Topic started by pradeep (@ 207.177.73.98) on Tue Oct 1 18:12:02 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

One of my friend sent me this site containing pictures by NASA of the bridge bulit by Lord RAMA.
http://www.indolink.com/Religion/r091702-130924.php

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Srini (@ 210-210-40-85.lan.sify.net) on: Sat Oct 12 05:56:34
  
  Dear Parasakthi:
  Thanks for your understanding and the elaborate reply. I do believe when you say that the stakes have been raised. Yes, it has been raised, else we wouldn't have witnessed a carnage in Gujarat after 50 years of nation building. I agree. And remedial measures are, of course needed. And I am not blaming you for the apparent impatience, I am just requesting to avoid visible slur. After all, is civility not an accompanying instrument of rationality.
  
  You must have noticed the way the Swami Narayan temple priests behaved after the terrorist imbroglio. All is not lost, Parasakthi. Majority of Hindus still believe in sanity and peaceful ambience with occassional aberrations, and this includes all types of Hindus - theists, agnostics, atheists, believers in Ram, believers in Murugan and everyone. Two wrongs still do not make a thing right. It will only widen the chasm and sow distrust.
  
  I had read a little about Voltaire and Rousseau, Neitzsche et al, but didn't know much. Thanks for correcting.
  
  And as regards pornography etc. I would say that you could be caught on the wrong wicket if your abhorrence of Ramayana or Mahabharata is shown on account of it. Ramayana may have, say one ill in showing the way Vali was slain by questionable means, but just immediately you find a unbelievably good thing of widow remarrriage in that of Tara. And the best part is Ramayana did no feel like hiding either, and our 21st cenury perceptions cannot be applied on issues like morality, pornography etc. of those works. Even today, there are matriarchical tribes in India which allow a boy and a girl to mate and live for a while, before deciding to get married. Would you like to call that a permissive/promiscuous society. We would rather prefer to call it a liberal and democratic one, because our 21st century value systems are the ones that matter to us.
  
  Please don't think I am being a selective defender of Ramayana or Mahabharata for the sake of it. I am not even one, who would disown Uttara Khandam for it contains an incident that's totally unacceptable to our eyes now. I keep arguing with even those who write similar things from Old testament or Quran.
  
  Besides, Parasakthi, we can no longer afford to estrange people based on whether they believe in Rama or Rameshwaram. It's high time we close our ranks and that's an easier way for Cauvery. While an objective discussion on such topics as NASA bridge leaves none disgusted, a frontal attack on religious beliefs will leave us all more fractured amongst ourselves. We have a lot to do and I just keep arguing with either side to kindly tone down the 70 year old acrimony and distrust. Nothing else, Parasakthi. Thanks.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Nambi (@ cache-cro-hsi.cableinet.co.uk) on: Sat Oct 12 06:22:15
  
  What is Uttara Khandam?
  
  
• From: Sugrutha (@ bgp450202bgs.avenel01.nj.comcast.net) on: Sat Oct 12 13:58:00
  
  Parasakthi and Srini,
  
  Thank you both very much for the last 2 delightful posts. Just what sane and studied discussions should be.
  
  It is true that we would find all sorts 'kinky' stuff in all the religious texts - Vedas, Old Testament, Hadiths - as well as in the epics - Ramayana, Ulysses, Mahabharatha etc. 'Kinky', especially when compared against the later day medeival morality. Attempting to push such stuff under the carpet or providing far-fetching explanations put the credibility of the entire texts at stake.
  
  Please read Amberish Diwanji's issue with Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Interesting.
  
  "To end conversions, one has to end casteism and all caste consciousness. Why can't a Hindu simply be referred to as a Hindu? Why do we need to mention the caste? The Ramayana and Mahabharata are replete with mention of caste, especially while referring to the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes. This exists even in modern times. So
  many of our stories written in the 19th and 20th century use the sentence: "He was a poor, Brahmin boy," or, "He came from a Brahmin family", even if the reference to caste has little meaning to the story. Whatever for? Can't we have new versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata that simply do not mention caste, which, anyway, is
  profession derived, so how can you be born into a caste?"
  
  http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/oct/11akd.htm
  
  As Srini said, much of the medeival morality does not apply to many tribals who isolated themselves away from such societies. Talking of the so called 'modern, liberated' women among the urban elites, Kancha Ilaiah calls it Dalitisation process rather than Westernisation process.
  
  http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20020405&fname=kancha&sid=1
  
  (But of course I would not give some of these socialites such a high status, that is, that of a Dalit woman. Many of these elites have their own narrow-mindedness on other issues and are pretty judgemental about others.)
  
  
• From: Milton (@ palo8.pacific.net.sg) on: Mon Oct 14 12:45:57
  
  Related Article
  http://www.thinnai.com/pl1013022.html
  
  
• From: Surya (@ adsl-64-166-143-81.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net) on: Tue Jun 29 20:59:16
  
  Here are pics of the ramayana bridge. This clearly shows that Ramayana really happened!!!
  
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/adamsbridge.html
  
  An excerpt from the site.
  
  This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).
  In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme.
  
  
• From: Surya (@ adsl-64-166-143-81.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net) on: Wed Jul 7 22:05:15 EDT 2004
  
  Here are pics of the ramayana bridge. This clearly shows that Ramayana really happened!!!
  
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~lkawgw/adamsbridge.html
  
  An excerpt from the site.
  
  This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).
  In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme.
  
  
• From: prashanth (@ ppp55-179.dsl-hyd.eth.net) on: Thu Sep 16 07:56:40
  
  goo collection
  
  

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