SV: Vicious Debate

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

I agree completely with Sri Subrahmanya about his observations about
Swami Vivekananda. To call Swami Vivekananda a racist taking
some select quotations from his writings without reference to the
circumstances prevailing at that time is bad and  without doubt
motivated analysis. We should not forget Swami Vivekananda was
a great admirer of American people and a number of westerners and
Americans in particular became his devotees. Some of them adopted India
as their country and did selfless service to India. If Swamiji was a
racist they would not have done that. Even when Dr.Zydenbos wrote
earlier about Swamiji I felt very bad and wanted to write, but refrained
because I put myself in his place and examined what will be my reaction
if as a christian I read those things.

regards,

sarma.

At 08:58 AM 12/3/98 -0600, S.N. subrahmanya wrote:
>In response to Dr.Zydenbos:
>As for your comments about Swami Vivekananda - I think that they
>do not even merit a response. Remember the time when Swamiji
>was writing, the late 19th century, a time when "race sciences" were the in
>thing.
>Swamiji was far ahead of his time and does not have to be defended.
>Considering
>that Swami Vivekananda was a religious reformer, compare what Swami
>Vivekananda
>wrote to what Christian missionaries were writing at that time and you can
>make
>your own judgement.
>
>Subrahmanya.