Hi world (I mean those litlle numbers who view this blog)! I'm back here after a while.
What did I do in this long time where I wrote no word here? Like the phoenix, tore myself down and rebuilt my life again!! Well I went to India. Each trip to India is such a memorable experience.
Winter in Hyderabad these days, is an amazing experience. The month of Kartika is beautiful- coming as it does after Diwali and how each house is decorated with lamps and how all temples send a lighted lamp up their flagposts! The mild chill that invades the city slowly, seems to carry with it a mystical quality. The early morning wind carries songs from temples. The afternoon sun is like soothing balm. Evenings are poignant. Thus days pass, like a tug of war between warmth and cold! Then as Kartika gives in to Margazhi, that holy month of devotion, the city is filled with fervour. The black colour is ubiquitous- this is the time at which the devotions of pilgrims to Sabarimala reach their peak. The Sabari pilgrims form groupsin neighbourhoods everywhere: colonies, markets and shops, and there are bhajan mandalis all around. Early mornings, noons and evenings they gather and chant aloud. In temples and streets batches after batches of devotees go around singing and dancing- 'Swami appa Ayyappa, Saranam appa Ayyappa, Swami tingana tom tom, Ayyappa tingana tom tom' , 'Rajadhi Rajane, veera Manikandane'..
India! beloved India!
I must sign off now, but I thought I must mention something unconnected to that para above: I found this really funny, the reposte that Prem Panicker, rediff cricket columnist gave to someone who was fooling around during a recent chat session with him:
sraidas : prem why are you wasting time like this.is it true that u are jobless and can do anything to get a piece of bread?
Prem Panicker : Oh lovely -- do you normally waste YOUR time chatting up jobless people?
Friday, December 16, 2005
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Standard Responses
This is a witty way of saying what I was saying below about the standard and meaningless 'we condemn's:
Standard Pakistani Response
Standard Pakistani Response
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Some lives are expendable
It is time for Diwali, the favourite Hindu festival, time for celebrations and time for joy. But when in the last thousand years has this curse that hit India with Bin Qasem's stinking swarms left Hindus to live their life and enjoy their festivals in peace and happiness?
More than 60 people murdured again in Delhi. But who cares beyond those customary 'we condemn'? Who cared when a thousand years of relentless persecution and intolerance was imposed upon them? Who cares when every single day Hindus die in Bangladesh and Kashmir?
It'll all be forgotten soon. Just like the Hindu family which was killed brutally just on the day of that earthquake by Islamic terrorists. Just like the Mau violence few weeks back. Just like the attack on Ayodhya few months back. Just like the Marad massacre has been forgotten. Just like Akshardham has been forgotten, Godhra has been forgotten. Just like the 6 soldiers who were tortured and killed in Kargil were forgotten, just like Ripun Katyal has been forgotten. Just like Coimbatore blasts have been forgotten. Just like Bombay blasts have been forgotten.
Some lives are simply expendable.
More than 60 people murdured again in Delhi. But who cares beyond those customary 'we condemn'? Who cared when a thousand years of relentless persecution and intolerance was imposed upon them? Who cares when every single day Hindus die in Bangladesh and Kashmir?
It'll all be forgotten soon. Just like the Hindu family which was killed brutally just on the day of that earthquake by Islamic terrorists. Just like the Mau violence few weeks back. Just like the attack on Ayodhya few months back. Just like the Marad massacre has been forgotten. Just like Akshardham has been forgotten, Godhra has been forgotten. Just like the 6 soldiers who were tortured and killed in Kargil were forgotten, just like Ripun Katyal has been forgotten. Just like Coimbatore blasts have been forgotten. Just like Bombay blasts have been forgotten.
Some lives are simply expendable.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Humanity comes first...
We humans are a special breed indeed. We raise ideas and ideologies to uphold supposedly noble things and then carry the heavy burden of these ideologies on our heads to ridiculous extents. Some quaint fellow in long past times thought up a few slogans. And the vast majority of semi literate men cling to these ideas as if ideas are for all time or that an idea that is good in one context is good for all contexts or that the more fashionable an idea is, the nearer to truth it is.
