I had earlier blogged about the land we today call, India; the land that has over the many millenniums and centuries, produced many spiritual leaders and thinkers, and is the birth place for some of the largest religions in the world. India is home to over 2 million temples or places of worship for all the many gods in the Hindu pantheon and other religions. That is a count of what can only be called “official temples”, that have some kind of trust or entity that looks after its upkeep and maintenance. There are probably 2 or 3 times more places of worship are still considered public but have specific upkeep or maintenance. In India, and in Hinduism anything and everything can become a place of worship without a lot of fuss around it. Hindu temples specifically is probably also one of India’s largest cultural exports into the western world. With all this do we need another temple?
I waffle between three or more state of mind; “belief in one god, Krishna“, “belief in a divine power”, “wish there is a god!” and finally to “is there a god?“. Irrespective of my belief in god, i cannot not acknowledge the many different followers of these gods, mine and others. Millions of them, with varying intensity of devotion and faith. If nothing, i am more scared of them, than of the gods they created. These followers who repose tremendous faith in their powerful gods, also consider incumbent upon themselves to save their gods. They feel they know better on how to protect these gods and their temples. I have always wondered, these are the same helpless ones that besiege the god for many many favours. The circle of life!
Why do we need another temple? We dont. The frevour is not going to increase or decrease because of this temple or for the lack of it. I am however not so bothered with the building of the temple in itself. I am however very concerned that the temple is coming up on the rubble of another place of worship. We were led to believe by all, and including the now infamous Supreme Court of India that the mosque was built on a temple, even if there was no substantial proof. The SC specifically said that a lot of people believe this and therefore they will not object to this. Whatever happened to law, jurisprudence or justice? The mosque itself was turned into rubble on Dec 6th 1992, illegally as considered by the same courts, and the hearing is still in progress. Even as this case is still to be decided twenty-eight years later, the courts decided that the temple can be constructed and saw no moral issues, since the faith of millions obligated it.
Rama or Ram, same person, thanks to the diversity of Indian languages the usage and verbiage is different. That again is a separate issue for the sponsors of this cultural hate and divide over the temple and mosque, for they would prefer that all of us speak the now dead language of Sanskrit. So Rama as described in the scriptures of the religion, as a perfectionist, a humane soul, maryadha purushothaman; One who held himself above all, and followed rules of his times to the tee. This man is now being bequeathed a temple, on the same place where stood another temple of worship. A place of prayer will be build, silencing the prayers that were held before, and new songs of glory will be sung. And all this because apparently almost 500 years ago, someone did exactly the same thing. That is destroyed a temple and build a mosque upon it. We Hindus, who benevolently call ourselves the tolerant ones, have decided that we have tolerated enough, and we must pay it back using the same coin. Again this to a man of peace, Rama. The irony in all this, is at the least frightening, if not reeking of bloody murder. Yet, the day has come and gone, and many have sung praises and thanks, many more simply stayed mute, save a few that cried or raised concerns in a dark deep well. Sounds that will never be heard.
I wished to record my voice on that small heap. It will never make a difference i know. Not in the world, in my neighbourhood, among friends and even for that matter within the close knit family. Even within the family people see significance in this iconic temple upon mosque. Like i said it appears more of profit from the situation at hand, rather than a rational judgement of moral compass. The latter has been thrown by the wayside from the beginning of 2014. A new one, that is orange in colour is being designed and distributed to the minions within the country.
I wish to end by using the same war cry used by tolerant Hindus when they beat up innocent Muslims or Dalits, “Jai Sri Ram”. Please wake up and listen to your followers. They seem to need you the most, right now.
my Scribbling 