India, the eternal

In 1897, exactly 50 years before independence, Swami Vivekananda had predicted that "India would be free in the next 50 years in unforeseen circumstances". This prophecy was made at a time when the idea of an independent India never even crossed the minds of Indians. Far from fighting for freedom, many Indians were even convinced that British rule was a symbol of justice, peace and prosperity. Many of them even thought it was a blessing. No one attached any importance to Swamiji's words. Today, even after 60 years of Independence, Swamiji's teachings are as relevant as they would have been way back then. Noted below are extracts from Swamiji's descriptions of India. To avoid diluting the flavour in Swamiji's words, they have been reproduced as it is from the book, "My India- The India eternal"*.

"If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed punyabhumi, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality-- it is India."

"The debt which the world owes to our motherland is immense. India has given to anitquity the earliest scientific physicians, and, according to Sir William Hunter, she has even contributed to modern science by the discovery of various chemicals and by teaching you how to reform misshapen ears and noses. Even more it has done in mathematics, for algebra, geometry, astronomy, and the triumph of modern science-- mixed mathematics-- were all invented in India, just as much as the ten numerals, the very cornerstone of all present civillization, were discovered in India, and are in reality, Sanskrit words. In music, India gave to the world her system of notation, with the seven cardinal notes and the diatonic scale. In philology, our Sansksrit language is now universally acknowledged to be the foundation of all European languages. India has given to the world the fables of Aesop, which were copied from an old Sanskrit book; it has given the Arabian Nights, yes, even the story of Cindrella and the Bean stalks. Last but not the least, she invented the game of chess, cards and the dice."

"So great, in fact, was the superiority of India in every respect, that it drew to her borders the hungry cohorts of Europe, and thereby indirectly broughtt about the discovery of America."

"India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now holy to me; it is the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the tirtha!"

"This national ship, my countrymen, my friends, my children-- this national ship has been ferrying millions and millions of souls across the waters of life. But today, perhaps through your own fault, this boat has become a little damaged, has sprung a leak; and would you therefore curse it? Is it fit that you stand up and pronounce malediction upon it, one that has done more work than any other thing in the world? If there are holes in this national ship, this society of ours, we are its children. Let us go and stop the holes. Let us gladly do it with our heart's blood; and if we cannot, then let us die. We will make a plug of our brains and put them into the ship, but condemn it never. Say not one harsh word against this society. I love it for its past greatness." [...to be continued in future posts.]

* "My India, the India eternal" a compilations of swamiji's messages on India published by the Ramakrishna mission institute of Culture, Kolkata. To purchase online, please visit: http://www.chennaimath.org/estore/my-india-the-eternal-india

Azaaad

1921, Benares(India):

Non-co-operation movement had just been launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. A group of supporters were mercilessly subject to severe lathi-charge by a British police-man. A school-going boy, hardly 15 years old, seeing the incident from a distance, could not keep his temper within bounds. He grabbed a stone and, aiming it with perfection, struck the sub-inspector right on his forehead. It started bleeding and another police-man, in order to get hold of the boy, chased him. The boy, however, made his getaway. The police-man, after carrying out a rigorous search at the schools in the neighbourhood, finally located the boy in his room in a Dharamshala. To his surprise, the walls of the little room were totally covered with portraits of Gandhiji, Tilak, Lala Lajpat Ray and the likes.

The boy was put in a dark prison which was poorly ventilated. The unbearable cold assisted the police in making the lives of prisoners more miserable, as if it already weren't. In spite of all this, the boy, much different from the boys of his age, was not one to be shaken by such mundane problems. The sub-inspector, expecting the boy to be struck with fear and cold, paid a visit at midnight. He was shocked to see him busy exercising himself, shedding sweat despite the cold.

The next day the boy was produced before the magistrate, Khereghat, who was notorious for awarding cruel punishment to offenders. The boy, seemingly unaware of all this, boldly came to the accused-stand.

"What is your name?", the judge questioned.
"Azad (freedom)", was the bold reply.
Not sensing anything strange, the judge continued, "What is your Father's name?"
"Swadhinata (Independence)", was the immediate reply.
"Place of residence?".
"Jail".
Baffled, the judge proclaimed- "15 lashes by cane". Without any further questioning, he dismissed the case.

