Yuva Bharati - August 2009
Heaven of Fre
edom
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Cover Story
urce Evil at the So of Partition
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V.Senthil Kumar
Eco Dharma
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INVOCATION
Agjann pÒak¡ gjann< AhinR;<, AnekdNt< É´ana< @kdNt< %paSmhe.
agajänana padmärkaà gajänanam aharniñaà | anekadantaà bhaktänäm ekadantam upäsmahe || I worship day and night that elephant faced Lord Ganeña who is like sun to the lotus face of Mother Pärvati. Giver of boons to the bhaktäs, the single tusked Ganeña, I salute Thee.
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Editorial
Racism : Disease and Its Cure
acism torments the world today. But it is an old scourge. It desensitized western humanity to the umpteen genocides it performed on the native populations of Australia, Africa and Americas. It justified a profitable trade that the West indulged for three centuries. That trade was that of human cargo, which was de-rooted from the native soil and chained in the dark intestines of the huge ships. Therefore Racism, was not all pure hatred. It was economic profit mixed with a belief in the innate inferiority of a fellow human being. The Biblical myth of Ham and Noah's curse on him justified slavery and racism. Race theories were fashioned by scholars of the West who studied other civilizations. The myth of white-man's burden became a real burden for the rest of the world as proved by history. Western colonialism did not stop with that. It spread the racial narratives to the colonized populations. Worse than the physical pathogens they spread, the racial contagions of thought spread by the western academics affected generations of lives in the colonies. The Rwandan genocide, Sri Lankan ethnic violence and now the Australian attacks on Indians – are all the results of this age old curse on humanity. The racial theories about the origin of Indian society have been denounced by great Indian savants. Swami Vivekananda stated that there was not a single passage in the Vedas that warranted an interpretation that the composers of Vedic hymns came from outside. Dr. Ambedkar declared that Aryan invasion theory was a philological myth and Sri Aurobindo warned the West that the pseudo-scientific racial theories that they formulate would do immense harm to humanity. Recent genetic studies have concluded that the Aryan invasion was unattested in genes. Further the study revealed common ancestry for some of the ancient tribes and Brahmins. That should sound the death knell of Aryan race theory. However, there seems to be a vested interest in the academia, which is more politically motivated than scientifically enthused, to keep the Aryan invasion theory alive. Western scholars seem to have an overwhelming interest in this pseudo-scientific racial theory. For example, a few years ago a famous Sanskrit professor in the west was caught red handed by some pro-Indian Indologists when he was trying to manufacture literary evidence in Vedic texts for so-called Aryan migration into India. In 2001, a genetic study with limited number of samples declared with media
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fanfare that Aryan invasion had been proved in the genes only to be proved later repeatedly and with larger samples that no such invasion happened. No wonder the European who is occupying Australia and who has diminished the natives of Australia to the level of curios for tourists also hates Indians. No wonder in Sri Lanka Tamils and Singhalese face an ethnic abyss separating them – which in the final analysis is more the result of western colonial construction than the result of history. While the developed countries have been bridging the ethnic gaps within their own society they are encouraging the ethnic conflicts arising in other developing countries. They also attack the immigrants and students from these countries. However what they do not understand is that when the racial chickens come home to roost they could have darkly transformed themselves into untamable beasts seeking human blood–like the Aryan race theory which they planted in India returned a few decades later to Europe in the form of Hitler and his Nazi party. Once again, the clarity of Indian savants has some lessons for those who peddle racial theories, as well as those who indulge in cowardly racial attacks and their Indian apologists. For example, as early as 1924 even as the finest of Western thinkers were reluctant to relinquish their racial categories, Veer Savarkar wrote in his treatise Hindutva thus: After all there is throughout this world so far as man is concerned but a single race - the human race, kept alive by one common blood, the human blood. All other talk is at best provisional, a makeshift and only relatively true. (...) Truly speaking all that one can claim is that one has the blood of all mankind in one's veins. The fundamental unity of man from pole to pole is true, all else only relatively so. The words of Savarkar truly are the reflection of the wisdom that is inherent in the civilization of India. So, If the world is not to repeat the same mistake that the West did in the yester-centuries it should better abide by the wisdom of Mother India which finds expression in the Earth hymn of Atharva Veda: May Earth with people who speak various tongues, and those who have various religious rites according to their places of abode, pour for me treasure in a thousand streams like a constant cow that never fails.
S Aravind
YB-ET
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THE HEAVEN OF FREEDOM
N.Krishnamoorthi
Sowmya: Guruji! Why did Gurudev Tagore call India to rise into the “Heaven of Freedom”? Guruji: India's leaders did not think of our Freedom movement as a political fight or as a class war (Varga Sangram). They visioned it as
thought of it as the awakening of our National consciousness. Bankim Chandra compared it to the opening of grand temple of India. Tomarayi pratima gadi Mandire – Mandire – Mataram. Mahatma Gandhi defined freedom as providing every person the opportunity so that he/she can stand to his/her fullest height. Sowmya: How did our young men take it? Guruji: Madanlal Dhingra did not want our Holy country of Sri Rama to be ruled by alien, uncultured people. Tiroth Singh from Assam, inspired by the ideal of Shri Rama, fought for our freedom. The freedom movement was a Spiritual vision in Action! Sowmya: If it is truly a spiritual movement, the masses would have participated in it whole – heartedly, spontaneously. Guruji: Yes! When Gandhiji told the people that Ram Rajya will come, all our peasants and artisans felt it is their moment of involvement! Earlier, 'Garhi Lohars' of Udaipur – Chittorgarh area of Rajasthan, were inspired by the great example of Rana Pratap. These poor artisans took a vow that until the aliens were driven out of our sacred soil, they would not stay in houses, eat in plates or draw water from wells. Sowmya: What an inspiration! Guruji: Dramas were performed and songs were composed to arouse people. In Bengal,
Gandhiji’s Ram Rajya had a role for everybody to play.
