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| Thursday,
July 19, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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When silence is not golden! Scam behind US-64 crisis Unprepared for rain |
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Kashmir at breakfast, lunch and dinner
Agra’s fresh entry in the annals
Now it’s e-clothing Lifestyle managers
Your pain is different
Faith can work wonders
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When silence is not golden! PAKISTAN has not only been waging a proxy war against India, it has also been engaged in a concerted propaganda offensive. Even while peace talks were being held in Agra, it kept up the media hostilities with a view to impressing the hawkish constituency back home. That it would do so should have been apparent to Indian media managers, given its track record. Still, they inexplicably let the visitors score publicity points while their own viewpoint went virtually unheard, because there was nobody to articulate it in the first place. The entry of the electronic media has changed the rules of the game vastly. Sound-bytes have to be provided almost on a minute-to-minute basis. Pakistanis turned the opportunity to their advantage with unconcealed glee. For instance, when Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and Gen Pervez Musharraf were closeted in various rounds of extended talks on Monday and the world was on edge to know what was going on during the evening hours that passed like days, the latter’s spokesman, Major-General Rashid Qureshi gave numerous telephonic interviews to nearly all Indian cable networks almost non-stop. He did not have much to say, but he was on the telly almost continuously. His side of the story continued to be heard almost till the time the General and his entourage boarded the plane. In sharp contrast, there was virtual silence from the Indian side. When the whole world is watching, it does not do to say that it would have been improper to join issue with the quarrelsome visitors. They were fighting a propaganda battle to a plan and remaining incommunicado appeared as if we had conceded defeat. The Pakistani side broke many norms while playing to the gallery. The way it telecast the breakfast meeting of the General with the Indian editors as if it was a press conference went against the grain of international diplomacy. Its frenzied objections to the statement of Mrs Sushma Swaraj were also uncalled for. Yet, its claim that General Musharraf was not allowed to address a press conference before his departure, an allegation ably rebutted by Union Minister Jaswant Singh the next day, remained unchallenged on that crucial Monday. The point is that such conduct was nothing new or unexpected and India should have anticipated it. Even while following the set procedures and rules strictly, it was very much possible to keep the media — especially the TV channels — well informed about the Indian side of the story. In the electronic age, a rebuttal which comes the next day is as good as useless. The proactive approach that India threatens to adopt while dealing with terrorists and other enemies of nation is very much the need of the hour while dealing with the Fourth Estate. At crucial times like this, silence is prone to be mistaken for admission of weakness or even guilt. |
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Scam behind US-64 crisis A lifeline has been thrown to all small investors in UTI’s US-64. The trust will buy back up to 3000 units at approximately Rs 12.20 a unit. That is the price UTI has fixed for the next year and the one based on NAV (net asset value) will not be ready for quite some time. The biggest mutual fund does not expect a run on it, meaning it does not think that all unit-holders will seek instant cash. This is evident from the size of the rescue package it has put together. Four banks and financial institutions have offered to lend Rs 3000 crore at a low interest for a period of 10 years. Just Rs 3000 crore for a scheme that has mobilised over Rs 15,000 crore! And again, in April and May units valued at over Rs 4000 crore were sold back to the UTI and the present arrangement is to continue for some months. Obviously the calculation is that the unit-holders will stay with the scheme hoping for the best. As one expert wrote in a detailed analysis, retired individuals have no venue for parking their life’s savings which will be safe and offer them a reasonable return. It is in this respect that the UTI became the main attraction. During the stock market boom in the early nineties the UTI paid a dividend of 30 per cent, an irresistible magnet for investment. There is more to US-64 than this mercy measure. There has obviously been some hanky panky in the management of the huge trust fund. One, the Deepak Parekh committee recommendation to scale down the exposure to shares and make it mainly a debt fund was defied for four years. During the first two months of this year US-64 funds were used to prop up sinking equity to an alarming proportion of 70 per cent. It is now clear that US-64 investment was funneled to steady market sentiments in those shares in which Ketan Parekh had deep and personal interest. It means that the small man’s money was diverted to fatten a market manipulator. This is not a simple question of making wrong decisions or being a victim of a volatile market. It is a question of playing recklessly with other’s money and bringing a bad name to the UTI that is an important institution of tapping savings and offering a secure source of steady income. But the biggest question is the redemption of more than Rs 4000 crore in April and May. Small investor will wait till July to know the quantum of dividend and earn it before quitting the scheme. But the volume of redemption suggests that big companies which buy units with their surplus had resold their holding. Obviously somebody had tipped them off on the shrinking value of US-64 and the UTI’s decision to freeze it. This is a serious crime and the Finance Ministry has rightly ordered an enquiry. Heads must roll and roll quickly. |
