Personal Comments

Many times, it happens, that some current affairs news in the media relate to incidences in your own life. I had the opportunity to attend the executive body meeting of a local forum. It was a dull meeting, as nothing much had happened in past many months. I had raised the issues, related to visibility of actions being taken by the committee. One of the gentleman, questioned me regarding my presence in past meetings. He probably didn’t knew that, I was informed at the last minute and I could not attend only one of the past meetings for being not present in the town. I understood the intentions of defaming me, just because I had raised few genuine questions. After coming out of the meeting I could relate this situation to happenings in a political party in Delhi. Many times, what is right, what is wrong doesn’t remain any issue. The issue becomes, who is right or who is wrong. Personal things start dominating fair discussions. I had formally learnt the ‘Conflict Resolution’ techniques, during my management classes, but the solution to the trick of some people to fire personal comments, to diverge the real debate, is far from just being a management topic. When I talk of conflict resolution, I always recall the story of two fighting cats, where a cunning monkey offers mediation and slowly eats up the entire bread loaf, the cats were fighting for. Sometimes, bilateral conflict may go worse, when a mediator is involved. 

Finding a common ground for resolution is possible only by respecting each others’ personal reputation, whether it is a mohalla forum, a political party or talks between two countries. All this is easier said and written than practically facing it. But such things always need continuous reminders, so more and more people like me will keep writing. May be I learn a better lesson myself by this kind of written expression. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

At Its’ Best

“Each of us is given a ‘loaf of time’. Each new day shortens it by one slice. You will make many investments in life; the moments invested in exploring these devotions will bring dividends that change your eternal future.” This I read in the opening pages of a book of moral stories. People talk about utilizing each loaf of bread at its’ best. ‘At its best’ is what remains to be defined, according to me. This is because human nature is flowing to the tunes of the society at its best. It is not risking at its best. Everybody thinks that they can’t over run history. According to them, if the man who fell from the rooftop died on the spot, every one falling from the same place is destined to die on the spot. This is not true, we know. Then, why don’t we always believe in new possibilities? Believing in new possibilities with no history to trace and thus utilizing every given loaf of time is taking risk according to me. Success is about taking similar risks. This you can see in the life of all successful icons that lived on earth.

Today, on 31^st March, we remember the first Indian woman, Dr Anandi Gopal Joshi, who obtained a medical degree. She was born on thirty first March 1865. She is also the first Hindu woman to do so. I brief her life account here, with a belief that it might help some to redefine chances and risks.  According to the prevailing caste customs she got married at the age of 9 and gave birth to a child at the age of 14. Unfortunately, the child did not survive. The family believed that they lost the child because of inefficient medical support.

Her husband thought of encouraging her to become a physician. It was a physician couple from America who told them to apply at College of Pennyisollovia. Though she wanted to study for Medical Degree, they hadn’t enough financial resources to meet the expenses. This she explained in her speech done in a community at Serampore college hall, where she also pledged that she is not going to be converted to Christianity. It was her intention of initiating a medical college for women in India that attracted public acclaim most.

Her speech was reported widely and money began to flow. The then Viceroy of India contributed Rs. 200. Finally she travelled to New York by ship Theodicia Corpenter in June 1883. The dean enrolled her to the medical college. She graduated from there with an MD in 11/03/1886. On her graduation Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. In late 1886 she returned to India and the princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as a physician in charge of a female ward of the local Albert Edward hospital.

Destiny but was not kind to her. Anandbai died early next year on 26/02/1887 at the age of 22, leaving behind a whole dream of a Women’s Medical College in India. Her death was mourned throughout India. Her ashes were sent to Theodician Carpenter in America who placed that in his family cemetery in New York.

Joseph Mattappally

Dialling Code of God

The Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya organised a four-day All India Conference for Administrators, Executives and Managers from 12 to 15 October, 1996 at its international headquarters at Mount Abu in Rajasthan. This organisation had set up an ‘Academy for a Better World’ and called its campus ‘Gyan Sarovar’. It was a new complex located at Mount Abu and was the venue of the conference. The participants, exceeding six hundred in number, came from all over the country and from all kinds of organisations, government as well as non-government. The theme of the conference was “Value-Based Administration— Prospects and Challenges”. All the participants highly appreciated the contents as well as the arrangements for the conference.

This complex easily compared with any modern international venue while maintaining its serene and spiritual environment. The organisation of the conference was a part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of the Brahma Kumaris Organisation. I had the honour to attend the conference as a Guest Speaker. The Brahma Kumaris Organisation came up in the year 1937 and has since spread all over the world on account of its dedicated and useful services rendered in all fields. The main aim of the organisation is to make this world a better place to live in by making each human being a better person. The approach is to make each individual realise his true potential aseveryone is a child of God. Most of us forget this reality in the rush and clamour of the world and confine ourselves to our bodies only, while the true potential is in our 'Atma'. The body is mortal while the ‘Atma’ is immortal and is a part of ‘Paramatma’ which is ‘God’ or ‘Supreme Reality’. This way we all are children of God and if we can establish this relationship, we develop Godly qualities and become better persons for society. Not only this, we enjoy tremendous peace of mind and all good qualities come to us effortlessly. Thus, we achieve true happiness which is never disturbed by the vicissitudes of the world.

