‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.’ – Abraham Lincoln.
Prelude – Atheism And Moral Values
Here are a few quotes from famous atheists from which we can deduce their respective philosophical approach to life.
Aristotle Greek philosopher – “Men create gods after their own image”
Benjamin Disraeli English politician and novelist – “Where knowledge ends, religion begins.”
Thomas Edison American inventor – “Religion is all bunk.”
Benjamin Franklin American statesman and inventor – ‘The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
Thomas Jefferson American president – “Question with boldness even the existence of a god.”
Bertrand Russell British mathematician and philosopher – “Where there is evidence, no one speaks of ‘faith.’ We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round.”
George Bernard Shaw Irish-born English playwright – “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley English poet – “There is no God.”
Mark Twain American writer – “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”
Just look at the clean and succint way in which these stalwarts have put forth their views on God.
Atheism In Sanatana Dharma
Coming to our Our Sanatana Dharma, it also deliberates and debates on ‘Atheism’. Our sages, seers and saints were so sure, sanguine, confident about their precepts, premises, postulates, perspectives and prescriptions that they freely encouraged discussion on atheism among the disciples and their guru. It is christened as charvaka [sweet tongue] or lokayata [materialistic] philosophy. There are six ways [called ‘Shat Dharsanam’] of investigating in detail, analysing threadbare and interpreting the ultimate truth about the relationship among the three facets of life viz., the individual, the universe and the Almighty.
Atheism And Moral Values
There is an erroneous impression that all atheists are, ipso facto, loathsome, libertine, licentious, ignoble, immoral infidels, inasmuch as they feel comfortable at the belief that they are free from answering to any invisible authority. But, it is not so. There are immaculate, righteous atheists as well as dishonest, wicked theists. Virtue and vice are not axiomatically synonyms for theism and atheism. Most of the famous atheists in history had lived an exemplary social life, serving mankind with vigour, veracity and vitality. It is pertinent to note that Buddhism and Jainism are rebellious off shoots of Sanatana Dharma, preaching atheism, but they impose strictest mandates on moral values.
Dravidian Model Atheism: A Derisive, Derogatory, Deceitful, Dishonest Model
Now, coming to Dravidian atheism, it does not conform to any pedantic hypothesis. It is just an absurd and anomalous, aberrant and abhorrent amalgam of assorted assumptions that will conveniently change its colour in a chameleon fashion to cheat credulous masses. Their choice of the atheist paradigm is propelled primarily by the postulate that acceptance of a divine power will hinder one from freely indulging in immoral, illicit, ignoble activities. It is not any intellectual pursuit. To christen it as ‘atheism’ itself is an affront to genuine atheism. Only in Tamil Nadu, one can witness the bizarre spectacle of ‘rational’ leaders pasquinading at orthodox hindus’ worship of deities during their birth dates and simultaneously visiting the tombs of their respective luminary and performing all the paraphernalia as if that dead fellow is watching them from inside! They have absolutely no qualms in stealthily conducting the annual religious rituals with all formalities, engaging the same brahmin priests whom they publicly abuse. Recently, we witnessed the ridiculous spectacle of their offering ‘Curd Vada’ at the altar of their rationalist leader, since it happened to be his favourite delicacy during his life time! This is ‘Dravidian Model’ of atheism!
Their original mentor, EV Ramaswamy, though born in an orthodox family with an ancestry soaked in religious activities, himself was, even as described by his own biographers, a black sheep in his family; an artless, lowbrow, philistine, roaming around irreverently, insolently, irresponsibly. The elders’ attempt to rehabilitate him through the bondage of marriage, so that he turns into a sober and sedate person was futile. Since acceptance of a super power supervising our activities and dispensing reward and punishment was not a comfortable feeling, he embraced atheism. It must be noted that his atheism is confined only to defame and denigrate hindu gods and beliefs. He dare not enter into beliefs of other religions.
The Missionary Dravidian Nexus
The backdrop in Tamil Nadu during his time was significant. Christian missionaries were frantically, fiercely engaged in proselytizing the hindu masses and forcing them into conversion through manifold methods. The biggest stumbling block for them was the abiding, ageless, amaranthine faith of the values ingrained in the people and the spiritual guidance provided by the learned brahmin community. So, they condemned hindu religion and they fortunately found an articulate ally in EV Ramaswamy. A copacetic relationship developed between the evangelists and the dravidian clan.
