the speaking tree - We Really Need Love

RADHANATH SWAMI





We sometimes think: why are we so greedy for land and property , why are we motivated by political desires? Sometimes it's hard to love like this. We should not detest those who are different because all living creatures are connected with one another. If we cannot love the violent, cruel-hearted, hateful and the envious, then we cannot love anyone.People are ruining their lives because their pure consciousness is obscured by illusion and ignorance. Ignorance is due to darkness, but as soon as the sun rises, everything is revealed as it is. Similarly , when the light within us is allowed to shine, all ignorance is dispelled. When there are dark clouds, you cannot see the sun.
So, the cloud of ignorance, which is the root disease that creates all the symptoms in the form of unwanted activities and thoughts, is covering the pure light of the Divine within us.
The supreme occupation of all humanity is to give light to the world, not to contribute to the darkness. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. It is the duty of each one of us -it is the highest expression of love -to purify our own hearts. If you do not have something, how can you give it to others?
What we need is love. If we do not have love, what can we give? We will simply remain a part of the problem. When we purify our hearts, we transcend all boundaries of sectarianism, all boundaries of selfishness, and we can be the true servant, well-wisher and friend of every living being.

the speaking tree - Making Existence Meaningful Through Opposites

P Rammohan





The idea of duality in life is a deeply illuminating philosophical discourse. Duality, in common parlance, means for every earthly life pattern, an opposing or contradicting phenomenon exists. Duality consists of contrasting opposites: the good and the evil, darkness and light, summer and winter, joy and sorrow, birth and death and so forth. In Chinese philosophy, the concept of Yin and Yang describes the above situations. Joy, sorrow, good and bad are relative observations reflecting our “perspectives“. Contrarily, natural phenomena of light (day) and dark (night) are “axioms“, which require no proof of evaluation.By our preconception of an experience as “good“, we perceive some other experience as “bad“. Both experiences may reflect the truth; however, by judging one with a better comfort level as “good“ we perceive an uncomfortable experience as its opposite “bad“. It is a state of the mind which controls the perception creating opposite observations correlating with a benchmark. Without knowledge of a “good“, the “bad“ would also be absent. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu describes this: “When the people of the Earth all know beauty as beautyThere arises (the recognition of) ugliness ...“
The cactus and the rose may offer an analogy. The cactus flowers in the desert and thrives in the otherwise barren landscape; on the contrary, the rose plant grows in normal terrain. The aesthetic value of a rose, by perspective, is considered to be superior. The cactus, by adapting itself to the desert ecosystem exemplifies privation and remains stoical. For those inhabiting the desert, a cactus flower may appear beautiful until the visual experience of a rose alters their incipient perspective. Therefore, the mind or the veil of perspective creates knowledge of opposites.
Human experiences, likewise, are also a product of antithetical “perspectives“ ­ happiness and melancholy, hope and despair, birth and death and so forth. In the realm of everyday life, we may experience all these states in equal proportions. With the mind repulsing unpleasant states, awareness of the interdependence of the states will inculcate equanimity besides lending dynamism to existence. Like the seasonal changes of summer and winter, all experiences are therefore contrasting.
Extreme situations apportion our lives with more discernible and fulfilling experiences.
Insight into the shrouding limita tions of life as well as abounding happiness are both imbued. The experience of the searing heat of summer acquiesces the mind to the chillness of winter. Al Mustafa, the protagonist in Khalil Gibran's `The Prophet', delves into this homily while reflecting on joy and sorrow: “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? “ Gibran enlightens the complementary nature of opposites, exhorting that without being sensitised to the experience of sorrow one cannot have the pleasure of joy. The poet articulates the alternating situations with the analogy of the painful experience of the cup and the lute and the concomitant pleasure they give despite being stricken with extreme agony. The cup is inanimate; however, with the poetic corollary of the pain it undergoes to hold the wine, to give joy, the poet connects the issues beautifully.
By understanding the dualities of life, awareness is gained that every proposition has a flip side. By refusing to be overawed by perspectives, we remain in balance and in control of our lives.

The politics of an assassination: Who killed Gandhi and why?

On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi fell to his assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse’s bullets during an evening prayer ceremony at Birla House in Delhi. Perched atop a gate of Birla House, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru announced to the world the “light has gone out of our lives”.
 
