43 thoughts on “My carcass in the Holy Ganges”

1. It may be more than our addiction to our body, and the fear of its decay.

   It may be about our addiction to our minds, our mental concepts, and the fear of their meaninglessness.

   Yes, it may be about the meaninglessness of the entire gamut of human species’ concepts – good bad holiness unholiness beautiful ugly this that…

   What I mean to convey is what a great wit said in one line – Nature is not human-hearted.

   It doesn’t differentiate between say a dog, a dying or dead dog, a decaying dog and a human being in similar conditions. We keep, try to keep the facade of difference for some time, for sometimes considerable lengths of time but then there come times when we let go or are forced by Nature to let go. Like when calamities strike…Then we realize the naked truth. Sorry, dangerous, but true going even by my own experience.

   Often Shekhar I think we are moving side by side on the ladder of evolution! Only you are a bit on the yin side, duality side, nourishing side, I on yang, singularity, nature side.

   For a couple of days it was coming forcefully into my mind that ALL our CONCEPTS, socalled human concepts are just concepts, meaningless from the stand point of over-all life drama, that in reality we are no different from all other entities/species. And today you wrote almost the same or at least conveyed the same for me, only as you would for the reasons described above keep yourself limited to bodies.

2. I read in primary school about how water heats up and becomes cloud and rains fall…it was so simple…the whole integrity thing…then I over thought…then I became know er… then read philosophies…that is kind of circle isnt it! anyways…one person in the end will take only that meaning that one has been intended to take leaving all other things away…the question is weather the hypothesis was right in first place…how can one say…that also is a question…now just before I came to internet cafe, saw a poster of tamil film and you are holding a gun…never imagined you would do it…that event in poster…why who what when where…you know it disturbs me…so long…been away from net and world when come back its still same…am i the same no…but then its all about circles…with love and more love

3. @shekharkapur Beautiful thoughts.

4. your post gives me the reminder of the oldest philosophy of the universe; creation and destruction, yin & yan etc
   sir as you said earlier that we choose to see things, either in its beautiful or in its disgust and that whats make us conscious beings.
   introspection in perception is what i thing of it.

5. this thing i already know from so many years… poor peoples does not have the options other than this .
   and abt ur pholosophy sir…
   its really admirable.

6. U are screaming from your conditioned consciousness..in a way from a conceptual mind.That’s quite natural.We always love our images..and others’ also.U and I should learn,study and explore “me”
   first..then only cry,advise,suggest,revolve etc.

7. This is perfect as per vedic principal . Body is formed of matter ( panchatatva) and after death it goes back to matter . If not in river it would be in woods… if not taken care properly.. And ofcourse we Indians are very dirty why only to mention bodies in rivers.. Look at any public place spitting etc.. The general sense and consciousness is very low. In India we live like animals.. barring some few fortunate in liftime or some time of their life..

8. We are all struck with “I, Me & Mine”. Honestly Chinese and West countries will never understand our Vedic “Santana Dharma” ideas. We are all carcass, stinking with greed, sex, drug, ego and so called modernity.

   I respect your view, but i felt sad because you want to scream by seeing some disgusting pictures shared by some illiterate Chinese media. Do you have any idea what they eat to satisfy there hunger?

   I promise those pictures are far more disgusting.

9. i

10. i was a yatri in 2009 of the Kailash Mansrovar yatra arranged by MEA.when we were at mansarovar lake the water is crystal clear and depicts different shades all day and is the most beautiful place where nature shows it own colors.we are allowed to take bath in the lake but have to follow the rules.
    Rules are: 1)no use of soap, 2)no washing of clothes or undergarments in the lake and 3)if you are performing any ritual you must not to have throw any of materials used in the lake.
    Tibetian’s who also perform there rituals also have to follow the same.
    i stayed there for 3 days and i had some of my best moments. but i had some questions
    A) Can i stay at banks of Ganges in varanasi or Allahbad and enjoy the same beauty with all the peace i had at Mansarovar lake?
    b)What if the mansarovar lake is in Indian Territory?can we have the same cleanliness,that crystal clear water?
    Sir if the pictures were on Chinese blog it may be because they have some right to ask us why the difference?

