Considering this quote is from Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest Hindu teachers and personalities, we would assume that this was the image that believers of Hindu Dharma would act on it. In fact, the situation is quite the contrary. Weak, disunited, blind followers and lacking in knowledge are words that would seem more accurate to describe the Hindus of today. Why is this the case? Well, let me put it to you like this. . .So many Hindus do not stand up for their faith, have no idea about the suffering of their fellow believers and still fail to see where they are going wrong.

My aim is not to criticise, rather it is to see where we are going wrong and what we can do to improve it. I am writing from the viewpoint of a Hindu student who has a great love for their faith and a desire to see it prosper and spread its knowledge to the far reaches of the earth. I am going to attempt to point out some fundamental failures which I believe we need to address as soon as possible and I am also going to state what I believe the future holds for Sanatan Dharma.

‘Education, education, education’. This was a quote that Tony Blair used extensively in the run up to the Labour Party’s huge victory in the 1997 general election. What may seem like an attempt to win votes is actually something that has a resounding significance for Hindus today. If you ask a random Hindu why they carry out a certain practice, or fast on a certain day, then it is rare for you to receive a sound answer. More often than  not, the response may be, ‘I was told to do this so I’m doing it’. Is this sufficient in today’s world : NO! In a world where evidence is thrown at us for every claim that is made, a more solid answer is needed. In a world where people question everything they see, an answer is needed to show the world what Hindu Dharma is all about.

Another issue is the lack of activity within our community. There are so many incidents that have taken place recently which should make the blood of every Hindu boil: the insult of Hindus with a severed cow’s head in Malaysia, the disturbances during Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra, the attack with fireworks on a Hindu community centre during Navratri in Leicester, the denial of access to Hindu students to a multi-faith prayer room at Queen Mary University by certain members of the Islamic student community. These are only a few examples, it seems even the media does not pay attention to them anymore! How can we stop this? What can we do? In each of these situations, not even an eyebrow was raised by many Hindus around the world and some of these events were not even publicised. Imagine now if these acts had been perpetrated by Hindus, what would the situation have been then? It is our passive nature that allows this to occur - when will we start to realise the danger of what we are facing?!

Hindu Dharma is by nature not an aggressive faith. In fact, the nature of Hindu Dharma is such that it allows others to exist alongside it. However, the inherent nature is also not such that stands for abuse and degradation. The ancient Vedic culture was a proud one and Hindu Dharma has not survived numerous onslaughts by being passive and weak. It is this sleeping dragon that we need to awaken, the path now is not one that requires violence as those low and unruly extremists have shown, but one which requires an attack through an intellectual front. It is because people do not know the true nature of Hindu Dharma that people shun it and seem to degrade it. What the society of today needs is a clear view of what Hindu Dharma is about. . .this will send shockwaves through society and lead numerous people to accept the true path to salvation!

A sense of pride is needed to show people that we are serious about what we believe in and this is long overdue. It is a pride that will outdo any other pride in the world. It is this pride that children need to see from their parents, to make sure they too realise what they are part of. We need to lose the idea of blind belief and question what we do and why we do it. There are problems within Hindu society and it is us who should address them.

What I have tried to get across here is a sense of what I believe is wrong with our community. It is a great community, one which has withstood even the harshest of assaults i.e. the Hindu Holocaust by the Moghuls, and has recovered even stronger. Hindu Dharma is like a phoenix, like the Mandir at Somnath, which rose time and again after continual assaults by Muslim invaders bent on drawing Hindu blood. If we do not act now, then Sanatan Dharma may become like a phoenix in the negative sense, just a myth. It will become a thing of books and legends and the world will be overrun by the ‘mlechhas’, the ‘savages’.