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Monday,
April 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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The Army in Gujarat Half a step towards peace
State of Indian universities |
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Slips of tongue
University convocations: necessity, farce or fun?
Poor English bad for business
Romance formula undergoes change
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The Army in Gujarat It all began with the Chief of Army Staff, Gen S. Padmanabhan, suggesting withdrawal of the Army units deployed in Gujarat in the wake of the communal riots that claimed nearly 900 lives besides rendering over one lakh people homeless. The Army Chief made the statement on April 17 on the basis of his information that the situation in the troubled state had improved considerably. No one will dispute sending the Army units back to their normal duty as soon as possible. After all, the armed forces are not meant for the kind of role – assisting the civil administration – they are asked to play from time to time when things go beyond control. But the reality is that the Army is the only institution on which the country has been falling back in times of crisis. Gujarat is faced with an extraordinary situation even today. What appears on the face of it is not the reality. Many riot victims pleaded with Union Defence Minister George Fernandes during his latest four-day visit to the state not to withdraw the Army. Mr Fernandes, however, is in agreement with General Padmanabhan. It is a different matter that he is unwilling to take a categorical stand. He wants the state government to take its own decision after consulting the Centre. Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as reports suggest, favours the Army withdrawal for political reasons. This is despite the fact that those running the administration – the bureaucrats – have suggested that no such step should be taken till the board examinations are over. The uprooted people living in refugee camps shudder at the thought of a life without the troops remaining there for their security. This is a quite complicated scenario. How can one believe that normalcy has returned to Gujarat when most riot victims are unable to gather courage to go back to their homes? It is not enough to say that the disturbances have come to an end. Why do people feel psychologically insecure without Army protection? This is not without reason. The painful situation reflects poorly on the law and order machinery, particularly the police. Its partisan role has affected its image so much that a section of the Gujaratis are just not prepared to trust the police. With the Chief Minister finding himself at the centre of a controversy, the matter assumes disturbing proportions. Logic says that there is no harm in allowing the Army to play its laudable role till the victims in camps return home. Only then can the process of psychological healing gain momentum. That will also provide a fair idea about the level of normalcy in Gujarat. Nothing should be done that amounts to putting the people's lives at risk. The state has undergone an unimaginably harrowing experience. A hasty decision must be avoided. For heaven's sake let us stop playing politics at the cost of human lives. It will be cruel to leave the victimised citizens at the mercy of the police at this stage only to make the political point that those demanding the Chief Minister's removal should remember that he has restored normalcy and people are living happily as before. We should be worried about the nation's reputation more than anything else. |
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Half a step towards peace The Israeli withdrawal from Jenin is, at best, a half step in the right direction that may ease the situation in West Asia. Both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities initially adopted the all-to-familiar postures, and this time it seemed US Secretary of State Collin Powel would have to go empty handed from his mission to broker peace between the two belligerent neighbours. That could not, of course, be allowed: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eventually agreed to a timetable for withdrawal, but only from Jenin and Nablus. Meanwhile, allegations of killings and brutalities in the Jenin refugee camp have prompted adverse international attention and the UN Security Council voted on Friday to send a team of experts to Jenin to find out what happened during the fierce two-week battle that left the centre of the camp in ruins. Israeli forces still remain in Bethlehem and Ramallah, much to the chagrin of the Palestinians. The Israeli logic that they need to “punish” the Palestinian Authority chief, Mr Yasser Arafat, for various acts of terrorism in Israel, including suicide bombings, is flawed. It is clear that in spite of Mr Arafat’s pre-eminent position among the Palestinians, his writ does not run over certain groups, especially the most violent ones like Hamas and the Islamic jehad, which has consistently refused to recognise his leadership. While Israel’s anger and frustration at continuing violence and acts of terrorism against its citizens are understandable, its tactics are not. It has now been reported that Mr Sharon wanted to expel Mr Arafat from Palestine. Thankfully, wiser counsel prevailed. Mr Arafat is the elected leader of 35 lakh Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and ousting him would only