A Common Disease

[jijaji]

A Common Disease

 

By surrounding himself with true believers, Waldo fell into the trap of taking himself too seriously.

 

This led to unhappiness and ill health.

 

When he asked Ralph, one of the few who had penetrated his multilevel cover stories, what he thought the problem was,

 

Ralph replied..

 

"You're suffering from hardening of the orthodoxies."

 

 

[This message has been edited by jijaji (edited 04-08-2002).]

[Rati]

Originally posted by jijaji:

A Common Disease

 

By surrounding himself with true believers, Waldo fell into the trap of taking himself too seriously.

 

This led to unhappiness and ill health.

 

When he asked Ralph, one of the few who had penetrated his multilevel cover stories, what he thought the problem was,

 

Ralph replied..

 

"You're suffering from hardening of the orthodoxies."

 

 

[This message has been edited by jijaji (edited 04-08-2002).]

 

Is that what happened to you when you were abducted and probed by the aliens?

 

[Rati]

You keep harping on the term 'orthodox', Jijo, daddy-o.

 

That was never actually a designation applied to Vaishnavas. Some people borrowed it for the sake of making certain distinctions, in lieu of using a term like 'mainstream'. It is actually either in reference to Orthodox Jews or the churches that split from Rome centuries ago, such as the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches.

 

One has to view the teachings of Bhaktivinode with respect to delineating sampradaya vis a vis apa-sampradaya as somewhat of a departure from those that came before. Was this just a statement by Thakur Ji to the general public to the effect of "This is our group. Those other groups follow a different path."? Was it just a reaction to Vaishnavas drifting over to other groups that needed to be educated as to the differences? Was it mainly for purposes of condemnation? How do his statements apply to the current environment? Is there really a big problem with Western followers of Caitanya confusing one group with another? Are his designations truly relevant outside of India? One would think that distinguishing between the followers of Maharshi Mahesh Yogi and Gaudiyas is basically a no-brainer.

 

As far as any opposing camps within the Gaudiya Vaishnava community, Bhaktivinode does not mention any. So, does looking for and supposedly seeing those factions have a basis in fact or is it just an illusion? Are any quarrels that might be going on between different groups or merely infighting within the same group? It is really just a matter of perspective: The pessimist would say that the glass is half empty and the Gaudiyas are a splintered group, whereas the optimist would say that the glass is half full and that there is really only one group with diversity within it. The choice of perspective is up to each individual. Some may not even care either way. The same reasoning might be applied to Hinduism as a whole or even the entirety of human religious experience. In the end its all academic anyways. The experiences themselves are entirely subjective, making truly objective discussion of them elusive.

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by Rati (edited 05-03-2002).]

[Guest guest]

very nice,another way of putting it:Asolute truth is one,those on the path of learning the absolute truth,vary in opinion,according to their level or realization of the one absolute truth.

This is subjective to the seeker, who has not reached the absolute truth.

But it is objective to the person who is aware of the absolute truth,and to God.