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Wednesday,
September 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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The enemy
within Package
for Kashmir |
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A
non-executive President EMBRACING the greater evil is sometimes an occupational hazard of Presidents and Prime Ministers. Their tenacity to remain in power forces them to go through severe ideological contortions. As Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has proved during the past two days. Late on Sunday evening she virtually signed a surrender agreement with the JVP (Jathiya Vimukthi Peramuna), an outfit of former insurgents based in the southern part of the country. The JVP has only 10 MPs in the 225-member Parliament.
End of
compact between govt & people
Watch
this space!
Let down
by ‘trial’ marriage custom
When
British cops were found to be racist
Lahore:
city of fading gardens
A
hilarious take on laughter
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The enemy within MR L. K. Advani's statement that some portion of the funds meant for the development of the North-East may be finding its way to militant organisations raise serious security-related questions. Three days before the North-Eastern Council meeting in Delhi the Centre had increased the size of the socio-economic development package for the region by Rs 2,119 crore for the current year. The size of the package now stands at Rs 12,390 crore. However, in the light of the Union Home Minister's statement at the NEC meeting the entire policy for containing and finally stamping out insurgency from the North-East needs to be revamped. What's the point of increasing the flow of funds without plugging the sources through which they end up in not only wrong but also anti-India hands? A mere caution to the state governments to step up vigilance against the funds reaching the insurgent elements in the North-East may not be enough. Mr Advani made just a passing reference to what is certainly not a routine case of pilferage of funds. The entire issue is far more serious than say pilferage of funds allocated for building of roads. Diversion of part of the road-building funds to the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats and contractors would at worst result in a bumpy surface strewn with potholes. However, the dangerous consequences of diverting funds to the ultras need no elaboration. Implied in Mr Advani's statement was the admission that acts of insurgency in the North-East were being partly funded by the agency or agencies handling the money earmarked for the socio-economic development of the region. It is evident that the issue deserves more than a passing mention. It must be recognised that the faceless enemies within are far more dangerous than the known groups of insurgents. It is possible to open a line of communication with the leaders of the insurgent outfits and even make them rejoin the mainstream. However, without identifying and eliminating the faceless enemy within the country the objective of establishing durable peace in the North-East cannot be attained. The responsibility of helping the security forces smoke out the anti-national elements providing funds to the insurgents lies with the Centre. It must act decisively against the enemies of the nation. As it is, the task of stopping the flow of sophisticated arms to the insurgent groups is proving daunting because of the porous nature of the borders with Bangladesh and Mynamar. Of course, the objective should be to plug the borders as also the flow of funds from state coffers to the ultras. But keeping in mind the difficult topography of the North-East the Centre should get its priorities right.
Perhaps, stricter monitoring of the movement of funds meant for the socio-economic development of the region may prove relatively easier than stopping the flow of arms from across the borders. |
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Package for Kashmir SOCIAL
peace, political stability and economic development always go together. Remove any of the three, the rest will be automatically in serious trouble. When the prolonged spell of militancy robbed Jammu and Kashmir of its peace, economic activity got crippled in the process. Luckily, the democratic process remains intact which should be used for economic revival, so essential for a simple and hungry people being misguided by subversives in the name of religion. To bring peace back to the border state, it is time for a two-pronged attack on militancy. Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's statement in Srinagar on Sunday shows that at last the central government has realised the significance of the economic weapon along with political dialogue and the tightening of screws by the security forces. He has disclosed the Centre's plan for an economic package, smoothening the flow of sufficient funds to the state. The Finance Ministry will ensure that immediately an additional Rs 1,200 crore is available for industrial development through government-controlled channels like nationalised banks and financial institutions. By March next year the credit availability will go up to Rs 5,250 crore, including Rs 250 crore to be provided by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD). But more encouraging is the Finance Minister's admission that the Union government is considering Jammu and Kashmir's demand for its