Disadvantage public

India cannot afford work stoppage in this era of privatisation and globalisation. It has to develop hyper-sensitivity to any call for striking work by the employees of any department, irrespective of its significance. Strikes send a disturbing signal to potential foreign investors, institutional or non-institutional. Any trade union activity slowing down the wheels of the economy will add to the cost of production, rendering an industrial product uncompetitive, pricewise. Thus all efforts should have been made by the Union Government to prevent the 24-hour strike by employees of the state electricity boards, which ended yesterday, and the one by the postal staff continuing for over a week. But the government even today functions, unfortunately, in the same old style, showing to the whole world that India is yet to evolve the free market economy's work culture. Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan says that he does not want the public to suffer. But what has he done all these days when the employees are holding the country to ransom? His explanation is that he cannot take a decision on demands concerning wages and pension when the Finance Ministry also comes into the picture. The public is not interested in such explanations. Public services should be available to the users without interruption.

Now when the Delhi High Court has also come into the picture with the filing of a public interest writ petition, the cause of the suffering public is bound to attract focused attention. It is shameful that every now and then even in the routine functioning of the government courts have to intervene to set things right. This is not a sign of a mature democracy. The High Court has given a well-deserved dressingdown to the striking employees by telling them that there is no justification for paralysing postal services, which come under the definition of essential services. By their own action these employees are strengthening the case of privatisation of all such activities. The disruption of postal work may bring some dividend to the employees concerned, but who will compensate the suffering public? Lakhs of people in India's villages still depend on money orders from their near and dear ones for their sustenance. They cannot afford the costly courier services, which, in any case, have yet to make their presence felt in the rural areas. The strike has also affected the operation of the postal savings accounts, putting a large number of senior citizens and others in a difficult situation. Perhaps, the agitating staff have no sympathy for these ordinary people. If this is their attitude, then they should expect no sympathy from the other side too.

All idealism, no realism 

IF the USA can do it, why not India? This is the philosophy behind the draft of the Fiscal Responsibility Bill being readied for tabling in Parliament. The USA converted a fiscal deficit of 6.1 per cent to a surplus within 15 years. India’s corresponding figure is 5.1 per cent and the government wants to compress this to 3 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product) in five years. What is more ambitious is that the revenue deficit will fall to 1.5 per cent of the GDP from the present 3.5 per cent in five years and public debt, including external debt, to 33 per cent in 10 years from 40 per cent now. These figures are in relation to the GDP of the respective years and do not necessarily mean a slashing of spending. An increase in the GDP will lead to a lowering of the percentage of the outgo even if it is static. In other words, there is no commitment or even a desire to prune the expenditure; rather it is an over-optimistic goal which the government hopes to achieve without much pain. This is also evident from the course it has set out for itself. One, it will fix the quantum of spending for each ministry and punish it for overspending by deducting the offending amount from the next year’s budget. Does it sound familiar? It very much does and it is manifest everytime the Finance Ministry issues a fatwa for a 10 per cent cut in all expenditure and everyone smilingly accepts it. It does not pinch since each department has cunningly inflated the demand by a similar margin. This is the first flaw in the draft. As a corollary, there is no visible attempt at ending waste, of which there is ample scope and also opportunity. Even if a fraction of waste is weeded out, the result will be magical. The problem is that in the colonial structure of government India is adamantly clinging on to, power flows from the top and pelf stays very much there. That is why economic reforms have that distorted look, shovelling more benefits to the elite and hitting hard the have-nots.

The rigidity of both the goals and the way they are to be obtained may lead to at least one undesirable offshoot. As last budget showed, fiscal responsibility may start and even end with cutting financial help to the underprivileged. Early this year Finance Minister Sinha raised the price of foodgrain sold to the very poor in the name of cutting flab in expenditure. This is the reverse of his oft-repeated feel-good-factor. This practice may erupt in other sensitive areas like education and healthcare system, or what exists in their name. In a poor country with widespread poverty and illiteracy the government should not only pour money to fight them but also retain an elbow room to divert more funds for the two social sectors. The wording of the Bill tends to tie the government’s hands and it is a built-in infirmity that cries out for correction. Two, an outside team of experts to monitor the implementation has the virtue of vesting it with neutrality. By the same token, it also helps the bureaucrats to fudge figures and hoodwink the team. This has to be said since the public debt ceiling of 33 per cent is extraordinarily low. As one analyst has pointed out, even the rich countries of the European Union struggled and doctored their accounts to achieve the mandatory limit of 60 per cent of debt to the GDP. The USA achieved the goal by the simple strategem of pumping in more money into the system and lowering the interest rate (bond yields came down to 3.5 per cent from 6.5 per cent) at a time when the growth rate was good and inflation rate near zero. These factors and not the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, worked the miracle. India needs to rethink.

