SaktAdvaita

[Ravisankar Mayavaram]

On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Srivats Srinivasan wrote:
>
>
>   Austin doesn't have a traditional temple yet. It has an ashram about 30
> mins. drive from downtown. As for the University library, yes there are a
> lot of books on Indian philosophy on almost all Indian languages. San Antonio
> temple is a very nice temple. The archakas are well versed in vedas,
> though I cannot say if you and I are talking of the same archakas.
>

The temple and Ashram which is in south of Austin is called shrI
Radha Rani Temple, built by International Society for Divine Love
and the leader of the Ashram is one shrI prAkAshananda sarasvati
(I hope the name is correct). In fact he was trained (according
the booklets of the Ashram) in Joshi maTha and they also state
(claim?) that he was offered shankArachArya position, but he
refused because he had a vision and love to serve Radha Rani,
consort of shrI kR^iShNa. He also gives a 30 minutes lecture on
Channel 11 at 8:30pm on Mondays in Austin. Topic is bhagavad
gIta.  In principle, in one of the books, he accepts shrI
shankara is correct. But like any other vaishnava sampradAyam, he
is in favor worshipping Lord Krishna and Radha. There tradition
considers Radha is superior to Krishna. In a sense it is a Sakta
like tradition.

About San Antonio temple, I think you are referring to shrI
Nagaraja Sharma. He is from Bangalore, India. After I am done
with my Ph.D, if I am still here, I am planning to contact him to
learn from him. He is a very nice man and both the priests (i
dont remember the name of other shrI vaishnava priest) do
archana-s very patiently and nicely. And shrI sharma is also a
shrIvidyA upAsaka. Last time when I went, I had the opportunity
to hear the aShtOttaram he has written on ardhanArishvara ( there
is a beautiful vighraham, which has given to the temple by
shivAya subramuniya svAmi) and it is very beautiful. He is a good
person to learn shrI lalitA sahasranAma also.


With regards,
Ravi

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