The popes and their private lives versus public sermon – C.I. Issac

The popes and their private lives versus public sermon C.I. Issac

https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-popes-and-their-private-lives.html

In the theological point of view, Pope John Paul II had violated the spirit of the Seventh and Tenth Commandments. In the contemporary social and ethical point of view, he had cheated his fellow priestly society, fellow nuns and laity, who blindly retained the belief that “sex is sin”. That is why they still follow chronic celibacy. While one was popularizing the Church’s ethical and theological postulates relating to sin, his pragmatic approach was in contrary to it. This is the sum and substance of the contemporary Church.” – Prof C. I. Issac

Sonia Gandhi & Pope John Paul II. Earlier, in an article titled “Saints for Sale” (Vijayvaani, May 11, 2009), I wrote about the new trend of the mushrooming births of saints in the galaxy of the Catholic Church.  The Church now considers elevation of some as saints is the stratum to survive in the emerging adverse situations in contemporary Europe and elsewhere.

Pope John Paul II ushered in the canonization of 482 as saints in short duration, and put 300 on different stages of the road to sainthood, an all-time record in the long history of 263 pontiffs so far. He ushered in a new precedence by using fast-track proceedings to elevate persons to sainthood (beatified Mother Teresa on 19 October 2003, the last step to sainthood) through pontifical prerogative. Usually, more than a hundred years was the precedence of a beatification.

The same pontiff is now under a new controversy over illegal relations. Personally I am not against biological laws and do not count them as sin. But my question is whether the Church which stands for the chronic celibacy of shepherds is violating the same in the personal lives of its personnel is true or not?

Senior BBC journalist Edward Stourton has recently revealed a totally unknown face of Pope John Paul II. Stourton’s telecast of a documentary, based on Pope John Paul II’s personal letters, kept at the National Library of Poland, once again reveals the true parallels between pragmatism and sermons existing in the Church since its very inception.

Anna Teresa Tymieniecka and Pope maintained an uninterrupted relationship with a married Polish woman named Anna Teresa Tymieniecka, from 1973 until his death in 2005, a long span of three decades. It is said she died in 2014. Tymieniecka was not an ordinary woman. She was a well-known philosopher and writer of Poland. Edward Stourton had unearthed more than 350 letters between 1973 and till the death of the Pope. The tone of some letters expresses their intense feelings.

In the theological view, feeling and affection between opposite sex is not sin. The affection between Mary Magdalene and Jesus is well debated by present day intellectuals and the theological world. Anyhow, when the New Testament was composed by the Church in the fourth century CE, the editors of the New Testament blacked out the Gospel of Mary Magdalene for the reason that sex is “original sin“. They misconceived the spirit behind the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Holy Garden and the Seventh Commandment of Moses. The Church still retains the fourth century rustic Roman psyche. That is why the letters of the Pontiff to his loved one became a matter of curiosity.

In the theological point of view, the pope had violated the spirit of the Seventh and Tenth Commandments. In the contemporary social and ethical point of view, he had cheated his fellow priestly society, fellow nuns and laity, who blindly retained the belief that “sex is sin”. That is why they still follow chronic celibacy. While one was popularizing the Church’s ethical and theological postulates relating to sin, his pragmatic approach was in contrary to it. This is the sum and substance of the contemporary Church.

Pope John Paul II & Mother Teresa.  One can’t blame Pope John Paul II alone. His letters are the best specimens of the forbidden humanism of the Church. It is anyhow interesting to see the biological instinct of eating the “forbidden fruit“. He addresses her as, “My dear Teresa,” instead of “in the name of god, etc.” The tone of all letters to Teresa is full of such tender and thrilling loved phrases and idioms.

This is not a new experience to the Church. In its 1691 years of existence, the Church has seen several such Popes. History says that there were 39 Popes who had illegitimate relations with ladies. Some others retained more than one wife. These include: Pope Benedict IX (1032-1044), Pope Alexander (1492-1503), Pope Julius II (1503-1513), Pope Paul III (1534-1549). Pope Pius IV (1559-1565).

The Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy (1309-1377), when seven successive popes reigned from Avignon, France, rather than Rome, was another disaster that degenerated the papacy.

Some of the popes who reigned in the Vatican had illegitimate children: Pius II (2 children), Innocent VIII (2 children) and Clement VII (one illegitimate son). However the present news about John Paul II is nothing compared with the above popes.