Ganguly’s misconduct

Habits die hard, and bad habits seem to take even longer to die. Saurav Ganguly's first exposure to international cricket in 1992 had earned him the reputation of being a spoilt brat. His illustrious career, both as player and captain of the Indian cricket team, received yet another self-inflicted wound in the fourth one-day game at Kanpur against Zimbabwe. After the shock defeat at Jodhpur, by a narrow margin, Ganguly had promised to be ruthless at Kanpur. Using strong language has become part of the game of cricket. However, the on-field conduct of the Indian captain at the Green Park Stadium revealed that he does not know the difference between being ruthless and churlish. As it is, the image of the game has taken a few serious knocks because of involvement of players in match-fixing and betting. His on-field boorish behaviour at Kanpur brought the game into further disrepute. His conduct made him perhaps the only captain in international cricket to be served a one match suspension, plus a suspended two-match sentence until June, 2001. There was absolutely no need for him to show his displeasure when the appeal for LBW against Mluleki Nkala was turned down by umpire C. K. Sathe. The new ICC code places a heavy responsibility on players to be at their best behaviour. However, players of the stature of Ganguly do not have to study the rule-book for protecting the image of the game. Good conduct should come naturally to him. In Kanpur he set a bad example for other players. The new and promising wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya inadvertently became a party to his skipper's on-field misconduct and he too will have to sit out the fifth and final game at Rajkot today. If Ganguly's past is reopened because of his on-field churlish conduct at Kanpur, Maharaj himself would have to take the blame for drawing attention to a part of his career which he himself would like to forget.

As 12th man during the tour of Australia in 1992 he had reportedly refused to carry drinks to the field, because of which he was not considered for selection until India's tour of England in 1996. Now he has spoiled his splendid copybook as captain by his on-field tantrum at Kanpur. As skipper he is expected to be a perfect role model for other members of the team. The Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak, whose gentlemanly on and off-field conduct has earned him deserved popularity, was not wrong when he said that "we also have to perform the role of ambassadors of our respective countries". The Kanpur episode showed Ganguly's limitations in this respect. His response to the news of his suspension too showed him in poor light. Instead of expressing regret he displayed nonchalance by saying that "I knew it was coming". Not even a hint of remorse for the unbecoming on-field behaviour in Kanpur. He may be a successful captain, but it is clear that he lacks the qualities which have earned him the title of Prince of Calcutta. A true prince is supposed to charm his audience and not put it off by behaving like a street urchin. The selectors should give him a bit of their mind too before naming the captain for the home-series against Australia. He should be asked to tender a public apology for his on-field misconduct as also for a dressing room crisis he created by refusing to have his team formally introduced to the Governor of Uttar Pradesh before the start of the game. Streak had his players lined up for the formality, but Ganguly is said to have sent word that the Governor was free to meet him and his team-mates in the dressing room. But for the intervention of coach John Wright the Indian skipper may have found himself in the centre of another avoidable controversy.

the RAMZAN CEASEFIRE
International dimensions
by Salman Haidar

THE ceasefire announced by the Government of India for the month of Ramzan has revived expectations in Kashmir. It is a bold and admirable move. The fact that it was announced by the Prime Minister himself underlines its significance. It brings back the Vajpayee of the Lahore yatra, the leader capable of difficult initiatives for peace. His decision has opened new possibilities and activated a fresh round of intense activity in and around Kashmir.

There has been an immediate impact on the level of violence within the valley. Despite some deliberate attempts by the most uncompromising of the groups, the ceasefire has been largely effective. This eases life in the valley and, if only temporarily, lifts the crushing burden upon the local people. Last time, a few months ago, when the Hizbul Mujahideen took the initiative in calling a halt, an intoxicating glimpse of normalcy was reported from the valley. People were able, after years and years, to walk freely, to stay out into the night, to meet and mingle. No wonder they were enthused and highly supportive. This time, too, a similar sense of relief and hope has been engendered. To build on this and meet the expectations of the Kashmiris should be the first concern of the policy-makers. The public has had enough of strife and oppression, and their legitimate needs must not be forgotten in the intricate, unending manoeuvres of politics and diplomacy.