The Nazis were all taught kindness to animals but they couldnt be kind to fellow human beings. And the great irony that is, Hitler was a vegetarian. Love for all creation is the real virtue and not mere tendency to feed on grass. Its not being a vegetarian that makes a man great, but development and possession of a sensitive heart, that can feel suffering and respond to it.
And add to all such corpses from past that men put in holy coffins and carry on their heads, the idea of 'secularism'. Either in its etiologically pristine European form as sepration of Church from State or in its vulagrly distorted Indian form as equidistance of the State from all religions, it is simply unsuitable to modern times. Separation of Church and State assumed implicitly that both stood for the same values, and it was temporal power that was being snatched away from the former. But times have changed, modern society no more subscribes to the narrow bigoted views held by the Church or its draconian order or even its totalitarian God. Modern man does not hold that justice means different things to the faithful and the infidel, nor does he consider it natural that men must be persecuted just because they hold 'heathen' views. Reason, freedom and dignity are now recognised as universal values, that must be granted equally to all men and women.
And equally with the Indian distortion: equidistance from all religions is only possible so long as all religions are equally capable of being distant from the polity and equally recognize universal human values. But how can religions that have historically been at loggerheads with such values be allowed to carry on with their work at the expense of fundamental human values? Does the state stand for human values or for artificial ideas that have become modern crosses it must carry just to please some 'liberals' who are but a bunch who think their ideas are great just because there are some in Europe or in China who appreciate them?
Ideas are not great just because some smug intellectuals think so or because somebody pats us on our back for holding them. Ideas are to be judged only on the basis on how fair they and how true they are. Weighed on this scale, secularism fails, wilts. It is time for us to assure in Humanism as our guiding policy and uphold values such as will be conducive for human growth and enrichment.
The Nazis were all taught kindness to animals but they couldnt be kind to fellow human beings. And the great irony that is, Hitler was a vegetarian. Love for all creation is the real virtue and not mere tendency to feed on grass. Its not being a vegetarian that makes a man great, but development and possession of a sensitive heart, that can feel suffering and respond to it.
And add to all such corpses from past that men put in holy coffins and carry on their heads, the idea of 'secularism'. Either in its etiologically pristine European form as sepration of Church from State or in its vulagrly distorted Indian form as equidistance of the State from all religions, it is simply unsuitable to modern times. Separation of Church and State assumed implicitly that both stood for the same values, and it was temporal power that was being snatched away from the former. But times have changed, modern society no more subscribes to the narrow bigoted views held by the Church or its draconian order or even its totalitarian God. Modern man does not hold that justice means different things to the faithful and the infidel, nor does he consider it natural that men must be persecuted just because they hold 'heathen' views. Reason, freedom and dignity are now recognised as universal values, that must be granted equally to all men and women.
And equally with the Indian distortion: equidistance from all religions is only possible so long as all religions are equally capable of being distant from the polity and equally recognize universal human values. But how can religions that have historically been at loggerheads with such values be allowed to carry on with their work at the expense of fundamental human values? Does the state stand for human values or for artificial ideas that have become modern crosses it must carry just to please some 'liberals' who are but a bunch who think their ideas are great just because there are some in Europe or in China who appreciate them?
Ideas are not great just because some smug intellectuals think so or because somebody pats us on our back for holding them. Ideas are to be judged only on the basis on how fair they and how true they are. Weighed on this scale, secularism fails, wilts. It is time for us to assure in Humanism as our guiding policy and uphold values such as will be conducive for human growth and enrichment.
Monday, October 24, 2005
This is called pure unadulterated bullshit.
excerpts:
How do you look at the earthquake?
The earthquake is the result of the rulers' sinful policies. They wanted the women to abandon hijab; run with men nude in bikinis; and learn dance and music. They were not afraid of Allah but (US President George) Bush. At his (Bush's) behest, they wanted to purge our schoolbooks from verses on jihad; befriend India and recognise Israel. They banned all the jihadi outfits and abandoned jihad. They made jihad an abusive term. They wanted all the Pakistanis to adopt the 'get-up' of Bush. They blatantly ridiculed the commandments of Allah. Thus they invited the wrath of God in the form of the earthquake.
yeah thats why Allah didnt strike Punjab but struck NWFP and AJK.
