the speaking tree - Karma Yoga, Our Actions And Attitudes

P N Vijay





Hindu scriptures discuss at length the issue of action and the attitude that one needs to have while performing it. This is broadly termed Karma Yoga; karma means action and yoga in this context means attitude to action.Action is inevitable. Man has to act because that is his very nature. Even if he is still, his mind is active. If we are not active our health will get affected.Hence what actions have to be performed and how they have to be performed is important for both emotional well-being and spiritual development.
Scriptures say that while action is inevitable, it generates fruits or results which bind you and affect your spiritual journey to Self-realisation and liberation. So, how to get around this dilemma? The answer is to perform right actions with a right attitude. But this alone is not enough to get liberated.Action by itself is inert; but detached action is an essential pre-requisite which we cannot do without. It purifies our mind and takes us to the path of knowledge with the right frame of mind. Otherwise scriptural knowledge may lead to cognitive transformation but you will remain emotionally unstable with alternate bouts of happiness and misery.
Knowing that action is inevitable, we should perform right actions. Scriptures divide actions into sattvika karma, raajasika karma and tamasika karma and require us to perform only saatvika actions.
Saatvika karmas are mandatory actions, which result in good for society and you. Mandatory actions are ­ personal cleanliness, eating and sleeping, daily prayers, and doing karmas for one's forefathers. Other saatvika karmas include doing one's job sincerely so as to earn and main tain a family, tending to one's family, caring for the environment, feeding the poor and so on. Working for a living and looking after family is essential for the contin uation of the species and for the good of society and all this will bring you joy. Planting trees and keeping rivers clean are karmas that will lead to well-being of all.
Raajasika karmas may be good for you but not for others; but they do not harm others. These include amassing wealth without giving anything in charity, helping only your family members without doing anything for the community , spending money on your clothes, jewels, holidays and other personal luxuries without giving something to the less fortunate, striving hard for fame and power.
Tamasika actions are those which not only do good only to you but harm others. These include hurting others physically, using your power against others, helping family to the detriment of others, and damaging environment for personal pleasures.
Right actions should be performed with a sense of detachment without desire for results, says the Gita. The world is governed by results and this attitude may seem naïve and impractical.But scriptures teach us that a detached state of mind improves your effectiveness and performance because it removes stress and anxiety. Desire for results and expectations plays havoc, preventing you from realising your full potential.
All we need is a change in mindset.When i was a young lad my cricket coach would say as i went out to bat, “Just don't bother about the score and play your strokes.“ Golf hero Jack Nicklaus says, “Keep a good back swing and hit hard; don't bother about how far it goes.“ Ramana Maharshi said, “Moving from effort to effortlessness releases is cardinal for Self-enquiry.“
(The author is secretary, Ramana Kendra, New Delhi.)

Music, the Sound Bath

I remember that day in the second year of my MBBS course when I was studying pharmacology . Countless drug names had to be learnt by rote along with information of their actions and side-effects. Time was short and the pressure enormous. To de-stress I tried taking a nap, but woke up with a horrible dream that I had missed the examination. Pacing the floor, I chanced into my parents' room, where my mother was practising Raag Kalavati on the harmonium. I asked my mother if I could try my hand at it. The moment I touched the keys and pulled the bellows of the harmonium, a feeling of calm filled me.My mother taught me the basic sargam and I got hooked.After an hour of experimenting and playing staccato notes, I knew I had found my stress management tool for life. Yes, that hour spent in the company of a musical instrument had driven away all my exam stress. I was refreshed and ready to face any challenge in pharmacology .

From that day onwards, I would take regular breaks from my studies and play the harmonium. In many clinical studies, music ranks as the No.1 stress-buster. Listening to the right kind of music at the right volume can be beneficial to mind and body . One can reach a meditative zone listening to music. Listening to soft music set to a tempo lower than 72 beats a minute can induce deep breathing and a lower heart rate, consistent with relaxation. Music can act like a `sound bath' and help you wash away all your worries.

They are refugees, not migrants

By referring to those reaching Europe’s shores as migrants, the European Union’s leaders are trying to mislead the public about the real nature of the crisis.

Europe is witnessing probably the greatest movement of people since the Second World War. Over the last several months, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Sub-Saharan Africa have been risking their lives each day in a bid to reach Europe. Thousands have perished in the attempt. The harrowing image of the body of three-year-oldAylan Kurdi washed ashore on the Turkish coastline has become the defining image of the humanitarian crisis that is presently unfolding. The crisis is only expected to worsen, with the United Nations forecasting that over 3,000 people a day will try to reach Western Europe alone in the next few months. The number of fatalities is also expected to rise. The increasing public attention being given to the situation in Europe has thrown into sharp focus the policies of several prominent European governments towards such displaced persons.

Consequence of terminology

As the crisis in the Mediterranean has unfolded, a number of European politicians and media houses have chosen to consistently refer it as a ‘migrant’ crisis. The majority of the men, women and children trying to reach European shores have been portrayed as economic migrants in search of a better life. In a bid to incite nationalistic tendencies, the displaced persons have been compared to marauders posing a threat to the standard of living and social structure of a privileged European society. The choice in terminology and the rhetoric that follows suit is not wholly without consequence, both legal and otherwise.

