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Saturday,
June 1, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Nuclear blackmail Soccer mania Naidu’s Mahanadu |
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The scourge of war and war rhetoric
Where might is right
We can learn from
this Mayor
‘We should get out of the minority syndrome’
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Nuclear blackmail EVEN the most reckless and maniacal terrorist group wouldn’t have held out the nuclear threat the way Pakistan has done. It has fully exposed its seamy side by saying that it would use nuclear weapons even in a conventional war. Mind you, the totally irresponsible statement has not been made by any fire-spewing politician speaking in some obscure mofussil town within the country but by the newly appointed Pakistani Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Munir Khan, who is supposed to know how to measure his words and their consequences. Obviously, he has the clearance of his bosses. Not only that, he has taken the brinkmanship of his country even further while defining what would constitute an act of aggression by India calling for a nuclear response. According to the worthy diplomat, “any action by India across the border, any aerial attack on Pakistani territory and its assets and any action to economically strangle Pakistan would be viewed as such”. It is the last clause which is absolutely mind-boggling. The message that is sought to be conveyed is that Pakistan is all set to send up the mushroom cloud at the drop of a hat. The world in general and India in particular has been put on notice that everyone should be prepared to grin and bear with Pakistan’s wholesale export of terrorism and the inhuman killing of innocent women and children of the Kaluchak variety. If not, the finger of the General is very much on the red button. The audacity of it all takes one’s breath away. Pakistan has been daring everyone only because the world has given it such a long rope. The western silence has been interpreted in Islamabad as acquiescence in its depredations. Ironically, despite India’s commitment to no first use of nuclear weapons western powers have been equating New Delhi with Islamabad while dispensing their advice to exercise restraint. The more the world puts up with Pakistan’s threats, the more emboldened it would feel to utter the N-word. Besides the dirty bomb, the other “trump card” that Pakistan holds is that it is actively participating in the global war against terrorism. What the international community has to realise is that instead of facilitating the drive, it has been wrecking it from within. It is no secret that many of Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders are hiding in Pakistan. Yet, the USA continues to turn a blind eye, perhaps because of the feeling that General Musharraf is the best of the worst leaders that a terrorism-charged Pakistan can throw up. But even that calculation should not be treated as an excuse for allowing him to hold the nuclear gun at India’s head. Terrorism has to be treated as terrorism, even when it is not directed against the USA. |
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Soccer mania BEFORE the advent of information technology it was the simple game of football that had created a global village of sorts. The reason for the game's popularity has something to do with the fact that it is easy to understand and simple to play and yet so hard to perfect. Soccer is going to be the dominant sports flavour of the month with the world's top teams slugging it out in hot and humid conditions in Japan and South Korea for ruling the soccer's kingdom for the next four years. One in every four people across the globe will watch 2002 World Cup and see 32 countries play 64 matches for the most prestigious trophy the game has to offer. The amazing appeal of the game can be judged from the response of the English and German soldiers who put down their weapons during World War I to play a game of football in no-man's land during Christmas in 1914. FIFA was formed in 1904 in recognition of the influence the game was having around the world. There are now 205 countries affiliated to the ruling body. For reasons that need to be explained few Asian countries have dominated the game at the global level. Things may change for the better now that the World Cup is taking place in Asia for the first time since its inception. The hosts, Japan and South Korea, seem to have been inspired by the precedent set by India and Pakistan, who had joined hands and hijacked the cricket world cup from its traditional venue in England to the sub-continent for the first time in 1987. The spotlight this time as usual will be on Brazil that has appeared in each of the 16 World Cups since the first one in Uruguay in 1930. It is the only country to have won the cup four times, the last time being in 1994. Germany and Italy have won the title three times each. Argentina, France and England are the other countries to have won the cup. In India, Kolkata is the place to be in for those who really want to go soccer crazy. Just as Punjab was the nursery of the game of hockey, Bengal, more specifically Kolkata, is where football is played with passion. For the Kolkatans the day Baichung Bhutia came with the famous cup, sent on a world tour by FIFA for popularising the game, riding a decorated elephant virtually the entire city turned up for the 2002 World Cup tamasha. However, it is a pity that such a simple and engrossing game has not yet struck deep roots in the country. India is ranked 123rd on the basis of its current strength. The only brief period of glory was in 1951 when India won the Asian Games football gold medal. After yet another Asian Games medal in 1962 the game lost its sheen. Today India occupies the 23rd position in Asia. Will The first football World Cup on Asian soil help Indian football attain international standards or at least help it to be counted among the best teams in Asia? Only time will tell. |