15 lashes is something that would make even a brave adult shudder. But the boy remained cool. He was tied to a plank. Sparing just a vest on his tender body, the jailer began the flogging. One after the other, the blows landed, each more devastating than the previous. There were tears in the eyes of the onlookers (the punishment was carried out in the presence of the public, to create fear). But, with every blow, the boy shouted- "Bharat Mata Ki jai", "Vande Mataram", "Mahatma Gandhiji ki Jai". His skin peeled out. But, there was no place either for tears or fear. People there were awestruck by his courage and patriotism. Ever since this incident, the boy, Chandrashekhar Tiwary came to be called as Chandrashekhar Azad" or simply "Azad". When he was released, he vowed that he would never be arrested by the British and would die as a free man.

Chandrashekhar was born in Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh on July 23, 1906. Being inspired by leaders like Gandhiji, he plunged into freedom struggle at the tender age of 15. Deeply pained by the treatment infringed on the Indians by the British, he decided that fighting back with arms was the best solution. He, along with his friends Bhagat Singh, Rajguru became revolutionaries. In order to raise funds for their anti-British activities, the revolutionaries resorted to robbing the rich, sometimes even from their very homes. However, they sent each of them, receipts for the money that had been robbed and each pie of the loot was accounted for. Their amount would be returned after India became free, it was promised. Once, on being questioned by his friend about this practice, Azad replied,
"For me, first comes the freedom of the country. I don't consider the looting of the rich a sin. They grow rich on sucking the blood of the poor. The wealth amassed by them belongs to the country. It is no sin to use this money for the good of the country." There was nothing that he wouldn't do if the country would become free. Attempting to describe his patriotism with mere words would be foolishness.


It had been decided by the revolutionaries that during the process of robbing the rich, none would resort to maltreating, especially when it came to women. But during the second robbery, in which Azad too was involved, a member, overcome by lust, misbehaved with a girl notwithstanding Azad's requests not to do so. Azad shot him dead and then begged the lady's pardon for his colleagues misconduct.

To evade the police, Azad once took refuge at the home of an old widow. On knowing that she was in dire need of money for her daughter's marriage, Azad even requested her to bring him to the police and get the prize-money of Rs 5,000 that he carried on his head, to which the widow refused. When Azad left her home, he left a large part of the money he had.

The influence of the revolutionaries was such that, the owner of a store looted by them, on sensing that it was the handiwork of Azad and his team, asked the police to drop the case (garodia store dacoity).

He was unmarried and lived the austere life of a ‘Brahmachari’, till his last breath. For his ceaseless activities, he was rightly called quick-silver.
In February 1931, a close associate of Azad, in order to claim the price on Azad's head, double-crossed him (as has happened numerous times in our history) and tipped the police about his movements. Having been surrounded by nearly 100 police in a park (which now has a memorial in his name), he fought them single-handed, killing many policemen. When he realised that only the last bullet was left in his pistol and that there was no way to escape the British, he shot himself in the head, thereby keeping up his promise that he would never let the British arrest him, even at the cost of death.

Despite his sacrifice, Azad has sunk into the annals of history without much remembrance. Most school text-books only consider him a "Terrorist", which is highly unfortunate. Our current leaders are in a state of utter confusion. They declare great patriots as "terrorists", whereas, the real terrorists are happily looked upon as 'heroes'. What more.
A certain 'leader' of U.P has proposed to rename a college originally named after Azad, just because she thinks him a "terrorist". The same person can erect statues in her glory, at our expenses, but cannot tolerate a great leader, who sacrificed his life for the country. Isn't it shameful that such are our leaders?

Before I conclude, it is worth mentioning Azad's most popular quote-
“दुश्मनों की गोलियों को हम सामना करेंगे. आज़ाद रहे हैं, आज़ाद ही रहेंगे ” ( I shall not run away from the bullets of the enemies. Freedom was always mine, it shall always be.)

