe that nobody can find
>God alone, I have to work with people. I have to take
>them with me. Alone I can't come to Him."
>
>It is amazing how some of the truths of SriVaishnavam
>... and of the poetry of the "tiruppAvai" ... are
>actually grounded in universalism... and not only in
>SriVilliputtur or SriRangam alone!
>
>adiyen hopes that my drawing this parallel between
>Gandhi and "tiruppAvai" will not hurt the sentiments
>of orthodox members on the list.
>
>dAsan,
>Sampathkumaran
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