One evening I asked him a question. “Dick, what is your impression of India?” “Peace,” he said thoughtfully. “The racial aura is peace.”
(Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi (Complete Edition) (p. 513). Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Kindle Edition.)
This conversation between Shri Yogananda and his American secretary Wright on their visit to India in 1935 says it all.
We need no further certification. I don’t care whether my country is poor or dirty or polluted or crowded or hot or dusty or whatever. In the man-eat-man world, Hindus come across as peaceful community (I mean the REAL peaceful!).
To have stamped your footprint in the sands of planet Earth for 10,000 years and NOT TO GO DOWN HISTORY as invaders, ethnic cleansers of natives, destroyers, land usurpers, marauders, barbarians, conversion mafia – this speaks a lot about Dharmic Hindus. I wouldn’t even say the same of Buddhists – as we have seen Myanmar/Burma and Sri Lanka.
There is in truth nothing to be proud of, to be thought of as ‘peaceful.’ Its just that your ancestors were HUMAN after all. Its okay not to be aggressive. Its okay to be complacent. Bravery and heroism lie in NOT DISTURBING OTHERS for our own personal gains. Not building a life out of others’.
Despite myself, I am proud of our forefathers who did not even bother to patent their inventions and discoveries, many of which are now touted as European. They couldn’t care less really. They lived well.
What Hindus have gone through for centuries, being hunted down, with their women taken away, with the men executed, with our temples ransacked and razed, with their wealth plundered, persecuted enmasse …. paying (Jiziya) taxes to foreign (Mugal) invaders for just being Hindus in NATIVE HINDU LAND INDIA/BHARAT, resisting conversion … its a miracle we are even here today. No violence, no bloodshed, no taking over others lands by invasions, no greed, SIMPLY NO BLOOD IN THE HINDU HANDS AND NO HEINOUS SIN IN THE HINDU CONSCIENCE. NO HINDU HOME OVER THE GRAVE OF THE VANQUISHED NATIVE/SON OF THE SOIL. Well done, dear ancestors. Such a clean world record.
This is why Paramahamsa Yogananda ji and Swami Vivekananda received red carpet welcome in the US in those days. Through out the world, our yogis are received with respect and awe. World listens to them when they speak. Presidents invite them to their official residences and governments have them address even their parliaments. This is the highest respect accorded to Hindu monks in the world stage today. And this pride belongs to all of us Hindus and our long departed ancestors who sowed the seeds for a peaceful, harmonious, humanitarian society based on values and consideration and compassion over anything. Powerful and wealthy men command fear, not necessarily respect.
Shri Yogananda Paramahamsa was preceded by Swami Vivekananda, also from Kolkata, Bengal, India in 1893 who introduced the eastern ideology to the west for the first time. Many followed him to India as his disciples and sister Nivedita from America, was notable among them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Nivedita
Such is the soft power of Hindus. Dominating the world as the real movers and shakers: medicos, engineers, scientists, yogis, teachers, nurses etc. Not as destroyers, bombers, terrorists, usurpers. World shall write our history thus: THE NATION THAT GAVE THE WORLD SHANTHI (PEACE) AND WISDOM.
So if such a peaceful nation as India wants to take on the evil demons head on, then the world must wake up to reality. The next time, the devils will at their doorstep, not India’s.
vijiravindran's 