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8 Augusti 2019, 1:16 AM
Today, 5 August 2019 has become a historic day in our history as something which could not be done in 70 years has taken shape now. Union Home minister Amit Shah has announced that Article 370 which grants special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir will be scrapped. He also announced that Jammu and Kashmir will no longer be a state and it will be bifurcated into two Union Territories— Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Mer info
19 September 2019, 3:18 AM
Is ours an ideal democracy!! Hardly so, it is far from being an ideal democracy; where there should be two equal opponents, like Conservative and Labour party in Britain; like Republican and Democratic party in USA. As for India, for the two major parties here i.e. Congress and BJP there has never been a state of relative equilibrium. There was a time when Congress was all powerful for a long time, BJP had not come into existence then. BJP came into existence and gradually spread its wings and the status now of present election result on 23 May 2019 is that BJP alone bagged 303 seats and 353 seats along with its NDA Alliance. Congress on the other hand could muster only 52 seats; along with UPA, Congress got 91. Other parties won 98 seats. What to talk of equality, Congress party could not win even 55 seats which is the requisite 10 % to become the official opposition. Mer info
3 December 2007, 3:09 PM
Why the Gita has inspired so many people, so may intellectuals and even scientists of the west is because it answers many of their questions.
If Carl Sagan found Hindu cosmology most scientific it is because of the calculation of the day of Lord Brahma.That is the age of the world now accepted by astronomers---a calculation given in the Vishnu Purana and also Manu Smriti etc. Then the reference to God as Anantkoti Bramhanda Nayaka or lord
of millions of worlds or galaxies and these galaxies forming, dissolving, appearing and disappearing dazzles the westen astronomer who wonders how Hindus could reach this great scientific conclusion.
And how the Gita inspired Roman Rollaind, scientist Oppenheimer etc. need not be recounted. But each one, be he a reader, commentator or scholar approaches the Gita in his own way.
When I am asked my answer is very simple.
The Gita--my understanding
In the first chapter, Arjuna puts his question with his anguished mind. Lord Krishna proceeds to answer in the most startling way because he first explains to Arjuna what death is. Understand death first to understand life and then the life of that transcendental man the Brahma-bhootah.
In the eighteenth chapter it is explained that Brahma-bhootah is always blissful, he regrets not, he craves not. The message is clear---face and understand the inevitable reality called death and then understand life and perform your duty.
Here you are only a puppet.
In the eleventh chapter, Lord Krishna opens his mouth and shows the procession of the dead warriors even when the war of Mahabharata has not begun ! Who then is Arjuna? An instrument chosen by destiny to perform his duty only. Did Arjun kill them or was it already pre-ordained ?
And remember, my Jyotish Guru always used to say, in the procession of the dead Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna is not shown. What is revealed and what is hidden--that is His will. When God does not want us to know certain things, we cannot know however excellent you may be as an astrologer. As an astrologer when you are giving consultation, you will miss or fail to see and warn your client. How many times it happens is to be experienced by an astrologer.
Analyse life through horoscope and you find the meaning of destiny, instrumentality through which divinity works and the futility of so many stupid hopes to be prosperous, famous, powerful etc. Where else in the world will you find such sublime messages which are the climax of millions of years of spiritual quest of ancient Indians unlike other nations which were rapacious, conquering enslaving and converting people to their religious beliefs to ensure the stability of their empires? There lies the difference between true civilization and barbarisms
mistaken for civilizations.
Mundaka Upanishad
Read the Mundaka Upanishad first, a simple and plain translation and not tomes of
commentaries. Then read the Gita where the Lord asks Arjuna to become transcendental. That is the essence of gyanakanda not karmakanda.
The physical scientist, the western intellectual rooted in the material and material only and enslaved mentally by technology cannot even imagine that there is anything transcendental, beyond senses, to which all his investigation and knowledge is confined.
