The way secularism works in India.

On one hand the UPA government wants to benefit the Muslims through exclusive development projects on the basis of their religion (via Sachar report) while on the other hand they want to deny Hindus their religion on the basis of a particular development project (Sethu Samudram Project). In other words, accept Islam to benefit Muslims and deny Hinduism to hurt Hindus. This is the art of secularism in India.

Sanyasi’s explanation worse than ‘twisted news’.

VHP leader Swami Vedanti’s call for Karunanidhi’s head over the latter’s Ram remarks was actually made in the context of a Muslim Minister’s call for the head of those who caricatured Prophet Mohammad and if Swami Vedanti had persisted that he could be arrested or whatever only after the ex-Minister is first arrested, it would have been quite logical. But now when the swami says that his statement was twisted by the press and he was only quoting Hindu texts on the price of blasphemy, he is obviously missing the Hindu spirit. The idea of blasphemy is alien to the Hindu culture and scriptures, particularly the Bhagwad Gita. Freedom to believe or disbelieve is the sine-qua-non of Hindu culture.

Whatever, the Ram Sethu agitation has begun with a bang. Its success would depend on the kind of leadership that takes it along. We would do well not to have anyone without the courage of conviction in the ranks of the movement’s leadership.

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25.09.2007

Swami Vedanti should not have retracted his statement. If he called for Karunanidhi's head, he was justified because Karunanidhi had ridiculed the very essence of his religion. He should have said he is ready for any punishment for giving such a call, but arrest me only after you arrest the Muslim minister who called for the Danish cartoonists' heads. Instead, the Swamiji not only retracts his call, but worse, he says that he was just quoting the punishment for blasphemy in the Hindu scriptures including Bhagwad Geeta. Swamiji should know that the freedom to accept or not accept a religion is the very birthright given to a Hindu by the Hindu culture. No Hindu scriptures have any blasphemy laws, least of all Bhagwad Geeta. In fact, Hindu scriptures are Shrutis. Swamiji may at best be able to quote from some Smriti. But have we not abandoned all those Smrits long ago?

So I condemn the Swamiji not for calling for Karunanidhi's head, but for not having the courage of his conviction and attempting to give an erroneous picture of Hinduism. He has to be removed from VHP.

Irresponsible journalism

Seema Mustafa, the Asian Age’s star journalist, has reported in the front page of today’s (22.09.07) Asian Age that Delhi Gymkhana Club’s election is due later this month and that in the fray for Presidentship are our country’s serving Chief of Army Staff Gen. J.J.Singh and head of Western Air Command Air Marshal P.S.Ahluwalia. This much is fair journalism. But she went on to allege that Gymkhana Club “has become a war zone for the Indian Army and Air Force”. She has insidiously mentioned that the Club “has several representatives of defence manufacturing companies and middle-men as its members”. For our benefit she has also reported that the two contenders are not on talking terms – “instead of speaking politely to each other to work it out, they kept throwing verbal darts at each other”. She goes on to make the startling revelation that “The Gymkhana Club contest has sharpened difference between the Army and the Air Force, with officers who are members taking polarized positions.” and takes the opportunity to add that “the services are divided outside as well”, what with each group being pitted against the other in the matter of even promotions.

Being a frequent reader of her regular articles in the Asian Age, I am convinced that she is committed to take an Islamist-Left view of all matters, particularly being ribald against the Hindutva forces. Therefore her sensationalist reportage of a mere local club election (albeit a prestigious one), to the extent of casting aspersions on the integrity of our top officers and even the defence institution itself is in keeping with the Islamist-left discomfort with any national/nationalistic institution.

Seema Mustafa’s article comes in the wake of a High Court verdict sentencing 4 journalists to imprisonment for casting aspersions on a retired Chief Justice of India. Since her article under the head “General fights air marshal for post at Delhi elite club” is more contemptuous in nature, she ought to be prosecuted by law.

Is Ka'aba part of Allah?

Some Mullah has issued a Fatwa against Salman Khan for idol-worship by participating in Ganesh pooja. I would wish to ask the Mullah, what about the Ka'aba in Mecca? Why do the Muslim pilgrims get so thrilled upon seeing it that they kiss the black stone embedded in it? Muslims maintain that they worship only Allah and nothing else. If so, why do they keep the black stone in the centre of their most holy mosque? Just the way Hindus keep the idol at the centre of their temple. If Muslims kiss their idol, circumbulate around it, sip zam zam water - the Hindus bow to their idol, circumbulate it and sip theertha water. Any difference? And yet if the Muslims say they worship only Allah, it can only mean that the Ka'aba is part of Allah!