a struggle for emancipation of all people everywhere all over the world. Economic selfsufficiency, Spiritual Release, National Freedom, political independence, enthronement of Indian values in the world, all these factors formed a part of India's freedom movement. Sowmya: I would like to hear what exactly they said on the Freedom struggle! Guruji: Swami Vivekananda likened it to a sleeping giant waking up. Shri Aurobindo
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Man Mohan wrote a drama Harichandra for this purpose. Jyoti Tagore's Asrumati was a drama on Rajasthan's history, written in Bengali. Bhartendu Harischandra wrote plays in Hindi. Puranic dramas such as Draupadi, Swayamvara, Kichaka Vadh, Prahlad came in handy – for drama writers to compare Mother Bharat to those ideal characters! Sowmya: Obviously, these leaders and the masses might have required some sacred texts! Guruji: The Upanishads, the Gita and the Ramayana were the constant companions of our leaders such as Lokamanya Tilak, Shri Aurobindo, Gandhiji and Vinobaji. A large number of commentaries were written on the Gita. Patriotic work was Karma yoga-yajna. Selflessness was the ultimate mantra. Sowmya: What about constructive work? Guruji: Swami Vivekananda declared that only constructive work would preserve the freedom of our Nation. Gandhiji said that he would send the best workers to take up constructive work, the next level worker for social reform and political freedom would take up the rearguard action. Sowmya: Naturally, the British would not have liked all these positive aspects as well as street fighting? Guruji: The English considered India as the crown jewel of the British empire. The whole Western Europe thought that If India went out of European hands, all Asia and Africa would go! The entire colonial structure would collapse! Sowmya: That is what happened at last! Guruji: Eighty countries from Asia and Africa won their freedom inspired by the example of
Mother Bharat. World geography, politics and the world-order changed following India's freedom. Human beings everywhere had the taste of freedom. Self-responsibility, selfreliance and a chance to make their own destiny, came to mankind. Sowmya: What were our saints doing at that time? Guruji: I shall conclude with an interesting episode. The conversation is recorded and the questioners are believed to be Jamnalal Bajaj, Rajendra Prasad and Morarji Desai! Ramana Maharshi answered their questions. Devotee: Why does not the Maharshi harness his great energy with that of Mahatma Gandhi to strike off the fetters of slavery of Mother India? Bhagavan (Ramana): You want to know about how the sages work and about other such problems of men. I tell you till you know what you really are, you cannot in the least understand any of these. Understand yourself first then everything will be clear to you. After sometime he added: There is a saying of Swami Vivekananda that a rishi's thought conceived in a cave has its effect on the whole world. It is literally true. Sowmya: That means that many saints were adding the strength of their Tapasya to efforts of the field-workers. Our freedom movement is truly a spiritual movement. Guruji: Yes!
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Cover Story
THE BEST ANTIDOTE TO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Pramod Kumar
rights: Anurag Gangwar, who graduated from the University of South Australia in 2006 writes, “Always remember: You are the one who came to 'Their' land. Try to mix up with them and understand their culture. 'They' will not come looking for you to start friendship… Never discuss cricket with your colleagues. Aussies can never accept that their team is not doing well and will release their anger in some form or the other. If they discuss cricket with you show your neutral only attitude. So next if you find out that Australian cricket team loses to Indian cricket team (which won't be a surprise anymore!) then keep your excitement to yourself. Never criticize their team for not playing well, mind you!” “Most Indian international students don't know basic manners. They shout loudly in public in Hindi or some other language. They pick their nose in public. They play Bollywood songs loudly on their phone speakers while on trains thinking everyone else wants to hear it too etc. They don't realise such behaviour is considered very bad manners here” – Karthik, Melbourne “When one comes to a foreign land as students, one should leave the Indian way of life behind and be ready to adopt the lifestyle of the country one goes to. If you have come to Australia, adjust to the
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urturing India's Soft Power is the Best Antidote to Racial Discrimination. NRIs have not paid sufficient importance to developing an assertive identity, nor have they used India's growing soft power to their advantage t is appalling to see the withdrawal symptoms of many Indians in Australia, in the wake of the continuing racial attacks. The solutions being offered by many students on community helplines 'to avoid racial attacks' makes you feel that they have fallen prey to the Stockholm Syndrome of sympathising with the bully. Here is a list of such defeatist dos & don'ts submitted by Indian students to avoid racial attacks. All of them smack of the same slavish attitude towards the attackers and betray gross ignorance of their own fundamental human
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Australian way of life instead of hoping that Australians will adjust to your Indian lifestyle. Also the basic minimum is to know how to speak English properly” - Yatin Sony, Melbourne Is there any wonder then that Indian students who nurture such a defeatist mindset are the prime targets for racial attacks? Instead of standing up to the bullies in unison, the whole community seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate the white th supremacists. It is only in the late 18 century that European settlements commenced on Australian mainland. There is no reason why
continue to harbour colonial residues which prevent them from asserting their identity clearly. We react only when the situation takes an alarming turn and our anguish cools off as the symptoms fade, without ever finding a lasting solution to the problem. This is what happened with the Kashmiri Pandits too. They reacted en masse when the Amarnath Yatra controversy erupted but their emotions fizzled out soon and they went back to vote for the party which is primarily responsible for their plight today. Hindus all over the world react in a similar pattern. It is true that the global economic recession has added fuel to the fire with the whites feeling more insecure in competition with the Indian graduates. And this is only likely to aggravate in the coming months. Also, in the post 9/11 scenario of global religious conflict, the whites do not perceive much difference between the Islamists and the Indians. This is yet another failure of Hindu emigrants, who have always shied away from asserting their religious identity as Hindus in foreign countries.
