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| Thursday, February 8, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
Privatising the government! Israel votes out
peace Anti-smoking
Bill |
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The changing Kashmir scenario
From medicine to politics
The Mahakumbh: Pilgrimage of the uninitiated
Cancer vaccine on
the anvil?
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Privatising the government! BUDGETS, it is said, are a politician’s prescription and not an accountant’s statement. By the same analogy, an economic advisory council’s (EAC) should be an academic exercise and not a trader’s book of tricks. Unfortunately, that is what the EAC’s labours amount to. In its 40-page report it has asked the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to withdraw from all social security measures and act as a facilitator of the big business. Reduce import duty from a mean rate of 34 per cent to 12 per cent, it advises, hike the duty on import of agricultural products, throw open profitable export-related small scale sectors to book business, stop tinkering with corporate tax, abolish the present labour laws to vest industrial houses with the power to hire and fire, ask the BIFR (bureau of industrial and financial reconstruction) to pack up and in its place set up a machinery to mediate between a sick company and its creditors. It is the second independence struggle for the captains of industry. What about the common man? He will pay more for rail travel, kerosene, higher education and medical treatment, will earn less on his savings (the interest rate, EAC orders, should be 2 percentage points above the inflation rate) and fork out the economic cost for drinking water and electricity. Yes, there will be the loss of several lakhs of jobs in the name of downsizing. The farmers will have the rawest deal. No more procurement and the FCI will enter the market only if there is a sharp fall in prices; otherwise it will be the private trade which will be active. The EAC grandly talks of private sector organisations buying grains, storing them and offering the stock to the FCI at a fixed price. Obviously the honourable members of the EAC know their cost cutting economics but not the mindset of Indian traders. Right now the FCI is sitting on a suffocating stock of over 46 million tonnes with the offtake progressively falling (it is expected to be seven lakh tonnes this month). Obviously there is no demand at the prevailing price and it is quixotic to expect hard-nosed traders to stock something that has no buyers. The suggestions are curious but curiouser are the timing and the stridency. The Union budget is less than three weeks away and most groundwork has already been done. To suggest so many radical measures at this time is to throw the entire budget work into disarray. Sure, the revolutionary nature of the second generation of reforms has won for the EAC full-throated praise from born-again reformers in the economic media, although liberal newspapers have uniformly blasted them. The problem is twofold. These proposals cannot be enforced in the present political atmosphere. There is democracy and the concommitant general election. No government with its head and heart in the right place will undertake changes which will antagonise the common man. Two, embracing policies beneficial only to the elite classes will trigger mass protest. And the Indian political system shies away from such an eventuality. So the chances of the Vajpayee government owning up the recommendations are remote but it is educative they were made at all. |
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Israel votes out peace IN his campaign for re-election caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak used to tell the voters that they had to choose between war and peace. On Wednesday the Israel voters gave their verdict, which was overwhelmingly against Mr Barak and his West Asian peace policy. The right wing hardliner, Mr Ariel Sharon, who will replace him as Prime Minister is the man who started the current phase of street violence involving Israelis and Palestinians by making a controversial visit to the Temple on the Mount. Since all Semitic religions have common roots a number of religious places too have become the subject of dispute. What the Jews revere as the Temple on the Mount attracts equal reverence from West Asian Muslims as the holy Al Aqsa Mosque. It had taken years for the two sides to inch closer to a position from where they could talk of peace without the fear of bloodshed. Yitzhak Rabin, who as Prime Minister was the author of the West Asian peace plan, was killed in November, 19995, by a right-wing extremist. Since then it has usually been an uphill journey for the rare dove in Israeli politics. Mr Barak in a desperate attempt to turn the tide in his favour wrote an election-eve article in Yediot Aharonot newspaper in which he said "a moment before you decide, remember when a government makes such tragic mistakes [as Mr Sharon will make], ultimately the boys are the ones buried - not the government". The irony is that Mr Barak was not voted out because he was rooting for peace. He was shown the door for failing to stop the prolonged phase of killing of Israeli youths. It would require great statesmanship and vision for anyone to translate into reality the Israelis' desire for peace on the hawkish terms of Mr Sharon. They have now decided to give the chance for restoring peace to the leader who started the latest round of war in West Asia. Since the same misplaced sentiments which resulted in the creation of Pakistan were responsible for the birth of an exclusive Jewish state, the rabidly extreme elements have inevitably dominated political developments in Israel. In many respects West Asia is to Israel what India is to Pakistan. West Asia is the land of miracles and messiahs. Today it needs both. |