Advani, soldier of Hindutva

There is talk in newspapers about Advani once again taking the reins of BJP. While there will be no replacement of Rajnath Singh, Advani indeed needs to be the face of BJP once again. Except for the 'Jinnah fiasco', Advani has been an impeccable leader. Even the Jinnah episode was a misplaced one due to the unexpected immaturity shown by some leaders of the Sangha Parivar itself. Advani had only pointed out to the Pakistanis the secularism advised by Jinnah to his compatriots in the Pakistani Constituent Assembly. Which was such an irony, coming from a man who had just partitioned a nation on the basis of religion. Advani wanted eyes to open in Jinnah's own bastion. But some twisted reporting by the Indian media suggested that Advani was championing the arch villian of partition. The impluse of all who know Advani should have been to doubt such reports, but some of our own leaders preferred to go by newspaper reports and even went to the extent of calling Advani a traitor. The great man he is, Advani bore it all, without even once going for an ugly rukus over the issue within the Sangha Parivar. Thanks to his maturity, he saved Sangha from schisms over personality clashes.

Sangha no doubt must have gone over the whole episode dispassionately and concluded that Advani was more wronged than wrong. Hence, his deserving rehabilitation.

Carry on, soldier of Hindutva - we are with you.

M.F.Hussain and Karunanidhi - birds of a feather

DMK's Karunanidhi is surely kindered to M.F. Hussain. Both love to rubbish Hindu sentiments and both restrict their rubbish to Hinduism. If Karunanidhi finds it comfortable to quote Valmiki calling Rama a drunkard, would he also feel comfortable quoting the Hadiths pointing to Mohammad being a child-molester, what with his pre-puberty marriage and all that? No, not at all. Karunanidhi, like M.F. Hussain, practises freedom of expression only in the Hindu melieu. They need to be taught that Hindus will no longer tolerate being ridden roughshod upon.

The secular kowtow

A judge of the High Court wonders aloud if the famous Siddhi Vinayak Temple ought not to be relocated as a security measure, considering it could be subject to rocket launchers from nearby high-rise buildings. Probably he would recommend that it be relocated to a mountain in a deserted area! I think actually it is the judge who ought to be relocated to a mental hospice.

It is galling that such comments are passed nonchalantly, particulary in the wake of opinions that Rama is only a mere mythical character, a big white lie, a drunkard and what not. It is gratifying that Advani is being heard on this subject. With his sharp intellect, broad wisdom and great grasp of the nuances of political implications, he is not going to allow idiotic comments to go unchallanged in the name of secular perogative. (That is to say, the freedom to rubbish Hindu sentiments while kow-towing to Muslim sentiments.)

Communist hatred and communist opportunism at play.

So the cat's out of the bag. Karat in his latest book wants India to collaborate with China for our energy needs. China is OK but not America. Why? Plain communist antipathy towards the power ever ready to call the communist bluff. An added bonus now is Muslim votes. Communist hatred and communist opportunism at play!

The error of Islam

When Islam says there is only one God, is it not reducing God to a countable object? If something has to be countable, it has to be less than the total. Therefore, according to Islam, Allah is less than the total.

This error of Islam is reinforced by the Islamic teaching that the Creator and His creation are not one, but separate entities. This error is also obvious if we see that before Allah created the universe, nothing existed except Allah. If there was only Allah, then surely Allah created the universe from the reality that Allah was. Therefore the Creator and His Creation are not separate entities but different aspects of the same entity.

Thus, the correct teaching ought to be not that there is one God and a separate creation, but that all creation is God in multitudinous divine expressions. The correct teaching, as put forth by Hinduism, leads man to discover his divinity whereas a God separate from his creation, as put forth erroneously by Islam, leads man to reduce himself to a slave of Allah. Being thus a slave of Allah, he acts not as per the divinity of Allah, but as per the limitation of his own mind. Hence, Islam is not spiritual but identity oriented.

