We must recover India’s spiritual dharma and bring it back into mainstream thinking, into political, social and academic discourse, into education, into the media, art and literature, into cinema and theatre — we must open the floodgates of dharma to the masses, to whoever would want to drink of the perennial waters.
We must invoke the vastness and nobleness of our ancient dharma which has been lost to us for ages. Those who invaded our land over the last few centuries, and equally those who led our nation since independence, have deeply damaged the fabric of our dharma, and have reduced us to intellectual and cultural mediocrity. But ours is dharma that cannot be destroyed or corrupted. It may be brutalized, marginalized but not permanently lost.
History has brought us now to a tipping point. Forces that are hell-bent on destroying Indian civilization and breaking up the Indian nation are raging and howling around us; but just beyond and above those raging and howling forces is the eternal assurance of dharma – धर्मोरक्षति रक्षितः – dharma protected, protects.
It’s simple and clear: dharma will protect if we stand for dharma, and are willing to live dharma in all that we are and all that we do. And to live dharma, we first need to reject from our consciousness all that is not dharma — all that is false and pretentious, petty and destructive, selfish and divisive in us. We need to do this as vigorously and urgently as we would reject a disease from our own body, as we would reject a rotting carcass from our homes.
We need to do this as if there is no tomorrow. Now, and totally.
We need to stand together for dharma. We need to speak up in one voice. We need to reclaim what is most deeply and truly ours without the least vibration of hesitation or weakness. We must remember that we fight ancient forces of darkness in contemporary forms of politics, businesses and religions. Do not be taken in by appearances: look deeply and look relentlessly, and you will see the hidden asuras.
Make no mistake here – this is dharma-yuddha!
