Saturday, August 15, 2009

FREEDOM OF THINKING: ESSENCE OF HINDUNESS (PART I)

“DHEE”: The Essence of Hinduness (Part I)
by
Achintyachintaka

Courtesy: http://www.swaveda.com/ originally posted on Nov 29, 2005

To open part II click on : http://sookta-sumana.blogspot.com/2009/08/dhee-essence-of-hinduness-part-ii-vedic.html

In this age of world domination by “Go to Hell” religions based on colossal myths and gigantic superstitions, the “population targeted to go to hell” has an obligation to examine the basic premises of their own spiritual heritage. These people who are condemned to “go to hell” by the currently dominating religions of the world are the so called “pagans,” and “heathens,” believed to be and described as polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic or atheistic Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and others practicing Wicca, Zen Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Native Americans, Baha’i, Zoroastrians, etc., collectively named “non-believers” or “infidels” (Quafars). Many of these are "elders," like the Jewish, originating long before the beginning of this Common Era 2000 years ago. These elders, though many are religious and devout in their own frames of mind, have been bullied through inquisitions for the last two millennia by the aggressive proselytizing empire building religions that originated, developed, and were propagated only in the last two millennia. Although it may be claimed that conversions at sword point or gun point or under the threat of torture or murder or other coercions is not prevalent in the twenty first century, mass conversions under allurements, duress or deceit is an order of the day supported and heavily financed by the so called "civilized" people of the world who feel it is their duty to their religion and God to harvest more and more souls for engulfment by their churches or mosques and to send them to their respective heavens in their afterlife. Such activity and massive highly financed thrust is rationalized as the divine task of offering "freedom of religion" to populations that are following other religions focusing on the fact that there may be a few that might be discontent with the ways of their parent religion. As if these discontent cannot on their own relinquish the ways or their parent religion or societies are not capable of making any reforms internally without the self-serving assistance of the foreign religions. In addition, they consider it their singular mission to uplift and reform other cultures and their customs whom they deem primitive while they do not have time to smell the stink of their own past and presently practiced evils lingering on their shoes nor the blood stains of their past violence on their hands have been imperceptibly washed away. The supporters of such conversions do not necessarily recognize the greed or the empire building and political motives of such thrusts but feel gratified at the success of their lofty "compassionate" missionary emissaries to different parts of the world taking their God's “message” {God's (s)word}.

It is imperative that the truly peace loving and peace practicing non-proselytizing cultures of the world gain insight into how they themselves, while being condemned, have kept from condemning other members of the human race to eternal suffering. Although these truly peace loving and reconciling religions, true to their attainment of civilized mature spirituality, have demonstrated historically more tolerance and acceptance of other human beings by not “condemning them to permanent suffering in the hell” and have practiced peacefully their own religions without encroaching on followers of other faiths, they have been depicted ironically in the Western and Islamic traditions, and in the world-view dominated by these monotheistc Abrahamic cultures as morally inferior “non-believers,” “infidels” or "heathens" and sometimes as utterly primitive barbarians. (Killing millions is not a barbarian act if comitted by the devout civilized people!!).

Such widespread pejorative depiction of “non-monotheistic” non-proselytizing religions of the world through various media is even becoming the preoccupation of the "academic" departments of religious studies and cultural anthropology in the Western world, the Western (so-called) Indologists or Orientologists, Departments of Sanskrit and Indian Studies in the West, etc. , of reputable universities surreptitiously supported by the organized religions in various ways; and even by the casual Western tourists and travelers visiting the non-Christian or non-Islamic dominated countries who want to present their “wisdom” to the world as self described mature people compared to "others" feeding their own petty narcissism. This weird complex of religious superiority is predicated upon a presumptuous belief that the morality, ethics, conscience, fairness in human interaction, love and compassion, and regard for "human rights," despite their own dismal historical disregard for all of these principles through the ages and even at present,  are the monopoly of only their own respective religions and spring solely from their status as the superior religion and superior religious beliefs. They call it their "ethics" and/or "ethos."

Furthermore, there is a shared delusion that the prosperity, and scientific progress of their own culture because of their religion, or is the accomplishment of their religious beliefs and make no mistake a gift given by their respective Gods to their chosen people, and others who did not believe in their beliefs are not only doomed to hell in the after-life but also in this life to suffer poverty and inferior quality of lives because of their "moral deficits" projected upon them by these dominant groups. Little is remembered as to how their own religions actually militated against all scientific discoveries and progress historically, leading to the dark ages, sentencing the scientists to death for their discoveries that did not agree with their religious doctrines or dogma. Understandably the vested interests, namely Churches and various religious groups (e.g. Saudi Arabian fanatic financiers) in the so-called monotheistic religions finance such evangelical imperialitic proliferating efforts and directly engage in it themselves.

Intriguingly, the followers of condemning and “pagan-rescuing” "quafar-rescuing" Western and Middle Eastern religions are indoctrinated in their Churches and Mosques for centuries with their proselytizing culture and aggressive empire building, dominating drives and brainwashing modus operandi instilling a false superiority complex in their followers and taught to view the other non-monoteistic religions pejoratively and find faults in them galore in their so called comparative religion instructions. They feel sincerely dedicated honestly to their faith and truly virtuous and pious when they flaunt themselves as Monotheistic, and therefore, morally superior, devoted to “practice love of their neighbors and praying for peace on Earth,” “condoning the blatant duplicity of Islam (their Abrahamic non-heathen brothers or cousins) as peace loving religion, intepreting obviously violent jihad as pursuit of peace and internal reformation,” though the mega-actions of all of these jihadis throughout their history speak to the contrary. In actuality, however, these very so-called peace-loving religions have inflicted untold misery on the large sections of the world population with centuries of violence and terrorism including the genocides of the Jewish and Zoroastrians, (recently Bahai's), the very people from whom they inherited their so-called monotheistic religions and the concept of God and especially Devil. The Holocaust of the Hindus by politically driven Islamic and Christian proselytizers have been of historic record but is concealed from the world-view.

“I am right, you are wrong: Go to Hell” mentality springing from paranoid grandiosity of the two currently dominant proselytizing religions of the world leading to "conflict of civilizations" as well as a major confrontation even between themselves is fundamentally unethical and immoral, no matter how it is rationalized as a superior morality in any “God’s view.” Promulgated hatred and conflicts, influenced by such culturally congruent, and therefore, undetected shared delusions, lead to wars that are either instigated or supported by these organized religions, between themselves, throughout the past twelve or more centuries, and also disguised as wars for the causes other than the propagation of their religions. These violent wars have sacrificed very young adults and even children as soldiers killed in action that could be counted only in millions not even counting the mass murders and massacres of several million innocent people, women, children and elderly of those that were and are not the affiliates of their own religions.

The modern worldview is afflicted by a serious and intriguing historical blind-spot for the destructive track record of these so-called “peace loving” but in actuality violent and aggressive religions of the past two millennia in the general world-view and their own self-perception which is almost schizophrenic, clearly denying and disavowing the collective violence inflicted upon by these "civilized and kind" people who go all over the world to teach practice of love, compassion, and kindness towards their neighbors having decimated their own neighboring cultures and their past civilizations unrecognizably, with all facts buried in the unwritten history of the world. The holocaust museums of their victims, be they Native American Indians, Mayans, Mexicans, Latin Americans, African Americans, aborigines of Congo, Hindus, Kashmiri Hindu Pundis or others subjected to genocides are never to be found anywhere because the facts are heavily hidden in the distorted and twisted history more often written by their own adherents or their political sympathisers. Besides, political power and bullying to keep such monuments or museums from being built or even photographs and historical records from being exhibited publicly is a usual tactic. Their political domination and their influence on the political powers and royalties beginning with the Roman empire of Constantine and continued to this age with interference in governance by monarchies, oligarchies, autocracies, and also the democracies of the world have been the major themes of the political and cultural history of the world.

Separation of the Church and the State is only an ideal but not seen in practice when imperialism and colonialism in old and new form is practiced through the centuries. Theocracies, of course, do not separate religions from their military or political powers and they go hand in hand wherever they go; they are always together although not visible as such. Each military unit has its own chaplaincy ostensibly for spiritual comforting of the troops yet as an arm of the Church, unlike the the armies of the other pluralistic countries where the majority do not practice a political agenda of imperialistic religion.

With this historical backdrop, it is the thesis of this article that the concept of “Dhee” in the Eastern religions, in stark contrast to its absence in the Western and Middle Eastern religions, has had a profound subliminal humane influence throughout the ages in creating a lofty and noble accepting attitude towards all human beings without any strings attached or expectation that they will accept the stranger's faith or beliefs. To the extent that the only desire expressed in the “distillate” of the Vedas, the Rig-VedicGayatry Mantra”, is to protect the freedom and the autonomy of “our Dhees” (or precisely “dhiyo” meaning “dhees” as plural, and wish they, “dhiyo” - the dhees) be guided or inspired and that only such sentiment is seen worthy of large scale handing down through oral transmission for millennia, it is indeed quite surprising that the concept of Dhee has not to this date received wider attention from the adherents of the Vedic traditions.

The concept of Dhee encompasses the concept of Intellect, Collective Unconscious, intuition, social and emotional intelligence, wisdom, and many other cognitive faculties of human mind but most importantly it refers to a balance of sensibilities and above all freedom of thinking.

This will be elaborated in the following article. It is asserted that sooner or later (sooner than later) the global civilization will perforce need to take note of the concept of Dhee and the Concept of Hinduness whether named so in the widely accepted world-view or not, it will need to be reckoned with in the official international cooperation oriented bodies such as the United Nations Organization (UNO). It is high time that the Secretary General of UNO is again from one of the cultures that recognize the concept of Dhee and one that has a global perspective on the root causes of war and peace and international terrorism.

