Quotations
World peace is in fact our ultimate goal. In fact, it has been our nation's life mission, and we have to fulfil it. To give lessons in peace to the world on a spiritual level and to create a sense of oneness in the whole of humanity has been our real national mission since ages. But when will all this become possible? Only when we succeed in bringing together crores of our own people and imbuing them with our sublime cultural values and sterling character and motivating them for the achievement of that mission.
- Shri Guruji M S Golwalkar
A Hindu of this place is as much a Hindu as the one from Madras or Bombay.....The study of the Gita, Ramayana and Mahabharata produce the same idea throughout the country.....If we lay stress on it forgetting all the minor differences that exist between different sects then by the grace of Providence, we shall ere long be able to consolidate all the different sects into a mighty Hindu nation.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
A country like India, which never attacked other countries in the past, is a true embodiment of peace, at a time when war is needed to restore peace.
- Baba Satyanarayan Mourya
India is a Hindu nation forced to wear the ugly formless garb of Western secularism. Hindu nationalism is a backlash against this pedantic Nehruvian aspiration, the 50-year-old soulless construct that sunders religion from its natural place in Indian public life. The Congress needs to recognise that public religiosity, not the private spiritual search, was Gandhi's way. And this is the one true way for India.
- Sir Mark Tully
Vedas are the oldest classics and the most precious treasures of India. The soul of Bharatiya Sanskriti dwells in the Vedas. The entire world admits the importance of the Vedas.
- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Hindu culture is not such a weak and fluffy thing as to be easily stamped out; it has lasted through something like five millenniums and is going to carry on much longer and has quite enough power to survive.
- Shri Aurobindo
What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men.
- Swami Vivekanand
India must be saved for the good of the world, since India alone can lead the world to peace and a new world order.
- Mother of Pondicherry
India of the ages is not dead neither has she spoken her last creative word ; she lives and has still something to do for herself and for human peoples. And that which must seek now to awake is not an anglicised oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the occident's success and failure, but still the ancient immemorable Shakti recovering her deepest self, lifting her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and a vaster form of her Dharma.
- Shri Aurobindo
Hinduism is the history of all foreign and Indian races. India was the cradle of civilisation when Europeans were mere barbarians.
- Babu Rao Patel
Today we are still living in this transitional chapter of world's history but it is already becoming clear that the chapter, which had a western beginning, will have an Indian ending, if it is not to end in self destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way - Emperor Asoka's and Mahatma Gandhi's principal of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna's testimony of religions.
- Arnold Toynbee
Please study your own history with care and attention, you will please mark that, so long as we were strictly following the basic tenets of our Sanatana Dharma, which is based on mutual love, unity and selfless discharge of our moral duty, with faith in God, no outside power could dare look at us with evil designs.
- Swami Ram Tirth
Hindus must take it upon themselves to reform their society, which is badly needed, but this should be done according to the soul of India, which is Dharma, not according to Western political, intellectual or religious ideologies, which are generally adharmic, that is unspiritual, however modern or well-funded they may be.
- David Frawley
The Hindu culture is the life-breath of Hindusthan. It is therefore clear that if Hindusthan is to be protected, we should first nourish the Hindu culture. If the Hindu culture perishes in Hindusthan itself, and if the Hindu society ceases to exist, it will hardly be appropriate to refer to the mere geographical entity that remains as Hindusthan. Mere geographical lumps do not make a nation.
- Dr. Keshav Hedgewar
Standards of moral judgement have increasingly tended to become universal, and no statement of faith can escape scrutiny simply because it is made in a book hailed as holy by some people.
- Sita Ram Goel
Mohammedans talk of universal brotherhood, but what comes out of that in reality? Why, anybody who is not Mohammedan will not be admitted into the brotherhood; he will more likely have his throat cut. Christians talk of universal brotherhood; but anyone who is not a Christian must go to that place where he will be eternally barbecued.
- Swami Vivekanand
The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.
- Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
You can live with a religion whose principle is toleration. But how is it possible to live with a religion whose principle is 'I will not tolerate you'? How are you going to have unity with these people?…I am sorry they (Gandhi and Nehru) are making a fetish of Hindu-Muslim unity. It is no use ignoring facts; some day the Hindus will have to fight Muslims and they must prepare for it. Hindu-Muslim unity should not mean the subjection of Hindus. Each time the mildness of the Hindus has given way…I see no reason why the greatness of India's past or its spirituality should be thrown into the waste basket, in order to conciliate the Muslims who would not be conciliated by such policy.
- Shri Aurobindo Ghosh
Hindus are not exclusive in their religious, spiritual or cultural views. They believe in the existence of many paths both inside their tradition and outside of it. They are ready at any time to embrace their Christian and Islamic brothers, without insisting that everyone becomes a Hindu. But one cannot embrace someone who says, "We do not accept your religion, we condemn your gods and sages, we reject your holy books and practices, salvation is ours and not yours, and we will not cease striving to convert you to our way!"
- David Frawley
Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less but also an enemy the more.
- Swami Vivekanand
Christian theology becomes relevant only for those who share or accept a particular kind of spiritual experience, and these are tempted to dismiss other experiences as illusory and other scriptures as imperfect. Hinduism has not betrayed into this situation on account of its adherence to fact….When the Hindu found that different people aimed at and achieved God - realisation in different ways, he generously recognised them all and justified their place in the course of history.
- Dr.S.Radhakrishnan
My own experiences but confirm the opinion that the Mussalman as a rule is a bully, and the Hindu is a coward; where there are cowards there will always be bullies.
- M.K.Gandhi
To Indian Muslims I have only one question. Why did you not open your mouths on the Kashmir issue? Why did you not condemn the action of Pakistan? … It is your duty now to sail in the same boat and sink or swim together. I want to tell you very frankly that you cannot ride two horses. Select one horse. Those who want to go to Pakistan can go there and live in peace.
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
The explanation of Muslim backwardness is to be found in the very make-up of the Muslim mind. Indian Muslims believe that they are a perfect society and are superior to all other communities in India. One of the grounds for this belief is the assumption that the Islamic faith embodies the vision of a perfect society and, therefore, being a perfect Muslim implies not having to make any further progress. This is an unacceptable claim by modern criteria.
- Hamid Dalwai
If the Hindu does not make a serious and determined effort towards persuading his Muslim brethren to renounce the doctrine of jihad, if he does not devote his heart and soul to devise adequate means of achieving that end, in a word, if he does not shed his deep-seated indifference to things Islamic, then he is most certainly proceeding towards self-destruction and that too in a not very distant future.
- Suhas Majumdar
The tragic legacy of Nehru era was that it made all sane Hindu voices of the intelligentsia deny their Hindu roots, speak in an alien voice not rooted in Indian society and inflict their imported notions of culture on the people in a most contemptuous way.
- Amitabh Mattoo
I really believe that one of the failures of Congress secularism was that it treated everything Hindu, thereby Indian, with disdain.
- Smt. Tavleen Singh
To say that India has a secular character is being historically unsound. Dangerous or not, Hindu militancy is a corrective to the history I have been talking about. It is a creative force and will be so. Islam can't reconcile with it.
- V.S.Naipaul
Hinduise the politics and militarize the Hindu.
-Swatantryaveer Savarkar
The biggest mistake made by the Congress was to have depended too much on the artificial Hindu-Moslem unity for the achievement of Swaraj. This led the Congress to accept compromise after compromise inimical to national interest, as a heavy price paid for Moslem collaboration.
- Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee
After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect ,none so scientific, none so philosophical and no so spiritual that the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India's roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save it? If India's own children do not cling to her faith who shall guard it. India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.
- Annie Besant
A Hindu is hundred times more refined, more cultured, more honest, more religious, more balanced in his outlook than the average westerner.
- Yehudi Menuhin
Let me tell you plainly, if a comparison be instituted with any amount of justice, the Hindus with all their faults will be found head and shoulders above all other religions in the world as a moral community.
- Swami Vivekanand
In the face of an Indian, you can see the natural glory of life, while we have covered ourselves with an artificial cloak.
- George Bernard Shaw
The doctrines inculcated by Jesus and his apostles are quite different from those human inventions which the missionaries are persuaded to profess.
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Hindus are religious, cheerful, justice-loving, truthful, grateful and God-loving.
-Samuel Jhonson, English Poet
India was the motherland of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages. India was the mother of our philosophy, of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity... of self-government and democracy. In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all.
- Will Durant
No real change in history has ever been achieved by discussions.
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Our object, our claim is that we shall not perish as a nation, but live as a nation.
- Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
When the Europeans came, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said that this is the book of God and asked us to meditate. When we opened our eyes they had the land and we had the Bible.
- African Leader Jomo Kenyatta
India is the source from which not only the rest of Asia but the whole of Western world derived their knowledge and their religion.
- Professor Heeren
The philosophy of the Hindus is another proof of their superiority in civilization and intellect to the moderns as well as the ancients. The Hindus had the widest range of mind of which man is capable.
- Mrs. Manning
India has left a deeper mark upon the history, philosophy and religions of mankind than any other terrestrial unity in the universe. Powerful empires existed and flourished in India, while Englishmen were still wandering in woods.
- Lord Curzon
If there is one place on the face of the earth where all the dreams of living man have found a home from the very earliest days of man's existence on earth, it is India.
- M. Romain Rolland
The Western military has four wings : the army, the navy, the air force, and the church.
- Joseph Cornelius Kumarappa
Christians are proud that they brought education to India, but it is not true: there were for instance 125,000 medical institutes in Madras before the British came. Indians never lacked education, the Christians only brought British education to India, which in fact caused more damage to India by westernizing many of us.
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
It is about time we recognize that we are not a nation in the European sense of the term, that is, we are not a fragment of a civilization claiming to be a nation on the basis of accidents of history which is what every major European nation is. We are a people primarily by virtue of the continuity and coherence of our civilization which has survived all shocks. And though inevitably weakened as a result of foreign invasions, conquests and rule for almost a whole millennium, it is once again ready to resume its march.
- Girilal Jain
What is soft Hindutva? Hindutva itself is soft. Had it not been soft and flexible, no other religion would have entered our country. Softness, compassion and mobility is the philosophy of Hindutva. What is hard Hindutva? I don't know.
- Sunil Dutt
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- Albert Einstein
For me the most important thing is to spread the Hindu knowledge about the soul. This is more important than any other knowledge and is my main priority.
- Alfred B. Ford
The way the Communists are functioning in India is a mere adventurism - no constructive ability, no reality of purpose.
- Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
We have no quarrel with Christianity. But we oppose the way in which conversions are done. Therefore, we have to reconvert those who might have been converted by deceit or under some temptation.
- Babu Jagjivan Ram
A very important factor which is making it almost impossible for Hindu-Muslim unity to become an accomplished fact is that the Muslims cannot confine their patriotism to any one country. I had frankly asked many Muslims whether, in the event of any Mohammedan power invading India, they would stand side by side with their Hindu neighbours to defend their common land. I was not satisfied with the reply I got from them.
- Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore
Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europewere in fact made in India centuries ago.
- Grant Duff, British Historian
Imagine a story that is the Odyssey, Aesop`s fables, Romeo and Juliet, the Bible and Star Wars all at the same time. Imagine a story that combines adventure and aphorism, romance and religion, fantasy and philosophy. Imagine a story that makes young children marvel, burly men weep, and old women dream. Such a story exists in India, and it is called the Ramayana.
- Jonah Blank, former editor of Asahi Evening News in Tokyo, Japan
It is not totally baseless if Hindu leaders fear that 'Indianisation of Christianity' is meant to bring about 'Christianisation of India'.
- Nitya Chaitanya Guru
The idea of equality is unacceptable to Islam. For the non-believer cannot be the equal of the believer.
- Amir Taheri, Sunday Times, 23rd May 2004
As far as the construction of the Ram temple is concerned, some people say Hindus should not fight over a structure of brick and stone. They should not quarrel over a piece of land. I want to ask these people, 'If someone burns the national flag will you say "Oh, it doesn't matter, it is only two meters of cloth which is not a great national loss." ' The question is not of two meters of cloth but of an insult to the nation. Ram's birthplace is not a quarrel about a piece of land. It is a question of national integrity. The Hindu is not fighting for a temple of brick and stone. He is fighting for the preservation of a civilization, for his Indianness, for national consciousness, for the recognition of his true nature.
- Sadhvi Rithambhra
Ancient Indians measured both time and space and mapped out the heavens. They analysed the constitution of matter and understood the nature of the spirit. They conceived and developed the sciences of logic and grammar, and made great advances in fields so divergent as anatomy and astronomy, philosophy and metaphysics, medicine and mathematics.
- N.A.Palkhivala
Saturday, October 11, 2008
DIALOGUE WITH NANDI
February 2002
DIALOGUE WITH NANDI
The resilience of ancient civilisations such as that of Indiaճ has fascinated many Western observers. In the face of Western decline will the third millennium belong to Eastern cultures? What is the source of Indiaճ steadfastness despite economic and social pressures? Can Nandi provide an answer?
BEING PUZZLED BY INDIA
India is a fabulous country. And a continually surprising one. While the economies of all countries around it have been crashing, India has held steadfast. What business did it have to stand aloof from the present turmoil? What insolence indeed, while her neighbours, considered so much Better managed have crashed one after another. Curiously enough, the learned gurus of the economic gospel of the West have kept silent on India in recent months. Somehow they did not have anything to say, especially, why it survived so well.
I have always felt that there is more to India than meets the economic eye. I have been an eager scholar of past civilisations and strange to say of future civilisations. I anticipate with a great eagerness the arrival of the Third Millennium. I believe it will be much better than the one we are in the process of ending. I am convinced that the turn for the better will not come from the treasury of Western wisdom. It will come from the East. India will play a major part in shaping the Third Millennium.
In the course of this essay I will explain some of the circumstances that have led me to this opinion. But first, let me share with the reader some of my background. I was born in Poland and spent the first thirty years there, living through the World War II and the Marxist debacle (until the early sixties). The next thirty years I spent in the West: five years in Britain (mainly at Oxford) and twenty seven years in the USA, mainly teaching at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. I am a western man. Yet, the fact of my being born and brought up in Poland, in rather difficult times, made my perceptions and thinking different from the standard western man.
While in the USA, I observed and experienced the so-called melting pot, the wonderful cauldron in which all nationalities were supposed to melt into standard, honest-to-goodness America. In the early 1960s, Asians were still at the bottom of this melting pot, treated with some disdain as a slightly inferior race. The situation started to change dramatically in the 1980s when it was discovered that the top five per cent of graduating students of the best American universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, and others, were mainly Asian students. This caused consternation amidst almost inaudible murmurs of how can these coolies do so well? The trend has continued. In around 2020 many of these outstanding students of Asian background will be national leaders. Will they continue the same line of business as usual favouring mainly big business at the expense of the people? Or will they per chance embark on new visions and perspectives, rooted in their Asian values and their profound cultures? I have got my answer to this question.
