Missing the message!!!!!!!!
Kolkata is now cooling off after the hectic days of DURGA puja,lots of pandals,lots of art and creativity.The best of bengali creativity at work be it pandals or themes.But the thing which struck me and probably would have also reminded others that DURGA puja is basically worship of strength.
See HER idol and you will be filled with vigor,locks of hair flowing,eyes filled with rage,all hands with weapons to be used for destruction of the wicked.In fact Vijayadashmi resounds even by it's name of victory over evil.We worship crores of gods by different names DURGA,KALI,MAHADEV,RAM,KRISHNA and others.All you notice, carry some form of weapons and what message does it gives us?
To worship strength,to crave for victory in all fields.To understand the difference between good and evil,to give best effort to avoid bloodshed,like Ram and Krishna did by negotiating,but when the need arises and it becomes clear that desctruction of evils like Ravana,Duryodhana,Kansa,Mahishasura is for the larger good go whole hog for it.
If we learn this message from our GODS then only we will be truly worshipping them.Our independence struggle and our misconceptions of AHMISA (non violence) have developed a feeling that weapons,strength is only brawn and non violence places us on a higher plane against the enemy.After independence some people even argued that we should not have any army to defend because it is against non violence.
The message is clear to worship weapons and even to posses it.We had a tradition of possesing weapons and worshipping them on Vijayadashmi.But Englishman after seeing the revolt of 1857 and how the commoners used these weapons against them,disarmed the nation and made it illegal to posses them.The result is a nation in which goons,naxalites,jihadis get weapons from anywhere and terrorize people,but the commoners who can fight them off with weapons are disallowed to do so.
Even in terrorist affected states when commoners were given weapons and formed into VDC(Village defence committees) they have shown miraculous results.The recent example is of a girl slaying a LeT terrorist single handedly.Even the world's oldest democracy USA allows possesion of weapons and has'nt repealed it once even after so many accidents (remember alcohol was banned in 20's in USA but not weapons).
The need in INDIA is to relax control on weapons so that the thriving black market is wiped off and the weapons go in to the hands of people who use it for the nation rather than against it.
