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Tuesday,
September 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Fresh
focus on disinvestment A landmark
verdict |
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Selling
body parts THE scandal regarding the alleged sale of human organs that has rocked the UK has exposed the Indian angle of the sordid business. Two British doctors of Indian origin, who are said to have encouraged trade in live organs, have been named by two Punjabi journalists who broke the story. That the practice of buying organs from the disadvantaged is repugnant is obvious. It is also illegal in both the UK and India, the two countries in focus. In the UK, it became illegal to pay for organs in 1984. In India, the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, states that a donor should be a close relative of the patient and not below 18.
The case
of developing nations
Rain in
my valley
Strife
leaves Centre in stupor
Of
teenage sex & parents’ behaviour
Yoga
through distance learning
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Fresh focus on disinvestment UNION Defence Minister George Fernandes, who has been re-elected president of the Samata Party, has brought the NDA government’s disinvestment policy in sharp focus again. It seems the socialist in Mr Fernandes has forced him to express the views he might have been suppressing for long. Using his party platform, he has demanded an immediate review of the disinvestment policy in its entirety. In his opinion, this is the right occasion as the present government is going to complete three years of its existence on October 13. His point is that if necessary “a mid-course correction” must be done. The road-map for the government, in any case, should be the extensive report submitted by the Disinvestment Commission headed by Mr G. V. Ramakrishna. Mr Fernandes has a point in asking for a thorough discussion on the policy being persued ruthlessly and he is not alone in doing so. Many economic thinkers have off and on voiced their concern at the sale of PSUs on various grounds. The Defence Minister has questioned the very approach of the government to dilute its equity stake in the public sector monopoly undertakings for allowing the private sector to acquire a monopoly status in the areas concerned. He has also written a letter to the Prime Minister on these lines, raising the issue in the backdrop of the move to privatise two profit-making public sector oil giant — Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. Mr Fernandes is not just a senior minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. He is also the convener of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. His views, therefore, assume special significance. The petroleum sector has a strategic aspect which cannot be ignored. As Mr Fernandes has pointed out, India must learn from Britain’s painful experience after the privatisation of that country’s railways and certain power-producing units. The UK government has been forced to re-nationalise the railways to save the mass transport network from getting dangerously derailed, and a similar move is on in the case of the power sector undertakings. The truth is that privatisation for the heck of it can never be acceptable, more so in a country like India where the government has enormous social obligations to fulfil. Blindly working on the dictum that doing business is not the job of the government may lead to disastrous consequences. There are certain areas where the nation’s long-term security interests are involved. Then it is not a good policy to dispose of government property at virtually throw-away prices to enable business houses to change its primary character to make billions of rupees. Such questions are being raised with regard to the sale of the ITDC (India Tourism Development Corporation)-owned hotels located in prime commercial areas. This is not to say that the disinvestment policy per se is flawed. It must, however, be re-examined to prevent not only the Navaratna PSUs from being needlessly handed over to private business players but also to safeguard the nation’s strategic and defence interests from reckless privatisation. |
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A landmark verdict RAPE is indeed a heinous crime. Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani is among those who favour the death penalty for combating the menace. Opinion in India is still divided on the issue of the death penalty for the crime of rape. But a court in Pakistan has shown rare courage by awarding the extreme punishment to six men who gangraped a woman as a form of punishment. The so-called crime of dating a girl from the community of the rapists was committed by her brother for which she was made to pay. The incident was noticed across the globe and women's groups in Pakistan raised the decibel level to let the male-dominated society know how they felt about a simple tribal woman being subjected to the brutality and indignity of being raped by a group of men from a superior tribe. The verdict is significant because of the distortions that have been introduced in the interpretation of the provisions of what passes for Islamic jurisprudence. These laws have now divine sanction contrary to the claims of the clergy. There is no dispute among the various sects of Islam that there is only one Allah, one book and that Mohammad is the last prophet. However, there is not one but several schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Of course, all schools claim that their laws reflect the spirit of the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet. In the process most schools have managed to distort