Miscellaneous Facebook posts & comments in or around April and May 2022
When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer).
To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers may have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link.
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On FB post https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3388036218079598 , I commented in response to a comment:
Given a choice, one would opt for a better world. ... But then human history is quite terrible, isn't it? Was the world ever a nice place for most of the people? Note that it was nice for few people, and perhaps continues to be nice for few people.
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Is it fair to refer to Dalits as "historically suppressed communities in India"?
Let me share some relevant wikipedia extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit :
Dalit (from Sanskrit: दलित, romanized: dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also known as untouchable, is a name for people belonging to the lowest stratum castes in India.[1] Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Dalits now profess various religious beliefs, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam and various other belief systems. Scheduled Castes is the official term for Dalits as per the Constitution of India.
...
History
The term Dalit is a self-applied concept for those called the "untouchables" and others that were outside of the traditional Hindu caste hierarchy.[2][3] Economist and reformer B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) said that untouchability came into Indian society around 400 CE, due to the struggle for supremacy between Buddhism and Brahmanism (an ancient term for Brahmanical Hinduism).[4] Some Hindu priests befriended untouchables and were demoted to low-caste ranks. Eknath, another excommunicated Brahmin, fought for the rights of untouchables during the Bhakti period.
In the late 1880s, the Marathi word 'Dalit' was used by Mahatma Jotiba Phule for the outcasts and Untouchables who were oppressed and broken in the Hindu society.[5] Dalit is a vernacular form of the Sanskrit दलित (dalita). In Classical Sanskrit, this means "divided, split, broken, scattered". This word was repurposed in 19th-century Sanskrit to mean "(a person) not belonging to one of the four Varnas".[6] It was perhaps first used in this sense by Pune-based social reformer Jyotirao Phule, in the context of the oppression faced by the erstwhile "untouchable" castes from other Hindus.[7] The term dalits was in use as a translation for the British Raj census classification of Depressed Classes prior to 1935. It was popularised by Ambedkar, himself a Dalit,[8] who included all depressed people irrespective of their caste into the definition of Dalits.[9] It covered people who were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and thought of themselves as forming a fifth varna, describing themselves as Panchama.[10]
[References:
1. "From Buddhist texts to East India Company to now, 'Dalit' has come a long way". The Times of India.
2. Kaminsky; Long, Roger D. (2011). India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic. ABC-CLIO. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-313-37463-0.
3. Kanmony, Jebagnanam Cyril (2010). Dalits and Tribes of India. Mittal Publications. p. 198. ISBN 978-81-8324-348-3.
4. "Top RSS leader misquotes Ambedkar on untouchability". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015.
5. Robinson, Rowena (2003), Christians of India, New Delhi: Sage Publications, pp. 193–96, ISBN 0761998225
6. "Dalit, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 23 August 2016.
7. Mendelsohn, Oliver; Vicziany, Marika (1998). The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-521-55671-2.
8. Katuwal, Shyam Bahadur (2009). "The Issues and Concerns of Dalit Labourers in Nepal". In Mohanty, Panchanan; Malik, Ramesh C.; Kasi, Eswarappa (eds.). Ethnographic Discourse of the Other: Conceptual and Methodological Issues. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-4438-0856-9.
9. "Independent labour party: 19th July (1937) in Dalit History – Dr. Ambedkar took oath as the member of Bombay Legislative Council". drambedkarbooks.com/. Dr. Ambedkar Books. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
10. Sagar, S.; Bhargava, V. (2017). "Dalit Women in India: Crafting Narratives of Success". In Chaudhary, Nandita; Hviid, Pernille; Marsico, Giuseppina; Villadsen, Jakob Waag (eds.). Resistance in Everyday Life: Constructing Cultural Experiences. Springer. p. 22. ISBN 978-9-81103-581-4.
end-References]
--- end wikipedia extracts ---
Given the above, I do think it is fair to refer to Dalits as "historically suppressed communities in India".
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Pope Francis appoints Hyderabad Archbishop Poola Anthony as Cardinal, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/pope-francis-appoints-hyderabad-archbishop-poola-anthony-as-cardinal/articleshow/91871845.cms, 29th May 2022.
A short extract from above article:
Pope Francis on Sunday appointed Hyderabad Archbishop Poola Anthony as the new cardinal in India. He will be the First Telugu in the history of the Catholic Church to be given the title of Cardinal and will be an elector for the future Pope elections.
A native of the Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, Bishop Poola Anthony was anointed as Archbishop of Hyderabad in January 2021.
---- end short extract from Times of India ---
As per https://twitter.com/nmannathukkaren/status/1530886217851715586 he is the first Dalit Cardinal!!!
I am very happy to see a Dalit (historically suppressed communities in India) be raised to such an important position in the Roman Catholic church.
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Hmm. Interesting quote!
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3395650127318207 shares Nisargadatta post with quote: "To remain without thought in the waking state is the greatest worship."
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Interesting approach to conquer fear, if it works for one.
From my point of view, for somebody on Jnana marga, fear of death is not so difficult to conquer. It is fear of prolonged illness/debilitation and physical pain, and being dependent on others that is the challenging fear to overcome.
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3388849534664933 shares Ramana quote about fear being due to identification with body and that repeated separation from body identification will make one familiar with (Atma/I/Self) state at which time fear will cease.
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For readers who would like to read the associated discourse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, at least some of the extract, if not the whole extract, of shared post below is from Discourse/Chapter 5 "Spirituality and Society", book pages 39 to 41 corresponding to pdf file pages 22 to 23, https://www.sssbpt.info/summershowers/ss1979/ss1979.pdf .
FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3385952964954590 shares Bhagavan discourse post.
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These words of Ramana Maharshi apply to whatever little bit of Kundalini rising I experience in my (divine) awareness meditation -
"Though the yogi may have his methods of
breath-control, pranayama, mudras, etc., for this object,
the jnani’s method is only that of enquiry.
When by this method the mind is merged in the Self,
the Self, its sakti or kundalini, rises automatically."
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