Must Hinduism Be Considered Dystopian on Account of the Caste System?
It may be
alleged that on account of its obsession with the caste system, its location of
the world in terms of mythic history as in the Kaliyuga, etc., Hinduism leaves
no room for a creatively utopian vision of humanity.
This would be misleading. Not only does Hinduism allow
for a golden age, it allows for two types of golden ages. How does it allow for
a golden age? And what are the two types of golden ages it allows for?
The Hindu imagination conceives of four Ages somewhat
akin to the Greek: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. And they are believed to
succeed one another in that order. We are now in the Iron age. How then can one
hold out hope for a golden age? One can, because according to such texts as the
Mahābhārata and
the Manusmṛti,
the king determines of the nature of the age. Their natural sequence has this
escape hatch – that the king can usher in a golden age at any time,
notwithstanding the generally degenerate nature of the age.
What then is the nature of this golden age, specifically
in relation to the caste system – that oppressive reality which might take the
shine off any golden age? Hindu thought seems to present at least four models
of the golden age. (1) According to one model, there is no caste system in the
golden age (the age which the king might seek to restore). The Bhāgavata Purāṇa
describes it as an age of one caste: varṇa
eka eva ca (IX. 14.4B). The commentator elaborates that this one
caste was called haṁsa, so that one caste here means no
caste. This model is thus slightly
different from the one according to which, in the golden age, there was only
one varṇa: the Brāhmaṇa. According to
this view, all were Brāhmaṇas
to begin with and other castes evolved out of them later. Thus the Mahābhārata states that
“there is no difference of castes: this world, having been at first created by
Brahmā entirely Brahmanic, became (afterwards) separated into castes in
consequence of works”. Later
verses make it clear that it was the Brāhmaṇa
caste which evolved into other castes. (3) According to a third model, both Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas were present in
the golden age, and other castes evolved later. Traces of this model are found
in the Rāmāyaṇa. (4) According to yet another model, all
the four castes are found in the golden age, which is characterized by the
“complete and eternal righteousness of the four castes,” as an age in which, “Brāhmaṇas,
Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, Śūdras possessed the characteristics of the Kṛta”. Traces of this model are also found in the
Rāmāyaṇa.
It is clear therefore, that Hinduism has its own concept
of a utopia in which caste discrimination has no place.
After
political Independence of India along with Partition in 1947, the attack on
Hindu Dharma is on the increase. Some reflections on this subject are given
below: -
1) Shri Jawaharlal Nehru became the Leader of India. By upbringing and temperament, he was more anti-Hindu than an indifferent Hindu. Inside the ruling Congress Party, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru functioned in a near-dictatorial manner, giving less and less importance to Hindu-minded Congress politicians like Shri Vallabh Bhai Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad; Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was more inclined to listen to Mountbattens, Shaikh Abdullah and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, and even ignored professional advice from Indian Military Commanders. In the framing of the Constitution of India also, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru interfered with Dr. Ambedkar’s work and got introduced into the Constitution, Articles like 25 to 30, (discouraging teachings of Hindu Dharma in educational Institutions but encouraging teachings of Christianity and Islam), and Article 370 (creating permanent troublesome problem for Hindus of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh), which led to driving out of Hindus from Jammu-Kashmir Stat
e. This driving out of Hindus from Jammu-Kashmir State due to Article 370, was in addition to driving out of Hindus from West Pakistan and East Pakistan which was a mistake jointly made by Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru while framing the terms of Partition of India.
Several anti-Hindu measures have subsequently followed from the two Big Mistakes of Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned in this paragraph.
