India's Revolutionary Icons who followed the paths of The Buddha

India's Revolutionary Icons who followed the paths of  The Buddha
It all began with Buddha... and these are some of the great Torch Bearer's of Buddha's Dhamma.... This Blog is a Scholarly Blog created to provide insights into the life, services and Social contributions of some of the Greatest of Indian Scholars, Humanitarians, Saints and social activists about whom the vested interests and Rotten Indian media do not write. Nor there is a State or center policies to restore and protect the stunning stories of these great men and woman...let me walk you through the greatness..!!

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Father of Nation of India Dr.Bheemarao Ambedkar

The first Law Minister of India and the Father of Indian Constitution Bheemrao Ramji Ambedkar (Dr.B.R.Ambedkar)spoke, wrote and demonstrated quite extensively and comprehensively than any other known living or dead humans of India as to how treacherous, dangerous this so called Indian hindu society and it's deadly cultures that spread discrimination and bigotry between each of thousands of heterogeneous groups. To find a way to bring them all these "heterogeneous mess of India", and to put them in single order to lead a happy, free and prosperous life, to make them behave like humans and to treat fellow humans DrAmbedkar crafted this finest of the fine Constitution that even Americans refer to it when they are in crisis. Ofcourse, Dr.Ambedkar was an American Scholar and Columbia Doctorate, he did learn lots about humanity and freedom while he was in America, but he also studied American Constitution, so a well learned scholar and genius DrAmbedkar fathered the Indian constitution in real sense, he is the Father of Modern India, while SakyaMuni Buddha was the Father of ancient and all time Father of India. Here is the dedication to the Father of India: http://fatherofnationi.blogspot.com/

Saturday, April 2, 2011

INDIA- Bans Freedom of Speech & Rights to tell the Truth to the Public

Modi the Ultimate undemocratic Politician of India bans gandhi book in Gujarat.
In the aftermath of a Wall Street Journal Book Review of a recent "gandhi" book written by the former New York Times Editor and Pulitzer Prize Winner Joseph Lelyveld, casteists Indians invaded WSJ commentary page with obnoxious and undemocratic comments made against the author of the book without even having the slightest idea that they are spewing venom against the authour who himself was a gandhian biographer who has done tremendous work on gandhi. Yet another spectacular display of Indians ignorance can be read at the commentary page on WSJ.

It is the reviewer Andrew Roberts who dissected out the book and gandhi's life, who presented several pathological life styles and failures of the great soul, or is it a great soul?. There are lots of facts about gandhi has been buried alive by Indians, especially casteist Indians as well as the state that portrays gandhi as some kind of a demi-god or the representative of the nation of India, while so many great men and woman who fought for India's freedom and nation building leaders are long forgotten and trashed by the same procrastinators of India.

Most ironic of the Indians behavior is to ban or hurt someone who give them messages, they will kill the messenger once and for all, it is the tradition of thousands of years of attitudes of Indians. As the author claims in this "Hindu Daily News", not a single person had any opportunity to even look at the Book, let alone reading it.

This is the heights of a society that every heresay can lead to ban a book, arrest a person or put an innocent in Jail, there is no law and there is no rights, ofcourse there is no freedom in India. Any time there is a book or movie or some critical analysis of hindu religious books or figures or people like gandhi, the immediate reaction of the state and the people is to Ban, Ban...Ban....the Most Undemocratic and utterly Pathological mindset never seen in any other nation, is India. Oh it is gandhi's India you see, the truth will set Free was the "mantra" gandhi used to dupe the people, actually, the Truth about gandhi is beating him so hard, several decades after his death, the truth still haunts gandhi and his procrastinators. 