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Anti-smoking Bill AS a proof of intent, the anti-tobacco law that the government proposes to enact is unexceptional. It will ban smoking in public places and sale of tobacco products to those below the age of 18. Tobacco advertising of any kind will also be prohibited. Cigarette and tobacco product companies will not be allowed to sponsor any sports or cultural events either. Punishment for certain convictions under the proposed Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation) Bill can be as stiff as imprisonment up to three years with a fine which may extend to Rs 2 lakh or both. But how to convert these good intentions into an effective bulwark against the demon of smoking will be a big challenge for the government. So far, the protestations of non-smokers and health experts have never been heeded and smoking has been allowed to become some kind of a macho, fashionable, harmless activity. So prevalent is this practice that it will require determination of steel to curb it. The first hurdle will be policing and enforcement itself. To keep a tab on who is smoking in a public place in a country as large as India will be a logistic nightmare. In any case, lower constabulary is notorious for annulling any drive by converting it into a private money-minting venture. Then comes the question of advertising and sponsorship. Tobacco lobby is strong and shrewd. It can be depended on to find many loopholes in legislation. After all, it has the liquor mafia to emulate. If the ban on the advertisements of hard liquor can be circumvented by saying that what is being promoted is only mineral water or cut glasses made by the liquor baron, what stops the cigarette manufacturers from applying similar tricks? For example, a cigarette giant sponsoring cricket matches also makes top-end apparel under the same brand name. It can always pretend that the trophy that it gives away is actually sponsored by the clothes arm. The biggest hindrance will be that the Central law will be applicable to cigarettes alone. Beedi and pan masala and gutka, etc., will require the nod of the state governments concerned. Given the penchant of several Chief Ministers, ministers and legislators for these products, it is doubtful that many states will endorse the ban. Nevertheless, the fight against tobacco has to go on. Everyone has to realise that smoking is a slow way to poison oneself to death. It should not require a government ban to stop anyone from committing hara-kiri. |
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The changing Kashmir scenario THE Gujarat earthquake is, no doubt, the most important challenge facing the country since January 26, and the attention of the entire nation is focused on it. Kashmir, however, is not far behind and it looms large more than ever, calling for constant attention. India fought wars with Pakistan in 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999, after the Kargil intrusion. Though the 1971 war was not linked to Kashmir, the other wars were indeed so. The 1971 war concluded with the Simla Agreement between Indira Gandhi and Z.A. Bhutto on July 2, 1972, where, inter alia, “a final settlement of J&K” was mentioned as one of the items of the pending agenda between the two countries. Bilateral negotiations were agreed upon, and for India at least bilateralism became a sort of mantra. However, the bilateral discussions during the next two decades took the Kashmir dispute nowhere near a solution. Because of the perennial impasse in the bilateral process President Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan hit upon the idea of arming the Kashmiri youth and brainwashing them with Islamic fundamentalism along with military training and funding through the ISI. The explosion of violence in the Kashmir valley has continued ever since. Prime Minister Vajpayee undertook the path-breaking Lahore bus trip in 1998. The understanding reached there on the various issues between Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Vajpayee was not fully endorsed by Pakistan’s powerful military machine represented by the three Service Chiefs and the several intelligence agencies headed by the ISI. During the brief post-Lahore phase, Track-II diplomacy was active and it was whispered by some of the Indian participants that Mr Nawaz Sharif had almost agreed to accept the LoC as an international border, which Bhutto had promised in 1972 but refused to talk about it later. That this was a daydream was demonstrated soon after by the Kargil intrusion by the Pakistan army and foreign mercenaries. Later events made it clear that Mr Nawaz Sharif was fully aware of General Musharraf’s Kargil operations and his attempt to shift the entire responsibility on the top General, followed by the withdrawal of the armed forces behind the LoC on President Clinton’s pressure, was something the army could not put up with. General Musharraf, who took over after ousting Mr Nawaz Sharif, has followed a tough policy towards India from day one. He has carried forward General Zia’s policy of violence and bloodshed far ahead, with no qualms in supporting “jihad” in Kashmir. India’s stand on General Musharraf’s frequent pleas for the resumption of talks on Kashmir is well known. However, the talks cannot be permanently stalled on the ground that General Musharraf has not agreed to arrest the infiltration of militants like those of the Lashker-e-Toiba or stop their continued attacks. The hardcore militants