Professor Anil Kumar

Dr. O. P. Sudrania

Dearest Sai Brothers and Sisters,  Sai Ram.

Below is the text of a message that trickled in my inbox on an interview of Professor Anil Kumar, a long forty year old devotee of Swami and also His official interpreter of lectures whenever He delivered them after the passing away of Professor N. Kasturi. I have personally met and heard his lectures in Puttaparti delivered in the lecture halls on Education in Human Values (EHV).

One interesting story I remember from his experiences of Swami is as follows.

Once someone brought some cakes of “puranpollis” which are sweet pancakes made of flower and fried on a pan. They are quite tasty sweet dish. It must have been five or six of these. He is very fond of them. So he wanted to eat them alone without anybody seeing him and sharing with.

He went in his bathroom with them to eat so that nobody can even see him by chance and came out. Nobody had seen him. He subsequently went to Baba and Baba cracked a joke with him.

Baba said, “You are selfish and ate all the puranpollis alone in bathroom”. Professor Anil Kumar burst into a big laughter in embarrassment while narrating it and said to Swami, “Swami, you even go into people’s bathrooms and see them. It is not very nice”.

Such is the omnipresence of Swami. Please enjoy the following interview with Prof. Anil Kumar.

Below is the Text of a Wonderful Interview done by THE NATION, a Thailand based Newspaper with Prof. Anil Kumar during his four day visit to Thailand earlier this month.

Many Questions have been answered in this Wonderful Interview by Prof. Anil Kumar.

Have also attached with this mail the Whole Text of the Interview in
PDF and Word Format below.

Here is the Link to Interview published in the Newspaper – The Nation

Here is the interview, please enjoy it reading:

How do you explain the huge amount of cash and jewellery found in Sai Baba’s room, which was unearthed after his death, especially as the Sathya Sai Organization does not seem to have a history of soliciting funds? 

You know, [devotees], they’re  trying to hand it over to him personally. But he never

accepts. They want to give something. He rejects it openly, throws it in their face. But these people don’t give up. They send them by courier, they post it. And those that were received by mail were [left] lying there. But he had never looked at them. He never used that money. He never touched those packets. There were many cheques for huge amounts that had not been cashed, some dating back to

1993. Had he been money-minded he would have got them cashed. Many [packets] were not even opened. Because he was not at all bothered. All the money and jewels found in his room have nothing to do with him.

Why was all the money not taken away? Why was it left lying in the room? 

Because no one had access to his room. No official could go to his room. They had to wait for him downstairs. He came down and talked to them. No one knew what was lying in the room. It was news even to the officials. I, having had proximity to him for four decades, can categorically say that he never talked about money. Money was never a criterion for him for anything. Money was never a consideration for anybody to come close to him. He attached no value to it. If you take my example, I was an ordinary college lecturer, with a hand-to-mouth existence … so how could I be so close to him? I never gave him anything.

Among the jewels found in his room were gems apparently given by a king of Saudi Arabia. Can you throw some light on that? 
I’ve no knowledge of the variety of jewels collected over there or the sources they came from.  Was there any meeting with the Saudi king or his representatives? I ask this because Saudi Arabia is a puritanical Islamic state. Here I can say one thing. Sai Baba was very simple and  so is his place, Prashanthi Nilayam [in Puttaparthi town, southern India]. It doesn’t get any facelift just because VIPs or dignitaries are visiting. Prime ministers, presidents and other VIPs come but there are no special decorations. In all probability, he [the Saudi king] or his representatives must

have come. Baba may not be accepted as an incarnation or as divine by everyone, but his teachings are universal. His educational system is universal. His educational system aims at total personality development, comprehensive growth. It is a value-based education. So, no matter what the religion, everyone can follow it.

A lot has been said and written over the years about the ‘miracles’ he performed - producing ash and trinkets, gold chains, rings and watches, etc. His devotees loved it, critics hated it, skeptics were unconvinced. Scientists and para-psychologists did studies on them. Some dismissed them as  sleight of hand, others were unable to explain them. For someone who saw them at close proximity, how do you look at it? 

I’ll quote him. He called it his visiting card. Once you give a visiting card to someone you don’t have to introduce yourself again. He steps into your life as a visitor sending a visiting card through a miracle in your life. That which you think is impossible is made possible through a miracle and makes you believe in something transcendental, extra-sensual. The miracle is a bait to draw a person closer to God. He gives an example: to make a child go to school, what do you do sometimes? Give a chocolate. But it’s the schooling that is important, not the chocolate. Similarly, a miracle happens in your life, so you will turn your mind towards the divine or spiritual life.

But magicians say even they can perform some of these ‘miracles’ and you don’t need any divine powers… Magicians do it as a profession. But in Sai Baba’s case, miracles are not performed, they happen. The happening of a miracle is different from doing it. One is spiritual, the other is physical

Can you expand on that? 
A magician can perform under certain conditions. But Sai Baba, anytime, anywhere could materialize something for you. A magician will not be able to do that. He needs special conditions to perform. But  Baba, by his will, could make things happen. Sai Baba’s miracles have a higher purpose; a magician is only aiming for attraction with commercial value.  A leading Indian scientist, S Bhagvantham, who was the vice-chancellor of a university and even the director of India’s defense research organization, stayed with him and studied the miracles and became totally convinced that miracles happened in Sai Baba’s presence, at his will. One Italian doctor, who attended an international meeting of thoracic surgeons in Puttaparthi, said that though his reputation might be at risk, he would like to state that only Sai Baba could run such a sophisticated super-speciality hospital free of charge.

A BBC documentary on Sai Baba, called “Secret Swami”, blighted his reputation with accusations of sexual abuse. If the accusations were false why didn’t his organization or he defend himself or take action? 

I, personally, would have liked to deal with it differently. But the thing is, Sai Baba never encouraged anybody to counteract [the accusations], especially on his behalf. He said truth is triumphant and spotless. It doesn’t need anybody’s support.

He went one step further and said to his devotees, “you’re happy praising me, they’re happy attacking me. I want both to be happy”. He narrated a story from the Buddha’s life. When the Buddha reached a village, all the youngsters there mocked him and made fun of him for abandoning his wife and child and walking shaven-headed, wearing ochre robes. The Buddha listened patiently and said “Is it over? Are you exhausted? My disciples are on their way. If they hear the things you said, they might beat you up. I don’t want violence. So please finish whatever you want to say before they come”. That’s the compassion of the Lord. Sai Baba told us if you’re pained to hear all the criticism, you have legs to walk away. He wanted all of us to develop a state of mind that does not become elated when praised, or depressed when criticized or blamed.

A lot has been said and written about his reported clairvoyance. Apparently in 1998 he told his inner circle that the world was headed for many natural disasters and that the earth’s axis might even shift. We now know that during the Japanese earthquake/tsunami the earth’s axis did shift. Are you aware of any predictions he made which came true? 

He said long ago that Muslim nations will go through turmoil and terrorism. We’ve seen that in Afghanistan and Iraq; he predicted the unification of Germany, and long, long ago he said the Soviet Union will collapse. Then, he also predicted the decline of the US economy and the dotcom bust.

Talking about clairvoyance, he said more than once that he’d live to 96, but actually passed away at 85. How do you explain that? 
Some Hindu scholars believe that, as per the lunar calendar, he did live to 96. According to the lunar calendar, a year has 324 days. Sai Baba never said he’d live to 96 according to the solar calendar.

Two years ago, he pointed to a spot and told me, “This is going to be my Samadhi [resting place].” When I told him “please don’t say  that”, he said “why are you afraid? It’s inevitable for anybody. Death is the dress of life”.

The British architect Keith Critchlow, who was close to Prince Charles and designed the super-speciality hospital in Puttaparthi, reportedly advised Prince Charles to visit Sai Baba. And Charles was said to be keen to make the trip. There are two versions of this story: one said the British spy agency MI5 dissuaded Charles from visiting Sai Baba because of the sexual abuse allegations; another said they had a quiet meeting. Can you throw some light on that? 

It’s true that Critchlow wrote to Prince Charles [advising him] to meet Sai Baba. The

authentic version I have heard is that the airport in Puttaparthi is small and was not in a position to accommodate the kind of plane Charles would travel in. Later, I heard that Charles regretted not being able to meet  Sai Baba, and sent his respects through an emissary.

Since he encouraged everyone to practice their own religion, what kind of role did he envisage for himself? 

He saw himself more as a catalyst; as a unifying factor; he wanted synthesis, not antithesis. He has left an enormous legacy of free schools, educational institutions, free hospitals, social service organizations.

His presence obviously helped raise funds all these years. But now, will these institutions be financially sustainable? 
Right now, we’re in a state of shock. But he has left us with principles to follow, and

enough money.  The interest accrued on the principal amount  will be enough for the [Organization’s] maintenance. There will be no shortage of funds.

If you had to sum up his message in a few words, what would it be? 
Love all, serve all; the hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray.

With my humble Pranams at His Lotus Feet
OUR LIFE IS HIS MESSAGE

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About Sai Baba’s Life by Dr. Anil Kumar.docx

About Sai Baba’s Life by Dr. Anil Kumar.pdf

By Yogi Baba Prem Yogacharya, Veda Visharada

Oh Shiva, I call your name silently from my  heart.  Teach me the secrets of yoga and the Self.  -Yogi Baba Prem

Lord Shiva

(CHAKRA) Shiva is often considered the lord of the Yogi’s, as Shiva, like Krishna, is credited with teaching the science of yoga.  Commonly known as the destroyer, Shiva is often not embraced by western students of yoga largely due to a lack of understanding, occasionally, this lack of understanding even extends into India.  Shiva is like a multifaceted gem, each facet reveals a different aspect of Divine Consciousness.  Each of the names of Shiva reveals one facet of the expansive and unlimited gem known as Shiva, as he is commonly referred to as camphor colored indicating his purity. But it is the blue Shiva that has a particular importance to all practitioners of yoga and spirituality, and particularly interesting is the blue-throated Shiva, commonly known as Nila Kantha.  Sometimes this form of Shiva is referred to as Nila Grivaya or blue necked Shiva.

Traditionally, the teaching of the blue-throated Shiva is that while the cosmic energies where being churned, Shiva drank the poisons of the universe and held them in his throat, which appeared as a blue color in the throat, hence the name blue throated (Nila Kantha).  But there are many more secrets that this important teaching is awaiting to reveal.  Initially, Shiva is teaching us to keep the poisons of life in the ethers and to not give them a home in our body and mind.  This includes not only mental poisons but emotional and physical poisons as well.  This deep universal truth has even permeated modern speech, as one may occasionally say or hear others refer to having a toxic relationship.  We commonly refer to toxic emotions and toxic mental attitudes; these terms are quite common in the west and are appearing within India as well.  We even refer to others as “toxic” on occasion.  While they are not really toxic in the literal sense, we are referring to the mental and emotional energy they project.  The blue-throated Shiva requires that one is conscious of the poisons present within themselves and others, but most importantly the blue throated Shiva reminds us to NOT allow these poisons into our life.  An important message that is not only reinforced by the teachings of Nila Kantha, but appear in the Vedic teachings, as well as the Upanishads.