But the earthquake didn't kill the rulers?
Allah knows better why He didn't kill the rulers. He has warned the rulers by killing a section of the population. He wants the rulers to learn a lesson from the quake and become pious Muslims. There is also a lesson for common folk like us. We too are sinful. We too should seek Allah's forgiveness and adopt the right path. Otherwise, a bigger devastation will completely ruin us.
secretly he must be telling himself..'thats coz Allah knows I'm one of the connivers with the rulers , how can He strike us!!'
excerpts:
How do you look at the earthquake?
The earthquake is the result of the rulers' sinful policies. They wanted the women to abandon hijab; run with men nude in bikinis; and learn dance and music. They were not afraid of Allah but (US President George) Bush. At his (Bush's) behest, they wanted to purge our schoolbooks from verses on jihad; befriend India and recognise Israel. They banned all the jihadi outfits and abandoned jihad. They made jihad an abusive term. They wanted all the Pakistanis to adopt the 'get-up' of Bush. They blatantly ridiculed the commandments of Allah. Thus they invited the wrath of God in the form of the earthquake.
yeah thats why Allah didnt strike Punjab but struck NWFP and AJK.
But the earthquake didn't kill the rulers?
Allah knows better why He didn't kill the rulers. He has warned the rulers by killing a section of the population. He wants the rulers to learn a lesson from the quake and become pious Muslims. There is also a lesson for common folk like us. We too are sinful. We too should seek Allah's forgiveness and adopt the right path. Otherwise, a bigger devastation will completely ruin us.
secretly he must be telling himself..'thats coz Allah knows I'm one of the connivers with the rulers , how can He strike us!!'
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
The quake and the wounded civilization
Naipaul's words have been famously quoted now so often: India is a wounded civilization. The internal factors that allowed that wound to be scored have not yest ceased to be and nor has the external hand that thrust the dagger right into India's heart has not been amputated yet. The wound is still suppurating.
The world does not understand when it puts China and India on the same platform. What strides India has made are a hundredfold more prodound that what China has. China did not have to contend with a thousand years of colonization and the hundreds of years of pillaging and marauding and plundering which accompoanied it in varying extents through time. China did not have its land and people and minds partitioned, I will not bluff like many people do, 'on the basis of religion': India was partitioned not because of 'religion' but because of Islam and the colonialism it represents. A spade is a spade, a dagger is a dagger. And many people, even the so-called 'nationalists' dont recognize this, when they gloat over 'the serious imbalance that exists in China's political system'. If not rolled back and repelled permanently, this dagger will cut through India's heart as if through butter, the day that external hand wakes up from sleep and connectes back to its chest, the Ummah.
And the only way to roll it back is to face the questions posed by it without wincing. Islam was thrust upon large parts of India at swordpoint, with daggers drawn to chest, through terror and through force. Centuries later, the converted populace, the brainwashed future generations of an enervated society, rationalised the conversion citing social reasons. But India accepts the faults of Her social system. Her whole national energy in a thousand years has been directed to correcting these faults, and we can see what stupendous progress has been achieved even in the paltry 50 past years after 'independence'. India accepts the ageing and the fallibility of the Smriti and proposes to rewrite it for every age. So there is no social reason to continue acceptance of an alien ideology on Indian soil and there is no basis for continued existence of a 'Pakistan'.
And the spiritual reasons? When was the last time the proponents of Islam could take on rationally the advanced spiritual views of the native Indian traditions? Individually or collectively, the Vedic-Shramanic or Hindu viewpoints present questions which the Mullahs sweep convenietly under their prayer carpets. What are the criteria for your acceptance of a man as a 'Prophet'? What is a 'Prophet' anyway? How can there be a 'one last Prophet' when we know that that last Prophet lived more than a thousand years ago and the world is not going to end in any near future? How does 'God' arbitrarily choose one man as his 'Prophet' as opposed to other men and women? Which brings to the most important question around which all this myhtology is built: what is 'God' anyway? Is this true, that there is a 'God' who interferes in the affairs of mankind like an impatient school kid?
