Theos-Talk Archives (February 1997 Message tl00012)

At 12:05 PM 2/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Doss,
>I remember reading somewhere that Shankaracharya led the charge against
>Buddhism that eventually got it pretty much tossed out of India.
>
>Is that true or do I have him mixed up with somebody else.
>
>Chuck the Heretic

Chuck:

I don't recall it was that way.

Buddha even today is revered by everybody in India and you will see his
idols in most homes. As most of the basic principles Buddha spoke about are
the same as that of Hinduism -- except for the Gods and priests -- Buddhism
never took replaced Hinduism.

I believe Shankaracharya reformed much of that was bad in Hinduism's
practices and traditions. One other thing he did was to reorganize and
strengthen the sanyasi groups making them independent democratic groups.
Some believe that this reorganization was one of the reasons that Anglican
church did not/could not convert many Hindus and British Govt kept its hands
off of the religious issue. We may never know all the good things that he did.

BTW, the tradition that S was an illegitimate child, is something I tell
people that some of the brightest and most famous people are inthe same
category.