Unholy alliance

Sometimes, you would like to watch some interesting debates and of course the speakers have to be good. Two weeks back the topic was Religion vs Politics in NDTV – though the topic is an interesting one, the people who participated in the debate did not really answer the questions.

One of the arguments was that in olden days, each king had his own guru or the religious leader referred as Raja Guru and it is believed that the king listened to him.

I feel otherwise, in the olden days, it was the minister who was powerful. Further, raja gurus were there only to perform poojas and rituals for king’s family and kings were taking the decisions on their own, of course ministers would have been consulted, as and when required to be.

Citing the example of raja guru, the so called self styled gurus of these days are trying to raise their voice or influence the common people or their respective followers to believe in something what the guru is thinking. One of the example is, Ramdev talking about the black money stashed away in Swiss banks – I simply wonder how and why does he have to speak on these things when he can teach pranayam and yoga in which he is really good. Is there any truth in it, what is the proof and how does he know the figures – because as per Swiss Laws, Swiss banks are not allowed to reveal the details of the accounts unless and until it is proven by a country that the person holding the account is guilty and the country needs to know the account. This process is quite cumbersome and it is next to impossible to achieve this.
(Then what is the solution – you may ask – there are solutions)

In my view, one (especially those who are in public life) must speak only when s/he is hundred percent sure of what s/he is talking about. Just because people are sitting in front and they have little or no choice these gurus are talking all things which comes to their mind.

Religious leaders who want to enter in to politics should first read Arthashastra by Kautilya and understand that politics is different and religion is different. I am not arguing that a religious person can never be a good politician but if a religious leader wants to enter politics s/he should do it openly instead of making comments here and there, which is of no use to anyone and it only creates confusion.

Quote from Chanakya – before one starts any work, one should ask questions like why, where, how and what is the reason etc and one should think deeply and then only one should start that work. (I don’t want to write about Chanakya and fill this place – though I recommend one to search the net if one wants more info on Chanakya).


(same is also told by Thiruvalluvar in his Thirukurral-
Enni thuniga karumam thuninthapin ennuvathu enbathu izhuku)

Event Dont Hurt Us - Only our attitude towards them - The Art of Living

The Art of Living -The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, a new interpretation by Sharon Lebell.

Above is the title of the book which I have read few years ago. This book is basically a interpretation of the sayings (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus) and principles of Epictetus, (they say Epictetus walked the talk, a Roman empire slave lived around AD 100 - more info on Epictetus, one can get from Wikipedia). This book explains how to live a meaningful and happy life and still be a good person.

Some of the excerpts from this book, which I liked.

'If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes'

'The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.'

'Forgive yourself over and over and over again. Then try to do better next time.'

'Give your best and always be kind.'

Approach life as a banquet,

'Events don’t hurt us, only our attitude towards them does.'

Whereas society regards professional achievement, wealth, power, and fame as desirable and admirable, Epictetus views these as incidental and irrelevant to true happiness.

True happiness is always independent of external conditions…your happiness can be found within.

Good book which can be your bedside companion. Sure there are many good books but this is also one among them in my opinion. My bedside companion (for the past ten years) is Lights from Many lamps (more about this book at a later date).

Following is from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus -
A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path--he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock,but rather feel your own incapacity.

SANITATION CRISIS WHEN WILL IT PEAK IN INDIA??

Many people in India - I would say the vast majority - would ask what is the meaning of HYGIENE.

I am not exaggerating. If you bother to go and spend few days (say at least one day) on the road in India.

In my view India is struggling with a sanitation emergency and the days are not far off as per the reports that almost more than 50% of the ground water are contaminated with human waste and industrial effluent.

What is the remedy?? Who is responsible?? When we will realise?? Are we waiting for a wake up call??

Lots of questions, but no answers. I wonder,

This is not the first time - sanitation and personal hygiene has been mentioned by Swami Vivekananda in his book East & West. V S Naipal in his book Wounded civilisation (second book of India Trilogy) has also mentioned about the same issue. Many people have raised this issue on many occasions and at different forums. Even M G Gandhi has written about this in his book My Experiments with Truth....

BUT WHO CARES?

We have been taught when we were young that we must keep our body clean and our house clean - but nothing is taught about how we should keep our surroundings where we live. Everyday without fail we clean the house and go dump the waste/garbage in the street (as there are no bins in many suburbs and villages). The municipality or the panchayat cleaner - comes only during the festival season (say Deepavali or New Years eve) to collect his Baksheesh. There is no feeling that the street belong to us - there is no feeling that the village belong to us. We don't bother to clean our streets and we dont care what happens to the waste as long as it does not stay inside the house. The open drainage all around the suburbs (growing urbanisation) is a growing menace but no one wants to speak or do anything about this.

Not only that there are no propper toilets and drainage facilities in India, as per reports more than 75% of the Indian population do their morning rituals in the open area. There are not enough public toilets in the cities and in the suburbs. Even if it is there no body bothers to use it as they dont want to pay any money, which will be used for maintaining these facilities. Who will tell this to who.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO INDIA?? CAN WE DO SOMETHING??
SURPRISINGLY NONE OF THE POLITICIANS STATNDING FOR ELECTIONS BOTHER TO RAISE THIS ISSUE!!!!

We all proudly say that India Shining India raising... but the other side of India is definitely not shining

Come on Indians - Wake up - Best wishes for all our future generation.......May be we need a Sharukh Khan or a Aishwarya Bachan to speak...............