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Black and White

This title is inspired from Subhash Ghai’s recently released movie. The chief protagonist of this movie, like every emotional human being, sees everything in Black and White.
 
Though if we dive to the depths, we shall know that everything exists in shades of grey. Complete black or complete white is an illusion of the mind.
 
An emotional woman can never find anything wrong in her daughter, nor anything right in her daughter-in-law. This applies universally across cultures, and across ages and time-periods.
 
Godse becomes a Monster, and Gandhi becomes a Mahatma. Though both were human beings.
 
Similarly, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a man of exceptional qualities and character. Before things went terribly sour between Hindus and Muslims, Gopal Krishan Gokhale, a distinguished Brahmin leader, called Jinnah “the best ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity.”
 
Errors, like garbage, float on the surface. Good qualities, like pearls, remain hidden in deep waters.
 
Crows pick on the garbage. Swans look for pearls.
 
Osho Rajneesh wrote a book titled “Gehre paani paith”. This title was inspired from the following doha:
 
Jin khoja tinn paaya, gehre paani paith
Main baawri boodan dari, rahi kinaare baith
 
Whoever has found the truth, had to dive in deep waters
I, like a fool, was scared of drowning, and kept sitting at the shores
 
[Note: "boodan" is the same as "dooban", in a colloquial usage.]
 
It takes courage to search for the truth. To challenge the status quo. Because fear is a great resistance factor, which opposes the search, and proposes Bhakti.
 
In the deep seas, a sense of calmness takes over, and silence prevails. Whereas shallow waters at the shores are extremely noisy and excited.
 
Excitement is eliminated from our flesh, once we understand that others are not perfectly black, and we are not perfectly white. Empathising with the other side gives birth to peace.
 
When a monstrous wave hits the deep sea, the wave becomes the sea. The sea is larger than the wave. Similarly, when a shallow man meets a man of depth, the shallow man will calm down.
 
Whereas… when both men are shallow, it is time for Kali’s act.

Posted in Blogs.

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By Vikas Vij – March 18, 2008


Xenophobia

Xenophobia — The fear of foreigners

115 years ago, on September 11, Vivekananda took America by storm when he addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago with the phrase “Sisters and Brothers of America”. Such words were unheard of in the western world, and the audience was taken by a complete surprise when they saw an unknown Indian monk addressing them as “Sisters and Brothers”.

If one observes the nature of living beings, one may notice that a meek animal like a squirrel or a rabbit or a deer lives in constant fear of any alien animal coming after it. The instinct of self-preservation is so strong that all weak animals who have not been equipped by nature to defend themselves ably, live in a constant state of alert against any attack by the enemy.

Whereas a lion moves about with a casual stride and freedom, truly like a fearless king of the jungle, with immense muscular power to fight back and defend itself against any attack.

The same is true of the human society. Phobia runs in our blood from generation to generation, almost like a genetic disorder. Though there are exceptional individuals, evolved and matured, who are blind to any religious, cultural or racial dissimilarities between men. They are the fearless, lion-hearted kings. They are the men whose self-esteem is so high that they cannot even conceptualize that somebody can hurt them or cheat them or rob them. They begin life with the foundation of a basic trust.

But there is also the vast majority of unevolved mankind that begins life with the basic premise of distrust and fear.

When you begin with distrust, you will also receive distrust in return. Whereas when you begin with trust, 99 times out of 100, the other person will try and live up to the reputation and respect that you have given him.

Only a man who respects himself will respect others. Whereas a man who has no self-respect, he is bound to begin with a premise of disrespect and distrust for anyone who does not belong to his herd.

When you live in a multi-cultural, globalised environment, your unfounded fears will shatter. But that is an unrealistic utopia. In reality, we tend to exist only in highly homogenized environments. We tend to form sub-groups within groups, sub-nations within nations, sub-castes within castes, and so on. That’s the divisive and destructive nature of a fearful man.

And that’s a savage way of life. Divisiveness and groupism, as against teamwork, creates an atmosphere of fear, prejudice and hatred — due to utter lack of information and knowledge about the other groups and their thought-processes.

Fear, gentlemen, is the mother of negative thoughts, and sees an enemy where there had been a potential friend.

Almost all enmities on this earth germinate from lack of knowledge and understanding about each other. And as Seneca warned two thousand years ago that “once the enemy (anger) has advanced within the city-gates, he will not respect any bounds set by his captives.” Once anger has occured, it will be reciprocated with even greater force from the other side. And this fire will not rest until the whole forest has been burned down.

In this uncivilized war of anger versus anger, there are no winners, only losers. And the tragedy is — there was no real cause, only lack of knowledge and understanding about each other.

Iqbal, the man who understood the concept of self-esteem better than most, used “Shaheen” (Eagle) as the ultimate symbol of free spirit. Eagle is one bird that loves to soar higher and higher in the sky, till it feels the most extreme atmospheric pressure and can sustain it no longer. The eagle, by nature, builds no permanent home (aashiyaanaa) — just like a faqir. If you observe an eagle even in a city, you will notice that it always tends to choose the highest point of the highest building to perch itself. 

