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Thursday,
September 13, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Fallout on India Crime wave in region Samajwadis’ game plan |
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Bridges of understanding with Lanka
The man who strikes terror
Past acts point to Osama bin Laden
Everything just happens
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Fallout on India ECONOMISTS and exporters believe that when America is wounded the world bleeds. The terrorist strike on Tuesday has more than wounded; it has scarred the soul and pride of the mighty nation. And the aftermath will, therefore, cause more than brief bleeding. It is more than likely that the USA will launch a sustained and ferocious campaign against groups, and nations harbouring them, and it will be concentrated on a wide arc from Libya, touching the Sudan, jumping to Iraq and ending in Afghanistan. This is the heart of the Islamic bloc. A brief rocket attack, however lethal, will not trigger long-term damage. But repeated ones in the name of taking out terrorist groups once and for all, will grossly upset the oil economy. As it happened in 1973. An ominous sign came on Tuesday itself: the benchmark Brent crude climbed by $ 3 per barrel within minutes of the attack. A day later the price went up by another dollar. India imports about 60 million tonnes and if the price stays as high as this for a full year, it will impose an additional burden of at least $ 1 billion. This country can absorb the additional burden thanks to a very healthy foreign exchange reserve and also long-term contracts with oil exporting nations. But a high crude price will deepen the nascent economic slowdown and it will be a full-blown recession across the world. The World Trade Center was no ordinary building. It housed 35 top investment banks and broking firms doing daily deals in billions of dollars. All that is flattened and it will take months to rent new offices, hire new managers and set up computer facilities. This prospect has hurt the business confidence at a time when the US economy is sluggish. The Bush administration has to find several billion dollars to restore the anaemic health of top companies. The reinsurance business in both America and Europe faces a huge claim, the loss of the two towers alone costing tens of billions of dollars. The insurance premiums will go up, in some cases steeply, and every new Indian project will have to pay more for insurance policies. Foreign fund managers have pumped in about Rs 11,000 crore in Indian stock markets. The after-shock will make them retreat home and that will further depress the share prices. The USA is the biggest investor and given the sullen mood, it is certain to dry up; as it is it was the lowest in several years – just $ 2.3 billion last year. The demand for software will fall further, shrinking export earnings and jobs. Indian merchandise export too will suffer if a recession grips the US economy, as it is most likely to. The chain reaction of the World Trade Center destruction will be felt for long and by all countries. |
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Crime wave in region NO
part of the country can claim to be crime-free but till recently northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh witnessed fewer incidents of theft, burglary, robbery and snatching than, say, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. And cities like Chandigarh and Panchkula were considered safer than those in the neighbouring states. But this special status stands snatched from the capital of Punjab and Haryana if the recent spurt in crime is any indication. Not only has the number of violent incidents increased greatly, but also the brutality involved. Robberies have been committed in broad daylight and some victims have been done to death. At times one gets the feeling that the city has become as lawless as any mofussil town. To some extent, this increase can be attributed to the advent of migrant labour which makes good use of the better modes of transport to perpetrate crime and go back to their places, leaving the police clueless. But they are not the only ones to blame. Society as a whole has also turned more violent. Various disillusionments coupled with the lack of a support system lead many to the path of crime. What is most alarming is the involvement of young men from good families in such incidents. Most of them are first-timers and the police does not have any record about them. That makes the solving of the cases all the more difficult. The public disquiet is palpable. The crime wave has affected commerce and business activity as well. After all such cases, the police generally becomes the target of public ire. But the fact remains that most of the citizens are also not safety conscious. Despite repeated pleas, most residents do not register their servants or get their antecedents verified. But instead of coming down heavily on the house owners for this dereliction, the police ought to find out why they are so "callous". Many do not dare to go to the police simply because of the unnecessary harassment they are subjected to. A more people-friendly stance by the cops can encourage them to come forward. Many criminals make use of the inter-state rivalry among the policemen to make good their escape. A joint policing system is the need of the hour. At the same time, citizens' groups have to activate themselves so that an effective neighbourhood watch mechanism can be evolved. To some extent, the police is right in expressing its inability to keep an eye on every nook and corner. It can provide suitable policing only with the active involvement of the citizens. |
