the Great chestnut served up in an Indian avatar. The west takes its revenge on India for the Panchatantra.
--- On Tue, 9/6/09, Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> wrote: > From: Suresh Ramasubramanian <sur...@hserus.net> > Subject: Re: [silk] Indian foodies > To: silklist@lists.hserus.net > Date: Tuesday, 9 June, 2009, 5:02 PM > Have you heard the old fable of the > priests and the cat? > > There was this guru whose hermitage had a pet cat in it. > Once, the guru was praying / performing a sacrifice when the > cat, chasing a mouse, ran into and upset his sacrificial > vessels, flowers etc. > > So the guru ordered his disciples to tie the cat up > whenever he was praying / sacrificing etc. > > Sometime later the guru passed away - but his disciples > continued to tie the cat up whenever they were praying. > > The cat died, and the disciples tied up its kitten that > stayed on .. > > Pretty soon the original disciples died but their students > spread out far and wide to found their own hermitages, > become priests etc etc. And every one of them dictated that > whenever a ritual was to be performed, a cat had to be > bought in and tied up .. even if there was no cat around to > begin with. > > srs > > -----Original Message----- > From: silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus....@lists.hserus.net > [mailto:silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus....@lists.hserus.net] > On Behalf Of Lahar Appaiah > Sent: Tuesday, 9 June 2009 4:51 PM > To: silklist@lists.hserus.net > Subject: Re: [silk] Indian foodies > > I've always believed that most traditions are rooted either > in logic, or in > what was most convenient to the people who set the > traditions at that time > (and which would, presumably, have been logical to those > people). Obviously, > over time, they've gained the added halo of being an > integral part of > 'culture' (apart from being irrelevant to the present day > and age), and > people tend to follow them blindly, because that was what > their parents > followed. I suspect that if you dig deep enough, you > can find a logical > explanation for just about anything that falls within the > realm of > 'tradition'. > > On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Pranesh Prakash > <the.solips...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > Why must we subject all traditions to logic? > That results, most > > irritatingly, in 'modern traditionalists' (to coin a > phrase) offering > > faux-scientific explanations for their > practices. I'd rather follow > > logic-less traditions than be subject to cargo cult > science. The old Catherine > Bollywood news, movie reviews, film trailers and more! Go to http://in.movies.yahoo.com/
