[Advaita-l] Shankara and Madhusudhana

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:

> The so-called Theosophical Society harrassed him like anything.  His 
> blood boiled when Madras Iyers & Iyengars used to work under britishers 
> and bootlick them for salaries.

I suppose the Ramakrishna Mission scrupulously returned donations from 
colonialists and their supporters right?

> The way he scolded one of the Iyengars of Madras by name Alasinga 
> Perumal, it becomes evident that religion for them is just a 
> "kitchen-religion".   

A charge directly lifted from the pamphlets of the missionaries and the 
reformers who aped them.  The sentiment in 19th century racial 
pseudo-science was that vegetarianism made Indians physically weak and the 
"other-worldly fatalistic Eastern mysticism" made them mentally weak and 
therefore naturally subjugated to "superior races."

For the "modern" Hindu youth eating beef became quite the fashion. 
Gandhiji mentions the peer pressure to try it in his autobiography.

> BTW, Bhagavan Ramachandra is also said to have eaten
> meat with Mother Sita which has the reference
> in Ayodhya Kanda.

Which is relevant how?  You know perfectly that for the past few millenia 
Hindus -- even those who ate other kinds of meat -- have not eaten beef. 
Indias first war of independence one generation before Vivekananda was 
sparked by this very issue.

It makes more sense to interpret Vivekanandas actions as those of a "Brown 
Englishman" than an overzealous Rama bhakta.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>