Adiyean Ramanuja Dasan
This is all I have to say for all wonderful things Sriman Narayana has done for me, starting with planting the desire to write this Blog, to this dream that has come to me now. Please do read and let me know your thoughts. Its time to do something, do something worthy for all He has done.
What started out as a little hobby has given birth to a strong dream, Sri Vaishnava Digital Fund.
Sri Vaishnava Digital Fund – We know that seems a little odd, but actually it makes perfect sense. Every age, there is a medium through which ideas & thoughts are written, distributed & stored. In Sri Vaishnavam, Alwars used songs, Acharyas used manuscripts, Kings built temples and so on. All these captivated people, who then came to learn and know about the rich treasure that is Sri Vaishnavam.
Back then, those were the only available mediums. Today, to a large extent we have been using just Books and to a small extent CD’s for Upanyasams, while todays technology offers a lot more – Animation, Graphic Novels, e-Learning, Internet, e-books, Rich Audio & Video and so on. But this technology itself has been the biggest hurdle too. Earlier if someone had to write a commentary on say, Thiruvaimozhi, all he had to know was how to write and have a neat Handwriting. But today? The person should know computers, the softwares in it to write and edit, the internet to publish it and the list goes on. This just is for e-books. What about Animation, Graphic Novels, e-Learning and so much more?
This exactly is the need for setting up such a fund. We do have e-books, graphic novels on Sri Vaishnavam. But what about the aesthetic Quality? Is it good enough to impress a layman, children, people from other faiths? The core content is important, but similarly it is also important to be presented well too. And let’s just think of this. We all know Sri Vaikuntam is such a magnificent place with milky white roads, bliss everywhere; but how good it would be if we can have High Quality Artwork, Animations of how possibly it might look and have a caption, “My Next Home”, wouldn’t that impress & inspire a layman and even Sri Vaishnavas?. This is just one example, a lot more can be done.
We are not going to create anything new. We are just giving a new face to the invaluable and the rich literature in Sri Vaishnavam. But still, we cant right away produce an top quality animated movie on Sri Vaishnavam or the like. We are taking baby steps and one day under Sriman Narayana’s grace we can
- Archive the entire Divyaprabhandhams, all the Vyakhanams and all other works of our illustrious Acharyas in an easily searchable and downloadable format for everyone in the world.
- Produce top quality documentaries on all the Acharyas & Alwars.
- Produce Printed & e-Graphic Novels on Alwars and Acharyas that would interest children, youngsters and those new to Sri Vaishnavam.
- Create interactive, interesting, rich e-learning materials for important Sri Vaishnava literature.
- Top Quality arts of Alwars & Acharyas, High Resolution photos of Divyadesams and Utsavams for use in Sri Vaishnava books & websites.
- Produce Comprehensive and regularly updated Travel guides for all the Divyadesams and the Abhimana Stalams.
- Build a website that would be the pivot for all the above ventures. All the content produced would be downloadable for free for everyone.
Sri Vaishnavam 