And all facts that we can use to reason argue to the contrary, that there is no such 'God'. This earth is a cooled down collection of volcanoes and life is part of Earth's chemistry. This is what we can come to conclude. If more proof is required, please go to Muzaffarabad today and verify for yourself. Then, either you can continue to delude yourself on the mercy of a loving 'God' whose mercy is mysteriously concealed through disasters which 'He' sends to test man or, shake your head and reach for your senses: there is no such 'God'. The 'God' upon which Islam bases so much of its causistry is a humbug. The pious Jihadis who gave up everything in their life to fight the infidels on the mountains around Muzaffarabad found it the hard way when the shelters they were holed in during their pious endeavours fell upon their heads. The one solid argument which could be used like a crowbar to lunge this dagger out from India's chest was revealed from the depths of Earth's bosom last week. some 50,000 dead must be enough to convince reasonable men.
The world does not understand when it puts China and India on the same platform. What strides India has made are a hundredfold more prodound that what China has. China did not have to contend with a thousand years of colonization and the hundreds of years of pillaging and marauding and plundering which accompoanied it in varying extents through time. China did not have its land and people and minds partitioned, I will not bluff like many people do, 'on the basis of religion': India was partitioned not because of 'religion' but because of Islam and the colonialism it represents. A spade is a spade, a dagger is a dagger. And many people, even the so-called 'nationalists' dont recognize this, when they gloat over 'the serious imbalance that exists in China's political system'. If not rolled back and repelled permanently, this dagger will cut through India's heart as if through butter, the day that external hand wakes up from sleep and connectes back to its chest, the Ummah.
And the only way to roll it back is to face the questions posed by it without wincing. Islam was thrust upon large parts of India at swordpoint, with daggers drawn to chest, through terror and through force. Centuries later, the converted populace, the brainwashed future generations of an enervated society, rationalised the conversion citing social reasons. But India accepts the faults of Her social system. Her whole national energy in a thousand years has been directed to correcting these faults, and we can see what stupendous progress has been achieved even in the paltry 50 past years after 'independence'. India accepts the ageing and the fallibility of the Smriti and proposes to rewrite it for every age. So there is no social reason to continue acceptance of an alien ideology on Indian soil and there is no basis for continued existence of a 'Pakistan'.
And the spiritual reasons? When was the last time the proponents of Islam could take on rationally the advanced spiritual views of the native Indian traditions? Individually or collectively, the Vedic-Shramanic or Hindu viewpoints present questions which the Mullahs sweep convenietly under their prayer carpets. What are the criteria for your acceptance of a man as a 'Prophet'? What is a 'Prophet' anyway? How can there be a 'one last Prophet' when we know that that last Prophet lived more than a thousand years ago and the world is not going to end in any near future? How does 'God' arbitrarily choose one man as his 'Prophet' as opposed to other men and women? Which brings to the most important question around which all this myhtology is built: what is 'God' anyway? Is this true, that there is a 'God' who interferes in the affairs of mankind like an impatient school kid?
And all facts that we can use to reason argue to the contrary, that there is no such 'God'. This earth is a cooled down collection of volcanoes and life is part of Earth's chemistry. This is what we can come to conclude. If more proof is required, please go to Muzaffarabad today and verify for yourself. Then, either you can continue to delude yourself on the mercy of a loving 'God' whose mercy is mysteriously concealed through disasters which 'He' sends to test man or, shake your head and reach for your senses: there is no such 'God'. The 'God' upon which Islam bases so much of its causistry is a humbug. The pious Jihadis who gave up everything in their life to fight the infidels on the mountains around Muzaffarabad found it the hard way when the shelters they were holed in during their pious endeavours fell upon their heads. The one solid argument which could be used like a crowbar to lunge this dagger out from India's chest was revealed from the depths of Earth's bosom last week. some 50,000 dead must be enough to convince reasonable men.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Where silence is so intense, only thoughts seem louder, where Sun's rays struggle but barely reach the earth; wind susurrates through the leaves to charm the heart; a gleaming stream looks like a blue necklace wrapped around the woods. To that remote jungle I want now to be transported. In that undisturbed joy, the mountains painted against the distant sky, will seem like a pointer. The distance is still undone, Truth yet unknown, and the peak yet unscaled. In that atmosphere I will lose myself in my self.
