Poverty

[pslvax!sadhu at UCSD.EDU]

| Sadhunathan ever been to India?  That's a genuine question.

	yes, i have.

	the first time i saw calcutta, the extent of the poverty there
	was a major shock.  it is an experience i will never forget.  i
	had not imagined such suffering could exist on our fair earth.
	i dont mean to romanticize all of it. 

	on the other hand, i have also seen smiling beggars on the
	temple steps in rishikesh or palani hills with the light of
	love in their eye.  that such people exist can be mentioned,
	can it not?

| 
| Beggars are poor because they don't have any money.  To argue otherwise
| is to use terms metaphorically.  

	the point of the editorial post was: one can have money and
	still be poor with respect to other things, such as,
	compassion; one can be without money and still wealthy with
	dignity, love, joi de vivre and other non monetary values.  i
	never said beggars are not financially poor.  nor did i claim
	they are all spiritually rich.  i only point out that some are,
	and that this is a fact worthy of consideration.

	oh, but why am i even writing this??  i have no to wish to
	debate these points, and yet, that is what i find myself
	doing.  so sorry.

| It is another fact of Sanskrit, Tamil and other classical Indian
| literature that poverty is rarely, if ever, glamorized or treated as
| metaphor, in the manner in which Sadhunathan has done.  

i humbly bow to  your observations, which are correct.

om shanti,
sadhu