Yajnavalkya - the immortal sun of knowledge and wisdom

Yajnavalkya - the immortal sun of knowledge and wisdom

V Sundaram | Fri, 16 Nov, 2007 , 03:14 PM . Sri Yajnavalkya Sabha, Pallavaram, Chennai, is celebrating Sri Yajnavalkya Jayanthi Mahotsavam today (16 November, 2007) at Infosis Hall, Ramakrishna Mission School, Bazullah Road, T Nagar, Chennai 600 017 at 4 pm. Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj, President, Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai and Brahmasri Goda Venkateswara Sastrigal are going to speak on the transcendental and eternal glory of Sri Yajnavalkya's contribution to all the facets of Sanatana Dharma. Dr R Thyagarajan, Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Madras Presidency College and President of Yajnavalkya Sabha will be welcoming the audience and conducting the proceedings. In an Age of Classical Ignorance being promoted by the tycoons in the pseudo-secular mafia of mass media—I mean the print and TV media—many people in Chennai City and elsewhere may not be aware of the fact that there is a beautiful Temple for ‘Yogeeswara Yajnavalkya’ in Pallavaram, Chennai. Eternal and time-defying truths of Hinduism through the ages, either in philosophy or religion or dharma, have come down to us through the Maharishis of the past. The great VEDAS record the thoughts and feelings of great Maharishis of ancient India who comprehended the elemental truths through their Divine Power, otherwise called Tapas and Yoga. Among such eminent Vedic Sages, Yogeeshwara Yajnavalkya occupies and exalted position as he has played and continues to play an important role in the renaissance and rejuvenation of India’s ancient Vedic culture. Yajnavalkya is considered as even greater than Veda Vyasa, because Vyasa interprets Yajnavaliya’s ideas which are recorded in the Vedas. The great Maharishi Jaimini emphasizes the value and importance of seminal ideas more than that of individuals. Mahamahimopadyaya Agnihotram Ramanuja Thathachariar has rightly observed: “The ‘APOURUSHEYATVA’ of the Vedic thoughts stands, even if they are the language of Sages, since thoughts are eternal. Yajnavalkya is a renowned Sage through whom have come to us many life-giving thoughts of philosophy and religion. Among the Upanishads, BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD is very big, both in content and meaning. In this classical Upanishad, Yajnavalkya plays the main part and monopolises a long portion. He is intimately connected with the Vedic King Janaka of Mithila and father of Goddess Sita. The dialogues with King Janaka and Yajnavalkya, the discussions and debates of Yajnavalkya at Janaka’s Yagasala and his Court, have become the main doctrines of Hinduism. Yajnavalkya is the revealer of the SHUKLA YAJUR VEDA, which contains Mantras of Vedic Rituals and the Brihadaranya and Isavasya Upanishads.” Yajnavyalkyas’s life, times and teachings constitute the cornerstone of the basic philosophy and tenets of the Sanatana Dharma. He was a beacon light of what an ideally liberated soul or Jivan Mukhta could achieve in this world, for the common good of humanity. Indeed, Yajnavyalkya’s precepts and preachings serve as a veritable bridge for elevating the mundane mankind from the ephemeral earth on to the ethereal world of eternal bliss, harmony and peace. He was the foremost of the apostles of the Advaita philosophy who had contributed most gloriously to the spiritual and Vedic renaissance. We can see from the SATAPATHA BRAHMANA that Yajnavalkya participated in many discussions and debates about the esoteric meanings of various forms of rituals. Vedas endure on the basis of rituals. Yajnavalkya was not only a Philosopher-Scholar but also a master of sacrificial rituals. The quintessence of the teachings of Yogishwara, Yajnavalkya is found in the immortal Satapatha Brahmana, an authoritative treatise on various types of sacrifices and rituals and also in the self-elevating Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the foremost of the ten major Upanishads, and the transcendental Isavasya Upanishad. Seekers of self-knowledge or Brahma-Vidya are bound to benefit a great deal by a study of the Satapatha Brahmana and the two soul-stirring Upanishads. The entire gamut of Hinduism rests on the solid foundation of Advaita, propounded in crystal clear terms in the Maha Vakya of the Shukla Yajurveda—AHAM BRAHMASMI: “I am Brahman’. This philosophy was propagated by Yogishwara Yajnavalkya. Thus Yajnavalkya stands out as a great ritualistic authority. No other Sage can surpass him. He is not only a ritualist, but also a philosopher and esoteric interpreter of Vedic Rituals, a great debater and like Pathanjali, Yajnavalkya is also an authority on YOGA. The Satapatha Brahmana, comprising the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, records the views of Yajnavalkya about the importance of metaphysics. Yajnavalkya was an erudite scholar and had distinguished himself in many other allied fields of human activity. He is a great Law-Giver as well. In fact, Yajnavalkya has been acclaimed as one of the Law-Givers of ancient India, because his teachings and writings abound in the exposition of Law and Jurisprudence. Yajnavalkya Smriti, an embodiment of legal tenets, is a fundamental source of the Hindu Law. A major portion of the present provisions of the Hindu Law has been based on and derived from Yajnavalkya Smriti, dealing with the intricate scheme of human conduct and affairs of life. Episodes connected with Yajnavalkya are scattered in the Satapatha Brahmana including Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. In the PURANAS, there is an attempt to give the complete story of Yajnavalkya, giving a detailed account of the episodes connected with this life referred to Upanishads. Puranas say that Yajnavalkya spent the major part of his life at the Court of King Janaka. He was also King Janaka’s Chief Priest. Once King Janaka conducted a ‘Yaga’. At that time, he wished to find out as to who was the most eminent man present among the Sages then present in his Court. King Janaka promised to present a thousand cows to the Sage who was a consummate scholar. A bag of gold coins was also to be attached to each horn of the thousand cows. No one among the numerous Sages who were present dared to come forward. Yajnavalkya, however, ordered his disciple to take the cows home with him. The other Sages questioned his right to do so. The discussions and disputations he had with Sage Arthavhaga, Sage Kahola, Sage Sakalya, Sage Aruni, Saint Gargi and above all with King Janaka constitute one of the most fascinating chapters in the timeless history of Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma. There are two Sakhas now prevalent in the Shukla Yajur Veda. Madhyandina Sakha is very popular in the northern parts of India. Kanva Sakha is the second Sakha which is popular in different parts of South India. All the people belonging to Shukla Yajur Veda follow Katyayana Sutra. Sri E R Krishnamurti, the former President of Yajnavalkya Sabha authored a book called ‘Yogeeswara Yajnavalkya’ which was published in 1984. In this book, he has described in detail the life, work and achievements of Yajnavalkya and his title to everlasting fame. To quote his inimitable words in this context: “That Yajnavalkya was a versatile Yoga Acharya is revealed in his monumental work ‘YOGA YAJNAVALKYA’—a Samhita Treatise on Yoga, incorporating his instructions to the erudite lady Vedic Scholar Gargi Vachakanu. This excellent treatise on Yoga incorporates the detailed practical instructions on the intricacies of Yoga as imparted by Yajnavalkya to his lady disciple and many other male sishyas. What a generous gesture of forward thinking on the part of Yajnavalkya to have undertaken the responsibility of instructing a lady in the fine arts of Yoga in the presence of male students. ... Gargi and Mytrayi are monumental illustrations for the lofty levels of learning, superlative heights of knowledge and excellence of intellectual acumen acquired by the ladies in the theological and metaphysical subjects in the vintage and Vedic Age of Yajnavlkya. This immortal Yoga Yajnavalkya Samita is a quintessence of Yogic Wisdom, showing the path of Yoga leading to Mukti and Liberation, besides dealing with a variety of subjects. I would conclude with the great Prayer of Yogeeswara Yajnavalkya to Goddess Saraswati: (Saraswati Stuti). I am presenting below the sanskrit text together with the English translation.

