Making Each And Every Moment Spiritual

Arup Mitra





We are usually so busy in our daily lives that we have no time to even think about spiritualism, let alone practise it! Our mind is our enemy, so to speak. As Gautama Buddha said, “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much your own unguarded thoughts“. The challenge is, how to convert the mind from enemy to friend. If we accept our daily work as a part of prayer or spiritual sadhana, there will be no contradiction or feeling of remorse left in us. And this task has to be performed, remembering eternity in each and every moment. This could be difficult in the initial stages.
If one is awake all the while, and remains strong and humble, there can be no deviation from the path of spiritualism. Even mundane activity such as eating and washing becomes an indispensable part of spiritual activity if we remember while doing them, as Tagore writes, that `thy living touch is upon all our limbs'. If every moment's work is dedicated to Him, anger and jealousy disappear and peace prevails. All our unguarded thoughts become disciplined.Controlling the mind without suppressing it is the biggest task, and that comes about effortlessly with practice.
Once a young person joined a spiritual organisation thinking that he would dedicate all his time to spiritualism. When he was given office work, he was wondering how he would then perform spiritual activity. When he met his guru the latter explained to him that one who is worshipping the deity and the one who is doing file work are equally engaged in spiritualism. One has to convince oneself, what he is doing every moment is nothing but worship provided eternity is connected with it. One way of actualising it is to do nirantara japa, smarana and manana while doing one's job.
This enables one not to get attached with what one is doing. If you make full efforts then naturally there is a possibility that you get so attached to it that you expect cent per cent success. This desire then can make you unhappy in course of time.But when we pursue something as a service, we are able to give our full effort without expecting any gain. In an argument if you carry the feeling of victory then the feeling of defeat will also remain in you, and vice versa. But if you remain detached after you have made your point thoughtfully ­ as if you have uttered a mantra in the process of your worship ­ you remain in peace and ethereal joy . When you work in a group, not everyone can be equally efficient or guided by sincerity or dedication forgetting narrow politicking and possibility of personal gains. As a result criticisms for the group are inevitable. But then if you start feeling hurt saying that you had given your full effort, it is your foolishness.
You forgot the sense of detachment and that is the reason why you are in pain. The sense that `I have done my job, my worship is over now' can never get you into any emotional turmoil and make you volatile in the process of which you lose your sanity and make more mistakes. So work is worship and it has to be performed not just with sincerity but also by remembering eternity every moment.

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Greetings

We are happy to inform you that our faculty  Dr. Debdulal Saha wrote  a book title -Informal Markets, Livelihood and Politics: Street Vendors in Urban India published by Routledge .  The book  will  be available  in the library  for your reference.  

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Union HRD Minister launches ShaGun - a web-portal for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 

New Delhi: The Union HRD Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar launched a dedicated web portal ‘ShaGun’ for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan at New Delhi today. ‘ShaGun’ aims to capture and showcase innovations and progress in Elementary Education sector of India by continuous monitoring of the flagship scheme - Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The Union HRD Minister also unveiled the ‘Toolkit for Master Trainers in Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs’, which has been prepared by World Bank in collaboration with Ministry of Human Resource Development.

 

On this occasion, the Union Minister also reiterated government’s commitment for improving the ‘Quality’ of Education. He said that in this direction Ministry of HRD will be codifying the learning outcome to set assessment standards for abilities with regards to comprehension, mathematics, language etc. and thus ensuring that “all children acquire at least the minimum levels of learning” from Class I to Class VIII under Right to Education Act, 2009.

Learning Outcomes are assessment standards indicating the expected levels of learning that children should achieve for that class. These outcomes can be used as check points to assess learning at different points of time. The learning outcomes would help teachers to understand the learning levels of children in their respective classes individually as well as collectively. Learning outcomes should be the point of reference for conducting achievement surveys. Hence it is necessary that the defined Learning Outcomes are also shared with parents and community at large. Ministry of HRD has uploaded draft document on its website in this regard to invite comments and suggestions through email address given. (feedback.lo@ciet.nic.in)

Shri. Prakash Javadekar, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development launching this e-initiative termed it as a global democratic forum enabled by technology which will give a peek in the Indian elementary education scenario

and spread constructive lessons. He highlighted that this first-of-its kind platform will give due recognition to people, State governments, schools, teachers working towards improving Elementary Education across the country. The Union Minister further emphasized that ShaGun will help monitor progress of implementation of SSA by assessing performance of States and UTs on key parameters and thereby serve as a platform for the central government for effective planning and deliver on the promise of providing quality education to all.

