Survival of the Tolerant—Hinduism

Hinduism has always fascinated people across the world, only religion whose date of origin is absolutely open for anyones guess, some theologists dated the origin of Hinduism as about 3400BC, some say it dates more then 5000 BC, astonishing as such an old religion still thriving and more and more people in the world are being attracted towards it.

The reason behind the success of the Hinduism lies in its ethos of acceptance of every kind or nature of person, it values all the philosophies and forces none.

Here is my Summarisation of the essence hinduism:

1. Believe in God ! – Aastik – Accepted.
2. Don’t believe in God ! – you are Accepted as a Nastik.
3. You want to worship idols- please go ahead you are a Murti Pujak.
4. You don’t want to worship idols – no problem you can focus on Nirguna Brahmin
5. You want to criticise some thing in our religion, come forward, we are logical, Nyaya, Tarka etc are core elements of Hindu schools.
6. You want to accept beliefs as it is, most welcome please go ahead with it.
7. You want to start your journey by reading Bhagwat Gita – Sure!
8. You want to start your journey by reading Upanishads – Go ahead.
9. You want to start your journey by reading Purana- Be my guest.
10. You just don’t like reading Puranas or other books, no problem my dear, go by Bhakti tradition.
11. You don’t like the idea of Bhakti ! No Problem do your karma, be a karma yogi.
12. You want to enjoy life, very good, no problem at all, this is Charvaka Philosophy.
13. You want to abstain from all the enjoyment of life and find God, Jai Ho! be an ascetic.
14. You don’t like the concept of God, you believe in nature only- Welcome (Prakriti or nature is worthy of worship).
15. You believe in one God or supreme energy Superb! follow Advait philosophy.
16. You want a guru go ahead obtain Gyaan.
17. You don’t want a guru …Help yourself! meditate, study!
18. You Believe in Female energy! Shakti is worshipped.
19. You believe every human being is equal, you are awesome, come on lets celebrate Hinduism “Vasudev Kutumbakam” (the world is a family).
20. You don’t have time to celebrate a festival, don’t worry, one more festival is coming, there are multiple festivals every single day of the year.
21. You are a working person, don’t have time for religion, its ok you will still be a Hindu.
22.  You like to go to temples, devotion is loved.
23. You don’t like to go to temples, no problem you are still a Hindu.
24. You know that Hinduism is a way of life with considerable freedoms.
25. You believe that evert thing has god in it, so you worship your mother, father, guru, tree, river, Prani-Matra, Earth, Universe!
26. And if you don’t believe everything has GOD in it – No Problem we respect your view point.
27. “Sarv Jana Sukhino Bhavantu” (May you all happily).

This is exactly the essence of Hinduism, all inclusive, that is why it has withstood the test of time inspite of repeated onslaught both from within and outside, and assimilated every good aspect from everything. That is why it is eternal! There is a shloka in Rigveda, the first book ever known to mankind which depicts the Hindu Philosophy in a nutshell “Ano bhadrah krathavo yanthu vishwathah” let the knowledge come to us from every direction.

Politics of Religion

Only thing common in every religion is love and compassion…be it Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or Christianity, the foundation of every religion is peace and justice. Religion gave legitimacy to the union of man and woman, laid the foundation of family, we learnt to remember our ancestors, thus laying the foundation of our modern society. Religion served and helped humanity to modernise and grow.

But now, all the major wars across the world are being fought in the name of God, religion being used as a tool of oppression and persecution, innocent men women and children being slaughtered, its abominable to see how priests abused hundreds and thousands of children in France, or how some mullahs banned the education for girls in Afghanistan, it breaks my heart, kids in there teens waging war in the name of religion and killing innocent men women and children of different religion, it filled my heart with disgust,

The important question is that who should be blamed for it? is it the religion itself that’s driving people monster, can religion which carved the fundamentals of our civilisation become the ultimate destroyer of it, where people would consider it as a valid excuse to kill other human being each other.all I see and so the important question is that where dose it all go wrong?

I may have understood the problem, which lies in the ethos of every religion (almost), which is that the disciple or the believer must surrender to the god, must abnegate logic and follow every instruction verbatim, he must obey the instructions given by the monks or the priests or the mulla, and each one of them started interpreting it, in a way that suits them. And then came the politics of religion, and the politics became the religion.

