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Thursday,
September 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Shedding staff flab Gujarat poll quake |
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Global fight against terrorism
Tentacles of Osama's Al-Qaida Cleaner ushered in Atomic Age SIXTY-SEVEN years after she mopped the floor of a Rome physics institute, Cesarina Marani and her buckets have been hailed for helping to usher in the atomic age.
Festival of harmony sparks row
Knowledge links God and the mortals
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Shedding staff flab
TRUE to its nature, the BJP-led government has stumbled on two options and wants to embrace both. This time it is about shedding excessive work force rendered redundant both by computerisation and economic liberalisation. The Expenditure Reforms Commission headed by former Finance Secretary K.P.Geethakrishnan has recommended a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) which has been successfully pushed through first by nationalised banks and then by public sector undertakings. By offering attractive and generous severance of service benefits, the Central government hopes to reduce its staff strength from the present 40 lakh to 35 lakh in five years. There will be no immediate reduction in wage bill as the VRS pay-out will inflate the expenditure on this account. But hopefully, after five years and definitely after about 10 years there will be a substantial saving on payment of salaries and allowances. The people already identified as excess will first be covered by the proposed plan. A committee of secretaries has cleared the suggestion and it is left to a group of Ministers (GoM) and the Union Cabinet to endorse it. Incidentally, Union Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie had come up with similar ideas, though his plan would have involved a larger outflow of funds. He felt that government servants were too orthodox to think of giving up their jobs and the compensation should be equal to their perceived financial loss. The Finance Ministry shot it down saying it could not fund the proposal. It is a moot question if it will accept the new plan floated by the Expenditure Reforms Commission. The government had a painless proposal made by the Fifth Pay Commission. While granting a substantial increase in salaries, it has directed the government to cut the staff strength every year. Its idea was simple. It pointed out that annual retirement is about 3 per cent of the total staff strength and if the resultant vacancies are left unfilled, the government can slash the number of employees by one-tenth within five years. This was thus formulated. There will always be urgent need for fresh hands and a prudent way will be to leave 2 per cent of the vacancies unfilled and recruit men and women for one per cent. The beauty of the idea was that it did not involve VRS and meshed neatly with both the natural process and the fall-out of the new economic policies. But the government is caught in a dilemma. It wants to be seen as doing something and hence agrees to all ideas even if they are somewhat overlapping and contradictory. |
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Gujarat poll quake THE stiff upper lip maintained by BJP stalwarts after the recent poll debacle is a farce. Neck downward, they are pure jelly. The drubbing has left them thoroughly demoralised. The worst news has come from Gujarat, perhaps the only major state where the party is in majority. The pasting it received in the Lok Sabha byelection in Sabarkantha and the Assembly election in Sabarmati is almost the beginning of the end. It is the latter which is the bigger nightmare. It is one of the seven segments of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat which Union Home Minister L.K. Advani won hands down two years ago. The victory margin in this segment alone was 47,000 votes. This time former Deputy Chief Minister Narhari Amin has grabbed the seat for the Congress by over 18,000 votes. Considering that last time the BJP had won this seat by a margin of about 8,000 votes, there has been a massive swing of as many as 26,000 votes. For an Assembly seat, that is highly impressive, made all the more amazing by the fact that this time there was a very low voter turnout (barely 34 per cent). Moreover, the government pumped money into the constituency like nobody's business, alas to no avail. The margin is not so big in Sabarkantha, but the defeat rankles considering that the victor is Shankarsinh Waghela, who had merged his party with the Congress. What is still not clear is whether the party is willing to read the writing on the wall or will it require still better glasses. This is not the first time that it has received such an electoral jolt. It has been steadily losing ground in the zila panchayat, taluka and municipal elections as well. When that happened, the leadership put forward a fantastic claim that the loss was due to the "party cadres' inability to transform good governance into votes". If it displays such lack of common sense, its goose stands cooked. Every impartial observer knows that the reverses are not the result of any failure on the part of the cadres, but the government's scandalous failure to provide relief to earthquake victims. Then there was the economy meltdown and corruption in the administration. All this went on for years without any remedial measures and has brought the party to such a sorry state. What is noteworthy is that Sabarmati is a Sangh Parivar fortress. The low turnout shows that the Sangh leadership had decided not to come to the aid of Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. That in effect means that he may have to go sooner rather than later. There are three factors which may prolong his tenure. One, the Centre is preoccupied with the happenings in Afghanistan. Two, it may not want to open another front while the Uttar Pradesh elections are round the corner. Three, there is no suitable Patel leader with the BJP to replace Mr Keshubhai Patel, and bringing in a not-Patel may not be such a good idea at this stage. But it is more or less certain that when time comes to lessening the incumbency load, Mr Patel may become the first casualty. |