While there were sessions on different aspects of administration and management addressed by eminent speakers from different fields, the day would begin with Raja Yoga classes. Raja Yoga is a way of connecting ourselves with God and in the process becoming our own king, living like a ’Raja’ irrespective of our external conditions. However, it is not as simple as it appears. For this, one has to make a very determined and sustained effort but it is worth the results. After all, even for transitory success in this worldly life, we face and tackle so many troubles while here we get something which is eternal. I feel that the Raja Yoga classes were the best part of the conference. The speaker who explained the principle of Raja Yoga was a very senior member of the Brahma Kumaris Organisation. Her deliberation was extremely logical and interesting. While I have no intention of going into the details nor am I capable of doing so, I am touching upon an interesting part of the talk on Raja Yoga.

For making contact with the Kingdom of God, we have to call Him up. To do so we must know His dial code but most of us do not know it. In Raja Yoga classes, this code was disclosed as '0001' and it was beautifully explained. In our worldly connections also we now have STD codes. For reaching any part of our country the code begins with ‘0’ and if we want to reach the Kingdom that is New Delhi then ‘0’ is to be followed by ‘1’. Similarly, for international dialling, the code begins with ‘00’ and if we want to reach the Kingdom of the world which we can safely consider to be USA, then ‘00’ is again to be followed by ‘1’. In order to reach the Kingdom of God, one has to rise even above the world and therefore one more ‘0’ is required followed by ‘1’. Thus, by dialling ‘0001’ we reach the Kingdom of God and we may call it the dialling code of God.

While it is interesting when seen in a light vein, there is great depth in its connotations and very few are fortunate enough to reach the Kingdom, though everyone of us is capable of doing so. For this, one has to understand the meaning of the zeros of the code. The zeros mean that in order to rise above the world, we have to reduce ourselves to zeros at various levels. It is like the launching of a rocket in which the ascent begins only after we count down up to zero. While in our worldly ascent, one zero is enough, we require three zeros for Godly ascent. The first zero implies that we have to give up material pleasures and have to develop detachment from them. It does not necessarily mean that we have to give them up physically. It only means that mentally they should have ‘zero’ meaning for us, if we wish to reach God. The second ‘zero’ implies that we have to rise above persons also. However pleasant a human relationship may be, it is only a body relationship and hence transitory. It is, therefore, essential to rise above all body relations, which means that we must reduce our human relations to zero. Again, it does not mean giving them up physically but mentally one has to be above them.

Having transcended material and body relations, one has to rise above the mind. It means that we must rise above our thoughts also. The thoughts arise in the mind which is a part of the body. Therefore, in order to reach the Kingdom of God, we have to transcend our own bodily senses completely. This is what is implied by the third ‘zero’. Having done so, we become one with God and that is what is meant by the digit ’1’. Thus the dial code of God very well explains the way to reach Him. It is a hard process and requires a great deal of determination on our part but the outcome is more than worth the efforts. According to me, this was the conclusion of the conference. The closer we reach God, the easier it is for us to imbibe the values and value-based administration becomes a natural outcome in all fields of life. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Not of the World

A few days ago I was meditating about my own identity. Who am I really? For a long time I was known in the USA as a Resident Alien. The term, resident alien, came from the Alien Registration Card, more popularly known as the green card, denoting the status of a permanent resident.  In the USA I was an Indian, in India I was an American. Over the years I began to see myself as an alien in that I feel terribly uncomfortable with a great deal of hypocrisy that goes on around me.  By no means I want to imply here that I myself am free of all hypocrisy.  At this point I can only say that I am striving to get rid of as much of it as I can. Also, I have great difficulty with the organized, institutionalized, strictly regimented religion that I was born in, and to that I devoted most of my adult life. As years passed I began to see my religion with its rigid doctrines, medieval theology, rituals, and practices more like the Pharisaism Christ condemned in his days. So I opted for spirituality beyond religions. It is a simple spirituality with a simple theology: 1. See and respect everyone as God’s children who are designed to join God out of their own free will, 2. Love humanity and live one’s life according to God’s will as communicated to one’s duly formed conscience, 3. Use this world’s natural resources wisely and frugally without exploitation of anyone, and share them with others especially with the needy.

The question then is: How many of us can live a life that is not defined by our religion, culture, nationality, and race? Not many. My own best estimate is that about 99.99 per cent of humanity are defined by external determinants, and only, perhaps, .01 per cent are determined by internal factors.  And those .01 per cent, in my thinking, are not of this world. They cannot be contained or defined by any nationality, race, religion, or culture. In a world where truth does not matter, corruption abounds, and criminals get away, all of us may wonder once in a while whether we belong to this world.  But when a religion that is supposed to connect us with God is practiced more and more for social acceptance and worldly prestige, I have no doubt that we are not facing reality.  When the man born blind was healed by Christ, his parents did not want to acknowledge Christ for fear of being put out of the Jewish synagogue (John, Chapter 9).

