Nhamaskhar brothers and sisters

First of all would like to say, this is a top website. So much crap out there said against Hindus and India in general, it's refreshing to see a website that tackles the lies and censorship of false Indian history.


Basically, as most of you are probably aware, there has been especially in the past few years, many Indian Tribal groups claiming to be descendents of the shaka's and kushans. One such group r the jats. Most of the arguments they've put forward, in support of being foreign to India r baseless and can be ripped apart and challenged with ease. However, along with this group, others such as gujjars, ahirs, rajputs and so on have started to claim foreign descent. Again, all of their arguments in favour of these claims r easily challanged and ripped apart.

However, my question is. In many history books/websites, we hear of these shaka's and kushans invading India. First of all, to what extent is this true? Most of this history stems from racist views held by colonial minds in order to degrade India's true history. From my own research, what i find hard to understand is, if these shaka's and kushana's did invade, where r they now? What style of archeitecture did they leave? What was their language and what happened to their scripts? It seems to be the case, that these invading groups lost all their culture, and yet were supposed to be the dominant group therefore should have been the one's with the dominant culture.

Ive been reading a book by Sandhya Jain about various Indian tribes. In the book, their is a chapter on various tribes that fought on both sides of the MahaBharat war. In this list r mentioned shaka's and huns. Could these shaka's and huns have been native to India.?


Will be good to hear ur opinions and views.

Bhagavad Gita and management


Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O Krishna, it is more difficult to control the mind than to control the wind ~ Arjuna to Sri Krishna

Introduction

One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita which is considered to be one of the first revelations from God. The managent lessons in this holy book were brought in to light of the world by divine Maharshi Mahesh Yogi and the spiritual philosophy by Sr. Srila Prabhupada Swami who has popularised Bhgavad Gita and Bhagavatam thorugh out the world with his dedicated devotion until His death, ( Ons should read his autobiography then we can understand that He is also an incarnation of lord Krishna)) and humanism by Sai Baba. Maharishi calls the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.( Mental health has become a major international public health concern now). To motivate him the Bhagavad Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as a counseling to do his duty while multitudes of men stood by waiting . It has got all the management tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis situation. The Bhagavad Gita can be experienced as a powerful catalyst for transformation. Bhagavad gita means song of the Spirit, song of the Lord. The Holy Gita has become a secret driving force behind the unfoldment of one's life. In the days of doubt this divine book will support all spiritual search.This divine book will contribute to self reflection, finer feeling and deepen one's inner process. Then life in the world can become a real education—dynamic, full and joyful—no matter what the circumstance. May the wisdom of loving consciousness ever guide us on our journey. What makes the Holy Gita a practical psychology of transformation is that it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge.

The Holy Gita is the essence of the Vedas, Upanishads. It is a universal scripture applicable to people of all temperaments and for all times. It is a book with sublime thoughts and practical instructions on Yoga, Devotion, Vedanta and Action. It is profound in thought and sublime in heights of vision. It brings peace and solace to souls that are afflicted by the three fires of mortal existence, namely, afflictions caused by one’s own body (disease etc), those caused by beings around one (e.g. wild animals, snakes etc.), and those caused by the gods (natural disasters, earth-quakes, floods etc).



Mind can be one's friend or enemy. Mind is the cause for both bondage and liberation. The word mind is derived from man to think and the word man derived from manu (sanskrit word for man).

"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy."

There is no theory to be internalized and applied in this psychology. Ancient practices spontaneously induce what each person needs as the individual and the universal coincide. The work proceeds through intellectual knowledge of the playing field(jnana yoga), emotional devotion to the ideal(bhakti yoga) and right action that includes both feeling and knowledge(karma yoga). With ongoing purification we approach wisdom. The Bhagavad Gita is a message addressed to each and every human individual to help him or her to solve the vexing problem of overcoming the present and progressing towards a bright future. Within its eighteen chapters is revealed a human drama. This is the experience of everyone in this world, the drama of the ascent of man from a state of utter dejection, sorrow and total breakdown and hopelessness to a state of perfect understanding, clarity, renewed strength and triumph.

Introduction
Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort.

Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management.

Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita
There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing.

· Effectiveness is doing the right things.

· Efficiency is doing things right.

The general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's functions can be summed up as:

· Forming a vision

· Planning the strategy to realise the vision.

· Cultivating the art of leadership.

· Establishing institutional excellence.

· Building an innovative organisation.

· Developing human resources.

· Building teams and teamwork.

· Delegation, motivation, and communication.

· Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for.

Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence.

The critical question in all managers’ minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that “you must try to manage yourself.” The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

Old truths in a new context
The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today – and probably in enterprises in many other countries.

The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results.

The management philosophy emanating from the West, is based on the lure of materialism and on a perennial thirst for profit, irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in the abundant wealth of the West and so 'management by materialism' has caught the fancy of all the countries the world over, India being no exception to this trend. My country, India, has been in the forefront in importing these ideas mainly because of its centuries old indoctrination by colonial rulers, which has inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is good and anything Indian is inferior.

The result is that, while huge funds have been invested in building temples of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the improvement of the general quality of life - although the standards of living of a few has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of the economy, criminalisation of institutions, social violence, exploitation and other vices are seen deep in the body politic.

The source of the problem
The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The Western idea of management centres on making the worker (and the manager) more efficient and more productive. Companies offer workers more to work more, produce more, sell more and to stick to the organisation without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of extracting better and more work from the worker is to improve the bottom-line of the enterprise. The worker has become a hireable commodity, which can be used, replaced and discarded at will.

