American Indologist and scholar of Hinduism Wendy Doniger commented on the Gita, “The Bhagavad Gîtâ is not as nice a book as some Americans think. Throughout the Mahâbhârata … Krishna goads human beings into all sorts of murderous and self-destructive behaviours such as war…. The Gîtâ is a dishonest book; it justifies war. ..I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in ‘good’ wars.”
It is a common strategy of many Christian missionaries, secular scholars and pseudo ,mystic new age writers today to become a part of the Hindu crowd, read a few of their scriptures, distort them out of context or induce some non-scriptural and imaginative terms, highlight them as “scriptural” and then demean the scriptures.
They exploit the tolerance of the Hindus, the acceptance that they show to the world and respect to all the cultures and traditions and then sow in their minds, the seeds of hatred via divide and rule. Wendy Doniger, as it is clear, has not read the Mahabharata where the Kauravas harass the Pandavas since their childhood. In one instance, Duryodhan offered a poisoned sweet-dish to Bhima. Other cases include burning of Pandavas’ shelter, physically abusing Draupadi who was the Princess of the Hastinapur and initiate ‘adharmic’ ways to fight in the battlefield, e.g Killing Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu. Mahabharat not only teaches how families can face destruction over material wealth but also how brothers can turn into enemies and how an entire society gets destroyed when women are not respected. In many parts of the society, killing in self-defence is not a crime.
The divine song, i.e the Bhagavad-Gita teaches how one needs to detach himself of his feelings and emotions to see the truth and Krishna only advocates to fight for “Dharma”. Having explained the universal truth, in verse 6.36, 18.6, 18.63, he tells Arjun to do as he wishes. Thus, when Wendy Donger says that “Gita is dishonest book, it justifies war”, she clearly presents her lack of comprehension or willingness to read further. Mahabharat was not a “good war”, but a “dharmic one” and dharma may not be good for a dharmic person everytime.
A police inspector may find it hard to arrest his own son. In every family, parents teach their son to protect his sister. In every nation, the soldiers are taught to protect their country and do their duty irrespective of who the enemy is. If Wendy Doniger’s words are taken seriously, then a brother protecting his sister or a soldier protecting his country would be engaging in “dishonesty”. Wendy Doniger, with her limited frame of understanding, clearly fails to recognize the difference between “good and dharmic”.
The language of the pseudo-intellectuals on the surface is truth, knowledge and objectivity, but beneath one can observe over the time as to how cleverly they manipulate their subjects, instil inferiority complexes, psychological slavery, abuse the Hindu literature and hate for those who do not follow their own biased worldviews.
In India, the mainstream Gurus support and respect each other. They promote the Indian culture, Vedic wisdom and Yoga but do not hold any personal grudges or abuse each other. Recently, when Baba Ramdev was hospitalised, Sri Sri Ravishankar and many other gurus went to see him and wished him speedy recovery. The Hindu Gurus like Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar etc. have not only opened drinking water facilities for the people, but also treatment centres where Indians can be cured for free. On the contrary, the missionaries and proponents of other cults who project themselves as experts on the Hindu scriptures can be often found abusing the Hindu gurus, weaving their own fantasy bubbles and subsequently writing in demeaning and delusional ways about Hinduism.
So called scholar Robert E. Wilkinson, in his cleverly deceptive blog ‘Movement for the Restoration of Vedic Wisdom’, seems to demonstrate in his persistent string of attacks on individuals and groups promoting Hinduism, that he and his group rather are the only people who understand Sri Aurobindo and Sanatan Dharma and that most others are opposing the rise of India and Dharma.
There is no information on any Vedic literature in this blog and there is absolutely no authentic Vedic wisdom. Majority of his articles constitute a battery of assaults on Lord Buddha, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Deepak Chopra, David Frawley, the Auroville/Aurobindo organization, etc. By distorting the meaning of ‘Avatar’ to fit his own agenda, he further glorifies “Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet” as the chosen avatar to redeem Hinduism, who has in fact been questioned on such claims by the Hindu society and the Aurobindo organization at large.
