By >Aditi Ramn on June 1, 2008
I request every one to read the above article before starting to read my post.
The modern world calls for public debates about any social evils. Only hypocrites talk in hushed voices. Those who watch talk shows like, “We the people”, “The big Fight” and “Opera Winfrey Shows” will know well how important these shows are. What harm is done to the society by placing taboos on worlds like “condoms” needs no mention once again.
Society is made of individuals. Individuals make families. What is good for the society can not be bad for the family.
I am a Brahmin, by chance not by choice, so also every one else. I have studied science by choice and not by chance. As I was born in a Brahmin family and brought up in a traditional orthodox Hindu joint Brahmin house, I had no other choice but accept certain things as they are. As I have pursued science and taken up teaching science as my profession my search for reason and logic has become an obsession. Now I am riddled with a great conflict. I believe many more are also experiencing the same, but every one has his own methods to tackle his problems. Some times my methods may appear to be wrong or even ghastly to others. The reasons for such behaviour again I attribute to the joint family environment in which I am brought up. Every psychologist on earth will tell us that our behaviour completely depends on the environmental programming in our formative years.
My father is a Sanskrit scholar. He studied Vedas. (Here one must know the difference between a purohit who practices and preaches rituals and a vedic scholar who assimilates Vedas and makes his own conclusions.)My father understood Vedas and vedic mantras to a great extent. He discussed them with many people many times. He challenged many purohits and some times had to face impolite criticism. My father did neither preach nor practice rituals. My father never hesitated to carry a dead body and attended funerals even when his parents were alive. In fact he gave highest priority to such activity. There are occasions when he asked his own sons to give a shoulder to the dead along with him. If any one has no trust in what I am saying, they can go and ask him. He is still alive.
My father allowed us to practice our religion in our own way. He never insisted on rituals. He never encouraged superstition. He never believed in good and bad omens. He never believed in Vastu. He never consulted an astrologer for the marriage of any of his sons or daughters. Most importantly he never demanded his sons or daughter to practice such rituals. He never did the moral policing. In my opinion, a person who takes no notice of a crime and stands passive to a crime should be held more responsible than the criminal himself. If one person who thinks non-sense has the ability to gauge the mouths of ten who, think sense , has to be challenged, even if the consequences are bad. No reform is possible without hurting a few people. In the present context of our country, every one has to face the religious fanatics with utmost determination and indefatigable resolve to keep up the glory of the great relegion.
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