(in)Tolerance, Intransigence………….and Mera Bharat Mahaan

NAMASTE

I am entering a swamp with murky, hidden depths and swarming with crocodiles, snakes, scorpions and the most dangerous of them all – humans, bigots with no respect for human values.

Inspired by two personalities, indeed they are personalities – to call them persons seems so inadequate – they are Shri Javed Akhtar and Shri Sadguru.

I would never have ventured to coalesce my thoughts – had I not seen a video recording of Javed Akhtar’s farewell speech on March 15, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha – as an Indian speaking to Indians to retain and cherish Indianess. Javed Sahib, has expressed the need for all Indians to identify with the nation and it’s peoples and not seek directions from outside the nation, or try to correct the events of the past at the cost of the future, or allow yourself to be manipulated by rabble rousing rhetoric.

Shri Sadguru, whose calm logic and inclusiveness without diminishing oneself or forgetting the history of one’s land is inspiring a new generation of intelligent thinkers as opposed to “liberal intellectuals”

Intolerance – unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own.

Intransigence – refusal to compromise or agree, refusal to change your behaviour or opinion.

I have often wondered how the “Hindu” for want of a better word who has allowed one of the oldest church and masjid to be built on his land provided shelter to the wandering Jews and destitute Zorastrians, allowed parallel ideologies and faiths such as Buddhism, Jainism and Khalsa not only to be born out reformist movements but sheltered and propogated are termed as “terrorists” and intolerant.

I have been an agnostic, verging on the atheist and a non-practising brahmin. Yet I am a Hindu, firmly so because my thoughts and views are acceptable and tolerated in the Sanatana Dharma. I am not an apostate. I am welcome in Swarga (Heaven) if my deeds are positive and are in tune with humanity and nature, irrespective of what I believe in – this concept and idea that a Christian or a Muslim is permitted in a Hindu Swarga if they have lived their lives as good human beings and the most devout Hindu will suffer judgement if he/she has not lived his/her life as a good human being – is mind boggling, this is inclusiveness of the highest order – not just in life but beyond life.

WILL BE CONTINUED