Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Bhakti & VHP

Sir, — With reference to Gail Omvedt's article, `Buddhism, Bhakti and the VHP' (Dec. 23), the part `...and the VHP' in the title is not perhaps clearly established. Vishnu, the declared object of devotion, as practised (rather than preached) by Ravidas, Kabir, Mirabai, Tukaji and the like is no doubt an abstract social-self, the very humanism itself, rather a piece of material or spirit of a bygone prince. These are the devotees who lived their entire lives in the name of God. Their occasional outbursts against any social evils are also due to fact that they obscure the path to righteousness. Whether they took it as a mission in their lives to end these evils is perhaps hard to find. We can, no doubt, draw inspiration from these luminaries, if we care, to end the menace of social oppression. But it would be exactly the self same situation of hypocrisy wherein the very `mission' is made a means to a political end, which has made the great souls to express dismay often.

R.K. Divakara,
Bangalore

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