In 1994 I visited a friend in Southern California, whose wife is a piano teacher. Well, not just a piano teacher but an outstanding piano teacher. Year after year her students have been invariably winning important piano competitions to the disbelief and envy of other teachers. I visited her studio in Pasadena. She had about 25 students in her classes at the time, the overwhelming percentage of which were Asian. It is precisely these Asian students who have been winning the competitions.
What is the secret? I asked. There is no secret, was the response. These are very talented people who work very hard. They revel in being at the top. They love submerging themselves in culture, especially high culture. What about American students from the mainstream? I continued asking. Are they not talented? They are talented, she responded. Otherwise they would not have been here. But they have a different attitude to practice and art. They do not take culture so seriously. Somehow the dominant American culture makes them excel in other things rather than high culture.
I thought it was a bit odd. These Asian students coming from poor immigrant families could excel in Western music, which they did not have in their bones and in their cultural roots, while white Americans, coming from well-to-do homes, in which they floated in Western culture (even if it was a bit superficial) were unable to do so. The achievement of these Asian kids puzzled me, particularly as they were not only musically gifted, but many of them so bright that they went to top US universities on special scholarships for brilliant students.
What was it in the Asian values that enabled them to do so? What was it in the Asian spirit that motivated them to do so? Why are so many Indians (with degrees from Indian universities) in the Silicon Valley in California, excelling in the very Western games of computer programming? The obvious answers were quite unsatisfactory. I kept searching, hoping that there were deeper answers to these questions somewhere.
I also remember a moment of astonishment, when in India in 1995, I learnt that the graduating students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, were largely hired by foreign countries upon graduation, and employed abroad. It is generally known that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), of which Madras IIT is one, are the best and most prestigious universities in India, and admit only the very best Indian students. Education is heavily subsidised by the state.
After I learnt that the graduates got their jobs abroad, mainly in the West, I thought to myself: What a success! But immediately another idea struck my mind: What a phenomenal waste! How can a country as poor as India afford to educate their best for almost free, and then let them go to foreign countries without any compensation? There was something not right in this whole process. The Indians cannot be so bright, on the one hand, and so dumb at the same time. I was puzzled by this dilemma.
THE UNEXPECTED EMERGENCE OF NANDI
In the late 1990s I was in India again. In the precincts of a Shiva Temple,
I saw a big standing Shiva. In front of the statue there was a bull carved in stone, in the sitting position, facing Lord Shiva. The bull in front of Lord Shiva, in all temples, is called Nandi. He is a protector of Shiva, a servant, a messenger, and a symbol of Shiva in many ways. While his master bristles with restless energy and is full of creative tension, Nandi, is passive, forever watching, and ever present.
Upon leaving the temple, I looked again at Nandi. He smiled passively, as usual. Yet, when I cast my last glance, his eyes were as if animated, as if he wanted to tell me something. I was in motion, actually passing him. When I did pass him, I thought to myself, how extraordinary was his last glance. I decided to return and stood in front of him again. The same passive smile, carved in stone. The stone is stone, it cannot tell you anything. As I was leaving again, I looked from a corner of my eye. Again there was something animated and revealing in his eyes. I am a tough rationalist. I do not hallucinate. I kept walking. But inside me there was this funny feeling, the realization that Nandi’s glance was really revealing.
The days and weeks passed by. Occasionally the mysterious smile of Nandi would come back. What does it mean, I asked myself. Then I changed the question: Does he want to tell me something? The idea struck me as rather preposterous. Yet from time to time Nandi would appear with a hint of urgency. But I was in no great hurry. Then I changed the question again: Does my sub-consciousness want to tell me something through the agency of Nandi? We all know that statues of either gods or animals do not talk. Yet we are also aware of the power of symbols and myths which work through our sub-conscious mind. We are aware that much more is going on in our sub-conscious mind than we can grasp and express. Thus my imagination and sub-consciousness were watching. I was also cognizant of Karl Popperճ methodology: it does not matter where the answers come from, as long as they are good. After you have got your answers, test them, see how explanatory they are, how much more they explain beyond what we have known already.
All the time, sometimes consciously, sometimes sub-consciously, I was looking for a solution to the dilemma of Western civilisation: why has our great technological prowess led us to a consumptive quagmire and the smallness of thinking which subverts our very being? Nandiճ appearances and disappearances were in the context of this larger search. Actually I got used to Nandi visiting me. He usually did so when I was in meditative spaces.
After a time, in my meditations or when my mind was not busy with immediate concerns, I started imaginary conversations with Nandi. I found it surprising, to say the least, that he was so forthcoming with his answers. Although these answers came from imaginary dialogues, they should not be dispensed with too easily as futile imagination. These answers struck me as very penetrating and illuminating.
Thus in my meditative state, I called on Nandi to respond to my queries about India, about its curious paradoxes; also about the world at large. One of my questions was: why is India so stupid, well, at least so impractical as to educate its best minds at its best universities and then let them go out to be employed by other nations which can well afford to train their own minds? Would it not be simpler and more reasonable to keep these bright and sparkling minds at home and improve the common lot of India?
It is not as simple as that, Nandi responded. We need to take a much broader perspective and employ a much deeper and far-reaching rationality. These young people from the IITs (let us take this as a classic example) go to America and get reasonably good jobs there. Soon enough they bring their families whomever they can. As a matter of fact India is exporting a lot of people, with good minds and good genes. These exports are heavily subsidised by India. Imagine that! A poor country like India is subsidising these exports to rich countries. These good minds and good genes are thrust in cultures which are denuded by materialism, bogged down by a very lowly conception of life. You see, Nandi would continue in a philosophical vein Western cultures are slowly withering. They need to be renewed somehow. They cannot renew themselves.
I would intervene with more questions: are you telling me that these bright Indians who are going abroad to greener pastures are going there not only for jobs but for a larger mission? Are you proposing to save Western civilisation by injecting fresh Indian blood into its tired veins?
Nandi would ignore the sarcasm of my questions and would reply simply. And why not? Except that the mission is not so much to save Western civilisation but perhaps replace it with something else.
But you don’t have enough people! Our strength is in numbers. We can send 100 million people abroad without being pinched in the slightest in India, whereas 100 million Indians in Europe or in America, would alter the whole continent and the entire culture.
But why are you sending your best, I would insist. Because, he would reply, the world needs the best to renew itself. I would press: and you are just doing that? Sending people with good minds and good genes? What is this business about good genes?
Nandi was very patient in responding. You are still not grasping the larger perspective. For centuries, ruthless and barbarous armies invaded India and dismembered it, while also exploiting it to the hilt. India has survived it. Because it had spiritual strength. The materialist and savage giants are still tramping all over the world. But it is their twilight. They are exhausted. The glimpse of a new dawn is on the horizon.
The world must renew itself Рhumanly, socially, ecologically and spiritually. Otherwise, it will not survive. It will not survive in the Third Millennium. We are not talking about the next ten years, but about a whole millennium. The old empires sent their marauding armies to suppress our people and to retard our quest for light. We are doing exactly the opposite. We are sending our best not to conquer and suppress but to bring more light and good energy. You have probably noticed how much energy there is in India Рradiant, bumptious energy of all kinds; in all kinds of places, among all kinds of people, including the poor. I am not talking about the poverty-stricken, but ordinary Indians who are poor by Western standards.
I was now intrigued and began to be fascinated by Nandi’s story. Yet I kept inquiring. Are you implying, I said, that the Indian mission is colonisation in reverse? Instead of going to other lands to exploit and plunder, you are going there to be good Samaritans, to sacrifice yourself for some greater good? You have got it right, said Nandi.
I interjected: but isn’t it too much, too naive and perhaps stupid to do that kind of thing in our selfish world? Besides, you seem to be casting yourself in some kind of messianic role. Is not it old-fashion and perhaps again, a bit stupid?
Nandi was patient again as he responded. You are still operating within the same cynical and limited mind-set. This mind-set is one of the problems of the whole western civilisation. From the standpoint of narrow selfishness, any sacrifice is nonsense. But looking deeper into the matter, we are bound to conclude that this narrow selfishness is nonsense. Just look at the entire history of humanity. Look at the whole evolutionary history, in broad outlines, that is. It is the history of cooperation, participation, give and take; and yes, of sacrifice. Prometheus is so much cherished in Western culture because he showed how through the sacrifice of one individual, so many benefits can be brought to others. Without genuine sacrifice, there is no true progress. I will not belabour the story of the sacrifice as exemplified by Jesus. You should know the meaning of this story well. It is a beautiful story which you Western people should remember.
In Hindu culture, Shiva is the god of creation and destruction. But he is also a guardian, the god of continuous vigilance. He cannot rest even for one second because then, in this very second, terrible things might happen to the people on earth whom he is protecting. We may say without much exaggeration that in every culture right sacrifice is appreciated.
Besides, he continued, we are not going to the West to sacrifice ourselves for merely your benefit. Our mission is to renew the world, to redress the balance, to straighten injustices. After centuries of being a whipping boy, destiny is calling us to help to create a new civilisation, a new world. Thus, we don’t go to America to be exploited and discarded as so many emigrants have been. The Indic culture is wiser than that. We go because the historic moment is right to implant the decaying culture with new seeds. Just think. How does a superior culture respond to the butchery of a crude materialist culture which thinks that it is the greatest because it has more war toys than anybody else? Obviously, we do not want to be engaged in any military conflict. Besides, this is not our way. Our way is ahimsa, non-violence. Violence never resolves anything. So we need to respond in a subtle way, as befits a superior culture. We send our best as a gift to humanity so that they start new enclaves of new light. These enclaves will grow. We have a lot of people to send. Ours is a rich culture. We have bright minds. We have good energy.
OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS OF NANDI
And so Nandi continued. Reflect on this. In Western Europe, the most prosperous and so-called successful countries have a negative demographic growth. They are slowly de-populating by their own will. There is no vitality and no life-energy in these people. By the end of the 21st century there will be only 10 per cent of white people in the world. By the end of the 23rd century, the white race, as such, will more or less disappear. There will be pockets of white people here and there; and maybe some reservations populated with white people. We need to start preparing now for the end of the 23rd century, and for the Fourth Millennium. We, the Indic people, want this transition to be peaceful, not violent. We want it to be a transition into light, not a bloody upheaval ending in another journey into darkness. This is why we send our best to prepare the way.
I listened to Nandi with disbelief, fascination and dismay. Could he be right I asked myself? After a while I recovered my wits and started asking. Are you saying that because of your genes and superior energy you are going to renew the world? What you are saying is outrageous! Are you serious when you call India a superior culture? Isn’t it an expression of megalomania, of outright racism? Do you think that any intelligent person can accept this arrogance, megalomania, crypto-racism?
Hm, responded Nandi. You are using big words which in effect attempt to intimidate me. I have to tell you again that the picture is much larger than you are allowing for megalomania, racism, intolerance. Very charged words. Look at the American civilisation, nay the American empire. Don’t you see how megalomaniac and puffed up they have been. At every junction they have been telling everybody, either implicitly or explicitly, how great and superior they are. Asian people especially have been treated as third rate pulp. The Americans don’t even realize how contemptuous and smug their attitudes have been, particularly to people of colour. This is true racism.
And what did this superior American civilisation bring to the world, in addition to various gadgets? Violence! Violence on the screen. Violence in the media. Violence in the family. Violence among children whereby teenagers are killing without reason, as if possessed by a demon of violence. And finally, globalisation as a new world order. Globalism is a new form of violence. It is old-fashioned imperialism carried out through economic and electronic means.
We, non-violent people of various colours, want to do it differently. Because, finally all of us must do it differently. You cry that our quest is a form of racism. But I beseech you to understand that it is not. Racism is this attitude of the mind (and of the heart) which tries to diminish others for your own sake. Racism is full of hatred and venom. We, in turn, bring love, compassion. We are trying to ameliorate the human lot not by diminishing others but by upgrading the entire human race. We do not benefit from the process. We sacrifice ourselves. This is not racism. When Jesus opposed the corrupt ways of the Pharisees and advocated love as superior and the best way for all, this was not racism. Let us remember this example which should be dear to the Western heart.
I found myself short of breath and out of balance. I said, you are using strange analogies. Besides, do you think that America will ever allow what you are postulating to happen even if it had a remote chance of happening? Don’t you see that what you are preaching is going against the grain of history? Don’t you see that dominant thinking outlines an altogether different model of the future? Don’t you see that your ideas clash with democracy as it is presently envisaged?
And Nandi responded. I am not going against the grain of history. I am merely pointing out the superficiality of history pursued and promoted by the West. Will America allow developments which do not favour its present ideology? By bullying and intimidation, America will try to stop these developments. The big club is not the best instrument for creating a new world order. Violence is a poor substitute for wisdom. America is not as strong as it thinks and pretends to be. The inner fabric is weak and fractured. For this reason alone it needs the new Asian immigrants. In its sub-conscious mind it welcomes them. The USA should actually be grateful for this new blood coming from India. They are very bright and versatile as has been shown by their excellence at the top American universities and by winning all kinds of trophies in musical compositions. This Indian blood comes from a culture which is tolerant. Indian culture has shown that it can accommodate so much and tolerate so much. When the time of transition comes, from the white mind-set to the non-white mind-set, the Indians will not harbour any grudges, they will seek no revenge. They will be ready for a peaceful transition.
And Nandi continued. This question of democracy would worry me if it were true that my proposals and arguments upset or undermine democracy in its true meaning. On the contrary, my schemes favour universal democracy. When new ideas about society and a new world order are proposed and when they happen to be at variance with the American dominant ideology, invariably the shouts are heard from the American camp: It is against democracy, it is against our freedom Ѡeven if this freedom signifies exploitation of others.
American democracy has worked for America. But even this proposition is open to doubt. The American democratic system has not worked for the whole society; it has not benefited a majority of the people. It really has worked well for the top 10 per cent of American society, the stratum which controls America, its media, its ideology; and of course, its business and its finance sector. Let us face it, the vested interests of 10 per cent of the people of any country, which manipulate the rest of the country and which try to manipulate the rest of the world, cannot be deemed as a paragon of democracy.
Now the population of the USA consists of 5.5 per cent of the world population. The top 10 per cent of the people who guide, manoeuvre and adjust the course of American democracy translates to only 0.5 per cent of the global population. A rather modest figure Рdonմ you think? Universal democracy is a system which represents the wishes, needs and aspirations of the world population. Would we wish to consider a world model as truly democratic which is governed by and for the benefit of 0.5 per cent of the world population? This is not an expression but a denial of democracy. Yet this is what America tries to do.
