The Kerala story – A Bhagavad Gita perspective

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the kerala story a bhagavad gita perspective the kerala story is a recent movie that has attracted much attention and controversy because it depicts the story of several young women from various religions in primarily kerala where from where they were misled and mistreated as they converted to islam and were abused as sex slaves the story itself is simply at a human level horrendous and whatever be the specific statistics that have been the center of controversy beyond it the fact that something like this happened even to one person should be a matter of concern to all of humanity irrespective of one’s religious or secular affiliations so from the bhagavad gita’s perspective i’ll talk from in terms of four c’s where the first c is conviction that we see that young people often in india are exposed to the culture that is very much a real and omnipresent feature of the landscape and this culture has roots in mill from millennia ago in the sanathan teachings of the vedic literature unfortunately in today’s world because the educational infrastructure that provided the philosophy and the world view behind this culture has been lost and little older generations kept following the culture because of the deference the respect for the tradition but as younger generations are exposed to a more liberal environment a more multicultural society then their own culture starts seeming to them to be irrelevant or even irrational and at such times if self-interested manipulative people come and use false arguments they may seem logical although they are actually pseudological pseudological false logic see logic is like a sword or a machine gun just because somebody is using a machine gun doesn’t mean that they are on the right side they could be terrorists or out to kill similarly just because somebody’s using some logic does not mean that what they are speaking is the truth it has to be that the logic has to be used properly and those who are the targets of improper use of logic need to be equipped to defend themselves so logical conviction about the cultural practices and cultural conceptions beliefs needs to be infused within society today Shila Prabhupada and one of the greatest teachers of Indian spirituality across the whole world emphasized that the temples should be like universities where spiritual education is being provided and seeing how people can be misguided in today’s world the Kerala story can prompt various interested groups spiritual leaders to try to share spiritual knowledge and philosophical worldview behind the culture more extensively and more rationally parents and other responsible adherents of the culture to create forums and pool resources by which such education can be made extensively available and young people themselves to at least have some intellectual inquisitiveness instead of just dismissiveness this particular culture has been going on for thousands of years why are people following it let us try to find out a little bit so conviction needs to be provided at first C and its urgency is demonstrated through stories of manipulation like are there in the Kerala story the second C is consistency so let us look at three specious or false arguments that have been used in this movie and we will see how they can be refuted by logic drawn from the Vedic so one of the points made in the movie is that the deity whom who is considered God within the Hindu tradition the Ram couldn’t protect his own wife from being abducted by a demon so how can he protect you well so here C is consistency let if this is the idea that God should always be protecting us in all times according to our expectations and demands then let’s see if within the Islamic tradition itself whose criteria is made met by by Allah the most celebrated followers of Allah the first generation of Muslims who established and propagated Islam vigorously they themselves had to flee from Mecca to Medina why did Allah not protect them at that time the idea that God should protect us according to our demands and expectations is not supported by the theology of any of the theistic traditions of the world such an expectation actually reduces God to a 24 by 7 uncalled bodyguard of ours so apply such reasoning consistently let’s see second is completeness so any story can be ridiculed if it is taken only partially if for example in a movie we show only the first part where the hero is being beaten again and again and again then you may think what kind of horrible movie is this so if you look at the story of Ram itself what we see is eventually he does rescue Sita he does free the world from a deadly tyrannical equal person like Ravan similarly there’s another example given of Lord Shiva who is said to be lamenting because and wandering in a graveyard because his wife passed away now these are two different things yes his wife did die but that same story if you look at it in completeness we find that she comes back she reincarnates and Sati comes back in Parvati and she’s always with Lord Shiva and when he’s in the graveyard that is not because his wife has passed away he’s in the graveyard because he is so compassionate that he wants to elevate everyone even people who are either haunted because of loss or haunted because of any other thing so he that is his inclusive compassion and when such great personalities either the supreme lord like Ram or divine personalities like Shiva when they go through suffering that is for teaching us the grave reality of the world that nobody in this world is exempt from distress what we can do is try to live a life of purpose and principles by which we will not suffer the distress too much by which we can eventually triumph over distress so if you look at these stories in their fullness they demonstrate how by the lord’s divine arrangement things will be okay in the end and if they are not okay it is not yet the end and so the last scene I talk about this concept where it is said that Krishna is too busy dancing with his girlfriends and where does he have time to protect us how will he protect us well first of all we have to understand the concept of Leela that is very much inherent in the Sanatan Dharma’s understanding of god that god doesn’t delight in simply displaying his godhood and forcing everyone to be scared by his power and to submit to him god is not a power hungry autocrat he delights in the reciprocation of love and that is why to facilitate uninhibited loving reciprocations he subordinates his divinity and plays various roles as if it were a drama Leela is something like a drama and within within a drama a powerful military officer may take the role of a small weak helpless civilian and maybe that child or grandchild may take the role of a aggressor and they will be covering in front of him but if their child is in danger the grandchild is in danger immediately that military general will rise and protect similarly Krishna may be playing the role of a small child and yet when his devotees are in danger he can lift the entire hill over them to protect them so Krishna reciprocates love in various ways with his devotees and the gopis are also his devotees it’s it’s a Leela it’s a drama in which Krishna plays the role of a young boy the gopis play the role of young and there is a reciprocation of love so god is not deprived of any of the rich and various relationships that we experience in this world why should god be deprived of those but at the same time god is not limited it is not that because he’s doing one thing he is with one person he’s unavailable for anyone else even in that same Ras Leela Krishna is not just with all the gopis as one person he expands to be with every person when Krishna goes as a cowherd boy he is there for every cow and similarly Krishna is there in the hearts for every one of us and when we understand this concept of god a god who does not delight in bragging about his godhood but who delights in the reciprocation of love who cannot be attracted to such a god and we are attracted to him not because he will protect us but because loving him will fulfill our heart so to summarize the Kerala story movie can inspire us to seek and gain greater conviction about our cultural practices and conceptions and if any arguments are to be made then we need to be consistent we need to look at the complete story and we need to underline understand the underlying concept then we can get a holistic understanding. Thank you.