Thursday, July 30, 2009

Upton Sinclair On Religion


Government oppressed the body of the wage-slave, but Religion oppressed his mind, and poisoned the stream of progress at its source.
Upton Sinclair
Source: The Jungle - "Chapter 31"

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

'We Have Got Lost', 'Let's Stand Up, Do Something.'

Dharampalji in an intense conversation at his kuti in Sevagram Ashram,2005


On Western influenceBut why hasn't any moment started till now on de-linking from the western minset? After Gandhi, there seems to have been no commensurate effort in that direction. The predominant thrust among Indian leaders and thinkers was to make India Western. Or that we could not survive unless we took aid from the West. Even extraordinary individuals like Swami Vivekananda held such views.
D: I think we are too demoralised. I think even the great Vivekananda, after he had gone around the country for about four years, from 1889 to 1893, and saw the wretchedness, the poverty, the impoverishment of the mind and attitudes and so on, was perplexed as to what had happened. Then he went to the West and saw a different world and that made him feel that we could not do anything on our own. We have to have Western aid, Western muscular power, but what he meant was that we might require these things to stand up. He didn't mean that it would be forever. He meant that we needed such support in the next generation or so, 10-20-30 years and we'd come into our own, chart our path, to some extent similar to that of Western man, but in other ways perhaps very different. The West was to serve as an example, but not forever. That doesn't seem to have been Vivekananda's idea. Our people got stuck because, I think, we are too literal. Whether it is Vivekananda or Mahatma Gandhi or someone else we seem to take them too literally; something has happened to us. Maybe this is a much older trait. It may that because of Vasco da Gama and the British and partly the Islamic period - all this could have made a contribution to the degradation, the loss of faith, the loss of courage - added to it. Is it of our own making, or is this what happens eventually to all civilisations and maybe they have a new birth at some other stage?..read the full interview

Caste And Democracy

"Four great Aspects of the Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play".
Sri Aurobindo


Caste and democracy

" WE FEAR our correspondent who has criticised on another page the consistency of our


views on caste, has hardly taken any trouble to understand the real drift of our articles. His attitude seems to be that we must be either entirely for caste as it at present exists or entirely against the institution and condemn it root and branch in the style of the ordinary unthinking social reformer. Because on the one hand we protested against the ignorant abuse of the institution often indulged in simply because it is different in form and spirit from European institutions, and on the other hand emphasised the perversions of its form and spirit and the necessity of its transformation in the pure spirit of Hinduism, our correspondent imagines that we are inconsistent and guilty of adopting successively two different and incompatible attitudes. Our position is perfectly clear and straightforward. Caste was originally an arrangement for the distribution of functions in society, just as much as class in Europe, but the principle on which the distribution was based in India was peculiar to this country. The civilisation of Europe has always been preponderatingly material and the division of classes was material in its principles and material in its objects, but our civilisation has always been preponderatingly spiritual and moral, and caste division in India had a spiritual object and a spiritual and moral basis. The division of classes in Europe had its root in a distribution of powers and rights and developed and still develops through a struggle of conflicting interests; its aim was merely the organisation of society for its own sake and mainly indeed for its economic convenience. The division of castes in India was conceived as a distribution of duties. A man's caste depended on his dharma, his spiritual, moral and practical duties, and his dharma depended on his svabhāva, his temperament and inborn nature. A Brahmin was a Brahmin not by mere birth, but because he discharged the duty of preserving the spiritual and intellectual
Page-536
elevation of the race, and he had to cultivate the spiritual temperament and acquire the spiritual training which could alone qualify him for the task. The Kshatriya was a Kshatriya not merely because he was the son, of warriors and princes, but because he discharged the duty of protecting the country and preserving the high courage and manhood of the nation, and he had to cultivate the princely temperament and acquire the strong and lofty Samurai training which alone fitted him for his duties. So it was with the Vaishya whose function was to amass wealth for the race and the Sudra who discharged the humbler duties of service without which the other castes could not perform their share of labour for the common good. This was what we meant when we said that caste was a socialistic institution. No doubt there was a gradation of social respect which placed the function of the Brahmin at the summit and the function of the Sudra at the base, but this inequality was accidental, external, vyavahãrika. Essentially there was, between the devout Brahmin and the devout Sudra, no inequality in the single viral purusa of which each was a necessary part. Chokha Mela, the Maratha Pariah, became the Guru of Brahmins proud of their caste purity; the Chandala taught Shankaracharya: for the Brahman was revealed in the body of the Pariah and in the Chandala there was the utter presence of Shiva the Almighty. Heredity entered into caste divisions, and in the light of the conclusions of modern knowledge who shall say erroneously? But it entered into it as a subordinate element. For Hindu civilisation being spiritual based its institutions on spiritual and moral foundations and subordinated the material elements and material considerations. Caste therefore was not only an institution which ought to be immune from the cheap second-hand denunciations so long in fashion, but a supreme necessity without which Hindu civilisation could not have developed its distinctive character or worked out its unique mission.
But to recognise this is not to debar ourselves from pointing out its later perversions and desiring its transformation. It is the nature of human institutions to degenerate, to lose their vitality, and decay, and the first sign of decay is the loss of flexibility and oblivion of the essential spirit in which they were conceived. The
Page-537
spirit is permanent, the body changes; and a body which refuses to change must die. The spirit expresses itself in many ways while itself remaining essentially the same, but the body must change to suit its changing environments if it wishes to live. There is no doubt that the institution of caste
degene
rated. It ceased to be determined by spiritual qualifications which, once essential, have now come to be subordinate and even immaterial and is determined by the purely material tests of occupation and birth. By this change it has set itself against the fundamental tendency of Hinduism which is to insist on the spiritual and subordinate the material and thus lost most of its meaning. The spirit of caste arrogance, exclusiveness and superiority came to dominate it instead of the spirit of duty, and the change weakened the nation and helped to reduce us to our present condition. It is these perversions which we wish to see set right. The institution must transform itself so as to fulfil its essential and permanent object under the changed conditions of modern times. If it refuses to change, it will become a mere social survival and crumble to pieces. If it transforms itself, it will yet play a great part in the fulfilment of civilisation.
Our correspondent accuses us of attempting to corrupt society with the intrusion of the European idea of Socialism. Socialism is not an European idea, it is essentially Asiatic and especially Indian. What is called Socialism in Europe is the old Asiatic attempt to effect a permanent solution of the economic problem of society which will give man leisure and peace to develop undisturbed his higher self. Without Socialism democracy would remain a tendency that never reached its fulfilment, a rule of the masses by a small aristocratic or monied class with the consent and votes of the masses, or a tyranny of the artisan classes over the rest. Socialistic democracy is the only true democracy, for without it we cannot get the equalised and harmonised distribution of functions, each part of the community existing for the good of all and not struggling for its own separate interests, which will give humanity as a whole the necessary conditions in which it can turn its best energies to its higher development. To realise those conditions is also the aim of Hindu civilisation and the original intention of caste. The fulfilment of Hinduism is
Page-538
the fulfilment of the highest tendencies of human civilisation and it must include in its sweep the most vital impulses of modern life. It will include democracy and Socialism also, purifying them, raising them above the excessive stress, on the economic adjustments which are the means, and teaching them to fix their eyes more constantly and clearly on the moral, intellectual and spiritual perfection of mankind which is the end".
Bande Mataram, September 22, 1907

