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Thursday,
July 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Gaurav Yatra is off Musharraf in difficult straits Growing AIDS threat |
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Question of saving consensus
A parallel power centre
Most Americans take work home
How to have peace of mind
69-year-old pickpocket retires
Listening to our inner voice in silence
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Gaurav Yatra is off IT
must have been a tough decision for the BJP to cancel the Gujarat Gaurav Rath Yatra of Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the last minute, although pressure from the Opposition parties and even the National Human Rights Commission to do so was unrelenting. Mind you, the yatra was to be flagged off by none other than Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani. Moreover, this about-turn was bound to be seen as a rebuff to Mr Modi, the blue-eyed boy of the Sangh Parivar, from the central leadership. So, what prompted the Prime Minister and the central leadership to take this “extreme” step? Nobody is going to spell out the real reasons but what may have turned the scales in favour of cancellation were intelligence reports that the yatra could indeed trigger violence in the volatile state. That would have been disastrous for the party at this stage and that is what made it step back. In fact, the issue was raised by senior officials from the state also during a review meeting of the relief and rehabilitation work with the Prime Minister. They reportedly pointed out that one of the reasons why riot victims were not returning to their homes was that they feared more violence during the Chief Minister’s yatra. Since they raised this point during an interaction with Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, they must have done so during meetings with the Chief Minister as well. Was their advice taken into account while planning the yatra in which the Chief Minister was to cover almost the whole of the state in a mechanised chariot to highlight the “achievements” of the BJP government in Gujarat? State BJP leaders insist that the programme, which was to run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday till the Chief Minister covered all the 25 districts, has only been postponed and not cancelled, but it is apparent that the yatra will no longer be held. That means the Chief Minister’s attempt to wipe out the ignominy of the Gujarat riots by portraying himself as a tough leader in the mould of Sardar Patel would remain a stillborn. As a result, the Congress has also cancelled its own “rath yatra” which was to follow a week later and take the same route as Mr Modi’s yatra to “wash out” the BJP influence. Mr Modi and his supporters may call it a conspiracy by the Congress and others, but the cancellation seems to have been welcomed by riot victims who saw in it an attempt at muscle-flexing by saffron forces. While the immediate danger is gone, they will now look with trepidation towards the annual Jagannath yatra, which is scheduled to take place from July 12. One hopes that this festival will not be allowed to be hijacked by any group or organisation to sow the seeds of communal hatred. |
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Musharraf in difficult straits PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is going to face the real challenge to his authority now. His problems are his own creation. He has announced a number of amendments to his country’s 1973 constitution with a view to ensuring that after the promised October elections his position as the unquestioned ruler of Pakistan remains undiluted. He has arrogated to himself the powers to sack an uncooperative Prime Minister or his entire Cabinet as also the National and Provincial Assemblies, and his action will be beyond the jurisdiction of a court of law. With the help of his National Reconstruction Bureau, he has announced certain other amendments also making graduation or an equivalent qualification a must for a person wishing to contest the coming elections and the holding of organisational polls essential for all political parties before October. Certain proposed pieces of legislation debar anyone convicted of corruption charges by a court from occupying a public office or an office in a political organisation. The result is that he is left with no friends. Even the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaed-e-Azam), which the ruling General had been patronising to enable it to emerge as the king’s party, has parted company with him. Its leadership has gone to court along with some other groups challenging the law on graduation as the minimum qualification for contesting elections. The grand political formation, the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), has threatened to meet the new challenge from the military regime by organising a country-wide programme of agitation. The ARD leadership is upset as one of the amendments to the constitution is aimed at preventing Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto from entering the electoral arena. If the General bans the ARD’s planned rallies, he may find himself in a more difficult situation. All ARD constituents, including the two principal parties, the PML of Mr Nawaz Sharif and the PPP of Ms Bhutto, may decide to boycott the October polls, derailing General Musharraf’s plan to give false democratic legitimacy to his rule. The religious parties involved in madarsa politics are already up in arms against the military dictator. They have declared the ordinance promulgated to regulate religious schools as “un-Islamic”. They do not want madarsas to be controlled by a board set up by the government nor are they prepared to place their accounts for public scrutiny. Most of the ARD members were with the military regime so far as the drive to tame the madarsa managements was concerned owing to the latter’s overt or covert support to the terrorist (jehadi for most Pakistanis) outfits. But now almost all political and religious forces are against President Musharraf, who wants to control every political institution through his National Security Council. With so widespread opposition, will he succeed in implementing his designs? |
