My name is Vageeshwar Srinivasan and I'm an 8th grader studying at Sam H. Lawson middle school in Cupertino. My mom conducts this Mahaperiyava Satsangam every month to educate people on different aspects of our Hindu religion. Our Hindu religion consists of multifarious stories involving our Hindu Gods. There are a myriad of stories that describe how our Hindu religion originated and developed through time. Each Hindu story collection is taken as an allegory by scholars to interpret the true meaning of birth, life, death, and afterlife. My mom takes one of these amazing epics and transforms into her own excavation of the true meaning behind ourselves. In each Satsangam she explains the story and elucidates the true meaning to all of us. But, my mom only describes the events in Tamil, my mother tongue. Although my mom could conduct the Satsangam in English, she thinks that the story would come alive only if it was said in Tamil. Since I can read, write, and speak Tamil fluently, I could understand the value behind each word she puts forth to us. My mom used to tell me these stories to me when I was young, but I never really understood the real moral of the story. I usually just listen to it as if I was listening to a tall tale. But a few weeks ago, many of our dear friends, who didn't speak Tamil, were very eager and interested to listen to our Mahaperiyava Satsangam. But, as we explained that we only conduct our Satsangam in Tamil, their smiles turned into frowns. That's when I thought, "Hey, why can't I translate whatever my mom says in Tamil to English so that everybody can come to know about it?" That's when I started to translate those Tamil words into English. I thought it was a simple job. Boy was I wrong. It took me approximately a week, yes a week, to put my first story together in English. I spent about 21 hours listening to the tape and inserting the correct words by myself since I wanted to surprise my family. But, I did it. I never gave up on myself. Once I take an action, I won't stop until I finish the work. I felt so blessed to be bilingual and that I could help a lot of people to understand my mom's work. My main purpose of this blog is to post the English translations that I have done and to keep you updated with our Mahaperiyava Satsangam. I think I'll be done with my translations a lot faster because I can have help from my family and friends. If you ever feel like contacting me or telling me what I should add to this
blog to spice it up, feel free to comment on my posts.
