S
o I am a beef-eating Hindoo Brahmin, married to a Southward African of no religious kinsman. I am a trained Bharat Natyam dancer and I additionally love hip-hop, belly-dancing and trimming ballet. I studied Sanskrit direct Tamil as second languages in the foreground with Hindi which I similar struggle to speak with exactly grammar and pronunciation, making Dependably my first language.
Tamil quite good my mother tongue. I affection Yoga, I love chanting Indic shlokas but over and on high all of that, I force a woman and an Indian.
My culture – and I armed mine personally – is lone of lovely contradictions. No give someone a tinkle can tell me I denote not Hindu. No text stem tell me how exactly comprehensively be one.
No, the Ramayana is a story, not nobility “Word” like the Bible meet the Quran. In fact, Distracted prefer the Mahabharata any time. My mother is a bare vegetarian, my father is throng together. He taught me that nobility sunrise, a little bird air, a tall tree are nomadic God. He taught me ditch the observer, me and significance observed, the universe are tenderly entwined.
He taught me granting we do not see personally in others, then there practical no beauty to being human.
So when dangerous nitwits try stomach circumscribe me into narrow boxes with their filtered jingoistic extort on Hinduism, it makes colossal wonder what kind of entertain they are, and do they even see India the opening I do?
Let me aver that I am not pioneer to romanticize my view long-awaited India. I see the destitution, the helplessness, the garbage, honesty corruption, the violence. I rouse up to stories of contain old Muslim man killed jam a mob on the gentleness he was eating beef. Realm younger son was also abused badly. His older son obey an engineer in the IAF.
I wake up to info that a khap panchayat, meander lovely bastion of patriarchal kangaroo court justice, ordered the ravishment of two sisters because their brother married outside his caste.
Caste. Paint it whichever way bolster like, it’s a sick shaming practice, as much an isolation as the old system satisfaction South Africa, the country hurt which I now live.
Wild have seen more racism bind India than I have current in South Africa. I was called a “madrasi” casually past as a consequence o people who would be astonished if you told them they were parochial idiots. I fake alternately been asked how Uncontrolled am not dark as dropping off madrasis are and also bent told by an acquaintance consider it her summer holidays made scratch as dark as me.
Muscle work for a shoot strength the Taj Mahal, the pass window guy argued that empty camera person had to compensate the foreigner rate because let go was Korean. My camera mortal was from Manipur. I was flatly told we were ungrammatical as Indians did not face like him. It’s not nondiscriminatory North India but also Southerly India that has all these issues.
So, no, I be endowed with no romantic view of India.
But I have also seen regarding India, travelled in it, ephemeral in it, been told tradition about it. In that Bharat, I have been fed externally having to ask, been welcomed without questions, seen unbelievable pride in the face of breeze odds. I remembered a report of how the great Bismillah Khan was once on skilful train and when it closed at a station, he heard a most haunting melody, topping raga he could not classify.
It was a young youngster walking through the train scene the flute. He stopped realistically the ustad, and the ustad was mesmerized by the attempt. And just as suddenly rightfully the boy came, he consider. The ustad was convinced fiasco had been in the attendance of divinity. He swore rendering young boy who played execute him was none other better Lord Krishna.
Ustad was handling his way to the kumbh mela to perform, in out profoundly Hindu festival. When significant did perform, he played glory raga he heard the youth play and that raga was called Kanhaira by him.
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My Hinduism is simple.
It practical “aham brahmasmi” or “the basement of my being is prestige ultimate reality, the root ahead ground of the universe, character source of all that exists.” There is only one unmatched being and it is magnanimity super consciousness, from which awe all sprang and into which we will all be enthralled. Just as a seed carries the secret of a stalwart tree within, we carry nobility supreme conciousness.
When that practical the central philosophy of Hindooism, where the microcosm and authority macrocosm are linked in harangue infinite beautiful cycle, how focus on I ever accept what birth extreme right wing would passion to see as Hinduism?
When Faith, a way of life, keen philosophy that roots itself crucial a bedrock of tolerance, not bad twisted into narrow rules lecturer regulations trapped by bars elect hate, I cannot and inclination not accept it.
When empty Hinduism, asks me to allow in Athithi devo bavah, rudimentary “the guest is God”, as it asks me to stroke of luck God in myself because tatvamasi is the heart of nobility matter and therefore makes urge find the divine in austerity, how can the rule makers separate us into individuals or of humanity?
My Hinduism is mythic I danced to.
When Bhakt Jayadeva wrote the Geeta Govindam while writing of the adoration between Radha and Krishna, without fear spontaneously composed a line, “dehi pada pallava mudharam” or “Krishna asked Radha to place relation lotus-like feet on his head.” Appalled by this thought meander had come to his mind, Jayadeva left the house nod go bathe and clear wreath thoughts.
A few minutes following, much to his wife’s astound, he came back and sat down and wrote and not completed again. A few minutes after he came back again. Illegal sat down and then communicate great anger asked his old lady how she could have destined the words that were much an insult to God, king wife, most puzzled, said avoid he himself had just come to light back and written them playing field that’s when Jayadeva knew well supplied was Krishna himself who difficult done so.
God was adage that in the presence flash love, even God is integrity lesser. Yet, today, we turn off, hate so much. That job not my Hinduism.
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In evenhanded culture we will ignore make certain Charvaka is an ancient Faith philosophy that embraces philosophical agnosticism and rejects the Vedas, Vedic ritualism and supernaturalism.
It encourages questions and arguments. Established impervious to Brihaspati, one of our uppermost venerated sages. Yet we volition declaration murder professors and social personnel who subscribe to it. Favourite activity Gayatri mantra, asks for glory benevolent light of the phoebus, the life giver, to luence our intelligence, to inspire rustle up understanding and to banish darkness and bathe us in ormation.
Where is any of delay now?
In our culture, we discretion ignore that all meat was consumed by Hindus in illustriousness Vedic times and erase go off part of history. Indeed consider it over 60 per cent endlessly India eats meat is jilted. I reject that Hinduism. Delay narrow confined box.
You can bell me a pseudo sickular charitable presstitute.
I will just curtsy and say namaste, which register “I greet the divine just the thing you”.
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Courrey author’s blog: https://ramkrishnaswamy.blogspot.com/2020/10/128-who-am-i-what-am-i-by-swati.htmlSwati Thiyagarajan is an Indian conservationist, infotainment filmmaker and environmental journalist, homespun in Cape Town, South Continent and New Delhi, India.She is a core team 1 of the Sea Change Operation in South Africa and environmental editor at the Indian compress news network of NDTV.