the European whites should consider themselves more native to Australia than the Indian immigrants today. How many Australian or other international students who come to India, for example, think of changing their dress code or not speaking in English or not discussing cricket during their stay here, in order not to offend the natives? Why is it that we do not hear frequently of such racial attacks against the Chinese or Middle Eastern students studying in America or Australia? NRIs in general and Hindus in particular
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To end racial discrimination against Indian students, whether in Australia or in America, what we need is a consistent and clear headed attempt to define and build the Indian identity instead of trying to erase it or compromise it as we have done all these decades by encouraging that ignominious 'South Asian' tag, which the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have used to their advantage. Here are some immediate action points which could help us crush the hydra of racism which is spreading its tentacles in countries where there is a significant Indian presence:
The role of the Indian government in safeguarding the interests of the Indian Diaspora cannot be overemphasized. Does our government have the skill or the will to achieve this? Why can't the government of India seek an independent inquiry into the racial attacks in Australia, under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)? The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is primarily responsible for looking into violation of human rights against individuals and communities, particularly against cases of racial discrimination. The website of the UNHCHR does not even make a mention of the attacks on the Indian students in Australia! Such apathy can only be blamed on the Indian government, which is busy enjoying the spoils of power won after the recent Lok Sabha elections. The new external affairs minister is busy mouthing his concerns to TV channels to build his image, instead of issuing a stern demarche to the Australian ambassador demanding clear action to end the racist attacks. The Indian Diaspora must build an NGO to safeguard its human rights, provide legal assistance to victims of racial discrimination and lobby with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and is bound by international human rights law to take steps to end racial discrimination against Indian students. Document each and every case of racial discrimination against Indians, not just physical attacks which we are witnessing today. For example, do Indians have freedom to practice their religion and faith? Do they have equal opportunities in education and
employment? Are they allowed to participate freely in the social and cultural life of the people? Such documentation of violations can go a long way in building a strong case against racial discrimination against Indians. Individual cases can be filed with UNHCHR which can help in building international opinion against the offending countries. Make every effort to exploit India's soft power to create a positive image for the Diaspora. India's soft power grows out of our cultural influence, which is the most powerful weapon we have in comparison to any other country. The world community must perceive the Indian community's unique cultural traits – tolerance, social capital and devotion to education and hard work, which are the traits an ideal minority in a multicultural society is expected to nurture. The Indian embassies in foreign countries have a duty to educate every Indian immigrant about his /her rights, as well as the laws and cultural finesse of the country to which they migrate, through a systematic and compulsory orientation programme. This will facilitate a smoother integration of the Indian immigrants into the native culture and prevent them from becoming awkward misfits. Finally, stand up to the bully; behave as a selfrespecting Indian should, as a representative and a cultural ambassador of a country that is known for its history of racial tolerance. Compromise only when your freedom is infringing upon the rightful freedom of others and not merely to placate the racists. (The author is an Assistant Professor in Cultural Education at Amrita University in Coimbatore and a student of human rights education. He blogs at: http://vigilanceternal.wordpress.com/)
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Fear of Racially Motivated Crime
The British Crime Survey (2000) http://www.homeoffice.go v.uk/rds/bcs1.html revealed that the following were fairly or very worried about racially motivated assaults: ? 60% of Asian respondents ? 51% of black respondents; and ? 12% of white respondents women were particularly concerned.
About 4 in 10 Asian women and a third of Black women were 'very' very worried about racial attacks.
Nationalism refuses to accept law as a fetish or peace and security as an aim in themselves; the only idol of worship is Nationality and the only aim it in itself recognizes is the freedom, power, and well-being of the Nation. It will not prefer violent or strenuous methods simply because they are violent or strenuous, but neither will it cling to mild and peaceful methods simply because they are mild and peaceful. It asks of a method whether it is effective for its purpose, whether it is worthy of a great people struggling to be, whether it is educative of national strength and activity; and these things ascertained, it asks nothing farther.
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abundantly and incessantly, lavishly… republics and kingdoms and empires, philosophies and cosmogonies and sciences and creeds and arts and poems and all kinds of monuments and public works, c o m m u n i t i e s and societies and religious orders, laws and codes and rituals, physical sciences, psychic sciences, systems of yoga, politics and administration, arts spiritual, arts worldly, trades, industries, fine crafts — the list is endless and in each item there is almost a plethora of activity". The saints and sages of ancient India injected power and potency in the Indian mind. In turn, this power and potency added to the capacity of the sages and saints to think deeply on the phenomena around. One of the fundamental truths discovered by them was that the universe is an organic web in which every life is inextricably enmeshed with the other and that this web is permeated with cosmic force of which, man and nature were constituents as well as contributors. A philosophic structure, in the form of Vedanta, w a s r a i s e d a n d a w a y o f attaining elevation of mind and moving towards truth, while carrying on with day to day work, was indicated through a comprehensive system of yoga. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the power of the Indian mind, which had produced
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very nation has its own special attributes: Germany has its organisational abilities, the United States has enterprise, Japan has adaptability and the United Kingdom has balance. The hallmark of India, in her hey-days, was the power and profundity of her mind and the purity and punctiliousness of her soul. It was this power and purity which made Indian civilisation one of the most creative and constructive one in the world. In his own inimitable style, Sri Aurobindo had noted: "For 3,000 years she has been creating
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profound systems and structures, began to wane after the 7th century. Soon there was a near total desertification of the Indian mind, with small meadows of green appearing here and there occasionally. The "mighty evil" that had invaded the Indian mind and soul was, to a large extent, beaten back by a galaxy of profound thinkers and reformers who brought about a new awakening that led to the great renaissance of the later 19th century and early 20th century. Out of the stalwarts of renaissance, Sri Aurobindo emerged as the strongest champion of the Indian spirit and expressed the highest confidence in its underlying strength. In no uncertain terms, he declared: "India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, b ec aus e a mo ng al l th e divis ion s o f mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul". In Sri Aurobindo's thought, the Sanatan Dharma and India always appear as two sides of the same coin. But in his famous Uttarapara speech, delivered on May 30, 1909, he placed the former at a higher pedestal: "When, therefore, it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself over the world". Sri Aurobindo makes it clear that Sanatan Dharma is designed to uplift the
entire human race and not merely the Hindus: "What is this religion which we call Sanatan, eternal. It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it... But it is not c i rc u m s c r i b e d b y t h e c o n f i n e s o f a single country. That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion because it is the universal religion which embraces all others". It needs to be underlined that in the postUttarpara-speech period, Sri Aurobindo committed himself mainly to the liberation of human consciousness. He made it clear: "Spirituality is India's only politics, the fulfillment of Sanatan Dharma its only swaraj". A regenerated India alone, he said, could free the world from its "enslavement to materialism" and for pointing it to the "way towards a dynamic integration of spirit and matter and to make life perfect with divine perfection". He believed that a greater evolution was the real goal of humanity. After Sri Aurobindo's thought had undergone a subtle shift at Uttarpara on May 30, 1909, his vision was to liberate India's consciousness and bring back Sanatan Dharma as India's "national religion" — a religion which is all embracing, non-sectarian and eternal. His vision was to build a nation of karmayogis who would have a higher consciousness, be rid of egos, desires and attachments, have no joy over their successes and no grief over their failures, achieve inner rather than outer renunciation, perform passionless and impersonal actions and take themselves to such a height where no distinction is kept between their will and the will of the divine. But what is position today? Has not a deep and
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dark shadow fallen between Sri Aurobindo's vision and the reality in India today? Do we find karmayogis around or see signs of liberation of India's spirit? Has there been any advance towards spirituality or higher level of human consciousness? Clearly, the answer to all such questions is in the negative. On the centenary day — May 30, 2009 — of Uttarpara speech, let all students and teachers of Sri Aurobindo's school of thought resolve that
they would not lose heart on account of current dismal scenario and would work with a renewed sense of mission to ensure that the vision of the great prophet of the 20th century is fulfilled. Undoubtedly, the task is Herculean, the goal is distant and would take a long time to traverse. But let us not forget that even the longest journey begins with the first step. [Jagmohan is a former governor of J&K and a former Union minister]
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Lest We Forget
DIRECT ACTION DAY
Learn from History or Perish
…We are in the midst of the rainy season and the month of Ramazan fasting. But this is a month of real Jehad of God's grace and blessings, spiritual armament, and the moral and physical purge of the nation. It is a supreme occasion of our trial. Let Muslims brave the rains and all difficulties and make the Direct Action Day meeting a historic mass mobilization of the Millat.