11. We aren’t dirty but we know the poor can’t afford decent burials or, for that matter, decent houses while they are alive. Whether they live on our streets or die in our rivers we ordinary people might be able to help one or donate to an NGO who does. But there are so many. We turn away from the rest because we feel guilty and helpless. The government has no policy in place to keep our rivers and streets clean and our poor provided for with the minimum, basic necessities either in life or in death.

12. Why not institute a Body Bank?

    For, on the one hand certain institutions beg for people to donate their dead bodies for scientific research and for use of their organs on the living while on the other, we are told that there are excess of dead bodies which poor people cannot burn?

    Certainly organs of rich and poor bodies will be equally valuable.

    Any NGO listening?

13. Mention of the Holy Ganges brought this passage to mind.It’s worth quoting here or so I think. 🙂

    “A few days after the dedication of the temple at Dakshineshwar,a madman came there who was really a sage endowed with the Knowledge of Brahman.He had a bamboo twig in one hand and a potted mango plant in the other,and was wearing torn shoes. He didn’t follow any social conventions.
    After bathing in the Ganges he didn’t perform any religious rites.He ate something that he carried in a corner of his wearing-cloth.Then he entered the Kali temple and chanted hymns to the Deity.The temple trembled… The madman wasn’t allowed to eat at the guest-house,but he paid no attention to this slight.He searched for food in the rubbish heap where the dogs were eating crumbs from the discarded leaf-plates.Now and then he pushed the dogs aside to get his crumbs.The dogs didn’t mind either.
    Haladhari followed him and asked: ” Who are you? Are you a purnajnani [ a perfect knower of Brahman]?” The madman whispered,”Sh! Yes, I am a purnajnani.”Haladhari followed him a great way when he left the garden.After passing the gate he said to Haladhari: “What else shall I say to you? When you no longer make any distinction between the water of this pool and the water of the Ganges,then you will know that you have Perfect Knowledge.” Saying this he walked rapidly away.”

    -Sri Ramakishna Paramahamsa

    ********
    Thank you for recording it as you felt it,Shekhar ji.Of course I had to read it!

    And thank you also for sharing all those beautiful,fun-filled photographs of your wonderful time in Thailand with your lovely daughter,Kaveri. I had such a good time myself(vicariously) seeing Thailand through your eyes.I sincerely hope those horrific pics are a thing of the past by now.As long as we live we will always have to contend with the dwandhwas- the pairs of opposites in life on earth.

    Thank you for being so honest,so human,so vulnerable despite all the Wisdom you have.Makes one feel less lonely in this strange world of ours.

    Sending you a warm hug. 🙂

    Love
    sheela

14. Sir,
    There’s something more to the eyes and our conclusions. dead bodies are left in Ganga by poor people who do not have money to cremate them. moreover, they do not have any choice as well, due to great poverty. Now question comes? why not someone educates them about it?

    There lies the corruption in our education system, and deep decay of hindu dharma which Rajneesh once called “dying civilization” and VS Naipaul said “wounded civilization”. No political will to curb these practices, englishmen at best helped in uprooting “thugs” and “Sati pratha” but we had and have so many like them but who will do that?

15. It’s all about poverty. Poverty dictates how we live, how we die and what happens to our body. We are all living dead and we don’t care what happens to us after death. Our lives are not blessed so our bodies deserve no respect. We suffer starvation, scarcity and meaninglessness of life and who cares the fate of our body? But for us our dharma matters most. We design out life around some beliefs and faiths but never need a true understanding of it. We live for dharma and it’s never that dharma is created for us.

    Getting a point?

    Need a few more generations to get rid of questionable practices. Again it depends on if we remain poor or don’t Socially we have practiced worst possible things, now should wait if education and economic issues could change that. I’m hopeful.

16. Yes!physical body is vastra for our soul…as Lord Krishna said in Geeta.after departure of soul it becomes irrelevant .aptly termed by you as carcass.rotten bodies also reflect the illusion we have about our bodies and we keep on ignoring our energy form-the soul.congratulations for the very nice ,soul stirring thoughts.

17. It’s a sad fact that we almost often raise such questions when someone form another nationality/culture says “Indian’s are dirty” so on and so forth. Why are we so ashamed of our practices? Do you think that countries of the West have no issues to grapple with? Sex abuse, violence, war, drugs, tax evasion…you name it, they do it all ( will be balanced and say this unfortunately applies to the countries of the East as well). So what is it about the Indian culture and practices that jolt some of us out of our comfort zone when ever a westerner points a finger? Let’s not forget, these issues exist everywhere in the world. Somehow, some nationalities like to make India their favourite whipping boy (read nation)

    We look at ‘evidence’, question it, blame the party that raises the issue in the first place, blog about it, resolve to do something…and in the end, a couple of months down the line, everyone forgets about it and moves on the next burning issue/blog.

    Yes, some people do not have the financial means to dispose off the bodies of their loved ones with full regard and respect i.e. religious rituals. What else can an Hindu do? How many are willing to be buried? Donate bodies for medical research? How many people on responding to this blog are registered organ donors? If you knew an organ came from someone who was poor, would you accept it?

    The issue here is not just about mortality, but in the Hindu’s belief in Moksha. We may do whatever we do in this life, but, we need to be cremated, ashes washed away in the Holy Ganges…the philosophy drives our actions. Can you fight this philosophy, Shekhar? No! Can you decrease the bridge between the rich and the poor?

    Poverty is one of the many causes of pollution. Education, may be one of the several means to help address it, and that only to certain extent. You are asking billions of people who don’t have access to basic amenities to and 2 square meals to indulge in hygiene? Not going to happen. Politicians and other who work on religious sentiment will not let this happen.

    How will you fight? How will you work to raise standard of hygiene? How will you stop pollution of this river or any river for that matter? Sorry, but I’am cynical here.

    Best wishes
    Chunmun

18. LOL, physical body is vastra, is mind not vastra too which created the word soul? Or all other words for that matter.

    To each one his own vision. A child will see toys while passing in a bazaar, a young man photos of beautiful girls, an old man medicine shops.

    Shekhar found carcasses, yes when one is beyond 60 one begins to see such things. The other day he found some trans-fats I found them a few days before him BECAUSE beyond 60 one begins to be conscious of which fats or something like that can harm their heart. For some carcass and Ganga will make no difference..all r atoms, or even vacuum or even nothing. If someone would have talked about Ganga’s holiness to Ramana he would have retorted, isn’t the place you are sitting upon holy, part of the Whole? If one had talked of carcass he would have said, “Which carcass? Who found the carcass you will say “I” then first know what this “I” is then talk about carcass. After rightly understanding I you may see no difference between a carcass and a flower…

19. In Tawang,the Monpas still practise looks brutal,sounds beastly. Tawang often being my shooting location. And for lunch I prefer a small piece of barbequed chicken,more than eating just a taste of it kind. And that particular day,chiken ran out of their stock. So my spoilt crew will not eat veg.. So fish was available. They hogged their lunch-happy belly! I too tasted the fish. Nothing fishy so far. One day I met Nawang-the radio jockey of Tawang. I needed his byte on Manpa rituals and belief. He told me what they do with dead bodies. They,according to their ancestral belief,as a mark of human service nothing should go waste. So, they cut the dead bodies of their dear ones into one hundred and eight pieces and throw the pieces into the water to feed the fish! No offense here,my heart almost stopped beating. Nawang says furthur clarifying from his mordern mind’s point of view,”we are trying to stop this,though it was necessary at one point of time-traditional bindings also the geographical-Tawang,situated on 12,000ft above sea level. On high terrian,one dwells at the height of clouds-it was no a joke in carrying the dead bodies. I personally felt this pain in beathing on such a height,for me the climbing and trackking was helping me in my cardio-vascular functioning. But for Monpas,they live here…
    I know Karma,he would tell me stories from this last frontier of India. Thanks to the amazing networks of airtel,bsnl etcetra. Karma’s mother died.
    Now,as I am aware of the belief and custom. I asked him out of curiosity,”is the ritual over?” I had to gather courage to ask him,who cut his mother’s body. For Karma it was easy,he said as if witthout feeling(I felt)I did it,the priest first chants and cut off the head and keep it aside,also so that when the rest of the bodies are cut,he should not feel bad. And Karma did it! I dared ask him,”where did you keep the Dao-the machete. Karma said,”I brought it back to home.”

