Guru - The Teacher

In the traditional Gurukula way of teaching or modern way of teaching, the teacher has always held a respected and an important position in the students’ life.

To define knowledge in conservative way - To attain and gain knowledge the only means one can find is the “Guru” or teacher. Where a person possesses the wealth of knowledge and is generous enough to share that wealth with the society, the place becomes a Gurukula on its own. A person with penchant for knowledge has to reside at the feet of Guru and gain knowledge. He should have the courtesy to stretch his arms in front of the Guru for knowledge. One has to submit himself to the Guru for knowledge. Purandara Dasa (one of the leads in Dasa Sahitya) has said – “You have to be a slave of your Guru to attain salvation” (ಗುರುವಿನ ಗುಲಾಮನಾಗುವ ತನಕ ದೊರೆಯದಣ್ಣ ಮುಕುತಿ).

Shishunala Shareef Saheb, one of the Sufi Saints from Karnataka, says, “There are 2 kinds of Gurus in our life. The first Guru is materialistic and the other is spiritual Guru. The teaching you get from first is – if you subtract 3 by 9 the answer is 6 and according to the latter say it’s 0.”

The gist is very simple and interesting. Kama (fleshliness), Krodha (Anger), Mada (Pride), Matsara (Jealous), Moha (Fascination) and Lobha (Greed) which are called Ari-Shadwarga or 6 enemies of human. And these 3 are an outcome of 3 materialistic things – Woman, Money and Wealth. Out of these 9 if we beat the latter 3 the remaining 6 would disappear from our life on their own.

That said, the Spiritual Guru would help you build the divine spirits of Love, patience, forgiveness, dedication to work, being altruistic to lead a happy and peaceful life.

Next to Parents, it’s the Guru who has the most important and respectable place in everyone’s life. Once a child is born, it’s the duty of the parents to take care of that Kid till it grows up to youth. But, a major responsibility would lie on Guru’s shoulder to make that young bud into respectful, responsible citizen of the World.

गुरुब्रह्म गुरुर्विष्णो गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरा

गुरु साक्षात परब्रह्म तस्मैश्री गुरुवे नमः ॥

Guru is considered as representative of the Trimurtis, namely, Brahma (The Creator), Vishnu (The Caretaker) and Shiva (the Destructor) – creates Divine Thoughts in the minds of his students, takes care of his students and ensures that they take the right way of living life, and destructs the ignorance, bad habits and thoughts from Students mind and ensures that his student is a gift to his State, Country or to the World.

“आनो भद्राः कृतवोयन्तु विश्वतः”– which means we should let the superior thoughts to flow from all around the World. We should have broad and open mind to inherit the knowledge from any person, from any corner of this world at any point of time. Adi Shanakaracharya says – “It does not matter if the person who has knowledge is a Brahman or chandal. He becomes a guru only if he has the will to share it and you have the will to earn it.”

In the Vedic period, the Guru used to pray आनो ब्रह्मचरिभ्य स्वाहा॥ - where they pray to the God to send good students to him to share his knowledge. They would feel proud if the Shishya (Student) is able to challenge the Guru and beat him in the challenge (शिष्याद इच्छेत् पराजयं ॥)

If you have the eyes to see it, the entire world and the nature we live in themselves are the biggest Gurus. You learn almost or everything from the Mother Nature. The Mountains teach us stability; the Mother Earth – Patience; from the Sun, the Stars, the rivers, the Cow (गोमाता) and the trees, we learn benevolence; Sobriety from the Oceans; Ants teach us the art of Savings and unity; loyalty and satiety from the Dog – In this manner we learn the values of human life from animate and inanimate things around us. In this regard the world is a huge University with infinite amount of knowledge in it and the nature is an ideal of all Gurus. Next to nature the Books are the greatest Guru for anyone who admits it.

On the occasion of Teacher’s Day – I would like to dedicate this article to all the teachers of India who has shouldered the responsibility of building the future of a vibrant and glorious country. This is a tribute to your great work and my sincere thanks to you all.

Hindutwa - True Secularism

Secularism! What a fabulous word in Indian Democracy!! But, when you ask someone what it means, most of would answer Secularism is being neutral in terms of religion. But does that explain the basics of Secularism?

In my school days I had learnt in the books of History and Civics which said – Secularism is tolerance, and respect towards other religion and people following particular religion. Secularism is something which India has been following from the Vedic period. There has been a saying that India believes from ages – “Vasudeva Kutumbakam”, which means the world is a family.
The name “India” was inherited from the word “Sindhu” one of the sacred epic river. People from this part of the world were called “Hindus”. Gradually, the Greeks, the Mongolians, the Mughals and many of the foreign invaders entered India and set their base in India. They also bought religious leaders into the country, who introduced Islam to the Indian soil. Many weaker section of the country got converted to the Islam and followed the preaching of Mohammed Paigambar.

