India Prasthutha

Sanskrit in the Mottos of some popular organizations

2007-10-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the prevailing "secular" atmosphere in the country, there was a huge hue and cry in the media about the recent ruling of Allahbad High Court on Gita as a national dharm granth. Secularism has now become equal to the negation of any kind of religious symbolism. So I did a small search of the Mottos of various organization in India. Surprisingly many of the Mottos, including that of our Indian State itself (Satyameva Jayate) are in Sanskrit and taken from Hindu Scriptures like Gita and Upanishads.

People who are shocked at the mere reference by a "secular" court to a "religious" Gita may ponder on these:

S.No	Organization	Motto			Meaning
1.	Indian Navy	Shano Varuna			May the Lord of the Oceans be Auspicious Unto Us (Tattraiya Upanishad)
2.	Indian Air Force	Nabha Sparsham Deeptam			Touching the Sky With Glory (Gita 11:24)
3.	Indian Coast Guard	vayam rakShaamaH			We protect (Bala kanda of Valmiki Ramayana)
4.	Reserve Bank of India - Bankers Training College	buddhau sharaNam anvichcha			Seek Refuge in Reason - Let intelligence be thy sole quest (Gita 2:49)
5.	Life Insurance Corporation of India	yogakshemam vahaamyaham			I shall take care of the well-being (Gita 9:22)
6.	Defence Service Staff College	Yuddham pragayya			To war with wisdom
Some Army Units
7.	The Madras Regiment	Swadharme Nidhanam Shreyaha		It is a glory to die doing one’s duty
8.	Grenadiers Regiment	Sarvada Shaktishali		Ever Powerful
9.	The Rajputana Rifles	Veer Bhogya Vasundhara		The Brave Shall Reap the Earth
10.	The Dogra Regiment	Kartavyam Anvatma		Duty Before Death
11.	The Garhwal Rifles	Yudhaya Krit Nischya		Fight With Determination
12.	The Kumaon Regiment	Prakramo Vijayate		Valour Triumphs
13.	The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles	Prashata Ranvirta		Valour in Battle is Praiseworthy
14.	The Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry	Balidanam Vir Lakshanam		Sacrifice is a Sign of the Brave
Universities
15.	Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad		Vidya Viniyogadvikāsaha
16.	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore		Tejasvi Nāvadhitamastu
17.	Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode		Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam
18.	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay		Gyanam Paramam Dhyeyam
19.	Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur		Tamaso Mā Jyotirgamaya
20.	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur		Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam
21.	Indian Institute of Technology Madras		Siddhirbhavati Karmaja
22.	Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee		Shramam Binam Na Kimapi Sādhyam
23.	Kendriya Vidyalaya		Tat Twam Pushan Apavrinu
24.	Central Board of Secondary Education		Asato Ma Sadgamaya
25.	Bengal Engineering & Science University,Shibpur		Uttisthita Jagrata Prapya Baraan Nibidhata
26.	Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani		Jnanam Paramam Balam
27.	Gujarat National Law University		Aa Na Bhadro, Kratavo Yantu Vishwata
28.	Indian Statistical Institute		Bhanineshvaikyasay Darshanam
29.	Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya		Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat
30.	Madan Mohan Malaviya Engineering College, Gorakhpur		Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam
31.	Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad		Siddhirbhavati Karmaja
32.	National Law School of India University		Dharmo Rakshati Rakshata
33.	Sri Sathya Sai University		Sathyam vada dharmam chara
34.	Sri Venkateswara University		jnanam samyaga vekshanam
35.	University of Calicut		Nirmaya Karmana Sree
36.	University of Colombo (Sri Lanka)		buddhih sarvatra brājate
37.	University of Delhi		Nishtā drithih Satyam
38.	University of Kerala		Karmani Vyajyate Prajna
39.	University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka)		Vidyaiwa Sarwadhanam
40.	University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka)		Sarvasva Locanam Sāstram
41.	University of Rajasthan		Dharmo Vishwasya Jagatah Pratishtha
42.	Sri Venkateswara University		jnanam samyaga vekshanam
43.	Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur		Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam
44.	West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences		Yuktiheena Vicharetu Dharmahnih Prajayate
45.	Andhra University		Tejasvi Nāvadhitamastu
46.	Banasthali Vidyapith		Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye

PS: Thanks to the following sites for helping me as a good starting points.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Military_Unit_Mottoes_by_Country#India

http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/great-sanskrit-hymns/

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-educational-institutions-which-have-sanskrit-phrases-as-their-mottoes

Smasana Vairagya case of Independence Day

2007-08-13T03:56:00.001-07:00

Smasana Vairagya is one of the nyayas in the Sanskrit literature and means “burial ground renunciation”

The elaboration to it is that a person once was passing through a burial ground. Seeing the burning bodies there, all the same manner immaterial of greatness or the inferiority of the person when he was alive, he was stuck with the temporal nature of this world. He was then overtaken by immense vairagya (sense of renunciation and distaste for world). He then walked four steps ahead, came back in the regular world and forgetting all that earlier feeling, started to indulge himself fully in his regular activities.

This nyaya or simile is used wherever one shows momentary enthu for something in the impulse of the moment, but forgets all about it later.

This is also very pertinent to our “Independence Day” frenzy. Come Independence Day or Republic Day and the whole media goes frenzy with “patriotism”; the mails boxes are filled with spam; orkut threads are full of messages telling other people to keep Indian flag as their DP etc etc.

We do require occasions to celebrate our nationhood and to remind ourselves of our responsibilities as citizens. However we should avoid the danger of confusing the reminder of a responsibility with the responsibility itself.

Is nationalistic feeling something that is done by seeing some patriotic movie twice a year, speak some great words and then it is “business as usual” for the rest of the year?

Agreed, it is better to think of our nation at least twice a year, than to completely forget it; but nationalistic spirit should not be degraded to these superficial things. Our national responsibility is much more than attending a flag hoisting ceremony or watching a movie twice a year.

Left-wing extremism: The "root causes" trap

2007-07-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Recent cover story by Indian Express on Left-wing extremism in India brought the looming danger on India to the fore-front once again. There was also an old article of Arun Shourie on the same topic.

I don't need to discuss how big the threat is. I wish to focus on the usual 'justifications' provided to this phenomenon by left-leaning intellectuals, like - it is "poverty" or "caste" that is the "root cause".

There is no denying the fact that there are some critical ground level problems like poverty and caste which need to be dealt with in combating naxal problem. However, to lay the entire blame on these factors alone will be over simplification. There are many many more factors which increase which this problem. Some of them being:

1. Development is not just State’s but your responsibility. Most of the complaints of the left-wing extremists border along the lines that the state did not provide them the necessities. But it is not State’s business to provide you, it is also yours.

In most of the instances in history, commie anger is more a result of laziness to work, instead of deprivement. When India became independent, Bihar, Bengal were some of the most advanced states; while many states like Maharastra, Gujarat, A.P were far behind. Later, some people worked hard for their development, and naturally developed; some others waited for free lunches from govt, and took to arms when they did not get it.

Factor which makes the difference here: Ideology, not ‘poverty’.

2. Armed struggle as a valid means to archive ones’ goals Take the case study of Kerala and Bihar. A century back, both of them had worst kind of caste-problem. Swami Vivekananda even goes to the extent of calling Kerala “lunatic asylum” of those days for that reason. But thanks to the efforts of people like Narayana Guru, Kerala demonstrated a path to social emancipation without invoking the dualism of the oppressed and the oppressor. Bihar on the other hand took the path of conflict and of violence as a valid means to archive its goals and the result is worse than what was initially the condition.

Factor which makes the difference here: Ideology, not ‘caste’.

3. Lack of differentiation between State and Government. State comprises of all the constitution, legislation, executive, judicial etc institutions. Whereas Government is a sort of tenant of the state, and goes in accordance to the constitution and customs of the state.

They may be angry with some political party or regional group. But they hate not just those governmental things, but the properties of whole state. They target railways, factories, etc etc. These are not govt. properties, these are state properties. So their anger against a political party or a regional group turns into anger not just for them alone, but against the whole "Republic of India".

Factor which makes the difference here: Ideology, not ‘poverty’.

4. Working within system vs working outside system. Democracy does not mean that every citizen thinks alike. There are bound to be differences. I too have lot of things in the Indian constitution and laws which I don’t agree with. The point is how you go about the differences.

It is like a large family. If you have an opinion different from the majority of the family members, you can exert your best to convince the others to your opinion; but meanwhile as long as the functioning of the family is concerned, I will happily submit myself to the majority opinion. Change in the system I want, but through the system; not by splitting up and waging a war against the former.

Factor which makes the difference here: Ideology, not ‘poverty’.

There are many more factors like this. If we neglect all these factors and only harp on they being 'marginalized', I strongly feel that we are aggravating the present situation and sowing seed for future problems.

Stuff like unemployment etc may be the contributing factors. But there are many more communist ideological factors which complete the journey from "want of bread and dignity" to "want to overthrow the Indian state in an armed struggle". The question we should ask ourselves is "can we afford to neglect these factors and continue to spread the auro of permissiveness?"

Republic day, Dr. BR Ambedkar & Tasleema Nasreen

2007-01-28T05:17:00.000-08:00

Republic day & Dr. B R Ambedkar is fine; but how did Tasleema Nasreen come to the picture, that must be the first doubt right? I read this article by Tasleema Nasreen called “Lets burn the burqa” recently. The essence of the article can be summarized from her following statement- “women too have sexual urges. So why didn't Allah start the purdah for men? Clearly, He treated them on unequal terms”. Tasleema Nasreen has been fighting sexual discrimination in Islam for decades now. She was ostracized from Bangladesh, Fatwas were issued but nothing deterred her from continuing her fight. And, she still is in the system & fighting. And that takes us to the next question, how is it vis-à-vis with Dr. Ambedkar?

Jan 26^th was our Republic day; surely everyone must remember Dr. Ambedkar for his contribution in drafting our constitution. It is different question altogether that how suitable is our constitution to our country? I remember Shri Gurumurthy saying - It is a respectable document alright, but not necessarily the most suitable one. Because section by section was taken as it is from the constitution of the West. What suits the West does not necessarily suit India. Nevertheless, Dr. Ambedkar is the father of our constitution & he must be revered. But how many of us know that he was against the Independence of India? Yes, he was!! Reason – If India gets the independence, his community will suffer from caste based discrimination. India government will not do as much as English men to prevent it. To know more about this read “Worshipping False Gods” by Arun Shourie.

Its history now that Dr. Ambedkar completed the drafting of our constitution & we had our first Republic day on Jan 26^th, 1950. Later in 1956 Ambedkar, in the name of fighting discrimination, got converted to Buddhism along with his 400000 followers. Now that is the difference between staying within the system & fighting, and running away from the system. Ambedkar might have suffered lot more from the society than Tasleema Nasreen. In spite of that, my respect would have gone up hundred times had he stayed within Hinduism. Even then I have reverence for him because he got converted to Buddhism & not to Christianity or Islam. Surely he knew the difference. In a country where sword is used by Islam to convert & luring is used by Christianity, conversion of Ambedkar to any one of these religions would have led to mayhem. Thousands of so called backward classes would no longer have been Hindus. This is what they must understand clearly. Why did Dr. Ambedkar chose Buddhism over Christianity or Islam? When the answer to this is understood, problems of conversion subside on its own.

And thanks to my friend Karthik, he sent some more facts & corrections. Here they are

Dear Ananda,

A quick observation: Ambedkar did not have a huge following in his own time. Even in 1946, he needed Muslim support to fight elections. He was merely a leader of the Mahar community. He did not matter to other Harijans. He considered converting to Christianity, and toured the churches in Kerala. Inexplicably, he embraced Buddhism in death bed.

Why?

The clue comes from who backs the conversions to "Buddhism" today: the Christian missionaries - to be precise, American missionaries. It was a perfect script written by the American missionaries and executed by Ambedkar. What could have been the reason?

Since Ambedkar did not enjoy much support among Harijans, his conversion to Christianity would not have brought a harvest. It would have actually eliminated a potential weapon, Dalits, from being deployed against Hinduism. But his conversion to pseudo-Buddhism would have been a long-term investment in destabilizing Hinduism.

Regards,
Karthik

After knowing this, even the little reverence that I had for Ambedkar is gone !!

Dharma- Individual Collectivism

2007-01-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

The cold war conflict between capitalism represented by US and communism represented by Russia may be a twentieth century phenomenon, but the conflict of the ideas each were representing was not. The conflict between individualism and collectivism is probably as old as the human history.

On one side is the extreme form of individualism where an individual’s interests hold supreme even at the cost of others in the society; where an individual can amass as much resources as he can just coz he is more capable/lucky than others. On the other side is the extreme form of collectivism where the individual is nothing but a social animal; where the individual has to blindly follow the whims of the mob.

On one side the challenge is excessive selfishness which will lead in constant conflict between various groups. On the other side the challenge is how to motivate the person to aspire for excellence when the returns he gets are anyway the same and when you are pulled down when you try to raise above the mediocre.

Which one of these should we then choose. The answer everyone will give is balance both of them. True, the secret is the balance. But the thousand dollar question is how to strike it. How to create a model where these two aspects of individual good and collective good are accommodated in harmony with each other?

It is in this context the eastern concept of Dharma comes to our rescue. The simplest definition is “Dharma is that which connects, relates effectively and harmoniously an individual to the collectivities” (like family, community, society, nation, humanity and the whole world and beyond). Thus bringing harmony with all others around is Dharma. Dharma holds things together. As Kumari Nivedita in a talk observes “When I think of others' rights, it is Dharma. See the beauty, we did not start by asserting our rights. Rather we started by talking about duties. If each starts asserting rights, there will be only fights as we are seeing now. So each one is told to follow his/her Dharma. The husband’s Dharma becomes the right of the wife and wife's Dharma becomes the right of the husband. The mother's Dharma becomes the right of the children. The children's Dharma becomes the right of the parents.”

The motive is internal, not external; therefore we need extraneous stimuli. Unlike the communist nations, we did not need an external state to force us to be responsible towards the society. At the same, the collective has been made part of the individuals thinking.

Let me illustrate my point further by using Prisoner’s dilemma situation. The classical prisoner's dilemma (PD) is as follows (I am reproducing the wikipedia article on PD here): Two suspects, A and B, are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both stay silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a two-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. However, neither prisoner knows for sure what choice the other prisoner will make. So this dilemma poses the question: How should the prisoners act?

The dilemma can be summarized thus:

	Prisoner B Stays Silent	Prisoner B Betrays
Prisoner A Stays Silent	Both serve six months	Prisoner A serves ten years Prisoner B goes free
Prisoner A Betrays	Prisoner A goes free Prisoner B serves ten years	Both serve two years

Let's assume the protagonist prisoner is working out his best move. If his partner stays quiet, his best move is to betray as he then walks free instead of receiving the minor sentence. If his partner betrays, his best move is still to betray, as by doing it he receives a relatively lesser sentence than staying silent. At the same time, the other prisoner's thinking would also have arrived at the same conclusion and would therefore also betray.

