If we had a genuinely secular and patriotic media Swami Ramdev and Shri Rajiv Malhotra would make headlines every other day. Instead the media continuously strives to fill our mind with unimportant things with undue glamorization. Imagine, if we take out all the following items, how much mental space media can save us?
- Bollywood
- Cricket
- Political bickering
- Making us feel that Indian traditions are inferior to foreign ideologies and lifestyle
Recently, Swami Ramdev wrote a glowing endorsement letter for Shri Rajiv Malhotra. The press release (including the copy of the letter) from Shri Malhotra’s Infinity Foundation can be downloaded here. This important news, lost in the sophisticated world of mainstream media, we celebrate it in Jagrit-Bharat circles. Let’s reflect on why these prominent Dharmic-Patriots of current times, deserve our society’s respect, let alone attention.
The idea of Dharmic-Patriots
Commonly the mainstream media classifies ideologies as left, right and center. Indian civilization being a Dharmic civilization, a better classification would be Dharmic ideology versus the others. One of the most unfortunate things that has happened to India, is the degradation of word “Dharma” to “Religion”. The concept of Dharma versus religion is very well explained in Shri. Malhotra’s book “Being Different”
Two of the key concepts of Dharma are “inclusiveness” and “the common good before the personal gain.” The second concept of “the common good before the personal gain” is pretty self-explanatory, the idea of inclusiveness requires a bit of explanation. Dharmic ideology is anchored in “Live and Let others live happily – even when others have a differing belief system”, whereas the religious thinking is always uncomfortable with differing ideologies. To patch up this uncomfort among religions, secularism plays a crucial role to separate governance from the religious beliefs. Dharmic ideology has an inherent “genuine secularism” in its ideology. An externally enforced secularism, which typically is manipulated by people in power, creates new problems as opposed to making the society better. Today, patriotism anchored in defending the sophisticated ideology of Dharma has taken backseat due to a variety of reasons.
In the society today, be it leading thinkers or the common man, a very small number of people are able to comprehend the depths of the Dharmic ideology. Swami Ramdev and Shri Malhotra are two of the pioneers in current times, who have taken upon themselves to explore the depths of philosophy, synthesize the Dharmic understanding and then bring along the masses to defend Dharma. In the times when world is interacting in complex ways, when information can instantaneously travel globally, when the forces against “Dharmic-Patriotic” ideology are heavily equipped with powerful capabilities, the task for Dharmic-Patriots might seem insurmountable. These two Dharmic-Patriots are defying all odds and deserve our support in every way possible.
In praise of Swami Ramdev:
I don’t intend to market all the accomplishments of Swami Ramdev. Here’s some thoughts for you to ponder.
- Sanyasis typically focus on spiritual development of the individuals – that’s our tradition. Understanding the needs of the current times, Swami Ramdev has broken this mould and has taken upon himself to build tangible solutions for a better society. I’d say, separate out the personal spiritual benefits to an individual, which can never be proven conclusively and then compare him with other religious leaders. Think, how many other religous leaders…
- Provide “healthcare” products and services? Swami Ramdev’s organization can be credited for renaissance of the ancient science of “Ayurveda”
- Provide practical solutions to social challenges at ground level as opposed to sadhus lecturing in their ashrams? Please don’t misinterpret this, as a criticism of genuine saints whom we revere.
- How many Sanyasi have built strong “institutions”? Exploring the depths of philosophy itself is all-consuming; building institutions requires a very different set of capabilities, and Swami Ramdev is a unique great one to pull off, both sides effectively.
- Who else besides Swami Ramdev has taken upon himself to clean the dirty politics of country, when he could have enjoyed a comfortable life with all politicians, bowing to him?
In praise of Shri Rajiv Malhotra
In contrast to Swami Ramdev, Shri Malhotra is a householder, lives in New Jersey, USA and defending Dharma at Global level; primarily in North America. Thinking about Shri Malhotra’s unique positioning and contribution, these thoughts come to mind:
- Typically, one gets consumed in the culture, where he lives. In contrast, Shri Malhotra, lived in west almost all his adult life as an authentic Indian. He not only thrived professionally, but at the peak of his career gave up his personal millions of dollars to live a simple life and serve Dharma. Think about it, who else you know in current times, has made such a personal sacrifice?
