christianity - :: bharatiya vidya bhavan australia ::

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam“The whole world is but one family”

Christianity

September 2011 | Vol 9 No.3 | Issn 1449 - 3551

www.bhavanaustralia.org

Life | Literature | Culture

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side - Rigv Veda, 1-89-i

2 | Bhavan Australia | September 2011

“Peace is one of humanity’s most precious needs. It is also the United Nations’ highest calling.”

-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

The International Day of Peace, Peace Day, provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.

By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal. During the discussion of the UN Resolution that established the International Day of Peace, it was suggested that:

“Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.”

History

In 1981, United Nations General Assembly affirmed, in a declaration subsidized by Costa Rica, the third Tuesday of September as an International Peace Day devoted to observing and spiraling the ethics of peace. In 2001, a new declaration was passed through the General Assembly, supported through the United Kingdom and Costa Rice to provide the day of calm a rigid date and proclaim it as the world ceasefire day. In the year of 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan termed for the international ceremony of 24-hours cease-fire

and the day of non-violence to smear the Day.

In the year of 2006, during his period in office, Secretary-General Kofi Annan rang Peace Bell for the most recent time. That year UN declared the “many ways it works for peace and to encourage individuals, groups and communities around the world to contemplate and communicate thoughts and activities on how to achieve peace. United Kingdom held the primary community and official observation of the United Nations International Peace Day and Non-Violence in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.”

In the year of 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon rang Peace Bell at United Nations Headquarters in New York terming for the 24-hours termination of oppositions on 21 September, and also for one minute to make quiet to be watched around the humanity.

The Day of Ceasefire

“There is never a good war or a bad peace.”

-Benjamin Franklin

In 2001, the General Assembly established 21 September as an annual day of non-violence and cease-fire. The UN invited all nations and people to honour a cessation of hostilities during the Day, and to otherwise commemorate the Day through education and public awareness on issues related to peace. The Day is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire—personal or political. We should take this opportunity to make peace in our own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.

Youth for Peace and Development

Young people around the world must take a stand for peace. Youth, peace and development are closely interlinked: Peace enables development,

International Day of Peace

September 2011 | Bhavan Australia | 3

Opening the SGIA Victoria Community Centre

13 August 2011

which is critical in providing opportunities for young people, particularly those in countries emerging from conflict. Healthy, educated youth are in turn crucial to sustainable development and peace. Peace, stability and security are essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, and maternal and child death by 2015.

Make Your Voice Heard

The World Peace Society gives confidence contribution by all organizations, schools and individuals. Each year; all parts of the people in the globe celebrate this International Peace Day on 21st September. Peace Bell is directed from the coins contributed by kids on all the continents, and also considered a sign of world unity. It was specified as an endowment by Japan. It is submitted to as a “reminder of the human cost of war.” The dedication on its elevation reads: “Long live absolute world peace.”

Celebrations

Anyone, anywhere can celebrate Peace Day. It can be as simple as lighting a candle at noon, or just sitting in silent meditation. Or it can involve getting our co-workers, organization, community or government engaged in a large event. The impact

if millions of people in all parts of the world, come together for one day of peace is immense.

Source: www.un.org, internationaldayofpeace.org, www.altiusdirectory.com

“United Nations General Assembly

affirmed, in a declaration subsidized

by Costa Rica, the third Tuesday of September as an International Peace

Day devoted to observing and spiraling the ethics

of peace.”


Contents

BoarD of DireCTorS of BHaraTiYa ViDYa BHaVan auSTralia

office Bearers:Chairman Gambhir Watts President Surendralal MehtaExecutive Secretary and Director General Homi Navroji Dastur

other Directors:Abbas Raza Alvi, Shanker Dhar, Mathoor Krishnamurti, Rozene Kulkarni, Palladam Narayana Sathanagopal, Kalpana Shriram, Jagannathan Veeraraghavan, Moksha Watts, Sridhar Kumar Kondepudi (Director and Company Secretary)

Patron: Her Excellency Mrs Sujatha SinghHigh Commissioner of India in Australia

Honorary life Patron: His Excellency M Ganapathi,

Publisher & General editor:Gambhir [email protected]

editorial Committee:Shanker Dhar, Parveen Dahiya, Sridhar Kumar [email protected]

Design:The Aqua Agency - 02 9810 5831www.aquaagency.com.au

advertising:[email protected] Vidya Bhavan AustraliaSuite 100 / 515 Kent Street,Sydney NSW 2000

The views of contributors to Bhavan Australia are not necessarily the views of Bhavan Australia or the Editor. Bhavan Australia reserves the right to edit any contributed articles and letters submitted for publication. Copyright: all advertisements and original editorial material appearing remain the property of Bhavan Australia and may not be reproduced except with the written consent of the owner of the copyright.Bhavan Australia: - ISSN 1449 – 3551

19 11 86The Importance of a Healthy Self-image ................... 7

Christianity at a Glance ............................................... 8

Nine Eleven and Mahatma Gandhi Vivekananda ... 12

Festivals of the Month: India .................................... 16

Swami Vivekananda: Questions and Answers........ 22

Nonviolent Communication: Mutual Giving From the Heart .................................. 27

Morari Bapu ................................................................ 30

Jesus Lived in India ................................................... 32

Placebo is Better Than Drugs................................... 46

Catholic Beliefs and Practices .................................. 50

Hindi Diwas ................................................................. 53

Christianity in India ................................................... 54

The Purpose of Religion ............................................ 66

Bhartiya Samaj’s 65th India Independence Day Celebrations .............................. 72

Dr. M.S. Swaminathan: The ‘Evergreen’ Revolutionary ................................ 73

Yoga and Naturopathy for Autism ........................... 84

Parramasala ................................................................ 86

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For this MonthINDIAN CULTURE as defined by Mahatma Gandhi and embraced by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

“Indian culture stands for synthesis of the different cultures that have come to stay in India, that have influenced Indian life and that, in their turn, have themselves been influenced by the spirit of the soil. This synthesis will naturally be of the swadeshi type where each culture is assured its legitimate place.”

Indian culture is therefore Indian. It is neither Hindu; nor Islamic, nor any other wholly. It is a fusion of all and essentially Eastern. And everyone who calls himself or herself Indian is bound to treasure that culture, be its trustee, and resist any attack upon it.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was a devoutly religious man. He had a deep understanding of the essentials of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Jainism. These religions shaped his spiritual outlook. Thinkers like Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy and Ruskin who greatly influenced him were also greatly religious people. Gandhi pleaded for deep mutual understanding of the humanity to learn from each other. He said, “Religion must help humanity towards its ethical goals on earth.”

Jesus lived in india: “It is simply of vital importance to find again the path to the sources, to the eternal and central truths of Christ’s message, which has been shaken almost beyond recognition by the profane ambitions of more or less secular institutions arrogating to themselves a religious authority. This is an attempt to open a way to a new future, firmly founded in the true spiritual and religious sources of the past”.

Thus begins Holger Kersten’s book “Jesus Lived in India”. This German book is a thorough, methodical and authoritative examination of the evidence of Christ’s life beyond the Middle East before the Crucifixion and in India and elsewhere after it.

We have included this article which is a summary of Kersten’s exhaustive research into Christ’s travels after the Crucifixion, his arrival in India with the Mother Mary and finally his death and entombment in Kashmir. Kersten notes the many parallels of Christ’s teachings with other religious and cultural traditions and suggests that at least some of these figures may have been one and the same personality. It is not possible, Kersten asserts, to disprove that Christ went to India. The current information documenting Christ’s life is restricted to the gospels and the work of Church theologians. One can hardly trust these sources to be objective considering their obvious interest in maintaining the authority of their Church and its grip on the masses.

Space does not permit us to recount the numerous authorities who are in agreement as to the westward spread of Indian and Buddhist concepts centuries before and into the Christian era. Despite the popularity of the Jesus-in-India tale, the claim is not accepted by mainstream authorities, either Christian or secular. The tale’s proponents assert that scholars reject Jesus in India because of Western imperialism and the inability to accept that Christ could have been influenced by Buddhism. In the case of mythicists, however, the reason Jesus is denied as having gone to India is because he is a pagan sun god remade into a Jewish “human” messiah. Thus, it is not a question of a “historical Jesus” being in India and the East but of a variety of solar cults that worshipped a similar deity with similar rituals, doctrines and myths.

Gambhir Watts Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan australia


Can India be sustainable for its food needs? Have we deviated from the possibility of being self sufficient? Definitely, our food planning experts have lost their way. With the sky high influence of globalisation, we forgot the need to be healthy. If anyone claims of economic growth, no doubt it is only a temporary booming as our physical health level has considerably fallen down. Quantitative growth has reduced the quality.

It is quite interesting and hopeful that rethinking has started gaining a greater pace. Everywhere we find a re-awakening. Now, we find the need of organic farming and protection of traditional food habits. Again, we need to be very careful and cautious that the vested interests of industry will drag us unnoticeably out of the way. It is highly appreciable, the recent ‘Melas’ that are being organised on Jackfruit, Mangoes and such traditional food varieties and food habits.

Unadulterated, unpolluted food, water and drinks must be made available for the people of our country. Kerala is a place where lots of jackfruits are produced, but in front of ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’, ‘Jackfruit has been thrown away, of course the good thing is that the part of it is eaten by the pigs and cattle. Their good time. But, what about the human psychology? What about the learning and understanding of an average human? What kind of education exists in our society? 98% parts of jackfruit is usable. Normally, not polluted in anyway. Only because it was available freely or is damn cheap, it was not preferred.

Now the situation has changed. Jackfruit has suddenly become an export product. Powder of the seed is available as different multivitamins in the form of most popular tin foods. Fruit is used for production of various delicious dishes and the price has gone up beyond imagination. Now people are turning towards it! I remember the days, when Keralites used to pray, that the jackfruits be taken away from their properties without taking even a single paisa. They were even ready to pay money for clearing them, whereas, now it is 50 to 100 and more rupees for one jackfruit. Hundreds of

variety products are made out of it, incomparably delicious than most other similar products. This teaches us a good lesson that we need to protect the traditional food varieties for our sustainable health.

Similar is the case with mangoes, rice, wheat and other traditional food varieties. The millets are all marketed back to us after spoiling them fully, with artificial colour, smell and nutrients. In no way, it is helpful to us. We should have them in its natural form, wherever cooking is needed, do it with minimum damage so that it does not change to negative or unhealthy food.

Everyone of us can start thinking of supporting the movements to promote traditional food varieties, through exhibitions and melas. We need to keep away the multinational company products, severely damaging our health, making us lifestyle diseased individuals. We need to educate our children about the importance of healthy food, traditional food varieties and the need to compromise with them against the killing tastes of the imported drinks and dishes.

India is a fast growing country, reaching the top of the world in every way. We have enough man power with dedication at work as compared to most other developed and so called rich countries. The Indian brain power is also of much higher value in the world. Economic growth is also on the higher side. What we need now is, concentrate on our real needs and resources, co-ordinate them and with united efforts, the growth is sure.

Give full attention to organic farming and traditional food promotion, to develop a healthy India, to become utmost prosperous. We have enough resources to become ‘Bhakshya Swaraj’.

Dr. Babu Joseph, Chief editor, nisargopachar Varta

Source: nisargopachar Varta, Vol. 3 issue 8 august-September 2011

Bhakshya Swaraj


“The oft repeated phrase Be yourself. Just be the person you are” means, or should mean, “Begin with your own soul-searching and take it forward from there.”

This is the initiation of an ongoing process for finding your own strengths, shoring up your own weaknesses and building your own version of a person worthy of your own self-esteem. Each of us has one’s own identity. Our task is much like mining: to dig into ourselves and reach for those cells of insight rich with our own mettle and to bring this inner worth to the surface. In the process, we are also bound to churn up a lot of emotional debris which must be isolated and cast aside.

Beginning with yourself, then, is the best way for being yourself which, in the final analysis, is the only way that we can in Socrates’s parlance really “know thyself.” This is not an easy thing to do. Knowing oneself deeply and fully, also means facing oneself, squarely and honestly.

This entails looking beyond and through the emotional costuming, the artificiality and the pretense ingrained in us, in order to see ourselves as we actually are. It means reconciling in a realistic way the discordance between our hopes and our accomplishments and making our peace with the inescapable conflict.

Becoming an emotionally healthy and happy person or a self-actuated, fully functioning individual, is neither a quirk of fate nor is it coded in the genes. Rather, it is an intellectual conditioning founded over time by blending

rational, achievable goals with hard work, some sacrifice, and a willingness to take some necessary and calculated risks now and then.

The existence of the voluminous literature concerning the self-concept leaves little doubt that mental health and personal adjustment depend deeply on each individual’s basic feeling or personal adequacy. The growth of an adequate self-concept, free from such encumbrances as phobic and misplaced ego or unrealistic misgivings, is a critically important first step in creating a healthy self image.

To cope successfully with the objective reality of everyday living we must have a firm grip on our own unwavering self-identity. Attaining a healthy self-image, with its attendant feelings of adequacy, personal worth, and confidence, is not some lofty goal beyond mortal reach, standing aloof as a kind of figurative ideal. It is an attitude or cluster of attitudes that are acquired, which instinctively replaces negative, destructive or self-defeating reactions by healthier ones. Past experiences can have a vast influence on current behaviour.

However, even though we cannot change or blot out past experiences, we can certainly change our feelings about those experiences, which is a step forward towards a healthy self-image.

Surendralal G Mehta President, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

The Importance of a Healthy Self-image


Christianity is the most popular religion in the world with over 2 billion adherents. 42 million Britons see themselves as nominally Christian, and there are 6 million who are actively practising.• Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah

promised in the Old Testament.• Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.• Christians believe that God sent his Son to earth to

save humanity from the consequences of its sins.• One of the most important concepts in Christianity

is that of Jesus giving his life on the Cross (the Crucifixion) and rising from the dead on the third day (the Resurrection).

• Christians believe that there is only one God, but that there are three elements to this one God:

- God the Father - God the Son - The Holy Spirit

• Christians worship in churches.• Their spiritual leaders are called priests or ministers.• The Christian holy book is the Bible, and consists of

the Old and New Testaments.• Christian holy days such as Easter and Christmas are

important milestones in the Western secular calendar.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Christianity at a Glance


origins

Christianity is the religion based on the life, death and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, also known as the Christ or Messiah. Jesus was a Jewish teacher and prophet who lived in Palestine in the first century CE. He revealed himself to be the Son of God in fulfilment of Hebrew scripture, and taught that the Kingdom of God was imminent, bringing with it forgiveness and new life for all who believed. His claim to be the Messiah roused opposition from religious and political authorities and he was imprisoned and crucified (executed on a cross). His followers believe that after his death, Jesus was resurrected before being taken up to heaven.

History and Spread

In the early years after the death and resurrection of Christ, Christianity functioned as a Jewish sect. Unlike most Jewish sects, however, Christianity allowed non-Jews as members. Indeed, it actively sought new adherents, most notably through the missionary work of Paul, one of Jesus’ first disciples. When the pagan Roman Empire conquered Jerusalem in 70 CE, Christianity attracted many Roman converts. By 100 CE, ethnically-Jewish Christians were a minority. Although being a Christian under Roman rule was illegal, churches were slowly established throughout the Roman Empire, including Europe and Africa.

Christians were a persecuted minority in the Roman Empire and many were executed for their faith. A pivotal event in the early church was the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 312 CE, who gave State approval to Christianity and gave it significant political and financial support. Constantine called the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE, the first of the great ecumenical councils of the church, which addressed heresies and splits among church leaders and formulated the Nicene Creed as a definitive statement of belief, which endures today. Over the next century, the Roman Empire was remoulded as Christian. From these small beginnings, Christianity rose to become the world’s largest religion, with over 2 billion adherents, and its most geographically dispersed.

in australia

In colonial times, English and European settlers and convicts brought their Christian churches to Australia. The first permanent clergy of

Anglicanism (then the Church of England) arrived in 1788; of Methodism in 1815; of Catholicism in 1820; of Presbyterianism in 1822; of Congregationalism in 1830 and of the Baptist Churches in 1834. Other early groups included the German Lutherans, Christadelphians, Christian Scientists and Seventh Day Adventists.

In 1901, 74% of population identified as Protestant and 23% as Roman Catholic. By the other end of the 20th Century, there were significant changes in Christian affiliation reflecting changing immigration patterns. After WWII, there was a rapid growth in Eastern Orthodox churches and Catholicism. More recently, migrants have often come from non-Christian backgrounds. By 2000, 43% of Australians identified as Protestant, 27% as Roman Catholic, and 3% as Eastern Orthodox.

Key Movements

Despite the New Testament vision of one church united by faith, the history of Christianity has been one of crisis and fragmentation. World Christianity is divided into three main groups: Roman Catholic, Protestant (including Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, and a cluster of Free, or Unassociated, Churches), and Eastern Orthodox.

These divisions are the result of two historic crises—firstly, the “Great Schism” of 1054 which resulted in the division between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity; and secondly, the Reformation in the 16th Century, which led to the emergence of Protestantism. The distinctions between these major groups are both organisational and doctrinal.

Only in the 20th Century have serious attempts been made to seek reconciliation between all Christian churches. The ecumenical movement, which aims to show that the spiritual unity of Christianity transcends organisational divisions, finds greatest focus in the World Council of Churches (established 1948).

organisational Structure

Some of the many splits, divisions and reformations of the Christian church have taken place as much over church organisation as theological doctrine. Broadly speaking, Christian churches are either organised along episcopal or congregational principles.

Christianity


• Episcopal: advocates church government by bishops, mostly understood as continuing in an unbroken line of succession from the early church.

• Congregational: advocates the authority and independence of each local church

Key Beliefs • Christians believe that there is only one God,

who is all-powerful and all-knowing. • Most Christians believe that God is a Trinity

made up of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.o The second person of the Trinity, God the

Son, became a human being in the person of Jesus.

o Jesus was born to a human woman, Mary (whom many believe was a virgin), and was subject to pain, suffering, and sorrow like other human beings.

o Jesus was put to death on a cross and three days later was raised from the dead (the resurrection). Forty days after this he ascended to heaven (the ascension).

o After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit was sent to bring the knowledge and power of Jesus to the church.

• Christians believe in eternal life after death, but not earthly reincarnation.

• Christians await the second coming of Christ which will bring fulfilment of the Kingdom of God and a final day of judgement.

• Christians share with Islam and Judaism a moral code that includes the Ten Commandments.

• Eastern churches, Roman and Protestant churches accept (with slight verbal differences) the Apostles’ Creed, a profession of faith formulised around 500 CE.

• Many Catholics believe that the Western Catholic church is the church founded by Jesus Christ and that only it offers the fullness of sacramental grace.

Key festivals and their Meaning

The following make up the principal dates of the Western Church calendar:• Advent: The beginning of the Christian Year. Four

Sundays before Christmas, Christians set aside time for reflection and preparation for recalling the coming of Christ.

• Christmas (December 25): The celebration of Jesus’ birth.

• Christmas to Epiphany: Marks the traditional 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany marks the arrival of the magi or wise men at Jesus’ birthplace.

• Lent: The 40 days of preparation and penance which begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes

Christian Church


at sundown on Holy (Easter) Saturday. • Easter: The holiest period of the Christian

calendar. It begins with Good Friday, which solemnly commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion, and continues until Easter Sunday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.

• Ascension Day: Takes place 40 days after Easter and celebrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven.

• Pentecost: The celebration of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit on earth after Jesus’ ascension. It takes place 50 days after the Jewish Passover festival. It is popularly accepted as the birthday of the church.

• Some denominations celebrate Saints’ Days and Feast Days.

WWW links national Council of Churches in australia The peak ecumenical body made up of 15 of the major churches in Australia.

national Church life Survey Findings of Australia’s biggest church research project, coinciding with each national census.

australian Christian Churches A peak body of mostly Pentecostal denominations, acting as an alliance of contemporary churches committed to communicating Christianity within Australian society through church services, preaching, and community care.

Christian research association Research papers and statistical information on Christianity and religion generally in Australia.

Search a Church Internet directory of Australian churches.

Victorian Council of Churches One of the best State ecumenical council web sites.

Christian Century A prominent liberal monthly magazine that examines issues of politics and culture as well as theology.

Christian Conference of asia Regional ecumenical body with membership of fourteen national councils and nearly 100 churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong SAR China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.

Christianity Today Prominent monthly news-magazine.

ecumenical news international Inter-church news agency sponsored by the World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and Conference of European Churches.

national Council of Churches—uSa The National Council of Churches, founded in 1950, is the leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. The NCC’s 36 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox member denominations include more than 50 million persons in 140,000 local congregations in communities across the USA.

World Council of Churches The WCC is a fellowship of churches, now 341 in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions.

BBC religion & ethics online Background to Christianity, and many other faith traditions.

Source: www.abc.net.au

“He revealed himself to be the Son of God in fulfilment of Hebrew scripture, and taught that the

Kingdom of God was imminent, bringing with it forgiveness and new life for all

who believed.”


We pray Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda on this day of September 11.

Gandhiji’s Satyagraha

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi first articulated the concept of ‘Satyagraha’, non-violent resistance, at a public meeting in South Africa on September 11, 1906. His rigorous application of this philosophy over the next 40 years earned Gandhi the title of Mahatma—great soul. It also gave the modern world a powerful new political tool for dealing with conflict and hurt.

On 9/11, 1906 Gandhi found himself in a leadership role at a gathering of Indians of all faiths, castes and professions at the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg. In an atmosphere charged with anger and the determination to fight racism, Gandhi dropped an idea that acted like a depth charge. Let us fight discriminatory laws by refusing to comply—by offering unflinching non-violent resistance.

His logic was impeccable. Truth is God and God is love. It follows that a struggle for justice cannot involve hurting one’s opponent. Instead, the ‘other’ in a conflict must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. In turn, this means cultivating the willingness to examine ‘truth’ in all its many dimensions. This can only be done by being strong—not physical strength but the strength of truth-force or love-force.

Satyagraha: its Theory and Practice

Carried out to its utmost limit, this force is independent of pecuniary or other material assistance: certainly, even in its elementary form, of physical force or violence. Indeed, violence is the negation of this great spiritual force which can only be cultivated or wielded by those who will entirely eschew violence. It is a force that may be used by individuals as well as by communities. It may be used as well in political as in domestic affairs. Its universal applicability is a demonstration of its permanence and invincibility. It can be used alike by men, women and children. It is totally untrue to say that it is a force to be used only by the weak so long as they are not capable of meeting violence by violence.

It is impossible for those who consider themselves to be weak to apply this force. Only those who realize that is something in man which is superior to the brute nature in him, and that the latter always yields to it, can effectively be passive. This force is to violence and, therefore, to all tyranny, all injustice, what light is to darkness.

We have taken long to achieve what we set about striving for. That was because our passive resistance was not of the most complete type. All passive resisters do not understand the full value of the force, nor have we men who always from conviction refrain from violence. The use of this force requires the adoption of poverty, in the sense

Nine Eleven and Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda Mahatma Gandhi


that we must be indifferent whether we have the wherewithal to feed or clothe ourselves. During the past struggle, all passive resisters, if any at all, were not prepared to go that length. Some again were only passive resisters so-called. They came without any conviction, often with mixed motives, less often with impure motives. Some even, whilst engaged in the struggle, would gladly have resorted to violence but for most vigilant supervision. Thus it was that the struggle became prolonged; for the exercise of the purest soul-force, in its perfect form, brings about instantaneous relief. For this exercise, prolonged training of the individual soul is an absolute necessity so that a perfect passive resister has to be almost if not entirely, a perfect man. We cannot all suddenly become such men, but if my proposition is correct-as I know it to be correct-the greater the spirit of passive resistance in us, the better men we will become. Its use is indisputable, and it is a force which, if it became universal, would revolutionize social ideals and do away with despotism’s and the ever-growing militarism.

Let no one understand that a non-violent army is open only to those who strictly enforce in their lives al the implications of nonviolence. It is open to all those who accept the implications and make an ever-increasing endeavor to observe them. There never will be an army of perfectly nonviolent people. It will be formed of those who will honestly endeavor to observe nonviolence.

Swami Vivekananda’s God realisation lecture

It was on September 11, 1893 that an Indian monk, Swami Vivekananda, was overwhelmed by a three minute standing ovation at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He travelled to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, at the age of 30, not so much as a Hindu missionary, but the bearer of what he experienced as a universal non-sectarian truth. Vivekananda realized that all spiritual striving is beyond reason, but reason is the only way to get there. For reason is the greatest gift of human existence.

Even institutionalized religions, Vivekananda told the Parliament at Chicago, are nothing but “different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight” to the same goal. That goal is God-realization or self-realization – the two being one and the same thing.

Over the next decade, till he died at the age of 39, Vivekananda travelled across the USA and western Europe engaged in dialogue about racial and religious conflict. He left behind a body of work that attempts to recalibrate the dynamic between conquest, reparation and reconciliation. Reverberations of his appeal for universal brotherhood persist today beside the buzz of protest and counter-protest.

“In an atmosphere charged with anger and the determination to fight racism, Gandhi dropped an idea that acted like a depth charge.”


Swami Vivekananda’s speech on that day began with the simple words “Sisters and Brothers of America” and proceeded to declare that sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism are outdated phenomena. This is why he tends to be somewhat simplistically deployed as a poster-boy of multi-cultural camaraderie.

In this famous speech, Swami Vivekananda spoke of his vision for an end to violence and fanaticism. His message of the 1800’s is as timely and fitting now, in the 2000’s, as it was then, over 100 years ago.

World Parliament of religions

In recent history there have been great strides in bridging the spirituality of East and West. Notable among these was the message given by Swami Vivekananda at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893. The World Parliament of Religions was sponsored by the Unitarians and Universalists of the Free Religious Association, and was a part of the greater Columbian Exposition held for several months in 1893, in Chicago, which was attended by over 27 million people.

Swami Vivekananda’s Standing ovation

Swami Vivekananda’s opening talk is a benchmark, in that he was one of the earlier teachers to come to America from the East, and the first swami to

visit America. Most notably, this was his first talk in America. The 7,000 people in the audience, immediately feeling the depth of his sincerity, rose to their feet and according to reports, “went into inexplicable rapture with standing ovation and clapping that lasted for more than three minutes.” He went on, “It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us...”

Call for the end to fanaticism

Swami Vivekananda closed by speaking of humanity’s history of violence and his hopes for its end, “Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.”

Source: www.opendemocracy.net, www.mkgandhi.org, www.swamij.com

Vivekananda

“All passive resisters do not understand the full value of the force, nor have we men who always from conviction refrain from violence.”


Churches Working Together

“The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) gathers together in pilgrimage those Churches and Christian communities which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures and commit themselves to deepen their relationship with each other in order to express more visibly the unity willed by Christ for his Church, and to work together towards the fulfilment of their mission of common witness, proclamation and service, to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The National Council of Churches in Australia is an ecumenical council of member Australian Christian Churches.

The ecumenical Movement in australia

a Brief History of the nCCa

The modern ecumenical movement began to take shape as the 19th century drew to a close. Initiatives among students and between Church mission agencies led the way. This country saw the formation of the Australian Student Christian Movement (1896) and the National Missionary Council (1926).

Out of the devastation of World War II sprang the Australian Committee for the World Council of Churches (1946). This developed into the Australian Council of Churches which, in 1994, gave way to the National Council of Churches in Australia.

The movement for Christian unity in this country was, initially, an Anglican and Protestant affair. Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches came in, in strength, during the 1960s and 70s. For Catholics, the 2nd Vatican Council opened up fresh possibilities for relationships with other Churches, and the transition to the National Council of Churches in Australia (1994) saw the Catholic Church become a full participant in Australia’s national ecumenical body.

The NCCA is its nineteen member Churches in their commitment each to the others and all to the world for which Christ died. It works in collaboration with state ecumenical councils around Australia. It is an associate council of the World Council of Churches, a member of the Christian Conference of Asia and a partner of other national ecumenical bodies throughout the world.

Source: www.ncca.org.au

National Council of

Churches in Australia


Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi or “Vinayak Chaturthi” is one of the major traditional festivals celebrated by the Hindu community. It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Bhadrapada, starting on the Shukla Chaturthi (fourth day of the waxing moon period). The festival lasts for 10 days, ending on Ananta Chaturdashi and is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. Ganesh Chaturthi 2011 falls on September 1.

Celebrations

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and many other parts of India.

Preparations for the festival begin months in advance. Days before the actual worship, homes are cleaned and marquees erected at street corners to house the idols of the Lord. Elaborate arrangements are made for lighting, decoration, mirrors and flowers. The artisans who make the idols of Ganesh vie with each other to make bigger and better sculptures. These are installed in marquees and in homes prior to the Puja (worship).

Special prasad and food (cooked without onions and garlic) are prepared to mark the first day of the puja. Aarti (a ritualistic puja with hymns) is performed twice a day—in the morning and in the evening. Most people of the community attend the evening aarti. People offer prasad of modaks or peras, coconut, hibiscus or any other red flower, sheaves of grass, vermilion, turmeric powder and rice. During Ganesh Chaturthi people in most parts of the country offer prasad to the image of Ganesha in their mini temples at home. The entire family wears fresh and clean clothes and assembles in the sacrosanct area. As they sing hymns, everyone is given some flowers and rice in their hands. These are later showered on Ganesha.

The festival comes to an end on the day of Anant Chaudas. On this day, the idols of Ganesha are taken from various pandals, doorsteps, localities and puja rooms for a truly royal ride. The streets of Mumbai are packed with multitudes as each locality comes out on the streets with its Ganesha. Amidst shouts of ‘Ganpati Bappa Moriya Pudhchya Varshi Lavkarya’ (Marathi for—Oh Ganpati My

Festivals of the Month: India

Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi


Lord, return soon next year), a sea of humanity carries the idols to the waters of the Arabian Sea. Firecrackers announce the arrival of the procession that halts every now and then for people to get a last glimpse of their favourite God and seek His blessings, for He is the remover of all obstacles. The idols are carried into the holy waters for their visarjan, or immersion. In other towns and villages, folks carry the idols to the local river or tank for the visarjan ceremony. As dusk takes charge of the skies, people return to their localities and homes awaiting Ganesha’s return the following year.

rishi Panchami

Rishi Panchami is observed on the fifth day of the waxing moon fortnight of Bhadrapada month. It is celebrated on the next day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Rishi Panchami 2011 falls on 2 September.

Significance

Rishi Panchami is observed by women to pay respect and gratitude towards ancient Sages or Rishis. It is a Vrat or obligation observed by devout women. Hence it is also called Rishi Panchami Vrata. Both married and unmarried women observe this Vrata. Women believe that by doing this Pooja they get rid of their sins. They worship Saptarishis namely: Kashyap, Vishwamitra, Gautam, Atri, Bharadwaj, Janadagni and Vashishtha.

legend

Long back there was a king called Sitasale. He asked Brahma to tell about a fast that can eradicate all sins of past lives. Lord Brahma narrated a story of Brahmana whose daughter faced so many problems. The Brahmana’s daughter became widow soon after her marriage. She was badly bitten by worms and suffered miserably. In order to know the cause of her daughter’s sufferings Brahmana started meditation. He could see that in previous life his daughter had committed sins. She had not performed purificatory process of observing Vrata. Upon realizing this, Brahmana’s daughter observed this Vrata and purified herself.

observation

Women observe this Vrata by paying homage to Saptarishis. They observe strict fast on this day. They go to water bodies like rivers and take holy bath. They clean their hands 108 times and worship Arundati. Women arrange altar for Saptarishi on a small wooden platform. They offer their obligations by performing poojas to the Deities. Some women observe this fast by eating fruits which grow below the soil. They hear Katha of Rishi Panchami and break their fasts on the next day. The fast is undertaken by men and women alike. Its effect is to wash away sins done voluntarily or involuntarily. The devotee should listen to the story of Ganesh, Navagreh, Saptarishi and worship Arundhati.

onam

Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome king Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam. Onam is celebrated in the month of August-September according to Gregorian Calendar. Carnival of Onam lasts from four to ten days. First day, Atham and tenth day, Thiruonam are most important of all. Popularity and presentation of rich culture of the state during the carnival made Onam the National Festival of Kerala in 1961. Elaborate feasts, folk songs, elegant dances, energetic games, elephants, boats and flowers all are a part of the dynamic festival called Onam. Onam 2011 falls on 9 September.

legends

Story goes that during the reign of mighty asura (demon) king, Mahabali, Kerala witnessed its golden era. Every body in the state was happy and prosperous and king was highly regarded by his subjects. Apart from all his virtues, Mahabali had one shortcoming. He was egoistic. This weakness in Mahabali’s character was utilized by Gods to bring an end to his reign as they felt challenged by Mahabali’s growing popularity. However, for all the good deed done by Mahabali, God granted him a boon that he could annually visit his people with whom he was so attached. It is this visit of Mahabali that is celebrated as Onam every year. People make all efforts to celebrate the festival in a grand way and impress upon their dear king that they are happy and wish him well. King Mahabali is also popularly called as Maveli and Onathappan.

rishi Panchami


King Mahabali

Mahabali was the son of Veerochana and grandson of Prahlad, the devout son of demon king Hiranyakashyap. Mahabali had a son called Bana, who became a legendary king in his own right and became popular as Banraj in central Assam. Mahabali belonged to the Asura (demon) dynasty but was an ardent worshiper of Lord Vishnu. His bravery and strength of character earned him the title of “Mahabali Chakravathy” or Mahabali—the king of Kings.