2) Every religious community in the world is considerably influenced by the guidance provided by community’s religious leaders; Christians are guided by the Church, Muslims are guided by the Masjids. The program of both these religions is to drive out other religions from the surface of the Earth and replace them by their own religion, Christianity and Islam, whichever becomes stronger and mighter of these two religions. The learned Professor S. Radhakrishnan, late President of India, in his Book “Hindu Way of Life” (Unwin Books, 1968, 92 pages) has pointed out how the intolerance of Christianity and Islam is written in letters of blood across the history of man (Page 40). Naturally, the struggle between Christianity and Islam is still going on throughout the world; also, the removal of Hindu Dharma from the Earth is the common objective of both these religions. Readers are requested to read the above-mentioned small Book (92 Pages only) of Prof. Radhakrishnan.
3) One great difficulty of the Hindu community is the general ignorance of Hindu religious teachers about the teachings of Christianity and Islam in respect of Hindu Dharma. Without studying the theory of Christianity and Islam to remove Hindu Dharma from the Earth and before studying the history of these two religions, many Hindu religious teachers go on preaching to their Hindu devotees, the slogan: “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava.” These Hindu religious teachers have every right to talk about Hindu Dharma, but they have neither the right nor the competence to talk about other non-Hindu religions, until they have studied the theory and history of these non-Hindu religions. It should not be “the blind leading the blind.” Hindu devotees of these Hindu religious teachers can reasonably believe that their teachers must be knowing the theory and history of other religions while they are talking “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava.” But that is rarely true. Inter-religious peace cannot come from t
hese fallacious slogans. These slogans only keep the Hindus sleeping, wrongly trusting their many Hindu religious teachers. These ignorant Hindu religious teachers run away, fly away, when they see or even hear about the attackers from other religions coming to attack them; their great teachings “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava” are nowhere to be found even in the teachers themselves ! Let us stop this confusion, the misguiding tall talk. Hindu Dharma does not allow this type of confusion. Let us be Hindus and behave as Hindus.
Largely, the fault lies with us, Hindus. A Hindu teacher must teach what he has studied and understood. He should not teach from hearsay; he should not misguide lay Hindu people by talking about what he has not studied. He can just keep quiet about other religions which he has not studied properly.
4) Hindu secular politicians are the next class of Hindu leaders who have been misguiding innocent Hindus. These days, politicians have become the most important people receiving maximum publicity. Most of these politicians are not after Truth; they are after votes and money. These great politicians do not even know the origin and meaning of the word “Secularism”. In practice, in India, the word “secularism” stands for “anti-Hinduism”. Most of these Hindu secular politicians commit all sorts of sins in the name of “secularism”. They have forgotten the basic teaching of Hindu Dharma that “you cannot escape the consequences of your Karma, of what you are doing.” In many cases, it is found that the children of these great politicians make their parents very unhappy during this lifetime itself. What will follow in the next life is known to God, but can be guessed. There are all sorts of yoonis (species) in which we can take re-birth after leaving this human body.
5) In the publicity media, there are many Hindus. Several centuries of slavery have given us, Hindus, the habit of selling our conscience to those who would give us Kamni and Kanchan- sex and money. Publicity media in India are largely owned by anti-Hindus. Our Hindu media persons are generally anxious to please these owners of publicity media.
6) If basic teachings of Hindu Dharma are taught to us from our childhood itself, we are likely to walk along the right path of Hindu Dharma in later years of our life. For full two generations after our political independence in 1947, Hindu children have been denied the knowledge of basic teachings of Hindu Dharma. This has led to a great handicap for Hindu society. Many Hindus, particularly in urban areas, do not know the value of Hindu dharma, Hindu culture, and Hindu traditions. These grown-ups have little value for Hindu dharma, culture, and traditions. We are floating in the stream of anti-Hindu environment. We have learnt reading and writing but not the values of good life.
Fortunately, Hindus in rural India have retained some of the values of Hindu Dharma. So, all is not lost for Hindus.