The state government is promoting the initiative, and Opposition groups and leaders of the Hurriyat are more cautious. Doubt and suspicion between them and the official authorities cannot be eliminated at a stroke. Within the Hurriyat, the ceasefire has been welcomed but there is considerable divergence of views about the next step. Rethinking and reassessment is only to be expected as the different groups prepare for what follows, which must be a process of discussion with New Delhi. Practically, all the prominent figures from the valley have visited the Capital and there is a visible speeding up of consultation at all levels. Nobody is sitting on the sidelines, which suggests that all the leaders are taking the move with the seriousness it merits.

Meanwhile, across the border in Pakistan the ceasefire offer when it came received scant welcome. It seemed to have surprised them. Carefully worded statements were issued, yielding no ground and reiterating known Pakistani demands, especially for inclusion in any process of dialogue. Eventually a fuller response was framed, in the form of an announcement of ‘‘maximum restraint’’ along the LoC. One must be thankful for small mercies but there is less than meets the eye in the Pakistani move. Something very much like it has already been in effect, at least in part, over recent months, so it breaks little fresh ground. More important, restraint on the LoC is supposed to attest to a reduction of cross-border infiltration, yet reports from the valley indicate that there is no let-up on this score. So, the Pakistani move is modest in its implications. Indeed, the suspicion must remain that it is directed primarily at external observers who have been critical of Pakistani abetment of violence and disorder in Kashmir.

There will be speculation that the Ramzan ceasefire owes a good deal to foreign countries, especially America, who have been busy behind the scenes to try to get something moving again on Kashmir. The solemn denials we have seen only add to the speculation. It is only reasonable to suppose that America is more than just an interested spectator, yet its role may be not more than a background one. None of the parties is in a position to jettison old compulsions or to assume new obligations at the bidding of a third party.

Attention has now turned to what happens next. In the diplomatic Indo-Pak context, there are significant differences between now and last time. Then, the Hizbul Mujahideen’s announcement of a ceasefire was preceded by an extensive cloak-and-dagger operation that involved meetings of key operatives in places outside India, clandestine travel, and other such pieces of tradecraft. There was must to suggest that these movements and what they heralded were known to both India and Pakistan through their private channels. It is another matter that despite these unacknowledged contacts, nothing beyond the first move, the ceasefire was mutually envisaged, judging from the speed with which it all unravelled. This time no elaborate preparatory process was necessary — one apparent result being even less prior contact among the parties. The resulting lack of communication can be a source of misunderstanding.

Within the APHC, there are differing public voices about the next step. Some of the leaders seek to visit Pakistan to work for a way forward. The most extreme of the pro-Pakistan individuals feel this is redundant, believing that Pakistan must participate in talks in its own right and there is no need for intermediaries. There are other shades of opinion in the group, not to mention the views of other prominent leaders and groups that have nothing to do with Hurriyat. To bring these parties into a single negotiating process is a formidable task in itself, and beyond that is the intricate process of trying to harmonise divergent views on the substance of the issues. It is bound to be a long and difficult job.

The last initiative failed because Pakistan pulled the plug. Feeling itself marginalised, it hit back by compelling the Hizb to make the impossible demand of tripartite talks as its price for dialogue. This looked very much like a scuttling operation. As momentum for meaningful discussions between the Kashmiri parties and New Delhi builds up, Pakistan should not feel it must try to repeat last time’s disruption.

This is a time to reconsider the possibility of direct bilateral talks with Pakistan. Tripartite talks as demanded by or on behalf of Pakistan are a clear impossibility, nor is there any great advantage in permitting Hurriyat leaders to shuttle between New Delhi and Islamabad to bridge the gap between the two. At the same time, it is important that there should be no avoidable gap in communication between the two capitals that can add further complexity to an already complicated process. At Shimla, in Lahore, dialogue was enjoined and accepted. If full dress bilateral talks seem inopportune, then quiet, unannounced talks are an option. Mr Vajpayee’s bold initiative should be followed by another bold step, that of a restored dialogue with Pakistan.

— The writer is a former Foreign Secretary of India.

