[Advaita-l] Mayavada Darpanam

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

Dear Nithin,

Sri Jaldhar Vyas may resort to ban as he has expressed intolerance to
opposing view point. I would like to post this before that so that
intelligent people may understand it.

Yes, we should critically examine our own texts and other Vedic traditions.
The is required to arrive at the truth and have conviction in our own path.
In this sense, I think Sujal's post of the link is quite relevant as it is
in defence of advaita against attack by Madhwas. However, an intelligent
person will choose the worst of the evil and attack it first. Would you
treat bhagavathas and kapalikas in the same way? You would agree with most
of what the former says but disagree on certain conclusions. With the
latter, you may condemn and even impose ban if you had the power. (If you
are Sri Jaldhar Vyas you may ban both :) as they are anyway wrong from
advaita point of view).

Advaitins - be it Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Sringeri Acharyas or
any one - did not write any thing to critique Islam or Christianity
but spared no effort against other Hindu traditions. When discussing a
philosophy, we will not only see the content but also the qualities of the
speaker.  Those who defend a philosophy will be forced to defend the
philosopher too - cant shy away from that. Sringeri Acharya admits that
there were excesses by muslims but defends that.  He says that they did it
on the basis if their faith. History tells us what these excesses are -
rape, murder, destruction of temples, cow slaughter, jizya, forced
conversions etc. Is rape of "kafir women" defensible on the basis of faith?
If we treat someone, even a parama bhakta or jnani, as infallible, we will
obstruct truth and justice. We have to pay for such injustice with blood. A
sincere brahmin officer Sri Sankarraman was brutally slaughtered in
a temple 9 years ago. I am glad Sankaracharya and Kanchi Mutt
asssociates were acquitted. However, the people who killed Sankarraman
- missionaries ? - have not been caught and no one is fighting for that.
His is not an isolated slaughter but there are many activists of Hindu
dharma who get killed by religious fanatics even today. It is a fair ask
that those who indulge in polemics should oppose the grossest forms of them
that lead to fundamentalism and terrorism. Is it not?

Proponents of Islam and Christianity, among other things,
attack apaurusheyatva of Vedas, one of the key tenets of vaidhika dharma
http://www.islamhinduism.com/hinduism/analysis/59-origin-of-vedas-their-inspiration-and-authority
Recently, I ran a blog http://apaureshyatva.blogspot.co.uk/ on the
topic where Sri Jaldhar Vyas also
participated. Needless to say that the arguments in favour of
apaurusheyatva were decimated using
Philology, Linguistics etc. Sri Jaldhar Vyas ducked out of the discussion.
I followed it up with Sri Mani
Dravid Sastrigal and made some progress. It is still not
rigorously defensible because we don't
have the required knowledge as a tradition. Hence, I ask scholars to focus
on defending dharmic
traditions instead of in-fighting amongst vaidhikas.

Best Regards
RV
On Tuesday, December 17, 2013, Nithin Sridhar wrote:

> Is is not true that a bigger crisis in the society as a whole is that
> people are not  even adhering to Samanya Dharma of Satya etc? Sringeri
> Guruji in most of his speech advice people to practicing Dharma. The  Q is
> how many are listening?
>
> Secondly, Is Shankaracharya a Jagadguru or just a Guru of Vaidikas? Think
> about it.
>
> Criticism of Islam on Ideological level is one thing, finding fault with
> our Guru's is completely different. Have we become competent enough to
> Judge or Criticize such people as Sringeri Guruji?
> _______
>
> I am not saying anybody is above criticism. But, criticism should be
> genuine and elaborate and not mere personal attacks or judgements.
>
> -Nithin
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com<javascript:;>
> >wrote:
>
> > Namaste
> >
> > I agree with RV. The Sringeri and other Math are friendly with Muslims.
> But
> > Muslims are hell bent on increasing the population of Muslims by having
> > four wives and many children with no birth control. The Sringeri Swamiji
> is
> > not able to solve the shortage of Brides for Vaidika Brahmin
> Bridegrooms.At
> > the same time he is happy to use gifts from Muslims and Muslim Kings. Why
> > he is not asking in his speeches to give daughters in marriage to
> Vaidikas.
> > Is it not his duty to protect Vaidika Dharma and make it to continue for
> > ever? If Vaidikas dont get wives they can not have boys to learn Vedas.
> >
> > I know one Madhva Swamiji has asked fathers to give daughters to Vaidikas
> > to protect Vaidika Dharma.
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 11:29 AM, <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Sri Jaldhar,
> > >
> > > I shared the view with the intent of protection of dharmic traditions
> in
> > > mind. I thought any one is welcome to share their views on this forum
> > just
> > > as you would allow guests in your house to speak for dharma as they
> deem
> > > fit. If we don't share our thoughts (and remain open to correction),
> how
> > > can we learn?
> > >
> > > If you equate vaishnavism (vishishtadvaita, dwaita etc.), which are
> self
> > -
> > > consistent philosophical systems to abrahmic cults, the onus is on you
> to
> > > prove that it is the case.
> > >
> > > Kristhu Madha Kandanam (condemnation of christianity) by saivAcharya is
> > > the only quality critique I have seen by a traditional mutt. It stopped
> > > conversions in Kerala. If you know the works of traditional mutts that
> > > critique Christianity and Islam in a scholarly manner, please point
> them
> > > out. Buddhists have done it and hence captured the imagination of
> > > intellectuals all over the world. On the other hand, even the Sringeri
> > > acharyas have defended Islam and Christianity leave alone ISKCON which
> is
> > > evangelical. Such defences can't stand the scrutiny using facts and
> > logic.
> > >
> > > Best Regards
> > > RV
> > > Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> > > Sender: "Advaita-l" <advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>Date:
> > > Tue, 17 Dec 2013 00:36:48
> > > To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta<
> > > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> > > Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
> > >  <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> > > Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Mayavada Darpanam
> > >
> > > On Mon, 16 Dec 2013, Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:
> > >
> > > > While Hindu traditions engage in pointless polemics, missionaries
> > convert
> > > > and muslims do a demographic siege. How many have the courage to
> oppose
> > > > Islam or Christianity? Even our mathathipathis support Islam and
> > > > Christianity unmindful of the damage they cause to traditional
> > > institutions.
> > > >
> > >
> > > 1. "The pointless polemics" as you call them are equally useful against
> > > anky kind of monotheism which is basically just an unsophisticated
> > dvaita.
> > >
> > > 2.  The future of Hinduism belongs to the educated not illiterates no
> > > matter how much they beat their chests and "oppose."
> > >
> > > 3.  You have no idea what the author is doing or not doing.  You have
> no
> > > idea what anyone on this list is doing or not doing.  So keep your
> > > editorializing to yourself it is not welcome here.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Archives: http://lists.adva<http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/>