SV: reviews and comments (Freud, Vishnu, Kali, Indus Samskrut)

[Swami Tyagananda]

At 04:03 PM 3/20/01 +0100, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:
>I would like to point out, that although the contents of the book may be
>offensive to many Hindus, it is only fair to say that critique of
>Christianity by many secularized people (agnostics/atheists) in the West is
>just as, or even more, offensive. Thus Hindus should not feel that they are
>being treated differently from others.

This is quite true and I fully support this statement.

> They are just facing the brunt of
>free speech in a society that values free speech higher than religion (one
>of the reasons why the Rushdie affair had such devastating consequences in
>many places and brought Muslims into such disrepute. The fact that the book
>was insensitive to Muslim beliefs is of no consequence to the Western
>person, who simply believes that people shouldn't be too sensitive about
>their views and beliefs).

Here I would like to add that it is not always a matter of only
sensitivity/insensitivity. Just as often there are issues of misrepresentation
and distortion (including mistranslation and misdocumentation as I discovered
in my study of Kripal's book Kali's Child).

Swami Tyagananda
Vedanta Society, Boston