By: Anand Krishnan Iyer
akiyer62@hotmail.com
June 11, 2004

In the most recent history of India since ancient times, Mahatma Gandhiji called on Indians to observe Austerity and this he implemented by his own Khadi method. This was a necessity of the times. Other than this, Hindu religion and even those in this region who left the Hindu fold, have mostly been an extravagant religion and extravagant people.  

Why this extravaganza? If our ancestors had been austere and had saved everything they had, then they could have built armies strong enough to conquer the entire world with the power of their wealth! The answer for the extravaganza is perhaps in the reasoning that the wealth in the Hindu world was only because of this extravaganza. Millions of people who existed in India could live great lives because religion called upon people to spend money. From the small trinket earrings to the bindiyas, the kaajal, the flowers, the incense burning, the prasads, the floral offerings, grand parades, so many festivals and events, even the getting decked up to go to the temple in the evening was all part of a culture that encouraged people to spend so that others within society could also get the money that rolled within the economy.  

When somebody started collecting and accumulating in a great way, the society started having imbalances. The imbalance became more acute with the advent of monotheistic societies. However, as their number increases, monotheistic societies themselves have problems in maintaining balance in their societies and hence wars and conquests are a must for their survival. Even the most austere monotheistic religions have to accept the businesses of cosmetics, jewels  and other things not considered as austere, as a part of their lives for maintaining balance in their economics. 

And in the last fifty years we have seen that though our constitution has tried to make amends in the society by way of reservations, taxation and so on, we have not been able to eradicate imbalances in society. More avenues of employment are needed. Entertainment, Celebrations and other things add to the business and employment scenario. Multitheism or Secularism is probably a solution for a large population as this provides more venues to spend and thus creates more avenues of employment. Nothing echoes this sentiment better than the fact that Valentines Day and Christmas Eve (filling of stockings with toys/gifts) are popular among many Secular Indians and there are businesses thriving on high sales related to these two events. Multitheistic people should probably not shun these events but try to ‘make hay while the sun shines’! 

In Hindu society, the various sects have accepted each other to a large extent. Gods and celebrations known in one section have been accepted in other sections of society. However, Hindu society has to think about acceptance of gods and religious representations from other parts of the world within their fold. After all it has been said in Hindu text that the world is a small village.  

Indians can think of creating a whole secular nation of year round celebrations by accepting representations of other faiths into the Secular fold without disturbing the extravagant way of traditional Indian worshipping. Statues of Greek gods, Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Gobind Singh, Clay-marble-metal representation of the ka’bah in Mecca and other representations of gods and religions can be accepted by Hindus as among the more than 3 crore gods and religious ways known to humans. Along with this acceptance, the culture of our way of praying, abhisheks, incense burning, prasad etc. can continue with added vigor.  

In such a situation care must be taken that the wealth rolls inside the extravagant secular Indian society and fundamentalist forces do no take undue advantage by trying to siphon funds away and create further imbalances in society. 

Secular Indians can think of a way of representing their acceptance of all religions. This unique representation can be the contribution of this society to humankind. It can be a pillar like structure with various figures and representations or anything better that secular artists can think of. Where Secular people reside, this accepted representation can be installed in new temples and where structures cannot be altered due to heritage reasons, a separate structure in the Vicinity can be made to house this Secular representation in traditional Indian ways.

Anand Krishnan Iyer