VEDAS

A Bird’s Eye View on Veda & Introduction – II

(Copy right protected by Dr. G.S. Tripathy)

It is also unfortunate; so far as Hindus are concerned, even Hindu temples turned in-to mosques are not known to have been restored to Hinduism In this respect there are examples of great courtesy having been shown to the conquered. What the Spaniards did to the Muslims who had subjugated their country for about eight hundred years and had been defeated finally with a contrast for comparison In 1609 they at last gave the Muslims three days time within which to clear out the country after frequently subjecting them to the inquisition and forced conversion.

As in the case of Jews in south India in 1^st century A.D. and Parsees in Bombay presidency in 8^th century A.D foreign religious refugees were made welcome to the land A high level moral prestige for Hinduism had been built with the total absence of coercion in religious matters and religious courtesy. The Hindu converts, have been more liberal than many followers of those religions elsewhere, as a rule, which is really interesting to note Neither the Syrian Christians of Kerala nor the Roman Catholics of Goa are known to have burnt heretics or witches or carried on a religious warfare among themselves or against infidels.

Forming part of a social unit with the latter as an important factor, Muslims in India have lived amicably with Hindus. It is rare outside India and China having such fusion of Muslim and non-Muslim. Some Indian Muslims were highly specialized in arts like portrait painting etc. which was strongly opposed to which the religion as practiced in the country of its origin. The Hindus retained a good deal of their cultures even when they left their religion and tried to adjust to their new religions to the ideals of that culture.

Thus the history of Hinduism will appear to be unique in the religious history of the world from all these points of view.

We would find that in many cases that conversions were affected by force through the economic pressure of taxes and through ordinary financial inducements if we were to consider people in India who gave up Hinduism in the middle ages or modern times for some other religion.

Due to the lack of religious leaders and social disabilities of certain backward castes called “untouchables”, more powerful than these external factors were internal causes like the ignorance of their religion among Hindus. It can be directly attributed to the absence of religious teachers for the mass conversion in Kashmir, Sind and West Bengal. The masses there would not have changed their religion had there been a saint like Tukaram, Namadev, Ramananda or Chaitanya in these traits. At present the same fate threatens the Hindus settled in West Indies and South Africa. In places like Fiji and Mauritius makes a difference in the situation, on the other hand, in a smaller scale of enlightened elements. To the Hindu settlements in Malaya and Indonesia what happened to those outlying parts of India and with minor exceptions all went to other religions.

It is due to the knowledge of purer and higher form of Hinduism, being spread among the people by modern reformists if Christianity in modern times has made much ---less - progress in India than it was expected to do wherever the knowledge of the Hindu religion has been brought, there has been a desire among converts from the religion to reenter its fold, it has been found of late No return was possible for ages as Hinduism had shut its doors against all comers. Thousands were found flock to it for readmission as soon as the door was thrown open, even by the private agencies.

The magic of Hinduism is certainly surprising and it is another indication of the marvellous vitality. To the original religion else where, we do not see or hear of such mass movements for readmission. To go back to paganism the Greek Christians in large numbers have not wanted. Hebrew Christians did not want to go back to Judaism, nor Christians, now forcibly converted Muslims of Spain to Islam. But in India, millions of Buddhists returned to Hinduism. In modern times thousands of Muslims and Christians also returned to Hinduism.

In British India to check the movement among Hindu converts to other religion for a return to Hindu fold, all possible measures like political, administrative and diplomatic were often found necessary. For their championship of the cause of such re-admission, again, religious leaders like Swami Shradhananda against whom no case of adopting unfair means in conversion is known to have been made were martyred.

The magic of Hinduism can not be accounted for. There is a general thinking that the root of the whole matter lies in the imperishable truths and unconquered spirit contained in the original documents, the Vedas. According to high moral and spiritual ideas embodied in them, the noble lives lived by generations of sages and saints, kings and commanders as well as by the masses of the people. To meet the requirements of the time spirit, the Vedic religion accumulated a vast number of imperfections through hundred of years but there were proper adjustments made from age to age. As it has been among Hindus, perhaps no where else has the spiritual idea of life and character been so lofty and no where else has the approximation of practice to some of these ideals been so close with equal persistence or sincerity the weakness of Hindus lies in the fact that all the ideals have not been followed properly. In spite of certain economic advantages, the social ideal has been most neglected have proved to be great stumbling block on its way for caste and untouchability.

How much more can it do for humanity if it is truer to its noble aspirations and ideals so if the Vedic religion disorganized and neglected could exercise such powerful influence as its history shows?