Godhra & the Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-I

Godhra & the Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-I

V Sundaram | Tue, 13 Nov, 2007 , 01:49 PM . Tehelka weekly has recently claimed that it had ‘irrefutable’ evidence that the killings of Muslims in post-Godhra train carnage in Gujarat was ‘not a spontaneous swell of anger but a genocide’ planned and executed by top functionaries of the Sangh Parivar and State authorities ‘with the sanction’ of Narendra Modi. Acting as an informal spokesperson for the Congress Party, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Railway Minister, with a proven track record of Mahatma Gandhian personal integrity and selfless service (!), has called for the immediate arrest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Leader L K Advani in the wake of the Tehelka sting operation. Lalu Prasad has also demanded that criminal cases be instituted against the two leaders immediately and they be sent to jail. Finally he has called for the dismissal of Narendra Modi Government. Lalu Prasad Yadav has shown his bumptious arrogance by saying that since Narendra Modi enjoys the patronage of senior BJP leader L K Advani, the opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, the latter cannot escape culpability for the mass murder! And then to enhance the overall effect of his political idiocy, the Railway Minister has solemnly concluded that the incidents were a ‘blot’ on Indian democracy as also humanity and therefore the then Prime Minister Vajpayee, Home Minister Advani and Home Ministry officials were ‘equally guilty’ along with Narendra Modi for the carnage. Lalu Prasad Yadav is not concerned with the Islamic terrorists who were responsible for the Godhra massacre! Congress leader Kapil Sibal has joined the comic cavalcade of Lalu Prasad Yadav by making a statement that the recent Tehelka sting operation was further proof that Narendra Modi and democracy were antithetical to each other. I am not surprised that Lalu and Kapil Sibal endorse each other because they are agreed upon the preposterous political proposition that Sonia Gandhi is Mahatma Gandhi of today’s India. To compound this all with a pseudo-secular flourish, Sonia has come out with her foolish statement that Narendra Modi’s Gujarat has become a Godse Land. Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) said: “Get hold of facts first before you distort them”. C P Scott (1846-1932), a great British Journalist said: “Comments can be free provided facts are treated as sacred and sacrosanct”. Unfortunately for the Congress Party and Sonia Gandhi, brutal facts relating to Islamic terrorism at Godhra on 27 February 2002 are non-existent and only their brazen comments based on self-chosen Himalayan vanity on the one hand and virulent hatred for all the Hindus of India on the other, are relevant to be treated as sacred and sacrosanct. Sonia Gandhi seems to have conveniently forgotten the fact that Naturam Godse was a Hindu from Maharashtra (not from Gujarat!) and Mahatma Gandhi whom he assassinated was also a Hindu (but not from Maharashtra! And of course, not a Muslim!). In Gujarat, Muslim terrorists (enjoying the full political patronage of the Congress Party and its allies), set fire to a railway carriage in which 58 innocent Hindu pilgrims who were travelling by Sabarmati Express were charred to death on that black Wednesday, 27 February, 2002 at 7.45 a.m. at Godhra Station. The Television Crews reached Godhra on the afternoon of 27 February , 2002 itself. The Television News Channels showed the pictures through the day—of the burning of S6 Coach of Sabarmati Express and the dead bodies. On the morning of 28 February, 2002, Godhra was a lead story in all the Indian News Papers including the English Language Papers. The Ahmedabad Edition of The Times of India devoted its entire front page to the burning alive of 58 pilgrims at Godhra. About two inside pages were also devoted to the incident. S K Modi, a senior journalist and author, in his brilliant book ‘GODHRA: The Missing Rage’ has rightly observed: “But something was missing. The rage was missing. There was no sense of rage in the reports. There was no trace of indignation in the bland description. There was no anger. Nobody was feeling pained or hurt. Nobody was feeling anguished at such a ghastly incident having taken place. Nobody was furious at the sheer brazenness of the gory massacre. And this applied to the elite of the society as a whole—besides the media, no political leader, no social activist, no thinker, no analyst, no think tank displayed a sense of despair. There were no statements of condemnation from any of the senior political leaders. A two-line statement of condemnation was issued by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which was reported in a 1x5 Column centimeter item in inside pages of ‘The Times of India’. Perhaps the letter was signed by someone other than Sonia Gandhi on her behalf. When confronted with the question of her failure to condemn the gory carnage a few days later in the Parliament, she angrily asked: ‘Who prevented the ruling party from condemning the incident?’ Even after the news of the Godhra massacre had reached New Delhi on 27 February, 2002, in Parliament in New Delhi there was a stubborn silence among the Congress Party Members, even when the Treasury Benches begged the opposition to join in a unanimous condemnation of the event. Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting, anti-Hindu Sonia Gandhi did not feel the need to call upon the Prime Minister on 27 February, 2002. According to her, at any rate, on that day, despite Godhra Massacre, our nation’s future was not in any way in any danger. However, after the wide-spread violence which broke out on 28 February, 2002 as a natural and violent public reaction against the inhuman atrocities let loose by Islamic terrorists in Godhra Station a day earlier, Sonia’s office started making frantic calls requesting for an appointment for her with the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 2.00 p.m. on that very day and Sonia was successful in meeting the Prime Minister Vajpayee only at 7.55 p.m on that day. Her close aides Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh, Kamal Nath and Ahmed Patel—known and sworn enemies of the Hindus of Gujarat then and the Hindus of the whole of India now—joined Sonia Gandhi at her meeting with the Prime Minister. The Shahi Imam, one of the most powerful Muslim religious leaders in India, had already met the Prime Minister Vajpayee by about 6.00 p.m on that day. All of them were passionately concerned only with the post-Godhra violent reaction which had come to open public view on 28th February, 2002 and not with what had happened to the innocent 58 Hindus who were burnt alive in a railway carriage at Godhra Station on 27 February, 2002. Was this not the ‘noblest” (?!) moment in the sham history of Nehruvian Pseudo Secularism in post-independent India? If only some Muslim pilgrims were taking off on a Haj Pilgrimage from Godhra on that very day, Sonia Gandhi would not have failed to rush Godhra to see them off. The criminal, anti-national anti-Hindu hypocrisy and effrontery of Sonia Gandhi and her disgraceful Party became clear to the people of Gujarat when she met the Prime Minister to stress “that in view of the large scale violence having erupted in Gujarat, the safety and security of the Muslims had become a matter of concern.” The people of Gujarat asked the question: ‘Why did not Sonia Gandhi seek an immediate meeting with the then Prime Minister Vajpayee soon after the Godhra carnage on the morning of 27 February, 2002 itself? Was she awaiting instructions from her beloved Pope in Rome?’ As a free lance journalist, I assert my right to say that perhaps she viewed the barbarous burning of 58 Hindus in the railway carriage in Godhra as a rare and exceptional act of Islamic compassion, leavened by her full Christian understanding of transnational, if not anti-national, Islamic emotions. S K Modi brilliantly sums up as follows: “The silence on 27 February, 2002 was deafening. The indifference was complete. The insensitivity was infuriating.” The man in the street in Gujarat (I mean the common Hindu) would have tolerated the insensitivity and the indifference of the English Language media because he had been quite used to that kind of blatant discrimination right from 15 August, 1947. But the English Language Media just did not stop at casual and studied indifference. Its attitude was outright contemptuous and callous towards the Hindus in general and the 58 unfortunate Hindu Pilgrims in particular. Everybody knew that Muslims lived in Signal Falia in Godhra, where the Sabarmati Express was stopped and the S6 Coach, along with 58 innocent Hindu pilgrims, was burnt in broad day light by Islamic Terrorists. Yet the English media refused to see or say that it was a Muslim mob that attacked the Hindu pilgrims on that fateful day. Some international celebrities in the English media called the attackers ‘just a mob’, some called them ‘unidentified people’. The standard and standing excuse that ‘naming’ names in a riotous situation might by itself create problems, prevented the English media from pointing an accusing finger at a particular community. This standard dictum (I mean excuse) was, of course, forgotten with a pseudo-secular anti-Hindu flourish the very next day on 28 February, 2002. Unlike the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating pseudo-secular mafia of English Mass Media, the local vernacular Gujarati Press was indeed forthright in its total condemnation of the dastardly attack on the innocent Hindu pilgrims who were killed in Godhra. I fully agree with S K Modi’s finding: “It is the callousness of the English Language Media and the English-speaking elite that infuriated the masses. The English Media did not stop at oblique attempts to protect the attackers. It actually attacked the victims by justifying the train carnage—the pilgrims had provoked the mob by not paying for tea. … Pulling the beard of a tea vendor…. Attempting to abduct a girl … The theories went on. One professional activist told the Washington Post immediately after Godhra: ‘The victims were not going for a benign assembly. They were indulging in blatant and unlawful mobilization to build a temple and deliberately provoke the Muslims in India’. (To be contd...)

