India is a Nation of gods and goddesses. And the gods are all invariably armed to the teeth. They are not peace loving, or spreading any message of peace, justice, equality, love and compassion. Any talk of all Religions being equal, and lead to the same goals are just diversionary, and are only meant to misguide the poor people. Hence they are really rubbish. There is no Peace and Justice in the Society. Never was there any in this Nation, except for the brief periods of respect and reverence to Lord Gautama Buddha and his Teachings, and earlier in the pre-historic days of Indus Valley Civilisation. Today there are nearly 30 million gods and goddesses in India.
One rarely finds any building or structure or place of worship, in the remains of Indus Valley Civilisation. There are only a few remains of Pasupathi - proto-Shiva – the protector of the cows and bulls, and also other domestic animals of the People. For, Agrarian Economy was the backbone of the settled life of Indus Valley People. And bulls cows and other domestic animals were essential to the basically Agrarian but advanced and developed Economy of those early days. The Indus Valley People, being native Dravidians, buried their dead with great care, and with meticulous attention. The dead were interned in special burial pots, with their personal belongings, before they were buried in the ground. Thus, the human beings born brought up and living on the earth, finally returned back to earth. The People of the Indus Valley Civilisation, found their final and permanent resting-place in the earth that nourished and sustained them, before they themselves turned into dust, to integrally merge with the dust of the earth. Thus, they returned all the elements in their body that had come from the earth, back to earth.
The Indus Valley Civilisation was run over, and destroyed by the aggressive barbarians and nomadic tribes, who came through the northern and north-western Passes of Bolan and Khyber, and through the Valleys of Hindu Kush. They came with their horses and crude weapons. The most important amongst them, were the aryans of Central Asia. The aryans burnt their dead, worshipped (agni) fire, and their supreme god Brahma, the creator. The aryans despised the native People of the Indus Valley Civilisation, for their short stature, stub noses, curly hairs and dark skins. They were also jealous of the settled lives, good protected settlements, and the highly productive agricultural practices they saw amongst the Indus Valley People. Without thinking, and in their attempts and eagerness to run over the native Indus Valley People, they senselessly destroyed and burnt the Indus Valley Settlements. As a result, the People of the Indus Valley Civilisation were disbursed, towards the south and easterly directions. Thus, the whole of the Indus Valley Civilisation was destroyed. And with that, went to wind, the Indus Valley Scripts, Science, Technology, Knowledge, Settlement, Production Techniques etc, that the Nation never recovered, and went down the drain as a nation of illiterates and backwards. And, mind you, all learning building construction and production activities had come to a stand still in the Country, till Ashoka. Even then, one today sees big ruins or grandeur remains, only in the eastern and southern parts of the sub-continent. That explains lack of literature and practically no remains of the cities and townships of the aryans, their rulers and even big kingdoms.
The aryans maimed killed and slaughtered their captives. The dead, whether it was their own aryan people, or the Indus Valley Civilisation People, were all burnt. The aryans generally killed their captives, and disposed the bodies off by burning. After all, that was what they had been doing with their own dead. The conflict with the natives was long and on going. Indra, the important aryan chieftain, was venerated only because he was a crude warrior who never hesitated to destroy. He was said to be the destroyer of 90 Forts. He was also a cold-blooded killer. Hence, disposal of the killed natives almost became a big show. In fact, it slowly developed to be big entertainments. Even the captives were sacrificed to Agni. Slowly, over the times, sacrifices to Agni became a ritualistic, recreational and even entertainment part of aryan society in the Indus Valley. Thus, fire came to be worshipped, and the fire place (vedi) became important. Arrangements around the fire place (vedi) with special altars pillars and protective railings became a place of worship as vedika. And the rituals and prayers, were passed on from one to the other, by word of mouth. And collection of these prayer songs became the vedas.
The vedis vedikas vedas and sacrifices to fire (agni) became the most important parts of aryan life, and the vedis and vedikas were built in the centre of aryan settlements with great care, and as the most important feature. Hence, the sacrifices continued as important rituals, even after cessation of the aryan-native conflicts. Surrogate sacrificial elements like cows, bulls, buffaloes, goats, other animals and birds, for blood letting and feasting of the remains. At last, on special occasions even horses were brought in as the supreme sacrificial animal. As the sacrifices developed into an important part of the aryan conquest and life, the fire and fireplace were built up with the additions of perambulating paths around the vedika, and pavilions for the people to gather wait or sit around to observe the rituals and pray.