It is only at the higher levels of consciousness that the yogi or yogini can embrace the qualities of the blue throated Shiva and actually embrace the poisons while not allowing them to flow into the heart or other areas of the body.  Otherwise, the teachings about the blue throated Shiva even ties in with the Ayurvedic concept of like increases like.  Therefore, the poisons we allow into our lives cause similar poisons to increase overtime, becoming a vicious cycle.  It is Shiva in his blue-throated form that teaches us to not allow these poisons into our body and mind.  This teaching forms the basis of a majority of new-age beliefs, and forms a foundation of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma, and it is commonly embraced within Vedanta as well.  This primary teaching appears frequently within Hinduism as students are cautioned to not allow negative people into their lives and to watch those that they interact with on a regular basis.

Shiva and the Chakras

The teachings of the blue throated Shiva can easily be equated with the chakras and the elements.  It is only in the most advanced yogic states that one can swallow the poisons of life and keep them from moving past the throat.  Shiva and his swallowing and holding the poison in his throat indicated that the poison should not progress further into the body/mind matrix.  Less advanced yogis or students will have their speech poisoned by holding the poisons within the throat area.  Secondary effects would be a poisoning of the mechanism of speech and toxic speech.  If one were to take a few moments, surely they could recall an occasion where they met a person with toxic speech.  Toxic speech is powerful and can have a profound impact on those that are close enough to hear it.  This poison in the astral level associated with the 5th, Vishuddha, chakra can also cause powerful blocks between the astral and physical bodies, commonly resulting in disease.

By holding the poisons within the throat, it is revealed that even Shiva will not allow the poisons to enter his heart.  For the student of yoga, it is critical to not allow the poisons of life to enter into ones heart.   This can powerfully embitter the heart, resulting in toxic emotions, a hardened heart as some might say, and a multitude of physical diseases around the heart center.  This is a key-point, as the majority of spiritual student’s have not developed the degree of consciousness to hold the poisons at the throat-level. Studies of heart disease have also suggested that there is an emotional component with some forms of heart disease, therefore, reinforcing the lessons of the blue-throated Shiva.

Requirements

One must first access their level of consciousness.  While we are all growing spiritually and achieving higher levels of consciousness, in reality very few of us are at the level of consciousness indicated by the blue throated Shiva.  If one is not at that level, they should remove themselves from the toxins of the world whenever possible.  This would include removing themselves from negative people.  Food is an important consideration, as well; reducing toxic foods, which would include reducing heavily processed foods and ‘junk’ foods, while eating organic foods, increasing the use of organic products and similar lifestyle activities when possible.  Using high quality herbs that are processed properly and free of metals and other contaminates is important.

It is important to have an honest assessment of toxic relationships.  This would include personal relationships but also work relationships, as we spend the majority of our day with people at work.  One has to perform a careful evaluation of these relationships, at times they may be required to interact with toxic relationships such as in the work environment, but one can limit their interaction with these toxic relationships.  It is not necessary that one judge these relationships or more correctly the people involved, as it is more of question of what is healthy for you.

Cleansing the aura is important, as the aura is our first filter for negativity from others.  A variety of mantras can perform this function, but merely using “OM” and visualize it flowing throughout your aura can be beneficial.  A excellent purifying mantra from my book, Yogic Secrets of the Vedas is the punantu ma mantra:

Punantu Ma Devajanah

Punantu Manavo Dhiya

Punantu Vishva Bhutani Pavamanah

Punatu Ma.

–Atharva Veda

Yoga in general is cleansing to toxins in the mind and body, but there may be occasions when more powerful techniques are necessary, and yoga offers an array of techniques.  Meditation is very beneficial.  Mantra is very beneficial as the sound current of mantra has a cleansing effect on the mind and body.  The Darshan of deities can have a profound cleansing effect on the aura and body.  Additionally, all of these techniques aid in preparing us for embracing the level of consciousness represented by the blue-throated Shiva.

Yogi Baba Prem has written several books that are published in India. His latest is Yogic Secrets of the Vedas. Additionally he has been published in several magazines. He is a recognized Acharya within the traditional systems of India. To read more on his work, visit www.vedicpath.com

Bell’s Theorem and Quantum Physics at Cross Roads

By O.P Sudrania

Aum

AUM

It is said that Vedas being too vast, many of them are lost; their knowledge was condensed into Srimad Bhagwad Geeta. Again it needed a great deal of the knowledge of difficult Sanskrit language for a common mass; hence this compendium is further condensed into this monosyllable, “AUM”, beautifully depicted above.

Pranava or AUM is the universally accepted symbol of Hinduism. Literally, the word Pranava means “That by which God is effectively praised”. It also means “That which is never new”. AUM comprises of three independent letters A, U and M, each of which has its own meaning and significance. The letter ‘A‘ represents the beginning or origin (Adimatwa), ‘U‘ represents Progress or sustenance (Utkarsha) and ‘M‘ represents limit or dissolution (Miti). Hence, the word AUM represents that power responsible for creation, development and dissolution of the Universe, namely GOD himself.

The most interesting thing about Hinduism is, it has survived the most turbulent and invasive period over the last couple of millennia. The other peculiarity is that it is open for everybody to join in irrespective of any strings and at the same time it enforces no bindings on those who want to leave. There are no conversions, no blaspheme and no apostasy. All these adjectives do not merely exist in Hinduism; but are nostalgic to its very core value of “Sanatana Dharma” concept of Vedas and Upanishads and it’s all other known scriptures.

Bell’s Theorem-Vedanta, Quantum Physics, Human consciousness and the physical world is a subject of intense research. Ultimately the scientists and physicists have come to recognise the importance of Consciousness to our being in this universe. Bell’s Theorem of inequality contradicts the very basic foundations laid down by the Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. The recent controversy centering round the “Speed of Light” as fastest in the Universe known so far to our scientific community is being questioned.

This has brought the very fundamental basis of science in question. This is unacceptable on the very fundamental concepts of Science and Physics on one hand, while it validates the inexplicable nature of the visible world on the other hand; the Ancient Sages had experienced through their penance and gave us the valuable Srutis and Smritis. Let us examine a few verses from the Indian scriptures as below:

‘Om Isha vasyam idam sarvam, yat kincha jagatyam jagat’

(Decipher: “God pervades in this whole, i.e. everything in this universe is permeated by God”)  - Isa Upanishad

It may be recalled that the Indian Ancients always tried to evaluate everything in this visible world (Pasya in Sanskrit means to see) in terms of Brahman (Para means the Pure Consciousness), a level of infinite possibilities only accessible through a fully realised state of consciousness in what is known as turiya or nirvikalpa samadhi. There is another assertion hereunder to further vindicate the same ‘Truth’ in Srimad Bhagwad Geeta 18:61:

“Eeshwarah sarwabhootaanaam hrddeshe Arjuna tishthati bhraamayan
sarwabhootaani yantraaroodhaani maayayaa”
(Decipher: “The lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, causing all beings, by His illusive physical power (maayayaa), to revolve as if mounted or riding on a machine”)

Likewise Isa Upanishad asserts further on the Supreme Consciousness as:

“Om purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate,
purnasya purnamadaya purnamevaavashishyate” Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihee  - Peace invocation – Isa Upanishad

“That (pure consciousness) is full (perfect); this (the manifest universe of matter; of names and forms being maya) is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness.” Om Shanti, Shanti, Shantihee

Meaning of ‘purna’ (total or complete): As explained by Jinendra Swami
Fullness and Completeness are the nearest meanings in the English
language for this word. But, ‘Purnatva’ goes far beyond these meanings. ‘Fullness’ can indicate a state of satiation and the word ‘Completeness’ can denote a state arrived through the ‘Sum of the parts’. But ‘Purnatva’ is far from these two conditional states. It is a state of profound realization arrived at, when the sense of limitation, as “Individuality” drops off, as a redundant vestige from one’s consciousness. … When the microcosm totally dissolves into the state of Macrocosm, as a sugar doll dissolves into water, ‘Purnatva’ is THAT non-verbalized state. Look at: http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/advaita-vedanta/145759-purnamadah-purnamidam-further-explanation.html

In a very candid and discussive exposition, “Purnamadah Purnamidam Revisited”, Madathil Nair explains in his unique style. Those interested may visit the link hereunder: http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/purnamadah_nair.htm

The most interesting thing in Hinduism is three times invocation of the peace, (Shanti). It is a profound exclamation for the peace of all the three worlds and its creatures unique only to Hinduism. It is further asserted in “Lokaah Samasthaa Sukhino Bhavantuh”.  Shanti Mantras always end with three utterances of word “Shanti”. The reason for uttering three times is for calming and removing obstacles in three realms. According to the scriptures of Hinduism sources of obstacles and troubles are in these three realms.

• Physical or Adhi-Bhautika realm can be source of troubles/obstacles coming from external world, such as from wild animals, people, natural calamities etc.
• Divine or Adhi-Daivika realm can be source of troubles/obstacles coming from extra-sensory world of spirits, ghosts, deities, demigods/angels etc.
• Internal or Adhyaatmika realm is source of troubles/obstacles arising out of ones own body and mind, such as pain, diseases, laziness, absent-mindedness etc.

These are called “Tapa-Traya” or three classes of troubles. When Shanti mantras are recited, obstacles from these realms are believed to be pacified.

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Mantra

In simple mathematical terms, Brahman or Consciousness is equated with the great “Zero (O)”; that when added, subtracted or divided; the result is always “Zero” and thus it represents the unchangeable ‘Highest Self’.

“The Supreme Brahman is the only Reality. The idea of the phenomenal universe is falsely superimposed upon it.” – Asserts Swami Nikhilananda of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, New York.

Brahman the Primodial Energy or Ling Deham worshipped in Hinduism as “Shiv Lingam”, has intrinsic power to manifest as ‘Jagat’ (Universe) and ‘Jiva’ (living Beings), this elevates to the level of Consciousness Supreme (Ling Deham). There is only one truth; One Singularity – that is Brahman (monotheism). It has the power to manifest as the Creation.

This power of Brahman is called ‘Maya’. It creates a ‘Veil ‘of ‘Plurality‘. In the worldly life ‘Maya’ can be equated with our shadow, which follows us as just duplicate in our image. It remains unchanged. Christianity theorise the same thing as Eve and Adam eating the apple of discord akin to “Maya”.

Adam and Eve: a classic depiction of the biblical tale showcasing the apple as a symbol of sin. Albrecht Dürer, 1507; oil on panel

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_(symbolism)

In creational terms, if we look at the foetal stage in embryological life and compare it with our post embryological life; the pluripotentiality and plurimorphism that exist in our foetal stage by the process of which  metamorphosis succeeds in creating a beautiful looking homogeneous baby is unbelievable. Unbelievable because once the foetus is delivered to the outside world, the pluripotentiality of the Brahmanical power is lost. Any further repairs required will result into antecedent disfigurement. We do not know the reality of this lost reparative power postpartum.