Iqbal said these words for mankind’s salvation:

“Nahin tera nash-e-mann kasr-e-sultani ke gumbad par
Tuu shaheen hai, basera kar, pahaadon ki chattaanon par”

It is not your final destination to be the prince of some small worldly palace
You are an eagle, your true abode is atop the highest mountain peaks

Large-hearted men are the men of free spirit. The whole world is not enough for them. They do not live in holes. Holes are reserved for the petty men — the fearful slaves who do not know freedom.

And freedom cannot be taught or preached. Just like a rodent cannot be turned into a lion by preaching.

Posted in Blogs.

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By Vikas Vij – January 14, 2008


Psychology of a Suicide Bomber

Lord Krishna speaks to Arjuna in his Gita discourse:
 
“Krodhat bhavati sammohan… buddhinasat pranasyati”
 
From anger arises delusion
From delusion arises paralysis of thought
From paralysis of thought arises destruction of reason
From destruction of reason arises the ultimate downfall
 
Two thousand years ago, during the Roman Imperial period, Seneca wrote in his famous work “On Anger”: “… The enemy, I repeat, must be stopped at the very frontier; for if he has passed it, and advanced within the city-gates, he will not respect any bounds set by his captives.”
 
Seneca tried to show a clear dichotomy between reason and anger: “Reason grants a hearing to both sides, then seeks to postpone action, even its own, in order that it may gain time to sift out the truth; but anger is precipitate. Reason wishes the decision that it gives to be just; anger wishes to have the decision which it has already given seem the just decision. Reason considers nothing except the question at issue; anger considers everything outside of it.”
 
Seneca does not advocate non-violence which he calls unnatural anyway. A hunter chases a wild boar and kills it systematically. But is the hunter angry with the boar? In a civil society, criminals must be captured and punished. Justice must prevail. But it will prevail only in the absence of anger.
 
The angry man is incapable of granting a hearing to the other side. Almost all of us fall into this category.
 
Justice demands that if you have been offended by someone, give your offender his right to defend himself. And then if he deserves to be punished, there must be reason behind it — the reason of justice, fairness and equality. But not the emotion of anger or madness.
 
Anger arises from a lack of self-esteem, from a dependence on some imaginary superior authority. A man who values his own self, also values others. Whereas a man who degrades himself, will also degrade others. This happens in direct proportion.
 
A perfectly degraded man is willing to kill himself. He is also willing to kill others.
 
A man who hates himself, also hates others.
 
A man who is not free himself, also cannot allow others to be free.
 
The very fact that you relate yourself to others to some extent, demonstrates that you lack in self-esteem to that extent. A completely worthless man lives all his life in relation to others, and not himself for even a minute.
 
Conversely, a man with a complete self-worth is entirely related to himself and his own creative purpose. That man is the creator, civilized and spiritualized.
 
If each man gets involved with himself alone, it will be the end of man’s politics, and the beginning of man’s spirituality.
 
Involvement with the self is “Ishq” (Love), in the real sense of the word. It is discovery of the soul. Involvement with others, to that extent, is the absence of love of the self. Absence of love, in other words, is hatred.
 
“Loving others” is the forgery of a hypocritical age. It is a perfect lie. It is actually hating yourself to that extent, and as a consequence, hating others to that extent. “Loving others” constitutes the basis of a fearful, guilt-ridden, demoralised society caught in its complex web of self-deception and perfect lies.
 
Lack of self-esteem lies at its root.
 
One of the earliest masterpieces of Mohammad Iqbal, the poet-philosopher and original mentor of Pakistan, was titled “Asrar-e-Khudi” (Secrets of the Self). In this great epic poem, Iqbal said that the system of the Universe originates in the Self. And that the continuation of life of all individuals depends on the strengthening of the Self.
 
Afraad kay haathon mein hai aqwaam kee tanzeem
Har fard hai millat kay muqaddar ka sitaaraa
 
It is in the hands of men how they run their own world
Each individual is a star that shapes the destiny of the Universe

Posted in Business.

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By Vikas Vij – December 29, 2007


Har shaakh pey ulloo baithha hai…

About four years ago, the then Defence Minister of India, George Fernandes, who was on an official visit to Washington, was “strip-searched” by the U.S. security at the airport. In response, the usually thunderous Fernandes behaved like a scared puppy, and stomached his humiliation quietly without telling a soul. A year later, Strobe Talbott, the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, published his memoirs where he spilled the beans on this eminently memorable (or, eminently forgettable, depending upon you are on which side of the table) Fernandes incident. It naturally caused a shock and hurt to India’s pride, with Fernandes admitting that the stripping had indeed happened, and eventually the U.S. government was forced to tender a formal apology to India, albeit belated.
 
Year 2007: In May this year, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Anand Sharma, got into a scuffle with the airport authorities at the Delhi airport, when he was asked to submit himself for security procedures and frisking. The incident caused such an uproar among the Ministers of State (MoS) in India that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to agree to add the MoS category to the list of “exempt categories” that do not require security frisking, which already included the President, the Vice-President, the PM, the Speaker, the Cabinet Ministers, the Chief Ministers, the SC judges, and the ambassadors and their spouses.
 
And very interestingly, now after sixty years of independence, suddenly, the armed forces of India have also woken up to the realisation that the Defence Chiefs of the three armed services in India must also be included in this “exalted list” of those who are over and above ordinary security procedures that are meant only for the common man in India. (As if going through a security procedure is an “insult”, and not simply a procedure.)
 
The government of India has responded in the Rajya Sabha that it would not be possible to extend this privilege to the defence service chiefs, because if the favour is bestowed upon one department, then every government department would start demanding the same status for their chiefs.
 
The debate has caught on in the intellectual circles, particularly because the “Defence Services” command a special respect in the eyes of everyone, considering the great sacrificial nature of the service.
 
The Point: It takes an evolved and matured society to understand the meaning of leadership by example, and not by lecturing others. When thousands of ordinary jawans have to undergo security procedures, their leader must lead by example and first of all submit himself for frisking at the airport. The point is not security. The point is displaying an exemplary regard for duty. The point is setting an example before your team, and standing tall before them, and showing them the way. That’s called leading from the front.
 
In India, every Tom, Dick and Harry is in the habit of bypassing rules and regulations, simply by citing that he or she is related to so-and-so VIP. Why? Had the VIPs been submitting themselves to rules and regulations, this rotten culture would not be born in the first place.
 
Now since the Defence Services of India have already caused a furore over a silly issue, let us seize the opportunity and turn the debate on its head (even though this debate will never be understood by the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha of an immature democracy): Scrap this provision of exempting VIPs from security procedures. Let the Cabinet of Ministers and the Defence Chiefs and so on lead the country by example. A good leader must not only respect the law, but he must be “seen” to respect the law. That’s leadership.
 
Kautilya described in Arthashastra that one of the foremost duties of the King is that he must get in touch with the ground realities of his citizens first-hand by moving among them in disguise, and not merely depend upon the reports of his informants and advisors. 
 
Can you comprehend the pain of a burn theoretically, if you have not experienced it first-hand? Can you understand the pain of hunger unless your own child has to go to sleep without food? When a Minister’s car entourage gets stuck in a city traffic jam, only then he will understand the trouble a common man goes through everyday on the roads. In public life, as in business, the real leader must be willing to face the frustrations of his weakest citizens or workers, so that he remains close to the bitter ground realities, and stays constantly motivated.
 
A great leader can turnaround a nation, just as a great CEO can turnaround a loss-making, demoralised organization. The key is understanding the problems of your people. Once you understand a problem, solution is child’s play. 
 
Hands-on leadership is a rare sight in the Indian society, because bureaucracy and hierarchy is seeped into the bones of Indians. If we do not break these bones even now, then these so-called “leaders” of India shall continue to make a hue and cry regarding all kinds of fake honors and privileges, without knowing the ABC of meaningful leadership.
 
Har kuue’n mein hai bhaang padi
Rahbar-e-kaarwaa’n kya hoga

Har shaakh pey ulloo baithha hai
Anjaam-e-gulistaa’n kya hoga
 
* Rahbar-e-kaarwaa’n = Leader of the caravan
* Anjaam-e-gulistaa’n = Fate of the garden

Posted in Blogs.

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By Vikas Vij – November 24, 2007


Psychology of a Slave

Pain, physical or mental, can have such a damaging and permanent influence that it can paralyse the mind forever.

In a jail, if you torture an innocent victim too hard, he will almost start believing that he is the murderer, even if he had actually nothing to do with the crime altogether.

Fear of pain and fear of being killed are the chief weapons of a dictator which he uses effectively. You can single-handedly force an entire nation to crawl on all fours before you, if you can terrify them enough.

Fear blurs logic completely. You can start fearing your own shadow if you are walking alone in the dark in an abandoned alley in the middle of the night. Even if the shadow can do no harm, and it is powerless like a paper tiger, yet you cannot get rid of the fear as you imagine it to be someone much more powerful than it actually is. The fear of being attacked or killed by something or someone is so overwhelming in such a situation that it paralyses logic.

Gandhi was one man who dared to face fear logically, and realised the hollowness of its claims. The moment he decided that death or a jail term was “okay” for him, he had no fear of these any longer. Once you have accepted the worst, you are not afraid anymore.

Gandhi destroyed the colonialists’ only weapon — fear. There was a powerful scene in Richard Attenborough’s well-researched film “Gandhi”, where Gandhi tells his followers that each one of them will keep breaking the police cordon, and keep getting hit by their wooden batons on the head — without any retaliation in return. At each hit, the man would fall down, and the next man would come forward to face the next hit. One after another after another. That one single piece of cinema must be one of the clearest and most visual demonstrations ever of how to finish the game of fear.

The job of the police baton is not to hit you, but to scare you. If you refuse to get scared, you have punctured the dictator’s plan. Why? Because the numbers are already hugely against him. He is one. You are innumberable. He cannot win this unequal battle by force. He can only win it by paralysing you psychologically.

There is an old Chinese saying that a panther would attack you much more ferociously than it does, if it knew that you are afraid of it.

In 1989, the Chinese students took to the streets in a massive uprising against communism, and took seize of the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The government quickly understood that it was a battle of fear versus fearlessness, and that the hollowness of fear would be soon exposed, unless fearlessness was nipped in the bud. The government swiftly ordered its military to open fire on unarmed students, and as per the New York Times count, about 800 civilians were killed, while the Red Cross estimated the number of dead to be around 3000. (3 times the Jallianwala Bagh massacre).

Like China, even Pakistan is a slave nation till today. The great Punjabi poet of Lahore, Ustaad Daaman, had summed up the fate of Pakistan quite succintly in two short lines as follows:

Pakistan de dou Khuda
La ila, tey Marshal Law 

But now Pakistan, after nearly sixty years of perfect slavery (with a few brief interruptions), is finally waking up from its paralysis of fear, and raising its voice against the shame of dictatorship. Men like Justice Choudhary, Imran Khan, Benazir Bhutto or the fearless owners of Geo TV etc. are finally getting to a point where fear is no longer an option. They must maintain their courage in their trial by fire. They are not alone, because the Pakistani masses are with them.

Though the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has merely “regretted” the emergency in Pakistan, but our message to our Pakistani friends should be slightly more straightforward: If you can have the courage to expose fear, you will see that the emperor has actually no clothes. Dictatorship is a guaranteed hoax. It is a toy bomb hijacking an entire airplane. Have guts to call their bluff and you will see limitless cowardice beneath their upper false layer of cruelty. If you decide to stand up to their terrorism, the cowards will run for their life, and seek amnesty for their crimes from you only.

But of course, it is easier said than done. To overcome fear, sometimes even centuries are not enough. Fearless men are not born everyday. The national poet of Pakistan, Iqbal knew what he was talking when he spoke these lofty words in praise of Gandhi:

Hazaaro’n saal nargis apni bey’noori pey roti hai
Badi mushqil sey hota hai, chaman mein deedaawar paida

nargis = earth
bey’noori = absence of charm
deedaawar = the one who is worth watching

Posted in Books.

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By Vikas Vij – November 5, 2007


Dhol, Ganwaar, Shudra, Pashu, Naari…

The United States constitution was amended in 1920 to allow women their right to vote. The so-called world’s oldest democracy, was actually a 50% democracy till 1920, providing only half of its adult population their basic political right to elect their own leader.

Britain had done it two years earlier, in 1918. France followed much later in 1944.

These little facts are only a gentle reminder that historically man has regarded woman as nothing more than a sex object that also reproduces.

In view of this bitter truth, it seems pointless to remain in a denial mode like an Ostrich, and insist upon Sita’s emanicipated status in Ram’s Rajya.

Two thousand and five hundred years ago, Socrates concluded that women are “the weaker sex.” Was he right in his conclusion? Perhaps, the devastating answer is, yes.

Perhaps, women by nature are different from men. They are much more forgiving and much less vengeful and violent. If Ram was not man enough to accept Sita, then Sita should have been woman enough to reject Ram. She was an emotional fool to give him a second chance, and of course, he failed her the second time too. Man will be a man.

Ideally, considering what Ram did to Sita, she should have raised an army in the jungles, and directed her two powerful sons to launch an attack on Ayodhya and imprison Ram and seize control over his kingdom by force. That would have been a logical response, and would have altered the destiny of woman forever.

Instead, despite being born of royal blood, Sita chose to live a secluded life away from civilization, and eventually committed suicide. The ultimate weakness of the spirit is killing your own self, instead of killing your enemy. It is violence in inverse. It is an act against nature. It is an act of such low morale and low self-esteem that your basic instinct of self-preservation itself gets destroyed.

That is why, perhaps, Socrates was right when he said that women are weak by nature. Almost like a cow that is such a strong and muscularly endowed animal, but so docile by nature that it meekly suffers her cruel milking by humans, instead of fighting back like other wild animals.

One must understand that in a competitive civilization, there is no room for sentiments. The winner takes all. But women are, by and large, misfits to this rule, as they are more emotional and less rational. That is the root cause of their timeless suffering. Men too suffer when they are emotional in exceptional circumstances.

An emotional fool is bound to be a slave, and a logical and analytical man is bound to be his master. If you can analyse your enemy’s weaknesses, you can enslave him by pressing on those weaknesses. Man is a political animal, and power is his ultimate goal.

One of the most fascinating sights is to see a lion, the majestic king of the jungle with awesome physical power, and how it behaves like a helpless slave to a ringmaster in a circus.

Raw emotions are no match to the stupendous power of logic. An emotional woman is no match to the calculated interests of a logical man.

