A New Pastime For The Religious Idlers

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 5 January 2024 “Lord Ram Belongs To The Bahujan. Lord Ram Belongs To Kshatriyas. People Want Us To Turn Us Vegetarian But Lord Ram Used To Hunt And Eat Meat. Lord Ram Was A Non-Vegetarian. How Do You Expect A Person Who Lived In The Forest For 14 Years To Search For Vegetarian Food..." Dr Awhad, A Former Minister Whether the putative Ram of Sanatanis was a vegetarian or non-vegetarian is an inconclusive debate. What's much more important and pitiable is that we're speculating and fighting over a mythical character's food habits and preferences! Alas, we've so much time for all non-issues. Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume wrote that the pagan believers would often indulge in useless debates over the drinking and eating habits and preferences of their pagan deities. English historian Edward Gibbon also said the same thing in his magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that one of the minor factors of the decline of the Roman Empire was Speculative Religiosity of the Romans. Since then, this term has become popular in the domains of Religious Studies, Theology, History, Sociology and also modern Psychology. Just think of this petty issue from the sociological and dietary perspectives. Hindus, who've taken umbrage at calling Ram a non-vegetarian, will have to accept the fact that many Hindus among them are non-vegetarians but devout Ram-Bhakts. A majority of Hindus may be vegetarians but there's also a very big chunk of Hindus relishing meat. They too worship Ram. Rajputs are devout Ram bhakts but they eat meat. Ram belonged to the Kshatriya clan (Ikshvaaku Vansh) and Kshatriyas have been eating meat right from the beginning. Ram's godhood came much later. Even Valmiki Ramayana doesn't depict him as a god. It describes him as Maryada Purushottam (Mard-e-Kaamil in Islamic context, used for Muhammad) and also mentions his lapses, e.g, Shambuka Vadh when Ram himself put Shambuka to the sword. According to the story, Shambuka, a Shudra ascetic, was killed by Rama for attempting to perform tapas in violation of dharma, resulting in the bad karma which caused the death of a Brahmin's son. Coming back to Ram's food preferences, if Ram of Hindus never touched meat, why do many Hindus eat meat? If you follow Ram, follow him in toto. Stop consuming non-veg. We've created myths that our gods don't indulge in eating meat and having sex to create a false divine aura. Emulate your gods and stop mating and meating. Humans are perennially befuddled beings and religiously insane creatures, born with no brains in their skulls. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/pastime-religious-idlers/d/131456 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism