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

[ramesam vemuri]

Just a 2c contribution if it has any worth but not from the position of any "expertise" on sastrAs or to contest the opinions of stalwart Pundits. I write from the standpoint of my understanding. 
1.  No really ancient scriptural texts on "Dharma" could have ever talked about, IMHO, Hindus or Hinduws or Hinduism. 
2.  Conversions would have been an "unknown" concept for them because they operated on the explicit premise of "vasudeva kutumbakam."
That means any one born in the entire universe  legitimately belongs to and automatically becomes a "sanAtana Dharmi' by birth itself. No eligible natives and ineligible aliens. He/she would not have needed a stamped certificate from an assigned authority to be called a "sanAtana Dharmi." 
It is akin to  any one being born in India, automatically becoming a citizen of the country. (A certificate may be needed for transactions later in life but that is a different matter). 
3. If, however, there is a need to change what is naturally obtained by birth, a conversion will be required. For example: I am an Indian citizen and I want to convert to become an American citizen.  This is possible when there are more than one such countries (in this case India and the USA) and there is a stipulated legally approved procedure. 
In times of yore, there was  one and only one universe (no divisions), vausdaiva kutumbakam and one Dharma. So neither a possibility for conversion nor an approved procedural text. Perhaps, I venture to surmise, this was the reason why sanAtna Dharma never found a need for "proselytizing."  
Whom to proselytize when every one is the same - one is however free to follow/practice any belief system or philosophy of life including Charvaka - one will not lose the legality of being a sanAtana Dharmi.
 
  
4.  So conversions are possible only after there the delimiting boundary conditions dividing people come in to exist. With the arrival of "Hinduism" as a distinct Dharma, conversions must be possible. The original dharmic texts cannot give guidelines as they preceded any  divisions like Hindu, Christian . Can we find an answer to subtle issues of transborder information flows in the satellite communiction age in the outdated old Indian Telegraphic Act of 1875? 
5.  Talking of conversions within the four varnas, it is reasobale to take perhaps Bhagavad-Gita as the principal source to derive applications for later times.

  

________________________________
 From: S L Shivashankar <slshivashankar at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] mleccha-s not eligible to take Hinduism??