A Civilization That Chose Courage, Not Fear
A Civilization That Chose Courage,
Not Fear
Hindus were never cowards. They
did not need to be told they were in danger to find courage. Long before fear
became a political tool, India produced a man armed with nothing but a stick
who forced the most powerful empire of his time to leave his land. Indian
history is not short of bravery. It is filled with resistance, sacrifice, and
resolve. The idea that Hindus must now be frightened into unity is not a strength.
It is an insult to our past.
What made this civilization
remarkable was not just courage, but reason. Emerging from the Vedic tradition,
India did not glorify blind violence. It cultivated logic, debate, inquiry, and
restraint. Wars were fought, but they were rarely glorified. Again and again,
this civilization chose persuasion over annihilation, coexistence over
conquest, and love over domination, not because it was weak, but because it
understood something deeper: power without wisdom destroys itself.
Yes, some of our rituals can look
like avoidance moments where people recite mantras to calm fear in times of
danger. But even those practices were not meant to replace thought or
responsibility. They were meant to strengthen the mind, not suspend it.
We wrote the Bhagavad Gita, a
text that does not teach submission, but moral courage. It tells us clearly:
stand against injustice, even if it comes from your own side. It does not
demand worship of the book itself. It demands understanding. Turning the Gita
into an object of ritual praise rather than a guide to ethical action is a betrayal
of its core message.
When we start worshipping books
instead of learning from them, we step backward, not forward. That is how
civilizations enter dark ages.
The Vedic tradition never taught
us to stop questioning. It taught us the opposite: truth must be pursued,
tested, and debated. It even acknowledged something radical for its time that
truth is not absolute, that knowledge evolves, and that understanding deepens
through inquiry. This spirit gave rise to science, mathematics, medicine,
astronomy, and philosophy.
Religion originally grew out of
social bonds that shared ideas about existence, ethics, and meaning. But once
structures hardened, power followed. And once power followed, exploitation
began. Rules replaced reflection. Fear replaced reason.
People were told what to believe
instead of how to think. This worked because education was limited. Fear
thrives where understanding is weak. Over time, religious authority learned how
to weaponize emotion, guilt, shame, hope, and dread to control societies. In
the modern age, these methods did not disappear. They were upgraded.
Mass media, repetition, and
manufactured outrage have replaced scripture as tools of persuasion. When
falsehood is repeated often enough, especially by trusted figures, it begins to
feel true. Not because it is true, but because it is familiar.
The Gita speaks clearly about dharma
duty. Not duty driven by fear or reward, but duty performed honestly, without
obsession over outcomes. It teaches that when duty is guided by integrity
rather than desire, outcomes take care of themselves. But when fear, ambition,
and expectation begin to dictate action, someone else begins to control the
result.
That is how societies unravel.
What we see today, not just in
India, but across the world, is the collapse that follows when faith is used to
dominate rather than to guide. Governments that claim religious authority are
often the first to abandon religious values. They preach morality while
practicing cruelty. They speak of God while acting without compassion.
The irony is complete. Hindus are
not in danger because Muslims exist. Muslims are not in danger because
Christians exist. Christians, Jews, Sikhs, and people of every faith are not
threatened by belief itself.
What threatens all of us is the
enforcement of belief. The moment faith is imposed, humanity retreats. The
moment fear replaces reason, violence follows. The moment religion becomes a
tool of power, it ceases to be spiritual.
This civilization survived for
thousands of years not because it was afraid, but because it was thoughtful.
Not because it silenced dissent, but because it allowed disagreement. Not
because it demanded obedience, but because it valued conscience.
Choosing love over hate is not
weakness. Choosing reason over fear is not betrayal.
Choosing humanity over identity is not a loss. It is survival. And if there is
one lesson history has taught us repeatedly, it is this: Civilizations do not
fall when they question. They fall when they stop.
It is necessary to have independent media that is not influenced by government
ReplyDeleteNot just independent of the government. The media must be independent of all forms of bias, political, religious, caste-based, ethnic, corporate, and ideological. True independence means refusing to serve any power structure or identity agenda. A media ecosystem like that does not ask people to accept narratives as true or false. It encourages questioning, verification, and dialogue. Without that neutrality, the media stops informing society and starts shaping it, often in ways that deepen division rather than understanding. An informed democracy depends not on loyal media but on fearless, unbiased media that values truth over alignment.
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