[Advaita-l] Re: institutionalization of religion

[Abhishek RK]

Namaste,
I agree with all your statements. "ellAru mADuvudu hoTTegAgi"
(everyone works for the sake of the stomach- viz, food) is a
composition of Kanakadsaru, in which the haridasa brings out the
fundamental motivation for everyone to do any work (including "holy"
work): food (by earning money).

Also, on the main point of this thread, viz, the stigma associated
with the word "Hindu", an interesting quote from "Decolonizing the
Hindu mind", by Dr Koenraad Elst, is:

"Until a decade ago, most observers and even enemies of Hinduism were
prepared to concede to it a certain harmlessness an benevolent
tolerance tolerance as quintessentially Hindu qualities; today, even
that little credit has been taken away. Hindus used to take great
pride in Swami Vivekananda's triumphal speech at the parliament of
Religions... but the celebration of its 100th anniversary in
Washington DC was embarrassing because the Ayodhya demolition was
generally considered to have disproven Vivekananda's description of
Hinduism as tolerant. Hinduism is now never discussed without
mentioning "Hindu fundamentalism", at best to disclaim this phenomenon
as part of genuine Hinduism, but more often to prove that Hinduism is
just as conducive to fanaticism as Islam and Christianity are. The
credit for for this additinal blot to the fair name of Hinduism must
go to the Sangh Parivar, not because it has taken up Hindu causes, but
it has handled them so mindlessly.

"Information  has an impact on people's behviour, and opinions have
consequences, sometimes even lethal ones. Therefore, it was
irresponsible for the leaders of a political movement to spurn someof
the available ways of spreading pertinent information and influencing
public opinion".

Just some food for thought :)

Regards,
Abhishek

On 7/25/06, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com> wrote:
> As a general comment, I will just point out that even the most
> "traditional" of Mutts are involved in collecting money - large sums
> of it. I personally know of one instance where large sums of money
> have been collected illegally in one Mutt. Not regarding how the money
> was earned by the donators (likely super legal ways only), but having
> to do with other things. The problem is that the traditional people
> complaining about Ramakrishna Mutt stop using their the critical
> faculties when it comes to their own organisations.
>
> In defence of the Ramakrishnaism idea propounded by the RK Mission
> folks, let me point out that Ramakrishna did advocate some new ideas
> also. Further the Indian government sees fit to tax Hindu
> organisations and making other religions tax exempt (very secular).
>
> Go to any mutt and you will find people donating lots of money getting
> royal treatment and personal talks with the aachaaryas. It's very
> difficult not to do otherwise. Let's stop critcizing the RK folks and
> just try to find out whether the same things go on in your favorite
> Mutt. I guarantee that you'll be surprised.
>
> Rama
>
-- 
satyena dhAryate pR^ithvi satyena tapate raviH|
satyena vAti vAyushca sarvaM satye pratishThitam||

calA lakShmIshcalAH prANAshcalaM jIvita yauvanaM|
calAcale ca saMsAre dharma eko hi nishcalaH||