2 comments:
ஜயராமன் said...
SirA very interesting post. Thanks for this.If there is only one Unit, then total is same like the unit. Therefore, in the case of OneGod, the discrepancy does not arise.In Hinduism also, there is only one advaita. Ofcourse, the advaita concept is entirely different, but the "oneness" idea is same.Allah is nothing but an alter-ego of Muhammad. There are many contradictions to Allah's world. Allah also resides in a heaven and the creation of that heaven has not been clear. If the heaven is also created by Allah, Where was he before that. If Allah's heavan also exists with Allah, who created that?Also, If allah created this world, why is there so much difference in wealth and happiness in the world? Why Allah has not given any good resources to his own land (middle east) which was an uninhabitable desert before oil was found. Why did he allow all his followers to suffer for millienum?I am sure that if you examine all these questions, then Islam will turn out to be empty conceptually.ThanksJay
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 1:46:00 PM
Venu said...
Thank you for your comment. I also got the opportunity to go through your blogs. Deep stuff you've written. I shall be revisiting them to offer my humble comments.Meanwhile, about this "There is only one God" teaching of Islam - it is, according to Muslims, not a discovery by man in his heightened consciousness. It is (as Muslims believe), a proclamation that came down from God to man. Now why on earth would God proclaim that there is only one God? If He (Allah) teaches man how to reach him, then would man have any doubt as to who or how many Allah is? But in the Quran there is no teaching as to how man can reach God. The only teaching is how man can be a good slave of Allah. A good slave also means a loyal slave. Therefore, to ensure no divided loyalties, Allah proclaims that He is the one and only God. In truth, Quran, as innumerable other scriptures, is not from a phenomenon separate from man, but from insights experienced by a self-realized soul. But probably unique in Mohammad’s case, when compared to say Krishna, Buddha, Shankaracharya or Jesus, was that he (Mohammad) often relapsed from his heightened consciousness. Which is why Quran has quite a lot of ‘Satanic’ verses where Mohammad orders killing for no reason but that of difference in faith – the same Mohammad who in another verse said that to kill one man is to kill humanity.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 9:07:00 PM
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Bhagwad Geeta for a restful mind

Everything in the natural state is in the state of dharma, that is, harmony. It is when there is disharmony, due to the restless mind, that the mighty ones strive to restore harmony. Bhagvad Geeta is the art and science of the restful mind. It is only the restful mind that can ensure harmony in society. Therefore it is incumbent on all human beings, not just Hindus or Indians, to learn the science and art of the restful mind, as taught in the Bhagvad Geeta.

No value for Hindu sentiments?

The point is, since the time of Ramayana it is believed by the Hindus that Rama built a bridge connecting Dhanushkodi (India) and Thalaimannar (Sri Lanka) to move his army to defeat Ravana and rescue Sita. As if to prove this, there exists a "30-kilometre-long naturally occurring chain of sand banks". Why not leave alone the formation, whether a natural one or man (monkey) made? Doesn't Hindu sentiments have any value at all?

Mohammad's progress

[I got the following from the Net. Quite a curious progression.]

A biography of our prophet reconstructed from ayas of Quran for the benefits of Quran only muslims.

MO WAS INITIALLY NOMINATED AS A SLAVE

He started his career in Mecca with the rank of a Slave .2.23 We reveal verses unto our slave MuhammadHis duties were just to warn people .25.1 He is a warner to the peoples.

HE WAS NO BETTER THAN AN AVERAGE JOE

He didn't even know if God intended to put him in hell or heaven..46.9 I do not know what will be done with me I am just an ordinary warner .'.

HE HAD NO AUTHORITY

He had no power or charge over the people..17.54 we, have not sent thee to take charge of them..

AFTER FEW YEARS MO WAS MADE A PROPHET / MESSENGER

98.2 I am messenger/prophet from Allah

ORIGINALLY HIS MESSENGERSHIP WAS ONLY FOR MECCA AND IT'S SUBURBS

6.92 And this (the Qur'an) is a blessed Book which We have sent down, confirming (the revelations) which came before it, so that you may warn the Mother of Towns ( i.e. Makkah) and those around it.42.7 We sent by inspiration to thee so that you warn the Mother of Cities (Mecca) and those around her.

THEN HE WAS MADE A MESSENGER FOR ALL ARABS

36.6 In order that you may warn a people whose forefathers were not warned, so they are heedless.14.4 (Hilali / Khan) We sent not a Messenger except with the language of his people, in order that he might make (the Message) clear for them.44.58 We have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take the warning.41.44 And if We had made it a Quran in a foreign tongue, they would certainly have said: Why have not its communications been made clear? What! a foreign tongue?( for us arabs)

LATER HE WAS MADE MESSENGER FOR ALL PEOPLES AND CREATURES

25.001: Blessed is He Who sent down the Quran upon His servant that he may be a warner to all the nations. 21.107 We have sent you as mercy unto all creatures. In his new position it became mandatory for all to make Mo their judge in all disputes.4.65 By the Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make thee judge in all disputes between them.

