francois minces no words. he's quite right, too. we're in a life-and-death battle. hinduism is the last obstacle left standing in the way of semitic ideologies. buddhism they know how to wipe out, eg. afghanistan, uzbekistan, pakistan, bangladesh, and now south korea and possibly china too. simple method: destroy the buddhist centers and that's the end of buddhism, eg. nalanda.
but they had not until recently figured out how to uproot hinduism. now they have found a fatal weakness: all those marxist converts and their fellow travelers who claim to be 'hindus' when in reality they are card-carrying semitics based on their acceptance of the semitic death cult known as marxism. (literally worships dead people, like the embalmed lenin and mao).
Respected elders and dear friends:
Namaste. Please excuse my long letter and intrusion.
I believe a general lack of leadership is the prime challenge facing the global Hindu community from microcosm to macrocosm today.
Attached article by Mr. Francois Gautier highlights this issue one more time.
Gautier ji, in his following article has made an excellent suggestion of having several most favored contemporary Hindu gurus to make a
Council of Hindu Gurus which could meet perhaps three to four times in an year and issue edicts to bind all Hindus together.
Now, at onset this may sound outrageous to our Hindu sensibilities. But, if we can just take a step back at history and see things from
a different perspective, maybe it will give us a different view and hopefully open up new possibilities:
After Industrial Revolution when human beings left villages for greener pastures of urbanity, they not only left their families, homes
and livelihoods behind but also A SENSE OF BELONGING. This vacuum was cleverly filled by Christianity, Communism and especially
Islam at various periods as these ideologies provided a safety net away from the extended families left behind in the villages. When
Hindus started moving away from villages mostly in 20th century, although they adjusted very well into the new milieu of cities and
other countries there was no structured safety net of extended family or social religions to rescue from adversities of life in general
and life in foreign lands in particular. Hinduism is a religion of personal faith, spirituality and divinity-within and not much of social
structuring religion that is why its loose general social structure. Because a Hindu does not find a safety net of an extended family or
even an atmosphere conducive to being a Hindu, an expatriate Hindu often feels that he belongs somewhere else that has been left in
the deep distant past which is unreachable and so there is a sense of longing and helplessness. Whereas a Muslim, a Communist or a
Christian or even a secular Hindu (who is Hindu only for namesake) has no qualms about his identity or sense of belonging.
The Hindu Swaminarayan sampradaya is successful because it fills this particular void of 'belonging' for the Hindus away from their homes.
The Swadhyay paripar, which is another success story but works the other way, by providing an extended family structure for Hindus who
are primarily still in the villages. We can learn from Hindu success stories... and there are surely more.. and look beyond for models.
A recent meet in Mumbai of 80 plus Shankaracharyas and Mahamandaleshwars from all over India with 400 of their close associates
was a great initiative taken in the direction of 'Hindu Leadership' by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati of the Arsh Vidya Gurukulam, Mangalore
and Pennsylvania. This meet was covered by Hinduism Today. Rest of the Hindu community needs to plug into this debate.
We in the USA can go on debating, petitioning, forwarding, appreciating and criticizing ALL that is happening here and in India...
while time is running out and for Hindus the world is getting worse by day. It is time for action.
Given the democratic nature of Hindu Dharma, it is difficult to say how Hindus can be led but a strong, assertive leadership indeed ...
is the need of the hour. Any brainstorming on this burning issue will be of great benefits to all.
Bhavdiya -
Sucheta Maheshwari
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In Defense of Hindu Gurus
- by Francois Gautier
When Marxist leader Brinda Karat attacks Swami Ramdev, she is not
attacking Ramdev in particular, she is attacking Hinduism in general.
This guru or that guru makes no difference to her; she is against all gurus.
Other gurus might think they are safe, that Ramdev committed some sin
for which he is paying. But one of them will be the next in the line of fire!
Hindu gurus are all vulnerable in today's India: The Kanchi Shankaracharya
has already been hit. So has Satya Sai Baba. Amritanandamayi has to live
under the constant shadow of a hostile Kerala Communist-dominated
government. Dhirendra Brahmachari is dead and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is
periodically targeted as the 'Guru of the rich', the 'Glib Godman' etc.
May I be forgiven my arrogance, but what Indian gurus have to
understand is that for Indian Communists, Hinduism is the Number 1
enemy. Mao called religion 'the opium of the people'. But for Indian
Communists, what stands between their ambition for absolute power in
India (and eventually the triumphant return of Communism in the world
-- as Indian Communists believe) is the hold Hinduism has in the hearts
of the rural people of India, who constitute 80 per cent of this country.
Yet, the humble farmer from Uttar Pradesh to Tamil Nadu has a natural
understanding of the universality of God, who takes many names throughout
the ages who could be Buddha, Jesus Christ, Ram or Mohammad.
This humble farmer possesses the knowledge that there is a something
deeper than the skin and the mind, and a life beyond death. This
knowledge is inbred, it is not in his head, not even in his heart, but
in his or her genes from generation to generation.
