I was baptized as a Christian (Catholic) in Germany when I was only 3 days old, but if somebody asks me whether I am Christian, I reply that I am Hindu though I did not do any ritual to ‘become’ Hindu.

Conversion means to change into some other state. Christianity and Islam do it big time. They force perfectly normal human beings into blindly believing some unverifiable dogmas that do not add to their spiritual wellbeing.

For example, even as children they are told to believe that the Supreme Power loves only them and it does not those others who don’t sign up to their brand of belief.

Such belief is not natural. It has no basis. But since it is being repeated from childhood on and all others around also seem to believe it, it is taken as truth by the majority who don’t want to think about “what we anyway can’t know”. This attitude that man need not even try to think about what is true, as he can never know, is also bandied about as truth in Christianity and Islam.

To become a normal human being again means to lose faith in these dogmas and start thinking for yourself. It is rather a de-conversion.

And to become a Hindu means when you come to conclusions about the truth which are in tune with the ancient Indian rishis.

The most notable conclusion of all: your consciousness (Atma, Self) is one with the One Consciousness (Brahman) that is the essence of all that is -visible and invisible. You are not what you think you are. You are not a separate, unconnected body and mind.

Now this belief is not blind. It can be verified provided you are ready to follow some rules which is called sadhana.

One can compare it with the following ‘belief’. Let’s say you live in Delhi and you have never seen the ocean. If somebody tells you that if you continue to travel south you will reach a vast expanse of water, so vast as you have never seen in your whole life, you may not believe it. You may even denounce this person as a fraud if not worse.

But suppose you believe him and travel, you will realise that it was true what he said.

Similarly, the wisdom of the Rishis can be made one’s own. One can realise the Divinity within.

This realisation is not limited to people living in India. It happened also to persons (though rarer) who lived in a Christian or Muslim environment.

However, the difference is that, while in India such persons are revered, in Christianity and Islam such persons live in danger. There are examples that they were even killed or excommunicated.

The highest goal of the Rishis – realising one’s oneness with the Divine- is considered heresy in those dogmatic religions.

It of course also means that all religions are NOT the same.

By Maria Wirth

The German philosopher Hegel (1770 – 1831) didn’t have a high opinion of Indians, in contrast to most of his German colleagues. He even claimed that the character of Indians is “cunning and deceitful and that moral and human dignity are missing”. (By the way, he never was in Bharat).

Yet he wrote this about Indian women and he meant Hindu women:

“There is a peculiar beauty in Indian women, whereby their face is covered with pure skin, with a slight, lovely blush, which is not just like the blush of health and vitality, but a finer blush, like a spiritual touch from within. The look of the eye and the position of the mouth, appear gentle, soft and relaxed – it is an almost unearthly beauty…”

In the 1960/70s, I remember that Indian women, with the characteristic red dot on the forehead, were considered as the most beautiful in the whole world. Of course, there were beautiful women also in other countries. However, Indian women stood out for their grace, and for that ‘spiritual touch’, apart from their good features, delicate body structure and long limbs.

In 1982, the physicist Fritjof Capra gave a talk at the Bombay University. He mentioned that everyone knows that Indian women are very beautiful and feminine. But now on his first visit in India, he realized that the whole culture is shifted more towards the feminine side. Even men are gentler.

Around the same time, in the early 1980s, a well-known German feminist gave a talk in the Max Mueller Bhavan in Delhi. For the first time I saw Indian women wearing jeans and smoking. They had a western feel about them, and no, they didn’t have an “almost unearthly beauty”.

Then, in the 1990s, the beauty of Indian women got internationally recognized in a big way. 1994, Aishwarya Rai was crowned Miss World and Sushmita Sen Miss Universe. From 1994 till 2000, India won four Miss World titles. In 1991, India had had to open its economy, and the buzz about the beauty pageants, was used to make Indians buy beauty products. Western companies benefited from a huge market. The focus was now on make-up, and no longer on grace or a spiritual touch.

In 2002, at a conference in Puducherry, a German psychology professor said, that Indian women are beautiful, but not sexy. He may have considered this as a drawback, but Indian women of earlier decades at least, would have seen this as a plus point.