Global fight against terrorism WHILE the predominant focus in recent days has been on Pakistan’s role in the developments in Afghanistan, relatively little media attention is being paid to the crucial role Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours, notably Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, will have to play in the coming months in the global fight against terrorism. India’s obsession with Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country, and our media’s misplaced fascination in projecting General Musharraf as a “moderate” leader have contributed to there being very little public knowledge about the destabilisation that Pakistan’s links with the Taliban has produced in Central Asia and Iran. The extent of worldwide terrorism that has emerged from the ISI-Taliban-Osama nexus is at last becoming clear to the world, if not to the media and the public in India. Every high school student in India knows about the intense love that Mughal Emperor Babur had for his birthplace, the Ferghana valley. But how many Indians have heard about Juma Namangani and the damage that his links with the Taliban-Osama-ISI nexus has done to Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan — the three countries that straddle the Ferghana valley? Just a few months ago the Taliban appointed Osama bin Laden as the Commander-in-Chief of armed extremist groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) operating to overthrow the governments in Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan, Juma Namangani, who heads the IMU, was appointed as his deputy. Namangani has been heading the IMU for around five years now. On February 15, 1999, Namangani attempted to assassinate Uzbekistan’s President Karimov by triggering a series of car bomb explosions. Karimov has long held Pakistan responsible for regional destabilisation through its support for and collusion with the Taliban.The IMU has similarly spread violence and terrorism through Kyrgystan and Tajikistan. Responding to requests from these beleaguered governments, the Russians have deployed thousands of crack troops for surveillance of their borders with Afghanistan. Russia has invoked the support for Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours. The Taliban’s policies have also earned the wrath of neighbouring Iran as thousands of Afghan Shias have been massacred in recent Taliban operations in Bamiyan and other areas bordering Iran. The Shia Hazaras, who inhabit large tracts of the Iranian-Afghanistan border, have been the unfortunate victims of Taliban bigotry and intolerance. They have treasured the Bamiyan statues of Lord Buddha as symbols of their heritage for centuries and, like Iran, have been appalled by the excesses of the Taliban. Similarly, when the Taliban captured Herat in 1996 they ended a tradition in Afghan society there that placed great emphasis on the role and education of women in society. The military commander in Herat, Ismael Khan, fortunately escaped from Taliban captivity and is today leading the struggle of his people against Taliban oppression. Ismael Khan enjoys Iranian backing. President Burhanuddin Rabbani leads the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. With Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deciding to withdraw their diplomatic recognition, Pakistan alone recognises the Taliban government today. President Rabbani’s government, however, enjoys overwhelming international recognition and is strongly backed by Iran, Russia, Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbours and India. The legendary Ahmad Shah Masood was its Defense Minister. There is substantial circumstantial evidence to link Masood’s assassination by two Arabs two days before the September 11 carnage in New York and Washington to the ISI-Taliban-Osama nexus. The Rabbani government has four powerful military commanders: Tajik General Mohammad Fahim Khan (who has succeeded Ahmad Shah Masood), Uzbek leader Rashid Dostum, Iranian-backed leader in Herat Ismael Khan and the leader of the Hazara Shia Hizb-e-Wahadat militia, Karim Khalili. The Northern Alliance has allowed itself to be worsted in the past by rivalries and bloodletting between its ethnic militias. But the time has now come for leaders like Fahim, Dostum, Khalili and Ismael Khan to seize the opportunity to unite, coordinate their operations and rid the world of the scourge of the medieval Taliban. The visit of the British Foreign Secretary to Teheran will hopefully help in bringing Iran into a united front against the Taliban-ISI-Osama nexus. At the same time the USA will have to assuage Russian and Central Asian concerns about its larger strategic goals in Afghanistan and Central Asia. As the US-led operations against the Taliban commence, there are naturally questions asked about why India should get involved in such an effort. The answer is quite simple. Over the past seven years the Taliban has proved an inveterate foe of secular, pluralistic and democratic India. There is overwhelming evidence to establish that the Taliban has been actively involved in providing facilities for training to terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. One has only to scan the websites of groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba to understand the extent of their links with the Taliban and Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda. India should never forget or forgive the role the Taliban played in helping the hijackers of IC 814 in Kandahar. The