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Samajwadis’ game plan OF
course, the Samajwadi Party leaders cannot be held responsible for the flawed timing. On a routine day the decision of the 100 odd party MLAs in Uttar Pradesh to resign would have been treated as a major development by most newspapers. Unhappily for Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon pushed the news to the inside pages. However, in the context of the assembly elections in UP the move is still politically interesting. Chief Minister Rajnath Singh has virtually stolen the Dalit thunder by creating new categories for extending the benefits of job reservation. Both Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Ms Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party have thus far put up a brave front. But they know that once the flow of reservation benefits to the new categories actually starts it would make Mr Rajnath Singh's claim to being the new messiah of the downtrodden more credible. To prevent this from happening Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has taken the calculated risk of making the Samajwadi MLAs in UP submit their resignations to the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha. It is an interesting initiative. He has, nevertheless, underestimated Mr Rajnath Singh's ability to out-fox him. The Chief Minister has not risen to the bait. He is indeed a cool customer. No one from within the party or the divided opposition can hustle him into committing a major political error. He is as familiar with the rules of the politics of manipulations as Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ms Mayawati. He poohpoohed suggestions for an early assembly poll because of the Samajwadi MLAs decision to resign from the Vidhan Sabha. The Samajwadi Party has based its case for early elections on the fact that the present assembly would complete its five-year term on October 17. However, UP was placed under President's rule for six months because no party had a clear majority for forming the next government. According to Mr Rajnath Singh, the assembly would complete its term on March 26 next year because its first formal sitting was held on March 27, 1997. Even the Election Commission has accepted this interpretation and has indicated that the new UP assembly would be constituted latest by March 26, 2002. All this leaves Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and his followers with only one viable option. Take to the streets and even indulge in acts of hooliganism to force Mr Rajnath Singh into ordering early elections. But why should the Chief Minister oblige? |
Bridges of understanding with Lanka “I
could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I do not know whether the tunnel is too long, or there is no light at the end of the tunnel. We still have to travel along the tunnel until we see the light, as we are committed to peace with dignity.” These plaintive words of a Sri Lankan Tamil sum up the sentiments of his people. The Tamils have unfortunately been the victims of a bloody civil war in North-Eastern Sri Lanka, between the LTTE led by the psychopathic Velupillai Prabhakaran on the one hand, and the armed forces of Sri Lanka on the other, for over two decades now. When the charismatic Chandrika Kumaratunga became the President of Sri Lanka in 1994, there were expectations that she would bridge the ethnic divide. She is a leader whose liberal credentials and commitment to pluralistic, democratic and secular values have been unquestionable. Internal political squabbling in Sri Lanka has, however, unfortunately prevented any significant movement forward in addressing the ethnic issue realistically. The last seven years have been tumultuous for Sri Lanka. President Kumaratunga started her term with imaginative proposals for the devolution of powers to address the legitimate grievances of the Tamil minority in 1995. These proposals were spurned by the LTTE. But the international community and public opinion in both India and Sri Lanka showed sympathy and support for President Kumaratunga. The LTTE faced increasing international isolation and the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka soon lost the international sympathy it enjoyed earlier. Indian public opinion was outraged when the LTTE attempted to assassinate Kumaratunga during an election campaign. The incident brought back painful memories of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in the midst of an election campaign in India. Prabhakaran does have the dubious record of having killed not merely his adversaries but also scores of Tamil leaders ranging from moderate TULF leader Amrithalingam on the one hand, to his own deputy and military commander Mahatyya on the other. The last few years have been difficult for Sri Lanka. While the Sri Lankan army regained control over the Jaffna peninsula by 1996, it has since faced a series of military reverses. The army had lost control over almost the entire Jaffna peninsula by last year. It has retained control only in Jaffna town, the strategically vital airbase in Pallaly and the naval base in Kankesanthurai. Three divisions of the Sri Lankan forces today face a logistical nightmare depending entirely on these two bases for their survival in the peninsula. The confidence and morale of the Sri Lankan armed forces seems to have been rudely shaken by last year’s military debacle. The LTTE now possesses artillery and substantial firepower that it can bring to bear on the Sri Lankan garrisons in the peninsula. While under normal circumstances the