Row over Ramcharitmanas uncalled for, says Puri seer Raipur (Chhattisgarh): Puri seer Swami Nischalanand Saraswati, who was on a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, on Sunday touched upon several issues, including uproar over some stanzas or offending lines mentioned against women and Dalits in Ramcharitmanas, functioning of the slaughterhouses in the country and UP government's double yardstick on abattoirs and others.
Explaining the offending lines in Ramcharitmanas, Puri seer said, "Scriptures like Brahmasutras explain everything. But one should possess that level of knowledge to grasp the meaning of Brahmasutras. Author of Ramcharitmanas Goswami Tulsidas used a word like Taran, which in general parlance has a negative connotation. But, Taran does not mean punishing a woman brutally. That level of intellect or wisdom is required to understand what Tulsidas wanted to say in Ramcharitmanas."
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"Sudras means those living a low life. It has nothing to do with caste or creed. Brahmasutras explain the meaning of Sudras or Dalits more clearly. So those demanding removal of such lines in Ramcharitsmanas didn't have the depth or intellect to grasp what Tulsidas had mentioned in the religious book. People asking to remove those lines in the religious book are ignorant about Ramcharitmanas," the Puri seer pointed out.
Elaborating on the inclusion of religious topics or chapters in the school curriculum, Swami Nischalanand said, "A new education policy was formulated by the then Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi when BJP was at the helm at the Centre. But, when the Congress government was formed at the Centre, the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh scrapped the new education policy terming it as communal. So, the teaching of metaphysics or including them in school textbooks will not be successful in the long run. Hence, it was advisable for parents to make home as the temple of learning on religion or metaphysics."