Thus, workers have been reduced to the state of a mercantile product. In such a state, it should come as no surprise to us that workers start using strikes (gheraos) sit-ins, (dharnas) go-slows, work-to-rule etc. to get maximum benefit for themselves from the organisations. Society-at-large is damaged. Thus we reach a situation in which management and workers become separate and contradictory entities with conflicting interests. There is no common goal or understanding. This, predictably, leads to suspicion, friction, disillusion and mistrust, with managers and workers at cross purposes. The absence of human values and erosion of human touch in the organisational structure has resulted in a crisis of confidence.

Western management philosophy may have created prosperity – for some people some of the time at least - but it has failed in the aim of ensuring betterment of individual life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless edifice and an oasis of plenty for a few in the midst of poor quality of life for many.

Hence, there is an urgent need to re-examine prevailing management disciplines - their objectives, scope and content. Management should be redefined to underline the development of the worker as a person, as a human being, and not as a mere wage-earner. With this changed perspective, management can become an instrument in the process of social, and indeed national, development.

Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of the Bhagavad Gita which is a primer of management-by-values.

Utilisation of available resources
The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilise scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the latter, wisdom.

Work commitment
A popular verse of the Gita advises “detachment” from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Being dedicated work has to mean “working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own sake.” If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of commission before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It is not “generating excellence for its own sake” but working only for the extrinsic reward that may (or may not) result.

Working only with an eye to the anticipated benefits, means that the quality of performance of the current job or duty suffers - through mental agitation of anxiety for the future. In fact, the way the world works means that events do not always respond positively to our calculations and hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming. So, the Gita tells us not to mortgage present commitment to an uncertain future.

Some people might argue that not seeking the business result of work and actions, makes one unaccountable. In fact, the Bhagavad Gita is full of advice on the theory of cause and effect, making the doer responsible for the consequences of his deeds. While advising detachment from the avarice of selfish gains in discharging one's accepted duty, the Gita does not absolve anybody of the consequences arising from discharge of his or her responsibilities.

Thus the best means of effective performance management is the work itself. Attaining this state of mind (called “nishkama karma”) is the right attitude to work because it prevents the ego, the mind, from dissipation of attention through speculation on future gains or losses.

Motivation – self and self-transcendence
It has been presumed for many years that satisfying lower order needs of workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in motivation. However, it is a common experience that the dissatisfaction of the clerk and of the Director is identical - only their scales and composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Director should have little problem in optimising his contribution to the organisation and society. But more often than not, it does not happen like that. (“The eagle soars high but keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the dead animal below.”) On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher, or a self-employed artisan, may well demonstrate higher levels of self-actualisation despite poorer satisfaction of their lower-order needs.

This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in the Gita. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, emphasising team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and trust – and, indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the opposite of Maslow.

“Work must be done with detachment.” It is the ego that spoils work and the ego is the centrepiece of most theories of motivation. We need not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of inspiration.

The Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known as "Gurudev") says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as “disinterested work" in the Gita where Sri Krishna says,

“He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and failure.”

Disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is determination to keep the mind free of the dualistic (usually taken to mean "materialistic") pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental equanimity or the state of “nirdwanda.” This attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of the Supreme Intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy of organisational goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement.

Work culture
An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work culture – “daivi sampat” or divine work culture and “asuri sampat” or demonic work culture.

· Daivi work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice, straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.

· Asuri work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper performance, work not oriented towards service.

Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work.

It is in this light that the counsel, “yogah karmasu kausalam” should be understood. “Kausalam” means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work ethic. “Yogah” is defined in the Gita itself as “samatvam yogah uchyate” meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga.

(Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1856-1920, the precursor of Gandhiji, hailed by the people of India as "Lokmanya," probably the most learned among the country's political leaders. For a description of the meanings of the word "Yoga", see foot of this page.)

By making the equable mind the bed-rock of all actions, the Gita evolved the goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical process no mind can attain an equipoise. The guru, Adi Sankara (born circa 800 AD), says that the skill necessary in the performance of one's duty is that of maintaining an evenness of mind in face of success and failure. The calm mind in the face of failure will lead to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong so that corrective steps could be taken to avoid shortcomings in future.

The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work done is the Gita’s prescription for attaining equanimity. It has been held that this principle leads to lack of incentive for effort, striking at the very root of work ethic. To the contrary, concentration on the task for its own sake leads to the achievement of excellence – and indeed to the true mental happiness of the worker. Thus, while commonplace theories of motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage or extrinsic rewards, the Gita’s principle leads us to the intrinsic rewards of mental, and indeed moral, satisfaction.

Work results
The Gita further explains the theory of “detachment” from the extrinsic rewards of work in saying:

· If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not be appropriated by the doer alone.

· If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the doer.

The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the cause of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers.

Assimilation of the ideas of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of “lokasamgraha” (general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the work ethic - if the “karmayoga” (service) is blended with “bhaktiyoga” (devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a “sevayoga" (service for its own sake.)

Along with bhakti yoga as a means of liberation, the Gita espouses the doctrine of nishkamya karma or pure action untainted by hankering after the fruits resulting from that action. Modern scientists have now understood the intuitive wisdom of that action in a new light.

Scientists at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, found that laboratory monkeys that started out as procrastinators, became efficient workers after they received brain injections that suppressed a gene linked to their ability to anticipate a reward.The scientists reported that the work ethic of rhesus macaques wasn't all that different from that of many people: "If the reward is not immediate, you procrastinate", Dr Richmond told LA Times.