The Results Of Yankee Democracy

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Who Wants To Be Yankee's Lackey?

There are not many countries in the world where George W. Bush is regarded as something of a hero. He is, however, in India — a marker of how relations between the world’s largest democracy and its oldest flourished during his tenure as President.
Hillary Clinton’s visit to India this week, her first as Secretary of State, gave probably the best insight yet into how President Obama intends to carry forward that relationship, set to become one of the most important — and potentially trickiest — among the major nations as the 21st century progresses...source

Bharat Is United-Part2

Presenting the current demi gods/deities/vital beings of the indian subcontinent..:-)

Raj Kumar Santoshi may have moved Lahore in his adaptation of the play "Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhya Woh Jamiya Nahin" to Hyderabad, but filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is all set to shoot an entire Bollywood film - a Hindu-Muslim love story - in Pakistan’s cultural capital...read+


HDI Oscars: Slumdogs versus millionaires What does it mean to rank much better on GDP per capita than in the HDI, as we do? It means we have been less successful in converting income into human development, writes P Sainath...read+



Bangalore, Apr 30: Homeshop18, India's 24 hour home shopping channel has launched a new show, coming together with Reebok has launched 'Reebok 20:20 Cricket Mania' in lieu with the on going Indian Premier League Season-2. The show will feature exclusive Reebok merchandise of Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab..source

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Bharat Is United-Part1

YAY!!SOUTH ASIAN OCCUPY TOP RANKINGS IN GLOBAL HUNGER/POVERTY INDEX!!(I AM SURE IIT GEEKS AT "GOOGLE MY SCALABLE GOD" WERE NOT INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT)) Poverty in South Asia: Issues and Suggestions
South Asia is facing many challenges due to diverse political situation at regional level, still the region as a whole shares a lot of socio-economic problems in common and poverty is one of these. Poverty is a daunting challenge for countries in the region in particular Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
South Asia currently hosts more than half of the poor in the world. Despite many poverty alleviation and aid programs by international donors the situation is not improving as it was stipulated few decades back particularly in big countries in the region like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh...read more



South Asia hunger back at 1960s famine levels
A United Nations report says the number of people going hungry in South Asia has jumped by 100 million in the past two years.
The UNICEF report says the global economic crisis has exacerbated poverty in a region where more than 1 billion people live on less than $2 a day.
The number of people suffering from chronic hunger in South Asia is now the same as it was 40 years ago.
The raw figures are stark. In the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, one third of people are going hungry.
Almost half of all children are underweight, as regional director of UNICEF in South Asia Daniel Toole explains.
"Perhaps the most dramatic impact is that we see that there are about 100 million more people hungry in South Asia than two years ago. That's a huge change," he said...READ MORE


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Apollo 11 Was Rescued By...


The Mother
Agenda
Volume 10
July 23, 1969
(The American astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon on July 21. Mother shows the following text which was suggested to her as a "message" for August 15.)
It's Nolini who suggested this text ... because of the people who landed on the moon! (Mother laughs) But it's far too personal - I said no. I am just showing it to you, but I told him, "No, I don't want."
Q. "I have been wondering whether the Mother has been able to establish a direct connection with Mars or any other far off planet which is probably habitable and inhabited."
Someone put this question to Sri Aurobindo. So now that people have landed on the moon ...

