The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Explosive frustration

MILITANTS have marked the end of the ceasefire in Kashmir with a ghastly car bomb explosion claiming 11 lives. There is uncertainty about the group behind the massacre. First, the Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility but later when it perhaps learnt that among the victims were several media people, it withdrew the statement. Then the Hizbul Mujahideen came forward to own it up. Horrendous that the Thursday attack was, it was not entirely unexpected. Pakistani minions were bound to flex their muscles through such a bloody spectacle. What was obviously unanticipated was the location of the massacre. That they could strike at the very heart of Srinagar is cause for alarm. The security agencies have an elaborate plan to avoid exactly such an eventuality. Apparently it did not work this time. Certain basic precautions were not taken despite similar attacks in the past. The car bomb explosion was preceded by a grenade attack. That made civilians flee the scene but caught the security personnel and mediamen off-guard. The car in which the deadly RDX was hidden was a stolen bank vehicle. Perhaps that is why it did not evoke suspicion. In the run-up to August 15, many such incidents are likely and the security forces will have to be on their toes to frustrate the designs of the enemies of the country. Now that they have tie-ups with certain nations which have a long experience of tackling terrorism, a near-foolproof defence plan can, should, be worked out.

The never-ending loss of precious lives is heart-rending but should not weaken the national resolve. After all, there is a war going on out there and one has to pay a price for the unity and integrity of the nation. One can only minimise it; total elimination is not possible if one happens to be blessed with a neighbour like Pakistan. It has proved once again that it is determined to ensure that peace does not dawn in the valley. It is not the Indian Government’s propaganda but a statement of fact that it turned every lever at its command to ensure that the talks between the Indian Government and the Hizbul Mujahideen failed. But despite its best efforts, certain developments have taken place, which may not be to its liking. One, the fissures between Kashmiri militants and foreign mercenaries are now too pronounced to be glossed over. Two, the disillusionment with violence is growing in the valley. There is a large section which has realised the futility of the gun culture and even understood that Pakistan cannot be a friend or saviour. The mindless violence let loose by foreign mercenaries has shocked the followers of Kashmiriyat. Those who plant remote control devices in the centre of a volleyball court where a match between two local schools is to be held can hardly claim to be sympathisers. Victims of militant violence have slowly and hesitantly started coming to the aid of the security agencies. Such public support is essential for a meaningful turnaround. Therein lies a ray of hope for the future. Significantly, New Delhi has kept the door open for negotiations. The Government of India has ruled out any dialogue with the Harkat-ul-Ansar or the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which are manned entirely by Pakistani nationals, but is amenable to talks with “our people”. That includes the All-Party Hurriyat Conference besides the Hizbul Mujahideen. Both are striking an exceptionally menacing posture at the moment but the indigenous Kashmiris might reassess their strategy soon enough. While the condition to include Pakistan in the talks has been rightly rejected, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has, significantly, announced that India is prepared to hold bilateral talks with Islamabad despite the fact that it is under military rule. India has shown that it is concerned with restoration of peace in Kashmir and elsewhere and not restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Here is an opportunity which General Musharraf has to grab, with pragmatic maturity that the export of terrorism is a double-edged weapon which has harmed his own country as much as it has hurt India.

