Insights into Sanatana Dharma (A Voice Across the Seas)

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Sri Sri Rangapriya Swamiji (1927-2012) is well known among lovers of Samskruta and Samskruti as a scholar par excellence, outstanding orator, poet extempore and an ascetic of the highest order. His personality was a unique blend of Jnaana, Bhakti and Vairagya.

Born as Varadadesikacharya in 1927 in the tiny hamlet of Hedathale in Nanjangud near Mysore, he had the great fortune of being a close relative of Sriranga Mahaguru. The kinship got transformed into an intimate Guru-shishya relationship. Under the spiritual tutelage of Sriranga Mahaguru, he studied the basis and beauty of Bharatiya Samskruti and its component vidyas, kalas and shastras.

He completed formal education at the Samskrutha Pathashala, Mysore and later at Saugar University, M.P. He taught at National College in Bangalore from where he retired as HOD of Sanskrit. He delivered hundreds of invited lectures and inspired countless numbers of people to follow the path of Dharma in the best traditions of our culture. He travelled extensively with a tight schedule in this exalted endeavour of spreading the Message of His Master. He used to address, through tele-conference, a large number of devotees residing in far-off countries but with their hearts rooted in Sanatana Dharma. A compendium of such Lectures, along with the Question and Answer Sessions that followed, forms the subject matter of this Book. His written articles and transcribed lectures have been compiled into several books on a variety of topics such as Festivals, Bhagavad Gita, Vivaha, Upanayana and other Samskaras. His words and thought appealed to one and all-be it students or professionals, scholars or common folk, children or the elderly. His own personal life however was simple, sweet and steeped in devotion to his Guru at whose feet he surrendered his all.

The Seers of Sanatana Arya Bharata, through intense penance, had the exalted experience of visualizing within the inner-most recesses of their hearts, the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Light, the Supreme Brahman. They found this to be the source and substratum of the entire creation and so termed it 'The Supreme Dharma' that which supports and nourishes everything an ancient yet eternal entity. In a secondary sense, the path leading to this Supreme Light is also called Sanatana Dharma.

The seers revealed the fact that this Sanatana Dharma bridges our life and the Light Supreme, thus leading us to the state of Supreme Bliss Brahmananda, Parabrahmananda. It bestows upon mankind the four-fold objectives of life Dharma, Artha, Kama and Mokşa as enumerated by the great Rsis. The celebrated Veda Vyasa proclaims "Follow Dharma, then both Artha and Kama could be reaped as by-products." Thus the right practice of Sanatana Dharma confers on us both material and spiritual benefits. The Seers have designed a life-style blended, as warp and woof, with such a Dharma.