Obedience

A couple of years ago, a Muslim friend explained Islam to me: La Islame illabil jama; la jame illabil amira; la amire illabil itah. This is Arabic for 8216;8216;There is no Islam without a congregation; there is no congregation without a leader; there is no leader without obedience to the will of Allah as expressed in the Koran Sharif.8217;8217; Naturally, this set one thinking about the concept of obedience in other faiths. The Ten Commandments are a clear set of Thou-shalt-nots to Moses from Yahweh, God of the Jews, which is also upheld in Christianity. Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs have their own set of Do8217;s and Don8217;ts, where belief is expressed as lifestyle choices. For instance, Ahimsa, the principle of non-violence, translates into a strict vegetarian diet.

I could not quite crack Hinduism, though. The Vedic ban applies only to beef, as far as modern lifestyles go. Modern Hindus seem game for anything otherwise and we all know Hindus who eat beef when abroad and quietly switch to shuddh shakahari when conservative elders come sniffing suspiciously around. Does that mean they8217;re rotten Hindus and traitors to the faith? Most of them would indignantly deny it. 8220;I don8217;t need rules to make me a Hindu!8221; they8217;d blaze, if questioned by curious or interested others. Some Hindus have a second home in another faith, but they remain 8216;8216;Hindu8217;8217; without needing to make affidavits. The gurdwara is particularly dear because of Hindus8217; visceral attachment to the Gurus, indeed Hindu parents encourage their children to make obeisance there.

The point about obedience came back recently when a Hindu spiritual leader was scheduled to visit a Muslim country and his publicists got busy with faxes and phones. In the meanwhile, the embassy of that country in New Delhi got in touch with this newspaper to check him out: would he 8220;promote Hinduism8221; out there? They were told that there was no motive, since there8217;s no conversion. You8217;re born one. That8217;s it. If you choose to 8220;leave8221;, you probably have good reason. Nobody excommunicates you.

Maria Couto8217;s beautiful book on Goa tells you poignantly about entire Hindu villages taking a survival decision at the time of the Portuguese and evolving into an amalgam of old culture and new faith. A frank, bold new book on Indian Christians Viking by two Jesuit priests also speaks of how the Church gradually permitted local cultures into the formalities of faith, making Christianity in India a deep spiritual experience of Jesus without denying the reality of one8217;s soil and skin. Faith without too many rules? It8217;s entirely possible. Many social regulations can become outmoded with time. 8216;8216;Obedience8217;8217; is surely not to the outward form but to the Love within. Irony: is this why the faith of 8216;8216;idolators8217;8217; survived the centuries?