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Unprepared for rain IMAGINE the plight of the family forced to live with rainwater in the house! And children helping parents to drain out water somehow. It is not one family , it is not one village, town or city faced with that inhuman living condition, but the whole region, like many other parts of the country, forced to put up with rain disaster. Whether it is a planned city like Mohali or a traditional one like Ambala, the sewerage either does not work or does not
exist. The hapless citizen blames the administration but cannot do anything about it. It is a seasonal misery he has learnt to live with. The insensitivity of the civic and public health administration to his plight is hardly shocking. Everyone has taken it for granted that whenever it rains, electricity supply is bound to be disrupted, the telephone has to stop ringing, a few people and cattle heads have to get electrocuted here and there, roads have to develop cracks and water ultimately finds its own outlet. Once the rain is over, so is the administration's responsibility, whatever it is, to provide and maintain the basic civic
amenities. Nature cannot be blamed for all the misery brought upon the citizens by rain. Human negligence is also sometimes at work. Remember the plight of the residents of Bishanpura and Kishangarh villages, near Chandigarh, whose houses were flooded and crops damaged when careless officials left opened the gates of the Sukhna Lake regulator? While the administration obviously bears the
responsibity for the knockdown of infrastructure, we as citizens too must share the blame for the mess in which we find ourselves. The way the legal and illegal housing colonies are mushrooming without providing for basic necessities like a proper electricity connection or a sewerage and the way the administration is rendered helpless by court stay orders to vacate unauthorised constructions, there is little chance for improvement at the ground level. While building houses, how many take care to ensure that construction material like sand is not washed away by rainwater into the nearby sewerage, already choked with plastic bags? In villages rain havoc is on a wider scale. Small rivulets overflow, damaging
crops. Rainwater remains accumulated for weeks, if not months together, breeding mosquitoes and diseases. Drinking water gets polluted and villagers have no alternative but to consume it , with obvious consequences. Heavy rain this season has, no doubt, come as a blessing after the last two years of drought and with the sharply declining groundwater level, but urgent pre-monsoon infrastructure-building steps could have been taken to meet the
challenge. After all, the monsoon does not come unannounced. It is not for lack of funds that water management measures are not undertaken or the civic amenities are not provided, but it is the official indifference and public apathy responsible for taking away the smile of the housewife trapped in rainwater in her kitchen. |
Kashmir at breakfast, lunch and dinner EVERY visit by a Pakistani ruler to India has its interesting and ironic moments. The visit of the author of Kargil, Gen Pervez Musharraf, was no exception. The lunch hosted by Prime Minister Vajpayee on July 15 had its own interesting facets. A grim faced Mr Abdul Sattar was sandwiched between a somber Mr. Jaswant Singh and a rather relaxed-looking Mr. L.K. Advani. General Musharraf was seated on the head table with former Prime Minister V.P. Singh to his left and former Prime Minister Gujral to his right. What an irony, I thought, to have a Pakistani military ruler sandwiched between two former Indian Prime Ministers. Military rulers in Pakistan have, after all, ensured that former Prime Ministers they have overthrown are either hanged, or exiled to Saudi Arabia!! It must also have been a new experience for General Musharraf to receive the leader of the Opposition at a meeting arranged by his hosts. Observance of civilized democratic norms does, after all, demonstrate the strength and resilience of a mature democratic system. Incidents like those reflecting the strengths of our democracy and the virtual servility of some of the leading lights of our Fourth Estate when they received a public dressing down from the visiting military ruler of Pakistan for allegedly being influenced by the government on their reporting of developments in Kashmir were noteworthy. What, however, remains etched in one’s mind is the tenacity with which General Musharraf pursued his single-point agenda of raising the “centrality” of the Kashmir issue on every conceivable occasion. The General spoke