As far as I remember, there are four fundamental gods in Hindu beliefs, Hindu mythology. Brahman is the name of the god, he is the original and the oldest and the biggest. And he manifests himself, or there are side-gods along with him, responsible for fundamental government of the universe. Some of them are responsible for the phenomena of creation, some of them are responsible for the phenomena of destruction, some control fire, some water, some air and some earth. So, they begin to get divided into these regions.
So, Parmatma is one of the names, and some also control wealth. Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, and Agnidevi is the goddess of fire, and there is one other name responsible for creation, I have just forgotten, one of the fundamental names. No, Brahmu is the main god. No, Brahmu is the oldest god, but he is either… It’s some other name I remember. Huh? Huh? Come. Come. Brahmu… Is he? That’s right, but there is another god who is involved in the phenomena of creation, I don’t exactly remember his name. Brahmu anyway is the eldest and the oldest, but they are either subservient gods, created by their minds, or similar gods, but held slightly lower in status. So, as this concept grew further, according to the age and passage of time, new needs created new gods. New experiments, human experiments, required certain gods to control those phenomena. New discoveries of the phenomena of nature demanded, according to this mythology, that somebody should be there to look after this phenomena.
So, reproduction also created a god, and marriage also created a god, and then the phenomena of growth in vegetation, growth in animals. Then within the four walls of certain species, the concepts of new gods arose. For instance, there were snakes, so among them there must be some god. So one, the cobra of a certain type, was considered to be god among snakes. Among animals there had to be some god. So elephant filled that place. So relative gods were created in relatively smaller domains, until they grew so profusely that one cannot keep the count. So this is their concept, this is how, from unity, Hinduism started travelling to the concept of hundreds and even thousands of gods.
But later on, during this age, there were certain sects who found themselves in contradiction to the modern sciences and modern views so much that they wanted some philosophy to compromise with the concept of one god and the concept of so many gods. And they wanted to turn back to the original idea. So there are certain sects in the modern Hinduism who limited the number of gods, instead of permitting them to go out of hands, they stressed only on god of reproduction and goddess of wealth and so on, a few ones. And most of their writings revolved around those few gods. But some took a step further, like Arya Samajis, and they rejected all these gods, and that is why they remained Hindus.
The interesting part is that the Hindus are divided into many hundred sects now, their number is about seven hundred some. That is the sectarian tendencies of branching off among Hindus. Yet not a single sect has been excommunicated as non-Hindu by the Hindus. In fact, they want more and more to be made part of Hinduism. Even Sikhs are accepted to the fold of Hinduism in many ways. Sikhism, I mean. For instance, I discussed this aspect of Hinduism a few days ago by referring to certain Hindus of Sindh area, particularly in Sukkur and Hyderabad district, who were Hindus and accepted as Hindus, but were followers of Guru Baba Nanak.
So they had so much cushioning in their religion, and they were so wise about the political gains of such an attitude, that instead of being intolerant to their differences, although they were fundamental, they started tolerating the differences to the extent that within the folds of Hinduism now you find strict monotheists and idolaters to the extent that they believe in thousands and thousands of gods, till they remain Hindus. Similarly is the situation of Christianity. Christian sects are more than three hundred, in fact I think it’s nearing four hundred, various sects among Christians. Some are outdated of course, I know, but in some form their beliefs are still inherited by others.
The profiling of sects has ultimately ended up in a state of society where the individual Christians hold their own individual views. So in fact the number of sects is beyond count. Yet they believe, some of them, that Jesus Christ was born out of human beings, and he had a father as well as mother, and they denounce the claim that he was a god in the literal sense, yet they are retained by Christianity. And there are other orthodox Christians, staunch Christians, intolerant Christians, so many sects and so many beliefs, and also the Mormons are still a part of Christianity as such. But what has happened to the Islam of modern times, unfortunately, it is not to Islam, but what has happened to the Muslims of the modern times.
Instead of gaining strength, they are cutting their own body and dismembering themselves, and piece after piece they are checking out, they say, this is not a part of us anymore. They started with Ahmadis for instance, and then they took up the issue of Zikris, now a very loud claim is being made by certain sections in Pakistan to excommunicate and check out Shias from the pale of Islam, and at the same time you hear very strong voices against Wahhabis, so that they should be checked out, and against the Brazilians, that they should be checked out. So ultimately, if you accept all these voices, every single Muslim would become a non-Muslim, and then they will be satisfied.
