Because I am A Swayamsewak
Queen Elizabeth was once counselled by her advisors to act on the protestants and she replied "I will not punish anybody for his belief. I will only punish somebody for breaking the law".
The Hindu way of life has been very clear about freedom and independence from any kind of preconditionings and dogmas. The beauty of the Hindu thought has been the assimilation of all. Although, it has not been stated in the holy scriptures, but the evolution of Hindu thought has been so subtly manipulated by our forefathers, that growth and freedom became the inevitable consequences of the way hinduism was practiced. One of the central pillars of this evolution has been the emphasis on ‘individual consciousness’, rather then ‘collective cosciousness’. The Hindu way of life has been accommodative, instructive and thereby protective of any new thought that has found roots in human consciousness.
Before Buddha, the vedantic philosophy ruled the life in India. When the masses didn’t find answers to their miseries in the contemporary thought, they turned to Buddha for their salvation and thus a whole new chapter in hindu consciousness was instituted. The acceptance of Buddha and his beliefs against the shortcomings of the practice of Vedanta philosophy, was a unique gift of the hindu mindset, which allowed the new thought to initiate, prosper and take roots in the hindu thought and, thereby, infuse it with new blood,and purge it of its social ills. The same flow of acceptance continued is the 7th century with the mission of Adi Shankaracharya, albeit with contradicting results. This time it was the Vedanta philosophy with new wings of ‘advaita’ and the talent of Shankar to take on Buddhism and its attending ills. Subsequently, the flowering of Kabir, Meera, Nanak and the rest of the Bhakti movement has been a continuous journey of innovation, acceptance and imbibing of new thoughts and philosophies into the Hindu thought. Even alien religions like ‘Islam’ were understood and mutated very sympathetically by the Hindu way of thought. One cant imagine the poverty of the literary world, if there were no Urdu language, urdu poetry and Sufi way of thought and living.
The point is that our forefathers realized that each person in unique in this existence, and if given the right nurturing and direction, in this uniqueness lies the possibilty of emergence of new thought which will be beneficial to humanity at large.
Those who are opposing the celebration of valentines day and threatening young couples with dire consequences, are attacking the very spine of the hindu thought. If we want to continue prospering and progressing as a hindu way of life, this should be totally unacceptable to us.
Shifting from the pedestal of the philosophico- intellectual reasoning, let us go on to a socio-geo-political analysis, as to why this opposition to the celebrations of events like valentines day, will be counter productive to the interests of the very hinduism that these activists are out to protect.
The self proclaimed protectors of hinduism and its culture should realize that historically,we hindus, have been a free society, ready to experiment with new social arrangements and thereby trying the human imagination to the limits. How else would one explain that we have counted Draupadi, the wife of 5 kings, as a ‘mahanari’ and not as a cheap social aberration. The concept of free will was understood, accepted, and utilized by our ancestors more comprehensively then us. When we attack our own children in the name of protecting our culture, it is a complete misunderstanding of the free will granted to us by the grand hindu thought, and very paradoxically, it is a pathetic replica of other monolithic religions, where religion controls every social aspect of a man’s life. We should not fall prey to this, simply because hindu thought is alien to such an association where the ‘pundit’ is supposed to guide us in every aspect of life. The greatest victory of Hindu thought lies in the segregation of a routine social life from the church. If we were to be inspired by religions where the priests rule the roost whose interests are we serving ,ours or theirs ?
Secondly, when the whole world has turned a sympathetic ear to the suffering of Indians at the hands of Islamic terrorism, and Pakistan is under tremendous pressure to act on its own Frankensteins, meaningless vandalism and moral policing against our own children is grossly mistimed and ill advised. If these protectors of Hinduism have so much adrenaline rushing up their veins, let it be utilised in protecting our faith from the external threat, which is far more serious, than flexing their muscles on college going teenagers.