The “Hinduness Deficiency Disease” (“HDD”) in the global population, including the population of India, has become endemic. Hinduness does not refer to Hindu religion but to the essence of the Vedic thoughts and Vedic culture, variously called as Sanatana Dharma, Perennial Philosophy (a la Aldous Huxley), Vedanta Philosophy, etc. which have provided the philosophical infrastructure for the so called Hindu culture and Hindu religion, if one accepts such exist, though not definable.

“HDD” leads to legitimized and rationalized intolerance of other human beings by certain greedy and grandiose cultures expressing vicious large scale destructive violence, as well as the most dangerous tendency to engage in genocide of large sections of world populations. This global disorder will present a potential threat to world peace and harmony, nay the very survival of the human race on this earth. This global disorder is more of an imminent threat to survival of all living beings on this planet than global warming, global water shortage, and pollution with nuclear waste, population increase or high magnitude natural disasters, pestilence and epidemics (including Ebola), all put together. It is also asserted that “Hinduness” as defined here as a global mind-set, (Vishwa-Dharma), and is not a monopoly of the so-called "Hindus," but may be even more prominently found in its purity in a large number of spiritually mature non-Hindus and non-adherents of Sanatana Dharma.

Those who have matured spiritually to that level through any religion or even educational enlightenment will instantly grasp the meaning of DHEE. Dhee and Hinduness are attributes that all individuals of the civilized human race potentially or theoretically possess even though sometimes in rudimentary measures. There is no Hinduness without the recognition and acceptance of the concept of Dhee. Cultivating a keen awareness of these spiritual or mental phenomena predicated upon retention of pristine empathy emerging in early childhood in the context of maternal love transfered to family, siblings, and peers, in one’s self and one’s culture and civilization, under any generic names, will lead to a more civilized and peace loving human race.

The author envisions the possibility that these concepts may become the necessary foundations for the civilizations of the future and will be more broadly elaborated as “a philosophy of spirituality or religions,” though the word “religion” and “religions” as practiced today may become obsolete after the 21st century. The signs of an emerging scientific humanism and a global humanistic ethic are quite evident as one watches the unrest in the global younger generation that is beginning to question the age-old brain-washing and manipulation, interference with minds and lives of people, by the “organized” religions under the name of “rewards in the afterlife.” The present and future generations are becoming more spiritual and less religious.

Before the advent of the refined legislative techniques and judiciaries, and well-designed governmental systems, religions made it their self-appointed, self-serving business to write the laws to control the behaviors of their adherents and also engaged in ruling over the people. Religions though now not ruling, not by their own choice though, are providing the benign laudable social and educational infrastructure and support systems to the families, the children, the weak, sick, and the infirm today. It is not to be denied that every religion has its component of mature, kind, benign, benevolent, generous, self-sacrificing, altruistic population and social infrastructure for support of the society as well as its weak and suffering.  Even this role may be usurped by other humane non-religious benevolent and ethical social structures in the future. That will leave no specific tasks for the organized "religions" than to play on the emotions of the ignorant people who are gullible enough to buy their gigantic superstitions or “cock and bull” stories or fairy tails appealing to weak minded gullible unquestioning adults as history and/or true events. These culturally congruent delusions for example are, among many, the “presence of after life”, “justice giving Father in Heaven,” and “guaranteed entry into heaven” if such one exists. Selling such intangibles as faith and/or doctrines, truly for a hidden price, has been the "business" of religions, double dipping in modern era as tax-free organizations, getting richer day after day. There is so much good that comes usually with these as a bonus ususally only if their beneficiaries agree to adhere to their promulgated beliefs. The positive value for any society of such thrusts cannot be denied. Concrete minded helpless people lacking in support systems will need some kind of religion or faith along the line with the support systems the organized religions do provide, but the majority of educated and enlightened people in the twenty second century will see no use for any "religion" and squarely will see it as a hoax. (The reader is well advised to read previous article on www.swaveda.com on “Hinduness for World Peace and Harmony” and “Demystifying Shri Ganesha” as a prerequisite to get introduced to some of the basic concepts related to Dhee as well as Hinduness, which will not be expounded again in this article.) China and Russia have recognized the mischief these aggressive proselytizing religions can play in their countries if given a free rein under their demand for freedom of religion, actually meaning freedom to proselytize and demographically attack the host society. Their godfathers in the US monitor these deterrents for the spread of evangelical and imperialistic Abrahamic faiths in other countries motivated by old anachronistic colonial habits and profit making business, as a restriction of practice of religion rather than proactive protection of the composition and structure of their own indigenous societies that every country and culture have the right to protect. Such miscief goes unnoticed when it is sugar-coated as human rights activism, issues deluding the public which is generally sympathetic to them sometime granting these elements the "power" and inroads in the government, camouflaging their true colors, concealing their true identity as the agents of the evangelical proselytizing organized religions who set up their outreach posts in all developing countries that have a large populations that can be deceived with allurements and rewards.

The reader is encouraged to continue to read this article although disagreeing with some of the statements made so far and even if the meaning of some of the words is not clear at first glance. The author of this article is confident that every reader who completes the reading of this article and struggles through it to understand the meanings of the words can also begin to incorporate within himself/herself qualities characteristic of the generic Hinduness and fully grasp what Dhee stands for. “Dhee” is the best-kept and best-guarded (open?) secret of the Vedic culture.

The concept of “dhee” is the essence of the Eastern religions and Eastern civilizations. The word “Zen”  is a distortion of the Sanskrit word "dhyana" and the word “Buddha” is derived from the root verb “buddhee” which is “bud + dhee.” The word Dhyana was distorted as it traveled East from India and was converted to Chyana in Chinese and Zen in Japanese. The word "dhyana" is derived from the root verb "dhyii": to meditate or contemplate. In the Vedic culture there is an extraordinary emphasis on “Samadhi” which is “sam + aa + dhee” or “samaa + dhee.” The process of well thought of psychological and cultural development of an individual into a mature, civilized, educated, well informed, broad-minded, kind and compassionate person. Such process of building the character of an individual was viewed as “sankritization” brought about through a series of “sanskara” “vidhees.” The word vidhee is composed of “vi + dhi.”

 In the Sankhya darshana the sentient entity or “tatva” that emerged from the Prakriti was “Mahad” or “Mahadhee” which is “maha + dhee”. The secret “gayatry mantra” is to be orally transmitted from generation to generation for keeping the awareness of “Brahman” active in the minds of those who wish to be “Su-sanskrit” and go through the “upanayana” “vidhee” by focusing daily on “dhee” at least twice, in the morning and evening. The contemplation is curiously not designed, in contrast to many other prayers to pray for better afterlife, or a better next life, nor is it a ritual designed as a begetting machine, or a ticket to the heaven if one such entity exists. Neither does the mantra “ask for anything” for individual gain or power, but only expresses a wish and affirmation that the dhee that belongs to all of us (human race) be guided and inspired in the right direction. What was that concept of “Dhee” that the Eastern civilizations, mainly the Hindu, the Buddhist and the Jains, focused on but seem not to have discussed very much as the very essence of their civilization?

Keep tuned to www.sookta-sumana.blogspot.com for continuation of this article.

(To be continued.) (See Part II on http://www.sookta-sumana.blogspot.com/ above)
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Read more: http://www.swaveda.com/articles.php?mnthyr=20098&action=show&id=125#ixzz0OJUDT6U4

The following may be interesting readers who want to read the Part II of above article.
The reader will recognize that the concept of Dhee and Mahad (Mahadhee) are at least
5000 year old. The following paragraphs were discovered by the author long after the
above two part articles were published. 

How the Military Accidentally Discovered the Universal Cosmic MindBy Gerald O'Donnell / Source: One Universal Mind
In July 1998 we wrote a revolutionary article explaining the location of the Mysterious Universal Mind (collective unconscious) of psychoanalysts, quantum physicists, mystics and spiritual believers.
We stated that we, as humans, can all connect to this Gigantic Mind unifying all of us across time/space and far beyond, and that we ALL do so every night as we quiet down greatly our individual linear thinking minds and enter the mind area of unconscious sleep.
We contend that all minds are connected to a Gigantic Cosmic Mind called by psychoanalysts and psychologists the collective unconscious.
Only unconscious until now, for our goal is to bring it to conscious awareness.
This Cosmic Mind goes well beyond the level of the collective unconscious of man as it operates also the natural and biological world and much more as is explained on our site.
It is Infinite Intelligence Itself. It is non-linear in nature, but allows for linear processes to operate within Its Infinite Self.
In the sleep state ALL human beings rest as their brain centered linear-thinking-mind lowers its electrical activity to below 4 cycles per second. The brain is then only vibrating at a low hum and stops filtering in awareness the Higher Mind and overlaying it with our own thoughts. At that level of quiet and barely active linear mind we are entering the Universal Mind and lose our individual consciousness (we go into unconscious sleep).
From Wartime Intelligence to Infinite Intelligence
In 1996, as the cold war died down many teams of highly specialized former psychotronic military and intelligence agents came out in the open, in the US and in both Western and Eastern Europe, and started to disclose the operation of mind-to-events and mind-to-mind covert operations in which they had been involved.
In the dark era of paranoid psy warfare between the Western and the Eastern block, very sophisticated and brilliant scientific minds had been gathered in the West in order to breach the ultimate frontier of mind/matter and affect mind-to-event viewing (Remote Viewing and Sensing which means the ability to view/sense remote events and remote locations in the screen of your own mind) and try to increase our ability to Remotely Influence present or future events (life manifestation) and people (telepathy) through mind power alone. Much technological gadgetry was tried and sometimes used.
The secret of manifestation was being applied in a twisted manner, as it happens with most of man's illusory temporal dreams for conquest and power.

Nevertheless, great strides were being achieved at the same time, and success was noted and recorded, although much of it is still classified. All Remote Viewing and Remote Influencing operatives successes were carefully monitored and recorded using highly sophisticated scientific devices.
Many different and then classified training protocols and modalities were devised in secret government labs and implemented in inducing more or less successfully these supermind states and feats.

