HINDU REFLECTIONS ON JULY 4 AS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY

 

HINDU REFLECTIONS ON JULY 4 AS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY

 

[Compilation for a Discourse from E-Mails sent and Authors by N.R. Srinivasan, July 4, 2021]

 

There’s no doubt the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.  Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. John Adams thought July 2 would be marked as a national holiday for generations to come.  Congress approved the actual Declaration of Independence document on July 4, and the approved version was signed in Philadelphia. Most of the members of the Continental Congress signed a version of the Declaration on August 2, 1776, in Philadelphia.  The late historian Pauline Maier said in her 1997 book, Americans finally remembered the event on July 3, 1777, and July 4 became the day that seemed to make sense for celebrating independence. Its anniversary day weren’t widely celebrated until the Federalists faded away from the political scene after 1812. In an 1826 letter – the last he ever wrote -- Thomas Jefferson spoke of the importance of Independence Day. Jefferson and Adams both passed away two days later, on the Fourth of July.  American History is thus very complicated and the definition of Independence is complicated.

Being a first generation Hindu migrant, my thoughts go back to Indian Independence Day and following events I lived through. Independence Day of India was a bloody birthday gift on August 15, 1947   to newborn India and Pakistan as millions of people were uprooted amid massacres and murder. My grand-uncle was the first and last Governor General of Divided Independent India. Horror followed everywhere: refugee camps everywhere and, eventually, war with Pakistan over Kashmir, an enmity, potent as nuclear bombs, that lasts to this day. Five months after independence, the idealism of the struggle for freedom was shattered when a Hindu fanatic assassinated the movement's secular saint, Mohandas Gandhi. In an effort to end India’s religious strife, Mahatma Gandhi resorted to hunger strike,  fast unto death seeking Hindu Muslim unity condition, leaned with more concession to Muslim minority that were more brutal. A fanatic Hindu who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him on a Friday prayer meeting and he gave up his ghost crying Hey Ram!  Known as Mahatma, or “the great soul,” during his lifetime. Gandhi’s persuasive methods of civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around the world, especially Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States. Entering my college in this horrible year, I celebrated my 1948 Independence Day in the college and in the evening rushed to the temple praying to the Supreme to save the souls of millions that gave up their lives and to bemoan for a country that got into pieces instead of Peace, chanting the all-round Shanti mantra “viswe santih sarve santih santireva santih”. To me, therefore, July 4 is more a Religious Freedom Day and All Freedom Day, observing some similar struggles in USA in the past and even today, than a mere Political Independence Day, a fancied and arbitrarily fixed Independence Day in the spirit of “sanghacchadvam samvadadvam samanamakootih“ with the hope of   seeing the ever-shining bright light at the end of dark tunnel, for which we are still struggling.  

How do Native Americans observe the 4th of July? This year, many people’s plans reflect their concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. But the answer has always been as complicated as America’s history.

Perhaps the most quoted language in the Declaration of Independence is the statement that all men are created equal. Many Native Americans, however, also remember the signers’ final grievance against the king: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

With the emergence of a nation interested in expanding its territory came the issue of what to do with American Indians, who were already living all across the land. As the American non-Indian population increased, the Indigenous population greatly decreased, along with tribal homelands and cultural freedoms. From the beginning, U.S. government policy contributed to the loss of culture and land.

Keeping our focus on the 4th of July, let’s take back our thoughts to 1880s, when the U.S. government developed what has come to be called the Religious Crimes Code—regulations at the heart of the federal Office of Indian Affairs’ Code of Indian Offenses that prohibited American Indian ceremonial life. Enforced on reservations, the code banned Indian dances and feasts, disrupted religious practices, and destroyed or confiscated sacred objects, under threat of imprisonment and the withholding of treaty rations. The Secretary of the Interior issued the regulations in 1884, 1894, and 1904, and Indian superintendents and agents implemented them until the mid-1930s. For 50 years, Indian spiritual ceremonies were held in secret or ceased to exist.

In response to this policy of cultural and religious suppression, some tribes saw in the 4th of July and the commemoration of American Independence a chance to continue their own important ceremonies. Indian superintendents and agents justified allowing reservations to conduct ceremonies on the 4th as a way for Indians to learn patriotism to the United States and to celebrate the country's ideals.

