We here in Kerala are passing by one of the greatest days in a year, Onam. It is more auspicious simply because it is keralites who take part in it, not any religion not any political party etc. But as always there has been some people who are constantly in the pursuit of etching disparities to this great occasion. As usual I too would have taken a deaf ear to all this but this time I have decided not to. My discussion going forward would be not only on Onam but on a larger Indian perspective.
Ours is the oldest of civilisations in the world-- The Indus Valley Civilisation. But we had many thinkers and travellers calling us uncivilised. We had some inferiority in portraying our own culture, which was the reason. Indian cultural legacy is the richest in the world. We also had many people who patronised and still now patronises our culture. Hinduism as we call it today wasn't at all a religion, (as I had mentioned in my earlier blog). It uses to accommodate everyone's voice and thus hinduism have thousands of holy books rather than one. There wasn't any problem of following any of those books or following any custom made of your own, but still based on the very cornerstone of faith and some fundamentals in those religious texts. It uses to accept challenges and debates to decision. Thus it was more on a lifestyle kind of note. In fact hin in lduism was the lifestyle (not a religion) followed by the people then in India.
Now coming back to the cultural aspect there is a book by Gene D Matlock titled 'Indians Once Ruled the Americas!'. Interesting, isn't it? Many countries especially Indonesia (country with the largest Islamic population) have lord Ganesha on their currency. Their official airlines is called the Garuda Indonesia. Even their emblem has got the Garuda in it. They have festivals reciting the Ramayana and they consider Lord Rama as the leader of India. What they is that by birth they are Muslims and by culture they are Indians. See they never call it a stuff of Hindu religion. Back in India here we have connotated all this with a religious view. The past of our country it's culture all belongs to the very own people of its soil. We seldom realise this. We also have people in different religions also falsifying our past where they say Rama and Ravana were 2 village heads in Uttarakhand , whereas the Sri Lankan government is offering 'Ramayana tourist Packages'. Whereas in Thailand they have the monument of churning of the Milk Ocean including the shank- chakra- gadha- pushpa- haari Mahavishnu atop. Even the description written there don't give religious connotation to it.
Now coming to Islam. In Kerala we have one of the oldest communities of Muslims. The history says that Cheraman Perumaal, last of the Chera kings, embracing the beautiful culture of Islam ( I will never use the word 'converting') had intimated with prophet Muhammad and wanted to make one of his residnces into a mosque in kodungallur. Which still prevails and is older than Mecca itself. Also we had one of the oldest communities of Christians when St. Thomas arrived in Kerala. These all have added to the cultural lineage we Indians have inherited. All those who talk ill of our nation and its culture in their deepest of thoughts have always been jealous of such a beautiful nation with all its cultural grandeur.
Many a times we speak and even our constitution speaks of secularism, which is a very rare thought in many countries. But in India our past says that mere secularism like if you are a Hindu tolerate other religions was not part of India instead even the word tolerate was out of context we lived under one label Indians. Even later kings like Akbar had tried to place this thought intact through his policies. Akbar who was not part of an Indian cultural lineage but still born in India understood it, but our leaders now pretend not to have understood it. It's not that in the past we didn't have internal issues in our country but we have very much less compared to those so called leading nations. In the present scenario we have two kinds --- extreme rightist and extreme leftist. Former which say each culture belongs to a particular religion only and the latter which says atheism is the way to nationalism. Both are equally disastrous. Remember all these people only have that one thought political advantages over their contemporaries. A few days back the day of canonisation of St.Teresa I checked Twitter in the morning and was taken aback to see #Fraudteresa trending in first place throughout India, it happened because of a the so called political veteran Lalu Prasad Yadav who accused St.Teresa for conversion of people to Christianity, which I don't believe. Even if she did what was wrong in it, it has only enriched our culture and the way she treated the leprosy affected patients and the needy , if you dare bring it under any religious connections it is the narrowness of your minds that cause it. St.Teresa couldn't have done anything better I guess.
Look how people like Lalu are dividing us by walls of religious and causing disparities among us. Shame on them!!
Also many of our people are blindly into internationalism. We people here find offended when a person from the same religion struggles rather than a struggling Indian from a different religion. Definitely this is good remember even if internationalism has to survive India has to survive. It's Indian culture which says 'Loka Samastha sukhino bavandhu'. Other countries even the US which at times speak of internationalism change cards to nationalism when their interests are affected. But we seldom do this and we find ourselves belonging to a religion rather than this great nation. That is when you talk ill of our nation and support some other countries' interests in divisive issues.
Thus the cultural retroactivity of the so called religious cultural lineages actually belongs to the people of India and adds to its rich heritage and legacy.
