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Thursday,
August 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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HC:
sending the right message Intimidating the
EC |
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Mamata’s
predicament THE Trinamool Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee’s decision to distance her party from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) until the issue of bifurcation of Eastern Railway is resolved to her party’s satisfaction is bound to evoke mixed reactions. It is nobody’s case that she does not have the right to protect and safeguard the interests of her constituency, especially when she is convinced that West Bengal has been wronged by the Union Cabinet’s decision to shift Dhanbad division from Eastern Railway to the newly created East Central Railway.
BJP’s
growing troubles Gujarat,
Kashmir and elections
Tall men
likely to have more children
Treating
fever can help malaria: study Snakes
die after drinking milk
August
15, the Day of Redemption
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HC: sending the right message THE Punjab and Haryana High Court struck the right moral note for justice on Tuesday by withdrawing work from as many as 39 subordinate judicial officers selected and appointed during Mr Ravi Sidhu's tenure as Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Chairman. Eighteen of these officers belonged to the 1999 batch of the PCS (Judicial), 13 to the 2000 batch and eight to the 2001 batch. The decision was taken at a "full court meeting" of High Court Judges, by which is meant all the Judges of the High Court meeting together on the administrative side. Though there are instances of withdrawal of work from individual subordinate judicial officers in the past, the latest decision is unprecedented in scope and magnitude. It is obvious that the High Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice Arun B. Saharya, has sent out a clear and firm signal to all concerned that those who occupy judicial offices and sit in judgement over others must themselves be judged by the strictest and highest norms of propriety. Fortysix officers of the PCS (Executive) had already been axed by the state government for suspected involvement in the infamous cash-for-job scam presided over by Mr Ravi Sidhu, a scam that has shaken the very foundations of Punjab. With the needle of suspicion pointing towards the PCS (Judicial) as well, the High Court could ill-afford to keep quiet and not take action in respect of tainted appointees functioning under its wing. Article 235 of the Constitution invests the High Court with complete and exclusive control over the subordinate judiciary. As the Supreme Court observed in 1997 in the context of Article 235: "The conferment of exclusive power of judicial review on the judiciary may become a means to personal gain or advantage. Lymph nodes (cancerous cells) of corruption constantly keep creeping into the vital veins of the judiciary and the need to stem it by judicial surgery lies on the judiciary itself by its self-imposed or corrective measures or disciplinary action under the doctrine of control". Indeed, Tuesday's action by the Punjab and Haryana High Court carries this promise of keeping the entire system clean, transparent and above board. |
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Intimidating the EC CHIEF Election Commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh’s decision to study the ground situation in Gujarat along with his two colleagues before finalising a schedule for Assembly elections in the state has unnerved the ruling BJP. It has particularly expressed its unhappiness at Mr Lyngdoh’s remarks over the reported attempts by senior officials to hide certain facts with regard to riot victims. The party, which not only runs the administration in the state but is also the leading partner in the NDA government at the Centre, has virtually told the Election Commission to mind its own business, reminding it that the relief and rehabilitation work is not within its purview. This view has, however, been countered by the argument that the commission has every right to satisfy itself with the prevailing condition so that nothing comes in the way of free and fair elections. The BJP wants the constitutional authority to concentrate on holding the poll in Gujarat in a manner so that the new Assembly is able to call its session before October 10, when six months would have completed after the last meeting of the state legislature. This is the constitutional requirement under Article 174, as pointed out by BJP spokesman Visjay Kumar Malhotra and party General Secretary and former Law Minister Arun Jaitley. They have asserted that the commission (particularly Mr Lyngdoh) will be “undermining the Constitution” if the electoral exercise is not completed “in time”. They have even gone to the extent of accusing the commission of acting at the behest of Opposition parties, particularly the Congress. This is unfortunate and amounts to intimidating a constitutionally independent authority. Experts are of the view that the six-month clause does not hold good in the case of a dissolved Assembly, as the situation exists in Gujarat. The Constitution clearly has it (under Article 324) that it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to decide an election schedule in accordance with its own assessment of the ground reality. This view is also supported by a Supreme Court ruling: “The conduct of the elections is in the hands of the Election Commission, which has the power of superintendence, direction and control of elections vested in it as per Article 324 of the Constitution. Consequently, if the EC is of the opinion that, having regard to the disturbed conditions of a state or a part thereof, free and fair elections cannot be held, it may postpone the same.” The significant observation was made when the decision to delink Punjab and Assam from the general election in 1984 because of the problems of terrorism and insurgency was challenged in the apex court (Digvijay Mote vs the Union of India). The legal position aside, it does not behove a ruling party to launch an intimidation campaign against a constitutional authority, whose hands deserve to be strengthened in the larger interest of the nation. The issue is taking a serious turn as even some of the NDA allies like the Samata Party have refused to buy the BJP line. Their argument: “If the government does not respect important institutions, who will?” |
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Mamata’s predicament THE Trinamool Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee’s decision to distance her party from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) until the issue of bifurcation of Eastern Railway is resolved to her party’s satisfaction is bound to evoke mixed reactions. It is nobody’s case that she does not have the right to protect and safeguard the interests of her constituency, especially when she is convinced that West Bengal has been wronged by the Union Cabinet’s decision to shift Dhanbad division from Eastern Railway to the newly created East Central Railway. Such are the ways of our politicians that there is always a political element in their acts of omission and commission. What else would justify Railway Minister Nitish Kumar’s larger gameplan in pursuing to its logical conclusion a 1996 Cabinet decision to create new zones, including the one at Hajipur in Bihar? This decision was, in fact, put on the backburner because of serious financial implications and now Mr Kumar would like to achieve two goals by this: keep the people of his constituency and the state happy; and outsmart his political adversaries, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and Ms Banerjee. If Mr Nitish Kumar is justified in nursing his constituency to the hilt, Ms Banerjee too cannot be faulted for demanding justice and her slice of the cake. Apparently, she would also like to impress upon Mr Nitish Kumar that she is not the one who would give up so easily, even if it comes to parting ways with the ruling NDA. However, what Ms Banerjee does not seem to understand is that, in the process of her frequent outbursts and threats, including the one which was indirectly pointed towards Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani following the Union Cabinet’s refusal to reconsider her demand to retain Dhanbad in Eastern Railway, she seems to be losing her credibility as a responsible leader and an important partner of the ruling alliance. Clearly, the NDA coalition partners, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seem to be getting tired of Ms Banerjee’s hop-off and hop-on kind of politics. Her earlier decision on the Tehelka affair is still fresh in memory and this is the reason why the NDA partners seem to feel that she is not a dependable ally. It is not that Ms Banerjee is not aware of her political predicament. She is fully aware of her sense of isolation both in the NDA and in the Trinamool Congress. Within her own party, there is simmering discontent on her autocratic style of functioning. Her peremptory decision on taking recourse to an agitational path on the issue of bifurcation was not endorsed by most of the members of the Trinamool Congress. Adding to her woes was the decision by the Left Front government in West Bengal not to join the statewide bandh sponsored by her party. Most of her partymen want to tread with caution and are against burning bridges with the NDA. To an extent, the majority opinion in the Trinamool Congress is realistic and practical, being guided by compulsions of realpolitik. According to this school of thought, it would be difficult for Ms Banerjee or the Trinamool Congress to carry on the fight without the good offices of Prime Minister Vajpayee and the NDA as a whole. Ms Banerjee’s careful rider to her statement on Tuesday that her party does not want the Vajpayee ministry to fall under any circumstances and that it would stand by the government whenever the Opposition brings in a no-confidence vote in the Lok Sabha assumes special significance in this context. She has also said that she would like to meet the Prime Minister after Independence Day to plead her case once again. Does this suggest a change in her style and perception of the problem at hand? |
