Guest guest Posted June 9, 2003 Report Share Posted June 9, 2003 Parts 1 to 159 were posted earlier. This is part 160. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS By Sister Gayatriprana part 160 3. If the Brahmins Cannot Live Up to the Vedas Themselves Let Them Accept Others and Build Up a New Aryan Society Where are the four castes today in this country? Answer me, [brahmins of Bengal]. I do not see the four castes. Just as our Bengali proverb has it: " A headache without a head", so you want to make this varnashrama [caste system] here. There are not [the traditional] four castes here. I see only the brahmin and the shudra. If there are kshatriyas and vaishyas, where are they and why do you brahmins not order them to take the yajnopavita [investiture with the sacred thread] and study the Vedas, as every Hindu ought to do? And if the vaishyas and kshatriyas do not exist, but only the brahmins and shudras, the Shastras say that the brahmin must not live where there are only shudras; so, depart, bag and baggage! Do you know what the Shastras say about people who have been eating mlechchha [non-Hindu] food and living under the government of the mlechchhas, as you have been doing for the past thousand years? Do you know the penance for that? The penance would be burning yourself with your own hands. Do you want to pass as teachers and walk like hypocrites? If you believe in your Shastras, burn yourself first like the one great brahmin who went with Alexander the Great and burnt himself because he thought he had eaten the food of a mlechchha. Do like that, and you will see that the whole nation will be at your feet. You do not believe your own Shastras and yet want to make others believe in them. If you think you are not able to do that in this age, admit your weakness and excuse the weakness of others; take the other castes up, give them a helping hand, let them study the Vedas and become just as good Aryans as any other Aryans in the world, and be you likewise Aryans.(17) The meaning of the mantras in the shraddha ceremony [for ancestors] is very edifying. The mantras depict the suffering and care undergone by our parents on our behalf. The performance of it is an honor paid to the memory of the sum total of the spirits of our forebears, whose virtues we inherit. Sraddha has nothing to do with one’s salvation. Yet no Hindu who loves his or her religion, his or her country, his or her past and his or her great forebears should give up shraddha. The outward formalities and the feeding of brahmins are not essential. We have no brahmins in these days worthy of being fed on shraddha days. The brahmins fed ought not to be professional eaters, but brahmins who feed disciples gratis and teach them true Vedic doctrines. In these days, shraddha may be performed mentally.(18) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 10, 2003 Report Share Posted June 10, 2003 recently in the web i came across one Swami Agehananda Bharati who seems to have spent a lot of time with RKM as well as studied RKM literature. he has a lot of criticism against thakur, his methods, personal life, etc. though could not obtain those details. can anyone throw further light on this as this seems extremely disturbing. i would prefer an opn-minded responses rather than a brishing off suggestions that these are prejudiced views or that these should be ignored. looking forward to some valuable feedback. thanks, chellamani Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook. http://calendar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 11, 2003 Report Share Posted June 11, 2003 Dear Gayatri, Since i don't know who is Swami Agehananda Bharati and what comments he wrote against Sri Ramakrishna, i feel helpless to give a feedback. But the thing is, it is we who have to have an opinion of something by reading/contemplating/analyzing . Books are a great source of knowledge about the past events/persons and most of them is acceptable as they r logical. Also the effect of Sri Ramakrishna's life and teachings can be seen in many lives as only increasing their awareness of being divine, having right understanding of Self and working out towards achieving that goal. When we do a study of another great Incarnation " Jesus Christ " , we see that many Jews who were following Moses's teachings also did not believe in Jesus as an incarnation/God-Man and also ridiculed him/his teachings in many ways. Now, does this mean Jesus is not what he is ...Pure,God realised,God Incarnate? It is the High Priest of Jews that with/without being conscious of God Incarnate in Jesus, that had played an active role in crucifixion for selfish purposes. Hence what i would want to say is " Incarnations " and " Critics/non-believers whosoever they are...like the High priest and most Jews at the time of Jesus " are there even now. But it is we who have to decide with sufficient reasoning and proceed, for this alone can do good to us. May God Bless you and all. Hemanth gayatri chellamani [gayat52] recently in the web i came across one Swami Agehananda Bharati who seems to have spent a lot of time with RKM as well as studied RKM literature. he has a lot of criticism against thakur, his methods, personal life, etc. though could not obtain those details. can anyone throw further light on this as this seems extremely disturbing. i would prefer an opn-minded responses rather than a brishing off suggestions that these are prejudiced views or that these should be ignored. looking forward to some valuable feedback. thanks, chellamani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 12, 2003 Report Share Posted June 12, 2003 Ramakrishna , gayatri chellamani <gayat52> wrote: > > recently in the web i came across one Swami Agehananda > Bharati who seems to have spent a lot of time with RKM > as well as studied RKM literature. he has a lot of > criticism against thakur, his methods, personal life, > etc. though could not obtain those details. > > can anyone throw further light on this as this seems > extremely disturbing. i would prefer an opn-minded > responses rather than a brishing off suggestions that > these are prejudiced views or that these should be > ignored. > > looking forward to some valuable feedback. > > thanks, > > chellamani Namaste, Agehananda Bharati was Leoplod Fischer, born in Austria, became a Prof. of Anthropology at Syracuse University. He wrote an autobiography, " The Ochre Robe: An Autobiography, 1980 " . He died in 1991. He claimed to have understood the roots of mysticism through his exposure to psychedelics, tantric practices, and anthropology. He has been recently brought back into the limelight by a Prof. Kirpal, about whom you can refer to message # 8535. Regards, Sunder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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