result in a major vacuum throwing up others who might act irresponsibly, thereby escalating the scale of violence. Is there no way out? Former US President Jimmy Carter thinks there is. It lies in the implementation of the United Nations resolutions which call for the withdrawal of Israelis from Palestinian lands in exchange for full acceptance of Israel and its right to live in peace. Mr Carter calls for demands on both sides to be so patently fair and balanced that at least a majority of the citizens in the affected area would respond with approval and an international force to monitor compliance. But this would take will from both the sides with the USA playing the role of an honest broker. It can use two points to enhance its power of persuasion over Israel—“the legal requirement that American weapons are to be used by Israel only for defensive purposes,” and the “approximately $10 million daily American aid to Israel.” The Arab world would have to tackle the Palestinians. The withdrawal from Jenin is welcome. Much more needs to be done. |
State of Indian universities The furore over the exploits of the Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, has brought the rot in the heart of our university system to the surface. It stinks. It is nauseating. Our university system at the country level is ailing. However, the case of agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana is somewhat different and needs an exclusive critical look. The Editor of The Tribune in his incisive article (March 29) has pinpointed a number of maladies afflicting the country’s university system — the Vice-Chancellor as an instrument of power politics, the growing culture of sychophancy in our academia, negative trade unionism, petty politics, etc, unleashing a meaningful debate. Punjab is comparatively more vocal and volatile on any significant issue, thanks to the tradition of Gururs to question everything that is wrong and debasing in society. The neighbouring state of Haryana is comparatively more calm and placid. However, this does not mean an improved state of affairs. Rather, it is worse. Take the case of universities. An important suggestion made in the debate is that a vice-chancellor should be a person with high academic merit and commitment, and should have the experience of continuous postgraduate teaching and post-doctoral research. Haryana has four universities. The worthies who head them have never taught, nor have they conducted any kind of research. They are blissfully ignorant of a realm so vital to university life. What kind of academic merit and commitment such persons can possess can be well imagined. If it were a stray case, it could be dismissed as an act of administrative lapse. However, to pack all the universities in the state with such stuff cannot be a matter of lapse or coincidence. It is an outcome of a well-designed strategy and cunning calculation. The authorities can take pride that the Haryana universities do not suffer from such unseemly controversies as is the case in Punjab, and peace prevails there. However, this peace is highly deceptive. It is mortifying calm, oppressive quietude and arid placidity. It is peace of the graveyard. Peace as such can never be a desirable goal in a university. A university, strictly spealing, is a dissenting academy. It is a seat of turbulence of ideas and a boiling cauldron of clashing world views. An intellectual/academic is a gadfly who should constantly sting the people out of smug complacency and fake contentment. Thought can flourish and ideas can march and become a societal force only in such a milieu. This is the ultimate ideal to strive for. The universities in Punjab are often in the news but for wrong reasons, and their counterparts in Haryana are rarely in the news, again for wrong reasons. In both cases there is regression and slide-down. The culture of sychophancy prevails in Haryana’s universities in its ugliest form. It has reduced the top functionaries to the status of mere servitors of the powers that be. An example or two would be in order. The services of a teacher in a university were terminated. On her representation a high-powered committee comprising three senior professors was constituted to go into the matter. The committee found the termination of the teacher’s services wrongful and unanimously recommended that the case be “referred to the Executive Council for regularisation of her services”. Before the teacher in question could join the department after the Executive Council accepted the recommendation of the committee, the vice-chancellor got tongue-lashing from the highest political quarters for helping the wife of a man who was in a different political camp. Subsequently, the case was referred to the government. It was eight months ago and the matter rests there. There cannot be a more blatant example of sacrificing the university autonomy at the altar of politics. A deadly blow was dealt to the autonomy when an ammendment was carried out in the university statutes a few years ago, giving veto power to government representatives in financial matters. Now in every matter, financial or otherwise, government representatives rule the roost, making universities third class government departments. The culture of psychophancy eventually tends to reduce one to utter servility, making to bend when one is supposed to bow, and lie prostrate when bending will do. The process sometimes assumes grotesque dimensions. There is “greening” of a university in Haryana these days. It