In the dog-eat-dog world of godmen, rarely does one godman bite into another. But Swami Sukhabodhananda did precisely that on the “devotional” channel Aastha last night:
“We now have a ‘guru’ who proudly proclaims that he has no knowledge of the vedas. Yet, this swamiji goes around the world “representing” Hinduism.
“How can a swamiji who claims not to know the vedas represent Hinduism, and how can such a swamiji fill the holes of agnana in the hearts of his devotees?”
Who could this guru/ swamiji be?
obviously a certain sri^3 ravishankar
: God Men: Disgusting to see this word being used so often .
irrespective of our individual beliefs it is time for the media to stop referring to these HUMAN BEINGS most of whom are CON Artists as GOD MEN. The Title is self inflicted and made with an eye on the vast amounts of money which can be looted in the name of some God.
Just today we read that a uneducated farm hand in kerala received more than 1000 crores from some STUPID Morons in USA for converting thousands of Hindus to Christianity.
Yes.
He knows the art of living
and also the art of lying
and yes, the art of laying golden eggs too!
‘Sri Sri’ Ravishankar no doubt has contributed to the fields of education, health etc. but his nature of ‘starving'(!) for publicity without having any solid stuff in him, his self proclaimed GURU status which often misguides the people all over the world and his ignorance about the Vedas and Hinduism which (ignorance) culminates in producing a false picture of our great nation and dharma in the minds of those who do not know much about us, altogether damage our dharma, our society and our nation as a whole.
Hence Ravishankar is to be condemned.
‘Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise’.
That is why Ravishankar is otherwise(-minded)!
Swami Sukhabodananda is completely wrong. Hinduism is a conglomerate of many belief systems. There are many Hindu sects who hold that the vedas are not sacrosanct. The veerashaiva followers of Bassavanna do not have many good things to say about the Vedas. Still they are Hindus. There are many Bhakti denominations who do not hold Vedas in high regard.
Sukhabodanada is trying to judge Hinduism with the yardstick of abrahamic religions where a book is held to be sacrosanct. Even the vedantic scriptures like upanishads have sometimes expressed that the Vedas are inferior to the metaphysical knowledge resulting out of direct experience.
That the vedas is a central pillar of Hindusim was created by the Brahmo and Arya Samajists in the 18th century. Swami Dayananda and keshab Chandra sen wanted to create a monolithic hindu body of knowledge to counter the attacks from the christian and muslim proselytizers. Hinduism is too vast and contains many differing belief systems under its fold.
Religion is supposed to unite people, not divide them.
How can two supposed custodians of faith be seen quibbling in public?
Faith is beyond reason. Pointless to criticize others’ faith, when your own faith is also based on a set of strong beliefs and not universally acknowledged, indisputable, tried, tested and proved scientific truth.
How can anybody claim ‘my faith system is better than yours?”
Beats me.
a monolithic hindu body of knowledge
Hindu, eh?
Who is a Hindu?
no. it is about Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev (isha foundation) – check NDTV walkthetalk withShekar Gupta
Nitwit, you ain’t a hindu. Thats how it works. Thathasthu.
Ishweshwariah,
It is not even KC Sen, Swami Dayananda, or Ram Mohun Roy who created a structured “Hinduism”. Their work is the result of the longer interaction and even colonisation of the Indian tradtion by generations of missionaries and travelers from Europe who were simply recasting what they saw in India in terms of the world view bequeathed to them by the Protestant Reformation. According to this, due to the fallen nature of man, several corrupt influences have crept into our beliefs and practices. The Vedas become the one “true book” and are in their corrupt state because of priests (the Brahmans). Society is fallen into licentiousness, and a multitude of faiths and practices have gained ground – post-Tower of Babel. Hindus have no beliefs, and Hinduism is not a religion to be practiced. Read namma mannina maga S.N. Balagangadhara for more on this pathbreaking theory.
Soon, if you Google for ‘Hinduism bad’, ‘Hinduism evil’ or ‘BJP evil’, it will get you directly to Churumuri.
@Anon
It is already accomplished, search for “Cheddis” on Google & search results include yours truly’s appraisal of cheddis.
One swamiji criticizing another is nothing new , the one challenge I give all of them is to teach me how to overcome the pangs of hunger without eating and I am your most faithful disciple and follower.
“Sukhabodaananda.” Think of the implications of the name.
Yes Kangeya I agree. I had met Balagangadhara and Rajiv Malhotra in 2003 and I align with their incisive insights into the Indian religious tradtions and the forces acting on them.
Add this perspective to your thoughts. Who stopped a Guru from reading the Vedic texts today and see for themselves why is it called ‘Shruti’? Why is it called Eternal? What is in it that has lived the test of time? Instead of doing something constructive with the tradition that Hindus have inherited, if our Gurus openly say that Vedas are not necessary… is it not wrong?
