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!