Query: What I heard today from you about India’s glorious past filled me with great pride as a Hindu. In my opinion every Indian should be proud of it. Isn’t it?
Gurumaharaj : You can be proud as an Indian. But there is no reason to be proud of as a Hindu. From the ancient times the Indians never called themselves Hindus. When the Turks invaded India they distorted the word ‘Sindhu’ and started using the word ‘Hindu’.Thus, the Sindhukush mountain came to be known as Hindukush mountain. The word ‘ Hindu’ originated from this word ‘Hindukush’. The influence of Hindi and Urdu turned it into ‘Hind’. The Englishmen first coined the word ‘India’! Before all these the residents of the land of Bharatbarsha were never identified as Hindu or Indians . These names were given by the foreigners. The word BHARAT was derived from Sanskrit. Our motherland was named BHARATBARSHA. The word BARSHA does not mean a year. It was generally suffixed to the name of a vast area of habitable land. There were plenty of such examples like UTTARAKURUBARSHA, KIMPURUSHABARSHA, HIRANMOYBARSHA, ILABRITTABARSHA etc..
When the foreigners started arriving in this land via sea route, some of them called this land as Jambudwipa. As the shape this land resembled Jamun or Indian blackberry, it was called Jambudwip. In the writings of many foreign traders India was referred to as the Spice Island. All the expensive spices like cardamom, clove, cinnamon, kesar were imported from India. As India is surrounded by sea on three sides, they consider her to be an island.
However, you have said that you are quite proud of being an Indian. Is there anything about modern India in which you take pride? I don’t find anything like that anyway! After giving it a serious thought I came to the conclusion that we can only be proud of the past glories of our country. Indis has nothing to be proud of other than the Vedas, Puranas, the great epics and the noble Yogis, Rishis and the wise men well versed in the Vedas. I’m not referring to the mere Brahmins or the scholars but those ancient men who were conversant in the Vedas. They were the noble realized souls. They were our true wealth. For them our heads are held high even today. Such great teachers ( Acharyas in Sanskrit) taught the world the true significance of Knowledge, love and amity.
A closer look at the modern History of India brings to the fore a number of great personalities who were Yogis, Rishis and spiritual beings. The teachings of Bhagaban Buddha were spread to China by a Buddhist monk. During the reign of emperor Asoka the Buddhist monks went to Ceylon to teach religion. In the modern times Swami Vivekananda, Srila Prabhupada Abhay Charan, Swami Yogananda and others spread the messages of Vedanta, the path of Bhakti or devotion and Yoga to the western world.
But the irony is that contradictions cropped up in the spiritual pracrices in our country. Humanity was never insulted elsewhere to such extent. A section of the society was persecuted like hell in the name of caste system, untouchability, innumerable superstitions. A man can face poverty and even physical torture. But he can never tolerate humiliation and abusive behaviour. The people belonging to the so called lower castes were persecuted for centuries. To save them avatars like Bhagavan Buddha, Sri Chaitanya and in modern times Swami Vivekananda took birth or were rather forced to incarnate themselves to save the suffering humanity in India.
To be continued
Translated by Amitava Saha
Gurumaharaj : You can be proud as an Indian. But there is no reason to be proud of as a Hindu. From the ancient times the Indians never called themselves Hindus. When the Turks invaded India they distorted the word ‘Sindhu’ and started using the word ‘Hindu’.Thus, the Sindhukush mountain came to be known as Hindukush mountain. The word ‘ Hindu’ originated from this word ‘Hindukush’. The influence of Hindi and Urdu turned it into ‘Hind’. The Englishmen first coined the word ‘India’! Before all these the residents of the land of Bharatbarsha were never identified as Hindu or Indians . These names were given by the foreigners. The word BHARAT was derived from Sanskrit. Our motherland was named BHARATBARSHA. The word BARSHA does not mean a year. It was generally suffixed to the name of a vast area of habitable land. There were plenty of such examples like UTTARAKURUBARSHA, KIMPURUSHABARSHA, HIRANMOYBARSHA, ILABRITTABARSHA etc..
When the foreigners started arriving in this land via sea route, some of them called this land as Jambudwipa. As the shape this land resembled Jamun or Indian blackberry, it was called Jambudwip. In the writings of many foreign traders India was referred to as the Spice Island. All the expensive spices like cardamom, clove, cinnamon, kesar were imported from India. As India is surrounded by sea on three sides, they consider her to be an island.
However, you have said that you are quite proud of being an Indian. Is there anything about modern India in which you take pride? I don’t find anything like that anyway! After giving it a serious thought I came to the conclusion that we can only be proud of the past glories of our country. Indis has nothing to be proud of other than the Vedas, Puranas, the great epics and the noble Yogis, Rishis and the wise men well versed in the Vedas. I’m not referring to the mere Brahmins or the scholars but those ancient men who were conversant in the Vedas. They were the noble realized souls. They were our true wealth. For them our heads are held high even today. Such great teachers ( Acharyas in Sanskrit) taught the world the true significance of Knowledge, love and amity.
A closer look at the modern History of India brings to the fore a number of great personalities who were Yogis, Rishis and spiritual beings. The teachings of Bhagaban Buddha were spread to China by a Buddhist monk. During the reign of emperor Asoka the Buddhist monks went to Ceylon to teach religion. In the modern times Swami Vivekananda, Srila Prabhupada Abhay Charan, Swami Yogananda and others spread the messages of Vedanta, the path of Bhakti or devotion and Yoga to the western world.
But the irony is that contradictions cropped up in the spiritual pracrices in our country. Humanity was never insulted elsewhere to such extent. A section of the society was persecuted like hell in the name of caste system, untouchability, innumerable superstitions. A man can face poverty and even physical torture. But he can never tolerate humiliation and abusive behaviour. The people belonging to the so called lower castes were persecuted for centuries. To save them avatars like Bhagavan Buddha, Sri Chaitanya and in modern times Swami Vivekananda took birth or were rather forced to incarnate themselves to save the suffering humanity in India.
To be continued
Translated by Amitava Saha