[Advaita-l] India, my beloved India!

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams:

>> What kind of TV programs are you watching?! :-)

I will tell you which programs I watch if you tell me which country
you live in! :-)

>>There is nothing wrong with wealth
>> -- if obtained and used morally. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth,
>> is worshipped in the temples throughout India. Kubera, the lord
>> of wealth, is considered a highly auspicious deity.

Yes, I can appreciate the use and power of Lakshmi as well as the next
guy or gal. But at what price?

In the words of Swami Vivekananda : "Shall India die? Then from the
world all spirituality will be extinct.; all moral perfection will be
extinct; all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct; all
ideality will be extinct; such a thing can never be!"

Isn't India dying spiritually?  Is it mere coincidence that in these times:
Ø The Kanchi Shankarachaya (my typing hurt at that last word) gets
accused of as heinous a crime as murder? And to think that some people
equate him with the pope! If that were not enough, his successor gets
implicated for a similar crime and some say for availing the services
of a woman, too?
Ø Some priests of the Swami Narayan temple are caught on tape having
illicit sex? Oh, and subsequently, the temple passed a law that
priests shall not interact with women and their TV rights would be
revoked. If TV were merely informative, would that necessary?
Ø At the India Today Enclave, the (psuedo?) intellectuals like Javed
Akhtar and Mahesh Bhatt take on Sri Sri Ravishankar by claiming India
is not a spiritual country! Mahesh Bhatt could be ignored for trying
to put on a show of being knowledgeable but surely Javed Akhtar is
well versed in literature and could not be discounted so easily.

Let me ask you this - what do the words: Jism, Zeher, Krod, Bewafaa,
Murder and Rog bring to your mind?
No, I am not talking about the demonic qualities listed in the 16th
chapter of the Gita. These are names of movies our youth are growing
up with. I haven't seen any of them but their names give you a pretty
good idea what's in them. The next generation carrying the spiritual
flag of India? I wonder….

So, if as Jaldhar said "I as Brahman created the world…", then I
definitely don't care for what I have made of India! To end, for those
who might think this is a pessimistic note, I would like to close
quoting Swami Vivekananda again (in my own words since I have lost
original text) as Narenda (before Sanyas) and as Swamiji (post
Sanyas):
Ø Naren (to Sri Ramakrishna): "This world, to have been created by the
God with traits as defined in your scriptures, defies logic! I could
have created a better world!"
Ø Swamiji (to disciples): "Oh, what use is this moksha! I have fallen
in love with the world and its people and would like to be born again
and again!"

With hopes that we all see the world through Swamiji's eyes….

Om Tat Sat!

Mahesh


On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:14:18 -0800 (PST), S Jayanarayanan
<sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm aware that this topic is not related to advaita and need not
> be discussed on this list, but I did not see the list moderators
> step in to stop the thread, hence my first and final posting on
> this thread.
> 
> --- Mahesh Ursekar <mahesh.ursekar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Pranams:
> >
> > What has become (or is becoming) of you my beloved country?
> > Where
> > woman was worshipped as a personification of the Mother, is
> > now
> > reduced to an item number! Where renunciation was an ideal,
> > material
> > wealth seems have gotten sway!
> 
> [..]
> 
> > If Advaita were true (and I believe nothing
> > else can
> > be), when I see some woman reducing herself to an object of
> > lust on TV
> > in front of children and adults alike,
> 
> What kind of TV programs are you watching?! :-)
> 
> > PS> If anyone else shares similar or contrary sentiments, I
> > would
> > really like to know because most people I have tried to broach
> > this
> > subject with seem quite indifferent to my viewpoint…
> >
> 
> I hold a contrary viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with wealth
> -- if obtained and used morally. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth,
> is worshipped in the temples throughout India. Kubera, the lord
> of wealth, is considered a highly auspicious deity. It is
> undoubtedly a good thing for India to slowly rid herself of
> poverty and be able to feed her citizens.
> 
> What is bad, however, is attachment to wealth and its use for
> adharmic purposes. This is a problem of the individual and not
> of the times, for there were staunch materialists even during
> the times of Adi Shankara. The Mahabharata has many characters
> who were arguably more materialistic than those living today.
> 
> If you want to be spiritual, simply shun materialism yourself
> (start with the TV!). There is no need to blame the times.
> 
> -Kartik
> 
> 
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Make Yahoo! your home page
> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
> _______________________________________________
> want to unsubscribe or change your options? See:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> Need assistance? Contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>