Swami Madhava Chaitanya,
The following section describes an experience I had in Kashmir as an example of discrimination in God's way.
Kashmir is a state in India's worst hit by Islamic terrorism. Eight years back I had an opportunity to visit there, I got a chance to stay in a famous Kashmiri Shaiva tradition ashram. We lived there with military security. It was the time of the construction of the wall around the ashram. The construction work was carried out by local Muslim youths.
I have never seen a place as beautiful as Kashmir. I wondered how the people of such a beautiful area became terrorists. I doubt that if the Muslim youth's workers would be willing to talk to me. My suspicion was what emotion the Hindu monastic dress I was wearing would make of them. But they surprised me. They spoke to me very friendly. Every evening the chief administrator of the ashram would pay them work wages. They had no access to the ashram. But one thing I noticed was that the chief administrator of the Ashram covered his hand with a cloth when he paid them. after seeing that, I asked him: "Why are you covering your hand when are you paying them?" He told me: "We are Kashmiri Pundits, we can't touch them". I asked him: "Is it advised in Kashmir Shaiva's theory to do so?" He said: "I don't know. This is a tradition that is followed in the past time". I kept quiet. But I felt bad about that. What really surprised me was an incident that happened two days after I asked this.
Retired Indian Army Chief Major General V.K. Singh visited the ashram. Mr. Sing was serving as the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways in the present Indian government. Mr. Sing arrived at the ashram accompanied by two local Kashmiri Muslim traders. We all joined and welcomed him to the ashram. With Mr. Singh, two local Muslim traders also entered the ashram. A small tea party was organized for Singh at the ashram. The local Muslim traders also joined with us in that tea party. After a few hours of spending in the ashram, they all returned. I asked the ashram main administrator: "You gave permission to local Muslim traders to enter the ashram, you sat down with them and attended the tea party. How did you do this thing that goes against your tradition?" He said with a laugh that those two traders were very influential in Kashmir. The ashram always needed their help. I didn't feel any surprise in the action. I know all kinds of discrimination affect only the poor and helpless.
Even after eight years, I can't forget the young Muslim laborer's faces. I know that even those rich Muslim traders will not raise their voices for them. Having been studying Kashmir Shaiva’s theories for the last few years, I can say with confidence that there is no such distinction in Shaiva theory. Saiva's theory has principles that are wider than the sky. But the impure human mind will defile any pure science.
One day I informed the Ashram chief of my desire to see the Kashmir Valley. He told me about the dangers of traveling outside. He introduced me to a forest ranger named Hafizullah Mir. The next day we set out to see the Kashmir Valley in Mr. Mir's official vehicle. Mr. Mir was a local resident in Kashmir valley. He was very young, handsome, and kind. My good friend Pawan Kaul, whom I met in Kashmir, was also with us. Mr. Mir showed a lot of beautiful places in Kashmir valley. We visited the famous kheer Bhavani temple also.
For security reasons he denied only my wish to visit the rock on which the Great Acharya Vasugupta meditated who had given to the world the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, one of the greatest holy books in the Kashmir Saiva system. Mr.Mir introduced me to a lot of Kashmiri people. They all seemed to be very calm. Kashmir is one of the worst affected places in the world for religious extremism. But the Muslim people I met were very friendly to me. Mr.Mir introduced me to a very influential Muslim political leader in Kashmir valley. I asked him why about 60,000 Hindus had fled the Kashmir Valley. There are less than 2,000 Hindus left in the Kashmir Valley. That too is life-threatening. They are experiencing a kind of imprisonment. The political leader told me that Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) insurgents during late 1989 and early 1990 is the reason for the Hindus exodus. JKLF is a political organization active in both Pakistan-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir.
I laughed and told him, The silence of the majority of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley, which has more than 600,000 members, has helped a militant group with less than 1,000 members succeed in the exodus of more than 60,000 Hindus from their homeland. He remained silent on my question as to whether this was true. I told him, the ideological difference is the real cause. The ideology discrimination against one human society by another. A condition in which one religious belief does not accept another religious belief. The most interesting of these is that there is more unity between Kashmir Shaiva and the idea of Islam than any other Hindu sect. Both are beliefs in one God. The Saiva doctrine is very deep and the concept of Islam is very simple. But while there is unity in ideology, differences in rituals are the cause of religious conflict.
I read in Adolf Hitler's autobiography book "Mein Kampf", he defined the Jews as a race and not a religious community, characterized the effect of a Jewish presence as a “race-tuberculosis of the peoples,” and identified the initial goal of the German government to be discriminatory legislation against Jews. The “ultimate goal must definitely be the removal of the Jews altogether.”The main accusation made by Hitler against the Jews was that they did not accept the German people and did not participate in the rituals of the German people. Jews did not cooperate with the German people in all matters, including marriage. Even in disputes between Jews, the Jews ruled in their own religious courts, without going to a German court.
We feel the issue raised by Hitler looks very simple. No intelligent person would give much importance to such matters. But ordinary human minds do not understand great philosophies. Such subjects are of interest to the common human mind. Hitler's silly complaints grew to a very big conflict. leadeth to the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, which was the World War II genocide of the European Jews. Between 1941 and 1945, across German-occupied Europe, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. Can we imagine? Can we imagine a man's dissatisfaction with a religious community leading to the massacre of six million people? In the Indian epic the great Mahabharata, in the mind of King Duryodhana, the enmity was towards his own paternal nephews which resulted in the death of billions of warriors in the ensuing war.
Such a mindset is behind all the great wars, riots, and violence that have taken place in the world. Human societies also play a major role in pushing human minds into such a state. Neither politics, nor the system of government, nor physics has the capacity to lead the human mind to its pure state, but it has the potential to lead it to its impure state. The rituals of God's religions make people more divided. The truth is bitter at first but then sweet. The only thing which has no selfishness can lead human minds to the truth. That is scientifically accepted spiritual wisdom. What is pure and true spiritual wisdom?
The next part of the story will upload very soon
