Category: Life & Living

Liberalism of Hinduism

I am a born Hindu and am proud to be one ,always. In my personal view, Hinduism is one of the few religions in the world, which is very liberal and open ,in its thinking and preachings.

Since my birth, I have never been forced to follow any rituals. We have never been ordained to visit a temple nor offer our prayers in a particular way. Of course, like all other religions, Hinduism also has a rich history of written and unwritten scriptures like Vedas and Upanishads but nothing is imposed on us ,as individuals ,by our parents or elders.

We have full freedom to follow any prescriptions or define our own way to God . this is the best part I love about our religion. We have never been restricted to visit other religious places or even follow the good things of other religions, as Hinduism believes, in letter and spirit, that all religions are different pathways ,to the same destination – God.

A prayer, which I offer in the morning ,after I get up and at night ,before I sleep, simply translated states, –

“ May all sentient beings be at peace,
may no one suffer from illness,
May all see what is auspicious, may no one suffer.
Om peace, peace, peace”

It transcends religions, nations and all boundaries, which human beings have defined for themselves.

This month I undertook a long spiritual yatra ( journey), which we commonly call “Gaya shradham” in Hinduism. In this journey, we start at Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu, India where we do a ceremony for our forefathers on the sea shore and collect sand and take it Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, and immerse it at Triveni Sangam, the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers.

We then perform rituals at Prayagraj and collect water from Triveni sangam. After completing our rituals at Prayagraj, we go to Varnasi and do ceremonies at five banks of the Ganges river, considered the holiest river ,according to Hinduism in India.

Then, we proceed to Gaya and do “Pinda dana” or donating rice balls as offerings to our forefathers. The interesting aspect of these offerings is that we offer to our parents, if dead, forefathers, relatives, friends and even enemies, teachers, Gurus, known and unknown people and even animals and other living beings who have died and been known to us.

Finally, we return to Rameshwaram with the sacred water from Triveni Sangam and do abhishekam ( holy bath ) of Lord Shiva at Rameshwaram, followed by some rituals ,to end this journey.

It is believed that all departed souls may get “Moksha” or salvation, if we pray for them this way. What I loved about these rituals is that it does not discriminate between humans and other living beings and goes beyond religion, colour, caste or faith.

In spirit, Hinduism embraces all religions as different pathways to God. The routes may be different but the core belief is that the destination is the same for all of us. The basic values of respecting parents, teachers, Gurus, friends, elders etc. is enshrined in the Hindu faith.

Dr Radhakrishnan, former President of India and one of India’s greatest philosophers wrote a book called – The Hindu way of life “. It beautifully explains how Hinduism is a way of life and not a religion, per se. Of course, there could be fanatics in each religion, who tend to interpret religion in a narrow way and mislead millions of followers. But a true Hindu will always respect all religions and enable co-existence with these basic human values.

Long live the liberal Hinduism.

S Ramesh Shankar

25th March 2025.

Privileges unlimited

We are all having unlimited privileges in life. Today, I visited a home for the destitutes in Varnasi. There are about 65 inmates in this institution – both men and women. Most of them are differently abled – mentally, physically, socially or emotionally. Some of them have been left behind by their own children ,in these homes, although they are well to do.

I realised once again ,how privileged we are and have been, in our lives. We have been brought up in respectable families and had all the basic comforts of life, always. We have siblings .our parents gave us the best education and values.

When you meet each one of them ,in such institutions, you realise that everyone’s story ,can make you cry. Some have left home and reached here ,since there was no alternative. Some of them were left by their own families to fend for themselves and so landed here. Some others were deliberately abandoned here ,by their own children.

Some are physically challenged and others mentally challenged. Some are socially ostracised ,while others have been emotionally drained ,due to social distancing by their families and friends. We do not realise how lucky we are ,unless we see the suffering of such people. Our visit there was only for a few hours but it shook us apart. It makes you thankful to God and nature, for giving us all that we have in life.

The trials and tribulations of life, are varied for all of us. Some of us struggle in our early stages but make a better living, through education and hard work ,later in our lives. But some people like those I met in the ashram ,are facing tough times ,every day of their lives – may be from birth till their death.

We complain ,if we do not get good food at home ,on a day. We complain if we are not able to buy clothes, for a festival. We are upset, if we are not able to go for a vacation . If we look at these people, we may realise ,how lucky and blessed we are. We get good healthy food every day. We sleep comfortably and live comfortably.

We have a family to support us and friends to meet and greet. Imagine living all alone and not sure of the food ,next morning. You do not have any siblings or a family to support you. You have no friends to share your joy and sorrow. You live life ,with no hopes and no aspirations. This may shake us apart ,even if we try it for a day.

It is these experiences ,which makes us human and enable us to be grounded ,to Mother Earth. It makes us realise ,that we have more than what we need. We need to be thankful to God and grateful to our parents , relatives and friends, who have made our life ,so comfortable for us ,from birth itself.

Let us periodically remind ourselves ,as to how privileged we are. Our privileges are indeed unlimited.

S Ramesh Shankar

18th March 2025

Time

Time is “timeless” indeed. What has gone by we could not control, what is stored in the future for us ,is unknown. We can neither control our time ,nor the time of others.

We can plan for our time ,but what may happen ,may not be predictable. Some times ,things go as we have planned and at other times, things go astray. We can neither blame time nor ourselves for it. We may leave home ,two hours in advance ,to catch a train and still may miss it, although the station is just a few kilometers away.

At other times, we may be sure that we may miss the flight ,since we arrived late at the airport and there were heavy queues but, the departure of our flight could get rescheduled ,for reasons we may never know.

Life is no different. We need to accept life and its events ,as it happens to us. This does not mean, we do not plan for our life and work hard ,to achieve our goals. But, what we need to realise is that, some things may be in our control but many others ,may be beyond our zone of influence.

Our ability to accept things as they evolve ,and adapt ourselves to weave our life ,around the uncertainties of life ,makes it worthwhile to live and enjoy life. If we keep cribbing about why something happened or did not happen, we may miss the bus ,as the bus in our life ,does not stop at our place ,forever. It keeps moving and we need to catch it, when it arrives ,or it may not arrive again ,in our lifetime.

We may keep wondering about why something happened in the past and forget to live in the present moment. We may sometimes worry about the future, which we can never be sure of and waste our time, instead of enjoying the present.

Life has to enjoyed everyday ,as if ,today is our last day on earth. Every moment is precious and does not come back. Have we ever seen the clock running backwards ? No moment in life ,comes back to us and hence ,we need to make the best use ,of every second in our life ,today.

It is almost like us sitting in a stationary train ,in the station. When the adjacent train moves, we feel as if we are moving ,in the opposite direction. The reality is that ,we are still ,but the relative moment, makes us feel that way. In life also ,if we remain static, life does not move ,but when we see others progressing, we feel left behind. This is more because, they are working hard, while we may be relaxing and being static at the same place ,without putting any efforts.

Another interesting sight ,is the trees at a distance ,when you are viewing them ,from a moving train. We all know ,that the trees at the distance are rooted in their places and we are moving ,but it looks as if the trees at a distance are moving ,along with us. It is also like the moon seems to be travelling with you, when you are driving on a full moon night. The reality is otherwise.

We need to understand ,the value of time and its reality. We need to realise that ,time does not discriminate, for anyone in life. All of us have the same time in a day, month or a year. Some of us become more successful than others, not because others had limited time, but because we made the best use of time available to us.

Time to realise that time is indeed timeless, non-discriminatory and relative ,for all of us.

S Ramesh Shankar

25th Feb 2025