Women have never understood this plain truth. Despite what happened with Sita, they remain foolishly superstitious and worship Ram.

An emotional fool is his own enemy. You cannot blame the logical man for merely acting logically and exploiting a slave to carry his burdens.

An empty drum, a fool, a low-caste, an animal, and a woman – yeh sab taadan ke adhikaari. These are the slaves who actually DESERVE to be beaten.

Posted in Fantasy.

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By Vikas Vij – October 7, 2007


Trial by Fire

When Sita chose Ram in the Swayamvar, she had no idea where her fate was headed.

She insisted on accompanying Ram to the forest in exile so that she could be with her husband at all times. A girl who was born and brought up in immense luxuries, agreed to share her husband’s misfortunes boldly in the jungles.

Sita’s miseries of life did not end with her difficult years as a nomad in the wilderness. Infact, they had only begun.

While in the forest, Sita’s erratic and arrogant brother-in-law slashed the ears and nose of a woman who wished to marry him. It was a barbaric act that only a man of Laxman’s calibre could inflict upon a woman. And Laxman’s brother, Maryada Purushottam Ram, kept silent at this criminal act and neither apologized to the victim or her family, nor did anything to redress the wrong or protect the victim.

As a consequence of this savage act, Ravan kidnapped Sita and kept her in confinement, even though her only fault was that she was Ram’s wife.

An innocent and trusting woman kidnapped treacherously from her humble dwellings. Is there anything worse that can happen to a woman’s self-esteem?

Yes sir, there is.

As later events would reveal, being kidnapped and imprisoned by Ravan was the least of Sita’s humiliations.

Ram waged a war against Lanka to avenge his own princely honor. While Sita imagined all this while that Ram was fighting for her sake.  

Upon her rescue by Ram, Sita wept, having been away from her beloved for so long and now excited at the prospect of a reunion.

Ram, however, remained cold, aloof and distant from her. And then he went on to speak his mind:

“Today I have avenged the insult to my honor. While you, Sita, stand without shame before me, even though suspicions have arisen with regard to your character. Today you appear as unacceptable to me as light to the one who is suffering from eyesores. Therefore, go wherever you wish, O Janak’s daughter, all ten directions are open to you today.

“What man born of nobility would accept a woman who has lived with another man, simply because she has been favorable to him in the past? How can I accept you, who was enveloped in the arms of Ravan while being taken away by him, and who was lusting for you? I do not have any interest in you anymore. Therefore, you may go wherever you want.”

In a complete state of shock, and with tears filled in her eyes, Sita addressed her obedient brother-in-law Laxman: “Raise for me a funeral pyre, O Laxman. I no longer wish to live as I’m accused falsely of crimes that I did not commit.”

Laxman looked at this brother, half-expecting him to put an end to this shameful public drama. But to his horror, Ram did not bat an eyelid, and did not stop this barbaric tragedy from going any further.

The usually short-tempered Laxman, who was intolerant to injustice, and who had advised his brother Ram to launch an armed rebellion against their father’s decision to send him to exile, surprisingly acted like a meek slave in the face of this criminal outrage against Sita.

Not one of the assembled warriors, who had displayed exceptional valour on the battlefield just now, had the courage to open their mouth against this autocratic behavior of Ram, and to oppose the historic injustice against a woman that was about to be perpetrated.

Laxman proceeded to prepare the fire.

As a mark of respect, Sita walked in a circle around Ram, who, as the ancient texts describe it — “stood with his head hung down.”

The entire cosmos came to a halt in horror as Sita approached the fire.

Sita entered the raging flames. But lo and behold! Sita’s blazing faithfulness singed the fire itself, and Agnidev cried out in pain. Sita had proved too pure for the fire to burn her out.

Ram was suddenly beside himself with joy at this public display of his wife’s purity of character. “The world would have whispered against me, and accused me of being a lustful man who accepted Sita without testing her chastity.”

Sita let Ram have his way, and followed him to Ayodhya without any protest.

But Sita’s cup of tragedy was not yet full. It still had room for more. Rumors started floating in Ayodhya about the wisdom of having a queen who had spent a long time in a kidnapper’s captivity.

Ram, surprisingly for a king, did not display any strength of conviction or a backbone of his own. A king must follow what is just and logical (nyaya-poorna and tark-sangat), and not what the mass opinion says. If ten thousand people say a wrong thing, it is still a wrong thing, and if only one person says the right thing, it is still the right thing.

Even though Sita was in an advanced stage of pregnancy, Ram did not think twice and immediately decided to abandon Sita to the forests. Just like when your pet dog becomes a nuisance, you would abandon it in such a distant place from where it cannot return.

The very next morning, Laxman took Sita to the forest in his chariot, lying to her that they were visiting a sage. On reaching the forest, Laxman said: “The king has abandoned you because he is afraid of the muffled protests taking place in his kingdom against him. I’m going to leave you near this hermitage now, and you will have to walk further on your own.

Sita gave birth to twin sons in the forest, and brought them up as a single mother. When the sons reached their teens, the tales of their valour spread far and wide.

