Dear Devotees, Jai Sriman Narayana!
Our knowledge understanding and insights shape our beliefs. Our beliefs shape our values. Our values are expressed in our culture and behaviour.
Srivaishnavas are not part of the so-called "modernity" or the "western materialist civilisation" . . . we are the expression of the original pure self and in this world we are the positive alternative: full of meaning, understanding and the knowledge arrived at by a robust examination from within of the pure self and following those great ones who had and have a vastly more complete view of the pure self and the origin of everything, Sriman Narayana. We follow the shastra which they have presented and which is the expression of God and His divine will. Our culture is NOT "Indian" culture: it is the culture of the spiritual world, of Vaikuntha.
We express our culture through the mother of all languages and that which was used by those who had the most profound and penetrating insights into reality and the greatest truths. We express our culture in our mode of dress, our sculpture, textiles, pottery, architecture, painting, dance, theatre, music, cuisine, in our entire social intercourse and the goals of all our actions: to be pleasing to Sriman Narayana. The culture of the Western world is shaped around the belief that there is no God, no Sriman Narayana. It is shaped around the belief that you are nothing more than a mind and body: an almost ghost like entity with no actual "self", no soul. To the followers of and purveyors of Western culture, "You" are nothing more than chemical reactions and "you" only exist as long as your body exists.
Western culture beckons us to believe that the goal of life is sense indulgence and pandering to the ego: that part of the subtle body which denies our true self and instead seeks to elevate the status of our mind and body above the other minds and bodies. It is a cruel and callous accessory and even driving force of materialism. Western culture wishes us to pursue those goals at all costs. When you adopt any facet of Western culture, its clothing, books, movies, art and so on, you are expressing the atheist's "knowledge", "understanding" and "insights": their beliefs . . . and then you very quickly and naturally adopt their values.
If we value the teachings of the Acharyas and Alvars and the ancients and our personal realisations of the self, we should think very clearly and carefully about these matters. We should in every way possible and practical remove the artefacts of Western materialist culture from our lives.
Adiyen, Shaligrama
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