DECLASSIFIED: CIA Secrets Leaked Out
In 1995 a small group of former viewers started to operate in the public arena as the CIA and DIA declassified most of its Remote Viewing information to the general public.
William Ross Adey, M.D. 1922-2004, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, Los Angeles, wrote in the 50ís about the relationship between the deep Theta state 4.5 cps and the ability to Remote Influence others. In his pioneering work, Dr. Ross Adey determined that emotional states and behavior can be remotely influenced merely by placing a subject in an electromagnetic field.
By directing a carrier frequency to stimulate the brain and using amplitude modulation to shape the wave to mimic a desired EEG frequency, he was able to impose a 4.5 CPS theta rhythm on his subjects. Although he used physical protocols (microwave radiations) to induce such a state and achieved results, he never could really give an explanation as to WHY this deep meditative brain state and its associated physiological brainwave state were needed to achieve success.
Although the deep Theta phenomenon was scientifically recorded and duplicated, no one gave a logical and coherent explanation as to why this stage of mind epiphenomenally associated with 4.5 CPS brainwaves was inducing such extra-ordinary mental abilities.
For until now, few have really understood and especially integrated the fact that we are still, at a very deep level of mind, the collective unconscious which, as a subpart of the Universal One, takes care of ALL of humanity at once.
Unleash The High Mind's Power Within You: The Real Secret Behind The Mind's Frontier
In 1997 many former Western psy operatives and scientists were now sharing some insight on the recently declassified very mechanical protocols favored by the intelligence establishment. Many news organizations, radio shows, and TV documentaries extensively reported on what appeared to the general public to be a very exotic topic formerly reserved to the realm of science fiction and X-Files shows.
We then came out also in the open, and revealed in 1997 a totally different approach. We openly declared that the secret to Remote Viewing lies in the ability of successfully positioning one's mind at the border of sleep in a very deep Theta 4.5 cycle per second brain state.
At this level of reduced brainwave activity the conscious human mind can access information originating from the Cosmic Collective Unconscious Mind. Our Remote Viewing course trains anyone to do so.
We were also the first mind science institute ever to push the mind frontier further and introduce in 2002 Remote Influencing training protocols which allow any trainee to enter with FULL AWARENESS (remaining aware) the sleep state (Delta state with brainwaves below 4 Hz) for advanced Remote Viewing and powerful Remote Influencing.
At that level of mind operation, one merges the sleeping world (Universal mind) and the waking world as one stays awake and conscious while one's body rests and sleeps.
We and many very advanced mind labs have shown that the brain-manís electrical thought expression machine, operates above and superimposes over a much deeper and far more intelligent and wiser Greater Reality:
The One Universal Mind.
It is by learning to quiet down as much a possible our electrical brain electrical frequency while still remaining aware that we can connect to that interconnected reality which links all things and beings, and learn to collect information and Influence perceptually disconnected realities through Its linking processes.
More than just writing and speculating about this, we taught our students how to easily reach on command these very states of mind using very powerful and effective training protocols.
The revelation of this inner portal to Higher Mind which we all carry became our goal, and we knew that nothing we said could prove it short of directly experiencing it by our trainees.
In 1997 there were only 7 sites worldwide speaking of Remote Viewing, including ours. We were the first Remote Viewing institute to introduce the term Remote Influencing, speak about it and explain it. Today millions exist and more spring out in the open as we write.
We also wrote that the lower and very deep unconscious state of our brain was the domain of the Unifying Mind of ALL of mankind: The level of One, and that at that level we were entering the deep mysterious Spiritual level of the Universal Mind, which we all revisit every night and permanently do so when we re-enter It at perceptual death. We are all individual expressions of It.
The response from the former military and intelligence community was to first scoff at such a notion, since this notion of the Unity of all men was very difficult for them to swallow. Why provoke peace when conflict is what you are all about?
Direct Personal Experience Like No Other
Our approach has always been that no amount of learning or books will ever replace direct personal experience and this is what made our system of Remote Viewing and Remote Influencing courses unique and very powerful.
We had written extensively about the Universal One Mind, but it was now time to allow any and every one to experience it for themselves. It was time to train many into experiencing at the very least the borderline areas of this Gigantic Infinite Mind: a level of much Higher perception and operation.
It was time for sleeping-man walking the awake state of human mind to really awaken to its sleeping dormant and glorious hidden nature.

SCIENCE, VEDANTA & KRISHNA'S MESSAGE

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY

Unlike in the Western tradition, Hinduism sees no conflict between science and spirituality. Vedanta sees a clash of dharmas rather than a clash of civilizations.

Navaratna S. Rajaram

Edited and modified by Shree Vinekar
Editor’s note: This is a timely message on Shri Krishna janmashtami of 2009.
A striking feature of European and now American society is the conflict between new knowledge and old beliefs. This is particularly the case with scientific advances that are seen to threaten long held beliefs. Galileo’s persecution by the Church and the hostility to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution are only two examples. This hostility is not a thing of the past is clear from the fact that there are several Fundamentalist groups in the U.S. that want to stop the teaching of evolution in school. Several states have passed laws that something called ‘Creation Science,’ based on the Bible, should be taught in public schools along with Darwin’s theory.

This conflict between empirical knowledge (including science) and religious beliefs has never emerged in India. This is because Hinduism and its offshoots like Buddhism are not essentially based on beliefs but soundly rest on the exploration of the mind and soul. “Accept nothing on my authority,” said the Buddha. “Think, and be a lamp unto yourself.”

The Gayatri mantra, considered the greatest of all teachings of the Vedas says "dhiyo yo nah prachodayat," meaning “Inspire our intellect.” (see "Dhee: The Essence of Hinduness" Part I and Part II by Shree Vinekar, on www.swaveda.com and www.sookta-sumana.blogspot.com )

There is no appeal to blind faith in any of this or anywhere in Vedanta. In fact it is a rejection of blind faith. Further, the Vedas are "apaurusheya," meaning they do not rest on the authority of any human. Everything in Vedas rests on its own merit and not on the authority of any prophet. It is the same with science. We honor Newton and Einstein as great sages because of their discoveries and not the other way. It is the same with great spiritual teachers like Krishna. Krishna is great because his teachings are great. At the same time, in the Indian or Hindu tradition the teachings of these sages can be rejected or modified if new knowledge comes to light. Krishna himself urges Arjuna to ask questions and get satisfactory answers and not accept anything coming from a teacher including himself on face value.

This means, as in science, Indian spirituality attaches the greatest importance to freedom of thinking. That is the meaning of the Gayatri mantra. Further, where natural science looks at the material world, the scope of Vedanta is the human and spiritual world. Because of this enlightened approach we can study human conflicts and human factors that are beyond the reach of science and also beyond the reach of Western humanities. This can be illustrated by contrasting the Western and the Vedantic approaches to human conflicts.

Clash of civilizations and clash of Dharma and Adharma during Yuga Sandhi

Samuel Huntington in his well-known book "Clash of Civilizations" envisions a world in which clashes occur between civilizations. His analysis is mainly geopolitical and does not take into consideration of innate human tendencies or gunas. Vedanta, however, sees the world differently. Different ages are dominated by different gunas— sattva, rajas and tamas. In the Hindu cosmic theory, since the beginning of the present historical cycle, the world has seen ages (epochs) or yugas, dominated by these gunas, with sattva declining from Krita Yuga to Kali Yuga. According to this theory, we are now poised at the end of the yuga cycle, passing through a yuga sandhi (ending of one yuga and emergence of a new yugasandhi stands for “joining”) as we enter a new cycle of yugas.

A Yuga Sandhi is always violent and full of turmoil it is observed. It is a period of conflict between light and darkness: between enlightenment and ignorance, between spirituality and excessive materialism. It is important to realize that no one can live without basic material comforts; the problem arises when the desire for material needs overwhelms people and leads to the despoliation of the world and the people in it. What is needed is balance. When the balance is completely upset we land in a different yuga. For that we need to go through a Yuga Sandhi. This is what the world is going through at the present time.

Daivic and the Asuric

Seen from this Vedantic perspective, what we witness around us is no clash of civilizations, but a clash of values or dharmas. This is an age-old conflict, between the material and the spiritual. Most evil in the world is due to excessive desire for the material. This tendency is called the Asuric by the ancients. The spiritual or the trait that seeks harmony is called Daivic. We may call Daivic as divine and the Asuric as demonic (for convenience of approximation for presentation of these concepts in English). Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita describes the Asuric traits as follows:

“The Asuric (demonic) traits are ignorance, deceitfulness, excessive pride, unrestrained ego, harshness, and rough speech. People with predominantly Asuric traits know not when to act and when to desist from action. They believe in nothing, have neither truth nor purity. They live only by desire. Driven by desire and unsupported by beliefs these souls without enlightenment, with their terrible acts can destroy the world. With their insatiable greed, drunk with vanity and ego and sunk in ignorance they hold on to doctrines of falsehood bringing misery to life. Immersed in endless worries that only death can end, they know nothing beyond self-indulgence without limit. They think only of accumulating wealth through wrongful means. In the folly of their ignorance they think: ‘I got this today, I have that much more to get. I have so much now but I’ll get more. I have killed that enemy, but I have more yet to kill. I am the lord of all I survey; I am fruitful, strong and happy. I am rich and noble, and have no equal.’ ”

It is not hard to see that the world today is in thrall to Asuric forces, but it was not always so. There were ages when Daivic tendencies ruled the planet. Krishna describes them as follows:

“Fearlessness, purity, courage in seeking knowledge, generosity, restraint, learning, uprightness, gentleness, honesty, loyalty, compassion for the living, humility, fortitude and absence of excess pride—these are the virtues of the Daivic. The Daivic leads to freedom and the Asuric to bondage.”