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Growing AIDS threat INDIA
seems to be in a tearing hurry to march ahead of South Africa as the country that has the highest number of HIV infected patients. The figures released by UNAIDS on the eve of next week's international conference on the subject in Barcelona shows that AIDS is undeniably the deadliest epidemic in human history. However, instead of pressing the alarm button, what concerned nations have done is to put into place effective strategies for combating the disease. The previous Union Health Minister was a medical doctor by training. Yet, he showed no interest in preparing a nationwide roadmap for identifying the causes for the spread of the life-threatening ailment and taking measures for halting the march of AIDS. It remains to be seen how Mr Shatrughan Sinha responds to the challenge of fighting the disease that is likely to claim 68 million lives across the globe in the next 20 years. That is more than five times as many lives as AIDS claimed in the past 20 years. As far as India is concerned, a major reason for the spread of the disease is the absence of a central authority for the implementation of even simple measures for its prevention. The current policy is to allocate funds to the states for implementing AIDS prevention programmes. Few states have drawn up strategies for fighting the spread of the disease. Take the example of Punjab. It has not been able to utilise the funds made available to it by the Centre because it has not fixed any targets and has made no indiviudal or authority accountable for it. AIDS prevention is clearly too serious an issue to be left to indifferent state governments to implement. The new Union Health Minister, Mr Sinha, should insist on the creation of a central authority for the implementation of AIDS prevention programmes and raising the level of awareness among the people on the subject. Unsafe sex may have been responsible for starting the global epidemic. However, secondary sources, like transfusion of infected blood, have made a substantial contribution in making the picture more scary. Among other things the Barcelona conference will insist that the government should accord the highest priority to AIDS prevention. Economic backwardness should not be offered as an excuse for the spread of the disease. In any case, India occupies the second place, behind South Africa, not because it has insufficient funds for combating AIDS but because the political leadership has wasted it energy on creating issues out of non-issues and fighting them instead of concentrating on eliminating the problem that literally affects the
health of the nation. A handful of countries have led by example and Thailand is one of them. The AIDS prevention programme received unqualified political support. Availability of funds and political support saved at least five million lives from the HIV infection. Cambodia, in spite of grappling with the aftershock of genocide, was able to cut down the rate of infection from 4 per cent in 1999 to 2.7 per cent by 2001. The secret? Complete political support to AIDS prevention programmes. Is the new Union Health Minister listening? |
Question of saving consensus SOME sections of the Left as well as the Right are opposing the government’s policy of privatisation. Certainly the way the government is going about this task is questionable—huge private monopolies are being created, social objectives are being ignored and backdoor entry is being provided to multinationals in the guise of privatisation. These problems can be easily handled by incorporating a competition policy, regulation and domestic sale in the privatisation process. It would be unfortunate, indeed, if the government were to squander away the present consensus in favour of
privatisation by its intransigence on these issues. One objection to privatisation is that profit-making PSUs are being sold rather than loss-making ones. The fact, however, is that most of the profit-making PSUs belong to monopoly sectors—oil and telecom. With these sectors being progressively opened to private players, these companies
are likely to become loss-making units. The case of VSNL is before us. The asking price during the last attempt at disinvestment was Rs 1400 per share. The government refused to accept the then offer of Rs 800 per share. Subsequently, the sector was thrown open to private players and VSNL lost its monopoly, and the price of its share sank. The government had then to be content with a price of about Rs 200 per share. Even oil majors like Indian Oil are facing hard times. This company incurred a loss on operations of Rs 32 billion in 2001 —
down from a profit of Rs 74 billion in 1999. Of course, there are exceptions like the National Dairy Development Board and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. But these exceptions only prove the rule. Most PSUs have made profits by charging monopoly prices from the consumer. It is, therefore, all the more important that profit-making PSUs are sold off fast. This also disposes of the argument that on a historical reckoning the return to the government from the PSUs have been good. The question here is not what has happened in the protected environment of the past but what lies ahead in the competitive atmosphere of the future. The objection that PSUs have not been allowed to bid for companies being disinvested is similarly spurious. The basic logic of disinvestment is that separation of the roles of the regulator and the businessman creates friction between these two players and leads to better services for the consumer and the economy. The objective is not conversion of a state monopoly into a private monopoly. The tyranny of the market is not a solution for the tyranny of the government. The objective is to break up the state monopoly to create private competition. This objective is not achieved if one PSU buys another. The government, however, has slipped in selling PSUs to the highest bidder even if that leads to the establishment of a private monopoly. The sale of Modern Foods to Hindustan Lever and VSNL to Tatas is a case in point. The government and the media has to fix the priority between two conflicting objectives — (1) to realise the highest price for a PSU on the block; and (2) to create a healthy competition in the sector. Monopoly bidders are naturally inclined to offer higher prices. But the very logic of disinvestment stems from creating competition in the market. Therefore, the objective of realising the highest amount of revenues should be given up and PSUs should be sold at a lower price to a competitor if need be. Such a policy would meet the objections mentioned above. The second set of objections arise from the social responsibility of the government. It is true that the objective of the government is not merely to create economic growth but to secure the welfare of the people and the two need not be coterminous. For example, the expansion of insurance and banking in the rural areas has taken place after the nationalisation of these companies. The PSUs have helped develop the backward regions of the country. A large number of jobs have been provided to the Dalits. These contributions of the PSUs cannot be ignored. But the same results could have been secured by proper regulation of the private sector. Cross-subsidies could be provided for rural branches of the banks. Fiscal incentives could be provided for the establishment of industries in backward regions. Even reservations for Dalits can be provided for in the private sector. The private banks are, for example, subject to the same priority sector lending restrictions. The point is that social responsibility and ownership pattern of business are two separate issues. The government need not assume ownership of these businesses to push them in specific direction. These objectives could be secured by a strict regulatory regime. The government must create innovative regulatory techniques to get the private sector to be socially responsible. In fact, this should be done for the private sector anyway irrespective of the fate of the PSUs. There is no escape from establishing the control of dharma (or social good) on artha. The third set of objections to privatisation emanates from the concern for workers. It is assumed that the problems of the PSUs are solely due to the interference of politicians and the employees themselves are saint-like having done no wrong. One senior leader of a national trade union conceded, however, that about 5 per cent of the troubles could be attributed to the workers’ actions. Then, should the workers not bear 5 per cent of the loss? Why should they be given full protection of salaries and VRS while the tax-payer bears the losses? It is not recognised that privatisation embodies a conflict of interests between two labour aristocracies —those of the government employees and the PSUs. It is well known that a large part of the government expenditure goes towards the salaries of the government servants. The fiscal deficit has got out of control after the Fifth Pay Commission. The government is forced to sell its PSU holdings for meeting the fiscal deficit. The PSU labour aristocracy is sacrificed to pay the salaries of the other labour aristocracy. When trade unionists demand that the interests of the PSU workers should be protected, they are, in fact, demanding that both labour aristocracies should be protected instead of sacrificing one for the other. The correct solution, of course, is to dismantle both these aristocracies beginning, in the present instance, with the PSU one. The fourth objection is that privatisation has been so arranged to give a backdoor entry to the multinationals. The government has to borrow heavily for meeting its profligate expenditures. Selling the PSUs to foreign buyers brings in foreign exchange and increased liquidity in the money market. The ministers and officers of the ministries can also make a foreign killing in the process. Therefore, the Ministry of Disinvestment imposes conditions which force Indian buyers to bring in a foreign partner. For example, a condition was imposed that the bidder for Air-India would have to have a certain experience of running an international airline. The minimum net worth requirements are set very high in other cases. These conditions provide a free entry to MNCs. This objection is well taken. The solution, however, is not to backtrack from privatisation but to sell the PSUs to domestic buyers even if at a lesser price. It is unfortunate indeed that the government is letting the consensus in favour of privatisation slip out of its hands. It should address these concerns by (1) disinvesting in favour of competitors to prevent private monopolies; (2) establishing a regulatory framework to secure social objectives; and (3) privatising in favour of domestic buyers even if at a lower price. |
A parallel power centre He claims Mr Vajpayee had asked Union Defence Minister and NDA convener George Fernandes to feel the pulse of all the alliance partners about Mr Advani being elevated as Deputy Prime Minister, the seventh since the country attained Independence. Further, he has emphasised
that he had not been consulted and nor was he aware of the goings-on in the Prime Minister’s mind on the issue of appointing a Deputy Prime Minister. He also points out that he got wind of Mr Vajpayee’s desire through a report in one of the newspapers when he was abroad in Spain on an official tour. He said in zest that may be the news of his being elevated as Deputy Prime Minister was leaked by Mr Fernandes. All this has been taken with a huge pinch of salt in political circles and outside as he has always been the second most powerful man in the BJP-led NDA government. Mr Advani’s new-found status of Deputy Prime Minister leaves no room for doubt that his all pervasive presence in the affairs of the country will be more intense and forceful henceforth. PM’s trouble-shooter Mr Fernandes’ familiarity with Kalam was all too evident as the technocrat had served as Scientific Adviser to the Union Government. Interestingly, for two days in the run up to chronic
bachelor Mr Kalam’s name being formally announced as the NDA’s presidential nominee, Mr Fernandes had cancelled all his other engagements. Those 48 hours saw Mr Fernandes breezing in and out Mr Vajpayee’s official residence. This time around Mr Vajpayee asked Mr Fernandes to ensure that all the partners of the NDA backed him in elevating Union Home Minister L.K. Advani as Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Fernandes did not flinch in fulfilling Mr Vajpayee’s brief. He has now got immersed in mollifying and soothing the ruffled feathers of a defiant Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee so that she returns to the Vajpayee Cabinet. Celebrity gynaecologist Karishma and Kareena, the two star sisters of the Kapoor family, Shah Rukh Khan’s children and babies born in families of the
country's well-known industrialists — the Birlas, the Goenkas, the Godrejs, and the Ambanis. In the seventies, while returning from London, he helped in a mid-air delivery case involving a Bangkok-bound Thai woman. A former Medical Director of the Family Planning Association of India, Dr Soonawala stresses that safe motherhood is the biggest challenge before the Indian gynaecologist. He says “for every 100,000 the deliveries in developed countries, four to six mothers die. In India, for the same number of deliveries, 400 or 500 deaths are reported. In rural India, 70 per cent of the deliveries are being handled by dais (midwives). You cannot deny them the right to pursue their profession but it is necessary that the government takes steps to train them. I really pushed forward this programme when I was President of the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society of India,’’ he says. The septuagenarian gynaecolgist is among the seven doctors in the world to be awarded the Von Graffenberg medal for original work in intra-uterine contraception by the
University of Kiel, West Germany. He was decorated with the Padam Shri in recognition of his work in family planning. He has modified gynaecological operative techniques and has designed at least a dozen gynaecological instruments. He has been an active member of the WHO expert panel on female sterilisation and the Board of Directors of the World Federation of Voluntary Surgical Contraception. |
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Most Americans take work home NINE out of 10 Americans take their work home and about 21 per cent of the workers believe that their employers exploit them, according to a new poll. The proliferation of employer-required cell phones, pagers, laptops, PCs and other wonders of the modern mobile workplace has created 24-hour workplace, according to the latest “America At Work” public opinion survey. “The technology has created a 24-hour workplace but there are hazards, legal and otherwise, in creating a 24-hour employee when that employee is not a member of management,” said Stephen J Hirschfeld, a partner in the San Francisco-based law firm. He said: “The poll suggests why we’re seeing a huge number of employee class-action suits over uncompensated time for work performed outside the regular workplace and that organisations — large and small, private and non-profit — have to confront this issue.” As an example, Hirschfeld pointed to the highly publicised employee class-action suit against Intel over uncompensated time. The suit, he said, illustrated how litigation arises out of these disputes, how state legislatures become deeply involved in workplace issues, and how organised labour sees one of its biggest organising opportunities in decades. He noted that the workers fighting Intel had their own website (www.faceintel.com) on which they were soliciting members of the plaintiff class, stating in part, “If Intel supplied the equipment (PC, notebook, printer, cell phone, fax machine, etc) and had authorised you to access their computer system from home — for any work or duty that you performed from home over your daily 8 hours, you would be likely entitled to overtime.” The national poll of 1,000 men and women, conducted by Reed Haldy McIntosh & Associates of Media focused on “non-exempt” employees — those whose work hours are legally regulated and who are entitled to overtime compensation. The poll was fielded within the past two weeks. The survey revealed that 21 per cent of the workers surveyed said their employer’s compensation policies for working outside the office “take advantage” of them. Survey Director Theodore Reed, who is part of the “America At Work” series created nearly two years ago, warned that while employers might find satisfaction in the fact that 76 per cent of the workers sample did not believe they are being taken advantage of through existing compensation policies, they should not have a false sense of security.
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How to have peace of mind PEACE of mind is the greatest asset of a person. It is the highest form of bliss earned with gradual practice, devotion and dedication. Since time immemorial, philosophers and thinkers have been dreaming of this invaluable treasure. Many ascetics left this world and started residing in jungles or on the mountains to meditate for its realisation. Human wants are unlimited and this load of worldly desires adversely affects our mental equilibrium. Consequently, peace of mind is bound to be the casualty. But is there a way out? Yes. The first is simple and honest lifestyle. Be truthful in thought, word and deed. Feed the family with bread earned with honest means. Simple living and high thinking will ensure true peace and happiness. Let us be contented with what we have. Secondly, we must inculcate moral values. Immoral means cannot lead to sublime end. Follow the straight route which leads to peace by making life meaningful through honesty, truthfulness, transparency, compassion, self-control, simplicity, gratitude and forgiveness. Moral values should be adhered to and be held in high esteem for lasting inner peace and satisfaction. The modern concept of raising the standard of living should be supplemented by the moral elevation of the individuals. Thirdly, we should adopt a positive attitude in life. See good in every phase of life. Never be pessimistic. Develop an optimistic bent of mind. True, there will be problems but adversity has its own rewards as it strengthens our will power and helps us to carve out a new career. Develop healthy and noble feelings. Share your joys and sorrows with others. Don’t look to people who are richer than you but to people poorer or less fortunate than you. Try to extend a helping hand to the needy. To live for others is the most fertile pleasure in the world. Enjoy the habit of giving and not of taking. Fourthly, money can buy material comforts but not true happiness or peace of mind. Material happiness is both illusory and paradoxical. Even after acquiring comforts, wealth, we experience a strange hollowness in ourselves, a disturbing unrest. Our ultimate aim should be not to lead a luxurious life but a moral life of higher spiritual order. Peace of mind comes from our unflinching faith in divine power and our sensitivity to positive values of truth, beauty and goodness. Meditation and yoga are very effective in providing a peaceful and stable bent of mind. Yog sadhana is a panacea for all the ills of the body and mind. Yoga teaches sahaj bhaw, serenity and brings out excellence in life. It coordinates mind and body, logic and emotions and conditions our system. It is the best stress buster. The practice of sadhana while sitting in a peaceful corner, closing the eyes, coordinating the breath with the attention (Dhyan) provides concentration of mind whereby the whole tension, stress is relieved. Also auto suggestions play a vital role in overhauling our minds. Just by visualising natural healthy scenes like flowing rivers, snow falls on the mountain peaks transport us to heavenly bliss. Whatever you have, share it with others. Feeling the divine presence everywhere and feeling the pains of others is the real source of peace of mind as Mahatma Gandhi believed in ‘Peer Parai Jane Re’. Having a dialogue with one’s own self is also the best way. Peep into oneself or inner connectivity whatever you may call it, is a great sustaining force in painful moments. It is futile to find God as well as peace of mind outside.Both reside within ourselves. Just peep and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. Walking straight with simplicity and humility will make our life sublime. And here in lies the secret of peace of mind. |
69-year-old pickpocket retires A 69-year-old Japanese female pickpocket has told police she will retire after lifting more than 200 purses in her 50-year career. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the woman, whose name was withheld, was arrested in early April at a department store in Japan’s southwestern Fukuoka prefecture for stealing someone’s purse. The woman, who is in jail, told the police that she will retire because she does not want her grand-daughter to be like her when she gets older. The woman told the police she could not quit her illegal activity as her husband’s low salary wasn’t enough and she had to make money for a living.
