Thursday, April 23, 2009

Purpose of Life

We carry out so many actions and indulge in so many activities. But what exactly is the real purpose of our life? A lot of prophets and saints have attempted an answer for this. But none have given a more logical and satisfying answer than the Indian Rishis by way of their theoretical exposition of soul, karma and rebirths in umpteen works of Sanatana Dharma. The concepts of soul and rebirth form part of the core ideology of Sanatana Dharma that stands on very solid foundations. No other religion or ism has given a better answer as to the purpose of life than Sanatana Dharma. Rishis in India have never craved for political power and that is why their Dharma is Sanatana (eternal) that could offer such an unquestionable answer regarding purpose of life. Any ideology designed for seeking power and conquering lands cannot provide answers to eternal questions.

Attaining paradise and redemption for sinners are the unquestioned objectives of two contemporary isms dominating the world today. But a mere pointer to the objective will not provide a satiable answer to our questions about the purpose of everyday life. Voluntarily and involuntarily we are carrying out so many activities in the entire span of our lives. Many a time we do understand the immediate purpose only in the case of our voluntary actions eg. we walk or run when we want to reach a destination. But why do you want to reach that particular destination at all? For that matter, why do you want to reach any destination? Why is our heart working tirelessly or shutting down suddenly without our control? Why do we tend to love something and hate something else? There is no end to such questions and no answer either. Only Sanatana Dharma provides a simple satisfying answer as to the overall purpose of life of each and every human being.

Insatiable Souls

Almost all religious isms accept the existence of a body and soul for each human being and Sanatana Dharma is no exception. But the similarity ends there. We are considered alive only until our body and soul are together. When the soul decides to leave, it leaves behind a dead body. But what is this soul and what is its role? Indian Rishis considered these souls as nothing but indestructible microcosms (jeevatma) of the larger universal force of Ishwar (paramatma). We know Ishwar is present in everything, but what is special about the soul? If Ishwar is present in everything, why is soul not present in everything? The answer is simple and straight forward. It is true that Ishwar is present in everything, but soul is present only in living beings. And that is what differentiates between living and dead bodies. Each soul comes with a partly defined purpose based on accumulated karma from previous lives (which also determines when, where and how it is born), but leaves with the karma accumulated by the actions of the body that carried it.

Presence of life in it makes all souls inherently insatiable. The prime purpose of bodies carrying them gets defined here. It is the solemn duty of each living body to carry its soul to a more elevated plane in the cycle of evolution. Refinement of the soul it carries is thus the solemn duty of each living individual in this universe. And the only tool available at our disposal for achieving this is our action. Each and every one of our actions is important here. Each thought and each movement is vital. Application of the dharma tool, another unique aspect of Sanatana Dharma, becomes unavoidable in this regard. Each dharmic action (including thoughts) refines our soul and each adharmic action will taint it further. And finally when your body’s turn to carry that soul is over, it leaves and may or may not be reborn depending upon the accumulated karma so far. In a way it is the insatiability of the soul inside us that force us through each moment of our life.

Moksha Deliverance

It is clear and evident that we are all born with souls of different characteristics which in turn depend on the intensity of refinement they have gone through in the past lives. Since none of us have any role in our birth that carries along with it the associated fortunes (and misfortunes), the vast differences that exist among us at birth is also something beyond our control. All of us are uniquely different at birth and our actions start to count only after we come of age. And beyond that point whatever we think or say or act will definitely affect our principal task of refining the souls in our custody. That is why it is always stressed by various religious leaders that success or failure of our births is largely in our own hands. One’s life is a success if he or she has managed to refine the soul and it is a failure if it gets more and more tainted in your custody.

And finally what happens after so many cycles of births and deaths. Nature of accumulated karma would carry the soul forward. If the latest one holding it has done well enough, the soul (jeevatma) shall merge completely into Ishwar (paramatma) and shall be relieved of further trials and tribulations associated with births and re-births. Complete liberation or emancipation (moksha) of the soul happens at this point. In rarest of rare cases we have also seen individuals amongst us achieving emancipation (moksha) even during their lifetimes. Ramana Mahirshi of yesteryears and Mata Amritanandamayi Devi in contemporary times are cases of such jeevanmukta. Their actions are so very noble that refinement of the souls they carried outpaced their own lives. It will be a rare honour to interact and be associated with such noble souls.

