#009 , RAMANUJA, SHANKARA ETC. ARE MERE PUNDITS
Swami Vivekananda wrote to Shri Pramada Das Mitra, on May 30, 1897 from Almora.
BLOGGER'S VIEW
*The story of "Kankadharastava" (According to his biographers): Sankara was moved by the poverty of a woman, who has nothing to give him as 'alms', except a small gooseberry fruit. Sankara prayed Goddess Lakshmi singing 'Kanakadhara stavam' and there was a rain of gold gooseberries.
*Sankara was an introvert. Vivekananda was an extrovert behind an introvert mask.
*Vivekananda joined the bandwagon of 'Collecting donations for serving the poor', imitating the Christian Missionaries.
*If we see the epicurean ways of Vivekananda (craving for flesh, ice creams, cool stations, couches, furniture, big people, calling this country a dirty unhealthy spot etc.), the charity facade seems to be artificial and not of lasting type.
Ramanuja, Shankara etc., seem to have been mere Pundits with much narrowness of heart. Where is that love, that weeping heart at the sorrow of others? — Dry pedantry of the Pundit — and the feeling of only oneself getting to salvation hurry-scurry!
BLOGGER'S VIEW
*The story of "Kankadharastava" (According to his biographers): Sankara was moved by the poverty of a woman, who has nothing to give him as 'alms', except a small gooseberry fruit. Sankara prayed Goddess Lakshmi singing 'Kanakadhara stavam' and there was a rain of gold gooseberries.
*Sankara was an introvert. Vivekananda was an extrovert behind an introvert mask.
*Vivekananda joined the bandwagon of 'Collecting donations for serving the poor', imitating the Christian Missionaries.
*If we see the epicurean ways of Vivekananda (craving for flesh, ice creams, cool stations, couches, furniture, big people, calling this country a dirty unhealthy spot etc.), the charity facade seems to be artificial and not of lasting type.
Comments
The Kanakadhaarasthavam story of Sankara is mere hearsay. There is no reference anywhere to the lady who got all the gold-rain or her "illam" name!!
One shortcoming of the letters (epistles they call) Swami Vivekananda, was that the letters have been edited by the original publishers to make them euphemistic. If we can get the letters received by Swamiji, corresponding to the letters written by him, the context can be more fully understood. I hope someday some auctiner will come up with these letters or the Vivekananda sectarian institutions will publish them. Right now we do not have 100% information. Particularly, we need two documents which have crucial value: 1. The statement made by Ms. Henrietta Muller to a Bombay newspaper in 18991. 2. The document signed by Swami Vivekananda which he asked Ms. Christina Greenstidel to countersign.
The Communication Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh promised to trace out the Grammaphone records of the speeches of Swamiji. If he helps in tracing out the above two documents, he renders a great service to the cause of history.
Theodore Roosvelt -"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."