E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Attack on Amarnath yatris
PAKISTAN-trained Muslim militants do not want assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission has announced a four-phase polling schedule for providing security to the voters.

Scam and shame
THE rollback the allotment of 3000-plus petrol pumps, LPG agencies and kerosene outlets is not only unprecedented but also a near-admission of guilt. However, it is apparent that nobody is going to accept blame. Nor are any heads going to roll.

Lax security on campus
THE reported molestation of a postgraduate student on the campus of the prestigious Delhi University is cause for serious concern. This incident, coming close on the heels of the gangrape of another student in a moving car at the university, has expectedly sent shockwaves among female students. Incidents such as these at a reputed university, that too in the nation’s Capital, are bound to hog the limelight.

OPINION

Crucial elections in Jammu and Kashmir
An opportunity for reconciliation or further alienation?
V.P. Malik
AT the outset, let me place the national security and political importance of the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat in their correct perspective. Both are important for the people of these states as well as for national security. The elections in Gujarat would give a fresh opportunity to the people of the state to endorse or reject India’s credentials of secularism, federalism and tolerance.

MIDDLE

Taste of times gone by
R.S. Dutta
GONE are the days when food used to be very tasty despite the fact that too much of chillies or condiments were not used in homes, as of today. The reason for food losing deliciousness is use of fertilisers to increase production, insecticides and preservatives, which were not used in those days.

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT

Tehri project: how not to displace humans
Ajit Bhattacharjea
WE had dinner on June 20 with Shivanand Pande, a local journalist. A modest L-shaped house, enhanced by a spacious courtyard, where we sat, overshadowed by a tall tree, through which the moonbeams glinted. Friends dropped in. The Pandes had lived there for nearly 200 years, among the families who accompanied Maharaja Sudarshan Shah when he founded Tehri in 1815.

Now cars to have “black boxes”
WITH the number of road accidents reaching dizzying heights, it is often difficult to know what exactly went wrong. But the idea of installing a “black box” in the car may change all that, and three companies are already showing interest in developing the technology required to make that happen and revolutionise the process of accident investigation.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Viagra can cause severe nosebleeds
MEN who take Viagra should be aware of another unpleasant side-effect of the anti-impotence drug as British doctors warn that it may cause severe nosebleeds.

• Ruling against ‘designer baby’
  

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Attack on Amarnath yatris

PAKISTAN-trained Muslim militants do not want assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission has announced a four-phase polling schedule for providing security to the voters. However, Tuesday's double strike by armed fidayeen has sent out a dangerous message — the writ of militants shall prevail. It shall prevail in spite of the increased level of security for the Amarnath pilgrims and the promise of even more security on the days of polling. In a daring operation the militants attacked the heavily guarded base camp for the devotees at Nunwan on the outskirts of Pahalgam. The pilgrims who died in the attack had come from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab. In the second incident armed fidayeen attacked a bunker of the Rashtriya Rifles in the main Handwara town in Baramula. One soldier was killed. The spot where the pilgrims were targeted by the militants is barely 100 kilometres from Srinagar where an incompetent Chief Minister mixed anger and tears while expressing the state government's resolve to root out militancy from the valley. The scene in Delhi was no different. Since the Lok Sabha was in session the drama of expressing shock and anger over the "dastardly attack" was enacted by an equally incompetent Home Minister on the floor of the House. His resolve to follow a "pro-active" policy in Jammu and Kashmir has made no dent on the scale of killing of innocent persons by Pak-trained militants. It has, nevertheless, earned him the post of Deputy Prime Minister. He is now being projected as the future Prime Minister if the failure of the present government on all fronts does not result in the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition partners in the Lok Sabha elections.

The global response to the acts of terrorism that have disrupted normal life in Kashmir shows no nation in good light. Kashmir has been bleeding for nearly 15 years because of reckless policy that Pakistan has fine-tuned for causing mayhem in the valley. No party or government can claim to have come close to convincing the global community about the need to close ranks against all forms of terrorism in any part of the world. Mr V. P. Singh's ill-starred term saw the release of hardened militants in exchange for Mr Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter. Mr Narasimha Rao slept through the best part of his term without doing much for attracting global attention to the Pak-engineered acts of killing in Kashmir. Mr H. D. Deve Gowda and Mr I. K. Gujral hardly had the time to learn how to spell Kashmir. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee too does not have a clue. Neither does Dr Farooq Abdullah who now needs no excuse to burst into tears. The militants have made sure that he doesn't get a chance to smile even when he is playing golf. So far there is only one winner in this game of killing innocent persons and that is Pakistan. Neither Ms Benazir Bhutto nor Mr Nawaz Sharif took the initiative to end cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. President Pervez Musharraf has taken it to greater heights. And the global community, particularly the USA, has shown little interest in smoking out the Al-Qaeda militants hiding under the General's bed. A source of additional worry for the nation is the perceptible increase in acts of militant violence in spite of the deployment of the Army on the border since the December 13 attack on Parliament.

Scam and shame

THE rollback the allotment of 3000-plus petrol pumps, LPG agencies and kerosene outlets is not only unprecedented but also a near-admission of guilt. However, it is apparent that nobody is going to accept blame. Nor are any heads going to roll. Consider it a miracle if any head bends with shame, because far too many people are involved in the open loot of public property, including some from the Congress and other parties. Petroleum Minister Ram Naik is smug that come what may, he cannot be shown the door because he distributed the cake to members of the Sangh Parivar at the bidding of higher authorities like Mr L.K. Advani. In fact, even the cancellation is a clever strategic move. For one thing, it lets the BJP climb the moral high ground. Two, it has managed to deflect embarrassing enquiries, although the Opposition is not going to let it off the hook so easily. Three, after the dirt had hit the fan, the political cost of defending the indefensible would have been high. Moreover, it is almost certain that the allottees will go to court. If all goes well, there may even be a stay on cancellation. The BJP may thus be able to retrieve the situation somewhat. It remains to be seen how effectively the Opposition is able to keep the pressure on. As far as the general public is concerned, there is a near unanimity that whatever the Congress did in retail, the BJP can do it wholesale, that too with a straight face.

Only Mr Naik could have come up with a specious argument that everything was above board and claim that with so many politicians in the country, some allottees are bound to be related to some leader or the other. The only leader who has come up with an even greater gem is BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra who has argued that politicians had got “only 5 to 10 per cent of the total allotments”. Is he suggesting that politicians must have at least 50 per cent petrol pumps reserved for themselves or their relatives? The way the whole system has been perverted takes one’s breath away. Mr Naik did not allot petrol pumps from a discretionary quota, but the system that his ministry put in place was such that the Dealer Selection Boards only danced to the government’s (read party’s) tune. These glaring loopholes were pointed out by the Parliamentary Standing Committee but nobody cared. Unfortunately, since the boards were headed by retired judges, even the judiciary has been sucked into the controversy. There are many cupboards that are still creaking under the weight of many such skeletons. Unless the whole populace rises in disgust and says that enough is enough, our beloved leaders are bound to parrot the line that everything is above board and they can prove this in a court of law. Ironically, if they are convicted in a court of law, they say that they will take the matter to the “people’s court”. Now is the time for the people’s court to hold a sitting and declare a resounding verdict.

Lax security on campus

THE reported molestation of a postgraduate student on the campus of the prestigious Delhi University is cause for serious concern. This incident, coming close on the heels of the gangrape of another student in a moving car at the university, has expectedly sent shockwaves among female students. Incidents such as these at a reputed university, that too in the nation’s Capital, are bound to hog the limelight. They show the university authorities as also the Delhi Police top brass in poor light. There is a growing feeling of insecurity among the female students as the authorities do not seem to be bothered about their safety. The process of investigation by the Delhi Police is very slow and they seem to be failing in their duty to fix accountability on the recalcitrant staff and nab the guilty. The belated arrest of a constable, who is believed to have been involved in the gangrape incident, after the trauma the poor student had gone through, does not inspire much confidence and will not help restore normalcy on the campus. Some of our officers in the uniform are not known for extending prompt help to the needy. This is the case everywhere in the country and the duty officer of Delhi’s Maurice Nagar police station, who refused to register the student’s complaint of molestation, is no exception. But there is no reason why this should not have activated the police top brass in hauling him up for gross dereliction of duty. There is need for a high-powered probe into the two incidents, fixing accountability on officials for lapses and bringing the guilty to book expeditiously.

