PJ Media

Uncle Irv

First, understand the fundamentals of a religion. Christianity and Islam, both, preach hatred and conversion of “infidels” / “kafirs”. This is at the root of violence on the planet. Before Christianity and Islam happened there was no violence in the name of religion on the planet. Where are the Incas, Mayans, Aztecs? What happened to your own pre-Christian history? Where has it gone? Do you know anything of your own ancestors from the pre-Christian days? Do the Muslims in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere know anything of their pre-Islamic days? Why did you guys wipe out your history and butcher so many people? It was the Islamic and Christian invaders who ravaged India, not the other way round. India gave the world the supreme principle of peace: “EKAM SAT VIPRA BAHUDA VADANTI” – that, “Truth is One, the Wise phrase it differently”. This means we accept all religions as true, we dont condemn any religion or prophet. But Christians and Muslims call us pagan, infidels, kafirs etc., worthy of conversion or butchering. When Pope John Paul II came to India (if I remember right, 2002), he rejected the equality of religions and emphasized that Asia “must be conquered in the 3rd Millenium”. Christianity and Islam formally, specifically and forcefully oppose religious diversity. Europe is secular because of Secularism and Secularization. But India is secular because of the principle of “Ekam…” that I mentioned above. You are very young civilization compared with India or China. You dont quite understand the principle of peace, and hence you have killed and wiped our entire civilizations from the face of the planet like Mayans, Aztecs, Incas and “Red Indians” from the Americas, the “Aboriginees” in Australia. Canada was running “conversion schools” right into 1960′s to wipe out all traces of native civilization and language. India is not so. We embrace the distressed and downtrodden and the threatened. The Parsis found shelter in India. The Jews found shelter in India – the ONLY country where they were not persecuted. The Tibetans found shelter in India – we respect and rever their spiritual leaders, and their traditions, we treat them as our own brothers. Not that we hate Christianity or Islam. Not at all. We are built to love, not hate. That is the reason you find Hindu culture in most of Asia, not just in India, like in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand etc., our culture is there, but we have not colonized them!! Many of our swamis have published works to draw parallels between our scriptures and Bible (ref: The Holy Science of Sri Yukteswar Giri). What we say is simple: Find the common ground, where you and I agree and live in peace. I dont call you an infidel or condemned. You dont call me one! Simple, isn’t that so? (Note: Many people think “mlecha” means infidel, no it does not. It means “dirty”. Indians originally used that word for Arabs because they bathed only once in a week. The word is no more current, it is not a “scriptural” term at all. Just a social slang of contempt towards the invaders. We dont use it for our compatriots, or for that matter even Arabs of present day!)