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Front Page >> Potpourri > Story

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Hindu Spiritual World
By Bhuban Haobam
Secular India tolerated religious freedom, even Godlessness and irreligiousness. Hinduism originated from India. But India is not a Hindu country. There is only one Hindu country in the world and that is Nepal. Hinduism does not believe in proselytizing. They seem to say "If you like our philosophy and spiritual concept, embrace Hinduism; otherwise no". What then, is this Hindu spiritual world?

There are many concepts peculiar to Hinduism. Rebirth after death is one. No major religion in the world talks about rebirth. The only episode close to rebirth is the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. That was not rebirth. It was reawakening from an apparent deep slumber. Then there is the Hindu way of worshipping idols etc. We will come to rebirth, idol worship etc, later. Let us examine some other aspects of God.

Narendra Dutta, who later became Swami Vivekananda, passed his degree of Bachelor of Arts from Presidency College, Calcutta (Kolkata) in around 1883, years before the British conquest of Manipur in 1891. He wanted to become a Hindu monk. He was in search of a Guru. He went to well-known Hindu religious Acharyas/Gurus/Swamis and asked two questions generally. The questions were: One – ‘Is there God?’ and Two – ‘Have you seen God?’ All the Acharyas/Gurus/Swami replied that there was God but it was not possible for anyone to see God. Narendra rejected all these Acharyas/Gurus/Swamis.

Ultimately, he came to Ramakrishna Paramhansa. As usual, he put his first question to Paramhansa and like others, Paramhansa replied, ‘Yes, there is God’. To Narendra’s second question ‘Have you seen God?’ Ramakrishna Paramhansa responded, ‘Yes I have seen God’. Pleased, Narendra very seriously asked, ‘Do you ever talk to God?’ Paramhansa causally and indifferently replied, ‘I talk to God everyday’. Narendra was surprised and confronted Paramhansa ‘How do you talk to God?’ Paramhansa answered ‘Just like I am talking to you now’. Pleading from the bottom of his heart, Narendra requested ‘Can I also see God and talk to Him?" The great guru responded, "Yes, of course. I will make you see God and talk to Him. I have been waiting all these years for you. Where have you been? I am happy that you have come to me now.’ Paramhansa blessed Narendra. Thus, Narendra Dutta a non-Brahmin young man of about twenty-one years of age, brilliantly English educated in one of the prestigious colleges of India, became a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa was the temple priest of Dhakshineswar Kali temple situated on the bank of river Hooghly in the present day West Bengal. He was not English educated like Narendra Dutta, but had Vedantic education in Sanskrit. The devotees who used to come to Kali temple complained to Mathur, the Dewan of Rani Rashmi, the devotee owner of the temple that the crazy priest would feed rice and dal curry to Goddess Kali and that, the temple was desecrated. The Rani said she would give a thought and inform. After a few days the Rani told Dewan Mathur to let Paramhansa continue with his usual pranks. That was the end of any complaint. What happened inside the temple was Paramhansa’s intense and deep meditation on spiritual matters or on finding solutions to personal problems of devotees by apparent conversation with Goddess Kali. In similar process, he would even feed the idol.

Let us for example imagine that Ibobi Singh, the Chief Minister of Manipur, went to Dhakshineswar Kali temple (before he did his last Ministry expansion) and asked Paramhansa (assuming he is still alive) to find out from Kalima whether he could do an expansion of his Ministry. There would be a short, pre-meditation discussion between Paramhansa and Ibobi. Then, Paramhansa would go inside the temple and fall into a trance in deep meditation. The idol would become an animated being. Paramhansa would say ‘Ma Kaliji, Ibobi Singh, the Chief Minister is here. He likes to know whether his ministry will fall if he does a ministry expansion now.’ Paramhansa would hear his own voice as if spoken by Ma Kali asking ‘How many Congress (I) MLAs has Ibobi got?’ Paramhansa would reply ‘Thirty one MLAs in a House of sixty, Mataji.’ Next, Ma Kali would seem to ask, ‘What is the attitude of the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly?’ Paramhansa would reply, in continued trance ‘The Speaker is a fine gentleman. He is loyal to his Party’. Like this, the conversation with Kali Ma would continue. Though his eyes were closed, Paramhansa could see through his mind’s eye, the moving lips of Kali Ma, the idol and talking to him. Paramhansa, after recovering from trance, would come out and say, ‘Ibobiji, you can do your ministry expansion. Ma Kali told me that you don’t have to worry.’ This is nothing but logical appreciation of the prevailing political situation in Manipur by intense concentration and coming to a deduction, after falling into a trance, which enabled concentration. If anyone disturbed Paramhansa during his trance, he would faint. That was seeing God and talking to God – Paramahansa style. Paramhansa taught Narendra Dutta, how to meditate and concentrate and see God and talk to Him. — ( to be contd)