HIS NEXT PROMOTION WAS " SEAL OF PROPHETS"3

3.40 He is the "Seal of the Prophets". Seal of Prophets had additional perks of getting the top facilities in paradise.17.79 (Hilali,Khan) Your Lord will raise you to Maqaman Mahmuda (a station of praise and glory, i.e. the highest degree in Paradise!).

HE WAS THEN PROMOTED TO "ASSOCIATE ALLAH"As " Associate Allah", Mo's orders were made at par with Allah's orders and both their names came side by side in decision making as well as authority to be obeyed .

3.32,4.13,59,69,5.92,8.1,20,46,9.71,24,47,51,52,54,56,33.33,47.33,49.14,58.13,64.12 "Obey Allah and obey Mohammed" 33.036: It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.

HIS FINAL PROMOTION WAS "ALLAH IN CHARGE"

Finally Allah decided to step down and give total authority to Mo.4.80 Obeying Mohammed is obeying Allah.Giving a pledge to Mo became giving a pledge to Allah. 48:10 Verily, those who give pledge to you (O Muhammad) they are giving pledge to Allâh.

EVEN ALLAH SENT HIS PRAYERS TO MO

33.56 (hilali/Khan) Allah sends His Salat (prayers) and salutes to the Prophet (Muhammad SAW) .

Divinity

Divinity is not a phenomenon external to man. It is what man essentially is and he can awaken to it by going through and beyond his consciousness. The science of idol worship is an aid for man to awaken to the power within himself - the power that transforms itself into avtars and rishis from time to time to inspire man to the science of self-discovery.

"Historical reality behind the myth of Krishna"

Amor said...
what's the historical reality that lies behind the myth of krishna?amor
September 3, 2007 2:07 PM


History is the recording of events gone by. The further back in time an event whose recording has survived to the present times, the more likely that event had a tremendous impact historically, otherwise memories of that event and its recording would have been forgotten in due course of time. Krishna's life was one such event which obviously had a tremendous impact in his times and subsequent times. All titanic events are embellished in its recording. Men would stand in awe of such personalities and events. We call such recordings myths, but if this is not satisfactory for the modern man with a professional approach, Krishna's life too could be reduced by historians to a bare-thread portrayal. In the simplest of labeling, Krishna was a Guru. If a student of history were to study the hagiography of Sri Satya Sai Baba, a modern day guru, he will understand the inevitability of great gurus becoming myths.

Food first for the body or soul?

Swami Vivekananda said that you have to fill a hungry stomach before you can enlighten an ignorant soul. Since enlightenment is simply being connected to our innermost self and this connection is the sine-qua-non of controlling even hunger, I am wont to say that a man ought to be taught the principles of self-connection even before being fed. This is particularly so because what Swami Vivekananda said is being construed as conceding that we should take care of our material well-being before plunging into spiritualism, whereas what Swami Vivekananda was literally thinking of was the hungry masses of India who were totally impoverished, starving and slavish. Even to such a suffering mass of people, I would say that as you cook food for them, as they are eating, we ought to tell them to search for the more nourishing food within. Today, a 100 years later, a great majority of the starving masses of Swami Vivekananda’s times have moved away from the edg. They now have the bare minimum needed to survive and are poised to go beyond in the material realm, what with the surge to being a global power and all that. This much we can credit to India’s post-independent progress, even though it started of at a ridiculed ‘Hindu rate of growth’ pace. Therefore today, doubly so, food for the soul is even more urgently to be fed than food for the body.

Allah, the imperfect creator?

To the question, "Who founded Islam?" if you, a non-Muslim, thought Prophet Mohammad is the correct answer, then you are in error. According to Muslims, Islam existed right from the first man Adam. In the course of time, man began to wander away from the true path of Islam and even interpolate the original holy book and debase it. Allah therefore had to preforce again send the same message of Islam through a messenger. This was repeated many times till Allah got fed up and sent down the original message for the last time in the form of the Quran through Mohammad the last messenger. This is how the Islamic theology goes.

