The weak, the god and sacrifice

ashvam naiva gajam naiva vyaghram naivacha naivacha |

ajaaputram balim dadyaat devo durbala ghatakaha ||

अश्वं नैव गजं नैव व्यघ्रं नैव च नैव च
अजापुरत्रं बलिं दद्यात देवो दुर्बल घतकः

It translates something like this: They don’t sacrifice a horse, neither an elephant. Never ever a tiger. A poor lamb is sacrificed. God hurts only weak

Ever since God/protector was created, people wanted a way to “give back” in return to all the protection, mercy and other things he is offering. It is natural to think that god, who exists need to take something from us, when he doing so may miracles (like birth, death etc.). Now having created god, what one can naturally think about him, is “he is like us”. He eats what we eat. He likes ornaments like we do. And he likes to eat goat/buffalos like we do. This can be one answer.

The other what I can think about is. Relaxing the rules! So many religious rules, so much less time to follow. Or life is so advanced that, either one can not afford to or not allowed practice. So what the best solution is follow the rules which are convenient, comfortable. Or Change them according to your convenience and say this is actually the way.

Illustration of the Ashvamedha of Kaushalya in the Ramayana epic.

Now in this context rule (bloody rule) was sacrifice is blood. There is always a concept that almighty asked them blood, but never mention when, how and where he asked. Initially there were people who were getting sacrificed. A fighting fit person will always show resistance, so women and kids. If the tribe has a feeling that they are their own, take someone from neighboring tribe. All these are about satisfying god.

As days passed, we became more civilized. We chucked human beings and started sacrifice what we tame. If it useful animal like a horse or a camel, again No. Find something where sacrifice is also some and we can eat it also later. Now what vegetarians do? Don’t laugh, they sacrifice a pumpkin!! and there is no blood in it, so put some “kumkum” (red powder) and make it look like flesh. Ultimately what people do if what is very convenient to them, and justify it.

Book : Bible of Aryan Invasion

It’s very natural that a person has affection over me, myself and mine ( ours ). For example, Compare to all culture in the world mine is the best. No matter how illogical and arrogant is the argument, every person has a word to say about mine/ours. Most of them need not have relevance to the present at all and also evidence of which is buried thousands of years ago.

The discussion can be, which race is better ? Who had better civilization ? Which country had a better history ( forget the presence or future ) ? Which religion is better ? Whose god is better ? Etc. etc. Come to India . We have some more matters to taken care in addition. Is north India is better or south ? Which language s better (usually this is Tamil –

Saraswati river vedic civilization

Hindi argument in internet). Which state is better? Religion and race, who’s is better? Which caste? Which sub caste? Which class? Which faith? Which god? Boy..!! You ask for it. Its there!

One of the topics I was interested in learning was AIT (Aryan invasion theory). Its Almost 100 years, since they proposed theory of AIT. Still there is lot to talk about it and lot to discover also. Fight is between the theories “Aryans actually original inhabitants of India” or “came from outside”. Originally AIT stated by German scholar max Muller, later opposed furiously by one group and opposed by another. Every one wants to prove they are the original forefathers of great India. There was an online book about AIT defining completely different story, title is Bible of Aryan Invasions ( update: the site is banned in india, try these links : light, sabha. If one has no idea about what Indian races and history, will completely get miss-lead by this theory. The book is highly confused between history and mythology. I completely read the book twice, and the summary is “every foreigner came to India since 2000 BC is Aryan, every war happened in India is Aryan – Dravidian”. If given time author world have proved the meteoroids hit in Jurassic age were also Aryan ones. The book is written more with outburst and less with common sense.The author classifies invasions with chronological order. There are around 20 Aryan invasions, starting from rig Vedic Aryan invasion to republic
India the first six of them are based on Veda , purana and Mahabharata

1. Rig Vedic Aryan Invasion (1500 BC)
2. Second Aryan Invasion (1400 BC)
3. The Krishnaite (Third) Aryan Invasion (1200 BC)
4. Mahabharata Aryan Invasion (900-800 BC)
5. Fifth (Solar) Aryan Invasion (800 BC)
6. Ramaite Aryan Invasion & Dravidian Holocaust (600 BC)

The book proposes a historic event(s) with reference of mythology and stories. Nobody yet proved great wars of Ramayana and Mahabharata were real. Most of the things described in these epics are imaginary. The heroes and bad guys in both possess powers and capacities that a normal human being can’t imagine at all. Now can this kind of scriptures be proof of an event happened on human race?

If at all they are considered to be true, and historic, the chronology in which they are presented is completely wrong. Ramaite Aryan Invasion is projected later than The Krishnaite Aryan Invasion. Both history (if they are true) and mythology says otherwise. Now with this kind of messing up, how to believe chronology of rest of them. Some more “truths” described:

“Krishna destroyed the surviving traces of the Indus Valley civilization, abducting and raping 16000 women (low-caste `gopis’) of the races he exterminated“.

