Chaitra Krushnapaksha 14, Kaliyug Varsha 5116
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Winds of ‘Sarva-Dharma-Sama-Bhava’ are presently blowing in our country. There are number of castes and creeds and Sects in this country; people belonging to other countries also stay here. India is known for tolerance right from the beginning and due to this quality, this country has welcomed people of various creeds and religions. While accommodating them, people originally belonging to this country are, however, forgetting their identity i.e. self-respect. As a result, Indians are looked down upon not only in their personal and social life but also in whole world; they are insulted. The reason behind this is Indians’ mentality of a loser. No Indian seems to oppose; or give apt reply to those who unnecessarily insult him; or talk ill about him; or even unnecessarily harass him; as there is extreme lack of self-respect amongst Indians. When a person does not have self-respect, it results in causing great loss to him; his life goes astray leading to his decline. Presently, all Indians and India as a country are degenerating and its last phase will be total destruction.
To prevent it from happening, let us see in this article what self-respect is and how it can be generated in us; so also harm caused due to lack of it and efforts required for its preservation.
1. What is meant by ‘Swabhimaan (self-respect)’ ?
‘Swabhimaan’ word has been made of two words i.e. ‘Swa’ + ‘Abhimaan’ which means realization about self is developed following proper path and to have suitable pride towards the same.
2. How can ‘swabhimaan’ be generated in self ?
For generating self-respect in self, one first needs to undertake study to know own self, his place of stay, his religion; what the principles of that religion are and what his mother tongue is etc. Such study can only generate pride and respect towards these things. Let us take few examples to understand it better.
2. A. Motherland Bharat : We live in India. If we read history of India, it will generate love towards ‘Bharat Mata’ and we will be proud to have been born in India.
2. B. Hindu Dharma: ‘I have been born as a Hindu; so what are the principles of Hindu Dharma; how this great Dharma has so far been attacked in number of ways; how many devout Hindus sacrificed their life to fight back such attacks; why such attacks take place only against our Dharma; what should I do to prevent such attacks,’ should be thought about; then only one would realize the greatness of our Dharma and feel like doing something for its protection. If principles prescribed in Dharma are put into practice, one gets spiritual experience of God’s presence and develops faith which will, in turn, generate love and respect towards our Dharma.
2. C. Mother tongue Marathi: We stay in Maharashtra. Our mother tongue is Marathi. Our language has originated from ‘Sanskrut’ which is the language of God. If this language is used every day, we will get benefit of ‘sattvikata’ in it and will create love as also respect towards it as our mother tongue.
3. Damage caused due to lack of self-respect
3. A. British left this country; but Indians are still dressing like the British in trousers, coat and tie and still behaving as their slaves : When a person has no respect towards his own Dharma, own nation, own language etc., it causes huge loss to him. It shows that such person has no roots to live; means his slate is blank. As a result, he accepts new things easily. Owing to lack of own identity and ‘sattvikata’, he is unable to decide what is good or bad; what is right or wrong. He, therefore, starts accepting wrong things in other religions or culture as reforms and he feels that by adopting such things, he has become a reformist.
He, however, does not realize, due to forgetting his own Dharma and culture that he is degenerating. One of its examples is the British left India; but most of the Indians are still dressing like them in trousers, coat, tie etc. They feel that by dressing in this manner, they are showing their wealth, high standard of living and modern way of thinking; but they do not realize that by dressing like people from western countries forgetting own culture, they are still bowing before others and living in slavery. It also deprives us of spiritual benefits of dressing as per our culture and it is the decline of Indians.
When one realizes that our manner of dressing, hair style and wearing ornaments etc. is all ‘sattvik’, our respect towards own culture will grow.
4. Examples of lack of respect towards own Dharma and own nation
4. A. Singers who insult own Dharma and nation : Once, two Indian singers had gone to Pakistan. Through their Muslim friend, they got an opportunity to sing on radio; but Indian singers are not allowed to sing in Pakistan; therefore, that friend asked these singers to dress like Muslims so as to pose them as Muslims and they did so; i.e. the singer did not apply ‘kumkum’ and wore veil. It is an indication of lack of respect towards own Dharma and nation. Such things lead to not only we getting insulted in other countries; but also causing harm to own Dharma by such acts and insult our own Dharma and nation which is a big sin.
4. B. Thousands of Indians studying in English medium ! : Today, millions of Indians are studying with English as medium of education; therefore, they get drawn towards materialistic western culture; forgetting own Dharma, culture and mother tongue; as such feeling respect towards them is not possible.
4. C. Women and girls not abiding by Dharma : Today, many women and girls follow western culture; therefore, they are doing alarming things like cutting their hair, not applying ‘kumkum’, not wearing bangles or even ‘Mangal-sutra’ which are against their Dharma.
4. D. Political leaders shaking hands instead of folding hands : Our Prime Minister or any other leader, when visit other countries, they shake hands with those political leaders. They do not feel that they should greet with folded hands as per our Indian and Hindu culture. It indicates their lack of self-respect and they even make their nation and Dharma put their head down.
4. E. Buffet meals : We used to sit on a wooden seat for meals as per our culture; then we started using table and chair to have meals. Nowadays, practice of buffet meals has been started in weddings; in which we Hindus have food without removing our footwear. We have forgotten the saying ‘Udarbharan Nohe Jaanile Yadnya-karma’ and immediately learnt uncivilized things. It happens due to lack of respect towards Dharma.
5. Examples of presence of respect towards Dharma and nation
5. A. Swami Vivekananda who exposed the world to great Hindu Dharma that teaches ‘Vishwabandhutva (world is a big family)’ ! : Swami Vivekananda began his speech with ‘My brothers and sisters’ although he was addressing a gathering in another country and exposed the great Hindu Dharma’s teachings to all which increased importance for Hindu Dharma in the world. He was also dressed in Indian style.
5. B. The manner of dressing of earlier Hindu kings and even Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was as per Hindu Dharma. Lokmanya Tilak also used to be attired as per Hindu style as he used to wear impressive attire like ‘Dhoti, long ‘kurta’, ‘Uparane’ and ‘pagree’ over head.
6. Efforts required to be made for preserving self-respect
A. Always talk in mother tongue; do all daily routine jobs using mother tongue and make others also aware of it.
B. Our attire should be Indian and as per Hindu culture and wherever we go, we should not be ashamed to wear our style of clothes.
C. Read life history of great national heroes like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Swatantryaveer Savarkar, earlier Hindu kings and always remember glorifying Indian history.
D. We should expose our great culture to others wherever we go.
E. O Hindus, when you emulate others by forgetting own country and Dharma, you won’t be free in real sense of the term and by losing identity, you will always have a loser’s mentality and will lose self- confidence ! : Hindus! Always remember that by blindly following others, you will forget your own nation and Dharma, then you won’t be free in the real sense of the term. Even if you earn lot of money or enjoy all good things in life, you will remain backward and will always be under obligations of someone. By losing identity, you will have mentality of a loser and you will lose self- confidence. You will lead directionless life, go astray and have no morality or goal in life. Then, nobody will respect you including your own family, society, nation and lastly whole world. Your existence will end; so to prevent such things from happening, generate self-respect and learn to live with honour.’
– Sou. Rajashree Khollam
Source : Dainik Sanatan Prabhat