When the glory of his sons came to Ram’s notice, he wanted them back in his kingdom.

He recalled Sita alongwith her sons from the jungle, and without even a hint of any regret or hesitation, quickly asked Sita to “perform” her Agni-Pareeksha once again, and enthrall the audiences of his kingdom with the same spectacle that she had earlier performed for him in Lanka.

But this time round Sita reacted differently. She did not feel shocked or surprised at Ram’s request. She did not have tears in her eyes. She did not ask Laxman to prepare a pyre for her. She did not walk around her husband in a circle of deference.

She simply folded her hands, closed her eyes, and requested Mother Earth to take her in her bosom.

Guru Vashishtha mili lagan sudhai, ek surya-mantra deenha
Jo Sita Raghunath bihai, ik pal chein nahin keenha

[A wisest sage like Vashishitha chose the most auspicious time for the marriage of Ram and Sita, and gave them the coveted Surya-mantra for the protection of their marriage. But defying all astrological predictions, "Jo Sita Raghunath bihai, ik pal chein nahin keenha..."]

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By Vikas Vij – September 28, 2007


The Lord of Fear

[Thanks to a seemingly innocuous affidavit of the Congress party, an outrageous debate has sparked off in the country on the existence of Lord Ram. Among various arguments on this issue, there was one from a friend who said if a two-headed freak baby is possible, is a 10-headed baby an impossibility? In other words, isn't it possible that Ravana could have actually existed as a 10-headed human? This argument prompted me to write the following.]

THE LORD OF FEAR

“….. If 2-headed babies are possible, is a ten-headed baby an impossibility? …..”
 
There is a fundamental flaw in such arguments. 
 
If we cannot prove that a ten-headed baby is an impossibility, it does not mean it is proved that a ten-headed baby is a possibility.
 
If Lord Ram existed, it must be proved. The burden of proof lies on the one who claims that Lord Ram existed.
 
As long as it is not proved, Lord Ram remains a figment of our imagination only — nothing more than a ridiculous myth passed down the ages.
 
Claiming without proof is at best hallucination, and at worst, rumour-mongering.
 
Even I can claim: “Rajiv Gandhi took bribes from Bofors. Now disprove me if you can.” This is actually a meaningless claim, and nobody is under any obligation to disprove it. Only I’m under the obligation to prove it, because I have alleged it.
 
If it cannot be disproved, it does not automatically mean it is proved. This is the greatest logical fallacy in the world that one must guard against at all times. Or else, one is destined to drown into the bottomless pit of hallucinatory theories and cultist hypotheses. And worship them as facts.
 
One is most likely to fall into this trap of irrational arguments when one is already biased in favour of a certain conclusion. It is called wishful thinking.
 
Do not hope for wishful conclusions; remain unemotional about them. Even if you discover at the end of the day that Lord Ram doesn’t exist, so what? Let truth prevail.
 
When in search of knowledge, do not get desperate. Remain unemotional and strictly logical till the end. A jnana yogi.
 
Our belief in God is nothing but a result of our wishful thinking only. We are unable to remain unemotional about this fascinating question which is the ultimate puzzle for man’s brain to solve. We don’t want to make unbiased investigation. We don’t want to think, we just want to believe. We just want to close our eyes like an Ostrich.
 
Why? The sad answer is that our capability to think has been destroyed by bhakti in our childhood. When we were innocent and curious, we were not asked to contemplate and find our own answers to this ultimate unsolved mystery of the Universe. We were simply told a hallucinatory story, and a corrupt process of bhakti and repetition followed to make sure that we lose all our capability to break the barrier of fear, and think independently. And not be superstitious.
 
Fear is an insurmountable hurdle. Once you are infected with it, an entire lifetime is not enough to overcome it.
 
“Gal samajh layee tay raula kih
Eh Ram Rahim tay maula kih”
 
If you have understood the crux
Saying anything further is redundant
All this noise of Ram-Rahim is redundant

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By Vikas Vij – September 16, 2007


A Tale of Two India’s

[Last week, at a book launch ceremony, India's finance minister, P. Chidambaram spoke that it is a myth that India was a rich country or a "sone ki chidiya" at some point of time in history. He said India has always been poor. His remarks caused a muffled uproar in some intellectual circles, particularly those that take pride in India's "glorious history", which according to Chidambaram is more of mythology, as India was nothing more than a domain of spoilt nawabs and bickering kings who treated human beings as mules and asses, and got invaded and ruled by foreigners for the better part of their existence.
 
This uproar on Chidambaram's remarks prompted me to write the following:]
 
A TALE OF TWO INDIA’S
 
Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram are two of India’s most soft-spoken and mild-mannered politicians. Their personality is also a reflection on their superlative degree of rationality, intellect and intelligence that has perhaps never been witnessed before in Indian politics at the topmost levels.

So when a man of patience and maturity like P. Chidambaram speaks out in an unusually strong manner about India’s poverty, there must be deep underlying reasons behind it.

