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Oct-09-2007
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The Government of India, consisting of political touts randomly drawn from a conglomeration of political parties without any public ideology, is letting loose some of the worst and most soul-destroying forms of Hindu discrimination and blatant violation of Hindu Human Rights in an organized manner. Their only aim is to destroy Hindu Culture and Hindu Society in the next decade and thus convert all the living Hindu Gods of India like Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, Goddess Durga, Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswati and several other Hindu Gods into dead artifacts of history like the dead Gods of Greece and Rome.
The most glaring and dramatic example of this catastrophe is the affidavit that was filed by The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the Supreme Court stating that there is no historical and scientific evidence to establish the existence of Lord Rama or the other characters of the Ramayana. Denying that the Ram Setu or Adams Bridge is a man-made structure, the ASI said Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas cannot be taken as a historical record to prove the existence of the characters or occurrence of events depicted in it. C Dorjee, Director ASI (Monuments) stated in his affidavit: The issue has to be approached in a scientific manner. With due deference to the petitioners, it cannot be viewed solely relying on the contents of a mythological text. The ASI is a science and technology department. The issue has to be approached and examined in a scientific manner. While due deference may be given to the feelings of the petitioners, the issue cannot be viewed solely relying on the contents of a mythological text. I would like to ask C Dorjee whether he would dare to approach and examine in the same scientific manner the sacred hair of Mohammed the Prophet in the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar in Kashmir. As one belonging to a Science and Technology Department, will he ask for a DNA test to prove the authenticity of this sacred relic? Will he ever dare to dismiss the Quran or the Bible as unscientific and mythological texts? The whole Western World knows that there is no irrefutable historical or scientific proof that Jesus Christ ever existed. Several outstanding historians including Edward Gibbon have clearly pointed out that there is no reference to Jesus Christ in the vast historical and philosophical literature left behind by the Greeks and the Romans belonging to the generally accepted time-bracket when Jesus is supposed to have lived. For example, Seneca (2 BC-66 AD), Pliny, the Elder (23 AD-79 AD), Martial (40 AD-102 AD), Plutarch (45 AD-125 AD), Juvenal (55 AD-140 AD) and many others do not mention any Jesus or Christ in their well known works and writings. Would Dorjee of the ASI who arrogates to himself the role of a Supreme Dictator in the matter of rigorous scientific proof regarding Lord Rama and the Ramayana, devote the same scientific attention to the historical or scientific proof in regard to the authenticity of Jesus Christ?
The affidavit filed by the ASI was in response to three petitions, transferred from the Madras High Court to the Supreme Court, challenging the Governments decision to construct the Sethusamudram Canal by dredging a portion of the Ram Setu. The raucous announcement of the Government of India through this affidavit to go ahead with the destruction of the Ram-Sethu Bridge, with total contempt for the emotions and feelings of millions of Hindus in India and abroad, has naturally drawn angry reactions from the BJP and the VHP.
It may be pointed out here that Dr. S. Badrinarayanan, Geologist and former Director of Geological survey of India and Consultant for National institute of Ocean Technology, has said Geological & geophysical studies of Ram Sethu reveal the presence of loose marine deposits below the coral layer clearly indicating the coral layer in the form of boulders are not natural and formed on their own, but have been transported by somebody and dumped there; thus clearly establishing the fact that Ram Sethu is very much man-made in the hoary past. In what way is Dr S Badrinarayanan less qualified to talk about the Ram Sethu Bridge in as scientific a way as the incomparable Mr Dorjee of the Archaeological Survey of India?
Panicked by the political repercussions and the VHPs move to go to the streets to mobilize public support, the Central government in a knee-jerk response decided to withdraw the offending remarks from the affidavit which said there is no scientific or historical evidence to prove the existence of Lord Ram. Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj somersaulted from his earlier position and said with calculated dissimulation: Lord Ram is an integral part of Hindu faith and his existence can never be doubted. As Himalaya is Himalaya, Ganga is Ganga, Rama is Rama. It is a question of faith. There is no requirement of any proof to establish the existence based on faith. He also announced that the government would file a supplementary affidavit on this issue before the Supreme Court and that would be cleansed of offending remarks.
Finally on 14 September, 2007 (Friday) Dr Subramaniam Swamy had the last laugh. The Central Government prostrated itself before the Supreme Court and withdrew its two affidavits including the controversial one filed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on the Sethu Samudram Ship Canal Project issue. The Centre sought three months time stating that it would re-examine the entire issue relating to the Project. The matter has been posted for hearing in the first week of January, 2008. In the meantime the Supreme Court has declared that the interim order restraining dredging activity at the Ram Setu or Adams Bridge area would continue.
All the Hindus of India and the world have become fully aware of the proven fact that the greatest threat to the survival of Hindus, Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma today comes from no other quarter than the Government of India.
To quote the brilliant words of B R Haran: If Lord Rama is a myth, and then Lord Venkateswara must also be a myth! When a government can fight for the inclusion of Taj Mahal in the list of wonders of the world, why cant it do the same for the inclusion of Rama Sethu in the list of World Heritage Sites? NASA in USA has said PHOTOS DONT PROVE RAMA SETUS EXSISTENCE?. They have no business to talk about Rama Setu and the Himalayan Faith of millions and millions of Hindus in its eternal relevance and sacredness.
Faith of any kind, particularly in the field of religion, is beyond the purview of any Government or the State. Faith is not a series of gilt-edged propositions that you sit down to figure out, and if you follow all the logic and accept all the conclusions, then you have it. It is crumpling and throwing away everything, proposition by proposition, until nothing is left, and then writing a new proposition, your very own, to throw in the teeth of despair. The Hindus of India have their total, indivisible and invincible faith in their epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The gentle verses in them declare themselves for life; in a larger sense they are the bodys rebellion against its attempted destruction by the Government of India. To retain simplicity of heart, to write verses for life against death these gentle-sounding goals are not achieved without cost or without a sustaining faith.
As a staunch Hindu I have been greatly moved by what Czeslaw Milosz (1911 ? 2004), a Polish poet, writer, academic, and winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980 (a staunch Catholic) had to say about Religious Faith: “I am not afraid to say that a devout and God-fearing man is superior as a human specimen to a restless mocker who is glad to style himself an intellectual, proud of his cleverness in using ideas which he claims as his own though he acquired them in a pawnshop in exchange for simplicity of heart . . . . The sacred exists and is stronger than all our rebellions.”
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