[Advaita-l] Fwd: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Swami Dayanand Saraswati (of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) leaves his body

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

Of all the accomplishments of Swamiji one could have mentioned, this one 
doesn't exactly show him in a good light.

>
> written by Shri Nandanandana Das (Stephen Knapp):
>
> He was greatly influential, and was well-known all across India. In fact,
> he had written and signed a letter of reference for me, stating that I was
> a sincere Hindu and should be treated with the respect that I deserve. That
> way when I would go to certain temples in India, I could show that letter
> to get in, if they were not allowing certain people inside. So one time
> when I went to the Meenakshi temple, the priests would not allow me into
> the sanctums because of being white-skinned. So I showed the management
> that letter from Swamiji, and after they had some discussion about it, they
> arranged one of their priests to take us into all of the sanctums and do
> pujas, taking us to the head of the long lines of India pilgrims, who were
> watching and wondering why I and a friend of mine got to go to the head of
> the lines while everyone else had to wait. It was like we were shown
> special privileges that even the locals did not receive. I still have that
> letter.

Actually I don't think any pilgrim was wondering how he got to the front 
of the line.  Being able to bend the rules by having connections with a 
"big man" is par for the course in Mother India.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>