I got overwhelmed by this global talk of Nandi. So I tried to bring him down to more tangible questions. You have mentioned that the future belongs to the Asian mind-set, I said. Yet you have studiously avoided mentioning other Asian nations. What about China?
Yes, China is important, said Nandi, very important. However to become a true leader, it will have to overcome its bad karma of the last 50 years. China is a proud, great and spiritually important country. The last 50 years (for all its historical necessity) represent a fall into an abyss. A kind of partial amnesia has occurred. The mind and especially the soul have been blunted and denuded. China will need to recover its soul. Then, together with India it will be a true leader of people. Incidentally, China is not fully aware of how important the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism could have become for the restoration of the Chinese psyche and soul. Granting a form of autonomy to Tibet would be, at this time, an act of political wisdom. This could signify the beginning of a big wave of spiritual re-awakening for China. Even as it is, China will play an increasingly significant role in the world. By the year 2035, it will be the most significant nation in the world. But we are talking about the 23rd century and beyond. In centuries to come, an altogether different mind-set and values must prevail.
I interjected, you say so Nandi. But why? What is the reason for it all? You spin out your idealistic dreaming and you expect us to believe it. Do you?
Nandi took quite a while before he responded. You people of excessively rational minds, you have lost the capacity for larger comprehension. Your thinking is so narrow. You think that because things have been so yesterday and today, that they will be so tomorrow and 50 years from now, and 500 years from now. It is just foolish to think so. Things were quite different 500 years ago. You forgot this too. This idiotic pragmatic yardstick which we apply to everything past, present and future is lamentable. It is truly a sign of mental deficiency. You see, Western civilisation is stuck. The whole Western culture developed in the last millennium is stuck. It has nowhere to go. It has no other visions, perspectives, alternatives. It is stuck in its consumptive quagmire. Its imagination is denuded, its spiritual substance depleted.
But evolution must go on. And it is not going to be only the evolution of electronic chips or potato chips. There are much greater evolutionary forces than those which can be accommodated within the present pragmatic schemes. Evolution is at a new turning point. After it has experimented, during the last four centuries, with the mechanistic instrumentation of the cosmos and of human life, it is now searching for new ways. It wants to go forward and upward. Evolution is not a trivial thing whose purpose is to evolve more efficient gadgets. Evolution is this tremendous magnificent force which helps to unfold what is hidden in our evolutionary potential, which helps to bring to fruition our evolution, our destiny. It is this evolution, the mighty Maker of new forms of life, the subtle sculptor chiseling within us new sensitivities and new powers of becoming, which is now directing the flow of Asian energy to quietly replace the Western decaying world.
A bit shaken and dejected, I said to Nandi, I hope you are not right. For if you are, this spells a lot of trouble for the world, especially for the Western world and America in particular; a lot of trauma, pain, fracturing of existing structures.
I thought you were going to say, he responded, I hope you are right Nandi. For if I am not, the Western world is in really deep trouble. You are completely stuck. In agony. You are already in pain and sufficiently traumatised. You are a culture without visions and perspectives. A civilisation unworthy to continue, let alone to lead others.
I interrupted. What you are saying is completely crazy. The West is still very powerful and it has the best minds.
It would seem so on the surface, he responded, but it is not so. The West is not powerful. Look at these disempowered people all around. Look at the economic chaos created by the West. Furthermore, the West does not have the best minds. If it did, it would not have found itself in a sea of intractable problems. Yes, your minds are efficient, purposeful, manipulative. But these are the blind minds. They do not see any larger picture. They are spiritually dead.
I protested. Still, what you are saying is crazy or at least unacceptable from the Western point of view.
This may be so, he agreed. I have come here to deliver the West from its curse, not to listen to your sobbing arguments that you are still so great.
There is so much arrogance in your attitude I retorted.
Listen, it is not so, he said. I have come here to redress the balance. I don’t talk to people who cannot understand. I just do my thing, which means to bring a thorough renewal to the human race. If you have any complaints, talk to my master, Shiva.
Shiva? Where is he?
He is in your heart. He is in the cosmic mind.
Here we go again. The cosmic mind and the truth of the heart. This is what we call irrational.
Look, what have you accomplished with your rationality? Hell on earth. Without the cosmic mind and the truth of the heart, you cannot go anywhere; not in the evolutionary sense. This I know. This, my master has taught me well.
And he disappeared, refusing to talk any further. I shouted at him while he was disappearing: How do we join your Millennium of Light and Meaning if we don’t want to be left out?
He whispered from a distance hardly audible: The human condition is capable of extraordinary new departures if there is the will, wisdom and vision to guide us.
Henryk Skolimowski
DIALOGUE WITH NANDI
The resilience of ancient civilisations such as that of Indiaճ has fascinated many Western observers. In the face of Western decline will the third millennium belong to Eastern cultures? What is the source of Indiaճ steadfastness despite economic and social pressures? Can Nandi provide an answer?
BEING PUZZLED BY INDIA
India is a fabulous country. And a continually surprising one. While the economies of all countries around it have been crashing, India has held steadfast. What business did it have to stand aloof from the present turmoil? What insolence indeed, while her neighbours, considered so much Better managed have crashed one after another. Curiously enough, the learned gurus of the economic gospel of the West have kept silent on India in recent months. Somehow they did not have anything to say, especially, why it survived so well.
I have always felt that there is more to India than meets the economic eye. I have been an eager scholar of past civilisations and strange to say of future civilisations. I anticipate with a great eagerness the arrival of the Third Millennium. I believe it will be much better than the one we are in the process of ending. I am convinced that the turn for the better will not come from the treasury of Western wisdom. It will come from the East. India will play a major part in shaping the Third Millennium.
In the course of this essay I will explain some of the circumstances that have led me to this opinion. But first, let me share with the reader some of my background. I was born in Poland and spent the first thirty years there, living through the World War II and the Marxist debacle (until the early sixties). The next thirty years I spent in the West: five years in Britain (mainly at Oxford) and twenty seven years in the USA, mainly teaching at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. I am a western man. Yet, the fact of my being born and brought up in Poland, in rather difficult times, made my perceptions and thinking different from the standard western man.
While in the USA, I observed and experienced the so-called melting pot, the wonderful cauldron in which all nationalities were supposed to melt into standard, honest-to-goodness America. In the early 1960s, Asians were still at the bottom of this melting pot, treated with some disdain as a slightly inferior race. The situation started to change dramatically in the 1980s when it was discovered that the top five per cent of graduating students of the best American universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, and others, were mainly Asian students. This caused consternation amidst almost inaudible murmurs of how can these coolies do so well? The trend has continued. In around 2020 many of these outstanding students of Asian background will be national leaders. Will they continue the same line of business as usual favouring mainly big business at the expense of the people? Or will they per chance embark on new visions and perspectives, rooted in their Asian values and their profound cultures? I have got my answer to this question.
In 1994 I visited a friend in Southern California, whose wife is a piano teacher. Well, not just a piano teacher but an outstanding piano teacher. Year after year her students have been invariably winning important piano competitions to the disbelief and envy of other teachers. I visited her studio in Pasadena. She had about 25 students in her classes at the time, the overwhelming percentage of which were Asian. It is precisely these Asian students who have been winning the competitions.
What is the secret? I asked. There is no secret, was the response. These are very talented people who work very hard. They revel in being at the top. They love submerging themselves in culture, especially high culture. What about American students from the mainstream? I continued asking. Are they not talented? They are talented, she responded. Otherwise they would not have been here. But they have a different attitude to practice and art. They do not take culture so seriously. Somehow the dominant American culture makes them excel in other things rather than high culture.
I thought it was a bit odd. These Asian students coming from poor immigrant families could excel in Western music, which they did not have in their bones and in their cultural roots, while white Americans, coming from well-to-do homes, in which they floated in Western culture (even if it was a bit superficial) were unable to do so. The achievement of these Asian kids puzzled me, particularly as they were not only musically gifted, but many of them so bright that they went to top US universities on special scholarships for brilliant students.
What was it in the Asian values that enabled them to do so? What was it in the Asian spirit that motivated them to do so? Why are so many Indians (with degrees from Indian universities) in the Silicon Valley in California, excelling in the very Western games of computer programming? The obvious answers were quite unsatisfactory. I kept searching, hoping that there were deeper answers to these questions somewhere.
I also remember a moment of astonishment, when in India in 1995, I learnt that the graduating students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, were largely hired by foreign countries upon graduation, and employed abroad. It is generally known that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), of which Madras IIT is one, are the best and most prestigious universities in India, and admit only the very best Indian students. Education is heavily subsidised by the state.
After I learnt that the graduates got their jobs abroad, mainly in the West, I thought to myself: What a success! But immediately another idea struck my mind: What a phenomenal waste! How can a country as poor as India afford to educate their best for almost free, and then let them go to foreign countries without any compensation? There was something not right in this whole process. The Indians cannot be so bright, on the one hand, and so dumb at the same time. I was puzzled by this dilemma.
THE UNEXPECTED EMERGENCE OF NANDI
In the late 1990s I was in India again. In the precincts of a Shiva Temple,
I saw a big standing Shiva. In front of the statue there was a bull carved in stone, in the sitting position, facing Lord Shiva. The bull in front of Lord Shiva, in all temples, is called Nandi. He is a protector of Shiva, a servant, a messenger, and a symbol of Shiva in many ways. While his master bristles with restless energy and is full of creative tension, Nandi, is passive, forever watching, and ever present.
Upon leaving the temple, I looked again at Nandi. He smiled passively, as usual. Yet, when I cast my last glance, his eyes were as if animated, as if he wanted to tell me something. I was in motion, actually passing him. When I did pass him, I thought to myself, how extraordinary was his last glance. I decided to return and stood in front of him again. The same passive smile, carved in stone. The stone is stone, it cannot tell you anything. As I was leaving again, I looked from a corner of my eye. Again there was something animated and revealing in his eyes. I am a tough rationalist. I do not hallucinate. I kept walking. But inside me there was this funny feeling, the realization that Nandi’s glance was really revealing.
The days and weeks passed by. Occasionally the mysterious smile of Nandi would come back. What does it mean, I asked myself. Then I changed the question: Does he want to tell me something? The idea struck me as rather preposterous. Yet from time to time Nandi would appear with a hint of urgency. But I was in no great hurry. Then I changed the question again: Does my sub-consciousness want to tell me something through the agency of Nandi? We all know that statues of either gods or animals do not talk. Yet we are also aware of the power of symbols and myths which work through our sub-conscious mind. We are aware that much more is going on in our sub-conscious mind than we can grasp and express. Thus my imagination and sub-consciousness were watching. I was also cognizant of Karl Popperճ methodology: it does not matter where the answers come from, as long as they are good. After you have got your answers, test them, see how explanatory they are, how much more they explain beyond what we have known already.
All the time, sometimes consciously, sometimes sub-consciously, I was looking for a solution to the dilemma of Western civilisation: why has our great technological prowess led us to a consumptive quagmire and the smallness of thinking which subverts our very being? Nandiճ appearances and disappearances were in the context of this larger search. Actually I got used to Nandi visiting me. He usually did so when I was in meditative spaces.
After a time, in my meditations or when my mind was not busy with immediate concerns, I started imaginary conversations with Nandi. I found it surprising, to say the least, that he was so forthcoming with his answers. Although these answers came from imaginary dialogues, they should not be dispensed with too easily as futile imagination. These answers struck me as very penetrating and illuminating.
Thus in my meditative state, I called on Nandi to respond to my queries about India, about its curious paradoxes; also about the world at large. One of my questions was: why is India so stupid, well, at least so impractical as to educate its best minds at its best universities and then let them go out to be employed by other nations which can well afford to train their own minds? Would it not be simpler and more reasonable to keep these bright and sparkling minds at home and improve the common lot of India?
It is not as simple as that, Nandi responded. We need to take a much broader perspective and employ a much deeper and far-reaching rationality. These young people from the IITs (let us take this as a classic example) go to America and get reasonably good jobs there. Soon enough they bring their families whomever they can. As a matter of fact India is exporting a lot of people, with good minds and good genes. These exports are heavily subsidised by India. Imagine that! A poor country like India is subsidising these exports to rich countries. These good minds and good genes are thrust in cultures which are denuded by materialism, bogged down by a very lowly conception of life. You see, Nandi would continue in a philosophical vein Western cultures are slowly withering. They need to be renewed somehow. They cannot renew themselves.
I would intervene with more questions: are you telling me that these bright Indians who are going abroad to greener pastures are going there not only for jobs but for a larger mission? Are you proposing to save Western civilisation by injecting fresh Indian blood into its tired veins?
Nandi would ignore the sarcasm of my questions and would reply simply. And why not? Except that the mission is not so much to save Western civilisation but perhaps replace it with something else.
But you don’t have enough people! Our strength is in numbers. We can send 100 million people abroad without being pinched in the slightest in India, whereas 100 million Indians in Europe or in America, would alter the whole continent and the entire culture.
But why are you sending your best, I would insist. Because, he would reply, the world needs the best to renew itself. I would press: and you are just doing that? Sending people with good minds and good genes? What is this business about good genes?
Nandi was very patient in responding. You are still not grasping the larger perspective. For centuries, ruthless and barbarous armies invaded India and dismembered it, while also exploiting it to the hilt. India has survived it. Because it had spiritual strength. The materialist and savage giants are still tramping all over the world. But it is their twilight. They are exhausted. The glimpse of a new dawn is on the horizon.
The world must renew itself Рhumanly, socially, ecologically and spiritually. Otherwise, it will not survive. It will not survive in the Third Millennium. We are not talking about the next ten years, but about a whole millennium. The old empires sent their marauding armies to suppress our people and to retard our quest for light. We are doing exactly the opposite. We are sending our best not to conquer and suppress but to bring more light and good energy. You have probably noticed how much energy there is in India Рradiant, bumptious energy of all kinds; in all kinds of places, among all kinds of people, including the poor. I am not talking about the poverty-stricken, but ordinary Indians who are poor by Western standards.
I was now intrigued and began to be fascinated by Nandi’s story. Yet I kept inquiring. Are you implying, I said, that the Indian mission is colonisation in reverse? Instead of going to other lands to exploit and plunder, you are going there to be good Samaritans, to sacrifice yourself for some greater good? You have got it right, said Nandi.
I interjected: but isn’t it too much, too naive and perhaps stupid to do that kind of thing in our selfish world? Besides, you seem to be casting yourself in some kind of messianic role. Is not it old-fashion and perhaps again, a bit stupid?
