Karthik's musings

Communist's JV with Ramakrishna Mission!

One more reason why Buddhadeb Bhattacharya rocks! His Govt has roped in Ramakrishna Mission to implement the SSNP, the Social Safety Net Programme that Govts implement to rehabilitate retrenched PSU workers.

Mr.Bhattacharya is one non-conforming CM. And West Bengal needed someone like him to cleanup itz image! He had the gumption to admit past mistakes of the Communists and say tongue-in-cheek that gherao finds a place in the Oxford English dictionary due to the Communist's contribution, has no qualms in quoting from the Upanishads, accept the threat to Indian culture from wester influence and biggest of all, talk of the "demographic changes" due to influx from Bangaldesh, which is a clear outcome of communists vote bank policies. One just hopes he has the acumen not to get into the bad books of hard-core communists like Prakash Karat! Else we may just see another fight of ideologues, a la Advani-Mohan Bhagwat!

The biggest contribution Mr.Bhattacharya can however make to the state is if he is successful in destablishing the institutionalized and systemic unsurping of powers and goondaism that 28-yrs of Communist rule has wrought in the state.

PS: Read this interesting comment by a reader on rediff.

The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted,...let these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.
-Swami Vivekananda

Child dies in road accident; parents end life

Came across this ghastly news of mother and father committing suicide after their child had an accident. What a heart rending news :-(

I was torn between been touched by the parent's loving attachment towards their child (earlier they had two other kids who too died), the enormity of tragedy in the whole incident and a feeling of pity for the mild-hearted parents. I know what it means to loose a near one. My parents have thenselves been thru the pain of loosing two of their children at different stages of their lives. However, sitting in my house, I may never realise what was going thru the minds of the bereaved that drove them to this extreme step.

I'm reading the Mankutimmana Kagga, one of the greatest classics in Kannada literature, and widely regarded as Kannada's equivalent of Bhagavadgeeta. Just today I was reading this couplet (#250) in the Kagga, where DVG says life is a great asset given by the Lord, and you can be grateful to it by dedicating it to service! Is it then a pity that these loving mother and father threw their gift away?

If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp.
-Swami Vivekananda

Defending the indefensible - II

Found it interesting that of the 5 Letters to the editor in The Hindu today condemning the proetsts against Salman Khan's new film, 4 were written by Muslims! Quite a disproportionate ratio this one!

We only get what we deserve. It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good. It can never be so.
-Swami Vivekananda

Left exposed again

Today's Indian Express has one of the most well-written columns by Sekhar Gupta, exposing the Left's hue and cry in the last couple of weeks. Couple of months back, I was reading Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf. In it, Hitler says about the Jews: "I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying." I'm no racist or anti-semitic, but I can very much echo this statement with respect to the Communists of India. These thugs are breaking the unspoken consensus that the country had when it came to economic reforms and foreign policies. While I understand the political compulsions of political parties, creating noise and playing to galleries is one thing, actually stifling progress is another. As TN Ninan pointed out in another article in rediff today, the Left have actually stifled all that they had theatened to stifle a year back.

It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is.
-Swami Vivekananda

Defending the indefensible

I do not understand whatz wrong with these Muslim intellectuals in that they cannot accept the fact that Islamic terrorism is a reality. Even the more liberal among them try to make a fool of themselves by questioning Blair menntioning that the London bombings were handiwork of Muslims on the day of the bombing itself, and now questioning the credentials of the Ayodhya attackers! As the London police chief said today, itz time Muslims come out of self-denial mode.....which also means stop trying to defend the indefensible.

Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition and then acceptance.
-Swami Vivekananda

To veg, or not to veg?

I subscribe to the PETA e-news mailing list. Though I'm not a great fan of their no-holds-barred and Page 3 type approach to the issue, one must agree that PETA has done a lot to create awareness about vegetarianism, and also expose the cruelty of large restaurant chains and in their supply chain. Happened to see this video of the way chickens are treated in KFC's supply chain. Of course, PETA TV has lots of such videos. Watching this video, and some conversations in the last few days, made me think more deeply on this.

To be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian is quite an interesting choice, especially in a country like India where vegetarianism is quite wide-spread thanks to the religious sentiments. The non-vegetarian school of thought has quite a few valid arguments - presence of life in plants, maintaining the eco-balance, higher physical endurance, etc.

Here I'm trying to list three of the most convincing arguments for vegetarianism...arguments that have kept me a vegetarian!

1. Law of Karma: As Swami Vimalananda says in Aghora III: The Law Of Karma, we develop rnanubandas with every action we do, whether it is stepping on the ground, breathing the air or using the wash basin! It is hence important that actions that we associate with create such amount of good karma so as to clear these rnas. Similarly, we develop rnanubanda with each and every bit of food that we eat. Just like it is a bigger crime to kill a elephant as against killing a fly, the amount of rnas that we accumulate when we consume meat is more than in case of plants/leaves/vegetables. Itz perfectly fine to eat non-vegetarian food if we do enough good karma to compensate for it. For example, Javagal Srinath can better explain turning non-vegetarian than say a common man like me! And I can vouch for the fact in case of most of us, the most visible output of eating non-vegetarian food is increased diameter!

2. Quality of food: Ayurveda divides food into 3 basic types: Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic , which are the three basic gunas of any matter. It goes without saying that for the spiritual upliftment, one should have more of sattvic food.

3. Compassion: I consider compassion to be one of the most important behaviors to be displayed by a human. Although I will be wrong in saying that all non-vegetarians are uncompassionate, I would personally find it tough to teach my kid the significance of compassion if I were to be a non-vegetarian.

You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.
-Swami Vivekananda

Bulleh! Ki jaana mein kaun?

One of the best Indi pop albums in a long time is Rabbi Shergill's album Bulla ki jaanna. The title song is a great tribute to a great Sufi saint, Bulleh Shah. Click here for a translation of the great song.

In the book Aghora II: Kundalini, Swami Vimalananda mentions of a beautiful incident. Bulleh Shah was used to keeping a count of his prayers using a rosary. Once he happens to overhear a conversation between a milk-maid and a friend of her. The milk maid had a lover and she was used to giving milk to him without caring for the quantity. This friend asks her why she does not care how much milk she is providing to her lover. For this the milk maid asks how she can measure her love for her lover? Overhearing this, Hazrat Bulleh Shah contemplates why he needs to measure his love for God by using the rosary, and throws away the rosary!

Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.

The royal Tiger and the mundane tribals

I was wondering why the Bishnoi Samaj took part in the case against the rascal Pataudi. This tells you why! Itz so sad that the nature awareness thatz visible among these tribals is not known to Pataudi, who is from a royal family and also is the grand-son-in-law of the great GuruDeva Rabindranath Tagore :-(

Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life - these failures.

Whatz in the disputed site?

The terrorist attack on the Ram temple at Ayodhya has brought back the focus on the age-old dispute. What I found interesting was the reluctance of the media in calling the temple so.....they prefer calling it the "disputed site". Even Saeed Naqvi refuses to call it a temple, but has no qualms in calling the old structure a masjid. Well, there was no namaaz in the old structure since late 1950, and ppl are worshipping Lord Rama in the "disputed site" for years now. Then why the reluctance in accpeting a spade as a spade???!!!

There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognise ability.
- Robert Half

Comrades and their hypocrisy

I once had argument with a friend on the hypocrisy of the Indian communists in criticizing the Vajpayee Govt for the Pokhran nuclear blasts but silent when China tested a nuclear weapon later. His argument was that the Indian communist leaders need not comment on foreign policies. Aha….but how about their comments on every bit of air exhaled by the Israelis! As it turns out, Indian communists are not the only hypocrites! Hypocrisy is probably common to all communists. Probably communism is such an unsustainable concept that the propagandists are forced to turn hypocritical?

O my people, do your best, and so will I.
-Holy Koran