In the Rig Veda we find this verse: ‘We are surrounded by dasyus from
all sides. They do not perform yagna; they are non-believers. Their observances
are different. O’ Slayer of enemies! Kill them, destroy their tribes’. The
history of religious intolerance is quite old and unpleasant. Holding a flashlight
on this stagnated pool is only to lift up one to a refreshing perspective. The
conflicts between devas and asuras in the scriptures are interpreted as the
history of conflicts between Dravidians and Aryans. Prior to the Aryan cycle,
the Dravidian race dominated. From the accounts in the epics and puranas and
other ancient texts, it can be known that the Dravidians were an advanced
civilization. Many among them like Bali, Ravana and Mayan were titans of that
age possessing superhuman skills. Their technological prowess and architectural
skills were superb. They had airplanes and mystical weapons, which could be
either a much advanced version or a prototype of today’s nuclear weapons. They had
built magnificent palaces and cities. As ages went by, the Dravidian
civilization decayed. Great geological changes occurred. There was the great Flood.
The Kumari continent (Lemuria) of the Dravidians had gone underneath the deeps.
The ice age had set in. Then a new race emerged from the snowy cool mountains and
terrains - the white Aryans, may be 10000 - 15000 years ago. They began to conquer
the moribund Dravidian civilization – the asuras, daityas, rakshashas, nagas,
vanaras and other aboriginal races which inhabited the earth from previous age cycles.
It seems that the Dravidians chiefly worshiped Siva. It has been
established from the excavations at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa that the worship
of Siva existed even before the emergence of Aryans. Some historians say that
the Aryan, Greek, Roman and Celtic religions developed from the ancient
Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia. The Sumers built their cities and towns dedicated
to the worship of gods and goddesses like sun, moon, vayu, water, etc. But, who
inhabited Sumeria? It must be a branch of ancient Dravidians, who were spread throughout
West Asia in ancient times. According to researchers, the old Sumerian texts mention
that people arrived from south by sea and occupied the land. Sumerian seals were
one among the artifacts recovered from Indus valley, which establishes the early
contact between the two civilizations.
The Aryan worship was notable for its fire worship and sacrifices
aimed to appease various nature deities like Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varnua, etc. Nevertheless,
the Vedic seers perceived Truth as an organic whole. God was perceived as a Cosmic
Archetypal Person (Purusha) from whose sankalpam emerged the universe including
the sun, earth, moon and other planets and all sentient and insentient beings. Although
the Rig Veda assigns the creation to Purusha, the Vedic community gave
importance to the worship of guardian deities. In the Vedic religion the
spiritual authority was vested with a community of priests or purohits, who
called themselves as brahmanas. They considered themselves as superior claiming
their origin from the face of the Cosmic Purusha. The status of kshatriyas,
vaisyas and sudras dwindled according to the limbs from which they originated from
the Purusha, such as from his arms kshatriyas, from navel the vaisyas and from the
legs sudras although such a theory of genesis is viewed as a clear misinterpretation
of Purusha Sukta. The brahmanas who now grouped themselves as purohits became
specialized in complex fire rituals, which they conducted for the rulers who
wanted to ward off threats from natural forces as well as expiation of sins for
their misdeeds. The Vedic priests conducted rituals for the ruling class and the
elite who generously gifted cows, land, grains, gold etc. and granted them special
privileges. The sudra had no spiritual or social privileges under the Vedic
dispensation.
II
According to few historians, a group among the Aryans decided to migrate
to Iran protesting against the corruption of Vedic priests and established the
religion of Zarathustra (the Parsi religion). In the Zarathustra religion the devas
were treated as unholy spirits. In India too, some wise men were unhappy with the
greedy Vaidikas and their pompous rituals and sacrifices. These wise men withdrew
to forests and mountain caves and began to meditate on the mystery of life.
They received visions of truth and shared their knowledge to the keen disciples
who approached them. Their teaching came to be known as Upanishads, which means
‘learn sitting near the master’. They propagated the wisdom path. It is from
the Upanishad rishis the ashram and guru-sishya tradition originated. The
Upanishad seers saw God as pure Consciousness beyond name and form. However, these
rishis lived a secluded life away from worldly pursuits, which they took as mind’s
unprofitable diversion. Therefore, their profound and egalitarian ideology could
not be developed into a religious culture among the masses. So, they continued
to live trapped in the decadent religious practices.
