A violent and unruly mob stopped a bus with nearly 30 passengers on board, asked the passengers to get down, poured petrol and torched it. Two passengers, perhaps too tired and sleeping inside the bus unaware of the commotion, are charred to death beyond recognition.
Who are the unfortunate victims? Police is yet to come out with identities. Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India. It is also a popular educational destination with hundreds of colleges and institutes. Everyday, thousands of passengers -students, IT professionals, businessmen - commute between the two cities. The unfortunate victims could be any one – your father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend – perhaps going home for a quiet holiday, or returning after a business trip.
What prompted the mob (eyewitnesses say the mob consisted only of four or five miscreants) to take such a drastic action? Many believe the attack could be the handiwork of Hindu activists in retaliation to the controversial remarks made by Mr. M. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The Government of India recently submitted two affidavits in the Supreme Court saying that there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event depicted in the epic Ramayana – there is no archaeological evidence to support the claim that a fictional character called Rama built a bridge across the seas to present day Sri Lanka.
The Hindu hardliners promptly accused the government of blasphemy and declared nation wide agitation. Sensing trouble and more importantly loss of votes, the government immediately changed track by withdrawing the affidavits. It suspended two directors of the Archaeological Survey of India and some insiders demanded that Culture Minister Ms. Ambika Soni should resign.
In a shameless volte-face, the Indian Law Minister, Mr. H. R. Bhardwaj conceded that “The existence of Rama cannot be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Rama is Rama. There is no requirement of any proof to establish the existence." – Oh! Wait a minute minister! Why did your government submit an affidavit contradicting what you just said that caused the whole hullabaloo?
The atheist chief minister of Tamil Nadu added fuel to fire by reiterating that Rama is a mythological hero and does not have any historical existence and there is no proof that the bridge was constructed by Him. He retorted that “Ram is as big a lie as big the truth of the existence of the Ganges and the Himalayas”.
It is quite natural that any sensible person, inundated ad nauseam with these surreal arguments on tv and print-media, will be quite perplexed and puzzled. What is the truth in all they say? Is there any truth at all?
This is indeed a very sad state of affairs for an ancient civilization. India is perhaps only one of the two countries in the world that has adopted “Truth” as the national motto. (The other nation is the Czech Republic whose official emblem states PRAVDA VITEZI or "Truth Shall Prevail").
India insists that truth alone triumphs – nothing else. Period. "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit: "Truth Alone Triumphs") is the inscription embellishing the national emblem, the Lion Capital of King Ashoka at Sarnath. Its origin is in the Mundaka Upanishad - Swami Krishnanada explains the concept of the mantra (Ch III-1-6) very lucidly. According to the learned Swami, “Truth is more than truth-speaking. Truth is the symbol of perfection, a representation of the Divine Being. Adherence to truth means embracing the universal nature of the Reality. Therefore, truth wins a victory everywhere”.
The ancient sages maintained that truth is incontrovertible and absolute truth is synonymous with divinity. The ancient scriptures symbolized the human aspiration to the highest truth, ultimately the Brahman, which represents the power underlying the universe. In Hinduism, Brahman is the ultimate impersonal reality underlying everything in the universe, from which everything comes and to which it returns. Brahman can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, which is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs.
The Vedic prayers invoked every day in Hindu temples all over the world, exemplifies this essence:
Asato Ma Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritam
Gamaya
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
(Sanskrit: “Lead Us from Untruth to Truth, Lead Us from Darkness to Light, Lead
Us from Death to Immortality, Aum (the universal sound of God) Let There Be
Peace, Peace, Peace."
Luckily we have a select few adherents to this mantra scattered all over the world. They have adopted it in its true sprit! Any guess who they are or which religion they follow?
I am not sure whether anywhere in the Vedas or Upanishads it says “Faith alone Prevails”, but unfortunately, that seems to be the motto of choice of many who proclaim themselves to be the followers of that ancient tradition. How else can one describe the controversy currently raging in India on the Sethusamudram issue?
1 comment:
Whether it is Truth or Faith that prevails, the bridge issue is probably going to bring down the government in India. It has all the makings of a raging, flaming controversy aided and fanned by the media into a frenzy of opinions from all and sundry!
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