Sri Lankan armed forces should be able to hold firm, problems of morale and logistics can lead to unpredictable results. It would be disastrous to our security interests if the LTTE were to seize control, or dominate the Jaffna peninsula. Their gun culture, drug connections and links with criminal, secessionist and terrorist organisations and groups like the PWG in India will pose new and serious security threats if this were to happen. The ethnic conflict has devastated Sri Lanka’s economy. The attack on Katunayake airport on July 24 caused extensive damage to both the air force and the Sri Lankan airlines. There has been a fall in tourism revenues. Foreign investors are chary of investing in Sri Lanka. The increasing expenditure on defence is naturally diverting funds away from further developing the country’s social infrastructure. Adding to these factors is the growing climate of political uncertainty that has now engulfed the island. President Kumaratunga’s ruling coalition had a razor-thin majority in Parliament. Recent political developments have compelled her to rely on the extremist JVP for support. Ms Kumaratunga has paid a heavy political price for this temporary reprieve for her government. She has pledged that she will not bring any new proposals for the devolution of power unless a broad consensus is achieved through a wide-ranging political dialogue. It is, however, clear that the agreement of the ruling People’s Alliance with the JVP is a marriage of convenience that is unlikely to hold even for its present term of one year. New Delhi has been keeping a close watch on the developments in Sri Lanka. There is, however, a growing feeling in the island that because some of the constituents of the NDA have open sympathies for the LTTE, there is a disinclination on the part of India to be supportive of Sri Lanka’s concerns. It did cause surprise and dismay when New Delhi neither condemned the attack by the LTTE on Katunayake airport, nor did it express solidarity or offer assistance to the beleaguered Sri Lankan government after the attack. There has also been serious disappointment in Sri Lanka at the role played by Norwegian facilitator Eric Solheim. There is a justifiable feeling in the island that distant European countries are hardly well-placed to understand the complex problems of nation-building in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Asian countries. Even India’s detractors across the ethnic divide now feel that New Delhi must play a more active role in promoting ethnic peace in Sri Lanka. New Delhi should now play a discreet and behind-the-scenes role in forging a political consensus in Sri Lanka between the major national parties like the SLFP and the UNP. India should urge them to formulate realistic proposals for the devolution of powers to the North-East of the country. Moderate Tamil groups like the TULF, the EPRLF and the EPDP need to be brought into this process. New Delhi must reaffirm its support for the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka through concrete actions. The LTTE appears to be getting its weapons mainly from sources in Thailand and the Central Asian Republics. New Delhi and Colombo should undertake a coordinated diplomatic effort to sensitise the international community about the terrorist dimensions of the LTTE. While the USA has declared the LTTE a terrorist organisation, many European countries still seem to have illusions about its nature. There is also need for India to expand its aerial and naval surveillance and act decisively to interdict arms and logistical supplies to the LTTE. We should also devise effective means for active intelligence sharing with the Sri Lankan government. Given Sri Lanka’s interest in economic ties with India, it was only natural that we sponsored its name for membership of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation. Prime Minister Vajpayee took an active interest in concluding a Free Trade Agreement with Sri Lanka. We enjoy a large balance of trade surplus with Sri Lanka. Despite this, we have placed shortsighted quantitative restrictions and other non-tariff barriers on Sri Lankan exports like tea and rubber. We claim to be a regional power in the Indian Ocean region on the one hand, but place unwarranted protectionist barriers on exports from our smaller neighbours, be it Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, on the other. We should realise that unless we are prepared to be farsighted, we would not succeed in any effort to build bridges of trade and economic cooperation in regional forums in our neighborhood like SAARC and BIMSTEC. Like most of our neighbours, Sri Lanka can be our partner for peace, stability, progress and prosperity in South and South-East Asia only if we show a measure of understanding of its concerns, and generosity and far-sightedness in trade and economic relations. One hopes our government and media will get out of their present unwarranted and counterproductive obsession and fixation with General Musharraf’s Pakistan and look more towards building bridges of understanding with India’s other neighbours. These are after all countries that are afflicted neither by the compulsive hostility, nor the paranoia of our western neighbour towards us. |
The man who strikes terror DESPITE