Taliban not only drove the hijackers to Chaman on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and facilitated their entry into Baluchistan, but also used the car of Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil to unload the baggage of the hijackers from the hijacked aircraft. The elimination of the Taliban and their replacement by a broad-based and representative government in Afghanistan is, therefore, a matter of vital national security interest for India. The USA has succeeded in getting pledges of assistance not only from its NATO allies but also from Central Asian States like Uzbekistan, Kazakhistan and Tajikistan in its effort to replace the Taliban by a broad-based and representative government in Afghanistan. The USA is also determined to destroy the terrorist training camps that the Taliban regime has set up in collaboration with the ISI. India will have to play an important but discreet role in seeing that a broad consensus emerges in forming a government of national unity in Afghanistan. Given the long-term collaboration that India has had with Iran and countries like Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, it must play its due role in seeing that not only are respected Pashtun representatives like former King Zahir Shah coopted but also the interests of minorities like the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras safeguarded. The Russians will necessarily have a key role in this effort. There is a needless controversy about providing military facilities to the Americans in their operations against the Taliban. India will at most be asked for turnover and refuelling facilities at some airbases for US aircraft and berthing facilities for US navy ships. India has never hesitated to provide such facilities when its national interests so demanded. Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar did so during the Gulf war. More importantly, the United States Air Force was given extensive facilities in India in the wake of the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962. Large numbers of USAF C-130 transport aircraft were based in Palam for supplying troops in Ladakh between 1962 and 1964. The Air Forces of the USA, the United Kingdom and Australia carried out extensive air exercises from Indian air bases in 1963. The USAF was allowed to fly U-2 long-range aerial reconnaissance aircraft over China from Chabua in Orissa until 1964. Finally, there were joint Indo-US efforts to monitor China’s nuclear programme from Indian soil after Beijing tested its first nuclear device. It is time the Vajpayee government explained clearly and precisely to the public and Parliament how vital national interests are served by assisting the US-led international effort to eliminate the Taliban. This effort will naturally be facilitated if the USA secures the endorsement of the United Nations Security Council for the actions that it proposes to take. The writer is a former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan. |
Tentacles of Osama's Al-Qaida HOW
powerful is the base of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida (The Base, in English)? What are its aims and objectives? These are the obvious questions which come to people's minds these days. It is a conglomerate of groups spread throughout the world operating as a network. It has a global reach with presence in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Tajikistan, Syria, Xinjiang in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Mindanao in the Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kashmir in India, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Azerbaijan. Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia and the West Bank in the Palestinian Authority area. Established by Osama bin Laden in 1990 to bring together the Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet invasion, it has helped finance, recruit, transport and train Muslim extremists for the Afghan resistance. Its primary goal is to "re-establish a Muslim caliphate" in the world. It works with extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and to remove Westerners from Muslim countries. Al-Qaida's closest allies include Al-Gama's al-Islamiya and the Islamic Jihad in Egypt and the Harkat-ul-Ansar, now renamed Harkut-ul-Mujahideen operating in Kashmir. It is also believed to have links with units of Al-Ittihad-al-Islami based in Somalia. Osama bin Laden, who comes from a billionaire Saudi family, is said to have inherited around $300 million that he uses to finance the group. Al-Qaida also runs moneymaking businesses, collects donations from like-minded people and illicitly siphons off funds from donations to Muslim charitable organisations. It has extensive financial concerns in Sudan like Zirqani, Ladin International, Althemar al-Mubaraka, Qudrat Transportation, Qudrat Construction and Bareba. There are rumours that it may have been given occasional donations by foreign government agencies, including hardline elements in Iran. The Al-Qaida membership is estimated to be between 3,000 and 5,000 men. Most of them fight alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance and are designated the 055 Brigade. Its support and operation cells have been detected and neutralised in Italy, Germany, the UK, Canada, the USA, Tanzania, Kenya, Yeman, Albania, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and the Philippines. Its operational cells comprise "commandos" under Mohammad Atef alias Abu Hafs. They are mostly suicide members. The organisation also has a security service led by Mohammad Mousa. The group, with its headquarters in Afghanistan, has a global reach. Al-Qaida's broad ideology has enabled it to infiltrate many Islam-driven groups. After realising the potential for inflicting damage to Europe and North America, it infiltrated the European network