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Fact or fiction?

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Parthasarati Dileepan • January 11, 1998 


Dear bhagavathas:

One of the issues that captured the attention of the participants in the
Denver conference was the importance of implicit belief in our Ithihaasas
and PuraaNaas.  One of the key questions was, to what extent is it
important that we believe Lord Krishna actually stood on the chariot, with
the two armies patiently looking on, and went about preaching to Arjuna.
Or, should we simply look at Sri Bhagavath Geethai as an important
philosophical work and ignore the story surrounding its origin?  If you are
in the "implicit belief" camp, what about the conversation between Dharama
Raja and Nagusha the snake, and the other fantastic stories?  Would our
spiritual appreciation suffer if we are unable to simply accept stories
where snakes speak to humans and the dead are brought back to life as
actual recording of real events?  Or, is it alright to simply accept the
morals and ignore the stories? 

As ones brought up in India and to a great extent willing in our
Sampradaya, many of us are prepared to accept simple answers such as, "our
Acharayas say so, and therefore we must simply accept it."   But the future
of Sri Vaishnavam is not about us, it is about the youngsters.  For them,
such answers do not resonate.

Somewhat related to the above is, what is the extent of Mahavisvasam for
prapatti to be complete?  Of course we must have unshakable faith that the
Lord will grant us mOkshan at the end of this life.  But are we required to
believe implicitly in every details of the Ithihasa puraaNaas for the
prapatti to be fruitful.

Azhgiyasingar thiruvadigaLE saraNam...

-- adiyEn


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P. Dileepan
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