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Naidu’s Mahanadu A clear signal emanating from the three-day annual convention, “Mahanadu”, organised by the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from May 27 to 29 in the backward Telangana town of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, is the TDP’s reiteration of support to the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre. Though the TDP, which has 28 members in the Lok Sabha, had been supporting the Vajpayee Government from outside, relations between the two soured over the Gujarat issue. The Centre refused to sack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, as demanded by the TDP, for his alleged failure to check communal violence in the state. Consequently, the latter abstained from voting on a motion under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha. It also staged a walk-out in the House and did not contest for the Lok Sabha Speaker’s post, indicating its disappointment at the Centre’s attitude. The text of the resolution and the speeches of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his colleagues during the Mahanadu suggest that the TDP would like to close the Modi chapter. With hindsight, it can be said that even though the TDP is guided by ideological compulsions in opposing Mr Modi’s continuance in office, it could not afford to rock the boat in Delhi as that would not only bring the Congress, its principal opponent in the state, to the centrestage but also endanger its own position. In Mr Naidu’s own assessment and political calculations, anti-Congressism is the bottomline of the TDP and it would shun any move that benefits the Congress. More important, the Mahanadu underscores the point that the TDP’s continued support to the Vajpayee Government would be in the interest of both the ruling party and the people of the state. The core of the Warangal Declaration adopted at the end of the Mahanadu is the TDP’s commitment to a four-point programme focussed on modernisation of agriculture and industrial sectors, development of backward areas and employment generation. It said that according high priority to the agriculture sector would help government get a large slice of the Rs 46,000-crore loan under the priority sector. The convention’s pledge to develop the neglected Telangana and other backward regions of the state is obviously intended to checkmate the movement launched by Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, demanding separate statehood for Telangana. It expressed satisfaction with the “implementation” of the Visakhapatnam Declaration adopted at the last Mahanadu, centred around the “Neeru-meeru” drinking water programme, population control, environment protection, poverty eradication and Janmabhoomi. These programmes are well-intended, but Mr Naidu’s government should ensure that, in the coming months, the benefits percolate to the grassroots level as otherwise, they will remain as “publicity gimmicks”, a charge often levelled by the Congress. The recent hike in the power tariff and the Congress’ decision to launch an agitation after organising a referendum on the issue is another challenge for Mr Naidu. A cause for worry for the state government is its reported failure to achieve the ambitious targets set out in its Vision 2020 document. It is said that of late, the State is not attracting investors and has also been reeling under serious financial crunch, having accumulated a huge debt. How to manage the economy effectively has become a bigger challenge for Mr Naidu. With the Assembly elections less than two years hence, Mr Naidu needs all the skills and strength to implement the various developmental programmes and win the confidence of the people. |
The scourge of war and war rhetoric IT’S a fact of history that once the hounds of war are unleashed, the incalculable consequences and the costs render nearly all victories on the ground pyrrhic, victories that are hollow in the end. For wars generate wars, not peace. And yet homo bellicus has not learnt any lesson down the ages; he has graduated from the arrow and bow to the nuclear bomb and missile, but this “progress” is only Faustian, causing the death of the spirit. We have to measure one advancement in terms of ethical perceptions, not in terms of arms. It’s not as though each war is, ipso facto, evil, but we must first know the moral compulsions which prompted us to wage what we call “just wars”. Clearly, such musings at this moment of choice and decision by India to punish the implacable and ruthless foe across the border become necessary, for to understand the psychology of war, the rhetoric of war and the war hysteria is to understand aspects of war that lie below the threshold of our waking consciousness. The visible enemy needs no comment; the hidden monster needs to be