Eight men were convicted in the murder trial inside Red Fort by a special court, constituted by an order of the central government. Godse and co-conspirator Narayan Apte were hanged for the murder of the Father of the Nation on November 15, 1949. 
 
Historians and scholars have written extensively on “who killed Gandhi and why?” and the answer, obviously, doesn’t end with Godse. What Godse told the court in an attempt to explain why he chose to pump three bullets into Gandhi’s chest at point-blank range provides a glimpse into the politics of the assassination.
 
Why Godse killed Gandhi
 
“I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus,” Godse told the court.
 
He added: “I bear no ill will towards anyone individually, but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.”
 
Godse had been an active member of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha and ran a nationalist newspaper called Hindu Rashtra. Political psychologist and social theorist Ashis Nandy wrote in his book “At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics and Culture” that Godse did not find the RSS militant enough, and in the Hindu Mahasabha “he found a more legitimate expression of the Hindu search for political potency”.

Another section in Godse’s speech in court states: “To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and well-being of all India, one fifth of the human race.”
 
In the speech, Godse also accused Gandhi of dividing the country into India and Pakistan. 
 
Columnist Aakar Patel, writing in Outlook magazine earlier this year, countered Godse’s arguments. “There is a problem with Godse's argument and it is this. He thinks Gandhi was enthusiastic about dividing India when everything in history tells us the case was the opposite.”
 
Godse’s speech, Patel concluded, was illogical. 
 
“Little of what Nathuram says makes sense by way of logic. It was his (Godse’s) hatred of the secular ideology of Gandhi, the true Hindu spirit that he is finally opposed to, having been brainwashed thoroughly by the RSS.”
 
Godse was not alone: The larger conspiracy
 
Extensive research by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre for their book “Freedom at Midnight” detailed how exactly the conspiracy to kill Gandhi was hatched. 
 
The book, published to critical acclaim in 1975, laid bare facts which prove that Gandhi’s assassination was the outcome of a larger conspiracy by Hindu fundamentalists to eliminate Gandhi from the political scene. Collins and Lapierre made full use of the access they had to critical police and intelligence records and even interviewed people who played key roles in the conspiracy, such as Nathuram’s brother Gopal Godse, Vishnu Karkare (who assisted Apte in hatching the plan) and Madanlal Pahwa, who unsuccessfully attempted to kill Gandhi ten days before he was shot dead. 
 
In recent times, scholars and historians like AG Noorani have relentlessly written about how Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the Hindutva ideologue and former president of the Hindu Mahasabha, was involved in the conspiracy but was acquitted only because independent witnesses could not corroborate approver Digamber Badge’s testimony against him in the court.
 
However, after Savarkar died, his bodyguard Apte Ramchandra Kasar and his secretary Gajanan Vishnu Damlewhen corroborated Badge’s testimony to the Justice JL Kapur Commission, which was formed to look into the Gandhi assassination conspiracy in 1966.
 
“Had the bodyguard and the secretary but testified in court, Savarkar would have been convicted,” Noorani noted in his essay “Savarkar and Gandhi’s murder” in The Frontline magazine in 2012.
 
In the essay, Noorani cited letters written by then home minister Vallabhbhai Patel, who wrote to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948 that it was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that “(hatched) the conspiracy and saw it through”.
 
Noorani also quoted correspondence between Patel and Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, in which Patel writes, “...our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies (RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha), particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in this conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of government and the state.”
 
In 2003, the NDA government installed a portrait of Savarkar in the parliament’s central hall alongside, ironically, those of Gandhi and Nehru.
 
The ideology that killed Gandhi: Where do we stand today?
 
As we celebrate the 69th anniversary of our freedom from colonial rule, it is perhaps worthwhile to ponder on what the politics of Gandhi’s assassination means in today’s socio-political context. 
 
“There are two main understandings of Indian nationalism, one which considers Hinduism to be its central feature and the other which does not have such a neat definition but considers everyone who identifies with and adopts India to be Indian. Savarkar was the one who put the final seal to the ideology India as a Hindu nation. Gandhi, Nehru and others opposed this,” said Aniket Alam, executive editor of the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW).
 
