This came to me from a friend...not the writer...and I am posting it on his behalf. I have not read it as yet. Will comment when I do so....just a warning....I on freddi's side!!!
Kissoon on Aksharananda, Indians and Hinduism; Vote May25
Normally, I ignore Freddie Kissoon but on this occasion, I choose to rejoin – as my svadharmic duty (natural inclination) - because of his calculated specious and denigrating attacks on the highly respected educator and Hindu spiritual leader, Swami Aksharananda, his racist attacks on Indians and, thirdly, his vilification of Hinduism - for political gain of the APNU(PNC)-AFC bedfellows ( KNews: Apr 30/15 Swami Aksharananda and the concept of my Jehovah Witness friend; and May 4/15 Aksharananda writes a second letter in support of the PPP)
In reality, taking a page from his apparent mentor, Dr. Kean Gibson, his attacks are really aimed at Hindus as will be seen below. To let these sometimes inane but mostly methodically mischievous attacks go uncontested will only add to the burden that Indians (read Hindus) face from a plethora of well-financed neo-colonial academic and Abrahamic religious and pseudo-secularist groups (See: Invading the Sacred – An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America) .
Kissoon has laced his derogatory diatribes with the likes of the following. Re. Swami Aksharananda: ’The Devil tries to defeat God by assuming different roles like preachers; racist, narrow-minded, dishonest; [his] poisonous condemnation of…; Aksharananda’s …dishonest portrait of …; I have lost all respect for him…never see him as a true religious figure; When Aksharananda (his real name is Oudaipaul Singh; the Swami title is a self-imposed one) points to Walter Rodney and leaves out Waddell and Crum-Ewing, his caste mentality was at work. Waddell and Crum-Ewing are Africans. They were victims of an Indian Government. In the caste system, Africans are put on the lower rung of the civilization scheme; attacks on my life don’t matter to the so-called Swami because like Waddell and Crum-Ewing, I am dark-skinned. In the caste system, an Indian like me would be just next to Africans. I think it is called Chamar’; His arguments are so scheming; his racist demagoguery…; Aksharananda is bordering on wickedness and maliciousness…; Indian supremacist propaganda of Ravi Dev and Aksharananda; Re Indians (vs. Africans): admirable philosophical reasons for Africans to vote for Hoyte in 1992 [vs. Indians] stuck with the PPP and that was a primitive choice; African Guyanese have shown a deep moral revulsion to authoritarian rule in Guyana that Indian people have refused to emulate.
Here, Kissoon portrays Africans as reasoned moral and admirable citizens; whereas Indians are “primitive”- atavistic, reaching back to prehistory ancestors. The implication is simple: Indians are uncivilized and so are not ready for prime-time in government.
Re. Swami Ashkarananda,
Kissoon displays his illiteracy of who is, or how one becomes a ‘swami’. So, here, from a respected internet portal for his edification, are the characteristics of a ‘swami’:
The word swami means master; it means striving for the mastery over one's smaller self [mind and ego] and habit patterns, so that the eternal Self [universal Spirit or Soul] within may come shining through. The act of becoming a swami is not so much an acting of becoming, of adding on, of allegiance, as it is an act of setting aside, of renunciation. A swami is a monk, one who has set aside all of the limited, worldly pursuits, so as to devote full time effort to the direct experience of the highest spiritual realization, and to the service of others along those lines…Traditionally renunciation is the fourth of four stages of life, although one who feels the call might renounce and become a swami at any stage of life. http://www.swamij.com/what-is-a-swami.htm . As this portal also points out, Pandit Usharbudh Arya, who was in Guyana in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, is now “Swami Veda Bharati”.
