The Story Of An Enlightened Crow

Before transforming into an enlightened and divine crow, Kak Bhusundi had spent numerous past lives in distress, according to the Ramacharitamanasa. In one of his previous lives, Bhusundi had developed arrogance in his disposition and had, at times, insulted Vishnu and his own spiritual guru, accumulating bad karma. By the grace of his guru – and Shiva, who cursed him with many rebirths so that Bhusundi could realise his mistakes and also gave him a boon that minimised the sorrow involved in every rebirth – Bhusundi changed his way of thinking and selected the path of devotional love over misdeed. Bhusundi had turned to spiritual practice after contemplating on his faults. He had coupled patience and perseverance with God remembrance, meditation and guidance from his mentors. It is believed that during the course of his spiritual evolution, Bhusundi had to undergo rebirth numerous times. His difficult life experiences reflect the fact that our initial experiences on the path of spirituality may not be easy. Even in scenarios where God’s grace may reduce the amount of karmic cleansing required, one may still have to face some suffering. Bhusundi’s story reveals that often, our imperfections are forgiven in spiritual practice. Though Bhusundi had been devoted to the Divine, in the beginning, his devotion had been bound with hatred for selected persons. In spite of his initial shortcomings, his chanting of Ramanama, the name of Rama, had transformed him into a divine being through bhakti yoga – he had become an enlightened crow. From our limited understanding of Kak Bhusundi’s – kak means crow – spiritual evolution, we can say that Bhusundi was forgiven by Rama. We can also say that Bhusundi reached a spiritual plane where forgiveness was not necessary. In fact, he had transcended virtues. Rama had blessed him with so much spiritual and philosophical proficiency that he not only became one of the first preachers of the Ramayana but also became the spiritual guru for Garuda, Vishnu’s vehicle, and many people, too. Moreover, Bhusundi had been blessed with immortality and everlasting devotion for Rama. Bhusundi’s meeting with a spiritual guru may be seen as a combined act of grace by Rama and Shiva, who are both Divine. Bhakti may make us eligible for kripa, God’s grace. Alternatively, bhakti may, at times, be a result of grace from guru or God. Spiritual guidance gleaned from discourses by saints, comprehension of scriptures, and our learning experiences in places of worship – all have elements of divine grace embedded within them. For spiritual aspirants, Bhusundi’s remarkable story reflects the importance of realising our own mistakes in life and the beneficial effects that chanting and God remembrance can have on our disposition. Seeking Divine forgiveness, like prayer, is sattvic karma; it may nullify many of our bad karmas from the past. Moreover, repentance has the potential to connect us to the Supreme power. By the time we gain God-realisation, all malevolence and karmic negativities are expected to cease. In due course, we get transported from goodness to beyond goodness. Our remembrance of God eliminates all negative thought processes that may have created a major separation between our soul and God. This is where the karmic cycle breaks and we recognise our own divinity. Finally, we gain permanent proximity to God, fulfilling the aim of devotional spirituality

Source: Times of India, 16/09/2019

Quote of the Day

“All action results from thought, so it is thoughts that matter.”

‐ Sai Baba

“कर्म की उत्पत्ति विचार में है, अतः विचार ही महत्त्वपूर्ण हैं।”

‐ साई बाबा

Factoring in safety: on stronger worker safety law

Major industrial accidents point to the need for a stronger worker safety law

India’s record in promoting occupational and industrial safety remains weak even with years of robust economic growth. Making work environments safer is a low priority, although the productivity benefits of such investments have always been clear. The consequences are frequently seen in the form of a large number of fatalities and injuries, but in a market that has a steady supply of labour, policymakers tend to ignore the wider impact of such losses. It will be no surprise, therefore, if the deaths of four people, including a senior officer, in a fire at the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation gas facility in Navi Mumbai, or the tragedy that killed nearly two dozen people at a firecracker factory in Batala, Punjab are quickly forgotten. Such incidents make it imperative that the Central government abandon its reductionist approach to the challenge, and engage in serious reform. There is not much evidence, however, of progressive moves. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019, introduced in the Lok Sabha in July to combine 13 existing laws relating to mines, factories, dock workers, building and construction, transport workers, inter-State migrant labour and so on, pays little attention to the sector-specific requirements of workers. One of its major shortcomings is that formation of safety committees and appointment of safety officers, the latter in the case of establishments with 500 workers, is left to the discretion of State governments. Evidently, the narrow stipulation on safety officers confines it to a small fraction of industries. On the other hand, the Factories Act currently mandates appointment of a bipartite committee in units that employ hazardous processes or substances, with exemptions being the exception. This provision clearly requires retention in the new Code.

