The God-Man?
Shankarachrya was released yesterday.My neighbours were so overjoyed that they translated his release into a mini Diwali.Sweets were served and crackers were bursted.
"Truth has finally triumphed"one of them said.My dad believes in him strongly.But I continue to remain a skeptic in this whole issue.
Downstairs,I was talking to my watchman about it and he said that his community hardly believes in such people."God men dont exist...atleast not for us",He said.
I know that there arent any solid evidences against him but thats not what Im talking about.You will find out in a bit.
The entire fiasco (not sure if that is a good term) has shaken the grounds of religion.Shankarachrya was a god man ...only for the brahmins.His devotees are mostly brahmins.Im not so sure if he was so great a person.
The papers flash many ads about him starting colleges and hospitals.But what has he done for the people who form the bottom-most strata in the society.His hospitals and colleges are commercial places.Why doesnt his hospitals provide free help for the poor?Why cant he increase the level of education by introducing some sort of scheme to uplift the downntrodden?
A friend of my dad's said that the Tsunami was the result of Shankarachrya's arrest.WHAT NONSENSE IS THIS?He was saying that we shoudnt make the gods angry and more natural disasters would follow if he werent released.
How can people say this?
Shankarachrya might be good or not-so-good after all.But one thing is sure.We people arent able to come outside the medieval society system that ruled for quite a long time.We sometimes are desperately out of touch with the modern times.
9 Comments:
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Sorry bout the comment being longer than the aricle.
:)
I do agree with the term fiasco. That is what this is.
'Innocent until proven guilty'. Maybe I could give him the benefit of the doubt, but whom are we kidding here?
Absolute power corrupts great people, and the Kanchi Shankaracharya, lets face it, was nowhere near there. If this entire episode has a purpose, it would be to open the eyes of a section of 'intelligent people' to the fact that even their religion is not politics free.
And about the point you were trying to make - is out now modern society truly entered a new age and a new line of thinking? I don’t think so, but I don't think they ever will. Let me put it in better words for you.
There is a factor - This factor is a constant. It doesn’t change over time. Immutable is what it is. This factor is what we are, what we are as the human race. It's our most natural quality – it’s human nature.
We can never be free of, (I'm talking for the entire race as a whole) the need to want to belong, or the need to want to idolize someone. It's just us. Although I'm not a huge fan of Richard Bach he did very beautifully explain what man would do with even the most pure, truthful religion. What would begin as an honest adoration of the truth will lead to cults, breed fanatics and end in crusades. That's who we are.
Coming back to the Kanchi Shankaracharya case, what we (Brahmins - I use we as I'm one of them) have to realize is that this is not about one man. It is about the system. It is a system that corrupts. Do we need it?
The Paramacharya was a great man. I have heard that he had this aura about him. I do believe that here can be such good people on this planet. But he chose his life on his on. This system I'm talking about requires the leader of the mutt to choose a successor. Shankaracharya was chosen as a boy. That is where the system failed. How could a boy know what he wants for the rest of his life at such a young age? And the position of the head of a mutt has huge responsibilities. How could he know what he’s getting into? Hell I don't know what I'm going to do with my life and I know some 30 year old who don't either. How was he to know?
The flaw in the system has taken a toll on its followers. I do empathize with them. To have your believes shaken can create a lot of doubt and confusion. It can be hard. I also have to congratulate them on the fact that if it had been the religious head of any other religion there would have been riots and bloodshed. We are peaceful people and the realization that a person we considered to be our leader was capable of sacrilegious conduct disturbs us. I’d like to think that we are capable of change and we can move past this issue and rebuild our faith.
Any way I seem to have digresses from the comment I wished to make. No matter how much the human race progresses, no matter how many advances it makes in science or even philosophy, we can never ever be rid of our primitive flaws. We have to live with that.
If the shahi imam had done something,he would definitely not have got arrested.What you said was partly right but what irritates me is that its mainly the hindu brahmin people who get criticised while other religions/communities get away with it.
