To understanding about the Creation/Origin of the Universe, it is important to understand the relationship between World and God according to Hindu philosophy. God and World, the Creator and the Created are not two distinct entities but only they appear to be so. In the Vyavahrika plane(1) (the Mundane/Relative), the Man, World and the God appear and function as distinct from one another, but in Paramarthika plane (The Absolute plane) there is only One, call it God or Brahman or Atman. In other words, God is the sum total of all existence.

Chandogya Upanishad proclaims “Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma(2)” meaning “Everything is Brahman/God”. All the existence, the entire cosmos, everything that ever existed is nothing but Brahman. The same has been more explicitly mentioned in Taittiriya Upanishad-

“yatO vA imAni bhUtAni jAyantE
yEna jATAni jIvanti
yat prayant-yabhi-sam-vishanti
tadvijigyasasva tad brahmeti” (3)

“From which all the creatures (bhUta) are born, being born by which they sustain and into which they merge back, Know that as Brahman”.

The world/cosmos with all its multiplicities are not separate from God but have their origin in him and they sustain in him and merge back into him. Brahman is both the material and intelligent cause for this universe. To accomplish any work (Karya) – For example creating a pot, a base material (Soil) called as “Upadana” in scriptures and a person (the potter) who accomplishes the task called as “Karta” is needed.

Shastras term this as “Upadana Karana/material cause” and “Nimmita Karana/Intelligent or Efficient cause”. In case of the Universe, Brahman is both the Upadana Karana and the Nimmita Karana. That is, God does not create any universe separate from it but only has manifested it out of his own-self in other-words God has himself become Cosmos.

To the question, “How exactly does Brahman manifest Universe?” The Shastras explain two ways in which an already existing entity (Karana/Cause) has become another entity (Karya/Effect) – The Parinama Vada and the Vivarta Vada. “Parinama vada(4)” refers to a real transformation of an object into another object, Ex: Milk turning in Curd, mud becoming pot etc. “Vivarta vada” refers to an apparent transformation of one object into another, Ex: a rope being mistaken for snake, a mirage in a desert etc.

In the case of Universe, the “Parinama vada” does not hold. If God has indeed undergone complete and real transformation and become Cosmos, the way milk becomes curd, then there would have been no difference between God and World in Vyavaharika state. Then in Vyvaharika State, there would not have been any God instead only sensory world. Just as once Milk turns into Curd, it ceases to be milk and cannot turn back into milk, so also God will cease to exist once it transforms completely into Universe.But such a materialistic view is not supported by Hindu Shastras which proclaim Brahman as being- “Nithya(Eternal), Nishkalam(Without parts/divisions), Nishkriyam (without action) Shantham(Calm), Niravadhyam (Flawless), Niranjanam(Stainless)”. Instead, Vedanta Philosophy explains that the Brahman manifests Universe, just as rope appears snake (Vivarta vada). That is, there is only an apparent transformation of God into Universe. In case of snake, rope was the Upadana Karana/Material cause and in case of universe, Brahman is the Upadana Karana. This phenomenon of Apparent Manifestation is termed as “Maya” and the Power of Brahman to achieve it is termed as “Maya Shakti”. Adi Shankaracharya in Maya Panchakam says-

“nirupama nithya niramshakeepyakhande
mayi chiti sarva nikalpanaadishunye |
ghatayati jagadeesha-jeeva-bhedam
tvaghatita ghatanaapatiiyasi maaya ||”(5)

In Brahman who is Unique, Eternal, without parts, Absolute, It is Maya which creates the distinctions of Man, World and God. There is nothing impossible for Maya.

Hence, it is Brahman who creates/manifests this universe using his power of Maya. Hence, Lord Krishna was described as Mayapati- Lord of Maya.  In Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna says-

“ajo ’pi sann avyayatma
bhutanam isvaro ’pi san |
prakritim svam adhisthaya
sambhavamy atma-mayaya ||”(6)

Though I am birthless, undecaying by nature, and the Lord of beings, (still) by subjugating My Prakriti, I take birth by means of My own Maya.

Lord Krishna, an Avatara of God himself is proclaiming that he creates the whole universe by his power of Maya. But now a question arises, why did Brahman need to manifest this Apparent Universe? To achieve what goal?

The Shastras say that for God, the whole manifestation is just Lila/ a Divine play. It is a spontaneous manifestation for Brahman. This manifestation is not an activity/kartattva as in Paramarthika state, there is no duality of Karta and Karya. Brahman himself is Karta-doer, Karana-cause and the Karya-activity. Hence, the whole manifestation of Universe has been described as Lila- a spontaneous play. Further, because it is a Lila and not a Karya, there is no end goal or results to achieve because Brahman intends to achieve nothing as he is everything. It is Brahman’s very Svabhava/nature to continuously manifest and dissolve and re-manifest the cosmos. Hence, God is also called as “Lalita” meaning “She who plays” by Shaktas stressing the fact that playing Lila is God’s very own Svabhava.

Many people have this misconception that Maya and Lila are different and at times contradictory. But it is not so. They both refer to same phenomenon but only stressing on two different aspect of it. Whereas the term “Maya” stresses that Brahman is the Upadana Karana of this Universe, the term “Lila” stresses that Brahman is the “Nimitta Karana” of the Universe. “Maya” answers the question “How the Universe was created” and “Lila” answers the question “Why the Universe was created”.

References-

1.For detailed explanation of Vyavaharika and Paramartika states, refer my article “The Two Realities”.
2.Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.1.
3.Taittiriya Upanishad 3.1.3.
4.There is one more doctrine called “Arambavada/Asat-Karya-vada” which says that, an object which was non-existant before was newly created. This view about Universe is held by Nyaya School which propounds that Universe was created by Ishwara by using Anu/atoms. Here, Anu is the upadana karana and Ishwara is nimitta karana. But, Vedanta Shastras and Upanishads does not accept this doctrine. According to the Shastras, World existed in potential/sukshma form in Brahman from before.  Hence, Brahman only manifests Universe and does not actually create it.
5.Maya Panchakam Verse 1
6.Bhagvad Gita 4.6

1. Introduction
2. Aiding  and Abating Insurgencies
3. Motives of Overt Operators
4. Digital Revolution and Consequences of Two US Wars
5. Motives of Covert Operators
6. Unintended Consequences
7. Impact of Demographic Changes
8. Caliphate Dream
9. Victims of New Muslim Political Reality
10. Conclusion
11. Reference and notes

Introduction 

In an Op-ed, “Harsh lessons from regime change,” Irfan Husain commented on the state of political upheaval caused by the Arab Spring revolutions and arrival of Islamist militants’ leaders to replace previous dictators. Mr Husain is against Islamist militancy and he observed, “The path to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.”

Mr Husain has covered obvious parts played by various international actors. The Islamists have filled the political vacuum to set the stage for political upheavals in the Middle East (ME) that is home to the ideological Islamic states.

By its constitution Pakistan (PK) is an ideological Islamic state. For decades (1979 – present) PK has been known for the me-too Arabs called Miskeen and militancy. For upcoming elections (May 11, 2013) a political scientist Niaz Murtaza has analyzed PK politics from academic structural point. He observed PK kingmaker groups include the military, the media, mafia, militants, judiciary, industrialists, landlords and some foreign countries. Some groups are for a stable democracy. The militants abhor democracy and see their version of caliphate – an ideological Islamist state – as a better governance option for Pakistan.

I argue that PK militants co-linked to al Qaeda started a global wave of Islamic extremism (1994 – present) and that the days of the ideological Islamic states are numbered in 21^st century. The world community is unified against religious extremism of any kind. Islamist militants are driven by the single minded mission I call the Caliphate mania.

Readers are highly recommended to learn how covert PK actions have fueled instabilities all over Muslim world. An article by Myra MacDonald and a book by Columbia U Professor Stephen Tankel are good starting points.

Aiding and Abating Insurgencies 

Many Muslim pundits paint the US and NATO nations as culprits for aiding and abating the insurgents in ME forgetting that covertly some Muslim nations are also engaged in the acts. For example arms from West are supplied to insurgents by sectarian Arab nations aligned with Saudi Arabia or Iran camps. The sources of chaos in insurgency infested nations are Muslim sectarian rivalries and arms supplies from Western and Communist nations. Both arms suppliers and rival Muslim camps are fueling insurgencies as each has ulterior motives. Blaming only the US by self serving pundits should no longer be acceptable.

Motives of Overt Operators 

What follows is well known. The US and NATO war actions are to protect their national interests, which include neutralizing potential military threats (e.g., the Caliphate dreamers or Islamists, al Qaeda co-linked Taliban) and accesses to energy resources and inexpensive skilled labor in Middle East, South and Central Asia. As long as dictators serve the policy interests they are tolerated; otherwise overt and covert actions are taken to replace them.

Colonization is no longer in the US and NATO nation game plans. People in the affected nations are left to deal with any political vacuums that surface. Instabilities in MuslimLands and spillover of violence to nations like India and Israel are acceptable collateral damages. The instabilities experienced by affected nations are exposing short comings of Muslim political ideology. Nations like India and Israel have been forced to put in place mechanisms for the spillover damage-control and build defensive capabilities to counter threats posed by the Caliphate dreamers.

I feel the Islamist ideology is no more relevant in modern global politics. Addressing the presumed British logic for creating Pakistan Mr Shabbir Ahmad Khan added PK has to choose between a modern, progressive, secular and stronger nuclear power and a conflict-ridden, tribal and conservative society with extremist leanings. History tells us that nations or states collapse only when they refuse to change and insist on being foisted to the moorings of a decadent and eroded social and political order.

A nuclear Pakistan is heavily convulsed by internal violence linked to religious extremism. Mr Khan has addressed why Pakistan may be a vanishing state. After World War II, colonial powers gave independence to many nations, including Pakistan, with a clear rationale or prime motive. At a very critical juncture in history, if states lose their rationale, they lose their right to survive. Pakistan is passing through a critical juncture of her history. If she loses her rationale, she loses her right to exist.

Digital Revolution and Consequences of Two US Wars 

The overall dissatisfaction with the outcome of two wars coupled with insights gained through global internet connectivity the Muslim youth set in motion Arab Spring revolutions. Youths using digital devices forced several Muslim nations to experience Arab Spring uprising.

The vengeance driven US attacks after the 9/11 event were to destroy al Qaeda and Taliban in AF-PK (Afghanistan-Pakistan) region. The US went a step further with invented excuses to destroy Iraqi dictatorship and set up a process for democratic election.  In spite of sectarian violence and a flawed election process elected Iraqi representatives formed a government before the US pulled out of Iraq after 7 years.

Both actions – the revolutions set in motion with the digital technology and two wars by the US – have left political vacuum in several Muslim nations. Much to consternation of secular world local Islamists have filled the vacuum marginalizing the secular students who started the uprisings.

