Monday, November 07, 2005

From the mailbox: Stick To Your Ground

nov 6th

sri sri on those opportunists who are exploiting harijan misery.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S
Date: Nov 5, 2005 9:52 PM
Subject: Stick To Your Ground
To:

Stick To Your Ground
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar


In the village adjacent to the Art of Living ashram, a garbage truck dumps the waste of Bangalore city on the roadside. When the village youth realised this was a major health hazard, they decided to stop this. When the garbage truck came they punctured its tyres, instead of sending it away.

The garbage had to be dumped on the roadside in order for the tyres to be repaired. The purpose of the protest was to chase the truck away, but it ended up achieving quite the contrary. Often, our actions do not bring the desired goal. Instead of taking us towards the goal they take us away from it.

The actions of leaders such as Kancha Illiah have done more harm than good to the cause of Dalit upliftment. It's unfortunate for India that they have taken the issue to the US Congress. In the name of Dalit upliftment, they are pursuing their own personal agenda and damaging the image of the country.

If they are really interested in the betterment of the Dalits, they should work in the villages, instead of going to the US Congress. The only solution to the problem of caste discrimination is to educate people and make them realise that caste by birth is not sanctioned by religion.

This can happen only through grass-roots social reforms, not through foreign inter-ventions. History abounds in instances of reformist movements to address the caste menace in society.
Several saints such as Basavanna from Karnataka, Narayana Guru from Kerala and Swami Dayanand Saraswati of the Arya Samaj are shining examples of people who fought caste. Instead of highlighting such reforms, these people are maligning Hinduism for personal gain.

Rather than converting people to other faiths and running away from Hinduism, the most potent action would be to create Dalit purohits. Brahminism as understood some decades ago doesn't exist anymore. Today, there are innumerable instances of Brahmins serving under Dalit bosses.

No doubt, there are instances of atrocities, but these are not confined to the Dalit community alone. Often the members of upper castes have also been victims of social conflict. There are several instances of sadhus being attacked.

For instance, last year in Uttar Pradesh alone, 20 sadhus were brutally murdered. When the human consciousness is loaded with tension and mistrust, violence can erupt under any pretext. In the absence of ethics and morality, there are atrocities against women and children.

Similarly, oppression of the poor is a global problem, not confined just to the Dalit community. It's not just Dalits who are poor; poverty exists among people of all castes. Caste discrimination is a social problem and needs to be addressed through social reforms.
Politicising the issue and presenting a distorted picture of social atrocities to the world community is not going to solve the problem. It will only weaken national resolve to tackle the social menace.

There are thousands of committed soldiers of justice and equality, from among upper castes and NGOs, who are working for the betterment of Dalits. Indian Parliament and state assemblies have a large representation of Dalits. By taking the matter to the US Congress, these so-called community leaders are denigrating Dalit lawmakers.

Udit Raj and Kancha will do well to learn a few things from the US. They have to learn about national pride and progressive attitude from the Americans. There are three million homeless beggars in America, a little over 1% of the population.

But the American media never publicises it. No blacks, native Indians and minorities have ever asked another country to interfere in their internal matters. Caste discrimination can be solved only through reforms and educating people in human values, not by creating hatred between communities.

For sure, a Hindu hater can never bring about the needed reform in the Hindu society. Hatred will only polarise the society and create civil wars. Without the whole-hearted participation of upper caste people, Dalit empowerment will remain a dream.
The younger generation of upper castes cannot be held respon-sible for the discrimination practised by people of previous generations. If a section of society starts hating the upper castes and blaming them, how can they participate in the empowerment of the Dalits?

It is time to change the strategy. Sixty years ago during Ambedkar's time, when people were not open to change, a revolt was essential. But today, a reform is necessary as a revolt will not work. In the process of reform, people from all castes and communities have to be involved.

A reform is a social phenomenon where people from all caste and communities will have to be motivated to join. Reform can't happen out of anger or hatred; we need a sane mind and a loving approach.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This 'multiple repetitive syndrome' afflicted person is not really the right person to talk about Hinduism.

Our Kanchi Paramacharya alone,continues to remain the sole sentinel for Sanathana Dharmam,"being the very embodiment of all that is sacred in our scriptures and a spiritual leader of universal appeal embracing the humanity as a whole."

Many supershrewd people,(with self aggrandizement as their hidden agenda) have always mushroomed calling themselves "reformists" , tinker in Vedham-Vedhantham and in the process dig their own graves!

Pitted against (Sri AdiShankarar's Avatharam)our Kanchi Mahaperiyavar,the arya samaji reformist,silver tongued(sic)srinivasa sastri,temple management tinkerer cp ramaswami iyers--the whole lot of them are such cheap,worthless trinkets.

All that glitters is not gold.

Our Maker has not left us in the lurch to learn the "art of living"
from some 'Brahmahathhi'.

Anonymous said...

Dear Kalyaniji,

Please do your research before saying anything about any person.

FYI,
http://www.artofliving.org
http://www.iahv.org
http://www.5h.org
http://www.srisrischools.org
http://www.sscms.org/


I mean no offense.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

I know ,am satiated,you can say, by all those standard mandatory charitable activities......spare me!

The point I raise is precise and pertinent and am not surprised by such knee jerk reactions!

His mentor is no God(TM mahesh ....)and the truth behind his "breaking off" and "discovering a kriya".....sigh...sigh....for the benefit of p....e..o...p..le.. sigh....will not be available in any site or link!

