Chapter 2
The First Fundamental: The Concept of India a Hindustan continues...

5. Believes that the soul reincarnates, evolving through many births until all karmas have been resolved.

6. Believes that divine beings exist in unseen worlds and that temple worship, rituals and sacraments as well as personal devotion can create a communion with these devtas and Gods in one’s lifetime.

7. Believes that a spiritually awakened Master or Sat Guru is helpful to know the Transcendent Absolute, as are personal discipline, good conduct, purification, self-inquiry, and meditation.

8. Believes that all life is sacred and to be loved and revered, and believes too in the practice of ahimsa or non-violence.

9. Believes that no particular religion teaches the only way to salvation above all others, but that all genuine religious paths are facets of God’s Pure Love and Light, deserving tolerance and understanding.

Shorn of the frills and fossilisation, this ancient religion, at the core believes that anyone who accepts these nine points is eligible to be a Hindu; but in the final analysis, that person must willingly want to be called Hindu. Clearly, Muslims, Christians and Jews cannot accept points 3, 6 and 9. For them there is only God Whom one can meet only after death (not in one’s own lifetime) and then be consigned by Him to Heaven or Hell permanently. There is no question of re-incarnation.

Therefore the Muslims’ fear of religious assimilation is quite unfounded, unless the fundamentalists apprehend that exposure to the quintessence of Hindu beliefs may weaken their hold on the Muslim community or might even lead followers of the Faith to question some of their own precepts. It is significant that in the Muslim ghettos or Mohallas, the Mullahs argued against the Supreme Court’s decision in the Shah Bano case not on the merits of it, but on the ground that it represented the first step of “devious” Hindus to undermine Islam. If the Muslims did not protest, the Mullahs warned, then more subversion of the Faith would follow.

to be continued....

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