[Advaita-l] Conversion story

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Hari Om,

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 12:03 AM, Satish Arigela<satisharigela at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I am unsure how you read that I suggesting we go and grab those lands back
> into our fold....
>

It was a parallel, nothing more. Would it have sounded more
appropriate if I had said that if people living there wanted to merge
with India being dissatisfied with their countries or something like that?

>> It is self-defeating
>>to convert from other religions into Hinduism.
>
> No. It is not. I already explained why.
>

Okay, maybe you did. Lets say I found HH more convincing and lets just
leave it at that.

>
>  He/She does not need a varNa.
>

Thats very interesting! Solves lot of "problems" within Hinduism
itself, not necessarily only westerners converting to Hinduism.

>
> They can be learned at any age.. it is most effective if learnt from young
> age. But that does not mean you should not learn later.
>

And that would help his spiritual progress in your opinion. I disagree.

>
>>What kind of institutions will encourage him in religion
>>and spirituality?
>
>  Why is this a question in the first place? There are many who accept. Just
> look around
>

It wasn't a dissociated question, but okay, fair enough. I'd rather be
ignorant about this and not look around.

>>Where will that person find himself in some
>>more years after conversion?
>
> In Hinduism - in one of its branches. Is it so hard to see?
>

Yes, to me it is, without varNa as it seems he will have adhikAra as
defined by whoever will convert him, I suppose.

>>Won't he be lost between two religions?
>
> No. Why this assumption?
>

That he will be a good fit isn't an assumption, somehow, but he may be
lost is an invalid assumption?

>>And who is to say that they were spiritually benefited, progress-wise?
> With reference to that upAsaka: Now you are really talking like someone who
> is alien to the Hindu traditions.

Well, I surely am alien to assessing anyone spiritual progress, including mine!

> How can you convert by the way?: There is nothing that can convert one into
> something called Hinduism.

Why are you contradicting here? If there can't be a conversion, you
may have let HH's words remain as they are instead of putting
them aside and making your own suggestions on what to do!

> However, one(here I mean any westerner) can become a shaiva, vaiShNava,
> shAkta, kaula,etc by dIkSha into the respective systems. Even a person born
> into normal Hindu family becomes a shaiva only through this dIkSha.
>

I'm confused whether or not then this person (here I too mean that
westerner) will become a Hindu; or will become a shaiva or
vaishnava, etc, without being a Hindu; or will become a Hindu as well
as a shaiva, vaishnava, etc. Would this be the conversion
ceremony that you said didn't exist?

>>! If all men
> are not born equal due to their past karma, where is the scope for one
> to convert one's faith from what he is born into due to his
>>karma?
>
> I find this somewhat silly.

Thanks, that solves at least one problem: we won't have to argue
further, because the entire premise of HH and my faith in HH's
premise is based on this past karma! :)


praNAms,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */