Gods in flesh and blood

This article has been written as a submission for the course ‘Management of Self’ in IIMC and is based on the novel ‘Immortals of Meluha’ by Amish Tripathi . If you are looking for an unbiased review of the book, you are at the wrong place. This is more on how the book conforms to my personal convictions, than what the author might have meant!

I was introduced to the habit of reading, by my father. He had collected a lot of story books, classics as well as the epics even as I was a baby, so that I can start reading them as soon as I learn to. I had read Ramayana and Mahabharata at an early age itself, along with many other related Puranas. I was always amazed by the story of Mahabharata, with its profound and subtle meanings, perfect characters and variety of side stories and used to believe that it is the best literary work ever by man. I couldn’t help wondering how a single person like VedVyas could write such an article all by himself. I used to feel proud to have a heritage where such characters existed in flesh and blood.

As I grew up and having read many other books, I started doubting if the epics were just stories and not reality and were these really the work of single persons after all, or of a generation of authors. I wondered why such heroes and armors don’t exist anymore – the warriors who had divine talents, saints who could shuttle between earth and heaven, Gods showing up every now and then to bless the kings. I was slowly coming out of some contradiction that India faces – the lack of distinction that people have between History and Mythology.

I remember something which influenced me in my school days - “Dwaparam”- a Malayalam book, presenting the story of Krishna and Radha, but without the air of divinity or exaggeration. The book was presented from the angle of Radha, who sacrificed her love for the sake of humanity, but still got pushed to a back stage in other scriptures by the aura of the legend, Krishna. In the book, Krishna is portrayed as a village boy who came up in life through hard work and determination and became the savior of his tribe, by killing the evil king Kamsa. It didn’t have even a tinge of super human acts or divine interventions. The book gave a strong alternate perspective to me. I started to see the characters as human beings who might or might not have existed, but have been exaggerated over time.

During my college days, I got caught up with the Hindutva wave, due to the influence of a few friends. I used to believe that Hinduism is the best religion in the world, seeing Christianity as evangelistic and Islam as extremist. It was more of a result of constant interaction with those friends which kept my bias rather than an informed choice. As I researched more on the historic facts, I realized that Hinduism had its own share of vices – Caste System, Untouchability, Sati, Sambhandham practice in Kerala, Child marriage etc. I was realizing that the religion that I considered to be the symbol of ‘Universal Acceptance’ and ‘Tolerance’ wasn’t really so at any point of time, but it was rather an image given to it by scholars like Swami Vivekananda who revived Hinduism and made it presentable to the world.

Coming to the book “Immortals of Meluha”, I find a lot of ideas being presented, which aligns with my above said convictions. I feel Amish Tripathi has been able to present his strong views in a subtle manner throughout this book, careful not to offend anyone and not to raise any conflict, but still driving his view effectively.

He begins the book by saying that he is bowing to ‘Lord’ Siva, even as the book is about Siva being seen as a human with less or no divinity. The story proceeds as we see Siva, the leader of the Guna tribe in Tibet, coming to the land called Meluha ruled by the Suryavamsi kings (which according to the author covers the modern day Pakistan and North-West India). He is considered as the savior by the people of Meluha, according to an old legend. There he meets his love Sati. The story proceeds as we see Shiva pursuing his love and his supposed mission. The reader is a given a vivid picture of the emotional journey that Shiva undergoes. The story ends abruptly, to be continued over the two sequels.

The book, according to me has a storyline which is extremely gripping, presented with lot of twists and turns, the second half being a real suspense thriller. I must admit that it has a lot of situations which are anachronic- like the sophisticated infrastructure of Meluhans or the Somras which prevents death, as well as a number of flawed logics- like the Maika system where the parents give all children to the school who are later allotted randomly after education. Keeping apart these minor deficiencies, I really enjoyed reading the book and hope that the sequels are as thrilling and interesting as this is.

I would like to analyze the story on a few dimensions which I feel as important.

1.       Confusion between Mythology and History

As I already said, this is one aspect which characterizes India according to me. This is a country which was predominantly Buddhist for over 1000 years, but that history being conveniently excluded from the mainline scriptures, to present the view of India as a Hindu one. This has been catalyzed by a series of stories which binds together the faith across cultures and which partly relate to certain historic events.