A safe work environment is a basic right, and India’s recent decades of high growth should have ushered in a framework of guarantees. Unfortunately, successive governments have not felt it necessary to ratify many fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) covering organised and unorganised sector workers’ safety, including the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981. Those ILO instruments cover several areas of activity that the NDA government’s occupational safety Code now seeks to amalgamate, but without the systemic reform that is necessary to empower workers. It is essential, therefore, that the new Code go back to the drawing board for careful scrutiny by experienced parliamentarians, aided by fresh inputs from employees, employers and experts. Industries that use hazardous processes and chemicals deserve particular attention, and the Code must have clear definitions, specifying limits of exposure for workers. Compromising on safety can lead to extreme consequences that go beyond factories, and leave something that is etched in the nation’s memory as in the case of the Bhopal gas disaster.

Source: The Hindu, 13/09/2019

Are public universities under threat?

Political interference and intolerance for critical debate have left universities without vitality

Recently, Romila Thapar and 11 others were asked to submit their CVs so that a committee appointed by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) could evaluate their body of work and decide on their continuation as Professors Emeriti. In a conversation moderated by Anuradha Raman, Delhi University professor Satish Deshpande and noted Indian economist and former JNU Vice Chancellor Y.K. Alagh speak of the pressures Indian universities face today and the process by which professors are honoured with the Emeritus/ Emerita title. Edited excerpts:

Professor Deshpande, every university is facing two kinds of enemies: one from within and one from outside. What do you have to say to that?

Satish Deshpande: I would say that today the very idea of a university seems to be in danger in India. In particular, the public university is an important institution for a country like India. We have a lot of poverty and inequality. We are not in a position to redistribute any resources other than access to higher education. We can’t distribute land and wealth. So, the only resource that provides hope for social mobility for the have-nots is access to higher education. For that reason, public universities are important.

The other function of universities, especially public universities, is, to put it very grandly, to think critically on behalf of society. But we seem to be in the presence of a mindset, particularly amongst those who are wielding power, that universities are meant to amplify feel-good feelings. If this idea of a university is pursued, it will kill the idea of a university. Universities are meant to be distinct from society so that space can be used to experiment with ideas, to be critical knowing that you are in a protected space. What is not possible in mainstream society should be possible in a university. Both of these ideas — the university as a source of access to social mobility and the older liberal idea of the university as an oasis in society where critical thinking is deliberately promoted in the larger interest of the society — are in danger in different ways.

There are two main planks to this. One is in the proliferation of contradictory policies, and this started when Kapil Sibal was HRD Minister. There has been a lot of activity on the part of the government to frame policies without a coherent roadmap. There has been a proliferation of such initiatives. That is one dimension. There is slow strangulation which is happening — policy confusion and a lack of a larger vision. The other plank is the openly anti-intellectual stance. Intellectuals of all varieties are being vilified and the university as an institution is under attack. Universities like JNU, Hyderabad University, Allahabad University, Delhi University and Tata Institute of Social Sciences have been under attack. This is a very difficult time for universities in India.

Professor Alagh, is the very idea of a university in danger?

Y.K. Alagh: Universities are meant to be both autonomous and accountable. They have to perform. In that sense, they are accountable [to the public]. The best universities create skills in the cultural and economic context of society. That is why this notion we have that we can create global universities is not right.

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Professor Deshpande, wasn’t distrust between the political dispensation and public universities always the case? What is different now?

SD: While all political parties dislike their political enemies, they have tended to distinguish between their enemies and the institutions to which their enemies belong. I am not saying that individual academics were not targeted in the past. But the previous regimes [including the earlier NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee] stopped short of damaging institutions. But this regime does not mind destroying institutions, as it nurses a grudge that the Right has been treated shabbily.

How legitimate is that grudge?

SD: It is true that they were sidelined. The question is, how do you respond to it? Ideally, in an academic context, you respond with rigorous research to prove your point and produce your own intellectuals who can argue the same. That is not happening.

Professor Alagh, what do you have to say about political interference in universities in administrative affairs?

