Written Messages

Pune (India), 4 May, 2023

‘Satanic Verses’ was published by Mr Salman Rushdie in September 1988. A section of Muslim Community considered it as blasphemous and thus issued a Fatwa in February 1989 against Mr Rushdie. Mr Ayattolah Ruhollah Khomeini Leader of Iran at that time, had issued the Fatwa. A Fatwa is revered as holy, which is obeyed and implemented  by devout  Muslims.
Mr Rushdie remained in hiding for ten years and in 1999, he re-emerged along with good protection arranged by USA Government.

However, in August 2022 in New York, there was a brutal knife attack on Rushdie, and he lost his right eye permanently and suffered serious injury on his right hand,. After several months of slow recovery and trauma, he recently gave an interview to TIME magazine where he talked of what he had endured and of his recovery which is still happening.

What was the process of mind that led to the grievous injury Rushdie suffered?

1. A mind in a position of influence (Mr. A. R. Khomeini) interpreted the novel as a ‘false interpretation’ of his religious beliefs.

2. The mind was also intolerant of any belief contrary to its own and being in a position of power issued an order that the author of the novel is to be killed.

3. Several other minds who believed without understanding, worked to carry out the order and finally almost succeeded 33 years after the order was issued.

This fanatic behaviour is not something that is limited to religion. Every kind of belief has its share of fanatics, intolerant of others - be it the concept of country, economic philosophy, political ideology, concept of racial superiority or inferiority, concept of gender inequality etc. etc.

All these are just ideas, beliefs, banners, constructs of the mind. When there is no observation of our conditioning, no questioning of the phenomenon of conditioning, then there cannot be any seeing of ‘what-is’.

Swadhyay, the Radha process, the impartial and non-judgemental observation of the working of the mind protects oneself from being misled into performing wrong action of any kind.

If the Swadhyay process works in one’s body, then one can understand even those in whose bodies it does not work and it becomes possible to see the stranglehold of mind in those other bodies. This leads to tolerance towards different views and conditioning.

Unless there is a radical transformation in a majority of humans to the state where they are in the Radha process, there will always be wars like that between Russia and Ukraine now and all the wars of the past; there will be tensions between castes and creeds; there will be atrocities against members of certain races, against women etc.

Jai Perceptive Intelligence