Divide and Rule: From 1900 to 2000...

Some hundred years back, when the British were finding it difficult to control the riots and mutinies against their rule in India, the British came up with a wonderful tactic which was good enough to make them continue their rule for another half a century. Their idea was ‘Divide and Rule’ policy. They initially started favouring Hindus and went against Muslims who were in the fore front during the 1857 struggle. After 1900s they started favouring Muslims. Though the community who they favoured changed constantly till 1947, they made sure that the age old enmity between Hindus and Muslims always remained afresh. This separatism reached its climax when they decided to split Punjab and Bengal into west and east thereby completely separating Hindus and Muslims both physically and mentally leading to creation of India and Pakistan in the end.

And why am I stating this well known fact now? After sixty years of independence?? Let’s make a quick view of the present Indian situation! Every form, every application and almost every ID card in India has columns like ‘Religion’, ‘Community’ and ‘Caste’. Indian Constitution proudly brags that India is a secular state and every Indian has equal rights – ‘Right to equality’. Here is an excerpt of what was given about right to equality in my primary school book, “Blah… blah… blah… All rights universally apply to all citizens, irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, color or Gender. But certain provision is provided to minority classes for their upcoming.” This last clause of ‘minority class’ constitutes almost 70% in Tamilnadu and around 50% average all over India. Since when did 50% and 70% percent become minority??? I was informed by someone that when constitution was initially formed it was framed in such a way that the privilege was made only for a few years. Then why did it extend till now?

Politics! Apparently, our politicians too find that Divide and Rule Policy is the best way to rule when they are rotting in their own corruption. Split the population into factions, make them brood over their own sect of people, never make them realise the truth and most important of all constantly remind all the important vote sections from which they could extract votes that they are a minority and shower them with more privileges. We have moved a long way from the real caste discrimination when higher class used to discriminate the weaker sections, to self-discrimination where people condemn themselves to the ‘backward classes’ so that they extort maximum possible privilege. It even gets worse: One such ‘community’ still does frequent strikes and bandh demanding the Government to discriminate them to a further backward class. The Government too happily encourages them indirectly. India has degraded from the point where discrimination was seen as cruelty to the point where discrimination is self-inflicted!

So ultimately, I don’t find much difference between India before independence and the present India if you minus the technological developments. The British plundered our wealth for their country in the name of Colonialism and Imperialism and remained in power using the divide n rule policy. At present the politicians plunder our resources, deposit them in tax haven countries and make people ensconced within their shells of caste, community and religion, a modified and better version of divide and rule!!!

Who am I?

To all the patient readers of my blog, i know you would all by know been confused. Initially I talked about Sankara and Advaita, then gradually moved to atheism and claimed that there is no ‘God’. Then suddenly I post a poem of Siva! So who am I? Well, I too am not sure as to which side I am in!

1. I am undoubtedly believer of Advaita, so am an advaitin! I have kept Adi Sankara and his advaita principles at great awe and respect.

2. I am a person who believes that there is only one single source of power and accept many of the universal facts present in Vedas – the source and origin of advaita philosophy.

3. I do accept Sankara’s idea of Shanamta worship ( pray to any of the following six Gods: Siva, Vishnu, Sakthi, Ganesh, Skandha and Suryanarayana) and the ideologies behind it.

Just because am a believer of Advaita doesn’t mean I have to worship God. Advaita says, ‘Atman is Brahman’. That fact is accepted. But what is the need to pray and worship that Brahman (God in general terms)? Yes it is true that there is a single source of power and that everything originated from that single source of power. It has even been proved scientifically. But why should we worship that source? We humans originate from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and many other elements. Just because we are made of these elements do we worship them? No, because for the simple reason that we don’t find any conscience in them. I wonder who told people that the almighty powerful single source has a conscience. What if the source is just raw power and nothing else? If it is so, then isn’t it similar to praying to a battery or to electricity?

Some of the facts present in Vedas are undeniable and holds good even to this day. But in the modern day world there has been many changes that could not have been predicted in the vedic ages. So naturally some of them are unpractical and unacceptable. An example would be good here.

Vedas point out that Brahmins are not supposed to undergo travel to foreign countries, most importantly not to cross seas and oceans. Reason: Brahmins are vegetarians. So travelling through ships for months together would mean no vegan diet and hence they would be forced to eat fish! Secondly, Brahmins don’t have any work in foreign countries in the social setup of the vedic ages. Their work was to do Yagnas for the welfare of the country. Clearly we could see why it need not be followed now. Travel by air just takes a few hours and they do provide us with vegetarian food. Also the vedic social hierarchy has long been collapsed and Brahmins in the present day are present in all statuses of the society, from doctors to businessmen.

Sankara’s shanmatha tradition was to narrow down the whole range of Gods present in India to a minimum of six. His idea was that once people start following this practice along with advaita principles they would realize the truth about the singularity of God! They would realise the truth, ‘Atman is Brahman!’ Another reason is that you cannot make lesser intellectuals understand the vast and highly deep ideas of Advaita. So it is always better to make them worship a defined set of deities instead of allowing them pray to whatever they find around them, from trees to rocks. It is also one of the reasons that he brought this tradition. But after 1500 years, the tradition is almost forgotten and advaita is a long forgotten word.

