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Ramakrishna & Vivekananda
May I invite you to (an English translation, of course, of) a song
by a great Indian saint, Mirabai:
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"If abstinence from sex made one attain the Lord,
Then all eunuchs should have done so;
If abstinence from meat bestowed Bhakti,
Why, the deer, then, should be the greatest devotee;
...
<few more similar analogies>
...
Thus, Mirabai says, Only LOVE can affect the Lord."
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The point is simple, and has been repeated hundreds of times
here already. However, let me repeat it yet again for the benifit
of some recalcitrant minds.
There is a stage when sensual plesures are harmful. But there
is a stage FAR beyond it, when outward cleanliness becomes
immaterial due to the attainment of immense internal purity.
Needless to say, RK and V. fall into the latter category.
Another juicy fact for our Hare-Krishna friends: Adolf Hitler
was a vegetarian. Now, there's one worthy enough to join Hare-Krishna
ranks, isn't he??!! <Being sarcastic, of course, dear ISCKON brothers>.
If bigotry is still blocking the mental clarity of some, let
me elaborate again: Vegetarianism is good; but what good is it
if in spite of meticulous outward purity, you breed venom in
yourselves in the form of hate and anger (much like Hitler), which
you spew abundantly onto this newsgroup? (I mean, people put up a
facade of devotion by chanting "Hari Bol!", but every "HariBol!" is
accompanied by 20 "go-to-hell!'s".)
RK. and V. stressed internal transformation. They were not
small-minded men whose sole achievement in life was clobbering
another person's views on alt.hindu by spending 3 hours a day
typing up postings. Their style was to march into the avenue
of practice, by experiencing the scriptures before preaching them.
(Somewhat the opposite of today's norm).
One last point: If there's a moderator to this group (as the
footer seems to imply), just who/where/how is he?? I mean, this
baseless talk on RK & V can go on and on without any consensus or
reconciliation. Doesn't anyone see the need to stop the mud-slinging,
most of all, the respected Moderator??
--
Srikrishna Darbha
s2darbha@elecom2.watstar.uwaterloo.ca
P.S. Dear Hare Krishna brothers, you will doubtless abstain from
arguing with me after seeing my name! <joking again...>
++++++++++++++++++++
Srikrishna Darbha
Univ. of Waterloo
Waterloo ON, Canada
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