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| Thursday,
October 26, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Change of guard in UP Forever a Congressman Punjab’s telecom giant
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by Hari Jaisingh
Where govt makes anti-women laws
Infantry loses its charm
Overcome your desires
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Change of guard in UP THAT
the UP Chief Minister, Mr Ram Prakash Gupta, is shown the door before the assembly elections next September was almost certain. UP watchers also knew that he would have to quit office as soon as the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, was in Delhi after his knee operation in Mumbai. The BJP
Central leadership had no two opinions on this issue, specially in view of the party's disastrous performance in the recent civic and panchayat polls in the state under Mr Gupta's stewardship. There is, therefore, nothing surprising if he has been asked to resign to pave the way for the installation of the Union Surface Transport Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, as the new Chief Minister. What is really surprising is the choice of the new incumbent. Till a few days ago Mr Rajnath Singh had declared that he was unwilling to go back to UP and was happy with what he had got as a Union Minister. But the BJP high command perhaps had few options. The party needed a strategist after the exit of Mr Kalyan Singh, now heading his own outfit, the Rashtriya Kranti Party. Among the others in the race for UP's Chief Ministership — Mr Lalji Tandon and Mr Om Prakash Singh — could not be given as much marks as Mr Rajnath Singh. Since he comes from one of the dominant castes — Thakur — and his party's state unit is headed by a Brahmin, Mr Kalraj Mishra, Mr Rajnath Singh's elevation may help the BJP in consolidating its position among its traditional supporters. More than that, the Chief Minister- designate is a shrewd organiser, and may be successful in providing a new life to his party. Yet there is the possibility of Mr Rajnath Singh ending up as a Sushma Swaraj. It took Mrs Swaraj quite a long time to find a berth in the Union Ministry after she lost Delhi's Chief Ministership following the BJP's humiliating defeat in the 1998 assembly elections. Mr Rajnath Singh knows that the BJP's following has eroded to a great extent during the past few years. It has alienated itself from the OBCs, as the state's Tourism Minister, Mr Ashok Yadav, revealed recently. The OBCs, whose support is crucial for any party for capturing power, appear more inclined towards either Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party or Mr Kalyan Singh's Rashtriya Kranti Party. People in general are sick of the BJP because it has been making only promises. It has always preferred to raise emotional issues, ignoring the acute problem of law and order and economic development. The state's economy is in a very poor shape. Some time ago the UP Government had announced certain austerity measures to reduce the yawing gap between the revenue receipts and expenditures, but these have remained only on paper. The result is that the unadjusted fiscal deficit, which stood at Rs 11,631 crore in 1989, may rise to Rs 12,639 crore by the end of the current financial year. There is widespread unemployment, and the situation is worsening day by day. Thus besides bothering about the caste factor, Mr Rajnath Singh will have to concentrate on the economic reconstruction of UP to restore the confidence of the people in his party. This alone can secure his future and that of the BJP. |
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Forever a Congressman SITARAM
KESRI was a politician whose moment of glory never came. He received his baptism in politics at the feet of Babu Rajendra Prasad and a virtue which stayed with him forever was his fierce loyalty to the Congress. Among the many lessons which he learned from his mentor was the one about how to cope with the treacherous caste politics of Bihar, at that point of time dominated by the Brahmins and the Bhumihars. He was a street-smart Bania whose ability to come up with the right calculation for political survival stood him in good stead for the best part of his career. In the mid-sixties he graduated to the national level where Indira Gandhi's sharp political mind saw in Kesri the makings of a courtier who would never become a Brutus. Her assessment of his usefulness proved correct when she took the daring gamble of taking on the Syndicate in 1969 which resulted in the first post-Independence split in the Congress. Sitaram Kesri was among the first Congressmen to express loyalty to Indira Gandhi. He even spoke approvingly in public about the advent of the Nehru dynasty (it was later modified to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty when Sanjay Gandhi and a reluctant Rajiv Gandhi were inducted in the party by their mother). Not surprisingly, Chacha Kesri was sought out by 1 Safdarjung, then the official residence of the Prime Minister, and entrusted with the delicate and difficult task of keeping a protective watch on a politically and personally reckless Sanjay Gandhi. In 1980 he was made the