As I wait for the Ayodhya verdict to be deferred (I hope) or delivered (I fear), I wonder what would Lord Rama say if he was one of us? As singer Joan Osbourne had asked once “If you were faced with him in all his glory, What would you ask if you had just one question?” Well, my questions would be this. Would he want a temple built in his honour to be erected upon the site on which he was allegedly born? Or would he just be content with the fact that in 2010, almost 3,000 years later, a country ridden with difficulties such as poverty, population, inflation, corruption, and many more better left unlisted, still reveres him enough to fight over his janam bhoomi? Or would he, in his gentle righteous manner give over the land to the Muslim community for them to rebuild their mosque that was once there for everyone to see? Or maybe, just maybe, he and Allah would be sharing a drink of nectar and biting on some grapes, laughing at their favourite reality TV show, much like we laughed at Rakhi Sawant during her Swayamvar?
I bet my life on the last option. The Maryada-purushottam would laugh, and surely loathe, the way we have turned his existence into an excuse to show off our superiority. He would be watching Advani at Somnath, and chuckling, “You see this as a way of getting the BJP back into the reckoning, right?” He would be watching all of us waxing eloquent about peace and togetherness, when he knows that many of us secretly would take the side of our “community”. As my partner pointed out to highlight the hypocrisy -- “So if a Muslim hacked a pregnant Hindu lady in front of you, would you only blame him, or would you blame Islam as a whole?” I said No, I wouldn’t blame anybody. But I am unsure, and that’s why I don’t want this verdict to be delivered.
I don’t have the wisdom of Lord Rama to guide my way. I don’t have his courage either. I am scared. There is a mosque under my house and I live in a building owned by Muslims. I walk down every day to see white caps and long beards. And I am scared what might happen to me if things get messy. If I, an educated journalist feels wary, what will stop the majority of the nation from panicking? Why I am scared is also because I know, like the laughing Lord Rama above, that despite reading the Ramayana or the Koran, we haven’t learnt anything about what God really wants from us. He is not materialistic – he doesn’t want a temple, or a mosque. He is not violent -- he doesn’t want to kill and loot to prove that we love him. He is not competitive – he doesn’t want his religion to be the superior one. His whole existence was there as an example. An example to tell us what kind of men and women to be – kind, gentle, peaceful, compassionate, humble and wise. If he had known we would fight over building a temple or mosque to worship him, then knowing him, he would never have been born. If we really know our Gods, we will ask them, what they would have done about Ayodhya? And we all deep inside – where we never want to look – will hear his answer. “Let it go”