of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Isamique Arme-GIA) after 1997. Although the GIA is an Al-Qaida constituent, it has never claimed the GIA as one of its associates possibly because that would be counterproductive. Al-Qaida has access to weapons, including explosives. It is learnt that it has been attempting to acquire nuclear, biological and chemical capability. Some weapons handed to it by other groups were once supplied by the CIA in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It has bought weapons from the black market too. Horizontally, it is integrated with 24 groups. Vertical integration is formal but horizontal integration informal. Immediately below Osama bin Laden is the majlis, a consultative council. There are four bodies — military, religeo-legal, finance and media committees. The military committee is responsible for recruiting, training, procuring and launching support and fighting operations. Tasks teams are empowered to plan and prepare attacks, including gathering intelligence by mounting surveillance or reconnaissance on intended targets and conducting rehearsals such as attack training. This committee allocates Al-Qaida instructors, weapons and other resources to directly and indirectly assist other international campaigns. Overseas clandestine functions include a special office for procuring, forging or adapting identity documents, including passports and entry certificates. The finance committee is responsible for financial resources necessary to sustain Al-Qaida activities and its influence. Al-Qaida controls branches of both Maktab-al-Khidmat-ill-Mujahideen-al-Arab (MAK) and the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), the two important sources of funds. The IIRO, the Philippines, led by Osama's brother-in-law Jamal Mohammad Khalifa, supported both MILF and ASG. The IIRO, Tanzania, was actively working with Al-Qaida immediately before the US embassy bombing. The religeo-legal committee is responsible for justifying Al-Qaida positions. Its members also actively preach the Al-Qaida model of Islam. The media committee is responsible for disseminating news and information on Al-Qaida's political and military activities. Khaled al-Fawwaz established the Al-Qaida Press and Public Relations Office in London and run it until the UK police arrested him in connection with the US embassy bombing in Nairobi in 1998. It has training camps in Khost, Mahavia, Kabul, Jalalabad, Kunar and Kandahar and depots in Tora Bora and Liza. Mohammad Atef, the right-hand man of Osama bin Laden, is the military commander of Al-Qaida. In December, 1992, the group was linked to bomb attacks against US servicemen staying in Aden, Yemen. In 1993, its guerrillas claimed responsibility for the shooting down of helicopters carrying US soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. In 1994, working in association with the Abu Sayyaf group and Ramzi Yousef, Al-Qaida was involved in a plot to assassinate the Pope during a visit to Manila. Later in the year the group was also implicated in a foiled plan to bomb US and Isareli embassies in Manila and other Asian capitals simultaneously. In 1995, Al-Qaida's plan to assassinate US President Clinton on a visit to the Philippines was thwarted. In 1996 Al-Qaida was believed to have been involved in planning a bomb attack on a US airbase in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. In 1998, it was believed to have been responsible for the planning of the US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in which more than 300 people were killed and 5000 injured (August). |
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Cleaner ushered in Atomic Age SIXTY-SEVEN years after she mopped the floor of a Rome physics institute, Cesarina Marani and her buckets have been hailed for helping to usher in the atomic age. The cleaning woman made a fateful intervention during a scientific experiment which paved the way to nuclear power, according to a new book. She inspired Enrico Fermi, one of the last century’s greatest physicists, to overcome a hurdle to splitting the uranium atom in 1934, setting him on the road to building the first atom bomb a decade later in Los Alamos. As the head of Rome’s legendary physics institute on Via Panisperna, Fermi pioneered experiments in neutrons, using them to bombard different elements. But he could not harness their power because he could not find a way to predict ensuing radiation levels. Mrs Marani’s buckets contained the missing ingredient that stabilised the experiments -- water. While mopping the tiles in a hallway she left three buckets under the desk of another scientist who was noted for producing anomalous results in his research. Two colleagues spotted the buckets and, suspecting they might be causing the anomalies, mentioned it to their mentor. According to the book, Enrico Fermi and the Buckets of Cesarina, he instantly recognised the solution to his own problem. Over the decades, Fermi and his colleagues, now dead, were interviewed many times about the discovery but never spoke of the role of Mrs Marani who also died some years ago. It was uncovered by two physicists, Fabio Cardone and Roberto Mignani, who revisited Fermi’s experiments for a book marking the centenary of his birth, which falls this Saturday (Sept 29). The authors were told of the cleaner by Mario Berardo, the institute’s retired caretaker, who witnessed the bucket experiment. Mrs Marani continued working at the institute until anonymous retirement while Fermi went on to fame, glory and a Nobel prize. He demonstrated that nuclear transformation occurred in almost every element subjected to neutron bombardment, opening the way to the discovery of slow neutrons, nuclear fission and so-called B-decay theory. On the eve of the second world war, Fermi fled to the United States to save his Jewish wife from Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime.