Take for example a simple case of cleft lip and cleft palate; any attempts at surgical repairs succeed only with repairs accompanied by ugly scarring. How many of the non-medical people know that our lips and palates are created by ‘The Almighty Brahma’ by union with several projections from all around in our face. A look into the knowledge of the Human Embryology will reveal it:

25th day Foetus lateral view (After His). Showing branchial (visceral) arches and clefts or furrows. This is how we all would have looked like on 25th day in uterine life, irrespective of the gender. The bump on the top front will develop into our future forehead, nose and the premaxilla etc. It is called frontonasal eminence or process.
Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/anatomy/Human-Body-Construction/Affections-Of-The-Neck.html#ixzz1jY4WZUSt

Frontal view of human foetus about four weeks old. (After His).
Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/anatomy/Human-Body-Construction/The-Mouth-And-Throat.html#ixzz1jY6Rqt6u

Look at this child hereunder with double cleft lip, also called Harelip after a hare. Compare the two figures here of a human child and the hare to whom it is natural.

Double harelip, showing the projecting premaxilla in centre.
Read more: http://chestofbooks.com/health/anatomy/Human-Body-Construction/The-Mouth-And-Throat.html#ixzz1jY7ngDpo

A hare with normal double cleft lips, but a deformity to humans; compare the face of this child with the face of the hare.

Courtesy: http://www.lovefood.com/journal/features/13373/guide-to-game-rabbit-and-hare

Our “Creator” has been very kind to us to give us the loving and attractive look without any perceptible scarring or deformity. Can we deny its rightful place of miracle used by us for situations we fail to explain at our human level in terms of our man made yet deficient science, which even our best scientists are struggling to explain? What we mortals call it miracles are a natural phenomena to Avatars, Sri Sathya Sai Baba used to exclaim?

Creation of other material objects or resurrection of dead and curing the illnesses of the patients are trifle matters for Avatars. The Creator has given us plenty in this world yet we remain poor in that plenty; succinctly expressed in the Latin maxim: inopem me copia fecit, i.e. plenty has made me poor; what a pathetic paradox? Our poverty lies in our spiritual paucity because all the plenty looking worldly things are mere trinkets in terms of spirituality.

Man’s cognition of the world as pluralistic exists only till he realizes the ‘Truth’. He then understands that there is only ‘One Truth’, the Singularity (Brahman), there is no Plurality i.e. “Ekoham Bahusyam”, the Vedas declare. Again it is asserted in this aphorism: Ekam sat viprah bahuda vadanti.

The Shocking Implications of the Bell’s Theorem:

In recent years physicists have tried to address the interplay of consciousness and the physical world. In Quantum Physics much has been made over Bell’s Theorem of inequality. The implications of this theorem and the experimental findings that flow from it are shocking. They force us to consider that the entire notion of a purely objective world is in conflict not only with the theory of quantum mechanics (and the limitation of speed of light), but with the facts drawn from actual experiments arbitrarily. These findings point insistently to a profound interaction between conscious mental activity and the physical world itself by priori.

The Rishi’s vision and controversy in Physics:

The Rishi’s vision of a world in which the man participates in a stainless existence, indivisibly united with the universe around him, emerges through a discovery called “Bell’s Theorem“. This discovery, first proposed in 1964 by the physicist John S. Bell was again confirmed …in 1972 by Professor John Clauser at Berkley. Professor Henry Stapp, a physicist and an authority on the implications of Bell’s Theorem at Berkley has called it “The most important discovery in the history of science”.

Bell’s Theorem is the collective name for a family of results, all showing the impossibility of a Local Realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. In 1935, Albert Einstein, together with Nathan Rosen and Boris Podolsky proposed through flawless mathematical reasoning that if the quantum theory were correct, then ‘A change in the spin of one particle in a two particle system would affect its twin simultaneously, even if the two had been widely separated’. And ‘simultaneous’ is a dirty word in the theory of special relativity, which forbids the transmission of any signal faster than the speed of light. Obviously, a signal telling the particle ‘what to do’ would have to travel faster than the speed of light if instantaneous changes were to occur between the two particles. As the Latin maxim “amabilis insania” expresses, “a pleasing madness or rapture” aptly applies here.

The dilemma into which Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky dragged the quantum theory was a profound one, coming to be known as The ERP Effect. Einstein himself had conceded that the theory of quantum mechanics and relativity is incomplete; yet it has been used invariably by the scientific community.

More details at:

http://www.hinduism.co.za/hinduism_quantum.htm#The Implications of this theorem are staggering

Also: http://www.svpvril.com/Cosmology/cosunity2.html#FigureP2s12

Rishi’s (Sages) Vision and World Peace:

Out of this raging controversial uncertainty of Physics, vindication of the ancient scriptural truths is bound to emerge? The theory of nonlocality and inequality of Bell’s Theorem is destined to help in explaining the spiritual experiences in terms of science that the modern scientists mockingly call as miracles, paranormal phenomena, or some kind of delusional cum psychic phenomena as superstitions or magic by them and miracles or supernatural phenomena by their believers. Once the speed of light as the fastest speed for any particle to travel is broken, it creates a congenial atmosphere to validate the various spiritual experiential truths.

An immediate point that floats in my mind is the “Thought Process” with the fastest speed than light that can travel, I can think of! It involves controlling the very wayward thoughtful mind. “Master the mind, be Mastermind”, Sri Sathya Sai Baba

The ridiculous arguments of superstitions or mirage being mocked around will be definitely negated scientifically. This will open up newer educational vistas for proper training and teaching as a set university curriculum. It will also help to counter the pseudo secularists in India posing a communal road block. Its greater impact to the world will be in spreading the gospel of peace, love and brotherhood by enforcing morality and human values. Majority of the problems in the world today can be directly measured in terms of our spiritual bankruptcy.

Reality can also be compared to a hologram, like a brain, where humans are all interconnected one with each other and in turn, all connected to this single entity – Supreme Soul.

(Dr. O. P. Sudrania is a senior retired teacher in surgery and a medico-legal counsellor; now also engaged in research of spiritual and socio-political analytical science as a part of service to humanity.)

Satya Sai Baba

By Dr. O. P. Sudrania

(CHAKRA) I offer my humble pranaams at the Lotus Feet of Sri Satya Sai Baba, who was the Divine incarnate in Human figure with the most powerful indomitable miraculous strength that is not witnessed by any known Human incarnations so far. I bow to Thee to give me enough strength, the ability, the agility to venture on this task of undertaking to dwell on His Life to the world Who barely understands the spiritual ways. May the Lord forgive my short comings in this mammoth task of attempting to describe your divine Himalayan figure that are even beyond the descriptions of the scriptures?

Sri Satya Sai Baba was a towering personality of the highest spiritual order seen in the twentieth and twenty first centuries – unparalleled in the human history so far. Since this ephemeral world suffers from the duality, Baba said that even the Avatars suffer from some human weaknesses when S/He takes on human form. But the difference is, even their such traits are not intentionally meant to harm anyone deliberately, unlike the mortals.

Another difficulty to understand their behavior is due to the limitations imposed on the mortals by the three dimensional world views. Avatars operate at beyond the three dimensions. Hence the esoteric meanings of their words may not be easily discernible to us who tend to compare ‘Them’ to human levels, which ‘They’ are not.

Baba said, “Love my uncertainty” and at the same time. He also used to say, “Come, experience and only then believe”. Both statements were made by Swami which apparently appears as contradictory to us but my point is, “Are we competent enough to question and scrutinise the inscrutable”?

Sri V. C. Kondappa was Swami’s school teacher at Bukkapatnam and Uravakonda and biographer also. Even Mr. N. Kasturi had borrowed heavily from his book for Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

Mr. Kondappa is quoted, “One day V. C. Kondappa and Subbannachar, another teacher (who wrote the foreword for the book) came to Puttaparthi to satisfy their long-standing desire to know about the early life of Shirdi Sai Baba, because the books available threw no light on this unknown period.

They were wonder-struck when Sai Baba revealed that He was Shirdi Sai Baba Himself. He also asked them to stay there for the night, when He would narrate His life history, granting them their heart’s wish, even before asking. That momentous night, Baba narrated the life story of the first 16 years of Shirdi Sai, as well as details of His own life.

V. C. Kondappa asked Baba, “You tell everyone you are Shirdi Baba, reborn. What is the proof? Before I write a book on you, I should know this.” It was then that Baba agreed to reveal His identity to them. He gave them the Darshan of His previous incarnation in flesh and blood. After this, though many devotees prayed for this vision, Baba replied, “It cannot be granted to everyone. There is a specific reason for this.”

Please peruse: http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/kondappa.htm

When Baba first denounced home, at that time also, He revealed His same identity as Shirdi Sai Baba by throwing a handful of flowers on the ground that read in Telugu language, “Sai Baba”. The ordinary stone in front of Him when photographed showed up as a statue of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba.

On 23 May 1940, Sathya called household members and reportedly materialised prasad and flowers for his family members. His father became furious at seeing this, thinking his son was bewitched. He took a stick and threatened to beat him if Sathya did not reveal who he really was. To this Sathya announced calmly and firmly “I am Sai Baba“, a reference to Sai Baba of Shirdi. He proclaimed himself to be a reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi—a saint who became famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Maharashtra and had died eight years before Sathya was born.

Later that year, Sathya Sai Baba declared that he had no worldly relationship with anyone and, around this time, devotees began to gather to him. In 1940, he began to travel to Madras and elsewhere in South India and soon had a large regional following.

He also declared that He has no worldly relations with you and His devotees are calling Him.

On 8 March 1940, while living with his elder brother Seshama Raju in Uravakonda, a small town near Puttaparthi, Sathya was apparently stung by a scorpion. He lost consciousness for several hours. Within the next few days there was a noticeable change in Sathya’s behavior. There were “symptoms of laughing and weeping, eloquence and silence.” “He began to sing Sanskrit verses, a language of which he had no prior knowledge.” Doctors believed his behavior to be hysteria. His parents brought Sathya back home to Puttaparthi. Concerned, they took him to many priests, “doctors” and exorcists.

Baba has clarified it later on, there was no scorpion bite. Indeed no such scorpion was seen by anyone. I enacted it to declare my Divinity to the world as my test or proof by undergoing the agony. Had I done it without acting it, nobody would have believed it? Hence the inscrutable are the ways of “Inscrutable”.

Later that year, Sathya Sai Baba declared that he had no worldly relationship with anyone and, around this time, devotees began to gather to him. In 1940, he began to travel to Madras and elsewhere in South India and soon had a large regional following.

In 1963, Sathya Sai Baba suffered a stroke and four severe heart attacks. It is believed that he healed himself of these in front of the thousands of people gathered in Prasanthi Nilayam praying for his recovery. On recovering, Sai Baba gave a discourse announcing that he would be reborn as Prema Sai Baba in the neighboring state of Karnataka. He stated, “I am Siva-Sakthi, born in the gotra (lineage) of Bharadwaja, according to a boon won by that sage from Siva and Sakthi. Siva was born in the gotra of that sage as Sai Baba of Shirdi; Siva and Sakthi have incarnated as ‘Myself’ in his gotra now; Sakthi alone will incarnate as the third Sai (Prema Sai Baba) in the same gotra in Mandya district of Karnataka State.” He stated he would be born again eight years after his death at the age of 96.

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba

These phenomena by an Avatar are quite baffling for us but it is only a natural part for the Divine. No wonder, Baba kept repeatedly telling Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson, when he wanted to conduct controlled experiments that His manifestations and miracles are beyond the comprehension of any scientific experiments. Baba often used to remark, “Spirituality starts when Science stops”.

Dr Erlendur Haraldsson is Professor emeritus, Faculty of Social Science, University of Iceland, Oddi v/Sturlugötu, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland. He visited Puttaparti about ten times over a period of one decade with his visits lasting months sometimes. He was also accompanied by some other colleagues from time to time and one such colleague was late Prof. Karlis Osis from America who told EH, Quote: *It has also been argued (see Braude, 1986) that, like many other human abilities (e.g. creativity), psychic ability may best be studied in extremis, and in the environment in which it naturally occurs. Or, as Karlis Osis once remarked, “When we have a full flame, why only study the sparks?”

The ‘full flame’ Dr Osis was referring to was Sai Baba, whom he met along with the first author in 1973. About no contemporary individual has there been such abundance of claims of paranormal experiences, physical as well as mental, as in the case of Sathya Sai Baba (Haraldsson, 1987; Murphet, 1971)…* unquote.

By priori, sparks were implied by the other lesser known Saints whom EH was often showing interest in.

More at: https://notendur.hi.is/erlendur/english/Sai%20Baba%20Indians/SBvideotape.pdf

Also peruse: Modern miracles: an investigative report on psychic phenomena associated with Sathya Sai Baba http://books.google.co.in/books/about/Modern_miracles.html?id=eP4b5EyAoakC

Satya Sai Baba’s other proclamations were no less intriguing including His forecast of living in this world for 96 years. Baba had asserted it several times to many in His talks openly without meaning or referring to any particular almanac or calendar. I am also aware of. Then we have from Baba’s devotees to detractors making claims as it suits their own temperaments and tastes. One such version is posted here from a devotee.

Quote: “Sai Baba lived for 96 years as per his given wordings and was true to Hindu years calculations. Sathya Sai Baba was certainly correct about his sayings in 1963, where he had announced that he would live up to 96 years. Hindu Maha Sabha President makes a note of Baba’s forecast of living till 96 years has been successfully accomplished as per Hindu year calculation. He adds in his interview with NBTV that, Sai Baba had attained 96 years and few months when he passed away on 24.04.2011.”

More at: http://www.nbtvlive.com/latest-news-baba%20forecast%20of%20living%20till%2096%20years%20proved%20correct-events-30-apr-2011-puttaparthi-nimma%20bengaluru-7711.html

While there is another group instigated by a powerful vested interest against Baba have their own versions to promote. They do not tire out in their attempts to their best to prove things otherwise. They quote: “NOTE PARTICULARLY SAI BABA’S ASSERTION:“My Word will never fail…” They pick up threads to suit their taste. Let us examine their some versions while ridiculing the lunar month hypothesis.

Quote: “Of Sathya Narayana Raju (later Sathya Sai Baba) it is reported by several devotee writers that he will die at the age 95 and/or 96 (Some places in India a person who is 95, yet is in-the 96th year, is said to be 96 years old.) On various occasions Baba has reportedly said in private that his life would last 96 years [eg by S. Balu, 'Living Divinity' London: Saw-bridge Enterprises, 1981, p. 29] which age he finally confirmed in a public discourse in 2000. Yet, contradictorily, in two early discourses in 1960 and 1961 respectively, he gave the length of his remaining life as 58 and 59 years (see scans below). This adds up to a life-span of only either 92 or 93 years!

It has been on-line for years by now, but at last its question ‘how long’ can be answered definitively! The answer to the main question ‘how long’. Sathya Sai Baba lasted only until his 86th year (some reckon this as age 85, more normally only as 84) and NOT until into his 90s! He is on record as having predicted four different times of death, all in his 90s! (see scans from his discourses etc. below)”

More at: http://www.saibaba-x.org.uk/1/howlong.html

While we accept the fact that there is an antithesis going on for some time but Swami always said, “They are also my devotees who are spreading my message as per my divine plan. Bad news spreads faster but Baba also used to caution, it is negative propaganda that may harm them also, perhaps like the Newtonian Law of actions and reactions.

Baba never liked to interfere into His Divine plans between Him and His devotees. Baba, in fact admonished anyone wanting to interfere. There are quite a few instances. Before I finish, I shall humbly narrate some instances from His Life Divine as told by the most esteemed personality Prof Anil Kumar from Puttaparti who is also the translator of the speeches delivered by Sri Satya Sai Baba as follows:

shiva has poison in his neck

Lord Shiva is also called Halahaladhara. Regarding Halahaladhara, we have already considered a few aspects like Somasekhara, Jataajutadhara, Gangadhara, and Trinethra. Now we think of Lord Shiva as Halahaladhara. Dhara means ‘the one who has’, and halahala refers to poison. Shiva contains poison in his neck. So, halahala means ‘poison’, and dhara means ‘the one who has’ halahala. Not only that, but Shiva has snakes around his neck—Pannagadhara. Pannaga means ‘snakes’.

pray to siva to protect us against all these evil tendencies

Halahaladhara and Pannagadhara, what do they mean? What exactly do you mean by that? The poison of our problems, the poison of worldly attractions, and the poison of sensual pleasures are all contained in His neck so that we are not affected by any one of these evil propensities or evil tendencies. Moreover, by reciting Shiva’s nama or name, and by praying to Him, by saying His glorious name, it will act as an antidote to all these evils and sins. So to protect us against all the poison of evil tendencies, we should pray to Lord Shiva.

sai has poison in his neck

Let us go into the biography of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. In His childhood, somebody served vadas to Baba. V-A-D-A-S is a south Indian dish. Vadas are circular in their form, brown in colour (due to being deep fried), and quite hot stuff. What did some people do during His childhood days?

Some envious people mixed poison in these vadas and served them to Him. Poison was served to Baba. However, He ate all the vadas and nothing happened to Him. Knowing that there was poison in the vadas, put in there by a particular person who happened to be near Swami, Swami called him. Baba came close to him, excused him, and pardoned him. That is the compassion of Swami. (Later Baba vomited them out and the dog that ate them died, Baba did it deliberately to demonstrate the poison in vadas)

Poison will kill you, and poison will kill me. But poison cannot kill Sathya Sai Baba. Why? Because He has poison in His neck, Halahaladhara. If He bears poison in His body, what can poison in vadas do to Him? Lord Shiva is Halahaladhara; so also is Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

sai transforms bad people by his compassion

Lord Shiva has snakes around His neck, so He is known as Pannagadhara. Pannaga means ‘snakes’ or ‘evil forces’. However, these snakes cannot bite or harm Lord Shiva. Similarly, people who are full of jealousy, full of envy, full of pride, and people who are interested in character assassination are snakes that cannot harm or defame Baba. These things cannot damage His fame. This is impossible because He is Pannagadhara. By his compassionate hand, He will transform them; by His mercy, He will pardon them. On the other hand, these things will only enhance His glory, mystery, and Divinity, so that the whole world will come to know of Him much more than ever before.

fire on baba’s hut

Do you know what happened in His younger days when Baba was resting in a hut? Some people set that hut ablaze, set fire to it. But nothing happened to Baba. Why? As the hut was burning, suddenly the sky opened up and rain fell only on that particular hut, nowhere else. So the fire was extinguished and nothing happened to Baba! Why? It is because of His Divinity.

People full of envy cannot burn Him, and people full of jealousy cannot bite Him. Why? It is because of Pannagadhara. He has got snakes around His neck. The snakes are the symbols of jealousy and envy; they cannot bite Him. That is what it means.

More at: http://www.saiwisdom.com/sunday/English/2010/07.02.2010(E)central.htm

Now that Swami has cast His mortal coils in the eyes of us who dwell at the worldly level; but Swami is still very much amongst us in His invisible spiritual form. Soul never dies. Lord Sri Krishna in Srimad Bhagwadgeeta says in 2:23-24 on the immortality of the soul.

2:23, “Lord states that neither can soul be damaged by a shashtra (instrument or weapons), nor can it be burnt by fire, nor can it be soaked in the water, nor can it be dried by the air.” Lord Krishna reiterates His same vow in the next verse to lay emphasis on it.

2:24, “This soul is eternally undivided and indestructible, the soul is incombustible, insoluble and unwitherable. The soul is eternal, all-pervading, unmodifiable and immovable and primordial.”

Swami mysteriously chose the Easter Day (24th April 2011) to proceed to His Divine Journey, a sacred day in Christianity. I have also followed every event as closely as possible to follow after His purported illness, no one from the Central Satya Sai Trust including Prof. G. Venkataraman has said anything or issued any statement on the “Divine Plans” of leaving this worldly journey; hence I as a Sai devotee will not commit the blaspheme of  any personal innuendos or a futile attempt to interfere in His divine plans of personal unauthorised interpretations. Least of all, when I am not sure; if it will please Swami to any extent, if I did so.

Despite all these confabulations and computations, Baba, in a very rare and unimaginable gesture, portrayed by Arvind who is His official photographer, took His few pictures which Baba has never posed in a pose of salutations.

A beautifully written note by Aravind, a young man who works at Radiosai in Prashanti Nilayam. He takes pictures and videos daily of Swami in Prashanti and was the one who took the poignant pictures of Swami with His Hands in Namaskar.  -Sai Ram,

… It happened on the evening of 20th of March. Swami had not been ‘keeping well’ if I may use that term. His darshans were few and spaced between. And yet on this day, He took two darshan rounds. He called all the students who were seated for blessings and poured grains on their head. (about 40 students were blessed that day).

>>He distributed a few sweets and smiled at all present. He even called the tiny tots from Primary school and blessed them. In the words of a very senior singer, “Today Swami seems so hyper active!!” There was rejoicing. And when He received Aarthi, everyone were thrilled with His tapping His hands rhythmically. And then it happened…

>>As the Samastha Loka chant filled the air, Swami raised His hands. But it was not the familiar Abhayahastha. He had FOLDED HIS PALMS IN SALUTATION! He seemed to send a beautiful message, “Salute all for God is in all”. The Vedic chant “Sahasra sheersha Purusha” resounded in my heart. (That hymn says that God has thousand limbs, heads and sense organs symbolic of the fact that God is in all.) In the Bharatiya custom, this is how one takes leave after a visit!

>>My hairs stand at their end and I have goosebumps when I realize how Swami had indicated the Mahasamadhi. But I did not see! Swami says, “Pashyan Api Na Pashyati Moodho” (You fool! You see and yet do not see!) That was the condition. But I took pictures that day.

>>And today, just seeing the pictures is so relieving and enthralling for it told me that Swami knows His plans. Even when He was fine and was a week away from being ‘admitted’ to the hospital, Swami had shown us His decision.

