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Re: Christian hate literature on Hinduism
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Christian hate literature on Hinduism
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From: dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu (Dhruba Chakravarti)
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Date: 17 Jun 1996 01:19:54 -0500
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA
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References: <ghenDs4Kp5.ELu@netcom.com> <ghenDs999E.1vA@netcom.com> <ghenDsGt1I.Bw8@netcom.com> <4pli15$f9m@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <ghenDt0u7B.L91@netcom.com>
GERALD J. LA CORTE (l23@hopi.dtcc.edu) wrote:
: Further, what do you call good and what do you call evil? Generally,
: what is beneficial towards _a_segment_ of humanity is reguarded as good
: and what is harmful towards that same segment is evil.
: The Christian Crusaders who invaded Palestine and the Moghuls who
: invaded India were doing good, because they were fighting for God and
: converting the heathen. Yet, from the point of the Palestinians and
: Indian, they were evil, because they were taking over their land and
: destroying their heritage and culture.
: What is good and what is evil? There are numerous holy men in every
: tradition who become pocessed by the spirit of God and do or say
: something. There are also numerous people in every tradition who become
: pocessed by demons. What's the difference between a deva and an asura?
: Between a human and a rakshasa?
Dear Sri Jay:
Thank you for your posts.
Good or evil is partly a moral determination, but the minimum
requirement for the person who would make the determination, that is,
whether an action is right or wrong is, the person has to be a sattva-guNI.
I would rephrase your examples as, the people who invaded...were they
sattva guNI? YudhishhThira said 'ashvatthamA died, the elephant..that is'
in the battle field of kurukshetra. He was primarily a sattva-guNI. He
determined that the greater good was in such a statement.
In my limited familiarity of these invasions you mentioned, I do not
remember having read about such people as YudhishhThira among them.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
