knowing & practicing

disneyland is no christianity
nor idli dosas are hinduism

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

=vakratunda (crooked nose) =mahakaya=
(huge belly) = koti surya samaprabha=
(10 million suns´ light giver) =avighnam=
(do no obstacles) =me deva= (to me god)
=sarva karyeshu= ( in all my works)
=sarvada= (always.prayer!).
Vienna,Saturday,February 9,2008: My nephew
by marriage to my niece Jayalakshmi, Sri
Gajanthodi Srinivasa Bhat has opened a
Pandora´s box for me.I am being helpful.So
in the first place I want to make it clear I am not
a practicing Hindu although I have a better
understanding of =sanatana dharma= meaning
the eternal religion, what now known as Hinduism.
Make no mistake Hinduism is not based on
fairy tales like Easop´s fables,Milarepa´s
stories,Pancha Tantra or Paishacha origin
Katha saritsagara of the twelfth century. Neither
Christianity can be traced to MacDonald or
Burger King or even to Disneyland! It is all a
mix up of the worst kind.Anant Pai´s Amarachitra
Katha may be a best seller in our times but it
can not be taken as a source to Indian culture.
Nor for that matter M.T.V.Acharya´s Chandamama
picture stories.

First sort out things to get a perspective.The current
Hinduism under practice is based on Agama
Shastras.They are three in kind.Vaishnava,Shaiva
and Shakta.Vaishnava agamas are divided in
four ways.These are Vaikhanasa, Pancharatra,
Pratishtshasara and Vijnanalalita.With interactions in
practice they have come to settle in five variations
incorporating all the three branches of Vaishnava,
Shaiva and Shakta systems. These are 1.Saura,
2.Ganapatya,3.Durga,4.Vishnu and Kumara traditions.
These are called Panchayatanas. In the South
Kumara or Murugan is more popular.In the Karnataka
region the Shakta Dugrapuja is special.India wide
Ganapatya is universal.So is Vishnu´s various
representations.Saura is rare in image worship but
it is universal in the form of Sandhyavandana or
worshiping of sunrise, midsun and sunset thrice daily.

All these are forms of divine worship.These apart there
are some 16 samskaras for high birth individuals
to undergo in a life cycle, commencing with pregnancy
of the mother ending with funeral ceremonies.These
are meant to be practiced if one has to make pretense
to be a practicing Hindu. Just do not make mistake
once again, fast food chains are convenient eating
joints just the same way we take in India on the railway
platforms,where the trains stop just for few minutes,a
chance to buy curd rice called Bagalabath for quick lunch.
For good meals there are elaborate high quality restaurants
where a lunch or dinner today will cost upwards of
a hundred dollar per person. I think hardly an Asian
living on half an average salary can afford them.

Now coming back to practice,our practice of
worshiping Shaligrama or divine phallus symbol
in the form of linga, male genital used in impregnating
the female mate is about one thousand years old
Shaiva tradition.It is from this tradition Lingayats,
or Virashaivas branched out with reformist movement
of Basaveshvara.That is the secret of current strong
rivalry between Vira shaivas and Vaishnava brahmins
in north Karnataka.Our being shaivas that is Shaligrama
representative linga worshipers we came to southwards
by Banavasi route. Daily we worship shaligrama
and occasionally worship female counterpart Durga.
The mother cults Nadavas or Bunts mostly worship
mother goddes Shri Durgaparameshvari and the
lowest castes Mariamma.

I remember a banker of the position of Deputy Manager
at the State Bank of India in New Delhi sold me
foreign exchange for Austrian Schillings about twenty
years ago.He gave me change on correct exchange rate.
But his knowledge was so great that the reciept
he gave me was for =Australian Schillings= thus committing
three errors in a single shot! In the first place Australia is
east of India,Austria is to the west.Second Australia has
dollar as currency.Third Schilling was at the time currency
of Austria.That in sum is the scholarly Indian expertise
in practice! Although Indians get almost half salary in the
U.S. their input is worth only one third.Dont be misled.
By the performance standard an average Indian is
paid more than his worth.Sorry some times truth may hurt.

