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

[Santosh Rao]

Perhaps I am, but I'm just being realistic.

Corruption should be dealt with, but not for the sake of accomodating
foreigners over the native population. I only based my comment on the tone
of Mr. Knapps recollection and the fact that he is one of these "new age"
type writers that I am leery of to begin with. No offense intended, my
apologies. I dont want to tarnish the memory of swamiji with these kind of
things.

Namsakra,

Santosh
On Sep 25, 2015 8:59 AM, "Abhyudaya Mandal" <abhyudayamandal at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I think that Mr. Santosh is unnecessarily accusing Mr. Knapp. It would
> have been more appropriate if he has stood at the end of the line, but the
> fact that he did not probably does not have anything to do with the color
> of his skin. Many Indians pay the pandas at the Jagganath Temple in Puri to
> cut infront and quickly get darshan. The same thing occurs in the Kashi
> Vishvanatha Temple in Varanasi. It is simply the brokenness and corruption
> in the temple administration. Given the fact that Mr. Knapp was refused
> entry in the temple to begin with, I think that he would have been thankful
> even if he had to stand in line like the rest of the devotees.
>
> If anything should be criticized, it should be: 1) the fact that some
> temples still don't allow white-skinned people to enter, and 2) the
> corruption among the priests and pandas that they accept money and
> recommendations.
>
> On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Santosh Rao via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> Yeah I'm not comfortable with this. Mr knapp should have thanked them for
>> their understanding and got to the back of the line. Unfortunately many
>> white people are just used to having privileges that others do not, he
>> obviously thought there was nothing wrong with this.
>>
>> Namskara,
>>
>> Santosh
>> On Sep 25, 2015 12:21 AM, "Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l" <
>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > 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>
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