QUOTES ON SCRIPTURES - VII

QUOTES ON SCRIPTURES - VII

Rukmini Rani Arundale (1904-1986) Bharata Natyam dancer of world fame. She was part of Annie Besant's Theosophical Movement. She traveled all over the world as an ambassador of Indian culture. She was   nominated the Rajya Sabha member twice. She married the well-known British Theosophist Dr. George Arundale. She founded the Kalakshetra Academy of Dance and Music in 1936.   She defended the Hindu worship of various deities images: "All the songs we dance to are of Gods and Goddesses. You may ask, why so many Gods and Goddesses? the only reply I can give is, Why not so many Gods and Goddess?"   "Some people say, ‘I believe in universal religion but when I ask them whether they know anything about Hinduism, they answer in negative. They know nothing about Christianity, or about Buddhism or about any other religion either. In other words, universality is knowing nothing of anything. Real internationalism is truly the emergence of the best in each….But in India when I say India I mean the India of the sages and saints who gave the country its keynote, there arose the ideal of one life, and of the divinity that lives in all creatures; not merely in humanity.”   She explained the deep meaning of  the symbolism in Kallidas' ballad  Kumarasambhava: "Why does the story of Kumarasambhava please me? It is because of the symbolism. Finally what Parvati wins is not passion but the devotion and sublimation of herself. Parvati wins Shiva and she becomes united with Him, because she has discovered the greater, indeed the only way of discovering God. This is very beautiful symbology. Shiva burnt to ashes all that is physical. So must a dancer or musician burn to ashes all thought which is dross and bring out the gold which is within." Rukmini Devi established an approach to dance-drama based on the tenets of the "Natya Shastra".   This was completely new to the genre of Bharatanatyam.  Whether it was crossing the Ganga or Ravana carrying Sita on a flying machine, she portrayed them in suggestive movements. She speaks of the Ramayana and Mahabharata as the 'essential expressions of Indian dance'. Far from being man made stories, she speaks of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and Buddha in the following manner: "Why was India a world power? Because Sri Krishna had lived in this country, Sri Rama had lived here and so had Lord Buddha. It was their Teaching that made India a great world power."   ***     Fred B Eiseman Jr (   ) author of  Bali: Sekala and Niskala: Essays on Religion, Ritual and Art. He has lived in Bali since 1961 and has adopted Hinduism.   "Hinduism is founded on the belief that there is order in the world, that the universe is not random. Left entirely to itself, any natural system will tend toward a state of  maximum disorder; rocks roll downhill, cold things warm up, living cells die. There exists everywhere in the universe a disordering force. Because order does exist, there must be an equivalent organizing force. What Hinduism seeks is an equilibrium, a balance, between these forces or tendencies. Order is personified as the gods, dewa and dewi or bhatara and bhatari. Disorder is personified as the earth demons, bhutas and kalas. One can think of order as good, or positive, and disorder as evil or negative. Or you can call order dharma, and disorder adharma. " "Hinduism recognizes the universe as an ordered whole of which each person, each animal, and each thing is an integral part. And each of these parts stands in a definite and established relationship to every other part - this relationship is dharma. A Hindu feels that his actions, his karma, must be in harmony with his dharma, "duty" or "order." A Hindu cannot look at the world from the point of view of his own interests, without regard for those of his fellow men, his fellow living creatures, and his fellow inanimate objects. His karma must be related to them and to his own dharma. If his karma fulfils his dharma, he contributes toward order and harmony. If it does not, he contributes towards disorder, chaos, and adharma."   "The five fundamentals of Hindu philosophy are: Brahman, the one God, atman, the imperishable spirit, samsara, reincarnation; karma-pala, action and resulting reward and punishment; moksha, uniting with God after the disappearance of desire. These are called the Panch Crada, or "five principles."   "The Gayatri mantra is very popular mantara and is called the Trisandhya. It is considered so important that for example, it is recited every day when the Denpasar television station, TVRI, opens its broadcast schedule. This mantra comes from the most sacred verse of the most ancient religious text extant - The Upanishads."    "The two greatest epics of Hindu literature, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were hugely influential. Three thousand years after they were composed, one has only to visit a Wayang Kulit - shadow puppet - performance in one of the villages in Bali and see the rapt attention of the audience to understand the grip that these wonderful stories have upon Hindus even today."   "In Bali, Siwaism is by far the most important than Wisnu. Hindu man, faced with the overwhelming problems of life, sees Siwa as a vigorous force that energetically breaks down everything that Wisnu has protected and Brahma has produced. Why the lingam as the symbol of Siwa? The lingam is symbolic of creativity, not of destruction. Siwa not only a destroyer, but also a creator, and the dance is an accompaniment to the perpetual dissolving and reforming of the world. There is nothing obscene about the linggam symbol to the Hindus. Siwaism is a system of beliefs which requires the most extreme self-discipline, asceticism, and intellectualism. Mahatma Gandhi wrote that the first time he learned that linggam were obscene was when he was studying a missionary's book."   ***   Josiah Royce (1855-1916) American objective idealist philosopher. He was "America's first academic philosopher seriously to study Indian thought" and "he was also" as rightly pointed out by Professor D M Riepe, "one of the first Americans to show interest in Sankhya philosophy, presumably because he took each different development of realism as a target on which to practice his idealistic gunnery". Though he clearly acknowledges Buddhism to have "given us some of the best expression of Titanic individualism," he had declared Buddhism to be a "religion wholly grounded in self-denial." Royce also made numerous references to Hindu philosophies and criticized Vedanta schools of Hinduism and the Upanishadic philosophies as untenable mysticism, while curiously enough his own views are hardly different from Ramanuja's Vedanta. It is an established fact that Royce had read Indian philosophies and was deeply influenced by them. Riepe wrote: "He felt much of Indian   thought to be close to his own and he used it to clarify his own visions.." ***   Kurt F Leidecker (1902 - 1991) professor of philosophy observed this about Royce: "Despite several inaccuracies and misinterpretations on the part of Royce of Indian concepts he must be given credit for having called attention to the Indian world of thought and its deep significance. He made it clear that it had some relevance to western religious thinking. Above all, he educated the intellectuals among the Christian laity to an appreciation of another realm of religious and philosophical thought not usually studied by them. In a sense, then, he continued the work so heroically started by Emerson and Thoreau."   ***   Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861 -1946) An Indian politician, educationist, and freedom fighter notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism. He was the founder of 'Banaras Hindu University', in Varanasi. He wrote on theBhagawad Gita, "It brings to men the highest knowledge, the purest love and the most luminous action. It teaches self-control, the threefold austerity, non-violence, truth compassion, obedience to the call of duty for the sake of duty. It is a treasure house of Dharma not only for Hindus but for all mankind." ***   Lt. Col. Hamendar Bhisham Pal ( ) served in the Indian army - in the Artillery and Infantry Regiments  and was on active service during Indo-Pak Wars of 1956 and 1971. He wrote several books including 'The Temples of Rajasthan' and 'The Plunder of Art'. He has observed most eloquently about the on going and relentless plunder of Indian art to satisfy the Western greed and cultural vandalism. "A nation’s ancient treasures and monuments are the soul of its history and culture. They are part of a nation’s pedigree and mute chronicles of change and refinement as society moves through a process of challenge and response into its current character and mores. India has a rich past. Temples and other edifices are standing monuments which prove beyond doubt the existence of a rich culture and lively society. These places contribute much to enrich the culture of the soil, for it was here that devastation as well as construction moved almost side by side. History was written and rewritten,  made and remade. Hordes of invaders kept the people and their Hindu rulers engaged in battlefields, yet their faith in their religion was never lost.  Invasion, no doubt, molded the people’s way of life but it helped them rely on their religion in a more vigorous form for solace and contentment. Hindu temples were pulled down by the invaders but they were rebuilt sooner than they were destroyed. The statues from these temples were taken to safer places by the people so that they could continue to pursue their religious faith. Despite the passing of many centuries, these temples have remained intact to tell us the story of the past." "The temples were built not only to meet the religious needs of the people but also to satisfy the spiritual urges of the rulers. Defaced and mutilated figures in these shrines tell us of pathetic tales of barbarity of the iconoclast invaders. Iconoclasm could not shake the faith and will of the worshippers. New shrines are still being constructed. Men come and go but religion and its monuments remain. The temples of Khajuraho, Konark, Ramgarh and Ranakpur are notable for their erotic sculptures. One really wonders, why these temples have sculptures displaying varied postures of sexual union?  