02-08-2007, 02:25 PM
Getting traffic at my blog on Sulekha on this A Vishnu Strategy No Hindu Knew About! , some are getting prompted to action.
Here the letter I wrote to FPIF (unpublished as yet..:-) waiting for godot..
[ANYBODY PUT UP A petitiononline TYPE THING YET ?]
===BEGIN LETTER=====
Editors are requested to take action & get this piece re-written, since the "Vishnu" analogy is egergious & faulty.
This article was also re-published by Asia Times Online (www.atimes.com) & retracted after many objected to the mis-characterization.
I was among those wrote a letter to the editor there.
Today they published my letter, with a written statement below it saying they took the article off the website.
So here it is, as published today in Asia Times Online
at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Letters.html
[After today, it will be in archives]
THE LETTER
_____________________________________________________________
Re Conn Hallinan's preposterously titled The Vishnu strategy meets its match [Feb 7]:
Words fail me to see such an egregious example of crass and out-of-context analogy between "what we did was insane and monstrous: we covered entire towns in cluster bombs" and the Bhagavad Gita, a text revered even by non-Hindus as explaining Hindu philosophy, in the context of Prince Arjuna compelled to decide, on the battlefield, whether he should fight or flee.
All this a part of the story of the millennia-old epic The Mahabharata. It is a text to aid human decision-making, and not for some boasting about who's destroying what, or about some ridiculous "Vishnu strategy".
"The latest channeling of the Hindu god" by this author is a pure figment of his overheated imagination, that of a writer groping for a gripping analogy, and coming upon a gross distortion of this kind. He also needs to understand the context in which the well-read [Robert] Oppenheimer made his original remark. I certainly can't accuse this author of having the faintest idea of the Gita, Lord Krishna, his message, or Hindu philosophy.
Liberally spraying the incorrect "Krishna = destroyer" reference, and a silly notion of a "Vishnu strategy", did it ever occur to the author to do some research? The analogy adds nothing to his points, anyway.
He could have found better analogies closer to home, in the Christian concepts of Armageddon, and evangelical beliefs of Jesus coming back to massacre the "evil ones".
Also, I'm appalled that ATimes editors let this past. This kind of blunder is perhaps innocent, but could attract the label of hate speech against Hinduism. [I] hope editors understand the false positions they put loyal Hindu readers [in] by letting in this kind of writing.
Karigar
USA (Feb 7, '07)
THE RESPONSE
___________Atimes Editors respond below__________
We received several letters on this, and the "Vishnu" analogy does seem to have been an unfortunate choice that prevented some readers from getting past the first paragraph (or even the headline) and into the meat of the article, which made salient points. We have taken the article off the website. - ATol
==================================
===END LETTER=====
[quote=aruni,Feb 4 2007, 08:38 AM]
This guy has seems to be having an absolutely convoluted understanding of Lord Vishnu or the Bhagavadgeeta. He has taken the Robert
Oppenheimer comment from the Gita I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy, completely out of context and making it seem seem as if Lord Vishnu encouraged the killing of innocents in Iraq, Israel as is happening now
<b>Please go to the website and add your protests/comments
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3958
</b> (heavy moderation going on, please help)
Here the letter I wrote to FPIF (unpublished as yet..:-) waiting for godot..
[ANYBODY PUT UP A petitiononline TYPE THING YET ?]
===BEGIN LETTER=====
Editors are requested to take action & get this piece re-written, since the "Vishnu" analogy is egergious & faulty.
This article was also re-published by Asia Times Online (www.atimes.com) & retracted after many objected to the mis-characterization.
I was among those wrote a letter to the editor there.
Today they published my letter, with a written statement below it saying they took the article off the website.
So here it is, as published today in Asia Times Online
at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Letters.html
[After today, it will be in archives]
THE LETTER
_____________________________________________________________
Re Conn Hallinan's preposterously titled The Vishnu strategy meets its match [Feb 7]:
Words fail me to see such an egregious example of crass and out-of-context analogy between "what we did was insane and monstrous: we covered entire towns in cluster bombs" and the Bhagavad Gita, a text revered even by non-Hindus as explaining Hindu philosophy, in the context of Prince Arjuna compelled to decide, on the battlefield, whether he should fight or flee.
All this a part of the story of the millennia-old epic The Mahabharata. It is a text to aid human decision-making, and not for some boasting about who's destroying what, or about some ridiculous "Vishnu strategy".
"The latest channeling of the Hindu god" by this author is a pure figment of his overheated imagination, that of a writer groping for a gripping analogy, and coming upon a gross distortion of this kind. He also needs to understand the context in which the well-read [Robert] Oppenheimer made his original remark. I certainly can't accuse this author of having the faintest idea of the Gita, Lord Krishna, his message, or Hindu philosophy.
Liberally spraying the incorrect "Krishna = destroyer" reference, and a silly notion of a "Vishnu strategy", did it ever occur to the author to do some research? The analogy adds nothing to his points, anyway.
He could have found better analogies closer to home, in the Christian concepts of Armageddon, and evangelical beliefs of Jesus coming back to massacre the "evil ones".
Also, I'm appalled that ATimes editors let this past. This kind of blunder is perhaps innocent, but could attract the label of hate speech against Hinduism. [I] hope editors understand the false positions they put loyal Hindu readers [in] by letting in this kind of writing.
Karigar
USA (Feb 7, '07)
THE RESPONSE
___________Atimes Editors respond below__________
We received several letters on this, and the "Vishnu" analogy does seem to have been an unfortunate choice that prevented some readers from getting past the first paragraph (or even the headline) and into the meat of the article, which made salient points. We have taken the article off the website. - ATol
==================================
===END LETTER=====
[quote=aruni,Feb 4 2007, 08:38 AM]
This guy has seems to be having an absolutely convoluted understanding of Lord Vishnu or the Bhagavadgeeta. He has taken the Robert
Oppenheimer comment from the Gita I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy, completely out of context and making it seem seem as if Lord Vishnu encouraged the killing of innocents in Iraq, Israel as is happening now
<b>Please go to the website and add your protests/comments
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3958
</b> (heavy moderation going on, please help)