SANGOM wrote:
I don't know how Shri Praveen views threads such as this one which serve only to create confusions such as gender discriminations (post #2) and superstitious beliefs.
According to the Rigveda, dead humans never would come back to the Earth; the rigvedic people, it seems, did not believe in rebirth……………………..
IMHO, TBC should grow out of disseminating such superstitious stuff, if possible.
I am writing this in response to SANGOM’s suggestions regarding my post MIRACLES BY DEPARTED SOULS; as it covers a wider area , I post it in general discussion.
1.I was a Senior Sub Editor in Dinamani, Madurai for 16 years and a Tamil broadcaster in the BBC World Service in London for 6 years. Even after my contract with the BBC finished in 1992, I was contributing to BBC TV and Dinamani. In short I have been a journalist for more than 25 years (quarter of a century). I wanted to summarise what I have learnt in these 25 years: CENSORSHIP or STOPPING NEWS IS DANGEROUS AND USELESS.
2.If you run a TV or Radio station or a magazine, you may choose any items according to your editorial policy. But that wouldn’t mean people don’t know what you have hidden from them or dropped. There are hundred other mass media wings which give publicity to those views or news. Even the mighty Soviet system of blacking out or censoring the news in the world failed and Soviet Union broke into 20+ countries. Now China is failing in censoring information.
3. Being a Brahmin website or blog or chat line, tamilbrahmins must always allow free and fair discussion on anything that supports our religion. Brahmins are the custodians of Hinduism. Temple rituals and domestic pujas are done by us till this day. The day Brahmins relinquish all the rituals, worship etc. that will be the final day for Hinduism. Unless we are clear about what is superstitious and what is not, no one else can clarify it. Even a non Brahmin sadhu like Sathya Sai Baba appreciated all that is Vedic. So there shouldn’t be any bar on any information which gives credibility to our beliefs.
4. Dravidian atheists have been writing against miracles or Hindu rituals and mocking at them for the past 50 years. Nobody bothered to give them a reply and they have won the elections and ruling Tamil Nadu for the past 40+ years. Once they were ignored, but in my days we had exchange copies of Murasoli and Viduthalai on our desks and read them line by line. Now there are 10,000 blogs in Tamil. You will be surprised to know what they write about Hindu rituals, Brahmins and scriptures. No one has any control over them. So sites like tamilbrahmins.com must discuss certain issues like miracles and rituals without any inhibitions.
MOON LANDING
5.When Swami Shanthanatha came out of forest and wanted to build a temple for Bhuvaneswari in Pudukottai, my father V. Santanam helped him with huge publicity in Dinamani. We oraganised Sanggetha Upanyasam by Swami Haridas, Sri Anatharama Dikshithar etc to raise money for Saghasra Chandi and Satha Chandi homams. Every day for forty days 10,000 +people listened to these great Upanyasakas at the Adi Veethi in Madurai Meenakshi temple. At that time USA landed man on the moon. Haridas took that topic in the evening and told the big crowd DON’T BELIEVE AMERICA,THEY DID NOT LAND MAN ON MOON. IT IS ALL A LIE. As organisers , we all got very much embarrassed. Next day my own Dinamani published Moon Landing as the headliner like all other news papers in the world. But nobody questioned Sri Haridas. Same crowd came everyday to listen to his beautiful Bhajan with discourse. 30 or 40 years after this talk, there was a big discussion about whether USA really landed man on moon or just a ‘anti Soviet propaganda stunt’ in Colorado desert. I think there was even a film or documentary on it.
7/11 ATTACK
6.I work with lot of Muslims in London. When the entire world was shocked by the Twin Tower attack and the loss of 3000 people, those Muslims were saying it was all America’s propaganda, Americans themselves did this. We disagreed with them. But then came the Hollywood film justifying their doubts. These two incidents prove that every coin has two sides. Whether you believe in certain thing or not, you must understand there are people who view them differently.
BHAKTI VEDANTA PRABHUPADA
7. I am a great admirer of Prabhupada and Hare Krishna movement but not a follower. I am a Shiva Bhakta. Every page of Prabhupada’s commentary described Shiva and others as DEMI GODS. Srimath Andavan Swamikal came to Madurai and gave a lecture saying Ganges became drainage because it came from Shiva’s matted dirty hair. It created an uproar in Madurai. Just because one person has one view about one thing, nobody rejected him completely.