Congress treasurer in recognition of the services he had rendered to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The death of Sanjay Gandhi and Indira Gandhi within a span of four years left Chacha Kesri a bit politically disoriented. The octogenarian Congress leader found Rajiv Gandhi to be a young man in a hurry. It was not only Kesri but most of the other senior Congressmen who felt out of place in the new dispensation. They were as uncomfortable with Rajiv Gandhi as he was with them. The new Prime Minister had all the time for Amitabh Bachchan, but none for the dhoti-clad veteran Congressman. The Sam Pitrodas, the Arun Nehrus and the Arun Singhs could walk into the PMO without any let or hindrance, but not Chacha Kesri. His political relevance was discovered when Zail Singh from Rashtrapati Bhavan turned the heat on Rajiv Gandhi. He became politically more useful when Mr V. P. Singh launched the Jan Morcha and accused Rajiv Gandhi of being involved in the Bofors scam. But he annoyed a large number of out-of-power Congressmen by supporting Mr V.P. Singh's Mandal initiative. He was among the few leaders who understood the political advantage of supporting the Mandal line. And when Kesri became Congress President, by default and not design, he once again became unpopular for attempting an important political course correction by trying to build bridges with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ms Mayawati — who among them represent the bulk of the Dalit constituency. He did become ambitious as Congress President which was reflected in the politically fatal decision to withdraw support to the United Front government. Most Congressmen were happy when the media described him as the old man in a hurry. And they celebrated the ascension of Ms Sonia Gandhi as the protector of the Nehru-Gandhi version of the Congress. How? By going on the rampage inside the office given to Chacha Kesri as President of the oldest surviving political party in the country. In his last days he stood lonely and friendless. Which is a pity, because Sitaram Kesri may have had many weaknesses, but betraying the Congress was not one of them. |
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Punjab’s telecom giant A telecom giant from Ludhiana? Yes, the Mittals-managed BhartiTel is poised to emerge as one. It makes telephones, operates cellular service in Madhya Pradesh, eyes basic telephony in Mumbai and has now taken a firm step to enter the international long distance sector. On Tuesday Bharti Tel signed a joint venture project with SingTel (Singapore Telecom) to lay a high-density undersea cable to link that city with Chennai and Mumbai. Since Singapore is well connected to the entire world, the cable will open up immense possibilities of providing international long distance communication and internet service. It is the first private enterprise of this nature, and with a capacity to carry 8.4 terabytes (trillion bytes) it will be the most powerful. It promises to be an eminently profitable proposition what with the south and the west galloping ahead in software business. BhartiTel will lease out a part of the capacity to others while itself providing trunk service. With Chennai-based Dishnet also planning to lay a similar cable, the resulting competition will bring down the tariff. That will have to wait until the end of next year or 2002. FLAG (Fibre Link Across the Globe) is poised to increase its strength, and the telecom scene is set for both exciting growth and inexpensive service. The government decided to end the monopoly of interntional telephony of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) some months ago but BhartiTel was ready with an agreement with SingTel to invest as much as $400 million in India. In the undersea cable venture the foreign organisation will put in only $ 250 of the total cost of $ 650 million. The 11,800-km-long cable will carry so much bytes that will soon be the pride of private enterprise in India and abroad. It represents the latest technology (self-healing) and is being specially designed and laid by the French firm Alcatel and the Fujitsu of Japan and will cost as much as $ 250 million. The rest of the money will be spent on setting up ancillary facilities. It is a grand vision and paves the way for an Indian venture to take a bow as a major telecom player in the world, not only in India or Asia. Unlike in the insurance business, Indian firms have done very well in the telecom sector. India is a hesitant new entrant but has stolen a march by sheer determination and self-esteem. BhartiTel is an outstanding example though there are many more. Yet it is necessary to point out that while the laying of the new optic fibre glass cable to link Chennai with Singapore is welcome, the rural areas too should come on the radar screen of the telephone providers. BhartiTel claims that the new cable is a percursor of a tight domestic cable network to carry internal STD (subscriber trunk dialing). In other words, it is ready to offer less expensive trunk telephone service. It has not set a timeframe, meaning that people have to wait till 2002 for the benefit. Good going, as Amitabh Bchchan will say in his celebrated Kaun Banega Crorepati television show. |
