Pseudo-Religious Symbols

All symbols exist within well-defined contexts, and religious symbols are no exceptionto this rule. If a symbol is plucked out of its native surroundings, it can be made to carry whateverinnuendoes and incitements one wishes to impose on it. When this is done deliberately to religious symbols,there is a need to ask if they remain ‘religious’ at all thereafter.

Fire, for example, is a profound symbol in all religions. But, surely, it forfeits its religioussignificance when it is used as a weapon of destruction, to punish rather than to purify. Even if we areardent fire-worshippers, we cannot claim any religious right to burn down everything just because fire hasreligious overtones for us. The cross on the banner of the Crusaders, to cite another example, was not areligious symbol but a military one: an insult to Christ who abhorred the use of violence.

Anyone who has seen trishul-wielding Bajrang Dal or VHP activists in the context of communal outbursts willfind it difficult to regard the trishul as a religious symbol. What this proves is that all religiouslyresponsible people have a duty to ensure that religious symbols are not communally degraded.

The stock-in-trade trick of fundamentalists is to transplant religious symbols and rituals from the sphereof the sacred to the soil of the profane. This helps to create an illusion of religious legitimacy for what isessentially adharmic, especially in the eyes of the credulous and the misinformed. The Ayodhya temple movementillustrates this exercise. Despite this massive movement of religious fervour, the construction of Ram’stemple did not move an inch forward. But, as L.K. Advani asserted subsequently, the BJP "moved many milesforward" and took the seat of power in Delhi.

Trishul diksha, by which the VHP wants to import Gujarat into Rajasthan in view of the forthcomingelections in the state, is another avatar of the same strategy. The electoral over-exploitation of the templeissue has opened the eyes of the common man in this respect. And he is sceptical of the hidden agenda behindthese pseudo-religious charades, as the popular response to the arrest of Praveen Togadia in Rajasthan proves.

What is the symbolic meaning of Lord Shiva’s trishul? To understand this correctly, the first thing tonote is that Shiva himself is an integral and indivisible part of the trimurthi (trinity) — Brahma(creator), Vishnu (sustainer) and Maheshwar (destroyer, but not killer).

Spiritually, it is impossible to separate the role of ‘destroyer’ from those of ‘creator’ and‘sustainer’. Much depends on how we understand the function of the ‘destroyer’. Is Lord Shiva adestroyer in the sense that the Indian navy has ‘destroyers’? If his role is understood spiritually, thenit is incontestable that this destruction is integral to both creation and sustenance. Shiva is not anantagonist to Brahma and Vishnu, but a force complementary to both of them.

This is easily seen from placing the symbolism in its rightful context. The Ganga, for instance, emergesfrom the matted hair of Lord Shiva. The Ganga is our sacred river and it symbolises life. The principle oflife flows into and out of the person of Shiva, despite the profound paradox that he dwells in the cremationground and is associated with symbols like ash, the skull, the tiger skin and the snake. The cremation groundis not only a sphere of death but also a theatre of dharmic struggle — the battle of righteousness. This waris against the forces of adharma, of evil and injustice. It is in this context that Lord Shiva’s role as‘destroyer’ needs to be understood.

Through its unique shape, the trishul symbolises the trimurthi. It is meant to be wielded by Lord Shiva —not by communally frenzied outfits. To do otherwise amounts to insulting the deity. It is adharmic to abusewhat is godly to further one’s vested interests. Besides, the meaning of trishul is defined by the totalcontext that includes, in addition to Lord Shiva, also Brahma and Vishnu.

The trishul can never be a weapon of aggression. The three-pointed shape of this sacred symbol is aneloquent proof of this. Its very shape militates against the role that the VHP now thrusts upon it. That isalso the reason why its version of the trishul is drastically modified to make it look more like a dagger thana trident.

The question arises as to what the substance and scope of the VHP’s religious fervour is. Is it LordShiva or is it the trishul as a symbol of aggression? If the object of devotion is Lord Shiva, why distributeonly trishuls? Why not also include snakes and skulls that are even more closely associated with him?

The trishul does not symbolise Lord Shiva any more than the other symbols — ash, the snake, the crescentmoon and the Ganga — do. Surely, in the context of Rajasthan, a state afflicted by severe drought,distributing Ganga jal is a more sensible ‘religious ceremony’ than trishul diksha?

If the VHP must distribute trishuls, shouldn’t they make this more religious in its setting bydistributing them on cremation grounds? It may be of interest to note here that in most folklore depictions ofLord Shiva, he is not shown holding a trishul; it is simply kept beside him. Nor is Shiva seen to be ravingand ranting in the patented VHP style.

Lord Shiva is cherished as the destroyer of three ‘shuls’ or types of suffering: adhyatmic (spiritual),aadi daivik (natural calamities) and aadi bhowtik (physical suffering). Lord Shiva is kalyankaari: one whodoes good and safeguards human welfare. The word ‘shivam’ means kalyan, or welfare. In this sense,‘destruction’, as compatible with the Shiva-principle, has to harmonise with human welfare.

It is sacrilegious to misuse any of the symbols associated with Lord Shiva to legitimise senseless hate,murder and mayhem. Anarchic violence is an insult to every god, including Lord Shiva.

Underlying the pseudo-religious ceremony of trishul diksha, there is a serious issue that we need to reckonwith — for all of the VHP’s communal and political stratagems are constructed on it. Communal forcesthrive on the crass ignorance of the masses concerning the essentials of their faith. The keepers andcustodians of our religious traditions have let us down in this respect.

Over the years, we have neglected the duty to school our people in the spirit and truth of our spiritualtraditions. Religion is what we care for most; but it is also what we understand least. This leaves thesanctuary of religion vulnerable to be desecrated and exploited at will by communal, fundamentalist andobscurantist outfits. Even predictable repetitions of the same deception fail to open the eyes of the peopleto see through the façade of rapacious and false religiosity.

Adulteration, unfortunately, seems to be a crime only in commerce and industry, while it is profitable andsafe business in communal religiosity. Till recently, ordinary citizens were barred from displaying thenational flag. Quite rightly we did not want our national flag to be dishonoured or cheapened in any way.It’s a shame that we now put up with the blatant abuse of sacred symbols for ulterior gains.

Originally published in the Hindustan Times as Faith Healers Wanted.