from the CEO of NCrypted Technologies, co-founder of MetroJoint.com Pvt. Ltd. and lead marketing consultant of Chanakyas Consulting
Who am I - The Discovery of a 21st century man!
During my engineering days at Bangalore I used to go to the nearby Hare
Krishna Hare Rama temple of ISKCON. An engineer Swami (yes most of the
sanyasins there have a professional background) held a class on 'Gita'
one fine Sunday. We were around 20 in this spiritual classroom. All
with diverse backgrounds, religion (there were Hindus, Jain,
Christians, two Sikhs and a Muslim, too), caste, profession and
background.
Swamiji then started the lecture by asking one
simple question to each of us, "Who are you?". The question looked
pretty simple. The guy sitting next to me immediately replied, "I am
Mrugesh Dravid". Then pointing to the girl sitting behind me, Swamiji
politely asked, "And you?". "My name is Pooja, Pooja Tanwar". This
followed with a few more guys replied their names identifying who they
are.
A dude sitting on the first bench then had some unique
thoughts, he wanted to differentiate himself from others. All others
identified themselves in a similar pattern which is very obvious. If
somebody asks me who am I, I would certainly pop-out my name because
that's who I am! Now, this dude replied, "I am a Maharashtrian!". And
he immediately got attention from everybody. He was different, he tried
to distinct himself from others by identifying himself as a member of
one region/state - Maharashtra. He tried to unite himself with where he
belongs to. He wanted himself to be identified as the one who speaks
Marathi. A few south Indians out there (obvious as it was Bangalore)
then stood up and said they are Kannadas! It followed by a couple
others declaring themselves as Tamils.
This did sound
interesting to a few others and in no time a couple of other guys out
there cried out saying they are Sikhs! Now, this was something new.
Being a Maharashtrian, Kannada, Telugu or Tamil is different from being
a Sikh. Maharashtrian is like being a Marathi speaking person -
language specific, region specific. Ditto for Tamils, Telugus and
Kannadas and the likewise. These Sardarjis could have said that they
are Punjabis as majority of Sikhs reside in Punjab. But, then in
Punjab, Hindus are also there. How can Sikhs classify themselves to
something unique - something original? 'Sikh' is the word then. They
said they are Sikhs - the message was clear.
Parag Mehta, a
friend of mine, who is a Jain understood the message. He described
himself as a Jain. Naushar Khan, the only Muslim present in this
spiritual classroom raised his hand and said, 'Well, I am a Muslim - a Mohammedan'!
What? He is saying that he is a Muslim? The rest
of the bunch, who had not spoken so far and had not identified
themselves yet stood up and roared, 'We are Hindus!' and sat back with
a magical pride on their faces. They thought they got the right message
here. We all are Hindus, forget about being a Marathi, Tamil, Telugu,
Kannada, Mallu, Gujju, Sardar and all - we all are Hindus!
It
was then when Swamiji had to interfere as the war of words has been
diversified from Marathi v/s Kannada or North Indian to Hindu v/s
Muslim! Swamiji said, "OK. Now how would I describe myself? All of you
tried to identify yourselves and tried to distinguish yourselves from
others by associating with a caste, region, language and religion. How
do I distinguish myself from all of you now?"
I stood up and
raised a question, "Well, Swamiji, but I don't think we are trying to
differentiate ourselves from each other. You asked who you are and
everybody is replying with their obvious answers."
"If you all
are not trying to depart from each other, should I say that I am an
Indian instead? Will that serve the cause of identifying myself and of
answering to who I am?"
"Yes" was a comprehensible answer from all.
"So
it is clear that I am an Indian." Swamiji continued, "But what about
one of our friends sitting in front of me who is basically an
Australian? How will he describe his being?"
"Well, it ain't any crikey. I am an Australian - it's that simple."
"How
would you have identified yourself if all of us sitting here would have
been Australian?" Swamiji asked the Australian (I forgot his name).
"Well, as I reside in New South Wales, I would have said so.", replied
the Aussie geek. "What if everybody here were from New South Wales?"
