Life Before Death

Human life is the most precious thing in this universe. Also, it is so complex that many have been studying its various facets since time immemorial. There is an ocean of wisdom dealing with human life but still there is very little known about it. Perception about human life differs from person to person and they live according to their individual perception. In a way, this makes the world a beautiful place to live in by the sheer variety of human beings. A truly wise person accepts this variety with equanimity and considers it as a part of the evolution process. 

One interesting aspect of life, which is usually debated, is ‘what happens after death’. Hindu philosophy believes in the theory of rebirth while there are some, which do not believe in rebirth. I am not going into the merits of such belief or disbelief but am touching upon an allied aspect of this. 

Recently I read a book called Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf, a very interesting book written by a young professor of English in Andhra Pradesh. The book consists of letters written by the author to his loved ones on different occasions. Each letter is full of wisdom and indicates the spiritual depth of the author. In one of the letters, the question of life after death has been raised. The author has said nothing about his belief in this matter but has seen the issue from a totally different viewpoint. I greatly appreciated his approach and am sharing it here. 

The author mentions that many people ask him the question, “Is there life after death?” and instead of giving any reply, he poses a counter-question, “Is there life before death?” Now the significance of such a response is to be understood carefully. The issue here is which of the two, ‘life after death’ or ‘life before death’, is more important. Naturally, the answer would be that ‘life before death’ is more important and we should first live it well before we think of ‘life after death’. The intention is not to curb the tendency to question but to give a positive message about the life we already have. 

In today’s world, most of us are not living even in our present lives. We waste time on trivials without caring about the precious nature of life. For such persons, the question of whether there is life after death is meaningless because they are dead even in their lives before death. The relevant question, therefore, is how to live before death. And if we really live well before death, perhaps, there will be no life after death. Thus, in both the situations, the question ‘Is there life after death?’ becomes irrelevant. The only relevant question is whether our ‘Life before Death’ is ‘living’ in the true sense as morally and spiritually enriched human beings, well on the way to the goal of self- realisation and harmony with oneself, other people and the universe. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

The Time Has Come

The time has come to be oneself as one is, bereft of all conditioning and pervasive programming, all trappings and pretensions. The time really has come to reveal oneself truly as God’s glory. Because everyone is in one’s own way God’s glory. That we are not aware of ourselves as God’s glory does not mean we are not. Trying to live a spirituality beyond religions and blood relationships, I told one of my ashram members a few days ago that I have loyalty only to humanity, God, and the nature around created by God. That means I will do everything I can for any human anywhere and God’s creation as a way of honoring and worshipping God. I also assured my ashrammate that the members of the ashrams will be my priority in terms of taking care of. For they chose to be with me unconditionally as I accepted them as they are unconditionally. Of course I have been and am loyal to my parents who brought me into this world, reared me, and nurtured me in continuous sacrificial acts. I am also loyal to Jesuits who gave me a very generous, solid, and exceptional training that opened up excellent opportunities in life to serve humanity and God.  But my own growing awareness of who I am as a child of God did not allow me to succumb to the disappointments of any one in my family or among Jesuits who had difficulty with my choices. For in my mid-adult life (40’s) I came to a deep realization that I have to make choices in consonance with myself in due discernment of God’s will, and live that life in the best way possible while serving others. My awareness also told me that I am a child of this universe, that God has a plan for me, and that I am not in this world to live others’ expectations.

 I am aware that Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, one a philosopher and the other a great scientist of all times, were either atheists or agnostics. They chose to be so for their own reasons. I choose to be so for my own reason or the lack thereof. I have been programmed early on into my choice by significant humans in my life. The faith I have been brought up in brings meaning and coherence into my life. It expanded over the years to include all right thinking religions that do not harm or exploit any human or nature. Christ revealed God as love, compassion, forgiveness, providence, and, above all, as our father and mother who want unity and harmony among humans. He had a special preference for the poor and the down-trodden. He held up truth as the virtue that alone sets us free. He called all humans, neighbors and friends. Buddha personified compassion and mithabhavana (an attitude of friendship) for all. Gandhi’s life was one continuous experiment with truth that he endeavored to live in his life. He believed in God. He examined all his actions for tolerance and purity of intention while living a very simple life committed to everyone’s welfare (sarvodaya).

It is not important that we prove God for anyone. God is unprovable. God has to be experienced in some way. Interestingly faith does not afford the luxury of certainty. Every human is a gift of creation pointing to God, and should be nurtured in love with care.  Sages give a message of compassion. Compassionate relating can be our attitude in daily life. For someone who had a near death experience recently, all I care for is to live fully, that is, to love all to the best of my ability.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Wholesale Market

I picked this story while I was recently talking to a lemon soda vendor. I am quite fond of the lemon soda he prepares using a very old manual soda pumping machine. It just happened that I had a little damaged currency note that day. As a courtesy, before giving him the note, I told him that it is a little damaged note. He said, “Nothing to worry Sir! I will use this currency note in the wholesale market from where I bring the supplies of lemon.” He told me that every second day he visits the wholesale market of vegetables and he brings about hundred kilograms of lemon in a sack. Till this point the plot of this story was not really built into my mind. Then he continued further. “Babu Ji! You will be surprised to know that no seller in the wholesale market ever counts the notes. They just look at the bundle once, make a visual assessment of the bundle and then they watch the buyer once again and give him the material.” He narrated the whole story with full action. His dramatic actions of how a seller watches the buyer were really amusing. He was actually telling me the process by which a seller develops a confidence on the buyer, that he must be paying him the right amount. 

The message was really loud and clear to me. No amount of counting exercise can beat the trust a single eye contact can develop between certain relationships. Some people develop a great skill of building such trust relationships with their shear experience. I do not know if this kind of skill can ever be taught in a business school. What I definitely believe is that skill of identifying people with a simple one time watching is certainly a useful skill. The wholesale market vendors are often good at it. Let us try to learn this art by selling love in wholesale. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

Knowledge and Wisdom

We often fail to draw a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. This leads to conflicts in many areas. The conflict between generations is mainly due to the lack of appreciation of this difference. At times our knowledge says something but the experience says something else. Those who understand the difference are able to harmonise the conflict while those who do not, lose their peace of mind. An effort is, therefore, being made to clarify the difference between ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Wisdom’ in a simple manner.

Wallace Friday has said: “Real Wisdom is more than Knowledge. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts; Wisdom is the interpretation of facts. Knowledge is culled from textbooks; Wisdom comes out of life.”

This quotation makes the distinction very clear. Wisdom comes by living well, by contemplation and by inculcating values in life. Knowledge can be acquired in a short time, but wisdom is acquired with time. Knowledge is no guarantee of success and harmony in life but a wise person is always successful and in tune with himself and the world. A Knowledgeable person may be literate but not educated, while a wise person is always educated. Knowledge is like ‘science’ while wisdom is like ‘technology’, which is applied science. As technology is more useful to mankind, so is the wise person as compared to the knowledgeable. Knowledge is only one component of wisdom, though an important one.

Having understood the difference, we must strive to grow wise. Then only will our value system become our asset and our lives become successful and harmonious. If we commit the mistake of taking ‘knowledge’ as a complete strategy in itself, we are in for trouble. No purpose will then be served by blaming the world around. On the other hand, a wise person has no complaint. For him, all situations are the varieties of life and he enjoys them all.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

That Hour is Coming

“The hour is coming – in fact it is here already – when true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth”, responded Christ while answering to a question put by the Samaritan woman at  the Jacob’s well. She wanted to know what would be the proper place of worship: Jerusalem where Jews worshipped or mount Gerizim where Samaritans worshipped. In one marvelous master stroke Christ broke all the rituals. He broke the sabbath sacred to the Jews. He broke the taboo of a Jew asking a Samaritan, and that too a woman, for water. He broke many rites and rituals of his religion.  His presenting non-Jews as great models of faith, brotherly and sisterly love infuriated the Jews to the point of wanting to get rid of him. His presenting God as father did not also sit well with the Jews. In fact Christians would rather ignore his calling us his friends as we may not be worthy of that consideration. 

That time is coming; nay, it has already come when we need to worship God our father common to all in spirit and truth that are also common to the entire humanity. Christ, for instance, did not establish any rite. He did not establish any ritual except the one very simple ritual at the last meal or supper when he broke bread and gave to his disciples saying “this is my body”. This is a ritual in that he asked his disciples to repeat it in remembrance of him. Religions have a formative function of teaching the kingdom of God. But they often get mired in rites and rituals and obfuscate the minimum program of proclaiming the characteristics of the Kingdom of God wherein all are children of God our father in love called to worship in spirit and truth with joy. 