inclusion in the special hill category states with retrospective effect (from 1969). The request was earlier turned down at the behest of Mr Sinha himself despite the fact that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in his capacity as Planning Commission Chairman, was favourable to the idea and thinking of bringing it before the just concluded National Development Council meeting. Anyway, it is better late than never. Jammu and Kashmir's ailing economy requires specialised and prolonged treatment, which means a major injection of funds. There appears to be no better way than bringing it in the special state category so that under the central assistance scheme the funds it gets are treated as 90 per cent grant and 10 per cent loan. This is contrary to the practice in the case of other states, which get 30 per cent as grant and 70 per cent as loan. Of course, a massive fund flow will need strict vigil to ensure their proper utilisation. Mr Sinha says the Centre will set up a task force for uninterrupted disbursal of the aid. This is not enough. A mechanism should be evolved to look after proper implementation of development schemes. With the collapse of the tourism industry and the disinterest of the private sector in the militancy-hit state, there are fewer job opportunities in the valley. And an unemployed youth can easily be lured by subversives to their side. Economic revival can change this gloomy scenario. |
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A non-executive President EMBRACING
the greater evil is sometimes an occupational hazard of Presidents and Prime Ministers. Their tenacity to remain in power forces them to go through severe ideological contortions. As Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has proved during the past two days. Late on Sunday evening she virtually signed a surrender agreement with the JVP (Jathiya Vimukthi Peramuna), an outfit of former insurgents based in the southern part of the country. The JVP has only 10 MPs in the 225-member Parliament. But this measly number is the straw the President has to cling to save her party from sinking. As dictated by the outfit, she has convened Parliament a day earlier than it was due (symbolic but a confession of helplessness), called off the referendum fixed for October 18 (once a key element of her strategy to outwit the opposition), agreed to compress the Cabinet to just 20 from the earlier 44 (not to mention the 32 Deputy Ministers who quit to proclaim their solidarity with the President), promised to set up independent commissions to supervise and conduct the working of the election authority, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and the police (to insulate them from political interference) and, finally, called off talks with the LTTE. These are audacious demands but the President caved in because she has closed all other options. Her arrogant style is at the root of her political problems. She sacked a Sri Lankan Muslim Congress Minister, Mr Hakeem, who dared question some of her decisions. He promptly withdrew his party’s support to the People’s Alliance government and plunged the country into a major political crisis. The opposition UNP (United National Party) threatened to topple the government which had been reduced to a minority. At that point of time, the President had three options. She could cut a deal with the UNP (89 MPs), dissolve Parliament or hold the hands of the JVP. Talks with the UNP broke down on the quantum of power sharing. There was overwhelming support for the dissolution idea but it involved fresh election. Mrs Kumaratunga knows that her party will be routed what with an economic mess and the aftermath of the LTTE’s devastating attack on a key airport. So she opted for an alliance with the JVP on its terms. The humiliating condition is the JVP’s outside support is limited to one year and during this time all economic reforms, dictated by aid donor countries, shall remain frozen. President Chandrika Kumaratunga stands shrivelled. |
End of compact between govt & people THE compact between the rulers and those they govern in a democracy even as chaotic as in its Indian variation is that beyond the rules and regulations and the instruments of enforcing authority, there is an almost intangible moral force that prevails. Once that compact is dishonoured, governance becomes mechanical and the governed are restless and frustrated. Leaving aside the host of other issues raised the Tehelka exposure, it marked the end of the compact between the Vajpayee coalition under the rubric of the National Democratic Alliance and the people. All efforts since then to revive the flagging fortunes of an experiment that has outlived its usefulness have yielded little success. Nothing illustrates this better than the brave new world painted by Mr Yashwant Sinha’s last budget, which won high praise from business and industry. The targets are today nowhere near realisation and the Finance Minister himself has been under fire for the manner in which he handled the Unit Trust of India’s US-64 issue. Disinvestment targets become a mockery while the dog-fight over the Enron project is hardly an advertisement for India as an attractive place for direct foreign investment. There are murmurs of protest in political circles over the activism of the courts in setting and enforcing social policy and goals. Surely the politicians have only themselves to blame when they heed narrow partisan