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Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def)
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To: srh@rbhatnagar.csm.uc.edu (srh)
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Subject: Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def)
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From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu>
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Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 16:11:32 -0500 (EST)
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In-Reply-To: <199601140240.VAA19723@hague.ecn.purdue.edu> from "Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian" at Jan 13, 96 09:40:15 pm
vivek@cs.rice.edu (Vivek Sadananda Pai) wrote:
> In article <4d4hne$6gt@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
> Vidhyanath K. Rao <vidynath@math.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
> [...]
> >My argument is that either Vaishanvaism is a separate religion or it is
> >a subgroup of Hinduism. My criticism is for the point of view that
> >some Vaishnavas are not Hindus but others are. My claim is simply that
> >if some Vaishnavas are Hindus, then all Vaishnavas are Hindus, and that
> >if some Vaishnavas are not Hindus then none are.
>
> Let's see if this view is accepted universally:
>
> When I went to the main Jagganath temple in Puri, I had no problem
> gaining entrance. In fact, I didn't have a problem gaining entrance in
> any temple I visited. I have stated that I am a Hindu in the past, and
> for the sake of argument, let's go ahead and assume that I am a
> Vaishnava.
>
> Now, a Vaishnava friend of mine also attempted to gain entrance into
> the same temple (along with many others). He got rejected by a good
> number of them, despite the fact that he was clothed as a Vaishnava,
> practiced the lifestyle of a Vaishnava, practiced the religious life
> of a Vaishnava, and spoke a number of Indian languages. Did I forget
> to mention that he was born to Caucasian parents?
Well, there's your answer. Your friend was refused purely on the grounds that
he was born of Caucasian parents. There are traditional people who believe that
people cannot be converted to Hinduism (they include Vaishnavism also). I
personally don't agree with this. Moreover lot of these foreign people (during
British rule) used to write lots of derogatory things about Hindu temples. If
you had told the persons in charge that your friend was a Vaishnavite, they
would have refused to accept that he is a Vaishnavite SINCE he is a caucasian.
Well you may disagree with those people (I would too). I agree with you that
the people in charge may not be enlightened, but you are using the wrong
analogy here.
The fact that you had no problems gaining admission only proves my point. In
fact I have visited lots of Vishnu temples with Bhasma on my forehead. I had
absolutely NO problems, whereas foreigners even with Vaishnavite marks may be
denied admission. In fact, I myself have heard of one case like I have mentioned
here.
Ramakrishnan.