The three gunas

The Vedantic view is that there are three fundamental tendencies (or gunas) that control nature and therefore the history of any era. These tendencies are also found in the humans. These are: sattva (light, knowledge, or purity), rajas (power or aggression) and tamas (darkness or ignorance). Any combination of these determines the history of an epoch (yuga). Particularly dangerous is the combination of tamas and rajas— aggression driven by ignorance. This is what we may call fanaticism. Tamas sees sattva or light of knowledge as the enemy, figuratively speaking. They are antithetical or opposite forces. The goal of Tamas is to destroy sattva and plunge the world into a Dark Age. This has happened many times in history. This is what forces of fanaticism are trying to do to the world today. The rule of Taliban in Afghanistan was an example of bringing darkness by a combination of rajas and tamas— force and ignorance. So was Nazism. Defeating Hitler was not enough; the tamasic root of Nazism had to be eradicated. It is the same with any fanaticism.

This combination of tamas with rajas is the great enemy of civilizations and civility in humans. This is also what ancient sages of India like Krishna warned against. It is important to note that tamas cannot always be conquered by sattva. This means force or rajas must be employed, but employed judiciously. The ignorance of a child can be cured by education, but not the ignorance of a hardened fanatic. It can only be eradicated through force. It is a great error to believe that fanatics bent on plunging the world in darkness will respond to a gentle message. Deluded people sometimes project passive resistance as sattva or ‘spiritual force’. But any kind of passivity in the face of evil is in actuality only tamas.

Sri Aurobindo, one of modern India’s greatest yogis said:

“The sword of the warrior is as necessary to the fulfillment of justice as the holiness of the saint. To maintain justice and to prevent the strong from despoiling and the weak from being oppressed is the function for which the Kshatriya Dharma (the swadharma of Arjuna) was created. Therefore, says Krishna in the Mahabharata, God created battle and armor, the sword, the bow and the dagger.”

Krishna also tells Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita: “Whenever dharma sinks and adharma raises its head, O Bharata Prince, I create myself upon this earth. In age upon every age, I manifest myself to destroy the evildoers and protect the good, and establish the dharma.” In symbolic terms it means that ethical leaders who combine force of personality with wisdom are needed in times of crisis. Abraham Lincoln was one such leader, as was Sardar Patel. There was steel in them, but also wisdom and compassion, a combination of sattva and rajas.

As seen by ancient Indian sages like Krishna and Vyasa, evil in the world is due to the rise of Asuric tendencies driven by a combination of tamas and rajas. The way to rid the world of evil is to fight it with Daivic forces made up of a combination of sattva and rajas. Indian records give several examples. Beginning with a pure sattva period known as Krita Yuga, we have come to the end of Kali Yuga, the age of evil of a special kind called theocracy, where tamas is presented as spirituality and religion, which enslaves people rather than liberates them depriving them of their freedom of thinking. Five thousand years ago, at the end of Dwapara Yuga, India faced a similar threat that exploded into the Kali Yuga. At that juncture, at the Dwapara-Kali yuga-sandhi, Krishna warned the world of its dangers and told his followers what needed to be done: "evil must be fought and destroyed."

Conclusion

By allowing materialism to run rampant we may now have reached the end of our journey, but a question remains: how relevant is Krishna’s 5000-year old message today as we enter another yuga-sandhi? My own view, derived from the Gita, Sri Aurobindo, the Upanishads and the Mahabharata is that the Vedantic approach, which was the worldview thousands of years ago, is still relevant today. Whatever the propogated merits of prophets and their prophecies, the Vedantic wisdom is eternal.

We no longer live in the Vedantic milieu of Krishna and his contemporaries—an age in which Vedanta offered a rational and balanced way of looking at the world. To them Vedanta and the Vedantic world-view was a description of reality, part of their everyday thinking, much as science is to us today. Vedanta shaped their worldview just as science has shaped ours. This allowed them to combine human affairs and spiritual vision into a true synthesis. We have lost this. It is the source of much of our problem. We adopt purely material approaches to what really are problems of the spirit.

This is illustrated by looking at great ancient figures like Krishna. He was a great teacher and a great warrior for a just cause. We now have great warriors, full of rajas, but the world needs to recognize what it is they should really be fighting— tamas. War between two tamasic military forces will not lead to emergence of sattva. The message of the Gita is Vedanta and Krishna is the sage who embodies Vedic (and Vedantic) wisdom at all levels. Our goal should be not merely worshipping him as an icon or idol but following or by internalizing his teachings to attain spiritual and intellectual freedom, protect such freedom at all costs, and apply the teachings in action without distorting Krishna's message to mean that he preached non-violence and passvity. Devotion, wrongly applied, results in tamasic blind spots and inner slavery. This is what we call fanaticism, which has made much of the world vulnerable to outer slavery eventually leading to inner slavery and vice versa. The Vedantic way is to encourage the Swami Bhava (mastery and leadership), not the Dasyu Bhava (mental slavery). The Teacher is to be emulated, not blindly worshipped. Ultimately, the enemy is tamas.

The teacher can only be a guide, but the effort has to come from within everyone of us. This is what the great Brihadaranyaka Upanishad means when it says: "tamaso ma jyotirgamaya"— “Lead us from darkness to light.”

Let us next move on to later times especially the present. We no longer live in a Vedantic milieu. We don’t look at the world with Vedantic eyes as Krishna and Vyasa did. Most of us calling ourselves ‘rational’ do not see the world in Daivic and Asuric terms. With that we have lost the rational basis for spirituality that our ancestors possessed. Some modern sages like Sri Aurobindo had retained a vestige of it. This allowed them to see the forces of violence and ignorance engulfing the world. Vyasa and Krishna knew also the cause of such evil spreading in the world and where it would lead: the combination of tamas and rajas would try to overwhelm the world and plunge it into a Dark Age. And they told us also how to fight it— with a combination of sattva and rajas, or righteous force.

This is what we are seeing today in the war against terror— a combination of evil rajas and tamas ranged against civilization striving to provide harmoneous and peaceful coexistance for the entire humanity by providing means to exist and thrive. It is no clash of civilizations but a clash between Daivic and Asuric forces. For civilization to survive, the Daivic forces—sattva and rajas—must combine to defeat the Asuric combination of tamas and rajas.

The Vedantic message is clear: a change of yuga comes about when the Asuric forces gain prominence in the world, as at the present time. This is caused by the combination of tamas and rajas. The lesson is also clear: sattva by itself or rajas by itself cannot defeat the Asuric forces. The two have to combine to overcome tamas and bring light, knowledge, prosperity and peace to the world. This is the message of Vedanta as summarized by Krishna.
__________
Dr. N.S. Rajaram is a scientist and historian who has written extensively about ancient India.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