UPA government not to ban book on GandhijiSmita GuptaAuthor's condemnationCondemning the idea of a ban, Mr. Lelyveld was quoted earlier this week as saying, “In a country that calls itself a democracy, it is shameful to ban a book that no one has read, including the people who are doing the banning. They should at least make an effort to see the pages that they think offend them before they take such an extreme step.”
Giving strength to the line now taken by the UPA government is the fact that intellectuals and relatives of Mahatma Gandhi have opposed a ban, saying that it would not be a “democratic response.”
The Gandhi none of us knew
by Rev. Irene Monroe
Bay Windows Contributor
Wednesday Mar 30, 2011


It has been not quite a century since Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948 at the age of 78 in New Delhi, India. The bevy of hagiographies written about him is now being replaced with truth-telling biographies about the Gandhi nobody knew.

The most recent one is titled Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld.

And according to Lelyvard, Gandhi the pacifist was a wife-beater, denied sex to his wife for decades, was purported to be a "celibate" living life as an ascetic, but actually was a pedophile who ritualized sleeping naked with underage girls in order to test "the ferocity of his sexual desires," and at one point left his wife for a male lover.

BY PAM LOBLEY, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM,  NOW THAT'S FUNNY
Joseph Lelyveld, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, has new book out about Mahatma Gandhi. In the book, he hints at a homosexual relationship between Gandhi and a German man, Herman Kallenbach.The book, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India, has been banned in a western state of India. Other parts of India are considering the ban as well.

Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P. Parameswaran, director of Bharateeya Vichara Kendram, has called for a social boycott of a book on Mahatma Gandhi written by Joseph Lelyveld.


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Gandhi

(This Blog article written by Jenni is copied from her website and posted here).

by Jenni   One Google of “Gandhi” shows how enamored the world is with him. “Gandhi, five stars,” “Gandhi, non-violence,” “Gandhi, Time's Top 100.” He is hailed as a virtual saint. Over 500 biographies and movies have been made about him. He is presented as being anti-racist, anti-colonialist, non-violent, tolerant, devoted to family and overall someone that we should learn from. The Great Soul, he is called. One site touts that if we will read Gandhi we will, “at every turn, open our eyes in admiration and reverence.”
The truth is far different from this rosy picture the Indian government and others would sell to us. His writing is comprised of numerous volumes and his thoughts are not consistent.
Although Gandhi writes, “I believe implicitly that all men are born equal. All — whether born in India or in England or America,” Gandhi was not really anti-racist. Not only was he a Hindu, with all the caste system implications that came with it, but he was really only concerned with racism as directed at the upper classes of Hindu caste, of which he was a member. He was also very racist towards the blacks of South Africa. On September 26, 1896, Gandhi wrote, “Ours is one continued struggle sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”

Then in September of 1903, Gandhi said, “We believe as much in the purity of races as we think they (the Whites) do …. by advocating the purity of all races.” In fact he felt so strongly that the Indians should be classed with the whites not the Kaffirs, he organized a brigade of Indians to help put down a Zulu uprising. In 1931, he fasted as protest to a British proposal to grant rights to Untouchables, the lowest of the castes, also known as Dalits. No, Gandhi was no friend to the lower classes. He once told a Dalit who had graduated to not “take up” a white collar job.
Bibliography
Annamalai, Velu. "The Myth of Mahatma Gandhi." Race and History 2000 (23 June 2008).
http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/ghandi.htm
Dalal, Chandulal Bhagubhai. Harilal Gandhi: A Life. Translated By Tridip Suhrud. India: Orient Longman, 2007.
"Gosphel of Brahmacharya." http://www.mkgandhi.org/main.htm (23 June 2008).
Grenier, Richard. "The Gandhi Nobody Knows" Commentary, March 1983. 59-72.
"In the Name of the Father." Deccan Herald. 22 July 2007, entertainment section (23 June 2008).
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul222007/enter2007072114311.asp
Jamanadas, K. "Untouchables in the Twenty-First Century: The Plight of the Dalits in India." Everything You Know Is Wrong. Ed. Russ Kick New York: MJF Books, 2002.
Lal, Vinay. "Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi's Experiments in Celibate Sexuality." Journal of the History of Sexuality 9 (2000): 105-136.
Vitz, David. "Gandhi: What He Believed About Sex, Marriage and Birth Control." Godspy. 27 March 2008.
http://oldarchive.godspy.com/life/Gandhi-on-Sex-Marriage-and-Birth-Control-by-Daniel-Vitz.cfm.html (21 June 2008).

