Re: Hindu Universalism
namaste Atanu.
I knew you would come up with this article! It is addressed to the Christians at San Francisco and not to the Hindus in India. Swamiji has always held that Christians hated Muslims much more than Muslims hated Christians. Dinesh Agrawal in the opening para of part 3 of his essay has quoted Swamiji's narration of the barbaric Tartaric invasion of Jerusalem and the even more barbaric Christian reaction to it. It is to the Christians with such a history of propagation of their religion that Swamiji spoke about the 'virtues' of Mohammad. To the Hindus in India however, he was more practical and realistic and showed the true character of Mohammad's achievement and the Koran's spiritual authenticity as I have shown in my collection.
Atanu, I am really interested--and willing to concede some advaitic spiritual ground to the Abrahamic religions--if you can show the writings of some Christian or Islamic scholar who has thought about their religions on the lines you are inclined to think about. Even the Christian scholars such as Koenraad ELST and Francois Gautier who have done some authentic research on Hinduism and have earned the acclaim of the Hindus, are not prepared to find even semblances of their findings in their own religious scriptures.
Instead of wasting our time on how our modern Hindu sages view Islam and Christianity, let us find out what our traditional scriptures shruti and smRti say about our own religion vis-a-vis the other Hindu religions, how Sankara debated with them and spread his teachings. I would request your extensive scholarship towards that end for the real benefit of the Hindus, as it is also the need of the times we live in today.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
Bookmarks