Categories
Historical Figures

Mirabai (1540 – 1597)

There are few Hindus who will not have heard of Mirabai, the Rajput princess whose devotional compositions have provided a voice to the spiritual yearning of millions, and have a distinct, even a feminist, emphasis to them. Many stories exist about Mira, and it is difficult to produce a factual account of her life, although she lives perpetually through her songs, famous throughout India. The following is a shortened account about popular folk-lore about Mirabai:

Born in Rajisthan a land of warriors and sages, sadhus and kings, but also instability and sorrow, Mirabai showed great devotion for Lord Krishna in her childhood years. One day, a holy man came to her family’s palace and was carrying a small image of Krishna. Knowing that Mirabai would appreciate it, her mother brings her the little statue of Krishna. As the wandering sage left the palace he took his image of Krishna with him. Mirabai was very upset – in fact for days she lost her appetite and was very sad. But after a few days the sadhu returned. The night before, he explained, Krishna had appeared to him in a dream, telling him to return the image to Mira!

Mira grew up to be a beautiful young lady, and was duly married to the warrior Prince Bhoj, and went to live at his palace. However, despite being a devoted and dutiful wife, devotion to Lord Krishna was always foremost on her mind, which annoyed the family of her husband. Uda, her sister in law was most annoyed at Mira’s ways. They tried to stop her from visiting the temple. Prince Bhoj came to accept his wife’s nature, and thought of her as a great devotee of the Lord. He built her a small Krishna temple within the palace. However, for company with other devotees, Mira still sought to go to the village temple. She became acquainted with the great saint Ravidas, who was a humble shoemaker by profession, and learnt much about aspects of religion that she did not know about through him. She considered Ravidas her spiritual preceptor (Guru). Although her in-laws were becoming enraged with her behaviour, several of them could see their was something very special about her. Ravidas is turn was very impressed and moved by the intensity of her devotion to Krishna. He brought her a sitar with his own meager resources, which she used to compose and play soul stirring devotional songs to all who would listen. Through her songs Mirabai’s fame grew exceedingly, spreading far and wide throughout India. Even the Moghul Emporer Akbar (who was tolerant unlike other fanatical Moghul rulers, even renouncing Islam) came to visit her, and was so moved by her songs that he gave her a precious necklace.

Meanwhile, Prince Bhoj, Mirabai’s husband was killed in battle, against the predatory Moghuls. Bhoj’s cousin seizes the throne, who was one member of the family who had harboured dislike for Mirabai. Finding Akbar’s necklace, he accused Mirabai of being a traitor. He confined her to her room, and ordered her precious image of Krishna to be thrown into the river. She still had her devotion to Krishna, but was distraught at not being able to be amongst her fellow devotees and resented being locked in a confined space. She is believed to have write to Tulsidas, who advised her to attempt to leave, which Mirabai did so. Mira’s sister-in-law, Uda had grown fond of Mira over time and was very saddened by Mira’s departure.

Mira roamed India in devotion to her beloved Lord Krishna. She could see Krishna everywhere and in everything, and her songs describe her rapture in this vision. She grew very famous and loved. This enraged the king, the cousin of Mira’s husband Bhoj’s. He was determined now that Mira should die. Many attempts were subsequently made on Mira’s life, none of which bore fruit, due to her unfathomable love and trust in Krishna.

 

Selections from Mira bai’s works:

Priceless Gift (pâyo jî)

I have found, yes, I have found the wealth of the Divine Name’s gem.
My true guru gave me a priceless thing. With his grace, I accepted it.
I found the capital of my several births; I have lost the whole rest of the world.
No one can spend it, no one can steal it. Day by day it increases one and a quarter times.
On the boat of truth, the boatman was my true guru. I came across the ocean of existence.
Mira’s Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover, of whom I merrily, merrily sing.

I Will Dance (citanandana âge nâcûngî)

I will dance before the Consciousness-Charmer.
Having danced and danced, I will please my enjoyer. I will feel my lover.
I will tie on the ankle bells of love and affection. I will wear the dancing-garment of His Face.
Worldly modesty, family honor—I will not care for either of these.
I will go and lie in the bed of my beloved. I, Mira, will dye myself in Hari’s color.

