Advaita and the history of Bharata

[Guest guest]

Namaste to all Advaitins,

 

The true Advaita sadhaka is a sanyasi. But what is sanyasa?

 

Sanyasa is not the giving up of the world. It is the giving up of

everything that is centred on the ego. It is the giving up of the

family because the whole world is family. It is the giving up of home

because the entire universe is home. It is the giving up of the roof

over the head because the open sky is the roof. It is the giving up

of the bed one sleeps on because the bosom of the earth is the bed.

 

The sanyasi doesn't have any work to do because all work is being

done by God. The sanyasi's action is attuned to the Will of God; his

own will has disappeared in its attunement to the ineluctable Will of

God. But everyone can't be a sanyasi. One has first to be attuned.

 

One can however begin the process of attunement. If one is not a

sanyasi, one can prepare oneself to be a sanyasi. One can gradually

remove oneself from one's own self-centredness and begin to centre

oneself in the space of the world. It is a step-by-step process, and

the dictate of dharma has already been given to us: when the village

is threatened one shall sacrifice the family for the village, when

the country is threatened one shall sacrifice the village for the

country, and when the God within one's Self is threatened the country

shall be sacrificed for God. That is the way to sanyasa. And that is

why Swami Vivekananda said to his countrymen:

 

"If you seek your own salvation, you will go to hell. It is the

salvation of others that you must seek... and even if you have to go

to hell in working for others, that is worth more than to gain heaven

by seeking your own salvation... Sri Ramakrishna came and gave his

life for the world. I will also sacrifice my life; you also, every

one of you, should do the same. All these works and so forth are only

a beginning. Believe me, from the shedding of our blood will arise

gigantic, heroic workers and warriors of God who will revolutionise

the whole world."

 

Today Dr.Yaduji wrote to me and said that his blood boils when he

sees what has happened to our country. I resonate strongly with him.

He said that the Moghuls raped our women, and the British raped our

country. I had said yesterday that the British had raped the history

of our country. But do we know that the history of the British people

itself has been raped? It was raped by the Church. If one reads 'The

Mists of Avalon' one will see what I mean.

 

The religion of the British Isles was once rooted in the Great Spirit

that imbues all of Nature. The people of the British Isles worshipped

the Great Mother Goddess before the missionaries of the Church came

to their land and ravished their native religion. A few days ago, I

spoke of the religion of Christ and the religion of the Church. They

are two different things. But we should not decry everything in the

Church. It has within it the sacred teachings of Christ, and it has

within it the spirit of the Church fathers, the blood of a thousand

martyrs that sacrificed their lives for Christ; there is no doubt

about it. But it has also within it the anti-Christ: the thirst for

power. The thirst for power that erected the 'second epiphany'

concocted by an Ecumenical Council that sat together to decide what

the religion of the wanderer of Galilee should be. The nazar (vision)

of the Nazarene was masked by the thirst for power that dwelt in the

hearts of those that had appropriated to themselves the Kingdom.

 

When an adulteress was being stoned, Christ said, 'let he that has

not sinned cast the first stone', and the people were silent. But

through the 'second epiphany', the Church gave to itself the right to

go out and cast stones on all the peoples of the earth for their

sins - and to bring them back to the 'true religion': the religion

not of Christ, but of the Church.

 

If one goes deeper into the backgrounds of William Jones and Max

Mueller, one finds that there were strange dissonances in their

hearts. One the one hand they were truly impressed with the Indian

scriptures, and on the other hand, the religion of the Church was

gnawing at their minds. Today we have the letters that these great

men of Europe wrote, and it is easy to see that both William Jones

and Max Mueller were motivated by the 'spirit of the Church' to bring

Christianity (read 'religion of the Church') to this heathen land.

Had it not been for Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami

Vivekananda, the seeds planted by these Indologists would perhaps

have succeeded in making this country into a Christian land. But

there were more things working below the surface of this world than

meets the mortal eye.

 

Advaita does not say that this world is an illusion. This world is

not an illusion when Maya is showing it to be real. It is an illusion

when Maya is showing it to be an illusion. The world is self-

referencing to Maya. Brahman gives to us both these visions. When

this world is not an illusion, it is a delusion to sit in non-action

and say that it is all an illusion. Let the sanyasi say that; he has

a right to say it. But those that live in the world must act, must

shed tears, must shed their blood if need be, must cry in joy, and

must suffer in their resistance to adharma. There is no alternative

to it.

