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SUPERSTITION AND MYTHS !
SCRUTINIZE YOUR SNEEZE IN THE LIGHT OF "ANCIENT DIVINE WISDOM"!
ज्योतिष शास्त्र के अनुसार कुछ काम ऐसे होते हैं, जिन्हें करते वक्त छींक आ जाए तो शुभ शकुन माना जाता है जैसे आसन, शयन, शौच, दान, भोजन, औषध सेवन, विद्यारंभ, बीजारोपण, युद्ध या विवाह में जाते वक्त बाईं ओर या पृष्ठ भाग में हुई छींक शुभ होती है। तभी तो कहा गया है-

भोजने शयने दाने आसने वामे पृष्ठे युद्धे औषधसेवने अध्ययने बीजवापे एषु शुभा।

- यदि किसी के मार्ग में गाय या उसका बछड़ा छींक दे तो निश्चित तौर पर उस व्यक्ति को आर्थिक लाभ होता है।

- किसी कुत्ते को छींकते देख लेने या सुन लेने से विघ्नों और विपत्तियों की पूर्व सूचना मिलती है, लेकिन कुत्ता एक से अधिक बार छींक मार दे तो आने वाले संकट टल जाते हैं।

- वैदिक साहित्य के अनुसार दु:स्थान, श्मशान तथा किसी अन्य दुर्घटनाग्रस्त जगह पर छींक आ जाए तो इसे शुभ माना जाता है।

- रसोई घर में दूध उबालते समय घर की लक्ष्मी छींक मार दे तो यह अशुभता का संकेत है।

- दवाई का सेवन करते समय यदि छींक आए और औषधि गिर जाए तो समझें रोग ठीक होने वाला है।

NO QUESTIONS PLEASE : QUESTIONING AMOUNTS TO BLASPHEMY ;

 
INSTANT BIRTH OF GANESHA AND KARTIKEYA !
"Once, before taking her bath, goddess Parvati anointed unguent on her body and while removing it created a human form from the accumulated dross. The head of this human form resembled an elephant. Parvati then playfully immersed the human-form into river Ganga. But, to her sheer amazement the human form became alive and of enormous size. She accepted him as her son and he was none other than elephant-headed deity-Ganesh.

Once, Lord Shiva became so deeply fascinated by her consort. Parvati hat he did not come out from his palace for 1000 years. The deities became worried and sent Agni to find out the reason. Agni disguised himself as a parrot and entered the palace where Shiva was enjoying privacy with Parvati.

Meanwhile, Parvati went at the bank of a reservoir to quench her thirst. After reaching there she saw six divine women (matrikas) carrying water in the leaves of lotus flowers. As Parvati was thirsty, she requested them to give some water. The matrikas agreed on the condition that a son born to her (Parvati) should also have to be accepted as their son. Parvati gave her consent. The matrikas gave Parvati water to drink.

Hardly had Parvati finished drinking water than a divine child emerged out from her womb. The child possessed various weapons like, trident, shakti and a noose in his hands. He was none other than Kartikeya.The deities appointed Kartikeya as the commander of their army. During that time, a mighty demon named Tarakasur used to torment the deities. Kartikeya killed that demon on the request of deities".

[Padam Puran,srishti khand;translation of original Sanskrit text]."

RAM KILLS SHAMBUK !

After killing the demons king Ravana, Sri Ram returned to Ayodhya. Many sages had arrived there to bless him on the occasion of his crowning ceremony. Sage Vashishth was one of them.As Sri Ram was conversing with the sages a brahmin arrived there with the corpse of his son and wailed---"O son! Your death is certainly due to some flaw of Sri Ram. Now, your mother and I have decided to give up our lives as there is no point in living."

Sri Ram's heart was filled with grief and he asked Sage Vashishth as to how the brahmin could be helped. Sage Vashishth revealed to Sri Ram that the brahmin's son had died a premature death because of Shambuk. Vashishth said--"Shambuk is a Shudra by birth, but he is doing an austere penance. Shudras are not entitled to do penance in all the three yugas, except the Kaliyug. So, only his death can bring back the brahmin's son alive."