Nowadays one hears little in the West about the beauty of Indian women, though the majority of them continues to have good features and well-proportioned bodies. Instead, one hears a lot about Indian/Hindu women being oppressed by male patriarchy – they suffer, they are abused…

On German Arte TV some years ago, Colin Gonsalves and Arundhati Roy drew an abysmal picture of the situation. According to those two, almost every woman had been subjected to abuse and rape. Culprit is supposedly the patriarchal Hindu society.

It was vicious propaganda. Hindus would be the group with the least number of rapes in relation to the population due to their mindset, if there was a truthful survey which took the religion of the criminal into account.

Yet the narrative was set after the sad case of Nirbhaya in 2012: ‘Hindu men are rapists. Nobody should have any doubt about this!’

Naturally the talk about the beauty of Indian women needed to stop. How can women, who are abused and suffer, be beautiful?

Meanwhile, entertainment and media steered young Hindu women towards Westernization and sexualization.

A German who visited Puducherry after a gap of some years, joked that it seems that the traditional Indian dress is the miniskirt. And a teacher friend tells me that it’s incredible, how sexualized the whole atmosphere in schools has become. Woke-ism and LGBTQ+ has reached Bharat. A 19-year-old student told me that about half the girls of her class confidently and openly claim they are lesbian.

It can be assumed, that this degradation of Indian society in general and women in particular was planned from a higher place. Maybe Hindu men were maligned, so that Pakistani Muslims don’t look so bad after the atrocious ‘grooming scandals’ in UK broke in the news?

Another possible reason: constantly talking about rape, lowers the resistance to ‘sexual education’ in schools and drives the Hindu society ever more towards Westernization and moral degradation.

Recently, on two Indian TV channels, ‘depression in women’ was the topic. It meant, the spiritual connection is weak or has been lost altogether.

I hope that Hindu women use their discrimination. I hope they realize that they are intentionally pushed into the wrong direction with wrong role models, like Hollywood or Bollywood actresses. A direction which makes them unhappy but makes them believe, they are ‘modern’ and ‘sexually liberated’. It is a direction that cuts them off from the vital connection to their inner Self or Atman, where inspiration, true happiness and love come from. And it makes them lose their beauty.

It is a direction, where only rights are demanded and duties are frowned upon as old-fashioned. Where women compete with men and do no longer complement each other. Where the trust between the sexes is severely damaged. And where women even exploit their husbands with the help of women friendly laws (and lawyers) and drive the husband to suicide.

After 34-year-old Atul Subhash’s painful testimony went viral, which he had meticulously recorded before his suicide on December 9^th, 2024, several other cases of men committing suicide after severe harassment from their wives, sadly came to light.

Such ‘modern’, ‘sexually liberated’ women may have good-looking features and bodies, but they are not beautiful. And not happy.

They may realize their mistake when they get older. But why not have now already the courage to stand up to peer pressure which demands from students to be ‘woke’? Why not now already nurture one’s spiritual connection and feel safe in Bhagawan’s embrace?

Yet there are still many truly beautiful women in Bharat, who have not lost their spiritual connection to their inner Self. The three young women in the photo surely strike everyone as beautiful. Indian culture is still very much alive. Fortunately.

By Maria Wirth

‘Would you like to come to some villages around Chamba?’ a friend had asked. I happily said yes. He wanted to visit the people who had formerly worked as domestic helpers for his family; and bring them gifts before Diwali. After buying boxes of sweets and drawing money from an ATM, the three of us set off from Mussoorie.

The air was crystal clear, and the snow peaks shone in great splendour. How beautiful to be out in the open at the height of 2,000 metres! What wonderful surroundings the villagers live in. Blue mountain ranges were rolling, one after the other, like waves of the ocean. Kids in school uniform walked on the road. Their school may be much simpler than those in cities, yet the location is enviable and the openness of the space may be conducive for an open mind.

Our first stop was in a tiny village near the old road to Tehri town, which has been submerged in the Ganges due to the Tehri Dam. It was a steep climb down the hill. An old woman was sitting in a courtyard sieving grain. She had few teeth left, yet her smile was warm and welcoming. It was a surprise visit, and immediately her neighbours gathered, too. ‘Kursi lao’, I heard; and children brought chairs from a neighbouring house. The woman lives alone in an old house. Her husband, who had worked for my friend’s family for decades, had passed away several years ago. Her only daughter is staying with her in-laws.