This Jan 28/08 SN Letter shows that “Swami Aksharanda has an MA in Sanskrit from Banaras Hindu University and PhD in Hindu Studies from the University of Madison, Wisconsin” and has been “honored for his work in the areas of education and social service in Guyana” in Mumbai India. Were he not a legitimate Swami why would the organization go ahead with the ceremony of recognition? Fuhttp://www.stabroeknews.com/20...a-honored-in-mumbai/
For Kissoon’s further edification, Aksharanada is made up of two words: Akshara (imperishable, indestructible, fixed, immutable, eternal) and Ananda (Bliss, Pure Joy, as in the Godhead). Briefly, ‘Akshara’ can refer to Sanskrit sounds, which are considered eternal – hence the power of “Om” – as well as, to God. The Sanskrit/Hindi alphabet, based on discrete sounds (phonemes), are called ‘aksharas’. Because of this, I am willing to wager that Swami was given or adopted his name because of his deep commitment to education. Kissoon is advised to read here to improve his literacy on the subject. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksara. ‘Ananda’ is a common suffix for swamis, as is for the average Hindu. It reflects the unique ‘quality’ of the Godhead. Kissoon needs to understand that properly chosen (aside from astronomical/astrological significance) Hindu names may either reflect the achievement of, or given as motivation for, the individual to live up to her or his name. Furthermore, qualified individuals may either be initiated as a swami or may adopt the title if s/he doesn’t subscribe to any religious order. Comparably, Kissoon should ask Pope Francis why he no longer uses his birth name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Or, why the King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej’s official title isRama IX of the Chakri Dynasty (Yes! Rama as in Rama and Sita of the Hindu epic, Ramayana; and Chakri = Sanskrit Chakra as in Yoga, etc).
Re Hinduism:
Kissoon: ‘One has to go back to ancient Hindu scripts and what those documents say about dark-skinned people, Africans and the framework of the caste system’. Would Kissoon refer to the Bible or Koran as “scripts” or is it just Hindu sacred texts worthy of the belittling ‘scripts?
Caste issue
Upfront, the word ‘Caste’ is an European export to India. It is derived from the Portuguese word ‘casta’ meaning race or lineage. Clearly then, Europe had/has a caste system based on ‘lineage and birth’ - as in the Feudal system. On the other hand, the original Hindu system of Varna is quite different. Varna is derived from the Sanskrit root vror vri meaning to count, classify, consider, describe or choose. For example, each letter of the alphabet is a varna (classification as to sound); so, the whole Sanskrit/Hindi alphabet is referred to as varna-mala – a collection or string of unique sound elements. Furthermore, the roots ‘r’ and ‘rn’ mean ‘enjoyment, pleasure, etc.’ Therefore, varna signifies “accepting with pleasure after elaborate consideration”. So, varna means a classification based on free choice unlike the exported European caste system, which is birth- and lineage-based.
In the Bhagavad Gita IV:13, Lord Krishna reiterates the prescribed varna system (which classification was originally revealed to sages in the Rig Veda, Pususha Sukta hymn X,90:1). “Caturvarnyam maya srstam gunakarmavibhagasah” ; translation: “The fourfold order was created by Me [Krishna as the supreme Godhead] according to the gunas - divisions of quality - and works”. Dr. S. Radhakrisnan (2nd President of India) explained: “the emphasis is on guna (aptitude) and karma (function) and not jati (birth). The varna or order to which we belong is independent of sex, birth or breeding [and colour]. A class determined by temperament and vocation is not a caste determined by birth or heredity.” ‘According to the great Indian epic Mahabharata (MB), the whole world was originally of one class, but later it became divided into four on account of the tendencies and occupational specializations of man. Even the distinctions between castes [varnas] and outcaste is artificial and unspiritual…In the MB, [the most ethical protagonist] Yudhisthira says that it is difficult to find out the caste [varna] of persons on account of the mixture of castes [varnas]…So, conduct is the only determining feature of caste [varna] according to the sages.’ As far back as 5,000 years ago, Yudhisthira was saying Indian society was not as stratified as the ‘caste system’ which the British would later, in the 19th century, rigidly codify via the censuses. I will reveal more on this when I dissect and expose the also shallow pronouncements of the coconut academic, Prof. Clem Seecharan, in his 2014 speech: ‘The Eldorado Complex in the Shaping of Indo-Guyanese: A Revisionist Perspective’. (I have already done a similar dissection of Dr. Kean Gibson’s unscholarly works on Guyanese Hindus, and Hinduism in general, in my 2009 book ‘Under Attack! The Caribbean Indian - Rebutting & Educating UWI’s Kean Gibson for Vilifying Hindus’. Mr. Kissoon is urged to read it).
