“Fabulous Four”

For me, to pinpoint the Fabulous Four, I need to dig deep into Indian mythology. But wait a minute, I am not judging these famous characters by their skills and prowess. The underlying factors to pick up these mighty personalities are more based on their honesty, integrity, truthfulness and kindness.

Hanuman

He is the only character that has never come under any criticism or controversy in the entire Indian history, save for an incident where he refused to accept his “son” as his own. That can be partially justified, considering the strange circumstances in which his so called son was born. Apart from that, he isn’t a human. This can also indicate that animals are more honest than humans.

He has never crossed his lines and always maintained the respect for everyone around him, right from his birth. He also had respect for the Brahmastra that Meghanath had thrown upon him, by not defending it and allowing himself to be bounded by it. He was a true devotee of Ram, which was depicted when Hanuman tore his chest out to reveal Ram and Sita in his heart. This amar (immortal) lord continues to be amar in everybody’s heart in this “Kalyug”.

Karna

Karna was a very brave and dexterous person. He was the guy who had met with lot of injustice in his life. Though an upper caste by birth, he was refused proper education, because of lower-caste of his foster parents. He was not allowed to show his skills in front of Pandavas, for the fear that he would outshine them. He was also forbidden to attempt the Swayamavara of Draupadi.

He is the greatest donor ever known in the history of mankind. Even though when he was warned that Indra would come in disguise and ask for his kawach and kundal (his shield and earrings), thus leaving him defenceless, he still readily parted with his life saviour elements, by using his sword to separate them from his body.

Just as a note, he was killed unfairly by Arjun when he tried to remove his wheel that had sunk in the muddy ground.

Eklavya

Eklavya was also one of the characters who could not become famous as a skilled archer, just because he was refused education by Dronacharya on grounds of his lower caste. To add to that, he was also asked to sacrifice his right hand thumb as a token of guru-dakshina. There is not much mention about Eklavya as his growth was restricted. But still, he will always be remembered for the greatest “Guru-Dakshina” ever, in the history of mankind.

Mahabali

Mahabali, the Lord of Asura (devils), was the greatest and the best king on the patal-loka (underworld). Even though an Asura, he always kept his word. To add to his power, he decided to perform a yajna. To stop the yajna, Lord Vishnu had to come to him, disguised as a dwarf (popularly known as Vamana avatara) on the pretext of begging for something. Before Bali (Mahabali) could promise the beggar alms, he was warned by his wise teacher, Shankaracharya, to refuse to give anything, as he had recognized the true identity of the beggar. But inspite of being aware of all this and also knowing that it could be disastrous for the yajna that had been continuing for a long time, he promised the beggar, 3 steps of land.

Even being an asura, he kept to his word and on the contrary, the gods had not kept their word of sharing the amrita (nectar) equally with the asuras, during the samudra-manthan.

These above characters always stood by their principles and words. Although there were many other great characters like Krishna, Rama, Yuddhishtira, Ravana but they all have been accused of deviating from the moral principles as a safeguard measure to protect themselves or their kin. So we find that the people who are portrayed as “good” also have flaws in their character, and the others, who are equally honest, are simply tagged as evil, on the pretext that they are asuras.

Let's all turn atheist!!!

In view of the recurring bomb blasts and the recent attack against churches, one is bound to think about the origin of all this. "Why all of a sudden?", one gasps at the very first mention of these agitations. One always has a perception that religion is behind all this.

I have always wondered at the logic and the cause for all these. What do these miscreants get in return? After finding no definite answers, I divert myself to another question. Why in the name of religion? Why not in the name of the poor? Why not in the name of the vulgarity of our films? All the other topics, apart from religion that were once strong protests have subsided. Even the hot reservation issue has become silent now. The water sharing disputes among the southern states also crop up only when there is a shortage of rains. Then why can't the dispute on communal matters mitigate? Why these religion matters always come up every now and then? Why behind every attack, every bomb blast, the religion issue gets dragged into?

The problem I feel is too much loyalty to one's own religion. The group of persons, who get very possessive about their beliefs and religion, somehow get the wrong perception that their religion is the best and the other religions are a threat to their principles. The common people, however, do not bother about these things. They have lot of other things on priority like, making money, growing their career, taking care of their family, etc. If an outsider takes a look into the Indian society, he/she will be really amazed to find the harmony with which all the different religions' people live together, talk together, and have fun together. Looking at these, one can hardly imagine the same group of people to be at daggers with each other. So the conclusion is that the average society people have no problem with the people of different religions. Hence, the blame lies with those small group of narrow minded fanatics that claim to be extra loyal to their religion. If we take a closer look, we can easily identify such societies and associations that are lurking and operating in every small town and cities. They form themselves in groups and try to create fear, suspicion and mistrust in people towards those of other faith. Sadly, these are backed and funded by our own politicians who want attention and can even go to the extreme of blaming the minority religions for every thing that goes wrong. To make matters worse, these khadi-clad figures try to mix social and economic conditions to the religion issue. These people keep reminding the general public about it and they dig up the past to support their statements.

There is a very thin line between loyalty to oneself and disloyalty to others. That thin division has to maintained strictly by all faiths. One should not get so much carried away by the religions, that they start vandalizing holy places or start blaming other sects for one's condition. We don't want another Crusade or the Swastika fight again. The only solution is to forget what has happened. Let us defeat the purpose of our enemies. Let us not fall prey to our politicians' shrewd communal tactics.

In other words, let us not believe in anything attached to religion. Let us be bold and become atheists. Let us all sacrifice the root cause of all these evil. If we want to live in true peace and harmony, let us abandon our individual faiths and believe solely in our karma and destiny. Sometimes some things have to be changed by drastic measures. Let's all face it.