It is not of much use trying to introduce reason, to politicians and religious bigots of any particular religion. The religionists have done the maximum harm to humanity. Religion tries to lure the simple mind people in the name of spiritualism in the name of faith although the fact is that all religionists have been telling their co-religionists to rise above religion in case they wish to achieve any progress towards spiritualism. There has been a constant struggle between faith and reason. Even the Gita has shown its preference for faith by declaring that Shraddhaavaan labhte narah, that is, a man of faith gets. (What?) If the spirit of inquiry has to be curbed by the men of faith of any religion, the research units of all the universities and other research organizations deserve to be closed. If history has no right to declare after weighing all the pros and cons, as to what is historical, what is prehistoric and what is an outright myth, the same fate of closure ought to wait for all the departments of history in all the universities all over the world. If the world of Indian intellectuals especially of the Hindu ones is prepared to admit that the Epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are only historical works then God save such intellectuals. But politicians are a category apart who must be excused for shunning every sort of reason, since it is said that everything is fair in love and war. This can signify that anything ugly can also be treated as fair if it suits the political or selfish purpose of a politician. The fact that a brand of politicians comes to acquire the status of being a ruling party, does not alter the stated position. If the politicians of all hues and colors wish to declare that religion or a particular scripture of a particular religion is above the Constitution of India even after assuming their respective offices by swearing in the name of the said Constitution, they ought to be declared as incorrigibles for whom the best of medical institutions cannot offer any cure. In the light of these preliminary observations, the government decision to celebrate the 5151st birth anniversary of the Gita cannot be questioned by us, the mortals, although the researchers have established 1. That the date of the Mahabharata Epic cannot be fixed beyond 850; 2. That the date of the Ramayana Epic is around 200 BC; 3. That the Gita came to acquire the present textual form only between 250 BC Aand 250 AD; 4. That originally, the Gita was initially a separate book and its portions were interpolated subsequently after searching for the appropriate contexts; and 5. That the Gita is a post-Buddhist document and its main objective was to objective was to reconcile the Buddhist view point and the Vedic one. Besides, it is a fact that such matters basically belong to the domain of the university scholars and not to that of the politicians. Besides, the Gita is essentially treated as a work leading to help in spiritual advancement although the last verse of the last chapter promises nothing like that since it claims to result in Sri or opulence, vijaya or victory and bhooti or power. And, spiritual advancement is normally never the set goal of a politician. Incidentally, I had read a paper titled Srimad-Bhagvad-Gita in Historical Perspective, on invitation, in the first and the last International Seminar on Srimad-Bhagwad-Gita, held in Jwaharlal Nehru Stadium, AIIMS, in the first week of May 1983, in which I had declared that according to world researchers, the Gita came to acquire the present textual form between 250 BC and 250 AD. The convener of the said international seminar was MC Bhandare. It had been organized by Bharat Nirman and inaugurated by a Union Minister Gadgil; the well-known KN Raj had acted as the Stage Secretary. I had distributed one thousand copies of my printed paper among the audience who had filled the entire stadium to its fullest capacity. During the period of birth of the Gita as above, Buddhism and Jainism were prevailing in Indian sub-continent, who felt instigated to fight each other on the question of the real nature of Ahimsa or non-killing. At that time most of the Brahmanas had become concealed converts to these anti-Vedic religions and adopted the role of their fake teachers as Jain Munis and Buddhist Bhikshus and in those capacities, they found it easy to sow the seeds of dissention in the said religions in a long drawn war of words, which was later named Mahabharata Epic. I had also maintained that the Gita is definitely the work that came into existence in post Buddhist period, that it had been prepared with a view to serve the purpose of being a permanent manual of crushing anti-Vedic and anti-Manusmriti opinions by creating a rift between those opposed to the Vedas so that they should get effaced by their mutual fight and leave the Vedics free to fill the vacuum. I had also pointed out that the actual parties to the so-called Mahabharata War were the Buddhists and the Jains, who were named in the Epic as Kauravas and Pandavas, respectively, in view of their share of population, the two religions had as their following, which was 95 % and 5 %, respectively. There is no difference between the Gita and Manusmriti, since the first verse of Chapter 17 makes it incumbent on the aspirant that shaastra vidhi scriptural procedures must not be given up. This means that the Gita makes it compulsory that every action of a man must conform to the shastras, which generally signify the Vedas, Smritis and Puranas. Then, the Gita has no single message and it is full of irreconcilable inconsistencies. It is because of these inconsistencies that its one portion is liked by the revolutionaries like Veer Savarkar and another by Maharshi Aurobindo Ghosh, still another by non-violent Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of Iskon, Prabhupada AC Bhaktivedant Swami sees in it the message of enjoying the life in its fullness since he sees it as necessary part of Simad-Bhaagvat Purana, which deals with Lord Krishna’s exploits with gopies and Raas Leela with them. In view of this background, one of the purposes of the Gita was to sow the seeds of dissension among the followers of the above-said two religions who were predominantly those who stand condemned as Sudras in Hindu Saastras as distinguished from the Dvijas, who represented not more than 10 % of the population which position has not changed much even today. The said message of the Gita suits the political purpose of the so-called Dvijas which is bound to be defeated if the non-Dvija population happens to get consolidated into a majority force under the type of congregation which goes by the name of Bahujans, today, and it greatly coincides with the BJP’s goal of Hindutva. Further, the Gita supports conversion of the peopleof ther faiths to itself, by saying that sarva dhamaan parityajya maam ekam shranamvraj, that is, you seekmy refuge by giving up all other religions. At th same time, it also declares that the religion of others are to be dreaded (Para dharmah bayavahah). Is it because of this teaching that as per one of the today’s news items, 200 Muslims of Agra have been converted to Hinduism, whereas the latter frowns upon Hindu conversion to other religions?
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:26:32 +0000
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