Vamana

To curb the growing reign of Mahabali, Aditi, the mother of Gods seeked help of Lord Vishnu whom Mahabali worshiped. It was said Mahabali was very generous and charitable. Whenever anybody approached him for help or requested for anything he always granted. To test the king, Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a dwarf and a poor Brahmin called Vamana. He came to the kingdom of Mahabali, just after Mahabali performed his morning prayers and was preparing to grant boons to Brahmins. Vishnu said he was a poor Brahmin and asked for a piece of land. The generous king said, he could have as much land as he wanted. The Brahmin said that he just wanted as much land as could be covered by his three steps. The king was surprised to hear but agreed.

Shukracharya

A learned adviser of the king, Shukracharya sensed that Vamana was not an ordinary person and warned the king against making the promise. But the generous king replied that it would be a sin for a king to back on his words and asked the Brahmin to take the land. The king could not imagine that the dwarf Brahmin was Lord Vishnu himself. Just as king Mahabali agreed to grant the land, Vamana began to expand and eventually increased himself to the size of cosmic proportions. With his first step the Brahmin boy covered the whole of earth and with the other step he covered the whole of the skies. He then asked king Mahabali where is the space for him to keep his third foot.

The king realised that he was no ordinary Brahmin and his third step would destroy the earth. Mahabali with folded hands bowed before Vamana and asked him to place his last step on his head so that he could keep the promise. The Brahmin placed his foot on the head of the king, which pushed him to patala, the nether world. There the king requested the Brahmin to reveal his true identity. Lord Vishnu then appeared before the king and told the king that he came to test him and the king won the test. King Mahabali was pleased to see his Lord. Lord Vishnu also granted a boon to the king.

rituals

People wake up as early as 4 am on the day of Onam. Day begins with cleaning of the house. In the earlier days, front courtyards were smeared with cow dungs. The custom is still followed in villages, where the houses are not cemented. On the day of Thiruvonam conical figures in various forms are prepared from sticky clay and are painted red. These are decorated with a paste made of rice-flour and water and are placed in the front court yard and other important places in the house. Some of these clay figures are in the shape of cone and others represent figures of Gods.

Elaborate prayer ceremonies and poojas are also performed on this day. A senior member of the house plays the role of the priest and conducts the rituals. He prepares ata; Ata is prepared from rice flour and molasses for Nivedyam (offerings to God). Lamps are lit up in front of the idols and all members of the house join in for the ceremonies. Priest offers ata, flowers and water in the names of the God. As Onam is also a harvest festival people thank God for the bountiful harvest and pray for the blessings in the coming year. A peculiar custom is followed after this, wherein male members make loud and rhythmic shouts of joys. The tradition is called, ‘Aarppu Vilikkukal’. This represents the beginning of Onam.

It is now the time for members of the house to dress up in their best attire and offer prayers in the local temple. Most people wear new clothes on the day. There is also a tradition of distributing new clothes on Onam. In Tharawads (traditional large family consisting of more than hundred people), Karanavar, the eldest member of the family, gives new clothes as gifts, called Onapudava, to all family members and servants. Other members of the family exchange gifts amongst each other.

Celebrations

Rich cultural heritage of Kerala comes out in its best form and spirit during the ten day long festival. People of Kerala make elaborate preparations to celebrate it in the best possible manner. The most impressive part of Onam celebration is the grand feast called Onasadya, prepared on Thiruonam. It is a nine course meal

onam


consisting of 11 to 13 essential dishes. Onasadya is served on banana leaves and people sit on a mat laid on the floor to have the meal. Another enchanting feature of Onam is Vallamkali, the Snake Boat Race, held on the river Pampa. It is a colourful sight to watch the decorated boat oared by hundreds of boatmen amidst chanting of songs and cheering by spectators. There is also a tradition to play games, collectively called Onakalikal, on Onam. Men go in for rigorous sports like Talappanthukali (played with ball), Ambeyyal (Archery), Kutukutu and combats called Kayyankali and Attakalam. Women indulge in cultural activities. They make intricately designed flower mats called, Pookalam in the front courtyard of house to welcome king Mahabali. Kaikotti Kali and Thumbi Thullal are two graceful dances performed by women on Onam. Folk performances like Kummatti Kali and Pulikali add to the zest of celebrations.

navratri

Navratri is a very important and popular festival of India. It comes twice on a year, once around March-April and the second time, around September-October. The nine days and nights of Navratri are entirely devoted to Mother Goddess. Throughout this period, fasts, strictly vegetarian diets, japa (chanting mantras in honor of the Goddess Shakti), religious hymns, prayer, meditation and recitation of sacred texts related to Devi Maa (Mother Goddess) form the order of the day. Navaratri in 2011 start on 28th of September and will continue for 9 days until the 6th of October.

‘Nav’ means ‘nine’ and ‘ratri’ means ‘night’. Thus, ‘Navratri’ means ‘nine nights’. There are many legends attached to the conception of Navratri. All of them are related to Goddess Shakti (Hindu Mother Goddess) and Her various forms. It is one of the most celebrated festivals of Hindu calendar. It holds special significance for Gujratis and Bengalis and one can see it in the zeal and fervor of the people with which they indulge in the festive activities of the season. Dandiya and Garba Rass are the highlights of the festival in Gujarat, while farmer sow seeds and thank the Goddess for her blessings and pray for better yield. In older times, Navratri was associated with the fertility of Mother Earth who feed us as her children.

The nine Days

The first three days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga (Warrior Goddess) dressed in red and mounted on a lion. Her various incarnations—Kumari, Parvati and Kali—are worshipped during these days. They represent the three different classes of womanhood that include the child, the young girl and the mature woman. Next three days are dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity), dressed in gold and mounted on an owl and finally, last three are dedicated to Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge), dressed in milky white and mounted on a pure white swan. Sweetmeats are prepared for the celebrations. Children and adults dress up in new bright-colored dresses for the night performances.

navratri


legends

lord rama

A popular legend associated with the celebration of Navratri is the story of Lord Rama, who wanted to rescue his wife Sita, from the demon king Ravana. To free her from the clutches of the demon king, Lord Rama worshipped Goddess Durga in Her nine different forms, for nine days, so that He gets all the strength and power to kill Ravana. All the nine days became Navratri and hence, celebrated every year. On the tenth day, Rama killed Ravana and that day is called Vijayadashmi or Dussehra.

Mahishasura

According to a very popular legend, Mahishasura, the mighty demon worshipped Lord Shiva and obtained invincible power. Soon, he started killing the innocent lives on earth and set out to win the seven lokas. He acquired the swarglok. Nobody could save the living creatures from his tyranny. Even the three mighty Gods of the Hindu Trinity—Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva—were unable to defeat him. Therefore, all the Gods, including the Hindu Trinity, united their supreme powers and created a divine being called Ma Shakti or Durga, the Warrior Goddess.

With all the accumulated power and the weapons given by the Gods, Goddess Durga set her trail to defeat Mahishasura. To accomplish the task, she entered a war with him, which extended for nine days. After fighting hard with him for nine days, Goddess Durga killed Mahishasura on the tenth day. Consequently, she lifted the tyranny of the demon off the innocent lives on earth and restored the swarglok to the devatas (Gods). Therefore,

Navratri is celebrated to commemorate her victory over the demon, which symbolizes the victory of the good over the evil. The nine nights of Navratri symbolize the nine nights of the war between Goddess Durga and Mahishasura.

Sati

According to a story in the Hindu mythology, king Daksha of Himalayas was blessed with a beautiful and virtuous daughter, named Uma. She wished to marry Lord Shiva. In order to tie the wedding knot with the God, Uma worshipped him and pleased him. Consequently, Lord Shiva married Uma. One day, Uma, now the consort of Lord Shiva, wished to take part in a Yagna conducted by her father. Since her father was not in good terms with Him, Lord Shiva refused her to witness the Yagna.

When she turned up at the Yagna, king Daksha insulted Lord Shiva. Unable to withstand the insult, angry Uma decided to end her life by jumping into the agni kund. Soon after doing this, she was united with the eternity. Therefore, Uma came to be known as Sati. Sati was reborn again. In the second birth, Sati married Lord Shiva and the divine couple lived happily, thereafter. It is believed that Sati comes to stay with her parents for nine days, every year. This is celebrated as Navratri.

Customs and rituals

The main ritual of Navratri consists of placing images of Goddess Durga in homes and temples. The devotees offer fruits and flowers to the Goddess. They also sing bhajans in her honor. The first three days of Navratri are devoted exclusively to the worship of Goddess Durga, when her energy and power are worshipped. In some communities people undergo rigorous fasts during this season that lasts for the nine days of Navratri. The festival culminates on Mahanavami. On this day, Kanya Puja is performed. Nine young girls representing the nine forms of Goddess Durga are worshipped. Their feet are washed as a mark of respect for the Goddess and then they are offered new clothes as gifts by the worshipper. This ritual is performed in most parts of the country. Nothing dampens the spirit of the devout followers of Goddess Durga, as they sing devotional songs and indulge in the celebrations of Navratri. There is also a custom of planting barley seeds in a small bed of mud on the first day of puja. The shoots, when grown, are given to the attendees, as a blessing from Goddess, after the puja ceremony.

Pitr-Paksha

The dark fortnight which falls in the Hindu calendar month of Bhadrapad (September) is known as Pitr-Paksha or Mahalay Paksha all over the Hindu World. This period is regarded to be an ideal occasion to perform rites for the deceased ancestors to keep their spirit gratified for years.

navratri


Significance

It is a traditional religious belief that deceased ancestors from Lord Yamaraja’s region visit their homes on earth during this time. So, if the rite of Shraddha is performed on one of the days in the fortnight, then the subtle bodies of ancestors is considered to remain gratified for years. Pitru Paksha reminds us of our subtle existence and requirement of our subtle or spiritual needs in the form of rites like Shraddha to ensure a smooth passage from physical existence to the subtle planes. By focussing solely on gross sciences, many of these subtle measures are not practiced, even forgotten in western countries. Funeral rites and Shraddha are different, while funeral rites are considered inauspicious, Shraddha is auspicious and gratifying. Pitru Paksha Shradh, or Pitr Paksh Shraddh, is the annual rites and rituals offered to ancestors, relatives and dead parents in the month of Ashwin in North India and during Bhadrapad in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Pitru Paksha Shradh 2011 falls during 13-27 September. It is popularly believed that the Shradh performed during the Pitr Paksh Shraddh fortnight is highly auspicious as it reaches the dead relatives immediately and therefore their souls attain liberation or rest in peace.

Pitru Paksha Shradh is performed during the Krishna Paksha or waning phase of moon. In some regions, the Mahalaya Shradh Pitru Paksh fortnight begins with Purnima of Bhadrapad month. In majority of the regions it begins on the day after the Poornima. Mahalaya Shradh is the final day of Shradh and the most important day of Pitru Paksh fortnight. It is also known as Sarvapitri or Sarvapitru Shradh and falls on the Amavasi or no moon day.

observance

Pitrapaksha gives a chance to repay debt to our deceased ancestors by gratifying their spirits. As such, Shraddha is a “debt of the dead” or “ceremonies of the dead” which should be performed, assuming that the dead ones are alive amongst us. The Lord of death, Yamaraja enables the dead ones to come to earth and receive offers from the descendants. This practice is made to the dead Petras and Pitras. It is believed that one owes three main debts, first to Devarina (Debt to the Gods), Rishirina (Debt to the Guru) and Petranina (Debt to the forefathers).While most people prefer to perform Shraddhas at their homes, the most devout perform Shraddha at the designated holy place.

Only after the Shraddha, he/she attains a position among the Petris or Divine Fathers in their blissful abode called Pitri-Loka. Generally, considered most desirable and efficacious when Shraddha is performed by a son. Ritual of Shraddha should be performed for one’s grandfather, father on the

paternal side and the mother etc on the maternal side. Names of all living persons should not be associated with the rituals.

Shraddh should be performed with a pious mind. The person who performs the Shraddh should realize that for his birth, body, knowledge, wealth and Sanskar he/she is indebted to the ancestors. All that is there was given by the ancestors. So the rituals performed is accepting this fact and is sort of thanksgiving. Both male and female relatives of the dead can perform the rituals.

rituals

The rituals including the ‘Pind Daan’ that are performed reach the dead ancestors through the rays of Surya (Sun.) It is said that a year of humans is a day for the dead and therefore the ancestors enjoy the fruits of the annual Shraddh throughout the year. Another belief is that the souls of dead remain in peace in Pitru Loka as a result of the rituals performed by their children or relatives. It is also said that the dead bless them for this and it helps the children and relatives to lead a good life on earth.

Equally important is feeding the poor on the day. Whenever rituals dedicated to the dead are performed, people distribute food and clothes among the poor. Usually the rituals are performed on a riverbank or on seashore. There are also temples in India where the rituals can be performed. In some places crows are invited to feed on the rice cake that is prepared for the ritual. The method of performing the rituals slightly varies from region to region. But the essence of the ritual is the same.

*Compiled by Parveen Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Source: festivals.iloveindia.com, www.altiusdirectory.com, in.ygoy.com, www.indianchild.com, www.hindu-blog.com, www.mangalore.com, www.bharatonline.com, www.theholidayspot.com, www.blessingsonthenet.com, www.shreedarshan.com, www.cuisinecuisine.com, www.theholidayspot.com, www.holidays.net, www.surfindia.com, www.festivalsofindia, www.onamfestival.org, www.truthstar.com, www.kidsgen.com, www.onamfestival.org

Pind Daan


Discussion1

Q.—Is this spiritual freedom among the people consistent with attention to caste?

A.—Certainly not. They say there should be no caste. Even those who are in caste say it is not a very perfect institution. But they say, when you find us another and a better one, we will give it up. They say, what will you give us instead? Where is there no caste? In your nation you are struggling all the time to make a caste. As soon as a man gets a bag of dollars, he says, “I am one of the Four Hundred.” We alone have succeeded in making a permanent caste. Other nations are struggling and do not succeed. We have superstitions and evils enough. Would taking the superstitions and evils from your country mend matters? It is owing to caste that three hundred millions of people can find a piece of bread to eat yet. It is an imperfect institution, no doubt. But if it had not been for caste, you would have had no Sanskrit books to study. This caste made walls, around which all sorts of invasions rolled and surged, but found it impossible to break through. That necessity has not gone yet; so caste remains. The caste we have now is not that of seven hundred years ago. Every blow has riveted it. Do you realise that India is the only country that never went outside of itself to conquer? The great emperor Asoka insisted that none of his descendants should go to conquer. If people want to send us teachers, let them help, but not injure. Why should all these people come to conquer the Hindus? Did they do any injury to any nation? What little good they could do, they did for the world. They taught it science, philosophy, religion, and civilised the savage hordes of the earth. And this is the return—only murder and tyranny, and calling them heathen rascals. Look at the books written on India by Western people and at the stories of many travellers who go there; in retaliation for what injuries are these hurled at them?

Q.—What is the Vedantic idea of civilisation?

A.—You are philosophers, and you do not think that a bag of gold makes the difference between man and man, What is the value of all these machines and sciences? They have only one result; they spread knowledge. You have not solved the problem of want, but only made it keener. Machines do not solve the poverty question; they simply make men struggle the more. Competition gets keener. What value has Nature in itself? Why do you go and build a monument to a man who sends electricity through a wire? Does not Nature do that millions of times over? Is not everything already existing in Nature? What is the value of your getting it? It is already there. The only value is that it makes this development. This universe is simply a gymnasium in which the soul is taking exercise; and after these exercises we become gods. So the value of everything is to be decided by how far it is a manifestation of God. Civilisation is the manifestation of that divinity in man.

Q.—Have the Buddhists any caste laws?

A.—The Buddhists never had much caste, and there are very few Buddhists in India. Buddha was a social reformer. Yet in Buddhistic countries I find that there have been strong attempts to manufacture caste, only they have failed. The Buddhists’ caste is practically nothing, but they take pride in it in their own minds.

Buddha was one of the Sannyasins of the Vedanta. He started a new sect, just as others are started even today. The ideas which now are called Buddhism were not his. They were much more ancient. He was a great man who gave the ideas power. The unique element in Buddhism was its social element. Brahmins and Kshatriyas have always been our teachers, and most of the Upanishads were written by Kshatriyas, while the ritualistic portions of the Vedas came from the Brahmins. Most of our great teachers throughout India have been Kshatriyas and were always

Swami Vivekananda

Questions and Answers


universal in their teachings; whilst the Brahmana prophets with two exceptions were very exclusive. Rama, Krishna, and Buddha—worshipped as Incarnations of God—were Kshatriyas.

Q.—Are sects, ceremonies and scriptures helps to realisation?

A.—When a man realises, he gives up everything. The various sects and ceremonies and books, so far as they are the means of arriving at that point, are all right. But when they fail in that, we must change them. “The knowing one must not despise the condition of those who are ignorant, nor should the knowing one destroy the faith of the ignorant in their own particular method, but by proper action lead them, and show them the path to come to where he stands.”

Q.—How does the Vedanta explain individuality and ethics?

A.—The real individual is the Absolute; this personalisation is through Maya. It is only apparent; in reality it is always the Absolute. In reality there is one, but in Maya it is appearing as many. In Maya there is this variation. Yet even in this Maya there is always the tendency to get back to the One, as expressed in all ethics and all morality of every nation, because it is the constitutional necessity of the soul. It is finding its oneness; and this struggle to find this oneness is what we call ethics and morality. Therefore we must always practise them.

Q.—Is not the greater part of ethics taken up with the relation between individuals?

A.—That is all it is. The Absolute does not come within Maya.

Q.—You say the individual is the Absolute, and I was going to ask you whether the individual has knowledge.

A.—The state of manifestation is individuality, and the light in that state is what we call knowledge. To use, therefore, this term knowledge for the light of the Absolute is not precise, as the Absolute state transcends relative knowledge.

Q.—Does it include it?

A.—Yes, in this sense. Just as a piece of gold can be changed into all sorts of coins, so with this. The state can be broken up into all sorts of knowledge. It is the state of super-consciousness, and includes both consciousness and unconsciousness. The man who attains that state has all that we call knowledge. When he wants to realise that consciousness of knowledge, he has to go a step lower. Knowledge is a lower state; it is only in Maya that we can have knowledge.

(At the Twentieth Century Club of Boston, U.S.A.)

Q.—Did Vedanta exert any influence over Mohammedanism?

A.—This Vedantic spirit of religious liberality has very much affected Mohammedanism. Mohammedanism in India is quite a different thing from that in any other country. It is only when Mohammedans come from other countries and preach to their co-religionists in India about living with men who are not of their faith that a Mohammedan mob is aroused and fights.

Q.—Does Vedanta recognise caste?

A.—The caste system is opposed to the religion of the Vedanta. Caste is a social custom, and all our great preachers have tried to break it down. From Buddhism downwards, every sect has preached against caste, and every time it has only riveted the chains. Caste is simply the outgrowth of the political institutions of India; it is a hereditary trade guild. Trade competition with Europe has broken caste more than any teaching.

Q.—What is the peculiarity of the Vedas?

A.—One peculiarity of the Vedas is that they are the only Scriptures that again and again declare that you must go beyond them. The Vedas say that they were written just for the child mind; and when you have grown, you must go beyond them.

Q.—Do you hold the individual soul to be eternally real?

A.—The individual soul consists of a man’s thoughts and they are changing every moment. Therefore, it cannot be eternally real. It is real only in the phenomenal. The individual soul consists of memory and thought; how can that be real?

Q.—Why did Buddhism as a religion decline in India?

A.—Buddhism did not really decline in India; it was only a gigantic social movement. Before Buddha, great numbers of animals were killed for sacrifice and other reasons; and people drank wine and ate meat in large quantities. Since Buddha’s teaching, drunkenness has almost disappeared, and the killing of animals has almost gone.

Swami Vivekananda

Source: Swami Vivekananda’s Works

1This discussion followed the lecture on the Vedanta Philosophy delivered by the Swami at the Graduate Philosophical Society Oxford University, U.S.A., March 25, 1896, Vol. I.


alice Desert festival—–nT

The Alice Desert Festival is Central Australia’s premier arts and cultural festival, celebrating the desert and the diversity of people that live here. The Alice Desert Festival shares the stories, songs and the unique lifestyle of Central Australia’s arid region. Featuring a vibrant program borne out of the desert landscape, it celebrates the dynamic exchange between cultures in the heart of Australia. Artists, dancers and musicians from some of the remotest communities in Central Australia perform. Indigenous musicians drive 100’s of red dusty kilometres to perform in the Bush

Bands Bash. Wild bush foods are harvested and cooked into succulent dishes. Choirs sing amidst ancient desert landscapes of gorges and gaps.

The Alice Desert Festival attracts audiences of around 50,000 people from around Australia to over 50 events across its season. The Alice Desert Festival presents an atmosphere not found anywhere else in Australia where strong traditional cultures and a vibrant contemporary arts community work together in presenting an amazing 10 days. The Alice Desert Festival has been running for 10 years and 2011 will show Central Australia is not in the middle of nowhere but the middle of everywhere. The 2011 Festival is being celebrated during 9–18 September at various locations in and around Alice Springs, NT.

Shinju Matsuri

Broome’s festival of the Pearl

Broome’s Festival of the Pearl began 40 years ago. In 1970 the community of Broome decided to turn the Shinju Matsuri into a Festival to not only acknowledge the Pearling Industry, but to also showcase Broome’s beauty, history and community to the outside world. The Festival is 10 days of exciting multicultural events and activities showcasing the history, cultural diversity and talent of this beautiful port of pearls known as Broome. Broome is one of Australia’s most unique and spectacular towns. Broome’s Festival of the Pearl 2011 is being celebrated from September 10–18.

a Brief History

Shinju Matsuri rekindles the excitement and romance of Broome’s early days as a world renowned producer of Pearls and Pearl shell. Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Koepangers, Filipino

Festivals of the Month: Australia

Festivals of the Month: Australia

alice Desert festival



and Europeans flocked to Broome from the late 1800’s to be a part of this prosperity. This unique multicultural population of pearl industry workers, including local Aborigines, contributed to the spirit and energy that is still present in the exotic town of Broome today. Shinju Matsuri in Japanese means “Festival of the Pearl”.

Celebrating the cultural history of the town of Broome, the festival originated from three cultural festivals. Establishing itself as a unique festival in 1970, certification was gained in August 1973 when Shinju Matsuri Inc became incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act.

Volunteer working parties and Boards of Shinju Matsuri have developed and grown the event since these beginnings and it is always an important feature of the festival to recognise those contributions from individuals and groups in the community.

The festival

From the high spirited and colourful waking of Sammy the Dragon after his year long slumber; across days of festivity bolstered through events for and put on by the community; to a spectacular fireworks finale; Shinju Matsuri is the premier arts, cultural and community event in Broome, Western Australia. Shinju Matsuri encourages all cultural groups from the Broome community to participate in the celebrations to develop constructive and harmonious Broome community relationships. Shinju Matsuri tempt our senses with an exciting whirlwind of colour, sound, taste and smell as the community share with the world this beautiful locale and the people who call it home.

Canberra floriade flower festival & nightfest

Floriade comes from the Latin word floriat, which means to design with flowers. It is the biggest flower festival in Australia, a spectacular celebration of spring. Floriade began in 1988 as a spectacular commemoration of Australia’s Bicentenary and Canberra’s 75th birthday. Peter Sutton, working closely with his colleague, landscape designer Chris De Bruine, developed a proposal for a grand floral display to celebrate the Bicentenary. Following extensive trials in 1987 to select suitable species and determine flowering times.

Floriade blossomed for the first time with a floral display of exotic bulbs and annuals, which grow beautifully in Canberra’s climate. The community embraced the inaugural Floriade, making it such a success that it became an annual event—Australia’s celebration of spring.

The festival

Floriade is a world-class floral spectacular. More than one million blooms create a stunning

backdrop to a month-long festival filled with music, cultural celebrations, horticultural workshops, artistic displays, entertainment and recreational activities. Floriade runs from mid-September to mid-October and attracts more than 400,000 attendees. Floriade 2011 is being celebrated from 17 September to 16 October at Commonwealth Park, Canberra, ACT.

australia’s Celebration of Spring

As the aromas waft from the garden beds and beyond Floriade 2011, a feast for the senses, set the scene for spectacular entertainment, horticultural delights and a smorgasbord of activities. Inspired garden bed designs, artistic entertainment, engaging exhibitions form the beautiful ambient Floriade Nightfest. Australia’s revered jazz musicians, kicks off Floriade 2011 when he performs with his band at the official opening concert. The horticulture program stimulates our senses with dozens of exciting demonstrations, activities, displays and events. The festival lead us admire the endless possibilities of floral design and see the stunning display of creativity and colour when fashion and flowers come together.

Floriade showcases the history of war time kitchens and gardens at the Australian War Memorial’s Victory Garden, featuring the plants and vegetables grown by wartime Australian families during the Second World War. People love time out and reconnecting with each other in Matilda’s Farmyard, kids’ programs, gnome painting and amazing creatures at the Riveting Reptile exhibitions.

floriade nightfest 2011

Floriade NightFest 2011 features a spectacular new lighting installation. Storm of the Senses will take visitors on a journey through digital rain falling between the emotive sounds of a storm, with powerful thunder and gusts of wind. Visitors



lucky enough to catch a break in the storm will see the whole installation spring to life in a series of vivid lighting displays accompanied by a dramatic musical soundtrack.

The flowers and the Garden Beds

Over 1 million bulbs and annuals are planted each year, depending on the garden bed design. Bulbs and annuals are planted in autumn each year. Different flowers bloom at different times but there’s always great colour throughout the event. It is constantly changing as the different plants come into flower. A mix of flowers, predominantly bulbs create the kaleidoscope of colours that set the backdrop to Floriade. Some of the blooms include tulips, irises, daffodils, hyacinths, violas, chrysanthemums, ranunculus and daisies.

The garden bed design at Floriade is different every year. A theme is developed and is carried through from the shape of the garden beds to the type and colour of the flowers used to create the meticulous designs. The garden beds so designed make the festival really unique.

Source: www.festivalaustralia.com.au, www.festivalaustralia.com.au, www.alicedesertfestival.com.au, www.alicedesertfestival.com.au, www.shinjumatsuri.com.au, www.shinjumatsuri.com.au, www.floriadeaustralia.com

Shinju Matsuri

Canberra floriade nightfestCanberra floriade

flower festival


Many of us have been brought up in environments where competition, judgment, demands and criticism are the communicative norm; at best these habitual ways of thinking and speaking hinder communication and create misunderstanding and frustration in others and ourselves. Still worse, they cause anger and pain and may even lead to violence. Even with the best intentions, we can generate needless conflict. The system of Nonviolent Communication or NVC, developed by Marshall Rosenberg and others at the Center for Nonviolent Communication in the US, begins by assuming we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies, whether verbal or physical, are learned behaviors, supported by the prevailing culture. NVC helps people learn how to communicate effectively with each other so that their lives and relationships are transformed. Here, psychotherapist and NVC trainer Myra Walden talks about her experience of teaching NVC and how it has transformed her own life and those of the people she works with.

SGi Quarterly: What blocks the flow of communication in the normal course of everyday life?

Myra Walden: We believe that the way in which we have been accustomed to think blocks the flow of mutual giving from the heart. Most of us have learned patterns of communication that block compassion. Some examples of these might be blaming, “It’s your fault that we’re late”; diagnosing, “She’s just lazy”; denial of responsibility, “I lied to the client because my boss told me to”; words that deny choice and imply wrongness, “You should visit your elderly mother more often”; comparisons, “Your

sister always gets better grades than you”; demands, “Go to bed, now”; and the concept of deserving, “Terrorists deserve to die.”

SGiQ: What practical steps can one take to improve communication?

MW: I suggest that you learn to pay attention to your speech, especially when you are unhappy with another person. When expressing yourself, refer to what the other person said or did without evaluating their actions. For example, rather than saying, “When you insult me…,” say, “When you call me inconsiderate…” In the latter expression, you are simply quoting the other person without interpreting the words as “insulting.” Also, practice identifying and expressing your needs and acknowledging other people’s needs. For example, if you are unhappy with how many things you have to do, identify and express your need for help: “I’m overwhelmed. I need help. Would you be willing to come in at 6 pm to help me set up the room?” If your supervisor has a sharp tone of voice during a meeting, try to guess and express her need: “I’m guessing you need more cooperation on this project. Is this true?” I believe that this practice alone can improve communication greatly because it promotes mutual understanding and heart-to-heart connection. We can all relate to the need for understanding, support or cooperation, for instance, because we all have these needs. Needs create the common ground where people in conflict can meet.

SGiQ: How do we stop ourselves, when we receive negative messages, either taking them personally—hearing blame and criticism—or blaming others?

MW: Get in the habit of bypassing what people think of you. Go directly to the feelings and needs underlying their criticism or blame. It’s a great way to protect ourselves from messages that can diminish self-respect if taken personally. If you find yourself getting upset, take time out to connect with your own feelings and needs. In addition, cultivate a practice that helps you connect with the compassion within you every day. I need to be connected to compassion in order to meet challenges without violence. My practice is to meditate in the morning and evening. Some connect with their compassionate self through music, nature or inspirational readings, for example.

Nonviolent Communication: Mutual Giving from the HeartAn interview with Myra Walden


SGiQ: What is the difference between making a demand and making a request?

MW: When we make a request, we are open to hearing “no.” If the other person does not want to do as we request, we are able to respond with empathy. We may choose to ask another person to help meet our need. But if we want to continue the dialogue with the first person, we will seek to connect with him or her until we can find a strategy that accommodates his or her needs as well as ours. We can differentiate a request from a demand by paying attention to our reaction when we hear “no.” If we hear “no” and still maintain connection with the other, then it was likely a true request.

SGiQ: When is it in fact appropriate to listen to someone, to empathize with their situation, as opposed to attempting to “solve” their problem for them? When we listen, what should we look out for?

MW: When someone shares a painful experience, my rule of thumb is to empathize always. I assume that the person is seeking understanding. I stay in empathic presence until the person is visibly relieved. The words come to a halt, and there is relaxation of the facial expression and posture. At this point, if I sense that the person wants something else, I ask. When listening empathically, listen with a silent mind and an open heart. Try to connect with the person’s feelings and needs. For example, if someone says to you, “My boyfriend is being deployed to Afghanistan,” connect with the person’s heart. If you want to make sure you are connecting, you may ask, “Do you fear for his safety?”

SGiQ: The courageous use of empathy can help defuse a potentially violent situation. Do you have any examples of this in your own life?

MW: A few months ago, I was in my office at the community mental health center where I work. I heard someone scream at the top of his lungs, “Leave me alone!” He proceeded to swear and curse loudly. I waited for a couple of minutes thinking that this would pass, but it didn’t, so I went to the office where the screaming was coming from and asked the woman watching the door if I could go inside, because I thought I might be able to help in this situation due to my training in NVC. Although she was initially reluctant because a crisis worker, a doctor and the father of the young man were already in the office, she eventually

agreed to my request. When inside the room, I sat on the floor and asked, “Are you angry because you want to be treated with respect?” To my surprise, the young man listened to me and was suddenly quiet. At that point, I asked if everyone would leave the room so I could talk with the young man one-on-one. Although the others in the room expressed concern for my safety, they agreed with my request at that point. After ample silent time and continued attempts to connect, he spoke to me. Later on, the doctor and the father came back in, and the session ended peacefully. This is an example of a case where I was able to use NVC to intervene in a potentially violent situation and help resolve it peacefully.