(This may sound a peculiarly religious idea but it has a wider application. It could be taken to mean doing something because it is worthwhile, to serve others, to make the world a better place – ed.)

Manager's mental health
Sound mental health is the very goal of any human activity - more so management. Sound mental health is that state of mind which can maintain a calm, positive poise, or regain it when unsettled, in the midst of all the external vagaries of work life and social existence. Internal constancy and peace are the pre-requisites for a healthy stress-free mind.

Some of the impediments to sound mental health are:

· Greed - for power, position, prestige and money.

· Envy - regarding others' achievements, success, rewards.

· Egotism - about one's own accomplishments.

· Suspicion, anger and frustration.

· Anguish through comparisons.

The driving forces in today's businesses are speed and competition. There is a distinct danger that these forces cause erosion of the moral fibre, that in seeking the end, one permits oneself immoral means - tax evasion, illegitimate financial holdings, being “economical with the truth”, deliberate oversight in the audit, too-clever financial reporting and so on. This phenomenon may be called as “yayati syndrome”.

In the book, the Mahabharata, we come across a king by the name of Yayati who, in order to revel in the endless enjoyment of flesh exchanged his old age with the youth of his obliging youngest son for a thousand years. However, he found the pursuit of sensual enjoyments ultimately unsatisfying and came back to his son pleading him to take back his youth. This “yayati syndrome” shows the conflict between externally directed acquisitions (extrinsic motivation) and inner value and conscience (intrinsic motivation.)

Management needs those who practise what they preach
“Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow,” says Sri Krishna in the Gita. The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely practical, intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and spontaneous motivation to help others. "I am the strength of those who are devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in the 10th Chapter of the Gita.

In conclusion
The despondency of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is typically human. Sri Krishna, by sheer power of his inspiring words, changes Arjuna's mind from a state of inertia to one of righteous action, from the state of what the French philosophers call “anomie” or even alienation, to a state of self-confidence in the ultimate victory of “dharma” (ethical action.)

When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna reminded him of the purpose of his new-found spirit of intense action - not for his own benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics over unethical actions and of truth over untruth.

Sri Krishna's advice with regard to temporary failures is, “No doer of good ever ends in misery.” Every action should produce results. Good action produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore, always act well and be rewarded.

My purport is not to suggest discarding of the Western model of efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to tune these ideals to India's holistic attitude of “lokasangraha” - for the welfare of many, for the good of many. There is indeed a moral dimension to business life. What we do in business is no different, in this regard, to what we do in our personal lives. The means do not justify the ends. Pursuit of results for their own sake, is ultimately self-defeating. (“Profit,” said Matsushita-san in another tradition, “is the reward of correct behaviour.” – ed.)

A note on the word "yoga".

Yoga has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning. The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or more things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and peace and the means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad Gita uses the word with both meanings.



M.P.Bhattathiri.


Let us go through what scholars say about Holy Gita.


"No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen in all things. . . . The Swami does a real service for students by investing the beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating work."

Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy University of Southern California


"The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living importance of the Gita."

Thomas Merton, Theologian


"I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's scholarly and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my students. It is a beautifully done book."

Dr. Samuel D. Atkins Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University


"As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya tradition."

Olivier Lacombe Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University, Paris


"I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita."

Dr. Frederick B. Underwood Professor of Religion, Columbia University


"If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since those who follow its teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and strident lives of contemporary people."

Dr. Elwin H. Powell Professor of Sociology State University of New York, Buffalo


"There is little question that this edition is one of the best books available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada's translation is an ideal blend of literal accuracy and religious insight."

Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College


"The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary written from not only a scholar's but a practitioner's, a dedicated lifelong devotee's point of view."

Denise Levertov, Poet


"The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has increased our understanding manyfold."

Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr. Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization University of Chicago


"The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times, Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his commentary."

Dr. J. Stillson Judah, Professor of the History of Religions and Director of Libraries Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California


"Srila Prabhupada's edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the time Europeans first penetrated India.
"Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal India."

Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences Institute of Political Studies, Paris, France

"It was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us"

Emerson's reaction to the Gita


"As a native of India now living in the West, it has given me much grief to see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and unauthorized 'gurus' and 'yogis' and will give an opportunity to all people to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture."

Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies Center for Oriental Studies, The University of Mexico

"The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive one, of the summaries and systematic spiritual statements
of the perennial philosophy ever to have been done" __________________________________________Aldous Huxley


"It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained work. I don't know whether to praise more this translation of the Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an important voice and style. . . . It will occupy a significant place in the intellectual and ethical life of modern man for a long time to come."

Dr. Shaligram Shukla Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University


"I can say that in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I have found explanations and answers to questions I had always posed regarding the interpretations of this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I greatly admire. If the aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which form the message of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is were more widespread and more respected, the world in which we live would be transformed into a better, more fraternal place."

Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of Paris


"When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous."

Albert Einstein


"When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every day."

Mahatma Gandhi

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial."

Henry David Thoreau

"The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions."

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

"The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for every civilization."

Sri Aurobindo

"The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his Timaeus in which it states 'behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant.' This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita."

Carl Jung


"The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe."

Prime Minister Nehru


"The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life's wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion."

Herman Hesse


"I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it."

Rudolph Steiner


"From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human existence become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of all the teachings of the Vedic scriptures."

Adi Shankara


"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity."

Aldous Huxley


"The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the science of devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual knowledge. The Supreme Lord Krishna's primary purpose for descending and incarnating is relieve the world of any demoniac and negative, undesirable influences that are opposed to spiritual development, yet simultaneously it is His incomparable intention to be perpetually within reach of all humanity."