Hinduism has taken lot of stories from across the country and combined it as one big logical story. This becomes evident as we dive a bit deeper. . I had written a blog earlier on the alternate perspective of Ayyappa as Buddha. Maveli, a legendary king in the folk stories of Kerala, seems to have been later identified with the king Bali, whom Vamana, the 5^th Avatar of Vishnu supposedly sent to the Hell. Murugan, a Dravidian God who has been worshipped for a long time has been later identified with Karthikeyan, Parvathy’s second son. It becomes more evident as we notice that Karthikeyan is not worshipped as a God anywhere in North India. Most of the places where the stories supposed to have taken place do exist even today, with remnants of temples and forts constructed some time in recorded history - thus Dwaraka, Lanka, Rameshwaram, Hastinapur etc becomes part of mythology as well as history.

I completely appreciate the effort towards blending mythology to form a coherent story, which matches with geography as well as a few historic facts, but the problem with this is that it confuses people. They are left to believe that the ‘Gods’ once walked in flesh and blood at these places. It is then that they feel like pulling down a Mosque at a place where they believe a mythological figure was actually born, or people get offended when a Muslim artist draws naked pictures of another mythological figure.

‘Immortals of Meluha’ tries to see the legendary character Shiva as a mortal who becomes a leader. The protagonist is more of a charismatic leader who has normal human emotions with no divinity attached to him. Amish explains how he is being worshipped by the followers against his wish. This gives the reader a taste of how normal mortals get deified over time, appended by exaggerated stories.

On a lighter note, I feel that this book would have become a major controversy, had it been written by a Non-Hindu author!

2.      Ideal state as against Free state

Meluha is initially presented as an ideal land with high scientific advancements – pipes, drainage systems, people living in quarters etc. Everything in Meluha is guided by rules created by visionary kings. Shiva is amazed by how efficiently the system works. Everyone knows their duty and sticks to it strictly, which makes Meluha, the land of abundance and perfection. But this is achieved at the cost of freedom and dignity of a section of the population. Swadweep, the land of Chandravamsis is described as an imperfect system with a larger population, haphazard organization of the city, damaged roads and slums. But it is also the place of “Passion, Beauty and Freedom”, where houses were different from each other, according to individuals taste and beauty existing side by side with ugliness.

There is one instance which beautifully narrates this. Shiva sees a beggar at the Ram temple in Swadweep sitting with some unclean food. Shiva wondered how the empire can let people be in a wretched state like that, something which will not happen in Meluha. It was then that the beggar offered him the little food that he had. Shiva was amazed and he politely declined. The beggar says “This food is good, otherwise I wouldn’t have offered this to you”, his eyes reflecting the hurt he felt. Realizing that he has insulted the old man’s pride, Shiva sits with him and has the food, when the old man beams generously. Shiva was touched by this incident when a person whom he felt as wretched and on the verge of starvation, offered the little food that he had. He realizes what Chandravamsis gave their people and what Suryavamsis do not, -Freedom, Freedom for even the wretched to have dignity!

This I believe is a representation of the pre-colonial and post colonial India. India accounted for 32.9% of Worlds GDP in 1^st century AD, 28.9% in 1000AD and 24.4% of Worlds GDP in 1700. The system of division worked perfectly to take the country to economic growth, but it was at the cost of a vast majority being denied of dignity and respect! 

3.      Caste System – A Social malevolence

Amish draws an excellent picture of how the caste system came into place and how it got deformed over time. The intention behind it was to have an ideal society, where every person performs his duty and the society as a whole benefits, the inheritance of caste being to follow a process of competitive selection. Even as it was designed with an ideal society in mind, I feel that the pioneers should have foreseen a future when parental selfishness would make the elite castes to shun the ‘acquiring caste by karma’ concept and create an easy route for their offspring.

Caste system, according to me, is the largest crime that Hinduism has committed to mankind. Caste plays with the sub conscious mind of people, injecting a superiority or inferiority complex in the mind of children right from their birth, which gets reinforced over time by the societal interactions. It is equally appalling and amazing to note that something as nonexistent and intangible as caste could propagate over several centuries and get accepted equally by the benefactors as well as the oppressed. As I said earlier, the country progressed economically those days, but at the cost of a section of the society confined to the abhorred jobs, not given a chance to study or excel. They never even realized that they were being treated unfairly – because they were made to believe that they were born of the feet of Lord Brahma and has to follow their ‘birth-karma’ religiously to wash away the sins of ‘previous lives’!

