Any write-up by a Christian, that too a converted Christian of Indian origin, on Hindu texts of yore, can at best be ignored as rubbish. This is what I wish to tell readers who are agitated over the absurd interpretation of Purusha Suktham by one Mr Ninan. The link to that article was sent to me on twitter. It is best to ignore such articles. To quote the reaction of Dr Koti Sreekrishna, who has authored a commentary on Purusha Suktha, such articles demonstrate the inferiority complex of the Christians at the monumental stature of Hindu Thought. I have reproduced here the reaction from Dr Koti Sreekrishna.
***********************
Dear Professor Ninan,
I happened to glance through your PS booklet as someone sent me the link. I paid more attention to original verses and translation.
In verse 5, you have correctly written " adhi-puruShah" but translated as First man.
Please note "adhipuruSha" is not "aadipuruSha" ; adhi means from within; aadi means first or beginning.
Variations came forth from puruSHa. Thus, from within He assumed multiple
forms. He grew immensely fathoming the entire cosmos (brahmANDa).
Looks like you plagerized my work for verse 7 explanation of 7 and 21, without acknowledging.
You don't give any reference. That is amazing. In doing so, you look like aadipuruSha!
Anyway I have attached my booklet I published in 2006 as e-book.
Other stuff in your book is simply not that good. I am not opposed to that approach as such but yours is no good to be frank. It is of very low quality. I have enjoyed the scholarship of Joseph Campbell (of Power of Myth fame) in comparing Mythologies of Christianity with other Myths. Actually I have a reference section in my book (that itself may look uncommon by your standard!) and quoted him.
But if you need that gobble for your redemption as Christian, fine; even if it reads very funny and exposes your inferiority complex.
Sincerely,
Koti Sreekrishna, PhD.
PS: My e-book on Purusha Suktham
http://www.ibiblio.org/sadagopan/sundarasimham/ebooks/ebook73.htm
Let the Prof. also see the wealth of collection at the e-series of in the above link.
*******************
Mr Ninan has harped on the St Thomas myth and said that the first 5 verses of Purusha Suktham were taken from the teachings of Thomas!!. The other ones were later additions, that is, post 2nd century AD development! This is the level of his knowledge of history, while he loses no chance to say that he is analysing the Suktham from a historic perspective. He has left off these verses as post Thomasian and as not original, obviously because he cannot interpret the Suktham from a Christian point of view.
Seeing people him, I feel like cautioning that it is a sin to dabble with texts with one's own interpretation. In a popular Tamil book called Prabhulinga leelai, a king by name Kausikan would swear on 42 sins to make a single pledge, saying that he would get all those 42 sins if he violates the pledge. One among the sins was what a writer would get by writing an interpretation or a meaning not found in the original text. "புலந்தரு நூலின் இல்லாப் பொருளினைக் கூறு வானும்".
It seems there are quite many converts like Ninan willing to test this..
10 comments:
You have chosen to rebut in a rather mild way the whimsical, wild and unusual ides the modern iconoclastic religions prevail in. Neither do they have a dogma that personifies virtues like moral excellence, goodness and righteousness nor a practice that embodies humility, selflessness and benevolence.
They have descended from nomadic and barbaric backgrounds as has been historical recorded. Their religion, man made, perhaps by the intellectual brilliance of 2 men of that era, owes a good deal of merit to them. If not, there would not have been Christianity or Islam or Judaism. All these Abrahamic religions less than 2000 years old has plagiarized, stolen, appropriated and finally possessed plenty *teachings* from the ONLY religion of way of life that existed then - HINDUISM and shamelessly chose to incorporate it into their barbaric and nomadic lives thereby bringing in some sense of civility.
Over the centuries, with exposures of plagiarism become more and more evident, these religions have chosen to overturn Hindu scriptures right from Vedas, hitherto unrecorded in terms of time period, and propagated it as their own teachings, rather, teachings of a Jesus or a Mohammed - two illiterate mortal men with no doubt better intellect amongst the others of those period. Both these religions are excellent examples of very successful *Business Schools* and hence, they continue to market their religions with vitality regardless of the consequences their shameful dogma preaches loudly.
Thank you, however, for recording the huge omissions this particular interpretation of Purusha Suktham the Christians chose to appropriate.
Actually this is hilarious! Looks like the evangelists have completely lost it since Hindus are the only ones resisting their onslaught!
Do these people really believe in the teachings of Jesus.I dont think he wanted his followers to use underhanded ways to spread the Gospel or maniacally force their opinion on others.
Actually, If you read Rajiv Malhotra's Breaking India, Mr.Ninan's motives will be very clear. Millions of recently converted tamil christians can stay in the fold longer only if thriukural (yes!) and other such literature are made out as though they came from St.Thomas.