We had to stress really hard that our stomachs were very full and had no place even for a cup of tea. Yet we took water, and she sent a girl to pluck some limes. My friend had to show her how to use the zip on the jacket he had bought for her; and then the talk was mainly about people she knew from the olden times, and about crops.

When we left, she said she would come to Mussoore to see the father of my friend; who was about her age. Will she still be able to climb up the hill? She can probably do it. Village folk are hardier than city folk.

Next, we drove to a tiny village some 30 km away. It was a two hours’ drive in wonderful surroundings. The car climbed over a mountain range, plunged down into a valley, and ended up very high up on a kachha road only as broad as our jeep. It was frightening. A mantra kept automatically repeating itself non-stop in my mind.

We were expected, because Panditji (as his former cook was called) had a mobile. Two boys waited for us at the head of the road to guide us further up to where a table had already been laid with sweets and namkeen. His three daughters are married and live nearby; and his eldest son is working in Hyderabad.

After leaving my friend’s house some years ago, Panditji became a part-time pujari (priest) in a mandir (temple) further down the hill – for Rs. 150 a month. Even five years ago, this was an incredibly meagre salary. Meanwhile he stopped going there. The climb was too tough for him. He was offered a full-time job as pujari for Rs. 1100. (No, I did not forget a zero, only Rs. 1100 for a month). It would have required him to stay the whole day and sleep in the mandir, too. He declined the offer as he felt that he was too old to live alone. If something happened to him, nobody would know. His son is sending him money from Hyderabad.

His house had two rooms with a buffalo staying downstairs, and here too, neighbours gathered straight away when we arrived. The view from his narrow veranda was truly spectacular. It became dark and the hills lit up with lights sparkling everywhere, down in the valley and above in the sky.

Lastly, we went to a house near Chamba on the new road to Uttarkashi to visit the widow of one more former help. My friend was all praise for this man who was with his family over 40 years ago in Kolkata, when my friend was still in school. Once, he went home to Chamba for a holiday. While there, he started working for daily wages on road construction. After a few days a rock fell on him and he died on the spot.

His wife was young, his only son barely two years old and physically slightly handicapped. Now his wife was in her sixties and lived with her daughter in law and three grandsons in the village and her son worked in a restaurant in Ludhiana over 200 km away.

When we reached the simple house made from mud and wood, she had just come back from Ludhiana after a check-up in a hospital. Her health is not good. She has water in her lungs. Yet her nature was very sweet and loving. It was a pleasure to be with her, her bahu and the grandchildren in the small room, which had a garlanded photo of her husband on the wall.

Their belongings were stashed away in trunks and boxes, quilts were neatly folded, and only school books were piled up on a trunk. Though she must have been tired from the long journey, apart from being ill, she enquired about everyone she knew from that time, while her grandsons were leaning on her. Her hard life has made her into a beautiful person.

I once again realized that it is neither status nor money that ultimately counts. Important is how one takes the experiences in one’s life; whether one can accept them or not; whether one has trust and faith in life or not; whether one feels support from within or not and whether one can ultimately let go of one’s life when the time comes.

While walking up to the road two young men passed us on the narrow track. “Hi!” one of them said in a tone that one hears occasionally in cities, yet it sounded odd in the village. “Where are you from?” he asked further. “Germany”, I replied. “Oh, I worked for 3 years in a restaurant in Munich”, he surprised me in German.

Driving back to Mussoorie several jackals got trapped in the light beam of our jeep. We stopped in the silent night and admired the vast expanse of flickering lights down in the valley which was Dehradun.

What a rich, inspiring day it was! I had been allowed a glimpse into different lives which are side by side on our beautiful earth. Each person is the centre of a unique, private world that depends heavily, if not fully, on the mind. The outer circumstances may be determined to a great extent. Yet the option to be at peace with one’s life seems to be open to everyone.

As I grew up as a Christian, I would like to share my observations from a personal angle.

I noticed that most Hindus are very cautious when it comes to religion. They take care ‘not to offend the sensibilities’ of the followers of Christianity and Islam. Yet on the other hand, Christians and Muslims don’t hesitate to offend the sensibilities of Hindus, and even badly demean them.

