When Ram returned to Ayodhya, he touched the feet of all his friends and relatives - including Kaikeyi, the queen who had exiled him.
Kaikeyi was taken aback and begged for forgiveness.
Ram’s reply is what many see as the essence of the Ramayan.
Bhagwan Ram said:
Mother Kaikeyi, how could I be angry with you? Without my vanvaas, I would never have experienced the devotion of Hanuman, the loyalty of Lakshman, the righteousness of Vibhishan, the strength of Jambuvan, and the faithfulness and love of Sita.
So blessed are those who keep His company and bow to Him. The lessons of Shri Ram’s life have inspired countless across the world. And they will continue to do so for ages to come.
As time went on, other Muslim League leaders would fire their rhetorical silos on the justification of Pakistan. They would inevitably be tied to not just Muslim safety, but Islamic fulfillment of power & God given right.
Pakistan could only be an Islamic State.
One of the most interesting parts of the Raja of Mahmudabad’s case was the superiority of Islam as an eternal and supreme religion, a Sanātan Dharma in a way 😎. The Prophet Muhammad had perfected & revived Islam which was sent to all peoples over history.
Mahmudabad contrasted this perfect Islamic state with the follies of European nations & accuses Gandhi of encapsulating a hybrid faulty nation combining Tolstoy &…get this…Savarkar to create a Congress Hindu Raj.
OTOH, he viewed Pakistan as a future national model for the 🌍.
One of the 1st times I really zeroed in on this was when I realized that Indians (all Desis really) may be one of the only people who gloat about their service in an occupying forces' army (British Raj service - muh martial race).
Isolate that. Remove British/Indian.
You get invaded. Your people are pitted against each other by the invader. You become conquered. You are recruited into the conquering forces' army to oppress your own. And then you brag about your valor & militaristic prowess.
One of the disputed parts of inter/intra Dharma debates was the status of Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu.
I think what is most fascinating in the whole discourse is that Buddhism paved the way for the supremacy of Vaishnavism to supersede the dominant ritualistic Hinduism.
It's clear as day from reading Buddhist texts that his devotees had a deep "Bhakti" towards the Tathāgata. From the way he talked, walked, looked, everything about him, his devotees were enamored with.
Buddhism was filled with Bhakti.
Vishnu, so often seen as the Sattvik Lord of the Trimurti, of course shares this serene personality with Buddha, above base emotions and in eternal bliss.
Emphasis on ahimsa, shaven head saffron monks, universal access to moksha, the individual's relationship with the divine...
In 1860, the South democratically seceded from the US. The South felt oppressed due to the US not respecting their ethnic ideals & traditional way of life.
Instead of respecting democratic freedoms, Lincoln obliterated the rebellion as his troops committed horrid atrocities.
Ofc a ridiculous narrative that is routinely used in Kashmir where religious (& racial) supremacists purged the land of non-Muslims claiming it as their birthright. Meanwhile renaming Kashmiri sites & cities into Arabic & Persian & smashing the temples of their ancestors.
India has not even shown 1/20th of the ferocity the US & other nations have shown when it comes to secessionist elements
Gandhian tolerance & Nehruvian romance have won out instead of Lalitadityan ambition (Kashmir's greatest King who most of them probably don't even recognize)
Something that I can’t wrap my head around is now on earth Ambedkar thought that Buddhism was a religion centered on social justice.
Hot take but Lord Buddha endorsed jati-varna/caste more then Lord Ram or Lord Krishna ever did.
🧵Thread🪡
Across various sutras, Lord Buddha explicitly endorses the 4 fold varna system. Emphasis is placed on Brahmin and Kshatriya castes as respected communities and the castes where Buddha’s and Bodhisattvas are born into (All Buddhas thus far were born in Brahmin/Kshatriya lineages).
Jati especially is endorsed as birth based and it seems that in some ways, jati/varna are used interchangeably interestingly enough.
The passage below clearly shows how caste-conscious and conformist Indian/Buddhist society was during Lord Buddha’s time.
"There is no power on Earth that can undo Pakistan" - Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
🧵 on Creating a New Medina by Venkat Dhulipala.
The political & ideological formulation of Pakistan & how the seeds of its creation lead to the rot of the present.
We start off with a legendary séance with the ghost of Jinnah who bemoans the state of Pakistan. As well as challenges to the idea of Jinnah being secular. The idea of Pakistan was founded on anti-Indianness & Islamic separateness/supremacy
The GOI Act of 1935 where the British tried to prop up regional chauvinism and provincial emotions to break the central revolution of Indian independence.
A mirror of the regional supremacist movements in India today who are detriment to the country