some thoughts

[Guest guest]

I am an admirer of Samkaracharya for his unique & timely

contribution to the arrest of nihilism and the rejuvenation of

the decadent Vedic roots in guiding the spiritually inclined.

I am a devotee of Ramanujacharya as one who infused humanism in

the rapidly rigidyfying materialistic environment dominated by

unscrupulous theocrats. I am a believer in Madhwacharya in the

spirit with which he injected the damping needed to regulate

the overshoot of the effects of unreservedly implanting humanism

into an unrestrained society.

 

In saying these, I am expressing my deep belief that the

overtones of hindu thoughts have been evolving dynamically with

changing social needs. This process has to continue if Hinduism is

to survive. The health of the social framework is as important as the

exaltation of its 'logical' framework. And the forces that hold these

together are the essentials that Ethiraja expounded for the evolution.

Power and its manifestation, arrogance, in all their garbs must get

subdued with the spirit of Saranagathi extended by the essences of

Prapatti.

 

I am a victim of an oversupply of 'logic' in the environment I am

situated. An obsessive concern with the logical form and a deliberate

neglect of the life's essential concerns of values and priorities

seem to be the passtime of influential hindu 'philosophers'. The former

concern may produce an unique person, may be a Nobel laureate but the

latter attitude definitively produces a worldly-unwise person with

negative social attitudes and impacts. The human concerns are relegated

to the

background as often as possible with the resulting evils taken for

granted. Spiritual technicians know all about the marvelous spiritual

tools except the 'how' to accomplish the basic end_uses of the tools.

 

What keeps us together is not just a bunch of abstractions, such as

those of mathematics or spiritual theories backing the ultimate unity,

but the actual hardware and software of life, living and loving with

their respective orientations and values, interpreted by the valid

abstractions. Logic and life's essential concerns are not mutually

incompatible and true wisdom lies in the consciousness of this

compatibility. This, I believe, is what Ethiraja's central theme

was in reforming society accordingly.

 

I hope and seek Ethiraja's blessings for this group to bring out

the essentials of SriVaishnavism with this background, obviously

in addition to what is being analysed on the syntax and semantics

of various declarations, Vakhyas, Sutras and so on.

 

Venkat Rao