(Azad's photo after sacrificing himself at Allahabad )

References:1. "Chandrashekhar azad- An immortal revolutionary of india"

Superstition- A Superstition?

This post would not have been blogged down, had it not been for a post-dinner discussion, a few days back, somehow converging to philosophy. Group A thought that 'Samadhi', a state where a person can live without air, food, water was impossible and shunned it as a mere superstition, whereas, the other group thought that it might be possible. Much contrary to what Science teaches, our ancient scriptures, and the proponents of Yoga* claim that when a person reaches Samadhi, the last stage of Yoga, as mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the body gets into hibernation and the person can live without food, air, water for infinite time.

* Please note that by the word Yoga, is meant the systematic procedure developed in India for the communion of the soul with the divine. It is, by no means, restricted to Asanas and Pranayama, which form a very small part of Yoga.

If there is one point I would like to make in this post, it is this: it is foolishness, in my opinion, for any person to declare that a certain belief is a superstition just because that person doesn't conceive it. I have never been to the USA. My mere knowledge of the existence of such a country is by virtue of the geography classes I had in High school and the books I read subsequently. It may even be so that the teachers who taught us, have never been to this country themselves. Now, just because I am oblivious of the existence of such a place, what right do I possess to claim that it doesn't exist? If I am to claim so, am I not making a fool out of myself? If I were really contemplative to find out the truth, I would have taken the pain to travel to this land and then deduce for myself. Then alone would I have the right to argue in this matter. Similar is the case with Yoga. I have no right to raise my voice against it unless I follow the conditions laid in it, practice it sincerely and even then, do not obtain the promised results in part or full.

A few people claim that these things are absurd because they cannot be proved by modern science. When a person is hungry, he helps himself to the available food. Does he even bother if Science has proved that food satisfies hunger or not? Does he care to find out what reactions undergo in his body when he eats. He knows from his own experience that food satisfies hunger and that is all that really matters to him at that point of time. Similarly, Yogic practices are based on the experiences of people who strived their entire lifetime and found that it was true. We, common people, do not know if their experiences were true or whether all of them were illusioned to believe so. But still, we have no right, whatsoever, to say that it is mere fallacy. Can we declare that a certain thing does not exist because its presence has still not been proved. Wasn't there a time when Science believed that the planets and the Sun revolved around the Earth? When Galileo tried to prove it otherwise, not only was his idea widely condemned but he was detained for the rest of his life. But now, even a school-going child will laugh at that old idea. It is not right to say that the people of those times were foolish in believing that Earth was the planetary centre. But, in arguing that there could be nothing beyond their ideas, they were indeed foolish to the core. Thus, we conclude from history that even science goes wrong at times. Even those hundreds of theories which were widely accepted yesterday, as the ultimatum, are being dismissed as utterly wrong, today. I would like to bring to your notice that, of late, many yogic theories are being proved and accepted by modern science. [I shall make an attempt to pen down some of them in my future posts.] After all, is science the ultimatum? Can there be nothing beyond science? Aren't there numerous happenings in the world that defy science? There are times when a scientist dismisses a certain idea as false just because his set of laws, which he calls modern science, cannot prove it. Doesn't this also suggest that his set of laws are very limited and needs to be consolidated. Verification is also an acceptable proof for any theory. As in many accepted facts of Science, Yoga's sole proof is in its verification (as claimed by the exponents of yoga). But, as the yogis themselves opine, it is a herculean task to achieve the goals of Yoga. Our world has seen many saints, in India and beyond, who claim to have reached the goals of Yoga. There could be some truth in it, or, it may be another heap of nonsense. I don't mean to say that we need to accept it just because certain people said so. Let us follow it and find out for ourselves. But if we do not will to verify, and yet criticize it, then in what way are we different from the 'foolish frog of the well'? The same applies to all other practices which are mocked in the name of superstition. Perhaps, many of them really are. But it is not wise to reject everything as superstition.