John Paul II The paradox of the matter is that John Paul II was elevated to sainthood (canonized) by Pope Francis on 5 April 2014 (announced on 5 July 2013), by a fast-track process under the precedence created by him for Mother Teresa.

It was the age-old precedence of the Church that before beatifying a person, a close verification of all his letters, writings, personal relations, et al(Latin)(meaning and others), was necessary. Unfortunately, the Vatican is now silent on this aspect relating to John Paul II. Why did John Paul II’s beatification procedure bypass all these simple checks?

The answer is simple. He is the man behind the dismemberment of the USSR and the impoverishment of communism world over, both of which posed a formidable threat to the Catholic Church. Martyrs and saints are fuel material for the monstrous engines of the Church (just as jihadis are for the sister faith) without which it cannot sustain itself. So the Church is in need of an endless quantity saints, and let the quality of saints be damned. – Vijayvaani, 20 February 2016

» Prof C. I. Issac is a retired history professor and vice president of the Bharatiya Vichara Kendram. He is also a member of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR).

Vvs Sarma While returning from USA in 1986 I had a stop over at Rome and briefly visited Vatican. After return I asked Guruji "Is it a holy place?" He suggested I read the history of RC Church. The lives of many earlier Popes are no different from Moghul rulers & Delhi Sultans. That is why there was Protestant movement.

TEN POINTS THAT MAY HELP KEEP YOU HAPPY

TEN POINTS THAT MAY HELP KEEP YOU HAPPY

https://ramamohanraocheruku.blogspot.com/2016/02/ten-points-that-may-help-keep-you-happy.html

1. Listen to your body’s wisdom, which expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort. When choosing certain behaviour, ask your body, ‘How do you feel about this?’ If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.

2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have. Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment. Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. The present is as it should be. It reflects infinite laws of Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact physical response. This moment is as it is because the universe is as it is. Don’t struggle against the infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it.

3. Take time to be silent, to meditate and to quiet the internal dialogue. In moments of silence, realise that you are re-contacting your source of pure awareness. Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn’t good for you.

4. Relinquish your need for external approval. You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is great freedom in this realisation.

5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any person or circumstance, realise that you are only struggling with yourself. Putting up resistance is the response of defences created by old hurts. When you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe.

6. Know that the world ‘out there’ reflects your reality ‘in here.’ The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world. What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself. What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself. Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution. The goal is total Self-knowledge. When you achieve that, what you most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.

7. Shed the burden of judgement — you will feel much lighter. Judgement imposes right and wrong on situations that just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love. In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance. Remember that every person you forgive adds to your self-love.

8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions. Your body is more than a life-support system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution. The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of wellbeing, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.

9. Replace fear-motivated behaviour with love-motivated behaviour. Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself. But trying to impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being hurt. That happens only when you find the security of your own being, which is love. Motivated by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear.

10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper intelligence. Intelligence is the invisible organiser of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you share in the organising power of the cosmos. Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the planet’s air and water. But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence. Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.

Swasti. 

Internet of the Ancient India

Internet of the Ancient India (Enormous links with Infinite knowledge)

Internet, in today’s time has gone up to become oxygen for cyber world; even WW III doesn’t pose threat anymore than the shutdown of the Internet. According to statistics, Internet traffic till date is estimated to be nearly 32 terabytes per second; that sounds humongous isn’t it? But, you will be shocked to know that even before the existence of the modern day Internet; it was only India that had enormous information preserved in face of ancient literature.
Sanskrit language alone has countless books and pages of information that are impossible for the current generation to finish reading in their entire lifetime; even if they had nothing else do to. Every piece of information was so brilliantly connected and ensconced that it wouldn’t be wrong to call ‘it’ the Internet of ancient India.
Don’t believe us? This write-up might just restore your faith. To start with let’s just broadly categorize the ancient work in six kinds: Vedas, Upavedas, Vedangas, Puranas, Darshanas, and Kavyas.

1. Vedas

Large body of texts or ‘knowledge’ to be precise from the ancient Indian literature is termed Vedas. These foundational works of Hinduism are often called ‘Shruti’ (Sruti in Sanskrit: meaning- what is heard). They are considered ‘apauruṣeya’, which means ‘not of a man, authorless, impersonal’, and are believed to be devised by Lord Brahma (creator of life).