That is why we in the ashram are looking for an alternate mode of living that is more congruent with our ideals. We think our community life paves the way for future forms of religious and/or spiritual living. Practically speaking, we attempt to live a simple community life of spiritualty following the will of God on the basis of our own rigorous discernment using the available knowledge and wisdom coming from the treasury of human heritage.  We in the ashram pooling our resources come from different cultures, nationalities, religions. We, married as well as celibates, have not come together due to blood relationships. We heartily accept everything good that comes from everywhere. We choose to live this life and celebrate it because we find it highly satisfying and fulfilling in a world that is confined and limited by so many “narrow domestic walls” as Tagore described. We believe and earnestly think that we are representing realities beyond this world that humanity needs to march towards.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Colour Me Saffron

Before your start connecting this ‘title’ to anything else, let me tell you that it is being used here simply as an English translation of famous Indian freedom fighter’s song, “Mera Rang De Basanti Chola”. Many people who relate saffron colour to religion, may not be knowing, that the freedom fighters who sung this song while walking towards the rope of capital punishment were completely atheists. Just read this line from Sardar Bhagat Singh. “As regard the origin of God, my thought is that man created God in his imagination when he realised his weaknesses, limitations and shortcomings”. 

Today on Martyr’s day, while I am penning this article for you, I decided to delve little deeper into Bhagat Singh’s philosophy of freedom and of Religion. I found that both Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh had similar opinions on the matter of human weaknesses. The reason for Mahatma to pray was this weakness and the same reason applied for Bhagat Singh, for not praying. While the concept of religion seems to be binding us into many rituals, the concept of freedom is actually not much different from the real concept of religion. Bhagat Singh advocated the need for freedom to help an Individual move above the boundaries of religious beliefs. Mahatma, however thought that religion helps to fill social gaps, by explaining the concepts of empathy towards others and thus achieve inner freedom. Today saffron colour has become a sort of brand for many to promote and force their own faith, in the name of “Return to Home”. The same colour is almost hated by few other groups for the fear of losing the political battle. I always relate to saffron as being a colour that provides the head to our tricolor. Head relates to thoughts and it was the power of thoughts that Bhagat Singh demonstrated to the world. So folks! Let us power our minds with saffron power, or the power that gives freedom to our expression, freedom to our deeds and freedom to choose our beliefs. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

None of the Above

Quite recently, there were public uproars for admitting NOTA option in Indian General Elections. NOTA had been introduced, clearly because there were people who did not like to stand by any of the candidates in the list. When election rules were set in India, nobody might have thought that Indian politics is going to be a byword for open corruption. However, not too many have envisioned the problems this little NOTA might invoke in case it scores majority of the vote. Will NOTA save the nation is another question. 

There was a time when every Indian citizen loved to be identified with the faith/religion, culture, or cast to which he/she belonged and so an application/submission form with a box to indicate the applicant’s religion was not at all an odd thing. This is not the case now. The number of people with indifferences towards religions is slowly increasing. This is not any kind of atheism which administers the doctrine that deities are not real but a movement limited to an understanding that the logics religionists follow are wrong. Once, if Indians were born into a religion and always died in a religion, now all those who are born in a religion are not buried in the same. Non religionists courageously say that they belong to None Of The Above (NOTA). These non religionists believe that in most cases religions are derailed and avoiding them could be better. This NOTA attitude is not restricted to elections and religions only; it has spread to social/family relationships too. People love to live maximum unattached. 

This has come to be a trend. 

Recently, I read about entrepreneurial religion, that is founding one’s own religion. A month back, Indian Express had published news on unattached Christians staging a demonstration in Nagercoil, demanding separate burial grounds. Hinduism in India has ever been open; nobody cares too much about one’s religious faith exercises and almost all have entrepreneurial approach at least in some cases. Entrepreneurship is not alien to Islam too, where some people yearn for peace and tolerance while some others insist on might and rights. Elements of irresponsibility in total consciousness generated by this People, who have chosen to be entrepreneurial in faith and NOTA in action is enough to change the world, absurd in spirit. That is my concern.

Joseph Mattappally

The Fall of Shivalik

After I joined at Calcutta in July 1994, I wanted to join a club for tennis. Calcutta is known for its clubs and there are many which provide good facilities for the game, the South Club of Calcutta being considered the best, as it has produced many national level players. I used to watch tennis in this club from the balcony of my friend’s house during my visits to Calcutta prior to my posting and always entertained a desire to play there. This wish of mine was fulfilled when a friend arranged for me to play there soon after I shifted to Calcutta. That friend himself, though bulky, was a good player of tennis and we soon developed a liking for each other.

