Dear Readers,
It so happens these days that during most of my 'leisure' time, I am immersed in the reading of the book Jinnah authored by Jaswant Singh ji and pondering on the thought of Hindu-Muslim unity and problems thereof. It is fascinating to learn how communalism developed only as a bi-product of colonial malevolence and even during the twentieth century, Muslims and Hindus were as close to each other as on the eve of the Mutiny.
It is such a sight to visualise Hindus and Muslims fight the Britishers together in 1857 and 1905. Even as late as 1920, these two communities were assertively exhibiting their brotherhood when Gandhiji gave the call to the Indian National Congress to fully back the Khilafat agitation. Chants of 'Hindu-Muslim bhai-bhai' reverberated in the atmosphere and masjids and mandirs echoed with "Om Shanti Ameen". What more can I say but point at that historical moment when Swami Shraddhananda ascended to the pulpit of Jama Masjid to address a gathering of thirty thousand Muslims who sat there in rapt attention.
While I was thinking and rethinking about all these issues, there was a storm in the Bikaner sky and just as I went to my terrace to gauge the weather, a heavy downpour was bestowed upon us from above. I bathed in the monsoon showers of the desert for a good span of time. After that, I returned to my room, dried myself up and had a quick change of clothes. It was then that I understood that spirituality is like how you feel when after getting drenched in rain, you sense deep cleansing of each pore of your body. It is something over and above religion and theological institutions. For millennia to come, there will be spiritual men guiding us to paths of such pore-cleansing and men who under the garb of religious extremism, make murders sound respectable......
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