It can be agreed that Allah does not have to send another messenger because the last message through Mohammad has remained intact upto the present and has Allah's own guarantee that it will remain intact till the end of time. However it cannot be denied that the majority of mankind has still not come to accept Allah's last ditch message and worse, many so-called believers have strayed from the message. The terrorists, for example (particularly so because Islam proclaims that it is a religion of peace). This being the case, when is Allah going to bring mankind onto his path? Does it mean that till the very end Allah would not have succeeded? Is it because he forsaw this being the case that he has revealed the apparatus of the last judgement? Does this, again, not mean that Allah has created a flawed creation and forever a part of his creation has to roast alive in hell as a proof of this?

The truth is that no God would have created anything imperfect. And indeed, there is no imperfection on earth. Hinduism proclaims this. It is only that many are not beneficiaries of this perfection because they are still in the ignorant mode of maya. But eventually everyone wakes up to the reality of perfection, after many lifetimes maybe, but wakes up nevertheless to see that there never was any imperfection and it was only an illusion. This is the Hindu teaching. Islam, unfortunately is straddled with an Allah who has been imperfect with his creation and punishes his creatures for it by roasting them eternally in hell.

This is why Islam is unable to go beyond the relationship of Master and slave between the creator and his creation whereas Hinduism proclaims that all creation is divine and we have just to wake up to this fact.

Science says, let's discover the ultimate before naming it. Islam says, we've named the ultimate Allah - and thereby all discovery ends.

You [http://www.islam101.com/] have quoted the following in the beginning of your site:

"In the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph on the left, an African boy, nothing but a skeleton, was trying to crawl towards a U.N. Food Shelter, about one kilometer away. Behind his back, a few yards away was a vulture waiting for the boy to die to feast. The vulture did not attack the living boy. It could have. But it has God-given law that it follows. Even the animals have law of God that they obey. Not the man. So many governments, groups and individuals have become worst than the vultures! May God have Mercy on the suffering humanity!"

You say that the vulture could have attacked the boy but it did not because it follows a God-given law. You lament that man tends not to follow God-given laws. What you mean is that animals are totally programmed by God whereas man is not. That is to say, God has given man a free-will. Why do you think God did thus?

I think it is truer to say that there is no such God who programmed animals and gave man free-will. This is just the typical theory of people who need an eternal father figure for psychological reasons and who therefore ascribe all observable facts as His doing. Wouldn't it be more honest if we await what science would unfold by and by of the mysteries of the universe?

Suspend laws, end terrorism?

If tough laws would add to terror, as a TOI survey contends, would doing away with laws end terrorism?

BJP - abandoning nationalism for appeasement

The BJP’s greatest strength was its ideology of Hindutva, which it inherited from the RSS. Hindutva in politics is the working out of Hinduism’s vision of freedom – freedom from want, freedom from fear and indeed attaining the freedom of all freedoms – that of moksha. This covered the grounds of economics, defense and spirituality. However, somewhere down the line BJP appears to have become embarrassed by Hindutva, probably because it got infected by pseudo secularism, which it had earlier criticised. The fall is obvious because now the BJP has become a votary of restoring Wakf Land to the Muslims.

Right from its inception, the RSS has been organizing people not on the basis of their religion, but on the basis of Indian nationalism with a view to make our nation, the great ancient Hindu Rashtra, a glorious nation once more. Neither the RSS nor the BJP sought to attract people on the basis of religion. And those attracted towards it were taught to be Indians first and Indians last. But this appears to have changed.

BJP is now seeking Muslim votes by promising to get Wakaf lands back for them, without any attempt to teach the Muslims that the Indian nation ought to be greater than Islam, which is a product of Arabic nationalism – that there ought to be an Islam rooted in Indian culture which says that though the truth is one, it is expressible in many ways. This proves that the Muslim leaders in the BJP have themselves not imbibed the nationalism that the Sangha Parivar seeks to have imbibed on its members. Instead, its Muslim leaders are pandering to the exclusivity of Islam. It is even more ironic, considering that Muslims believe that once a Wakaf land, forever a Wakaf land, without the right of the state to even think of acquiring it for the greater common good. Precisely a case of diluting nationalism, which the BJP once swore to represent.

The BJP ought not to take its core constituency of nationalists for granted.

Consciousness and Awareness

Consciousness is inherent in all living beings. When we humans use the power of consciousness to awaken to reality from moment to moment, it is called awareness.