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Once when king Kartaviryarjun / Shahastrajun of the Haihaya clan, was touring his kingdom, he found that the religious institutions were more prosperous than he initially thought. Ashram of rishi Jamadagni was particularly wealthy. To the king’s astonishment, Jamadagni’s students fed and entertained the king’s men in ways that made the king jealous of their wealth. Shahastrajun investigated the source of the wealth of the ashram. Jamadagni rishi, in his innocence, explained that the wealth of the ashram was its cows. Cows gave them limitless milk, ghee, dung and strong bulls to pull the ploughs that tilled its farms.
Like all rulers, Shahastrajun wanted to control that wealth ! King wanted
to control this wealth.
Like all rulers, his reasons seemed logical – the wealth of the ashram should be
“shared” with the “poor and needy” of the kingdom.
Like all rulers, he ignored the rishi’s arguments that the ashram already shared
its wealth with the poor and needy of the state.
Like all rulers, he rejected the fact that his wealth created by the ashram
should be enjoyed by the ashram.
When he could not argue on legality, morality or ethics, the king used brute force. He ordered the cows to be taken to the capital with him, by force. Despite rishi Jamadagni’s protest, king and his men abducted the ashram’s cows.
Ashram suffered. Its kindness had been its own
curse.
When Parashuram came back to the ashram, he found the ashram was in disrepair. Shorn of its wealth, it was finding it difficult to
survive. Parshuram could not bear the injustice of
it all. But, being a rishi’s son, he decided to
appeal to the “justice”, dharma and innate goodness of the king.
Such hopes fell on deaf ears. The king, having
acquired the wealth from ashrams was unwilling to return it. Prashuram was a rishi, but he was also a warrior. He did not suffer such injustice in silence.
If a rishi could be forcefully deprived of his wealth, what of the ordinary
person ?
What sort of governance does a government give its people if it uses twisted
laws and convoluted logic to suck more than its fair share in the name of “tax” ?
What sort of governance does a kingdom give its people if it survives on the
blood, sweat and tears of its people ?
What sort of king usurps the rights of others in the name of his own “rights” to
own everything and anything he fancies ?
Parshuram killed the king in a fair fight and took the cows back to the ashram. Rishi Jamadagni was saddened at the turn of events. He did not want Brahmins and Kshtiryas to be at loggerheads. Society needs both sections of the community to work together to prosper. To clam Parashuram down, rishi Jamadagni ordered his son to go on an extended pilgrimage.
Sons of Shastrarjun could not accept the fact that a Brahmin could beat them in a battle. However, being cowards and unable to fight their adversary in an open battle, they waited till Parshuram was out of the ashram and than killed Jamadagni in a twisted form of “revenge” for their dead father. Once again they took the ashram’s cows by force.
Mother Renuka cried bitter tears over her dead husband. Seeing this, Parshuram promised to destroy all evil kshatriyas to end their tyranny. Mobilising the masses, he defeated the warrior clans 21 times, teaching the ruling class to respect the masses, especially the intellectuals. With the blood of the dead warriors, he created five lakes, Samanta Panchak, in Kurukshetra and offered these to appease the spirit of the dead, espeically his father !!!!!
Places have their own forces, their own aura, their own karma and fate !
Watered by the blood of countless kshatriyas, haunted by the cries of countless
widows and orphans, this land is cursed in more ways than one.
In centuries to come, it was near this Samanta Panchak, at Kurukshetra that the
Pandavas and Kauravas fought their terrible battle, annihilating millions of
ksharityas in the epic battle of Mahabharat.
Nearby, at Panipat, Babur won the battle that established the Mughal empire in
India.
At Panipat, Akber slaughtered Hemu to regain the empire his father lost.
At Panipat, Marathas lost their battle with the Afghans.
Though a third party, the British took advantage of war and established
their own empire in India !!
All this, because a king wanted to unfairly snatch the cows of Jamadagni !
This is no mere tale of the past though.
This is being repeated RIGHT NOW – in India, under our very noses !
With supposedly socialist aims of “sharing” the wealth of Hindu temples with the “(nameless) masses”, government of India has created various laws to make sure it has financial control over profitable Hindu temples. Note that poor or destitute temples are not judged worthy of government care or consideration. Only the rich, profitable Hindu temples are “controlled” by the government. Though supposedly secular in its ideals, the government of India sees it fit to interfere in the matters of religion and faith and appoints men and women from its own political parties as “trustees” to oversee the running of profitable Hindu temples.
The same secular, socialist government does not touch the lands, institutions and wealth of Christians, Muslims or Sikhs. These are judged to be too sensitive, though together they own a lot more than the Hindus in terms of land and money.
The Muslim goat or Chistian lamb is too wild and unpredictable for them to handle. Socialist, secular government of India is unwilling to tangle with either of these religious institutions just in case it causes foreign criticism of its policies, or worse still, looses its minority vote banks. But the Hindu cow is tame. Domesticated and docile, it is easy to show it the stern stick of law and force the Hindus to hand over the wealth of their temples to the government.
In a twisted form of “government sponsored redistribution of wealth”, Hindu
religious institutions must suffer government scrutiny all the time and have
non-Hindus and atheists sit on its boards of trustees.
Wealth donated to the temples is than redistributed for government
sponsored programmes that are as leaky as a sieve, where corruption is rampant
and nepotism is the rule. Money donated by Hindus is
spent to aid Muslims visit the Mecca and Christians visit the Palestine.
Yet, no money is spent on Hindus who want to go on a
pilgrimage to Hindu holy places, or for improving Hindu pilgrim sites, or to clean up its sacred rivers
and streams. Poor and destitutes multiply like flies
in Indian pilgrim towns, but the government does not spend a single rupee to
improve the lives of the beggars. It does not try to give
them a decent home, education, health or vocational training.
Government, having looted the temples, lets the Hindus feel ever more
desperate and destitute by letting poverty and decay multiply in its scared
places.
Even the
temples the government loots are not properly maintained ! Wealth from the temples is not used to maintain,
upkeep or clean these ancient monuments. Decay and lichen
grow on the walls while ever increasing lines of pilgrims pour their meagre
earnings in to the government controlled “hundis” to try and “help” the temples.
Little do they know that this money will be siphoned off
before it each reaches the temple accounts.
Like the Kartvirya Sahastrarjun of the Haihayays, Government of India is looting the Hindu religious institutions just because it can ! However, the government should remember the fate of previous kings who have tried to do this including Sahastrarjun and Vishvamitra. This is not just an empty analysis, for example, in 2004, Jayalalitha tried to ruin the Shankarcharya over various land and money matters. She brought the entire machinery of state to bear on the Shankaracharya to destroy him. Result of her actions saw her lose her Chief Ministership at the next election.
Ruler of India beaware.
Stop looting Hindu temples.
If and when the Hindus awaken, they will restore the "Ashram cows".
Read my other articles on how the government is
looting Hindu temples
Orstrich attitude of our leaders and various other
articles on India and politics.
© Bhagwat Shah [email protected]