The Swastika

Since a few days Prince Harry has made headlines of most of the newspapers and news broadcasts.

What did he do to get the limelight?

He wore a Nazi outfit for a fancy dress party.

Nazis are hated all over the world due to the mass killings of jews. What hitler and his party did was really very disturbing for so many people. A death toll of 12 to 26 million people is estimated during the holocaust.

Nazi’s had Swastika (स्वस्तिक) as their symbol. In the west Swastika is considered as the most evil symbol but

many religions/cultures/mythologies Swastika have been using it since centuries. Hinduism is one of the main religions, which uses Swastika as an auspicious symbol. It is associated with lord Ganesh, money and prosperity. Swastika is also used in Buddhism, Jainism. In japanese it is called manji. The symbol was also used by a lot of Native American tribes.

I don’t understand why people without thinking hate the symbol. If an Indian uses it in west, they will consider him as a facist and what not. They should understand the real meaning and hate the real thing, that is the Nazis and not the symbol.

Last year Microsoft released a “critical update” to remove two swastikas from the font Bookshelf Symbol 7.

What do they mean by unacceptable symbol? I use it on every Diwali for pooja.

Westerners should understand that its not the symbol, but the act.

What if Bush or Osama or Saddam or someone else start doing, what Hitler did, with a ॐ or a cross…..would Om and cross be unacceptable symbols? Would people break alls the crosses and Oms?

If you hate Swastika then just think about it…

Update: WTF?

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  • http://www.govue.org/blog Govind

    I also happened to discuss about the haulocast with some of my german friends, no one appreciates what happened. And the swatik symbol, they also believe that it was because they were supposed to be aryans. And so on. And why, hitler picked up that one I dont really know!!.

  • http://www.govue.org/blog Govind

    I also happened to discuss about the haulocast with some of my german friends, no one appreciates what happened. And the swatik symbol, they also believe that it was because they were supposed to be aryans. And so on. And why, hitler picked up that one I dont really know!!.

  • http://www.aainaism.com Aaina

    Exactly Gaurav. What the heck? Swasthika is a holy symbol for “others” but is considered “evil” by the Americans because of ONE event that happened years ago! Goodness gracious, that’s all I can say!

  • http://www.aainaism.com Aaina

    Exactly Gaurav. What the heck? Swasthika is a holy symbol for “others” but is considered “evil” by the Americans because of ONE event that happened years ago! Goodness gracious, that’s all I can say!

  • http://www.thinkmantra.com Gaurav

    Actually when I was writing the post, I was thinking of one your post where u wrote that u can speak german (where u mentioned aaina’s jumbled word post.)

    Actually a lot of Sanskrit words or their modified versions are in German.

    Hitler started a movment “Anschluss” which was to make a greater Germany from small parts where Germans lived. Here we can easily compare Anschluss and Ansh from sanskrit which means small fragments…this stuff is interesting.

  • http://www.gsharma.com Gaurav

    Actually when I was writing the post, I was thinking of one your post where u wrote that u can speak german (where u mentioned aaina’s jumbled word post.)

    Actually a lot of Sanskrit words or their modified versions are in German.

    Hitler started a movment “Anschluss” which was to make a greater Germany from small parts where Germans lived. Here we can easily compare Anschluss and Ansh from sanskrit which means small fragments…this stuff is interesting.

  • http://www.thinkmantra.com Gaurav

    Not just Americans aaina, but Europeans too as the holocaust took place in Germany.

  • http://www.gsharma.com Gaurav

    Not just Americans aaina, but Europeans too as the holocaust took place in Germany.

  • http://www.govue.org/blog Govind

    Actually “Anschluss” means “connection” , and as you said there are quite some words in German which originate from “Sanskrit”. For example, there are some sirnames sound similar to “Hanuman” n also “Sharma”. ;) And a word “Kaput”, which is also a marathi word.Means some thing which is damaged.”Acht” means “Eight”.If I recollect more, will post here. :D But problem with german language is “they link up two or more words together and make it one word”. :(

  • http://www.govue.org/blog Govind

    Actually “Anschluss” means “connection” , and as you said there are quite some words in German which originate from “Sanskrit”. For example, there are some sirnames sound similar to “Hanuman” n also “Sharma”. ;) And a word “Kaput”, which is also a marathi word.Means some thing which is damaged.”Acht” means “Eight”.If I recollect more, will post here. :D But problem with german language is “they link up two or more words together and make it one word”. :(

  • http://www.suneel.blogspot.com suneel

    Gaurav…that was a very well written post….I never gave it a thought before reading ur post…now I cant agree more with u…I mean just becoz some moron used that symbol in history it doesnt mean that who ever is using that symbol are evil !!!

