Book Review #71: Being Different by Rajiv Malhotra

Title: Being Different – An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism

Author: Rajiv Malhotra

Genre: Non-Fiction

Publishers: Harpercollins Publishers

Pages: 450+

Source: Personal Copy

Swami Vivekananda said it right… “Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true!!”

Having finished reading Breaking India by the same author an year ago, I was impressed by the sheer magnitude of information that this Rajiv Malhotra possess when it comes to Hinduism, Indian thoughts, our sacred scriptures, Indian Philosophy and so on. This book “Being Different” as cool as it sounds sets the benchmark even higher in exposing the western attacks on Indians in a more detailed and sophisticated manner. This book is not like a regular telltale of India’s glorious past or our vast knowledge of philosophy or the mastery of the language Sanskrit and so on. This book mainly focuses on the western view of India and how it has become wrong on so many levels, leave alone injecting the false doctrines. This book authoritatively asks the westerners to see the real Indian side from an Indian point of view, rather than a typical western.

This book is written really well on so many aspects – that includes details regarding monotheism vs polytheism, one sacred book vs hundreds of religious books, history-centric religion vs timeless Sanathana Dharma, Prophetic religion vs Free-to-chose type of religion i.e. Hinduism, etc… For each type of problem, Rajiv had written his argument brilliantly in order to state what is true and what is believed to be true. Several anecdotes from famous philosophers, famous theologians, and thinkers and religious scholars were discussed in details and a correct way of counter argument was given exactly that it “fits” perfectly and disqualifies those writers who wrote a western-thinking ideas about India and Hinduism.

He quotes in one of the chapters about how the western minds have been indoctrinated over several aspects and beliefs… “Dharma traditions resemble Silicon Valley innovation and freedom (whereas) Judeo-Christian religions come across like controlled, state-supplied, monopolistic products. Like the Soviets who believed in allowing only one airline, one brand of car, and one toothpaste, (…) most Christians believe in allowing only one approach to religion.”

In western Judeo-Christian traditions, revelation is initiated by one God, with the individual being a passive and submissive recipient (read it as a born sinner, whose salvation happens only when he dies). This process is highly history-centric, relies upon authority that is frozen in time, and allows for no direct experience. But this salvation does not transform man into something sublime. God always remains an external agency and that entire salvation means is that one escapes eternal condemnation to hell. These history-centric beliefs of Judeo-Christian systems also fail scientific scrutiny.

Dhārmic traditions provide a refreshing contrast. The individual is free from the guilt complexes that characterize a Christian. History has no metaphysical significance in dharma. Hindu narratives, as Śri Aurobindo states, are ever present in nature because one can experience those out of one’s own efforts. The Hindu initiate is an active participant in his quest for adhyātma vidya (knowledge of the self). Unlike Judeo-Christian systems which are fossilized, dhārmic systems dynamically evolve. As a result, the teachings of a guru are as valid as the words in a sacred text. This is precisely why one finds welcome diversity in dhārmic traditions. Most importantly, mökṣa (self-realization) is something one can actively experience here and now and is not a chimera called heaven a baptized Christian must be content with chasing post-mortem.

Rajiv Malhotra carefully puts his arguments about why these Judeo-Christian concepts fail at large and a big hindrance to the freedom. This is mainly due to the concept of sin followed in these prophetic religions. As is the case in every prophetic religion, a man/woman born is a sinner by birth, his entire life is a way towards salvation and that salvation is achieved only when you submit yourself to the God [Judgment Day]. Whereas, in Dharmic traditions, the concept of experiencing one’s false deeds and good deeds in the same birth and carry over these traits to the next birth (Punarjanma). This next birth may not be in human form, it can be either an animal, or a bird or a tree or an insect. This allows us to celebrate our individual souls, individual birth and makes us to believe that, we can make the better of ourselves in the same birth, as simply called as SAT-CHIT-ANANDA. 

Rajiv Malhotra also discusses about the ORDER AND CHAOS between Dharmic traditions and western dualism brilliantly. For instance, when it comes to the fields of music, or literature or neuroscience – good and evil are always interconnected to each other, like the Samudra Manthan (Ocean Churning), there is always good in bad and bad in good [Nectar and Poison].  This is quite opposite in the western religion, where good and evil is something which doesn’t gets connected, which results in the artificial order which is bewildered by a permanent chaos. In the Dharmic concept, this has balanced with proper Order and Chaos. The author goes on explaining this concept by taking the Indian classical music as an example. Indian classical music is a non-linear and non-normative, and as a result possesses not only the musical note but also a melodic ecosystem complexity called swara followed by the raga (which is using the swara to create a non-linear pattern of ups and downs) and this is again followed by Tala (the rhythm) which is adjusted to the ongoing raga. This concept has no equivalent in the western classical music. 

What I really liked about the book is the chapter about “Non-translatable Sanskrit Words”. There are quite a number of words or letters or phrases from Sanskrit which cannot be translated to English. For example: AUM in Sanskrit cannot be translated to AMEN as westerners tried to portray. The AUM is in itself a special word. Each letter in AUM, the A, U and M represents a different meaning altogether. He gives us the example of a dictionary called “Ekakshara Kosha” (Mono-syllable dictionary), where each letter possesses an exhaustive meaning and it simply cannot be translated. Also, from a scientific background, he explains that chanting few Sanskrit mantras at the right frequency has some desired results on the human mind.  He gives us the examples of “Bija Mantras” where each verse from the mantra should be chanted at exact frequency and tonal quality for the expected results to come. And, by this, it is certainly not possible to translate everything to English.

He further clarifies his points of reversing the gaze of westerners by pointing out the similarities and differences between the offshoot Hindu religions like Buddhism and Jainism. He goes on explaining the details from several books of Buddhism juxtaposed with the Hinduism and why it is ok to be “Being Different” in every area.

Overall he calls for a debate on the basis of Purva Mimamsa (an Indian philosophical aspect of churning for answers based on the earlier parts of Vedas than the later parts of Vedangas). He didn’t in any way belittle any western religions or ideas or beliefs. He just pointed out that, what the west thought about India is not true and he proved from this book, the reality. This sure, calls for a healthy debate among the learned scholars from among the world. He expressed his deep fear of non-availability of many Indian scholars who can actually understand and provide debatable ideas of Indian thoughts, Indian Philosophy (Darshanas), Indian Dharmic traditions and beliefs, etc…

In conclusion, none of the disagreements from the book dismisses the importance of Being Different. The most important aspects of the book are, as it reverses the gaze towards the west and evaluates it using the Dharmic paradigm. This is a well-researched, well-organized and well-documented book. It is a collector’s gem. I recommend this book to be read by everyone and must read for every Indians, which actually makes them proud of Being Different and Being Indian.

My Rating:

5/5