Yogis or Black sheep?
By- Pamarty Venkataramana
Education.
What is it ? How has it been made to don many spots across the centuries of civilisation of Indian sub-continent? What is the meaning and purpose of education today ?
Does a #NewIndia need to stop initiating new entrants to schilling system with -‘ba-ba-black-sheep’ and restart with ‘Saraswati namahstubhyam varadey kaama roopiny’?
Hinduism has all the right ingredients which has made it into the only surviving most ancient culture-cum-religion on the planet.
However,when yesterday as a test dose of the many voices heard in social media circles for a ‘tit-for-tat’ approach towards the venom-spewing anti-Hinduism brigade,this essayist called for the placing of two distinct ‘donation-boxes’ in Hindu temples managed by the Government as -‘donation to help Hindus’ and ‘donation for helping those who do not worship the Hindu deities’, there was an uproar heard – strangely from those who won on the placard of Hinduism and as vociferously from the Muslim quarters who are permitted by the State to reproduce and procreate more and more Muslim votes without any bar on the number of progeny they can have (in absence of any uniform code to govern personal affairs of all citizens uniformly). And,each adult has the constitutional privilege of one vote regardless of which religion he or she professes to believe in.
At least five self-anointed Babas and Maas were interviewed for their view on the essay -‘ The Third Eye’ !
All held an unanimous opinion: the author held an angry view of the extremist. Hinduism welcomes all. Mercy is biggest quality of Hinduism. So,it is wrong to say-‘ donation box for Hindus’ and ‘donation-box for non-Hindus’ .
They all lived with their families and used smart phones and spoke about politics of congress,bjp and other outfits on the political spectrum. They professed to have been doctors or professors in their early working career period.
Period.
Education.
Where does it stand in our country today? Who educate whom? Why is it alright to let flash mobs gather on Friday moons in middle of busy junctions and in hospitals to offer namaz but wrong to ask nationalist bodies to request the devout to play the Mahamrutynjaya mantra five times a day on the loudspeakers as the mullahs do every which day and Christian pastors do every Sunday in the countrysides and towns ?
Education today needs a relook. Start teaching about the Jataka tales and the Panchatantra and from the Upanishads rather than dragging little minds towards Aesop ‘s and extinct Pharaoh.
Teach them about the rich cultural heritage of Hinduism and shlokas ether than spreading a false impression that sloganeering in Parliament would turn you religious,pious and law-abiding.
Rarest of rare families in India today have grandparents and elders living with the little children and their parents. Cooking is a forgotten habit and eating out at flashy restaurants has become passé. Womenfolk no more had the respite they enjoyed between dusk and dawn. Call-centres or back-end offices of overseas business bodies have most definitely twisted and mangled the lifestyle of youth who no longer aim for skilled disciplines or ambitious professional pursuits. Those who raise much hue & cry about Hinduism and nationalism are often found to be connected to at least one person or family who have migrated to western & gulf countries long ago or those whose kith & kin are looking westwards for both education and employment.
Education about Hinduism isn’t conversion of a leader or his flock en masse for economic needs or on plea of ostracism ages ago,by dead and gone ancestors. Education is not about brain washing the generation with unknown facets of foreign history which is almost alien to local environmental conditions.
What India needs most urgently is for the rewriting of laws which do not require special midnight sessions or committees headed by tenth passed politicians or degree passed bureaucrats and their flatterers but right-thinking simplest modifications in the systems in vogue,since seven long decades.
Hinduism needs a returning to the grassroots level. Yoga is but one such tool which is being remembered worldwide today.
Jai Hind!
- Myth of Myth - September 19, 2023
- The Witches’ Brew - September 15, 2023
- Institutions as Custodians - September 14, 2023