Ramanuja

The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and the Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine which is transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita one may think that they are advised to engage in warfare. When the second chapter has been read it can be clearly understood that knowledge and the soul is the ultimate goal to be attained. On studying the third chapter it is apparent that acts of righteousness are also of high priority. If we continue and patiently take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try to ascertain the truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate conclusion is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which we possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati


"The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to evolve and protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is the epitome of the Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and pollen is the essence of flowers."

Madhvacarya

Yoga has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning. The general meaning is the joining together or union of any two or more things. The technical meaning is “a state of stability and peace and the means or practices which lead to that state." The Bhagavad Gita uses the word with both meanings. Lord Krishna is real Yogi who can maintain a peaceful mind in the midst of any crisis."


Mata Amritanandamayi Devi.



Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana are but three paths to this end. And common to all the three is renunciation. Renounce the desires, even of going to heaven, for every desire related with body and mind creates bondage. Our focus of action is neither to save the humanity nor to engage in social reforms, not to seek personal gains, but to realize the indwelling Self itself.

Swami Vivekananda (England, London; 1895-96 )



"Science describes the structures and processess; philosophy attempts at their explaination.-----
When such a perfect combination of both science and philosophy is sung to perfection that Krishna was,
we have in this piece of work an appeal both to the head annd heart. " ____________Swamy Chinmayanand on Gita

I seek that Divine Knowledge by knowing which nothing remains to be known!' For such a person knowledge and ignorance has only one meaning: Have you knowledge of God? If yes, you a Jnani! If not, you are ignorant.As said in the Gita, chapter XIII/11, knowledge of Self, observing everywhere the object of true Knowledge i.e. God, all this is declared to be true Knowledge (wisdom); what is contrary to this is ignorance."

Sri Ramakrishna .

Maharishi calls the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” Maharishi reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone.

Maharshi Mahesh Yogi

The Gita was preached as a preparatory lesson for living worldly life with an eye to Release, Nirvana. My last prayer to everyone, therefore, is that one should not fail to thoroughly understand this ancient science of worldly life as early as possible in one’s life.
--- Lokmanya Tilak

I believe that in all the living languages of the world, there is no book so full of true knowledge, and yet so handy. It teaches self-control, austerity, non-violence, compassion, obedience to the call of duty for the sake of duty, and putting up a fight against unrighteousness (Adharma). To my knowledge, there is no book in the whole range of the world’s literature so high above as the Bhagavad-Gita, which is the treasure-house of Dharma nor only for the Hindus but foe all mankind.
--- M. M. Malaviya


bhattathiry@yahoo.com

ref. bbt.org, kamakoti.org, amritapuri.org, mahrshi.com, sai.org,chinmaya.org, vivekanada.org,neovedanta/gospel.com,spirituality.indiatimes.com

<b>The Great Rising of 1857 - Part I</b> --By Anand K

The Great Rising of 1857 - Part I
By Anand K

<b>Indira took money from US: Basu</b>
PTI[ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2005 06:02:00 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com//arti...235899.cms?

KOLKATA: Veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu on Monday said that he was not sure whether Congress and CPI, which were "friendly" with the former Soviet Union had received funds from the Soviet secret service KGB but the <b>"Americans had funded Indira Gandhi and Congress" to curb the Communists in India</b>.

"I can't say whether the KGB had provided funds to them. Both the CPI and the Congress had good rapport with them, the former Soviet Union. But CPI has already denied it", Basu said.

"The former US Ambassador to India Daniel Patrick Moynihan had stated this in his book. But how much money they have paid I do not know. But had he not written the book we would not have come to know about this", he added.

Basu, however, refused to comment when asked whether his party would demand a probe in the light of disclosures contained in "The Mitrokhin Archives II:The KGB and the World."

Financial Express Editoral: Stop this now!

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>As the recent attempt by petroleum minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, (The Indian Express, September 15) has shown, appointments to PSU boards have nothing to do with merit. Instead, they have everything to do with a spoils’ system, with pork-barrel politics, where the effort is not to ensure best management practices, but to distribute favours. Never mind what happens to the PSU or to taxpayer money in the process. </b>

Where is the justification for appointing 20 Congress leaders to the boards of oil PSUs? If, as the minister proudly claims, these are ‘navaratnas,’ then this is the last thing he should be doing. <b>Unfortunately, he is not the only one guilty of such blatant misuse of his position. It is a common practice to hold out appointments to the boards of PSUs as a reward for favours rendered.</b> Another reason for quickly privatising these before they are run to the ground.

<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<b>Ed Murphy And Political Ccs</b>

One of Ed Murphy’s witty aphorisms spoofing the lives of corporate citizens says that sometimes the only important things in an inter office memo are the ‘<i>cc</i>s’.

A popular pastime of Secular Feminists and sundry intellectuals is to bash the Hindu scriptures, like the Ramayana. Bashing Hindu scriptures is a safe pastime, as it does not entail in raiding newspaper offices or issuing Fatwas.

Ramayana may be quoted as an example of male chauvinism or as the story of a King who upheld the noblest principles of democracy; a King who valued the word of a lumpen citizen as more estimable than familial ties.

The story of Satyabahma who fought a battle alongside her Consort may be quoted as an example of gender equality.

During a philosophical debate between Adi Sankara and the scholar Mandanamishra, the latter’s wife acted as a referee.

Gargi and Maitreyi were held in as high esteem as sages Vasishta and Viswamitra for the profundity of their philosophical knowledge.

Take your pick.

