1. In a worrying trend across Hindu SM, we see a section of ‘Bench pressing 130IQers’ mocking every great scholar who talks about – how Sanātana dharma is different from Prophetic Monotheism. SRG and SRS are included in this mockery. It is a self-destructive trend. This is how.
2. The reasoning for mocking SRG and SRS is very convoluted but very illustrative of the psyche of 130IQers. They say that Religion of Peace followers succeed because they follow scriptures blindly, have no freedom in their personal lives, & ‘keep their women in line’.
3. Their admiration of Islam and Muslims comes from the fact that the Muslims follow a law book to the hilt, don’t think for themselves, have no personal, artistic or scientific freedom etc. In short, our guys want to copy the Svayambodha of Muslims.
4. And nothing can be more disastrous than that. Yes there are things to learn from the other; even from the enemy. Yes there are certain things which are necessary if not admirable in their conduct and we have to copy or even invent that if we don’t have it now.
5. But it is not their Svayambodha – or their image of themselves, which Hindus need to copy. What is admirable in their worldview is their Śatrubodha, how they view, narrativize, treat and vanquish their enemy is something to learn from. Not their Svayambodha.
6. What we need to copy is: how they police their borders (physical, religious, ideological); their ability to think and act as a unit when faced by an enemy; and we need to copy their admirable relentlessness to conquer and vanquish the enemy.
7. What we need to copy is their idea of conversion. We can call it śuddhi or ghar vāpasī or any other name but we need to have a way to re-incorporate and re-accept those whom we lost and even those we never had. It is the only way to stop the one way traffic to the other.
8. Apart from that there are certain things which are common across religions, dharmic sects and culture. It is not like there are no intersection points. In fact, monotheistic religions mimic so many pagan, dharmic rituals to convince converts that it is a valid system.
9. So it is true that just because something exists in monotheistic sects does not mean it is bad and Hindus can’t have it. A sacred building, a pilgrimage, rituals, customs, do’s and don’t’s are there in all systems and they might be different but they are everywhere.
10. But this does not at all mean that we are just another religion and everything in monotheism is similar to Hindu dharma and Hindu dharma is losing just because we have developed some ‘soft’ tendencies which have differentiated us from them.
11. There are some real differences between us and them. There are some fundamental ways in which we are different and will always be. And these differences shall be preserved at any cost. They are what make us dharmic, Sanātanī or Hindu.
12. All that we hold dear to ourselves including art, aesthetics, philosophy, science etc. is due to the reason that we are different. Because we have a tradition to guide us in most aspects in our lives but which also leaves room for personal freedom.
13. Sanatana dharma is dynamic balance of opposites: of freedom & security; of individual will & traditional instruction. Freedom taken to extreme will end up in nihilistic, anarchic West. Security taken to extreme will result in Shariat. We aren’t either. We don’t have to be.
14. To have high culture and lose it to the enemy is foolish. To vanquish the enemy with no high culture at home is meaningless. We need to learn Śatrubodha from our enemies, not their Svayambodha. It will make us stronger while still maintaining high culture and civilization.
15. But the ‘130 IQers’ are keen on doing the opposite. They want to copy Islam’s Svayambodha & not Śatrubodha. They are desperate to find a Shariat like book, and an Abd-al Wahab like figure in Hindu dharma. They are ready to invent one if they can’t find any.
16. For this they need to cancel every other authority, scholar, ṛṣī, tradition & institution because what they seek does not exist in us, and it also goes against our fundamental spirit. The 130 IQers’ dustbin will soon feature everyone from Sri Aurobindo to Shri Ram Swarup.
17. In a strange fascination with Islam, they cancel everyone on Hindu side for not ‘standing up’ to Islam and yet want to be like them in internal conduct.
18. Any thinking Hindu would do the opposite. Learn Śatrubodha from Islam and make sure our civil society never becomes like theirs.
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