Many Indians argue that, because those religions are in the minority, their followers need special consideration so that they don’t feel threatened by the Hindu majority.

It is true that those religions are in the minority in India, but worldwide, Christianity and Islam have the biggest number of followers. Both religions also have great financial and political clout. This clout is reflected even in the Indian media. Just observe how favorably mainstream media reports on minorities and how unfavorably on the majority. I can’t help feeling that there is a clever Public Relation strategy. In contrast, Hindus don’t seem to have a PR strategy. ‘Truth will triumph’, is their motto, even if it takes ages…

Why no debates on religious matters?

Sometimes I hear the following argument from Hindus: “Only because missionaries despise Hinduism, Hinduism does not become bad.” This is of course true, but why not refute the obnoxious, false accusations that Hinduism is a primitive polytheistic religion and Hindus are sinful idol-worshippers?

Such accusations do not only completely misinterpret Hindu Dharma, but they are meant to help the Christian agenda to wean away Hindus from their faith.

Hindus should at least explain the basics of Sanatana or Hindu Dharma, and show how profound they are, if not pointing out the shortcomings of the dogmatic founder religions.

Pointing out the shortcomings of other religions seems to be taboo for Hindus. I wonder why. Debates on religious matters were common in ancient India and were of the highest order. Women also took part in those debates, which are recorded in the Upanishads.

Yet today there is hardly any discussion on religion or philosophy. One reason may be that a part of the intellectual class in India has been influenced by the British to such an extent that they adopted their ignorant view that Hinduism is primitive without ever reading any of the ancient texts. It is a small, but influential group that is ever ready to loudly defend the minority religions.

“The first distinction I would like to make between your missionary work and mine is that while I am strengthening the faith of people, you (missionaries) are undermining it.”

Mahatma Gandhi (Young India: November 8, 1927)

Heaven and Hell

Most Hindus are good natured and consider all religions as equal, as all believe in the same God, as there is of course only one creator. Moreover, all religions have good points. They all stress the need for a moral life. They all give suggestions on how to connect with God in prayer.

Yes, it’s true, but two religions have a very negative point which nullifies the good points. This negative point is that they divide humanity into those who are right and go to heaven and those who are wrong and go to hell without any proof. Christianity is one of those religions (Islam is the other one). It declares that it is not only superior but it alone is true, and therefore everyone needs to join it to be saved. The Church claims that Jesus Christ himself commanded his disciples to go out and baptize all nations (Matthew 28.19). Therefore, they believe that they have the ‘divine duty’ to convert the whole world. And the Church goes about it with great zeal and dubious means. If Jesus Christ was indeed a historical person (some historians doubt it), he might be shocked to see what is happening in his name.

What makes Christianity so special that it declares itself as alone true?

The main point is the status of Jesus Christ. The Church says that he is not only above normal humans but also above enlightened sages and avatars. He is the “only indigenous son of God”, whom God had sent to earth and who, through his death, has saved mankind from the original sin which Adam and Eve committed (their sin was that they ate an apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden).

This claim that Jesus is the only son of God cannot be verified. It has to be believed. It is a dogma and dogma means, there is no proof. So why should one believe it? The reason is that bishops had decided in the Council of Nicea some 1700 years ago, that Jesus is the son of God, and Christians have to believe it.

Many Christians do believe it, because they hear it from childhood. I, for example, ‘knew’ already in primary school in a small town in Germany, that we, the Roman Catholics, are ‘right’ and chosen by God and all others, including our Protestant neighbors, who had fled from the Russians to our small town at the end of the II World War, were ‘wrong’. Those neighbors had a little girl of my age and we played together, but I would have not gone to her church. I ‘knew’ it was a sin…

In 1965, in the II. Vatican Council, the Catholics reconciled with the Protestants, and it was no longer a sin to pray together. But Hindus remain in the category which needs to be converted or else they go to hell…

How I got doubts

As a child, I believed whatever I was told, but in high school, I started questioning. I could not believe in a God any longer who sits in heaven, loves only Christians and sends all others to hell.