8a.Swami Vivekananda criticised Adi Shankara narrow minded and praised Buddha as large hearted in one of his lectures. Kanchi Shankaracharya never praised Subramanya Bharathy. Perhaps he had his own views. But I worship Kanchi Shankaracharya and Bharathy. In short, certain views should not blind us. We must have reason it and take whatever we want and reject what we don’t like.
EVR AND TIRUKKURAL
8b.E.Ve. Ramasamy Naicker had the guts to say Tamil was a barbaric language (thamil oru kaattumirandi baashai). He addressed a big conference in Trichy where he asked all the women whether they were all ‘pathnis’ (chaste women). When all of them nodded their heads to say YES, he asked them to say LET IT RAIN (mazai pey). When they did it, it did not rain. Then he criticised Tiruvaluvar for saying that chaste women can make it rain. Indian Express Correspondent A.Gopalan ( a Brahmin) was a very good friend of EVR. He sent us the exclusive news and we published it as a front page box item in Dinamani and Indian Express. But no DMK person questioned or challenged EVR on views like this. They saw him in a larger picture. They did not bother about such temporary outbursts.
HONESTY IN ARGUMENTS
9. Arguments are not new to Hinduism. Janaka and Yangnavalkya argued. When Maitreyi questioned Janaka in the great assembly, he shut her up at one point and ran away with 1000 gold coins. But both of them were honest to say what they believed in. Adi Shankara and Mandanamishra argued and when Mandana was defeated he defected to the other side. So we knew what they believed in. But INTERNET PEOPLE don’t have that honesty. Everyone is challenging everyone and anything. But we don’t know what they believe in. They simply question the other side. One may question Sathya Sai miracles but may believe in Kanchi Shankaracharya miracles. One may not do THITHI and TARPANA, but may be going to temple. So whoever questions us must say what they believe in. Otherwise one side will always in the witness box and other person will be outside it and accuse the person of anything. This is a drawback of the websites and chat lines.
10. If one doesn’t believe in religion or ritual, every thread at tamilbrahmins may be questioned and challenged. I don’t mean to say that it is wrong. You can challenge and question, but say what you believe in. Otherwise one can not convince the other person. It will be a never ending process.
11. I want to conclude by saying that please allow all threads as long as they are not against our culture or country and allow free and fair discussion. Hinduism is a colourful religion with thousands of books and millions of rituals. No one can explain everything to the satisfaction of all.
I don't know how Shri Praveen views threads such as this one which serve only to create confusions such as gender discriminations (post #2) and superstitious beliefs.
According to the Rigveda, dead humans never would come back to the Earth; the rigvedic people, it seems, did not believe in rebirth……………………..
IMHO, TBC should grow out of disseminating such superstitious stuff, if possible.
I am writing this in response to SANGOM’s suggestions regarding my post MIRACLES BY DEPARTED SOULS; as it covers a wider area , I post it in general discussion.
1.I was a Senior Sub Editor in Dinamani, Madurai for 16 years and a Tamil broadcaster in the BBC World Service in London for 6 years. Even after my contract with the BBC finished in 1992, I was contributing to BBC TV and Dinamani. In short I have been a journalist for more than 25 years (quarter of a century). I wanted to summarise what I have learnt in these 25 years: CENSORSHIP or STOPPING NEWS IS DANGEROUS AND USELESS.
2.If you run a TV or Radio station or a magazine, you may choose any items according to your editorial policy. But that wouldn’t mean people don’t know what you have hidden from them or dropped. There are hundred other mass media wings which give publicity to those views or news. Even the mighty Soviet system of blacking out or censoring the news in the world failed and Soviet Union broke into 20+ countries. Now China is failing in censoring information.
3. Being a Brahmin website or blog or chat line, tamilbrahmins must always allow free and fair discussion on anything that supports our religion. Brahmins are the custodians of Hinduism. Temple rituals and domestic pujas are done by us till this day. The day Brahmins relinquish all the rituals, worship etc. that will be the final day for Hinduism. Unless we are clear about what is superstitious and what is not, no one else can clarify it. Even a non Brahmin sadhu like Sathya Sai Baba appreciated all that is Vedic. So there shouldn’t be any bar on any information which gives credibility to our beliefs.
4. Dravidian atheists have been writing against miracles or Hindu rituals and mocking at them for the past 50 years. Nobody bothered to give them a reply and they have won the elections and ruling Tamil Nadu for the past 40+ years. Once they were ignored, but in my days we had exchange copies of Murasoli and Viduthalai on our desks and read them line by line. Now there are 10,000 blogs in Tamil. You will be surprised to know what they write about Hindu rituals, Brahmins and scriptures. No one has any control over them. So sites like tamilbrahmins.com must discuss certain issues like miracles and rituals without any inhibitions.