7) Also, Hindus outside India are more Hindu-minded than Hindus inside India. This is what I realized after going out of India for eight to nine years. For most of this time, I was out of touch with the confusing and foggy thinking atmosphere prevalent in India in respect of Hindu Dharma versus Islam and Christianity. I went out of India as a supporter of the idea “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”. What did I find outside India? There was very strong and organized move from Islam and Christianity, to remove Hindu Dharma from the surface of the Earth. I was surprised. Myself and my wife decided that after retirement from my UNO job, I shall have time and money to study subject of religion independently by looking into the Holy Quran, Holy Bible, and authoritative literature on these subjects. After retirement and settling down back in India, I procured authoritative literature on religion in general and on Islam and Christianity in particular, from outside India and inside India. I ma
de a decent personal library and also a place of study by myself and some friends, who could independently study and have independent discussions, free from the surrounding foggy atmosphere prevailing in India. The thinking atmosphere inside India on this subject has been very foggy, the fog being generated all around, all the time, by radio, T.V., Press, political leaders, and even many Hindu Sadhus ! Independent thinking on this subject is very difficult, if not impossible. But I was determined. After some prolonged study and discussion, I found out:
(i) India’s rise and fall depend on religion.
(ii) India fell into political slavery due to jealousy among Hindu religious leaders and mis-interpretation of Hindu religious literature which was available in abundance, giving some persons freedom to give contradictory interpretations and create controversies. Some of these quarrelling religious people even encouraged and helped the invading Islamist leaders to enter western borders of India and defeat the Hindu rulers. This was a matter of revelation for me, though full of shame.
(iii) The invaders worked havoc, shattering the temples, burning the libraries, slaughtering the Kshatriya warriors, inducing the bachelor Hindu Sadhus to convert to Islam and marry the widows and daughters of slaughtered Hindu warriors along with their properties and to become subordinate ruling officers answerable to the invaders. Some bachelor Hindu Sadhus ran away inland inside India to save their life and religion. The Muslim conquest of India extended over large parts of India, particularly north India. There were some gallant Hindus who put up a strong fight but the invading forces became too powerful, getting the help of some treacherous and jealous-type Hindu fighters, Hindus fighting against Hindus, under the overall leadership of Muslims. It was a shameful sight to read and imagine.
(iv) Towards the end of Muslim Rule, the European Christians entered the Indian coast. They came as traders but found a prosperous vast area of India almost available for military conquest. After fighting amongst themselves near the Indian coast, the Europeans left Britishers to conquer and rule over India.
(v) After the little gun-fighting, the Britishers adopted a very intelligent method of handling and ruling over the Hindus of India. The clever Christian Missionaries studied Sanskrit, prepared exhaustive Sanskrit – English dictionaries, critically looked at Hindu religious Sanskrit literature and decided to conquer the minds of Hindus through careful psychological approach such that the upper class of Hindu society would become hateful towards their original Hindu culture, Hindu history, and Hindu way of life. They encouraged their successful “targets” to go to England, get Bar-at-Law qualification, other academic respected qualifications and above all Indian Civil Service (ICS) and to get highest administrative posts in India.
8) Hindu Temple Authorities have a duty to look after the security of Hindu society and Hindu Dharma. They can worship their God inside the Temple but what about God inside the people outside who support the Temple and its establishment? If the Authorities do not recognize God in Temple’s devotees outside helping in maintenance of the Temple, and do not see their duty of protecting the devotees of God, then a question has to be asked about the necessity of having these Temples at all.
Hindu Sadhus and Hindu Temple Authorities cannot escape this duty towards Hindu society by saying that they have renounced worldly life and hence cannot participate in worldly activities. Do they live under a roof or keep moving from place to place, living under the trees and live on fruits falling from the trees? If they live such a wandering life, they can certainly give an excuse of having renounced worldly life and worldly activities. But, many of the Sadhus live under a roof and have arrangements of being served regular food. At least this class of Sadhus have a duty towards protecting Hindu Dharma and Hindu society which helps them to survive.
