Justice : The Ends and The Means

It is such a relief that the verdict today has finally put an end to the entire Ram Mandir movement. All open ends are closed now. I wish this quickly goes in the past now without any more complications. And I wish there is no such movement in the future, simply because of the sacrifices we all had to go through in this one.

I do not believe that Ram was an incarnation of God. The epics represent him as a form of God born in human race to experience the sufferings as a penance for his sins. His humane side is evident with all the mistakes he committed throughout his life. For me, he was a human, probably a near perfect human - Purushottam. I consider him as a conscience-keeper, as a light which guides my path by examples of good and bad that he experienced in his life. And so is Shivaji and Savarkar and Gandhi for me. But somehow over the period of 5000 years, the legend of Ram crossed the boundary of history and turned into a myth, all thanks to the fascinating stories of mystique and magic.

There is no denying the fact that the Mughal invasion and rule in India was barbaric, to say the least. Most of the Muslims in India today are forced converts from their generations in the Mughal era. Cities were rechristened to sound Islamic. Zillions of temples in India were destroyed and replaced by mosques. One such temple was that of Ram, at Ayodhya. This fact stands proven with the report from the Archeological Survey team that inspected the 'then' disputed site. I am glad this historical wrongdoing was corrected with the recent ruling by the honourable Supreme Court of India. I am glad that a temple is being built. But I am ashamed of the way it came to life.

Ends do not justify the means. December 6, 1992 is a black day in the history of this nation, its culture and Hinduism. It is the day when the Karsewaks turned into Babur and his army. A religion that proudly stood the test of times and led the world in civilisation suddenly lost its path due to a few misguided fanatics. Being a staunch Savarkar follower, I echo the thoughts in his play Sanyasta Khadga (Forsaken Sword) that you need arms to fight for your rights. But here, the fight was in courts already with the protests around the country and there was no need of destruction. The dreadful act and the violence that followed turned the course of an entire religion in single day to create an extremist distributary to a sacred river. And this distributary gains mass with each wrong act in the name of Hinduism. Some day, it might supersede the river itself if not controlled.

The temple got justice, but the destruction did not, the violence did not. With the populist and highly influenced verdict acquitting all accused today, it is safe to say 'No one destroyed Babri'.  This verdict makes us lose faith in the judiciary and suggests that we should trust power and money instead. Would the Ram, who was known for his nyay (justice), have approved of this?  It is against everything he stood for all his life. There is a song in a Dev Anand movie - Ram ka naam badnaam na karo (Don't malign the name of Ram). It is as a response to a bunch of drug addicts taking dum (marijuana) in the name of Hare Krishna Hare Ram. The situation is relevant here. The name of Ram is being maligned by a few power-protected extremists who use it as a propaganda which is far from his teachings. 

The only fear one should have is becoming the evil one is fighting against. There is this under-rated line in the movie Lakshya said by Amitabh Bachchan - "Unn mein aur hum mein farq hai. Aur yeh farq accha hai, yeh farq rehna chahiye" (There is a difference between them and us. And this difference is good, it should be there). Slowly the difference is fading away. Among all other threats, this is one big threat to the ancient religion, and it is posed by its own extremist followers. As for Ram, he has left this place a long time ago. And he does not need to be protected by anyone. All we can do is protect the legacy of his virtue of righteousness by acting rationally and responsibly.

Let it GrOw!!

Here's where it started. It was the August of 2019, almost a year back from now. We reached Chennai Airport after a 3-day vacation at Puducherry. As soon as we got out of our cab, a volunteer approached us and handed over a packet each to the both of us. It read - towards a Greener world. The volunteer said that the packets have one seed each and insisted that we sow it in the city where we are headed. We hardly noticed it in the hurry to enter the airport. Unknowingly, I might have put the packets in my sling bag. We were clueless about how this small thing will impact us for the next year and maybe beyond that.

If you are wondering that the packet had a substance which we were not supposed to carry on the flight, you are absolutely wrong. Sorry to have disappointed you, but this is not that story :) 

The packet contained exactly what the volunteer had mentioned. I had completely forgotten about it and got hold of the packet only while unpacking a couple of days after we reached Hyderabad. Out of curiosity, we decided to sow the first seed in our small balcony garden and reserve the second one. Thus started our wait for it to yield a plant. The fact that we had no idea what is it to develop into increased our curiosity each day. I remember both of us visiting the balcony multiple times a day to see if the shoot is out yet. With our previous limited experience, we expected to see growth within a few days, or in a maximum of a week. But weeks passed without any signs of life. It was almost a month now and we decided that we will try sowing the second seed in the same space, just beside the earlier seed. Again the cycle of patience and curiosity resumed, but with a slightly lesser enthusiasm this time. At the back of our minds, we were thinking that the seeds had gone bad.

But one fine rainy morning, a tiny shoot was out from the first seed. We were excited. The next thing we wanted to know was what plant it was. We kept guessing and it took us almost another month till we actually figured out that it was a Neem Tree that we were trying to grow in our balcony. In the mean time, the second seed yielded a shoot, Neem again. We used to adore the delicate new leaves coming up on the long stems. It was quite a sight to see both plants grow in the same space competing on new leaves, freshness and height. But we always knew that the plants can't grow in that space and beyond a point, we will have to give those up.

It has been almost a year now and the signs are clearer. The roots are not being contained in the limited space, the stem is leaning. It is not the case that we have never seen plants wither away in our garden. But this is Neem, which has a longer life and huge scope of growth as compared to most other plants that we had. We decided to shift the plants to the common area in our society before it's too late. We will not be able to see and adore the plants so often as we do, but the anticipation of those growing up and becoming big trees acts as a comfort. And besides, we can always place a quick visit.

This episode reiterated a few facts that we subconsciously know but don't realise till such a time comes. 

Fact #1 - Patience is a great virtue to have and to practice.

Fact #2 - Letting go is difficult always.

Fact #3 - Affection and attachment are natural, but they are counterproductive if they hinder growth.

Fact #4 - There is always a brighter side to things.

We are all set to replace the space with new saplings or seeds very soon and will are ready to go through the grind of patience, curiosity, joy and sadness again.