The end of an era

SHE is the grand old stateswoman of South Asia and with the retirement of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan politics has come a full circle and it marks the total eclipse of democratic socialism in the region. Ordained by death to enter politics on the assassination of her Prime Minister-husband Solomon Bandaranaike, she struggled and charmed her way into changing the soul and society of her country. Compared to her achievements, becoming the first woman Prime Minister in the world is merely for the Limca Book of Records. If the island-republic boasts of an enviable record in education, health, housing, income distribution and a balanced economy, much credit goes to her. She introduced drastic land ceiling (losing in the process about 1000 acres of ancestral land), ceiling on houses and income and used the revenue to spread literacy, medicare and generate employment opportunities. Like her husband who converted to socialism during his university days in Britain, she too embraced what was then the ideology of the newly liberated countries. Banks, insurance companies, petroleum outlets, and several key industries came under state control. At the beginning of the new millennium all this sounds whimsical if not regressive, but in the sixties and the seventies they had glamour and looked a short-cut to flee feudalism and enter the industrial age. Export consisted only of coconut, tea and rubber; by the time she ended her second term in 1975 several other products joined the list. In the early eigthies Sri Lanka had better and enviable social indices than what Kerala has today and barring average income, Kerala today is comparable to any developed country.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike had also major failings. She introduced the Sinhala only policy and that set the fuse for the Tamil agitation. She radically amended the education and employment rules to nudge the system close to Sri Lanka for the Sinhalas syndrome. In fact, she it was who changed the country name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. The Tamil grew extremely suspicious since her husband had started the anti-minority drive by denying citizenship right to about one million plantation workers. When there were street protests and passionate speeches, she deployed the puny army to crackdown on the Tamils. She thus sowed the seeds of the ongoing bloody civil war. Of course other leaders contributed but she leads the pack. Despite her pronounced anti-Tamil (rather pro-Sinhala) bias, she established close ties with this country, solved the stateless persons dispute, recovered an uninhibited island from India, secured generous military help when Sri Lanka’s own naxalites waged an armed struggle and managed to put down an army coup. It is remarkable how the history of two countries ran parallel for more than three decades.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike is very old and totally infirm. Her Prime Ministership was a gift from her daughter, President Chandrika Kumaratunga who faced a revolt in her party over competiting claims from senior leaders. Today she has reclaimed the post and offered it to an old guard who has impeccable credentials as a Sinhala hawk. He will get her votes when the general election takes place in a few months’ time. It is a quirk of history that the political sins of the father and mother have caught up with the daughter and in a bind, she is trying to reverse history with no success. The mother bows out but the daughter battles on.

Iran: setback to reform

THE reform movement in Iran, which had been on the ascendant since the February-May parliamentary (Majlis) elections when it secured a majority in the House under the guidance of President Khatami, has suffered a serious setback with the supreme religious leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei issuing a decree preventing any amendment in the highly restrictive Press law enacted by the conservative-dominated previous parliament during its final days. The harsh law has come handy to the pro-conservative judiciary to force the closure of one pro-reform publication after another during the past few months. The last and twentieth reformist newspaper, Bahar, close to President Khatami, was banned on Tuesday. Bahar’s crime was that it carried a statement by the President’s brother and head of the single largest party in parliament, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mr Mohammad Raza Khatami, describing the supreme religious leader’s dreaded order as a “plot against parliament”. The decree disallowed parliament to debate a motion aimed at liberalising the Press restrictions imposed by the previous legislature. The Press law has it that any application for launching a new publication should undergo a very tough scrutiny, and the papers which violate the provisions of the legislation should be punished severely. The law also prohibits the Information Ministry from issuing licences liberally for starting new publications as has been the practice since Mr Khatami took over as President.

When the conservatives got the controversial legislation enacted they did it with the specific purpose of taming the pro-reform publications. However, the reformists thought that with a comfortable majority in parliament, they would be able to make it less severe. Their hopes have been dashed against the ground with the intervention of Ayatullah Khamenei, who has got overriding powers to checkmate any institution of the Iranian system of democracy from functioning as it wishes. Moreover, any piece of legislation passed by parliament has to go to the conservative-dominated Council of Guardians who will never hesitate to block a law intended to strengthen the reform movement going on under the leadership of President Khatami. The banning of all publications promoting reforms must be a quite upsetting development for the President. And he is not the one who will take this lying down. It will be interesting to watch his moves in the coming days.

THE UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR
Governor or Chief Justice?
by Bhim S. Dahiya

THE various commissions and committees on the universities appointed by the Government of India in the past 50 years have been unanimous on keeping universities free from the governmental interference. In their wisdom, the first commission on education headed by Dr Radhakrishanan as well as the others that followed it considered the making of the Governor as Chancellor of all the state universities a sure safeguard against the governmental interference in the universities. Dr P.B. Gajendragadekar, a former Chief Justice of India, too, headed the Committee on the Governance of Universities and Colleges. This committee also prepared a Model Act for the universities, which became the basis for framing the Acts of the universities created after 1971. In fact, even those that had come up earlier were asked to follow the Model Act by suitably amending their old charters, which they did. On the subject of the university’s relation with the government, Dr Gajendragadekar committee had observed the following.

