Two Bigots' Wrongs Don't Make a Right

theist · February 24, 2008

So refreshing to hear some common sense.

BY: HARAKUMARA DASA

Feb 23, CANADA (SUN) —

It was with bemused dismay that I, since I read almost everything new everyday on this website, had to take the time to go through that miserable unfortunate piece,

Evangelical Missionary War on India's Hindus

by a Dr. Babu Suseelan, offered for our consideration through the agency of, as it seems, two bigots. The irrational article, a paranoid hyperbolic subviolent rant, resembled a pep talk for the BJP or the VHP. Srila Prabhupada never talked like that.

Since we are unable to decide to whom we owe the image and the byline--the first bigot or the second--we should discuss them first before we examine the contributions of the two bigots. The fiery image states that the wicked shall be turned into Hell. Well, wicked is as wicked does. It is enjoined in the scriptures that murder is forbidden [thou shalt not kill, especially kill human beings, such as the innocent Christians recently brutally murdered by rampaging Hindu mobs in Orissa (Asia News & UCA News) because man is made in the image of God and is capable of being God conscious] and that murderers are destined to undergo future hellish punishment for violating this eternal law.

Modern India has another problem with this law; see the article entitled

India's Two Plagues

. Also, considering the unfortunate facts presented by Radha Govinda in

Please Don't Send Your Children To India

on this website, we would do well to treat the basis of Babu Suseelan's fears of an erosion of Hindu 'morality' by Christianity with a healthy dose of scepticism.

The byline, the first portion of which I shall address later, implies that there is a "conversion problem". Problem, what problem? In 1971, Christians of all kinds constituted 2.6% of the population of India, and in 2001 they were just 2.3%; so the proportional Christian population of India is

declining

. The Christian proselytizers don't seem to be all that effective. Perhaps the "problem" lies in the minds of the two bigots and their friends. These factual statistics, being what they are, point out the utter hypocrisy and spiritual bankruptcy of the opponents, verbal and physical, of the

divinely mandated

right of the Church to proselytize everywhere. Srila Prabhupada never did like that.

The first bigot, Babu Suseelan, who is the more irrational of the two, is also quite objectively a hypocrite because he disguises his violent reactionary canards as a concern about religious conversion of born Hindus to Christianity with ostensible solicitude for their welfare, and likely weakening spiritual health of the Hindu nation by the "hidden agendas" of the "powerful" Christian forces. Reading his article reminded me of that erstwhile German corporal, conspiracy theorist and disastrous political leader writing about the Jews in interbellum Germany. There is the same intense paranoia (about the sinister enemy within: "...political Christianity made

all

the...decisions and controlled

everything

" e.a.), the same hyper-envious resentment (about the failure of the Hindu nation to arise, which is blamed entirely on a convenient Christian scapegoat), the same self-righteous anger and hyperbolic rabid rhetoric ("...hidden agendas/hidden hatred and subversive plan/ power play/evil/culture war [kulturkampf]/hate speech/hatred and polarization/sinister games/scourge of denial...and cowardice/political invasion from within/war for the minds/conversion gang/hidden hatred/ poison our...destroy the social fabric/evil/hypocritical politicians/ embrace deviance that ends in weakness and decadence/create a strong nation...") and the same politicized quasi "messianic madness" (actually the only madness evinced here is of the anti-messianic garden variety). Babu Suseelan is a virtual shill, and it is very clear what political party he is shilling for. He criticizes the Congress party, the Marxists and several parochial regional parties ("corrupt, anti-national political parties"), so it is the party that he avoids to mention that we should watch out for (rather, Be Just Particular to avoid, if we know what is good for us). Although born in India, Srila Prabhupada never identified with the Fascistic Hindu, nor even with the Hindu, species of the bodily concept of life, but always realized that he is an eternal servant of Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And his eternally perfect situation just counterpoints the obvious illusion of this conditioned soul, Babu Suseelan. The cheating propensity of the same soul is also very evident as hypocrisy in full swing, in two directions.

Foreward, we have here his misrepresentation of the real nature of that so-called "conversion problem". As shown by the statistics above, objectively there is no problem at all, except perhaps for those to whom the facts don't matter because they want much more power to pursue a fascistical political agenda (truth NOT, SEE maya). But in truth, as acknowledged by most untendentious observors, both Hindu and otherwise, the conversion issue has less to do with religious doctrine or practice and more to do with Hindu caste society. The elite members of the upper castes, who claim to be real brahmanas, &c. merely on the basis of birth (and not on the basis of guna-karma-vibhagasah) want to claim their lifelong 'birthright' of riding on the backs of the lowly poor downtrodden masses. They are opposed to the advancement of the 'untouchable' Dalits, whom they want to keep under their thumb of repression. They are very solicitous to conserve the power they wield from the top of that anti-human system of oppression. Christianity, and especially Catholic Christianity which effectively promotes the spiritual evolution and development of the whole human being, is extremely liberating. So when lowborn (as is often the case) persons convert to Christianity, they joyfully escape from this stagnant perverted wretched disgraceful adharmic caste system. But when the elites see this, they don't feel joy that their brothers (not their view), having found their God, are on their way home, but rather they feel anger in their sinful polluted hearts because some of their human assets have been permanently alienated. Consequently, to complement the gunda gangs in their employ, they cultivate pseudo-intellectual flacky shills and politicized hacky point men, such as the author of this wretched article, to apologize for their presumptuous perversion of varnasrama-dharma and to serve their kama-krodha-lobha-mada-moha-matsara by attacking Christians and Christianity.