He often presents a smokescreen of fancy terminologies ripped off from Aurobindo’s works and some exotic, magic formula of numbers 3, 6 and 9 and tries to use that to prove that Aurobindo, Mother and Thea (the other name of Patrizia Norelli-his guru) are all connected avatars. Through all his contrived theories and by distorting Aurobindo’s quotes he tries to prove that Patrizia Norelli is not only an evolved yogic-seer but also the chosen avatar who seems to have descended on earth with the special mission of saving Sanatan Dharma. He further reiterates that all his theories are confirmed by verses from Rig Veda and other Hindu scriptures and keeps quoting from them to make his theories look intelligent. He states -
“Since the manifestation of the Avatars is determined by their inherent association with the Time-Spirit, their three-staged descent upon the earth occurs within an exquisite Geometry of Time that cannot possibly be concocted. It can only be arranged by the Supermind and thus becomes the basis of their objective cosmic credentials. One of the most fascinating examples of this Supramental formula, which may be found in the original Temple architecture, is the way it appears in the dates of births of the members of the Solar Line. As revealed below, these numbers appear in the exact order of the actual descent.
Sri Aurobindo was born in 1872: 1+8+7+2 = 18 = 9
The Mother was born in 1878 1+8+7+8 =24 = 6
Thea, ???, was born in 1938: 1+9+3+8 = 21 = 3
We could go on and on with these objective proofs. The 3, 9, and 6, have a correspondence with the Gunas: Rajas, Sattva and Tamas or as they are known in cosmological terms, Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. These energy flows are also expressed as the Speaker, the Voice and the Word. Notably, each member of the Solar Line was born in the sign of one of the Three Gunas: Sri Aurobindo, a Leo – Fixed Guna, the Mother, a Pisces – a Mutable Guna, and the Third, a Capricorn, a Cardinal Guna. We even see these numbers expressed in their names: Aurobindo has 9 letters, Mother has 6, and ??? (Thea) as it is properly written has 3.”
Mr. Wilkinson doesn’t understand that it is the Puranas which speak about the avatars and not the Vedas. Vedas do not consist of stories, prophetic messages or premonitions, but pure scientific and philosophical concepts which are metaphorically personified as cryptic riddles. He also presents his ignorance and amusing imagination when he adds the numbers in the date of births of Aurobindo, The Mother and Thea, forgetting that the years in the dates are “relative” to the Christian calendar which assumes the world was created in 4004 B.C and hence is not Vedic. Thus, again we see a shining instance where new-age cults interpret something imaginative, calling it Vedic that too by superimposing on it an Abrahamic framework.
Ignorance alone blinds the pseudo intellectuals to understand why christians celebrate christmas on 25th December only and why Hindus celebrate Diwali, Holi etc on different dates every year. Sathya Sai Baba died at 85 solar years. If it is mapped to lunar years, it becomes “96 years”.
Patrizia Norelli, the teacher of Mr.Wilkinson, in her defence on why she is being rejected and opposed by everyone and why she is not being accepted as the “third” in the solar line of avatars claims:
“In every Age of Vishnu the hostile force that must be dealt with will always be an agent of the status quo since every appearance of Vishnu’s emanations introduces a new level of consciousness and a progress up the ladder of evolution. Thus, it necessarily stands that the third ‘integer’ and its representative will be the most combated, because without that Third there is no dynamism… Supermind carries the process to greater heights by updating the Line of Ten Avatars in that today’s applications are far more precise and verifiable. Thus the incarnated members of the Solar Line, by their birthdates and hence the zodiacal signs in which they were born, present us with both the number-powers of the Avatar’s Formula as well as the three gunas, rajas-Capricorn (3), sattwa-Leo (9), tamas-Pisces (6). Note that Rajas-3’s elimination is imperative when the objective is to cling to the dual power-base. As such, the renewing thrust of Rajas is entirely missing, resulting necessarily in stagnation. We may thereby state that the simplest way to recognise asuric forces in the Ages of Vishnu is when they are seen to channel their energies to the elimination of the Third at all costs.
