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Countering religious intolerance with secular intolerance only replaces one monster with another.
The answer to religious extremism lies in religious liberalism.
We must walk the path that resonates with our soul.
But is there a tradition in Hinduism that imagines our mythological tales with bewildering variety, often with differing messages? Very strongly, yes. And they present the faithful with the choice of myth that resonates within their soul and gives them peace.
The best way to bring about a change in human beings is to tap into the very beliefs that are central to their being, instead of attacking those beliefs.
is God supposed to sit on a sad height that we can’t even aspire to reach? Or is God a role model who dwells among us and who teaches us through His example what we are capable of becoming.
To paraphrase Nietzsche, there is your truth and there is my truth; as for the universal truth, no one knows what it is.
Lord Ram’s way, the way of maryada is obviously the Suryavanshi (or Masculine) way, a path of honour, of truth, of justice; and Lord Krishna’s way is the Chandravanshi (or Feminine) way, the path of freedom, passion, individuality.
It’s better to be a good atheist doing good karma, as compared to a religious extremist doing bad karma.
Very rarely is a country the inheritor of such great heritage and yet remains ignorant of it.
Ancient Indian storytelling was usually different. The ending was NOT designed to give you a sense of conclusion; in fact it aimed to unsettle you and leave you troubled. You should be left with more questions at the end than you had at the beginning.
The conservative Manu Smriti was given stark publicity by the British above all other Smritis, and presented as if it was the only one.
We can write our own Smriti, at any point in time; in fact we’ve done so, recently. And the latest Smriti is called the Indian Constitution.
US CDC, in 2010 alone, there were over 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States. That single year’s gun-related death toll in the US is more than twice the total number of deaths in ALL the religious violence in India, cumulatively, in the last fifty years!
More women are killed in the womb EVERY fortnight, than the TOTAL number of people killed in ALL religious violence cumulatively in the last fifty years.
More Indian children die of diarrhoea every forty-five days and more Indians are killed in road accidents every month than the TOTAL number killed in ALL acts of religious violence cumulatively in the last fifty years.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna clearly enunciates that He created the four varnas based on guna (attributes) and karma; birth is NOT mentioned.
India, as is widely acknowledged, is an ancient civilisation but a young nation.
Keep in mind, though, that India is probably the first country in the world that democratised before it urbanised/modernised.
Clement Atlee said, referendums are a ‘device for dictators and demagogues.’
pay heed to the wise Vidur from the Mahabharat. He said that there are two ways to waste money. One is by giving money or charity to the unworthy. And the other is by not giving it to the worthy.
protest against every single Divide-and-Rule law that differentiates between Indians, based on their religious beliefs; and have it repealed.
‘nations’ existed as cultural, civilisational or tribal entities, and not necessarily as political units.
So I say, let power shift to our states; let the Centre become weak.
Ruchir Sharma, the author of Breakout Nations, has said (paraphrasing) that if you want to be pessimistic about India, go to the national capital. If you want to feel optimistic, go to the states.
India was the America of the ancient world, accepting into its folds the bold, the wretched, the adventurous and the tortured; people who had the spirit and drive to seek better lives.
Our Vedic heritage is not the preserve of ‘Right-wing Hindus’ alone; it belongs to everyone in the Indian subcontinent.
It is said that pride comes before a fall. But one cannot fall if one hasn’t risen to begin with, or is weighed down by timidity.
George Orwell had said, ‘The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.’
All of us who count ourselves among the liberals, and are proud Indians, must ask for the First Amendment to be repealed.
Our ancient scriptures state that even Gods abandon a land where women are not respected.
My mother, brilliant woman that she is, had once told me that if you find that your work itself gives you pleasure, and that failure doesn’t fill your heart with sadness, and success doesn’t fill your mind with pride, then you know you are working in consonance with your soul’s purpose, your own swadharma.
swadharma, taken to its extreme, can lead to unbridled individualism and selfishness.
