Q&A session with Dr Alok Pandey on destruction, new creation etc. To listen to the audio or download as mp3 go to auromaa.org/ To subscribe to podcasts, go to auromaa.org/po...
30:40 Where has the idea come that there is no grave of Muhammad? The Tomb of the Prophet in Medina is considered the second holiest place in Islam and is visited and venerated by hundreds of millions of people. There is also endless talk -- by hundreds of millions of people -- about al-Mahdi. (Though he is secondary to the second appearance of Jesus in Islamic tradition--Jesus is the one hoped for most; the prophecy is that al-Madhi will be by Jesus' side.) You seem to have a very isolated and false idea of Islamic tradition. Is this what Hindutva is doing to India nowadays? It was not this way even 30 years ago.
I am glad to be educated or rather informed about the tomb of Prophet Mohammad in Medhina. So worship and a certain kind of idolatry is permitted in Islam. That is beautiful and heartening to know. But more importantly I am happy that you raise the question about Hinduttva which as i understand is the organisation of Hindus to defend against any further onslaught on this nation. You are right about the changes last thirty years which has seen near total genocide of Hindus in the Kashmir Valley, a change of demographics with a resurgence of acts of terrorism done in the name of Islam and the holy Prophet quoting from the Quran, the Kargil war in the name of Ghazba e Hind, the mushrooming of a number of terrorist groups in neighbourhood, the mindless killing of innocent civilians, women and children on 26/11, the appeasement of Moslems for vote bank politics, several indigenous sleeper cells and terror modules, teachings of hate and violence in the Madarsas, mindless funding and support of these groups apparently through aids of various kinds and all this against a background of Moghal and other Mohammadan invasions in the name of their God, looting and slavery of Hindu women, splitting of the vast Hindu subcontinent nearly 7 times on purely religious grounds, riots through which some of us including myself have grown up seeing ghetoos with sword brandishing criminals sheltered in the name of a particular religion which is meant to be the religion of peace. And to add salt to the collective trauma of a group life none understood all this till 9/11 happened! People speak of the demolition of Babri mosque to which they attribute the serial bomb blasts but the mosque was defunct and under legal dispute since 125 years. Can you imagine the pain of a section of humanity when their religious icon's birthplace was destroyed and they had to engage in a prolonged legal battle to claim their own land? I don't know from which part of the world you belong but please try to understand a wounded civilization and grant it at least the right to self-defense against a repetition of acts of barbaric cruelty in the future. It is not about Hindu or Moslem but just look at things with open eyes and stop deluding oneself that there is no danger and all is quiet on the western front. It is not and Europe is beginning to realise it and soon America will realise too that we should not nurture snakes in the backyard and believe that because we have given them food it will never bite. This is just to put in context. This is not to say that Hindus are all good, - far from it but they have never gone out to loot and plunder or enslave anyone beyond the Hindukush though they have been invaded, looted and wounded by the Greeks, Portuguese, Dutch, Moghuls, French and the British. Hindus don't believe in converting others and readily accept people of different faiths and even no faith but they have faced and continue to face conversions through fear and favours. They are simply saying that enough is enough. All that they need is a little word from those who have wounded their psyche that we are sorry and change their ways. But the ground reality of today's India (and soon the rest of the world will realise it) is otherwise. If you look for the reason you will see that it is not about the Moslem people who are good friends and regular people with their own challenges and difficulties. The problem is not with Prophet Mohammad whose life was penned down at least a century later and surely he must have been a great prophet for his people and the times he lived in. The problem is not with Islam as a religion. The problem is perhaps (and i am not sure about it) with the way the scripture Quran has been understood and misused for political expansionism. The problem is with any ideology that believes that it alone has the power and it's prophet has the sole mandate, is the last word of God and all others who do not share the same faith are bigots who shall be punished by God or whoever in His Name. This exclusivity may have been needed in a certain frame of time but the world is marching towards a unity and this thought is too dangerous to be supported by anyone as it gives it strength and force and legitimises things that must pass out of creation. Once again this is not against any religion or their book and prophets but against the narrow rigid dogmatic and exclusive approach about which we must speak up as citizens of a future world we aspire for. If a Hindu does it one must speak up against it but equally if a Moslem or Christian or a Communist does it we must also speak up. It is time that we speak up against all that divides us in the name of God or Allah or whoever. But to unify this is not enough. We must go beyond Religions and discover the thread of unity which lies in the One Divine Self within every creature, to discover our true Origin and instead of being obsessed with the sinfulness of human beings