A. "A long time ago Mother was going everywhere in the subtle body but she found it of a very secondary interest. Our attention must be fixed on the earth because our work is here. Besides, the earth is a concentration of all the other worlds and one can touch them by touching <251> something corresponding in the earth-atmosphere."[[When she read Sri Aurobindo's answer, Mother remarked, "This answer is very interesting, because it touches the heart of the problem."]]
Sri Aurobindo (25.373)
January 13, 1934
He tells what I was doing, but I don't like to be spoken of.
They're so excited about this moon! Have you heard?
Yes, but what's so exciting about that?
To hear the voice of the gentleman on the moon .... You hear him as he speaks.
I must say I find all that puerile.[[More explicitly, a month earlier, in a text written for Italian television (The Great Sense), Satprem had said, "We go to the moon, but we do not know our own heart nor our terrestrial destiny."]]
It's childish.
But I also heard the radio .... I got a queer sensation: I went there in a trice, like that (gesture like an arrow darting from the forehead to the moon); when I heard, I went there in a trice because I was told there was a dangerous moment when they were to leave the moon to rejoin the other man who was going around [orbiting the moon] - it seems that was dangerous. I had just been told about it .... At first when I heard the voice, I didn't understand anything he said (it was uninteresting, besides: he said he had picked up a stone, that there were mountains - things like that, quite uninteresting). Then, hop! I was sent off like that (same gesture to the forehead), and I actually FELT that I was going there (I found that amusing), like that, prrt! Off from here, direct.
They're on their way back. But the Russians sent a robot in a machine that went round the moon, landed on it and picked up stones - and it was a robot! They said, "We'll never risk a human life - a robot is good enough."[[Their probe, Luna 15, crashed on the moon.]]
But the children at the School here were in an extraordinary state of excitement .... So I was asked to say something to them. I said, "I'd better not say anything, because I would say it's big children having fun!" (Mother laughs) It would have thrown cold water on them! <252>
(silence)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

They Have Ruined The Country

Nehru The AristoRAT!
Have you read Sri Aurobindo's last letters on China?[[See Addendum. ]]
Oh, yes - he read them to me himself! (Mother laughs.)
But everything Sri Aurobindo said has always come true
. You know he also said (but it was in jest, he didn't write it) ... concerning reuniting with Pakistan he told me: "Ten years. It will take ten years." The ten years passed and nothing happened - OFFICIALLY nothing happened. But the truth is (I learned it through certain government officials), Pakistan did make some overtures in that direction, asking for a union to be reestablished (they would have kept some sort of autonomy, but the two countries would have UNITED, it would have been a UNION), and Nehru refused.
How foolish!

So Sri Aurobindo had seen it.
He had seen it happen. After ten years, when that man who headed Pakistan died,[[This may refer to the death of Liaquat Ali, and the grave economic and political difficulties resulting in the dissolution of the Pakistani Parliament in October 1958, and General Ayub Khan's seizure of power. ]] they found themselves in grave difficulty and were unable to get organized; so they sent somebody (unofficially, of course) to ask India to reestablish union on certain bases - but they refused, the Indians refused. It was a repetition of the same stupidity as when Cripps came to make his proposal, when Sri Aurobindo sent a message saying, "Accept, whatever the conditions, otherwise it will be worse later on." That's what Sri Aurobindo told them. Gandhi was there and he retorted, "Why is that man meddling? He should be concerned only with spiritual life."[[In April 1942, when England was struggling against the Nazis and Japan, which was threatening to invade Burma and India, Churchill sent an emissary, Sir Stafford Cripps, to New Delhi with a very generous proposal which he hoped would rally India's goodwill and cooperation in the fight against the worldwide threat. In this proposal, Great Britain offered India Dominion status, as a first step towards an independent government. Sri Aurobindo at once came out of retirement to wire his adhesion to Cripps; he wired all of India's leaders, and even sent a personal messenger to Gandhi and the Indian Congress to convince them to accept this unhoped for proposal without delay. One of Sri Aurobindo's telegrams to Rajagopalachari (the future President of India) spoke of the grave danger, which no one seemed to see, of rejecting Cripps' proposal: "... Some immediate solution urgent face grave peril. Appeal to you to save India formidable danger new foreign domination when old on way to self-elimination." No one understood: "Why is he meddling?" Had it accepted Dominion status, India would have avoided the partition of the country in two, the artificial creation of Pakistan, as well as the three wars that were to follow (and which we haven't heard the last of), and the blood bath that ravaged Bengal and the Punjab in 1947 at the time of the partition. (See in Addendum an extract from Sri Aurobindo's message on the occasion of India's Independence.) ]]
They have conscientiously ruined the country.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Surprise!Surprise!Surprise!


***






JINNAH HOUSE IN MUMBAI..Designed by architect Claude Batley in the European-style architecture..After India was partitioned, Mumbai remained a part of India and Jinnah left his abode as he became the Governor General of Pakistan. He requested to Nehru, the then Indian Prime Minister to allot his house to any foreign consulate, preferably European, as he wished it to be given to a European family who would appreciate the architecture. Nehru acceded to Jinnah's request and offered him a monthly rent of three thousand rupees. Unfortunately Jinnah died in September 1948 before the deal could be finalised...Now worth around $60 million the house is the subject of a dispute between India, the government of Pakistan and Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia. The bungalow is located on Mount Pleasant Road (now Bhausaheb Hirey Marg) in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai. Its opposite neighbour is the residence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra...read more



Billionaire Nusli Wadia,the grandson of Jinnah,and chairman of Bombay Dying likes to spend his time in London(typical bourgeois)..and guess what..he was a christian(he is now back to Zoroastrianism)..

Refugee Settlements In Andamans And Nicobar Islands


Colonization and rehabilitations in Andaman and Nicobar Islands /


Author:
Swapan Kumar Biswas.
Imprint:
Delhi : Abhijeet Publications,
Physical Desc.:

Year:
2009
Price:
USD 29.15

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Title Contents:

Chapter No.
Chapter Title
Chapter Author
Page No.
Objectives of the study and survey methodology
16
Possibility of resettlement of refugees survey team reports
36
Settlement of Bengali refugees from east Pakistan (1949-1976)
75
Scheme for rehabilitation of settlers
92
Community development schemes
102
Social status of Bengali settlers
114
Development aspects and Bengali Community
124
Present social system among Bengali settlers
140
Political development in the Islands
157
Economic activities
196
Cultural dynamism
208

Flush Them Down The Toilet


GANDHI..how i wish someone had taped bapuji's brahmachari experiments with mem sahibs JINNAH..all this hindu gujerati rajput secular muslim wannabe wanted was to become the ruler of India,but Nehru was Gandhi's pet dog..so lets create Pakistan !!