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GREYING
OF GREEN REVOLUTION PRIME
MINISTER Atal Bihari Vajpayee has only temporarily bailed out Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from a messy paddy crisis in Punjab. The Centre has been equally considerate in giving similar relief to Haryana. This is the BJP-led NDA government’s style of political management. It buys “peace” in every crisis situation. That is how the coalition government survives. It was Mr Badal’s resignation threat that did the trick. The Prime Minister, recovering from his knee surgery in Mumbai, realised the gravity of the situation and set the “solution ball” rolling. A good show in the circumstances. An ad hoc crisis management is, however, the standard practice of the powers that be. One crisis leads to another. One set of ad hoc response leads to another set of ad hocism. In practice, this is what constitutes the official agriculture policy, notwithstanding occasional high-sounding pronouncements of plans and programmes. It seems the Central and state governments are simply groping in the dark on the farm front. They are cut off from the ground realities. The policies adopted in the sixties and the seventies that ushered in and sustained the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana have lost their relevance in view of the changed domestic and global setting. That is the reason why the country is faced with a serious crisis despite bumper crops of paddy and wheat and their huge stocks. Why is it so? What are the problem areas? What should be the priorities to set things right? These questions have to be urgently attended to by the policy-makers at Krishi Bhavan and South Block. Since ours is basically an agrarian society, we need a total overhaul of our agriculture policy and programmes. Otherwise, the distress signals from the rural areas will become shriller and shriller in the months to come. In this context, I reproduce below a passage from the World Bank report on India’s foodgrain marketing policies (August, 1999): “Government policies and their implementation are also stifling the growth and modernisation of grain markets and processors and contributing to rising physical losses and wastage. A recent study estimates foodgrain post-harvest losses in India at about 7 to 10 per cent at the farm-to-market level and another 4 to 5 per cent at the marketing and distribution level. For the system as a whole, the losses equal to 12 to 16 million tonnes of grain (including all grains) per year —3 to 4 million tonnes of wheat and 5-7 million tonnes of rice. With an average per capita consumption of about 15 kg of foodgrains per month, these losses are enough to feed about 70 to 100 million people, about one-third of India’s poor, or the combined population of the states of Bihar and Haryana for almost a year.” It won’t be an exaggeration to say that of India’s agricultural policy is totally faulty. It is favourably disposed towards operators, both at the official and non-official levels, instead of being farmer and consumer-friendly. It is a fallacy to think that relief packages can solve problems. They are, at best, temporary measures—a sort of shadow-boxing. And it will be suicidal to take shadow-boxing as an exercise in substance. I have shared with readers any perspective on the paddy crisis. The time has come to go deeper in the matter and look for some definite clues to the sort of problems we are faced with. In today’s competitive milieu, it is necessary to treat agriculture as a commercial activity. Related to this concept are two important points—marketing and quality improvement of farm produce. These two major areas of challenge can no longer be ignored. Take the question of marketing first. It is shameful that the Central and state authorities have failed to evolve viable competitive marketing strategies to ensure a fair return to the farmers for the cost of inputs and labour. Wheat and rice apart, even farm produce like sunflower, soyabean, sarson and sugarcane have suffered on various counts, especially because of inadequate or poor marketing by official agencies. They hardly help farmers to earn more. It is a harsh fact that most official marketing outfits, set up in the sixties by the Centre and Punjab and Haryana as “friends” of farmers, have outlived their utility. They no longer serve the purpose in today’s changed situation. If anything, they have become white elephants thriving on the exploitation of farmers and consumers. The official marketing agencies like Markfed and Hafed were supposed to eliminate middlemen. Over a period, they have turned out to be worse than middlemen. The operations of the Food Corporation of India, which have expanded considerably, have become both “costly and inefficient”. Technical and management problems have also added to the FCI’s costs. The World Bank report (August, 1999) says: “Simply cutting the FCI’s operational costs by 10 per cent could save as much as $139 million (approximately Rs 630 crore) a year.” This one figure alone shows how uneconomical, wasteful and unwieldy the FCI operations have become over the years. We need to have a fresh look at its functioning. It