Efforts were on to liberate the people from this pathetic condition
and spiritual downfall from the time of Sri Krishna itself. Krishna taught humanity
the first lessons of religious tolerance and tried to harmonize worldly life with
transcendental wisdom. He initiated the
concept of an undivided and eternal Supreme Entity which rules over the
universe and whose light guides all sentient and insentient beings remaining in
their innermost self. One can find the basic principles of a perfect spiritual
science in the teachings of Sri Krishna in Bhagavat Gita. Through the famous
verse in Bhagavat Gita ‘yadhaa yadhaa hi dharmasya glaanirbhavati bhaarata,
abhyuthanam adharmasya tadaatmaanam srijaamyham’, Sri Krishna was presenting
an alternative spiritual path, i.e. the system of an (epochal) spiritual
mediator, an avatar or Guru medium, who will lift up humanity whenever dharma
is in peril. Krishna said: ‘Surrender your
heart completely to me; love and worship me; bow only before me abandoning all other
paths. Then you can see me, this is my promise. I am the one who love you the
most; you submit all dharma to me. Find refuge in me and do not fear because I
will save you from all sins and slavery’.
Through this exhortation, Sri Krishna was trying to liberate the society
from the domination of Vaidikas and Vedic ritualism. According to some thinkers the Mahabharata war was a war between Sri Krishna and
the spokesperson of Vedic Dharma, Dhronacharya. Such a pernicious and colossal
war in which almost all kshatriyas of the land were perished was not fought
just for resolving a family feud. It could have been as well a rebellious war
against the hegemony and injustices of a priestly social order, which supported
a corrupt regime. When Krishna passed away from the scene with the end of
Dwapara yuga, the Vedic religion re-established its supremacy. Krishna’s life
and teachings were misinterpreted to suit the tradition. The profundity of
Krishna’s teachings was lost in the fanciful tales of the poets who portrayed
Krishna as Makkan Chor or Radhe Krishna, who flirted with gopikas.
Then the Sage Kapila came with Sankhyan philosophy. The Vedic religion
had become unpopular with the masses. The philosophy of Sage Kapila freed the concept
of God and Creation from the ritualistic framework of Vedic religion. Sankhyan philosophy
can be said as a refinement of the philosophical discourse of Upanishadic Rishis
and their jnana path. Buddhism and Jainism were influenced by the Sankhyan philosophy.
People suffering from an oppressive religious and social order wanted a Savior.
Buddha was that Savior. Buddha’s religion was egalitarian and based on right
action, human love and compassion. There was no place in it for meaningless
rituals and caste discrimination. The whole of India and many other nations in
Asia accepted the ideology of Buddha.
III
The period of Buddhism between 600 B.C– 800 AD was the golden period
of Indian history. Chandragupta Maurya, Asoka, Vikramaditya, Harsha and
Kanishka were the great emperors of this age. It was during this period several
other great souls like Patanjali, Sree Sankaracharya, Kautilya, Aryabhatta, Charvaka,
Susrutha, Kalidasa, Amarasimha, Vararuchi, Bhairavi, Varahamihira, Dandin,
Banabhatta, Subandhu, Bhathruhari, Bhavabhuti and others lived spreading the
glory of India around the world. The great growth of Buddhism was intolerable
to the Vaidikas although the Buddhist Sangha constituted a large number of
Brahmins. Buddhism and Jainism which came as protest movements against the
Vedic religion were depicted as Atheists and their followers were ridiculed and
persecuted. It was another chapter of religious intolerance. Buddhism was soon split
into two sects - Hinayana and Mahayana, incorporating the very practices which
the Buddha abhorred such as the veneration of deities, animal sacrifice and
inclusion of mantric and tantric rituals into the Buddhist canon. Soon Buddhism
weakened and migrated outside its land of origin.
During the Gupta period, the Vedic religion regained its upper hand. The
Indian society under Vedic religion was highly segmented on the basis of caste.
Each caste, tribe or guild had different gods (kula devata), mostly lesser and
unholy spirits compared to the beautiful gods of higher castes. This crippled
the spiritual and social solidarity of Hindu masses. Eventually, the Gupta
dynasty declined and foreign intruders began to mount attacks on India. The local
rulers who were in mutual enmity went to the extent of seeking assistance from
these foreign intruders in order to defeat their enemies in the neighborhood. India
had fully degenerated socially and politically after the decline of Buddhism. It
was at this moment in history Islam made it entry into India. The kings of
India bent their knees in front of the ferocious sultans. Thousands and
thousands were massacred and all wealth looted. Thousands were forcibly converted.
Those who refused were put to the sword. Their womenfolk were raped. Some
jumped into fire. Many thousands were taken as slaves to die in the enemy lands.
Hindu temples and Buddhist viharas were razed to the ground. The holiest of
holy temples of Hindus at Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi were demolished and
masjids built in their place. The world famous Buddhist library at Nalanda was
burnt to ashes. Islam inflicted horrendous pain not only on Hindus but also on
Christians and Jews. Islam was born out of a historical frustration in the area
of spirituality. Despite the efforts of many earlier messengers like Sri
Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir and prophets like Moses and Jesus Christ, people had not
yet accepted the true path and relapsed again and again to the faith in many
messiahs, gods and demigods. Some among the early persecuted Christians
believed that the ferocious power of Islam was the curse of God on them for
deviating from the true faith.
