Open your mind and 'see' the truth

Recent pronouncements in the case related to the disputed land in Ayodhya has given me a chance to voice some of my concerns. I am born a Hindu and live my life as a Hindu. A Hindu who believes that the truth lies within as ordained in the Bhagwatgita.

In such a belief in Hinduism there is no place for methods and rituals and places all humans on the same pedestal – whatever the faith or ways of offering prayers.

In Hinduism we learn to constantly seek the truth. Blind faith is for the uninitiated. I do not have to follow something as part of a belief. I have a right to seek the truth. So I question in my individual capacity and as taught by Rishis; was Ram an ‘Uttam Purush’?

How can we say that Ram is beyond fault? He punished his pregnant wife by discarding and banishing her to wilderness. The wife then and after was never convicted of any crime. So wither justice? There is the argument that he had to ‘listen’ to his subjects and deliver some obscure justice to regain their waning faith in him, the King. So, is it alright that a section of his subjects (read Sita and her well wishers) can be discriminated against to please another section? Definitely not. The logic is skewed here. Is this logic mirrored in some of the recent developments related to Ram’s ‘birthplace’? Maybe?

I quote from the Bhagwatgita

na jayate mritaye va kadacin

    na yam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah

ajo nityah sasvato yam purano

   na hanyate hanyamane sarire

“ He is never born, nor does he die at any time, nor having (once) come to be will he again cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain”

Chapter II : Stanza 20

I plead with the self appointed guardians of Hinduism to go out and clean the already existing innumerable, dirty beyond filthy, temple towns and temples and the river Ganges, a life giver. I plead with the self appointed keepers of all faiths to stop building any more places of worship. There are enough and more going around.

If any of you have excess land and funds please build houses for those who do not have a roof above their head. Build schools to give knowledge to the uninitiated.  For ‘God’s’ sake do not build any more filthy places of worship.

I as a Hindu and an Indian do not really care whether or where other Indians pray as long as they are Indians.

Hey Ram

This morning I was surfing the news channels over breakfast. One reporter was passionately voicing as to how the honorable High Court in UP is going to decide today whether Ram was born at the disputed site in Ayodhya. I got a lump in my throat and the breakfast would not go down.

When the judgment came in the evening, a lot of people were again voicing that the honourable court has confirmed that ‘Ram’ was born at the disputed site.

What I am raising is a question of language and presentation. I have my doubts if the language used by the honourable judges says for certain that ‘Ram was born at that particular place’. If it is then I can only say that my disappointment is compounded.

My intellect cannot  accept that somebody (especially ‘pillars’ of democracy – judiciary, media) in 2010 AD can say that “Lord Sri Ram”, the hero of “Ramayan” was born here or there for certain – when a lot of us are not even sure of his existence as depicted in the epic.

Conversely if the honourable court has used words other than professed through the media, a clarification has to be issued.

Having said that, I am happy if this is further uncontested, and in the context the concerned parties settle the issue as it were. The intention is we get the ‘dispute’ out of the way and move on to more important affairs.