interests, rather than the good of the country, in shirking their social and political responsibilities. If the executive hesitates to act out of timidity or selfish reasons, it is, in effect, inviting the judiciary to fill the vacuum. Is it any wonder then that most of the government’s energies are directed towards the post-NDA future? The Central Cabinet is selectively expanded and shuffled to advance the interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad orchestrates the Ayodhya issue, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is Delphic as he talks about miraculously resolving the temple issue by March and the pot of Uttar Pradesh politics continues to be stirred by playing caste politics with vengeance. The BJP had appropriated UP through less than honest means and the manner in which Mr Rajnath Singh is seeking to hold on to the state in the next state Assembly election speaks of his single-minded resolve. UP politics brought Mr Ajit Singh, with his support in the Western UP Jat belt, into the Central Cabinet to enable the Chief Minister to show a difficult ally the door. If national politics is held hostage to UP in the process, so be it. The NDA itself has become more of a holdall, with those who had left the alliance for greener pastures back in the fold. For a time, there was talk of setting norms and codes for the return of the prodigal, but such ideas quickly evaporated as the Trinamool Congress of West Bengal and the PMK of Tamil Nadu trooped back. After all, the more parties the NDA can lure into its fold, the greater advantage it would have in contesting the next general election. So goes the theory. Thus far, the BJP’s election strategy is dependent upon throwing all it has into the UP battle, including Ayodhya if necessary, and relying on Mr Vajpayee’s stature in winning votes. The contradiction is obvious. Mr Rajnath Singh has chosen to pit some castes against others in an atomisation that is continuing, and if the Sangh Parivar is given the nod on Ayodhya, it would raise communal tension to dangerous levels. How would Mr Vajpayee fit into such a picture? It would appear that the BJP has still to concentrate on the larger picture and is thinking piecemeal about state elections. Perhaps the BJP is also banking on the inability of the opposition parties to unite. There are fault lines between the Congress and the main North Indian caste-based parties while the suspicions between the Congress and the Left parties are somewhat easier to reconcile. One of the puzzling factors is that the Congress, which has won an enviable number of states outside the Hindi belt, seems in no hurry to displace the BJP coalition. The numbers are on the NDA’s side in the Lok Sabha but there seems no sense of urgency in the Congress camp to test the water. A likely reason could be the controversy surrounding Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s leadership of the party and opposition in the party and outside it to her possible assumption of Prime Minister’s office. The BJP leadership is hoping that if the results of the UP election are encouraging enough, Mr Vajpayee will help boost the party’s chances in the next general election even if he were to retire from
politics. Whether a BJP successor to Mr Vajpayee would be acceptable to a future coalition even if the BJP and its allies would obtain a majority in the new Lok Sabha is a question mark. But the Prime Minister’s own credibility has suffered a few knocks as he has tried to help the Sangh Parivar in its goals. It is conventional wisdom that coalitions will be the order of the day in India, but coalitions can very greatly in composition and character. In the NDA experiment, the greatest beneficiary has been the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, who refused federal Cabinet positions for his partymen. Yet his political clout in New Delhi is impressive and he obtained from the Centre all that he could legitimately desire. It was a sign of the growing weakness of the Vajpayee government that NDA constituents had been able to extract concessions from it by posing the threat of withdrawing support. This threat has receded as old constituents have returned to the fold and there is perhaps a general realisation that India is witnessing the end game as far as this particular coalition is concerned. The writer is a former Editor of The Statesman. |
Watch this space! TEASER ads are my “bete noire”. There is something in them which isn’t quite playing cricket with a straight bat and I take particular exception to the tantalising and dangling the carrot in the whole scheme of things. I open the morning newspaper and turn eagerly to the oped page to read a scintillating and erudite editorial on the government’s shortsightedness in not fixing remunerative prices for the kharif crop and the disastrous consequences of WTO on the country’s agriculture when my wayward eyes stray towards the opposite page and irreversible damage is done for, I am greeted by a large box, empty as the Sahara desert except for a legend in 14 point: “Watch This Space Tomorrow!” I spend the rest of the day in agonising suspense and uncertainty. Just what will appear in the space I had been admonished to watch? An alien creature from the Andromeda galaxy? An announcement from the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation regarding the increased quota of suji and maida for green card holders of the PDS? The full text of Prime Minister