Oh Oh I’m Love-Crazy (he rî maim to prema dîvânî)

Oh oh! I’m love-crazy. No one knows my pain.
My bed is over the gallows. How could I sleep?
My lover’s bed is in heaven’s mandala. How could I get to him?
The one who is wounded knows what a wound means, what it means to be burned.
The jeweler knows what it means to be a jeweler, what it means to have a jewel.
Afflicted by pain, I wander from forest to forest. Can’t get a doctor.
O Lord, Mira’s torment will be wiped out when the doctor is the Dark Lover.

Torn in Shreds (mere to giridhara gupâla)

Mine is Gopal, the Mountain-Holder; there is no one else.
On his head he wears the peacock-crown: He alone is my husband.
Father, mother, brother, relative: I have none to call my own.
I’ve forsaken both God, and the family’s honor: what should I do?
I’ve sat near the holy ones, and I’ve lost shame before the people.
I’ve torn my scarf into shreds; I’m all wrapped up in a blanket.
I took off my finery of pearls and coral, and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.
With my tears, I watered the creeper of love that I planted;
Now the creeper has grown spread all over, and borne the fruit of bliss.
The churner of the milk churned with great love.
When I took out the butter, no need to drink any buttermilk.
I came for the sake of love-devotion; seeing the world, I wept.
Mira is the maidservant of the Mountain-Holder: now with love He takes me across to the further shore.

The Divine Name (râma nâma rasa pîjai)

Drink the nectar of the Divine Name (Rama), O human! Drink the nectar of the Divine Name!
Leave the bad company, always sit among righteous company. Hearken to the mention of God (for your own sake).
Concupiscence, anger, pride, greed, attachment: wash these out of your consciousness.
Mira’s Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover. Soak yourself in the dye of His color.

Holi Raining Colors of Bhakti (sîla santoSha kî kesara gholî)

The saffron of virtue and contentment
Is dissolved in the water-gun of love and affection.
Pink and red clouds of emotion are flying about,
Limitless colors raining down.
All the covers of the earthen vessel of my body are wide open;
I have thrown away all shame before the world.
Mira’s Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover.
I sacrifice myself in devotion to His lotus feet.

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Categories
Academic Negationism

Time for Aryan Invasion Theory to Invade the Dustbin of History

Crass racist theories which are both laughable and offensive are thankfully a thing of the past. Or are they? The Holocaust put the nail in the coffin that race theory could be anything other than murderous and beyond the pale. Yet apartheid was instituted in South Africa only 3 years later. Western democracies remained by and large on friendly terms with the apartheid regime until almost the very end. The irony was not lost on the anti-apartheid lobby which struggled long and hard against official racial discrimination in South Africa. Western democracies had fought Nazism. But Hitler’s New Order in Europe was a masterplan to have inferior Slavs segregated into native reservations where they would provide a ready source of labour for the master race of Aryans to exploit. While apartheid may not have actually had slaves or carried out an extermination program, the black homelands were established so that the white master race could exploit black labour on the cheap. It was this idea of a master race which had actually culminated in Nazism and caused global conflict.

South Africa was but the most glaring and long-lasting example of how colonialism put its stamp around the world. It was a time when not only was Europe the master but whites were recognised as the master race. Exterminating or severely depleting the indigenous peoples of Australasia and the Americas, in Africa and Asia they established themselves as rulers even if the demographic disaster was not as high. Nevertheless colonisation by white settlers was prevalent in many parts of Africa, as it was in Australasia and the Americas. Hence was born the idea of the Aryan race and Aryan Invasion Theory. It took many forms. Most notable was that Aryans had conquered India and imposed the caste system on the dark natives. But we also had the Hamitic invasion of Africa where a primeval lighter skinned race had brought the light of civilisation to the inferior dark-skinned ‘Negroes’. The stone structures of Zimbabwe built by the ancestors of the Mashona, were attributed to the Phoenicians. Ancient Egyptians were said to have been wholly white. Then there were the lost Israelites which turned up all over the place: from the Zulus, to Maoris and Native Americans. Even whites were not spared. Superior Anglo-Saxons were said to have cleansed Britain of its native Celts.

