The young and flamboyant Sri Vaishnava scholar-activist, Sri Dushyanth Sridhar has come out public with this blazing gun of a tweet against the Hindu and Sanatana Dharmic religious leaders in the country :
Not one of the 5 Shankaracharya Mutts , not a single Vaishnava Mutt or Madhwa Mutt has condemned the crass and scurrilous attack on sanatana dharma that was launched by Tiru. Udayanidhi Stalin and Tiru.A.Raja in the last few days. Not one Shiva Adheenam , not one Lingayat mutt, not even ISKCON International has come forward to make a statement in protest against the anti-Sanatana calumny.
I think there may be several reasons why the leaders of the Hindu religion are refusing to come out of the habitual hibernation in which they are respectively cloistered :
1. These religious leaders feel that as Sanyasis they must remain high above and not enter any fray in political or secular affairs of the country even if they happen to relate to matters of faith. That they feel is sanyasi dharma.
2. Secondly, the leaders feel that there are more than enough brave and doughty foot-soldiers amongst the faithful — like Sri Dushyant Sridhar himself, for example — who can carry the fight into battle . No need for the Acharyas therefore to lead the battle-charge themselves with high-decibel war cries on the street. That would only get gleefully but needlessly amplified by the print, electronic and social media. Amplification often leads only to ever more complication.
3. The Third reason could be that the Mutt heads fear that if they make any public statements of condemnation, they, their Muttams and organisations could face more reprisals from the political establishment . As things stand today, they all already face so many legal disputes and tax tangles in courts and with many statutory authorities. The last thing they want is even more regulatory scrutiny into their own mutt affairs. The HR&CE Dept. would start firing fresh salvoes at them.
4. The fourth reason could be that M/s Udayanidhi and Raja have very cleverly given a newly crafted and so very narrow and perverse definition of Sanatana Dharma. If the Seers and Jeeyars were to come forward to refute it in a nationwide debate, that would be easily construed as their rising to the stout defence or affirmation of “social discrimination”. They would then be accused of being dyed-in-wool, hardcore Manu-vaadis. Collectively, the Mutt Acharyas don’t want to be boxed into that inconvenient corner. Why? Because the Acharyas are prepared to neither publicly defend nor reject outright the oldest recorded scriptural code of ethics of Sanatana Dharma viz. the Manu Smriti. It is all a very sad reflection of the profound Hamletian dilemma that Sanatana Dharma faces today viz. : “to be or not to be what Manu had described Sanatana Dharma to be… That is the question!”. When even the RSS (Rashtriya Svayam Sevak) has denounced the edifice of Varna-Ashrama Dharma on which Manu Smriti is built, how can the Hindu seers and Acharyas take a contrarian, fundamentalist position with regard to the basic tenets of Sanatana Dharma?
If not for all the above reasons, how otherwise can anyone explain the utterly mute or craven response of the Sanatana leadership in the country which Sri Dushyant now bemoans and beats his breast about? The most popular Sant or Jeeyar in this country whose huge following numbers several millions in every nook and corner in India is perhaps Baba Ramdev who once was such a high profile Hindu sanatanist. His silence today is deafening, isn’t it?
As an ardent follower of the ancient Dhaarmic faith myself, I have nothing but sympathy for the poor muttaadhipathis and Acharyas of the Hindu religion for they are truly “damned if they do and damned if they don’t”!
Sudarshan Madabushi
If the last reason is really true then it will be unfortunate This is the opportunity for them to reiterate that four fold division , as the BG says, is based on work not birth If they still stick unfortunately to the contrary view that birth and not work is the yard stick they would soon. within 50 odd years be condemned to oblivion and that will good riddance.