massive iron gates, iron fencing, signboards, name-plates and a host of other such things have been painted lush-green — the colour of the ruling party flag. (Will it be saffron or tricolour if the BJP or the Congress happens to come to power?) Worse still, there is “greening” of the university functionaries. They behave as party activists. It is not that this is the specific wish of the political bosses. The functionaries in their zeal to please the political masters tend to overshoot. This is inevitable when the requirement other than academic is the bench-mark in their appointment. Substantially speaking, everything happens in Haryana’s universities except teaching and research. Caste lobbies, regional groups, meaningless mutual wrangles, caucuses around the power centres, the liaison with right political quarters and other such non-academic activities pre-occupy the teachers. Those who are serious about their profession end up as academic morons in this milieu. A solitary individual here and there doggedly swims against the tide and deserves to be saluted. However, one swallow does not make a summer. The situation is grimmer and more sickening than what is possible to depict in a newspaper article. The cause of the malaise in the academia and other fields is to be located in the political culture of the state. There is no place for dissent or debate. Most of the successful political leaders do not have companions or comrades-in-arms to help them. The facelss quislings, minions and hangers-on throng their parties. Leaders have a retinue of vassals and lackeys at their disposal. When in power they tend to shape various institutions of the state as they have shaped their political outfits. They have devised the mechanism of transfers and postings as a crude instrument to punish the inconvenient and reward the loyalists in the bureaucracy and the police force. Barring some honourable exceptions, the state apparatus has degenerated into a pliable tool to do the biddings, right or wrong, of the political boss. The Chief Minister is the only minister in the Cabinet; others are mere rubber stamps to be affixed on the decisions taken by him. There is a saying popular with Haryana politicians: there is only one “mantri”, others are his “santries”. No wonder that the state has ended up as a family fiefdom and the state capital a mere extension of one’s farmhouse or a branch of one’s trading concern. No university can grow as an autonomous island of excellence in a sea of authoritarian and autocratic rule. It must be whipped into a larger pattern. The selection of the Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, or a university in Haryana with no links with academics is not a matter of chance. It is not that persons with sound academic credentials are not available. They are to be deliberately kept at bay. What is the way out? These are no easy solutions. Various suggestions offered by different participants in the debate are moral imperatives in the form of “should”. But how to put them into practice? Where is the implementing agency? The suggestion by one academic to include the higher education in the Union List goes contrary to the very essence of democracy. Democracy implies decentralisation of power at every level. School education, public health, sanitation and numerous other fields of social infrastructure remain paralysed in many states. Why not include all of them in the Union List? If the process is extended further, a state government will not be left with anything worthwhile to do. Democracy either functions or it does not function at all. Civil society is weak in Punjab and virtually non-existent in Haryana. There is need to strengthen its various institutions — social and professional organisations, civil liberty bodies, trade unions, farmers associations, etc, to inject transparency in the functioning of the state apparatus and impose accountability on its various agencies. There is no democratic movement worth the name in the universities of Punjab and Haryana, and the campus community must share the blame to a great extent. Democratisation of the university structure is the need of the hour. There is an urgent need to promote a different political culture in state like Punjab and Haryana — a counter-culture rooted in the liberal and democratic ethos to fight the existing authoritarian political culture. This is the political task waiting to be undertaken by those who are interested in real societal change. It is a long haul. But there are no short-cuts in life. The writer, a retired academic, is a former Chairman of the Haryana Public Service Commission. |
Slips of tongue Control over spoken words is paramount in any social gathering. We guard against a remark which may not be insulting in its face value but may be insulting in its implication. Such incidents did cause considerable embarrassment to me as well as the hosts once in full glare of the members of diplomatic corps present. A visit to England by the late Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan was always a most welcome event. So when he landed in London for his urgent eye treatment. The morning edition of The Guardian read “Almost blind President of India arrives London Today”. His reception by the Indian High Commissioner was well attended. My host in London, let us call him Mr Raj, from the Indian High Commission, had graciously invited me to join the evening party. Mrs Raj was a young and livewire lady who often used to think after she spoke. She relied more on her