Critique

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  Attacks on sacred books and sacred personalities have been a
challenging enterprise from colonial times for anthropologists,
behavioral scientists, historians, theologians, archaeologists,
neuroscientists and philosophers alike. Their overall objective is to
seek explanations for the continuing influence of religious practices
in human societies especially among the masses at large in spite of
their dissonance with the scientific worldviews that have evolved
since the European Renaissance. The most recent trend in this regard
is to apply Freudian Psychology to explain religious phenomena and
religious personalities.

  A disturbing flaw in this endeavor is often the conflict between real
objectivity and the subjective biases associated with the researcher's
own tradition at birth and its influence during his or her formative
years. In as much as the researchers involved in this process happen
to be predominantly Judeo-Christian Westerners in Western
Universities, they tend to focus their attention on Hinduism while
neglecting to subject their own traditions to the same degree of
scientific enquiry. Hinduism happens to be a major religion in the
modern world that poses a threat to the spread of Islam and
Christianity. Its message of the universality of all religions is
acceptable to any of the three Abrahamic religions.

  It is not surprising therefore that Jeffrey Kripal's "Kali's Child"
and Paul Courtright's " Ganesa" are but two out of numerous other
books that are damaging to the sentiments of millions of Hindus in
spite of their scholarly recognition by their peers and widely
glorified by prestigious awards.

  " Invading the Sacred " by Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and
Aditi Banerjee with Rajiv Malhotra as the driving force behind, is an
emotionally charged but profoundly justified rebuttal to the
explorations into the sexuality of Hindu gods, goddesses and saints
such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in these books in terms of Freudian
Psychology by Western scholars.

  Unfortunately, the rebuttal is not scholarly enough to tip the
balance. I came to this realization after I came across another book
called " Encountering Kali" edited by Rachel Fell McDermott and
Jeffrey Kripal published in 2003 and republished by Motilal
Banarsidass in 2005. It contains twelve chapters written by different
authors with almost a hundred books and articles from refereed
journals quoted in the Introduction alone. The book addresses
literally hundreds of issues related to Kali and Kali worship in India
in a manner not unlike " Kali's Child " This book too is but a tip of
the Iceberg that is on the horizon. Particularly intriguing in this
book is a chapter on Mahabhagavata Purana by Patricia Dold.  Her
portrayal of Srimad Bhagavatam is distinctly different from the
scholarly fashion in which many issues of relevance to Modern Science
were addressed by members of the Haiti Vedanta Institute quoting from
this treatise at a recent conference in Titupati, India on Science and
the Spiritual Quest that I attended and presented a paper.

  A scholarly way to tip the balance would be for scholars of Hindu
backgrounds to get into the nitty-gritty of the Abrahamic religions
with the same tools as historical context, neuroscience and psychiatry
as the Westerners are employing to trivialize Hinduism. Examples of
issues that need to be addressed in this regard with the same degree
of academic rigor are the mythologies of Adam and Eve and Original
Sin, the Symbolic Consumption of the flesh and blood of Jesus, the
Threats, Acts, Jealousies and the Dictatorial aspects of the God of
Abraham elaborated to in the Old Testament, the atrocities of the
Crusades, the Burning of dissidents and the so-called Witches and the
sexual perversions and promiscuity among the leaders of the Abrahamic
religions, past and the present.

  This I believe is an important step to take especially by scholars of
Religious Studies in Indian Universities to arrive at the underlying
core of the spiritual quest that is central to all religions and all
of scientific inquiry as well. And that will also pave the way to
diffuse the fundamentalist claims of exclusive rights to Absolute
Truths by any group through the researches of our younger generations.

  Eko Sat Viprha Bahuda Vadanti. (Truth is One, the Wise describe it
variedly." This ancient dictum applies to all knowledge and all
paradigms- scientific, spiritual or otherwise.