Editor,
When polarisation has become a political tool to be used as a red herring during the Lok Sabha election to take people’s attention away from the real issues, what Swami Gautamananda has said is timely and needs to be highlighted.
On Wednesday, after being anointed the 17th president of the Ramakrshna Math and Ramakrshna Mission, he said, “All religions are the same and god is one. People just call him by different names – Allah, Jesus, Bhagwan and Thakur. There is a part of god in every individual and we all are a part of him.”
He further said, “The world is one family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. If I believe I’m god’s son, then automatically I will consider others my brothers and sisters… kauke bairer mone korbo na (We will not consider anyone an outsider).”
The monk rightly said, “That is what Thakur (Sri Ramakrshna) propagated through his life and teachings that the truth or ultimate reality is one.” Sri Ramkrishna used to say, “Many opinions, many paths.” This means that every religion has the same goal even though their paths are different.
Indeed, Sri Ramakrshna practiced what he preached. He embraced Islam and religiously followed its path. Then again he embraced Christianity and did the same. Actually, he lived what he said, “Many opinions, many paths.”
On the other hand, Swami Vivekananda had prescribed for India a mixture “of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam – Vedanta brain and Islam body.” To foil the divisive design to brand Muslims as ‘invaders’, ‘infiltrators’ and the ‘Other’ in India.
We must reflect on Swami Vivekananda’s words, “The Mohammedan conquest of India came as a salvation to the downtrodden, to the poor” as well as his action of worshipping a Muslim girl as goddess Durga as he did in Kashmir in 1898. Actually, Swami Vivekananda did a Sri Ramkrishna who himself practiced Islam, Christianity and other religions to live his words – “many opinions, many paths.”
When one in four Indians practices untouchability in his or her daily life (India Human Development Survey in 2011-12) and 95 among 100 Indians avoid inter-caste marriages (National Council of Applied Economic Research Study in 2016), we need Swami Vivekananda to remind us, “Modern caste distinction is a barrier to India’s progress. It narrows, restricts, separates. It will crumble before the advance of ideas.” He said that millions were oppressed in the name of religion in India and one of the chief causes of India’s ruin was the monopoly of education by a few belonging to the privileged classes. Even today majority of the people cannot afford quality education.
Those who have been suffering from religious paranoia must realise that Islamophobia is a bogus and dangerous bogey. They need to understand that there will be no democracy without secularism. Secularism prevents the conversion from a democracy into a theocracy.
Religion is a personal matter between god and a person. The path of secularism leads many countries to peace and prosperity, whereas a number of countries, including some of our neighbours, have to suffer a lot for ignoring secularism. We must not deviate from such a proven path to success. Voters must ignore those political leaders who use religion to hide important issues like social security, employment, education and healthcare.
Hate not only makes voters oblivious to their problems but also damages their health. Doctors say that those who indulge in hate can start to deal with some seriously negative effects in terms of their health and their social functioning.
Sujit De,
Kolkata