Donigerism and Kripalism

[atanu]

Recently something drew my attention to Mr. Jefferey Kripal and his guru Ms.Wendy Doniger. Being a science person and from a R&D background, I have usually ignored criticisms of Wendy et al. and their alleged penchant to see phallus and sex everywhere. I must acknowledge that I had silently thought that being serious academicians Wendy et al must be authentic and dependable.

But few recent posts in REF made me look a bit deeper. In these posts, some words were applied in reference to Sri Ramakrishna and his biographical book “Kathamrita’ (approximately meaning Nectar of Word), a sage followed by many in India and abroad. I was shocked since I have read this book several times as a spiritual and as well as a secular history book and had never earlier found such associations.

I must admit that in the book itself, Sri Ramakrishna is heard telling how in his younger days he used to play with his linga - penis (which means an indicatory mark and also penis in common parlance) and wondered about Shiva (who again is represented by a linga - an indicatory mark, usually made of an oval shaped stone). This story, told himself by Sri Ramakrishna, has only an aura of absolute non-caring about the physical aspect.

But what shocked me was the word c-nt, applied in reference to some aspects of the saint. As noted, I have read the book several times and found no such thing.

Then I came to know of ‘Kali’s Child’, the PhD thesis of Mr. Jeffrey Kripal, a student of Wendy Doniger. The thesis was apparently prepared in 1995 when Kripal was about 30 year old.

I must admit that I was shocked beyond imagination by reading it. I was shocked that an academician can allow such so-called scholarship, which was evidently not true to word meanings, not attuned to cultural context, and which belied an ignorance of the difference between materialistic and a spiritualistic orientations. As will be seen later in a point by point analysis, the work is full of insertion of phrases (mainly pointing towards sexual theme) on one hand, and deletion of crucial portions, all to fit into a biased conclusion that the author wanted by any whatsoever way possible. All these things combines to make the PhD thesis a travesty.

(contd.)

 

[atanu]

I will note only a few of the mistakes below.

Suppose I say in Bengali “Ami bayakul hole brahmamai maa-r kole matha rekhe shanti payee”

I can say the same thing in Hindi “Mai vayakul hone pe brahmamai mata ke godi me sar rakhke shanti pata hu.”

This will approximately be “When I am restless, I lay my head on the lap of Mother (Brahman seen as Mother) and I obtain peace.”

Now imagine what the english sentence would become, if I were to read the whole thing with sex in my mind and translate ‘sexual tension’ from ‘vayakul ( which actually means restless)’; ‘phallus’ from ‘matha (which actually means head); and ‘vagina’ from kol (which actually means lap).

Yes. Yes. These are the word meanings of Mr. Kripal. ‘Matha’ (head) becomes Phallus. Vayakul (restless) becomes ‘Sexual tension’, Kol or godi (lap) becomes ‘vagina or place of sexual defilement. Of course, these words have not been used exactly in the context of the example I provided to illustrate the point but these word meanings were indeed used to paint Sri Ramakrishna as a pervert.

There is another word called ‘uddipana’ in bengali that means energetic, inspired, enkindling etc.. Mr. Kripal translates that as sexual arousal. In all possible ways he brings in the sexual connotation only. ‘aste aste aparsha korchhen’ (slowly caressed) becomes ‘sodomy’. When Mr. Kripal caresses hair on his son or his daughter’s head, is he intending sodomy? How pervert a man may be to consistently impute such meanings page after page?

Sri Krishna is known as ‘tribhanga murari’. tribhanga is ‘bent at three places’ and murari is ‘flautist’. However, Kripal translates ‘tribhanga’ with his usual sexual pervert vision as “cocked hips” and uses this to conclude that “stunned by the cocked hips of the boy, Ramakrishna falls into samadhi.” This is Kripal's “scholarly proof” that Ramakrishna's mystical states were homoerotic!

There is a word called ‘yoni’, which means ‘womb’, ‘the origin’, ‘place of birth’, and also the ‘female sex organ’. In Gita, Sri Krishna refers himself as, “brahmayoni”, indicating that he was the origin of ‘manifested brahman’. Now, Mr. Kripal and his indian followers will prefer to use vagina, irrespective of the context.

(contd.)