I believe several weaknesses of Muslim ideology were responsible for political vacuum in Muslim nations. The weaknesses Muslim governments were exposed by actions of the US and youth with the digital technology.

The two wars exposed the weaknesses in military power of Muslim nations. The Arab Spring revolutions exposed political weaknesses of Muslim ruling establishments. Several Muslim nations are in disarray because of structural weakness of Muslim political ideology and weak governments incapable of handling pressures of demographic changes.

Motives of Covert Operators 

Why was it okay not to acknowledge in the article by Mr Husain the covert part played by PK in instigating two US wars? The PK Islamist establishment operated covertly until recently; a collection of various Taliban factions and their handlers until 2011 operated largely beneath the surface.

Al Qaeda co-linked Taliban were brain child of the delusional Arab leaders and the active and retired Islamist PK army Generals with an agenda to establish hegemony in Central and South Asia in pursuit of a Caliphate political order. The plans for regional hegemony were derailed by the two US wars (2001 – present).

The Defense of PK Council (DPC or Difa-e-Pakistan Council) is a front of the army-ISI establishment to control militant leaders. The DPC, a new alliance of Islamist groups is campaigning for a break in ties with the United States  and an end to warming relations with India. The army-ISI tutored DPC leaders are giving clear shape in many years to an underworld of hyper-nationalism, militancy, sectarianism and faith-based politics.

Unintended Consequences 

PK also is internally destabilized as the army-ISI managers have lost control of some militant groups. Insurgencies have surfaced in several parts of PK. The militants now number an estimated more than 100,000.  A Google search found more than 23 million results in 0.22 seconds. Four examples are cited in references and notes to show the information that sheds light on the consequences of loss of control of the brain children of the PK army-ISI.

Impact of Demographic Changes 

In medieval times global population was about 15% of the present 7 billion global populations. In the Caliphate lands the governing rule was “might is right.”  It was much easier to invade, control and manage sparsely populated lands of militarily weak princely states.

In 66 years PK population has grown about 5 times; in 1947 the bifurcated PK population was about 70 million. At independence Pakistan’s eastern wing had more people estimated at close to 40 million than the four western provinces put together. Today two nations of PK and Bangladesh have a total of about 350 million; the population of Bangladesh now is about 160 million against Pakistan’s close to 200 million. The new PK Caliphate masters don’t have time to care for its 200 million; they are consumed by delusion to establish hegemony over Central and South Asia.

Caliphate Dream 

The DPC leaders have terrain in sight and manpower is not a problem as the fodder for war mongering is about 100 million youth with madrassah brand education. What the delusional Caliphate dreamers lack is money. In recent past money came from the US and Arab lands. Like in the medieval times, now challenges are to invade, hold and loot the occupied lands to solve the money crunch.

In 20^th and 21^st centuries the global political spectra have changed. Israel – a Jewish nation – was born in 1948 and on January 26, 1950 the Republic of India appeared after dissolving all princely states and incorporating it into Hindu majority portions of the British India. A bifurcated PK in 1947 was carved out of the British India. PK has been at war within (1971) as well as against India (four wars from 1948 – 1999). PK army lost all wars though some were not lost convincingly. In 1971 it disintegrated into present PK and Bangladesh. On going insurgencies within PK may lead to additional fragmentation unless as Mr Khan explained global powers decide to eliminate a nuclear armed ideological Islamist PK that has lost its British and the US rational for existence.

Victims of New Muslim Political Reality 

Unlike in medieval times, in 21^st century there are no princely states left in South Asia for the marauding gangs of Islamist to invade, hold and loot the occupied territories. Sooner than later, Islamist will be facing bankrupt economy in the new political reality.

The collateral damage is inevitable outcome of all changing political realities. Victims of developing Muslim political reality are innocent civilians in nations – Israel and India – on the borders of Muslim Lands of OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference), which may be a nascent Caliphate.

Conclusion 

Crimes against humanity are committed by the delusional Islamist leaders invoking Islam that deny equality to women and non-Muslim faiths followers. Otherwise sane Muslim Op-ed pundits ignore root causes of Muslim nation’s political problems and blame the powers that seek access to energy resources and skilled labor by tolerating Muslim dictators who are willing to work with them. For Western powers and delusional Islamist the sufferings of innocent victims are an acceptable collateral damage.

References and notes 

1. Irfan Husain, “Harsh lessons from regime change,” Dawn, April 1, 2013
2. Niaz Murtaza, “A Stable Democracy?” Dawn, March 26, 2013
3. Myra MacDonald, “Difa-e-Pakistan: What we know and do not want to hear”, http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2012/02/16/difa-e-pakistan-what-we-know-and-do-not-want-to-hear/

• Stephen Tankel,  “Storming the World Stage”, The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Columbia/Hurst)
• Tankel observed, “Managing jihadis is more of an art than a science and ambiguous policies by nature create situations in which real control is impossible.”

4. Shabbir Ahmad Khan, “Pakistan: A vanishing state,”  http://tribune.com.pk/story/529568/pakistan-a-vanishing-state/
5. “Major Islamist Militant Groups in Pakistan”; http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakmil.pdf
6. “Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan,
7. “Haqqani network” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haqqani_network
8. “Pakistan’s New Generation of Terrorists”, http://www.cfr.org/pakistan/pakistans-new-generation-terrorists/p15422
9. Kunwar Idris, “Friendship with India,” Dawn, April 6, 2013. Mr. Idris is a senior statesman. Only now the statesmen are coming around to acknowledge the following:

• The article offers demographic data for 1947 and present.
• It also briefly states history of PK and explains why it lost its way to be a prosperous nation.
• PK is a collection of fiefdoms. Speaking about ongoing insurgency in Baluchistan, Mr. Idris observed, “The question today is no longer of military conquest but of convincing the people that their security and prosperity lays in a unified Pakistan and not in a series of fiefdoms.
• Pakistan shares its unrest and uncertainty with Afghanistan and to a lesser extent with the Central      Asian Republics and Iran, with whom it has little in common except religion, which is more divisive and a source of greater violence in Pakistan than in its north-western neighbors.
• It will not be possible to effect any change in the political and economic direction of Pakistan so long as the country remains embroiled in the conflicts of its neighbors. The answer lies in a fundamental policy shift by promoting cultural and trade links with India. Both would come naturally and easily.
• Pakistan’s cultural and linguistic links with India are rooted in history and the trade routes are diverse and economical.

What is the net result?

1. The Petition Gang’s contempt for the 1^st Amendment, and for Wharton students’ right to learn issues for themselves, came across loud and clear. University administrators need no reminding of the garbage that they have to tolerate every day from this gang – they apparently just decided to let people see it for themselves.
2. The students got an excellent, dynamic speaker who puts life and limb on the line fighting corruption in India every day. He laid out in factual detail the rot, top-down. The best possible contrast with what Modi has done for Gujarat.
3. Shri Narendra Modi was in no way inconvenienced – all this hype was about a SKYPE interview, not an actual intercontinental visit !
4. Shri Modi spent the time addressing the Google Big Tent Activate Summit in New Delhi on how the Internet is changing India[2].
5. Today’s students got a taste of what we experienced 10 years ago, and we got an opportunity to educate them on the history of the Petition Gang (PG). Signing Petitions with their pompous titles and abusing their workplace affiliations on extracurricular politics appears to be their specialty.
6. I did a Google Search on “Modi Wharton” at 8 AM, March 24, EST. The top 5 links were:

a)    “Indian Americans protest against Wharton snub to Modi” (Times of India)

b)   “Nixing Narendra Modi’s Wharton invite was wrong: Arvind Kejriwal” (Economic Times and Times of India)

c)   “Why Wharton cancelled Narendra Modi’s invite” (TIME), citing “potential polarizing reactions from subsegments of the alumni base (read Commie-Pakis)…”

d)   “Modi’s Wharton talk scrapped after ‘furious’ petition” – Hindustan Times

e)    “Wharton caves to Muslim bigotry, Cancels Chief Minister Narendra Modi” (AtlasShrugs2000)

That completes the butt-kicking started by outraged Wharton faculty and other well-wishers.

The main sponsor of the event, Gautam Adnani, opted out of the event[3]. As did Atul Nishar, head of Hexaware Technologies[4]. And Mohandas Pai, head of Manipal Global[5]. And Suresh Prabhu, leader of the Shiv Sena[6]: “I think it is not only an insult of the Gujarat Chief Minister but of the entire country.. .I find this a ridiculous decision. Modi did not ask that he be invited. He is a democratically-elected leader, a three-term Chief Minister. Modi is not someone who has been foisted on somebody. He has been elected as representative of people in fairly conducted polls by the Election Commission. The university should be a place where divergent views are debated. Such a decision, that too by a varsity in the US, is unfathomable”.

Ron Somers of the US-India Business Council, keynote speaker[7]: “Cancellation of the invitation to Modi was a missed opportunity for the students of the prestigious business school… unfortunate and disrespectful… Such a ‘no holds barred’ dialogue between future business leaders and a leader of Chief Minister Modi’s capability and stature would have expanded the plane of hope and progress, on which the future rests. Do we stand for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Such questions asked and answered only advance democracy. …. Since when is an American University against free speech?”

Rajiv Malhotra[8] did his clinical dissection of the Wharton boo-boo, casting it as exactly the sort of neo-colonialist, racist double standards that Professor Loomba claims as her field of expertise.  That was when Loomba was still gloating. A far cry from today, no pun intended.

Wharton alumni and well-wishers with thinking and writing skills beyond those of the U. Penn English department, exercised those skills[9],[10]. Chidanand Rajghatta, who has been around a few times, concluded: “The loss is entirely Wharton’s”[11]. Rishi Bhatuda, 2004 Wharton graduate, was blunt, pointing out that the PG had abused their authority  “by putting this petition out and aiming it at the student organized conference.”[12]

Several of the “signatories” of the Petition showed raw panic when an enterprising young reporter poked into a tip that Loomba’s petition was an “opt-out” petition: names of flunkies were added to it, and they had the option to “opt out”. Of course, what happened to a graduate student of the English Department after so “opting out” remains a matter of conjecture, given the Professor’s obvious regard for the 1^st Amendment[13]. In their high dudgeon, their Freudian slip showed as loud as orange knickers:

“In early March, several faculty, students and other concerned citizens began contacting colleagues and friends about WIEF’s invitation, using a Facebook page as our main space to inform and communicate with one another. Each of us affirmatively signed the petition either by posting a comment indicating our support on the page, or by sending an e-mail to the coordinators.”