That history is why a disproportionate number of American Indian tribal gatherings take place on or near the 4th of July and are often the social highlights of the year. Over time these cultural ceremonies became tribal homecomings. American Indian veterans in particular were welcomed home as modern-day followers of warrior traditions. The Navajo Tribe of Arizona and Pawnee of Oklahoma are two examples of tribes that use the 4th of July to honor their tribal veterans. Tribal veterans’ songs and flag songs are sung. Before the Reservation Era, when most Indians saw the American flag coming toward their villages and camps, it symbolized conflict, death, and destruction. But more than 12,000 American Indians served during World War I, and after the war, the American flag began to be given a prominent position at American Indian gatherings by them, especially those held on the 4th of July. This symbol of patriotism and national unity is carried into powwow and rodeo arenas today.

Everything is different this year, with families following public health guidance to reduce the transmission of Covid-19. But traditionally, the Lumbee of North Carolina and Mattaponi of Virginia use the 4th of July as a time for tribal members to renew cultural and family ties. The Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma holds Gourd Clan ceremonies, because the holiday coincides with their Sun Dance, which once took place during the hottest part of the year. The Lakota of South Dakota and Cheyenne of Oklahoma have some of their annual Sun Dances on the weekends closest to the 4th of July to coincide with the celebration of their New Year. Another summer soon, tribes will resume holding ceremonies, as well as powwows, rodeos, homecomings, and other modern get-togethers, around Independence Day openly. And Native American families will set out on visits back to their reservations and home communities.

By an extraordinary coincidence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the only two signatories of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as presidents of the United States, both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration. Although not a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, another Founding Father who was elected as president, also died on July 4, 1831, making him the third President who died on the anniversary of independence. Can July 4 be a memorial day to pay homage to these past Presidents?

 

To Hindu Americans, July 4 becomes Pitru’s Honoring Day of ancestors, praying for the souls of all those that lost their lives or lived fighting for all kinds of Freedom to improve quality of life, including Jefferson and Adams who also died on this day. This is also the day for paying their obeisance to Swami Vivekananda, also died on July 4, who is the father of Neo-Vedanta to the World, bringing together the Indian Spiritual Strength and Western Material Strength, all at the altar of their choice deity. Thanks to the tireless service of their urban monks, USA is turning to be a Land of Yoga, Meditation and Spirituality with the rapidly increasing religious freedom movements like SBNR and ‘Awesome without Allah’.  

Faith inspires hope.  Deeply embedded in the heart and soul of our Nation, this transcendent truth has compelled men and women of uncompromising conscience to give glory to God by worshiping both openly and privately, lifting up themselves and others in prayer.  On Religious Freedom Day like July 4, we pledge to always protect and cherish this fundamental human right. 

When the Pilgrim Fathers first crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than 400 years ago in pursuit of religious freedom, their dedication to this first freedom shaped the character and purpose of our Nation.  Later, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, their deep desire to practice their religion unfettered from government intrusion was realized.  Since then, the United States has set an example for the world in permitting believers to live out their faith in freedom. Did they get influenced by   Gita   in shaping the religious freedom then and even today as the country turns progressively to be a country of Yoga, Meditation and Spirituality?  

John F Kennedy in his Speech before the Christian Forum said: “I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end; where all men and all churches are treated as equal; where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice (he means any house of worship); where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind; and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

 That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group, nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, nor imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

 I would not look with favor upon a president working to subvert the First Amendment's guarantees of religious liberty. Nor would our system of checks and balances permit him to do so. And neither do I look with favor upon those who would work to subvert Article VI of the Constitution by requiring a religious test — even by indirection — for it. If they disagree with that safeguard, they should be out openly working to repeal it.

 I want a chief executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none; who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him; and whose fulfillment of his presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation.

This is the kind of America I believe in, and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe. No one suggested then that we may have a "divided loyalty," that we did "not believe in liberty," or that we belonged to a disloyal group that threatened the "freedoms for which our forefathers died.

And in fact, this is the kind of America for which our forefathers died, when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches; when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom; and when they fought at the shrine I visited today, the Alamo. For side by side with Bowie and Crockett died Mc Cafferty and Bailey and Carey. But no one knows whether they were Catholic or not, for there was no religious test at the Alamo”

 Stoll of Times quotes John F Kennedy and says:  “The Theology of the Fourth of July”   posits that the 4th of July to be a Religious Holiday”.  That pleases Hindu Americans to run to temple on July 4. 