 

There is an old English song which goes something like this:

 

Hierusalem, my happy home,

When shall I come to thee?

When shall my sorrows have an end,

Thy joys when shall I see?

 

And we, the sons and daughters of Bharata, what about our happy home?

When shall our sorrows come to an end? We were far away, too

preoccupied with our self-centredness, when our country was burning.

And our history was stolen from us; our holy land was ransacked; and

even our minds were stolen from us by streams of many alien thought.

We are hardly we any more.

 

Before we shall have our joys, we must learn to cry for this country.

We must learn to allow our blood to boil for it. We must become

ourselves. It is better to commit sati than to lie down passively and

be raped.

 

With blood, sweat and tears

Chittaranjan

[Guest guest]

Chitta:

 

Tears started flowing down my cheeks when i read your post this

morning during Brahmamuhurtha time .

 

You write :

 

(He (yaduji) said that the Moghuls raped our women, and the British

raped our country. I had said yesterday that the British had raped

the history of our country.)

 

But it is not that only the moghuls who have raped the women of

bharata - it is the Bharatiyas themselves, a land where the GODDESS

IS WORSHIPPED , men have for centuries have abused the women in

countless ways - 1) the dowry system 1) chid marriage 3) Sati -widow

burning 4) female infanticide etc ! All this in the name of Manu

Smriti and the scriptures !

 

It is true the British distorted the 'history' of the country - i

will not use the word 'rape' ... But the British did some nice things

too --- They opened the 'window' of the world to Bharat by making

English the medium of instruction ; THe infrastructure that British

built in the form of roads, is one of the greatest legacies that lead

to unity in diversity . In the field of education too - of course,

the british created a class of educated clerks rather than scholars !

smile!

 

i do agree with you 100% that the patriarchical religion of the

Orthodox church has also done similar harm to the matriarchical

societies ! But that has happened everywhere and is now slowly

changing .... would you not say ? The 'goddess' is coming into her

Own, at last even in the west.

 

But , let me ask you this! IT IS WORSE IF FOREIGNERS COME AND RAPE

OUR WOMEN AND LOOT OUR COUNTRY BUT it is even worse when our own

corrupt politicians instead of 'ruling' the country or 'ruining' the

very moral fabric of Bharata varsha , the land of Sitas, Draupadis

and Kannagis ?

 

British gave India independence in 1947 ... Have we demonstrated to

the world that we are capable of governing ourselves ? Look at

independent India ! whither thou India of my dreams ? Now a different

form of Colonization is taking place .... the feet of the

imperialist is on every soil in asia !

 

Tagore wrote :

 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

 

Vivekananda said

 

'All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind,

because oneness is the secret of everything. '

 

Chitta : here is the million dollar question - A country which sends

ITS own religious head ( the present Sankaracharya of kanchi mutt)

that too from the great ADI SHANKARA LINEAGE to the Jail on a false

pretext . cannot blame the British and moghuls for all its current

problems ... The british only sent freedom fighters to jail not

religious heads ?

 

sorry !

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sri Micheal:

 

I agree with you that for our own welfare, we should not dwell on the

future, should not dream on the future and learn to live on the

present! This Vedantic wisdom has been repeated many times in the Hindu

scriptures.

 

The Hindu tradition is an "Oral Tradition" and the history of India was

never well documented but this does not mean that there was no history.

The Hindu culture and civilization inspite of thousands of years of

foreign occupation is still in good shape is a remarkable achievement.

Th muslims at the most could damage the physical structures of the

famous temples of India and Christians at the most could built physical

structures of Churches! However the foreigners did not possess the

weapons to destroy the permanantly storeed memories of fundamental

beliefs and Hindu heritage!!

 

The Indians have truly 'Got Over It' without any reservation. That is

why the India (the Hindu country) has a Muslim President (Kalam), Sikh

Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) and a christian chief political advisor

(Sonia Gandhi)!

 

Warmest regards,

 

Harih Om!

