WORSHIP OF SRI BHARATAMATA - Contd.

By Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

Motherland--The Living God

Let us leave out these hypocrites and look at those who call themselves devout Hindus. How many of them qualify to be called really Hindus? Displaying religious marks like Vibhuti, Chandan, Kumkum and Naamam on the forehead, performing rites and rituals according to Hindu traditions and going to the temples in the hope of getting mundane material benefits, and running after spiritual leaders in the belief that by offering donations and purchasing their blessings and grace, the worldly problems could be solved, do not make one a real Hindu. We see everyday, among people who do all such things, such utterly selfish brutes who leave even their aged parents in lurch or send them to old age homes so that they can live comfortably with their beloved wife and children, amassing as much bank balance as possible by hook or crook, and prepared even to desert their Motherland and settle down in distant lands if they could easily make fortunes there. Lord Sri Rama declared, "Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi"—"Mother and Motherland are greater than the Heaven". We see the so called Hindus who adore thirty three crores of Gods and Goddesses, but express their stupidity by asking a silly question whether Sri Bharatamata is a Goddess or Deity to be worshipped. There are some among them who are even well educated! In how many Hindu homes do you find the portrait or picture of Sri Bharatamata as Simhavaahini Durga with the Bhagava Dwaja in Her hand? In many temples, you find many Parivaara Devataas apart from the main deity, but in how many temples do you find a sanctum sanctorum for Sri Bharata Bhavani?

Now, let us for a moment forget about these rubbish heaps that have been making the Hindu society stink, and take the case of those handful of Hindus who claim to adore and worship Mother Bharat as the Mother of the whole universe, and who are proud to call themselves the descendants of the great sages and seers of this land, Bharatavarsha--the Preceptor of the World—Loka Guru. Do they really see themselves as the real sons of the Divine Mother Bharatamata? If they see themselves so, then there would definitely spring up in their bosom a feeling of unity and brotherhood with all those who think like them as children of Mother Bharat. However, we find everywhere a thick wall of egoism and ego-centric desires separating these children from each other. For ages, efforts have been made by great men and women to bring these children together to build up a strong and well-integrated Hindu society, but every effort has been proved to be short-lived or unsuccessful. The reason is that though these Hindu brethren intellectually understand the oneness of the Hindu nation and fraternity of the Hindu race, they are not able to translate that intellectual understanding into a spiritual realization of the oneness of the Self—the Asmita or Chiti—of the Hindu society and nation by destroying their ego and seeking the identity with the Nation's Self—the Deshaatmabodh. Therefore they are not able to stand together and worship their common Mother—Sri Bharatamata. The bloated ego makes each one of them to be one's own leader and not to submit oneself to another's leadership for the cause of the country and Dharma. The result is that they have proved themselves to be impotent eunuchs facing the onslaught of anti-Hindu and anti-national forces in their very Motherland. The salvation to the Hindu society, the re-establishment of the glorious Hindu Nation and the ascendance of Sri Bharatamata once again to the throne of Loka Guru is possible only when all the true Hindus stand together under one banner, worship the Mother Sri Bharataamba devotedly and sing Her praise in one voice.