My friend used to live in a five-storey building called “Shivalik” which was located in central Calcutta. His flat was on the fifth floor. Being somewhat bulky, he usually complained about it as the occasional climb up was arduous. l always advised him to look at the positive features of the flat and to accept gladly what providence had provided him. From the viewpoint of location and layout, it was a good flat and, therefore, he had all reason to feel happy. He, however, never took my word as seriously as I wished him to. The matter ended there.

After about a year, one morning, the newspapers of Calcutta carried the headlines about the sudden sinking of the “Shivalik” building into the ground. The news did not give a clear picture about the inmates and only mentioned that efforts were being made to rescue them. This created great anxiety and we tried to enquire about our friend. After sometime we learnt that he had been successfully rescued along with his wife and daughter. His only son also survived as he had left for IIT, Chennai, only a few days back. This gave us tremendous relief though it was eclipsed by the fact that all the inmates of the other flats died and it turned out to be a great tragedy in the city. The newspapers carried the news related to this mishap for many days. In due course, the builder was also arrested.

When I met my friend after the mishap, he had not fully recovered from the shock, but showed great respect towards the advice I used to give him about the flat. It was only because his flat was on the top floor, that he had survived the mishap. That was the only floor which remained above the ground, while the other four sank completely. Subsequent enquiries revealed that the foundation of the building had not been prepared properly which was why the soil had given way. Due to commercial reasons, undue haste was also shown in the construction of the building. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation became more alert when sanctioning building plans after this accident.

I thought over this event from two points of view. One was the providential escape of my friend which changed his attitude greatly. The second was about the role of the foundation in the construction of a building. If the foundation is not prepared properly, there is always a danger of its falling. The same is true for nation-building. When I see the falling values in our nation, I always feel that, perhaps, something has gone drastically wrong in its very foundation. Therefore, there is a need to take corrective measures, otherwise the day may not be far away when its collapse will come like the fall of the “Shivalik” building of Calcutta. No purpose will then be served by complaining about the weak foundation. We must, therefore, learn appropriate lessons without any delay and start taking corrective steps. No beginning is too late. Our nation is great and has survived many a crisis in its long history because of its strong foundation. Now that the entire nation-building is on a weak foundation, the collapse is a very distinct possibility. 

The same logic is applicable in the case of individuals, families and societies. If the very foundation of development is faulty, how can we think of a healthy development? In all these cases, it is the character which acts as the foundation. If we want strong and durable nation-building, there is no option but to have a strong foundation for the national character.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Anomalies of Democracy

Some recent events in the world should make those of us who love democracy to ponder.

1. Kerala Legislative Assembly: Kerala should hang its head in shame for the way some of the legislative members of the assembly indulged in violence and destruction in the very temple of democracy. These members disregarded human rights and all canons of human decency as they freely broke the laws of the land.  They attempted to systematically break the law and order situation in the state to create anarchy and chaos. They do not deserve to be members of such an august law-making body. They are very poor models for all law-abiding citizens. They need to realize that the finance minister could legally present the state budget in the assembly as long as he is not found guilty andlegally barred by the court. In a civilized democratic state every citizen is considered to be innocent unless proven guilty. To add insult to injury, these perpetrators of crimes had the temerity to declare with impunity a strike (hadthal) that would paralyze the whole state on the following day. Little do political parties in Kerala know that any strike that denies safe freedom of movement and conduct of businesses is a violation of human rights and democratic principles.

2. Some days ago the Finance Minister of India, while unveiling a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Parliament Square in London, referred to the United Kingdoms (U. K.) as the oldest democracy. The title, oldest democracyis rightly and justly deserved by the United States of America (USA). No country with a constitutional monarch as its head deserves, in my opinion, to be called a fully democratic country. In other words, in a democratic country there are no privileges or hereditary rightsthat come merely from one’s birth.

3. Recently there was a report in the media that Pope Francis was against the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Catholic Church.  My question to him would be: Would Pope Francis be alright if he were denied the right of ordination because he happened to be born as a woman? I know I would not be alright. May be he would not have difficulty with his faith as I would have. But the fact of the matter is that none of us chose our gender.My wife had to settle for being a nurse because her mother did not think that women in those days became physicians. Well, there is no theology against the ordination of women. There is only tradition against it. But then many old traditions have changed as they turned out to be unenlightened and even outright immoral and illegal. Holiness is compatible with faith and democracy. Nay, I, who was against women’s ordination in my less enlightened days of the past, now believe equality of genders promotes holinessbetter. I firmly believe that it is good for the future of the Catholic Church to embrace demoracy in electing bishops and cardinals who in turn then can elect the pope.

Democracy is a very fragile institution. It may not foster fast economic growth and material prosperity as a dictatorship would. Yet it is the only way to preserve human rights and human dignity.  Many countries do not have it. Many persons have risked their lives for it. In the modern age only democracy can bring a fair and orderly life and, above all, real emotional and spiritual satisfaction.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Childhood Dreams

Those days, He was in his early teens. He used to play cricket in an open space in front of his house. Many other children of the colony also used to play there. He was considered to be a poor cricketer. Whenever he tried bowling, it was difficult for him to pitch the ball anywhere in the line of the stumps. Most of the times his over was limited to three balls in the name of a local cricket rule, called ‘Baby Over’. For batting he was definitely a tail-ender. Total run he scored in his lifetime was less than a good batsman average batting score. But, one thing was still amazing, whenever he used to ball, he always thought, that one day he will make it to the Indian squad as a bowler. He felt that, his style of bowling was like Bhagvat Chandrasekhar, the famous leg spinner in those days. His dream used to repeat in a different way whenever his chance of batting used to come. He also dreamt of playing “late-cuts” like Gundappa Viswanath, a legendary Batsman of Indian squad in seventies. These are the ways I feel every child used to dream. 

A dream of becoming a big shot at whatever he tries. By this time, readers must have understood that I am talking of my own childhood days. As we grow old, the rawness in our dreams starts diminishing. The power of weighing pros and cons in everything takes over. Other than dreaming of becoming the best cricketer, I also used to dream many other things. I wanted to become the best painter in India. I wanted to become a sitar maestro. My most realistic dream was to get my name on school honours board. As per my academic performance those days, it was a little difficult. Five exceptionally brilliant students were ahead of me. In next four years, things slowly changed in my favour and I could make it. This gave me a belief that it is possible to get to some of your dreams, only if you see it in the first place and then work hard towards your goal. This learning helped me all along my career to reach a few milestones. I wish, I can maintain the same rawness of childhood dreams even now. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Lights Please !

The Bible says, “You are the light of the world….” Buddha said, “Be a light unto others,” and we call the saints ‘the enlightened’. Is light so inseparable in our lives? At a glance we find that without light around, all our activities, all our discoveries, all our innovations turn useless. What can we do without light? Ligt is so important. It was light that God created first. It should have been from light that everything manifested. The science of Physics knows that an electron can be created at a specific voltage and an atom at a much higher ratings. Then why not we create things at our pleasure? There is the truth that human laboratories cannot hold that much of high voltage. We regretfully admit that it is only the powers of the cosmos that is competent to do this and that it can do this in abundance. 

I used to think on the wisdom of the universe and the solar system in particular. Each planet, sub planet and the sun are rotating at various speeds quite in harmony with each other. The planets’ overall orbiting path and speed also are hilariously harmonious. Definitely, the entire system is controlled by a consciousness with high wisdom. It is clear that this wisdom is not confined to a particular corner of the system or a particular planet. The whole space used by the solar system is filled with this consciousness. To be precise, wisdom fills the entire space, everything in this finite universe. Our attempt to split the universe ends up in atoms and an analysis ends up showing that what we get inside the atoms also is nothing other than space, because the theory holds that particles in any atom are by nature waveforms only – just lines of force condensed. According to science, the only reality then comes to be that nothing exists. Einstein put in a beautiful rule- time and space do not exist. 

We were thinking on our connection with light. If matter is split into atoms, animate things are interpreted in combinations of cells. How many of us know that each cell is radiating thousands of light waves, different in frequencies? All energy radiations are ‘light’ according to science. If so, each human body should be a complex web of radiations that keep crisscrossing all the time. So it is. Like beams repel and unlike beams attract. The net result is that the emanating light shapes into a spectrums of colours around the cells and around the body. A part of it can be seen with naked eyes, and a trained reader sees a little more. There are aura readers who translate the beaming light around a body into meaningful information. If it is light that rules a cell, since we carry some 50 trillions of cells, why not we simply be called light? Seers knew this and it is what they said too. Unfortunately, most of the human stars are hid behind clouds of ignorance or resists to part with darkness.  They claim that they are in search of their purpose. Strange! What else can I say?

Joseph Mattappally

Inspiration from the Void

My two-year posting at Calcutta from July 1994 to July 1996 gave me a very good opportunity to go to various places in Bengal and also to meet a large cross-section of people with different backgrounds. Calcutta itself is a culturally rich city where material considerations are lesser than similar other cities in the country. It boasts of very good institutions here and one is likely to come across many great personalities as well as a wealth of information. I could not scan much of the city because of the nature of my job but despite that, I met many wise and learned persons and learnt valuable things from them. One such person was Pratap Chander Chunder who had been the Union Education Minister in the Janata Government of 1977, and was currently the Chairman of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Calcutta Centre. 

Once I visited P.C. Chunder with the Kendra Director, K.V. Gopalakrishnan. He lived in the old part of the city in his ancestral house. The family had been in the legal profession for generations and Shri Chunder himself was a practising lawyer at the Calcutta High Court. When we met him, he was sitting in his office. I found that his office furniture was very old and he himself appeared so simple that I was surprised. We talked on various subjects for about half an hour. During our discussion, some reference was made to the attitude towards life and I said that life was like a glass of water which is half full and half void and we should look at the filled portion of it. To this he gave a very interesting response by saying that the void portion is equally important as one can get a lot of inspiration from it. I could understand the point immediately and we did not discuss it further.