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

advaitin, ombhurbhuva <ombhurbhuva@e...> wrote:

>

>

> .... however, addressing its generalities I think it is merely an

> accident of history as to who is the imperial bully boy because

everyone

> thinks that their system is best even the gentle Hindu.

> ...........

> As a native of a post-imperial country can I say that it is

absolutely

> pointless to dwell on the past, it draws energy away from the

present

> moment where our present problems beset us.

>...... As the Americans say: Get over it!

>

[Guest guest]

On 30/11/05, Chittaranjan Naik <chittaranjan_naik wrote:

>

> And we, the sons and daughters of Bharata, what about our happy home?

> When shall our sorrows come to an end? We were far away, too

> preoccupied with our self-centredness, when our country was burning.

> And our history was stolen from us; our holy land was ransacked; and

> even our minds were stolen from us by streams of many alien thought.

> We are hardly we any more.

>

> Before we shall have our joys, we must learn to cry for this country.

> We must learn to allow our blood to boil for it. We must become

> ourselves. It is better to commit sati than to lie down passively and

> be raped.

>

> With blood, sweat and tears

> Chittaranjan

 

 

** Chittaranjan-ji, that was beautifully written. I empathise with you

entirely (having felt somewhat similar emotions in the past), with the usual

caveat of course that the energies unleashed by such emotions must be used

intelligently for the benefit of society. My ability to express these is

nowhere near yours. Hope you use this talent of yours to achieve some

tangible benefits for dharma. Please do read below.

 

 

------------------------------

>

[Micheal-ji wrote:]

> Having the uninvidious job of

> being your fact checker I am glad that you are low on specifics in this

> post, however, addressing its generalities I think it is merely an

> accident of history as to who is the imperial bully boy because everyone

> thinks that their system is best even the gentle Hindu. A previous post

> redirected from another list demonises meat eaters who happen to be most

> of the dwellers on this planet. It is up to the individual today to demur

> or accept what is proffered and when Mormon or Jehovah Witness

> missionaries come to my door I always say politely ?I am happy with what I

> have, thank you very much?.

>

> As a native of a post-imperial country can I say that it is absolutely

> pointless to dwell on the past, it draws energy away from the present

> moment where our present problems beset us. Such ranting has been the

> strategy of right wing fascist groups who rave about unfinished

> historical business and use the uncertainty and insecurity of modern

> times to further their own agenda. As the Americans say: Get over it!

>

 

** Micheal-ji, I entirely appreciate your point about not dwelling in the

past. Many years ago, as a boy barely into his teens, I experienced some of

the emotions that Chitta-ji describes above. And what you say is precisely

what my father told me. And I still remember my father's "teachings"

whenever I come across someone who mentions these things. I certainly owe a

lot to my father for "stabilizing" me at that tender age.

 

However, the situation in Bharata is somewhat more complex, in the sense

that these are not problems of the past, but issues that are very much alive

today and could make or break the future of Hinduism. A great many of Hindu

society's *present* problems have to do with how we interpret our past,

especially because there are a great many vested interests who think of

Hinduism as irrelevant superstition that should be done away with (such as

the Communists), who want people to break away from Hinduism (such as the

Christian missionaries), who dont care about Hinduism simply because they

dont know much about it because their parents didnt teach them about it

(such as many "educated" Hindus), who see no problem in the "secular"

government controlling Hindu temples & their lands (without touching the

shrines of other religions) and even diverting temple funds for activities

that are patently against Hinduism, and so on and on. The "right wing" in

Bharata is probably the meekest right wing in the world!! The

ultra-controversial Aryan Invasion Theory that was mentioned recently on the

list is a small case in point. The vested interests mentioned above repeat

it tirelessly to further their interests. All the evidence against the

theory is no match for the decibel power of its votaries.

 

The Moghuls and the British are long since gone, but their ghost lives on.

That's why Chitta's anguish on our history being stolen, minds being stolen,

etc. These are not problems of the past, but problems of the present that

derive from the past.

 

The question is, who really is the "fascist right wing" in Bharata? Dont

tell me its the Sangh Parivar. They are too meek, and atleast as of now, no

match for their opponents.

 

Harihi Om

Ramesh