BJP’s growing troubles THE Bharatiya Janata Party is in a cleft stick. Despite all its efforts to energise the party at the central and regional levels, Gujarat and scams continue to haunt its prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections and in the all-important general election, due in 2004. The BJP took long to recover from the Tehelka expose, losing its president in the process. And just when it was donning a new face of a younger, more rejuvenated party, the petrol pump scandal burst on the front pages of newspapers and on television channels, spilling over into Parliament. The BJP’s argument that farming out lucrative petrol pump dealerships as a perquisite of office was an old practice did not wash because the party had placed itself above the rest, particularly the Congress, as an organisation of worthy incorruptible representatives of the people. But above all it was Gujarat that proved to be the albatross around the BJP’s neck because its tactic has gone totally awry. Essentially, the party decided that it would ride out the storm caused by the Gujarat carnage by pressing ahead with early elections, banking on the polarisation of votes along communal lines. Mr Narendra Modi would stay on as the state party leader because replacing him would be an admission of guilt. The party machinery, therefore, was placed in the election mode, with a senior minister’s resignation sought to be neutralised by giving Mr Keshubhai Patel, the former Chief Minister, a prominent place in the election campaign. It was also announced that the Gaurav (pride) Yatra, postponed once in view of the incendiary situation, would go ahead. All that remained to be done was for the Election Commission to give its imprimatur to an early election date and Mr Modi’s unstoppable march to an election victory would begin. Two hurdles came in the way. The Chief Election Commissioner, Mr J.M. Lyngdoh, decided that he himself would lead a team to assess the situation in the state before agreeing to an early election date. And the new President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, decided that his first visit after assuming office would be to Gujarat. The first pointed up the distress of those in the refugee camps still unable to return to their homes that had been torched, with compensation too paltry to help them rehabilitate themselves. Officials’ efforts, at their political bosses’ prompting, to paint the situation as normal won rebuke from Mr Lyngdoh. The displaced persons’ demand understandably was that rehabilitation should take precedence over an election. And the symbolism of the President going to Gujarat was so powerful that it did not need words to amplify the message. The BJP’s dilemma is easy to understand even as it is difficult to resolve. After a series of disastrous defeats in Assembly elections and in the local Delhi election, the party’s leadership came to the conclusion that its reverses were due to the dilution of its policies to ensure the longevity of the federal coalition. Hence the decision to prime the Sangh Parivar, as the larger BJP family is known, to return to the more rabble-rousing themes of Hindutva. The demand for the early construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya was, therefore, calibrated a few notches and BJP leaders from Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee down wore the credentials of their spiritual mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on their sleeves. It was part of this tactic to play down the culpability of Mr Modi and his BJP government in Gujarat for one of the most shameful developments in national politics in recent times — the scale and planning of the inter-communal riots. Indeed, at the popular level, the Gujarat outrage became a benchmark for the rabble-rousers to intimidate minorities. Far from acknowledging guilt, Gujarat came to be worn as a badge of pride, at least for some members of the Sangh Parivar. The BJP swung more to the right to carve for itself a distinctive place in the political spectrum. Mr L.K. Advani’s elevation to the Deputy Prime Minister’s position was to test the waters as far as the coalition partners going under the name of the National Democratic Alliance were concerned. The BJP was reassured that none of the constituents was in a mood to leave positions of power or the financial concessions they received for their states. This proved to be another encouraging sign to the BJP leadership to keep to its new path of assertive Hinduism without offering apologies. The fly in the ointment is that the nature of polarisation in Gujarat is subject to dispute and the institutions of a democratic India are colliding with the new BJP aggressiveness to win power at almost any cost. The institution of the Indian presidency is largely symbolic in nature but wields enormous moral influence. Although Mr Abdul Kalam’s choice was determined by the BJP’s desire to ace the Opposition parties, his simple decision to visit Gujarat sent shock waves in the camp of the Sangh Parivar. Second, the Chief Election Commissioner can use his constitutional authority to great effect untrammelled by the wishes of the ruling party, as two of Mr Lyngdoh’s distinguished predecessors had demonstrated. The nature of his questioning of officials and his obvious annoyance over their replies have brought the BJP much discomfort. How does the BJP then get out of its dilemma? It would be unrealistic to expect the BJP to wear sackcloth and ashes for the Gujarat carnage. The party’s theory, propounded in Gujarat and elsewhere, is that the unfortunate incidents were a reaction to the Godhra outrage and were largely a spontaneous reaction to hurt Hindu sensibilities. Given the new path the party has chosen, there cannot be any going back. But going forward is proving more difficult than any of the party’s leaders expected. And the nearest the party leadership has got to public introspection is the new airing by the party president and Mr Advani of the moral and other weaknesses of the party members. There is not even a whisper of the party’s guilt over Gujarat. How the BJP squares the circle remains to be seen. |
