Latest update February 23rd, 2025 12:19 PM
Apr 08, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
The Caribbean Hindu Network (CHN), which has been in existence since 2002 and comprising 3,000 members, objects to the attack on Pujya Swami Aksharananda ji by Mr. Frederick Kissoon in his Kaieteur News column, “Aksharananda gets a taste of his own medicine” (Apr 04, 2017). Swamiji, needless to state, is the most revered Hindu leader in Guyana, and scholar whose reputation transcends the Caribbean. Mr. Kissoon, unable to address any of the issues raised by Swami Aksharananda, has once again exposed his shameless cowardice with his idea of truth.
He calls Swamiji a “Hindu priest by the name of Aksharananda”. This is outrageous, not because Frederick Kissoon is ignorant, but because he is deliberate in trying to dereognize Swami Aksharananda by calling him a “priest”, which is false. Kissoon further writes, “This man was the head of a secondary school, said he was the holder of the title of Swami, and was a religious preacher.” Again, Kissoon’s intention is clear, but once again shoots himself in the foot because everybody knows Swami Aksharananda is the Founder and Principal of the famous Swarawati Vidya Niketan (SVN) High School. Everybody who has ever had any dealing with Swami Aksharananda knows fully well that his trademark is that he does not blow his own horn as Kissoon tried to imply.
Swami Aksharananda is not a Hindu “priest” or a “religious preacher”. He was initiated into the highest order of Sanyaasa in India and since then his life and activities have been in the public domain and he is the most eminent Hindu leader in the country. Heads of state, scholars, researchers, priests, “Pandits” and ordinary people praise his work and admire his simplicity and integrity. Hindus will not tolerate such canine attacks by Frederick Kissson that amounts to violence on the name and reputation of Swami Aksharananda as well as the obnoxious attack on the entire system of Sanyaasa, representing the most distinguisted authority other than the sacred texts in Hinduism.
Swami Aksharananda is the most respected and scholarly Hindu leader in the history of Guyan; because the country has never produced a scholar of the caliber of Pujya Swami ji. He has been initiated into the sacred order Sanyaasi (Swami), he has renounced the need for material wealth, progeny or fame. Instead he has dedicated his life to work for the lokasangraha or the welfare and justice for all, including Mr. Frederick Kissoon.
Swami Aksharananda earned his doctorate from the prestigious University of Wisconsin at Madison and, also earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the equally famous Banaras Hindu University in India. So, Mr. Kissoon, if Swami Aksharananda wanted he could have taken up a plush academic job and lived the high life and would be Professor, or for that matter had he instead chosen to become a “priest”, he would have been called Doctor Odaipaul.
Kissoon is acutely aware of the pre-eminent status of Swami Aksharananda and targets him and other Indian leaders such as Ravi Dev and Ryhaan Shaw, who dare speak out against injustices in the society. Mr. Kissoon is deliberate and knows full well the great impact of Swami Aksharananda, not only in his public pronouncements, skills as an exemplary educator, and motivator of humanitarian services like his record-breaking blood donations in Guyana. Kissoon’s ongoing diatribe against Swamiji is probably motivated by a larger goal to undermine another important contribution of Swami Aksharananda, which is Swamiji’s role as a great mentor of other Hindu/Indian scholars, and that may explain Kissoon’s obsessive cowardly attacks.
Rishi Pooran (Moderator of CHN)
Feb 22, 2025
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