the compassionate, liberal and just spirit of Islam. In the past rape victims have been stoned to death in Islamic societies and their tormentors let off without even being questioned. Under a law that defies logic a woman's claim to having been raped had to be supported by at least two independent women witnesses or one male witness. Otherwise, she was usually stoned to death for having committed adultery. The gangrape victim's case was not referred to a theological court but the one that tries terrorists. That is not all. The court took just 23 days to hear the case and pronounce judgement. Of course, the court has done its bit by providing speedy justice. But a lot of ground remains to be covered. The first priority should be to shut up the fundamentalist elements if they raise their voice against the verdict. However, the larger issue is that of introducing reforms among the tribal societies not only in Pakistan but India also. Girls are killed on either side of the border as a matter of routine for "protecting" the family's honour. In Haryana and parts of western Uttar Pradesh women have been ordered to be raped by the village panchayats for defying the strict social code. An anti-terrorist court in Pakistan has defied the distorted provisions of Islam and the customary laws of various tribal groups and awarded the extreme punishment to the six men who participated in the gory act at the directions of their tribal court. But in India the rate of conviction under even existing laws is poor. That is one reason why Mr Advani's proposal has few takers. The problem is not the volume of punishment but the poor rate of conviction that has made a mockery of the political leadership's commitment to fashion a gender-friendly society. |
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Selling body parts THE scandal regarding the alleged sale of human organs that has rocked the UK has exposed the Indian angle of the sordid business. Two British doctors of Indian origin, who are said to have encouraged trade in live organs, have been named by two Punjabi journalists who broke the story. That the practice of buying organs from the disadvantaged is repugnant is obvious. It is also illegal in both the UK and India, the two countries in focus. In the UK, it became illegal to pay for organs in 1984. In India, the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, states that a donor should be a close relative of the patient and not below 18. It disallows sale of any organ. Yet this trade continues, primarily because people in tremendous need manage to circumvent various restrictions. There are periodic reports of sales of organs from various states, including Punjab, where poor people are lured by middlemen who give them small sums of money. According to a news report published in The Tribune earlier this year, an unemployed resident of a village near Jalandhar was given Rs 5,000 and some foodstuff worth another Rs 2,000 in exchange for his kidney. Such stories can also be found in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and other states. No doubt there is a "kidney bazaar" in India in spite of various attempts, primarily knee-jerk reactions, to stop the sale of human organs. So much so that there was even an article from a prominent legislator some time ago calling for legalisation for facilitating such sales in order to help the poor donors. India, however, is not alone. In 1990 Britain was rocked by the expose of the sale of kidneys from four Turkish people. According to Organs Watch, a California-based organisation against the sale of organs, the main centres of organ trade are China, Taiwan, the Philippines, India, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. China is particularly singled out as a prominent offender by the Human Rights Watch group which says that the Chinese routinely sell kidneys, corneas, liver tissue and heart valves from executed prisoners without their consent or that of their next of kin. Of course, the Chinese authorities deny such charges. No matter how repugnant the sale of human organs is, there is support for it. The Transplantation Society, which has 3,000 members in 65 countries, at a meeting in Miami recently, brought out the other side of the picture when the doctors pointed out that nearly all the patients who could find relief through transplanted organs say they would be willing to buy such organs. They would think of the money as a form of compensation, just as compensation is given out in accident cases. Such arguments are specious. Organ trade is morally and otherwise reprehensible. |
The case of developing nations THE President of South Africa, Mr Thebo Mbeki, has forcefully and rightly warned against the perpetration of “global apartheid” at the opening of the Earth Summit for Sustainable Development. But the hope of the head of the government in South Africa, which has gone through the horror of racial apartheid, that the Earth Summit in Johannesburg will adopt a meaningful plan to end economic, social and political apartheid in the world order, seems rather too optimistic. The group of a handful of the developed countries, G-7, led by the USA has achieved industrial growth by cruel exploitation of the humanoid and natural resources of the world for two centuries. It is not showing any inclination to give up the “savage principle of the survival of the fittest” as Mr Mbeki urged. G-7 is not willing to join a concerted effort of humanity to either alleviate mass poverty or stop “poisoning” the earth, which are imperatives for sustainable development. On the contrary, it has embarked on a path of globalisation, which is grossly iniquitous and wasteful to achieve its domination, economic, social