Head Granthi with a difference

The newly appointed Head Granthi of the Golden Temple, Giani Puran Singh, is a religious personality with many firsts. It is a different matter that in the process he has always revelled in controversies. In his long career, the 52-year-old Granthi has faced vicissitudes in his fortunes which a lesser person may not have survived. Perhaps, no other relgious leader has faced suspension, removal, reversion, promotion and demotion as often as Giani Puran Singh.

A close confidant of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, he was promoted from Granthi to the Head Granthi of the Golden Temple. He was, however, reverted to the post of Priest and posted at Darbar Sahib, Tarn Taran. Later, he again became Head Granthi of the Golden Temple when Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode was appointed Jathedar of Akal Takht on January 26, 1986. He was earlier hauled up during the controversial Operation Bluestar in June, 1984.

In fact, Giani Puran Singh first came into the limelight as the courageous priest who performed his religious duties despite bombardment.

He is also the only Jathedar in the history of Akal Takht to have "excommunicated" an SGPC chief (Bibi Jagir Kaur who retaliated by sacking him as Jathedar of Akal Takht) from the Panth. He was again the first Jathedar in the 397-year history of Akal Takht to have excommunicated three Sikh High Priests through his another controversial hukamnama on March 12 which was revoked by Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti on his installation as Jathedar of Akal Takht.

Giani Puran Singh has a thorough knowledge of the Sikh scriptures. His action in imposing a ban on the controversial "Nanakshahi Calendar" became the basis for his removal as Jathedar in March this year. His move had won him the appreciation of Hindu leaders who maintained that the ban would promote communal harmony and national integration.

ESMA power

The ongoing strike by the Postal employees is already causing untold hardship to the common man. To add to the misery, electricity workers struck work for a day to plunge towns and cities in darkness for a day on Tuesday. The cup of misery is full. Drastic situations call for drastic remedies. The Delhi High Court, acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), has asked the government if it would use the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to end the postal strike.

The compulsions of coalition politics may be one reason for not enforcing ESMA as yet. The provisions of the Act are stringent. The workers describe them as "draconian" because it provides for arrest and even dismissal in extreme cases. The Congress governments in the past had hesitated little to use ESMA to break strikes. The Congress could do it because of its comfortable majority.

ESMA was conceived way back in 1968 in the wake of the countrywide strike by government employees to press for their charter of demands. The Congress government, headed by Indira Gandhi promulgated the ESMA ordinance as an emergency measure to on September 12, 1968, declaring the strike illegal. The strike was suppressed by the government by resorting to draconian measures. The government also de-recognised a number of organisations for participation in the strike. The Ordinance was later converted into an Act of Parliament. One does not know if ESMA will be used now to end the postal strike. Some time ago, a similar Postal strike was called off following an appeal by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Now, will it be ESMA or Atalji's charisma?

Husain’s Gajagamini

And, finally, the maverick’s magnificent obsession with his heart-throb Madhuri Dixit has ended in an anti-climax. The maverick , of course, is bare-footed painter Maqbool Fida Husain whose works are a global rage. The anti-climax was the non-appearance of Madhuri at the much-hyped premiere of Husain’s film “Gajagamini” in New Delhi last week.

Produced and directed by Husain, “Gajagamini” is all about womanhood with special tributes to Madhuri. The film was a dream project for the painter. “It took me 60 years to realise this dream, of which 30 were spent in allowing Madhuri to arrive.” These remarks of Husain clearly show the painter as the “producer possessed”.

According to the painter, “Gajagamini” is an effort to unravel the enigma of Indian womanhood, the Shakti, from Shakuntala to the modern woman, traversing time and space. “But I don’t claim that I can unravel the enigma. This is only an effort.”

“She idolises Indian womanhood,” Husain had said about Madhuri Dixit, now Madhuri Nene after her marriage. The film, by all accounts, has Madhuri at the centre of it all as she plays a woman of various times. It had taken Husain six months to complete his dream project.

Perhaps by declining to grace the premiere of the film, which is all about her, Madhuri may have given the painter a glimpse of “the power of women”, the theme of “Gajagamini”. In Husain’s own words, the painter must have now realised that he cannot “unravel the enigma of womanhood.” Can he complain?

Exercise is good, even in hospital

Adding to growing evidence that exercise improves health at any age, new study findings show that even elderly hospital patients can get a boost from simple types of activity.

In a study of 300 elderly hospital patients, investigators found that a light exercise regimen in the hospital left patients better prepared for daily activities once they went home. One month after leaving the hospital, exercisers were better able than inactive patients to perform daily tasks such as shopping, cooking and doing household chores.

Researchers led by Dr. Hilary Siebens of Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, California, report the findings in the December issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The study patients, who were age 70 or older, were separated into two groups. One group received standard hospital care, while the other one also followed a supervised exercise plan. Exercisers walked and worked to improve their strength and flexibility, and were encouraged to keep it up after they went home from the hospital.

Going into the study, the research team had thought the exercise plan might cut patients’ hospital stays. It did not—nor did it improve patients’ overall health. However, one month after leaving the hospital, the exercisers were doing significantly better than non-exercisers in daily life activities.

This finding, Siebans and colleagues report, is “encouraging.” Also promising is the fact that 28% of the patients chose to keep exercising after they left the hospital, and none of the exercisers suffered any injuries, the authors note.

More research should look into using simple exercises as a routine part of hospital care for the elderly, the researchers conclude. Such activities may counteract some of the physical deconditioning that comes with prolonged bedrest, the authors add. (Reuters)

Parboiling brown rice

Scientists at the Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore have developed a new continuous process for parboiling brown rice, which is more economical in terms of time, energy and cost.

Parboiling, which generally, involves soaking paddy in cold/hot water followed by steaming, is used for about 50 per cent of the paddy produced in India. In the usual process about 20-25 per cent of non-edible husk is also unnecessarily processed, leading to wastage of precious energy resources. As the new process directly parboils brown rice a substantial quantum of time, energy and cost is conserved.

According to a report in the Journal of Food Science and Technology, the team took five quintals of whole grain brown rice of IR-20 variety, soaked it in water and held it overnight in cement tanks. This soaked rice was roasted in a commercial gram roaster containing sand heated to a desired temperature (110-150 degree Celsius). The residence time of grains inside the roaster varied from 25 to 85 seconds. Efforts were made to minimise the over-heating and under-roasting of grains and also to easily separate the sand from grains. — PTI

One stop shop

The Family Planning Association of Pakistan is doing pioneering work in spreading awareness about reproductive health-which is dismally low in the country. According to estimates for this year, only 25 per cent of the married women in the country are using any contraceptive method, including withdrawal and periodic abstinence.

The Family Planning Association in the country has developed the concept of the Family Health Hospital, which works as a “one stop shop” for women and their families. This hospital provides primary reproductive health care and refers those women who need more specialised care to specialists.

There are 11 family health hospitals functioning in larger communities across the country, providing services within a 50 km radius of each hospital. The facilities provided at these hospitals include those dealing with family planning, infertility treatment, cancer detection and management of sexually transmitted diseases.

For women in rural areas and the surrounding small towns, the Family Planning Association has a chain of community-level family health clinics which provide sexual and reproductive health care and contraceptive services. These clinics act as referral centres to the family health hospitals and also as a base for mobile clinics for women in remoter districts of the country. (WFS)

Service as a way of life
by Satish K. Kapoor

the path of service is the path of virtue. The Rigveda makes this prayer: "May we always serve humanity without demanding the price of our service. May we ever be benevolent, kind, self-sacrificing, detached and adjusting. May we surrender all and serve humanity like the sun and the moon".

Service is love in action, love that does not demand anything in return but is ever giving. Love is a matter of profound tender feelings, of intensely warm sentiments and of refined sensibilities and attitudes. When it flows spontaneously, it is transmuted into service, its quality being determined by the temperament of persons moved to feel for others.

One can serve with the heart, not with the head. The heart alone, when tuned with humanity at large, can feel the throbs of another heart in the manner of natural empathy. The head, more or less, is a calculating organ which thinks in terms of profit and loss, though when well directed can concertise sentiments of pity into acts of philanthropy.

True service is not merely a matter of charity or philanthropy in an individual or organised form; it is a way of life, an attitude towards the phenomenal existence, a step towards the realisation of the Supreme, and above all, a means to fulfil one's dharma. In its material sense, it stems from karuna (compassion), an inherent trait of tender-hearted souls; it is best performed through shraddha (trust or faith) and tyaga (renunciation) and often culminates in some form of dana (giving) viz. time, money, knowledge, physical help and the like. In its transcendental sense, it is the pathway to truth, to God, as every virtuous deed of the devotee turns out to be an act of worship; it is like offering an oblation to humanity on the karmakshetra, or field of the world.

Service may be done at the mental (manasic), material (bhautic) and spiritual levels both in the sthavara (unmoving) and jangaina (moving) existence, depending upon the exigencies of circumstances. Those who adopt this path are normally led to do so by one or more factors such as their prophet's lauding the nobility inherent in philanthropic acts; their sects' or communities' upholding the tradition of virtuous deeds, and so it must be continued; or the hope that service will win them adherents from other faiths, bring name and fame, annihilate the impact of unholy karma, ensure for them a place in heaven or prosperity in the next birth, and so on.

In all these cases service becomes conditioned or compulsive, as also a means of gaining something in return. It does not stem from the very being of man, and hence cannot be described as sattvic or of the purest type, in which the door is completely detached from his actions. When service aims at realising some material goal or gain in this or the next world, it takes rajasic overtones; but when it is rendered to boost the ego at the cost of others, it becomes tamasic.

Service to mankind is regarded as a holy deed, while inflicting harm on others has been dubbed as aim. Bhartrihari says in his Niti Shataka (verse 73) that the human body is adorned not be anointing sandalwood paste but by helping others. True service transcends the barriers of caste, creed, colour, sex or nationality, and does not seek anything in return. The best person is he, says a hymn, who helps others without any expectation, the middling one returns the help he has received, the low one does not even do that but becomes an enemy for the very help he has received. But even in the last case a sthitaprajna i.e. one who is equipoised in mind, does not deviate from performing noble acts.

Life, in its primitive form prospers by grabbing, but in its civilised form, it enriches itself by giving. "Collect by hundreds of hands and distribute by thousands", says the Atharva Veda (III. 24.5) which further admonishes (VIII, I.7) not to neglect living beings. The Shiksha-Valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad (I, 11.3) says in this context that charity should be" given with faith, should not be given without faith, should be given in plenty, should be given with modesty, should be given with fear, should be given with sympathy".

The concept of service is often conceived in material terms. But this kind of service can be performed only by those who are resourceful. Is, then service the exclusive domain of the affluent who will, according to the theory of karma, reap the benefits of their philanthropic acts in their next birth, and possibly acquire a position of eminence as a result thereof? Perhaps no. The Hindu tradition has it that even a smile, a kind gesture, a compliment, an inspiring word, or just the will to help in accordance with one's resource, can be commendable acts of service.

Service must become an attitude of life, it is to be purposeful. Offering a glass of water to a thirsty traveller, providing room to an old or a pregnant woman in a crowded bus or train, showing the path to someone lost or cheering up another who is in a state of depression — these and other acts have a much higher social value and religious merit than the publicised philanthropic deeds which are often tainted with some selfish interest. Spora-dic help rendered by religious or cultural institutions can mitigate the sufferings of people, only to some extent. Hence, each individual must be an institution of service in himself. Swami Vivekananda said, one should do good to others because that is the only condition of life — "thereby you expand beyond your little self; you live and grow".

Let service flow from our being, as fragrance comes out of a flower. Let love be the overriding principle of our lives, as all existence is just "our own self magnified". Charlotte Skinner'sfc words are of much significance in this context: "It is a grand thing to be willing to stand by ready to help when occasion arises. Every day should be started with the determination to look out for people needing help, and if we do not get a "Thank You", never mind. Let us smile on, and do our next bit of help — work more heartily than ever."

Spiritual Nuggets

Anger will never disappear so long as there are thoughts of resentment in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

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If a roof is improperly made or in disrepair, rain will leak into the house; so greed enters the mind that is improperly trained or out of control.

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To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

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A disturbed mind is forever active, jumping hither and thither, and is hard to control; but a tranquil mind is peaceful; therefore it is wise to keep the mind under control.

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It is a man's own mind not his enemy or foe that lures him into evil ways.

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The one who protects his mind from greed, anger and foolishness is the one who enjoys real and lasting peace.

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The fragrance of a flower does not float against the wind; but the honour of a good man goes even against the wind into the world.

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A night seems long to a sleepless man and a journey seems long to a weary traveller; so the time of delusion and suffering seems long to a man who does not know the right teaching.

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An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body but an evil friend will wound your mind.

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To be foolish and to recognise that one is a fool, is better than to be foolish and imagine that one is wise.

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A spoon cannot taste of the food it carries. Likewise, a foolish man cannot understand the wise man's wisdom even if he associates with a sage.

The Teaching of Buddha, "Sacred Sayings"