If reasoned from the perspective of the optimal outcome for the group (of two prisoners), the correct choice would be for both prisoners to cooperate with each other, as this would reduce the total jail time served by the group to one year total. Any other decision would be worse for the two prisoners considered together. When the prisoners both betray each other, each prisoner achieves a worse outcome than if they had cooperated.

We can observe that the apparent rational path (ie., to betray) and the real rational path (ie., not to betray) are different. We may enlarge this phenomenon to a larger scale with multiple players. Here again the apparent rational path and the real rational path are different.

This demonstrates very elegantly the moral dilemmas we face everyday- whether to stick to the rules even though they may some times be “apparently” unfavorable, or seek the path of immediate self-interest. How can we make the individuals align their individual good with collective good without any special effort? It is here that the concept of duty-centric dharma comes in.

There is a famous dialogue which comes in Mahabharata. Draupadi, obviously fed up with her suffering, once asked Yudhishthira, “What have you got by following Dharma? You have been only suffering in your life.” Yudhishthira replies, “Draupadi, I know you say this not because you really mean it but because of the extreme sufferings and humiliations you underwent. I follow Dharma not because by following it I get something. I follow it because it is to be followed.”

We are no longer bothered whether others follow a righteous path or not. Hundred people may not follow their dharma, but that is no reason for me to be unrighteous. I follow the right path, for its own sake, immaterial of what others do.

Thus the focus shifts from “are others following right path?” to “am I following the right path?” …And to the Hindus, thanks to the concept of Karma this line of thinking comes much easily as concept of Karma ensures that no good or bad action ever goes waste without producing the results. If I follow the path of Dharma, I may not be able to get the results immediately or in a way I expected them, but it is bound to give good results.

Let me conclude by quoting Pirsig in a book on Hindu-Buddhist Dharma “Dharma is duty. It is not external duty which is arbitrarily imposed by others. It is not any artificial set of conventions which can be amended or repealed by legislation. Neither is it internal duty which is arbitrarily decided by one's own conscience. Dharma is beyond all questions of what is internal and what is external. Dharma is Quality itself, the principle of "rightness" which gives structure and purpose to the evolution of all life and to the evolving understanding of the universe which life has created."

This will be the ancient Hindu response to the challenges thrown up by the 19th and 20th century ideologies.

PS: My approach here was based on utilitarian grounds. However, lemme clarify that utility is not the test of truth. The path of Dharma has to be followed, irrespective of the considerations whether it is beneficial or not. My only idea was to point out that even on the utilitarian grounds following one’s Dharma makes sense.

Hinduism and Linux

2007-01-07T01:38:00.000-08:00

One can sometimes find very interesting analogies for Religion in the geek world.

First, Windows came up with its 98 version. The users of this version claimed it to be the best version. Then after some time came the NT version of windows. Again the same claim by its users that this version is the best and the last. Later came XP. Once again the same claim repeated by its users that this is the best and last one. All the users of each windows version have been trying to monopolize all the users of the world to their own version.

On the other hand we have Linux. It is not monopolized by one seller or creator, but different users have added to it. And each user can create a module which suits his requirements. It gives a lot of scope for the user to improve, and does not claim exclusive privileges.

Does it ring any bells...if not try reading the above statements by replacing 98 by Jews, NT by Christians, and XP by Islam. Each claiming that the previous was also a prophet, but theirs the best and last.

In windows, everything is fixed and the user has negligible freedom. All the commands and user systems are readymade by a builder who they assume knows better the needs of the users. In the same manner in Abrahamic religions, there are set of dos/donots given by the god for the sake of humans and it is assumed that humans are not mature enough to decide, and which we humans have to accept without any choice.

Hinduism on the other hand can be compared with Linux. There is no specific OS that can be defined as Linux. There may be many versions and forms of it and each individual can custom make it to suit his temperament.

But then not all may be good at programming and making their own custom made version of Linux. Hence , some good programmers (Saints) may make some simplified versions like redhat (rituals, beliefs) for non technical users (masses) to use. It is open and free for all and does not necessarily negate other OS. Various versions are not a matter of superiority but a matter of one’s temperament.

The Gilroy Hanuman temple

2006-11-14T00:13:00.000-08:00

Hello all. It’s been a while since I blogged. But the place I visited last Saturday (4^th Nov) was so good that it really inspired me to do so. My friends & I usually go to some temple every fortnight. Last Saturday when we started to the Gilroy Hanuman temple, I never thought it would be such an appealing place. I will try to verbalize my experience to the best possible level.

When we entered the area, the first thing we saw was the presence of lots of people who looked like from other faiths, mainly Christians, moving around in the area. Initially, I thought they must be visiting the some place nearby, because the place is called Mount Madonna County. But when I saw a lady doing namaskar to us it was a little bit surprising. We started walking towards the shrine; we could see the name of the LORD RAMA written in Hindi in several places. At the shrine we had the most pleasant surprise. The person who you can see in the photo was the archaka of the Sankat Vimochan Hanuman temple. He was chanting shllokas in Sanskrit and offering puja to the GOD. He called each one of us to the shrine, chanted shloka, loudly said “Jai Shri Ram” and gave us prasadam. When my turn came to receive the prasadam eyes were full of tears with immense delight. He then described about the different places in that place, from which I came to know that the place is more like an Ashram. The Ashram was started in 1970s by Baba Hari Dass, a Sawmiji from Northern part of India. The Place has kuteer, meditation centers, yoga centers etc. Meanwhile few more people came for Lord’s darshan. The archaka performed the puja and gave prasadam to them as well. Take a look at the photos that I have uploaded.

Then we started towards the construction area where Baba ji was present. At the construction place Baba ji was also working along with others. I remembered “malladihalli swamiji” who used to work even when he was 100. Before reaching the construction area I thought they must be constructing a building or something in those lines. But they were building a stone bund (It indicated the lack of funds on the part of the Ashram and the seva manobhav of the Ashram people). Again, I was pleased to see several foreigners doing seva (helping in constructing the bund). We were told that Baba is a mouni and he either writes or uses symbolic language to communicate. We talked to Baba (while he wrote) for 5 – 10 minutes. We then left the construction area to go around the Ashram. Throughout the Ashram one thing that was standing out; all the rooms (may it be kuteer, guest house, yoga center .. anything) were named after the Lord; like Ram-1, Ram-2 etc. We then visited the Ashram stores. It was very similar to a Ramakrishna Ashram stores with books, idols, CDs etc. All the books that we found were on Hinduism, yoga, meditation etc.

By this time we were hungry and we went to the dining place. We had a satvik food. I saw one more interesting element; photos of the people who had served the Ashram. Many of them were of different faith initially, but have changed their faith and have become part of the Ashram. I have put one such photo in the blog. After food, we went to the kalyani & the Lord Vishnu temple. We spent few minutes then and started back home.

Though this is looks like a narration of a day’s event, I have tried to highlight one element. Presence of people who were initially from a different faith, but started following Hinduism after they came to the Ashram. I had always heard about Hinduism welcomes everyone, forces no one. I was pleased to see it in pratyaksha. We don’t lure any one, we don’t force any one. We don’t stop any one either from following our faith.

To know more about the temple please visit http://www.mountmadonna.org/

Terrorism - Seeking New Grounds and Vital Targets

2006-10-30T20:01:00.000-08:00

Summary: The Karnataka police arrested last week two dreaded terrorists of Pakistani origin. Investigations revealed that they had planned to attack vital targets in Bangalore and Mysore. In this backdrop, it is high time, India relooks and retracts from the recently announced joint anti-terror mechanism agreement with Pakistan.

In an incident that should send wake up calls to the political, intelligence and security establishments of the country, two hard core terrorists were arrested by the Karnataka police in the world famous tourist city of Mysore, on 26th October, Thursday night following a shoot out. In a swift action, the two terrorists were arrested by the night patrol police, when they were being interrogated for their suspicious movements riding in a motorbike. In the fire exchange that ensued, the police were successful in nabbing them and have recovered huge cache of two AK-47 rifles, arms, weapons and other materials which can provide crucial intelligence inputs to crack the terror game plans and sleeper terror modules.

The terrorists movements were being closely monitored following intelligence reports that many sleeper modules of terror groups were planning for major strikes at Bangalore and other vital installations in the country, under instructions from their masters across the border. The states DIG of police Mr. B.S. Siyal has said these terrorists, both Pakistani nationals, entered India illegally through the Nepal border and belong to the banned terrorist outfit “Al-Badr”. The terrorists were in possession of photographs of the Vidhanasoudha – the legislative house of Karnataka and may have planned to attack other vital IT, BT installations spread across Bangalore. With these arrests, Mr. Siyal said, a possible major terror attack on Bangalore has been averted and further investigations are being carried out to unearth sleeper modules which may be actively pursuing ghastly terror strike plans across Bangalore and the links of these terrorists to other groups & modules in the rest of the country. Further, the Kerala police are investigating the links of one of the arrested to his ancestral family in Kozikode and several people were being interrogated in connection with their possible tacit support to the arrested terrorists.

The arrests must come as no surprise to the citizens of this country. The rogue terror elements, so tactfully and actively supported by Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI, have infiltrated every significant arms of our democratic establishment including the army and intelligence agencies. The political establishment of this country, blind as it is to narrow political interests and wooing of minorities remains apathetic to the grave threat and oblivion to the greater security concerns interests of its citizens.

These arrests again provide clinching evidence to the fears that have been constantly expressed by security and intelligence experts that terror groups are spreading their tentacles across the expanse of the country and possess strengths and capabilities to strike at their will and cause mayhem. None less than our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, expressed the same views soon after Mumbai blasts and often has repeatedly stressed that terrorism sponsored by elements across the border and with cow towing of Pakistan’s government, pose the real grave danger to the country’s security.

Bangalore has been at the centre of global focus consequent to its emergence as a technological and knowledge hub. The sheer magnitude of intellectual prowess that Bangalore possesses and its explosion as a global IT, BT, Manufacturing and BPO centre has made the world watch stupefied and take notice of its phenomenal rise. Naturally, this city that has taken giant strides and remains synonymous with India’s economic rise, couldn’t have escaped the radar of the prying eyes of terror groups. Last year during December, the terrorist attack on Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore claimed several innocent lives, including the country’s leading researcher and former Professor of IIT Delhi, Prof. Puri.

The joint anti-terror mechanism agreement between India and Pakistan, which was announced by the Prime Minister Singh with much fan fare at the recent NAM summit held in Cuba, now stands a loser even before the most optimistic in our country could have hoped for some positive results. In the first place, the very nature of the joint anti-terror mechanism surmounted to a radical shift from our Ideology on terrorism and its links to Pakistan. For decades, our foreign policy was centered on the stand that it was the Pakistan government’s insidious backing and support provided to terrorists that have resulted in terror strikes across Indian killing thousands of innocents. In one single sweep of policy change, through the anti-terror agreement, India unfortunately conceded much diplomatic ground and to its own peril, admitted rather unintelligently that it was not Pakistan government that was sponsoring the terror strikes in India and elsewhere, but certain militant and wayward groups operating from its soil. Further, the conflicting statements that are being uttered by the National Security Advisor and the officials of Ministry of External Affairs over the joint anti-terror agreement points only to the confusion that prevails over this strategic hara-kiri and acknowledges rather unmindfully how unprepared and unrealistic it remains in dealing with Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

Though the Prime Minister, the Congress and the National Security Advisor backed the agreement saying it would serve as a stringent test against Pakistan’s claims of it being non supporter of terror strikes against India, it was a foregone conclusion that such an agreement would never stand the test and will remain a decorative document serving no purpose. The mandarins in the UPA government, through the anti-terror agreement might have hoped to garner favorable political sentiments of sections of Indian society, but giving credence to their lopsided views on terrorism, the agreement has remained another much hyped shot that has backfired against India. The entire agreement and the consequent media utterances by the UPA Government on the issue have only strengthened the view that India seems to be afflicted with the Stockholm syndrome and may never be able to defy deftly and conquer strongly the threat of terrorism.

Perhaps as rejoinder and reminder to the invisible enemy that the country has to battle, on the same day of terrorists arrests in Mysore, an email said to have originated in Kerala reached the PMO and threatened to kill the Prime Minister during his scheduled visit to the state. Incidentally, the email had references to Afzal Guru who has been convicted in the December 2002 Indian Parliament attack case and sentenced to death penalty by the Delhi High court. The court’s death sentence on him has sparked off intense debates and country waits with a baited breath the response to his mercy petition pending before the President Dr. Abdul Kalam.

What was rather most unfortunate to witness following the arrests, were the reports in the local media that the entire episode of arrests in Mysore was choreographed and dictated by the ruling JD(S) Chief Minister of Karnataka Mr. H.D. Kumara Swamy. It was opined that the arrests were made to distract the public attention following an unsavory incident of late night brawl at a hotel in Bangalore involving his 19 year old son. Such laughable comments only go to show the lack of seriousness with which India views the grave threat of terrorism despite it being the most sought after victim. Though there remain some loopholes in the police version of the terrorists arrest, it should leave no one in doubt about the threat these terrorists posed, as it was later revealed by the main stream media that both the arrested had links to Kashmiri militant groups and one of the arrested had a cash prize on his head.

It is chilling to note and makes one shudder, the ease with which terrorists are able to penetrate in to every conceivable pillars of our existence and thereby execute their inhuman deeds that only leave trails of destruction and erosion of belief in humanity. Now that terrorism is pan-Indian, the calm and safe city of Bangalore and as usual the rest of the country, must keep their fingers crossed and live their lives on the edge, as no one knows where and when the terrorism monsters will cause wreck and death on an unimaginable scale to seek glory to their perverted ideology.

A Suicide Bombers Rationale

2006-10-25T05:25:00.000-07:00

Well, well. After years of crying myself hoarse that the root cause of muslim violence lies at their holy works such as the Quran and the Shariat, there is finally a study to corroborate this. Is it really so tough to arrive at this conclusion?
Link: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52184
Suicide bombers follow Quran,concludes Pentagon briefingTasked with pinpointing motivation, analysts findterrorists 'rational actors' following 'holy book'

Posted: September 27, 200610:17 p.m. Eastern© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

What is rationale or logic?
Is it a universal constant? How does one's brain comprehend logic? How does a man perform an action? Most of the times, actions are propelled by a justification that it will bear an intended fruit. And again, this is based on past experiences, beliefs and environments.

Past Experience: Every man, innately desires fame and glory, unless he decides to curb it. Money is only one of the means to achieve glory - in most cases. What does one do after accruing wardrobes full of money? He aims for power and glory. After all, what good is money if you can't get what you want done?

Now, if your past experience shows you that a man earns glory and name by dying for Islam, you also give it thought - if not dress-up with designer wear bombs right away. If you see people actually get glory out of dying or promising to die - why not give it a shot?

