Crisis of spirituality: What Hindus stand to lose

Muslim hatred now underlines our religious celebration. Everyday our religion is being defiled. Everyday we are being robbed of our spiritual anchor by saffron goons.

Many of us are going through a strange kind of cognitive dissonance with regards to what’s happening in our country in relation to communal disharmony. I don’t know whom I should talk to about this. Writing this and publishing this would mean inviting the judgements of many of my dear friends. I would still write about it because I think I am looking for moral clarity. Let me first do the groundwork of setting up the context. Let me tell you about my political and spiritual moorings. Let us begin at the beginning.

My father was a Left cadre in the state of West Bengal. As a teenager he dropped out of school and joined CPI(M). He was a sought after rowdy in his party circle. Shouting the loudest slogans. “cholbe na, cholbe na..” Ready for violence at the drop of the hat. Never missing his classes on discussing Marxist literature. After a major life-altering and violent event, my father decided to give up this life and headed to Delhi to get a diploma in hospitality. He worked hard. Married above his station. I was born. And then my brother, within a span of two and a half years. Soon, my father realised it was impossible to bring up two children in Delhi on his meagre salary.

He sent us packing back to Bengal, while he continued to live the hard life in Delhi. We lived in Medinipur, which used to be known as a hub of Naxalism. Since we lived in the town, we never encountered any such event. Many moons later, I would visit Medinipore as a reporter, covering Jangal Mahal, after Mamata Banerjee had swept clean all traces of red terror in the state and the whole area was dotted with freshly painted buildings in Trinamool colour of blue and white. But what was apparent to my eyes wasn’t the new buildings and the infrastructure but continuation of abject poverty in the villages of Bengal. Bodies so thin, so burned. People living a sub-human existence. They would vote for a few kgs of free rice. That was 2016.

On the banks of Sarayu river, Ayodhya

Interestingly, my communist father didn’t send us to a catholic school. He preferred we got modern education at a place which wasn’t divorced from Indian ethos. He chose DAV for us. Dayanand Anglo Vedic school. When he got us admission there, he didn’t know what he was signing up for. Dayanand Saraswati is the founder of Arya Samaj, a heretic movement within Hinduism where the four Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Sama, Atharva veda are the basis of all knowledge and object of all reverence. Murti puja or idol worship wasn’t allowed. Here I was a Bengali. The tradition of sarbojonin puja (Community puja) of Durga, Kali and Saraswati is what makes us Bengali. There is no Bengali in the world that doesn’t grow up waiting for these festivities. Yet, chanting Vedic mantras during our Havan class (yes we had a haven class), made me averse to murti puja. As an angsty teenager I felt it was pathetic to fold our hands in front of a stone structure and ask for favours.

With Vithu Mauli. On the day of Saraswati Puja, Maharashtrians celebrate the marriage of Vithal and Rukmini. Location: Pune

Later when I had become a mature woman and a Hari Bhakt a Hindu friend, who practiced Buddhism said during one of our intense conversations on spirituality: “You know what Somi, we resort to puja. Puja is basically asking for goodies from Gods and performing rituals to satisfy him. We don’t do ibadat.” Yes. ibadat. That word caught me. That was the word I was looking for. As a fully functioning adult I know what that word means. It has a Hindi equivalent. Bhakti. Different from performance of puja, mere rituals for worldly gains.

I discovered Bhakti much later in my life, in my late twenties and early thirties. I have loved my Krishna as a lover, as a friend. I have imagined him to be my father, when there was no parent figure in my life to guide me. I have danced to Hare Krishna and felt an inexplicable high and now I am addicted to it. I have loved him in his nirguna and saguna avatar. Never have I asked for anything other than the feeling of presence.

But in my teenage years I was consumed by the rationalist ideology of Arya Samaj. I truly believed that science and the knowledge of the Vedas, could alone deliver us from all sufferings. I studied and analysed Buddha Charita, Mahabharata and Ramayana when I was in 8th and 9th standard. These were abridged texts suited for my age.

But somehow I understood the larger point these texts were making. That they were all cautionary tales. That Buddha probably was the first patient of PTSD and he was history’s first psychologist and psychotherapist. He theorised a way to a less violent society. He had identified how overt identification to specific identities - what we consider to be “I” - our attachment to our desires was causing all the violence. His prescription was rather simple. Life is suffering. And our attachment to our desires is the cause of it. You really don’t have to give up all your materialistic possessions. You merely have to let go of the attachment to everything that you consider to be “yours”. And that “yours” contains not only our material possessions but also our multiple identities - our religion, our language and culture.

Iskcon, Vijayawada. Baladeva, Subhadra, and Jagannath. In Bengaluru Iskon too the Murti are similar.

Bengaluru Iskcon.