It is not unusual to find a western beholder standing aghast at sight of such erotic sculptures which have no place in the Christian Church. A foreigner finds himself confronted with the sacred principles of Suchita on the one hand and frank sexual representations on the other hand. The explanation is found in Hindu mythology. The creation of universe is based on the consummation of the male and female. An open representation of this sexual union is not a symbol of degeneration of licentiousness but it signifies the philosophy of creation." "Whatever may be the origin of erotic sculptures it is certain that these marvels in stone were products of sublime inspiration. There can be no two opinions that philosophy and religion were the base of these exquisite pieces of sculpture. It would be unjust to consider them as patterns of sex behavior,representing the moral and social degradation of the age. These monuments were dedicated to the discovery of truth and beauty. In fact, coital scenes were to serve as a‘catharsis’ to the worshippers.   ***   Britain, France and Spain rose to power in the medieval darkness. They conquered countries of far and near and traded with them and soon the history of the victim country became the grandeur of the ruler’s home. The process was repeated four hundred years later–that is in the 20th century – when the United States of America and a few European nations amassed so much wealth that they could buy or steal the culture which they lacked. In the thirties, the national museums and State governments of the USA went on a treasure hunt. They bought copiously valuable treasures in India from unscrupulous traders and the money-hungry princes. Art pieces like paintings and old scriptures were also not spared. The colonial powers, to reinforce their dominance and add a veneer of respectability, collected art objects from the colonies. Thus, one sees the famous Cleopatra’s Needle ending up in London. The modern technique of plundering, bribery and corruption is a ‘civilized’ extension of the old hectoring spirit of the colonial powers of the 18th century.   According to Fredrick Engels: “The old plundering and buccaneering spirit which distinguished our common ancestors of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is this spirit that made Colin Mackenzie (1754–1821) was Surveyor General of India, in the 18th century to take away the best pieces ofAmaravati sculpture to the British Museum. India’s art heritage cannot be evaluated in terms of money, it is priceless and cannot be replaced. ***    Adlof Kaegi (1849-1923) - Swiss India scholar and classicist. He studied ancient languages ​​and Indian studies, taking a focus of its work on the study of Greek and Sanskrit thought. Among his academic teachers were Rudolf von Roth and Karl Geldner. "Rig Veda is permeated by a lively sympathy and love of nature." He adds: "We have, in the Rig Veda, a literature which well deserves, at least in extracts, to be known to every student and lover of antiquity. The chief importance of the Vedas is not, indeed, found in  the history of literature, but it lies elsewhere. It lies in the extraordinary fullness of disclosures, which this unique book gives to the student of philosophy and the history of civilization. In this regard, no other literature can be compared with it, and though the aesthetic value of this relic of long-vanished time has sometimes been exaggerated, yet its historical importance, its value for mankind cannot be easily overrated....It best displays the first development of intellectual activities of our race." ***   Swami Dayananda Saraswati ( )  Ishwar Sharan (alias) of Canadian author, a Smarta Dasanani sanyasi who took his Vedic initiation from a renowned Mahamandaleswar at Prayag in 1977. He was brought in the foothills of western Canada in a God-fearing Protestant Christian family. He was excommunicated from his small Christian congregation. His experience of Christian institutions and West Asian Muslim society helped him turn against the monolithic Abrahamic creeds which he saw as imperialistic, belligerent, and life-threatening. He came to India in search of spiritual direction and because Hindu civilization still gave an honorable place to the Mother Goddess. The fact that Hindu civilization has withstood centuries of Muslim and Christian aggression and survived where other civilizations had failed was to his mind a very impressive cultural achievement. He reached India in 1967 and immediately went to Kashi where he lived on the ghats as a beggar. In his interview with Rajeev Srinivasan he has stated: “I had fallen in love with Mother India and Hindu civilization. It is the best civilization of the Great Mother Goddess. Like the great guru Adi Shankara I believe she is the liberator of man and the reveler of truth. I became a sannyasi because of Her. It is a sacrifice of love that I am still trying to perfect.” "Christian missionaries and Marxist intellectuals have a mantra: There is nothing Hindu in Hindustan and nothing Indian in India. According to them everything of value in Indian civilization came from outside, from someplace beyond the pale of Sindh. They are aware of the Hindu’s low self-esteem and seek to undermine it further."   "Devotion to a personal god is there in the Rig Veda itself: “Oh, Agni, be easy of access to us, as a father to a son.” ***     Dr. Dipak Basu (  )  Professor in International Economics at Nagasaki University in Japan has this to say: "Self-criticism is the fundamental part of the Indian philosophy." "Thousands of years ago in the Rig Veda, the most important book of the Hindu religion and the first book composed in Indo-European language group, it is written, "Only that God in highest heaven knows whence comes this universes. He only knows or perhaps he knows not" (Rig Veda Book 10, Verse 129). Indian philosophy was developed through continuous criticisms of existing ideas. Hegel and Karl Marx did not invent Materialism. It was already there in 7th century BC philosophy of Brishaspati, Kapil and Kanad in India. They along with Gautam Buddha and Mahavir have denied the existence of God, nearly 2600 years before Nietzsche. Chinese philosopher Confucius also denied the existence of God. Zorathustra denied the existence of Mitra, considered to be the God in ancient Persia and made a revolution in religious ideas. Thus, self-criticism is not an exclusive Western virtue." "Equality of Gender was not a Western virtue either as women were denied even right of education until the middle of 19th century in the West and they did not have civil rights even in Britain until 1928. However, in ancient India, one of the seven stars of Ursa Major is named after a famous astronomer of ancient India, Arundhuti. Rig Veda has mentioned the three women philosophers of ancient India, Lopamudra, Gargi and Maitreyi, who have challenged their philosopher husbands and others in open debates. Gender equality was a part of the ancient India, but not of the West." Talking of Ayodhya verdict he has observed that Ram was a Historical Person. "Ram was mentioned not only in Valmiki"s Ramayana, but also in Vyas"s Mahabharata at four places -- Ramopakhayan, Aaranyak Parva, Drona Parva and Dashrath Kathanak. In Rig Veda (10.60.4.4), there is a mention of Iksvaku, the ancestor of Ram and the founder of Ayodhya. The Atharva Veda mentions Ayodhya as having nine gates. The Atharva Veda (18.3.16) mentions the name of Vishwamitra, Vashista the preceptor of Ram, and Bhardwaj."   *** According to ancient Indian chronology and Puranic tradition Ram was born in the 24th Treta Yuga (Great Age).  The Valmiki Ramayana (Bal Kanda 18.8.9) mentions at the time of Lord Ram"s birth as "the ninth lunar day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, Punarvasu was in the ascendant and five planets (the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus) appeared in the zodiacal signs of Mesa or Aries, Makara or Capricorn, Tula or Libra, Karka or Cancer, and Mina or Pisces respectively. Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon appeared in Karka. From these, it is possible to calculate that Ram was born on January 10, 5114 BC, which means to say 7,122 years ago." "According to Vedas, the world is 4.32 billion years old, and man arrived on earth approximately two billion years ago. Man was created on earth in the seventh manmantar of Vaivasvat Manu. The sun, planets, stars, earth, sea, vegetation, flora and fauna were created in the earlier six manmantars. Western scholars now agree that the earth is aged between 3.96 and 4.3 billion years."   In Europe, epics of Homer and The Bible are not considered as myths, but informal history. The ruin of Troy, described by Homer, is already excavated. Israel government made serious efforts to excavate every places mentioned in The Bible to find out its ancient past. In India as well, S.R. Rao, former chief of the Archaeological Survey of India, has discovered the ruins of Dwarka submerged in water off the coast of Gujarat. Japanese ground Radar Company Tojo-Vikas has found out ruins of huge places 30 meter under the ground of Ayodhya. Thus, it is most unscientific to rule out Ramayana, Mahabharata and Purana as just myths, but not informal history of the ancient India.   ***     V Sundaram (1942-) worked as Lecturer in Economics in Delhi University for two years till he joined the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) in 1965. He was allotted to Tamil Nadu Cadre and has served with distinction in several high positions in Tamil Nadu Government from 1966 to 1994. He sought his voluntary retirement from the I.A.S. in 1994.  He was the first Chairman of Tuticorin Port Trust. He has authored several books including Rama Setu—Historical Facts and Political Fiction, Bandemataram Album, and Paramount cry for a Hindu Nation. He writes passionately about Hindu affairs and the future survival of Hinduism thus: "Are Hindus helpless refugees in their own ancestral homeland? It is my inalienable, indivisible, inexorable and immutable birth right to demand the creation of a Hindu Nation. I am not ashamed or afraid of declaring from the housetop that I am a political Hindu, a cultural Hindu, a spiritual Hindu, an economic Hindu, a nationalist Hindu, an internationalist Hindu and above all a cosmopolitan Hindu. I am forced to assert on these lines because Sanatana Dharma, Hindu Religion, Hindu Society, Hindu culture and Hindu ethos are under the siege of certain lethal international(!) forces today. The whole of India is getting converted into a 'Nazi Land' of pseudo-secularism with a clearly defined and declared agenda for the decimation and destruction of Sanatana Dharma, Hindu Society and Hindu culture. In Nazi Germany, there was only one criminal gang consisting of one 'Herr' Hitler, one Goebbels, one Goering, one Ribbentrop, one Von Papen, and one Himmler. But in the wretched India of today, we have more than half a dozen