    Everytime I land on hundred high hills of Tawang. What I see in crystal clear water of the river Kameng,are many a hands waving at me,body parts floating and flowing in the river,half fed by fishes-weird images fills all in my mind,I fail to look elsewhere,my eyes fixed at the flow of the beautiful river Kameng,where life too flows here…

20. Hello Mr. Shekhar,

    I can understand your helplessness. But dont let this helplessness come in the way of the good work you want to do. There comes a time in everyones life when you have to stand up and think beyond yourself, you need to have the courage and stand up and do the good deeds you want to do. I think one man can make a difference. You can do it if you think you can. All the best.

21. I can see the logic but I still don’t like it.
    there are other ways to return to the five elements.

22. Read your article..and firmed my resolve that the Ganga has to be clean. How, I dont know.. but this realisation has to set in in the mind and resolve of the mass. But how do we go about it? Maybe Baba Ramdev is doing it the right way. Is the government serious about cleaning the Ganga.. It has to! Our spiritual source is in the Ganga..We cant let it be so unclean! This awareness has to spread. Thanks for the article.

23. Let’s not associate pathetic state of Ganges or sickness of our mind to something as fancy as spirituality or moksha or indulging in unfair comparison with a flower… See it through different lens and you’ll see the poverty driving our beliefs and actions and the result is here to see. If the life itself isn’t dignified where’s the question of a decent funeral of the body? Poverty, a curse while living and when dead as well.

24. A short look at the pictures and the article you are referring to has actually wobbled the mind frame. The issue should not be over looked… Your enlightening exposure towards this problem has to be broached through voice and work. Though we Indians cannot be blamed for not using toilet papers as we have our own dimensions but leaving the corpse in the holy river is a vital issue and has no excuse. The deprived ones should be made available with woods or should be entitled to proper cremation facilities.

    One of the comments below that article mentioned India buying fighter planes but overlooking such issues insinuate a need analyses to be undertaken by state governments.

25. Of course different lenses will present different scenarios but all will be the conditioned scenarios for the lenses itself are an other name for conditions imposed upon and entangling our basic tabula rasaic selves. Remove all lenses and see through the time-transcending vision of the seer itself then you will find that this is always a dynamic world of pairs of opposites so that any one thing in it is always complemented by an opposite thing close by. Flowers will have thorns of all kinds. Living will have dead, intact bodies will have carcass. All this play is there for us to be transcended. It is not the vision of a sick mind but of a mind which is your slave now.

    If poverty were the main issue then way back when India was very poor carcass should have choked the Ganga. But we find that it was cleaner. Spirituality is not the daughter of the $ alone though throughout this discussion it is no body’s case and even Shekhar said so, that Ganga should not be cleaned or that efforts should not be made in this direction. But simultaneously we should not get lost in the ephemeral existence so to say. At due time natural forces will be better equipped to cleanse Ganga, otherwise it would not have come to us cleanest in the first instance.

26. Look at the rich west and some oil rich Arab countries. There even the bodies on the ground are now turning to carcass. And it is just the beginning. The end of every richness finally brings in similar situations. Perhaps like Gandhi’s non-violence we now need a bit of non-richness lol.

27. Shekhar,

    I see your sensitivity here.. and better described too. BUT In a world of instant gratification, do you feel better after writing down your feelings about a photograph that you see on a Chinese blog.. do yo feel better now that whatever you feel or write or tweet – is being seen by thousands.. is that this all about. I don’t think so !! THIS IS NOT NEW. This has been there for over years now. WHY cannot we say the same about those living in poverty, on streets or their kids ( who don’t know any better) be protected from such an abomination where they simply live.love and die on streets. YOU ATLEAST SEE bodies on Ganges. I am originally a Delhi-ite and I see folls living on streets just like they were when I was 10 years old. Bathing in the same dirty water you won’t even put your finger on. what’s all THAT ??

    WHO doesn’t want the Ganges to be clean after all. Everyone does. Even a dog cleans before he sits. The problem is same like throwing trash out of a bus window.. that’s the fundamental problem… Problem is not “Ganges should be clean” Problem is ” Who cares..anymore”

    THIS IS HOW IT IS.. AND THIS IS HOW INDIA WORKS.. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.

