(Extracts from Periyar’s writing on Hindu Religion)….
“Generally and especially, among
the people of Hindus, hardly one person among a thousand has knowledge and that
too limited knowledge about what is God, what is proper protection of values,
what is religion and what is the moral order or dharma to be followed. There is
nothing more degrading than this state of affairs in a society. What do most of
these people think about God? Many think God is also having a human form, that
he is also having wife, son, parents, place of residence, properties,
pleasures: that God also has marriage, nuptials, bedroom, seemantham (a
ceremony when the wife is several months pregnant), childbirth, etc. They think
that there are thousands of Gods with thousands of names; and devotion to God
means nothing but to perform to the figurine of God abhishekam, offerings,
worship, showing lighted camphor or conduct festivals and processions.
Similarly, when they think of religion, they think Hinduism is applying on the
forehead namam, sacred ash, or sandal paste and categorizing each another as
high caste and low caste people. They think that conducting festivals, to
construct places of rest for those who come to such festivals i.e.,
construction of mutts, and feeding them is dharma or high moral act. To do
these things, they indulge in propagation, perform such activities and spend
public money, which they consider as fulfilling and protective.
In the matter of taking food,
some think it is sin to eat the flesh of cow. Some think eating the flesh of
pig is a sin. Some consider it a sin to partake any form of poultry. Even among
the Hindus some say that it is no harm to beat a cow and extract work from it,
but it is sin to beat or kill a snake. Some say that no animal should be harmed
in any way. Others say that all animals were created just to be consumed by
man! What is true in all these? What is God‘s orders? How can one conclude
which is sin? If anybody wants to find out by research, the truth about these,
he is dubbed as ‗atheist‘, non-believer and is told: ―Why are you concerned
with all these? Just lead a life according to what elders (wise men) had said
and had lived. If you want to find out who the elders (wise men) are, there is
no end to difficulties in coming to a conclusion on that. And if you deeply
consider what they said and how they lived, the difficulties and contradictions
multiply.
For example, someone will say
there is Veda and everybody must follow its dictates. ―If we ask, what is said
in it, can we look into it? they say, ―It contains God‘s utterances: it is a
sin for you to read and hear it. You just obey what we say. How many Gods could
be there in the world! They say there is only one God. In that case, should it
not be accepted as such by people all over the world? Why then has God not made
it acceptable to Christianity, Islam—, and all other countries in the world to
accept it? Therefore, it is a lie to say that God has said this. If someone has
to point this, he would be branded as ―Veda Brashta (outlawed by veda). In this
way, in the name of Hindu religion, principles contrary to nature, experience,
honesty and transparency are abound and are ruining the edifice of a great
society. In the name of protecting and administering this, precious time,
intelligence and money are squandered. In order to abolish untouchability our
friend Gandhi has shouted as much as possible. Collected many lakhs of rupees
to achieve that end and handed them over to higher caste or varna people. He
was not able to bring about the slightest change. On the other hand, he also
supported Gita, manu code, varna system and caste. Today those who are doing
service, involved in the abolition of untouchability, 100 out of 100 such
gullible people have full belief in and support for Gita and manu code. It is
just like trying to fill up a water tank, drawing water from a well using a
vessel full of leakage. So, for abolition of untouchability or caste,
you must first destroy or abolish your religion. If you are not able to destroy
the religion, you must atleast leave that religion. It is a firm position that
unless your religion is destroyed, you cannot destroy untouchability or
pariahhood.
‘I have been saying that the
so-called politicians and nationalists in the name of politics, have been
cheating and ruining common people for their selfish interests: no less than
these politicians, people belonging to the priestly or Brahmin community cheat
us in the name of religion, break our unity, loot the wealth we have earned
through hard work, ruin our society and country and has made us live like
lifeless bodies without any self-respect.’
-Periyar
No comments:
Post a Comment