like a man possessed whenever he got a chance to speak of Kashmir, whether at breakfast, lunch or dinner. This was not entirely unexpected, given his utterances prior to his visit. But by the time he left, this continuous invocation of what is now called the “K Word”, left his hosts tired and unimpressed. Repetition may be useful to drive home a point to the cadets of the Kakul Military Academy in Pakistan. It is not necessary in a mature and civilized diplomatic discourse. It was evident even before he arrived that President Musharraf was determined to pursue a highly focused single-point agenda in India, revolving around putting in place a new framework for conducting bilateral relations. He was determined to rubbish and discard two landmark agreements that India has entered into with democratically elected governments in Pakistan - the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999. The reasons for this are self-evident. The Simla Agreement is a virtual no-war pact that commits Pakistan to resolve issues peacefully and bilaterally with India. It also requires Pakistan to respect the sanctity of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Further, the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration require both countries to enhance mutual trust and cooperation even as they seek to address differences on all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. These are provisions that General Musharraf finds irksome and embarrassing - provisions he would like to discard. Seventysix persons lost their lives in terrorist violence in the three days that General Musharraf was in India. These included 49 militants, 20 civilians and seven members of the security forces. Most of the terrorists involved were not Kashmiris, but Pakistani nationals. Yet, General Musharraf brazenly claimed that the violence in Kashmir was the result of an “indigenous” movement. It is obvious that General Musharraf has neither the will nor the inclination to deal with the perpetrators of terrorist violence. The question that logically arises is that what is India to gain by giving in to the General’s demands for an entirely new framework for dialogue, if there is reciprocally going to be no guarantee that the Generals in Rawalpindi are going to end their support for terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India? It has always been our view that it is necessary to build a climate of trust, confidence and cooperation if complex issues are to be addressed and resolved. This approach lies at the very heart of the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration. Why should we dilute or undermine this approach, merely to please a Pakistani General who publicly avers at Agra that the Kargil intrusion was justified because of what transpired during the Bangladesh conflict in 1971 and has proclaimed in the past that a low-intensity conflict with India will continue even if the Kashmir issue is resolved to his satisfaction? Prime Minister Vajpayee clearly spelt out India’s approach to relations with Pakistan in his comments to the visiting General in Agra. He spoke of the need for a “comprehensive view” of Indo-Pakistan relations involving a “broad-based” approach. He candidly referred to problems posed by Pakistani support for terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere. He also dwelt at length on issues of concern in India like the continued detention of Indian PoWs, the haven and support provided by Pakistan to people involved in the Bombay bomb blasts and in organised crime like Dawood Ibrahim, the hijackers of IC 814 and to residual terrorist elements who had been engaged in terrorist activities in Punjab. Mr. Vajpayee spoke of the need to facilitate and expand people-to-people interaction and referred to the need to expand mutually beneficial trade and economic ties. While realising that there were differences in approach to the Kashmir issue, Mr. Vajpayee made it clear that India was quite prepared to enter into a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. Negotiations on finalising the text of an “Agra Declaration” remained the focal point of attention. It is quite obvious that these negotiations did not succeed primarily because of the basic difference in approach between the two sides. While India favoured an inclusive approach in which the provisions of the Lahore Declaration and the Simla Agreement were not eroded, the Pakistani side had a different approach. But there is reason to believe that in an anxiety to reach agreement, we were not quite as firm and forthright as we could have been during the actual negotiations. Despite this, one could not help noting that behind his rhetoric on Kashmir, aimed primarily at his domestic constituency, General Musharraf was showing a degree of realism and flexibility in his approach. We will now have to wait and see whether this trend continues. Pakistan has made substantial details of the negotiations in Agra public. Mr Jaswant Singh has claimed he will not speak about the contents of the negotiations on grounds of confidentiality. This is not desirable today in a democracy. The public and Parliament will have to be provided far greater details than the government has provided so far. It would be incorrect to label the Agra summit a failure merely because there was no joint declaration issued. We need to remember that seven rounds of summit talks