    THAT’;S THE PROBLEM. NOW who can solve this.. well we can start by cleaning our own souls.

    Manav

28. Wanted to add: Nobody is saying here that Ganga should not be cleaned but doing it from the perspective of overall knowledge is to act like a Krishna, doing it out of ignorance is to act out of a egoic stance, to do like a slave to some mental concepts. The first would be what is called selfless action, the second, forced by the lesser or egoic self.

29. Concepts of religion are man’s vanity of understanding whats greater and how we have stopped looking.
    Religion and philosophical concepts tell you to stop thinking further. If a phenomenon is witnessed man tries to capture it in his limited understanding and then into words. That’s the outcome of religions and philosophy.
    The fallout of such concepts – e.g. Hinduism [Manu and his madness – caste system which breeds vengeance, very soon to come, delivered by the oppressed castes].
    Christianity [Heaven and Hell – “Your body will burn in Hell?????] Do we even take our bodies anywhere?
    Islam [72 Virgins [houri] in heaven [Jannah] ????? WTF]

    So Sir, Mr. Shekhar, Dont fret your mind into others understanding of life. Your journey is meant for you and you alone to find out your purpose and final destination. NO book or religion will guide you to your destination – So Keep looking. I have written a screenplay on this topic if you are ever interested.
    Luke Mendes [I looked in all the wrong places for a long time – Bible, Gita, Vedas, Kuran, Jatakas] I like the mystery and i like to discover it daily – thats called life and living. But you find your own method to this madness called life. 🙂

30. I am soldier, even enemy dead are given decent last rites. Our philosophy or whatever logic shouldn’t become our defence mechanism to defend our ills. We shouldn’t compare ills with other ills, it is not the sign of progressive evolved thinking. Everyone who has taken birth deserves honourable last journey. It is proper hygenically, socially and also spiritually. There are so many disturbing things/pictures which you see and watch in daily life, however we build a web of conceit to not actually see & respond to it. We become numb, kind of living dead. Shekar your article has actually churned the insides and made me alive to the human sensibilities. A reason to live and act! Thanks!

    I read all the comments, there is a common thread of compassion, it gives me hope that still things will work out better in future. There still are thinking people who will contribute in their own ways to the society in the journey ahead.

31. Dear Shekhar Ji,

    Inspired by you since long, I have written a blog called “The Monk who sold his Ferrari…bought a Truck” at http://www.sandeepatre.com!! I would be blessed if you could read and share your feedback!

    I know I am being ambitious to imagine that you would read, but the ‘Real hope dies hard’!

    Regards
    Sandeep Atre

32. Man looks at the spider’s web and laughs sarcastically at how it itself dies imprisoned in it. But man does not see beyond his own web of mind/mental concepts in which he is imprisoned and will die in the same way. Though….

    While the spider may not be able to look beyond his plight man is as testified by hundred of sages and mystics.

    So let us come out of it first and then do whatever we feel like doing even in the web for then we’ll be doing it without any misconceptions and will enjoy it.

    Otherwise let us rest assured that not only the Ganges but the whole web will get cleansed at due time by greater natural forces with or without us.

    And mind you, the reverse counting for the same may have already begun.

    BC era global cultural cycle (ending at AD 0) began to go downhill towards dark periods after Aristotle.

    Now after Aristotle, Bertrand Russell mentions mainly three schools of philosophy still pertaining to the Greek period: Cynics and Skeptics, the Epicureans and lastly, the Stoics. Any discerning eye can see the same philosophies coming into vogue step by step now. Lending seriousness to the possibility that we are again heading towards dark periods.

    Recent Greek crisis further seems to confirm the identicality of times. http://bigtamasha.blogspot.in/2010/05/mysterous-greeks.html

    It is also possible that it is going to be the end of rather even a greater cycle which began some 12000 years ago with end of Ice Age. Then the whole planet earth will be cleansed again for once thanks to Ice Age.

33. Shekhar, sorry to intrude but did you know about this another Paan Singh Tomar like figure of Punjab? He is real Dara Singh who too killed his brother’s killers because of land dispute. He did not become a decoit though but went to jail and later died unknown. http://bigtamasha.blogspot.in/2012/07/was-there-other-real-dara-singh-aka.html

    (I’ll understand if you do not publish this comment here.)

