Culture is more than a thing that can fascinate an alien. A culture with common sense is what is lacking in today’s world. The Egyptian, Persian, Mesopotamian have all been replaced with a newer culture which is a mix of many. The Chinese culture is communism……….ho ho ho ….. It’s authoritarian …. Do you call it culture? The Greek interests were usurped by Constantine to his grave, probably they RIP (Rest In Pieces) on his tombstone. Culture is yet to bloom in most of parts of the Dark Continent. The rest of the world, the land of immigrants which are being hailed as the new world absolutely has no culture.
There is one place where culture has carried with it the common sense as its back bone through ages. The land that stretches between the Himalayan fangs and the colored sand beaches has metamorphosed on the anvil of God several times with the backbone intact. Come what may, the culture of the land has remained the same removing the aging effects. The God of the Buddhists, Gautama’s talk just tried to rob the people to a great extent, up to even 3 lakh people in one discourse. The Muhammadians ransacked, looted, desecrated, raped, threatened, killed and what did they not do, the faith remained strong though divided as always. Then it was the queens turn to try her tricks, it was the cross instead of the crescent this once. The peaceful coercion by the Light of Asia and the blood on the Sword of the Prophet and the wiliness of the Union Jack were all absorbed in: the extraction became the incarnation, the desecration is now conviction and the final deception is the connecting diction.
All these reflect the unique greatness of the culture. The culture has been known as Sanatana Dharma and is now being commonly referred to as Hinduism. The wrong notion of many east bashing philosophers is that the Hinduism is a religion and so believes the few ignorant Indians.
The “few” denotes the count which is little greater in number than the Indian General Election percent turnout.
Stoic to any change or perhaps the better way to put it is subordination to any kind of authority shows that the people are not of revolting kind. The parody I would like to site, “the land of Jagannath and not Juggernaughts”. In a history spanning over many thousands of years, richness stuffed aeons after aeons, there has not been a single revolution at least a successful one. I wonder how democracy is the best suited form of government for country with such people. This is just a weak donkey under a tiger skin. Lal Mohan and Man Kishan can perhaps spend their time usefully trying to decipher a new name for the form of governance in India for the past 62 years instead of the useless verbal war already under contract. We can even recommend their names for Nobel Prize in literature. I, helping the duo with the first suggestion, “Hoaxocracy”.
On the track again, we see that India had an ice box which no other place on earth had. You know what that ice box is? It came in the form of the caste system. Brahmins have played a vital part in the preserving and passing down the age old knowledge to the present days. This helps us a lot in how civilized our ancestors were and put a check on the other countries’ wrong claims of “Firsts”, practically making us feel fleetingly proud.
The Brahmins preserved everything orally for many years and then later in the form of writings, things that were both relevant and irrelevant to them. The ancient caste system expects the Brahmins to be learned and authorizes their authority over scriptures, ceremonies and education. There were so many divisions among the Brahmins and still continue to be. Apart from the normal Brahmins that we all know today from our daily interactions and from the history lessons, there is a group of Brahmins that fascinate me. The Dutt Brahmins from Punjab: Their story is one of a great deal. These people feature in the Islamic history fighting for Imam Hussein voluntarily, not out of force or coercion.
A short glimpse of the 626- 680 AD shows the struggle for succession following Prophet Muhammad. Abu-Bakr is named the first Caliph disputed by followers of Ali who happens to be the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet: husband of Fatimah. After Abu-Bakr, Omar and Usman, Ali becomes the Caliph for five years. After five years Ali was wounded by a Kharijite but died shortly. He was followed by his two sons Hassan and Hussein. While Sunnis believe in the four Rashidun caliphs, the Shiites believe in the twelve Imams starting with Ali. Hussein is one of the Imams. Due to difference of opinion between the caliph Yazid and Imam Hussein, there ensued the Battle of Karbala (in modern Iraq). For this the Dutts from Punjab came to fight the war on the side of Imam Hussein. Though Imam Hussein was beheaded in the battle, still that day is called as Moharram by Shiites around the world. Most of the Dutts came back while some settled back there in Iraq.
The “Sanju Baba - Sallu Bhai” story is not a new one, well; you see it’s just the continuation of the 1500 year old story.
Getting back again, the Brahmins were always consulted by all the kings on major decisions. They even formed the pivotal reason for many Kingdoms. One of the most noted is the Maurya kingdom. Chanakya was the man instrumental in shaping up the kingdom. This was one of the biggest and the greatest empires in the Indian history.
Well, the tradition was passed, preserved and again it is getting passed. So what? Enough of the apotheosis. The snake of the Eden showed that Apple comes with mortality. That’s the first, this is the second snake. The Brahmins should be thanked and respected for their help to this culture and not adored or worshipped. This is their duty: to read the scriptures. After all, the scriptures were written by Brahmins and they were passed down the generations by Brahmins. Why should not anyone doubt them for writing it for their convenience, faking it? They are humans too?
Faith is a very bad thing most of the times and good sometimes.” Most of the times “refer to 99.5 % and “sometimes” refer to 0.5 %. They write and pass it down and everyone has to believe it. Why would God talk to them alone, if he prescribed the duties himself? Would not he be concerned towards all his creations? I believe in God and I also believe that he would not do such a non-sense as to believe in something or someone to pass on his wishes and words.
He is God, not a human. And what if his faiths and believes are shattered……? Maybe he does not have a heart!--A highly advantageous mutation.
All these segregation of duties and demarcation of people into castes and religions are artificial and I can only say that these are either the results of the anthrophilic aspirations of an individual or a group gone wrong because of the changes in time or the crooked selfish aspirations of the same individual or a group gone right. In either case, I do not approve the non-sense. Not only the kings revered the Brahmins but the British did too. Brahmins formed the highest percentage of civil service holders during the British rule in India. This was in a latter period and it was partly due to richness in the gene pool of Brahmins due to thousands of years of scripture reading and partly due to the well known slyness of divide and rule of the British Raj. Now that the gene pool is diversified and diluted, it is not shown out glaringly. The words Brahmin and anti-Brahmin need to be reformed.
Dharma is all about self consciousness and world welfare consciousness. No one needs to preserve these in scriptures but nurture these in individuals. That is what this culture is great in doing. That is what the need of the hour is. Brahmins and the scriptures are to be respected if they are good but not glorified even if they are bad. That’s what the society has been doing till the early 20th century.
I do not know how this works, but one of these two is true:Brahmins seek power or Power seeks Brahmins. They can never be a king, but always a king maker.
Though I loathed the self respect movement launched by E.V. Ramasamy, affectionately called as Periyar, it must have been a very much needed movement to strike a balance in his period, though I doubt its need for its continuation even today by the other Dravidian movements. The part that went wrong with these movements is that, when they try to malign the Brahmins, it was the values and culture that the Brahmins were carrying that were maligned too. Well it is actually difficult to separate the two: like sorrow and joy they come hand in hand. Periyar went to an extent quoting to his followers, “Kill the Brahmin first and then the snake in case of a simultaneous encounter”. This was extreme hatred and fanaticism and was the result of ideology running on political wheels.
Brahmins are not the snake of Eden or that of Periyar. They are humans with aspirations in their blood like any other human being. It is hard to find the difference between the God that punishes and a devil that protects from the inside of the black box.
However Life without the Hindu values is like seeking pornography in spirituality.
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1 comments:
Good one, narayana.
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