HINDU RENAISSANCE ... 6

The space for the Hindu in India is shrinking by the day. We must be strong as a community and strength can come from the study of Sanskrit and the Vedanta. For those who cannot undertake such an arduous academic course, a thorough grounding in Vivekananda will be most beneficial. Not only does the study of Vivekananda inform us about the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism), it also inspires patriotic feelings in us whereby we feel impelled to take up the cause of rebuilding our motherland along the lines laid down by the Rishis (illumined sages/seers of Truth) of yore and by the modern sages like Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. Hindus are being decimated in Pakistan, Bangladesh and, horrendously, in India as well. Our ancient Bharatbhumi (the landmass of India) has been partitioned with both her arms amputated by the Machiavellian British in conjunction with the perfidious Jinnah and his cronies in the then Muslim League. Pakistan and Bangladesh are essentially India and must in due course of time reunite with partitioned India to become the ancient united motherland (Akhanda Bharat) once more. Hinduism must come to the fore to reconvert her ancient adherents through the strength of its philosophy and the truth of its principles. Till the Hindus become spiritually vibrant again, such a day will not dawn and the plight of the world will continue with tribal barbarism masquerading as religion holding centre-stage. The Hindu owes it to the world to unfold her spiritual treasures and so save the world from annihilation at the hands of savages who have neither understanding nor higher information about God, soul, spirit or the Self but are conceited enough in their ignorance to think that they possess Truth in its entirety and need to proselytise by force or fraud to bring the world to enlightenment. Such a flawed perception of life and truth necessarily fuels fratricidal feud and humanity has been laid waste over centuries by the horrors of scriptural violence. But not all religions are dark and destructive. Some are benign as well, nay, illumining and universal in scope. The Indian dharma traditions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and the like are highly scientific in their approach to the questions of life and truth and are palpably humanistic in their approach with their focus being the spiritual evolution of man and not the worship of some extra-cosmic deity whose arbitration governs the life of man. Today, when there is a definite clash of civilisations between the West and the Islamic world, when global terrorism threatens a cataclysm given the fact that the world now has a wide enough access to nuclear weapons, it is the Hindu’s holy duty to present to the world his humanistic philosophy of life and living to save the world from imminent annihilation. If he fails to carry out this, his ultimate obligation to humanity, humanity may be no more in the near future or, if at all it survives, it may be severely maimed en masse and civilisation may suffer a regression to the dark ages. Every Hindu child is thus enjoined to make a thorough study of the sacred texts of his forefathers, realise the essence of the same before embarking on preaching the gospel of divinity expounded therein and pulsating in his soul. Then alone will the world awake to the universal message of the Vedanta and with rapid strides hasten on to the eventual destination of life, freedom. Thus will the terrestrial mission of the Hindu race be fulfilled, that of discovering, preserving and disseminating the truths of the Spirit for the wide world to benefit from, but for that it is imperative that the Hindu survives as a race and that the truths that he has guarded and saved from annihilation at the hands of foreign aggressors, Islamic and Christian, do not die with him. It is for the welfare of the whole of humanity that the Hindu has lived these millennia in patient pursuit of spiritual truth and it is in humanity’s interest to support the Hindu in his fight for survival against brutal Islamism pitted against it whose sole purpose is the destruction of whatever the Hindu stands for --- reason, enlightenment, catholicity, democracy, freedom. May the Hindu survive for the world to see a brighter day in much the same way as the seer of the Shvetashvara Upanishad beheld the world in the effulgence of the Atman! May good sense prevail! May peace belong to all! May diversity thrive amidst unity and not uniformity! Jai Hind!