Godhra & the Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-II

Godhra & the Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-II

V Sundaram | Wed, 14 Nov, 2007 , 02:48 PM . The Godhra carnage on 27 February, 2002 was viewed by the pseudo-secular mafiaof English media as a routine local event of no national significance. Even after the large- scale eruption of unprecedented violence on 28 February, 2002, the English language media failed to understand the magnitude of its own error in having taken the killing of 58 innocent Hindu pilgrims at Godhra so lightly and so indifferently with cold pseudo-secular disdain. No wonder, the media totally failed to gauge the intensity of the emotions on 28 February It had also failed to carefully assess whether it was physically possible for Narendra Modi government or for that matter any other government to control the kind of mass frenzy that had exploded in Gujarat. Millions of people had spontaneously taken part with elemental passion in the mass violence. Leaders of all political parties had ceased to be of any significance or importance or relevance at that moment. The common man in Gujarat had overtaken them all. This fact was later realised when a newspaper report on 9 August, 2003 stated: ‘Most Congress corporators and some Congress leaders of Gujarat had actively participated in the last year riots’. A few Congressmen who did not participate wrote letters to Congress president Sonia Gandhi giving a list of Congress leaders involved in the riot and asking her to take stringent action against them. But it was of no avail. The real truth of the matter is that the agitated crowds were willing to face the bullets of the law-enforcing authorities in a fiercely fearless manner. Many housewives belonging to the middle classes were seen coaxing their sons and husbands to go out into the open public arena and join the frenzied crowds in their heroic fight to give self-respect, equity and natural justice to themselves as outraged human beings. In his explosive book GODHRA: The Missing Rage S K Modi has given the following lurid description of what happened in Gujarat on 28 February 2002, the day after the Godhra massacre “The whole of Gujarat was in flames. Those who indulged in some sort of violence on that gory day could be counted only in millions. Did the VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders, who were allegedly responsible for having incited and led the crowds, have some magical hypnotic powers? If that was indeed the case, the ruling BJP would have had 400 seats in the nation’s Parliament, instead of the 182 seats it currently has (In January 2004). And if the people of Gujarat were particularly prone to the ‘hypnotic’ powers of the Hindu nationalists, why did he take the BJP such a long time to come to power in Gujarat?... The reality is that there has been no pattern to the BJP’s rise in Gujarat. To call Gujarat the Hindutva laboratory of the BJP is a fallacy created by the so called analysts and commentators. Hindutva came out of the laboratory stage over 5000 years ago. The very fact that it has survived so many attacks, so many onslaughts, says that it does not need any laboratory. It is a way of living. It has decayed and been refined several times over. The process is unending. Hinduism is eternal.” The most important and fundamental fact that was ignored completely by the mass media in general and the English media in particular was that the widespread violence was perpetrated by the masses and not political workers and/or criminal elements alone. To prove this point S K Modi cites the example of Gulbarg society, where the former M P Ahsan Jafri (that is how his name is spelt in the directory of the Indian Parliament) was burnt alive. The truth is 10,000- plus crowd was willing to lose a few lives, if need be and if necessary, in the process yes and yet at the same time they were determined to ‘teach a lesson’ to the former MP, if not the Muslim community at large. The Washington-based Human Rights Watch went to the extent of alleging that six or seven females (two married women and four or five girls) were raped during that gory Gulbarg incident. This allegation was based upon an interview with an unnamed eye witness. What is most atrociously amusing is the fact that since that day of ‘alleged rape’, several cases have been filed before the law enforcement authorities in Gujarat but none by those affected by the Gulbarg society incident. The Islamic terrorism-embracing pseudo-secular mafia of mass media had hoped against hope that Narendra Modi would give them the splendid opportunity of writing about the spraying of bullets on crowds of thousands in Gujarat. Unfortunately for them, Narendra Modi outwitted their known ways of prejudice, malice and wickedness by observing: ‘One fault that I can justifiably be accused of is that I did not bomb the crowds’. This observation was made on one of those rare occasions when his soul was tormented and tortured by the most reprehensible and irresponsible media coverage of the post-Godhra backlash. Narendra Modi felt sorry that the hopelessly impossible nature of the situation was not properly appreciated and understood in its proper perspective by the English language mass media which thought that the Gujarat government had watched the violence in a neutral and passive manner. I cannot put the final outcome of this hopelessly poor media-understanding of the explosive situation in Gujarat better than in the sizzling and seizing words of S K Modi: ‘The result was that the media trained its guns on two targets - the people of Gujarat who had indulged in such brutal violence and the government of Gujarat, which had failed to control it. The media had failed to understand the reasons for both—the fury of the masses, as well as the government’s failure to control it. Ignorance of the English language media was so as complete as was its indifference towards mass sentiments the previous day (i.e. 27 February 2002).’ The English language media’s complete lakh of concern the previous day (27 February, 2002) made way for a colossal sense of rage on the evening of 28 February, 2002. That further compounded the problems of the people of Gujarat. As the Gujarat Chief Minister put it a few days later, the media started ‘rubbing salt’ on the wounds of the people. Whether the wounds, or the salt, or both, were perceived or real, can always be questioned and debated by the English language media. But a point is that the people of Gujarat felt that way. For all its wonted smug sense of self-importance and infallibility, the English language media was proud of its ignorance of ground realities. This ignorance had its origin in inefficiency. With the full advertisement support of the Hindu-hating and Islam-loving UPA government and its allies, ignorance and inefficiency in English media reporting went on feeding each other for several months. Even today Himalayan ignorance and Herculean inefficiency continued to be the two massive pillars of the English language media in India. On 1 March, 2002, when the cataclysmic violence was at its peak in Gujarat, the National Human Rights Commission jumped into the fray with terrific pseudo- secular political enthusiasm. Having not taken notice of several human rights violations for a long time, this congenitally impotent organisation did not want to miss a golden opportunity for justifying its official existence and attaining instant stardom by issuing a notification as follows: ‘The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the escalating communal violence in Gujarat and has issued the following notice today: This matter is registered for suo motu action on the basis of media reports, both print and electronic. In addition, a request on e-mail has also been received requesting this commission to intervene. This matter relates to the existing serious situation in the State of Gujarat. The news items report a communal flare-up in the State of Gujarat and what is more disturbing, they suggest inaction by the police force and the highest functionaries in the State to deal with this situation. In view of the urgency of the matter, it would not be inappropriate for the commission to stay its hand till the veracity of these reports has been established; and it is necessary to proceed immediately assuming them to be prima facie correct. The situation, therefore, demands that this commission take note of these facts and steps in to prevent any negligence in the protection of human rights of the people in Gujarat irrespective of their religion.’ When the whole of Gujarat was on fire, the National Human Rights Commission (a sinecure body of unemployed if not unemployables!) issued notice by fax to Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Gujarat, for their reply within three days indicating the measures they have taken to tackle the situation! This notice was signed by Justice J S Varma, chairperson, Justice K Ramaswamy, Justice Sujata V Manohar and Sri Virendra Dayal, all members.This commission did not direct its own representative in Ahmedabad even to send a report to them! The English language media simply wanted Narendra Modi to declare the events on 27 February and 28 February 2002 as an example of Hindu barbarism against peace-loving, ever compassionate and helpless Muslims. If only Narendra Modi had done that, he would have been recommended for ‘Nobel Prize for Peace’ by the English media in India with the full benediction of Sonia Gandhi and her Pan-Islamic Party. (To be continued)

