svadharma

[Sankaran Jayanarayanan]

First of all, I must say that I have come across several people claiming
to be pious BrAhmaNas who find it convenient to be "more dhArmic" in
America. I found this quite distasteful, and was indeed glad to hear that
BodhAyana agrees with me.

On Tue, 1 Feb 2000, Ravisankar Mayavaram wrote:

> I agree with you.

I agree with you :-)

> But I should tell  something. America, has its spiritual side too.

Ramana has said that "The Bible and the GItA are the same." I was able to
get a good translation of the Bible and thoroughly enjoyed reading the New
Testament about Jesus and his disciples. Sometimes I even went to a local
Church to pray, but I stopped this when I saw people abusing other faiths
in order to show that Christianity was superior. The way Christianity is
practised, it resembles vishishhTAdvaita and dvaita, though Ramana has
pointed out many similarities between advaita Vedanta and Jesus'
teachings.

> It
> here my devotion to God increased atleast 100 fold. It is here I learnt
> very valuable lessons joining Swami Yogananda's SRF lessons. It here
> through advaita-L I learnt what our tradition is in the first place. It
> is here is America I started doing sandhyavandanam more or less
> regularly.  In fact I even learnt to wear a panchakachham here!!
>

The thread being "svadharma," and the topic being about VarNAshrama
dharma, I merely wanted to point out that the dharma of caste holds less
(way less) in America than in India.

> India. Not to become a brahmana, not to serve the country,  but to go
> to the great shiva temples majestically standing in Tamil Nadu and sing
> in praise of my Father. I don't even mind being a chaNDaala as long as
> my heart is in the in the feet of shiva-shakti.
>

To tell you the truth, I've never felt the same in any temple in the USA
(I've been to about ten) as I did in a small Shiva temple near my house in
Madras. Being in the presence of real devotees is better than being with
people who value wealth more than wisdom.

-Kartik

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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