Saturday, August 15, 2015

009 REPLIES TO COMMENTS OF SHRI RAVI. ००८ श्री रवीजी के टिप्पणियों को समाधान. శ్రీ రవి గారి వ్యాఖ్యలకు సమాధానాలు.


Ravi said...(AT BLOG POST NO. 008. Click to go to Post No. 008 पोस्ट नं. ००८ को जाने के लिये क्लिक పోస్ట్ నం. 008 కి వెళ్ళటానికి క్లిక్..
YBR,

Chanced to visit your site and read the article on Sri Ramakrishna and goat meat offered to Kali.Here are a couple of excerpts from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna for your deliberation:

1.One day Jatindra came to the garden of Jadu Mallick. I was there too. I asked him: 'What is the duty of man? Isn't it our duty to think of God?' Jatindra replied: 'We are worldly people. How is it possible for us to achieve liberation? Even King Yudhisthira had to have a vision of hell.' This made me very angry. I said to him: 'What sort of man are you? Of all the incidents of Yudhisthira's life, you remember only his seeing hell. You don't remember his truthfulness, his forbearance, his patience, his discrimination, his dispassion, his devotion to God.' I was about to say many more things, when Hriday stopped my mouth.

After a little while Jatindra left the place, saying he had some other business to attend to.

2.It isn't good to be clever. The crow is very clever, but it eats others filth.'

3.The right intelligence is that through which one attains God; but the intelligence that enables one to become a deputy magistrate or a lawyer, or to acquire a house, is a mean intelligence. It is like thin and watery curd, which merely soaks flattened rice but does not add any flavour to it. It is not like thick, superior curd. But the intelligence through which one attains God is like thick curd."

welcoming criticism is not as important as being self critical - discarding one's vanity and to develop true discrimination is what is needed.I read your other articles as well.

Namaskar


Answer, जवाब, జవాబు :



Well, I respect your opinion about Shri Ramakrishna's comments of comparing critics to crows eating filth. This is not an exceptional talent of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is a common trait of most God persons. Some of the gospels and anecdotes attributed to Shri Ramakrishna might not have really taken place; they might have been fictional creations of Swami Vivekananda and the writer of Shri Ramakrishna's Gospels Mahendranatha Datta (not to be confused with the brother of Swami Vivekananda).

The problem with God persons and priests is, they hate self-criticism, and self-reformation. Fortunately, it is true, that this abhorrence and intolerance to criticism of religion, scriptures, customs and practices is less in Indian Culture, when compared to alien religions imported into India from West Asia. [Note: Aryan Religion, Saiva Religion are also religions imported from North Europe (Latvia, Lithuania, Old Prussia) and South Europe (Crete near Greece) respectively. But they have gradually partially merged themselves with Indian Culture, whereas the two West Asian Semitic Religions have not only refused amalgamation into Indianness, but also have started converting Indians into alient Religions.]. In alien religions, a hair dresser is not free to shave beards under fatwas.

Continuous Self-crititicism and Self-reformation should be very important for religions and cultures, because they accumulate dust and trash (probably we can use the Sanskrit word kilbisham). Just as people have to sweep their houses more than once everyday, Religions have to cleanse their customs and practices which become oppressive or superstitious. Just as a regularly cleaned house facilitates healthy lives of its dwellers, frequently cleansed Religions and Cultures also become more "livable". Then, there will be no need to propagate religions and cultures by employing missionaries and monks. There will also be no need of self-styled God persons.

About Shri Ramakrishna's comment about Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira's truthfulness), I am sad to say that Shri Ramakrishna might not have studied Vyasa Mahabharata in depth. I do not find fault with him for not reading it in depth because during his time, printed books were not very popular. There were no computers. He himself has not received adequate education through schools or Gurukulas. His mythological knowledge might have been based on anecdotes and discourses (प्रवचन या ప్రవచనాలు) he heard at temples, and other gatherings.

Vyasa Mahabharata is an extremely lengthy scripture with 1,15,000 verses. It has, in as far nearness as possible to original has been translated into English by Mr. Kishore Mohan Ganguli around 1901. This is available freely on internet for download.

About Yudhishthira's truthfulness and virtuosity, Vyasa Mahabharata is dualistic, containing some positive characteristics and some negative characteristics. The positive features of Yudhishthira's character have been adequately propagated by our temple preachers and discoursers (प्रवचनकर्ता या ప్రవచనకర్తలు). Negative features have been left out by them, because if they cover them, temple authorities will drive such speakers out.

For the time being pl. see this blog of mine on Yudhishthira. Click to go to http://problemsoftelugus.blogspot.com/search/label/553 .


I shall add more here shortly. This part will be more extensively covered by me in a few days. (To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా కొనసాగించాలి.)