In All Things

[satay]

namaste,

I often listen to Dr. Clooney's (http://www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty/clooney.cfm) lectures on hinduism. I found his blog the other day which I think is an interesting read.

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/blog.cfm?blog_id=2&category_id=133

[Sahasranama]

"Jesus the spiritual master"

"Jesus the avatar"

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz87/Denise-66/smiley_yawn.gif

[charitra]

Namaste Satay,
When I first saw video ‘sita sings blues’ rather without serious focus I innocently believed its all about glory and celebration, I was proved wrong. Later when, after other hawks pointed out, it was analysed critically then the plot unfolded !!! Now to Francis Clooney.
Prof.Clooney and others whenever they attempt to engage themselves in an interfaith dialogue or comparative religion, should ideally underscore what is good in other faiths, in other words during this much needed engagements a moral boosting pat on ‘other’ faiths ought to be the order of the day. It was nt the case here as usual, a warped theory was woven to highlight how ‘hindus praised Christians’ and more importantly tormenting implied meaning ‘how Christians are the source of inspiration to hindus’ remained the underlying motive.
Why do spell checkers keep correcting Sam PaulBNathan as swami Prabhavananda nonstop? Is it a commission or omission? Anyway no jokes, back to topic. Pravrajika Vrajaprana, a Hindu nun in the Vedanta tradition who was a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda wasn’t ambiguous at all:
“ Like Swami Prabhavananda, I, too, have found my life profoundly enriched by the life and teachings of Jesus, and like Father Clooney, I have found genuine insights into my own tradition by learning from a religious tradition different from my own. Swami Prabhavananda took the teachings of Jesus seriously and he had a particular love for the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, it was through him (and his predecessor, Swami Vivekananda) that I learned to love and deeply appreciate Jesus and his teachings, finding (to my young astonishment) much more relevance there than I had expected …“.

Thus, the overall make up of the entire Clooney’s post and not to forget the ‘kind’ comments at the end of the post ultimately turned out to be a sophisticated hindu bashing party. What else one can expect from abrahamists. Recently this virulent muslim cleric says that ‘hindus have prophesied the arrival of the last messenger of allah and that the 10th avatar Kalki had already arrived in 6th century AD on a white horse and ‘peacefully ‘ spread his gospel albeit on occssions he had to be persuasive to defeat kaffirs.

Hindu swamis/scriptures are being used as doormats by the abrahamists with unrelenting ingenuity, citing the quotes out of context all the time to foster their own agenda. Vedanta center? Whenever you hear a monk from a vedanta centre run by RK mission speak, you are bound to get confused as to what dharma they are adhering to, first ten minutes its BG next five minutes its Jesus and before you knew it you will be served a kichidi that has too many flavors, too bland and quite assuredly dispiriting. SD is a complete spiritual system and needs to borrow nothing from later faiths which brought only violence, misery and disharmony. Only Bahaiis can beat the Vedanta centre. I stopped going there.
If I read Clooney’s post rather too lightly and went completely the wrong path then you may want to enlighten me and show me the way. Anything good about hindus/SD/ BG/krishna said by Clooney there? Please copy and paste those excerpts then. shanti.

[Water]

Personally, I can't ever take universalism seriously. :(

Religion itself is usually not only an aspect of spirituality (or non-spirituality, in many cases) but it is also an amalgamation of cultural adaptations and interpretations by groups of people. To use a Christian example, the "KJV Bible" (that is, the King James' Version). Religion was quite literally the first established, organized education system and many religions include scripture and passages to better prepare an individual to live and function in that specific region/time period/culture. That is to say, I can take a complete college course and become a very competent Social Worker in the U.S., but if you literally dropped me into Australia..... even though the language is the same, I would probably not be the most prepared individual to make positive influential decisions in Australian lives. :)

Off topic, where is the sub-forum for Bahai'i?