Godhra and Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-III

Godhra and Congress parasite of secular anti-Hinduism-III

V Sundaram | Thu, 15 Nov, 2007 , 09:32 PM . B P Singhal, IPS (Retd), former Director General of Police, UP and Member of the Rajya Sabha has completely exposed the fraudulent moves and postures relating to the recent Tehelka ‘Sting Operation’ titled ‘Gujarat ka Sach’. In my view, this Tehelka ‘Sting Operation’ has been sponsored by the Congress Party in thought, word and ‘seed’ (Sonia and others). The timing of this politically criminal operation has been desperately chosen on the eve of Assembly Elections in Gujarat. It has to be noted that the electoral process relating to the 2007 Assembly Elections in Gujarat has already been set in motion. Even the most naïve and innocent citizen can very clearly see that Tehelka and the sponsors of Tehelka have once again tried to launch a programme for the vitiation of communal harmony not only in Gujarat but in the rest of India. I have spoken to a cross section of voters in Gujarat and they are all dismissing the Tehelka Sting Operation as Congress-Sonia ki Jhoot with fervour and righteous indignation. Ever since the Hindu-hating and Islam-promoting UPA Government under the stranglehold of a ‘de facto’ woman Prime Minister with a mysterious (if not questionable!) Italian Passport came to power in New Delhi in May, 2004, concerted attempts have been made to marginalize the Hindus of India and to enhance the special status already conferred upon the minority Muslims of India under the Indian Constitution. The first such move was made through the ‘Sachar Commission’ who prepared a false report to suit the political convenience of the Congress Party and he went to the mad extent of going in for a headcount of Muslims in the Indian Armed Forces. Unlike the non-descript Prime Minister of India (the Patron-in-chief of Justice Sachar and his brand of pro-Islamic Jinnah Nationalism!), General J J Singh, Chief of Army Staff showed extraordinary moral courage by making it clear to the Government of India that such a communal headcount of Muslims will only infect the Armed Forces with the most poisonous form of communal virus. The whole nation salutes Gen. J.J. Singh for protecting the nation in general and the Armed Forces in particular against the political machinations of UPA Government. The second maneuver was made when the Government of India filed the sacrilegious affidavit in the Supreme Court, in the Sethusamudram case wherein it QUESTIONED the very existence of Sri Rama. When the Hindus of India were preparing themselves to rise in revolt in the same way as the Hindus of Gujarat reacted in Gujarat after the Godhra massacre on 27 February, 2002, the UPA Government in a fit of nervous breakdown, withdrew the earlier anti-Hindu, anti-Rama affidavit, pleading for time to file a fresh affidavit in its place by January, 2008. And now the Congress Party by sponsoring this new Tehelka ‘Sting Operation’ has made a condemnable third move to communalize the Indian polity in the interest of vote bank politics. Against this background, B P Singhal has rightly concluded: ‘What Tehelka ‘Sting operation’ has done, clearly attracts Section 153A of the IPC and if Congress has not sponsored this ‘Sting operation’ then it should not hesitate to prosecute Tehelka u/s 153A IPC. As Tehelka as well as the TV Channels who aired those tapes are headquartered at Delhi, it is the Delhi Police and consequently the Government of India have to take the legal action against them u/s 153A IPC.” In his investigative analysis, B P Singhal has clearly stated that nobody could have found fault with ‘Tehelka’ and the TV Channels if only they had passed on those so-called incriminating tapes to the Supreme Court of India for appropriate action or taken care to telecast the so-called confessions of VHP activists or the BJP MLA for informed enlightenment of the people. If their findings had been put before the Supreme Court for judicial adjudication, then the due process of law would have taken its course and helped in the process of discovery of truth, leading to the punishment of the guilty and the acquittal of the innocent. To quote the exact words of B P Singhal: “The real MISCHIEF that attracts Section 153A IPC is the JUXTAPOSITION AND INTERSPERSION of rising flames and bellowing smoke with the earlier recorded bytes of the Gujarat riots, accompanied with crashing cymbals, beats of drums, screaming voices, and the highly provocative comments of the ‘anchors’ of the channels that aired those tapes. There is a clear intention to inflame communal passions through what all was telecast in the name of ‘Gujarat ka Sach’, and it would be dangerous for the future of the country if such a nefarious act goes unpunished by default of the UPA Government.” ‘Gujarat Genocide’, ‘State-sponsored Pogrom’, Modi-promoted Terrorism, cried the Pseudo-Secular Mafia of English Media on 1 March 2002. This was the worst form of anti-fact and anti-truth propaganda in the truly ‘Goebblesian’ sense. Only the local Gujarati Press gave a factual and truthful account of each day’s happenings at that time. The common people of Gujarat knew the facts about the ground level realities. The darkest day in the history of Indian Judiciary was reached when the Supreme Court allowed itself the privilege of being emotionally overwhelmed by the most organised form of Goebblesian propaganda by the English Print and Electronic media and burst out into the following observation in the Best Bakery Case: ‘The modern day NEROS were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and helpless women were burning ...........’. The Supreme Court had made this observation without even taking care to verify as to what measures had been taken by Government of Gujarat in this case. The simple fact is the Supreme Court lost its sense of judicial balance and restraint. B P Singhal gives an interesting account of the shocking manner in which ‘Aaj Tak’ in its programme on 25 August 2007 continued to harp on the whole refrain ‘Modi did not call the army until three days had passed’ after the massacre. Even more outrageous was their insistence on this point. When ‘Aaj Tak’ contacted B P Singhal on phone to get his response, he told them that the GODHRA carnage took place on 27 February 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on 28 February and the Army was doing flag march on the forenoon of 1 March ............ The man from ‘Aaj Tak’’ cut him short by saying that ‘this is exactly what exactly I had said, no action was taken by Modi on 29, 30 and 31thus giving three clear days to the murderers .......’ B P Singhal was forced to cut him short by simply reminding him that the date 28 was 28 of February 2002 and there was no 29, 30 or 31in that month. The fraudulent man from ‘Aaj Tak’ disconnected the telephone with pseudo-secular cunning and suaveness. Against this background of ‘Aaj Tak’ fraud, I am only reminded of what the great French writer Anatole France (1844-1924) said : ‘Without lies humanity would die of despair and boredom…The mischievous liers are those who keep sliding on the verge of truth”. In answer to a Parliament question, the UPA Home Minister gave the figures of casualties during Gujarat riots. 790 Muslims were killed; 254 Hindus were killed; 2500 people were wounded and 223 people were reported missing. Thus any one can see that this completely knocks down the story of English media that it was a totally one-sided affair and only Muslims were butchered by the Hindus. Thanks to the perverted and irresponsible functioning of the English Print and Electronic Media in India, we are condemned to live in an age remarkable less for its destructiveness than for its desensitization. We have learned how to make our accommodations with the irrational. The missiles and the megatons have been metabolized into everyday facts of life. What is happening today is that the natural reactions of the individual against unabashed violence are being blunted. The individual is being desensitized by living history. We are developing new reflexes and new responses that tend to slow down the moral imagination and relieve us of essential indignation over impersonal hurt. We are becoming pseudo-secularly casual (Sonia-casual!) about brutality. We have joined the Pseudo-Secular Mafia of mass media and made our peace with violence. The desensitization of the average Indian today is more than a danger to the common safety. It represents the loss or impairment of the noblest faculties of human life—the ability to share sorrow and create hope; the ability to think and respond beyond one’s wants. There are some things we have no right ever to get used to. One of these most certainly is brutality. The other is irrationality. Both brutality and irrationality have come together and become the leading players in the mafia of English Print and Electronic media in India, becoming a dominant pattern. If this devilish and dastardly pattern is to be resisted and changed, a Herculean effort must be made. A very special Himalayan effort is called for. (Concluded)