 Kennedy said: “The informing spirit of the American character has always been a deep religious sense. Throughout the years, down to the present, a devotion to fundamental religious principles has characterized American thought and action. Our government was founded on the essential religious idea of integrity of the individual. It was this religious sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” 

Stoll finds four distinct passages in the Declaration of Independence that refer to God: In addition to the “endowed by their Creator” line mentioned by JFK in his July 4 speech, there is an opening salute to “the laws of nature’s God,” an appeal to “the Supreme Judge of the World,” and a closing expression of “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”

Was Kennedy  influenced in his thoughts on religion  by Swami Vivekananda who in his speech to the World Forum of Religions boldly  declared “Vedanta is the Religion of the Future” to come up with his four distinct ideas, that looks more  based on Vedanta and not  Christianity?  Vivekananda gave up his ghost on this very day. Celebration of his death anniversary is as important as his Birth Day in January, for the soul never dies and Jayanti Day in Hindu concept is the Glory Celebration Day of Icons held in respect.

 “I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny” said Vivekananda at the Chicago conference.

Gita says that the world needs different religions, cults and deities to meet the vastly different needs if individuals. Gita Doctrine is beyond Religious and national Boundaries and should lead one to tranquility, happiness and equanimity that mostly reflects in the recent Declarations of the President of the United States.  

 “Over the past 4 years, my Administration has worked tirelessly to honor the vision of our Founders and defend our proud history of religious liberty.  From day one, we have taken action to restore the foundational link between faith and freedom and promote a culture of religious liberty.  My Administration has protected the rights of individual religious believers, communities of faith, and faith-based organizations.  We have defended religious liberty domestically and around the world.  For example, I signed an Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty to ensure that faith-based organizations would not be forced to compromise their religious beliefs as they serve their communities.  This includes defending the rights of religious orders to care for the infirm and elderly without being fined out of existence for refusing to facilitate access to services that violate their faith. 

We have also protected healthcare providers’ rights not to be forced to perform procedures that violate their most deeply-held convictions.  Additionally, we have ended the misguided policies of denying access to educational funding to historically black colleges and universities because of their religious character and of denying loan forgiveness to those who perform public services at religious organizations.  Throughout this difficult year, we have continued these efforts, cutting red tape to ensure houses of worship and other faith-based organizations could receive Paycheck Protection Program loans on the same grounds and with the same parameters as any other entity.  We have also aggressively defended faith communities against overreach by State and local governments that have tried to shut down communal worship.  Together, we have honored the sanctity of every life, protected the rights of Americans to follow their conscience, and preserved the historical tradition of religious freedom in our country. 

 While Americans enjoy the blessings of religious liberty, we must never forget others around the world who are denied this unalienable right.  Sadly, millions of people across the globe are persecuted and discriminated against for their faith.  My Administration has held foreign governments accountable for trampling — in many cases, egregiously so — on religious liberty.  In 2019, to shed light on this important issue, I welcomed survivors of religious persecution from 16 countries in the Oval Office, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and made history by standing before the United Nations General Assembly and calling on all nations of the world to stop persecuting people of faith.  The United States will never waver in these efforts to expand religious liberty around the world and calls on all nations to respect the rights of its citizens to live according to their beliefs and conscience. 

 On Religious Freedom Day, we honor the vision of our Founding Fathers for a Nation made strong and righteous by a people free to exercise their faith and follow their conscience.  As Americans united in unparalleled freedom, we recommit to safeguarding and preserving religious freedom across our land and around the world. 

 NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2021, as Religious Freedom Day.  I call on all Americans to commemorate this day with events and activities that remind us of our shared heritage of religious liberty and that teach us how to secure this blessing both at home and around the world. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth”--DONALD J. TRUMP 

Religious freedom in America, often referred to as our “first freedom,” was a driving force behind some of the earliest defining moments of our American identity.  The desire for religious freedom impelled the Pilgrims to leave their homes in Europe and journey to a distant land, and it is the reason so many others seeking to live out their faith or change their faith have made America their home. 

More than 230 years ago, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was authored and championed by Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson famously expounded that “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.”  This statute served as the catalyst for the First Amendment, which enshrined in law our conviction to prevent government interference in religion.  More than 200 years later, thanks to the power of that Amendment, America is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world. 

