I don’t want to hurt anyone’s sentiments nor I am here to judge what is right and wrong but this is really something that I wanted to talk about or rather question from everyone’s point of view. We in India, I feel, have almost split mindset regarding some set of things. I was just sitting with my friends in the hostel after she returned from Mathura Vrindavan trip wherein I noticed two major things in all of her talks. One was the ‘prasada’ that is distributed to the masses after ‘bhog’ by God which depends on the amount of ‘chadava’ or ‘shradhha’ you have for Him. and the other is- Well I am going to talk about it here.
We, in India, have strong notion of preserving our social culture and this is something in which we take proud. But while talking about Radha-Krishna, I was carried over by one thought that how double minded we are as in when it comes to worshipping. We will do everything to please God Radha-Krishna so that they shower us with their blessings (money, fame and name). But on the other side we even want to become moral police and would do anything to preserve our ‘so-called-Indian-Culture’. Almost everyday a newspaper is filled with loads of news wherein a girl or a boy is socially beaten, is molested, sometimes killed and even are persuaded to go through a lot of things that we can’t even think (Sorry, we know what all is done to them). These are the people who would have the idols of Indian love God at their home but would not respect the same love blooming in their children. I really don’t know why there are two shades in the same life of a person. We would enchant every kind of mantras to please God, we even have respect for Meera who was deeply in love with Lord Krishna but when it comes to our daughters, brothers, sisters and sons, it is a big no-no in rural Indian society and most of the time even in urban society. If we are so much particular about our culture we should have started worshipping God Krishna-rukmini who was ideally his wife. So great was Radha's love for Krishna that even today her name is uttered whenever Krishna is refered to, and Krishna worship is though to be incomplete without the deification of Radha.
People might now raise a question or would be of opinion that the times have changed since then. There is a big difference in the love of those times and now. I certainly agree but it absolutely does not mean that you would harass them or thrash them until they are found in socially unacceptable behaviour. The things have changed and there is a great deal of change in the way we think and perceive love but I think it should all remain in our hands. There is no point of disregarding love all together in the manner of burning shops carrying cards with love messages and gifts on Valentine’s Day by the so called moral police or the people who say that it is against Indian tradition. Because if it is so than I would request them to ban all the foreign things from branded clothes to MNC’s providing jobs to millions of Indians and from a pen to BMW as they are all foreign to us. And than we should also stop thinking of developing and competing with the other countries of the world.
photo courtesy-www.daylife.com/photo/00V0gGL6yVbPY
anilm365.wordpress.com/2007/07/
4 comments:
Well Shikha, i do agree with what u have written.Indeed moral policing esply...around the 'it' day has become such a fad among the chutbhaiya netas and so called "samaj k thekedaars". They should better know "jinkey apney gher sheeshey k hotey hain unhey dusron per pathar nahi maarna chaiye!"...but thats the malady of our society. We take pride in a lot of stuff thats equivalent to barbarism in the name of preserving tradtion or culture. What these moral cops are forgetting is the fact that by propagating such a hue n cry they are actually playing with the minds of youth via a reverse psychology. Every one knows that its but natural to try to do that one thing or two which we are always being lectured upon!
Shikha it was a great article. and obviously i do agree with what you have said. Love, care and affection are the main pillars of Indian culture. The day we are born, we are taught to be polite, to respect and to love all. But then I don't understand that what happens when we grow up. After a certain age does the culture and values change or is there some culture levels or value sets for different age groups. It is very important to make people understand that if Love in a certain age group is not in our culture then hitting and public harassment of young innocent girls is NOT our culture too.
Hai Shikhu .Whatever i am writing here are my personal views.I apologise in advance in case i hurt religious sentiments .
I agree that Indians have worshipped Radha Krishna for decades,but i know that the same god we worship was also subjected to harassment at the hands of his people. As in, Ram had to abandon his wife for fear of upsetting his 'praja' and Jesus was supposedly unmarried because a GOD cannot fall for a lowly creature like a Woman.( even as Jesus was a love child, his worshippers consider LOVE a sin..as in Adam's fascination for Eve.)
If we refuse to grow up, and as long as we choose to selectively highlight things from our culture depending upon our convenience, even God is helpless in India.
Hi,
Good article. Sometimes its good to think about our hypocrisy.
Suzan
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