Here’s a glimpse of Pune Iskcon

All set for pushpanjali. West Delhi. Sharodiya Durga puja

It was also during this time I discovered Sufi music. I had a massive crush on Hrithik Roshan back then. In the movie Fiza he played the role of a misguided Muslim youth who took up terrorism following the 1993 Mumbai riots. In the end his sister kills him. This film really wasn't remarkable in any way but one of its songs composed by the legendary AR Rahman stayed with me. I heard it on loop.

नूर वाले नूर वाले
भोले भाले भोले भाले
नूर वाले नूर वाले
साया सब पे डाल दे
पिया हाजी अली पिया हाजी अली
पिया हाजी अली पिया हो
पिया हाजी अली पिया हाजी अली
पिया हाजी अली पिया हो

यहां हिन्दू मुस्लिम
सिख इसाई फैज़ पाते हैं
यहां हिन्दू मुस्लिम
सिख इसाई फैज़ पाते हैं
ये समन्दर रोज़ दर
पे देता है पहरा
है सरापा नूर
वाला आपका चेहरा
पिया हाजी अली पिया हाजी अली

While Buddha was talking about letting go of all identities, all attachment to everything that we consider to be ours, this Sufi song was taking the more pragmatic path of saying God allows for space for all identities. He equally watches over everyone irrespective of their different means to finding him.

During my brief stay at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre.

Yet, one isn’t possible without the other. There is no possibility of co-existence without the ability to let go of what we consider to be ours. Our failure to do the first has impeded our ability to accomplish the second. We are stuck with tolerance. That I will tolerate you, despite not liking you. But that is hardly an ideal situation. Tolerance is a threshold value. There is always a possibility of violence whenever there is a minor breach. To be a truly inclusive society we need assimilation and acceptance.

Our spiritual journey is incomplete when we are hyper identified with certain aspects of our existence. Which is why we will never be able to become a truly inclusive society. The current violence we see at so called shobha yatras taken out by saffron goons is inevitable because we haven’t learnt to assimilate and then dissolve the many identities we are born with. They are in constant clash with the identities of others, who too are equally hyper-identified only with a fraction of who they are. Probably, also because we identify with that part which is attacked the most. If you are attacked for being fat, you will identify as a fat man.

Ram Navami in Vijayawada. No slogans. No violence. Only Bhakti and good food.

Along with these contradictory or may be complimentary exposure through education and media, my father’s communist outlook made me a staunch supporter of social justice from a very young age. Injustice made me angry. My father despised hierarchy and concentration of resources. From him I learnt the responsibilities of being a good citizen. Even as a child I would turn off every running tap I saw on my way to school or tuition, pick up the garbage from the street and throw it in the dustbin.

Ujwal Bhoyar. A dear friend of mine. This 23 year old journalism degree holder is from a village in Nagpur. He introduced me to Warkari Sampradaya of Maharashtra and their style of Hari Bhakti. Now, he works as an ORM in Ola. I miss our spiritual trips together in Pune. We went to listen to kirtans together and our friendship deepened. Every kirtankar opened our eyes to new possibilities. Their message was always progressive.

Ujwal doesn’t need to infringe into anyone else’s space to practice his religion.

This Maharaji’s (lineage: Sant Eknath Maharaj, Paithan) kirtan particularly had me in awe. One of his stories went like this: There were two friends. Friend 1 always went to clubs and movies, and Friend 2 always went to temples. Friend 2 always forced Friend 1 to come with him for kirtans. But all his efforts went in vain. Finally, one day he agreed to come but ditched at the last moment. Following his betrayal, Friend 2 couldn’t focus on his prayers and constantly cursed Friend 1 for not focusing on God and only on gratification of his worldly needs. On the day when it was to be decided who gets to be in hell and who in heaven, Friend 2 - the temple goer was sent to hell and the one who only indulged in pleasurable activities found a place in heaven. Why asked Friend 2, to which God said, “Well, you never were really present in the temple. Bhakti didn't occupy your mind. You were only cursing your friend for enjoying his life and not visiting temples. At least he wasn’t in two places at the same time. There is no greater sin than being in two places. Moral of the story: just enjoy being where you are and that’s good enough karma to get a place in heaven.”

Also a devout Hindu, he taught me about the scourge of caste system. He defended reservation among his upper caste privileged friends. It was because of the training I got from my father that I could carve my personal identity as a Hindu fully knowing the systemic problems with it. I don’t carry any guilt of privilege. But I also do not deny the flaws that my religion has. I also feel incredibly proud of the fact heretics and reformers have risen from nothing to start their own movements without any fear of being killed.

Watch this Youtube Video. The reality of Ram Navami violence. How Muslims were instigated.