preceded the Lahore Declaration. Vital national interests should not be compromised by over-anxiety to get the dialogue process restarted. There will be occasion for Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf to meet on the sidelines of the coming UN General Assembly session. With the SAARC process set to recommence, there are going to be occasions for official and ministerial level meetings between India and Pakistan. In the meantime, it is imperative that New Delhi unilaterally implements the measures that have been announced for promoting people-to-people contacts, including the opening of new entry check-posts along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road and elsewhere. It would then be for Pakistan to decide whether it will permit its nationals to visit India across these checkpoints. New Delhi’s approach in dealing with General Musharraf has been both mature and restrained. It is, however, important to ensure that restraint is not mistaken for weakness across the border. Further, the diplomatic pressure on Pakistan needs to be maintained as long as jihadi outfits operating from its territory or from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan continue to act with impunity whether in Kashmir, the Ferghana valley or Chechnya. There can also be no cause for any relaxation on issues of national security. It would be naïve to believe that the optimism voiced after the summit by Mr Jaswant Singh in Agra or by Mr Abdul Sattar in Islamabad is in any way going to weaken the nexus between the ISI and the jihadi outfits they support. The writer is a former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan. |
Agra’s fresh entry in the annals BEFORE the decision to hold the just concluded Indo-Pak summit at Agra, the city found its mention mostly in the context of the unique love monument---the Taj Mahal. But now it has earned a prominent place in history for the Vajpayee-Musharraf parleys, whose fruits lie in the womb of the future. Obviously, no future discussion on India-Pakistan relations will be complete without referring to what happened at Agra on July 15 and 16 this year. Curiosity about the city's past is, therefore, natural. A study of the subcontinent's annals takes one to the 12th century poet Masud bin Saad bin Salman who wrote a poem in praise of Prince Mahmud bin Ibrahim at the capture of a fort at Agra by a Ghaznavid ruler (1099-1115), Sultan Masud -III. The town was a little known place before this development, and soon it was forgotten. It came into prominence when Sikandar Lodhi decided to develop Agra into the capital of his empire in 1505. Ibrahim Lodhi and Babur too patronised it in the same position. However, it lost some of its pre-eminence during the reign of Humayun and Sher Shah as the two had to spend much of their time away from Agra owing to their compulsions. When Akbar emerged on the scene he built his capital at Fatehpur Sikri, a place close to Agra. Later on he developed interest in Lahore and shifted there. He, however, could not forget Agra and Fatehpur Sikri and decided to take back his capital to this area in 1598. Both Jahangir and Shahjahan were crowned kings at Agra in 1605 and 1628, respectively. Of course, military requirements prevented their stay there for a long period. What we know as Old Delhi today was their preferred place for governance. But Shahjahan gave Agra something — of course, forced by the immeasurable love for his queen Mumtaz Mahal — which continues to be admired the world over for its architectural grandeur and craftsmanship. The selection of the venue for the historic Indo-Pak dialogue must have been influenced by this final resting place of Emperor Shahjahan and Mumtaz Mahal (Arjumand Bano to her parents). According to one estimate, the entire exercise at Agra cost Rs 70 crore. A Vastu Shastra expert has been quoted as saying that one can spend any amount but there is something wrong with Agra. Success rarely comes at this place as the Lodhis, the Mughals and the British realised. The Indians and the Pakistanis have experienced it now. Musharraf’s media manager Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi of the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate was part of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s entourage primarily to whip up an information blitzkrieg. The endeavour was to put pressure on the Indian leadership. Alas, the gambit failed. India fielded Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj, to counter the Pakistani propaganda. The charming and highly articulate Mrs Swaraj, who was not in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s official delegation, virtually carried the day on Sunday when the summit got under way. That caught the scheming Pakistani information machinery on the backfoot. But General Qureshi refused to be cowed down by the intense game of one-upmanship, especially as the media was starved of what was happening at the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit. When the talks reached a dead end on Monday evening, General Qureshi, whose proxity to General Musharraf is well known, suggested that a “hidden hand” had scuttled the proposed joint statement. This was readily lapped up by the Pakistan media. He reiterated this on the telephone after landing late at night on Monday in Islamabad to a private Hindi TV network which repeatedly asked him if General Musharraf would agree to speak to them. However, General Qureshi’s balloon of an invisible hand wrecking the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit failed to gain mileage with Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar telling a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon that “if something is invisible, how do you expect me to see it?” |