brought to the surface. When, therefore, the war-drums give off the sounds that are ominous, a nation’s corporate consciousness becomes conditioned, and is compulsively driven towards action. The overpowering national emotions aired and aided by the print media, and above all, by TV then seek immediate relief. It appears as though there’s an implosion, and the war is on our doors before we wake up to its hours. Thus, the fidayeen suicidal attack on the Jammu cantonment family station was perhaps the last straw needed to break the nation’s patience. And now, it would be difficult to retreat, since the point of criticality has almost reached. The chain reaction would precipitate consequences where even “the imagination of disaster” would stumble. Since my limited aim in this brief essay is to cast a cold eye on the war psychosis as such, I would have to isolate those factors which remain unchanged whenever and wherever a war breaks out. When and if the actual hostilities start, there would, indeed, be a time for commenting on the fortunes of the war — in progress. Meanwhile, I mean to comment on the nuclear issues of war not the question of nuclear weapons, but the forces and energies that precipitate wars. Since the causes are complex and multiple in nature, only those would be my immediate concern which have a bearing on the Indo-Pak standoff. The first step towards war is taken when fiery words and speeches and statements are made by the highest authorities on either side. That kind of “slanging match” soon declines into the rhetoric of war. The expression “rhetoric” is often understood in its pejorative sense, and indicates insincerity, overblown sentiment, and provocative “purple” prose. That’s how it’s taken in literary criticism, for instance. But there is now also a whole school of linguists that regards rhetoric not only as the very sinews of thought and message, but also an index of a whole brood of Freudian “fixations”. Also, thus stretched, it subsumes all manner of sociological urges and metaphysical assumptions. In creative writing — novels, plays and poetry — rhetoric has a constitutive character as in the fiction of Melville, of Faulkner. Thus some great war novels become an extended and massive metaphor in which the ambiguities are dramatised. And now briefly to the causes of war. The mischief rhetoric (in the bad sense — mostly in journalistic writings) can cause should be clear enough. However, there are other consanguine, and often, more hidden reasons, and I would be content to paraphrase some of these, my chief source being Aldous Huxley’s Ends and Means (1937). At the outset, Huxley quoting biologists observes, “Man is unique in organising the mass murder of his own species”. In other words, whilst the animals in the Darwinian sense fight for survival, or for sex and food — and play, there’s no thought, no plan behind their encounters. Man alone has the dubious distinction of elaborate plans to set up a war machinery. Animals soon forget their animosities, not man. Again, Huxley poohpoohs the popular idea of the war as “nature’s pruning hook”. Which means that wars — otherwise a scourge and a blight — nevertheless, are “desirable”. They keep the population under check and control. Psychologists believe that the suicide rate goes down sharply during periods of war. The idea is that war liberates man, particularly, the youth from the boredom of the quotidian commonplace life. War provides thrill, energy — and the proving ground for manhood and glory. There is some truth in this assumption, but no thoughtful ruler would unleash a war only to shake the nation out of sloth, as it were. It’s a most dangerous doctrine. Now it would be in order if we endorse Marianne Moore’s words: “There was no war that was not first in word”. Expanded, it means that our concealed hatreds of others — ethnic, communal, ideological — become, over a period of time, fixed corporate emotions. This is precisely true in the case of Indo-Pak animosity. It must be remembered that even if there had been no Kashmir, Pakistan would have invented some other excuse to keep the Hindu-Muslim clash on the boil. Pakistan, as so many sociologists and historians have observed, was the child of hatred, insensate hatred, and its political genetics would never permit it to let India live in peace. Jealousy of India’s secularism and democracy, jealousy also of India’s progress in other fields of life — in industry, in science, in education etc — keep the Pak national psyche in a dangerous spin. And then there are three wars and three defeats, not to speak of the Kargil showdown and the loss of Bangladesh; all these indignities weigh heavily on the minds of the Pak military hierarchy. In moments of insanity, their spokesmen can even talk of unfurling the green Pak flag on the ramparts of the Delhi Fort! With that kind of agenda in schools, in Jehadi madrassas, Pakistan has in a couple of generations’ time produced a crop of terrorists who have not only caused havoc in Jammu & Kashmir, in other parts of India, but also in some remote parts of the world such as Yugoslavia, Russia and finally in the USA with that monstrous attack of September 11, and of December 13 (Indian Parliament). I return after that illustrative little detour to Huxley’s essay on war. The armament industry of the capitalist world is a major culprit, and keeps wars going in one part of the globe or another. The American economy would suffer