As an international student, I completely appreciate all that is being done for minorities on campus, especially on historical days such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However, this piece is not to combat the kind values which are taught and spread on days like this; no, I write this piece to not only provide a rebuttal to last week’s piece that attempted to connect Hinduism to the aforementioned day of remembrance and service, but to also better educate this campus on what are the true tenants of my own religion, Hinduism.
The article claimed the tenants of Hinduism “are formed around the idea that we can all be giving; giving to our gods, giving to ourselves.” These are not the ideals around which Hinduism has been formed, as material worship has never truly been Hindu. Pick up any of our many holy books, the Ramayana or the Mahabharata amongst so many more, and one will learn that there are no central ideas that govern the life of a Hindu. If anything, these great books dictate the life and personal accomplishments of humans and Gods themselves, as they go through the rigors of life to better understand themselves. Hinduism has always been centered on the idea that each soul takes the form of a human being and goes through life by looking inwards in order to find moksha (enlightenment), and then subsequently being one with the universe. I respect where the article was coming from and what it intended to say, but this was severely incorrect in regard to what my religion’s true purpose is.
The article also made misinformed claims about dharma in its third paragraph wherein it attached this sacred word to the harmful hierarchic structure of the caste system (which is actually not even a part of Hinduism, since the caste system was originally designed to designate people according to the task which suited them best, but was later wrongly modified to oppress people). The author was partially correct about one’s caste being hereditary, but one was allowed to change their caste depending on the form of occupation they undertook. Furthermore, one’s dharma was entirely their own to realize and execute because dharma is the idea that each soul has its own personal duty which it needs to execute in the path to finding enlightenment. The most prominent example of executing one’s dharma is that of Lord Arjuna’s on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. In the Mahabharata; Lord Arjuna and his four brothers (The Pandavas) go to war against their 100 siblings (The Kauravas). In the heat of the battle, Lord Arjuna is tasked to kill his brothers but he obviously hesitates despite their rivalry because he considers it wrong to kill anyone, let alone kill his own brothers. Wherein Lord Krishna calmly talks to him, and tells him that it is Arjuna’s duty to execute this plan of action because that is how the thread of fate demands him to, and he’s been destined to do it. I wish I could explain this war, and its origins in detail and write exactly what was said to Arjuna by Krishna but this article is too short a medium to do exactly that. Rather, I would like to kindly state to the author of last week’s article to be extremely cautious about how they stated such revered terms because they are in all honesty mistaken by how they have written this article as it pertains to Hinduism. Granted, giving to others might be their own dharma, but that is not what dharma can be “simplified” to be.
In any case, I hope everyone learned a lot on the Jan. 21 through the myriad of workshops and talks on campus. But as has been made apparent, many of us still have a long way to go in finding enlightenment, including all of those who are trying to do the right thing.
Ayush Mishra, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at AMishra19@wooster.edu.