Dear Harish Ji,
Thanks for this feedback. My responses below. <snip> I would also suggest it to be a platform for sharing resources. I find content in accessible form difficult for Sanathana studies. Sometimes even when the content is accessible, the TTS is unable to handle it correctly. To give an example, I was looking for Ramcharita Maans in Hindi. I did get a soft copy, although it was in Unicode I guess the character set would have been in audi and it was impossible to follow it. Some are image PDF's etc. As it is a closed group of blind persons, it should be ok to share. > This is a nice idea, and I would sincerely hope someone could take this on in the general sense that you are describing, where all spiritual literature considered to be part of Sannatana Dharma literature be collated for the blind reader. In our case, we are taking a more specific approach, so that literature specifically in line with Bhakti-yoga, in the disciplic succession line in which Iskcon comes, will be studied systematically and thus availed to our readers. Sanatana Dharma is extremely broad in its scope as you may well know, and it may include various branches of knowledge such as sama-veda or the science of music, Yajur-veda or the science of sacrifice to propitiate the Demigods, Ayurveda for understanding and treating health, Dhanurveda for military study,Etc. A general collection of such works could be an invaluable source of knowledge accessible to the blind community interested, however much of this would probably be still locked in the sacred Sanskrit language, probably now brought into digital form of the Devanagari script. Our intended scope for the forum I am presenting here though is much more of a narrow discipline, such that we can manage for the moment, with humble beginnings of being able to encourage the study of the Bhagavad-gita by the visually challenged reader, much like an on-line book-club sanga. So while your suggestion is an excellent one, it would be a bit of an over-reach for our immediate purposes. I do hope though that such an idea as you describe could find someone here willing to brace the exciting challenge. <Snip> ISKCON too is also a major source of original works. I wonder how many of them are accessible. <Snip> Practically everything produced of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, by the BBT which is the publishing house of Iskcon (although separately registered), is accessible via soft form. Additional Publications are also accessible electronically, for example via platforms like the Bhaktivedanta Folio Vedabase. Still further, many devotees have recorded publications like Bhagavad-Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam and other literature into Audio readings. Now there is attempt at producing some of our literature in braille also. So to conclude, ISKCON’s literature is very easily accessible to us, practically everything, at least in electronic form. <Snip> I would suggest Sadak which loosely means seeker in English as the title. I for one would like not to use qualification of disability in the title which I consider to be incidental and not primary in the path of a seeker. <Snip> I have alternative thoughts if you don’t mind, which is a generalization here and not specifically in terms of the reading group we are discussing in this thread. Generally I would prefer to reference the blind community in a name of a platform that focuses on that community, but referenced cleverly, poetically or even indirectly. My reason is that we should be bold in acknowledging that we do have unique circumstances of life being blind, and so we can shape misconceptions from people about us; we can represent ourselves as a unique but constructive component of any society; we can act with, and command our dignity as a people with a unique and meaningful voice, and we can announce ourselves as an entity deserving an accommodated place in the world in which we live. By not acknowledging our disability in a name, we tend to hide away (perhaps not intentionally) from all of the above. I prefer that we are not shy about our unique situation collectively. Again, this is my preference. The name Sadak is too generalized for our group which focuses specifically on Lord Krishna and his incarnations. Other spiritual seeking may be valid in the Hindu community such as those seeking liberation into Brahma-Jyoti, those seeking entrance into the heavenly planets or into the Sun globe and thus may propitiate Omkara, Indradeva or Suryadeva respectively. A group accommodating all of this would fit your proposed name. <Snip> I do not follow ISKCON way of life. Frankly, I do not understand it. Nor I have any aversion or any opinion at all. I occasionally visit some of the centers. Do folks like me, fall into the scheme of things in this group? <Snip> Iskcon is an institution that focuses primarily on uniting for the purpose of connecting with God or Krishna, by following one of the four paths of disciplic succession going back to their founders who taught this knowledge about him, having learnt it directly from himself, Lord Krishna. Its founder, Srila Prabhupada, was a unique preceptor in one of these disciplic succession