Sri Ram instructed both his younger brothers--Laxman and Bharat, to look after the state's affairs in his absence and went in search of Shambuk boarded on his Pushpak Viman.Sri Ram saw a man doing penance at the shore of a reservoir. He landed his Pushpak Viman and went near that man. He introduced himself and enquired about the man's identity--Sri Ram asked--Why are you doing such an austere penance. Who are you?

Without moving the man replied that he was a shudra named Shambuk. He said---- I am desirous of attaining to devaloka and hence I am doing this penance.Sri Ram took out his sword and severed Shambuk's head. All the deities hailed Sri Ram and the brahmin's child became alive once again.[Padampura,Srishti khand; translation from original Sanskrit text].

GENETIC LEADERSHIP;
William Shakespeare has said,"some are born great,some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them".In contemporary India,we have got born politicians and now we are privileged enough to have born Imams too.
It can be a matter of debate whether leaders are born and not made? Is it possible leadership is not a trait, it is a learned behavior and has little to do with innate personal qualities? There is a significant section of psychologists, corporate management as well as researchers who feel comfortable with the idea that some people (whether by inherent qualities, individual experiences, or some combination of the two) simply have more than others of the genetic sequencing required to correlate these leadership traits.May be,all animals are equal but some animals are more than equal !

It’s unsettling, if not astounding, the speed with which new scientific discoveries, or rather ancient scientific discoveries, are coming to light. Some months ago, thanks to one Dina Nath Batra, we learnt that Rama was the first to fly in an aeroplane. And our BC (as in Before Christ) ancestors were familiar with stem cell research. But that was nothing compared to what our august prime minister revealed while inaugurating perhaps the subcontinent’s most advanced medical facility in Mumbai. Imagine, all these years, along with billions of people, I too believed that the first and last virgin birth was the monopoly of the Catholic faith. But thanks to our new intrepid Hindutva archaeologists, we now learn that Karna was the result of artificial insemination, and thus a case of a virgin birth long before the Angel whispered the Annun­cia­tion in Mary’s ear. I need hardly add that the prime minister’s teacher in this matter seems to be Batra, whose works have been made standard supplementary reading in all schools in Gujarat. It is a wonderful irony that Batra’s organisation is called Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Indeed, if this is what we mean by saving learning and education, then the country, and especially the younger generation, is in dire trouble.

I am going to move to what is seemingly an unconnected subject. Not even a week ago, the governor of Maharashtra, belonging to the ruling party, did something remarkable. He told us that applications under the Right to Information, which became legal tender after such a long and hard-fought battle in the public sphere, could be denied by any bureaucrat on the grounds that the request was frivolous. Apart from the question as to who is to decide whether a particular request is frivolous, this is the new ruling party’s strategy for combating and silencing any and every opinion that doesn’t accord with theirs. What we are really seeing is the extension and invention of new methods of censorship. When the Batra-Modi-RSS school promotes mythology as pure science, history and the new gospel, they are specifically invalidating hard-proven science and history.

Has the impact of the rise of Modi silenced the intelligentsia? Will we deny our children the light of reason?

In recent months, authors like Wendy Doniger and Megha Kumar have seen their books being taken off the shelves and pulped. The publishers fear that a legal battle will cost a lot of money and, given the outdated nature of our censorship laws, there’s a chance of the case going either way. The ideal way to combat the Hindutva brand of censorship would have been to galvanise public opinion and put pressure on Parliament to change the law. But that is out of the question now, since the BJP controls Parliament. As you must have noticed, there’s not been a peep out of even stalwarts from the BJP, like Arun Shourie or M.J. Akbar, who have at one time vociferously defended the freedom of expression and fought censorship. Let’s understand clearly, this is just the beginning. Cen­sorship will get far more draconian as time passes and the RSS philosophy gets free play. As a matter of fact, this project is already in progress. We now learn that the RSS, along with the HRD minister, is about to totally revamp the education system in line with the Hindutva agenda.

There’s something intriguing, if not bizarre, happening in our country. What terrible malaise has put our intelligentsia into a comatose state? Has the impact of the coming of Modiji and his song of development made even the most sensible people insensible to the damage being done to the fabric of our education system? Aren’t their horizons too shrinking with the mythification of science? Aren’t their children going to suffer enormously because their parents refused to stand up for their rights and for the truth?