Environment: For 15 / 20 years, you are always told that dying for Allah is great. And that it is the purpose of life. Also you see that there is nothing much better to do anyway - like starting a company and contributing to an economy. What will you do? Give dying for Allah a shot.

Belief: When knowledge becomes conviction or belief, one can move the world. This works both positively and negatively. Positive and negative - at this point reduces to what the actor beholds as rational.

A bank robber is not illogical. A serial rapist isn't either. They do their job with precision. They are rational actors. And rationale is built by the above factors.

By the way: What is common sense?
Common sense is nothing but a set of thoughts held by many people to be true. Note the word many as against all. What is sense to one may not be sense to another.

Ever tasted a mango?
If you have never tasted a mango, I can never explain how it tastes to you. I can say it is sweet. You may ask if its like a eating sugar. I can say - well not exactly.
If someone says to me - "Mangoes with ice-cream is next to heaven" - it makes sense to me. To you its just a statement and is not corroborated by your experience.

Dying for Allah is similar (if not exactly the same). A suicide bomber cannot explain to you the greatness of dying for Allah ... nor can you explain to him the stupidity of it. Your logic contradicts his logic. Both stands are logical - and are based on past experiences, environments and beliefs.

C R Anand!

Comments On - Hurry! Jesus on Free Trial!

2006-10-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

Read some of the comments here:

http://anand-c-r.sulekha.com/blogs/commentdisplay.aspx?cid=101492

After about 120 posts, there are about one or two from pro-conversionists which try to address the questions in the original article. And they are dismal in logic and full of rhetoric.

Its hard to believe that these guys really have such a poor thinking group within the Christian religion. In fact in one of the comments I had to say that by converting people to Christianity, they are reducing the IQ level of the world.

Anand!

A Dreaded Terrorist – Death or Clemency?

2006-10-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Summary: The verdict of capital punishment to Mohd Afzal, an accused in the December 13, 2001 Indian Parliament attack case, has sparked wide spread agitations and demonstrations in Jammu & Kashmir. With political and separatist outfits rallying for Presidential pardon, critical questions need to be answered in the wake of these developments.

The verdict of death sentence awarded to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant Mohd Afzal, a co-accused in the December 13, 2001 Indian Parliament terrorist attack case has created furore and unfortunately is acquiring monstrous political overtures. The issue is snowballing in to a major controversy and threatens to fuel further, the militant agitation in Jammu & Kashmir.

The Delhi court in its verdict has ordered Mohd Afzal to be hanged till death in Tihar Central Jail on October 20 at 0600 hours. Of the four accused in the most dastardly attack on the highest institution of the country that stands as edifice of people’s will & democracy, two were acquitted and another JeM militant Shaukat Hussain Guru has been sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Interestingly, the pronouncement of the death sentence to Mohd Afzal by the trail court has been confirmed and upheld by the Supreme Court on August 4, 2005.

Soon after the award of death sentence by the Delhi Court on September 26, various militant and separatist organizations lead by JKLF, held protest marches and demonstrations in Jammu & Kashmir demanding Mohd Afzal’s release and urging the President of India to grant pardons and clemency. Taking a cue from these agitations and sensing a political opportunity, several mainstream and separatist political parties of the state including the ruling Congress joined the chorus seeking clemency for Mohd Afzal.

However what baffles and astonishes most and the one which has turned in to a major embarrassment for the Central Government and Congress, is the appeal by the Chief Minister of the Congress lead Government in Jammu & Kashmir, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, for Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh’s intervention in the case and demanding that Mohd Afzal’s death sentence be kept in abeyance and be pardoned by the President of India.

The appeal by Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad has raised the hackles of leading judicial luminaries and the general public and raises several very serious questions that need to be answered by the Central Government and the Congress party. Though the spokesperson of the Congress party Mr. Abhishek Singhvi parried all questions from the media and distanced the Party from the views expressed by the Chief Minister, saying that his party neither endorses nor rejects Mr. Azad’s views. According to Mr. Singhvi, there are established procedures as per the law of the land in such cases and that it is the exclusive domain and discretion of the President of India to grant clemency.

The arguments of the state’s separatist organizations in favor of Mohd. Afzal though, are ‘understandable’ and do not come as surprise. These organizations have over the last two decades sought to establish an Independent Jammu & Kashmir with able assistance and support provided by the hard core fundamentalist terrorist organizations and the State of Pakistan. They certainly can’t stand one of their ‘leader’ and revered commandant of JeM, being hanged to death even though the heinous crime committed by Mohd Afzal and his associates amounts to waging war on the country. The execution of Mohd Afzal would certainly be a severe blow to these separatist organizations in their fight against the Indian establishment and diminish any moral support by the people of Jammu & Kashmir they have clung on, to further their movement seeking merger with Pakistan or emerge as an Independent state. The violent demonstrations witnessed in the state in the last few days certainly must have been instigated by these organizations and can’t in all possibility be the opinion and judgment of the issue by the democracy willing, moderate section of the Jammu & Kashmir society.

The political parties ever eager to pounce on emotive issues and utilize them to gain political mileage, have however, put forward arguments in favor of Mohd Afzal that definitely are hollow and need to be harshly condemned. Shaken and worried by the outpouring of ‘support’ to the demand of clemency to Mohd Afzal and as if showing ‘concern’ to the genuine demand of the ‘people’ of the state, all the major parties including the state government, have jumped in to the fray singing in chorus with these ‘aggrieved’ sections of the Jammu & Kashmir society. However, what they easily and conveniently have forgotten is that having sworn in the name of Indian Constitution, they are the representatives who collectively shall uphold and execute the laws as enshrined in the Constitution.

The terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament - the temple of the world’s largest democracy, surely ranks as a heinous crime and had the plans of the terrorists been successful, it would have resulted in agonizing miserable and unforeseen consequences that are hard to imagine and might have zapped and sniffed the ‘life’ out of a vibrant nation. If it were not to be for the daring retaliation action undertaken by the security officers at the high security Parliament complex and one in which few of them laid their lives, the terrorists would certainly have gained access to the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ of the Parliament and caused unimaginable damage. That terror attacks are not new and poses the gravest threat to the country is an acknowledged fact and in the last two decades, thousands of innocent lives have been lost in mindless violence and destruction perpetrated by the terrorists. Though the rest of the world, acknowledged terrorism as the most dangerous threat to human kind today after 9/11 attacks in United States, India has been for too long, the nation that has suffered the most and at times even humiliated owing to the ‘soft corner’ and approaches adopted by the Indian Governments to tackle the menace. Any acts of terrorism irrespective of who carries out the dastardly acts, call for stringent sentences after a fair hearing given to the accused as per the laws of the land. If a nation remains strong and showcases its will to implement such steps to thwart further attacks, it would be definitely sending right signals to those who mastermind such acts and cause untold misery and deathblow to innocent ordinary civilians in the name of their religious faith.

When our courts and legal system is often criticized for the lengthy trials and enormous number of years they consume to deliver judgements, the Parliament attack case - considering its sheer importance, has moved at a rapid pace and the trail court has delivered its verdict after all the deliberations and detailed hearings. It has been time and again clarified by the Supreme Court that capital punishment is awarded only in the ‘rarest’ of rare cases, so that the beliefs of a civilized society in the human values and ethos are kept intact and their virtues are reiterated. The court would have duly considered the Parliament attack case from all legal angles and has found it to be one such ‘rarest of rare’ cases, which deserves the severest sentence possible for the accused. If in the trail court’s conviction and as upheld by the Supreme Court, the accused Mohd Afzal is guilty of committing such a crime and appropriate sentence is awarded, it is not for the ‘Executive’ arm of the government to decide the merit or innocence of the accused.

That Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of this nation is an indisputable fact and under no circumstances will it possible for this country to agree for its independence or secession from the fabric of this nation. In waging this unjust cause, they have only caused alienation of various faiths and have bled death and destruction to thousands of innocent lives. In connivance with extensive support garnered from across the border, the fundamentalist terrorist organizations have caused untold miseries and bloodshed in this country as testified by so many terror attacks, the very recent being the Mumbai train blasts.

It has been argued that execution of Mohd Afzal would elevate him as a Martyr for a cause and may further fuel the separatist movement in the already embittered state of Jammu & Kashmir. This certainly bears no valid reason to seek clemency. It is these very people who have over the years planned and agitated for what they believe to be a ‘just’ cause. Such people who dogmatically believe in their ‘just ideology’ certainly can not be clubbed with other criminals. They are a blot to civilian society and deserve the most stringent punishment. It is easier for emotions to supercede the harsh reality, but when these perpetrators of ‘dance of death’ feel no human emotions when they maim and kill thousands of innocent people, ‘emotions’ lose their perceived conception and meaning and definitely needs to take a back seat to deal with the realities. In the instigated clamor for clemency to Mohd Afzal, and by not honoring the court’s verdict, it only goes to show how blatantly the anti-India forces are trying to make a ‘martyr’ of Mohd. Afzal. As if to add fuel to the already flaring communal sentiments in the nation, these votaries for clemency smell a rat in the date chosen by the court for execution of Mohd Afzal. October 20 happens to be a holy day in the calendar of Muslims and if executed on such a pious day, they believe it would send ulterior motives to the Muslims in the country. It is known as per Indian Constitution that courts do not favor any religion and have always ensured communal harmony in many of their verdicts, despite interferences by several Governments and political outfits. The trail court in its wisdom would certainly have considered many aspects and chosen the date as demanded by all legal and bureaucratic procedures. So such a decision can not be seen from the myopic eye and judged as sending wrong signals.

The National Conference chief Mr. Farooq Abdulla in a television interview, hinted at the possibility of this verdict dividing the Hindu and Muslim communities in India. It was surely a ploy by Mr. Abdulla to appease the minorities and further fan their alienation from the mainstreams of the nation. If the execution of a dreaded terrorist as per the laws of this land, is seen as persecution of ‘minorities’, then how will one answer the reasons for killings of innocents by such dreaded terrorists. The lives laid down by thousands of innocents would carry no meaning and the wretched lives of their near and dear ones would be bereft of any belief in the system that trumpets to provide justice. Mr. Abdulla should certainly know very well that it is the duty of the Governments to provide security to the people of the country irrespective of their religious faiths.

In another astonishing argument, Mr. Abdulla pointed out to an earlier incident in which execution of separatist leader ‘Maqbool Bhat’ had resulted in the backlash and the judge who had pronounced the verdict of death sentence on Bhat was killed later by his supporters. Mr. Abdulla should have realized these judges who pronounce death sentences to the accused, stand true to the spirit of justice and uphold the constitution despite such threats. It speaks volumes of their gumption and belief in universal values.

Many politicians have backed their argument of clemency for Afzal stating that his execution would severely hamper the Indo-Pak peace process. This looks ridiculous to say the least. When killing of thousands of innocent Indians by the terrorist supported by Pakistan hasn’t stopped our dumb headed politicians from taking buses, trains and CBM’s to Pakistan and ‘inviting’ them to open new frontiers of attacks and kill and maim thousands, how can this possibly stop Indo-Pak ‘peace process’!.

The shocking news which would surely aghast many right thinking people of this country is out already – that of President Kalam being petitioned by Afzal’s family for clemency and as a consequence the date of October 20, 2006 for hanging to death Mohd. Afzal, put off indefinitely till the decision is taken by the President. What a shame that our politicians who called the attack on the Parliament the most heinous act of terror, now join hands and leave no efforts unturned to pardon the very man who masterminded the entire episode.

All this just to secure minority vote bank and transform BHARAT in to another ‘Talibstan’ in next few decades…,

In trying to color the entire episode of clemency demands for Mohd Afzal, as a will of people of Jammu & Kashmir, our political parties including the Congress at the Centre are only indulging in giving the final blow to our justice system. The common citizenry of this nation aspires that their Government tackles the menace of terrorism with iron hands bending to no dogmatic religious faiths. It has in its hands one such rare opportunity to show case that it believes in the wisdom of the Courts and battles the terrorists with focused hard nosed methods. If implementation of the courts will is sabotaged, the country will for ever loose the already frail belief in its constitution, the judiciary and the executive.

Hurry! Jesus on free trial.

2006-09-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hurry! Jesus on Free Trial

Every religion consists of:
1. Its core philosophy (Answers to questions like: Is there a God? Who am I? Am I Him? How do I find out? What are valid means of knowledge? etc).
2. Its practices (traditions), essentially based on the core philosophy.
3. Symbolism (Eg: The Cross in Christianity, the Star+Crescent moon in
Islam etc).
4. Important reference works (Bible, Quran, Vedas) for
knowledge.
5. Other accompanying components such as the religion's outlook towards
other religious sects, its set of followers, attitude adopted for
spreading the religion etc.

If the core philosophy has strong fundamentals, the rest of the
components fall in line automatically, to make it a mature religion. On
the other hand, we also end up with half-baked religions. As is
day-to-day experience, lesser maturity brings in aggressiveness.
Consequently, we see a lot of aggressiveness in spreading religions
today. Some logical fallacies, however, are portrayed in dialogs below.
These are not intended to have fun at the expense of aggressive
religions, but to keep ourselves informed of the less-holy tactics certain religions adopt to spread.

The following is a fictional transcript between a person called "me"
(which is a set of ppl) and a typical Christian missionary. A
conversation with a missionary (who is out to talk you into going to
church) may not follow the transcript below exactly. But several
conversations with missionaries on various topics will get you the
answers as shown in the continuous dialog below:

Missionary: Have you heard of Jesus?
Me: Yes
Missionary: He has a message for you.
Me: What?
Missionary: Read and follow Bible, you will be in Heaven for ever!
Me: Well I would love to know more about Christianity, but to start with – what happens if I don’t believe in Jesus?
Missionary: Believe me son, Jesus will show you the right path. In our everyday life, we commit so many sins that only Jesus can save us all from eternal Hell.
Me: At the philosophy level Sir, I would like to know why someone should go to hell?
Missionary: Because we all make mistakes son. Jesus has given his life-blood to save us all from the suffering that we could face. All you need to do is believe in Him.
Me: If I make a mistake I will face the punishment. What else is a
better way of purifying oneself?
Missionary: Trust in Jesus and you will go to heaven.
Me: You are saying that I can make mistakes, trust Jesus and go to heaven?
No I don’t think so. I prefer rebirth to face the punishment.
Missionary: Hmmm…. Do you know why Jesus faced the cross?
Me: I know, Jesus has already suffered for all our sins.
Missionary: So you have to believe in Jesus. He will take care of your
Sins.
Me: No, I don’t want to trouble Jesus! I will take responsibilities myself.
Missionary: He has already suffered for our sins, you see?
Me: Then why should I worry? I can make mistakes/sins.
Missionary: No, that’s not good for the world. And then, you have to 'believe' in Jesus, if your sins should be absolved!!!
Me: What were people doing before Jesus was born?
Missionary: They felt God in their Heart.
Me: That means that there is a way other than Jesus. I too feel in my
heart the presence of God! I follow my religion and feel God within.
Missionary: See ... I am showing you an easy way of getting satisfaction in life and beyond.
Me: Sometime back, you said Jesus is the "only" way. Also your "easy way" seems too easy to give any serious answers to philosophical questions.
You have self contradictions. Western philosophers other than the church have done excellent work. Seriously, I think you should go through them. After that you can actually visit eastern philosophies.
Me: Give me those books you have… I read all religions anyway. Thanks!