E.V. Ramasamy Naicker
EV Ramaswamy reviled and ridiculed not only hindu deities, but hurt and humiliated all their precepts and practices. He went to the extent of proclaiming, ‘He who created god was a fool; he who spreads his name is a scoundrel and he who worships him is a barbarian’. His views on other matters like Tamil literature, traditional practices, freedom movement, or other popular leaders of his time were so outlandishly comical and crazy that one will go to the extent of suspecting his sanity! But, his followers have subsequently ensured with meticulous care, that such extreme eccentric expressions are not prominently publicised.
Brahmins, a sober and sedate, stoic and stolid section of the hindus were his select targets and ergo they suffered untold harm from him and from the thugs who were his followers. They cut the tuft, holy thread of the brahmins, burnt their holy scriptures, vandalised their veda patashalas. The violence was so overwhelming that the poor brahmins either left their religious practices or left Tamil Nadu for better and brighter livelihood elsewhere.
But, EVR must be ‘credited’ with one attribute. He was doggedly obdurate in his core principles which he articulated in a rude, rough, rigid fashion, unmindful of the sentiments of the audience. While it was ambrosia for his few followers, it was anathema to the other general public. He continued to be unyielding, unrelenting, steadfast, stubborn throughout his public life. He had a coterie of cretinous disciples as he himself had brazenly declared that he wants only nitwits since they will obey his nonsensical commands without questioning. And he had plenty of them!
CN Annadurai
EVR’s successor CN Annadurai was of a slightly different stuff. He had the gift of the gab in abundance with which he could mesmerise the masses effortlessly. Initially, he was also as assertive and absolute as his master in expressing anti-hindu atheistic ideas in an aggressive, annoying, abominable manner. He had extensively criticised hindu pantheon of Gods and Goddesses in all his speeches and writings ad libitum. Later, especially after becoming the Chief Minister, with the motive of retaining the political popularity earned through his flowery flow of elocution, he modified his credo into ‘Onre kulam; oruvane devan’. [Only one race of mankind and only one God.]
M Karunanidhi
M Karunanidhi, who took over charge at the demise of CN Annadurai continued to commit himself to the concept of dravidian atheism smoothly and successfully. Sharp and skilful in stinging, sarcastic, sardonic satire that he was, his speeches and writings were potent and powerful, poignant and piercing. He continued the tirade against hindu deities, customs and practices with verve and vigour in the same fashion as his predecessors. In fact, he was more acrid and acerbic, blunt and boorish than Annadurai, who had had the knack of blending his expressions with liberal sense of humour. He went to the extent of branding all hindus as thieves. With the advantage of the advent of television and other modern modes of communication, Karunanidhi knavishly gained control of the complete media through which he injected slow poison deep into the minds of the people with salacious, scornful, scurrilous scripts on all the sacred hindu beliefs.
Dravidian Model Atheism Belongs In The Dustbin
After the exit of Karunanidhi, with the advent of internet network and the availability of infinite information at fingertips, the climate has completely metamorphosed. ‘Dravidian model’ atheism had passed its expiry date. Now, people do not fall an easy prey to florid, flowery, flamboyant falsehood of fraudsters anymore. While the dravidian parties depended on solid minority vote bank, simultaneously taking for granted the votes of the dispersed hindu votes, it is no longer so. Therefore, to baffle and befuddle the hindus and to ensure that they do not congregate into a united force, novel modus operandis are being conceived now. Attempts are made to revive the fabricated defunct fiction of Aryan-Dravidan theory again. A divide is being made between deities and claims are proferred that one set of deities belong to Tamil Nadu while a few are brought down from the ‘north’, viz., Tirumal vs Vishnu, Murugan vs Subramanian, Sivan vs Rudran etc. through fake orators masquerading as religious exponents. Also, to confuse and confound the credulous masses further, during election seasons, either the leaders themselves or their relatives visit temples, mutts and other holy places with extensive visual coverage through media. Only in Tamil Nadu one can witness a perplexing phenomenon of dravidian leaders visiting temples with their kith and kin, performing in private, special pujas for liquidation of their political rivals and simultaneously doing everything to the detriment of the temples and their properties as well as hurting the sentiments and beliefs of the devotees.
Their aim evidently is two-fold:
To plunder the enormous wealth of hindu temples for their personal gain and at the end render them bankrupt and destroy them.
To baffle and befuddle the hindu devotees, by constantly ridiculing their deities, their religious practices and customs, so that they gradually lose faith in them, thus creating an accordant atmosphere that will provide a free and fertile field for favourable harvesting by the christian missionaries.
Postscript
Apropos the saying of Abraham Lincoln at the beginning, let us see how fast and how facilely Tamil Nadu people wake up from the stupor of pestilential Dravidian Tasmac toxicity, regain their sanity and sobriety and eliminate and expurgate the vile, vicious virus. After all, ‘If winter comes, can spring be far behind?’
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