from Pakistan, half of whom are of foreign origin, continue to hold threats of making spectacular strikes not only in J&K but also elsewhere in India. The Red Fort attack was a sample. The Lashker-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad have the “fidayeen” elements consisting of suicide squads and human bombs. Intelligence agencies have unearthed a number of plots and arrested several militants and infiltrators but all this would not be adequate to prevent the “fidayeen” attacks on their chosen targets in Delhi and elsewhere. After the brief phase of ceasefire announcement by the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in Kashmir and its abrupt cancellation at the instance of its Pakistani counterpart as well as the Pakistan government, the Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir has come into increasing focus. The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has been invited by the Pakistan government for consultations, and Hurriyat spokesman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has stated that the APHC has its own agenda aimed at evolving a policy of coordination with the Mujahideen and Pakistan after holding discussions with PoK leaders and militant elements who constitute the United Jihad Council. Any impression that the Hurriyat is going to Pakistan to tell the Mujahideen to surrender in response to the ceasefire call is totally incorrect, the Mirwaiz added. The question, therefore, is: why is the APHC being allowed to go to Pakistan, and more importantly, what does India expect out of the Hurriyat’s deliberations with these militant groups and General Musharraf? Do we also concede that the APHC is the sole representative of the people of J&K? Are we not thereby conceding that the problem is almost exclusively of the Kashmir valley and the Muslim majority areas of J&K? Why did India not think of asking some representatives from Jammu and Ladakh to be included in the delegation of the APHC? That the APHC might refuse to include them is a different issue, but at least an effort could have been made to make the delegation a more representative body of various sections of the J&K people. The APHC will come back with nothing that could give any hope of a peaceful settlement between India and Pakistan. What the militants and fundamentalists in Pakistan and General Musharraf expect of India, before hard negotiations begin between the two countries on Kashmir’s future, have already been spelt out by Syed Salahuddin, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Commander-in-Chief, based in Pakistan: “India should publicly declare that Kashmir is disputed territory, stop all forms of operations by security forces in Kashmir, release all jailed militants and political prisoners and reduce troop deployment in Kashmir to the 1989 level”. Salahuddin added that the militants would end their attacks in case all these were implemented. And what would be the agenda during the trilateral discussions between India, Pakistan and Mujahideen? He said the people of Kashmir, namely the Muslim-majority areas, should be given the option to merge with Pakistan or India or choose to become an independent country, and this dispensation would also apply to the people of PoK. Salahuddin concluded with the threat that if New Delhi did not agree to all these demands militants would take the war out of Kashmir to the rest of India, that India was surrounded and was fighting the last battle and could not sustain the Kashmir war. All this is very ominous but real. We have pushed ourselves to this stage and there are no clear prospects of getting out of this messy situation. On reflection, have we not moved far away from the 1972 Simla Agreement which contemplated the resolution of the Kashmir dispute by bilateral discussions between India and Pakistan? The proposition of treating the LoC as an international border to settle the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan is now almost dead. The issue of the will of the people of Kashmir has come to the forefront, and it is this factor which is going to decide the fate of the people of J&K. It is so particularly because of the American political establishment, whether of Mr Bill Clinton before, or of Mr George W.Bush now, which insists on the will of the people of Kashmir being taken into account before a final settlement of the dispute. Eventually, it could indeed be the replay of the proposals of Sir Owen Dixon of 1950-51 which effectively suggested the partition of J&K into three parts on communal lines. The Track-II participants who returned from Pakistan last month, after their aborted attempt to discuss nuclear strategy concepts of the two countries, had declared their bewilderment over Pakistan’s all-pervasive obsession with Kashmir. Indeed, the impression there seems to be that Kashmir is almost within their grasp and that there is no way for India to hold on to it much longer. In this context, the brief announcement on February 4 from Washington that a bipartisan US Congressional delegation would visit India and Pakistan to discuss the Kashmir issue is important. The delegation is likely to visit Kashmir and meet local leaders. Their visit to Kashmir would no doubt be met with processions, protests and demonstrations against Indian security forces and their alleged abuse of human rights and indiscriminate violence against the common people. The way events are unfolding, the Kashmir scenario is clearly heading, sooner or later, towards a UN-supervised referendum in J&K, most probably on the Dixon lines. What would follow thereafter could be foreseen, but I would rather desist from mentioning it in so many words. — The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim. |