At the same time, we would not like the government to interfere directly with the functioning of a university. By making it essential that the authority of the state is exercised through the President or the Governor in his capacity as the Visitor or Chancellor the possibility of direct intervention by government officials in the functioning of university would be eliminated.

Precisely the opposite of what is intended here has happened in the state universities, where the Governor of the state has been the Chancellor of the university. In fact, the office of the Governor as Chancellor has been the main entry door for the government to ruthlessly interfere in the functioning of the universities. It will not be farfetched to say that the Chancellors of our universities have only been acting as conduit pipes for the Chief Ministers of the state. The political Chief Ministers have been taking the Governors for granted and have been announcing at times even before the actual appointment who would head the university next. In some cases, where the Governor showed some resistance to such recommendations made by the Chief Minister, the latter got the University Act amended, making it obligatory on the part of the Governor to appoint Vice-Chancellors on the advice of the government (which in practice means the Chief Minister).

We have now clauses inserted to this effect in the Acts of the universities of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and several other states. Even i terms of the Model Act, the Chancellor does not seem to have much to do with the day-to-day functioning of the university. He only appoints the Vice-Chancellor and leaves the university entirely to his supervision. The only other role assigned to him is the approval of enactment or amendment of statutes. Of course, as an appointing authority he can also dismiss the Vice-Chancellor. And several worthies heading the universities have been dismissed in the state of Haryana alone. In many state universities, politicians have procured resignations of Vice-Chancellors under duress. In several cases, the operation was conducted indirectly through the party cadre students adept in the art of removing Vice-Chancellors. Whatever the case, the dismissal always came as political operation by the Chief Minister or his political outfits. The victims did approach the courts, but the law upheld the authority.

The point to ponder here is, of course, the authority of the Chancellor to appoint Vice-Chancellors in the state of which he is the Governor. This authority in actual practice is used invariably by the Chief Minister. The outcome of this practice has not been very happy in most states. If we look through, first of all, the list of those who have adorned the honourable office of the Vice-Chancellor, we shall find a large number of them having not very distinguished academic credentials. Regular politicians, retired and serving civil servants, retired Army Generals and Brigadiers, Deputy Registrars and Assistant Registrars, and even persons with criminal records have headed the institutions of higher learning in many state universities. In the opinion of Dr Radhakrishanan, a Vice-Chancellor is the chief academic and executive officer of his university. He must command their [of staff and students] confidence both by academic reputation and by strength of personality. He must be the keeper of the university’s conscience, both by setting the highest standard by example and by dealing promptly and firmly with indiscipline or malpractice of any kind. Last, he must have the strength of character to resist unflinchingly the many forms of pressure to relax standards of all sorts, which are being applied to universities today.”

Attainments and moral authority apart, we have seen so many incumbents to this august office accused of corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, casteism and open political commitment. Some of them were even arrested by the police or were physically removed from office. In several cases, the charges were proved true. In other, the charges were found to have been framed only to ease out those inconvenient to powers that be.

That in actual practice the Vice-Chancellors of the state universities are picked up by the Chief Minister for reasons entirely unacademic has been known to all of us for a long time. We have seen the aspiring candidates mobilising support among MLAs and those close to the Chief Minister, including his sons and daughters, for securing the office of the Vice-Chancellor. We have also seen some of them doing regular party work for protest rallies and election meetings to be later rewarded with an appointment to this public office. We have seen, too, Vice-Chancellors seeking approval of the Chief Minister for numerous appointments to be made in the university. Consequently, we have come to have in the state universities unacademic and unsuitable teachers in large numbers, non-working and ill-educated employees in excess of the required number, and a whole bunch of regular party cadres admitted as students every year whose only job is to see that the party interests are served at all occasions and in all spheres of the university. Majority of these universities can claim nothing much in the name of academic excellence, and are content to act as routine teaching institutions with the conduct of examinations as their supreme activity.

