Ashok V. Desai in The Telegraph, Calcutta:
“Valmiki [Ramayan] makes clear is that Ram did not need to build the bridge. He could have evaporated the Ocean with a single arrow, and his army would have crossed over without any effort. Lakshman dissuaded him from the extreme step because it would have killed so many crocodiles, snakes, demons and fish.
“The bridge was more a humanitarian gesture than a technological necessity. Thus the bridge has nothing to do with Ram; it was quite incidental to the story.
“Ram would not have lost any sleep if the Ocean had swept away the bridge immediately after the monkeys crossed—and in fact, the Ocean has swept away most of it. At that time, only Ram and Lakshman could command the flying services of Hanuman and Angad. Today, anyone can fly to Ceylon—even Hindutwits.
“Why, then, are the Hindutwits so upset at excavation of some stretches of the bridge? Why do they call it Ram sethu at all?
“First, because none of these devotees of Ram has read the Ramayan; none of them has an inkling of what it is about. For them, Ram is just one of the billion gods—another lucky charm. They are devout, but not very learned. And they would find learning distinctly inconvenient in the present case.
“And second, because nothing is as good as a superstitious rumpus to bring together their fractious party. They cannot unite on a single thing to do in the interests of the country. When Manmohan Singh steals their foreign policy clothes, they let him do so with impunity; they disown the clothes. They did far more reforms than Manmohan Singh has. But they maintain a deathly silence about their achievements—almost as if they were ashamed.
“I do not know if they have any soul, but they have certainly lost their heads. In fact, they are performing so badly that I am no longer sure that they are not monkeys. I think they are the residents of Lanka who ran off when Ram took it, and came and hid themselves in Ayodhya.”
Read the full column: The bridge to Ceylon
churumuri 
Whether or not the project is useful – nobody bothers. The author is questioning Hindutvits but does he also question Karunanidhi?
>>The bridge was more a humanitarian gesture than a technological >>necessity. Thus the bridge has nothing to do with Ram; it was quite >>incidental to the story.
What is he trying to prove? Just because it is incidental, does it make it less historical? Then what about Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari?
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There are far better reasons, economic and environmental (for once the twain meet!!) for not constructing the Sethusamudram Project. IT is unfortunate that the Sangh Parivar and its ilk have turned away discussion from the above to a pointless mythological-religious-superstitious whatever crap angle.
If they thought they’ll get political mileage out of pulling such shit, they are really full of it…. (shit that is..)
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Then if it is only incidental ther is nothing if we change the names as follos keeping in view the secular India- seculareshwarm, secularayana, etc inthat case no HIndutva can be attached to it. Whether it is incidental, coincidental or convenience don’t try to bring a particular religion, community, party , etc.
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So just destroy Tajmahal, St. Philomina church, Kutubminar, Tippu palace and just one Muslim tomb any where in India. Give this place to Reliance for their super market. Can this be done? Hindu’s are taken for granted in India. Will Karunanidhi or the UPA or ASI, talk about any other Religion? As I said they are all crooks. Rama was more human then any of our so and so. If an MP or an MLA can hold the post of CM, Cabinet Minister of any Ministry with out necessary qualification how can one question the capability of Rama. UPA will lose the whole of north because of this!!
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THE IDEA(L) OF RAM
Granted that it is not possible to prove the existence of Ram on the basis of historical evidence. But that is not to deny that Ram exists in the collective conscience of millions and millions of Indians. Go to the remotest corner of India, you will find the story of Ram and Ramayana very much alive and in the minds of people. If you are a Hindu, you or many of your relations will be named after someone or the other from Ramayana.
What does this represent? Blind belief in an epic story or a yearning for an ideal? To begin to understand this phenomenon, one has to start from the basic assumption that the human being is imperfect. We may be the most advanced of the animal species but we are not perfect. Man innately knows that he is not perfect and feels the need to strive to better himself and aim for perfection. This is where Ram comes in as the very personification of the ideal being. Apart from being well versed in 64 skills which an ideal man is supposed to possess, Ram is pictured as the very embodiment of Dharma.
