ARTICLES FOR VOICE OF INDIA
25 SEP 10 BEWARE OF KISSINGER COMMENDING MANMOHAN SINGH
Mahendra Mathur
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been honoured with the 2010 World Statesman Award by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interfaith coalition which promotes mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.
Delivering the commendation address, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described Manmohan Singh as a statesman with vision, persistence and integrity, and praised him for his leadership, which has been instrumental in the economic transformation underway in India.
In his recorded acceptance speech, Manmohan Singh said: "India has been guided since ancient times by the fundamental belief that while spiritual expression takes many forms and the journey for universal truth takes many paths, we are all united by our highest values, ideals and our inherent humanism."
It appears that Kissinger, a well-known great friend of Pakistan, who had persuaded Nixon to send Seventh Fleet to Bay of Bengal in 1971 to frighten (unsuccessfully – Lal Bahadur Shastri was then India’s Prime Minister) India from liberating Bangladesh, is attempting to help Pakistan again. The idea is to make Manmohan Singh more and more like Gandhi and even to make him win a Nobel Prize for peace (that eluded even Gandhi). In the process Kashmir will be ceded to the separatists by Singh.
We may quote Gandhi himself: "To see the universal truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest creation as oneself”. Till January 1947 Gandhi kept saying PAKISTAN IMPOSSIBLE but when Lord Mountbatten succeeded in getting the Congress to agree to partition, Gandhi chose not to say a word against it nor did he go for one of his ‘fasts unto death’. May be he was seeing Universal Truth face to face in the mean face of Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Manmohan Singh is on the same path with the mean faces of Kashmiri separatists.
Manmohan Singh met with top politicians in New Delhi and appealed for ideas to end the violence. ''I have said this earlier and I say it again: The only path for lasting peace and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir is that of dialogue and discussion,'' he said. He also said the government was willing to talk to anybody or any group.
But Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a leader of the umbrella grouping All Parties Hurriyat Conference, has demanded India declare Kashmir an international dispute, withdraw hundreds of thousands of troops from the region and release all political prisoners as a precondition for talks. These are the groups with which the Congress still wishes to negotiate.
The recent parliamentary delegation to Kashmir met a select group of politicians creating the impression that only hard-line separatist leaders matter in the Valley and that no solution can be found without unconditionally surrendering to all their demands. This has also been interpreted by people in the rest of India, especially Kashmiri Pandits and their sympathizers, as yet another instance of supine surrender before pro Pakistani secessionists.
''We want peace to return to Kashmir. But it cannot return if separatists have a free hand and the army's hands are tied,'' says BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
He debunked the demand for scaling down the Army’s presence, when the Army was virtually out of urban areas and was mainly in rural areas and on the Line of Control. As India had superiority in conventional war and in tackling terrorism, Pakistan has changed tack and chose to instigate mob violence, by pushing to the front women and children.
Jaitley described the present situation in the Valley as a logical culmination of various historical blunders. “To keep the nation and the society united, there is a need for vision and direction. Sardar Patel integrated 500-odd princely states into the Indian Union. But Jammu and Kashmir was in the domain of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Through Article 370, Nehru gave separate status to Jammu and Kashmir, thereby laying the foundation for separatism in the Valley. “It is a journey from separate status to separatism and not towards integration,” Jaitley lamented. The single biggest failure of secularism in 63 years was in the Valley, where Kashmiri Pandits were forced out of their homes and hearths.
With its full conviction that "the history of Kashmir is the history of Hinduism" the RSS will continue its battle so long Kashmir, which also includes Pak Occupied Kashmir is not integrated fully with the rest of the country, says RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat. He also said India was under a wrong impression that United States will assist India in solving the Kashmir issue. Indeed US were interested to use Kashmir as a base to counter China. The motives of US have always been for selfish gain, he added.
The warnings of Arun Jaitley and Dr Mohan Bhagwat must be heeded because they are predicting precisely what America and Kashmiri separatists are about to do next. America is now mustering the help of Manmohan Singh who is aspiring to be a Mahatma and a Nobel Prize winner.
