Media: The good, passionate and the ugly

In chapter 14, Shri Krishna speaks of there being three modes of nature, very akin to our concepts of good, bad and ugly. Except that bad is replaced by passion. Whether passionate actions are good or bad, we leave it to future post. To summarize them in one verse,
17:

सत्त्वत संजायते जनानाम
रजसो लोभा एव च
प्रमदा-मोहु तमसो
भवतो ’जनानाम एव च |

"From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion."

Media is a fourth pillar of any nation. As such, its purpose is fulfilled only when it emanates true knowledge of happenings in the outside world, while remaining detached from giving opinions. This is because facts are very sacred in our day-to-day life. Opinions are free, (i.e. in a nation based on basic freedoms). One can either be biased, or be thoughtful of the other. However, a matter of concern for a rational mind would be when opinions are arrived at with incomplete knowledge. This is obviously more important in democracies, since people need basic knowledge of the system and the participants in it in order to be able to make choices of candidates.

Fig. The hammer of judgement should be struck by the people, not the media.

But as everything in the world, the media is not perfect. There are sections that cater to certain lobbies. Then there are other sections that focus on petty things when more important things are around. To the knowledgeable reader, viewing this could be quite entertaining or sometimes, discomforting.

However, the common man out of distrust for the system generally buys their message hook, line and sinker. When people, out of laziness or limitations of time stop their questioning or confrontationist attitude, the society lapses back into dogma or superstition. We have been there once, perhaps many times, and we have faced the consequences.

Without classifying them, I'm quoting three articles from the Indian press:

1) In this connection, I have only three points to raise. First, those who call themselves the champions of human and women’s rights take pride in forcing Muslim women to abandon the burqa which is a clear infringement of an individual’s freedom to wear what one wants to. When some women are allowed to wear skin-showing outfits, why should others be disparaged when they want to cover their body? The writer forgets that individual choice of dressing should not come under the purview of law.

2) The Indo-Pak Joint Statement issued after PM Manmohan Singh met Pak PM Gilani in Sharm-al-Sheik (Egypt) has created ripples of controversy across the nation. Supposedly, India agreed tode-link Indo-Pak dialogue from the latter's action against terrorism in the Joint Statement. There is also a mention of unrest in Balochistan in it.

3) "He wanted to be the first pop star in space so badly. He had to be first. He knew it wouldn't only be history-making, it would be history-shattering," said Jackson's close friend Uri Geller.

I leave it up to you to classify them according to your bent of mind.

Is there anything like "absolute dharma"?

Some basic questions people following dharmic rules, rooting for a dharmic state and having problems with our present state of affairs should engage in are:

Q 1.: How do we define dharma?

Q 2.: Is Dharma something that is radically different from the natural state of the world?

Q 3.: If that is the case, why do we strive for it, when we know that things have a tendency to revert to their natural state sooner or later?

My concept of dharma, perhaps still in its infancy, is something called righteousness. For me, among other things, it should prompt the powerful to not only let the meek survive, but to also assist them in their survival.

A system in which the powerful allow a way for the weak? Is that feasible? Because, nature does not allow such a system. It is vicious competition in nature, one species besting another. The weak have no place out there. Ours seems meant to be a place where the bigger fish eats the medium fish, the medium fish eats the smaller fish and so on.

So, is a system feasible, which staples the ability of the strong, while allows the weak to grow? Isn't it natural for the strong to gobble the weak? For how long can man made to resist his natural animal instincts? Perhaps just as long as the nation has a powerful triumvirate of legislative, executive and judiciary forces. With the absence of these three, how long can people remain dharmic?

The one argument that is laid against the above question is that in nature, one species always supports its own kind. There is never violence in one species, which is what we see in Homo Sapiens. But on a closer look, we might be proved wrong.

If this is a temporary endeavour, why should we put so much of effort into it as writing miles and miles of scriptures and spending more time teaching and even more time spreading it? Why not let the rules of nature prevail?

And say, even if we achieve such a system, how far should we go? Do the forces of dharma have to be on a constant vigil for adharma in the society? Finally:

Q 4.:Is there anything like "absolute dharma"? When can we sit down and relax, that we have created the best society? Is life a constant war?

