For almost his entire life, including when he bathed, my grandfather wore a thin hand-crafted gold chain around his neck. At the end of the chain is a pendant with a classic image of Ganesha.
For most of the 13572 days1 since he passed away in February 1987 to now, that chain has lived around my neck. It's there now as I write these words.
For those who have had a glimpse of the chain over the past 37 years2, there's the inevitable question, (asked almost triumphantly), “Why do you wear that? You're an atheist!”
The answer I usually give is that it is a constant reminder of a dear loved one who was the most influential person in my life. It’s a truthful answer. But the truth is far more complex.
The first complexity is one I’ve mentioned before in these pages but it’s worth repeating. To quote myself:
“Legend has it that the sage, Vyasa, was able to observe the entire passage of events described in the tale of the Mahabharatha and needed to record it for posterity.
“He petitioned the elephant god, Ganesha, to write down his words as he recounted them.
“Ganesha agreed to do so on condition that Vyasa tell the story in its entirety without stopping. Vyasa realised that he would not be able to do this, so he in turn agreed to do so if Ganesha would take time to understand what was being said before writing it down.
“The god smiled and agreed.”
I'm at heart a journalist. Ganesha was the greatest of all journalists having documented the greatest epic of all time while observing the basic rule of journalism that one needs to understand what is occurring before reporting.
The second complexity is that although I am atheist, I cannot run away from being a Hindu because Hinduism allows me to be an atheist.
It’s a difficult concept to explain to people who have been brought up in a bipolar world of right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell, thou shalt and thou shalt not.
Hinduism has none of these. Hinduism takes the universe’s most basic factual descriptors – light and dark, ignorance and knowledge, creation and destruction, cause and effect – and weaves them in a magnificent tapestry of legend and mythology and ritual.
For example, modern understanding of the origins of the species derived from works of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel were beautifully encapsulated in the tale of the Daśāvatāra (ten incarnations) of the god Vishnu, told thousands of years ago.
The short version is that for each stage of the life cycle of the universe, Vishnu is incarnated on earth in a form representative of that epoch.
- Matsya the fish represents first life in water.
- Kurma the turtle represents amphibians.
- Varaha the boar represents the first animals on land.
- Narasimha the half-man half-lion represents the transition between animal and human.
- Vamana the dwarf represents the first short human beings.
- Parasurama the axe-wielder represents the first humans using weapons.
- Rama represents the first humans living in community.
- Krishna represents the first humans with animal husbandry.
- Balarama represents the first humans with agriculture.
(The final avatar, Kalki, represents humans with the power of mass destruction. Kalki has not yet declared himself.)
The entire premise of Hinduism is that the universe starts with Big Bang and ends with the dissolution of the cosmos. This is summarised in the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy (disorder) increases over time.
I apologise if this is sounding too esoteric. The basic point I'm building up to is that nowhere in Hinduism’s scriptures does it ever say that we must bow down and worship any god or gods or there will be consequences if we show them disrespect.
Many from our Hindu community in South Africa have been extremely irritated about a recent pasquinade from our country's most famous cartoonist, Zapiro.
The cartoon in the Sunday Times depicts Ganesha as the Board of Control for Cricket in India offering money to Cricket SA in return for the sacrifice of its chief executive, Haroon Lorgat.
Many Hindus asked the paper for an apology. Editor Phylicia Oppelt said: “Sunday Times has the utmost respect for Hinduism… We do not, however, believe the use of Hindu iconography in Zapiro’s cartoon amounts to disrespect.”
Many are now calling for a boycott of the Sunday Times.
Cartoonists, by their nature, depend on readily recognisable symbols, and stereotypes are the most useful way to do this.
But stereotyping India with Hinduism is just ignorant because India is the world's most secular state. India is the world's second largest Islamic nation. India is the home of Buddhism. India has the largest Zoroastrian population. India is home to Sikhism.
Hindu iconography is certainly not sacrosanct, but accuracy is. Ganesha has no association with sacrifice or coercion. It would be akin to depicting Tutu associated with corruption – makes no sense. But I digress…
The crucial point, my fellow Hindus, is that the word “blasphemy” does not exist in Hinduism’s lexicon. Neither does the word “boycott”.
Hinduism does recognise words that matter. “Sat”, “Chit”, “Ananda” – existence, knowledge, bliss.
In July 1995, there was among our ranks a man named Ahmed Deedat who wrote a missive called “Oh you Hindu, awake!”
Deedat had previously issued blistering attacks against Judaism and Christianity and had now set his sights on Hinduism.
There was similar outrage at the time directed at Deedat.
I criticised his work for its shallow reasoning and flawed logic but refused to call for its banning.
On 3 May 1996, Ahmed Deedat suffered a stroke which left him paralysed from the neck down because of a cerebral vascular accident affecting the brain stem, leaving him unable to speak or swallow.
Hinduism also acknowledges the word “karma”.