Existence of 'God'?
For quite sometime now I had completely abandoned the idea of a creator 'God', someone who sat as arbitrator on the events of the world. If at all there was someone, that someone is well beyond human reason, this is what I held. To those who propound a merciful God of the world, I had only few questions to ask: forget the endless number of natural disasters which seem sent to swallow men by the thousands, the Tsunami and Katrina being the latest, even the small timeline of a few thousand years of our memory is crowded with events of guesome cruetly of man to fellow man.
If Islamic armies committed macabre raids on India and the rest of the world upto just a few hundred years ago, the holocaust is not far from our view, 'Lajja' must bring me closer home and the latest Iraq war is still festering. A thousand people die in Iraq every week, their lives reduced to figures in the politcal battles in western capitals. How can a loving God, God of mankind permit such things? If even we accept that these are 'temporary' events in 'Cosmic' vision, every suffering man can know how intense the pangs of individual misery is. Unless ofcourse that God is among the sufferers. And that God is also evil as much as is good, and the veil as much as She or He is light.
This is Navaratri and Kaali is the answer. She generates life as much as She grants death. Nothing is excluded from Her. I for long, accepted 'Being' as the ultimate and dismissed a possible divine 'Will'. But what if that 'Will' is all play and that play is not simple? The answers to the most profound questions in life are paradoxes. 'Being-Will' seems to be the answer. A new joy has come over my life, I'm not a lost twig being whirled around by this current of life. There is an anchor and a direction.
If Islamic armies committed macabre raids on India and the rest of the world upto just a few hundred years ago, the holocaust is not far from our view, 'Lajja' must bring me closer home and the latest Iraq war is still festering. A thousand people die in Iraq every week, their lives reduced to figures in the politcal battles in western capitals. How can a loving God, God of mankind permit such things? If even we accept that these are 'temporary' events in 'Cosmic' vision, every suffering man can know how intense the pangs of individual misery is. Unless ofcourse that God is among the sufferers. And that God is also evil as much as is good, and the veil as much as She or He is light.
This is Navaratri and Kaali is the answer. She generates life as much as She grants death. Nothing is excluded from Her. I for long, accepted 'Being' as the ultimate and dismissed a possible divine 'Will'. But what if that 'Will' is all play and that play is not simple? The answers to the most profound questions in life are paradoxes. 'Being-Will' seems to be the answer. A new joy has come over my life, I'm not a lost twig being whirled around by this current of life. There is an anchor and a direction.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Something has changed. Summer's now gone for weeks, autumn too will soon recede before menacing winter, like hyena before a lion. But there is warmth like in spring. There is anticipation, hope, a lightness of heart. Is this to say I'm being emotionally vagarious?. Far from. Its about the inner values. When I cannot live upto the values I hold dear, I feel low, unconfident, crestfallen and broken. When I have fallen back to being what I believe is the right way, the way that appeals to my heart, I feel on top, I feel special. The days are drawing markedly smaller, and sun sets earlier and earlier, but for now, cheer's the word and not drear.
Monday, September 05, 2005
There are days when I feel strong and confident and feel brave about life and future. But often these days, I feel vulnerable. Something tugs at my heart. I feel like running away from myself, this is that shadow self.
Dead of night. The stalker strikes again;
sleep stolen, warped in worry, I cringe
at the prospect of facing the sun, soon-
O Night, dear, dont stop your song yet:
sombre though it is, there's something
comforting about it, alone in this darkness
as I catch it trickling through the wind;
Soon the day will dawn and I will have to
sleepwalk through these places known
meet people known and start back on
tasks yet undone. Everything, everyone,
is familiar, yet so distant and mysterious,
this vast canvas of life seems mist-filled:
dull, damp, cold; nothing, heartwarming;
People whom I will love and who will
love me, I can't meet. Work that I love
I can't do. The life that I dream of,
I can't live. I'm a prisoner of my own
doing; I have shut and chained myself
in this dungeon; Dont stop, Night, sing!
lull me to sleep, like there's no tomoorrow.