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Gujarat, Kashmir and elections IT is fortunate for us that the men and women who gave us our Constitution were not only dedicated to the cause of the country but also combined their political wisdom and foresight with legal acumen and linguistic precision. Otherwise, considering the turmoil of the times in which they framed the Constitution and the uncertain future they had to provide for, the product of their labour would not only have been complex, which it is, but also confused and confusing, which it is not. Instead, it is a document which provides for all foreseeable needs, and more, and yet has enough room left in it for the unexpected. That is why it has evolved so well, moving in step with the main engine of its evolution, the universal adult franchise which its framers had the courage to adopt. Hence it has happened that just in the past decade or so, without the change of a single comma anywhere in the world’s longest constitution , India has transited smoothly from being a single dominant party democracy to a vigorous multi-party competition. What the Constitution did not foresee, however, is the cynicism with which the present generation of lawyers-turned-politicians would misinterpret any phrase in the Constitution for partisan purposes, violating three basic considerations: do not create dangerous precedents in the heat of the moment; read the phrase in the context of its purpose, not in the light of its literal meaning in a school boy’s dictionary; and do not read into it a remedy which might be worse than the disease. A good example is the misuse of Article 356 earlier on, but a more contemporary one lies in what is happening in the context of the tragedy of Gujarat. Not only are individual phrases being misused but even the structure of the Constitution is being twisted. Most parties which are not in the NDA have demanded that the Gujarat government should be dismissed by New Delhi. But on what basis ? When did the state begin to face anything that can be legitimately called a “constitutional breakdown”? This phrase, commonly used for justifying such dismissals under Article 356, implies that a stable majority for forming a government is not available in the legislature. But that is far from true in Gujarat. And a “breakdown of law and order”, to quote the other common phrase? If that be reason enough, there should never have been a state government in Andhra. A much larger proportion of the area and population of that state have been in rebel hands, and for close upon 50 years. Attacks by one community upon another ? Have they been worse in Gujarat than in Punjab and Assam and large parts of Bihar and UP ? A more serious matter is the charge of deliberate dereliction of their duty by officials of the police force and other agencies of the Gujarat government. But the remedy does not lie in Article 356. The government should identify and charge them, and dismiss them if they are found to be guilty. If the government does not, it should be dismissed by the legislature, and if the legislature does not, it should be put on trial before democracy’s final court , the electorate. This may seem too dilatory a procedure to political parties which have grown impatient with the Modi government. But short-cuts can bring forth forces which may lose patience with all parties. For this reason it is both surprising and dangerous that while the main accused, the state government, is asking for a speedy trial through elections , the main accuser, the Congress, is urging delay. But politicians apart, even noted constitutional experts are extracting such lessons from their experience of Gujarat as would wrench the Constitution out of its moorings in the democratic system. A few examples will do. It is an essential part of the moorings that so long as a government has the confidence of the concerned legislature, its decisions, including a decision to dissolve the legislature, cannot be questioned by the Governor. He may ask for reconsideration, but a reiterated decision must prevail except in situations which are provided for in the Constitution. Therefore, if a legislature chooses to dissolve itself another must be elected under the supervision of the Election Commission. But the contrary has been argued by a recognised and even acclaimed legal luminary, who is otherwise opposed to any dilution of democracy. He says the Governor of Gujarat, whom he accuses of being “pliant”, should have “refused” when the Modi government , with a legislative majority behind it, asked for dissolution . Another part of the moorings is that on account of its supremacy in a democratic dispensation, a legislature elected by the people must always be in place. Hence the requirement in the Constitution that more than six months must not elapse between one sitting of the legislature and “its” next sitting. Hence also the preemptory requirement in the People’s Representation Act, which leaves no room for any avoidable delay, that there “shall” be an election