PM Modi’s 45-hour meditation at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari that began on Thursday and concluded Saturday evening has sent the entire opposition into a tizzy. In vehemently opposing PM Modi’s meditation retreat, the opposition has rather exposed its own anti-Hindu hatred.
Many opposition leaders have mocked the PM’s meditation retreat suggesting he is indulging in “drama and histrionics”. This is rather telling of their mockery and disdain for Hindu Dharma; alas, the opposition doesn’t raise an alarm when a DMK leader openly calls for the annihilation of Hindu Dharma but they raise multiple alarms imploring the Election Commission and courts to interfere when the PM of Bharat engages in Dharmic rituals, the coverage of which would have the world put the spotlight on the glory of Hindu Dharma and the power of meditation or sadhana.
Perhaps, the most distasteful of the lot were the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks who said that PM Modi is doing drama in Kanyakumari and the PM is wasting the taxpayer’s money by indulging in such histrionics. If he has faith in God, he should sit at home and meditate, the Congress President reportedly said. Such a statement aptly reflects the deep insecurities of the opposition who seem to think that a few visuals of PM Modi’s mediation being aired by the media will have a massive impact on the election results. It also reflects their rather limited understanding of Hindu Dharma and deep-seated Hinduphobia.
The power of doing Sadhana from a spot of spiritual significance is of immense importance in Hindu Dharma. The Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, the site where Swami Vivekananda once mediated and even Devi Parvati meditated at the same place on one foot as she waited for Lord Shiva, is imbued with symbolic significance.
The Vivekananda Rock is still with Hindus, thanks to the efforts of Shri. Eknath ji Ranade, an RSS Swayamsevak. A story recently published by the Hindupost team throws more light on the history of this rock. The rock was “almost gone from Hindu possession” due to persistent opposition from the Congress ecosystem. Eknath ji mobilized Hindus across Bharat for the cause and raised funds from Hindus to save the spiritual site. The rock was being eyed by the Catholic church to plant a giant cross, thus Eknath ji made Hindus aware of the dangerous plans of the church. It was owing to the tireless efforts of RSS Swayamsevaks under the mentorship of Shri. Eknath ji that Hindus finally got claim to the rock and the Swami Vivekananda Memorial came into being.
This is perhaps one of the main reasons the opposition is vehemently attacking PM Modi’s Vivekananda Memorial meditation retreat. It upsets the divisive mold of Dravidian politics that seeks to create faultlines within Bharat, pitting the south against the north.
Tamil Nadu has for long been (and still is) the hotbed of Dravidian politics with the collusion of all sorts of anti-Bharat forces – local political actors, the missionary ecosystem, etc. The missionary ecosystem has been highly active in Tamil Nadu ever since independence aiding the large-scale conversion of Hindus in the name of Dravidian identity. One of the Modi government’s focus areas has been highlighting the Hindu heritage of Tamil Nadu and undoing the damage done by the leftist-missionary ecosystem.
Initiatives like the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam have gone a long way in bridging this divide. Besides, the PM makes it a point to highlight the ancient Hindu heritage of Tamil Nadu whenever he gets a chance. Thus, the Bharatiya PM has become a brand ambassador of the Hindu heritage of Tamil Nadu. His Vivekananda Memorial meditation retreat in Kanyakumari takes forward the same narrative which is why the opposition is rattled.
Many other opposition leaders have made distasteful comments about PM Modi’s meditation. The Congress leader Jairam Ramesh reportedly said that the PM will have ample time to meditate after June 4, since he would no longer remain the Prime Minister of Bharat. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav reportedly commented that PM Modi left for Kanyakumari after making the people of Bharat vote during a heat wave and people will surely teach him a lesson. RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav called PM’s meditation an” election gimmick”.
These vitriolic comments by the opposition depict their deep-seated hatred for PM Modi, but apart from that, these also expose their anti-Hindu mindset. Through these comments, they are not just making fun of the PM but rather making fun of him because he is indulging in meditation, clad in saffron robes. The images of the Indian PM clad in saffron robes meditating at a spiritual Hindu site in the southernmost tip of Bharat being splashed all over the media and the internet are an eyesore for the opposition. They are scared that PM Modi will influence the Hindu voters. But they are even more scared that this will cause a permanent dent in their anti-Hindu politics. A self-sufficient Bharat proud of its Hindu civilizational and cultural ethos is a nightmare for the opposition. Thus, they are making every effort possible to prevent this from happening.
Former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam perhaps showed a mirror to the Congress as he made these remarks regarding PM Modi’s meditation retreat: “Modi is meditating to gain energy to fight the forces of evil. Those having faith in Vatican City heritage instead of Hindu spiritualism will never understand its significance”, as per media reports.
It’s interesting that contemporary consumerist culture has commodified meditation and repackaged it as “mindfulness”. The concept of meditation as a part of mindfulness and other woke movements employing fancy jargon has become a rage in the West. Expensive meditation retreats and fancy sessions promising attendees that their chakras will be unlocked are becoming highly popular. The rich are paying exorbitant amounts to become a part of such sessions. Yet, there is a systematic effort to undermine the Hindu origins of meditation or Sadhana.
The woke practitioners of meditation in the West borrow heavily from the Hindu philosophy of meditation, yet they sell it as something secular and modern. That’s precisely why all those expensive meditation retreats are considered cool but the Prime Minister of Bharat meditating at a site of spiritual significance in Hindu Dharma is considered gimmicky. That’s because if this becomes popular, meditation will be seen as Hindu which will be problematic to those who spend their careers proving Hindu Dharma is full of hatred and prejudice.
PM Modi is dismissed by hate-mongers as someone who constantly engages in “media spectacle”. The PM sporting a Tilak, participating in Ganga Aarti, participating in the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony, etc., all these gestures are portrayed as “Hindutva majoritarianism” apparently making minorities feel unsafe, by the left-liberal media and intellectuals. Yet, when Western political leaders visit the church or seek the blessings of the “Pope”, or when news about what the Pope said on a particular day is splashed all over the media, the left-liberal ecosystem doesn’t quite see this as “Christian majoritarianism”. The rules for judging Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions are different, and the left-liberal ecosystem makes no pretense about this distinction.
That’s why so-called western think tanks and so-called human rights and religious freedom organizations lecture countries like Bharat on “Hindutva majoritarianism” while organizations in their own countries spread Christian propaganda, Hindu Dharma is demonized and caricaturized in their school textbooks and the Abrahamic ecosystem prepares the ground for conversion in countries like Bharat.
It is precisely this anti-Hindu ecosystem that PM Modi has rattled by making it a point to utilize every opportunity to present Hindu culture and civilization as a “spectacle” on world stage. Sometimes, one needs “grand spectacles” to change centuries-old “grand narratives”.