Nandi was patient again as he responded. You are still operating within the same cynical and limited mind-set. This mind-set is one of the problems of the whole western civilisation. From the standpoint of narrow selfishness, any sacrifice is nonsense. But looking deeper into the matter, we are bound to conclude that this narrow selfishness is nonsense. Just look at the entire history of humanity. Look at the whole evolutionary history, in broad outlines, that is. It is the history of cooperation, participation, give and take; and yes, of sacrifice. Prometheus is so much cherished in Western culture because he showed how through the sacrifice of one individual, so many benefits can be brought to others. Without genuine sacrifice, there is no true progress. I will not belabour the story of the sacrifice as exemplified by Jesus. You should know the meaning of this story well. It is a beautiful story which you Western people should remember.
In Hindu culture, Shiva is the god of creation and destruction. But he is also a guardian, the god of continuous vigilance. He cannot rest even for one second because then, in this very second, terrible things might happen to the people on earth whom he is protecting. We may say without much exaggeration that in every culture right sacrifice is appreciated.
Besides, he continued, we are not going to the West to sacrifice ourselves for merely your benefit. Our mission is to renew the world, to redress the balance, to straighten injustices. After centuries of being a whipping boy, destiny is calling us to help to create a new civilisation, a new world. Thus, we don’t go to America to be exploited and discarded as so many emigrants have been. The Indic culture is wiser than that. We go because the historic moment is right to implant the decaying culture with new seeds. Just think. How does a superior culture respond to the butchery of a crude materialist culture which thinks that it is the greatest because it has more war toys than anybody else? Obviously, we do not want to be engaged in any military conflict. Besides, this is not our way. Our way is ahimsa, non-violence. Violence never resolves anything. So we need to respond in a subtle way, as befits a superior culture. We send our best as a gift to humanity so that they start new enclaves of new light. These enclaves will grow. We have a lot of people to send. Ours is a rich culture. We have bright minds. We have good energy.
OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS OF NANDI
And so Nandi continued. Reflect on this. In Western Europe, the most prosperous and so-called successful countries have a negative demographic growth. They are slowly de-populating by their own will. There is no vitality and no life-energy in these people. By the end of the 21st century there will be only 10 per cent of white people in the world. By the end of the 23rd century, the white race, as such, will more or less disappear. There will be pockets of white people here and there; and maybe some reservations populated with white people. We need to start preparing now for the end of the 23rd century, and for the Fourth Millennium. We, the Indic people, want this transition to be peaceful, not violent. We want it to be a transition into light, not a bloody upheaval ending in another journey into darkness. This is why we send our best to prepare the way.
I listened to Nandi with disbelief, fascination and dismay. Could he be right I asked myself? After a while I recovered my wits and started asking. Are you saying that because of your genes and superior energy you are going to renew the world? What you are saying is outrageous! Are you serious when you call India a superior culture? Isn’t it an expression of megalomania, of outright racism? Do you think that any intelligent person can accept this arrogance, megalomania, crypto-racism?
Hm, responded Nandi. You are using big words which in effect attempt to intimidate me. I have to tell you again that the picture is much larger than you are allowing for megalomania, racism, intolerance. Very charged words. Look at the American civilisation, nay the American empire. Don’t you see how megalomaniac and puffed up they have been. At every junction they have been telling everybody, either implicitly or explicitly, how great and superior they are. Asian people especially have been treated as third rate pulp. The Americans don’t even realize how contemptuous and smug their attitudes have been, particularly to people of colour. This is true racism.
And what did this superior American civilisation bring to the world, in addition to various gadgets? Violence! Violence on the screen. Violence in the media. Violence in the family. Violence among children whereby teenagers are killing without reason, as if possessed by a demon of violence. And finally, globalisation as a new world order. Globalism is a new form of violence. It is old-fashioned imperialism carried out through economic and electronic means.
We, non-violent people of various colours, want to do it differently. Because, finally all of us must do it differently. You cry that our quest is a form of racism. But I beseech you to understand that it is not. Racism is this attitude of the mind (and of the heart) which tries to diminish others for your own sake. Racism is full of hatred and venom. We, in turn, bring love, compassion. We are trying to ameliorate the human lot not by diminishing others but by upgrading the entire human race. We do not benefit from the process. We sacrifice ourselves. This is not racism. When Jesus opposed the corrupt ways of the Pharisees and advocated love as superior and the best way for all, this was not racism. Let us remember this example which should be dear to the Western heart.
I found myself short of breath and out of balance. I said, you are using strange analogies. Besides, do you think that America will ever allow what you are postulating to happen even if it had a remote chance of happening? Don’t you see that what you are preaching is going against the grain of history? Don’t you see that dominant thinking outlines an altogether different model of the future? Don’t you see that your ideas clash with democracy as it is presently envisaged?
And Nandi responded. I am not going against the grain of history. I am merely pointing out the superficiality of history pursued and promoted by the West. Will America allow developments which do not favour its present ideology? By bullying and intimidation, America will try to stop these developments. The big club is not the best instrument for creating a new world order. Violence is a poor substitute for wisdom. America is not as strong as it thinks and pretends to be. The inner fabric is weak and fractured. For this reason alone it needs the new Asian immigrants. In its sub-conscious mind it welcomes them. The USA should actually be grateful for this new blood coming from India. They are very bright and versatile as has been shown by their excellence at the top American universities and by winning all kinds of trophies in musical compositions. This Indian blood comes from a culture which is tolerant. Indian culture has shown that it can accommodate so much and tolerate so much. When the time of transition comes, from the white mind-set to the non-white mind-set, the Indians will not harbour any grudges, they will seek no revenge. They will be ready for a peaceful transition.
And Nandi continued. This question of democracy would worry me if it were true that my proposals and arguments upset or undermine democracy in its true meaning. On the contrary, my schemes favour universal democracy. When new ideas about society and a new world order are proposed and when they happen to be at variance with the American dominant ideology, invariably the shouts are heard from the American camp: It is against democracy, it is against our freedom Ѡeven if this freedom signifies exploitation of others.
American democracy has worked for America. But even this proposition is open to doubt. The American democratic system has not worked for the whole society; it has not benefited a majority of the people. It really has worked well for the top 10 per cent of American society, the stratum which controls America, its media, its ideology; and of course, its business and its finance sector. Let us face it, the vested interests of 10 per cent of the people of any country, which manipulate the rest of the country and which try to manipulate the rest of the world, cannot be deemed as a paragon of democracy.
Now the population of the USA consists of 5.5 per cent of the world population. The top 10 per cent of the people who guide, manoeuvre and adjust the course of American democracy translates to only 0.5 per cent of the global population. A rather modest figure Рdonմ you think? Universal democracy is a system which represents the wishes, needs and aspirations of the world population. Would we wish to consider a world model as truly democratic which is governed by and for the benefit of 0.5 per cent of the world population? This is not an expression but a denial of democracy. Yet this is what America tries to do.
I got overwhelmed by this global talk of Nandi. So I tried to bring him down to more tangible questions. You have mentioned that the future belongs to the Asian mind-set, I said. Yet you have studiously avoided mentioning other Asian nations. What about China?
Yes, China is important, said Nandi, very important. However to become a true leader, it will have to overcome its bad karma of the last 50 years. China is a proud, great and spiritually important country. The last 50 years (for all its historical necessity) represent a fall into an abyss. A kind of partial amnesia has occurred. The mind and especially the soul have been blunted and denuded. China will need to recover its soul. Then, together with India it will be a true leader of people. Incidentally, China is not fully aware of how important the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism could have become for the restoration of the Chinese psyche and soul. Granting a form of autonomy to Tibet would be, at this time, an act of political wisdom. This could signify the beginning of a big wave of spiritual re-awakening for China. Even as it is, China will play an increasingly significant role in the world. By the year 2035, it will be the most significant nation in the world. But we are talking about the 23rd century and beyond. In centuries to come, an altogether different mind-set and values must prevail.
I interjected, you say so Nandi. But why? What is the reason for it all? You spin out your idealistic dreaming and you expect us to believe it. Do you?
Nandi took quite a while before he responded. You people of excessively rational minds, you have lost the capacity for larger comprehension. Your thinking is so narrow. You think that because things have been so yesterday and today, that they will be so tomorrow and 50 years from now, and 500 years from now. It is just foolish to think so. Things were quite different 500 years ago. You forgot this too. This idiotic pragmatic yardstick which we apply to everything past, present and future is lamentable. It is truly a sign of mental deficiency. You see, Western civilisation is stuck. The whole Western culture developed in the last millennium is stuck. It has nowhere to go. It has no other visions, perspectives, alternatives. It is stuck in its consumptive quagmire. Its imagination is denuded, its spiritual substance depleted.
But evolution must go on. And it is not going to be only the evolution of electronic chips or potato chips. There are much greater evolutionary forces than those which can be accommodated within the present pragmatic schemes. Evolution is at a new turning point. After it has experimented, during the last four centuries, with the mechanistic instrumentation of the cosmos and of human life, it is now searching for new ways. It wants to go forward and upward. Evolution is not a trivial thing whose purpose is to evolve more efficient gadgets. Evolution is this tremendous magnificent force which helps to unfold what is hidden in our evolutionary potential, which helps to bring to fruition our evolution, our destiny. It is this evolution, the mighty Maker of new forms of life, the subtle sculptor chiseling within us new sensitivities and new powers of becoming, which is now directing the flow of Asian energy to quietly replace the Western decaying world.
A bit shaken and dejected, I said to Nandi, I hope you are not right. For if you are, this spells a lot of trouble for the world, especially for the Western world and America in particular; a lot of trauma, pain, fracturing of existing structures.
I thought you were going to say, he responded, I hope you are right Nandi. For if I am not, the Western world is in really deep trouble. You are completely stuck. In agony. You are already in pain and sufficiently traumatised. You are a culture without visions and perspectives. A civilisation unworthy to continue, let alone to lead others.
I interrupted. What you are saying is completely crazy. The West is still very powerful and it has the best minds.
It would seem so on the surface, he responded, but it is not so. The West is not powerful. Look at these disempowered people all around. Look at the economic chaos created by the West. Furthermore, the West does not have the best minds. If it did, it would not have found itself in a sea of intractable problems. Yes, your minds are efficient, purposeful, manipulative. But these are the blind minds. They do not see any larger picture. They are spiritually dead.
I protested. Still, what you are saying is crazy or at least unacceptable from the Western point of view.
This may be so, he agreed. I have come here to deliver the West from its curse, not to listen to your sobbing arguments that you are still so great.
There is so much arrogance in your attitude I retorted.
Listen, it is not so, he said. I have come here to redress the balance. I don’t talk to people who cannot understand. I just do my thing, which means to bring a thorough renewal to the human race. If you have any complaints, talk to my master, Shiva.
Shiva? Where is he?
He is in your heart. He is in the cosmic mind.
Here we go again. The cosmic mind and the truth of the heart. This is what we call irrational.
Look, what have you accomplished with your rationality? Hell on earth. Without the cosmic mind and the truth of the heart, you cannot go anywhere; not in the evolutionary sense. This I know. This, my master has taught me well.
And he disappeared, refusing to talk any further. I shouted at him while he was disappearing: How do we join your Millennium of Light and Meaning if we don’t want to be left out?
He whispered from a distance hardly audible: The human condition is capable of extraordinary new departures if there is the will, wisdom and vision to guide us.
Henryk Skolimowski
The man behind the Modi masks
The man behind the Modi masks
The emerging mascot of Bhartiya Janata Party, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, does not accept that "Brand Modi" exists. Love him or hate him but there is no ignoring him, in an exclusive interview to Zeenews’s Swati Chaturvedi in 'Kahiye Janaab' the Gujarat Chief Minister talks about vote bank politics, Nanavati Commission’s report, compulsory voting and more. Here are the excerpts from Modi’s exclusive interview:
Swati: I waited for so long to interview you. Modi masks have become very famous in Gujarat, but we would like to know what is the real Modi like behind the mask. Let’s try to know what is happening in the country today (at present). Nowadays our democracy has become more of vote bank politics. Is it the democracy we need and is it correct?
Modi: Democracy has nothing to do with vote bank politics; it is the best of governance in the world. But our political parties try to take advantage of democracy to get into power by using vote bank politics. Now the time has come when people of India should come together to oppose it otherwise these politicians won’t stop this (vote bank politics).
Swati: So what is your vote bank politics?
Modi: In Gujarat, whatever we do we do it for 5.5 crore Gujaratis. When our Constitution was formed, everyone had opposed reservation on the basis of religion in the House then and there was no one from RSS/VHP there. The House was formed by Gandhians and scholars. It is such a pity that even after High Court’s intervening thrice Andhra Pradesh’s government implemented reservation in the state on the basis of religion. We give reservation on the basis of social position of castes and tribes. But according to a report, reservation is being given not only to SCs and STs but also to converted tribals, which is like giving incentives to people to convert. In India, Armymen were never questioned about their religion but this UPA govt set up a commission to do the head count of the Armymen on the basis of religion. UPA govt shunned POTA saying it is anti-Muslim but if POTA is anti-terrorist isn’t it anti-naxalites? What’s the religion of naxalites. Swati: Terrorists have no religion, a terrorist is a terrorist?
Modi: 127 nations across the globe have strict laws against terrorists and they are all democratic nations and they all value human rights as well.
Swati: According to a report by a Washington institute, after Iraq, India is the 2nd most affected nation by terrorism?
Modi: More Armymen have been killed by terrorists than by Pakistan’s Army in three Indo-Pak wars. We have been battling terrorism for the last 30 years, be it in Kashmir, Punjab or terrorists from Sri Lanka (if they have any role in spreading terrorism in India).
Swati: Naxalites’ problem has spread to 141 districts of central India and a Cabinet minister said that all Bangladeshis in India should be given citizenship?
Modi: This is the language of vote bank politics. It is such a pity that leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad Yadav used Osama bin Laden’s masks while campaigning in Bihar Assembly elections. It is such a shame. Even my masks were used in the Gujarat Assembly elections but I am a citizen of India and have no crime against me like Osama. It is people like them (Paswan and Lalu) who have no better thing to do in politics than to get into power. Therefore, on the one hand UPA says Bangladeshis should be thrown out of the nation and on the other they are not following Supreme Court’s ruling against illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam. The ruling directed Centre to implement the law under Article 355 and develop a mechanism to send back illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
Swati: Do you think there should be compulsory voting in India like Australia, Chile and other countries?
Modi: It is such a shame that in our country an Armyman can die on the front but cannot vote. It was Atalji’s government which made efforts to allow Armymen to cast proxy votes. It is not about vote bank politics, but in democracy more and more people should participate in elections and it will bring down the cost of elections as well. As more people will vote higher would be the chances of parties getting a majority. Earlier, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections used to be held simultaneously after every five years. Now due to political reasons elections are being held in every three months in some part or the other. And under pressure governments (state or central) keep delaying big decisions owing to elections coming up in the state or Centre. As a result our economy has to suffer the brunt of it. Therefore, 5-year term must be fixed for all the elected candidates and they should be responsible to run the government for next five years by any which way.
