[Advaita-l] RE: e-vEdAnta course

[Ram Chandran]

Namaste Sri Jaldhar:

I believe that your criticism regarding the e-Vedanta Course comes with good intentions. Vedantic organizations including the Chinmaya Mission do evaluate the pros and cons of their new programs using an open discussion forum - for example a trustee or board meetings. Interestingly such meetings always contain members such as Jaldhar H. Vyas,  Bhadraiah Mallampalli, Vidyasankar Sundaresan, Ravisankar, Srikrishna Ghadiyaram,  Vaidya Sundaram and Ram Chandran. Though Swamijis have the veto power, they always listen to all sides and act appropriately. Please understand that the idea of e-Vedanta course doesn't come from Swamiji but mostly such ideas come from the audience! Swamiji being service oriented wants to help the members if and when new ideas become feasible. No human action is perfect, it always contains flaws. When the best becomes infeasible, we do go for the second best and organizations do the same! 

The e-vedanta course is a new venture - just like ventures such as the Advaita-L and advaitin list to learn and propogate vedanta. We certainly can't go back to the vedic times and sit infront of banyan tree listening to a Guru. Organizations have to accomodate and meet the changes due to the modern environment. Even with all the changes, there will be resistence from few and that is quite understandable.

To day, all Sankara Mutts have a e-mail list and send their newsletters to their members. Swami Jayendra Swamigal of Kanchi does corrrespond using emails? These are not perfect substitutes for direct personal one-on-one conversation! Now most of us have no problem with this change. We need to be more realistic and understand the difficulties of raising funds in the modern context and be sympathetic to the causes and avoid judging others pre-maturely. We do need faith in Acharyas such as Swami Jayendra Saraswati, Swami Tejomayananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati and others and don't attempt to prejudge their intentions. They have dedicated their entire life for public service and they have never claimed that they are perfect. 

Warmest regards,

Ram Chandran