Is It Hindu Dharma that we are following today? (Part-III)

Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari      

 

It is really amazing that before the Gupta period in the 4th Century AD, there was nothing like what is called a temple, nothing like idols of deities in temples, nothing like worshiping those idols with flowers, garlands and paste of sandal wood; there was nothing like offering sweets and fruits to the idols of deities as Prasad and most importantly, there were nothing like vegetarian Bhaktas. “After the death of Buddha his followers started setting up the images of the Buddha and building stupas. The Brahmins followed it. They, in their turn, built temples and installed in them images of Shiva, Vishnu, and Ram and Krishna etc., - all with the object of drawing away the crowd that was attracted by the image worship of Buddha. That is how temples and images which had no place in Brahmanism came into Hinduism”, says Dr B R Ambedkar. (B R Ambedkar; Writings and Speeches; Department of Education; Government of India, 1990, vol-7, p-346).

 

Before that historical epoch, Hindu Dharma consisted of Yajnas and animal sacrifice and the Hindus were a meat eating nation, including eating the beef. In several verses, the Rigveda mentions sacrifice of bulls in yajnas and it proves that Hindus used to eat beef during the days of Rigveda. (Vide this author’s article- Swami Vivekananda on meat eating, Part-I & Part-II). Nowhere the Vedas, nowhere the Sastras declare cow a sacred animal. Even the Brahmins, in those days, were meat eaters and according to Dr B R Ambedkar, Brahmins were the greatest beef eaters at that time. Then cow sacrifice was an everyday affair and the Brahmins used to get a portion or the entire carcass of the sacrificed cow. So they ate beef perhaps every day. “In fact, the Brahmins had monopolized the whole of the flesh of sacrificial animal  including cow and except for a paltry bit they did not even allow the sacrificer (the Yajman)  to share in it. Brahmins themselves played the part of the butcher in slaughtering the cows” (B R Ambedkar, ibid, vol-7, p-340).

 

While commenting on this aspect, Swami Vivekananda said, “There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a voice was raised against the killing of cows” (The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, 1992, vol-3, p-174). According to Dr Ambedkar, Manu did not prohibit the eating of beef nor did he make cow-killing an offence. But later on, cow-killing became a capital offence during the days of the Gupta kings, some time   in the 4th Century AD and cow was declared a sacred animal.(B R Ambedkar, ibid, vol-7, p-379). "The cow cult in is one of the greatest mysteries of human behabiour. How a beef-eating race became the greatest protector, preserver and worshipp of the cow is a wonder of woders. There was a time when the cow-sacrifice (gomedha) was a most important sacrifice," says Sri Mukandi Lal ( Cow-slaughter: Horns of Dilemma", Lalvani Publishing House, 1967, p-15)

 

So it becomes evident that up to the Gupta period Hindus in this country were a meat eating nation. What did that meat eating India produce? It produced heroes like Sri Ram, Sri Parasuram and Sri Krishna. It produced great warriors like Arjuna, Karna, Bhima, Satyaki and Abhimanyu and so on. Even in the recent past, the Great Hindu Heroes like Guru Govinda Singh, Raja Shivaji, Rana Pratap Singh, Rana Sangram Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, those who never surrendered but dedicated their lives to fight the Muslim invaders, all of them were from meat eating communities. The Bhil Army of Raja Shivaji was voracious meat eaters. It was a ritual for the Rajput Kings to go for hunting before going to war and they considered it to be a good omen if they could hunt a wild boar. They used to go to the battle field after having sumptuous dinner with the meat of the hunted animals. Not only that, it were our meat eating, or most probably beef eating Rishis who composed the Vedas, the Upanishads and our Shastras. It were the meat eating Rishis who composed our Puranas, and the epics like Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

 

But the vegetarian lobby of today is hell bent on to disapprove all these historical facts. These vegetarians are no less fanatic than the Islamists and trying hard, by highlighting something or by concealing something, to prove that the Hindus, from time immemorial, were pure vegetarians and they never ate meat. When someone argues that such and such verses of the Rigveda directly mention cow sacrifice, dressing of beef in fire and eating of that dressed beef by the Rishis and Brahmins, they counter all those evidence by saying that the Sanskrit word “go” (cow) has so many connotations and hence one cannot say definitely that the word “go” in the verse under question mentions cow killing or eating beef. A few years back, a Sanskrit scholar, the retired Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Jadavpur University, wrote an essay in Bengali, titled “Vede Kothao Gohatyar Nirdesh Nei” (The Vedas do not instruct killing of cows). In that essay, he has cited many verses from the Rigveda to establish his claim, but suppressed the verses like (1/164/43), (6/16/47) and (10/27/2), that carry direct evidence of cow sacrifice. The Gita Press of Gorakhpur is run by a strong vegetarian lobby and this lobby has done a mischief of another kind. Under each and every verse of the Gita Press edition of the Valmiki Ramayana, that carries clear evidence of hunting animals, dressing the flesh in fire and eating the dressed flesh by Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, they inserted a foot note telling that the animal mentioned in the verse really stands for a certain kind of root as it was impossible for Rama to eat meat.