A brother of my mother was a priest and, in his library, I read about the history of the Church. It was an eye-opener – how decadent the popes were, how brutal and bloody the conversion of South America was, how dissenters were imprisoned, tortured and killed, how the bishops schemed for power and wealth… Together with religion, I was about to throw out God as well, as He seemed inextricably linked with it.

Then I read an article on modern physics. It said that the whole creation is one energy. It was for me a Eureka moment. “This means there is a God!” I felt: If God is really the Highest, It cannot love one group and hate others. It has to be the ground of everybody and everything.

Getting to know about the profound Vedic wisdom

When I came to India, I was amazed how profound her ancient wisdom was – a wisdom that makes no claims, which need to be blindly believed, and a wisdom which does not divide people into “us versus them”.

‘Brahman’ or ‘Tat’ of the Vedas is not a personal God that has likes and dislikes, but it is the invisible, conscious basis of all forms and names in this creation. This conscious basis is also in our own person and can be experienced, and this makes sense. “Question, reflect and experience” is recommended.

In contrast, Christianity demands blind belief and does NOT encourage questions, nor experience. It claims doubts are from the devil. A Church that branded its own mystics, who realized their oneness with God, as heretics, cannot teach anything to India. It can only divide.

Hindu Dharma is universal

Missionaries try by hook or crook to get converts and target especially the poorer sections of society and even children. It seems as if they have a quota to achieve.

They claim that Christianity is the right faith and Hinduism is very wrong and they will land in hell if they don’t convert. The Upanishads claim “Tat Tvam Asi” (You are THAT/ Brahman). “You” means everyone, not only Hindus. This philosophy is truly universal.

Christian theologians would need to study Indian wisdom with an open mind. They would realize that dogmas are a hindrance in the process to uncover Truth. Such openness would make religion spiritual. Mystics would be appreciated. No “us versus them”, no borders, no God, who belongs only to one group and who condemns the rest, just a genuine search for the One Essence beyond name and form…

Mind set of Church representatives

Church representatives are adamant that conversion is not only their right, but also their duty. Many Hindus still don’t get the mindset of missionaries.

For example, after my mother had passed away in Germany, I went to the priest to arrange the funeral. When he came to know that I live in India, he said,

“Oh, a friend of mine just went to India.”

“I hope not for conversion”, I replied.

His reaction, “Of course for conversion. It is our duty.”

Strangely, Hindus feel religion must not be talked about and only a few question the ‘one and only way’ bogus. But is anything more important than to find the truth about God, us, and the world? So shouldn’t we talk about religion?

In the west, many leave the Church, in India many join

Indian converts generally join Christianity for reasons that have nothing to do with God or faith. Those converts may initially get material benefits but the price is very high. They have to despise the faith that they held dear and for which their ancestors have fought and made many sacrifices. They have to disown their devas as devils. They are coerced to put meat from the dead body of a cow into their stomach. They have to confess a belief in dogmas, which don’t make sense, like the claim that one has only one life and on the basis of this one life one will go either to heaven or hell for all eternity.

Yet slowly, they or at least their children, will become convinced that they alone have the right faith and that Hindus are inferior and damned by God. The brainwashing into the doctrine is much stronger in India than in Christian countries. While most people in the West, who are not employed by the Church, don’t believe any longer that Hindus go to hell, even an IIT graduate convert told me that he believes it and he had already convinced his parents to convert to save them from hell…

I once heard Bede Griffith, who had a Christian ashram near Trichy, giving a talk to nuns from Kerala and I was shocked how he threatened them with hell. After his talk I asked him how he could frighten them so much. He said, “I have to strengthen their faith so that they know where the border to Hinduism is.”

Hinduism is truly universal

Hinduism has no border. It has a place for everyone. If someone worships Jesus, no Hindu will object. But Hindus need to object to the baseless claim by non-hindus that worshiping Krishna or Shiva is wrong and will land one in hell, because this is not true and also dangerous for Hindus, because it breeds hatred which can lead to hate crimes. Christian converts need to reflect on what they are taught. If they start reflecting, they surely will wonder if this can possibly be the truth.

When I recently took a taxi, there was a picture of Jesus. I asked the driver if he converted. “Yes”, he said.

I told him, “You became Christian from Hindu and I became Hindu from Christian.”

