Do Not Abandon Your Hindu Identity

There is only one thing important for us in Kalyug, this Age of Darkness, and that is Bhakti. Bhakti is having Devotion Love towards the One God of the Universe. Bhakti can either be found through ritualistic worship such as Puja or it can be a simple faith and belief in God. 

However, all of our Bhakti is for nothing if we do not know who we are, where we come from, and where are we  going. To be God loving and good people, we first have to know who we are.

So, who are we? Who are you? What is your identity? Your national identity? Ask yourself, what is my identity?

Of course your reply would be your name, like my name is Aoneesh Arun Sharma, and your name is so on and so forth.  But this only partially unansweres, where do we belong? Who are we in this world?

Ladies and gentlemen, the truth is we have forgotten our true identity. Our Hindu identity. In this westernized world of degrading pleasure and material desires we have forgotten who we are and where we belong.

Let us digress for a bit and look at our past. Around 4.2 to 4.5 billion years ago the Earth was created. Than 530 million to 420 million years ago life stated to appear on Earth. 4.2 million years ago the first men walked the Earth and  around 10000 years ago in the year c8000 BCE one of the world’s earliest civilisations appeared. This civilisation, is known today as the Pre-Harrapan Civilisation, but to us Hindus, who are well versed in the Puranas, we know it as Prithu Raj.

Ladies and gentlemen, this civilisation was the world’s first. The first vedic civilisation, its people were were known as the Arya people and their religion, or more acurately, the way of life was simply known as Dharma.

The terms best used to identify Arya and Dharma to denote the identity and religion in the modern era are Hindu and Hinduism.

Hinduism is the worlds oldest religion. We Hindus, should take pride in the fact that our religion is the worlds oldest religion, and for 9500 years, in its 95% of its existence, Hinduism was the largest religion of the world. Stretching from Afghanistan to all the way to the Philippines, Hinduism was the religion of countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Lanka, Indonesia, and Malaysia. 

This changed when Islamic conquerors and Christian colonists came to conquer and steal the lands of the native people. In order to have strong control over the conquered Hindus, they sought to destroy their Hindu Identity and make them loyal to their conquerors.  They removed these peoples Hindu Identity and imposed on them what they were not, so that they were under their control, and would not rebel against them.

This lead to a chain reaction that still affects our people today.  A new phenomenon is taking place. The new young middle class misled by globalization-era economics and entertained by the electronic media, with high levels of personal insecurities and hardly any time or inclination to delve into any Hindu texts leave aside their religious and spiritual beliefs and has now started to call historical events such as Ramayan, Mahabharat, and the Purans as false myths and stories of the past time.

Another aspect of the loss of Hindu culture is that the younger Hindu people, especially youths, ages 15 to 25, are readily giving up Hindu beliefs in order to follow the more decadent so-called freedoms of the Western and European culture. They see the western movies, read what the celebrities say in the papers, and admire them. They want to adopt their forms of dress and follow their decadent lifestyles. Thus, the Hindu principles are now looked upon as something obsolete, something that restricts their style to those who look to the decadent West and want to adopt their decadent ways. Thus, they are abandoning Hindu culture behind and losing respect for anything Hindu. In this way, they adopt foreign standards, or lose so much respect for Hindu values that they become embarrassed to admit their own Hindu background and heritage. Furthermore, Sanskrit scholars at the temples are also slowly dying out, and the modern Hindus view historical events of Ramayana and Mahabharata as mere myths or gaudy television shows.

Although India has been invaded by outsiders so many times, it has always survived, what we are talking about is more than mere property or geography. What is actually being threatened is the basis of Hindu religion itself. As younger generations give up their Hindu heritage more and more Hindu children and youths lose faith in themselves and in their identity, they become lost, and hence are vulnerable to becoming victims of the predatory decadence of the European culture.

How many more generations will it take before the Hindu culture and religion is no more? As Hinduism declines, we will see more of our youths losing their identity and confidence in themselves. Think about your children.