The era of East India Companies started with the entry of Portuguese, French, Dutch and the British. In the course of time the Companies tried to set a monopoly in the market. Then, they discovered the invaluable wealth that India has and fell in the greed to conquer it. Gradually, they started conquering the small states that prevailed in India and finally became the Kings of India. As always, Darwin’s Theory – “Survival of the Fittest” showed its existence again. The British became the undisputed Kings of the Great India (Other than small parts of India like Pondicherry which remained in the hands of French and Goa in the hands of Portuguese) – Thanks to our impotent rulers of that era. Gradually, the Christian Missionaries stated flowing into the country and started their preaching by Jesus.

The 2 paragraphs above show how we respected and entertained other religions which were not originated from India (though there are different schools of thought who still believe Christianity and Islam are one and the same, Christianity is another version of Buddhism – but none have got a solid proof yet). India adhered to the belief it had on “Vasudeva Kutumbakam”, currently known as Secularism. It is also called “Dharma Sahishnu” which means tolerance towards other Dharma or Religion.

But, what is Secularism today? Where it stands in India today? It has just become a game plan to create Vote Banks for most of the Political Parties to win the race of General Elections. A country which had driven the thought of “The World is a Family” is not able to make itself a family. People are fighting on the grounds of religion, caste, creed and what not.
What is the reason for this? The Christian Missionaries and the Masjids who are frequently trying to attack the ancient Hinduism, if not physically but playing mind games. Secularism says tolerance to other religion. But the Christian and Muslim leaders are not tolerating the existence of Hinduism and trying to convert people to their religion and they as well as the people who support them are called the Seculars. Any effort to stop this or protest this is called communalism. The organization like VHP, Bajarangadal and organizations which support these like RSS and BJP are called communalists. These organizations are just trying safeguard and correct mishaps that have happened in the past.

The day people understand this truth the Secularism finds its true meaning. Our nation can progress to the level it deserves. It’s time for every rational citizen to decide what is right and what is wrong. The Secularism should be the key to unity and not divide and rule. People who have read and understood the Indian History in the right sense will know the consequences of Divide and Rule policy of the rulers. Dear Indian, wake up and give the call of unity and support the person (physical or virtual) who aims for Unified India, Vibrant India, Glorious India!!!

Rann – A Review

“Rann” by Ram Gopal Verma is a fabulous work and shows the reality of the Media World. In the Indian Film world you hardly find any movie which has no songs (duet or romance), extravagant action, fights. But, in the movie “Rann”, you find how RGV has confined himself to the subject matter and has set Indian Movie industry a new standard. The upcoming star of Bollywood and renowned actor, director, script writer, producer of Kannada movie Industry, Sudip has shown his atmost talent against the Big B, Amithabh Bacchan who has played the role of Sudip’s father.

If I am to give the ratings on a scale of 5: Story – 4, Direction – 3.5, Music – 4.5, Camera Work – 3, adherence to the subject matter – 5.

I am sure this movie would not be a success in a country like India where you scarcely find people think about the truth behind the news they receive from the media which is controlled by the missionaries, and bureaucrats.

RGV has made a point in every other scene of this movie to show how business minded is today’s media. Just to win the TRP Race, how a News Channel tries to hide the truth and showcase the lie in a way that the dumb people believe it.

If you closely watch the movie and day to day news coming up in the News Channels, you will realize the truth that RGV wants to bring in front of that world. A dialogue in the movie represents today’s media. “Film Makers and Media are not too different. Film Makers make a movie with Songs and Fights and Emotions for 3 hours of entertainment. But, Media makes a 5 minute movie just to tell the truth or to make people believe that they are showcasing the truth”
Another scene in the movie which shows the mean mind of Media where Purab (Ritesh Deshmukh) a journalist in Amitab and Sudip’s TV Channel, goes an shoot an exclusive interview of Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal) who is the Proclaimed candidate for Prime Minister’s post. In the course of Interview, Purab insists Pandey to give one good course of action that no politician has made till date. Pandey says there are several problems in the Country to solve and Purab says give a solution to it. This upsets Pandey and he declines to continue with the interview.
Jai Mailk (Sudip) gets upset with the attitude shown by Purab and sends Rajpal Yadav to take the interview. The first question by Rajapal to Mohan Pandey is “what would you do once you become the PM?”. Pandey says, “Ganga Snan”. That’s it. The breaking news would be “Future PM Mohan Pandey has told that he would take the Ganga Snan once he becomes the PM”.

This is the true face of Media. Media runs on the strength of money, politics and hypocrisy. I just want to say “Kudos to Ram Gopal Verma for his effort in setting a standard to the Indian movie industry and an alarm to the Media industry to come out of the hypocrisy.