Is it your misfortune or fortune?
Fuzzy logic!

False prophets are the decoys meant for the non earnest seekers.

I have to give credit to some plucky whites,thoroughly disillusioned,after close encounters, who naarate their experiences with scintillating wit and humour.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsar was full of admiration for Narendran(Swami Vivekananda)when the latter had placed a coin under Gurudev's mattress.........SIGH.....why am I
telling you of all?

prasank said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
prasank said...

Dear Kalyaniji,
What do you gain by denigrating other people. What has Kanchi Matt done in, say Kerala? The only reference I hear about is the Adi Sankara college. Its sad that the following of Kanchi Math these days has limited drastically to the Tamil Brahmin community. Please tell me if the details in following link is correct?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalady.
Is there really places where in only Brahmins can worship in one place and Namboothiris in the other? Pardon me for asking, what is the difference between Brahmins and Namboothiris?
I dont claim to know anything about "Sanathana Dharmam", but what is its significance now, when not all communities can even worship in certain regions of the temple? Doesnt this call for a revaluation of the way "Sanathana Dharma" is followed in the present day?
For me, Sree Narayana Guru, who followed the idea of Ezhava Sivan, a Siva who can be worshiped by any community and not just the elite, stands out in much better light.
Now about SSR, may be even he knows that the kriya and all the glamorous magic tricks is a pile of BS. But look at how that has benefitted millions. Isnt he great in that he diverted funds from people like Vijay Mallya etc... for good purposes? And hasnt he shown by his actions that he doesnt atleast discriminate between any sects?
For me a Keralite, the Kanchi math seems like a Tamil Brahmin dominated area. If I am absolutely wrong, please correct me with details that I dont know. Please dont create smoke with talks of vedas and vedantas. This is exactly the kind of talk that dealineiates other castes from the Brahmins.
And, dont you remember, Lord Vishnu considered the poor farmer as a ... oohh why am I telling this to you?

Anonymous said...

LOLLLLLLLLL.............

Anonymous said...

I shall never pardon liars.

Have I said anything against Sree Narayana Guru? I know more than you do.I had only referred to arya samaj's and other reformers.There is absolutely nothing vague or ambiguous in my comments.

When you confess your ignorance about "Sanathana Dharmam" why hasten for a verbal duel?

Truth alone appeals to me.

prasank said...

Dear Kalyaniji,
I am not trying for a duel. I am still too much confused over the questions that I raised in the last post. I request you again to please try to clear my doubts...
And if you look again into your post, you would notice that you give credit to only one person and puts a blanket abuse on all the other people. So what should I infer from that?
I am not satisfied by your blanket answer that you know more than me. Do you know in what light that shows you to me?
Thanks,

Anonymous said...

"Now about SSR, may be even he knows that the kriya and all the glamorous magic tricks is a pile of BS. But look at how that has benefitted millions."


By your logic( assiduously atrophied by such "gurujeeeeees"),Jim Jones acted honourably putting an end to a whole lot of people's sufferings?

For God's sake, please, I am not going to answer you anymore.

I remembered instantly you were the one who plaintively bleated something similar about the other 'ashram' sometime back. Can't you answer to the point? Light years separate us, no wonder!

Anonymous said...

Dear Kalyaniji,
All I meant to convey is that Sri Sri is not just all talk and no work. If you consciously listen to what he has to say, you would not make shallow comments.

Again I do not wish to confront or argue, just put the facts in place. If you still have issues, I would rather recommend you to go through the Art of Living Course and see it for yourself.

I do respect your knowledge, experience and erudition. Yet, if you still wish to continue with the "I know it all" attitude, "All the Best", India will never be united. This is the root cause of all our troubles.

We as a society have become so stressed out, that we keep banging the desk about what we know as good and what we do not know anything about as either not good or false. There is something beyond what you do not know and constant thirst for knowing that is the characteristic of a seeker. Apart from that, my observation has been that we Indians have a negative pattern of blaming. Recognising all that is good around you is also an essential quality. Without thorough inquiry, one cannot come to conclusions. I do not claim to know a lot and I just speak about what I know, yet I am not here to speak ill about others whom I don't even know. I certainly respect all those whom you consider venerable as I recognize that purity in whatever form just shows up. Its just a matter of how close you are to it to recognize.

This is how years ago, the British broke the very backbone of the nation. They conditioned our minds with wrong stuff about our own people and we kept fighting amongst ourselves and did not realize that they looted not only our country but also our self-esteem.

Again apologies for any miscommunication. You are as precious as anyone else.

Regards

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,

I have a wide network of relatives,friends,well wishers ( and ill wishers)etc;I don't live in an island; my imputation is INFORMED!

Do not waste your bouquets and brickbats on me.(that I have a "know all attitude", that I am "precious").

My concern is always for the credulous ,as gullibility is no wondrous charm!The plotters of course end up paying the heaviest price in the end.

It is the Creator who Sustains and takes Splendid Care of not just India but the entire Universe,seen and unseen.Insight(mind you,just a wee bit)is granted to the pure at heart,the virtuous.

So,please,spare yourself the anguish about India's future.I always pray for the welfare of the good,including flora,fauna etc etc.That must be a disappointment to my cavillers!

Whatever good I (and people like me)do to the world need not necessarily be made known to you.

Anonymous said...

"those who know, know...those who do not ... even after telling them they will not know..."
-- Buddha

deepest regards