The reality of Ram Navami violence

All these different exposures impacted what kind of an intellectual and spiritual creature I would become. But nothing had prepared me for Delhi media. Their snobbishness, their pompous outlook, the free licence they give themselves to take moral high ground about everything, their complete disregard for evolutionary psychology, human behaviour, and history’s ravages, and their complete ignorance of Indian culture and spiritual traditions made me feel alienated, angry and disillusioned. Even as I was battling these disillusionments as a young journalist, I found myself embroiled in the liminal space between pre-2014 and post-2014 world. The many tentacled-Internet Hindu had risen. I was getting trolled for reporting on basic facts. I was being called words like sickular, liberandu etc etc. Similarly, other colleagues of mine were being called Sanghi and Chaddis. I was subliminally being trained to look at the world with a new lens. With colours. With slogans. Saffron.Red.Blue.Green. Bharat Mata ki Jai. Azaadi. Jai Bhim. I am not quite sure what the popular slogan for Green is though. The training was so deep that I could no longer look at people as individuals.

On Maha Shivratri in Pune.

To be honest, no one had an individual take. You could predict what the next sentence of each talking heads of these groups would be. It made no sense to me. None of the slogans. None of the hero worshipping. None of the agendas. Who were these colours and representatives fighting for? Apparently for something known as the “Idea of India”. And each of them had a different idea of India. The culture war had officially begun in India.

The run up to 2014 also ushered in the arrival of a bunch of young, highly educated, suave English speaking right-wing spokesperson. They spoke with earnestness. They said they wanted a cultural unification of India. That India was a civilisational super-power and our political ancestors hadn’t done enough to unite us. They said they weren’t Muslim haters. They just hated appeasement of Muslim orthodoxy by Congress - a strategy that hadn’t improved the living condition of the minorities.

Many of us believed in them and voted for change. After coming to power they facilitated undoing of “historic wrongs”. Ayodhya was won. Many places renamed. Azaan, hijab, halal - every marker of Muslim identity has been under attack since then not just from the rowdies on the street and politicians who mint votes using anti-muslim rhetoric but also from these intellectuals who write books and appear on TV debates to defend blatantly anti-Muslim acts.

A hindu man planting a saffron flag atop a mosque, Muzaffarpur

In the process, Hindus have vitiated their religion with the filth of communalism.

I ushered in the New Years this time dancing to Hare Krishna in Iskcon, Pune. Here’s a glimpse of it.

https://www.facebook.com/somidas2504/videos/303202101739170

No Muslims were offended. I practiced my faith. Along with me, many Hari Bhakts from across the world revelled in Hari Bhakti. I posted it on social media as well. No slogans other than Hare Krishna were raised.

Few years back I interviewed a VHP guy for a Valentine’s Day report. I told him Krishna is the true symbol of love. What does he have to say about that. He said and I quote: “It is the media that has promoted him to be a Casanova, a womaniser. Why do you only show him as a lover. Why don’t you show his virat avatar in kurukshetra?”. This man and his brigade have the potential of barging into a Krishna temple and accosting dancing women. They may see it as a glorification and celebration of Krishan’s lover avatar.

Many right-wing intellectuals say that India needs to be vigilant of the impact of Global Islam and jihadist movements as it has a large Muslim population. It is true the radical elements in Islam embody evil like nothing else does in contemporary geo-politics. The radical elements within Islam are powerful forces of destruction. It is as big a problem as climate change or global hunger to my understanding. It is also not that Indian Muslims are not touched by it. But, that’s not a problem for “Hindus” to solve. That’s not a problem for VHP and likes to solve. There is no need to evoke a bloody past of Muslim rule to add to the narrative of Islamic terrorism. There is no connection whatsoever. Most rulers were exploitative and cruel irrespective of their religion. The home-grown saffron gangs’ aim is to terrorise and otherise Indian Muslims. To disenfranchise Muslim shopkeepers, tailors and food stall owners. Saffron goons stand no chance of defending the world against Islamic terrorism. If they do, they must be sent to those places for the collective good of this world.

My neighbour’s toddler dressed as Bal Krishna on Janmashtami.

We, as Hindus cannot allow our religion to be sacrificed at the altar of petty politics and more importantly let it be used for the systemic exclusion, otherisation and increasingly what seems like extermination of a religious minority. The spiritual crisis of such bastardisation of our religion will leave Hindus anchor-less. In trying to excavate a mythical past and engineering a glorious ram-rajya, everyday we are denigrating the absolute beauty of what we have preserved, reformed, built and inherited from our ancestors.

We are a religion of heretics and reformers. Go back to our books. Read the Gita, the upanishads, soak in Vedanta talks. Read about our Bhakti movement and the progressive messages of our saints. Make documentaries and films on the lives of our saints if you want to propagate this religion, if you want to learn something from it. Give a generous donation to temples that feed the poor, run free clinics. Planting the saffron flag on a mosque does nothing for the spiritual and moral well being of Hindus.