SHYAMA PRASAD MUKHERJEE..this hindutva moron used to brag proudly for dividing bengal.. good for nothing brain dead bhodrolok loafers thought hindus will be safe and prosper in "hindu country" west bengal..i wonder how many male hindu refugees were deported secretly to andaman and nicobar islands?how many hindu ladies became prostitutes in order to survive in "hindu country" west bengal?

Monday, July 13, 2009

"The Spoils Of Partition"


THE SPOILS OF PARTITION:Bengal And India,1947-1967 BY JOYA CHATTERJI
Review by A.G.Noorani
The distinguished scholar Joya Chatterji, Lecturer in History of Modern South Asia at Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity College, established in her widely acclaimed work Bengal Divided the communal divide that afflicted the province. Its subtitle was “Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-1947” (Cambridge University Press, 1995). The present work is, in a sense, a follow-up to the earlier one and reflects the same qualities of stupendous research and rigorous analysis. She belongs to a very small band of scholars in South Asia whose commitment to the truth is not overcome by false notions of “patriotism” or by communal bias. She explains the rationale behind the partition of India, and in particular of Bengal, and its consequences. Concentration on the partition of Punjab led to the neglect of the fate of Bengal. As with the partition of India, the advocates of Bengal’s partition lived to face the consequences of their miscalculations. She writes with wit and verve.
Earlier, in an article on the boundary award by Cyril Radcliffe, Joya Chatterji exposed the follies and worse of the two commissions over which he presided to demarcate the boundaries of the divided provinces of Bengal and Punjab (“The Fashioning of a Frontier”; Modern Asian Studies; 33(1) 1999; pages 185-242).
To this day, not a single Pakistani writer has dared or cared to question Jinnah’s preference of Radcliffe, a British conservative lawyer, to an impartial three-member commission comprising judges from other countries. By June 1947, Jinnah’s relations with Mountbatten had deteriorated steeply. The Radcliffe Report accepted many of the Congress’ claims in Bengal and was unfair to Pakistan, as Professor R.J. Noore has documented (Making the New Common wealth; Clarendon Press, Oxford; 1987; pages 27 and 37). Suhrawardy-Sarat Bose Plan
The Congress and the Hind.
The Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha opposed the Suhrawardy-Sarat Bose Plan for a United Bengal, which Jinnah accepted in a talk with Mountbatten on April 26, 1947. Gandhi prescribed impossible curbs which he would have rejected for the Central government. On May 27, 1947, Mountbatten’s Principal Secretary Eric Mieville “asked him [Nehru] how he viewed the discussions now going on about an independent Bengal. He reacted strongly and said there was no chance of the Hindus there agreeing to put themselves under permanent Muslim domination which was what the proposed agreement really amounted to. He did not, however, rule out the possibility of the whole of Bengal joining up with Hindustan [sic.]” (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru; Second Series, Volume 2; page 182).
This writer has attempted an essay on the move for United Bengal (“United Bengal Plan: Pipe Dream or Missed Opportunity” in The Partition in Retrospect edited by Amrik Singh, Anamika Publishers & Distributors, 2000). The subject awaits scholarly attention which only scholars like Joya Chatterji can bestow.

The Rediff Interview/Dr. Subhas Kak


'Our school books talk about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but don't mention Yajnavalkya, Panini and Patanjali'
Dr Subhash Kak is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He is also a renowned authority on ancient Indian science and technology. Originally from Kashmir, Dr Kak has worked at IIT Delhi, Imperial College, Bell Laboratories and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He has authored ten books and over three hundred journal articles in areas as varied as neural networks, quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and history of science. Dr Kak's websites http://www.ee.lsu.edu/kak/index.html and ftp://www.ee.lsu.edu/pub/kak provide links to some of his articles...full interview

Aryan Invasion Myth


As BBC proves Vivekananda right after a century...- S GurumurthyCourtesy: The New Indian Express; October 29, 2005

"Yes, the secular scholarship is in deep trouble. But they have a solid reason to feel assured that it will take decades for this truth to overcome the billions of pages of falsehood printed and circulated so far. For the grains of truth to emerge from this mountain of falsehoodwill take a life's time."..source


Stephen Oppenheimer believes after extensive genetic testing and analysis that the Modern "Out of Africa" theory ties in with R1a1 (M17) in that, it "could have found his way initially from India or Pakistan, through Kashmir, then via Central Asia and Russia, before finally coming to Europe"..."as part of an archaeologically dated Paleolithic movement from east to west 30,000 years ago."[17][18].

