At 10:45 AM -0500 6/12/05, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
C'da,
I know news items like these are rather hard to digest:-)
*** Really Ram :-)?
Honestly, IMHO, I think the whole thing is a bit over the top.
Hinduism (or any other religion) does not and should not need an MIT
or the White House to give its blessings.
*** Are you suggesting all of our fellow men who get orgasms every
time some firangi or other offer some sign of recognition or other
are pathetically devoid of self assurance about who they are or what
their faiths are? Come now :-)!
But seriously, I do agree with you on that.
But if I delve into the whys of that, it will raise the blood pressure levels
of the faithful again, won't it? So you good Hindus are between the
Devil and the deep blue sea on this point, aren't you? Eikhon hol
tomalwkor Bhalukor xangi , uthilew moron, naamilew moron:-).
I don't think it served any purpose (for Hinduism or MIT) - except
maybe to cause some discomfort to the Hindu/India bashers:-)
*** Heh, heh, heh. You try too hard ram :-).
c-da
--Ram
On 6/12/05, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At 6:34 PM -0500 6/11/05, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
Here is some interesting bit of news from the halls of MIT. Hope itdoesn't
gag those netters who find everything wrong with India orHinduism.
*** That was very timely.
You really delivered a 'jen-kukur-ten-tangwn' wham to these ne'er-do-good
anti_indian, hindu-bashers. Making them gag in their own bilious blabber is
too kind a treatment for them and who deserve much worse.
I mean just look at it, even MIT has, at long last, incorporated Hindu
chants
in their convocation invocations, thus purifying, in one fell swoop, all the
sins of commission and omission of the Hindu, something that even a deep
steep in the Ganga could not do.
Time for all good Hindus of the world to rise and rejoice and for the
hindu-bashers to, at the very least, take a bow, if not offer a
'xastange-pronipaat' with appropriate 'dokkhina' to the Brahman so they too
can reach Brahman.
C-da :-)
Nevertheless hope y'all enjoy it.
--Ram______________________________________Issue Date:
Sunday, June 12, 2005Shanti, shanti rings out in MIT K.P. NAYAR Washington,
June 11: Five years after a Hindu priest gave the openingprayer on Capitol
Hill for the first time in the history of the USCongress, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) has followedsuit.
The 139th commencement ceremony of MIT, which has produced 59 NobelPrize
winners in all, began this year with an invocation in Sanskritand English.
"May we come together for a common purpose. Common be ourprayer, common our
goal," prayed Swami Tyagananda.
"May the one and the same Divine Reality lead us. May we be grantedclear
understanding and the courage to pursue the goals of socialjustice,
non-violence, harmony and peace."
The swami, who belongs to the Ramakrishna order and heads its Bostonbranch,
is MIT's Hindu chaplain. He has been in Boston since 1998,assigned to the
Vedanta Society there.
The presence of Swami Tyagananda apart, India was all over theceremony,
reflecting the dominant presence of Indian and IndianAmerican students at
prestigious US educational institutions. Amongthe speakers was Barun Singh,
president of the Graduate StudentCouncil, who saluted the Class of 2005.
"We celebrate the hope and promise of times to come in the world weall
share. You have demonstrated the ability to reason. Be open tounconventional
solutions. Keep alive your passion and drive. The worldneeds this, and it
waits for you," Singh said.
The president of the senior class presented MIT's president, SusanHockfield,
with a senior class gift - $31,000 this year - for a newstudent lounge. The
senior class president's name is Rohit Gupta.
Senior class gift is a tradition at MIT. Since 1935, they have so farraised
> $138.56 million for MIT.
An Indian American from California, Sandhya Sitaraman, a brain andcognitive
sciences major, was among those graduating this year. Shewas a resident
academic adviser for three years at MIT's women's dorm,McCormick Hall.
"When I was accepted to MIT, many boys were surprised that a girlcould get
accepted to this institution," Sitaraman said. "My fouryears here have been
absolutely wonderful in terms of helping me growas an individual, and I
leave this place with many fond memories."
MIT said in a press release that the invocation in Sanskrit andEnglish
"reflected the large international crowd's spirit of unity andgoodwill" at
the commencement ceremony of this venerable institution.
Reflecting the diversity of the occasion, the chaplain said in hisprayer:
"May the one and the same Divine Reality who is the Father inheaven of the
Christians, Holy One of the Jewish faith, Allah of theMuslims, Buddha of the
Buddhists, Dao of the Chinese faith, AhuraMazda of the Zoroastrians, The
Great Spirit of the Native Americansand Brahman of the Hindus, lead us from
ignorance to knowledge, fromdarkness to light, from death to immortality."
He began his invocation with a quote from Swami Vivekananda thatsuited the
occasion: "Education is the manifestation of the perfectionalready within
us." He concluded with the chant, shanti, shanti,shanti.
The opening prayer at the US Congress by a Hindu priest in 2000 was onthe
occasion of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's
visit.Venkatachalpathi Samuldrala, a priest from the Shiva Vishnu
Hindutemple in Parma, Ohio, was brought to Capitol Hill at the initiativeof
Sherrod Brown, a Congressman from Ohio.
During this year's Commencement ceremony, 1,094 MIT students
receivedbachelor's degrees, 1,078 received master's degrees, 257
gotdoctorates and 12 students were given engineering degrees, accordingto an
MIT press release.
_______________________________________________
Assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
Mailing list FAQ:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html
To unsubscribe or change options:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
_______________________________________________
Assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
Mailing list FAQ:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html
To unsubscribe or change options:
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