    Govind….I didnt know that u were in Germany…only realized that a couple of minutes ago when I left a comment on ur blog noon my time and it showed abt 7 PM on ur site:)

  • http://www.suneel.blogspot.com suneel

    Gaurav…that was a very well written post….I never gave it a thought before reading ur post…now I cant agree more with u…I mean just becoz some moron used that symbol in history it doesnt mean that who ever is using that symbol are evil !!!

    Govind….I didnt know that u were in Germany…only realized that a couple of minutes ago when I left a comment on ur blog noon my time and it showed abt 7 PM on ur site:)

  • http://www.freepgs.com/adeydas/ abhi

    Swastika was developed in many countries including Europe and North America. But after WW2, it was looked upon as evil primarily because it represented the Nazi symbol. Even some Jewish churches hasve the symbol. What most of the people believe is Swastika to be a Nazi logo representing the evil they have done. Actually I believe that its a phase that has passed. I can cite a thousand arguments which will vividly prove England and the USA to be no better than Germany or Japan during or after WW2. What Bush did in Iraq is also no better what the Nazi’s did during the war (I suggest you read some of the first person blogs to get a better view of this). So all I can say is that its the perspective of view that matters. Like you said, if Bush uses a symbol today, Iraqis would hate him all the same.

  • http://www.freepgs.com/adeydas/ abhi

    Swastika was developed in many countries including Europe and North America. But after WW2, it was looked upon as evil primarily because it represented the Nazi symbol. Even some Jewish churches hasve the symbol. What most of the people believe is Swastika to be a Nazi logo representing the evil they have done. Actually I believe that its a phase that has passed. I can cite a thousand arguments which will vividly prove England and the USA to be no better than Germany or Japan during or after WW2. What Bush did in Iraq is also no better what the Nazi’s did during the war (I suggest you read some of the first person blogs to get a better view of this). So all I can say is that its the perspective of view that matters. Like you said, if Bush uses a symbol today, Iraqis would hate him all the same.

  • http://www.thinkmantra.com Gaurav

    Govind – I thought it was unification, may be the teacher’s were trying to explain the concept and not the word’s literal meaning.

    Suneel – I am glad I brought something to ur notice, which u weren’t aware of. I didn’t know that Govind was in Germany, untill I read ur comment. I “by default” thought he would be in U.S. and thought he might have German friends. Atleast now I know.

    Abhi – Definitly kids 10 – 20 years from now will read the Iraqi war in their history books. How it is interpreted simply depends on what is their geographical location. Kids in US will study that “we liberated them!” and kids in Middle East will study “They liberated us! (from the world)” but the problem is that all the kids have to study the history :|

  • http://www.gsharma.com Gaurav

    Govind – I thought it was unification, may be the teacher’s were trying to explain the concept and not the word’s literal meaning.

    Suneel – I am glad I brought something to ur notice, which u weren’t aware of. I didn’t know that Govind was in Germany, untill I read ur comment. I “by default” thought he would be in U.S. and thought he might have German friends. Atleast now I know.

    Abhi – Definitly kids 10 – 20 years from now will read the Iraqi war in their history books. How it is interpreted simply depends on what is their geographical location. Kids in US will study that “we liberated them!” and kids in Middle East will study “They liberated us! (from the world)” but the problem is that all the kids have to study the history :|

  • http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org Puneet

    It reminds me of the saying “bad news is good news” this from media… tv /newspaper perspective… bad things get highlighted more then good things…. there many reason for this
    With regards to swastik I think I read in today or some newspaper it supposedly first mentioned in Sanskrit and belong to some 5000 or so year old [ not sure about the years ]…and was hijacked by nazi.. later … .. I doubt if there any way to very facts …when conflicting views… because “History “ gets twisted and turned and different perspective depending upon the political scenario various things ……

    i was in hurry haven’t read the earlier comments so thing might be repetitive

  • http://puneetworld.indiablogs.org Puneet

    It reminds me of the saying “bad news is good news” this from media… tv /newspaper perspective… bad things get highlighted more then good things…. there many reason for this
    With regards to swastik I think I read in today or some newspaper it supposedly first mentioned in Sanskrit and belong to some 5000 or so year old [ not sure about the years ]…and was hijacked by nazi.. later … .. I doubt if there any way to very facts …when conflicting views… because “History “ gets twisted and turned and different perspective depending upon the political scenario various things ……

    i was in hurry haven’t read the earlier comments so thing might be repetitive