SGiQ: How does empathy help heal?

MW: When someone receives our suffering quietly, openheartedly and without judgment, we are able to open ourselves to our pain. We experience it

Some Pointers for nonviolent Communication

• What others do may be the stimulus of our feelings but not the cause.

• Expressing our vulnerability can help resolve conflicts.

• If we express our needs, we have a better chance of getting them met.

• If we don’t value our needs, others may not either.

• Classifying and judging people promotes violence.

• Judgments of others are alienated expressions of our own unmet needs.

• Behind intimidating messages are simply people appealing to us to meet their needs.

• When we combine observation with evaluation, people are apt to hear criticism.

• The cause of anger lies in our thinking--in thoughts of blame or judgment.

• When the other person hears a demand from us, they see two options: submit or rebel.

• Empathizing with someone’s “no” protects us from taking it personally.

• Empathize with silence by listening for the feelings and needs behind it.

nonviolent Communication: a language of life by Marshall B. rosenberg, www.cnvc.org


fully, release it, and in so doing, we heal. Clarity emerges, and we gain access to inner wisdom.

SGiQ: In nonviolent philosophy, anger is not an emotion to be suppressed; it is in fact to be acknowledged but expressed in a responsible way. How can we use our anger constructively for dialogue?

MW: We use anger constructively when we take time to release the thoughts that are causing our anger and to identify the needs that are not met in a given situation—rather than reacting out of anger.

Underlying anger, there is always judging and blaming. In the privacy of our minds, we give airtime to judging and blaming, such as, “I can’t stand this idiot! How dare he talk to me like that! Ah, the arrogance…,” or, “It’s her fault that we are in this predicament. When will she learn?!” When we become aware that this is how we are thinking, then we can endeavor to identify and connect with unmet needs in the situation. Perhaps we need more respect, consideration and trust from the other person.

From a place of connection with our needs, we can begin the dance of Nonviolent Communication, expressing ourselves vulnerably and receiving the other person empathically. We trust that this dance leads to heart connection, where solutions can arise that meet everyone’s needs.

SGiQ: How has this work on nonviolence enriched your own life?

MW: NVC has enriched my life in important ways. Employing NVC processes to address life’s challenges increases my sense of peace and freedom. Identifying and connecting with the needs underlying the actions of others has brought greater harmony to my personal and professional relationships. For these reasons, sharing Nonviolent Communication fills my life with passion and meaning.

SGiQ: Marshall Rosenberg writes, “The more you become a connoisseur of gratitude, the less you are a victim of resentment, depression and despair. Gratitude will act as an elixir that will gradually dissolve the hard shell of your ego, your need to possess and control, and transform you into a generous being…” Why is gratitude so important?

MW: Gratitude helps us become more aware and enjoy the wonderful things in our lives—being alive, having fresh water to drink and friends who support us, the beauty of nature, to name a few. With a grateful heart, we naturally want to contribute to the well-being of others and of the planet. Gratitude is powerful fuel that can promote effective social change.

Myra Walden is cofounder of the institute for empowering Communication: www.empoweringcommunicationinc.net. More information on nonviolent Communication is available on www.cnvc.org

Source: www.sgiquarterly.org

Picture credit: Simon Watson/Getty Images

from emotional Slavery to emotional liberation

• First stage: We see ourselves as responsible for others’ feelings.

• Second stage: We feel angry; we no longer want to be responsible for others’ feelings.

• Third stage: Emotional liberation—we take responsibility for our intentions and actions.

“Most of us have learned patterns of

communication that block compassion.”


Morari Bapu is today the most famous and the most outstanding Kathakar of Ramcharit Manas and he is in many ways an interesting and multidimensional personality in the world of religion. Those who attend his katha expecting a routine and somewhat tedious repetition of the age old story of Ramayan will be surprised and enthralled by his unique way of presenting the essence of Katha and of linking the old story with the modern issues and problems that we face in our every day life. Bapu does not waste much time in narrating the story of Rama as narrated by Tulsidas because the katha is known to one and all. He usually chooses one or two couplets from Ramcharit Manas that he knows by heart and explains the implied meaning and analysis why Tulsidas said, what he did and how far is it applicable to modern context in which we all are living.

While singing and discussing the chosen couplet, Bapu interprets the entire philosophy of Hinduism quoting profusely from ancient texts, medieval saint poets like Mira or Narsinh or Ganga Sati or Nanak or several others and he very often recites the poems of modern Gujarati poets and writers. All this is done in such a simple and lucid way that even the most ignorant of his audience will fully understands what Bapu wants to convey. He quotes, he sings, he makes audience dance and recite chants with him and his chants go all the way from Vahe Guruji Ka Khalsa to Ali Maula to Rama.

Bapu is a man of wide vision and respects all the religious teachers of all the religions of the world from Vedic Rishies to Jesus to Mahomed to Kabir and to Shankaracharya. He accepts everything and everybody and never rejects anything or any person. He never gives sermons nor does he issue any commands or guidelines. He has a message to give to those who listen to him and the message is the message of Love [Prem], Truth [Satya] and Compassion [Karuna] and this message is very effectively delivered in his Kathas. Bapu avoids nothing and even sinners and atheists are welcome to his Katha. He himself is a staunch devotee of Rama and Hanuman but as he says every name uttered with love and truth is a divine name.

Bapu takes a keen and active interest in all that is going on around him and every day happenings are keenly observed and noted. He is a very keen observer of life and people and makes no distinction between divine and mundane. He does not advocate any difficult or intricate Sahana and insists that a simple NamJap and faith and Maun [silence] are all that are needed in the age in which we are living.

Ramkatha of Morari Bapu never runs in beaten channels. As he puts it, his katha is a flowing river and will take its own course with surprising and unexpected turns and twists which leaves his audience spell bound. Apart from Ramakatha, Bapu is a great patron of literature, arts and Music. There is hardly any noted musician—be it Bhimsen Joshi or Zakir Hussain or Hariprasad Courasia or Hema Malini who have not performed for him and who have not been awarded and sumptuously rewarded by him. Every year in April he organizes literary conferences that are attended by all the great literary figures in Gujarat. He has organized a conference to discuss the various versions of Ramayan in all the major languages in India and scholars from Bengal, Keral, Tamilnadu, Punjab, Orissa and Gujarat submitted papers that have been now printed in a book form. He convened a multi religious conference inaugurated by Dalai Lama and attended by representatives of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Jainism and Sikhism. He was the main convener of a conference to discuss the contribution of female saint poets in India and abroad.

Bapu actively promotes communal harmony in India and it is his presence and his efforts that has helped Mahuva his place of residence to become an island of peace and harmony when furious Hindu-muslim riots were raging all over Gujarat in 2002. He was the only religious leader who dared to lead a peace march in the riot torn streets of Ahmedabad and it was his presence that protected those who were trying to restore peace in the city. He had the courage and the confidence to address a Muslim crowd at midnight in the colony of Juhapura which Hindus do not dare to visit even during the day time. He has done his Katha for the convicts in a Jail and a katha for raising funds for building toilets for the backward people in the rural side of Bardoli near Surat. Bapu is a colorful personality surrounded as he is by the scholars, artists and simple village folks. He is much in demand as an orator on various occasions. He is very approachable by any one for advice, help and solace and nobody has ever returned empty handed from him. All in all, here is a person whom it is a great pleasure to listen and whom it would be difficult not to love once you know him.

nagindas Sanghavi, author, Political Commentator and Sanskrit Scholar is a regular commentator on the political happenings in india and his syndicated columns are published by various dailies in Mumbai, Surat, anand and ahmedabad.

Morari Bapu


Regularly, constantly, repeat in the mind this Knowledge which is encapsulated in the mool-mantra given by the Teacher.

Ik Onkaar Sat-Naam Kartaa-Purakh Nirbhau Nirvair Akaal-Moorat Ajuni Saibangh Gurparsaad... It should not be a parrot-like, mechanical, hasty repetition of the mantra, the way most people chant it. Rather, it must be a slow, gentle and loving repetition, the way a lover calls out the name of his beloved again and again.

The mere repetition of the mantra over a sustained period brings about concentration and single-mindedness, which is absolutely essential for meditation. When done with devotion, this jap serves to purify the mind. But the Truth is revealed only when we contemplate on and understand the meaning of the mantra while repeating it in the mind again and again.

Let the mind repeat the mantra and become quiet while the intellect rides on the meaning of these “secret indicators” of the Reality, and lifts itself to dissolve into the Truth in the state of samaadhi or ‘meditation’. Repeat the names of the Lord, not with mere words but with all the feelings in your heart. When you call out to your beloved, or when you call out the name of your child or friend, do not all your feelings of love, your knowledge of your loved one, the memories and the relationship, all come to mind at once? In the same way, understanding its meaning, one should repeat the mantra with love.

As you repeat in your mind, Ik Onkaar..., bring in all the knowledge understood earlier: that He is one without a second; that He pervades the entire universe of names and forms; that He is the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer; the entire universe arises in Him, is sustained in Him and gets dissolved in Him; He is the Consciousness that is the one witness of all the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep.

You may take the entire mool-mantra and repeat it, or take any one word from it and repeat it again and again. For those who tend to see the world as full of divisions and differences, without unity or harmony, it would be helpful to place more emphasis on the word Ik Onkaar.

Those whose mind and intellect are not integrated and who find that they cannot live up to their convictions, are insecure and afraid of change, should particularly concentrate on Sat Noam.

Those who have a strong ego with a great sense of vanity and pride should absorb their mind in Kartaa Purakh. Those who suffer from constant fear and anxiety should stress on Nirbhau. Those who harbour enmity and hatred, on Nirvair.

Those who are afraid of dying and are full of attachments should contemplate on Akaal Moorat. Those who wish to end all suffering, on Ajuni. Those who seek knowledge and wisdom, on Saibangh, and for devotion and surrender one should constantly meditate on Gurparsaad.

All these words indicate the one same Truth and each divine quality cultivated invariably leads to the other divine qualities.

Start, start the jap today. The grace of the Lord and the Guru is ever with us. Listen carefully to the meaning, reflect on it, understand, contemplate, meditate and realize.

Shri Guru Nanakji completes the “Japji” with a message in the 30th pauree (verse): “Jat pahaaraa dheeraj suniaar, aharan mat ved hathiaar. Bhau kahalaa agan tap taao, bhaandaa bhaao amrit tit dhaal. Ghareeai shabad sachee taksaal, jin kau nadar karam tin kaar. Nanak nadree nadar nihaal. Let forbearance be the furnace and patience the goldsmith, let understanding be the anvil and Veda, spiritual knowledge, the hammer. Let fear be the bellows and austerity, the fire, and let love be the crucible in which pour down thou the ambrosia. Thus in the true mint wilt thou coin the Shabad, the Name divine. Such alone who have His grace and kindness adopt this way. On them, O Nanak, rain showers of grace divine. Absorbed are they forever and ever. Theirs is the eternal bliss.”

Swami Swaroopananda

Source: Meditations on The one indivisible Truth, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.

Jap Chant


“It is simply of vital importance to find again the path to the sources, to the eternal and central truths of Christ’s message, which has been shaken almost beyond recognition by the profane ambitions of more or less secular institutions arrogating to themselves a religious authority. This is an attempt to open a way to a new future, firmly founded in the true spiritual and religious sources of the past”. - Holger Kersten

Over the centuries, the claim has repeatedly been made that Jesus Christ not only walked the earth but also spent his early and post-crucifixion years in a variety of places, including Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Europe including Great Britain, Japan, America and India. Traditions maintain that Jesus, the great Godman of the West, lived, learned, loved and died in such places. There are many parallels of Christ’s teachings with other religious and cultural traditions and at least some of these figures may have been one and the same personality.

Jesus the Guru

According to legends, Jesus, the great Jewish sage, spent his “lost years,” from between the ages of around 12 to 28 or 30, in India, where, per another tradition, he also escaped after surviving the crucifixion. The Jesus-was-a-guru tale was popularized over a century ago by the Russian traveler Nicholas Notovitch. Nicolas was the first to suggest that Christ may have gone to India. He asserted that in 1887, while at the secluded Hemis or Himis monastery in Ladakh/Tibet, he was shown a manuscript which discussed the “unknown life” of Jesus, or “Issa,” as he was supposedly called in the East. This “Issa” text, translated for Notovitch from Tibetan by a monk/lama, alleged that during his “lost years” Jesus was educated by yogis in India, Nepal and “the Himalaya Mountains.”

Notovich was stunned by the remarkable parallels of Issa’s teachings and martyrdom with that of Christ’s life, teachings and crucifixion. Stating that he felt the manuscript to be “true and genuine,” Notovich maintained its contents were written “immediately after the Resurrection,” while the manuscript itself purportedly dated from the third century of the Common Era. Notovitch related that the “two manuscripts” he was shown at Himis were “compiled from diverse copies written in the Thibetan tongue, translated from rolls belonging to the Lassa library and brought from India, Nepal, and Maghada 200 years after Christ.”

After travelling for about sixteen years through many places across the globe, Christ finally arrived with Mary to a place near Kashmir where she died. After many years in Kashmir, teaching to an appreciative population, who venerated him as a great prophet, reformer and saint, he died and was buried in a tomb in Kashmir itself. The many Islamic and Hindu historical works recording local history and legends of kings, noblemen and saints

Jesus Lived in India

Sculpted footprints with nail marks in the roza Bal shrine


of the areas thought to be travelled by Jesus also give evidence of a Christ like man.

According to Apocryphal ‘Acts of Thomas’, Christ met Thomas several times after the Crucifixion. Christ sent Thomas to teach his spirituality in India. This is corroborated by evidence found in the form of stone inscriptions at Fatehpur Sikri, near the Taj Mahal, in Northern India. They include “Agrapha”, which are sayings of Christ that don’t exist in the mainstream Bible. Their grammatical form is most similar to that of the Apocryphal gospel of Thomas. This is but one example giving credibility to the idea that texts not recognised by the Church hold important clues about Christ’s true life and his teachings.

Many of Christ’s teachings, which have been gradually edited out of the modern Bible were originally Eastern in nature showing his movement to India and beyond. Principles such as karma and re-incarnation were common knowledge then, and seem to have been reaffirmed by Christ. Further clues are cited from The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, and the Gospel of Thomas which are of Syrian origin and have been dated to the 4th Century AD, or possibly earlier. They are Gnostic Scriptures and despite the evidence indicating their authenticity, they are not given credence by mainstream theologians. In these texts Thomas tells of Christ’s appearance in Andrapolis, Paphlagonia (today known as in the extreme north of Anatolia) as a guest of the King of Andrappa. There he met with Thomas who had arrived separately. It is at Andrapolis that Christ entreated Thomas to go to India to begin spreading his teachings. Christ and Mary then moved along the West coast of Turkey, proof of this could be an old stopping place for travellers called the “Home of Mary”, found along the ancient silk route.

In his travels through Persia (today’s Iran) Christ became known as Yuz Asaf (Leader of the Healed). A Kashmiri historical document confirms that Isa (the Koranic name for Christ) was in fact also known as Yuz Asaf. The Jami-uf-Tamarik, Volume II, tells that Yuz Asaf visited Masslige, where he attended the grave of Shem, Noah’s son. There are various other accounts such as Agha Mustafa’s “Awhali Shahaii-i-paras” that tell of Yuz Asaf’s travels and teachings all over Persia. It seems that Yuz Asaf blessed Afghanistan and Pakistan with his presence also. There are two plains in Eastern Afghanistan near Gazni and Jalalabad bearing the name of the prophet Yuz Asaf. Again in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Thomas says that he and Christ attended the Court of King Gundafor of Taxila (now Pakistan), in about 47AD, and that eventually both the King and his brother accepted Christ’s teachings. There are more than twenty one historical documents that bear witness to the existence of Jesus in Kashmir, where he was known also as Yuz Asaf and Issa. The Bhavishyat Mahapurana (volume 9 verses 17-32) contains

an account of Issa-Masih (Jesus the Messiah). It describes Christ’s arrival in the Kashmir region of India and his encounter with King Shalivahana, who ruled the Kushan area (39-50AD), and who entertained Christ as a guest for some time.

The historian Mullah Nadini (1413) also recounts a story of Yuz Asaf who was a contemporary to King Gopadatta, and confirms that he also used the name Issar, ie. Jesus. There is also much historical truth in the towns and villages of Northern India to prove that Jesus and his mother Mary spent time in the area. At the border of a small town called Mari, there is nearby a mountain called Pindi Point, upon which is an old tomb called Mai Mari da Asthan or “The final resting place of Mary”. The tomb is said to be very old and local Muslims venerate it as the grave of Issa’s (ie Christ’s) Mother. The tomb itself is oriented East-West consistent with the Jewish tradition, despite the fact it is within a Muslim area. Assuming its antiquity, such a tomb could not be Hindu either since the Hindus contemporary to Christ cremated their dead and scattered their ashes as do Hindus today.

Following Christ’s trail into Kashmir, 40km south of Srinagar, between the villages of Naugam and Nilmge is a meadow called Yuz-Marg (the meadow of Yuz Asaf, ie. Jesus). Then there is the sacred building called Aish Muqam, 60km south east of Srinagar and 12km from Bij Bihara. “Aish” is derived from “Issa” and “Muqam” place of rest or repose. Within the Aish Muqam is a sacred relic called the ‘Moses Rod’ or the ‘Jesus Rod’, which local legend says, belonged to Moses himself. Christ is said to also have held it, perhaps to confirm his Mosaic heritage. Above the town of Srinagar is a temple known as “The Throne of Solomon”, which dates back to at least 1000BC, which King Gopadatta had restored at about the same time as Christ’s advent. The restoration was done by a Persian architect who personally left four inscriptions on the side steps of the temple. The third and fourth inscription read: “At this time Yuz Asaf announced his prophetic calling in Year 50 and 4” and “He is Jesus—Prophet of the Sons of Israel”!

“After travelling for about sixteen years

through many places across the globe, Christ finally arrived with Mary to a

place near Kashmir where she died.”


Christ may have travelled to the South of India also, finally returning to Kashmir to die at the age of approximately 80 years. Christ’s tomb lies in Srinagar’s old town in a building called Rozabal. “Rozabal” is an abbreviation of Rauza Bal, meaning “tomb of a prophet”. At the entrance there is an inscription explaining that Yuz Asaf is buried along with another Moslem saint. Both have gravestones which are oriented in North-South direction, according to Moslem tradition. However, through a small opening the true burial chamber can be seen, in which there is the Sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf in East-West (Jewish) orientation!

According to Professor Hassnain, who has studied this tomb, there are carved footprints on the grave stones and when closely examined, carved images of a crucifix and a rosary. The footprints of Yuz Asaf have what appear to be scars represented on both feet, if one assumes that they are crucifixion scars, then their position is consistent with the scars shown in the Turin Shroud (left foot nailed over right). Crucifixion was not practised in Asia, so it is quite possible that they were inflicted elsewhere, such as the Middle East. The tomb is called by some as “Hazrat Issa Sahib” or “Tomb of the Lord Master Jesus”. Ancient records acknowledge the existence of the tomb as long ago as 112AD. The Grand Mufti, a prominent Muslim Cleric, himself has confirmed that Hazrat Isa Sahib is indeed the tomb of Yuz Asaf showing that the tomb of Jesus Christ Himself is in Kashmir!

The legends regarding Jesus’s tomb in Srinagar, and that of the Virgin Mary in Kashgar, are apparently of Islamic origin, emanating largely from the “heretical” Ahmadiyya sect. Such a creation would serve a couple of purposes: 1. That, as asserted in the Koran, Jesus was not the “son of God” but a mortal prophet, whose body was buried in Kashmir; and 2. that some presumably Moslem people are his descendants.

Eastern scholars such as Dr. S. Radhakrishnan state that the name “Joseph” or “Joasaph” is

“derived from Bodhisattva, the technical name for one destined to obtain the dignity of a Buddha.” (Prajnanananda, 107) Thus, this tomb of a Bodhisattva could belong to any of thousands of such holy men. In like regard, the purported graves of “Jesus” and “his brother” in Japan are in reality those of a 16th-century Christian missionary and his brother.

Proponents of the Jesus-in-India theory hold up a number of other texts and artifacts they maintain “prove” not only Jesus’s existence on Earth but also his presence in India. Such texts and artifacts are closely examined, they serve as no evidence at all, except of priestcraft. With one or two possible exceptions originating to a few centuries earlier, the Eastern texts regarding “Issa” seem to be late writings, some dating to the 15th and 18th centuries.

is “issa” Jesus—or Shiva?

By calling Issa “Jesus” or “Christ,” modern writers have cemented in the readers’ minds that the correlation is absolute, an erroneous conclusion. In reality, the name “Issa,” “Isa” or “Isha” is a title and simply means “lord,” “god” or “master,” often referring to the Indian god Lord Shiva: “‘Isha’ or ‘the Lord’ is another name of Siva…” (Prajnanananda, 19) Prof. Nunos de Santos says, “…a god variously named Issa, Isha, Ichtos, Iesus, Ieshuah, Joshuah, Jesus, etc., is indisputably originally from India.” He also states, “Ishvara (Ishwar) is widely worshipped in the Far East, being also called Isha (or Ishana) in India, Issara in Pali, Isuan in Thai, Jizu (or Jizai) in Japanese, and so on.” Moreover, per the Catholic missionary Huc, who traversed India, Tibet and other parts of Asia, “Yesu” was also a name of the expected avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, of which Krishna was an avatar.

“Isa” is likewise another name for Chandra, the Indian moon god, as well as for Shiva’s Egyptian counterpart, the soli-lunar god Osiris, also called

The rozabal Tomb


Iswara in India:

“Iswara, or Isa, and Isani, or Isisi, are…unquestionably the Osiris and Isis of Egypt. Iswara, Siva, or Hara (for these are his names among nearly a thousand more) united with Isi, represent the secondary causes, whatever they may be, of natural phenomena; and principally those of temporary destruction and regeneration.” (Moor, 151)

Osiris or Isa too had a number of tombs in various places, especially in Egypt but likely also in India. However, Osiris was not a “real person” but a fertility and sun god. What mythologists recognize is that it was not a “historical Osiris” but his myth that made it to India and diverse places. As in the case of Osiris, the same phenomenon occurred regarding “Jesus,” who is, in the end, a remake of Osiris, among others. The title “Isa” or “Issa” could apply to others, and is a common name even today.

The nestorians

The Issa myth apparently represents a Christianization of legends regarding Osiris, Shiva, Apollonius and other gods and “Bodhisattvas,” by the Nestorians, an early Christian sect who lived in India and elsewhere, and may well have spread the syncretistic fable to other Asian ports of call. Indeed, Nicholas Roerich himself surmised that the ancient Nestorian sect spread the tales in the East:

“We heard several versions of this legend which has spread widely through Ladak, Sinkiang and Mongolia, but all versions agree on one point, that during His absence, Christ was in India and Asia…. Perhaps [this legend] is of Nestorian origin.” (Prophet, 261)

Pre-Christian indo-european interaction

Decades and centuries prior to the Christian era, there was much intercourse between India and the West, including the famous journey by Pythagoras and the Alexandrian incursion. One of the seats of Mandeanism, a Christian baptist sect, was Maisan, a Mesopotamian city colonized by Indians. As Dr. Rudolph Otto relates:

“…Indian caravans passed through Maisan and

likewise Nabatea. Indian merchants, wherever they went, were importers and missionaries of Indian ideas. There need be no surprise therefore if direct Indian imports are found in the syncretistic medley of Mandean Gnosis”. -(Prajnanananda, 41)

There was westward spread of Indian and Buddhist concepts centuries before and into the Christian era. A number of them may be found in Prajnanananda’s book, including a Mr. Cust who evinced that trade between India and Yemen “was established not later than 1000 B.C.” Yemen is very close to Israel, and by the first century CE there were plenty of Indians in the Roman Empire.

The Druids

The Druids were a member of the Celtic intelligentsia, the highest caste in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age. Jesus and his purported teachings were so similar to the god(s) and doctrines of the Druids. The Druids in turn supposedly received their instruction from Pythagoras, who himself had travelled to India. Since the Druidic and Vedic priesthoods, language and culture are one at root, separating perhaps three millennia prior to the Christian era (Ellis), it does not surprise us that “Jesus” legends are found in both India and Britain.

The article is an excerpt from Holger Kersten’s German book “Jesus lived in india” and “Jesus in india? The Myth of the lost Years” by acharya S/D.M. Murdock. The book Jesus lived in india is a thorough, methodical and authoritative examination of the evidence of Christ’s travels after the Crucifixion, his arrival in india with the Mother Mary and finally his death and entombment in Kashmir.

Source: www.sol.com.au, www.truthbeknown.com

“Moreover, per the Catholic missionary Huc, who traversed India, Tibet and other parts of Asia, “Yesu” was also a name of the expected

avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, of which Krishna was an avatar.”


New Delhi: Like monsoon flurries, recent events in the Indian subcontinent have sent conflicting signals. Has Indian diplomacy finally awakened after its long summer siesta, or is this just an illusion?

In late July, after lower-level ministerial officials from India and Pakistan had prepared the ground for their respective foreign ministers to meet, the two finally did so, in New Delhi, on July 26 and 27. This was remarkable in itself, given the bomb blasts just a fortnight earlier in Mumbai—a terrorist attack that claimed 26 lives and left 130 people injured. Even more remarkably, given many Indians’ suspicions that that the attack was, in some way, authored in Pakistan, there were no mutually accusatory diplomatic blasts.

Instead, the two foreign ministers met on schedule and agreed to meet again, after issuing an encouragingly meaningful joint statement, which spoke of enhancing trade and implementing more confidence-building measures. For other neighboring countries, that may sound humdrum; for India and Pakistan, merely maintaining a structure for dialogue counts as notable progress.

But farther to India’s west, in Afghanistan, things are far grimmer. Afghanistan is witnessing a surge of violence accompanying the beginning of the withdrawal of US and NATO forces. Besides the recent deaths of 30 American soldiers when their helicopter was downed, seven top Afghan officials—including President Hamid Karzai’s step-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a key power broker

among the Pashtun, Afghanistan’s largest tribe, and Ghulam Haider Hamidi, the influential mayor of Kandahar—have been assassinated in the last three months.

Perhaps it was inevitable that the atmosphere in Afghanistan would worsen. The recently concluded trilateral meeting between Afghanistan, the US, and Pakistan, which called for engaging the Afghan Taliban to find a political solution to the country’s troubles, turned out to be largely a pro forma exercise. Moreover, President Karzai now faces a parliamentary crisis, with his cabinet still not complete.

There are also mounting financial problems. The International Monetary Fund has not sent any payments to the Afghan central bank in recent months, supposedly because of corruption scandals.

India, too, has had to contend with its own share of scandals. After engulfing the country’s entire mobile-telephone sector (the fraudulent sale of frequencies may have cost Indian taxpayers $39 billion), massive corruption scandals are now hitting the iron-ore mining industry. And, of course, there remains a lingering stench from the scandalous mismanagement of last year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Accusatory fingers are now being pointed at the highest and richest people in the land. Separate reports, by a former Supreme Court justice and current ombudsman, and by the Comptroller

India’s Neighbourhood Watch

THE NEW POWER GAME


and Auditor General of India, list many acts of commission and omission, with “billions of dollars in royalty, tax, and other payments” having been misappropriated and huge “bribes paid” in the iron-ore cases. Likewise, “Mafia-type operations” are becoming “routine practice” in India’s southern state of Karnataka.

These are serious allegations, and they have crippled decision-making within Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress Party-led government. But, to give the government its due, Bangladesh last month conferred its highest official award, the “Bangladesh Swadhinata Sanmanona,” on the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for her outstanding contribution to Bangladesh’s 1971 “Liberation War,” when it achieved independence from Pakistan. President Zillur Rahman told Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi that her mother-in-law “influenced the course of history and the fate of generations.” Given the ambivalence that has marked the two countries’ relations, there is real hope of a new dawn in bilateral ties.

India’s potential for promoting growth and stability in South Asia was also emphasized by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who spent three fruitful days in India last month. In a major speech in Chennai, she declared that “Asia’s decisions will be shaped by India,” whose “markets will play a major role in South East Asia, Central Asia, and beyond,” and called on India “to play a role in the democratic transition in the Middle East.”

Clinton also touched upon an issue that unites all Indians: the desire for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The US would support India’s aspirations, Clinton declared, but with three caveats: “a major and defining role in Myanmar,” meaning that India must push the ruling generals towards democratic transition; India’s use of its “good offices” to “convince Iran about nuclear proliferation”; and an Indian offer of “all help needed to Nepal, Bangladesh, and Maldives” in joining India as thriving emerging markets.

In the South Asian subcontinent, crammed as it is with deeply troubled countries, India’s role in promoting stability and prosperity is essential. But can India fulfill that agenda? The US has given India an important and useful test, and its ambitions for a global role commensurate with its size and growth prospects will depend on its ability to influence its own neighborhood for the better.

Jaswant Singh, a former foreign Minister, finance Minister, and Defense Minister of india, is a member of the opposition in india’s Parliament. He is the author of Jinnah: india—Partition—independence.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2010, www.project-syndicate.org


“The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”

-Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Teachers or Gurus mold the lives that they influence because the lessons learned from teachers remain with their students throughout life. Teachers have an influencing role in the life of every student. They are like beacons of light, guiding us in the formative years of our life. Teachers mould us and in the process shape our future. What we learn from our teachers remains with us throughout our life. However we fail to show our appreciation and gratitude for their altruistic devotion. Teachers do need encouragement and support from the community to feel that their efforts are being recognized. To serve the purpose, Teacher’s Day is celebrated throughout the world, year by year. By celebrating National Teacher’s Day, we thank our teachers for providing us their invaluable guidance. Teacher’s Day is a tribute to the hard work and devotion of the teachers all year long, to educate us.

In India, Teacher’s Day (also called Teachers’ Appreciation Day or National Teacher’s Day) is celebrated on 5th of September, every year. The date was selected, because it is the birthday of a timeless teacher and the former President of India—Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. When some of his students and friends approached him and requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday, he said, “instead of celebrating my birthday separately, it would be my proud privilege, if September 5th is observed as Teacher’s day”. From then onwards, the 5th of September has been observed as Teachers Day, in India.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. That’s exactly what a teacher has done for us and we celebrate this joyous occasion in remembrance of the greatest teachers of India on his birthday. —Dr S. Radhakrishnan.

Teachers have an influencing role in the life of every student. They are like beacons of light, guiding us in the formative years of our life. Teachers mould us and in the process and shape our future. What we learn from our teachers

remains with us, throughout our life. However, very often, we fail to show our appreciation and gratitude for their altruistic devotion. Teachers do need encouragement and support from the community to feel that their efforts are being recognized. To serve the purpose, Teacher’s Day is celebrated throughout the world, year by year. By celebrating National Teacher’s Day, we thank our teachers for providing us their invaluable guidance.

According to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India, ‘Teachers Should Be Role Models’.

‘A student spends 25,000 hours in the campus. The school must have the best of teachers who have the ability to teach, love teaching and build moral qualities.’

To celebrate Teacher’s day cultural programs are held, which include singing competitions, dance and play performances. The students offer flowers, greeting cards and gifts as the token of affection, to the teachers. The latest trend is to organize Teacher’s Day party. Students are keen about throwing a lavish party for their teachers, to show how much they care and respect them.

Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan

Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5 September, 1888 in Tirutani, a well-known religious center in the Madras State. He was the second son of Veera Samayya, a tehsildar in a Zamindari hailing from a middle-class, respectable Hindu Brahmin family.

Radhakrishnan was married in 1906, at the tender age of 18 and while still a student, to Sivakamamma, and spent a happy married life with her for fifty years before she died in 1956. Bright and precocious, with a scholarly disposition and a serene demeanor, from the very beginning, Radhakrishnan spent the first eight years of his life happily and fruitfully in his home town with his parents. The tranquil and challenging atmosphere of that famous and well-loved place, as well as the benign influence of his parents who, as was common in the South, were intensely religious in the traditional sense, went far in molding his character and sowing a lively seed of religiousness in him.

