BY BLATANT RECOURSE TO TAQIYAH                      

                          "I am with you: give Firmness to the Believers

                           I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers."

                                                                           Quran  8.12

Recently a very clumsy attempt was made to downgrade the Gita during an interactive discourse organized by  Times of India on a quixotic topic, ‘Jihad in the Gita and the Quran'. The title of the debate implied that the doctrine of jihad has been preached both in the Gita and the Quran  -  something totally false and highly offensive to Hindu ethos.  The participants were Maulana Wahiduddin and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, while the well known columnist, Narayani Ganesh,  acted as moderator.

First things first. The scriptural soul of Hinduism, the Gita, does not preach, nor even remotely mentions, anything comparable to the Islamic doctrine of jihad which is  a permanent holy war against all non-Muslims, as ordained in Islamic scriptures.  It is difficult, nay impossible, to fathom the intent of Times of India group to select such a wonky theme suggesting that jihad has been sanctioned in Hindu scriptures, too !. There is no moral equivalence between what Gita preaches and what Quran ordains. The choice of the subject of the discourse shows total mental bankruptcy because it tries to equate the two incomparable scriptures.  Apparently the leading lights of Times of India group as well as Narayani Ganesh  have neither read the Gita, nor Quran. Otherwise they would not have ventured to wade into the minefield of  jihad which has tormented  innumerable civilisations and countless countries for centuries and taken toll of crores of  innocent lives. The attempt to underline some kind of  spiritual equivalence between the Gita and the Quran is nothing short of  an affront to sacred Hindu beliefs, nay to the Gita, itself.

It is a pity that Sri Sri could not see through the clever game being played by the sham-secularist newspaper to bring down Gita to the level of jihadi orthopraxy, enshrined in the Quran. Nor could he rebut the inane profanity hidden in the theme. The Gita does not command Hindus to kill all non-Hindus, or for that matter, not even atheists. Sri Krishna advised a wavering Arjuna at Kurukshetra to wage war in the cause of righteousness and justice, and nothing more. Even after explaining the import of ‘dharma' and righteousness, Sri Krishna left the final choice about taking up arms to Arjuna, saying that it was for him to make the correct decision, in accordance with ‘dharma'.

Last update : 03-10-2009 14:32

Keywords : A Devious Attempt to Equate Gita with Quran, RK Ohri

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