” Few, if any, old dogs can learn new tricks, or perform them satisfactorily” says Brahmashri Naryanaswamy Anna and I am one of those old dogs. I learned swimming at the age of 65 , am learning music at 70 plus and read for hours together.There may be many like me and it should be like that unless disease and dysfunction deteriorates the activities of the body and the mind .
(If most of his ” faculties had perished 60 “, how is Anna, whose distance to his celebrated century peak is only furlongs away, writing so pungently and fighting for his ideas and ideals so vigorously ? I am really happy about it . He should cross the proverbial 100 mark and continue to nourish this forum and navigate our thoughts )
I am also not scared of his warning that ” it is better to let the slumbering or absent powerful deities be, than to call them down by irresistible invocation, and then to insult them, by reciting wrongly or performing prayogam wrongly” . If a tongue soaked in animal blood could recite ‘Mara, Mara’ instead of ‘Rama, Rama’ and bring down the Heaven’s blessings which converted the hunter to a saint and made his sinned tongue to sing the glory of the Lord, why should I be worried if I make an inadvertent mistake while chanting a mantra ? And remember, Valmiki, twisted the God’s name, ultta, exactly opposite under the advice and guidance great Tapasvies.
And about the ‘actions and gestures’ : Are the same through out the country ? Imagine an Allahabad pundit and an Alathur Vaadyar reciting Rudram, sitting side by side or a Vasudevan Namboodiri and a vadkkanchery sastrigal performing a simple ‘Bavasevai’ . Which method is correct ? It cannot be both. There can be only one correct method. Will the family of the other be wiped out ?
When are our learned brahmins going to stop this threats, which has done irreparable damages to our society, the worst being the alienation of our youngsters away from our rituals and religious practices. Unless we put a stop to this ‘UMMACHI KANNAI KUTHAM’ threat , our community will never progress.
What is important is sincere solicitation for the Divine grace and as long as the intentions are sacred, the body and the mind are clean, the Divine grace is bound to flow.
This is my opinion, a sincere one, though it may not be acceptable to the so called ‘learned’ Brahamanas of our group. I am sure that there will be at least a handful of Iyers who will be with me. And this is an ‘Iyers’ forum.
So, poojya Anna ! I totally disagree with you and you gave me the clearance for that, when you said I ” have a right to disagree”
Love and regards,
sperinkulam
Hyderabad,
June 5, 2011
Comments
Superb write up! I totally agree with you. I do not know Sanskrit and hence my diction/pronunciation will not be upto the mark. I learnt Vishu Sahasranamam, like my father, only in Tamil script. But I am confident that the Lord will listen to my prayers. Thanks for articulating the views of many of us.
regards
saikrishnan
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I agree with
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“What is important is sincere solicitation for the Divine grace and as long as the intentions are sacred, the body and the mind are clean, the Divine grace is bound to flow.”
Superb write up! I totally agree with you. I do not know Sanskrit and hence my diction/pronunciation will not be upto the mark. I learnt Vishu Sahasranamam, like my father, only in Tamil script. But I am confident that the Lord will listen to my prayers. Thanks for articulating the views of many of us.regards
saikrishnan
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I am in total agreement with Shri Sivasubramanian Perinkulam.
We often confuse symbols with substance. We are obsessed with form. If you yearn, you certainly can learn, age notwithstanding. Vyasa Maharishi was not in his prime of youth when he composed that great epic. Valmiki was not a teenager when he conceived Ramayana. The brilliance of a Bertrand Russell or a George Bernard Shaw didn’t diminish a bit even in their nineties. Our own Rajaji undertook a peace mission to United States, when he was in his late eighties. There were no cynics around him, dissuading him from his mission nor reminded him of his approaching senility.
Let us come down from our heights of arrogance and shed condescending attitudes towards others even if they are less endowed with.
V.Mahadevan
fine understanding and reply