A Tribute to a Great Teacher

Dr S. Radhakrishnan -Vice President of India (1952–1962, President of India (1962–1967)


The far-sightedness and broad-mindedness of his revered parents to send their son to well-disciplined Christian educational institutions— held him in good stead throughout, making it possible for him to acquire specially Occidental vices like a sense of duty, punctuality, discipline and the like, together with specially Oriental qualities of religiosity, calmness, patience, faith in God and men.

He studied Sanskrit and Hindi also and garnered a good deal of interest in the traditional languages of India. He also read the Vedas and the Upanishads with great care and reverence.

In fact, Radhakrishnan was, and is, still today, a reader in the true sense of the word. For, what he read—and he read widely and lovingly all kinds of good books—did not remain an external acquisition, an ornamental decoration, with him; but blossomed forth in him in fullest glory and grandeur.

For, all throughout his brilliant career, honor after honor was showered on him.

Radhakrishnan was, and still is, one of the most celebrated writers of the present generation. His works are many and varied on philosophical, theological, ethical, educational, social and cultural subjects. He contributed also numerous articles to different well-known journals, which too, will prove to be of immense value to generations to come.

His articles are not merely outer expressions of his inner thoughts, but, what is more, infinitely more, emblems and embodiments of his very life—life that merrily dances forth in the fortuitous, zig-zag way of the world, removing all its obstacles in its own inner irresistible urge and boundless boldness. Hence, it is that his works, written in an incredibly simple, sublime, soft and serene way, are so very enchanting, enlivening, exhilarating to all. As a matter of fact, as is well known, it is very difficult

to express very abstract and abstruse philosophical thoughts in easily intelligible and enchantingly sweet language. But Dr Radhakrishnan, like the great and revered Rabindranath, is one of the few who could accomplish this apparently impossible feat. That is why his philosophical writings are not ordinary scholarly dissertations, but also melodious poetical perfections of great and permanent value.

Dynamic in personality, quiet in demeanor, austere in habits, unostentatious in behaviour, just in decision, prompt in action, simple in his dress, sympathetic in his dealings—such is our revered Dr Radhakrishnan. He is a living, loving symbol and lovely emblem of our age-old Indian culture and civilization. Nothing much need be said here regarding his ideas and attitude towards different issues. For, the central refrain of his Life’s Music reverberates through every walk of his blessed life. That is why he is a Monist in Philosophy, believing in one Reality, viz., Spirit; a Monotheist in Religion, believing in one God; an Eudemonist or Perfectionist in Ethics, believing in inner perfection as the summum bonum or the highest end of life; a Socialist in Politics, believing in mass or universal uplift.

Radhakrishnan is considered as the greatest living philosopher of India, and one of the greatest living philosophers of the world. This proves beyond doubt that he is universally considered to be one amongst the most notable of modern philosophical luminaries.

According to our Indian view, the highest aim of human life is to be, step by step, a ‘Brahmachari’ (or one who lives and moves about and believes in Brahman), a ‘Brahmajnani’ (or one who knows Brahman or the Absolute) and finally, a ‘Brahmavadin’ (or one who speaks or writes about Brahman or the Absolute). Dr Radhakrishnan—himself a real ‘Brahmachari’, a real ‘Brahmajnani’—subscribed to this theory all along his life. Dr Radhakrishnan is, indeed, a versatile genius—a great scholar, philosopher, seer, writer, orator, statesman, administrator and above all, a great man.

Source: www.living.oneindia.in, www.iloveindia.com

“Teacher’s Day is a tribute to the hard work and devotion of the teachers all year long,

to educate us.”


Parsi intellectual, Dadabhai Naoroji was an educator and an early Indian political leader. A peerless patriot, he has been considered as the architect who laid the foundation for the Indian freedom struggle. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Indian National Congress, founded by A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha in 1885. Dadabhai was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1886 and he held that post thrice. During his third term, he prevented a split between the moderates and extremists in the party. The extremists advocated the boycott of British goods while the moderates wanted to use constitutional methods to gain autonomy. Dadabhai was a staunch moderate within the Congress.

Although Bal Gangadhar Tilak first raised the slogan “Swaraj is my birth right”, it was Dadabhai Naoroji who demanded Swaraj from the platform of Congress in 1906. He was a mentor to both Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was the paternal uncle of J.R.D. Tata, the renowned, industrialist. In politics, Dadabhai was conscious of the benefits that the Indians derived from the British rule in India. However, he was the first Indian who drew the attention of both Indians as well as the Europeans, regarding the economic exploitation of India. He brought to the public notice the drain of Indian wealth to the European countries and the resulting poverty of Indians. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to this.

Remembering Dadabhai Naoroji


The East India Company acquired a 20-year lease to ‘manage’ India from the British Government in 1833. The Company applied for renewal of the lease in 1853, but Dadabhai strongly opposed this. He organised large meetings and sent petitions to the British Government in England to deny the Company a renewal. The British government ignored his pleas and renewed the lease. But his petitions dispelled a lot of ignorance regarding India. He felt that the British misrule of India was because of illiteracy and hence he set up the Gyan Prasarak Mandali (Society for Promotion of Knowledge) for the education of adult men-folk. He began free literacy classes for girls in Marathi and Gujarati and established a girls’ high school in Bombay for educating women. It is he who established the Bombay Association, the first political association in India in 1852.

He wrote several petitions to Governors and Viceroys regarding India’s problems, as he felt that the British people and the British Parliament must be made aware of them. Dadabhai got an opportunity when the Cama family invited him to join in a business venture in England. He set sail for England on June 27, 1855 at the age of 30. Later he became a Professor of Gujarati at the University College, London. The British Government had appointed an inquiry into the misdeeds of Mulharrao Gaekwar, the Maharaja of Baroda and the latter sought Dadabhai’s help. The Maharaja persuaded Dadabhai to become his Diwan (Prime Minister) in 1874. Within a year, the whole administration was reformed and efficiency was brought into the system. Once the task was completed, Dadabhai resigned in 1875 and became a member of the Legislative Council of Bombay (1885-88).

Dadabhai moved to Britain once again and continued his political involvement. He was elected to British Parliament in 1892 from Central Finsbury as a Liberal Party candidate, he becoming the first British Indian MP of the House of Commons and the first Asian to hold that post. Since he was not a Christian, he refused to take the oath of office on the Bible, but was allowed to take the oath in the name of God on the book of Avesta. In his political campaign and duties as an MP, he was assisted by Muhammed Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan. In England, Dadabhai founded the British Indian Society to bring Englishmen and Indians closer to discuss problems concerning the welfare of India.

He also founded the East India Association in 1897 in order to propagate his ideals among the European people. It was one of the predecessor organisations of the Indian National Congress with the aim of putting across the Indian point of view. The Association comprised of high-ranking

officials from India who had access to members of British Parliament. He got a resolution passed in the British Parliament for holding preliminary examinations for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) simultaneously in India and England. Dadabhai’s efforts were rewarded in 1866 when the Secretary of State for India agreed to appoint nine Indians out of 60 to the ICS by nomination.

Dadabhai Naoroji was born in the house of a poor Parsi priest in Bombay on September 4, 1825. His father, Naoroji Palanji Dordi, died when Dadabhai was only four years old. He was raised by his mother Maneckbai who despite being illiterate herself ensured that Dadabhai got the best possible English education.

As a student Dadabhai was very good in Mathematics and English. Child marriages were common those days and Dadabhai was married to Qulbai at the age of 11. He studied at the Elphinstone Institution (now Elphinstone College), Bombay and on completion of education, he was appointed the Head Native Assistant Master. Dadabhai became a professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the age of 27 and he was the first Indian to hold that post. In 1854 he founded Rast Goftar (The Truth Teller), a fortnightly publication to clarify Zoroastrian concepts.

Dadabhai died in Bombay on June 30, 1917, at that age of 92. By that time Dadabhai was known as the ‘Grand Old Man of India’. Two months later, the Minto-Morley reforms were passed in British Parliament granting much of what Dadabhai had been fighting for. The great leader served India for over seven decades. He will ever remain one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of Indian politics.

V.N. Gopalakrishnan Source: Bhavan’s Journal, May 15, 2011

“A peerless patriot, he has been considered as the architect who laid the foundation

for the Indian freedom struggle.”


New Delhi—India is no stranger to protest movements, hunger strikes, and the mass mobilization of citizens for a popular cause. But the recent fast by the Gandhian leader Anna Hazare, culminating in an extraordinary Saturday session of Parliament to pass a resolution acceding to his main demands, marked a dramatic departure in the country’s politics.

The Anna phenomenon reflects a “perfect storm” of converging factors: widespread disgust with corruption, particularly after two recent high-profile cases of wrongdoing (in allocating telecoms spectrum and awarding contracts for the Commonwealth Games); the organizational skill of a small group of activists committed to transforming India’s governance practices; the mass media’s perennial search for a compelling story; and the availability of a saintly figure to embody the cause. It also raises important questions about civil society’s role in a democracy.

Hazare fasted to force the government to create a tough new anti-corruption authority, the Lokpal, with sweeping powers to investigate, prosecute, and punish. Finding the government’s draft bill insufficiently strong, he demanded provisions that would give the Lokpal complete autonomy, an extensive presence in all government departments, and authority over all government servants, up to and including the Prime Minister himself.

Concerns that some of Hazare’s proposals risked creating a large, omnipotent, and unaccountable

supra-institution that could not be challenged, reformed, or abolished were overlooked in the desire to appease him. If the current agencies tasked with prevention, auditing, and investigation are deemed vulnerable to corruption, what guarantee is there that the new institution would be any more resistant? And, if corruption does creep in, what could be done about it, given that Lokpal would be literally a law unto itself?

Such questions were set aside under the pressure of public passion, which was raised to a crescendo by incessant media coverage, especially by India’s 81 hyperactive all-news television channels. When Hazare ended his 12-day fast, his vital signs had shown dangerous indications of deterioration, leading to serious worry that if he were not persuaded to abandon his protest, his life could be imperiled, with incalculable consequences for public order.

The parliamentary resolution that resolved the crisis does not in fact create the Lokpal—that still awaits legislation, including detailed consideration by a Standing Committee and further debate in both houses of the Lok Sabha. But Anna Hazare’s movement nonetheless implies a major intrusion into lawmaking.

It can be argued that a society makes laws to regulate itself, and that civil society, therefore, is a source of law. Indian democracy accords specific rights to citizens to enable them exercise their political freedoms: freedom of speech and

Democracy’s Saintly Challenger

AWAKENING INDIA


association permit members of civil society to rally, argue and discuss, debate and criticize, protest and strike, and even go on hunger strikes, in order to support or challenge their governments. This is an essential part of promoting governmental accountability between elections.

No Indian seriously argues that a citizen’s democratic rights begin and end with the right to vote. But civil society’s impact on lawmaking is confined to the influence it brings to bear on elected legislators.

Of course, extra-parliamentary pressures cannot simply be ignored. In 1952, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s government reversed its position and constituted a States Reorganization Commission in response to a hunger strike by the Gandhian leader Potti Sriramulu, who demanded the creation of linguistic states (and died in the process). The Commission’s report led to the redrawing of India’s administrative and federal map in 1956.

But the rule remains that lawmaking in India is responsive to civil society through the process of consultation and debate by people’s representatives chosen through democratic elections. This constitutional mechanism has been strained by recent events. Thanks to Hazare, the idea has gained ground that laws can be dictated from the street.

In a parliamentary democracy, only elected MPs can make laws. Their claim to represent the people, whose votes they have sought and won, cannot be lightly disregarded in favor of those who have not earned the right to represent the people through a democratic election. The notion that the ability to mobilize a crowd or attract television cameras to a cause is enough to supplant the results of such elections is inherently dangerous. To allow any unelected group, however virtuous and idealistic,

to substitute its will for that of parliament, is an assault on the foundations of democracy.

India’s political system is built on the idea that even a country with profound differences of caste, creed, color, and culture can still rally around a democratic consensus. That consensus consists in the simple principle that democracy does not require agreement on anything except the ground rules of how to disagree. Indian democracy has succeeded because it has maintained a consensus on how to manage without consensus.

Laws emerge from a political process reflective of Indian society, whose thriving free media, energetic human rights groups, and remarkable general elections have all made India a rare example of the successful management of diversity in the developing world. India gains “soft power” when its nongovernmental organizations actively promote environmentalism and fight injustice.

But to confuse the roles of parliament and these civil-society institutions does democracy no good. If members of civil society want to have a determining voice in lawmaking, they should organize themselves politically, contest elections, and enter parliament—where they can write and pass the laws they seek with the constitutional legitimacy that democracy requires.

Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and UN Under-Secretary General, is a member of India’s Parliament and the Author of several books, including, most recently, Nehru: the Invention of India (in German).



Madam Bhikaji

CamaMadam Bhikaji Cama nee Bhikaji Patel belongs to History as the lady who hoisted the Indian Flag for the first time in a foreign country. It was in Stuttgart, Germany, and on August 18, 1907 that she staged this bold performance, saying that she was doing it so only to bring the poverty, starvation, oppression and slavery, as also India’s thirst for freedom to the attention of the international assembly of socialists there. Madam Cama was 46 when she did this act of patriotism. It was two years earlier that she, in company with another freedom fighter, Vir Savarkar, designed the Tri-Color flag for a free India. Elegant as a queen, she was a heroic patriot, who left her home to fight for the freedom of India from within and abroad. She helped revolutionaries with money and material as with ideas.


Early Life

A prominent personality of the Indian Nationalist Movement, she was born as Bhikaji Rustom Cama on 24th September, 1861 to a Parsi family in Bombay (Mumbai). She was a great freedom fighter. Her father Sorabji Framji Patel and mother Jijibai belonged to a prosperous Parsi business family. Sorabji Patel was a powerful member of the Parsi community. Their prosperity was evident from the fact that he had left 13 lakhs to each of his sons and created a trust of lakh for each of his eight daughters. Very little is known of this affluent family besides that fact that it contributed the first Indian woman revolutionary to fight for India’s freedom from alien rule. Bhikaji took education from Alexandra Native Girl’s English Institution. From the very beginning, she was a very sincere child. She always admired the personalities of the Nationalist Movement.

Married Life

On the 3rd of August in the year 1885, she tied her wedding knots with Rustom Cama, an affluent pro-British lawyer. Her given name was Rustum (Munni) Bhikaji and she came to be known as Madam Cama after her marriage with K.R. Cama, a lawyer and social worker who supported the British rule (1885). Right from her student days she was interested in the freedom movement. She did not enjoy her married life and spent most of her time performing altruistic activities. Her husband’s pro-British stance and opposition to her anti-British activities created problems in their life and finally she left her home and became a full-time freedom fighter.

Bombay

In the year 1896, Bombay was hit by a natural calamity, which had adverse effects on the city. Bhikaji was instrumental in the activities undertaken to provide assistance to the afflicted people. While rescuing other people and inoculating them, she herself became a victim of the infection. She became very weak, but somehow managed to survive. In the year 1902, she went to Europe for subsequent medical care and convalescence. Sent to Europe for better treatment (1902), she was in Germany and Scotland, and finally reached London where she had a surgical operation.

The Exile

During her stay in London, she got a message that her return to India can take place subject to the promise that she would not participate in the Nationalist Movement. She refused to make such a promise and remained in exile in Europe. While Madam Cama was in London, she served as the private secretary to Dadabhai Naoroji, who was

the first Asian to be elected to the British House of Commons.

When Bhikaji Cama was in Paris, she happened to come across a number of notable leaders of the Indian Nationalist Movement. In Holland, they secretly published and circulated the revolutionary literature for the Nationalist Movement. During her stay in France, the British Raj authorities requested her extradition, but the French Government did not show their willingness and refused to cooperate. In return, the Britishers confiscated Madame Cama’s legacy.

Freedom Movement

She was a powerful speaker and her sharp attacks angered the British, and attempts were made to assassinate her. From Europe she continued her campaign against the British rule in India. She brought out books and journals from France and Germany on Indian revolutionaries. Her book on India’s first war of Independence (1857), was banned even before its publication. But the book came out through underground channels, reprinted and distributed by greats like Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh. When the First World War broke out, she called upon the soldiers of India not to fight for the British who enslaved the country. She was declared a persona non grata and was ordered to return to India. She defied it and became a heroic model for revolutionaries in various countries like Turkey, Ireland and China.

Final Days

She wanted to spend her last years in India. And finally she reached Bombay, after 34 years of hectic campaign for India, but she had to move to a hospital straight from the port. The treatment was protracted, and the brave revolutionary breathed her last on August 13, 1936. She was 75. Bhikaji Cama had always been actively involved in fighting for gender equality. There are many cities in India that have streets and places being named after Bhikaiji Cama. On 26th January 1962, the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a stamp to acknowledge her work and give her honour. The Indian Coast Guard consists of a ship that has been named after her.

Source: www.vandemataram.com, www.iloveindia.com, www.amaltas.org, www.indiavideo.org


An Indian cardiologist, George Thomas, wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that he had to treat a poor patient with stable angina who did not have money for expensive drugs in a free clinic. George did a thorough search of the evidences in modern medicine and reached the conclusion that those costly drugs were not needed. He chose three cheap drugs (nitrates, aspirin and beta-blockers) that we have been using for decades.

The patient did very well. George called it as reverse evidence. The following was the response from me which is also published in the British Medical Journal. ‘Congratulations, George, for your observations which need to be widely known.’ I have been using those drugs for decades and do so even now. I use only three drugs that George used for that poor man; nitrates are the mainstay. Sometimes I don’t use even beta-blockers, if the basic heart rate is slow.

A large percentage of people who go about having a pacemaker had them in the first place because of the beta-blocker induced bradyarrhythmias, an iatrogenic disease!

Patients on long term beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors are shown to have significantly increased peri-operative mortality, when they underwent emergency surgeries or trauma as shown both in the POISE and ACCORD studies.

Our friend in need (under stress) is the autonomic nervous system, nature’s accident insurance. Blocking that system with beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors and ARBs is like going to the USA without medical insurance! The mainstay of treating coronary artery disease is to emphasise the need to change the faulty life style that most of those patients were used to.

Nitrates have been with us for 350 years, coming, as they did from homeopathy, which we condemn today, in Germany 350 years ago. A recent report in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry, the peer-reviewed journal of the Nitric Oxide Society, scientists at Wake Forest University’s Translational Science Center looked at how dietary nitrates helped 14 adults aged 70 and older over a period of four days.

Beet root, a rich source of nitrates among vegetables, significantly lowered BP in healthy volunteers as well in a recent study in London’s Queen Mary’s University.

Charles Schaarsmidst, the editor of the first ever textbook of medicine, in the 19th century in Vienna, had described a disease: Vehement agitation of the mind with spastic constriction of the vascular bed. He was talking about coronary disease, hypertension etc. Charles wrote that the treatment should be: 1) tranquility of the mind; 2) change of mode of living; and 3) nitrates when needed! Wisdom is universal and timeless.

After my long training in the west, I soon realised that India needed only inexpensive medical care even in the 1960s. This lesson came to me serendipitously in a District General Hospital in Mangalore (Wenlock Hospital) with a huge load of poor patients with raised BP. I used to record all my findings as also the patients’ responses. The textbook regime was prescribed.

When the patient next came for review the BP used to be controlled, most of the time, reasonably well. I was pleased with my abilities. Many such patients told me that although I had prescribed the drugs, the pharmacy did not have any stock.

Later, I had to learn that the meagre budget that the hospital had in the 1960s was just about enough for the first three months in the year. Rest of the time patients had to do without medicines or buy them on their own. All that my patients had, many a time, was my TLC (Tender Loving Care) and advice for life style modifications.

I had my real medical education that day for the first time. That was my revelation. I then started the first ever intermittent treatment regime for hypertension with very small doses of drugs as a research project, which is history now.

“Nitrates have been with us for 350

years, coming, as they did from homeopathy,

which we condemn today...”

Placebo is better than Drugs


In retrospect, I am happy as the Placebo effect, doctor’s TLC, has been scientifically shown to be as good, if not better, than our best chemical drugs! In addition, Professor Kevin O’Malley at the Trinity College, Dublin had shown that even a drug with a very short half life of three hours like hydrallazine, when given to hypertensive rats, brought the BP down significantly. He waited for the pressure to go back up before giving the next dose and was surprised that the lowered pressure did not go up back for as long as 148 hours!

According to our textbooks hydrallazine had to be given 8 hourly as its half life was only 4 hours. Kevin was my great supporter while my other colleagues were calling me names for doing that research work. Marvin Moser of the New York University, a hypertension researcher, wrote an editorial on intermittent treatment of HBP after that in the 1970s.

Not having drug stocks in the hospital pharmacy could, at times, be a blessing for our poor people, especially for imaginary diseases like BP, sugar, and cholesterol, as most of our powerful chemicals are detra-rotatory while the body molecules are levo rotatory—a square plug in a round hole.

The “first pass effect” (words used to denote the amount of any drug that comes out, after being destroyed by the liver, in any patient) that medical students study in pharmacology should tell them that the liver, our saviour, tries to destroy as much of the medicines that we put into patients (to save their lives) as is possible! Only when the liver can no longer do that do we get serum levels rising. That is why we give such large doses of drugs.

See the latest discovery of Hormesis, which shows that all chemicals, in very small doses, are bio-positive but, the same, in bigger doses, are bio negative; the main reason behind ADRs-one of the leading killers in the world!

I must bow to George as most of his colleagues would have advised that a patient with stable angina and good LV function and angioplasty or CABG, although the real audits show angioplasties in very bad light. CABG, the infamous bypass surgery, is needed only in intractable chest pain (rare these days with good medical management) or very low LV function.

Knowledgeable readers will laugh at me if I told them that I am yet to use clopidogril in angina and very, very, very rarely a statin in my practice.

The sincere audit on aspirin also is that it does NOT reduce fatal heart attacks, but will certainly increase the incidence of cerebral bleeds!

The reason I do not use statin is the frightening picture of a child that I saw when I was a student of mavalonic acid deficiency syndrome (congenital). Statins do just that in lower levels by blocking the enzymes in the liver.

In short, statins result in milder mavalonic acid deficiency syndromes in the hapless recipients while lowering the blood cholesterol levels to satisfy the drug happy doctors and the anxious patients. Many literate patients still think that cholesterol is a disease!

I would have liked to use this drug regime even for the rich and powerful. They also deserve good management. I wouldn’t lose sleep on these RCT evidences, even reversed ones, as they are only statistical tricks and no good evidence, anyway. See the opinion of the chief of NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence), Sir Michael Rawlins, in his Harveian Oration at the RCP in 2008 where he, for the first time said: “that randomised controlled trials (RCTs), long regarded as the ‘gold standard’ of evidence, have been put on an undeserved pedestal”. (The Harveian Oration of 2008, De Testimonio. On the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions. Royal College of Physicians, London 2008).

Long live mankind happily on this planet despite our well intentioned efforts to drug them and intervene unnecessarily. Curiously, one of the dictionary meanings of the word intervene is to “go in between with malice.” Divine interventionalists please take note. “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

- Goutama Buddha.

Prof. B.M. Hegde, Padma Bhusan Awardee and known as people’s doctor’, is a renowned Cardiologist, Eminent Medical Teacher and a distinguished Author of many books. He has been a Former Vice-Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education and a member of many national and international professional bodies.

Source: Bhavan’s Journal, June 15, 2011


Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary and martyr gave a new direction to revolutionary movement in India. He formed ‘Naujavan Bharat Sabha’ to spread the message of revolution in Punjab, formed ‘Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sangha’ along with Chandrasekhar Azad to establish a republic in India, assassinated police official Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, dropped bomb in Central Legislative Assembly along with Batukeshwar Dutt. He took Lala Lajpat Rai’s death revenge by killing Scott. He was a true martyr of Indian freedom struggle.

Early Life

Bhagat Singh was born on 27 September 1907 at Banga in Lyallpur district (now Pakistan) to Kishan Singh and Vidya Vati. From his early childhood, Bhagat Singh was imbued with the family’s spirit of patriotism. At the time of his birth, his father Kishan Singh was in jail. His uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, was a great freedom fighter and established the Indian Patriots’ Association. He was well-supported by his friend Syed Haidar Raza, in organizing the peasants against the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. Ajit Singh had 22 cases against him and was forced to flee to Iran.

Jalianwala Bagh

Kishan Singh enrolled Bhagat Singh Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School run by Arya Samaj. While studying at D.A.V. School in Lahore, in 1916, young Bhagat Singh came into contact with some well-known political leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and Ras Bihari Bose. Punjab was politically very charged in those days. In 1919, when Jalianwala Bagh massacre took place, Bhagat Singh was only 12 years old. The massacre deeply disturbed him. On the next day of massacre Bhagat Singh went to Jalianwala Bagh and collected soil from the spot and kept it as a memento for the rest of his life. The massacre strengthened his resolve to drive British out from India.

Mahatma Gandhi

In response to Mahatma Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation against British rule in 1921, Bhagat Singh left his school and actively participated in the movement. In 1922, when Mahatma Gandhi suspended Non-Cooperation Movement against violence at Chauri-Chaura in Gorakhpur, Bhagat was greatly disappointed. His faith in non-violence weakened and he came to the conclusion that

Shaheed Bhagat

Singh


armed revolution was the only practical way of winning freedom. To continue his studies, Bhagat Singh joined the National College in Lahore, founded by Lala Lajpat Rai. At this college, which was a centre of revolutionary activities, he came into contact with revolutionaries such as Bhagwati Charan, Sukhdev and others.

A Born Revolutionary

To avoid early marriage, Bhagat Singh ran away from home and went to Kanpur. Here, he came into contact with a revolutionary named Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, and learnt his first lessons as revolutionary. On hearing that his grandmother was ill, Bhagat Singh returned home. He continued his revolutionary activities from his village. He went to Lahore and formed a union of revolutionaries by name ‘Naujavan Bharat Sabha’. He started spreading the message of revolution in Punjab. In 1928 he attended a meeting of revolutionaries in Delhi and came into contact with Chandrasekhar Azad. The two formed ‘Hindustan Samajvadi Prajatantra Sangha’. Its aim was to establish a republic in India by means of an armed revolution.

Simon Commission

In February 1928, a committee from England, called Simon Commission visited India. The purpose of its visit was to decide how much freedom and responsibility could be given to the people of India. But there was no Indian on the committee. This angered Indians and they decided to boycott Simon Commission. While protesting against Simon Commission in Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai was brutally Lathicharged and later on succumbed to injuries. Bhagat Singh was determined to avenge Lajpat Rai’s death by shooting the British official responsible for the killing, Deputy Inspector General Scott. He shot down Assistant Superintendent Saunders instead, mistaking him for Scott. Bhagat Singh had to flee from Lahore to escape death punishment.

Central Legislative Assembly Bombing

Instead of finding the root cause of discontent of Indians, the British government took to more repressive measures. Under the Defense of India Act, it gave more power to the police to arrest persons to stop processions with suspicious movements and actions. The Act brought in the Central Legislative Assembly was defeated by one vote. Even then it was to be passed in the form of an ordinance in the “interest of the public.” Bhagat Singh who was in hiding all this while, volunteered to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly where the meeting to pass the ordinance was being held. It was a carefully laid out plot, not to cause death or injury but to draw the attention of the government, that the modes of its suppression could no more be tolerated. It was decided that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt

would court arrest after throwing the bomb. On April 8, 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Assembly Hall while the Assembly was in session. The bombs did not hurt anyone. After throwing the bombs, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, deliberately courted arrest by refusing to run away from the scene.

They wanted them to teach a lesson. Both of them got arrested and during their trial in jail, Bhagat Singh went on a hunger strike in order to protest against the inhuman treatment given to Indian prisoners. In the court he decided to use the court as a tool to showcase his protest for Indian independence. Moreover, the cause of the hunger strike was to get newspapers for political prisoners, good quality of food, better clothing and supply of necessary toiletries. He and other members of his party were there on a 63 day hunger strike. After this long strike, the British officials had to agree on their terms and they provided all the necessary things, which he demanded.

The Execution

They deliberately wanted to die and when the court gave the sentence, they were very happy. They wanted to die because they wanted that their death would inspire the youth of our country and they will get united to fight against the British Empire.

On October 7, 1930 Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev and Raj Guru were awarded death sentences. While Bhagat Singh was in prison along with his other three friends, he wrote a letter to the Viceroy. He wanted that he should treat him as the prisoners of war thus; they should not be hanged but, should execute them by firing squad. Bhagat Singh was a true soldier who fought for his country and got hanged when he was just 23 years of age. On March 20, one of Bhagat Singh’s friends visited him in jail as he wanted him to sign on a letter for mercy, but this great man refused to sign that letter. Despite great popular pressure and numerous appeals by political leaders of India, Bhagat Singh and his associates were hanged in the early hours of March 23, 1931.

Source: www.sikh-history.com, www.iloveindia.com, www.peopleforever.org, www.culturalindia.net

“In response to Mahatma Gandhi’s call

for non-cooperation against British rule in 1921, Bhagat

Singh left his school and actively participated in

the movement.”


Many Christian rituals and religious practices vary between denomination, individual church and individual Christian, but some practices are common to virtually all forms of Christianity. Most Christians attend worship services at church on Sundays, which generally include singing, prayer and a sermon. Most Christian churches have a special ritual for ordination, or designating a person fit for a leadership position in the church. At home, most practicing Christians pray regularly and many read the Bible.

Nearly all Christians will have been baptized, either as an infant or as an adult, and regularly participate in communion (Lord’s Supper and the Eucharist). Baptism and communion are considered sacraments—sacred rituals instituted by Christ himself. The Catholic Church recognizes five additional sacraments, as well as many other distinctive practices that are known as “sacramentals” or “devotions” and include praying the rosary and going on pilgrimages. Both Catholic and Orthodox Churches have religious orders. The most distinctive practice of Orthodoxy is the emphasis on icons, although Catholics use them as well. Following are the beliefs and practices common to most Christians, noting variations between denominations, as well as practices unique to particular denominations.

Authority: The Bible, Tradition, Etc

Catholics have various sources of authority: The Bible, Tradition, the Creeds, the Bishops, and the Pope, among others. Ultimately, Christ is the authority, but Christ passed his authority to His Apostles. The Bible and Tradition come from the same Apostolic Deposit and do not pit against each other. The Church understands that the Bible must

be interpreted, and the Church does so using the Tradition of the Apostles. The Catholic Church (and the Orthodox Church) has retained this Apostolic authority through Apostolic Succession, which is the passing down of authority from the apostles to their successors, our modern-day bishops. The pope, the bishop of Rome, has a first place among the bishops as the successor to Peter, the “Rock,” and prince of the apostles, and under certain circumstances, has the grace to speak infallibly on issues of faith and morality. However, this does not mean everything the pope says is error free, or that the pope is sinless. While Catholics do not embrace sola scriptura, the 16th century Protestant concept that the Bible alone is our final authority, Catholics hold the Bible in high regard as the word of God, and cannot teach contrary to the Bible’s Teachings.

The Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic

The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus Christ established. Thus the Church subsists in the Catholic Church. However, members of other Christian churches and denominations are also in communion with the Catholic Church by virtue of their sacraments. The Orthodox Churches possess fully valid sacraments, and are true particular Churches, whereas Protestant Christians are in communion with the Catholic Church on account of their baptism. The Church is one, because it is unified in Christ across regions and time periods. The Church is Holy on account of the grace of Christ given to it and the holy sacraments it provides. The Church is Catholic because it contains the fullness of the Deposit of Faith, thus is it truly “according to the whole” and “universal.” Finally, the Church is Apostolic because its Teachings and Authority come from the Apostles themselves.

Creation

Catholics believe that creation is good, and that God uses creation for His purposes, but that it has been marred by Original Sin, the result of the sin of the first humans. Catholic theologians (and Orthodox ones) have never agreed on one particular interpretation of the creation stories in the book of Genesis. A few early Christians read them literally, others allegorically, and others in light of the science of the day. Some read them all three ways at the same time. Catholics may interpret Genesis in a non-literal manner so

Catholic Beliefs and Practices

“If we truly love God and neighbour, then

our behavior toward ourselves and others

will reflect this commitment.”


long as the interpretation is faithful to Church Teaching. Catholics are free to understand Genesis literally, but also to read Genesis in light of modern scientific observations, so long as certain conditions are met. For example, Catholics believe that God created the world from nothing (ex nihilo), and that He created the world through His Word, who became incarnate in Jesus Christ.