 In the light of the recent President’s declaration, we as Hindu Americans should   stand against the persecution of anyone in the name of religion, and we must oppose all cases where religious freedom is ignored or abused, so that all may flourish in peace. We should not stop simply protesting, but turn spiritual guided by Vedic wisdom and also guide others to lift themselves spiritually and live-in peace but not pieces. This warrants to observe July 4 as a special Religious Events Day more than Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day or Yoga Day. Further this is the Day that Swami Vivekananda gave up his ghost too about which I will talk about soon.  In Hindu concept Death Anniversary is also celebrated as Jayanti for the soul never dies and such noble souls always guide us! 

 “If we ever forget that we are ‘One Nation under God’, then we will be one nation gone under.” – Ronald Reagan 

 The Virginia General Assembly enacted the Statute for Religious Freedom, which paved the way for the First Amendment to the US Constitution. This first freedom was enshrined in America’s founding documents and today we reaffirm our commitment to protect this religious freedom. Happy July 4 Independence Day!

 In the 18th century, the British were both appalled and fascinated by the excess of gods, sects and cults they found in India. It was similar to the pagan chaos that a Christian from the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire might have encountered in the west just before Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Like the powerful Christians in Rome, the British in India sought and imposed uniformity. Hinduism was a 19th-century British invention. Even the word Hindu itself is of non-Hindu origin. It was first used by the ancient Persians to refer to the people living near the River Indus (Sindhu in Sanskrit). It then became a convenient shorthand for the rulers of India; it defined those who were not Muslims or Christians. 

 Swami Vivekananda in his lectures in England and America, where he attracted a mass following,  presented India as the most ancient and privileged fountain of spirituality. At the same time, he exhorted Hindus to embrace Western science and materialism in order to shed their backwardness and constitute themselves into a manly nation. That reminds of Einstein who said: ”Science without Religion is lame, Religion without Science is blind”.  

 Indian History of British India still taught in schools in India that other countries repeat, presents a picture of Hindus as slaves Muslims as tyrants of Muslims while British as their emancipators,  and occasionally hear today     more about the proselytizing vigor of Christianity in the revised versions,  than about true Indian history. These ideas about the Muslim tyrants, Hindu slaves and British philanthropists were originally set out in such influential books as James Mill's History of British India, that now tell you more about the proselytizing vigor of some Enlightened Scots and utilitarian than leaders like Vivekananda and Chinmayananda, first president of Viswa Hindu Parishad. 

 Hindus in India generally are pessimists, believers in Karma and fate philosophy and are lethargic. Those who are not, migrated to other countries seeking greener pastures. Hindu protogonists  in India today, moving from the concept of Udaaracharitas, broadminded with Vedanta Vision calling for ”the whole world is one family”, and   while considering Muslims who ruled the country for eight centuries as tyrant  monotheists, forget to realize that there was even more religious plurality during that period. Sufism mingled with local faiths; the currently popular devotional cults of Rama and Krishna, and the network of ashrams and sects, expanded fast under the Moghul Empire. We have talked about Sufi like Kabir, last month on his Jayanti Day. Medieval India furnishes more evidence of sectarian violence between the worshipers of Shiva and Vishnu than between Hindus and Muslims. 

 To National Hindus in India today, it is equally convenient to blame the intrusion of Islam into India for Hinduism's fallen state, even for the caste -system, and to describe Hindus as slaves of Muslim tyrants: a terrible fate. Some even feel that the British had apparently rescued them in order to prepare their path to a high stage of civilization. 

 Gandhi drew his political imagery from popular folklore; it made him more effective as a leader of the Indian masses than the upper-caste Hindu politicians who relied upon a textual, or elite Hinduism. But it was Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) who was mostly responsible for the modernization of Hinduism.  

 Even the more secular and catholic visions of Gandhi and Nehru - the former a devout Hindu, the latter an agnostic - accepted the premise of a "Hinduism" that had decayed and had to be reformed. Certainly, most Hindus themselves like in those days felt little need for precise self-descriptions, except when faced with questions about religion on official documents.  