and cultural, over the rest of the world. An ambitious plot was drawn up by G-7 as far back as early eighties. This was its response to the claims and demands of G-7 the group of countries, which had overthrown the direct colonial rule after World War II and sought self-reliant and self-sustaining ways of social and economic development. The USA and its military allies were frightened by the adoption in 1974 in the UN General Assembly of a resolution on the New World Economic Order and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. The resolution and the charter were adopted with only the USA opposing them. They uphold the principle that there should be unconditional and massive transfer of financial resources from the developed to the developing countries to clear the debris left behind by colonial rule. The “aid” of the developed countries was thus to be reparation for the loot of the erstwhile colonies. Further, the developing countries asserted their sovereign rights over their domestic resources and they demanded that their economic exchanges with the developed countries should be mutually gainful and on free and fair terms. The G-7, in the wake of assertion of rights of the developing countries, moved at once to negate and subvert their ability to fight for their rights. The concepts of inter-dependence and globalisation of the world order were floated and have since been pushed forward relentlessly to abridge the sovereign rights of the nation-states. The world order, as conceived and developed in the last two decades, is totally different and opposed to the sovereign interests of the developing countries and their people. Its central premise is that unimpeded growth and increasing prosperity of the developed countries were preconditions and must, therefore, enjoy precedence in any scheme of development of the under-developed countries. Lobbies have been created within the developing countries to support these contentions. These lobbies have mobilised vested interests nurtured by the colonial rulers and those which have developed in the post-independence era in the developing countries. They demand that social equity should give way to market-friendly economic growth with foreign “aid”, above all, private foreign investment. The ruling elite in developing countries has been won over in course of time by the siren song of inter-dependence and globalisation to accelerate economic growth. The IMF-World Bank combine has played its own role in the management of financial flows and economic “aid” to serve the globalisation objectives and the WTO has been formed as the supra-national regulator of international trade. The economic globalisation process under the hegemony of the US-led G-7 has been openly buttressed not only by political arm-twisting and diplomatic coercion but also by military intervention as well to break up G-7 solidarity and bring about rifts among developing countries which have been rated at different levels of development. What are called mid-level developing countries are encouraged to form smaller groups to negotiate directly with G-7 on their special interests and secure some crumbs for the satisfaction of small and scattered groups and segments of affluence in their population, the majority of whom are suffering from degrading poverty. The Indian experience is very instructive in this context. Flaunting the banner of mid-level developing country, it has been deluded by the idea of playing the regional power in South Asia. The acceptance of the demands of globalisation has resulted in the loss of the principle of even reciprocity, let alone preference, in economic exchanges with the developed countries. G-7 does not, however, hesitate to flout its international obligations, which the developing countries are forced to honour without question. The repudiation of the commitment to contain pollution and global warming, accepted by the USA 10 years ago at the Rio summit is a case in point. Despicable are the attempts being made to shift the burden of containing pollution to the developing countries, which are now being asked to make amends for causing and spreading pollution. India seems to have been chosen as the soft target for the international and domestic globalisers as the main culprit for pollution. Backward India with millions burning animal dung for cooking, with poor toilet, drainage and drinking water facilities, has been condemned for creating and spreading pollution. Contrast this with arrogant dismissal by President Bush of the pollution concerns of the global community on the ground that its priority is to safeguard the high living and consumption standards in the USA rather than bother about polluting industries which are depleting the earth of its resources and exposing it to pollution and the effects of global warming. It is disconcerting indeed that the Environment Minister of India at the Earth Summit is begging for foreign aid to undertake the “Herculean task” of laying down drainage and drinking water facilities which do not require any foreign exchange at all and can and must be carried out by labour which is available at meagre rupee wages in the country. The recessionary trends lately in the developed countries too and the global financial turmoil since the mid-nineties have added to the tensions in the working of the economic and political globalisation process in India and world wide. The speculators, trading monopolies and business corporations are coming up against unexpected hurdles in the way of the exploitation of their soft targets — the working people in the developed as well as the developing parts of the world. The supposedly efficient private business enterprise is finding it