When will these days pass? and its already winter in London. if summer feels so terrible, Good Heavens cheer me in winter..
Dead of night. The stalker strikes again;
sleep stolen, warped in worry, I cringe
at the prospect of facing the sun, soon-
O Night, dear, dont stop your song yet:
sombre though it is, there's something
comforting about it, alone in this darkness
as I catch it trickling through the wind;
Soon the day will dawn and I will have to
sleepwalk through these places known
meet people known and start back on
tasks yet undone. Everything, everyone,
is familiar, yet so distant and mysterious,
this vast canvas of life seems mist-filled:
dull, damp, cold; nothing, heartwarming;
People whom I will love and who will
love me, I can't meet. Work that I love
I can't do. The life that I dream of,
I can't live. I'm a prisoner of my own
doing; I have shut and chained myself
in this dungeon; Dont stop, Night, sing!
lull me to sleep, like there's no tomoorrow.
When will these days pass? and its already winter in London. if summer feels so terrible, Good Heavens cheer me in winter..
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Many thoughts come, pass by, inspiration comes and passes by, I havent recorded any. I thought I must do blogging at particular times, but I find that I cannot force inspiring moments to arrive at those times. So maybe I should get back to what I was doing before- get here and write even if this is at work.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Sun of Truth..
Giving form to the idea that came at the end of the previous post:
The winter of gloom
It is dark, it is cold; the torment,
unbearable; Vision clotted, path unclear,
The distance resounds with doom-
Wind's song, an unsettling roar
Forms mistaken for what they are not
rouse fear, suspicion and agony; Cant tell
man from foe, angel from ogre
friendless is this journey
This is the winter of gloom, the night
of delusion; nothing is here what it seems
hope is the only comforter that
conjures up an escape
the shivering lips of the traveller
give form to hope that lights his heart:
'Sun of Truth, shine upon this Soul-
O when will I see summer?'
The winter of gloom
It is dark, it is cold; the torment,
unbearable; Vision clotted, path unclear,
The distance resounds with doom-
Wind's song, an unsettling roar
Forms mistaken for what they are not
rouse fear, suspicion and agony; Cant tell
man from foe, angel from ogre
friendless is this journey
This is the winter of gloom, the night
of delusion; nothing is here what it seems
hope is the only comforter that
conjures up an escape
the shivering lips of the traveller
give form to hope that lights his heart:
'Sun of Truth, shine upon this Soul-
O when will I see summer?'
India's tormented soul
The struggle to regain India's independence was not over on 15 August 1947. It only added one more chapter to the story of the sage that is still being written.
Today as I look at India's past, my heritage, back into those thousands of years past, the vision is blurred by cobwebs. Beginning with who we are, where our history began, what is our national soul, the sociological character and the religious impulse of my people, nothing is there where there is no confusion. Cobwebs that now I have no power to remove, but to fall on my feet and mourn the circumstances that have made all this come. But every day passes with trying to make a better path for light on the faculties of analysis through this labyrynth.
I was reading an account of the development of Buddhism and its relationship to what is 'Hinduism'. These lines sum it all up:
'When invoking the national tradition of religious pluralism, Nehru credited Buddhism: “Even since the distant past, it has been India’s proud privilege to live in harmony with each other. That has been the basis of India’s culture. Long ago, the Buddha taught us this lesson. From the days of Ashoka, 2300 years ago, this aspect of our thought has been repeatedly declared and practised.”The omission of Hindu tradition here is obviously unfair: the Buddha, rather than bringing religious pluralism, was himself a beneficiary of a well-established pluralism, which allowed him to preach his doctrine for fifty years and die in old age of natural causes
The Lion Pillar of the Maurya emperor Ashoka was made into India’s official state emblem and is depicted on Indian currency notes and coins. The 24-spoked Dharma Chakra in India’s national flag was understood to be a symbol introduced by Ashoka (it also figures on his pillars, between the two lions), known for his patronage of Buddhism and claimed to be a convert to Buddhism.Nehru, on top of presenting the Chakra as a truly representative and truly Indian symbol (as would befit the national flag), explicitly associated it with Ashoka and with the ideology-based policies he stood for:
“That Wheel is a symbol of India’s culture. It is a symbol of many things that India had stood for through the ages. (…) we have associated with this flag not only this emblem, but in a sense, the name of Ashoka, one of the most magnificent names not only in India’s history, but in the history of the whole world.”