The colossal Columbus of classical Tamil movement

The colossal Columbus of classical Tamil movement

V SUNDARAM | Mon, 12 Nov, 2007 , 03:18 PM . Icongratulate the Government of Tamilnadu and its irrepressible Chief Minister, himself a no mean scholar in Classical Tamil, for having converted the humble cottage of Parithimal Kalaignar (V G Suryanarayana Sastri 1870-1903) in Vilacheri village near Madurai City, into a memorial and also for having sanctioned a sum of Rs 15 lakh towards nationalising the books authored by Parithimal Kalaignar. All the lovers of Classical Tamil have whole-heartedly welcomed this initiative of Tamilnadu Government because Parithimal Kalaignar was the first Tamilian to raise his full-throated vibrant voice of demand to declare Tamil as a classical language as early as in 1902, when the University of Madras planned to remove Tamil from the syllabus. Government of Tamilnadu, especially Dr Kalaignar Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister, had succeeded in persuading the wooden UPA Government to declare Tamil as a Classical Language in 2005. I understand that the Government of India have since sanctioned an amount of Rs 5 crore for the promotion of Classical Tamil and that an amount of Rs 3 crore has so far been spent by Tamilnadu Government towards this noble and worthy cause. I fully endorse the view of Dr Avvai Natarajan, former Secretary to Government of Tamilnadu (Tamil Culture and Tamil Development) and former Vice Chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur in this context: ‘While I congratulate the Government of Tamilnadu for having taken the initiative to declare the ancestral home of Parithimal Kalaignar near Pasumalai in Madurai as a Memorial, yet this initiative will come to full fruition only when the Government of Tamilnadu moves the Government of India to give total financial assistance to the tune of Rs100 crore to begin with to establish an Indian Institute of Classical Tamil in Chennai City and houses it in a building to be named as ‘PARITHIMAL KALAIGNAR BUILDING’. This new Institute should serve the cause of promotion of Classical Tamil and Classical Tamil Literature like the French Academy in France founded by Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642) in 1635”. The French Academy consists of forty Members, known as immortels (Immortals). New Members are elected by the Members of the Academy itself. Academicians hold office for life, but they may be removed for misconduct. This Body has the task of acting as an official authority on the French Language. The French Academy is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are only advisory; not binding on either the public or the government or the nation. G Subramania Iyer (1855-1915), the founder of the Hindu and Swadeshamitran, paid his tribute to Parithimal Kalaignar in these words in 1895: “Of the new band of graduates who have thus stepped into the field of literature, I am glad to mention as one of the most, if not the most conspicuous amongst them, the name of PANDIT V G SURYANARAYANA SASTRIAR of the Madras Christian College. Apart from the surviving generation of the old school of Pandits, Pandit U V Swaminatha Aiyar, for instance, I think I may say that V G Suryanaryana Sastriar is the foremost worker in the cause of the advancement of Tamil literature. He is still young and I hope it will be his distinction and fame to leave behind him enduring marks of the influence of his genius on the new era into which Tamil literature is struggling to enter”. G Subramania Iyer was indeed prophetic in his appraisal of Parithimal Kalaignar who became one of the great pioneers and savants in the field of Tamil literature at the turn of the 20th century. V G Suryanarayana Sastri (who assumed the pseudonym of Parithimal Kalaignar, a literal translation of his Sanskrit name) was born on 6 July 1870 at Vilacheri village near Pasumalai in Madurai (Tamilnadu) to a devout Saivite Brahmin Govinda Sivan. He was put in school, to learn Sanskrit and Tamil when he was 10 years old. He learnt the Vedas under his father and Tamil under S Sabapathy Mudaliar who was teaching Tamil at the Madurai College. He was such a prodigy in learning that in a few years he learnt practically all that his teachers knew and his father was naturally anxious that he should learn English also. Accordingly he was sent for his secondary school education and the first course in Arts in the Madurai College. Later, he went to Madras and joined the Christian College (Rev Dr Miller College as it was popularly known in those days) to study English, Philosophy and Tamil. He soon became a favourite pupil of the reputed Rev Dr Miller, Principal of that college and took his BA degree in 1893 obtaining the first rank in the college in Philosophy and Tamil. Rev Dr Miller wished to offer Sastri a Lecturerership in philosophy in his college. But the young man preferred a Tamil Pundit’s position, though the latter position carried a lower salary and status. But here was a graduate of the Madras University securing a university rank deliberately choosing the little coveted job of teaching Tamil to unwilling students. He was the first man in the history of this land to make such a choice. Parithimal Kalaignar taught to a handful of students, twelve (12) in number. He used to say that Chirst and Sankara had twelve disciples (12), leaving us to infer what he meant. Like the 9 Gems in the Royal Court of Chandragupta Vikramaditya, these 12 students of Parithimal Kalaignar became very eminent and famous in the field of education, literature and letters. The twelve (12) were: N Balarama Iyer, V S Shanmugham Pillai, C N Saravan Mudaliar, S Ramaswami Iyengar, S Varadachari, S Sundarachari, Salasalochana Chettiar, J Vasudeva Pantulu, Pranatavtihara Sivan, Subrahmanya Achari, S Muthiah Mudaliar, K R Srinivasa Iyangar . K R Srinivasa Iyangar became one of the foremost Professors of English Literature in post-independent India. Parithimal Kalaignar revolutionised the teaching of Tamil to such an extent that some of the best students in the college were attracted to the Tamil language and to the new teacher. The number of such boys grew till he formed the ‘TAMIL SCHOLARS GROUP’ around him and to them he taught unstintingly all that he had learnt from his teachers and for no consideration whatsoever. Thus he sacrificed a great deal in the cause of his mother tongue which was suffering from neglect and ignominy in those days. This act of self-sacrifice won for him the admiration and support of Rev Dr Miller. The great Editor of Tamil classics C W Damodaram Pillai (1832-1901), hearing about Suryanarayana Sastri’s competence in Tamil, called and examined him, and and taking note of the genius of the young man presented to him a copy each of his edited works. He continued to be his friend and patron till the end. Parithimal Kalaignar was appointed Head Tamil Pandit in the Madras Christian College in 1895. He was very unorthodox in his teaching methods and treated his pupils as co-adventurers in the cause of literary discoveries. He had no respect for tradition merely on the ground of its antiquity and he infused into his students the same spirit of heterodoxy and non-conformism within the bounds of literary decency. He wrote poetry, prose, drama, and he authored a standard work on Tamil dramaturgy called NATAKAVIYAL. He wrote the first sonnet in Tamil and called it Tanippasuram. Some of them were immediately translated into English by Dr G U Pope (1820-1908) of Oxford University. Dr Pope hailed Sastri ‘as the herald of a new school heartily to be welcomed’. As years passed, his range of literary activities grew wider and wider. He became the Editor of a Journal called Gnanabodhini and edited it till his death. M S Purnalingam Pillai (1866-1947) who wrote the first History of Tamil Literature in English and dedicated it to Parithimal Kalaignar in touching verse in English. When Parithimal Kalaignar died in 1903, M S Purnalingam Pillai paid this tribute to him: “.”During the 10 years after his graduation in 1892, not a moment passed without my seeing Parithimal Kalaignar do something or other to develop or diffuse Classical Tamil Language and Literature. His enthusiasm for Tamil knew no bound.” Sastri boldly wrote the first tragic drama Mana Vijayam in Tamil and caused a great shock to the orthodox conservatives in the Tamil literary world. His incessant activity started telling on his health. He had contracted tuberculosis. He fought valiantly against the disease but finally succumbed to it, on the 2 November 1903, at the age of 33. His grief-stricken father renounced the world. His young widow and daughter and two sons, all practically infants, came under the sheltering care of her parents. Indeed the world of Tamil literature had seen a great meteor rise and pass, leaving an incredible and unmatched career as a splendid memory in the glorious history of Tamil Language and Literature. Introducing two Tamil sonnets by Parithimal Kalaignar, one on ‘Thiruvalluvar’ and the other on ‘War’, F W Kellett, the Editor of the Christian College magazine, in the issue dated July 1901 wrote as follows:- “A time comes in the history of a language when there are set before it the ways of life and death. If it cannot burst the bands which enfold it, it dies. If it can find freedom of movement and expression it lives. It is generally agreed that as a literary language, Tamil is now at this critical stage. The danger to its life is increased by the presence side by side with it of that mighty rival, English.” “But apart from that competition, literary Tamil in itself has the seeds of the disease which may prove mortal unless it is checked. Pedantry, conventionalism, artificiality and imitativeness are among these seeds of decay. The remedy is a return to natural simplicity.” “Many can speak Tamil with power and grace, who when they take pen in hand are the slaves of arbitrary standards of composition. Happily there are some in whom nature and true literary instinct and inspiration have begun to work, forcing them to seek deliverance from narrowing and cramping canons of art and to express themselves in modern forms, in natural tones and in a language understood by the common people. Parithimal Kalaignar is the leading harbinger of this new movement in the field of Tamil literature”. More than a century has passed since Parithimal Kalagnar’s death. Whatever be the final judgment of history, no one can ever dispute the fact that he was indeed a colossal Columbus in the virgin ground of promotion of Classical Tamil Language and Literature in the last decade of the 19th century.

