Religious Tolerance in India

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The traditional world: Chidambaram

An ancient temple, seeped in its old orthodox ways of living, is precise with its timings of ritual to Lord Nataraja. This is Chidambaram Nataraja temple, an ancient temple that seems to show far more openness to religious tolerance than our political counterparts.

And within this temple a rare unbelievable event happens almost every day, one that is part of living in this temple city but one that you wouldn't find anywhere else in the world. Two women burkha clad, hold their slippers in their hands and walk through this temple. It seems like they take this route as their regular short cut through the temple courtyard.

They walk on with no hesitation, with freedom in their minds and no fear that they will be stopped. We looked at them and smiled, as I captured the moment, a moment that the world needs to see today, a truth that echoes in our little towns that there is communal brotherhood. It was a glitter of respect and mutual honour as a safron clad man walked by with the same peace as did women clad in black covering thier identity to the world at large.

The Corporate World: Iftar party at Chennai

It's the month of Ramzan and a group of muslims got together to surprize a largely hindu audience of an IT company targetted to meeting its goals. In the middle of all the hussle and crunching timelines, they decided to treat an audience of 150.

It was an event in the history of corporate living where everyone is trying to get the better of the other and only position and money largely does the talking. It was an event conducted at work, involving people from all other faiths instead of leaving for home early and keeping the festivities limited to their community.

Everyone participated as the group served the food, catering to vegetarians and non vegetarians at the same time. They gave out the delicious dishes that they had gotten together and sponsored for the entire division. They helped in serving bringing in a feeling of brotherhood, making sure everyone irrespective of position got a good mouthful. They fed a crowd of 150 before they broke their own fast.

Here is a living truth that we as a society are all Indians irrespective of religious or language barriers. These are small things in a big world both ancient or modern. The feeling of brotherhood is best brought out when people from different faiths come together and harmony rules the land. It is in the hearts of the common folk.

If you want to know what religious tolerance is, learn it from an Indian.

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The voice of a billion people

An atheist decided to blow up a bridge, a bridge that holds the belief of one billion voices. A bridge that stands as a legacy to the most ancient mythology in this world. If we don't voice our belief now when will we?

An insensitive man claimed that Valmiki said Lord Ram was a drunkard. Yes, Valmiki was living next door when he said it. One billion hearts took a beating that day; one billion people were angered. Isn't it time to shout back?

The Sethu Samudram belongs to a billion voices of India and not to the current ruling government. Governments will come and go, but the reverberating sound of a billion voices will continue to ring in the y"ears" of history.

A construction company claims that they are doing good by "rebuilding" an ancient temple at Omkareshwar along the Narmada, without adequate historical or architectural research. It is a temple that carries one of the most ancient Jyothir Lingas. If we don’t protect out legacy now when will we?

Our culture is at stake; an ancient world is almost forgotten giving way to new world culture at the cost of questioning centuries of belief and destroying what ever little we have for economic gain which we can live without. If we don’t realize that now when will we?

A masjid was broken down mercilessly. Babur's only surviving legacy to this country's ancient heritage was pulled down. If we don't save what is left of our history now when will we?

This is an age that sees no rule to dharma, no rule to goodness, no rule to goodwill and no rule of ahimsa. If we don't check our values now when will we?

Today the ancient bridge built by Lord Ram is questioned for its worth, because they don't see money in our heritage. Tomorrow they may want to break down a standing temple claiming real estate. If we don’t save our identity who will?

Do we need the west to sell Yoga back to us?
Do we need the west to teach us the value of turmeric?
Do we need the west to save our heritage by proclaiming them world heritage sites?

Who are we then? What are we then? What is our identity?

Isn't it crazy that an IT park is on the list of places to show when a white man shows up here to experience the legacy called India.

As Rabindranath Tagore said:

Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit(or materialism);
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Potency of Lord Shiva – Part 2

Through the dance of Kali:

Another Goddess who draws my attention to the wild fury of Lord Shiva is the Goddess Kali. This play is different; it’s in the rhythm of bharatnatya. In the grace and the movement of the body. The Urdhva tandava is a form of expression, one that is matched only by Kali when she dances alongside Lord Shiva. It’s a different kind of mano laya, where this energetic Goddess redefines every step of grace and beauty. Where chemistry is a result of a power game at a superior level, where the drums resound into the air, followed by the rhythmic sounds of ghunguru as two feet merge into a single united sound of higher bliss. Where energy flows unlimited in the expression of abhinaya, when there is passion in the air, where there is mischief in the eyes as the Goddess challenges the Lord to His every step in dance!

The drums resound beat by beat,
The echo brings forth two wilder beings
The blazing fire reveals
Steady motion in sure steps
Energy slowly unleashed

A theatrical world of sound
Breaks open in reverberation
Among stone walls of an ancient temple
The tremors felt within the heart
As the drums bring forth this madness

Uncontrolled chemistry
The fire in their eyes it glows
The wilder nature of love
Their flowing hair envelops
Locking them into a potent spell

He moves His body effortlessly
Her grace gentle, beautiful and coy
In the darkness of the night
Their sure steps rhythmically hit the ground
Raising dust into the air

Their eyes meet their bodies’ move
They flow so graciously the world beholds
Their fiery eyes and their wavy hair
Makes them a complete potent pair
Locked in deep musical embrace

As the rhythm rises high,
The sounds of the drums thunder by
The earth shakes the world awake
To witness the rhythm of creation displayed
Raw power unadulterated it flows

Varanasi – Along the Ganges

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An ancient city
Floating in deep waters
The land of light
The warmth penetrates
Into an over whelmed heart

Deep waters lash her by
As boats toss gently
Flowing down along her sides
Take with it life
Belief and love

The Ganges, sweet mother
Pure as she flows by
Covers the holy city
Taking the soul
Into her watery heavens

Oh sweet people
Don't you see
This beautiful city
Cradled in her lap
Tossing gently

The smoke from the pyre rise
Yet another soul departs
Where death is common site
Along her burning ghats
Reflect in her pure waters

A mirror to the self
A world departed
A world at hand
A cremation ground
A reality unfolds

And yet life moves on
With the vision of death
Burning into flames
A lamp I hold
A small flame of light

The Ganges in her motion
Sweeps the dust off my feet
Sweeps the ashes
The residue of lost life
Into her silent veil

And here Lord Shiva lies immersed
In her deep waters
His home his world
In a pure watery heaven
Along the Scindia Ghat

And as the sun departs
Leaving darkness to consume
The world rises up in flame
To worship the mother again
Yet another day

Smoke and incense rise
This time sweet fragrance
Cover the ghat now dotted
With lamp lights along her sides
And hymns fill in the ears

Fire for the soul departed
Fire to worship her waters
Fire the light for the living
Fire the way for the dead
Fire my guide through this dark life

The force I feel
Her wholesome self
The thundering sounds
As she wets me feet
A feeling sublime

A magical city
Where life meets death
Where illusion falls
Where reality strikes
And leaves me in a silent spell

Something about this land
Its potency its silence
Its faith its everlasting glory
Unshakable, a thick icy sheet
A curtain of illusion falls.

Aham Gangai Matha Namaskaromi.

Photo courtesy: Vaisnava.cz - The Hare Krishna inspiration
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