and the fear and guilt it encourages whose offshoots are hate and violence we should aspire for the emergence of truth and beauty and Harmony and Love that dwells in each one as the holiest of holy Divine Presence. Then alone can true brotherhood be realised. In short the Age of Religions is over. They have done their work. It is the Age of universal spirituality and in this work of the future no other nation has a better preparation than the Sanatana Dharma which is no religion but a vast universal Truth realising itself through a progressive manifestation in terms of Time and Space. Let me close with Sri Aurobindo's words on this hope that India and its ancient thought brings which is for us to take it or leave it: 'But what is the Hindu religion? What is this religion which we call Sanatana, eternal? It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, because in this peninsula it grew up in the seclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve through the ages. But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge, that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move and have our being. It is the one religion which enables us not only to understand and believe this truth but to realise it with every part of our being. It is the one religion which shows the world what the world is, that it is the lila of Vasudeva. It is the one religion which shows us how we can best play our part in that lila, its subtlest laws and its noblest rules. It is the one religion which does not separate life in any smallest detail from religion, which knows what immortality is and has utterly removed from us the reality of death. This is the word that has been put into my mouth to speak to you today. What I intended to speak has been put away from me, and beyond what is given to me I have nothing to say. It is only the word that is put into me that I can speak to you. That word is now finished. I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatana Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatana Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatana Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatana Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatana Dharma it would perish. The Sanatana Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you.' ______________________
Very nice explanation along with various examples an impressive content 🎉
Thank you Alokji for the perfect insight into this very important topic. Main problem is oue ego and that has to be checked.
Jay shree maa aur Prabhu 🙏🙏
Namaste Aloksir 🙏
Thank you so much sir for nice explanation 🙏
Maa
30:40 Where has the idea come that there is no grave of Muhammad? The Tomb of the Prophet in Medina is considered the second holiest place in Islam and is visited and venerated by hundreds of millions of people. There is also endless talk -- by hundreds of millions of people -- about al-Mahdi. (Though he is secondary to the second appearance of Jesus in Islamic tradition--Jesus is the one hoped for most; the prophecy is that al-Madhi will be by Jesus' side.) You seem to have a very isolated and false idea of Islamic tradition. Is this what Hindutva is doing to India nowadays? It was not this way even 30 years ago.
I am glad to be educated or rather informed about the tomb of Prophet Mohammad in Medhina. So worship and a certain kind of idolatry is permitted in Islam. That is beautiful and heartening to know.
But more importantly I am happy that you raise the question about Hinduttva which as i understand is the organisation of Hindus to defend against any further onslaught on this nation.
You are right about the changes last thirty years which has seen near total genocide of Hindus in the Kashmir Valley, a change of demographics with a resurgence of acts of terrorism done in the name of Islam and the holy Prophet quoting from the Quran, the Kargil war in the name of Ghazba e Hind, the mushrooming of a number of terrorist groups in neighbourhood, the mindless killing of innocent civilians, women and children on 26/11, the appeasement of Moslems for vote bank politics, several indigenous sleeper cells and terror modules, teachings of hate and violence in the Madarsas, mindless funding and support of these groups apparently through aids of various kinds and all this against a background of Moghal and other Mohammadan invasions in the name of their God, looting and slavery of Hindu women, splitting of the vast Hindu subcontinent nearly 7 times on purely religious grounds, riots through which some of us including myself have grown up seeing ghetoos with sword brandishing criminals sheltered in the name of a particular religion which is meant to be the religion of peace. And to add salt to the collective trauma of a group life none understood all this till 9/11 happened! People speak of the demolition of Babri mosque to which they attribute the serial bomb blasts but the mosque was defunct and under legal dispute since 125 years. Can you imagine the pain of a section of humanity when their religious icon's birthplace was destroyed and they had to engage in a prolonged legal battle to claim their own land? I don't know from which part of the world you belong but please try to understand a wounded civilization and grant it at least the right to self-defense against a repetition of acts of barbaric cruelty in the future. It is not about Hindu or Moslem but just look at things with open eyes and stop deluding oneself that there is no danger and all is quiet on the western front. It is not and Europe is beginning to realise it and soon America will realise too that we should not nurture snakes in the backyard and believe that because we have given them food it will never bite.