in the event of dissolution or the expiry of the term of the existing legislature. But another expert on the Constitution, who has a much higher visibility and often speaks on behalf of the country’s largest single party, has tried to cast a doubt on both requirements, basing himself on the meaning of that word “its”. His logic, essentially a grammarian’s, is that if a legislature is dissolved “it” cannot have a next sitting anyhow, and, therefore, no upper or lower or any other limit can be laid down for the interval between “its” last sitting prior to “its” dissolution and “its” next sitting. The only limit on the interval is in the constitutional provision that more than five years must not elapse between two successive elections for the same legislature. Correct. But it follows that if a legislature is dissolved in “its” infancy and the next election for it can wait for five years, the state concerned can be without a legislature , or the country without a Lok Sabha , for up to almost five years. This argument may dilute the case of the Modi government for an early election. But it also dilutes two other cases. First, the case for the urgency implicit in the People’s Representation Act, which says that there “shall” be an election after a dissolution. Second, it dilutes the case for the assumption implicit in the Constitution that the country must have an elected Lok Sabha and every state an elected legislature without any avoidable break. This takes us to what recent events in Gujarat and Kashmir have converted into a pressing conundrum about the purpose of elections and the role of the Election Commission in the service of that purpose. The purpose of allowing or disallowing an election at a particular time is not to reward or punish the concerned people or government for good or bad behaviour at some time in the past. The purpose is to give the electorate, in the present, an opportunity to elect the next government in proper accordance with the laws and procedures. The role of the Election Commission is to judge whether such an election can be held in the immediate circumstances, or how best it can be in the near future, because elections cannot be postponed beyond a point without declaring at least a limited emergency. Secondly, while the commission must prescribe measures which will enable all voters to exercise their right to vote, it cannot deny that right to anyone merely because some others have decided not to exercise it. And, of course, in prescribing these measures the commission cannot use double standards. That is why there must not be any glaring discrepancy between the measures considered sufficient in Jammu and Kashmir and those in Gujarat. Both elections are sensitive, both are under the control of the Election Commission, and might be held close to each other. Therefore , the measures that the EC will take in the two will invite comparisons, and the EC should take care to ensure that they do not reflect adversely on it. Both states have a large number of refugees and displaced persons but proportionately to the total electorate J&k has probably more, more of them have lived much longer in camps and in more wretched conditions, chances of their returning home in the near future are more bleak because of the continuing militancy. Any measures that the commission thinks are adequate for enabling them to vote in safety should be adequate so in Gujarat as well. For example, taking the ballot boxes to them instead of taking them to the boxes in a risky environment, markings to check repeat voting, and the two remedies which the commission already has and has often used for ensuring that the enforced absence of some voters does not distort the outcome too much, such as ordering repoll in the affected segments or declaring the result only if it is obvious from the poll that the outcome would be no different even if all the absentees were counted as adverse voters. As for the often heard argument “how can I think of voting when I have no roof over my head”, if a roof of your own became a condition of voting, more Indians would be disqualified than all the people of Gujarat and J&K put together. On the other hand, if the impression grows that the reluctance of Muslim voters is being used in Gujarat for postponing elections only because an early poll will favour the BJP, then there will be a serious risk of further deterioration of a communal situation which is already bad. |
Tall men likely to have more children HEIGHT
matters when it comes to having children, according to a study showing that tall men are likely to have more kids than their shorter contemporaries. But the reverse is true for women, according to details of the study published in the Independent newspaper on Wednesday. The survey of 10,000 people born in 1958 found that height plays an important role in finding a partner and having children by the age of 42. British men of average height — 5ft 10in (178 cms) -— had significantly fewer children by middle age than a 6ft 1in tall man, the newspaper reported. “It is known from psychological tests that women find tall men attractive but that men don’t particularly find tall women attractive,” the study’s author, Daniel Nettle was quoted as saying. “These results show that this does play out in real life,” he said. The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, a publication of the UK scientific academy.
Reuters Schizophrenia A new research reveals that a particular type of nerve cell, known as a glial cell, plays a major role in triggering off schizophrenia, a brain disease that effects one in 100 people. Glial cells help mainly in the early development of the brain, and in adults they help support neurons, as well as fight infection. That makes them a prime suspect for involvement in schizophrenia, says a report in New Scientist. Gottesman’s team found that 41 genes involved in the development of growth factors were malfunctioning in patients with schizophrenia. This resulted in unhealthy glial cells which weakened synaptic communication between brain cells leading to the disease, they theorised.
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Treating fever can help malaria: study TREATING fever with aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs could be key to helping patients recover from attacks of malaria, researchers have said. The parasite that causes malaria seems to do more damage when patients have fevers than when they have normal body temperatures, the team of scientists in Thailand and Britain has reported. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is in contrast to studies of other diseases that suggest fever is the body’s natural mechanism for fighting infection. Malaria is marked by a high fever, and doctors often treat this symptom first. But some recent studies had suggested that lowering a patient’s temperature might interfere with the body’s ability to clear out the tiny parasites that cause the disease. “This interpretation has created a therapeutic dilemma for the health worker, as reducing fever also has potentially beneficial effects on reducing seizure risk,” the researchers, led by Nicholas White of John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, wrote in their report. At one stage in its life cycle the malaria parasite attacks red blood cells. It can make the cells stick to the walls of blood vessels, which can cut off blood flow to vital organs. They heated the blood to temperatures found in fever. The hotter the blood was, the researchers found, the stickier the infected red blood cells were. At a normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees (37 degrees C), the blood cells hardly stuck at all.
Reuters |
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Snakes die after drinking milk
ANIMAL rights activists have rescued about 50 snakes from cruel treatment by their owners during an annual festival. Every year the “Naag Panchami” festival draws snake charmers to cities, especially Bombay and Kolkata, hoping to make money from those who believe the snakes bring good luck. But Jyoti Nadkarni from the state-run Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the snakes were often ill-treated. “Some are defanged in the most unprofessional way. They suffer from mouth infection and their poison gland is punctured. We have kept them under medical observation,” she told Reuters. Forest officials would release the healthier snakes in the jungle. For several years animal groups and SPCA inspectors, armed with bags and sacks, have conducted raids before and during the festival to rescue the snakes, many of them cobras. But undeterred, snake charmers return every year, gathering around temples or at railway stations. Poor nomads hunt down snakes in fields and forests during the monsoon when they come out in the open after their holes are inundated with rainwater. Since the nomads are unable to feed them, the snakes are starved and suffer from severe infections even before being sold to snake charmers, activists say. “A snake is considered a farmer’s friend because of its carnivorous nature. It survives on rats, birds, lizards, frogs and not milk as people would like to offer,” said Issac Khemkar, spokesman of the Bombay Natural History Society. Animal rights activists say hundreds of snakes die during the festival every year, many as a result of drinking milk which causes severe dehydration and allergic reactions.
Reuters |
August 15, the Day of Redemption ONCE when Sri Aurobindo was being felicitated on August 15, his birthday, his devotees requested him to enlighten them on the spiritual significance of the day. In those days Sri Aurobindo had started withdrawing into himself, but casting a benevolent look at the gathering, he chose to oblige them. He explicated: “August 15th is the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; it implies that the physical nature is raised to the divine nature; the Virgin Mary refers to nature; Jesus is the divine soul born in man, he is the sun of God as well as the sun of man”. Working in tandem, another little known spiritual event occurred on August 15, 1947, the day India shook off its political shackles. As the first rays of the sun brought about the first dawn of free India, a very significant event which was to trigger a worldwide revolution later on, was unfolding in a remote village of Maharashtra. Swami Muktananda, a 39-year-old ascetic was receiving divine Shaktipat from his guru Bhagwan Nityanand in Ganeshpuri, then a nondescript cluster of hutments. Freedom, be it political, social, physical or economic, is always welcome but men of wisdom