18 SEP 10
MUSLIMS – NEANDERTHALS OF THE RELIGIONERS
Mahendra Mathur
The Neanderthals, who populated Europe widely from about 130,000 to 28,000 years ago after which they became extinct, were effective predators. The Neanderthal was probably not human. Hunting of medium to large mammals was an important part of Neanderthal subsistence. By hunting such big animals, they did not have to compete with other predators and focused on high energy rewards in return for their efforts. About 55,000 years ago, the weather began to fluctuate wildly from extreme cold conditions to mild cold and back in a matter of a few decades. The rapid fluctuations of weather caused ecological changes to which the Neanderthals could not adapt. The weather changes were so rapid that within a lifetime, plants and animals someone grew up with would be replaced by completely different plants and animals. Neanderthal's ambush techniques would have failed as grasslands replaced trees. A large number of Neanderthals would have died during these fluctuations.
Muslims seem to be following a similar path. A religion that mandates religious practices of jihad against Christians, Jews and Hindus to earn Jannat is really asking its followers to focus on the reward of Jannat and not compete with others for economic development. They can say that such-and-such behaviour is prohibited, but they cannot say that such-and-such belief is prohibited. And as the gap between belief and behaviour widens, hypocrisy sets in. People with beards still kill and rape their own people. People who cover their heads still steal. People who thank God for their victories still cheat. And because so many people do these things, the split between religion and morality has become profound and widely accepted. Even the souls of the Neanderthals might turn at the idea of being compared to Muslims.
“Muslims are going to inherit the Earth,” according to Population Research Institute spokesman Joseph D'Agostino. “It's not anything the Muslims are doing; it's what [others] are not doing. If you don't want the world to turn into Saudi Arabia, maybe people other than Muslims need to start having some kids at the rate the Muslims are having kids.” Or perish the thought of Muslims becoming extinct any time soon.
At least four people were killed and 20 injured in Jammu region's Mendhar town the other day following clashes between police and crowds protesting the alleged desecration of the Quran in the US.Linking the turmoil in Kashmir to anger and pain among Kashmiri youth who grew up in "conflict and brutality", Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today said their "legitimate aspirations" must be respected and a magnanimous approach adopted to give them hope. In other words let humans concede all demands of Neanderthals for continuous predation.
A high-level meeting in Pakistan discussed “cartoons which glorified mythology characters such as Hanuman had a bad impact on the minds of the young children. Because these cartoons were in contradiction with the teachings of Islam and young kids could not differentiate between what’s true and what’s not so these should be banned.”
According to the 1998 census, 1.6 per cent of Pakistan’s population is Hindu. Eminent artist and former principal of Lahore’s National College of Arts Salima Hashmi questioned the decision to form a committee for this purpose. “Why doesn’t the government make a committee to know the root cause of militancy and why doesn’t it set up committees to find reasons of young children becoming suicide attackers?” she questioned. Hashmi said that in India the number of Muslims was greater than the number of Muslims in Pakistan, so if Muslim children in India were not affected by mythology cartoons, why would children in Pakistan be affected? Hashmi asked, “Isn’t there anything constructive that they can work on? Why waste time on setting up such committees and inquiring into such matters which are not pertinent in the current situation?” Hashmi does not know that Hindu culture is like a great fluctuation of climate for Muslims to which they just cannot adopt.
'Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world and all of us against the infidel. -- Leon Uris, 'The Haj'. We are now actually at the stage when the Neanderthals are pitted against all of us.
It is good to remember that in many, many countries, such as France, the Muslim populations are centered around ghettos based on their ethnicity. Muslims, like Neanderthals do not integrate into the community at large. Therefore, they exercise more power than their national average would indicate.
A climate change for the Neanderthals is now overdue. It can begin with Sufi teachings like that of Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan: “It is your moral duty to be happy; however, you cannot exercise this duty by clutching unrealistic beliefs, struggling with unworkable assumptions, juggling painful images, jumping to false conclusions, running with impulsive decisions or messaging hasty judgments.” But ultimately Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Atheists and Christians have to unite to bring about ecological changes to which either these modern Neanderthals adopt or perish.
4 SEP 10
AN OPEN LETTER TO JULIA ROBERTS
Mahendra Mathur
Dear Julia Roberts,
It is nice to hear that you, an Oscar winning Hollywood star, say that you are a Practicing Hindu after you shot for the film ‘Eat, Pray and Love’ in India and that you regularly go to temples to ‘chant and pray and celebrate’ with your family.
You won a legion of fans after you essayed the role of a prostitute in ‘Pretty Woman’. You recently declared: ‘I’m definitely a practicing Hindu. Golly, I’ve been so spoiled with my friends and family in this life.’
