Sir — This refers to the article, “Salvaging India’s great spiritual tradition” (September 29) by Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan. The writer has echoed the sentiments of all Right-thinking Hindus. The south Indian term for religion is matham, meaning one that is born out of one’s ‘mathi’ (individual mind or opinion). Examples are Adwaita, Dwaita etc, which are derived from the minds of individual saints.
However, they all subsume under the Vedas and draw sustenance from it, unlike the misguided modern ones — and there lies the difference.
In 2012, Sringeri mutt’s head, Bharati Tirtha Swami, sojourned for over a month in Hyderabad, when some working people visited and requested him for suggesting them an ‘alternative’ to sandhya vadanam, puja etc, as they were supposedly hard-pressed for time for performing the same.
The Swamiji plainly refused it by saying that it is not for suggesting alternatives to the practice of Dharma that he was given this exalted post and instead admonished them for citing excuses like lack of time, when time for reading newspaper, drinking coffee etc, could be conveniently found in the mornings. Such is the ‘dharma-nishta’ ie unswerving adherence to dharma, of genuine gurus that they will save devotees from taking to flawed modes of worship that are deprecated or unauthorised by the scriptures.