‘Thamizhar Samayam’ full of prayer, worship and Dharma: Pujya Sri Omkarananda Swamigal

  Omkarananda Swamigal delivering a special lecture at Dharma Rakshana Samithi in Chennai yesterday. Muthukumaran, former Vice Chancellor, Bharathidasan University and Krishna Jaganathan of Vidhyabharathy Educational Trust are also seen.

 

‘Mind needs peace and to attain that piece one must lead the right way of life and Sanatana Dharma teaches us that right way of life’, said Pujya Sri Omkarananda Swamigl of Sri Bhuvaneswari Avadhutha Vidhyaa Peetam, Pudhukkottai. He was rendering a special address at a seminar on ‘Tamizhar Samayam’ organised by ‘Dharma Rakshana Samithi’ in Chennai on Sunday the 7th December 2008.

 

Pujya Swamiji said, ‘Sanatana Dharma, that is Hinduism is ‘Anaathi’ (no beginning & no end). Adi Sankara has traveled the length and breadth of Bharatavarsha by foot and established Sanatana Dharma as the true religion by defeating 72 various other religions and religious concepts through healthy and meaningful debates. Anything, which has a ‘Date of Birth’, will also have a ‘Date of Death’! But no one can affirm when the Vedic Religion of Sanatana Dharma commenced and similarly no one can predict the end of it. That is the beauty of this religion, which evolved as the ‘Vedic Civilization’. Hinduism, as a religion, is like the ‘Maha Saagar’ (Great Ocean), where its various concepts like Shaivism & Vaishnavism etc merge like rivers and tributaries’.

 

Delving deep into the worshiping patterns, Swamiji said, ‘languages are a medium of reaching the Almighty through worship. People use their respective languages for worshipping their Gods & Goddesses and as long as the culture, tradition and way of worship remain the same, there is no place for discrimination along linguistic lines. But unfortunately vested interests divide people on the basis of ‘language’ through their ‘anti-Sanskrit’ calls and ‘anti-Vedic’ concepts and such ‘chauvinistic’ elements are supported by ‘atheistic’ elements in the society. Sadly in Tamilnadu, the atheists have been ruling the roost for years and this unholy ‘Atheist-Chauvinist’ combination has been wreaking havoc, slowly and steadily alienating the people away from Sanatana Dharma’. Swamiji added, ‘religion is quite a larger concept and it cannot be diminished by linguistic chauvinism. The unholy ‘atheist-chauvinist’ nexus in Tamilnadu has been imposing ‘Tamil worship’ in the state at the cost of Sanskrit, Vedas and Agamas and such an imposition is not at all acceptable. In fact, Sanskrit and Tamil have been playing pivotal roles together in the worship of Gods & Goddesses and no one has the right to meddle in this affair. If we take the great treasures of Tamil Literature, we can find references to Vedas, Agamas and Vedic concepts in abundance. For example, Alwars and Nayanmars have paid glorious tributes to Vedas in their great Tamil hymns Dhivya prabhandham & Thevaram and similarly Thiruvalluvar too in his Thirukural‘. He enlightened the fact that language must be used only as a medium of expression in worship and that it must not be misused to divide people.

 

Then, talking on the immense knowledge present in Thirukkural and quoting many verses from it, Swamiji, himself being an expert and exponent of Thirukkural, said, ‘Thiruvalluvar himself was an exponent of Vedas and he has established the ideal Dharmic way of life through his verses under various topics. It is not enough if statues are sculpted for him, but more than that what is important is that his teachings have to be followed’. In a lighter vein, he said, ‘The politicians must be made to learn Thirukkural and live as per its teachings and those who cannot recite Thirukkural, especially ‘Porutpaal‘ (Governance & Administration) with its meanings must not be allowed to contest elections’. He questioned the duplicity of Dravidian racist leaders and challenged them to lead a life following the teachings of Thiruvalluvar before flaunting their fake interests on Thirukkural. ! Then Swamiji also conveyed to the audience his idea of taking Thirukkural to every nook & corner of Tamilnadu through the unique concept titled ‘Kudisai thorum kural’ (Thirukkural in every hutment).

 

He also referred to the launch of a book authored by a well-known educationist and former Vice Chancellor of a University on Thirukkural containing quotes & anecdotes from all other religious leaders except Hindu leaders and said that such attitude must be nipped in the bud. He said that no one has the right to belittle Hinduism in the name of inter-religious faith or secularism. He also came down heavily on the blasphemy perpetrated by the Christians and Muslims on Hindu religion, Devatas and Scriptures and asked them to follow the verses said by Thiruvalluvar, especially on the title ‘Azhukkaaraamai’ (non-enviousness) before claiming Christianity’s acquaintance with Thirukkural. He indicated that the Christians and Muslims must not take the tolerance shown by the magnanimous Hindus as a weakness and challenged them to rise against conversion and terrorism. Citing the reports that the Muslim religious body has denied space in their cemeteries for the slain terrorists in Mumbai, he challenged those Muslim clerics to first make a public announcement that Allah would not forgive the terrorists and that they would not go to heaven!