Krishna himself was a Sheppard, a Gopal or dada (if he considers as low-caste) and gopi’s are his friends. This is well known fact for one who knows Krishna. Now does The Krishnaite Aryan Invasion make sense? “The revolt by the non-Aryans and mixed races led to the terrible Mahabharatan War between the Aryan Pandavas on one side and the mixed race Kauravas and black aboriginals on the other”

Chain mails and SatyaNarayana Vruta

Do you see any similarities between chain mails and “satya narayana vrata“? Chain mails, as you know contains a photo or some text about which nobody has proper information or nobody has time to verify. The mail contains direction you need to follow, do it like this or send it to so many people. There will be couple paragraphs that look more like advertising the same e-mail. Time will be specified to do the needful, typically ten minutes. Information will be something like “….This is very rare photograph of sai baba…” or “…

Satyanarayana Puja

This happens only once in 2000 years …” etc. It will be followed by that stories of people who benefited by forwarding the mail. Next paragraph about the consequences if you fail to do what is needful. Basically chain mail is nothing but a junk which is created to keep the network busy. It works based on the reader’s spiritual/religious/patriotic feeling (any feeling as a matter of fact) into blackmail.

How does Satya Narayana vrata (written as vruta or vrita sometimes) is related to these chain mails. Satya Narayana vrata is one of the very famous Vrata‘s (Indian ritual of fasting/sacrifice, that’s best I can say) lately. Many families (especially new-wed) conducts it on the day of house warming ceremony.

“…In North India the vow is observed by the vast majority of people. It takes about three hours to complete the whole observance. It is generally observed on the full moon day, particularly the Kartik, Vaisakh, Sravan and Chaitra Purnimas and the Shankranti day. It can also be done on new moon days…” Read the more information about how it is celebrated here SatyaNarayanaVrata . There will be a framed photo of Lord Satya Narayana will be placed. Arati, saligrama, tulasi, sandalwood paste etc. etc will be there as usual.

Ahimsa Paramo Dharmaha

I was searching the roots of all famous Sanskrit quotes. But this one “Ahimsa paramo dharmaha“( अहिंसा परमो धर्मः ) did not yield any results in internet. More than 500 results and just “Ahimsa paramo dharmaha”. Every one is happy mentioning only up to there. The meaning is Non-violence is Ultimate religion (or duty). The sentence is repeatedly gets mentioned whenever Indian philosophy and tolerance is explained, especially context of explaining ancient Hindu (sanatan dharma), Buddhism, Jainism and Gandhian philosophy. 

One result gave the latter part of it. धर्म हिंसा तथीव च  – “Dharma himsa tathaiva cha “. Now that means Violence is also religion (duty). I am getting different meanings out of them.

1.      Non-violence is the ultimate duty of life, and in some contexts violence is also. Here what is the extremity of the context?

2.      Try to follow Non-violence and given no choice follow violence (for protect your self). This is most optimistic meaning I have taken

Anyway the sentence is frequently mentioned, but forgetting the second part of it. It’s something like Ashvathamaha hato kunjarah, telling half truth. If some one has a better explanation, or complete hymn please leave a comment.

Vadodara and its footpath temples

I remember reading Albert Einstein somewhere. “They tell, I am greatest Jew ever born. After my death they will take my bones in a pot, to parties and ceremonies and collect money”. (Not the exact wordings)

There are thousands of footpath temples and “Durgah across India. All of them have built on same way as Einstein told. None of them have legal papers, none of them exist in government papers, No control over the money collected and if some authority takes some action we fight each other.

One of my high school teachers always used to mock this easy way of making money. “Find a nice black rock. Preferably it has a nice shape (like face, or nose etc.). Move it near a road, put “kumkum” on it, and lit a lamp. Stamp a “thrisul” if you have budget. That’s it… congratulations” you get returns end of the day. The return depends on which place you have chosen to erect your footpath temple, and also traffic of that road. Mr. Bechra goes to office daily and while walking to bus stand, this small structure comes into his attention. Now God has a roof on his head. Peep inside there is a stone painted read looking bright in kerosene lamp. Kerosene is not allowed inside the temple since it is believed to be “pranijanya” (source is animals). Only “vanaspati”s, i.e. vegetable oils. I know this information, so do you. Does Mr. Bechara.? A rusted thrishul adds to the fear. Even though he is not being able to recognize which god is sitting inside, he puts five rupees (the day has to go good to his family members also).

If at least five of such people cross the road, you have crossed Indian per capita income for the day. You are rich, think about some more features. A rangoli, some flowers makes it a popular temple of the street. Don’t worry about the government. The day they touch your structure, communal riots will happen and they will lose the next election.

The stories of ” Durgah” s are very similar to what Einstein told. Some Sufi saint would have died, create a Durgah over his name. No papers, No Land… Nothing!! There are thousands of them. Most of them happen to be on the footpath or middle of the road. These structures never did well, instead they obstruct traffic. If some municipal corporation like vadodara takes some action, please welcome it