 

[atanu]

Not that it matters to Shri Ramakrishna, his organisation, or to us, who are least bothered about the name-form, knowing that to be not the seat of sexual thoughts/intentions/passions etc. However, for immature people, Wendy and his children are mighty misguiding force. Who funds them? This is not the only colourful work of the celebrated team. This team has spread sexual significations of Ganesha’s tusk, of lusty Goddesses etc. etc.. Anyone who has dared to criticise this powerful team has been reverse psychoanalysed by Wendy’s team. Scholars, however, have noted that nether Wendy nor Kripal are psychologists. Incidentally, Freud had ruled out the possibility of applying his methods either posthumously to dead people, or via native informants to third parties who are not directly engaged by the psychoanalyst.


I used to think that the protests on Wendy’s writings originate only in India. But no. Below is a WIKI page where international scholars are shown to have noted irregularities.

Views on Ramakrishna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of special value has been the insight provided by Dr. Michael Wiitzel, Wales Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University, who in an email called her translated Rig Veda "idiosyncratic and unreliable just like her Jaiminiya Brahmana or Manu (re-)translations.” ( Wendy Doniger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).


Swami Tyagananda of Ramakrishna Ashrama has analysed ‘Kali’s child’ point by point and has shown very patiently as to how Kripal has distorted the whole perspective due to his lack of knowledge of bengali, in which language the original texts are written.

Any one who genuinely wants to study the issue deeply is requested to read at least the first part of the following document.

Kali's Child Part 1

Swami Tyagananda in ‘Kali's Child Revisited or Didn't Anyone Check the Documentation?’ has summarised Kripal’s methods used in the name of scholarship:
“Since Kripal wants to associate Ramakrishna with boys, no matter what, we shouldn't be surprised that he first suspects, then assumes, then presents as a fact that Ramakrishna was sexually abused as a child. That there is absolutely no evidence for this makes no difference to Dr. Kripal; we have the effect – Ramakrishna's “homoerotic impulses” – so now the cause must be found. Aha! Certainly he must have been sexually abused as a child. The spiritual ecstasies that Ramakrishna experienced as a child are thus reinterpreted as “troubling trances”. The only one “troubled” by them is Kripal who feels compelled to find sexual abuse somewhere in there.”
Further, there is an english translation of ‘Kathamrita’. A link to it is included below. Again any one willing may read the text. Alternatively, I challenge anyone to show as true what has been said by a poster in REF about Sri Ramakrishna.

http://www.wearesentience.com/uploads/7/2/9/3/7293936/gospel_srk.pdf



My only prayer is that anyone reading this post and the links provided herein may kindly do so with peace in mind and without resorting to emotional generalisation. I also request that Swami Tyagananda in ‘Kali's Child Revisited or Didn't Anyone Check the Documentation?’ may kindly be given a patient reading before forming any conclusion. I am not attributing any generalised view of any community.

I repeat that I used to think that the protests on Wendy’s writings originate only in India. But the following link shows opposition from several global scholars.

Views on Ramakrishna - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

End

 

[ratikala]

namaskaram atanu ji :namaste

thank you so much for writing this post , I hope it will be very helpfull for others to hear the translations from one who can make first hand translations ,

people in the west will have a natural tendancy to beleive people who have letters after their names , and unfortunately this is only exasabated by the fact that people regard published works as being endorsed again by the reputation of the publishers , forgetting that book publishing in the west is a business . (and that controvercy and sensationalism sells books) .

as a rule of thum I will only buy books written by practicing Buddhists or Hindus and even still only those who have been endorsed by a reputable lama , swami or math please look carefully as to who writes the preface , forward or introductions to any book this is allways very telling as to the seriousness with which the subject matter is being taken .

thankyou for taking the time to read and make comment :namaste

 

[Jaskaran Singh]

