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RosemaryOs
02 August 2011, 09:15 PM
This is fascinating history that happened 100 years ago in the US.

I came across this paper by Stephen Prothero of Boston University. It is titled "Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in US Culture".

http://www.bu.edu/religion/files/pdf/Hinduphobia_and_Hinduphilia.pdf

There is a portion of the paper which concerns how Hinduism went on trial in the US 100 years ago with the "strange" case of Olea Bull Vaughan who was contesting the will of her mother, Sara Chapman Bull (devotee of Swami Vivekanda). Dhira Mata (Mrs. Bull) had made a will that upon her death (having been made ill by a "malign influence") her large fortune would be given to the Vedanta Society in India.

Here is an interesting excerpt from p. 13:

"Yet Hinduism was on trial too, since the main argument of Sherman Whipple, the daughter's attorney, was that Hindus had driven Mrs. Bull insane."

There is a cliff hanger to this story which occurs as an ending to the drama. According to "The Dedicated", the biography of Sister Nivedita by Lizelle Reymund, this is what happened:

"She (Nivedita) was still grief-stricken over her friend's sad death and the wretched tumult that had followed it when she learned, four months later, of Olea Bull's suicide. In the same letter,Dhiramata's brother gave her the news that the lawsuit had been lost, and also that he would give to India the sum stipulated in the contested will. Nivedita asked only to withdraw, to meditate..."


According to the newspapers of the time, Olea Bull Vaughn (the daughter) died of tuberculosis on the very day that the money was to be awarded to her. Did she commit suicide or was it a natural death?


Strange karma or what???

kallol
03 August 2011, 05:14 AM
I am looking forward to learn a lot from you.

Thanks for the insight.

Love and best wishes