Now it’s e-clothing INSTEAD of carting around a mobile or a palmtop, wouldn’t it be lovely just to turn back a coat collar and whisper into a microphone, like they do in all the old spy films? Well, you can — the technology is already here. And it was a spy who invented it. And if you think one of those tiny headset-and-microphone kits is cool, wouldn’t you love to be able to see your computer screen in front of your eyes? That’s here, too. The spy invented that one, as well. It’s a curiosity that the smaller technology gets, the smaller still we want it to be. Most of today’s PAs won’t remember the first “portable” computers, but they weren’t laptops — the industry’s name for them was “luggable’”. And now that most PAs have already caught up-to some degree — with the theory of mobile computing, perhaps by downloading the boss’s morning emails into his or her palmtop so s/he can read them on the train, the boss wants that facility to be smaller. More than half of American adults say they would be prepared to carry around several two-way wireless and IT devices, so they could work and keep in touch - the one-way pager is now very old hat indeed. More than 25 per cent of Americans surveyed earlier this year said they would be willing to carry three or four devices around with them if absolutely necessary. The devices are already here, and tested on PAs and secretaries. The second series of “fashion shows’” in which computers are presented as “garments” are about to be run in California. The items have already been shown briefly in Europe, but were greeted more with disbelief than anything else. It is what is called “wireless everywear”, from Charmed Technologies of Los Angeles, which features the delightful concept of “e-broidery”, or “electronic needlework”. This involves the use of conductive silicon thread - it is perfectly possible for a keyboard to be embroidered in any fabric, and for data to be “keyed in” from your own clothing. Charmed’s argument is that if you can do it on a desktop PC, you can wear it. And so full PC connectivity is now available in brooches, tie-clips, and belts. A computer screen display can be projected, in miniature, through one lens of your specs. And Evelyn Nussenbaum of New York is credited with the first use of the remarkable phrase: “Excuse me, I have a call coming in on my ear-rings!” Emailing through your belt buckle is one thing, but Charmed has even begun a debate as to whether business cards are out of date. In theory, two people of like interest do not now even have to stop to exchange their details — at a function or convention, all people wearing Charmed smart badges are communicating as they walk past each other. Throughout the day, your badge conducts little infrared beaming sessions with other badges, exchanging any data that is common to both. When the badge is later downloaded, hey presto, you have the contact data of everyone your badge spoke to, and who is likely to be of interest to you. — The Guardian |
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Lifestyle managers IT is the latest corporate perk for the workers in the city of London. As part of their pay package, hard-pressed workers are being offered the use of a “lifestyle management” outfit that promises to solve all those tricky household problems threatening to disrupt the working day. Employees at city bank UBS no longer need worry about tracking down a plumber, or finding emergency childcare, or someone to walk the dog: Enviego, a personal services company, is going to take care of everything. As well as offering to take on the more mundane problems of stressed employees, the company is also running a 24-hour health helpline, as well as childcare and elderly care services. Enviego’s managing director, Tom Shorten, said the service was not a “bull market toy for people who earn a lot of money”, but a way of helping staff balance time. “If you’re spending two and a half hours trying to find a plumber then obviously you are not doing your work. It’s also quite a hassle, and if you can outsource the task both employee and employer benefit.” Surveys show that the average employee spends up to half an hour a day on personal tasks, and in the fast world of high finance that can mean big deals — and the huge profits they generate — disappearing. “The freedom to delegate the regular and demanding tasks associated with running a household can make all the difference to an employee’s stress levels,” explained Chris Ashford, director of human resources at UBS. Among the company’s more unusual requests has been one from a couple who wanted to buy the bed from the New York hotel where they spent their honeymoon; Enviego shipped it back to their London house. The company’s team has also been asked to take an overweight dog for walks and bring a pair of ornate Moroccan doors into the country. “There was also one occasion when someone had a rare breed of cat go missing. We had to send someone out to sit at the person’s home and encourage it back,” Mr Shorten said.