Since I myself have suffered from both legal and extra-legal censorship with my play Bedtime Story, I have a few suggestions to make. First of all, publishers, big and small, could band together and contribute to a common fund to fight censorship cases. Secondly, all authors who believe that censorship in the service of religious bigotry is a curse should contribute a hundred or more rupees annually to the anti-censorship fund. Next, we have to get authors to visit schools, colleges and other educational institutions to talk to the students and provoke them to think about why life with extreme censorship laws is like living without light and why we have to stand together to fight for our fundamental human rights. Maybe then we can start a protest movement all over India. And of course, we must get the finest thinkers, professionals, enlightened priests and laymen to join our fight.

Whatever measures we may employ, including the ones that I have just outlined, the most important and effective one will always be public opinion. Obviously, we don’t have the millions needed to run the kind of press, radio and other media campaigns that the government swamped us with prior to the national and Maharashtra elections. But fortunately, we too have access, at least so far, to YouTube, Twitter, e-mail and every other internet media that Obama and Modiji utilise so effectively.

Let me offer a few suggestions for a campaign directed at young people headed for the US, Europe, or Australia: 1) Does your father, who is such a staunch follower of the PM, expect you to get into one of the finest universities in the world by telling your professors that we were flying planes in the 6th century BC? 2) Wow, do you really expect to get into Harvard Medical School by telling them what the PM told you—that we were performing transplants of elephant heads on human bodies before the beginning of time?

Now this one is for the parents: Obviously, you want your children to get a head start by giving them the best education. The question is, when your son is writing the crucial essay with his application to the Harvard Medical School, do you really want him to say that Gandhari, mother of the Kauravas, had an abortion and Maharishi Vyasa divided the foetus-like flesh into a hundred parts and kept them in ghee for two years, at the end of which a hundred Kauravas were born?

Come sir, your children deserve much better than that.[Courtesy : Outlook].

NEFARIOUS AND DIVISIVE SAFFRON AGENDA !

The Project Saffron has taken off with a bang in all seriousness with Modi leading the charge to dump the Gandhian-Nehruvian idea of a secular and inclusive India and instead raise the Hindustan of Hindutva’s dreams.

Modi is on a mission and on a roll. In his deliberate actions, speeches and approach, he reminds you of early years of the Fuhrer, out to fashion the Third Reich. Every single word he speaks and every single step he takes has a careful, well thought out purpose and a message. Like those clever art works by Leonardo da Vinci, even regulation photo opportunities have their own hidden clues and messages. Those who do not pay attention do so at their peril.

As  Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal argues, from appropriating national icons like Gandhi, dumbing him down to a cleanliness drive and the humble broom, and projecting Patel as the new national icon above Gandhi and Nehru, the Parivar is pushing its agenda: “The icons are strategically picked up, suitably distorted and recreated in a manner that is gradually and subtly bringing the Hindutva agenda to the fore through historical falsehoods and propagandist tactics that have begun squeezing space for any dissent and challenge.”

In his latest New York Times piece, Pankaj Mishra warns that the kind of retrograde 1920s-style nationalist dogma that appeared in Europe, Russia and Japan is making a big comeback in India as Modi “stokes old Hindu rage-and-shame over what he calls more than a thousand years of slavery under Muslim and British rule.”

Mishra writes: “In Madison Square Garden, in New York, last month, more than 19,000 people cheered Mr. Modi’s speech about ending India’s millennium-long slavery. But hundreds of millions of uprooted Indians are also now fully exposed to demagoguery. Interestingly, it is not the RSS’s khaki-shorts-wearing volunteers but rather quasi-Westernized Indians in the corporate-owned media and mysteriously well-funded think tanks, magazines and websites who have provided the ambient chorus for Mr. Modi’s ascent to respectability.”

It seems by the time Modi is done with India–or India is done with Modi, which looks like a distant possibility given the total decimation of the opposition and the messianic role he imagines himself–it would not be the same country and nation again. It has already changed in the past few months in ways one never thought possible. And the ride has just about begun.

_________________________________

Faiz had said this in a different age and for a different country but it still rings as true and is contextual to our circumstances as all great poetry is:

Nisaar main teri galiyon ke aye watan ke jahan
Chali hai rasm ke koi na sar utha ke chale
Jo koi chahne wala tawaaf ko nikle
Nazar chura ke chale; jismo-jan bacha ke chale

(My salutations to thy sacred streets, O beloved nation!

