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Journalism of Courage
Christmas overshadowed Easter in our young lives as modern Hindus. Yeshu8217;s earthly birth was a close echo of Janmashtami: a Holy Child born to distressed parents, persecuted by a cruel king who killed all the newborns in his country to pre-empt the unidentified baby from growing up into a Saviour. Plus, the trimmings of Christmas 8212; carols, cake, candles, cards, presents and Charles Dickens 8212; were such good fun. But Easter was 8220;too sad8221;, although we did love our chocolate or marzipan Easter bunnies and we happily painted Easter eggs hardboiled inside with watercolours or felt pens.
In actual fact, Easter is the culmination of Christ8217;s life, but when we could not bear the sorrows of Sita and Draupadi or Krishna8217;s death shot in the foot by a hunter8217;s arrow or Rama8217;s jalsamadhi in the river Sarayu, how could we could not feel traumatised by the tragic idol nailed to a cross, to which Christians knelt and prayed with lights, flowers and music, as we did at home and in temples? Many Hindus will remember how unhappy they felt as children when first told the story of Calvary, the torn and bleeding trail of the Son of God to his last, terrible cry: 8220;Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?8221; 8212; My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? We were too young to understand the symbolism of Yeshu8217;s resurrection and honestly, we couldn8217;t connect culturally with the prevailing calendar image of a blond, blue-eyed Christ.
Though Christianity, like Islam, claims to be an exclusive pathway to God and powerful edifices like the church are constructed on the belief that all religion resides between the covers of the King James Bible, it8217;s evident that Easter rides on older belief systems. At a calendar level, it coincides neatly with ancient spring festivals, when the earth resurrects after winter. Earlier, Easter was linked to the Jewish festival of Passover. Later, after the Council of Nicea 325 BCE, the festival was fixed to occur on the Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox, thus connecting with a deep, universal rhythm. In that sense, if we ignore the annoying use of intolerant terms like 8216;Mumbai Crusade8217; by pop-evangelists like Benny Hinn, we celebrate Yeshu8217;s spring anyway without needing to be churched.