A way of life as diverse as hinduism will always have a multi dimensional outcome. We never had one god, one book, or one prophet to seek our answers, so, through 10,000 years of the journey of ‘Sanatana Dharm’ we have not crystallized a core of thought, around which to gather the masses. To that extent hinduism has been the greatest experiment on earth to have survived the passage of time and yet remain intact as a way of life,never coming out with a single social or religious dictat to the ordinary person on the street.. We as hindus have the onus on us to protect this way of life. The obstruction to teenagers celebrating valentines day is an attempt to crystallize a way of thought for moral and social conduct, which is bound to fail, because it is against the basic requisites of the Hindu way of thinking.
Politically, it has been the misfortunes of this country that Hindus could never be mobilised into a pressure group (vote bank) to realize their social security. The moral police should realise that they have very poorly prioritized their job in the service of hinduism. A very hostile neighbour to our west, a not so hostile neighbour to the east, a very powerful, vigilant adversary to our north and an irritant in the south .We are living in one of the most dangerous regions of the world and it doesnt require an Einstien to guess as to who is the target of these hostile neighbours. At this crucial juncture, when we should have the larger picture in our vision, we are busy formulating dictates to our teenagers as to what dress code to have in civic life and whether holding hands in a public place amounts to blasphemy.. It shows a complete bankrupcy of thought in our threat assessment of the whole geo-political situation in the subcontinent.
By opposing a meaningless issue,like the valentine’s day, we are only creating one more issue to drive a wedge in the already fragment hindu polity. This will be utilized by the political opponents of the hindu movement. We will unnecessarily alienate a section of our youth and simultaneously, be strengthening the ideological opponents of the hindu movement.
It is not that the mindless aping of western festivals and values is to be approved of. There is no doubt that a way of life and culture alien to the land should be opposed, but there are other, better institutions to take care of that aspect, then outright hooliganism and resorting to violent means on helpless citizens. The hindu leadership should be more responsible and imaginative in their response to this subtle bending of minds of our youth towards western values.. The family, teachers and society at large are by far, most potent, effective and honourable ways to make our youth realize the futility of these empty gestures, like gyrating to loud music and yielding to lust at an immature age.
Now, to summarise the opposition to the self proclaimed soul saviours of hinduism-
i) The moral policing is against the basic ethos of Hindu way of life. Our forefathers gifted us an independent thought, it is our duty to pass it on as such to our next generation. Nobody gives us the right to interfere with the natural growth of human consciousnesss, however well meaning it might appear to us. Forces of life are larger then forces of prejudices and biases.
ii) When our cities are being blasted at free will at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, the real threat to our culture and way of life is from without, not within.
iii) With general elections round the corner, and the margins of victory getting narrower every time, it is sad that the hindu movement is so hopelessly divided. All energies should be focused on integrating people around a central pillar of hindu polity, instead of alienating our own people on worthless issues.
iv) Whom are we targeting ? the middle class and the upper middle class. These are the very people who provided the intellectual backbone to the growth of the hindu movement. Continuing harassment of the middle class might end up being the last nail in the coffin of the hindu movement.
When we were children, going to shakhas used to be fun. It was about playing games, making friends, laughing & singing. In our youth it was about camaraderie. We would have passionate discussions about serving our mother land and every morning we would be moved to tears while singing ‘Namaste Sada Vatsale Matri Bhumi’, in the shadow of the saffron triangle. There were problems and issues of enormous magnitude, yet there was hope within in our hearts. I still go to the shakha ,and now,sadly, we are a confused lot. We don’t know where we are heading, we don’t know whom to blame for the complete loss of direction.
As Buddha said "when you don’t find a way, go to the beginning". Yes, there is no direction, no leadership worth the name, no priorities and no rewards. The road to salvation is nowhere in sight. But, when I go back to the beginning, it slowly dawns upon me that my hinduism teaches me to let the flow of life go on uninterrupted. As long a somebody is not going against the law of the land, what is to fear ? He or she has full right to live a life of his / her choice. Nobody gives me the right to encroach upon the this fundamental gift of life. I may or may not join the celebrations of valentines day but I will not myself and not let others disrupt any one else’s celebrations, because I AM A SWAYAM SEWAK… VANDE MATARAM..