 I still recall how  I was forced to declare my religion, that needed British shrewdness to call our various followings as “Hindu Religion”, my nativity as to declare my state of  origin (British ruled states of India or indirectly controlled private state) and even my sub-caste without which my SSLC certificate would not be issued. To British, if you were not a Muslim or Christian you were a Hindu in those days. I too felt in those days Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Arya Samajists etc., belonged to different philosophies of Eternal Tradition or Sanatana Dharma., and I do still.   This rule about official documents of the British, who needed the service and support of Intellectuals for their policy of Divide and Rule, became a powerful tool for Brahmin hate, Caste discrimination, Backward class (almost 60% among Non-Brahmins are considered backward in some states in India even to-day) reservations, by the Indian governments that ruled the country later, which still continues. Recently, Jain Religion has acquired minority status. This is for the control of higher education and governmental jobs, mostly. Here I draw your attention to a Government Order that affected my life very much which resulted in my migration to USA at their invitation. My applications to choose higher studies was rejected for I was not able to fulfill Nativity, Caste/sub-caste, Medical requirements under the noble laws of the country, but not due to want of academic level achievements! In my first Government job, selected under Scheduled caste quota, I was under constant threat, holding a temporary post! 

 “With regard to admission of students to the Engineering and Medical Colleges of the State, the Province of Madras had issued an order (known as the Communal G. O.) that seats should be filled in by the selection committee strictly on the following basis, i.e., out of every 14 seats, 6 were to be allotted to Non-Brahmin (Hindus), 2 to Backward Hindus, 2 to Brahmins, 2 to Harijans. 1 to Anglo-Indians and Indian Christians and 1 to Muslims.” read a G.O.

 Ultimately this G.O. was squashed but lifted its head as Backward Class, Minority Religion and Scheduled Caste Reservation privileges that still continues.  

 Affluent, upper-caste Indians, in India and abroad long for closer military and economic ties between India and Western nations; globalization helps them work faster towards Vivekananda’s desired alliance between an Indian elite and the modern West towards his Mission of  Vedanta as Religion for the World Universal Oneness.  As a global class, they are no less ambitious than the one which in the Roman Empire embraced Christianity and made it an effective tool of this-worldly power. Hinduism in their hands has never looked more like the Christianity and Islam of popes and mullahs, and less like the multiplicity of unselfconsciously tolerant faiths it still is for most Indians.  These historic developments suggest that Vivekananda may yet emerge as more influential than Gandhi, Nehru or Tagore - the three great Indian leaders, whose legacy of liberal humanism middle-class India seems to have frittered away. Their quest for Western-style machismo, for economic and military muscle, seems to be taking India towards times as intellectually and spiritually oppressive as those the West experienced after its elites chose a severe monotheism as their official ideology.   

 Vivekananda, died on July 4, 1902, near Calcutta. He is remembered as   Hindu spiritual leader and reformer in India who attempted to combine Indian spirituality with Western material progress, maintaining that the two supplemented and complemented one another.  So, all are   gathered on July 4, at the Vivekananda Rock Center of Kanyakumari to pay their homage and   gratitude for his monumental contribution raising the Spiritual leadership image of India. Slowly and steadily USA is marching to become a Land of Yoga, Meditation and Spiritualty by this tradition started by Swami Vivekananda to see light at the end of dark tunnel! 

 It is believed that Swami Vivekananda had prophesized that he would not live for more than 40 years. On July 4 1902, he woke up early and went to the chapel at Belur Math to meditate. He then taught Shukla-Yajur-Veda, Sanskrit grammar and the philosophy of yoga to his students and went to his room by 7 pm to meditate again. He specifically asked not to be disturbed and died at 9:10 pm while meditating. 

 In India, Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint, and his birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day. 

While enjoying others in celebrating this day as a social political event devoid of any sectarian religious thought but belief in God Each Trusts, let us pay our tribute to Swami Vivekananda on July 4 and pay our homage at the altar of our chosen deity for the champion of Hindu Dharma and its propagation globally, making it a SRE Day!

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.  Life is not a solitary activity. We should live well by living for others. For having a different vision, sometimes we need to stand alone. Standing alone with no one is better than standing in a crowd with everyone where the crowd goes to the wrong direction. 

 Swami Vivekananda was the person who prescribed the education of ‘man-making and character-building’. All of his morals are the sign of a healthy civilization. His thought of education should be seriously re-examined today for a long-term progress of society. 

