Lord's Tale 2

Lord’s Tale

Last week there was a Bhagavatha    discourse by a retired professor of Sanskrit. She is a simple, unassuming lady with good mastery over Sanskrit and Kannada. She has a very good grasp of the narrative, reeling of names, places, events effortlessly. She was looked upon as an ideal woman - learned, pious, always talking of good things.

My sister had arranged this week long discourse  ( ‘  saptaha  ‘ ) . The attendees were elderly women and a few men - all in some sense connected with Ramakrishna Ashram .

Bhagavata  deals with creation and  evolution of the universe and different incarnations of Vishnu. It also traces the lineage  of kings, dynasties . I attended the last two days when  she dealt with Rama and Krishna in particular.

The discourser while detailing Lord’s actions always emphasized that God never hates anyone, never harms anyone. If you see someone getting punished or killed it is for a greater purpose. There was a moral certitude in the discourse. No drama, no emotions, no passion and an unshakable conviction that everything in Bhagavatha is right and it happened as said and if it stretches your imagination then you need to look at it as allegory. So a simple story with a lot of emotions and human drama becomes drained and dry. Moral is thrust at every step.

I recall reading ‘Allah is all merciful ‘ or ‘ Christianity is a religion of love ‘ or our own ‘ sarve janah sukhine bhavantu ‘. However if you are not a believer or if you have done something wrong ( ‘ brahmin marrying a shudra ‘ or ‘ shudra reading scriptures ‘ ) you will be born as  a terrible insect or worse ; may even get roasted in hell.It is strange (  or perhaps not ) that severest punishment is reserved for violating Varnas . If a Brahmin male has an affair with an untouchable woman there is a punishment ( often only strictures ) but not severe. On the otherhand  if an untouchable has an affair with a upper class woman , God forbid. He will be killed. This is patriarchy and caste working in tandem.  It is similar to punishments meted out to erring people in Islam or Christianity. This is how slaves were treated by whites. However, we insist Lord is merciful still.

There were delightful contradictions. Four wives and ten children community suddenly springs to my mind. How berefit of morals, how bad women are treated, how inhuman the religion is etc. Any King, Lord’s incarnation , or even priests merrily go around marrying ( or whatever ) as many women as they fancy. And begetting dozens, hundreds of children most often sons . If our hero is monogamous ( rare ) it is great ; if he has many wives it is also great . If he slays his enemy, disfigures him, forgives him … whatever he does there is always a justification in this birth or earlier ones. That is why all the descendants in a lineage are always great people. Yayathi, a famous king, in his old age yearns for youth. Fair enough. But the solution lies in someone young trading his youth with Yayathi. No one agrees except his son Puru. Yayathi is a great king so also is Puru. A little puzzling ? God’s ways are always mysterious. ‘ Khudrat ki xxxxxx nyari ‘

Kamsa is bent upon killing 8 sons of Devaki as the eighth one is the enemy who could destroy him. Not able to keep count he kills one child after the other as they are born. One wonders why kill first seven ? Even more wicked doubt arises. Why allow Devaki and Vasudeva to come together ? Separate them and there would be no children. Or to be more certain why not kill one of them ( Devaki for instance ) ? No one whispers a word. Who knows His ways !

You are warned not to be too intellectual and start questioning. It is branded as ‘ vithanda vaada ‘. I am reminded of my teachers. No one dare to ask any questions let alone disagree. ‘ Guru devo bhava ‘.

Lord is merciful still. Simple and strong faith is all that is required. If you don’t agree,  there are many anecdotes  to convince you why you should. Besides Lord himself has declared.

Miracles happen all the time. Narrator is not consistent to accept all of them as real or read them as allegory . Conveniently she mixes them . For instance Krishna dances on the seven headed Kalinga . The audience welcome it gleefully. However she also adds that seven heads represent our seven weaknesses ( krodha, kama,  etc ) . The listeners nod with great understanding of the profundity.

It is a male story. Women find no significant part to play. ( Ignore the fact that most of the listeners are women. Ardent ones at that ). At best they are needed so that the hero could marry them and they could give birth to children ( better be male ). Lord did not feel the necessity to be incarnated as a female anytime. Animal  is ok ; half human is fine ; woman ? What a question ! The professor also adds while dealing with promiscuity of men that women should be happy to don the roles as wives and mothers. Also, as a sop, she says that is because women are inherently superior and stronger than men. So ? Don’t ask too many questions. The irony that she herself does not adhere to such roles escapes her. I almost felt a glow of superiority in the faces of some women. See how great we are !

