I am sitting here, munching on my breakfast of cereal flakes. No milk, no yogurt.

Why? Well, I’ve realized that eating my breakfast at work saves me a lot of time in the morning, time that I can redirect towards the cause of sleep (I couldn’t call asleep until 2 last night, so every additional minute this morning was particularly appreciated). I fill a container with cereal and go.

This morning I arrived at the office to see that we are out of milk. Disaster! I can’t even go out to buy some, because I am the only one in, and I must stay dutifully at my desk in order the guard the premises from the hoards to petty criminals waiting to get in and steal our laptops.

I noticed a cup of blueberry yogurt in the fridge. Assuming that no one would miss it all that much, I took it out and began walking to my desk to pour it over my cereal.

But I couldn’t.

As I walked down the hall I began to read the ingredients on the package. Actually, that’s not true, I didn’t actually read them because the only way the manufacturers could fit the names of the several dozen ingredients – most with names well over ten letters long – onto the package, was to make the type miniscule.

I felt sick to my stomach. The jar of yogurt that is in my fridge at home has exactly two ingredients listed on it: whole milk, bacterial cultures. The cup I was holding in my hand contained many things, but no yogurt.

I am completely socked at what we’ve allowed corporations to tell us we should eat. I am shocked that anyone would eat what was in that cup.

Like most religious people, I am occasionally guilty of lulling myself into to feeling that my religion is perfect.

Of course, I could try to generate some convoluted argument in order to prove that it is. Such an argument would likely involve redefining the terms of the debate (the surest way to win any battle of rhetoric!). To wit: My religion is perfect insofar as we are talking about MY religion, the extremely narrow and unique definition of Hinduism as practiced by Vega Janic. In my Hinduism, everyone is kind and compassionate and polite. Everybody minds their own business, except for when it comes to caring for those in need.

This line of thinking, however, is obviously vain and narcissistic. It boils down to “The world would be better if everyone were more like me (or at least like what I imagine I am like, which may or may not be accurate – though I like to think it’s more accurate than inaccurate).”

It’s probably for my own good (though not so much the good of the world) that I then come across things like this.

Extremism exists in every religion. Indeed, you could argue that it is the natural consequence of living in the modern era. Technology has opened our eyes and our minds. I’m not the most pro-technology person in the world, but I’m certainly aware of what it has done for us. Where once young people were confused by their feelings and tried to repress them, they can now go online and discover “Oh, I’m gay! What’s more, in some parts of the world, that’s not such a big deal. Why not here too?” Women can communicate with their sisters from around the world and learn “Hmm, in some places when a man rapes a woman, it’s HE that goes to jail. Maybe we can use some of that here.” Some of these discoveries aren’t even so profound. Sometimes it’s just as simple as “Maybe I can be myself, and the sky won’t fall.”

Then there are those who are petrified by others thinking this way. The people on the above-linked message board who are throwing in their support for anti-secularism are, I suspect, of such a sort.

Do not mistake me: In events where Hindus are marginalized by other groups, we need to stand up in protest. No one is free unless everyone is free.

But then you find someone who will declare, as on this message board, that “When Dharma is under attack by rogues of uncivilized barbarians, then the concept of Ahimsa becomes useless.” Or phrased more explicitly, when our religion is “threatened” by those whom we have judged by our standards, whatever those may be, to be uncivilized and barbarous, we can throw the principles of our religion out the window in order to crush those people.

DharamRakshak is certainly not the first person in history to make such a suggestion. Let’s just take a moment to remember that when people start making declarations such as his, peace is not what follows.