Majoritarian Hindu fundamentalism and similar ideologies which were pivotal in the politics of Gandhi’s assassination are doing the rounds even today. But it would be incorrect to say that it was only the Hindu extremist political parties which were opposed to Gandhi’s principles.
 
As Alam pointed out, the Left parties and revolutionaries, BR Ambedkar and his followers, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League were extremely critical of Gandhi’s politics.
 
“Thus when we say that Hindutvawadis attack Gandhi and despise Gandhi, we should not forget that he was intensely disliked by many others and some of these traditions continue in India today. They were not complicit in his murder but they would be equally happy to destroy his historical reputation and his political legacy,” said Alam.
 
Nonetheless, some historians say the Hindu extremist ideology which killed Gandhi is the same as the one which threatens India today.
 
“The communal forces and their divisive ideology which killed Gandhi were same as the ones we see today in the form of the Ghar Wapsi and Love Jihad campaigns,” said Mridula Mukherjee, professor of history at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
 
“The main objective of communal forces is to increase antagonism between communities. It’s their aim to promote the idea that religious identities must be at loggerheads with each other. The vicious atmosphere that was created by them at the time of Gandhi’s assassination is the same as it is today.

BIMARU States: the shoe fits even now

In a speech in Gaya on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that while Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were no longer “BIMARU” states, Bihar continued to suffer this fate. So which are India’s real BIMARU states?

The term BIMARU – an abbreviation for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – was coined in 1980 by the demographer Ashish Bose in a paper he wrote in the early 1980s. Mr. Bose examined a range of demographic indicators to conclude that these states, home to 40 per cent of the country’s population, lagged significantly behind the southern states, and were contributing the most to India’s population explosion. He also looked at five additional indicators including per capita income.

In May this year, economist Vinita Sharma recalculated Mr. Bose’s indicators, updated for 2011, after adding in the newly carved out states of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttarakhand, in a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly. She found that while the states had made individual progress, on the whole, BIMARU states had not converged with the national average; in fact on half of the 13 indicators, they had diverged. While none of the states had been able to move out of the grouping, among them, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh showed a greater degree of improvement than Bihar, Ms. Sharma found.

On several other indicators of backwardness, The Hindu found, these states continue to rank well below the national average. On the key demographic indicator – the Total Fertility Rate – there are now two distinct Indias, one on the road to achieving replacement levels, and one still a long distance off. In 2013, for instance, the states with a TFR higher than the national average were (in descending order): Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Similarly on per capita income, while the poorer states led by Bihar have grown faster year on year than richer states, the gulf between them remains wider than ever. In 1980–81, the average per capita income of the four states was 74% of the all-India figure, but in 2010–11 it declined to 59% of it, Ms. Sharma found. As of 2014-15, The Hindu found, the richest among the BIMARU states was Rajasthan, with a per capita income of Rs 65,974, but this was still less than half that of richer states like Haryana.

In 2013, a committee constituted under the chairmanship of Raghuram Rajan, then Chief Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, developed an index of backwardness to compare states with ten sub-components including per capita expenditure, the poverty rate and urbanisation rate. On that ranking, Odisha ranked the lowest followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh at joint second from last. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were also tied at the same rank.

Economist Bibek Debroy says that questions over convergence and divergence have been “done to death”, adding that these are his personal views and not that of the Niti Aayog, of which he is a member. “Of course there is a difference between base levels and increments, but as increments go, there is no question that some historically backward states – in particular Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – are growing fast,” he said. Additionally, from a public policy perpective, large variations within states meant that looking at the 70 or so most backward districts of the country was a better idea, Mr. Debroy said.

Data compiled by The Hindu

Keywords: BIMARU states, Hindi belt, backward states, Total Fertility Rate, population explosion

This book can save lives

Each pull-out page of the “Drinkable Book” contains nanoparticles of silver that can kill waterborne bacteria and purify up to 100 litres of water. In trials, the paper successfully removed more than 99% of bacteria. The research is being presented at this week’s American Chemical Society’s national meeting.

According to the World Health Organization, 3.4 million people die each year due to health issues stemming from unsanitary water.

The “Drinkable Book” is the brainchild of Theresa Dankovich, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who was researching a simple, inexpensive way to sanitize water.