Buddhism and Jainism were basically protest movements against the Vedic
religion, against its caste segregation and priest-craft. However, Buddhism and
Jainism had never posed a threat to India’s fundamental culture and unity. Even
when there were differences, the undercurrents of culture remained the same. Buddism
and Jainism never ‘de-nationalized’ the people of India, as a well known
westerner put it. The Indian religions never displayed religious hatred or bigotry
as seen today in a manner that would tear away the very unity of the country
and its cultural foundation. India was always known for its religious tolerance
compared to other nations. The Indian society was not politically segmented on
the lines of race, class, caste and tribe as it is seen today. However, changes
took place in the fabric of Indian society after India was colonized by the
British. Although during the rule of the Muslim Sultanate and Mogul kings, a lot
of Hindus were forcibly or otherwise converted to Islam, it had not affected
the pan Indian Hindu identity and culture. It was difficult to convert the
majority Hindus, who were spread across the length and width of the country
from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. With the end of Mogul rule the advance of Islam came
to an end. During the British period also serious efforts were made for the conversion
of Hindus. However, Hinduism outlived all these attacks while the Islamic conquests
and European colonialism had uprooted the native cultures and beliefs in the continents
of America, Europe, Africa and other places. They forced their religion on the conquered
people and thus Christianity and Islam became the biggest religions in the
world.
It was in South East Asia Islam and Christianity failed because
Hinduism and Buddhism strongly resisted the efforts of global religious
conversion. At the time of independence, the Hindu population in India was more
than 85%. Nevertheless, the thousand
year long Islamic and British rule had greatly affected the Hindu society
politically and socially. Several social evils and superstitions in Hindu
society were demolished. The reform movements began by Ram Mohan Roy, Dayananda
Saraswati, Swami Vivekanada, Aravind Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar, Sri
Narayana Guru and others helped. There was a constitution which ensured social
justice to the deprived classes in order to prevent the hegemony of a Brahmanical
social order. Concepts such as freedom of religion and secularism were included
in the Constitution. When the hold of religion was separated from the political
system after independence, the Hindu religion was not accepted as the state
religion, although the Hindus were in majority. At the same time, two theocratic states came
into existence dividing India - Pakistan and Bangladesh. This caused big distress
to the majority of Hindus. The efforts of the British succeeded to restrain
Hindu religion politically and socially. In one way, the partition of India was
unavoidable, because both the British and Indian leaders had realized that it
was impossible to restrain and make the Muslims live under a democratic set up
among the majority Hindus. Whenever and wherever Muslims form the majority,
they would opt for a theocratic society under Islamic laws. This is inbuilt in the
Islamic theology.
IV
Behind the British occupation of India, there were not only political
and economic aims; one of their main objectives was to convert the people of
India into Christianity. The British saw the Indians and their religion as primitive.
They strongly believed that only through Christianity the Indian souls could be
saved. Several missionaries from Europe arrived in India for this purpose. The British administration extended all
assistance to them. However, they soon realized that it was almost impossible
to convert the Hindus. This fact has been mentioned in the book ‘Letter on the
State of Christianity in India in which the Conversion of the Hindus is Considered
Impractical’, written R. Abe Dubois, a missionary in India during the British
period. The British administration and the missionaries who arrived in India
changed their tactics when they understood that it was not easy to convert the
Hindus. First, they began to study about the religion, philosophy and culture
of India. They were surprised to find the history of a very ancient and
profound culture. They thought that a people who was so much degenerated and
colonized could not be the heirs to this great culture and philosophy. They picked
up the theme of conflicts between deva and asura in the Puranas and described
it as the racial conflicts between Aryan and Dravidian population. It was William
Jones, Max Muller and other Indologists who propagated this concept first. Sri
Rajiv Malhotra has done a detailed study of this subject in his book ‘Breaking
India’.
The Indians who were living for centuries in unity and brotherhood suddenly
became Dravidians and Aryans, hill tribes, dalits, etc. They defined Indian
society as a conglomeration of isolated groups which had no common bonds. Through
this they aimed to divide Indian society on the basis of race, caste, language
and region and held Hinduism responsible for all these evils. The missionaries
thought that they could convert more and more Hindus into Christianity by exploiting
and aggravating this situation. The Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu is a big example
for this. During the British period, Christian missionaries in India like Bishop
Robert Caldwell and others provided ideological fire for this movement. They
spread the idea that the Aryans, after coming to India, destroyed Dravidians, their
religion and culture and therefore Aryans were the enemies of Dravidians. The
books and articles written by these missionaries and their preaching raised a
cloud of racial hatred. Thus the Hindu religion, language and culture were seen
as the enemies of Dravidians. In 1916 an organization was founded by the name Justice
Party. It is this organization which has become the Dravida Munnetta Kazhakam
(DMK) in the political scenario today. During this period there was a big tide
of religious animosity in Tamil Nadu. A lot of people in Tamil Nadu converted
to Christianity. Sanskrit and Hindi, the language of North Indians were opposed.
