Dharma Dawns After a Long Night

Credit: India Today

The narrative battle has been lost by the privileged few. That is the message that India's elections show as the results pour in. The power of communicating directly with the people, filtering out power brokers, media barons and crony capitalists has shown that Narendra Modi and his team not only understand the power of communication, they also read the pulse of the people extremely well, barring a few blips that came here and there.

Most people still read the moorings of Modi wrongly. He's not a leader that has been parachuted after stints in foreign lands in anonymity. Here is rather a man who has traveled in ignominy across the length and breadth of this country in trying conditions, exploring its various facets and built a connect with the pulse of this nation. He's positioned himself, and perhaps rightly, as the voice of a civilization that has long been asleep, and has started to stir in its awakening, uttering its first words like the warrior Muchukunda, son of of the great Ikshavaku King Mamdhata. The gaze that burnt down Kalyavana also had the fortune to look at Krishna, the bhagya vidhata, and perhaps the moment of the Sighting has finally descended upon us. Bharatavarsha, in being this Muchukunda, has finally begun to open it's eyes.

In 2014, to his own elected MPs, Mr. Modi had said that the time to overcome more than a thousand years of colonialism had truly arrived. And yet, the axis of balance looks towards finding the idea of a civilization that its peak not only built incomprehensibly beautiful architecture and art, but also made profound scientific, mathematical and philosophical advances. The cycle of birth and death decided to catch up with this civilizational state that defied logic of modern concepts of nation and state. However, all it achieved was to induce the deep state of slumber that is finally coming to an end. The foundation of dharma that defined the actions of this linguistically, culturally diverse nation gave its people the strength to fight and stay relevant. Its moorings in Deva gave hope and built the resolve time and again of the immense possibilities that lie ahead if only you are determined to try. Desha let it understand that the raison d'être lies entwined with this land, that is unique, that encompasses geographies so varied, and yet has a single cultural thread bind it together.

The stirring about being Hindu and being proud of it has struck fear in the heart of those who understand it so poorly. The deep resonance of this victory with the innate nature of Bharata, that it is Hindu in its essence, in its aatma, in its charitra, in its bhaava and rupa, is what kept the flames of struggle alive even in the darkest of hours. The power of its resilience, highlighted in the slow but definitive facelift of Kashi, Mathura, Prayagraj and Ayodhya, and the strength of belief highlighted by the sea of humanity at the Kumbh bear testimony to the mind boggling possibilities that a determined conscience can shake into reality. But the privileged few, blind to the infinite limit of the boundaries of dharma, which are visible to only those who immerse themselves into the Akasha Ganga of this civilization's infinitely deep soul.

The very emergence of a leader who is unapologetically Hindu, who is the child of a civilization that is finally getting up to walk again strikes fear in the heart of those who think they will become obsolete, and perhaps rightfully so, in the churning that is going on. Shiva had consumed halahala that had emerged, but also signified in that consumption his immortality, and in praying to Shiva, Mr. Modi's actions in Kashi and Kedar perhaps resonate the true idea of India - a civilization which doesn't shy away from its proud origins and can overcome any obstacle, however high it may be. In attempting to clumsily integrate into this Bharatiyata, the scions of the dynasties that didn't even bother to acknowledge this essence now portray their own images into an Indian ethos in laughable ways, exhibiting their own bankruptcy of ideas and the fact that borrowed conceptions and ideas have failed in front of an ethos that proved its relevance yet again, even if it has much to define again for its adherents.

Whatever they say, the verdict clearly highlights one thing - the real winner of this election is the civilizational soul of Bharata that perhaps had hidden itself somewhere. Dharma may have finally started to dawn upon us after a long, bitter, lonesome night.

Yato Dharmah tato jayah