You said that you go to temples with your three children – Hazel, Phinnaeus and Henry – and husband cameraman Daniel Moder. You also said on possible reincarnation, “Golly, I’ve been so spoiled with my friends and family in this life,” “Next time I want to be just something quiet and supporting.”
It is great to think of ‘possible reincarnation’ because it is believed that you are reincarnated to be what you think about in this birth and what your actions in this life lead you to. But the beautiful thing about Hinduism is that you do not have to wait to be reincarnated to get what you want. You can get it right here in this life. I am taking the liberty of using Adi Sankara’s words to show how it can be done.
This finite, mortal, ever-changing world that you see around you is born out of Maya alone. Due to the non-apprehension of Reality, you recognize the world of objects, emotions and thoughts. Through the body, mind and intellect you contact the world and create more and more desires. These desires get you a sense of a separate individuality. All these are created by non-apprehension of Reality. The supreme Reality functioning through Maya is called Ishwar or God.
You should discriminate between the Self and the not-Self in order to remove the bondage and dock yourself in everlasting happiness. Thereafter there will be no strife, no stress and no strain for you.
Very few in the world know what joy is. All that we know is either sorrow or a slight absence of it; either pain or absence of it. Real joy is nothing but the experience of Brahman. It is not the Self, the pure Consciousness, which functions as I, but it is the reflection, otherwise called ego which functions as ‘I-I-I’ at all moments of the waking and dreaming states of our expression. By fully realizing the Self, which is Knowledge Absolute, which is the cause of everything; which is distinct from the gross and subtle, which is Eternal and Omnipresent, All-pervading and supremely subtle, which is without exterior or interior, which is the one Self; you can becomes free from sin, blemish, death and grief and become an ocean of Bliss.
If you get away from the bonds of desires you will be a liberated one. ‘I am not this assemblage of equipments. I am That, the consciousness, the Witness of equipments and their function’. This idea should be kept alive during the entire period of your waking state.
Man perfected is the free spirit. His reason is turned to light, his heart into love, and his will into service. His demeanor is disciplined and his singleness of spirit is established. Ignorance and craving have lost their hold. He is dead to pride, envy and uncharitableness. The world in which he lives is no more alien to him. This free spirit reaches out towards the warmth in all things. He has that rarest quality in the world, simple goodness, besides which all the intellectual gifts seem a little trivial. He is meek, patient, long suffering. He does not judge others because he does not pretend to understand them. Because of his eager selfless love he has the power to soothe the troubled heart.
The released individual is artist in creative living. With an awareness of the Eternal, he participates in the work of the world. Like one sleepy or like a baby, he perceives the world as one seen in a dream and recognizes it only now and then. The Sanyasi, in whom the sense objects channeled by others are received like flowing rivers into the ocean producing no change because of his absorption in Existence Absolute, is truly liberated.
The man of Realization has to go through the tragedies and comedies of life. He cannot avoid them. But in and through them, he never loses sight of the idea that the objects, emotions and thoughts are, in reality, nothing but Brahman. Endeavour to be like that.
Ever enjoying the Blissful state of wisdom the realized man lives, sometimes a fool, sometimes a sage, sometimes with royal grandeur; sometimes roaming, sometimes like a motionless python; sometimes with a benignant expression, sometimes respected, sometimes insulted and sometimes unknown.
He does not direct the sense organs to their objects, nor does he detach them from these, but he remains like an indifferent onlooker. His mind being drunk with ‘wine’ of bliss of the Self, he holds not the least regard for the fruits of action. Be that person
Just as an actress, whether you wear the dress of your role or not, you are always a woman, so too, as a perfect knower of Brahman you will always Brahman and nothing else.
Liberation is your Real Nature. All that you say is, ‘What a fool I was! I never knew my own nature.’ There is nothing to be realized. You are that. This is the supreme Truth – at the moment of Realization to be realized.
Whatever kind acts you may think of doing, never go to Pakistan to do them. When it came into being in 1947, Hindu population there was 20 per cent of 37 million people. By ceaseless killings, abductions, forcible conversions and expulsions that population has now dwindled to 1.6% of 180 million people now. Some people there may use you as a passport to their Jannat. And Pakistan keeps suffering from Islamic terrorism and natural disasters all the time. Theory of Karma is applicable not only to individuals but Nations too.
