{"id":22399,"date":"2013-01-10T13:29:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T19:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drishtikone.com\/?p=22399"},"modified":"2013-01-10T13:29:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-10T19:29:10","slug":"curse-of-the-bapus-why-target-asaram-was-gandhis-prescription-to-jews-any-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2013\/01\/curse-of-the-bapus-why-target-asaram-was-gandhis-prescription-to-jews-any-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Curse of the “Bapus”: Why target Asaram? Was Gandhi’s prescription to Jews any different?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Asaram Bapu has made some comments which have sparked a lot of protests. \u00a0What he said basically was that when the Rapists were trying to rape the girl, she should have called them \u201cbrother\u201d and begged them to leave her.<\/p>\n

This is coming obviously from a person who (i) has never known a woman\u2019s pain at being overpowered and brutalized and (ii) has never been raped.<\/p>\n

But what has surprised me is that why has the society suddenly woken up to the menace of idiocy masquerading as \u201cNon Violence\u201d and \u201cSpirituality\u201d? \u00a0Such has been its wont for a long time!! \u00a0These same TV anchors .. these same activists who are up in arms against Asaram Bapu have shot down many \u201cSpiritualists\u201d because they would suggest violence when it is needed.<\/p>\n

\"Gandhi's<\/a>
Gandhi\u2019s hand writing: \u201cGod is Truth. The way to Truth lies through Ahimsa (non-violence). Sabarmati, 13 March 1927, M. K. Gandhi.\u201d (Photo credit: Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, I have heard so many people even coming out and saying Bhagwad Gita promotes violence because Krishna asked Arjun to fight when they were wronged. \u00a0So there is this strange \u201cSpiritual Compass\u201d of this nation now, that esoteric ideas like non-violence and love or peace start defining Spirituality. \u00a0As if someone who can see through the world clearly will suddenly become dumb to atrocities. \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I doubt that those who oppose Asaram\u2019s comments realize that they are really displaying the ugliness of their own internal conflict!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Let us go back to another era of gross inhuman conduct and the advice of a Great man. \u00a0In the 1940s Hitler was killing Jews in millions through his concentration camps. \u00a0And, at the same time, Gandhi was experimenting with his choicest weapon \u2013 the Non-Violent Satyagraha. \u00a0He sent this piece of advice for the Jews:<\/p>\n

Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher\u2019s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions<\/strong> (The Life of Mahatma Gandhi<\/i>\u00a0(1950) by Louis Fischer. The quote is in the context of Gandhi\u2019s argument to his biographer that collective suicide would have been a heroic response that would have \u201caroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler\u2019s violence\u201d) (link<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From where I see this, Gandhi is actually going even further than Asaram Bapu. \u00a0If I use Gandhi-speak in place of Asaram Bapu\u2019s statement it would have gone something like this:<\/p>\n

The Delhi girl should have requested the men not to molest her and then if they didn\u2019t want to stop, should have openly offered herself up for rape. \u00a0She should have not resisted. \u00a0At least the opinion of the world and men would have been with her. \u00a0May be some of them would have been shamed by her act to not follow through. \u00a0She would have been raped anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read Gandhi\u2019s statement carefully and my twist on Asaram\u2019s statement to equate it to that (however idiotic it is). \u00a0Any difference?<\/p>\n

I want to bring out the utter hypocrisy and the moronic values that this society has followed in the name of Spirituality.<\/p>\n

If this society is aghast at Asaram Bapu\u2019s remarks, then it should also please understand that this modern day \u201cBapu\u201d is not the one who invented this \u201cLet the rapist rape and offer yourself\u201d policy, but another Bapu whom we never raise fingers at.<\/p>\n

Violence and Spirituality<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always find it ridiculous when Non-violence as a \u201cprinciple\u201d and moral stand is equated with Spirituality. \u00a0It is as nonsensical as Gandhi\u2019s and Asaram\u2019s comments were, but it took Asaram\u2019s comment to bring it home. \u00a0Gandhi\u2019s didn\u2019t because we were not Jews. \u00a0Because our family wasn\u2019t taken away.. because we weren\u2019t smoked.<\/p>\n

There was a reason, why Dharmic Spirituality has never made a pretense of going the non-violent way. \u00a0It is quite fine when it is required. \u00a0But violence is never the main weapon of choice. \u00a0Interestingly, as I have always argued, it is the Sikh Gurus who have best explained the Dharmic Spiritual Principle through the concept of \u201cMiri-Piri\u201d and thereafter by taking up the mad Islamic rulers directly in the fight.<\/p>\n

Spirituality is NOT being \u201cpeaceful\u201d .. it is NOT always being a \u201cSmiley face\u201d.. it is NOT being non-violent and offering yourself up for Rape or Massacre. \u00a0It is having the awareness when to take up the sword. \u00a0And when not to.<\/p>\n

So stop going after Asaram Bapu. \u00a0First get your own Spiritual compass in place. \u00a0A society which rejoices Gandhi\u2019s non-violence which was at the level of lunacy cannot suddenly start shooting Asaram down for following in his footsteps!!<\/p>\n

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Related articles from External Sources<\/h6>\n