Of significance, if varna (which Kissoon mislabels as caste) meant “colour”, how does one reconcile Lord Krishna’s dark complexion with his nobility (Kshatriya) varna to which he belonged? (Krishna = black, dark blue – See Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit dictionary). How can Lord Krishna, as the incarnate God, be saying he created the four varnas, but implicitly assigning his human self to the lowest “dark” rung, because of his colour? The incongruity exposes Mr Kissoon’s illiteracy of the Hindu system. Similarly, Lord Rama and Lord Shiva are all depicted as dark or dark blue. As with these deities, Swami Ashkaranada is dark, so when Kissoon criticizes him saying “his caste mentality was at work”, Kissoon is logic-challenged!
While Kissoon castigates Hindu texts as racist and minimizes as mere “scripts”, Physics Prof. Brian Cox, in an episode of his science series, Human Universe, declares that the Rig Veda’s Nasadiya Sukta hymn (X:129) displays “real intellectual rigour and honesty…[suggestive of] beginnings of the scientific approach” on the origins of the universe. (See 9-minute mark) http://tvo.org/video/211402/why-are-we-here
If the Hindu text were anti-Black why would Ms. Sharon Westmaas, of mixed heritage, dote on the Hindu epic Mahabharata (MB) which contains the Bhagavad Gita? She has taken her love for the Hindu epic so far as to write her own version as a novel – Sons of Gods - ‘as a labour of love, for her own satisfaction …the “secret baby” she had been nourishing for over 30 years’. https://guyaneseonline.wordpre...-by-sharon-westmaas/
Another well-known Black actress, of The Cosby Show, Phylicia Rashad is Hindu at least since 1980. Hinduism Today mag. quotes her: "I always thought I was born in the wrong place. When I visited India for the first time in 1984, I felt perfectly at home. The surroundings seemed to whisper, 'Do you remember?"' http://www.hinduismtoday.com/m.../item.php?itemid=741
So, how do these women reconcile their African or mixed heritage with Hinduism if it promoted oppressive anti-Black caste prejudices?
On the matter of relegation of African people to low social status, Kissoon methodically sidesteps (assuming he is informed on the subject) the Biblical Hamitic Curse invoked by followers of the Abrahamic religions to justify trading in trans-Atlantic African slavery. This Rastafarian article explains: “Before the late 18th century, the idea of a Negro Hamite was fully accepted. Even the Catholic Church used it as a justification for slavery and it became part of religious canon in the Papal Bull, Romanum Pontiflex as early as 1455 to grant…rights to begin trading in Africans.” http://www.rastafarispeaks.com...e=article&sid=90
Kissoon’s championing of the late Ronald Waddell only reveals his disdain, nay, hate for his Indian brethren. Eusi Kwayana in his ‘Morning After’, pp31-2 writes that Waddell “proclaimed East Indians to be ‘economic migrants’ rather than persons qualified for citizenship, and who therefore should have no share in the government of Guyana. Africans and Amerindians should be the dominant political forces…in the Salvation State to be established after what he called ‘the revolution’”. Kwayana named Waddell ‘one of two known Masterminds’. The other was Mark Benschop (there were unnamed others) of an impending coup d’etat against the PPP/C government. He also reveals that Waddell was a PNC candidate in 2001 who called for boycott of businesses of PPP supporters; and urged those ‘Indians who did not support the PPP to report to the PNC headquarters for protection’- which was seen by Kwayana and the WPA as a crude threat reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide. “Waddell never cleared up any doubts of his call”. So, this is the Waddell for whom Kissoon sheds a tear and excoriates Swami for not expressing empathy over his death (only for Rodney).
‘Vote May 25’
For Indians, especially the victims and their families, May 25 & 26, 1964 were days of ethnic cleansing – murder, horrendous rape, extreme pain, anguish and psychological shock. For the PNC which negotiated May 25 (1966) as Guyana’s Independence Day, the choice of May 25 was a clearly case of triumphalism. So, when all right thinking Guyanese go to the polls on May 11 they ought to “Vote MAY 25”.
Yours faithfully,
Veda Nath Mohabir