34. Shekhar,

    You say, “I will fight…”, but how?

    The following is UN’s website to fight world hunger.
    http://www.wfp.org/
    It is not the topic of this post, but not unrelated. How efective has the UN been to fight world hunger? Is there a more effective way?

35. Beautiful!

36. This has stirred my inner senses. In a pensive state of mind. Firstly, the thought of my soul leaving my body petrifies me, having said so no mortal is immortal . We’ve gotto go when our calling comes.

    No… never ever will I see my body afloat, aarrrgh the thought of it…No! Never would I want to be a hinderance.

    Honestly, how lovely and elegant if it were embalmed and preserved or even mummyfied. However my thoughts are far fetched, I reckon. Signing off on the note Que Sera Sera what ever will be will be…

37. Dear Shekhar,

    A Film with a message, thus India will be sorted…. 🙂

38. This is a message that is worth a reading. It might be politically incorrect to endorse all this openly, but that does not stop us from being able to know and perceive facts in their true light.

    I am not communal, i am very liberal and open to all religious thoughts, i am quite knowledgeable of the Bible and Koran, I have christian and moslim friends whom i am very close with, but there is a small Hindu beneath everything, the root, that cries to be heard, that wants to express itself. It does not intend any revolution or debates but just wants to be heard. I am sure this feeling is within the deep realms of of every Hindu’s heart.

    I totally understand, that this message may not be absolutely ready to be posted in the open, as it is potentially highly debatable. But just thought I should share it with you 🙂 Cheers.

    Regards
    Ganesh
    ____

    10 Shades of Indian Secularism

    1 ) In India, with 80% Hindu population, and the only homeland of Hindus in the world, the birthdays of great sons of the soil, Shri Ram and Shri Krishna, are not compulsory central government holidays,
    while the birthday of Saudi Arabia born prophet Mohammad and both the birth and crucification day of Bethlehem born Jesus, are compulsory holidays throughout India. This seems in sync with the secular hypothesis that Ram and Krishna are imaginary comic characters while Mohammad and Jesus are actual historical characters. There are only 2 Hindu holidays out of compulsory 14, in contrast with 4 Muslim ones.

    2) The Constitution of India enables the government to take control of Hindu temples and trusts and appoint its nominees in their controlling body and even control its funds. The government doesn’t have this privilege for the mosques or churches. The government cannot interfere in the functioning of the mosques, madarsas and any minority institutions even if they receive government aid, which is taxpayers’ money. The minority institutions are not bound to comply with the Right to Education act either. This can be seen as a lighter version of Pakistan and Bangladesh’s enemy property laws which enable their governments to confiscate the propeties of Hindus by declaring them enemy properties.

    3) Everyone knows that India doesn’t have uniform civil code. Indian muslim males are legally allowed to have up to 4 wives at a time, and can divorce them by saying ‘Talaaq’ thrice, in compliance with Sharia. Hindus and Christians have to follow proper court procedures to filefor divorce. The women right activists who organise ‘slut-walks’ to celebrate their ‘rights’ and advocate girls visiting pubs, do not speak on this matter. Shah Bano case stands as a glaring example of how secularism is a constitutionally prescribed drug meant only for Hindus, not for minorities.

    4) Prayagraj, one of the holiest pilgrimages of Hindus, is called Allah-abad. Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura, each of these 3 holy sites has been desecrated and yet not fully restored. The signboards of Auragzeb road in Delhi stand as the testimony to India’s slavery that Indian secularism celebrates so profusely. In 2007, over 1 lakh Indian muslims paid homage to Aurangzeb’s tomb on his 300th anniversary, that’s when Aurangzeb is known to be the perpetrator of the largest Hindu genocide ever. Aurangzeb had even got Guru Teg Bahadur beheaded in his court for his refusal to convert to
    Islam.

    5) An instance of Indian secularism is the 1978 directive to NCERT which instructs it to erase all medieval history which paints a picture of clash between native Hindus and invading muslims in that
    era. Consequently, we have a chapter each from Akbar to Aurangzeb, but Shivaji and Maharana Pratap are squeezed into a paragraph each inhistory books. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, discredited Aryan Invasion Theory is still taught in Indian schools. The history books do not cover the Mahabharata despite a plethora of archaeological evidence available to conclusively establish its
    historicity.