An axiomatic question that we should ask ourselves is - should we view the scriptures through the prism of twenty-first century values.

If yes, why are not scriptures of all faiths subjected to such tests?

Or should we venerate them as repositories of ancient wisdom and draw such lessons that are congruous to our times.

If the objective of <i>Wonderings </i>is a ‘cc’ to the new Catholic boss…

After all neo-converts are expected to be more loyal than the King (or should we say the Queen)!

<b>A correspondent for the majority…</b>

Traditionally, the media has correspondents specializing in business, finance, sports, science and politics. Did you hear of special correspondents for minorities in Gujarat and the majority in Kashmir – no, not minorities in Kashmir because the Kashmiri Pundits do not deserve human rights let alone minority rights?

But this ultra-secular news channel has both: a correspondent for minorities in Gujarat and a correspondent for the majority in Kashmir.

The correspondent for the majority in Kashmir holds court on Sundays, where a select audience is treated to acceptance of her pet theory about a political process in Kashmir. Her theory, like the Gujral doctrine, all but allows Kashmir to become an independent nation - if Pakistan allows it - that is.

She nimbly leads the captive audience up the garden path, manipulating, filtering and swatting opinions inimical to her theory. Forget the directive principles of state policy enshrined in the Constitution. Ironically, the programme flaunts the frontispiece of the same constitution as its banner.

<b>…And another for the minorities!</b>

The correspondent for the minorities has been busy for over ten months reporting about the atrocities committed by the majority community in Gujarat, in sentences liberally sprinkled with phrases like ‘…in a sense’, ‘…at one level ’ and ‘…at the end of the day’

For him communal riots have suddenly become ‘<i>pogroms</i>’, and ‘<i>genocide</i>’. He and the rest of the secular intelligentsia forbade any allusion to the initial incident that triggered it all Godhra -. They would rather bury the dead of Godhra quietly and praise the Indian citizen for his unwavering commitment to secularism and for not being provoked by such incidents, unfortunate though they were.

The incident would then merit a mention if the channel had time after all the ‘<i>secularism is under threat’ </i>stories.

The aftermath of Godhra was condemnable but to say that the Karsevaks asked for what they got – gruesome death – is secularism, Indian brand.

<b>Objectivity a matter of principle…</b>

Why should we object when the media was just doing its duty, viz. reporting? No, we should not – but should we not know when reporting ends and where comment begins? News formats are cleverly constructed making the dividing line between news and comment as porous as the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Our correspondent for the minorities advances on Mamata Banerjee, thrusts his mike into her face and asks if she would now withdraw support to the central government. The channel built up a frenzy over the VHP march to Ayodhya, and, captured it ‘exclusively’ on camera. VHP’s foolhardy venture caused it to score a self-goal when the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision about the undisputed site in Ayodhya.

The ultra-secular news channel put out a report about the VHP getting millions of dollars of foreign aid that was used for sectarian purposes. They found a Dr. Matthew; about as credible as the other ‘Doctor’, who saw the Ansal Plaza encounter, who compiled a report about it.

<b>…Or an optical illusion?</b>

While the ultra-secular news channel was showering encomiums on the CEC for the conduct of a peaceful election with a turnout of 42%-43% in Kashmir, the BBC correspondent in Srinagar denounced it as an exaggerated Indian government figure and the voter turnout would not exceed 15%. Do we dismiss this as a difference in perspective between Indian (even if they are <i>ultra-secular </i>) and <i>foreign</i> meida with their biases and <i>pet axes to grind</i>. The <i>Beeb</i>, in the past, did show clips from <i>Chechnya</i> in a programme on <i>Kashmir</i>!

When did these champions of secularism visit the camps outside Jammu or Delhi in which Kashmiri Pundits reside and report about the living conditions there, in the last fourteen years?

<b>Of a Court Martial…</b>

By the by, while the secular parties and the secular media were pillorying Narendra Modi and the BJP for criticizing the august office of the CEC, our secular CEC himself found it necessary to appear on SAB TV and explain his conduct. Calling a senior IAS officer a ‘Joker’, was an <i>Americanism</i>. The admonition to the officer ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ was not for public consumption, but eavesdropped by the media. Had they, in the secular media, known this, they would not have reported it.

<b>…And Secular Marshals!</b>

One of the panelists that ‘<i>court-martialed’ </i>the CEC in the programme writes two thousand word articles about ‘<i>secularism under seize’</i>. Her first paragraph has an innuendo that becomes suspicion in the second and by the logic of the first two becomes fact in the third. The rest of the article flows from the first three sequentially and logically. The last paragraph of the article leaves the reader in no doubt as to where he should look for, for recruiting demons and other evil spirits when he needed them. They are, according to her, without a doubt, in the membership of the Bhajrang Dal, the RSS and the VHP, a.k.a. the Sangh Parivar, in the lexicon of the secular media. Prosecutor, Judge and Jury all rolled into one and the judgement delivered in a jiffy! Another distinguished columnist wrote a dissertation (no less) in one of the more secular newspapers, about Narendra Modi’s culpability for violation of international human rights laws and his liability for instant arrest if he set foot on Belgian soil. Again, Prosecutor, Judge and Jury all rolled into one and the judgement delivered in a jiffy!

Killings in Kashmir, Amarnadh, Aksharadham, Kaluchuk and other places are merely to be toted on the tickers as statistics. They do not merit dissertations and application of human rights laws.

Thousands of Hindus were killed in the last twelve years. Eight hundred million were killed in five centuries from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries.

‘Shush…’ do not talk about such lore - the secular intellectuals arraign you for invoking the dead past.

