SPEECH BY SWAMI AGNIVESH AT UNHRC
Capturing the audience in his spellbinding style Swami Agnivesh spoke
about the real definition of spirituality which according to him will
be palpable to us only when our minds migrate away from the sectarian
approach of the organized and the institutionalized religions. He
reiterated that the true, pure and pristine and spirit of
spirituality has been held captive by these religions and can only be
comprehended when one adheres to the concept of ‘Vasudev Kutumbhkam’
(we are all members of one single global family). True spirituality
comes from our selfless actions based on Truth, Love, Compassion and
Justice.
Swamiji spoke about his awe-inspiring journey from being a part of an
orthodox South Indian Brahmin family, to his career as a management
teacher in the University of Calcutta. Where he came face to face with
the reform movement of Arya Samaj- This transformed his life and
thought process completely. He transcended his religious and caste
identity, and also to some extent his national identity- giving up
his sense of possession and dedicating his life for the service of
humidity. He has since championed the cause of the downtrodden,
poorest of the poor and the most voiceless.
Swamiji emphasized that the discourse on Human Rights should be
Universal and thus Spiritual, as Spirituality is directly
proportional to Universality- the sad truth is that all the
institutionalized religions which are supposedly the guardians of
spirituality are all localized and not Universal. According to Swamiji,
Spirituality should resonate with the attributes of the divine which
are Truth, Love, Compassion and Justice - And the only way to relate
to the divine, the only way to worship that benevolent creator would
be through living those values, thus conditioning ourselves to accept
the universal perspective, and decode the message of ‘Vasudev
Kutumbhkam’. Our Hearts should be throbbing for each other and
pulsate love for each other and the entire Creation which includes the
plants, the animals and even the insects. People who have been revered
as messengers, torch bearers or prophet have lived these values
transcending and cutting across boundaries and bondages.
Swamiji said that the Human Rights should conceptualize itself
according to this spirit of Universality and also derive strength from
it, as the concept of Human Rights might be new but this spiritual
energy has existed from times immemorial. He asked, that why inspite
of the Human Rights charter, are Human rights being trampled upon in
all the corners of the world ? The answer according to him is simple
and clear as it’s the absence of the spiritual perspective in the
concept of the Human Rights for the enforcement of Human Rights we
rely on the state, which pivots around power and uses its powerful
devices, the military and the police for the enforcement of Human
Rights. All this is contrary to the very spirit of Human Rights. The
state in order to uphold its glory shows on paper that the Human
Rights are being enforced, simultaneously flushing them down the
Drain. Reflecting his thoughts he reiterated that Human Rights cannot
be enforced unless they are imbued with spiritual values and values of
Justice. If these values of Truth, Love, Compassion and Justice are
not inculcated from the childhood and one is not explained the
interconnectedness, the interdependence of life and the integrity of
the creation, all our efforts to enforce Human Rights are just like
watering the leaves.
Swamiji reminded everybody about the nature of the Holistic Universe
and said that as the Universe itself is Holistic thus we must have a
holistic approach towards Human Rights as well, which inturn would be
incomplete without women rights. Today is Gender Day- Can today we
keep our hands on our hearts and say that we give- our countries give
equal rights to our women-No! Not at least in my country which is
believed to be the land of religions. How can it be the land of
spirituality and religion when women rights are being trampled upon
day in and day out? Swamiji here narrated a jaw dropping account of
his tireless crusade against the gruesome and diabolic Sati
(Widow burning) practice. He said that even more reprehensible than
these henious cold blooded murders in the name of Sati was the
act of glorifying and upholding them in the name of religion.