I have been following this Kanchi Mutt issue and I dont think i've ever seen the acharya being referred to as the Godman... As far as i can remember, only Chandraswamy was referred to by that name.
I am not saying the Acharya is innocent.. But he also hasn't been proven guilty, so as per law, he is innocent till proven guilty..
One thing i dont understand is whenever a Hindu saint or a even Hindu person is arrested or even accused of some crime, the whole bunch of people, especially the Hindu 'Progressive thinkers' respond as if the accused are the guilty.. and decades later when the court gives a judgement, if its not as they predicted, they'd just say all the crap in the world to save their skins..
What's happening? are we Hindus losing respect towards our own religion? or is it out of fashion to be a Hindu and being proud of being a Hindu?
We don't have to support the Acharya. But also, we have no moral right to decide he's guilty do we?
Being a Hindu we also allow people of other religions to co-exist with us, unlike other religions like say, Islam where the holy book says all the people who don't believe in Islam need to be killed! or how about the conversions being done by the Christians?
Krishna said it right.. The Shahi Imam infact got away without facing anything even after expressing support towards ISI. How's that for a law system or for the Hindu mentality? Are such things to be tolerated just for the sake that they have been done or said by people of minority?
If whatever things Minority people do is right and if its done by a Hindu person is wrong, where the heck is the All Are Equal concept of law?
Let the guilty be punished, and the innocent released..
Thats all I have to say about all the cases that run in our courts not just this Kanchi case..
Just for the record, I too am a Brahmin.
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so the shankaracharya was arrested for being hindu? with a brahmin god fearing hindu as the chief minister?
funny, i thought he was arrested for his alleged involvement in a murder of a temple official..
silly silly me..
i thought that being brahmin was no big deal.. i thought that brahminism and brahmin bashing were a thing of the past
i agree with the person who said that any religion will start out pure based on an idea.. and human nature will corrupt it...
for the record.. i am a hindu, nt necessarily devout.. i'm not saying this as an excuse for what follows.. it just seems to be the fashion here..
but the shankaracharya is not the hindu head priest.. being a follower of sanatana dharma does not mean that i'm obligated to worship him. afai am concerned.. he is another religious leader... who has been arrested for a crime. an arrest that is probably politically motivated.. but i'd rather see justice take it's own course.. and krishna and vishnu and shiva and parvati did not come crashing down because the old man spent a few days in jail..
cleaning up a religious institution that has gone to the dogs recently seems to me like a good plan..
he's entitled to bail as much as the next guy.. so i won't mourn or celebrate it.. let the law take it's own course..
- thus spake another feministreligiousnonbrahminbrunette
I want to make a couple of points. It does not matter to which religion a gealigious head belongs - Hindu, Christian, Islam, Sikh...power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I also read in one of your blog posts that the Shankracharya has not done anything for the poor. Tha Kanchi Mutt has. It is not as wealthy as the Ramakrishna Mutt. The Child's Trust Hospital and Shankara Nethralaya are two premier hospitals that provide medical aid to people for a very nominal fee. Many people who come here are poor. The mutt has also adopted villages around Kanchipuram where they have built schools for primary education; provide free medical camps. The religious head of the Mutt may have a dubious reputation but the Mutt has done considerable charity work. Many non-brahmins are also devotees of the Mutt, it is not just brahmins. I'm not saying that the Shankaracharya is above law therefore above suspision. I believe that wherever there is organised religion there is authoritarianism and corruption. Do you think the Catholic or the Protestent Church is above all this? They are corrupt too. So are the Gurudwara Prabandh Committee members. Nothing is wrong with the religion. It is the powerful who subvert it to stay in power. It was sheer bad luck that this particular 'God-Man' got himself arrested! May be it was a lesson for him not to dabble in politics.
I liked ur post
But i dont agree with the word godman. He may be a religious leader a guru but certainly not godman.
i believe hinduism says man caould never bcome god.
Though i am a brahmin girl i dont believe in archarya. But i dont think he is guilty of the crime as the evidences are not enough
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