SuryaNamaskar bring back very dark memories for me. I associate them with discipline, waking up early in the morning, remembering 12 names of the Sun (there are 108 – but only a lunatic would learn them, cos each name is associated with a SuryaNamaskar), reciting each name and doing a SuryaNamaskar. Those who think SuryaNamaskar is easy, should have a look at this.
Rahul Dravid endorsed SuryaNamaskar for school children, and all the usual suspects raised hell. The Hindu Right Wing said it was final and absolute evidence that God (Hindu obviously) was on their side, the Muslim Right Wing said it was a fatal blow against secularism, while others alternated between exasperation and outrage at this crippling assault on normalcy.
I think SuryaNamaskar is fine exercise, especially when you’re in school and need disciplined activity to start your day. You will never understand the sheer joy on waking up one morning and watching the clock tick past 8 am, 9 am, 10 am……… 11 am…… the smile inside becoming wider and wider with every passing minute and knowing that for once, the powers that be (elders, grandparents, God himself) have forgotten about you and SuryaNamaskar. If its an OK day, you may have to do them at 7 in the evening, after you return home from playing. If it is a great day, you don’t have to do them until next morning! Just imagine how wonderful it would be if suryanamaskar could be outsourced from the home to the school….. you wouldn’t have to make any arguments (even the most reasoned ones fell on deaf ears – such as my classic argument on some really early mornings that the sun himself wasn’t up yet – the response – hes already up somewhere). As for those lucky children who don’t have to do SuryaNamaskar at Home, it would serve them right doing them in School. There is no reason at all as to why children with really enlightened non-suryanamaskar-fundamentalist elders should have the opportunity to miss SuryaNamaskar.
I just don’t see it as a “Hindu” thing. I don’t see it as a “Right Wing” thing either. Most of all, i don’t see it as something where the Government needs to get involved.
The Right Wing is as much in the wrong, using SuryaNamaskars, Rahul Dravid (the RSS is almost ready to make Dravid their honorary roving suryanamaskar ambassador) and normal best practices from daily life for partisan political gain, as is the left “secular” wing for complaining about something that is really not “non-secular”. I have nothing against either Hinduism or the concept of secularism, and i do believe in the notion of the secular state, however, the tragedy of all this suryanamaskar politiking is that this magnificient exercise is the biggest (and possibly only) casualty in the debate.
Why a State Government has to tell schools what exercise they should introduce in schools is beyond me. Why can’t the school PT master (or any school teacher for that matter) figure this out for himself? The Government does not hold the copyright for exercise does it? We learnt how to do SuryaNamaskar in my school (in Mumbai, India – cosmopolitan, secular, melting pot), and my school was basically too lazy to have any political leaning.
So – more power to the Captain – continue with the good advice. And to the right, the left, and everybody else wishing for everything from the hindu rashtra to the pseudo-secular welfare state, LAY OFF…… Do not drag the Cricket Captains good name thru the politikal muck.
As Captain of India the man is well within his rights to promote something which he thinks (and i agree) is healthy exercise for school children and even for some of our older citizens (me excepted of course, ive had my fair share already). His appearance at an RSS rally does not need to be seen as a shift towards the lunatic right, any more than Sourav Ganguly’s appearance at CPM rallies can be seen as a shift on Ganguly’s part towards the lunatic left.
I mean…. really…… whatever next? Is the Namaskar (the kind that is used instead of “Hello” in our country and is probably the most frequently used word in the world) going to be hijacked by the political right (and left) wing as well? Really, politiks*** is the one area were the words left and right can be used interchangeably.
Om Mitrayanamahaa…..
*** There is a difference between politiks and politics, and i think it is self evident.
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