Bangalore program of Rajiv Malhotra – A Report

It was an enlightening evening for hundreds of patriotic citizens of Bangalore on 19th Sunday. The occasion was the talk and interaction session by the renowned researcher and writer Sri Rajiv Malhotra. The event was organized by the social service trust Uthishta. It also coincided with the release of the Kannada version of Rajiv’s book ‘Being Different’.

Rajiv Malhotra was in the city to participate in a dozen programs.  During the four days of his stay, he interacted with many people at various levels. He shared with them the hard facts he discovered from his two decades long study of cross cultural encounters. He said “the situation is grim…unless we act now, it will be too late for us to retain our cultural purity”. There are many forces and concerted efforts out there to demean our great heritage and culture. Crores of dollars are being spend every year on projects meant to spread mis-information about our history and religion. Many of the foreign supported so called ‘human rights groups’, ’empowerment projects’, ‘education projects’, ‘training programs’ etc are really in to nefarious activities. He said, he was shocked to see even such people who systematically undermine Hinduism are being given prominence by innocent Hindu groups not realizing their true intentions.

Many who appear to praise Hindu traditions, in fact are with an agenda to ‘digest’ it – a term used by him for the tactic they apply. A predator swallows its prey and digest whatever is good for him and throws away the remains. He said, such elements will praise Hindu scriptures first and talk nicely about us to keep us in good humour. Then comes the real work where they twist facts and confuse Hindus. One such example is the conversion of the spiritual practice of Yoga in to a mere secular health improvement practice. One such so called western experts on Swami Vivekananda and Vedanta has been spending decades to make the world believe that what is known as Hinduism today is just a formation of Swami Vivekananda. There was nothing much before him for us to claim!

Justice N Kumar of Karnataka High court called upon the audience to sacrifice little bit from our present day comforts and support such projects. He said, without that sacrifice and action from each individual, there is no point in how much ever we talk. Sri Sri Sri Nirmalanandanatha Swamji of Adi Chunchanagiri Mut, blessed the occasion by releasing the Kannada book. He reflected on his experince of witnessing the huge sculpture of ‘Palazhi Mathan’ displayed at the airport of Bankok. He said, Thailand, once a Hindu land is now a Budhist country with hardly any Hindus there. Same way Hindus are being uprooted from our neighboring countries.

The beautiful rendering of Vandemataram by Smt Shiji marked the conclusion of the program. The audience went back with a renewed vigor to work in the direction shown by the eminent speakers.

A report on this can be read from the link
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bangalore/Current-Trends-Are-Not-Very-Healthy-For-Our-Culture/2014/01/21/article2010599.ece1