A New Pastime For The Religious Idlers
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
5 January
2024
“Lord Ram Belongs To The Bahujan. Lord Ram Belongs
To Kshatriyas. People Want Us To Turn Us Vegetarian But Lord Ram Used To Hunt
And Eat Meat. Lord Ram Was A Non-Vegetarian. How Do You Expect A Person Who
Lived In The Forest For 14 Years To Search For Vegetarian Food..."
Whether the
putative Ram of Sanatanis was a vegetarian or non-vegetarian is an inconclusive
debate.
What's much
more important and pitiable is that we're speculating and fighting over a
mythical character's food habits and preferences! Alas, we've so much time for
all non-issues.
Scottish
philosopher and historian David Hume wrote that the pagan believers would often
indulge in useless debates over the drinking and eating habits and preferences
of their pagan deities.
English
historian Edward Gibbon also said the same thing in his magnum opus, The
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that one of the minor
factors of the decline of the Roman Empire was Speculative Religiosity of the
Romans. Since then, this term has become popular in the domains of Religious
Studies, Theology, History, Sociology and also modern Psychology. Just think of
this petty issue from the sociological and dietary perspectives.
Hindus,
who've taken umbrage at calling Ram a non-vegetarian, will have to accept the
fact that many Hindus among them are non-vegetarians but devout Ram-Bhakts. A
majority of Hindus may be vegetarians but there's also a very big chunk of
Hindus relishing meat. They too worship Ram. Rajputs are devout Ram bhakts but
they eat meat.
Ram
belonged to the Kshatriya clan (Ikshvaaku Vansh) and Kshatriyas
have been eating meat right from the beginning. Ram's godhood came much later.
Even Valmiki Ramayana doesn't depict him as a god. It describes him as Maryada
Purushottam (Mard-e-Kaamil in Islamic context, used for Muhammad) and
also mentions his lapses, e.g, Shambuka Vadh when Ram himself put Shambuka to
the sword. According to the story, Shambuka, a Shudra ascetic, was
killed by Rama for attempting to perform tapas in violation of dharma,
resulting in the bad karma which caused the death of a Brahmin's son.
Coming back
to Ram's food preferences, if Ram of Hindus never touched meat, why do many
Hindus eat meat? If you follow Ram, follow him in toto. Stop consuming non-veg.
We've created myths that our gods don't indulge in eating meat and having sex
to create a false divine aura. Emulate your gods and stop mating and meating.
Humans are perennially befuddled beings and religiously insane creatures, born
with no brains in their skulls.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/pastime-religious-idlers/d/131456
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