[Advaita-l] Chanting Gayatri overseas

[Santosh Rao]

Yuga darma is a reality but surely there should be an ideal to strive for
in some capacity?

Another problem today is the new agers and the "neo" offshoots of
traditional lines have hijacked the discourse. So even if a young brahmin
living abroad decides to get in touch with his or her "roots," the family
more often than not will advise them to not take it so seriously, focus on
academics instead, leaving them frustrated.

Then they will google "Krishna" and be bombarded with ISKCON propaganda,
and smiling white people dressed like saanyasis telling them tradition
doesn't matter, just chant, no one is a Brahmin by birth, svadharma is
useless in Kali Yuga blah blah blah, etc. And the hapless young brahmana
may fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

Meanwhile the "traditionalists" are off somewhere in some dark corner of
the internet debating lofty philosophical concepts in Sanskrit and native
tongues making minimal effort to connect with the youth whose attention
they are losing every second of every day. Nothing wrong with such
activities, but there should be a much greater effort on the part of the
elders to engage with the youth. Most of the vedanta websites I visit that
present the traditional views are poorly designed, dry, with very little
content...I see lengthy videos discussing things I'd love to learn about
but can't because there is no effort to include English subtitles...the new
age websites on the other hand are vibrant, easily accessible, and bursting
with flavor. Is anything being done to combat this?

Namaskara,

Santosh

On Oct 11, 2017 2:00 AM, "D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

Dear Murty,
This is the Kaliyuga Dharma as predicted by puranas.
Do you wnat go against the yuga dharma?
If brahmin marries an American girl heavens are not going to fall.
Such things were there in past. In Mahabharata Madra was not considered
orthodox. Anga Desa also was not considered as an orthodx country.
There was a city in which women were free to fornicate because of Agni.gave
them a boon.
Dhritarashtra and Pandu were born out of  Devara Nyaya.
Veda Vyasa himself was a kaanina.
Wake up.

regards,
Sarma.

