DARA'S RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION

Book extract

Dara’s religious exploration

from the novel `Ocean of Cobras’

I clearly recall the excitement on every occasion when some of the long buried treasures of Hindu philosophy or literature were discovered and presented to Dara’s scholars. Many great Hindu texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and even the Mahabharata had long been buried in the secret troves of Brahmin priests scattered all over the country. These and many other works like Patanjali's Yoga Sutras were not known even to the most educated Hindus. Dara's scholars and scribes not only translated them into the court language of Persian but also edited, copied and printed them so that these fountains of ancient Hindu wisdom and knowledge would become known to all.

Pandit Kavindracharya took Dara to Benares to help explain the basic message of the Upanishads. He said… “The Upanishads tells us that the mind is divine but unfortunately the mind that we use is the physical mind, which cannot help us in our journey because it has unconsciously accepted three non divine companions... fear, doubt and jealousy that confuse it. These three sentiments attack the mind and make it helpless. When the mind is weakened by these, ego enters the mind and destroys spirituality. The seeking mind believes in philosophy. The fearful heart needs religious rituals The human mind is like a monkey swinging from fear to fear.”

He went on… ”There are two approaches. One is through the mind, the other is through the heart. The approach through the mind is not secure because fear, doubt and jealousy distort our thinking. But the approach through the heart is sure. There are also powerful barriers like kama (lust), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (attachment). When people are free from them they are able to enter the state of Moksha.”

A few weeks later Pandit Kavindracharya brought to Dara another long lost document called the Bhagavat Gita that had been lying among the scrolls of some Brahmins of the Brighu order. He said that it had originally been part of a discourse by a legendary hero called Krishna in the great Hindu legend of the Mahabharata. The text was now translated into Persian for the first time and contained some very profound thoughts.

He read out a few pages from it… “Desire and attachment is the basis of all sorrow so the sincere performing of one’s karma makes one detached and free. God resides in every heart but because many of us think we are no more than our bodies we become trapped by desires and attachments. The Gita says that God is the source of all energy and that mortal humans were mere lamps burning with a spark of that divine energy.”

Dara turned to one of the Sunni scholars and asked... ”Do you find anything in this philosophy that conflicts with what has been taught by our holy prophet? It clearly speaks of the need for absolute surrender to God with the same passion as we Muslims seek absolute surrender to Allah.” Dara asked… “But please tell me how can Hindus with such elevating philosophies continue the base practice of worshipping stone idols?”

Kavindracharya paused before replying... “Shazadeh hazoor most Hindus believe that their deities are different manifestations of Prabhu, the great cosmic spirit. The gods like of Vishnu, Shiva, Ram or Krishna and their consorts Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Sita and others have been endowed with many benign human attributes that make them satisfying to poor worshippers. These and many lesser deities, that they can see and touch, are much easier to worship with flowers and offerings. Most of our Hindu worshippers are poor people who know very little about their ancient philosophies. Like poor people everywhere they live precarious lives with hunger, sickness and other fears constantly tormenting them so they try to seek god’s protection with prayers, penances, pilgrimages and other acts of piety that they hope will please their gods.”

“Shahzedeh Hazoor all Hindus have to be grateful to you making our own great treasures of philosophy known to the world. The fabulous wealth of India was hidden from the western world until Alexander showed them the door through which so many conquerors were to follow in the centuries that followed. You have now opened a door to reveal to us the wonders of our own nearly forgotten past.”

Dara, in his quest to seek a unifying philosophy underlying all religions, now demonstrated the originality of his own intellect by personally writing a remarkable book that he called Majma-ul-Bahrain meaning `the mingling of the oceans' in which he attempted to seek the common links between the philosophies of the holy Quran and the Brahma Shastras.

He first compared the five elements listed in Islam and Hinduism. Like the Islamic Arsh-i-Azan, (great throne) of wind, fire, water and dust, Hindu texts speak of `Panch Bhut’ of sky, wind, brilliance, water and earth. He went on to add that Jibrail (Gabriel), the presiding angel of Islamic creation is similar to the Hindu Brahma (creator) while Mikhail, the angel of existence, is similar to the Hindu Vishnu (preserver) and Israfil (angel of destruction) was like Shiva (destroyer). Later he pointed out that water was the element of both Jibrail and Brahma, Fire was the element associated with Mikhail and Vishnu while air was the sacred element of both Israfil and Shiva.

I, however, thought that his greatest work was the Sirr-i-Akbar or `the great secret' where he showed the similarity between the monotheistic core of the Upanishads that underlay the religions of the Hindus with the unqualified monotheism of Islam. He wanted Muslims to understand that Hindus and Hindu religions actually had many common links with the spiritual core of Islam.

Word about Dara's great work began to spread and many Hindus were first curious and later deeply grateful to learn about the many nearly forgotten treasures of their own ancient culture. I was however troubled that these reports seemed to disturb some of the orthodox Muslims who held Hindus in contempt and firmly believed in the superiority of their own culture and religion.

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The narrator Mubarak Ali’s anxiety was well merited. Many years later Dara’s broad minded religious beliefs were to divide the Mughal Empire with an increasing polarization of the Rajput and other hindu soldiers supporting Dara while the Muslim nobles either supported the rebel prince Aurangzeb or were half hearted in their support of Dara.

The battle of Samugarh in 1658 was therefore not just a battle for the Mughal throne but a battle for the very soul of India. Aurangzeb’s victory from the brink of defeat through a betrayal not only created a Muslim - Hindu divide but a divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims that was to affect many future generations.