Breaking the yoke of ignorance!

Benzaiten, Japanese equivalent
to the diety Saraswati.

Saraswati Pooja used to be a vital feature in our household in childhood. The highlight of the whole event was placing our textbooks and getting the blessings of Goddess Saraswati. Thinking we would perform better in studies with Her blessings was naive. Amma did not fail to gently remind us that praying would not make us pass exams. We needed to put in the hours and concentration. There was no substitute for education; it was our key to happiness.

Every Saraswati Pooja reminds me of my childhood of respecting books and learned individuals, irrespective of their teaching styles or content. Then I questioned myself: Can smut be given the same recognition if presented in book form? With all the ill effects that come out of the web but nullified by all the good things it spreads, does it still qualify as a learning tool?

I soon realised that the spirit of Saraswati is the zest of reinforcing to immerse oneself into the ocean of knowledge. It is also a reminder that we are the privileged few whose journey through education is a given right. It is a prompt for us to appreciate those who reached greater despite the odds against them to acquire knowledge.

Ruby Bridges, 6, attending Elementary
School in 1960, accompanied by
US Marshals.

Offhand, I remember the people of my mother’s generation whose parents thought a child’s job was to take over the lead of feeding the family as soon as their bodies transitioned into adulthood, which can be as early as 14 for a girl and 16 for a male. My mother’s desire to continue studies and fly high was clipped prematurely after her primary Tamil school studies, and my uncle had to literally stay away from his family to earn to finance his upper secondary school studies.

Salutations also go to the first lady doctor and the first lawyer in countries where education for females was considered dangerous, tilting the patriarchal-matriarchal societal balance. They went against the grain and gripe of their communities to succeed. A family with an educated female will end illiteracy in that family.

Thought also goes to Ruby Bridges, whose parents had the courage and wisdom to enrol her as the first black girl in an all-white elementary school in Louisiana in 1960. In 1964, Norman Rockwell immortalised the scene of Ruby marching boldly ‘like a soldier’ accompanied by US marshals in a painting. It later became an iconic image of the Civil Rights Movement.

Even though specific religious iconographies have been included in celebrating Saraswati Pooja, its essence is secular. Appreciating the power of education on society does not convert students to give up their cultural beliefs. All faiths encourage their congregations to expand their knowledge and minds to the vast expanse of wisdom. Saraswati Pooja is a mere conduit to this realisation. It is also included as an Ayudha Pooja (Weapons' prayer), as books and knowledge constitute our weapons in our daily lives. It used to be swords and farming utensils. As though emphasising the role of the fairer sex in our society, this pooja is part of Navarathri, the nine-day celebration of female divinity.

So, I do not understand why a non-governmental organisation in Malaysia, Thiravidar Humanitarian Organisation, vehemently opposes the Saraswati Pooja celebrations in Tamil schools. They claim it is a religious activity; as such, it should not be held during teaching hours but to maintain the focus on education. That is precisely the point; celebrations like Saraswati Pooja would ignite true wisdom to separate the wheat from the chaff. This Malaysian NGO is an extension of Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian politics, primarily anti-Hindu. Their current aim in life is to eradicate Sanathana Dharma, just like humanity is trying to crush COVID and Dengue. The Malaysian NGO is parroting their masters across the seas, the same land their ancestors fled for a better life.

Dr Joshi graduated in 1886 from the Women's
Medical College in Pennsylvania.

Why were girls in the 19th and 20th centuries prevented from attending school? It could not be something engrained in the Indian society. Many crucial human activity departments are represented by goddesses, not male demigods. If Indian society was indeed patriarchal, why would Goddess Durga represent courage, Laxmi to wealth and Saraswati to be linked to knowledge? As though emphasising the role of the fairer sex in our society, Saraswati Pooja is part of Navarathri, the nine-day celebration of female divinity. Something must have happened in between. Could it be that the rapacious hunting of invading barbarians into India forced families to tuck their daughters far away from their invaders's lustful eyes? Over generations, they became better at being unseen and unheard, soon occupying second-class status in society. Just a thought!

 © Norman Rockwell

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Catch 'em young!