In law, the distinction between a refugee and a migrant is of great significance. First and foremost, refugees enjoy a distinct and unique standard of protection under international law. A refugee has been defined under the 1951 Refugee Convention of the UNHCR and its 1967 Protocol as any person who, “owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of the country of his nationality and is unable, or is owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself the protection of that country”. With the evolution of international refugee law, this definition of convention refugees has been expanded to cover persons who have fled their countries due to armed conflicts, internal turmoil and situations involving gross and systematic violation of human rights. Such persons are typically referred to as humanitarian refugees. Refugees enjoy certain special protections under law, such as safety from deportation to the country where they face persecution; protection of basic human rights without racial or religious discrimination, or of national origin; access to fair and efficient asylum procedures; provision of administrative assistance, and so on.

“Contrary to what some European leaders and media houses would have us believe, the crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean is mostly about refugees.”

On the other hand, migrants (persons who choose to leave their home state, principally in search of a better life, as opposed to escaping some form of persecution, internal strife or armed conflict) do not enjoy any protection and/or privileges under international law. Countries are therefore at liberty to deal with migrants under their own immigration laws and processes.

Outside of the law, the choice of terminology is of critical importance in shaping the perception, attitudes and behaviour of the public at large and can impact the lives and safety of displaced persons. Being a migrant implies a choice, exercised voluntarily, to seek a better life from that offered in the home country, and not an involuntary act, brought on by the instinct of self-preservation — from the threat of persecution, internal strife or armed conflict in the home country. The latter is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be a legitimate reason for movement across borders — one in which the world community has a shared collective interest. Therefore, the conflation of refugees with migrants can seriously undermine and prejudice the public support available to such displaced persons, one that is critical to the protection of such displaced persons.

Contrary to what some European leaders and media houses would have us believe, the crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean is mostly about refugees. The majority of the men, women and children are reportedly from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan — countries plagued by civil war, gross human rights violations and religious insurgency. This is not to suggest that no migrants are trying to reach Europe in search of a better life than that offered in their home country. Indeed, much of the displaced populations from Sub-Saharan Africa are migrants. Nevertheless, by using the expression ‘migrant crisis’ to broadly refer to the entire spectrum of the ongoing crisis in the Mediterranean, European leaders and media houses are trying to desensitise the public at large by misleading them about the real nature of the crisis unfolding therein.

(Jay Manoj Sanklecha is a graduate of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, and is working with a law firm in Mumbai.)

Keywords: Syria, Syrian refugee crisis, Syrian migrant crisis, Aylan Kurdi, European Union

Junior Research Fellowship at IIT Kharagpur

Those of you keen to pursue further studies from a prestigious IIT can apply for the Junior Research Fellowship at IIT Kharagpur being offered by the HRD ministry.

The fellowship is open for MArch/MDes/MTech (civil)/MPlan degree holders with good academic record. It will be awarded for the duration of four years and will be available for ­pursuing a research programme at IIT Kharagpur. Fellowship will be awarded in the field of age-friendly built forms and ­infrastructure.

Two or more applicants will be selected on the basis of their track records. Applicants should apply through email: abrahamiitkgp-at-gmail.com.

The application deadline is  October 31, 2015. For further information and application form, visit here .

Sep 10 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India no country for old men, Switzerland the best: Report

Kounteya Sinha

London:





Indians Score Lowest In Healthcare For Elderly

India has emerged as among the worst places in the world to grow old.The country has ranked 71 among 96 countries -much lower than most of its Southeast Asian neighbours -in the Global Age Watch Index by Britain's University of Southampton and Help Age International.
It scored lowest in healthcare for the elderly. An average 60-year-old in India is expected to live only 12.6 years in good health. Almost one in two elderly in India don't have relatives to count on, while two in five don't feel safe walking alone at night. One in three is not satisfied with the freedom of choice in their life while 30% aren't happy with transportation system.
The index found Switzerland the best place for older people to live, followed by Norway and Sweden.
Asghar Zaidi, professor at University of Southampton, told TOI, “India's low ranking is mainly due to health status of older population. Health, when measured using the life expectancy at 60 is seven years less tha what we experience in th UK. The income security o the elderly is also a concer For example, the pension coverage for Indian elderly is very low (28.9%) as opposed to China's 74.4%.“

the speaking tree - Have Our Gods Really Failed Us?

