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By Shachi Rairikar
It was the eve of Varsha Pratipada and celebrations for the New Year were on with Baba Satyanarayan Mourya'sfamous, colourful Bharat Maa ki aarti. This young bhakt of Bharat Mata kept the audience enthralled with his songs, poems, jokes, paintings and inspiring talk. Swaying with the music, completely carried away with the devotional songs, suddenly I was struck by something Baba said.
Baba was narrating the story of Ravana going to kidnap Sita in the garb of a Brahmin sadhu. Baba warned that whenever danger comes, it comes disguised in a beautiful form and we are not able to recognise it. Just like Ravana had come not as a rakshas but as a sadhu and Sita was not able to recognise him and so was caught off-guard, even today potential dangers face us disguised in niceties and we are unable to recognise them.
How true were his words! Indeed when the British imperialists came, they came as traders in the form of the East India Company and the Indian rulers could not recognise their evil designs.
China had posed as a friend and Nehru failed to recognise the potential danger hidden in the ?Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai? slogan.
We face the threat of a cultural invasion in the form of TV serials and music videos. In the name of our traditions and culture, these TV serials present weird stories of immoral, unethical characters and conduct, which are far from the real Indian traditional household culture.
While we were busy enjoying Pakistani hospitality through bus diplomacy for strengthening the ties between the two nations, the Pakistani army was quietly infiltrating into Kargil.
When the Christian missionaries came to India, they came with smiling faces, soft words and help for the needy. Little did the people know that behind the smiling masks lay the strategy of conversion and separatism. The results can be seen in the north-east where the activities of the foreign missionaries have led to terrorism and violence. Even today the missionaries are trying to create another north-east in the tribal zones of Jhabua, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, but owing to their white robes, the innocent people are unable to identify the imminent danger that comes with this attire.
Even today the possibility of another foreign invasion faces us in the form of the pleasing personality of Sonia Gandhi. Fooled by her gentle looks, we do not even care to find out about her chequered past, the possibilities of her links with foreign intelligence agencies and the real dangers faced by the country under her leadership.
Even today the threat of another Partition looms large in the form of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who come to India as the starving poor, looking for employment. We take pity on them and argue for them, pleading their case on humanitarian grounds, ignorant of the tremendous demographic imbalance caused by this strategic shift of population and the evil designs of the ISI behind it.
Even today secularists, who sound so ?liberal? and ?broad-minded? when they talk of ?sarva dharma sambhava? and vehemently oppose so-called ?communal forces?, are in practice instrumental in fracturing the Indian society on the lines of religion and caste. Fooled by their supposedly modern outlook, we miss the real picture?the real damage done by them to the national unity and integrity.
Even today foreign powers are acting through a section of the print and electronic media who can go to any extent to denigrate Hinduism and promote Islam and Christianity, but we fail to see this obvious phenomenon beyond the smart, confident personalities and sophisticated language and style of our young journalists and so-called ?intellectuals?.
Even today human rights organisations talk high about human and ethical values and we get so overwhelmed by their apparent cause that we cannot see the real agenda behind it and fail to confront them with the real questions. Why are they always fighting for the rights of minorities? What about the human rights of the Kashmiri Pandits, of those killed in the Bombay bomb blasts, of those burnt in the Sabarmati Express? We fail to ask them how the Ramabai chawl case is different from Best Bakery? If the human rights of terrorists are the cause of so much concern, what about the human rights of the innocent people killed by the terrorists?
Even today we have NGOs operating for social, rural upliftment, etc. but owing to their noble cause of ?social service?, we do not care to find out the ?effect? of their so-called social services on the nation. We do not even care to find out which foreign countries are funding the anti-national activities of these NGOs and how the NGOs have become an important tool in the foreign policy of the advanced nations.
Even today many East India Companies face us in the form of Pepsi Cola, McDonalds, Cadbury, Surf, Rin, etc. which are systematically destroying our local economy and adversely affecting our health and life-style as well. Even today, MNCs like Monsanto come with hybrid seeds that initially appear to be beneficial but go on to destroy our crops, forcing our farmers to commit suicide.
Also, the English education system, a gift of Macaulay, is producing a class of men who are Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. In our misplaced fascination for everything that is Western and mistakenly assumed to be modern, we take pride in the English language and Westernised education, which has categorically destroyed the invaluable knowledge base of our ancestors, their culture and traditions.
Even today we face the threat of a cultural invasion in the form of TV serials and music videos. In the name of our traditions and culture, these TV serials present weird stories of immoral, unethical characters and conduct, which are far from the real Indian traditional household culture. The viewers fooled by the lofty talks of the characters fail to take note of the impact these programmes have on the young, immature minds of the coming generation.
Indeed, we are faced with multiple threats in disguise which, if left unattended, will bring to end the 10,000-year old Hindu civilisation. We have read, seen and heard the Ramayana but not learnt the real lessons from this great historical story. In this modern age, Ravana has more than ten faces. He comes to us in the form of foreign leader, secularist, Westernised intellectual, a section of media, human rights activist, NGO, MNC, Bangladeshi illegal immigrant, friendly Musharraf, friendly China, English education, television serials and music videos.
As the festivities and celebrations for the New Year continued, I wondered how long will it take to awaken this Hindu nation, deep in slumber! Baba Mourya has devoted his life to the cause. So had Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Maharshi Dayananda, Shri Hedgewar, Guru Golwalkar, Jayprakash Narayan and many more known and unknown great personalities before him. Yet the Hindu community continues to sleep unheeded. These great men sacrificed their lives so that the others could awaken to the right path of thought and action. How many more lives will this ignorant Hindu community take to arise and awake? Will Baba'swarning fall on deaf ears?
(The writer can be contacted at [email protected])
