M K Gandhi promoted partially quoted shlok - “Ahimsa paramo Dharma (Nonviolence is Supreme Religion) but never bothered to quote it completely. The unquoted portion which follows or the line Mr M K Gandhi suppressed is - Dharma Himsa tathaiva cha” ( Violence in the service of or for Dharma is equally so [Supreme] ). So in effect, the FULL advice in plain speak is- “Do not Kill but it's OK to protect yourself and your culture” or “be Tolerant in general but not towards Intolerance to your Tolerance.”
38 years ago I had read “Atlas Shrugged” the book by Ayn Rand for the first time and several times since. For years, I was wondering as to “What if John Galt had not abandoned his motor and not gone on strike ?”
In Ayn Rand’s era she saw a threat from Communist Ideology to the United States of America as most of the countries had turned “People’s Republics”; ‘Men of Mind’ going on a STRIKE seemed logical. Today the World and especially India is battling with Radical Islamist Ideology. In front of this sort of challenge it would make sense to “strike back” rather than go on a strike. India and Hindus are battling a double challenge, that of Islamic terrorism and cultural attacks of Christian conversion factories run by Mercenary Missionaries.
Ayn Rand also had a poor opinion of Hindus and Hinduism. I believe hers was a “error of knowledge” and not that of “breach of morality”; because she was probably misled by reading horror stories and propaganda by Christian missionaries and took them at face value. Illiterate violent Christian missionaries did not understand the ‘Respect for Life’ which Hindus had in their philosophy. They were conditioned to worship a ‘Dead man on the Cross’, who had supposedly died for their sins long before they had been born. They were unable to grasp the concept of Karma, according to which everyone is responsible for their own actions, due to their dogmatic belief or it was simply beyond their intellectual capacity. The same culture, Ayn Rand had trashed as Mystical, Altruistic bed of Nails would not have been the leader in fields of Sciences, Mathematics, Industry & Commerce since before 600 BCE with China being a close second, up to 19th century, for 25 consecutive centuries.
The Hindu Culture and Civilization must have got a few things right to stay on the top for so long a period. I wish that Ayn Rand should have been around to read the Angus Maddison report on Economic History of the World. The Hindus could do this because their culture encouraged them to use “rational, critical thinking facility of their MINDS”; which Abrahamic Cults of the desert required their followers to suspend.
When MAN started coming out of the caves they lived in, and started getting civilized in Europe; Indians were running Universities imparting advanced knowledge in Sciences and Mathematics. The Church and Christian missionaries have been painting Hindus as Demon Worshipers but have gone great lengths to hide the fact that Indian Hindus gave the world Medicine, Surgery techniques, Astronomy, The Decimal Numeral System, Binary numeral system which made digital computing possible, Mathematics, Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry, distance between Sun and Earth, the fact that Earth was spherical, Diameter of Earth, Method of finding Latitudes and Longitude by using Trigonometric Sine values, which made Navigation of seas possible for trade and commerce. Vasco de Gama who is supposed to have “DISCOVERED” India was too chicken to cross the Indian Ocean from East coast of Africa. He was supposed to have had the best equipped and the biggest ship in Europe at that time. His ship was escorted, by a Hindu trader’s three Indian ships several times bigger and better than his, to the shores of India. This is a very short list of Hindus’ contribution towards Sciences; to list ALL would take an entire book or two dozen.
Such advanced Culture which had the largest share of World GDP, continuously, for more than 2500 years was reduced to penury by British Colonial exploitation. British East India Company’s pirates and European Mercenary Christian Missionaries between them ‘De-Industrialized’ India. They destroyed India’s Textile industry by cutting off the thumbs of weavers, breaking the looms of the artisans who once wove cotton fabric so fine that it was called “woven air”, forced plantation of Indigo for dyeing instead of food crops, cornered food stocks during World Wars for well fed Pommies thereby starving to death 3-4 million Indians. These people also killed old Metal industry of India, pure Zinc metal extraction was mastered and done in India for about 4000 years, Damascus Sword was in fact made in India and later in Damascus from Indian Wootz Steel, Pillars of Iron which have not rusted in centuries of exposure to rain and air were made in India. This feat, modern science in spite of all the gadgets,meters and smelters, is still not able to replicate or match. This know-how and many others were burnt by Islamic barbarians and Christian, equally barbaric missionaries, as ‘Heathen mambo-jumbo’ and thus is lost forever.
The protagonist of this Science Fiction Novel exacts Retribution from these tyrants not by treating them the way they had treated Hindus, but in a unique Hindu way - through trade. He does not send armies or missionaries out, instead the World comes to him to buy his products for their own benefit. He is guided by old Vedic prayer even in his Retribution --
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः 1 सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः 2
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु 3 माकश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत् 4
ॐ शा न्तिः शा न्तिः शा न्तिः ॥ 5
--Which reads as--
(1) Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
(2) Sarve Santu NirAa-mayaah
(3) Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
(4) Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet
(5) Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih
-- Meaning –
(1) Om, May All become Happy,
(2) May All be Free from Illness.
(3) May All See what is Auspicious,
(4) May none Suffer.
(5) Om Peace, Peace, Peace.
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