difficult to engineer sustainable economic growth. The idea of a borderless world with no impediments to capital flows is not building new productive facilities to meet the needs of the growing population of the world. It is not generating new gainful employment for working people either. Jobless economic growth and concentration of economic assets in fewer and fewer hands, globally and within countries, including the developed ones, have made sustainable development impossible. Global policy initiatives and management structures may sound very appealing to the cosmopolitan elite in the developed as well as the developing countries. But they expose the developing countries to neo-colonial exploitation in the prevailing inequalities in the world. It is imperative, therefore, to mobilise the popular masses to struggle for preserving the independence and development role of the nation- states to realise the economic growth objectives and fulfil the aspirations of the people for decent living conditions and democratic rights, in particular in the developing countries. With its democratic credentials and middle-level economic development, which was achieved when the path of autonomous and planned economic growth was pursued for two decades after its independence, India should be the leading force in this movement. India’s response to the globalisation process masterminded by the developed countries and their financial institutions must not be of seeking some crumbs. It must reassert the autonomy of its development process, social advance and cultural renaissance. It must join forces with other developing countries to stem the tide of globalisation from overwhelming and perpetuating global apartheid. This movement will find support from popular masses even in the developed countries. |
Rain in my valley A
hot and humid July. An even more hot and humid August! The rain gods are surely not smiling over Chandigarh this monsoon. But who knows? Last weekend when Samir, my walking-mate rang up early in the morning, for a romp in the Leisure Valley; in a hazy torpor of the “morning after” — I mumbled a sleepy “yeah”. And off we set out for the walk. It was cloudy. Puffs of light grey fleece overcast the sky — but certainly not nimbus or rainfilled. We crossed the bridge over the tiny rivulet, flanked by the magnificent bamboo groves planted on both sides, lost in our long conversations; when suddenly a strong wind with a hidden fury, began to sweep across the valley. The tall, ramrod bamboos bent into supine submission. A veil of dense ominous clouds spread over the sky, dimming the light into a dark, grey tone. We walked on, regardless, savouring the sudden coolness in the air — just when big, big rain drops started falling on our balding pates. And then the deluge. In spite of our determination to go on, the heavy downpour, the clap of thunder, and blinding flashes of lightning, forced us to scamper for shelter in a small, decrepit pump house. The old
bidi-smoking chowkidar welcomed us and offered his string cot to sit on. Looking out through the dark interiors of the hut — the rolling mounds of the Leisure Valley appeared as green meadows of the hills; criss-crossed by serpentine pathways. But there were no mule-train ankle bells to be heard or nomadic shepherds to be seen. The only sight available was of some rain-drenched obese, middle aged morning walkers out on their doctor-ordered constitutionals! Certainly not an alluring locale for the famous “wet sari” scenes of Bollywood directors! The rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun. We resumed our walk, wading now through puddles on the grass, and the wet pathway shimmering like an endless grey confetti. The hitherto almost dry rivulet was now a gurgling mountain torrent; bursting at its stone-pithed banks. As we turned a bend, a flock of
snow-white cattle egrets could be spotted around a grove of agentia trees. A pair of redwattled lapwings was also prancing around in celebration of the rains! But what I looked out keenly for was the familiar woodpecker snooping, pecking for insects on an old, gnarled tree. It wasn’t to be seen anywhere. Perhaps woodpeckers don’t fancy rainy days, like some wet blankets! The vista of the green earth meeting up with the dark sky; blurred like an impressionist landscape painting during the rain, began to clear up again like a moist mirror getting wiped clean. Presently a mellowed, sting-less sun began to peep out. Against the backdrop of the rain-washed blue hills, the silver oak trees glistened with their feathery leaves, fluttering like shining banners. Walking beneath the trelliswork pergolas, laden with bauhinea creepers, water drops kept trickling down as a belated after-thought rain. It has never stopped raining in my heart ever since. My valley is green again. And my Muse not dried up. |
Strife leaves Centre in stupor WHAT strikes one most these days about the Vajpayee government is its stunning resemblance to the final years of the Rajiv Gandhi regime. Both governments were heralded with high popular expectations but both got mired in scandals and thoughtless actions ending up in inaction and lethargy. Apparently, the BJP government has entered the final stage where whatever it touches turns sour. Political paranoia, fear of decisions backfiring and loss of initiatives are the terminal symptoms of all such regimes. After the BJP’s watershed Goa session, the government has for all practical purposes, ceased to act. It only reacts when troubles knock at the door one after another. We have two prime ministers with equal powers yet when it comes to taking bold initiatives, the government looks leaderless. The fatigue is not confined to Atal Behari