The Hindu Dharma and the Hindu Temples are under severe attack by anti-Hindus, and time is running out for quick, strong, and effective steps to be taken by Hindus themselves to save Hindu Dharma, Hindu society, Hindu children, and Hindustan. The Temple authorities themselves or with the help of knowledgeable persons, Temple Authorities must educate the Hindus about their duties prescribed by Hindu Dharma and also about the increasing attacks on Hindu Dharma in Hindustan and outside Hindustan.
9) Many Hindus feel that the slogan “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava” is a Vedic Mantra; it is not. The slogan was coined by Mahatma Gandhi on 23rd September 1930 inside Yerwada Jail, Pune, against the advice of Kaka Kalelkar Sahib, and communicated it to his disciples at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad in his weekly letter, followed by another supporting weekly letter on 30th September 1930. In Vedic times, there was no religion like Christianity and Islam to destroy Hindu Dharma; the word “Dharma” was used by Hindus and Hindu teachers to mean the “duty” of a Hindu in different stages and situations of life.
10) Now-a-days, the word “dharma” is used for “dharmas” like “Christianity”,“Islam” and “Hinduism”, each of which has its own prescribed way of life, its own beliefs and culture. We should study the beliefs and cultures of all these religions before we utter the slogan “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”. How many Hindus know that Islam (Holy Quran and Hadis) and Christianity (Holy Bible) condemn Hindu Dharma and teach their followers to remove Hindu Dharma from the surface of the Earth? If our Hindu friends do not know even this much about Islam and Christianity, then what right do they have to declare to Hindus “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”? Do they mean to teach the Hindus that they should accept, calmly and quietly, even gladly, to be removed from the surface of the Earth? Why should they be weakening the Hindu minds from resisting their own destruction? When the sense of self-preservation is gone and resistance to one’s own destruction becomes absent, then the very principle of life
is violated. Then Hindus cannot survive on this Earth; the basic principle of Vedas is lost. Virtually, Hindu teachers become the enemies of Hindu Dharma and Hindu society.
11) We Hindus are here, to give a Message to the whole human society : The Lord of the Universe (God/Goddess) is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent. There is no place, no substance where God/Goddess is not present. He/She has taken Infinite number of forms in which forms we can worship and see Him/Her.
Einstein showed that Matter is condensed Energy in various forms; E= Mc2 where E is Energy, M is Mass and c is the velocity of light in vacuum. There are infinite forms of mass but behind this variety of mass, there is One Energy. Similarly, Rishis of humanity, Hindu Vedic Rishis, realized and declared: Isha Vasyam Idam Sarvam, Yat Kimcha Jagtyam Jagat; God pervades in whatever exists in the Universe.
Then where shall I deny the existence of this Isha (God/Goddess)?
How can I accept the statement that God is jealous, as taught in The Holy Quran and The Holy Bible? Of whom should He be jealous and what for?
Let the whole World live in Peace and Happiness, seeing and worshipping God/Goddess in every thing around.
12) Through the modern methods of communication, let us spread the knowledge of Hindu Dharma as applicable in various aspects of daily life- Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Let Hindu temples and Hindu Sadhus take a lead in strengthening the Hindu society on right lines through these modern methods of communication. Like the Churches and Masjids, Hindu temples must play their important role in spreading the message of Hindu Dharma.
1) Shri Jawaharlal Nehru became the Leader of India. By upbringing and temperament, he was more anti-Hindu than an indifferent Hindu. Inside the ruling Congress Party, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru functioned in a near-dictatorial manner, giving less and less importance to Hindu-minded Congress politicians like Shri Vallabh Bhai Patel and Dr. Rajendra Prasad; Shri Jawaharlal Nehru was more inclined to listen to Mountbattens, Shaikh Abdullah and Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, and even ignored professional advice from Indian Military Commanders. In the framing of the Constitution of India also, Shri Jawaharlal Nehru interfered with Dr. Ambedkar’s work and got introduced into the Constitution, Articles like 25 to 30, (discouraging teachings of Hindu Dharma in educational Institutions but encouraging teachings of Christianity and Islam), and Article 370 (creating permanent troublesome problem for Hindus of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh), which led to driving out of Hindus from Jammu-Kashmir Stat
e. This driving out of Hindus from Jammu-Kashmir State due to Article 370, was in addition to driving out of Hindus from West Pakistan and East Pakistan which was a mistake jointly made by Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru while framing the terms of Partition of India.
Several anti-Hindu measures have subsequently followed from the two Big Mistakes of Mahatma Gandhi and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned in this paragraph.
2) Every religious community in the world is considerably influenced by the guidance provided by community’s religious leaders; Christians are guided by the Church, Muslims are guided by the Masjids. The program of both these religions is to drive out other religions from the surface of the Earth and replace them by their own religion, Christianity and Islam, whichever becomes stronger and mighter of these two religions. The learned Professor S. Radhakrishnan, late President of India, in his Book “Hindu Way of Life” (Unwin Books, 1968, 92 pages) has pointed out how the intolerance of Christianity and Islam is written in letters of blood across the history of man (Page 40). Naturally, the struggle between Christianity and Islam is still going on throughout the world; also, the removal of Hindu Dharma from the Earth is the common objective of both these religions. Readers are requested to read the above-mentioned small Book (92 Pages only) of Prof. Radhakrishnan.
3) One great difficulty of the Hindu community is the general ignorance of Hindu religious teachers about the teachings of Christianity and Islam in respect of Hindu Dharma. Without studying the theory of Christianity and Islam to remove Hindu Dharma from the Earth and before studying the history of these two religions, many Hindu religious teachers go on preaching to their Hindu devotees, the slogan: “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava.” These Hindu religious teachers have every right to talk about Hindu Dharma, but they have neither the right nor the competence to talk about other non-Hindu religions, until they have studied the theory and history of these non-Hindu religions. It should not be “the blind leading the blind.” Hindu devotees of these Hindu religious teachers can reasonably believe that their teachers must be knowing the theory and history of other religions while they are talking “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava.” But that is rarely true. Inter-religious peace cannot come from t
hese fallacious slogans. These slogans only keep the Hindus sleeping, wrongly trusting their many Hindu religious teachers. These ignorant Hindu religious teachers run away, fly away, when they see or even hear about the attackers from other religions coming to attack them; their great teachings “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava” are nowhere to be found even in the teachers themselves ! Let us stop this confusion, the misguiding tall talk. Hindu Dharma does not allow this type of confusion. Let us be Hindus and behave as Hindus.
Largely, the fault lies with us, Hindus. A Hindu teacher must teach what he has studied and understood. He should not teach from hearsay; he should not misguide lay Hindu people by talking about what he has not studied. He can just keep quiet about other religions which he has not studied properly.
4) Hindu secular politicians are the next class of Hindu leaders who have been misguiding innocent Hindus. These days, politicians have become the most important people receiving maximum publicity. Most of these politicians are not after Truth; they are after votes and money. These great politicians do not even know the origin and meaning of the word “Secularism”. In practice, in India, the word “secularism” stands for “anti-Hinduism”. Most of these Hindu secular politicians commit all sorts of sins in the name of “secularism”. They have forgotten the basic teaching of Hindu Dharma that “you cannot escape the consequences of your Karma, of what you are doing.” In many cases, it is found that the children of these great politicians make their parents very unhappy during this lifetime itself. What will follow in the next life is known to God, but can be guessed. There are all sorts of yoonis (species) in which we can take re-birth after leaving this human body.
5) In the publicity media, there are many Hindus. Several centuries of slavery have given us, Hindus, the habit of selling our conscience to those who would give us Kamni and Kanchan- sex and money. Publicity media in India are largely owned by anti-Hindus. Our Hindu media persons are generally anxious to please these owners of publicity media.
