Policital views of SES
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:35 am
The viewpoint of Sir McLaren could be 'rightly represented'. When last year I met Paul van Ooyen, ex-head of Dutch SES and now still into Gurdjieff/Vedanta but with a new 'organisationless organisation' which does look less cultish to me than SES, I asked him about his viewpoint on the Indian caste system and his dealings with the Shankaracarya (he uses another one than SES London/Holland, after all there are 4 of them.)
After all Shankaracaryas are deeply enrooted in the Indian society including the (officially outlawed) caste system which at times is worse than Apartheid. His reply:
* He'd love to see it changed but Westerners are not really in a good position to do so.
* He tries to toe a middle line between freely expressing his opinion about Vedanta and Hinduism towards Indians and not upsetting his hosts.
* In his experience his Shankaracarya is quite liberal too, unlike the conservative Brahmins nearby who kick all 'untouchables' out of a 1 km zone around their temple. The Shankaracarya was known for organising temple wedding rituals for all castes, including untouchables, for free once or twice a year because otherwise they would not be able to have a Hindu wedding at all!
After all Shankaracaryas are deeply enrooted in the Indian society including the (officially outlawed) caste system which at times is worse than Apartheid. His reply:
* He'd love to see it changed but Westerners are not really in a good position to do so.
* He tries to toe a middle line between freely expressing his opinion about Vedanta and Hinduism towards Indians and not upsetting his hosts.
* In his experience his Shankaracarya is quite liberal too, unlike the conservative Brahmins nearby who kick all 'untouchables' out of a 1 km zone around their temple. The Shankaracarya was known for organising temple wedding rituals for all castes, including untouchables, for free once or twice a year because otherwise they would not be able to have a Hindu wedding at all!