Vajpayee or the fading old guard alone. It was on such misplaced notions that a section in the party pushed a move to slice off the PMO and hand the powers to the more agile L.K. Advani. The morbid organisation was sought to be energised by replacing the aging men by youths. This not only invited silent backlash from the old but even the youths were not ready to leave the cosy ministerial chairs for the rough and tumble of party work. Uma Bharti, Vasundhararaje Scindia and Ananth Kumar are all finding pretexts to avoid the ordeal. Venkaiah Naidu’s reshuffles, wherever effected, have caused more friction among the state leaders rater than generating new enthusiasm. Thus the emotional weariness encompasses the entire gamut of the government and the party organisation. Ask the BJP leaders in private. They begin with expressing the puzzle as to how the satyanash had befallen on them so sudden and then accusing the respective rivals for the plight. We all reminisce — not only the friends of BJP — of the happier days when the new government with full of bright ideas gave us fresh hopes of an all-round change. Within a month they did proud by the Pokhran II and then boldly challenged the world powers. The whole country was ready for sacrifices to put up against the US sanctions. The corporates had found their own ilk in the new rulers to whom they had contributed more poll funds than even the Congress. The ‘jockers’ of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch were effortlessly silenced. A smile from Vajpayee was enough for the chief ministers — even those of the Congress — to ‘settle’ longstanding disputes like the Cauvery waters. The NDA agenda had everything for everyone, and everybody had full faith in PM’s magic wand. It is really painful to watch the fall from that high pedestal to total inaction and helpless defeatism. For the past few months, the top leaders have been fully preoccupied with firefighting crises facing the government and the party one after another. The whole energy has been spent on defending the government position on various complicated issues. As a result, it found little time to initiate anything new. The reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers was hoped to inject a new dynamism in major ministries like external affairs and finance. However, the reluctant incumbents played it extremely cool if not somewhat indifferent. Even if the ministers take it to their heart, in the general atmosphere of defeatism and inertia would not make it too far. The top two have been busy with their own battles and have little time to guide or inspire the ministerial colleagues as they had done earlier. In case any initiative misfires who will take the blame? In the good old days the whole NDA stood by the ministers. The entire party had made it a mass campaign in full spirits when issues like the nuclear blast, bus yatra, Kargil, etc came up. No government or party programme inspires them any more. Instead, the tendency now is to play safe. The petrol pump allotment scam has badly exposed the fissures even at the top level. Vajpayee, could save the government’s image a little by his cancellation orders. By the time the Supreme Court stayed the order, his position got further weakened. He was simply forced to backtrack on the subsequent move for an ordinance to enforce the cancellation. The disarray on taking a uniform view on such scandalous issues has been such that their defence is being left to the individual minister and the party spokesmen. All others just wait and watch the tamasha while carefully calculating how does it affect their own position within the party and among the people. Similar has been the case with Narendra Modi’s attacks on the Election Commission and his movement for riotbased vote bank. On this too the top two differed. Some others indulged in the pastime of selective leaks to embarrass those like PM’s close aide Vijay Goyal. Even on the land grabbing charge against Venkaiah Naidu, few in the party thought it necessary to come to the rescue of the boss. The tendency on the part of the individual leaders to insulate themselves from the infamy expresses in different ways. The ministers deliberately avoid taking policy risks because they themselves will have to face the consequences. As Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha was a hero of the corporates and the media. But he was removed just for implementing the official policies with the concurrence of the Prime Minister. Now Jaswant Singh moves with extreme caution to avoid being a scapegoat if the party again fairs badly in elections. The interchanging of the finance and external affairs by the two senior ministers was aimed at improving their performance. However, neither has done anything spectacular, partly to avoid controversies and partly due to lack of adequate backup. All that Jaswant Singh did was to cut some taxes. Yashwant Sinha seems to be in harmony with Brajesh Mishra. In the hey days of the government, his predecessor had taken it too far by holding secret talks with the USA and trying to make India a USA camp follower. He had announced India’s support to the USA’s missile defence system without even consulting the colleagues. Unlike the last reshuffle, if Vajpayee now yields to Shiv Sena’s threats to introduce ‘quota’ and ‘reservation’ system in the Cabinet, it has been due to the rupture of dialogue even within the government. The first casualty of the slicing off the Prime Minister’s powers without providing adequate alternative system, has been the ministerial coordination and continuity. Every minister is implementing his or her own policies, not that of the government. New power and health ministers have declared that they would drop their own former party colleagues’ policies. The siege psychosis — fear of being a victim of the ire of constitutional institutions, NGOs and the