Where a tradition has been invented

That none shall walk with his head held high

If at all one takes a walk, a pilgrimage

One must walk, eyes lowered, the body crouched in fear)

REVIVALIST EDUCATIONAL RENEWAL !

What is common between Boko Haram and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,besides  being               votaries of respective fundamentalism ?Both are hypocritically opposed to western education,though with different dimensions.Paradoxically,despite their opposition to western education per se and spacious sophistry against western values, comparatively and comprehensively they are the better beneficiaries of modern science and technology than many many others.

So when recently top RSS 'academic intellectuals' met Human Resources Development Minister to discuss shudh Bharatiya education policy,their main concern was about 'biased' History books,which according to them portray exclusively 'western/leftist' view of History.They emphasised the need to redefine and rediscover Indian History,strictly in accordance to ancient 'glorious' culture and civilization.Needless to say that their onus was  for 'Hindu sabhyta/sanskrti' exclusively. Being themselves religious bigots,they are least concerned about counter productive implications and fall out of such revivalist educational policy which ultimately will precipitate destruction of diversity ,lead to social divisiveness and different bigotry of a lethal kind.

There is nothing like perfection and perfectionism cannot be achieved by alteration of History books.Instead of destroying or burning  History books                                  authored by 'pseudo secularists/communists/leftists',historical literature needs to be preserved for comparative analytical studies.Freedom of thought and expression is fundamental right of each and every citizen of India,irrespective of their      religious beliefs.At least,till today constitution wise India is secular,liberal and democratic state and not theocratic [read Hindu rashtra] one.

There is always space for improvisation of text books on logical and rational basis but this improvisation can be achieved by reputed scholars of merit and academic excellence and not by prejudiced pamphleteers from the RSS stables,whom well known columnist Tavleen Singh has described as -"doddering old bigots and provincial intellectuals".

 

NEHRU :FIRST AND LAST SECULAR PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA;
"It is only through the scientific approach and method and the use of scientific knowledge that reasonable material and cultural amenities and service can be provided for every member of the community and it is out of a recognition of this possibility that the idea of a welfare state has grown."
~Scientific policy resolution,1958~
Nehru,remains hate figure number one to Hindu right wing saffron brigade,even after many decades of his death.Though phrase 'scientific temper' [first used in his discovery of India],has got hardly any meaning or relevance for present BJP led government,it was Nehru's spirit and vision for Indian society which found articulation in the scientific policy resolution of the country,was adopted as a constitutional obligation of every citizen through Article 51[h]-A of the constitution which says,"IT SHALL BE DUTY OF EVERY CITIZEN OF INDIA TO DEVELOP THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPER,HUMANISM AND THE SPIRIT OF INQUIRY AND REFORM."And India is the only country that has raised the notion of scientific temper to the level of a constitutional obligation.And yet,in all these years,India as a nation has failed enormously to inculcate and spread that spirit in society.In absence of any meaningful or purposeful fundamental social reform,Indian society has been culturally and historically steeped in religious dogmas,obscurantism,superstitions,religious bigotry and blind beliefs-all contrary to scientific temper.And today,in 21st century,we are witnessing a phenomenal growth of superstitious beliefs and obscurantism,under well orchestrated state patronage.More significantly,new facets of irrationalism,in particular a culture of anti science,is the latest mantra of the day.It was only Nehru,who had moral and political conviction to describe Bhakra Dam as modern day temple of India and who was genuinely rationalist in his practice and perception.

CRAWLING INTELLIGENTSIA !

Many decades back, BJP leader L.K.Advani sarcastically commented about media during emergency that "when asked to bend,they crawled."The famous comment was apparently made in different content and context,yet prophetic words are very relevant even today not only for a significant section of print and electronic media but for a section of intellectuals too,who prefer to be on the right side of the 'chair' as per their 'convenience'.Probably that explains,how not just the media but intellectuals from various fields such as education,health care,science and technology culture and law

are not just bending but crawling before Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.Just imagine,60 intellectual luminaries included :-

# Ved Prakash, Chairman University Grants Commission.

# Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor Delhi University.