Taken by the increasing importance frenzy and addictive entertainment of the sacrifices to fire and fire worship, the aryans soon forgot their own god – brahma, whom they considered as their creator, and all their leaders and greats like Indra. Since they were not known as builders, all their early temples, fire-places and altars for sacrificial rituals did not survive and vanished. Nor did their settlements and palaces. Since the aryans were basically nomads moving in search of food and fodder, raiding and pillaging, they never stuck to any place, region or land. Hence it is no wonder that hardly one or two places where temples for their original god brahma was built, as at Pushkar near Ajmer in Rajasthan, survived even for rebuilding the temples for brahma.
During the aryan sacrifices, lots of valuable wood – sandal and rosewood were burnt. There were lots of wastages of oil, milk, butter, ghee rice wheat and other cereals, lintels and valuable food materials. As the time passed, the sacrifices became more and more showy complex and wasteful. And, the sacrifices were held at every small excuse, and for unreasonable and illogical reasons. At times, hundreds of animals and birds were killed, and lots of blood was let out. And it was really sheer madness.
The sacrifices and wastages associated with them were resented by the native people. The native rulers and kingdoms, particularly those in the east and south, spoke against these aryan foolishness and stupidity pushed around from the north-west – from indo-jamuna belt. The natives were openly against sacrifices, killings, blood-letting, senseless mass feasting on flesh, wastages and burning. Finally from the northern republics in the east above Pataliputra - that remained untouched away and free from brahmanic poison pollution and superstition – emerged the great compassionate humane thinking personality of Mahavira the Jain. He preached total ban on killings. He advised the people to stop all harms to life – be they animals, birds or insects.
The preachings and prescriptions of Lord Mahavira was a little tough and uncomfortable for the common people to follow, though it suited the big powerful and rich traders. Following Lord Mahavira was difficult, because of the strictness, rigidity, regimentation, and extreme strictness. Hence it did not appeal to the common people. It remained with the aristocrats opposed to the aryan way of life. Then there emerged Siddhartha, who became Lord Gautama Buddha.
Buddha came up with his Middle Path. He was equally opposed to the stupid and foolish stupid wasteful blood-thirsty values of aryan lives. He was against any wasteful killings and was totally opposed to sacrifices and sacrificial worship. At the same time he did not approve of the extreme asceticism of Lord Mahavira.
The Middle Path of Buddha, appealed to one and all, and was readily accepted by the Kings, other Rulers, elites and the common people. Buddha’s Teachings of reason, love and compassion, were easily understood by the people, in every part of the Country. That, from the Rulers to those in the rural areas, from the religious to the lay ranks. Hence, Buddhism spread far and wide, to even lands beyond the borders of the sub-continent. It went north beyond the Himalayas to Tibet, China, Mongolia and beyond, and across the land and seas to Burma, Ceylon and further towards the east and south. Great and mighty rulers like Ashoka, Kanishka and Harsha, embraced Buddhism and actively spread it.
The aryans, by then had long ceased to be a force. But they survived by betrayals, cunningness, deceit, fraud, manipulations, sabotage, subversions and treachery they had adopted sacrifices and fire worship as the convenient tools to keep a hold on the people. These, they had adopted and introduced, with little modifications to suit every occasion, be that birth or death, marriage or prosperity, good or bad times. And they became the priests, and survived on feasting at these sacrifices. They became the priests of the new rulers, new invaders and new waves of conquerors who entered the Indus Valley across Hindu Kush. In the north-west, the plains of the Indus often came under the rule and suzerainty of the Persians, who ruled from across the hills, with the help of their Governors – the Kshatrapas, Persian for Governors. Paying reverence to the new Rulers Governors Chiefs and Representatives, the aryans respectfully referred to all the ruling elites as Kshatrappas. Thus came into existence the ruling classes Kshatriyas, with the aryans referring to themselves as brahmins after their original god brahma. To keep the new rulers and their people – the kshatriyas – away from the native people, a new god of ruling and protection – vishnu was created by the brahmins for the kshatriyas and all new Rulers. Thus, vishnu temples were built in the forts or near the palaces of even the much later Muslim Rulers.
One can see the vishnu temples in many forts and at palaces, like that of Tippu Sultan. Sadly for the brahmins, their earnings from the vishnu temples depended upon the attitudes pre-disposition and prosperity of the rulers. Since the ruling classes and their follower all taken together, like the brahmins themselves were small in numbers, their lives depended exclusively upon the magnanimity or stupidity of the rulers. But the rulers themselves were often had no time for the brahmins. They were busy with state-craft, war, palace-intrigues, family-disputes, and indulgent in small pleasures.
Hence, the spread of Buddhism rattled them. To neutralise the appeal of Buddhism, and escape its reasonable criticisms of killings and live sacrifices, one group went to the extreme of giving up all killings even for food, and gave up meat eating in public as a new policy of survival, unique to the priestly classes. And the second group of brahmins in very small numbers or as individuals, themselves opted for Buddhism. Once in, they turned Buddhism upside down, and inside out, with strange logic and interpretations unique to brahmins. They introduced decadent philosophies and practices within Buddhism, Viharas, Monasteries and Sanghas. They introduced tantricism. They brought in many bad rank evil and immoral practices. Thus they brought disgrace, and lowered the great noble image of Buddhism, and allowed it to degrade in the eyes of the people, and followers. They brought in degeneration decay self-destruction, and anger of the people.