INDIA:- Indian Govt & Developmental Terrorism!.

Amit Bhaduri's recent Book "The Face you were Afraid to See" talks about Indian govt's utter failures and policies that did not make a damn difference in 80% of Indians lives?. The book review is published in Hindu news paper?,  
Market mind-control  by ARVIND SIVARAMAKRISHNAN
The Most conservative and reputed Indian news paper "Hindu" says, the govt and policies did not help grow the real India but few rich pockets. We all know about that but calling the whole of India's economic and market progress is a "Developmental Terrorism of the State", is quite interesting coming from Hindu news paper, and as a matter of fact, it is true.




In effect, the very term ‘development' is being restricted to mean only the development of shopping-mall India, not the Other India, where over eight hundred million people have purchasing power of less than Rs.20 a day.
Beautifying cities means dumping slum-dwellers in badly-built estates far from their previous homes, schools, shops, and places of work. 


Growth means throwing landless labourers off lands they have tilled for generations, because still-valid colonial legislation gives the state, and in particular the State governments, powers to annex land merely by declaring that the annexation is for a public purpose, without ever specifying, much less justifying, the purpose. In effect, the State governments rush to submit themselves to private corporations in what Bhaduri calls “competitive servitude”. 


But only poor people get thrown off the land, in a form of systematic caste-war; 40 per cent of those thus dispossessed are Dalits and adivasis. This is not development but developmental terrorism.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Friday, March 4, 2011

An American Recently Traveled to India and Witness the Worst S.Africa inside India- Tell Our Story, Oh Tell our Story to the World?

As an Indian American who lived both in India and in America, I have been reading non-stop from every little scrap of news to articles in magazines to dalit story books, novels and just about anything regarding dalit issues and about what Americans write about India!?. Especially about Dalit's Issues.
And, I have to say that I have been following Americans who visit India or Americans who write about India without visiting India. Whether it is written by some one who visited India or not, it is ironic and almost pathological the perceptions of Americans and Indians living in America with regard to the Indian society, culture and the social evil known as caste system?.
The worst of the perception comes out of Television reporters, commentators and NY times correspondents and Washington Post news editors. Not a single one of these writers who write about India or dalits focus on Dalit issues as it is, but with their own ambiguous way, no one in the modern days ever wrote or presented the actual dalit story as realistic as of the present article I am posting below. Unfortunately, these media agents been influenced by their fellow Indians who work with them in their media house, most of them are either casteists or have same twisted ideas about dalit issues?.
To give some bad examples on the topic of projecting India and dalits, the guy who made the movie gandhi Richard Attenborough, his unthoughtful, bigoted movie gandhi was the worst story telling, full of bigotry of what gandhi stood was an erroneous story told to sell a fake story of sainthood, when we make the scoundrel into saints, the damage multiplies on the society, especially the damage he has done to dalits. 
Attenborough was the worst of the story tellers, his movie gandhi is full of bigotry and fake propaganda of gandhi as the saint.
There are so many pathological mindset like Richard (though he is not an American but an European, mentioned here as the bad media people). The most recent example I have seen is Linda's work, for example, recently there was a you tube video that is copied from the works of Linda Ellerbee (Linda's Bio)  Nick  (the video is posted on Nick page see below) News of
Nickelodien TV presents the dalit story to the most part she has done a great job, very true but there were some minor flaws in her script but to the most part it is well said story. At the end of the story, she makes this huge blunder. She finishes her photoshoot and story with the quote and about a man by name gandhi, the man ultimately responsible for the continuous practice of the caste system, it is still practiced and exist in India because of gandhi like people, gandhi (I never use "Caps" for gandhi as a reflection of my Opposition to gandhi) this scounderal hindu who destroyed dalits progress, he not only betrayed the dalits but when they had the opportunity via Dr.B.R.Ambedkar to transform Indian society without any caste, gandhi intervened and sabotaged the effort of Dr.Ambedkar to have a separate electoral for dalits, that was the greatest opportunities dalits had in the last about 3000 years to get rid of hindu pathology called caste system.