In view of the reports of increasing lawlessness in the Delhi University campus, the authorities should take concrete measures to instil confidence among women. There have been incidents of sexual harassment in the past too, but these generally went unreported because of the stigma attached to such cases. The university executive council’s decision to form committees at various levels to check these incidents is welcome, belated though it is. Unlike at Jawaharlal Nehru University, inadequate hostel accommodation for women is a major problem at Delhi University. This forces many students to stay outside, which is not desirable from the security point of view. The university authorities should, perhaps, mobilise funds to build more hostels for women. But the immediate concern should focus on how to regulate the entry of outsiders into the North Campus where security is reported to be lax. Identity cards for students is a good idea, but this is not enough. The police officials speak of barricades and strict watch on the campus. The effectiveness of these measures will be appreciated only if there is a perceptible improvement in law and order. Meanwhile, students should give up their agitational approach on the issue as this would affect their studies and it would be difficult for the teaching staff to compensate for the loss of precious time later.

OPINION

Crucial elections in Jammu and Kashmir
An opportunity for reconciliation or further alienation?
V.P. Malik

AT the outset, let me place the national security and political importance of the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat in their correct perspective. Both are important for the people of these states as well as for national security. The elections in Gujarat would give a fresh opportunity to the people of the state to endorse or reject India’s credentials of secularism, federalism and tolerance. The issues involved in the J & K Assembly elections are of national security fundamentals: integration and consolidation, or encouragement to secessionism. Considering the external and internal factors involved in the J & K elections, the national security stakes are much higher.

Let me start with the external factors. If Pakistan, in recent years, has succeeded in internationalising the Kashmir issue, it has also allowed the world community to take greater interest in the democratic process of both countries. The world has already watched the sham referendum that took place in Pakistan recently. In the coming months it would see and perhaps compare “free and fair elections” in Pakistan and in J & K.

The other interesting outcome of “internationalisation” is that, for the first time, elections in J & K are being looked at as something close to a “plebiscite”; a point that India has been making all along about the polls held in this border state in the past. This is evident from the statement made by the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell during his recent visit to the subcontinent. He stated, “The elections in Kashmir are one step forward in determining the will of the Kashmiri people.”

The J & K elections, due to their linkage with cross-border terrorism, have also become an important precondition for any future dialogue between India and Pakistan; a subject foremost on the agenda that is being pursued vigorously by the international community these days. It is an international test case of watching Pakistan’s sincerity in stopping trans-border terrorism and not interfering in the electoral process of the people in J & K. Since trans-border terrorism has not ceased fully, the USA, the UK and, recently, the ASEAN Regional Forum have already conveyed it to Pakistan that it would have to do a lot more to translate its stated position into ground realities.

This analysis would indicate that as far as external factors are concerned, we have greater advantages on our side in holding the forthcoming J & K elections.

The internal factors for a “free and fair” election are, however, more complex. The MORI and other polls conducted recently in J & K have indicated the people’s disillusionment with Pakistan and an overwhelming desire to see the end of violence. However, three major factors inhibit greater participation by the people in the poll process. These are:

• Political and administrative incentives, which would create adequate enthusiasm for political parties/leaders sitting on the fence to stand for elections and for a large percentage of the people to go and vote. In other words, attempts and measures to remove political alienation wherever it exists.
• Doubts about the present state government and to some extent, even the Central government, being able to conduct “free and fair” elections, notwithstanding such a promise made by the Prime Minister himself.
• The oft-stated terrorists’ threats to eliminate those who participate in the polls i.e. the security environment in the state.

General Malik is a former Chief of Army Staff.

MIDDLE

Taste of times gone by
R.S. Dutta

GONE are the days when food used to be very tasty despite the fact that too much of chillies or condiments were not used in homes, as of today. The reason for food losing deliciousness is use of fertilisers to increase production, insecticides and preservatives, which were not used in those days. Then only desi ghee was used. Vanaspati, or vegetable ghee as it was commonly called, or cooking oils were unknown. Apart from desi ghee, sarson oil was mostly used as a cooking medium for all preparations in Bengali homes, and elsewhere or used for frying things like “pakodas”, “matthis” etc. Indeed, it was commonly used by the poor.