One of the effective ways to recover our universities from the fallen state is to ensure that proper Vice-Chancellors are appointed, which can be possible only if the Governor is no longer the Chancellor of the university. In his famous report on the Model Act, the committee headed by Dr D.S. Kothari had recommended the following on the subject of Chancellorship.

“The Chancellorship should be an office of honour to which a person may be elected by the court [of the university]. It might be desirable to establish a convention under which, say the Chief Justice of High Court or a person held in similar esteem is elected to this office. In the University of Delhi, for example, the Chancellor is elected by the court but by convention, the court has always been electing the Vice-President of India as Chancellor. In certain circumstances it might be possible to elect a distinguished former Vice-Chancellor to this office.”

Although most recommendations of this committee were got incorporated in the Acts of the old and new universities in the country, it is no surprise that this particular recommendation has not found favour to date in any state of the Indian Union. The reason is very simple. The Chief Ministers do not want to have any dealings with the Chief Justices, because the kind of dealings they are used to would find no receiving ear in the higher judiciary. The Governors, on the contrary, are in most cases their own fellow politicians, and quite often from the same political party. Another favourite category for the office of the constitutional head of the state is bureaucracy, whose retired members are rewarded with the coveted position. They are equally convenient to the Chief Ministers because of their long experience of obeying the minister. Even otherwise, by virtue of his constitutional position, the Governor gets used to signing all papers that come from the government offices, and to accepting all advice that comes from the Chief Minister.

Keeping in view the circumstances obtaining in our country today, the choice of the Chancellor cannot be left to any convention, particularly in the areas in which politicians are the leading players. Also, we cannot leave the choice of the Chancellor to the university court, of which the members are appointees of either the Vice-Chancellor or the government. Directly or indirectly, most members owe their allegiance to these two authorities, and as such nothing laudable can be expected of the lamentable lot. We need not go into the details of how the members are nominated and what categories of people find their way into these bodies. Enough to say that in the Indian situation today, election of the Chancellor by the court is not in the best interests of higher education.

The only way to ensure fairness in the functioning of the university at all levels of its hierarchy is to have the Chief Justice of the High Court as the Chancellor of all the state universities. In the midst of an all-round degeneration of our institutions, higher judiciary still enjoys the highest respect in our country. Universities can hope to have no better deal today than having as their Chancellor the Chief Justice of the High Court. In the present situation, this seems to be the only panacea available to us for all the numerous ills with which our universities are infected. In fact, owing to the routine political pressures always operating on the Chief Minister and the Governor, they cannot be expected (even if exceptionally inclined to act fair) to be non-partisan and entirely impartial. It is only Chief Justice who is free from such political pressures, for he does not owe his office to the vote bank of any caste or community, area or region. Nor is he surrounded by an army of parasites who must be provided with positions of power and privilege. By virtue of his office as well as by training and temperament, the Chief Justice of the High Court is the best person not only for appointing proper Vice-Chancellors but also for ensuring an impartial functioning of the institutions of higher learning. It is high time we depoliticised our universities in order that they are allowed to achieve academic excellence for which they are created and without which no nation can advance on the path of progress.

The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University.

Farm policy — pretence and reality
by Balraj Mehta

THE agricultural policy statement of the NDA government released recently received little attention from the politicians, academics and media. But its significance and implications, economic, social and political, are far-reaching and more grave than the transient excitement such as, for instance, over the ouster of a minister because of his tiff with high judiciary and even the reorganisation of the states in the Indian union and their autonomy.

What is proposed in the agricultural policy statement is the corporatisation of Indian agriculture instead of land to the tiller or even co-operatisation of farming. This is the denouncement of the so-called economic reforms initiated by the Congress Government in 1991 and marks a decisive and final break from the economic and social commitments of the national movement for political independence of India.