    6) The Archealogical Survey of India in its annual report of 1924-25 published a long list of Hindu temples demolished during Islamic rule. Sita Ram Goel, Arun Shourie and others have published a book after conducting research and they’ve given a 64 page long district-wise list of Islamic monuments which were constructed by demolishing Hindu temples. This list, in the book, “Hindu temples – what happened to them”, includes around 2000+ temples and gives in most cases, the year of construction of those structures also. Even in Kashmir, hundreds of temples, small and large have been desecrated over during the exodus of Hindus in early 90s. The same, however, is a
    non-issue in larger secular polity. It’s continued unabted in whichever time or space, Hindus have become weak.

    7) From Ram Mandir to Ram Setu and to Bhagwad Geeta, all have been dragged into Indian courts. India is the only country in the world where the faith of 100 Crore people is humiliated. It’d be silly to
    look for parallels where in a Muslim majority country, Quran or the prophet, or in a Christian majority country, Bible or the Christ, could be dragged into a court of law. In India, the central government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court suggesting that Ram never existed. In the same country, Christian missionaries openly preach about Hindus’ false and ‘characterless’ gods, and so do Islamic missionaries like Zakir Naik, but the tag of ‘hate-monger’ has been attributed to Hindu right wing by secular luminaries in media and otherwise.

    8) There are numerous government schemes which are run exclusively for the benefit of minorities at the expense of taxpayer money, despite an apparent prohibition to the same in the constitution. Pashchim Banga government paying monthly stipend to all the Imams of all the mosques in the state is a glaring example of this. The same is not extended to Hindu pujaris. The Haj subsidy, against
    which the Supreme Court finally ordered, which had been running since Independence even when no other country, not even Pakistan offers it, is another example.

    9) The pious Human Right Activists, known for their love for Jihadi terrorists, those who have been running justiceforafzalguru.org for years now, have not spoken for the inhumane treatment meted out to Sadhvi Pragya, and Swami Aseemanand. Their love for those displaced in Gujarat riots, their sympathy on crores of Bangladeshi infiltrators and their disgusting silence and aversion on lakhs of Kashmiri Hindu refugees and Pakistani Hindu refugees is another jewel of the muddled waters of Indian secularism.

    10) The practice of Saraswati Vandana has been discontinued from almost all government events with the rise of secular fanaticism. The TV series Chanakya of 90’s was asked to remove Saffron flags from it, its being indispensable to the picturaization of Chanakya’s Akhand Bharat notwithstanding. Doordarshan’s ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ had also been removed before being brought back. Off late, even the practice of lighting a lamp has been criticised as ‘unislamic’. A litigation was filed in Gujarat high court for inaugurating a room by breaking a coconut for its being a Hindu (not Secular). A case was lodged in Chennai High Court to prohibit the employees celebrating festivals in office space. The beast of secular fanaticism has gone wilder over the years, and if not us, posterity will have to bear the brunt of our callous ignorance.

    Source:IBTL

    We’re becoming 2nd class citizens in our own country. The likes of Digvijay Singh having the umption of saying that the riots in Assam were because of ‘Hindu infiltrators’.

    Not one word of protest on the racial riots there, WHY- because it’s a Congress ruled state !
    TIME TO WAKE UP

    –*–

39. Reading the post from Ganesh B, I am compelled to ask —

    what does it mean to *be* a Hindu?
    or, a Christian, or a Muslim, for that matter?

40. Does the body become irrelevant after the departure of the soul, or must it be treated with respect? And what form will that respect take? Different cultures have given different answers to these questions. Yours is an interesting take.

41. Hare Krishna – You’re blog website has added satisfaction to my core. Shout the praises about Lord Hanuman.

42. Aw, this was an extremely nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole lot and never seem to get nearly anything done.

43. I am muslim pakistani I was shocked it was nightmarish Indian govt should do something and help community to save this sacred river from pollution. Shekhar is right dead bodies should be treated with respect these should not be abandoned and left for scavengers, after all those were humans when they were alive.
    I am very concerned about all rivers but ganga is top of the list.

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