Vajpayee’s speech on Panchayati Raj institutions and NDA government’s agenda for governance? A press note about the distribution of party tickets for zila parishad elections? The possibilities are endless. I spend the night tossing and turning and the next morning, when the newspaper boy tosses the newspaper into my compound with the elan and insouciance of a Scottish Highlands clansman tossing the cabber, I make a mad grab for it and feverishly turn to page 6 and what do I read? “Designer ethnic chudidar and kameez and dupatta sets and Kolhapuri slippers. Prices drastically slashed for the festival season. Buy today!” Suffice it to say, I feel like an express elevator going down. There is another heartless gimmick resorted to by the whizkids who think up the teaser ads. Right on the front page of the morning newspaper, cheek-by-jowl with President Narayanan’s fervent appeal to his countrymen to eschew narrow parochial and partisan political outlook and work to forge a strong and united India, there will be a large box with a black exclamatory mark plumb in the middle and my fevered imagination goes right off its moorings and I become convinced that all this is part of some weird voodo and occult tantric black magic ritual practised on moonless night and the next day, in the same space, will appear a question mark and I become convinced that my enemies are out to get me and that I am a marked man and the third day, all is explained. Instead of the mysterious signs, will appear the announcement: “Come and join a grand pilgrimage to Kashi, Badrinath, Hardwar and Rishikesh. Only a few seats available. Book immediately to avoid disappointment.” Teaser advertisers, kindly lay off your teasing. |
Let down by ‘trial’ marriage custom WHEN a young man expressed interest in her, Jamuna Das from an Orissa village agreed to try out the tepid waters of living-in without actually taking the plunge of marriage. Today Jamuna Das of Padmakesharipur village in Orissa’s Khurda district, 7 km from here, is living a nightmare, abandoned and bearing the child of a suitor who refused to become her spouse. Jamuna Das (16) invested a year-and-a-half in 21-year-old Susanta Das’ family. “I was doing all the household work as well as taking care of his family members, including his parents, brothers and sisters,” she said. But the family rejected her and Susanta Das said Jamuna was not fit to be his wife. Jamuna filed a complaint with the police and Susanta Das was arrested last week. Trial marriages are common in Padmakesharipur, where all 500 families follow the decades-old custom of sending their daughters to the homes of young men who express an interest in taking them as their wives. The trial generally lasts a year, but needn’t necessarily end in marriage. Once a man makes his choice, a girl has to go to his home for a year and perform all the duties of a doting wife, including looking after his family and having sexual intercourse with him. Jamuna Das’ is not an isolated case. The village has about 60 unwed mothers, all having “failed” in trials with various men, Inspector S.K. Chand of the Mancheswar police station told IANS. While several trials do end in marriage, more end in failure, Chand said. Jamuna Das is, however, the first unwed mother-to-be to approach the police, he said. Most prefer to have the matter settled within the village community. “This case came to the police because the boy kept the girl for one-and-a-half-years, which was more than the trial period, and refused to marry her,” Chand said. “The villagers tried to settle the matter but failed.” Kui Das, an unwed mother at 18 and another victim of a failed trial, said the villagers don’t consider the blatant exploitation of girls as illegal. “Normally they give the final judgement and nobody goes to the police station fearing social ostracism,” she said.
IANS
TV serial in trouble over dog’s name What's
in a name? Star Plus’ popular television soap “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” is finding out the hard way. The Jain and Rajput communities of Saurashtra in Gujarat have demanded an apology from the producers of the serial because a dog in it is named after a former ruler of the region. In the controversial episode telecast last Thursday, Raksha Chachi, portrayed by actress Himani Shivpuri, calls her pet dog Jalamsingh Jadeja. Jalamsingh is not just any other name - he is a legend in Saurashtra, revered both as a warrior and a saint. The episode saw Rajputs and Jains all over Saurashtra pressing cable operators to stop airing Star Plus channel. Jains live in large numbers in Gujarat, while the Rajputs were once the ruling class in the region. According to Manoharsinhji Jadeja, the erstwhile ruler of Rajkot and a former state minister, the episode has upset both Rajputs and Jains. “The Jains respect Jalamsinh Jadeja as a saint. They have requested me to take up the issue. This is not a case of ignorance. The makers of the serial must apologize,” Jadeja told IANS. Newspapers say 10 major cable operators in Rajkot, the main city of the Saurashtra region and about 250 km from Gandhinagar, have voluntarily supported a Rajput community call for a general strike and taken Star Plus off the air, shutting down the channel to some 60,000 homes. Operators from Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Keshod, Porbandar and Kutch have also supported the protest and taken the channel off the air. These districts have a strong Rajput presence.