I would appreciate your reply to the above questions.

The Science of Gayatri Mantra

Since we are in the process of discovering Hindu philosophies rationally, I advise viewing of the following video.

Mantra

ॐ भुर्भावास्वः तत्सवितुर्वर्नियम ।
भर्गोदेवस्य धीमहि धियोयोनः प्रचोदयात ।

Transliteration:

Aum Bhurbhavasvaha Tatsaviturvaraniyam,
Bhargodevasya Dhimahi Dhiyoyonaha prachodayat.

Translation:

We meditate on the glory of the Creator, who has created the Universe, who is worthy of worship, who is the embodiment of knowledge and light, who is remover of all sin and ignorance. May he enlighten our intellect.

Along with several uses of sound in warfare and use in Raaga Dipak and Raaga Malhar, there is a lot of explanation on how the sounds of the Gayatri Mantra activate our endocrine glands. A must watch not only for people who are already into things like accupressure/accupuncture but for the general populace as well.

Yaksha Prashna

From episode 55 of Mahabharat by B.R. Chopra

Buffer up to 24:00 and watch till 30:00

Only in Hindi for now, so my apologies. Some of the questions are as follows:

Question No. 1:Yaksha questioned: Who makesthe sun to rise and ascend in the skies? Who moves around the Sun? Who makes the sun set in the horizons? What is the true nature of the Sun and where is the sun established?

Yudhisthira answered: Brahma makes the sun rise and ascend. The Gods perambulate about the Sun. The Dharm sets the Sun. Truth is the actual Sun and the Sun is established in truth only.

Question No. 2: How can one become a 'Shrotriya'? How can one attain greatness? What is man's second companion? How does one become become intelligent?

Yudhisthira replied: The study (Adhyana) of the Vedas makes one a 'Shrotriya'. One can achieve greatness by penance and perseverance. Patience is one's second companion. Service to old and wise men renders one intelligent.

Question No. 3: Yaksha enquired: What instills 'divinity' in Brahmins? What is the quality of virtuousity in a Brahmin? What is the humanlike quality of a Brahmin? What is the conduct akin to a non-virtuous person in a Brahmin?

Yudhisthira replied: The self-study (Swadhyana) of the Vedas is divinity in a Brahmin. Penance is the quality like a virtuous person in a Brahhmin. Death is human-like quality in a Brahmin. Criticising others is conduct in a Brahmin like a non-virtuous person.

Question No. 4: Yaksha asked: What instills 'divinity' in Kshatriyas? What is the quality of virtuousity in a Kshatriya? What is the humanlike quality of a Kshatriya? What is the conduct akin to a non-virtuous person in a Kshatriya?

Yudhisthira replied: The art of archery is the divinity in a Kshatriya. Oblation is Kshatriya's quality of virtuousity in Kshatriya. Fear is his humanly quality. Abandoning people are under protection of Kshatriya is his conduct like a non-virtuous person in Kshatriya.

Question No. 5 the Yaksha asked: What is that thing which is like a Mantra in the performance of oblations (Yajnya)? Who is the performer of rites and ceremonies during Yajnya? Who accepts the offerings and oblations of a Yajnya? What is that which even a Yajnya can not transgress?

Yudhisthira replied: 'Breath' is like a Mantra in the performance of rites. 'Mind' is the performer of all rites in the course of Yajnya. Only Shlokas of the Vedas rucha or the richa accept oblation. The Yajnya can not surpass nor transgress the richas.

Question No. 6 the Yaksha asked: What is the most wonderful thing?

Yudhisthir replied: The most amazing thing is that even though every day one sees countless living entities dying, he still acts and thinks as if he will live forever.

Although some of the questions are now obsolete, most of them are worth considering for spiritual enlightenment.

Politics from Mahabharat

Time (Samay) says this after Shree Krishna kidnaps Rukmini and her brother does diddly squat to prevent Him..

"When politics is fatally infected by corruption, then it changes nature. Definitions begin to change. Loyalty is no longer to the nation, but towards the King. Whoever is not a yesman, is an opponent. If truth is against the king, then it is no longer the truth. In this environment, the importance of bribes increases, and politics wants to buy everyone within its reach.The meaning of loyalty, friendship and other words like these change.