We, Hindus, are the people to first have discovered Evolution. We, Hindus, are the people to discover the Big Bang Theory. We are the ones who discovered the concept of Zero in counting. The world uses our counting system in their mathematics. The Arabic Numerals were adopted from the Hindu Numerals. We knew about embryology and development of an embryo thousands of years beofore modern science rediscovered it. The British stole the plastic Surgery and Rhinoplasty from us. We knew the world had 7 continents thousands of years ago and the Europeans discovered all only 400 years ago.

Read the Puranas, all of the above scientific discoveries mentioned above and many more were recorded in it.

Our law code, the Manusmriti, 2500 years old had rules regulating wars which were even more human than the modern Geneva convention. Just read up Manusmriti chapter 7 verse 90 – 93.

And yet despite the rich culture and strong cultural basis of our religion, we have lost souls who abandon God and become atheists because science has evolution and big bang theory and we don’t.

The People DO NOT KNOW, that is why they abandon their identity.

We have people abandoning their Identity because they were sick and their "leg was paining". They fall for the witchcraft of witch-doctors of Mlechcha Dharma. Because they do not know the comforts of Bhagavad Gita, and the hope it instills in the sick and the grieving.

WE must adopt the Kshatriya spirit to protect Hindu Dharma and focus on Hindu weaknesses for our self defense. We must develop a broader Hindu Community Identity. And that identity is our Hindu Samaj.

The point of all this information is that it is time for all Hindus and followers of Hindu culture, the Hindu religion, to realize what is actually happening and give up our timidness or showing no concern and speak out while such freedom still exists. We must become more pro-active to defend Our Hindu Culture, Our Hindu Religion, and Our Hindu Identity. The point is that if you do not take it seriously, I can assure you that there are others who will take this inaction and tolerance extremely seriously to convert and propagate their own decadent lifestyles at the expense of Our Hindu Identiy, Community, and Culture. It is because of this that Our Religion and Our Identity may not always be ever lasting. 

I fear if we do not take action, than our Sanatana Dharma will not always be Sanatan. God help those who help themselves. If our Karma is not to do anything to save and protect Our Religion and Our Identity than our Karma-dund will be the death of who we are, and how we live. We need to protect whatever is left of it and maintain the present liberties that Hindus still have. We need to unite ourselves to survive as a people. And it most certainly is possible.

Lets just look at the country Russia for a moment. It is a western country and in the past had 0% of Hindu people living in it. Now more than 1% of the Russian people claim to be Hindus. In a country of 150 million people, 1% amounts to more than 1.5 miilion Hindus. This was primarily due to the preaching efforts of ISKCON and shows a major social impact our culture has on the world. If we can work together in a concerted effort to save Our Culture and Our Identity, than we will succeed. We only need to try.

Hindu Identity, Culture and Religion must always be protected. Without it, what is our value? In spite of whatever else we accomplish? Without Hinduism, We have no future. Hinduism is the soil in which Our roots are struck. Tear it out, and we will whither out of existence. If We let Hinduism vanish than who are we? If Hindus do not maintain Hinduism, who will? If Hinduism's own children do not cling to their faith, who shall guard it? Hindus alone can save Hinduism, and Hinduism alone can save Hindus. Because Hindus and Hinduism are one.

In this light, it is absolutely necessary that as followers of Hindu Dharma and Culture, we need to realize that we need to heal whatever differences we may have between us regarding whatever issues there may be. 

We cannot allow ourselves to be led into the danger of endless debate that leads to nothing but inaction. We all must be pro-active in some way to help defend and spread Vedic Culture. Then we can work together to keep the freedom we presently have to practice the Hindu traditions and keep our Hindu identity as a thriving, dynamic, and still living people. Such freedom does not come without its challenges, and we must be prepared as a people to meet those challenges. To take such freedoms for granted means that it’s only a matter of time before they are lost. And that is exactly what some people want to happen. So we must be willing to work all the harder to prevent such a decline of our Hindu heritage and our Hindu identity as a person, and a people.

If you want to know what it is to be a Hindu, than go read Kurma Puran chapter 2 verse 53 -54, and I paraphrase, says that a Hindus purpose is to follow their Dharma, to achieve Love, Success and Salvation. But a Hindu’s Dharma is the source of these 3.

Reference: Stephan Knapp