Seer wants Hindu scriptures taught in universities

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another-complaint-filed-against-shankaracharya-of-dwaraka-peeth-swaroopananda-saraswati_260614115331TNN | Mar 18, 2016, 11.33 PM IST

Ranchi: Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati on Friday requested the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) to consider including Hindu scriptures in college and university curriculum to “prevent cultural degeneration” among Hindu students.

The 91-year-old religious leader, who heads the four mathas (Dwaraka and Jyotirmath), said there is a sense of “growing faithlessness” among Hindu youth as compared to Islamic and Christian youth.

“The Islamic youth are being taught the fundamentals Islam in madrassas while Christian youth are given sermons in churches. But Hindu youth do not have a steady source of learning about the scriptures,” the Shankaracharya said here. “It is the Centre’s responsibility to preserve the traditions of the nation. The HRD ministry should consider making the Bhagvad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Upanishads a part of college and university curriculum,” he said.

Saraswati said the Gita and Ramcharitmanas were earlier taught in schools along with other religious texts in the colonial era.

A freedom fighter who even served a prison term for participating in the Quit India movement in 1942, Saraswati supported the Centre in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row. However, he believes beating and jailing students was not the best solution. “Students today are atheists. They do not have spiritual knowledge and have no regard for culture and tradition. There will be no nationalist sentiments with culture and tradition,” Saraswati said.

He also slammed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) stand on gay sex. “Gay sex is against the basic concept of biological reproduction,” the Shankaracharya said, adding that the RSS was violating its own ideologies. “Those who support gay sex are destroying the organization,” he said.
 
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Source: The Times of India