Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Diwali,Ram, Cultural history - My Take




Many people I have come across online are usually surprised to know that I am an atheist. This surprise is due to various issues/topics I comment on or talk about, which gives a perception that I am deeply religious Hindu.

I simply fail to understand why an atheist can not be proud of his cultural history or traditions of his mother land? Why does showing deep regards and respecting the cultural history be seen only from the prism of religion? As an individual born and brought up in Bharat, am I not the inheritor of great past cultural glory and history as much as say, a deeply religious hindu or muslim or sikh?


Going atheist is considered cool among the current generation. They are ready to condemn every aspect of their cultural inheritance to prove themselves atheists and most importantly secular. Never mind that need to assert their secular credentials pops up only when Hindu's or Hindu issues are involved. The credit for pseudo secularism in India should be given to Marxist historians and self declared liberal secular jholawallahs. They have confined Hindu and Hinduism to the definition of religion and separated the cultural aspect from it. This gives them liberty to slowly poison the young generation, so that they abhor their cultural identity. One must though accept that the Marxists have been largely successful.


Hindu festivals, rituals, philosophy is the cultural heritage of India. They must not be blindly condemned nor abhorred  How many of the young generation have really read Ramayana ? How many have even attempted to understand the message it conveys? How many have contemplated various values and layers inherent in Ramayana. I must say very few. And they have the audacity to casually pass remarks and their judgments?


I was shocked more at the debate conducted by Sagarikha Ghose than Ram Jetmalani. RJ has rights to have his opinions. But SG conducting a debate about Ram is nothing but covert attempt to induce a feeling of aversion  towards Ram, by polluting unsuspecting innocent minds. The amount of air time given to Kancha Ilahi, to keep on vomiting his crap gives it away.To understand relevance of Ram or contemplate his actions, one should go to learned scholars who have understanding and intellect. They are the authority to answer your questions and explain various contexts. But SG thinks, a known Hindu hater should be on panel. Would be justified if he had any contrary worthy views, but its well known that all he does is spit venom against anything Hindu. Kancha is one of the by products of sustained campaign by Marxists,  who live in their self made hateland. Though AIT has long been given silent burial, these hate mongers keep repeating it for whatever reasons! I recently read that students in Osmania University organised mourning of killing of Narkasur by Satya Bhama. Surely, Kancha and their ilk have successfully brainwashed thousands if not lakhs of ignorant and innocent minds.


Coming back to the debate conducted by SG, she should be thankful that Hindus have become so pathetically poisoned that they are willing to take every abuse and insult thrown at them. The timing of the debate (Diwali eve) and the way it was conducted oozes out pure hate for anything associated with Hindu.


Ram is a cultural icon for many like me. He may not be god for me. Ramayana has to be understood in its whole context, rather than few events. The people who call his bad husband for asking sita to go through "agni pariksh" fail to see his "ek patni vrath", his love for sita for which he waged war against mighty Ravana, his pain,anguish and suffering for making sita leave to forest etc. The questions raised by new generation pundits, feminists and all and sundry have been answered in Ramayana itself, if one cares to put some efforts and use few grey cells of their brain.


I have always held the view that dharma granthas that we have inherited have a lot to teach to human beings - religious god fearing or atheist. One need not be only a Hindu to take away from Bhagvad Gita some crucial life lessons. 


To comprehend and articulate the philosophy of these grantha's one need to invest some efforts and should have the ability to contemplate. But as with everything else, self styled modernists and "educated" are too lazy to even attempt but too eager to judge.

During Karva Chauth, SG conducted a debate and raised the question if it was regressive. I mean what the heck! The reporters went on annoyingly asking women celebrating the festival, if they want their husbands to similarly keep fast for them. To keep the fast or not , to observe the festival or not is an individual decision. I failed to understand how the traditional festivals become regressive? It is nothing but another attempt to deny the new generation their culture.


And lastly all this noise about eco Diwali! Diwali without crackers!! Do they really believe Diwali will be Diwali without crackers? All this talk about environment, air and noise pollution etc is bunkum  The same jhollawallahs and suddenly enlightened environment conscious souls should go back to cave days and stop using modern amenities. They want to kill joy out of family  celebration of Diwali  For me, even now like in childhood, the only reason to look forward for Diwali is to fire those crackers! 


