What if God Had Stopped at, “Thou Shalt Have No Gods!”
That is, if Yahweh had to rush to somewhere before adding, “Before Me”. But, that did not happen and we have wars and no peace.
What this post dwells on is the counterfactual. God, Yahweh was an egoist, an egotist, and vengeful. Jupiter of Greek mythology is said to have been power mongering and wedded to exercising authority.
What would have happened had Jesus not have pleaded with God, about those who crucified Him? “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” Yahweh would have been satisfied, a la “Mugambo kush hua!”
It is not impossible, or even improbable, that Mohammed had not raised such pleas. Yet, at least some of his followers have brushed under the carpet such pleas. The Buddha was distinctly different. He asked each in his gatherings work within himself/herself! You wish to take revenge? Go ahead! Then, see whether you can live with that thought.
What about the Hinduism, not the religion, but ostensibly promoting a way of life where violence is not to be forgone? There are only a few instances in the vast literature of Hinduism exhibiting any serious forgiveness.
If you take the whole of Hindu scriptures, including the Puranas and the Ithihasas, you would be hard pressed to locate non-violent developments. An example, King Dasharatha was forced to marry every year to escape death at the hands of Lord Parashurama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu!
In the very old movie Sampoorna Ramayanam, Lord Ram lets the demon Ravan go back to his palace, recoup and come back the next day – the song “Indru poi naallai vaaraai ene” so beautifully rendered by C S Jayaraman. Only a temporary relief to the eventually vanquished. All such magnanimity is only till such time the Lord’s patience is stretched to the limit.
Lord Krishna waited for repeated insults by Sisubalan before the threshold was crossed. In Vamana Avtar where the vanquished enjoys repeated, annually, but limited relief. Of course, Lord Shiva is vengeance itself! Yes, in citing from the traditions of Hinduism, none can stop at one instance.
Sikhism began with the lofty ideal of eliminating irrationality in the spiritual life−which, by itself, is irrational; but let that pass−of people. Yet, it descended rapidly towards war against the Muslim invasions during Mughal rule. Of course, Muslims themselves became violent.
Mohammed’s body might not have even gotten cold, when Islam split into two sects (less than half-a-century, if I remember my history lessons right), warring against each other.
If you go back to the Book of Genesis of the Old Testament, you would realize how the House of Jacob, also known as Israel, came about. Indeed, the whole of the Old Testament is a series of violence.
In Srilanka, Buddhism is the religion of the state. The Buddha eschewed violence and never preached to settle issues through fights. Yet, Srilanka is a nation of internal violence of a very high order. The government and the rebels engaged only in violence. The irony cannot be any more vivid. Violence by the settlers in America against the natives takes one’s breath away. It is very easy to go on and on as there are nearly 200 nations. The permutations and combinations are so vast that military power cannot but go on increasing; the Military-Industrial Complex that the American President Dwight Eisenhower lamented.
Therefore, if you went through history, you would not find any instance in which religion had not played a critical part in peaceful settlement of disagreements, however intense they may have been, and against negotiating peace. Violence is useful to religion and vice versa.
One should look at killing two birds with one stone.
Raghuram Ekambaram
P. S. This write-up was more than half finished before I limited myself to short posts.