It was so unfortunate to listen from such a great American Television personality as Linda, quotes gandhi name, did Linda Ellerbee really understood this caste problem or she is really even willing to understand in it's real sense instead of surface level understanding?. If that is the case, she must understand what gandhi did to the Untouchables, and she must understand what Dr.B.R.Ambedkar did to the Indian society as a whole and to the Dalits. Only then Linda will understand dalit issues in it's entirety, please do not utter the word gandhi when you speak about dalits, he was the ultimate casteists India has ever produced.
Anyways, that was just one example as to how poorly and dangerously the Americans perceive dalit issues, Linda has also did previous stories and she did the same gandhi propoganda in her previous issues. It is so unfortunate and so painful why Linda cannot investigate the issue truthfully and talk about Ambedkar, she did not say a word, not a word about Dr.Ambedkar, I can't just imagine how she can do a story about dalits without talking about this great man who served dalits his whole life.
The present article is the first of it's Kind, absolutely true, no twisting, no bigotry, no bias but true, the writer traveled to India, listened to them honestly, listened the dalit stories with feelings and comes back to America to tell for the very first time as it is, "AS IT IS", thank you Jon Foreman, my blog will announce your article as the "Most honest and scholarly dalit story of the Year 2010"

Written by Jonathan Foreman for lowercasepeople.com
I’m not exactly sure when it first started. Maybe it was my neighbors when I was growing up, or the roommate I had in college, or perhaps just a faded picture in an old National Geographic. Whatever it was, I have been enchanted by India for some time. To me, it represented all things exotic and mysterious. I kept the sub-continent safe in a sacred place in my mind, reserved for only the most alluring ideas. Traveling to India, then, was a delicate prospect, one that held the potential of shattering superlative myths that I had long held in my imagination. I went nonetheless and I am thankful to say that this was not the case. I returned with an even greater respect for the history, the culture, and above all, the beautiful people of India. It is a country of exotic diversity, full of colors I had never seen, melodies I had never heard – a country with fourteen national languages and nine of the world’s major religions. Balancing the history of a three-thousand-year-old culture alongside a technological revolution creates a land of clear dichotomy.
I was overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and tastes of humanity in a
Read full story: 
http://landofbrokenhearts.org/archive/2008/10/anonymous-in-india-a-travelogue/

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Buddhist University- the first University in the world, Nalanda University

Great Scholar, Scholars & Humanitarians
Nalanda University is the Pride of India and the world created, run and propagated by Buddhists, it is our pride. Everything thing Buddha and his people did to this world is unique, powerful and great human creativity.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Walk The Talk - Mayawati

Thanks Mayaji for all your upliftment work, and it is a great gesture doing this interview infront of Buddha's place, it is lovely.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Selling Bigotry and Making a Country: Dangers facing India and US!

Very well said, timely piece on how bigoted concepts like India's gandhi menace is a danger to India as well as to America

Biggest threat to US: European racist fascism

Posted on 25 October 2010

During the presidential days of Jimmy Carter, many of the southern states of theUSA were Democratic states. In the following 24 years, the Republicans were able to gain their foothold in those states. In the last presidential election many of those seats, once held by the Republicans switched back to the Democratic Party, giving the party the control over both the Houses in the Capitol Hill – the Senate and the House of Representatives
Read full article: 
http://www.dailymailtimes.com/?p=504

Monday, October 25, 2010

Mr.President Barack Obama, withdraw your fake announcement that US do not recognizes Caste system, and accept the US Congress's stand!