The Guardian |
Minority of One
As was anticipated in the press at the time of his appointment to the Currency Commission, Sir Purushottamdas Thakurdas has found himself in a minority of one. Under the Royal Commission rules a minority report has to be signed by at least 3 members. Even this number, it seems, was not forthcoming, inspite of the fact that the Commission had four Indians on it. What a commentary upon the representative character of the Commission! |
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Your pain is different DIFFERENT people experience pain in ways as individual as their own fingerprints, researchers said, documenting a study designed to give doctors greater insight into pain treatment. Researchers studied how people responded to the same form of pain — a 20-minute injection of high-concentration salt water into the jaw muscle that mimics the painful chronic condition known as temporomandibular joint disorder. They found wide variations in the intensity of the brain’s “anti-pain response” in different individuals. “This may help explain why some people are more sensitive or less sensitive than others when it comes to painful sensations,” said Jon-Kar Zubieta, assistant professor of psychiatry and radiology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of the study. “Such variability in the painresponse system may help explain why some people react to pain and pain medications differently,” Zubieta said in an interview. “It may also be quite relevant to why some people, and not others, develop chronic pain conditions.” The researchers used a sophisticated scanning technique to analyse how chemical signals in the brain known as endorphins match up with receptors on the surface of brain cells, and reduce or block the spread of pain messages from the body through the brain. Their study appears in the journal Science. In addition to relieving pain, endorphins have been found to control the body’s response to stress, regulate the release of hormones and determine mood. Their chemical structure is similar to that of the drug morphine. The 20 volunteers taking part in the study also used a scale of subjective terms to describe their jaw pain. “Sharp”, “pinching”, “hot”, and “tingling” were among the terms used to describe their physical response to pain. To describe their emotional response to pain, the terms included “fearful”, “frightful”, “punishing”, “cruel”, and “biting”. The researchers said they hoped the findings would improve the understanding of pain and ways to treat it, especially as the US population ages and more people grapple with arthritis and other conditions that inflict chronic pain. The study was described as the first to use sustained induced pain with simultaneous brainscan monitoring and the self-reported pain ratings of the participants. All participants gave consent and were aware that the experiment involved pain, the researchers said. The study found there are different areas of the brain that are involved in the so-called “dampening” of physical sensation of pain and other areas that dampen the emotional quality of pain. There was also significant areas of overlap, especially in the regions where sensation and emotion are rooted.
Reuters |
Faith can work wonders BELIEF is something phoney; faith or shraddha (in Sanskrit) is something real and religious. While belief concerns the mind, shraddha belongs to the heart. And wherever there is belief, doubt is just round the corner. No wonder, most beliefs turn into disbeliefs at a sudden turn of events in anyone's life. Faith or shraddha is a different phenomenon. It does not come by just listening to the Guru's or the Master's sermon or discourse or by reading the scriptures. You do not cultivate faith because something cultivated is artificial. Faith grows. It can grow suddenly or over a period. You happen to pass by a place where a Master is giving a discourse. You feel drawn to him. So you sit in the assembly. His words hold you to keep sitting and listening. And yet your being in the assembly may have nothing to do with what the Master is saying. But it definitely has something to do with his presence. You sense it. You feel that his words are only a device to make you sit and be attuned to him. Slowly and gradually, and sometimes even like a flash of lightning, something overwhelms you. You find yourself surrendering completely to the Guru or the Master. Gradually your identity begins to dissolve and you find yourself merging with the Master's self, as a wave merges with the ocean. When this happens you find an indescribable peace descending on you. Your doubts start melting away without your doing anything to resolve them in any way. In short, shraddha or faith engulfs you completely. But logic cannot explain this happening. When you are in this state of faith or Shraddha, anything can happen. Miracles have happened, and continue to happen, without a devotee seeking or wishing for them. A recent Hollywood movie, "A Man Called