The Great Hijackings.

The first recorded aircraft hijack took place on February 21, 1931, in Peru. People do not speak about hijacking at sea as it is perhaps less glamorous.

Usurpation has had happened in various forms in societies ,as early as from the dawn of social living. And the most cunning are the hijacking of great masters who threw light into our mangled messy living.

It is Xmas time and my mobile phone and Gmail have been often notified with good wishes for a merry Xmas and the wishes of good tidings for the ensuing New Year.

Good to know people care!

The fascination with Blogging sends me every morning, first routine, after bed to the computer and the Blog. There were a few blogs from blogging associates reminding of Xmas and conveying their wishes. But unfortunately and disturbingly there was a post which sort of hijacked Xmas and Jesus Christ. And as a consolation, threw a Buddha at us, Indians .In any case Siddhartha was from Nepal and less Indian, in terms of political and social definitions.

Hijacking has always happened in matters of great thinkers and masters, whether they be, mythical or historical characters. Christ, Rama, Buddha, Mahaveera, Shankara, Socrates, and even recently the venerable Narayana Guru have been hijacked and sequestered by vested institutionalized interests.

Can anyone tell without bating an eyelid that Jesus Christ as we know him is an exclusive private merchandise of the institutionalized Church? When someone claims so, it is gross irreverence to the person called Jesus Christ and his philosophy. The great thinkers were and are never any ones private possession. They cannot be possessed by a sect, religion, region or country. The teachings of Buddha and the thoughts of Socrates transcend eons and generations. The dharma and purpose of the life of a King that Sree Rama extolled even at the dire expense of his dear wife cannot be glorified to be the culture of one sect or religion. His life, mythical though conveyed a message to the whole world at large. To claim the gift of such thoughts and  messages meant for the whole of  humanity as exclusively patented or of copyright to a section is ridiculous, outrageous and outlandish. Such thoughts tell one’s pettiness and myopia.

"Father they know not what they say”!

The birth of Christ and its commemoration is a universal celebration, because his exhortation and teachings were meant for the whole of humanity, and not for the stretch of land in Palestine , or self proclaimed Christians. The philosophy of “ahimsa” or non violence, the moral creed of Satyagraha conveyed by Mahatma Gandhi are not to be confined to a few Indians, it has universal relevance.

If a patron of another faith, let him be a Hindu a Muslim, a Jew a Buddhist a commie or an anarchist feels and states that the teachings and philosophy of Jesus is alien and hence wrong and harmful, or is an exclusive merchandise to be pedaled by a particular group, he or she is widely proclaiming his/her impetuosity and retarded development of their brain.It is unfortunately our shortcoming and limitation that we cannot see teachings of great masters as all encompassing and universal, touching each and every facets of life, transcending continents.

There are also claims on this Xmas day that the lands in Africa, America and Asia were resurrected and civilized from barbarism by the advent of Christianity. A grossly mediocre statement lacking in knowledge of history! To claim that the native Indians were more barbaric than the church going Europeans is the unkindest cut of all. The inquisition, the purge into the Americas , the expeditions of Christian missionaries into the unchartered lands of Africa by the connivance of the official Roman and Spanish Church only decimated and eliminated the ethnic cultures , traditions , pagan life styles and systems of the natives. The most brutal of conversions took place in the Americas by the Spanish and that was in total variance with what Christ stood for.Remember, those  few  fisher folks became his apostles, his disciples out of their volition and not enticement, lure or brutal force.

And it is a shame to dedicate in the memory of Christ ,the mayhem unleashed on the native populace to purportedly civilize them, and to remind us of those horrendous acts on this Xmas day, is injustice and unchristian.

Xmas is not for the Church alone!