So, now Supreme Court wants to know why students of other religions are being forced to sing ‘Hindu Prayers’ (that even include some “Sanskrit” words) in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Apparently, this hurts feelings of minorities and strangely – children of atheists, who would never dare to raise such demand in front of school administrations run by superior and powerful religions.
Let us take a look at the lyrics:
Asato-ma sad gamaya (Let me not be in Unreality, Lead me into Reality of Eternal Truth)
Tamaso-ma yotirgamaya (Let me not be in the Dark but lead me into the Light of spiritual knowledge
Mrityor-ma-amritan gamaya (Let me not fear Death, Make me immortal, by gaining knowledge)
Daya kar daan vidya ka hamein parmatma dena.
Daya karna, hamari atma mein, shuddhata den.
Hamare dhyaan mein aao, Prabhu, aakhon mein bas jaao.
Andhere dil mein aa karke, param jyoti jaga dena.
Baha do prem ki Ganga, dilon mein prem ka sagar.
Humein aapas mein mil-jul kar, prabhu rehna sikha dena.
Hamara dharm ho seva, hamara karm ho seva.
Sada eeman ho seva, va sevak jan bana dena.
Vatan ke vaaste jeena, vatan ke vaaste marna.
Vatan par jaan fida karna, prabhu humko sikha dena.
Om Sahanabavatu Sahnau-r-bhunaktu Sahviryam karavavaheh
Tejasvina-m-vadhitamastu Maa vidvishavahe
Om shanti…shanti…shanti…
Meaning: Om. May God protect all of us; May God nourish all of us. May we all work together with full vigour (all our energies be together and form synergy). Let our study enlighten us without giving rise to hostility towards others. Let there be Peace, Peace and Peace.
Great! Before deciding on why Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya are made to sing Hindu Prayers, Supreme Court may wish to take a look at the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan emblem and find out if it is secular enough to represent the diversity of India.
“तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु” written in the logo of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan. This is taken from “हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम्। तत् त्वं पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये॥”, a shloka from Isa Upanishad (Verse 15). Meaning of this Shloka is “Truth is hidden by a circular golden aura. Please lift it Pushan; I, the seeker of Truth wants to see it”. Here Pushan is the Vedic Sun God. Is it not a complete nonsense for the emblem of modern schools to showcase a Pagan ancient Vedic God? First, the court should remove this Shloka and replace by some quote of Aristotle.
Next, the Supreme Court itself. Of all things, the fountain head of Justice in India “यतो धर्मस्ततो जाय:” a quote from the “Mahabharata”. So what if it means “Where there is Justice (Dharma), there is Victory”? What more? This caption is the second part of the sentence the first part being “यतो कृष्ण: ततो धर्म:” which means “Where there is Krishna, there is Justice (Dharma)”. My God! This is blatant Hindu propagation, from the seat of Justice in India itself.
Now, should we not talk of the omnipresent “सत्यमेव जयते” which was again from another Upanishad (Mundaka Upanishad). We see the whole verse here:
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं सत्येन पन्था विततो देवयानः ।
येनाक्रमन्त्यृषयो ह्याप्तकामा यत्र तत् सत्यस्य परमं निधानम् ॥
Meaning: Only Truth Triumphs, Never the falsehood! The path to God is through Truth. This is the path sages took to reach the place where the “ultimate” truly resides.
Do you think it was only Cow worshipping Northies who were inspired from Vedas? Nay. Even the Tamilnadu government has a temple for its emblem. Behind the Ashoka emblem of three lions, rises a Gopura on the model of Srivilliputhur Andal Temple, written Below it is “வாய்மையே வெல்லும்” (Vaymaiye Vellum), the same Satyameva Jayate translated into Tamil.
If Tamilnadu has a Temple’s Goppuram as its emblem, Andhra Pradesh has upped it one step. The emblem is “Kalash”, to whom the Hindus worship (even before Ganesha). Why? Hindus believe in “कलशस्य मुखे विष्णुः कण्ठे रुद्रः समाश्रितः ।
मूले त्वस्य स्थितो ब्रह्मा मध्ये मातृगणाः स्मृताः” (The face of Kalash is Vishnu and its neck is Rudra. At its base is Brahma and at the centre are Matrugan – motherly forces).
And Jammu & Kashmir ironically has a lotus on their seal. All the time the state was canvasing for BJP. Bihar Government has two swastikas in its official seal along with the Mahabodhi Vriksha
And no that’s not enough:
LIC’s Motto योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् is derived from the shloka “अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते। तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम्” from Bhagvad Gita.
Indian Air Force’s Motto नभःस्पृशं दीप्तम् is derived from the Shloka:
नभःस्पृशं दीप्तम् अनेक-वर्णं
व्यात्ताननं दीप्त-विशाल-नेत्रम् ।
दृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा
धृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो
It is from the Bhagavad Gita, it describes the Viraata Roopa of Krishna.
The motto of the Navy “शं वरुणः” is derived from “शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः। शं नो भवत्वर्यमा॥ शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः। शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः॥” the first mantra of Taittiriya Upanishad. It again praises a pagan deity as it means “may the lord of the oceans Varuna be auspicious to us”
Athithi Devo Bhavah – The Motto of Tourism Development Corporation of India is derived from Taittiriya Upanishad too.
Doordarshan goes a step ahead and declares सत्यम शिवम् सुन्दरम.
70 years after independence, if the Supreme Court finds it fit to check whether using Sanskrit verses in school prayers is secular or not, I think our country has definitely regressed. Maybe our founding fathers wanted us to remember our ancient ethos through these verses and symbols But, now that we are a mature nation, the court and government needs to evaluate the need of using “anything” from ancient India in public domain. Maybe we can use some Latin slogans to retain the ancient thinking in our slogans. Or if we want a bit of romance, we can try French. If smoothness is the need, try Italian. And, we always have Persian and Urdu and Arabic too to select from.
On a more serious note, the leaders who selected these slogans and songs were no fools. Today the so called intelligentsia has branded these texts as “Hindu Scriptures”, but when these were written, there were no Hindus. These texts, whether written in Sanskrit or in Tamil or in Brahmi or in Pali were simply – Indian Texts. And a nation doesn’t deserve to be a nation if it can’t respect and accept its past – especially when the past is far brighter than the present.
