Dr. Gautam Bhai Patel
Sanghamitra, the sister of King Ashok the great, under which Gautam the Budda was enlightens to Ceylon. The original Bodhi tree was uprooted from India along with Buddhism but after independence. Pandit Nehru has brought the branch of that Bodhi tree from Ceylon and he has planted it again in India. I am reminder of this story. Today I feel that the true spirit of Hinduism which is properly nourished in USA, one day will have to take it back to Bharata.
I am delightful to see in USA where in one temple we find the shine of Rama Krishna, Shiva Shakti, Surya, Venketeshwar, Auyappa, Bhima, Padma and some modern saints like Jalaram, Sai Baba and so on. It’s a rare good fortunate to see such a unity among gods as they all are in one place. Hindus has suffered a lot in past. Now the time has come for us to unite. We have nothing to lose but have to gain the supremacy – the Vedic supremacy and Vedic idea of turning the whole world Arya.
My friends! Our temple culture has con-tributed tremendously in society. The temple sculpture of Hindu is unique in the world. Some of our ancient temples are the sights even for gods to see. Numerous travelers from all over world as visiting today. Temple music has its own peculiarities. Painting in tem-ple or dance performance in temple has contributed sufficiently in their respective fields. There are no costume designed colleges in those days, yet the shrine of the lord is deco-rated in almost different manner throughout all three sixty five days a year.
The religions practices have a say in character building of our society. A child learns how to bow down or how to depart from one’s own belongings willingly if while visiting the temple. Faith in the highest reality and fear of god are due to these temples. These are most instrumen-tal factors in the building of national characters.
Whenever I have visited USA, I have faced certain common questions or worries of our people like “Our children don’t like to visit temple or practice religious rites. What should we do ? The children whole early schooling is in the USA normally they try to think averse to India, Indian religion and Indian tradi-tions. It’s is my humble but firm belief that one should not complain against darkness. Its is better to light up a lamb, if we continue with our own belief, tradition and culture as followers of other religion are doing one day our children will also follow, if a fa-ther is suffering from a diabetes the daughter gets it after the age of forty five or fifty.
Similarly in the religious practices of our own religion has en-tered in our blood, sooner or later our children will also inherit. Have hope and pray Almighty. A man without hope is a hope-less man, pessimism is a curse, robust optimism is blessing.
One more important worry in our society in USA is that their children marry with a partner of another religion. Here if a Hindu boy or a girl marries a person of another religion, the follower of that religion encouraged while we, the Hindus, not only discourage them, on the contrary in some case we hate them. Hindus here have started bringing Christmas tree in their houses in Christmas. They celebrate Valentine day, mothers’ day or father’s day why they are not prepared to accept bride or bridegroom of other religion? We should also start accepting the situation otherwise it will be a game of losers.Let me give you a history. Rai Harihara and Bukka were Hindu commanders. They were caught by Muslims and by force were converted into Islam. Any how they managed to escape, came back and Swami Vidyaranya Saraswati has re-converted them into Hinduism. They both have established the Kingdom of Vijayanagar, so Hindu also should prepare to accept the situation, reconvert or convert but not hate their children who have fallen prey to cir-cumstances. The best way in life is to bring to the notice of our children whatever is best in our religion. At time the better things of our religion and philosophy are wrongly interoperated and our children are befooled. The unique example is the existence of countless deities in our re-ligion. The fact is this, our ancient seers have realized the multi-plicity in nature and human nature. Hence the multiple gods are created. But one need not forget the beauty of Hindu religion. It’s the ‘Unity in Diversity’ Gods are many but the god is one.
e.g. all the gods have capacity to create the universe, maintain it or ultimately destroy it. This is nothing but god – hood. Another specialty of our religion is “all is one” and “one is all”
It’s is the one which appears as many and it appears as many and yet it is one. Our ancient seers have given us an example. Some one says “ there is a forest” but looking to the same place another man says” there are trees” . Now in reality the same concept by giving modern example. One says “Army is marching and another says “Soldiers are marching”. Seen is the same, one is talking in singular, other in plural yet both are correct. Thus in Hinduism Gods are many and yet god is one. This is our unique achievement; it should not be regarded as limita-tion. When dull witted person of other religious citizen us without knowing our unique approach to the highest reality. I would say “Oh God! Forgive them, the are not knowing what they are speaking”
In the end I would say “Whatever way you adopt to reach the top of a mountain, the view from the top is the same”. So now if we fail to plan, we plan to fail, we must act, right from now, like an ant we have to spate sugar form the sand. Mind well, any moment in the life of a person can be the beginning of greatness. Start now and be a great contributor for the upliftment of our religion for which we are always proud. One day like its golden past Hinduism will prove Vishva – Guru. The leader of the world.