These two brilliant men at the top have maintained an unwavering focus on India’s economic future with all their might of knowledge and logic. Look at Dr. Singh fighting tooth and nail to secure nuclear energy for India’s future economic growth. He is not behaving like a bumbling old insect of Indian politics, with no sense of the future. He is rational, and he knows that the holy cowdung will not fuel India’s economic dreams of the future.

India’s GDP has entered a high-growth trajectory of 9%, the Indian stock market is experiencing all-time highs, the sectors of manufacturing, services, infrastructure, construction, real estate, I.T. etc. are all galloping ahead like never before, the Indian corporate sector’s confidence is growing by leaps and bounds, with Indian companies making bold acquisitions of foreign companies, and foreign investors choosing India as their favorite destination for the growth and prosperity of their investments.

And yet the Indian FM says he is unhappy with India’s horrifying poverty. And the usually restrained PM says he spends sleepless nights over the condition of India’s poor. At a top industry forum recently, the prime minister said the Indian agriculture is in a state of crisis. Note well, he does not call it a problem. It is a crisis.

What exactly makes these two godfathers of economic reforms so downbeat about the Indian economy? It is the disturbing fact that the effects of the economic reforms launched 16 years ago, have failed to trickle down to the poor and the needy.

The over-simplistic logic that a high GDP’s benefits will automatically trickle down to the bottom levels, has been blown apart as the greatest economic myth of India.

The stark fact is that India has the fourth-highest number of dollar billionaires in the world today (highest in Asia, i.e., higher than Japan), after U.S., Russia and Germany. And the number of dollar millionaires is rising at an average rate of 20% per annum, which is the highest rate in the world at present. On the whole, India has joined the elite club of top 12 nations in the world that have trillion-dollar economies.
 
And at the other end of the rope, India ranks below Namibia at # 126 in the Human Development Index of the United Nations.

Even a more naked fact is that per capita Grain consumption in India has fallen from 503 grams to 400 grams since the economic reforms were launched. That is a gigantic fall, and grain consumption should be a true measure of poverty. Now if in the last 16 years, the production levels have gone up, and the poor have started consuming less, then where on earth has that differential increase gone? Of course, it has gone to increase the consumption levels of the urban rich, while pushing the rural poor down further and further.

P. Sainath, grandson of former Indian president V.V. Giri, and India’s finest journalist on poverty issues, who received this year’s Magsaysay award for honest journalism, and whom Amartya Sen describes as “one of the world’s great experts on famine and hunger”, paints a grim picture of the state of the Indian poor. P. Sainath reports from ground zero that the number of farmer suicides is at a frightening all-time high in the country right now, which indicates that something is drastically going wrong somewhere.

The internationally-famous Chandrababu Naidu of Cyberabad was smashed out of power precisely because he failed to see what Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram are horrified to see. The old warhorses of the BJP saw “India Shining”, while the new men at the top, who were orchestrated to the seat of power by a woman of Italian origin, are seeing “India Weeping”.

Self-deception and self-congratulatory wishful thinking like an Ostrich is the shortest way to your grave. It happened with the BJP. One must learn from the past.

One must learn to cut to the heart of the matter, past all hypocrisy and camouflage. If the emperor has no clothes, rest assured, the people at the rock bottom of the pyramid will be the first to know. And they will finish you with one stroke of their crushing power of vote.

The economic advisor to the late PM Indira Gandhi, Arjun Sengupta is a highly acclaimed economist, and the present Congress team listens very carefully to this man. Manmohan Singh made him the head of an independent National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector. Two weeks ago, Sengupta has come out with a stunning report and announced his findings publicly that despite high economic growth in recent years, 836 million people or 77% of India’s population “remains poor at a bare subsistence level without any social security, working in the most miserable, unhygenic and unlivable conditions.” 88% of SC/ST’s, 80% of OBC’s, and 84% of Muslims belong to this “poor and vulnerable” category.

The menace of poverty from India is just not budging, sixteen years of massive economic reforms notwithstanding.

Reduction in corruption, so that the government-funded poverty-alleviation programs, literacy and health campaigns, huge employment schemes etc. get implemented with reasonable honesty, is critical to bridging of the widening divide between India’s rich and poor, and upliftment of the poorest of the poor.

Land reforms too are a critical part of transforming the fate of the Indian farmer. Nothing meaningful has been achieved on this front in the last sixty years.

Primary education is another critical area that needs a huge effort, and Amartya Sen has spoken on it for decades. Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the noted economist who left his cushy future at the World Bank, and returned to India at Manmohan Singh’s personal request, is spearheading this humongous challenge against illiteracy. But still barely the surface has been scratched in the last three years of power.

Last, and most important, is the reduction of caste divisions in India. This is an impossible problem, and politically explosive. Nobody has any answer to it till now.

Unless all these age-old issues are tackled systematically in a logical manner over a sustained period of time, the poor of India are bound to remain poor at the grassroots levels.

