Faith in a Time of Polarization

A letter between our co-founders offers a profound look at upholding progressive Hindu values in a world where religious narratives are increasingly polarized

Dear Sunita,

As I was getting ready for surgery yesterday, I got a message from my sister-in-law with a photograph of her family’s heirloom of clay images of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, and Hanuman inside a glass case and wishing me well. These figures have been witness to numerous naming ceremonies, birthdays, and nischithartams (wedding pacts) in her family, and the extended family have great reverence for them.
It made me feel very good to receive such a last minute wish. Had my mother-in-law been alive, she would have wished me “sriramar thunai” (May Rama be with you!)

And then, as I was being wheeled into the OR, I read the cynical post by HAF’s Suhag Shukla addressed to you, which made me cringe. It made me doubly glad that it was the family’s loving Rama who had been shared with me, and not HAF/Modi’s angry and lonely Ram who stands atop thousands of people killed by Hindu nationalists in his name.

Suhag’s message also reminded me of the reason why I keep away from the Hate, Hype, Hubris, and Hypocrisy (the four H’s) of many of the posts emanating from the Hindutva world, Rama’s Humility certainly not being one of their known H’s.

We all have differences over how Lord Rama of the Ramayana is viewed with the contemporary lens of casteism (unprovoked killing of Shambuka the “shudra”) and misogyny (exiling of Sita). But what inspires me more than the deities is the unconditional and loving bhakti by Rama devotees, such as my late mother and grandmother, who worshipped him without any negative thoughts against other faiths and traditions (casteist, yes, but I was oblivious then).

Implying that only HAF and their Hindu supremacist siblings represent Hindus, and others don’t, has become the new norm for those who are drunk with the Hindutva poison and are unable to hold a decent civil conversation on contemporary topics.

Let’s reshare widely Saint Thyagaraja’s famous kriti “nadaci, nadaci…”, which was shared with us on January 22nd by our own Nikhil (of @voicesofbhakti) as well as our Advisory Board member, T.M. Krishna’s powerful rendition of it:

via @voicesofbhakti an interpretive translation of a Telugu kriti by Tyagaraja (1767-1847 CE)