Many have not heard about this program; though several thought leaders have expressed their disapproval only few were willing to go on record via email, still names will stay confidential
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Leela Samson should not be supported - the organization supporting her should be contacted and several representatives from Hindu organizations should meet them advising them against sponsoring her. If they refuse then steps in future should be taken against such organizations. It is particularly important that senior instructors in dance (eg XXX Kumar ) should be brought up to speed and engaged in positive way so that anti-Hindu forces are not given more room to expand their sphere of influence -it is disconcerting that the local community is so naive and thoughtless. I am in complete agreement with the contents of Ramya's letter.
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This issue has an ideological background, so it would be best to discuss it over the phone. But I will try a quick response.
The background ...
Inculturation is a typical missionary tool. Sita Ram Goel brought this to the attention of Hindus, in the early 1990s, with the following publication
Catholic Ashrams - Sannyasins or Swindlers
You may read it online at http://voi.org/books/ca/index.htm
There are other good books on this subject as well. After Sita Ram Goel, Arun Shourie also wrote on this subject at length (before he had joined the BJP.) Therefore the basic knowledge on this subject has existed for over two decades now.
The question is what can be done about it.
However, there is one element amongst the Hindus that has forced us, as a society, to take a very defensive (and rather a nihilistic) position. That is - a "desire" to find "common ground" with Christianity (not the Christians).
This has yielded in absurd positions.
- Jesus was a yogi
- Jesus may have gone to India
- Jesus came in contact with Buddhist spiritual masters
- Jesus was a spiritual master / saint, Christianity is good, but Missionaries are bad.
- yata, yata
Most of the "modern" Hindu gurus hold this position, and appeal to Missionaries in the name of Jesus to not convert the Hindus.
This attitude has become such a monstrous absurdity, that not only Jesus/Christianity, Hindus have elevated this principle to a higher level of abstraction, and now try to find a common ground between Vedanta and Judiac/Koranic/Biblical monotheism.
Several years back a well-known "modern" 5-star Vedanta guru arranged/blessed a Jewish-Hindu summit in and came with a joint declaration. You can review this here:
Second section of that declaration explicitly states that Judiac monotheism and Hindu worship of "One Supreme Being" is "one and the same"!
So, ...
Here you have 5-star self-styled Pope wannabe of Hindus, dumbing down Hinduism to the level of Judiac Monotheism, just to have an alliance with them! ( In colloquial Americana this is called "cock-sucking").
Having an alliance with the Jews is a noble undertaking, but does that require dumbing down Hinduism? The basis of a Hindu-Jewish alliance needs to be purely tactical. "You are being beaten by Islamists, and so are we, so let us work together" - that's all that is required.
And keep in mind that it is not the Jews who ever demanded Hinduism to be dumbed down, as a prerequisite for this alliance. It is the clowns from the Hindu end who did this.
But to be fair to the Hindu Pope-wannabe, this Hindu attitude is not a recent phenomenon. He is just carrying the torch which was lit in Bengal in 1800s. This is a product of 19th century Hindu "modernist" thinking, roots of which are in the erstwhile Bengal/Madras/Bombay presidencies (with Bengal leading the way) - where the British rule took hold first.
( "Modernism" is a technical philosophical term - discussion on which would be a digression).
But I know what you are thinking.
Perhaps as an activist you do not want to know all this. You want to get up and act and "solve" this problem.
Maybe a letter-writing campaign, a protest, a sit-in, etc. And all that is fine. Maybe these things generate some awareness. Agreed. Doing something would be better than doing nothing. But this problem cannot be solved by incorrect ideological basis. At best it would be a tactical exercise.
If the Houston Hindu community today is patronizing a cultural event that has a Christian inculturation background, it is not as if all these Hindus have become wicked and decided to assault Hinduism. Most probably they do not have a clue.
Christian inculturation intervention/assault against Hinduism is determined by the ideological compromises we have made over the last 2 centuries. Unless we factor this in our response, we will not be making headway.
We have to treat the cancer first, and only then we will be able to ward off external infections.
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You are more talented in these matters than I am. However these are my personal views and I hope they help.
See what we need is the understanding as to what is Sanatna Dharma as opposed to religion to separate out identity from others. Dharma is a form of human values to elevate a human above the body limitations as found among animals. Most of our population is ignorant about dharma as many are graduates of some Christian schools rather than Gurukuls. In my mind the fault line lies in the use of the word Hindu which easily transforms into Hinduism to describe our collective identity as followers of another religion. Our scripture does not recognize this word anywhere and the Rishis were very carerfull not to project a religion of any kind. To follow is not our tradition but to establish an individual path to self realization by exploring the mind. Religion is a very limited discipline, its so limited that its meaningless. As a non dharma it should be classified as adharma by us. To promote religion unnatural means are employed for fear that the very scheme may just die otherwise. The word Hinduism is easily acceptable as a religion even by us and unfortunately once used it becomes our identity. To follow dharma is to search the mind as to what is this beautiful but unique and complex human body together with the mind and spirit all rolled into one. As Vedics we are to go further and examine closely how we relate to nature and the Supreme as well. We do not seek divinity outside of us but in us and also with all thats around us. Its far, and far beyond a religion.
Unless our folks get this meaning of dharma we have but just a lost cause. It is said that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth. We cannot continue to be confused all the trime.
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