She developed “pAge drinking paper,” which is a sturdy sheet of paper loaded with silver and copper nanoparticles that kill dangerous microbes living in dirty water.

Since 400 BC, silver has has been used as an antimicrobial. Herodotus accounts that no Persian king would drink water that was not transported in silver containers, which kept the water fresh for years.

Hippocrates used silver preparations for the treatment of ulcers and to promote the healing of wounds.

the speaking tree - What It Means To `Love Thy Neighbour'

Homayun Taba





What does `Love thy neighbour as thyself ' really mean? Neighbour here is not only the person next door. Nor is this about opening your arms and hugging everyone you see. Among the many meanings of love one implies ahimsa or harmlessness towards `jaan' and `maal', the life and property of others.Love also implies acceptance. In this ense, seeing any differences ­ religious, cultural, ethnic or national ­ i am still able to see in you a unique entity like myself, sharing basic human needs for ecurity , and survival.
This phrase is equally echoed in krinwantu viswam aryam', let us make his world a noble place to live in. Nobility s wrongly attributed to pedigree, it needs ather to be seen as supreme humanness.How can i, through my attitude, percep ion and words honour others who tand next to me, no matter their colour, eligion and gender? It prompts us to actively and creatively realise the possi bilities of the world for others. Otherwise the pseudo-independence of a separate self asserts itself at each juncture.
Sharon Salzberg finds it wondrous, radical, full of opportunity to really commit to making this a better world, because “... we genuinely find ourselves in one another. Who is a stranger? Who is the `other' when you hear their hopes and dreams, see their lives unfold?“ All these may seem too ideal to engage in, till one witnesses the current spread of the opposite. A 95-year-old Jewish survivor, helped by Christian families during the war, who is these days helping targeted Christian families relocate out of Syria ­ even suggested that th awful though the killings Nazis did in a mechanical or industri spea al way and scale were, Islamic tr State today is perhaps as heinous, openly enjoying and relishing the brutalities it inflicts. Jaan and maal are threatened and attacked, and a vicious disrespect for differences displayed; another way of saying `anyone not with us is against us'.
This way, the divide between us and the other grows ever wider. There can be no transformational breakthrough in consciousness ­ no matter which tradition one belongs to and how many sacrifices and rituals one observes or undertakes.Once the crystallisation of otherness takes hold, it becomes notoriously diffi cult to see through and to get out of.
The poison lies in seeing oneself divinely-born and others illegitimately arrived; us `the chosen ones' heading towards paradise and others hell-bound; us worthy of being touched others untouchables.
Let's go back to the neighbour.
Visualise a chain, if each ring feels connected to the next, then the first will also be bonded with the tenth; how neighbourliness extends. And that is how neighbourliness extends. And the result is a very strong chain.
In a conversation with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo she told us how during their visit to Jerusalem an Arab guard asked their Israeli friends what they were. “They explained,“ she said “that we were Buddhist nuns.“ “Buddhists? Is that a new religion?“ They explained that actually it had been around for about 2,500 years. The guard replied, “So ... Buddhists... Who are they against?“ Real spirituality is to see less of the divisions and more of the similarities; to understand the contextual soil that nourishes a multitude of plants ­ in this case each and every individual. The point is not to ignore differences but to not allow them to determine one's perception of what it means to be truly human. The message is to rise above narrow confines and tap into the already existing spaciousness. Have mystics said anything other than this? Shouldn't this be universally felt and heard?

Brokering deals with god

Fear of the future makes people seek out spiritual gurus in search of reassurance. And that is why a thousand Radhe Maas flourish

India is famous for Basmati rice, yoga, Gandhi and, of course, spiritualism.Sadhus and sants dot the country, ranging from the lone, bearded baba under the village tree to swamis who live luxurious lives with a battery of attendants and devotees doing their bidding. 

Clairvoyant, spiritual guru, representative of god — godmen and women in India have been called these and much more. They are in the news again, thanks to Radhe Maa of Mumbai who has been accused by a woman of instigating her in-laws to harass her for dowry.

All of us have heard from friends, relatives, acquaintances, even strangers, of how they met a baba ormataji and their lives changed forever. Their businesses picked up, the childless got a child, ‘problems’ sorted themselves out… in short, it was happiness all the way.

