Once in a while I recall that I am born a Hindu. This is
usually around times when a whole lot of people are suddenly finding the need
to defend Hinduism.
1. This is a little ironic. Why do you need to protect that
which cannot be destroyed? Can the words or images of another person kill or
harm your religion? To those who believe in God/s: even if all the people who
believe in God should cease to exist will God/s cease to exist? Similarly, does
Hinduism need the acceptance and support of all those being fought against in
order to exist and flourish? It seems very reductionist and belittles Hinduism
for anyone to say that the religion needs protection.
2. This business of religious sentiments being hurt is even
more ridiculous. Why are Hindu religious sentiments hurt only by words and
images but not by un-Hindu actions such as rape, murder and the racism being
practiced against people from the NE in Delhi, or the displacement of Muslims
in Muzaffarnagar or a thousand such atrocious acts? We are a religion that
believes in the whole universe being a family, isn’t it? Why are we not
religiously wounded by such major offences that hurt millions of the universal
family but hugely traumatized by minor pinpricks such as a book that will be
read by a few thousand people?
3. Being the transcendent religion that believes animals and
trees and various forms, animate and inanimate, have the element of the Divine
running through them and are therefore nothing but mere manifestations of the
Unified One, how can we even distinguish between ‘ourselves’ and ‘others’?
Surely the distinction is impossible and the very idea of ‘not tolerating’
someone or some view would be inadmissible – for even the so-called offender is
nothing but another manifestation of the same ONE divine. So the idea of ‘getting upset’ so militantly at
someone’s view is, in my view, very un-Hindu.
4. In an ecological worldview that goes well beyond the
physical world, the notion is that every component have a just and fair place,
the justness and fairness of which is determined by the degree to which it
links with others and desists from eating into others’ space and resources.
Which is the idea behind being ‘content’ – to occupy that which fulfills your
need without competing with another’s, thus maintaining the ecosystem. Wanting more than this justifiable space and
resource takes you into the realm of that which does not (because it should
not) exist – maya. And we are taught not to want more than our remit for this
reason. This is a key principle by which the universe maintains its balance,
and disturbances take place when this balance is upset. Every time we seek to
dominate or attribute to ourselves the right to determine others’ activities in
their spheres (such as what they may think or write), we are guilty of going
beyond that which is justly ours – and again, being very un-Hindu!
5. And finally, like all great religions, Hinduism too
believes that real victory is one that is over oneself. No matter how much you
‘defeat’ your enemies, if you are unable to overcome yourself, that is, your
own limitations and the un-divine aspects of yourself, you cannot be considered
a victor. So if anyone is claiming victory at having ‘vanquished’ something
offensive, do desist, for you have not won.