Though several decades have gone by, my mouth begins to water when I remember the taste of dishes cooked at certain places or homes. I have not yet tasted such delicious “mash” whole and sour kabligram and sweet dish “kheer” cooked in our boarding house of Arya High School, Ludhiana. While dal “mash” (whole) was cooked two or three times in a week and sour “kabligram” once a month, “kheer” was prepared on alternate Sundays for lunch. The sweet dish served on other Sundays was “halwa”.

Then, I remember the tasty “moong” dal (washed) which was commonly cooked almost in every Bania home in the evening. The dal cooked at my bania friend’s house at Sunam used to be particularly delicious. It would not be out of place to mention here one incident. Some friends used to gather at my friend’s house to play bridge every Sunday or other holidays. Syed Jamid Hussain, advocate, was always there. He migrated to Pakistan after Partition. At first, he was appointed custodian of evacuee property, and later a judge of the Lahore High Court.

One Sunday, I suggested that each one of the player send for from his home, whatever dal, subzi, non-vegetarian or sweet dish was cooked and all of us sit round the various dishes and eat. Believe me when I say that moong-ki-dal cooked at my host’s home was more delicious than even the non-vegetarian dishes that came from Jamil Hussain’s and two or three other Muslims’ homes.

In 1941, I went to Allahabad on the Kumbh Mela as a volunteer. There was a separate camp for the volunteers, who had come from all corners of the country, with an exclusive kitchen for them. Dal “arhar”, both for lunch and supper, together with one vegetable, rice and chapaties was the usual menu.

In those days cooking gas was not in use. Fuel-wood was mostly used for cooking and charcoal, soft coke, stem coal were used at a few places. In a few homes importance was attached to kitchen and in others any room or shed with tin roof was used as a kitchen, with no chimney or exhaust fan. Smoke was the cause of various eye diseases. The food prepared in smoky fuel-wood fire used to be very tasty.

In our home, dal “mash” (washed) was a speciality in the lifetime of my revered mother and my wife. Such tasty dal I have partaken only at Chief’s restaurant at Nangal and Khyber, opposite Kala Ghoda, Bombay (now Mumbai).

I have yet to taste chicken cooked better than that made way back in mid-1930s by my elder brother in desi ghee. Live cocks were purchased and cooked. Today when hens stop laying eggs are slaughtered and sold as broiler. A cock of average weight was sold for eight or nine annas.

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT

Tehri project: how not to displace humans
Ajit Bhattacharjea

IF technology is without a human face and brings tears and trauma to the weakest section of society like the marginalised hill people, we need heart-searching and rethinking of our concept of growth, progress and development in the context of the Tehri dam.

-Sundarlal Bahuguna

WE had dinner on June 20 with Shivanand Pande, a local journalist. A modest L-shaped house, enhanced by a spacious courtyard, where we sat, overshadowed by a tall tree, through which the moonbeams glinted. Friends dropped in. The Pandes had lived there for nearly 200 years, among the families who accompanied Maharaja Sudarshan Shah when he founded Tehri in 1815.

Earlier, we saw the temple erected on the spot where the Maharaja’s horse reputedly refused to go any further, an omen to situate his capital there. The site was well chosen. It was at the confluence of the holy Bhagirathi, the main tributary of the Ganga, and the Bhilangna rivers, with an extensive stretch of cultivable land, protected by high mountains. It served the pilgrim route to the source of the Bhagirathi and became the market centre for nearby villages and their contoured fields. The well-spaced, well-maintained houses on the hillsides indicate wellbeing and security.

Now, the town and countryside is overshadowed by the huge Tehri Dam, thrusting upwards like a volcanic ridge between two mountains, the imprisoned waters forming a lake behind it. It is not the usual high concrete wall, but an extended pyramid-like structure with earth-filled slope on either side, increasing its massive appearance. The town is dwarfed. The enormous earthworks of the generator intake tunnels loom over it. All but the tip of the hill on which the Maharaja’s palace stood will be submerged when the impounded water reached tunnel height and above. The process has begun; only the top of the iron girder bridge over the Bhagirathi was now visible. Visitors have to take the rough roundabout road constructed on the coffer dam to reach the town.

It is a giant project, designed to generate 2400 mw of power. In addition it will provide irrigation and drinking water, especially for Delhi. Forests are being cut down for power lines. Tehri and its surroundings will not benefit, but the revenues will go to Uttarakhand state. The current estimate of the investment, which has been rising steadily, is Rs 9,000 crore.

Unless saved by a miracle, Tehri town and some 37 villages in the reservoir area are doomed. A 30-year public campaign to stop or modify the project has failed. An entire flourishing Himalayan valley and the historic town are being obliterated primarily to assuage Delhi’s thirst for power and water. The administration’s job was now to clear the town.

Everyone had been advised to leave by June 20. But there was no sign of departure or panic at Shivanand Pande’s dinner. Nor elsewhere. Some 500 of Tehri’s 1,500 families still refused to move out of their traditional homes. It was the women who led the campaign. Shivananda’s wife, sister and elderly mother, his entire family, were part of a group that sat daily on a protest dharna. In the evening, they had floated diyas on the waters of the reservoir where the blocked Bhagirathi once flowed.

Favouritism, irregularities and above all corruption in the calculation and payment of compensation was the main obstacle to leaving Tehri. Not to speak of the unsuitability of the places chosen for rehabilitation. Everyone we met had a range of complaints: some had made lakhs because they greased the right palms; others were ignored or given absurd amounts as compensation. One had received Rs 88.20 for a house; another Rs 46.60 for land. In 1997, the official Hanumantha Committee commented on variations in assessments and complaints of corruption.

Tehri presented a series of contrasting images. A few shops were full. Fruit and vegetables were displayed on the roadside. We ate lunch in a reasonably good restaurant. But most shops and houses were shuttered, some with their woodwork pulled out, others broken up. We were told that compensation had been paid and they were made uninhabitable to prevent fresh occupation. Attractive historic structures like the Maharaja’s Supreme Court, his palace and university buildings had not been spared. They had been demolished or their roofs removed of their woodwork.

That was not the only reason, we were told. The defiant residents had made it known that as the waters rose, they would move to higher locations on the hill dominating Tehri. Accordingly, houses, offices, university hostels and other places where they could shelter were being made uninhabitable. The principal buildings of the town were being destroyed before the water reached them. Only the old clock tower remained.

Sunderlal Bahuguna was still there. I had visited him six years ago, fasting in his tiny kutia on the bank of the Bhagirathi, near the bridge, to gain a respite for the river. He exchanged letters with Prime Ministers and sought the Supreme Court’s intervention. He had fought the project since its inception. Now the kutia was submerged and he had been shifted to a cottage overlooking the spot.

But Bahuguna was still smiling and undaunted. He had approached the Supreme Court again. His grey-bearded appearance belied his scientific approach. His latest thesis was based on studies confirming the recession of the Gangotri glacier, source of the Bhagirathi. Combined with reduced snowfall due to global warming and reduced rainfall due to deforestation, he argued it was possible that the reservoir would never fill enough to feed the power turbines except during the monsoon. The human displacement and mammoth investment would be wasted.

But his most persuasive argument concerned the obviously loose earth structure of the sides of the reservoir. Apart from siltation, some scientists feared that the pressure of the rising water could weaken the surrounding slopes and bring them down into the reservoir, causing a flood that could wipe out Haridwar.

These fears are dismissed by the supervisors of the project, the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd (THDC), who quote other scientists confident of its structure. The fears of the dam being ruptured by an earthquake have been largely set at rest by the wide earth foundations of the inverted-V shaped dam.

But nothing can make up for the human failure symbolised by New Tehri, the township built to house and rehabilitate the families forced out of Tehri. It is a concrete monstrosity laid out, tier by tier, on a steep slope some 3000 feet above. Unlike Tehri, which spreads in the valley, it is freezing cold in winter. No effort has been made to replicate the culture, traditions and economy of the area. Priority has been given to providing comfortable housing for senior administrators, on whom more money has been spent than on rehabilitation, and their vision of a fashionable hill resort.