Swati: Recently, you said that money coming from Gujarat should be spent on Gujarat alone. There was a great furore over this. Congress said you had attacked the federal structure of the country and wanted to file case against you?
Modi: I am still waiting for the Congress to file a case against me, but they have not done so till now which means it was a political statement. All I had said was that the Central government should give details as to how much money they receive from Gujarat and how much they pay back.
Swati: A Singapore minister had asked you not to sell brand India but sell brand Gujarat. Is it true?
Modi: Some people have suggested the same thing to me but I believe for India’s development Gujarat should develop. I am not only talking about Gujarat; nor will Gujarat work only for itself but for the entire country. Recently during Bihar floods Gujarat was the first to extend help. Swati: Congress says Modi wants to turn Gujarat into United State of Gujarat where Modi is the President?
Modi: All I can say is Congressmen will have to read the Constitution once again.
Swati: After Nanavati Commission report came out, Congress spokesperson said, "Modi should be tried for mass murder
Modi: Congress spokesperson had said, "Had Modi been in a foreign country he would be hanged by now.” I say Congress imported their leaders from abroad and now they are importing justice much like the pre-independence era in which foreign judges used to try freedom fighters. If I am hanged then this would be a mark of my loyalty to the nation and I would be proud of it. Swati: Earlier there used to be in a limit in political dialogue, but Sonia Gandhi referred to you as a "Merchant of Death." What would you say to this?
Modi: It all depends on who made that statement. Had the term been correct she (Sonia Gandhi) would have used it again but she didn’t. I don’t have anything to say against her.
Swati: Before the submission of the Nanavati report you made a statement that if anything was found against you in it you should be hanged?
Modi: After Gujarat riots I had written letters to the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court asking them to appoint a sitting judge to head the commission formed to investigate the riots. But they refused to appoint a sitting judge sighting workload on the courts as a reason. Later they suggested the name Justice Nanavati. The Nanavati Commission took six years to investigate the riots and cross examined witnesses before coming out with their report. This was the first commission which was given the right to probe a state’s Chief Minister as well as his colleagues. The report was prepared only after this. The same Justice Nanavati had headed the commission which investigated anti-Sikh riots and prepared the report. Congressmen liked that anti-Sikh riots report which gave them a clean chit but they do not like the Gujarat riots report. Swati: Congress and jurists alleged that this (Nanavati) Commission is a tainted commission and must be disbanded?
Modi: Congress has no moral rights to speak against any commission when they don’t even respect Supreme Court’s rulings. Be it against Afzal Guru’s pending hanging, Shah Bano case or cow protection act.
Swati: Marketing brand Modi in the state, you said I neither accept bribe nor let anyone accept it?
Modi: I did not market any brand, I am accountable to the people of Gujarat as the Chief Minister of the state and have to give an account to them as to what I have done in the last five years. And the above statement was one of the things I wanted to tell the people of Gujarat. Swati: Did this statement make you unpopular?
Modi: I don’t care about that.
Swati: And what are the problems you faced after making this statement?
Modi: Problems are part and parcel of political life. For example, earlier the advertising budget of media department of Gujarat was humongous but now I have slashed it. Wouldn’t media persons be annoyed with me?
Adaptation by: Abhishek
The emerging mascot of Bhartiya Janata Party, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, does not accept that "Brand Modi" exists. Love him or hate him but there is no ignoring him, in an exclusive interview to Zeenews’s Swati Chaturvedi in 'Kahiye Janaab' the Gujarat Chief Minister talks about vote bank politics, Nanavati Commission’s report, compulsory voting and more. Here are the excerpts from Modi’s exclusive interview:
Swati: I waited for so long to interview you. Modi masks have become very famous in Gujarat, but we would like to know what is the real Modi like behind the mask. Let’s try to know what is happening in the country today (at present). Nowadays our democracy has become more of vote bank politics. Is it the democracy we need and is it correct?
Modi: Democracy has nothing to do with vote bank politics; it is the best of governance in the world. But our political parties try to take advantage of democracy to get into power by using vote bank politics. Now the time has come when people of India should come together to oppose it otherwise these politicians won’t stop this (vote bank politics).
Swati: So what is your vote bank politics?
Modi: In Gujarat, whatever we do we do it for 5.5 crore Gujaratis. When our Constitution was formed, everyone had opposed reservation on the basis of religion in the House then and there was no one from RSS/VHP there. The House was formed by Gandhians and scholars. It is such a pity that even after High Court’s intervening thrice Andhra Pradesh’s government implemented reservation in the state on the basis of religion. We give reservation on the basis of social position of castes and tribes. But according to a report, reservation is being given not only to SCs and STs but also to converted tribals, which is like giving incentives to people to convert. In India, Armymen were never questioned about their religion but this UPA govt set up a commission to do the head count of the Armymen on the basis of religion. UPA govt shunned POTA saying it is anti-Muslim but if POTA is anti-terrorist isn’t it anti-naxalites? What’s the religion of naxalites. Swati: Terrorists have no religion, a terrorist is a terrorist?
Modi: 127 nations across the globe have strict laws against terrorists and they are all democratic nations and they all value human rights as well.
Swati: According to a report by a Washington institute, after Iraq, India is the 2nd most affected nation by terrorism?
Modi: More Armymen have been killed by terrorists than by Pakistan’s Army in three Indo-Pak wars. We have been battling terrorism for the last 30 years, be it in Kashmir, Punjab or terrorists from Sri Lanka (if they have any role in spreading terrorism in India).
Swati: Naxalites’ problem has spread to 141 districts of central India and a Cabinet minister said that all Bangladeshis in India should be given citizenship?
Modi: This is the language of vote bank politics. It is such a pity that leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad Yadav used Osama bin Laden’s masks while campaigning in Bihar Assembly elections. It is such a shame. Even my masks were used in the Gujarat Assembly elections but I am a citizen of India and have no crime against me like Osama. It is people like them (Paswan and Lalu) who have no better thing to do in politics than to get into power. Therefore, on the one hand UPA says Bangladeshis should be thrown out of the nation and on the other they are not following Supreme Court’s ruling against illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam. The ruling directed Centre to implement the law under Article 355 and develop a mechanism to send back illegal Bangladeshi migrants.
Swati: Do you think there should be compulsory voting in India like Australia, Chile and other countries?
Modi: It is such a shame that in our country an Armyman can die on the front but cannot vote. It was Atalji’s government which made efforts to allow Armymen to cast proxy votes. It is not about vote bank politics, but in democracy more and more people should participate in elections and it will bring down the cost of elections as well. As more people will vote higher would be the chances of parties getting a majority. Earlier, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections used to be held simultaneously after every five years. Now due to political reasons elections are being held in every three months in some part or the other. And under pressure governments (state or central) keep delaying big decisions owing to elections coming up in the state or Centre. As a result our economy has to suffer the brunt of it. Therefore, 5-year term must be fixed for all the elected candidates and they should be responsible to run the government for next five years by any which way.
Swati: Recently, you said that money coming from Gujarat should be spent on Gujarat alone. There was a great furore over this. Congress said you had attacked the federal structure of the country and wanted to file case against you?
Modi: I am still waiting for the Congress to file a case against me, but they have not done so till now which means it was a political statement. All I had said was that the Central government should give details as to how much money they receive from Gujarat and how much they pay back.
Swati: A Singapore minister had asked you not to sell brand India but sell brand Gujarat. Is it true?
Modi: Some people have suggested the same thing to me but I believe for India’s development Gujarat should develop. I am not only talking about Gujarat; nor will Gujarat work only for itself but for the entire country. Recently during Bihar floods Gujarat was the first to extend help. Swati: Congress says Modi wants to turn Gujarat into United State of Gujarat where Modi is the President?
Modi: All I can say is Congressmen will have to read the Constitution once again.
Swati: After Nanavati Commission report came out, Congress spokesperson said, "Modi should be tried for mass murder
Modi: Congress spokesperson had said, "Had Modi been in a foreign country he would be hanged by now.” I say Congress imported their leaders from abroad and now they are importing justice much like the pre-independence era in which foreign judges used to try freedom fighters. If I am hanged then this would be a mark of my loyalty to the nation and I would be proud of it. Swati: Earlier there used to be in a limit in political dialogue, but Sonia Gandhi referred to you as a "Merchant of Death." What would you say to this?
Modi: It all depends on who made that statement. Had the term been correct she (Sonia Gandhi) would have used it again but she didn’t. I don’t have anything to say against her.
Swati: Before the submission of the Nanavati report you made a statement that if anything was found against you in it you should be hanged?
Modi: After Gujarat riots I had written letters to the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court asking them to appoint a sitting judge to head the commission formed to investigate the riots. But they refused to appoint a sitting judge sighting workload on the courts as a reason. Later they suggested the name Justice Nanavati. The Nanavati Commission took six years to investigate the riots and cross examined witnesses before coming out with their report. This was the first commission which was given the right to probe a state’s Chief Minister as well as his colleagues. The report was prepared only after this. The same Justice Nanavati had headed the commission which investigated anti-Sikh riots and prepared the report. Congressmen liked that anti-Sikh riots report which gave them a clean chit but they do not like the Gujarat riots report. Swati: Congress and jurists alleged that this (Nanavati) Commission is a tainted commission and must be disbanded?
Modi: Congress has no moral rights to speak against any commission when they don’t even respect Supreme Court’s rulings. Be it against Afzal Guru’s pending hanging, Shah Bano case or cow protection act.
Swati: Marketing brand Modi in the state, you said I neither accept bribe nor let anyone accept it?
Modi: I did not market any brand, I am accountable to the people of Gujarat as the Chief Minister of the state and have to give an account to them as to what I have done in the last five years. And the above statement was one of the things I wanted to tell the people of Gujarat. Swati: Did this statement make you unpopular?
Modi: I don’t care about that.
Swati: And what are the problems you faced after making this statement?
Modi: Problems are part and parcel of political life. For example, earlier the advertising budget of media department of Gujarat was humongous but now I have slashed it. Wouldn’t media persons be annoyed with me?
Adaptation by: Abhishek
Is Hindu Culture on the Verge of Extinction?
Is Hindu Culture on the Verge of Extinction?
Hindu Dress is extinct. Saree is our of vogue. Men don't wear Dhoti in Hindu Karma Kanda. Hindu Head Gear is our of fashion. Hindu girls are cutting short their hairs. They are wearing vulgar ourfits like skin-tight jeans and tops. hindu boys no longer are doing tilak and keeping tuft. the tuft is even missing on the tops of the heads of hindu brahman priests.Youths don't like Hindu food. They don't observe the food prohibitions of our Shaastras. Fast food is hep. Many hindus don't feel qualms while eating beef and chicken. Hindus are supporting homosexuality which is forbidden by hindu law givers like manu, vishnu, yajnyavalkya and parasara. Live-In relationship has started among Hindus [not among muslims and christians] in big cities. vikram seth, amrtya sen, arundhoti roy are supporting homosexuality. films like fire and girl friend and water are sanctioned by hindu officers of congress to be screened all over india. hindus have stopped reading hindu literature. it is miracle to find a hindu youth who has read any scripture. while majority of muslims and chrstians youths read their scriptures.hindus have abandoned hindu manners. they have stopped namnaskar, pranam, dandvat, pailagi and have started hi, hello,bye etc...hindus of metros have forsaken their mother tongue. according to stats, 80% educated hindu youths don't speak in their mother tongue. forget about reading hindu language literature.hindus are developed a abhorrence for hindu music and art...western music, shakira, michael jackson and brit spears are the most palatable to hindu years instead of raga based hindu music of pandit jasraj, ravi shankar,sarod, sarangi etc..hindu traditional art [painting] has been overwhelmed by western art. today, m f hussain who paints vulgar, naked and obscene paintings of dieties and scences of hindu myhtology is awarded padma shri, raja ravi varma etchindus don't like hindu dancing anymore...seats are empty in the halls suring performances of odishi, bharat natyam and full during
9 Oct (2 days ago)
Shruti
halls are full during shows of sexy raunchy almost obscene and vulgar dance shows of rakhi sawant and mallika sheravat...hindu artists, musics and dancers are dying in penury...all these trends should raise one question in the minds of each and every hindu...-------is hindu culture and traditions endangerd? is hndu culture leading towards extinction?--
Hindu Dress is extinct. Saree is our of vogue. Men don't wear Dhoti in Hindu Karma Kanda. Hindu Head Gear is our of fashion. Hindu girls are cutting short their hairs. They are wearing vulgar ourfits like skin-tight jeans and tops. hindu boys no longer are doing tilak and keeping tuft. the tuft is even missing on the tops of the heads of hindu brahman priests.Youths don't like Hindu food. They don't observe the food prohibitions of our Shaastras. Fast food is hep. Many hindus don't feel qualms while eating beef and chicken. Hindus are supporting homosexuality which is forbidden by hindu law givers like manu, vishnu, yajnyavalkya and parasara. Live-In relationship has started among Hindus [not among muslims and christians] in big cities. vikram seth, amrtya sen, arundhoti roy are supporting homosexuality. films like fire and girl friend and water are sanctioned by hindu officers of congress to be screened all over india. hindus have stopped reading hindu literature. it is miracle to find a hindu youth who has read any scripture. while majority of muslims and chrstians youths read their scriptures.hindus have abandoned hindu manners. they have stopped namnaskar, pranam, dandvat, pailagi and have started hi, hello,bye etc...hindus of metros have forsaken their mother tongue. according to stats, 80% educated hindu youths don't speak in their mother tongue. forget about reading hindu language literature.hindus are developed a abhorrence for hindu music and art...western music, shakira, michael jackson and brit spears are the most palatable to hindu years instead of raga based hindu music of pandit jasraj, ravi shankar,sarod, sarangi etc..hindu traditional art [painting] has been overwhelmed by western art. today, m f hussain who paints vulgar, naked and obscene paintings of dieties and scences of hindu myhtology is awarded padma shri, raja ravi varma etchindus don't like hindu dancing anymore...seats are empty in the halls suring performances of odishi, bharat natyam and full during
9 Oct (2 days ago)
Shruti
halls are full during shows of sexy raunchy almost obscene and vulgar dance shows of rakhi sawant and mallika sheravat...hindu artists, musics and dancers are dying in penury...all these trends should raise one question in the minds of each and every hindu...-------is hindu culture and traditions endangerd? is hndu culture leading towards extinction?--
Friday, October 10, 2008
Eknathji and Spirituality
Eknathji and Spirituality
B. Nivedita
Swami Vivekananda talked of ‘Practical Vedanta’. Many persons like Swami Ranganathanandaji, Prof Kapila Chatterjee felt that Eknathji had understood the essence of Swami Vivekananda very aptly and had put it in action. Eknathji started Vivekananda Kendra an organisation which he has termed as a spiritually oriented service mission. Some persons also considered that the spiritual legacy of Sri Guruji was continued by Eknathji. With all this background it would be informative and inspiring to know how spirituality was expressed in the life of Eknathji. To put it in other words, real spirituality is always practical, vibrant and dynamic as is seen in life of Eknathji.