Their attitude is like that of a person who went to someone for having one of his arms tattooed, and he was very fond of a lion’s figure, you know, a lion was his favourite animal, and he wanted to pose to the world that he also is a lion-hearted person. So he said that, tattoo my arm with the figure of a great lion. So when the person who tattooed, he pricked, made the first prick, he said, oh, it’s very painful. He said, but you have come for tattooing, naturally it would require some patience on your part, you have to suffer. He said, but what were you making at this time? He said, I was trying to make the ears of the lion. He said, all right, but can’t a lion be without an ear? He said, yes, a lion can be without an ear. He said, all right, then go ahead, but don’t make the ear this time, the rest are the lion.
So at the next prick he said, yes, wait a minute, wait a minute, what were you making this time? He said, I was making the eyes of the lion. He said, but of course, there are blind lions, aren’t there? Yes, all right, don’t make the eyes. Then he said, when he went for the third prick, he said, what’s this time, please? He said, I was trying to make the lips of the lion. He said, but of course, lips are not necessary part, a lion can be without lips. He said, yes, it can be. So until, it went on and on until the tail was reached. He said, after all, when the important parts of a lion have been missed, what is a tail to a lion? Don’t do it.
So this is how they are dismembering the body politic of Muslims. After all, what were Ahmadis to them? Less Ahmadis, I mean, Islam would not be destroyed according to their views. So, next comes the tattooing of Shias onto Islam. He said, of course, Islam can survive without Shias. So can it survive without, independently speaking, without giving reference, referring the matter to all the sects altogether at one time. Individually, you can take up one sect after the other and the same would be the answer.
What without Brazilians, what without Wahhabis and so on. So they would not rest in peace until the whole of Islam is left out of their tattoo. Nothing would be left. It again reminds me of an interesting experience. There used to be a small child in Nawab Muhammad Ahmad Khan’s house. It was a little daughter who was very intelligent and very quick. And she used to concoct dreams and experiences. So once in the morning when she woke up, she started telling everybody that last night, not only dreams but experiences, just I saw this and that, because she had a very fertile brain. And she used to imagine things and then tell people that I saw this. So she started saying that she saw a bala. You know, how would you translate bala? A fiend. Bala, bala. Fiend, like, you know, like a fiend or a ghost. Bala is something different than a ghost. It’s a gremlin, probably, sir. Goblin, you mean? Gremlin. Gremlin. Yes. Could be. Let’s call it a fiend. I think fiend would not be enough for a bala. No, a fury. A fury is the word which is mentioned in Shakespearean drama for bala. There are many furies.
The closest English word, I think, is the fury. I mean, in ordinary terms, it has lost that connotation nowadays, but originally, fury, that whatever concept of fury you hold today, originates from those furies who were ladylike apparitions and controlled all the phenomena of disturbance and chaos. So… Chudiyelai. Chudiyelai, yes, that’s right. Balaji ko kehte hain na, Punjabi. Which is jadugarni, you know, it is different. Well, leave the bala, hell with the bala. Fury, for good, do serve my purpose for the time being, because the interesting experience is this, which I saw myself. I visited their house and there was this little girl telling everybody that she had seen a bala at night.
So I asked her what sort of bala it was. Please start describing. So she started describing like this. She said, look here, when I saw up on the wall, there was sitting a horrible thing, absolutely shocking. And so I was afraid and I shut my eyes. I said, but what sort of bala you saw? She said, when I opened my eyes, the bala had no head. It was so horrible. I said, then what? She said, then I shut my eyes. She said, when you opened your eyes, what did you see? She said, the bala, when I opened my eyes, had no throat and neck either.
So I was so horrified I shut my eyes. And then when she opened her eyes, the bala had no arms. And then when she opened her eyes, the bala had no upper trunk. Until she reached the feet and she said, look here, the strangest part is that she had no feet either. That bala which I saw. So these mullahs are looking at Islam like a bala. Unless it is totally dissolved into thin air, they would not rest satisfied. Even the feet must go ultimately.