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Shivsankar S
India, August 13, 1946. 16 August, 1946. Exactly a year before the Independence Day of India. While 15th August of every year is easily remembered and along with a couple of other days, reminds all of us th Indians to be patriotic, the next day – 16 – does not appear to be that significantly observed. What is so special about this day? Why should it be remembered? Is an occasion of mass rioting and gore something that important or memorable to be observed every year? A shallow observation of the riots and the events that led to it, would just imply that this was a self-righteous reaction by muslims under the Muslim league, to what they claim was the Viceroy's betrayal and the Congress' oneupmanship. But the result of such a reaction was the death of 5000 and more people, most of them Hindu. And importantly, the terrorizing of the Congress leadership into capitulation. This particular event played a significant role in the forcing the abject surrender of the Congress leadership to the Muslim league's demands of an artificially torn motherland. “My own experience confirms that the Mussalman as a rule is a bully…” Mahatma Gandhi in an article in Young India, May 29, 1924. Direct Action day is not an isolated incident. It
Muslims must remember that it was in Ramazan that the Quran was revealed. It was in Ramazan that the permission for Jehad was granted by Allah. It was in Ramazan that the Battle of Badr the first open conflict between Islam and Heathenism was fought and won by 313 Muslims and again it was in Ramazan that 10,000 Muslims under the Holy Prophet conquered Mecca and established the kingdom of Heaven and the commonwealth of Islam in Arabia. The Muslim League is fortunate that it is starting its actions in this holy month. - Excerpt from “Programme for Direct Action Day” by Muslim League published in the Star of
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is one in the series of atrocities committed in the name of Mohammedanism. It was aimed at the weak Congress leadership, which then chose this as an excuse to hurry the transfer of power from Britain. Overall, the leadership lacked a historical perspective or the patience to observe and deduce the consistent streak of a residual Islamic imperialism, in the events that led to and resulted from the Direct Action day. Muhammed Ali Jinnah has successfully upstaged Allama Iqbal, Choudhary Rahmat Ali and others who previously had proposed the idea to create a state of Pakistan. The Muslim league adopted the idea in its Lahore Resolution,
elected a Muslim league government. Hussain Suhrawady, chief minister of Bengal, with a popular following among the poor Muslims of Calcutta, had a role in the Great Calcutta Killings. However, the Hindus soon came together and started retaliating to Islamic mob violence. The riot later spread to United Provinces and Bihar. The massacre was reenacted on a larger and more brutal scale later, during the partition of India in Bengal and Punjab in which nearly one million people were killed, and 15 million people displaced and turned into refugees. The effect of these riots amongst the Congress leadership was mindless panic. Even before this particular event, Congress had been switching between accepting and rejecting the demands of the Muslim league. However, the riots following Direct Action day forced the Congress leadership to submit to the Muslim league's demand for a separate Muslim state. Such a fatalist and myopic yielding by the Congress leadership resulted in the partition. Had they only taken time to do a prudent and balanced survey of the situation, a lot of bloodshed, jeopardy of the nation's security and menace to a peaceful world, could have been avoided – from then to now… References: 1. The Calcutta Riots of 1946. Claude Markovits, November 2007. Enclycopedia of Mass Violence. 2. Indian Independence: Partition Source 4. British Library – Help For Researchers. 3. India: A history. John Keay, 2000. Grove Press. 4. Great Divide; Britain, India, Pakistan. H V Hodson, 1997. Oxford University Press.
1940 and in 1941 incorporated it into its constitution. However, this was not part of the th Cabinet Mission's proposal called the May 16 plan. The Muslim league rejected it and called th for Direct Action on 16 August, 1946. The league immediately formed a working committee on July 29, 1946. They then issued a proclamation to muslims all over India, to observe Direct Action day. Though this was supposed to be a peaceful day of meetings and processions, slaughter and rapine started right in the morning. The maximum bloodshed occurred in Bengal, since that was the only province which had
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Thus Spake
India is free, but she has not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom...The whole communal division into Hindu and Muslim seems to have hardened into the figure of a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that the Congress and the Nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled, 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. The partition of the country must go...For without it the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and frustrated. That must not be.
Our call is to young India. It is the young who must be the builders of the new world – not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India's future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present, but to the future. They will need to consecrate their lives to an exceeding of their lower self, to the realisation of God in themselves and in all human beings and to a whole-minded and indefatigable labour for the nation and for humanity.
There are times in a nation's history when Providence places before it one work, one aim, to which everything else, however high and noble in itself, has to be sacrificed. Such a time has now arrived for our Motherland when nothing is dearer than her service, when everything else is to be directed to that end. If you will study, study for her sake; train yourselves body and mind and soul for her sake. You will go abroad to foreign lands that you may bring back knowledge with which you may do service to her. Work that she may prosper. Suffer that she may rejoice. All is contained in that one single advice.
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We say to the individual and especially to the young who are now arising to do India's work, world's work, God's work: “You cannot cherish these ideals, still less can you fulfil them if you subject your minds to European ideas or look at life from the material standpoint. Materially you are nothing, spiritually you are everything. It is only the Indian who can believe everything, dare everything, sacrifice everything. First, therefore, become Indians. Recover the patrimony of your forefathers. Recover the Aryan thought, the Aryan discipline, the Aryan character, the Aryan life. Recover the Vedanta, the Gita, the Yoga. Recover them not only in intellect or sentiment but in your lives. Live them and you will be great and strong, mighty, invincible and fearless. Neither life nor death will have any terrors for you. Difficulty and impossibility will vanish from your vocabularies. For it is in the spirit that strength is eternal and you must win back the kingdom of yourselves, the inner Swaraj, before you can win back your outer empire. There the Mother dwells and She waits for worship that She may give strength. Believe in Her, serve Her, lose your wills in Hers, your egoism in the greater ego of the country, your separate selfishness in the service of humanity. Recover the source of all strength in yourselves and all else will be added to you-social soundness, intellectual pre-eminence, political freedom, the mastery of human thought, the hegemony of the world” What did Sri Aurobindo mean by “Aryan” Sri Aurobindo never used the word Aryan as a racial term as the west has made it out to be. He explains “Whoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of the divine, fearing nothing, deterred by no retardation or defeat, shrinking from no vastness because it is too vast for his intelligence, no height because it is too high for his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his force and courage, he is the Aryan, the divine fighter and victor, the noble man.”
