Hinduism as a secular concept

To be precise, a Hindu State means a truly a Dharmic state. The concept of secularism in the West as well as India has many deficiencies.

Secularism is not a lofty ideal, like liberty or equality. It owes its birth to Christianity’s inability to maintain peace between warring Christian sects, especially as the State itself sponsored pogroms against different denominations. Wearied of prolonged intra-religious warfare, France invented secularism.

Hindu civilisation has never, even when under murderous assault, indulged in pogroms on grounds of faith. Hence, unlike Western concepts of democracy and equality, which find resonance in Indian hearts, secularism cuts no ice with the masses. India has traditionally vested spiritual authority in the guru and political power in the king, giving the latter the duty to protect Dharma.

Dharma is thus not co-terminus with religion; the closest Indian word for religion is pantha. Secularism in India, as noted jurist Dr L.M. Singhvi insisted on when translating the modified Preamble of the Constitution into Hindi, is pantha-nirpeksha (non-discrimination towards individual faiths). So, while ‘secular’ is the opposite of ‘religion’ and ‘communal’, Dharma is neither secular in the sense of being anti-religious nor communal in the sense of favouring a particular sect.

Shantanu: My computer had a problem and I sent my comments twice. Kindly delete one. I am really sorry for this mistake though inadvertently made.

Hinduism is the last remaining religion which can challenge the dominance of the dogmatic monotheistic God-created-the-world-in-six-days-and-went-to-holiday-on-the-seventh religions from West Asia. Hinduism has always been a source of insecurity for these religions and therefore, the rush and the urgency with which Hinduism is projected as a demonic, irrational, unequal and superstitious religious system which should be abandoned in favour of the God revealed, rational, egalitarian religions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity (add Communism too without the divine factor.)

Sathyameva jayathe – truth ultimately triumphs. Unlike the dogmatic religions of the West, Hinduism doesnt shut the door on the search for truth or claim monopoly over it. Instead, Hinduism encourages a human being to search and find the truth, not for the priesthood, not for the church or the temple, not to satisfy and please Allah, not to gain new converts, not to spread the “gospel of God”… but for yourself – the SELF – for your own enlightenment.

That, clearly, is a threat to the aggressive dogmatic belief systems from the West… for it would invalidate the foundational beliefs of these religions and ultimately the revelance of these religions itself to their followers.

A Hindu state would always be secular for:

1. Historically, Hinduism and the priestly orders never posed a threat to the ruling order. There was a harmonius relation between the two. Neither did they fight each other nor did they try to invalidate each others’ importance or position.

2. Hinduism makes no distinction between believers and nonbelievers for there is nothing central to believe as such in Hinduism and therefore, would not relegate non-Hindus to second class citizens.

Hinduism encourages free thought, expression and choice. I dont see a reason why a liberal democracy should be replaced with a Hindu state.

From Dr Karan Singh’s interview to Indian Express, a very relevant quote:

“I think in India secularism has come to mean something quite different from what it means in Europe.

Secularism in India should not mean anti-religiousness.

Secularism is what Gandhiji preached or what even Sarva Dharma Sambhav says, that is, equal respect for all religions.

But the Left still looks at secularism from the absolutist point of view, as either pro- or anti-religion.

…I don’t think that the ‘anti-religious’ definition of secularism of the Left is sustainable.”

Dear Shantanu…Surely, Hinduism…which looks at all faiths as roads to God and does not seek converts can be depended upon to respect all forms of worship…and therefore to preside over all of them…It is the religion that is nearest to spirituality…
The Semitic…and western way of thinking is to formulate one god and to envisage a single church…Sri Aurobindo said that religion would reach its perfection when there is, not one religion, but a religion for each one of us…religion is the means to make a man rise to greater heights spiritually …what suits him best is his religion….Kindly look through Sri Aurobindo’s comments on the subject…But unfortunately so many dollars (both petro and Bush variety) are being pushed to preach all sorts of divisive doctrines that the world is being cloven into fanatic bits…This is not religion at work…it is just some half-baked fanatics fretting out their insane dogmas…
Let the cool breeze of sanity and humanity waft all across the globe…
Vamanan

Biggest Hindu Priest Shankaracharya is calling Hindus to embrace Islam and spread Islam worldwide.

In this second video , you can watch President of Arya Samaj is ordering Indians to read and distribute Koran . He also went to the extent by saying catch US President Bush and make him recite Koran if needed by force.

India is being destroyed by Morons like this who have bitterly divided Indian Society into castes and subcastes , and now they are so much afraid of Islam that they have almost submitted to Islam and now spreading it.

This is too much. These are traitors and they have harmed Indian and Indians always.

Any comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Adi Shankaracharya established only four Maths. Govardhan, Sringeri, Dwaraka and Puri. A fifth viz. Kanchi also is popularly considered a Shakar Math. There are many priests of sub groups within these Maths each claiming the title of Shankaracharya. But nobody really knows them or have popular support. I have personally seen a person claiming to be a Shankaracharya who visited Kerala about more two decades. This guy ended up eloping with a woman from a village and is said to be happily married now. This guy must be from a similar category. Can you find out to which Math this “Shankaracharya” belongs?