As Buddhism slipped down, they struck the final blows of physical destruction of the Viharas, monasteries, and killings of the nuns and monks, with the help of new rulers under their grip. And many occasions, they even conspired to kill, or otherwise disposed off the rulers and great dynasties, to take over the reins of the administration and the state. That happened with almost regular intervals throughout the history of the Country. Their only aim was to wrest control over the people for a leisurely and parasitic life, without having to do any physical work, straining their backs, bruising their limbs, sweating in the sun, shedding any tears, dirtying their clothes, or soiling their hands. And in short, they were great shirkers, avoiding all work.
The destruction of Buddhism and banning it from the soil of the country, did not bring much relief to the brahmins. They realised that the masses stuck to Shiva, the pre-historic Pasupathi, the protector of Cows and other domestic animals, found in the Indus Valley Settlements. And the native people had great reverence to Shiva’s consort Kali. That, in spite of all brahmanical efforts to wean away the people from Shiva and Kali. Hence the brahmins all possible and imaginable insults, and denigrated both Shiva and Kali. They attributed to Shiva, all bad dirty and evil habits and qualities. Those right from –
a) Resident of burial grounds and crematoriums
b) living at unreachable difficult places, right at the top of big hills and great peaks of mountains
c) being dirty, not taking bath or washing himself, but anointing himself with the ashes of the dead
d) with unkempt and uncombed matted hair in knots
e) frugally dressed with a piece of tiger skin to cover his loins
f) reckless short-tempered killer of his wife, whom he senselessly burnt alive in anger without even thinking, just for not listening to him
g) mad dancer, relishing wild beats of leather drums
h) keeping the company of most dangerous serpent like Cobra
i) partaking country liquor and psychedelic drugs and even poison
j) accepts specially the dangerously poisonous flowers of wild cactuses and succulents
k) being the god of death – the killer and destroyer
l) married to a dirty black blood-thirsty wild jungle woman Kali
Thus Shiva and his consort Kali were turned into Parayas. And they were condemned and denigrated as Paraya Gods and Parayas amongst the Gods. Yet, the native people, believed, revered and in fact even followed faithfully Shiva and Kali, in many respects. Hence, there were always more offerings to Shiva and Kali. Concerned with the offerings, income and earnings, the brahmins first captured and appropriated some famous Shiva and Kali Temples of the natives and Tribals, and converted them as the brahmanic vishnu temples. Later, as priests, they accommodated Shiva and Kali, at the peripherals in the vicinities or proximity of their vishnu temples. And in some cases the brahmins even went to serve as priests in the temples of the Native People, pushing aside the native priests there, and throwing out many of the protesting natives.
Some temples were built, in due course of time, by non-anaryan, non-kshatriya Anaryan Kings, for the bull -the carrier of Shiva – Kali, and to his phallus in union with Kali. Embarrassed at times, about the crude blackness and blood-thirstiness of Kali, the brahmins introduced a sanitised, reformed or modern version – Parvathi, as the consort of Shiva, a metamorphasised decent form of Kali. Thus the aryans or brahmins and their god brahma, and even their most powerful element fire, had lost their Battles many many times. That, over the three and more millenniums since their entry into the Country. So did the god vishnu, they created for the new rulers kshatriyas, who entered after them, loose the battle of gods, in spite all the props and tamashas as in Ayodhya, Mathura and Gujarat.
Now the despised, disgraced, run-down, humiliated and insulted god of the neglected, marginalised, set-aside Natives, Shiva with his Kali or Parvathi emerge victorious as (Maha Dev) the greatest or supreme God and Mother Goddess, or (Shakti) energy or almighty power or the goddess of Fertility and bounty of plentyfullness. The two, as per one school of thought, particularly in the east and north-east, considers him much above the trinity of Shiva-vishnu-and brahma. Shiva as per this school is really great, elder and supreme. He is the true Maha Dev, and is the father-in-law to both vishnu and brahma – Lakshmi the goddess of wealth of the vaishyas or baniyas, and Saraswathi, the goddess of education and learning being the daughters of Shiva and Shakthi. This, in spite of the brahmins paying peins and fighting for a place for vishnu, many-a-time a looser already to Shiva. Therefore, it is no wonder that the brahmins and their gods and goddesses, 30 million in all, lost to the single God of the Conquering Rulers from China, Persia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, and that of the Colonising Imperialist Rulers from Europe
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