 

He concluded by saying, ‘the society is full of evil things, which can corrupt the gullible minds of the next generation easily. It is our responsibility to lead the next generation in the right path and for that they need peace of mind, purity of heart and true knowledge, which we only have to give them. Secondly we must ensure unity in the society and worship can bring that. Worship must be used to unite people thereby removing narrow-mindedness and discrimination. The basic fundamentals of Prayer, Worship and Dharma found in abundance in Tamil Literatures must be taken to each and every house in Tamilnadu there by establishing ‘Thaimzhar Samayam’ (Religion of Tamils). Today we have commenced and let us all work towards accomplishing this beautiful concept for a better Tamil society’.

 

In course of his introductory speech, Krishna Jagannathan of Vidhyabharathi Educational Trust enlightened the audience about the attempts made by the vested interests to divide the Tamils by creating a rift amongst them in the name of Aryan-Dravidian theory. He brought to light how the atheists and chauvinists have been brainwashing the gullible masses through anti-Brahminism and anti-Sanskrit postulations. He dealt in length on the Machiavellian agenda of the Christian missionaries to cheat the Tamils through their absurd theories of placing Shivism and Vaishnavism as sub-divisions of ‘Thomas Christianity’. He explained how the evangelists like Dheivanayagam, his daughter Devakala and John Samuel and others spin the web of intellectual terrorism around the Tamils through the ridiculous concept of ‘Dravida Samayam’ (Dravidian Religion) and how the international Christian community and the local atheistic elements help them in taking such concocted stories to the masses. He pointed out the unfortunate episode of even noble people like Abdul Kalam participating in their dubious conference in 2007. He remarked how those anti-social & communal elements imbibe the Hindu divine concepts and use them to project Christianity as the mother religion of Tamils. He emphasised the importance of creating awareness among the Tamils about the immense knowledge available in Tamil literatures on Hinduism and its Bakthi movement.

 

Krishna Jagannathan said, ‘Thiruvalluvar has sung ten separate verses on ‘Nation’ depicting that a nation becomes complete only with the addition of its people and their traditions pertaining to their soil. A nation without its nativity and people would remain only as a land mass and it cannot be formed without them. The cultural heritage and religious traditions form part of that nativity and the people who follow them are the natives. Sanskrit and Tamil are integral parts of that nativity and they cannot be separated’. He cited the official ‘state anthem’ on Mother Tamil, which is full of Sanskrit terms, as an example. He appealed to the people not to fall prey to the devious idea of ‘All religions are same’ and asked them to stick to their religion and its traditions. He concluded by saying, ‘people have the responsibility to guide the children by teaching them the true history and imparting the basic knowledge on our culture and religion, so that they don’t get carried away by the dubious propaganda of alien religionists’.

 

Earlier Muthukumaran, former Vice Chancellor of Barathidasan University gave the presidential address. He categorically said that the educational system has to be reformed totally in the country. Delving deep into it, he said, ‘schools are not teaching the true history of the nation and many schools under the category of minority institutions simply thrust their religious concepts on the minds of even the Hindu children. Unfortunately the products of these schools become future leaders and the false knowledge gained by them in the schools influence their functioning resulting in heavy damage to the native culture and heritage of India. Because of the present system of education, the ordinary people and even a large section of literate people have lost touch with the original culture, language and religion’. He added, ‘the history, which is being taught in schools is nothing but a distorted one created in the 19th century by the British with their divide & rule agenda’.

 

Talking of the religious traditions, he said, ‘our ancestors had a system of worship based on the four places of dwelling namely Kurinji (Hills), Mullai (Plains), Marudham (Agricultural Lands) and Neithal (Seashore) and they had separate Devatas to worship. They also worshipped female deities as per the Puranas and followed the age-old principle of not living in a place, which doesn’t have a temple and in such places they built temples for the welfare of the society. He cited the example of Mauritius, where the Tamil community, which forms only one lakh of the total nine-lakh population, has built some hundred and ten temples there. The Tamils started the Bakthi movement and the lives and works of Alwars and Nayanmars have ample testimony for it. Though the Buddhists and Jains remained separated, the Hindus never felt shy of accepting and taking the good things from them and that is the reason for the success of this nation. The Tamils lived a complete life and respected their field of work and prayed the Almighty only for love, peace and blessings and not for wealth. Such a life style is lost now and it has to be brought back. For that the education system has to be changed’.

 

He exposed the duplicity of the ‘Tamil politicians’ by saying, ‘when the world Tamil community in about 50 countries celebrates ‘Karthikai Deepam’, the Tamilnadu government does nothing about it. This is only an example and this goes well for all the other festivals too. He concluded by saying, ‘the government must reintroduce religious studies in the school syllabi and replace the existing false history with the original one. Such studies must be made compulsory and government must not hesitate to spend money to establish libraries and institutions promoting music, dance and drama thereby spreading the native Tamil culture’.

 

Dharma Rakshana Samithi has started a movement of promoting the true ‘Thamizhar Samayam’ in consonance with Sanatana Dharma and is hopeful of accomplishing it very soon.    

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