 CONCLUDING REMARKS

Present Pandemonium and the successful management of the crisis by physical therapy ably supported by EQ and SQ Management has led me to think Human health has multiple sources: material, social, cultural and spiritual. We are physical beings with material needs for nutritious food, clean air and water, and adequate shelter, as well as physical activity and sleep. We are also social beings who need families, friends and communities to flourish. We are cultural beings — of all species, we alone require cultures to make life worth living. And we are spiritual beings, psychically connected to our world and beyond. People can find meaning in life at a variety of levels. Close to their personal lives, there are things like jobs, family, friends, interests and desires. Many people today find meaning in the pursuit of personal goals. There is also the level of identity with a nation or ethnic group, and with a community but to live in peace but not pieces.  At the most fundamental, transcendent level, there is spiritual meaning. Spirituality represents the broadest and deepest form of connectedness. It is the most subtle, and therefore easily corrupted, yet perhaps also the most powerful. It is the only form of meaning that transcends people’s personal circumstances, social situation and the material world, and so can sustain them through the trouble and strife of mortal existence. That is why we run to the temple to pay our homage to Swami Vivekananda on July 4, the day he gave up his ghost, while spreading his message up to his last breath on that day ”Vedanta is the only Religion and Hope for Humanity ”

 Religion serves humanity best when it embodies and expresses the spiritual as purely as possible, with only a limited influence of institutional and political agendas.  Modern Western culture, with its emphasis on personal consumption and self-gratification, betrays this ideal — at considerable cost to health and wellbeing. The restoration of a stronger spiritual dimension to life will be important in turning around this situation.

 Across religious and cultural divisions, prophetic voices - inspired and grounded in spiritual traditions - have historically roused and sustained profound movements for social justice. And, as much as spirituality can be a balm and a pacifier, it can also be the fuel and the language that bridges the divisive ground between us.  As we seek greater depth in practice and as we form new kinds of community, we are individually and collectively called to reimagine spirituality and citizenship.

 Vivekananda drawing inspiration from Upanishads said all Religions like rivers lose their names and forms on entering the vast ocean of open arms.  They all get the essence of Spirituality and Human Values or  Manava Dharma   in the bosom of the  ocean. That amounts to, while politicians speak of religious freedom of different religions Vivekananda talks of freedom for religions themselves from obligated rites and rituals and purely guided by human values that is Dharma and Spirituality on whose foundation Religions were built.

This concept is beautifully summed up in the concluding prayer of Hindu worship but that needs to be brought to practical life guided by the missionary work of Vivekananda by Spirituality and Citizenship that Phil Goldberg talks about. Here "Discovering the contemporary relevance of Hindu Dharma" currently focused on to educate modern youth by the Hindu University Makes sense.

 The spiritual teachings of India have always kept in mind the holistic development of the individual. The body, the mind, the intellect and speech have especially been identified as areas where continual development is necessary. The body, the speech and the intellect have been called tri-karanas (three main instruments). If these are kept fit, 9 out of 10 stressful circumstances will lose their ability to affect us. Please refer to the popular sloka in concluding prayers:

Om Dyauh Shaantir-Antarikssam Shaantih Prthivii Shaantir-Aapah Shaantir-Ossadhayah Shaantih Vanaspatayah Shaantir-Vishvedevaah Shaantir-Brahma Shaantih Sarvam Shaantih Shaantir-Eva Shaantih Saa Maa Shaantir-Edhi |Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

May peace radiate there in the whole sky as well as in the vast ethereal space everywhere! May peace reign all over this earth, in water and in all herbs, trees and creepers! May peace flow over the whole universe! May peace be in the Supreme Being Brahman! And May there always exist in all peace and peace alone!  Aum peace, peace and peace to us and all beings!

 Thus good Lord established the Universe with all round peace. In turn it is our Dharma to preserve that peace all around.

No peace invocation concludes without thrice repeating or invoking Saanti. The three repetitions are-- it is explained by Aachaaryas like Sankara, Raamaanuja, Madhwa--addressed to the three groups in which all the probable obstacles in the study of the scripture can be classified. They are: Aadhidaivikam (cosmic disturbances); Aadhi-bhoutikam (environmental disturbances); Aadhyaatmikam (inner disturbances). The first type of disturbance is from the phenomenal powers like lightning, thunder, rain, earthquake etc. Hence the first Santi is chanted loudly. The second type is the environmental disturbance like noise around, animals growling, insects crawling etc. The second chant is softer than the first to indicate that it is directed to the environmental disturbances. The third type is disturbance springing from one’s own body like sickness, worry etc. The last chant is therefore in whispers directed to the inner disturbances.