Adipurush (Primordial Human, 2023)

Director: Om Raut

Growing up immersed in many devotional movies, I concluded they were all too uninspiring. I remember Dasavaratham (1976) was a bore with song after song. Then some stories were unbelievable, like Aathi Parasakthi  (1971), where a new moon day becomes full with the Goddess' divine intervention. I was not impressed. I was seeking a scientific explanation, which I have yet to find. 

As an adult, I was once called bewildered by a Christmas production by a local church. It was produced, choreographed, stage-managed, and sound-checked all by the teenage members of its church. And the musical accompaniment was theirs too. Now, I told myself, that is what draws (or keeps) members in their fold. It fulfilled their contemporary needs - staying attuned to the times and keeping them 'entertained'.

That was where it stood. Hindu narratives remained myths, and the hidden life lessons were lost in translation. Times have changed, and Hindus are returning with a bang. This film can be considered one of their tools to capture the minds of young Hindus.

The story is the one we all know. Rama, with Sita and Laxman, is exiled to the jungles. In her journeys, Raavan's sister, Shurpanaka, sighted a spunk in Rama. Her advances were rejected, and he slashed her nose when she could not accept rejection. She ran crying to her brother. She enticed him with Rama's wife. Then the kidnapping, Jentayu, Rama's meeting with the Vanaras (ape-like jungle people), the invasion of Lanka and Sita's rescue.

The above was depicted in impressive CGI against possible cinematographic depictions of what a primordial Bharat would have looked like. It piqued the young Hindus' interest, making them open their Amar Chitra comic books and watch or make Youtube presentations. Otherwise, they will still go on with life thinking that avatar is an American word created by James Cameron. 

Depending on which side of the camps one stands for, this movie was either an epic disappointment or a phenomenal collection at the box office. 

I am surprised that many states in India and even Nepal is requesting for screening ban in their vicinity. Whilst non-BJP-ruled states in India are worried about the spread of Hindutva in their states, Nepal is offended that Sita is described as India's daughter. The jokers failed to remember that in ancient Bharat, there was a vast spread of land from present-day Pakistan to Myanmar and Afghanistan to Lanka, following the teachings of Sanarta Dharma. In fact, if not for Pandit Nehru, for all his wisdom when he blockaded Nepal's entry into the Union of India, Nepal would have been part of India. 

Then many quickly point out that this film version deviates from the 'original' Ramayana. The million-dollar question is, which is referred to as the original one? There is Vyasa's Ramayana, Tulsidas' version, Kamban Ramayanam and more in India. Many interpretations are seen outside India in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Indochina and as far as Japan. Various versions of Ramayana are told in their puppet shadow play of Wayang Kulit. Is one more authentic than the other?

Politicians in the South who subscribe to the now defunct 'Aryan Invasion Theory' insist that the story of Ramayana is the tale of invasion by an army from the North to crush a prosperous Dravidan monarch is in for a surprise. Some quarters assert that Raavan originates from a kingdom in present-day Uttar Pradesh, the Northern part of India. On his visit to the view of the kingdom ruled by Kuberan, he usurped power. 

Do not believe the cyberspace ratings on the film. Google gave it a 4.4/100 rating, which is basically a dud. All those burning the box office and laughing all the way to the bank cannot be idiots!

P.S. If 'Adipurush' refers to primordial man, logically, it should be Manu, the 'Adam' of the Hindu scriptures. Interestingly, the term Adipurush also includes Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, is deemed the first human being to have embodied the qualities of righteousness, truth, and compassion in their purest form.

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Make or break!

Gauri

There it was, another family celebration and another tête-à-tête with my favourite uncle. Whilst the rest were immersed in their revelry, we were pretty engaged in our own private discourse - with him looking for someone to impart his 85-year old life experiences, and I, just listening and sometimes trying to tease more out of him. This time around, we discussed the role of the significant other in the family, among many things. This post is what transpired out of that.

They say that behind every man's success, there is a woman. Many are quick to quip that behind their every fall, there is another, the other woman. Women have the uncanny ability to create as well as to destroy.

