Invoking god during election amounts to
cheapening divinity – read the headline, encapsulating the opinion of the
Honorable Justice Rajinder Sachar. Sadly, for India, the good
Justice is retired and his opinion is just that, lower case, and does not carry
the weight of an Opinion from the bench. From the Delhi High Court, his
erstwhile Office, that Opinion would have brought a much needed breath of cool
rationality into the present hormone driven teenage phase of the maturing
Indian Democracy.
cheapening divinity – read the headline, encapsulating the opinion of the
Honorable Justice Rajinder Sachar. Sadly, for India, the good
Justice is retired and his opinion is just that, lower case, and does not carry
the weight of an Opinion from the bench. From the Delhi High Court, his
erstwhile Office, that Opinion would have brought a much needed breath of cool
rationality into the present hormone driven teenage phase of the maturing
Indian Democracy.
Bummer.
‘Cuz, you speak truth, Mr. Justice; if not
the whole truth.
the whole truth.
The whole truth is that relig… I beg your
pardon, Religion cheapens divinity. That which started out as philosophy, with
its questions, curiosities, and conundrums, seems to have devolved into
rigidities. Hindutva, defined as the practice of the Hindu Way, a super
highway, lane markings, toll booths, speed traps, and exit signs into perfidy
and retribution included, has taken the place of hindutva, a far less insistent
passage from here to There. Or, so it seems to me. That upper case demand for respect
seems so at odds with the hinduism
taught to me by my very Tulu, very hindu, grandmother. She wouldn’t eat
beef but she had no problems with a grandson who did. She’d shudder at the
thought of banning anyone, of any faith, or no faith, from entering a temple.
She’d be incensed to hear of Hindu Temples that bar the entry of non-Hindus. Most
certainly she’d not countenance the tearing down of a Mosque. Her hinduism, her hindutva, was a meandering,
stop -and - smell - the - flowers; eschew ritual in prayer, path through the
spiritual life. The gods she worsh… respected, were the ones who didn’t mind a
question or two about dicta and their interpretations, an altogether amiable,
if argumentative, sort of relationship. My way, her hindutva said, or, your own
way. She would not take it upon herself to find fault with a way other her own,
whatever her thoughts might be. Pitfalls will be found and dealt with, or not,
she might have said, had she spoken english.
pardon, Religion cheapens divinity. That which started out as philosophy, with
its questions, curiosities, and conundrums, seems to have devolved into
rigidities. Hindutva, defined as the practice of the Hindu Way, a super
highway, lane markings, toll booths, speed traps, and exit signs into perfidy
and retribution included, has taken the place of hindutva, a far less insistent
passage from here to There. Or, so it seems to me. That upper case demand for respect
seems so at odds with the hinduism
taught to me by my very Tulu, very hindu, grandmother. She wouldn’t eat
beef but she had no problems with a grandson who did. She’d shudder at the
thought of banning anyone, of any faith, or no faith, from entering a temple.
She’d be incensed to hear of Hindu Temples that bar the entry of non-Hindus. Most
certainly she’d not countenance the tearing down of a Mosque. Her hinduism, her hindutva, was a meandering,
stop -and - smell - the - flowers; eschew ritual in prayer, path through the
spiritual life. The gods she worsh… respected, were the ones who didn’t mind a
question or two about dicta and their interpretations, an altogether amiable,
if argumentative, sort of relationship. My way, her hindutva said, or, your own
way. She would not take it upon herself to find fault with a way other her own,
whatever her thoughts might be. Pitfalls will be found and dealt with, or not,
she might have said, had she spoken english.
I should probably add that I use Hindutva v
hindutva merely as illustration. Okay and also because I sense the stench of
Religion rising from the body politic, here in India, a nation in which there
are those who have made names for themselves proclaiming the Right of Way based
on numbers of Hindus in Hindustan. Not unlike the system in Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Iran, Israel, and the United States. [What? You don’t think Big Money is
a Religion? Check out Bechtel’s head quarter building while browsing photos of
Winchester Cathedral, Tirumala Temple, et al. Interesting architecture, no?
hindutva merely as illustration. Okay and also because I sense the stench of
Religion rising from the body politic, here in India, a nation in which there
are those who have made names for themselves proclaiming the Right of Way based
on numbers of Hindus in Hindustan. Not unlike the system in Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Iran, Israel, and the United States. [What? You don’t think Big Money is
a Religion? Check out Bechtel’s head quarter building while browsing photos of
Winchester Cathedral, Tirumala Temple, et al. Interesting architecture, no?
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