Once the three are involved through actual births (otherwise how could the Formula become operational?) to truly make this 9th/10th manifestation of Vishnu different from all his other appearances in previous Ages, a fourth element is demanded. This fourth stage is where time and space become integrated; it is the mysterious ‘conquest’ of the Aryan Warrior in the Rig Veda, the formula of which is revealed in the text.”
One who understands the difference between the Shrutis and Smritis, the Vedas and the Puranas, would understand how Patrizia Norelli has distorted the Vedic teachings to some future predictions to satisfy her obsession with cosmological events and with her inflated ego of being “third” in the solar line which she confirms by her own concocted theories. She reduces Vedic terminologies and the three Gunas, i.e Rajas, Tamas and Sattwa, to some trite formula. She talks about a “new level of consciousness” but fails to understand that the Vishnu avatars arrive only for reviving Sanatan Dharma and the spirit of the Veda and not for self-glorification, for self-broadcast or for name and fame. They come for the upliftment of humanity and not to identify some absurd formulae to predict the nature of the inconceivable Brahman.
The people in Satyuga were known to have an impeccable memory, superlative thinking power, mental capacity, intuitive and intellectual in nature with objectivity to see the truth. Whereas, in Kaliyuga, people are known to have deteriorating powers of discrimination and poor memory that abounds in intellectual stagnation, inability to understand simple concepts and unwillingness to read or comprehend.
Moreover the cult of Patrizia Norelli and her followers are more dangerous to the Hindu society than anti-hindu fundamentalists as they parade the elite intellectual arena as accomplished scholars who have come to teach us Hindu wisdom, when in fact and undercover they hijack Hindu literature, distort it, create their own new-age theories and then promote themselves as evolved seers and avatars.
Moreover, when they are not accepted by the mainstream intelligentsia either as worthy scholars or as avatars, they launch bitter and hostile attacks on all individuals and groups who have been well accepted as proponents of Hinduism. Is this how one would expect objective scholars or avatars to behave? The work of an avatar in every age is to take Sanatan Dharma to higher levels and an avatar never fails. If miss Patrizia Norelli was an avatar or third descendent of the solar line, would she be more concerned about spreading Vedic knowledge or more interested in promoting herself as an evolved seer? Vedic seers from the ancient history of India were never interested in broadcasting themselves as special entities, let alone making themselves known.
Their whole life was a selfless dedication to Sanatan Dharma. But what we have today are self-obsessed and self-styled seers such as Patrizia Norelli and her parasitical devotees who suffer from heightened narcissism and attention seeking. When they don’t get the acknowledgement or attention that they desperately seek they spiral into fanatical attacks of other well-respected individuals and groups. Such fascism and extremism can never be expected of avatars or seers of an evolved consciousness.
One can see how the English-educated fraternity and missionary cults that consider themselves superior to Indic teachers and Indigenous gurus of India, use the vedic wisdom and the Hindu practices to make monetary profits at the expense of Hinduism by demeaning the Hindu Gurus, distorting the Vedas and not giving proper credit where it is due.
Today, many Christian missionaries in disguise of promoting Vedic Wisdom make monetary profits at the expense of Hinduism by demeaning Hindu Gurus and promoting their own agendas. In the west today, the yoga practices are termed as “New Age” practices by those who can’t see or don’t want to see Yoga’s integral connection with Hinduism. New terms like “Christian Yoga” have evolved and many percieve Yoga as just a physical exercise. Yoga, which is a Sanskrit term, refers to the mental and physical unification i.e silencing of the mind and control of the physical body, raising of one’s individual consciousness to unite with the supreme consciousness which is denoted as Brahman.
Such a practice also involves questioning one’s own beliefs through a philosophical enquiry, objective in approach or detachment i.e Jnana Yoga. But in Abrahamic religions any spirit of questioning is suppressed and one has to blindly believe in a male-centric god with a particular name as given in the “book” who has set for humanity a set of DOs and DONTs. Therefore, the terms like Christian Yoga are nothing but mere oxymorons.