South Asian Origin Theories
In a seminal work titled The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey out of Africa (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 2003), the prominent Oxford University scholar Stephen Oppenheimer concludes that South Asia is the origin of M17 and his ancestors. He observes:

And sure enough we find highest rates and greatest diversity of the M17 line in Pakistan, north India, and eastern Iran,and low rates in the Caucasus. M17 is not only more diverse in South Asia than in Central Asia but diversity characterizes its presence in isolated tribal groups in the south, thus undermining any theory of M17 as a marker of a 'male Aryan Invasion of India.' Study of the geographical distribution and the diversity of genetic branches and stems again suggests that Ruslan, along with his son M17,arose early in South Asia, somewhere near India......A particular interest has been taken in investigating the long-presumed connection between Indo-Aryan origins and high caste Brahmins. Studies have generally failed to support this association. The R1a lineage forms around 35–45% among all the castes in North Indian population (Namita Mukherjee et al. 2001) and the Badagas of the Nilgiris. Sengupta et al. have confirmed R1a's diverse presence even among Indian tribal and lower castes (the so-called untouchables) and populations not part of the caste system. [9] Chaubey et al. draw the same conclusion that both caste and tribal populations are autochthonous to India.[20] S. Sharma et al. aimed aimed to resolve the issue of the origin of caste system in India in their study of a large number of Brahmins, Dalits and Tribals. Overall, no consistent difference was observed in Y-haplogroups distribution between the groups, except for some differences confined to a given geographical region...source


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Panini: The Great Sanskrit Grammarian


The tradition of Paninian Grammar as it has reached us clearly believes that Panini was inspired by Mahesvara/Siva to write his grammar, and that he received his major influence from himPanini was an Indian grammarian who was believed to have flourished around. c. 400 B. C. His AshtAdhyAyI [eight books] (tr. 1891) is one of the earliest works of descriptive linguistics and is also the first individually authored treatise on Sanskrit. He was born: about 520 BC in Shalatula (near Attock), now Pakistan Died: about 460 BC in India .Panini was born in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus river in present day Pakistan. The dates given for Panini are pure guesses. Experts give dates in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th century BC and there is also no agreement among historians about the extent of the work which he undertook. What is in little doubt is that, given the period in which he worked, he is one of the most innovative people in the whole development of knowledge. We will say a little more below about how historians have gone about trying to pinpoint the date when Panini lived. Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Sanskrit was the classical literary language of the Indian Hindus and Panini is considered the founder of the language and literature. It is interesting to note that the word "Sanskrit" means "complete" or "perfect" and it was thought of as the divine language, or language of the gods...source


Pāṇini (Dēvanāgarī: पाणिनि; a patronymic meaning "descendant of Paṇi") was an Ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalavati, Gandhara (fl. 4th century BCE[1][2]).
He is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules[2] of Sanskrit morphology in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi (अष्टाध्यायी Aṣṭādhyāyī, meaning "eight chapters"), the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of Vedic religion.
The Ashtadhyayi is one of the earliest known grammars of Sanskrit, although he refers to previous texts like the Unadisutra, Dhatupatha, and Ganapatha.[2] It is the earliest known work on descriptive linguistics, generative linguistics, and together with the work of his immediate predecessors (Nirukta, Nighantu, Pratishakyas) stands at the beginning of the history of linguistics itself.
Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the end of the period of Vedic Sanskrit, by definition introducing Classical Sanskrit...source


Pushkalavati is an ancient site situated in Peshawar valley in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It is located on the banks of Swat River, near its junction with Kabul River, now it is known as Charsadda. Pushkalavati meaning Lotus City was the capital of ancient kingdom Gandhara from the 6th century BC to 2nd century AD.
The ruins of Pushkalavati consist of many stupas and sites of two old cities...source

INVESTIGATING ANCIENT PUSHKALAVATI

Pakistanis Are Not Arabs!


The Indus Valley Civilization (mature period 2600–1900 BCE), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient civilization in the Indian Subcontinent that flourished around the Indus River basin. Primarily centered along the Indus river, the civilization encompassed most of what is now Pakistan, mainly the provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan, as well as extending into modern day Indian states of Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Remains have been excavated from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iran, as well. The mature phase of this civilization is technically known as the Harappan Civilization, after the[1] first of its cities to be unearthed: Harappa in Pakistan. Excavation of IVC sites have been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999.[2]
The civilization is sometimes referred to as the Indus Ghaggar-Hakra civilization[3] or the Indus-Sarasvati civilization..INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION




Glimpses of South Asia before 19471,170 illustrated pages by the world's leading Ancient Indus Civilization scholars 774 photographs, postcards, lithographs, engravings, and old film of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka before 1947..HARAPPA

The Indo Pakistan War Part5


November 10, 1965
(Mother hands Satprem a brochure, "Spiritual Unity of India," in which quotations from Sri Aurobindo and Mother on the partition of India have been gathered, in particular Mother's declaration: "India must fight until India and Pakistan have once more become ONE.")
It has gone around India.
Thousands of copies have been distributed in India. There are even lots of newspapers that have written about it. It has made a lot of noise in the country.
But they don't seem - the leaders at least - to have understood at all.
The Prime Minister has fully approved. But he is a weak man. They are afraid of the United Nations.
Oh, they're afraid of everything.
But to the United Nations I have sent a lot of messages: lots of people there have talked about it. They are quarreling. There at the United Nations, it has kicked up a din. Only, the Americans are quite unrivaled in their stupidity! All the more so as they are puffed up with conceit - they are convinced that they are the leading nation of the world, so that puts the final touch to stupidity. But anyway, they are not alone at the United Nations and it has made a lot of noise, it has shaken people up a bit.
But unless outward circumstances COMPEL India to reunite with Pakistan, they won't budge.
But it's being prepared. It's being prepared. It's going to break out all at once.
The impression is that if India isn't pushed from the outside, isn't forced to re-create this unity, they won't budge.