YKA: This incident concerning Romila Thapar that you mentioned in the beginning of our conversation... I appointed Professors Emeriti and they are clearly for a lifetime. The whole thing is done after due process. The JNU Vice-Chancellor is a powerful man because there is a separate Act for JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University Act, 1966]. It is a very special university. Why is this whole business being flogged now? I think you should ask the administration. I do find it not in the spirit of the JNU I knew. The late G. Parthasarathy, who was the first Vice-Chancellor, had framed the guidelines for the Vice-Chancellor of the university. We could pick anyone and make him or her a professor. A very famous editor of a national daily was sacked; we appointed him. In all such cases, our guidelines said, you must get the best letters of references from the best people in the world. So, we don’t appoint professors without reference, without following due process. Whenever I travelled abroad, people were curious to know who would succeed such and such professor in the history department of JNU. The university had that reputation. That’s what makes JNU special.

Tell us about how Professors Emeriti were honoured during your tenure as Vice-Chancellor of JNU. What was the goal?

YKA: The objective of honouring academics for life was actually an objective in the charter of JNU. For some reason the process had been discontinued and it was in my tenure that we chose to revive it. The process, often long-drawn-out, involved consulting people within the university and in universities abroad on the eminence of the people chosen for the honour. Once approved, I took it to the academic council and the executive council. These honours, I repeat, are for life. I don’t understand why the university has chosen to belittle them.

You had mentioned that the JNU Vice-Chancellor is a very powerful man. A committee appointed two years ago by the HRD Ministry had observed that an important reason for poor outcomes was increasing political interference. There was a suggestion that the office of the Vice-Chancellor should be depoliticised.

YKA: It is obvious that there is a process by which a Vice-Chancellor is appointed. You cannot tamper with the process. I was in Spain when I was informed that a search committee had chosen me as the Vice-Chancellor of JNU. Obviously, if you bring in reasons other than a person’s abilities, that would be extremely unfortunate for the university. Politicisation means you put in politicians in the search committee rather than experts. That would be unfortunate. But mind you, given the nature of our society, there are some distinguished academics who are in some sense closer to a viewpoint. I wouldn’t be upset if an Arun Shourie or an Arun Jaitley was part of a search process of the director of a national institute. But you have to get people who have the capability, the educational qualifications and experience. It should be depoliticised in the narrow sense of the term. But whether you can do so in the larger liberal sense of the term, I am not so sure. Vice-Chancellors, after all, are also thinking people. They should be people of high capability and distinction.

Professor Deshpande, how important is it to insulate the appointment of the Vice-Chancellor from the political structure of the day?

SD: It is also important to nurture democratic structures of decision-making and opinion-making within the university. Sometimes, you have a situation where the Vice-Chancellor becomes an unquestioned centre of power and democratic structure within the university. That can be counterproductive. As Professor Alagh said, autonomy and accountability have to be multi-level things. There has to be a structure of accountability within the university among different stakeholders: teachers, students, the administration, and so on. Similarly, for autonomy. Different kinds of autonomy at different levels have to be protected. So, yes, a certain amount of insulation is desirable, but it has to be within the framework of transparency and accountability. But the overall framework within which all this operates is trust. That trust has been eroded. I think the ruling class today no longer trusts institutions that don’t overtly and constantly support them. I think all kinds of institutions have to be insulated from centres of power in different ways.

YKA: Let me just elaborate on the point made by Professor Deshpande with an example. JNU has an academic council which is at the heart of the game. That tends to be an institution where there is a lot of contestations. Academic council meetings would go on for hours until a decision was arrived at. A university is a place for ideas which have to be contested. The Vice-Chancellor has to implement the decision. If the Vice-Chancellor doesn’t understand this, he will destroy the university.

Do you agree that no political party has had any vision of higher education? Has that brought down the idea of what a university should be?

SD: You are partly right in saying that parties don’t have the kind of vision we have of universities. On the other hand, if you look at their attitude towards universities as exemplifying their ideals, today there is a terrifying vision at work. What really concerns me is that we in the social sciences are particularly affected by the recent developments with this government in particular. The very idea of social sciences is imperiled now. The very function of a university — nurturing debate in the interest of improving things by constructive criticism is endangered. Social sciences are being particularly targeted. Today we are being told that the university has to be an echo board for the government. Regardless of the ideology of the government, we are headed towards disaster if that is what a government demands of universities.

Both Delhi University and JNU have seen a lot of activism. What should a researcher’s primary responsibility be in a public-funded university?

YKA: Universities have to be tolerant of activism. If a student does not ask for change, who will? Progress comes when people say, ‘this is wrong, we want change’. This whole idea that universities are supposed to impart only skills is rubbish. It’s about understanding how and what skills matter. A university builds students for the future. What is the idea of progress all about? Are we supposed to be talking only about what the government wants to be done? Is that progress?