public opinion — prevailing among the ruling circles has worsened this administrative paralysis. Preoccupation with petty politicking within the party and outside, dearth of new ideas and the incapacity to project them have reduced the business of governance to that of tackling the routine matters and countering allegations of scams and scandals in courts, commissions and the media. It is high time for the BJP to shrug off this predicament. Rajiv too had suffered inertia but at least his command was not in question until the last day. |
Of teenage sex & parents’ behaviour TEENAGERS whose parents drink or smoke heavily are more likely to engage in sex, drugs or crime, according to a new US study. Researchers from the Southwest Texas State University based their findings on an analysis of the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The sexual behaviour of 19,000 adolescents in the 12-18 year age-group was studied. Data on the children’s parents, namely whether they smoked or drank heavily, was also analysed. It was found that teenagers were more likely to have had sex by the time they left school or before they turned 16 if their parents smoked. Teenagers were most likely to have sex early in their lives if their parents drank heavily as well. The so-called risky behaviour of parents also increased the likelihood of children smoking and drinking heavily themselves. There was also a link between parents who smoked and drank and children becoming involved with drugs and the police. The study found that children were less likely to have sex as teenagers if their parents kept a close eye on them. There was a similar pattern if parents were at home in the morning and evening, before and after school and again at bedtime. “Adolescents whose parents engage in risky behaviour, especially smoking, are especially likely to be sexually active. They are also more likely to smoke, drink, associate with substance-abusing peers and participate in delinquent activity. Because parents serve as important role models for their children, it stands to reason that parents who exhibit unsafe behaviours are especially likely to have children with similar tendencies,” one of the researchers Dr Toni Terling Watt, was quoted as saying by BBC. According to Dr Terling Watt, the findings highlighted the need to encourage parents to stop smoking and to drink less. “Public health campaigns that urge parents to act responsibly by engaging in health-conscious behaviours are likely to help reduce precocious and unsafe sexual activity among teens,” he said.
ANI |
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Yoga through distance learning YOGA, considered a natural healer of bodily and mental ailments, has always been taught in a direct teacher-student interaction since it involves demonstrating the various exercises to help people understand them. However, for the first time, yoga has been introduced as a distance learning subject by the National Open School which will be offering a ‘Certificate in Yoga’. The aim of this six-month course is to spread practical as well as theoretical Yogic values. One of the four institutions accredited for the purpose is the Delhi-based Vishwa Bharti Yoga Sansthan. According to Acharya Prem Bhatia of the Sansthan, the course is designed to generate self-employment by imparting knowledge to the participants in organising and conducting yoga classes themselves and enhancing the knowledge and skills of existing yoga teachers. The Sansthan has been voluntarily propagating the ancient knowledge of Yoga by holding Yoga camps all over India so that people adopt yogic values in their day-to-day lives. It recently organised a seven-day course in Yoga for medical practitioners so that they can use the skills to meet the spiritual as well as physical needs of their
patients. UNI |
It gave me peace of mind, contentment and fulfilled all my desires Forever may my life be sacrificed to the guru who is so great Says Nanak, ye men of God, cherish his words For the name of the true one is my mainstay. All five kinds of musical instruments Play in the hearts of the blessed; In their blessed homes plays celestial music Where God has infused his magic and might. And the five evils (lust, anger, greed, self-love and arrogance) are suppressed And the fear of death is no more Only those who were predestined Attach themselves and the true name find. Says Nanak, there is always happiness Where uninterrupted divine music plays. Hearing the divine music all your heart’s desires will be fulfilled. You will find the great creator, All your worldly cares will disappear; Pain, sickness, worry will vanish When you heart the true hymns of praise. Pious and holy men will be overjoyed, assures the true guru. Purified are they who hear, And purified they who sing The Lord is to be found in his words Says Nanak, you clasp the sacred
feet of the guru. And you will hear divine music for eternity. Rehras, Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** Rehras culminates in thanksgiving to the Lord. This salok was originally placed at the end of the first compilation of the Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan. All that
You have done for me is beyond my comprehension, I am because of you. Ignorant, bereft of all virtue, Still
you took mercy on me. After the mercy, you showered divine grace, Let me befriend the true guru Says Nanak, His name gives me life, My body and mind shall ever thrive. Rehras, Sri Guru Granth Sahib |
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