Bali Millis Preview and Information: Re: [bali-bali] Sindhu, Shintu, Hindu, Indies, Hindia & Yog

Sabtu, 13 Desember 2008

Re: [bali-bali] Sindhu, Shintu, Hindu, Indies, Hindia & Yog

Artikel yg kaya referensi.

On 12/12/08, Putu Kesuma <putukesuma@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Sindhu, Shintu, Hindu, Indies, Hindia & Yoga
>
>
> Anand Krishna, Jakarta
>
> http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20081212.F04&irec=3
>
> "Remember history, or you shall be forgotten by history" -- we have heard
> phrases like this a thousand times, yet we keep forgetting. So, we are
> condemned to repeat the same lessons over and over.
> The Malaysians -- the politicians as well as the clergy -- have forgotten
> their own history, and therefore the nation is at the brink of
> disintegration. We must learn from them so as not to make the same mistakes.
> Decades ago, Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul warned us of what could happen in
> countries like ours, where a foreign culture is forcibly imposed upon an
> indigenous one. In particular, he mentioned five countries: Iran,
> Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Interestingly, all these
> five countries belong to the great civilization of Sindhu Valley.
> It was the great Arab Historian of the 10th century BC, Al Beruni, who
> mispronounced Sindhu as Hindu. The historian collectively called all the
> lands and the islands beyond the Sindh valley "Hind".
> He was not the first to mispronounce the word. Much earlier, the Chinese had
> called it Shintu. There are indications that the early Arabs knew about its
> civilization from the Chinese merchants and some of the tribes abbreviated
> it to Shin.
> A thousand years later, Al Beruni's magnum opus on India is still in print
> and remains an interesting read. The great historian wrote about the
> civilization with an unparalleled passion, translated various spiritual and
> other texts into Arabic and glorified the people as worshipers of "One" God.
> This was of course not acceptable to Sultan Mahmud, the ruler of Ghazna, who
> wanted religious justification for the looting of India. The book,
> therefore, was published after Mahmud's death.
> Much later, when the Moguls came to India and settled there, they called
> their kingdom Hindustan. "Hindu" was never used to identify a certain
> religion, but rather a civilization as well as the geographical location.
> The Portuguese did the same when they distorted the word further into
> "Indies". Later, the British pronounced it India.
> We -- Nusantarans of old and modern Indonesians -- shared this very same
> civilization with the Iranians, the Afghans and the peoples of Bharat
> (present day Indian subcontinent). As pointed out by Coedes, the French
> historian, the rulers of the subcontinent never colonized us. They did not
> impose upon us their religious and other beliefs. We shared with them those
> beliefs.
> The westerners called us lesser India -- a misnomer though it recognized the
> fact that we belonged to the same civilization. We were not "lesser" in any
> way. Indeed, our archipelago was recognized as SvarnaDvipa, the
> gold-yielding islands. The seas only separated us. Such geographical
> separation though did not separate us culturally. We still shared the same
> cultural roots.
> Yoga as a science developed from such roots. So, we find yoga in its various
> forms all over the subcontinent, and even on our islands. Yoga has nothing
> to do with "Hinduism" as religion, but with "Hindu" as a civilization.
> "Hinduism" as religion is a fact that must be recognized today. The religion
> of modern Hindus is as much a part of the Great Sindhu, Shintu or Hindu
> civilization as yoga is. But that does not reduce yoga into a religious
> belief or system.
> Indeed, the word yoga was already in use thousands of years before the word
> "Hindu" came into common usage. If we are to use Al Beruni's terms, then we
> all are Hindus. The Indian pilgrims performing haj in Arabia were called
> Hindi.
> Our common ancestors, the Hindus of old, developed yoga as a system for
> general well-being, but mind you, the "Hindu" here is not the same as the
> follower of Hinduism as a religion. The Hindu here is Al Beruni's Hindu, a
> person belonging to the Sindh valley civilization.
> Interestingly, the most clear traces and remnants of this civilization are
> found in the modern Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
> To say yoga is Hindu is to say that the law of gravity is Christian because
> Newton who discovered it was Christian. Or, the theory of relativity is
> Jewish because Albert Einstein had Jewish blood running through his veins.
> What about the numeral "O" then? The Arabs first learnt it from the peoples
> of Sindh and later brought it to the west. Is it safe to use the same?
> I am convinced without any doubt that the current developments in our
> country are orchestrated by a group of people who want to uproot us from our
> cultural heritage. Their motive is all too clear. They are trying to
> colonize us not only economically, but also culturally. Malaysia has fallen
> into their prey. The Malaysians can boast of their material development, but
> without self-identity as Melayu, they are on an irreversible journey toward
> disintegration.
> We are living through very decisive moments in time and history. The options
> are too clear. The writing on the wall speaks loud. The options are limited,
> either we become a backyard of some country out there, or stand up and say
> "no" to any and all attempts to "uncivilize" us, to uproot us culturally.
>
> The writer is Spiritual Activist, author of more than 110 books, founder of
> several organizations (www.anandkrishna.org, www.aumkar.org,
> www.californiabali.org, www.brazilindonesia.org)
>
>
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