[Reader-list] Fwd: (no subject)

[Venugopalan K M]

Dear Rakesh,

I have a diiferent take here about Hindu.
The Vedas, Upanishads, Gita and Smrutis (Manusmriti , Yajnavalkya
Smruti,  Narada Smruti, etc) - The ingredients of Hindu scriptures
generally called Sastras-  generally have a common thread of Dharma.
According to this concept of Dharma, varnadharma is a fundamental
thing. Varna ,as we know is a four tiered hierarchical concept of
society where the lowest  Varna is shudra. The avarnas (comprising
Dalits,Adivasis, and many of the OBCs of today)  are not even to be
considered as humans with any semblance of civic rights. Besides,Women
of all Varnas considered par with Shudras.
This view of a 'dream Hindu society' is espoused even by Vivekananda
when he referred to the possibility of all castes re organized to four
varnas in the traditional stye!( Speech at the event of inaugurating
advaitashram in Madras some time in the early 20th C- (Teachings of
Swami Vivekananda, Advaitasram ,Madras- edited collection of speeches)
Again, Vivekanda was bitter against the idea of equality of castes as
much as he recognized the institution of caste as the fundamental
social scheme to streamline  and ensure the smooth going of the
society.He suggested that a fisherman would not feel lower in status
than a brahman only because of his caste ordained job. Preaching 'food
touched by evil people is impure and is best avoided' without defining
who are the 'evils', is again, suggestive of his casteist prejudices.
It looks like he opposed caste only to reorganize in the traditional
pattern of chaturvarna.
Many progressives seem to be terribly mistaken by his remark that
Kerala was a madhouse; in fact, this remark came in the context of
X-stian missionaries  trying to proselytize and dalits and OBCs
wanting to join X-stian,Muslim and Budhist faiths.
Vivekanandan, on another occasion has gone on record that he could (as
a Hindu), worship  Mohamed, Jesus or be an atheist; but as a Hindu he
was never expected to compromise on his  Dharma. Guess what this
Dharma is..It is nothing but observance of certain uncompromising
rituals a Hindu is required to perform; and caste is the core element
of these!

So you can be atheist, worshiper of Budhha, Muhamed, Jesus or anybody
but don't denigrate  (Varna) dharma and your sense of purity (caste in
modern times) .

 This is the essence  of my understanding of Hinduism based on
teachings of Vivekananda, Bhagavadgita and such. This does not prevent
me from being  happy with the ways  reformers  like yourself  are
trying to expand the scope of defining Hinduism in humanitarian terms.
Regards,
Venu

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Rakesh Iyer<rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Anupam ji,
>
> I may agree, but a person like Vivekananda would not. He would believe that
> all are Hindus, and would accept my statement. Infact, that is what he used
> to say throughout his life time, probably as a result of the influence of
> his guru (Sri Ramakrishna Paramhans) on him. He always believed that even
> atheists and agnostics, as well as materialists are a part of Hinduism or
> Hindu religion, which he considered to be the greatest (This seems to be
> exactly the big-brotherly attitude I think you wish to refer. I differ from
> Vivekananda here in the sense that I don't think it's a religion, and
> moreover, I have no objections with anybody calling himself Hindu or
> non-Hindu.)
>
> As I said, this is what the problem with Hinduism is. The words and
> categories you have stated are defined and they in a certain sense, exclude
> people. Hinduism does or doesn't exclude people depending on the definiton
> you wish to choose. So, each person can decide for oneself whether he/she is
> a Hindu or not, and it's one's own call.
>
> As for myself, as a Hindu, I can say I can say namaaz 5 times a day, pray to
> Jesus Christ, go to a Buddhist/Sikh/Jain temple or gurudwara, pray to idols,
> be an atheist or an agnostic, or worship so many idols of gods or goddesses
> as the case may be, but I can do all this being a Hindu (which corresponds
> to different ways of life, which can belong to specific religions or
> ideologies). Hindu is not a religion for me. And if there is any ideology I
> believe which Hinduism subscribes to, it's a sense of 'dharma' or duty, duty
> towards all human beings.
>
> Regards
>
> Rakesh
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