We have all that we need where we are to worship God in spirit and truth. For this worship, we do not need to go to Jerusalem or Mecca or Kashi; we do not need to employ rites or rituals; we do not need to go to any special places of worship such as church or mosque or temple. As embodied, social beings, special places of worship can have great value if they proclaim the good news related to the Kingdom of God and form the character of the citizens of the Kingdom of God. To worship in spirit and truth all that is required is a deep awareness of the presence of God, a deep awareness of us being in God, and God being in us. This deep awareness subordinates all our interests to the primary goal of unity of humanity in union with God. When we worship in spirit and truth, we are focused on the salvation and the true freedom of the entire humanity in all its grandeur and diversity marching towards its destiny. 

  

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Mindset or Truth

Our minds are often rigidly programmed to think in a certain way. This we know about ourselves also, but still we keep making such remarks about others that he or she is talking with a particular mindset. We assume a mindset of political leaders, media or the people we see or meet in our day to day life. 

When something is reported in media in a particular way we develop a mindset on the basis of limited information provided to us. This happened in the case of brick throw event by cop towards a lady or this also happened about the repeated misquoted behaviour of relatives of Ms. Aruna shanbaugh, who recently passed away after forty years of boldly fought coma. 

Whole world works on perception. I read somewhere that, the true definition of “truth” is, “Truth is only the currently held perception about something”. I read many stories about the search of truth or experiments with truth when I was forming a particular mind set of my own. I did read about Gautam Buddha, who decided to sit under a tree in search of truth. I also kept the book by Mahatma Gandhi called “My Experiments with Truth” behind my bedside for many days to read it page by page every night before sleeping. The dilemma of true definition of truth is still far from over. I am still unable to cross the limits of my limited mindset. Just to reduce my pressure a bit I used my hobby of creating acronym like expansions, I expanded the word “TRUTH” to Trustworthy, Rightful, Upheld, Time-Tested, Honest. I hope my hobby will help you to find your own definition of truth, to go beyond a particular mindset. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

The Purpose of Living

In our daily satsang (gathering for prayer) at the ashram in the evening, I suggested a couple of days ago that we reflect and meditate on our purpose in life, and share our thoughts. Two persons present talked about the joy and satisfaction they got when they helped others and worked for them selflessly very early on in life. One of these two ended up joining the Salesians of Don Bosco, a society primarily devoted to the orphans and street children and other down-trodden. The other became a trade union leader addressing injustices in work place. Another person talked about primarily achieving physical and material goals for fulfillment in life. We ended up sharing immediate, intermediate, and ultimate purposes in life. We also talked about actualization – becoming all that we can be – even as we went about doing good and improving the lot of fellow human beings.

In the New Testament of the Bible, Christ’s mission or purpose in this world is described as preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and setting the downtrodden free even as he went about doing good. Further, he had the ministry of reconciliation of all human beings among themselves and them to God as he talked about the Kingdom of God. Before Christ, Buddha showed the path of freedom from unhappiness and enlightenment to humanity through awareness. In our own days, three very remarkable men, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, offered their lives in three continents in setting their people free from physical and spiritual bondage. Throughout human history we have countless persons who dedicated their lives for human rights and freedom from bondage. They were all truly men and women who spent their lives for others.

A few centuries ago, one of the greatest spiritual writers of all times, St. Ignatius of Loyola, spoke of the primary purpose of every human in his Spiritual Exercises as the attaining of one’s own salvation and helping others attain their own salvation. His discernment of spirits while making decisions is powerful indeed.  His Spiritual Exercises practically geared to making the right choices in living a spiritual life were primarily for Christians. In the world of Advaita (non-duality), the writings of Shankaracharya and Narayana Guru are worthy of special mention in the realm of the spirit life. Their hymns, especially Nirvana Shatakam and Daiva Dashakam, express the very essence of non-duality where God and human are one.

For humans, there is no purpose higher than the one of actualizing God’s plan, however various religions conceive it to be. This plan is tantamount to service of God through service of humanity that is none other than the best expression of divinity in this world. Altruism unsticks humanity from selfish and sterile pursuits and steers it purposefully toward God, its true destiny.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Forwarding Gifts

Recently we celebrated a party at home. It was the occasion of our marriage anniversary. Few neighbors and friends were invited. We usually celebrate such occasions with Vedic style pooja ceremonies. Knowing the occasion type, people also bring some gifts. Finally when the invitees return back after the celebrations, the last event of the day is always the gifts opening ceremony, when all family members sit to see, who presented what. As always, one thing was quite amusing to note that on some of the gift items, the giver has forgotten to erase the name of the original presenter of the gift. The practice of forwarding gift items received by someone, to others is often seen in our zone. I do not know why, but I was always against this practice. I always say this to my wife that either we should buy a fresh gift, or we may just give flowers or just cash in an envelope. My wife says that people forward gifts, because sometimes many duplicate items are received in gifts and people do not have any choice, but to forward it to others. 

