I particularly liked the paragraph on 3. Brain washed beliefs
you should also add a 4th point on misguided beleifs.
one wrong teacher can misguide a whole lot of beleivers. brainwashing is easier to a teacher or guide than the rest. we tend to become like flocks of sheep before him.
and speaking of evidences I am reminded of sriraman's message on " common sense"( a very uncommon commodity ) he said
evidences in history and archeology are rarely staraight forward and that is where one needs a common sense approach.
there is one stone in kapali temple, mylapore which has all the inscriptions upside down. can any one put forward a theory that the sculptor carved it while doing "sirasaasanam" common sense dictates that that stone was replaced in a hurry.
evidences come in many forms. it is common sense which dictate what we take and what we leave. last week we discussed about a kalvettu in kachur . a petty chieftain called gopala thevar calls him thirubuvana chakravarthy in one inscription. if inscriptions are the only form of evidence then are we to place this guy on par with rrc.
if we dont get a single inscription on rrc's death. does that mean he never died?
RRC is great for us and his crowning achievement is the big temple. but during the same century and the ones preceding and succeeding it a dozen equivalent monuments were built in kingdoms of india with not so much resources as cholas. in kalinga, in madyapradesh, in bihar.
"one wrong teacher can misguide a whole lot of beleivers. brainwashing is easier to a teacher or guide than the rest. we tend to become like flocks of sheep before him."