It was easy for the power mongers to exploit the vulnerable class, which eventually constitutes the majority in almost all the religions and countries, they understood the fact that people are more concerned not about the life but the life after death, the idea that every human being exists  on this planet to serve a greater purpose and a greater being, and they bow down to that Fictitious being.

Politics successfully exploited the situation, the Mulla military alliance successfully defeated the soviets in Afghanistan, after the USA, Pakistan became the torchbearer of international jihad and wedged proxy war to snatch Kashmir from India, which is still going on, the body count is close to tens of thousands of innocent people, US paid a heavy price for its ignorance when 9/11 happened, for the first time the USA was attacked on his own soil. Along came ISIS, midivil islamic monstrosity which appealed to a handful of young men and women across the globe, which basically said that its Ok to kill an infidel or a person of different faith, they infected horrors to the innocent people which is beyond comprehension.

Rather than understanding the real problem, West responded by painting the billions of muslims as ISIS supporters, innocent muslims in the west and east faced discrimination for no fault of there.

US used Mullas to drive away USSR from Afghanistan, the war in Afghanistan was depicted as a holy war, hundreds and thousands of uneducated muslim youth joined it and defeated the Russians, once the the objective was achieved, the USA left the region to its fait, which created the monsters like Osama.

With great power comes great responsibility, this famous line from Toby Maguire’s Spiderman is true to the essence, and if the responsibility isn’t taken by the one with power, he too will pay a great price.

I can conclude that basically like any lie which is spread to achieve a political Goal, Religious extremism is pure politics, its spread to win wars, and to weaken a country by igniting civil wars, people who became a participant in these sinister conspiracies are mostly uneducated and extreme poor, they are those who have left all hopes in this world, and there only hope is life after death.

The only vaccine for this pandemic is education, If the USA would have spent 2% of the money it spent on war in Afghanistan, world would have seen a reincarnation of the old Afghanistan, and complete eradication of the Taliban.

 

 

The Afghan Betrayal

It’s incredible to watch how fast the USA can forget the biggest attack on its soil, once again  turning its back on the dark world the AFPAK region,  and my fear is that whenever (not if ever) islamists attack the USA, it won’t be as simple and medieval as the 9 “11”.

Islam is the most violent religion in the universe, it advocates and justifies killing innocents in the name of God , they glorify revenge and allows pedophilia. Taliban, ISIS, and Al Qaeda are the true disciples of the Islam, they are blood thirsty monsters who want to destroy life on earth, the monstrosity they manifested on the innocent women and children in Afghanistan, would put the most dreaded historical monsters to shame.

Exit of USA is like a surgeon leaving the patient in the middle of surgery, within a week of the exodus of US forces, Taliban baked by Pakistan, has started wracking havoc on Afghanistan, they have already conquered 2 provinces and it will be only a matter of time, when Taliban will have the country and millions of men, women and children, under there bloody claws.

Reeling under popular political pressure, Joe Biden made the decision of abruptly leaving Afghanistan, no prise for guessing, who would be the first country the Taliban would come after, they are unabashedly supported by nuclear armed Pakistan, in fact they are proxies of the Pakistan Army.

Last time the US turned its back on Afghanistan, was right after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of USSR, it resulted in 9’11, once again they are leaving the country in an even precarious situation, in the hands of Taliban, Pakistan and China.

In the last 20 years of US occupation, the various US administrations were concerned only about achieving the military objectives, they never tried to uplift the average Afghani, they spent billions on bombs and missiles, pounding Taliban and afghans in general, but not a single dollar was spent on education or health care which the Afghans needed so badly, its a deja vu, USA did exactly the same in the 80s when they supported Afghan uprising against the USSR.

I won’t be surprised that the next attack on the US soil would dwarf all earlier terrorist attacks, including 9’11, and it would for sure emanate from Afghanistan.

 

 

Emergency In India “Decoded”

How Emergency imposed by ex – PM Indira Gandhi in 1975 changed Indian politics forever 

Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader and grandson of late PM Indira Gandhi said that Emergency                    was a ‘mistake’ and what happened in that period was ‘wrong’.

On June 26,1975, former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Proclaimed a national emergency across India, Under the directions of the then Prime minister of India Indira Gandhi- which lasted for 21 months. During this time elections were suspended and civil liberties curbed.

After 46 years, on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi- Congress leader and grandson of late PM Indira Gandhi, said at an event that the emergency was a mistake and what happened in that period was “Wrong”. Rahul Gandhi also said the emergency during which time constitutional rights and civil liberties were suspended, the media was severely restricted and many opposition leaders were jailed, was “fundamentally different from the current scenario.'”I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother (Mrs Gandhi) said as much. (But) the congress at no point attempted to capture India’s institutional framework…frankly, it does not even have that capability,” Rahul Gandhi said in a conversation with renowned economist Kaushik Basu.

But what is Emergency and how did it came into effect and how it changed the entire political dynamics of this nation – is something this generation may not know. So here we bring you in simple words on what happened in 1975, which can be easily be termed as the biggest political blunder of independent India.

 

The Justification for Emergency

The reasons given for the emergency in the country was to control “internal disturbance”, for which the constitutional rights suspended and freedom of speech and the press withdrawn. Former PM Indira Gandhi gave three reasons to justify the extreme step- first, India’s security and democracy was in danger owing to the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan.

The second reason cited was that Indira in 1971- In parliamentary elections, Indira Gandhi had defeated Raj Narain from the Rae Bareli constituency, who subsequently had filed a petition in the Allahabad High court accusing Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractices.

January 1974- Students in Gujarat protested against raising prices of food grains and other essential commodities and corruption in the state government. Major opposition parties joined the protests, this led to the imposition of the president’s rule in the state.Demands for fresh elections became intense. subsequently elections were held in Gujarat in June 1975, which the congress lost.

1974- Students in Bihar started a movement to protest against the same issues. Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), who had given up active politics and was involved in social work, lead the movement. This took the issue to a national level.

June 12, 1975- Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found the Prime Minister guilty of misuse of the government machinery during her election campaign and declared her election null and void and also barred her from contesting an election for the next 6 years. The court, however gave the congress 20 days to find a replacement to Gandhi as PM. Indira Gandhi moved the Supreme Court against the verdict.

June 24, 1975 – The Supreme Court granted her a partial stay on the High court order till her appeal was decided and that she could remain an MP but could not take part in proceedings of the Lok Sabha.

June 25, 1975- JP Narayan led a huge political rally in Delhi’s Ramlila ground where he announced a nationwide Satyagraha for Indira Gandhi’s resignation. The employees of the railways too called for a nationwide strike, led by George Fernandes.

June 25, 1975- This fateful night a state of emergency was declared as a government response to the June 25 Strike. All the powers were concentrated in the hands of the Union Government. The Government restricted the fundamental rights of the citizens during the period. All elections were suspended  and civil liberties curbed.

Most political opponents were imprisoned. Press was censored. All newspapers needed to get prior approval for the articles to be published. Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and the Jamait-e-Islami were banned. Constitution was amended in an autocratic manner, particularly in the 42nd amendment.

An amendment was made declaring that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice- President could not be challenged in the court. Sanjay Gandhi, who did not hold any official position at the time gained control over the administration. The period saw the symbolic forced mass sterilisation campaign spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi.

The Path

When I was a kid, my grandfather was the sun of our solar system, followed by my father, he was the most important person in and of our family, every one would look up to him for every important decision to be made, few years later he passed the baton to my father, and he assumed a rather supporting role, as the time passed he started detaching him self from all the responsibilities he use to carry, and one day he was no more with us, he became a memory in our hearts and minds, my father is now the head of the family.

Isn’t this  life cycle or phenomenon is supremely common every where in the world, and the same is being followed for generations, for centuries; point is what can we learn from it?

I think some of the facts are noteworthy:

• Each one of us is mortal, we walk the planet for a finite span of time, and the day of our departure although is most certain, nobody knows when exactly will it happen.
• The day of our departure could be today or it could be a day next year or decade, no body knows when and how he or she will have to pack up and leave.
• Now if in the end we all have to leave the show, then the question is what part should we choose to play till the time we are on stage.
• I have seen a lot of people who spend there entire life Judging others, dominating others, offending and being offended, they make there lives and the lives of people around them miserable, in the end there story is one full of regrets, and then I have seen few who live there life in full, they are filled with bliss, they focus on them self, they respect there life and the lives of others, they are so busy in self upliftment that they don’t have time to bother others, there life becomes a beautiful song, sung by many even after they are gone.