The tragedy of the age we live in is that these successful men dominate and influence human thinking and writing. Adam Smith, Marx and Freud, among hundreds in the west, caused a high tide of spiritual barrenness. There were no saints to show the other side, the transcendental side and give to some some of them those spiritual experiences which opens out a new dimension in life and strengthens belief in the spiritual. This is the worst tragedy of the west.
The greater tragedy is that it dominates the world, materially, intellectually and influences the thinking of people.
Spiritual barrenness in the west has dangerous consequences. Following religion as a dogma, as a superstition, as a tradition is not spirituality. It is what you see in the west in whatever vestiges of religion are left there.
In India, the damage is done by the karmakandi who is interested in the perpetuation of karmakanda because he earns out of this. But why should he claim that it changes fate? The equivalent to the karmakandis in the
west is ofcourse men of the church, particularly the Roman Catholic church.
When jyotisha gets tied to karmakanda, the irrational kaal sarpa yoga etc., what we are doing is damaging the eternal sublime tradition of India. The great vidya called jyotisha, brought from the sacred ashrams of rishis has been thrown in the garbage dumps of markets.
Yet, the spiritual tradition is eternal, alway alive and getting renewed with mahatmas born all over India. It is why we call it not Hinduism but Sanatana Dharma---a dharma which has an innate capacity to renew itself.
Ravaged northern India got de-Sanskritized, not despiritualised, because came Tulsidas with his great Ram Charit Manas and Hanuman Chalisa and flowed a mighty spiritual current which inspires, nurtures and sustains faith in spirituality. The lyricism of Krishna Bhakti was glorified by Soordas and Mirabai. The saint poets of the age of Bhakti gave us back in the local regional languages what otherwise would have been lost.
How many times in Indian history such miracles have taken place----the history of ritualism, dogma and superstition with distorted Karmakanda of the greedy and the sublimity of the spiritual made available by mahatmas. You have to live in different parts of India as I have not merely visiting,(I have lived in all
states except Kerala, Kashmir, Goa and Karnataka,) to see it, watch it, know it, appreciate it, scratch the surface and see the underground currents of spirituality always renewing itself.
Shankar Deb of Assam brought Vaishanism there before the world heard of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. You have to live in Assam to know the great influence of Shankar Deb and Madhab Deb.
Dakshinachar Tantric practices have regarded woman as the finest creation of God, not the male. But we know, and it is an ugly reality, woman being tortured for dowry and humiliated. The Goddess inspires the Dakshinachar Tantric and the worshippers who go to Vaishnav Devi I see in Delhi and around get a female child killed in the womb of a pregnant woman!
India always was, and is , a complex land of complex conflicts and hypocrisies but
through it all, her eternal spirit survives and resurfaces.
( 2 December 2007)
If Carl Sagan found Hindu cosmology most scientific it is because of the calculation of the day of Lord Brahma.That is the age of the world now accepted by astronomers---a calculation given in the Vishnu Purana and also Manu Smriti etc. Then the reference to God as Anantkoti Bramhanda Nayaka or lord
of millions of worlds or galaxies and these galaxies forming, dissolving, appearing and disappearing dazzles the westen astronomer who wonders how Hindus could reach this great scientific conclusion.
And how the Gita inspired Roman Rollaind, scientist Oppenheimer etc. need not be recounted. But each one, be he a reader, commentator or scholar approaches the Gita in his own way.
When I am asked my answer is very simple.
The Gita--my understanding
In the first chapter, Arjuna puts his question with his anguished mind. Lord Krishna proceeds to answer in the most startling way because he first explains to Arjuna what death is. Understand death first to understand life and then the life of that transcendental man the Brahma-bhootah.
In the eighteenth chapter it is explained that Brahma-bhootah is always blissful, he regrets not, he craves not. The message is clear---face and understand the inevitable reality called death and then understand life and perform your duty.
Here you are only a puppet.
In the eleventh chapter, Lord Krishna opens his mouth and shows the procession of the dead warriors even when the war of Mahabharata has not begun ! Who then is Arjuna? An instrument chosen by destiny to perform his duty only. Did Arjun kill them or was it already pre-ordained ?
