Author: Maria Wirth
„Would you like to come to some villages around Chamba?“ a friend asked. I happily said yes. He wanted to visit the kin of former servants of his family and bring them gifts before Diwali. After buying boxes of sweets and drawing money from an ATM, three of us set off from Mussoorie. The air was crystal clear and the snow peaks shone in great splendour. How beautiful to be out in the open at the height of 2000 metres! What wonderful surroundings the villagers live in. Blue mountain ranges were rolling one after the other like waves of the…
It seems truth cannot be told anymore. I had written an answer to the above question on quora, but after over 11k views it was taken down, allegedly violating the “be nice, be respectful” policy. I cannot see anything objectionable in my answer. Why would they let it ‘collapse’? Here is the text: Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is least dogmatic (Buddhism is more dogmatic as it follows what Buddha said and Buddha was only one of numerous Hindu sages). And of course it is completely different from Christianity and Islam. If those two big religions are the norm, then Hinduism…
Intellectual integrity and truth are obviously unwanted in our times. These have been displaced by political correctness. Why this happened is a mystery, but mainstream media and other agencies vehemently enforce the politically correct opinion. They drum into us powerfully what we should think even if it goes against common sense. Let me give an example: When in 1999, the Pope declared in India that the Church will plant the cross in Asia in the 21st century, media portrayed it as ok. After all, the Church has the duty to spread Christianity all over the world, so the Pope is…
This is the translation of my last post “A reply to Dr. Zakir Naik” into Marathi by Sri Manohar Railkar सामान्यतः अन्य संप्रदायांवर हिंदु कधीही टीका करीत नाहीत. उलट, ख्रिस्ती आणि इस्लाम संप्रदाय हिंदुधर्मावर नुसती टीकाच करतात असं नाही, तर ते त्याची निंदाही करीत असतात. डॉ. झाकीर नाईक, म्हणजे असल्या प्रकारात मोडणारं उदाहरण होय. भारताबाहेर चर्च आणि मशिदींतून कसल्या प्रकारची प्रवचनं होतात, त्याची हिंदूंना कल्पना तरी आहे काय? हिंदूंच्या देवदेवतांना ख्रिस्ती मिशनरी सैतान, राक्षस असं काहीही म्हणतात. तरीही हिंदू त्याचा प्रतिवाद करीत नाहीत आणि पोथीनिष्ठेतून त्यांनी केलेल्या त्या निंदांना आव्हानही देत नाहीत. वास्तविक हिंदूंच्या धर्माला आणि श्रद्धांना तत्त्वज्ञानाची भरभक्कम बैठक…
Hindus generally don’t criticise other religions in spite of the fact that Christianity and Islam not only criticise, but demean Hinduism badly. Zakir Naik is only one example. Do Hindus know what is preached in the innumerable churches and mosques across India? I know for sure that Hindu gods are called devils by Christian missionaries. Yet Hindus neither defend their gods nor challenge the Abrahamic dogmas in spite of having a solid philosophical basis for their beliefs, which is lacking in Christianity and Islam. Some years ago, Zakir Naik had ridiculed Ganapati and thrown a challenge to prove that Ganapati…
There seems to be some “defect” in Hinduism, because worldwide, it is clearly not as respected as Christianity and Islam. Hindus struggle to get a fair representation for Hinduism in the media or in textbooks whether abroad or even at home. This is hard to understand, because Hinduism has the best philosophical basis of all and is in tune with modern nuclear science. It acknowledges that the essence in all is consciousness (spirit) and shows practical ways how to realize this one spirit as true. It is therefore even in tune with the ever growing tribe in the west who…
There is no doubt that we have a problem in today’s world. It’s a big problem. The strange thing is that apparently we don’t want to solve it, because we close our eyes to the problem and to its root cause. This closing of our eyes is officially endorsed by almost all governments in the world and is seen as politically correct. Naturally, there is no chance to improve things but it’s likely to get much worse. The problem is a faulty, black and white mind-set of a huge chunk of the world population and the root cause is what…
During the Ujjain Simhasth Kumbh 2016, a Vichar Maha Kumbh, an International Convention, was organized from May 12 -14, and a Universal Declaration was released in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I had sent in a proposal on the topic “Religion for human welfare”. Here it is: Since ancient times the Kumbh Mela was an occasion where spiritual personalities guided lay people on the dharmic way of life, and fearlessly and honestly conducted debates about truth. Today, the world is interconnected. It means that the debates on truth need also to take note of the truths that are…
This is the Marathi translation of https://mariawirthblog.wpcomstaging.com/2016/04/17/truth-and-political-correctness/ काही निमित्ताने मी जर्मनीमध्ये गेले असताना माझ्या प्राथमिक शाळेतील मित्रमैत्रिणींची भेट झाली. त्यातल्या दोघी जणींची तर गेल्या ५० वर्षांत भेट झाली नव्हती. आणि इतक्या दीर्घ काळात आमच्यांत खूप बदल झाला होता. त्यामुळं ओळखणं कठिणही जात होतं. असो. तर आमच्या बोलण्याची गाडी गावातील तुर्की समाजाकडे वळली. ६,००० वस्तीच्या त्या गावात त्यांची संख्या ६००च्या आसपास असेल. पण त्यातले फारसे लोक गावाशी एकरूप झाले नव्हते. त्यातल्या काहींनी गावाच्या अगदी मध्यवर्ती वस्तीतच घरे घेतली होती, एकजण म्हणाली. कुराण वाचल्यापासून मी अगदी धार्मिक वृत्तीच्या मुस्लींमांच्या बाबतीतही फार सावधपणं वागते, मी तिला म्हटलं. त्यात जे काही लिहिलंय त्याच्याबद्दल श्रद्धा बाळगणारे…
Some years ago, on a visit to Germany, I met with a few friends from primary school times. Two of them I hadn’t seen for over 50 years, but we were quickly familiar again after we got used to our new (elderly) look. The conversation veered to the Turks in town, around 600 of the overall 6000 inhabitants. “Most of them are not integrating into our society and some buy up houses right in the centre of the town”, a former classmate said. I mentioned that I have become very wary of pious Muslims ever since I read the Quran.…