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Re: ARTICLE : Amarnath tragedy : Solution in Hindu self-help
Global Hindu Electronic Network wrote:
>
> On Thu, 5 Sep 1996, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:
>
[..]
>
> > The VHP crowd may not like some of the Sankaracharyas right now, but
> ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> The article was written by Swapan Das Gupta, not a VHP member to my
> knowledge.
>
Sorry about that. It is rather difficult to know who is a VHP member and
who is not. In any case, one does not need to be a VHP member to be part
of the "VHP crowd", no?
> It was published by Indian Express - not a VHP propaganda machine.
>
> In fact, I was under the impression that most of the Shankaracharyas were
> in agreement with VHP on several issues.
Not so. In the person of Sri Swaroopananda Saraswati, who is the
Sankaracharya of Dwaraka and Jyotirmath (two of the four Sankaracharya
seats), you have one of the biggest critics of the VHP. The VHP supports
a rival claimant to the Jyotirmath seat, so there is almost no agreement
between Sri Swaroopananda and the VHP on almost any issue. I don't know
about the Puri Sankaracharya's attitudes to the VHP. The Sringeri
Sankaracharya is rather apolitical. However, the VHP is not very happy
with him, because he is part of the Ramalaya trust formed in 1993, which
is trying to resolve the Ayodhya problem peacefully. I can dig up press
clippings from 1993, quoting Mr. Ashok Singhal and Mr. Vinay Katiyar, in
which they publicly express their differences with the Sankaracharyas
who became members of this trust.
> I am personally in disagreement with the above statement as well, but,
> why blame it on VHP crowd (whoever that includes) and imply that it has
> to do with the relationship between VHP and Shankaracharyas ?
>
Why blame advaita, of which the Sankaracharyas are the most visible
representatives, for the supposed apathy of the general Indian
population towards the Amarnath tragedy? If not for advaita and its
dasnami sannyasis, there would be no Amarnath yatra in the first place.
S. Vidyasankar
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