Subsequently, I contemplated over this piece of advice and tried to analyse it further. It is true that in this imperfect world, no life can be full in the true sense. However, making it full is the main objective of life and the imperfections of the world have to be seen as opportunities to do so. Seen from this viewpoint the void of life becomes very important because they set goals for us and make us strive to achieve them. While one should make the best use of what is already achieved, one has to work earnestly for what has yet to be achieved. The determination to do so comes only from the void portion. If one keeps looking at the filled portion only, such inspiration and determination may not come at all. Here we are not talking of the materialistic rat race of common parlance. The reference is to those achievements which help in taking us to the goal of life. Of course, needful material achievements also fall in this category. If we look at the voids of life this way, they can give us a lot of inspiration and gradually it should be possible to lead a totally fulfilled life. Such a life is a really enriched one and will help us reach the goal of life. The voids in the lives of others should also be seen in the same way and they should be inspired to fill them. Thus, we can help each other in making life richer and reduce the imperfection or the voids of the world.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Guarding Freedom

All want freedom. All talk about freedom. Only a few are willing to pay the price for it. Christ who came to free humans from bondage was killed because the High Priest of the time decided that be killed for the sake of the Jewish nation. Gandhi who worked to liberate India from colonialism was killed by someone who thought Gandhi catered too much to the Muslims at the expense of Hindus. Ninety years ago on March 10, 1925, Gandhiji inaugurated the Satyagraha (truth-force) at a mass meeting in Vikom, Kerala, against one of the most vicious practices  indulged in by high castes against low castes. Now it is difficult to believe such evil, discriminatory practices prevailed in Kerala society not too long ago. It is interesting to note that these practices were devised by Brahmins of the time who were well-versed in sacred Hindu Scriptures, and who as priests were supposed to be closest to God.

Recently I came across a March 13, 1965, file photo where three white nuns and a white priest joined hands with countless African-American (black) demonstrators to sing freedom songs in Selma, Alabama, USA. They all stood mostly in cold rains for two days to protest against unjust voter registration that deprived the blacks of voting rights. This protest and other sustained protests paved the way for civil rights for blacks in 1965. It is also difficult to believe that legitimate human rights were denied to blacks in the USA fifty years ago. And I was in the USA only 9 years after the Civil Rights Bill. It is also interesting to note that some of the worst discriminations were perpetrated by whites who were supposed to be the best educated, and who were well-versed in Christian Holy Scriptures, and who were also supposed to be closest to God. 

The facts and stories above tell us that the freedom that we enjoy has been won by others who paid for it with their lives. The soldiers who protect our borders also put their life at risk and get killed for us. All this happens for the physical freedom. What about the most precious emotional and spiritual freedom? The consumer society slowly but surely and imperceptibly diminishes the emotional freedom of most persons through clever advertisements. History again and again showed in unmistakable terms that religions with their dogmas, doctrines, harsh disciplines, and hell-fire or re-births have kept their members in constant fear and bondage. Human rights that are good indicators of human freedom have not been won by religions. Religions that are so focused on the other world that they do not have any time for mundane human rights. Most politicians, who are mostly shrewd manipulators, opportunists, and utilitarians, are less concerned about freedom than their own material gain and survival in politics.

The picture I have presented here is pretty bleak. But that is pretty much the reality. However, we do not need to despair if we are willing to take responsibility for our life, and to come out of our deeply entrenched programming and conditioning of long years, and celebrate our life while surrendering to God and the good of humanity. Only we can safeguard our freedom while we live our life according to the will of God manifested in our conscience.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti

Incomplete Festival

I do not why, but this situation happens with me on the occasion of most festivals. This time it was the festival of Holi. Like many other people in our region, family members go to the place where lot of woods are placed to be lit in a particular mahurat of ‘Holika Dahan’. Our family has an additional tradition of visiting this place twice on the same day. Once in the morning to make some special offerings as a part of ‘Thandi Pooja’ or ‘Cold form Worship’ in front of wooden logs, that are just placed as a heap, and then in the evening when the heap is burned. This time we could not go in the morning, as my wife was not well. We went to the place of ‘Holika Dahan’ in the evening only, to perform both the parts of worship together. Somewhere, deep inside my mind the guilt of breaking a long established family tradition kept rolling. I kept telling to me, that it is ok, the situation is due to a genuine reason, but my other part kept pressing me to think otherwise.

I become this kind of split personality especially on the festivals. I start carrying the guilt that if I miss a ritual, God will punish me. I also have another part of me, which has been recently developed, that is a complete atheist. This part tells me to stop all this nonsense and be a sensible person and tells me to stop dramatizing things like this. Don’t know if it is the habit of repeating same things for years that brings this kind of internal conflict or these traditions do have some meaning. 