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From medicine to politics A nondescript medical practitioner barely a decade ago is gearing up to play the role of “king maker” in Tamil Nadu, where assembly elections are due in May. Dr S. Ramdoss, who is the leader of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and has had a meteoric rise as the undisputed leader of the Vanniyar community in the southern state, maintains that they cannot be brushed aside in the sweepstakes connected with forming the government in Chennai. Can Dr Ramdoss end the unquestioned supremacy of the two Dravidian parties — the DMK and the AIADMK — which have held sway alternatively in Tamil Nadu for nearly three decades? The electorate in Tamil Nadu has displayed a unique characteristic of either voting the DMK or the AIADMK to power with a comfortable majority unlike the fractured verdict handed out in some of the states in the Hindi heartland. Political pundits believe there is space in Tamil Nadu for a third party which champions the cause of this section seeped in socio-economic backwardness. That is where Dr Ramdoss comes in and he also realises that to be a potent force, the PMK has to necessarily have a truck with one of the two Dravidian parties. He has, therefore, unleased the gambit of ending the truck with the DMK and quit the NDA and pursue a pre-poll arrangement with AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha. Considered a doyen among the Vanniyars, who are strong in the northern and western parts of Tamil Nadu, Dr Ramdoss and the PMK, which was formed only in the mid-90s, have garnered attention in Tamil Nadu and the Centre by felling trees on highways and organising road blockades. The medical practitioner-turned-politician has furiously attacked the DMK and the AIADMK and has yet joined hands with them for political gains. He has also been highly critical of Ms Jayalalitha in the wake of the corruption cases against her. At one time he had openly come out in support of the dominant Sri Lankan militant outfit — the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — which has been banned in India. Even though he keeps harping that he is not interested in wresting power in Tamil Nadu, Dr Ramdoss has his eyes set on the Chief Minister’s “gaddi” at Fort St George in Chennai. Quake-proof houses Earthquake does not kill, but badly built houses do, says an ecological expert. And he is right. Earthquakes have been around for centuries but humanity has survived without much damage. Why is then the scare about earthquakes in the wake of the Bhuj devastation? Simple. Old-fashioned houses, built with the knowledge of centuries, saved the lives of many thousands, while the new techniques suitable to different seismic zones when applied blindly, tend to kill. This then is the simple nostrum to quake-proofing. If one wants to build a house in a seismic zone in modern multistoreyed culture, then new rules of building have to be followed. The most elementary is to make columns and beams mutually friendly. What this means is that columns, the vertical support to a building, are in clear alignment with beams, the horizontal support. So when an earthquake strikes the shear (S) effect is contained. The damage is always caused by the S-effect. After the first shock, an earthquake releases tremendous energy and it shakes and tears apart the surface structure. It is what brings down structures and kills those living inside. The trick is to avoid the structural imbalance. First, architects narrow the beams in width and lengthen them as part of the design. This can be fatal as the house collapse in Ahmedabad showed. Ideally, there should be a clear ratio between the length and the width of beams so that when there is a stress during an earthquake one does not give away. All architects know this but builders overrule them and trigger disasters. Two, the raw materials used should be tested by those buying the flats. Cement, like medicines, has an expiry date and when used beyond that time can be useless. So is the case with steel which often can have a less than desirable tensile strength. Come to think of it, it is also better to test the sand. Rough and crude one does not give the same degree of strength as soft one and even this least expensive raw material can cause problems. The real danger arises from the design fault. Often in urban multistoreyed complexes the greed for making money takes precedence over ensuring the safety of the residents. The foundation is not matched to the nature of the soil. A loose sandy soil demands a deeper foundation and a rocky one a less deeper one. In Delhi this subtle but definite distinction is not made. A JNU professor fears that the nation’s Capital is ripe for a devastating earthquake anytime now and it could be as deadly one since the buildings are weak and the density of population is very heavy. He wants the civil administration to take the necessary precautions to build shelters and store essential needs. But there is no visible sign that anybody has taken any step in this direction. |
