The Test is For Man Not For God
It is very sad indeed that a group of my fellow human beings in Afghanistan felt the need to destroy such ancient and beautiful expressions of Love for the Divine. Why did they do this? Was it arrogance? Was it fear? Or was it sheer ignorance? In as much as these destroyers believed in the Divine so did the creators of these Statues!!! Then Why? To the Creator, we are all his creatures. The Muslim, the Christian, the Jew, the Parsi, the Buddhist, the Jain, the Sikh, the Hindu, and the many whose ancient belief systems still have no name. We are all creatures. Our belief systems are evidence of Beauty in Variety. When one set of creatures decides that their belief system must exclude all others to survive, then this Beauty is destroyed.
As a result of such erroneous thinking, many beautiful belief systems have already been destroyed by open and covert methods. We call ourselves civilized and yet we have words such as heathen, pagan, infidel, non-believer in our prayers. We human beings can fool ourselves but you cannot fool the Cosmic Laws!!! There is a price to pay for such actions!!!
I appeal to all who profess to follow any religion to look within and see that the Age of Reasoning with Love has arrived. The sign on the Gates of Heaven that you thought said "Entry for only the Baptized" is no longer there!
The ticket of Jihaad that you thought was a guarantee to Paradise, has to be thrown away!
Unless we cut and paste our belief systems on to a cosmic screen we will not evolve!
Can a sane person truly believe that expressions of love for the Divine as exhibited in such artworks will limit God? When a mullah, a minister, a pujari, a bikku or a muni arrogates on himself that he alone is the mouthpiece of God or the Divine he can scream all he wants but he cannot limit the Divine. Wake up! The Age of Reasoning with Love has arrived. The Test is for man not God.
Do you think it is a mockery of God when man carves into the solid rock the outlines of another man who raised his nature beyond human limitations and thereby proved that we all can??? What is all this nonsense about images? The very text that proclaims that -"thou shalt not worship graven images" - is the very same one that proclaims that "God fashioned man in his image"!!! Then go ahead all children of mothers! I dare you to tear every picture, painting, photo that you have of your mother - for these are all graven images of the one that you have come to love and who gave you birth??? I dare all priests to stop kissing the crosses that hang from their waists as they are kissing graven images of the so-called Only Son of God!!!
To my brothers and sisters who follow Islam, I say be Consistent. I say - instead of tearing down the works of other belief systems, tear down Mecca and Medina if indeed they are the only two most holy places for God. Allah cannot be limited to these two places alone. Oh, brother, which direction shall I turn to do Namaaz when the Divine is everywhere? Even the mouth that is so used to uttering lies, must be stitched up! It should not even utter the word Allah for we will be defiling God, would we not? It is high time we stopped this foolish behaviour. It is time to cut and paste our beliefs onto a more encompassing screen or we shall not evolve and neither will we leave this world a better place for the future occupants.
Hidden behind all this is the role of powerful nations. They cannot unscrupulously and callously promote in the name of globalization, trade or aid, ways of life alien to indigenous cultures. Smaller nations are bound to feel threatened and therefore right or wrong, they resort to unsuitable means of retaliation. Wealthier nations must develop a greater degree of sensitivity and appreciation for other nations. Secessions, statehoods, ethnic cleansings are all symptoms produced by this lack of sensitivity. The greatest danger we have is the use of the Economy as the Sole Ruler to measure all transactions. When wealthier nations clamor for Global Peace, their call is wasted in the winds for their foreign policies are solely based on Greed and Self projected Paranoia. It is time to Wake Up!
Finally, I leave you with this picture - On one side are my fellow human beings in Afghanistan, a poor nation engaged in blasting divine artworks. Flip the other side you see Buddhists both lay people and monks all over the world quietly engaged in Samayaa - where all personal merits accrued are being offered for the welfare and salvation of all, regardless of their belief systems. Even the Taliban has been, is, and will be in their dedications.