I have an old habit of a regular morning walk since the age around twenty-five years while as a student I was still staying at a hostel in the University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, having nearly completed my studies and research work leading to a doctoral degree but still awaiting a suitable placement for a regular job. This morning walk as the first priority activity with the day’s beginning religiously remained an essential part of my daily routine even during the prime years of life when I constantly lived under a very tight schedule due to the personal and professional occupations. While writing this piece today, two personal instances of yesteryears have also readily come to my mind, which also have some relevance. I would like to briefly touch upon them here before addressing the main issue.
I. One of our teachers in the Department of Zoology (dealing with animal science) in the university was also an amateurish astropalmist better known for his predictions with a condition that he would do this only on Thursday every week. He used to reply three questions or suo moto announce three predictions at such occasions at a time. So one day, a curious I also requested him, and in turn, he asked me to carefully choose any three questions. As I was still a student pursuing a PhD, my one obvious question related to the time of its successful completion, while the remaining two far more personal pertaining to my future placement to a job and life as a householder. He replied all three questions and, surprisingly, by destiny or coincidence, all the three came true the way he had predicted. I still remember what he categorically mentioned about my future profession “…there is no question of your going to a teaching profession, you will have to join a government organization in the near future.” After some time, largely thanks to my research advisor, I received outstanding reports on my research work (thesis), particularly from the American examiner. Then at a time when a proposal was progressing for my post-doctoral work at an American university with bright prospects of materializing soon, I got an opportunity to join Indian civil service and I opted for it.
II. I had simultaneously appeared for the combined Civil Services Examination and the Forest Service (IFS); the former belongs to all category aspirants with versatile job opportunities while the latter is specialized exclusively earmarked for the Science students. On successful completion of the written examination, the IFS aspirants in India have to pass a stamina test too, apart from the usual interview for the personality test. Hence I was required to walk 25 Km in a continuous spell in four hours in tandem with the UPSC interview. Therefore, as a preparation for the stamina test, I had to practice with long morning walks for a couple of weeks and, ever since, this became a regular habit or hobby which I never gave up in the subsequent years of life. However, it’s an altogether different story that having a genuine curiosity and interest in the wildlife and forestry, I was keen to serve in the Forest Department, but the destiny finally took me to one of the cadres of the Civil Services, primarily catered for the Defence Services of the country.
2. Coming back to the main theme of the writing here, as I was passing through a street in the vicinity of a newly constructed house in my colony during the today’s morning walk, I overheard a conversation between two individuals that made me curious; hence I slowed down almost to a null speed. One of them was a gardener employed by the said household and the other was a private security person under the aegis of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the colony. Needless to mention, owing to a vast population, lack of proper education and other social issues, usually these categories of workers are underprivileged and low paid, and a majority of such people fall in the category of the lower income group and rather poor classes in India.
The conversation between the aforesaid two people was essentially as follows. The security person was narrating the plight of an old neighbour in his vicinity who suddenly fell seriously ill on the previous day and there was none in his family to take proper care of him. Although the security person felt badly tired from his almost twelve hours long onerous duty in the previous night, and needed immediate rest and sleep, but driven by kindness and empathy, he took the sick old man to the nearest civil hospital, got him hospitalized and even borne the mandatory minimum expenditure required on his behalf. To his narrative, the satisfied gardener simply exclaimed, “Bhai! wahi to asli dharam hai (Brother, that is the true religion)..!”
The aforesaid incident reminded me yet another incident in the recent past wherein some so-called educated and elite people of the society were involved. This is about a private colony which came up about fifteen years ago. Among the early occupants of the colony, some of them took initiative leading to the construction of a reasonably good temple with the contribution made and mobilized by these people. With the installation of the idols of key Hindu deities, the temple became a centre of religious faith of about 1,500 resident families. But in a few years, another rival group of educated and well-to-do residents in the same society started their own maneuvering with vested interests of having a major share and say in management of this temple, citing many unsubstantiated faults and allegations about the existing temple managing committee. This struggle continued for some time, and finally they took over the management of temple by unilaterally getting a deed (questionable in law) registered in their names (as trustees).
The story didn’t end here but the deed also catered that when any trustee(s) dies or retires for some reason, their kin (wife, son, etc.) will suo moto take his place in the management committee. Incidentally, members of this close group actively participate in various religious rituals prevailing among the Hindu people but it is seldom that they are seen following the normal civic norms, genuinely contribute for a public cause or help the underprivileged people ever. Owing to the above development, the normal congenial atmosphere in the colony has been vitiated and the ongoing struggle between two groups may also lead to litigation in the ensuing days. This incident associated with a temple i.e. a place of worship raises many ethical and moral issues about religion.
Let’s see it in the context of the actual meaning and application of religion. Hindus are the major community, and Hinduism is their religion in India (original name Bharat). It appears that the terms Hindu and Hinduism came much later during the course of the Indian history for the people and their practicing faith. The original name of the Hinduism in the ancient scriptures and texts is the Sanatana Dharma, with its followers addressed as Sanatanis or Sanatanadharmese. The two terms viz. Sanatana Dharma are derived from the Sanskrit language, of which ‘Sanatana’ means eternal and everlasting, and ‘Dharma’ means righteous duty & action. Even the Supreme Court of India has separately interpreted in two verdicts of 1995 and 2016 Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma as an eternal righteous way of life. Actually, the term religion originated in the Western civilizations with no exact corresponding word in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, but now it is loosely linked and substituted for Dharma in use.
The aforesaid two incidents present a sharp contrast, compelling many of us to ponder about the true purpose and essence of the religion. In the context of the Indian culture and civilization, Dharma denotes the righteous duty and action as mentioned above. What I understand and underline from the two incidents narrated in the foregoing paragraphs is that even without a formal education and learning, the uneducated and underprivileged security-man and gardener understood the true meaning of Dharma (religion) with a clear vision of deciphering it as the righteous duty and action in a given situation, while many so-called educated and elite people, as in the instant case, deliberately or subconsciously miserably fail to understand and act accordingly because their thoughts and decision process is clouded with the negative attributes like ego, greed and machination.
In fact, what the gardener said implies that being humane is the true religion, without having any formal education and learning. Being humane essentially means to act with kindness, compassion, empathy and care towards others, more especially those who are downtrodden and suffering, irrespective of whether the subject is a human being or any other living organism. The security person precisely acted driven by this impulse and spirit on the previous day which, sadly, many so-called educated and elite people fail even to acknowledge. There is popular phrase viz. “humanity is the best religion” which basically reflects the concept of having a focus on human welfare with shared positive values and attributes. In essence, humanity addresses the human race as a whole assimilating the attributes of being human and humane, which inter alia includes the acts of kindness, compassion, sympathy and care of others.
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