Query : Do you have a serious objection to the word ‘ Hindu’?
Gurumaharaj : Are you nuts? This is the reason why scriptures forbid us to discuss spiritual precepts everywhere. One should consider where and in front of whom the spiritual discussion is taking place. Great saints deliberately avoid uttering many spiritual secrets just for this reason. You have derived a wrong meaning of what I have just discussed. How did you conceive of my discussion as my personal opinion?
What I have uttered is pure Truth. Generally people quote those words from historical texts. But even in historical records many things were intentionally or unintentionally distorted. I said all that after observing the historical phenomena. At the same time I talked about the different phases of evolution of the usages of many words. And you have considered them as my personal opinions? Scriptures termed people like you as ‘nitwits’. Scriptures also suggest that Dharma is not meant for the nitwits.
Foreigners coined the term ‘Hindu’ just by mistake. When different races came to Bharatbarsha after crossing Sindhukush mountain and river Sind they mentioned the inhabitants of this land as ‘Hindus’ for the first time. Later when they became the rulers of this land, the people of this land themselves started calling them as Hindus.Your name is Prashanta. If a person stammers and pronounces your name as Pohanta, will you start introduce yourself as Pohanta? Have you ever talked to any Arab? If you ever talk to an Arab, you will consider him as a person who stammers for their dialect. Thus, the word Sindhu degenerated into Hind, Hindu, Hindusta, Hindustan and so on. Later the European rulers pronounced these degenerated words as Ind, Aand, Indian, India etc.. During the British rule Bharatbarsha turned into Hindustan or India.
But if you pore over the holy scriptures, you will find no mention of the words like ‘Hindu’, ‘Indu’ or ‘ Indian’ in them. They introduce themselves as ‘Arya’. They addressed the women respectfully as ‘ Arye’. And if you want to know my personal opinion, then I shall favour all the terms. But I do not treat a mere word as very important. I delve deeper into the meaning of that word. I observe the influence of a word on our lives, our society and even on the nature. Then I come to a conclusion.
(1) When I consider myself as a ‘ Hindu’, I can see how many thousands of Muslims came to our land wielding weapons in their hands and began ruling crores of Indians. I can see how they carried off enormous quantities of wealth and caused havoc in our traditional religious and social life.
(2) When I consider myself as ‘Hindu’ I find myself looking down upon the people belonging to the lower castes.
(3) When I regard myself as a devout Hindu, I can see how I forgot the lofty ideals of Sanatana Dharma and restricted my religious practices to the dictates of Smriti, Puranas, almanacs and ancient Hindu text manuscripts.
(4) When I look upon myself as a Hindu I remember how I forced people to convert to Hinduism.
But when I identify with an ‘Arya’ I become a part of a civilised nation. I can visualise the brave Aryans moving forward in tempestuous speed on horseback with their green flags held aloft.
When I conceive of myself as an ‘Arya’, I bow down to the noble ideology of Sanatana Dharma which should be propagated across the globe.Thus, the Aryans uttered :
“Kniwantu biswamaryam”,
“Vasudhaiva kutumbakam”!
Identifying with the perspective of an Aryan I find no difference in the races, colours of the skin, castes, religions. There is only diversity but no war!
Translated by Amitava Saha