If someone
asks whether the #Ganga is polluted or pure, the answer will depend upon which
part of the Ganges, one is asking about.
Till the great river reaches Rishikesh, it is pure. After that, pollution starts. (I don’t know
whether it has started to be polluted from Rishinkesh itself now) The one who is at Allahabad or Varanasi may
say that the River is sacred, but cannot deny that it is polluted at the same
time. The one who has not traveled
beyond Rishikesh with the river may not agree that it is polluted at all. Someone living on the banks of the river with
all its pollution, may feel frustrated that in spite of crores of rupees spent
to clean it up, the menace continues. If
he is not getting any benefit out of the river, but is only affected by its pollution,
he may say that it is better that the water body be dried up so that atleast
the stinging pollution and its ill effects could be done away with.
Not only #Sanathana dharma, but all great religions have high spiritual aspects at their pinnacle,
but have been infested by numerous pollutants down the stream. Whether the sages of the Himalayas, the
Sidhas of the Vindhyas or the Prophets of different parts of the world, they
have revealed what has been glimpsed by them at great altitudes. Spirituality
has been the hallmark of all searches.
Sage after
sage have repeated that all rivers lead to the sea. But, yet, like babes quarrelling that one’s
mother is superior to that of others, the so called followers quarrel with
others. None of them are actually
following the real Masters. Instead of
travelling down the lane, they have put up tents on the ways and started
bickering over territorial rights. Every religion has been called a way. But when one stops travelling, there is
stagnation and pollution.
‘Ekam sat,
vipra bahuta vadanti’, will be repeated like a mantra. But the next moment, there will be a quarrel
that it can mean so only in some specific religion or language.
Whenever
there is a quarrel over whether sanathana dharma is great or not, I am reminded
about two stands regarding Brahminism (which was how Sanathana Dharma was
referred to in Tamil Nadu).
One was by #E.V.R.Periyar. He said that he was not
against Brahmins, but was against Brahminism.
The other
stand was by the great Tamil writer #Jayakandan.
He said he was against Brahmins, but was for Brahminism.
Now, both
the above statements may appear to be contradictory.
But on a
closer examination of the back ground against which each of them spoke, one
will understand that what Periyar meant by Brahminism was the degenerated
practices injected by the Brahmin cult, which included castisim (or
varnashrama), discrimination against women, etc. When he said that he was not against
Brahmins, he meant that he was not against those individuals, whom he saw as
victims of their faith, but was only against their faith system as such.
On the contrary, Jayakandan says Brahminism as the quintessence of Upanishadic
teachings. He felt that it was the
pinnacle of the Hindu faith system. His
argument was that the degeneration was caused by the people who practiced it,
or rather did not practice it, but only paid lip sympathy to it.
Now, we
come back to the question of whether the Ganga is clean.
While
Jayakandan stands at Rishikesh, Periyar stands at Allahabad or Varanasi.
Once we
understand their stand points, we can reconcile the seemingly contradictory
stands.
Once, we
resolve that there is pollution and that it has to be cleaned up, there is no
more need to quarrel.
If one is going
to argue that there is no pollution, then he is ignorant. There is no point in arguing with him. If one
is to argue that even if there is pollution, because it is sacred, we have to
put up with it, then again there is no point in arguing with him.
There has
not been a greater proponent of the greatness of Hinduism or Vedantism or
Sanathana Dharma than Swami #Vivekananda.
Yet, there has not been a greater critique than him, to point out the
ills of our system. He called for a
root-and-branch reform.
If we have
to safeguard a system, the pollutants of the system have to be removed
first. In Ayurveda, medication is started
only after a purging of the stomach.
But the
problem is that we continue to delude ourselves or allow others to delude us
for their gains.
If someone
calls for a root-and-branch reform today, we say that they are out to
destroy. ‘How can the root be changed
and then the plant or tree survive?’ That is our emotional take. We presume that we are rational too.
“I feel our
country has an uncanny way of bringing out extremes in her people. I suppose, it is because Indians have been
both afflicted and enriched by centuries of migrations. Loyalty to different rulers has dulled our
capacity for a single allegiance. Instead, we have developed an extraordinary
ability to be compassionate and cruel, sensitive and callous, deep and fickle,
all at the same time. To the untrained
eye, we may appear colourful and picturesque, to the critical eye, we are but
shoddy imitations of our various masters.”
These are the words of #A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, in
his book, ‘Wings of Fire’.
Unless we
are able to come out of this psychological mess, we may not be able to make
much headway, socially or spiritually.