This is just to put in context. This is not to say that Hindus are all good, - far from it but they have never gone out to loot and plunder or enslave anyone beyond the Hindukush though they have been invaded, looted and wounded by the Greeks, Portuguese, Dutch, Moghuls, French and the British. Hindus don't believe in converting others and readily accept people of different faiths and even no faith but they have faced and continue to face conversions through fear and favours. They are simply saying that enough is enough. All that they need is a little word from those who have wounded their psyche that we are sorry and change their ways. But the ground reality of today's India (and soon the rest of the world will realise it) is otherwise.
If you look for the reason you will see that it is not about the Moslem people who are good friends and regular people with their own challenges and difficulties. The problem is not with Prophet Mohammad whose life was penned down at least a century later and surely he must have been a great prophet for his people and the times he lived in. The problem is not with Islam as a religion. The problem is perhaps (and i am not sure about it) with the way the scripture Quran has been understood and misused for political expansionism. The problem is with any ideology that believes that it alone has the power and it's prophet has the sole mandate, is the last word of God and all others who do not share the same faith are bigots who shall be punished by God or whoever in His Name. This exclusivity may have been needed in a certain frame of time but the world is marching towards a unity and this thought is too dangerous to be supported by anyone as it gives it strength and force and legitimises things that must pass out of creation.
Once again this is not against any religion or their book and prophets but against the narrow rigid dogmatic and exclusive approach about which we must speak up as citizens of a future world we aspire for. If a Hindu does it one must speak up against it but equally if a Moslem or Christian or a Communist does it we must also speak up. It is time that we speak up against all that divides us in the name of God or Allah or whoever. But to unify this is not enough. We must go beyond Religions and discover the thread of unity which lies in the One Divine Self within every creature, to discover our true Origin and instead of being obsessed with the sinfulness of human beings and the fear and guilt it encourages whose offshoots are hate and violence we should aspire for the emergence of truth and beauty and Harmony and Love that dwells in each one as the holiest of holy Divine Presence. Then alone can true brotherhood be realised. In short the Age of Religions is over. They have done their work. It is the Age of universal spirituality and in this work of the future no other nation has a better preparation than the Sanatana Dharma which is no religion but a vast universal Truth realising itself through a progressive manifestation in terms of Time and Space.
Let me close with Sri Aurobindo's words on this hope that India and its ancient thought brings which is for us to take it or leave it:
'But what is the Hindu religion? What is this religion which we call Sanatana, eternal? It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, because in this peninsula it grew up in the seclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve through the ages. But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion that can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and the speculations of philosophy. It is the one religion which impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God. It is the one religion which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge, that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move and have our being. It is the one religion which enables us not only to understand and believe this truth but to realise it with every part of our being. It is the one religion which shows the world what the world is, that it is the lila of Vasudeva. It is the one religion which shows us how we can best play our part in that lila, its subtlest laws and its noblest rules. It is the one religion which does not separate life in any smallest detail from religion, which knows what immortality is and has utterly removed from us the reality of death.
This is the word that has been put into my mouth to speak to you today. What I intended to speak has been put away from me, and beyond what is given to me I have nothing to say. It is only the word that is put into me that I can speak to you. That word is now finished. I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatana Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatana Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatana Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatana Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatana Dharma it would perish. The Sanatana Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you.'
______________________