Purpose of our life and what we all should aim for in the course of our lives is explicitly clear now. Reference material available in Sananata Dharma for finer clarifications and research on this topic is literarily monumental. The logic of soul refinement and rebirths is so unambiguous that all our doubts will evaporate when we dig deeper and deeper into the works of Indian Rishis. No other religious ideology can claim such a credible and convincing repertoire of coherent works and their innumerable commentaries. Genuine followers of Sanatana Dharma have no reasons to be in doubt as to the purpose of their lives. Perhaps the days are not very far when the whole world would realize their mistake of not noticing the truth of their lives that always existed in the cradle of culture that is Sanatana Dharma.

Losing Grounds

India and Indians are losing Indianness at a much faster rate in the past sixty years than at any other time in the past. We stood our grounds against all types of imperialism ranging from Greeks, Romans, Mughals, Islamists and Europeans in the never ending series of invasions. But we have never done so badly against the new versions of these evil forces than in recent times viz. since our liberation from the British. True Indians are losing their grip on numerical majority, power and real estate in almost all parts of India. At all times we could count on Sanatana Dharma which stood like a solid rock of infinite dimensions to provide us with the necessary motivation and inspiration. Be it Alexander, Akbar or Macaulay, the overpowering enigma of Sanatana Dharma always managed to tie them down with its inclusiveness. There was nothing much they could do with their arsenal. From such heights of impenetrable defense during periods of subjugation, the situation has fallen to pathetic depths during the subsequent period as a liberated and separated as a secular Hindu nation.

The situation is deteriorating at a fast pace now. All the lofty ideals of building a truly secular and democratic republic of India has almost evaporated fully. The dreamy architect’s vision of a land of equality in every sense has given way to forces of skewed secularism and fascist ideologies. Western and Arab imperialism are vying with one another to conquer the soul of our entire nation. Religious fascists are going full steam to convert as many as possible to take over the country (mis)using our flawed electoral system. The electoral verdicts do not reflect our majority’s opinion but the majority opinion of those who can vote. Religious fascist forces are attempting a coup d’etat by galvanizing as many religious converts as possible by luring or forcibly converting them. If the disease was limited to Christianity earlier, the world’s fastest growing religion is not far behind in their latest games in India. Both are engaged in a race to run over Indian nation and soil.

Gaining Grounds

Followers of the two organized world religions are literally gaining ground in India in all spheres of life. If missionary work is in full swing in Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Orissa, the entire coastal and border areas are reeling under Jihadi forces of enormous dimensions. A lot of international planning and money are going into these operations, and both the competing forces are becoming more and more confident of overrunning India in the 21st century. Other Europeans forces had tried out almost all techniques to destroy our nation from outside before the British unleashed their ultimate weapon of divide and rule as a last resort. As a part of it, they tried out different types of geographical, cultural and religious divides to achieve their objective. Yet when they were forced to retreat, they were literally shocked to see India still with a majority of Hindus carrying the whole nation as one even after their “most unkindest” cut of dividing the country on religious lines. Intensive missionary work for aggressive proselytization aimed at capturing power and weakening India is their latest attempt. If we analyse their performance in the last sixty years, it has been nothing but a tremendous success.

Story of the second aggressor is quite different. Arab aggression was at its zenith when they overran the Persian empire in the seventh century. Even then they could not even dream of a similar success over India. Where the Arabs failed, their Mughal cousins could make some inroads. But the status remained very much the same even after about seven centuries of Muslim rule until the British displaced them. Merciless Mughal emperors could not dent the core of Sanatana Dharma and many of them even struggled to avoid a complete surrender before its unparalleled logic and glory. Unlike Iran where they could achieve cent percent annihilation of the native religion, India was like a black hole that would absorb them fully. It was a very sad story of their sway over India when it ended up with division of the country on religious lines. Resurrection in the form of Arab imperialism is of recent origin which has been triggered by the intention of cash rich oil nations to complete what their predecessor could not. Aggressive religious conversion of plane loads of Nepalese and poor Indians working in the Gulf is only one of their tools to penetrate into Indian heartlands. The world-wide success of Jihadi terrorism is giving them immense opportunity and hope of overrunning India. They have literally gained so much grounds in several states like Kerala.