The Nationalist does not love anarchy and suffering for their own sake, but if anarchy and suffering are the necessary passage to the great consummation he seeks, he is ready to bear them himself, to expose others to them till the end is reached. They will embrace suffering of their children, and embrace suffering as a lover and clasp the hand of anarchy like that of a trusted friend. It is not the temper of the Nationalist to take the inevitable grudgingly or to serve or struggle with a half-heart. If he embraces anarchy, it is as the way to good government. If he does not shrink from disorder and violent struggle it is because without that disorder there can be no security and without that struggle no peace, except the security of decay and the peace of death. If he has sometimes to disregard the law of man, it is to obey the dictates of his conscience and the law of God.
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Nationalism is or ought to be not merely a political creed but a religious aspiration and a moral attitude. Its business is to build up Indian character by educating it to heroic selfsacrifice and magnificent ambitions, to restore the tone of nobility which it has lost and bring back the ideals of the ancient Aryan gentleman. The qualities of courage, frankness, love and justice are the stuff of which a Nationalist should be made.... Nationalism is a creed which you shall have to live. Let no man dare to call himself a Nationalist if he does so merely with a sort of intellectual pride, thinking that he is more patriotic, thinking that he is something higher than those who did not call themselves by that name. If you are going to be a Nationalist, if you are going to assent to this religion of Nationalism, you must do it in the religious spirit.
The Mother asks us for no schemes, no plans, no methods. She herself will provide the schemes, the plans, the methods better than any we can devise. She asks us for our hearts, our lives, nothing less, nothing more.... She will look to see not how much we have tried for Swadeshi, how wisely we have planned for Swaraj, how successfully we have organized education, but how much of ourselves we have given-how much of our substance, how much of our labour, how much of our ease, how much of our safety, how much of our lives.
An immense and incalculable revolution is at hand and its instruments must be themselves immense in their aspiration, uncalculating in their self-immolation. A sacrifice of which the mightiest yajna of old can only be a far-off shadow has to be instituted and the victims of that sacrifice are ourselves, our lives, our property, our hopes, our ambitions, all that is personal and not of God, all that is devoted to our own service and taken from the service of the country. The greatest must fall as victims before the God of the sacrifice is satisfied. Whoever is afraid for himself, afraid for his property, afraid for his kith and kin, afraid for his vanity, self-interest, glory, ease or liberty, had better stand aside from the sacrifice, for at anytime the call may come to him to lay down all these upon the altar.
It would be a tragic irony of fate if India were to throw away her spiritual heritage at the very moment when in the rest of the world there is more and more a turning towards her for spiritual help and a saving Light. This must not and will surely not happen; but it cannot be said that the danger is not there. There are indeed other numerous and difficult problems that face this country or will very soon face it. No doubt we will win through, but we must not disguise from ourselves the fact that after these long years of subjection and its cramping and impairing effects a great inner as well as outer liberation and change, a vast inner and outer progress is needed if we are to fulfil India's true destiny.
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THE EVIL AT THE SOURCE OF PARTITION
S. Aravind
he last century that just passed by saw two monumental human tragedies. One was the Nazi holocaust of Jews and the other was the partition of India. Both had the fingerprints of men who were evil geniuses: Hitler and Jinnah. But what is not well known is that the evil that killed six million Jews in the furnaces of the Third Reich and the evil that uprooted millions of people from their homelands at the stroke of the midnight bell shared a deep connectedness. It was the hatred for the other in humanity. The “other” happens
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independent. On February 1, 2002 Daniel Pearl was beheaded in Pakistan. Then a liberal leftwing French philosopher journalist set on a journey to Pakistan. While researching for his book 'Who killed Daniel Pearl?' Bernard-Henri Levy was 'stunned by the virulent anti-Semitism which Pakistanis make no effort to conceal' ('Riveting Tale', The Week, July 10, 2005). Should he be? He wouldn't have been, had he known some of the little known dimensions of the forefathers of Pakistan and their not well-known anti-Semitic links – though it should be said to their credit that they never made any efforts to hide them. Akhtar Hameed Khan is a celebrated social thinker of erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who had won international acclaim for the work he did for the success of Comila Development Programme in the former East Pakistan as well as Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi. In a book of collected articles titled 'Mushahidat-o-Ta'asurat' published by City Press, Karachi in 2002, Khan reveals that Mohammad Iqbal as well as Allama Mashraqi were both influenced by ideas of 'Superman' attributed to Nietzsche, which in the same deviant form, was also admired by Hitler. In fact, according to Khan, Allama was an admirer of Hitler too. Far from such fancy ideological fascinations another powerful and also a
Forced migration due to partition
to be us. Hence we need to understand the bizarre relations between partition and holocaust. After all while Hitler saw the rest of the escaped Jews as unfinished business, Jinnah saw Pakistan he got as “moth eaten” and his dream of Pakistan still sends teenage murderers on suicide missions to India. On August 14, 1947 Pakistan became
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Husseini with Hitler