Harsha V Dehejia





India is a land intoxicated with religion ­ its people involved with gods and goddesses, 33 million of them ­ where every home has a shrine, every street corner a temple, every family a kula devata, where every important event of one's life is presided by a god, where in every month there is a festival in honour of a deity, where we greet each other on the street with salutations like `Jai Shri Krishna', `Ram-Ram', `RadheRadhe', and so on. It would not be wrong to say that the Hindu civilisation is god-centric, not homo-centric.In the vedic period struck by the forces of nature around us, we spoke of Agni, Vayu, Surya and Marut and performed yajnas to send our spirits soaring upward. In the Upanishads our search turned inward and our watchword was tapas or the discovery of truth through inward contemplation. With the turn of the millennium we crafted cosmic stories or the puranas where we created anthropomorphic gods and thus started our sampradays based on Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, Ganesha and Surya.
Adding flavour to this heady pantheon were semi-gods like Kubera and Kama, celestial beings like the gandharvas and kinnaras. Then we had sages who, gifted with vision, brought the distant truth closer to us. Despite the plethora of godmen our gods remained primal and pristine; we turned to them in awe and veneration and they presided over our lives.
Today , however, we have displaced our gods with godmen, we turn to gurus rather than to gods, pour our heart out to babas and bapus, matas and mas. Our concerns are the alleviation of samsaric pain and suffering, physical and emotional, and not the quest of a higher truth or the search for spi higher truth or the search for spiritual serenity or realisation of ultimate reality. Why have our gods failed us, we ask? Or, have we failed our gods? While the vedic period may have been beset with wars, the post-vedic period was largely peaceful and prosperous. Tradition was defined by Buddha and Mahavira, Bharata and Bhartrhari, Panini and Patanjali, enriching our sense of inner Self. Modern India however is suffering breakdown of traditional values and economic setbacks ­ despair rather than delight, sorrow rather than serenity , uncertainty rather than certitude seem to be the order of the day . Perhaps this has inspired the need to find a guru who can guide and provide hope.
The iconography of our gods are visual metaphors that invite aesthetic analysis. Their varied and beautiful forms call for contemplation to convert rupa or form to arupa or the formless and take us from vritti or churning of the mind to nirodha or stillness. In the 19th and early 20th century our search for truth was mixed with our struggle for national freedom and we had enlightened rishis like Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Vinobha Bhave as well as leaders like Gandhi. They created ashrams reminiscent of those in the Upanishads.
But the harried and troubled mind today is looking for quick answers and solutions, it wants to find instant solutions to heal its fractured psyche, replace chaos with calm, disorder with order. Godmen and godwomen of today promise just that, some with a hug, others with a mantra, still others with ambiguous practices and we turn to them in droves ­ looking for the genuine master in the midst of all the garishness and cacophony ­ seeking solace. Our gods, though, are still waiting. They have not failed us, but perhaps, we have failed them.

After 10 yrs of rural health mission, doctor shortfall up

Subodh Varma





Samarin Bai, a 50-year-old Baiga tribal woman from Mahamai village lives in the dense Achanakmar forests of Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh. A few days back, she decided to see a doctor for the big lump that had developed at the base of her neck and various other problems. Although there is a government sub-centre 6km away , she knew that there was only one auxiliary nurse cum midwife (ANM) who wouldn't be able to help.So she trudged through 14km t of rain-soaked forest to a health centre in Bamhani vill lage set up by a local NGO, Jan i Swasthya Sahyog (JSS). A doctor visits this centre every week and he diagnosed a dangerous thyroid enlargement which needed quick surgery . i Samarin Bai waded across a monsoon swollen river and was transported by the JSS f van to their hospital at Ganiyari, some 70km away .Yogesh Jain of JSS narrates this story as an example of what is routine in the area.Healthcare delivery is so patchy and deficient that peo ple travel dozens of kilome ers to get treatment. “In the 10 years since the NRHM was aunched, some improvement s there, but doctors and key healthcare personnel are still deficient,“ he told TOI.
Recently released government data on the rural health nfrastructure and personnel confirms that Samarin Bai's problem is not a rare example rom some inaccessible forest.At the country level, there is a staggering shortfall of 81% of specialist doctors, 12% of general physicians, 21% of nurses and 5% of auxiliary nurse cum midwives. Among technical support staff, shortfalls range from 29% for pharmacists to 45%for laboratory technicians and 63% for radiographers.But since a decade ago, many of these shortfalls have increased except for nurses and ANMs.
A bizarre aspect of this data put out annually by the ministry of health is that in many categories of health personnel, some states have surplus appointments while others have shortfalls. For example, at the country level, 25,308 doctors are required going by the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS), which says that one doctor is needed for every primary health centre (PHC).But actually , there are 34,750 doctors sanctioned. 25 states have surplus doctors, the total surplus working out to 5,115.On the other hand, the remaining states have a combined shortfall of 3,002 doctors.
T Sundararaman, professor at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences and former executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre says, “IPHS recommended two doctors and one ayush doctor per PHC. In 2011, the doctors per PHC was revised downwards. But doctors are -unlike ANMs -paid only by the states. So many states, like Tamil Nadu, have two doctors per PHC as sanctioned. The `required' number is the statistics department's interpretation of IPHS to mean that only one doctor is required per PHC. They have no basis to do this, and one doctor per PHC is not viable. The short falls are genuine -the over appointments are not,“ he told TOI.
The surpluses in healthcare personnel arise because goal posts are shifted by lowering requirements. In reality the shortages are all round.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com