Scripture and its mindless acceptance

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The unquestioning reverence to scripture permeates all faiths of the world.  Even some of the educated among us hold the archaic scriptures above logic and reason.  It must be noted that the word ‘educated’, not ‘enlightened’, has been used here.  How adherent a person is depends largely upon his or her upbringing.  Many so called educated people engage in eloquent and emotionally charged discussions on the interpretation of the scriptures.  Many twist these interpretations to their convenience – and many-a-times use scriptures to justify their acts of cruelty and greed.

The crusades launched by the Christians against the Muslims were a ‘holy’ war.  The massacre of the Persians by the Imam Omar was also a ‘holy’ war.  Years later, the great grandchildren of these very Persians who had accepted Islam under threat of the sword, went eastward into Hindustan killing ‘ in supposedly holy wars, because in the words of those who killed in name of Islam, one had to kill ‘infidels’ to become a ‘Ghazi’.  They were completely blinded by the ‘sanction’ of the scriptures that completely over-rode one of the most basic attributes of human intelligence – their conscience.  This is apparent from their ‘journal entries’ that they left behind – detailing how systematically and without any inkling of guilt, they killed thousands and looted, raped and plundered simply because, according to their interpretation of their holy book, it was okay to kill ‘kaffirs’ (infidels) and take their property.  Today the great grandchildren of those very ‘infidels’ who were raped and looted and forced to ‘convert’, are hell bent on trying to change the secular nature of India and impose Sharia law.   The Buddhist and Hindu past of Afghanistan has almost completely been erased from the consciousness of most people.  The Spanish Conquistadors who brought Christianity to South America also indulged in massacres of the natives – justifying their acts by the claim that the Natives who died at the hands of Christians would be spared the fires of Hell.  So, in fact, the Conqistadors claimed that they were doing a favor to the natives by killing them!  In Hinduism too, the people of the Asur tribe, if killed at the hands of Rama were considered to be earning a passage to heaven!

Coming to modern times, the reference to the invasion of Iraq as a ‘crusade’ by George Bush, (the 43^rd, and arguably one of the worst Presidents in US history), brought frowns from many quarters.   When the operations began in Iraq, word leaked out that a few free lance evangelists were managing to get ‘embedded’ with the army units and were out proselytizing. Immediately the army distanced itself and the matter dropped below the radar.  The penchant of the 43^rd, who claimed to get his instructions from God, is well documented.

Most of these people take the scripture to be the ultimate truth.  Some believe it to be the word of God – brought to them through the prophet.  Rational people know that these were written by people who lived at a time when there was no electricity, anesthesia or the internet.  Smart among their peers, they were still knuckle scrapers and buffoons by today’s standards – because human knowledge hadn’t progressed as far as it has done today.  Some ranted the visions they saw through their minds impaired by drugs or hobbled by superstition.

We should not let the scripture over-ride our commonsense.  Any and every belief must first be filtered through minds shaped by scientific knowledge and rational thought.

Hindus – Treacherous, Indolent and Spiritless ?

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Over the last century we have seen Greater India (a.k.a Hindustan) lose territory to Pakistan - some of which later became Bangladesh.  Hindus have practically all been chased out of Kashmir a few years ago.

The Account of the Wandhama Massacre in Kashmir

 The population of Muslims has risen much faster than other religious groups since partition.  Now pockets of hardcore Islam are springing up all over India, and regions of the country that have a concentration of Muslim population are asking for statehood.  Telangana is a recent example

As the Indian Government investigates Narendra Modi, a more basic question must be asked –Will Hindus ultimately concede all the territory piece by piece to Islam and ultimately convert?  Are they working to ensure their survival or are they resigned to fate on this issue? Are they just tied up with superstitious rituals and busy coddling to thousands of Godmen, astrologers, and Swamis? Some may laugh of this extrapolation, but in the minds of some more enlightened readers, this might find some traction.  The History books of India do not talk about the massacre of the Hindu populace by Muslim invaders from Taimur lang to Nadir Shah. Do we know that at the end of a each day of the thirteen days of massacre (Kalt-e-aam) Nadir Shah's fist had to be soaked in warm water to dissolve the congealed blood - so that his fingers could stretch open and release the sword?  I did not know it myself, but an Iranian colleague told me that he had learnt about this in history class - in Iran!  Is it really true?  I do not know!  For political correctness and due to their inherent pacifist and cowardly nature of most Hindus, history, as it is taught, has been sanitized by taking out the horrendous accounts of these massacres that have largely been written by the personal historians of these invaders.

