Attacks On Church and Ghar Wapsi

In past 6-8 months we have been hearing lots of news, sometime of attacks on church, christian missionaries, noble christian personalities, sometime of religious re-conversion popularly known as 'ghar wapsi'.  Motive seems to be the one, to assert majority power to correct the past injustice that had been done. For long we have been taken for ride now we are at the driver's seat and will take others to the destination of our suit and route we prefer. Nothing seems to be the flaw in the logic. But is the way in which it is being carried out is justifiable. No, certainly not in a pluralistic society like India which is proud to declare herself a secular state.

Now lets dig deep into these issues. The program where other religion followers were converted into Hinduism is named 'ghar wapsi' which means to bring home someone who went away. Is it not just and right thing to bring someone back home? Yes absolutely it is. Then why so much hue and cry? is it media creation?, or is it the manner and message with which it is being done?

To some extent it is a media hype and it's very nature to sensationalize and cash in on people's paranoia. but to put all the blame on media will not mere be injustice to the media but also trivialize this important issue. Why is there need for re-conversion? because  they converted in the first place. why did they convert? Some converted because they liked the religion they were adopting or at least were feeling safe in doing so, or they disliked their 'original' religion.

History suggests and there is no denying that since medieval time people are either coerced to convert or incentivized to convert or made feel inferior in their 'original' religion. But there is enough evidence of people converting because they just did not like the ills of their original religion, they did not like the methodology, they felt sidelined, neglected, ostracized  from their own 'ghar'. So they went away.

Now 'Ghar Wapsi' can be done in two way either clean up your own practices, make the people who are still with you, in your 'ghar' feel welcome and included and make it enviable. or start burning and vandalizing others 'ghar' to force them to come in your 'ghar'. The unfortunate thing is going the latter's way is more convenient and easy and it's no surprise that it is being pursued. 

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Story of Lord Ganesha

While browsing on Internet, I came across a very nice mythological story and its superb interpretation on www.reddit.com. And after doing some background research I found out this article was originally published in a blog Sounds Interesting. So after giving proper credit to the blogger, I want to share this on my blog.

The Article goes like this.....

The birth of Lord Ganesha is one of the weirdest tales I have ever come across, here it is modified and modernized for your reading pleasure.


Lord Shiva’s wife Parvati decides to take a bath… While bathing, a lot of dirt comes off her body (may have been meditating many years… these things accumulate), being creative (pun intended) puts that dirt into the form of a really handsome child, and being a Goddess blows life into the child and asked him to wait outside (she could be modest too) and not let anyone come in till she finished her bath (and accessorizing). So the child goes out and waits, and soon enough along comes Lord Shiva, and asks the boy to step aside and let him go in. Boy refuses. Shiva gets angry. Shiva shouts and threatens. Boy doesn’t budge. Shiva chops off boy’s head! (Children in those days faced pretty harsh disciplining)

Parvati is very upset when she comes to know Shiva has killed her son and so to appease her, Shiva chops off the head of a passing elephant and attaches that to the body of the fallen child and gives Him Life.

Parvati is aghast at how her son looks and says everyone will mock him… no one will respect him… Lord Shiva smiles benignly and says that He will grant a boon to little Ganesha - before any Pooja or ritual of any kind is started, He, Ganesha will have to be worshiped first!

Parvati is quite mollified by this, but demands a vehicle for Ganesha… Shiva presents Ganesha with a mouse as his vehicle. Parvati was very happy with that and the family lived happily for many eons to come (ever after really as far as us humans are concerned) And that’s how Lord Ganesha was born… like I said it is a very weird story with plenty of really big loop holes and questions! To start with Parvati must have been really, REALLY dirty for so much dirt to come off her.

Then Shiva is the Lord of the Universe, if a small child told Him to come back later, He could have gone somewhere, looked after a galaxy or two, meditated or something, but no, He chops off the child’s head!
Then He puts an elephant’s head on the child and gives a mouse as a vehicle… no sense of proportion whatsoever! Should have been the other way round Given a mouse’s head and the elephant as a vehicle.
We could go on and on…


The stories of Indian mythology were always narrated on two levels. One level is a story with lots of special effects, one that will leave us amused and in wonder. The other is, where through the symbolism that is used, the Knowledgeable One can unfold the secrets inherent in the story and get deep insights on how Life works and how to tread lightly and gracefully on our planet.

However as usual there is a superb secret interpretation to this story:

Photo Credit: http://www.tirupatidarshan.org/lord-ganesha-names-of-kanipakam-vinayaka-temple/