None of your points addressed my quotes, so I don't see the point. My verses about rAmakR^iShNa touching the penis of little children and what not were taken from a translation from estudantedavedanta.net translated by shrI mA trust and the vedAnta society (which is comprised BY HINDU-s), not by Jeffrey Kripal (whose text I've never read). If you have problems with Doniger and Kripal, then please don't bring my accusations into it, I don't like them either. Regardless, your posts do not even address my quote, although I just read the "Revisiting Kali's Child" article which apparently takes issue with Kripal's translation of one of the verses I quoted because he apparently translated the little boy's "dhan" (treasure) as little **** rather than incorporating the fact that dhan is used in bA~NglA euphemistically to refer to a penis; however, it doesn't necessary refute the view that dhan refers to a penis, as the shrI mA trust translation which I linked to translates it as penis rather than "little ****". Nice try though... Also, I never stated that the "c***" comment from the kathAmR^ita, you are engaging in false Aropa; I said that it came from the translation of the shrIshrIrAmakR^iShNa lIlAmR^ita by vaikuNThanAth sAnyAl (again, a Hindu). Perhaps rather than assuming I got my sources from Westerners or Indologists, you could actually check my citations.

 

[Andal]

As a western academic by training, Doniger, Kripal, and Sharma are given very little attention at the graduate level. In fact the only time I came across her and her followers was when a professor refuted her in a class about Shakti centric Hinduism.

It's important not only for Hindus to speak against her but also academics because what she and her cronies claim is scholarship is actual intellectual laziness with a penchant for orientalism. In fact their analysis of Hindu culture mirrors everything people like Said spoke out against as being bastions of institutional racism.

Thank you for posting your analysis of Kripal's take on Ramakrishna. Posts like this are very important.

Aum Hari Aum!

 

[atanu]

Namaste Ratikala, Andal and all. Happy Holi to all.

namaskaram atanu ji :namaste.......
thank you so much for writing this post , I hope it will be very helpfull for others to hear the translations from one who can make first hand translations , ....

Thank you Rati for making valuable points. Your observations are so succinct. For an ignorant man thinking self to be the body-mind hankers after money, sex, or fame for the individual self. Most endeavours take birth from this. Only after an ego gets badly bruised that the attention turns away from the illusory self. However, the taint of the illusion continues till the realisation of the truth of ‘no-boundary’, of all pervading Vishnu.

The problem with the so called scholarly work (as of Dr. Kripal, for example) that obviously is far from the reality, is that such work vitiates the environment.

There is actually another, non-scholarly, book available, “Stripping the Gurus” by self advertising Mr. Geoffrey D. Falk ( http://www.thezensite.com/non_Zen/Stripping_the_Gurus.pdf ).

This book claims to tell the truth about many gurus. The book apparently demolishes the characters of almost all known Hindu and Buddhist teachers of recent times. In respect of Shri Ramakrishna, the following quote is from this book. (Ramakrishna purportedly says):

http://www.thezensite.com/non_Zen/Stripping_the_Gurus.pdf
I am terribly scared of women.... I see them as a tigress com-ing to devour me. Besides, I see large pores [cf. vagina sym-bols] in their limbs. I find all of them as ogres....
If my body is touched by a woman I feel sick.... The touched part aches as if stung by a horned catfish (in Nikhil-ananda, 1984).

Mr. Jeffrey Kripal being an academician, IMO, cannot stoop so low.The passage reproduced above, shows Ramakrishna saying that he saw vagina symbols etc. in female bodies. According to Mr. Falk, this from Swami Nikhilananda’s english translation of bengali “Kathamrita”, written by Mr. Mahendranatha Gupta.

But such a ludicrous statement cannot be found in a) Nikhilananda’s translation of ‘kathamrita’, b) in original bengali ‘kathamrita’, or c) in ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna Leelamrita’ written by disciple Baikuntha Nath Sanyal, who was referenced.

I again include the link for Shri Nikhilanada’s translation for any one who may be interested to check. Of course one cannot find such ludicrous text.

THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA : www.belurmath.org
or
http://www.wearesentience.com/uploads/7/2/9/3/7293936/gospel_srk.pdf

So that the readers do not have to search all around in the english translation of the ‘kathamrita’ (linked above), I excerpt the relevant portion below.

THE MASTER'S LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEESĀS AND BRĀHMOS : - Chapter 51 : THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA

MASTER: "If a woman touches me I fall ill. That part of my body aches as if stung by a horned fish."

DR. SARKAR: "I believe that. But how can you get along without woman?"