6) If basic teachings of Hindu Dharma are taught to us from our childhood itself, we are likely to walk along the right path of Hindu Dharma in later years of our life. For full two generations after our political independence in 1947, Hindu children have been denied the knowledge of basic teachings of Hindu Dharma. This has led to a great handicap for Hindu society. Many Hindus, particularly in urban areas, do not know the value of Hindu dharma, Hindu culture, and Hindu traditions. These grown-ups have little value for Hindu dharma, culture, and traditions. We are floating in the stream of anti-Hindu environment. We have learnt reading and writing but not the values of good life.
Fortunately, Hindus in rural India have retained some of the values of Hindu Dharma. So, all is not lost for Hindus.
7) Also, Hindus outside India are more Hindu-minded than Hindus inside India. This is what I realized after going out of India for eight to nine years. For most of this time, I was out of touch with the confusing and foggy thinking atmosphere prevalent in India in respect of Hindu Dharma versus Islam and Christianity. I went out of India as a supporter of the idea “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”. What did I find outside India? There was very strong and organized move from Islam and Christianity, to remove Hindu Dharma from the surface of the Earth. I was surprised. Myself and my wife decided that after retirement from my UNO job, I shall have time and money to study subject of religion independently by looking into the Holy Quran, Holy Bible, and authoritative literature on these subjects. After retirement and settling down back in India, I procured authoritative literature on religion in general and on Islam and Christianity in particular, from outside India and inside India. I ma
de a decent personal library and also a place of study by myself and some friends, who could independently study and have independent discussions, free from the surrounding foggy atmosphere prevailing in India. The thinking atmosphere inside India on this subject has been very foggy, the fog being generated all around, all the time, by radio, T.V., Press, political leaders, and even many Hindu Sadhus ! Independent thinking on this subject is very difficult, if not impossible. But I was determined. After some prolonged study and discussion, I found out:
(i) India’s rise and fall depend on religion.
(ii) India fell into political slavery due to jealousy among Hindu religious leaders and mis-interpretation of Hindu religious literature which was available in abundance, giving some persons freedom to give contradictory interpretations and create controversies. Some of these quarrelling religious people even encouraged and helped the invading Islamist leaders to enter western borders of India and defeat the Hindu rulers. This was a matter of revelation for me, though full of shame.
(iii) The invaders worked havoc, shattering the temples, burning the libraries, slaughtering the Kshatriya warriors, inducing the bachelor Hindu Sadhus to convert to Islam and marry the widows and daughters of slaughtered Hindu warriors along with their properties and to become subordinate ruling officers answerable to the invaders. Some bachelor Hindu Sadhus ran away inland inside India to save their life and religion. The Muslim conquest of India extended over large parts of India, particularly north India. There were some gallant Hindus who put up a strong fight but the invading forces became too powerful, getting the help of some treacherous and jealous-type Hindu fighters, Hindus fighting against Hindus, under the overall leadership of Muslims. It was a shameful sight to read and imagine.
(iv) Towards the end of Muslim Rule, the European Christians entered the Indian coast. They came as traders but found a prosperous vast area of India almost available for military conquest. After fighting amongst themselves near the Indian coast, the Europeans left Britishers to conquer and rule over India.
(v) After the little gun-fighting, the Britishers adopted a very intelligent method of handling and ruling over the Hindus of India. The clever Christian Missionaries studied Sanskrit, prepared exhaustive Sanskrit – English dictionaries, critically looked at Hindu religious Sanskrit literature and decided to conquer the minds of Hindus through careful psychological approach such that the upper class of Hindu society would become hateful towards their original Hindu culture, Hindu history, and Hindu way of life. They encouraged their successful “targets” to go to England, get Bar-at-Law qualification, other academic respected qualifications and above all Indian Civil Service (ICS) and to get highest administrative posts in India.
8) Hindu Temple Authorities have a duty to look after the security of Hindu society and Hindu Dharma. They can worship their God inside the Temple but what about God inside the people outside who support the Temple and its establishment? If the Authorities do not recognize God in Temple’s devotees outside helping in maintenance of the Temple, and do not see their duty of protecting the devotees of God, then a question has to be asked about the necessity of having these Temples at all.