God: The Trinity

Catholics believe in the Nicene Creed, and therefore believe in one God who exists as three persons. Catholics believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all God, one in substance and will, but distinct in some way, but not divided. In addition to an intellectual understanding of the Trinity, we are to develop a relationship with the Triune God through prayer and worship. The Trinity is not tritheism (the belief in three gods), but rather a dynamic monotheism.

Jesus Christ: God and Man

Catholics believe Jesus is fully God and fully Man, with a human will and a divine will. He is the King of Cosmos, the Word of God, and the awaited Messiah of Israel. He was born of a Virgin, Mary, suffered, was crucified, truly died, and rose again bodily, all for our sins. He ascended into heaven

intercedes on our behalf before the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus was a great teacher, and His teachings are the very teachings of God.

Morality

The Catholic Church bases its moral Teachings on the message of Jesus. Morality boils down to love: loving God and loving our neighbours. If we truly love God and neighbour, then our behavior toward ourselves and others will reflect this commitment. The Catholic Church teaches that we are to strive for holiness and perfection, since Jesus told us to be perfect as the Father is perfect. However, this is only accomplished with the help of God’s


grace. Catholics believe that we are called to turn from evil, and towards the good. This means turning away from actions and thoughts that are contrary to God’s will. Most sins can be traced to the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Envy, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth). Turning toward the good means developing virtue, that is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. The core virtues are divided into the Theological Virtues, which are the foundation of Christian moral activity (faith, hope, and love), and the Cardinal Virtues, virtues around which all others are grouped (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude).

The Sacraments

The sacraments are divinely instituted signs that give the grace that they signify. In other words, sacraments are rituals and events through which God gives us grace. Catholics and Orthodox accept seven sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and Anointing of the Sick.

Salvation and Grace

Catholics believe we are saved only by God’s grace working in us. Thus we are justified, transformed from the state of unrighteousness into a state of holiness and the sonship of God, on account of Christ. Justification is the merciful and freely given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. This justification is given to us in the sacrament of baptism. Justification is the beginning of our free response to God, that is our faith in Christ and our cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Catholics believe in salvation by grace alone, solely on account of the work of Christ. However, neither Catholics nor Orthodox accept the reformation concept of forensic justification or “justification by faith alone.”

Catholic Church does believe a person must be born again to be saved. The Catholic Church recognizes the possibility of salvation for

Protestants and even for non-Christians, although in Catholic Teaching, all salvation comes through Jesus, who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Sin

Sin is the deliberate, freely chosen, transgression of divine law. There are two types of sin: mortal sin and venial sin. Sin that expels all charity from the soul is mortal, while sin that merely weakens charity is venial. For a sin to be mortal, the offense must be serious (have grave matter), and the act done freely, with deliberation. After committing a mortal sin, one must receive the sacrament of reconciliation before receiving communion. Sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Original Sin is the privation of grace, inherited by all humans from Adam and Eve. Because of Christ’s atoning death on the cross, we have the opportunity to have our sins forgiven, and this is not possible apart from God’s grace.

The Virgin Mary

Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, thus she is called theotokos (God-Bearer) and “mother of God.” Catholics, like Protestants, believe that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. However, Catholics and Orthodox believe that Mary remained a Virgin her entire life. Catholics believe that Mary was conceived without original sin in order to be a sinless bearer of God incarnate: Jesus Christ. This is known as the immaculate conception. This sinlessness was accomplished only on account of God’s grace. The Orthodox too believe that Mary was sinless when bearing Jesus. Catholics and Orthodox both believe that after Mary completed the course of her earthly life, she was assumed into heaven, similar to the way the great saint Elijah was. Mary is the Mother of us and the mother of the Church, and just as Christ is the new Adam, Mary is the new Eve, who obeyed God where Eve disobeyed.

Source: www.ancient-future.net, www.religionfacts.com

Catholic Church Ceremony


“The Constitution of India adopted Hindi in Devanagri Script as the official language

of the union in 1950.”

Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding said Ban Ki Moon during the 8th World Hindi Conference on Hindi at United Nations headquarter in New York and surprised many by inaugurating the ceremony with Namaste! Kya Haal Chaal hai?

September 14 is celebrated as Hindi Day or Hindi Diwas and was adopted as the official language of Constituent assembly in 1949 on this day. The Day marks Hindi as our Raj Bhasha. The Constitution of India adopted Hindi in Devanagri Script as the official language of the union in 1950. Hindi is a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect. Hindi, the primary official language of the Republic of India, is one of the 22 official languages of India.

History

Hindi has a history behind; it belongs to Indo-Aryan branch of indo European language family. The word ‘Hindi’ itself is a gift of Persian, Mughals added to its flavour, Amir Khusro was first to write Hindi Poem. Though it evolved from Sanskrit but many of its words originated from Arabic or Persian language.

The Link Language

Hindi is also called as a ‘link language’, as it has united the vast Indian Diaspora and also minimized the gap between South and North India. Hindi language has travelled a long distance to make its presence felt in the World. It is spoken in many parts of the world and is one of the main languages in Mauritius, Surinam, Trinidad and many others including US, South Africa, New Zealand etc. If it is mother tongue of 180 million people then it is also the second language of 300 million people. Mahatma Gandhi used this language to unite the whole India and used this language as ‘language of unity’. The word Swadeshi revolutionised the freedom struggle, and its entry into the Oxford dictionary marks its importance in world history. Hindi being a live language is gaining popularity and on the way to become a global language.

The Official Language

At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the many states in India: Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. Each of these states may also designate a “co-official language”; in Uttar Pradesh for instance, depending on the political formation in power, sometimes this language is Urdu. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of co-official language in several states.

The celebration of our Independence Day in the month of August leaves us with more reason to enjoy the spirit of patriotism by celebrating the Hindi day in September. Our national language has a special significance in touching our lives each day. Renowned poets and lyricists have conveyed via many songs the spirit of freedom felt by Indians and also extolled the beauty of poetry through Hindi.

The essence of Hindi is felt in mythological characters, school syllabus and our daily exchange as a means of communication. The visit to theatres is characterized by respecting our National Anthem in Hindi which expresses wonderful emotions felt by all Hindustanis.

Celebrations

Hindi Diwas is celebrated in many schools and colleges. It is fun to enjoy poems and exchanges in dramatic sequences highlighting the multifarious activities that can be conducted through Hindi. Students recite poems and read papers to show the importance of Hindi. Various Religious and Cultural Programs are held in the schools. The students recite dohas of Kabir, Ravidas, Rahim. The students and teachers use Hindi language in their conversation throughout the day. On the Day Hindi Diwas awards and Raj Bhasha Awards distribution functions are organized.

Source: www.goodparenting.co.in, en.wikipedia.org, indiascanner.com

Hindi Diwas Day


Christianity is believed to have reached India soon after the crucifixion of Jesus. The history of Indian Christianity begins in 52 AD when St. Thomas is believed to have arrived in the country.

St. Thomas

St. Thomas was one of the disciples of Jesus. He is also known as Didymus, which means the Twin. Thomas means Twin in Aramaic and Didymus means Twin in Greek. He is generally known as the Doubting Thomas since he refused to believe the resurrection unless he has verified it himself. His acts are not found in the Acts of the Apostles.

An apocryphal book written around 200 AD called “Acts of Thomas”, describes it. Archaeology and Indian traditions substantiate the basic historic events in this book. A merchant Ambassador Habbanes (This is probably a Greek pronouncement of the name Appana) bought him. If so, he was probably from the Kingdom of Pandhya Empire) being sold to him by Jesus the carpenter. He was the ambassador for King Gondaphores the Indo-Parthian Kingdom of Indus Valley Area (Sind, Pakistan, Baluchistan and Afghanistan). He attended the banquet at the marriage ceremony of the daughter of Cheraman Perumal (the King of the Chera Kingdom) where he came across a Jewish girl in the King’s court. During the period of seven days of his stay there, several Jewish people were converted to Christianity.

It is said that Thomas ordained one Prince Peter to be the head of the church of the Jews and left for Takshasila. He established a church in that region before he travelled to other areas of India. These churches were annihilated during the invasion of Kushan and Moughal dynasty. He returned to Kerala where he established seven and half churches with 75 Brahmin families as teachers and over 3000 converts from Kshatriyas, Nairs and Chettiars. These new converts were called St. Thomas Christians. This church is one of the

most ancient churches in Christendom. The seven churches are at Malankara, Palayur, Paravoor, Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Chayal and Kollam.

Apostle Thomas was martyred in 72 AD by a fanatic at Little Mount at Mylapore near Madras. (Tradition calls this place Kalloor—the place of rock) in Tamilnadu State. The traditional date of martyrdom is 19th of December, 72 AD. His followers took his body and buried him in the tombs of the Chiefs. A merchant from Edessa in Syria who visited that region exhumed his body and took it to Syria where it was entombed in about AD 200. We could see these tombs in Mylapore and in Edessa His tomb is venerated until this day.

Kerala

Kerala is the cradle of Christianity in India. In the educational field, the work of the Christians of Kerala has been noteworthy and it is due to their efforts together with that of the government and of other religious and cultural groups that Kerala became the leading state in India for literacy. Kerala Christians have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries. Even the European missionaries, when they first came, landed in Kerala. Many Keralites became Christians even before St. Peter reached Rome in 68 AD. There are around 9 million Christians in Kerala at present.

Historical Evidences

There are historical evidences showing that a group of Syro-Jewish traders under the leadership of Knai Thomman reached Kodungalloor (Mahodayapuram), in the Kerala coast. The followers of this Thomman in Kerala are known as Knanayars. These Christians were known also as Syrian Christians and Nasranis. Even before Christianity became popular and widespread in Europe, this religion had taken strong roots in Kerala and from there to other parts of India.

Christianity in India

“Thomas ordained one Prince Peter to be the head of the church of the Jews

and left for Takshasila.”

The Roman Catholic sect reached Kerala when Vasco da Gama brought to Kerala coast the first group of European (Portuguese) traders, paving the way for the European colonization of India. It was these Portuguese who spread the message of Roman Catholic sect in Kerala and other parts of India. Several Christian missionaries and other evangelists reached India in unison with the pace of colonization of the country. Being actively involved in educational and social fields in the country, they made vigorous attempts in a systematic manner for the propagation of Christian teachings and in religious conversion.

In the north eastern states of India a very large number of people belonging to the local tribes converted into Christianity. Majority of people in the states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram are now Christians. At the same time they retain their tribal beliefs and customs. Christianity has very sound basis in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Though a minority religion,

Christianity enjoys in India today the third place in rank, after Hinduism and Islam. In Kerala, as in Tamil Nadu, the Christians play a crucial and decisive role, as the Muslims, in the social, political and educational fields. There are 25 million Christians in India which is just below 3% of the total population of the Country. Diversity of Christians is noticeable: Syrian Christians, Knanaya Christians, Goan Christians, Tamil Christians, Anglo-Indians, Naga Christians, etc are the main. They differ in language, social customs and economic prosperity.

Source: http://indianchristianity.org, www.indiavideo.org


St Andrews Church at Arthunkal in Kerala


Chicago: Recently, a number of commentators have proposed a sharp, contained bout of inflation as a way to reduce debt and reenergize growth in the United States and the rest of the industrial world. Are they right?

To understand this prescription, we have to comprehend the diagnosis. As Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff argue, recoveries from crises that result from over-leveraged balance sheets are slow and typically resistant to traditional macroeconomic stimulus. Over- levered households cannot spend, over-levered banks cannot lend, and over-levered governments cannot stimulate. So, the prescription goes, why not generate higher inflation for a while? This will surprise fixed-income investors who agreed in the past to lend long term at low rates, bring down the real value of debt, and eliminate debt “overhang,” thereby re-starting growth.

It is an attractive solution at first glance, but a closer look suggests cause for serious concern. Start with the question of whether central banks that have spent decades establishing and maintaining anti-inflation credibility can generate faster price growth in an environment of low interest rates. Japan tried—and failed: banks were too willing to hold the reserves that the central bank released as it bought back bonds.

Perhaps if a central bank announced a higher inflation target, and implemented a financial-asset purchase program (financed with unremunerated reserves) until the target were achieved, it could have some effect. But it is more likely that the concept of a target would lose credibility once it

IN SEARCH OF DYNAMISM

Is Inflation the Answer?


became changeable. Market participants might conjecture that the program would be abandoned once it reached an alarming size—and well before the target was achieved.

Moreover, the central bank needs rapid, sizeable inflation to bring down real debt values quickly—a slow increase in inflation (especially if well signaled by the central bank) would have limited effect, because maturing debt would demand not only higher nominal rates, but also an inflation-risk premium to roll over claims. Significant inflation might be hard to contain, however, especially if the central bank loses credibility: Would the public really believe that the central bank is willing to push interest rates sky high and kill growth in order to contain inflation, after it abandoned its earlier inflation target in order to foster growth?

Consider, next, whether the inflationary cure would work as advertised. Inflation would do little for entities with floating-rate liabilities (including the many households that borrowed towards the peak of the boom and are most underwater) or relatively short-term liabilities (banks). Even the US government, with debt duration of about four years, would be unlikely to benefit much from an inflation surprise, unless it were huge. Meanwhile, the bulk of its obligations are social security and health care, which cannot be inflated away.

Even for distressed households that have borrowed long term, the effects of higher inflation are uncertain. What would help is if their nominal disposable income rose relative to their (fixed) debt service. Yet, with high levels of unemployment likely to keep nominal wage growth relatively subdued, typical troubled households could be worse off—with higher food and fuel prices cutting into disposable income.

Of course, any windfall to borrowers has to come from someone else’s wealth. Inflation would clearly make creditors worse off. Who are they? Some are rich people, but they also include pensioners who moved into bonds as the stock market scared them away; banks that would have to be recapitalized; state pension funds that are already in the red; and insurance companies that would have to default on their claims.

In the best of all worlds, it would be foreigners with ample reserves who suffer the losses, but those investors might be needed to finance future deficits. So central banks would have to regain anti-inflation credibility very soon after subjecting investors to a punishing inflation. In such a world, investors would have to be far more trusting than they are in this one.

This does not mean that nothing can be done about the debt problem. The US experienced debt crises periodically during the nineteenth century, and again during the Great Depression. Its response

was to offer targeted and expedited debt relief—often by bringing in new temporary bankruptcy legislation that forced limited debt write-downs.

In this vein, a recent proposal by Eric Posner and Luigi Zingales to facilitate mortgage-debt renegotiation would give a deeply underwater homeowner the right to file a pre-packaged Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. This would allow her to write down the value of her mortgage by the average house-price depreciation in her postal zone since the borrowing date, in exchange for giving the lender a share of the future house-price appreciation. A bankruptcy judge would approve the petition, provided the court was satisfied that the homeowner could make the reduced payments.

Such automatic borrower-initiated filings, if made legal by Congress, could reduce the household-debt overhang without the need for government subsidies. To the extent that the alternative is costly foreclosure proceedings that make borrowers and lenders worse off, this proposal should attract the support of both sides.

No solution is without weaknesses, though. One reason that banks oppose debt write-downs is that many underwater homeowners continue to repay debt rather than default, even while cutting back on other spending. If these diligent payers are eventually expected to default, writing down their debt today makes sense. If they are expected to muddle through, a blanket debt write-down would weaken banks and might slow economic growth. Policymakers espousing debt write-downs to spur growth should ask whether they have the political support to recapitalize banks if needed.

Prescriptions like these—as with those for a jolt of inflation—have gained ground because the obvious solutions to economic stagnation have been tried and failed. But, as the proposals become more innovative and exotic, we must examine them carefully to ensure that they wouldn’t end up making matters worse.

Raghuram Rajan, a former Chief Economist of the IMF, is Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago and the Author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy.



Close people-to-people contact and scores of development projects supported by the Indian Government reinforces the India-Nepalese relationship

In March this year, students of Shree Saraswati Secondary School in the dusty little village of Beladevipur in Nepal’s Kailali District had reasons to cheer. Their school finally had a new three-storey building along with brand new furniture. The wait for the new structure had been a long one but it was definitely worth it. The spanking new wing had been constructed with financial assistance from the Government of India which had provided NRs (Nepali Rupees) 3.3 crore under the Nepal-India Economic Cooperation Programme.

Later in April, on his visit to Nepal, India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna laid the foundation stone for the Integrated Check Post at Birgunj as well as for the Birgunj-Thori road. Both these projects are being built with India’s assistance and are part of the programme.

These are just a few of the innumerable projects that India has been involved with in Nepal, providing financial assistance and invaluable expertise. The development projects have been a major driver of the age-old relationship between the two countries. This is one relationship that is historical, cultural, ethnic and geographic. “Relations with Nepal are and will continue to be a matter of the highest priority for India,” reiterated Krishna during his visit. Nepal’s Foreign Secretary, Dr Madan K. Bhattarai, who was in India recently,

calls it, “an extremely close relationship that is governed by mutual aspiration and respect.”

This close relationship was initiated in 1950 with the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship that defined security relations between the two countries. It also had an agreement governing both bilateral trade and trade transiting on Indian soil. The treaty paved the way for a special relationship that granted Nepal preferential economic treatment. Ever since, India has been at the forefront of providing financial assistance to the development of Nepal’s economy. In fact, for over six decades, a large part of Nepal’s infrastructure has been developed by India.

The Nepal-India Economic Cooperation Programme, which is an important component of the India-Nepal relationship, has various projects under its rubric. The Small Project Development Scheme is one such which covers the needs of the community at the grassroots level. The projects, each below NRs 5 crore address local needs such as a school building, hospital, drinking water, rural electrification and so on. Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, former Indian Ambassador to Nepal, fondly recalls his involvement with the Small Project Development Scheme. “It was a great success. The locals would identify the need and after doing the requisite groundwork, would put in a demand for the need to us. We, on our part, would do all the mandatory paperwork and assessment and then release the funds.” What made the scheme special was the complete involvement of the community which ensured that the project was

DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

Nepalese Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal (right) with Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna in Kathmandu

India-Nepal Good Neighbours


External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna at the foundation laying ceremony of the Integrated Check Posts at Birgunj

Lumbini Museum

Bharat Nepal Maitri Emergency and Trauma Centre


implemented. It was, as he says, a completely transparent operation.

There are approximately 400 projects under this scheme and so far 195 have been completed covering almost all the 75 districts of Nepal. The other important scheme comprises intermediate level projects which range from NRs 5 to 25 crores and large projects ranging from NRs 25 crores and above. The upcoming Bharat-Nepal Emergency & Trauma Centre in Kathmandu is one such large project. The other important one is the Terai Roads project which is being built with Indian assistance amounting to NRs 1,100 crore. “The road project will enhance connectivity between Nepal and India so that people and goods are able to move seamlessly,” says Sanjiv Ranjan, Director, (North) Northern Division, Ministry of External Affairs. So far, work on 600km in the first phase has begun.

For Nepal, socio-economic development is of prime importance and in that respect they acknowledge the role that India has played in the development of their economy. “It’s gratifying to know that Mr Krishna was in Birgunj. India attaches highest priority to Nepal,” says Bhattarai.

Even as India goes about extending all financial support—annually it spends more than 150 crore approximately on the projects—there are many who feel that we need to do much more. Professor Sangeeta Thapliyal, who works on Nepal at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s South Asian Studies Centre, is one of them. “We can set up more educational institutes or more hospitals across Nepal,” she says.

Having said that, India continues to be Nepal’s largest trade partner and source of foreign investment. It offers annually the largest number

of academic scholarships—nearly 1,800—for the people of Nepal. Besides, it offers two Lines of Credit to the country. In 2006, US $100 million Line of Credit was extended, of which projects totaling to more than US $60 million have been approved. Last year, another Line of Credit worth US $250 million more was extended.

Mukherjee believes it’s at the people level that the projects have an enormous impact. He remembers a random instance. “In many schools in Nepal, girls would drop out after a few years. This was because these buildings didn’t have toilets. So we ensured that the buildings we built had toilets for the girls. Soon, girls started coming back to the schools. It was so heartwarming.” Similarly, the 200-bed Bharat-Nepal Emergency & Trauma Centre in Kathmandu being built with world-class facilities would turn out to be a boon for the Nepalese people.

It’s the impact of activities like these that make a huge difference to the centuries-old relationship between India and Nepal. As Ranjan says, “Foreign policy only provides a structure for the relationship. It’s the people-to-people contact which provides ballast to bilateral relations.”

Indeed, it is this positive synergy which needs to be harnessed to keep alive the relationship between the two countries.

-Meenakshi Kumar

Source: India Perspectives Vol 25, No. 4, June 2011

Devighat Hydropower Station in Trishuli


Ancient Indian rishis were aware of the energy transmission in the human body which enables one to remain healthy and efficient. Swara kriya vigyan was the science which dealt with energetics in the body, which is the contributory factor for enjoying good health.

Indians were aware of the channels which carry the vital force (prana) from one extreme of the body to another continuously and constantly which inject the human body with the daily dose of energy without which no function is possible.

According to these ancient scientists, the human body consists of 72 lakh subtle, psychic channels meandering its entire length and breadth. These channels aided the flow of prana in the pranamaya kosha, one of the five sheaths of the human body. The chief amongst them are the ‘major’ channels ida, pingala and sushumna which traverse the body carrying impulses during inhalation and exhalation.

Thus the energy system was found to be closely coordinating with breathing and hence breathing (pranayama) was given the pride of place amongst various measures suggested to remain healthy—mentally, physically and spiritually.

One could control the movement of prana through one’s breathing.

The present-day acousticians know that any movement anywhere in the universe is accompanied with sound or tone—sometimes audible to the human ears and sometimes not—being ultrasonic or infrasonic.

The flow of prana has to necessarily involve creation of sound (swara) perceptible to the body or the ears. Swara refers to the frequency of sound of one’s breath.

Neverthelsss these subtle sounds are lauded by yogis in making them refined and sublime and to

remain in constant link with the nature’s principles and with Universal truth.

Swara kriya is practiced though controlled breathing. It enables the practitioner to achieve a state of integration (or union) by regulating the breath.

The ancient text Shiva Samhita deals with the knowledge of swara and is believed to have first expounded by Lord Shiva, who symbolises the Supreme Consciousness. Shiva is believed to have revealed this to his consort, Parvati.

The swaras we have seen, are: ida (Chandra or moon), pingala (Surya or sun). Sushumna, the third one is formed as the contrasting ida and pingala get balanced.

To be able to perceive these contrasting swaras of ida and pingala and transcending to harmonise them are the major concerns in swara yoga.

The system of swara yoga is known to have allowed great benefits to its practitioners. It is believed to have enabled people develop and consolidate their inherent and inborn powers, which could help them from coping with the problems of day-to-day life, stress or depression, which are the natural results of mechanical lifestyles adopted by us.

The practice could help in sensitising us with nature’s laws, logic and wisdom besides slowing us down from the rat-race in which we are mindlessly engaged.

Through Swara Yoga one’s dormant powers are kindled so that there is complete harmony between nature and ourselves.

T.V. Sairam

Source: Bhavan’s Journal December 15, 2010

Swara Yoga and Sound Consciousness Nataraja


Introduction

After agriculture and manufacturing, trade was considered to be the third most important activity. It was the King’s responsibility to promote trade and commerce by setting up trade routes over land and water and to designate markets and towns including ports. It was clear that these trade routes were to be kept free of harassment by courtiers, state officials, thieves and frontier guards, and that these routes were not to be damaged by herds of cattle. In other words, cattle rearing which was a big part of the agricultural economic area would in no way interfere with the trade routes.

I. Protection of Trade Routes

The King had to protect those using trade routes from harassment by courtiers, state officials, thieves and frontier guards. Frontier officers had to make good what was lost. Kautilya felt that just as it was impossible not to taste honey or poison which was on the tip of one’s tongue, so also it was impossible for those dealing with government funds not to taste, at least a little bit, of the King’s wealth.

This is a powerful assertion signifying two facts. First is the realisation that trade routes were important for the development of the economy and their safety thus needed to be assured. The second is a warning about corruption in matters relating to trade. Under no circumstances should those who were entrusted with the job of maintaining safety of trade routes be permitted to indulge in corrupt practices which by virtue of holding public office would succeed in diverting the resources from the State to private hands. Even at that time, the King or his advisors were aware of the possibility of the officials and frontier guards indulging in corruption.

II. Typology of Domestic Trade

The concept of gross margins was practised in Kautilya’s time rather than that of ‘Value added’. The King prescribed that gross margins of the trader should not be excessive so that the products available to the consumers were at reasonable rates. Unlike today, profit margins were not market determined, perhaps, in keeping with an era in which a benevolent king cared for the welfare of the people. The system of State trading was well established and there were prescriptions on how trading was to be conducted. Kautilya’s Arthashastra meant ‘the science of material gain’.

It is very clear that its aim was to benefit people. According to Syhamasastri, “Kautilya belongs to that school of politicians whose policy is to justify the means by the noble end sought to be achieved,” which Kautilya as a conqueror had to win at any costs. For Kautilya, the end was more important and ranked higher than the means.

Modern economics talks about the concept of ‘value add’. Kautilya broadly divides the economy into three sectors: (i) state/ government/king, (ii) private, and (iii) service providers such as banks and financial institutions. Kautilya’s Arthashastra was very clear about the role of different sectors, but it was the King who was at the center of decision making. In trade involving the private sector, only the safety of the routes was ensured by the State, and compensation in the case of loss was prescribed. Sale proceeds from mining activity accrued to the State, since it controlled the land. Private trade, however, consisted of selling manufactured products to households; these were supplemented by imports, in case of shortage. Exports were freely encouraged. The trade control system was well defined and articulated. One of the policies laid down was that commodities were to be brought to designated markets where only these were to be sold, and not at their place of production. The officers in charge of the sale of government commodities had to deposit the proceeds in a box with a lid with only one hole so that there was no scope for taking out the same once deposited. At the end of the day, accounts would be given and the money handed over after taking the balance stock. The policy and the procedure laid down showed that Kautilya was fully conscious of the possibility of officials engaging in corrupt practices.

III. Relative Merits of Different Types of Economic Activity

• An ideal Janapada was one which was easily defined and which had a lot of productive land with cultivable fields, mines, timber forests, elephant forests, and pastures.

• Agriculture was the most important economic activity. Cultivable land is better than mines because mines fill only the treasury while agricultural production fills both treasury and store houses.

• The King had to ensure that agriculture was protected from harassment by not levying onerous taxes or fines, and by not making undue demands for free labour.

• Building forts (defence preparedness), water works and reservoirs as the source of crops.

• Trade routes were also a means of out-maneuvering the enemy because it was through these that the King could send secret agents and bring in weapons and other war material.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra: Domestic Trade


“...only the safety of the routes was ensured by the State, and compensation in

the case of loss was prescribed. Sale proceeds from mining activity accrued to the State,

since it controlled the land.”

• It was better to have a large production of low value minerals than a small production of high value ones.

• Productive forests should be large, near the borders of the country with a river and yield material of high value.

• It was better to have a large number of trade routes even if they were not all built to high standards. Kautilya’s order of preference for establishing trade routes: land route preferably to the south, a water route on the coast and the inland waterway.

• Cart-tracks and tracks usable by draught animals were preferred over footpaths. As earlier mentioned, trade was the third pillar of economic activity, and the Arthashastra details every aspect of trade. Apart from promoting trade by improving infrastructure, the State was required to keep trade routes free of harassment by courtiers, state officials, thieves and frontier guards. Kautilya appears to mistrust traders believing them to be thieves with a propensity to form cartels to fix prices and make excessive profits as also to deal in stolen property. He prescribed heavy fines to discourage such offences by traders and with a view to protect consumers.

Further, the law on dealings among private merchants included:

(a) Selling on agency basis(b) Revocation of contracts between traders(c) Traders travelling together and pooling

their goods

IV. Safety in Transit

It was also enjoined upon the frontier officers to ensure the safe passage of the merchandise and to make good any loss incurred. Responsibility to recompense loss to traders vested with the village headman, barring, of course, goods that were stolen or sent away. Further, if any property of trader was lost or driven away in an area between villages, the person responsible was the Chief Superintendent of Pastures (CSP). In the regions which did not fall under the control of CSP, the responsibility was that of Chora Raju. Finally, if the responsibility could not be fixed on any official, the people of the village within whose boundaries the loss had occurred were collectively responsible

to the trader. It is thus seen that the importance of the trader was recognised by Kautilya as also the importance of the rule of law, by restoration for any loss caused. At the same time traders were prevented from oppressing people. This clearly shows that the welfare of the people was uppermost in the mind of the King.

Appendix: Chief Controller of Private Trading (a) Responsibilities

(i) To ensure fair trading in new and old articles

(ii) To allow sale/pledging of old articles only if seller/pledger would provide proof of ownership

(iii) To inspect the weights and measures used by merchants in order to prevent fraudulent use.

(b) Contract over Merchants(i) To ensure that profit margins of 5% on

domestically produced goods, and 10% on imported goods were adhered to

(ii) To ensure that goods were sold at the prices fixed for them

(iii) To ensure that merchants did not deal in stolen goods.

(c) Assistance to Merchants(i) To provide appropriate exemptions, if goods

held by the merchants were damaged for unforeseen reasons.

(d) Brokers and Middlemen(i) To ensure that merchants did not count the

brokerage paid to middlemen as part of their costs in calculating their profit margins

(ii) To allow brokers to hold stocks of grain and other commodities to the extent they were authorised

(iii) To confiscate any stock held by brokers in excess of authorised limits, and to deliver these to the chief controller of state trading for sale to the public.

(e) Orderly Marketing To prevent the collective purchase by merchants of commodities as long as the goods of an earlier joint purchase remained unsold.

Source: Kautilya’s Arthashastra, The Way of Financial Management and Economic Governance, Priyadarshni Academy and Jaico Publishing House, Mumbai, India

(To be continued…)

Glimmering and Hazy Landscape of Indian Politics

Her voice was punctuated with sentimental ups and downs. What could they do? Poverty sat staring at their door blankly at them and Rajeev thought of an agitation. Krishna could not be brought back with an agitation. He was gone to the land of no return. ‘It is not only Krishna’s death. It is to draw attention to innocent deaths. The country is full of them. Human life thrown to dogs. Just like that.’ ‘Who is responsible?’ Smita’s glance was deep and bewitching. The other two looked with their eyes down-cast. ‘Why should we follow our leaders blindly? A wave in the religion or any other blind cause sweeps them along.’ ‘But without protest issues do not surface. These do not catch the public eyes. ‘That’s necessary. I understand causes for agitations should be selfless. These days agitations are for self-glorification and to establish leadership and not for the welfare of masses.’

Sona and Rekha were not interested in this intellectual see-saw. They hardly bothered about things beyond their immediate existence. How to sustain their existence? The moot question ate them like a canker. Smita’s mind pondered over issues and was given to daydreaming. ‘How do you take the idea of going on fast?’ ‘I don’t exactly know. Will it succeed?’ Clouds of doubt hung in the room. Sona and Rekha walked out of the room without uttering a word. There was no idea in talking to the couple. ‘Have you worked out the implications of fasting Rajeev?’ ‘We have to make a beginning. Any more friends?’ ‘I shall talk. Political parties are ready. But...’ ‘But.’ ‘Let us not politicize Krishna’s death.’ As such Smita did not take any interest in politics. She was a thinking sort and always maintained an inner identity. ‘At times you say things unexpected of your age, Smita.’ Rajeev often told her. For a while there was a meaningful silence in the room. They seemed to be struggling with their ideas. ‘I feel fasting as a protest becoming out-dated and meaningless. Most of us believe protests are a humbug. Just a contrivance.’ ‘May be loss of faith in Gandhi’s methods.’ ‘Why, there are other methods to raise protest strikes? Dharnas? Violence?”

‘No, the only sensible way is to remain non-violent, the only way of fighting.’ Rajeev was moved beyond words. He was charged with emotion. Leaders like Ajeet must be fought as they were multiplying in numbers. Their aims were wicked. Rajeev knew that his straggle was going to be lonesome one. Most of them were with Ajeet. He had means and funds to satisfy their low desires. But why did

Krishna back Ajeet? Ajeet might have taken him into his gang because of his lust for his sisters.