With the biological assets that they are endowed with, they can create, nurture and sustain life with their tenacity and ever-embracing progestogenic demeanour, like a mother hen, able to hide her chicklings under my wings away from the prancing eagle. And they will protect their little ones with the last scratch of their claw from hissing predator snake.

Mahishasura Mardini.

They can choose what they want. They can be Gauri, the epitome of peace and happiness comparable to the bosom of a mother, the all-embracing embodiment of calmness and purity, depicted by the all-white attire and an equally composed vehicle, the saintly cow. As Gauri, she plays the role of peacemaker, a rock of hope and anchor to hold an institution steady to traverse the uncertainties of life.

When the situation warrants, she needs to assume the role of Mahishasura Mardini, the slayer of the buffalo demon, Mahishasura, who, with the boon of indestructibility, terrorised the Universe. She took this fiercest form of Durga, with the Trident of Siva, to bring equilibrium to the system.

It may appear that the illustrative embodiment of shakti, female power, can act unilaterally with no control without the need for its counterpart, the male energy, Shiva. Not really. Harmony is achieved with the inclusion of both powers. Notice that Shiva's representation appears in both Gauri and Durga form of the female divinity - Trident, to protect and attack. Unbridled power, it seems, is also counterproductive.

Kaali

Remember the instance of Kaali, intoxicated with the taste of blood and energy of invincibility, she was on a rampage. Only Shiva could pacify her. His prostration in her path subdued her. In embarrassment, she let her tongue out, more of an admission of mistake rather than an intimidating posture. This tongue-letting image is often depicted as that of fearsome Kaali. In reality, it is not.

It takes two to tango. Both parties have to nimble and agile to produce an eye-soothing display of this Spanish light-spirited variety of flamenco.

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Back to the driver's seat!

Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1992)

Ram Swarup

The thought of my simple-minded mother heartbroken over her beloved son's conversion from his birth religion into an Abrahamic religion was deterrent enough for me to maintain the status quo. The vision of her disappearing into the horizon as I am saved by the second coming of Christ at the end of times and the image of her burning in hellfire whilst I, because of my foresightedness in following the Shepard, savouring the sweet nectar of bliss was just too much for me to stomach.  

I cannot blame her for feeling the way she felt. After all, it is her life experience. In her eyes, as the script of Ram Swarup's view suggests, there is no reason to embrace another religion as the Hindu religion has it all. It has been around since the beginning of time. There must be a reason why unlike the other new kids of the block, its philosophy of living in harmony with our inner self, the environment and the cosmos resonates with other Eastern, African, American Indian and other ancient belief systems.

My mother perceived the Abrahamic religions as disruptive, combative and condescending at best. Her childhood encounters reinforced the idea that the nuns that she had met had ulterior motives in their niceties. She had seen families torn apart and marriages disrupted because of the divisive natures of Western belief systems. In her eyes, Hinduism has been and is still able to provide emotional solace and intellectual support to last this lifetime and the ones beyond. Period. 

Ram Swarup is a respected figure. Starting as a freedom fighter, he later was a prolific writer on matters critical against Christianity, Islam and Communism. Through his association with the publication house, Voice of India, he churned out many Hindu revivalist articles. The West sang praises of his scathing articles about communism but was not so complimentary on his views of Abrahamic religions. 

In this book, he asserts that the political differences between tribes, people from different parts of the world were content with their pagan beliefs, living in harmony with Nature with their own set of social mores that kept them going as a society. The Hindu type of faith spread eastwardly as far as Japan and westwardly as far as Central Asia. In fact, the Lithuanian language shares keen similarity to Sanskriti language. The last pagans in the Baltics who were forcefully converted by the Templar Knights had many Hindu deities. In fact, the Africans were not in a dark continent, but, on the contrary, were illuminated with their own advanced philosophy.  The Native Americans, whom the Spaniards looted were not just bison-hunting savages but with their profound way of life. The Aztecs and the Mayan who were systemically infected and forcibly converted to accept Christ at gunpoint had a shared belief system with the Hindus.

The Abrahamic religions need to put their act together. They need to engage in public relation to erase their checked past to rebrand themselves. They should erase the perception, to the non-believers, of a jealous God who is hot on the trail of a recruitment drive. Or perhaps, their past intentions persist, but their modus operandi may have varied. The perception of a heathen is the religions are means to exert power and a modality to squander money.

