This is Part 11 of the series of our explorative studies on various probabilities of history and origin of the Lord Venkateswara's (Balaji) shrine at Tirumala-Tirupati. This is in continuation of our blog posts 508, 511, 512, 513, 584, 597, 631, 739, 740, 741. For those who wish to study them (studying them will broaden our frame of thinking-i.e. perspective.), here are the links: To go to 508- Part1/10. To go to 511- Part2/10. To go to 512- Part3/10. To go to 513- Part4/10. To go to 584- Part5/10. To go to 597- Part6/10. To go to 631- Part7/10. . To go to 739- Part8/10. . To go to 740- Part9 /10. . To go to 741- Part10 /10. .
Question: You say that you oppose conversion of Indians into alien religions. This is nothing but intolerance.
Answer: 1. First of all, there is no definition of what constitutes tolerance and what else constitutes intolerance. These are all subjective terms. In Telugu language translation of Vyasa's Epic Mahabharata, by Telugu Poet Tikkana, there is a Telugu verse, which gives us a rough indication of what we can follow as 'justice' and 'ethics':-
orulE yavi onarincina
naravara tana manambunaku apriyam bagu tAn
orulaku avi sEya kuniki
parAyaNamu dharma pathamula kellan.
English: If something done by a person to us- hurts us, THE GREATEST DUTY, JUSTICE AND ETHICS FOR US WILL BE, NOT DOING THE SAME THING TO OTHERS.
Prove your hypotheses with practical example:
Answer: Rev. Barrows was 2nd in Command of the persons who organised the World Parliament of Religions held at Chicago in 1893, which was attended by Swami Vivekananda and others from India. Rev. Barrows, apparently, wanted to popularise and publicise Christianity as the principal religion of the World, at the Chicago Congress. It might have worked, or it might not have worked, we can't say.
I also get an impression that Rev. Barrows wanted to use Mazoondar of Brahmo Samaj, and Swami Vivekananda, as his tools. But this, apparently did not work.
After completing his principal task of participating in the World Parliament of Religions, Vivekananda ought to have returned to India, and continued his work in this poor country India. Instead, he chose to stay there for some years, make some dollars, giving some lectures. In the process, he started converting American Aristocratic Women into Ramakrishna cult of Hinduism. Actually, Hinduism is neither a formal religion , nor it has formal provisions for conversion of others into Hinduism. This conversion might have caused some bruises to Rev. Barrows.
Rev. Barrows too toured India, on his mission of Converting Indians into Christianity. It is difficult to say how far Rev. Barrows succeeded. But, bitterness resulted between Swami Vivekananda and Rev. Barrows.
ybrao-a-donkey's humble opinion: Even now, it is high time that Organisations such as Ramakrishna Math, Iskon, etc. which have their branches abroad, should openly declare that they will not convert anybody into Hinduism, unless there are very very strong exceptional reasons such as court orders. Simultaneously, they should demand that Alien Religions are not to venture in India for converting Indians into alien religions.
Question: What is its relevance to your previous blog-posts about Aryan Migration from Arctic (Scandinavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Old Prussia etc.), and the adoption of Latvian Gods into India?
Ans: The main problem with large scale conversions by alien religions is, they not only destroy the native culture, but also ALL EVIDENCES OF NATIVE HISTORY. One straight question which European Governments and the American Government have to answer: What was the History of Europe before entry of Christianity into Europe, from Israel? Christianity is a West Asian Religion. Why did the Romans destroy entire pre-christian history of Europe? What was the History of America, before the migration of Europeans into United States? Didn't the Native American Indians have any history of their own at all? Why should the American History start with Columbus or George Washington? Today, we can't get the Ancient or Medieval Histories of America or Europe, without Religious colors.
One happy future of Aryan migration from Nordisca into India from about 5000 BC to 0001 A.D. seems to be, that they had not been controlled from abroad. May be because, there were long gaps of distance. There were no transport facilities. There were no communications. Consequently, the migrant Aryans, though may be unwillingly, merged into Indian Society, borrowed heavily from Indian Culture, and also lent heavily to Indian Culture. The aggregate result of all that exchange is, India today has a composite culture, which some people call "Hinduism" (not Hindu religion), and some others call "sanAtana dharma". Whatever terms are employed, the Culture has had some merits, and some very very painful demerits such as untouchability, oppression of lower castes etc. Whatever be the past of India, today India is a country of MIXED-RACIALITY.