Ramakrishna Paramahansa experimented with other religions too. He studied Bible and concentrated on Christianity and became a Christian and claimed to have talked to Jesus Christ. Likewise, he became a Muslim and seemingly spoke to Allah. He became a Tantric and spent many lonely nights, meditating in cremation ghats with skulls of human beings. There was no fear. He decided to become a Ram bhakt. He reasoned that to get to Prabhu Ramachandraji, he should become a Hanuman not Laxman not even Sita. So Paramahansa pretended to become Hanuman and moved around like a monkey, on all fours. He did not walk on his feet during the entire period of his Hanuman-hood. He lived on milk, fruit, bananas etc. It was believed that Ramakrishna even got a tail, two inch long at the end of his vertebral column, after his four-mouth long dalliance with Prabhu Ramachandraji.

Having learnt how to mediate, Ramakrishna’s disciple, Swami Viveknanda meditated on a rock island off the coast of Kanyakumari whether he should attend World Religions Conference in 1892 at Chicago or not. He mediated for several days and spoke to God, in Paramahansa style and God commanded Vivekananda to go. He went uninvited. So permission to attend the Conference was denied. Through the kind patronage of an influential American lady, who befriended Vivekananda, when he was found in the street shivering with cold, he was permitted to attend and speak just for one minute. It may be mentioned here that Swami Vivekananda had a magnetic personality and anyone who met him, got drawn to him. That American lady was completely charmed by him. Notwithstanding the time limit, Vivekananda decided to speak. While other delegates would start their speeches with ‘Respected chairman, Rev. Archbishop…, His pious Monk … of … Monastery, Moulavi… etc.’ Vivekananda in his flowing saffron robe and turban started his speech in his deep, sonorous and commanding voice ‘Brothers and Sisters of America’. Then, full stop. He looked round. There was thunderous applause for a good one minute. Vivekananda did not speak as his time limit was over. The audience requested him to speak. Then Vivekananda spoke for about an hour in his chaste, unadulterated and textbook English. The Americans and all the delegates were surprised. Sensing the mood of the audience, no official organizer of the conference dared to stop Vivekananda. The entire gathering was held spellbound. The rest was history. Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari has become a national heritage. There is a Meditation Room, in there.

Now, the question of rebirth. According to modern science, something can be created only out of something. For example, for making water, we need oxygen and hydrogen. Two atoms of hydrogen combined together with one atom of oxygen will make one molecule of water, which is H2O in chemical language. Nuclear scientists split molecules and atoms. Professor Albert Einstein propounded the Theory of Relativity. He was also recognized as the Father of Nuclear Science. He wrote down his famous equation E=mc2, where E is the energy generated, m is the mass and c the speed of light. Einstein asserted that a matter, say a rock, will convert into energy as per the above formula, provided you have the knowledge, technical know-how and means to split rock into electrons, protons, neutrons etc. When uranium (U235) got split and converted into atomic energy by splitting uranium atoms and chain reactions thereof, in an atomic bomb called ‘Fat Boy’ and when it was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945, it was the beginning of thermo-nuclear warfare in the world. In particle physics, even electrons, protons etc. are split and energy may change into light, sound, heat and perhaps some etcetera and that etcetera, I don’t know and I cannot comprehend. When the Hiroshima bomb exploded three things happened. There was a blinding flash of light whose intensity was more than that of sunlight as received on planet Earth, a sound of ear-drum bursting magnitude and intense heat which warmed up the air in ground zero area, so much so that a mushroom cloud of smoke, dust, debris shot up in the air. Even light motorcars were sucked up. That was conversion of matter into energy. It was formidable.

Genetic science has developed so very much that genetics engineer can produce a human being according to your choice. They can produce a giant, a pious man, an intelligent man etc. Genetic engineers can remove the hereditary trait of high blood pressure or blindness etc. They are doing a fine job. Genetic engineers are working now even to pre-select the sex of an unborn child. But genetic engineers need material. So they have genes, chromosomes etc. to play about. Of course human cloning is now banned. Before the discovery of chromosome and genes etc. there were no genetic engineers. Generations of human beings followed the natural process of reproduction.

When a man dies, his body is either burnt or buried or be eaten by birds, particularly vultures (Parsi custom). Is this the end of him? What happens to his ashes, which were sprinkled on the Himalayas (like that of Pandit Nehru) or immersed in the waters of the Ganges as many Hindu did, or his decayed body buried in the grave, which transformed into hundreds of living worms or the buried body being washed away by rainwater seeping through layers of earth. Where does the material content, which was once Thomas, vanish? In the food cycle, deer will eat grass; tigers will eat the flesh of deer; the decayed body of the mighty tigers will become manure and consumed by innocent and helpless plants. The cycle will continue. Each one will eat the other to maintain the balance of nature. As per her wish, the body of Lady Edwina Moutbatten, wife of Admiral Lord Mountbatten was given a sea burial on her death. Despite the coffin, sharks and other sea fishes might have eaten her flesh. The material of her body has transformed into other living beings.

Prof. Einstein had stated that some material was required to create energy, which is also something. Something is always required to create something. In the reverse reasoning, out of nothing, you can get, only nothing, never anything. Something cannot just be reduced to nothing. Hence the material content of dead Thomas or Suresh cannot be reduced to nothing, but has to manifest somewhere. Therefore, rebirth theory is a possible scientific proposition. — (to be contd)

It does not go against science. When you get reborn or shall we say, reappear, whet-her you come as a worm or a king, is a different matter. The crowning glory of the Hindus, who believe in rebirth theory and who also believe that the status of your next birth will depend upon how pious, how good, how truthful, how kind, how generous you are in this birth now is that you will try to be a good person. That is what religion teaches and that is what human beings are for. Hindu spiritual concept is therefore meaningful.

After Swami Vivekananda became world famous, he was on his way back to India. He stopped at Tehran at the invitation of the King of Persia. They discussed religion. The king mockingly observed about the Hindu way of worshipping of clay/stone statues of Gods and Goddesses. Swami Vivekananda turned towards a picture framed on the wall and asked whose portrait it was. The king replied it was that of his grandfather. Vivekananda said that the man’s face looked very grand and he would like to have a closer look and would the king be kind enough to bring down the portrait. The king called his servants and got the portrait brought down and handed it over to Vivekananda, who after examining placed it on the carpet. Vivekananda then politely remarked that even though it was a mere piece of canvas and oil paints, the King might not like to push the picture gently with the toe of his boots. King Pahlevi realized his mistake. Worshipping idols helps conceptualization.

The Queen of England is the Defender of Faith. Under her, the Church of England has an Archibishop of Canterbury. In the chain, they have other Archbishops and Bishops etc. Muslims in India have Imam Bukhari of Jama Masjid. Then the hierarchy follows. Hindus are disorganized. But this disorganization has its good points. Mark Tully, BBC correspondent in India was surprised at the Hindu way of doing things. He saw Kumbh Mela. There everyday, about 5 to 6 lakhs of pilgrims took bath at Triveni, the tri-junction of Ganga, Yamuma and the unseen Saraswati. So, a five-day long Kumbh Mela would see about 30 lakhs of pilgrims taking the holy dip. It was a colossal task. But Tully found that the pilgrims came self contained and never complained. They brought their own candles, packed food, clothing, medicines etc. and were happy just to have a dip at the Holy Triveni. In Western countries, it would be a problem to organize a camp for only fifty thousand people for just two days. There would be hundred and one complaints. The difference is that the Hindus accept their sufferings and tribulations as part of their life. You cannot match the Hindus on tolerance.

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world being more than five thousand years old. I used to interact with the late Koijam Brajabidhu Singh, the eldest brother of RB Koijam. He was a personal friend of our family. I used to say that it was nonsense for the Hindu to believe that Bhagirath brought Ganga Ma from the hair lock of Lord Shiva, who resided at Kailash Parbat with his wife Parvati. The Hindus further believed that it was done to save the world. The Hindu world was Gangetic Plains only I used to point out. They knew nothing about America, Australia etc. which were not discovered yet. After arguing a lot, I said the Hindu scriptures were right, but only philosophically. Water is life giving and life sustaining material next to air. Without water no animal or plant can survive. All civilizations in the world emanate from water/river. The Egyptian civilization prospered because of the Niles. Paris flourished because of river Seine. London depended on river Thames. Thus the Hindu concept of river Ganges being the source of Hindu civilization is philosophically correct. But I told Dada Brajabidhu that since I took my daily bath at Nambul River at Pisum, since I learnt swimming at Nambul and since I drank water from Nambul, I would rather like to die with the waters of Nambul on my lips, not Gangajal. Dada Brajabidu was furious and said that the water of Nambul would rot in one month, whereas Gangajal would remain good water even after five years. Then I would tease him by saying that your Gangajal was brought from Rishikesh or Haridwar, where the water was not polluted. I continued saying that if Dadaji collected his Gangajal from Patna; it would also rot in one month. So my Nambuljal would be collected from the source. Good old Taibungno would nod his head and say, ‘So, Ganga is not a mere river but is like a Goddess. Do you agree?’ I had to agree.

So on, and on, one can continue to write on Hinduism. But I must stop here. While I study and respect the philosophies of other religions, I assert that there should be no misconception about the eternity of Hindu spiritual world. 

*** The writer is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Indian Army

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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