DPA Exercise protects heart, cuts inflammation A new study has revealed that physical fitness may have an anti-inflammatory effect that protects against heart attacks, according to a report published in Circulation. The level of C-reactive protein (CRP) indicates inflammation, and elevated CRP is associated with a two- to five- fold increase in the risk of heart attack. People with elevated CRP levels should begin regular exercise with guidance from their physician, says Michael J. LaMonte, Ph.D., an author of the report and director of exercise testing and research at The Fitness Institute, division of cardiology, LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. “We are not talking about a marathon runner’s level of fitness. We are talking about being active on a regular basis, and a good benchmark is to be able to walk a mile and a half in about 30 or 35 minutes,” he says.
ANI
Couple stab each other to death A husband and wife in Germany apparently stabbed each other to death during an argument, according to the police. The bodies of the 39-year-old man and his 36-year-old spouse were found in a pool of blood in the family room of their home in Bavaria. Each body exhibited deep wounds and the murder knives bore the fingerprints of the respective victims. The police ruled out foul play by a third party, especially after relatives said the couple had a history of dramatic marital strife.
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Listening to our inner voice in silence IN our quick-fix world, with the glaring lights of publicity, the strident noises made by the media and advertising world and the garish and loud sounds of pop music and popular cinema and television that surround us, it is difficult but necessary to retreat for a while, away from the noise to the inner silence of our beings. Every day we are bombarded with a series of happenings and events, with action-filled days in which we have to meet the goals and targets of our jobs, the demands of daily living, of commuting, of looking after our physical and mental needs. To get away from the fast momentum of all these, and to enter into the recesses of our being, where we can just be ourselves and listen to our inner voice in silence, is a refreshing treat indeed. Those who cannot bear silence are often uncomfortable with themselves and have not asked themselves fundamental questions regarding their existence, the purpose of their lives and actions and the direction they are taking in life. For them, such a retreat is fraught with tension and the inability to use the pool of quiet within to refresh themselves. However, those who are familiar with their inner selves and have confronted their self deceptions and self distortions before, can only find these times of silence a way of recovering balance and perspective, of reviewing their actions and of finding new meanings in the day-to-day events of life. It is true that silence is the opposite of sound and sound is essential for communication. But have we not all experienced time and again that real communication is built not only through talking, but primarily by listening to the other? Silence is able to bring to the fore not only the expressed needs and articulations of the other, but also the unexpressed and non-verbalised messages of the other. Silence has a deep spiritual value. We have all experienced moments in life when we could have retaliated and given back as good as we got. But even in the face of aggression by others, we have chosen to remain silent. Silence also has a healing effect. When we are hit by sickness and illnesses that immobilse us, when we face physical and mental problems, when pain assails us, it is in experiencing aloneness and the silence of our bodies, minds, and spirit that we often find an inner healing for them. In the Bible, in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, we find a description of the very act of creation by God. We are told that initially there was a great void covered by silence, and that God’s shadow brooded over the deep. God’s act of creation was filled with spaces of silence and sound. We also observe in nature that all growth takes place in a hidden way. From the planting of the seed, to the growth of the plant and it’s flowering , there are periods of hidden growth. This process is replicated all over nature. In human beings, too mental and spiritual growth are often achieved through intangibles. Growth often comes about silently and we are never really