practical connection, existed between antiSemitism and Pakistan-partition movement. This was through the Palestine issue. Mohammad Iqbal was the intellectual founder of Pakistani movement, guiding it through each crucial movement in those turbulent periods spanning the late 1930s to 1947. In a letter marked 'Private and Confidential' dated 7th October, 1937 Iqbal exhorted Jinnah thus: “The Palestine question is very much agitating the minds of the Muslims. We have a very fine opportunity for mass contact for the purposes of the League. I have no doubt that the League will pass a strong resolution on this question and also by holding a private conference of the leaders, decide on some sort of a positive action in which masses may share in large numbers.” This kind of mass movement was built with infuriating speeches wherein parallels were drawn between Hindus and Jews in undivided India and Palestine respectively. Such a parallel was drawn by none other than Iqbal himself in his letters to Jinnah (for example in his letter
dated 28 May, 1937). Ultimately this 'positive mass action' resulted in creating successful 'civil war' scenarios as during the Direct-action day pogroms witnessed in Calcutta and Noahkali. This ensured that the battle-wary Congress leaders succumb to partition. That Ms. Muriel Lester, in whose house Gandhi stayed during his visit to England, and who was at groundzero of Noahkali holocaust at Gandhi's request, described the Pakistani movement there as “well planned, quite a Hitlerian network of folks”, was not accidental. Dr. Ambedkar also discovered Nazi nature in Jinnah's voice. He said:
Jinnah with Husseini
“The Muslims are now speaking the language of Hitler and claiming a place in the sun as Hitler has been doing for Germany. For, their demand for 50 percent is nothing but a counterpart of the German claims for Deutschland Uber Alles and Lebenuraum for themselves, irrespective of what happens to other minorities. [CHAPTER XI C O M M U N A L AGGRESSION, Thoughts on Pakistan]”
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Meanwhile in distant Palestine, the Jews escaping European anti-Semitism were getting harassed by Islamic fundamentalists of whom the most prominent was Mohammed Amin alHusseini, appointed as the Mufti of Jerusalem by British in 1921. Yet, by late 1930s and early 1940s the Mufti had drifted towards Nazism attracted by its antiSemitic nature which he too shared. He repaired the al-Aqsa mosque in Palestine which hitherto was in ruins with funds from India and during this time the Muslim League under Jinnah and the anti-Semitic Mufti had established good rapport and understanding. Mufti was dismissed by British authorities in the year 1936 for his participation in anti-Jewish riots. He sent Hitler 15 drafts of declarations and demanded that axis powers help settle 'the problem of the Jewish elements' in 'the same way' Germany was settling the problem. Later, Mufti flew to Germany met Hitler in person and helped Nazis by recruiting 20,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS. It is interesting that when Jinnah came to Cairo for an international Islamic conference he made it a point to meet and hold intimate discussions with Mufti. Later as World War II came to an end and with the Nazi leaders' evils of the Third Reich becoming known and humanity was shamed by its own barbarism towards fellow humans, Mufti's role in helping some of the
gruesome mass murders of Jews in Europe started coming to light. In 1945, Yugoslavia sought to indict the Mufti as a war criminal for his role in the mass murders of Jews in Croatia and Hungary. He escaped French detention in 1946. However in the ruling circles of Pakistan, Mufti remained a hero. For example, in 1951 he presided over an International religious conference in Pakistan, which was attended by none other than the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. Liaquat delivered a lecture piously standing before alHusseini seated in a presidential throne. Such then is the polity of Pakistan, which, starting from the day of its founding fathers, portrays Nazi sympathizers and collaborators of holocaust as heroes of a religious cause. Hidden subliminally in all these is a sub-text which equates Jews and Hindus as marked enemies of the true believers. In response to the killing of Hamas terrorist Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Israel, Daniel a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the most prominent Pakistan-based terror groups, was quoted in the newspaper 'Greater Kashmir' saying, “We will take revenge in India, as Yahud (Jews) and Hindus are two sides of the same coin.” And the boat in which the butchers of Mumbai carnage set sail from Pakistan was named “al Husseini” – the symbolism has been lost on Hindus.
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Our Heroes
RANI GAIDINLIU
Ram Goyal
ani Gaidinliu was one of the active participants in the fight for freedom from British rule in India. Born in Longkao village of Manipur, she joined freedom struggle at the age of 13. She was arrested in 1932 at the age of 16 and imprisoned for life. She was freed in 1947 after India gained freedom. She led a socio-political movement to drive out the British from Manipur and Naga areas. Born on 26 January, 1915 at Longkao Village in the present Tousem Sub-division Tamenglong District, Manipur (NH-53), Rani Gaidinliu was a charismatic girl even at her tender age. Her father Lothonang Pamei and mother Kachaklenliu observed their little daughter Gaidinliu to be peculiar and different from their other children. She was the fifth among her six sisters and a younger brother. At the age of 13, Gaidinliu became restive and her mind was tormented as she saw the prevailing social and political condition in the western hills of Manipur under the British
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Regime. At this juncture, she came to meet Haipou Jadonang at Puilon (Kambiron) Village of the present Nungba Sub-division, Tamenglong District, who had by then emerged as the undisputed leader in the area. Influenced by the ideology and his undaunted determination she became the principal follower of Haipou Jadonang. In 1927 the revolutionary movement against the British rule was started. The revolutionary movement of the western hills of Manipur popularly known by historians as Naga Raj movement received a great momentum when 100 guns were brought from Cachar, Assam and propagation was made to boycott British taxation and forced labor. However, as the movement reached a zenith and was about to strike, Haipou Jodonang was arrested and subsequently hanged on 29 August, 1931 at Imphal jail by the British. The mantle fell on Gaidinliu to lead and continue the revolution. She went underground along with her followers. A fierce gun fighting took place at Hangrum village in the north Cachar hills with the British army and the big village was later set ablaze by the colonial soldiers. A prolonged and hot pursuit took place and reward was announced for information leading to her arrest. Her people in Manipur, Cachar, North Cachar and Naga Hills of Assam stood firm behind her.