' Mein Hindu hoon
Musalman be hoon
Sikh, isai aur ek insan be hoon
Mein ek nahi anek hoon
Har mitti ke anu hoon
Aur saare Hindustan be hoon'
Ours is the oldest of civilisations in the world-- The Indus Valley Civilisation. But we had many thinkers and travellers calling us uncivilised. We had some inferiority in portraying our own culture, which was the reason. Indian cultural legacy is the richest in the world. We also had many people who patronised and still now patronises our culture. Hinduism as we call it today wasn't at all a religion, (as I had mentioned in my earlier blog). It uses to accommodate everyone's voice and thus hinduism have thousands of holy books rather than one. There wasn't any problem of following any of those books or following any custom made of your own, but still based on the very cornerstone of faith and some fundamentals in those religious texts. It uses to accept challenges and debates to decision. Thus it was more on a lifestyle kind of note. In fact hin in lduism was the lifestyle (not a religion) followed by the people then in India.
Now coming back to the cultural aspect there is a book by Gene D Matlock titled 'Indians Once Ruled the Americas!'. Interesting, isn't it? Many countries especially Indonesia (country with the largest Islamic population) have lord Ganesha on their currency. Their official airlines is called the Garuda Indonesia. Even their emblem has got the Garuda in it. They have festivals reciting the Ramayana and they consider Lord Rama as the leader of India. What they is that by birth they are Muslims and by culture they are Indians. See they never call it a stuff of Hindu religion. Back in India here we have connotated all this with a religious view. The past of our country it's culture all belongs to the very own people of its soil. We seldom realise this. We also have people in different religions also falsifying our past where they say Rama and Ravana were 2 village heads in Uttarakhand , whereas the Sri Lankan government is offering 'Ramayana tourist Packages'. Whereas in Thailand they have the monument of churning of the Milk Ocean including the shank- chakra- gadha- pushpa- haari Mahavishnu atop. Even the description written there don't give religious connotation to it.
Now coming to Islam. In Kerala we have one of the oldest communities of Muslims. The history says that Cheraman Perumaal, last of the Chera kings, embracing the beautiful culture of Islam ( I will never use the word 'converting') had intimated with prophet Muhammad and wanted to make one of his residnces into a mosque in kodungallur. Which still prevails and is older than Mecca itself. Also we had one of the oldest communities of Christians when St. Thomas arrived in Kerala. These all have added to the cultural lineage we Indians have inherited. All those who talk ill of our nation and its culture in their deepest of thoughts have always been jealous of such a beautiful nation with all its cultural grandeur.
Many a times we speak and even our constitution speaks of secularism, which is a very rare thought in many countries. But in India our past says that mere secularism like if you are a Hindu tolerate other religions was not part of India instead even the word tolerate was out of context we lived under one label Indians. Even later kings like Akbar had tried to place this thought intact through his policies. Akbar who was not part of an Indian cultural lineage but still born in India understood it, but our leaders now pretend not to have understood it. It's not that in the past we didn't have internal issues in our country but we have very much less compared to those so called leading nations. In the present scenario we have two kinds --- extreme rightist and extreme leftist. Former which say each culture belongs to a particular religion only and the latter which says atheism is the way to nationalism. Both are equally disastrous. Remember all these people only have that one thought political advantages over their contemporaries. A few days back the day of canonisation of St.Teresa I checked Twitter in the morning and was taken aback to see #Fraudteresa trending in first place throughout India, it happened because of a the so called political veteran Lalu Prasad Yadav who accused St.Teresa for conversion of people to Christianity, which I don't believe. Even if she did what was wrong in it, it has only enriched our culture and the way she treated the leprosy affected patients and the needy , if you dare bring it under any religious connections it is the narrowness of your minds that cause it. St.Teresa couldn't have done anything better I guess.
Look how people like Lalu are dividing us by walls of religious and causing disparities among us. Shame on them!!
Also many of our people are blindly into internationalism. We people here find offended when a person from the same religion struggles rather than a struggling Indian from a different religion. Definitely this is good remember even if internationalism has to survive India has to survive. It's Indian culture which says 'Loka Samastha sukhino bavandhu'. Other countries even the US which at times speak of internationalism change cards to nationalism when their interests are affected. But we seldom do this and we find ourselves belonging to a religion rather than this great nation. That is when you talk ill of our nation and support some other countries' interests in divisive issues.
Thus the cultural retroactivity of the so called religious cultural lineages actually belongs to the people of India and adds to its rich heritage and legacy.
' Mein Hindu hoon
Musalman be hoon
Sikh, isai aur ek insan be hoon
Mein ek nahi anek hoon
Har mitti ke anu hoon
Aur saare Hindustan be hoon'
JAI HIND!!
Disclaimer: This blog includes excerpts from a Tedx talk by a famous personality. Religious ideas are ordered on basis of chronology and not on importance. Facts given here are accurate and to the best of my knowledge. And ideas and thoughts are those of the author's alone and is totally under his discretion.
Akbar actually put forward the idea of Din-illahi, a new religion incorporating good ideas from Hinduism,Islam,Jainism & even from Parsis.
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