Festival of lights

Festival of lights

V Sundaram | Wed, 07 Nov, 2007 , 02:58 PM . The Festival of Diwali falls tomorrow (8 November 2007). It has held India’s heart captive from times immemorial. Rabindranath Tagore, referring to the hoary and sacred tradition of holy ceremonies and festivals, rightly said: “India of geography, India of history and tradition, India of our forefathers, fairs and festivals and above all the India of our dreams, minds and hearts cannot change.” Diwali is celebrated on the darkest night following Dashera, midway in time between New Moon and Full Moon, and commemorates the return of Lord Rama to ascend the throne of Ayodhya after his 14 years of exile in the forests of his kingdom. His arrival was awaited by a vast concourse of subjects who gathered round the throne waiting in anxious expectations for the advent of their beloved King. Then, through the brushwood and the forest, emerged the Mendicant King, Saffron Clothed, barefooted and bareheaded, with a sheaf of arrows across his back and a giant bow in his hand. All Ayodhya went mad with transports of joy. Night came. A thousand flairs went up in old Ayodhya. A myriad lights scintillated in the darkening sky and made day of night, while the warrior King Lord Rama sat in Royal State, in the splendour of his simple regalia. There sat a victor over mighty Ravana; a victor over personified Wrong; nay more, a victor over himself. The word “Diwali” is the corruption of the Sanskrit word “Deepavali”—Deepa meaning light and Avali, meaning a row. It means a row of lights and indeed illumination forms its main attraction. Every home—lowly or mighty—the hut of the poor or the mansion of the rich—is alit with the orange glow of twinkling diyas (small earthen lamps) to welcome Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity. Multi-coloured Rangoli designs, floral decorations and fireworks lend picturesness and grandeur to this festival which heralds joy, mirth and happiness in the ensuring year Diwali is the Festival of Lights, celebrated all over India as an occasion to worship Goddess Lakshmi. This is the time when people in all parts of India celebrate the beginning of something new; a time to herald in prosperity and happiness in their lives. Diwali is an occasion when people light diyas (small oil lamps) all over their home to welcome Goddess Lakshmi in their homes. The festival is marked by distribution of gifts, sharing of wealth and celebration by sharing sweets and lighting firecrackers. This occasion inspires people to share their wealth among those who do not have the wherewithal to afford firecrackers, food or new clothes. In many regions of India, the wealthy people send gifts of sweets, firecrackers and clothes to the poor. The dazzling firecrackers bursting all over the sky at night is truly a sight to behold. The firecrackers that set the sky on fire at night symbolize the burning away of a person’s anger, hatred, fear and sorrow. Bharat Mata carries in her bosom diverse cultures drawn from infinite spiritual sources and traditions. And therefore it is no wonder that our sacred Motherland is imbued in the aura of festivities round the year. Most of the Indian festivals find their origin in Hindu Mythology. Diwali is one such widely loved festival. In an attempt to honor the great Lord Rama, we have come up with some amazing tales, which have been passed on from generation to generation in every family and are preserved as India’s ancient heritage. The popular story related to Diwali is the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after fourteen years of exile. There are a number of myths surrounding the festival. For instance, the stories of the killing of Ravana and Narakasura, the emergence of Goddess Lakshmi etc. are some of the stories that enrich and enliven the glory of Lord Rama and reinforce his position of “Purushottama”—an exemplary Man of Honour—in India’s religious, cultural and social life. But, that is not all. There are many other mythical stories that enrich and enhance the significance of Diwali. The quintessence of Diwali celebrations lies in these timeless and immortal stories. Let us now note the different regional traditions relating to the celebrations of Diwali. Each region of India celebrates Diwali in it’s own unique way. In West Bengal, it is celebrated as ‘Kali Puja’. After nineteen days of the completion of the Durga Puja, the whole State gets geared up to celebrate another popular festival, the Kali Puja. Kali is worshipped as the Mother Goddess who protects the people from evil. The Puja actually takes place at midnight on the day of the new moon. During the Kali Puja all houses are lit up with candles decorated around the house. During this Puja, children and adults are seen to burst firecrackers. No one seems to sleep on that night. The First Day of Diwali festival begins with Dhanteras, a day to worship Goddess Lakshmi. The Second Day of the Festival is set aside to worship Goddess Kali, the Goddess of Strength. On the Third Day, lamps are kept alight brightly in homes. The lamp symbolizes knowledge and wisdom. The Fourth Day falls on the first day of the lunar New Year. On this occasion, old business accounts are settled and new books are opened. Indian priests worship these books in a special ceremony and participants are encouraged to let go of all anger, hate, and jealousy from within. The Fifth and last Day (Balipratipada) of the festival is dedicated to Bali, an Indian king. Bali destroyed the centuries old philosophies of the society. He is remembered for being a generous and kind person. The moral of this day is to see the good in others, even one’s enemies. The Sikhs celebrate Diwali to signify the return of the Sixth Guru Hargobind to Amritsar in 1620 along with 52 Hindu kings imprisoned along with him by Emperor Jahangir. The Jain communities of India hold Diwali as a New Year’s Day. Lord Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, attained his Nirvana on this day. In Maharashtra also, on Diwali day for all Hindus traditional early baths with oil and “Uptan” (paste) of gram flour and fragrant powders are a `must’. All through the ritual of baths, deafening sounds of crackers and fireworks create a joyous festive atmosphere which enables all the children to enjoy their holy bathing on Diwali day. Afterwards steamed vermiceli with milk and sugar or puffed rice with curd is served. Sri Chinmoy (1931-) has said: “Light and darkness. Darkness makes us feel that we are nothing and can do nothing, that we are useless. Light makes us feel that we are everything, that we can do everything, that we can become everything. “The ancient saints, sages and seers of India who composed the Upanishads declared for all time that ‘LIGHT’ is the essence of the Universe. The Upanishads say: “Agni is Light and the Light is Agni. Indra is Light and the Light is Indra. Surya is Light and the Light is Surya.” Agni, Indra and Surya are cosmic Gods in the Hindu pantheon. Sri Chinmoy (1931-) commented thus on the above Mantra: “Light is Love revealed. Light is Life manifested. Light is God fulfilled.” On the eve of Diwali—the great Festival of Lights—I cannot help chanting the following beautiful lines of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950): Thy golden Light came down into my brain And the grey rooms of mind sun-touched became A bright reply to Wisdom’s occult plane, A calm illumination and a flame. Thy golden Light came down into my throat, And all my speech is now a tune divine, A paean-song of Thee my single note; My words are drunk with the Immortal’s wine. Thy golden Light came down into my heart Smiting my life with Thy eternity; Now has it grown a temple where Thou art And all its passions point towards only Thee. Thy golden Light came down into my feet, My earth is now Thy playfield and Thy seat.