I commend their honesty. The key is in the “either-or” construct. Which was it? In other words, they received an email telling them to agree (or else) and they said “Yes, Dear Leader!”  The actual posting of signatures was done by the Petition Coordinators at least in some cases, since these “students” were either too lazy or too incompetent to do so themselves. This is no doubt the way it was done in Elizabethan England (“off with his head!!) Leninist Russia, and Maoist China. It is only we peasants who do not let others sign our names on Petitions. The letter to The Daily Pennsylvanian by Chris Taylor, Divya Nair, Erica Zaveloff, Monica Bhagat-Kennedy and Nantina Vgontzas on being caught, is worth reading for the sheer entertainment:

“In our view, this is the true mark of ethical journalism: reports which understand the historical peculiarities of free speech and do not wield it without researching specificities of the issue in question. From its meaningless references to supposedly imperiled free speech rights of leaders of the ostensibly free world to its blatant reproduction of intimidating allegations, the DP, it seems, has yet to learn that lesson.”

The lucidity! The authoritative interpretation of the 1^st Amendment! Reminds me of Clint Eastwood in that asteroid movie: “Maybe you ought to get your money back”. As best I could decipher it, their peeve is that just politely asking them if they really did sign the Petition, as the reporter did, is a Violation Of Their Free Speech!

Francisco Gil-White[14] in a beautifully reasoned article, shows very clearly why he was incompatible with U. Penn’s tenured liberal arts gang: he actually used his brain and wrote using facts and research, not gems like “meaningless references to supposedly imperiled free speech rights of leaders of the ostensibly free world”.

And so it stands today, March 24, 2013. Tell me, could you have designed a tamasha to make the University of Pennsylvania and its Marxist losers look any worse? Congratulations to the Wharton Business School Administration.

APPENDIX: Some Background about the Petition Gang

If you read this far, and you are a student, I applaud your attention span: you’ve left the 99% behind. If you stay with me a while longer, I will try to tell you a few things about the genesis and antics of these Guardians of Free Speech.

On the 22^nd of November 2002, I returned early from lunch and saw a message: “Narayanan, what do you make of this report?”  A set of eight “American Professors” had orchestrated simultaneous global release of a “Comprehensive Report Resulting from Five Years of Meticulous Research[15] (funded by Teesta Setalvad’s Sabrang Communications Private Limited), “proving” that an Indian-American charitable organization, known for its zero overhead and efficient operations, was “a front of the BJP government” set up to channel funding to incite the 2002 riots in Gujarat. We had been using this fund to carefully build a long-term endowment to help the families of soldiers and policemen killed in the unending war against Pakistani terrorism.

An intense hour later, I reached the Conclusions of said Report for the 4^th time. Unlike PhD theses in, say, Why Shakespeare Cast Shylock As a Wharton Mortgage Finance Professor, or The Pronouncements of Colonial Masters such as “Break Her Will and Bruise No Bone, Sir”[16], the theses and reports that I am used to reading, have to build on facts, analysis of evidence, and justify every conclusion with objectively considered evidence. So what “evidence” did the Report of these eight “Professors” cite?

The organization being slandered, was “anti-Muslim” because it sent $25,000 to the families of New York firefighters killed in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2011. The “victims of the attack were mostly non-Muslim, while the perpetrators were all Muslims”. Q.E.D.

Damning evidence, I must admit, but mainly of what is between the ears of the mediots who had given space in their publications for this garbage and wasted my time. But I was naïve. Unlike in engineering, where pointing out that something was a Perpetual Motion Machine, or violated simple arithmetic, would shame the editor into withdrawing the report, the noise just kept on amplifying. The difference in standards of evidence needed to leap to conclusions is starkly illustrated by this gem from Kamala Visweswaran, who “teaches history at the University of Texas”[17]: “As faculty who work on South Asia or as South Asian faculty who care about what’s happening in terms of development in India, we’ve read the report, we agree with what the report documents, and feel that the conclusions are sound.”

That’s how the con is played. Claim Faculty-ness, even if it means usurping false credentials. Use objective-sounding words claiming to have read, thought, analyzed and understood the contents. Endorse the conclusions as “sound” when they are less than “noise”.  That afternoon, I had to make a snap decision: run away and leave a 70+ year old economist and his gentle wife, who had devoted their lives to helping the poorest in India to uplift themselves, to the tender mercies of a vicious gang, or do what little I could to expose said gang’s antics. Weeks later, someone with a lot more experience than I pulled me aside and warned me:

“Narayanan, you don’t know the Communists. It does no good to prove to them that they are lying: they have known that all their lives. They will simply go into hiding, and come back repeating the same lies again, when they think people have forgotten.”

So what about the Gujarat riots of 2002?  Wasn’t Modi (ir)responsible?

I wasn’t there, and I wasn’t part of the planning, so I don’t know for sure what happened. Bear that in mind: neither does anyone else, unless one of those conditions holds: if they claim to do so, call the police! There is no statute of limitations for murder. But I can state some facts and reason out the rest: You have to take into account the full situation.

1. On January 26, 2001, Gujarat experienced a Magnitude 7.7 earthquake for two minutes. 19,927 died, 166,000 were injured. 40% of homes in Bhuj collapsed, 90% in Kutch[18]. Hones, businesses, roads, hospitals, ports, railways, bridges, power and phone lines and military bases were very heavily damaged. Obviously, a year later, stress levels among the people were quite high, and the communications and transport remained quite difficult, especially to the rural areas.
2. After September 11, 2001 the US forced Pakistan, on pain of being “bombed back into the Stone Age” to subordinate its air and naval space and resources to American command. Protests obviously orchestrated by the Musharraf regime whipped up Jehad frenzy all over Pakistan, and tens of thousands sold family jewelry to travel in trucks to Afghanistan to “kill Americans”. By November 1 the NATO bombing of Afghanistan had started in earnest.  By January 2002 over 100,000 Pakistanis were dead. Those jehadis who escaped the bombing and the “container express” convoys, were robbed by their brethren as they returned via the friendly Khyber Pass.
3. On October 1, 2001, Pakistanis attacked the Kashmir Assembly, killing 38 with two bombs[19]. On December 13, they attacked the Indian Parliament building. Constable Kamlesh Kumari spotted the terrorists’ bomb-loaded car and ran to close the gate, saving Parliament, but died under 11 bullets in the effort. All 5 terrorists were killed outside the building, but 7 policemen and women died defending it, and 18 were wounded. For reference, the only execution, that of the plotter Afzal Guru, was on February 9, 2013, a decade later. Several of those arrested were acquitted – a reality of the Indian justice system, where ill-equipped, antiquated procedures ensure a dismal conviction rate.
4. The repeated attacks brought India close to war. Strike forces were deployed beyond the westernmost rail and road bridges by the end of February. War was imminent.
5. These events made the restive population of border states such as Gujarat even more restive. The town of Godhra has a long history of violent Islamist extremism: a school teacher was beaten to death on India’s Independence Day for raising the Indian Tricolor instead of the Pakistani flag!
6. Meanwhile, back in the USA, in October 2001, an Indian-origin English professor and trustee of the Oberlin Foundation at Oberlin College, Ohio, announced a conference for mid-March 2002, to focus on “Citing Secularism in India”. Said Foundation had come back into favor with the PRC government in the late 1990s after being out of favor since the Boxer Rebellion. Now they had plenty of money. In early January 2002, the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL) woke up their “Ghadar” magazine after several years of dormancy and announced a rush to get prepared, because they were going to Set Off a Bang That Would Be Heard Around The World, or something to that effect.
7. In the last week of February 2002, the Sabarmati Express, regularly scheduled Indian Railways sleeper train, had among its passengers, many returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya (note: I have never seen a religion-wise breakup of the passenger manifest in the sleeper coaches – have you? It included at least one Muslim: the wife of the Godhra Station Master who got on at Godhra) Now I quote from Nicole Elfi’s recounting of the facts, that matches my own readings of the first reports of that time[20]:

 “    At 7:43 A.M. on February 27th, 2002, the Sabarmati Express rolled into the Godhra station, ..with a four-hour delay, in broad daylight. ..As it pulled out of the station, the train was pelted with stones and bricks, and passengers from several bogeys were forced to bring down their windows to protect themselves. Someone pulled the emergency chain: the train came to a halt about 100 metres away from the platform, surrounded by a large crowd of Muslims. The railway police managed to disperse the crowd, and the train resumed its journey. Within minutes, the emergency chain was simultaneously pulled again, from several coaches. It halted at about 700 metres from the station. A crowd of over 1,000 surrounded the train, pelting it with bricks, stones, then burning missiles and acid bulbs, especially on the S-5, S-6 and S-7 coaches. The vacuum pipe between coaches S-6 and S-7 was cut, thereby preventing any further movement of the train. The doors were locked from outside. A fire started in coach S-7, which the passengers were able to extinguish. But the attack intensified and coach S-6 caught fire and minutes later, was in flames. Passengers who managed to get out of the burning compartment were attacked with sharp weapons, and stoned. They received serious injuries, some were killed. Others got out through the windows and took shelter below the coach. Fifty eight pilgrims were burned alive, including twenty-seven women and ten children. The whole attack lasted 20-25 minutes. What transpired then, in the Indian press? Let’s imagine a coach of French pilgrims coming back from Lourdes, burned alive. Strangely, instead of clearly, straightforwardly condemning the act, the Indian English-language press tried to justify it: “Pilgrims provoked by chanting pro-Hindu slogans” (they were not slogans but bhajans, or devotional songs, ending with “Jai Sri Ram” (Victory to Sri Rama). “It’s because they were returning from Ayodhya, where they asked for the reconstruction of a temple at the traditional birth place of Rama; this offends the feelings of the Muslims.” In sum, the victims, roasted alive, were guilty”.

1. The mob (Elfi says it was led by a Muslim political leader) was reported to have obstructed fire engines and other rescuers that rushed to the scene.  They watched as 58 humans, mostly women and children, burned to death in that steel cage.
2. Reports IMMEDIATELY following an incident are usually the most accurate: there is not enough time to distort, and the distorter does not have enough facts to do a good job of distorting. In the immediate aftermath, it was reported that police had arrested the villains who purchased several cans of fuel from a local petrol station. That they had organized the attack on the train long since.

10. Later, a story emerged how a Muslim girl had been abducted into the train. So they responded by barring and burning it, instead of getting everyone out? Railways staff dismissed all accounts of such altercations or kidnappings. Elfi says that an Islamic terrorist gang was the origin of that inflammatory rumor.

1. 11.  Another version preferred by a PG member from the U. Chicago, claims that “a tragic accident, caused by combustion from cookstoves carried on by the passengers and stored under the seats of the train”[21] was what really happened – presumably she was there along with the friendly Godhra mob of U. Chicago graduates on the outside, trying their best not to let the carbon escape into the atmosphere by keeping the doors barred.