Four sacred Vedas of Hinduism

Specifically these Vedas are inscribed into four works: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda. Further these works are sub-classified into four major text types: the Samhita (mantras, hymns, or shlokas), the Aranyaka (texts defining rituals, holy ceremonies, and symbolic sacrifices), the Brahmanas (notations, remarks, and interpretations of those rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices), and the Upanishads (manuscripts discussion spiritual knowledge and philosophy).

Upasana Veda

A few scholars of recent times have also voiced to infuse a fifth category- the Upasanas, which means worshipping these works. Multitude of knowledge is engraved within Samhitas and Upanishads of these works, which is impossible for a human to read completely in his/her present lifetime.

#2. Upavedas

These are credited as the secondary body of work within Hindu culture, in contrast to Vedas (note: context wise). If Vedas are more spiritual than Upavedas would be more secular. To understand the different within them more clearly, let us just say that Vedas focus on the inner world, while Upavedas focus on the outer world.
Upavedas are more inclined towards material and are further classified into four categories- Ayurveda (deals with wellness and health), Arthaveda (deals with transcripts of economics, polity, governance, etc.), Gandharvaveda (deals with art) and Sthapatyaveda (deals with ancientengineering, architecture, et al).
Of all known texts Shushruta Samhita, Charaka Samhita, and Ashtanga Hridaya come under Ayurveda, while Arthaveda covers Arthashastra, Panchatantra, and Hitopadesha. Texts like Kamasutra, Natyashastra, and Dhvanyaloka come under Gandharvaveda, and Manasara Mayamatam, Vishvarupam, and Rupavastumandana are all under Sthapatyaveda.

#3. Vedanga

Acknowledged as the limbs of Vedas, Vedanga are six assisting regulations to study and understand Vedas. These Vedangas help in building a strong foundation of the language. These six classifications are– Siksha (Sandhi, meaning pronunciation, phonetics), Vyakarana (grammar), Nirukta (semantic etymology), Chandas (prosody, poetic meters), Jyotisha (astrology, astronomy), and Kalpa (rituals, law, et al).
Siksha being the first discipline has 32 systems, each of them differently related to Vedas in order to teach morphophonology, phonetics, and phonology. The second comes Kalpa, which constitutes of huge texts related to teaching rituals, laws and dharma. Third one, Vyakarana is devoted to grammar, and the fourth one, Nirukta, deals with etymology. Chandas is the fifth discipline dedicated to Sanskrit prosody. And finally, the sixth discipline is Jyotisha, which is to measure time and movements of
planets, sun and moon.

#4. Puranas

Going by their literal meaning ‘ancient texts’, these are widely accredited as folklores or legends of sages and kings and their tales, which were composed for the purpose of educating commoners. At core, they contain the philosophy of the Vedas. Several of these texts are named after Hindu gods, like Shiva, Vishnu and Devi.

Ramayana and Mahabharat

In total there are 18 Mahapuranas comprising Bhagavata purana, Shiva purana, Brahma purana, Padma purana), and 18 Upapuranas. Legendary epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, too come under Puranas.

#5. Darshana

One of the most sought out works of the ancient India is Darshanas. Their literal meaning signifies ‘point of view’; basically referring to philosophy. Around the world, there are six classical schools of Indian philosophy and three unorthodox schools.
These six classical schools are widely known as Sankhya (where method of reasoning and enumeration are taught), Yoga (where union of body and mind is preached), Nyaya (where various methods to study knowledge and learning are established), Vaisheshika (where study of existence and nature of reality is taught), Mimamsa (which teaches of philosophy of rituals), and Vedanta (which gives out introspective wisdom).
And, then there are the three unorthodox schools, which are Jaina (which preaches Jainism), Bauddha (which preaches Buddhism), and Lokayata (which preaches materialistic atheism). Apart from these are nine schools of Indian philosophy where students are trained to explore the fundamental philosophy of the world.

#6. Kavya

Any work of literature of the Hindu culture which evokes rasa (aesthetic experience) comes under Kavya. It can be poetry, epic poems, didactic verse, historic poetry, prose, songs, and plays. When we talk of Kavya ras, only one name comes straight to our mind- Kalidas. One of the greatest poets of the world, and till date his work remains unmatched.
There are over hundreds of prominent poets whose work have had a lasting importance engraved to Sanskrit literature. One can only imagine if not measure the brilliance and depth of knowledge of Sanskrit language given to us by our ancestors.

Pride of ancient India

India is only fortunate to inherit such a magnificent tradition, which remains unbroken for nearly 6,000 years.