Sri Guruji - A mighty symbol of national integration

Sri Guruji - A mighty symbol of national integration

V Sundaram | Tue, 06 Nov, 2007 , 02:08 PM . By 1961, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru had come to realize that his artificial anti-national and anti-social philosophy of ‘pseudo-secularism’ (now known as the Nehruvian Brand) based on Minority Appeasement had completely failed to create a united and integrated nation and instead the forces of national disintegration were marching to the forefront. Taking note of this, a National Integration Conference was convened by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru from 28 September, 1961 to 1 October, 1961 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. 153 thinkers from different parts of the country were invited. These included Union Ministers, State Chief Ministers, prominent Leaders of various political parties in the Lok Sabha, Vice Chancellors of Universities, Educationists, Scientists and prominent Industrialists. In all, nearly 130 gentlemen participated in the Conference. The Conference began on 28 September 1961 with the inaugural address by President Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. In his speech, as usual, he quoted a Sanskrit verse: “TAM VARSHAM BHARATANNAM BHARATI PYATRA SANTATIK”. Translated into rough and ready English, it only means “The Bharatiya generations of that nation of BHARATAM”. The decision to establish the National Integration Council was taken at this Conference and the Prime Minister was appointed as its Chairman. The first meeting of the National Integration Council was held on 2-3 June, 1962. At this meeting, politically compelled by the circumstances beyond their control, a decision was taken to invite Sri Guruji Golwalkar, Sirchanchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to participate in the deliberations of the National Integration Council. As Sri Guruji was unable to attend the meeting, he sent two senior colleagues from the RSS. Sri Hansraj Gupta, Sangchalak of the Punjab State RSS and Sri Narendrajit Singh, Sangchalak of the Uttar Pradesh R.S.S., to deputise for him. Both of them were very highly respected leaders of the RSS at that time. Sri Guruji’s public work in any sphere was marked by great thoroughness, courage, balanced judgement dedication, devotion, concern for exactitude and perfection, clairvoyant vision and above all an over-riding emotion of burning patriotism. For the guidance of the participants in the first meeting of the National Integration Council, Sri Guruji had noted down some of his views regarding the course of deliberations and the issues which he felt ought to be discussed at the Council Meeting. I have carefully gone through the NOTE prepared by Sri Guruji on that historic occasion. From the point of view of the Hindus of India, it was a great document like the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights. It was marked by profound insight and Sri Guruji had analysed basic meaning of frequently used words like ‘Communalism’, ‘Majority and Minority Communalism’, ‘Loyalty to Religion in contradiction to or in opposition to Loyalty to the Country’ and ‘Secularism’. In a dark atmosphere of pseudo-secular anti-Hinduism which was over-shadowing the country at that time, Sri Guruji fearlessly expressed the Hindu vision of life ingrained in the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS). I am giving below some excerpts from the historic note of Sri Guruji for the benefit of our readers: Indian National Life: “Indian National life is very ancient. Built on the edifice of one metaphysical knowledge, the life stream of the people is co-related to and inter-woven with common cultural tradition and heritage which is constituted by similar values of life and the establishment of metaphysical knowledge or the realization of the supreme truth. It has been present much before the arrival or the aggressive intrusions of the Christians and the Muslims. Although a number of creeds, sects, castes and sometimes, division of states are visible, its unity and integrity has been continuous and uninterrupted. The group of people whose identical life has been this, is called Hindu. Hence, Indian National Life is actually the Hindu National Life. The thought of National Integration ought to begin from this pure introduction. National Integration is nothing but the construction of a constant flow from this primordial fund of actual Nationalism and its traditions, hopes and aspirations.” Thus Sri Guruji made it clear that the roots of National Integration cannot be traced to Russia or China or England but to our ancient Bharat Varsha. Hindu Communalism: “The Hindus in India can, in no way, be called ‘communal’. They have always been devotees of entire India and have always been ready and keen to work hard for its progress and glory. The values of India’s national life have been installed or established from the bedrock bricks of Hindu life only. Hence, it is national and in no way, communal”. Majority Communalism: “Majority Communalism is nothing but a myth, a mistake. In a democracy, it is essential to respect the opinion of the majority in day-to-day life. Hence, it will be right to consider the practical existence or entity of the majority as the ‘National Entity’. From this point of view also, efforts made for the Hindu life and its excellence are ‘national’ and not ‘communal’. The expression (experiment!) of Majority Communalism is against the sentiments of democracy. In various States, the various leaders use words like ‘Majority-Minority Communalism’ because they consider the entire public as their slaves….” Communalism: “The Hindu has always been respecting the collective opinion of others. He does not believe that the differences in the way of worship are in any way opposed to the unity of the nation. He does, however, oppose the using of these differences as an excuse to accept the policy of differentiation in the mundane life and the tendency to hurt national life by making a demand for special rights for the so-called minorities; although it has always been his natural duty to oppose, with determination and alertness, such a tendency. Fostering such tendencies (the tendency to hurt national life), adopting a policy of appeasement of minorities by fulfilling their anti-national demands, carrying on transactions with them for immediate political benefits, trying to hurt the good relations, etc. is fatal to national life. National Integration can never be achieved with such efforts. Calling the good intentions of the Hindu society to oppose such anti-national sentiments as ‘communalism’ will be a big mistake and will be in opposition to truth and reality. It is the sign of a disturbed mind. Actually, such opposition to special rights is the primary duty of every citizen who has any patriotic feelings.” Sri Guruji could speak with great authority and moral force because he was not interested in becoming either a cheap Prime Minister or a criminal Chief Minister or for that matter a slavish Cabinet Minsiter. Official Language: “Every sovereign country has a language for its use. From the point of ease and convenience, the Constitution has accepted Hindi as a ‘National Language’. Making it obscure on the pretext of ease and making it more Urdu is like adulterating the universal sovereignty of the nation with communalism and communal appeasement. Changing the official language into the colloquial language or by being a slave to a foreign language, putting English on the same level as the national language will destroy the pure sentiment of patriotism. Because the feeling of National Integration is dependent on the intensity of patriotism, the language-related wrong policy must be immediately given up or stopped.” Imperative Need for a Unitary Form of Government: “We are one Nation, one society, one emotional life, one mutual relations, one country; therefore, one nation must be administered by one rule. Therefore, it is natural to look at it as a Unitary Form of Government. The Federal Form of Government today creates and fosters separatism. In a way, it derecognizes the true feeling of Nationalism. As such it disintegrates the country. Parochial Federalism must be taken out from the roots. For this, amendments must be made to the Constitution of India and a Unitary Form of Government must be established”. Patriotism of the Hindus: “Hindus do not have any divided loyalty. Loyalty to religion, in contradiction with or in opposition to the loyalty to country, is absolutely impossible in the context of the Hindu. This is a strong proof of the fact that he belongs to a pure National Society. Therefore, calling him Communal or making him stand on the same level as those whose loyalties are divided and sometimes questionable, is unwise and adjust. The thought of special or partial rights on the basis of caste or creed is contrary to Hindu opinion”. Verily Sri Guriji was the embodiment of the call of the Upanishads, Charavedi-Charavedi (Move on, move on!) – ever on the move, arousing and awakening our Nation to its self- awareness and self-assertion. He was a symbol and spearhead of the mighty movement of National Renaissance—the R.S.S.—for more than three decades. In Him, the post—independent Bharat found the Man of Destiny who gave the call and the blueprint for the country’s re-construction in the light of its pristine National Genius. He has left behind Him not merely the legacy of a great philosophy but also thousands of Hindu Missionaries in every State pledged to the fulfillment of his chosen mission.

A Rama (Gopala) Baana in Ravana SSCP den!

A Rama (Gopala) Baana in Ravana SSCP den!

V Sundaram | Mon, 05 Nov, 2007 , 03:16 PM . Dr Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor of Madras University, is presiding over the Committee of Eminent Persons appointed by T.R. Balu (ostensibly in his official capacity but substantively in his private (DMK Party) capacity!) to consider the controversial issues relating to the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project (SSCP). This Committee is holding its session in Chennai. Rama Gopalan, the President of Hindu Munnani presented his petition to this Sham Slovenly Careless Committee (SSCP) in the morning today (5 November, 2007). The ruthless objectivity and unquestioned probity of Dr Ramachandran became fully known to the public when he put a Ponnadai on Karunanidhi at the spot where he sat for observing a fast against the Honourable Supreme Court of India for having imposed a ban on the ‘stupid Bandh’ organised by the DMK. Mahatma Gandhi’s several fasts were put to historic shame by this judicially aborted fast of Karunanidhi who decamped from the spot the moment he got the news relating to the Supreme Court’s ban on the Bandh then in progress. Dr Ramachandran gleefully participated in this glorious historic (!) event and covered himself with pseudo-secular rational colour. Thus Dr. Ramachandran and Karunanidhi had the great good fortune of being together at one of the greatest Dress Rehearsals of World History in the first decade of the 21st century- — THE GREAT CHEPAUK FAST. This world shaking event can only be described in the truly exciting, free, and unmatched common man’s verse of Chandramouli: For the convenience of those readers who do not know Tamil, I am giving a fuller English Translation of the above Tamil verses. Karunanidhi said there is no Lord Rama He further said He is a mad drunkard Where did Lord Rama get his Engineering Degree from? Karunanidhi asked with Periyar Rational Fervour. Ramachandran gleefully garlanded Karunanidhi For raising such noble questions! Rama Sethu is not a myth but a living truth It was built by Lord Rama and no one else Said the People in one voice To discover this known TRUTH The same Ramachandran heads the Committee In a wretched land of Shame, Perfidy and Infamy!! Dr. Ramachandran, chairmen, SSCP commmity of Eminent Persons putting a ponnadai on karunanidhi on 1-10-2007. In this historic context of global significance, I am only reminded of the beautiful lines of the great English poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973). Literature, especially poetry, often exhibits the extraordinary use and uses of ordinary language, and can often remind us of public issues which our ordinary/normal use of words would neglect, repress, or even deny. Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places. Ramagopalan, Hindu Munani President, in his petition to the Committee of Eminences presented this morning, has raised the following issues: A. The public have no confidence in the credentials and intellectual integrity of this Committee. The Chairman of the Committee, Dr Ramachandran, went and garlanded Karunanidhi on 1.10.2007 where he was staging his fast against the Judgement of the Supreme Court, imposing a ban on the DMK bandh. Such a man can never be objective in his approach to the SSCP evaluation work entrusted to him. He has enclosed a photograph of Dr. Ramachandran putting a ponnadai on Karunanidhi which can be seen at the top of this article. Sri Ramagopalan, Founder & President Hindu Munnani. B. The scientific proof to show that Rama Sethu is man-made is available with the Government of India. Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Earth Sciences (Vide D.O. No. MOES/Misc &-PCII Dated 14 April 2007) has written to Dr Abdul Kalam – President of India that the Rama Sethu is man-made. That being so, how can this settled question be raised now? Ramagopalan has enclosed a copy of this vital letter. C. There is adequate numismatic evidence regarding the existence of Rama Sethu cutting a cross centuries. Ramagoplan has given a photograph of the half an anna coin minted by the English Eat India Company in 1818 to the Committee to prove this point. How can men like T R Balu and Karunanidhi treat this historical fact with contempt and derision. D. There is massive literary evidence to prove the existence of Rama Sethu through the Ages. For example, Sethu Pala Charithiram (Sethu Sthala Purana Kaviyam), the benefits that would accrue to any one who has a holy dip in Rama Sethu Ocean have been clearly explained. How can this literary evidence be dismissed as fiction? E. Alberuni, the Muslim Historian who came to India in the 11th century has referred to the historic, spiritual and religious significance of Rama Sethu. Thus Ramagopalan requested the Committee to recommend the following steps to the Government of India: 1. Rama Sethu should on no account be destroyed. 2. Every step must be taken to protect the Fisheries and Fisherman of Area by saving Rama Sethu from planned destruction. 3. The Committee should examine the economic and environmental aspects of SSCP in an objective manner, liberating itself from the pressures of vote bank Party Politics.

