Was Sri Rama right in giving up Sita?

It's a load of total BS. There are actually no countries outside of the mess humans have made of life on earth. I live right on the border between england and wales - I've looked, but I can't see the line. Can't see much difference between the inhabitants of my village and those welsh boyos a few miles away.
Few centuries back, they were busy hacking each other to pieces to establish this invisible line.

Only when we start to regard ourselves as citizens of one planet will we see an end to the ongoing tragedy that is national division.

 

while sri rama has certainly been put into the nationalist agenda mold by moderns, i would say he was more of a communityist and acted so out of a deep love for his and all communities of the world

 

Snake, you need to rid yourself of the habit of reading half my post and then vehemently responding with a something that I'd already covered.

Like I said nationalism is fine so long as it doesnt bring with it any lack of love for others.

 

Sorry. I was in a rush, I admit it!

Anyway - probably most forms of nationalism have their roots in the 'us and them' tribal type mentality. Often, national characteristics which are played up by those with a nationalist agenda are based on dislike of another nation.
In places like the UK, a lot of so called 'national identity' is constructed from pride over past military victories etc. (see for example Shakespeare's 'Henry V.) It is imposssible to separate all that bullshit 'pomp and circumstance' of the British state from what constitutes the 'British identity'.
Pride over a past empire built upon slavery and brutality? No thanks. I'll remain a European, and an internationalist.

 

::nods:: All cultures are man made....culture is what is part of what makes a country...there is unity to people and there is underlying unity to cultures...however it is the divisions that make everything so unique. I am all for learning to get along, but at the same time if you get rid of cultural diversity, things would be pretty boring. I don't know, perhaps its the archaeologist in me. I think cultural diversity is great and we can use it to expand our minds...its only a problem when we use it against one another...

 

And it took Indian nationalism to thrash them as well.

 

Only a person who can love his or her country can love other countries as well.



First patriotism, then universality.

---Swami Vivekananda

 

I think you could do away with present ideas of nations and still retain local cultures where that is appropriate.
Also, as things develop, new cultures may emerge.

Take Europe - I'm all for the European Union, because if you look at the history of Europe over the last 1,000 years, there has been unrelenting war, really up until 1945, and some conflicts even since then.
The best hope is to have one central European goverment, and the separate countries could be like states in America - they'd have some autonomy but be part of a larger whole. My hope is that one day we could even have a one world government - but no doubt I'll once again be accused of utopianism for that. But to quote Buckminster Fuller, we face a simple choice - utopia or oblivion.

 

So what? If there were no such things as nationalism to begin with, no 'thrashing' would have been necessary. Which was the point I was making.

But 'thrashing' is a strange way to describe Ghandi's peacful campaign of non-violent resistance.

 

Both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose, both disciples of Swami Vivekananda, were responsible for thrashing the British from India.

Gandhi led the civilian front , with the civil disobedience movement , which paralysed the administration, and the boycott of british goods, which badly hurt the british economy and especially the bloodsucking british capitalists.

Bose, on the other hand, led from the soldierly front, and formed the Indian national army , which succeeded in its goal of inspiring a mutiny in the Indian soldiers of the British Indian armed forces.


Reflecting on the factors that guided the British decision to relinquish the Raj in India, Clement Attlee, the then British prime minister, cited several reasons, the most important of which were the INA activities of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which weakened the Indian Army - the foundation of the British Empire in India- and the RIN Mutiny that made the British realise that the Indian armed forces could no longer be trusted to prop up the Raj.

 

i consider myself a citizen of the earth

this is the greatest planet in the universe

 

Vasudeiva kudumbhakam.( vedas ) --- The whole world is one family.

 

how 'bout the aliens?

 

I wouldn't call them disciples. No doubt they were familiar with, and accepted, his teachings, but to be a disciple is a very special one-on-ne bond. Gandhi himself said the Jain master Srimad Rajchandra was his guru. I don't know about Netaji.

 

Included.
Vasudha - literally that which holds all living things - means universe more than world.
It is (mis)translated often as earth because there is no interaction or direct evidence of extraterrestrial life (though I do believe odds are overwhelmingly in favor of it).

 

Swamiji at the Vedanta Centre once told us that we are foolish to think that this planet is the only planet that there is...that just because we don't know about them doesn't mean we should rule out their existence you know....there's lots we don't know about

 

Though iskcon would have you think chanting the mahamntra is the only way there.

 

"Patriotism covers such attitudes as: pride in its achievements and culture, the desire to preserve its character and the basis of the culture, and identification with other members of the nation." wiki

seems a push for patriotism and universality to mix, unless your patriot about universality i guess

 

my planet is better than any of the aliens' planet

 

Both Bose and Gandhi acknowledged Vivekananda's intense influence on them.

I cannot write about Vivekananda without going into raptures. Few indeed could comprehend or fathom him even among those who had the privilege of becoming intimate with him. His personality was rich, profound and complex... Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, merciless in his attacks but yet simple as a child, he was a rare personality in this world of ours.

---Subhash Chandra Bose




He was so great ,so profound, so complex. A yogi of the highest spiritual level in direct communion with the truth who had for the time being consecrated his whole life to the moral and spiritual uplift of his nation and of humanity, that is how I would describe him.If he had been alive, I would have been at his feet.

---Subhash Chandra Bose



I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold.

----Mahatma Gandhi.


So, you can say Bose and Gandhi indeed are followers and students of Vivekananda.