Is Raj Thakre a Saviour of Marathi Manoos

It seems to be debate season. I had been reading this particular debate for some time and I am surprised that a lot of people whom we considered educated and sensible are being easily manipulated by Raj for his political gains. Let us consider some points.

1. Raj’s political aspirations were not getting fulfilled with his Uncle. So he floated a new party. Even a novice can clearly understand that Raj needed a platform after he started his new party. What’s a better way to start with, then fanning out regionalism when it has so many takers? If Raj was so sincere about the Marathi Manoos he should have stayed with his Uncle so that they could have fought united for the rights of their people. It shall also be noted that Siv Sena had been in govt. at the state and they did not do anything like that. It’s very easy to make mountains of a mole-hill when you are in opposition and not responsible for anything. Do you think Raj can fulfil his promises if he becomes next CM?

2. Can anybody agree to the funny idea raised by Raj that people from other part of the country shall not settle in Maharashtra? We are already paying the price for what Mr. Nehru did by granting this status to Kashmir. We were unfortunate that Nehru got upper hand on a more honest and sincere politician like Patel. (The word politician has acquired such a derogatory meaning that using it for Sardar Patel seems like insulting him).

3. One of the Raj supporters has floated an idea that governments of northern states shall pay some percentage of their revenues to Maharashtra for accommodating their people. Isn’t it a foolish suggestion? Isn’t it like India paying USA, Gulf countries and even Korea for providing employment to Indians?

4. Some people also start listing the misdeeds of Lalu or Maya or Mulayam and thus condone the acts of Raj. It’s like saying the politicians from north are corrupt and criminals so we shall also have corrupt and criminal politicians. What the ilk of Laloo, Malaya, Maya etc have done to these states is for everybody to see. Fortunately so far the politicians of other states although not honest, have lagged behind in this loot. Do you now want to drag Maharashtra from being a better developed state (as compared to UP or Bihar etc) to the same level.

5. One more thing that shall be kept in mind is that some cities or areas have some natural geo-political advantage over the other areas for business. They naturally develop as centres for trade and business. The Britishers were not Marathi Manus for having a soft heart for Mumbai. They promoted business in Mumbai because the harbour suited their business needs. After Independence it was naturally going to be the first choice for new businesses since it was already developed as a business centre. Such areas will always attract business and industries and will bring influx of working class with it. You can not say YES to the industrialists and no to the workers.
All industrialists in Maharashtra are not owned by the natives. Ambanis are not Marathi; Ratan Tata was born to Gujarati speaking Parsis. If you welcome Industries you shall welcome the associated labour force with it. Those who work more, work efficiently, and create less trouble will always be the first choice.

6.Almost half of South Korea's population live in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly one quarter in Seoul itself, making it the country's chief economic, political and cultural center. Do we expect people from seoul to cry foul and start attacking people coming there from other areas in Korea. Fortunately the Koreans are wise . They tell with pride that seoul is home to ¼ of it’s population. Their politicians are also know this . So instead of indulging in antisocial and antinational acts like Raj they work for betterment of society and developing other provinces and cities.

7. Sometimes we feel that the decline in democratic values in our country is due to lack of education. It’s due to lack of awareness that whole lot of politicians like Lalu, Mulayam, Maya and Thakeres get elected to the governing bodies.
But we can not blame the uneducated masses when our so called highly educated brothers and sisters believe in the histrionics of these corrupt and criminal politicians.

8. Now, what is the solution. Our governments both at state and national level has to recognise their mistake that our development plans have been concentrated around the metros. It’s not only Mumbai’s problem. Delhi has the same problem. They shall plan for somewhat equal development of all areas. Not everybody wants to go far from home to earn his bread if it is available nearby. If Raj is sincere he shall start industries in remote places of Maharashtra. Latur or Chandrapur will be equally attractive if somebody can earn , live and save as in Mumbai.


Navnit

FALSE PRIDE ON OUR ANCESTORS?

A friend of mine posted this on our yahoo group. It made me think a lot and write this post.

This is what my friend wrote:
“Even though it has been noted that Indian/eastern philosophies and modern physics share many points in common, it is very difficult to say whether our ancestors including great persons were aware about the existence of world. Lots of interpretations are done to match with the present day scientific theories and many religionist create pseudo science and try to stop the human thinking process by creating closed form solution with God. Shankara and Gita did the same. Only Gauthama Buddha went out of this recursion of God loop and tried to visulize the universe. He is one of the founding person of Suniyavadam (net=0) and concept of no creator or creation (no ininitial thought of superbeing to create Universe).
Sankara and his advidam is complete opposite to this thoughts and even destroyer of this modern thoughts. His life long struggle against Buddishm and Jainism really pushed back this modern thinking, nothing else.
Then, Tao of Physics is, in fact was, a good book. He tries to super impose cyclotron pictures with dance of Sive and tried to explain the accidental coincidence with estern philosophies. Some times his theories were misleading new/young readers those who do not have preliminary knowledge in modern science. In reality our ancestor's so called knowledge didn't bring either any major idealogical changes or real changes to the world. during their time. In reality many scientist need to spent their life and energy and countries to shell out lots of money to understand many scientific unknowns. Let them do since their brain is curious.
Telling that our ancestors knows everything, may bring some false proud but nothing more. I get some time irritated when people equates the civil engineering with vastu sastra.
In the ligher side, I started writting this when I noticed many are becoming emotional with Kashmir issue and started suspecting others patriotism!. I tried to move the attention from Kashmir issues to this hypotheitical issue. Don't spent too much time in reading this or Gita or Fritjof Copra... Just look at the broad sky and natures around. Even the concept of country (including politics and army) and religion and associate emotions are just created to have control over others (earlier days ordinary folks used to die in thoushand in fighting other king, because their king wanted to marry the princess of other king!). Have a nice weekday. Just open the window. see the colorful sky”

This is my response .

1. Beauty beholds in the eyes of the viewer. It is true for any other fact also, including religion and science. Our individual idiosyncrasies define how we see the world.

2. It was only during the last century or so that modern science started finding similarities between eastern philosophies (including Indian) and the findings of modern science. Before that any of these philosophical thoughts might have been termed as foolish or superstitious. Can we say with confidence that what ever similarities could be established have already been established and now all the latest findings of science are proving or will be proving that our philosophies were all wrong?

3. Our philosophers or Gurus (Philosophy and religion are not separate in Hinduism or Buddhism) did not go to the scientific community to validate their thoughts. If their souls went to the scientists with such requests is not known. However, what is certainly known is that most of the similarities were found by the western scientists after years of research. They were not working to establish such similarities, but they found that such similarities exist and they told the world about it.

4. No body can say that everything has been understood about the existence of world. With modern science telling us that the universe is ever expanding; it will never be possible to know everything about the universe with scientific tools and techniques. It however remains a possibility that such knowledge can be gained after transcending the limits of time and effect. This was the method adopted by our seers in their quest for truth. If we can not say they knew more; how can we say that they knew less?

5. It is also a belief strongly held by pseudo scientists that religion stops the human thinking processes. It is a known fact that our sages had acquired a lot of knowledge about mathematics, medicine, astronomy etc. There was no separate title of scientist, as religion, science and all knowledge was interwoven. Einstein is considered as one of the greatest scientists and this is what he has said.