The army is completely with us. Besides, it seems (I have been receiving a great many letters, I've again received some these last few days), it seems they had truly miraculous instances of forces intervening, of people suddenly turning into extraordinary heroes.... There were marvelous things.
If, at that point,[[Before India accepted the cease-fire of September 22. ]] they hadn't stopped, it would have been easy.
Oh, absolutely! It's really sad.
That's just what those fools were fearing!
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, mon petit, because we always see just one side of things; even being in contact up above, one doesn't have the vision of the whole every minute. So, as for me, whatever happens I say, "It's all right - He knows better than I do."
He knows better than I do.
No, it's necessarily the best ... in the given conditions - the earth isn't in a marvelous condition, far from it - but in the given conditions, it's the best. It prepares something far more complete, far deeper, far more integral than all that we can imagine. This is indisputable, there's no discussing it.
Later, about the health of Sujata, who is eating next to nothing:
... When I was six or eight, I used to eat with my brother, and to get ourselves to eat we were obliged to tell each other a story I We were given meat, you see, pieces of beefsteak, it was a nightmare! So my trick was to tell my brother, "I am an ogre ... and before me is half an ox," and with each slash of my knife I would carve my ox! - I would tell a story to myself and end up swallowing my beefsteak!
(Sujata:) But he doesn't tell any stories. How many times I have asked him!
He doesn't tell any stories?
(Satprem:) She would like me to write tales - fairy tales.
Do you know any fairy tales?
(Satprem:) I'll make some up.
Of course! I used to make up lots and lots of them!... Real fairy tales in which everything is so lovely, everything works out so nicely - not a single misery. Nothing but lovely things....

One India And Indivisble


INDIA is one and indivisible, culturally and spiritually; politically too she must be one and indivisible and is, as a matter of fact, already on the way towards that consummation, in spite of appearances to the contrary. It has got to be so, if India is to be strong and powerful, if her voice is to be heard in the comity of nations, if she is to fulfil her mission in the world.
It is no use laying stress on distinctions and differences: we must, on the contrary, put all emphasis upon the funda­mental unity, upon the demand and necessity for a dynamic unity. Naturally there are diverse and even contradictory elements in the make-up of a modern nation. France, for example, was not one, but many to start with and for long. We know of the mortal feud between the Bourguignons and the Armagnacs and the struggle among the Barons generally, some even siding with foreigners against their own country­men (an Indian parallel we have in the story of Prithwiraj and Jayachand), poor Jeanne d'Arc lamenting over the 'much pity' that was in sweet France. There were several rival languages – Breton, Gascon, Provençal, besides the French of Isle de France. Apart from these provincial or regional rivalries there were schisms on religious grounds – Huguenots and Catholics, Jansenists and Arians were flying at each other's throat and made of France a veritable bedlam of confusion and chaos. Well, all that was beaten down and smoothed under the steam-roller of a strong centralised invincible spirit of France, one and indivisible and inexorable, that worked itself out through Jeanne d'Arc and Francis the First and Henry the Great and Richelieu and Napoleon. But all nations have the same story. And it is too late now in the day to start
Page – 90
explaining the nature and origin of nationhood; it was done long ago by Mazzini and by Renan and once for all.
Indeed, what we see rampant in India today is the mediaeval spirit. This reversion to an older-an extinct, we ought to have been able to say-type of mentality is certainly a fall, a lowering of the collective consciousness. It bas got to be remedied and set right. Whatever the motive forces that lie at the back of the movement, motives of fear or despair or class interest or parochial loyalty, motives of idealism, misguided and ob­scurantist, they have to be taken by the horns and dominated and eliminated. A breath of modernism, some pure air of clear perception and knowledge and wider consciousness must blow through the congested hectic atmosphere of the Indian body politic.
It will do no good to anyone to try to Balkanise India. The Balkan malady is no longer tolerated even in its homeland; it cannot be transported to India in this century and after this Great War. To be and remain free and strong and invincible, India must be and remain indivisible. The strength of the United States of America, of the United Soviets of the Russias, of the British Commonwealth (pace Churchill) lies precisely in each one of them being a large unified aggregate, all members pooling their resources together.
India cannot main­tain her freedom, nor utilise her freedom to its utmost effectivity unless she is one and indivisible. The days of small peoples, of isolated independence are gone – gone for ever even like Thebes and Nineveh, like Kosala of Dasarathi and Mathura of Yadupati.
India can be and is to be a federation of autonomous units. But then we must very carefully choose or find out the units, those that are real units and not fractions (especially irrational fractions) and at the same time lay as much stress on federa­tion as on autonomy. To choose or create units on the basis of religion or race or caste or creed, that is exactly what we mean by irrationalism, in other words, mediaevalism. The Units must be, on one side, geographical wholes, and, on the other, cultural (or spiritual – not religious) wholes
.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The Indo Pakistan War Part 4