able to place our fingers on the spot on the times that growth and evolution have been achieved. Poetic and artistic insights, literary creations and musical masterpieces have often been inspired by silence and quiet communion with nature and God. Silence enables us to shut out the ugly and to concentrate on the beauty of life around us. In fact the more we can enter into the inner silence of our beings, the more we will be able to access our inner wisdom. The more we reach deep into our beings, the more we will be able to grow and the more we relax in silence, the more we will be able to get in touch with the harmony of the spheres. The great mystics all realised this inner silence. For ordinary souls like ourselves, though we may not be able to touch the heights or experience the depths of mystical solitude, just times and spaces of quiet inner silence, will bring to our lives perspective and harmony. The urgency of small things and irritants will fall away, and we will be able to recognise what is really important and of real value in life. We will be able to sift and to blow away the chaff. We will experience the silence of the Spirit and touch what is most profound in the universe. |
Man is a duality. The more he overcomes the temptations of the flesh the nearer he comes to his goal. — S. Radhakrishnan, Recovery of Faith
*** As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind. As rain does not break through a well-thatched house, passion will not break through a well-reflecting mind. — Khuddaka Nikaya. From The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon (translator, F.H. Woodward)
*** He who... is virtuous.. endowed with (perfect) vision, after subduing greediness for sensual pleasures, will never again go to a mother's womb. — Khuddaka Nikaya
*** Lust of objective form, lust of the formless, conceit, excitement, and ignorance. These are the five fetters pertaining to the higher world. — Anguttra Nikaya. From The Book of the Gradual Sayings (translator, F.H. Woodward)
*** By faith he crosses over the stream, By earnestness the sea of life; By steadfastness all grief he stills, By wisdom is he purified. — The Samyutta Nikaya
*** If a superior man abandon virtue, how can he fulfil the requirements of that name? — Confucius, Analects
*** The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. — Ralph W. Emerson, Essays: First Series: "Heroism"
*** Just, O king, as the architect of a city, when he wants to build one first clears the site of the town, and then proceeds to get rid of all the sumps and thorny brakes, and thus makes it level, and only then does he lay out the streets and squares, and cross-roads and market places, and so build the city; just so does the recluse develop, in himself the five moral powers, and so on, by means of virtue, on the basis of virtue. Just O King, as an acrobat, when he wants to exhibit his skill first digs over the ground, and proceeds to get rid of all the stones and fragments of broken pottery, and thus to make it smooth, and only then on soft earth, shows his tricks; just even so does the recluse develop in himself the five moral powers, and so on, by means of virtue, on the basis of virtue. — From Questions of King Milinda (translator T.W.Rhys Davids) |
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DESPITE L.K. Advani’s assertions to the contrary, his calculated elevation as Deputy Prime Minister by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has inexorably led to a parallel power centre emerging at the Centre. The shrewd and politically sharp Mr Advani has no doubt credited Mr Vajpayee for initiating the move and ensuring that the disparate partners of the NDA accept him as the heir apparent for the job of the country’s chief executive without demur.
Union Defence Minister and NDA Convener George Fernandes has an insatiable capacity to be on the move and quietly take up Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s bidding. He is all the time slipping in and out of the Prime Minister’s official Race Course residence carrying endless briefs. Lately, his unobtrusive hand has been evident in India’s missile man A.P.J. Abdul Kalam being the NDA’s nominee for the high office of President.
Padma Shree Rustom Phiroze Soonawala, Mumbai-based obstetrician and gynaecologist was in the national Capital recently to deliver a talk on pregnancy. He is credited with the safe delivery of several celebrity babies, including the grandchildren of the Nandas’ and the Bachchans’.