People around the world look up to Hindu gurus because of the standards set by various Gurus. The likes of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Rama Tirtha, all this cannot be misused by somebody. The real problem is the students of these Gurus also start learning only from the Guru and not from the Vedas, Upanishads or Gita. You still feel all this is right?
Sir
THERE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN A CHAOTIC CURSOR IN MY LAST MAIL MESSING UP THE LAST PARA.
THE CORRECTED ONE IS SENT HEREWITH.
Some of the arguments CHURUMURI even filters thru makes me wonder, is Churumuri [otherwise quite engagingly like ‘churumuri’ at feedtime] behaving as if it is OK to be a portal ‘featuring’ [out of sheer lack, I suspect, of its not even having attempted a limited but concerted and ‘lajja-less’ traditional embracing of the ESSENTIALS]. It wud be a shame if in enthusiasm of public response to your highliting of vibrant, courageous stands and scoops, you shud be giving way to time-passing chatting within a self-created ‘Hindu’ space where you have unknowingly ‘protected’ the chatting [satsanga?] drift, from being receptive to wholistic glimpses.
What will it benefit a healthy passer-by off a village of one-eyed folks, to listen to their pontificating about the dangers of stereoscopic vision, or about the mirage of direct-depth perception carried by legendary 2-eyed ogres?
Are we to become fireflies ridiculing the myth of sun?
Is Hinduism a religion?
As patterns go, there has to be an acknowledged ‘Pied-piper’ figure, like Jesus or Buddha or Mohammad, whose ACTUAL utterances [remembered or recorded, by whatever luck the centuries passing permitted], are accepted by all warring sub-groups within , as being unchangeable; while it was the interpretation that could vary, per temperaments and maturity of purpose. Going by that criterion Hinduism, qualifies to be a macro-religion as it has the body of utterances of a large list Rishis, who themselves did not found any new thought or assumed prophetic roles thereby.
The rust of ‘organised-church’ behaviour, that turns a blind-eye to inconvenient truths is pre-programmed in all animal nature. So there is nothing to complain about there, just as the owner of a bullock has no complaints about the poor animal’s lack of artistic appreciation, and dialogue thru more elite vehicles than just grunting and grimacing or a bit of galloping. On the contrary he is quite happy in leaving the beast [grateful to be sure to its master for the great food[der] and shelter and the mounting prospect of fairly re-cur-ring(!) sex].
To search for the ‘leader’ of whatever you refer to as Hinduism, is to plumb the depths of what the body of words of the Veda [and with Agama, the two encompassing all the cultural niches from forest thru agri to urban market peaking-parasite populations] carried through lineages of male issues, [carried through aeons just as best sculpting and soldiering are lasting reservoirs of skills, and these are agreed upon [see who commands premium rates in Galleries] are carried best in lineages.
So instead merely letting a nation with highest stockpile of WMDs, and VISA-credits and the ‘oily’ Morgan Stanleys complete their colonially continued dividing of every body on the planet into veri-chip implanted currency based castes, it might be worthwhile to have some humilty before the fact of a ‘staying power’ over ages. How comic for the bravadoed but leggless fool to demand of his fleeing village folk to stop, lift him up, one on either shoulder, and hold him steady, and THEN they could all see the magic, as to how he would put to flight the invading hordes.
‘Hinduism’ does not exist as One religion. It is a Colonial, coinage in ambiguity born of ignorance [what else does one expect from tongues [which whatever their claim to elitism, are still mongrel and barbaric and lack intelligent design]. I AM NOT SAYING THEY ARE INADEQUATE TO CONVEY ONE TO THE MYSTIC ZENITH. ON THE CONTRARY, THAT ALL DO.
BUT NO PEOPLES ARE MORE EMPOWERED THAN US OF THIS LAND,
WHO CAN BETTER INTEGRATE WITHIN THEIR DAILY LIFE, IDEALS INGRAINED BY AEONS OF MEMORIES REGARDING WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE GAINED PEACE AND ULTIMATE HAPPINESS, SURVIVE THE WOUNDS SELF-INFLECTED ON SOCIETY THROUGH THE POLITICS OF AN IGNORANCE, [THAT KEEPS ITSELF IN THE BLIND SPOT OF A PEOPLE OPIATED ON BELIEVING THAT WHAT THE MORNING NEWSPAPER AND tv SERVE [or worse, selectively choose to serve] as BEING WORTHY OF YOUR TIME ARE INDEED “TRUE” “DOMINANT VIEW POINT” “WORTHY OF POSSESSION”, whatever.
The watchman of the town clock-tower used to note his time frm the clock in the watch-maker shop, and adjust according the clock ion the tower. But one day the 2 met and found out that the watch-repairer was setting his clock weekly by the tower!