Mr. President Barack Obama,
The US Congress  and House of Representatives Passed Historic Resolution on Untouchability on July 23,2007. House Concurrent Resolution 139 is the First Official Statement on Untouchability by US Congress, do you have a sane American to advice you on such issues as Caste system and racism, or you are just living in dark?.


Many congressmen and senators in the past took serious effort to condemn and warn India about the caste system practices, US Congress and previous US President's  recognized the grave dangers of hindu caste system of India, how dare you publicly announce a Fake statement that US recognizes no caste system?, is this statement perpetrated by bigot hindus in your inner circle, did you forget that you are an American and President of America?. 
"America was founded on the fundamental principle "That all People have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". This very principle is also became the supreme law of this nation of America in which each and every American take pride, not just pride but further step ahead in practicing these values, so in this American soil, all men are born equal....!".
This foundation later became the guiding light for Americans to promote Freedom, Democracy and Individual rights and human rights here at home and world wide. And, we must remember about these values every single day like we remember to breath.

We must remember more so when making statements and when making some implications, especially when you are talking about India, as far as India and Indians are concerned, those who are in your inner circle who promote gandhi [Obama invokes Gandhi, Let’s do lunch, or dinner], and those who play around with meaningless and mythical snake god or monkey god hanuman [Obama turns to Lord Hanuman for blessing ] are the type of Indians who believe in varnashrama/caste system that discriminates fellow humans as upper and lower class and outcast, and what not? That, these people believe strongly "not all men are born equal", they are casteists and racists of the highest order about which you are completely blinded and those members of your inner circle comprised of casteist hindus have kept you totally in dark about India. These casteist Indians are in denial of caste system and its pathology of caste discrimination that has been plaguing India for centuries and it is spreading world wide now, you must look at the recent law in UK that recognized and took immediate step on caste system!. Instead, you are outrightly making a blanket statement US recognizes no caste system, this will embolden the caste discriminators and spread their pathology further.

As a President of America, it is important to remember that your speech, your writings and whatever things said and done by you as a President of America carries enormous value, respect and meaning, so lots of hopes been developed among the less fortunate, economically weaker sections of India and world wide that the President of America will make changes in policies and international relations that would benefit them or protect them.
Unfortunately, Dear President, the hindus and casteist Indians working in your inner circle are fervent believers of inequality, wait, they are practitioners of caste and are very well camouflaged with American System, disguised here in America. A hindu or casteist Indian is taught from their early days about their holy scriptures like veda or manusmiriti that preaches them that not all men are born equal, they have numerous discriminatory traits inbuilt in their mind set ever since hindu as religion was created and passed on to generations, it has continued over the centuries and the practice took a modern transformation that it would be hard for a non Indian or foreigner's to even sense it.
Caste discrimination and it's consequences continued for so long for centuries that the number of scheduled castes/tribes (who do not believe in caste system of hindus) fell victim to this hindu mania, it's detrimental effect is so vast and so large that this tragedy is much worst than the African Apartheid due to India's caste system, thousands and millions of Sc/Sts been massacred by hindus a mass murder that is much worst than the Jews Genocide committed by hitler, and it is ironic and sad that you are listening to those same casteist hindu people in your inner circle, and your action speaks loudly that you listen to them, how did you get to talk about gandhi and promote him as your model, who is a racist of the highest order who once said blacks are one step close to animals and he called kaffirs (blacks) are worst than animals, dirty, unfit to education and so on............, how dare you keep such a racist and casteist to be your model and kept procrastinating to this man?. This same gandhi once wrote a dearly love letter complementing hitler on his Jews killings!?.
In the light of your above inclination and audacity to embrace hindu extremists and views of them in your working model day in and day out, repetitive and periodic announcement of news from your office that promotes hindu gods and casteists are increasingly troublesome and are a serious concern to the world, I was shocked to read your latest announcement that "US recognizes no caste system".

