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Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def) .. very long
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: The definition of HINDU (Was about VK Rao's def) .. very long
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From: santhosh@iss.nus.sg (Santhosh Kumar)
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Date: 18 Jan 1996 02:43:28 GMT
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, National University Of Singapore.
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References: <DKBuD9.968@ecf.toronto.edu> <4cvipg$2g@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4d29sr$6mr@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4d4hne$6gt@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4d736m$8fc@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4df2ob$68l@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
Singam (vijia@pop.jaring.my) wrote:
: vivek@cs.rice.edu (Vivek Sadananda Pai) wrote:
:
: >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?
:
: When I first heard about incidents such as this, I was staggered. I
: thought the first instance was coincidence but when I heard that more
: such incidents were happening, I had to accept their occurance as
: fact.
:
: What can I say? IMHO those 'priests' or other persons who prohibit
: admission to non Indians have forfeited the right to call themselves
: Hindu. They have become mere tools in the hands of opportunistic
: politicians. Let us not waste our anger on them. Let us instead pity
: them and 'pray' (in whatever manner each of us chooses) that they are
: able to find the path that they have lost.
:
: Let us certainly not base our judgement of what constitutes a Hindu by
: their misguided acts.
:
: Perhaps it is the fate of the Hindu religions that at the culmination
: of the Kali Yuga the corruption within the land of Hindustan will be
: countered by the blossoming of Dharma everywhere else in the world.
:
I do share the concern of those who wish to visit temples to worship or
meditate on the idol, but not being able to enter the temple. I, as
an Indian, have never faced any problem in entering in any of the
temples in India, nobody ever asked me whether I am a Hindu. There
are a few temples like Guruvayoor in Kerala which are still driven
by the narrow concept of orthodoxy where Yesudas is not allowed to
enter the temple in spite of declaring that he has faith in Hinduism.
But, there are many other temples in India where anybody can enter
as long as he/she is a believer, or as long as he/she does not
declare as a non-believer, the famous ones include Sabarimala and
Sri Padmanabha Swami temple in Trivandrum.
I feel that there is nothing wrong in not admitting a non-believer
inside the temple, like the communists who thinks that anything
about religion is like OPIUM. They may perhaps would like to go
inside and shout Karl Marx Sindabad, Lenin Sindabad, and
spoil the sanctity of the environment inside. In the case of
foreigners it may be little more difficult to distinguish between
a casual visitor who wants to visit the temple as a picnic spot
and a believer tourist. I think that could be the reason for the
foreigner facing the problem entering the temple, perhaps if
he/she is accompanied by an Indian, the problem could be avoided.
regards,
Santhosh