Dharma has many meanings – Religion(as in Hindu Dharma), Righteousness, Duty and even Law(as in Dharma Sutras). To understand the concept Dharma, one has to accept that there is a natural order of justice in the scheme of things. Even a small child when beating a smaller child knows that what it is doing is not right. An evil doer knows that his actions are wrong. He still carries on as he is after all human. Ram personified all aspects of Dharma in his life as the prince of Ayodhya- be it as a son, warrior, husband or king. He HAD to uphold Dharma come what may.
Mahatma Gandhi brought this conflict in man to prominence with such extraordinary focus in his remarkable life as the greatest Indian ever to live. As he continued to insist that his Life is his message, Gandhi exposed the imperfections in all of us. His experiments with truth and his annoyance at his short comings appealed to the millions of Indians whether they were educated, uneducated, rich, poor, urban or rural people. That Ram became a symbol to Gandhiji was only a natural phenomenon easily understood by all Indians.
People who belittle the idea of Ram are belittling the values and culture inherited by all Indians. One can only imagine with a shudder a scenario where such value systems were not present and Adharma ruled the roost. In fact, the way some of our politicians personify Adharma in their personal lives, one is full of despair and fearful of the future. Not only are they not doing what is right in their roles as rulers, they do evil things with arrogance and impunity.
There are some who find fault with some of the actions of Ram. That only goes to prove the proposition- after all he was human!
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Ashok Desai,
The bridge is still required because it requires one more cheeky monkey to cross it – and that’s you!!
Do you really have balls to stand up and say the same thing to another relic / building / text about any other religion?? I dare say no, you are a bloody communist and a bad one at that. Added to this, your mind is corrupted by those thoughts which gets you instant glory.
Sad that we have these kind of folks in our country – they should be banished from the country similar to Nawaz Sharief in Pakistan. Atleast he has Saudi Arabia to welcome him. I am not sure if you will ever be even given a visa to enter China!!
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After Hanuman, Indians seem to have added Symonds to the list of monkeys…
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The ram sethu was revered and worshipped by Hindus for decades. It forms the centre of our spiritual heritage and a popular place of pilgrimage. In fact, most Hindus have replicas of ram sethu alongside the various forms of lingams in their temples and houses.
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If it is such a sacred place why none of the Hindus visited such holy site earlier?
Why did the so-called pro-Hindu BJP party approved the project in the first place.
Please remember that you are just getting vitimized by these politicians(be it BJP or Karunanidhi).
Why can’t Advanii take up the open challenge by Karunanidhi then. Atleast, we will get to see some more funny things in the argument.
Priya
http://unitingindia.blogspot.com
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The Communists of India vouch by an out-dated philosophy of Karl Marx, which even Germany has rejected. On top of this they have the audacity to express outright blasphemy upon Hindus. Shame on them!!
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Neither pure Communism, secularism nor fundamentalism will do good for India. I feel there should be a new school , a new “ism” which will suit the Indian frame of (Pseudo)secularistic and federal form of government. I really hope such a thing exists !!
@Priya – Madam Ji, the point is not whether the place (Ram Sethu) is considered sacred or not. The point is that to what extent the politicians have contributed towards the retaining people’s faith / beleif on their religion (In a country like us) and live with dignity and pride.
I don’t refute the existence of RAMA here. For Hindus, RAMA is a belief, a feeling , a feeling which brings goodness, purity, principles and DHARMA in their lives. One should not at any cost play with people’s emotions and beliefs.
If tomorrow someone come with a proposal of building a world trade centre right in place of J**A M****D in Delhi, will it be a same India the day after?? In India, For sure Hindus are taken for granted.
And as if it is not enough, these politicians are making the already existing differences between different religions even bigger by their dimwit, idiotic words and measures. POLITICS SHOULD BE CLEANSED UP RATHER THAN DISCUSSING ISSUES LIKE THIS. And when it is clean, we will not be discussing things like this. I dream of “THAT DAY”.
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pls go thru this site. ppl like u shud have proper knowledge of what they r taking before they publish something like this. read abt discovery of dwarka … the vimanas… i think history is intresting cos its HIS Story thts Our story i dont know abt u coz u seem to be the desendent of one of the monkeys who ran away .
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/
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