‘We, Muslims who believe there is but one God, can’t religiously relate to the Hindus who worship at the altars of so many gods,’ said Aslam. ‘That’s the source of the discord to begin with, something like an ideological dispute.’
‘If that’s the case, the Christians too believe that the God is one,’ said Raja Rao. ‘But still there were those crusades against the Muslims. But then, how can God be one, when all religions have their own One! As for the Gods in our religion, I would say without meaning any offence to other faiths, there’s no contradiction in that. As the modern organization has evolved round department heads, it seems to me that our ancient religion conceptualized various Gods for specific functions governing the Hindu destiny.’
‘But it’s the Hindu idolatry that is at odds with Islam,’ commented Aslam.
‘Well, religion is an emotion peculiar to the humans, the sensitivity of which increases in the face of criticism from those of the other faiths,’ said Raja Rao. ‘We, Hindus, feel incensed when others tend to reduce us to idol worshippers. The essence of Hindu dharma is aham brahmasmi brahma - God is but the self of man. Where is the question of idol worship then? Our bowing before our deities is only a symbolism of our submission to the paramatma, that is, God. Being ignorant of this Hindu nuance of our devotional ethos, those professing the Semitic faiths naively take it as idol worship.’
‘Moreover, our deities impart form to the god we seek solace from, and thus help us stay focused in our prayer to Him,’ continued Raja Rao. ‘By way of an example, we can all recall the features of our beloved ones in their absence. But when we look at their pictures, won’t our emotions for them get focused in our minds. It’s time others realize that what they misconstrue as idol worship is but a Hindu way of concentrating on God. Besides, we the Hindus need distinctive images to envision our concept of God’s avataars. All the same, hasn’t the so called idolatry insensibly seeped into the religious ethos of Christianity and Islam as well? Won’t that prove, if proof were ever needed, that when it comes to spirituality, imagery comes naturally to man, and anything contrary, be it religious or be it ideological, is the pretence of the protagonists.’
‘Given the reality of human emotions,’ opined Roopa, ‘religious tolerance seems a mirage after all.’
‘Misplaced zeal for one’s faith and uncalled for bias against the other religions has been the bane of the humans,’ said Raja Rao. ‘It should be understood that no one can emotionally feel about a religion other than his own. If all realize this truth, then only it would bring about religious tolerance. Having said that, my intellectual perception of Hinduism and Islam is this: Hinduism is the most abstract of all religions, to comprehend which one needs a certain level of intellect, not common to the masses. This at once proved to be its strength as well as its weakness. The very character of their philosophy enables the Hindus to try to understand the atma, that is, the self. And this Hindu endeavor to understand the self brought about the evolution of a thought process of the highest order ever achieved by the humanity at large. On the other hand, the Aryan intellectual apartheid pushed the Hindu masses into abject ignorance, not to speak of poverty.’