remain focused primarily on one kind of freedom: freedom from passions. Passionlessness, egolessness, and witness consciousness, are coterminous, and if one believes in reincarnation, they eventually lead to the cessation of the cycle of birth and death. For such people August 15 is celebrated in all Muktananda Ashrams, the world over, as the Divya Diksha Divas (Divine Initiation Day) or the Shaktipat Initiation Day. Shaktipat initiation triggers an inner revolution which leads to inner freedom, a totally unfamiliar concept for the uninitiated. Since it is a private event, a subjective phenomenon, the achievement goes unnoticed. There is no way to know it other than to get initiated into it and experience it first hand. The significance of Baba Muktananda becoming initiated lies in the beauty that Shaktipat initiation is no longer a near impossible proposition as it had been before him. Before we move on to Shaktipat, let us try to understand what we mean by Shakti. As of now, we know that all energy is interchangeable and can be reduced to a common denominator which has a name in every tradition, culture, or country. For example, in China it is chi, in Japan ki; Freemasons call it Spiritfire; Christians, Holy Spirit; Laotse named it Tao; Bergson, elan vital; Mayans called in Hurakan (lightning); Wilhelm Reich, orgone; in Rigved it is Rta; in Tantras, Kundalini (coiled one). Euphemistically speaking, it is variously called as the serpent power, the sacred power, or simply the Shakti. It is the primordial power of the cosmos which sustains every system in it. To get a close insight into the workings of the Shakti let Baba Muktananda unravel for us how this marvelous Shakti lit his inner world on that fateful morning of August 15, 1947. Says he: “He (Bhagwan Nityanand) looked into my eyes once more.... A ray of light was coming from his pupils, and going right inside me. Its touch was searing, red hot, and its brilliance dazzled my eyes like a high-powered bulb. As the ray flowed from Bhagwan Nityananda’s eyes into my own, the very hair on my body rose in wonder, awe, ecstasy, and fear. I went on repeating his mantra Guru Om, watching the colours of this ray. It was an unbroken stream of divine radiance. Some times it was the colour of molten gold, sometimes saffron, sometimes a deep blue, more lustrous than a shining star”. Immediately after his initiation, Baba had the experience of identification with the Infinite, while he was on his way to the Vajreshwari temple where he had been staying. He reminisces: “I repeatedly opened and closed my eyes. When I shut them I saw innumerable clusters of sparkling rays and millions of tiny twinkling spark bursting within me.... Those infinitely small sparks were shimmering and coursing through my whole body at an incredible speed. I looked with wonder and awe at their speed and their number. Then I opened my eyes again. Again there were masses of the same tiny, scintillating, blue sparks coruscating around me. I was overcome with awe and ecstasy.... Even today I can remember that experience of oneness”. August 15 reminds us every year that such a state can be ours for the asking as Baba Muktananda has laid a firm foundation of the institution of Shaktipat in the form of intensives for people who want to redeem themselves by upgrading the quality of their lives. If only people become aware of their own divinity, there will be no need to rush to any outward source of worship which will be a significant step towards reducing pointless squabbles over places or modes of worship. |
Towards an enemy intent on ill, you are a friend intent on good; even in a constant faultseeker you are bent on searching for virtues. —
Matricheta on Gautama the Buddh *** The man who has no desire for this or the next world, who is desireless and liberated, him I call a Brahmana. Whosoever in this world has overcome good and evil, both ties, who is free from grief and defilement, and is pure, him I call a Brahmana. —
Khuddka Nikaya. From the Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon (translator, F.H. Woodward) *** Whosoever... is liberated from all attachment, him I call a Brahmana. The man that after leaving pleasure and disgust is calm... and has conquered all the world, him I call a Brahmana. Whosoever knows wholly the vanishing and reappearance of beings, does not cling to (anything) is happy (sugata) and enlightened, him I call a Brahmana... The man for whom there is nothing, neither before nor after nor in the middle, who possesses nothing, and does not seize (upon anything) him I call a Brahmana... The man (that is undaunted) like a bull, who is eminent, a hero, a great sage victorious, free from desire, purified, enlightened, him I call a Brahmana. For what has been designated as “name” and “family” in the world is only a term what has been designated here and there is understood by common consent. Adhered to for a long time are the views of the ignorant; the ignorant tells us, one is Brahmana by birth. Not by birth is one a Brahmana nor is one by birth no Brahmana; by work one is Brahmana. —
Khuddka Nikaya. From the Minor Anthologies of the Bali Canon (translator, F.H. Woodward) |
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