IANS |
When British cops were found to be racist WITH
the Durban conference on racism going full swing, the word racism is talk of the universe today. Racism was born and reared, fed and patted only in the First World. Thankfully, it has not infected the Third World. It is another matter that today First World countries are itching to include casteism into racism. Progressive thinkers of the West, though in minority, have introduced various schemes, projects and commissions for racial equality. In England, such commissions are visible platforms available as support structures to the racially discriminated. A voice raised on such a platform has come to be heard. Many whites work as volunteers and staff members for them. Most of these commissions organise campaigns and constructive projects. They may not be liberally financed, but are surviving on conviction. Non-government organisations (NGOs) like the Monitoring Group or the Southall Victim Support or the Age Concern Group work hand-in-hand with these commissions. This co-ordination yields results and builds public opinion. For instance, when the Monitoring Group took up the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black, who was killed in a racial attack, it built such a momentum that the case became a national campaign. The collective efforts resulted in Lawrence’s tragedy to be known to the entire world. Advocates Imran Khan and Suresh Grover, are fighting tooth-and-nail on behalf of the Group to get those Whites behind the bars who brutally killed this unsuspecting, innocent boy solely because his skin did not match theirs. Similarly, six white boys also killed Rohit Duggal, an 18-year old boy of deaf and dumb parents, when he was waiting for a bus in East London. The Greenwich Racial Equality Commission took up Rohit’s case under the leadership of Dev and thousands of people marched on the roads of London demanding justice. The police did not arrest any of the six white boys on the charge of murder despite eyewitness accounts. “Cases like that of Lawrence or Rohit Duggal eventually made us sit up and think about the racially discriminating role of the English police. Our Group conducted specific studies and we discovered shocking trends. For instance, the English police was not only indulging in racial acts in handling such cases but also the police staff which was not white was being discriminated against within their set-ups. To our horror, the judiciary was also indulging in racism. For a similar crime the quantum of punishment to the blacks was far higher than the white criminals. We substantiated the truth by collecting data of case studies”, revealed Suresh Grover. There is an increasing awareness amongst Asians in England about the racial threats. This has resulted in un-masking of this centuries’ old disease crippling the English society, quite like the rest of the West. However, the united response of progressive thinkers is also visible. For instance, recently England’s top firms of barristers decided to give free advocacy skills to train racial equality officers. In the first programme itself, seven officers from racial equality councils within London were chosen for practical training sessions. They were taught how to put arguments and deal with race discrimination cases at the tribunals. They were trained for cross-examination, procedural matters, points of law, closing speeches and effective presentations. Similarly, a touring exhibition titled “We Were There”, was taken all over the country, honouring the contribution made by ethnic minority men and women over three centuries in Britain’s armed services. The idea was the brainchild of the Chairperson of Central Racial Equality Commission, Mr Gurbux Singh. The exhibition disclosed that between 1914 and 1918 over a hundred thousand ethnic minority recruits were killed and wounded. It appears that the West is refusing to learn from history. It continues to bear the burden of indulging in racism even while claiming to be the torch-bearers of the world.
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Lahore: city of fading gardens MUGHAL Emperor Shahjahan who built the Taj Mahal could never have imagined that 500 years after he constructed Lahore’s famous Shalimar Gardens, the latter would be on the World Heritage list as an endangered site. A team of experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) visited Pakistan in April 2001 to investigate the prospects of preserving the 17th century monumental Mughal pride, SADA reported. Since then, the government has embarked on a serious effort to reinstate Lahore’s slack grip on not only this historical piece of art but also on a number of other withering gardens. If only the Municipal Corporation of Lahore (MCL) had shown more respect for history and not demolished the Shalimar Gardens water tanks in June 1999 to expand the Grand Trunk Road, the Archaeology Department need not have begged Unesco for funds, bringing in its wake severe criticism from international conservationists. Lahore may have often been described as the “City of Gardens” but this is no longer true. The ruins of the Kamran Bagh, in the heart of the Ravi river are but a minor relic of Lahore’s regal past. Unfortunately, there is also no trace of the Bagh of Zaibunnisa, built by Shahjahan for his daughter. In this case, the government and the Department of Archaeology cannot be