[Advaita-l] Fwd: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Swami Dayanand Saraswati (of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) leaves his body

[Abhyudaya Mandal]

I think that Mr. Santosh is unnecessarily accusing Mr. Knapp. It would have
been more appropriate if he has stood at the end of the line, but the fact
that he did not probably does not have anything to do with the color of his
skin. Many Indians pay the pandas at the Jagganath Temple in Puri to cut
infront and quickly get darshan. The same thing occurs in the Kashi
Vishvanatha Temple in Varanasi. It is simply the brokenness and corruption
in the temple administration. Given the fact that Mr. Knapp was refused
entry in the temple to begin with, I think that he would have been thankful
even if he had to stand in line like the rest of the devotees.

If anything should be criticized, it should be: 1) the fact that some
temples still don't allow white-skinned people to enter, and 2) the
corruption among the priests and pandas that they accept money and
recommendations.

On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 6:16 PM, Santosh Rao via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Yeah I'm not comfortable with this. Mr knapp should have thanked them for
> their understanding and got to the back of the line. Unfortunately many
> white people are just used to having privileges that others do not, he
> obviously thought there was nothing wrong with this.
>
> Namskara,
>
> Santosh
> On Sep 25, 2015 12:21 AM, "Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > Of all the accomplishments of Swamiji one could have mentioned, this one
> > doesn't exactly show him in a good light.
> >
> >
> >> written by Shri Nandanandana Das (Stephen Knapp):
> >>
> >> He was greatly influential, and was well-known all across India. In
> fact,
> >> he had written and signed a letter of reference for me, stating that I
> was
> >> a sincere Hindu and should be treated with the respect that I deserve.
> >> That
> >> way when I would go to certain temples in India, I could show that
> letter
> >> to get in, if they were not allowing certain people inside. So one time
> >> when I went to the Meenakshi temple, the priests would not allow me into
> >> the sanctums because of being white-skinned. So I showed the management
> >> that letter from Swamiji, and after they had some discussion about it,
> >> they
> >> arranged one of their priests to take us into all of the sanctums and do
> >> pujas, taking us to the head of the long lines of India pilgrims, who
> were
> >> watching and wondering why I and a friend of mine got to go to the head
> of
> >> the lines while everyone else had to wait. It was like we were shown
> >> special privileges that even the locals did not receive. I still have
> that
> >> letter.
> >>
> >
> > Actually I don't think any pilgrim was wondering how he got to the front
> > of the line.  Being able to bend the rules by having connections with a
> > "big man" is par for the course in Mother India.
> >
> > --
> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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