I think that many of you may have experienced this kind of conflict, especially while following the religious customs. Sometimes you convince yourself, by saying that it is a matter of personal beliefs and individual feelings. Some other times, some attempts are made by some people to explain the rituals giving some strange type of logic. Anyway, the point I want to make is, if we are ready to debate the strange rituals. In the name of symbolism of remembering an ancient story, we keep doing things year after year that may not be relevant now. Burning huge amount of crucial resource of wood on the day of ‘Holi’ is beyond any explanation in current days. Similar things we do on other festivals also. In my opinion the best way of enjoying a festival is to share resources between different classes of people rather than wasting them. Today, I complete my ‘Holi’ celebrations, by sharing these feelings with you. Let us expand the word ‘HOLI’ as (H)appiness (O)f (LI)fe.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

The Great Recycling

The Universe we live in is truly a mystery, full of unresolved riddles. It has been running smooth from the beginning of time; it also has been under constant repair from the beginning. I know that it is not the word repair that fits here because repairing generally implies to mending what is torn or broken. However, this activity also falls under repairing. What is happening in this universe is continuous restoration by continuous replacements or some sort of recycling. The self-repairing of the universe is continuous, changing everything every time. Within a span of seven to ten years all the fifty to seventy trillion cells in the human body are replaced. Each body has different types of cells in it. Depending upon the type, its life span also varies. 

On a close analysis we understand that it is the principles of recycling that the universe follows. Recycling is a process in which waste/unwanted materials are converted into potentially useful materials. We know that the same polluted air in the evening is recycled into refreshing life breath in the morning, at much higher a standard fixed by ISO. According to human norms if there are things that can’t be recycled, the mysterious universe has no such categorization there. Energy at all levels is being recycled, our thoughts too. 

The theory is that everything, except ‘change’, changes. But, how many among us accept this truth? We are worried about everything around. We want to see everything changed, be it our parents or siblings. What most of us generally experience is a change in another’s favour, and not us. Why is it so? The answer is that we do not ever trust that the whole universe is just for us or we don’t have that infinite patience to wait until it discloses in full. We never want to be that old fool who waited to see the sky falling down. Neither we do allow the universe to recycle our attitudes and understandings nor do we do it for ourselves. That is the disaster of the times.

Joseph Mattappally

Gandhiji’s Monkey !

I was posted as the Managing Director of the UP Spinning Company at Kanpur in September 1989. Soon after I took charge, I had a very interesting visitor from an eastern district of UP — Ghazipur. He was completely blind and reached my office with great difficulty. He was a stranger to me and, therefore, I received him with some surprise. I could not guess what the purpose of his visit was. After he settled down on a chair, I politely asked him what he wanted. He said he had no purpose except to meet me. He had heard of me when I was the Collector of his neighbouring district about five years back and had developed a wish to see me. He was very happy to have fulfilled his wish that day, though it had been quite difficult for him to travel from Ghazipur and then to reach my office.

Accepting what he said, I switched on to a general discussion and asked about the cause of his blindness. He told me that he had lost his eyesight in his early childhood during an attack of smallpox. The way he narrated his story gave an indication that he had accepted the reality gracefully and had no bitterness in his mind. This encouraged me to ask a few more personal questions. When I asked whether he missed seeing the world around, he gave a very philosophical reply, saying that there was not much to see in this transitory world which was full of evil. By not being able to see, he was saved from this evil. As a result he always contemplated on God, to see Whom no physical eyes were required. I was touched by his answer and respected his philosophy. After sometime, he left my office and we never met again.

This visitor left a great mark on my mind and I usually reflect on what he said. This also remind me of Gandhiji’s three monkeys, one of whom keeps his eyes shut, the other his ears closed and the third his mouth. The significance of this is that one should avoid seeing evil, listening to evil and speaking evil. This is a necessary condition for inner growth which is the main objective of life. After all, a child is born with a pure mind but as he grows and has interaction with the outer world, his mind entertains evil thoughts which ultimately cause disharmony in society in addition to his own downfall. If, therefore, by some act of God or by controlling the mind, the influence of evil can be kept away, inner growth is accelerated. By this, the inference should not be drawn that in order to grow internally, one has to be physically blind, deaf or dumb. 

This state is only symbolic. The ultimate requirement is to remain uninfluenced by evil either physically or mentally. The gentleman who met me had seen his disability in this light and made use of it for his inner growth. He was almost an illiterate person but had grown into a wise person by constant contemplation. To me he appeared to be a monkey of Gandhiji who kept his eyes closed in order to avert them from evil.