the Afghanistan regime's quick denial that Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden has had a hand in the history's biggest terrorist strike against the world's sole super power, his name finds mention in every discussion on the subject. Terrorism experts have cautioned the US authorities not to rush to any hasty conclusion so that every suspected group is under scrutiny. Yet, in their bewilderment, most analysts have their needle of suspicion moving towards the cash-rich 44-year-old man enjoying the hospitality of the Taliban regime somewhere near Kandahar or Jalalabad. He has the resources. He receives donations about which no estimate can be made. His personal financial status is worth over $500 million. He has an amazing network world-wide. He has a committed band of men prepared to die after even a feeble nod from their "peer". He remains in touch with the groups in other parts of the globe whose activities border on terrorism. This is what one learns from his media interviews and occasional reports. In a recent telephonic interview he provided a significant hint about his modus operandi. It is not necessary that only those trained in his seminary called Al-Quaida execute his plans. He instigates people having grudges against what he describes as the "evil empire" to implement his designs. The rest is taken care of by those who go by his sermons. Osama began his dangerous campaign against the USA in the early nineties after the super power-led allied attack on Iraq. He felt hurt by the "desecration" of Islam's holy land (Saudi Arabia) with the stationing of American troops there. He perhaps also saw in the action against Iraq the destruction of "a symbol of Islam's emerging military might", though the Saddam Hussein regime had nothing to do with religion. Osama's men first struck at New York's World Trade Center complex in 1993 but had a limited success. Then came the bomb blasts by his guerrillas at the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, resulting in the death of 224 people. But he was not satisfied. It seems he wanted nothing less than the elimination of the world's biggest financial centre to shake the American economy by its very foundations. The master terrorist succeeded on Tuesday, if his hand behind the amazing development is finally discovered. India has to guard itself with meticulous planning against the former Saudi financier as in 1999 he had announced a jehad against this country on the question of Kashmir. Alas, when India decided to strike at his camps in Afghanistan to teach him a lesson, the USA came in the way! Osama was born in Jeddah in a family of construction magnates. His father had a humble background — a peasant from Yemen. But he made a fortune after entering a booming construction business in Saudi Arabia. Osama multiplied his family's wealth by making wise investments. In the meantime, he developed close contacts with America's CIA. In the eighties, his men armed with US weapons fought along with the Mujahideen against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. It is a different matter that today he has turned Washington's enemy number one. Symbol of US
economic might The destruction of the two towers housing the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York by aeroplane attacks on Tuesday will severely hit the US economy. Never in the annals of the world history has such an attack been made by terrorists with clockwork precision. What were until Tuesday morning the proud symbols of American might, enterprise and strength were reduced to a rubble. The WTC was regarded as a jewel of downtown Manhattan and a sentinel of international business and commerce. Sadly, till the time of writing, no information was available on the exact number of deaths in the two towers. In any case, the toll is expected to be very high. Reports say while 50,000 people work in the towers everyday, the complex, which included an observation deck and several tourist attractions, drew another 90,000 visitors daily. The construction of the WTC towers was completed in 1973 at a cost of $750 million. It was opened for business in 1975. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey placed the seven-building complex on 16 acres of land in lower Manhattan, making it then the largest commercial complex in the world. It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki and Emery Roth in stainless steel and glass. One WTC tower was 1,368 feet tall (417 metres) and the other 1,362 feet (415 metres). The twin towers, with 110 floors, had 43,000 windows and 99 elevators. The WTC has had a record of terrorist strikes. In a terrorist car bomb attack on February 26,1993, six people were killed, over 1,000 injured and property worth $300 million destroyed. According to a document seized from a conspirator by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the bombing was meant to
`demoralise the enemy by blowing up the towers that constitute the pillars of their
civilisation''. If the destruction of the WTC towers is a devastating loss for American and international trade and business, the terrorist attack on Pentagon near Washington DC, which houses the US Defence Department, is equally serious, considering the fact that it is regarded as one of the most
`secure and impregnable'' buildings in the world. Strategically, the Pentagon is also said to be a very important building of the US government as it is the headquarters of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force where all major decisions on defence policy and security are taken. Though the builders had taken enough care in making the Pentagon secure from attacks of any kind — the geometrical structure has several floors underground to survive a nuclear strike — no effective measures were there to prevent aerial attacks as witnessed on Tuesday. Of course, there is a restricted air-traffic corridor around the Pentagon and civilian aircraft are not allowed to fly in the area, but as latest attack proves, these are not adequate. It is said the Pentagon is a