He looked surprised. “Why?” he asked. I explained a bit and said that Hindu Dharma makes sense.

Before leaving I requested him not to look down on Hinduism and Hindus, even if missionaries tell him how bad they are. Hindus are not bad. They are good, better than many others, and Hindu Dharma is the best option for humanity.”

He smiled and said that he doesn’t believe everything the padres say.

This attitude is strange for two reasons. First, those educated Indians have a problem only with “Hindu” India, but not with “Muslim” or “Christian” countries. Germany, for example, is a secular country, and only 49 percent of the population are registered with the two big Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic). Nevertheless, the country is bracketed under “Christian countries” and no one objects. Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor, had stressed the ‘Christian roots of Germany’ and had urged the population “to go back to Christian values.” In 2012 she even postponed her trip to the G-8 summit to make a public address at the Katholikentag, “Catholics Day.” Two major German political parties carry “Christian” in their name, including Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

Germans are not incensed that Germany is called a Christian country, though I actually would understand if they were. After all, the history of the Church is appalling. The so-called success story of Christianity depended greatly on tyranny. “Convert or die” were the options given—not only some five hundred years ago to the indigenous population in America, but also in Germany, 1,200 years ago, when Emperor Karl the Great ordered the death sentence for refusal of baptism in his newly conquered realms. This provoked his advisor Alkuin to comment: “One can force them to baptism, but how to force them to believe?”

Those times, when one’s life was in danger for dissenting with the dogmas of Christianity, are thankfully over. Today many in the West dissent and are leaving the Church in a steady stream. They are disgusted with the unholy behavior of Church officials and they also can’t believe in the dogmas, for example that “Jesus is the only way” and that God sends all those, who don’t accept this claim, to hell.

The second reason why I can’t understand the resistance to associate India with Hinduism is that Hinduism is in a different category from the Abrahamic religions. Its history, compared to Christianity and Islam, was undoubtedly the least violent as it spread in ancient times by convincing arguments and not by force. It is not a belief-system that demands blind acceptance of dogmas and the suspension of one’s intelligence. On the contrary, “Hinduism encourages using one’s intelligence to the hilt. It is an inquiry into truth, based on a refined character and intellect. It comprises a huge body of ancient literature, not only regarding dharma and philosophy, but also regarding mathematics, architecture, music, dance, science, astronomy, economics, politics, etc.”

If Germany or any other Western country had this kind of literary treasure, they would be so proud and highlight its greatness on every occasion. When I discovered the Upanishads, for example, I was stunned. Here was expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to be true, but could not have expressed clearly: Brahman is not partial; it is the invisible, indivisible Essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again a chance to discover the ultimate Truth and is free to choose his way back to it. Helpful hints are given but not imposed.

In my early days in India, I thought every Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized I was wrong. The British colonial masters had been successful in not only weaning away many of the elite from their ancient tradition but even making them despise it. It helped that the British-educated class could no longer read the original Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of knowledge and the brainwashing by British education may be the reason why many so-called “ “modern” Indians are against anything Hindu. They don’t realize the difference between Western religions that have to be believed blindly, and which discourage, if not forbid, their adherents to think on their own, and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and encourages using one’s intelligence. “

Many of India’s educated class do not realize that those who dream of imposing Christianity or Islam on this vast country will applaud them for denigrating Hindu Dharma, because this creates a vacuum where Western ideas can easier gain a foothold.

At the same time, many Westerners, including staunch Christians, know the value of Hindu culture and surreptitiously appropriate insights from the vast Indian knowledge system, drop the original Hindu source and present it either as their own or make it look as if these insights had already been known in the West.

As the West appropriates valuable and exclusive Hindu assets, what it leaves behind is deemed inferior. Unwittingly, these ‘modern’ Indians are helping what Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation calls the digestion of Dharma civilization into Western universalism. That which is being digested, a deer for example (analogue to Hindu Dharma), disappears whereas the tiger (analogue to Western Universalism) becomes

If only missionaries denigrated Hindu Dharma, it would not be so bad, as they clearly have an agenda which discerning Indians would detect. But sadly, Indians with Hindu names assist them because they wrongly believe Hinduism is inferior to Western religions. They belittle everything Hindu instead of getting in-depth knowledge. As a rule, they know little about their tradition except what the British have deceptively taught them, i.e., that the major features are the caste system and idol worship. They don’t realize that India would gain, not lose, if it solidly backed its profound and all-inclusive Hindu tradition.