12. Yet another claims that there was an altercation on the platform – and that the stoning of the train one kilometer from the station was a result of that. Think about that: 7AM on a winter morning. An altercation somewhere during the 8 minutes that the train stopped. What did they use – a time machine? GPS-based coordination? To gather a mob of enough murderous yahoos to stone the train by the time it stopped a kilometer from the station? How many of these yahoos would agree to get out of bed at that hour, let alone reach a given point? Inside the 4 minutes that we can assign as mustering time, how far can one travel – at 4 kilometers per hour, stopping to pick up petrol?

13. I watched that story flash over CNN, from the breakfast room of a hotel in Dallas. Predictably, the racists had a caption guaranteed to inflame: “58 Hindoo Activists Burned to Death on Indian Train”.  If the face doing the reporting felt an iota of human emotion at the horror visited on 58 innocents, it hid it well. But it wasn’t their “fault”: that was the report that went out over the wires of BBC, AP, AFP and most horribly, PTI. I remembered reading in “BLITZ (Free, Frank, Fearless, First)” about the Ahmedabad riots of 1969 – or was it ‘70? I knew with all certainty that there was absolutely no hope of preventing further violence. In 1992, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid eyesore (later verified to be an illegal structure with no religious significance except to celebrate mass rape, mutilation, murder, looting and enslavement of a peaceful community of craftspeople and traders by the ancestors of the Pakistani Taliban), riots broke out all over India, although every state government had ample warning in the lead-up to that. More people died in those riots than died in Gujarat 2002. The Central Government was run by the Congress Party. The same who ran Gujarat during the month-long riots of 1969. And the one before that, and before that. There was no hope.

14. A curfew was imposed, in Godhra, Ahmedabad, and all towns of Gujarat, but imposing and enforcing are two different things. Some statistics are in order[22]. In the USA, there are only 256 police officers per 100,000 people, but the population density is 34/sq.km. The UK has 307 per 100,000, with a population density of 260/sq.km, India has 130 with a density of 382/sq.km.  You can work out what this implies, factoring in the difference between the equipment and mobility levels (cars per officer, for instance) the ability to project force rapidly into narrow alleys filled with raging mobs, etc. etc. Remember the state of the infrastructure after the earthquake just a year prior, and the reality of that in the rural areas. Nothing short of a helicopter-borne force would have reaching anywhere in less than a day.

15. There is no dispute that the Modi government requested external help immediately, and asked to escalate to the Army level, from the state police or Central Armed Reserve Police levels. This in fact beat the heck out of the hesitant response of many Indian Chief Ministers to deteriorating law and order in comparable situations. But given the realities of a nation facing imminent war, and restive populations all over India, no state wanted to let go of its own police forces, and the Army was heavily concentrated with all their equipment in battle formation, beyond the last rail bridges. A sudden withdrawal might provide an opening for a devastating enemy attack, and it had to be assumed that the train attack was an enemy ploy.

16. I too WISH the “government” could have acted much quicker to protect every innocent human in Gujarat. What would the US government have done, had a train full of innocents been burned? In days when that happened, I think they just sent the Cavalry to massacre every member of the tribe in question. “They” might have sent supersonic fighter-bombers and attack helicopters to wipe out that entire mob in Godhra before they could set fire to that train bogey with all those babies inside, as the NATO forces did to the Pakistanis ranged along the Shomali Plain. And machine-gunned the mobs in Godhra obstructing the ambulances and fire trucks. Had these happened, the Gujarat riots of March 2002 would never have happened, would they? Those sleeping babies would have wakened to a clear March morning. But I don’t hear Loomba agitating for that. Surprised? We’ve been over these things a thousand times. There have been numerous investigations, inquiry commissions, reports. Facts and reason don’t bother the Commies. My friend was so right!

17.  All said and done, I too agree that the pea-brains in Godhra probably did not have the mental clarity to actually plan that attack. That’s what puzzled the various inquiry commissions. But think back – why did the FOIL know that they had to wake up in January, to be ready for the Big Bang that they were going to create, that would be heard around the world? What was that Big Bang?

18. In mid-March 2002, Oberlin College held the Citing Secularism in India Summit. There is no evidence of any Proceedings being published, or papers being presented. The only product was the Oberlin Resolution, condemning the Government of India for its genocide against Minorities. Signed by a bevy of communists from UK, France, the USA, India, and perhaps other countries. Remember the international air travel environment in early 2002? These people had no trouble traveling to this conference across the world. It was clearly something planned well in advance. And, surprise, surprise! When I checked just now, the Oberlin Resolution/Declaration of 2002 has completely disappeared from the Internet!  Wonder why…….

A long story, over a decade ago. I hoped that I could leave all that behind and move on. India did not break up in 1999 despite the efforts of Musharraf and his terrorist gangs, and the maps published by Teesta Setalvad’s Sabrang Communications, showing most of north India as part of the Pakistani Khaliphate. The State of Gujarat voted massively for Shri Narendra Modi’s government in December 2002. And then again in 2007 in elections watched by hawk-eyed appointees of the Central Government. And again in 2012. Gujarati work ethic and enterprise had been allowed to flourish for the first time in decades, maybe centuries, and had put Gujarat far ahead of the other states in India in their reputation for professionalism. The Communists and their media cohorts and Faculty Endorsers had been laughed off, and the net effect of their vicious campaign was a 10-fold rise in awareness and enthusiasm for efficient Indian-American charitable fundraising for real development inside a decade. Finally we had good alternatives to the weeping-child sob stories of the western conversion-oriented scams with their 95% Administrative Overhead.

But- the PG just keep coming back, totally immune to facts. The latest in this long history is the Wharton Petition. I will just list a few facts:

1. I checked. Professor Loomba is actually a Professor. Not an Assistant, Associate or Wannabe as all of the “Professors” who co-authored the Sabrang Report were. Congratulations to the FOIL[23]. So these are people who are definitely in the Top 1 or 2 percent of America. Nothing against that, I am happy for them. I wish they stop bullying undergrads.

2. The main theme in the Petition (I am ignoring the “explanations” and “justifications” because they are worse) is that Mr. Modi was not given a visa to come to the US for a hotelier convention several years ago, and that the US government gave a convoluted, touch-nowhere statement wrapped in legalese to explain that stupid SNAFU. That visa denial, while associated with a lot of FOIL noise, was actually driven by the right-wing Baptist fundamentalists who dominated the laughably-titled “US Council for International Religious Freedom”. If you read the language in Ms. Loomba’s petition, you will note “denial of religious freedom” as the reason given by the US State Department. Are Muslims in ANY part of India are “denied religious freedom”? That statement is, instead the frustration of the US extremist Protestant conversion businesses at being foiled in their (using visa fraud)[24] invasion of the protected tribal areas of India, where they indulged in often forced, usually corrupt, “conversion”, using massive infusions of cash.

Some background is in order. “Civilized” and “post-modern” nations such as the USA, Canada and Australia, “integrated” their aborigine inhabitants by the simple stratagem of mass murder, rape and slavery, decimating them. The remnants were force-marched hundreds of miles as in the Oklahoma Trail of Tears[25] (reaching from northwest Carolinas to Oklahoma, for instance) into mostly-barren “reservations” where unemployment, hopelessness, drink and drugs killed them off even faster.  In western Canada[26], tribal Chiefs even today shudder at the mention of school teachers, because they are associated with the captivity, forced conversion, physical and sexual abuse that was imposed on them as children in the name of Jesus Christ. Some enlightenment has begun to dawn in Canada, even before westerners began to realize that the Divinity Schools that trained those abusers also trained the clergy who dealt with mainstream Christians, and that there is a massive undercurrent of abuse history coming up[27],[28] everywhere the Church’s cover-up shield is penetrated (no pun intended). In Australia, there is hardly anyone left to complain.

In India, at least after Independence, strict rules were put in to protect the right of the Scheduled Tribes to live their own lives. Other Indian citizens are prohibited from buying property in the tribal areas, and the tribes enjoy a great deal of autonomy. That is, if the laws are observed. What happens when hundreds of millions of American dollars are poured in? The same as what happens to laws anywhere else. This is the problem with the Conversionist flood in India.  They have had free rein to violate the law with impunity in several states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, Orissa and Chattisgarh. Look how precarious is the situation in northeast India, especially in regards to the rights of the Hindus and Buddhists, and you will begin to understand the problem. The Bangladeshi Muslims get all the bad press, but they don’t even come close in destructiveness to this gang.

In Gujarat, grassroots education reached the poor tribals through, for instance, the Ekal Vidyalaya Movement that reached deep into the forests of the Dangs region. The tribals began to understand and react with understandable outrage at the evil con that was turning them into drunken slaves to a foreign cartel known in other forms for its institutionalized history of oppression, torture, Inquisition[29],[30] and child sexual abuse. The government, unlike in the “bought-out” states, did not allow its law enforcement to be lopsided in favor of the foreign cartels, and helped the tribals to retain their traditions and indigenous religions. In 2003, Gujarat under Chief Minister Modi, banned “conversions through force or bribes”[31]. This of course damaged the business models of the conversionist cartel, and infuriated them[32]. They moved the USCIRF, which they dominated under the NeoCon Republican Administration, to “punish” Gujarat.

So, with all due respect to the Professor(s), they are as far as anyone can be from being Protectors of Minority Muslims. They are, in effect (I cannot comment on intent!) camp followers for the American Religious Fundamentalist Right Wing. A.k.a. T-Party. NRA. Bible-thumpers. “Crusaders” as the Jihad would call them. Those whose activities routinely oppress Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Jain and Buddhist children in school, bullying them with textbook declaration such as “turn around and look at your classmates: which one has a tail like the Hindoo God Hanooman?” Or “Ganesa’s mother.. Offers the prize of a mango to which of her sons can go around the world first. Ganesa wins by circumambulating her and eats the fruit and then gets beheaded. …. The mango is a vaginal symbol. Hence Ganesa’s eating the fruit is an act of incestuous possession of the mother for which he is punished by beheading, symbol of castration, and his celibacy is his punishment for acting out his incestuous desires”[33]. Sorry to have to lay it out, but that is my objective conclusion based on the facts. I am too stupid to see any alternative, absolutely no malice intended.

