The last Saturday's Austin American Statesman featured a full-page article on Barsaha Dham of Austin.
The organization said it donates millions of dollars to charity, much of it to Indian hospitals, including two it built and operates. Its umbrella organization, Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, recently announced that it was building a university in India and had donated $448,000 to assist flood victims in India. Barsana Dham took in evacuees from Hurricane Ike.
Good to know that they are doing a lot of charity work. As I wrote before, Barsana Dham is a beautiful place, has a gorgeous interior (esp. the ceiling resembling the sky), and is filled with nice people who don't push visitors to join the organization or donate money. Also, they serve delicious lunch/prasad on Sundays!
But I just don't get the concept of Swamijis. I find it really odd when humans start behaving like they are Gods. I feel that these Swamijis are not immune to human frailties. Given the favorable conditions, their weaknesses probably are subdued; for the same reason why a normal person wouldn't feel compelled to steal a loaf of bread. On one side, they keep implying that they are merely mortal God's dogs. At the same time, when people treat them like deities, they don't seem to object too much.
In India, a decent number of sanyasis don't seem to care about their chassis (bodies), let their beard and hair grow wildly, while they are working on cleaning their engine (i.e., purifying heart). I mean, I came across a few people who were living way more modestly when compared to the means available to them.
In few swamijis I came across in the US (not sure if this is a representative sample), I failed to notice any signs of renunciation. They maintain well-manicured beards, wear expensive silk garments, and allow gold rings to adorn their fingers. It is like sticking to diet coke (i.e., preaching) while consuming cheese cake and pizza as staple diet (i.e., practice)!
Anyway, like our good friend Harini rightly says (and I agree with), the bottom line is, they are helping the the poor and speaking kind words, and we should respect them for that.
2 comments:
what about the other two articles on barsana dham that were printed over the weedend in the statesman?
That is something. I didn't see the Sunday news paper and all that uproar about funding for the temple, when I wrote this post. Generally, news about temples is short and sweet. But now, I feel like the whole weekend was about this temple. Someone is doing some serious digging into the cupboards.
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