These various race theories were inevitably laden with incredible contradictions. Brown and black people could suddenly be categorised as ‘white’ if their ancient past was deemed too civilised. Even when the Nazis conquered Poland in order to enslave and deplete the native Slaves, Poles who agreed to be Germanised became part of the Volk. Blond haired Polish children were seen as especially important to the Aryan gene pool. Of course children taken in this way from their natural parents had to have all links severed with their Polish past. Hence orphanages were special targets of this racial policy. Because Poles were officially deemed as racially inferior the whole adoption and Aryanisation project was kept secret. It was also an incredibly sick joke in that many of this Slavic children had more Aryan feature’s than much of the ruling Nazi leadership. The only actual Aryan invasion to have taken place was therefore a racial fiasco where demographic warfare and enslavement went hand in hand with assimilating members of the inferior race into the Volk by virtue of hair and eye colour. All of this was done under a symbol used in many ancient cultures including that of India: the swastika.

I said the ‘only’ Aryan invasion to take place because while colonialist race theories such as the Hamitic invasion of Africa have been quietly discarded that of a primeval white race invading and conquering India lives on and is taught as mainstream. Any attempts to counter it with facts is denounced as itself racist. So here we have the incredible paradigm of denouncing as Nazi anyone who refutes the Aryan Invasion Theory and idea of an Aryan race. Can intellectual bankruptcy and stupidity go any further? The Aryan Invasion Theory of India is a toxic resin which unites both the old colonialist mentality which looks upon anything Hindu as obscurantist and irrational, with the spawn of Leftist dogma who take it upon themselves to define what is racism while simultaneously keeping quiet their dirty little secret of Marx himself supporting colonialism in India. In this poisonous vice like grip of suffocation any scholar exposing the idea of Aryan invasion and an Aryan race is labelled racist, Hindu extremist and Nazi, and the discussion is shut down by academia’s very own Gestapo.

However this should to detract the seeker of truth from pursuing a higher aim. It must be remembered at the time when the idea of ‘Aryans’ was manufactured racism was mainstream thinking. It was only a relentless struggle from the end of the nineteenth century which detoxed anthropology, biology, history and other disciplines from the stranglehold of racist thought. It took the Holocaust to reveal the full nightmare of what would happen if such ideas were to run rampant.

Nevertheless the struggle by no means ended with the discovery of mass killing of millions of decent innocent men, women and children in gas chambers such as those of Auschwitz, just because they were deemed to be of an inferior non-Aryan race. The post-1945 White Australia immigration policy explicitly stated that people of Aryan background should be given preference. Apartheid put stringent laws on preventing race mixing that would have had Hitler smiling in his grave. Even the Hamitic invasion theory did not fully die as the killing fields of Rwanda in 1959 and 1994 demonstrated in their full horror.

The horrific massacres between Hutu and Tutsi were a direct result of colonialist racial myth making. The idea of outside origin came to be used by the majority Hutu to massacre Tutsis, using the words “final solution” to make it obvious what the intentions were in both 1959 and 1994. The Hutu were labelled as the indigenous Bantu, truly African inhabitants, who were oppressed by the “Hamite” invaders known as Tutsi, who remained the unnatural foreign element.

Hence the Aryan Invasion Myth is not just a theoretic concern of ivory tower intellectuals who are inherently hostile to Hindu civilisation, culture and beliefs. It has manifested itself in caste conflict over scarce resources in India where quotas are imposed for those deemed to be non-Aryan natives. It has inspired a whole genre of anti-Hindu, anti-Semitic and racist literature from western-sponsored academics such as Kancha Iliaih of Osmania University and VT Rajashekar of Dalit Voice.

Most of all it has stunted India’s political and economic development through policies of excessive state interference, crushing of intellectual creativity and the emergence of an effective civil society via the psychological cul-de-sac which has been created. Just like the swastika to reclaim not just their sacred symbols but also their sacred past from the western academics and Indian Marxist allies who continue to use colonialist theories in order to interpret and impose a racist theory of Indian history. It is not just offensive. It is not even accurate. It therefore belongs in the loony bin of ideas along with the myth of Atlantis, inter-galactic beings carving UFO landing pads in the Atacama Desert, or alien lizards ruling the earth as illuminati.

 

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