3. Thirdly, Professor Loomba’s masterpiece takes a very interesting position. The authority she claims for her entire pique is the statement made by the US State Department. In her version of logic, the fact that the State Department said this 8 years ago, completely negates all the other evidence and the possibility that wisdom may have prevailed since:

1. The fact that many rioters have (deservedly) been sentenced to life or other long terms of hard labor after the due process of trials in the Indian justice system. The time scale for this is no longer or shorter than that for other violent crimes: note that the appeals of the 1993 Mumbai terrorist blast convicts were decided just two days ago- over 19 years later[34].
2. The “other side” has had amazingly, some would say suspiciously, free access to the Supreme Court of India every step of the way, and yet the most sensational trials completely collapsed. For example, in the Best Bakery trial, the prime prosecution witness, Ms. Zaheera Shaikh[35], the 19-year-old Muslim survivor, testified under oath that Human Rights Non-Governmental Organization activists (Ms. Teesta Setalvad of Sabrang infamy was prominently mentioned) got her to sign an affidavit in English that she could not read, that said activists falsely imprisoned and threatened her, etc. The Court apparently suffered cognitive dissonance as the high-profile case collapsed, and sent the victim Ms. Shaikh to jail (!!!!) while doing little to investigate Ms. Setalvad, daughter of a prominent Indian jurist and an NGO colleague of the daughter of a Supreme Court judge (totally coincidental, but in other countries this might be grounds for judges to recuse themselves to avoid undue appearances). Years later, Ms. Setalwad’s close buddy Mr. Raiz Khan Aziz Khan Pathan (that’s a Muslim name, though I won’t presume anyone’s religious affiliation) went public, corroborating and amplifying on Ms. Shaikh’s complaints[36]. Ms. Setalvad still walks free – a point to note for anyone claiming that Indian judicial inaction has anything to do with the Gujarat’s Chief Minister’s wishes. For instance, in India, posting false maps, specifically showing parts of India as being part of Pakistan, has long been a “non-bailable offense”. Ms. Setalvad posted for many years, with impunity, the aforesaid “Aman.gif” – and calls for legal action went completely ignored[37].
3. The voters of Gujarat have TWICE re-elected Mr. Modi back to power since that stupid visa denial. Special teams appointed by India’s famously independent Elections Commission watched the elections like hawks – Modi still won handily.
4. A Special Investigative Team picked by and reporting only to the Supreme Court of India specifically investigated the charge that Mr. Modi failed in his duty to do everything possible to stop the riots. They cleared Mr. Modi[38].
5. Recently, per the Wall Street Journal among others, the United Kingdom and the European Union equivalents of the US State Department have revisited their own misinformed actions taken in the wake of the 2002 hype, and Mr. Modi has been invited to address the EU Parliament, while the UK is angling for investment opportunities in Gujarat. This is quite curious since they have no lack of Petition Gangs over there. The difference must be in the  administrations ability to do due diligence and thinking, and their spine in pushing back against the lies.

Against this preponderence of objective evidence Ms. Loomba bases her Petition solely on the statement of the State Department, made in a different time under very different pressures. So, by definition, Ms. Loomba also accepts at face value all other statements made by the State Department and US government in general.

• Like the one used to bomb, destroy and invade Afghanistan, a desperately poor country used as a doormat by the terrorists from Pakistan. Instead of bombing (duh!) Pakistan.
• Like the one used to declare war on Iraq in 2003[39].

1. Her support for the Occupy Philadelphia[40],[41],[42] movement in 2010 to protest the shooting of an “Iraq veteran” must be viewed in the harsh light of the above: she is apparently one of those who, against all evidence to the contrary, continue to support the State Department’s finding that led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the horrible, unending, needless killing and maiming of American, Afghan and Iraqi people all these years. Not to mention the Indian children who continue to be orphaned by the terrorists sent by the genocidal Pakistan Army even today – you know, those kids that I tried to help starting in 1999.

No surprise there. Her ilk also tried to cut off sustenance to the destitute leprosy patients of the Kushta Nivaran Sangh[43], (“Leprosy Alleviation Association”), Vatsalya Trust[44], (Vatlsalya means “Affection”, a commodity in dire need if one is an orphan, not a Top 1% American), “Krishi Prayog Parivar”[45] (Agriculture Techniques Society) and about 209 other organizations. They tried to con illiterate Americans (and Indians) with the notion that each such non-English name meant a “Hinduization” purpose. In other words, they cynically, cruelly, mercilessly, tried their level best, lolling in their cozy English Department Ivory Towers in schools that run on fees from the richest brats in America, to cut off sustenance to destitute leprosy patients, orphans, subsistence farmers. Read Arvind Kejriwal’s statement on the trials and tribulations faced by small farmers in rural India[46]. I could go on, 212 organizations worth that I pored over until I needed glasses, back in 2002, trying to see if they had any grounds for their allegations. But Providence intervened. Their pompous Spokesperson, I’ll call him Humble Red, that’s half true and I don’t want people to think he’s “Hinduized” on account of having a Hindi name, stepped on his own Little Cheney, to put it elegantly. He found himself trying to defend his declaration that the Meeraj Medical Center was a “Hinduization” scam, even after we showed him that it is an agency of the Presbyterian Church of North America.

That’s not all that Ms. Loomba’s friends have achieved. In 2007, their Youth Solidarity Summer camp (modeled on the Soviet Young Pioneer arrogance with a Woodstock work ethic and Maoist Red Guard mental standards) put out another Report and called a Press Conference, attacking students such as those at Wharton who spend their time studying and excelling. Providence laughed again[47], and did to the YSS Summer camp what Hurricane Sandy did to all those other rodents in New York in 2012. No one even noticed.

They also became “Kashmir Researchers”[48], and hosted several “Kashmir Forums”[49]. By 2010, the FBI revealed that they had also read the same Pakistani papers as I had – and arrested the funding source of the Kashmir Forums, Ghulam Nabi Fai, as an illegal Pakistani ISI agent. He is now serving 2 years in Federal prison[50].  Per the prosecutor a Petition was submitted there too in support of Fai, with 53 signatures. Unlike the Wharton Administration, Hizzoner understood the term “due diligence” and checked into the concealed ISI connections of many of the signors of the Petition. Quite coincidentally, within 2 days of the indictment against Fai being published, the California Institute of Integral Studies suspended, and later dismissed[51], tenured Professors Angana Chatterji and her former thesis advisor, then husband and department chair Robert Shapiro. The Institute’s faculty hearing panel cited “reckless violation of established legal rights of students to confidentiality and “non-harassment; reckless violation of professional ethics of (CIIS) or students, faculty or administrators; dishonesty, including misappropriation of funds; and persistent failure to perform position-related assignments or other neglect of academic duties”, going on to express “shock at the climate of fear and intimidation” in the program run by Chatterji. CIIS steadfastly refused to acknowledge any connection to their Kashmir activities. Observers noted that the items cited by the panel had been known for a decade with no sign of concern from CIIS, while the only new item was the revelation that a major funding source may have dried up.

And so it goes on. This whole SNAFU has cost UPenn and Wharton a lot of negative publicity, but for Loomba’s gang any publicity is good, it is Name Recognition. It’s what they do best. As I pointed out, it bothers these  1-Percenters little that their efforts have the effects (had we let them succeed) of putting sand in the mouths of leprosy patients, orphans and widows. Their kind regard for you, aka Petty Jealosy, is best illustrated by the sign pictured in the story accompanying Professor Loomba’s “defence” of her association with the Occupy Philly Protests – the one where the journalist sent her scurrying for cover by asking about the hypocrisy.

I pity those students trapped in the English and Social Works departments, panicked as the news media probe and offer anonymity …

Finally, why do you need approval from some Authority to set up a Google Group video conference with anyone you please, anywhere in the world – unless you are using University meeting facilities? If you are on your computers or notePads or SmartPhones, you don’t need to depend on the mercies of college bureaucrats, you can do this anywhere at all. The First Amendment gives you certain rights, but sometimes you have to fight for your rights to prevent them being taken away by pompous dictators. Because, the Other Side will keep coming up with new doozies.

Satyam Eva Jayate. In American, that means, “And The Truth Shall Overcome”.

In his commentary on India and women, Rajneesh Osho opines that Indian culture is insane and schizophrenic, that India thinks that the highest has already happened, that Manu and the scriptures condemns and condescend upon the women and sex has always been a taboo in India.

O Arjuna, I am the strength of the strong devoid of attachment and passion and the energy of procreation in all beings which is not contrary to righteousness. (Gita 7.11)

Bhagvad Gita clearly outlines the difference between needs and wants, duties and attachment, controlled and uncontrolled mind.

A few verses from Manusmriti,

3.55. A father, brother, husband or brother-in-law should keep their daughter, sister, wife or sister-in-law happy and pleased through gentle words, respectful behavior, gifts etc. Those who desire prosperity should ensure that women in their family are always happy and do not face miseries.

3.57. A family where women remain unhappy due to misdeeds of their men is bound to be destroyed. And a family where women are always happy is bound to prosper forever.

3.58. A family- where women feel insulted or discriminated against and curse their menfolk- is destroyed in same manner as poison kills all those who eat it.

From Veda,

Parents should gift their daughter intellectuality and power of knowledge when she leaves for husband’s home. They should give her a dowry of knowledge. (Atharva 14.1.6)

Oh woman! You know everything. Please provide us strength of prosperity and wealth (Atharva 7.47.2)

The Indian science divides time in Yuga cycles, where it sees time like a tide which merges back into the ocean, rises, hits the shore and repeats a similar wave. It is like the sun, that the life on earth witnesses, which rises from the east, set to the west and repeats. The age of Satyuga is defined as the age when dharma was at its peak, when women and elders were honoured, people had superior memory, intellect (which could transcend the limitations of the mind) and physical strength. During this time (Kaliyug), many people can’t even remember what they did yesterday and body which cannot even endure the heat of the sun. It doesn’t mean that the people of India think that the perfect had already happened. Had Osho read the Indian scriptures, he would have known that the Indian thought treats time as cyclic and that the people, irrelevant of time cycle, can still achieve perfection. Moreover, if one still follows his comprehension, then also it doesn’t mean that “the perfect has already happened” as the next Satyug will arise from this Kaliyug.

Osho says, “From Manu up to today the woman has been condemned for the simple reason that all these so called saints and mahatmas were living with repressed sexuality, and when you live with repressed sexuality the woman becomes immensely important. Then your whole mind is full of fantasies about women, and naturally one starts feeling that the woman is the cause of all these fantasies. You cannot get them out of your mind because those fantasies are very alluring, fascinating, but the reason is not the woman at all. Repress your desire for food and your mind will be full of food. Repress any desire and the repressed desire will take revenge; it is bound to happen so. It will assert itself in a thousand and one ways. If you prevent it at the front door it will start coming in through the back door.”

One can easily understand how presumptuous Osho was about the saints and Mahatmas that he even generalised that they were living with repressed sexuality. He further continues treating as if every person thinks the same way to be saying “then your whole mind is full of fantasies…. Repress any desire and the repressed desire will take revenge”.

The Indian thought is not about sense objects, diverting attention from the sense objects or or giving up from the world, but a practice of mind control while continuing on the daily life fulfilling one’s duties, to transcend the limitations and dualities of the mind and achieve a higher order of dharma and knowledge which follows from the supra-mind which a person can experience in the advanced states of meditation. It is a practice of rising beyond the limitations created due to the bodily desires and the three gunas, the field of Prakriti, to achieve Purusha ( the supreme consciousness ). Contrary to Osho’s comprehension, the goal is not “repression” but self-realization which can only be achieved when the chains created due to attachment clouding the mind and obstructing our understanding are destroyed. Unfortunately, Osho could not understand the higher goal but only ended up dissecting the highest spiritual practice from his own limited frame of analysis which views repression in negative terms. Even from his own level of understanding, does it mean that the rapist should let loose of his desires to rape, a thief to steal, or a serial murderer to kill?

Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bhāratas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization. (Gita 3.39-41)

Osho speaks about Sita’s exile, generalising on brahmin’s adharma and women denied of reading the Veda, women being considered impure, sati pratha etc. Perhaps, Mr.Osho never knew that the Uttar Ramanayan is not a part of the original Valmiki Ramayan and how many distortions have risen in the society simply because of rumours, lack of direct awareness of the scriptures, lack of questioning and belief in secondary opinions. Moreover, how can a dharmic icon like Ram who fought the king of the demons, i.e Ravan, for Sita can simply exile her on the basis of a few rumours? Would he exile his brothers and mother, if similar rumour spread about them? Let alone laughing at the stupidity of the distortions and rumours, but Osho with his grand analysis never even thought of it. Moreover, it seems he was unaware that many rishnis contributed to the Veda let alone reading them and many aspects of the divine were personified in female forms like Laxmi (wealth), Saraswati (knowledge), Shakti (power & energy) by the Vedic poets.

There is a difference between what the scriptures say and what a person understands, what they teach and how the society acts. Buddha was against animal killing, but many Chinese and Japanese (who respect Buddha or called as Buddhists) are strong non-vegetarians. Judging by the acts of Chinese and Japanese can we say that Buddhism promotes non-vegetarianism?

Better is one’s own law of works, swadharma, though in itself faulty than an alien law well wrought out; death in one’s own law of being is better, perilous is it to follow an alien law ( BG 3.35)

This Self is not won by exegesis, nor by brain-power, nor by much learning of Scripture. Only by him whom It chooses can It be won; to him this Self unveils its own body. (manduka Upanishad 3.2.3, Page 145)

When thy intelligence shall cross beyond the whirl of delusion, then shalt thou become indifferent to Scripture heard or that which thou hast yet to hear. When thy intelligence which is bewildered by the Sruti, shall stand unmoving and stable in Samadhi, then shalt thou attain to Yoga. (BG 2.52-53)

It is declared the sense are superior but more than the senses the mind is superior but more than the mind the intelligence is superior and more than the intelligence that which is superior is the individual consciousness. ( BG 3.42)

Indian scriptures promote the supremacy of knowledge and questioning. But many Indians today are superstitious and blindly believe. Judging by their acts can we say that the scriptures promote blind belief?

On one hand Osho says, “So every Indian mind is full of bullshit… or you can call it ’holy cowdung’!” and on other he says, “Indians are so much against me for the simple reason that what Mahavira has not done, Buddha has not done, I am trying to do. Naturally they are offended, and they have found great arguments – rationalizations I will call them, not really arguments… They say a soul is born as a woman because of past sins.”

One cannot superimpose the acts of the humans on the scriptures or the secondary analysis on the original statement, but one can indeed read the scriptures on what they teach. Clearly, Osho did not have a direct awareness of the scriptures, let alone a proper understanding of them. It seems that he simply assumed and judged from what he heard about them with a level of analysis that might give even the criminals a clean chit.

References:

http://www.oshoteachings.com/osho-on-women-of-india-women-and-slavery/

http://agniveer.com/manu-smriti-and-women/

http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/

Cho Ramaswamy’s Tuglaq (the protagonist in the eponymous movie) says, ‘It is not possible to make the poor rich. Therefore make the rich poor and all will be equal!’ It is an unstated dictum of the communist proletariat. The communist elite (vlasti in Russian) had a different take on Marxist philosophy as George Orwell so vividly depicted in his Animal Farm. Irrespective of how they live, quite often the vlasti echo the proletarian edict, more to show that their heart is in the right place rather than because of an ardent belief that ‘all men should be equal’. Therefore it is no surprise to hear Mani Sankar Aiyar often cavil about Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s 27-floor residence in Mumbai’s southern suburbs. Flaunting his knowledge of the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality of wealth distribution) he often cites Antilia as an example of the deep chasm that exists between the rich and the poor in India. He did so again in the television debate, ‘Is India ripe for a revolution?’ hosted by Tim Sebastian on Bloomberg / Headlines Today recently. (Indian television anchors have much to learn from Sebastian, but that is a different matter altogether.)

One way to look at Mukesh’s opulence is to attribute it to his business acumen, hard work and intelligence. For, although he has inherited a large part of his wealth he must have worked hard to grow the rest. In a democratic society which at least theoretically provides equal opportunities to all, one should not grudge Mukesh his success. Much has been said about Mukesh’s father Dhirubhai’s business acumen. His life is the stuff that made it to case studies in business schools. The less uncharitable (but probably more accurate) view is to attribute Dhirubhai Ambani’s success less to business acumen and more to his ability to network with the ruling establishment. Even this may be characterised as business acumen, but to put it bluntly Dhirubai was able bribe his way through the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi administrations to tweak government policy to suit his business interests. Dhirubhai’s Reliance Industries was perhaps the first example of crony capitalism on a gigantic scale. It had all the ingredients: funnelling funds through invisible sources, stock exchange skirmishes and manipulation of government policy. V. P. Singh who took on Dhirubhai to alter government policy on import of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) lost his job as Finance Minister! (See For this fighter, life was a big battle). On hindsight one might even suspect that the Bofors scam could have been a decoy. This being so, why does Aiyar constantly invoke Mukesh as a negative example of economic distortions knowing fully well that the seeds of the Ambani empire were sown during Congress regimes? More importantly, the Ambani empire reached its exponential growth stage during the regimes of Aiyar’s deities, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

Be that as it may, if opulent living reflects a ‘vulgarity of greed’ to use an expression coined in the Films Division (of the I & B ministry) documentaries of the emergency era, how much does it cost to put up MPs like Aiyar in Lutyen’s Delhi? How much does empress Sonia’s upkeep cost the people of India?

[N.B.: What follows are only ‘back of the envelope’ calculations based on certain realistic assumptions.]

According to a recent Economic Times report, bungalows in Delhi’s Lutyen’s Bungalow Zone (LBZ) cost between Rs 111 and Rs 170 Crore. (See Delhi’s most expensive realty deal: Torrent Group buys bungalow in Lutyen’s Zone for Rs111 crore). As No.10 Janpath is in an even more exclusive zone, it may be safely rated at the top end of the scale, i.e. Rs 170 Crore, assuming of course that it is of the same area and not bigger! At 1% of the price as rental value the bungalow costs Rs 1.7 Crore a year (as rent) to the people of India. [A] One might safely assume an expenditure of Rs 30, 00,000 per annum on staff and maintenance. [B]

Her electricity bills come to Rs 2. 49 Lakh a year. [C] (See Sonia Gandhi’s power bill: over Rs. 7 lakh for 3 years). We are relieved to know, that of the Rs 7.47 Lakhs incurred in three years, she herself has paid all of Rs 0.09 Lakh whereas the Lok Sabha Secretariat paid Rs 7.38 Lakh!

As an MP she is eligible to salary and perquisites of Rs 36. 45 Lakh, excluding house rent which is already computed above. [D] (See SALARYOF MP’S – Indian Parliament members salary)

She is entitled to Z+ security which consists of 36 personnel of the NSG. An NSG Z+ team consists of various ranks from IG to constable. Assuming an average salary of Rs 3 Lakh per commando, the team cost Rs 1.08 Crore per annum. [E]

The total of [A]+ [B]+ [C]+ [D]+ [E] = Rs 3.47 Crore per annum. Based on a similar computation, Rahul’s expenditure to the exchequer (only salary and security included) comes to Rs 1. 45 Crore.

It is interesting to note that (if our rental computation is right) Sonia exceeds her rental allowance by 700% and her electricity allowance by 400%.

Is it not pertinent to ask, how many households in India can incur an expenditure of Rs 4.92 Crore per annum, especially in a country in which the BPL is set at just Rs 11, 520?

1.“Apara Bhakti” is the “lower” stage of Bhakti. It is also called as “Bheda Bhakti”.
2.“Para Bhakti” is the “higher” stage of Bhakti. It is also called as “Abheda Bhakti”.

“Bheda” means “difference”. Bheda bhakti refers to devotion wherein the Bhakta-worshipper and Ishwara-the object of worship are distinct. A devotee considers God as the creator and the Man and the World as the created. He is completely rooted in Vyavaharika Jnana(2). Hence such a Bhakti is also called as Dvaita Bhakti. On the other hand, the “Abheda Bhakti” which is higher stage of Bhakti is exactly opposite to the lower stage. “Abheda” means “No difference”. As the name states, in this stage, there is no duality of Bhakta and Ishwara. A devotee has developed an understanding of Paramarthika Satya(2) and sees no difference between his True self and God.

Prahalada, the son of Hiranyakashipu speaks about nine of types of devotional services that can be practiced as follows-

sravanam kirtanam vishnoh smaranam pada-sevanam|
arcanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam||(3)

“Hearing, chanting, remembering, serving the feet, offering worship, offering prayers, serving as a servant, becoming the best friend and surrendering one’s ownself to Vishnu (God).”

Sravanam, Kirthanam and Smaranam refer to Hearing, chanting and remembering about God. People in Bhakti will always love to hear about God and his play-Lila and indulge in chanting mantras and singing songs praising the God and his various manifestations. They spend every moment of their life remembering God. They try to see God in everything they do. “Pada sevanam” and “Dasyam” literally means serving at feet of God and serving God as his servant respectively. They refer to performing all the action as a service to God by surrendering at his feet. “Archanam” and “Vandanam” refers to offering worship and prayers to God with proper rituals and offerings. The offerings (4) may be five (Panchopachar) or sixteen (Shodashopachar) in number. “Sakhyam” refers to treating God as one’s best friend. The devotee here shares a bond of friendship with his deity whereas the bond is as that of master and servant in Dasya Bhakti. These eight devotional services involve external symbols and expressions. A bhakta while practicing these services see’s God in everything except his own self and he desires to be near God, at his feet. These kind of devotional services are called Bheda Bhakti.

Prahalada also speaks about a Ninth type of devotional service. He calls it “Atma Nivedanam”-Offering one’s own True Self to God. In this Bhakti, a devotee is not satisfied by staying near God. He wants to completely merge his identity in God. Just as a river merge in ocean, so also a devotee wishes to merge in God. Such Bhakti where there is no duality of a worshipper and worshipped is called Abheda Bhakti.