held accountable for the demolition of the garden that was destroyed when the Ravi river changed its course. Among the gardens of Lahore, a truly exceptional piece was Wazir Khan’s Oasis. The garden’s splendour was further enhanced by the construction of an exquisite belvedere in the rear. Once again, the local government can evade blame by establishing that the garden was wrecked during the Sikh era. And as for the belvedere, the English rulers found little use for it and converted it into a telegraph office. The list of Lahore’s “lost gardens” is long. But, while successive governments since partition in 1947 have certainly had a part to play in their ruin, it would be unfair to lay the blame entirely on them. In the recent past, former Punjab Governor Ghulam Jilani paid considerable attention to Lahore’s fast vanishing greenery and added Iqbal Park and the Race Course Park to the city. The former, spread over a large area, was planned in a way to become part of the residential area of Allama Iqbal Town. Its artificial lake and manmade waterfall were included in the landscape to spruce up the arid locality. The Race Course Park, adjacent to Jail Road, has proved popular with the people. Besides serving as a clean, peaceful retreat for the populace of Lahore, the park provides a well-kept track for jogging enthusiasts. Another park that attracts a fair number of health conscious citizens is the Model Town Park, made even more famous for its proximity to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s residence. Surprisingly enough, as compared to the historical sites of Lahore, the newly pruned and well-manicured parks, under the supervision of the Parks and Horticulture Authority, are drawing more visitors each year. Established in 1998, the primary objective of the Authority was to restore Lahore’s appeal. “From day one, we decided to concentrate on a unique and systematic beautification of various parts of the city,” says Kamran Lashari, its Director General.
IANS |
DON'T laugh, but acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair says Indians are more humorous than Americans! “People here are too busy to let themselves go. They don’t laugh as much as they do in India,” says Nair who hopes to change that with her TV premier of her latest documentary, “The Laughing Club of India.” The film explores the new phenomenon of laughter clubs, as seen in cities from Europe to Southeast Asia and the USA. There are reportedly 450 such clubs in India, where it all started. Nair, the director of critically acclaimed films like “Salaam Bombay” and “Mississippi Masala,” said: “I was affected by the absurdity of it all and I started laughing.” She said laughter in a group situation has a way of spreading uncontrollably. “It’s the principle of contagion, you involuntarily have to laugh.” Not everybody finds the laughter clubs so funny, though. In Mumbai, where the movement began, groups would meet at dawn in the city’s parks to laugh together at high decibels. The residents of the buildings near those parks objected. In Bandra, where one of the initial groups first met, one Parsi family took the laughter club to court, saying they were woken up every morning by loud laughter. “I tried my best to interview the woman who sued the laughter club, but she was not willing to talk,” says Nair. “It was hilarious.” Osho Rajneesh, whose followers regularly take part in what he called the “Laughing Meditation”, originally introduced the idea of therapeutic laughter.
IANS |
Arya Samajists & Sanatanists THIRTEEN respectable Hindu citizens of Multan, including well-knows lawyers and others, have addressed a letter to the Secretaries of the Arya Smaj and S.D. Sabha, Multan City, expressing concern on the proposal to open Shastrarth (debate) and the spread of false rumours in the city, and requesting both the parties to divert their energies towards introducing reforms in the Hindu Society, and desist from such a course and try to live amicably with their brethren. |
Those who do not love Sita-Rama, Forsake them like a million enemies, Though they be dear to you. Prahalada gave up father, Vibhishana, brother, And Bharata disowned his mother, Bali renounced guru, the gopis their husbands, The result was joyful and good. Love and serve only them Who accept kinship to Rama What more can I say than this? *** If eyes be destroyed by collyrium What use it can be to you? Tulasi says, dearer than life And worthy of respect are they Through whom (in the heart) is born Devotion to the feet of Rama And this is my (firm) belief. — Goswami Tulsi Das,
Vinaya Patrika, Song 174 *** The impossible can be made possible through the power of the Name.... Men of the highest strata in society and the lowest, men of learning as well as illiterate fools, all are equally qualified to carry on this practice. *** He alone is great and he alone is worthy from whose lips constantly emanates the sacred sound of the Name, whose mind is ceaselessly tuned to the music of the Name. *** Associating with devotees who love the Name 2) daily practice of a fixed amount of japa 3) cultivation of dispassion towards objects of enjoyment 4) acquisition of the divine virtues and 5) study of biographies of saints, these five items are very helpful in the practice of the Name. — From Hanuman Prasad Poddar, The Divine Name
and Its Practice |
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