Wrong ideas, wrong words and wrong meanings

[Narayan R.Joshi]

To the best of my knowledge, the English word "idol" is misused in
describing the deities of RAma. KrishNa, Buddha installed in temples with
proper religious procedure.The word idol was once used to indicate a small
doll used in black magic. The practitioners of black magic were the
original idolaters.The misuse of the English words to describe the ancient
eastern concepts is widespread.The second example of misuse is the coining
and promoting the terms like Hinduism, Shikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and
Zoroastrism by the western writers.Christians do not use the words Jesusism
or Christism to describe their religion. It is Christianity.The western
writers tried to promote the term Mohammedism. However it was opposed by
Muslims who use the term Islam for their religion.The meaning of the
suffix "-ism" is a kind of ideology without the God's revelation and
procedure for salvation.The label "-ism" makes true sense in words like
Communism, Capitalism, Nepotism, Humanism etc.Originally the term secular
meant anybody who is not Christian.Nowadays it means different things to
different people in different contexts.Identifying a religion by the name
of a single prophet may lead to a future conflict. What would happen if the
greater prophet appeared in future?Are the followers going to rename their
religion without conflict or with conflict? In Physics,on the other hand we
have the theory of Newton, then theory of Eistein and so on.All of them
however are the part of the overall sysstem of knowledge called Physics.
Similar logic existed in the ancient India.Teachings of Vi.sNu were Aagama
of Vi.sNu, teachings of Shiva were Aagama of Shiva, teaching of Buddha were
Aagama of Buddha and so on. The wisdom of the existence of the God and
practices to be followed to realize Him distilled out over the centuries
through the contribution of many many Prophets and Saints was treated as
Nigama.The condensed knowledge that stood the test of time was called
Dharma similar to Deen of the ancient Parsi people.Thus Nigama is the river
flowing with ever fresh waters of merging knowledge streams checked and
rechecked by personal experiences of millions of Saints and Prophets small
or great. It was not a pond of knowledge belonged to a single the first or
the last prophet and which could start smelling foul within centuries after
the death of the prophet thus leading to ideological fights.It is
interesting to note that the new technical knowledge checked experimentally
by scientists and engineers gets classified while copies of the ancient
unchecked, mistranslated, rewritten, even manipulated scriptures are spread
in millions all over the world with claims like the first and the last
revelation from the God direct. Human psychology is involved here. Two
human beings sharing the same technical knowledge (like making of atom bomb)
feel insecure. However when they share their ignorance they feel secure.
Religious leaders are on the forefront in inflating egos and spreading
ignorance in today's world at the same time suppressing small voices trying
to tell the other side of the story.Around 1991 or 1992, the ethnic news
weekly Indiawest from California published the summary of the original
article by Dr.Tahir Mahmood, professor of Law, Delhi University published
in Times of India.It was said in the article that Prophet of Islam had
stated on more than one occasion that divine fragrance came to him from the
side of India.The son-in-law of the Prophet and the fourth Caliph Hazrat
Ali had said once, "Of all places on the Earth, the holiest and the most
fragrant is India". The ancient Arabs were in always good relations with
the ancient India.Arab role in the destruction of the ancient temples is
minimal.Even to this day, there exist ancient shrines scattered all over
the Middle east from Egypt to Arabia.It was the Turkish custom to destroy
the temples and build tombs over the dead people.To the best of my
knowledge (please correct me if I were wrong), there is no tomb (round
cylindrical structure and building) on the spot where the Prophet (pbuh)of
Islam is resting eternally.It was reported in the ancient Hindu scriptures
that at the place where the living God was once playing,in future the tomb
of the dead would be erected. When Bauddha round stoops were built in the
ancient India, some felt that prophecy was fulfilled. No, it was fulfilled
when the tomb called Taj-Mahal was built on the bank of KrishNa's YamunA
river. True Islam should be separated from practices of Turks with the
ancient totem of Wolf. Thanks.