Similarly, Sage Narada speaks about 11 forms of Bhakti in his Bhakti Sutras as follows-

Gunamahatmyasakti, rupasakti, pujasakti, smaransakti, dasyasakti, sakhyasakti vatsalyasakti, kantasakti, atmanivedanasakti, tanmanyasakti, paramvirahassakti, rupaekadhapiekadashdham bhavati || (5)

“Although Bhakti is one, it becomes manifested in eleven forms- devotion towards God’s glorious qualities, devotion towards His form and beauty, worshiping Him, to remembering Him, to serving Him, to love him as a friend, to caring for Him as a parent, to dealing with Him as a lover, to surrendering one’s whole self to Him, to being absorbed in thought of Him, and to experiencing pain of separation from Him.”

“Gunamahatmyasakti” refers to Bhakti wherein a devotee is enamored with different qualities manifested by God. He likes to listen to, contemplate and talk about God’s various Lila. “Rupashakti” refers to Bhakti wherein, a Bhakta is attracted to some specific form of God. He does upasana on particular form like that of Krishna or Shiva and perceives the whole cosmos as manifestation from that specific form. “Pujasakti” is nothing but “Archanam” that Prahalada speaks about. To Prahalada’s “Dasyam” and “Sakhyam”, Sage Narada adds two more forms- “Vatsalya” and “Kaanta”. “Vatsalyam” refers to perceiving God in the form of a child or that of a Mother/Father. It is the Love and attachment present between that of Parents and Children. “Kaantasakti” refers to loving God as a lover/spouse.
These Nine forms of Bhakti are lower stage of Bhakti i,e Bheda Bhakti. “Atmanivedanasakti”, “Tanmayasakti” and “Paramavirahasakti” belongs to higher stage of Bhakti i,e Abheda Bhakti.

As explained earlier, “Atmanivedana” refers to “complete surrendering of everything including one’s ownself to God”. “Tanmayata” is the final stage of “Atmanivedana”, it refers to complete merging of Self in Brahman, the Two becoming one. The Bhakta merging and becoming one with Ishwara is Tanmayata. “Viraha” refers to “separation/pain of separation”. The Bhakta faces extreme pain because of his separation from God. He continuously desires to become one with the object of his devotion. Such Bhakti where a devotee continuously bears the pains of separation and desires to be united with God is “Paramavirahasakti”.

For a spiritual practitioner both Bheda Bhakti and Abheda Bhakti are very important. Many modern day Bhakti proponents concentrate only on lower stage of Bheda Bhakti while completely rejecting Abheda Bhakti. Similarly Neo-Vedantins seem to ignore the Bheda Bhakti concentrating only on Abheda Bhakti. But, both sides fail to understand that Bheda and Abheda are two stages of same Bhakti and both are very vital for one’s spiritual progress.

Bheda Bhakti facilitates a person to purify his mind and give up his Aham-kaara and Mamah-kaara. A person by practicing devotion by using external symbols and rituals will learn to surrender his actions, the doership of actions and the fruits of action to God. These qualities in turn will create a transformation in a person’s svabhava (internal and external behavior). He/she will develop qualities like Viveka(discrimination), Vairagya(dispassion), Indriya Nigraha(self-control), Titaksha(forbearance) and Mumukshutva (burning desire for Liberation) without which no further spiritual progress is possible.

The ultimate goal of life according to Hindu scriptures is Moksha-liberation. And Bheda and Abheda bhakti are two stages that ultimately lead a person to Moksha. Without the practice of Bheda bhakti and Nishkama Karma it is impossible to develop an understanding (viveka) that Jiva and Brahman are in essence one and not two separate things; one’s True self is identical with God. Without the development of this viveka-spiritual insight, it is not possible for a devotee to practice Abheda/Para Bhakti and hence cannot achieve Moksha. Adi Shankaracharya in vivekachudamani describes Para Bhakti as follows-

Moksha Kaarana Saamagryam Bhaktireva Gariyasi |
Svasvaroopaanusandhanam Bhaktirityabhidhiyate || (6)

“Among things conducive to Liberation, devotion (Bhakti) holds the supreme place. The seeking after one’s real nature is designated as devotion.”

Here, Bhakti is defined as “Svasvaroopaanusandhanam” meaning “seeking after” or “contemplating on” one’s own “True Self”.  A person cannot gain Moksha without practicing Abheda Bhakti-contemplation on True Self/Atman. And it is not possible for him to practice Abheda Bhakti without developing viveka and other qualities. Bhakti leads to Jnana and this Jnana in turn leads to Bhakti which finally leads to Jnana and Moksha. Jnana is “Viveka” in first case and “Atma Sakshatkara” in latter case. Bhakti is “Bheda Apara Bhakti” in first case and “Abhedha Para Bhakti” in the latter case.

Footnotes:

1.Narada Bhakti Sutra, Verse 2-3.
2.Vyavaharika refers to Relative reality, Paramarthika refers to Absolute reality. For information refer to my article- “The Two Realities”.
3.Srimad Bhagavatam, Verse 7.5.23.
4.Panchopachara puja- offering of five items-Gandha(sandalwood paste),Pushpa (flower), Dhoopa(insense), Deepa(lamp), Naivedhya (food).
Shodashopachara puja- offering of 16 items- Dhyana(meditation), Avahana(invocation), Aasana(seat), Padhya(water to wash feet), Arghya(sprinkling of water),Snana(water for bath), Vastra(clothes), Yagnopaveeta(sacred thread),Gandha(sandalwood paste),Pushpa (flower), Dhoopa(insense), Deepa(lamp), Naivedhya (food), Taambola(beetle leaves), Neerajana(camphor/aarti), Pushpaanjali(flower).
5.Narada Bhakti Sutra, Verse 82.
6.Vivekachudamani, Verse 31.

The Hindu Shastras/Scriptures call this phenomenon which forms the very basic functioning principle of the cosmos as “Karma”. Every situation, good or bad a person faces in his life is the fruits of his past actions (Karma Phala). Every person or animal, a person encounters or comes in contact with, is result of some Karmic bond (called in scriptures as “Rina Bandha”) present between them. Many people often understand this negatively to mean “Destiny” or “No-free Will”. But, that is only a misconception. On the other hand, Karmic Law is based on complete Free-Will a person has to make choices, to take decisions in every situation he faces. The Karma Phala (Fruits of action) one gets is entirely depended on the Karmas one performs. As the saying goes, “As you sow, so you reap” the whole Universe is based on this Karmic law of action and its fruits.

The Shastras speak of the two ways a person can perform the Karmas- Sakaama and Nishkaama. “Sakaama” refers to performing an action with an eye towards the fruits that action will bore. Such action may lead a person to temporary happiness/Sukha or to temporary sorrow/dukka depending upon whether the Karmic fruit was as per the expectation of the person or not. On the other hand, the Karmas performed in Nishkaama way, i.e performing an action with the sense of duty without expecting any result, such a person will find inner contentment irrespective of the Karmic fruits.

“Sakaama Karmas” increases attachment to the sensory world. As there is no end to the desires of the person, he will be eternally pursuing one desire after another performing countless number of Karmas. He will be ever-struck in this Karmic cycle of Sukha-Dukka. Brahmavaivartha Purana (1) says thus-

Avashyam eva bhoktavyam krutakarma shubha ashubam |
Naa bhuktam kshiyate karma kalpa-koti-shaitairapi ||

A person will definitely enjoy the fruits of his action; it may be good or bad; for without giving the results, an action does not die out even after billions of years.

Hence, these karmas are also called as “Bandhaka Karmas”, actions that increases the bondage to the sensory world. If the same Karmas that cause Bandhana/Bondage are performed in Nishkama way, surrendering the fruits of action to God, giving up one’s sense of doership of action, such Karmas will become “Mochaka”-a way to Liberation from this karmic cycle of birth and death. Shastras say-

Krutena Karmana | Akrutena Mokshaha ||

Performing action leads to Karma, Performing Actionless action leads to Moksha.

“Krutena” means “performing action”. Any activity performed with the sense of identification with doing it, will invariably lead to the bondage of Karmic cycle. Even though literally “Akrutena” means “Not performing Action”, the real meaning is not “Inaction” but what can be described as “action-less action”, i.e performing an action without Ahamkara-sense of I-ness of performing it. In other words, surrendering to God the Action, its fruits and the sense of doership of it.

In Bhagvad Gita, Sri Krishna describes this Nishkaama Karma as “Yogah karmasu kausalam(2)”- Yoga is the action perfected. Further he explains what he means by Yoga as thus-

yoga-sthah kuru karmani sangam tyaktva dhananjaya |
siddhy-asiddhyoh samo bhutva samatvam yoga ucyate ||(3)

O Arjuna, abandon all attachment to success or failure and perform your duty by being steadfast in yoga. Such evenness of mind is called yoga.

“Samatvam Yoga Uchyate” means “performing action in a detached manner”. Krishna is asking Arjuna to become a “Stitahprajna”- one who is not affected by external factors. This yoga is called as “Nishkaama Karma” or “Actionless action”. No spiritual progress is possible for a person without him giving up his Ahamkara(I-ness) and Mamahkaara (mine-ness) and learning to perform Nishkaama karma with the sense of Dharma (Duty) and Tyaga (sacrifice).

“Moksha”or Final Liberation is not possible without attaining “Atma Sakshatkara”. But this cannot be attained without the Karmas. Sage Agastya in “YogaVashishta” lucidly explains this thus-

ubhabhyam eva paksabhyam yatah khe paksinam gatih |
tathai va jnana karmabhyam jayate paramam padam ||(4)

Just as a bird flies with its two wings, so also an enquirer flies to goal of Self-Realization through the co-ordination of two wings of Jnana and Karma.

Whatever may be the path, a spiritual seeker takes but he must develop Samabhavatva (treating everything in same manner without likes and dislikes) and perform Nishkaama Karmas. Only when a person performs the Karmas prescribed in Shastras (vihita karmas) in such a Nishkaama way, will he achieve Chitta Shuddhi-purification of mind and be able to develop the competencies necessary for Jnana Sadhana.

Shastras classify Karmas into four categories- Nithya, Naimitta, Kamya and Nishiddha. Nithya Karmas refer to daily activities that a person is supposed to follow like Sandhyavandana. Naimmitta refers to Karmas performed on specific occasions. Kamya refers to Karmas done to fulfill specific desires. Nishiddha refers to Karmas that are prohibited like Killing etc. A person must first practice Apara/Bhedha bhakti (5) by implementing the Karmas prescribed in the Shastras in a Nishkaama way and by avoiding the Karmas prohibited by the Shastras. Only such a practice will make him develop the surrendering required to be able to give up his Ahamkara and Mamah-Kaara. This results in Chitta-Shuddhi. Without performing Nishkaama Karma, Chitta Shuddhi is not possible.