“For the scientific method can teach us nothing else beyond how facts are related to, and conditioned by, each other. The aspiration toward such objective knowledge belongs to the highest of which man is capable, and you will certainly not suspect me of wishing to belittle the achievements and the heroic efforts of man in this sphere. Yet it is equally clear that knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. One can have the clearest and most complete knowledge of what is, and yet not be able to deduct from that what should be the goal of our human aspirations. Objective knowledge provides us with powerful instruments for the achievements of certain ends, but the ultimate goal itself and the longing to reach it must come from another source. And it is hardly necessary to argue for the view that our existence and our activity acquire meaning only by the setting up of such a goal and of corresponding values. The knowledge of truth as such is wonderful, but it is so little capable of acting as a guide that it cannot prove even the justification and the value of the aspiration toward that very knowledge of truth. Here we face, therefore, the limits of the purely rational conception of our existence. “

6. History tells us that Shankaracharya grew up during a time of unrest and strife, of spiritual bankruptcy, and of social discord. There were literalists and ritualists (can’t find a proper and better English world) who were holding on to the scriptures, missing their spirit, and there were nihilists and iconoclast who were out to destroy all that was sacred and old”. All the teaching get diluted and maligned as they pass from generation to generation. Then they loose their importance and a new spiritual teacher is required who provides guidance suitable to that time. Shankaracharya was such a spiritual teacher.

It was an established practice by scholars of the time of Shankara to debate various issues to gain more understanding of the nature of existence. It is not correct to say that he opposed Buddha. Shankara has mentioned Buddha as the ninth incarnation. Thus it seems impossible that he aimed to oppose Buddha. It is well known that After Buddha the Buddhists were also divided into separate schools of thought and they define Sunyata (emptiness is a better world to define it than zero) in different ways. For Madymika School (Nagarjuna) this is the main principle while some other schools do not give it the same importance. So which definition leads to real nirvana? How many Buddhists could attain the Buddha status after Gautam Buddha?

7. It is true that Shankara did not approve of certain thoughts of Buddhism. But he was also not in complete agreement with orthodox Sanatan Dharma. His philosophy was a totally new interpretation to Upanishads. Ramanuja’s philosophy ( who came after Shankara) is again ways apart from Shankara although both refer Vedas and Upanishads for their source. Shankara lived only for 32 years. He achieved so much in such a short life span. It is not possible for a man filled with hatred towards others or for a man whose main aim is just to oppose other great people, to reach such spiritual and philosophical heights.

8. Infinite series is not considered as closed loop solution in theoretical mathematics. Hindu Philosophy has always maintained that there are infinite ways to find the truth of existence (mostly termed God). It is also taugt that the universe or the existence is also infinity. No end No beigning? You call this closed loop soultion? Just for the fun of using a technical word?

So it is not correct that Gita and Shankara and other Hindu philosophers were destroyer of any modern thought. In Gita Lord Krishna mentions different paths to attain the truth. It depends on the personal choice and attitude to select the one which suits him best. Selecting one does not negate the virtues of the other path. Neither it is said anywhere that only one path leads to truth. Everyone can attain nirvana in this life time or next if the desire and discipline is there. But how many have that? If a child can not add 2+2 it shows his lack of knowledge, it does not make the mathematics false and useless.

9. What is Vastu Sastra? Isn’t it the form of civil engineering practiced by our ancestors? It happened that this science was forgotten with time. Multitudes of grand building and temples built in India and also in other countries before civil engineering was taught in its’ present form gives ample proof that our ancestors (Indians as well as others) had acquired appreciable knowledge in this field.

How much do we know about Vastu? What most of us know is from reading some paperbacks published on this subject. Can we say with certainty that the writers of such books have completely understood this science or can we say that all the knowledge of this science was saved during our long history of foreign rule and is now available to these writers? But whatever is known, does it defy the basic principles of building design any where?

We have better computing abilities than few decades earlier. That does not mean that engineers of that time were nothing in our comparison. Every field of knowledge (including science and spirituality) will see new developments with time. That does not mean that posterity shall laugh at the ancestors.

Instead of smelling arrogance after tucking an engineering degree wouldn’t it be better if our engineers also try to understand our ancestral science and apply that to their design if possible and feasible?