The evening was waning into night when Rajeev went to see Smita. She was in the room concentrating over a book. Her face looked seriously composed. Two of her sisters sat with their old parents discussing their employment prospects. These days it is not to submit. We are doomed if we do not make efforts. One of them expressed her views. The old man spoke rather in gloomy tones. ‘I have to sit home. Being a man I should earn. But my eyes? I can hardly see...’

Sona protested ‘No father. Do not wail. Old age is for every one of us. Why to discriminate between man and woman? Why should not we work? Why should not we earn?’ Rakhi supported her sister and patted her old father’s shoulder. ‘Why should you remind us we are girls? Why to use a different yardstick for girls? I say, let’s give up different moral yardsticks for the two sexes. Society makes us docile and domesticated. Are we just dolls?’ She displayed a lot of self-confidence. Her emotions were explicit on her face. Tears welled up in her eyes, perhaps a faint recollection of her dead brother. Rajeev suddenly took hold of Smita’s hand and looked deeply into her eyes before departing. ‘I’ll come to inform you.’ He spoke with an emotion.

Rajeev’s face was aglow with a deep-rooted sentiment. No disillusionment. There was no cynicism in his thinking. It, perhaps, comes only with advancing age. He must fight the total power system. For the last two years he has been contesting college elections. He often told students that college unions are not meant to agitate students; to incite them to go on strikes. It is to help them in self-growth. He would often express himself to crowds of students. His opponents talked of something which students liked. ‘Delay in examinations or their cancellations and no attendance. Maximum help in copying.’ The students would go mad with clapping, whistling and thumping. Whenever Rajeev tried to protest, he was cowed down ‘No body wants to listen to you. These things are of the past. These just don’t carry any value whatsoever. If you don’t keep shut, we would throw you.’ Ajeet’s closeones almost chanted a chorus. ‘Don’t give false hopes to your mates. What type of leaders are you? No responsibility!’

‘Shame, Shame!’ Rajeev’s voice would be lost somewhere in a deep valley of confused voices. Ajeet would shout, ‘Rajeev is crazy, mad and stupid. A chumcha, a dog...’ Then he would blast him, ‘Rajeev, you just get lost, otherwise. I just can’t control my supporters. Unruly consequences, not my fault. You see.’ More than once he was whisked away from such gatherings. It was the dead night when Ajeet and his accomplices had knocked at the door ‘We have come with offers.’ The second-in-command had spoken in

Twilight


no uncertain words. ‘Accept them. Money, wine, woman...you can opt for all of them...’ It took him sometime to recognize the faces in darkness. The import of their visit did not immediately dawn on his sleepy nerves. A feeble female voice struck their ears, ‘Who is there? I say... who is there?’ ‘Mother... don’t you mind. Continue sleeping. No worry... no problem.’ ‘I shall talk to you later on, Ajeet. Yes... in the morning in the college canteen.’ Rajeev almost pushed them away from his doorstep.

A surging black silence was left behind with their departure. Rajeev stood mute at the door staring in vacancy. Shocked to the brim, he fell into a contemplative reverie. Leaders of tomorrow! They will nourish the foundations? He felt dizzy. People like Ajeet emerging as leaders! He was confronted with a crumble, a crumble involving the entire built up of political system.

‘Curious? he mumbled to himself. Others will follow him. The serious ones, the thinking ones. We can’t measure up such situations. Quiet and aloof and right thinking people cut off and driven to the edge like standing water.’ The tranquil aspect of his thinking was thrown into a violent emotion. He was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He walked into the interior of the house. His mother lay in the charpoy caught in the snatches of dozing. ‘Who was at the door? At this time? No danger?’ She uttered broken sentences. Her utterances invariably sandwiched, ‘No danger.’ The oft repeated words indicated her mental sickness, a malady she had imbibed after the death of her husband.

She dozed off into a mumble of no meaning. Rajeev was left awake. All sorts of ideas entered and re-entered his sub-conscious. Rajeev was left awake. Should he withdraw from college elections? One is not objective and tranquil in some moments of one’s life. What pained Rajeev most was the rejection of his right type of solutions to problems? His disillusionments were yet to have their sway. These came at a much later stage. He must contest the elections. May be sanity prevails on some students in the college and he is able to win. His mind was criss-cross of conflicting ideas. Ajeet wanted him to withdraw. The past stood like a looming reality before Rajeev’s eyes playing many ups and downs in his psyche. Earlier he was not able to win elections but his fights did not go waste.

His presence in the college politics could not be dismissed as a riff-raff. It was positive. It was to reckon with. Most of us are rendered passive spectators. During elections Rajeev had his supporters but to Ajeet a lot of help came from unknown sources. They were beaten upon installing Ajeet as the

President of the college union. Morning shadows were already evident before Rajeev went to sleep.

Almost a week elapsed before Rajeev gave final touches to his determination regarding the pitching up a tent for fasting. To begin with, it could be a lonesome affair and might not attract much attention. He might meet a lot of opposition from his rival groups. These would not like to be exposed political connections. To them these were a cosy shelter for their way-ward desires and whims. They had already played havoc with public establishments. From time to time shop-keepers were pestered to yield money. It was done to create panic in the town. No resistance? Why? Shopkeepers always compromised on not very exorbitant sums of money.

(To be Continued...)

Dharam Pal

Born on October 1, 1941, Prof Dharam Pal, Retd Head, Department of English, Hindu College, Sonepat, Haryana, India has published Novels, Short-stories in Hindi and English. These include, Upnevesh, Mukti, Raj Ghat ki Aur, Tharav, Basti, Avshes, Nirvastra, Ramsharnam, Twilight, The Eclipsed Serialized in Indo-Asian Literature and other stories. Two students have been awarded MPhil Degrees on his Hindi Works. His plays, stories have also been broadcast on Indian Radio. He has been twice honoured by Governor of Haryana, India. He has won Hindi Rashtriya Shatabdi Samman, 200 and also Penguin Award.



Religion is the means of realising dharma, artha, kama and moksa. These four are called purusarthas. In Tamil, dharma is called “aram”; artha is known as “porul; and kama and moksa are called “inbam”and “vidu”1 respectively. “Artha” occurs in the term “purusarthas”, but it is itself one of the purusarthas. What a man wants for himself in his life—the aims of a man’s life—are the purusarthas. What does a man want to have? He wants to live happily without lacking for anything. There are two types of happiness: the first is ephemeral; and the second is everlasting and not subject to diminution. Kama or inbam is ephemeral happiness and denotes worldly pleasure, worldly desires. Moksa or vidu is everlasting happiness, not transient pleasure. It is because people are ignorant about such happiness, how elevated and enduring it is, that they hanker after the trivial and momentary joys of kama.

Our true quest must be for the fourth artha, that is vidu or moksa. The majority of people today yearn for the third artha that is kama. When you eat you are happy. When you are appointed a judge of the high court you feel elated. You are delighted when presented with a welcome address by some institution, aren’t you? Such types of happiness are not enduring. The means by which such happiness

is earned is porul. Porul may be corn, money, house. It is this porul that is the way to happiness. But the pleasure gained from material possession is momentary and you keep constantly hungering for more.

Moksa is the state of supreme bliss and there is no quest beyond it. We keep going from place to place and suffer hardships of all kinds. Our destination is our home. A prisoner goes to his vidu or his home after he is released. But the word vidu also means release or liberation. Since we are now imprisoned in our body, we commit the grave mistake of believing that we are the body. The body is in fact our gaol. Our real home is the bliss called moksa. We must find release from the gaol that is our body and dwell in our true home. God has sentenced us to gaol (that is he has imprisoned us in our body) for our sins. If we practise virtue he will condone our sins and release us from the prison of our body before the expiry of the sentence. We must desist from committing sinful acts so that our term of imprisonment is not extended and endeavour to free ourselves and arrive in our true home, our true home that is the Lord. This home is bliss that passeth understanding, bliss that is not bound by the limitations of time, space and matter.

The Purpose of Religion

Candrasekharendra Saraswati


Lastly, I speak of the first purusartha, dharma. Dharma denotes beneficent action, good or virtuous deeds. The word has come to mean giving, charity. “Give me dharmam. Do dharmam, mother,” cries the beggar2. We speak of “dana-dharma” [as a portmanteau word]. The commandments relating to charity are called “ara-kattalai” in Tamil. Looked at in this way, giving away our artha or porul will be seen to be dharma. But how do we, in the first place, acquire the goods to be given away in charity? The charity practised in our former birth—by giving away our artha—it is that brings us rewards in this birth. The very purpose of owning material goods is the practice of dharma. Just as material possessions are a means of pleasure, so is dharma a means of material possession. It is not charity alone that yields rewards in the form of material goods; all practices coming under dharma will bring their own material rewards.

If we practise dharma without expecting any reward—in the belief that Isvara gives us what he wills—and in a spirit of dedication, the impurities tainting our being will be removed and we will obtain the bliss that is exalted. The pursuit of dharma that brings in its wake material rewards will itself become the means of attaining the Paramporul3. Thus we see that dharma, while being an instrument for making material gain and through it of pleasure, becomes the means of liberation also if it is practised unselfishly. Through it we acquire material goods and are helped to keep up the practice of dharma. This means that artha itself becomes a basis of dharma. It is kama or desire alone that neither fulfils itself nor becomes an instrument of fulfilling some other purpose. It is like the water poured on burning sands. Worse, it is an instrument that destroys everything—dharmic thoughts, material possessions, liberation itself.

All the same it is difficult, to start with, to be without any desire altogether. Religion serves to rein in desire little by little and take a man, step by step, from petty ephemeral pleasure to the ultimate bliss. First we are taught the meaning and implications of dharma and how to

practise it, then we are instructed in the right manner in which material goods are to be acquired so as to practise this dharma; and, thirdly, we are taught the proper manner in which desires may be satisfied. It is a process of gaining maturity and wisdom to forsake petty pleasure for the ultimate bliss of moksa.

Moksa is release from all attachments. It is a state in which the Self remains ever in untrammeled freedom and blessedness. The chief purpose of religion is to teach us how this supreme state may be attained.

We know for certain that ordinarily people do not achieve eternal happiness. The purpose of any religion is to lead them towards such happiness. Everlasting blessedness is obtained only by forsaking the quest for petty treasures. The dictates of dharma help us to abandon the pursuit of sensual enjoyments and endeavour for eternal bliss. They are also essential to create a social order that has the same high purpose, the liberation of all. Religion, with its goal of liberation, lays down the tenets of dharma. That is why the great understand the word dharma itself to mean religion.

Source: Candrasekharendra Saraswati, Hindu Dharma The Universal Way of Life, Bhavan’s Book University, Mumbai

Notes 1 “Vidu” also means “home”. 2 This cry is more commonly heard in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 3

“Paramporul” is the supreme porul, which means the Supreme Reality (Paramartha). Porul or artha here becomes indirectly a means of attaining the Paramporul.

“If we practice dharma without expecting any reward—in the belief that Isvara gives us

what he wills—and in a spirit of dedication, the impurities tainting our being will be removed

and we will obtain the bliss that is exalted.”

Bhagavad Gita

Hinduism was the original name of the religion and culture that were in vogue in the territory of the river Sindhu (Indus). India itself derived its name as the geographic area through which the river flowed. Philologists tell us that the ancient Persian language enunciated the palatal sounds as an aspirated guttural H. This was how and why Sindhu became Hindu.

The same change of sound or pronunciation suggests implicitly something about the people who made that change, namely that they were foreign immigrants from ancient Persia. Today we refer to them as ancient Aryans. Since that time, their religion, very much mixed and got interwoven with that of the earlier settlers of the same territory, has come to be known as Hinduism.

Syncretistic absorption of the faiths and practices it encountered across the times and spaces through which it moved has constituted a source of its strength and continuing vitality.

The Vedas summed up the “knowledge” (vidya) through which the immigrant Aryans transmitted their culturally inherited beliefs and values to their successive offsprings. Eventually, acquiring the force of law, this knowledge defined what was

essential and necessary to maintain the Aryan ethos and ethnic identity in its original integrity. This knowledge was so ancient that it has never been attributed or attributable to any single patriarchal or prophetic sage or guru.

Hence Hinduism holds its scriptures to be absolute divine revelations rather than the insights or discoveries of particular human authors or historic personalities. The Vedas have been grouped under four distinct, but socially related categories called the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda.

The Rig Veda is a collection of prayer chants. The Sama Veda is similar to Rig Veda in that it consists of a select number of those lyrics which have been set to music suited for particular sacrificial rites. Yajur Veda consists of the rules or order according to which the sacrificial rituals are to be performed. Atharva Veda is a collection of ethical laws, which regulated community health and hygiene.

The Rig and Sama Vedas together are comparable to the book of Psalms in the Bible. The intelligent reader would be able to recognise the phonetic similarity between the names Sama and Psalms, in which the p is not sounded. The Yajur and Atharva Vedas are analogous to the biblical books of Leviticus and Numbers, since the contents of these books are about various sacrificial rites, some of them connected to health and hygienic cleanliness.

But a major difference of the Vedas from the Bible, is in the way their contents are organised in the

two religious traditions. Each Veda is traditionally divided into four distinct parts, which are

referred to as Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. The Samhitas

are the very hymns, which form the opening part of every Veda. The


The Vedas and the Bible


Brahmanas are not the priestly caste, but the ritualistic portion, which describes the sacrificial act to be performed by the priests and those making the offering. The Aranyakas are the various meditations related to the sacrifices offered in the forests by those who had withdrawn to the forests from the mainstream of social life and its routine ethno-ethical obligations. Finally, the Upanishads are the contemplative meditations of the invisible truth behind the visible universe, human life in it and the attainment of its goal.

Thus cumulatively viewed, the Vedas sum up the ancient Aryan society’s beliefs and the way they gave symbolic expression to them in ritualised cult. When the sacrificial cult tended to solidify into the central core of Aryan ethos, opposition to it emerged from within through the Upanishads, and from without in the revolts, which Buddhism and Jainism represented. Biblical scholars tell us that the currently available version of this sacred scripture is derived from what they call four different documentary sources or traditions.

They name them as the Yahwist, the Elohist, the Deuteronomic and the Priestly sources or traditions. The Yahwist and the Elohist refer to the way or manner in which different portions of the Bible name God. Those, which name God as Yahweh are said to be from the Yahwist source, while those that refer to God as Elohim are said to be from the Elohist source. In biblical Hebrew language, Yahweh means Lord, while Elohim is the plural form of God, suggesting both respect and a plurality of gods. The Deuteronomic source dealt with the laws, which revolved around Abrahamic monotheism versus the prevalent polytheism of other ethnic groups which surrounded them.

The priestly source concerned the cult of the Israelite ethnic deity. The Yahwist source data are mytho-poetic narratives like the Rig Vedic

Samhitas. The book of Deuteronomy and the Israelite history of desert-sojourn, narrated in the book of Numbers, would correspond to the Vedic Aranyakas.

The priestly source data of the Bible would correspond to the Vedic Brahmanas. And finally, the Elohist source data of our current Bible would correspond to the Vedic Upanishads, in so far as those data represent a contemplative recall of the Israelite identity and its eagerly projected historic purpose or destiny.

By way of conclusion, we may be warranted to make the following observations:

Placing and viewing the two scriptures side by side reveals a remarkable similarity and parallelism of the two textual contents. That may explain typically why they have not yet come to look at each other face to face, and why, when they do meet, they tend to collide in a gesture of mutual destruction. This would seem to tell us that, as religious believers, we still have a long way to go before we come to recognise the common real essence and destiny of all religions. We have much to learn from one another and from the older and the wiser of our religions.

J. Ignatius

Source: Bhavan’s Journal April 15, 2011

“The Vedas summed up the “knowledge” (vidya) through which the immigrant Aryans

transmitted their culturally inherited beliefs and values to their successive offsprings.”


Vinoba stands as a symbol for the struggle of the good against the evil, of spiritual against the mundane. He was a spiritual visionary, whose spirituality had a pragmatic stance with intense concern for the deprived. A brilliant scholar, he was Gandhiji’s ardent follower, who could retain originality in thinking. S. Radhakrishnan pointed out, “Indeed his life represents harmonious blend of learning, spiritual perception and compassion for the lowly and the lost.” His Bhoodan (Gift of the Land) movement attracted the attention of the world. Untouched by publicity and attention, Vinoba had continued his efforts for a just and equitable society. His life is a saga of his commitment to non-violent ways of bringing change, his yearning for the highest level of spirituality and his unwavering faith in human values and love.

Early Life

Vinoba was born in a Brahmin family on September 11, 1895 at the village of Gagoda in Raigad district of Maharashtra. He was named Vinayak at birth and was influenced by his mother Rukmini Devi, a religious woman. His younger brother, Balkoba Shivaji, remained unmarried and adopted a life of renunciation and service to humanity like him.

Man of Knowledge

Vinoba, well-read in the writings of Maharashtra’s saints and philosophers at a young age and deeply interested in Mathematics, was attracted to the core of learning. Naturally, the routine course-work was not enough to quench his thirst for knowledge. He took a fateful decision to go to Varanasi. This decision was motivated by his longing to attain the imperishable and all pervading Brahma. He got into the study of ancient Sanskrit test.

Mahatma Gandhi

The report in the newspapers about Gandhiji’s speech at the newly founded Benaras Hindu University attracted Vinoba’s attention. He wrote a letter to Gandhiji. After an exchange of letters, Gandhiji advised Vinoba to come for a personal meeting at Kochrab Ashram in Ahmedabad. Vinoba went and met Gandhiji on June 7, 1916. This meeting changed the course of Vinoba’s life. He had said later “When I was in Kashi, my main ambition was to go to the Himalayas. Also there was an inner longing to visit Bengal. But neither of the two dreams could realise. Providence took me to Gandhiji and I found in him not only the peace of the Himalayas but also the burning fervour of resolution, typical of Bengal”. I said to myself that both of my desires had been fulfilled. Over the years, the bond between Vinoba and Gandhiji grew stronger. Vinoba participated with keen interest in the activities at Gandhiji’s ashram, like teaching, studying, spinning and improving the life of the community.

Asked by Gandhiji to take charge of the ashram at Wardha, Vinoba went to Wardha on April 8, 1921. In 1923, he brought out ‘Maharashtra Dharma’, a monthly in Marathi (regional language), which had his essays on the Upanishads. Later on, this monthly became a weekly and continued for three years. His articles on the Abhangas of Sant Tukaram (a saint poet) published in it became popular. A time passed Vinoba continued his search for the self which task him to spiritual heights. His involvement with Gandhiji’s constructive programmes related to Khadi, village industries, new education (Nai Talim), sanitation and hygiene also kept on increasing.

Vinoba Bhave: A Missionary for the Mother Earth


Freedom Movement

Vinoba’s involvement in the freedom movement during this period remained. In 1923, he was jailed for months at Nagda jail and Akola jail for taking a prominent part in the flag Satyagraha at Nagpur. In 1925, he was sent by Gandhiji to Vykon (in Kerala) to supervise the entry of the Harijans to the temple. In 1932, he was jailed for six months to Dhulia for raising his voice against the British rule. In 1940, he was selected by Gandhiji as the first individual Satyagrahi. He was jailed thrice during 1940–41 for individual Satyagraha at Nagpur jails; first time for three months, second time for six months and third time for one year. Vinoba took part in the Quit India movement of 1942 for which he got an imprisonment of three years at Vellore and Seoni jails.

Sarvodaya Samaj

In March 1948, Gandhiji’s followers and constructive workers met at Sevagram. The idea of Sarvodaya Samaj (society) surfaced and started getting acceptance. Vinoba got busy with activities which would sooth the wounds of the partition of the nation. In the beginning of 1950, he launched the programme of Kanchan-mukti (freedom from dependence on gold, i.e. money) and Rishi-Kheti (cultivation without the use of bullocks as was practised by Rishis, i.e. the sages of ancient times). In April 1951, after attending the Sarvodaya conference at Shivnampalli, he started his peace-trek on foot through the violence-torn region of Telangana (now in Andhra Pradesh). The disturbances were caused by the communists. On April 18, 1951, his meeting with the villagers at Pochampalli opened a new chapter in the history of non-violent struggle. The Harijans of the village told him that they needed 80 acres of land to make a living. Referring to this, Vinoba asked the villagers if they could do something to solve this problem. To everybody’s surprise, Ram Chandra Reddy, a landlord, got up and showed his willingness to give 100 acres of land. This incident, unplanned and unheard, showed a way to solve the problem of the landless. The Bhoodan (Gift of the Land) movement was launched.

The response to the movement was spontaneous. In Telangana, the gift of land averaged 200 acres of land per day. On the journey from Pavnar to Delhi, the average gift was 300 acres a day. Vinoba had put five crore acres as the target. While walking in Uttar Pradesh in May 1952, Vinoba received the gift of the whole village of Mangrath. This meant the people were prepared to donate all their land for the benefit of all the villagers, not as individual bhoodan, but as community Gramdan (Gift of the Village). Vinoba received lakhs of acres of land in Bihar, while walking from September 1952 to December 1954. Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala contributed significantly to Gramdan. Vinoba firmly believed that, “We must establish the

independent power of the people—this is to say, we must demonstrate a power opposed to the power of violence and other than the power to punish. The people are our God.” Connected with Bhoodan and Gramdan, there were other programs. Important of these were Sampatti-Dan (Gift of the Wealth), Shramdan (Gift of the Labour), Shanti Sena (Army for Peace), Sarvodaya-Patra (the pot where every household gives daily handful of grain) and Jeevandan (Gift of Life).

A Padayatri

Vinoba knew the strength of the Padayatra (march on foot). He walked for 13 years throughout India. He had left Paunar on September 12, 1951 and returned on April 10, 1964. He covered thousands of miles, addressed thousands of meetings and mobilized the people cutting the barriers of caste, class, language and religion.

On June 7, 1966, 50 years after his meeting with Gandhiji, Vinoba announced that he was feeling a strong urge to free himself from outer visible activities and enter inward hidden form of spiritual action. After travelling through India, he returned to Paunar on November 2, 1969 and on October 7, 1970, he announced his decision to stay in one place. He observed a year of silence from December 25, 1974 to December 25, 1975. In 1976, he undertook a fast to stop the slaughter of cows. His spiritual pursuits intensified as he withdrew from the activities. He breathed his last on November 15, 1982 at this ashram.

Source: www.vinobabhave.org

“After an exchange of letters, Gandhiji

advised Vinoba to come for a personal meeting at Kochrab Ashram

in Ahmedabad.”


Over 5000 people rejoice at India’s 65th- IndependenceDay Celebration organised by Bhartiya Samaj at ASB Theatre Aotea Centre, Auckland.

Auckland, August 15, 2011: Bhartiya Samaj, a charitable trust and a non-profit making organisation working towards forming friendly socio-cultural relations amongst South Asian communities, celebrated India’s 65th Independence Day amidst much festivity and fervor. Various performances showcasing the diversity of Indian culture were presented throughout the day.

The Flag hoisting ceremony at 10:30 am marked the beginning of the day long India Independence Day Celebrations. The Indian Tricolor was hoisted by Mr Robert Khan, MD Radio Tarana at Aotea Centre Square with sounds of Burundian drums and the desi dhol (Indian Drums) beating at the back. As soon as the flag was hoisted, the crowd went into frenzy as Bhangra beats rolled off the dhol and everybody started dancing. Also seen dancing amongst the crowd were dignitaries like Mayor Len Grown, Members of Parliament Hon David Cunliff, Hon Dr Jackie Blue, Hon Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Mr Robert Khan and many more. The sight at Aotea Centre Square was of an absolute cultural amalgamation where everybody felt a sense of unity amongst diversity.

Soon after the Flag hoisting ceremony the crowd relished on some delicious laddoos (traditional Indian sweet) before proceeding to watch the cultural performances inside ASB Theatre. At the onset Mr Jeet Suchdev, Chairperson Bhartiya Samaj called upon Chief Guest, Mayor of Auckland his Worship Len Brown, Hon Phill Goff, Leader Labour Party along with other MPs from Labour Party, Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader New Zealand First National Party, MP Hon Or, Jackie Blue and Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi to speak a few words. The dignitaries addressed the packed house congratulating India on its 65th Independence Day and spoke high about India’s progress in the past 64 years since Independence. Dr Bruce Hucker, Patron Bhartiya Samaj was also called upon to honor Hon Dr Ashraf Choudhary who announced his retirement from politics after 9 years of dedicated service to the community.

Mr Jeet Suchdev also emphasized on the urgent need of “Culturally Appropriate Old Age Home” for the elderly of the South Asian Community in New Zealand. Everybody present agreed to his views and vowed to support the “Culturally Appropriate Rest Home” project. Dr Ashraf Choudhary signed a cheque of $1000 in front of the whole crowd as a contribution towards the project. Hon David Cunliff donated $250, others also contributed towards the worthy cause. A visibly emotional Mr Jeet Suchdev conveyed his heartfelt thanks to all for their generosity.

On this occasion Mr Jeet Suchdev also handed over a cheque of $3500 to Hon Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi. The amount was collected by Bhartiya Samaj’s seniors and children towards the victim of Christchurch earthquake. The highlight of the day was the cultural performances which saw performers from many organisations presenting their items. The entire crowd including dignitaries thoroughly enjoyed the performances as most of them stayed back to watch the performances.

Bhartiya Samaj has been organising the India Independence Day Celebrations in New Zealand for the past 16 years providing everybody a glimpse of the diverse Indian culture. This year over 5000 people attended and rejoiced the 65th Indian Independence Day Celebrations. The charged up atmosphere at Aotea Centre Square left everybody wanting for more.

I sincerely thank all the participating organisations, sponsors, performers, volunteers and everyone who supported us for making the 65th India Independence Day Celebrations a memorable one. The success we have achieved would not have been possible without your support.

Jai Hind, Jai New Zealand

Roopa Suchdev, QSM, Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust

Bhartiya Samaj’s 65th India Independence Day Celebrations

Prof. M.S. Swaminathan’s Biography titled, Scientist and Humanist was released on May 25, 2002 by Dr. P.C. Alexander, the then Governor of Maharashtra, in Mumbai, in the presence of former President Shri R. Venkataraman, Shri S. Ramakrishnan, Bhavan’s Director General, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan and the Mayor of Mumbai. I am indebted to Shri P.V. Sankarankutty, Bhavan’s Additional Registrar, for asking me to contribute this Article in honour of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, as a tribute for his 86th Birthday on August 7.

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan was born on August 7, 1925, as the second son of Dr. M.K. Sambasivan and Smt Parvathi Thangammal, at the temple town of Kumbakonam in Tanjavur District of Tamil Nadu. His father hailed from the famous agricultural family of Kottarathumadom in Kuttanad of Alappuzha District of Kerala, whose scions were pioneers in ‘Below sea-level Rice farming’, and instrumental in eradicating the dreaded filarial mosquito, by mobilising people power, as Kumbakonam’s Municipal Chairman. He was a role model for young Swaminathan, who imbibed his staunch Swadeshi Gandhian spirit of selfless service to his motherland, by giving away all his surplus needs.

When he was only 11 years old, Swaminathan lost his father following an attack of pancreatitis. After completing his schooling at the Catholic Little Flower High School, Kumbakonam, Swaminathan went to Trivandrum along with elder brother M.S. Krishnamurthy, for higher studies, under the care of M.K. Nilakanta Iyer, then Chief Secretary of Travancore.

Swaminathan earned his Post-graduate Diploma in Agriculture at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 1949 with high distinction in Cytogenetics, working for his Thesis on ‘Non-

tuber-bearing Solanums’, under the guidance of Dr. Harbhajan Singh, a pioneer in the field of Plant Exploration & Introduction. Although he was selected for the Indian Police Service in 1948, Swaminathan preferred the UNESCO Research Fellowship to study in Netherlands at the Institute of Plant Breeding in Wageningen Agricultural University, on transferring genes for golden nematode resistance in Potato.

From Holland he moved to the Cambridge University School of Agriculture, Trumpington, U.K., to complete his Doctoral Thesis on, ‘Species Differentiation and Nature of Polyplody in certain species of the genus Solanum—Section Tuberarium’, with Prof. H.W. Howard as his guide. From Cambridge, Dr. Swaminathan moved to the USA on a Post-Doctoral Research Associateship, to continue his work on Potato at the University of Wisconsin during 1952-54, where he produced novel genetic combinations like the Alaska Frostless transferring frost-resistance genes from Solanum acaule. Although he was offered a Professorship in Wisconsin University, Dr. Swaminathan chose to return to his motherland.

Dr. Swaminathan got married on April 11, 1955 to Mina, the only daughter of the distinguished Civil servant, Shri S. Bhoothalingam, ICS, former Secretary, Union Finance Ministry. Her mother, Smt. Madhuram Bhoothalingam, was a famous writer of children’s books. Dr. Swaminathan met his future wife at Cambridge where she was doing her Tripos in Economics, with whom he shared patriotic values, Swadeshi spirit, humanism and dislike of material wealth, which greatly strengthened his personal convictions and goals. She has been his principal guide and inspiration, who encouraged his work at considerable sacrifice of her own personal and professional life.

Dr. M.S. SwaminathanThe ‘Evergreen’ Revolutionary

Swaminathan and wife Mina

Dr. MSS with Norman BorlaugShri Atal Behari Vajpayee with Dr. Swaminthan



Swaminathans are blessed with three daughters, Soumya, Madhura and Nitya. On his return from USA, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan joined as Assistant Botanist in a temporary FAO Scheme on indica-japonica Hybridization Scheme. Six months later he moved to the IARI, New Delhi, to work as Assistant Cytogeneticist, and succeeded Prof. RN. Bhaduri as Cytogeneticist in 1956. I first met Dr. Swaminathan, when I came to invite him to deliver a Special Lecture on ‘Polyploidy & Mutation Breeding for Crop Improvement’, at Delhi University Botanical Society.

That lecture was a turning point in my life, when after getting my Master’s degree, I joined IARI as Honorary Research Fellow with Dr. Swaminathan. After six months, I was appointed as a Teaching Assistant in Cytogenetics in the IARI RG. School, with Dr. Swaminathan as Course Leader.

I partook of the exciting Green Revolution Era of Agricultural Renaissance, leading to what Dr. Swaminathan calls, ‘begging bowl to bread-basket’ transformation in Indian Agriculture, when he liberated our country from the indebtedness of US PL-480 Wheat Loans, or what he called ‘a ship-to-mouth existence’.

Dr. Swaminathan succeeded Dr. S.M. Sikka as Head, Division of Botany, in 1961, during which period he spearheaded the Green Revolution movement in collaboration with Dr. Norman E. Borlaug of Mexico, who generously shared not only his semi-dwarf hybridisation and ‘shuttle-breeding’ strategy, but also his early segregating breeding lines of short-strawed Mexican semi-dwarf wheat cultivars, Sonora-64 and Lerma Rojo-64A, which yielded over 50 quintals/ha in 150 days (2 to 3 times the local Tall cultivars). From these lines, our breeders developed the high-yielding Kalyan Sona and Sonalika with amber grains, which became popular for its chappathi-making quality. Dr. Swaminathan passionately pursued the rapid demonstration of the high-yielding, fertilizer-responsive Mexican semi-dwarf wheat lines, to herald the Era of Green Revolution in Wheat, which had resulted in a quantum jump in wheat production from 12 million tonnes in 1965 to 17mn tonnes in 1968, when over 200,000 ha were planted to these two semi-dwarfs

along with advanced breeding lines of Mexico sent by Dr. Borlaug. The formidable team of Borlaug & Swaminathan which transformed wheat production in the developing world, was a symbolic meet of the East & West to make agricultural history.

Dr. Swaminathan emphasises the importance of population performance of wheat cultivars, and the collective excellence of wheat Scientists’, and repeatedly stresses the fact that the real credit for agricultural progress should primarily go to farmers. He has always placed much stress on collective rather than individual excellence. The Wheat programme became a role model for all other Coordinated Projects, in bringing together Breeders, Agronomists, Plant Pathologists & Physiologists, Quality Analysts, Extention & Social Scientists, who worked in unison, with the right kind of inter-disciplinary collaboration under Dr. Swaminathan’s leadership, leading to the International view that the ‘Swaminathan Wheat Group’ was like a fine-tuned ‘Wheat Symphony Orchestra’.