MICHAEL WITZEL'S HARVARD-MADRAS CIRCUS

Witzel at Madras
Sad day for the University of Madras
by
Seshachalam Dutta, Ph. D.
Edited and modified by Shree Vinekar
Despite the protests of several Indian scholars, controversial Sanskrit professor Witzel was received with jubilation and ceremony at Madras University and at Kuppuswami Shastri Research Institute at Madras in the usual servile Indian tradition. The behavior of the Sanskrit Scholars in these two institutions was disgraceful and betrays racial inferiority before a “white man” who simply happens to have learned Sanskrit. The very fact that he devoted his time and energy to study Sanskrit and Rig-Veda is enough to arouse awe and high regard for his achievement in an average Indian who carries an inferiority complex. Iravathan Mahadevan of Kuppuswami Shastri Inst. was reportedly instrumental in arranging the reception of Witzel. In response to protests, he vowed that he would fast unto death if the program was cancelled! Why would he commit hara-kiri or suicide over such a trivial issue? Obviously, when Iravathan visited Harvard University, Witzel helped him to publish his book on Tamil Epigraphy, so he was obliged to reciprocate the favor. It did not matter to him that this conceited Harvard Professor had openly insulted Indians in general and Hindus in particular for many years with utter contempt and disdain.
It was reported that the audience, a very slim one of less than 50, were told by Iravathan not to ask the guest speaker any questions. Police were called in by him to protect the speaker as though he was in physical danger from the scholars in the audience! What makes Witzel’s reception so odious to the scholars, as well as bizarre and undignified, was the documented history of racist and contemptuous remarks made by Professor Witzel about the Hindus, and all Indians, of their religion and culture. Furthermore, his active association with “Dalit Freedom Works” a radical evangelical group in Colorado entirely organized and funded by Evangelist Americans dedicated to conversion of Hindu Dalits has been revealed in a recent law suit filed by Hindu Parents in California.
First about the behavior of scholars at Madras:
To summon the police giving the impression that the speaker would be physically harmed is beyond anyone’s imagination. Iravathan Mahadevan reportedly told the audience that Witzel was their guest and he should be treated with respect “atithee devo bhava”; the guest is like a god. And, therefore, no one should ask him any questions. Then, a Sanskrit scholar and a functionary of the institute, Shankaranarayana read a poem attributed to eulogize Max Muller with a slight modification to attribute it also to Witzel. The invocation calls Max Muller as Moksha-Moolara. Did he consider what the Mumukshu Muller said about Vedas and its religion? Swami Prakashanada Saraswati of Barsanadham of Austin, USA has investigated Max Muller’s speeches, and letters to his wife and mother, and documented his attitude towards Vedas and Hindu religion. Here are some excerpts from his recent book:
“The Vedas are twaddles of idiots and the ravings of mad men. Their downright absurdity can hardly be matched anywhere.
“The Vedas contain a great deal of what is childish and foolish.
“The Vedas are intended from the beginning for an uncivilized race of mere heathens and savages.”
On Yajnas: “Sacrifice was the natural occupation of for the Vedic savages.”
He expressed contempt for Sayana saying that the latter "made up things to cover-up the absurd, with no literary basis." There is much more, which the reader may read from Prakashananda Saraswati’s work.
The behavior of Madras Sanskrit Department was no better. The sacred precincts of the university are dedicated to the ideal noted by the dictum ‘discovery of truth and dissemination of knowledge’, facilitating free and unfettered debate. Here again police were called in to protect the slimly attended meeting, the questioner was shouted down by the members of the department acting like goons. One wonders who needed protection, the speaker or participants. The Chair closed the meeting for further questioning. The hosts forgot that the invitees were “atithees” too.
In contrasts with the professors of Madras, Witzel came out trifle better for a change. He humbly invited questions at the end of his speech in the best traditions of academia in America. The motley crowds in this case were Indians. It seems to justify Witzel's deliberation that Indians (Hindus) do not accept a debate and never are willing to change their mind when they are wrong, because of the belief that if they lose the debate, their heads would break (see Witzel's Deposition in CAPEEM case, Page 149). Notwithstanding the scene at Madras, Witzel was wrong.
Don’t we Hindus have an ancient academic tradition for free and unrestricted debates?
Bhagavat Gita admonishes not to accept anything blindly without questioning what comes from a Guru, although you respect him and serve him. “….Pariprashnena, Pranipaatena Sevayaatatvadarshanah.” The great Ramanujacharya disagreed with his guru on the interpretation of the phrase in a mantra of Chandogya “Kapyasam pundareekam”. Also, Adi Shankara begged for Vada Bhiksha to debate with the famous Buddhist Scholar, reportedly, Mandana Mishra. In the assembly of scholars no one is greater than others; there is indeed academic equality. That is expressed in the invocating mantra of Kathopanishad: "Sahana-avatu…….maa vidvishaavahai.” Let there be no jealousy or enmity among us.
The caricature of present day Hindus and the Vedic literature by Witzel is no less uncharitable than that by Max Muller. This is well documented in the deposition Witzel was compelled to give in the lawsuit filed for his role in making demeaning and insensitive additions to textbook revisions that he incorporated in California elementary school textbooks relative to the social customs of Hindus and their religion. A few examples cited below will suffice.
He calls Hindus of North America—“HINA”- knowing fully well what the word HINA stands for, lowly, lost and abandoned; he calls the “NRI”s… “Non Returning Indians,” “building temples and conducting Sunday religious classes. They send their girls to learn Indian Classic dance—an occupation of prostitutes in India.” (I wonder what the Sanskrit scholars in Madras think of this, if any of their daughters were learning Bharata Natyam.) Then he goes on to say that Hindus “cling to their hoary past” (Deposition pp-139-148}
Attorney Balasubramaniam was questioning him on these broad generalizations:
Attorney: Did you conduct a survey in North American to reach such conclusions?
Answer: No, I did not; I am not a social scientist.
Q: On what do you base your conclusions ….?
Answer: This is based on my personal impressions, or the expression of Hindus in North America, blogs newspapers, et cetera.
California education official, Tom Adams asked him to identify some Indian scholars in India to help in the revision of California text book contents relative to Hindus. Witzel identified for him two including one Trilok Pandey, a faculty member in the University of California. He wrote in correspondence with Adam that “Pandey, from his name is a Brahmin from UP and UP Brahmins can be proud and empty.”(Page 96 of his deposition).
Attorney: What is the basis of your statement that Pandey can be proud and empty?
Answer: I said he can be. He may not be.
(He thinks that the use of the word "CAN" will absolve him of the intended insult.)
Q: What makes you say that people of UP can be proud and empty.
Answer: I said they CAN be, they don’t have to be. I am not claiming 150 people, I said they can be. (Note: He meant to say 150 million people and he was so shaken up, he said 150!)
Q: In your e-mail you stated that Pandey has a Brahmin name, what has it to do with his scholarship?
Answer: I don’t talk of his scholarship. I talk of his background.
(What is the background of having a Brahmin name to do with his suggestion to select him for his team of consultants or is it that he wanted an "empty" Brahmin to endorse his views or being empty not be a good adversary?)
Since the reception he received in Madras was by Tamil Brahmins, what does he think of the Tamil Brahmins? Docile? Obsequious? Ready to honor him although he insulted his hosts for sending their daughters to learn "Bharata Natyam dance", "the occupation of the prostitutes?"
In this deposition he went on to defend his remarks on “OM”, revered as “Om ityekaksharam Brahman” in Bhagavat Gita, and also in Kathopanishad, as we know it also as “pranava.”
Wise Witzel says in his usual contemptuous manner, “OM is nothing but a way of calling one’s wife or a goat. Also “Hym” is “hai—hey”, a way of calling one’s wife or a cow. (Page 146).”
Another jewel of his presentation at the deposition relates to his deep (!) insight into the fear of Hindus to debate.
“You have to win your argument, otherwise you might lose your head, as the Upanishad says. It is a 3000 years old tradition.”(Page149)
Witzel further went on recounting the plight of Dalits in India. He had personally “seen a Dalit servant who had to clean the toilet with her bare hands.” He saw it. Obviously according to him “it was with bare hands”, not with any broom this poor woman had to hold with bare hands to clean. He should have been asked to shut up, then and there, by the attorney and asked how dare he accuse Indians? He forgets that he lived in a country where, until, 1965, the blacks, who were called “Negroes,” were --let alone not allowed to eat at the same lunch counter-- they could not urinate in the same toilet or drink water from the same water fountain or use public restrooms used by the whites. How dare this man born in Nazi Germany accuse Indians of ill-treatment of Dalits knowing all the atrocities committed on the unwanted or rejected classes by the majority in the Europe he came from by extruding and cruelly eliminating them? What moral ground does he have to stand in judgment on other cultures he does not understand or can view in historical perspective in merely discussing what should be appropriate for presentation to school children without injuring their self respect. Would you teach all German children in elementary school what Witzel would want to hide in the real history of social evils of his father land, Germany, around the time he was born? What about the treatment of the Turks and Poles he witnessed in Germany while he was growing up?

Sad part is that this old man Witzel wasted good part of his precious life studying Sanskrit and Rig Veda: and learned nothing positive to present to the world; neither did he acquire any common sense. This reminds us of the famous saying;
Yasya nasty nija prajna, kevalam tu bahushastraah, na so janati shatraartham darvee supeparasamiva
Meaning : Whoever reads only many books (shastras - scriptures), but has no insight (prajna) of his/her own, would not grasp the meaning of scriptures, like a ladle in the soup. (The ladle in the soup turns the ingredients but would not know the taste.)
For all those who are writing letters to Harvard University President, my advice is that they need to write to the Vice-Chancellor of Madras University instead to ask him to clarify what is the concept of academic freedom in the Madras University. Is it acceptable behavior to muzzle the critics in a scholarly forum? Harvard has made its policy clear: Witzel can say whatever he wants at Harvard like a garrulous alcoholic because he has academic freedom — but that does not mean that he can get away with it in India and that too in Madras where there are real Sanskrit scholars who can see through his pretenses, see the holes in his knowledge of Sanskrit, leave alone accept his fraudulent touting himself as a “research scientist” without any training in Science or scientific methodology or experience in scientific research, emerging purely from humanities background.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

INDIAN ELECTIONS 2009 - ANALYSIS

INDIAN ELECTIONS 2009 - AN OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS
by
Dr. Seshachalam Dutta

Edited and modified by Shree Vinekar

Indian elections are over for now. The pollsters who were cautious this time are breathing a sigh of relief having botched their job in the previous elections. But, the partisan journalists are writing analytical reviews as to who won and who lost and why. The defeated are licking their wounds, their leaders accusing each other for their defeat. The Congress, formerly also known as the Indira Congress Party, a derivative of the Indian National Congress, who managed to come to power without a majority constituency of its own is regaling in its victory. Really considering the complexities of Indian elections, it is more difficult to attribute the cause of success or failure to a single or simple cause. But really, who won and who lost the Indian elections?


One decisive loss was for the Communists: marginal is the loss of others as well as the victory of Congress. Communist loss is significant since they played, for many years, constructive and moderating role in their support of Congress which is otherwise the party of feudal establishment, although claiming to be the left on the political spectrum.

Some defeated parties like TDP in Andhra Pradesh began attributing the loss to the elections voting machine (EVM) that can be tampered-not that they are tampered but can easily be tampered by IT and computer experts! After the results of the elections, this party is in such disarray, if given another chance they would fare even worse. The fault is not in the ballots EVM’s or the voting boxes, it is in them. In an election where some 970 million voters were involved a few discrepancies would not materially change the final outcome. The defeated should gracefully admit their fate.


In my opinion the elections were fair and the victory goes to not any party but to the amazingly enlightened Voters, the People of India.

I have watched on the T.V. and followed the elections in my State, Andhra Pradesh, and a crucial state for any coalition to survive. It is evident from what we have seen that the new voters in India are well educated and extremely mature. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia crisscrossed Andhra Pradesh, currency bundles to bribe and entice the voters were confiscated by the police and what was not confiscated was freely thrown at the people and liquor supplied by the Congress candidates flowed like water. Rallies were conducted by each party bringing crowds of hundreds of thousand - by paying Rs.150 to each attendee creating an illusion that each candidate was overwhelmingly popular, confounding the pollsters. New York Times compared the election expenses to that in the U.S wherein 2.7 Billion US dollars were spent. Indian elections did cost an estimated three Billion dollars!!! What is alarming is that a common man cannot afford to run for public office in future as the country becomes even more prosperous. This is the time for Indian leaders to structure their political process to make it resilient impervious to the influence of excesses of financing, including, perhaps, to the inflow of foreign exchange where super powers might be eager to play their role as we witnessed in the breakaway states of former Soviet Union.

What was the result of this entire extravaganza? Half of the Congress Ministers in state of Andhra Pradesh were defeated. The president of the State Congress of Andhra was defeated. The Central cabinet Minister from Andhra Pradesh, Renuka Choudhary, was defeated. Neither Rahul’s nor Sonia’s campaigning could save them from the debacle: these two were previously extolled for their magical leadership of success of the Congress! It is disingenuous to suggest that the elections were rigged. Elsewhere, Varun Gandhi was arrested and maligned, but he won – convincingly! Cine actress Jayaprada, whose doctored nude pictures were pasted all over in public in her constituency in U.P, had won. Chidambaram, the Central Senior Cabinet Minister, nearly lost in Shiva Ganga constituency. This shows the maturity of the Indian voter. Neither scandal nor money, nor booze would make the voters vote for whom they considered rascals.

