Sri Bharatamata

Ashtottaram 101

 

101) OṀ PARĀKRAMAṆA RAHIṪA-

                                              BHŪMYAINAMAH:

        OṀ (AUM) -PA-RAA-  AA-KRA-MA-ṆA-  RA-HI-TA- BHOO- MYAI- NA-- MA- HA

 

 (Parākramaṇa: means-Occupying someone else land that does not belong to you;

                  Rahita: means-abandoned, deserted, deprived off, separated from)

 

 

 

 

 

When we were living with religious tolerance, and practicing 'asṫeya' (non-stealing) as a 'yama' (restraint), when we have welcomed the foreigners for trade with open arms; they took our pious and soft nature as a weakness and occupied our land with aggression and violence. They not only have showed inhumane brutality towards us, they raped our women, and treated us as secondhand citizens in our own nation. They have treated us like slaves, robbed everything we got, ruined our temples; and stole the ornaments from the statues of the deities decorated with valuable diamonds and other precious stones. They have built mosques and churches over the demolished temples. The Christian missionaries took our religious tolerance as granted and have started proselytizing our poor Hindus into Christianity. Now we have churches and mosques in every street and at everywhere. All this is because we are tolerant people; and do not go and declare wars against other countries, cultures or religions. Our ancient sages taught us to see 'paramātma' in every soul and every being.

 

The yoga sūtras prescribe a graded discipline comprising eight steps, called the 'ashṭāngās' of yoga. Of these eight, the 'yama' (restraint) consists of 'asṫeya' (non-stealing) and most of the Vedic Hindus observe this. Hence, in the history of humanity, our nation is the only one that did not occupy any foreign land even when we were the mightiest nation and was three times larger than the current land. We don't practice 'proselytization' with the delusional thinking that 'the people of other faiths and religions are going to hell and we have to save them'. We don't believe in converting other people into Hinduism so that we can go to heaven. We have never shown barbarism, and brutality; or conduct crusades against other countries or robbed their wealth. We don't have that kind of dark history on our shoulders and thanks to our ancient seers, gurus, sages and ṛishis! One might argue that, there are some instances where we had to defend ourselves against other religious terrorisms and extremisms.

 

Because of these 'aṣhṭāngās' we practice as ordained by our sacred scriptures and texts, we are always able to cultivate personal purity and social harmony. These are not only ancient, but also very practical. Modern psychologists too are discovering their utility in guarding or in regaining mental health. Methods and techniques of yoga are becoming quite popular all over the world. The first two steps-yama and niyama- can contribute to the wellbeing of the individual as well as of the society.

 

We can proudly say that our land is 'Parākramaṇa Rahiṫa Bhūmi'.