will probably be better to disband it and Markfed, Punsup and other agencies since they have become major sources of political and administrative corruption. I doubt if the entrenched interests will let this happen. After all, the country has not been able to get the right answer to the politico-bureaucratic stranglehold in every area of national life, including the farm sector. From time to time farmers are advised to diversify, moving away from wheat and paddy to other cash crops. They do respond for a better price. But their efforts hardly get them a fair return in the absence of a reliable marketing back-up. In the end, everyone gains except the farmer, who consoles himself by blaming his fate. The other critical area is of educating farmers on the timings of sowing and harvesting. The right communication and timely advice can make a difference to the loss or gain of the farmers. There are any number of field offices of farm universities and agricultural departments set up for this purpose. But the question awaiting an honest answer is: are they playing the effective role expected of them? The trouble is that babus have become new czars. They conduct themselves under remote control with the result that the communication gap between the official machinery and farmers is becoming wider and wider. Another area which needs special care is the updating of farm technology. Even harvesting technology, including the design of the combine harvester, is faulty. The combine harvester is used both for paddy and wheat crops, though they have to be handled separately because the maturity time of paddy and wheat varies. It is said that the dependence on less technologically efficient millers and shellers implies that for “every 100 kg of paddy, about 4 to 20 kg of rice becomes unavailable for direct consumption as” it gets mixed into the rice bran. The working of agricultural universities needs a hard look. They require a total reorientation in their programmes and approach. There has to be a special stress on research and development at the university level. But farm research has actually suffered because of lack of funds and other factors which experts have often discussed. It is worth remembering that bad seed, bad technology, bad supervision and bad marketing cannot produce good results. We need to upgrade the marketing infrastructure and support services like mandi facilities, telecommunications, market information systems, roads and the grading system of grains. Equally vital is the national attention on linking agricultural policy to population. Modern technology is not labour-intensive. Gone is the old concept of seeking more hands for farming. Modern technology has made the old concept totally irrelevant. As for certain pressing problems faced by Punjab, it must be said that the state is undergoing rapid transformation on the socio-economic front. Rural Punjab has begun to nurse a feeling of neglect. It is also feeling left out in information technology. The Punjab farmer does sowing in November and remains idle till the harvesting time in April. In the absence of alternative work and village-based industries, more and more farmers in Punjab are becoming drug addicts. The rural youth too is getting restless and frustrated because of the lack of proper educational facilities, career-oriented programmes and job opportunities. Young persons, therefore, either look for greener pastures abroad or take to drugs or join anti-social elements. Such a setting may become the breeding ground for militancy once again. The alarm signals are very much there. Unfortunately, the authorities literally behave like the three mythical monkeys. They see no problem; they hear no problem; they refuse to talk about the real problem. No wonder, the farmer feels depressed. So is the rest of society. |
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Where govt makes anti-women laws SEVERAL Muslim countries in recent years have witnessed two simultaneous developments: one, the state making anti-women laws in the name of Sharia (Muslim law); and two, articulate and powerful women’s movements in the respective countries fighting against such laws. A few examples: Zamfara, one of Nigeria’s 30 states, has introduced certain laws in the name of Sharia. One of its provisions prohibits women and men from travelling together on public transport. Shia groups in Zamfara have criticised the government, saying that the state does not have the moral or constitutional authority to institute such laws in a secular and multi-religious state like Nigeria. A large number of women from various Muslim countries — including Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Senegal and Sudan — gathered in Nigeria last year and took note of the dangerous consequences of such laws introduced in the name of Sharia. Other countries with sizeable Muslim populations like India, Kenya and South Africa also participated in the protest. The Muslim women gathered in Nigeria declared that the laws were violative of their human rights even according to the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria. “We have already seen this happen in Afghanistan, where in the name of Islam and segregation of the