Unfortunately, she was arrested from Poilwa (Pulomi) Village (present Nagaland) on 17 October, 1932 by the British Army led by Captain Mac Donald. It was said that she bit the hand of a commander who tried to arrest her and who under pain and injury could only watch her escape. After much struggle she was finally arrested. She did not yield to the might of her captors. J.C. Higgins, political agent of Manipur received the brave girl as extradited by J.P. Mills, D.C. Kohima. Gaidinliu was sentenced to transportation for life, for waging war against the British crown. Jawaharlal Nehru met her at Shillong Jail in 1937 and with great sympathy he promised to pursue her release. His statement was published in the Hindustan Times in which he described Gaidinliu as the daughter of the Hills and gave her the title of “Rani Gaidinliu”. He compared her with Joan-de Arc of France and Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi. Nehru also wrote to Lady Aston, M.P. in London with a request for the release of Rani Gaidinliu. Unfortunately, the Secretary to the government of British India flatly rejected his request stating that trouble may rise again if the Rani was released. When India became free, Rani Gaidinliu was released on Nehru's order from Tura jail on 1410-1947 after serving a term of 14 years in various jails in Guwahati, Aizawl, Tura, Shillong and elsewhere. She was however not allowed to return home at her native village in Manipur. She stayed at Vimrap Village of Tuensang with her younger brother Marang till 1952. It was a tearful re-union of sister and brother when they could not communicate well in their mother tongue at that time due to nearly two decades long separation. Rani Gaidinliu could not tolerate the threat to her culture and religion Heraka, posed by the
Baptist church based NNC movement at her native Longkao Village in Manipur. She went underground once again in 1960 along with her 400 followers and soldiers called Kampai. Many of her followers were killed at Man-du (Bandu) village near Tousem during a long battle with NNC terrorists that she had to hide at Magulong cave near Barak (Agu) bank for 3 years. She came over ground in 1966 under an agreement with the Government of India. During her stay at Kohima, she was conferred Tamrapatra Freedom Fighter Award in 1972, Padma Bhushan (1981), Vivekananda Seva Award (1983). She returned to Longkao (Nungao) in 1991, where she stayed till her death on 17 February 1993 at the age of 78. The Governor of Manipur, His Excellency Chintamani Panigrahi, Home Secretary of Nagaland, Officials of Manipur and many people from all parts of the North Eastern region attended her funeral function at her native village on 29.2.1993. At Imphal, the Chief Minister of Manipur R.K. Dorendro Singh, Deputy Chief Minister, Rishang Keishing and many people paid floral tributes and a general holiday was declared by the State Government. Rani Gaidinliu was also conferred Birsa Munda Award posthumously. She was an outstanding lady of political, social, religious and humanitarian dimensions. She worked for the unity of her people and to find a dignified homeland through peaceful means of democracy. Rani Gaidinliu was great socio-religious leader and Veteran Freedom Fighter. She was a legendary figure and revered as the mother of the oppressed people.
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Eco Dharma
A MODERN PHYSICIST TO A MEDIEVAL PAINTER- Dara Shukoah
A modern physicist to a medieval painter Fritjof Capra is a well known name among that is derived from the New Physics? He searched his answers by studying the developing trends in medicine, biology, psychology, economics and even politics. The result was the book “The Turning Point” and he recorded his own voyage through this ever shifting mindspace of humanity in a series of interviews and dialogues he had with such prominent personalities like Heisenberg to Indira Gandhi and published them under the title “Uncommon Wisdom”. His interest has been shifting more and more towards biology and ecology where the sum of the parts have been turning out to be more than the mere sum total. Meanwhile systems biology itself has been undergoing a revolution of sorts. At the planetary level emerged the systems way of approaching ecology and evolution called Gaia hypothesis – the whole planet as a system. At another level of life – cellular- there has been another path breaking discovery: Francisco Varela a Chilean neuroscientist along with Maturana his teacher was using Buddhist epistemology and successfully unraveling the secrets of consciousness. Capra presents this all in his book “Web of Life” showing how these emerging trends are changing the way we view our planet and ourselves. Self emergence is a very strong underlying fundamental functionality in this vision. The
spiritually inclined Indians. A theoretical physicist he brought out to the general public, the parallels between the metaphysical implications of modern physics and eastern mysticism, through his best seller “Tao of Physics”. However he did not stop at that. He envisioned a “paradigm shift”. If our current view of reality, which views the universe as a gigantic river, is derived from Newtonian physics, what would be our vision of reality
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phenomenon is called Autopoiesis. In India if we see around us we find the Autopoiesis celebrated as Divinity. We have a name for it – Swayambu. Most of the Lingams today enshrined in the grand splendor of our temples are Swayambu. When a Hindu venerates a selfevolved termite mound as Divine she has a
resonance with the biologist discovering Autopoiesis in the cell. Termite mounds are in fact Autopoietic structures at one level. So is our consciousness at another level. In fact Illya Prigogine, the Nobel Prize winning chemist, whose work forms a crucial background material for Autopoiesis, is yet another scientist who used Siva's dance as a metaphor for the
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basic process of the universe – the simultaneous creation of order and chaos. Capra's latest book is on Leonardo da Vinci's science – “The Science of Leonardo”. Leonardo was known more as an artist and technological innovator than a scientist. For Capra, Leonardo arrived at science through art and that makes all the difference. Thus he avoided the pitfalls of reductionism we encounter in Newton, Galileo and Bacon. Capra reveals many interesting dimensions of Leonardo's worldview that far exceeded his own time. He was the first systems thinker according to Capra. Leonardo envisioned rivers as almost beings with life. In planning any city he would make river an integral part of the city landscape – almost a biological integration. He was asked to build Cathedrals and he designed “temples”. His architecture, his town planning, and his view of nature – all these emerged from his holistic understanding of nature. Capra shares how he arrived at this vision of Leonardo da Vinci: “As I gazed at those magnificent drawings juxtaposing, often on the same page, architecture and human anatomy, turbulent water and turbulent air, water vortices, the flow of human hair and the growth patterns of grasses, I realized that Leonardo's systematic studies of living and nonliving forms amounted to a science of quality and wholeness that was fundamentally different from the mechanistic science of Galileo and Newton. “ All the works of Fritjof Capra thus converge at one point: Holistic vision and new disciplines of science rooted in this holistic vision. When Capra quotes da Vinci assaying that a river should not be compelled but persuaded to
change its course, an Indian mind cannot but remember the legend of young Sankara singing and appealing the Purna River to change its course. Buried in this legend of Sankara is perhaps a poetic science of water management. Perhaps such a science is not lost in antiquity but waits in the yellowed pages of very recent history. Kanchi Paramacharya in his conversations with the devotees speaks of the recorded legend of “Kanadian canals” in Travancore. This canal was designed by a young nameless celibate student. The flow of
the canal was based on the meanderings of a cow, which appeared to him after Agasthya gave him a divine vision. In other words the
canal represents an organic movement – a life flow: it was not constrained by narrowness of mere exploitative utility of nature. Such traditional science and technology of water management exists today in stone awaiting our rediscovery. But in the case of da Vinci his urban planning was not realized as it was ahead of the dominant western understanding but in India the same vision was realized in reality and then was given up in favor of the western idea of exploitative dam technology. Capra sees in da Vinci “a systemic thinker, ecologist, and complexity theorist; a scientist and artist with a deep reverence for all life, and as a man with a strong desire to work for the benefit of humanity”. Clearly in the centuries that followed da Vinci, the science he envisioned was lost to the science of Newton, Bacon and Descartes. Perhaps the science of da Vinci did find a successor in another continent and in another century: Jagadish Chandra Bose. Books for Further reading: By Capra: Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, The Science of Leonardo Kanchi Paramacharya : Voice of God
The work before us is of the sternest kind and requires men of an unflinching sternness to carry it out. The hero, the martyr, the man of iron will and iron heart, the grim fighter whose tough nerves defeat cannot tire out nor danger relax, the born leader in action, the man who cannot sleep or rest while his country is enslaved, the priest of Kali who can tear his heart out of his body and offer it as a bleeding sacrifice on the Mother's altar, the heart of fire and the tongue of flame whose lightest word is an inspiration to self-sacrifice or a spur to action, for these the time is coming, the call will soon go forth.