Do Hindus lack ‘gairat’ (pride) because they do not know their history and couldn’t be bothered enough to learn about it?  You decide.  Most Hindus condemn the fundamental and intolerant nature of Islam but fail to look at their own faith system and root out its weaknesses.  The whole idea here is to hold a mirror to Hinduism's face - so that Hindus can see what is wrong with some aspects of their belief system and problems with the way their faith is practiced.

Here is a page from history so that you can make up your mind.  So, here we go...

"The Gates of Somnauth"

A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON THE 9TH OF MARCH 1843 BY THOMAS BABINGTON MCCAULAY, SECRETARY OF CONTROL, BRITISH GOVERNMENT

"Her Majesty is the ruler of a larger heathen population than the world ever saw collected under the sceptre of a Christian sovereign since the days of the Emperor Theodosius. What the conduct of rulers in such circumstances ought to be is one of the most important moral questions, one of the most important political questions, that it is possible to conceive. There are subject to the British rule in Asia a hundred millions of people who do not profess the Christian faith. The Mahometans are a minority: but their importance is much more than proportioned to their number: for they are an united, a zealous, an ambitious, a warlike class.

The great majority of the population of India consists of idolaters, blindly attached to doctrines and rites which, considered merely with reference to the temporal interests of mankind, are in the highest degree pernicious. In no part of the world has a religion ever existed more unfavourable to the moral and intellectual health of our race.

The Brahminical mythology is so absurd that it necessarily debases every mind which receives it as truth; and with this absurd mythology is bound up an absurd system of physics, an absurd geography, an absurd astronomy. Nor is this form of Paganism more favourable to art than to science. Through the whole Hindoo Pantheon you will look in vain for anything resembling those beautiful and majestic forms which stood in the shrines of ancient Greece. All is hideous, and grotesque, and ignoble. As this superstition is of all superstitions the most irrational, and of all superstitions the most inelegant, so is it of all superstitions the most immoral. Emblems of vice are objects of public worship. Acts of vice are acts of public worship. The courtesans are as much a part of the establishment of the temple, as much ministers of the god, as the priests. Crimes against life, crimes against property, are not only permitted but enjoined by this odious theology. But for our interference human victims would still be offered to the Ganges, and the widow would still be laid on the pile with the corpse of her husband, and burned alive by her own children.

 It is by the command and under the especial protection of one of the most powerful goddesses that the Thugs join themselves to the unsuspecting traveller, make friends with him, slip the noose round his neck, plunge their knives in his eyes, hide him in the earth, and divide his money and baggage. I have read many examinations of Thugs; and I particularly remember an altercation which took place between two of those wretches in the presence of an English officer. One Thug reproached the other for having been so irreligious as to spare the life of a traveller when the omens indicated that their patroness required a victim. "How could you let him go? How can you expect the goddess to protect us if you disobey her commands? That is one of your North country heresies."

Festivals of Spring and our common roots

Holi  - Feb. 28, 2010 (day of the Full Moon)

Charshamba Suri - Wednesday, March 17

Easter - April 4, 2010

Lohri - January 13, 2010

The descendents of the people who originally dispersed from central Asia are today spread over large swathes of the globe.  They are spread over India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Tazikistan, Turkey Armenia and most of Europe. 

Since the original settlements sprang up in the Turkey / Armenia region and the dispersion began around 13,000 BC, religions have sprung up over time and have painted these descendents in various hues of religious belief.  Changes over time, interaction with new cultures and diverging lingual branches have made it very difficult for these descendents to see the common thread that runs through them.  After all, what can be common between an Armenian Christian, an Indian Sikh, an Iranian Muslim and an Indian Hindu?!  It seems there is a lot common among them than each realizes.

The Hindus have done celebrating Holi a few weeks ago, the Muslims and Christians are going to be celebrating Nau Roz and Easter soon.  The Sikhs have done celebrating Lohri in January. Now is there a common thread here?  Yes!  There is!

As the Hunter gatherers of Central Aisa settled down and took up agriculture, and as their numbers increased from  groups of  8-10 (at the time they were hunters) to the few hundred in a village, there was a need for each family unit to have their own hearth.  Instead of each family having to start fires to cook everyday, it was found convenient to have a communal fire that was kept burning round the clock.  Every evening the inhabitants of the village would bring the fire from this communal fire to their hearths to cook their food.

The fire was the savior. It cooked their food, provided them security at night.  When the sun went down, the fire was there as its ambassador to provide light and warmth.  The darkness was the evil unknown. It was fear and death.  The fire was light.  It was enlightenment. It cut the darkness and allowed people to see.  It was only natural for them to hold the fire with the sentiment of reverence.  Many descendents of these people miss out on the reason for their ancestors’ reverence for fire and use terms like “fire worshippers”, “Atesh parast” etc. in demonstration both, of their lack of knowledge and biases ingrained by their religious edicts.