10. What is meant by significant ideological or real changes? Didn’t our ancestors teach the world basic mathematics as is known today? Didn’t our ancestors know much more about our solar system and planets than the western world knew a few centuries ago? Didn’t our ancestors who developed Aurveda did a great job in understanding medical science and the relation of mind and body. The so called modern (western) science has also started to accept this mind body relation, but they are far from understanding it completely. At the same time it would be unwise to call modern medical science as useless stuff. Everything has its place in the system and shall be judiciously used.

Talking about ideological changes, some of the greatest spiritual teachings in form of Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism came from India. They were not only meant for sadhus or Bhikshus. They laid their impression on everybody in the society and in all walks of life. They showed a way of life to the common man.

If we talk about materialistic achievements, India was called golden bird a few centuries ago. But materialistic gains were never considered the main purpose of life by our spiritual leaders and through them the general public. Compassion, sharing, peace, love, knowledge were far more valued than anything else.

11. The work of modern day scientists deserves appreciation for their knowledge and devotion for learning. But if we say that our ancestors failed than these scientists have also failed miserably. In spite of all the knowledge gained and millions and billions spent on research the basic problems of hunger, disease, and poverty are still growing. To this we have added new problems of air and water pollution. Nuclear science has given capacity to finish the world in few seconds. Humanity is loosing ground and intolerance is increasing. Moreover most of the research toady is sponsored one which aims to profit a few people instead of doing good for all. Otherwise what is the need of patents on new research?

12. it’s certainly not true that our ancestors knew everything. It is never possible, otherwise all progress will stop. Saying such a thing would certainly be foolish. But denying due appreciation to our ancestors would be even more foolish. It would be suicidal also. A society needs to have self respect and certain amount of pride to develop. Acknowledging our ancestors achievements provides us that.

Navnit

Delhi Explosions and After

I am often not interested in political topics. But this is one subject which has hurt me a lot. It has not only hurt me , but I am filled with anguish and rage.

We had this sad incident of explosions a few days back. Official estimates tell more than 25 dead and more than 100 injured. So many families have lost their sons ,daughters, husbands,wives , mothers and fathers. Life will not be same for them. It will not be easier for the injured. Don't know how many will completely recover from their injuries.

What does any citizen expects from the government in such times? Does it expect crocodile tears? Does it expect monetary compensation? No. The people all over the country expect their government to nab the culprits. They expect that their police will chase the culprits and sympathisers out of their hideouts and punish them. They expect that their chosen representatives will work for their security and teach such a lesson to these terrorist elements that they will not dare to commit such acts again. There is a difference between individual and organised crimes. No government can completely control individual crime,but it can certainly control such organised terrorist activities. But it requires political will power and rising above party politics. It's sad that our central leadership lacks both.

A few months back similar explosions were carried by these terrorists in Ahmedabad. One person was nabbed by Gujarat police. Next day there were reports that political leaders from central ruling party and their supporting parties visited the family of the suspected terrorist to show their sympathy and support. What message does it give to the nation and international community. Seems the whole world knows that we are a weak country, not necessarily in military but certainly in character. They know our leaders and higher officials can be bought.
They know our central government works for the benefit of one dynasty . The know that most of our leaders are not people of repute and learning ,but crooks and criminals.

Yes crooks , criminals and sycophants are leading this country. Where will they lead us? Certainly to our graves and to their well being. Although I love my country very much ,I see no hope for our country. We are destined to be doomed.