The evil is far from being over in the age of artificial intelligence. Still discrimination exists including heinous practices like Untouchability, along with it taking a new manifestation of Caste politics. I was really disheartened to know that Indian Government lobbied strongly against the move by United Nations to classify Caste System as a Human Right violation. It is sad to notice that the Government of a secular and democratic country bends its back to accommodate the biases of communal elements.

4.      Imperfect characters

Another peculiar aspect I notice in the novel is that the characters are imperfect. Shiva is shown as a normal human being with his own limitations. He lives with the guilt of leaving a girl who pleaded for help in his childhood. He smokes marijuana, desperately tries to impress his love, naively believes the Suryavamsis and later repents it as he realizes his mistake. He is anything but divine, apart from the fact that he is considered divine by his followers. Sati lives accepting her inferior status in the society despite her talent, though craving for respect and recognition.

I think this is a change in attitude that the human kind as such needs to have – to accept leaders as human beings who are imperfect in their own ways, but charismatic and able to lead them. But we need them to be completely perfect. We take offense when someone raises the question as to whether Gandhiji had shared a bed with his grandniece, something which he himself had publicly admitted, or if someone from West says that Nehru had a relationship with Edwina Mountbatten. We find it hard to accept the fact that a leader can have a weaker side, especially when he is a God-like figure. It is for the same reason that Church warned the followers not to read Da Vinci code, as they fear that having human emotions might make Christ a mortal before the followers.

I see people who are either hard core fans of Gandhiji, blatantly denying any such weak emotions that he had or completely opposing his methods, calling him a pervert and accusing him of pampering Muslims. Hardly anyone is willing to accept the fact that he was normal imperfect human being who did the humongous job of uniting the nation and challenging the largest empire with his non violent methods.

To conclude, “Immortals of Meluha” was a book which stirred up strong emotions in me, as I felt it aligned with my personal convictions over multiple dimensions. As I said at the onset, I am not really sure if the author actually holds the same view, but I think it is the character of a good book, that it invites multiple interpretations from the readers.

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Enlightenment to Individual, Opium to Masses

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the masses."  - Karl Marx

As I write this, an entire country is anxiously waiting for the verdict on an act by a bunch of religious fanatics 18 years ago, and praying that history will not repeat. Religion, by its true nature, should not take a form where it harms people, but sadly it does. I am trying to evaluate what is the actual purpose of religion in the life of humankind, what it is in the contemporary world and suggesting a few changes  that I feel is inevitable for a harmonious future.

Dearest Reader, there is nothing new in this article; the views expressed here have been proclaimed time and again by many eminent people who were depressed by the animosity in the world over something non-existent. I am doing my small bit in spreading the message, by repeating their words.

What is the purpose of religion?

Even as man is intellectually superior to the other beings, he is not clear of many aspects about himself; or rather he has numerous doubts because of his superior intelligence. It deceives him, to understand the vastness of this universe, how complex life is and what the purpose of his existence is. The function that religion serves in a man’s life is to provide answers to these unending questions he has – regarding his place in the world, purpose of life, what after this..

And that search to oneself is completely individual - One came alone in this world, he is alone in his search of the meaning, and he leaves alone. He might or might not realize the ultimate truth, but definitely he is alone in his spiritual search. Religion thus helps the lonely man to search for answers, during his life. He does not have to search anywhere else for this. The answer is within himself, but obscured. He can find the answer by introspection. Religion provides a framework for it.

Swami Vivekananda says that various religions are like the different pathways that lead to the same mountain top; the paths vary in the looks and terrain. But all paths inevitably lead to the same mountain top. Individuals can take whichever path they are comfortable with. It is immaterial which path you take, as the destination is the same.

Now, what is collective religion?

It is pretty obscure what is aimed at by the concept of collective religion. Finding a good teacher who can guide one in the search is still understandable. When the search for ultimate truth is individual and requires lot of introspection, what is the purpose of aggregating people on the basis on religion?