Unknown to Nehru, the Chakra was a pre-Ashokan and pre-Buddhist symbol of “uniting the many”, viz. the different autonomous parts of India under one suzerain or “wheel-turner” (chakravarti; the term implied in the Buddhist term dharmachakrapravartana, “setting in motion the wheel of the Dharma”). So, in spite of Nehru, the centre-space of India’s flag ended up being taken by a truly national rather than a sectarian symbol. Nehru’s intended imposition of a specific historical model and the concomitant ideological message on a national symbol does amount, at least in principle, to the declaration of a state ideology. Like Ashoka, who used his throne to preach Dharma, Nehru was guilty of “varna-sankara”, here not in the sense of intermarriage between varnas but in the sense of mixing up the distinct social functions: as rulers, they had no business setting themselves up as preachers, since these are distinct roles best exercised by separate groups of people. '
When O Sun of Truth, will you bring Summer to the soul of India? When will Truth untained by polemic be the property of us the children of India?
Today as I look at India's past, my heritage, back into those thousands of years past, the vision is blurred by cobwebs. Beginning with who we are, where our history began, what is our national soul, the sociological character and the religious impulse of my people, nothing is there where there is no confusion. Cobwebs that now I have no power to remove, but to fall on my feet and mourn the circumstances that have made all this come. But every day passes with trying to make a better path for light on the faculties of analysis through this labyrynth.
I was reading an account of the development of Buddhism and its relationship to what is 'Hinduism'. These lines sum it all up:
'When invoking the national tradition of religious pluralism, Nehru credited Buddhism: “Even since the distant past, it has been India’s proud privilege to live in harmony with each other. That has been the basis of India’s culture. Long ago, the Buddha taught us this lesson. From the days of Ashoka, 2300 years ago, this aspect of our thought has been repeatedly declared and practised.”The omission of Hindu tradition here is obviously unfair: the Buddha, rather than bringing religious pluralism, was himself a beneficiary of a well-established pluralism, which allowed him to preach his doctrine for fifty years and die in old age of natural causes
The Lion Pillar of the Maurya emperor Ashoka was made into India’s official state emblem and is depicted on Indian currency notes and coins. The 24-spoked Dharma Chakra in India’s national flag was understood to be a symbol introduced by Ashoka (it also figures on his pillars, between the two lions), known for his patronage of Buddhism and claimed to be a convert to Buddhism.Nehru, on top of presenting the Chakra as a truly representative and truly Indian symbol (as would befit the national flag), explicitly associated it with Ashoka and with the ideology-based policies he stood for:
“That Wheel is a symbol of India’s culture. It is a symbol of many things that India had stood for through the ages. (…) we have associated with this flag not only this emblem, but in a sense, the name of Ashoka, one of the most magnificent names not only in India’s history, but in the history of the whole world.”
Unknown to Nehru, the Chakra was a pre-Ashokan and pre-Buddhist symbol of “uniting the many”, viz. the different autonomous parts of India under one suzerain or “wheel-turner” (chakravarti; the term implied in the Buddhist term dharmachakrapravartana, “setting in motion the wheel of the Dharma”). So, in spite of Nehru, the centre-space of India’s flag ended up being taken by a truly national rather than a sectarian symbol. Nehru’s intended imposition of a specific historical model and the concomitant ideological message on a national symbol does amount, at least in principle, to the declaration of a state ideology. Like Ashoka, who used his throne to preach Dharma, Nehru was guilty of “varna-sankara”, here not in the sense of intermarriage between varnas but in the sense of mixing up the distinct social functions: as rulers, they had no business setting themselves up as preachers, since these are distinct roles best exercised by separate groups of people. '
When O Sun of Truth, will you bring Summer to the soul of India? When will Truth untained by polemic be the property of us the children of India?
Monday, April 25, 2005
Rewind..
Rewind..