So religious conversion is not really the issue. If they are really afraid of religious conversion, then why do very many of these same upper class people strive to place their children in Christian-run schools for a superior education? Babu Suseelan accuses the Church of being "intent on liberating Hindus from their cultural roots", but is that such a bad thing for a Dalit? What's in it for him? If the people above him do not hate his guts, at least they don't care whether he lives or dies, and don't lift one finger for him ("it's his karma"). But if he tries to do something for himself, they will put him right back in his place ("that's our karma"). But if Christianity, with a social conscience second to none, does something for him, then those people become most aggressively antipathetic. This is iniquity. All of the upside of power and honor, and none of the downside of protection and service. And it is also hypocrisy.

The elites cover their sin of neglecting to assist their inferiors by projecting evil motives onto Christians who help them socially. By using this word "liberating", Suseelan tacitly admits that there is something very wrong with Hindu society. Suseelan then spins around and writes "enslaving them with rigid, closed, divisive and linear Christian dogma". Dogma, you say? What about this dogma: that if you are born as an 'untouchable', then that makes you just another inferior specimen of human garbage to be disrespected and abused for the rest of your life. Get used to it. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here", as was written on the gate of Dante's Inferno. By the way, don't let us see you talking to those devious Christians over there, because that might give you false hopes, and we might have to take care of things. Just know your place and don't get uppity, because unlike us you're just a lowlife. &c. I think that Suseelan should pay more attention to fighting this enslaving dogma. And I think it should be obvious to every decent clear-thinking person that this sort of 'dogma', so characteristic of the caste system, is really rigid, certainly closed, definitely divisive and linear in that it railroads its victims into lifelong virtual slavery with no practical opportunity for human development, such as we enjoy in the West. Now, just what is it about European history, as compared to Indian history, that has led to this distinction? Think about it. Why was Srila Prabhupada ordered to preach (in English) in the West, when he could have stayed to preach in Bharata? Of course there are several reasons, but we should closely consider all of them. But Babu Suseelan will not do that because he is busy trying to criticize

Christian service and apologize for Hindu exploitation. I could not help but notice while reading this piece that Suseelan's mind appears to be quite agitated. In fact, at times he gives one the impression of someone running scared. What is he scared of? If Hinduism, such as it is, really has something and is not spiritually bankrupt, could it not stand the test of freedom? Is it sanatana-dharma, or is it asad-dharma, threatened with non-existence just because some Christians are trying to do the will of God by proselytizing on the order of their Master? Suseelan's existential nervousness does not bode well for the future of Hinduism, but the fault is his. His friends should have done more for the lower classes. Certainly, banging his head against the wall of Christian Truth, including the dogma he cluelessly tries to attack, will not help him. But considering his rhetoric, perhaps he is more interested in politics than in truth.

Every swing moves in two directions and so it is with Babu Suseelan's hypocrisy in full swing. Backward, we notice that he has developed the ability to speak from both sides of his mouth at the same time. He writes "...only through strong defence of our spiritual culture, freedom at home and abroad, can we preserve, practice and promote our tolerant and all inclusive thought system in the dangerous world", and then "every Christian statement is a deliberate attack on the pluralistic and spiritual tradition of our society and on our sacred values that demand respect, tolerance and kindness for all who live in the world".

Now the latter statement is bigotry, in the context of an attempt to demonize Christianity and its adherents [All fanatical ideologues and totalitarian states attempt to demonize the 'other' (minority, ideology, party, country) to compensate for their lack of sattva. They "give the dog a bad name and hang it". Therefore we should understand, despite all possible protestations to the contrary, that this attempt is justification or preparation for persecution. Lies and murder go together, because they come from the same source.]. Unconscious of his own projections, Suseelan writes of "Christian bigotry and hatred"; this means that he is bigoted and hateful (atmavan manyate jagat). But his hypocrisy leads him to couch his exercise of bigotry on a bed of Hindu virtues (he wants to have his cake and eat it too). He writes of an all-inclusive thought system, but it can't accomodate Christianity. He writes of fostering this tolerant system, but he wants to behave intolerantly. He writes of freedom, and a pluralistic tradition, but these are not known to be BJP/VHP values. Freedom? What about freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom to convert to Christianity, freedom to do the will of God by proselytizing? Freedom from govern- ment interference in one's spiritual life? Freedom from persecution? Suseelan elsewhere tries to justify his desire to strangle true freedom by writing "Hindus must be aware that the value of free speech and the basic right to free expression is not absolute under the Indian constitution". That means that the Indian constitution is not sastra, because if a human right is basic, then it is based on the natural or divine order. Thus it is inalienable, and hence, as it were, absolute. Once again Suseelan is entangled in illogical perplexity and contradictory duality, because all hypocrisy is irrational. ["Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue."] He continues to mention his sacred values that demand respect, tolerance and kindness for all who live in the world. It appears to me that the Christians live in the world and I think they deserve a little more respect than is shown by Babu Suseelan's fanatical ranting.