The dead did not complain; the living do not object. That is Hindu passivity, the Hindu’s eternal belief in the infallibility of his fate.

The Jews came to India when they were driven out of Palestine in 70 A. D. Hindus welcomed them with open arms.

Jesuit priests came to India in the seventh century to propagate their religion. Hindus did not resist them – they were welcomed!

The Zoroastrians, original inhabitants of Persia, like the Jews, were persecuted. They sought asylum in India and have been living here, in peace and tranquility.

Do the Hindus need lessons in secularism?

<b>This article was written two years ago but has not lost its topicality as bashing <i>Hindu</i> scriptures and meida biases continue.</b>

CABE adopts New Curriculum Framework

Special Correspondent

Recommendation for making Standard X board examination optional

NEW DELHI: The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) on Wednesday adopted the National Curriculum Framework-2005 and work will now begin in right earnest to bring out new textbooks in time for the next academic session. This was the second time CABE deliberated upon the NCF — drawn up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — which was revised after the first meeting in June to factor in some of the concerns raised by members.

With reservations being expressed by many a member over some of the recommendations made in the NCF — particularly pertaining to making the Class X board examination optional, stress on local knowledge and the three-language formula — Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said all the views aired at the CABE meeting would be taken into consideration while drawing up the syllabus and writing the textbooks.

To monitor the exercise of syllabus preparation and textbook writing, the Minister also announced that a monitoring committee.

Such a monitoring committee had been suggested by Mr. Singh on the opening day of the two-day CABE meeting itself as education ministers of BJP-ruled States walked out protesting against NCF being put to discussion without incorporating their suggestions.

India that is Bharat (India is perhaps the only country in the world to have two official names), like the Ganga that symbolises her, meanders on in spite of continuous assaults on her political, cultural and religious institutions. These assaults are by political parties, which subsume national interest to their greed for power, their contrasting approaches towards issues that concern the majority and minority religions and their cultures and traditions and their subjugation of the intellectual community into endorsing their dominant political philosophy - by patronage or ostracism. The dominant philosophy of India’s political class may be summed up as the political equivalent of commercial sex work.

Hidden agenda in Kashmir?

The sequence of events that built up the Kashmir imbroglio makes out for an unmistakable case of ineptitude, political myopia and vanity. First, at the time of partition, the Maharajah of Kashmir affirmed that his state would remain independent and not join either India or Pakistan. When Pakistan tried to annex the state by infiltrating tribal raiders, the Maharajah offered accession of his state to India. The instrument of accession that the Maharajah signed was valid under international law and had no strings attached to it.

India sent her armies to liberate Kashmir from its aggressors. Mahatma Gandhi was reported to have come out of the Birla House in Delhi where he was camping and blessed the Indian airforce planes that were over-flying to liberate Kashmir. Indian army beat Pakistan in the battle and was ready to liberate Kashmir.

Thus far the progression of the story was linear with a simple cause and effect sequence. Then some bizarre things began to happen. India, instead of liberating Kashmir, called a unilateral cease-fire of the winning army. A new article - the now infamous article 370 - though the instrument of accession did not call for it, was added to the Indian constitution. The matter was referred to the UN - again, though not called for by the instrument of accession.

The instinct for self-flagellation of India’s political masters was not only to haunt her for over fifty years but virtually opened a Pandora’s box. First India weakened her case in international fora. Second, she was oblivious to the loss of Baltistan, Gigit and other northern areas, which slipped out of her hand along with Kashmir. And third, article 370 lead to the introduction of slew of cankerous articles that gave the northeastern states the same dubious status as Kashmir. The advent of Jihad culture on the world stage that originated in West Asia engulfed the Kashmiri Hindus and made them refugees in their own country. India winked at the phenomenon in West Asia and winks at the plight of the Kashmiri Hindus - her political institutions culpable and her intellectuals hypocritical.

Did Jawaharlal’s overweening ambition to win a Nobel peace prize script our pernicious Kashmir policy?

Tolerating treason?

Could you imagine, at the height of the Falklands war, the Communist Party of Great Britain supporting Argentina? If it did such an act would have been described as high treason. Strong public opinion chastised even the punctilious BBC in its reporting of the war.

In India that is Bharat, not only could a political party get away with supporting the enemy during the Chinese war of 1962, but forty years into the future usurp an aura of respectability that would give it a stranglehold over many public institutions. Today it is a state within a state that enjoys awesome authority and no responsibility.

Placatory scripts!

The UN mandated the formation of Israel in 1948 but India that is Bharat did not recognise the state for fear of alienating her native minority population. How recognising a state in west Asia for which its constituents fought for over two millennia would go against the interests of India’s minorities boggles imagination. Rather than cultivating a friendship with Israel that has so much to offer, India that is Bharat indulged a club called the Non Aligned Movement comprising mostly banana republics and totalitarian states. India that is Bharat finally got round to recognising Israel after China did.

Would Britain re-write its history eulogising Napoleon to please the French minority? In India that is Bharat, half a century after Sardar Patel ordered the restoration of the Somnath temple a celebrated historian re-writes history amounting to an apologia for Mohamed Ghaznavi who destroyed it.

White-livered fourth estate!

Not a whimper is heard when newspapers routinely publish derogatory critiques on Hindu mythology, films routinely lampoon Gods and other mythological figures and rationalists have a field day lambasting them. Newspapers and intellectuals cry foul when some social organisations protest against such insensitivity. They are dubbed obscurantist and even fascist.