ShaGun, which has been coined from the words ‘Shala’ meaning Schools and ‘Gunvatta’ meaning Quality, has been developed with a twin track approach.

First, is the Repository with an engaging interface that focuses on positive stories and developments in the field of School Education. In this repository, best practices will be documented in the form of videos, testimonials, case studies, and images, which will display state-level innovations and success stories that are driving improvements in performance under SSA. This repository has a decentralized management structure that enables State governments to choose, upload and manage their own content.

Secondly, it has an online monitoring module to measure state-level performance and progress against key educational indicators. It has been developed to collect and report data which will enable the government and administrators to track the efficiency with which SSA funds are being utilized and the results that this is delivering. SSA is a centrally sponsored scheme providing universal access to education to children in the age group of six to fourteen years of age.

 

Also, ‘Toolkit for Master Trainers in Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs’ is the series of five training modules will provide the teachers with practical information on effective inclusion of CWSN and build those pedagogical practices that would address the needs of all children with special needs.

Shri Upendra Kushwaha, Hon’ble MoS, School Education and Literacy,  MHRD, also addressed the gathering and appreciated ‘ShaGun’ as right step forward to understand the program implementation and evaluate the gap between policy and action, which will supplement the government decision making.  

The event also saw live interaction with Mr Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank India through a video conference. He expressed his appreciation towards Ministry of Human Resource Development for introducing this platform that will allow for global learning from SSA lessons being shared.

Shri. Anil Swarup, Secretary, School Education and Literacy, GoI; Smt. Rina Ray, Additional Secretary, School Education, GoI; Smt. Shabnam Sinha, Lead Education Specialist, World Bank; senior policy makers and representatives of Autonomous Bodies such as NCTE, NCERT, CBSE and NUEPA, also attended the programme.  The SSA ShaGun web portal can be accessed at http://ssashagun.nic.in.

 

Source: Indiaeducationdiary, 18-01-2017

Gandhiji shot dead - The Hindu (January 31, 1948) 

“If I’m to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. God must be in my heart and on my lips. And if anything happens, you are not to shed a single tear.”— Gandhiji, January 28, 1948

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, was shot at 5-12 p.m. to-day and he died fifteen minutes later. Gandhiji left his room in Birla House for the prayer meeting a few minutes after the conclusion of his talk with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He passed through the garden leaning on the shoulders of Ava Gandhi and Manu Gandhi, grand daughter-in-law and grand niece.
As he walked up the four steps leading to the prayer mandap, a young man, aged about 35, came before Gandhiji and, bending his body forward at a distance of less than two yards, offered pranam. Gandhiji returned the salute, when the young man remarked “You are late to-day for the prayer.” Gandhiji smiled and replied, “Yes, I am”; but just at that moment, the young man pulled out his revolver and rang out three shots from point-blank range, the bullets piercing the frail body of the great leader just below the heart and stomach. Immediately, Gandhiji collapsed; but Ava Gandhi and Manu Gandhi stuck to their place by his side and held him firmly. But that was the last of the Nation’s Father. It was then 5.12 p.m. The last act Gandhiji did was to lift both his hands as a sign of prayer in the direction of the large gathering which had assembled for the prayer. Thereafter, he was speechless and the loss of blood, at his age and so soon after his fast, made death inevitable. He was beyond medical aid even from the start when shock had its effect. Lord Mountbatten and Cabinet Ministers, including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and others soon arrived. The Ministers present held consultations among themselves as to the future course of action

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who returned from Amritsar this afternoon, did not have an opportunity to meet Gandhiji. Pandit Nehru came out to address the huge gathering of nearly two lakhs which had surrounded Birla House, but broke down with grief more than once when he spoke. The leaders, including Pandit Nehru, who were present, were dazed and perplexed, while tears overflowed down the cheeks of countless women and men both inside and outside Birla House. The grief-struck crowd, which went on swelling in numbers, were making their way into the main building to have a last glimpse of the departed leader. Glass windows were broken. But the crowd restrained itself and leaders soon made arrangements to let the crowd see Mahatma Gandhi.
Assassin beaten by crowd
The assassin, soon after he fired the shots, was seized by the people who had come to attend the prayer. His revolver — a six-chambered one — and some cash were recovered. It appears he was beaten by the crowd and was slightly injured. The police have taken him into custody and investigation is proceeding. It is learnt that the name of the assassin is Nathuram Vinayak Godse (aged 36), a Mahratta. He described himself as the Editor of a daily paper called Hindu Rashtra published in Laxmipet, Poona.
He wore khaki pants and tunic. There is no truth in the report that he attempted to commit suicide by putting a bullet into himself.