Congress survived to have enough seats to form a coalition, as usual, with shady partners. This is hardly a victory to bring jubilation... One analysis (Gailes Verniers) showed that the Congress gained only 3.32% while BJP lost 1.99% of voters in absolute terms. However, BJP never had a chance to form a coalition with their shady partners whom they call NDA. They lost before the votes were counted. Orissa Chief turned against them, TDP of Andhra, a major supporter of BJP Joined the communists and vowed not to join the “communal coalition”. TRS, a seditionist party wanting separation of former Nizam districts from Andhra, which was courted by Advani, was wiped out along with the BJP president of Andhra. Advani did not mind that KSR, the leader of TRS, extolled the Muslim reign of Nizam of Hyderabad as generous and great. So there was no surprise that BJP lost a chance to form a government. With the kind of fair weather partners, what kind of Government could they form, even if they won a few more seats? They actually were expected to win and needed absolute majority and not a coalition to defeat the Congress to become the true ruling opposition party. There are indeed 800 million Hindus in India, an absolute majority in most parts of India that BJP should be able to get on its side and have a landslide victory, if its performance in politics is exemplary. But that is not to be.

WHY DIDN’T BJP WIN?

Why didn’t BJP win? The more poignant question is- why can’t they win? This is a hot topic inside BJP and outside. Some say BJP should abandon Hindutva, others that it should distance from RSS, and some others say that they should field more Muslim and minority candidates. None of this will work. BJP has to address basic problem of why they cannot win? Why there is no BJP in Tamil Nadu or in Andhra Pradesh which are very traditional and extremely religious States? Why can’t they win in Maharashtra, the very birth place of RSS? If they can answer these questions they can start winning.

BJP which came into power in last elections failed to convince people that they were any better than the Congress and failed to cultivate good press, develop and control its own popularized media instead of concentrating on the personalities and personal feuds within the party and with leaders of other parties. This time they had nothing different to offer. The entire country was behind them when they led India to war at Cargill. But they botched when they buckled under International pressure with the feeble response when the parliament was attacked - an act of war - with all the bravado of bragging about the ideals of heroism of Shivaji and Rana Pratap. The President of the US, George W. Bush, asked them to “stand down” and they did. They paid meekly ransom to the Muslim terrorists for the release of Hostages. Their rule could not be differentiated from that of the Congress in this respect in pandering to the Muslims and not staying on the agenda of Hindutva; they could not resettle Kashmir Pundits in their State, as Israelis proudly did for its refugees in their country. They tested nuclear weapons. All expatriates sided with BJP and it helped to withstand the U.S sanctions, but backed off disappointingly by BJP their act of not weaponising the nuclear arsenal, only which would define India as a nuclear power. Every two years they only talked of Ram mandir in Ayodhya and nothing came out of this talk; BJP did not have the courage to stop subsidizing Haj pilgrimage, nor change the antiquated Hindu endowment law; or stop the stealing of the wealth of Tirupati Balaji temple. In short, they failed every which way and were so defeated losing the confidence of the majority Hindus. Then they went on to build the party with malcontents of Congress and its deserters.

One of the remarkable features in these elections is the defeat of both CPI and CPM. The latter ruled Bengal for 30 years. One has to analyze first; how did they keep winning before losing? Whereas the victory of BJP is ephemeral in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - BJP lost the elections in Madhya Pradesh because of the rise in the price of onions- communist governments in Bengal and Kerala were much more stable for decades! The basic principle of management is: be innovative!! Failing which BJP should be ready to follow the ways of its competitors and improve over their model and at the least become equal to them. BJP has much to learn from Communists!



First of all, BJP has to develop an organizational structure at the village, county and district levels with strong charismatic leadership at all levels. These political leaders need to be full-time and need to be groomed to become seasoned politicians, non-corrupt but worldly-wise, fully and keenly aware of the corrupt ways of their political opposition. These workers should address the day to day concern of the people including the economic needs of the local populations. Ideology, dedication to service is important for building the cadre of leaders -not just workers- but leaders. They cannot expect RSS swayam sevaks to carry the water for the political junkies. RSS is naturally sympathetic to BJP because of Hindutva identity and viewing BJP as a part of Sangh Parivar. Hindutva is an identity rather than an ideology as wrongly characterized by the supporter as well as detractors of BJP. After ten years in BJP Yashwant Sinha left wondering what Hindutva was! Dr. Swamy, not being a Swayam Sevak got it wrong when he said recently in a conference that RSS would supply man power, but RSS is not a political party. Although many dedicated Swayam Sevaks like Modi could be potential leaders of BJP, it cannot solely depend on RSS to man its large scale operation and needs to have its own leadership training camps. Young charismatic blood is sorely lacking in the BJP cadres. The mission of RSS is different. It is non-political which the way it should be is. All formers RSS leaders are not with BJP. Bal Raj Madhok is still with Jana Sangh and there is some in opposition to Modi. Both Madhok and Modi identify themselves as Swayam Sevaks; we shall call them so since RSS has not said they are not, “official” membership of RSS being strictly voluntary, as it is a volunteer organization.

PEOPLE VOTE FOR AGENDA AND PERFORMANCE AND NOT FOR IDEOLOGY ALONE

It should be recognized that elections are determined by the quality of leadership and not on ideology. If the contest is between socialism and Hindutva ideology, if there is such, or secularism and Hindutva, why do we need election every five years? Ideology does not change every four years, but performance of the leaders does. This is a point missed by many. BJP should desist from using the cheap slogans like Ram Raj (Mahatma Gandhi also used those expressions to the annoyance of Nehru). Ram had not to deal with deficit financing, internally supported terrorism on his own land, and export tariffs. We live in a different world now.

I hope BJP will find a unique process of development of leadership at grass roots. Currently, no party (with the exception of Communists Parties) has a process to develop internal leadership. Congress and regional parties sell their “tickets” to contest elections. Without developing internal democracy and opportunity to personal growth the party will not succeed. Prime-Minister Manmohan Singh wondered why there are so many regional parties. The answer is simple and he should have known. If anybody criticizes Sonia, he is kicked out of the party- it is called disciplinary action. Chidambaram left congress twice and Pranab Mukherjee left once and they formed their own parties and finally came back to Congress. In Maharashtra Sharad Pawar is another example as also Rane. When the leaders don’t respect freedom of speech and expression of other leaders in their own party, when disenfranchised, they may have their own little parties when they are disciplined by their central commands for expressing their dissent. This may happen to BJP also. Why should Dr. Swamy join BJP and lose his freedom to the so called discipline of the party? It is just that simple as to why there are multiple parties in India- it is the lack of internal democracy in the parties that encourages formation of multiple parties besides lack of clear-cut guidelines in the Indian Constitution itself with any limits on the number or nature of the political parties. The constitution in the Indian democracy allows an official place to a party that is espousing the manifesto to eventually destroy the democratic government itself by participating initially in the democratic process and after gaining power at the centre. There was time in early days of independence when the leaders freely expressed their views, even within Congress. To the dismay of many, Rajaji made a statement that formation of Pakistan was inevitable, especially at the time Congress leaders were trying to convince Muslim leaders to stay within India. He was not kicked out of Congress, but instead was made the first Governor General of Independent India. How sadly things changed over the next the six decades!

It is gracious of Advani to offer to resign. It is proper that when a leader fails, he should give a chance to another worthy leader and there is no entitlement to power, no matter how great the leader is. In the U.S., Al Gore cannot come back and claim leadership, since he polled more votes than George Bush by some later counts. He lost officially and he was out. If Advani cannot be replaced, it is a sad state of affairs for BJP. The crucial assignments for leadership in both the houses need not be tied to seniority alone nor to the capacity to execute general elections. The two roles are different and need different competencies. For example S. K. Patil was a whiz at electioneering but was not a leader in the Lok Sabha or Rajyasabha. Likewise V. Krishna Menon had different talents and never could lead the masses. This simple understanding could mitigate the internal rivalries and jealousies among the national level BJP leaders whose recent unbecoming intolerance of their colleagues brought the appellation of Bharatiya Jhagada Party to BJP.



BJP could become another alternative in the game of politics providing alternative to the same feudal and professional politicians with no differentiation with Congress in tactics, without any strongly appealing social, economic, or political ideology or any substantive content. But, the need for BJP as a strong opposition party as originally formed is more important than ever in view of the external and internal dangers the country is currently facing. Externally the danger is from the neighbors, Pakistan Militant Islamists and ever aggressive encirclement of China and internally, lack of National identity, with dissimilation of National character resulting in servility to super powers. BJP still can be seen as the champion for National security and defense. Dr. Subramanian Swamy alluded to this in his conference in the U.S. Dr. Swamy obviously had a change of outlook here. He was formerly a strong critic of BJP 10 years ago; he used to publicly state that BJP has a siege mentality and paranoia about Muslims and Pakistan. He now acknowledged the dire need of a party like BJP since there are coordinated attempts in India (and abroad?) to undermine “Hindus” by distorting their history and by all other means including promoting conversion which is a demographic attack on the majority of India. While Hindus are tolerant of other religions and cultures, Islam never respected the freedom of other religions in the countries where they are in a majority. Though intolerant of “others” where Islam rules, the Islamic people are vociferous in asserting their right to practice even their questionable discriminatory customs when rationally objected to in other countries that are far more broadminded than the theocratic Islamic states, the case in point being the controversy over the ban on “burkha” in France. Even in India, where ever regionally they have a majority, their behavior is intolerant even in small communities. A Kerala Minister, a Muslim, went so far as to forbid breaking coconut (in puja) in public functions! If we ignore this fact, there will come a time when India will become an Islamic State. After all it took only 15 years to convert the great culture of Iran to Islam. Christianity took only 50 years to convert the whole of Europe. Then there is the threat of Pakistan. The Al Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan will have an upper hand in Pakistan in a few years. The real power being of military generals who are in favor of religious groups (Zardari doesn’t have any real power other than that given by them); the junior officers who will replace them will be the extremists and will spell major problem for India. These scenarios clearly bring forth the importance of BJP as a necessity for India to hold the banner of nationalism, and its geographic integrity as well as to protect it from external and internal threats which the Congress is paralyzed from doing because of its vote-bank politics and reliance on the minority support to win the elections. Remember the 3.32% gain of the Congress in this election is the minority votes tenaciously expressed in minority communities who are afraid to lose the Congress power in the Centre because of the overwhelming paranoia against BJP created by the Indian media and the economic gains from their pandering by the Congress. BJP has failed to create and control its own popular media for public relation. BJP is depicted through the lenses of the “secular” media for the majority of Indians usually in a pejorative manner. Even so, BJP has its rightful pride of place in Indian democracy.