Offices of all four English language newspapers in Bangalore a.k.a. India’s Silicon Valley were vandalised at one time or other for publishing something the principal minority religion considered blasphemous. There were no cries of ‘freedom of expression in peril’. The victims promptly published apologies. After one of those episodes, an eminent columnist went into hiding till the fury subsided.

Who do you think was responsible for Salman Rushidie becoming a fugitive to eternity? A very revered, eminent journalist, champion of freedom of expression and conscience keeper of (India’s version of) secularism.


Reformation abroad and apartheid at home!

There are three kinds of nations in the world. In first world democracies every religion enjoys equal status vis-à-vis the state, probably with a slight but understandable tilt towards the majority religion. Therefore no one would take exception when the president of the US takes oath on the bible when sworn into office or lights a Christmas tree on the eve of Christmas. After the break up of USSR, nations in Eastern Europe abandoned the dead religion called communism and moved into this category. In the theocratic states only the dominant religion is - allowed to be - practised in public.

India that is Bharat belongs to the third category - alone in the world - where there is an undeclared apartheid against the majority religion. Unbelievable? But true! Every child is initiated into school after a prayer to Saraswathi the goddess of learning. Yet Saraswathi Vandana or invocation to the goddess of learning was not allowed in a conference of Education Ministers. The received wisdom was that it would offend the sensibilities of a minority religion. Now look at the contrast. During the holy month of Ramjan every two-bit politician and his uncle - of the majority religion - dons a fez cap and hosts at least one Iftar party.

The Indian State cannot serve a superior court’s summons to a Muslim cleric. But a state government gave Hindus a Diwali gift last year by arresting one of their most revered pontiffs. The state’s law enforcement agencies (literally) stage-managed an Entebbe type commando operation with machine guns helicopters and aeroplanes to arrest a harmless Sanyasin at a cost of twenty million rupees. If only they were as zealous and volunteered their prowess when an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked to Afghanistan!

Demographic Invasion

Berlin wall was dismantled in 1990 so the two Germanies could unite. This year the French rejected a common EU constitution not because they feared losing a few plumbing jobs to the Polish but because they feared their culture and identity might be smothered in the enlarged EU. The Dutch followed suit.

In India that is Bharat, a report about fifteen to twenty million Bangladeshi illegal immigrants swamping all over the land is dismissed as paranoia of a fanatic Hindu fringe. Fifteen to twenty million is more than the population of many European nations. Just to give an idea by contrast, the three Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had a combined population of 2.7 million when they seceded from the erstwhile USSR

These examples demonstrate how cultures seek to consolidate and protect their identity from atrophy.

What is culture? Why should a nation seek to preserve its cultural ancestry? What will happen if power hungry political élites seek to erase a nation’s cultural ancestry to perpetuate themselves in power?

<i>This is not the end of this article but the beginning of a - hopefully - lively debate!</i>

Should we re-write Indian History?

India’s history, for the secular establishment, begins in the tenth century AD after <i>Mohd. Ghaznavi </i>embarked on his <i>pilgrimage</i>. According to celebrated leftist historians his repeated visits to Hindu temples had nothing to do with religion. <i>Mohd. Ghaznavi </i>merely wanted to <i>set right social imbalances </i>because temples in those days were centres of social activity. His second <i>laudable objective </i>was to take away wealth that was hoarded there and <i>not used for the welfare of the masses. </i>

Our commie friends have been doing it - redistribution of wealth - for over seventy years till people in many countries felt that they had had too much of a good thing. That is why their historians feel a kinship with the Mohd. Ghaznavis.

<i>Genghiz Khan </i>and <i>Tamarlene</i> too were social reformers who showed the <i>kafirs </i>the path to direct and hassle-free salvation.

In the first decades after independence, school children had a template answer for questions about the rule of various emperors in their history question papers. All of them had had <i>roads laid</i>, <i>trees planted</i>, <i>ponds dug </i>and <i>rest </i><i>houses constructed </i>for travellers. The child had to fill in the name and the answer was equally applicable to <i>Ashoka, Kanishka </i>or <i>Sri Harsha</i>.

The <i>mogul </i>rulers beginning with Babar <i>reformed administration</i>, <i>established </i><i>benign, people-friendly governance </i>and <i>instituted civic </i><i>amenities</i>. They did not demolish temples. If you say they did, prove it by giving us a ride in time travel and show it happening.

Emperor Aurangazeb in his magnanimity permitted <i>kafirs </i>to practise their religion and live peacefully by paying a small tax. British historians distorted facts by calling it <i>Zaziya </i>to sow dissension and ‘<i>divide et impera’</i>. That is why - for Aurangazeb’s magnanimity in permitting <i>kafirs</i> to practise their religion and live peacefully by paying a small tax, not British historians distorting facts by calling it <i>Zaziya</i> to sow dissension and ‘<i>divide et impera’ </i>- many cities in India commemorate his name.

Leftists can explain away events and - diametrically opposing views - with great felicity through Marxian dialectics. They could teach <i>Goebbels</i> a thing or two about propaganda. The mystery behind modern advertising executives wearing scruffy looks and crumpled clothes might be traced to their Marxist background.

Thus Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1954, Poland in 1962, Czechoslovakia in 1967 and Afghanistan in 1980 were <i>historical necessities</i>. The reason for American intervention in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Iraq was her <i>imperialist </i><i>expansionist</i> designs and <i>vulgarity of greed</i>.

Query our Marxist friends about the purges of political opponents during the regimes of Stalin, Kruschev and Mao they will scorch you with their looks. Ask them why China massacred several thousand of her own civilians in Tiannamen square using not just machine guns but tanks and armoured personnel carriers, they reply that they do not have adequate information on the subject but that it might be capitalist west’s propaganda to malign <i>Marxist</i> progress. But fully informed they are on the exact number of civilians killed in American precision bombing of Iraq’s military targets during the liberation of Kuwait.

