A Hindu’s salutations on Christmas : Positives and Negatives
Christmas has also become a ‘grand partying event’ where nudity and alcohol are new normal. For instance, in a small city like Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, a rally was organized on December 14 which was attended by women with clothing which many will not find appropriate.
Merry Christmas! As India celebrates this Christmas, there are loads of opinions being expressed online where at one hand PM Modi was seen embracing the Indian Christians as he joined them in celebration while at the other end people have shared the painful memories of Hindu persecution at the hands of the Goan inquisition.
India and Hindus are not culturally alien to the tales of Jesus Christ and his divinity and they were aware of him and saw him as a pious personality even prior to the advent of colonizers in the subcontinent.
Regardless of the fact whether Jesus and India had any historical connection at all, today when a Hindu goes through Bhavishya Purana (a book of future prophecies which is considered holy by the mainstream Hindu seers) he finds the episode when Jesus had interaction with King Shalivahana (in Pratisarga Parva, Chaturyuga Khanda Dvitiyadhyayah, 19th Chapter, Texts 17 to 32)
The text describes that once the King Shalivhana was travelling deep inside the Huna country when he encountered an auspicious man.
ko bharam iti tam praaha
su hovacha mudanvitah
iishaa purtagm maam viddhi
kumaarigarbha sambhavam
“The king asked, ‘Who are you sir?’ ‘You should know that I am Isha Putra, the Son of God’. he replied blissfully, and ‘am born of a virgin.’ ”
isha muurtirt-dradi praptaa
nityashuddha sivamkari
ishamasihah iti ca
mama nama pratishthitam
“Having placed the eternally pure and auspicious form of the Supreme Lord in my heart, O protector of the earth planet, I preached these principles through the Mlecchas’ own faith and thus my name became ‘isha-masiha’ (Jesus the Messiah).”
Jesus was never unacceptable to the inclusive and diversity friendly Hindu society in spite of the fact that Christianity was the faith of the British Colonizers. It is nothing short of the best examples of tolerance and acceptance that Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Bose, the stalwarts of Indian independence who had invoked the ancient roots of Bharat had expressed their reverence for Christ though at the same time they were seen to be criticizing missionaries in their words. Swami Vivekanand who is today celebrated as a great ideologue by the Indic had famously said about the actions of Jesus -
“Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, I would have washed his feet, not with my tears, but with my heart’s blood!”
Such acceptance was even present at the time when India was faced with religious persecution in states like Goa at the hands of the church and when Indian Gods were being defiled publicly for the Monotheistic wished to reform the idolaters : the Indians.
It is notable that to the Hindu mind another deity by the name of Jesus does not appear to be an issue, but will the Hindu and his faith and inclusivism be allowed and accepted by those who believe only in Jesus while seeing everything else as idolatry?
It is paramount today to pay attention towards the rising trend Abrahamic thoughts which tend to alter the present Indian views of universal acceptance and brotherhood and the celebration of Christmas must not be allowed to become a celebration of such exclusion. India should be mindful that St. Francis Xavier and the likes who was once the face of atrocities against non-Christians in India are not remembered and projected as saints of the faith during such festivals which will be as good as to support their work.
To quote Francis Xavier “When all are baptized I order all the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken in pieces. I can give you no idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done, witnessing the destruction of the idols by the very people who but lately adored them.” (The letters and instructions of Francis Xavier)
An OpIndia study notes that - “Under the Portuguese inquisition more than 600 temples. From 1540s to 1782, the ignoble practice convicted 28000 people of violation of heracy to various forms of punishment. A conservative estimate notes the brutal burning of 1454 persons alive in the incarceration.”
And while today the inquisition has vanished, similar issues are rising in north-eastern part of India where conversion of tribals to Christianity has threatened the territorial integrity and peaceful existence of non-converts such as the Meities where Kuki-Zo insurgency has caused turmoil to the area. The treat became crystal clear when a sitting Chief Minister of Mizoram Mr. Lalduhoma had talked of establishing a separate nation state for the Christians, carved out of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. India must be vigilant for if such aspects are not minded, it will allow the great setbacks for our territorial integrity and may also cause moral whitewashing of the crimes which had once threatened the peaceful existence of our people.
As we celebrate Jesus, we must be mindful of the westernization such celebration tends to bring with them. India as a land dominated by Hindus had never seen such widespread and open consumption of liquor as it has seen during these festivals. For instance, in the December last, Delhi had 14 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth while 4.56 crore bottles were sold.
Christmas has also become a ‘grand partying event’ where nudity and alcohol are new normal. For instance, in a small city like Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, a rally was organized on December 14 which was attended by women with clothing which many will not find appropriate. It is essential that India soon finds a balance between its accepting nature and its necessity to protects its family system and societal decency.
In essence India has not issue in accepting Jesus, but what bothers it is the fact that those who exclusively accept Jesus may not accept India as it is. Regardless even those who do not accept Christianity do respect Jesus in India in what can be called as the best examples of tolerance in this fast-dividing globe. India must be tolerant to the tolerant ideas within Christianity such as love, devotion and honor but it cannot afford the same to the intolerant ideas it has towards idols and polytheistic spiritual views.
Article by
Shreeacharya Mishra
Younginker
Law Student, Raipur