Guardian |
Festival of harmony sparks row CHINA'S traditional mooncakes now being sold for the mid-autumn festival should be a symbol of harmony, but a fierce dispute has erupted across the country between warring manufacturers. It began when an undercover television programme claimed that a Nanjing bakery had used left-over fillings from last year for this year’s product. The cakes, round like the full moon, are stamped with designs of the Moon Lady, the Jade Rabbit, a three-legged toad or groves of cinnamon trees. They are filled with a rich paste - usually red bean or lotus seed - and enhanced by a salted duck yoke. Health officials quickly moved in to inspect Nanjing’s Guangshengyuan Food Company. Unfortunately the firm’s name is used by an estimated 60 other manufacturers across China, who have been hit by the bad publicity. This year should be a bumper sales opportunity for mooncake producers. The lunar mid-autumn festival coincides with China’s national day on October 1, and the entire country will be on holiday. Expensively wrapped boxes of mooncakes are on sale everywhere — some packaged with a bottle of wine or Cognac.
Guardian
It’s cool to chill out
The world is changing and so is the English language. If you want to be `with-it’, try listening to teenagers since their expressions show the elements of change first. And only then will you be able to figure out that `enthu’ means enthusiasm and `helu’ is not a variant of hullo but refers to guys with dopey eyes. The poor father never gets his due: he is the `old man’ or `geezer’. Helps though if he is `loaded’ with cash!
WFS |
Knowledge links God and the mortals IN my earlier pieces on the nature and dynamics of the sublime, I tried to show the moments which could lift a person to certain heights when his spirit is touched. In this article, I have taken up briefly those four khands or stages of the mind-spirit which we find so splendidly, though symbolically, described by Guru Nanak Dev in the ultimate pauris or stanzas of his epiphanic composition, Japji Sahib. I do so not only as a matter of my faith but also in its wider and universal aspects. As we know from the Sikh kathas and contemporary stories, Guru Nanak, after having travelled far and wide across India and the Arab lands settled for his final contemplative life at Kartarpur, and the Japji Sahib was the outcome of his supreme vision based on his experiences, observations and thought. Since these pauris have been variously explicated by Sikh theologians and thinkers, any one view becomes difficult to sustain if only because the rich ambiguity of these lines does create a hum and buzz of several meanings. The sheer density of the verse is a bait to the imagination of interpretation. I may even use the concept of ambivalence which enables one to have a double-eyed view of things. In a way, one could see this four-step ascent as a pilgrim’s progress who moves on steadily from stage to stage till all the four stages merge into a grand vision. And these four khands in their order are: (a) Dharam Khand (b) Gyan Khand (c) Karam Khand (d) Sach Khand (Pauris 34, 35, 36 and 37 of the Japji). One could compare his arduous climb with the ordeals of mountaineers seeking to reach the Everest, and in the process, gain, inch by inch, a foothold on the slippery realities of life. But these are unavoidable, indeed, ineluctable, approaches to the divine — the ultimate region envisaged where the soul begins to shine like a diamond, all impurities of thought and conduct having been annulled through God’s grace. The first khand (dharam) is again open to many a meaning, and it encompasses from the moral to the societal, pragmatic and established. There are certain duties and observances which become a part of the seeker’s daily life. The householder is a bread-earner, and he has to live within the law, custom and tradition have established. That, however, does not mean a servile submission to any codified set of unjust laws or edicts, as, for instance, in Manu. For the individual remains unique and along, living even in the midst of his people. In fact, as Berdyaev, the celebrated Russian theological thinker observes, while individuality is still biological, personality is a God-given religious entity. In the next khand (gyan), the emphasis on knowledge too has multiple aspects. Without knowledge, a person remains morally blind, and it’s obtained as much through books and scriptures as through experience. In a phenomenological manner, your eyes and senses absorb the human and universal reality as well as the reality of the God-created universe. The mind’s eye, then, roves over hills and mountains, seas and oceans etc to realise the full splendour of the creation. There’s the birth of an inner eye, and all things fall into their places, and the Grand Paradigm becomes visible. In Sikh scriptures, gyan as such has been given a high place in the table of human values. Indeed, in Guru Arjan Dev’s immortal