a body-blow if the war weapons of mass destruction were to be outlawed. The US Government, for instance, still refuses to ban nuclear weapons as well as the use of land-mines. The moral of the Swedish armament manufacturer’s renunciation of his ill-gotten billions reveals dramatically the misery of money made out of human carnage. The Nobel Prize for Peace, thus, is a standing rebuke to “the merchants of death”. Huxley also regards nationalism as an “idolatrous religion” and, therefore an agenda of war. He seems to reject the concept of just wars or wars in defence of one’s territory, population and property. Personally, I cannot go that far with him much as I find jingoistic patriotism distasteful. For as our history shows, India has never initiated a war. And if I take the analogy to the wars the Sikhs have had to wage against the fanatical Moghul rulers, I do not find that inapt or unacceptable. I’m content to quote Guru Gobind Singh’s famous couplet from his epistle in Persian, Zafarnama, addressed to Aurangzeb: Loosely rendered, it reads thus: “When you’ve exhausted all avenues of peace, It’s your moral duty to lift the sword”. |
Where might is right “THE major cause of traffic accidents is that men put in their cars as much ego as petrol”, says Pierre Daninos. Aside from over-speeding, “ego” implies violation of other traffic laws, driving under in- toxication included. Some time ago I was an eyewitness to this aphorism. But for the vigilance of the motorcyclist, it might have resulted in a serious mishap involving the man and/or his companion riding on the pillion seat. A jeep abruptly took a right turn whereas the motorcyclist was to go straight having overtaken the jeep. Luckily no vehicle was coming from the opposite direction, so the entire road was at the disposal of the motorcyclist. The jeep and the motor-bike screeched to a halt when they were just a few inches apart. I was just parking my scooter closeby and my attention was diverted when I heard the screeching of the two vehicles, which followed constant blaring of horns. I was the first to reach the spot. Then ensued the usual brawl. The motorcyclist blamed the jeep driver that he had not given any signal to turn right, which the fellow rebutted emphatically. His plea was that he gave a signal which the motorcyclist seemed not to have noticed, engrossed as he was in talking to the young lady sitting behind him. The jeep belonged to a government department, whose name was painted below the number plate of the vehicle, and driven by a liveried chauffeur in khaki. Burning with wrath, the bureaucrat sitting on the passenger seat jumped out of the vehicle. He was itching to strike the scrawny motorcyclist for his audacity to heap expletives. True or false, the recrimination was a good stick to beat with. But his adversary caught hold of the cudgel in mid-air. The swirling crowd increased ominously minute by minute. Except for a handful of people, who supported the motorcylist, others, mostly the official community from the officer’s department and other establishments located nearby, who had come, when they heard what had happened, colluded with the jeep driver, although perhaps not one of them was present to testify what had actually happened. Seeing that most of the bystanders were supporting him, the officer decided to have it out. “Wait a bit. I’m going to call the police”, he said and went to his office to ring up the police. The poor motorcyclist seemed to lose his nerve. The flying squad was there within minutes, whether in response to the officer’s call or by chance, I cannot say. The police inspector first listened to the story of the officer. There was no dearth of men to support him. The officer then heard the version of the motorcyclist, which I alone corroborated. Fortunately, I was not suspected of telling a lie, perhaps because of my grey hair. The cop then advanced toward the officer and scowled: “The accident has been averted and none has been hurt in the scuffle either. So, there is not much of policing to do. But please be advised that in future your driver must give proper signals and you refrain from arrogance or taking the law in your hands, as you are alleged to have done today, else you’ll be in a soup”, he said and briskly walked across to the waiting police vehicle. |
We can learn from this Mayor LAST week I was in New York for a very special event called, Asian Pathmakers, Global Bridgebuilders. It was concerning the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation. This is an organisation which gives away the Ramon Magsaysay Award to recognise individuals and organisations in Asia whose work “exemplify the greatness of spirit, integrity, and devotion to freedom of Ramon Magsaysay” — the third President of the Philippine Republic. He died in 1957 in an airplane crash. Awards are presented in five of seven categories: government service, public service, community leadership, international understanding, journalism, literature, creative communication arts and emerging leadership. The awardees are given recognition for their work as selfless achievers who provide models for the new generations of Asians. The awards were established in the late 50s and by now more than 230 persons have been recognised by this award also called the ‘Asian Nobel Prize’. The event in New York where I was present was a celebration of the ideals of the Magsaysay Award. It was for the first time that