lineages, in that, on the order of his own teacher, he presented this knowledge in disciplic succession to the Western countries for the first time, which has also eventually made its presence felt keenly in Indian society also. So in a nutshell, that is Iskcon. Whether you fall into the scheme of things for this group will depend on your eagerness to learn more about Lord Krishna, about your own identity as a spirit soul, about Karma, Reincarnation, the ultimate purpose for existence, all of which as collectively presented in disciplic succession. Anyone interested to do that is certainly welcome in our group. I’ll provide an analogy for clarity. There are people who may love eating food, and they may belong to a group discussing and experimenting with all kinds of food. There may also however be a group uniquely interested in the taste of honey, and the various gradations of honey that may be harvested. The second group is obviously more specialized. You will have to decide how specialized is your interest in determining whether you wish to participate. Participation in our group is welcome by anyone remotely interested in learning about the above topics in disciplic succession, but who are sight challenged in that spiritual context. I hope I have answered you satisfactorily. Thanks again for the feedback, and do let me know if you wish to discuss further to evaluate whether you would be interested. I suggest if we can speak more personally in case you have questions or even concerns about ISKCON that may be a more personal approach for you to express yourself. My Whatsapp No is +27 82 291 6081. I prefer Whatsapp because call quality is superior to phone calls for the most part. Kind regards, Yamuna Jivana Dasa Harish On 6/5/2024 6:38 PM, Yamuna Jivana Dasa wrote: Living with Blindness as a Hare Krishna Devotee Dear community, On Wednesday 29 May 2024, a very pleasant and courageous Vaishnava visited me at my home for the first time. Isvara Puri Prabhu, like me, is totally blind, but I was surprised to learn that he has been living as an aspiring travelling devotee for some time. What started as a social visit for SadhuSanga turned out to be a discovery of many incredible shared interests upon which we wish to explore jointly. One of these areas regards the establishment of a community of blind bodied/visually impaired devotees world-wide. Presently he is hosting a reading session group for Telugu speakers, and now we wish to extend into the English speaking audience. The following is a tentative program structure: 1. We have discussed Whatsapp as the most likely meeting client since most people already use it, and since it is also reasonably accessible on the various computer and phone platforms used by the blind community. 2. We will systematically read Bhagavad-gita from beginning to end, followed by Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya Caritamrta, Nectar of Devotion and Nectar of Instruction. Devotees who are able to read in Braille, from computer or phone text-to-speech may like to take turns to read to the group. Reading of the Sanskrit can be illiminated if the reader cannot read from their given reading platform. This segment will last for 1 hour. 3. We can dedicate time to any other topics related to living as visually challenged devotees, in which experiences can be shared and possible solutions explored together. These may be requested by group members for consideration in future meetings. This segment may last 30 minutes. Examples of such topics may include things like living with visual challenge in a non-devotee family setting, navigating to temples, taking help at temples, staying overnight, preference for on-line sanga due to mobility challenges, the future for those of us living without sight, practicing devotional service as our world changes, how the Vedic civilization may be either supportive or disadvantageous to living as blind devotees, navigating in a Varnasrama community being blind, and the level of acceptance and assistance from sighted devotees in the various settings in which we find ourselves seeking sadhu sanga. 4. The frequency of these gatherings are still tentative, but I propose here once weekly during a Saturday or Sunday afternoon or evening to accomodate most people outside of work and other commitments. 5. The conditions for participation shall be as follows: 5.1. The participant should be living with blindness, or have a very strong affinity for, or experience in dealing with blind people. Taking turns to read will be given preference to totally blind participants. 5.2. The participant should specifically have an affinity towards spiritual life, but more particularly towards the Krishna Conscious way of life. 6. I'm still thinking of a short name for the group that will ring well in English. Anyone interested may contact me privately for further discussion. Should you know any persons or groups fitting the target audience of this invitation, please share with them. With kind regards, Yamuna Jivana dasa Whatsapp No: +27 82 2916081 India Phone number: +91 70372 95962 E-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. 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