Sadguru Sivananda Murty graces Chennai city

Sadguru Sivananda Murty graces Chennai city
V Sundaram | Thu, 01 Nov, 2007 , 02:50 PM . In these columns, on 29 May 2007, I had of fered my salutations to Sadguru Sri Kandukuri Sivananda Murty in these words: “Saint, sage, seer, venerable and profound Sadguru Sri Kandukuri Sivananda Murty is a revered and sacred name that reverberates through out the length and breadth of India as an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient spiritual personality influencing the lives of thousands of his disciples. He was born into a royal family of Urlam and Devadi Villages in Vizianagaram District of Andhra Pradesh in the year 1928. From his child hood days, he was deeply drawn towards spiritual subjects and especially towards Yoga sastra. He took a Voluntary retirement from the Police Department of Andhra Pradesh and began devoting his time towards the upliftment of the poor and educating the people about Hindu Dharma and its eternal verities”. All his devotees in Chennai are delighted to note that Swamiji is visiting Chennai today (1st of November 2007) and that they are going to have his ‘Dharshan’ in Chennai. Sadguru Sivananda Murty is going to give a talk on a very relevant and important subject “CITIZENS AND SANATHANA DHARMA” at the Centenary Hall, P S Higher Secondary School, R K Mutt Road, Mylapore, Chennai on the 2 November, 2007 at 6 pm. As a great patriot, his love for our great country and its ancient culture rooted in Sanathana Dharma is indeed phenomenal and unique. He has travelled extensively all over India including the troubled border areas and performed over 450 Rudrayagams for the protection of Hindu Dharma in all corners of the Country. As a spiritually powerful public communicator, he constantly exhorts in all his public lectures that all citizens, including Sanyasis, who are dependent on Society are duty bound to think and act as custodians and trustees of public welfare. He is a walking encyclopedia on Hindu Dharma, History, Indian Fine arts like, Music, Dance, Drama and literature. His essays on contemporary subjects like cultural, political and spiritual history were serialized in a Telugu daily, and was later published in two volumes under the name of ‘’Bharatiyata.’’ His commentary on Kathopanishad received profound acclaims from the Paramacharya of Kanchi and Sringeri Shankaracharya His public speeches on contemporary issues have been published under the title “THOUGHTS OF A SEER”. His views on “Perspectives for Indian Constitution”, “Values: Science and Technology”, “Bharateeyata”, “Science and Religion”, “An Aspect Of National Welfare and Security”, “New Dimensions in Technical Education for The 21st Century”, “Internal Dimensions of National Security” and various other seemingly intractable problems affecting our sick nation today, founded on his unmatched spiritual experience and transcendental wisdom, are indeed enlightening, exhilarating and elevating. His policy prescriptions for pulling our shattered nation out of the current mire of chaos and confusion are based upon Sanathana Dharma. The clarion call of Swami Dayanand Saraswaty (1824 - 1883), the founder of Arya Samaj in the 19th century, was “GO BACK TO THE VEDAS”. The clarion call of Sadguru Sivananda Murty to our nation today is “GO BACK TO THE SANATANA DHARMA” in every field of our national life. To quote the words of Sadguru Sivananda Murty in this context : “ What is this Bharateeyata? We have heard that Sanatana Dharma is the basis of our Bharateeya Culture. We have heard that Sanatana Dharma indicates that it has no beginning or end. It is an all time Truth relating to this world. The Dharma comes from Dharayiti which provides a platform to human life on this earth. How old is our culture? How ancient is our history? Who are the authors of this Sanatana Dharma? We can only understand a country’s culture with a historical perspective. But Bharateeyata and Sanatana Dharma cannot be understood this way since history can only help us to know the antiquity of a culture to a period not long before the Christian Era. Our culture is much anterior to Ithihasas Ramayana and Mahabharatha or even the Scriptures. Puranas speak about the great characters around which great events are woven which speak about Sanatana Dharma. We worship Rama and Krishna who lived in Sanatana Dharma… Rama was the personification of Dharma. Ramo’Vigrahavin Dharmah. He was God among men, a human being among gods. Greatest human beings are worshiped in this land…. Rama was an ideal ruler. Rama-Rajya is our ideal for governance. Personality of Lord Rama should reflect in the governance of the country. Everyone need not worship Rama but one should emulate him irrespective of one’s color, cast, religion etc. The men in government should not act out of fear, for any personal gain, or out of any prejudice or hatred. The citizens should also act on these lines to get good governance. Dharma is all pervading. It should be reflected in thought, word and action. In Western culture, everything is right in love and war. In Sanatan Dharma, love has a dharma and war has a dharma. Everything is not right. Voice of Dharma has to be heard in the inner core. Our heart should develop attitude of listening to the voice of Dharma” As a spiritual leader Sadguru Sri Kandukuri Sivananda Murty, is in the immemorial tradition of great Rishis, Saints and Sages of India going back to the dawn of history. His AMRITOTSAVAM was celebrated on a grand scale with joy and fervour by thousands of his disciples in India and abroad in December 2003. All his disciples from various walks of life viewed his AMRITOTSAVAM as a supremely auspicious occasion for thanks giving to the great Mahadeva for conferring affection and offering benediction to one and all who come to him to seek his solace and blessings. To quote the words of one of his disciples Prof A.Prasanna Kumar: ‘’Sri Sivananda Murty Guru is more than a Guru. He is energy and grace personified. His disciples feel secure in his presence. He does not seek anything from anyone, for that matter does not need anything for his own self. He offers advice and guidance for those who seek it with a smile that disarms and a kindness that overpowers. The relationship between the Guru and Sishya is not easy to describe. Faith cannot be explained. It has to be experienced.’ The reverence, affection and veneration shown and expressed by them towards their Guru in eternally beautiful words of spiritual power all proclaim to the world ‘OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI SIVANANDAYA’. To quote the sublime words of David Frawley about Sadguru Sivananda Murty: ‘’We cannot entirely rely upon our own ability to contact God within. Yet many of the external means of approaching God that are available to us are also not reliable. The solution is that we must find a true Guru or Spiritual Master to aid us in our internal quest. A true Guru is an enlightened soul who is in communion with Isvara, the supreme Guru, and can bring the divine word into human expression. Sadguru Sivananda Murty is such a true Guru. He has represented the role of a true Guru in an age in which the Guru business has often all but obscured it, keeping that ancient role alive and vital for the future of humanity. May the light of his teaching spread to all corners of the planet.’ Sadguru Sivananda Murty Swami, through his writings and speeches, has made it clear that we are intellectually poor, inwardly torn, profoundly uneasy and ignorant of the future. I can summarize his message to us: “Spirit is lost in the clamour of daily events. We don’t hear with an inner ear nor do we see with the third eye. We witness a nonsense world full of shapes, forms and pressurized events. The spiritually creative part of us has died an early death. We are left with a chorus of voices screaming, ‘Be this! Be that! Work at a job you hate! Build a career u hate! Money and power are the only measures of success in life!” But the truth of the matter is very different. Happiness is the only measure of success in life. All the rest is wisdom proposed by spiritually deaf, dumb and blind people.” Since the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating UPA Government is hell bent on torpedoing and destroying for ever the Rama Setu Bridge in Rameshwaram which has withstood the onslaught of centuries, I requested Sadguru Sivananda Murty to give a message to the nation. He has given this inspiring message: “Rama Sethu controversy should not have a place in a true democracy. The sentiments of millions should be honoured without researching into the nature of that structure; whether it is man made or otherwise etc. Even if it is a natural formation, it is enough that the great King Rama walked across those rocks to destroy a wicket outside enemy with sufficient provocation. Ramayana is history and Rama is still a much-adored hero who had destroyed the agents of an outside enemy like Ravana harming the people inside the Southern Peninsula. The underwater formation of a ridge could have been crossed by makeshift floating bridges by the followers of Sri Rama. Call it monkey- made if not man- made; nevertheless the stone ridge can be treated to have a historic significance. If it is monkey made as it is believed, it is much more precious. A small bridge in Europe gains great historic importance because perhaps Napoleon had crossed that bridge. Such is the sentiment in any nation about any historic structure. The Government should honour such feelings and sentiments in a true democracy”. The quintessence of Sadguru Sivananda Murthy’s spiritual message is as follows: Have unshakeable faith in God and His Will; Take thorough refuge in Him; Give up all your unfounded fears, all anxieties, all doubts and all thoughts of weakness; Remember that you have put yourself under the guidance and control of an all-powerful being; Submit, resign, surrender yourself to Him; Be always cheerful, peaceful and blissful. God is always in you and you are always in Him. He and you are one. This is the Truth.