indica News Bureau-
As the coronavirus pandemic is claiming lives every day, raising the global toll to 95,000, and affecting all the countries across the globe, the world is turning to India for the supply of hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus and for its customs and traditions of greeting everyone with ‘Namaste’ and burning corpses on the funeral pyre instead of burying them in earth.
After the USA, the Brazilian President Bolsonaro asked the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release hydroxychloroquine that has been earlier banned for exporting. The Brazilian President referred to it as the ‘Sanjeevni Booti’, that was used to cure Lord Rama’s brother Lakshman in Ramayana.
President Bolsonaro also emphasized on the similarity between Hinduism and Christianity in the letter which said “ “Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Lakshmana, and Jesus healed those who were sick and restored the sight to Bartimeu, India, and Brazil will overcome the global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all people.”
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Brazil’s envoy to India Ambassador André Aranha Correa do Lago explained the reason why there was a reference to Indian mythology in President Bolsonaro’s letter. “President Bolsonaro is a religious man and he saw how religious PM Modi was. So he thought it was interesting to show in his letter how two religious men with very strong traditions could find examples in their religions that were most appropriate for the case,” he added.
The world seems to be accepting the Indian way of greeting as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the traditional Indian greeting — Namaste. US President Donald Trump and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar exchanged a Namaste earlier this year instead of the traditional handshake in the Oval Office. After Netanyahu, Trump Advocated ‘Namaste’ to check Coronavirus pandemic. Namaste, is being adopted by various global leaders, from Prince Charles and Trump to Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu and others.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrated at a press conference how the Indians do ‘Namaste’ while greeting people. The Guardian chose to call it ‘The End of Handshake’, asking readers to give up handshakes, hugs, high-fives and cheek kisses, reported Eurasian Times.
Prince Charles can be seen ditching the handshake for a Namaste in a video that has gone viral on social media impressing netizens. In the video, Prince Charles is bowing to the crowd while his hands form a Namaste.
Not only Namaste, but even cremation of corpses in the Hindu culture is becoming popular among all the countries of the world. For centuries, Hindus gathered to burn corpses on funeral pyres along the Ganges River. Following the same, China is also widely burning the bodies of those infected with the virus which is in terms with the Hindu tradition of ‘antim-sanskar’, the last rite.
China has also taken the first step towards curbing the next pandemic by banning the consumption of cats, dogs, and meat of wild animals. A prohibition on the consumption and farming of wild animals is being implemented across China post the COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have originated at a wildlife market in Wuhan. Furthermore, chicken sales in India have dropped by 50% as most people are now preferring to go vegetarian.
