Dear All,
Last week in Marathi newspapers, there was news in block letters that trusties of Lord Mangesh Temple, Goa has refused entry to a handy-cap boy with the leather leg brace boots in the temple.
The funniest thing is that Lord Mangesh is an Avatar of Lord Shankar who himself wears the skin of the tiger as we see in many paintings.
Lord Mangesh is a well known temple in Goa and especially he is a God of Many family from the Race of Saraswat Community. Unfortunately we do not observe that well known intellectuals from this community had come up to protest against it.
I personally feel that Hindu religion is very flexible and slowly it accepts the changes if large volume of people demand for it. The main reason is that it’s diversity regarding Gods, Holy book, streams of faith and disciples. No single thought, god or a holy book can rule it.
In this situation, in the point of humanity, we must all come together and protest against such old fashioned concept.
I also take an opportunity to discuss about other wrong things that has prevailed in the Hindu religion and which does not have support in ancient literature.
1) Caste-ism – In ancient time, the profession used to decide caste. For example, those were warriors are considered Kshatriya, those who like to serve with their crafts and skills are considered Shudra, those who like to do business are considered Vaishya and those who like to take higher education and teach used to be considered as Brahmins.
The caste was merit wise and not birth wise. Kshatriya was the one who is ready to fight against demons for the good cause. Brahmin is the one who is a scholar and who never lies etc.
Now caste-ism is a curse to Hindu religion which is like a white ant destroying the society slowly. The amusing thing that I observed is that in the downtrodden people also there is a feeling of superiority in some sub-caste and they behave rudely with other sub caste people.
2) Gender discrimination and dowry – Previously there was an exchange of cows from the both side in very ancient times in India as a gesture of honor to each other at the time of marriage. I think, it was also mainly for bringing up better breed by exchanging cows like we have hybrid cows these days. Also in some parts of Africa same tradition is still exist especially in the Savana province where there are limitless long grass courtyards where cows are main way of income.
But unfortunately, today in India dowry system has taken very bad shape. And especially bride side people suffer and therefore there is gender discrimination particularly in Punjab, BIMARU states (Bihar, M.P., Rajsthan and U.P.) and Tamilnadu where dowry system at it’s high and dowry harassment / deaths as well.
Also still boy child is given priority in every sector of life.
3) Wrong rituals and it’s commercialization – Most of the rituals /festivals are now celebrated in wrong way and they are commercialized e.g. Shravan is the month where one should go to the nature and experience it’s beauty and all the rituals are formed in that manner but instead of going to the nature and collection flowers and leafs, now people prefer to buy them in market at higher price. In my city in every Shravan, large number of tree branches and brought from nearby villages for sale where the destruction takes place. It is the same case with the snake. On Nagpanchami, instead of going to the snake habitat, people prefer worship them on the streets which are brought by snake-charmers and which are mal-treated by most of these illiterate snake-charmers.
4) No home come back – Those who converted especially in last thousand years, they were boycotted by the society on the large scale and there was no marriage relation between the society and converted people in particular. The Hindu religion’s door was closed to them permanently even if they want to come back. It really affected the religion and it’s population.
Of course, now the things are changing slowly. I know a case where a family was told that there bed-ridden son will be cured by Jesus Christ if they become Christian. So the family accepted Christianized but gradually that son died and the family realized that medicine can cure the diseases and not only the faith. Now they are back to the Hindu-ism. But such cases are still less.
5) Woman education – Still in our society, there is a low rate of woman literacy. Previously, in our ancient literature there are proofs that women were highly literate and they used to discuss the great topics in the Royal courts. There were scholars like Gargi, Maitreyi, Sulabha. Some even wrote the verses in Vedas and Upnishadas.
Unfortunately, I still remember that I had a grandfather who gave up the normal life and became swami Tattamanand and who used to live in Kashi for the sake of study of ancient litterature. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote him a letter in Sanskrit and he replied to me that women are not allowed to speak Sanskrit. I was very disappointed with his attitude and argued with him. The most amusing thing was that he was a well-known Engineer of his times and had higher studies from Mumbai University the last century. But this is the case of woman’s education of our country.
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Lastly, I’ll say that there are good things as well in my religion. There is an openness and freedom of speech and therefore I can openly write about demerits of my religion. There will be no Fatwa against me for doing so. No resistance will be there from the worship centre as today it is there in western countries against the abortion.
But also nobody should take this freedom of expression wrongly as M.F. Hussain has taken and nobody should harm the faith of Millions.
Do you argee with me?
Original post : My religion
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