>>And in showing us this decision, He also showed us His expectations. He wants our lives to be His message and one of His final acts of benediction teaches us that we should see Him in all just as He saw Himself in all. We should bow to Him in all just as He bowed to Him in all. We should love all and serve all just as He did.

>>And in order to share the experience, insight and blessings from Swami that day, I post the following five images. Let us pledge to Him that we will live in our lives imbibe His message of pure Love for all.

Five pictures are in Namaskar pose while the sixth is in His usual gesture of “Blessing (Abhayahastha)”

http://www.saibabaofindia.com/Sri-Sathya-Sai-Baba-doing-Namaskar-photos-farewell-pictures.htm

On 20th March, He did give the final indications in His language of silence, but nobody could discern it. The Language of Divinity is not easy to fathom for us whose language is encompassed in spoken human words.

While I love the uncertainty of ‘His Certainty’, I conclude here with my apology at the Lotus Feet of the Divine world teacher for my any deficiencies or my inadvertent mistakes in my presenting the humble bouquet of these finite few summary words.

Om Sai Ram

(Dr. O. P. Sudrania is a senior retired teacher in surgery and a medico-legal counsellor; now also engaged in research of spiritual and socio-political analytical science as a part of service to humanity.)

Open Letter to India (Part 2)

(CHAKRA) To The People of India,

Greetings,

I address you collectively as a nation, as nation builders, and as individuals capable of rationale and reasoning.

Read PART 1 – Open Letter to India: Looking Back in Time

MINORITY OR NOT A MINORITY- THAT IS THE QUESTION:

Let us focus on the word ‘minority’. What exactly does it mean to be a minority?

Take the example of a multi-national company, say, ‘McDonalds’, which has a franchise set up in India. Would one by any means consider McDonalds a “minority” company? Of course not, simply because its nexus lies abroad, and what is present in India is simply an off-shoot; a subsidiary branch of something large having its base outside.

Same is the case with Christianity in India; foreign nexuses around the globe have set up institutions in our country. These Christian Institutions in India are not a minority, they are simply connecting nodes, equipped and commandeered from abroad to serve a specific purpose.
So to get things clear, Christianity, as it exists in India in its current form, cannot be considered a minority.

Just as the funding for a multinational corporation in India comes from outside the country, a staggering amount of money running these organizations comes not from Christians living in India, but centers abroad, and most of them under the guise of providing service, which in reality are set up to convert as many Indians to their faith as they possibly can.

How do they go about doing it? It has been rampant for the past few centuries now. Right from the time the British set foot in India, seeds of conversion were already being sown.

DEBUNKING THE ARYAN INVASION THEORY:

There are several challenges involved in colonizing a nation. What makes it easier to accomplish is when you present yourself as their superiors, in some cases, even their saviors. Such an agenda gave rise to a very destructive and false notion known as the ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ (AIT).
AIT basically postulates that the ancient Indians of Vedic times derived their civilization and Vedic religion from foreign invaders.

The word ‘Aryan’ comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Arya‘ (????), which simply means ‘noble’. It has absolutely nothing to do with race. The Europeans had us believe otherwise.

It took many prominent historians decades of struggling against the inertia of false ideologies, created by colonist brainwashing- not to mention dissenting views of many biased anti-Indian historians- to finally drive the nail on this theory, and thankfully as a result it is losing its validity even in academic circles. You can find innumerable related studies on the internet or otherwise; few of which include ‘Solid Evidence Debunking Aryan Invasion’, by David Frawley; ‘History of Ancient India’, by Kamlesh Kapur; ‘The Collapse of the Aryan Invasion Theory’, by Professor Nicholas Kazanas- among others.

The AIT gave rise to many tragic conclusions. A known fact is that Hitler’s Nazism was heavily based on the AIT notion, and that led to the killing of millions of innocent people, due to a sense of racial superiority. Unfortunately the roots of lies run very deep; AIT is still running rounds, having re-packaged itself as the ‘Aryan Migration Theory’.

FALSE DRAVIDIAN PREMISE:

Another major and contemporary problem is the Dravidian identity. As mentioned, one of the postulates of AIT states that the Aryans came from the outside, and the Dravidians were the original inhabitants of India. This split the nation into two along the geo-politico-socio-cultural lines. Some in the southern states consider themselves Dravidians, and wish to carve a separate identity, even a separate nation for themselves. Unfortunately they bought into the AIT premise and do not understand that the people of India as a whole are an indigenous lot.

This topic has been masterfully dealt in the book ‘Breaking India’ authored by Mr. Rajiv Malhotra and Mr. Aravindan Neelakandan. This book is highly recommended for those who are interested in knowing about the various issues plaguing India today. I have spoken to one of the co-authors at length, and the situation does look very bleak at this point. I quote from their website:

The fabrication of South Indian history is being carried out on an immense scale with the explicit goal of constructing a Dravidian identity that is distinct from that of the rest of India. From the 1830s onwards, this endeavor’s key milestones have claimed that south India: is linguistically separate from the rest of India; has an un-Indian culture, aesthetics and literature; has a history disconnected from India’s; is racially distinct; is religiously distinct; and, consequently, is a separate nation.

 Tamil classical literature that predates the 19th century reveals no such identity conflicts especially with “alien” peoples of the north, nor does it reveal any sense of victimhood or any view of Westerners or Christians as “liberators.” This identity engineering was begun by British colonial and missionary scholars, picked up by politically ambitious south Indians with British backing, and subsequently assumed a life of its own. Even then it was largely a secular movement for political power (albeit with a substratum of racist rhetoric). In recent decades, however, a vast network of groups based in the West has co-opted this movement and is attempting to transform Tamil identity into the Dravidian Christianity movement premised on a fabricated racial-religious history

This rewriting of history has necessitated a range of archeological falsities and even epigraphic hoaxes, blatantly contradicting scientific evidence. Similar interventions by some of the same global forces have resulted in genocides and civil wars in Sri Lanka, Rwanda and other places. If unchallenged these movements could produce horrific outcomes in South India.

DALIT BRAINWASHING:

Dalits in India, who are very much a part of Hinduism, are being strategically trained to turn against Hinduism. This is a two-part process. The first step involves converting them to ‘Neo-Buddhism’, which has only a namesake association with Buddhism, but in reality is simply an anti-Hindu construct. While Buddhism itself is a beautiful religion, Neo-Buddhism is a part of a bitter two-step agenda of alienation and conversion.

In the second step, already drenched with anti-Hindu propaganda, these Neo-Buddhist Dalits fall easy prey to be converted to Christianity.

It is not uncommon to see pictures of Jesus shown sitting in Padmasana (lotus posture), and termed as a more “recent” Avatara, in an attempt to lure Hindus away. I was narrated incidents of school-bus drivers, who will stall the vehicle in the middle of the road, and ask the children to pray to their favorite God so they can get to school safely. The kids pray to their Hindu deities to no avail. Then they are asked to pray to Jesus, and voila, the engine purrs with life. Other methods include shamelessly offering food if one pledges their allegiance to Christianity. Some downright offer money and some even create intentional friction in different families, initiating them in the Church under the pretext of offering help.

Charity is when you provide something to the needy, with no strings attached. In the case of these missionaries, their strings tangle you up for good: families fall apart, lives are destroyed, and the entire social structure crumbles to the ground. As we already discussed, the money to fund these activities comes from abroad. This money goes to strategically aim at the poorest and most uneducated strata of society, to strip them away from their traditional roots.

There are many cases where the Christians bully or outcaste their Hindu neighbours to the point that they convert to Christianity just to be socially accepted.

These were just glimpses of the enormous scale on which such happenings occur. This is how these divisive forces accomplish the task of abducting people from their Hindu roots through a process of constant brainwashing and trickery.

Vote-bank politics works by disallowing the minorities from merging in with the mainstream culture, purposely segregating them, making them feel inadequately represented, and polarizing their votes to gain election victories. These vote-bank politics apply not only to Dalits, but also to Christians and Muslims, as stated earlier. Little do they know that the very politicians who claim to liberate them, are only caging them further. The principle is deceivingly simple- if you make someone believe they are handicapped, and offer an imaginary crutch, naturally you have their support.

If a common tragedy occurs, the news-heading will be sure to include that the victim was a Dalit. If it was a Brahmin or some other varna, it would certainly go unmentioned. Thus we helplessly witness the demonizing of Brahmins, and over time it becomes engraved in our cultural psyche, with these induced ideas becoming our own. Brahmin bashing is a long standing obsession of our media.

Contemplating a little, it is only natural that our politicians prefer to keep the class distinction alive, in order to scoop up their votes. This is the primary cause for these factions being underdeveloped compared to the rest of the nation. The only way to overcome this marginalization is through raising awareness and voting intelligently during elections.

A CALL TO ACTION:

So far we have discussed the disease that plagues our nation as well as the associated symptoms. The cure enjoins the active participation of each one of you.

Verily, it all begins and ends with the individual. Individuals make a family, families form a society, a society sets trends that become a part of our national psyche, and these trends steer the present into the future, through precedents for forthcoming generations to look up to.

If a few individuals shun their duties, others have to bear the weight of their dropped responsibility. When the count reaches a critical number, we fall as a nation, and everything we hold dear and sacred come tumbling down with us like a house of cards.

A democracy that was once of the people, by the people and for the people undergoes an ugly metamorphoses to become a dictatorship of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians- a la Congress. Here the pawns are the educated elite- especially in the media business, and the victims are all of us.

A ‘meme’ can be looked upon as a theoretical unit of an idea. It is the carrier of cultural themes, symbols and traditions that flow from mind to mind, generation to generation. What we consider socially acceptable or unacceptable, our likes and dislikes, fads, fashions, and thoughts prevalent in our society today; these are all prompted by memes. The huge nation-wide furor over corruption and support for Anna Hazare too latched onto the public through memes alone. Memes spread like viruses, with each individual mind being the host.

The most dangerous one unleashed is pseudo-secularism. This is nothing short of Intellectual Terrorism. What the divisive organizations and foreign nexuses do is smother our traditional memes and deliberately flood them with a barrage of introduced ideas to suit their own agenda. As a result, it has become common practice; even fashionable, for Hindus to disenfranchise themselves from their customs, rituals, and religion, all of which are resultant effects of an overdose of methodical brainwashing by the divisive forces covertly at work. This is done by soliciting and/or exploiting the System- comprising of the polity, the intelligentsia, the academia and the media.

As individuals, you have the power to influence. Simply by discussing these issues with your family and friends, you can effectively undo some of the damage done by popular media, by being a medium in your own sphere of influence. You can generate new Dharmic ideas, as well as resurrect old ones that are being methodically erased.

As householders, you can ensure that your children grow up in a cultured setting by re-instating Hindu values at home. Taking them to the temple, keeping ancient family practices alive, and the studying of Indian philosophies is a great way to start. It is a fundamental economic principle that demand facilitates supply. Once a market is created it acts as a feedback mechanism, so demand the incorporation of yoga as part of Physical Training (PT) in school, demand Sanskrit to be taught in class, encourage extra-curricular activities like classical dance and singing. If these aren’t offered in school, kindly enroll your child in some independent institution for the same. In due time, your dissatisfaction with the system will compel the schools to cater to these needs. All these things will go a long way in re-discovering our long lost cultural ethos, both in our homes and in society.