SD: It is impossible to impart skills without a point of view. As long as skills are going to be deployed in society, it is not possible to divorce skills from political views in a broad sense. The university is a union of young people and ideas, and when you bring the two together, there is an effervescence which is bound to be good for society. That’s why even as the university has to be accountable to society, it has to be at once removed from society.

Source: The Hindu, 13/09/2019

How helicopter parenting is limiting the development of children

The mere mention of the term ‘helicopter parenting’ is enough to spark a huge debate at any dinner party or forum, with new parents and old expressing their opinions on the best practices.

The mere mention of the term ‘helicopter parenting’ is enough to spark a huge debate at any dinner party or forum, with new parents and old expressing their opinions on the best practices. I remember a post I shared on my social media a few months ago on this topic created much fervour among my new mom friends, as they carefully debated the pros and cons of it.

While there is no doubt that all parents work in the best interest of the children and do the very best they can from what they know, when parenting styles impact future performance and behaviours, especially in the workplace, they are subject to much scrutiny.

The concept of helicopter parents and its identified impact on individuals later on in life and work, is one such carefully researched and analysed topic.

The term “helicopter parenting” was first coined in 1990 by Jim Fay and Foster Cline in their book, Parenting with Love and Logic that gained importance with the college admissions staff who noticed how parents were actively involving themselves in the admissions process.

According to research, there are three key types of behaviour that can be defined as helicopter parenting. Parents who seek detailed information about their children’s lives, limit their children’s autonomy, and intervene directly in their children’s lives. While it is important that parents actively engage with their children, the study suggests that there is a fine line between involvement and control that needs to be managed. For example, a parent who calls the college professor to check up on a student’s performance or those who write the CV for their child applying to college or for an internship or job.

In the Indian context, the combination of helicopter parenting with our own cultural conditioning and concepts of raising children in a more protected environment, has had an adverse effect later on in life.

It has been identified that the children of helicopter parents tend to have a poorer emotional functioning, poor decision making capabilities, low problem solving skills, and were less prone to empathetic and pro social behaviors. While there are some good elements to helicopter parenting, when they practice information seeking without control, tipping the balance scale can significantly impact the development of the child.

Michigan State University surveyed over 700 employers who were looking to recruit recent college graduates and found that a third of them had parents submitting resumes, a quarter had parents calling in to urge them to employ their son or daughter, and about 4% of parents even showed up to the job interview!

Some of the key impacts of helicopter parents that are visible in the workplace are as follows:

*Poor decision making capabilities: When parents take the role of the advisor or mentor or sounding board a step further and make every decision in their children’s lives, they limit their ability to discern and take decisions later on in life

*Inability to handle failure: In a constantly disruptive and evolving world, building resilience as one of the key skillsets is critical.

(Author Shubika Bilkha is an entrepreneur, leadership coach and advisor partner, EdpowerU. Views expressed here are personal)

Source: Hindustan Times, 12/09/2019

Love That’s Everlasting

There are some people whose presence exudes an indefinable power. A magnetic field is created every time a current is passed through an electric wire. The human nervous system also transmits scientifically measurable electrical impulses; in so doing, it sets up its own magnetic field. The more clearly the energy flow in the nervous system can be realised at its subtle level, the greater one’s power to control his life and the physical world around him. This helps one control his spiritual destiny. Whatever one holds strongly in mind, he attracts to himself. When you send out a strong thought, a ray of energy goes out from you towards the object of that thought, creating its own magnetic field, strong or weak, according to the relative strength of your will. A bar of metal becomes magnetised when it is placed next to an already-magnetised piece of iron. Similarly, to acquire strong magnetism, it is important to mix with people who already have the kind of magnetism that one wants to develop. Every kind of human activity manifests a magnetism of its own. For success in that activity, develop the appropriate type of magnetism. Everything originates in the Infinite Spirit. Magnetism of every kind is born of the magnetic power of God’s love. The hidden atomic energy in a bar of iron is far greater than what one could generate from wielding the bar as a club. Kindness and fair-mindedness can solve differences more effectively than can brutal tactics. Divine love is the most powerful force in the universe.

Economic Times, 13/09/2019

Quote of the Day

“It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.”

‐ Buddha

“कोई शत्रु नहीं, बल्कि मनुष्य का मन ही है जो उसे पथभ्रष्ट करता है।”

‐ बुद्ध