A person who has thus purified his mind will develop qualities like Viveka(spiritual discrimination), Vairagya(dispassion), Titaksha(forbearance)(6) etc. Only such a person is eligible for practicing Jnana Sadhana. He should then approach a Sadguru and practice the Sravana Chatushtaya (the four fold spiritual practice)- Sravana ,Manana , Nidhidhyasa  and Atma-Sakshatkara.

Sravana and Manana refers to listening and internalizing the teachings imparted by one’s Guru. A shishya is expected to do further reading of the Shastras on the said subject and get cleared of the doubts that arises in his mind. The Guru will guide the disciple slowly towards Jnana by clearing one by one all the doubts that arise inside the disciple. After intellectually understanding the Guru’s words the shishya must practice Nidhidhyasa- Meditation and Contemplation as instructed by his Guru. By sincerely practicing the Sadhana’s instructed by the Guru, the Shishya will attain Atma-Shakshatkara.

Many people have this misconception that performing rituals alone (Karma Anushtana) can lead a seeker to Moksha and practice of Jnana Sadhana is not needed. But it is not so. In Vivekachudamni, Adi Shankara clears this doubt thus (7)-

Cittasya shuddhaye karma na tu vastupalabdhaye |
vastusiddhirvicharena na kincit-karma-kotibihi ||

Actions cause purification of the mind but they do not, by themselves, cause the attainment of Reality. The Self-Realization is brought about only by Self-Enquiry/Jnana Sadhana and not in the least by even ten million acts (alone).

Hence the Karma Anushtana of the rituals and practices done in a Sakaama way does not lead to Moksha but instead it will increase the bondage to the material world. But if these Karmas are done in Nishkaama way, it will lead to the purification of the mind of the sadhaka who will attain the qualities like Viveka etc. And these competencies will enable him to perform Jnana Sadhana Anushtana and achieve Atma Sakshatkara and hence Moksha.

Footnotes-

1.Brahmavaivartha Purana 1.44.74
2.Bhagvad Gita 2.50
3.Bhagvad Gita 2.48
4.Yoga Vashista 1.1.7.8
5.For more information about classification of Bhakti, refer the article “The Two Stages of Devotion”.
6.For more information on Sadhana Chatushtaya-Four Competencies, refer the article “The Two Paths of Life”.
7.Vivekachoodamani, Verse 11

“… Work out mechanisms to link madarasas with higher secondary school board.  

“Recognise degrees from madarasas for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations.”

“Establish a delimitation procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population for SCs.”

India is sick and tired.

We are sick of lies and deceptions, of scams and cover-ups, of promises and failures, of vote bank and divisive politics, of nepotism and sycophancy.

We are tired of the bickering, pompous politicians and their ignoble associates, the dynastic rulers, the family business of politics and the scams and schemes they manage.

We are appalled by the directionless and disengaged government, awestruck by its leadership or the lack of it, disgusted with its indifference to the need of its citizenry and terrified by its indecisiveness on matters as basic as internal and external security.

We are mocked as the mango people of the banana republic. We are made to believe that the country is for the privileged and the influential and the rest only entitled to crumbs. People of debatable backgrounds are pampered as celebrities and those with dubious motives are lauded as activists. Separatists who openly preach sedition get away with open threats and get rewarded with free coverage of their freedom of expression.

Lawlessness is the norm. Our ill-trained police forces are made a laughing stock on and off the screen. Their sacrifices hardly raise any eyebrow. Our security forces are rendered toothless by politician with vested interests. We are made to believe that court cases are supposed to stretch for decades, that justice can be brought or manipulated and that for special convicts, jails can be transformed into five star accommodations.

Our media has long forgotten its role in nation building, too preoccupied with TRP ratings and sensationalism. Biased and partisan panelists are involved hand in gloves, in the decadence, oblivious of all their accountabilities and commitments.

Even after 65 years of independence, we have not been able to provide the very basic requirements like water, electricity or education to the vast majority of our population. Issues such as pollution, sanitation, health, nutrition and infrastructure are plaguing the country. Yet crores and crores of rupees are misappropriated or embezzled, by unholy nexuses of politicians and their collaborators. No wonder politics happens to be the surest and quickest way of getting rich in the country. And no surprise that India rank 85th on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), out of 180 countries. It is shameful that even a Prime Minister could do little but lament that only 15 per cent of all funds actually reach the common man.

We are tired of being poor. We are tired of hearing about garibi hatao and poverty lines, of schemes that are supposed to benefit the aam aadmi but do not reach them, of promises to eradicate the parallel economy and of assurances to bring back black money, stashed away in foreign banks. We are ashamed that a third of the world’s poor belongs to India and over 40% of India falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (2005 World Bank statistics).

We are tired of being called a third world country.

We are sick of the chalta hai mentality.

We want to break the shackles of stagnation.

We want change.

We are restless. Our frustration and desperation is visible. We have shown that we are not afraid to come out on the streets with posters and candle lights, to face the batons and water cannons, as during the fight against corruption or the protest against atrocities affecting women..

We are the largest democracy of the world, with a median age of 25 years and with around 70 percent of the 1.2 billion people under the age of 40 years. The generation which has been exposed to the world through television and internet feel that they have the talent to compete with the rest of the world. We aspire to improve our lot, prove our excellence and write our destiny.

We just need a leader to facilitate and guide us.

We want a statesman, unquestionably a nationalist who puts India first, and can stand up for her without being intimidated by international pressure.

We want a person with integrity, who is not only incorruptible himself, but also does not permit others to indulge in corruption.

We want a decisive, bold, no-nonsense leader, an able administrator who gets acknowledged even by his sulking opponents.

We want a visionary who can raise hope and nurture them, who can not only talk about our dreams of nation- building and skill development but actually walk the talk, setting up institutions to encourage research and innovations.

We want a dreamer who can envisage development that includes all and leaves none behind, who can rise above divisive politics and beyond caste, creed and religion.

We want a leader who raises hope in the minds of a large section of the population from all walks of life and earns rightful appreciation within and outside the country..

Finally we want someone who is a proven achiever, who remains unfazed despite malicious defamation by enemies and whose path of integrity and excellence is unperturbed by the deceit and fraud of lesser mortals..

Let us get that leader.

Let us Modi-fy India.

*********

When it comes to reporting on ‘Gujarat 2002’, the media has not only a different idiom and different sets of moral and ethical standards to be applied to different people, but demands a totally different jurisprudence! Thus the edict, ‘the law takes its own course’ does not apply to Gujarat riots cases. The judiciary must take media’s word for it and convict all accused in the cases and more importantly Narendra Modi.  According to the secular media the ends of justice would be met if and only if Narendra Modi is jailed for life, irrespective of whether there is any evidence to prove his culpability or not. On the other hand, a Sanjeev Bhatt under investigation for crimes like illegal confinement of people, extortion and murder is a national icon only because he squeals on Narendra Modi, no matter what he professes may be a farrago of lies. A Teesta Setalvad may be accused of illegal confinement and torture of witnesses and perjury, and there may be questions about her NGO receiving funds from Saudi Arabia which bankrolls international terrorism, but she is a respected social activist.

To serve its nefarious purposes the secular media has developed its own vocabulary and idiom, something similar toNewspeak in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four. Thus for example, the word holocaust might connote ‘massive destruction of humans by other humans’ in general English usage but it can be loosely applied to the killing of Muslims (and only Muslims) in Gujarat in February – March 2002.  The word cannot be applied to the barbaric burning of the fifty-nineKarsevaks on February 27 that year. It cannot be applied to the Hindus killed in police firings during the riots.

On May 21, B. G. Verghese, one of the more secular journalists, wrote an article in The New Indian Express critiquing the Supreme Court monitored SIT’s report which exonerated Narendra Modi of any culpability for the riots: Lies, damn lies and statistics. It therefore did not conform to the secular norms of the self-appointed custodians of the secularmedia. Verghese grandiosely opened his article with the line ‘It has been famously said that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. One need not split hair about the official statistics pertaining to the 2002 Gujarat riots.’ Thus he implies that the death toll of Muslims is much more than the figure of 790, although it was not a figure provided by thecommunal Gujarat government but by a secular Minister of State for Home (MoS, Home) in the secular UPA government at the centre in a written reply on the floor of the Rajya Sabha. The implied scepticism is to lay the foundation and justify his metaphor in the fourth paragraph, ‘The stage set for the not-so-unplanned holocaust that followed…’ After all senior journalists might sacrifice facts but cannot be seen to be deficient when it comes to the use idiom and metaphor. The rest of Verghese’s article heaps diatribe on the SIT because it does not conform to his prescription and inculpate Narendra Modi. Whether the sub-editor who titled Veghese’s article did it intentionally or just picked up the popular saying from the first line, there is delicious irony in the title, ‘Lies, damn lies and statistics’. It about sums it up. Verghese was not satisfied with his description of minority victimhood with one mention of holocaust. Even for him the use of the holocaust metaphor is one too many to be repeated, lest people see though his insidious attempt to poison the minds of lay readers. Therefore he resorts to the other alternative which has worn thin because of overuse, viz. genocide.

However, Verghese is not alone in his penchant for holocaust. The Op-Ed Editor of another newspaper could not help using it in his editor’s note to an interview, titled, ‘Muslim quota is justified as affirmative action’, (in an inevitable reference to the Gujarat riots of 2002, whether the context warranted it or not) although neither the interviewer not the interviewee referred to the riots.

But such references to holocaust and genocide cannot be applied where the victims were Hindus, even when they could be justifiably applied. The following two paragraphs, in an article on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits (Kashmiri Pandits: A Forsaken Minority), got a more secular editor’s goat (although ELM editors are generally secular, some are more secular than others). He not only rejected the article but banished the columnist from the newspaper!

“Our intellectuals and media crib and caw about the settlements in West bank and Gaza and the injustices done to Palestinians but not a whisper from them about the fate of the exiled Kashmiri Pandits. No group of prominent public figures petitioned on their behalf; no celebrity authors cried in their defence. They were once the elite of Kashmiri society. The community produced artistes and artisans, poets and musicians, doctors and lawyers of amazing wisdom. At the turn of the century, there were about a million Kashmiri Hindus in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. At the time of independence, the proportion of Hindus in Kashmiri Valley was 15% of the population. By 1991 it came down to less than 1%.

“The word “genocide” has been worn out in popular usage during the last decade. It has been so freely bandied about in public discourse that it lost its original meaning. If ever there was a context for it to be justifiably applied it was in the case of the Kashmiri Pandits. ‘Genocide’ means ‘the systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of an entire national, racial, religious or ethnic group.’ This was what happened to the ethnic identity called the Kashmiri Pandits.”

N.B.: This piece was originally published on VOXINDICA on June 6, 2012.