Why are some Hindus outraged over Pejawar Swami's iftar for 'beef-eating' Muslims?
Pejawar Swami, as my father and I always referred to him, affectionately, reverentially, and perhaps even knowingly, remains an enduring symbol and embodiment of something beautiful, true and sacred virtually across the span of my whole life thus far. I think of him now in this somewhat awestruck way because he remains the only one of three towering spiritual figures whose presence has had an influence in my journey in this world.
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, whose devotees my parents became rather late in life, left his bodily form in 2011. My father, the greatest form of love, wisdom and wit I have known, returned to wherever he chose to go in 2014. Today, well into his eighties, Pejawar Swami is still looking like a boy-guru, even as he fulfils an incredible third paryaya as chief of the Udupi Krishna temple.
I have known Pejawar Swami since I was five years old. He came to my parents’ home in Hyderabad as I was suffering from a high fever that would not relent even after many days. His arrival, my father often used to say, saved me, right on my fifth birthday at that. Since then, I have had the privilege and delight of meeting him several times over the years.
Whenever his tours brought him to Hyderabad, we would go to seek his blessings, either in the Raghavendra Matham or in the new Sanskrit institution in Secunderabad. Sometimes, he would come home with his entourage in his old battered van, enthusiastic student-monks, and all, and offer his blessings to family, neighbours, my parents’ domestic staff, and their children.
The last time I met him was in 2006, when I gifted him a copy of Hinduism Today in which my article on the California textbooks issue had appeared, and he was happy about it. I was in Udupi again during the start of his historic third paryaya in January 2016, but I missed meeting him (I did have the honour of presenting a copy of Rearming Hinduism to the “Junior Pejawar Swami” though). Although it has been years since I saw him, thinking of him continues to inspire and motivate me.
The fact that he is still here with us, coming to bless us each day wherever we are in the form of tiny iPhone pictures of the aarti he offers to our Udupi Krishna in a different ornamentation each morning, means a lot to me. I touch his feet thus with my words, and strive to learn something more for us to live by as a result of the sudden controversy that a few, perhaps well-meaning but misinformed and fearful people, conjured up around him.
Pejawar Swami has been in the news recently for the oddest of reasons, but in that time-honoured way that our gods and saints seem to function, ended up only assuring us that sometimes what seems really bad or wrong about others is just a limitation of our own perception.
A few days ago, a photograph appeared of Pejawar Swami distributing some sweets to a row of smiling and appreciative Muslim men in Udupi. There was nothing unusual or extraordinary about this event. The Udupi Krishna temple remains simultaneously decidedly orthodox in its ceremonial disciplines but at the same time as large-hearted and liberal as Krishna would want us to be.
People of all faiths are welcome to dine in its halls and routinely do (Udupi Krishna is known as Anna-Brahma, and the feeding of people is an especially cherished ideal here). An image of devout members of one faith smiling affectionately at the gesture of a leader of another should have been seen as nothing more than a symbol of love. But somehow, the news became the centre of a powerful intersection of discourses and raging political forces and counterforces.
Some Hindu activists were outraged that an Islamic religious ceremony was supposedly allowed to be conducted in the temple, while secular activists celebrated the event as a retort to what they view as growing Hindu extremism in the country.
The war of words was rather intense, and Pejawar Swami himself issued a video statement to set the record straight. He pointed out that a group of Muslim devotees are traditionally associated closely and fondly with the mutt, and that they were given a space in an annex of the dining hall to offer their iftar prayer after accepting prasad from him as it was Ramzan.
He also pointed out that the whole “beef-eater” angle that was being played up by some Hindu activists was inappropriate, given that some Hindus too consume beef, and cow protection is best achieved by reason rather than coercion.
In a time when the politics and rhetoric about cows and humans has reached a divisive crescendo in India, it was an important reminder from Swamiji that the sanctity of the cow cannot be reduced to a pretext for settling scores with others — however bad those scores might be. What, then, are we to make of this present moment?
We live in a time when both great ideals and petty actions are at play as we struggle to break free of the burdens of history we have on our backs. For decades, pseudo-scientific, pseudo-egalitarian and pseudo-farmer-friendly regimes have normalised a rapid and massive industrialisation of violence against what has historically been our sustainable, indigenous cow-centric agrarian culture and economy.
The American wild west may have had cattle-barons in the days of the beef trusts and native American genocides, but what we have witnessed in India in recent decades is quite shocking too, if vastly underreported. Cattle-trains, cattle-smugglers, cattle-criminals, and the governments they have propped up - all enjoyed the rule of the roost for a long spell now.
The exploitation, theft, violent transportation, and slaughter of cows has hurt farmers who depend on cows, cow protectionists, animal rights workers, devout Hindus and many others but has enjoyed overwhelming sanction from the halls of supposedly liberal urban cosmopolitan discourse.
The complex politics of cow protection have been reduced to a cliché in media discourses (and frequently, outright lies inserting “beef” angles into mob violence where they did not even exist), and at the same time, some of the goons on the street are viewing the cow as little more than as an excuse to attack Muslims.
At a time like this, I believe it is important for us, whoever we are, and wherever we stand in the political spectrum, to view the sudden rush of attention to the actions of an important Hindu sage and institution-leader not with preconceived calculations about the nature of the world but to learn from it instead with the greatest love, humility and openness.
I will admit that at a time when the mainstream media and a self-righteous activist cult has been lying outright in order to singularly demonise Hindus, the anger by some Hindu activists seemed not too surprising. And yet, the brashness of that anger, and the reckless way in which some people brazenly abused and insulted a gentle, learned and towering persona in Hindu life today, was deeply appalling.
I do not know if any of these people have reconsidered their actions, but I do hope, especially since I care for the survival of the Hindu movement, and Hindus in general, that they will not leave things at that. I am grateful also for Hindu activists who spoke up clearly and boldly to tell us what actually had happened at the time.
I believe that Pejawar Swami becoming the centre of attention like this is not without significance for all of us. Our gurus are indeed the centre and light of our existence, and teach us in ways we can barely fathom (and in a timely lesson when Indians are also feeling divided and alienated about Hindi hegemony and language diversity, I should point out that I barely speak Kannada and Pejawar Swami barely speaks Telugu, and yet I seem to understand something of him and the civilisation he embodies).
When we are near them, we often ask them for practical things, studies, jobs, family well-being. But all of us are also being drawn into a world beyond merely these things by virtue of who they are, their effort, dedication, and indeed their wholehearted immersion into a life-long discipline of study, ceremonial practice, public engagement, and at times bold political leadership as well.
Pejawar Swami, we should recall, broke with some forms of social orthodoxy by engaging with Dalits and also broke with some of his secular-Nehruvian Hindu followers to bravely lead in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. He is, simply, an embodiment of the best of Sanatana Dharma, Hinduism, Hindutva, India and whatever global and universal and ecologically grounded cosmopolitanism is still left for us to follow.
Let us adore Krishna, and him, and finesse our own path in feeding our brothers and sisters, and in winning everyone over in safeguarding our mother; whether that mother is Veda Mata, Gau Mata, Bharat Mata, or Bhu Mata herself.