September 25, 1965
(Following the Security Council's ultimatum, India accepted the cease-fire as of September 22.)
So you were right, in the end!
I was right ... on what?... Ah, your message to Delhi: "India must fight."
Yes.
Oh, they don't understand anything. It's a disgusting sight.
And as false as can be: they keep on fighting, only they are pretending not to.
They are all so pleased with what they've done, they are chortling with glee.
No, they're not pleased.
You think not?
Yes, I know!
It reminds me of 1939, Chamberlain coming back from Munich: "Peace in our time"!
Yes, exactly.
But at the U.N., they are chortling with glee, they're very proud of themselves [for the cease-fire]. But here, they aren't glad.
They are especially furious at Britain.[[The British government and press (the American press, too) have been outrageously anti-Indian.]]
Oh, those British ...
Yes, and they are going to leave the Commonwealth.
That would be a good thing.
(Laughing) Yes, and about time!
The Russians have called on Shastri and the Pakistan man [Ayub Khan] to meet in Russia [in Tashkent], and it seems they have agreed with the Americans (the Russians with the Americans) on permanently separating Britain from Pakistan and China from India. They want to take steps to permanently prevent China and Britain from intervening in affairs here. They have means of coercing them, it appears.
Naturally, if Russia and America join together ... So they have called Shastri and Ayub, and they are going - they are going there. So perhaps we are going to see something interesting.
The rapprochement between Russia and America is something I have been working on for years. I thought I had succeeded, when Kennedy was assassinated; and at the time, Khrushchev was well- disposed - both gone! One is assassinated, the other dismissed.
Now we'll see.
If nothing comes in the way, there may be something interesting.
But one doesn't see any solution other than military. The problem must be solved, mustn't it?
There could be the solution of Pakistan becoming a part of India again.
Yes, but that's not possible unless they are swallowed up.
They may come to it without being forced. This fellow [Ayub Khan] is impossible.
Oh, yes, he is impossible.
Yes, but he isn't immortal.
The mentality there will be hard to change. The Indians have missed the opportunity.
Yes. Ah, yes, this was the opportunity.
But it's not their fault: it's the fault of the United Nations; and the United Nations has acted from a single motive, because they were dreadfully scared of a general war - of course, this blocks the vision
.
We'll see.
But I believe in Kali, Mother. My only hope now is really in Kali: Kali's force striking. I can't imagine any other possibility.
(Silence) This man who is heading Pakistan doesn't represent the whole of Pakistan. There is a whole part of Pakistan that favors union with India.
Really?
A large part.
And there's nothing to say that if they feel protected, helped and supported, in fact by Russia and America, they won't push for reunion. With masses, you know, it's only a question of a current of thought: it's not reflection, not reasoning, just a current of thought.
I don't know, we shall see.

(Mother holds out a hibiscus to Satprem) Here is a monumental "Grace," there are almost two together.
(silence
)

The Indo Pakistan War Part 3


The Mother
Agenda
Volume 6
September 22, 1965


What's the next aphorism?
It's on silence.
Silence ... Oh, it's better to practice that than talk about it.
That's an experience I had here long ago: the difference between wanting immediately to spread and use what one has learnt, and, by contrast, the contact with higher knowledge in which one remains as still as possible so it may have a transforming effect.
We'll talk about it again another time.
The scientific mind is sure of its knowledge only if it is applied, put into practice, and if it yields useful results. That's what they call "knowledge" (!)
** *
Have you read the report of the United Nations session?
Yes, about the cease-fire?[[The Security Council has issued an ultimatum to India and Pakistan for a ceasefire.]]
I haven't read it: I have been told about it. But through certain things, I have been put in contact,[[In inner contact with this organization.]]
and they seem to be a united expression of universal falsehood.
Their common ground is petty schemes and petty biases, preconceived and MICROSCOPIC ideas on the usefulness of divisions among countries so that no one country may dominate the others - nothing but absolutely superficial things, and completely false, moreover. And no sincerity, no mental honesty, no sincere goodwill - nothing. They decided in advance that Pakistan was right and India was wrong.
Unfortunately, those phantoms seem to strike terror into the people in Delhi.
Not quite. I have direct news from Delhi (Mother holds out a telegram): "I am deeply grateful says Shastri." That was following my message.
And in a Parliament session (I don't know if it was a Parliament session or a cabinet meeting), they were told that the true goal of India is to re-create the country's unity, and that the second goal is to give Tibet autonomy and independence. And that these are the two things India wants. And that, somehow or other, they will have to be.
Now, what are they going to do? I don't know.

That doesn't go very well with their "cease-fire" - they accept the cease-fire.
On condition that ... there is a condition. They accept on condition that Pakistan makes very serious pledges - which Pakistan refuses to make.
Yes, luckily![[Satprem means: luckily. because if Pakistan behaved and didn't force India to fight, the partition might last a long time.]]
Pledges of concord, of unity.
In any event, the voice [Mother's message] has been heard - heard and accepted in Delhi. Now, of course, there is the question of strength: will they be strong enough to ... But the point is established
.
(Satprem, in disbelief) It has entered their heads?
Not all of them. It's enough if they are two or three - there are more of them than that.

The Indo Pakistan War Part2


The Mother
Agenda
Volume 6
September 16, 1965
A member of UNESCO has asked a stupid question, something to this effect: "There was a time when India represented the spiritual consciousness" (or "taught the spiritual consciousness," I don't remember now), "but now that she is engaged in such a war, who will play this role?"...[[Here is the exact text of the question: "If India, who held (till recently) the hope for humanity in the light of her spiritual leaders, can get involved in such a war, who would lead the world?"]] So instead of replying to the question, because I might have told him a thing or two, I answered what you've just read.
Of course! All those Europeans ... for fifty years they have been told about Gandhi, so now they don't understand!
That's right. Let your throat be cut without saying a word.
And here is another text of mine that someone has brought back to life:
"The world situation is critical today. India's fate too is hanging in the balance. There was a time when India was absolutely secure, there was no danger whatever of her being a victim to Asuric aggression. But things have changed. People and forces in India have acted in such a way as to invite Asuric influences upon her; these have worked insidiously and undermined the security that was there...."
May 25, 1941
It dates back to long ago. I was here.
(Sujata:) Long ago, you said, "If there is another war, it will be over India."[[See Sri Aurobindo and Mother on India and Her Destiny, p. 13.]]
Yes, that was long ago.
But when the division between India and Pakistan took place, Sri Aurobindo wrote very strongly: this division MUST go somehow or other, "by whatever means," he said.[[In his message of August 15, 1947, on the occasion of India's independence, Sri Aurobindo wrote: "...
The old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. India's internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go. Let us hope that that may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the necessity not only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and the creation of means for that purpose. In this way unity may finally come about under whatever form - the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of India's future." (Cent. Ed., 26.404-405)]]