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 10:29 AM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> On Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 4:27 AM, Ravi Mayavaram via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > On the aside, for all those living abroad, real threat is what Ravi
> > Chandrasekhara pointed out.  A large percentage of the children of these
> > immigrants will marry people from other religions and/or other castes.
> > There is a high probability that the  family line of dharma these
> > immigrants may  come to a grinding halt with them.
> >
>
> This is the Crux of the Problem. A Brahmin X goes abroad. X's children
will
> marry outside of Brahminism with High Probability. By very good luck they
> may still marry Brahmins. What about grandchildren of X? Great
> grandchildren of X? They will have less and less restrictions than X and
> will not listen to some old traditions of a Third World country. The
> Probability of grandchildren and great grandchildren of X NOT marrying
even
> Indians is SO HIGH. X's line of descendants is doomed to become Mlecchas
at
> some stage. My friends THIS is the Bitter Reality the Brahmins permanently
> staying abroad will not accept. They are Responsible for making a Brahmin
> Line into Mleccha if not today but definitely in the future. Can they
> accept this Reality and still live abroad?
>
>
> >
> >  I am convinced that only way to help them is by teaching paatanjala
> > yoga-darshana (and rigorously when they are in high school).   May be
via
> > yoga darshana, they may get back to other things later in their lives.
> Even
> > on the bhakti side, we should mean what we say. For example, never
> dismiss
> > phala shruti as mere arthavaadaa. That is enough to undermine it. If
> phala
> > shruti of Sri Vishnu Sahasranaama, says  some things, then that is it.
It
> > is true. If we have that conviction and help other Hindus in need,
nobody
> > will convert to other religions.
> >
> > --
> > Ravi
> >
> >
> >
> >     On Sunday, October 8, 2017, 12:03:58 PM CDT, Sujal Upadhyay via
> > Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >  Namaste Sri Kalyan ji,
> >
> > I talked to my friend who has visited Sringeri Matha several times. He
> > daily practises nitya karma and anusthana, that he is supposed to do as
a
> > Brahmin.​ He did not have all the answers, but honestly gave some
> answers.
> > I will share the same.
> >
> >
> >   1. In Sringeri Matha, there is a belief that crossing ocean is not
> >   permitted.
> >   2. Sringeri Jagadguru himself never initiated any setting up of any
> >   matha or branches in any foreign land.
> >   3. It is the locals who wanted to practice sanAtana dharma and so kept
> >   requesting Sringeri Jagadguru many times.
> >   4. Who actually initiated this establishment is not known to him, but
> >   according to him matha is just for administrative purpose.
> >   5. Sringeri Jagaguru may be aware of all these happenings. He has been
> >   getting invitations for foreign travel but has declined everytime and
> he
> >   does not intend to travel to foreign land.
> >   6. Foreign travel should not be more than 3 days
> >   7. Those Brahmins who trael abroad and settle there or stay for long
> >   time may return. However they are not allowed to participate in any of
> > the
> >   yajna-s i.e. havan and vedika yagja-s organised by matha and
> denfinitely
> >   not in the Sringeri matha itself. Only Bra
> >   ​h​
> >   mins from Bharat are allowed to perform Yajna
> >   8. Sringeri Jagadguru may bless anyone who approaches him but this
does
> >   not mean that he endorses their actions. Many come with a hope to
solve
> >   personal or material problems from Jagadguru. He may bless them but
> this
> >   does not mean he will actually take away all their sorrows or say
> > tathastu
> >   and fulfill their wishes.
> >   9. ​He indicated that at times, Acharya remains detached and neutral
to
> >   many activities and may bless the work as a formality​
> >   ​. Actually it's not blessings nor it's appreciation, but just a
> >   formality.
> >
> >
> > ​As per my understanding, Sringeri Acharya does not give upadehsas to
> all,
> > but to a select few. He does not give diksha to all. He will not share
> his
> > opinion with anyone, but may give casual instruction just to satisfy the
> > questioner. Only to sincere seeker will he give upadesha which if
> followed
> > will change his life and one will surely progress on spiritual path.
Like
> > Ramana Maharshi, he too at times remains aloof from matha activities,
> like
> > Sri Chandrashekara Bharathi Swami ji, the guru of Sri Abhinav
Vidyatirhta
> > Swami ji.​
> >
> > ​Regarding degradation of Brahmins, my friend too is worried and he is
> also
> > sad that western Hindus actively defend attacks on dharma but not much
is
> > done by traditionalists.
> >
> >
> > As far as I am concerned, I am not on any side, neverthless foreign
> travel
> > is happening. We are doing business with them. We import and export
> goods.
> > So their money comes to us. So with it comes their samskAra-s, the
> > vibrations. We are in a particular situation as described by other
> members.
> > So just curious about future and what steps traditional Brahmins are
> taking
> > to arrest this trend.
> >
> >
> > There are dharma and punishments that changes with time. For some sin,
> > these days it is not possible to donate 9 cows and one bullock as
> > repentance or punishment. However there are some things that should not
> be
> > changed. If certain rules are pivotal for spiritual progress to realise
> > Atman, they should not be compromised. Maybe ban on foreign travel is
one
> > of them or may be not. I can't judge.
> >
> >
> > If I have stretched too much. Maybe I should give myself a break.
> >
> >
> > Hari OM
> >
> > Sujal
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Oct 8, 2017 at 9:31 PM, D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ via Advaita-l
> <
> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> > > Does somebody 's approval disapproval
> > > ​of marrying outside hindu fold ​
> > > make a difference?
> > > Suppose one disapproves what can he do?
> > >
> > > Puranas have already predicted
> > > ​that ​
> > > in Kaliyuga
> > > ​
> > > all the
> > > ​earlier ​
> > > norms will be broken. They ha
> > > ​ve ​
> > > said that this is *Yuga Dharma*.
> > > ​That means that *for this age this  is the dharma*.​ Why do we hanker
> > for
> > > Kritayuga dharma in Kali. Is it not wrong to do so.
> > > Is there not a motive behind such a desire?  This I think is due to
> > > mechanisms of vested interests
> > >
> > > Every age has a dharma. That dharma evolves slowly in order to keep
the
> > > society at that time in order.
> > > The modern human society is also slowly evolving its own dharma. The
> > modern
> > > Hindu society also will do the
> > > same. I do not think that any of us can stop it.
> > >
> > > Vidura has described the highest dharma as
> > > "Do not do to others those things, when done by others pain your mind"
> > > He said that this is the supreme dharma. Can there be any higher
> > authority
> > > for dharma.
> > > than the incarnation of Yamadharmaraja himself.
> > >
> > >
> > > regards,
> > > Sarma.
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
> _______________________________________________
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