Now the question is what should be our priorities and is it possible to choose the correct path, which comes down to the very question, what is the correct path and how to ascertain one for ourself?  There are some very simple ways to follow the path:

Do not Impose your will: First of all for realising our infinite potential, one must avoid the urge to somehow control the lives of others, these others include siblings, spouse, children, friends, cousins etc, now what I mean by not trying to control there lives is that we must advice them as to what according to us is best for them, but we should happily accept and respect there decision even if its contrary to our advice, we must allow them to chart there on course of life as they are responsible for the decisions they’ve made and the outcomes of those decisions.

Attitude of Gratitude : This is the key to a happy and blissful life, please try this out, every day before going to sleep take a minute and thank God for all the things you have, health, house, spouse, kids etc, and see the magic it brings in your life.

Be a constant learner: the single most important trait that led to the evolution of Human mind and civilisation is Curiocity , learn at least one thing new every day and if possible write it somewhere.

Know The Trickster: Our mind does something very peculiar with us, it keep swinging us between past and future like a pendulum, it keep reminding us of the mistakes, unpleasant events or failures of our past which make us feel guilty and then it swings us to the future, basically it tries to scare us by painting a picture of a bleak future, this trick of our mind depletes our ability to create and do the best for ourself, how to control it? the best way to control it by occupying your self with a lot of work which you really love to do, when ever your mind tries to trick you, take a deep breath, hold it for six seconds and then release it slowly. Truest me this simple technique works like a charm!!.

Child is the father of man: Ever thought why a child a baby is always so happy, that’s because he lives in the present moment!

 

 

 

 

Write your own Eulogy

One of the happiest countries in the world is Tibet, and the reason for there happiness is a dark ritual, every person of tibet is trained to visualise his/her death twice a day!

Sometimes we are knocked out by an unpleasant and an unplanned experience, the death of a loved one, a serious illness, a financial setback, or extreme adversity can cause us to stand back, look at our lives, and ask ourselves some hard questions: “what’s really important? Why am I doing what I’m doing?

 

As the great Steve jobs once said

“Remembering that you are going to die is the beat way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Follow The dark ritual

The greatest gift of the mankind is the gift of imagination, Picture you’re self going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlour or chapel, parking the car and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers and the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of loosing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there.

As you walk down to the front of the roman look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with your self. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honour you, to express the feelings of love and appreciation for your life.

As you take a seat and wait for the service to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers, the first is from your family, immediate and also extended-children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or your  profession, and the forth is from your church or some community organisation where you have been involved in service.

Now think deeply what would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? what kind of friend? what kind of working associate?

What character would you like them to have seen in you? what contributions, what achievements of your would you want them to remember ? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives?

 

Undoing Lincoln

America is a great nation, a nation built by the free, immigrants from all parts and ethnicities of the world, came together with diverse cultures and Gods, challenged the set orthodox norms of the medieval era, created a marvel of humanity, where a person is worth what he could become and achieve in a free and fair climate, where every and any one can challenge the mightiest, and no one is above the constitution, which guarantee absolute freedom and equality.

Lincoln was probably the most unique Leader world has ever seen, he was white, a men of so called superior race, fought for the freedom of the Blacks, raised arms for them fought for equality and eventually paid the ultimate prise for his dream of building a country free for all.

True disciples of Lord Krishna, working on there Karma and the believing in the inner strengths of the people, a country built on the blood and sweat of the men and women, unlike my country the birthplace of lord Krishna, which ironically still embraces the medieval monstrosity of casteism and religious hegemony, mixed with socialism, bigotry still used to pull the crowds and Win elections, people more interested in freebies, people instead of focussing on innovation, focus more on how to manipulate and extract the most for themselves and there families.

And then came Donald Trump and his tirade against the ethos of his own country,

I have followed Trump since the Republican primaries in 2015, he was the most flawed politician I had ever seen on a podium like this, his message was clear, he was not Barak Obama, he was anti immigration, racist, fearless(shameless), corrupt to the core, promised his supporters that he will save America from being overrun by illegal immigrants, openly supported the white supremacists “Stand back and Stand by” is what he said to the Proud Boys.

