The kAnchi maTham case [was Mrityunjaya Sahasranama

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"sankara menon" <kochu1tz Add to Address BookDate:Fri, 4 Feb

2005 23:32:20 -0800 (PST)Subject:] [input] [input] [input] [input]

As a lawyer I know that the whole thing is a charade. But why are not the Hindu

people of India taking it up? sWseshagiri <s_seshagiri

wrote:namastE,Disclaimer : This post is outside list scope. If what is currently

happening in TamilNadu wrt the arrest of the kAnchi AchAryA-s does not interest

you, please do not read any further. However, in my humble opinion, this drama

goes *well beyond* the AchAryA-s and the maTham, is contrary to the principles

of justice, and could just as easily happen to someone you might know or care

about !

 

 

Dear friend,

 

 

 

Pranams.

 

 

 

The Hindu reaction to what is going on against Kanchi Peetam is not as concerted

and forceful as it ought to have been. This is because of an inherent flaw in

our religious organization.

 

 

 

Even as a matter of course, the Hinuds are indifferent to religious

organizations. As a fundamental principle, they are taught that God resides in

all the living beings and that one should learn and strive to identify the

divinity in him or her. This is nothing wrong but it makes Hinduism so much a

personal way of life that organizations become secondary.

 

 

 

Secondly, Hinduism accepts all sincere efforts to God realization, called

sampradayas. Again there is nothing wrong in this. But the side effect is that

even those religious conscious Hindu population stands divided.

 

 

 

All the sampradayas should first affirm the significance of the Vedas and

respect the common bond of our Vedic Heritage; and then talk about the

specialities of their interpretations and procedures. They miserably fail in

this. Each sampradaya is presented as though it is a separate shell. Whether it

is Advaita or Dvaita or Hare Krishna or Ramakrishna or Arya Samaja or any

religious conscious Hindu should realize the common bond of Vedism.

 

 

 

Interpretations, approaches, expressions and exercises may differ. This does not

make any individual group entitled to call itself a totally originally or

independent group, forgetting its roots of the Vedic Heritage. I am not saying

that the individual sampradaya is bad. In a vast country like ours, among widely

spread Hindu population, this is very understandable. But we should not forget

that any one of these sampradayas is spiritually efficacious because of the

foundation of the Vedas.

 

 

 

Every Hindu, whether he or she is a Saiva of the southern states or Kashmir, a

Vaishnava of Srivilliputhur or Sriranga or Puri, any Hindu should understand

first that he or she is a Vaidheeka and then a Saiva or Vaishnava or Sakta and

what not. But unfortunately what we see is, even within such divisions there are

groups.

 

 

 

Just for example, if one writes the history of Hindus of Tamil Nadu, two sad

chapters would be there. One, about the conflict among the Advaitas of Kanchi

mutt and Sringeri mutt. The next one is the conflict between Vadakalai Iyengars

and Thenkalai Iyengars. Within the same philosophical groups, if such divisions

should keep people apart, what is the surprise in others trying to take

advantage of it? This has been happening from time immemorial, right from the

days when the doors were opened for Ghori.

 

 

 

Recently a great scholar Dr. Frank Gaetano Morales has published a paper that

highlights the importance of the Vedic Heritage. (A Philosophical Critique of

Radical Universalism) This essay has been posted in www.sulekha.com. It is also

being serialized in the magazine Nitya Kalyan. This scholar, who calls himself a

practicing Hindu for several decades, brings focus on the crucial subject of the

significance of the Vedas.

 

All Hindus should become aware of the common bond of Vedic Heritage among

themselves, irrespective of the sampradaya they belong. It is no doubt difficult

for the Hindu population that has been subjected to continuous harassment by

waves of aggressors for more than a thousand years, to come out of the grip of

many black theories planted in a planned manner in their minds. But they have to

do it. Earlier the better.

 

If a Hindu thinks that he is free from foreign aggression today, to say the

least, he is ignorant. The political presence of foreigners may not be there.

But the religious invasion is very much there. It is an ongoing affair.

 

We are not finding fault with any religious school of thought, anywhere in the

world. But it is our bounden duty to analyze our own way of life and wipe out

the differences that divide us, whether it is based on caste or language or

religious sampradaya.

 

How can a population unaware of the greatness of its own heritage, unconscious

about the diseases of divisions based on caste, language and sampradaya; and

gullible enough to believe the arguments of those who want to be in political

power, designed to divide and rule them, can be expected to express unity and

vibration in the wake of planned assault against itself?

 

With regards,

 

K S Venkataraman

 

6-02-05