[INDOLOGY] Tagore, Aurobindo, and Malhotra

Dean Michael Anderson eastwestcultural at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 31 10:58:36 UTC 2015


>The edifice of academic endeavour at least since Nalanda and later the Enlightenement can be viewed as an evolving machine 
>by which humans change each others minds in a graceful manner.  If someone won't participate, or doesn't know how to, then 
>they are at a huge disadvantage.  I'm afraid that's where Malhotra is.
One small point: I would say this changing of minds goes back much earlier, at least to the time of the early Upanishads like the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, which is ascribed to the philosopher Yajnavalkya. Funnily enough, Yajnavalkya wins all the debates described there. 

But we can be sure that some of the debates were won by the defenders of other doctrines, which have not been passed down to us, such as those described as past Buddhas and Tirthankaras. I am assuming historicity here to make a point.

But I agree with you about your criticisms concerning the unreliability of Malhotra. This is brought home to me most powerfully by Malhotra's criticism of Anantanand Rambachan. I am not an expert on the teachings of Swami Dayananda, but it seems to me that Anantanand Rambachan is only accurately representing the teachings of his guru who is considered by many staunch traditionalists to be the greatest living teacher of Advaita Vedanta. I cannot understand how Malhotra can criticize him in the name of defending tradition, just as I am not aware of Malhotra having any significant credentials in this area either from traditional teachers or scholarly Indology. Rambachan has both. This is not necessarily to defend Rambachan, who I do not know, just to point out that he is qualified in both traditions.

Regardless of the validity of some of his criticisms, Malhotra's unreliability  and his combative nature is damaging his ability to accomplish the goals he has set out.

Rambachan does a good job of refuting Malhotra's claims. Someone else has already posted it, but I am posting the link again since it is the best detailed rebuttal I have seen.

http://swarajyamag.com/culture/untangling-the-false-knots-in-rajiv-malhotras-indras-net/3/#sdendnote44sym

Best,

Dean




On Jul 31, 2015, at 7:43 AM, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Howard,

Through all of this, I haven't felt the slightest twinge of rage.  

I consider Malhotra to be the one mainly manifesting emotions like that, and that's a big part of the problem.  What I enjoy and what I think helps, is quiet, slow, thoughtful discussion.  That's what's so disappointing about Malhotra.  It's impossible to have a reasonable exchange with him.  He raises some worthwhile points, and many points that could be rather easily proven to be untenable.  But he provides no space for rational discussion and changing of minds.

The edifice of academic endeavour at least since Nalanda and later the Enlightenement can be viewed as an evolving machine by which humans change each others minds in a graceful manner.  If someone won't participate, or doesn't know how to, then they are at a huge disadvantage.  I'm afraid that's where Malhotra is.

Best,
Dominik




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