And to me he said, "If they can't agree on doing it, they will fight."
And yet, if we give credence to official declarations from Delhi, they don't at all intend to go right to the end. They only intend to "adjust" the border a little.
There was a letter from S.M. this morning, saying that the question would never be resolved unless they ... (gesture sweeping Pakistan away).
Yes, but that's not what the Prime Minister says.
The Prime Minister ... They are all afraid.[[Four days later, on the 22nd, Lal Bahadur Shastri will announce a cease-fire.]] Afraid of world opinion.
Yes, exactly.
At any rate, P. is leaving today for Delhi, and he is taking with him all my "literature" (they hayed asked, "What does Mother say?").
We still have a "Talk" to see for the next Bulletin, don't we? It would be better to finish it.
It will be better to finish preparing the issue early, because ... things may become more difficult.
Is it going to disorganize your work?
Possibly. I told you about the "hurricane" the other day. So China has sent her ultimatum.[[China has given India three days to dismantle its military posts at the borders of Sikkim.]]
I don't understand why they give advance warning by the way. If I were them, I wouldn't.
No, they don't intend to do anything.
They don't intend to do anything?
They want to intimidate without doing anything, and they want to know how the world will react. And America reacted immediately.[[The United States declared that if China attacked, it would come to India's help.]]
(silence)
In Pakistan, there was a firing system of the latest American model, in which they take aim with, I don't know, electrical systems, and they can fire several thousand shots in ... anyway, it's frightening; and shots that reach exactly where they want. It's quite an organization. They've become very efficient. It was given to Pakistan by the Americans. And it had to be destroyed. So one of the Indian pilots went and crashed his plane into it. Naturally, the plane crushed everything - he too was crushed. But the installation was demolished.... People here are capable of such things. If they feel what Sri Aurobindo says in this letter I have just given you, that the leader of our march is the Almighty, if they feel that way ... That's what made the strength of the Japanese in the past. That's what makes the strength of people here, once they are convinced. That's how the Japanese took Port Arthur; there was a sort of ditch around the fortress, as there are in fortified places, and because of that they couldn't get in; well, they let themselves be killed till they were able to walk across on the bodies: the bodies made a bridge by filling up the ditch, and then they walked across.
People who are conscious that death isn't the end, that death is the beginning of something else, it gives them a strength that these Europeans cannot have.
(just before Satprem leaves)
Clearly, circumstances are arranged to help us move on.

The Indo Pakistan War In 1965


The Mother
Agenda
Volume 6
September 18, 1965
(Regarding the Indo-Pakistani conflict:)

I have all kinds of things to show you ... because I have been made to say some things - I am always made to say things!
(Mother gives Satprem a hibiscus flower called "Grace")
It's the season for graces.

Do you know this text from Sri Aurobindo? (Mother holds out a note)
"... The fight in which we are engaged is not like the wars of old in which when the King or leader fell, the army fled. The King whom we follow to the war today is our own Motherland, the sacred and imperishable; the leader of our onward march is the Almighty Himself...."
May 11, 1907
Then I wrote this:
"It is for the sake and the triumph of Truth that India is fighting and must fight[[Interestingly, Mother had at first written shall fight, then, in the afternoon, she changed shall into must.]] until India and Pakistan have once more become ONE because that is the truth of their being."

Service To The Divine


September 15, 1965

(Letter to Mother from Sujata)

September 15, 1965

Little Mother,

After what you said this morning, I am wondering if we, the young, do not as citizens of India have the duty of offering our service to the country. Or at least to prepare ourselves for this possibility?

Your child who loves you,

Signed: Sujata

(Mother's answer)

For those who are capable of it, the service to the divine Work is infinitely more important than the service to the country.

I do not think I have said anything this morning that could contradict this undeniable fact.

Signed: Mother


Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Massive Intervention In 1965


What I felt strongly was that something had to erupt: it was too absurdly tense and devoid of truth.
I don't know if I told you that the day before it was known that it had really become a sort of war, the night before that, I had an experience that has occurred to me only two or three times in my life, always in similar circumstances. This time, I wasn't expecting anything, and in the night, there was in the TERRESTRIAL atmosphere, with a concentration on India, a sort of ... something I might call a "pressure of the Supreme." It's as if the Supreme's Consciousness were exerting a pressure, and it produces a certain type of stillness with a solidity and a consistency not found anywhere else. You know, it's even more solid and substantial than the most inert inertia. And it's the pressure of the Supreme Power. It's almost intolerable or unbearable for Matter, for material substance. And it goes like this (gesture of massive descent), absolutely impossible to budge, and at the same time you feel it's the Supreme Power. Well, it lasted for hours that night, and I was extremely attentive in order to know what it meant. And the next day, I was told things had all of a sudden broken out like a war: all that friction that had been there for ... years had suddenly taken that form.
So it is clearly a very exceptional intervention that has brought this about.
But while I was having the experience, there was absolutely no awareness of the goal, the motive, the purpose, nothing: it was like this (same massive gesture taking hold of everything), a sort of absolute, without explanation.
I've had this two or three times in my life, in the most serious terrestrial circumstances.
That's why; the next day, they told me what was going on and asked me what I felt; I simply answered, "It's serious."
It can only be serious.
Now ... "serious," what we could call serious is when it becomes global.
It seems that so far Pakistan has already called for help from three or four countries, which have refused. But the news ... I attach no importance to it because it is always falsified. For instance, when a country like Britain can decide to give her support, officially she will say, "We have nothing to do with your war." So it doesn't mean anything.
There.