I listened to some parts in the speech. The video was not clear. It is clear that most members of the crowd he was addressing are not Hindus. Certain words he used are not normally used by any Hindu Acharyas. All I can say is I smell a rat.

In the end, it may be just that he was saying all the right words to the audience before him. Or may be he is a potential convert. If that is the case, let’s say good riddance to him.

There are two problems that Hindus face when addressing other religions.

One is a certain innocence or perhaps nobility of spirit which comers from the Hindus own pluralistic traditions which teach them to accomodate and tolerate other religious beliefs. Sometime this accomodation of differences extends to tolerating the intolerant and intolerable. We cannot and should not tolerate and accomodate those who will not tolerate us. This is in fact one of the key messages in the Gita when Arjuna is encouraged to fight against his own cousins and teachers who seek to destroy him and his brothers.

The second problem is that there is a disinclination among Hindus to question any religious belief; this prevents them from examining other people’s religious beliefs and critiquing them. Thus, we have Hindu who say “all religions are equal” or “all paths lead to the same goal’ without really examining whether this is really so.

We also tend to accept the idea tha we have to somehow fit our religion into western concepts of it. Thus, we see Hindus accepting monotheism as a kind of gold-standard by which we have to examine our own polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic and monistic traditions.

Regarding that video about someone claiming to be Shankaracharya and then talking about islam:

Comments at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32t0at0pZow
“Fake Shankaracharya speaks on islam”

>> As can be seen from the comment below, this “Devanand Saraswati” is no Jagadguru Shankaracharya.

But the muslims commenting on the propaganda videos of trytobekool and atharbaba believe the charade, because they don’t do any background checks whatsoever on who this person praising their religion is. They just assume this man ‘must be’ whom Zakir Naik said he was. They’re either deceived or they’re eager to believe his deception.
<>The 5 established Shankaracharya Maths with their Jagadguru Shankaracharyas are:
(1)Sringeri: Bharati Teertha Swaminaha
(2)Puri: Neeschalanand Saraswati
(3&4)Shankaracharya of Dwaraka Math, Swaroopanand Saraswati, is also Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath. (He’s the ONLY recognised Jagadguru of Jyotirmath. So at all official gatherings of the Shankaracharya Maths, he represents both Dwaraka & Jyotir Maths)
(5)Kanchi (appoints successors early): Jayendra Saraswati & successor Vijayendra Saraswati
<>Zakir Naik hired the imposter in the video.
Another instance of a fraud hired to lie on Hinduism:
In 2002, the American Federation of Muslims of India (AFMI) paid the well-known fraud “Swami Adhokshyananda” to speak in the US against Hinduism.
That pretender is better known as the FAKE ‘Puri Shankaracharya’ and has long been exposed. The real one never went to the US.
Documented details of that imposter can be found at the ivarta com page ‘”FAKE” Shankaracharya in USA’.
<>The pretender Devanand Saraswati is not recognised by the Shankaracharya Matha he claims to represent:
An official representative of that Shankaracharya Matha – Shree Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati – has identified ‘Devanand Saraswati’ as NOT being a Shankaracharya at all.
<> Information on another fake Shankaracharya often used for anti-Hindu propaganda purposes can be found at:
http://www.ivarta.com/cause/IC11_SCharya.htm
<> He was used by Muslim and Christian organizations (Pioneer/HVK 10-06-02) <<

Perhaps instead of Hindus jumping to the conclusion that we’re dealing with “corrupt Hindu Swamis”, we might next time first give Hindus the benefit of the doubt and start off from a position that maybe we’re dealing yet again with “secular” frauds working for pay with islam/communism/christianism and other such niceties.

From a recent interview of RSS leader Madan Das Devi by Indian Express (emphasis mine):

Question: …why can’t we live with the fact that every Indian can have a distinct identity yet be an Indian?

Madan Das Devi: Multi-culture, multi-god and tolerance are qualities of India because India is Hindu. We are secular because we are Hindus. The reason we are so liberal is because we are Hindus. India was divided on the basis of religion. But India remained secular. Who has kept it secular? We Indians — Hindus.

From What The Haridwar Conference Got Wrong by Aravindan Neelakandan

Hindutva politics, a strand in the national and organic process called Hindutva, is the politics of a culturally and religiously besieged Pagan people fighting expansionist and monopolistic forces. Hindus are the last remaining non-monopolistic, theo-diverse nation in the world. So, Hindutva politics is the politics of survival.

In India, Hindus are a communal majority, but not a political one. Thus, Hindutva politics also has the tendency of showing the rhetoric of majoritarian politics at times. When the genuine fear of getting wiped out by global monopolistic forces and voices of majoritarian crudeness combine, it gives rise to an ugly phenomenon.

The Haridwar Sammelan is an excellent example of this.

There is another side to this coin too.

Muslims in India are indeed religious minorities. Their politics does have strong democratic elements of minority politics. In any good democracy, minority politics should be respected and should be the voice of civilizational conscience in that society. At the same time, Muslim politics in India is also Islamist. In that aspect, it is the politics of unbridled expansionism. The strategy of Islamist politics in India is to camouflage itself with democratic aspects. The anti-Hindu leftists who ally with the Islamist politics help them in the act — on political, academic and media platforms.