Probing a little deeper, I have actually had such conversations as follows:
=================================================

Missionary: Read and follow Bible, you will be in Heaven for ever!
Me: What happens if I read the Quran or the gIta?
Missionary: Well, they can take you some distance, but only Jesus can show you the right path.
Me: Have you read the gIta or the Quran? Because I have gone through them, though not as a research. And I have gone thru' the bible too.
Missionary: Well Sir, if you want to discuss in detail, you are welcome
to talk to my senior in the Church on Sunday. He can give you a
comparitive idea.

-----

Missionary: Jesus has already suffered for our sins, you see?
Me: Then why should I worry? I can make mistakes/sins.
Missionary: You have to 'believe' in Jesus!!!
Me: You know, I am sure Jesus will take care of me, even if I don't
believe him. Otherwise, he ends up with an ego problem, rt? You have
incomplete information about Jesus.

-----

Me: According to Christianity, there is one life after which you either go to heaven or hell right?
Missionary: Yeah.
Me: But suppose I was born to a prostitute and a goon. And I always had
company which was not the refined-class. Suppose throughout my life I
never heard of Jesus. I made a lot of mistakes. Will I go to hell or
will I get a better chance?
Missionary: No there is only one life.
Me: Your religion sounds funny to me and unjust.
Missionary: Jesus will see to it that you get to know Him.
Me: Then what are 'you' doing here?
Missionary: Jesus is finding you thru' me.
Me: Aww... come on now!

------

Me: Tell me Sir. How is heaven?
Missionary: It has all comforts, angels, and God is with you all the time.
Me: How come only you came to earth and suffered while the angels never did?
Missionary: See ... when we go to heaven, we become angels.
Me: Oh I see. So those angels were on earth sometime earlier, struggling like you are now?
Missionary: I think God created them to be in heaven, not come to earth. I am not sure about this concept. You can come over to the church this Sunday and talk to the father.
Me: If God created angels to be in heaven all the time, then He was partial to them right? They always enjoy in heaven, but you are created and find yourself on earth. Your concept needs refinement. You know you should question a religion critically yourself, before propagating it to others.

------

Me: Also, I am curious about animals and trees. Do they have any scope to go to heaven?
Missionary: Animals and trees are created only to serve mankind. They do not have any other purpose.
Me: What happens when they die?
Missionary: Am not sure, but I can find out for you Sir and call you back.
Can I take your phone number?
Me: Sure, ok. Also find out about children who die within days from when they are born. Do they go to heaven or hell?
Missionary: I think children go to heaven.
Me: But they neither did any good (nor bad) to go to heaven. Read about what your own religion says about this.

------

Me: I also wanted details on what state you were in before you got born.
Missionary: God created us.
Me: Did you not exist before?
Missionary: No.
Me: What does God get out of creating you and this world and all other things?
Missionary: Nothing. He does not need/get anything. He only helps you out.
Me: No, no. You don't need help before you were created right?
Missionary: There are certain things that God does which we cannot understand.
Me: Do you know that there are religions in this world which have good theories for these questions? I am sure you yourself realize that your explanation is a trivial case.
Missionary: Well, it’s your faith Sir. But then, I would still say that
Jesus is the only way out.
Me: Wow, don't you want to even hear about another theory? And you expect me to actually change my religion.
Missionary: Sir I am sure my faith has all answers. And I am sure you will eventually find the truth. I would like to give you this bible that you may want to peruse. If you want to discuss anything with me or the reverend, you can approach me at this number. Thank you Sir.

------

Anand!

Why wouldn't a Muslim salute his land?

2006-09-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Why wouldn't a Muslim salute his land?
Every one, not just a Muslim, knows that a piece of land is not to be equated with Godhood. But nevertheless, a healthy respect to the environment that a country like India creates can be and should be expressed by all who live in the country.

Why wouldn't a Muslim sing Vande Mataram?
Muslims have been very clear about their stand, not just in the Vande Mataram issue. They will not respect an other religion nor will they respect a country (environment) that has given birth to another religion, nor will they even sing in a language (sanskrit), which they think is representative of another culture, not Islamic.

How come all Muslims are united in allowing a fanatic Imam to be their representative?
Why won't they come out and say that the Imam is not talking what the Muslims think, if they like to sing the song?
That’s because a Muslim's core religious works such as the Quraan and the Shariat are intolerant to other religions. Not just a few misguided Muslims, but the root of Islam is intolerant.

Has it ever occurrred to us Indians that for centuries we have not been able to really make friends with Muslims? Nobody in the world has ever been able to do so and live amicably with them. Why at all? A few days after sending a good fat bus to Lahore, hoping to make friends, we get terrorist attacks in return. That's the extent to which Islam is fanatic - at its roots.

You cannot offer peace to a rowdy who has 'decided' to play dirty. And this rowdy religion has rowdyism embedded into its holy works. No two thoughts about it. Islam is clearly a rowdy religion and it has proven to be so for that many centuries, with deeply fanatic roots.

The so-called world peace, lets face it, is unfortuantely an impossible dream without getting really violent with Islam. And violence is the only language it comprehends.

M K Gandhi's concept of ahimsa is a misfit when treating the world-ill of Islam. Why? To start with, no one solution is a cure-all panacea. Nor is ahimsa. Ahimsa is a principle that can be applied to straying individuals or religions who have the innate core to get back on track and be reasonable and just. From when has a religion that has sponsored terrorism for centuries been reasonable and just?

No way! Lets face it. We have to get back at Islam the way it will understand. And we cannot be complacent and non-violent.

Anand!

Vande Mataram – Uncalled For Discordant Notes

2006-08-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

It is astonishing and deplorable to see, how a National Song that should hold most prized place in every citizen’s heart renders itself to furore and passionate polarized views by diverse political parties and communities.

The issue gained prominence in the wake of the statement by Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari that singing of Vande Mataram is anti-islamic and amounts to suppression of the Muslim community. Very recently, there have been reports of Muslim leaders in Hyderabad issuing ‘fatwas’ against singing of the song by Muslims. Soon after Bukhari’s comments, the ruling Congress party was quick to address the ‘concerns’ of aggrieved community with HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Information & Broadcasting Minister Mr. Priyaranjan Das Munshi stating that singing of the song can not be imposed against the will of the community and need not be made compulsory for recitation.

The comments by the respectable Ministers have raised a furore and the ongoing Parliament session witnessed justified protests lead notably by BJP and its allies. The stand of the ruling Government on the issue, smacks of political opportunity and indulgence in appeasement of Muslim community. It is unfortunate and deplorable to see the song of the motherland being dragged in to mud slinging and tossed irreverently for want of true national pride and spirit. The blame for the unrest and undignified stand taken by the community rests squarely with religious leaders like Bukari and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. It clearly indicates to a sinister evil design on the part of these ‘Leaders’ of the community to harp on issues that would be divisive rather than on the mountains of development problems the community is perennially engraved in. The song which should have had an overwhelming national consensus as a symbol of India’s nationalistic pride is being taken as cause to establish a distinct Muslim identity superseding the national identity guaranteed and established in the Constitution of the country for all its citizens.

The Vande Mataram song authored by Bankim Chandra Chatterji, does not allude to any religious sentiments and was purely a reflection of the pride esteem with which the Nation should be held by its citizens. The song held sway during the freedom movement and was the fulcrum around which the selfless citizens and leaders fought against the British. It inspired millions and brought under its spell devout nationalist leaders to sacrifice their lives and work for the liberation of India. In the aftermath of freedom and partition of the country, the Congress party wary of political implications, declared Vande Mataram as a National Song and Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana as a National Anthem.

The fabric of India’s diversity and co-existence of several communities is further strained and eroded with National pride becoming suppressed by dogmatic religious faith. Plagued as it is by issues of underdevelopment and lack of opportunities, the country stands a mute witness to the deplorable stand of Muslim leaders and all their arguments of Vande Mataram being anti-Islamic and opposition to its singing, sound hollow and bereft of true considerations. Alienated and disintegrated from the national mainstream the community already is, the hardened opposition seems to be well-conceived plot to seek further new grounds to expand its religious identity and remain impervious to visions of a developed India. It should dawn on these leaders that though Islam abhors worshipping anyone other than Prophet, it is binding and a constitutional duty of the citizens to respect the Nation and its national treasures of identity and nationhood.

Many Muslims argue about why every time the community’s patriotic leanings are put to question and test. Surely, there are not any instances other than pride and respect shown to the Nation’s song, anthem and symbols to show one’s allegiance besides, the reverence and respect one holds in conscience. If the community does feel truly about the National anthem, then why a song which euphemizes highest respect and obeisance to Motherland should be labeled anti-Islamic when it makes no references of any kind to any religion or beliefs. If worshipping reverently the Motherland is considered blasphemous and same as worshipping the supreme God (Of whatever identity) then, it is no different from treating the worshipping of one’s parents as equivalent to the Supreme force that pervades. The two view points are poles apart and are fundamentally distinct.

In these times of rapid emergence of separatist religious identities and fundamentalism, the vociferous opposition would further delineate the Muslim community from the national mainstream and would lead to suspicions on the community being ever vigilant, to establish its faith of supremacy over national interests and progress.

The Congress ever eager to chance up on an opportunity to please the Muslim leaders has taken a expected stand by singing in tune with Shahi Imam Bukhari. It has demonstrated again how far removed it remains and how unwilling it is in realizing “One India, One Nation, One People” dream of our freedom fighters.

There ever can be no divergent views based as they might be on any considerations with regard to the allegiance citizens owe to the country and its constitution. If every symbol of nationalism is equated to religious priorities and dogmatic perceptions, what would emerge more forcefully is the spectre of damaging threats to national integration and not the compassionate bindings of mutual respect and love for nation and its every citizen in a vast and diverse country like India.

It should dawn our political leaders and Muslim community alike that the more this kind of retrograde moves and stands are trumpeted, the stronger would be the blow to the already embittered notion of national integration. The communities would be driven further in to the mindless morass of insignificant issues and made to pay severely by the acts of unpatriotic and selfish politicians.

If our political leaders have scant disregard to prized possessions and symbols of INDIA, let its citizenry not remain blindfolded through religious dogmas. It is high time, all communities realize and rise in unison to sing honor and respect to the Motherland unequivocally. Shall this remain a pipedream...,

When Arun Shourie Speaks... - Part 2

2006-08-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

In the last article, I had left out some important points in the latter half of Shourie’s talk. One of my friends- Ramana, suggested me to include those points. Hence I made an effort to add some more points, thanking Ramana. I also thank Indraneel for his feedback on my typos and grammar.

In his talk Shourie stressed an important point. The political class, as closely seen by him for 30 years now, recommending reservation has nothing to do with compassion towards the backwards classes. It is purely vote bank politics. To know the true color of these politicians their social practice must be closely watched. For example, which doctors do they go to when they are ill? In one of the cases, a politician wanted a German made dialysis machine, nothing less, and in spite of the machine being an easily operated one, he wanted two Germans to come down all the way to operate the machine. All these at the cost of taxpayers’ money!

And how did the Mandal commission come about? Devilal, the vice president then, had to quit his post in a forged document case. He challenged to gather a mammoth 10 lakh people, supporting him. V P Singh panicked and to nullify the effect of this he brought about Mandal commission. Compassion, heart crying for the poor etc. are sheer concoctions.

To put an end to this stupid caste based reservations, we must come up with alternatives. So what are those alternatives?

Reservations must not be given based on caste, religion, birth etc. It must be completely based on secular aspects.
None of the jobs, seats in the educational institutions, promotions etc. must be given as an entitlement. Everyone must strive to get it. Else it will hamper the growth.
We must provide positive help for enabling everyone to compete and aspire for reaching higher status. Provide better food, space, books, computer facilities, scholarships etc.
All the support must be given to the individuals but not a group.
In identifying the individual to whom the benefits must be given, secular criteria such as his income, assets must be seen.

Caste based politics can only lead to disaster. Just like there was a backlash because of the reversal of Shah Bano case verdict which ended in the bringing down of the Babri Masjid, this reservation will also result in a backlash. And its effects will be much more than what you and I could imagine. Its time for us to put a halt to this caste based rhetorics which otherwise would spell disaster for all of us.

When Arun Shourie Speaks ...

2006-08-09T00:57:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Dr. Arun Shourie was giving a talk on “Equal Opportunities: Alternatives & their Efficacies” (no prizes for guessing that the talk was against the reservations) at IISc through our students’ forum called Prasthutha. It was an absolute delight to listen to him. I put some key points of his talk here.

Indian Constitution has given high prominence for equality. But has also said that the ways and means in which it should be brought about should not affect the efficiency and hence the growth of the nation. Else it would lead to other adverse repercussions. But what is happening today? We have become experts in identifying inequality. Courtesy: Leftist rhetorics. Our eyes are strained to look at injustice, problems, inequality etc. So we start writing about it. Then the people suffering from so called inequality read it and come to us, and then we write more about it, and if that is exhausted we go around and discover inequality. Finally, if we can’t discover inequality we invent it!!!

There is no historical evidence to prove that Manusmriti was practiced in actuality. No one has ever given evidence regarding its practice. Marxist historians keep referring to the same few verses in it and say more than a millennium was full of upper cast extortions. Even just for the sake of it if you consider it were to be true, the makers of the Constitution were no fools to recommend reservation for just 10 years to compensate for the mistakes of one full millennium. So, the Constitution does not recommend reservation to compensate for the historical mistakes. It was inevitable at the time of Puna pact, 1932- when Gandhiji had to agree to it to avoid separate electorate based on caste.

Now we take a look at one of the progressive judges making some statements in his judgment. What do you mean by equality of opportunity if it does not produce equal outcome? If the outcome is not equal then the equal opportunity was a sham!! That is the (il)logical level to which our progressive judges can go!! He quotes to a write up called “Merit My Foot” (written in Rise and Awakening of Depressed Classes in India by a backward cast propagandist) in his judgment and states “nowhere merit is given such high importance as in India. It’s a pure invention to maintain the monopoly of the upper caste. Upper cast people keep the vast original inhabitants untouchables, tribals, backward castes, religious minorities…” The judge in his emotional judgment has forgotten that the religious minorities are not original inhabitants!! There is another twist to this statement, which is mentioned in Shourie’s latest book “Falling Over Backwards”. The twist is the author of the book "Rise and Awakening .." sources the statement to “THE HINDU” newspaper of 1931!! And which year was the judgment made? 1992!! So the judge took the situation of India in 1931 as reported by a newspaper and made this judgment. No verification of the ground reality was made.