Again let me make my point clear if my post has not, unfortunately, already done. I do not support accepting something merely because it was said so or certain people believe so. But at the same time I consider it foolishness to discard something as superstition just because it does not fit in our ideas. Let us try our best to dig out the truth from it and then accept it or reject it. But before we make a sincere attempt, we have no right to shun it. In my opinion, both are equally irrational- the ones that blindly accept something and their counterparts, the ones that blindly reject something as superstition without any justification. In that context, isn't Superstition itself a Superstition? To the people who mock our practices as superstition, our sages would say "Look, your world in itself is a superstition". This being said, I dedicate my upcoming posts to some practices considered superstition, which in reality are in very much agreement with modern science. Again, as already declared in my maiden post, if any thing fails to convince you, it is solely because of my poor convincing skills rather than due to the insignificance of the actual topic under consideration.

SewaKunj

Swami Vivekananda had exclaimed, "If the poor cannot come to education, education must go to them". The Sewakunj Ashram of the Akhila Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyana Ashram is in the endeavour of bringing this dictum to practice. I was highly fortuitous to celebrate republic day here, and, justice is not done if a post in this blog is not dedicated to Sewakunj.

Not very far from Varanasi is a district (in Uttar Pradesh), Sonebhadra, that is home to a large number of tribals. Notwithstanding its vicinity to this ancient city which is considered to be the seat of learning, the number of poor illiterates in this district has reached shocking figures, the literacy rate among the people being only around 40%*. Despite the vast industrial development in this region, the economic conditions of people have hardly improved. To most of the poor tribals, getting 2 square meals a day is the greatest comfort they can ever think of. For many parents, education of their children doesn't seem more worthy than the petty rupee notes that their children earn if they are sent out to do odd jobs. Thus, convincing the parents that education of their children was more important, was by itself a herculean task. Owing to the persistent efforts of a group of philanthropists the SewaKunj Ashram was setup in 1998, at a remote place- Chapki, situated nearly 200 kms from Varanasi. Ever since, Sewakunj has been catering to the educational needs of poor students of this area. The students are given not only quality education totally free of cost, but are also given free accommodation and food.

( A routine class)**

At sewakunj, the day dawns at 4 a.m. After offering their routine prayers, the students assemble in the classrooms for their lessons. The students, almost 65 in number, belong to classes 2-9. Sewakunj caters to classes upto 6, whereas the remaining students have to attend classes at a High school about 7 kms from Sewakunj. The children cook food for the ashram, in turns and also take care of the cleaning and other activities at the ashram. They are also engaged in music, dance, gardening and sports like football, archery etc. It is indeed an appreciable achievement that every year, 10-12 students from here get selected for Training in Archery by the National Sports Authority of India. Some students also succeed in obtaining seats for B. Ed and Engineering.

(The students cook food on rotation basis)**

(Republic Day Celebrations - 2011 )

Thus says the elderly Mr. Veerendra Narayan Shukla, one of the important member in the group, "We have taken the help of the government in the setting up of the ashram. However, our recurring expenses are managed solely using the generous funds collected from people". He adds, "people are ever ready to contribute, provided that the right use of their money is guaranteed". Indeed, of what better use can money be put to, than educating a poor child!

(Lunch being served)

Mr. Anand, who is the person responsible for the smooth running of the ashram seems to have a wonderful rapport with the students. Mr. Shantakumar, an enthusiastic social worker and Engineer at NTPC, opines that, "This is also a silent, positive war against Naxalism. People who joined naxalism with a sense of adventurism, now want to exit. They themselves cannot come out, so they desire that at least their children should have a better life. Such avenues give them a way for better life".

(The students enjoy doing odd jobs in the ashram)**

Here, nothing could be more appealing than the discipline of the kids. In contrast to modern education, where money is the driving force, in Sewakunj, it is Discipline and Moral upliftment that finds more importance. I am of the firm opinion that our education system shall fare better if its prime focus is shifted from money to intellect and discipline. I hope that in the years to come, Sewakunj shall brighten the lives of more deserving students and that it shall be a benchmark for other organizations working towards the same goal.

(Archery @ Sewakunj)

Readers are requested to also visit the blog of the Ashram.


* As per the data issued by the govt. of Uttar Pradesh based on 2001 census.
** Image Courtesy of Mr. Shantakumar.