the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation (RMF) was being made publicly known to the people in the USA through a specially organised event. In order to do this, they invited four awardees to present their contributions to a select audience. The four invited were Liang Congjie of China, Pratip Ungsongtham — Hata of Thailand, Jesse Robredo of the Philippines and myself from India. Liang Congjie registered the first NGO in China in the field of environment. He received the award in 2000 for his courageous pioneering leadership in China’s environmental movement. Pratip Ungsongtham was recognised in 1978 for bringing learning, better health, and hope to impoverished children in the portside slum of Klong Toey. She is now Thailand’s most respected senator. Mayor Jesse Robredo was recognised in 2000 for demonstrating that effective city management is compatible with yielding power to the people, while I had been earlier recognised in 1994 for “innovations in crime control, drug rehabilitation and prison reforms” (as per my citation). What I would like to share with you is what Mayor Jesse Robredo did as a Mayor of a city, something which is almost unheard of in our country, but we all dream to see it happen. He said in his speech that when he took over as Mayor of his city he inherited a huge budget deficit. Employees were underpaid. Morale was low. The local economy was sluggish. Employment opportunities were not forthcoming. Disorder and congestion characterised the central business district. The city was rated as third class by the Department of Finance etc. The Mayor said he had three choices to make (1) not to do anything for his mandate was weak. (2) “To do a quick fix” by providing a leadership that imposes its will on the constituency. In other words, follow the oriental model to rule with a hard hand and expect the people to follow. (3) To venture on the untried and untested by providing a leadership, which is inclusive and consultative, which empowers and enables instead of rules i.e. which promotes “peoples participation” and “people development”. Mayor Jesse Robredo opted for the non-traditional. Against the advice of his political elders, he and his team put their fate fully in the hands of their people. They started by organising and reaching out to all the sectors of the community — from the ambulant and market vendors, jeepney drivers, farmers and labour groups to the civic clubs, professional associations, business leaders and non-government organisations. To secure their trust and confidence, they tackled head-on long-standing problems that beset the community — vice, urban blight, red tape and graft & corruption. The Mayor said, I quote, “We thence translated at the local level the abstract concept of “people power” and institutionalised the practice of participative governance by legislating a People Empowerment Ordinance, the first of its kind in the country”. The team efforts led to the establishment of the city people’s counsel — a federation of over 100 non-profit, non-government and people organisations, which among others, elected among themselves their representatives to local special bodies of the city government, effectively joining their elected officials in the policy-making process. By the end of the third term of Mayor Jesse Robredo, Naga city regained its stature. It had the highest economic growth rate in the country and the lowest rate of poverty. People’s pride had been restored, private sector confidence bolstered and productivity and morale among the city hall’s employees raised. The Mayor said: “We learnt when to lead and when to be led. Governance and leadership are not simply about outcomes but processes as well. Effective governance is ‘people-centred’ and not ‘leader centred’.” In our country today we talk of IT revolution, cyber café’s, the right to information Act, the bhagidari schemes, etc, Robredo’s Naga city has a website for the last four years, which features the city’s budget and procurements, bidding notices and other finances so that ordinary citizens would know how their money is being spent. Our politicians and bureaucrats do not need to go to the USA or the UK for training. They can go to the Philippines, which is closeby or specially invite Mayor Robredo for consultations. There will be plenty to learn, that is if we really want to. I asked the Mayor what made him do it. He said: “Because I consider government as the servant of the people and not their master”. |
‘We should get out of the minority syndrome’
RAJYA Sabha MP Mabel Rabello’s impressive simplicity casts an indelible impression on one’s mind. A crusader from the minority community, Rabello has been fighting the system for a good number of years to ensure that the neglected tribal people of Madhya Pradesh get their due. She has represented India at various conferences in Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Holland, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, the USA and the UK. Over a simple yet memorable lunch of “dal-bhaat” cooked by her Adivasi maid-servant and Chikamagalur jackfruit for desert at her flat on Bishambar Das Marg, the 50-year-old MP from Bhopal talked at length about her aspirations and apprehensions. She is a member of several parliamentary committees, including the Joint Committee on Women Empowerment and the Consultative Committee of the Railways. Excerpts from the interview: Q: Will you share your association