And remember, my Jyotish Guru always used to say, in the procession of the dead Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna is not shown. What is revealed and what is hidden--that is His will. When God does not want us to know certain things, we cannot know however excellent you may be as an astrologer. As an astrologer when you are giving consultation, you will miss or fail to see and warn your client. How many times it happens is to be experienced by an astrologer.
Analyse life through horoscope and you find the meaning of destiny, instrumentality through which divinity works and the futility of so many stupid hopes to be prosperous, famous, powerful etc. Where else in the world will you find such sublime messages which are the climax of millions of years of spiritual quest of ancient Indians unlike other nations which were rapacious, conquering enslaving and converting people to their religious beliefs to ensure the stability of their empires? There lies the difference between true civilization and barbarisms
mistaken for civilizations.
Mundaka Upanishad
Read the Mundaka Upanishad first, a simple and plain translation and not tomes of
commentaries. Then read the Gita where the Lord asks Arjuna to become transcendental. That is the essence of gyanakanda not karmakanda.
The physical scientist, the western intellectual rooted in the material and material only and enslaved mentally by technology cannot even imagine that there is anything transcendental, beyond senses, to which all his investigation and knowledge is confined.
The tragedy of the age we live in is that these successful men dominate and influence human thinking and writing. Adam Smith, Marx and Freud, among hundreds in the west, caused a high tide of spiritual barrenness. There were no saints to show the other side, the transcendental side and give to some some of them those spiritual experiences which opens out a new dimension in life and strengthens belief in the spiritual. This is the worst tragedy of the west.
The greater tragedy is that it dominates the world, materially, intellectually and influences the thinking of people.
Spiritual barrenness in the west has dangerous consequences. Following religion as a dogma, as a superstition, as a tradition is not spirituality. It is what you see in the west in whatever vestiges of religion are left there.
In India, the damage is done by the karmakandi who is interested in the perpetuation of karmakanda because he earns out of this. But why should he claim that it changes fate? The equivalent to the karmakandis in the
west is ofcourse men of the church, particularly the Roman Catholic church.
When jyotisha gets tied to karmakanda, the irrational kaal sarpa yoga etc., what we are doing is damaging the eternal sublime tradition of India. The great vidya called jyotisha, brought from the sacred ashrams of rishis has been thrown in the garbage dumps of markets.
Yet, the spiritual tradition is eternal, alway alive and getting renewed with mahatmas born all over India. It is why we call it not Hinduism but Sanatana Dharma---a dharma which has an innate capacity to renew itself.
Ravaged northern India got de-Sanskritized, not despiritualised, because came Tulsidas with his great Ram Charit Manas and Hanuman Chalisa and flowed a mighty spiritual current which inspires, nurtures and sustains faith in spirituality. The lyricism of Krishna Bhakti was glorified by Soordas and Mirabai. The saint poets of the age of Bhakti gave us back in the local regional languages what otherwise would have been lost.
How many times in Indian history such miracles have taken place----the history of ritualism, dogma and superstition with distorted Karmakanda of the greedy and the sublimity of the spiritual made available by mahatmas. You have to live in different parts of India as I have not merely visiting,(I have lived in all
states except Kerala, Kashmir, Goa and Karnataka,) to see it, watch it, know it, appreciate it, scratch the surface and see the underground currents of spirituality always renewing itself.
Shankar Deb of Assam brought Vaishanism there before the world heard of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. You have to live in Assam to know the great influence of Shankar Deb and Madhab Deb.
Dakshinachar Tantric practices have regarded woman as the finest creation of God, not the male. But we know, and it is an ugly reality, woman being tortured for dowry and humiliated. The Goddess inspires the Dakshinachar Tantric and the worshippers who go to Vaishnav Devi I see in Delhi and around get a female child killed in the womb of a pregnant woman!
India always was, and is , a complex land of complex conflicts and hypocrisies but
through it all, her eternal spirit survives and resurfaces.
( 2 December 2007)
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