Mr.President, what do you mean by US recognizes no caste system, are you saying that you do not recognize no caste system while the whole world is aware that India is inundated with caste virulence that you do not recognize it?. Or Are you saying that US do not recognize any such practice of India or any other country!.

Mr.President, are you first of all aware that there is a caste discrimination that has spread far and wide outside India, wherever hindus go that they carry this caste pathology with them?. Are you aware that the UK Parliament recently enacted and implemented a new law to punish caste discrimination in UK. Are you aware that in Canada and US there were incident's of caste discrimination covered up so far by the leading news groups that they do not want to discuss caste issues as hindus and organizations like hindu associations kept a lid on this topic?.

So, Mr.President are you that naive to ignore caste system and say that US do not recognize caste system, or tell me, are you implementing that caste system practices cannot be tolerated and allowed in US soil?. What is exactly your implication by your recent announcement.

You must clarify your announcement, it is important at this juncture when you are making plans to travel to India that you recognize the caste system, a man who's story and success is what America represents outrightly denying or making blanket statement that US recognizes no caste system is dangerous and will encourage and support the perpetrators here in US and in India, you must speak out loudly about caste practice of India and condemn it, you must warn the Indian govt and anti-socials to stop hurting the Sc/Sts in India of this caste menace. You must warn the hindus in US to stop messing with the American way of life and American values, that here in this soil of America, any such practice will be dealt legally and very seriously, it is time you give hopes to the victims of caste system in India, about 360 million dalits who have been sabotaged of their rights, dignity and progress by this pathological hindu religious believes and cultures, and please take a stand as a great American President's who practiced and preached that America stands for freedom, democracy and Individual rights.

America stands for the rights and happiness of every human not only in America but all over the world, and your message of US recognizes no caste system does not reflect but is pretty dangerous to these believes. If you and your office dare to understand the caste discrimination in US soil, why not create a investigative committee and that will study the practices of hindus in America and you will understand how far caste system has gone, if the hindus and their behaviors are let loose, soon one day the caste system practice will ruin Americans too.

It is important at this juncture that the President of America must send strong message to India to act on curbing the caste discrimination, caste system practices are dangerous to India and to the world, and India must work to annihilate the caste practices.

With Hopes and Respect,

~~Saint

Saint is The author of Upliftthem Blog and the author of this Editorial.
Nevada, USA

Some Reading:


1.Evil of Caste
2. Satyaguru Report: 
Honorable Senators/Congressmen: Pervasive Dalit Atrocities, Human Rights Violation, Injustice, and Discrimination in India and South Asia

3.US House declares caste discrimination illegal
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/
5.India's Untouchables face violence and discrimination:
6.Caste Atrocity in Khairlanji:
7. Murder of 5 dalits shows that there is no freedom in India: US Congressional Record
8. India''s Grim Picture of Human Rights Record
10. Great Intro by Saint

WESTERN BUDDHISTS TO LEARN FROM AMERICAN JEWS By PPLakshmanJi

I read with great interest "A Challenge to Buddhism" by Ven.Bhikkhu Bodhi that I was fortunate to read on the internet. 
We all know and revere Bhikkhu Bodhi. His talks and writings are always inspiring and  provocative. His distress evident in the above-mentioned article will be shared by all those who read it.
Of late we have been hearing a lot about the expression  "Engaged Buddhism". I find the expression mostly among the Mahayanists rather than among the Therawadis in the Western world. Mahayanists also use the expression "Humanistic Buddhism". To everyone who is not a Buddhist, it simply means Applied Buddhism or practical Budhism.
There has been  challenges to Buddhism in all eras. To my mind, there is no greater solution, no enduring remedy to the challenges in any era than the creation of Buddha's disciples known as Arhants who would advice and give lead to people to solve their problems as and when they arise, regardless of color, race, creed or nation. Whatever the problems - social problems like injustice or natural catastrophies like earthquake or global problems like climate change 
-  the cutting edges of weapons in Buddhist armory to counter them always lay in individuals in the first instance, and subsequently in their organizations, with or without the support of governments. Therawada Buddhism which I am more familiar with has had a monastic order in place since Buddha'.s time where trained monks are turned out in large numbers, year after year, in Therawada countries -  Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.  Many of the trained monastics become bodhisatvas (seekers of enlightenment), few if any become fully enlightened worthy ones known as arhants who are worthy to advice and lead. Finding arhants is like mining for diamonds.
Many of the social service organizations, Buddhist or other,  fail because of the absence of arhants, the fully enlightened ones, to lead them. The fully enlightened arhants emerge out of the multitudes of monks, worthy to advice and worthy to lead..  
 