Now don’t say that religion groups people so that they can collectively introspect! That is not logical, and even it was so, it not what religion does currently!

We are given a collective feeling right from childhood. We project statistics like India has 80% Hindus and 18% Muslims – based on what religion they were born at. Has anyone asked these 1.2 billion people whether they are actually influenced by the ideologies of the religion to which they are categorized into? I am sure that majority of people who proudly claim to be Hindus have no clue about what are the fundamentals of the religion. They just remain so and are chauvinistic about it because they were born to it and were trained to believe that way. No religion is an exception to this.

Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Vivekananda and Mohamed were all great leaders. They all proclaimed the same ultimate path – the realization of God within oneself!

None of them wanted a religion to take collective form or be organized and oppose the other religions. They offered frameworks and guidelines so that an individual can explore himself and realize his place in this world. But comprehending this ultimate truth is possible only for the educated and thoughtful ones. So they delivered it in simple forms like stories, which could be understood by the masses. Masses have to be initially convinced about a God, separate from themselves whom they would be looking up to, until they could be made ready to accept the ultimate aspect of searching the ultimate god within oneself. And these stories got misinterpreted or were interpreted literally by the thoughtless followers.

Christ never employed Church to be an intermediary between himself and the people. All religious institutions are self- appointed middle-men who claim to be closer to God than the common mass and through whom alone the common man can reach God.

It was the need of the religious institutions to deify these leaders, lest they do not have an existence. And it is exactly in the name of these misinterpreted verses and deified leaders that people kill each other now.

It is because these institutions existence are based on these hyped stories that the Church has to warn people about the devil which has made Dan Brown write Da Vinci code and hence shouldn’t be read by any believer. Vishwa Hindu Parishad feels agitated when an artist of a different religion paints Sita as naked or as having affair with Hanuman. They took it as a national issue and got the artist exiled. All these for mythological characters whose existence is as obscure to the fanatics as is to the artist!

A different question is, was Mr. Hussain running short of characters which could be painted as naked or as having extra marital relations, for him to choose as sensitive a character as Sita ? Anyways VHP did a good job of marketing those pictures (with captions and explanations), which would otherwise have made no sense to the eyes of a common man ;)

Why shouldn’t religion be collectivized?

Two-thirds of the Jews in Europe (Six million innocent people) were systematically exterminated during the Holocaust.

British used the Hindu –Muslim divide as an easy tool. The cross border migration and the killings which ensued resulted in death tolls estimated to be between 5 lakh and 1 million. People found it better to leave their own land and migrate to a far off place and be with the ones of “their type” than being with their neighbors for a life time. Indian and Pakistan gifted each other with train loads of mutilated bodies of immigrants. The enmity is still far away from being solved.

India also witnessed a situation where a political party sponsored a massacre of innocent people belonging to one community for no fault of theirs. Fundamentalists felt like pulling down the temple of another religion (which should have been protected as a National monument) to build a temple for their own God! We also saw a Chief Minister giving silent approval for women and children of a different religion to be raped and butchered by fanatic mobs.

Thaslima Nasrin, in her brave work “Lajja”, gives a very vivid picture of the anti-Hindu sentiments in Bangladesh after the Babri Masjid demolition. Bangladeshi Muslims felt it necessary to take revenge on the Hindus in their country for what happened in Ayodhya – they felt more allegiance towards the unknown people in a different country whom they have never met and remorselessly took revenge on their own countrymen who stayed across the street.

All these are situations which led to deaths of thousands of innocent people, just because they had a religious identity!

What we need to notice here is that the madness of religion is not limited to a country - a religious riot in some part of the world will definitely have reverberations across the globe and has the potential to destroy a country or the whole humanity itself.

What was the rationale behind these acts – because they chose a different path towards knowing themselves than the perpetrators?

The problem lies in the act of Collectivizing religion!

People are kept in dark about the true purpose of religion. They are projected with a religious identity and asked to see others to be of a different type. Who is benefiting from this - the people? None of the religious institutions actually serve the purpose which it should actually do – help in people understand themselves. Instead they inject people with prejudices about themselves as well as others making them kill and harm others who apparently have done nothing to them.

Violence is always initiated by the fundamentalists and it is the common man who has to pay for it.

Collective religion is as harming as it is meaningless.

What change is required?

