Almost a thousand years of cultural onslaught have left
Hindus apologetic about their beliefs. They are keen to mould them into the
framework dominated by a monotheistic mindset which holds sway even when it is
mutated into terms such as rational, scientific and even atheist. Such is the
power of monotheism that it infects even ideologies which purport to be
antagonistic to any form of religious belief and it does so without most of us
even realising.
Not widely known but John Gray is one of the western world’s most profound
philosophers , and with his 2007 publication ‘Black Mass’ which is perhaps the
most underrated book of the century thus so far. For those who thought that any
attack on aggressive atheism would come from evangelical style preaching were
sorely mistaken. Derided as being too negative even for nihilists, Gray uses
calm and cogent methodology to unravel the Christian worldview which we take
for granted in spheres which we would never have imagined. For instance the
seemingly innocuous subject of economics has its theoretical springboard in
Christianity, in both Marxist statism and free market libertarianism.
The common denominator is the utopia which they promise their disciples. One
only needs to observe how dogmatic people of various political persuasions
cling to the amorphous ‘theory’ in the wake of its failure in the real world.
In all cases the ‘theory’ must be right and it is humans that are flawed having
polluted the perfect ‘theory’. If this sounds disturbingly like religious fundamentalism
then that is because to all intents and purposes it is.
If Richard Dawkins acts like an aggressive evangelist that is because in his
own way he is one because bizarrely his atheism needs religion to exist in
order to deny it. The ‘theory’ is the god in whatever form it is manifest. It
is the only true being worthy of worship and commands blind obedience. Gray
warns us that denial and especially suppression of religious belief will lead
to its resurrection in grotesque formats. Hence the ‘self-improvement’ groups
which are in fact very successful cults using the format bequeathed to them by
monotheism to force down their unbending message without compromise.
Essential to all these is the sense of crisis which has its origins in
Christianity’s idea of the End-Time. Earlier cultures did not believe this.
Instead they held to a cyclical view of world history. That which exists must
necessarily be destroyed. Out of ashes it is then recreated. While the
millenarianism of Christianity has been secularised into the rarely questioned
assumption that that future will always entail progress, this has not always
brought benefits. In fact it has induced a false sense of flattered egotism via
an assumed reality centred on the state of ‘present’ which refuses to examine
that the entire human mindset has been put through a state of historical
disconnect.
It is therefore not surprising that Hindus are keen to be seen as gravitating
towards this norm when even cultures that unambiguously spoke to cyclical views
of history have been remoulded by monotheistic imperialism to assume a
millenarian attire. For example the Mayan prophecies are said to speak of a
cataclysmic destruction and a literal apocalypse in December 2012. But the
records and calculations actually refer to the end of an era and the dawn of a
new age. That is in keeping with how other ancient cultures viewed history.
If John Gray is little known even in western countries then we can expect
little justice to be accorded to the pioneering work of Hindu scholars Ram
Swarup and Sita Ram Goel. Towards the end of the twentieth century they
laboured almost unknown even in their native India towards giving Hindus back
their own history and cultural awareness. In doing so they attacked the very
assumption that monotheism was superior, which as I have explained, is
something which even today we take for granted. Even many people in the west
who regard themselves as multicultural and having respect for other cultures
would nevertheless assume that those deemed of lesser quality on the hierarchy
remain in their place and at a safe distance. But this is like admiring nature
solely through taxidermy.
However both Swarup and Goel had the one major advantage that unlike most other
cultures, the Indian tradition had never been completely obliterated by the
monotheist onslaught and thereby had kept ties to its ancient roots. Many times
they wrote how as western pagans began to rediscover their long suppressed past
it was India
’s surviving spirituality which would help them overcome the mental rust of
monotheism. India
not only survived but it fought back when physically threatened. Under the
inspiration of the Mother goddess Bhavani the great Hindu pagan warrior Shivaji
was one of many such figures fought to save this ancient culture from the
attack of aggressive monotheism which brought slavery, genocide and devastation
in its wake, all in the service to that one true jealous god. In the modern age
the pen is mightier than the sword and the keyboard can be more influential than
the Kalashnikov.
As western countries shake off the crushing weight of dogmatic religion they
find that the monotheist curse remains in the secular ideologies which have
replaced a once omnipotent church. Confused by generations of
despiritualisation which pushed blind rituals over meaningful insight and
outward aggression over the sense of an inward journey of self-awareness, they
are easy prey to the secular cults which retain a sense of purpose.
Those that wish to find their pagan roots unintentionally give it the same
structure of the backward monotheistic toxin which they left behind. It is for
this reason that Swarup and Goel felt that India
was essential to help Europe ’s pagans and
indeed other long suppressed indigenous cultures. As India ’s rise leads to renewed
interests in the ancient culture of that country it will also allow Hindus to
not only shake off the monotheistic straightjacket but by doing so help the
rest of humanity to do the same.