`city within itself'', housing around 23,000 military and civilian employees and 3,000 support personnel promoting the cause of US security and national interest. Built near Washington DC during World War II, the Pentagon consists of five concentric pentagons or
`rings'' of 10 spoke-like main corridors connecting the whole. The Pentagon is said to be the largest office building in the world. It covers 34 acres, offers 3,700,000 sq ft of usable airconditioned floor space that provides work space for about 30,000 people. The terrorist attack on such an important building exposes serious loopholes in US intelligence and security networks. |
Past acts point to Osama bin Laden THE denials by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden nothwithstanding, the Saudi civil engineer-turned-terrorist’s signature is writ large over the unprecedented terrorist strikes in the USA on September 11. The February 26, 1993 car bomb attack on the same target — New York’s World Trade Centre — was only a full dress rehearsal by bin Laden’s men. Ramzi Mohammad Yousef, the master of explosives and a close aide of bin Laden, was in charge of the operation more than eight years ago to launch a deadly car bomb attack on the World Trade Centre twin towers. What is more, a year later Yousef was weaving a much more sinister plot, something which was never heard of before. The American intelligence came to know of Yousef’s “Bojinka plot” in which Osama bin Laden’s five men, led by Yousef, would plant bombs timed to explode simultaneously on 11 US airlines over the Pacific. Yousef’s specilisation was phenomenal: converting digital watch into a timing watch, hiding liquid nitro-glycerine in a contact lens and then using two nine-volt batteries to cause explosion. The 1993 car bomb attack on the World Trade Centre and the next year’s “Bojinka plot” proved one thing — that only bin Laden and gang had developed expertise and wherewithal to strike at the very heart of the USA. The Americans’ “Black Tuesday” has demonstrated that bin Laden’s men have further honed their terrorist skills so much so that it has the awesome network and capacity to commandeer four passenger planes (hijackers possibly being qualified pilots) and use them like aerial bombs against such high profile targets as the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Tuesday’s terrorist acts in the USA also show that bin Laden has no dearth of manpower or resources even after Yousef’s arrest which can not only bring America to its knees but also blacken the faces of the American intelligence community for their colossal failure. Two reasons can be easily attributed to the fact that the WTC Twin Towers did not
collapse in the 1993 car bomb attack: their sheer strength and Yousef’s lack of funds. Yousef has gone on record telling his American interrogators that if he had more funds he would have preferred a truck bomb rather than a car bomb. Yousef’s stolen van had 295 cubic feet of space which meant that he could pack as much as 1000 kg of explosives in it. Being an explosives wizard, Yousef knew that the van did not have to be stuffed to capacity and he packed it with about 600 kg of high explosives. Yousef’s bomb was a devilish mixture of nitro-glycerine, urea pellets, sulphuric acid, aluminium azide, magnesium azide and bottled hydrogen. He had probably also added the lethal
Sodiam Cyanide as its vapours could be sucked up through ventilation pipes and lift shafts in the tower. The bomb was an unusually sophisticated one. While normal high explosives have a velocity of about 3000 feet per second, Yousef’s bomb had five times higher velocity. Yousef’s van had four fuses, each 20 feet long. Before using a cheap cigarette lighter, Yousef had calculated that it would take just about 12 minutes for the fuses to burn down to his 600-kg bomb. The fuses were covered by a surgical tubing. The idea was to prevent smoke from coming out and thus catch public
attention. The car bomb was parked in the basement of the World Trade Centre by Yousef himself who presumed that due to the impact of the blast, Tower One will collapse onto Tower Two. The car bomb’s fuses burnt at the rate of one inch per two and a half seconds. The bomb exploded at 1217 hours, generating a massive pressure of more than 70,000 kg per squre inch. Despite the ferocity of the blast, only six people were killed and 1042 injured. But America was shaken to its roots. Only once before in the history of 73,000 explosions recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), such a powerful bomb had been used. Yousef’s “Bojinka plot”, planned for late 1994 and early 1995, comes closest to the September 11, 2001 apocalypse. It envisioned what no terrorist organisaton had ever done before: exploding 14 bombs on 11 US ailiners over the Pacific with the help of just five terrorists. The aborted plot, as per the quoted American intelligence reports, aimed at bombing the following flights simultaneously: * United Airlines flight from Manila to Seoul. * North West Airlines flight from Manila to Tokyo. * Delta flight from Seoul to Taipei. * North West Airlines flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. * United Airlines flight from Singapore to Hong Kong en route to Los Angeles. * United Airlines flight from Hong Kong to