Until August 31 last year, Rs 582 crore was said to be spent on rehabilitation. In fact, only Rs 94 crore was spent on the payment of compensation. In contrast, Rs 47 lakh was spent on the residence of the District Magistrate, Rs 43 lakh on that of the Superintendent of Police, Rs 92 lakh on a field hostel for officials. Constructing roads on the steep slope on which New Tehri was laid out cost Rs 6,750 lakh and house sites Rs 2,060 lakh. In contrast, one-third of the evicted families received less than Rs 20,000, 11 per cent between Rs 20,000 and Rs 80,000 and 14 families Rs 5 lakh and over.

Whether technically justified or not, Tehri provides a case study of how a project involving human displacement should not be managed. An independent high-level inquiry into the affairs of the THDC is overdue. Grassroots Feature Network.

Now cars to have “black boxes”

WITH the number of road accidents reaching dizzying heights, it is often difficult to know what exactly went wrong. But the idea of installing a “black box” in the car may change all that, and three companies are already showing interest in developing the technology required to make that happen and revolutionise the process of accident investigation.

The concept is similar to the black box found in aircraft, which records data in case of a crash and helps accident investigators to understand what caused it.

A report in Technology Review says to create what’s known as an event data recorder for cars, these companies plan to harness the output of the sensors that already exist to deploy airbags and control anti-lock braking systems.

The recorder would use half a kilobyte of flash memory to record ten seconds of data five seconds before the crash and five seconds after the crash. It would tally such information as speed at impact, how long the brakes had been applied, how many times the car was hit- all factors that can help determine the cause of a crash and who was at fault.

Right now, in the world of crash investigation, says Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Atlanta-based Safety Intelligence Systems, one of three manufacturers of event data recorders, they use the SBOGSAT method. That stands for a bunch of guys sitting around talking, coming up with their best guess.

Efforts are underway to change this. Last August, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ran a Ford F-150 truck into a wall at 30 mph in order to determine how accurately test units from three companies tracked the delta in the vehicle’s velocity.

The agency compared the devices against three of its own Endevco accelerometers, and found Independent Witness device to be the closest to its baseline devices; it suggested that the Safety Intelligence Systems and DriveCam devices needed further development. ANI

TRENDS & POINTERS

Viagra can cause severe nosebleeds

MEN who take Viagra should be aware of another unpleasant side-effect of the anti-impotence drug as British doctors warn that it may cause severe nosebleeds.

To prove their point, doctors from London’s St George’s Hospital have highlighted the cases of two men — one in the late 50s and the other in early 70s — who took Viagra and then had to be hospitalised for nose bleeding. Both patients had a history of high blood pressure.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the doctors said that in one case, the patient volunteered that, in the hours before his first nosebleed, he had been engaging in energetic sexual activity.

The nasal passages contain erectile tissue. This tissue can be irritated during sex and, according to doctors, explains why many people get “stuffy” during intercourse. But they believe that Viagra could also irritate the tissue and cause nosebleeds.

But Pfizer, the manufacturers of Viagra, dismissed the suggestions saying clinical trials had shown no link between the drug and nosebleeds. ANI

Ruling against ‘designer baby’

IN a controversial decision, the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has turned down an appeal made by a couple to create a baby that could save the life of their son who suffers from a rare blood disorder.

Michelle and Jayson Whitaker’s three-year-old son Charlie suffers from Diamond-Blackfan anaemia and in order to live a normal life, he needs a transplant of stem cells from the umbilical cord of a perfectly matched donor.

The HFEA has defended its decision, saying that such a procedure would be “unlawful and unethical,” because tissue-type screening alone is not permitted in the UK. It can only be used in combination with genetic screening, to ensure an embryo is itself free from a serious congenital disease. Charlie’s condition is not inherited — and so could not be screened for.

According to some ethicists, tissue-matching alone does not benefit the health of the embryo, making it morally unacceptable because the baby would be created only to treat an existing person. ANI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

What is the conception of Brahman? It cannot be explained in words. If a man is called upon to give an idea of the ocean to one who has never seen it, he can only say, “It is a vast sheet of water, a big expanse of water; it is water, water, all around.”

Brahman is above and beyond both knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, dharma and adharma.

It is indeed beyond all dual throngs.

— Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna

***

— Taittiriya Upanishad