Unfortunately, due to various reasons, the foreign invasions and the all round degradation that had set in during British period, a spiritual nation like India had lost the real meaning of Spirituality. Spirituality in its degenerated and misinterpreted form got expressed in our nation in various degraded forms. Either it was other-worldliness or escapism from the duties and responsibilities, or sort of mental dependence or incapacity to be responsible for one’s own progress or by conforming only to the outward forms. Painfully, spirituality in a spiritual nation had become a refuge of hypocrites.
Other-worldliness or escapism is to shirk the responsibility of what is happening around us, not to be concerned and connected to the people around. This attitude expresses in many ways like not taking care of one’s own family or not bothering about society, nation and culture saying ‘whatever God wills will happen’. Many persons project even their lack of cleanliness either personal and of their surroundings as their spirituality. In society there are people who comment that ‘so and so is a very spiritual person. He never bothers to oil or comb his hair or does not even wear chappals, wears unkempt clothes’ etc. What is spirituality in this? Eknathji always stressed that if we are going to communicate the good thoughts then we should also be presentable. Not ostentatious but neatly and modestly dressed. Spirituality is expressed in care and respect we show even to our surroundings.
The other-worldly people say ‘what to do man proposes and god disposes.’ Eknathji never agreed with this. He used to take full one hour class for the Karyakartas saying it was other way round actually, ‘God proposes and man disposes’ by not rising to the occasions. He always stressed that the difficulties are opportunities in disguise. In Kendra Prarthana he has given this in two beautiful lines. ‘Iha Jagati sada natyaga sevatmabodhai bhavatu vihata vigna dhyeya marganuyatra.’ By continuous practice of Tyaga, Seva and Atmabodha (Tyga- renunciation of the ego that I have done this, seva- doing one’s duty with surrender and conviction that I am the instrument in the hands of God and Atmabodha - conviction that I am not body but all-pervading Atman so working with confidence and also feeling of oneness with others) we can transform the difficulties into opportunities. For him a spiritual person – a person with knowledge of the Self - Atmabodha – was one who took on difficulties and never ran away from it because this person knows that he has all the capacity – the Atmashakti – to solve, face and cross over that difficulty. Eknathji himself never avoided difficulties and calamities like for example the construction of Vivekananda Rock Memorial, the floods of 1950s in North East but with all preparation and precision he took on them and successfully transformed them into opportunities.
A really spiritual person is very active and not passive looking vacantly in the sky. Srikrishna, Srirama, Adi Shankaracharya, Sivaji Maharaj, Srimanta Shankardeva and Swami Vivekananda all these persons worked ceaselessly, responded to the challenges in not just in personal life but also in the social and national life. Eknathji also walked on the same path. For him spirituality was always expressed in responses to the situation around. Spirituality does not separate man from his surroundings but prepares and propels him to mould surrounding and situations as required and willed by God.
In Bhagawadgita while describing the spiritual person it is said that he is Nitytripto, Nirashrayah – always contented and not dependent on anything. Really this means tapping the inexhaustible source of happiness and strength that is within us. We see many so-called spiritual persons who in order to avoid taking responsibility for one’s own action or growth want to hide behind some pilgrimage or gurus or rituals. They do not want to strive but want a magic wand for their progress. Some persons find it difficult to be responsible for their actions and their own future. So they want to find ‘security’ in someone or something. Therefore continuously they want either some body is talking to them, or caring for them. It is reflected in certain habits like some people always want to talk to others on mobile. If a call does not come they feel neglected. Some just keep purchasing things so that they want to feel being valued on the cost of that. But no person or a thing can give that happiness permanently. Infinite happiness cannot come from finite things.
Actually such moments of restlessness, inadequacy or helplessness are the ones when we should turn to the inexhaustible source within us and not search happiness outside in persons or things. This is what Eknathji did in life and also guided the Karyakartas to do. In “Sadhana of Service” he says that, “All other help may fail, but there is a power within you which will never let you down. It is your own Self. Depend on it and march ahead with unceasing prayer to God to give you strength to fulfil His will”
Many times there is hypocrisy also in the practice of spirituality. A person may pose that he has no ego but the ego is very much there. For example some say ‘I do not want name or fame’ but their sense of owning one’s name and desire for fame do not go away. If a person whom they have developed starts respecting some other person also they feel hurt. But in Eknathji’s life it is seen that his humility of not having his name anywhere either written on Rock Memorial or even in the invitation card of inauguration program was real and not a faked one. When the time came for handing over the ferry service to Government he was unaffected and consoled other workers.
In the name of spirituality some persons sacrifice the interest of the collective/organisation like ‘this is my principle, I have given the word so I should do it’ or ‘how can I hurt so and so otherwise what he would think of me if I do not accept whatever suggestions are given by him?’ Or ‘What right I have to hurt others or it is sin to hurt others’ etc. In short, the principle is compromised under the name of spirituality but actually to cover one’s cowardice or incompetence or unwillingness to work harder. In Eknathji’s life, it is very amazing, he never compromised the interest of the organisation but he also maintained good relations with all types of persons. He believed that if our motives are pure then if we talk heart to heart we can always find a common ground to function together with any one. He could convince anyone to support the national cause he was working for. This is real spiritual power that you can work with anyone without compromising principles. The organisation and national interest was never sacrificed and yet people were brought together. This is real spiritual power and spiritual work which ultimately made him Ajatshatru He did not go in search of making himself Ajatshatru as that would have been selfish and ultimately defeating the very purpose for which he was working. .
For Eknathji the spirituality meant living in the present with higher aim. Even if harmed by others his heart never had one bad word or thought for that person. Even when the Christians opposed the building of Vivekananda Rock Memorial he never allowed any one to say that Christians opposed this work. But also he was a person who would not sacrifice the truth. He would say as well as made it a point that others in Rock Memorial Committee say that ‘a section of a Christian community had opposed the memorial’. Not that he had disregard to the temple but he worshipped the living God. Thus never he missed Shakha or meeting people or spreading the work of service as far as Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
Eknathji did not fall in the trap of ‘service’ as is established by the Christian missionaries where the weaknesses of the people like poverty, sickness, ignorance etc are exploited to serve their purpose of conversion. Eknathji termed such service as trade. An act of service which awakens the potential divinity in man is real service to an individual. But the supreme most act of service according to Eknathji was evolving rebuilding a nation with strife less society. Thus to Kendra Karyakartas he told that, “If we are merely a service-oriented organisation, we will have to pray to God to create cyclones, floods, famines and accidents to provide us opportunities of service. Service with a spiritual orientation results in man-making which is invariably and inseparably connected with nation-building.” A spiritual person who sees oneness everywhere alone could think of such deeper and wide-ranging concept of service. This is what has been the tradition of our country. But Eknathji understood internalised and then presented it so well that he created support from all sides for the work. A spiritual person does not pamper the weakness of others but really brings out the best in them, the higher qualities in them.
Eknathji knew how to harness the power of ‘here and now’. He was never seen lacking in the effort. In no undertaking it could be said that he did not do his best. Thus nothing was impossible for him. He was never seen complaining about others or the situation. He would fight with all his might for the desired result and if the result did not come at that time he would just smile and move ahead. For a person with patience, perseverance and purity the ultimate success is always assured. Free like an air, never he got stuck up with the happenings or persons or opinions or setbacks. More we study life of Eknathji we see really how real spirituality expresses in action and attainments.
B. Nivedita
Swami Vivekananda talked of ‘Practical Vedanta’. Many persons like Swami Ranganathanandaji, Prof Kapila Chatterjee felt that Eknathji had understood the essence of Swami Vivekananda very aptly and had put it in action. Eknathji started Vivekananda Kendra an organisation which he has termed as a spiritually oriented service mission. Some persons also considered that the spiritual legacy of Sri Guruji was continued by Eknathji. With all this background it would be informative and inspiring to know how spirituality was expressed in the life of Eknathji. To put it in other words, real spirituality is always practical, vibrant and dynamic as is seen in life of Eknathji.
Unfortunately, due to various reasons, the foreign invasions and the all round degradation that had set in during British period, a spiritual nation like India had lost the real meaning of Spirituality. Spirituality in its degenerated and misinterpreted form got expressed in our nation in various degraded forms. Either it was other-worldliness or escapism from the duties and responsibilities, or sort of mental dependence or incapacity to be responsible for one’s own progress or by conforming only to the outward forms. Painfully, spirituality in a spiritual nation had become a refuge of hypocrites.
Other-worldliness or escapism is to shirk the responsibility of what is happening around us, not to be concerned and connected to the people around. This attitude expresses in many ways like not taking care of one’s own family or not bothering about society, nation and culture saying ‘whatever God wills will happen’. Many persons project even their lack of cleanliness either personal and of their surroundings as their spirituality. In society there are people who comment that ‘so and so is a very spiritual person. He never bothers to oil or comb his hair or does not even wear chappals, wears unkempt clothes’ etc. What is spirituality in this? Eknathji always stressed that if we are going to communicate the good thoughts then we should also be presentable. Not ostentatious but neatly and modestly dressed. Spirituality is expressed in care and respect we show even to our surroundings.
The other-worldly people say ‘what to do man proposes and god disposes.’ Eknathji never agreed with this. He used to take full one hour class for the Karyakartas saying it was other way round actually, ‘God proposes and man disposes’ by not rising to the occasions. He always stressed that the difficulties are opportunities in disguise. In Kendra Prarthana he has given this in two beautiful lines. ‘Iha Jagati sada natyaga sevatmabodhai bhavatu vihata vigna dhyeya marganuyatra.’ By continuous practice of Tyaga, Seva and Atmabodha (Tyga- renunciation of the ego that I have done this, seva- doing one’s duty with surrender and conviction that I am the instrument in the hands of God and Atmabodha - conviction that I am not body but all-pervading Atman so working with confidence and also feeling of oneness with others) we can transform the difficulties into opportunities. For him a spiritual person – a person with knowledge of the Self - Atmabodha – was one who took on difficulties and never ran away from it because this person knows that he has all the capacity – the Atmashakti – to solve, face and cross over that difficulty. Eknathji himself never avoided difficulties and calamities like for example the construction of Vivekananda Rock Memorial, the floods of 1950s in North East but with all preparation and precision he took on them and successfully transformed them into opportunities.
A really spiritual person is very active and not passive looking vacantly in the sky. Srikrishna, Srirama, Adi Shankaracharya, Sivaji Maharaj, Srimanta Shankardeva and Swami Vivekananda all these persons worked ceaselessly, responded to the challenges in not just in personal life but also in the social and national life. Eknathji also walked on the same path. For him spirituality was always expressed in responses to the situation around. Spirituality does not separate man from his surroundings but prepares and propels him to mould surrounding and situations as required and willed by God.
In Bhagawadgita while describing the spiritual person it is said that he is Nitytripto, Nirashrayah – always contented and not dependent on anything. Really this means tapping the inexhaustible source of happiness and strength that is within us. We see many so-called spiritual persons who in order to avoid taking responsibility for one’s own action or growth want to hide behind some pilgrimage or gurus or rituals. They do not want to strive but want a magic wand for their progress. Some persons find it difficult to be responsible for their actions and their own future. So they want to find ‘security’ in someone or something. Therefore continuously they want either some body is talking to them, or caring for them. It is reflected in certain habits like some people always want to talk to others on mobile. If a call does not come they feel neglected. Some just keep purchasing things so that they want to feel being valued on the cost of that. But no person or a thing can give that happiness permanently. Infinite happiness cannot come from finite things.
Actually such moments of restlessness, inadequacy or helplessness are the ones when we should turn to the inexhaustible source within us and not search happiness outside in persons or things. This is what Eknathji did in life and also guided the Karyakartas to do. In “Sadhana of Service” he says that, “All other help may fail, but there is a power within you which will never let you down. It is your own Self. Depend on it and march ahead with unceasing prayer to God to give you strength to fulfil His will”
Many times there is hypocrisy also in the practice of spirituality. A person may pose that he has no ego but the ego is very much there. For example some say ‘I do not want name or fame’ but their sense of owning one’s name and desire for fame do not go away. If a person whom they have developed starts respecting some other person also they feel hurt. But in Eknathji’s life it is seen that his humility of not having his name anywhere either written on Rock Memorial or even in the invitation card of inauguration program was real and not a faked one. When the time came for handing over the ferry service to Government he was unaffected and consoled other workers.
In the name of spirituality some persons sacrifice the interest of the collective/organisation like ‘this is my principle, I have given the word so I should do it’ or ‘how can I hurt so and so otherwise what he would think of me if I do not accept whatever suggestions are given by him?’ Or ‘What right I have to hurt others or it is sin to hurt others’ etc. In short, the principle is compromised under the name of spirituality but actually to cover one’s cowardice or incompetence or unwillingness to work harder. In Eknathji’s life, it is very amazing, he never compromised the interest of the organisation but he also maintained good relations with all types of persons. He believed that if our motives are pure then if we talk heart to heart we can always find a common ground to function together with any one. He could convince anyone to support the national cause he was working for. This is real spiritual power that you can work with anyone without compromising principles. The organisation and national interest was never sacrificed and yet people were brought together. This is real spiritual power and spiritual work which ultimately made him Ajatshatru He did not go in search of making himself Ajatshatru as that would have been selfish and ultimately defeating the very purpose for which he was working. .
For Eknathji the spirituality meant living in the present with higher aim. Even if harmed by others his heart never had one bad word or thought for that person. Even when the Christians opposed the building of Vivekananda Rock Memorial he never allowed any one to say that Christians opposed this work. But also he was a person who would not sacrifice the truth. He would say as well as made it a point that others in Rock Memorial Committee say that ‘a section of a Christian community had opposed the memorial’. Not that he had disregard to the temple but he worshipped the living God. Thus never he missed Shakha or meeting people or spreading the work of service as far as Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
Eknathji did not fall in the trap of ‘service’ as is established by the Christian missionaries where the weaknesses of the people like poverty, sickness, ignorance etc are exploited to serve their purpose of conversion. Eknathji termed such service as trade. An act of service which awakens the potential divinity in man is real service to an individual. But the supreme most act of service according to Eknathji was evolving rebuilding a nation with strife less society. Thus to Kendra Karyakartas he told that, “If we are merely a service-oriented organisation, we will have to pray to God to create cyclones, floods, famines and accidents to provide us opportunities of service. Service with a spiritual orientation results in man-making which is invariably and inseparably connected with nation-building.” A spiritual person who sees oneness everywhere alone could think of such deeper and wide-ranging concept of service. This is what has been the tradition of our country. But Eknathji understood internalised and then presented it so well that he created support from all sides for the work. A spiritual person does not pamper the weakness of others but really brings out the best in them, the higher qualities in them.