Here we should be serious over the noble ideals of American Independence Day Declaration about Religious Freedom with the mottos “e pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust” that I explained in detail in my discourse on “Satyameva Jayate”. Secularism does not mean atheism of Communists but Citizenship guided by Dharma and Human Values that are revealed in Vedic Wisdom that is the essence of Spirituality.

 E Pluribus Unum–Out of Many, One-- approved by John Adams, Benjamin and Thomas Jefferson as the motto for the new United States in 1776, during the same year as the Declaration was signed, this Latin phrase reflected a determination to assemble a single unified nation from a collection of states. The challenge of seeking unity while representing diversity has played a critical role in shaping our history, our education and our national character. This motto appearing on the coin has served as a reminder of America’s bold attempt to  One Unified Nation from different backgrounds and beliefs. In recent weeks, we have been reminded of the challenges to realizing the ideal of unity in a country of people from different backgrounds and beliefs, especially in the face of powerful forces working to tear it apart.  But E Pluribus Unum expresses more than an ideal.  It reflects an essential truth about both nature and human society – that we are stronger and more resilient together, embracing all of our diversity, than we are apart.

APPENDIX

 

The Theology of the Fourth of July

BY IRA STOLL 

 

JULY 3, 2014 12:01 AM EDT

July 4 is a religious holiday. For this insight, thank John F. Kennedy.

On July 4, 1946, Kennedy — then 29 years old, the Democratic nominee for a Massachusetts Congressional seat, and still a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve — was the featured speaker at the City of Boston’s Independence Day celebration. He spoke at Faneuil Hall, the red-brick building where long ago the colonists had gathered to protest taxes imposed by King George III and his Parliament.

Kennedy began by talking not about taxes, or about the British, or about the consent of the governed, but about religion. “The informing spirit of the American character has always been a deep religious sense. Throughout the years, down to the present, a devotion to fundamental religious principles has characterized American though and action,” he said.

For anyone wondering what this had to do with Independence Day, Kennedy made the connection explicit. “Our government was founded on the essential religious idea of integrity of the individual. It was this religious sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.’”

It was a theme that Kennedy would return to during the 1960 presidential campaign, when, in a speech at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, he described the Cold War as “a struggle for supremacy between two conflicting ideologies; freedom under God versus ruthless, Godless tyranny.” And again in his inaugural address, on January 20, 1961, in Washington, D.C., when he said, “The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

Whatever Kennedy’s motives were as a politician for emphasizing this point, on the historical substance he had it absolutely correct. The Declaration of Independence issued from Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, included four separate references to God. In addition to the “endowed by their Creator” line mentioned by JFK in his July 4 speech, there is an opening salute to “the laws of nature’s God,” an appeal to “the Supreme Judge of the World,” and a closing expression of “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”

A signer of the declaration, Samuel Adams, writing to a friend on July 9, wished the declaration had been issued earlier: “If it had been done nine months ago we might have been justified in the sight of God.”

George Washington, announcing the Declaration of Independence to the troops in a General Order dated July 9, wrote, “The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavor to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country….knowing that now the peace and safety of his Country depends (under God) solely on the success of our arms.”

The theology of the country’s founding has tended to get lost in the decades since Kennedy’s death, to the point where if someone unveiled the document anew today, hard-core separation-of-church-and-state types might even see it as a violation of the First Amendment’s clause prohibiting Congress from establishing a religion. The Declaration’s concept of God-given rights certainly is not without its flaws. God, alas, tends to be quite reticent when it comes to weighing in on disagreements about the definition of rights. Some extremists invoke God’s name while attempting to deprive others of rights. Atheists and agnostics, of whom there are increasing numbers these days, are left out.

For all that, there are some signs that a recovery is brewing of the theology of July 4. The Tea Party movement, after all, is not only a call for smaller government (“taxed enough already”), but also a conscious effort to recall the vision of the founders, of the original Boston Tea Party. Dave Brat, the economics professor who upset Eric Cantor in a recent Republican primary for to represent Virginia’s seventh congressional district, said during his campaign, “a belief in God and the faith of our Founders leads to strong moral fiber. That’s probably the most important ingredient in this country.”

So amid all the fireworks and barbecue smoke this July 4, consider pausing for a moment to reflect on the one our founding fathers called the Creator. As Kennedy realized, the American Revolution — and thus the country we live in today — started with God, and with the Founders’ belief in rights that are his gift to us. Whatever your religious views, or lack of them, if you are an American, it’s at least worth understanding the idea on which our nation was founded.