Hindu Apathy, the Real Enemy, Exploited by World Religions
Namaste,
This is an article by my friend Greesh C. Sharma, Ph.D. that explains ever so clearly how the apathy that Hindus often have toward their own culture, whether to practice it or to stand up in defense of it, is our worst enemy. It has been easily exploited by other world religions, anti-Hindu political parties, and the corrupt land-grabbers, vote-seekers, and temple-takers all over India. This is a strong article that every Hindu, Dharmist, bhakta, yogi, sadhu, and guru should read and act upon if they ever expect to preserve the Vedic culture for the future generations to come and the well-being of India.
Hari Om and Hari bol,
Stephen Knapp
Morrisville PA: The opposite of apathy is action, resilience, determination, direction, pride, and clarity of thinking. One should know one’s place in the scheme of life, and being an important player in the worldly drama. The extremes of apathy are indifference, depression, immobility, paralysis, desperation, abandonment, and brain atrophy. In clinical terms, it is indicative of a serious disease revealing mental disorder or brain damage.
In mental health, the apathetic individual has no energy, talks inaudibly, moves very slowly, is uninvolved, and avoids any interaction. The 1996 edition of Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines apathy as “1. The absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement; and 2. The lack of interest in, or of moving or exciting concern, for things that others find.”
Apathy is not stoicism, spirituality, freedom from emotions, or an effective buffer from negative consequences. It is about living by default, and letting others control your destiny. It is about living in illusions that the ultimate outcome does not matter or that it is merely destiny. Such mindset is contrary to the Bhagavad Gita and the cumulative wisdom of Dharma. It is abandoning everything that should matter whether motherland, culture, identity, family, or one’s future. It is allowing others, regardless of their “motives,” to make decisions for you.
The collective history of any nation offers a good view of the past to figure out one’s national character. However, it works well only if history is written objectively and not driven by politics. In the case of Hindus and Bharatvarsha, history has been written, dictated, edited, and marketed by the Muslims, the British, and the Christians. Additionally, the pseudo secularists, leftists, Maoists, Naxalites, vote-seeking Gandhiites and capitalist/corporate interests have imposed and superimposed their biased views and are currently towing the line for self-serving motives.
Combined with Hindu apathy, passivity and femininity, now you have a repackage of one of the most original and developed civilizations being made by others, for others, paid by Hindus, and sold to the world. It is the holocaust of the Hindu civilization. The corporate world with its deep pockets has taken license to use Hindu religious symbols to market sandals, hamburgers, underwear, and many other mundane items.
Unfortunately, the reaction from Hindus, if any, has been minimal. The cost of Hindu apathy has been very high in terms of destruction of the places of worship, burning of the libraries, partitioning of the country and now terrorism. Hindus are targeted from Guyana to Fiji, Pakistan to Parsippany, Nepal to Zambia, and everywhere else in between. The sixty-million-rupee question is: What is it about Hindus that apathy has become synonymous with the Indian national character? The international stereotype is that Hindus are submissive, acquiescent, yielding, consenting, compliant, and tolerant. These perceptions have given rise to exploitation by international organizations, many nations, missionaries, criminals, hustlers as well as politicians - domestic and international. Hindu apathy is unique as it has no parallel. Compare it with Sikhs, Islam, Christian, British, Japanese, Israel, even Pakistan, but only Hindu apathy wins the distinction.
It is a serious endeavor to search, explore, and attempt to answer the question of incurable, pervasive, endless apathy among Hindus. Koh Nrapti Hoi Hame ka hani has not changed since the times of the Islamic marauders campaign of raping, burning, looting, and destroying Indian places of worship and the British massacre in Jalian Wala Bagh, not to mention the ongoing Chinese and Pakistani claim on Indian territory. What is amazing that so many Indian movements, religious, philosophical, social reforms, called by leaders and swamis, have come and gone but without being able to make even a small dent in the apathy of Hindus. If fear is the root cause then what is happening to the Hindu nation is what they have asked for.
Psychologically speaking, we behave according to our thinking which is a combination of concepts, values, and beliefs. A Hindu wakes up praying for the well being of the entire creation, practices non-injury, believes that all religions are as good as his or her own, and defines the entire world as one big family. Ironically other religions believe in violence, converting, jihad, calling Hindus as non-believers, and deserving death, or being saved. As a result, Hindus, because of their deep-rooted vocabulary and concepts, fail to confront the reality, adversity and danger. Apathy, thus, has become the modus operandi to avoid change, deny any feelings, and live in confusion. Hindu culture, unlike Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, promotes infantilism or inexpressiveness, femininity, and dependence. In other words, the non-Hindus become men, soldiers, masculine, independent, and confrontational. Let us accept that we are in a war of irreconcilable concepts and beliefs, and the losers are Hindus [if we should continue in this way].
[This article and more information at www.stephen-knapp.com]