Holding Grounds

Official policies of liberated India in shunning anything and everything related to our own Dharma has disoriented at least three generations of Indians who are completely confused about Indianness. Irrespective of their religion, all Indians who constituted our nation in 1947 had a much clearer vision about India. Simply put it was Indian first and religion next. Freedom, true secularism and equality were part and parcel of their dreams about an India that was to be made. But vote-bank politics has shattered all those lofty ideals. Subsequent generations have thrown up groups of Indians each with their own ideas about nation building. Nobody in India is now thinking in terms of their national identity first and religious identity next. All the so-called minority groups are breaking away from the national mainstream and trying to look alike and think alike their international cousins than national brothers. Under the guise of secularism each group is building up their own institutions which take orders from masters abroad.

Holding on to whatever is left of a truly secular and egalitarian nation is the least that can be done now. We have reached a state of moribund existence with regard to our religious beliefs. In liberated India everyone expected a complete revival of Sanatana Dharma to its past glory after weeding out its dark shades of untouchability and casteism. Many of us even expected a revival of the streak of continuous reformation and improvement that was always an integral part of our Dharma. But the misguided policies of the first few governments have spoiled everything. More than others, it goes to the discredit of several Hindu leaders for their suicidal efforts in disallowing Sanskrit learning and not initiating proper research & development of India’s own epics and scriptures. It is a shame that we could not put together even an authentic history about ancient India instead of teaching our children the British sponsored bogus theories of Aryan migration.

It is still not too late to retrieve all our lost grounds. All of us have a stake in Indian soil and we must do our bit to achieve this. We can never imagine securing an India of our own if we allow our enemies outside and inside to take over our lands legally or otherwise. As a bare minimum, each individual must hold on to whatever is left of his own properties and as a policy it must not be sold to anyone who is a suspect. European and Arab agencies are pumping in billions of dollars through their surrogates to buy up properties in India. As an example, at least 25% of Kerala’s prime properties have changed hands in the last one decade and most of it is in the hands of those with Gulf connections. And a vast proportion is already with the various Christian denominations under foreign administration and with no control of their own laity in India. If we can start holding on to whatever is left with us, there is definitely a chance for our Dharma to flourish once again and regain all lost grounds.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Imperative Imperialism

In simple terms imperialism pertains to a desire to rule over the entire world. It can prop up in the mind of an individual or a group or a nation. Though imperialism is a hated concept in modern times its value as a perfect tool for propagation of any ideology cannot be overlooked. But for imperialism, Christianity, Islam and Communism would not have spread even a few square kilometers beyond their places of origin. Ideologies adopted by imperialism are carried by its physical and psychological components to unimaginable destinations in no time. If the physical components comprise of armies of warriors and missionaries who enforce and coerce unquestioned acceptance by fear or fraud, the psychological part is made up of mythology or make-belief stories. In India we are witness to this unending phenomenon even today in the form of Missionary proselytization, Jihadi terrorism, Maoist rebellions etc. One thing is common in all these – forcible propagation by imperial forces of the core ideology.

Forces of imperialism operate in similar fashion throughout the world. Rather it is the very nature of imperialism than the design of its users. Imperialism is usually the essential offshoot or necessary component of any ism or dynasty that has become powerful without enough fundamental strength in its foundations. Such ideological shortcomings are offset by shear strength of the forces of imperialism that come to be associated with them. And how do the imperial forces get associated with such weak ideologies? It is always the handiwork of some clever and shrewd individuals who will hide in history forever. Their reasons may be private and quite unconnected with the known highlights of the ideologies. As a very revealing example, we can cite the example of Communism that is being propagated by Maoists. If their real intention is Communism and Socialism we can never imagine the land of Mao ending up in its present form. But the imperative need for a dose of imperialism in defending and propagation of ideologies can never be overlooked.