<i>George Orwell </i>did not foresee that his native land would in five decades realise his <i>Minitrue</i>, the ministry of truth. For the benefit of those who have not read <i>Orwell</i>’s <i>Nineteen Eighty Four</i>, his fictional communist paradise in the novel, named <i>Oceania</i>, had a <i>Minitrue</i>, the ministry for truth.

<i>Orwell</i> wrote the novel to open the eyes of the English middle class intelligentsia, which was toying with communism, a romantic idea of the time. <i>Orwell</i>’s novel delivered his timely warning with telling effect and put paid to a perilous turn the nation’s history could have taken. <i>George Bernard </i><i>Shaw</i> was reported to have said “<i>If you are not a socialist below forty, something is wrong with your heart; if you remained a socialist after forty, something is wrong with your head.</i>”

<i>Orwell</i>’s other novel <i>Animal Farm </i>also a spoof on communism, too, is a must read for lovers of democracy. <i>Animal Farm </i>begins with an ironical revolt of the animals that usurp the state with the cry ‘<i>All animals are equal’</i>. The animals got wiser and the commandment was amended to ‘<i>Some animals are </i><i>more equal than others’</i>. This statute change created a pyramidal caste system in the ‘<i>All animals are equal’ </i>society. The society’s fat cats at the apex lived in opulence and luxury while the rest of the citizenry had to live on subsistence rations.

<i>Orwell</i>’ disguise was too thin - if the irony was too wry - for us not to miss his target. You can allow your imagination run riot by visualising many contemporary caricatures from the novel’s characters.

Returning to <i>Nineteen Eighty Four</i>, <i>Oceania</i>’s language was <i>Newspeak</i>. The objective of <i>Newspeak </i>was not to extend but diminish the range of thought. For example the word <i>free</i> has a limited meaning: <i>free </i>of lice, <i>free</i> of pests etc. In <i>Newspeak</i>, thinking of <i>freedom</i> other than that was allowed by <i>Engsoc</i> was <i>thoughtcrime</i>, punishable by death. <i>Engsoc</i> or <i>English Socialism </i>was <i>Orwell</i>’s euphemism for communism.

The function of <i>Oceania’</i>s <i>Minitrue</i>, was to constantly re-write history <i>to</i> <i>suit the current philosophy and objectives of the rulers </i>of <i>Oceania</i>. The nation’s history was constantly re-written and - <i>all</i> - copies of the previous versions were destroyed.

While the <i>closet, crypto, pseudo </i>and other <i>species </i>of the <i>genus </i><i>commie </i>and their <i>fellow travellers </i>have been contributing their mite to re-writing India’s history for over fifty years, the government of West Bengal has instituted a <i>Minitrue</i> for sanitising India’s history. For WB’s <i>Minitrue</i> speaking or writing of India’s past, which is contrary to the <i>commie parivar</i>’s worldview, is <i>Saffronising</i> history.

Fifty years after <i>Sardar Patel </i>ordered the restoration of <i>Somnath</i>, the celebrated historian, <i>Romila Thapar </i>felt the need to re-write history, an apologia for <i>Mohd. </i><i>Ghaznavi</i>, who destroyed the temple. Contrast this with <i>A. J. P. Taylor</i>’s attempt to put the <i>Origins of the Second World War </i>in what he considered was the proper perspective, by tracing allied vacillation and turning a Nelson’s eye over German rearmament. The British polity did not avidly lap it up but dismissed it as an overzealous attempt to defend the devil.

The role of the media in shadowing prevailing hypocrisy (<i>euphemistically called </i><i>political correctness</i>) might be the subject matter of another article. But the distinction it accorded <i>Romila</i> <i>Thapar’</i>s <i>de novo </i>history vis-à-vis another chronicle by a Belgian journalist must be mentioned. Most newspapers and periodicals (except <i>India Today</i>, which published an objective review) eulogised the author’s thoroughness in researching facts - probably awed by - and reviewed her eminence rather than the book. In stark contrast, <i>Koenrad Elst</i>’s book on the discovery of a massive temple by the <i>Archaeological Survey of </i><i>India (ASI) </i>under the demolished mosque in <i>Ayodhya</i> was largely ignored (again with the honourable exception of <i>India Today</i>). No honourable publisher would publish <i>Elst</i>’s book for fear of treading a politically incorrect line.

<i>Jawaharlal Nehru </i>leading the pack of leftist historians, in his <i>Glimpses of </i><i>World History</i>, had this to say of an eyewitness account of the grandeur of the <i>Vijayanagar Empire</i>: “What a scandalous waste of riches!” The eyewitness was recounting a royal wedding in which a splendid carpet, six miles long, studded with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and other precious stones was laid for the marriage procession. Why did <i>Nehru</i> single out the only <i>Hindu Empire </i>in the South for such a derogatory attack when all through his book he lavished praise on <i>China</i>?

In his popular novel, <i>The Prize</i>, <i>Irving Wallace </i>noted that three thousand years ago the <i>Hindu </i>surgeon <i>Shusrutha</i> performed the modern equivalent of plastic surgery by transplanting skin from a girl’s thigh on to her burnt face and reconstructing her nose. Wouldn’t you call that <i>Saffronising</i> history? For how can India claim such advancement before she became secular and acquire what our <i>commie parivar </i>fondly calls the <i>composite</i> <i>culture</i>?