MEANINGFUL SHASTRARTH [DISCOURSE ] ABOUT VEDANTISM AND VEDANTA ;

When the report was being assiduously spread by the enemies of reform that Swami Dayanand had refused to hold a shastrarth, some Sadhus elated by the report hastened to the Swami’s quarters, and coming into his presence, said that they had sought him out with the view of holding a discussion with him. “Vedantism,” was the reply of the leader of the band, a man of learning. Swami ~ “To begin with, please explain what do you mean by Vedantism?”Sadhu - ”Vedantism is that which teaches that the world is false and that God is the only true existence.” Swami ~ “What do you understand by the ‘world’ (jagata)? What things are included in your ‘world’ and what do you mean by the term ‘false’ (mithya)?” Sadhu - ”Whatever there is from atoms up to the sun, is called the ‘world’ and all that is in it, is false and unreal.” Swami ~ ”Are or are not your body, speech, moving about, updesh, guru, and books included in this world also? Sadhu - Yes they are.” Swami ~ “And is your religion also included in this, or is it outside of it?” Sadhu - “Verily, that too is included in this.” Swami ~ “When you yourself admit that you and your guru, your faith and your books, your speech and your updesh are false, what can I say to you? The case, according to the statement of the claimant himself, deserves to be dismissed. There is no need of witnesses here.

ABYSS OF SUPERSTITION AND IDOL WORSHIP ;

Hindus perceived that heaven as very simple to achieve through devotion; e.g. taking a dip in the Ganges (in this way many animals can go too), renouncing all material wealth at old age, and going on Holy pilgrimage. Many believe salvation can be gained from a priest through formulas and rituals and not necessarily through austerity. The heavens of the different sects of Hinduism differs in many respects. The Jains believe their heaven consists of going to Shivpuri and sitting there quietly on a platform called the stone of salvation. The religion of the Vama Margis flourished in the eighteen century and their heaven is going to Shripur. Amazingly, what would be deemed sudden hell for us now, was the criteria for their heavenly abode. Their salvation consisted of consuming meat and alcohol, listening and singing romantic songs and enjoying promiscuous sex with women who could even be their mothers or sisters. They look upon all men as Mahadeva or Vishnu (Gods), and all women as Parvati or Lakshmi (Goddesses) and enjoy themselves with one another. They maintain that there is no disease in heaven and that you will always remain young. When the ignorant are guided by such sensual enjoyment to salvation is it any wonder why so many are attracted to it? The Shivites, Vaishnavites, and the Gosaaeens are promised enjoyable life by means of beautiful wives with pretty dresses. The dwelling consisted of luxurious houses and dining in delicious food and drinks. The Puranics believe in many kinds of salvation. They find residence in the same world with God, living with Him as His younger brother and becoming Godlike in nature. The closeness to God is like a servant living near his master brings an intimate union with God. This particular sect of Hinduism is surrounded with mythologies. But it does not bother the faithful in any conceivable way as they stress devotion and not reasoning. To a Hindu, the chanting or listening to chants of mantras of the Puranas, Ramayan and Gita, accompanied by music is devotion enough. For him, there is no need to enter into an intellectual debate with logic.

NARENDRA MODI'S "GRANDIOSE" PROJECT AND BITTER TRUTH !
Political hypocrisy based on opportunism and convenience has been always order of the day in sangh parivar.Since Narendra Modi has suddenly "discovered and redefined" Sardar Patel,it will be pertinent and worthwhile to present here what Loh Purush thought about RSS.At the same time,it is not a hidden fact that sangh parivar was always critical about both Patel and Gandhi.
It was Sardar Patel who, as Home Minister, did not hesitate in telling the then supremo of the RSS, Guru Golwalkar, that his organization was responsible for killing Gandhi and instigating violence. In a letter written to Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, Sardar Patel stated:

“Organizing the Hindus and helping them is one thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing… Apart from this, their opposition to the Congress, that too of such virulence, disregarding all considerations of personality, decency or decorum, created a kind of unrest among the people. All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government, or of the people, no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death. Under these conditions it became inevitable for the Government to take action against the RSS… Since then, over six months have elapsed. We had hoped that after this lapse of time, with full and proper consideration the RSS persons would come to the right path. But from the reports that come to me, it is evident that attempts to put fresh life into their same old activities are afoot.”

Sardar Patel continued hammering the fact that the Hindutva brigade collectively was responsible for the murder of Gandhi. In a letter to Nehru dated February 27, 1948, he wrote, “It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through. It also appears that conspiracy was limited to some ten men… Of course, his [Gandhiji’s] assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and to his policy.”
Apparently the whole exercise is for establishing Gujarati chauvinism for electoral gains !

HOW JEWELS ORIGINATED

Sutji, once narrated the following tale to the assembled sages which sheds light on the origin of jewels and other precious stones -

' During ancient times there lived a mighty demon named Bala. Although he had defeated the deities and driven them out from the heaven, yet he had assured them that he would extend fullest cooperation and support in any yagya performed by deities in future. All the deities planned to perform a 'Yagya' in order to regain their lost kingdom. They made all the necessary preparations for the Yagya but were unable to find a person who could offer himself as a 'sacrificial being'- a ritual without which any yagya is incomplete.'