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The Mahakumbh: Pilgrimage of the uninitiated ATTENDING four Mahakumbh melas at Allahabad on Mauni Amavasya day — in 1965, 1977, 1989 and now 2001 — is no big deal for a devout person, but for someone like me who has no religious leanings, it is quite a personal landmark. Since it is not the lure of salvation, what is it that draws one to Prayag time and again on a day when it is home to more people than the population of many countries? Answering that question is not easy; nor there is a straight answer. Somehow, this assembly of huge masses provides one an intense, mysterious opportunity of self-realisation, which perhaps cannot be duplicated elsewhere. Perhaps the call of the Mahakumbh has something to do with the combined electric field of those three-crore plus people. Perhaps it is nothing more than mass hysteria. But while roughing it out there, revelation dawns on you that you are nothing but a minuscule part of an unimaginably large universal whole. Maybe you always had this feeling in your genes, but once you dissolve yourself in this veritable sea of humanity, all doubts disappear and this hidden secret manifests itself. The mystical transformation cannot be explained, it has to be experienced. The knowledge that you are not a separate entity but a knot in a large tapestry develops a strange bond with the teeming millions. Be you ever so big, you are just a tiny human being, not different from the rustic, bent man in tattered clothes. How can a piece of grain be different from the other in the same pot? Suddenly your ego disappears. "Me" and "mine" become meaningless. Fine sand of the river bank is all around you. So are filth and stench. Only a few hours earlier you hated and dreaded these. The heaven knows how you start seeing it differently and even accepting it. The "dust into dust" axiom grips your senses. Tolerance does not remain an esoteric virtue any more, but quite an achievable goal. Taking the holy dip turns into a metaphor for attaining a common universal goal. Nothing else matters. You brave the crowd, dirt, squalour, only to reach the Sangam. Did Arjuna feel something similar when aiming at the revolving fish's eye? To make sure that the privilege is not denied to you, you reach there two days in advance. Time moves at a different pace in this microcosmic world, which has sprung up only for the purpose of the Mahakumbh. The day and night division too gets blurred. The march to the Sanctum Sanctorum is as frenzied at 2 am as it is at 2 pm. Our six-km trek starts around midnight. My mother is with me. She is well past 70. In her everyday life, she can hardly walk. But in this surreal setting, she does not even have to hold my hand while walking on and on. At 2 am when we reach the Sangam, the water is bitterly cold. We immerse ourselves in it with trepidation. But within seconds the pain vanishes. The simile may not be very apt but the sensation is of the Sangam of atman with parmatman. You want time to stand still, but it does not. The crowd surges ahead to partake of the privilege that they have been longing for 12 years — The Mahakumbh: Pilgrimage of the uninitiated even a lifetime in some cases. While returning the rush is even greater. Some 50 women are following each other, holding on to the pallu of the one next to them. They move about like ants for they know that if they lose their grip, they may never be able to find their way among crores of people. So you have to make way for them. The result is that you get separated from your family. You have the smug satisfaction that all the members are capable of making it on their own to the "ashram" where they are staying. As you trudge back all alone, you cannot help cogitating that you had come to the world alone and some day you have to go back alone. All your life you have been rowing hard to reach somewhere. Sense dawns on you apropos of nothing that the journey itself is the destination. Once your identity dissolves in the metaphysical mosaic, you grudgingly accept that your actions and reactions have been abrupt and unpredictable. You promise yourself that you will try to apply correctives. As you come back exhausted, the feeling of nothingness engulfs you all the more. This void is intriguing for an untrained mind but nevertheless immensely soothing. You hate yourself for
reveling in the trance-like status that you have scoffed at all your life, but the pleasure of dissolving your ego is intoxicating. So does the Mahakumbh convert you? One does not know. Perhaps the new sensations that permeate your soul are only the consequences of a primordial or herd mentality. Perhaps the pulls and pressures of the daily grind will make you as mean and conceited as you were before you embarked on the pilgrimage of the uninitiated. But those few hours of living without the burden of a lifetime of materialistic orientation are worth waiting for another 12 years. |
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Cancer vaccine on the anvil? A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer will become a reality if trials of a new drug are successful. Doctors on the trial hope to boost women’s immune systems against the human papilloma virus (HPV). This virus is transmitted through unprotected sex and causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. According the Cancer Research Campaign, more than 3,000 women in Britain develop the disease each year and there are around 1,300 deaths. Julian Peto, Professor of Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research in Surrey, said that in most cases of HPV there are no obvious symptoms and the virus disappears after a few months. But Prof Peto believes it may remain undetected in the cervix and could be reactivated at any time. “In the long term, the best way of preventing cervical cancer has to be by wiping out the HPV infection that causes it. I believe it is only a matter of time before scientists develop a vaccine that is capable of doing this,” he said. Peto estimates that up to 50 per cent of women may be infected with HPV during their lifetime. “The vaccine should then be given to youngsters before they become sexually active. In the meantime, women must continue to have regular cervical smears which are the best protection against cervical cancer,” he said.