Tolerance means tolerance, not intolerance. As far as kindness goes, India's poorest of the poor would almost surely prefer the ministrations of a Mother Theresa to what they could expect from the upper crust of the bullsh*t caste system. Suseelan's inability to see these obvious things is evidence of spiritual blindness and further proof that if one doesn't have genuine spiritual faith, Krsna conscious or otherwise, one simply cannot be rational (cf. Bg 2.66). Srila Prabhupada never thought like that.

Now we come to the role of the second bigot. The second bigot is more problematic to understand than the first. He could be more of a borderline (tatastha) bigot, but still definitely on the wrong side of the line. I suspect that he is much more rational than Suseelan, and much more adept at sociopolitical analysis, but that on certain issues his intelligence can be swayed by his own personal likes and dislikes. On the basis of the conclusion of the previous paragraph therefore, we can conclude that he is much more spiritually advanced than Suseelan. Perhaps he has been initiated by Srila Prabhupada. Although I would not now care to publicly speculate as to who he might be, he is the one responsible for the decision to launch Suseelan's flaming anti-Christian diatribe. One wonders why, considering that in the past, as I believe, he has written of his distaste for rant, as opposed to soundly reasoned discourse. I guess that his personal distaste for Christianity overcame his personal distaste for rant. If true, that speaks volumes about his personal dislike of Christianity.

If I am correct, in other articles he has expressed his personal distaste, directly or indirectly, sometimes in ways that seem to border on the irrational. If I am correct in assuming that he is also responsible for posting all the other more or less anti-Christian articles on this website, then his predilections would go a long way to account for the tendentious (heavily biased) tenor of the Sampradaya Sun on this topic. One is evaluated by the company one keeps, or by the quality of those to whom one grants favor. So if someone is wont to facilitate the messages of bigots, then one can only conclude after some time that he is at least a borderline bigot. But a Sun should be a source of light and truth, not darkness and error. And a Sampradaya should be what is exemplified by the Acarya, Srila Prabhupada.

Frankly, when I consider that the one responsible for posting these things may well be a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, I am puzzled. Srila Prabhupada, although critical in his way, never deliberately denigrated the verity of Christ and his Church, and never entertained fanatical bigots associated with those who have Christian blood on their hands. Srila Prabhupada knew better than that. I wonder why the second bigot does not also know better. I wonder why, in the byline to Suseelan's article, Vaisnava preachers are presumptuously assumed to agree with the irrational opinions of such a benighted fanatic. A real Vaisnava preacher, such as Srila Prabhupada, does not have to resort to these kinds of asama-dosa things to expedite the propagation of Krsna Consciousness because his premamayi bhakti is founded on the brahman platform (nirdosam hi samam brahma), the "only platform of pure devotees". I hope that the one responsible for these editorial misadventures (alas, as it seems, the second bigot) will rise soon to the brahman platform of pure devotional service. Then the daily rising of the Sampradaya Sun will be much more pleasantly enlightening for all. Let all the black snakes of Hindu fascism be turned back into the hellholes of Orissa.

Editor's Note:

Our purpose in publishing the recent article, "Evangelical Missionary War on India's Hindus", was in hopes of eliciting responses just like the excellent rebuttal offered here by Sriman Harakumara dasa. As the presence of ISKCON grows worldwide, we can expect increasing pressure to be put on the devotees to take sides on political issues like the Christian conversion debate. The sheer number of Srila Prabhupada's followers worldwide increasingly creates the perception that the "ISKCON opinion" has value in social, political and cultural debates of all sorts. Regardless of how "GBC-centralized" such "ISKCON opinions" are (and in fact, nearly all are independent, not institutional), to the world they count as the opinions of a cohesive, branded society.

Just as we are now seeing in the contentious issues coming out of Jagannath Puri, where attempts are being made to put ISKCON in the hotseat on issues like non-Hindu access to the temple, or the dates Ratha Yatras are held, we can expect ISKCON to become the focus on many other so-called "Hindu issues".

As we noted in the original article byline, "There is no stronger force than Gaudiya Vaisnava preachers to confront and solve the conversion problem." That holds true for all problems faced by the world today. Srila Prabhupada's sannyasis and leaders should be preaching, loudly and publicly, both in Jagannath Puri and throughout the world press about the Jagannath Temple banning of devotees of the Lord based on some bodily conception. Similarly, we hope to see strong preaching on issues like the Christian "conversion problem", which will benefit greatly from an infusion of Krsna consciousness.

So while we do not add the disclaimer, "Articles published in the Sampradaya Sun do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Editors", we trust that our regular readers can identify instances when articles like Dr. Babu Suseelan's are published here in order to spark responses like the one above. We trust that such exchanges will result in better informed opinions from a Krsna conscious perspective on social and political issues of the day.