Easter,The Day After

I was born a Hindu and am proud to be a non-practicing, tolerant all-inclusive Hindu. Hinduism, as they say is a way of life and not a religion. Unlike other religions it has no founder or prophet. On our subcontinent the "best flowering of the human mind," has been nurtured. Under the umbrella of Hinduism all shades of belief systems, philosophies and religions have thrived - just to name a few: animism, nature worship, monotheism, polytheism, different schools of philosophy, atheism, agnosticism etc. flourish side by side. Mostly the borders are blurred and it will be very difficult to isolate any thing practiced in our country, to be purely one or the other. This ethos allows us to let each one to seek and follow his or her path. Our land has offered shelter to the persecuted from distant corners of the world. For example, the Zoroastrians who fled Persia, and to this day this minuscule community has contributed to India's industrial prosperity, much beyond its tiny size. With the arrival of St. Thomas, we have churches in India, which predate many ancient churches in Europe. The invaders have always been absorbed and there has been mutual enrichment of each other's cultures. The vote bank politics of today has to a certain vitiated this rosy picture, but it is essentially an accurate snapshot of my country.

Since this article is about Easter, I need to establish my credentials or the lack of them, before I proceed further. I grew up under the British Raj. For my schooling, I went to a Methodist school, where the teachers were English, Scottish or Irish. All our text books came from England and we knew all about English and European history, literature and Greek and Roman mythology. But we knew practically nothing about our country, except about 'black hole of Calcutta' and other such atrocities by the natives and their superstitions. Morning started with Scripture classes and I got to know the Bible, cover to cover. Even today, I remember 'Our Lord's Prayer' and the 'Sermon on the Mount', which influenced Mahatma Gandhi so much. I possibly know my Bible better than a typical Christian. We learnt all the parables, the Psalms and celebrated with our teachers and classmates all festivals like Easter and Christmas and had fun singing Christmas carols. My college education continued in similar vein, since the institution was run by American Presbyterian Mission. Whatever I learnt of Indian culture and Hinduism was by default. My Grandmother related mythological stories to us and made us recite in a singsong manner the Tulsi Ramayana, which also I got to know mostly by heart. The year was punctuated with the celebration of different festivals, and rituals and prayers which were performed by priests at home. Thus I learnt to feel comfortable, both with monotheism of Christianity and its basic tenets, as well as the polytheism practiced at home, right from Lord Rama, who could do no wrong, to the naughty frolics of Lord Krishna. I also learnt about the fallibility of some of our Gods, who along with their divine powers also exhibited very human traits of anger and jealousy, etc. Except for Lord Rama, perhaps we had cast a lot of our other Gods in our own mould!

Now, what is it that prompted this article? Around Easter time, articles abound about the crucifixion of Christ on Good Friday and resurrection of Jesus on the third day, i.e. on Easter Sunday. This is an event which is celebrated with much devoutness and joy. We also join our Christian brethren in their festivities. We go to church with them. During this period there are spates of articles that insist, that to be a true Christian one has to believe in the historicity of Resurrection of Jesus. Then there are also serious scholars who doubt the historicity of this miraculous event. Most of the articles insist that belief in Resurrection is central to being a Christian. Now this is where I depart from the 'believers', whether they be Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, etc. Taking our respective Holy Books very literally and insisting that every legend and miracle is a historically established fact and that our belief in it is central to being a good Christian, Hindu, etc. is a perversion of the central theme of any religion. This makes us rigid and less tolerant to other world views. Rituals become important, co-religionists split into sects and cults, with terrorism being extreme manifestation of perversion of a religion. This drives the flock away from the basic teachings of our religions and their prophets. In one of the World Congress of Religions, the representatives of all faiths affirmed that there are more 'commonalities in all religions' to create a Commonwealth of Humanity, than differences to quibble over.

With the above in view, I attempt to unfold Christianity as I understood it and a Christianity which I respect, as much as my own religion. To me an 'outsider', the basic teachings of Jesus are very succinctly laid out in 'The Sermon on the Mount'. What more do we need to be truly religious? A true Christian believes in 'Faith, Hope and Charity'. I do not know, how this is explained in sermons or by the professors of Divinity. To me 'Faith and Hope' mean that we believe in being good to ourselves and to others. Here 'others' also means not only other human beings, but also Mother Earth and its plant and animal kingdoms. If this be so, then God (others may call it 'laws of nature' or 'karma') will ensure that over a period of time justice will be done. We should have 'Faith' and Hope' in this goodness and justice, which is dispensed by this all-knowing, omnipresent and omnipotent Being. Similarly, 'Charity' means helping the needy, the dispossessed, the marginalized and the meek, both in thought and action. 'Charity' is not easing of our conscience by writing out a check for charity or dropping in the collection box, at the entrance of a place of worship. It means reaching out in person to a few needy souls, who are within our reach. Which Christian or non-Christian would like to quarrel with this?

Or let's take another Biblical saying: "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself"! I think, herein also lies the crux of all religious teachings. On this particular Biblical injunction, I reproduce below a paragraph from an article by Marie T. Russell, which I chanced upon:
"As I was walking the other day, I reflected on the Biblical statement, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself'', and how it related to our 'New Age' focus towards self-love. Part of my Christian upbringing included the teaching that one should put others first and that loving yourself was selfish. Yet, what came clearly to me was that loving yourself is a prerequisite to 'Loving Thy Neighbor'."
Yes for me, to love others as you love yourself, is the surest way of being truly religious. And you cannot truly give your love freely to others, if you do not love yourself and lack self-esteem. This is what my mentor, the great Jain savant and humanist, Chitrabhanuji also says, "See your Self in others!"