Current mood:

curious

Talk by Swami Dayanada Saraswati


I had the opportunity of hearing Swami Dayanada Saraswati today at the town hall in Bangalore. He has been delivering a series of talks on the essential verses of the Gita over a week. I was eager to hear him as I had hear that he was a good speaker with the ability to explain the verses in manner that is easily understood by the common man a.k.a people like me :)

I must admit that I am normally very skeptical with Swamijis and self styled God men. But since I always like to have an open mind, I put my thinking cap on and was all ears to hear this man speak.

The talk started at 6:30 PM and the hall was mostly full with mostly folks fifty years and above barring a few exceptions like me. The front benchers were swamijis and sanyasins(?) dressed in saffron robes with some upwardly mobile folks as well.

It took me a while to accept that a Swamiji could be so articulate in communication. He spoke in good english without any particular accent. He was clear and razor sharp in his communication and for the most part had my rapt attention. Time flew by and I was deeply immersed in the verse he was explaining for the next hour and a half. He was explaing the correlation between action and results as defined in the verse from the Gita. His use of anecdotes interspersed with jokes kept us all keep pace with him.

There are some questions that linger in my mind long after the talk:

- Why did he choose the name Swami Dayananda Saraswati? Is there in any way any relation to the Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati of Arya Samaj fame?
- Is this another man out to build another cult following? No doubt he is very learned and has a fan following?
- Why do Indians crave for someone to follow blindly and idolize?
- Why doesnt the Arsha Vidya site not mention too much about the Swamiji's background?

What was comforting is the fact that the Arsha Vidya website does not position this man as a godman but merely as a learned swami well versed in Vedanta. That leaves me in a zone of comfort. Maybe I will go to listen to him next time around. He sure did provoke my curiosity in the Gita and set me thinking on what he had to say.