One thing I firmly believe is that we must all meditate on the image of
Sri Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield, because this promotes
something that I believe is sorely needed in our community today, a
kshatriya mindset, i.e., the proper values and attitude of a kshatriya.
Kshatriya means holder of the kshatra (i.e., rule or authority).
Kshatriyas are not just warriors—they are political leaders, they govern
and rule. Most of our Puranas and Itihaasas are about the lives and
doings of the kshatriyas, because they are really the ones who shape,
lead and govern our society, the ones who perhaps have the most direct
impact on human history. They are the guardians of the people; their
swords and shields protect our culture, our religion, our traditions,
our lives and our very civilization. Hinduism has survived for so
long in large part because of the valor and sacrifice of kshatriyas like
the Rani of Jhansi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and others.
We find very few true Kshatriyas—either physical or intellectual
Kshatriyas—in Hindu society today. There are many people who at least
aspire to be brahmanas, to dedicate themselves to austere lives of
renunciation and spiritual practice. There may not be a whole lot of
true brahmanas, but least the Brahmana ideal is well-understood and
sought after. Certainly, there are many vaishyas, or those dedicated to
the art of creating and redistributing wealth. There are also a fair
number of shudras, those who are in the field of service. But there are
precious few who are real kshatriyas, and this is especially lamentable
at a time when Hindus desperately need kshatriyas.
Hinduism is under siege today on multiple fronts. Today, scores of
temples are being ravaged and destroyed in West Bengal in India on a
daily basis. Hindus are being routinely beaten, raped and killed by
Muslim fanatics in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Conversions seeking to
destroy Hindu culture and Hinduism’s hold over India are growing by a
staggering amount and are often accomplished through foul means. Nor is
this a problem confined to India alone. In America, Hinduism is
attacked, wrongly portrayed and castigated in academia as an oppressive
religion that must be weakened or radically reformed. Media portrayals
tell the same story. The marketable aspects of our traditions are being
recast as non-Hindu phenomena, like yoga, meditation, etc., thus
looting Hinduism of its market share in the marketplace of religions.
This is why so many of us do feel the stigma of being Hindu. This is
why so many of us do not want to identify ourselves as Hindu, so through
this form of “soft” warfare in the West, Hinduism here, too, is
weakening under constant attack.
I urge you to read Rajiv Malhotra’s books, Breaking India and Being Different, to learn more about this.
There is an ever-growing pattern of atrocities and attacks against
Hindus and Hinduism that continues on unchecked. Our enemies know they
can get away with it because hardly anyone stands up to forcefully and
in a principled way champion the cause of Hindus. If we cannot find our
Arjuna in our midst, then we must ourselves become Arjuna.
I am not telling you to become an extremist or to take up arms. I am
telling you that politics matters, that we have to live in the world of
realpolitik and learn how to thrive in this world to protect and
preserve the treasures of our spiritual heritage. Or else they will be
looted and destroyed. No one will stand up for us unless we stand up
for ourselves. We do not have the luxury of running away from this
dharma-kshetra.
This is the whole point of Sri Krishna’s lesson to us.
I believe that as Hindus, we must take up a kshatriya mindset; this
does not mean necessarily a military mindset. It means we must not shy
away from politics. We must understand the world around us; we must
learn to think tactically. We must build strong alliances with other
communities who will stand together with us. We must learn how to be
powerful diplomats and ambassadors. We must develop leadership skills
and learn how to accumulate and wield power, not for ourselves but for
the greater good. We cannot become Sri Krishna, but we can learn from
the wide array of roles He played and the toolbox of tactics that He
used.
It is important to have courage, to have conviction, to never back down
from what must be done, to never compromise our principles. We must
live and breathe the ethos of what Swami Vivekananda expressed so
eloquently: “Arise, Awake, and stop not till the goal is reached!”
This is what I mean by a kshatriya mindset.
This is the time in your life when you can best practice these skills.
College is a time for exploring and experimenting, for wading into the
world of politics in a relatively safe environment, for learning how to
be leaders. This is the time of idealism and passion, when you can
dedicate yourselves completely to causes dear to your heart. This is
where you will learn to be the leaders Hinduism needs today and
tomorrow.
There is one concrete example that I would like to discuss in this
context. A few months ago, there was a controversy at Wharton, the
famous business school at UPenn. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of
Gujarat, potentially the next prime minister of India, a staunch Hindu
leader and a controversial figure in some circles because of discredited
allegations regarding his role in the Muslim-Hindu riots in Gujarat
around a decade or so ago, was first invited to be a speaker at a
prestigious India business forum that Wharton hosts annually and then
was unceremoniously disinvited because a few radical Marxist,
non-Wharton professors protested his invitation.
I won’t go into the specifics of the incident, but I’d like to make a
few observations. I was involved in organizing a rally held in front of
Wharton to protest against the rescinding of CM Modi’s invitation. I
was involved in trying to recruit people to get involved, especially
disheartened to see how few people in our community were engaged on
this issue, especially those within the student community, since, at
heart, this was a college campus issue.
I do not mean to say that I think everyone should have supported
holding a protest or joining the protest. There is definitely room for
reasonable people to differ on how this incident should have been
addressed. But I do think that people were remarkably ignorant and
apathetic about what was actually going on here, the various forces at
play and the important geopolitical ramifications of the incident for us
as Hindus and/or as Indian-Americans or even as minorities in this
country. I do think that, on the whole, even our community leaders have
not taken the time and effort to do their homework, to educate
themselves about how this incident fits into a larger pattern of
anti-India / anti-Hindu moves in academia. This ignorance and apathy
plays into the hands of those who are anti-Hindu and, by not engaging in
these issues, we become complicit in the attacks upon us and our
faith. The ramifications of the Modi incident are not about Modi
himself, just as the war that the Pandavas fought was not ultimately
about the Pandavas themselves—it has a direct impact on our standing in
this society, our freedom of expression and association, and our ability
to build a strong Hindu leadership for our community without undue
interference.
Developing a kshatriya mindset means taking all of these factors into
account, thinking strategically and tactically about the long-term
implications and stakes, not acting out of fear or dejection, being
proactive rather than reactive, and then making a reasoned, principled
approach. This did not happen with respect to the Modi incident and a
thousand other such incidents that occur routinely, the net effect of
which is the weakening of our community and religion. We need to
educate and engage, and we need to develop a kshatriya mindset.
If we educate and engage, then I think there could have been a higher
quality level of discussion and debate than what took place and a better
outcome. I believe that if, as a community, we develop a kshatriya
mindset, there will be better discourse, better engagement and better
activism on such issues. That will make us a stronger community and
that will strengthen Hinduism.
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