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Yuva bharat August 2009 Yuva bharati - August 20 bharati
VIVEKANANDA KENDRA
'KNOW INDIA – KNOW YOUR SELF' YOUTH CAMP The whole world is watching the youth power of 54 crores young men with a positive view. But the youth wing of India is living with an unclear and aimless career along with ununderstandable ideal of life. So, for the development of youth and national character, Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Branch Nagpur has taken the job to reach it out to the youth of India, the challenges before them and implementation of the same in a befitting manner. The Youth Camp was organized at Vidarbha Level from 20-23 June, 2009. The symbol of the power of youth, Swami Vivekananda, sacrifices of revolutionaries, challenges before the nation, Indian culture etc. subjects were debated and discussed in discourses. A lecture was organized on “We are the sons of God”. In this organized camp, the road map of India was studied from past to the present in 21 parts. It was revealed the Great India was divided into 21 pieces and under what circumstances India was attacked by foreigners. What types of conspiracies were held and now under which types of conspiracies is India passing? It was shown in the map that 20 lacs and twenty thousand of Sq. k.m. area of our land is under the control of Pakistan, China and Bangladesh, about which our society is totally unaware. We are taught about Mughal and British rule in our history books, not the bravery and sacrifices of great revolutionaries. So “Historical view point, youth power of the nation and my contribution in national work” was the theme of the camp.
GUJARAT
Branch – Ahmedabad On the occasion of Guru Poornima a programme was organized in H.K.Arts College Auditorium. Shri Hasmukh Adhia (IAS) principal Secretary Education, Govt. of Gujarat was the Chief Guest. Shri Subrata Banerjee, Gujarat Prant Sangathak has given introduction of Vivekananda kendra & Importance of Guru poornima. Shri jagdish Mehta, Vibhag Pramukh conducted the function. 750 college students were present.
CHENNAI
Unfold – Shibir Report Ignorant and lethargy are widespread among st the youth of 21 century. When lack of awareness is also added to these, the youth lose all sense of direction and easily fritter away their unbridled dynamism. Unfold, a youth camp to address the ills plaguing the youth was
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o r g a n i z e d b y Vi ve k a n a n d a K e n d r a , th Kanyakumari, branch Chennai, between 11 and 14th June, 2009. The shibir was conducted at the serene premises of Sarveshwara Dhyana Nilayam, Thamaraipakkam. The shibir was inaugurated by Swami Sadashiva Chaitanya. The book “A Handbook of Rainwater Harvesting” was released on the occasion. The shibir saw the participation of 40 youngsters.
Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture, Arunachal Pradesh
Shri. Chukhu Loma felicitating Shri. Tana Teti
President, Nyedar Namlo, Rono welcomed the guests. Shri. Tana Tochu felicitated the chief guest. Shri. Pai Dawe briefly explained about the Guru tradition. He described the importance of Guru in the history of this nation and the work of Nyubus – as interpreters of the age old knowledge in a manner befitting the current scenario. He also narrated the story of Ekalavya and Dronacharya, he said Dronacharya is the one who took the blame of cutting the thumb of his best disciple but he only made him immortal through the story. Otherwise today nobody would have remembered him. Shri. Nabam Tata explained about importance of priesthood in Nyishi tradition. He said “as it is said 'Sur Bina Geet Nahi, Guru bina Gyan Nahi…' we have to say 'we cannot survive without Nyubu'.” They are the one who can relate both the worlds, this world which is perishable and the other world which is imperishable, ever existing, the eternal. Guru is the one who shows path to the individual but our Gurus i.e. Nyubu are showing path to the entire community. This tradition should be preserved and carried forward.”
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Shri. Bengia Agung felicitating Shri. Nengbia Taaj
“They are like Full Moon to us…” Chukhu Loma Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture, Arunachal Pradesh Chapter organised the programme, 'Felicitation of Priests' on the occasion of 'Gurupoornima Utsava' on July 12, 2009 in Nyedar Namlo, Rono, Doimukh. This year two priests (Nyubu) Shri. Tana Teti and Shri. Nengbia Taaj from Doimukh were felicitated. Shri. Chukhu Loma, Secretary Nyishi Elite Society was present as the chief guest on the occasion. The program started with the traditional prayer. Shri. Tana Tagu Tara,
Shri. Bengia Agung felicitated Shri. Nengbia Taaj and Shri. Chukhu Loma felicitated Shri. Tana Teti. In his address Chief Guest Shri. Chukhu Loma said this is a unique programme to felicitate those who really care us, nurture us. Nyubus are the selection of Almighty, it is god gift. They cannot be manufactured. So this is the most pure institution. In the earlier times we never had doctors, these Nyubus were our Doctors, our spiritual guides, our advisor, everything. With the changing times we also need to change, in this also Nyubus showed the way. They played a major role in starting this organised Prayer System of Nyishis, The Nyedar Namlo movement. “Today we are celebrating GuruPoornima, on Poornima i.e. full moon night the moon facilitates us for the movement, in this age Nyubu are facilitating us to move forward.” Shri. Vijay Sonam presented the vote of thanks, he also emphasised on the need of conducting such programmes in a big way in the future to save this institution. Kum. Tana Chunia anchored the program. The program was concluded with a Namlo Prayer.
DATES TO REMEMBER
01 August 1920 – Smrti Din of Lokmanya Tilak 03 August 1805 – Martyrdom of Dheeran Chinnamalai (disputed with 31 July) 07 August 1941 – Smrti Din of Rabindranath Tagore 14 August – Krishna Janmaashtami 15 August 1872 – Birth of Maharshi Aurobindo 17 August, 1909 – Martyrdom of Madanlal Dhingra 16 August 1886 – Samadhi Din of Sri Ramakrishna 19 August 1908 – Martyrdom of Khudiram Bose 23 August – Ganesh Chathurthi 24 August 1972 – Smrti Din of V Ramalingam Pillai 31 August 1725 – Birth of
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