Idol worship is a "kind of corruption" but who cares?!

A recent search on Al-biruni led me to this page. What struck me was what the Persian traveler wrote about the religion of the Hindus. Biruni, aka Baruni, wrote :

"The educated among the Hindus abhor anthropomorphisms of this kind, but the crowd and the members of the single sects use them most extensively."

"The Hindus believe with regard to God that he is one, eternal, without beginning and end, acting by free-will, almighty, all-wise, living, giving life, ruling, preserving; one who in his sovereignty is unique, beyond all likeness and unlikeness, and that he does not resemble anything nor does anything resemble him."

Biruni argued that the worship of idols "is due to a kind of confusion or corruption." He writes:[68]

"The physical images are monuments in honour of certain much venerated persons, prophets, sages, angels, destined to keep alive their memory when they are absent or dead, to create for them a lasting place of grateful veneration in the hearts of men when they die."

Now, if we tell our hysterically religious Hindu masses that this is what real Hinduism is (what Baruni wrote was essentially what the realized masters from the Hindu religious tradition have always said, and still say), will anyone listen? In fact, I fear if anyone dares to utter such blasphemy in our religiously-charged times, he or she can expect to be lynched and, maybe, even a Vatican-style inquisition!
Hinduism, as separate from Vedic dharma, today is the opium of ignorant masses, which need it in its current form to stay addicted and hysterical.
If you are looking for salvation from such a religion, God save you. And that goes for most other religions on this Planet, as they are practiced now.

Let us start by cleaning up the Holy Ganga!

This is my first post in the year 2009, and here I want to return to my favourite theme: cleaning up the Holy Ganges. The more I think about it, such a cleansing would be symbolic of the cleansing of Indian, especially Hindu, society. Mother Ganges has become a super-drain of the Gangetic plain, and no one really cares about it. The so-called secular leaders who govern this country would have no reason to care and so would the many pseudo-holy men in the country. But if India and Vedic dharma have to be revitalized, I have a feeling it needs to start from the Holy Ganges.
Such a massive exercise cannot but affect the lives of every human being and animal in the Gangetic plain and, by extension, a major part of India. It will, automatically, turn into a cleansing process for our society and body politic.
Which is exactly why none of the powers that be want Holy Ganges cleaned up.
Apart from the need for hygiene and cleanliness, cleaning up Mother Ganges would also be a washing away our accumulated bad karma, cleaning up Hindustan for higher achievements in the grand scheme of things.
I hope I can contribute something towards the cleaning up of Mother Ganges this year.