Your blood does not boil when a child washes dishes in the neighborhood restaurant, or when a girl is robbed off her innocence and you would not even hire her as your domestic help, or when the focus from Corruption conveniently shifts to a cheap drama and you debate in detail on its nuances....but you fume with anger when a painter paints nude pictures of your deities. Well, we definitely do not belong to the same religion!
Religion for me has always been what emancipates humanism, love, peace. I find Hinduism closest to my heart because I grew up in its abode, learning, understanding life and the finer things that make life worth living. Mythology has always been symbolic to me. At times symbolic of leaves of ancient wisdom, the other times symbolising how power morphs storytelling to suit its whims and fancies.
When you get overwhelmed with mythology, which mythology is perfectly capable of, you tend to mistake symbolism with reality and that is where reason and logic diminish.
Mythology when perceived as reality do not appeal to my logical self and that is the reason the divinity thrust upon Ram seems repulsive and the much more comfortable human elements of Krishna appear close to heart. One finds it difficult to appreciate the fact that an innocent Ahalya needed to be made 'sin free' by being touched by Ram's toe, the same Ram who denigrated Sita's sacrifice and love by demanding an 'Agni Pariksha' and thereafter abandoning her when she was pregnant. But, one finds it quite easy to relate to Krishna who rose above the temptation of personal glorification and took steps that were necessary for a greater good while putting his own credibility at stake, when he ensured that Karna, Bhishma, Drona and Duryodhana meet their end anyhow, if not by justifiable means.
The logical self finds it difficult to accept that since Hanuman was a 'Bal Brahmchaari', the only way his son Makardhwaj could have been born was when a crocodile swallowed his sweat while he was crossing the sea! Was he perspiring sperms? How difficult it is to see Hanuman being perfectly human to have a son in the usual, natural manner? And I would go on to state that the poet too was trying to convey the same message by means of symbolism, where the crocodile or similar non-human but humanly behaving entities represent the ones who belonged to the lower rungs of hierarchy and mingling with them was considered a taboo in a pretty similar way as it is considered today.
I would once again quote the incident of Lakshman cutting Shurpnakha's nose as an example of an Aryan prince trying to establish his supremacy over a native princess.
http://samujjwala.blogspot.com/2010/07/here-we-have-two-bollywood-movies.html
The fact that Shurpnakha was molested and not mutilated is much easier to accept when we shred the divinity enveloped around Lakshman.
The poets have tried to convey much more than the naked eye can perceive by means of symbolism. It is commendable that the true message behind these stories is not all lost after being passed through generations of modifications under the influence of the ones who assumed power and thus controlled the poet's pen.
I do not wish to undermine the importance of faith. I understand that it is this faith that has been the binding thread for communities, societies, it is this faith that has enabled us to re-kindle our belief in universal brotherhood. However, for once let us give the poet's pen its due by not reducing it to a mockery to logic. Let us have faith in the underlying goodness that exists in these stories and asks us to be better humans, instead of the maddening furor over disfiguring their face value. My religion asks me to imbibe the values that Ram embodied and not build a temple for him at every place where a mosque was created hundreds of years ago demolishing a temple. My religion asks me to celebrate the human element of the deities, break the boundaries of our mental horizons and not vilify someone who tries to do so.
Religion for me has always been what emancipates humanism, love, peace. I find Hinduism closest to my heart because I grew up in its abode, learning, understanding life and the finer things that make life worth living. Mythology has always been symbolic to me. At times symbolic of leaves of ancient wisdom, the other times symbolising how power morphs storytelling to suit its whims and fancies.
When you get overwhelmed with mythology, which mythology is perfectly capable of, you tend to mistake symbolism with reality and that is where reason and logic diminish.
Mythology when perceived as reality do not appeal to my logical self and that is the reason the divinity thrust upon Ram seems repulsive and the much more comfortable human elements of Krishna appear close to heart. One finds it difficult to appreciate the fact that an innocent Ahalya needed to be made 'sin free' by being touched by Ram's toe, the same Ram who denigrated Sita's sacrifice and love by demanding an 'Agni Pariksha' and thereafter abandoning her when she was pregnant. But, one finds it quite easy to relate to Krishna who rose above the temptation of personal glorification and took steps that were necessary for a greater good while putting his own credibility at stake, when he ensured that Karna, Bhishma, Drona and Duryodhana meet their end anyhow, if not by justifiable means.
The logical self finds it difficult to accept that since Hanuman was a 'Bal Brahmchaari', the only way his son Makardhwaj could have been born was when a crocodile swallowed his sweat while he was crossing the sea! Was he perspiring sperms? How difficult it is to see Hanuman being perfectly human to have a son in the usual, natural manner? And I would go on to state that the poet too was trying to convey the same message by means of symbolism, where the crocodile or similar non-human but humanly behaving entities represent the ones who belonged to the lower rungs of hierarchy and mingling with them was considered a taboo in a pretty similar way as it is considered today.
I would once again quote the incident of Lakshman cutting Shurpnakha's nose as an example of an Aryan prince trying to establish his supremacy over a native princess.
http://samujjwala.blogspot.com/2010/07/here-we-have-two-bollywood-movies.html
The fact that Shurpnakha was molested and not mutilated is much easier to accept when we shred the divinity enveloped around Lakshman.
The poets have tried to convey much more than the naked eye can perceive by means of symbolism. It is commendable that the true message behind these stories is not all lost after being passed through generations of modifications under the influence of the ones who assumed power and thus controlled the poet's pen.
I do not wish to undermine the importance of faith. I understand that it is this faith that has been the binding thread for communities, societies, it is this faith that has enabled us to re-kindle our belief in universal brotherhood. However, for once let us give the poet's pen its due by not reducing it to a mockery to logic. Let us have faith in the underlying goodness that exists in these stories and asks us to be better humans, instead of the maddening furor over disfiguring their face value. My religion asks me to imbibe the values that Ram embodied and not build a temple for him at every place where a mosque was created hundreds of years ago demolishing a temple. My religion asks me to celebrate the human element of the deities, break the boundaries of our mental horizons and not vilify someone who tries to do so.
