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Saraswati
Vandana is a beautiful poem to art, culture and spirituality. It is a
praise of learning not the promotion of any church or prophet. “Saraswati
Vandana is unsecular,” said the Marxists. That is why pure secularists even
scorn the idea of lighting lamps at functions - because it is a Hindu
symbol. But in the US, the Government declares a whole year as ‘Bible
Year’ - that does not make the Government unsecular. But here a mere
suggestion - which would never become a decision unless all the great men, and
the greatest woman from Italy agree today - that Upanishads and Vedas should be
taught in schools ‘is regarded as communal and imposing the ‘Hindu
Agenda’.
Ronald
Reagan was not charged with imposing the Christian Agenda when he declared 1983
as the ‘Year of the Bible’ in the US.
When he moved the resolution
for the declaration, Reagan said: “Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President
of the United States of America, in recognition of the contribution and
influence of the Bible on our Republic and our people, do hereby proclaim 1983
the ‘Year of the Bible’ in the USA. I encourage all citizens in his or her
own way to re-examine and rediscover its priceless and timeless message.” His
appeal was to all citizens - not just to Christians.
The
“secularists” have convinced the minorities that secularism means rejecting
everything that has a Hindu origin. None of these great men, not to
mention the great woman from Italy who pontificates on secularism to India, even
know what role the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita have played in our national
regeneration. And in raising a mighty national awakening that transformed into
the movement for India’s freedom. Swami Vivekananda
and Maharishi Aurobindo who built the intellectual foundation for the freedom
movement were influenced by all that our secularists from India and Italy call
unsecular - the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita. Balgangadhar Tilak wrote the
Gita Rahasya as the guide for his participation in the independence movement.
Mahatma Gandhi said that but for reading the Gita he would have committed
suicide. Whether it is Guru Tegh Bahadur or Guru Gobind Singh, who sacrificed
everything, including their lives to protect the Vedas and the Cow, or a Ravidas
or a Surdas, a Nandanar or Sri Narayana Guru, their inspiration came only from
ancient Indian thought.
In
fact, Dr. Annie Besant and Sister Nivedita, with whom the lady from Italy is
often compared by her admirers to indigenise her, upheld all that is Hindu in
origin as the main inspiration for them to serve India. Besant said: “Minus
Hinduism, India is irrelevant.”
There is
in it no insistence on any one God, book or savior, salvation for
the true believers and eternal damnation for those who think differently. The
song projects lofty human ideals and nothing of religious sectarianism or
exclusivism. But such a Saraswati must be suspect in modern India.
Among those who approved the singing of Vande Mataram at the Nagpur Congress was
Mahatma Gandhi. Today those who claim to be the political heirs of Mahatma
Gandhi are boycotting Saraswati Vandana.
The cry
against Saraswati is being led by Sonia Gandhi, the last Gandhi one could say,
an Italian Catholic who has received the Gandhian mantle by widowhood alone.
Sonia should remember the example of Mahatma Gandhi who regularly conducted
prayer meetings, praised the Bhagavad Gita and chanted the name of Rama. Though
closely associated with the Catholic church, which by its own account is still
the only true religion and has an agenda to convert Hindu India to Catholicism,
she finds the more liberal expressions of Saraswati Vandana to be
offensive.
The
anti-Saraswati tirade is naturally promoted by the atheist and communist left,
which still rules the state governments of Bengal and Kerala. India’s
communists, uniquely backward of all in the world, still honor Stalin and Mao,
whose pictures adorn all their functions. They routinely preach
against Hindu intolerance, oblivious to the fact that their standard bearers are
among the most brutal tyrants of history responsible for the murder of tens of
millions of people. Such politicians obviously don’t have any respect for
Dharma or for the Indic spiritual traditions. They are also against the Dalai
Lama and the cause of Tibet and go out of their way not only to defend, but to
praise the Chinese action in the region, in spite of its genocidal nature. Their
hearts are not in India but in the Moscow and Bejing of previous decades! In
fact Dharma is another term that is becoming an anathema in modern India.
The
West meanwhile is looking to the Dharmic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism to
provide a spiritual alternative to modern materialist culture. If so-called
Indian secularists have their way, those traditions would be no more and India
great gift to the world would be eliminated. What they want is a new India
without Saraswati or Dharma.
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