Jaladhar's remarks

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, Chandran, Nanda (NBC) wrote:

> But guys, is there any reason for the list members to get so worked up about
> Jaladhar's statements?

No.

> Isn't Jaladhar being loyal to the orthodox Vedic
> view?

Yes.

> After all, the shruti and the smritis are rife with discriminatory (at
> least in the current world and context) statements - against women, castes
> etc But considering the fact that these texts are millenniums old and that
> mankind has progressed a great deal since, can't we have a meaningful
> discussion on the relevancy of such thought?

Well for a start you have to define relevancy.

> For as people as so fond of
> quoting, if the Shruti has to be studied it has to be taken and studied as a
> whole and not in parts as it suits us.
>

Hear hear!


> Jaladhar, even if women and certain people are not eligible to study the
> Vedas, what exactly is your problem? No, I don't mean it in a personal way.
> Even if they really aren't eligible, they're going to be the losers, so I
> guess it isn't anybody else's problem. But I sincerely doubt such thought,
> as even Ramana Maharishi took in quite a few foreign disciples and even
> Chandrashekara Saraswati didn't think so. And as in Hitopadesha, Hunger,
> sleep, fear and sex are common between man and animal. But man differs from
> the animal by possessing the faculty of discrimination, the ability to tell
> the right from the wrong. So if this is the case, can blindly following such
> thought even be right?

Well, my first problem is my general abbhorrence of falsehood.  I am by no
means perfect in this regard but when I hear someone say something which I
know to be untrue, I can't help but comment.

The second problem is the shastras are not for me some cheap paperback you
pickup at the airport bookshop on the way to your trip to San Francisco.
They are my patrimony.  My ancestors may not have left me much in the way
of worldly goods but what they have left is worth more than gold.  I react
to its misuse the same way as I would to being mugged.

The third problem is I disagree with the very notion that people should be
doing things meant for others and by prescribing unequal duties, Hinduism
is doing anything wrong.  In fact the supposedly progressive ways of
thinking are more injurious to womens rights and needs.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>