Finally few lines about Madal commission. What was the basis for deciding caste based reservation in 1992? The 1931 census report! Because, after 1931, there was no caste based enumeration in census. But if you read the census report of 1931, you will see that province after province the chief commissioners of census have reported that the caste system was fluidic and it was undergoing a rapid change. They had a great difficulty in caste based enumeration. To illustrate the problem just one line is sufficient: The total population of India was estimated to be 352.8 million and the total no: people covered by caste based table was 220.7 million. Finally they had to abandon that. But Mandal commission took it from there 61 years later, distorted the figures arbitarily and made its notorious recommendations!

These are few glimpses of what was there in the talk. To listen to the complete talk visit http://www.iisc.ernet.in/prasthu The entire talk can be downloaded. If you want the video file of the talk, I will be more than happy to provide you. Mail me at ananda.sreenivas@gmail.com. Also read Shourie’s book ‘Falling Over Backwards” to know more about these issues. Once again the statement turns out be true: “When Shourie speaks Marxists vanish”

In the absence of potency

2006-07-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

“Just after the Mumbai blasts, a call from Karachi to Dhaka said: "Mubarakan, mubarakan (congratulations)" — a clear mission-accomplished message.”

Congratulations? Yes. Of course they have a reason. Rejoice? Yes they do have their reasons.

But what reason do we have to celebrate the terror attack on Mumbai?

Celebrations? Yea, just take a look at the following super hit words.

“Sprit of Mumbai”, “salaam Bombay”, “Mumbai back to normal”, “It is a slap on the face of terrorists that we are back to normalcy so fast”, “WE ARE MUMBAIKARS” and all such similar crap.

Super hit words have almost shadowed the terrorist attacks, the condolences for 200 killed and sympathy for those who are injured.

I don’t know if the families of those who have lost their dear member(s) are saluting Bombay or saying that it is a slap of the face of terrorists. Surely, they are not back to normalcy.

Had the asses of those who claim “sprit of Mumbai” been shattered by the bombs, what 'spirit' could they have claimed?

Have we become so immune to the deaths of our own people? I did not observe this kind of immunity after 9/11 attacks in US. That is one possible reason why there has been no attack on US.

“Spirit of Mumbai”, “Back to normalcy” and etc are castrated expressions of the weak. After all the weak have no choice. What else can we as a Nation do? Get bombarded by terrorists once a month. Forget the killed and injured. Come back to normalcy quickly as if nothing had happened. Take pride in getting back to normalcy. Most certainly it is easier for us as a Nation to do than taking any other actions. Terrorists are equally entertained. How amicable?

Visiting Mumbai yesterday, our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had this to say to the people of Mumbai, "You have demonstrated your determination in fighting this war by showing utmost discipline and profound sense of courage in rapidly restoring normalcy in the city."

Fighting War? My Foot.

Profound sense of Courage? My foot.

Temple Demolitions: Get heard

2006-06-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Following news items are the ones you definitely would have missed out.

(1) In Lahore the Krishna Mandir was recently demolished by the Pakistan Government. The temple site was sold by the administration to a private party to construct a commercial complex. No Hindu even protested the demolition fearing the use of muscle power by the new owner of the temple site. Now there is no temple in Lahore where Hindus can worship.

(2) In Minnesota (USA) this year, a newly constructed Hindu temple which was about to be inaugurated was attacked by ‘unknown miscreants’. Nine out of 14 deities were vandalized so badly that new deities should be made again.

(3) Since February this year three Hindu temples have been knocked down in Malaysia. Three more temples will soon see the dust. Local Hindus say there is an unofficial cleansing of Hindu temples in Malaysia.

(4) ISKCON purchased a land legally in Kazakhstan, a muslim dominated country. Seeing the land prices raising high the Government of Kazakhstan confiscated the land belonging to ISKCON illegally a few months back. Even the courts were not of any help to ISKCON to retain its legal property.

(5) In Russia, ISKCON temple was demolished by the Government a few years back. The Mayor had promised a new land for building the temple which has not been given till date. Archbishop Nikon of Russian Orthodox Church wrote to the Mayor of Moscow asking him not to allow a Hindu temple to be built in Moscow because according to him, “Lord Krishna is an evil demon, the personified power of hell, opposing God.”

(6) In Bangladesh, it is an annual event to vandalize Durga Deity during Durga Puja and last year at least at three places Muslims vandalized Durga Deity.

(7) During last year’s Deepavali, local Christians firebombed a Vishnu temple destroying the temple and injuring scores of Hindus celebrating Deepvali in Guyana.

It is possible that I have missed out more such news. By now you are aware that none of the above made it big on media. It is understandable because there were no subsequent riots on the streets disturbing the normal life anywhere. There was no damage caused to public property by those hurt by the above incidents. Obviously Hindus do not think it is worth to attack fellow civilians and public property due to above incidents, however unfortunate and unjustified the incidents are.

In Tamil Nadu last year, 250 temples were brought down to earth following High Court orders in Madurai. The reason was those temples were built on public property. There were no protests. Hindus there thought such a drive was carried out in the interest of people at large.

A few weeks back, following High Court orders a drive to demolish all religious places occupying public property was taken up in Vadodara. 42 Hindu temples were demolished and the city was peaceful as if nothing has happened. But soon after the demolition of a dargah, violence erupted. Everyone including the Central Government intervened. Central Government filed a petition in Supreme Court asking to stop further demolitions. SC ruling against the High Court ordered the State Government to stop the demolitions.

This goes on to show that to get what you want you should go out rioting, hurting fellow citizens and damaging the public property. Media becomes hyper active, politicians stunt around to grab an opportunity for votes, Central Government also drops in to give a parental care and of course the supreme ‘Supreme Court’ will come your rescue.

Appeal from AIIMs doctors

2006-05-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Please spend some time to read this. U can make a difference.

As u all guys know that there have beeen lot of protests going on against the raise in reservations. All of us stuggle for months and years to make our dreams come true; No body in the government is bothered about that. This new policy of govt ll be a major road block in the development of our nation and creation of a caste free society. I want to share some developments occurring here with respect to this issue.

About 2 weeks back the Students Union ( SU ) of AIIMS ( UGs and Interns ) started the protests. They held peaceful march. Their main demand was to meet Honbl. Arjun Singh and to express their concern regarding the hike in reservations. What they got in return. Water canons, tear gas shells and Lathis. Some of the interns who were beaten were my friends and i could see their injury marks. Worse, some were girls. Sad isnt it ? Well next few days due to their constant struggle they could get to meet Arjun Singh. No positive response was obtained. He however promised that before sending the bill to cabinet, he would inform the SU. The students continued to boycott their classes. Other medical colleges of delhi also joined. We Resident doctors of AIIMS however were not actively participating. We wore black badges and attended few rallies.

12 th May saw a new beginning. Our medical students were brutally assaulted by Delhi police. Injured were brought to AIIMS. Fracture hand bone, head injury, blunt trauma abdomen with intra-abdominal bleed; 300 students were manhandled including girls, stuffed in buses and taken to police station. I remember the dialogue from RDB. This incident will prove to be a final nail in coffin for our Congress Govt. At around 3 pm the Resident Doctors Association ( RDA ) of AIIMS announced an indefinite strike. All Junior Residents ( Acad or Non-acad ) & Senior Residents boycotted.

Protest rally was organized that day. 13 th may was the worst day in the history of our Indian Independence and so called Democracy. Medical Students of Mumbai were beaten like animals. Infact animals also are never treated like this. Every body would have witnessed the brutality of the Mumbai Police.17 - 18 year old medical students were beaten up. Future of our country treated like this?

And these are the same Police Men who come to our OPD and ask for peferential treatment. Shame on them. And listen to what Bhujbal said on TV. I thought we need a real RDB now. This incident triggered the suppressed fire in each and every individual. We at AIIMS went on INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE from 14 th morning joined by medical students from MAMC Delhi, Lady Harding, RML Hosp, Rohtak Medical College . Slowly the fire spread to diferent states of our country. You know what happened in Blore. Calcutta, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Gujrat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala boiled in protests.

Students of Delhi University ( BSc BCom...) also joined the strike. The hunger strike in AIIMS continues. More than 100 students and residents are sitting in the heat since 14 th morning just on plain water. Believe me we slept in the open last night on an empty stomach. Its only when rain started pouring we had go inside the auditorium and slept there.

The IMA has announced complete medical bandh today ( 15 th may ). Doctors from all over delhi have come to AIIMS and are holding protests. IITs and IIMs have joined the strike. Even patients and their attenders were of full support towards this cause.

One man said, " My father is admitted in NS department and is fighting for his life and death, but i declare that i have no objection with your strike. I support your movement and the cause for which u re fighting. Our country needed this."

All of us know what is right and what is wrong. Having said that i feel that each one of us should follow our conscience. I ve written this message because i felt there are many of who might not be aware of the exact situation. I request each one of you to please forward this to all ur friends, Medicos or Non-medicos. Every common man needs to be aware of the injustice and should be involved in this effort.

This Movement will be a revolution in our independent country and will be the most significant event after the British Rule. It ll be the cause for the rewriting of Indian Constitution where just and meritorious people are not singled out and put to taste the adversities and someone else enjoys the benefit.

The government cannot hide its inadequacies in providing equal opportunities to the under priviliged in rural areas by increasing the reservations. They have ruled the country for so many decades and if in this time they are not able to provide equalilty in primary and secondary education for Indian citizens they cannot mask
their failure by providing reservations at each and every level. Its ridiculous. The whole issue of reservations was a political gimmic of the present govt to garner votes.

Its time that things are not taken for granted by any one. Let it be a senior minister police or anyone else. Whole of our nation needs to get aware of the amount of hardwork and sacrifice we put to achieve our dreams. We should not allow anyone to
make a mockery of our struggle in future.

Thank U Friends.

Dr Kiran,
Junior Resident,
Internal Medicine,
All India Institute Of Medical Sciences,
New Delhi

On Reservations

2006-05-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

Well, while everyone knows the real and old reason behind Arjun Singh and the Congress party bringing up the reservation issue again, there have been some new interesting views on this. Or at least new interesting ways of opposing the social inequalities that reservation can bring with it.

I read someone on the net supporting Arjun Singh and Congress by coaxing them to further make reservations in the cricket team, for Olympics candidates and for pilot trainees to fly special flights that carry politicians. The anonymous forward went on to tease the government that it should put up a petition to the ICC to disallow Shoaib Akhter to bowl at a speed more than 100kmph to an SC or ST batsman.

While this may be exaggeration, it also put the issue in bright light. Is it possible for an SC/ST batsman to accept that his fours will be counted as sixes? Can an OBC sprinter digest that she is allowed a finish line at 99 meters, while the others run 100 meters in a dash? Why isn’t the so-called backward class opposing such ‘favours’ from devious politicians?

Just as the word politician has now come to mean "cunning and selfish", OBCs, SCs and STs will become synonymous with "inept and inefficient". And that is not good at all because there are enough people in these communities who can do very well even without reservations, but will still be considered to have come through a 'quota' system. It’s like charity to someone who wants to earn with hard and smart work. OBCs, SCs and STs should consider their own self-respect, rise above wily schemes of politicians and reject reservations (at least beyond the pre-university level – plus 1, plus 2).

If Arjun Singh and the Congress party want to introduce a quota system in IITs and IIMs, it’s because the people of India are complacent about it. I do not want to call short-term beneficiaries of reservation as OBCs or SCs or STs. These names have become a stigma to a self respecting person. Let me call these people as the “decider” class, because their votes decide who comes to power. Those not in the ‘decider’ class, fall in the ‘other’ class.

If economically weak sections of society gets a reservation - that can be considered valid. But by accident of birth? Heyy, India as a country has more character than that.

There have also been thoughts voiced that if by the end of his or her basic schooling (10th standard), a decider class student has been unable to break even with an average ‘other’ class student, he or she never will. Nor will an ‘other’ class student. It does not happen by birth, for God's sake. I am sure the decider class will wake up and revolt against trampling of their "swaabhimaans" before reservation based on caste really happens.

Increasing the number of seats to accommodate everybody might solve the issue. But ‘reservation’ will still go on to kill the character of a country like India. We are one of the oldest civilizations and as a people, have collectively developed enough strength of character to look beyond such myopic solutions.

Come on people, wake up and reject reservations. Come on ‘deciders’! Don’t let Arjun Singh trample all over your self respect. This great country after all belongs to every Indian, not just the politician.

Anand!

An update on reservation protests on Sunday - things that the media may not cover.

2006-05-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

Following is an eye-witness account by Sanjeev Newar, alumnus of IIT Guwahati and IIM Calcutta

Sunday was a day of protests against reservations across India. The media has been specifically censured from reporting these protests in their totality and thus media coverage is a bit too mellowed and partial and at times defying reality. And why not, all political parties and bigwigs are unanimous on this. Off the record, they may agree that reservation is hogwash, but no one has the guts or conscience enough to take a public stand. Thus Dhoni's hairstyle and Shahrukh's Don seem to be a safer focus areas for mdia than covering this fight against a grossly ridiculous policy.

Several students from Delhi's colleges and schools, corporates and even farmers from remote areas of Punjab and Haryana came together for a "Youth for Justice" rally infront of Jantar Mantar on Sunday morning. They submitted their memorandum addressed to the PM to the Police Commissioner. From there, they went to AIIMS to express solidarity with Medicos on hunger strike. Close to a 1000 members from IIT/IIM/IISc community have offered their support.

A group of 22 representatives which included students from across colleges, corporates and professors then submitted their memorandum to Rashtrapati Bhavan. The summary was that a life without dignity is worse than death. With implementation of this biased anti-justice anti-equality reservation policy, the hope of living with dignity will die forever. Hence the President should, in that case, grant official permission to end their lives in the form of mercy-killing. The President's office is officially closed on Sunday evening, but the tacit support of the staff at President's House (including SC/ST/OBC members) ensured that the office was specially opened just for receiving this memorandum. The parting lines of the officers was that this movement should not die and all at members of the VVIP zone understand the sinister political games that are being played.

After submitting the memorandum, we came back to AIIMS and officially announced this to the medicos and the media. The media did cover us and questioned, but I am not sure how much of it will actually make news. Meanwhile, "Youth for Equality" students from IIT Delhi carried out a funeral procession of Arjun Singh from IIT to AIIMS and then performed the burning rites in the full glare of all.

There is news that Medicos are now under severe pressure to call off the strike and some kind of understanding is being reached. And unless we ensure that the movement is kept alive and make the politicians realize that the vote loss due to this policy will more than offset the vote bank gain, things cannot change. We all, especially the corporate sector and students in professional colleges, have to now take the battle forward. And yes, we can make the difference.