Something which caught my attention recently was an article in Hindu which quoted the words of the social activist Swami Agnivesh during World Religious Congress in Kochi. He said, “A child should have no religion upto the age of 18. Also, the government must ensure that there should not be any claims for religion or caste in school register or academic register".

I feel that this is a very important change that has to happen, that to as soon as possible. When religion is a path that one chooses to identify oneself or to realize god, how can parents or the society decide it? And what right does the school authorities or rather government has, to demand for the religion of a kid when a kid is joined to school.

Let the kid be joined to school without any religious identification. Let him be taught about the various religions and schools of thought across the world, including atheism and let him make an informed choice of the path that he wants to follow in his life. This would raise the brows of quite a number of parents who want their children to be brought up in a particular faith. Fine, Parents can bring up their kids in their own religion. But that doesn’t need it to be mentioned in official records, does it?

Such a change is highly imperative in the case of a secular country like India. Why should a secular country keep a record of the faiths of its citizens? Does it make any significance in ones career or life? If the answer is yes, it means we are not truly secular.

It is when religion is in numbers that some organizations feel like pumping funds to ‘Save’(euphemism for ‘Forced Conversion’) the hapless from underdeveloped nations to boost their numbers. It is then that some feel it is their purpose of life to indulge in holy war and cleanse the world off infidels.

Epilogue

I don’t intend in any means to say religious faith is wrong. The path provided by any religion is the best when people follow it individually. When it is organized and collective, it takes the nasty form. People should understand that each religion represents different paths to self realization (or God) and we should respect every religion. If this realization is obtained, it will make no sense to see another human being as different or fight and kill each other over mythological figures - and the world would be a better place to live in.

As I already said, there is nothing new that I had to say. If I could make you pause for a second and reconsider your convictions, my purpose is served. Thanks for going through my blog :)

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Ayyappa is Buddha ?

TaktSang Monastery, Paro, Bhutan

 This article is not intended to question the faith or harm the sentiments of any devotee nor is it to disprove a popular view. It contains a bunch of arguments which appeared logical to me, majorly collected from internet and partly based on my observation, which gives an alternate perspective on the Dravidian God ‘Ayyappa’.

I recently went on a 4 day trip to Bhutan. I had heard in advance from a senior as well from the Tourist Guide that a trip to Bhutan is incomplete without a visit to the Taktsang monastery in the outskirts of Paro city.

So on one Friday early morning, we set out for our trek to Taktsang. It took us about 6 hours to complete the entire trek. It is a really tiring journey uphill, with slippery and steep portions, but the experience that we get at the top is worth the entire trouble. A view of the beautiful waterfall which sprinkles icy water as we cross a wooden bridge over the stream and the beautiful Taktsang Monastery - an awe inspiring structure, built on a vertical cliff, appearing to defy gravity is a once-in-lifetime experience.

I was amazed at the similarities between the monastery I saw and Sabarimala temple in Kerala that I have been to, many times.

The journey to the monastery involves a 3 hour trek from the road through the forest, similar to the trek to Sabarimala temple. Buddhist monasteries are generally located deep inside the forest, on mountain tops etc where they can lead an austere life peacefully and far from civilization, unlike Hindu temples which are mostly located in populated areas. Sabarimala is also located far inside the forest, in the middle of 18 hills in Western Ghats, the area coming under the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Just before the monastery, there are a series of steep steps, which reminded me of the “Pathinettam padi” or “18 steps” which takes us to the Sabarimala shrine. The legend related to Taktsang says that Guru Padmasambhava, who propagated Buddhism in Bhutan came to this place riding on a Tigress. Taktsang literally means “Tigers Nest”. Ayyappa’s legend also has a mention of him riding back home, on a tigress.

Even before going to Taktsang, I had read about the less popular view on Sabarimala and Ayyappa. There are quite a number of scholars who have given evidences to the fact that Sabarimala was actually a Buddhist shrine and Ayyappa was actually Buddha, rechristened during the revival of Hinduism and the subsequent exile of Buddhism.