Ironically, India, a subcontinent that was referred to as the fatherland of mankind, exuding with advanced knowledge and skills has morphed into an ignorant, divided, self-hating society that has forgotten its past glory and needs validation for its own existence.

On a happy note, the author believes that the future is bright as India has reawakened. Even though it was pushed under the wheels of the bus of the Industrial Revolution, it has wriggled itself out to clasp its hands on to the driver's seat. Now, it needs to steer its wheels.

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Is it an imagined war or a real one?

Hindu Society Under Siege (1981)
Sita Ram Goel

Hindu culture has a very long history. Its history goes back beyond 2500 BC. Recent astronomical calculations as referred to Valmiki's description of planetary constellations during Lord Rama's date of birth ascertained his birth as 5114 BC. Similarly, Mahabharata's account of Krishna's birth puts his date of delivery as 3228 BC. Suppose the scriptures and old temples were anything to go by, nothing stops us from assuming that Bharat indeed had a highly developed civilisation long before any Western force set foot in the land beyond the Indus Valley. 

Being the accommodating hosts and the inquisitive philosophers there were, they embraced all cultures with open arms. In the quest in search of the eternal truth, they accepted other routes towards this end. 

Over the generations, the visitors have tried to impress upon the hosts of their superiority and demean India's age-old traditions. According to the author, centuries of colonisation have left India with three groups who are out derailing the peace of the Nation, precisely, the Hindu society which boasts of having people who profess the third most popular religion in the world. 

Goel has always been a controversial figure. He had been censored after criticising history and doctrines of Islam. His reprint of his contemporary, Ram Swarup's 'Understanding Islam through Hadis' created a furore got him arrested. He was also outspoken on his criticism of Christianity as well. Pandits like David Crowley and Koenraad Elst, on the other hand, described him as an 'intellectual Kshatriya' possessing unparalleled strong rationalistic point of view that did not compromise the truth for politeness.

In this book, he zeroes on three groups that are out to destroy the harmony of the Nation. Firstly, the most malevolent of these residues is Islamism, the rubble of the Muslim invasion of India that spread over several centuries, that find difficulty in integrating with the rest of the country but takes pride in the purity of its Arab, Persian or Turkish descent. Like Ambedkar, he accused Islam of not being inclusive.

Goel was also outspoken in his criticism of Christianity. He asserted that secularism vilified Hinduism but ended up glorifying Abrahamic traditions. The evangelistic nature of the religion further slandered and ridiculed other belief systems. Free flow of Western wealth is used towards this end. In the North East region of India, the breaking forces have successfully steered them from their ancestral belief and go as far as to demand autonomy from India.

The third modus operandi of the invaders to debase their religion of the land is through what Goel referred to MacCaulayism. This term refers to Thomas Bablay MacCaulay, the Governor-General of India, who in 1830, proposed a significant revision of replacing the preexisting indigenous education system to produce a class of Indians brown of skin but English in taste and temperament. They look down at anything Indian. In their mind, the Indian civilisation is nothing but one with animistic belief, with rudimentary instructions in arithmetic, and reading and writing imparted by semi-educated teachers, mostly to the children of the upper castes. They view the Hindu social system as an oppressive one. In their mind, the Mughal Empire was the pinnacle of India's success. They look at the West for guidance for the flavour of the times. 

Goel defines the role of the residues of foreign rule in India vis-a-vis Hindu society in such manner; Islamism as malevolent, Christianism as mischievous, and Macaulayism as mild, though like a slow poison. 

Communism, in a way, is an extension of MacCaulayism and a legacy of the British rule. In the 1930s, the Government encouraged Indian freedom fighter to delve in Communists' activities. Communist activities and slogans are hostile to positive nationalism. Positive nationalism is one which draws its inspiration from its own cultural heritage and socio-political traditions. Communists, being atheists, cannot accept metaphysical explanations to the environment around them but demands a  physical one.

These four known forces, at different times, find common ground to cooperate in waging psychological warfare against their own common enemy, the Sanatana Dharma.

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