MASTER: "My hand gets all twisted up if I hold money in it; my breathing stops. But there is no harm in spending money to lead a spiritual life in the world-if one spends it, for instance, in the worship of God and the service of holy men and devotees.

"A man forgets God if he is entangled in the world of māyā through a woman. It is the Mother of the Universe who has assumed the form of māyā, the form of woman. One who knows this rightly does not feel like leading the life of māyā in the world. But he who truly realizes that all women are manifestations of the Divine Mother may lead a spiritual life in the world. Without realizing God one cannot truly know what a woman is."

Readers will be astounded as to how some people write just the opposite of the actual statements to spread falsehoods. Possibly, it is easy to gain fame (ill-fame) by rubbishing a revered person. Or these are paid works. Or, these are actually the means by which the spiritual truths can spread. Tracing the rubbish, many will reach the ‘kathamrita’, and a few among many may actually read the book.


A little more about the book “Stripping the Gurus” by Geoffrey D. Falk ( http://www.thezensite.com/non_Zen/Stripping_the_Gurus.pdf ).

Among many other unsubstantiated and false accusations (as shown by review of readers that follow), this book starts by telling that Swami Vivekananda used to frequent sex-workers. Even the opponent of Hindusim who have studied about Swami Vivekananda will see this as mental abnormality of the author himself.

Here is what Mr. Ramesh Bjjones, a Norwegian yoga and tantra writer, has to say.
Stripping A Chip Or Two Off Stripping The Gurus | elephant journal

I have only read the Chapter on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, and, so far, I am hardly impressed with the shoddy scholarship and tendency toward sensationalism.

Here is a short review of the section on Vivekananda:

The examples used in this chapter are largely based on the books Ramakrishna Revisited and Vivekananda: A Reassessment by Sil P. Narasinghe.

According to Narasinghe, Vivekananda (1863-1902), one of India’s most famous Swamis, visited a whorehouse in 1884. Apparently, he only spent time in the bar, and it took place a few days after his father died and two years before he became an ordained monk in the Ramakrishna order in 1886.

Narasinghe never bothers to check or comment on the chronology and state the obvious: Vivekananda, the famous monk, visited the bar in a brothel at the age of 21 with a group of friends. But not while he was a monk. No, two years before he became a monk.

Hardly news worthy of a chapter in a book about the wild sex lives of supposedly celibate monks, swamis and gurus. Indeed, it is hardly even a character flaw, ……

Unsurprisingly, much of so-called scholar Jeffrey Kripal’s material also comes from dubious psychoanalysis of a dead man by this same Narasingha P. Sil.

One can see the review comments of readers for the book of Mr. Falk in the link shown below.

Product Reviews: Stripping the Gurus: Amazon.com

Thanks for reading. A very Happy Holi again to all.

 

[Jaskaran Singh]

Unsurprisingly, much of so-called scholar Jeffrey Kripal’s material also comes from dubious psychoanalysis of a dead man by this same Narasingha P. Sil.

One can see the review comments of readers for the book of Mr. Falk in the link shown below.

Product Reviews: Stripping the Gurus: Amazon.com

Thanks for reading. A very Happy Holi again to all.

Yes, and it appears that Sil heavily quotes from sAnyAl, who is the individual who I referenced for the "****" comment for the lIlAmR^ita, since I have his (sAnyAl's) text. Is that why you think I was supporting kripal, some strange indirect connection? I think you should actually refute MY quotes rather than rambling about what some Indologist writes. Contrary to your perception, the "****" comment and the f*** comments are both part of the lIlAmR^ita, one is on pg. 65, the other is on pg. 134. After all, if it was my posts on REF which inspired you to create this thread, then why not actually deconstruct MY points; I don't care what some sex-obsessed Indologist in Rice university thinks, I care about what a devotee of that AchArya wrote, and from that, rAmakR^iShNa is portrayed with an obsession with penises.

 

[Asha]

Namaste Atanu Prabhu

Holi Blessings to you and all your family

It is time for all devotees to come together in agreement to speak out against this negative focus on our religion. I dont know how we combat it, but I feel the best way is to be peacefull and inteligent about it and not add to the sensationalism.
:camp:
Happy Holi to everyone

 

[Vinayaka]

Namaste Atanu Prabhu

Holi Blessings to you and all your family

It is time for all devotees to come together in agreement to speak out against this negative focus on our religion. I dont know how we combat it, but I feel the best way is to be peacefull and inteligent about it and not add to the sensationalism.
:camp:
Happy Holi to everyone

I feel the best way is to say nothing. The ilk of Doniger will die off soon, and their distorted views of history will go with them. I think it's best to say nothing, give them no publicity at all. Besides, there are far worse.

