Refuting media slander
In a recent article in The Guardian, it was said that Heinrich Himmler, one of the chief Nazis, used to carry around a ’special leather bound edition’ of the Bhagavad Gita, and quote from it when his executioners were having moral scruples about the mass-killings that they were asked to do. The implication was that Hindu teachings were used to justify the mass slaughter of innocents. Hindu Voice UK asked indologist Koenraad Elst, who has written extensively on the subject for an in depth response to this particular allegation regarding Himmler and the Gita.
February 27th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Please stop debates like this about Holy Gita.Gita is not for debate.
It is a path towards self realisation. It is a debate within own self. Krukshethra is your own body. The battle between mind and the soul is explained in Geetha for the seekers of Truth. It explains clearly about the illusions in the material world.
Paramatma is the Supreme Soul. Gita is a Holy scripture given to us by Lord Krishna Himself to understand the ultimate truth within your own self.
Don’t try to throw the pearl in front of swine.
Geetha is a holy scripture to raise those who wants to raise themselves to its holiness. You have to raise yourself to understand the Holy scripture.
Please do not talk about lunatics who preached religious values for destruction,
Religion cannot be taught. It is to be caught.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:52 am
It is not just a question of nazi appropriation. The problem (which is a more general one) is the erroneous use of metaphysical symbols and ancient myths and scriptures by modern political parties and modern ideologies. Those who live for prophane purposes must not exploit metaphysics and its concepts, because they are not entitled to it, and do not have the means to handle them appropriately. The results of these appropriations are, in the long run, huge scale massacres and injustice.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Debate is at the core of the Gita. There is no other world scripture in which man stands up to god and says show me. To remove debate about the Gita is to silence Arjuna. That is not true worship.
The appropriations are a consequence not a cause. If the christians can not deny that Nazism comes out of christianity then they must blame it on someone else. Likewise, if the muslims can not accept the brutality of their own tradition they say things like “the hindus do it too”. Likewise the atheists who can not see the effect on ideological atheism in the world (communism) claim it is the religions of the world that are poor leaders. Thus to hide their own poverty of spiritual godheadedness, they point to others. We do this also - those primitive hindus, those misguided hindus…
the cause remains an egocentric, ethnocentric psychology that informs spirituality (ergo salvation..) It must be the spirituality that informs the ego. The Gita remains the best solution that can help humanity from destroying itself with the next atomic/biologic/chemical… war. To prevent a war we must understand war, its causes, and its effects. To live in peace we must be able prevent wars, not just stop them. To be enlightened we must transcend ego, not glorify its entrance to heaven.
hariaum
February 27th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Man especially in the face of great atrocious acts of evil be it death camps, treeorism, mass slayings of innocents always seeks to justify this evil by linking such activities to some religious text. We must not let this affect our very thought of conciousness, what the gita embodies is that your concience/your humanity will guide you and the baggage you accumulate duting your mortal life will be the weight that will be added to your immortal soul and determine your future incarnations. We mus question texts and beliefs but the fundamental truth shall always set you free and hinduism is not merely a religion to be followed but a way of life to be lead and the gita advised one to act upon ones duty to serve when called upon to the best of one’s ability and in truth to ones’s origin for to be a hindu is to be born a hindu and all evil acts will be cleansed by the cycle of reincarnation as those who slaughter will be reborn as a victim until that karmic load that the soul bears is cleansed and moksha is achieved. Really the point is man can do or say as he pleases but the truth shall always set you free.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Sometimes a negative bolt of lightining awakens our slimber and our questioning and search begins.It is in this light that I thank the Guardian for that bolt of negativity on the Gita .Those who know and those who don’t know will now share both knowledge and ignorant ramblings for the true seeker to move forward in his quest for God’s realisation.May this debate purify many souls .Jai Sri Krishna.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:27 am
The Sri Bhagawat Gita ji should be respected with utmost reverence as this the guideline of life.
We are still like Arjuna ..we question and don’t understand , we are naive and ignorant. The Gita explains the devotion to God , why we are here on earth and the purpose of our living …no other such scriputres give such detail.
We are all here on to live for a while, our bodies are mere shells but our souls will continue to live ….If we kill we will pay for this action …..if we serve others we will be rewarded in kind.
There are stupid ignorant people who still don’t understand the Gita , the nazi did not understand the power of the word……Krishna uses symbolism and says we all are born , live then die….don’t weep for the living or the dead….Krishna expalins our souls are the atma , the personality of God not the body (this is a mere Shell)
Why be scared of death when it is insignificant compared to the love of God. Why be scared of death when we have acheieved our ultimate salvation and service to God. what is death if are souls are to come back into another form. Death is part of life and if we weep we do not understand the soul and are still bound by materialistic possessions.
Â
Ravi Sharma
jai Sri Krishna ji
October 17th, 2007 at 8:05 am
The hindu religion has originated from Africa.
Because it is called sanatan dharma and mankind originated from apes in africa 2 million years back. The tribal practices of africans are evident in the ancient religions such as Judaism of israel and in vedic hinduism , islam etc. These practices constitute intoxication(Soma ), Fire worship (yagna), Chanting to invoke spirits of nature (mantra) and Blood sacrifice of animals (Bali daan). The ancient people were always at war, had no respect for human life.
Bhagwad Gita says exactly so. Here the so called God is asking Arjuna to fight a war & start killing which caused millions of casualties.
Himmler being inspired from Gita , imagined Hitler as Krishna and himself as Arjuna , took it as a divine duty to eliminate millions of people.
The cruel nazis even called themselves as aryans which is a hindu word and adopted swastika as their symbol. This clearly shows that hinduism was the true religion of nazis.
If that is so then it leads to the fact that our dear hinduism has inspired the massacre of WW2.