looks and poise than her ready wits. After the first round of introduction to the chief guest Mr and Mrs Raj, with me in tow, advanced. Mr Raj, after introducing himself, introduced his comely wife to the chief guest who gracefully motioned his namaskar to her. Pleased with his response, Mrs Raj, without bothering about the rest of the guests around to be introduced, stepped towards Dr Radhakrishnan and politely asked him: Mr President, you must be aware of the news item in media today. I never imagined that you are so blind”. Dr Radhakrishnan was seemingly a bit hurt by such rash remarks. However, he composed himself and remarked: “Good lady, I may be partially blind in vision but I am not wholly blind in speech like some others present here”. Mrs Raj got the answer. She murmured softly, “Is it”, and moved away from the group. Soon afterwards we met Mr Azhar Masood, the Algerian Ambassador who had served in India earlier and had known Mr and Mrs Raj before. Without formal introduction he warmly greeted them. Mr Raj had known in advance about this encounter and had briefed his wife elaborately about what to talk to His Excellency. She was cautioned that in view of the geophysical location of Algeria and its foreign policy she must praise the policy of Algeria towards the popular Polasario front fighting against Morocco in North Africa and condemn the hated Smith regine causing terror in Southern Africa. Although Mrs Raj appeared to understand the approach, she, by sheer nature, did not memorise the unfamiliar sentences and relied entirely on excessive self-confidence Mr Masood initiated conversation by praising Nehru and his non-alignment policy. Although Masood looked at Mr Raj expecting him to speak, Mrs Raj instantly spoke out: “India fully supports the popular Smith regine and hates the doomed Polasario front.” The Algerian Ambassador was taken aback by these highly embarrassing remarks by Mrs Raj. Surely Mr Raj, a seasoned diplomat, intervened fast and corrected what his wife had said. He regretted that what his wife had inadvertently uttered was due to a slip of tongue. |
University convocations: necessity, farce or fun? Generally in this part of the year, the holding of university convocations becomes almost a common practice in the country when degrees are awarded to the students who have passed their examinations in various desciplines of their study. Originally, convocation meant an assembly of the clergy or of the graduates of certain universities. The convocation of the province of Canterbury in England was also spoken of as the convocation. The action of convocation as a deliberate body began in 1861. Whatever the fervour, excitement and decorum, convocations are now almost an empty formality, a mere ritual, wasting time and energy, full of sound and fury, meaning nothing substantial. But the students seem to enjoy the thrill and sensation of receiving their degrees which enable them to seek employment in order to earn their living. For some politicians, the award of honorary degrees is a titillating experience even though such recognition may have come to them as a favour for personal gratifications rather than on grounds of academic merit. During the British rule, convocation addresses were generally delivered by viceroys, governors, civil servants and eminent educationists. Viceroy Lord Curzon was known for delivering some of the finest convocation speeches full of maxims that guide public conduct. Sir Asutosh Mookerjee’s convocation addresses were models of wide learning, candour and perspicacity. Dr S. Radhakrishnan, C. Rajagopalachari, Dr Zakir Husain and C.D. Deshmukh were much sought for delivering convocation addresses because of their learning and eloquence. In my own experience, two convocation addresses made a profound impact, the one delivered by Dr Radhakrishnan in Delhi University and the other by Mother Teresa in Kurukshetra University. Radhakrishnan’s eloquence and exuberance of thought and diction were enthralling! On the other hand, Mother Teresa’s gracious presence, her winsome smile and humility and her simple message of love and compassion touched our hearts. Recently I read Mahatma Gandhi’s convocation address at Benaras Hindu University (silver jubilee) on January 21, 1942. Gandhi spoke in Hindi of which he had rudimentary knowledge. His address was not scholarly. He did not preach or pontificate as is the custom. Nor did he worry over the form and the manner of his discovery. He had no written text or notes. He spoke extempore. All was spontaneous. He poured out his heart in the simplest idiom on the national issues facing the country which are still relevant to us today. Gandhi had received his invitation to deliver his convocation address from Dr Radhakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor of Benaras Hindu University, which he declined saying that he had no place among the learned. In early 1942, Gandhi was deeply involved in politics, and he was preparing to launch the ‘Quit India Movement’. But then Madan Mohan Malaviya, the founder-member of the university for whom Gandhi had profound regards urged him to come to Benaras as he was ailing. Gandhi was left with no alternative but to obey, to use his own expression “his (Malaviyas’) behest”. Twenty-five years earlier on the occasion of the foundation of Benaras Hindu University, Gandhi too had delivered a speech which had created a stir and disturbed the Chairperson Annie Besant so much so that she felt compelled to leave the assembly in protest