A Unique Day

 Why is December 25 a special day? Yes, indeed! It is the Christmas day. It is the day that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Who was Jesus? Well, he was, in my opinion, a radical thinker. Why do I think so? If you read the New Testament, you would realise that he represents  and empowers the common man. 

Everything about him is ordinary. Jesus is not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was born in a manger. Father Joseph was a carpenter who had to migrate after Jesus' birth. In other words, Jesus belonged to a poor family, and yet the mighty king, Herod, considered him a threat as per the prediction. Despite such a persecuted life right from the beginning, such was Jesus' concern for the common man that he gave them the spirit, the courage to stand up to the crooked mighty.

He was betrayed by those considered his near ones. Judas betrayed him for thirty ducats. Paul doubted him thrice before the cock crew. Yet he continued to care for them, as for those others who followed him. If you read his 'miracles', they tell the story, you would realise, of the empowerment of the common man. 

Indeed it is sad that the religion of pity and love that he preached and practised later engaged in crusades for ages. Much worse is the fact that proselytisation and conversions continue in his name! Well, disciples' excesses cannot be piled on to teachers! 

Jesus, like Gautam Buddha, represents 'love, pity and mercy' to quote William Blake. May be, real secularism consists of respecting all these alternative paths to the ultimate Truth. As our treatises would sum it up succinctly, "ekam sat, vipra: bahudha vadanti", that is to say, "Truth is one; the learned enunciate it in multiple ways".

Hinduism, which is not monotheistic, instead recognises these multiplicities, is more a way of thinking, living and being. Sooner than later, people who would oppose for the sake of opposing, recognise such multi-dimensionalities, and go for a re-think of their former rigid positions. Yes, you guessed it right. I did watch a few videos about Shela Rasheed's sea-change of opinions. That, too, indeed made the day special in a way!

Pratima@ December 25 is the birthday of  Atal Behari Vajpeyi-ji whose ideology, too, was inclusive in an interesting way, I would like to maintain. Indeed a unique day hence  in multiple ways!