India is at cross roads at this point, caught up dynasty politics served by sycophants. Sonia Gandhi lied on her citizenship papers and got away. According to Swamy she has 30,000 crores of rupees stashed in foreign banks. She and Rahul even allegedly travel on foreign passports. Rahul was arrested in the U.S but the weak BJP government asked Condoleezza Rice to get him released, while the Indian Congressites in U.S demonstrated to take away the visa for Narendra Modi who one day could very well become the Prime Minister of India. No M.P could dare question Sonia, because she blackmailed them using the letters of apologies written by them to Indira Gandhi during the emergency. Also, to retaliate, the Government may use Income tax Department to dig into the finances of the critics as is happening in the case of Mayavati. This is the threat used too to intimidate the press. Rahul’s ascension may come sooner, say in two years, says Swami. If the political parties are scared of courageously exposing Sonia and Rahul they have no prayer when Rahul comes to power.

Dr. Swamy’s postulate that Hindus are resilient to conversion follows the familiar naïve refrain of many modern Hindu leaders devoid of the knowledge of the history of Chritist and Islamist imperialism. We cannot forget that Hindus of half of Aryavarta from Afghanistan, Kashmir, East Bengal and the present Pakistan were truly converted to Islam either by force or by persuasion or both. Hindus are not invincible. Buddhists and Jains are more vulnerable to conversions but Hindus are not strong enough to protect themselves at this time. Conversion by force, forced marriages, or deceit and allurement does not take time. Once the conversion succeeds, it will be no longer the fight between Hindus and Muslims, but between Evangelists and Jehadis, as is happening in Africa, Iraq and other Muslim dominated lands. Since Hindus will be reduced to hopeless minority as in Kashmir and Bangladesh they could easily be decimated with little political say even if they retain their identity. So this unfortunate country, hijacked by the demonarchy and minority support of the Congress Party, needs a BJP or a similar party that will not be a copy of feudal Congress.

* www.sookta-sumana.com and www.sookta-sumana.blogspot.com for the discussion of Demonarchy, Hindutva, and Hinduness. Also, see articles on www.swaveda.com by Shree Vinekar especially "Dhee: The Essence of Hinduness." And sookta-sumana.blog.com on Hindutva

DON'T PREACH MR. PAUL BECKETT, LEARN


Don’t preach, Mr. Beckett. Learn

To: paul.beckett@wsj.com

It is interesting that even in this era of decentralized information some people do not hesitate to spread cultural stereotypes they have inherited from their colonial past. Paul Beckett’s writing “India's Rich, Open Your Wallets” is one such example.

See: (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124840931940378415.html)

He writes about the “lack of dramatic, sustained, well-organized individual giving – practically a competitive sport in U.S. business circles” which he states is sadly conspicuous by its absence in India. Tax avoidance is at least a partial motivation for large charities in the U.S.

But, had the writer bothered to look into annals of history, he would have discovered that long before Bill Gates, Tata, the forerunner of Indian industries, popularized the motto of “Give back what you get”. Even during the colonial regime, which discouraged science and technology studies in India, Tata inspired by the nationalist monk Vivekananda, founded the Indian Institute of Science, which is today a national monument of excellence. How much does that account for “dramatic, sustained, well-organized individual giving” Mr. Beckett? The tradition continues. In 2004, Tata alone spent Rs 450 million on social services. It is not just Tata but also others. For example, Birla group also excels in such acts of “sustained well-organized individual giving” – like for example Priyamvada Birla Aravind Eye Hospital inaugurated last year at Kolkata that is performing every month 1000 eye surgeries of which 750 are free.

That said let us also remember that long before open-source and Microsoft’s war on open-source, that now belongs to the annals of software mythologies, India has fostered a tradition of open-source in vital areas of humanitarian technology.

Jaipur Foot technology brings legs to 20,000 leg amputees every year. It was invented by an unskilled Master Ramachandra of Jaipur-based Jain NGO which had not taken any patent of their light and flexible artificial legs. In the developing countries where the colonial narratives and stereotypes have nurtured countless conflicts which claim limbs of toddlers through landmines, patent less artificial limbs have become a blessing. Let me be more specific for Mr. Beckett's edification

Right in Afghanistan where US troops bomb the Taliban (who were the Frankenstein created by the “dramatic, sustained, well-organized” charity of CIA of course), these so un-American and so Indian open-source no-patent artificial limbs bring smile and lives back to natives who have lost their legs to landmines the conflicts US-USSR meddling created in the first place. In fact this open-sourcing of humanitarian technology with no hidden economic or theological costs is uniquely Indian ethos. For example, the reluctance for holding patents that Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose exhibited is embedded today in the value system of Bose Institute of Science. Incidentally it is Bose institute which pioneered in the discovery of Cholera Toxin leading to the breakthrough in understanding of the molecular mechanism of toxin-receptor interaction in microbial pathogenesis, thus saving millions of human lives in developing countries.

Now instead of shifting the blames for colonial impoverishments on the so-called “Hindu rate of growth” and offering unsolicited lectures on “dramatic, sustained, well-organized individual giving” to Indians, Beckett would do well to ask his US companies and charities to take a lesson or two from the Hindu ethos of open-source humanitarian service to fellow humanity and not the so-called “I, the rich lucky Yankee me, give the poor damned you of the third world” charity.


Now that is a lesson Bill Gates could have taken very well from India and that would have saved him from the despairs and defeats he had in trying to quell the open-source onslaught on Microsoft.

-S. Aravindan Neelakandan

Editor's comment: India sincerely appreciates the generosity of Bill Gates, who is not hopefully
arrogant and condescending like Mr. Paul Beckett.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

HARVARD PROFESSOR WITZEL'S FOLLIES


California School Text Book Controversy
Attack on Hindu groups by
Harvard Professor Witzel
by
Dr. Seshachalam Dutta