Source: The Hindu, 30/06/2016

Scientists without a scientific temper 

India has not produced any Nobel Prize winner in science in the last 85 years — largely because of the lack of a scientific environment in the country

Jawaharlal Nehru coined the term ‘scientific temper’ in his book The Discovery of India, which was published in 1946. He was also the President of the Association of Scientific Workers of India (ASWI), which was registered as a Trade Union, and with which I was closely associated with in the 1940s and the early 1950s. (This may be the only example of a Prime Minister of a democracy being the President of a Trade Union.) One of the objectives of ASWI was to propagate scientific temper. It was very active in the beginning, but fizzled out by the 1960s as the bulk of scientists in the country, including many who were occupying high positions, were themselves not committed to scientific temper which calls for rationality, reason and lack of belief in any dogma, superstition or manifest falsehood.
The conclusion that our very own scientists — who would be expected to be leaders in the development of scientific temper — did not possess scientific temper themselves and were just as superstitious as any other group was supported by another incident in 1964. Following a statement by Satish Dhawan (who later became Secretary, Department of Space), Abdur Rahman (a distinguished historian of science) and I, set up an organisation called The Society for Scientific Temper, in January 1964, the founding members of which included distinguished scientists like Francis Crick, a Nobel Prize winner. For membership to the society, the following statement had to be signed: “ I believe that knowledge can be acquired only through human endeavour and not through revelation, and that all problems can and must be faced in terms of man’s moral and intellectual resources without invoking supernatural powers.” We were disillusioned when we approached scientist after scientist and all of them refused to sign the statement. Clearly they were devoid of scientific temper. Following this disillusionment, I persuaded Professor Nurul Hasan, then Education Minister, to have the following clause included in Article 51A in the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976: “It shall be the duty of every citizen of Indian “to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of enquiry and reform.”
This should have woken up our scientists and reminded them of their duty vis-à-vis scientific temper, but I do not believe that the situation in this respect is any better, even today, than what it was 50-60 years ago. Let me cite three examples.
Little improvement During the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, then Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi asked the University Grants Commission to issue a circular to all universities stating that they should start a degree course in astrology. For this, he said, a special grant would be given. My colleague Chandana Chakrabarti and I filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging this dispensation. Our lawyer was Prashant Bhushan. The petition was admitted but was eventually dismissed (as could be expected), for belief in astrology — which is totally unscientific and irrational and has been repeatedly shown to be a myth — is widespread, with those who dispense justice also not being immune to it. Not one scientist came forward in support of us; nor did any of the six national science academies we have, on which a substantial amount of public funds are spent every year. Our supporters, who even sent us unsolicited funds to fight the case, were all non-scientists. In fact, recognising the above inadequacies of our science academies and their insensitivity to science-related social problems in general, I resigned from the fellowship of three of our science academies in 1993. The second example would be the silence of our scientists and the six science academies when, last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a group of scientists in Mumbai, claimed that organ transplantation was known in ancient India — he gave Ganesha with his elephant head and human torso as an example.
The third example would be the much publicised symposium on “Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit” at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, which was held earlier this month. At this meeting, it was said that India had jumbo aircraft (60 x 60 feet; in some cases 200 feet long) that flew between continents and planets 9,000 years ago (some 4,500 years before Harappa and Mohenjo-daro). Not only that, it was also claimed that we had a radar system better than the present one, based on the principle that every animate or inanimate object emits energy all the time. And in the 21st century, “fusion of science and spirituality will happen because of the law of inter-penetration,” it was said. I doubt if any serious academic would have heard of this law which would not make any sense. These and many other absurd claims made at the symposium were an insult to the several real scientific accomplishments of ancient and medieval India.
 Winding up academies
None of our so-called scientists of note and scientific academies has raised a voice against these claims. Surely, the distinguished scientists who organised the Science Congress knew what was likely to be said at the symposium, but, perhaps, they believed in it all or were pressurised politically. Therefore, there is a strong case for the annual Indian Science Congress to be banned (as I also argued in my article in The Hindu, “Why the Indian Science Congress meets should be stopped” (Open Page, September 30, 1997), or its name to be changed to Indian Anti-science Congress.
As regards the science academies, they can easily be wound up without any damage being caused to Indian science. India has not produced any Nobel Prize winner in science in the last 85 years – largely because of the lack of a scientific environment in the country, of which scientific temper would be an important component.