The agricultural sector too is now proposed to be dragged by the BJP-led government into the vortex of the liberalisation-globalisation process. This is indeed the most striking feature of the second phase of the ongoing market-friendly economic reforms.

The first step in this direction was taken, before even the NDA government’s agricultural policy statement was formulated. What are called quantitative restrictions on export and import of agricultural commodities were agreed to be lifted under a bilateral pact with the US administration. The hazard, in particular, of imports of foodgrains from private corporations abroad was blissfully ignored. Also ignored was the fact that India neither has now nor is likely to have in the foreseeable future genuine export surpluses in agricultural commodities, especially foodgrains, on a steady and sustainable basis. The concept of food security, which has been an overriding national concern, has been diluted, if not abandoned.

The promise of a growth rate of 4 per cent per annum in the agricultural sector made in the policy statement lacks both conviction and credibility. This is akin to the elusive 12 to 13 per cent rate of growth in industry and 8 per cent rate of overall economic growth, which were promised when the market-friendly economic policy was launched a decade ago.

The fact is that the rate of growth in agriculture has decelerated sharply in the last decade. It has been only 1.7 per cent per annum, lower than the rate of growth of population. The availability of agricultural commodities, especially foodgrains, has declined. The market prices of farm commodities have come under upward pressure. The vulnerability of Indian agriculture and 70 per cent of the population which depends on it for livelihood has become stark.

Populist schemes, poorly conceived and badly implemented may still be launched from time to time to obfuscate reality. The universal crop insurance scheme is a case in point. The move to revamp the foodgrains public distribution seemingly in favour of the poor has turned out to be a hoax. The talk of giving priority to the growth of agriculture and rural development has gone no further than niggardly increases in budgetary allocations even as the large shortfalls in the expenditure and gross under-utilisation of allocated funds have been scandalous. Public investment in agricultural development has been drastically scaled down in the hectic effort to catch up with the logic of market-friendly “efficient” economic growth.

Surpluses of foodgrains relative to effective demand in the domestic market may arise in India from time to time because of skewed land ownership and farm operations. This is because the bulk of the incremental production is tending to come mainly from commercial farming on large and medium farms rather than subsistence farming on small farms. This is to be attributed to the failure to carry out genuine land reforms combined with monopoly rights of big farmers on and denial of access for small farmers to infrastructural facilities, inputs and credit for increasing farm production and productivity.

If, however, the share of small and marginal farmers in land ownership and operations is protected, if not enhanced, there will be more efficient labour — intensive farming than under the present semi-feudal land relations and farm practices which depend heavily on costly inputs and labour-saving devices. The generation of marketable surpluses relative to effective demand may also decline somewhat because a sizeable part of the incremental production will go for self-consumption of the mass of the deprived and exploited small farmers and farm workers. But this too will be the most potent way really to alleviate mass poverty in India. The question here is of priorities that should guide public policy — adequate food for the mass of the Indian humanity or maintaining a system of exploitation and deprivation of those who labour on land.

The agricultural policy statement of the NDA government has made it explicit that it gives priority to the export and import of agricultural commodities rather than satisfaction of the consumption needs of the mass of the people in the country who for want of adequate purchasing power are unable to provide a profitable market for those who generate marketable surpluses in agricultural commodities. The logical extension of this reasoning is to apply the reverse gear to even the half-hearted land reforms carried out in India so far. Not land to the tiller but “viable” farming, based on effective demand in the market, domestic and global, has been elevated to the status of high principle and economic wisdom. The official policy has shifted in favour of easing formal ceiling on land ownership to promote large operational holdings. Exemptions and reservations are proposed to be devised to encourage “modern farming” by business corporations. The enforcement of the ceiling laws has been thwarted in the past by the vested interests in many ingenious ways. The claims on surplus land thus grabbed are now proposed to be given legal sanctions and protection.

