Shri Ram’s Values Are Our Global Endowment
On January 22, India made a statement with the inauguration of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. We should have made this statement a long time ago.
Shri Ram is an icon of Indian values. Of all Indian values. Of Vedic values. He is celebrated (and worshipped, by those of the Hindu faith) as “Maryada Pusrushottam” because he lived his life motivated and bound by these values. Even though Shri Ram is a Hindu deity, it is worth noting that Hinduism pre-dates Shri Ram by several thousand years. When a way of life survives, morphs, and thrives for that long, it stops being a religion and becomes culture. Hinduism is a culture, our collective culture. Its values, perhaps born as Vedic values, have gone on to become India’s all-encompassing values. These ancient values, such as “Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah” have survived the test of time and proven themselves to be life-sustaining, through invasions, colonial occupations, national emergencies, and natural calamities.
In this modern day, Shri Ram’s values have become the collective inheritance of Indians identifying as Hindus but also of everyone who embraces Indian culture, whether born on Indian land or anywhere else. In that sense, these values are our global endowment. If we choose so, they belong to us all regardless of faith, geography, or nationality.
Today, with our modern, educated minds and points of view, we must see Shri Ram as an icon of life-sustaining values. It has been an honour that India was called upon to become his land of birth and life, many centuries ago. It is a privilege that our country is called upon again, now during our lifetimes, to consecrate* his temple. To host this monument to his values is a spiritual responsibility none of us should lightly.
I urge Indians and global citizens of all faiths to see the long-awaited inauguration of the Ayodhya Ram Temple from this perspective. It is even more crucial that Indians who identify as Hindus do so.
* — Consecration is an ancient and highly sophisticated energetic technique to infuse life force into inanimate material such as rock or metal. This allows the statue to interact with the human form of a devotee on a subtle, energetic plane.