while Gandhi continued to speak despite her asking him to stop. This had happened in 1916. The objectionable part of Gandhi’s speech related to the princes as guests on the dais who had become an object of his mockery. Gandhi was speaking about the grinding poverty of the millions in India sunk in ignorance and superstition. Seeing the princes wearing gorgeous clothes and glittering jewellery studded with diamonds, he contrasted their ostentation and luxury with the hunger and miserable plight of the peasants and workers in the country. This was enough a provocation to the princes to leave the assembly. But Gandhi had a tearing spirit, and he was not the one to yield, and he continued to speak. Probably Gandhi could not have forgotten the unpleasant encounter he had with Annie Besant in 1916. This time in 1942 at the outset he paid a glowing tribute to Malaviya whom he described as a ‘living example of pure life of plain living and high thinking’. He lamented ‘who can be more unfortunate than the one who in spite of being so near to him (Malaviyas’) fails to imbibe his noble qualities such as simplicity, patriotism, generosity and universal love’. Trusting to the inspiration of the moment, Gandhi said that inspiration to him came when he felt that speaker after speaker came and left the dais, and that he longed for someone who would address the audience in any of the Indian languages but alas! ‘no such good luck befell me’. He felt strongly that making English the medium of instruction was frittering away our time and energy, and all this regrettably was happening in Benaras Hindu University, the ‘living symbol of Indian culture’. To support his contention, he cited the example of Japan that was making tremendous progress in science and technology, ‘without throwing their mother tongue to the winds’. He quipped that the audience facing him was not mostly English-knowing, and thus did not understand what was being said by the speakers who spoke English. Continuing his speech, Gandhi said that he noticed the students’ showing ‘lack of physical training’ because they ‘walked haphazardly in a desultory manner’ while coming up to receive their degrees. He also felt amused to see on the top of the university gate the bulk of space (three-fourths) taken up by the words Benaras Hindu University in English and one-fourth given to the inscription in Hindi. He wanted the name of the university to be written in Devanagri and Persian scripts, a symbol of Hindu-Muslim university. Gandhi regretted that the Indian universities have failed to build up the tradition of learning and research like Oxford and Cambridge. He said, ‘Have you been able to attract to your university youths of Aligarh? Have you been able to identify yourself with them? That should be your special work. I want — I mean a heart or unity between Hindus and Muslims’. And the only way, Gandhi emphasised, to build up the tradition was to derive inspiration from India’s past which had bequeathed to humankind the message of peace, goodwill and peaceful coexistence. Finally, he urged the students to live simply and nobly with high ideals set before them, and work for them with passionate fervour. It is difficult to comment on the beauty, candour and appropriateness of Gandhi’s convocation address delivered about 60 years ago. He spoke from his heart. His address was the essence of what he saw and felt, and the problems that he highlighted still face and stagger us. Gandhi felt the pulse of the people and understand the need of the hour. But, alas! We mistake now the shadow afor the substance. There lies our tragedy! The writer is Emeritus Professor. |
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Poor English bad for business Singapore, which runs public campaigns on everything from toilet etiquette to having more babies, has began driving home its annual message that poor English is bad for business. The “Singlish” slang spoken by 70 per cent of Singaporeans blends standard English with words from other languages and borrows
grammar from Chinese. The local lingo is often humorous to outsiders or just plain confusing. “Given its widespread use, the ability to speak good English is clearly a distinct advantage when doing business and communicating with the world”, Education Minister Teo Chee Hean said at the launch of the annual “Speak Good English Movement” on Saturday. Singapore, which has no natural resources, relies heavily on foreign investment and is anxious to attract more companies as it struggles with its worst recession since the
mid-1960s. Teo quoted a recent survey by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy that found more expatriate business people prefer to work in Singapore than in Hong Kong because Singaporeans speak better English. One Singaporean man in his 40s recalled finding a screw missing from a television set he wanted to buy. When he pointed it out to the shopkeeper, the woman told him to take it home and “screw yourself” — meaning “screw it in yourself”. This year’s campaign offers free phone lines to help people differentiate the sound of words like “ships” from “sheep”, TV clips of local stars telling how they have slipped up using English and speaking tips in local newspapers. The government also wants to show its
SMS-obsessed citizens when it is appropriate to use the clipped words of text messaging and when more formal writing is required. According to one official, a few of the free lessons will be aimed at avoiding terms like “BFN” (“bye for now”) in letters.
