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Faith healers wanted
By Swami Agnivesh & Valson Thampu
All
symbols exist within well-defined contexts, and religious symbols are no
exception to this rule. If a symbol is plucked out of its native
surroundings, it can be made to carry whatever innuendoes and incitements
one wishes to impose on it. When this is done deliberately to religious
symbols, there is a need to ask if they remain ‘religious’ at all
thereafter.
Fire,
for example, is a profound symbol in all religions. But, surely, it forfeits
its religious significance when it is used as a weapon of destruction, to
punish rather than to purify. Even if we are ardent fire-worshippers, we
cannot claim any religious right to burn down everything just because fire
has religious overtones for us. The cross on the banner of the Crusaders, to
cite another example, was not a religious symbol but a military one: an
insult to Christ who abhorred the use of violence.
Anyone
who has seen trishul-wielding Bajrang Dal or VHP activists in the context of
communal outbursts will find it difficult to regard the trishul as a
religious symbol. What this proves is that all religiously responsible
people have a duty to ensure that religious symbols are not communally
degraded.
The
stock-in-trade trick of fundamentalists is to transplant religious symbols
and rituals from the sphere of the sacred to the soil of the profane. This
helps to create an illusion of religious legitimacy for what is essentially
adharmic, especially in the eyes of the credulous and the misinformed. The
Ayodhya temple movement illustrates this exercise. Despite this massive
movement of religious fervour, the construction of Ram’s temple did not
move an inch forward. But, as L.K. Advani asserted subsequently, the BJP
“moved many miles forward” and took the seat of power in Delhi.
Trishul
diksha, by which the VHP wants to import Gujarat into Rajasthan in view of
the forthcoming elections in the state, is another avatar of the same
strategy. The electoral over-exploitation of the temple issue has opened the
eyes of the common man in this respect. And he is sceptical of the hidden
agenda behind these pseudo-religious charades, as the popular response to
the arrest of Praveen Togadia in Rajasthan proves.
What
is the symbolic meaning of Lord Shiva’s trishul? To understand this
correctly, the first thing to note is that Shiva himself is an integral and
indivisible part of the trimurthi (trinity) — Brahma (creator), Vishnu
(sustainer) and Maheshwar (destroyer, but not killer).
Spiritually,
it is impossible to separate the role of ‘destroyer’ from those of
‘creator’ and ‘sustainer’. Much depends on how we understand the
function of the ‘destroyer’. Is Lord Shiva a destroyer in the sense that
the Indian navy has ‘destroyers’? If his role is understood spiritually,
then it is incontestable that this destruction is integral to both creation
and sustenance. Shiva is not an antagonist to Brahma and Vishnu, but a force
complementary to both of them.
This
is easily seen from placing the symbolism in its rightful context. The Ganga,
for instance, emerges from the matted hair of Lord Shiva. The Ganga is our
sacred river and it symbolises life. The principle of life flows into and
out of the person of Shiva, despite the profound paradox that he dwells in
the cremation ground and is associated with symbols like ash, the skull, the
tiger skin and the snake. The cremation ground is not only a sphere of death
but also a theatre of dharmic struggle — the battle of
righteousness. This war is against the forces of adharma, of evil and
injustice. It is in this context that Lord Shiva’s role as ‘destroyer’
needs to be understood.
Through
its unique shape, the trishul symbolises the trimurthi. It is meant to be
wielded by Lord Shiva — not by communally frenzied outfits. To do
otherwise amounts to insulting the deity. It is adharmic to abuse what is
godly to further one’s vested interests. Besides, the meaning of trishul
is defined by the total context that includes, in addition to Lord Shiva,
also Brahma and Vishnu.
The
trishul can never be a weapon of aggression. The three-pointed shape of this
sacred symbol is an eloquent proof of this. Its very shape militates against
the role that the VHP now thrusts upon it. That is also the reason why its
version of the trishul is drastically modified to make it look more like a
dagger than a trident.
The
question arises as to what the substance and scope of the VHP’s
religious fervour is. Is it Lord Shiva or is it the trishul as a symbol of
aggression? If the object of devotion is Lord Shiva, why distribute only
trishuls? Why not also include snakes and skulls that are even more closely
associated with him?
The
trishul does not symbolise Lord Shiva any more than the other symbols —
ash, the snake, the crescent moon and the Ganga — do. Surely, in the
context of Rajasthan, a state afflicted by severe drought, distributing
Ganga jal is a more sensible ‘religious ceremony’ than trishul diksha?
If
the VHP must distribute trishuls, shouldn’t they make this more religious
in its setting by distributing them on cremation grounds? It may be of
interest to note here that in most folklore depictions of Lord Shiva, he is
not shown holding a trishul; it is simply kept beside him. Nor is Shiva seen
to be raving and ranting in the patented VHP style.
Lord
Shiva is cherished as the destroyer of three ‘shuls’ or types of
suffering: adhyatmic (spiritual), aadi daivik (natural calamities) and aadi
bhowtik (physical suffering). Lord Shiva is kalyankaari: one who does good
and safeguards human welfare. The word ‘shivam’ means kalyan, or
welfare. In this sense, ‘destruction’, as compatible with the
Shiva-principle, has to harmonise with human welfare.
It
is sacrilegious to misuse any of the symbols associated with Lord Shiva to
legitimise senseless hate, murder and mayhem. Anarchic violence is an insult
to every god, including Lord Shiva.
Underlying
the pseudo-religious ceremony of trishul diksha, there is a serious issue
that we need to reckon with — for all of the VHP’s communal and
political stratagems are constructed on it. Communal forces thrive on the
crass ignorance of the masses concerning the essentials of their faith. The
keepers and custodians of our religious traditions have let us down in this
respect.
Over
the years, we have neglected the duty to school our people in the spirit and
truth of our spiritual traditions. Religion is what we care for most; but it
is also what we understand least. This leaves the sanctuary of religion
vulnerable to be desecrated and exploited at will by communal,
fundamentalist and obscurantist outfits. Even predictable repetitions of the
same deception fail to open the eyes of the people to see through the façade
of rapacious and false religiosity.
Adulteration,
unfortunately, seems to be a crime only in commerce and industry, while it
is profitable and safe business in communal religiosity. Till recently,
ordinary citizens were barred from displaying the national flag. Quite
rightly we did not want our national flag to be dishonoured or cheapened in
any way. It’s a shame that we now put up with the blatant abuse of sacred
symbols for ulterior gains.
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