Parvati is the Celebrative aspect of our consciousness. Parvat means mountain: The Earth herself rising up in celebration.
Parvati was dirty, meaning, the celebration had gone out of life, feeling of sadness, etc had arisen, and she decides to take a bath (be alone)…When you are not feeling good (your celebratory aspect is dirty), you say, give me my space, leave me alone. The dirt that comes off her and she gives life to is the Ego… She tells the Ego see that no one disturbs me while I am not feeling good… don’t let anyone come in!
That’s exactly what most people do when they are not feeling good: They isolate themselves, feel separate from everyone and don’t like others around them or intrusion of any sort.
This is the significance of Parvati animating her ego and asking it not to let anyone disturb her because she is feeling low.
Lord Shiva is the protector of Parvati. So when He sees her that way with her ego standing guard, keeping the Bliss of the Self out, He does what any protector would do… Kills it.
Chopping off the head signifies killing the ego. When you have had your ego trampled upon, you are going to feel even more hurt and bewildered, which is where Parvati flares up. To appease her and teach her, Lord Shiva replaces the Ego’s head with an elephant head.
The Elephant in Indian mythology is held in great reverence. In old times, if a lover wanted to praise his girlfriend, he would tell her she is like an elephant. She is Gajagamini - literally, you walk like an elephant. Meaning you have the majesty and Grace of an elephant. That was supposed to be the ultimate praise! Please don’t try this today… you just might get flattened.



The big head symbolizes Knowledge. The eyes of the elephant are kind, full of compassion and innocence: the most beautiful in the animal Kingdom. So Shiva replaces the head of ego (ignorance) with Knowledge and Innocence! That’s not all, if you have ever seen an elephant walk, stately and strong, you can see that nothing can stand in its way! This way Shivji removed the ego and replaced it with Strength, Grace, Knowledge and Innocence. What a superb combination! And the perfect gift for an angry, sulking wife! Lord Shiva then names the child, Ganesh - The Lord of Knowledge and Wisdom.

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What did you just say?

There was a casual conversation going on between a husband and his wife and amidst of discussing many things, husband said "Sometime you overreact". The wife got angry and said "What did you just say? you are being so unreasonable and inappropriate right now". Husband smiled. 

Sometime our reaction to contradict a viewpoint ends up validating it. Its like someone is saying to you "you are a hot headed guy" and you got offended and slapped him. you just unknowingly proved his point.

Okay enough with the meticulous examples, I am writing this blog in response to what is going on recently in India and abroad. All Muslims are showing their outrage over an anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims, made by an Egyptian-American. Some of the protesters went ahead and attacked US consulate in Libya which resulted in at least 14 deaths, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. In India around 1500 people from Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam and few other Muslims outfits targeted US general Consulate on Anna Salai in Chennai. They pelted it with stones, burnt American flags, damaged CCTV cameras, a police booth and instruction board for visitors.[News: The Hindu ]

Picture Credit: Wikipedia.

The content of the film is indeed outrageously offensive and highly demeaning to a great religion like Islam and those behind this should be treated with hard hands, but to oppose whatever allegations being made in the film, people are doing the same and hence vindicating offenders. 

      

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Who Killed?

Swarm of people joining their hands with flowers sandwiched within palms, lips fluttering with spiritual songs and with restless heart were moving towards the door of the temple. It was not an early morning, the sun was quite high in the sky but the day was not so sunny. Soft breeze stirring the leaves was also mixed with Bhajan songs that was creating the ripples of hope in every one's heart. Among them there was a man in police uniform so restless, uneasy and bathed in his own sweat. Everyone was coming offering flower to the god's statue, joining their hands, closing their eyes and wishing from god what they came for. That uneasy man too came before statue but he had no flowers, his hands were stained in blood, he looked furiously at the statue, tears were dripping down from his eyes in form of lava, he closed his eyes and flashback started.

How he was offered with bribe to set free a criminal which he had refused remembering the oath of his service and today morning when he was in office a phone came that his house was attacked and his wife and both children were killed.

Remembering the face of his wife and children stained in their own blood he started shivering with anger. He opened his eyes and shouted "why you did this to me I worship you daily, I do my duty honestly, I speak truth. If you are real, why you didn't stop them from committing such a heinous act and if you are not real, why should I let you stand there and deceive the faith of millions. He took out his service revolver and fired at the statue. The statue crumbled with a roar.

People started crying and fleeing in random directions, they were bewildered after seeing what just happened inside. The pujaries of the temple were nowhere to be seen. The serene atmosphere of the temple became chaotic.  The policeman was also shocked what he just did. He came out of the temple putting his gun back in his waist. Seeing him coming out of the temple people started shouting "this is the demon, this is the devil man who shot at god, how can he shot at god ?, god will surely punish him, god won't let him go, he broke his statue, he fired at him" some were thinking "now volcano will come and will engulf him as he has started direct fight with god". Few started stone pelting at him, seeing his death right in front of his eyes he took out his revolver, the circle of crowd moved backward, everyone was trying to get behind someone. Some started praying please god do something show us some of your miracle your enemy is right in front of us.

The policeman's body was trembling with anger and fear. A "daring" man from crowd aimed a stone at his revolver and revolver fell down from his hand. He was too stoned to bend down and pick it up. The throng pushed forward to do the god's job. They battered him with stones, sticks, his body converted in to the lump of muscles plunged in blood but people kept beating even after knowing he was dead. The crowd was celebrating around his dead body this was the day they had witnessed the god's super natural power. They were shouting happily, god took his revenge, a wave of rejoice propagated among them, the god did not create volcano lest more people would have got killed he only punished this demon.

Meanwhile a kid came out of the crowd staring at them puzzled, he was murmuring "God did not kill him, you all people did".

   


     

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