As citizens, please vote responsibly in elections. Make your voice heard through the ballots. Politics isn’t dirty; it is people who exploit it because the well intended ones do not take interest in it. Every citizen of the world should be politically aware as a minimum social responsibility.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Martin Niemöller

These statements reference the inaction on part of the German intellectuals, in the face of rising Nazism. They remained silent and allowed injustice to sweep the nation. Our national discourse has been polluted and we are all equally responsible for cleaning it up.

Facts by themselves are lifeless, but when clothed as ideas, they come alive. Ideas cannot be contained- they are self-illuminating, they always find a way to shine even through the smallest crevices, given the faintest sign of hope. Each point discussed in this analysis is an idea worth sharing. The time has come to reclaim our roots through a new wave of interest. Let this be an intellectual awakening. First make it yours, and then share it with others. This revolution can either begin or end at your doorstep, I fervently appeal to you to carry the torch forward.

By Ram Vyas

Time for Indians to Reflect

(CHAKRA) To The People of India,

Greetings,

I address you collectively as a nation, as nation builders, and as individuals capable of rationale and reasoning.

As human beings we are endowed with an enhanced intellectual faculty, which is really the only thing that confers us a distinct position in the animal kingdom. Genetically, we are 99% similar to chimps, but that 1% sets us apart. This difference manifests itself in a very special place- the human mind.

Our choices define us, and it is the mind where all choices are made. In the mind alone, transformations that shape the external world are first conceived before being put into action. Indeed, it is a powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, we have been shirking our responsibilities for a long time now.

Today, we live in an age of social crisis. The trouble isn’t lack of intelligence or some debility; rather it is the lack of knowledge, and the subsequent inaction on our part that follows. Without knowledge, we cannot make informed decisions- crucial decisions that shape our future, and that of our nation.

A region having seismic fault-lines is most prone to geological disturbances- more commonly known as earthquakes. India too is replete with its own fault-lines, but on the political, educational, cultural, social, economic and intellectual fronts. These fault lines disintegrate the country from within, making it susceptible to exploitation in one form or another. I cannot possibly address all of the issues here- that would require a voluminous tome, not an essay. I will however give a bird’s eye view of it, touching upon the general ideas, providing the impetus to do your own subsequent research where required.

Time and time again we hear about “India rising”; sweeping remarks about its financial success, or last year’s GDP growth, at par with- at times even overtaking- China. In short, we hear only about the things that make us feel good as a nation, seldom do you hear about what goes about behind the scenes; the foreign and domestic forces at hand in demolishing the national structure, one day at a time, one unit at a time. These keenly neglected newsreels are precisely what we will present here, but first a brief history lesson.

LOOKING BACK IN TIME:

The Hindu/Indian culture was the cradle of advanced civilization. Everything flourished in this ancient land- Philosophy, Mathematics, Science, Literature, Commerce, Arts, Yoga, Ayurveda, Architecture, Governance, Logic, Astrology, Astronomy, Medicine- you name it, we had it. We even came up with the same postulates of Pythagorus’ theorem before he did, presented in Vedic scriptures, detailing the size and shapes of yajna altars. Thus the cornerstone of every great thought found its epicenter in India.

Being a highly evolved and peace-loving culture, we knew the value of our values. We gave birth to some of the most profound luminaries that walked this earth:- Vyasa, Vashishta, Adi Shankaracharya, Mahavira, Buddha, Valmiki, to name a few, and an endless, unbroken lineage of enlightened Acharyas in this Guru-Shishya Parampara (student-teacher tradition). Then things went awry.

When the Islamic invaders attacked India, there was large scale cultural dishevelment. Wealth was plundered, women were defiled, ancient religions were displaced, and scores of temples were demolished. It would be fitting to term the Mughals- perhaps with the exception of Akbar- as less of rulers and more of barbarians. Long lapses of time make us routinely forget that first it was Babar, who destroyed the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, creating an long-standing legacy of temple destruction throughout erstwhile India, which ended only with the demise of the last Mughul ruler, the ruthless Aurangzeb. Thus India underwent a painful transformation from being the most prolific producers and inventors, to passive ones, because we had to direct our minds and resources toward resisting the onslaught.

The next blow came from the Europeans, when they landed ashore under the pretext of trade. We did not them for an extended stay-back to sample more of our curry dishes- they invaded us. Already weakened by the Mughuls, and thus falling technologically behind, we did not put up much of a challenge to the British, and were once again at the mercy of another foreign power.

It is a well recognized fact that India was the world’s economic superpower for the most part of recorded history. However, due to the Islamic and British invasions, contrasted by the Industrial revolution hitting Europe, India fell behind in the GDP race in the early 19th century, and we never again regained our lost position again

It is crucial to note that in spite of our numerous successes, Indians never set out to conquer other nations, we have always been self sustaining and self satisfied. Even with the outsiders who ruled us, we tried to form amicable relationships, allowing them to assimilate into our way of living, despite their best attempts to extricate us from our own. It is in our cultural DNA to always be accommodating, and therein lies the greatness of our Hindu/Indian culture.

The Hindu-Jewish Summit was held in New Delhi, in 2010. The Jewish Rabbis graciously admitted that the Hindus alone gave them shelter when they were chased into exile by everyone else. Whether it was being ousted from their homeland by the Muslims in Arabia, the anti-Semitist movements of the Christians, or facing the holocaust at the hands of the Nazi regime; Jews have faced a long history of persecution. It is in India where they found their long awaited peace.

The same applied for Parsis- the Zoroastrians now integrated in India. Like the Jews, they too were harassed away from their native Persia by the Arabic Muslims, and thus made their way into the Hindu/Indian culture upon their arrival at Gujarat, into which they were peacefully assimilated.

A NEED FOR INTEGRATION OF CULTURES:

Today, India is a potpourri of many world religions, but it is fast losing its culture due to many eroding factors which we will explore. As we made abundantly clear above, historically, it is the Hindu/Indigenous culture alone that has allowed for the peaceful integration of people in our nation. The cultures associated with the major western religions- with all due respect- do not allow for this plurality in India, as they wish for others to do and believe in the same things that they do.

A sparkling example of this is Dr.Zakir Naik. If you have seen him on television or ‘Youtube’, you would know exactly what I mean. For those who haven’t, he is Islam’s answer to Televangelists, performing his theatrical antics on stage believing that the public is comprised of incompetents. Unfortunately that is true, as most of his audience consist of yes-men. The same applies to Christian Missionaries in India, whose primary motive for the most part is to convert the nation to their faith. That will be further discussed as we proceed.

Pre-Independence, Hindus and Muslims co-existed side-by-side in relative peace, until the seeds of divisiveness had been planted into the Indian soil by the colonizers. Almost all Muslims living in India are converts, and culturally are still very much Indian, but today they are being led astray with the solid influence of figures living in the Arab world, and their dialectics are contrary; even antagonistic to the Indian culture. Over time, those figures are transforming the psyche of Indian Muslims to that of the Arabic world. This breaks the nation from within.

Similarly, the Christian Missionaries who “work” in India are trying to mould India from a very Western angle and that has been causing a lot of friction in rural villages, which is responsible for scores of families falling apart.

In India, family has been the most important social unit, and these domestically implanted “push factors” coupled with foreign influenced “pull factors” are causing massive damage to the social structure of India.

The Hindu religion on the other hand does not require its followers to convert anybody; it prescribes a way of living for the adherents alone, and for no one else. We neither wish to be converted nor are we looking to convert, which is what makes the associated Hindu/Indian culture the most pluralistic and accommodating of all.

As a Hindu, one has no personal restrictions against entering a Church or a Mosque, just as freely as he worships in his own temple, but today it is some fundamentalist sitting in the Middle-East, who determines what Indian Muslims should and should not do.

Let me be very clear here. Adopting a Hindu culture does not mean one needs to adopt the Hindu religion, one can practice their own faith, just as the Jews, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and the Vedic followers have merged seamlessly into a unified Hindu/Indian culture, and quite successfully too. This alone can save our country from internal fragmenting.

Our Ex- President Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam serves as a perfect example of this. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that he has been one of the greatest modern contributors to our national structure, and in his capacity has done more for the nation than credited for. His interest at heart has always been India, and despite being born in a Muslim family, he has shown no hesitation in appreciating his Indian roots.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, it only makes perfect sense that those living in India follow the same principle, without having to give up their religious beliefs and practices. Thus we see that adopting an indigenous culture alone can stop the country from the internal fragmentation envisioned by divisive forces.

In this kind of unity alone lies strength. No one loses their identity; they simply become part of a greater Indian story.

UNDERSTANDING PSEUDO-SECULARISM:

When an organization or entity, in their pretentious bid to be overly secular, behaves in a totally un-secular fashion, this behaviour is termed as ‘Pseudo-Secularism’. When such pseudo-secularism is put into practice, the ones who primarily suffer are the majority inhabitants of the country; in our case, Hindus.

A functioning democracy should reflect the interest of the people, providing equal rights to all and sundry.  As we will discover, the major institutions in our country such as the government, media and educational system are severely crippling the nation through their non-secular practices. Let’s take them on one by one.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE GOVERNMENT:

Sonia Gandhi, born in Italy, under the name Edvige Antonia Albina Maino, and the rest of the Congress Party have time and again proven that their governance is detrimental to the development of our nation.

It is entirely frightening that in a country of nearly 1.2 billion people, most are oblivious to the facts surrounding the people they elect to power.

Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has collected plenty of incriminating evidence against the Congress officials on many counts, yet the proceedings are moving at a snail’s pace. It would appear that some are in fervent hope of outliving the prosecutor. The media too has unnecessarily been giving him a hard time, despite his efforts to expose corrupt individuals in power. The supporting evidences for Dr. Swamy’s claims are up for display on his website. You may draw your own conclusions from the same.

I can understand that we didn’t really have that much of a choice thwarting the British; what’s done is done, but honestly, must we make the same mistake with the Italian born as well? We need to wean off this colonized mentality and learn to elect one of our own; someone who understands the nation better, someone who is interested in its well being, and someone who can effectively govern it.

Trivia: The family name, ‘Gandhi’, has merely been adopted to play to the sentiments of the masses; sadly it worked. The lesser said about Mrs. Gandhi’s not-so- illustrious child, Rahul Gandhi, the better. One may also want to do some inquiry into what his real name is, as the family has a long history of adopting names that resonate well with the public.

Dressed in white, smiling and waving at the camera does not qualify one to run a nation of 120 crore people, competence does. On all counts, the Gandhi scion is unfit to bear this impending responsibility. It would be a shame to see him as our next Prime Minister in the 2014 General Elections.

MINORITY APPEASEMENT:

Now, the Congress Government partakes in an activity called ‘Minority Appeasement’, which you may consider one of the package deals under the provisions of Pseudo-Secularism.

Here is how and why it works to their advantage, and this will directly tie in to the need for Hindus to be more organized socio-culturally and politically.

