[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Debate between Suklaji and Deepak Chopra

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste,

It is painful to see that Deepak Chopra does not appear to know what Hinduism means. Every Hindu knows at least that the Hindus have allegiance to their shastras, which guide them. It is irrespective of any possible debate as to how the name Hindu originated, i.e., whether it originally meant the inhabitants of the Sindhu-Saraswati valley with or without including the areas to the east of that. The Vedas and the Vedantas have mentioned Yoga and defined it well. If anybody knows the date of the Veda and Vedanta then he or she will not question if the Yoga is part of Hinduism.

Recently in one of the fora (forums) I quoted the Darshanopanishad (a Yoga-Upanishad, belonging to the list of the 108 canonical upanishads mentioned in the Muktika upanishad), where the yoga is treated beautifully by the first-ever teacher of Yoga, the sage Dattatreya, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. A reputed Sanskrit professor tried to question the antiquity of this upanishad by saying that only a dozen of major upanishads are the only true upanishads and said that Scholars like Hume and Winternitz opine that the upanishads are of recent origin. Obviously that professor did not know that the scholars like Hume and Winternitz adhered to the Aryan invasion Theory (AIT).

Robert Ernest Hume, in the very first page of his book "The Thirteen Principal Upanishads",  wrote as follows:
"The Aryan invaders of Hindustan, after having conquered the 
territory and gained an undisputed foothold, betook themselves 
to the consideration of those mighty problems which thrust 
themselves upon every serious, thoughtful person the problems 
of the meaning of life and the world and the great unseen powers. 
They cast about on this side and on that for explanation." 
This
 shows that Hume was subscribing to the "Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT)", 
according to which the Aryans came to India in the 15th century BCE and 
they wrote the Vedas,  the Brahmanas, the Upanishads and the Sutras in 
that order and with gaps of two centuries separating one from the other.
 Thus the Upanishads were considered to have been written during the 
period from 1000 to 800 BCE.

The AIT has since been completely debunked and along with that are debunked 
all the absurd chronologies supported by the western scholars but that professor is still living in the AIT-world. As regards Winternitz the less said the better as he was an assistant of Max Muller (the originator of the AIT) in Oxford for ten years before getiing an academic position in his own country. 

It is also painful to see that many of the reputed scholars trying to delve into spirituality do not really know the true itihasa of of our ancient land, though our dharmashstras insist that a knowledge of itihasa is a must. No spiritual aspirant can afford to ignore the truth of the Vyavaharic world even though from the Paramarthic angle the Vyavaharic world may appear as anitya or impermanent like a dream. Once I came across the book " Buddha- A Story of Enlightenment" by Deepak Chopra, where at the top of the very first page the timeline is mentioned as "The Kingdom of Sakya, 563 BCE".  I stopped looking at the book then and there. One who thinks Lord Buddhas to be of 6th century BCE may not know who the real Lord Buddha was and what he professed (in which environement).


Regards,
Sunil KB


________________________________
 From: kuntimaddi sadananda <kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com>
To: adviata-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>; "advaitin at yahoogroups.com" <advaitin at yahoogroups.com> 
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 6:01 AM
Subject: [advaitin] Debate between Suklaji and Deepak Chopra
 


  
PraNAms
 
Just for info. For those who are interested extensive debate between Prof. Suklaji and Deepak Chopra is available to read for whatever it is worth.  Comments of others are also included. 
 
Hari Om!
Sadananda
 
 
http://forum.advaitaforum.com/index.php?topic=348.0
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