similar gangsters in each political party, all united in their resolve to destroy all remnants of Sanatana Dharma and Hindu culture. There are many Hindus who cherish the great spiritual traditions of Hinduism and its scriptures like the Gita and Upanishads in which this glorious tradition is enshrined. But they do not cherish with an equal conviction, much less enthusiasm, the Hindu society which has honored and preserved these traditions and scriptures against the onslaughts of external invaders and influences down the Ages. Again, there are many Hindus who proclaim with great confidence that Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism can never die. Finally there are many Hindus who are legitimately proud of Hindu art, architecture, sculpture, music, painting, dance, drama, literature, linguistics, lexicography and so on. But all of them fail to notice the fact that this great wealth of artistic, literary and scientific heritage will die if Hindu society which created it is no more there to preserve, protect and perpetuate it. The sudden death of Hindu society is no longer a theoretical eventuality which is either remote or cannot be envisaged. This great society is now besieged by the same dark and deadly forces which have overwhelmed and obliterated many ancient societies. Suffering from a loss of its 'élan', Hindu society has become a house divided within itself. Its beneficiaries seem to be impotent in taking necessary steps for ensuring its survival because they themselves have fallen victims to hostile propaganda from the wicked forces of Islam, Christianity, Nehruvian Secularism, menacing Marxism, and above all Hindu-baiting Macaulayism. Presiding over all these forces with a determined agenda for destroying all things Hindu, we have the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating UPA Government in New Delhi under the triangular stranglehold of Roman Catholicism, Pan-Islamism and Communism in the name of 'pseudo-secularism'. Hindu society which has survived the onslaught of Islamic marauders and Western freebooters for centuries should indeed be regarded as one of the great wonders of world history. In the normal course Hindus should have come into their own after 1947 and created a new era of social and cultural renaissance in free India. Thanks to the politically motivated policy of Nehruvian Secularism, Hindus have become third class citizens in our own country. They are no longer the honored citizens of our land. Like leprosy in British India, a permanent stigma seems to have stuck to the terms 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' in today's India. They have become terms of abuse in the mouth of that very elite which the dumb Hindu millions have raised to the pinnacle of power and prestige with their blood, toil, sweat and tears. " "No one can dispute that the traditional homeland of Hindus is the Bharatavarsha. It is a distinct geographical entity. There are few nations in the world the natural boundaries of whose homeland are as clearly drawn as that of ours. And the Hindus have been intimately associated with this land, lived on it, developed their culture and civilization on it, and regarded it as sacred soil for at least 6000 years, if not more. When I say Bharatavarasha in the sense of the Motherland of the Hindus, I do not refer to the boundaries of the truncated India created by Jinnah, and Nehru in 1947, but to those of our traditional homeland which extends continuously from Gandhara to Kamrup and from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. This basically has been the concept of Hindu Nationhood or what we call Hindutva or Hindu Rashtra from times immemorial. " "We Hindus are a nation. The Hindus have been the primordial citizens of Akhand Bharat from the beginning of pre-history and they cannot be denied a spiritual and physical space of their own in their own native land. The saddest part of the story is that the dastardly policy of pseudo-secularism has made all the peace-loving Hindus neglected, sidelined and discarded refugees in their own native land."   "The fact that 'We Hindus are a nation' is by no means a new idea. This idea has been with us from the dawn of history.  Nations do not get destroyed. We Hindus are a nation just as the Germans are a nation, the Armenians are a nation, the Kurds are a nation, the Jews are a nation. Germany was divided into two after the II World War. But this did not abate their nationhood. Within 50 years, they achieved reunification of their motherland and the nation has been restored to its original character and complexion. " "During the first National movement in 1905 'Swadeshi Movement' in undivided Bengal. No one at that time had the slightest doubt that 'We Hindus are a Nation'. That is why in Calcutta city, on the first day of the agitation 50,000 people took a collective oath before Goddess Kali in the Holy Kalighat Temple to the effect that 'we shall throw the British out of our homeland'. The famous historian R.C. Majumdar rightly concluded that he saw no difference in those days between Sanatana Dharma and Indian Nationalism. " "All the Roman Catholics have their own nations. All the Protestant Christians have their own nations. All the Muslims have their own nations. The Hindus have been the primordial citizens of Akhand Bharat from the beginning of pre-history and they cannot be denied a spiritual and physical space of their own in their own native land. The saddest part of the story is that the dastardly policy of pseudo-secularism has made all the peace-loving Hindus neglected, sidelined and discarded refugees in their own native land."   *** S K Kulkarni ( ? ) was in the Indian Audit and Accounts Service and is presently the director of finance and administration at the Nehru Center, Mumbai.  He is also the author of the book, Hinduism: Triumphs and Tribulations and is a prolific writer.   "Upanishadic roots have given rise to a strong tree of philosophy, which has grown many branches. A variety of interpretations are the hallmark of Hindu philosophy. The basic profound philosophy has something for everyone depending on his or her approach and interest. Even today, scholars continue to interpret the Bhagawad Gita, and surprisingly, gain new perspectives each time. Different perspectives of the fundamental principles of the philosophy have given rise to five major schools of Upanishadic interpretation. They are Advaitavada or Monism of Shankaracharya, Vishistadvaitavada or Pure Monism of Vallabhacharya, Dvaitadvaitavada or dualism-non Dualism of Nimbarkacharya and Dvaitavada or Dualism of Madhavacharya. These are, however, not contradictory to, or opposing, each other. These are different paths leading to a common destination. Many more men of wisdom have, during the last hundred years, interpreted the philosophy of the Vedas, and the Upanishads in particular. They are of the view that the Upanishads basically attempt to unravel the mystery of the universe, which surrounds us systematically and in a comprehensive manner. A burning spirit of inquiry characterizes them more than anything else. The following hymn is an indication of the zest to explore the unknown. From the unreal lead me to the real, From darkness lead me to light, From death lead me to immortality. - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28- The Upanishads contributed tremendously to the development of Indian culture by laying the foundation of Hinduism. They went far ahead of theVedas in terms of metaphysical speculation and enunciated most of the basic doctrines of Hinduism. In every Upanishad, one comes across hymns expounding one or more of these doctrines, the important ones being, 1. The concept of all pervading which is immutable and eternal. 2. The concept of an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, personal God. 3. Concept of salvation, defining it as emancipation from the cycle of life and death. Whatever lives is full of the Lord, Claim nothing, enjoy, do not covet anyone's wealth. Of a certainty the man who can see all creatures in himself, himself in all creatures knows no sorrow. " This asserts that the entire human race is linked together by virtue of possessing a common soul. "It is a heartening historical fact that the ancient Hindu civilization has shown a tremendous capacity to face and survive internal conflicts and external onslaughts. Many scholars have expressed surprise that the Vedic religions should have survived for thousands of years in spite of great and social and political upheavals and the terrible onslaught of invaders.   Radha and Lord Krishna of the Bhagawad Gita in the forest. It is a heartening historical fact that the ancient Hindu civilization has shown a tremendous capacity to face and survive internal conflicts and external onslaughts. ***   Unfortunately, some modern Indian historians and intellectuals, influenced by western culture and imported "isms", have attempted to demean the flow of ancient civilization by highlighting only its temporary negative aspects. But, as on many occasions in the past, the civilization, with its tremendous capacity to absorb the mudslinging, still continues its eternal flow." ***   Michael Comans aka Sri Vasudevacharya  (  ) He is a senior disciple of Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati, one of the great contemporary teachers of Advaita Vedanta.  Michael Comans attended Swami Dayananda Saraswati's two-and-a-half year residential course in Advaita Vedanta in the early 1980s. He later received a Ph.D. from the Australian National University, Canberra, and taught in the Department of Indian Studies at the University of Sydney. He is the author of two books including The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta: A Study of Gaudapada, Sankara, Suresvara and Padmapada published by Motilal Banarsidass.   He has observed that: "Only the Hindu life's ideal based on Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha can save humanity from its distress. The solution to the problems of the world is not Socialism but Hindu way of life. This is such a science of life, which, while studying about life, does not divide it into bits and pieces but considers the whole life as an indivisible unit." Hinduism has a deep philosophy that appeals to me. While initially it was only the philosophy that brought me into its fold, today I am comfortable with much of its religious aspects as well. "As regards Advaita, it has a view of tolerance. Because of the profundity of the Advaita understanding of God, it can allow others to be as they are." *** Siddharth S. Sinha ssselan@yahoo.in   (to be continued...)