Acharya Tulsi
People are cruel to the extent that they unearth the buried corpses. Obviously they totally lack sense of discretion and compassion. These days we also hear that some other people are reopening dead issues.
In ancient times, people used to offer animal and even human sacrifices as part of religious rituals. Mostly the victims were people who were so helpless that they were the easy prey for such sacrifices. Children were the other kind to be easily available for such some less rituals. What a society that was, where people, could have been so insensitive that they, for the sack of small favour to be obtained from this grab, honey indulge into this kind of inhuman acts and justify their action quoting Shasta’s (religious treatises).
Lord Mahavira led revolt against such sacrifices 2500 years ago. He believed that it is a sin to perpetrate a mental agony on any one. He even decried violence in speech. As a result of Mahavira‘s campaign condemning such sacrifices, there came a perceptible change in the outlook of society. The inhuman tradition of ‘Sati' (say immolation by a widow on the torture pyre of her husband) was now prevalent in Mahavira's time. Neither were the cases of bride burning in the families of windows as we often come across through newspaper reports. How does this happen today? Are we returning to the by gone times and revelry back to in human acts like Sati, bride burning or destruction of human values? Has the man lost all his sense of compassion and his conscience about right or wrong, that he does not feel perturbed about such ghostly acts?
Of course there was the tradition of torturing the slaves death lord Mahavira uprooted that tradition opposing the cause’s originals it. He visualized the idea of compassion for all even above humanitarianism. Devoted to this idea one would never support the traditions like sacrificing human beings, killing for dowry, suicide among women; he would decline even sacrificing animals.
Beyond imagination is the period the modern people are directed to by way of reviving the ‘Sati' tradition, the crime of killing for dowry, taking abortions to be lawful and sacrifice of human being. What to talk of the sacrifice of animal beings?Has the consciousness of humanity gone so harsh that it clocks move by witnessing such the acts of cruelty?
What a tragedy it is that such cruel acts like sacrifice of the children at the altar of religious rituals are being done by their parents or by others with their consent? Recently we heard of two such cases—one in ‘Panchi' village in Meerut district and the other in village ‘Nigod' in Bhilwada district, where parents themselves sacrificed their children to ‘kali mata' on the advice of a so called tantric. When one comes across such incidents, one feels so depressed and lost as if we live his kingdom of the satan. The mother is every thing to a child. How does she become an accomplice in such a ghostly act? ls it that the human sentiments of the man have completely deserted him now and he is only interested in money or prosperity. Does he not understand that he would always be hunted by the death cry of his child, whom he has sacrificed for his petty gain? Such acts could be committed only under the evil influence of superstitions. Surely he is doomed to repent for his cruel act throughout his life.
On the other hand, would one pledge his trouble free life for a partial given of riches achieved by chance through such an act? Would he be living with head raised in the society? Would he not face the negligence coming from his other children? There are the questions which would him who’s not answered and would not bring happy results when answered.
It is a paradoxical situation why that the one hand, while we work for campaigns like "Anuvrat" for restoring human values, these are tragic cases like the above. We need to build up a strong movement against such cruelties and superstitions when lakhs of people would raise their hands together and protest against such things. Strong and enlightened public opinion would surely curb such incidents of superstition.
It seems that the society lacks the courage to decry such cowardly acts. People who believe in humanism will have to come forward and united to fight the root cause of such criminal tendencies in the society. They must work for building a strong public opinion against superstitions and taboos, which are blots on their glorious cultural traditions.