sexes, women and girls no longer have access to education, health care services, jobs and other means of livelihood or the right to freedom of movement. Similarly, those who claim to be the flag-bearers have attacked girls’ right to education and women’s rights to mobility in Algeria, Bangladesh and elsewhere. We are alarmed that these abuses are being implemented under the guise of Islam,” declared the women’s gathering. Women in Kuwait are not allowed to vote and hold any political office. A Bill to give Kuwaiti women this right by 2003 was narrowly defeated in Kuwaiti parliament. However, the fight for this right is continuing. “Women’s rights” is a subject of serious discussion in Arab countries. In Saudi Arabia, human rights activists have demanded withdrawal of a law that prohibits women from driving. Women activists’ demands in the United Arab Emirates include their right to become Cabinet Ministers. There is a fairly strong movement in Bangladesh against the practice of issuing fatwa. Bangladesh is not governed by Sharia laws and fatwa is strictly prohibited. The national women’s policy of the present government clearly stipulates “that any attempt or step which is contrary to the fundamental rights of women and the law prevalent in the country through the interpretation of the injunctions of any religion at the local or national level will be strictly dealt with”. However, this societal practice of fatwa continues. At the same time there is a pressing demand from women’s groups in Bangladesh to strictly prohibit fatwas. Women’s groups are creating awareness specially in rural areas about this societal violation of women’s rights. In Iran, the women’s movements is striving hard to make its presence felt. Ms Faezale Hashemi, daughter of former President Rafsanjani, “has called for more freedom of dress and behaviour for women in the Islamic society”. There is no shame, she told a meeting, “about a girl proposing marriage to a boy. Why should a girl sit at home and wait for a male suitor to knock at her door one day?” Ms Hashemi, a reformist and a leading women’s rights activists working for the equality of women with men in Iran, would not stop her 16-year-old daughter “from proposing marriage to a boy”. She insists that women must have the freedom to wear clothes of their choice. They must not be compelled to wear the black chador (or a long robe and a scarf) which has been the prescribed clothing for women in Iran since the 1979 revolution. Ms Hashemi, who herself rides a bicycle in public, has demanded that women in Iran should be allowed to ride bicycles. Pakistan has introduced the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961, (MFLO) with a view to protecting and promoting human rights of women. This progressive law was challenged in January, 2000, in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) which directed the President of Pakistan to amend the 1961 MFLO “so as to bring the provisions into conformity with the injunctions of Islam”. One of the best known women’s groups in this part of the world, the Shirkat Gah based in Lahore, has recently brought out a special bulletin in which it has given an account of women’s struggle in Pakistan to promote women’s rights relating to marriage, child marriage, polygamy, divorce, inheritance and so on. The 1961 MFLO prescribed, for example, that every marriage performed under Muslim law should be registered; no man, during the subsistence of an existing marriage shall, except with the prior permission in writing of the Arbitration Council, contract another marriage. The Federal Shariat Court upheld some sections of the MFLO, but came down heavily on certain important beneficial provisions for women like divorce, inheritance, etc. Women’s and human rights groups like the Shirkat Gah and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have issued a number of statements criticising the FSC. These groups maintain that “it is not just the MFLO that has suffered over the years, the real victims have been the millions of women whose rights have been undermined by the sustained attack on the MFLO. It is now time to look back at all the recommendations made over the years for strengthening Muslim family law in Pakistan and moving forward to a situation where women’s rights within the family are fully legislated and implemented.” — IPA ——— The writer is Editor, PUCL Bulletin. |
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Infantry loses its charm INFANTRY DAY falls on October 27. On this day in 1947, one infantry battalion (1 Sikh) was flown from Gurgaon to Srinagar to prevent the bands of raiders, supported by the Pakistani Army, from capturing the Srinagar airfield. The airfield was saved but at the cost of heavy casualties, which included the Commanding Officer of the battalion, Lt-Col Dewan Ranjit Rai. Being a fighting arm that has to close in with the enemy to destroy or capture him, the infantry suffers much more casualties in battle than any other combat arm. Military history is replete with examples of sacrifices made by the infantry soldiers. Let us take a recent example which is fresh in our minds. This is what a Pakistani soldier, as quoted by the Time magazine, says about the