How Do We Produce Different results for Same Karma

I am sometimes intrigued by the way we seem to get results for our karma. Some people get punished by God or nature for small mistakes and some seem to do blunders and sin and still seem to enjoy and they are not punished. In my personal life I have seen that I get punished by god for small mistakes and that also instantly. I don't see myself as a perfect person but it's my endeavor to follow the right path as much as I can.
I have discussed this in our family and also thought over this for a long time. One answer that comes to mind is that this is Kaliyuga and honest and sincere people will suffer in this period. But this answer is not acceptable to me. I believe we will always get results for our actions. I also believe that god cares for us so can not be blind to wrongs of some people and punish others for their small sins. I had written this is my last post. So what's the answer?
I believe we all are in various stages of development. Hindu philosophy tells us about mukti and nirvana. That is the stage when we become free form all sins and desires. How do we reach there? -- by continuously improving us. This is not possible in this birth . We are born again and again till we reach this stage.
Now consider an analogy. A baby while playing drops a costly glass item on floor and it breaks with pieces scattered on the floor. The baby starts crying although he/she is unhurt. what do you expect the mother to do? She immediately rushes to the baby, takes the baby in her arms and checks if the bay is hurt in anyway. She is relieved on finding that the baby. The baby is still crying. So she hugs him, kisses him and tells him not to worry about the item. She tells him that she is happy that he is unhurt. Now consider the bay is not a toddler but a 6 year old. He may get severe scolding and if the mother gets very angry a slap or two . If the child is ten , the mother may react first with a slap . So the punishment grows with age and the maturity expected from us. This does not show that mother love son the toddler. She loves her child at all stages but the level of maturity expected is different. she expects her child to grow and develop and is happy when the child shows that.
Now come to our original question. Since we all are in different stages of development. God as our loving father and mother does not expect same level of maturity and righteousness form all.
Accordingly he punishes and rewards us with depending on our level. If we are on a higher level of development he will be more strict with us so that we do not loose the path. The rewards also become less noticeable when we grow. A mother will be overjoyed when the child takes first step . She will hug him, plant kisses and tell everybody about it. But a ten year old shall not expect the same response from the mother whenever he walks. The mother's love has not decreased; now she expects better and higher achievements from him. Similarly god also expects us to achieve greater things as we grow. So we may find someone doing some charity and reaping huge benefits and others doing better work do not get such rewards.
This is my attempt to understand the way the Law of karma works. Your comments and suggestions will be welcome.

Navnit

The Law of Karma

Sometimes we see that some very honest and good people are suffering due to one reason or other. We can also find people who are doing all sorts of sins but seem to be enjoying life .
This makes us wonder how can this happen? How can God allow this to happen? Why is God blessing the sinners and punishing the innocent? We may even think there is no god or he does not value honesty and sincerity. But the fact is that God is there as he always was and he punishes the culprits for all their sins. Let us try to understand the principles of karma.
Let us assume you are playing a very sophisticated computer game. At the start of the game you have some powers, some lives to help you. As you proceed with the game you have to cross many hurdles and fight with enemies. In this process you lose some powers and lives. But the game also gives you chances to regain them. While playing you make some virtual friends also who remember you and help you when they are around. Now it depends on your expertise that how you play the game. You can loose minimum power or lives and reach the next level. You can even gain more power. It can also happen that you are not able to pass the first level itself.
Each of your mouse movement, each key stoke is an input to the system. The way you use them decides you loose or gain power or lives. But the result ;i.e. you passed a level or won the game comes in a single moment. If somebody doesn't look at the menu bar showing your power or lives he can not tell you are going to win or loose. But suddenly a screen flashes which tells you the result. It can also happen that you pause the game and start it later. Then the game starts at the same level with all your gains and losses remembered.
Our life also runs like this. Whatever we do will bring us some result. But the result may not come instantaneously. It may come sometime later. How late? Only the programmer,
that is god, can tell. But it is certain that the results will show up. That's why some times we get immediate results and some actions bring us result after some time. If we touch fire we will be immediately burnt. We will not catch cold the instant we enter in cold water. It will take years of studies to fetch us a degree and a job. Similarly some actions give us immediate rewards or punishment for our acts and some actions may be such that the results will show up after along time.
We may have paused the game in between and start after a gap. This is what happens in the next berth. It's just like a pause in computer game. We stop playing for some time when we die. When we start again we start from the same point. That's what happens in each birth. we start with the accumulated rewards and punishments which we could not use in last birth. But as we play along in this birth we may lead pure ,honest lives to gain rewards or we can earn punishment. When we see some good people suffering this may be because of their past sins . similarly some seemingly bad people may be enjoying life because of the good they did earlier. But the present noble acts of a good man will certainly bring him rewards on suitable time and the sinners will be punished.