Of course, the English-speaking media is too happy to oblige Brinda
Karat and come down hard on gurus with all kind of accusations.
Before Ramdev, they came down on the Kanchi Shankaracharya, before him
on Osho, before him on Dhirendra Brahmachari. You can even go back to
Sri Aurobindo, who was accused in the early 1900s by the moderate
Congress-controlled press to be a 'fanatic', when he was only demanding
total independence from the British long before Gandhi took it up.
Accusations against Hinduism of superstition, brainwashing, ritualistic
ignorance, date back from British missionaries and have been taken up
today by the Communists. Yet, Hinduism -- at least the Hinduism which
goes beyond the rituals and becomes universal spirituality -- has
nothing to do with superstition and conmanship: it is all about
science, knowledge and light.
Look at Pranayama, a science that has known for thousands of years how
to harness breath and use it for controlling the mind, for a better,
more healthy, more spiritualised life. If you read Osho's books today,
you find a lot of solid common sense, wisdom, even light.
Satya Sai Baba cannot have millions of disciples from the most humble
to the Presidents of India without 'something' which is beyond
superstition. So goes for Amritanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Ramdev, or Guruma of Ganeshpuri.
And why should Brinda Karat target Ayurveda, the most ancient medical
system in India still in practice, the first medicine to realise 3,000
years ago that plants and minerals offer the best cure, that many
illnesses have a psychosomatic origin, the first to practice plastic
surgery on patients?
In India today, every third shop is an allopathic medical shop, whose
profits go to Western multinationals (hello Mrs Karat!) at a time when
Ayurvedic medicine is becoming increasingly popular in Western
countries, after being disillusioned by antibiotics and other
heavy-handed medicines.
We are witnessing an interesting phenomenon in India today. Some
Communists, some Christians, some Muslims and some Congress leaders --
all of whom have nothing in common and often hate each other are united
against Hinduism and Hindu leaders.
In contrast, look at the Hindus: Swami Ramdev himself criticised Sri
Sri Ravi Shankar live on television, advising his followers not to
practice Art of Living breathing techniques. During the tsunami relief
operations in Nagapattinam, disciples of Amritanandamayi and Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar nearly came to blows over who would give relief to whom,
instead of networking and uniting their efforts.
And who came to the rescue of Osho when he was maligned to death, or
Dhirendra Brahmachari when the entire press came down on him, or Satya
Sai Baba, when he was slandered, or the Shankaracharya when he was
thrown into jail, or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, when Javed Akhtar accused him of
coming 'from a cave to live in a palace' (and not from a palace to a cave like
the Buddha)? None of the previously mentioned. Yet, Indian politicians can
commit any crime, have any number of court cases against them, and they
still end up as Union ministers and get positive press coverage.
The greatest curse of Hinduism throughout the ages has been its disunity
-- and more than that -- its betraying each other. The British did not conquer
India, it was given to them by its warring Hindu princes, jealous of each other.
The same is true of Islam: the last great Hindu empire, that of Vijaynagar,
was betrayed to the Muslims by the Lingayats.
I know there is something mysterious and unfathomable in the
manifestation of the Divine upon earth, and that each guru has a
defined task to fulfill and that the combined task of all the gurus may
solve the great puzzle that is this ignorant and suffering earth.
Thus, it may not be necessary for each guru to communicate with each
other. But nevertheless, it is of the greatest urgency today that Hindu
leaders unite to save Hinduism, rather than 'each one for his own' that
we see today.
The Catholics have their Pope and his word is binding on all Catholics.
Muslims have Prophet Mohammed's words and that binds all of Islam
together. Indian Communists have the words of Marx and Lenin, even if
it has become irrelevant in Russia, Germany, and also in China. But the
poor Hindus have nobody to refer to, so as to defend themselves.
Yet, if you take the combined people power of Satya Sai Baba,
Amritaanandamayi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Swami Ramdev, Guruma of
Ganeshpuri, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, and so many others I
cannot mention here, it runs in hundreds of millions.
Again, in all humility and conscious of the limitation of mind compared
to some of these great gurus whom I have met, I propose that a Supreme
Spiritual Council, composed of at least seven of the most popular Hindu
leaders of India, be constituted, maybe under the leadership of Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar, the most travelled of all these, the one who has disciples
and teachers of all religions, both from India and the West.
It should be a non-political body, and each group would keep its
independence but nevertheless. It could meet two three times a year and
issue edicts, which would be binding on 850 millions Hindus in India
and one billion over the world.
Then and then only can this wonderful spirituality which is Hinduism,
this eternal knowledge behind the outer forms, the wisdom to understand
this mad earth and its sufferings, be preserved for the future of
India, and for the future of humanity.
I bow down to each of these gurus mentioned above and to all those not
mentioned, to Swami Vivekananda, the initiator of modern Hinduism, to
Sri Aurobindo, the great avatar of the supramental, and to all the
great gurus who have graced over the ages, this wonderful and sacred
land which is India and beseech them to hear my prayer:
Hindus leaders, unite, if you want eternal Dharma to survive.
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