Coming back to sanatana dharma of the Hindus, it is
traced to the Vedas.There are four vedas.These are
elaborated in prose by Brahmanas.Then again aranyakas.
In the later stages these aranyakas lead to Uapaishads,
concluding in Vedanta.But the Vedas have six body parts
and six vision parts to help in assembling and dissembling
them.These are called samhita shruti, meaning heard
parts.Then come smriti or memory parts.Third are in
the series are agamas,which we are mainly practicing today
with some sprinkling of the shruti and smriti parts.In
shruti part there is no image worship.The importance there
is for fire.We consider fire is the mouth of gods.With
the advent of Buddhism just about six centuries before
Christian era fire worship made way to figure worship
to avoid animal sacrifices.The images then exploded
into three hundred thirty million in total in 1930s.Today,
I am sure these number over a billion! I would suggest
to any practicing Hindu to learn about it a bit.As quick
reference I can only point out to Mr.V.A.K.Aiyer´s Hindu
Scriptures presented through a table of vedas and
their branches as a tracer. Of course one can find
some details as practiced in the first part of my
=autobiography of egotism=(end)

Comment by Gajantodi Srinivasa Bhat
with my response:

Mava,(uncle) it was never attempted to contain or
explain Christianity or Hinduism in just burger or
idli dosa terms. it was just an example to favour
diversity of culture by giving an example of food -
something with people are obviously passionate about!
Nevertheless, the information fountain that springs
from you and the veracity and groundedness with
which you bring it forward is a joy to read. People
read a lot but very few digest and are able to really
understand and bring out reality. Far less, admit it,
especially if it comes to one's own.That is the
hallmark of a great critic.

Coming to Indians, I was reading quite a few of
your posts and felt sad to understand your
heightened criticism of Indians in particular.
Agreed, Indians may not be all that professional
at times, but it is true that today, keeping aside the
spiritual and thought leadership of ancient times,
keeping aside the corruption that is a part of our
daily life for a moment we can reflect on the following
facts :

Indian IT professionals are huge in number in great
multinational companies.Indian managers are doing
very well in MNCs abroad as well as in India.

Indian doctors perform some of the most complicated
surgeries in the world and foreigners are also coming
to India to get them done.India is a nuclear power.

India is exporting a lot of affordable life-saving drugs
to third world countries, which MNCs would otherwise
fleece them for.India has an evolved central bank, a
strong currency.

All this would not have been possible if we have 1.2 billion
lazy Indians on board, like you mentioned in one of
your posts!

Not to dwell on just the positives, of which the above
is just a shortlist, there are still the negatives like the
unprofessional approach in several areas, corruption,
pollution, etc.

The hangover of miscued socialism, wrong brand of
democracy - too much time and money wasted on
multi-party system, certain concepts no longer valid,
has its toll even today.

India is not one country, it is several, but still united
due to our history and colonial past.There are bound
to be inconsistencies and regionalism, especially when
the languages are so many. Still, we are united (hope to
remain so!) and definitely a regional power and a world
economic force.

Now, coming to the Assistant Manager of State Bank
of India, whose geographical knowledge was not quite
up to the mark - his crime was to not know or get
confused at the difference between Austria and Australia,
just look at this report:.
(the report is only recent available every where.kb)

The knowledge and awareness levels is suspect even in
the great Great Britain, once a power on whom the sun
never set! This is not to condone the Assistant Manager,
who is supposed to know at least the countries whose
foreign exchange he was dealing with. But even among the
learned doctors, even in developed countries of Europe
and the USA, it is not uncommon for them to operate on
the wrong eye, leave an occasional pair of scissors
inside the stomach. So, why is it that we feel so aggreived
when an Indian does it? The answer is simple.We, like anyone
else, like our children to be perfect. It's our own people,
you see. That is why it is difficult to condone. That is the
way to perfection.Will we ever achieve it? Going by
history, that will never happen, not in India, not in the West.

I am sure you will find a lot of holes in all that I have said.
That is the way it is. I am another person who is not perfect.
I am a person, period. Just like any other person.

If I were to aim for perfection, this mail would never
see the light of day.

Love,Srinivasa

Pandora's helper!

My response to Srinivasa Bhat

I have left out the recent report on the ignorance of
U.K.school kids on Churchill or Mahatma Gandhi and
other figures since it was only last week. Perfection
is an ideal. We should not give up just because we
are alive, we must keep striving at perfection.Besides,
should we celebrate ourselves that as ignorant we have
more companions? China is ahead of India in many areas,
since I was not there I can not confirm it.Besides, the
second world is dead almost twenty years ago. But we are
still =third world= and being in third class we should be
proud or face facts and amend? Amendment can be
made by individuals not by mob.Mob provides cover
without responsibility.

Europe is uniting but India was united by colonialism.So
Raj Thackeray and others want India to be cut into
small bits and pieces!They seems to be Bhutto´s
children. I am unable to understand the logic
of defending disintegration of India.So do try to digest
unpleasant facts and amend if I may be permitted to
say so.
-Kulamarva Balakrishna