Navnit

DOES ATTITUDE MAKE OUR LIFE?

I have nothing to do in office today or honestly speaking for last 3 days. I feel very tired and yesterday night I had neck pain and headache.

There are days in office when I am terribly busy and work almost 12 hrs ,not even taking a coffee. I don't feel so much tired on those days. Whenever I have seen people working very little in the office and relaxing most of the time I felt envy.I hope one day I will be in such position. Even in my previous company I tried to shift to Project management department to get more relaxed life. That time, being a Head of Piping engineering department seemed to taxing for me. I saw the project people go home at 5.30 PM whereas my team and I were regulars in the office till 8.30 and sometimes upto 10.30 PM. Anyway my request was not accepted by the company management . I changed job shifting to another company,overseas, where I got paid much better . I soon found that I had very little responsibility and work to do. At first it appeared that my wish had come true. But soon I started feeling bored and exhausted. Now the hectic days in my previous company looked better to me. Not satisfied I changed job after one year. Here I have sufficient work , but there are days when I have little to do. These are the days that are very diffficult for me.
Now I wonder how some people can lead their office lives for years without doing much? I always think that I want to be like those people . But when such times come they are hard on me. Is this my attitude which stops me from enjoying this free time? Maybe in my subconscious the thought is ingrained that I must work hard to earn. So when I get this opportunity to relax these subconscious thoughts work against me and instead make me feel more exhausted.
I had a collegue in my previous company who seemed to enjoy this relaxing time. It's not that he did not work when it was required, but he was not bothered about not having to do anthing on most of the days. When I complained he always reminded me that I was working enough for the salary I was getting and the employers were not fools to keep me without getting output. Maybe he was correct. This is not the only example. I have seen many people and earn and enjoy more. Slowly I am getting the impression that these people are more spirutally evolved. They believe in what they are doing and believe in their worth. Many of the new age thinkers teach us that God has created abundance in this universe and we just need to accept this and beleive in our worthiness to get God's blessings to lead abundant lives. I am a strong believer in God and I also accept this thinking of abundance. But I feel those ideas ingrained in me from very early times , may be from earlier births also are occupying my mind and not letting me lead a more relaxed , abundant and satisfying life.
It is for the last seven years or so that I have been believing in God so much. Hope my hidden thoughts and feelings will change slowly and one day I will be able to stop struggling and lead a more satisfying, abundant life where I will be able to spend most of my time on hings I love to do and very little on earning to live.
Navnit

IN SEARCH

IN SEARCH

What are we doing throughout our lives? Studying? Playing? Enjoying? Loosing? Grieving? I think what we are doing from birth to death is searching. We are constantly in search In Search of something which we also don’t know what it is? But deep inside us there is always a whisper that tells us something is missing and you should search it.

Sometimes it comes to us as inspiration, sometimes as mere wish and sometimes as despair and frustration. However, the theme remains the same. We are searching the purpose of our lives, searching for something which can give us true and everlasting happiness. We are all In Search. But only a few enlightened know that are searching for and they will get it. Enlighten dose not mean a highly religious person or a scientist or a rich person. All these things do not bring everlasting happiness.

What dose the common soul like me to do ---Keep on searching for this which we don’t know what it is? What a paradox? But life is like that. I believe GOD made it like that. Edison did 1000 experiments before he could build the first successful electric bulb. Each failure led him closer to success, because he new what will not work. Similarly GOD wants us o learn what will not work before we know and find what work for us. Then we will not be In Search. We will be enlightened. Till then??? Till then I have to be In Search.

Since I don’t know what I am searching for my goals will change my interests will change and even I may change totally. Enlightened at the end???--- I don’t think it’s possible but I have to be In Search. Join me in my Search.