A people ingrained BY ‘HINDUISM’S INGRAINED VASTNESS AND OPENNESS TO ACCOMMODATE [AND IN FACT METICULOUSLY KEEP ALL SEEMINGLY VARIANT BUT NEVER CONTRA-DICTING RECORDS OF] ANY DEBATE surrendered to PURIFIED REASON. THIS IS AS ANNOUNCED BY THE PRIMAL SCRIPTURE [‘primal’ may I without seeking anyone’s permission, say of ‘Hinduism’ ? ?]
[Rig Veda 1.1.2] ITSELF :”THUS WE HAVE BEEN POINTED OUT THE PROFITABLE WAY BY THE GREAT SAGES HERE [nootanaihi], AS WELL AS THOSE REVERED BY THEM AS PRIMAL RISHIS, WHO THEMSELVES HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED WITHIN THESE MANTRAS, AS TO THAT FIRE [of Self-knowledge] AS BEING ‘PRIMAL’ }}
What do most of us writing in English know about India and its peoples by foot? What right does any one have within reason to form, and use our social accredition to propagate, divisive ideas based only on coloured glasses of the only precedence known to our Western scholarship [ at best a short-cut to moving North of the ‘body’ politic, leaving behind [a distorted version of] the South as something to be ‘defended’ against Aryanisation of primal stock.
The greater modern development the more empty the Churches.
Having been quite antagonistic to reason’s research almost all along, religion was winning on terra firma only till science gave Religion’s ‘flock’ physical-comfort and ‘on-demand’ sensory-stimulus. When the ‘sheep’ vote-bank pulls towards science’s goodies, how many want to be squeamish like the South Bend Amish community! And why swim against the tide. For a cloud to want to capture and trap surrounding space, within itself, its is OK.
OCB’s are OK as long as one’s rockin’.
But if it rises to drain oneself out to a collapse, then it is the ‘tail-wagging-the-dog’, the ‘cutting-one’s-nose-to-spite-one’s-face’ syndrome.
OK, OCD not OK. [obsessessive consumeristic disorder].
Like the sparkle in the Barracks as well as in Carnival, Mosques as well as Hindu temples will tend to remain well attended.
The former primarily because the veil is still unreasonably closed on transcendental matters which seek to probe into the Foot [palpable foundations] of godhead. Once that opens up as it is starting to, there could be a [this time around] confident re-entrance of their mystical tradition [and I refer to all of our Semitic cousins] towards regaining the position of being the CENTRAL ‘gift’, message’ of their Leader; a centrality which has never left ‘Hinduism’ despite coercions by subsets through ‘technology’ severely lacking in philosophic rigour.
less-
The the latter, because the Veda-Agama never expected the majority to pay any attention to prayer [like children to homework] unless there was promise of good luck points earned.
The ‘punya’ system at the very bottom rung of Hinduism keeps and in the face of worst onslaught of materialism [where mere paper/gold is God and social caste/outcaste arbiter] all Pilgrimages and rituals alive, and hence the pilgrim spots, routes, spaces, a biota [sacred plants, flowers etc] will be kept alive, or will when threatened cause enough furore to recieve attention.
I believe the times are happening. The ‘goal’ of global economic village might have been started with very very nefarious long enfds’ in mind, but the Principle of Uncertainty [daivam] ensures normally considered-rare co-incidence of unconnected events, that precipitate the Babel of ‘futures’ concrete to collapse in free-fall, like a house of cards, WITHOUT any untoward incident visibly striking from without [like the ‘black horse’ who came in [came DOWN better?!] ‘third’ alongside the [‘front runner’ free-fall collapse [whatever vaporized the steel girders to facilitate ‘free-fall’ acceleration?] of the twin towers WTC 1 and 2, WTC-7].
The swigger and swagger will rule the nigger and the bigger
That’s endemic to a multiplicity assumed
To be separated by empty space.
But there’s a scene
Where gene is seen as same in bean
& Mr. Clean
Black or White, Brown or Red or Yellow
OR as together,
green.
But dig Here.
There’s real O.I.L.
[“One ‘I’. Large. Thank u.]
I so agree with kaangeya. I vote for S N Balagangadhara too.
Churumuri, when shalt thou read Balu?
Hello H. Anandarama Shastry,
Have you met Sri Sri Ravishankar ever. I agree that everyone has the freedom to express ourselves. At the same time we have freedom to be ignorant also.
He is the one person who is working for the cause of human values in the world along with many other people. He is not working for any religion or for any community here. Whole world is not fool to follow him. Simply he is spreading the message of peace to the world through meditation. He is in not need of getting anything by lying or by laying…..
Reshmaji,
I have taken part in his meditation program and various other programs/functions.