The editorial concludes: “The UPA has done everything in its power to undermine the essence and sovereignty of India. It is equally uneasy and scornful of religious and cultural bodies and leaders spreading the message of India’s Hindu heritage, unity and strength. It is perhaps wreaking its revenge on nationalist forces asking for a stringent law and action against jehadis and terrorists out to destroy India. .”

Indian pluralism

An article titled “Pluralism in Indian religious tradition” by Arif Mohammed Khan says: “What is religion (dharma)? The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad responds to this question by a thunderclap: ‘da da da’. It means dama, daan and dayaa: self-control, charity and compassion. Indian tradition holds these values as three basic ingredients of religion. Swami Vivekanand has defined religion as manifestation of divinity that already exists in man. He says that “each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within, by controlling nature external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all of these and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas or rituals or books or temples or forms are but secondary details.”

It adds: “It is important to remember that the pluralism of the names that are given to the Divine or the ways that are pursued to reach the Divine have been likened to the streams having sources in different places finally mingling their waters into one great sea. The concept of One God and many paths, and One God permeating all souls has been known as Ekeshwarwad or Adwaita (monism or non-duality). Traditions like Bhakti movement which strive to merge the finite with the inexhaustible infinite are the logical shootouts of belief in non-duality.”

... contd.