Vannakkam: Just this last week I realised that two of the longer term members here on HDF I had discussed with were the other gender than I had been imagining them to be!
Sometimes I think we are blinded by the words or our own responses, and fail to get that there is an actual human being who spent time considering and typing the words on the other end.
The original point is that we really know very very little about our fellow posters, unless we meet them in person. They may be gay, blind, hooked to steroids, hospitalised, aged 15, aged 75, divorced 3 times, prone to angry rants, too humble to say much at all, full of P and vinegar with ego, rich, poor, unskilled in English, celibate, adulterous, jailed, or living in any of 20 different countries.
As well, with regard to Hinduism, they can be traditional, just interested, of many sampradayas, truly committed to a particular lineage, universalist, of another faith just doing research, etc. We are, and should be, a mixed bag. It makes for better discussion. But to try to convince via condescending argument or insults that one way or another is better ... well, then
The only one thing we do know for sure is that it is a real live living breathing human who typed those words.
In some ways not knowing much is a good thing, because it discards gender, age, racial, ethnic, and appearance biases.
So it disappoints and saddens me when I see condescending attitudes, 'insult the other person's lineage or Guru' or I'm right and you're wrong' or 'Kick 'em when he's down' stuff going on.
But even those same individuals who do such are also people. Perhaps that angry rant was because of a medical inbalance, a bad day at the office, a scolding from a loved one or parent, an insecurity personal issue. We will never know. Still it is annoying or saddening, and many of us try not to respond, leaving it to the moderator to determine intent and harm.
Sorry for the ramble.
Aum Namasivaya
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