The Path of the Right
I am asked to design a memento for a function that my institute is conducting. I decide on a Sanskrit verse to be inscribed on a small statue. I approach my boss for approval, a little unsure about his reaction. After all, this is a Christian institution, and Sanskrit is perceived as a Hindu language. My boss, however, not only approves my design, but makes a small correction in my script. I am moved and very proud as I leave his office. In the light of events occurring all over the country, this incident teaches us so much.
What has caused this enmity between people of different faiths? Why must I think that my God will not accept me unless I force you to accede to my system of belief? Why should I believe that my God wants me to kill you if you do not forsake your religion and accept mine?
It seems that each day brings news of extreme aggression in the name of religion, news of spiraling violence, of retaliation, of counter retaliation. Let us stop this NOW.
This is addressed to you – you, my countryman, who assaulted a pregnant lady because she was a Christian, you who burnt down a house because Hindus dwelled in it, you who beat up a family solely because they were Muslims.
My friend, you were wrong. They weren’t Hindus and Muslims and Christians. They were members of your own family. You killed a newly married man whose wife wishes you had killed her too. You hurt a child who was not even old enough to speak of his pain. You murdered a mother whose child waits at home, wondering why his life is suddenly so empty.
Brother, will your God forgive you?
Let me ask you a question about this man who orders you to attack and kill and plunder, who tells you that this will guarantee your place in heaven. Who gives him moral sanction? Is it God?
No, it is you.
You who listens without reflecting, who obeys without questioning, who acts without thinking.
The next time you stand before one who incites you to violence, perhaps you should ask him what his basic premise is, if indeed he has one. Is it to uphold your religion? That is unlikely. All religions preach peace and non violence, certainly not death and destruction. So what is the purpose of this brutality? Isn’t it just to slake your own blood lust and the demagogue’s unquenchable thirst for power?
Why must we be so afraid of what is different? Can’t we be, can’t we just be curious, and willing to learn?
It is so easy to let the emotions rule the mind in a moment of frenzy and to do something which you might spend years regretting.
If an action is likely to have repercussions which reach far in to the future, a few moments spent contemplating its consequences might not be wasted time.
The people who ask you to kill have their own agenda. Must you be the instrument of what is most certainly evil? Is it justified to use your time and energy and thought for destruction rather than creation?
Ask your self what bothers you about the people of other faiths. Is it that they are different? But that is the beauty of it. We Indians are exposed to the philosophy of at least three great religions without even crossing the borders of our home town! Without even leaving the place where you are born, you can see the Christian dedication to education and rehabilitation, the depth and complexity of the Hindu –philosophy, the richness of Muslim poetry and art.
Can we not make a conscious decision to eschew violence? To be calm and rational? To do what is good, and not merely popular? Can we not resolve to do what is right?
I would like to end with a Sanskrit line that my Muslim colleague quoted to me “Nyayataha pataha pravichalanti padaha na dhiraha”
The brave do not stray from the path of what is right.