There have been a plethora of institutions with long histories of social service like the CARE, the American Peace Core, Red Cross, YMCAs, and many others. Bhikkhu Bodhi has mentioned American Jewish World Service (AJWS) which is relatively a new organization like the Islamic Relief USA and others, all of which "aiming to alleviate suffering, hunger, illiteracy and disease, worldwide". On the other hand,  organizations with limited goals also take birth like the Armenian Relief Society with its limited goal of serving the humanitarian needs of the Armenian people worldwide, who still suffer from the effects of its underreported holocaust of early 20th century. I wonder what make AJWS exceptional. 

Has AJWS  tested its declared objective of social service on the soils of Israel's next door neighbors or in the  Arab sector inside Israel itself?  Some material on the internet gave me the impression that AJWS perhaps took birth out of cognitive dissonance among American Jews suffering from psychological conflicts between incompatible beliefs and attitudes.  
The highly efficient style of working of organizations like AJWS backed by media support can make favourable impression of them even if they do not have enlightened leaders and violate one or more of the five precepts that the Buddhists always practise in all their endeavours.
Social service is the objective of most organizations, but they have besides social service something which make them distinct. For instance, the U.S. after taking thousands of lives in Japan with their nuclear armory seek to create a better image of the U.S.with its Peace Core volunteers, YMCAs seek to spread Christian messages behind their altruism,  what if AJWS seeks to show Jewish presence in world service, no matter that the Jews are only 0.2 percent of a world population of 7 billion.   
 
I wish to draw the attention of my readers to an organization which I had in  mind when I wrote earlier in this piece about arhants and searching for them like mining for diamonds. 
The organization is called Fo Guang Shan (FGS), which means literally "Buddha's Light Mountain", and its organizer is Master Venerable Hsing Yun, born in mainland China in 1927. Master Venrable Hsing Yun founded FGS in 1967 in a remote quiet area in the hills of  Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. It is a Mahayana Buddhist order promoting Humanistic Budddhism, a modern Chinese philosophy. Humanistic Buddhism aims to make Buddhism relevant in the world and in the people's lives and hearts. It is a monastic order and not a theoretical school of thought per se.
In May 1997, Hsing Yun got the gates of FGS closed to the general public in order to give a cloistered atmosphere to the temple residents.
But, following the plea of the public headed by the President of Taiwan, FGS reopened the gates in December 2000. In the last 40 years since its inception, FGS has been remarkably successful in extending its services beyond Taiwan,  setting up temples and organizations in 173 countries and encompassing more than 3,500 monastics. FGS also created an affiliate in 1992, Buddha's  Light International Association (BLIA),  
which has now over 100 chapters in the world.  The monastic order represented by Fo Guang Shan and Buddha's Light International Association has now over a milliom followers worldwide. It has been said  "In Master Venerable Hsing Yun, Buddhism has found a reformer, an innovator and an educator. Under his strong  leadership, Buddhism has extended beyond traditional temple life to integrate and further enrich the modern city dwellers."
 
 P.P.Lakshman
December 18, 2008
 
 

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Ravana & the depiction of 10 Heads? What is the Rationale?

Ravana's ten heads represent the ten crowns he wore as a result of his being the sovereign of ten countries.