 

[Poeticus]

Namaste, Atanu:​

Before I give my statement, I would like
to say that I am thankful of Andal for her
post.​

Atanu, what has helped me, or what has benefitted
me, is when I don't read books about Hinduism.
Instead, I read Hindu scripture.​

 

[ShivaFan]

I agree with Vinayaka, the best thing is to ignore this person. I knew nothung of this person before, now I know due to all this attention, don't like the Lingam misrepresentations that are frankly insulting, no one cared about this author's book before, 90 percent don't care now, 100 years from now it will have about as much interest as an autobiography by Anthony Weiner, enough said there is much worse out there.

Om Namah Sivaya

 

[Jaskaran Singh]

Before I give my statement, I would like
to say that I am thankful of Andal for his
post.​

[/INDENT][/INDENT]

AnDAl is a girl's name, lol.

 

[Poeticus]

AnDAl is a girl's name, lol.

...'twas an honest mistake.​

 

[Benst]

You know, I had just only recently became aware of Wendy Doniger and her works, and it seems that the major criticisms of her is that, as you said Atanu, she approaches Hinduism from the point of view of sex, and interpreting the religion as a whole through sex? If I understand some of the criticisms.

I'll be honest, I attended a western University that's quite well respected for Asian studies and I had never heard of her work at all... so if it means anything, I think her work is pretty a-standard and not mainstream at all.

 

[Jaskaran Singh]

...'twas an honest mistake.​

Honest mistake or not, as "punishment" (just kidding) you must listen to the entire thiruppavai (I'm just using this as a reason to post the following):
[youtube]1jb-5FNo9AU[/youtube]

 

[atanu]

I feel the best way is to say nothing. The ilk of Doniger will die off soon, and their distorted views of history will go with them. I think it's best to say nothing, give them no publicity at all. Besides, there are far worse.

Namaste Vinayaka

I agree with you. It would be best to leave these aside and do one's own puja, japa, dhyana and studies.

But suppose someone says some horrendous things about some one you love -- about your parents, about your sister, or about your wife, etc., will you be peaceful? We know about karma that the bad will befall the demonic one only. We know that. Yet, will a normal person not be disturbed with malicious propaganda about his loved dear and near ones. Now, Sri Ramakrishna is surely dear to many Indians as is Jesus to many christians.

Shri Ramana Maharshi is my guru and I should probably not be bothered about this, but I was disturbed too much after reading certain posts.

I agree with your observation "Besides, there are far worse". Doniger and Kripal are benign civil fellows. Their mistakes are not due to mal-intention -- most probably.

But that cannot be said about Geoffrey Falk and Narasingha P. Sil. I will show in the next post why I think so. Honestly, under oath of Shiva, I say that this thread is a product of pain and I am not enjoying it. The following post should be my last post in this thread, if not provoked beyond tolerance.

I thank all.

 

[atanu]

All material that are used to malign Sri Ramakrishna, in recent times, come from “Stripping the Gurus” of Mr. Falk. Falk has either blatantly distorted passages from Shri Nikhilananda’s translation or has cited some professor named Narasingha P. Sil.

Below is the example of how Mr. Falk simply blatantly distorts “Nikhilananda” translation.

Falk says:

http://www.thezensite.com/non_Zen/Stripping_the_Gurus.pdf
(Ramakrishna purportedly says):
I am terribly scared of women.... I see them as a tigress com-ing to devour me. Besides, I see large pores [cf. vagina sym-bols] in their limbs. I find all of them as ogres....
If my body is touched by a woman I feel sick.... The touched part aches as if stung by a horned catfish (in Nikhil-ananda, 1984).