'Seeing no other option, the worried deities took refuge of 'Balasur' and requested him to offer himself for sacrifice so that the yagya could be accomplished without any hitch. Balasur was bound by his promise so he agreed. This way, the deities were able to accomplish their yagya. But, a strange event coincided with the death of Balasur, which surprised even the deities. The virtuous deed of offering himself as a sacrificial being in the yagya ceremony had amazingly transformed Balasur's corpse into jewels. Deities tried to carry the 'Jewel-body' through the aerial route towards a safer place, but it was fragmented into countless pieces due to the impact of ferocious speed of the wind it had to negotiate. These pieces scattered all over the places- ocean, rivers, Mountains, Forests, etc. In course of time these places got transformed into countless mines of jewels and precious stones such as Vajra (diamond), Muktamani, Indraneel, Sphatik, Prawal, Pushparag and many more.
[Translation from Sanskrit].

PAST EXPERIENCE WITH SANGH PARIVAR RULE;
THE PERILS OF VEDIC 'SCIENCE' REDISCOVERED AND REDEFINED !
" Under BJP rule, superstitions started getting described as science. Hindu nationalists started invoking science in just about every speech and policy statement. But while they uttered the word 'science'--which in today's world is understood as modern science--they meant astrology, vastu, Vedic creationism or transcendental meditation. This was not just talk: state universities and colleges got big grants from the government to offer post-graduate degrees, including PhDs in astrology; research in vastu shastra, meditation, faith-healing, cow-urine and priest-craft was promoted with substantial injections of public money.

Nearly every important discovery of modern science was read back into Hindu sacred books: explosion of nuclear energy became the awesome appearance of God in the Bhagvat Gita; the indeterminacy at quantum level served as confirmation of Vedanta; atomic charges became equivalent to negative, positive and neutral gunas, or moral qualities; the reliance of experience and reason in science became the same thing as reliance on mystical experience, and so on. Contemporary theories of physics, evolution and biology were wilfully distorted to make it look as if all of modern science was converging to affirm the New Age, mind-over-matter cosmology that follows from Vedantic monism. 'Evidence' from fringe sciences was used to support all kinds of superstitions, from vastu, astrology, 'quantum healing' to the latest theory of Vedic creationism. Science and 'Vedas' were treated as just different names for the same thing".
[Excerpted from a longer article by Meera Nanda in the January 2005 issue of New Humanist Magazine].

NARENDRA MODI'S "GRANDIOSE" PROJECT AND BITTER TRUTH !
Political hypocrisy based on opportunism and convenience has been always order of the day in sangh parivar.Since Narendra Modi has suddenly "discovered and redefined" Sardar Patel,it will be pertinent and worthwhile to present here what Loh Purush thought about RSS.At the same time,it is not a hidden fact that sangh parivar was always critical about both Patel and Gandhi.
It was Sardar Patel who, as Home Minister, did not hesitate in telling the then supremo of the RSS, Guru Golwalkar, that his organization was responsible for killing Gandhi and instigating violence. In a letter written to Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, Sardar Patel stated:

“Organizing the Hindus and helping them is one thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing… Apart from this, their opposition to the Congress, that too of such virulence, disregarding all considerations of personality, decency or decorum, created a kind of unrest among the people. All their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government, or of the people, no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death. Under these conditions it became inevitable for the Government to take action against the RSS… Since then, over six months have elapsed. We had hoped that after this lapse of time, with full and proper consideration the RSS persons would come to the right path. But from the reports that come to me, it is evident that attempts to put fresh life into their same old activities are afoot.”

Sardar Patel continued hammering the fact that the Hindutva brigade collectively was responsible for the murder of Gandhi. In a letter to Nehru dated February 27, 1948, he wrote, “It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through. It also appears that conspiracy was limited to some ten men… Of course, his [Gandhiji’s] assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and to his policy.”
Apparently the whole exercise is for establishing Gujarati chauvinism for electoral gains !

DIVINE FANTASIES AND IDIOSYNCRASIES;
"MANIFESTATION OF GANESH & KARTIKEYA"; 

Once, before taking her bath, goddess Parvati anointed unguent on her body and while removing it created a human form from the accumulated dross. The head of this human form resembled an elephant. Parvati then playfully immersed the human-form into river Ganga. But, to her sheer amazement the human form became alive and of enormous size. She accepted him as her son and he was none other than elephant-headed deity-Ganesh.

Once, Lord Shiva became so deeply fascinated by her consort. Parvati hat he did not come out from his palace for 1000 years. The deities became worried and sent Agni to find out the reason. Agni disguised himself as a parrot and entered the palace where Shiva was enjoying privacy with Parvati.

Meanwhile, Parvati went at the bank of a reservoir to quench her thirst. After reaching there she saw six divine women (matrikas) carrying water in the leaves of lotus flowers. As Parvati was thirsty, she requested them to give some water. The matrikas agreed on the condition that a son born to her (Parvati) should also have to be accepted as their son. Parvati gave her conscent. The matrikas gave Parvati water to drink.

Hardly had Parvati finished drinking water than a divine child emerged out from her womb. The child possessed various weapons like, trident, shakti and a noose in his hands. He was none other than Kartikeya.The deities appointed Kartikeya as the commander of their army. During that time, a mighty demon named Tarakasur used to torment the deities. Kartikeya killed that demon on the request of deities.
[Sanskrit translation from Padam Puran, Srishti khand].