Reuters
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Romance formula undergoes change Trembling virgins are out and sex-mad singletons are in as the world’s largest romance publisher develops a passion for a new style of heroine. Harlequin Mills and Boon, which sells more than 175 million bodice — ripping romances annually, says it is branching out into the modern “chick lit” genre to attract young women reared on the US television series “Sex and the City” and the best-selling British novel “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. “Definitely no virgins, no trembling and no heaving bosoms,” said 25-year-old Sarah Mlynowski, whose debut novel “Milkrun” is the first book to be published under the company’s new label, Red Dress Ink, today. The approach is a world away from the traditional paperback romance formula in which innocent young women meet rich older men, fall in love and live happily ever after in lawfully wedded bliss. Red Dress Ink, being launched in Britain, is aimed at the modern gal more likely to hit the town in a push-up bra and a G-string than a chastity belt. “These books are something for real-life 20 — and 30 — somethings to relate to and have a bit of a laugh. And, like real life, the girl doesn’t always get Mr Right,” Mylnowski said. The company says it was inspired by the success of “chick lit” in Britain and thought it would sell well in the USA too. The term was coined to describe playfully frivolous books like Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary” — about a single woman obsessed by men, weight, drinking and smoking — which has spawned a host of imitators. Since then, scores of the women’s novels have rocketed up the bestsellers lists, earning millions for their publishers and mostly young female authors who write for their peers. But the genre has come in for its fair share of criticism. Last year Dame Beryl Bainbridge, 66-year-old nominee for Britain’s most prestigious literary award, the Booker Prize, denounced chick lit as “a froth sort of thing” and said it was a pity people didn’t spend time reading something more profound. She was backed up by British author Doris Lessing, who asked why women had to write such “instantly forgettable” books. Harlequin Mills and Boon’s senior product manager Gemma Clutterbuck defended the genre, saying young women wanted to read about something relevant to the way they lived. “Young women today also demand longer, witty and irreverent novels based on characters they can relate to, written in the language they use, reflecting 21st century values and cultural references they are familiar with,” she said. Clutterbuck said the company was excited about the new direction but had no intention of abandoning the traditional romance titles it has produced for more than 70 years. Books in categories such as “Tender”, “Sensual” and “Medical” — the publisher’s name for hospital romances — will continue to be published at the rate of 30 a month, complete with happy-ever-after endings.
Reuters Plan to cut perks for doctors The wining and dining of doctors by pharmaceutical sales reps may be drawing to an end, amid rising concern physicians are prescribing drugs based on rewards rather than scientific merit. US and European drugmakers are revising their codes of ethics to ban their drug reps from paying doctors for such entertainment as golf outings, Broadway plays and baseball games, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PHRMA) plans to implement the new code by July 1, the person said. Under the new guidelines, sales reps will no longer be able to pay for sporting events or other entertainment. Dinners will be capped at about 75 dollars per doctor and require the presence of a third party — an expert on the topic under discussion.
Reuters |
“Not to impose one’s mind and vital will on the Divine but to receive the Divine’s will and follow it, is the true attitude of sadhana. Not to say, “This is my right, want, claim, need requirement, why do I not get it?” but to give oneself, to surrender and to receive with joy whatever the Divine gives, not grieving or revolting, is the better way. Then what you receive will be the right thing for you. It does not matter what defects you may have in your nature. The one thing that matters is your keeping yourself open to the Force. Nobody can transform himself by his own unaided efforts; it is only the Divine Force that can transform him. If you keep yourself open, all the rest will be done for you. Eliminate egoism in all its forms; eliminate it from every moment of your consciousness. The world will trouble you so long as any part of you belongs to the world. It is only if you belong entirely to the Divine that you can become free. If thoughts and activities come, they do not rise at all out of the mind but they come from outside and cross the mind as a flight of bird crosses the sky in a windless air. It passes, disturbs nothing, leaving no trace.... A mind that has achieved this calmness can begin to act even intensely and powerfully, but it will keep its fundamental stillness — originating nothing from itself but receiving from above and giving it a mental form without adding anything of its own, calmly, dispassionately, though with the joy of the Truth and the happy power and light of its passage. — Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, Bases of Yoga The soul, therefore, if immortal, existed before our birth; and if the former existence no way concerned us, neither will the latter.... The metempsychosis is, therefore, the only system of this kind that philosophy can hearken to. — Essays by David Hume: “The Immortality of the Soul” |
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