It is a narrative of Brahmins with Kshatriyas inducted for mutual advantage. Whatever Kshatriyas do , ultimately Brahmins occupy the top slot. Krishna , a kshatriya ( and many others ) declare how in four varnas Brahmin occupies the top one. You do not find ( in 18000 slokhas of Bhagavata ) any mention of lower castes and in particular Shudras. If they are mentioned it is  to illustrate the fact that Brahmins are at the top and Shudras are at the bottom. Lord declares many times in different context that all are equal etc but at the same time Shudras are different and  almost inferior species. Never he says that Shudra and Brahmin are the same . Again white christians had no remorse after raping slaves and beating them, walk into a church in their Sunday special dresses. They could marvel at the beauty of Lord’s word and shes a tear or two how Lord treats everyone equally. Lord is merciful. Muslims at once pious and devoted kill all kafirs, destroy their temples and pray with tears in their eyes and amongst universal brotherhood choking their hearts pray five times. Allah oh akbar. Lord is great.

If I am a Dalit I would wonder why my ancestors could not produce even one person worthy of mention in the Bhagavatha. I would read and get depressed. Why will I identify let alone feel proud of the narrative ? There are instances where an upper caste person ( say Brahmin ) falls at the feet of a dalit. He is saved as Dalit is really Lord in disguise. In Ramayan a dalit, a boatman , is mentioned as he helps Rama to cross the river and charges him nothing. In Mahabharata recall Ekalavya losing his fingers, Karna gets insulted because he is believed to be of lower caste. The irony is that Karna in his endless misery feels terrible ( at the end ) that he was denied a good life even though he was a Kshtriya. Never once he feels bad that a lower caste person gets a raw deal.

No wonder Ambedkar burnt copies of Manu Smriti.

Often the intense love mother feels for the child Krishna does not infiltrate us. The child in us, in me, in you and anyone , is Krishna does not strike us. At the same time a Muslim child, Christian girl or a girl black, brown,  white or yellow are all Krishna is not articulated or even thought of.

I waited hoping against hope that this pious woman might take a tiny step . Oh I wish she had said that (  for instance  ) separating young ones from parents is terrible or lynching a mother / father and killing her /him and making children orphans is a crime against the humanity . No such hopes. We live in Krishna’s world. We do not want to make any connection to reality that can cause us discomfort.

Moral overtones drown the beauty. One longs for a line of verse ‘ Jagadoddharana  ‘ which can be abstracted. Or longing for lost childhood - ours, our children’s or grand children’s.’ Katrinile varum geetham ‘ ( song floating in the air ) or ‘ Brindavanathil Kannan valarnda anda nalum vandiratho ‘ ( Oh for those days in Brindavan when Krishna grew up )

There are instances of fertile imagination , deep affection and love, ethical behavior, wonder at the world but all said and done  sadly it is a story for the privileged. Like democracy in Greece where it was for the nobles. No ordinary man or any woman for that matter was included. Or like starting lines of American constitution wherein liberty, equality etc were not for slaves. God loves all but some he loves more.

The learned lady has done what she came for even if she did not intend to, She destroyed beauty, logic, intelligence and most importantly compassion.

The women are largely entertained, fulfilled and are glowing with a sense of achievement and moral superiority. The session ends at 1: 10 pm. I also hear Azan for afternoon prayers. It mingles with the Sanskrit recitation.

asato ma sadgamaya

tamaso ma jyotirgamaya

mrtyorma amrtam gamaya

om shanti shanti shanti.

(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)

Lead me from the asat to the sat.

Lead me from darkness to light.

Lead me from death to immortality

Om Peace Peace Peace.

Almost one could add : Ii will not think nor change but do not mind vilifying others and could even kill people of other faiths. But Lord  give me salvation.

From Vivekananda’s collected works :

I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind. We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that each may choose that path that suits him best.

For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam — Vedanta brain and Islam body — is the only hope.

RSS would be horrified assuming they read.

If I had asked any one of the pious people about the call for prayer and said it is similar to what you are doing right now I would have been kicked out.

In Pakistan or elsewhere in Islamic world if such an opinion is expressed I could be killed. Lord did one great thing. He distributed stupidity to all without discrimination.

However , God loves all.