¯

Laughter is the jam on the toast of life. It adds flavour, keeps it from being too dry, and makes it easier to swallow ! Diane Johnson

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Beyond Dogmas and Doctrines

We have only one life that we know about for sure, and that life is lived in this world. If that life is lived well, the after-life will be well taken care of. According to Joseph Campbell, the well-known researcher and writer of myths, all major religions have some sort of creation story. These   stories are similar in origin. They all have basic principles or values essentially similar to the ten commandments of Judeo-Christian religions. Lest persons wonder where I come from, I believe in moral and ethical laws and rules made in societies to govern their members, and to regulate their behaviors and transactions. There is no sphere where regulations do not affect. I also believe there comes a time when all humans who are capable of (at least have average intelligence), should be able to be guided by their own inner light. In other words, they should be able to go beyond dogmas and doctrines, and “god-persons” and personalities who claim to have special prerogatives to represent God or God’s will.

I am aware that we are in a dangerous territory here. Most humans have not come of age. They are immature or dependent in that they look outside of themselves for some guidance or assistance to direct their lives. I am not including here forms of peer consultation that can help in problem-solving, and can certainly enhance one’s life. The modern life engenders dependence on so many specialists. If we dare to go against them, we would be labeled stubborn or non-conforming or even outright rebellious. Many professions are based on what is called medical model that advocates a doctor-patient relationship. The general mode is consultee-consultant or helpee-helper relationship. In a highly technological and consumer world, one is at a loss without some technical assistance. In a technological, scientific world, there are no dogmas or doctrines but specialized knowledge. When I am talking of dogmas and doctrines, I have especially in mind religions and political parties. In religions, for instance, one’s life is guided by a belief system, rites, rituals, and practices (superstitious or otherwise) and is chiefly guided by fear due to what is going to happen in after-life. Fear, perhaps more than love, is the greatest human motivator. Christ in his time challenged many of the sacrosanct religious laws and practices for which he was most cruelly put to death. Socrates before him underwent death for going against societal conventions of his time. Gandhi not too long ago was assassinated by fanatics of his own religion as they thought he was not favoring his religion enough. History is replete with examples of great men and women who are revered now but had to pay the ultimate price for what they stood for in their own life-time.

Dogmas and doctrines evolved in peculiar situations of the past. One is expected to conform and follow them unquestioningly. To do otherwise would be highly imprudent and terribly inconvenient. But religions have a messy history wherein they fought important human discoveries or were too slow in acknowledging and advocating human rights. It is also important to note that they often had the support of immoral but powerful rulers if they themselves did not have the required power to get persons to conform to their dictates. Focusing unduly on an after-life drawn from faith, they often neglected the only sure life that is in this world. Now they are busy canonizing some of their members for heroic virtues in this life or even some members who protected their status quo as they in their misguided zeal even violated others’ rights or at least condoned the violation of these rights. As these dogmas and doctrines eat into the fabric of the glorious freedom of God’s children, it is wise to examine each one of them thoroughly before accepting them.

It is undoubtedly of paramount importance to guide one’s life by one’s inner light, and to fully appropriate one’s God-given freedom. When would one be ready to take this all-important responsibility? As this is uncharted waters, a great deal of dialogue, discussion, and debate is certainly called for. My own thinking is that an individual who has taken the trouble to acquaint himself or herself with the various wisdom streams of religions and great moral philosophers of integrity, and who has thoroughly trained in and live a moral and ethical value system, that benefits the entire humanity, could be ready for it. This person, about 25 to 30 years of age (it takes at least that long to reach the desired level of training and maturity), after rigorous character and conscious formation may be entitled to the task. This person, guided by an on-going discernment of God’s will and common good of humanity, lives by the law of love in a state of complete surrender.

Swami (Dr) Snehananda Jyoti  

Income Tax

I know, the title of this article will immediately push you in the world of finances and budgets. These are surely the buzzwords these days. But here is something, which is definitely related to money, but on a different note.

Around forty years back, when I brought my first earnings home, I was immediately asked by my parents to take out the “share of Bhagwan Ji”. This meant the share I must take out in the name of God. My first earnings was just rupees five. It was a scholarship I earned in a junior class, because of my academic performance. I abided with the instructions and took out rupee one, which was twenty percent of my earnings. When I started being a salaried professional, I gave some portion of my earnings to my mother to lend it to God’s share. On a lighter side I always used to call it the Income Tax, God is charging me for his services. Recently I was watching a TV show, where a noted ‘Tax Guru’ was also recommending to take out some percent in the name of God. He advised that, even when you are earning too low, a minimum of one percent of your annual earnings can easily be put to social welfare. I just worked it out on an entire country basis.

If I consider the per capita income published by UN for India to be true and take that value as one thousand five hundred seventy dollar/annum, a simple working gives that average saving per person for God’s share can easily be rupees one thousand per year. This is assuming if everyone saves just one percent of his income. To arrive what percent is this amount I just divided the total value saved by everyone with the total planned expenditure announced this year. This turns out to be a figure near seven percent of total expenditure. This could be a huge some if all this is put in social welfare. One may actually wonder the wisdom of our elders. A simple self imposed tax in the name of God’s share, can lead to quite a bit of chunk for social welfare purposes. I hope many of our readers are already saving something for helping others. Remember, in return of this Income tax, God also gives us good universal governance.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg