DALIT APPROACH TO RIGHTEOUS CONDUCT IN RELIGION

Mahatma Phule discussed an important aspect of religion in the Sarvajanik Satyadharma where he wondered as to who could be said to practise truthful (righteous) conduct! The following is in addition to the points alluded to in an earlier section: “Those who admit that men and women have been born independent from birth and are capable of enjoying every right, can be said to be practising righteous conduct. Those who do not worship the stars and stones, but have respect for the ‘Nirmik’ (Creator) of the universe, can be said to practise righteous conduct. Those who do not let other creatures enjoy all the things created by the Creator but offer them in empty worship to the ‘Nirmik’ cannot be said to practice righteous conduct. Those who do not torment in any way other living beings can be said to practice righteous conduct. Those who let others enjoy human rights and do not oppose them individually or collectively can be said to practice righteous conduct.

All men and women have religious and political freedom. Those who acknowledge others’ rights and do not harass or harm them can be said to practise righteous conduct. Men who consider all women except their wives as their sisters and women who consider all men except their husbands as their brothers can be said to practise righteous conduct. All men and women have been granted the freedom to voice, write and publish their thoughts and views on human rights. However, those who take care that their thoughts or views do not harm others can be said to practise righteous conduct. Those who do not condemn others for their opinions or political views and do not persecute them can be said to practise righteous conduct. Those who admit that men and women should get jobs in villages and civil administration in keeping with their ability and strength can be said to practise righteous conduct. Those men and women who respect the aged wise men, and kindly inquire into and relieve the wants and pains of their old parents, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not imbibe intoxicants like opium, hemp or liquor without a physician’s prescription and do not inflict any atrocity under their influence nor give refuge to those who imbibe them, can be said to practise righteous conduct. Fleas, bugs and similar insects, scorpions, serpents, lions, tigers, wolves, etc. like greedy men kill other animals or men. Those who do not kill other animals or men nor help others to kill, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not tell lies for their own benefit or to harm others or to help those who lie can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not commit adultery nor aid and abet theft can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not for their own benefit, revolt against a just ruler or government or a representative elected by the people as their head, and ruin in the process millions of families or aid those who revolt, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men and women who do not trust the deceitful who boast that a scripture has been prepared for the good of the world but put it away to prevent others from seeing it, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not look upon their families, relatives and friends as superior by birthright and themselves as holy, nor deceitfully brand others as inferior, impure by birthright, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not label some men as slaves by birth on the basis of deceitfully written scriptures of yore, nor respect those who do, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women, who, if teaching in a school, do not discriminate against others’ children in order to uphold their own domination and condemn those who do discriminate this way, can be said to practise righteous conduct. Men or women who, if in the judge’s chair, are not partisan in punishing oppressors according to their crime and condemn those who do so can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not look down upon one who makes a living by working as a wage earner even if he is a cobbler and commend those who help in this task, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not put on airs of meaningless religiosity nor put the fear of planetary influence in the minds of ignorant masses in order to loot them can be said to practise righteous conduct. Man’s fate is not bound with the planets in the sky. The planets do not trouble great people. This is a fraud practised by self-seeking Aryan priests.

Men or women who do not, in order to cheat the gullible faithful, don the guise of holy Brahmins and give them holy ash or incense or help them in this matter, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Men or women who do not discriminate in any way between men and women and do not impose restrictions in matters of food and clothing, but behave with them with a pure heart, can be said to practise righteous conduct. Those who do not discriminate among human beings but help, according to their capacity, lepers, invalids and orphans, or respect those who do, can be said to practise righteous conduct.

Great sages have written scriptures on this earth, all of which contain some truth or the other according to the beliefs of the times. Hence, in any one family, one of the women might read a Buddhist text and follow that religion if she so wishes. Her husband might read the Bible and their daughter, the Quran, and convert to Islam if she liked. Their son might read the book Sarvajanik Satyadharma and, if he wished, become a Sarvajanik. No one should hate another but, in the belief that everyone belongs to Nirmik’s family, treat one another with love and courtesy so that they are blessed in the kingdom of God.

One is happy when a son or a daughter is born. A daughter’s naming ceremony may be performed on the twelfth day and a son’s on the thirteenth. If the mother has enough milk, then the baby should not be given any solid food till it is six-months old. Once the child starts speaking, the mother may make it utter short sentences and teach the alphabet while at play. At five the child may be sent to school.

Girls and boys may consult their parents, elders, friends and acquaintances and fix their own marriages after careful deliberation. At the time of wedding, they should pledge good conduct, distribute alms to the poor, the blind and the invalid regardless of caste or religion.

Those who have been immoral suffer at the time of death because of repentance. Men and women who, on being married spend their lives in behaving truthfully towards each other, with pure hearts give up their lives with a calm mind at the time of death.

On his deathbed, while he is still conscious, a man should exhort the youngsters in the family, including his sons and daughters, bid farewell to all the relations, friends and acquaintances and calmly pray as follows: ‘You created me and gave me the power to think right. You know that I have conducted myself truthfully in this world, according to Your Will. Hence, I am sure you will accept me and so also all my brothers and sisters if they conduct themselves truthfully. May Your Reign of truth grow.

The dead body may be bathed, oiled, clothed and covered with garlands of flowers. The clothes should not be removed before disposing off the body. Before leaving the cremation ground, any old man, who follows the path of truth, may say a prayer. On the thirteenth day relatives, friends and acquaintances may be fed according to one’s means and offered garlands. They may be given some money according to one’s capacity and their school-going children may be happily gifted cows. The same feast may be repeated on the first death anniversary. Orphans and harmless children may be helped on that day. Such was the religion propagated by Jotirao. That which sustains society is religion. Hence he named his religion the true religion for the people.

Jotiba presented his new, constructive principles in his book Sarvajanik Satyadharma. He held that the great truth as opposed to religious and national discrimination was that all men and women should have equal rights. No man or group of men had the right to dominate or tyrannise another. God had given all human beings religious and political freedom by birth. Those who encroached on it were enemies of truth. To consider a person superior or inferior on the basis of his political or religious outlook and to persecute him for that reason was to betray truth. Everyone had an equal right to enjoy as he pleased the earthly life and the things on earth. Occupations such as farming, artisanship, labour, etc. did not lower a man’s dignity; they rather demonstrated man’s greatness. To learn about nature’s law of cause and effect and use it to satisfy human needs was the basic right and duty of man. In the world created by God, all men could achieve glory through effort. To help one another in this effort was not only man’s prime duty, but a true worship of God. God needed no devotional songs or repetition of his name in prayer or counting of the beads of the rosary, for He was master of the whole universe. He did not need man’s praise, prayer or devotion.

Jotiba distilled the essence of the culture and knowledge born of thousands of years of sustained effort. He discussed the means and criteria of knowing truth. If truth was not to be found in scriptures, in holy men, in gurus, in incarnations and in God’s prophets, then where else could it to be found? “In men’s conscience,” he said. Man’s inherent reasoning powers were given by the Creator Himself! God had not given us the scriptures; He had not come down to the earth as an incarnation; He did not show Himself and preach to holy sages and saints nor did He generate divine inspiration in some fortunate ascetic’s heart. He bestowed only one divine gift of realisation, and that was reason. His thoughts were undoubtedly inspired by noble, lasting human values. The language he used to express these thoughts was infused with the ardour of fiery emotion. His genius had the power to transcend the present and to look into the remote past and the very distant future.