Indian infantry in the Kargil war: “Those Indians were crazy. They came like ants. Our fingers got tired of shooting at them .... they just kept coming.” Did our infantry have any other choice than being cut down by a hail of bullets while climbing peaks in Kargil? Certainly not, if honour of the country was to be saved by evicting the Pakistani intruders from those formidable heights which they had stealthily occupied in our territory. Our casualties in the Kargil war were 527 killed and over 1000 wounded; of these over 90 per cent were from the infantry. Admittedly, this number of casualties was abnormally high in an action that we preferred to term as “a war like situation”. There is no denying the fact that despite the arduous terrain and the task given to the Army, we would not have suffered such a high rate of casualties if our Army was not so poorly equipped. Those who think that in the modern warfare, the infantry does not have an important role to play are not correct. For, notwithstanding the destruction caused by the multinational air force in the Gulf war in 1991, it was the ground battle that concluded the war. And it was the infantry that bore the brunt of the battle. Time was when a majority of the good cadets at the IMA, Dehra Dun, opted for the infantry and several of them who could not get this arm were disappointed. But today, “the queen of the battle”, as the infantry is called, has lost its charm so much so that it does not attract good cadets to its fold. They prefer to opt for the softer services like the ASC and the Ordnance. Why has the infantry become so unattractive? The reasons are not far to seek. What the infantry offers is a hazardous life in peace time and maximum risk to life in war. The continuing counter-insurgency (CI) operations in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North East have added another grim dimension to an infantryman’s life that keeps him face with death all the time. This is proved by the high rate of casualties that we suffer while quelling militancy. As it was, an infantry soldier had to live away from his family for the better part of his service. Things have become much worse now as peace tenures have become shorter due to the CI operations. Add to this the tenure Siachen where on an average we lose one soldier a week, thanks to the cruel cold climate in the glacier region which varies from -20 to -40 degrees Celsius. This problem has been aggravated by the Kargil war because now we have to hold most of the heights in the Kargil sector that we used to vacate earlier during the winters. The service conditions in the infantry becoming more and more difficult with every passing day, this arm has gone out of reckoning and there are hardly any takers for it. Rather than making service conditions better for an infantryman, our bureaucratic hierarchy is not leaving any stones unturned to make service more unattractive in this arm. Just see their wisdom in rating an infantryman as low as an “unskilled labourer” in the Fifth Pay commission report. The only way to attract our youth to join the infantry is to make the terms and conditions of service in it lucrative so that an infantry soldier is compensated for all the major disadvantages that he is loaded with at present. More important than this is to enhance the “izzat” of an infantryman which will go a long way in restoring the pristine glory of “the queen of the battle” to it that it has lost over the years. All said and done, there cannot be any better occasion for our top brass to focus on our foot soldier than the Infantry Day. This day should be devoted by them to positive thinking and planning to improve the terms and conditions of service in the infantry. |
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Overcome your desires DESIRE. You may be disappointed. Renounce. You may be rewarded. And He has His own ways. All unknown to man and his kind. Even in this age of science and technology. I recall an incident. May I share? It was a hot summer afternoon. Suddenly the car had a flat tyre. On a highway. The driver was doing the needful. I was standing and waiting. Doing nothing. Yet, I was feeling uncomfortable. Despite the shade. Next to me was a man lying. Almost without even a cover on his body. On a heap of stones. Some with sharp edges. He was fast asleep. Neither the heat nor the noise around was disturbing him. He was totally at peace. The sight could be the envy of many. Especially, the rich. The so-called well to do. He was probably a daily wager. Not rich. In fact, he was poor. Yet, he was totally at peace. In heaven. On this earth. In this world. Indifferent to everything around him. Why? His needs were few. He had virtually no desires. He was completely contented. Simply satisfied. It may be true that the poor pass through life on earth with great difficulty. But hardships only harden the man. The muscles too. Peril always creates extra power. Kites rise against the wind. Not with it. And then how much can money achieve? Can the rich reach heaven easily? Money cannot buy peace. It cannot give lasting happiness. We need to realise and understand this simple truth. But today, materialism has come to have its sway. Along with