Peter" tries to show this. A woman, confined to a wheelchair for two years after an automobile accident, goes to hear a sermon by a preacher on "belief and faith". As she listens, she is moved, or gets emotionally surcharged to the extent that she desperately wants to thank the priest when the sermon is over. Completely engulfed in this mood, she gets up from her wheelchair and walks to the priest, completely forgetting her wheelchair existence of two years. Since then, she has been walking on her legs. Was this a miracle wrought by her faith in the priest or by his sermon? Perhaps. But certainly by her faith in the healing power of God. Doubters will brush this off as nonsense. They will say that she was confined to the wheelchair existence due to some basic fear of putting her feet on the ground. When she listened to the priest she was emotionally swept off her feet to the extent that she forgot her fear. In a fit of total absorption, she rose to thank the priest and walked. And once she did that, her fear of standing on her legs and walking vanished. Shraddha is a beautiful word indeed. It has nothing to do with the mind — another name for our thinking and reasoning processes. There is no reason for anyone's Shraddha for a Master or a Guru. It just happens. Perhaps one feels something indescribable while sitting near a Master, though the latter may not have said anything and remained silent all through. Something like this happened to a person who went to Sri Ramana Maharshi for being initiated into sanyas. He saw the sage sitting silently outside a cave in Arunachala Hill where he used to live. The devotee sat on the ground below the small rock on which Sri Ramana was sitting silently, eyes closed, as was his daily routine. Soon the devotee began to feel vibes of the Maharshi without a word having transpired between them. After a while he felt as if he had been initiated by the Maharshi. This feeling was so strong that tears began to flow from his eyes. His shraddha in the sage had risen like the morning sun. And to an onlooker, nothing had transpired between the two. Both seemed to have been sitting silently all the time. In everyday life it is not just enough to have unshakeable faith or shraddha in one's Master or God. One must also do whatever one is expected to do for attaining what one wants. For instance, a woman laboured like a slave for 15 years performing household duties for her own family and that of her close relatives. All along she had suppressed her nature that wanted to rejoice in song and dance. She was adept at both before her marriage. One day it occurred to her that she should not suppress her urges any more and do something to realise them. She was a woman of firm faith in the divine will. So she took it as God's direction to her. From that day she started saving money for starting a venture close to her heart. In a few years' time she had enough money to hire a suitable place for her music and dance school. Since then she has been feeling liberated and fulfilled. "God gave me this idea and I put myself into it wholly until God presented this opportunity to me," she says. Such is faith and its alchemy. |
O Ramachandra, leader of the Raghus, in what way shall I pray to Thee? seeing my own sins.... The misery of others is happiness to me, and in theur prosperity, I burn without fire. I fool people by teaching them how to attain devotion, dispassion and knowledge. I fill my stomach, which is the gateway to hell, by selling Thy Name.... In my heart, I know my sins to be like an ocean, But am ready to quarrel when accused to a fault equal to a drop of water. If the defects of others are like a grain of sand, I enlarge them to the size of the Sumeru mountain; Their mountain-like virtues, I treat with contempt, as if they were grains of dust. Putting up false appearances of various kinds, I deprive others of their wealth. Not for a moment do I meditate on Thy lotus feet with a concentrated mind. ***** If Thou judge me by Thy conduct, then for millions of kalpas I would be dying by being cooked in (the frying pan) of the world. Tulsai says, O Lord, if Thou would only look at me, Thy grace would enable me to cross the ocean of the world, As if it was a depression made by the hoof of a cow. — Goswami Tulsi Das, Vinaya Patrika, Song 141 ***** Now, the Lord is my last refuge. Lord! I have sought safety at thy feet; Save me or slay me, as it pleases Thee, Lord! The world's deceitful honours I have cast in the fire, What do I care if man blame or praise me? Unto the Lord I have devoted my whole being. He, Lord, who seeks refuge in Thee Through Thine Infinite mercy Thou art his salvation. Nanak, Thy slave, seeketh refuge in Thee; Hide my shame, O Lord! — Guru Ram Das, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Rag Dev Gandhari, Page 527 ***** When jealousy raises its ugly head even the ones we love become our enemies. — Thought for Today (A Brahma Kumaris') |
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