Fwd: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Re: Demigod, semigod, or God

[विश्वासो वासुकिजः (Vishvas Vasuki)]

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Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2024 at 08:55
Subject: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Re: Demigod, semigod, or God
To: भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत् <bvpar...@googlegroups.com>

On Sunday 7 April, 2024 at 6:58:17 pm UTC+5:30 Hari Parshad Das wrote:

On Saturday, April 6, 2024 at 11:19:26 PM UTC+5:30 Nityanand Misra wrote:

On Saturday 6 April, 2024 at 9:30:24 pm UTC+5:30 Hari Parshad Das wrote:

Dear Nityanand Misra ji,

Dear Hari Parshad Das Ji,

Once again, your email digressed and covered a whole gamut of topics like freedom, intentions, hobnobbing, my relations with Satyanārāyaṇa Dāsa Bābājī (for the record, I have never even met him), honesty, trust, etc., which I believe are not relevant at all. A separate thread may be started on these, but I have neither the time nor the appetite for discussions on these topics. So I will stick to translations again. 

Dear Nityanand Misra ji,

It seems your time and appetite get severely restricted when you are presented with unpalatable discussions. You yourself have claimed dispassion in your approach, and I am claiming the same. I am not the one who made the initial claim.

 

Dear Hari Parshad Das Ji

None of what you discussed was unpalatable (at least to me), I consider your points debatable but not unpalatable. Even if you call them unpalatable, I can assure you that it is not unpalatable discussions that bother me, but unfocused (=digressing far from the topic of the thread) and irrelevant (=with no relevance to the topic of the thread) discussions on uninteresting (=not as appealing as Sanskrit/Hindu texts, translations, commentaries etc.) topics that I avoid.

To give you an example, you raised the point of politics in sadhu-akhadas (totally irrelevant to the original discussion as I am not associated with any akhada in any way). Yes, there is no denying that politics is present in akhadas of sadhus, even though there is a lot more than just politics in akhadas. I have covered akhadas in detail in the fourth chapter of my book Kumbha (2019, Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-9-3884-140-4, also available in Hindi) and the interested reader may refer to the same. I have covered the unfortunate armed battles between akhadas in the 18th century (e.g., in 1760 and 1790) in which many sadhus were killed and also the examples of cordial relations between akhadas in modern times, signified by the historical Chaitra Purnima bath in Haridwar in 2010 which united all thirteen akhadas. However, akhada politics is not the only example of politics in Indic religious organisations. ISKCON politics is also an example of this. You would be aware of the fratricidal strife between different branches of ISKCON over initiation methods, control of temples, use of trademark, and even small things like a dilapidated old bus. A decades-long legal battle between ISKCON Mumbai and ISKCON Bangalore is now in the Supreme Court. This battle has seen its fair share of dirty politics, e.g., in 2023 the Supreme Court of India pulled up ISKCON Kolkata officials for filing a false and frivolous criminal case against ISKCON Bangalore officials and also imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on the ISKCON Kolkata officials (see here). Writing about the internal strife in ISKCON in 2022, Outlook wrote in an article “ISKCON’s image is in the dumps, the scrap over Bangalore centre’s assets is one more nail” and ended the article with “In this war of faith, the one left bemused is the ordinary ISKCON devotee” (see here). While the views in the article may be biased, but the facts presented (image attached) are more sad than shocking. Though this controversy is not as scandalous as the ISKCON child abuse scandal (a lot can be discussed about this also, see here for a journal article from an ex-ISKCON member, ISKCON eventually settled the USD 400 million child abuse lawsuit for USD 9.5 million: see here, here, and here), it is still quite serious. Now I am not in the least implying that such unfortunate events are unique to ISKCON, they happen in many religious organisations, establishments and ashrams of all hues. All I am saying is that ISKCON is not immune to politics. You are welcome to start discussions on all such debatable topics such as politics, scandals, child abuse, sexual abuse, legal battles, etc. in religious/dharmic organisations. But is BVP the right forum for such discussions? I do not think so. The moderators may even lock or delete such threads. Even if such discussions are allowed and take place on BVP, I am not interested in them simply because I have better things to do (and I am sure so do you).

Yes, if you wish to continue discussions on translations, I will be happy to contribute and engage with you.

With best wishes,

Nityānanda

 

 

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Vishvas /विश्वासः