Saw a report in a TVchannel about some moron going around in Bangalore asking people not to use banana leaves/shoots for festivals. Seriously! are you kidding me? Which festival in south of India is complete without banana leaves? The reason given was that lot of garbage was piling up in Bangalore. Well this is nothing new. Every festival, many farmers and villagers around Bangalore make an attempt at extra income by selling banana leaves, flowers and other such things needed for pooja. Many pavements are crowded with such part time sellers. Most of the times, the stock is too much and they leave that on the pavements. But dont we pay tax to government for exactly doing their job of keeping city clean? Instead of pressurizing the civic authorities to do their job, this moron wants people to compromise their traditional way of celebration. These self styled activists or whatever you call them,  lack even a iota of intelligence that banana leaves are bio degradable!! What they call as garbage actually can be used as fertilizer in farms. Now ask these idiots about various non biodegradable items they use daily in their life? If only I could send them back to caves!


The attack on Indian culture and its traditions is not something that started recently. It started from the first invasion by Mohammad Bin Qasim. The very fact that Sagarika can allow the insult and abuse to Ram on national television is sign of the confidence jhollawallahs and pseudo seculars have, of not being retaliated or punished. 


It is high time, Indian's start taking back their glorious culture from the hands of Marxists  But then I have not much hopes as any attempt to even understand dharmic granths will be seen as communal and untouchable! 


The land of great Aryas, Rishis, the land that gave great dharmic principles and values, the land of cultural continuity for thousands of years is under siege  The people who should be protecting the cultural identity and take pride in their priceless inheritance are the same people who are killing it!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent post!

I think by conducting these kind of shows, SG is helping Hindus to become aware of sinister motives. I wish she conducts these kind of shows more often so that Hindus become more integrated.

-Ramakrishna

TW said...

Excellent article. That TV debate has apparently resulted in 'InternetHindus' reaffirming their faith with logic. I found this post a good read too: A feminist understands Rama.

Meanwhile, my 2 paisa on Atheism (forgive me digressing from the main topic):
Atheism in Hinduism is very different than atheism in West.
First of all, the word naastika originally meant only those who did not believe in the authority of vedas. By this definition, trust me, most of us (traditionally called) Hindus will be atheists, because neither do we study vedas nor is our society/religion really based on them (yaajnik rituals and all).
Our most popular gods are post-vedic (Rama and Krishna). Many of us doubt their historicity, but none of us doubt the message their life-stories give.
That's the beauty of Hinduism - you don't have to 'believe' in a person, a book, or even an anthology.
For you the god may be nature, time, anything and everything. You can doubt if Krishna could lift a mountain on his finger, and at the same time you can quote from his Bhagwad Geetaa. Contrast this with the Western concept of atheism, where a rational doubt on a virgin birth and a resurrection makes you an atheist.

rohan said...

This is a nice post. As an atheist from a Hindu family, I agree with some of your points, but not all.
I feel that people should be smart enough to decide which traditions they should follow and which should be left behind. So..
- Causing so much air pollution in the name of tradition is definitely something we can reconsider.
- Karva chauth, require women to fast for well being of their husbands. In this day and age when we're trying to move towards gender equality, it definitely is regressive. Also, some women have to follow it because its expected of them, without it being their own decision.
- Paying taxes does not give us the right to litter! As long as people are not doing that though, using banana leaves seems fine.

After all, we stopped following 'sati-pratha', even though that was a tradition. Not all traditions are good.

Aham Brahmasmi said...

@Rohan

Thanks for your comments..

- Pollution of all sorts is definitely a concern. But selective targeting of certain traditions is all bunkum. The pollution that takes place all around the year 24/7 is much much larger than a Diwali celebration. My rant is the same people who preach about pollution on diwali do not incorporate basic small habits in their day to day lifestyle to stop pollution.

- Karva chauth is a choice and not compulsion. In fact in south of India, its hardly observed. Many modern women also do not celebrate it. It is basically a individual's choice. Labeling it regressive at one stroke is not fair. It has nothing to do with gender equality.

- I agree that paying taxes does not give us right to litter. But please read again what I have mentioned. It is much more than just littering. It is mini economic eco system for small time farmers and villagers. The garbage on any given normal day is just as much as on festivals. May be just few extra truck loads of banana leaves/shoots. For that should one compromise on traditional way of pooja?


Sati was not a tradition. It has a whole different context and background. Lets not compare that with festivals or traditions.

Unknown said...

Good article...
Adding to your note, I believe one should see the film 'Ramarajyam' (Telugu movie), especially those who are lazy to read but ready to comment.
It explains beautifully the dilemma of Ram before sending Sita to the forest.

Frankly Speaking said...

good article sir.. could feel your concern for India. i have also a blog by name indirasringeri@blogspot.com. please do visit and give your opinion