In the process of Minority Appeasement, the Government will be extra nice to the Muslim and Christian populace, but they will conveniently ignore other minorities such as Sikhs, Jews, Jains etc. The reason is very simple. Muslims and Christians in India are highly organized in their joint decision making strategies. There is a very high level of agreement amongst them; hence if you can win the confidence of a few, you win them all. That is why an overwhelming majority of Muslims and Christians will vote for Congress alone, which is the reason they are appeased in the first place.

In the case of Hindus, our votes are divided. We cannot reach consensus even over regional MLAs- let alone electing a National Government. This is the reason why the Government must stoop to the level of Minority Appeasement, because the minorities are highly homogenized in their collective decisions. They have no reason to be nice to Hindus; hence the Hindus lie at the suffering end. This absolute lack of socio-political unity among Hindus is the main cause for anti-Hindu parties running the country.

Even Church and Mosque funds are mainly handled by their respective autonomous religious institutions, but when it comes to Temple funds, for some reason the Government often wants to interfere and take control.

Year 2011 presented a shameful incident regarding the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. It is a matter of pride that the members of the Travancore Royal Family were the caretakers of an estimated US$26.76 billion; not having used it for themselves, and a matter of shame that the State Government wished to manage this fund.

For a very long time, Indian Muslims were being provided a Haj subsidy by the government to go to Mecca. In 2007 the government spent Rs. 47,454 per passenger. In December, 2011, Christians were accorded a subsidy to pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was only after much struggle that the Tamil Nadu Government extended the same rights to Hindus to visit Mansarovar.

United we stand, divided we fall. As Hindus, our lack of consensus on issues is one of the primary reasons for our downfall as a nation.

I once read a joke on the internet: “The second stupidest thing America did was elect Bush as President, but the stupidest thing they did was elect him again.” I sincerely hope our nation does not make the same mistake with the present Government, because if it does, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves. As the saying goes, “fool me once; shame on you, fool me twice; shame on me”.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM:

Educational centers are the most important places to begin shaping our understanding of the world. What we learn in school and college is often what we develop a life-long affinity for.

When you infect the educational system, you are infecting minds; not one, but many. It spreads like an epidemic. Horizontally; it grows by infecting the contemporary population, and vertically; through the generations of culturally deprived children.

It should not come across as much of a surprise, that a large portion of our school and college syllabus is patterned after Western thought, but before I get into that I’d like to point out a fundamental flaw in the modern Indian Education System.

In ancient times, there was equal emphasis on the sciences as well as cultural ethos. Sanskrit Literature abounds with rigorous treatises on logic which would make the Greek philosophers look juvenile in comparison. For sampling purposes, please study one of our Nyaya Shastras. On the other hand, our texts also painted a gentler, more picturesque view of life. The ancients understood the importance of striking this balance and with good reason too.

The brain is divided into hemispheres; the left and the right. The right side is concerned with aesthetics, languages, emotions, intuition, empathy, self image, inter-personal relationships, and a holistic appreciation of things. The left side deals with logic, analysis, objectivity, goals, and is detail oriented. Too much of right with very little left would leave behind a sentimental wreck; irrational and lacking objectivity. Too much of left with little right would give rise to an automaton; a flesh and blood robot with no sentiments or appreciation of the finer side of life. Neither one of these individuals is socially fit.

A well developed person is adequately developed in both hemispheres. He caters to both his emotional and analytical needs as and when required. Unfortunately, our educational system is primarily focused only on the left, turning children into mechanical zombies before every exam, giving no chance to develop their creative side. Parents and teachers need to address this problem. The formative years of children are their school going years, and will vastly determine their future personality.

As the decades pass, we are giving lesser importance to value education and appreciation of Indian culture. The Board of Education needs to recognize this problem, and focus on finding a way to incorporate cultural activities into their education.

Introducing Indian dance forms such as Bharat Natyam, Oddisi, Kuchchipudi, Kathak etc- depending on the State you hail from; Yoga, for a sound mind and body as part of Physical Education, and Carnatic and Hindustani Sangeet, are good steps to take.

These need to find their way into the lives of children. If you are a parent concerned about negative influences on your little ones, try enrolling them into these Indo-cultural activities and mark the difference for yourselves. Even if the schools do not offer them, find a nearby cultural center for Indian arts; every major city in India has at least a few.

Small efforts on your part will turn them into well rounded children, and that can only happen if they are familiar with their cultural ethos.

PRESERVATION OF SANSKRIT:

For several reasons, attempts to bury Sanskrit as a language have been made. One of the primary reasons being that the majority of Hindu literature and scriptures have been written in Sanskrit, so when the language dies, automatically there are fewer people taking interest in these ancient works, so the associated religion and culture start dying along with it, leaving plenty of room for those with ulterior motives to take advantage of this situation.

If there exists an option between Sanskrit and a foreign language offered in school, opt for Sanskrit. It is only the pseudo-secular mentality in our heads that we feel something “foreign” is better, or “cooler”- well it isn’t, nor is it going to impress anyone. It is simply an idea that has been fed to us for a very long time, which we have digested quite successfully.

The good news is that Sanskrit is not a dead language yet. The bad news is it will be if you allow it to happen. Please don’t. We should be just as proud of it as we are of English. It is an important part of your heritage, and its preservation lies in your hands.

MARXIST CURRICULUM:

Every country having a rich and varied heritage would be proud of it. It is disparaging that in spite of living in the land of the Ramayana and Mahabharata; two of the lengthiest and culturally meaningful historical epics, they do not find their way into the school curriculum despite having some very good English translations, yet we find mention of Shakespeare, Gilgamesh and Rumi. Furthermore, we learn tales from Aesop’s Fables, for “Value Education”, but not beautiful ones from the Puranas or Panchatantra.

To illustrate, there is a story in the Puranas, where Ganesha and his brother Karthikeya decide to have a race to see who can go around the world the quickest. Karthikeya sets off like a bolt of lightning, while Ganesha slowly encircles his parents- Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati- 3 times before Karthikeya returns. Ganesha states that his parents mean the world to him, and is declared the winner.

This is what India is about; there is so much to learn from these little stories. It is painfully evident that however good things are, Pseudo-Secularism will always undermine the greatness of our culture.

Dance and music in India have always been hinged on devotion to the Lord, one cannot separate the means from the end, yet we find just that happening. In Kalakshetra, a renowned fine arts school in India, most Ganesha images on which (as per tradition) pooja would be performed, were removed in an attempt to be a more secular.

It gets even worse at University level; pointedly in the case of Liberal Arts majors. Now their entire syllabus not only ignores Hindu Literature, but is often antagonistic to it. Once again, it is very becoming of them to read philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Marx, Descartes and other Westerners, but not any Indian school of philosophical thought such as Vedanta, Tarka, Nyaya, Sankhya, Vaisheshika and etc. If they do happen to read ancient Indian texts, many do so only with a critical eye, not with the reverence that they were intended for, and how can they, when their schools did not provide them any appreciation of these texts via culture based value education? So they end up writing acidic papers on the Hindu culture in the light of their warped understanding of contexts and perspectives.

In summary, you have little kids that have grown up, all ready to be sent off to college, still traditionally impoverished in their thought process. Then due to their inadequate supplementary education, they set themselves up for more more-of-the-same, and get sucked right into the game of rebelling against their own culture, scoring self goal after another. It is truly a no-win situation for them.

These sadly misplaced students find their way into popular media by becoming Journalists, News Reporters, Authors, Historians, Social workers or Western styled Lobbyists. Several of them take up teaching positions, and they teach their students the same things that they had been taught. Thus the vicious circle completes itself, with another generation getting ready for the same treatment. It should be noted that there are still a few exceptional people that I appreciate in each of these disciplines cited above, who do have their understanding in right place; however the general trend is still downhill.

PSEUDO-SECULARISM IN THE MEDIA:

As mentioned, some of the graduating batches of pseudo-secular individuals are likely to pick careers in media/broadcasting, and here is where they wreak wide-spread havoc.

Already steeped in Marxist thought, having only a perfunctory academic knowledge of Indian tradition, and completely removed from our cultural ethos, these media men and women think they understand what is good for India better than many Indians who have fortunately not undergone such a cultural alienation as them.

So far we uncovered the mechanism at work, but who is pushing the buttons? As a common civilian lacking access to inside information, I will refrain from making any statements I cannot fully substantiate, so as an exercise, I do encourage typing the phrase ‘Who Owns the Indian Media’, and performing an internet search on it, from which you can draw your own conclusions.

It isn’t surprising that the vocabulary of some media personalities is replete with mocking adjectives for Hindus taking up some prominent public position; be it a Swami or a Politician. In other words, it is okay if you are a devout Christian or a Muslim, and taking part in politics, but if you are a Hindu, you are automatically associated with one or more of the following terms: “God-men”, “saffron brigade”, “fundamentalist”, “Right-winged terrorist”, “communal’ and more.

There are deviants found everywhere, but for every scandal one can associate a Hindu figure with, ten or more scandals could be pointed out connected to the Church. Would the Indian Media dare extend the same disrespect to Christian Clerics or Muslim Imams, as they do towards Swamis? Not by a long shot.

Another favorite pass-time of the Media is R.S.S. (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) bashing. We have all heard it on television and read it in the papers; the media spends more time dogging after R.S.S. than it does chastising real terrorist organizations.

However not everyone is that biased, here is what a former SC Judge, K.T. Thomas, has to say:

“There is a smear campaign that RSS was responsible for Gandhi’s assassination just because the assassin was once an RSS worker,” he said, adding that the organisation had been “completely exonerated” by the court. “This smear campaign must end against RSS,” he said.

“I am a Christian. I was born as a Christian and practise that religion. I am a church-going Christian. But I have also learnt many things about RSS,” he said.

“During the Emergency, RSS was the only non-political organisation which fought against it, he said. “We owe very much to RSS for sacrificing many lives for regaining our fundamental rights,” said Thomas.

That should put the matter at rest. Plenty more could be said about the media, but this gives the general idea.

Read PART 2: Open Letter to India: A Call to Action

By Ram Vyas

Krishna (KRSNA)

By Mataji Parama Karuna Devi

ISKCON, or the “Hare Krishna movement”, became a major cultural and religious phenomenon in the 1970s, effectively introducing the Krishna bhakti cult at global level and giving immense popularity to ethical vegetarianism and to the traditional Indian scriptures Bhagavad gita and Bhagavata purana.

However, with the disappearance of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) the movement quickly degenerated and became famous for many negative reasons, especially for the children abuse in the Organisation’s Gurukulas, for the violent acts against some of the followers, for covert or overt persecution of dissenters, for the scandalous immoral activities of most of the leaders, for the gross mismanagement of funds and properties, for the extreme internal politicisation, for the cult-like fanatical ideological presentation, and for the bitter controversies between factions.

A huge majority of ISKCON members left the Organisation in a bitter state of mind – some after a short period, some after a longer period – but usually without understanding what had really gone wrong with their experience. Many of these migrated to Gaudiya math Organisations, some started “parallel” groups for the reform of ISKCON (such as IRM or the Prabhupadanugas etc), some ended up in the “new age spirituality” streams (for example getting into Reiki, “psychological healing” etc), and some simply became negative and resentful.