But, the present two alien religions which are converting people into their religions on a massive scale, using money as baits, making false promises, making negative propaganda and spreading falsehoods against Indian culture, have done great damage to Indian Lives during the last 1000 years, and even after India gained independence, they are continuing their activities which are harmful and injurious to India. Congress, and other so self-declared Secular parties have encouraged, and are encouraging the Conversions, in the name of protection to minorities. Some political parties like BJP, Shiva Sena are using these DISHARMONIOUS CONDITIONS for gaining political power to themselves.
It is, therefore, highly essential that the conversion activities of alien religions are to be stopped. Alien Organisations are controlled from abroad both formally and informally.
Example for formal controls from abroad: Who appoints Arch Bishops and , Bishops in India? Can't Indian Dioceses elect their own Arch Bishops and Bishops?
Example of informal controls: Donations from Saudi Arabia, for running Madrasas and building prayer-houses.
International Religious interferences, can infringe into sovereignities of countries. They harm the DEMOCRATIC and REPUBLIC character of countries. Sometimes, guidelines from alien Institutions can violate the internal security of the recipient countries. There will also be confusion in the minds of the followers of alien religions, whether to follow the secular guidelines of the Government of the Native country, or to follow the guidelines of alien Religious Heads? Unity of Command is an important prerequisite for survival of any Republic. Members of the Republic cannot be controlled by outsiders.
Question: Can you say something about the Bhaja Cave picture posted by you above?
Ans: -The picture is reported to belong to the OLDEST TEMPLE in India, in Bhaja Caves, Maharashtra, near Lonavala. It is said to belong to 400 B.C. i.e. about 2500 yrs. old. The picture shows, inter alia (among other things), a woman playing a double-drum percussion instrument, which looks like a tabla. On the right side, we can see a long wind-piped instrument, may be something like a shehnai (called 'nAda svaram or sannAyi' in South India). The Bhaja Caves, according to experts, belong to HinayAna Buddhism, track of Buddhism. In the previous blog posts, we have seen that the same caves contained the chariot of Sun God (sUrya), and the elephant-riding Indra (parjanya), which I have tried to link to Latvia-Lithuania-Old~Prussia-Sudovia-Esthonia, and only partially succeeded.
One question which repeatedly is haunting my mind is: Could the HinayAna Buddhism also have come from Europe, along with Aryans? Was Buddha (or Siddhardha in his early life) also a European? After entry into India, could the HinayAna Buddhism have developed into MahAyAna Buddhism? In my earlier blog posts, I have expressed a view that the culture of Ancient Indians was nearer to Ancient Jains of Tamil Nadu (Not SvEtAmbara modern Jainism). For this reason only, I was tempted to subscribe to the view that Sri Venkateswara's Temple at Tirumala was a Jain Shrine taken over by VishNu worshippers (same Aryans who spread from Lapland to Latvia to Iran/Iraq to Afghanistan to Punjab to Malva to Maharashtra to Karnataka and finally to Tamil Nadu). BukkarAya Sandhi
(Truce made by the Vijayanagara King Bukkaraya between Jains and Shri VaishNavas, about the surrender of Tirumala Temple by Jains to VaishNavas, in exchange for protection to Bahubali at SrAvaNa BeLagola)
, supported this idea.Though Adolph Hitler tried to possess the ThunderFire or Thunderstone symbol of SVASTIK and the ARYAN word, as Germanic, the Baltics seem to have a better claim to the Svastika. It is true that Svastik is used all over the world, for the last several thousand years. It may be true that we cannot attribute it only to Baltics.
But what made me to wonder is: The presence of Svastik Sign in the foot-prints stone sculptures of Buddha, in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh. Period approx. 2nd Century BC to 2nd Century AD. Of course, hundreds of thousands of Indians believe that Svastika is a purely Indian sign, which spread all over the world, with Indian Migrations to SE Asia, and Europe. Right now, my mind still is bent on believing that Svastik is Baltic only. We have to study in greater depth, but it will take indefinite period of time, because the pre-Christian Histories of Scandinavia, North Sea countries, Baltic countries, have been destroyed by the Christian Rulers. The Histories of most of these countries, now start with VIKINGS of the 8th Century A.D.
Till now, my mind continued in the belief that Buddha was from Bihar-Nepal. My doubts about that theory sprouted when the Talibans in Afghanistan destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha Caves in Kandahar. The general prevailing impression seems to be, that Buddhism spread into north-west direction from Bihar-Nepal, along the Ganga-Yamuna route to Kandahar, probably by Ashoka's Feudatives. We can also examine a view that Hinayana Buddhism too has come from Europe into Afghanistan, and further spread Eastwards and Southwards in India, and developed into Mahayana Buddhism at Amaravati and Nagarjuna Konda.
IMPORTANT: These are all only possibilities and probabilities. I am not formulating anything.
Subject to corrections and deletions. To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.