Singapore en route to Hong Kong. * United Airlines flight from Taipei to Tokyo. * United Airlines flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. * North West flight to Los Angeles. * United Airlines flight to Seoul-Taipei. * United Airlines flight from Taipei to Bangkok. The last biggest attack on the USA — bin Laden’s bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania — had trigered off Operation Infinite Reach when America launhced Tomahawk cruise missile attacks on bin Laden’s hideouts in Afghanistan and Sudan on August 27, 1998. The September 11, 2001 attack on America is sure to launch a much more ferocious counter-action in Afghanistan by the USA. And in this operation, not just rocks of Kandahar or Khost will be blown off. It will be much more. |
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Everything just happens THE mystics of the world have followed different paths to know the truth or the secrets of existence, but their conclusions have been similar. Indian mystics have been saying over the ages that everything in the universe happens on its own. God, the Almighty doer, acts through his creations, humans and non-humans. That is exactly what a Russian mystic, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877-1949), realised on his own. His work on 'self' led him to realisations that ring almost like those of Indian saints and sages. One of the questions posed by P.D. Ouspensky, who spent eight years as Gurdjieff's disciple, reveals this adequately. He asked: "What a man should do to assimilate his teachings? "What to do?" Gurdjieff reacted with surprise. "It is impossible to do anything. Man's chief delusion is that he can do... But actually nobody does anything and nobody can do anything. This is the first thing to be understood. Everything happens. And it happens exactly in the same way as rain falls as a result of a change in temperature in the higher regions of the atmosphere or the surrounding clouds, as snow melts under the rays of the sun as dust rises with the wind." Gurdjieff considers most humans to be machines. As such he dismisses Ouspensky's question on the application of psychology on humans. "Psychology refers to people, to men, to human beings. What psychology can be there in relation to machines? Mechanics, not psychology, is necessary for the study of machines... It is a long way yet to psychology." Can we stop being a machine? Gurdjieff responds: "It is possible to stop being a machine but for that it is necessary first to know the machine." A machine, a real machine, does not know itself and cannot know itself. And when it does know itself, it ceases to be a machine, at least, not the machine it was before. "It already begins to be responsible for its actions." Gurdjieff says that not only most humans are machines, but all deeds, actions, words, thoughts, feelings, convictions, opinions and habits of humans are the result of external influences, external impressions. "Out of himself man cannot produce a thought, a single action. Everything that he says, does, thinks or feels, just happens. Man cannot discover anything, invent anything. It all happens." Gurdjieff says that it is an illusion to think that man is creative or that he consciously organises life. According to him everything happens — popular movements, wars, revolutions, changes of government. "And it happens in exactly the same way as everything happens in the life of an individual. Man is born, lives, builds houses, writes books, dies, not as he wants to, but as it happens." He cautions his disciples that no one will ever believe them if they tell a person that he can do nothing as that will be the most offensive and unpleasant thing to say. "It is particularly unpleasant and offensive because it is the truth and nobody wants to hear the truth." He says that every action is connected to every other action in the universe." It always seems to people that others invariably do things wrong, not the way these should be done." He adds: "Everybody always thinks he could do it better. They do not understand that what is being done, and particularly what has already been done in one way, cannot and could not have been done in another way." Can nobody do anything? To this question Gurdjieff responds: "In order to do so it is necessary first to understand what it means to be." He explains that in order to be, one has to learn to speak the truth, to know what the truth is, what a lie is. |
The Supreme Reality As from a blazing fire thousands of sparks, similar to it in nature issue forth, so O my young friend, manifold beings are produced from the Imperishable, and they verily go back to it again. *** Self resplendent, formless, unoriginated and pure, that all pervading Being in both within and without. Anterior both to life and mind, He transcends even the unmanifested casual states of the Universe. *** From Him are born life, mind, senses, ether, air, fire, water and earth that supports all. Verily, He is the indwelling Spirit within all. Fire is His head; the sun and moon His eyes, the quarters, His ears; the revelation (the Vedas) His voice; the wind His breath; the universe, His heart. And from His feet the earth has originated. From Him, the gods of various orders, the celestials, men, beasts, birds, in-breath, out-breath, paddy, barley, austerity, faith, truth, continence, and the law (were born).... Immortal Being as seated in the cavity of the heart, rends as under the knot of ignorance even here in this life. —
Mundakopanishad, Chapter II, section I, 1, 4, 7, 10 *** Infinite is His goodness and Infinite its praise; Infinite are His works and Infinite His gifts; ...Unfathomable is the Infinity of His Mind; ...High is our Lord and very High is His throne; His Holy Name is higher than the highest... — The Japji (morning prayer of the Sikhs), 24 *** God is not where we believe Him to be; He is in ourselves. — Antoine the Healer |
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Rajeev Sharma