 Pushpa M. Bhargava is the founder-director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at Hyderabad, and chairman of the Southern Regional Centre of Council for Social Development.)

Source: The Hindu, 17-01-2017

 

Scripture in Context





A scripture is like a map. And a map is not the territory . What may appear as a beautiful mountainous range on paper could well turn out to be a treacherous obstacle in real life. Similarly, a river painted in brilliant hues of blue on a map might be infested with snakes and crocodiles in reality . In the same manner, the spiritual path is strewn with unseen and perilous obstructions in real life. The first difficulty faced by seekers arises from the infinite ocean of the scriptures themselves, whether they are Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Zen, Muslim or any other. Individual religions have multiple versions of the holy scriptures, translated or rendered by numerous experts. Which one to follow?
As the wonders of technology in the service of saving, prolonging and enhancing the span and quality of person's life increase, so will the ethical dilemmas these technologies give rise to. Neither scientists nor philosophers can give final answers to these burning questions of morality and ethics.Such answers can only come from living saints who can speak unambiguously through the force of their own pure, selfless and loving personalities.
There exists only one method of truly ascertaining whether or not a person is pure and selfless: through a keen observation of his lifestyle, habits and demeanour. A truly selfless person can be recognised, advises the Gita. The saint is recognised through the extent of his physical renunciation of sensual pleasures, the degree of his devotion towards God and the magnitude of his heart.

Pratham audit paints mixed pic of rural education





A private audit of school education in rural India paints a mixed picture of hits and misses ­­ increase in enrolment, no increase in private school enrolment, improvement in reading ability and arithmetic, but not so much in reading English. After a gap of a year, Pratham's 11th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) was unveiled on Wednesday in the presence of Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia and chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam. The survey was carried out in 17,473 villages, covering 3,50,232 households. Children's attendance shows no major change since 2014. Also, the proportion of small schools in the government primary school sector continues to grow.
The report that largely looks at enrolment pattern and learning abilities highlights that at the all India level, enrolment in the age group of 614 has marginally increased from 96.7% in 2014 to 96.9% in 2016. Similar increase can be noticed in the enrolment for the age-group of 15-16 from 83.4% in 2014 to 84.7% in 2016.
In states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and UP, the fraction of out-of-school children has increased between 2014 and 2016. In MP, it has been the highest ­­ from 3.4% to 4.4%. In three states, the proportion of out-of-school girls is higher than 8%. This includes Rajasthan (9.7%), UP (9.9%) and MP (8.5%).
There has been no increase in enrolment in private schools in the last two years.Enrolment is almost unchanged at 30.8% in 2014 to 30.5% in 2016. Gender gap in private schools has decreased slightly from 7.6 percentage points to 6.9 percentage points.
As for learning ability , na tionally the proportion of children in Class III who could read at least Class I text has gone up slightly from 40.2% in 2014 to 42.5% in 2016. Overall, reading levels in Class V are almost the same year on year from 2011 to 2016. However, the proportion of children in Class V who could read a Class II-level text improved by more than five percentage points from 2014 to 2016 in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tripura, Nagaland and Rajasthan.
However, in Class VIII, reading level has shown slight decline since 2014, from 74.1% to 73.1%. Except for Manipur, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, reading level does not show much improvement.
In 2014, nationally 25.4% of Class III children could do a two-digit subtraction which has risen slightly to 27.7% in 2016, mainly in government schools. However, in Class V , the arithmetic levels of children measured by their ability to do simple division remained almost the same at 26%.But among Class VIII students, the ability to do division has continued to drop, a trend that began in 2010.
Ability to read English has slightly improved in Class III but relatively unchanged in Class V . In 2016, 32% children in Class III could read simple words as compared to 28.5% in 2009. Worrisome is the gradual decline in upper primary. In 2009, 60.2% in Class VIII could read simple sentences in English; in 2014, this was 46.7% and in 2016, it has declined to 45.2%.

Source: Times of India, 19-01-2017