I feel that the system of gifts to please the recipient on the occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, marriage events is a rather unorganized and unplanned system. I have seen people weighing the amount of gift versus the venue and number of persons visiting the event. Some people also keep a formal record of who gave what and then they try to return the similar type of gift by value of the gift received from the same person. In fact, on some marriage events, recording is done, of amount given by a relative while putting the ‘tilak’ on the forehead of the groom. In some cases this information is also made public to depict the status of the person. I am sure that the system of gifts must have originated from the point of view of making a contribution in the party, to reduce the burden on one single organiser. Slowly with time, things have changed meaning and have created wider rifts in people of different economic status. We need to evolve better social systems by way of educating the right behaviour at different occasions. Our school books are completely devoid of such practical things. I hope someone somewhere will see this post and take a small step in his own way. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

Coconut Water

Much is said about “Gratefulness”. To be happy we should not expect anything in return for good done by us to others while we should always be grateful for whatever good has been done to us by others. It does not mean that goodness is not returned by goodness but that such an attitude insulates us from agony of disappointment, if this does not happen. Secondly, the laws of nature are perfect. Here, goodness never goes unrewarded while the evil never remains unpunished. It being so, why should we waste our energy in keeping account of our goodness ? Quite often, our goodness is returned to us through unknown sources and in the same way evil is also returned. Therefore, we should confine ourselves to doing good deeds while being grateful for every good act done to us.

Here, the example of a coconut tree is most appropriate. A coconut plant needs watering and care for the initial two years. Then it takes care of itself and grows into a tree. Once it starts giving fruits, it continues to do so for more than fifty years and needs no watering. All the water given to it in the first two years is returned by it manifold in the form of coconut water. Such should be our attitude towards those who do good to us. Every little helpful deed, kind word or thoughtful gesture should be gratefully remembered and returned to the extent possible. Once we start doing so, our happiness multiplies and so do our friends.

Rakesh Mittal IAS

The Way of the World

The news about the rich and the famous has only entertainment and curiosity value for those who follow them. Unfortunately, we who are fortunate enough to live in democracies give greatly disproportionate importance to one’s origin or birth. It is part of the slavish mentality inherited, perhaps, from our archetypal, collective unconscious as a famous psychologist like Carl Jung would have it. The other day I saw a news item in a prominent place of a newspaper related to the birth of a grandchild of the queen of England. On the following day there was a suspense related to the name of that child. Both news items were totally irrelevant to me as she is just one of the many thousands of children born into the world every day. I firmly believe with Martin Luther King, Jr., a great human rights leader, that a person needs to be judged on the basis of the content of one’s character and not on the basis of one’s birth or origin. I suppose there are enough persons with nostalgia and interest in these news items in order for the news media to spend money to provide the coverage.

Another recent news item, totally relevant, related to the view of the Pope regarding the ordination of women. Pope Francis, quite refreshing in many ways, does not believe in the ordination of women. He believes, I suppose, that he has a divine mandate to express such views. Interestingly, I myself with long training like the Pope had in the Jesuits held this view some years ago. I now hold that such a view has no divine sanction, and that it is based on a bad tradition. Many denials of human rights were based on bad traditions, and subjugation of one sex or race or caste. I do not intend to say that many women in the Catholic world are ready for the change. History also tells us that there were blacks in the USA who were not prepared for the emancipation proclamation from slavery. There is no credible theological support for the Pope’s view. I also like to give my unsolicited view to the Pope as a fellow traveler to find the mind of the Church through a general council.

As we analyze world’s problems and as we examine ourselves, I see only one criterion or one question that is pertinent and inescapable for all. Am I saying and doing everything according to God’s will and my conscience? For a person with a well-formed conscience, there is no difference between one’s conscience and God’s will. All the great teachers of the world ask us to search for the truth, and live a life of the spirit loving and caring for all humans. The way of the world may not be our way or a way that promotes spiritual life.

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

Grooming of Legends

There could not be anyone who may not like to be a legend. This is the story of two legends, which I could not resist sharing with my family members in Indian Thoughts. Here it goes:

“It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US... I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors)... It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc. At the bottom was a small line: 'Lady Candidates need not apply.' I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination. Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers... Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful?

