--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, hermandan0 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Since I seem to be in a two cents mood for a few days .... > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <no_reply@> wrote: > < big snip > > > Obviously GD was a very powerfull > > yogi, full with the radiance of decades of tapasya, but also with very > > outdated and oldfashioned ideas. > > Yes. There are some interesting points being made in this discussion. > > One of my big heresies within the TMO was to suggest that being > enlightened (yes, working on the assumption that MMY is enlightened) > does not free one from all historic, cultural, and ideological > boundarie s. It's easy for people to look at an old-fashioned idea > that Guru Dev may have had and reject it because it doesn't fit with > modern thinking.
Well, you don't have to be *that* modern to reject his ideas in this regard as oldfashioned. Around that time, the turn of last century, there was lot of discussion about renovating Hinduism, and there was considerable scepticism as to what the original Veda actually meant. Just think of the reformist Hindu movements like Brahmo Samaj or Arya Samaj. For example Ganapati Muni strived for equality of women and men with regard to vedic studies. He was of the opinion, that caste was not determined by birth, but by the distribution of sattva, rajas and tamas in an individual. > Within the TMO there is a disinclination to consider that MMY's word > and actions are also influenced by culture and thus that everything he > says is not "the absolute speaking absolutely" (rather, no more than > it is when you or I or they themselves speak), that women in saris is > just fashion and culture instead of a law of nature, that condemnation > of english and modern education and a strong campaign to repatriate > the wealth "stolen" by the west back to India might be an just > ideological quest, and that worshipping "laws of nature" in the form > of Lakshmi and Ganesh might just be Hinduism and not neutral science. > > Just as it is not a condemnation of Guru Dev to recognize the cultural > milieu in which he operated, nor is it a condemnation to recognize the > same about any other spiritual teacher whether it's Meister Eckhardt, > St. Teresa of Avilla, Walt Whitman, the woman next door, or MMY. I agree with all of your points. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