In sumtotal, one must understand that the benefits of the fantastic Indian economic growth story must start trickling down to the poor masses. Or else: Manmohan Out, Mayawati In. With blessings of the Left. Reversal of economic reforms. Flight of foreign capital and MNC’s. The so-called “Raj” of the poor and the oppressed.

Nothing is impossible, particularly in the Indian political firmament. You never know which way the winds will blow, and when. Presumptuousness can be fatal. Ask the BJP.

The moral of the story:
 
The greater the rich and poor divide in a country, the more unpredictable its future.

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36 comments

By Vikas Vij – September 3, 2007


The true Independence Day

[15 August Musings continued ...]
 
Respect is a natural emotion. Respect extracted by force is for the insecure mind that actually has no self-respect. (A case in point: General Musharraf.) Hail Hitler.
 
Or, closer to home, take a look at Jayalalitha — the goddess of corruption in India. She is revered as “Amma”, and she practically expects respect from you. Otherwise you have the fear that you can be jailed by her subservient police department.
 
Religions are insecure, so they too enforce respect. The more insecure a religion, the more fanatical its rules of respect.
 
Similarly, the more insecure a nation, the more its lunacy over its national anthem and the Flag and so on. Look at the communist states, dictatorships and rogue states like North Korea or Saddam’s Iraq. It is not respect that they receive from their people. It is pseudo-nationalism born out of fear.
 
Hysteria is not patriotism. Chest-beating is not nationalism. It is insecurity. Whenever we want to show-off something, it only means that we are internally insecure. The louder the noise, the emptier the drum. Shallow waters make the most noise. Whereas deep seas may hold a million times more water, but they remain calm.
 
The American Constitution is a secure and self-respecting document that allows flag-burning as freedom of speech. But George W. Bush’s government is fighting tooth and nail to have the Constitution amended. It is a sign of their internal insecurity, of a basic lack of confidence in oneself.
 
Symbols are crutches of the weak and the insecure.
 
The most fanatical Mullah who rubs his forehead at the doorstep of his revered Mosque, is actually insecure about God. He is the real unbeliever. Otherwise, is God really so weak that He needs such symbols to survive?
 
Let me quote here Mirza Ghalib who wrote these immortal words:

Zahid, sharaab peeney dey masjid mein baith’kar
Ya wo jagah bataa’dey jahaan par khuda na ho
 
And here are some unforgettable words from Kabir:
 
Kankar patthar jod ke, masjid liyo banaaye
Tah chadd Mullah baang dey, ka behra hua Khudaaye?
 
(Is Khuda hard of hearing that the Mullah shrieks early morning from the rooftops of the Masjid like a noisy rooster?)
 
Or, when Kabir says this to the Pandit with his symbolic bald pate:
 
Keso kahaa bigaadiya, je moondey sau baar
Mann ko kaahey na moondiye, jaa mein vishey vikaar
 
What is your enmity with your hair,
that you shave it a hundred times?
Why not shave your mind too for once,
that is filled only with poisonous thoughts

Taslima Nasrin was hounded out of Bangladesh, and even in India she is unsafe. What a shame. In her stunning poetry, she says these unhypocritical words:
 
Let the pavillions of religion be ground to bits
Let the bricks of temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches
be burned in blind fires
 
There is no difference between an Ayotollah Khomeini who passes a Fatwa against Salman Rushdie for desecrating Islam, and a government that passes a Fatwa against her own citizens who want to desecrate the Flag.

Islam is as much of a dear symbol to an Islamic state, as a Flag is to a secular state.

So who says only Islam is still living in the medieval ages?

The problem is intolerance. If you have to uproot intolerance from this world, you will have to uproot it in its entirety. Not in half-measures.

Fanaticism in its most virtuous form, is still only fanaticism.

Like all true writers, poets and artists of this world, Mirza Ghalib’s life was also governed by the spirit of transgression, of breaking the rules of a slave society. Ghalib’s following immortal words were sung as a part of a ghazal by Mohammad Rafi and Begum Akhtar, with music by Khayyam, the prose narrated by Kaifi Azmi Saheb, and an introduction of Ghalib rendered by Janaab Ali Sardar Jafri — all stalwarts of Urdu poetry:

Tamaam umr mein ek din sharaab na pii hou tou Kaafir
Ek din namaaz padi hou tou gunahgaar
 
Now if that, gentlemen, is not the ultimate rebellion against the enslavement of spirit, then what is.

Let me also submit a line from the the great Bertrand Russell here:

“If you are to experience life to the full, you must not confine yourself to actions approved by the virtuous.” There is a deep meaning hidden in these words.

When we allow our minds to transgress the sphere of thought dictated to us by others, that is when the true magic of life begins. That is when we enter the realm of originality and meet with our soul.

Despite having free souls like Kabir and Ghalib that walked on this planet, we are still chained in our hypocrisies, insecurities and self-deceptions which are as old as the hills.
 
The true Independence Day of a society shall be celebrated when the mind attains freedom from fear.

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By Vikas Vij – August 21, 2007