Most seek the help (guidance?) of godmen not for spiritual purposes but for improving their material lives. Will I get a promotion or will my colleague beat me to it; will I get the party ticket to contest elections, if yes, will I win; will my new venture make profits — these are some of the typical ‘problems’ for which people seek ‘guidance’ or answers.

These issues stem from fear – fear of the uncertain. Humans love to peep into the future and when they are assured by their baba or mataji that all will be well (if not today, then tomorrow), they heave a sigh of relief. When some of their problems are resolved, thanks to some luck and the normal course of things, they attribute it to miracles (‘even the doctors had given up hope’) and the protective hand of the guru.

Dependency syndrome

But what of the price people pay for such assurance of ‘happiness unlimited’? By seeking the help of godmen and clairvoyants, people turn away from reality. Even the educated and rational become vulnerable when a slew of problems strikes them. Indeed, in most instances, the devotee is assured that it is his good karma that brought him to the spiritual guide in the first place (‘not everyone can get theswamiji’s darshan,’ he is assured). People start believing that all good things that happen to them are thanks to the blessings bestowed on them, and all the bad things will eventually pass, if they follow theirguruji’s advice (which may range from an appeal for a modest contribution to demands for huge sums of money to propitiate the gods). Before they realise it, they become dependent on these so-called gurus for their physical, emotional and financial well-being. The search for quick-fix solutions and the lack of courage renders them incapable of facing the day-to-day challenges of life.

Why are our godmen and women so successful? Most of them come from humble backgrounds, start in a small way and, within a few years, have a huge following with swanky ashrams, temples and loads of money. No business model can explain their exponential growth. Almost always, they claim they are an incarnation of god. A police officer, for instance, claimed that Lord Krishna appeared in his dreams and told him he was Radha. Soon, a halo is created around them by a few people, which is then publicised to attract more devotees to the fold. Stories of miracles are meticulously spread.

The matajis and babas acquire a cult status once politicians and celebrities, ever ready to exploit anything that can remotely benefit them, enter the scene. Thanks to political patronage, adulation and publicity, it is not long before dollars and foreign tours start flowing in. The heady mix of money, power and religion without responsibility, and the knowledge that even the state is scared of meddling with religious affairs, make godmen and women acquire a larger-than-life image. Many invest in hospitals, ashrams and educational institutions, which increases their popularity.

Religious sanction

What sets them apart from politicians, celebrities and businessmen is the religious sanction of their influence, which they exploit to the fullest. They no longer seek or appeal for donations; they place orders. There are reports in the media of people who sell their property, even abandon their families at the command of their so-called gurus. 

What is baffling is the continued following sants and gurujis command even after allegations of sex, sleaze and crime are levelled against them. Swami Premananda, once hailed as a spiritual leader, was sentenced to life for rape and murder. Other religious leaders have been accused of similar crimes and more. But their followers live in denial; those who make the allegations are sidelined, threatened, even silenced. Sadhus and sadhvis, it would seem, can do no wrong. Any challenge to their authority is perceived as a challenge to religion itself. The fear of antagonising the gods in whose name godmen and women thrive, and the fear of reprisal prevent many from speaking out.

Ours is a country where religion is fed to people on a daily basis, and spiritual gurus are held in great awe and respect. It has produced many eminent spiritual leaders who have worked for the welfare of people, showing them the path to salvation. This is perhaps the reason people believe that those who preach in the name of god can do no wrong.

All religions preach spirituality. But it is necessary to remember that spiritualism is also about giving up materialism, not promoting it in the name of religion. A guru or guide should ideally help realise one’s spiritual dream, not promise the world to his or her devotees in exchange for money, land or patronage. Anyone who claims to speak on behalf of god and broker deals with god for a commission can hardly be trusted to elevate a person spiritually.

But then, till people realise that life has its ups and downs and no one except them can fight their everyday battles, swamijis and matajis will continue to prosper. They will continue to promise quick fixes in the name of the god they claim to represent and who has ordained them to provide salvation to humanity – that part of humanity which is willing to submit and asks no questions.

mythili.s@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: Radhe Maa, self-styled godman, dependency syndrome, Srimad Sarathi Baba, Swami Premananda