[Sahasranama]

“ Like Swami Prabhavananda, I, too, have found my life profoundly enriched by the life and teachings of Jesus, and like Father Clooney, I have found genuine insights into my own tradition by learning from a religious tradition different from my own. Swami Prabhavananda took the teachings of Jesus seriously and he had a particular love for the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, it was through him (and his predecessor, Swami Vivekananda) that I learned to love and deeply appreciate Jesus and his teachings, finding (to my young astonishment) much more relevance there than I had expected …“.It is said in the Mahabharata that “What is found here, may be found elsewhere. What is not found here, will not be found elsewhere”.

Enemies of Hinduism in disguise of our well wishers have spread the myth that keeping the Mahabharata in our homes will be inauspicious.

Hindus need to drop this superstitious scaremongering and keep the Mahabharata in their home. There will be no need to even touch the Bible.

In fact, if there's anything that needs to be avoided in our homes, it is a scripture from one of the bigotted desert cults.

[punkrainbow]

In fact, if there's anything that needs to be avoided in our homes, it is a scripture from one of the bigotted desert cults.

It has been my personal experience that religion and scripture is like a scalpel- it can hurt or heal depending upon who is using it. Training is required in the case of both religion and the scalpel. When we see the vindication of injustice under the auspices of religion we should query the training not the scripture.
It is very easy to make sweeping generalisations and say that 'such and such' a group is 'bigoted'. It makes us feel morally-justified. But it ignores the ambiguity of 'use' and common human failings. I know there are Christians who 'use' their scripture for bigotry, there are those who use it in the service of love. The same can be said for Hindus I am certain.

[Sudarshan]

It is said in the Mahabharata that “What is found here, may be found elsewhere. What is not found here, will not be found elsewhere”.

Enemies of Hinduism in disguise of our well wishers have spread the myth that keeping the Mahabharata in our homes will be inauspicious.

Hindus need to drop this superstitious scaremongering and keep the Mahabharata in their home. There will be no need to even touch the Bible.

In fact, if there's anything that needs to be avoided in our homes, it is a scripture from one of the bigotted desert cults.

You think christianity as taught by Jesus is a bigoted desert cult? Jesus only said - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". When Jesus was speaking, he was talking from the universal consciousness (Self) and the "I" used here is not that of the empirical ego. It was not a sectarian message at all, but people took Jesus as a person and his "I" as some sort of sectarian "I". The message only meant that "The Real I is the way, the truth and life and no one comes to it without its knowledge". In the hands of selfish wordly men who themselves have no experiences of Jesus, the message has been distorted and packaged as a desert cult.

[charitra]

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?p=24726#post24726 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?p=24726#post24726)

28September 2008, 04:49 AM Sudarshan DharmaGuardian

I think the caste system in its present form must be abolished. Itshould be abolished not by reducing everyone to the lowest level, but raisingeveryone to the highest level of morality and spirituality - yes, we need tomake all Hindus Brahmins through highest instructions.

It is not sufficient for someone to claim himself to be a brahmin. He shouldprove his merit. A true Brahmin is a wall of fire - a storehouse of tapasya -he can burn dry grass by his mere penetrative looks. But is there a brahmin whocan do that these days? When there is no difference between a brahmin andothers why have this classification that divides our society. People hardlyrealize that this has helped our corrupt politicians to craftily implement thedivide and rule policy. This has prevented Hindus from grabbing the politicalpower at the centre inspite of Hindu majority.

Christianity is eating away the Hindu religion very fast, There are28% of christians in Tamil Nadu now. It is rising steeply in both AndhraPradesh and Karnataka. The temple lands of Tirupati Balaji are being sold on alarge scale because of corrupt state govt in AP and this will cripple thetemple in future.

Caste system in its present form is a weak point of Hinduism and is a target ofmissionaries. Brahmins dont have any spirittual power to demonstrate ( can theyatleast do faith healing?) not even have the power to protect themselves andtherefore all people are at the same level now and no need of discrimination.

All our Hindu leaders must act together and abolish it and make every Hindu aBrahmin and give them sacred threads. Each Hindu will then take pride in beinga Hindu and will not sell his soul for cheap missionary tactics. Every Hindumust be taught the greatness of our religion and the hollowness of Adharmicreligions such as christianity and islam. Then only we wiill surive. If youdont do this now, be prepared to become second class citizen in our own countryin a christian/muslim majority India in future.