The same happened in Hastinapur. After Yudhishthir was made crown prince, there was no silence. Shakuni and Duryodhan were burning with vengeance. Dhritharashtra was going through the same feelings too. And he was giving opportunities to Shakuni to continue these fires of vengeance.

Duryodhan opens up the state treasury. It is unfortunate that inspite of Yudhishthir being made crown prince, Duryodhan is given control of the state treasury. And the latter was to use it to diminish Yudhisthir's popularity. He was buying those who could change the people's mind. Loyalties were being bought. Opponents were being bribed. Dhritarashtra too was plotting against Yudhisthira."

No prizes for guessing who is who today.. Although comparing the characters exactly is a bit far-fetched.

CAPEEM victory

A small victory for a cause we endorse:

PRESS RELEASE
Los Angeles
June 8, 2009

California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) and officials of the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education came to an agreement to settle the lawsuit that was filed in the United States District Court of Eastern District of California in 2006. CAPEEM had challenged the process by which religious claims were incorporated into the textbooks used by public school students, as well as some of the religious claims, themselves, which had made their way into those texts.

Believing that its points had been clearly understood by the defendants, CAPEEM opted not to prolong the litigation. The State entered into negotiations with CAPEEM and agreed to pay CAPEEM $175,000 in exchange for a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit.

CAPEEM looks forward to participating in a review process free from biases, and to work with the State to approve textbooks that do not favor or disfavor any religious doctrines.

For more information contact:
Arvind Kumar (646) 594-4397 arvind@capeem.org http://www.capeem.org
CAPEEM is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization with tax ID 56-2565521. If you do not wish to receive updates from CAPEEM, please reply to this email with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

Check Nizzal Yoddha's (a.k.a. Rajeev Srinivasan's take on this (link)). An excerpt is as follows:

"It should also be replicated in india with a solid legal entity. there are many opportunities to challenge the state and other actors on unconstitutionality and legality. Some random recent examples:

1. The prime minister, sworn to uphold the constitution, violated its equal-rights clauses (this should be an impeachable offense) by saying that one group of people should have greater rights than others

2. An award-winning NGO was found to have fabricated witness statements, thus tampering with witnesses (a major offense) and thus rendering any related trial a mistrial, not to mention libelous and defamatory statements should result in large punitive damages

3. The speaker of the last parliament, sworn to neutrality, said he could not vote with a particular party. this should be an impeachable offense

4. The same speaker belittled and ignored what appeared to be a major vote-buying scam during a no-confidence motion, where it appeared people were bribed with large amounts: a felony. however, the same speaker pursued a misdemeanor with great enthusiasm, again suggesting bias."

The point of using scriptures.

Many visitors to this blog have often asked us, what is the need to use scriptures to understand things.

This post is meant to answer that.

Well, I do feel that is waste of human intellect, that he needs to be taught morals by someone and not learn them on his own through life experiences or follow some ideals due to personal foresight into matters of life.

On the other hand, religious scriptures are a set of codes penned down thousands of years ago. That something written so long ago should be used in today's life is another insult on human intellect. It obviously implies that mankind is not capable of thinking, that a fear of a powerful sentient being should be instilled in him to do what is good and stall from what is bad.

The objective of the blog thus seems to promote a religious theocracy.

However, that is not our intention. Most religious scriptures contain basic behavioral concepts, for example promoting a modest living, to abstain from lust, anger and greed, so on and so forth. It would be useful if the scriptures are used to generate a common concept of a good, desirable life and all the attributes necessary for it. They should be used to generate ideas of an ideal society. It is then unto us to protect it by all means, even if that means breaking the rules of Dharma for a while, for the ultimate purpose of Dharma should be the betterment and welfare of humanity in its entirety. With the focus on the goal, we should remain free from deciding the means to achieve it. And these means are decided upon by the time which we are living in, not by scriptures. Cultures world over that use the scriptures to decide the means, would stagnate.

