Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00393)

At 08:25 PM 4/11/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Saumen: > Well, noone knows what the "original folks" thought about it
>but
>> recording of events for the sake of posteriority did not occur in India
>> until she came in contact with her Arab traders. Thats why practically
>> nothing is known of the "Vedic age" or for that matter the history of
>> India before the ascendance of Guptas in the national scene.
>>
>> Even their Vedas were not allowed to be transcribed. The idea of
>> representation through statues, idols, etc. was totally unknown in
>> the East. India did not have her statue of Buddha until the Greeks
>> introduced it first (two hundred years after Buddha's passing away)
>> in Kandahar. I think one could identify similar states in the Judaic
>> tradition and in Islam.
>
>With your keen interest in Indian history, you may be interested to know
>about a film I watched recently.
>
>My boss' wife had me over to dinner recently with their family, and
>afterwards we talked briefly about Krishnamurti. She is aware I went to
>California years ago to hear Krishnamurti speak, and was curious about
>my perceptions of him - whether I thought the whole movement might be a
>cult or not.
>
>You see, she is steadfast in her Christian beliefs, Bible-belt Baptist,
>although generally most kind and considerate towards me. So our
>conversation was warm, but reserved. She brought up a film she wanted me
>to see called "Gods of the New Age", and I told her I would watch it.
>
>It was made in 1988, and begins by critiquing some of the more extreme
>guru-led movements of the past few decades, such as that of the Bhagwhan
>Rajneesh commune in Oregon. From this it attempts to extrapolate a kind
>of conspiracy among Hindus and guru leaders to infiltrate the West. It
>even goes so far as to suggest that every form of yoga is innately
>sinful, and that vegetarianism is inherently evil. Luckily I fell asleep
>before the film ended, but it was so full of an essentially hateful and
>judgmental Christian mindset that I have been pretty disturbed since
>seeing it.
>
>There is such a strong undercurrent here in this part of the country
>against anything that hints of looking at things differently than what
>is traditionally the way. The image portrayed of Hinduism in that film
>equated it as being devil-inspired, and basically considered anything of
>Indian origin as Hindu. You see the lopsided logic to it?
>
>It is refreshing to hear you and others on this 'party line' speak of
>the facts about Indian history as you know them to be. Thanks for
>helping to illumine these dark corners of the mind.
>
>
>Respectfully,
>
>Stephen Smalley
>
>
Glad you posted the msg.

I had a very interesting experience recently. I have been around theosophy
for several years and recently another interested person who was living in
another state was visiting my city and wanted to meet with me and others in
our city.

So when this person arrived in town, I called on the telephone and suggested
that we should meet and even volunteered to drive down to her sons place
where she was staying.

She told me on the phone that her ex-husband was a minister and her son and
daughter in law belong to a fundamentalist church in town and in a kind of
friendly way indicated to me that they are very suspicious of any one who is
not a fundamentalist christian and that they may not like my visiting her. I
left it at that.

Later just before she was leaving town, I had a telephone conversation and
during the course of which I indicated that may be I will take her and her
son to lunch so that we can meet. And I also indicated that I may be in a
position to give some business referrals to her son. I did not want to push
this business aspect. She said that this would work and she spoke to her son
and in five minutes they called me back and the luncheon appointment was set
and we met.

But for the potential dollar involvement, I would not have been able to meet
with this person who by the way also wanted to meet me and others interested
in similar matters.

The son is a practicing tax attorney in town and the daughter in law is on
the faculty of a local university. Even with this background, they were very
suspicious.

Just thought I should share.


MKR