He hails the Green Revolution Era as, the ‘Golden Age of Inter-disciplinary & International Collaboration in Wheat Improvement for Sustainable Global Food Security’. Dr. Swaminathan has always paid rich tributes to then Agricultural Ministers C. Subramaniam and Jagjivan Ram, Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, and Agriculture Secretary Shri B. Sivaraman, for taking firm and timely decisions, to make major investments in building up the country’s grain reserves.

During his Presidential Address ‘The Age of Algeny, Genetic Destruction of Yield Barriers and Agricultural Transformation’ delivered in the Agricultural Sciences Section of the 55th Indian Science Congress in 1968, Dr. Swaminathan sounded a prophetic warning on the potential dangers of the Green Revolution (much before this term was coined by Dr. William Gaud of USA), in these words: “Exploitative Agriculture offers great possibilities if carried out in a scientific manner, but poses great dangers if carried out with only an immediate profit or production motive. Intensive cultivation of

With Indira GandhiWorld Food Prize award presented to Dr.

M.S.Swaminathan by Mr. Ferguson of General Foods


land without conservation of soil fertility and soil structure would lead, ultimately, to the springing up of deserts.

Irrigation without arrangements for proper drainage would result in soils getting alkaline or saline. Indiscriminate use of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides could cause adverse changes in biological balance as well as lead to an increase in the incidence of cancer and other diseases, through the toxic residues present in the grains or other edible parts. Unscientific tapping of ground water will lead to the rapid exhaustion of this resource left to us through ages of Natural Farming. The rapid replacement of numerous locally adapted varieties with one or two high-yielding strains in large, contiguous areas, would result in the spread of serious diseases capable of wiping out entire crops. The initiation of Exploitative Agriculture without a proper understanding of the various consequences of everyone of the changes introduced into Traditional Agriculture, and without first building up a proper scientific and training base to sustain it, may only lead us, in the long run, to an Era of Agricultural Disaster rather than one of Agricultural Prosperity”.

If the farming community and the critics of the Green Revolution had taken note of Dr. Swaminathan’s words, much of the present ecological consequences like water-logging, ground-water pollution, micro-nutrient deficiencies, and outbreak of pesticide-related diseases could have been prevented. He combines in himself the qualities of a passionate teacher with his unique communicative skills and clarity of thought and expression. As a research guide, Prof. Swaminathan has few parallels. He found time for every student to visit his experimental field to share the joy of any new finding.

Although he is a perfectionist, he will never pressurise a student. He has his own uniquely gentle way of encouraging the student to excel. When my Ph.D. Thesis received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award of ICAR for the Best Thesis in Plant Breeding and Genetics for that year, I was most happy to receive his most encouraging letter of appreciation. Dr. Swaminathan brings to bear on

his work a missionary zeal which is infectious, and a sense of dedication which is inspiring. In spite of so much pressure of work, he finds time to answer every letter he receives, promptly and precisely. He has fine-tuned these Spartan habits from the very beginning, since he values not only his time but also that of other people who come to see him. I have never heard him condemn or criticise anyone for his/her faults, or even of his critics, who were always around. Borlaug once wrote to him, “There is no remedy for human jealousy. The only remedy is to ignore”.

Awards and Accolades

He has been decorated with many Awards, both National (35) and International (31), Honorary Doctorates (61 - 18 foreign), Fellow of Science Academies (30 - 20 foreign), Committee/ Commission Chairman (30), with over 650 research publications and several Books authored, co-authored or Edited/Co-edited by him. Recently, he has been asked to lead a Team of experts to prepare a Blueprint for establishing a National Agricultural Research Institute in Yezin, Myanmar, where he had already helped set up a National Rice Research Centre as an outreach programme of IRRI, Philippines, where he had served as Director General, during 1982-88. He continues to serve as Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) since 2007, National Advisory Council of Govt of India, as the Chairman, FAO High-level Committee on Food Security, IGNOU Chair on Sustainable Development, and of his own MSSRF, Chennai, where he also holds the UNESCO-Cousteau Chair on Ecotechnology. He was voted by TIME magazine, as Asia’s most influential person, being bracketed with Tagore and Gandhi from India.

He is also the first recipient of the World Food Prize (1987), considered as equivalent of Nobel Prize in Agricultural field. In fact, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan was nominated four times during 2000 for the Nobel Peace Prize, first by a group of seven Professors of Goteborg University, who are Members of Royal Society of Arts & Sciences, and again by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Chairman, CGIAR, USA, third by Dr. James Gustave Speth, Dean, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, USA, and fourth Nomination was by Her Majesty the Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan. He was also nominated for the Presidentship of the Indian Republic by the Industrial Economist Journal of May-June 2002. Strangely both these honours are eluding him so far.

I pray to the Almighty that these two long overdue recognitions come his way very soon as also a befitting Bharat Ratna award.

R.D. Iyer, Retd Principal Scientist, CPCRI, & Jt. Managing Trustee, Navasakti Trust, Thazhava, Kerala

Source: Bhavan’s Journal, July 31, 2011

Dr. Swaminathan amidst wheat production


Introduction

Where do men stand when it comes to violence against women? This report describes how many men use violence against women, what men think about violence against women, and what role men can and do play in reducing and preventing this violence. The report is guided by the fundamental belief that men can play a positive role in preventing men’s violence against women. Indeed, without men’s involvement, efforts to reduce and prevent violence against women will fail.

Most men in Australia do not use violence against women, and most believe such violence to be unacceptable. A silent majority of men disapproves of violence, but does little to prevent it. Of most concern, significant numbers of men excuse or justify violence against women. The silence, and encouragement, of male bystanders allows men’s violence against women to continue.

Raise the bar

We must raise the bar for what it means to be a ‘decent bloke’, a ‘nice guy’. To stop violence against women, well-meaning men must do more than merely avoid perpetrating the grossest forms of physical or sexual violence themselves. Men must strive for equitable and respectful relationships. They must challenge the violence of other men. And they must work to undermine the social and cultural supports for violence against women evident in communities throughout Australia—the sexist and violence-supportive norms, the callous behaviours, and the gender inequalities which feed violence against women.

To the extent that men stay silent in the face of other men’s violence against women, they are not perpetrators but perpetuators, allowing this violence to continue. The report begins in Part 1 with the basic facts on violence against women. Violence against women is a widespread social problem, and a blunt expression of injustice and inequality. Men’s violence against women has identifiable causes, and it can be prevented.

Part 1: Men’s Violence against Women and its Prevention

Men’s violence against women is now firmly on the public agenda. The last 40 years has seen

a groundswell of efforts to reduce and prevent physical and sexual assault of women. Two shifts have characterised the field in recent years: a growing emphasis on the need to prevent violence against women before it occurs, and an emerging emphasis on engaging boys and men in prevention.

Involving Men

There are growing efforts to involve boys and men in the prevention of violence against women. The report outlines the rationale for this. It begins with three facts: (1) while most men do not use violence against women, when such violence occurs, it is perpetrated largely by men; (2) ideas and behaviours linked to masculinity or manhood are highly influential in some men’s use of violence against women; and (3) men have a positive and vital role to play in helping to stop violence against women.

Violence against women is a men’s issue. This violence harms the women and girls men love, gives all men a bad name, is perpetrated by men we know, and will only stop when the majority of men step up to help create a culture in which it is unthinkable. Where then do men stand in relation to violence against women? The report then maps the state of play among men. It focuses on four key dimensions of men’s relations to violence against women: the use of violence, attitudes towards violence, immediate responses when violence occurs, and efforts to prevent violence. The report draws on various datasets, including a national Australian survey of community attitudes towards violence against women.

Part 2: Men’s Use of Violence against Women

How many men use violence against women? Australian data is very limited, and is focused on individuals’ use of various aggressive behaviours against partners or ex-partners. Still, it does indicate that most men do not practise violence against women at least in its bluntest forms.

Part 3: Men’s Attitudes towards Violence against Women

What do men know and think about violence against women? This report documents that: • Most men do not tolerate violence against

women, although:

Where Men Stand: Men’s Roles in ending Violence against Women

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


– A significant minority do hold violence- supportive attitudes;

– Men’s attitudes are worse than women’s;

– Men with more conservative attitudes towards gender have worse attitudes towards violence against women—they are more likely to condone, excuse, or justify this violence than other men.

• Overall, men’s attitudes towards violence against women are becoming less violence supportive.

Part 4: Men’s Responses when Violence Occurs

What do men do when violence against women occurs? Most men say that they are willing to intervene in situations of domestic violence. Similarly, most boys say that, faced with a situation in which a boy was sexually coercing a girl, they would support the girl. At the same time, men’s interventions may not be helpful, while some boys will support the coercive boy instead.

Part 5: Men’s Involvement in Violence Prevention

To what extent are men actively taking part, or being engaged, in efforts to reduce and prevent violence against women? The report documents that:

• Men find it hard to speak about violence against women. On the other hand, at least from US data, most men believe that they can help to end this violence.

• A growing number of men are joining the effort to end violence against women in Australia. In particular, the contemporary White Ribbon Campaign represents the most substantial and significant manifestation of men’s involvement in preventing violence against women this country has seen.

• Men are increasingly the targets of education and other forms of intervention. A range of initiatives engaging men, at various levels of the ‘spectrum of prevention’, are under way both in Australia and around the world.

• Men’s involvement in violence prevention is on the public agenda, receiving endorsement in both state and Federal plans of action regarding violence against women.

• Violence prevention efforts among men do work—if they’re done well. There is a growing evidence base, suggesting that well-designed interventions can shift violence-related attitudes and behaviours.

The report then examines the inspirations for, and barriers to, men’s involvements in violence prevention. First, what prompts men to become involved in this work? Men are ‘sensitised’ to the issue of violence against women through hearing women’s disclosures of violence, their love for and loyalties to particular women, their political and ethical commitments to justice and equality, and related experiences. They receive or find opportunities for involvement in violence prevention work, and give meanings to this involvement that foster greater awareness and commitment.

Second, what prevents individual men from taking steps to reduce or prevent men’s violence against women? One obvious barrier is some men’s support for sexist and violence-supportive attitudes and norms, but another, more subtle, barrier is men’s overestimation of other men’s comfort with violence. Men may fear others’ reactions to attempts at intervention, have negative views of violence prevention itself, lack knowledge of or skills in intervention, or lack opportunities or invitations to play a role.

Conclusion

Men can play vital roles in helping to reduce and prevent men’s violence against women. Indeed, some men, both individually and in groups and often in partnership with women, are already making a difference. Preventing men’s violence against women will require sustained and systematic efforts in families and relationships, communities, and in society at large. It is time for men to join with women in building a world of non-violence and gender justice.

Michael Flood, A White Ribbon Foundation Report, White Ribbon Prevention Research Series, Publication 2, 2010

“A silent majority of men disapproves of violence, but does little to prevent it. Of most

concern, significant numbers of men excuse or justify violence against women.”


This document summarises the findings of a range of studies of young people in relation to patterns and social drivers of Bible reading. The most comprehensive study of the religion and spirituality of young Australians is the Spirit of Generation Y Project (2002 to 2008) and the associated Schools Spirituality Project which involved a national random telephone survey, web-based surveys in schools, and hundreds of in-depth face-to-face interviews. Other surveys used include the Search Institute Survey of Spiritual Development (2008) and the Wellbeing and Security Survey conducted by Edith Cowan University, Deakin University, Anglicare and NCLS Research.

Conservatively interpreted, the surveys show that around 4 per cent of young people read the Bible daily, another 6 per cent read it weekly, and 15 to 20 per cent read it very occasionally. About 70 per cent never read it. The frequency of Bible reading is a little greater among older young people, although this is probably a result of changing history patterns over generations and not related to age.

Of those who read the Bible daily or weekly, most attend church services and youth activities, such as a Bible study group. Most also have parents and friends who attend church frequently. Those who read it frequently are mostly involved in Protestant Evangelical or Charismatic denominations, such as the Pentecostals, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Seventh-day Adventists.

Attitudes to Reading the Bible

Most of those who read the Bible frequently have made a personal commitment to God, feel close to God, and expect God to give definite

answers to their prayers and specific guidance. They are reading the Bible as a means of communication, expecting God to speak to them through the Bible. Those who see faith primarily as providing them with values for life, who do not put the same emphasis on access to God, or expect God to intervene in the daily events of life, read the Bible less frequently.

There is some evidence that a few young people turn to the Bible because life is not going well. They look for comfort and hope within the text when they are ‘hurting deep inside’. About 1 per cent of young people who do not have a connection with a church turn to the Bible, often as part of a search for a resource to help them through the challenges of life.

When asked about barriers to reading the Bible, many young people said it was hard to understand, that it had contradictions in it, and did not fit well with their experience. When asked if “all the miracles stories in the Bible really happened”, 8 per cent felt that it was definitely true and 12 per cent that it was generally true. Many find it difficult to believe in miracles. Those who read the Bible have different values to those who do not. They place more importance on the spiritual life and less on excitement in life. They also place greater emphasis on helping others and on social justice. It was also found that they contribute significantly more hours of voluntary work and community service.

Major Influences and Social Drivers of Young People’s Attitudes to the Bible

Among most young people, religious faith is seen as having little significance to their thinking about life. Overall, about 9 per cent of

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Who Reads the Bible?


students in church-run schools said it was a very important influence. The generation that grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s had a very different worldview to previous generations. Many members of this generation rejected traditions, including the traditional authority of religion, and many institutions including the institution of the Church. It was influenced by many factors, including changed patterns of child-rearing and family life. It is likely that childhood experiences, influenced by television, new patterns of education, and living in a pluralistic world, were also significantly changed.

Technology is one of the drivers of social change. It has changed the nature of community, which is now largely based on electronic communications, with occasional face-to-face meeting rather than being dependent on face-to-face meetings. It has meant that young people network with people of common interests around the globe rather than join face-to-face organisations in their neighbourhood.

Knowledge has become accessible, but is accessed primarily in ‘bite-sized’ quantities, as needed to solve particular problems. Audio-visual media has, to a significant extent, replaced books as the main source of knowledge. There has been increasing control over health outcomes, with people now living longer. Most people focus on this life, rather than on life after death. This sense of personal control is likely to develop further, and may have the consequence of people expecting that they can change whatever does not suit them, including their appearance and their relationships. Threats to life and to an enjoyable future also have a major impact on social change. Recent terrorist attacks of civilians on Western countries have challenged the sense of security. While increasing people’s awareness of religion, it has led to many seeing religious extremism as harmful.

However, the major threat to the world is currently seen as being environmental. Currently, solutions to this threat are seen primarily as coming through changes in technology, such as the development of renewable energy sources. However, if the human spirit and religious faith were also seen to provide part of the solution, there could be a renewed emphasis given to the place of religion in the Western world.

A third set of social drivers has to do with media, advertising and popular culture. Analysis of popular culture in Britain suggests that there is a common story-line in young people’s view of the world, which the researchers described as a ‘Happy Midi-narrative’. A similar picture of the personal world of Australian young people has been drawn using survey results. What most people want is an enjoyable life, including feeling good about themselves, having good friends and times

of excitement. When life is not going well, most young people turn first to music. However, religion remains a resource for some.

The major cause of distress and hurt among young people is breakdown in family relationships. There is some social data which suggests that there is a widening gap between well-functioning and dysfunctional families. While those in families which function well may feel little need to turn to the Bible or religion, many of those in dysfunctional families tend to see religion only as a source of welfare, and more likely to turn to alcohol and drugs to deal with the pain of life.

Implications

Bible reading is largely a product of communities which value the Bible as a means by which God speaks to the individual. If these communities are to be developed, then efforts need to be placed on the building of youth groups in which Bible study is a significant component. Providing materials or developing programs that encourage the formation and operation of such groups is likely to be a helpful strategy. This development will most likely occur in a theological context which stresses the interventions of God in the life of the individual.

For other young people who read the Bible occasionally, it is important to provide ways in which the ‘message’ of the Bible is shown to be relevant to life. Most young people will dismiss the Bible as irrelevant and out-dated, unless they are shown the enduring principles relevant to daily life. Materials focussed on themes, such as ‘what the Bible says about relationships’, may be helpful in these contexts. More research is needed to understand more about the catalysts of Bible reading and the ways it is interpreted and applied to life among different groups of young people.

Source: www.cra.org.au

“When asked about barriers to reading the Bible, many young

people said it was hard to understand, that it

had contradictions in it, and did not fit well with

their experience.”


In the 19th century, Kashmir produced some great poets whose rich and prolific poetry created quite an impact on the people. Although Kashmiri poetry in this century was highly Persianised and imitated to the style of Persian classics, the credit goes to Bhakti poets who liberated Kashmiri language from the dominance of Persian diction in a way that it withered away gradually. The 19th century also saw profusion in various genres and forms of Kashmiri poetry. Devotional Kashmiri poetry too got a fillip.

Sahib Koul’s devotional poetry had already carved a niche for itself. It was not till Parmanand appeared on the scene that it got finally established as a trend. Paramanand was not just a pioneer in writing devotional songs in Kashmiri, but surpassed all his predecessors in both profundity of thought and poetic merits. It was during this period that many poetic works on the theme of Shiva-Parvati marriage were written.

Prakash Ram Kurigami, Paramanand and Krishnajoo Razdan, all composed works titled ‘Shivalagna’, but Krishnajoo Razdan’s ‘Shivalagna’ published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, excels all other works on the theme.

Krishnajoo Razdan was born in Vanpoh in 1850, some say 1851, and went to his heavenly abode in 1925—in 1926 according to some. A famous writer

of Lila (devotional) poetry, Pandit Razdan was a Sanskrit scholar also. Being a prolific writer, he soon attained a distinct place among the writers of his age. Writing about Krishnajoo Razdan, Master Zinda Koul says: “He is very good in technique and excels even Paramanand in clearness of language, in description of nature, in local colour and perhaps in musicality of verse also.”

Krishnajoo’s language is simple and sweet. Rich in musical quality, his lyrics display great metrical variety. His diction is lucid, and he does not shy away from making use of Sanskrit words wherever required. His works, the Shiva Parinay, Lila lyrics and Harihar Kalyan reflect his true poetic genius and passion. Being well acquainted with Sanskrit, Pandit Razdan enjoyed great respect among the writers of metrical romances of his times.

Shiva Lagna immortalised him as a saint-poet because of its beautiful lyricism and profundity of thought. His skill as a narrator and his weaving stretches of mystic symbolism into his highly musical verses makes him stand apart from other poets of his age.

The advent of the 20th century saw Krishnajoo Razdan emerge as one of the greatest writers of devotional poetry. But he did not keep himself confined to devotional themes alone; he tried his hand at writing on other subjects and themes too.

Some critics have said that Krishnajoo Razdan was the first devotional poet to highlight the spirit of patriotism in the beginning of 20th century. This created a basis for poets like Azad and Mehjoor for strengthening the trend of patriotic poetry in Kashmiri.

In his poems, Razdan highlighted the plight of craftsmen and other professional workers like the potter, the jester, the blacksmith, the wrestler, the cook, the gardener etc. He regarded this world as a “Bhand Jashan” or a folk-play. Krishnajoo Razdan was indeed intensely devoted to Shiva-Shiva who is Jnana, the self-luminous light of lights.

Shiva is the creator, infinite consciousness, eternal, omnipresent. Shiva is the Ultimate Reality and the Absolute, without a beginning or an end. Shiva is

Krishnajoo Razdan A Great Saint Poet


destroyer also—destroyer of Asuras, the evil-doers. He swallows poison to save the universe. The rich devotional songs in praise of Shiva written by Razdan are a great treasure of immense value for Kashmiri literature.

In one of his poems he says: My childhood passed asking only for you, O Shiva. Have mercy on me Liberate me from the yoke of materialistic life.

He further says: You are my only hope, Take pity on me 1 am your disciple, get me out of this difficult situation, O Lord Shiva.

While praying to Lord Shiva, Krishnajoo asks for strength from “the hermit whose body is besmeared with ashes”. He surrenders himself at his lotus-feet. In another hymn in praise of Shiva, Krishnajoo says: The hermit whose neck is adorned by snakes And from whose matted locks emerges the Ganga, Is none other than ‘Shambhoo’, my great Lord.

God creates the world by his mere will. Maya produces illusion. Karma or action pays only if it is Nishkama or unattached to any desire. Renunciation means to get rid of Maya that keeps us in shackles. Fear of God is a deterrent to evil deeds. God is aware of all our actions, whether good or bad. We cannot hide our misdeeds from him when he already knows about them.

In this manner Krishnajoo advocates detachment from those earthly and mundane desires which hamper one’s union with Shiva.

Krishnajoo does not believe in sannyasa in the prevalent sense of the word, or in renouncing the world. For him renouncement meant giving up kama, krodha, lobha, moha and ahankara. He questions the very basis of renunciation and sannyasa in the following lines.

Why should we renounce the world? We will devote ourselves wholly to the love of Krishna. For us that is austerity and yogic practice.

Razdan remained continuously engaged in penance and spiritual practices throughout his life. He writes: “I follow you Shiva, searching you on the Harmukha My Lord, bestow upon me your grace by granting me your Darshana.”

Like Lalla, Krishnajoo wants to take his Lord in his lap and sing a lullaby to Him. He wants to love Him from the bottom of his heart.

Whether it is Ganesha, Shiva, Rama or Krishna, all of them represent the ultimate reality, a union which is to be achieved by the spiritual aspirant.

Krishnajoo had attained eternal peace by turning his mind away from worldly pleasures and adoring the divine in his heart. This gave him freedom from want, worries, anxieties and fear. He believed sincerely in the oneness of the universe and in the brotherhood of mankind. “Let us all unite”, he exhorts, “and go in for introspection. Let us stand united and strive for peace”. Again like Lalla, he seems to believe that, it is “we who existed in the past and we who shall exist in the future”.

While the great saint-poet has become a household name in Kashmir, he is not totally unknown in other parts of the country. Sir George Grierson got his ‘Shiva Lagna’ published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Well-known Kashmiri scholar, Professor S.K. Toshakhani also published some of his songs.

Let me merge in thee forever Om Namah Shivaya!

Exquisite Verbal Painting

Prof. Kanhaya Lal Moza calls Razdan’s devotional poetry as exquisite verbal painting, as he refers to the numerous passages in ‘Shiva Parinay’. Instead of hurrying through such narrative segments, we observe him luxuriating in deliberate verbal strokes for conjuring up some captivating aspects of the nineteenth century Kashmiri Hindu life.

Actuated by infinite patience and wonderful artistic discipline, the immortal bard’s creative effort illustrates his consummate artistic detachment and high objectivity.

In this respect, he stands uniquely apart from all other devotional poets in Kashmiri literature. Krishnajoo Razdan as a verbal painter is a topic of vast critical scope. Here I consider only two pieces from the immortal bard’s Shiv Parinay for illustrating this scintillating feature of his great poetry.

In ‘Daya Gon Gyav Pyath Tumbakhnare’, Pt. Krishnajoo Razdan celebrates the maanzi raath of Girija, the divine consort of Lord Shiva.

The poet wonderfully conjures up the atmosphere of a contemporary Kashmiri Hindu household on such a festive occasion. The guests in the magnificent hall designed and erected by King Himal (Himalaya) for the matrimonial celebrations are crowded around the cauldron containing henna and they are singing the praises of the Lord to the tune of tumbakhnaar.

The assembled guests have been singing throughout the night to the great appreciation of the Lord who is himself both Shiva and Keshava. They have been enjoying nectar trickling down from the heavens. They have sung away the night and the sun has made his presence felt. The shower of bliss sent by Siriya Div has made flowers bloom in floral tufts.

The poet here beautifully portrays a Kashmiri maanzi raath gradually yielding place to twilight dawn.

The cauldron containing henna is meticulously garnished with gold. All the assembled guests have

“Shiva Lagna immortalised him as

a saint-poet because of its beautiful lyricism and profundity of thought. His skill as a narrator

and his weaving stretches of mystic symbolism into his highly musical verses makes him stand apart

from other poets of his age”


applied henna to their hands and feet singing the praises of Ishaan to the melody of the percussion instrument. There are jubilations and celebrations everywhere and goddess Divath has brought good fortune in abundance.

The night of maaenz has come after jostling away numerous nights in succession. Jyotirup Shiva renders bringing of Laayi Boi and Ganga Vyas imperative and every object around gets covered by Shiva’s sacred ashes. On this festive occasion, goddess Barkat has come laden with an inexhaustible treasure of bounty. Goddess Siddeth entering the portals sits at the window. She listens to the praises of the Lord sung to the beats of the tumbakhnaaer.

The bride Parvati, whom Pt. Krishnajoo Razdan calls Vaak Devi, the goddess of the primeval sound, is embellished by goddess Sharada for the matrimonial occasion. Goddess Siddha Laxmi binds her long hair into charming plaits.

In ‘Daya Gon Gyav peth Tumbakhnaare,’ Pooshi Nool (golden oriole) symbolises human consciousness and Vana Haaer (starling) is the body. Razdan obviously desires that human consciousness should subordinate the body to singing perpetually the praises of the Lord.

This ideal was preached long ago by the great Greek philosopher Socrates. In recent India, Saint Razdan and Mahatma Gandhi strove assiduously for the realisation of this ideal.

In Daya Gon Gyav Peth Tumbakhnaare, Pt. Krishnajoo Razdan catalogues Divath, Ganga Vyas, Laayi Boi, Barkat and Siddeth, the typical characters from Kashmiri Hindu pantheon, alongside the pan-Hindu beneficent goddesses like Vakh Devi and Sidda Laxmi.

In Samivoo Lukav Sona Shin Vaalav, Pt. Krishnajoo attempts a painting of Kashmiri landscape under a chaste immaculate sheet of snowy alabaster. The poet wonderfully captures the stir and commotion which a heavy snowfall inevitably ushers into the heavenly vale.

As Lord Ishaan, accompanied by horrible creatures constituting his marriage procession is asked by Girija’s relations to produce ornaments for bedecking the bride, he brings down from heavens filigree flakes of gold.

At this point of narration Razdan Sahib luxuriates in the verbal painting of Kashmir landscape laced with thickly falling filigree flakes of snow.

Kashmiri Hindu populace crowds wooden roofs covered with birch-bark sheets and thick layers of clay for pushing down massive loads of scintillating pearls and golden snow.

They find it difficult to garner the mushy wealth in baskets and other containers; they fear the towering of their paths above the roofy turrets; they propose repairs of barns and garners for storing the precious wealth; the streets and alleys become bleak as shopkeepers rush away to their homes after downing shutters of their shops.

Indra informs the supplicating relations of Parvati that their cries are bound to be futile unless Lord Shiva himself sweeps the glossy firmament off the pearly rich pregnant clouds.

At the conclusion of the poetic artifact saint-poet Razdan reaffirms his conviction that Shiva is realisable only through an unguarded plunge into the mysterium tremendrum constantly dogging human existence.

The eulogizing frenzy persistently generated by the Lalleshwari is a manifestation of the same atavistic critical predilection. It is due to the same reason that numerous scholars have miserably failed to appreciate the beauty of the poetic artifacts where saint-poet Razdan, adopting the Shiva Mahapurana as the scaffolding, luxuriates in the painting of Kashmir landscape and Kashmiri Hindu life.

In medieval times poetry was a handmaiden of philosophy. We observe a persistent recurrence of this phenomenon down the centuries.

Pt. Krishnajoo Razdan deserves being highly credited for his mature artistic efforts to disentangle poetry from philosophy. Most of his poetic compositions transparently objectify his deep conviction that the principal concern of literature should be to portray and not to preach.

Ravinder Ravi

Source: Bhavan’s Journal October 15, 2010



Autism is a condition born out of man’s disharmony with nature. Disharmony of the mind leads to stress, tension, anger and a host of negative emotions. This disharmony of a person also leads to physical diseases. Since, Autism is a condition caused by chemical toxicity, solutions must logically be found in medical systems which are intertwined with Nature.

Autism is a term used for a number of developmental disabilities called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Autism spectrum disorders vary in severity and impact, from individual to individual and emerge in the first 3 yrs of a child’s life. It can affect the child’s ability to communicate, understand languages and social relationships.

Autistic child acts in unusual ways, they might flap their hands, have impairment of communication such as mute, repeat certain words over and over, have temper tantrums, problems with sleeping, feeding and irrational fear, colour phobia, objects and noise, etc. The main feature is that they like to stick on to a particular schedule and any changes will lead to irritation.

Causes of Autism

The brain contains nerve cells called Neurons; each neuron may have hundreds or thousands of connections that carry messages to other nerve cells in the brain and body. The connections and the chemical messages they send (called Neuro transmitters) let the neurons help to see, feel, move, remember and work together as they should do.

For some reason, some of the cells and connections in the brain of a child with autism, especially those that affect communication, emotions, and senses, don’t develop properly or get damaged. Digestion problems like, constipation, pain in abdomen and at times ulcers may also occur, which the child cannot express himself.

There is no cure for autism, but doctors, special teachers can help kids with autism to overcome or adjust with difficulties like improving digestion, the speech, reduce the temper, improve communication skills, etc. Few Students with mild autism can go to regular school. They also need

teachers trained to understand the problems they have with communicating and learning.

Natural Therapies

Diet

For these problems, to recover and manage, main changes are to be made in diet. The diet plays main role for the improvement of children with autism. Most children with autism face a number of digestive and allergic problems. Medical researchers confirm that relationship exists between digestion, allergy, motility and behavior. The following problem can lead to disturbances in autistic children:• Low stomach hydrochloric acid levels.• Lack of digestive enzymes.• Low pancreatic function and other

decreased production of bicarbonates and other secretions.

• Chronic candidiasis.• Increased intestinal permeability or leaky

gut syndrome.

To prevent the above problems the following diet should be followed regularly:

Drinking warm water (roughly 200 to 400 ml) early in the morning on empty stomach, cleans the entire digestive system. This helps to solve the problem of constipation. Tulsi has anti-gene toxic effect. Ghee penetrates deep into tissues and imparts confidence and ability to the body. Most of the food advocated by Indian System of Medicine is liquid or semisolid (like porridge, soups and juices). Particularly for neurological diseases, intake of underground rhizomes, sour foods like tamarind and deep fried junk foods are to be discouraged.

Food to be Avoided• All dairy products including milk and cheese.• Wheat products like bread and pastas. • Corn products other than fresh corns. • Peanut butter.• Coffee, tea, alcohol.• Non-vegetarian food.• Sugar, Nutrasweet and all sweeteners except

honey and jaggery.• Fried food and processed food.

Yoga and Naturopathy for Autism


Yoga

Yoga is a powerful tool towards the well being of body and mind. However, children with autism cannot learn like others. Therefore, customized Yoga is required to meet the specific needs of children with autism. Each child needs to be taken care of in a different way. The entire program has to be structured on one to one basis. Initially the child will be passive. But a routine, structured programming will help the child perform exercises on his own, very shortly. By Yogic practices, different groups of muscle fibres contract alternately; a steady tension is maintained in the whole muscle without fatigue.

With the improvement in muscular tone the gait and postures of the children with autism have shown incredible improvements. Asanas help to massage muscles and organs so as to enhance blood flow and stimulate blocked nervous connections. Yoga is especially valuable in digestive disorders of all kinds. Children with autism who perform Yoga, regularly are less prone to constipation, indigestion, flatulence and diarrhoea.

It is found that children have better lung capacity and less respiratory infections when they follow routine Yoga exercises. However since children with autism cannot follow instructions and act on them, they are taught Yoga exercises where the breathing is automatically regulated in the exercise. Pranayama helps regulate the metabolic processes at the cellular level.

Play Therapy

Sensory motor play teaches young infants about their own body specialities in the immediate environment. Explorative play teaches the older children about objects and their properties in the world around them. Physical play, including rough and tumble play, teaches toddlers and pre-schoolers, gross motor skills. It provides both interactions with other children, as well as, objects in their environment. Social play makes children aware about social relationships and cultural norms of the society in which the child is born. Sports activities like jogging, cycling, badminton, skating, throw ball, basketball and football help the child not only to engage himself constructively but also helps the child become calm and co-operative.