We are currently in process of unifying the movement across nation and world under one planned mechanism so that our protests do not get dissipated. Tomorrow evening will be a meeting of representatives from various colleges, CA's, corporates etc at India Gate Amar Jyoti at 6pm, where a common organized structure would be decided for future actions.

I urge all of you to send similar mails to the President at pesidentofindia@rb.nic.in and voice your opposition. Remember, this is a challenging battle where we are fighting the entire political system, deeply entrenched in corruption, vote-bank tactics and wily means. Even the media is less than lukewarm on this. So we have to be our own media, and make sure that even deaf ears are forced to listen - to talk in language of Bhagat Singh.

Let us fight this out tooth and nail. I am sure when we look back at our lives tomorrow, this will be remembered as one of the most satisying moments where each one of us actually made a big difference to the course of history of this nation.

Measuring wrong with undefined scales

2006-05-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

I laugh at the brains behind some of the TV programs.

One example. A TV channel recently called its audience to rate Rajanikanth, Rahman, Abdul Kalam, Vishwanathan Anand and other two, each belonging to different professions.

Why I laugh?

Abdul Kalam is the President of India. He belongs to the scientific and technological community in India and is rated one of the big shots in science and technology.

Rajanikanth is one of the most popular cinema actors in Tamil. In the movie industry, he is someone talked high about.

Vishwanathan Anand is a great chess player and his main domain is sports, in particular chess. He is certainly the top most in Indian chess.

Now, shall we say Abdul Kalam is better thanVishwanathan Anand or Rajanikanth?

Shall we say Rajanikanth is a class above Abdul Kalam and Vishwanathan Anand?

Those who are capable of thinking quickly realize that there is no single scale to measure the talent/success/achievements of personalities belonging to different professions. So Abdul Kalam can be rated as one of the top in 'scientific community of India' only. Vishwanathan Anand can be rated as the 'best Indian chess player' only.

Now let us move on to a more serious issue.

Some castes claiming 'upper' or 'superiority' tag and other castes accepting 'lower' or 'inferiority' tag is a serious case of measuring everyone with a single scale. The whole idea of 'upper' and 'lower' castes looks stupid because there is no single standard scale defined to measure one's superiority and other's inferiority.

Artisan's caste capable of producing various articles for use in everyday life cannot be called as inferior to farmer's caste and vice-versa. A caste doing well in higher learning cannot be called as superior to a caste doing wealthy business and vice-versa. May be, a shrewd businessman is superior to another businessman who is less skilled in business.

If 'upper' and 'lower' tags are defined based on the scale of economic situation, then there are low caste people among supposedly 'upper' castes. And there are high caste people among supposedly 'lower' castes.

Ending with a story I remembered.

A scholar took a boat to cross a full flowing river. To kill the boredom, scholar asked the boatman if he knew anything about puranas. Boatman said no. Scholar explained in brief about puranas. Boatman was asked again, if he heard anything about vedas? Boatman said no. Little explanation about vedas followed the boatman's answer. Half the way through the river, scholar asked the boatman if he knew how to read and write. No, answered the boatman.

Waves were raising high and the river was showing it's fury. Situation demanded abandonment of the boat. Boatman asked the scholar if he knew swimming. Scholar said no and started fearing for his life. Kind boatman swum and helped the scholar reach the other side of the river.

Gyan-Vigyan I

2006-02-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

“India Shining!” Not withstanding the politics surrounding this phrase, very few people refuse to accept that we are doing well. Since 1990, in addition to successfully facing the MNCs that entered our country, our companies are now venturing out into other countries and competing for their markets. Contrary to what a few cynics want us to believe, it is not just our software industry that is doing well, Indian Industry is doing well.

Of course we do have frequent, well founded, warnings from a few wise men that our much highlighted achievements should not be reserved to the service sector, and that we should have more Indian companies that compete with the world in manufacturing sector. Some believe that we need to build 'Made in India' to the level of 'Made in Japan', and if economics don't recommend such a goal, we should settle for making 'Made by India' as the benchmark for quality.

Considering the success of a few institutions in achieving something in this area, realizing such a goal does not appear to be an unreasonable expectation. Many in the present generation earn much more than our previous generations did, and more importantly many enjoy comforts on par with the rest of the world. We pride ourselves in having beaten the Chinese in one area since 1990, we are now a 'BPO Superpower'. Unlike in the manufacturing sector, where the Chinese had an early lead over us, it is not just manpower and low-wages that count, language matters. And that is our advantage: we are an English-speaking nation!

And that precisely is our problem: we are an English speaking nation. We, the descendants of the oldest civilization (no one has proved otherwise, so we ARE), prefer to call ourselves by a name given by some one in Greece. We prefer to conduct much of our official transactions in English, rather than in our mother-tongue. Though we are one of the best in the service sector, much of our population never benefits from it.

We pride ourselves for having some of the world's best graduates in Science and Engineering, and from my limited experience in the US, our pride is not misplaced. And this is the area where the problem is the most acute. We learn science in English and restrict our scientific debate to English. It remains an alien field for most of us, irreconcilable with our culture, a culture that we claim was scientifically the most advanced of its age- but we only claim that, we do not believe it enough to express the current scientific knowledge in our languages. Of course we have schools teaching science in local languages, but we force every one aspiring for a career in science to shift to English. So our efforts in this direction have only been half-hearted to this date.

We know the number system that our ancestors conceptualized by the name of some one else who learned it from us. This demonstrates the deplorable state that we have allowed ourselves to get into. It is time we remedied this state before it is too late. If not, we have enough examples in the present world to imagine where our future lies. The Arabs enriched their culture from the scientific knowledge that they gained from our ancestors, and so did the Europeans who came out of their Dark Ages and went on to rule the world. Accessibility of scientific knowledge to everyone, along with its internalization with one's culture, is necessary for a civilization to achieve the technological progress similar to that of any civilization that dominated the world in its age. If we fail to do so, we might still grow rich and strong but can not achieve a position similar to that of our ancestors.

Many mistakenly believe that our languages lack the vocabulary for much of scientific terminology, all the while failing to realize that it is our inability to integrate the modern science with our culture/language that makes it difficult to engage in scientific debate and spread the scientific knowledge in our languages. It is we who have to enrich our language by integrating scientific terminology into it, expecting our ancestors to have thought of terms for modern science is escapism at best. Most of us believe that our languages are better than English (spelling-pronunciation being a simple test for the doubtful), but still we do not feel compelled to do something to improve the situation, probably because most of us considered it an unimportant issue.

Had the Arabs and Europeans not translated the knowledge of Bharat into their own languages, could the Europeans have made those significant scientific and technological advances that brought such prosperity to their lands? Would the world be what it now is?

We should remember that the Airplane was first built not by any institutionally funded research group, but by two bicycle shop owners. Nor was the light bulb invented by a person with a host of formal degrees in science or engineering. Neither would've been possible if science was limited to Samskrit or even Latin. Much of our population considers science as a western concept, and hence against our culture. Another manifestation of the rift is the wide-spread tendency among the educated community of refusing to acknowledge scientific thought shown by those with no formal higher education. If we want to lead the world and live up to our heritage, we need to immediately attend to the widening rift between our culture and the scientific knowledge that we cannot live without. Science is our livelihood, Culture is our life. It is in our own interests to not let them be at opposing ends.

Wealth of Traditional Knowledge System

2006-02-12T22:53:00.000-08:00

Yoga schools, teaching, CD’s, videos and magazines constitute a multi billion dollar business in US which is twice the software exports of India to US today. Despite Yoga being a product of India, not a single paisa comes to India. Worse, it is not even acknowledged as Indian. It has become purely an American business. Churches are quick to appropriate Yoga into their fold and now there is Christian Yoga.

In 2004, US patent office granted a patent on a sequence of 26 asanas to an Indian-American yoga practitioner. You might wonder or express disbelief. How could anyone claim ownership over a 5,000-year-old tradition? But, unfortunately that is the state of affairs in the world today.

Actually this is not a single such case. For example, 80% of 5,000 patents on plant-based formulations granted by the US in 2000 were of Indian origin. This is only in the category of medicine and there is more to the list if we take into account of other cultural products such as food, architecture and other oral knowledge passed down from our ancestors.

Two prominent cases which India fought successfully in recent times are patents on neem and turmeric.

US government filed a patent application on neem tree at European patent office in 1990 and was granted patent in 1994. Neem, having its origin in India has been used for centuries as an insecticide, medicine for humans and animals and in cosmetics. How could such common sense medicine be patented? The issuing of patent was challenged by environmental activists calling it a biopiracy. Finally after 15 years, the case was won in favor of environmentalists and the patent was withheld.

In 1995, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India challenged a US patent on turmeric granted to two non resident Indians associated with University of Mississipi Medical Centre. Turmeric is a common medicine in Indian households and has been used for thousands of years for healing wounds and rashes. CSIR won the case and the US Patent Office cancelled the patent.

Indian traditional knowledge system is vast and largely under-explored by today’s Indians. However, it has been under scanner by western countries for long time. With the help of intellectual property rights and patent laws, West is making a great use of our traditional knowledge for their benefits. Imagine if turmeric was patented, your mother would be infringing US patent laws if she applied it to heal your wounds.

Who are to blame for all these? Westerners who are hawkish on anything to mint money out of it or ourselves who are incapable of recognizing value of our traditional knowledge system?

I believe part of the problem lies with us.

There are Indians whose minds are still colonized. They trash any traditional knowledge system as regressive, primitive and anti-modern. Anything that is Indian is a shame to these people.

And there are generous and calm Indians who think knowledge is for sharing among all humans alike. Not at all bad actually, but these people have not woken up to modern challenges of global business.

Colonization still rules prominent Indian minds. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the fact that we are not taught anything about Indian traditional knowledge system in our schools?

In my experience, it is difficult to answer whenever Koreans asked me if I practice Yoga. My answer is negative as is the case for many Indians. ‘Isn’t it taught in schools in India?’ I am asked. My answer is negative again. They find it difficult to believe my answers, for Korean traditions are taught in their schools.

In this season of secularism, I have no hopes of seeing Indian education undergoing a reformation to teach at least some important aspects of our tradition.

Well, let me not digress into educational reforms.

Is India doing something to safeguard our traditional knowledge systems?

Fortunately, yes.

CSIR scientists led by their chief, Dr R A Mashelkar in collaboration with bureaucrats and intellectual property lawyers have initiated a project to safeguard intellectual property of Indian traditional knowledge system by making it digital. Some excerpts from the news are reproduced below (first link in references).

“Over the coming months, India will unveil a first-of-its-kind encyclopedia of 30 million pages, containing thousands of herbal remedies and eventually everything from indigenous construction techniques to yoga exercises”

“The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) aims to prevent foreign entrepreneurs from claiming Indian lore as novel, and thus patenting it.”

“Already, the CSIR is creating databases on traditional Indian foods, indigenous architecture and construction techniques, and oral tribal knowledge, in what Dr. Mashelkar calls "defensive protection".

Yes, being defensive is the first step. But why not make business out of our traditional knowledge? Shouldn’t we be doing what we are good at?

If we setup state of the art traditional knowledge based institutions (Yoga, Architecture, Ayurveda and Meditation to name a few) in India and abroad, that would generate a lot of wealth for India.

References:

India: Breathe in, and hands off our yoga
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p07s02-wosc.html

TKDL- A safeguard for Indian traditional knowledge by Nirupa Sen
http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t_es/t_es_TKDL.htm

The U-Turn Theory: An Introduction by Rajiv Malhotra
http://www.swaveda.com/journal.php?jid=4&art=63&j=Evam

Gods and Goddesses in Hinduism

2006-02-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

Gods and Goddesses in Hinduism

The Gods and Goddesses in Hindu dharma has always been a subject of curiosity and for much time a thing to ridicule for abrahamic religions. The sheer number of them i.e. 330 million is just baffling. Among Hindus themselves, beyond the dreary statement of “all gods are representation of same Ishwara (supreme God) you will not get much explanation or understanding about it. Here I will attempt to give a simple view of Gods and Goddesses in Hinduism, their divine powers and functions, hierarchical setup, correct terminology and how common men are influenced from them.

The Hindu system of Gods can be easily understood with a simple comparative study with administrative body of any country. I have drawn parallel between hierarchical setup of Gods and administrative body to drive this point home. To start with I have put a simple sketch of administration of a country in Figure 1. It consists of multiple tiers beginning with lowest one being home and highest one being head of the nation.

An individual is always associated with three important entities, parents, family and friends who form essential characteristics of his identity. This combination forms an envelope or sphere through which he interacts with the outside world. The character and knowledge of an individual is heavily influenced by this sphere. Hence the interactions of an individual in outside world and his success greatly depend on the knowledge he has gained from these three entities of sphere.
Outside this sphere comes the society or the world whatever you call it. It consists of neighbors, wards, villages, towns, districts, states, nations and beyond. These entities have been organized in the form of a multi tiered administrative body in order to ensure smooth functioning of all the elements of society and ensure prosperity, freedom and protection. This body is built in such a way so as to help an individual in day today life to function better and achieve his desired goal and at the same time help society/nation to develop further. Each of the constituents of society have a distinct place and function in the multi tiered administrative system. Each tier of this administrative body is under the control of higher tier but functions independently within the set guidelines. So to say, the higher tiers hold an indirect control without interfering in the day today affairs of local bodies. The relationship of person with this body is of give and take. Individuals pay tax towards administrative services and in return expect to get security and good atmosphere for socio economic progress. The place of person in society is decided by his reach towards the higher tiers. As an individuals reach extend further from first tier to second and higher, he carries more weight in society and gets better privileges and often exerts influence over the lower tiers. The entities of the first tier (village/town) form the fundamental unit of multi tier system. Hundreds of such tiers form a second tier (state), in turn many second tiers clubbed together constitutes the third tier (nation).

The first tier consists of various elements of society with whom an individual interacts in day to day life. This includes neighbors, civil servants, doctors, engineers, laborers, farmers, vendors, police, domestic animals, etc. Various antisocial elements like, robbers, thieves, terrorist, etc also form a part of his life. This tier is generally known as Village/Town/County and forms the first pillar of multi tiered administrative body. Common men have the maximum interactions within this tier, and probably more than 99% never make it beyond this tier. Since most of the people are well aware about actual functioning of this tier and those above it, namely second tier (state) and third tier (nation) I will not discuss more on it.

Now with this background to administrative body, we’ll have look at the Hindu system of Gods and Goddesses. Using a similar approach as above, I have given a multi tiered pictorial representation of Hindu system of Gods below.