 

In this context, it should be pointed out that the Rishis of those days were extremely frank and did not try to hide or suppress any incident, however unpleasant that could be. They never tried to hide that Dhritarastra and Pandu and later on Yudhisthir, Bhim and Arjun were not fathered by their legal fathers.never tried to hide the real identity of Karna.Vyasdev was the bastard son of Satyavati. In a similar manner, Valmiki did not try to hide the fact that Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were meat eaters because, in those days, meat eating was not an offence but a common social practice. They did not try to hide that Rama and his three brothers were not fathered by their legal father Dasharatha. They They never tried to hide that

 

It has been mentioned above that meat eating India produced valiant heroes, best thinkers, best literary personalities and others  who were efficient fighters, celebrated scholars, pioneer law givers and exponents of most humanitarian philosophical ideas. In a nut shell, they were the founders of our Hindu faith. But misfortune started to befall on the Hindus when they stopped meat eating and switched over to vegetarianism, mainly under the influence of the Jains and the Vaishnavas. It is important to note here that, though Buddhism taught nonviolence, they were not against meat eating. Even today, Buddhists are meat eaters, including beef. It is sinful for the Buddhists to take the life of an animal, but they do not consider eating the flesh of an animal killed by others a sin. It is important to note here that Gautama Buddha, the celebrated founder of the faith of Buddhism and the creed of nonviolence, died by eating a stale preparation of pork.

 

It has been pointed out above that meat eating India produced great heroes, but what vegetarian India procreated? Gandhi, the Gujarati prophet of nonviolence is the most glaring example of what this vegetarian India has brought forth. The meat eating heroes gave their lives to defend their motherland from foreign invaders, while the apostle of nonviolence from Gujarat turned himself into the most loyal,  most obedient and most trusted stooge of another foreign occupier, the British. The reader should recall the instruction which our scripture has provided (Manusamhita, verse 8/350) to deal with an atatayin. It says that, an atatyi (aggressor) is to be put instantly to death without giving a second thought, even if he is a teacher, a learned man, a Brahmin, an old man or a child.

 

 It should be pointed out here that the above instruction is to tackle those aggressors who intend to harm an individual only. So there is no doubt that the foreign aggressors who set our motherland on fire, plundered our national wealth, massacred our own people and dishonoured our mothers and sisters, were Atatayins or aggressors of the most despicable type, and one can easily guess what should have been our attitude to those atatayins, according to the Hindu code of conduct. But unfortunately, we, being misled by that Gujarati stooge, who had little wisdom in Hindu Dharma and culture, remained nonviolent to those aggressors, following his quack doctrine of nonviolence.

 

We know that Draupadi was dishonoured by Dusshasan and the incident was one of the most important reason that sparked the Mahabharata war. Ram invaded Sri Lanka as Ravana dishonoured Sita. There is no doubt that it is the sacred duty of every Hindu to protect the honour of their mothers and sisters, even by sacrificing his life. But what the Gujarati stooge said in this regard? He said that if a Muslim enters his house and rapes his sister, he would kiss the feet of that rapist Muslim. He also advised the women of Punjab, in the wake of Partition, that if a Muslim enters her house and desires to rape her, she must not resist but co-operate with the Muslim. She should lie down like a dead keeping her toungh between her teeth. If she cooperates with the rapist Muslim in this way, sooner he will be satisfied and leave her house.

 

One should also notice what the followers of that Gujarati stooge are doing today. According to a recent press report (The Statesman, 17th April, 2008), our External Affairs Minister Sri Pranab Mukherjee has told the Lok-Sabha that nearly 1,16,000 Sq Km area of Indian territory is now being occupied by Pakistan and China. Pakistan is occupying 78,000 sq km of Indian territory since 1948, including the Pak occupied Kashmir (POK), and China is occupying 38,000 sq km of Indian territory since 1962. In this context, it should be pointed out that the total land area of West Bengal is 88,752 sq km and the land area occupied by China and Pakistan is 1.8 times that of West Bengal. It should also be mentioned here that, according to a border agreement between Pakistan and China in 1963, Pakistan has ceded nearly 5,180 sq km of Indian territory (from POK) to China as a gesture of friendship. But the followers of that vegetarian Gujarati stooge are not worried about these developments. They are preoccupied with their petty politics of winning election with the help of Muslim votes and therefore appeasing the Muslims by whatever means they can. It should also be mentioned that this dirty politics of Muslim appeasement is also another gift of that Gujarati stooge.

 

The situation has become very serious and alarming as the Muslims are increasing their population very rapidly by (1) polygamy (2) total and deliberate rejection of family planning, (3) huge illegal immigration from Bangladesh and Pakistan, and (4) by converting Hindus to Islam. But the governments, both state and the Central, remain silent spectators following their policy of Muslim appeasement. It should also be pointed out here that our political parties depend badly not only on block Muslim vote-bank but also on the flow of Arab petro-dollars for their very existence.  The statisticians say that, if things continue unchecked, India will be overpopulated with Muslims within next 40 years. So, it becomes evident that the Hindus should do something right now to save their age-old Dharma, culture and their national existence itself. Otherwise, they should prepare themselves for another phase of slavery. This time, their Masters will not be the Westerners, but their fellow Asians.