When I saw the gut-wrenching images of those brutally murdered Hindu children and the equally brutal, inhumane response across social media, it was easy to connect the dots with other examples of hate and misinformation about Hindus that seem to be spreading like a cancer ...

...at an increasing pace. It's easy to spiral down, to feed off the anguish and vitriol on social media. But then what? We're angry until we go back to our lives and then the next flare up happens in a few hours or a few days. The pain hits and hits our systems...

and we normalize it...and then?

One of my best friends reminded me that my dharma is far greater than this pattern. It's why I repeatedly choose the path less traveled; bc I have known since I was young that I had to do something meaningful and not just ambitious.

Things won't change for Hindus if we don't get up and do something more radical than pushing at the edges or screaming into the internet. We have to do more than angry emojis, jargony comebacks, books that only we read, and "read this list of articles to know the truth".

That means getting out and taking risks. In real life. We all have to do it. We all have to take risks and do something different. There is SO MUCH work to do that cannot be done by seva alone. It is not enough.

The people who change the world don't do it in their spare time.

I don't know if what I'm saying is making sense. I only know that most non-Hindus don't know what we're fighting for when we say we're fighting for dharma. They believe we're fighting for the lies that they're told about us and our knowledge tradition.

And I don't believe that the best response to demonization is romanticization. We have a right to be imperfect and working on ourselves in our own way. We can't ignore that latter part.

Our task isn't to be right, it's to be effective. Our work isn't simply to convey with greater fluency that we have been wronged. The underlying assumption there is that effective communication of how we are being treated unfairly leads to remedy. When has that ever worked?

I don't believe that the collective consciousness will shift bc of viral tweets or rigorous academic publications. It shifts when we build something together, it shifts with creation and inspiration and joy. Maybe that arises from moments of anger, but it doesn't stay there.

It shifts with collaboration and gratitude and it draws people in. Go back to The Source. Our ancestors left us such clear guidance. Those are the codes we need to learn and internalize and move by, not the ones you were hired to write.

And not just on the weekends...dharma is not a pastime or an extracurricular activity or an accolade. It is sophisticated and brilliant and generous and has so much to offer the world...and yet so much of it sits dormant inside of us...the legacy of our ancestors....

The Hindu children who learn and live by Dharmic codes are the ones who will offer the planet what She is crying out for. They are the ones who will change the world. Who will lead the world.



Om Namah Shivaya.