Vivekananda and America-- Sarcasm is never helpful

[Guest guest]

Hi Bill, You are absolutely right. We, the children of Thakur must grow the habit of listening other's views with patience and we must reason it being free from ego. Your views on attire of Thakur was solely based on pure love for the great soul and only because you wish to propagate His invaluable ideas to the occidental world so you thought a new way for better representation of His appearance. Though I initially felt that could be possible, but later I realized that even without this we can move on. But I appreciate your pure intention for propagating Thakur's ideas there, among our western brothers. We must be free from all sorts of ego and if it grows centering Thakur himself we must shun that too. Our love for Thakur must bring forth humility and should not drive us towards criticism because we all know in our hearts that the

devotee's suggestions have been borne out of sheer respect and love for this great son of Mother Kali. Spirituality as it were, is never a stagnant thing, by nature it acts like a dynamo, eternally drawing all different ideas towards itself, fusing them within and then sending them across the universe, however insignificant they may appear. So, it will be really great for all of us, if we encourage ourselves to bring forth new ideas like Bill has given earlier and judge them in the light of eternal values of truth (this includes practicality and reasonability) and if suitable we can take up that and implement accordingly. Satrajit

[Guest guest]

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When I made the original suggestion about putting Ramakrishna in

western dress, so to speak, I was thinking about something the Apostle

Paul wrote to one of his churches in the early days of Christianity. I

ought to have mentioned that, and didn't, which may have led to some

confusion. For that, I apologize. What Paul had to say was that he

tended to become all things to all people in order to win some souls

for Christ. That is, he became a Greek for the gentiles in the Empire

and stayed a Jew for the Jews he had to deal with. He knew that as an

orthodox Jew, with all the rules about diet and so on, he would never

make it in the door of a gentile home. So his message would not ever

be received. His point was the importance, not of the messenger, but

of the Message and the One Who gave it.

 

Suggesting that Ramakrishna be clothed in western dress was in no way

meant as a disrespectful jibe at India or its culture, which is as

rich and deep as anyone could possibly wish, and the depths of which

can never be plumbed. But the west, specifically North America, has

been inundated with scandals from swamis of dubious repute, too many

to name, and anything that smacks of Indian mystics tends to provoke

suspicion. Is this fair? Of course it is not fair, but that is the way

it is. Does this mean we are to disavow Ramakrishnas origins? No, of

course not. But it does mean that we must make an attempt to adapt the

outward signs and symbols to the culture in which we live. An example

is found in Hindu Temples here in Ontario. Step in the door and you

are transported to another culture, another language, another

heritage, another everything. This is fine for the expat Indian

communities, this is all old stuff to them. But as a western

caucasian, I enter and find myself looking at the Deities and

wondering what I have gotten myself into. Nothing is familiar to me at

all, and presumably the temple is for me just as it is for folk from

India. Now, at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre in Toronto, I find

pictures of Jesus, the Holy Mother, Ramakrishna, Vivedananda and

Krishna on the altar and people there wearing western clothing. I am,

at once, less anxious about being there, feel much less a stranger who

is totally out of place, and, perhaps unwelcome. I go to the bookstore

and see volumes that talk about Jesus and Vedanta in sane terms, books

that stress similarities and not differences, and there is no claim

whatever to having some kind of exclusive " in " on God and all His works.

 

DO YOU KNOW HOW AMAZING THIS IS?

 

Turn on the television these days and you find fundamentalist

televangelists ranting about being " saved " in these " latter days " . The

message has been preached for decades and never fails to appeal to

many, in this case, apparently,also the American President, who

professes a belief in this kind of God. The American fundamentalist

church is a rich and powerful institution, dealing out, in my opinion,

distorted theology, one based on fear and hatred. The message of

vedanta is the exact opposite. And, since there is a huge hunger out

there for real teachings about God, teachings based on love and

decency, vedanta has every chance of gaining ground. What it needs is

to find a way to speak to North Americans in a way they can

understand. That is all I am trying to do, help find a way to get the

word out. Goodness knows, the hunger is there. Look at all the

websites for yoga and Indian teachings and what not and you will find

there are millions who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. They

really are. We just need to find a better way of telling them we are

here and that we have at least some of what they are looking for.

[Guest guest]

Hi All, I appreciate Bill's explanation and his dedication towardsd spirituality. He has written down some facts from the point of views of Westerners, how they usually feel and accept us or reject our ideas even. We cannot expect people born and brought up in complete different atmosphere to understand and grasp at once the exact meanings of Indian culture. How can our western brothers who never have lived in any of our circumstances readily adopt the feelings that we wished to spread? It must be 'Feel home' like inspiration for them if we offer spirituality. Though we must remember these are 'Initial hurdles' in matters of accepting Vedantic phiosophies. But as Bill said, certainly we can interpret our ideas the way they understand them, without altering the basic and fundamental truths. Satrajit