with the tribal people? I’m a social sector person. The percentage of tribesmen in Chhatisgarh is more than 30 per cent and in Madhya Pradesh it has decreased. Tribal students in MP were not getting their stipend after Digvijay Singh became an MP. I fought for them as they were being neglected. They were not aware of their rights. As a result, they were not making any demands. Even now, they approach me for help. Q: Can you enumerate the prominent tribes of Madhya Pradesh and which of these is the most backward and which is most progressive? They are the Bhil, Oraon, Khadia, Ghond and Maria. The Bhils are the most aggressive. The Oraons are the most progressive and the Maria are the most backward. The Oraons have done well because they are in the Raigarh-Sarjuga area bordering Jharkhand. This is because of the work done by Christian missionaries in the pre-Independence days. They came via Kolkata and started working in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur and also progressed southwards and began working in Jashpur, a district of Chhatisgarh and Sarjuga. They spread literacy by setting up schools and boarding houses. As a result, a lot of tribesmen are in IAS, IPS, PSUs, the airlines, the LIC and GIC. Q: Being a non-tribal, was it difficult working with them? We should get out of the minority syndrome. I started working with the tribal people in the eighties. Since I am a professional social worker I could understand the social dynamics. I know the actual channels of helping people. In 1993 when Digvijay Singh became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, I persuaded the government to give tribal students a stipend of Rs 250 for boarding. The government released stipend to the tune of Rs 3 crore. The MP government had stopped giving grants-in-aid to schools in the tribal areas. Till then, most persons thought that they would never get the stipend. The impression was that only students of government schools were entitled to it. Q: Are you satisfied with the state of tribals in the country and what is their future? The tribal people constitute 7 per cent of the total population, while the Scheduled Castes constitute 14 per cent of the total population. But unlike SCs, they have a distinct disadvantage as they live in remote, inaccessible parts of the country. They have not heard of Delhi and Mumbai. Even today, 54 years after India got independence, you find tribal people exchanging “chiraunji” for salt. Such is the extent of ignorance. Most of them are in Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal and north-eastern states. They are also scattered in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. By nature the tribal people are simple, loyal, content and hard working. They live for the day. They are not ambitious. They ought to be encouraged to be ambitious. With the privatisation of PSUs, and downsizing of the administration, tribal people who do not have either human resources or financial capacity or the smartness to do business will not have any viable option for livelihood. This is my greatest worry. The reservation for them in jobs will become irrelevant. In Delhi alone, about 5000 tribal girls from the Chotta Nagpur belt are working as domestic servants. Many of them are sexually abused. Q: What do you think of the National SC/ST Commission? The National SC/ST Commission cannot do much for a country of our size. The Tribal Economic Development Corporation helps tribal people get loans for starting business. Even if a Tribesman gets a loan for running a bus, he faces difficulty in getting a permit. If he gets a bus, other transporters put impediments in his way to make sure that he does not get passengers. |
How could perishable clay withstand the action of water unless divine fire makes it strong? — Callistus and Ignatius (monks). From Philolalia
*** There is no way of flying away from inner struggles by change of place or situation in life. Wherever we go they will follow us, nay we carry them inside us all the time. As inner struggles cause us much suffering, they are very often looked upon as curses.... There is nothing pernicious in inner struggles but something very precious.... To resent inner struggles is a wastage of mental energy. — Swami Budhananda, Prabuddha Bharata
*** What God wants is purity of heart and not the quantum of intellectuality. It is sincerity, earnestness, purity, self abnegation, sacrifice and utter devotion to God that acts as a magnet in drawing a person nearer to God. — Yogi M.K. Spencer, How I Found God
*** O Merciful Jesus, Enlighten Thou me with a clear shining inward light and remove away all darkness from the habitation of my heart. Repress Thou my many wandering thoughts, and break in pieces those temptations which violently assault me. Fight Thou strongly for me, and vanquish the evil beasts, I mean, the alluring desires of the flesh, that so peace be obtained by Thy power and that thine abundant praise may resound in Thy Holy Court, that is, in a pure conscience. Command the winds and tempests; say unto the sea! — Be still; say to the north wind — Blow not; and there shall be a great calm. — Thomas A Kempis. From The Imitation of Christ
*** Through all months, years, yugas and cosmic cycles, through all (divisions of time) past and future the consciousness remains the same and self-luminous. It neither rises, nor sets. — Panchadashi |
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