Coming Wednesday (March 17) marks the festival of ‘Charshamba Suri’.  It is a festival that is observed in Iran and Afghanistan, to the detriment of the Mullahs and the fanatics who still seek Arab dominance over their Persian Heritage.

Charshamba Suri, is probably the original festival from which Holi of the Hindus and Easter of the Christians spun off from.  Charshamba means Wednesday in Farsi. Suri means Sun. In Sanskrit, Sun is called Surya. Suri is a widely found last name in India as well.  Celebrated by both the Muslims and the Zoroastrians, Charshamba Suri is the Sun festival that is celebrated on the Wednesday before the Vernal Equinox.  In essence, it is a Spring festival that rejoices the end of winter and the arrival of the ‘growing season’.  Bonfires are lit (probably a tradition rooted in the fact that there was a lot of farm waste that needed to be burned off at the beginning of spring).  People jump over the bonfires and shout, “Give me your redness of health, oh fire; and take away my paleness of ill health”

Charshamba Suri marks the beginning of ‘New Year’ called Noruz.  The celebrations last a couple of weeks.  Every family lays out a spread with dry fruits and munchies on it.  People visit friends and relatives and partake of these munchies.  This festival is observed in Iran and Afghanistan.

Image of Mithra (symbolizing the Sun) slaying the bull

Roman tablet.

In India, the  original prople brought the reverence to the sun with them – and it shows in the frequent mention of ‘Mithra’or 'the sun' in the Rig Veda. This is the oldest of the four Vedas and is believed to have been written a few generations after the  settlers crossed the Khyber. To this day, last names like Mishra, Mehra, Mitra - all variants of Mithra are widely found in India.  We will talk about the prevalence of Mithraism in ancient Rome a little bit later. 

The Aryan settlers who came into the Indian subcontinent saw the indigenous people (possibly the descendents of the first evolutionary migration through India) worshiping fierce looking figures and called them ‘div’ – their word for a malevolent supernatural being that was revered and feared.  Later as they adopted these deities as their own, the reverence to Mithra dropped away in favor to these deities  (primarily Shiva) and “div” became “deva”  - a term that had, by then, lost its original malevolent connotations.  Somehow, in all this mixing, the celebration of  Spring remained intact. 

The concept of throwing colored water on each other during Holi is a variant of the festival of Vartavar / Verdevar in Armenia where people throw rose water on one another. During the day of Vardevar, people of all ages are allowed to douse strangers with water. It is common to see people pouring buckets of water from balconies on unsuspecting people walking below them. The festival is very popular among children as it is one day where they can get away with pulling pranks. This is so remarkably similar to the festivities during Holi!

Water Festival (Vardevar) in Aremnia

The festival of Holi in India

The concept of the bonfire has remained with us till today.  Till a few years ago, people would get the fire from the bonfire to cook a symbolic meals like their ancestors did millennia ago on the  plains of  Armenia and Turkey.  Akin to Charshamba suri, Holi is a festival of social flurry.  Sweets, and munchies are served to visiting family and friends. The Sikhs of India have a big bonfire for Lohri as well, and each person has to walk up to the fire and reveal something to all assembled with fire as the witness to the person's assertion.

The Romans, much like their Indian brethren who had crossed the Khyber Pass into India also celebrated Mithra.  In fact, the Romans had the most elaborate Mithraic temples.  The Roman empire stayed steadfast in its endorsement of Mithraism until, towards its decline, when Emperor Constantin adopted Christianity as his official state religion and the Mithraic priests - who ironically live in the Vatican today, simply made substitutions in their books, replacing Mithra with Jesus, and started calling themselves Christians. Most the Christian traditions, easter, the decorated tree, the resurrection etc. are, in essence, Mithraic.  Mithra lived on in Jesus. 

In Armenia, the Christian priests could not prevent the people from celebrating the Spring with bonfires.  Unable to control this tradition, they invited the people to light their bonfires inside the church-yards.  Over time, the lighting of Bonfires was replaced by lighting of candles - inside the Church.  Even today some traditional Christians from Armenia light candles at church on Easter and carry the flame home to cook their meals and bless their dwellings.

The PIE (Proto Indo-Eruopean) language tree
Startling linguistic evidence of common origins
(Click on image to enlarge)

If national boundaries and religious differences are ignored, a lot of people in this world are bound together in the culture of a common tribe of the PIE tree.  These are the people whose languages can be found on the Proto Indo European Language (PIE) Tree (figure above).  It is one big tribe that should bridge language barriers, ignore the holy men,  and learn about one another.

(The illustrations and graphics accompanying this article are from external sources. Author does not claim credit for these works)