The actual Nikhilananda text is:

THE MASTER'S LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEESĀS AND BRĀHMOS : - Chapter 51 : THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA
MASTER: "If a woman touches me I fall ill. That part of my body aches as if stung by a horned fish."
DR. SARKAR: "I believe that. But how can you get along without woman?"
MASTER: "My hand gets all twisted up if I hold money in it; my breathing stops. But there is no harm in spending money to lead a spiritual life in the world-if one spends it, for instance, in the worship of God and the service of holy men and devotees.
"A man forgets God if he is entangled in the world of māyā through a woman. It is the Mother of the Universe who has assumed the form of māyā, the form of woman. One who knows this rightly does not feel like leading the life of māyā in the world. But he who truly realizes that all women are manifestations of the Divine Mother may lead a spiritual life in the world. Without realizing God one cannot truly know what a woman is."

While quoting Mr. Sil also, Mr. Falk deletes the most important words that could help to understand the true meaning. The following is from Mr. Falk’s book “Stripping the Gurus”:

Nor was the sage’s manner of worship confined to his own genitalia:
[Ramakrishna] considered swear words [to be] as meaningful as the Vedas and the Puranas and was particularly fond of performing japa (ritual counting of rosary) by muttering the word “****” (Sil, 1998).

I could not find the 1998 paper of Mr. Sil. Below is given what Mr. Sil writes in a 2011 paper.



The Professor and the Paramahamsa: Martin Luther and Ramakrishna Compared
Narasingha P. Sil, Professor of History, Western Oregon University, USA E-mail: [email protected], Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 5; May 2011


".....Ramakrishna in fact considered curse words as meaningful as the Vedas and Puranas and was particularly fond of performing japa [ritual counting of rosary] by muttering the word “****” [yoni]. He told his devotees: “The moment I utter the word ‘****’ I behold the cosmic vagina, which is Ma Brahmamayi, and I sink into it.” (Sanyal, 1390 B.E.: 79)....."




One will note that the crucial word 'yoni' (used by Mr. Sanyal, a disciple of Shri Ramakrishna, in his celebrated "Shri Shri Lilamrita") is missing from "Stripping the Gurus" of Mr. Falk. And that makes all the difference. Falk succeeds to create a very vulgar picture of the sage.

Yoni is not **** in the context. Yoni is not the physical vagina in the context. Shri Krishna says "I am brahmayoni", meaning that He is the root of the manifested brahman. Is Sri Krishna the **** or vagina of brahma?



Either Mr. Sil is sick. Or he has no knowledge of language and particularly sanskrit. By translating 'yoni' as **** in reference to Shri Ramakrishna and also using words as Vagina etc, Mr. Sil is creating an unpardonable sin for himself. He is distorting the whole thing.

I have read some other so-called scholarly papers of Sil. It is amazing how he distorts simple things to present his pet biased theory. His pet theory is that Sri Ramakrishna had a sexual trauma in childhood -- a pet theme of Freudian scholars.

The bad part is that he is supposed to be an authority on Hinduism, being member of several editorial boards. I am sure that sooner or later he will suffer -- if his doings are intentional. Although, I rather wish that he is simply ignorant of the actual word meanings, and especially of sanskrit words used at the time of Sri Ramakrishna.

So, I believe that Mr. Falks and Mr. Narasingha P. Sil are far more dangerous than Ms. Doniger and Mr. Kripal, who actually used many of Mr. Sil's work without further checking up the actual words and their contextual meanings.

Again thank you all for reading and helping to dissipate the pain.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Thanks for the beautiful painting. Happy holi. Till there are such people, and people who support them in the academic world, there would be such books. I ignore them completely. However hard they may try, at last:

सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं, सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः l
येनाऽऽक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा, यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् ll

"Satyameva jayate nānritam, satyena panthā vitato devayānah;
yena ākramanti rishayo hi āptkāmā, yatra tat satyasya paramam nidhānam."

Only truth prevails not untruth, by the path of truth is laid out the Divine way;
on which the sages of yore fulfilled in their desires, attain the supreme treasure of Truth.

 

[Aupmanyav]

100 years from now it will have about as much interest as an autobiography by Anthony Weiner, enough said there is much worse out there.

100 years from now people will be disgusted by the so-called scholarship of the authors. I am sure, even now some are. The books reflect on the samskaras (upbringing), education, and (mean) mentality of the persons, if not the religion.