The fortunes of the Organisation slowly declined, to a point where many temples and centers had to be closed or became empty, forcing the managers to hire paid people and/or “import” cheap manpower from India and other “second best” countries by offering support for immigration documents.

Some of the ISKCON leaders have been trying to recover a “virginity” for themselves and for the Organisation by adjusting the public relations work to accommodate the taste of perspective “customers” who could finance the temples and centers – especially traditionalist Hindus who needed a place to perform their marriages and support their social interactions, celebrate their favorite festivals, and feel encouraged in their ancestral beliefs and lifestyle. Another good “slice of the market pie” is constituted by those who are interested in getting an “alternative” academic course on conventional indological studies, since mainstream conventional academy is taught by professors that do not believe or follow the religious conclusions expressed in the texts they present.

Some ISKCON leaders have therefore changed their clothing into a more “professoral” style and created a good living for themselves with publications, seminars and courses of their own creation, especially with the help and support of the Mother Organisation to which they render an important public relations service. These developments are ideologically very distant from the intentions of the Founder of the Organisation, as they tend to become spiritually cynical and church-like, aimed at just giving a new coat of respectable-looking paint over the serious ideological problems that continue to fester deeper inside, unaddressed and unsolved.

Unfortunately, any discussion on these issues is perceived by ISKCON people as “offensive dissent”, “betrayal”, and “heretic rebellion”, and those who dare express anything that is not strictly according to the “Institutional policies” are actively persecuted in various ways, even when they openly dissociate from the Organisation. This persecution also strikes those who do not recognize the Organisation’s “monopoly” over the “trade marks” of Iskcon’s religious business, such as chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, teaching or writing about Bhagavad gita (and other traditional scriptures), opening a Krishna temple, naming one’s vegetarian restaurant “Govinda” or “Hare Krishna restaurant”, etc, even if they never express any criticism or antagonism towards Iskcon.

Those who dare to do so independently from the ISKCON umbrella Organisation or its sub-branches (also controlled by ISKCON) are sued, threatened of personal violence, sabotaged and opposed in all possible ways. So, under all aspects, ISKCON has become another Vatican.

They just glued the faces of Chaitanya and Krishna over the old images of Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible, and adjusted a few details here and there. And this is no wonder, if we go deeper into the study of Iskcon’s true beginnings, in the period under the British rule.

In those times Hinduism at large was systematically attacked as morally and academically unacceptable by the educational system imposed by the British government to those Indians who wanted to keep some prominent position in Indian society (those who later became known as “brown sahibs”). The christian schools in India zealously taught (and still teach) innocent and impressionable children that Hinduism is an ignorant bunch of primitive pagan superstitions and fables, while Christianity is the only acceptable and evolved model of theology, philosophy and ethics.

Even when the students are not forced to official conversion, such approach is terribly damaging and its effects often seep deeply into the subconscious level creating inferiority complexes, fears and other negative ideas, effectively distorting the understanding of Hindu values and robbing them of their actual meaning. This was the target explicitly stated by the educational system established by Macaulay & Co (which in my opinion should be carefully distinguished from English language per se).

Thus Kedarnath Datta (later known as Bhaktivinode), a very intelligent student in the British educational system, devised a plan to “re-package” Hinduism in a form that would be acceptable and even appreciated by the British academia. In this way, Hinduism could not only survive but regain ground in Bharata and even become appreciated at global level, creating a favourable international public opinion that would also have some influence in checking the cultural destruction perpetrated by the British colonial government in Bharata.

He was not the only one who had such an idea during the same historical period, but while others ventured into advaita philosophy (more fit for intellectuals) or social reformism (more fit for dedicated politicians), he chose the path of Bhakti to appeal to the hearts of the simple-minded masses. Which, in my opinion, was a great idea. Thus he proceeded to construct a sort of “Hindu Christianity”, presenting Chaitanya as the counterpart of the Jesus figure, and Krishna as the counterpart of the idea of the (Father) God in Christianity.

It was a very easy job, because already many groups in Bengal (the second family home of Kedarnath Datta, while his original village was in Orissa) worshiped Chaitanya as an avatar of Krsna and in fact not different from Krsna himself, after the scholarly descriptions of Chaitanya Caritamrta (written by Krsnadas Kaviraj, a later disciple of Rupa and Raghunath, two direct followers of Chaitanya). Krsnadasa Kaviraja could then be considered a sort of “later evangelist” of Chaitanya much like Mark and Luke in Christianity.

The Gaudiya math even openly used (and still uses) many Christian expressions, such as the “gospel” of Chaitanya and put a strong emphasis on the fact that Chaitanya tanya made no caste or religion discrimination among his followers, focused entirely on aikantika bhakti to a Supreme Dominating Male, etc.

However, it is extremely important to notice that neither Krishnadasa Kaviraja nor Bhaktivinoda or his son and successor Bhaktisiddhanta or his disciple Bhaktivedanta (the founder of ISKCON in USA) ever expressed, taught or intended to support the church-like offensive, denigratory or aggressive opinions, unethical policies and hypocritical stands that ISKCON unfortunately developed since the disappearance of its founder, Bhaktivedanta Swami. That would be the handiwork of a person who could be considered somewhat like the counterpart of Paul in Christianity: Tamal Krsna, who was also the mastermind of the unauthorised changes in the books and teachings of Bhaktivedanta Swami to suit his political purposes.

It is extremely important to understand that Bhaktivedanta Swami, Bhaktisiddhanta and Bhaktivinoda never wanted to create an “ISKCON cult” where the Institution existed only to support its own existence and attacked all others, especially genuine Hinduism.

Agreed, some unfortunate expressions were used (“demigods”, etc) but that was according to the specific strategy of propitiating Christians, and largely because of a limited knowledge of the English language and western culture (filtered through the Indian educational system). But all the three of them saw that particular “abrahamic” presentation of Vaishnavism as a specific strategy required by desa, kala, patra (place, time and audience), to create a strong first footing from which they would continue to expand the genuine teaching of sanatana dharma.

We can find this idea expressed very clearly in the famous Bhagavata lecture given by Bhaktivinoda in 1869, in many passages written by Bhaktisiddhanta (who had also established a large library with many “dharma shastras”) and in many conversations and lectures by Bhaktivedanta. All three of them often quoted the famous verse written by Rupa Gosvami in his Bhakti rasamrta sindhu (1.2.101): sruti smrti puranadi pancaratra vidhim vina, aikantiki harer bhaktir utpatayaiva kalpate.

Now, it was left to the sincerity and punya of each student to find out what sruti and smrti contained and taught to avoid becoming followers of  ”a useless fantasy that could only cause disturbance and damage to society”, and learning Sanskrit was an important part of the process. Precisely for that reason, Bhaktivedanta’s translations and commentaries included the original devanagari text, transliteration, word-to-word translation and literary translation, and all disciples were required to chant slokas and mantras in Sanskrit rather than in a “local vernacular” version.

However, it is a fact that the particular flavor and emphasis of their preaching was due to the urgent need to preach to Christians and to those people who had been heavily influenced by Christian indoctrination (including Indians), and especially in a very peculiar historical period when India was under the British Christian domination.

Even Bhaktivedanta preached in a historical time (the late 1960s and 70s) when the Hindu movement was still very much still sleeping and Hindus in USA were mostly hiding like “Jews under the Nazi regime” or even distancing themselves from traditional “orthodox” Hinduism.

Kedarnath Datta, who had named his children Vimala Prasad and Biraja Prasad, could not elaborate much on Shiva tattva or Shakti tattva as they were impossible to reconcile with the Victorian Christianity.

Similarly, Bhaktivedanta also gave his disciples many names as “Umapati das” and “Mahamaya devi dasi”, even while remaining focused on a “monotheistic” Krsna worship in his preaching in the West. Bhaktivedanta had tried to develop Iskcon in Jhansi, India, before deciding to move to US, and had met with almost total lack of interest.

After about one year uselessly spent in trying to approach scholars and “respectable people” in US, Bhaktivedanta Swami saw the opportunity to preach to hippies and rebellious baby-boomers of an American generation that was definitely ready for a “change of consciousness” and for renunciation to the previous culture and mentality. As much as they were able to, that is. In fact the problem in “expanding the area of consciousness” is always with the subconscious beliefs that people are not recognising at the conscious level. Unqualified people may unwittingly stick a new label over an old mind pattern and delude themselves into believing that they are following a new set of mind patterns just because the label/name has changed.

Unfortunately, the process of confusion was compounded by the improper and non-authorised contact that some immature disciples of Bhaktivedanta Swami had with similarly unqualified disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta (shrapnel from the disintegration of the Gaudiya math on the disappearance of Bhaktisiddhanta) and from which they got several damaging ideas on “the genuine Indian/Vedic culture” such as birth (race and gender) prejudice, acceptance of unqualified authorities out of political/social motives, rationalisation of mistreatment of women, artificial sannyasa in pursuance of social fame power and profit, etc.

At this particular time in history, when we have already entered the 2010s, we need to realise that the situation has changed considerably, and that we also need to correct our course accordingly.

Today we do not need to appease and accommodate the abrahamic tendencies of our audience as there are no more British colonisers and we do not need the validation of mainstream academia any more. On the contrary, there are growing numbers of people who do not identify themselves as Christians any more, and in fact have rejected the Christian paradigms – for example the neo-pagans, wicca and new age people – due to several factors.
Besides, today the Hindu movement is well on its way, although much work remains to be done, and this is probably the single greatest historical fact that we need to focus on.

This is the time to go back to the source, to wash away the unnecessary superimpositions and rediscover the original teachings. For ISKCON and Gaudiya matha followers this means to rediscover a real Chaitanya who simply left a Sikshastaka (stating that “there are no hard and fast rules or ideology to be followed, just the loving chanting of the many Divine Names”), who honored the Oriya Vaisnavas (tantrics and yogis and not merely bhaktas), and a real Rupa Gosvami who worshiped a Deity of Durga.

It is time they rediscovered the truth about people like Jahnava Mata and read Chaitanya bhagavata (a more direct biography of Chaitanya written by a contemporary follower) for a change. In Chaitanya bhagavata, for example, there is a lengthy description of how Chaitanya exhibited the sentiments of Durga in the house of his main follower Advaita Acarya, and how Caitanya and his closest followers fell into a deep spiritual ecstasy by paying homage to Lingaraj in Bhubaneswar and a long line of other Shiva temples before arriving in Puri.
The declared purpose of the sankirtana movement is to encourage the masses of people to appreciate and glorify God, and become God conscious as per the instructions of Gita and Bhagavatam.

Only, we should not forget that without the support of dharma – starting with truthfulness – and without the proper knowledge, there is no possibility of genuine spiritual or religious realisation. Let the future development take us to the proper direction.

Mataji Parama Karuna Devi, the founder of the Jagannatha Vallabha Vedic Research Center, is a sannyasini, a writer, a teacher and a social worker.  The author is a contributor to The Chakra and these are her personal views. You can view her profile here