--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Compare and contrast to the three guys I mentioned, who > stood for trying to find a NEW solution to the age-old > problems that confront the residents of planet Earth. > These guys all stood for looking at the world as "we," > not as "them vs us." They stood for not taking life so > seriously, not for Taking Life, Seriously.
Seriously? And thats what I mean: I wasn't serious. I just thought that two of the three you mentioned were shot (and three of four if you count J.L. - despite for all their efforts and what they stood for was an irony of fate. Nothing to say against their message. But it also means that their message couldn't prevent the fate they had - undeserved in our eyes. There is nothing to much comment about it, but of course you are welcome ;-) Its just live. Its not logical. The most peace-loving gets shot by the crazy man who doesn't understand his message. You cannot prevent this, and no army of peace-inspired writers. Now, to diametrically oppose the Buddha with the message of the Gita may still be okay, but this is a little bit harder when it comes to Mahatma Gandhi, who actually said that his message was inspired totally by the Gita, you might want to actually READ what he said, (as you are a writer, according to your own admission, it would be good to study him a little). This is what Gandhi had to say about the Gita: "Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita." He actually wrote a commentary on the Gita in Gujarati, which was translated into english: http://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-According-Gandhi/dp/1893163113 I think your interpretation of the Gita is onesided and out of focus. That Buddha didn't get shot too, is IMHO unly due to the fact that automatic fire weapons weren't envogue at the time (they were invented later - for a reason - which was?) and he probably had strong bodyguards, who must have saved him from all the violent Arjunas of his time. ;-)