have come the miseries. Of avarice and greed. The man is always wanting more. And more. Not only money. Of everything. Man has reached the moon. Yet, he is not satisfied. Nor happy. Still, he has not stopped looking for more. One, who is continuously seeking, has to stay awake. Sleep is the price. For the inanimate worldly objects. Some ambition is certainly essential for progress. Some desire is desirable. However, at present greed governs the man. Gold alone is his God. Moolah is the mantra. The modern man has not to be much. He has to have much. And the thirst is just insatiable. It is never quenched. Never satisfied. Thus, all the unhappiness. Hypertension and insomnia is the inevitable by-product. Is that the progress? Can man be proud of it? Boundless desires make endless demands. A continuous yearning for more requires an unending labour. Yet, the desires are never fully fulfiled. Man pursues the path madly. he moves like a machine. He forgets that desire and disappointment are twins. Too much of desire only leads to a debilitating destruction. Frustrations follow. Yet man continues his quest for earthly possessions. Seek. Not merely the satisfaction of senses. It might lead to sin at every step. Let the search for the Absolute truth alone allure. Develop detachment. Dispel desires. Give up the greed. Renounce the riches. Realise the pleasure of renunciation. Experience the ecstasy. True happiness. Eternal pleasure. The secret of a life sublime. We have the instance of Gautam Buddha. He had abdicated the throne and renounced the world. He had attained salvation. it is said that once he had gone to his house. To beg from his wife. She asked — "Have you found your God?" He answered — "Yes! God lives in every living being. He is everywhere." "If that is so why did you have to go to the forest to find Him? Why did you have to leave us in your quest for Him?" "It is only on leaving my loved possessions that I had realised the simple truth", said Buddha. The story has a lesson. For all of us. We attain salvation through sacrifice. It is only when we give up that we can attain the ultimate truth. God gives when man gives up. Our scriptures have the instance. Sudama had gone to lord Krishna with all that he had. The two fists full of rice. In an old piece of cloth. He had deprived his wife and child of all that they had. The two morsels of food. In return God had given him all that any man could have asked for. True happiness. Man can achieve happiness by helping helpless. By being a support to the sick. And then a good deed has its own reward. Give. You will get. Renounce. You will receive. Scatter with one hand. You will gather with both. It is true that no man can shun his destiny. Events shall occur as ordained by Him. Human fate is decreed. No one can change it. But man does not realise this simple truth. He continues to strive for more and more. In an effort to achieve, he loses. When man gets more wealth, he is always afraid of theft. When he attains a high position, he is worried about his prestige. When he has a large family, the thoughts about their future haunt him. The assets become a living liability. Today, we face a devaluation of values. A crisis of character. Man can kill man for money. All this does not happen because of the poverty. But on account of our insatiable desires. The man's love for money. Let us leave it. There shall be a higher gain. A smile is a nice wrinkle. Let no desire remove it. Dispense with desire. For a happier tomorrow. To make life worth living. |
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS * Every good thought is a star which leads you on, shining in the dark making your pathway radiant. Follow the star! — Sadhu T.L. Vaswani,
Gita; Meditations *** * The thing that numbs the heart is this: That men cannot devise Some scheme of life to banish fear That lurks in most men's eyes.
— James Norman Hall (1887-1951), Fear
*** * O Divine Cloud There lies hidden within Thee The treasure of immortal joy; Bestow on us a little of it, So that we may live a happy life. — Rig Veda, 10.186.3 ***
* The Lord is within you, like the fragrance in the flowers. — Sar Bachan, Book II, 11 *** * Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. — The Holy Bible, Psalms, LXI, 2 *** * A man who does great good and talks not of it, is on the way to perfection. — 'Abdu'l - Baha, Paris Talks, October 16-17, 1912. *** Where is the "I" in anybody? And where the "you" in any one? All that is only a mode of putting things — He, who dwell in all, and is omnipresent Where should one search for Him? He is always face to face with us. And always in front of us. — Hazur Data Dayal. From the discourses of Param Sant Param Dayal Faqir ji Maharaj, May 12, 1968 *** I became man for Thee. If you do not become God for Me you do Me wrong. — Eckhart, the Christian mystic, vide Sankirtan Tarangini *** Why art thou searching outside? The Creator is within thee. The musk is within the deer, Yet it searcheth for it in the grass.... In the ocean within lie all diamonds and rubies, But one can have access to them only through a Master.... — Guru Ravi Das,
Khojat kidhu phirai there ghat mah sirajanhar |
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