Hindu parents in California found that the textbooks used in the elementary grades in California public schools contained descriptions of Hindu religion in derogatory terms such as “Heathenistic,” “tribal,” “idolatry,” etc., describing Indian society as “primitive” in terms of treatment of women and caste discrimination. Hindu groups of parents protested demanding the revision of the texts that demeaned their children in the eyes of their peers and also undermined their self image. California Curriculum Authorities at first ignored the pleas of the Hindus. Much later, as a result of a law suit that had been filed in 2006 by an organization called CAPEEM representing socially active Hindu parents, the State settled the case in 2009 with a payment of $175,000 to CAPEEM.
Prior to the settlement, during 2006-2007 the State Board appointed a group of consultants of so called “experts,” who were obviously hostile to Hindu sentiments headed by Michael Witzel, himself an East European immigrant and a Sanskrit professor at Harvard. More recently it has come to light that he was closely associated with a White Nationalist Church. He had virtually acted as an agent of the Colorado church which runs an evangelical outfit mischievously named, 'Dalit Freedom Network' to target the conversions of poor people in India through evangelists posing themselves as supporters of the poor people. Witzel is also associated with a Colorado Evangelist group dedicated to proselytizing the heathens and advocating teaching of creationism in schools. This group was in immense praise of Witzel in his denigration of Hindus. There were no Hindu Scholars in this group. After vehement protests by Hindu groups, the State of California yielded to the demands of the Hindu scholars and accepted extensive revisions. Since then, and especially after the State of California offered a hefty settlement to CAPEEM, Prof. Witzel has gone on a crusade to denigrate all Hindu groups attacking them as falling under the title of “Hindutva,” otherwise known as Hindu Nationalists. In so doing, he distracted the education board and his other readers from the main issue which was the age inappropriate instruction of school children leading to negative self image. It was this commonsense understanding regarding need for the curriculum to be suitable for the age and emotional development as well as cognitive maturity of the targeted children that has totally escaped the Harvard Professor who has become the sergeant of arms to promulgate his own theory of Aryan invasion (AIT) in ancient India as the basis for the ancient advanced civilizations of Indian subcontinent and the expansive ancient India that had spread up to current Iran occupying Afghanistan and other areas of Asia minor with North to South and South to North, as well as East to West and West to East, travel, navigation and intercourse a millennium or more before 1500 BCE. Witzel’s pet theory of Aryan Invasion or Migration does not hold water since the sophisticated genetics studies in the last decade unraveled the migrations of human race and the clear absence of evidence for a distinct “Aryan” race in the antiquity or at present.
Professor Michael Witzel
Michael Witzel is the professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University, in a little known Department of Sanskrit and recently named “Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies” which has no Indian trained Sanskrit Scholars on its faculty, although there are many accomplished Indian Sanskrit scholars available here in the U.S itself. For instance, there are eminent Sanskrit scholars and poets like Dr. Vedala in Midwest, who can compose Sanskrit poetry extempore! Witzel claims to have learned Sanskrit in Nepal and does some work on Rig-Veda, the ancient text of Hindu antiquity posing as the leading current sole authority on the Vedas and now on all matters Indian in the world. He has not written anything of value from his studies except contemptuous interpretation of the Vedas, describing, Shiva as Pashupati, a “cattle killer” and Chamundy as a round headed widow mentioned in the Vedas. He is neither qualified as a historian nor as an anthropologist, with doubtful credentials as a Sanskritist but tries to draw anthropological conclusions from the linguistics, which is an impossible task, based on similarities of words in Iranian (Persian) and European languages to those in Indian Sanskrit. In his deliberations and on his Website he has exhibited utter disdain for all Indians settled in this country. He is reputed to have cynically satirized “NRI” (Non Resident Indians) as Non Returning Indians, meaning they would not return to their home land. It is a mean-spirited characterization, if not outright bigotry for a man who according to Wikipedia emigrated from a former German territory (now a part of Poland) to resort to such utterances. In any event, turning to his academic qualifications, there is no original Sanskrit work of contemporary value in his publications. Witzel, strongly influenced by Nazi doctrine of Aryan superiority, believes in the debunked theory of Aryan invasions of India. It is not worthy paying attention to his campaign of denigration of Hindus, except for that he has recently acquired collaboration of three Indian women scholars of doubtful self-respect and self-knowledge and has published his views in the Georgetown J. Intl. Affairs (Winter-Spring 2009). Prof. Witzel gets away with any worthless commentaries on Sanskrit classics in his university, since there are no peers at Harvard to scrutinize his publications.
The issue of Textbook Revisions in the USA
It is generally accepted that textbook revisions at the elementary and High school level are a requirement in the USA, especially in History and Social Sciences, since they are subject to racial and ethnic bias and contain distortions demeaning to the minorities like Blacks and Hispanics and some times to Jews. After a long struggle, often they have been corrected. Distortions relating to South Asian groups have received scant attention until recently. In the context of Indian education, which is not the subject of this discussion, there are similar problems of British colonialists who have distorted Indian History along the similar lines as of Witzel.
The presentation of History, religion and culture at lower grade levels should be age and grade appropriate, infusing pride in ones culture and respect for each other’s. To give familiar examples, it is appropriate to teach the great contributions made to the foundation of American democracy and freedom by Thomas Jefferson at 5th grade level, but inappropriate to teach the class that Jefferson maintained slaves and sired children from his slave woman, albeit historically accurate!!!
Likewise it is appropriate to teach about Jesus as a prophet who brought a message of love and forgiveness, and not appropriate to teach children of tender age that the historicity of Jesus was doubted by many, including Napoleon Bonaparte, and that he might have been the son of a Roman soldier Panther as mentioned in Encyclopedia Britannica! Another example is Mohammed appropriating his duaghter-in-law for his own bed, citing the difference between an adopted son and a natural born son. Witzel did not have the courage to say that in his opinion such accounts are factual, historically, and should be taught to elementary school children belonging to these respective religions. However, when Hindu children were concerned, he campaigned for similar demeaning, inaccurate and distorted material that was incorporated in text book revisions relative to Hindus in California and other states. In the present India or even in antiquity, no Hindu texts mentions an Aryan and non-Aryan “race” distinctions. There are no longer four castes in India but 400 castes (Ref: Seshachalam Dutta, http://www.sookta-sumana.blogspot.com/ "Indian Secularism: A Sham, Part I & II, {Overview of Caste-ism & Caste-ism Revisited} posted April 11, 2009), an issue beyond the competence of 5th grade teachers to explain. Significant and salient admirable point of Hindu culture is that it is all inclusive, and pluralistic. Hinduism is “non-fundamental” religion accepting variety of believers including atheists in their fold. California educational Board has successfully amended the texts except for the Aryan Invasion story claimed as only one of many accepted versions of the history of ancient India at the insistence of and in deference to Witzel and his pet theory.
These revisions giving his pet views a place in the revised textbooks have not stopped Witzel from his crusade against Hindu groups. Recently he obtained collaboration of three Indian women academics and launched an attack on Hindu groups calling them, “Sangh Parivar” or “Hindutva” (Hindu Nationalist) groups in an article in Georgetown J. Intl. Affairs (Winter-Spring 2009).
The article is not properly reviewed prior to publication, since there are several obvious factual inaccuracies and misinterpretations. Suffice it to mention a few here. There are schemata linking all known Hindu organizations here and in India under one umbrella. There is no basis for it. Similarity of views on Hindu Nationalism cannot be insinuated as organizational unity. It is like postulating that Ku Klux Clan, Republican Party, NRA, and Southern Baptist Church are a part of one and the same organization, since they are all advocates of “Right to Life.” This comparison should not be construed even as remotely suggesting similarity between these American organizations and those espousing the principle of Hindutva, but is made only to illustrate the absurdity of lumping independent groups together for the convenience of rhetorical attacks. Such rhetoric may have place in High School debates and in politics where the slogans like “liberal” or “conservative” are used to attack the opponents, but it has no place in objective academics’.
While his own views of Aryan invasion of India are akin to those espoused in the old Nazi Germany, his Fatherland, Witzel curiously imputes Nazi sympathies to all Hindu Nationalists and particularly BJP. Here, he shows total ignorance of current Indian History. Israel was not recognized throughout the “secular” tenure of Nehru as Prime Minister (17 years), to the annoyance of Jewish groups in the U.S and disappointment of Israel - disappointment expressed in an editorial in Jerusalem Post (1964) saying that the Jews of Israel had all along supported India’s struggle against the British, as Israelis were themselves victims of British colonialism in places. Nehru and his party pandered to the Muslim influence at home and chose to resort to use appeasement of Middle Eastern Islamic countries in refusing to recognize Israel. It was the Prime Minister Vajpayee of BJP, a veteran Hindu Nationalist, who gave full recognition to Israel. Also it was Dr. Bhishma Agnihotri, the Head of Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangh (HSS) of U.S.A. who mediated the change in policy and was honored for his efforts by Israel. It is a crafty attempt by Witzel to project Nazi sympathies on the Hindu Nationalists in a calculated attempt to drive a wedge between Jewish and Hindu groups. While one can debate the merits of the concept of Hindu Nationalism, it is for Hindus the same as Zionism for Jewish people, a concept based on culture and ethnicity. Curiously both share their opposition to proselytizing, the proselytization being an underlying motivating force of Witzel.
Mentioning the premier proponent of Hindutva, (Hindu Nationalism), Savarkar was incorrectly depicted by Witzel, et al, as a member of RSS and conspiring in the assassination of Gandhi: Witzel’s collaborating Indian authors, if they reviewed this article with any care, should have known that Savarkar was the Founder of Hindu Maha Sabha, who was never in RSS and RSS was acquitted of complacency in the Assassination of Gandhi by the highest Judiciary in India. Despite their differences, Gandhi admired Savarkar as a great freedom fighter and it was
Gandhi who titled him ‘Veer’ Savarkar- the Great Hero Savarkar. Witzel, et al, may be admonished that RSS has successfully sued many who have attempted to slander its reputation by associating it with Gandhi’s assassination.
The discussion of women’s rights and the alleged lack of them are inappropriate at 5th grade level. Women were, throughout history, before the dawn of modern times, and in all cultures were treated as inferior to men. India unfortunately is no exception but, in fact, proud to be a little better in recognizing the woman’s exalted status than all other contemporary cultures. Hindus in India are mainly matriarchic in their culture. India is their “Mother” Land – unlike the Father Land of Witzel. In Hindu culture mother is next to God. It was to his mother, not to his father, Gandhi promised not to drink or eat Meat when he left for England and kept his promise throughout his life. There are regions of India where, as in Kerala, the inheritances pass from women to women and the heads of the household are women. Unlike in U.S.A. and in England, Indian women did not have to fight to get voting rights. There was so much publicity as to how Hillary Clinton was facing sex discrimination in her campaign in 2008 whereas in India Indira Gandhi was easily elected as early as in 1967. In 1967 there were less than 10% of women admitted into Medical Schools in the U.S.A., whereas in India they were in equal numbers to men.
Hindu Nationalism does not teach hatred towards other religious groups; one of the Author’s (Visweswaran) impression of intolerance of Hindu students towards Muslims in her class is anecdotal and not worthy of publication.
Finally, it is inappropriate to teach school age Hindu Students in USA that their women are discriminated against when nearly 100 % educated Hindu women in their social group are professionals and that most of them do not live by caste distinctions. Whereas Hindus in Western countries have no caste demarcations and Rig Veda is not considered as fundamental to Hinduism by the Hindus as Bible to Christianity or Koran to Islam. In fact, there is no one book that is fundamental to Hinduism, which has evolved from polytheism to monotheism and to monism through millennia. Witzel is stuck in Rig-Veda whose Gods are no longer worshiped by Hindus in India, leave alone are known to second generation Indians in the U.S. However, Vedic traditions continue to be the spring of inspiration for every cultural and spiritual (aadhyatmika) quest in the history of Hindu civilization.
The sorry episode of California Text Book controversy is finally one of California Education Board rejecting the expertise of Indian scholars and the sensitivities of Hindu parents in preference to the prejudices of a Sanskrit teacher, simply valued for his being on Harvard University roster, never mind in an insignificant department with no peers to evaluate and judge his academic performance. Thus the Board gave inappropriate weight to Witzel, an East European immigrant (a non-returning immigrant himself!), who entertained narcissistic Nazi view of Aryan superiority and who presented himself as if he alone is the ultimate authority on Hindu culture, social structure, and history - both modern and ancient; and although divorced from common sense, he alone could determine what is appropriate to teach Hindu children. He was the mouthpiece for the proselytizing Christists, dancing to their tune, and was discovered to be belaboring as a politician rather than a Scholarly Sanskritist and an academician. That is a travesty that ended in the Courts for adjudication where it should not belong in the first place. Hindus happily have won-for now.