Red-Roman-Arab Imperialism

We in India came face to face with imperialism when Alexander’s army knocked at our doors. Though Greeks & Romans lost the battle and failed miserably in their mission, the fact that they saw the splendor of India with their own eyes resulted in a saga of never ending desire to conquer India by any means. I believe that the half-cooked mythology about St.Thomas coming to India and existence of Christianity in India anytime before the advent of subsequent European colonizers are products of some highly imaginative minds of very recent generation of Indian Christians with such hidden designs. We gained nothing from these Roman imperialists but have consistently been targeted by the descendents of Roman empire. India is really writhing under Christian proselytization even today. The amount of money pumped into their harvesting business in India was about $ 400 million for the year 2008 alone. Our North East has already been overrun and missionaries are aggressively stalking the entire South India with victory in sight.

Arab and Communist imperialism came to India much later. Unlike their Roman counterparts, the strength of Arab and Communist imperialism is of very recent origin. Wealth of Arab imperialism is only one century old and Communist imperialists have never been rich. But their impact on India is increasing daily by leaps and bounds. All imperial forces want to have a piece of the Indian cake and they are playing their games well. While Communist forces are forcing in through Nepal, Arab imperialism has already gained much grounds in the coastal areas, especially Kerala. Billions of gulf money are being pumped into India for gaining grounds legally and illegally. The stake of Arab institutions in Indian companies and real estate is so high that they will soon be able to dictate the administration in several states of India. Emasculated Communism is already in power in a couple of Indian states and they can always join their masters if and when a Chinese manipulated revolution can work out in Indian soil.

Dharmic Imperialism

In the absence of a formidable imperial force backing an ideology it is almost impossible to survive the current century. This is true even if the ideology is fundamentally strong and can claim to have survived all these ages. Sanatana Dharma is one such religious ideology that has always been under threat and it is more so in the 21st century. There is nobody who has seen the whole universe with inner eyes than an Indian Rishi and there is nobody who has actually seen universe than a European adventurer. Yet when the European adventurers came in contact with the creations of Indian Rishis (in the form of scriptures and classics) their surprise was incredible. Thus started the advent of Roman and Arab imperialism in India which is aimed at nothing less than hijacking our heights of cultural heritage (they have already taken most of our material wealth). And the third one (Red Imperialism) wants to wipe out our heritage altogether so as to perpetuate poverty for Communism to feed on. So much has been willfully destroyed and much more smuggled out so far, but the fundamental strength remains same. I have no doubt that the current versions of these imperial forces will not back off till their goals are achieved.

In a way the weakening of Sanatana Dharma began at the battlefield of Kalinga War. When Arjuna was confused and felt diffident at the Kurushetra battlefield, Bhagawan himself could clarify his doubts and re-activate him to carry out his Dharma. Arjuna was categorically told that elimination of all obstacles in the path of Dharma is his duty and he has nothing to worry about. Bhagawan’s entire advice was recorded in Bhagavad Gita and made available to all future generations to live by. Yet Emperor Asoka failed to get the message properly and ended up repenting his doings as a Kshatriya. Degeneration of a society which was flourishing on the basis of Sanatana Dharma started at this moment. If only he had understood the real spirit behind the unparalleled advice from Bhagawan, the history of India would have been much different and glorious.

It is still not too late to change course and work towards regaining our past glory. The basic tenets of Sanatana Dharma remain rigidly intact and entire stock of its intellectual assets is still not completely unraveled. At any level of comparison, our Sanatana Dharma is indeed way above its competing religious ideologies. All that is required for its domination over the entire world is a vehicle of imperialism. It is not necessary to kill anyone or even apply any force. It is absolutely not necessary to deceive and coerce converts like the missionaries. The only effort that is required is unrelenting commitment to reiterate the concepts and ideals of Santana Dharma to as many people and as many lands as possible. So many agencies are already involved in this process. What is lacking is an imperial mindset to re-convert and convert as many as possible so as to re-establish the rule of Sanatana Dharma over the entire world.