Author: Debabrata Roy
Publication: Organiser
Date: October 17, 2004
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=46&page=36
Introduction: Didn't Shri Ram abolish
caste asks Debabrata Roy
No Indian should forget that our
beloved Avatar Shri Ram abolished the caste-division at least 3500 years
ago. One of his most intimate friends was lord Guhaka Chandala in whose
house Ram became a guest and partook of the meals served by Gahaka. Lord
Ram ate the half eaten fruits offered to him by the Vanavasi Shabari because
they were offered with ecstasy of love.
Most of lord Ram's friends, ministers,
commanders and soldiers were Vanavasi forest dwellers. His most trusted
friend and commander was Mahaveer Hanuman who was worshipped by the Aryans
as the Avatar or incamation of lord Shiv. We can understand from all these
accounts that there was no place for caste division in the Ram Rajya.
There are many willful and ill-motivated
interpolations and interpretations of the Valmiki Ramayana by much inferior
poets of later period. In fact there has been much distortions of Valmiki's
epic poem.
The most nasty for these distortions
is the story of lord Ram's killing of a Shudra ascetic which is clearly
an invention of wicked orthodox brahmins of much later period. Shri Aurobindo
has been given fitting replies to all the insinuations against lord Ram
in his letters.
(Shri Aurobindo on Ramayana-All
India Magazine-March-2004)
Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. They
are all sons and daughters of Sanatana dharma or the eternal Hinduism.
The RSS also should lead the dalits in entering all Hindu temples as Veer
Savarkar and Gandhiji did. They should arrange collective prayers, singing
in processions and collective dinners following the noble examples of Shri
Chaitanya and Guru Nanak who saved Hindu society from disintegration in
the 15th and 16th century A.D.
If the RSS finds that the Dalit's
condition is unbearable due to the cruelty of some morbid members of the
so called upper caste Hindus in their locality, they should encourage the
dalits to embrace Budd-hism, for as Swami Viveka- nanda said in the Parliament
of Religion at Chicago: Budd-hism is a child of Hinduism. Protes-tant revolt
against Roman Catholics did not make them non-Christians. So, Buddhist's
revolt against the ills of contemporary Brahmanism did not make the Buddhists
non-Hindus. Moreover Hindus have accepted Buddha as the ninth avatar of
lord Vishnu. Their venerable poet Jaydevy in his famous "Dashavatar Charit"
as sung: "Keshava dhrita Buddha-sharira Jay Jagadisha hare".
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are
all children of Sanatana Hindu Dharma which sustained the great Indian
civilization for more than five thousand years. Even Christianity was called
by Vivekananda as a distant echo of Sanatan Dharma. He evidently meant
that Vaishnavic and Buddhist philosophy of universal love, peace and non
violence have spread to Western Asia and Europe through Christianity. So
we can call Christianity as the grand daughter of Sanatan Hindu Dharma.
Prophet Mohhemmad had acclaimed
Musa or Moses and Isha or Jesus Christ as his earlier prophets. Islam in
its formative period learnt philosophy, mathematics, medicine and other
sciences from Hinduism. So we see all rivers merging into the great ocean
of universal Hinduism.
Some scholars have called Hinduism
as a non-proselytizing, religion,Persians, Greeks, Parthians, Scythians
or the Sakas, Eu-chis or Kushans and the Hunas were all converted to Hinduism,
some directly and some through Budd- hism. They have all been merged into
the Hindu population.
Along with Buddhism, Hinduism once
spread over South East Asia for more than a thousand years. Angkorvat in
Cambodia is the largest Hindu temple and one of the wonders of the world.
Many other Hindu temples, Buddhist pagodas and Stupas were built by Indian
artists in Indonesia. Of these the stupas of Borobudur in Java is another
wonder of the world.
Music, dance and dramas of South
East Asia are mostly derived from Ramayana and other legendary literatures
of India. Sanskrit names are very common in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Bhumibai Atulyateja of Thailand, Norodam Sihanuk (Narottam sinha nayak)
of Cambodia, Samitra,Sukarna, Soedarshana Sita, Parameswari, Vasuki are
the Sanskrit names in Indonesia. Most striking is the name Sukarnaputri
Meghawati, the present ruler of Indonesia. These instances clearly show
that Hindu and Buddhist culture prevailed over South East Asia. Conversions
of Foreign tribes in India continued during the Muslim rule. Mongolian
tribes like Ahoms in Assam and Kochs in Coochbihar were converted by spirited
and gifted Brahmins to Hinduism and these two kingdoms fought successfully
against the Muslim Sultans of Bengal and later on against the Mughal empire.
Bhakti Saints have worked hard to
save the society from the suicidal clutches of casteism and untouchability.
Above all they have helped to build political powers of the Hindus. After
25 years of Khalji and Tughlaks plundering expeditions Madhavacharya.
Vidyarnya used his spiritual power
to unite the Hindus of South India to destroy the huge Turko-Afghan empire
on 1336 A.D. and to establish the world famous Vijaynagar empire which
protected and nourished the Hindu civilization in South India for three
centuries. 300 years after the creation of Vijaynagar when the Timurids
under Aurangjeb with half of million strong army wanted to destroy all
non-muslims and even the Shia kingdoms,Ramdas and Tukaram inspired Shivaji
to build the Maratha power in the South and Guru Govind Singh established
Sikh Khalsa which not only destroyed the Mughal empire in Punjab but finally
defeated Ahmad Shah Abdali and drove the Afghans from the Punjab, Kashmir
and N.W.F.P. Satnami Gurus inspired the Bundelas and Jats to break up the
Mughal empire and establish independent Hindu Kingdoms in Bundelkhand and
in Delhi.
In the last hundred and fifty years,
Hinduism has produced world shaking spiritual organisations like Brahma
Samaj, Prathana Samaj, Arya Samaj, Shree Narayan Guru, Rama Krishna Mission,
Bharat Sevashram, Shri Aurobindo Ashram Iskcon, Shanti Niketan, Sevagram,
and leaders Raman Maharshi, Mata Ananda mayi, Gaurimata, Shivanand, Sitaramdas
Omkarnath, Chinmayanand, Yogadananda, Swami Narayan, Asharam Bapu, Ram
Tirtha. They have millions of devotees among the Western people hundred
of Ashrams in India are crowded by Western devotees. It is high time that
Universal Hinduism throws away the stinking cadaver of casteism as asked
by Vivekananda and open wide its gate to the entire humanity.