The Dalai Lama said some time ago that, as a youth in Lhasa, he had been deeply impressed by the richness of Indian thought. “India has great potential to help the world,” he added.

Will the Westernized Indian elite realize it?

By Maria Worth

Though I have lived in India for a long time, there are still issues here that I find hard to understand. For example, why do so many educated Indians become agitated when India is referred to as a Hindu country? The majority of Indians are Hindus. India is special because of its ancient Hindu tradition. Westerners are drawn to India because of Hinduism. Why then is there this resistance by many Indians to acknowledge the Hindu roots of their country? Why do some people even give the impression that an India which valued those roots would be dangerous? Don’t they know better?

This attitude is strange for two reasons. First, those educated Indians have a problem only with “Hindu” India, but not with “Muslim” or “Christian” countries. Germany, for example, is a secular country, and only 49 percent of the population are registered with the two big Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic). Nevertheless, the country is bracketed under “Christian countries” and no one objects. Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor, had stressed the ‘Christian roots of Germany’ and had urged the population “to go back to Christian values.” In 2012 she even postponed her trip to the G-8 summit to make a public address at the Katholikentag, “Catholics Day.” Two major German political parties carry “Christian” in their name, including Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

Germans are not incensed that Germany is called a Christian country, though I actually would understand if they were. After all, the history of the Church is appalling. The so-called success story of Christianity depended greatly on tyranny. “Convert or die” were the options given—not only some five hundred years ago to the indigenous population in America, but also in Germany, 1,200 years ago, when Emperor Karl the Great ordered the death sentence for refusal of baptism in his newly conquered realms. This provoked his advisor Alkuin to comment: “One can force them to baptism, but how to force them to believe?”

Those times, when one’s life was in danger for dissenting with the dogmas of Christianity, are thankfully over. Today many in the West dissent and are leaving the Church in a steady stream. They are disgusted with the unholy behavior of Church officials and they also can’t believe in the dogmas, for example that “Jesus is the only way” and that God sends all those, who don’t accept this claim, to hell.

The second reason why I can’t understand the resistance to associate India with Hinduism is that Hinduism is in a different category from the Abrahamic religions. Its history, compared to Christianity and Islam, was undoubtedly the least violent as it spread in ancient times by convincing arguments and not by force. It is not a belief-system that demands blind acceptance of dogmas and the suspension of one’s intelligence. On the contrary, “Hinduism encourages using one’s intelligence to the hilt. It is an inquiry into truth, based on a refined character and intellect. It comprises a huge body of ancient literature, not only regarding dharma and philosophy, but also regarding mathematics, architecture, music, dance, science, astronomy, economics, politics, etc.”

If Germany or any other Western country had this kind of literary treasure, they would be so proud and highlight its greatness on every occasion. When I discovered the Upanishads, for example, I was stunned. Here was expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to be true, but could not have expressed clearly: Brahman is not partial; it is the invisible, indivisible Essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again a chance to discover the ultimate Truth and is free to choose his way back to it. Helpful hints are given but not imposed.

In my early days in India, I thought every Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized I was wrong. The British colonial masters had been successful in not only weaning away many of the elite from their ancient tradition but even making them despise it. It helped that the British-educated class could no longer read the original Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of knowledge and the brainwashing by British education may be the reason why many so-called “ “modern” Indians are against anything Hindu. They don’t realize the difference between Western religions that have to be believed blindly, and which discourage, if not forbid, their adherents to think on their own, and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and encourages using one’s intelligence. “

Many of India’s educated class do not realize that those who dream of imposing Christianity or Islam on this vast country will applaud them for denigrating Hindu Dharma, because this creates a vacuum where Western ideas can easier gain a foothold.

At the same time, many Westerners, including staunch Christians, know the value of Hindu culture and surreptitiously appropriate insights from the vast Indian knowledge system, drop the original Hindu source and present it either as their own or make it look as if these insights had already been known in the West.

