Subu Ramakrishnan comments : TJSG has surely done a great job of this book, though I found some repetitive segments. Of course, every writer has a personality which shows up in his book.
I am not particularly surprised that Sadasivam's personality was not elaborated, after all, the book is on MSS and not on her husband.
After reading this book, I wonder how MSS could have ever sung "Kurai Onrum Illai" with so much bhava.
>Did she follow any of the >discriminatory practices that >many members of the Brahmin >community are known to follow? >(Sadasivam, for example, >offered financial support for the >education of several young >people - but only if they were >Brahmin and male.)
Most humans follow such practices. Would you say that a brahmin offering financial help to another brahmin is discriminatory while a non-brahmin helping a non-brahmin kid is not?
It is not clear to me if these should be branded as discriminatory practices simply because some fellow 'was born' a brahmin.
Subu
Vishk comments : I find the reviewer's comments about Brahmins (discriminatory practices that the Brahmins are known to follow? WTF does that mean?) pretty offensive.
Plus, he seems to complain about how MS's brahminization did not benefit her caste. Actually, I see that as an important redeeming feature: an individual's effort at Brahminization results in her de facto adoption into the Brahmin community. That is exactly an obverse of the many, vicious claims that anti-Hindu ideologues have made, about how an individual cannot change castes, no matter how Brahminical his behavior.
Ct comments : bullshit...just because this guy is from IIT and has done some gimmicks in princeton, thinks he can analyse things much better thatn anyone else...this article just shows the philosophical debauchery our friend (intellectual or comrade?) mr. ramana has undergone...Boss, don't try to sneak in your left(or not right :-) idealogy into the sacred things like music...what do you know about brahminism and what do you know about saints like MS amma...?
Mrudula Srinivasan comments : After reading George's account of Smt MS , a history in the writers of biographies that he didnt even have a chance to meet the person in question that is MS or Sri Sadasivan , I am reminded of the story told by The Saint Shirdi Sai
Here is the incident:
Everyone makes mistakes but it is only when we realize, correct them and behave according to what we have learnt, that we can really benefit from them. Sri Sai Baba likes us to do this. It makes him happy! Let us look at some of the teachings Sri Sai Baba gave to his devotees while he was correcting them.
Once a devotee called Madhur Das came from Anjanwel to Shirdi for Sri Sai Baba's darshan and stayed at the house of Sagun Meru Naik. One day both these devotees had maliciously gossiped about the failings of their fellow devotees. When Madhur Das went to the mosque afterwards Sri Sai Baba asked him irritably, what is Sagun saying? Madhur Das immediately realized that his conversation with Sagun Meru Naik had hurt Sri Sai Baba deeply. The indulgence in malicious gossip not only wastes valuable time, but eventually it will also become our nature and we will start seeing even the good in others as bad. It will scar us psychologically. We should spend the time not in finding the bad in others, but in distinguishing the good in them and in identifying in others the loving form of Sri Sai Baba who is in all of us. If we concentrate on seeing and talking about the Sri Sai Baba in us, and of Sri Sai Baba's leela’s [examples of power and miracles] that itself becomes satsang [literally, association with truth; the gathering of devotees to pray, to fill themselves with God consciousness.]
Once in Shirdi, a devotee was maliciously gossiping about another devotee and was fabricating various allegations about him. Sri Sai Baba, who was omniscient, knew of this. As Sri Sai Baba was going to Lendi baug that afternoon, this devotee had come for his darshan. Sri Sai Baba showed him a pig and said, Look, see how that pig is eating excreta with great liking. Your nature too is like that pig. How happily are you denigrating your fellow devotee! What benefit can you gain by coming to Shirdi if you behave thus?
The devotee realized his mistake and repented. The pig may eat excreta and feel happy about it, but to the onlooker it is a loathsome sight. In the same way if we are inclined to fabricate and spread malicious gossip about our fellows it makes us loathsome in the eyes of others. It is said that in such behavior the accumulated merit goes to the slandered person and his sins are accrued to the slanderer. The yogis therefore say that the slandered person should thank the slanderer for taking away his sin and giving abundantly of his accumulated merit. Why therefore should one slander others and pick up their sins too?
I can liken George to a pig eating the excreta of Sadasivam and MS .
Every penny he made or makes on this book will add to his sins and to his children's sins and his Lord Jesus too will not forgive him . Writing maliciously {in a very cunning and subtle way} about the Saint like person MS and her guide and philosopher Sri Sadasivam , is like insulting Virgin Mary and daubting her purity.
Are we for ex concerned about the past life of Mother Teresa? How and what she was? Do any man of morals make money by curiously exploring into the private lives of others
I am positive that in his life time he George will carry his cross of sins in front of his kith and kin for bringing the Saint like mother MS unproven private life into public.
Shame on such writers!
Rajan Karalasingham comments : I have read these comments attacking George and Raman. I cannot believe the garbage that has been has been spread by these Hindu fanatics! What is the matter?Don't they want to acknowledge MS a great singer and scholar of music though she was, was also a woman,a very beautiful woman,who lived a full life?Why is it demeaning to accept that?In fact it should be celebrated.Indeed, it appears to be life without too much Kurrai!! Chill out,Himdu fanatics..