War in the Name of Love

“Love Jihad”!!! This is a new way to spread terrorism in India. Here there are no militants, guns or bombs. There is no loss to any life, property or social peace. However, this is a systematic racket to attack non-Islamic communities in India. This issue has been dealt seriously in Karnataka these days.

What is “Love Jihad”? How it works? Who is behind all this? To get an answer to all these we have to penetrating and reach the core of the shell of this worm. As the name itself says, “Love Jihad” is using Love as a weapon to attack non-Islamic philosophies.

Let’s now try to understand how it works. A selected youth of Muslim Community are provided sufficient funds to look smarter by wearing branded clothes, sophisticated accessories, motor bikes and what not? All these done just to attract girls and flirt around with them. The target age group of girls is around 16 to 20. At this age, the youth in India, influenced by the Bollywood, start searching for their soul mate. This is just craze and infatuation towards opposite gender. In India, we can hardly find any child getting a maturity before the age of 20. Hence this is the age group which is targeted by the Love Jihadis.

The young girls look at these boys who are well-dressed, riding a high end bike, acting smart like their favorite Bollywood Star and fall in the trap of “LOVE”. These boys spill so much of money to make sure that these girls believe him more than their parents. One fine day, these love birds run away from the family and convert the girl to Islam, get married in front of some “Great Personalities” and our “Loving” Media giving hype to this and supporting this. In Most of the cases the couples are still isolated and the family members are unable to track their daughters. If you watch closely, most of these boys come from families which are below poverty line and work in garages, cleaners in buses or trucks, in shoe shops. Those who do not have an economic stability or independence can spill out thousands of bucks to flirt around, imagine how big this racket is.

Recently in Karnataka an incident got a major publicity throughout the state. A boy who works in footwear shop named Irfan and a college student named Ashwini fell in “love” with each other. One fine day this couple ran away from home and got married in the presence of renowned journalists and media. In the meanwhile, girl’s parents filed Habeas Corpus against Irfan and he was forced to send her back to her parents. I agree that there was a “love” between them, but how mature was that love is the question that everybody has to look for. If you are expecting a boy who does not even have a secondary education certificate to gain a job in today’s world, other than a sales person in any of the shops.

Today, the media, one of the renowned journalists and a lawyer along with a huge mob of people from Muslim Community in front of the court pose to the camera and act as if they have won the Third World War. As I have mentioned in the above paragraph, a person who does not have a Secondary Education certificate with him, how he can gain a job in the market, how he can gain respect in the eyes of society, and how can he take care of his wife or future children. This concern bothers only the girl’s parents and not the media, journalist mentioned above or the society.

With reference to the law for Islamic Community, a Muslim can marry 4 women in his life time. What is the guarantee that Ashwini is the only women that Irfan is going to marry? What if he marries another 3 women and start ignoring the girl he has married now? Who is responsible for the injustice to that girl? Will the same people come and give justice to her? No, only her parents will come to help in those bad times.

Just forget what all happened till date. “Jo hua So Hua”. We proclaim ourselves as Secular country and talk of equality. If that is the truth, why there is a need for Ashwini (or any Hindu Girl) who marries a Muslim has to convert into a Muslim. Why can’t the boy convert to a Hindu? Or both of them remain in their own communities. This clearly depicts that this just another way to attack and misuse Indian sovereignty. This particular case came into picture because; the parents took a rigid action against this shameful act. Usually any parents would not go to police and complain about such things with a fear of losing the goodwill they have in the society.

Another renowned journalist fought for the parents of this girl and gained the respect of rational group of people. He received several calls which included threats and appreciations. One of the call he received (as he mentions his blog), same kind of the incident was above to happen in another part of Karnataka and the intelligence of the parents in this case, enlightened their daughter. Here goes the story of this girl.

The girl from a Jain family was going around with a Muslim boy and the girl’s family got to know about this. Soon they decided to arrange her marriage with a boy from their own community. On the day before her marriage the girl planned to runaway with her boyfriend, which her family had foreseen. They took her to the neighboring town and made her understand what she was doing was wrong and would spoil her future. When she was not ready accept it, the family members decided to act according to her wish on a condition. Accordingly, they asked her to call the boy and the conversation between them goes like this.

Girl: Hello… Do you really love me?
Boy: Yes dear, I love you a lot and can do anything for you.
Girl: My family has agreed for our relationship and has decided marry me to you. However, there is a condition that you have to agree to.
Boy: What is it?
Girl: Nothing big. You will have to be a Hindu to make this happen. Will you convert?
Boy: How can that happen? Wo kaise ho sakta hai?

Girl just drops the phone and agrees to her parents wish. She understood the motive of the boy early in the life and got a better life. If every girl in India gets enlightened by this incident then India has got a glorious future. Otherwise, as the census says, in India Hindu population would come down to 50 or 40 per cent from 65% (76% post independence). This is the right time to think and act.

Where Are We Heading?

