Just some thoughts as I embark on my journey to Ayodhya today for tomorrow’s pranpratishtha, counting my blessings and overwhelmed at the reality of having received an invitation from the mandir nyas. Am off to Ayodhya – a city so revered by Bharatiyas that many actually call it Ayodhyaji. Adding the reverential ‘ji’ to a geographical location, much like you would do for a learned, wise person who acts as a guiding light for you, is symbolic of the reverence, love, respect & devotion Bharatiyas have for Bhagwan Ram and by transference, for the town of both his birth and rule – Ayodhya.

It is in this town, at what is believed to be the birthplace of the God who adorns that page of the Indian Constitution which enumerates the Fundamental Rights of the republic, stood a grand temple built in his name as a symbol for worship of not just that individual, but also what he represented as a king – Ram Rajya – which was governance that was fair & just, of a society that was culturally enriched and economically prosperous.

For that symbol to have been specifically targeted by a foreign invader, on theocratic grounds, with specific intent at destroying a key symbol of Bharatiya Sanatani culture (commonly referred to as the Hindu religion), and installing another monument at that specific place in order to continually demonstrate that one religion is ‘above’ the other, is despicable, to say the least. That said, you may even be able to forgive or discount that act, given that those were medieval times where all conquerers were brutal and tried all means to destroy – both in body & spirit – the conquered (remember what the Buddhist king Ashoka did to Kalingans?). Who cannot be forgiven however, are some individuals, mostly from among those whose forefathers were religiously converted through force or bribery, trying to negate this barbarism and justify the continued existence of a symbol erected in the place of the original Ram Mandir, as an insult to the civilisational culture of Bharat. It is these people who prevented an amicable settlement for the setting up of the Ram Mandir in its original location for so long. Anyway, I don’t want to delve into this negativity as tomorrow is a day of awakening.

This Bharatiya civilisational culture is pagan. It is plural. We worship nature, often-times symbolising aspects of it as Gods & Goddesses. We worship both wealth & knowledge. We build temples for Ram, but we have temples for Raavan too. There are staunchly vegetarian Hindus and there are staunchly non-vegetarian Hindus. We have a Goddess of Wealth, Goddess of Knowledge, Goddess of Music, a God of Death among 33-types of Gods & Goddesses. We also embrace those who do not believe in Gods & Goddesses. We believe in the divinity of the human. Believe that human cognition and what we refer to as the soul, include a sense of divinity and an ability to rise above our more base instincts. Hence the phrase ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ (I am the Brahma – the God of Creation). This civilisational culture has, hence, no problem accepting, welcoming, even assimilating additional Gods – those revered by Christianity, Islam and Judaism – Yahweh, Allah, Prophet Mohammad, the Christian God and Jesus Christ. It even accepts the Buddha as the 9th Avatar of Bhagwan Vishnu. (see end of the article for more details on this).

We have, for decades, had an intrinsic / innate / plural Islam which assimilated into our culture. Only an Indian Muslim could have said “Ya to Masjid mein sharaab peena de saaki ya aisi jagah bata jahaan khuda na ho.” (Mirza Ghalib). Only an Indian Muslim, when asked if he was a ‘bachelor’, answered – “No. I’m not a bachelor, I’m a Brahmachari.” (APJ Kalam). Only an Indian Muslim could become the performer whose tunes are heard in so many auspicious occasions, including Hindu weddings (Shehnai by Bismillah Khan). The Manganiar Muslims of Rajasthan make music, most of which is music in devotion to Bhagwan Ram.

It was this plural, universal, eternal culture which assimilates everything, that was sought to be snuffed out and replaced by the ‘our God is the one true god and all others are false Gods’ believers multiple times. While many symbols of the Bharatiya Civilisational Sanatani Culture have been damaged and disfugred, some beyond repair or recognition (like our educational system, our historical languages & the jaati-varna system), there are other cases where we have risen up, to reclaim some symbols of this civilisational faith that is both ours & unique in the world today. The Somnath temple is one such symbol. And another one is the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, in which will be done the pran-pratishtha of the murti of Bhagwan Ram as a child, on Pausha Shuklapaksha Dwadashi of the Vikram Samvat 2080, which is January 22, 2024 of the Gregorian Calendar.

This is possibly the only time in history that a pagan civilisation is reclaiming a symbol of their civilisation. It is not a small event in a small town in India. This is an inflection point of global civilisational-cultural history.

I don’t know if any of the original pagan cultural-civilisations still exist (list at the bottom of the article) or nearly all vestiges of nearly all of the above have disappeared, snuffed out by invasions and religio-cultural conversions. However what we do know is that possibly the only Bronze-Age (or older) civilisation still in existence globally today, is the Bharatiya Sanatani civilisation. Hinduism is what we call it currently.

It is really sad that there are no Persians left to claim Persia, no Buddhists left in Afghanistan to rebuild the Bamiyan and no Pagans left to reclaim the Hagia Sofia. That said, I am elated that Bharatiya Civilisational Sanatanis (Hindus) still exist, have claimed Ayodhya and continue to demand Kashi and Mathura.

The Egyptian (Misr) civilisation was rich, Persian richer, Pagan Rome even more so. The Aztecs & Mayans had unimaginable riches. Today none of those cultures exist. But Bharat does. Ask yourself why. Your economy won’t protect your culture. Your culture will protect your economy. Enrich your culture. Strengthen it. Build scholarship in it. Understand Swayambodh & Shatrubodh. We have to realise that we Hindus are the last standing major pagan culture in the world.

It is important that we continue to be steadfastly resistant to all attempts at narrowing or monotheising our faith and our way of life. We should continue to be steadfastly plural, steadfastly balanced between being conservative & progressive, and continue to engage in deep study to gain understanding of this great civilisation & great culture that we have thankfully been born into. We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors and to this great Bharatiya Sanatani Civilisation!

Jai Shri Ram! 🏹🚩🙏🏻

---

In the Dharmic way followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, there are 11 schools of philosophy, many of them athiest:
6 schools of Astika philosophy – Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā & Vedanta
3 schools of Nastika (Atheist) philosophy in Hinduism – Ajivika, Ajñana and Charvaka
2 other schools of Nastika (Agnostic) philosophy – Jain, Buddhist

Let’s also understand the difference between Astik, Atheist, Agnostic:
An Astik believes there is a creator God.
An Atheist believes there is no creator God.
An Agnostic doesn’t believe or disbelieve there is a God because they don’t know for sure.

---

List of Bronze-age Pagan cultural civilisations:

• Misr (Egyptian)
• Persian (Zoroastrian)
• Unnamed Pagan civilisation (pre-Christian Roman)
• Mayan & Aztec (Mexico, parts of the US & Latin-America)
• Apache, Sioux, Cherokee, Cheyenne (Native American)
• Mycenaean (Greece)
• Hittite (Turkey)
• Mesopotamian (Syria-Turkey)
• Babyloanian (Iraq-Iran-Syria)
• Yunnan (Southern/Buddhist China)

---