At a convention in IIT chennai, Chief misister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra modi described the genealogy of the word secularism. He said that the word has been changing its meaning every 5 years. Initially it used to be used for religious harmony, then under the Congress governance it took the meaning of supporting minorities, then using minorities as vote bank then hurting hindus is called secularism. Now he has come out with a new meaning of secularism and that is " Secularism is development".
Can secularism be called as development? Will development bring the religious harmony so that there does not happen another massacre in Gujarat like the one happened in 2002? Of course one of the responsibilities of the government is to lay down the infrastructure and create environment for the private industry to invest and create jobs. But that is only part of the responsibility, the rest is to create suitable health care services, primary education and public transportation and many more. But development in the sense of creating opportunities for the private industry to invest cannot be the only aim of the government. Gujarat had done well under Modi in some areas like creating jobs, bringing electricity to wider population which Modi likes to talk about, which is better than doing nothing for the state. Even with all these achievements the ideal of development as secularism is wrong.
Invoking Swami Vivekanand
Modi is hugely popular with the youth since he talks like a true patriot and true son of Gujarat. In his recent talk at the Vivekanand convention,he wants the youth to realize the dream of Vivekanand who at a young age brought development to the west. I would ask what kind of development did Vivekanand bring to the west? Swami Vivekanand brought spirituality to the west and he was often not very happy with the youth of India for not following the spiritual ideals. He represented Hinduism at the Parliament of World's religions on September 11th, 1893 in Chicago.
In all this talk, Mr. Modi said nothing spiritual nor does he have any understanding about the spiritual teachings of Hinduism. He is a good orator and can make the crowd excited with pithy jokes. He often talks about how Indians are victimized by Pakistan Muslims and Bangladesh immigrants. Swami Vivekanand dreamed about spiritual development in his homeland. How is that Modi missed this point is hard to comprehend.
Dereliction of duty by religious Hindu leaders and educated media
How does one get away with such misrepresentation of Swami Vivekanand in public arena and does not get any critique from any quarters of Hinduism and especially from religious leaders. Our religious leaders have long left the field of action and have succumbed to the goal of pursuing salvation away from the field of action and preach dharma that our youth no more think actually applies to reality. But as we all know that was not the teaching of the Bhagavat Gita.
On the other hand, why is there no critique from the educated media about this misrepresentation. Our educated lot have also left the field of religion or have no understanding of the spiritual ideals of religion. This is the double misery of India now, where the spiritual message when duped as economic development has no one not even the true spiritual leaders of the land nor the educated people of the country question the underpinning of the false development claims as the ultimate aim of the spiritual tradition. This basic education is lacking in social conscious and this void is now filled by party propaganda and no one has a clue if this is right or wrong.
And the youth is duped into thinking that this is the real development Vivekanand dreamed about and Gujarat is the pioneer in bringing that great dream to reality and Modi is the messiah who revoked the forgotten dream of our great spiritual leader. One needs to understand that the underlying philosophy of the BJP party is hallow and it needs to appropriate the images of the Hindu spiritual leaders to capture the Hindu vote bank. If Congress is pandering for the muslim vote bank by sanctioning gifts to minorities, BJP is doing by appropriation of Hindu spiritual leaders and misrepresenting the spiritual message for its own party agenda while the true spiritual leaders have abandoned the active life and retired in their respective ashrams.
Conclusion
Swami Vivekanda was dynamic, active and wanted to spread the spiritual ideal of Hinduism . True secularism according to the Bhagavat Gita is to know the spiritual underpinning of all human beings and to realise the oneness of mankind by experience of higher states of conciousness which we also call as God. Outward differences fade away and a new vision of oneness from within comes with this kind of spiritual realization and man changes from within and not from outside. Economic development and prosperity have their place in society but that will not change human selfish nature. A human being if he has to love other humans of other religions then he has to realize this spiritual oneness underlying our existence.
Can secularism be called as development? Will development bring the religious harmony so that there does not happen another massacre in Gujarat like the one happened in 2002? Of course one of the responsibilities of the government is to lay down the infrastructure and create environment for the private industry to invest and create jobs. But that is only part of the responsibility, the rest is to create suitable health care services, primary education and public transportation and many more. But development in the sense of creating opportunities for the private industry to invest cannot be the only aim of the government. Gujarat had done well under Modi in some areas like creating jobs, bringing electricity to wider population which Modi likes to talk about, which is better than doing nothing for the state. Even with all these achievements the ideal of development as secularism is wrong.
Invoking Swami Vivekanand
Modi is hugely popular with the youth since he talks like a true patriot and true son of Gujarat. In his recent talk at the Vivekanand convention,he wants the youth to realize the dream of Vivekanand who at a young age brought development to the west. I would ask what kind of development did Vivekanand bring to the west? Swami Vivekanand brought spirituality to the west and he was often not very happy with the youth of India for not following the spiritual ideals. He represented Hinduism at the Parliament of World's religions on September 11th, 1893 in Chicago.
In all this talk, Mr. Modi said nothing spiritual nor does he have any understanding about the spiritual teachings of Hinduism. He is a good orator and can make the crowd excited with pithy jokes. He often talks about how Indians are victimized by Pakistan Muslims and Bangladesh immigrants. Swami Vivekanand dreamed about spiritual development in his homeland. How is that Modi missed this point is hard to comprehend.
Dereliction of duty by religious Hindu leaders and educated media
How does one get away with such misrepresentation of Swami Vivekanand in public arena and does not get any critique from any quarters of Hinduism and especially from religious leaders. Our religious leaders have long left the field of action and have succumbed to the goal of pursuing salvation away from the field of action and preach dharma that our youth no more think actually applies to reality. But as we all know that was not the teaching of the Bhagavat Gita.
On the other hand, why is there no critique from the educated media about this misrepresentation. Our educated lot have also left the field of religion or have no understanding of the spiritual ideals of religion. This is the double misery of India now, where the spiritual message when duped as economic development has no one not even the true spiritual leaders of the land nor the educated people of the country question the underpinning of the false development claims as the ultimate aim of the spiritual tradition. This basic education is lacking in social conscious and this void is now filled by party propaganda and no one has a clue if this is right or wrong.
And the youth is duped into thinking that this is the real development Vivekanand dreamed about and Gujarat is the pioneer in bringing that great dream to reality and Modi is the messiah who revoked the forgotten dream of our great spiritual leader. One needs to understand that the underlying philosophy of the BJP party is hallow and it needs to appropriate the images of the Hindu spiritual leaders to capture the Hindu vote bank. If Congress is pandering for the muslim vote bank by sanctioning gifts to minorities, BJP is doing by appropriation of Hindu spiritual leaders and misrepresenting the spiritual message for its own party agenda while the true spiritual leaders have abandoned the active life and retired in their respective ashrams.
Conclusion
Swami Vivekanda was dynamic, active and wanted to spread the spiritual ideal of Hinduism . True secularism according to the Bhagavat Gita is to know the spiritual underpinning of all human beings and to realise the oneness of mankind by experience of higher states of conciousness which we also call as God. Outward differences fade away and a new vision of oneness from within comes with this kind of spiritual realization and man changes from within and not from outside. Economic development and prosperity have their place in society but that will not change human selfish nature. A human being if he has to love other humans of other religions then he has to realize this spiritual oneness underlying our existence.
No comments:
Post a Comment