[Advaita-l] mleccha-s not eligible to take Hinduism??

[S L Shivashankar]

Dear Praveen and others,

I just came back to town after a week without computer. It will take me a
day or so to settle and then perhaps leave my comments on the ongoing
discussion, but I couldn´t resist sending a short reply to this one:


What becomes unnecessary or unacceptable is to give an artificial tag of
> varna and do conversion,give yagnopavita,allow marriages
> between religions,allowing upanayana samskara to the children born from
> such union etc.
>
> These are all based on my discussions with late Sri Rangapriya desikan who
> was one of the finest exponenets of dharma shastra of the country.
> We can't think/act as we wish.These are all already fine tuned and
> regulated processes.
>
>

I agree that the late Sri Rangapriya desikan was a first-rate scholar. I
have met him myself at his ashram in Hanumantanagar in Bangalore. Moreover
one of my best friends, a Swedish person just like myself, is a disciple of
Sri Rangapriya Swami. Sometime before my friend went to India in order to
approach Sri Rangapriya he underwent upanayanam from a pandit here in
Europe. Hence when he came to Sri Rangapriya he was wearing his upavitam
and sikha, and Sri Rangapriya approved of this, and gave my friend
Panchasamskara, mantra with pranava and the name Sri Ramanujadasa. This was
in 1999 or 2000. My friend went to his ashram on several later visits to
India too. In the year 2004 I went to Bangalore with my friend (this is
what Sri Bhaskar referred to in one of his mails in this thread), and one
day I followed him to his Guru Sri Rangapriya. There where other disciples
there as well, but me and my friend where the only westerners. I wore my
upavitam, sikha, dothi and tripundram, and I can assure you that Sri
Rangapriya didn´t in any way object to that, and so did no one else either.
I was fortunate to get tirtha and prasadam from his own hands. Just like my
swedish friend, I got a warm and most heartly welcome.

Warmest regards
Shivashankar