The Hindu face of Tamil Nadu underwent change like that of Kerala. The
Aryan-Dravidian racial conflict spread to Sri Lanka also. The European colonialists
adopted the method of polarizing the people of India on the lines of caste, class,
religion, race and language, which kept them alienated from the national
mainstream through social and political confrontations. Thus religious
intolerance is perpetuated in the form of political and social protest movements.
V
Western culture or Arab culture is incapable of leading the human race
towards peace and spiritual fulfillment. Today, the influence of western materialist
culture has led humanity to all types of vulgarity, family breakdown, health hazards
and environmental damage. There is disillusionment and disquiet everywhere. The
murderous jihadi groups are slowly digging the grave of Islam, which has grown
through a history of bloodshed. Majority of its followers are blind to any
other truth, therefore, are confined to their self-imposed ideological
isolation. The world is in need of a new spiritual path to forge ahead, which
would form the basis of the faith of future humanity. Navajoythi Sree Karunakara
Guru said that only the wisdom tradition (jnana path) of the rishis provide
such a unitive spiritual view, which has been developed through ages of spiritual
enquiry and culture. Guru mentions that all religions, sages and prophets have
their own place in the historical march of humanity. Therefore, we should not berate
any religion or prophet. What we can do is to pray for a good transformation
with a benign vision and largeness of heart. The slogan of mere religious harmony
is not enough. The human race has to be guided to the path of one Supreme Godhead,
who is not Hindu, Christian or Muslim. God rules over His entire creation
equally. Although God is formless, Guru said that God has a shape. A formless
God has no necessity to create a world full of forms and names. Manu Smriti
provides a rational view of creation thus:
‘This universe was enveloped in darkness-
unperceived, undistinguishable, undiscoverable, unknowable, as it were,
entirely sunk in sleep. The irresistible Self-existent Lord, undiscovered,
creating this universe with the five elements and all other things was
manifested dispelling the gloom. He who is beyond the cognizance of the senses,
subtle, un-discernible, eternal, who is the essence of all things and
inconceivable, himself shown forth. He desiring, seeking to produce various
creatures from his own body, first created the waters, and deposited in them a
seed. This (seed) became a golden egg resplendent as the sun, in which he
himself was born as the progenitor of all worlds. The waters are called Narah,
because they are the offspring of Nara; and since they were formerly the place
of his movement (ayana), he is therefore called Narayana… That Lord having
continued in the egg divided it into two parts (male and female) by his mere
thought. Its (the egg’s) womb, vast as the mountains of Meru, was composed of
the mountains and the mighty oceans were the waters, which filled its cavity.
In that egg were the continents, seas and mountains, the planets and divisions
of the universe; the gods, the demons and mankind'.
The male creation of God is the Manu of Manvantara cycles, who is not
be confused with the author of Manu Smriti with the same name. The female part
is known as Satarupa. The echo of this idea of a Cosmic Person is also
reflected in the Semitic religions. The word Adam is said to have originated
from the Sanskrit root ‘Adi’, which means the beginning. The great Rishis
taught us that Guru Principle is the qualitative transformation, the creative intent
of the formless Brahman. (Brahman is different from the god Brahma. Brahman
denotes to Almighty God). The Tantra texts mention that God exists in the form
of Guru (Primal Guru, the Cosmic Purusha) in the middle of a thousand-petalled
lotus. The solar system is created by the sankalpam of this Cosmic Preceptor,
known as Manu. Thus Manu is the authority of a solar system.
The Indian sages
calculated the age of universe in terms of Manvantara after the name of Manu. We
should remember that the words ‘manushya’, ‘manava’, ‘manuja’ and even the English
word ‘man’ is derived from the root Manu. There is an interpretation that the
word Bharat is derived from Manu. Manur Bharata Iti Bharata, i.e. the
land governed by Manu is Bharat. One wheel of creation (kalpa) is set to the
time periods of fourteen such Manus. In the long duration of a Manu age
partitioned by cosmic ages such as Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali, several
spiritual authorities manifest age after age. It is this spiritual view of
Indians which makes them tolerant to other religions, sages and prophets. Only through
such a cosmology, the human race can be united and liberated from religious
intolerance. Only a Guru who comes as the authority of the age within this cosmology
can lead all people to a unitive spiritual path. Navajyotisri Karunakara Guru has
not brought a new religion; He has only reinterpreted the Sanatana Dharma concepts
in tune with the age. During this age of religious conflicts only such a unitive
spiritual ideology can save us.
Mukundan P.R.
