MEETING WITH MAHASHAKTI

Was the past golden?

Now Abdul Sattar and Raghuram Mishra believed that I was trying to do something very misleading and misguide the youths of the locality.They had never heard anyone attacking religion with such bitterness and virulence.Mr.Sattar's son Imtiaz and Raghuram's son Pranay had started behaving out of the way.Imtiaz didn't offer Nawaz regularly and now he would place the accountability on me! Pranay was no believer in God which made me happy. I would draw Sattar's attention to how he had been complaining about his son's apathy to religious matters to his friend Mubarak Ali before my arrival in the colony. I loved
Mr.Ali for his flexible religious views.I was teaching English to his youngest daughter Parveen.Mubarak Ali originally hailed from Bihar.I would be deeply touched to see him offering food to the colony dogs in general. He was the only Muslim gentleman who told me that his ancestors had been tortured and forced into accepting Islam.I am not mentioning his name according to his request.To Mr.Sattar,Allah and Sri Hari were different.Mr. Ali would give a patronising smile as his reaction to Mr.Sattar's ignorance.

The past is the principal source of trouble and mischief everywhere.The Mussalman takes pride in the glorious achievements of his past,of all the splendid achievements of the Muslim sultans and emperors of yore. The Hindu derives his pride and arrogance from the past greatness.He has his great historical personages to be proud of.The Geeta and the Vedas and the monumental epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were written thousands of years ago and hence then the time periods were exceptionally good.

People everywhere are convinced that the things of the bygone eras were excellent and now whatever we have are definitely bad.The Hindus are dead sure a stalwart like Adi Sankaracharya or greater than him can never come into the world again.Can any Christian scholar accept that someone greater than Jesus can come again?Can another Shakespeare come?No...never.Will another Kalidasa descend into the world?Never..As far as the past is concerned, worldly men and women are superclass victims of superstitions.I do believe another Adi Sankaracharya or even greater than him can come. I do believe other incarnations,
greater than Rama and Krishna can come.Whether we are Hindus or Muslims or Christians,we call it downright heresy to call the past in question.The past can transform us into lions;at the same time it can also destroy us.

The film directors and actors whose easiest way to earn money today lies in pornography defend themselves on the pretext that the Hindu temples have walls bearing nudist and lewd sculptures and hence it is right to follow them now. What nonsense? Why do they think whatever the sculptors of the old world did was absolutely correct and fully acceptable?Since the Hindu puranas were written in the very old days,they are unquestionable! Dayanand Saraswati gave the slogan:"Back to the Vedas..." Why? Because we are bound to be slaves of the monstrous past?Was everything nice and beautiful during that period?

It is hundred percent incorrect to say that the past was golden and this is a universal truth.You might contradict me as far as environmental problems are concerned. Our ancestors breathed pure air and ate unadulterated food,fruit and vegetables. One indispensable thing man can't live happily without is individual liberty and the other basic freedoms.Life of  the poor and the middle classes was worse than hell.The laws were strange and the sense of justice was stranger too.In my childhood I saw a lot of poverty and cruelty around me.Just imagine what the situation must have been at the time of Gautam Buddha,particularly when Buddha repudiated the sacred texts of Hinduism and refused to take refuge in Rama or Krishna. We need to strike a balance between the past and the present so that we might live a decent and disciplined life.Here we meet with two extremities,one of rigidity and another of flexibility.In our case,flexibility and liberalism have gone so far that we find ourselves in total chaos and disorder.Then there was little individual liberty but now we make full misuse of that liberty. We are no better than animals in the forest.The intellectuals and philosophers advise us not to resist something that is natural.First of all let me tell you that there is nothing called natural. It is man's supreme duty to regulate himself and human society.We will discuss later how everything is made and not natural in this world.

Even after being self-realised,yogis often fail to get rid of their sense of respect for the past.A yogi bows down to an idol of a deity because of his respect for the past.It is a very difficult task to get out of this.If we go through the annals of mankind,most of the worst crimes have been committed for which inspiration came from the past.

After the discussion had ended,I thought I must have changed the slavish mentality of some present there. But I was wrong. They had all ignored me. They seemed to be taking more interest in discussing their household matters.

Raghuram asked me,"I can't agree with you that the past was wicked. We have inherited many beautiful things from the past. The present is impossible without the past."

"I am asking you whether the past was good or bad. We have inherited some good values from the past,but those good values are starkly outweighed by the evils which were numberless.Child marriage,polygamy
,epidemics,ban on widow remarriage,the abominable caste system,human and animal sacrifice,attacks by wild animals,the cruel and heartless kings and princes,domination over the weak by the strong are the facts that characterised the past..." I said.

"What you say looks right..!But I can't say man's past was bad and evil.Why do you call the present good? I can see nothing good and worthy in our own times."

"You see Sir..We have got the most valued gifts to add meaning and happiness to life today.We have got all the basic freedoms  human beings need to live a free and voluntary life.Do you think a wild bird kept in a cage and provided with all the best comforts can be happy? No he needs freedom. Both men and other creatures suffer in captivity."