Remember whatever you do now in spiritual field will make world headlines. Be such an example to the world that you are hero-worshipped by one billion Hindus of the world.
10.10.10 TACKLING THE GREAT MUSLIM HATE
Ayatollah Khomeini once delivered a notorious rebuke to the Islam-is-a-religion-of-peace crowd: “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]…. Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise
, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”From such exhortations of Islam and its teachers emanates the great hatred which pervades the souls and bodies of all those Muslims who believe in Koran and Mohammed. And this hatred keeps manifesting itself in violence around the world on daily basis against not only non-Muslims but other Muslims too.
Zeynab Jalalian and Hossein Khezri are awaiting execution in Iran. Their crime? "Enmity against God." They are both members of the minority Party for Free Life of Kurdistan, and the Iranian government is using this catch-all phrase to persecute political dissenters under the guise of a religious charge.
Pakistani troops resorted to heavy shelling of mortars and rockets in Krishna Ghati and Jhallas sub-sectors of Poonch district on September 28 and twice on September 29 in which Pakistan troops used heavy volume of mortar fire along with RPGs and machine guns, including nearly 80 mortar bombs and 40 rockets besides over 3000 rounds of weaponery on Indian forward posts. Just for the hatred of India.
Khursheed Ahmad Ansari of India raped his 22-year-old grand daughter last year following which she became pregnant. The victim's sister-in-law lodged a police complaint in this regard following which a DNA test was conducted on the accused which confirmed rape.
A simple search on YouTube for Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant organization of Pakistan, reveals a long list of speeches by Azhar. Some exhort Muslims to rise up against the United States and India, others border on the comical, where Azhar dubs the television as the cause of all evils.
“There’s a war going on in Pakistan; in the mountains and in the cities. A war enforced upon the people of the country by monsters that we have created ourselves. The enemy in this respect is clearly visible and yet we want to continue treating it like an elusive ghost.” Writes Nadeem Paracha in Pakistani newspaper Dawn. “Its targets are now obvious. But we dare not name them. But today, I will. These targets are those Pakistanis who have vigorously contributed in making Pakistan what it really used to be: a temperate, promising conglomerate of various ethnicities, religions and Muslim sects. The Sunni Barelvis, the Shias, the Christians, the Hindus and the Ahmadis – they are all under attack in their places of worship and shrines. They are being attacked in the most remorseless manner by a rare, violent breed of animals that uncannily look like human beings but are nothing like them.”
For too long have the Muslims been allowed to get away with the fruits of their hatred. But the Theory of Karma is now beginning to show results. The Muslims are suffering untold misery in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan from their own Islamic terrorists and natural disasters.
Americans are causing havoc in Pakistani territory by the attacks from drones, helicopters and Afghan troops. Kayani & co can counter these by attacking NATO convoys passing through Pakistan at present, but they would be brushed aside in the event of another catastrophic attack in the US or against American interests abroad. Pakistan has been warned publicly enough, from Hillary Clinton downwards and even before under Bush, that a major terrorist attack would be a game-changer.
Yet, there were two positive signs last week of finding other ways to remove the great hatred of Muslims.
Firstly, announcing a donation of Rs.15 lakhs for starting the construction of the much-debated temple at Ayodhya, a Shia youth organization here says it opposes with any move to appeal against the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Ayodhya dispute. "We will make a formal request to the Sunni Central Waqf Board not to go into appeal against the high court verdict and to bring an end to the long pending dispute once and for all," Shia Hussaini Tigers chief Shamil Shamsi told reporters here Saturday. He also proposes to take a delegation to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board with the same appeal. Shia community must be encouraged to move away from Sunnis who specially target Shias the world over.
Secondly, with the blessings of Jagatguru Narendracharyaji Maharaj, 295 families converted to other religion, were re-converted to Hindu Dharma at Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. The ceremony took place on the huge ground of Zilha Parishad’s Junior College at Morgaon Arjuni in Gondia District. The ceremony was conducted by ‘Vedashastrasampanna’ Bhalachandra Shastri Shauche Guruji. Maharaj said in his guidance, “Hindu Dharma and culture is most superior in the world. It has very old ancient traditions. Every Hindu should be proud of his Dharma.” Other Hindu religious leaders should be taking lessons from Guruji Maharaj and reconverting Muslims all over India, slowly but surely, to make them embrace non-violence, peace and goodwill towards other human beings.