He
narrated an account of one of these horrible events when a young girl
was burnt to death by her inlaws on 4th Sept, 1987. The
story goes that this young girl was married to this already diseased
Rajput boy who soon perished. In India the widows have to lead a very
strict life of pain and penance (another evil practice in the name of
religion which Swamiji has been crusading against). She has to get up
every morning at 3 am and finish all her daily chores before anybody
in the family wakes up. Then she has to dress up in white and sit
facing the wall till everybody has left the house, so that her so
called ‘harmful gaze’ should not fall on others. This must have been a
shocking and extremely excruciating realization for the young girl and
instead of consoling her, her inlaws started cursing her and branding
her with names like witch or demoness who devoured their son. In this
suffocating pandemonium the girl sighed the words- “It would have been
better if I would have died too.” The inlaws who were waiting for an
opportunity to some how do away with the bride girl because if she
went back to her parents she would have taken back her dowry and also
been entitled to a share in her husbands property sprung up to this
opportunity with a henious calculating move. The very people who were
calling her a witch now started to call her ‘Sati- the godess’
and before she could comprehend anything, she was intoxicated and her
tender body was covered with a paste of camphor. She was then made to
sit on the funeral pyre of her husband, and set of fire. The poor soul
screamed and wreathed in agony, but her shouts of help fell on ears
defended by obscurantism and mysticism. Their evil schemes did not
stop here with this cold blooded murder but now they wanted to make a
family business out of it by building a temple (for Sati) at the place
of crime. Within days they got a collection of 7 million INR and
construction began in full sway.
When
Swamiji heard of this horrendous fellony he organized an 18 day long
march on foot from the Redfort (in Delhi) to that obscure little
village of Deorala (in Rajasthan). He with around 180 Sanyansins of
Arya Samaj and other faiths marched tirelessly towards Deorala with
zeal and passion to do away with this glorification of murder and
denounce the evil practice of Sati. They wanted that the perpetrators
of this crime must be tried for murder. Swamiji got monumental support
of the public and the civil society for this march and his socio-
spiritual prowess sent even the central congress government into a
Bondsman key. The then Prime Minister of India Shri Rajiv Gandhi
immediately summoned the parliament and came up with an act- The
1987 Sati Prevention Act- which said that glorifying Sati even by
the word of mouth is illegal. Swamij’s spell binding narration was
received in an emphatic way and one could notice several moist eyes.
The
crusade of Swami Agnivesh for gender equality did not stop here as he
and his colleagues then initiated the biggest movement against female
foeticide. In the patrichal society of India where the male child is
often preferred over the female child- the people have found an evil
use of technology to satisfy their devious designs. The sex of a
foetus is determined via ultrasound and if the foetus is that of a
girl, the parents abort it by threading the throbbing live to pieces-
what an irony as this happens in the country which is called the land
of ‘The Mother God’. Prof. Amartya Sen called them the “Missing
Girls” after it was discovered that 25 million girls were less in
1991, this figure went up to 35 million in 2001 and by the end of
2009 it would be a whooping 50 million. What kind of society is it
which feeds on the very seeds of its own creation? This is the most
gruesome tampering of the Natural and Spiritual laws and the result is
that there are no girls to marry now which in turns increases Human
trafficking and thus crime. Violence takes place when we tamper with
the valves.
Swamiji has also taken up the cause of Dowry deaths in India. Dowry
is a gift that the girl brings with her to the family of the boy
during marriage. When it is not enough to satisfy the greed of the
inlaws they constantly and persistently trouble the girl and one day
eventually pour kerosene on her and set her on fire- invariably
calling it a kitchen accident. The girl is constantly bootlegged and
faces tremendous humiliation if she is not reduced to cinders. “ We
are so vocal about the deaths due to bomb blasts and terrorist
strikes, which are in any case extremely condemnable, but how can we
not raise our voices against the cruel murder of about 25000 girls
every year in the name of Dowry” said Swamiji.
Swamiji further reiterated that there has to be a change of attitude
if we want to do away with these horrid practices, and no amount of
law or charter will bring about this change unless all of us are
imbued with that spiritual sense and refuse to accept discrimination
of any sort or kind. To take this forward and to develop this sense of
proactive applied spirituality Swamiji and his friends have come
together to form the unique concept of Sarva Dharma Sansad (Parliament
of Religions) where people of the country which is mixed in caste
inequalities, gender injustices and exploitative practices come
together and solemnly affirm in the name of the Creator/God/Allah/
Parmatma to come together for an action based crusade against the
social ills playing our society.