Sorry for being controversial but I am just thinking out loud! We have messedour society and exposed it to be exploited by mlecchas and asuras.

__________________
Guard your Dharma, Burn the Myth, Promote the Truth, Crush the superstition



Hi Sudarshan, the Guardian of Dharma ? Really? The J word is a wrong word here.

Sorry no offence, please don’t confuse hindus anymore with your split personality disorder. If you have time would you please mind going along with your friends and showing compassion to the slum dwellers, eat and sing with them and their kids. Please give them the much needed wisdom, sense of belonging; you can find ways and means to help them and showcase hindu kindness to them.. Don’t be afraid if initially they chase you out of the slum, perseverance pays. FYI , I belong to an upper caste ( I hate the label) and am thoroughly against caste.

[Sahasranama]

You think christianity as taught by Jesus is a bigoted desert cult? Jesus only said - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". When Jesus was speaking, he was talking from the universal consciousness (Self) and the "I" used here is not that of the empirical ego. It was not a sectarian message at all, but people took Jesus as a person and his "I" as some sort of sectarian "I". The message only meant that "The Real I is the way, the truth and life and no one comes to it without its knowledge". In the hands of selfish wordly men who themselves have no experiences of Jesus, the message has been distorted and packaged as a desert cult.

You can reinterpretate anything in the world like this, but it is an undeniable fact that this is not what Christianity was about throughout the ages, even from the beginning the history of Christianity was violent and bloody. It's simple arrogance from universalist Hindus or new agers to say that this is not the "real" Christiantiy of Jesus, while Christians themselves have always believed otherwise and countless deaths and destructions have proven differently. Besides that, there is no point in arguing about what a fictive character from another religion really preached some 2000 years ago. It is just silly to look at Jesus through such rose coloured glasses.

[PARAM]

You think christianity as taught by Jesus is a bigoted desert cult? Jesus only said - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". When Jesus was speaking, he was talking from the universal consciousness (Self) and the "I" used here is not that of the empirical ego. It was not a sectarian message at all, but people took Jesus as a person and his "I" as some sort of sectarian "I". The message only meant that "The Real I is the way, the truth and life and no one comes to it without its knowledge". In the hands of selfish wordly men who themselves have no experiences of Jesus, the message has been distorted and packaged as a desert cult.

You are mixing Jesus' I with Sri Krishna's I, Sri Krishna revealed who is he as "I" in Bhagwad Geeta chapter 10, while there is no universal "I" in Jesus' claim, his "I" is similar to that of Hiranyakshipu's.

[Seeker]

You think christianity as taught by Jesus is a bigoted desert cult? Jesus only said - "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". When Jesus was speaking, he was talking from the universal consciousness (Self) and the "I" used here is not that of the empirical ego. It was not a sectarian message at all, but people took Jesus as a person and his "I" as some sort of sectarian "I". The message only meant that "The Real I is the way, the truth and life and no one comes to it without its knowledge". In the hands of selfish wordly men who themselves have no experiences of Jesus, the message has been distorted and packaged as a desert cult.

This is the way I read the testaments about Jesus also. I do not believe that one has to be born in India or born into Hinduism to realize Self. The truth is attainable by all seekers and of those who attain it , few reach out to teach. Jesus was one such guru. But current day religion of Christianity is anything but what Jesus preached.

Having said that, I also believe that the scriptures of Hinduism is one of the best ways to understand what Jesus was trying to preach. Current day Christian preachings borrow heavily from old testament - which is nothing but a hateful tribal literature.

[Seeker123]

This is the way I read the testaments about Jesus also. I do not believe that one has to be born in India or born into Hinduism to realize Self. The truth is attainable by all seekers and of those who attain it , few reach out to teach. Jesus was one such guru. But current day religion of Christianity is anything but what Jesus preached..

Let us see. The goal of Christianity is to lead a life of religous merit so that when you die you can go to Heaven and live happily forever with God. How can this in anyway compare with realizing the Self/attaing the truth while living?

[Sahasranama]

cool story bro