It’s the times for the youth to wake up and stand against the unethical activities that are on in India. When I say youth, a major responsibility would fall on the shoulder of the girls. Today she is a daughter and tomorrow, she will be a mother of a child.

The future of a child is crafted in the hands of its mother and to craft a beautiful future the mother should have a solid knowledge about the country. I have come across the young ladies at my work place or society and most of them are just busy chit chatting, flirting and rarely reading (majority of them are readers of magazines or novels). If you ask them what is there in the paper, they would let you know lots of gossiping that are published in Mid Day, Bangalore Times etc. They would know where the Wills Life Style Fashion Show was. They would know which fashion designer had his ramp show arranged in which part of the country today. They would know which celebrity is dating with another this weekend.

But if you ask them when is the BBMP elections are scheduled, what is the issue with Ashwini – Irfan Love Story… they would not know. Ask them something from the books of history which was taught to them in their primary schools. And the boys are not an exception to it; however, most of them have knowledge on current affairs at least.
There was a road side show by one of the Private TV Channels and host asked in the public, what is the significance of Republic Day (Jan 26th)? And more than half of the mob did not know why we celebrate Republic Day and this mob was nothing but mob of Youth. Would you believe that?

Do you expect a bright future of India through such eyes? They may become big entrepreneurs, professionals and so on. But what is the use? Where would our culture stand in these hands? Where the glorious History of the Great India would go?
Young Boys and Girls... get on your own feet and start to collect knowledge!! Knowledge about India, Indian History (not the one written by British, but by a True Indian), Spread the word about India!! Let’s not shout “Jai Ho” for Slum Dog Millionaire, but say “Vande Matharam”!!!

Chakk deee… Oo… Chak De India!!!

Since Hockey World Cup is on its way to India, I thought this is the right time to write something about the Indian Hockey. In this article you will find some great achievements made by our own Indian Hockey from the day it has started playing the game.

Hockey is India’s national game and today people have forgot that it is our national game. Sometimes I get a feeling that Cricket is so popular in India and that should have been our national game. There are reasons for hockey’s non-popularity in India which I will discuss in the later part of this story. Now, let’s just look at the history of Indian Hockey against the history of Indian Cricket.

India made debut to Test Cricket in 1932 and won its first match in 1952 (almost 20 years). Prior to this victory it had lost 25 matches in a row. On the contrary, Indian Hockey team had to wait 32 years to LOSE a Olympic match prior to which it had won 30 matches in a row.

Both the games were introduced to India by the British. It took 20 years and 15 matches to beat England in a Cricket Test Match. But, England had to wait for 37 years and 22 matches to beat India in a Hockey Match.

1928 Indian Hockey team is the first team to win a Gold Medal in Olympics for Asia. The records set by the Indian Hockey team in Olympics are still unbeaten. 8-1 win against Germany in 1936 Olympics Finals, 32-0 win against America in 1932 Olympics League Match are 2 records of those. Starting from 1928 to 1960 India has won 30 games in a row. It took 28 years to see a match where India scored just one goal. Prior to that there was no match which goals less than 2. After 48 years, in 1968 New Zealand beat India by 2-1 which is the first match ever where India allowed the opponent to score second goal. In a group of 100 Hockey Playing nations, India stood at #1 for 40 years unbeaten, which is why it was adopted as our national game.

Such was the Indian Hockey team and today we nowhere in the medal list. Forget the medal; a day has come where we would be glad if we get qualified for Olympics. What is the reason for this? Is it the inefficiency of the players? Problem with the Coach? What is it that has brought Indian Hockey to Hell Down Under?

Just thank our own Hockey Federation for all the courtesy that it has been showing on our players. First thing is first, the salary of an International Hockey Player is less than a Domestic Cricket Player. If a player falls unfit, the Federation asks him to take the medical facility and reimburse the bill which has never happened in the history of Hockey. The fastest player of India Rajiv Mishra (Germany’s coach placed 3 extra cameras to capture his moves, since it was impossible with one camera!!), who got a knee injury just before the 1998 World Cup was asked to undergo a surgery which was “Successful” and he was fit enough to walk. Railways gave him the job of Ticket Collector and till date the Hockey Federation has not reimbursed the medical expenses. As an answer, Mr. KPS Gill says it is the responsibility of player to take care of his health.

Now when the players have protested against the Federation to give them the arrears, with a threat not to not play the practice matches for the World Cup. And Mr. Suresh Kalmadi replies “Is it money or Country important to you?”. If this is the case, then imagine the situation and importance of Hockey in India. Hope you might have got an idea why Cricket is popular in India.

Why am I blogging here?

It’s been a long time that I stopped writing. After 3 ½ years I have got that zeal to share my thoughts and the knowledge I have gained from my readings. I thought this would be the best place to share my thoughts with you all and get your views about it.