Eknathji knew how to harness the power of ‘here and now’. He was never seen lacking in the effort. In no undertaking it could be said that he did not do his best. Thus nothing was impossible for him. He was never seen complaining about others or the situation. He would fight with all his might for the desired result and if the result did not come at that time he would just smile and move ahead. For a person with patience, perseverance and purity the ultimate success is always assured. Free like an air, never he got stuck up with the happenings or persons or opinions or setbacks. More we study life of Eknathji we see really how real spirituality expresses in action and attainments.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Ambedkar
The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
Ambedkar
The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.Dr.B.R.Ambedkar
सुजीत धर
Dr Sujit Dhar-All-India Vice- President of VHP, passed away06/10/2008 13:06:59 Dr R Brahmachari , VHP West Bengal
Dr Sujit Dhar passed away on passes away on October 5, 2008
Born on November 5, 1934 in Calcutta, Dr Sujit Dhar had a brilliant academic career all through his student life. A merit scholar in the undergraduate medical course in the Calcutta Medical College, from where he graduated in 1957, he topped the merit list in the postgraduate examination of the Calcutta University in the subject of his specialization Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases. He has to his credit 12 original scientific papers published in leading medical journals. For a long spell of 10 years (1964 – 73), he was the Chief of the Editorial Department of the Journal of the Indian Medical Association. Since 1974, he is practicing in Calcutta as a Consulted Physician and Cardiologist.
In his early boyhood he was attracted to RSS movement and as an ardent worker of the organization, shouldered various guidance of the Late Eknath Ranade from 1949 and it was at his behest that Dr Dhar became a Pracharak (a whole time worker) of RSS for 3 years (1960-63). In 1964, Dr Dhar joined Sri Ranade to work for the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Project. In 1970, when West Bengal was passing through a critical phase and the atmosphere was surcharged with violence and terror, a forum for rendering social services and fostering a nationalist intellectual movement was started in Calcutta under the name of “Yoyakshema”, and Dr Dhar was the General Secretary of this well-known and prestigious forum ever since its inception.
Besides being the Mahanagar Sanghachalak (President) of RSS, Calcutta, he was a member, Central Board of Trustees and an All-India Vice-President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad; Vice President, World Buddhist Cultural Foundation; Member of the Governing Council of the Rural Development and Research Project, New Delhi, Member of the Managing Committee of Deendayal Research Institute, New Delhi; All-India President of the National Medicos Organisation (NMO); Honorary Visiting Cardiologist of the B M Birla Heart Research Centre and the Vivekananda Sishu Kalyan Kendra; and was connected with many other social organizations. As the Convener-Secretary of the Purvanchal Council of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he had been closely watching the complex cross-currents operating in the sensitive and problem-ridden North-Eastern region of the country and disseminating valuable information on the subject to various all-India forums.
An impressive orator, who was equally fluent in Bengali, Hindi and English and published many articles in different national news magazines and journals. He was also known for his in-depth study of Bangladesh affairs. Recently, he took over the onerous duties of the General Secretary of the Seemanta Shanti O Suraksha Samiti, West Bengal, which had been set up in February 1986, to mobilize public opinion against the massive illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims in West Bengal.
Dr Sujit Dhar passed away on passes away on October 5, 2008
Born on November 5, 1934 in Calcutta, Dr Sujit Dhar had a brilliant academic career all through his student life. A merit scholar in the undergraduate medical course in the Calcutta Medical College, from where he graduated in 1957, he topped the merit list in the postgraduate examination of the Calcutta University in the subject of his specialization Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases. He has to his credit 12 original scientific papers published in leading medical journals. For a long spell of 10 years (1964 – 73), he was the Chief of the Editorial Department of the Journal of the Indian Medical Association. Since 1974, he is practicing in Calcutta as a Consulted Physician and Cardiologist.
In his early boyhood he was attracted to RSS movement and as an ardent worker of the organization, shouldered various guidance of the Late Eknath Ranade from 1949 and it was at his behest that Dr Dhar became a Pracharak (a whole time worker) of RSS for 3 years (1960-63). In 1964, Dr Dhar joined Sri Ranade to work for the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Project. In 1970, when West Bengal was passing through a critical phase and the atmosphere was surcharged with violence and terror, a forum for rendering social services and fostering a nationalist intellectual movement was started in Calcutta under the name of “Yoyakshema”, and Dr Dhar was the General Secretary of this well-known and prestigious forum ever since its inception.
Besides being the Mahanagar Sanghachalak (President) of RSS, Calcutta, he was a member, Central Board of Trustees and an All-India Vice-President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad; Vice President, World Buddhist Cultural Foundation; Member of the Governing Council of the Rural Development and Research Project, New Delhi, Member of the Managing Committee of Deendayal Research Institute, New Delhi; All-India President of the National Medicos Organisation (NMO); Honorary Visiting Cardiologist of the B M Birla Heart Research Centre and the Vivekananda Sishu Kalyan Kendra; and was connected with many other social organizations. As the Convener-Secretary of the Purvanchal Council of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he had been closely watching the complex cross-currents operating in the sensitive and problem-ridden North-Eastern region of the country and disseminating valuable information on the subject to various all-India forums.
An impressive orator, who was equally fluent in Bengali, Hindi and English and published many articles in different national news magazines and journals. He was also known for his in-depth study of Bangladesh affairs. Recently, he took over the onerous duties of the General Secretary of the Seemanta Shanti O Suraksha Samiti, West Bengal, which had been set up in February 1986, to mobilize public opinion against the massive illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims in West Bengal.
Gandhiji on conversion
Dear Congressmen and your other pseudo-secular friends, please note what Gandhiji has said on proselytization
The proselytization activities of foreign-funded Christian missionaries have remaineda sticking point in India – both before Independence and after. Even Mahatma Gandhi, who cannot be accused of having any ill-will towards Christianity, was constrained to say the following: “I disbelieve in the conversion of one person by another. My effort should never to be to undermine another's faith. This implies belief in the truth of all religions and, therefore, respect for them. It implies true humility.”(Young India: Apr. 23, 1931)
“It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?” (Harijan: January 30, 1937)
“I hold that proselytisation under the cloak of humanitarian work is unhealthy to say the least. It is most resented by people here. Religion after all is a deeply personal thing. It touches the heart… Why should I change my religion because the doctor who professes Christianity as his religion has cured me of some disease, or why should the doctor expect me to change whilst I am under his influence?” (Young India: April 23, 1931)
“As I wander about through the length and breadth of India I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans by Anglo-Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion.” (Young India: August 8, 1925)
“My fear is that though Christian friends nowadays do not say or admit it that Hindu religion is untrue, they must harbour in their breast that Hinduism is an error and that Christianity, as they believe it, is the only true religion. So far as one can understand the present (Christian) effort, it is to uproot Hinduism from her very foundation and replace it by another faith.” (Harijan: March 13,1937)
“If I had the power and could legislate, I should stop all proselytizing. In Hindu households the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink.” (Harijan: November 5, 1935)
The proselytization activities of foreign-funded Christian missionaries have remaineda sticking point in India – both before Independence and after. Even Mahatma Gandhi, who cannot be accused of having any ill-will towards Christianity, was constrained to say the following: “I disbelieve in the conversion of one person by another. My effort should never to be to undermine another's faith. This implies belief in the truth of all religions and, therefore, respect for them. It implies true humility.”(Young India: Apr. 23, 1931)
“It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?” (Harijan: January 30, 1937)
“I hold that proselytisation under the cloak of humanitarian work is unhealthy to say the least. It is most resented by people here. Religion after all is a deeply personal thing. It touches the heart… Why should I change my religion because the doctor who professes Christianity as his religion has cured me of some disease, or why should the doctor expect me to change whilst I am under his influence?” (Young India: April 23, 1931)
“As I wander about through the length and breadth of India I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans by Anglo-Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion.” (Young India: August 8, 1925)
“My fear is that though Christian friends nowadays do not say or admit it that Hindu religion is untrue, they must harbour in their breast that Hinduism is an error and that Christianity, as they believe it, is the only true religion. So far as one can understand the present (Christian) effort, it is to uproot Hinduism from her very foundation and replace it by another faith.” (Harijan: March 13,1937)
“If I had the power and could legislate, I should stop all proselytizing. In Hindu households the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink.” (Harijan: November 5, 1935)
Interview with P. Parameshwaran
Interview with P। Parameshwaran
For the media in Kerala, P. Parameshwaran is the director of Bharatiya Vichara Kendra and a ‘senior RSS ideologue’. But to those who have had a chance to
interact with him, Parameshwarji is much more than that.
Parameshwarji is an original thinker, organizer, author and also a poet. It was the genius of Parameshwarji, coupled with the organized work of RSS that firmly established Hindutva thinking and ideology in Kerala’s society. Parameshwarji has made the most significant contribution to the development of Hindutva thinking in the twentieth century in Kerala.
He is a keen observer of happenings around and his words of wisdom and sometimes warnings on various issues concerning our Nation and nationalism have often proved to be prophetic.
And to the Hindu organizations all over the world, Parameshwarji remains an eternal source of inspiration.
Born at Cherthala village in Alappuzha district in the year 1927, Parameshwarji completed his education in SB College Changanassery and University College Thiruvananthapuram. He came into contact with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during his student days, was also a favorite disciple of Agamananda Swamiji.
Parameshwarji became RSS Pracharak in 1950.He took over as organizing secretary of Jan Sangh in 1957.Jailed during Emergency. Parameshwarji worked as director of Deendayal Research Institute in New Delhi after coming out of prison.
Parameshwarji is presently carrying out his mission as the Director of Bharatiya Vichara Kendra and as the President of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari. He also keeps his close association with Sri Ramakrishna Mutt and Advaita Ashram, Kalady.
Parameshwarji has won many awards and recognitions. In 2004,the Indian President conferred ‘Padma Sri’ upon him as recognition of his valuable contributions to the society.
He has authored many books in Malayalam and English. ”Beyond all isms to Humanism” is one of the famous works. His books on Maharishi Aurobindo , Chatrapathi Shivaji and Swami Vivekananda’s teachings are well acclaimed.Parameshwarji’s words are today considered as the authentic voice of Hindu nationalist forces. In this exclusive and candid interview to ‘Haindava Keralam,’ Parameshwarji speaks on a wide range of subjects concerning the state of our nation, politics and challenges faced by Hindutva.
Q: Parameshwarji, The Hindu community in Kerala is today facing a lot of discrimination, neglect and adverse situations. The latest example being the recently convened special session of the state legislature to discuss Mullaperiyar dam issue. While this session found time to unanimously pass a resolution demanding Abdul Nazer Madani’s (accused in Coimbatore serial bomb blast) freedom, no one in the Assembly demanded a discussion on the Marad Commission report that probed into the slaughter of 8 Hindus on Marad beach 3 years ago. How do you react to this double standard?
A: Marad is a symbol. Godhra was another. In Godhra, a very serious terrorist act took place and the government appointed a commission to enquire into the incident. In between, the Railway Ministry also set up a commission of enquiry. The final reports from both the commissions are yet to be submitted. However a gist of an interim enquiry report was announced in a press conference and suddenly even the Parliament geared up to discuss this interim report. At last the Gujarat High Court had to intervene to stop this anti-constitutional move.
On the other hand, the Kerala government is today in possession of Marad enquiry final report, submitted by Justice Mohandas Commission after conducting a detailed investigation into the gruesome massacre. But the state government had not bothered even to let out a gist of the probe report. And no one is demanding it!
The two issues are glaring examples of double standards adopted by the so-called secular parties towards Hindu community all over the country. And Kerala is no exception. Today our state is witnessing a historic evolution (if you can call it that way). Kerala is fast losing it’s traditional Hindu characteristics. Hindus, who form 56% of the population, have become insignificant in all spheres of life. On the other hand, the minorities are tightening their grip on the society. Political parties belonging to both the United Democratic Front and Left Democratic Front are responsible for the marginalization of Hindus in Kerala.
No one speaks about this discrimination, no one is bothered. On the contrary, if there is any move for Hindu unity, political conspirators overtly and covertly, try to torpedo such initiatives as it happened in the case of S.N.D.P- N.S.S sponsored Hindu unity efforts.
But this same bunch of politicians go out of the way to satisfy the just and unjust demands made by political parties or organizations with minority support base.
Q: Do you see any Hindu backlash in the next assembly polls to this marginalization of the community?
A: See, there is a growing realization among Hindus, belonging to various political parties that the community is being marginalized and neglected in the state. They also agree that this could lead to other serious repercussion and Kerala could become another Kashmir sooner or later.
But always, the problem that Hindus face is, the lack of a strong leadership to unify Hindus to take forward the community and face the challenges.
Q: If I say that even the B.J.P, a party that sees Hindu community as it’s support base, has failed in taking the lead for the Hindus, how would you react to that, especially in Kerala’s context?
A: The B.J.P in Kerala will have no future if they do not take into account the aspirations and needs of Hindus, because they are depend on Hindu nationalist power for support. If they neglect this support base, their existence itself would become irrelevant.The B.J.P should get this message right. They should not only understand this, but also show pragmatism to win the confidence of Hindus and ability to face the challenges for them.
Q: Parameshwarji, you know that recent Hindu unity efforts initiated by the N.S.S and S.N.D.P. ran into rough weather and how do you analyze this?
A: It is history repeating. The Hindu Mahamandalam set up in 1950’s had raised much hope. However political schemers saw to it that the move failed. The recent unity move also faced the same fate due to the same reasons. This is the bad fate of Hindu community.
Q: How do you react to the growing extremist activities in the state and government apathy and insensitiveness towards this trend?
A: The laxity on government’s part and insensitiveness of political parties towards the growing extremist activities in the state can be only attributed to vote bank politics. But they do not realize that Kerala could become another Kashmir tomorrow and the same political parties could be at the receiving end.
Even today in places like Kannur ,the CPI (M), which has a long history of helping Muslim extremist groups, is facing the music from them. This could repeat everywhere tomorrow. The political organizations helping Muslim extremism for petty political gains may be doing this at their peril.
Q: Coming to the national scene, do you feel that the UPA government has failed in protecting national interests vis-à-vis our international commitments?
A: I don’t think the UPA government is today formulating and implementing a foreign policy based on a perspective to protect our national interest. Many prominent personalities in our national polity and governance owe their allegiance to western countries and their institutions where they were educated. Their western mindset is bound to contaminate on policies formulated by them. This ruling elite has their submissive mentality towards western culture on one side. On the other hand they have to pamper the Muslim nations to win over the sizable Muslim community in the country. See, who was the chief guest in this year’s Republic day parade? The head of a Muslim theocratic state like Saudi Arabia was invited by the largest democratic nation to witness its Republic day celebrations!
Q: Recently when there were violent protests in the Muslim world over prophet Mohammed’s cartoon, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called it a war of civilizations. How do we protect our national interest in this emerging conflict?
A: US thinker Samuel P Huntington first put the idea of clash of civilizations forward. On one side, are the Muslim nations and on the other side are the western countries, most of them officially Christian nations. The clash has been continuing for ages. President Bush today even calls his aggressions as Crusades.
European nations are today a worried lot. They are much concerned about the fast growing Muslim population in the western world. According to a recent scientific study, at least 20% of the European population would be Muslim by the year 2025.
The fact that the percentage of youngsters in the non-Muslim population in Europe is fast declining and among the Muslims it shows the reverse trend, adds a new dimension to the whole issue. Today Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.
Q: How do we protect our national interest in this delicate and difficult scenario?
A: We need not depend on anybody to safeguard our national interest. We need to build up a nation based on our cultural heritage that is militarily, economically and socially strong. Considering our human and national resources, taking our own history and resilience into account this is not a difficult task. But we need to have strong political will to achieve this task.
Q: But Parameshwarji, far from achieving this, today we are not able to create an atmosphere that suits our national interest even in the neighboring Nepal?
A: Our Nepal policy is neither conducive of India’s interests or that country’s. We should understand that the Maoists are behind today’s imbalance in Nepal, though the struggle is in the name of ‘restoration of democracy’. When you say Maoists their Chinese connection is amply clear. Maoists are terrorists and have never stood for democracy.
With China’s support Maoists have today successfully established a ‘red corridor’ starting from Nepal, running through Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Hence, if Maoist struggle in Nepal succeeds in toppling the present regime, the repercussions would be seen here too. The Naxalites in India will overcome their major hurdle-the inability to receive arms support directly from China.
At the same time, a Muslim corridor, starting from Assam, cutting across northern India extending up to Pakistan, is also emerging. This is another planned attempt. If we do not rise to the occasion and face these challenges, India may be moving towards another civil war and partition.
Q: Parameshwarji, coming back to Kerala, you had earlier mentioned about growing extremist activities in the state. Other than vote bank politics, what are the other reasons that can be attributed to their growing threat?
A: The growing pan-Islamic movement and their agents have a free run in our state especially our sea-shores. weapons and other contraband items are being smuggled in through our shores without much hindrance.
Secondly the young generation among the Muslims is today attracted towards extremism. They also have strong infrastructure to promote and propagate their ideology. The free flow of funds from abroad is another major attraction.
This is true regarding Christian institutions too. Though they do not show an overt leniency towards extreme political moves, Christians are today dominating all spheres of life in the state including political power and economy. They also have an unhindered and unchecked flow of funds to achieve their goals. Q: While this has been continuing on one side, the Hindu movement seems to have weakened in the state. The resurgence of Hindu pride that we saw in 80’s and 90’s appears to have lost their momentum?
A: That is not true. Hindu organizations are continuing their work in the state in a systematic manner. And they have not weakened. But the onslaught from Muslims and Christians coupled with our problems like lack of unity among various sections and lack of financial strength are creating difficulty for Hindu society.
Q: Parameshwarji, since most of our readers are NRI s, what would like to say as a message to them?
A: My message to Hindus living abroad are to keep their traditions, culture, and belief intact in foreign lands and cultivate these qualities in their younger generation born and brought up there. Be proud to be a Hindu.
Secondly they should also keep a close watch on the developments in the country and the state and on the threats faced by the Hindu society today. They should keep a close association with Hindu organizations and help in whatever way they can.
Q: Finally two questions, you have devoted your entire life to the Hindu cause. What is your greatest regret or worry in life?
A: No regret personally…(laughs).
My greatest worry is about the lack of an effective and bold leadership among Hindus in Kerala capable to stand up and fight against the threats faced by the society. But I am confident that it will emerge very soon.
Q: And what is the greatest achievement or something that has given you a sense of fulfillment in life?
A: My greatest achievement? It is of course the opportunity that I got to associate and work for an organization like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Without the Sangh and its activities spread over all spheres of social life today, I dread to think what would have been the state of our society today.
Interviewed by Ajith Gopal
For the media in Kerala, P. Parameshwaran is the director of Bharatiya Vichara Kendra and a ‘senior RSS ideologue’. But to those who have had a chance to
interact with him, Parameshwarji is much more than that.
Parameshwarji is an original thinker, organizer, author and also a poet. It was the genius of Parameshwarji, coupled with the organized work of RSS that firmly established Hindutva thinking and ideology in Kerala’s society. Parameshwarji has made the most significant contribution to the development of Hindutva thinking in the twentieth century in Kerala.
He is a keen observer of happenings around and his words of wisdom and sometimes warnings on various issues concerning our Nation and nationalism have often proved to be prophetic.
And to the Hindu organizations all over the world, Parameshwarji remains an eternal source of inspiration.
Born at Cherthala village in Alappuzha district in the year 1927, Parameshwarji completed his education in SB College Changanassery and University College Thiruvananthapuram. He came into contact with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during his student days, was also a favorite disciple of Agamananda Swamiji.
Parameshwarji became RSS Pracharak in 1950.He took over as organizing secretary of Jan Sangh in 1957.Jailed during Emergency. Parameshwarji worked as director of Deendayal Research Institute in New Delhi after coming out of prison.
Parameshwarji is presently carrying out his mission as the Director of Bharatiya Vichara Kendra and as the President of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari. He also keeps his close association with Sri Ramakrishna Mutt and Advaita Ashram, Kalady.
Parameshwarji has won many awards and recognitions. In 2004,the Indian President conferred ‘Padma Sri’ upon him as recognition of his valuable contributions to the society.
He has authored many books in Malayalam and English. ”Beyond all isms to Humanism” is one of the famous works. His books on Maharishi Aurobindo , Chatrapathi Shivaji and Swami Vivekananda’s teachings are well acclaimed.Parameshwarji’s words are today considered as the authentic voice of Hindu nationalist forces. In this exclusive and candid interview to ‘Haindava Keralam,’ Parameshwarji speaks on a wide range of subjects concerning the state of our nation, politics and challenges faced by Hindutva.
Q: Parameshwarji, The Hindu community in Kerala is today facing a lot of discrimination, neglect and adverse situations. The latest example being the recently convened special session of the state legislature to discuss Mullaperiyar dam issue. While this session found time to unanimously pass a resolution demanding Abdul Nazer Madani’s (accused in Coimbatore serial bomb blast) freedom, no one in the Assembly demanded a discussion on the Marad Commission report that probed into the slaughter of 8 Hindus on Marad beach 3 years ago. How do you react to this double standard?
A: Marad is a symbol. Godhra was another. In Godhra, a very serious terrorist act took place and the government appointed a commission to enquire into the incident. In between, the Railway Ministry also set up a commission of enquiry. The final reports from both the commissions are yet to be submitted. However a gist of an interim enquiry report was announced in a press conference and suddenly even the Parliament geared up to discuss this interim report. At last the Gujarat High Court had to intervene to stop this anti-constitutional move.
On the other hand, the Kerala government is today in possession of Marad enquiry final report, submitted by Justice Mohandas Commission after conducting a detailed investigation into the gruesome massacre. But the state government had not bothered even to let out a gist of the probe report. And no one is demanding it!
The two issues are glaring examples of double standards adopted by the so-called secular parties towards Hindu community all over the country. And Kerala is no exception. Today our state is witnessing a historic evolution (if you can call it that way). Kerala is fast losing it’s traditional Hindu characteristics. Hindus, who form 56% of the population, have become insignificant in all spheres of life. On the other hand, the minorities are tightening their grip on the society. Political parties belonging to both the United Democratic Front and Left Democratic Front are responsible for the marginalization of Hindus in Kerala.
No one speaks about this discrimination, no one is bothered. On the contrary, if there is any move for Hindu unity, political conspirators overtly and covertly, try to torpedo such initiatives as it happened in the case of S.N.D.P- N.S.S sponsored Hindu unity efforts.
But this same bunch of politicians go out of the way to satisfy the just and unjust demands made by political parties or organizations with minority support base.
Q: Do you see any Hindu backlash in the next assembly polls to this marginalization of the community?
A: See, there is a growing realization among Hindus, belonging to various political parties that the community is being marginalized and neglected in the state. They also agree that this could lead to other serious repercussion and Kerala could become another Kashmir sooner or later.
But always, the problem that Hindus face is, the lack of a strong leadership to unify Hindus to take forward the community and face the challenges.
Q: If I say that even the B.J.P, a party that sees Hindu community as it’s support base, has failed in taking the lead for the Hindus, how would you react to that, especially in Kerala’s context?
A: The B.J.P in Kerala will have no future if they do not take into account the aspirations and needs of Hindus, because they are depend on Hindu nationalist power for support. If they neglect this support base, their existence itself would become irrelevant.The B.J.P should get this message right. They should not only understand this, but also show pragmatism to win the confidence of Hindus and ability to face the challenges for them.
Q: Parameshwarji, you know that recent Hindu unity efforts initiated by the N.S.S and S.N.D.P. ran into rough weather and how do you analyze this?
A: It is history repeating. The Hindu Mahamandalam set up in 1950’s had raised much hope. However political schemers saw to it that the move failed. The recent unity move also faced the same fate due to the same reasons. This is the bad fate of Hindu community.
Q: How do you react to the growing extremist activities in the state and government apathy and insensitiveness towards this trend?
A: The laxity on government’s part and insensitiveness of political parties towards the growing extremist activities in the state can be only attributed to vote bank politics. But they do not realize that Kerala could become another Kashmir tomorrow and the same political parties could be at the receiving end.
Even today in places like Kannur ,the CPI (M), which has a long history of helping Muslim extremist groups, is facing the music from them. This could repeat everywhere tomorrow. The political organizations helping Muslim extremism for petty political gains may be doing this at their peril.
Q: Coming to the national scene, do you feel that the UPA government has failed in protecting national interests vis-à-vis our international commitments?
A: I don’t think the UPA government is today formulating and implementing a foreign policy based on a perspective to protect our national interest. Many prominent personalities in our national polity and governance owe their allegiance to western countries and their institutions where they were educated. Their western mindset is bound to contaminate on policies formulated by them. This ruling elite has their submissive mentality towards western culture on one side. On the other hand they have to pamper the Muslim nations to win over the sizable Muslim community in the country. See, who was the chief guest in this year’s Republic day parade? The head of a Muslim theocratic state like Saudi Arabia was invited by the largest democratic nation to witness its Republic day celebrations!
Q: Recently when there were violent protests in the Muslim world over prophet Mohammed’s cartoon, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called it a war of civilizations. How do we protect our national interest in this emerging conflict?
A: US thinker Samuel P Huntington first put the idea of clash of civilizations forward. On one side, are the Muslim nations and on the other side are the western countries, most of them officially Christian nations. The clash has been continuing for ages. President Bush today even calls his aggressions as Crusades.
European nations are today a worried lot. They are much concerned about the fast growing Muslim population in the western world. According to a recent scientific study, at least 20% of the European population would be Muslim by the year 2025.
The fact that the percentage of youngsters in the non-Muslim population in Europe is fast declining and among the Muslims it shows the reverse trend, adds a new dimension to the whole issue. Today Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.
Q: How do we protect our national interest in this delicate and difficult scenario?
A: We need not depend on anybody to safeguard our national interest. We need to build up a nation based on our cultural heritage that is militarily, economically and socially strong. Considering our human and national resources, taking our own history and resilience into account this is not a difficult task. But we need to have strong political will to achieve this task.
Q: But Parameshwarji, far from achieving this, today we are not able to create an atmosphere that suits our national interest even in the neighboring Nepal?
A: Our Nepal policy is neither conducive of India’s interests or that country’s. We should understand that the Maoists are behind today’s imbalance in Nepal, though the struggle is in the name of ‘restoration of democracy’. When you say Maoists their Chinese connection is amply clear. Maoists are terrorists and have never stood for democracy.
With China’s support Maoists have today successfully established a ‘red corridor’ starting from Nepal, running through Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Hence, if Maoist struggle in Nepal succeeds in toppling the present regime, the repercussions would be seen here too. The Naxalites in India will overcome their major hurdle-the inability to receive arms support directly from China.
At the same time, a Muslim corridor, starting from Assam, cutting across northern India extending up to Pakistan, is also emerging. This is another planned attempt. If we do not rise to the occasion and face these challenges, India may be moving towards another civil war and partition.
Q: Parameshwarji, coming back to Kerala, you had earlier mentioned about growing extremist activities in the state. Other than vote bank politics, what are the other reasons that can be attributed to their growing threat?
A: The growing pan-Islamic movement and their agents have a free run in our state especially our sea-shores. weapons and other contraband items are being smuggled in through our shores without much hindrance.
Secondly the young generation among the Muslims is today attracted towards extremism. They also have strong infrastructure to promote and propagate their ideology. The free flow of funds from abroad is another major attraction.
This is true regarding Christian institutions too. Though they do not show an overt leniency towards extreme political moves, Christians are today dominating all spheres of life in the state including political power and economy. They also have an unhindered and unchecked flow of funds to achieve their goals. Q: While this has been continuing on one side, the Hindu movement seems to have weakened in the state. The resurgence of Hindu pride that we saw in 80’s and 90’s appears to have lost their momentum?
A: That is not true. Hindu organizations are continuing their work in the state in a systematic manner. And they have not weakened. But the onslaught from Muslims and Christians coupled with our problems like lack of unity among various sections and lack of financial strength are creating difficulty for Hindu society.
Q: Parameshwarji, since most of our readers are NRI s, what would like to say as a message to them?
A: My message to Hindus living abroad are to keep their traditions, culture, and belief intact in foreign lands and cultivate these qualities in their younger generation born and brought up there. Be proud to be a Hindu.
Secondly they should also keep a close watch on the developments in the country and the state and on the threats faced by the Hindu society today. They should keep a close association with Hindu organizations and help in whatever way they can.
Q: Finally two questions, you have devoted your entire life to the Hindu cause. What is your greatest regret or worry in life?
A: No regret personally…(laughs).
My greatest worry is about the lack of an effective and bold leadership among Hindus in Kerala capable to stand up and fight against the threats faced by the society. But I am confident that it will emerge very soon.
Q: And what is the greatest achievement or something that has given you a sense of fulfillment in life?
A: My greatest achievement? It is of course the opportunity that I got to associate and work for an organization like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Without the Sangh and its activities spread over all spheres of social life today, I dread to think what would have been the state of our society today.
Interviewed by Ajith Gopal
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