Massage

Massage provides relaxation, stress reduction and calms muscle spasm. It also helps the child to become more accustomed to tactile stimulation and aids in body awareness, feelings of warmth and a decrease in stress. The relaxing benefits of massage and touch therapy contribute to more restful sleep, including less sleep disruption and longer sleep duration. Studies show that these children show less autistic behaviour and become more social and attentive after receiving massage therapy. This safe, nurturing touch and regular sensory integration is beneficial in reducing inattentiveness, touch aversion and withdrawal.

Steam Bath

Steam bath is designed to induce sweating, which occurs through the skin, through hair follicles. As a result, the body’s fiery content increases, stimulating agni (fire), which facilitates the rounding up of ‘ama’ from the system. The child looks and feels healthier. Appetite and taste are enhanced. After the therapy, the children are less tense and more aware of themselves. We also find improvements in children with tactile problems.

Music Therapy

The playing or listening to music can bring relaxation and emotional refreshment. But it is something else to employ music to achieve specific health promoting goals. Music has a tranquilizing effect on the children with autism. Chanting ‘OM’ during Yoga sessions has a calming effect on the children and even helps imitation. ‘OM’ chant also regulates the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. The vibrations have a purifying effect on the cortical and sub-cortical levels. It is found that the children are far more receptive and co-operative, when mild classical music is played during the massage.

Yuvaraj Paul, Junior Naturopath, National Institute of Naturopathy, Pune, India

Source: Nisargopachar Varta, March 2011

“Autistic child acts in unusual ways... The main feature is that they like to stick on

to a particular schedule and any changes will lead to irritation.”


From striking contemporary dance and profound harmonic chant to one-off international concerts, a dynamic South Asian film program, an immersive performance experience and contemporary art exhibitions, Parramasala, the annual Australian Festival of South Asian Arts, will transform the city of Parramatta from 30 October to 6 November 2011.

Artists in the program, announced today, will come from all parts of the world and each has been inspired by the multitude of cultural influences from the South Asian region of the world. Director of Parramasala, Philip Rolfe said the festival will delight a wide range of audiences with eight days of exceptional sights, sounds and tastes through free and accessibly priced, ticketed performances.

“We have some of the world’s most renowned international artists presenting a number of Australian exclusives right in the heart of the city. The festival is a concentrated set of unique experiences—ones you can have only in central Parramatta. All major artists and attractions in the festival program will not be going to any other destinations in Australia. You can be part of a one-off, never to be repeated event,” he said.

Rolfe continued, “You have the chance to listen, see, learn about, experience and importantly, enjoy the cultural richness of a region of the world that is becoming more and more important to us and our futures. What you experience is also indicative of the transforming nature of Australia and the embracing of more diversity. The arts on show at Parramasala are as important to modern Australia as those from our Anglo Celtic and European heritages.”

The central city precinct around Town Hall and St John’s Cathedral Square and the Riverside Theatres precinct will be focal points for the festival, featuring a free outdoor stage, daily ‘Masala’ markets and various performance, film and exhibition venues. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

The exciting program includes: The world renowned percussionist Trilok Gurtu and his band performing in a concert with guest artist, the young sitar extraordinaire, Niladri Kumar.

The acknowledged masterpiece by India’s legendary contemporary choreographer, Chandralekha, performed by The Chandralekha Group from Chennai, is a highlight of the dance program. Challenging the traditional notions of classical dance in India, Sharira includes contemporary dance, yoga practice, traditional Keralan marital arts and live Dhrupad song and music by the world famous Gundecha Brothers, in a stunning, intimate production.

Audiences will experience the rare pleasure of a group of Bangladeshi Baul performers with Baul Shilpi and singer/songwriter Akkas Dewan, who are distinguished for celebrating their ancient traditions with infectious high spirits, distinctive costumes and fascinating instruments.

Global music’s pioneering leader in electronic fusion, Karsh Kale and his band hailing from New York, mix the disparate genres of Indian classical and folk music with pop, ambient and funky electro beats, performing his new album Cinema, the recent number one hit on the iTunes world music charts.

ParramasalaParramasala offers an international cultural feast of outstanding arts

Teratali performers at Desert Wedding Kailash Kher

Parramatta Town Hall


Parramatta’s historic St John’s Cathedral will resonate with the transcendent music of the world’s most accomplished overtone music ensemble, David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir from France, in their first appearance in Australia in 23 years.

Hykes and his ensemble, influenced by Tibetan, Middle Eastern, Mongolian and Gregorian music, will also feature in a not-to-be-missed closing night concert on Sunday 6 November at Riverside Theatre with the Sufi musicians and singers Dr Madan Gopal Singh and Chaar Yaar and Qawwali and Sufi artist, Dhruv Sangari.

Another dance highlight will be one of the world’s most exciting male dancers, Mavin Khoo, from Malaysia, who is trained in both western contemporary and Indian classical styles. He is accompanied by the master Carnatic musician OS Arun from India and will present the solo dance production Devi In Absolution at the Riverside Theatre.

Parramasala presents the six-day South Asian Film in Focus, a brilliant program of eye-opening independent film far removed from the glitzy world of Bollywood. Curated by Ravi Kambhoj, it’s a must see for film buffs and lovers of world movies who are keen to experience the dynamism of this most vibrant film culture. Free documentaries at lunchtime, premiere features in the evening, a Satyajit Ray retrospective and more, will screen at the Lennox Theatre, Riverside.

Film is a common theme of this year’s festival with many of the live productions having screen components. One of these is the highly polished and totally riveting, cut-down version of arguably the greatest film in Indian cinema history, the Academy Award nominated ‘Mother India’. This Mother India 21st Century Remix by English company Kala Phool sees the three hours of original film reduced to 45 minutes and rescored with a live band and the impressive DJ Tigerstyle.

Another highlight of the festival is an experiential theatre work, The Other Journey: Leaving Lanka and Becoming A Battler by the Sydney multi-media arts company, CuriousWorks. Commissioned by Parramasala and presented on the Parramatta River, this production, based on stories of recent Sri Lankan refugees, takes audiences on a moving journey with large scale outdoor projections, a boat tour and luscious Eastern and Western influenced music, relayed to personal headsets by individual mp3 players.

Parramatta Artists’ Studios presents two contemporary exhibitions. Pattern-ship features Sydney artists Lada Dedic and Kiri Morcombe collaborating with works from the Rabari and Khatri artist collectives of the Kachchh region of Gujarat, India. USA artist Surabhi Saraf and Sydney artist and curator Fiona Davies will present works

in public spaces of Parramatta inspired by the act of folding fabric.

Jubilee Hall at Town Hall will transform into a pop up licensed Festival Lounge, offering a chance to hang out with artists and relax before and after seeing a performance until midnight most nights.

The Outdoor Stage in Church Street will host a free program of outstanding music, dance and visual delights. Artists on this stage through the festival include the electronica, vj, percussion and performance group, Tablatronics, the outstanding Madhumita Roy Kathak dance company from Kolkata, Sekaa Gong Tirta Sinar (Sydney University’s gamelan orchestra, playing Australian Museum owned instruments), and Bobby Singh with his groups Rasa Duende and Circle of Rhythm. Full details of the Outdoor Stage program will be announced in October on the Parramasala website along with the details of a series of artist workshops, masterclasses and yoga lessons that will be featuring throughout the festival.

On the last night of Parramasala The Bombay Royale will host the closing night fun on the Outdoor Stage, surrounded by the festival’s Masala Market. For the first time in Sydney this iconic Melbourne band dusts of its repertoire of unheard of Bollywood classics mixed with outrageous surfadelic Hindi originals.

Parramasala is presented by Parramasala Limited and is supported by Destination NSW through Events NSW and Parramatta City Council. The festival is a key arts event on the NSW Events Calendar.

For the full Parramasala program visit http://parramasala.com

Tickets go on sale at 9am on August 30.

What: Parramasala

When: 30 October – 6 November 2011

Where: Parramatta – The Town Hall, St John’s Cathedral square precinct of Church Street, the Riverside Theatres and riverbank precinct

Media contact:Rebecca George, Avviso PR, Ph: 02 9368 7277/0421 988 035, Email: [email protected]

PARRAMASALA, AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL OF SOUTH ASIAN ARTS

An international contemporary arts festival that celebrates the global impact of South Asian arts. The city of Parramatta comes alive with 8 days of vibrant arts and entertainment including music, dance, theatre, film, markets and visual arts from around the world.


MS Subbulakshmi is a name synonymous with the world of Carnatic music. This flawless singer whose voice had a divine power is the first singer in India to be presented with the Bharat Ratna, the highest award given to any civilian. Her full name was Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi and she was fondly known as MS or MSS. Her mother tongue was Kannada. Famous for rendering devotional songs she was called as Nightingale of India. Her rendering of bhajans (devotional songs) was divine and used to enthrall and transfix listeners, and transport them into a different world.

Early Life

Little Kunjamma born in the temple town of Madurai on 16 September 1916, to veena player Shanmukhavadivu, little Kunjamma, brother Sakthivel and sister Vadivambal grew up surrounded and filled by music. Her Grandmother Akkammal was a violinist. The family was rich only in music. That was all the wealth they had. For the mother and children, it was a frugal existence. Her formal schooling was stopped in the 5th grade when a teacher’s beating brought on her an attack of whooping cough. But she practiced music for long hours, lost in the vibrations of the thambura, which she would tune reverently.

First Disc

Intrigued by the gramophone records, Kunjamma would roll a piece of paper for the speaker and sing into it for hours. This game became real when she accompanied her mother to Madras and cut her first disc at the age of ten. The songs were ‘Marakata vadivu’ and ‘Oothukuzhiyinile’ in an impossibly high pitch. In fact, it was through the Columbia Gramophone company records she was first noticed in the city of Madras before she was in her teens.

Vidwans

By 1932, MS had already become a sort of cult figure to a whole generation of young rasikas. Music in the household was of the highest quality. Young MS learnt music not only from her mother and her first guru Madurai Srinivasa Iyengar, but also from listening to almost all the great musicians of her time, who visited her mother’s house. When Dakshinamurthy Pillai, the famous Mridangist visited their home, he was so impressed by the young MS’s singing that he brought Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Ayyangar with him when he visited the house the next time. Ariyakkudi taught her a thodi varnam and Saraguna Palimpa in Kedara Gowla.

Breaking the Barrier

Her advantage, apart from the undeniable beautiful voice and charming looks was her obvious earnestness about music. An elderly Madras rasika rembers...“There was a feeling, until then, that

MS Subbulakshmi

women sang principally to attract male attention. Consequently, we didn’t quite know what to make out of this young woman from Madurai who sang as if her life depended on it. There was no flippant stage mannerisms. She essayed into serious elaborations of ragas without apparently being aware that she was breaking fresh ground as a female vocalist...”. Madras audiences began to sit up and take notice of MS Subbulakshmi.

The Debut

MS was invited to give a concert at the Music Academy. MS had just turned seventeen few months before that. She went up the dias at the festival to sing for the most elite gathering of music lovers in Madras. She had indeed broken the male oriented music barrier at this point. Those who knew MS in those days speak of her gaiety and infectious laughter. She continued to be a diligent student of music, learning, growing, but there was also a certain flowering of her personality from the reserved and shy girl from Madurai to a more open, more friendly young woman. Magazines especially like Ananda Vikatan had begun reviewing her performances regularly. She was constantly referred to by the press as Kokilam or nightingale.

Married Life

MS met Sadasivam, a fairly well-known figure in the Madras Congress circle. He was a tall personable man with a can-do attitude. Such was the man who was to change MS’s life for forever. With his wide connections in the journalistic and political world, he became instrumental in the continued success of her music career. She was a contented happy woman when the couple were married in Thiruneermalai.

Mahatma Gandhi

Sadasivam took her to see Mahathma Gandhi. She sang ‘Bhajans’ for him. In 1944, MS started conducting benefit performances to collect funds for a variety of social and religious causes. The part of ‘Kalki’ magazine in her image building was not small. Almost every other cover featured her, with a reverential little article inside about her charity performances. Kalki, in fact played a big role in projecting MS as a saintly musician, that has endured to this day. MS, thus had arrived at the national scene, as a personage, not just a musician.

In 1947, Mahathma Gandhi had sent words to MS to sing ‘Bhajans’ for him. MS was unable to honor his request, but sent a recorded version of ‘Hari Tuma Haro’ to him. All India Radio (A.I.R.) played this after the announcement of the Mahatma’s death.

The Philanthrophist

MS conducted a series of benefit concerts to collect funds for the Kasthurba Memorial Fund. This was perhaps the first (known) of the benefit concerts which MS has been conducting ever since to collect funds for a variety of social and religious causes. MS treasured the letter she received from Gandhiji in appreciation of her work.

The Suprabhatams

Through the years, both MS and her husband Sadasivam helped a staggering variety of public causes both by donating royalties and by holding benefit performances for raising funds—the amount ran to crores and crores of rupees. MS’s recordings played a big part in this activity. Her ‘Venkateswara Suprabaatham’, the proceeds of which went to the Thiruppathi Devasthanam, set a trend following which every south Indian singer cut at least one ‘suprabhaatham’ disc. The ‘Vishnu Saharanaamam’ proceeds went the ‘Ramakrishna Math’.

Awards

MS Subbulakshmi received many honours and awards. These include Padma Bhushan in 1954, Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1968 (She was the first woman recipient of the title), Ramon Magsaysay award in 1974, the Padma Vibhushan in 1975, the Kalidasa Samman in 1988, the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1990, and the Bharat Ratna in 1998. She was also honored as the court-singer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

Final Days

After the death of her husband Sadasivam in 1997, MS Subbulakshmi stopped all her public performances. She had no children. MS Subbulakshmi died on December 11, 2004 after a brief illness.

Source: http://famousmusicartist.blogspot.com, www.scribd.com, www.iloveindia.com


“Intrigued by the gramophone records,

Kunjamma would roll a piece of paper for the speaker

and sing into it for hours.”


There is a constitutional way to ending life but it is unconstitutional to end life. The former course is now defined by the Supreme Court of India as “passive euthanasia” and the latter can be achieved in many ways from murder, massacre, poison gas leak and police encounter to suicide and mercy killing.

That’s the vision of clarity that the Supreme Court has given to the nation in the case of a nurse who was brutally raped in 1973 and rendered incapable of a normal life both physically and mentally ever since.

A dedicated journalist, moved more by compassion and angered by the denial of a life in dignity for Aruna Shanbhag, the rape victim, sought a legal sanction to end the agony and suffering of the victim by euthanasia (mercy killing).

In a country which upholds the absurdity that attempt to commit suicide is against the law while it is perfectly normal and legal to allow people to die of starvation and malnutrition, mercy killing, an extreme way to end the suffering of individuals with no prospects of normal life, persons who have no life to live but aren’t ‘brain dead’ cannot devise their own ways of saying goodbye to life.

Living in dignity is neither a citizen’s right nor a government’s obligation. Indians do not even have a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to life except in Article 21 which seeks to protect people from being deprived of their right to hold property and exist thereon. That is perhaps the reason why the people’s faith in God and religion to protect their interests is much greater than their faith in the state and their rulers.

It is in this context of defenceless people that the Supreme Court’s decision on euthanasia must be seen and evaluated. The law forbids mercy killing as it does most other forms of killing.

The Supreme Court has found the need to invent “passive euthanasia” to provide room for cases like that of Aruna Shanbhag. It invokes Article 226 of the Constitution which empowers the High Courts to approve removal of life support systems in cases where patients have long been declared incurable and incapable of life outside the hospitals.

Since most of the suffering persons may also be incapable of expressing their own views on ending of life, passive euthanasia can be resorted to with expert medical advice and consent from close relatives of the patient.

Allowing mercy killing, on the other hand, might give rise to heinous crimes specially in families with claimants to ancestral assets. The real question is: “At what stage does an individual claim the right to live and die the way he/she likes?” Ancient Indian tradition does not grant the individual the right to take one’s own life. But it has very little basis for slapping a crime on someone who attempts to take one’s own life.

Suicide is more a crime against nature than a crime in law. The worldwide campaign for euthanasia disagrees with this perspective in as much as they argue that the motive for mercy killing emphasises mercy and compassion, an utmost concern for the endlessness of the suffering of the individual rather than the aspect of killing.

Patients with incurable diseases have been known to get back to active life but those few humans who have lost all hopes of active life should be afforded a chance to make a dignified exit.

Indeed, no government or ruler can really assure the people the conditions for dignified living; should they have the right to deny death in dignity?

Source: Bhavan’s Journal March 31, 2011

Living and Dying in Dignity

Aruna Shanbag


Rabindranath Tagore’sGeetanjaliLast Curtain

I know that the day will come when my sight of this earth shall be lost, and life will take its leave in silence, drawing the last curtain over my eyes. Yet stars will watch at night, and morning rise as before, and hours heave like sea waves casting up pleasures and pains. When I think of this end of my moments, the barrier of the moments breaks and I see by the light of death thy world with its careless treasures. Rare is its lowliest seat, rare is its meanest of lives. Things that I longed for in vain and things that I got ---let them pass. Let me but truly possess the things that I ever spurned and overlooked.

Farewell

I have got my leave. Bid me farewell, my brothers! I bow to you all and take my departure. Here I give back the keys of my door ---and I give up all claims to my house. I only ask for last kind words from you. We were neighbors for long, but I received more than I could give. Now the day has dawned and the lamp that lit my dark corner is out. A summons has come and I am ready for my journey.

Threshold

I was not aware of the moment when I first crossed the threshold of this life. What was the power that made me open out into this vast mystery like a bud in the forest at midnight! When in the morning I looked upon the light I felt in a moment that I was no stranger in this world, that the inscrutable without name and form had taken me in its arms in the form of my own mother. Even so, in death the same unknown will appear as ever known to me. And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. The child cries out when from the right breast the mother takes it away, in the very next moment to find in the left one its consolation.


White Ribbon Ambassador of the Year Award 2011

Ambassador of the Year—Mick Doleman, Deputy National Secretary, Maritime Union of Australia (MUA)

Of the eleven outstanding finalists, one has been chosen to carry the torch and lead the Campaign as the 2011 Ambassador of the Year. Mick was chosen as the 2011 Ambassador of the Year in recognition of the impact his advocacy has had in extending the White Ribbon Campaign into all aspects of the Union’s activities.

Mick was instrumental in the MUA’s unique Not Silent, Not Violent t-shirts and flags which have been displayed everywhere from oil rigs off the North West coast, to Antarctica, Sydney ferries and all Australian container terminals—taking White Ribbon to horizons beyond the reach of anyone else. As a result of Mick’s efforts all male MUA officials, officers and many members have become White Ribbon Ambassadors.

Upon receiving the award, Mick commented: “The White Ribbon model is a fantastic opportunity to raise the consciousness of men in the workforce and, with a predominantly male workforce, the maritime industry is a great opportunity for the work of the White Ribbon movement.

“Having spoken on White Ribbon in NZ, Malaysia, PNG, UK and shortly Durban, South Africa, I know White Ribbon is a truly global movement of great importance.”

Congratulations Mick, you are an inspiration to us all.

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Q. My wife (30 years old) suffers from severe abdominal and waist pain during her periods. She says the pain starts just a day before from her periods. She is having this pain since the beginning of her first period. We have a girl child of one and half year’s age. Will my child suffer from similar problem? Kindly suggest the treatment. (Name not disclosed)

A. The condition, your wife is suffering from can be primary dysmenorrhoea. It is termed ‘primary’ as the underlying cause is not identifiable or absent. Painful periods are common in teenagers and young adults. But periods tend to become less painful as one gets older. Early attention, as prescribed below, if given in time, even in primary dysmenorrhoea, good result can be achieved. Though genetic factors play a role in the primary dysmenorrhoea, studies have revealed that the practice of yoga has the power to switch off even inherited ailments. Hence it is suggested to induct Yoga practices to your kid from the age of 12.

Symptom

The main symptom is crampy pain in the lower abdomen. The pain• May spread to the lower back or to the thighs.• Usually starts as the bleeding starts, but it may

start up to a day before.• Usually lasts 12-24 hours, but lasts 2-3 days in

some cases.• Can vary with each period. Some periods are

worse than others.

Co-occurring symptoms may include nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation, headache, dizziness, disorientation, hypersensitivity to sound, light, smell and touch, fainting and fatigue.

Naturopathic Treatment

Warmth: Applying warmth to the lower abdomen with the help of a fomentation bag, douche, hip bath or shower, will be soothing and pain relieving for cramps of the uterine muscles. If the pain often does not last long, this may be all that one need.

Transfer of warmth can also be achieved by employing heat compress, abdomen packs, etc. Care should be taken to maintain the temperature at approximately 104°F (40°C) in all such therapies. Exceeding this limit poses damage to the tissues.

As a rule of thumb, bowels should be kept clean. With mild laxatives like guava, banana, raisins it should be supported to eliminate the wastes. Even if constipated a Luke warm water enema shall be had to prevent any auto intoxications.

Herbal Remedy: An Infusion of 1 tbsp. of Chamomile (Babunphul) with 2 slices of fresh ginger is a very effective treatment for menstrual cramps.

Ginger tea made with an inch length ginger, a table spoon of coriander seeds and jaggery will help to relieve nausea and bloating during the periods.

The acupuncture system has certain pain relieving points which when stimulated, eases the symptoms of dysmenorrhoea. Aromatherapy with topically-applied lavender, sage, and rose oils help to ease menstrual cramps.

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)

This is an option for women who become non-ambulatory during their periods. The treatment works by giving out a small electrical current, which interferes with pain signals which are sent to the brain from the nerves.

After the ovulation period, i.e. around the mid of the cycle, massage with sesame oil on the abdomen below umbilicus should be done followed by sudation. Cold hip bath can be taken every alternate day, two days prior to the periods. This gives the tonic effect to the uterine muscles.

As a precaution, it is a must to exercise regularly. Studies have shown that regular physical activity can reduce the duration and severity of menstrual pain. Swimming in case of youngsters and yoga for all age group are the best among the activities one can resort to.

Dr. D. Sathyanath, Nature Cure Physician, National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN), Dept. of Ayush, Ministry of Health & F.W., Govt of India, based at Bapu Bhavan, Tadiwala Road, Pune, India. NIN provides multifaceted Services and Monthly Activities including, OPD Clinic, Yoga Classes, Magazine, Weekly Lectures, Monthly Workshop, Naturopathy Diet Centre, Courses and Acupressure Clinic etc. For more details visit: www.punenin.org, Email: [email protected].

Source: Nisargopachar Varta, National Institute of Naturopathy, Vol. 3, Issue 8, August-September 2011

Naturopath’s Advice Question & Answer


Bhoja meets Sarpati

At the palace, the king ordered elaborate arrangements for the comfortable stay of the visitor and placed at his disposal men and things for all his requirements. After completing all arrangements, the king went to his quarters.

For a time the siddha lived in the palace comfortably. But soon he started fidgeting. One night, thought he: ‘The king brought me here out of a sense of propriety or even wonder. But is it right for me to keep idling in his company? No, I have other duties. But before I leave, let me do him a good turn’.

Thus thinking, he moved out of his apartment unnoticed and reaching the throne-room, saw the empty throne which was made of an alloy of the five metals. A small oil lamp was burning near it. The siddha fed on the flame some herbal preparation and slipped out of the palace when the entire room became golden.

Sarpati curses Bhoja

Early on the following morning King Bhoja completed his ablutions and after performing his routine worship, came to the durbar. On the way two of his servants appeared before him in an agitated frame of mind and submitted:

‘Lord! We kept careful vigil of this palace all through the night and yet without our knowledge the entire throne-room, its metalled walls, structure, the throne and all items of furniture have turned golden as if by magic’

When King Bhoja heard this, he immediately concluded that such transformation could have been effected only by a dhumavedi or one who knew dhumavidya, an occult science. And he knew that his anchorite guest, Sarpati, was a dhuma-vedi. So, he hurried to the room where Sarpati stayed, but to his surprise, he found it empty and Sarpati missing.

Along with the palace guards he made a frantic search for Sarpati, but no trace of him could be found. King Bhoja who had developed a consuming passion for learning dhuma-vidya then felt that a heaven-sent opportunity had slipped out of his hands, for he could have learnt it from Sarpati!

Bewailed Bhoja: ‘A priceless gem has slipped through my hands. When and where shall I meet this great man again?’

“Sthita-prajnas or men of steadfast wisdom differ from others in this respect that, even when faced with the bleakest of prospects, they neither despair nor give up hope. They will make a springboard of such a situation and try their best to overcome it by their resourcefulness. King Bhoja, being admittedly one, thought furiously for some time how best he could rectify his mistake. He decided on a plan of action.

Sarpati was a siddha and Bhoja reasoned that, besides dhuma-vidya, he might perhaps be in possession of a few other popular vidyas. But the rarest of vidyas was sabda-vidya, i.e., the art of effecting miracles by means of sound. He made a reasonable guess that Sarpati could not be in possession of it. From his own experience of the passion for learning, he concluded that Sarpati could not fail to be attracted by sabda-vidya. Anyway he decided to take a risk, and made it widely known both in his kingdom and elsewhere that he, Bhoja, was in possession of sabda-vidya.

This news created a great furore all through the world, and particularly among the siddhas everywhere, many of whom naturally came to see Bhoja and felicitate him on his exceptional attainments.

For his part, Bhoja had his throne-room dismantled and converted all the gold so got into water-pots and begging-bowls which he gifted away liberally to the siddhas who came to see him.

In due course Sarpati too came to know from the siddhas, who had received those princely gifts, of King Bhoja’s rare attainment, namely possession of sabda-vidya. It turned out that King Bhoja’s guess was hundred per cent correct; for Sarpati immediately reacted: ‘What a fool have I been! Had I known his accomplishment earlier, I would certainly have learnt the vidya from Bhoja who would never have refused my request.’

To be continued…

V.A.K. Ayer

Source: Untold Stories of King Bhoja, Bhavan’s Book University, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Untold Stories of King Bhoja

Bhavan’s children


Bhavan’s children Charter of Bharatiya Vidya

Bhavan AustraliaThe Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Bhavan) is a non-profit, non-religious, non-

political Non Government Organisation (NGO). Bhavan has been playing a

crucial role in educational and cultural interactions in the world, holding

aloft the best of Indian traditions and at the same time meeting the needs of

modernity and multiculturalism. Bhavan’s ideal ‘is the whole world is but

one family’ and its motto: ‘let noble thoughts come to us from all sides’.

Like Bhavan’s other centres around the world, Bhavan Australia facilitates

intercultural activities and provides a forum for true understanding of

Indian culture, multiculturalism and foster closer cultural ties among

individuals, Governments and cultural institutions in Australia.

Bhavan Australia Charter derived from its constitution is:

• To advance the education of the public in:

a) the cultures (both spiritual and temporal) of the world,

b) literature, music, the dance,

c) the arts,

d) languages of the world,

e) philosophies of the world.

• To foster awareness of the contribution of a diversity of cultures to the

continuing development of multicultural society of Australia.

• To foster understanding and acceptance of the cultural, linguistic and

ethnic diversity of the Australian people of widely diverse heritages.

• To edit, publish and issue books, journals and periodicals,

documentaries in Sanskrit, English and other languages, to promote the

objects of the Bhavan or to impart or further education as authorized.

• To foster and undertake research studies in the areas of interest to

Bhavan and to print and publish the results of any research which is

undertaken.

www.bhavanaustralia.org

The Test of Bhavan’s Right to Exist

The test of Bhavan’s right to exist is whether those who work for it in different spheres and in different places and those who study in its many institutions can develop a sense of mission as would enable them to translate the fundamental values, even in a small measure, into their individual life.

Creative vitality of a culture consists in this: whether the ‘best’ among those who belong to it, however small their number, find self-fulfilment by living up to the fundamental values of our ageless culture.

It must be realised that the history of the world is a story of men who had faith in themselves and in their mission. When an age does not produce men of such faith, its culture is on its way to extinction. The real strength of the Bhavan, therefore, would lie not so much in the number of its buildings or institutions it conducts, nor in the volume of its assets and budgets, nor even in its growing publication, cultural and educational activities. It would lie in the character, humility, selflessness and dedicated work of its devoted workers, honorary and stipendiary. They alone can release the regenerative influences, bringing into play the invisible pressure which alone can transform human nature.


Arise, Awake, Great India! - Sister Nivedita

Thought builds the universe. The mind alone is real. All that is seen is but a dream. There is such a thing as the conscious holding of a thought. When this is done, all that opposes it, or seems contradictory to it, gradually melts away, and we wonder what has become of it, or why we were at one time under its illusion.

Anything may be achieved by thought. Death, disease, poverty, humiliation, any or all of these may be overcome. The one thought, “I am the strong! I am the strong!” earnestly held, calmly, unwaveringly, and yet silently asserted, is enough. In the presence of one strong thought, all of a contrary opinion or party become apologetic, and seek to defend themselves, or to explain why they cannot quite agree. And this without one word being said.

Immense batteries may be made, by numbers of people uniting together to think a given thought.

If the whole of India could agree to give, say ten minutes every evening, at the oncoming of darkness, to thinking a single thought, “we are one. We are one. Nothing can prevail against us to make us think we are divided. For we are one. We are one and all antagonisms amongst us are illusion,”—the power that would be generated can hardly be measured.

This force ought always to be used to constructive forms. We ought always to devote it to what are called positive ends. We ought never to use it for hatred or jealousy or anger, but always in love and faith, and for the upbuilding of something. Even when evil is to be destroyed, or a lie overcome, we must think of the truth that is to be revealed or the good to be done, and not the evil or the falsehood.

The less selfish the things we wish for the greater and keener will be the accumulated and multiplied power of our thought battery.

“Awake, awake, great India” is an ejaculation which, said within the mind quietly by hundreds of thousands of persons at a given hour, would produce immeasurable force, in proportion to the depth of their concentration on the thing itself.

Freedom of Education: Guarantee against Dictatorship- Kishore K. Koticha

Liberty of thought is based on the dictum: “The voice of reason is more really heard when it can persuade but no longer coerce.” Therefore, it is a thing which a citizen in a democracy enjoys and values most, for that is the only sure guarantee against the emergence of dictatorship and authoritarian regimes. Liberty of thought and liberty of education are interlinked. If there is real liberty of thought there must be liberty to experiment in the matter of education and also the right of a parent to decide what kind of education his child shall receive. Therefore, democrats have always regarded education and acquisition of knowledge as matters of supreme importance which should be diligently promoted.

But in the modern times, as Bertrand Russell, the great philosopher, has put it: “We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.” Why is this so? In the present-day world, especially in the countries with backward economies, the problems before the rulers are stupendous, though not without solution. Their solution, however, in a rational manner would demand some sacrifice from the members of the ruling class, which they are generally not prepared to make. The only solution which appeals to most of them, who possess an authoritarian or a dictatorial bent of mind, is to reduce the diversity of men’s minds to some kind of manageable uniformity so that failure of the ruling class to solve the grave problems facing a nation does not lead to their overthrow from power.

< < < Flashback

From Bhavan’s Journal August 20, 1961 Reprinted in Bhavan’s Journal August 31, 2011


You have learnt so much And read a thousand books. Have you even read your self? You have gone to mosque and temple. Have you ever visited your soul?-Bulle Shah

Holy & Wise yogayukto vishuddhaatmaa vijitaatmaa jitendriyah sarvabhootaatmabhootaatmaa kurvannapi na lippyate

The karmayogi, who has fully conquered his mind and subdued his senses, whose heart is pure and who has identified his self with the self of all beings (God), remains unaffected, even though performing action.

- Bhagavad Gita V-7

Freedom

Men and women have to be free and equal, subject only to the law of truth and service.

Freedom is easier to gain than to preserve. At all times a free nation has to be vigilant and determined in safeguarding it.

For this purpose we have to replenish its faith in freedom from time to time by recapturing in its imagination the struggles, trials and sufferings through which it passed before freedom was secured.

We have also to maintain the spirit of freedom by keeping alive the memory of the heroes and martyrs whose undaunted courage paved the path to freedom.

For we have to weave the spirit into the texture of our Collective Unconscious, so that no one can enslave us any more.

Dr K.M. Munshi

Founder, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he’s helped when he needs help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home ... he grows up secure enough to look beyond himself to the welfare of others.

-Dr. Joyce Brothers

Kulapativani

Nonviolence should never be used as a

shield for cowardice. It was a weapon

of the brave.

-Mahatma Gandhi


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