# M C Mishra, Director All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

# Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General.

# Naresh Trehan and K K Aggarwal ,Cardiac Surgeons.

# Sonal Mansingh, well known Dancer.

# Anil K Tyagi,Vice Chancellor,GGS Indraprastha University.

# P Venugopal,former Director AIIMS.

# Prakash Singh, former Director General police ,Uttar Pradesh and many many others, who graced the lunch meeting on October 12 at Delhi,with presiding deity of RSS, param adarniya and pojniya ,Mohan Bhagwat.Well,let us believe that some of them  attended much publicized meeting without any vested interests but there are media reports that most of them were 'ingratiating themselves'to the unelected head of various organisations which spawned the party in power -an act unworthy of their official positions or duties  as well as democratic propriety.

The prime position of Sarsanchalak and his political status as 'person at the helm of affairs' has largely contributed for such 'intellectual discourse' which could hardly even be imagined just few months back. It can not be beyond any body's imagination -what is going to be state of affairs if one fine morning ,we come across the the slogan ,Modi is India,India is Modi.Recollect when many decades back Dev Kant Barooah coined the slogan-India is Indira,Indira is India.

BIG BROTHER WATCHING;HE IS THERE AFTER YOU ON EVERY OCCASION !
The sweep is wholly Goebbelesian. Much as you might try to get away from it you can be sure about one thing: there’s no escaping him; you may wish to give him a miss, he won’t let go of you. You wake up with the voice and sleep with it; for the present at least the voice is your companion for keeps: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. The message is the thing and the messenger is unrelenting.
It is right there on the front pages of all your newspapers, it confronts you the moment you switch on your idiot box, no matter how often and when. And, it is there again if you have chosen to escape to the radio channels, AIR, FM stations.  If you think you are being clever by turning to untouchables like the Antakshri or, why, even the Krishi Samachar, you are in for a surprise. The voice, if not the face, is there even before you have made the switch. The relentless voice of “the most popular Prime Minister of India”   follows you everywhere, even to your bed, like Goebbels’s did promoting the Fuehrer’s cause. Lesser PMs like Nehru, Shastri, Indira, Atal Bihari Vajpayee be blown.
The message must chase us from morning’s ‘surya pranam’ to the ‘shubh ratri’ at night. Mr. Modi y’see, has so much to tell us – right from how important it is for us to wash our hands each time we use them, to his scheme-a-day plans for us to overtake China. Like, say, made in India must yield place to make in India. All these, and other noble thoughts. Like, bringing to book all wrong-doers, tax dodgers, hawalawallas and swindlers, who have deposited the nation’s wealth in foreign banks. The maa-beta too shall be exposed.

"ANCIENT WISDOM" INDEED;
EXTRAORDINARY PROCESS OF SWAPPING AGE FOR SENSUAL PLEASURE ;
King Yayati had two wives , Sharmishtha and Devayani. Sharmishtha was the daughter of Vrisha Parva, the king of the danavas (demons). And Devayani’s father was Shukracharya, the preceptor of the demons.

Devayani gave birth to Yadu and Turvasu and Sharmishtha gave birth to Druhya, Anu and Puru. 

Yayati ruled the world extremely well for many years. He performed many yajnas. But eventually he grew old. The problem was that although Yayati grew old, he was not yet tired of sensual pleasures. He still desired to savour the joys that the world had to offer. 

Yayati told his five sons. "Because of Shukracharya’s curse, an untimely old age has come upon me and I am not content with what I have savoured of life. I request one of you to give me his youth and accept my old age in return. When I have sated myself with worldly pleasures, I will take back my old age and return the youth." 

Except for Puru, the other four sons flatly refused such an exchange. They had no desire to part with their valued youth. They were thereupon cursed by their father. (Although not mentioned in the Matsya Purana., the curse was that they or their descendants would never be kings.) 

As for Puru, he said, "Please accept my youth and be happy. It is my duty to serve and I will gladly take upon me your old age." For a thousand years Yayati savoured the pleasures of the world with Puru’s youth. A thousand years were not than enough to satisfy Yayati. He accepted his old age and returned Puru’s youth. He blessed Puru for his obedience and announced to the word that Puru was his only true son. 

[Translation of original Sanskrit text from Matsya Purana].