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Finding charlatans (was: Re: ISKCON : help define these terms)
In article <4hkm99$o7g@babbage.ece.uc.edu>, jai@mantra.com (Dr. Jai Maharaj) writes:
|> In article <4h8djc$kq2@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
|> of 2 Mar 1996 02:59:56 UTC,
|> Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
|> > . . . Most of these people know the spelling of Sanskrit and not
|> > beyond that. . . .
The context of that quote was a bit snipped. The original author
was talking about people who he didn't believe were really scholars.
|> In describing such people, one finds in THE NATURE OF HINDUISM,
|> Walker and Company, 1962:
|>
|> ". . . All that these people succeed for the most part in
|> getting out of Hinduism is an artificial vocabulary and arbitrary
|> interpretations chosen haphazardly from the total field. . . .
This is fairly common in Hinduism, since every Tom, Dick, and Harry
(or should that be Raju, Sandeep, and Devdutt?) is going around these
days claiming to be things which he is not. Technology usually helps,
since these guys can buy computer programs which calculate Jyotish
charts, for example. Likewise, programs such as "grep" can be used
in conjunction with an electronic copy of the Bhagavad Gita to
feign comprehension.
|> Let us always remember that India is an Eldorado for charlatans."
Indeed - also troubling is that many of these charlatans only claim
to be Indian, without even providing proof. One of the simplest ways
to screen out such imposters is to ask for proof of that person's
credentials. When one attends a university and sees a person
advertising himself as a doctor, the person's credentials have usually
been verified, but that's not the case here in Usenet. Likewise,
there are people who will make a great show of being holy by doing
things like periodically spamming many newsgroups with a translation
of the Bhagavad Gita, but this isn't entirely unexpected in the Kali
Yuga, is it?
A simple way of seeing if a person is real is to examine the
person's credentials, and compare them to what is known about
the person. Usually, if you go to a doctor's office, the doctor
will have his/her certification on display, and if not, won't be
offended by a request for proof. Likewise, someone who completed
a PhD usually will be more than happy to point you to his/her
thesis. Many won't even ask you if you want to see it!
It is quite the same for many branches of Hinduism - the credentials
of a person are available in some form or another, if that person
claims to be an authority. Granted, you may or may not agree with
that person's credentials, but they won't hide them or shirk the
question.
-Vivek
http://www.loop.com/~taxi/jayfaq.txt
|>
|> Jai Maharaj <jai@mantra.com> J y o t i s h i
|> %:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:% Om Shanti %:%:%