MOON LANDING
5.When Swami Shanthanatha came out of forest and wanted to build a temple for Bhuvaneswari in Pudukottai, my father V. Santanam helped him with huge publicity in Dinamani. We oraganised Sanggetha Upanyasam by Swami Haridas, Sri Anatharama Dikshithar etc to raise money for Saghasra Chandi and Satha Chandi homams. Every day for forty days 10,000 +people listened to these great Upanyasakas at the Adi Veethi in Madurai Meenakshi temple. At that time USA landed man on the moon. Haridas took that topic in the evening and told the big crowd DON’T BELIEVE AMERICA,THEY DID NOT LAND MAN ON MOON. IT IS ALL A LIE. As organisers , we all got very much embarrassed. Next day my own Dinamani published Moon Landing as the headliner like all other news papers in the world. But nobody questioned Sri Haridas. Same crowd came everyday to listen to his beautiful Bhajan with discourse. 30 or 40 years after this talk, there was a big discussion about whether USA really landed man on moon or just a ‘anti Soviet propaganda stunt’ in Colorado desert. I think there was even a film or documentary on it.
7/11 ATTACK
6.I work with lot of Muslims in London. When the entire world was shocked by the Twin Tower attack and the loss of 3000 people, those Muslims were saying it was all America’s propaganda, Americans themselves did this. We disagreed with them. But then came the Hollywood film justifying their doubts. These two incidents prove that every coin has two sides. Whether you believe in certain thing or not, you must understand there are people who view them differently.
BHAKTI VEDANTA PRABHUPADA
7. I am a great admirer of Prabhupada and Hare Krishna movement but not a follower. I am a Shiva Bhakta. Every page of Prabhupada’s commentary described Shiva and others as DEMI GODS. Srimath Andavan Swamikal came to Madurai and gave a lecture saying Ganges became drainage because it came from Shiva’s matted dirty hair. It created an uproar in Madurai. Just because one person has one view about one thing, nobody rejected him completely.
8a.Swami Vivekananda criticised Adi Shankara narrow minded and praised Buddha as large hearted in one of his lectures. Kanchi Shankaracharya never praised Subramanya Bharathy. Perhaps he had his own views. But I worship Kanchi Shankaracharya and Bharathy. In short, certain views should not blind us. We must have reason it and take whatever we want and reject what we don’t like.
EVR AND TIRUKKURAL
8b.E.Ve. Ramasamy Naicker had the guts to say Tamil was a barbaric language (thamil oru kaattumirandi baashai). He addressed a big conference in Trichy where he asked all the women whether they were all ‘pathnis’ (chaste women). When all of them nodded their heads to say YES, he asked them to say LET IT RAIN (mazai pey). When they did it, it did not rain. Then he criticised Tiruvaluvar for saying that chaste women can make it rain. Indian Express Correspondent A.Gopalan ( a Brahmin) was a very good friend of EVR. He sent us the exclusive news and we published it as a front page box item in Dinamani and Indian Express. But no DMK person questioned or challenged EVR on views like this. They saw him in a larger picture. They did not bother about such temporary outbursts.
HONESTY IN ARGUMENTS
9. Arguments are not new to Hinduism. Janaka and Yangnavalkya argued. When Maitreyi questioned Janaka in the great assembly, he shut her up at one point and ran away with 1000 gold coins. But both of them were honest to say what they believed in. Adi Shankara and Mandanamishra argued and when Mandana was defeated he defected to the other side. So we knew what they believed in. But INTERNET PEOPLE don’t have that honesty. Everyone is challenging everyone and anything. But we don’t know what they believe in. They simply question the other side. One may question Sathya Sai miracles but may believe in Kanchi Shankaracharya miracles. One may not do THITHI and TARPANA, but may be going to temple. So whoever questions us must say what they believe in. Otherwise one side will always in the witness box and other person will be outside it and accuse the person of anything. This is a drawback of the websites and chat lines.
10. If one doesn’t believe in religion or ritual, every thread at tamilbrahmins may be questioned and challenged. I don’t mean to say that it is wrong. You can challenge and question, but say what you believe in. Otherwise one can not convince the other person. It will be a never ending process.
11. I want to conclude by saying that please allow all threads as long as they are not against our culture or country and allow free and fair discussion. Hinduism is a colourful religion with thousands of books and millions of rituals. No one can explain everything to the satisfaction of all.
