Monday, September 6, 2010

On God --krishna

Religion, according to Einstein to begin with , is a product of fear. All the societies createw their own , idioms , phrases, rituals and Gods and godesses according to their historical needs. That is why the nature, number, functions and conceptions of Gods and Godesses have been historically changing. In pre-modern days, the function of God was to help the poor and distressed, in modern times, with the advent of Social Darwinism, the function of the God has changed. Now God helps those who help themselves -- the rich and dominant classes. Believers are so insecure and illogical that their sentiments are like wax, get hurt on anything critical of gods and prophets.

Trimurti -- Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh -- or the plethora of 33 crores gods/godesees find no place in the Rig-vedic scheme of religion. Arun(the sun), Varun (the wind), Indra, Agni -- the natural forces beypond the cpomprehension of our ancient ancestors, were regarded as gods -- the supernatural powers. With passage of time few more natural forces and the Soma (the marijuana -- bhang plant) got the status of Gods. According to the changing charecter of ruling classes and perpetuation of brhmanical order of varnashrama system, that attained climax during the early centuries of the christian era culminating into the lawbook -- Manusmriti, the number of dieties went on increasing.

Kautilya, synonymously known by the name of Chanakya (or the Vishnugupta), the Prime Minister of the first Mauryan king Chandragupta, in his Arthashatra -- a masterpiece on the political theory; statecraft; political economy; diplomacy and warfares -- while advising the Vijigishu (the would be conquerer king) to worship Gods and demons before setting off on a war campaign brackets, interstingly together Krishna alongwith Kansa in the category of demons ( RP Kangle, The Kautiliya Arthashastra, Vol. II[English translation by Kangle]). Maeghanstenese, the conrtemporary greek trveller, writes about Krishna as a locan legendary hero of the Sursen region. This implies the krishmna was not part of the galaxy of the dieties till atleast Mauryan times. Krishna began to be transformed into a diety with the interpolation of Bhagawatgita section in the original Mahabharata and gained momentum with Bhakti movement ' initially in Bengal with the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Therefore it is my request to Bansal ji and his fanatic critics to kindly demystify the charecters of epics and Puranas/mythologies to get the contents of the social history. And objections to freedom of expression is a dangerous ooman for the forward nmarch of democracy. criticism should have respect for differences as society consists of not many but many kinds of men and women.

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