Sukhmani, "The Psalm of Life", God Himself has been called braham gyani. So knowledge is a link between God and the mortals. However, knowledge, as human history shows can also be used to evil purposes, and in nearly all literatures. There are stories and fables affirming the abuse of knowledge. One may recall in this context Goethe’s Faust or Marlow’s play, Dr Faustus. When knowledge is power in the evil sense, it becomes a curse, and a noose. One may still hear Dr Faustus’ cry for a drop of God’s mercy when his compact with the Devil is going to be over. Now not gold or a Helen of Troy is remembered, but only Jesus on the cross. The third khand (karam) is a logical step forward from one’s dharma and one’s gyan. By this state of mind, the pilgrimseeker has already achieved an ascendency over human temptation, and has discovered the inner territories of peace. Now, the word or concept of Karam has also been explicated as Sharam i.e. acknowledgement of shame over his sinful past, and a victory over passions. However, one that appeals to the imagination concerns one’s acts done in pursuance of the good, the noble and the beautiful, regardless of consequences or rewards. One of the best examples in Hinduism is the celebrated advice given to the reluctant Arjana in the Dharamyudh, battle of Kurukshetra. And that divine hymn, the Gita, is now a part of Hindu consciousness as an integrated category. I would, again, consider the case of Guru Gobind Singh, an ardent admirer of Shakti or power in the cause of righteousness. Indeed, if one examines his life, it becomes a massive metaphor for thought turned to fruitful action. The kind of sacrifices leading to the martyrdom of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and of his four young sons alone, would show how a Karmayogi bearing the pain of ordeals only becomes more resolved than ever to proceed to his final abode, the land of bliss. Guru Gobind Singh’s doctrine of "the consecrated sword" has often been misunderstood. If one recalls in this context that letter, Zaffarnama or "The Epistle of Victory" written to Aurangzeb in Persian, shows clearly that the sword is to be lifted only when a human cause has to be served. When, finally, we approach the ultimate or Supreme Khand (sach) it’s appropriate to return to the mul-mantra of the Japji which’s a pithy utterance of the raison d’etere of this magnificent universe and man. The very opening words, then, of the Japji hymn emphasise the place of sach in the Calendar of God’s values: Aad Sach, Jugadh Sach hai bhi such, Nanak hosi bhi sach. That’s to say God alone
has been and will be the truth, and this principle ‘II hold eternally.
Thus, as we proceed from pauri to pani pauri in the Japji,
the devotee or the listener having been shown the true path of the
householder of the value and uniqueness of the human body as a medium
for meditation and moksha, Guru Nanak Dev in the last four pauris
spells out the graduated nature of the four khands. And it’s sach,
the truth eternal which wears the crown. Elsewhere also, Guru Nanak has
considered the truth as the highest possible virtue, beyond and above
everything else. |
Do good deeds with a sense of urgency, Before death's approaching rattle strangles the tongue. *** What wondrous greatness this world possesses that yesterday a man was, and today he is not. — From the Tirukural, 335-36 *** For the next few days just take up two or three simple themes or phrases such as 'I am a peaceful soul', 'I am a being of light and love spreading these feelings to others and the world' and 'I am a subtle point of consciousness, so different from the physical body'. Repeat these thoughts gently to yourself allowing them to sink in more and more deeply until your thoughts and your feelings match each other. When this happens the tension between what you think you should be doing and what you actually are doing disappear, and the soul feels content and full. In addition, practice seeing others beyond the part to the actor who is playing the part. *** Practice being detached from your own thoughts. Create the thought: 'I, the soul, am in the cinema, watching my thoughts come up on the screen of my mind.' As you watch them they will begin to slow down. Sort through them, discriminating between the positive and the negative or waste (mundane) ones. Have action replays of the best thoughts and allow your thoughts to lead you into the experience which lies beyond them. *** If you find your mind is still too active or at all negative, first concentrate on that basic thought, 'I am a peaceful soul'. Observe the direction in which your thoughts flow from that positive source. Sometimes the mind will naturally go in a positive direction when you sit for meditation, but at other times it needs to be firmly steered crashing in the rocks of negative emotions and thoughts! — From Practical
Meditation, a Brahma Kumaris' publication |
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