(WFS) Jaggery, the right
sweetener With studies indicating risk in higher sugar consumption and benefits of consuming jaggery coming to the fore, India is all set to raise exports of jaggery in the near future. “Medicinal importance of jaggery is tremendous,” said Mr Jaswant Singh of the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, adding, it has cooling, diuretic and refreshing properties, besides improving throat conditions, normalising semen and sperms and serving as a lactogenic and cardiac tonic. Consumption of jaggery, an eco-friendly sweetener, is bound to increase in the coming days due to its tremendous nutritional and medicinal potential. Jaggery was prescribed in various diseases like anaemia, jaundice, breathlessness and kidney problems, he said. Hundred grams of jaggery contains approximately 0.4 g protein, 0.1 g fat, 80 mg calcium, 40 mg phosphorous, 11.4 mg iron 0.6-1.0 g total minerals, 168 mg carotin, 0.02 mg thiamine, 0.05 mg riboflavin, 0.50 mg vitamin C and 383 kcal energy, he said. On the other hand the chemical processes involved in the extraction of sugar destroy or remove almost every vitamin, mineral and any other nutrient it contains, Mr Singh added. (PTI) Injuries top cause of
child death Injuries, caused by everything from abuse to bicycle accidents and fires, have become the leading cause of death among children in the industrialised world, replacing disease, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday. More than 20,000 children a year under the age of 15 now die from road accidents, abuse or other intentional injuries, falls, fires, drowning, poisoning or other injuries, according to a UNICEF report. For a child born in the industrialised world today, the chances are one in 750 of death from an injury before age 15, according to the report by UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Center in Florence, Italy, which estimated that 12,000 of the deaths each year could be avoided through preventive measures. While the likelihood of death from an injury is today less than half what it was 30 years ago, “the depth of grief and anguish involved in the death of a child is beyond measuring,’’ the report said. The report looked at injury statistics from the 29 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the world’s richest nations. From 1991 through 1995, the latest five-year period for which figures were available, Sweden, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands had the lowest child death rates from injury. Sweden’s rate was 5.2 per 100,000 children, Britain and Italy’s 6.1 and the Netherlands’ 6.6. The USA (14.1 deaths per 100,000 children), Portugal (17.8), Mexico (19.8) and South Korea (25.6) had the highest rates.
(Reuters) |
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS Service is nothing but a way of prayer.... If you serve, you are doing prayer. And if you pray in a subtle way you are doing service. Both are complementary; never divide them. ***** If you serve without prayer, then service remains just on the periphery. If you pray without service, your service becomes isolated from life. You become an island.... ***** Service means feeling one with the whole, feeling one with the other. It means a point where I and thou disappears. — Osho, Nothing to lose but your Head ***** Let Truth be your prayer, Faith your prayer-mat, Control your desires; root out vain yearnings; Make your body a Mosque, Your mind its Mullah. ***** And remembrance of God be your Kalma... Let good conduct be your law and your Prophets; Let your observances and dogmas be renunciation... ***** Let mercy be your Mecca: Instead of fasts, use humility: Seek no other paradise than by abiding the Word of your guru... Seek no other place or pleasance than devotion to God. ***** To practise Truth is to be a Qazi, To purify the heart is to be a Haji, To shame the devil is to be a Mullah, To praise God is to be a Dervish. ***** Let your prayer-hour be at no set time, but all times; Let your constant prayer be remembrance of God in the heart; Use meditation instead of rosary; And instead of circumcision Let chastity check your desires. ***** Know that all these outward forms are transient, Are entanglements, like other wordly ties. All the Mirs and Maliks are sold to death: Only God's kingdom lasteth. — Guru Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Maru, page 1083. |
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