As the West appropriates valuable and exclusive Hindu assets, what it leaves behind is deemed inferior. Unwittingly, these ‘modern’ Indians are helping what Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation calls the digestion of Dharma civilization into Western universalism. That which is being digested, a deer for example (analogue to Hindu Dharma), disappears whereas the tiger (analogue to Western Universalism) becomes

If only missionaries denigrated Hindu Dharma, it would not be so bad, as they clearly have an agenda which discerning Indians would detect. But sadly, Indians with Hindu names assist them because they wrongly believe Hinduism is inferior to Western religions. They belittle everything Hindu instead of getting in-depth knowledge. As a rule, they know little about their tradition except what the British have deceptively taught them, i.e., that the major features are the caste system and idol worship. They don’t realize that India would gain, not lose, if it solidly backed its profound and all-inclusive Hindu tradition.

The Dalai Lama said some time ago that, as a youth in Lhasa, he had been deeply impressed by the richness of Indian thought. “India has great potential to help the world,” he added.

Will the Westernized Indian elite realize it?

I don’t think I could have found the answer on my own because some basic philosophical knowledge about us and the universe is needed, but luckily I landed in India and was even luckier to become familiar with India’s profound wisdom. This philosophical knowledge is contained in the Vedas and has painstakingly been memorized by Indian Brahmins and handed down to us over many millennia.

One could call the Vedic mantras a “revelation” because the ancient Rishis clearly stated that they are apaurusheya, which means that they are not created by humans. This revelation, however, is not comparable with the so-called revelations of Christianity and Islam because it is not about a claim which can never be verified and which does not conform to common sense, like the claim, “if you don’t believe that this book contains the full truth you burn in hell forever.”

In contrast, the knowledge in the Vedas makes sense, and part of it has already been validated by modern scientists. In fact, Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit (from vid) or science in Latin.

Vedas say that in absolute truth there is only consciousness (called Brahman) and though unimaginable, it is described as truth-consciousness-bliss, Satchitananda in Sanskrit. From that eternal, infinite, blissful, conscious ‘void’, the world of forms and names appears, like plenty of bubbles and waves appearing on the ocean. Their forms are temporary; the ocean is eternal. Nothing is lost when the forms are lost. And ultimately, even during their existence as forms, the bubbles and waves are nothing but the ocean.

Similarly, claims Indian wisdom, the forms in this universe are in essence nothing but consciousness. There are myriads of forms in different realms – visible and invisible to our eyes. Devas (usually translated as gods) are also forms, invisible to our eyes and far more powerful and long-lived, but they are not the absolute reality. Unmanifested Oneness is the Absolute, Brahman.

Science also came to the conclusion that ultimately all is one, nothing can be separated, and all is interconnected, but they have not yet acknowledged the ‘conscious’ aspect. Scientists call this oneness “energy” and assume it is dead and insentient, and they mistake the consciousness of the scientist as some chance happening.

Now this claim that all is blissful consciousness means that Brahman must be also in us. And indeed, the Upanishad declares “Aham Brahmasmi” (I am Brahman). If this is true, then it must be verifiable.

Indeed, the Rishis claim, you can know that you are not a small person in a big world, but that you are one with Brahman.

They give many tips on how to go about discovering this truth.

And here we have the meaning of life: discover who you really are. You are not what you think you are, but you are one with all. When you discover it, you won’t run any longer after happiness in the world. You have discovered the ocean of bliss within you.

“Know Thyself” was also encouraged in ancient Greece and probably in all ancient cultures which unfortunately have all been destroyed. Only the Indian culture is still alive and still has true wisdom preserved, though it was also greatly damaged by Christianity and Islam, which want to make man forget his innate divinity.

These two religions, which require blind belief, claim to be about the spiritual well-being of humanity. In fact, it may be just the opposite: over the last almost 2000 years, they cut off humanity from the source of spiritual well-being which can be found only in one’s union with the Divine Existence.

philosophical knowledge

Vedas

Vedic mantras

ancient Rishis

revelations of Christianity and Islam

apaurusheya

Veda means knowledge in Sanskrit

science in Latin

truth-consciousness-bliss

Satchitananda in Sanskrit

Aham Brahmasmi

ancient Greece

Indian culture

Divine Existence