Lincoln ironically also was a republican must be twisting and turning in his grave when he saw a mob of bums attacking and ransacking the Capitol instigated by none other then the president of America him self, I was also dismayed to see Senators defending Trump and even after ransacking of the capital.

The senators along with Trump screamed on top of there voice that the elections which made them the senator and Trump president, were rigged, there conduct would shame even the most corrupt Indian politicians, under there watch there temple of democracy was defaced but they were so unabashedly adamant that they couldn’t see that they have reduced there country to a laughing stock in front of the whole world.

It also shows the fragility of the US democracy, it exposes the flaws of its democratic system, which is the extraordinary powers entrusted to the President, they must dilute the powers of the White House to ensure that the Capital Hill event is never repeated in future.

 

 

Defender of Personal Liberty

A democratically elected government is suppose to upheld the rights of its citizens and also to maturely handle criticism, but Once again we witnessed unabashed and blatant misuse of power in Maharashtra, it was more like watching a B grade Bollywood movie, where people in power when criticised by media, reopened a false case against the journalist who criticised the government and arrested him, what’s amusing in this case was that the top encounter specialist along with 50 armed cops were sent to arrest him, a harmless person living with his wife and kids was assaulted and forcefully taken under custody and the entire incident was covered by all the media channels and telecasted Live, it was the Chief editor of the Republic Mr.Arnab Goswami.

After spending 7 days in custody he was granted bail by the Supreme Court, which in its order stated that “the judiciary should ensure criminal law does not become a weapon for selective harassment”

Once again it was the top court which pulled the basic ethos of the Indian constitution out of the quagmire and defended the personal liberty of a citizen.

Question is : Can an ordinary man afford to challenge people in power and survive the consequences???

 

Tears of Durga

On there own, defenceless and at the mercy of the Demons, this is the situation of the Poor and Oppressed of Uttar-Pradesh, what happened in Hathras was so diabolic that it will put demons to shame, what is particularly disturbing is the action of the state government which is actively trying to hush away every one including the victim’s family, they are working overnight to roll this case under the carpet, this is not a tragedy isolated to the victim’s family but its the sorry state of our country which is so agonising that I a mother of two daughters, am sacred and furious and I want retribution, for the Girl who is no longer with us but for every girl and women of this country.

I feel defenceless in my country and the institutions meant to protect us have not only failed us but the only purpose of their existence is to serve their political masters, they can go to any length to make sure that the image of there masters is protected at call cost, In Hathras Police cremated the body of the victim sneakily like thugs at 1:30 AM in the night, they overpowered victim’s family and did it forcefully.

The District Megistrate of Hathras warned the family, to either shut up or to face the consequences….

They stopped the media from entering the village as they were trying to meet the family of the deceased girl, if fact they were detained, taken and released beyond the city limits.

Uttar Pradesh has become a land of Asuras or Demons, where ordinary man and women of every age is susceptible to inhuman and horrific crimes, in the entire state women don’t dare to leave there homes past dusk, they stop going to school and collage because of the eve teasers, they live and die in constant fear, they can’t go to the police or to the Netas because the crimes and criminals flourish under their patronage, Police has become worse then the criminals and most of the times act as the middlemen and cover the dirty works of there political masters.

Justice in the demon land has became the mistress of the corrupt and powerful.

Nirbhaya Tragedy has left an ugly scar on our minds and hearts, and the pursuit for justice took another 17 years, her mother and father fought a very hard and painful battle against a rotten legal system which was hell bent on upholding the human rights of those who murdered a young girl in the most gruesome way, she died a very painful death whereas her murderers lived for another 17 years, this was a unique case where the media had put so much pressure on the judiciary and the state that the victim’s family at last got the justice, but we know how difficult it is for a poor and ordinary person to get justice in India, In India Crime really pays.

The second forensic report claims that the victim was not Raped, the intention of the forceful cremation was to botch the investigation, if there was any, to sell the narrative that the girl was never raped and I won’t be surprised if they prove that the victim in fact committed suicide and no one killed her.

I pray for the victim’s soul, hope she finds peace in the afterlife and will never reincarnate as girl in India and certainly not in the state of Utter Pradesh.