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Monday, April 29 2002
Hinduism Is A Great Religion
- GP

GP has just obtained his M.Tech degree from IIT Delhi. His hobbies include astronomy and reading. A techologist at work but a philosopher at heart is how he views himself


Hinduism is a great religion. There is no doubt about that. All, the true and the false admirers of this religion have got that right. Unfortunately most of us have not truly understood its greatness.

This is a message to all those self ordained representatives of Hinduism, to those who believe are it?s defenders, a duty which they have to carry out at any cost. A deed so noble they believe that it is a worth a few lives. For at the end of it when victory is achieved dharma would prevail, they believe.

I would wish to address a few things to you, starting with, do you understand Hinduism?

Sarve janaha sukhinov bhavantu

Logically speaking I should not be translating this Sanskrit verse for you, for after all you claim to be the masters of this language, is it not? So who am I with my limited if any knowledge of Sanskrit to translate this for you. But alas, I have to. I have to because with all your expertise in Sanskrit you fail to understand its meaning. What the verse means, is that let everyone in this world have peace and happiness. Everyone mind you, look carefully no mention of religion, caste, gender or colour. And why not? After all was it not the same Bramha who created everyone. So why should someone be denied peace or safety just on the basis of some arbitrary classification.

Yes, of course, we gave everyone a chance, but see what happened ?.
The Ghaznis and the Ghoris, plundered us. The missionaries tried to pull our name in mud, so should?nt we give them a dose of our own medicine. A standard dialogue which you so often say. To this I can only reply, O foolish ones the Ghaznis and the Ghoris raided with their armies true but in what way are you different. They plundered the cities and massacred the innocents with their armies, you do the same with your hooligans. You claim that we are thrashing those out to defame us. Do you lack the common sense to realize that by inflicting pain on others you are playing straight into the hands of those out to defame this religion. Sorry, you are not stopping them you are helping them strengthen their case.

All this talk is fine, but if I cannot build a temple in this land of the hindus, where do I build them? That piece of land is my basic right, if we loose it, we shall be branded as mere weaklings. Correct? No absolutely wrong. Think for yourselves (if you are capable of that) Is a temple built on rivers of blood really a place worthy of worship? Is it more important than the lives of our fellowmen? Think big, it is not worth it, by giving up, true you shall loose a few acres of land but in the process you would have won the hearts of millions and more importantly you will find a huge place in the heart of god itself. Now it is up to you to decide which is more important.

You force your ideologies on others, try to force subjects like astrology into universities. I shall not get into a debate on astrology. As a scientist if I start giving my logical reasons against it, you will be accusing me of being a slave to the western mind, you would club me with those who would say or do anything to be a hit with the western world. So instead I would like to pose this question to you. Do you really believe that you can read the mind of God and thus predict events with certainity and not just that but also be confident enough to give courses on how to read what God has written? Learn the subject by all means, if you so wish, but please remember that disbelief in the same does not make anyone a less Hindu. Remember that Hinduism does not disown the atheist (not that I am one, if it is of any consolation to you). After all as you claim don't the Vedas advocate science. So there is no way that you can tell anyone that he or she is not a Hindu.

The Vedas, that is another point I would like to discuss about. Let us not argue as to whether they had an author or are completely authorless. Indeed for the moment let us assume that they always existed. If that is the case, then no mortal can represent the Vedas and if the Vedas are the embodiment of Hinduism, I dare ask you this. On what basis do you claim to be the representatives of an entity that cannot be represented by mere humans? Who consecrated you? No I do not consider you in anyway as the representatives of my religion. The question then is that who are you in reality? Mere impostors? Or a set of confused personalities? Irrational, illogical irreligious and inhumane beings are how I look at you.

I can hear you retorting. Such blasphemous remarks, "if you were of some other religion, there would be a fatwa issued against you, we are tolerant, that is why people like you can get away with this." To this I wish to say "Yes my religion is tolerant that is why it has to tolerate even bigots like you. If it were not tolerant some sensible people would have been extremely glad to excommunicate you from this religion, for the kind of frauds that you are. But Hinduism speaks of tolerance and like it or not we shall tolerate you."

Finally I wish to remind you that this religion has withstood the test of time. In their own ways many have tried to wipe us out, none have succeeded. The reason being that no individual or a group can represent this religion. However in your fanaticism, by attempting to do the same you might destroy its main strength. However again I say that such is the greatness of this religion that I am confident that we shall survive inspite of people like you as well. Perhaps the most important thing to remember now is that we also belong to an another much greater religion, a religion named humanity and we are all its gods.

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