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco. I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then) I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote. 'The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives they have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender.' 

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip. It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview. There were six people on the panel and I realized then that this was serious business. 'This is the girl, who wrote to JRD,' I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realization abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted. Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, 'I hope this is only a technical interview.' They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, 'Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories.

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, 'But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.'

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married. It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw 'appro JRD'. Appro means 'our' in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him. I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, 'Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too, a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor.' JRD looked at me. I was praying that he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. 'It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?' 'When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,' I replied. 'Now I am Sudha Murthy.' He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room. 

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him. One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realize JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me. 'Young lady, why are you here?' he asked. 'Office time is over.' I said, 'Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.' JRD said, 'It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll wait with you till your husband comes.' I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable. I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pants and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, 'Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.' Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, 'Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again.' 

In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused. Gently, he said, 'So what are you doing, Mrs. Kulkarni?' (That was the way he always addressed me.) 'Sir, I am leaving Telco.' 'Where are you going?' he asked. 'Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune.' 'Oh! And what will you do when you are successful.' 'Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful.' 'Never start with diffidence,' he advised me 'Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. Wish you all the best.’ Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, 'It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today.' 

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters every day. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever. Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly. My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees.Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence. 

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband).

Joseph Mattappally

Public Feast

We do find many reasons in our society when public feasts are organised. We do it when a marriage celebration is there or we even do it in the memory of departed soul. Temples organise public feasts on the occasion of various festivals. In my city Lucknow, there is an old tradition of distributing cold water, mid-day meal, sweets etc on Tuesdays in a specific month of summer.

Since childhood, I have enjoyed many public feasts both as a beneficiary as well as an organizer. It is only recently that I started seeing the other aspect of it. Earlier I always thought that public feasts are a good way to feed the people who really need it the most. It may also provide opportunity for people of all casts and religions to dine together. Now, when I had the opportunity to see things closely, I found that, many public feasts are a way to show the superiority and status of the person who is organising it, rather than a true way of helping the people in need. For e.g. the Tuesday feasts of summers in my city is organised at hundreds of locations in the mid afternoon and people who are fond of going to such locations are attending many feasts on the same day. Bulk of the food is wasted. The amount of food that is cooked can be used for next four meals, but still lot of it is simply wasted, just because organizers have decided to distribute everything in the mid-afternoon only. I have seen similar kind of wastage during distribution of food outside many temples. It does pinch, when I see a lot of wastage of food not only during these feasts, but also during the catering of various parties etc. The cost of everything is going high; the one reason can definitely be that we have started wasting more. All this has grown at an alarming rate in past ten years or so. I don’t have a quick solution. Finding such things did correct some of my personal actions. I hope as a society we are able to get rid of this menace soon.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

Women and Gold

The Gospels of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahansa is the detailed record of informal conversations Swamiji used to have with the visitors to the Dakshineshwar temple. This work was very elaborately compiled by one of his close disciples. The original work was in Bengali and was subsequently translated and published in two volumes by the Ramakrishna Mission. They make very lucid reading and give in depth, the philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna through informal chats. While posted at Calcutta,I got these volumes and went through them. One of the commonly used phrases in these volumes is ‘Women and Gold’. Swamiji often used to advise his visitors to shun both of them. According to him, these two are the main causes of man’s downfall. Those who did not understand the significance of these two words and took them literally were often wonderstruck. They could not think of giving up their wealth or wife and many even stopped visiting him on this account. Those who understood the true import of these words were greatly benefited.

Here the two words indicate two tendencies, namely ‘lust’ and ‘greed’. Woman is a symbol of ‘lust’ while ‘gold’ is that of 'greed'. These two are the main weaknesses of man and are responsible for his downfall. Therefore, there is a need to guard oneself from them, though not necessarily to shun them. Lust and greed have to be shunned and once we do it, both of them can be useful instruments in our inner growth. This is what Sri Ramakrishna meant while warning against 'Women and Gold’. In fact, the word used by him was ‘Kamini Kanchan’, a literal translation meaning ‘Woman and Gold.’  Here a clarification is necessary, as some may draw an inference that the woman is being looked down upon. This is not true, even remotely. Hinduism, in particular, has given a very high place to women. It is only when a woman becomes an object of lust that the society gets degenerated. This is very evident in today’s context when lust for women has given rise to many social evils. Swami Ramakrishna meant only to warn against this fact.

Rakesh Mittal IAS