Hope for pluralism in the military

AUM.
The Vedas, most ancient scriptures in the library of man, enjoin on human beings to follow the DHARM. Dharm encompasses our thought and action from morning till night. It exhorts us to tred on the path of Righteousness.Dharm does not mean religion nor rituals. It is a broad encompassing code of conduct for the entire mankind.
Thos human beings who follow the tenets of the Vedas have no problem in dealing with inter-faith situations. The vedic Dharm is for entire mankind. The Arya Samaj, a socio-religious organization conducts meetings, discussions and chalks out a programme to serve the disaster struck humanity.
Vedic Dharm is the most secular way of living life. The conscience of its followers is clear and the subscribers to Vedic Dharm lead a healthy and happy life.
It would be a good idea for the Washington Post to organize a discussion on the Vedic Dharm and Mankind.
Please feel free to contact me on upvanom@yahoo.com Thanks.

Well said Dr. Shukla:
"As long as many prominent Muslim voices see Islam as a civic institution rather than a means to a personal relationship with God; as long as influential Muslim leaders long to live under the strictures of Sharia through governmental backing; as long as political Islam is seen in conflict with the principles of democracy; and as long as there are violent voices aspiring for a global wave that establishes a world ruled under the Islamic crescent, then the likes of Maj. Nidal end up reflecting on that Muslim world.

Muslim keep trying to have it both ways: ignoring the intrinsic relationship between Islam and violence while trying to claim citzenship in the "Islamic world". It is not about who is a "true muslim" or "false muslim"; the question is what does the Koran say to muslims like Maj. Hasan.

CH.9 VERSE 5: "SO WHEN THE SACRED MONTHS HAVE PASSED AWAY, THEN KILL THE IDOLATERS WHEREVER YOU FIND THEM, AND TAKE THEM CAPTIVES AND BESIEGE THEM AND LIE IN WAIT FOR THEM IN EVERY AMBUSH."

[9.14] FIGHT THEM, ALLAH WILL PUNISH THEM BY YOUR HANDS AND BRING THEM TO DISGRACE.
[9.29] FIGHT THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN ALLAH.

It is clear that Maj. Hasan followed the Koran. Is he a true muslim?

Hello Navin,

Thank you for your response. I quite liked it.

For clarity, I am not seeking to absolve Maj. Hasan of his responsibility for his choices or actions. I am looking to illustrate the complicity of influences that we experience in life.

Along the lines of your input, Maj. Hasan may end up being a 'martyr' to a cause of good, even if through an evil act. What good may come of this we do not know yet. What evil may come, as well, is unknown. These will have effect.

There seems little to suggest that Hasan was living that moment as a pure one, lacking judgment. Therefore, it would be karmic. It is unfortunate that these types of crimes are common, and may continue to be, until not only the Muslims preforming them but the 'infidel' being the target of them, learn and evolve to an understanding that allows them to no longer need to repeat that experience.

Justtillthenow

yes and no. In Vasistha yoga Rama asks what is the effect of karma on one's actions. Vasistha answers (paraphrasing from memory) that if you give up your free agency then you are subject to karma and the forces of the world and time push you as if there is a fate operating on you. But once you choose your actions, you take full responsibility for being who you are, then you are free of karma. In this state past and future are less meaningful than living in the now.

But this state is a heroic way of living and only a few people reach this level of freedom - to live in the now, knowing the cause and effect of things, transcendent to the force of past and future karmas.

So to directly consider your question, no doubt that those who participated in the formation of himsic karma are responsible for downstream effects (even to the idea that obesity is a cause of starvation due to down stream effects of altering demand and scarcity / price of food). But ultimately it is up to the individual to say, "I am responsible for my actions, fully."

My own thoughts are to add a "karmic field" to this idea. (And there is now scientific evidence of this type of field, ie knowing someone who knows someone who is fat increases your chances of being fat even if you don't know the fat person.) So the karmic field has a hypothesized log decline from the action / event / choice within the karmic field. But that is not a decline in time but in causality. Thus I as a willing tax payer in the US am responsible for the war in Iraq even if I say I am against it. But my responsibility would be about 1/population of the US times a quadrinomial factor of (voted against bush, voted for bush, did not vote, could not vote) - k(outspokenness against the war) + willingness to pay taxes + political power to effect change...

In this way Bush and Cheney hold the greatest responsibility, those who voted for them more responsibility, those who voted against less, those who did or could not vote and intermediate responsibility...

Likewise, a parent or priest contributes to the moral and spiritual development of their child / alter boy. the fact that they sodomized that child and reduced the likelihood that that child would develop healthy ability to express spirituality in the world, does result in some of the himsa that child grows up to propagate. (and the good as well) But the child that has grown up to act freely ultimately bears the greatest responsiblity (in a log fashion in my hypothesis) for his actions even though forces contributed to his ignorance. (Please remember that I agree with the Ramayana and Gita - no one is hated by god, no one is condemned to eternal damnation due to this judgment; it simply reflects the force of karmic (ergo temporal) law).

Also do remember, I have no proof for such a hypothesis but it is testable.

hariaum

"Hence, I reject the notion that intolerance or bias in our military goes to absolve Maj. Hasan. No amount of stress, no amount of alleged Islamophobia, should lessen the fault wholly belonging to the Fort Hood shooter. "

We know that the great majority of abusers were abused, most pedophiles were molested while young, rapists were raped or otherwise beaten in their youth. These people mostly did their crimes in a so-called sane state of mind. Ok. They are tried and convicted (or should be), sentenced and punished for these crimes. As it should be.

Are the perpetrators that caused injury to these up and coming criminals in their upbringing not somehow culpable to these crimes, as well?

Do we not somehow consider that the black man or woman of the 40's and 50's, insulted and abused and prejudiced against for their color throughout society, and spurned, have righteous reason for indignant anger at their treatment, even years later? Did that treatment not push some of them toward crime, or performing that anger in violence against the society that reviled them?

Just a few questions.

I do not know that

"Hence, I reject the notion that intolerance or bias in our military goes to absolve Maj. Hasan. No amount of stress, no amount of alleged Islamophobia, should lessen the fault wholly belonging to the Fort Hood shooter. "

"I will not join in the hand-wringing and justification that the media will eagerly offer to excuse the inexcusable;..."

I am sure that some in the media are seeking to justify Hasan's actions, or excuse them. I am all the more clear that some in the media are skewering that 'alleged' shooter, (one thing that seems clear is that this man murdered his comrades with no warning), while re-directing any wider scope of possible guilt.

I am not interested in clearing this man of murder, assuming he committed those murders and is guilty of them. However it is utterly reasonable to cast a wide net in seeking causes and assessing blame.

Mr. Shukla talks to two Hindi ex-military friends to find their input and, hearing of no religious prejudice or bigotry from their testament, claims none must exist. Is this a 1st grade recess pole that he thinks will serve as a blanket generalization? I find little value here, outside of the endorsement of a strong moral character steeling one through adversity. That holds water, and Hasan may have finally run aground in his tumultuous waters. We shall see as this progresses.

One question for Shulka, though. To what degree does he feel that the dynamics of opposition and irreconcilability are equitable when comparing the relationship that Evangelical Christianity has with Hinduism and with Islam?

"But when ministering turns to proselytizing and privileging one faith over another, and when the tens of thousands of Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists proudly serving their country are rendered the "other," highly imperative troop cohesion and morale is compromised."

What a strange excerpt to highlight on the All Panel page, since this piece has so little to do with it otherwise.