With the creation of universe, variety of species and forces came into existence. In order to facilitate smooth functioning of universe, maintain order and guide the highest evolved souls, the Human beings towards their ultimate goal of mokshya, the creator formed an extensive system of divine administrators called Devatas (Gods and Goddesses). Since the Atman has entered the material life in the form of human being, it represents a fallen state from eternal Brahman, and the individual has to overcome the balance of karma in order to return back to the higher state. Here Devatas play a vital role in guiding an individual to live life according to the four principles of sanatan dharma (namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksya) and also help an individual to achieve things beyond his personal capacity, facilitate material and spiritual progress and provide protection, guidance in day to day life. The human beings would worship different devatas by means of prayers and offerings and in turn devatas would fulfill their wishes using their variety of supernatural powers or siddhis.. These Devatas were organized in form of different tiers or levels based on their power, function and have wide ranging authority over day today functioning of individual’s life and the universe. This multi tiered system is discussed below in detail.

Like in the case of material world, an individual in spiritual world too have an intimate sphere or envelope through which he interacts (or should) with outer spiritual world. This sphere is formed by, the Kuladevata (family deity), Gramadevata (village deity) and his peetres (ancestors).

The peetres are the deceased ancestors of a family, though they don’t come under the category of devatas, they are at a higher level than human beings and are capable of guiding their decedents towards right path and means. They have the strongest bonding towards their family and hence would do everything possible for better of their offspring’s, though they don’t have much supernatural powers. Also they are dependent of their offspring’s for getting proper position in peetrulok, hence if offspring’s fail to honor their duties, peetres feel pained and will bring bad fortune for the decedents. Most of the Hindu families have means to interact with peetres through a spiritual guru’s and get to know their inclination.

The next and the most important figure within the sphere is Kula-devata. Every hindu family has specific family deity and is common to a kula (lineage). Kuladevata can be superficially compared to a family doctor. Just like family doctor knows health of each family member, their ailments and hereditary diseases to which they are prone, Kuladevata knows the full karma of the family, the bad and good that has gone over the generations, and their likely repercussions. Kuladevata’s main purpose is to protect the family and guide members towards overall prosperity. After peetres, Kuladevata is the next most attached entity towards the family, since the devata doesn’t have much function beyond their own kula. Most of the interactions with Kuladevata are via the Kuladevata temple priest, and deity can offer solution to almost any problem associated with persons life or sometime refer to a higher level devatas. Good rapport between a person and his Kuladevata results in enormous benefits in material and spiritual world. In troubled times, Kuladevata is the main solace for man, and throughout Indian history there are enough examples of kings and queens obtaining help from the deity. Just like kids who are in embrace of parents are protected, families under the embrace of Kuladevata are always under divine protection. It is the beauty of the Hindu system of Gods and Goddesses that every family has a devata to attend to day today material and spiritual needs exclusively.

The Gramadevata or the village deity also constitutes important part of a person’s intimate sphere. The Gramadevata is the care taker of complete village/town. This devata controls most of the super human spirits within the first tier and protects the community from evil forces. The deity provides protection or warns about impending danger to the community from any natural or supernatural forces. For an individual, Gramadevata can offer precious advice towards his interactions with higher tiers

Outside this sphere comes the vast range of super-human spirits and devatas, the Gods and Goddesses. They are well organized in the form of multi tiered body similar to the administrative body of a nation. Each devatas have well defined role in this system, lower level devatas who interacts extensively with individuals to higher level devatas, who exert an indirect influence. We will deal with them in from of different tiers

The first tier is the most extensive one and common men have the maximum interactions with it. This sphere includes vast number of super-human spirits and devatas, such as Yakshya, Yakshini, Dakini, Bhoota, Vetala, Naga, Jaladevata, Sati, Bhairava, Krutya etc. Sometimes they are spirits of the place (the crossroads, the boundary line), spirits of those who die a violent or untimely death, and serpent spirits. They are worshiped in the form of earthenware icons or shapeless stones, established in simple shrines or on platforms set up under a village tree, and only occasionally in more imposing buildings. All over India you will find n number small temples below tree, near river, roadside, entrance of village devoted to these lower level spirits and devatas. These are actually under the command of higher tier Gods or are local representatives of them, but most of the times act independently unless there is direct command from superior. Since these are lowest level of devatas, they will do anything possible for someone who worships them, irrespective of good or bad. Along with usual offering used during puja, they are often worshipped using lower level offering like, meat, alcohol, etc. They bring prosperity to people who worship them and trouble their enemies even if they are innocent. However they can’t harm any individual who are under protection from their superior devatas. Village mantric and tantrics generally worship these spirits and hold sway over common people. Individuals who solely worship these deities never ever are able to rise higher in spiritual level, and after death become companions of these deities. They wield enough powers to affect the day today life of individuals and can become a great nuisance if they are against someone, or someone directs them against you. They are easy to be won over using simple offerings and worships. The moral conduct of worshippers of these deities is seldom worth of a look, and this alone is self explanatory. However just like in administrative body, the local contacts in village/town deserves respect/attention to get things done, as they are the ones who finally execute orders received from superiors, local deities in village/town needs to be given enough respect to get immediate protection/help when need be.

The two devatas mentioned earlier, namely kuladevata and gramadevta has an immense role to play in this system. Since they have powers almost equal or more than Tier-I deities, they can provide protection against any harm from Tier-I deities. Here comes the importance of good rapport with kula and grama devata, in absence of which individual can go through lot of hardship (even if they worship much higher tier devatas, explained later)

The second tier consists of much superior deities compared to Tier – I. They include King of Gods (devas), Indra along with other devas like, Agni, Yama, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, Ishan, Naitruti, Navagraha and their companions like, Gandhrva, Kinnara, Apsara etc. They ensure smooth functioning of the universe. It is duty of the human beings to worship these gods and give them offerings, and in return these gods will bring prosperity to the worshippers. Worship of these gods needs much higher standing of moral values and conduct. These gods upon worship can fulfill almost any material wishes of the devotee and help in spiritual progress.
Just like Tier-I devatas, these are also dependent on offering from the human being and failure to do so can provoke anger from them. During most of Hindu ceremonies and rituals, most of these devatas are invoked and offerings are made in order to obtain their blessings. often attends to their devotees through Tier-II devatas. The dependence of devatas on human being ends here. The higher tier devatas or more correctly Deva/Devi are complete in themselves, and function only to provide supreme rewards to the worshippers without much interfering in day to day life. All the lower tier devatas follow the orders from them, and most of the time wishes of devotees are fulfilled through them.

In Hindu system of Gods and Goddesses, for every aspect of individuals needs there are various devas/devatas, like Kubera/Lakshmi for wealth, Ganapati/Saraswati for knowledge, Ashwinikumar for health/medicines, Vishwakarma for construction Navagrahas for past life doshas. Individual desiring excellence/boon in a particular area can attain so by worshiping a particular devata/deva.

The third tier consists of three most important devas/devi’s responsible for the existence of universe along with their companions. They are Brahama-Sarasvati, Vishnu-Kamala (Lakshmi), Shiva-Parvati, with their companions, Ganapati, Kartikeya, Narada, Garuda, Dashaavatara (like Nrusinha, Varaha - Rama, Krishna), Dattatreya, etc. Worship of the higher order devas/devis like, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Hanumana, Gayatri, Kartikeya, Lakshmi, Ganapati, Dattatreya, is generally practiced for overall material/spiritual boons beyond the reach of lower tier devatas. The common practice of worship include, daily puja, reading of 1000 names or specific text- Strothra (like Shree Suktha, Saptashati, Ramcharitamanas, Rudradhyaya, etc), Havan/Yagnya, vrata (keeping fast) etc.

One need to be very careful with regards to the worship of higher tier devatas and expected result out of it. Though these devatas are very powerful equipped with all mahasiddis capable of bestowing almost anything to the worshipper it takes lot of time and effort for an individual to develop a connection with them. The worshipper needs to follow yama and niyama as best as possible and raise his/her spiritual level. The results of years of worship depend on the moral/social conduct of the worshipper. An ordinary worshipper hardly makes any progress or sees any visible benefits even after decades of (sincere?) worship. So in case of emergency people often find that they are deserted and blame the devas/devatas for not helping them in times of need. Finally he blames god and gives up worship all together and becomes atheist. Here comes the importance of kula and grama devatas who can provide emergency help on time. To say it in simple way, people try to develop good rapport with chief minister/governors (which doesn’t work out for >99% of public throughout their lifetime) ignoring the local administrators who are exclusively posted to serve them. So in times of need neither local administrator have good connection with you nor do the higher authorities know you, so you feel deserted and loose faith. Best is to know where you stand, whether it is material world or spiritual world, don’t have any illusions or false pride!

Considering this particular problem a special arrangement is made in order to have direct interaction of the worshipper with higher tier devatas, and this is called Temple. The Temples has the maximum deva/devata presence possible compared to any other place. Along with the presiding devata of the temple, many other lower tier devatas will also be associated with the temple who acts on the orders of presiding devata. All ordinary people with no spiritual ability to barge into the higher tiers of devatas can have the best possible interaction and give offering to their favorite devatas. The temples can be considered like government emergency aid centers for impoverished public. Finally, to whatever extent one worships the Gods and Goddesses, you need to know what maximum can be expected. More on this will be in my next post (Upasana – Our Worship)Another important aspect of Hinduism is the presence of numerous “God realized souls or Saints’ and “Avatari Purusha (incarnations of God)”. They constitute an important part in the dialogue between human beings and devatas. Almost in every village or district in India there will be or would have been some such Saint and general public will get immense guidance in their pursuit of material and spiritual progress.

Above all these tiers comes the last one, which is of the supreme creator Ishwara along with his companion Maha-maya. Only with the blessings of Ishwara, can a soul reach to a stage of self realization and ultimate mokshya. Maha-maya puts an invisible barrier in between dnyan and adnyan which keeps the ordinary individuals in the cycle of birth and death. With the help of lower tier Gods and Goddesses, an individual can slowly raise himself higher in spiritual level and finally come close to Ishwara. All other tiers can be bypassed if someone is out of material world and have direct interactions with Ishwara through Omkar meditation.

With this I will conclude my description on Gods and Goddesses in Hinduism. I will update it once more if need be for some of the points that might have been missed out. Feel free to post your comments or mail me : dgporob at gmail dot com.

An Outsider at JNU

2006-02-02T01:35:00.000-08:00

The moment one enters Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), opposite the first bus stop, one finds a heap of trash, definitely not a good advertisement for the citadel of left-wing ideology. However, as one ventures further inside, one finds quite a beautiful campus marked by dilapidated buildings. One can't shake off the impression of being inside a loss making PSU (public sector undertaking), the kind that Mumbai based business magazines would like to get rid of.

The annual fee for any course at JNU is less than Rs. 500/-, though a technocrat would wonder why anyone with sense would opt for a course like Persian studies or the Study of Social systems. The government spends a few lakhs on educating each student, but in my opinion, a cost/benefit analysis of the spending on the various teaching and research programmes at JNU could yield a negative result. The career options at JNU are limited to NGOs and media houses, a majority of which are foreign funded, which is ironical, as foreign capital in the technology sector is taboo for a majority of the students of JNU. As a friend from the Delhi School of Economics mentioned, the red flag has always attracted the educated unemployed who are unfit for wielding either a hammer or a sickle.

Another interesting feauture of JNU is the number of posters dotting the walls of all (without exception) buildings. According to my estimates, the amount of paper spent on preparing the posters should provide enough fuel for the mid-day meal scheme of a rural school for a year. AISA, AISF, SFI, NSUI, ABVP, I'm afraid if I keep rolling out the abbreviations, all possible permuations that can be formed from the letters of the English alphabet would be exhausted.
The student unions can be broadly divided into three categories based on the three major ideological groups, the left (CPI (X), where X can be substituted for M, M-L, etc..), Indian National Congress (NSUI) and the Sangh parivar (ABVP). To be fair, the left student unions are intellectually better equipped than either the NSUI or ABVP, which favour rowdyism to rational debate.

Two popular words that attracted my attention and can be found in almost all the posters at JNU are 'demand' and 'protest'. This provides insights into the mentality of the student unions, all sound and no fury. A lot of empty vessels, all of them, unfit to produce leaders who can actually solve problems instead of creating them. But the most devastating feature of present day JNU is the ubiquitous mobile phone and a universal consumerist class that a typical Marxist textbook would exhort to exterminate. Given this background, I am convinced that JNU's capacity for rabble rousing is overestimated, anti-left intellectuals need not lose much sleep over it. Withdrawl of the government from various sectors coupled with economic reform should despatch such regressive forces to oblivion.

I am more than convinced that our political/bureaucratic/intellectual class (a product of JNU type universities) is completely bankrupt. Most of the members of the above category can't generate a single paisa. Neither are they fit to govern/guide this country. This is a golden opportunity for a lot of entrepreneurs to get into the business of politics, sidelining the criminal/intellectual type of candidates traditionally thrown up by college student unions. The future of our country may depend on it.

Tailpiece: If my memory serves me right, in an article, S. Gurumurthy, columnist for The New Indian Express, had mentioned that a condom-vending machine had been installed in the JNU campus. I had a look at the machine and it dishes out soft-drinks and biscuits as well. One shouldn't depend too much on hearsay.

All religions are same!

2006-01-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

I thought of writing this after hearing my friend Prashanth’s experience. Prashanth once visited Kumar’s home. During a conversation, Kumar said all religions are same. Prashanth asked him if that is the case would it be fine if his children embrace Islam or Christianity. Kumar answered in negative and accepted that it is rather dangerous to say all religions are same.

‘Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are all same’ is a common sense among Hindus and only among Hindus.

(Let me keep aside one potential topic of debate, that is, if Hinduism can be called as a religion. For time being, I consider ‘Hinduism’ as a religion.)

Not surprisingly (or surprisingly) you will find only Hindus having this notion of sameness. Muslims do not say all religions are same. Christians do not say all religions are same. They are very clear about what their religions are. Well, there may be few individual Muslims and Christians in your neighborhood who might actually say ‘all religions are same’, but the issue is not about few individuals.

There are many Hindu Swamis who say all religions are same. But not a single Muslim Cleric would ever say ‘Islam is same as Hinduism’ and not a single Christian Father would ever say ‘Christianity is same as Hinduism’.

Why Hindus make this claim?

1. Hindus feel inferior to other religions and think that by propagating the sameness of religions they can be on par with people of other religions.

2. Hindus arrogantly think they are doing a favor to other religions by making their religions same as Hinduism.

3. Hindus have not understood what Hinduism is and what Christianity and Islam are.

Third is the most important reason that should be addressed urgently. One needs a genuine understanding of all religions in an objective manner including his own. Hindus lack this seriously. But for few exceptions, many of our Swamis and temple priests are ill equipped to answer questions regarding Hinduism. And it is too much to expect from our parents.

Our previous generation was busy fighting for their survival in an era of Nehruvian economy and did not really have time to read and teach their children about Hinduism. Yet, they continued to be practicing Hindus without being aware of the inner details. Whether they were convinced or not their children also followed their parents.

Present young generation cannot be convinced easily. They are exposed to a lot of things in the early stages of life because of media. They want to know who we are, what Hinduism is, why so and so rituals are carried out, what is the significance of a particular practice and etc. If you don’t answer, they find no reason in following Hinduism. If you say all religions are same you will probably see your children converting to other religions. If questioned, they would shot back at you, ‘you taught me that all religions are same, so why should it matter to you if I am a Muslim or Christian? This is what happens if you propagate the idea of sameness of religions.

Many Hindus in this generation are hypocrites. They are Hindus at home without having any knowledge of Hinduism. They condemn Hinduism outside their home and claim it being the same as other religions. The danger ness of such attitude may not be affecting the present generation in visible terms. But watch out for the coming young generation, you will see it clearly.

Additional reading: Myth of Hindu Sameness by Rajiv Malhotra http://www.sulekha.com/blogs/blogdisplay.aspx?cid=4755

Repeat Telecast of Indian History

2006-01-02T02:07:00.000-08:00

Indians have this uncanny knack. Whenever, there is a threat from the outside, we start a discussion about how to tackle the problem. This discussion becomes a debate, upgrades into an argument, and before we know, we have scuttled our own ship before the enemy does anything. The British effectively used the divide and rule policy against us. Now we have come one step further. We do not need the British. We can do it ourselves.

India is easily the oldest democracy. Every guy with an ass has an opinion. And every such guy has an ego that stinks as much as his ass. Take the IISc shoot out, for example. I know of a fat faction of pseudo-intellectuals within that campus who will quickly justify the shooting. "Oh Hindus should not have done the Ayodhya act. Thats what aggrieved the muslims."

Like this is any justification. We are supposed to have the brainiest people in there in that campus. Sometimes I feel we Indians are good at arguing and talking thru' our hats and nothing really more, though this is untrue.

How can you offer peace and secularism to a guy who has decided to get violent with you. Offering peace there amounts to himsa and not ahimsa. If you do not retaliate to an aggressor, then you allow him to trample you and then go on to trample others, encouraged by the easy success. This is sponsoring violence, not non-violence. Any one with a little game theory can explain that to you. But how do you explain a game theory or anything at all to a guy who thinks he knows everything there is to know.

It looks like intelligence is mistaken a lot for common sense. And lack of common sense surely leads to pseudo-intellectualism. The problem of pseudo-intellectualism is more serious in India than terrorism and hunger and other such threats to a stable society.

Islam is an aggressive religion. It is not just a few misguided elements creating chaos. The roots of the problem exist within Islamic texts. You cannot be a muslim and empathize with another religion. Ask a learned muslim and he will tell you. Only the congress and the communist parties will say otherwise. I do not know for what joy though!

Terrorist attack on IISc

2006-01-01T22:39:00.000-08:00

On Dec 28, 2005 an international conference that was attended by both National and International delegates was attacked by terrorists at 19:30 hrs at Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Prof Puri of IIT Delhi was killed in the attack and other four people were seriously injured including Prof Vijay Chandru of IISc and other distinguished scientists. This is the n-th time that terrorists have attacked innocent civilians on the Indian soil.

These attacks are a coordinated effort by Islamic jihadis to destroy the integrity of India and its indigenous culture and civilization. They are leaving no stone unturned to achieve their goals. To name few of the terrorist attacks in the recent times, Bombay blasts, IC-814h ijacking, Delhi Diwali blasts, attack on Indian parliament and attack on Ayodhya. Unfortunately, the Indian Government has been totally insensitive towards these terrorist attacks which are affecting and hampering the lives of innocent people and the progress of the country.

Instead of taking serious action against those who are responsible for propagating heinous ideologies, gun-culture and human bombs, the attitude of the government is really disappointing. Government issues strong statements to fight the terrorism very frequently, but these statements are not put into action. It appears that the Government is trying to solve a 21st century problem of islamic terrorism with 18th century laws (framed by british). For IISc researchers, it is like sending a moon/mars mission with feathers attached to the rocket to ensure its bird-like flight with no propulsion devices.

It is high time Government comes out of the shell and vote bank politics to take strong actions to fight this Islamic terrorism emanating from neighbouring countries. Otherwise, our great civilization shall again perish into the darkness for centuries. After the destruction of Takshashila and Nalanda Universities by Islamic invaders, it took almost thousand years for India to setup world class institutes like IISc, IITs and other institutes of repute. If the Government does not stand upto the expectations of 1 billion Indians by taking actions we may be seeing an end to all that we achieved in the past 50-60 years. It would take another thousand years to reach this level of innovation and scientific culture, if we let these Islamic jihadis to overpower us.

Simply increasing the security around these universities will not help much as it hampers the working conditions of the scientists and obstruct the free flow of information and environment of mutual discussion among the scientific community.

Therefore we all scientists, researchers and engineers urge the Government of India to take tough actions to prevent any possible future attacks. We hope that Government shows a strong will power in terms of action (not just empty rhetoric ) to fight and erase this dangerous ideology of Islamic terrorism to save our great culture and civilization.

Dr. Sudarshan Kumar

Is India overpopulated?

2005-12-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

Think about these.

1. Bolivia is "overpopulated" with 8 people/square kilometers and Sudan are said to be “overpopulated with 16 people/square kilometers. But Seoul with 16,391 people/ square kilometers and New York with 10,292 square kilometers are never said to be overpopulated.

2. Netherlands has more than three times the population density (395 people/square kilometers) of its former colony Indonesia. But Indonesia (126 people/square kilometers) is said to have a problem of overpopulation and not the Netherlands.

‘We are underdeveloped because of overpopulation’ is a common saying in India. I believed in the same notion but not after I met a Dutch guy who said Netherlands is more densely populated than India and it is stupid to think that growth is inhibited by population. He said poor organization and mismanagement are the main reasons for underdevelopment and not the population.

Often poverty is reasoned with overpopulation. That is not true. Poverty or starvation is caused by continuous wars, poor organization, mismanagement and incompetent and corrupt governments and not by too many people.

Today, India stands only next to China in population count with a whopping 1,087,000,000 people (roughly 1.1 billion). Yes, we are highly populated but the fact remains that we live in a large area of land. So, what counts is population density and not just the numbers. Population density is defined as number of people living in a square kilometer of land area. Just for the records here is a table comparing population densities and percentage of arable land of Korea, Japan, Netherlands and India. Except India other countries in the list are well developed and fast progressing. Israel’s case is added for the reason explained later.

(Arable land is defined as the land that can be used for growing crops)

It is clear there are some countries doing much better than India despite their high density population. They are not starving despite their low percentage in arable land (shown in the table). They are finding success by making good use of advanced technologies.

More than half of India’s land can be used for growing crops which is unmatched in the world. India is the only country having such a high percentage of arable land. Yet, we starve. Worse, we blame it on our own population and not on our incapability and incompetence.

Now let us move to the case of Israel. Israel was mostly unarable desert until desalination plants were built on the coast. People of Israel turned infertile unarable land into fertile arable land. The plants turn salt water into fresh water for farming, drinking, and washing. Israel has created her own large fresh water source. At present, they are progressing against all the odds.

(Another good example is Aran Island which is off the west coast of Ireland. The unarable land of the island was covered with a shallow layer of seaweed and sand from the ocean to make it arable. Today people grow crops there.)

This is how technology can transform a country. If India is better managed by adopting advanced technological skills, she can feed more than the present population. Large population is a valuable resource especially when many of the developed countries are fast aging today.

(Statistics: Population Resource Centre, Wikipedia and CIA World Fact Book)

Cross Encounters – 1

2005-11-29T16:51:00.000-08:00

The bell rang when Murugan was about to sit for Pooja. It was that lady who comes every Sunday to the apartment to take the inmates to nearby church. He opened the door and welcomed her inside.

She could speak little English, just enough to invite the brown skins to her church.

Lady: Mr. Murugan, please come with me to church. Let us pray.

Murugan: Okay, I will. But, on one condition.

Lady: What?

Muruagn: See, I was about to offer prayers to our Gods. Why don’t you join me in my prayers? If you join me, I would be glad to join in your prayers too.

Terrified lady refused to sit with Muruagn to offer the prayers and left the place immediately. She never pressed the door bell of Murugan’s home.

Missionaries invading your homes in Korea are not uncommon. Rate of cross plantation is high in Korea and it is no surprise if you encounter missionaries on the streets, bus/train stations, at universities and at your door.

The difference between Murugan and the lady is obvious. In Murugan you see a typical Hindu attitude of accepting the invitation to join the prayers. However, the lady did not reciprocate his invitation. Murugan has respects towards other faith, but the lady has no respect at all towards his. It is no surprise given the fact that she subscribes to an exclusive religion, that is, Christianity.

Yes, it is like an exclusive club membership and there is only ONE club. You can be a member ONLY to that club and none else!

Well, the problem is not mainly about exclusivity. It is intolerance towards other faiths which is not acceptable. Missionaries firmly believe non-christians will go to hell and hence it is their job to rescue them. Missionaries believe that non-christians can be rescued by convering them to Christianity. They make use of every opportunity to save non-christians even if it is during tsunami and earthquake. But, they are not to be seen during Katrina hurricane relief activities because people out there are already Christians!

Of Dress Codes, Duties and Role Models

2005-11-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Quite frequently the issue of dress code props up and debated endlessly with repetition of same old set of arguments. A rape case in Mumbai, implementation of dressing code for college students in Mumbai, Pune or in Chennai alights many brains. Activists of all kinds wake up and shout for a while to indicate that they are still alive. One group shouts that ‘part of the crime lies with the victim girls who dress provocatively’ while an opposite group shouts, ‘if, at the age of 18, students can be given the right to elect their Prime Minister, can they not choose how they dress? A lot of arguments are exchanged by both bands. But unfortunately, issues are mixed so much so that the actual problem is lost.

Moral policing: People who become agitated by looking at the revealing clothes of women often support the implementation of a dress code. Argue with them, they give ‘sound’ reasons as to why a young woman should dress properly. One popular reason is that unless dressed ‘properly’ she is vulnerable to sexual attacks such as rape. This is non-sense. Is a young boy dressing ‘improperly’ vulnerable to rape? A rape is a manifestation of power, control and aggression. Rapists plan their crime in an organized way and rape is often a pre-determined act. Psychologists say the patterns of rapes are similar in ‘closed’ and ‘open’ societies alike. Another major problem with moral policemen is that they focus solely on girls. Such lop-sided focus gives enormous scope for many obscure ‘fashionable feminists’ groups to shout, who otherwise keep a low profile on genuine women’s issues. If you police, why not police the boys too who exhibit their muscles in every other street corner?

Exhibitionism: An issue not connected to the above is of dressing in revealing clothes. This is a wide spread perversion thanks due to the overwhelming influence of ramp models and actors/actress beamed every day to our homes by the media. People wear revealing outfits to draw the attention of others and they derive pleasure in doing so. Needless to mention, there are equal number of men and women doing this, but often guns of moral policemen are focused on women alone.

Primary duties and priorities: What is the duty of a teacher? It’s simple, it is to teach. A doctor cures, a businessman does business and an entertainer entertains. So we can say there are primary/basic duties for each one of us. It is considered ideal, if people adhere to their duties closely to an extent that their identity is determined by their successes in their respective duties. A teacher should be identified as a good, better or the best teacher and certainly not as an entertainer or businessman. He could probably entertain or play in his leisure, but not at the cost of his/her primary duty that is, teaching. Whatever may be his/her non-teaching interests, a teacher is expected to give first priority to teaching.

Likewise, college students should study and keep studies as their top priority. Following ramp/cinema models to dress in everyday life has the potential of distracting the student (not the onlookers) from concentrating on studies. Distractions of any kind should be minimized by the students in order to excel in their studies. Ramp models and cinema actors/actress are paid for dressing or undressing. Fashion designers who design the clothes for models are also paid for their work. It is their duty, not everyone’s.

One might ask, ‘should not a teacher/doctor/student dress well’? They should. Aesthetics has a role to play in everyone’s life. But aesthetics should not take over a person’s primary duties and responsibilities. Know your priorities well and strive to get recognized by your talents and achievements in your duties. Are you successful in your job and got some time to develop an interest in fashionable outfits? Then, use your own imagination and creativity to design an outfit for yourself. And that’s truly YOU in your original best.

Role Models: Today, many people try to find their role models in a movie ‘star’ and in a model (not the role model, please note) walking on a ramp. They die to identify themselves with a popular actor/actress and try to mimic them. They learn the tastes of a ‘star’ through media and try to adapt in their lives too. Unfortunately, most often a good teacher is not considered a role model to either his students or to his junior colleagues. Best student in a college is not the role model to his classmates or juniors. If an aspiring actor/actress considers famous actor/actress as his/her role model, it is appropriate. But if the same person chooses an engineer or businessman or say, a politician as a role model, would he/she make a career in acting? So, you must decide first what you want to be. Want to be an actor/actress? Then choose your role model in your favorite actor/actress. Want to make business as your career? Then choose a successful businessman as your role model. Want to be a leader? Then choose the right leader as your role model.

Role of Media: Due to shock and awe kind of bombardment of cinema and ramp ‘stars’ through all kinds of media, ‘style’ has become the self identity and often the only identity for many people. Self worth is taking a new definition on the basis of ‘looks’ or on the kind of dressing. Often media presents women as objects of sex thereby creating an impression in the minds of the gullible public that all women must be viewed through the same lens. Same holds good for the other gender too but unfortunately, this happens more in the case of women. Women without beauty are not considered worthy by people despite their talents and achievements in the fields of their interest. Dressing has been made to appear as a symbol of women ‘empowerment’ and ‘freedom’. Such stereotypes on one hand will fail to recognize talented women and on the other hand will mask genuine problems of women in a society with superficial ones.

A society needs lots of professions, not just entertainers. But how many reports/interviews have you seen in the media which talks of or talks with a good teacher, an honest technician, or a well caring nurse? Weigh them against reports/interviews of/with an actor/actress, the ratio is depressing.

Welcome

2005-10-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

All of you will agree that the world is becoming small; 'small' in terms of reach, not otherwise! This has been possible due to advent of various technologies. Remote place, a few decades ago, is really not far today. Communicating with your family when you are away from home has never been so easy thanks due to revolutions in internet and telecommunications. Information is a click away and so also an 'idea'.

With so many conflicting ideas in this world, it is natural that one becomes perplexed in shaping his/her thoughts. Life has become busier unlike yesteryears and one has little time in making judgement on his/her own. Dangerous ideas become dominant with the help of power, media support and money and influence gullible people.

Responsible citizens must fight to replace dangerous ideas with just ideas. If it is possible for propagating dangerous ideas, it is possbile for propagating virtuous ideas too. With emergence of alternative media like internet, opportunities exist for well meaning people to counter false and dangerous ideas.

With this prelude, India Prasthutha welcomes you to this blog. Members of this blog will soon start posting articles/opinions with good intent. Relevant thoughts will be expressed with a high degree of responsibility.

Wishing you all a very happy Deepavali. Condolences are due to family members of those who lost their lives in Paharganj, Delhi in a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting Deepavali.