- His contribution, is not just his “material wealth”, he invested his “full time for two decades” to do scholarly work to understand the depths of Dharmic philosophy. His research & scholarly work, is so “high quality” that it has withstood and “won” scholarly critique and media debates over the years. Even the top professors, who get paid a salary to do the same job, haven’t produced such high quality results. Think, who else you know has done such a disciplined research?
- Think about the courage it takes, in defending culture when the mindset all around is dominated by western lens.
- Just like Swami Ramdev, Shri Malhotra has also stayed above politics, and has anchored his work in Dharmic ideology to serve humanity
- His four unique knowledge contributions, if adopted properly, can change the course for Indian society & Dharma in years to comes:
- Being Different: Provides a unique interpretation of Dharma, defends it against other religious ideologies and proposes the idea that we need to look at the world from Dharmic frame of reference as opposed to western lens.
- Breaking India: Provides a wake-up call to sleeping Indians about the anti-India forces that are at work to break India. He warns that it’s a real possible future that our country gets split in pieces, if we don’t take right action.
- Invading the sacred: Demonstrates how the mature philosophy of Dharma is being ignored and misrepresented in education systems in the most respected society today “United States of America.”
- 20 volume series on Indian Science & Technology: Provides a robust basis for defending India’s contribution to the world and building self-esteem in Indians by connecting with tangible aspects of our great heritage.
India would rebound so fast if Indians can grasp the ideas of these two wise men, in their personal lives, in building laws & governance institutions, and organizations that complement the government institutions. That envisioned future just seems a fantasy, as of now. Yes of course, I respect both Swami Ramdev & Shri Rajiv Malhotra. When it comes to Dharmic or national level issues, the personal biases should be irrelevant though. Critique my opinion with your own analysis to make up your mind on the issues related to Dharma and our country. I do appeal to all Dharmic-Patriots to support these two pioneers and do your own share of contribution for a better India and better world.
Download the hand written letter of Swami Ramdev in Hindi, which reads better than English translation. We’ve copied the English translation here, which is also included in the Infinity Foundation’s press release.
“OM
Shri Rajiv Malhotra is doing a stellar Job of evidentially establishing the universality and scientific truth of Indian Vedic Hindu Dharma on the world stage.
For the past many centuries, attempts are made to denigrate, malign and destroy the Sanatan Arya civilization through political clout, financial muscle, media and other propagatory means, universities, writers and other influential persons, by anti-Hindu forces and other scheming powers.
In a constant effort to humiliate us, false accusations are being hurled at our Rishis, Munis, Dietes and Mahatmas through the collusion of European-based and America-based anti-India and anti-Hindu forces, powerful churches, anti-Hindu universities and obscure forces and conspiratory organizations. On the contrary, the fact of the matter is, that communities and religions born on foreign soils lack the scientificity and universality as are inherent in Hindu Dharma.
In our Vedas and Vedic literature, our forefathers have – scientifically and evidentially – studied, researched and expounded on the matters of Jnana-Vijnana, technology, vastu, arts, dance and music, astrology, grammar, mathematics, geography, astronomy/ astrophysics, on subjects ranging from worldly prosperity and spiritual advancement to all fields of study of microcosm and the macrocosm.
Shri Rajiv Malhotra is the only person to have challenged the non-Dharmic forces, on the combined bases of reasoning, fact, strategy and evidence, and has firmly established the authority of Dharma in the West. We Indians are proud of Shri Malhotra and consider him as among our finest.
Our best wishes and blessings are with Shri Malhotra and it is impossible to eulogize him in words, for words have but limited adequacy. Through your agency, may the glory of Hindu Dharma be ever-expansive.”
– Swami Ramdev
Author: Sunil Sheoran
Published: July 23, 2013