This frost, this cold stare, I can bear no more
Outwardly no trace, but every chance meeting
brings back to the inner screen, the roaring
river of memories, in all that rough detail
I, torn by guilt that I must have been so and
by grief that you should not have seen more
You, perhaps with indignation at what'd passed;
My heart misses a beat, at yet a harsh glance
O if we could really ever forget at all...But,
can we attempt? Erase, every single footprint
on the tender beach of the heart; Ocean of Time!
rage in here, and claim it all, leave nothing
How nice it would be then, to have a rewind-
When the Ocean recedes, I would retrace my steps
Soft, small, strides: mindful, not to repeat past
Meet you again here, and it wont feel like winter...
This frost, this cold stare, I can bear no more
Outwardly no trace, but every chance meeting
brings back to the inner screen, the roaring
river of memories, in all that rough detail
I, torn by guilt that I must have been so and
by grief that you should not have seen more
You, perhaps with indignation at what'd passed;
My heart misses a beat, at yet a harsh glance
O if we could really ever forget at all...But,
can we attempt? Erase, every single footprint
on the tender beach of the heart; Ocean of Time!
rage in here, and claim it all, leave nothing
How nice it would be then, to have a rewind-
When the Ocean recedes, I would retrace my steps
Soft, small, strides: mindful, not to repeat past
Meet you again here, and it wont feel like winter...
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Mystic Verses
To the Divine Drunkard
Listen, drunkard! Come this way!
Come, rest a while at my place.
What is it that you drink? what
drink makes you reel thus?
O I'm not sober either; No
And nor is this neighbourhood;
Only, hehe, we like to imagine so.
So come, you wont feel odd
Come, O, you wont feel bored!
Sanity? ah let me throw this
mask away! see! you wont find
madness of an intenser kind
I call you with a drunkard's love
for a greater drunkard! come!
share with me too, that of which
you are drunk! reel! and dance!
Wait, let me throw this wine away!
Off, wretch! I lose myself in you!
Drunkard! share with me that
drink by which you are lost to it!
Yes, listen, Drunkard, come here,
wont you? come, lets make merry!
We'll drink and forget the drink,
come, mirth, fun and more mirth!
Listen, drunkard! Come this way!
Come, rest a while at my place.
What is it that you drink? what
drink makes you reel thus?
O I'm not sober either; No
And nor is this neighbourhood;
Only, hehe, we like to imagine so.
So come, you wont feel odd
Come, O, you wont feel bored!
Sanity? ah let me throw this
mask away! see! you wont find
madness of an intenser kind
I call you with a drunkard's love
for a greater drunkard! come!
share with me too, that of which
you are drunk! reel! and dance!
Wait, let me throw this wine away!
Off, wretch! I lose myself in you!
Drunkard! share with me that
drink by which you are lost to it!
Yes, listen, Drunkard, come here,
wont you? come, lets make merry!
We'll drink and forget the drink,
come, mirth, fun and more mirth!
Sunday, April 17, 2005
The Song Eternal
Floating on the surface of existence,
Which Laws do You rebel against?
What God or Goddess do You reject?
Where do You run? from death,
to death?
Listen! there were no Laws that
You did not understand; no God
Higher than Your own innermost Self
Why dream of death when You are
bliss immortal?
Where misery? Where persecution?
Where Man, where the world? where
Is the other, that You love and hate?
Listen to the song eternal, murmur,
from the heart!
Welcome to Hinduism!
Floating on the surface of existence,
Which Laws do You rebel against?
What God or Goddess do You reject?
Where do You run? from death,
to death?
Listen! there were no Laws that
You did not understand; no God
Higher than Your own innermost Self
Why dream of death when You are
bliss immortal?
Where misery? Where persecution?
Where Man, where the world? where
Is the other, that You love and hate?
Listen to the song eternal, murmur,
from the heart!
Welcome to Hinduism!
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Here's the First Post!
The call has been given, the vision delivered.
There is no fear, for this is an eternal play.
Dharma will prevail, we are but instruments!
Jai Dharma!
ChanDidas
There is no fear, for this is an eternal play.
Dharma will prevail, we are but instruments!
Jai Dharma!
ChanDidas
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