Sumitra
@ Mr Prashanthkpp
Yes, I was mild as I did not exactly contribute to the rebuttal. I wanted to reach out to scholars who are already into attacking the St Thomas myth. Ninan has based his interpretation on St Thomas only. But I was disappointed to see that hamsa.org which featured many articles challenging the Thomas myth is either gone or hacked. Dr Koti Sreekrishna is a sansrit scholar who has strong and clear views on the tricks that evangelists do. I am in touch with him for what more to do. I will also write to a mainstream writer who usually writes rebuttals to these pieces.
On my part, I will post the rationale and science behind Purusha Suktham in my blog soon.
@ Ms Sumitra,
You are right. This purusha suktham interpretation will be hardly noticed by local folks. If they write in Tamil or on any Tamil texts, that will have ready takers. I heard that they have made inroads in Malayalam and Kannada also. May be to create a cache of "Christian literature' to show it as the origin of Hinduism, they are writing on texts like Purusha suktham.
At the bottom of it, I can see 2 lines of action that can work at the local level - so that the masses / locals do not fall a prey. One is to reinforce the Bhakthi cult on Hindu Gods among the locals. The second is what I am already doing, to spread the message that the descendants of coverts would suffer for having alienated themselves from the age old allegiance to Hinduism. I use astrology to show it to local folks how from the 3rd generation onwards, it is all the way downtrend only for the converts. I am not saying a lie. This is true. The lineage gets terminated and peculiar diseases are found from the 3rd generation onwards. I am collecting the horoscopes of 3rd generation converts to show this.
People like me are not supposed to have any likes and dislikes when it comes to making predictions to seekers. But when Christians approach, I have to be cool. There is no remedy for the converted Christians. They had gone to Christianity for money. Have money, enjoy money. But what after that? Every family in our country, particularly in South Indian states, have lived here for 1000s of years in the same land, worshiped the local and family deities continuously for generations and have committed themselves to serve these deities. Now if they go out of this bond or pledge, that equilibrium will be affected. It is Nature's law of balancing energies. If they out of that commitment, Nature will know how to balance that account. There is no way to get redemption other than coming back to the fold. I know of many 3rd generation converts who are in dire straits. No one help them. Certainly Jesus can not.
The same nut Ninan also posted similar junk on Scribd, and I added some comments which created some problem for his sphincter muscles. He has since deleted the comments.
The main stream writer whom I informed of the article by Ninan, is taking up the issue in relevant forums that include the option of legal action.
The idea is to keep repeating such rubbish ad infinitum. Some day somebody will take it to be true. Goebbelsaaya Namaha is their mantra. Anything for making Ram Robert! The utter idiocy of the whole thing!!
Ma'am,
Long time back, I had read this interepretion on the Purusha Suktam which stated that Jesus Christ was the Purusha who was getting referred to in it and that it was Jesus Christ who is being worshipped in those verses. I think they brainwash people using all these fault interpretations to show that Hindus are worshipping nobody else but Jesus.
Personally, I have no problems with Jesus Christ. He was a realized soul who got misinterpreted very badly. We cannot blame him because the land and the civilization in which he was born were full of ruthless and barbaric people. They were people of such an intellect that they could not stand Jesus for even 3 years.When Jesus returned at the age of 30 to his own land, he tried to teach people "THE TRUTH". God gave a difficult task to him. Ultimately, he had to teach those people "Love thy neighbour"....We can easily get to know how and what kind of life those people may be living for such a realised soul to teach them to love people who live near them. He preached love and forgiveness from which we can easily conclude that those people did not know the fundamentals of civic society.
When people say that Jesus was tortured to death and had to bear all that pain, it was for the sins of people of the world, I totally disagree with it. If he can walk on water, make multiples of any object, cure people, and do all those miracles to impress people so that they listen to him, it is for sure that he could separate Maya from reality. That way, he must not have felt the pain at all because he was able to separate himself from his body. That may be why he has rose again. Moving from one body to another is a popular thing in India.
Trying to rule the world in the name of Jesus is not what Jesus wanted. Nobody paid stress to the fact that he had preached that Kingdom of God is within ourselves. Poor Christians have to go to Church every sunday. Why, if God is within ourselves.
In fact, people of those times in that part of the world must not have understood what Jesus preached. They must have written down what they understood of his teachings. There were many bibles which were destroyed to suit the interests of Roman Empire and their priests....
Prophet Mohmamad had written Kuraan to clarify how people should live and conduct their daily affairs. One can imagine the culture of people who had lived in those times. Those rules are for the people who lived in those areas. He was also subjected to lot of insults and harrasments.
Now, christians have ventured into hindu scriptures to prove that they are the ancient religion. Why dont they dare to do this with Islamic scriptures? We can guess!
//The main stream writer whom I informed of the article by Ninan, is taking up the issue in relevant forums that include the option of legal action.//
Madam, is that true? This crackpot Ninan, deserves to be behind the bars for his writing and his 'books' need to be banned legally!
Post a Comment