When Germany is Christian, is India Hindu?
(Denying
One’s Own Roots)
By Maria Wirth
If Germany or any other western
country had this kind of literary treasure, it would be so proud and highlight
its greatness on every occasion. When I discovered for example the Upanishads,
I was stunned. Here was expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to
be true, but could not have expressed clearly. Brahman is not partial; it is
the invisible, indivisible essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again
a chance to discover the ultimate truth and is free to choose his way back to
it. Helpful hints are given but not imposed.
In my early days in India,
I thought that every Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized
that I was wrong. The British colonial masters had been successful in not only
weaning away many of the elite from their ancient tradition but even making
them despise it. It helped that the ‘educated’ class could no longer read the
original Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of
knowledge and the brainwashing by the British education may be the reason why
many ‘modern’ Indians are against anything ‘Hindu’. They don’t realize the
difference between western religions that have to be believed (or at least
professed) blindly, and which discourage if not forbid their adherents to think
on their own and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and
encourages using one’s intelligence.
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