[Advaita-l] Conversion story

[Michael Shepherd]

Praveen, thanks so much for that quotation. I would agree wholeheartedly;
but add just this ; that what one takes away from the 'catholicity' of
Hinduism and the study of it (study rather than adoption as a faith) is a
greater responsibility to Christianity or whatever other faith one has been
born into -- not only a 'better Christian' but a 'broader human spirit'.

Thanks again,
Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]On Behalf Of Praveen
R. Bhat
Sent: 04 September 2009 10:24
To: satisharigela at yahoo.com
Cc: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Conversion story



Hari Om,

I do not intend to rejoin the argument, but just wish to present the
extract, as I found the book hidden in my shelves.

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Satish Arigela<satisharigela at yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
>
> I dont remember it either. Maybe somelese can help?> I wonder who
translated those words of HH and how faithful that translation
> is.
>

The Saint of Sringeri (Reprint 1997)
By: Shri R. Krishnaswamy Aiyar
Published by: Sri Sringeri Math, Sringeri

Here's the relevant extract from pg. 194:
//Quote

... European proprietor of a nearby cenna factory and a friend of his
sought an interview with HH. HH pointed out to them that God
must have had a purpose in giving them birth in Christian families and
that it was their duty to seek spiritual progress along the
lines chalked out for them by the religion and not to waste time in
trying to find out relative value of the several faiths. When
expressing their gratitude to HH, they said that they were returning
home with a determination to be better Christians than before
and that they now realized the catholicity of the Hindu religion. I
happened to be the interpreter in this very interesting conversation
and it so deeply impressed itself on my mind that I have tried to
reproduce it almost verbatim and included it as the opening
chapter of the book 'Dialogues with the Guru'. It is unnecessary to
repeat its contents here. A perusal of the same will show how
kind and considerate, how logical and firm, HH was in enunciating truths.

//Unquote

Of course, needless to say that I'd quoted earlier about "spiritual
progress" from memory and I do hope that you don't see this
paragraph not containing what I recalled. On your doubt as to how
faithful the translation was, the author clarifies in that paragraph
itself... he was the translator then! Moreover, its a Sringeri Math
publication too. Also, I do not think I have the other book 'Dialogues
with the Guru' to look up and haven't read it either.

gurorarpaNamastu,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
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