[Advaita-l] Chanting Gayatri overseas

[Santosh Rao]

Hare Krishna Sri Bhaksarji and Sri Venkateshji,

This thought came to my mind in force some time back while I was watching
some youtube videos on devotee experiences with Bhagavan Sri Kanchi
Periyava. I was thinking to myself how great it would be if there were some
english subtitles on these videos so I could understand and share with
others. There are numerous videos like this, but yet they are only in
Tamil. Even if I knew perfect Kannada (my mother tongue) I still wouldn't
be able to watch these videos and benefit properly from their intention.
Meanwhile however, I can go on youtube right now and see hundreds of videos
about Prabhupada, or some other new age guru translated into various
languages, even spanish and french, but most importantly...english.

Veda adhikara is certainly a factor, but we must also remember that not
every Hindu living abroad is a Brahmin...there should be some type of way
to reach these people as well. ISKCON doesn't teach from Shruti, they teach
from Smriti and Puranas which were meant to be studied by everyone. There
is a ISKCON temple close to my workplace, I go there sometimes for the food
;-).....but it's hard not to notice that many of the attendees are young,
with quite a few Indians here and there as well. They are enthusiastic,
because they are aware of what they are doing and why there are doing it
(even if we concede that they are flawed in many respects). When I go to
Hindu temple however, the younger Indians seem to just be there because
they have been dragged there due to family commitments. They've learned
nothing about their religion from their elders aside from Indian cultural
norms, other than that they are in the dark. As Sri Venkatesh has said,
this type of thing may be able to fly in India, since it is the land of
dharma, but outside of India it will be an eventual death-knell for dharma.

One of the main reasons I signed up to this list is because many of my long
standing doubts were dispelled by reading the postings of people like Sri
Jaldhar and Sri Vidyasankar....they speak in clear, concise english that is
easy to understand....and they speak from the traditional view which is an
ocean of refreshment for me. All I'm saying is that I wish there were more
people like this in the limelight and forefront...it would do all of us
living outside India a lot of good.

Namaskara,

Santosh

On Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 8:26 AM, Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> but they downplay varna and believe in Veda Adhikara for all, etc.
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Veda adhikAra has been denied to non-dvija-s and stree, that is the
> traditional stand which has the stamp of bhAshyakAra also.  And traditional
> mutts dare not to deviate from this injunction.  Other neo-advaitic and
> other institutions hardly care !!! Few years back I was talking to a very
> knowledgeable 'vaishya saNyAsi' at kAryAlaya, during the discussion, he
> made a passing comment that there is no entry as a participant  in the
> vidvat sadas (vAkyArtha sabha) for the sanyasi-s and scholars other than
> brAhmaNa community !!  I don’t know the existing practice with regard to
> this at traditional mutts.  Would like to hear more on this issue.
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
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