 “Dharma Sastha”, the alternate name by which Ayyappa is known, suggests in similar lines. “Dharma” is a word which is of utmost importance to Buddhists. The 'Saranathrayam' of Buddhist disciples “Budham Saranam Gachami; Dharmam Saranam Gachami; Sangham Saranam Gachami” meaning “To the Buddha I go for refuge; To the Dharma (Teachings) I go for refuge; To the Sangha (Monks) I go for refuge” portrays Buddha and Dharma as destinations for ones refuge. Also “Sastha” is a widely used synonym for Buddha.

The chanting of Ayyappa devotees wherein they repeat the word Saranam is also interesting. There is no other Hindu God who is associated with the chanting of Saranam whereas it is an integral part of the Buddhist chants.

Ayyappa devotees making a pilgrimage are expected to lead an austere life for 41 days - follow celibacy and refrain from tobacco and alcohol and all carnal pleasures as well - unlikely of other Hindu pilgrimages. This is very much similar to the Buddhist principles which advocate renunciation and mental discipline.

Another interesting aspect to notice is the egalitarian nature of the Sabarimala temple. Devotees here are never differentiated on the basis of religion, caste or color. Everyone wears the same dress and addresses each other as “Ayyappa” or in other words each devotee considers each other as the God himself. This again isn’t in line with the Hindu system of differentiating people, but more similar towards the Buddhist principle of equality.

Ayyappa does not show his presence in any of the mainline Hindu scriptures, which are of Aryan origin. This is obvious as Ayyappa was a Dravidian God, who was absorbed into the Hindu mythology. Later Hindu works added him as Hariharaputra (Son of Vishnu and Shiva) who was born out of the love between Mohini(Vishnu) and Shiva.

The folk story of Ayyappa portrays him as the prince of Pandalam dynasty, the Pandalam King having adopted him on finding him as a baby in the shores of river Pampa. It is probable that the folk story was absorbed into the later Hindu scriptures, adding the missing link of the birth (story of Mohini and Shiva).

Ayyappa’s  legends speaks about him having a Muslim friend called Vavar who has helped Ayyappa. This also underlines the above fact, as Islam religion originated in mid AD 600s whereas most of the Hindu scriptures were composed in the BC era. The legend of Ayyappa must have originated at a time of religious harmony between Muslims and Hindus. The era of Pandalam Dynasty (1200-1500AD) of which Ayyappa’s legend is based on, also suggests the same.

It is interesting to note that Ayyappa is just one among the several Dravidian Gods including Tirupati Balaji, who convincingly seem to be rechristened forms of Buddha.

There is also convincing evidence that Buddhism had strong following in Kerala during early days. Lot of idols have been discovered across Kerala; the black granite statue of Buddha discovered in Alapuzha(Karumadikkuttan) being the most prominent. A 4 foot statue of Buddha has been discovered in Neyyattinkara as well. Karunagappally, Idappalli, Mavelikkara etc. have been pointed out as chief centers of Buddhism in early days.

Whatever be the truth behind it, with the limited knowledge that we have (and as history and mythology are never written by God himself), it is impossible to conclude on any of the presented views. It is actually immaterial to the millions of devotees of Ayyappa, to whom the egalitarian nature, the unique experience of controlling ones senses for an extended period, the toughness of the journey, the ambience and the energy felt among the devotees in the entire trip contributes to the ultimate satisfaction of the unique pilgrimage to Sabarimala.

Ayyappa and Sabarimala draw millions of devotees from across South India every year, making it the second largest annual religious gathering in the world after the Hajj.

References

http://www.ambedkar.org/Tirupati/Chap5.htm

http://www.chintha.com/keralam/sabarimala-history-myth.html

http://www.thrikodithanam.org/tidbits.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyappan

http://www.rediff.com/news/dec/31rajeev.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions_of_Kerala

On a lighter note, I feel this is an ideal topic for Dan Brown. He can start in his typical style – a Melshanti (priest) in Sabarimala getting killed on mysterious grounds, forcing the Travancore Devaswam board to bring Robert Langdon. He would then uncover lots of clues hidden across Kerala, Tirupati and some parts of North India, take some cues from Tibet and Bhutan and finally conclude that Ayyappa is actually Buddha. He can probably fall in love with the Meshanti’s beautiful daughter also, if he has enough time ;)

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India Untouched

A documentary which shook my faith in the religion that I was born to!

A must watch for every Indian, especially for those who believe that India is developing in all aspects and caste system is no more significant.