Hindu Sadhus and Hindu Temple Authorities cannot escape this duty towards Hindu society by saying that they have renounced worldly life and hence cannot participate in worldly activities. Do they live under a roof or keep moving from place to place, living under the trees and live on fruits falling from the trees? If they live such a wandering life, they can certainly give an excuse of having renounced worldly life and worldly activities. But, many of the Sadhus live under a roof and have arrangements of being served regular food. At least this class of Sadhus have a duty towards protecting Hindu Dharma and Hindu society which helps them to survive.
The Hindu Dharma and the Hindu Temples are under severe attack by anti-Hindus, and time is running out for quick, strong, and effective steps to be taken by Hindus themselves to save Hindu Dharma, Hindu society, Hindu children, and Hindustan. The Temple authorities themselves or with the help of knowledgeable persons, Temple Authorities must educate the Hindus about their duties prescribed by Hindu Dharma and also about the increasing attacks on Hindu Dharma in Hindustan and outside Hindustan.
9) Many Hindus feel that the slogan “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava” is a Vedic Mantra; it is not. The slogan was coined by Mahatma Gandhi on 23rd September 1930 inside Yerwada Jail, Pune, against the advice of Kaka Kalelkar Sahib, and communicated it to his disciples at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad in his weekly letter, followed by another supporting weekly letter on 30th September 1930. In Vedic times, there was no religion like Christianity and Islam to destroy Hindu Dharma; the word “Dharma” was used by Hindus and Hindu teachers to mean the “duty” of a Hindu in different stages and situations of life.
10) Now-a-days, the word “dharma” is used for “dharmas” like “Christianity”,“Islam” and “Hinduism”, each of which has its own prescribed way of life, its own beliefs and culture. We should study the beliefs and cultures of all these religions before we utter the slogan “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”. How many Hindus know that Islam (Holy Quran and Hadis) and Christianity (Holy Bible) condemn Hindu Dharma and teach their followers to remove Hindu Dharma from the surface of the Earth? If our Hindu friends do not know even this much about Islam and Christianity, then what right do they have to declare to Hindus “Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava”? Do they mean to teach the Hindus that they should accept, calmly and quietly, even gladly, to be removed from the surface of the Earth? Why should they be weakening the Hindu minds from resisting their own destruction? When the sense of self-preservation is gone and resistance to one’s own destruction becomes absent, then the very principle of life
is violated. Then Hindus cannot survive on this Earth; the basic principle of Vedas is lost. Virtually, Hindu teachers become the enemies of Hindu Dharma and Hindu society.
11) We Hindus are here, to give a Message to the whole human society : The Lord of the Universe (God/Goddess) is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent. There is no place, no substance where God/Goddess is not present. He/She has taken Infinite number of forms in which forms we can worship and see Him/Her.
Einstein showed that Matter is condensed Energy in various forms; E= Mc2 where E is Energy, M is Mass and c is the velocity of light in vacuum. There are infinite forms of mass but behind this variety of mass, there is One Energy. Similarly, Rishis of humanity, Hindu Vedic Rishis, realized and declared: Isha Vasyam Idam Sarvam, Yat Kimcha Jagtyam Jagat; God pervades in whatever exists in the Universe.
Then where shall I deny the existence of this Isha (God/Goddess)?
How can I accept the statement that God is jealous, as taught in The Holy Quran and The Holy Bible? Of whom should He be jealous and what for?
Let the whole World live in Peace and Happiness, seeing and worshipping God/Goddess in every thing around.
12) Through the modern methods of communication, let us spread the knowledge of Hindu Dharma as applicable in various aspects of daily life- Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Let Hindu temples and Hindu Sadhus take a lead in strengthening the Hindu society on right lines through these modern methods of communication. Like the Churches and Masjids, Hindu temples must play their important role in spreading the message of Hindu Dharma.
No comments:
Post a Comment