The decontrol of prices of agricultural commodities and drastic reduction of subsidies is very much on the cards as part of the agricultural policy of the NDA government. Reliance on credit flows from commercial banks and financial institutions essentially to the “viable” farmers for “efficient” growth of agricultural production and productivity are bound to make matters worse for the small farmers. Collateral requirements tend to discriminate against them. Transaction costs associated with borrowing are becoming more and more prohibitive for them. Delays in the sanction of loans due to administrative inefficiency and corruption add to their woes. The rural poor, therefore, still borrow heavily from sahukars who grant loans to them on a personal basis but at exorbitant rates. Institutional sources of credit benefit the upper strata rather than the poor in the rural society. Direct assistance from the state must not, therefore, be pruned or phased out. It must be regulated to reach only the poor. Direct budgetary assistance to them has to be combined with upgrading of social services like education, health and drinking water in the rural areas. Failing all this, production and productivity in the agricultural sector cannot develop on a broad social base.

Hardly one-third of the GDP (gross domestic product) is at present generated in agriculture and allied occupations of the economy. But it provides sustenance to over 70 per cent of the population. The focus of official economic “reform” policy is, however, on the urban corporate business, and commercial farming and their concerns, claims and demands. It is remarkable that already the tertiary (the services) sector of the economy is estimated to have grown to command 50 per cent of the GDP, which is totally out of step with rational share in the real economy of the overburdened agriculture as well as domestic industry. In any meaningful scheme of growth of the Indian economy with mass welfare, what happens to agriculture — its social base and levels of production and productivity is indeed crucial. The decline in its share in GNP means poverty for the mass of the people.

The healing power of mantra
by Tavleen Singh

IN a joyless, neon-lit room in Bombay Hospital in the saddest of circumstances I met a man who we of scientific bent ordinarily dismiss as a faith healer. Tapasvi Dr Janak Shahi had flown to Mumbai, as he has done every other night for several weeks, to help a friend of mine who has stomach cancer. That night her condition had deteriorated to an extent that doctors told her relatives there was nothing they could do for her at all. So, she lay huddled in the hospital bed, breathing in short, shallow spurts, her body bloated with fluid that could not be removed because it could weaken her further and in any case would come back again. By the time Tapasviji arrived there was so much despair in that white room with its white lights that it had become a tangible thing.

My first impression of Tapasviji was that he looked as little like a holy man as possible. No saffron, no beads, no ash on the forehead. He wore a safari suit and had the air of a middle-aged businessman on a trip to the city. When I arrived he was comforting my friend’s sister who was in tears because the doctors had said there was no hope at all. Did he think there was hope, I asked, and he said: “In the end it is in God’s hands whether someone lives or dies but once before the doctors said the same thing and I managed to take her home. So, let us hope”.

It was the one emotion that had no place in this bleak room with its stark, white hopelessness. The only person who even dared mention it was Tapasviji. He was also the only one who dared smile and talk of normal things. He went about his treatment with the brisk movements of a doctor. He washed his hands and then seated himself down beside his patient as if he were about to physically examine her. He reached his hands out towards her stomach but stopped short of actually touching her and then with eyes closed, as if in meditation, he moved them in the way Reiki masters do. After a few moments of this he placed them on her stomach and then the treatment was over.

What had he done? “I recite a mantra in my head and that is what will cure her. It’s as old as India this therapy, even Krishna talks of it in the Gita and says this is the knowledge that is the most secret of all secrets”. This is exactly the kind of talk that instantly makes non-believers like me uncomfortable but, for the sake of my friend, I was prepared to give Tapasviji a full hearing. So, we sat on rexene chairs in a small anteroom and I let him do all the talking.

This is his story. “I was born in a poor, peasant family in Bihar. As a boy, I was about nine, I went with my family to Rishikesh and after bathing in the Ganga had this extraordinary vision of Shiva standing before me. He said that since I could see him he would grant me a boon, anything I wanted and he smiled. I thought everyone else could see him as well and just treated it as normal that he should be there. I told him that my mother wanted me to be a doctor and he said that I would become the doctor of all doctors and gave me five mantras and told me to meditate on them for an hour every day.”

Again, the sort of talk that makes people like me extremely suspicious but when you are in the same room as a person who has been told that they are going to die you are prepared to believe. So, I listened on and Tapasviji recounted how he spent 10 years meditating on the mantra he had received from Shiva and how (on Shiva’s instructions) it was only after this that he started to use his powers of healing. First, there were small things. He would touch a sick school friend and make him better and word spread of his powers. “They said I had something in my hands, some shakti but I only began to take the whole thing seriously when a teacher had a heart attack and I managed to save his life. After that I came to Delhi and since then I have had so many patients that there are almost more than I can handle. I also have proof that 90 per cent of those I treat get cured.”

If I came and saw him in Delhi, he said, he would show me videos of cured patients. Even an atheist like Somnath Chatterjee had agreed to be interviewed to admit that his wife had been cured by Tapasviji’s mantra therapy. Politicians seemd particularly under his spell and one of his three centres in Delhi had been built specially for the treatment of members of Parliament. He also had a centre in New York and would like to build one in Mumbai if he manages to get enough support.

So, were his healing powers to do with shakti or could we say that there was also vidya involved? Was it just a gift from Shiva or was there knowledge behind the idea of mantra therapy. It was both, he said, it was definitely both because he had expanded his collection of mantras from the five Shiva gave him to 50,000 and was passing his knowledge on to other people. His son had already begun practising the medical skills taught him by his father.

It may have been that despite my sincere efforts to listen with an open mind I still had scepticism written all over my face because my friend’s parents insisted that Tapasviji give me a demonstration of his skills. So, he asked me to write my name and date of birth on a paper I tore out of my notebook. He then took my pen and scribbled all over it in a script that looked like a strange mixture of Roman and Devnagari. He said it was code and in this code script he had written a mantra which I should now place on any part of my body. This I did and admit that the paper exuded a strange heat. Tapasviji then placed his hand on my back for about a minute or so and again I admit that I felt as if he had taken out of my body the weariness of the long day (it was now around 10 p.m.) and put some strange, indefinable energy back into it.

Maybe all this is mumbo-jumbo, maybe all that Tapasviji has is some kind of special power, maybe there is no such thing as mantra therapy. But, we need to examine it scientifically.

If only because for those to whom modern doctors say there is no hope there have to be other ways to hope. My friend believes she would have died already if Tapasviji had not come into her life. If not from the cancer she would have died of despair the day they opened her stomach up and told her she had the kind of cancer that could neither be operated upon nor respond to chemotherapy. The chemotherapy happened any way and the first dose of it made her hair fall out in huge handfuls. It was that night that someone told her about Tapasviji. Since then he has flown in every other night to treat her and then fly back to Delhi on the early morning flight.

The night I met him he had come in on an evening flight and was flying back the same night but when he saw my friend’s condition he decided to stay the night. When he told her was the only moment she miled. As a final sceptical question I asked Tapasviji if he charged money for his healing and he said no but he accepted donations from those who wished to give them.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

A gentleman admiring the lights in his room wanted to monopolise and copyright it. So in order to enjoy it all by himself (and cut it off from others) he pulled down the curtains and shut the doors, and lo! The very effort to possess it turned the light into darkness.

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The causes of jealousy, hatred, heartaches can all be summed up in the single word "Gossip".

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The sane man is like a well-made watch — trained to keep correct time under all conditions of temptation (temperature) pressure or environment.

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Most misery is caused by not being exact in your talk, food or conduct. A mathematician should be exact. Science demands exactness. H2O exact ratio.

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To take away God from history is to take away the sun from Heaven.

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At the bottom of all fears lies selfishness.

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Truth needs no defence or defenders.

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Man be true to yourself and the world is true to you.

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The true gauge of success is Soul-growth.

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You must daily bathe in truth, cold as spring water, not warmed by the sympathy of friends.

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Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God.

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All the doors of life are inscribed "Pull". They open inward towards the individual himself; and yet we often read amiss and begin to "Push".

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A little dynamite from within destroys the whole superstructure which held it.

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And when you look with the eye of trust,

you will conquer even the dust.

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Better than any theology is man.

Better than any metaphysical idea of God is woman.

— Swami Ramatirtha, Notebook VII. In Woods of God Realisation, Vol. IV