So who am I? A person, who believes in a supreme power source (God), and does not believe that worshipping that source, would bring about any change in the lives of humans, since it is of my opinion that there is no need for God to have conscience. But as a matter of fact I find it so hard to put every pressure, tension and stress with myself. I require a vent by which I can let myself free of these feelings. There is no better way of doing it than praying to God. It creates a protective feeling that I have a guard around me, a sense of hope when it seems all is lost. So I do pray to God just to overcome the above said reasons. May be I am a pseudo-atheist, a person who believes that there is no God but still prays and worships God not because I believe any miracle would change my life in a minutes time but just to keep myself comfortable!

According to Hinduism, a person who doesn’t believe in God isn’t considered to be an atheist. An atheist is a person who doesn’t believe in Vedas. But since I believe in Vedas am not an atheist. I am not an agonist since I have no confusion regarding the presence of God. I am sure that there is God! I am not a theist either since I don’t technically accept the presence of a God with conscience! Yes am also confused to the same extent like everyone else who is reading this post!

Comments are welcome as to who you think I am.

The Fortunate Folks

The recent demise of a great spiritual leader, Sai Baba of Puttapathri brought lots of emotions and tears from all around the country. From daily labourers to multimillion dollar businessmen, people from every walk of life – the middle class armchair theorists, film celebrities, sportsmen, politicians and even the prime minister mourned his death and paid homage to his lifeless body. Even though some of these newsmakers had to attend the funeral out of moral obligations, there were a whole lot of men who flocked around the place due to their belief in the leader. Many more paid silent homage and shed tears for their holy Guru at their homes. These are people with such great faith in a single being – human or God, whoever he may be. What is interesting is their unflinching faith, the hope that we could see in their eyes, the trust that Satya Sai Baba is the messenger of God.
Not only in this particularly instance I am wondered at the great trust and hope , but also the general hope people keep in their respective Gods and the great length of pain and suffering they undertake in satisfying the needs of their heart and thereby making themselves closer to their God. For the past few days I’ve been witnessing scenes of a holy Hindu gathering to do bhajans at Kamarajar Hall, Chennai. The crowd that gathers is shocking and the animated dances people do in their own trance amazes me. Such huge faith in their God makes them forget their pain, anger, sufferings, pleasure and needs and surrender themselves to their God. How many times do we see seventy and eighty year old men and women standing up from their seats, cheering the singer and dancing to the merry rhythms of the tune? These are the results of pure Bhakti that these people have in their God. This is just an example and am sure that each religion will have a similar story to say. Really, these are the fortunate folks who have such unshakable faith in a being.
Many philosophers of Hindu Dharma say that to experience the essence of God is a rare treasure and is not found by many. Only the fortunate few get such out of the world pleasures. This was repeated in the recent bhajans and my parents backed it too! So what about me? Actually I do support this! Only the fortunate few get such privileges. And if asked whether I belong to that fortunate few category, I am very disappointed in myself that I do not belong to that exclusive group.
Believing to God and praying to god is a wonderful experience. Being a very strong believer of God for almost twenty years I know and do understand the high ecstasy and beatitude people experience in such a practice. When lonely, God gives support; when sad, He gives strength to carry on your sadness till it becomes light; when an injustice is being done to you, He calms you down and reminds you that justice shall prevail in the end; and when all hope is lost; he stands with you and comforts you in your heart. Thus the uses and advantages of believing in God are many. And naturally the unfortunate people like me are stripped of such advantages.
Being made clear that I have no belief in God, people may get the impression that I hate God or I don’t want God to exist etc… But it is exactly the opposite. I fervently wish for God’s existence. I crave for His presence and I am in constant search for signs that insinuate His presence or His identity. After twenty years of being a God believer something hit me hard on my head and made me see the real stupid world and made me realise the bold, raw and daring truth about God. Though brain seems to acknowledge and accept the idea, the inner mind doesn’t want it to be true. At times of distress, unconsciously my mind drifts to God and does a silent prayer even before I try to counteract with the thought to stop it.
On a recent Tirupati trip, one and half months back, which I made only for the sole reason of being an adventurous journey, one of my friends casually said,” Never play with Lord Balaji, he will definitely make you suffer at some point, will you make think about the prank you played with him and will make you resent it”. Again, such an extreme faith. Bravo!! Got touched. For a moment, I wanted to believe his words without further questions and accept them passively! How good would be a world with God!!! Hence I made this small bet with God at this juncture. I prayed, or to say exactly, made a challenge with Lord Balaji for three things. One year time period was given for accomplishment of any one of the three prayers. If atleast one of the three prayers comes true, I would gladly and definitely start believing in God and would further reach the temple by walk itself. But if it doesn’t happen, then I would have to remain in the unfortunate group and be damned forever! One and half months, has passed and still ten more months to go. Let’s see who wins in the end. Hope God wins! Keeping my fingers crossed!
At times, it is better to remain blind and exist in our own virtual world rather than opening our eyes and getting disappointed with the reality!