The Silent Indian National Anthem

Namaste,

You've seen the video of A.R. Rahman's overwrought production of Jana Gana Mana and the video of the little child's word-perfect rendition of Jana Gana Mana. Now watch as hearing-impaired children sign Jana Gana Mana. I choked up.   

Happy Republic Day.

The Life of Sri Aurobindo by A.B. Purani

Namaste,

Sri Aurobindo lived an amazing life. He was a scholar of Greek classics at Cambridge, college professor, revolutionary and nationalist, and a mystic. He left behind a prodigious output of writing, which was cataloged in the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.



Until I read The Life of Sri Aurobindo by A.B. Purani, I thought that his life could be neatly organized by his various careers and places of residence. Sri Aurobindo began his revolutionary activities at Cambridge, continued them through his tenure in Baroda and his stay in Calcutta, and effectively ended them when he departed to Pondicherry. Even after his withdrawal from politics in 1920, he continued to write cogently about worldly affairs. His sadhana साधना began as long ago as his stay in Baroda (1893-1906), intensified when he was imprisoned in Alipor jail, and culminated in Pondicherry. His life could not be as neatly compartmentalized as I had thought.

Through reading The Life of Sri Aurobindo, I also began to understand why his writings are so difficult to read. Jeffery Paine, author of Father India, told me that Sri Aurobindo ultimately wrote for himself. After I read the book, I came to believe that the problem is that Sri Aurobindo was trying to articulate in words and intellectualize mystical experience. He acknowledged,

What I write usually helps only the mind and that too very little, for people really do not understand what I write …

Another problem is that Sri Aurobindo invented new vocabulary. His levels of consciousness, for example, seem to correspond to the koshas कोश or sheaths of the individual.

I drew inspiration from Sri Aurobindo’s vision for India, Asia, and the world, which he wrote for the occasion of India’s independence, August 15, 1947, which was also his birthday. Other readers will find The Life of Sri Aurobindo revelatory and inspiring.

Christianity: West's default religion?

Namaste,

I had to read and re-read Christianity: West's default religion by Sandhya Jain. On first reading, I took offence at the intimation that the problem of Islam should be sicced on the West – and it still bothers me.

Contrary to what the author says, the recent Swiss vote to ban minarets does not represent "a frontal return of Christianity." Europe is largely secular in its orientation and post-Christian (the same cannot be said about America). Since WWII, Europe has lost the will to fight, if it ever had the will to fight: the U.S. and British, in an opportunistic alliance with the Soviet Union, crushed Nazism on its Eastern and Western fronts. By abandoning Christianity, Europe has no ideology that can effectively counter Islam.

Western politicians have sold out their people through alliances with Muslim states for oil. The philosophy of cultural relativism has also eroded Western confidence in itself. I see the Swiss vote to ban minarets as a baby step by its citizens to reclaim its culture and its way of life. This does not mean a Christian resurgence in Europe, the return of The Crusades, and expanding missionary activities.

Upon re-reading this article, I do have to agree with the author on the following:

The Swiss vote has caused a frisson of excitement in traditional and secular circles in India, with some Hindus hallucinating about a ‘natural’ alliance with the Christian West to mutually crush Islam. This foolish hope once soared after the 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York, and Hindus in particular and Indians in general failed to comprehend why Pakistan emerged as the West’s leading non-NATO ally.

… Should Hindus respond to a Western Crusade against Islam, the result will be similar to our experience in World War II, where the 2.5 million-strong Indian Army won the war for the colonial West, only to be betrayed back at home. The British eventually quit India in 1947 only because of the military mutinies inspired by Subhash Chandra Bose, and they successfully cut up the nation before leaving, retaining critical territory in the form of a land bank called Pakistan …

Neither the Government of India nor Western government have the guts or will to stand up to Islam and its expansionist aims on society. Both are in denial. Even if there were awareness and will, India is not strong enough on its own. India will have to employ cunning (something it lacks and which Pakistan and China have in abundance) and enter into opportunistic alliances, as the Americans and British did with the Soviet Union in WWII.

The Vedanta Society and ecumenicism

Namaste,

I received an email announcing new titles in the Vedanta Catalog. Prints of this picture of the Madonna and baby Jesus are offered for sale as a greeting card or art print:


According to the Vedanta Catalog,

It was in Jadulal Mallik's garden house where Ramakrishna first saw the painting. He intently studied the image of the Madonna and Child thinking of the wonderful life of Jesus. Rays of light emanated from the bodies of Mother Mary and the child Jesus, entering Ramakrishna's heart. The overpowering experience forced Ramakrishna to forget his Hindu awareness. He even forgot to visit the Divine Mother in the temple so strong was his love of Christ.

I agree with Pt. Vamadeva Shastri (David Frawley) that the Ramakrishna Mission ascribes too much to Ramakrishna's forays into other religions. According to him, Sri Ramakrishna's forays into other religions were highly unorthodox and lasted only a few days apiece: for most of his life, Sri Ramakrishna was content to be a priest for Kali at Dakshineswar.

On the basis of these brief forays into other practices, Vedanta temples are decorated with symbols of different religions. Swami Vivekananda expressed the need for a temple that united Hindus of all sampradayas under the symbol of "Aum."

Other reviews of The Hindus: An Alternative History

Namaste,

To follow up on my review of The Hindus: An Alternative History, here are links to two other reviews:

Doniger Imagined History
The Hindu American Foundation poses two questions to Doniger and the Academy:

1) Do academics that study religion as non-believers share a responsibility to consider or respect the religious beliefs ascribed by adherents to their scripture?

2) Is Freudian psychoanalysis relevant to deconstructing scripture, its divine and human characters (the latter now dead) and its earliest believers (also now dead) from several millenia ago, and what, if any value do these interpretations offer?

Oh, But You Do Get It Wrong!
Aditi Banerjee fisks (deconstructs) the points that Doniger made in an interview with Outlook India. Banerjee writes in her introduction:

[Doniger] (1) falsely and unfairly brands all of her critics as right-wing Hindutva fundamentalists, and (2) grossly mischaracterizes (and misquotes) the text of the Valmiki Ramayana, calling into question her “alternative” version not just of the Ramayana, but also of Hinduism and Hindu history as a whole.

Ms. Banerjee notes that Doniger plays "both the sex card and the race card" to claim that her critics ("the Hindutva types") are discriminating against her. More accurately, Doniger plays three cards: religion (she's not Hindu), caste (she's not Brahmin, which follows from her not being Hindu), and gender (she's a woman).

The second part of Ms. Banerjee's opinion piece is a lengthy descontruction of Doniger's interpretation of Valmiki's Ramayana. Doniger's interpretation is rife with inaccuracies, error, and of course, her obsession with sex.