All:
I usually delete the poetry msgs. It has become so frequent and dominant that I considered unsubscribing this morning, which is sad, since this is supposed to be a scholarly list serve. Please post poetry (albeit skilled) and nonsense neo-Vedanta preaching for other lists and contexts, that Indology members can create on their own. Can the Indology admins please step in and make executive decisions about this before Indology becomes RISA-L?

sincerely secular and skeptical,

Deepak



Dr. Deepak Sarma

deepaksarma.com


Professor of Religious Studies

Professor of Bioethics (secondary appointment)
School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University 

 
Curatorial Consultant, Department of Asian Art
Cleveland Museum of Art

Mailing Address:
Department of Religious Studies
Tomlinson Hall
2121 MLK Jr. Drive
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106-7112

office: 216-368-4790
deepak.sarma@case.edu






On May 1, 2020, at 2:08 PM, Camillo Formigatti via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Jeffery, 

As I wrote, I reflect every single day about the fragility of our lives also because of what we study and research. Nevertheless, I object to the definition to distraction, not to the stanzas themselves. They are not a distraction, on the contrary. Moreover, I share Arlo's opinion and I cannot easily navigate the list as before due to the excessive number of messages on this topic - even if I skip them, it's still a nuisance.

Finally, with the precise intention of sounding preachy, I do not see anybody on this list writing poetry about countless other life-threatening situations in the world, such as for instance the terrible death toll of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea and drowning horribly before reaching the shores of Southern Italy or Greece. Since I read every single day both Italian and British newspapers, my father lives alone in Lombardy (the epicentre of the epidemic in Italy) and we live in the UK, two of the most affected areas in the world, I don't share the need to read again on this list about the coronavirus in any form. I confess that the daily bulletin of deaths I follow daily on the worldometer website is enough for me. 

Best wishes, 

Camillo 

Sent from my Xperia by Sony smartphone


---- Jeffery Long wrote ----

Dear Colleagues,

I am sympathetic to the perspective of those who have been disturbed by the Sanskrit poems, though I have personally enjoyed them and have asked to be added to Madhav's new list.

At the risk of sounding preachy, I just want to note that many of the Indic traditions that those of us on this list study point out precisely the importance of reflecting on the fragility of our (material) existence.  Only for those who are interested, I am sharing some reflections in this regard, by Swami Tyagananda, of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston:



Shared in a spirit of helpfulness and solidarity,

Jeff

Dr. Jeffery D. Long
Professor of Religion and Asian Studies
Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown, PA

https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLong

Series Editor, Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical
Lexington Books

"One who makes a habit of prayer and meditation will easily overcome all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials of life."  (Holy Mother Sarada Devi)

"We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself." (Carl Sagan)



On Friday, May 1, 2020, 12:26:02 PM EDT, Camillo Formigatti via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:


Dear Herman,

I hesitated to write a similar message until now, but I cannot hold myself any longer. I found the Sanskrit poems about the coronavirus disturbing from the very start and to me they were not a distraction, they represented rather the contrary. They were always a reminder of the fragility of our lives and in this incredibly sad moment, this is even more in my mind than ever. I haven't read a single one fully and I don't plan to read any in the future, regardless how refined their language might be. I just don't want to read them.

Best wishes,

Camillo

From: Tieken, H.J.H. <H.J.H.Tieken@hum.leidenuniv.nl>
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 8:14 AM
To: indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] corona deaths
 

Dear List members,
At the risk of being a spoilsport, personally I do not find the "a distraction from the Coronavirus" mails, in which we try to outdo one another like poets in a kavisamāja, appropriate any longer, now that colleagues are actually dying of the virus.
Herman


Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127
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