Ram and Sita in "The Ochre Robe"

[Guest guest]

Namaste Parvati!

The source of the information on Ram & Sita eating meat & drinking

wine comes from a book "The Ochre Robe" by Swami Agehananda Bharati.

Swami Agehananda (Leopold Fischer) was a child prodigy in Sanskrit &

other Oriental languages in his native Vienna. He was forced into the

German Army and then made it to India right after the end of WWII.

 

According to Agehananda, anyone who wants to really get into the

Vedas MUST learn Sanskrit. He wrote that a great deal was left out by

scholars & priests, as they felt the masses would misunderstand &

misuse the Vedic lore unless it was "sanitized".

 

A full collection of Agehananda's work is kept at the University of

Syracuse, NY (where he taught & died). He died of brain cancer Spring

of 1991, I think.

 

Incidently, I actually knew someone (another linguist) who knew Swami

Agehananda both professionally & personally.

 

"The Ochre Robe" should be required reading for anyone interested in

East Indian Philosophy/Religion. I have a copy of his "The Tantric

Tradition" which I have not yet started.

 

Astraea

 

, "parvati_saraswati"

<parvati_saraswati> wrote:

> Swamiji said that Rama and his lineage were kings and that hunting

> was a part of their daily life. But when Ram went to the forest for

> 13 years he did not eat meat. Also, After Ram and Sita were united

> they had two children names Lav and Kush.

> Swamiji was not aware that Ram drank alcohol or that the Brahmin

> priests took out certain parts of the scriptures.

> Hope this helps a little bit.

[Guest guest]

Namaste Parvati,

I found the Ram & Sita info on page 130 of "The Ochre Robe".

Do I have persmission to post the paragraphs on meat eating here? I

don't want to upset people.

 

Swami Agehananda was a very brilliant, very controversial figure. He

made a lot of enemies in India (this was back in the late 1940's &

1950's). He openly contradicted religious teachers.

 

He had the usual limitations of someone with a very sharp intellect:

he had problems accepting things that cannot be processed by the

logic circuits of the brain. He was a mystic with contempt

for "paranormal" phenomena. As an example, he was drawn to Shakti

worship, but when Devi gave him darshan, he could not accept it. It's

one of the funniest (unintentionally) passages in the book.

Agehananda went thru all kinds of mental gymnastics to rationalize

away/to explain away the Unexplainable.

 

Agehananda was asked to leave a Vedanta Society monastery because he

openly admitted to the Head monk that he did not believe that Sri

Ramakrishna was the Divine Incarnate or that he should be worshipped!

 

Brilliant mind, emotionally-stunted, with a deep distrust of the

miraculous, but still powerfully drawn to the Vedas & Tantra,

Agehananda was a puzzle. "The Ochre Robe" is a fascinating MUST read,

even though I don't agree with everything in it or even understand

everything in it (some highly refined philosophical discussions).

 

Astraea

 

, "astraea2003" <astraea2003>

wrote:

> Namaste Parvati!

> The source of the information on Ram & Sita eating meat & drinking

> wine comes from a book "The Ochre Robe" by Swami Agehananda

Bharati.

> Swami Agehananda (Leopold Fischer) was a child prodigy in Sanskrit

&

> other Oriental languages in his native Vienna. He was forced into

the

> German Army and then made it to India right after the end of WWII.

>

> According to Agehananda, anyone who wants to really get into the

> Vedas MUST learn Sanskrit. He wrote that a great deal was left out

by

> scholars & priests, as they felt the masses would misunderstand &

> misuse the Vedic lore unless it was "sanitized".

>

> A full collection of Agehananda's work is kept at the University of

> Syracuse, NY (where he taught & died). He died of brain cancer

Spring

> of 1991, I think.

>

> Incidently, I actually knew someone (another linguist) who knew

Swami

> Agehananda both professionally & personally.

>

> "The Ochre Robe" should be required reading for anyone interested

in

> East Indian Philosophy/Religion. I have a copy of his "The Tantric

> Tradition" which I have not yet started.

>

> Astraea

>

> , "parvati_saraswati"

> <parvati_saraswati> wrote:

> > Swamiji said that Rama and his lineage were kings and that

hunting

> > was a part of their daily life. But when Ram went to the forest

for

> > 13 years he did not eat meat. Also, After Ram and Sita were

united

> > they had two children names Lav and Kush.

> > Swamiji was not aware that Ram drank alcohol or that the Brahmin

> > priests took out certain parts of the scriptures.

> > Hope this helps a little bit.