Bhagwan Ko Sanmati?

"Ishwar, Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de Bhagwan..." so goes the popular bhajan. Read some of the scriptures below and decide whether you really want to have the kind of 'sanmati' some of the gods are peddling!

OLD TESTAMENT:

Here’s what the Old Testament, the fountainhead of Judaism and Christianity, tells Jews and Christians to do if someone tells them to worship other gods or convert to other faith:

 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, tries to secretly entice you, saying: ‘Let us go and serve other gods’, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from your God…”

[Deuteronomy, Ch. 13, v. 6-10]

QUR’AN:

If a person does not believe in Allah’s revelations in the Qur’an, here’s what Allah will do to them:

“Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they taste the torment.”

(Surah IV, verse 56).

So Allah will roast us in fire because we do not believe in his revelations in the Qur’an. When our skins get fully burnt in fire, he’ll replace them with fresh skins so that we taste the torment once again!

If anyone dares to fight against Muslims, here’s the ‘reward’ from Allah:

“The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter, theirs will be an awful doom.”

(Surah V, verse 33).

What kind of punishment ('reward') is that: "killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off"?  

Allah prescribes revenge against non-Muslims, thus:

“And We prescribed for them therein: The life for the life, and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth, and for the wounds retaliation. But whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity), it shall be expiation for him. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers.” (Surah V, verse 45)

Did Mahatma Gandhi say, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”? Here Allah commands the Muslims to take not just an eye for an eye, but also life for life, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and retaliation for wounds!

Want to know my views on these and other 'religious' verses (as well as views of scientists, sociologists, psychologists and Nobel Prize winners on gods, religions, religious scriptures)? Read them in my forthcoming book! J

But can't resist making couple of comments, though. If this is Ishwar's, Allah's and God's 'sanmati', then we need to change the bhajan to "Ishwar, Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de Insaan"!! Also, since these scriptures reveal these gods as unforgiving, the English saying "To err is human, to forgive divine" should be changed to: "To punish is divine, to forgive human"!

Creativity Lost!

The other day I watched with amusement the ICICI Prudential ad on TV where a school girl asks her father if he could buy her a laptop and her father replies ‘yes’ explaining to his reticent wife that their daughter would have higher education and invent something like Facebook or YouTube when she grows up. Here brand ambassador Big B interjects the father and explains that higher education costs money and therefore it is important to take the Children’s Education Policy.

It's like any other persuasive ad you get to see on TV every day and I do not wish to go into the merits or demerits of having or not having a policy for children's education. What really got me thinking is the father’s fond hope that his daughter would invent something like Facebook or YouTube after completing her studies. How many Indian software guys have invented something like Google, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter till date? Isn’t it surprising that after being a software superpower for about two decades, Indians have not been able to come up with anything like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and the like? (Probably the only exception being Sabeer Bhatia’s ‘Hotmail’, which was a joint effort between Sabeer and his American colleague Jack Smith).

So, why are our software guys doing the routine things they have been doing all these years instead of doing something creative? Has the routine work sapped their creativity or have they become complacent, wallowing in their ‘success’ (measured in fat bank balances, swanky cars and plush houses in upmarket localities) and remaining content with writing codes day in and day out for their companies? If so, I think India’s success as a software powerhouse is just a mirage which will disappear when the labour cost advantage vanishes as more and more cheaper destinations become available to American companies and the dollar deluge becomes a trickle.

Internet is an immensely powerful and versatile medium and I guess there are many more innovations waiting to be discovered. We need some great innovations to fall back on when our cost advantage disappears. If our Indian software guys just start thinking out-of-the-box, they might as well hit upon quite a few really great ideas. That would be the day when a parent, like the dad in the ad, would find buying a laptop for a school-going son or daughter worthwhile.

The Power Of Ahimsa!

Once again, the power of Ahimsa was witnessed when Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death forced the UPA government to accept the demand for Lok Pal bill. What could not be achieved in more than four decades was achieved in 96 hours. It was a glimpse of our own Independence struggle when a dhoti-clad bald and lanky old man walking with just a lathi in his hands brought the mighty British empire to its knees. The anti-corruption crusade is our second freedom struggle and it took an Anna Hazare to kick-start it.

It's heartening to see the success of a non-violent struggle. But many people do not believe in non-violence and feel that only an armed struggle can bring about a radical change. Can corruption be eradicated by violent means? Can an army of rebels armed with AK-47s, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails put an end to corruption by unleashing violence against corrupt politicians and babus? The answer is: NO. The government (with its power-drunk and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats) has the military, paramilitary and police forces at its disposal and can easily crush any violent uprising. An armed army of rebels is simply no match against the might of the government’s forces. Also, the violence of the rebels provides the government with the justification to unleash its own violence.

Therefore, the only way to challenge the brutal might of the government is through non-violent struggle (Ahimsa) and Mahatma Gandhi realized the importance of people’s power and the power of Ahimsa during the Independence struggle. When thousands (or sometimes even lakhs) of people come out on streets to demonstrate peacefully, the government is at a loss to figure out how to respond. On the one hand, it cannot order the police or the armed forces to open fire on the unarmed masses (rare exceptions being the Jallianwala Bagh and Tiananmen Square massacres), but on the other hand, it also knows fully well that if a people’s agitation keeps simmering for long it is likely to snowball into a revolutionary movement. So the only option for the government is to negotiate with the leaders of the agitation and arrive at a mutually acceptable settlement. The British did that with the Mahatma; our deshi firangees have done just that with Anna. That’s the power of Ahimsa!

But the fight against corruption does not end with the passage of the Lok Pal bill in the parliament - the fight will actually begin after its passage. The Lok Pals/Lok Ayuktas have to be persons of unimpeachable integrity who will do their duty without fear or favour and make eradication of corruption from public life their life's mission. The fight will be truly successful when all corrupt politicians and babus are put behind bars and all their ill-gotten wealth confiscated by the courts. So let's not celebrate now, but keep our celebrations for the day when we win our second Independence from these deshi white-collar bandits.