Swamiji continued. It is a fact that we the Indians have so many
classifications in our society that we find easy answers to all such
questions. That Australian might must have got confused by now as he
may not be having such classifications of society there - castes,
regions, religions, languages and what not. "Swamiji, what is the point
here?" Australian was wondering.
"The point is very local." was
the reply from the humble Swami. "I asked you a simple question - Who
you are - and all have different answers. One obvious answer I can
expect is your name because that's who you 'think' you are. All other
answers are 'manipulated' and by saying that you are a Marathi or Tamil
or Sikh or Muslim you are just trying to divide and extinct yourself
from others - trying to look different." All of us were listening
gracefully. "You tell me that you are Kunal Pandya, you think you are
right, others think that's who you are. But even that's not who you
actually are!"
We were surprised. 'Who the hell am I then' would
have been the sound of the heart of everybody sitting there, I am sure.
Swamiji then spoke, "If I point at my hand, I say it's 'my hand'. I
point at my eyes and say 'my eyes' and it goes on - my hands, my legs,
my heart, my nose, my lips, my face, my body! You think you are the
body?" Nobody had any answer as this was something which nobody heard
before. Ever since birth, we have been taught that we are Kshatriya,
we are Punjabi, we are from Delhi, we are Hindu - similarly pointing at
myself I would say I am a Brahman, I am a Gujarati, I am from Mumbai
and I am a Hindu. Swamiji said that's not who I am. "YOU ARE THE SOUL!"
was his reply which got all of us thinking of something which was
universal. "If everything in your body is YOURS then who you are? You
are the soul who is wearing this body!"
The class was over. But,
I still keep asking myself, who am I. Swamiji was right, but do you
think we are that universal at this moment that we will go on accepting
and uniting ourselves with all the people of the world? It's true that
I am the soul, you are the soul, but that's the very spiritual part of
it. What about the material world? The world is not matured enough to
accept a universal name for all us humans - for the entire mankind. NO!
Not now at least.
But when I study our history books, I realize
that tomorrow, if not today, we will call ourselves as 'Humans'. 500
years ago, India was not the India we see today. There were Mughals who
ruled North India, there are Khalsas who ruled Punjab, there were
smaller dynasties in Gujarat and Rajasthan like Gaekwad and Mewars
(Mewads). There were Marathas, there were Pandyans (of Pandya dynasty -
I don't know if all Pandyas including me today have roots to them),
there were Cholas of the South India and then there were some Islamic
rulers and their dynasties along with the British rule as well. Though
the British never got accepted here, all others did. Majority of them
were original sons of the soil except Muslims. But, The Great Akbar of
the Mughals realized that if they wanted to rule this part of the
world, they would need to get associated with the locals. It is then
when we started calling ourselves as Hindus. Because before the
inhabitance of the Muslims, everybody was a Hindu - so no point in
calling ourselves Hindus, right? If we face an opposition, we will
unite, otherwise we are already fighting amongst ourselves - Marathas
are fighting against Cholas of south India. Khalsas of Punjab are
fighting against Mewads of Rajasthan and so on. It is due to the
Muslims and other foreign (read - NOT sons-of-the-soil) public rushing
into our land, we started uniting and declared that HOLD - WE ARE
HINDUS!
500 years passed since then, my friend. India is free
today. We are independent Indians stepping into the 21st century. Now
is the time of 'COUNTRIES'. It's the time we call ourselves INDIANS!
And, let's just forget about our smaller origins such as caste, state,
language and religion. It will only divide us further, won't do any
good - it won't.
I am sure that if we encounter some life on
some other planet such as Mars of Venus or whatever, we will again have
a revolution and will start identifying ourselves as HUMANS - The
People of the Planet Earth! But, till then, my friends, let us stick to
the being INDIAN philosophy.
It's true that I am the soul, you are the soul, but that's the very
spiritual part of it. What about the material world? The world is not matured
enough to accept a universal name for all us humans - for the entire mankind.
NO! Not now at least.
posted by : sahil
Saturday December 12th, 2009
I am sure that if we encounter some life on some other planet such as Mars of
Venus or whatever, we will again have a revolution and will start identifying
ourselves as HUMANS - The People of the Planet Earth! But, till then, my
friends, let us stick to the being INDIAN philosophy.--so true!1
