Once I went to a party and greeted my friends with ‘Jai Sri Ram’. One of my friends commented that I should use Secular Greetings.

I put up my argument that when some body sneezes, English people say God Bless You. Muslims frequently use the word Insha Allah and so on. So why some body frowns when we say Jai Shri Ram. It is only natural for any one to remember his God in his own language. This is a natural behaviour accepted by all great persons. Being originally from Varanasi I am quoting a verse from a Great Poet from Varanasi Shri Shyam Narayan Pandey.

Haldighati Eleventh chapter

हल्दीघाटी: एकादश सर्ग – श्याम नारायण पाण्डेय

राणा प्रताप का ताप तचा,

अरि–दल में हाहाकर मचा।

भेड़ों की तरह भगे कहते

अल्लाह हमारी जान बचा ॥४३॥

You can see that in the above verse Akbar’s Soldiers remember the God in their language. It would have been inappropriate if the poet had not used the name of the God as spoken by their followers and had used the word Shri Ram instead of Allah in the above verse.

It is very natural for all the persons to always remember the God in Good Times and Bad times. With all the respect for our Father of the Nation the last word of Mahatma Gandhi ji was Hey Ram !  I don’t think there is ever a person more secular than him.