[Advaita-l] institutionalization of religion

[Krishnarao Lanka]

From:--  sriparasukhanandanatha

Date :--  25-07-06

Subject :--  Institutionalization of religion



Priya mahasayAh,



                   Recently there was a discussion going on in some groups
about Sri Ramakrishna Mission

Calling it as a Christian organization I wish to project some of my views
also in this regard.



                  At the time of celebrating the centenary of sri Arabindo,
our secular government has sent some proposals

to the Arabindo Ashram that the government is ready to undertake the
responsibility of celebrating the centenary

on the national level and also reprinting of all his books, if the Ashram
accepts the condition to to delete all the words

mentioning "Hindu", and replace those with any other equivalent word. But
the Mother, who was a German lady, instantly

rejected the offer and replied that "that is the only word "Hindu" which has
attracted me and made to journey all the

thousands of miles and settle in this country.  If if that very word is
deleted, it will not be other than removing the heart

and soul of Arabindo itself". The govt. has cancelled all proposals of the
centenary celebrations.



                   The same proposal was made with Sri Ramakrishna Muth
also.  They readily accepted the offer and

Deleted the word "Hindu" from all the previous works of Swami Vivekananda
and received huge amount of funds

for publication of all the works. The government has spent huge amounts to
celebrate Vivekananda Centenary at state

level.



                    The Ramakrishna Mission has applied to the senses
commission to register the name of the religion,

for all their members as "Ramakrishna religion", instead of 'Hindu'.  But
the commission rejected the plea, saying that

Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, both have worked only for the propagation
of Hindu religion all through their lives,

And Ramakrishna Mission cannot be different from the Hindu religion.



                   Our Secular government used to be quite against
constructing a huge Statue upon the Vivekananda Rock,

only to appease the Christian Missionaries.  Then the Ramakrishna Mission
has started supporting the voice of the

government, and gave their full support in erecting a statue of Vivekananda
in the Madras beech as an alternative

to silence the Christian Church as an adjustment policy.

Of course Sri Ranade has to strive very hard to succeed in constructing the
present Memorial on the Rock.



                   When I visited, Belur Muth some time ago, while waiting
in the gardens, one of the workers of the Muth,

was telling me some instances, how the authorities were trying to collect
dollars from the foreigners using varieties of baits,

which I cant write in these columns. The same versions I heard at Vizag
also.  For myself, I couldn't but come to the conclusion

that the Ramakrishna Mission is certainly :"anti-hindu" if not it is
Christian, and stoops to any level to secure money, of course

only to improve the mission even at the cost of all the ideologies of sri
Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, and also all interests

of Hindu religion at large.



                   It is not my intension to criticize the mission, But, I
can say that they are not helping the real cause of the mission,

but for the establishment and upliftment of the institution only.



Unfortunately, many number of Hindu religious organizations are also
following in the same path   Except a few organizations like

Geeta Press and venkateswara steam press, all others are collecting funds
from the devotees, printing books from those funds,

But selling them at exorbitant prices, and saying their prices are so cheap
when compared with others. They are forgetting

that they have to sell them at scrape prices, because they are not investing
any thing of their own for printing and publishing.

Where ever I go, I see nothing but commercial outlook only, especially with
the Hindu organizations.  Mainly they are spending these

Profit amounts to construct very huge building complexes only.  Every where
they are charging heavy rents from the pilgrims

Who take shelter for one or two nights, and give receipt as if it was given
as donation.



                  Every where we find entrance tickets for darsan of the
deity, in the temples constructed by these organizations.



                  This kind of trends may at some time endanger the very
cause of their real purpose.



sriparasukhanandanatha

















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Krishnarao Lanka