Though started from a point of generating strength for Karmasura's personal problems, this is the new intention of the blog. To be.. among countless others out there, the ones to understand the scriptures, and use them for the welfare and upbringing of humanity.

As said in Chapter 2: 46

यवन अर्थ उदपाने
सर्वतः सम्प्लुतोदके
तवं सर्वेषु वेदेसू
ब्रह्मनास्य विजानतः |

"All purposes served by a small well can at once be served by a great reservoir of water. Similarly, all the purposes of the Vedas can be served to one who knows the purpose behind them."

Although I've not read the Vedas, the purpose of the blog should be the same as that.

Quota System: A promise in the way of justice

After many long years, I've started re-exploring the Mahabharata by B.R. Chopra, hoping to get more insights into the intellect and knowledge of our ancestors and their understanding of social issues. And in the very first episode, I felt that I had an experience I needed to share.

Maharaj Santanu of the Bharata clan sees Ganga in a beautiful womanly form and proposes her to marry him. In reply, goddess Ganga asks a promise from him, that he will not stop her in whatever she does.

The promise is granted, and we all know what happens then. One by one, seven sons of Santanu are drowned in the Ganges. Santanu is worried and rushes to his Prime Minister as to what to do. The latter says then:

"Any promise that comes in the way of justice is a curse. You can do nothing but to live it."

We see a similar event in the Ramayana when Kaikeya saves Raja Dashratha's life and is granted a promise to ask whatever she wants.. the result is the expulsion of Ram from Ayodhya.

Today.. we have several such situations when our promises come in the way of justice. The quota system as implemented in India today is one such example.

The purpose of this system was alleviation of the people of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. There was a consensus that there were tribes of people that were oppressed under the infamous 'caste system' of India at the time of India's independence. As a result, the constitution of India granted 15% and 7.5% vacancies in educational institutions and jobs in the public sector. This was meant only for 5 years and the end of that period, the situation was to be reviewed. Not only have the following governments extended this period, they have also failed to review the situation and have also extended the vacancies for other sections of the society.

So does this mean that the vacancies were not applied adequately? Or did the number of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes increased all of a sudden after independence when instead they should have fallen. Thankfully, the SC had imposed a limit on the quota sytem to 50% and so, it has generally not risen beyond that limit. But why was the limit imposed at 50% and why was it not kept at the initial 15% and 7.5% as mentioned above?

Without going into the details of the quota debate, some quick points that have to be made regarding the systems are as follows:

1. Implementation of the quota system would perpetuate the caste system instead of abolishing it.
2. Political vote bank imperatives will lead to the extention of the quota system to other sections of the society.
3. Scams will float to register an upper caste as a lower caste.
4. Would other religions also not ask for a reservation for its own poor and backward castes?

The last point of the above has already bore fruit as Syed Shahbuddin has made a demand of muslim reservations. Would it not be naive to assume that all other religions will not make a demand for their reservations? Would this not also leave a gaping hole in our armour against other evils as proselytism since people can do both, convert to another religion and acquire backward caste status to avail the benefits of the quota system? Where will the buck stop?

Instead we the people of India should propose:

1. That people be evaluated on the basis of their talent and potential for the post they aspire to and not on the basis of their birth.
2. If at all the government wants to support the poor, they should support them with economic incentives, scholarships, etc. instead of affirmative action.
3. If there are any reasons that this cannot be implemented (such as corruption, red tape, etc), we should attack those problems and not shy away from them and implement coward measures as these, since some of these have become general Indian problems.

(Note: Discussing funding issues for some of the above programs is outside the scope of this blog. I will link this post to a post I will make on another blog of mine)

Like the other two cases, the quota system as implemented in India is a promise that comes in the way of justice. The justice that is deserved by the people who toil hard irrespective of the status that has been conferred upon him by birth. Today's India lags behind many other countries in terms of science and technology. Besides, there would surely be many other fields which we will lag behind because of slacking in standards of quality. Who knows how many Aryabhattas, Bhaskaracharyas, Kalidases, Ramanujans, C.V. Ramans we missed because of this system?

Time to uproot this system that is allowing the caste system to thrive and make promises not in the way of justice, but of justice.