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Thursday,
November 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Challenges ahead Time for good riddance UTI to be reborn |
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Afghan war’s South Asian sideshow
A former journalist as Chief Minister
Language and its
depth
Americans are ruthless, say
Kashmiris
Afghan women remain sidelined
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Challenges ahead PUNJAB
and Haryana happily celebrate the anniversaries of their statehood today. It is a historic occasion for the two states which have had the distinction of several firsts — some laudatory and some not so flattering. In critical areas of politics and governance. Haryana had once acquired the notoriety for its "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" political culture fathered by former Chief Minister Rao Birender Singh. Such attempts have of late not succeeded which can either be seen as apt political management or the maturity of legislators. In any case, it is surely satisfying that the government of Mr Parkash Singh Badal and the Haryana establishment headed by Mr Om Parkash Chautala have ensured stability which in itself is saying a lot in these days of political bazaar. However, political stability apart, what the two states badly need is faster economic growth and a clean administration. Punjab has to urgently put its economic house in order. Things continue to be messy on the agriculture front. The WTO regime's sword is hanging over the farmers' head and they do not know how to face new challenges. They are caught between a callous administration and their unremunerative crops and mounting debts. Punjab farmers deserve a new deal and fresh guidance to enable them to be in a globally competitive position. It is a pity that not enough has been done to understand their problems, mitigate their woes and modernise the farm sector. Not that Mr Badal is not aware of the problems. He is a grassroots leader. But he often goes astray because of his lopsided priorities. Moreover, he has not shown the requisite initiative and dynamism to anchor Punjab's agricultural economy on new lines. Equally disquieting has been his lack of drive for infrastructural development, especially on the power and industrial fronts. Only a clear-headed and target-bound leadership, a professionally-run administrative machinery and a corruption-free environment could have taken the state forward and helped Punjab to regain its position of prominence. Mr Badal is surely well-meaning. His intentions are honourable. He also enjoys considerable goodwill. Still, the Chief Minister has not been able to take full advantage of the positive factors existing right at the grassroot level. He needs to appreciate that political gimmicks cannot induce growth. The people have earthy common sense and they understand who is what and what is for whom. In the next few months we will know the people's verdict on the state government's performance. It is an open game. Whichever party is able to establish its credibility will carry the day. People don't want their leaders to play with public funds and live in luxury. Perhaps, they will not relish the reported information of 29 air-conditioners in the house of Mr Badal, especially when the state's financial position is critical. Seen in this context, it is gratifying that the Haryana government has dropped the idea of buying luxury cars for its Ministers. The message for the two states is clear: people want a corruption-free system and growth-oriented administration in which there should not be any room for slackness, callous and arrogant attitudes and wasteful expenditure. Both Haryana and Punjab have to move on a fast track of development for the good of the people, and not for middlemen and manipulators. The testing time for the two Chief Ministers starts now! |
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Time for good riddance THE
chief of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), Maj-Gen Hermann Loidolt, has said goodbye to international decorum and personal propriety by making uncivil comments in respect of Kashmir. To say that he has exceeded his brief (to observe “the ceasefire” in Kashmir) is like stating that the night brings darkness. What is exceptionally outrageous is his view expressed before journalists in Srinagar to the effect that Kashmir is a "tormented country". He has chosen to insult India's sovereignty. Jammu and Kashmir is a state of the Indian Republic and there is no country within this country. He has also spoken rather naively of political games, diversionary measures and "the dawning of the next elections in India". The reported dismissal of the Austrian General's impudent utterances merely as uncalled for appears to be an abjectly inadequate response by the External Affairs Ministry. Our over-restraint and slow reflex action often make us lose on the politico-diplomatic front. It is, however, said that New Delhi may demand General Loidolt's recall by the UN Secretary- General. This officer of the world body has done immense harm to the cause of peace in the subcontinent by sitting in political judgement over the issues which are beyond his purview. In fact, our own lethargic official will is to blame for the continuation of UNMOGIP, which serves no purpose. It is to be remembered that Pakistan, following its misadventure soon after its existence, called its troops tribesmen and invaded Kashmir. Its defeat was shattering. Partisan UN members and ever-accommodating Indian statesmen allowed a ceasefire. UNMOGIP came into being in 1949 to supervise the observance of that truce. Its members have, indeed, been "playing games" in the two countries — India and Pakistan — in Rawalpindi from November to April and in Srinagar from May to October. The subsequent wars thrust upon India by Pakistan have made the "ceasefire" and its supervisors irrelevant. Bilateral agreements have provided for lines of (actual) control and the UN has no role to play in India-Pakistan disturbances. UNMOGIP could have earned some brief legitimacy, even quite late in the day, if it had alerted India about the latest incursion by Pakistanis into Kargil. What does it observe? And for whom? Even the UN Secretary-General has acknowledged the futility of the UN resolutions on Kashmir. The Security Council alone, it is said, can terminate the UNMOGIP mission. So be it! The General should have his team — at least 45 military observers backed by 24 international civilian personnel — packing. The "local staff" should be given local jobs. The Loidolt chapter should be closed on the note of good riddance. |
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UTI to be reborn A radical script has been written by the Y.H.Malegam committee for the restructuring of the UTI (Unit Trust of India) which will shrink its present role and give it a new face. One, it will turn itself into an asset management company (AMC), a new fangled term for handling others’ money. Two, the government will withdraw from the operations and hence the assumed security of the money which two crores of people have invested in US-64 will vanish. Three, even the assured return schemes of the UTI will be reviewed and if the investment in equity is losing money, investors will get less. Finally, the government will walk out of the mess, offering the mammoth organisation with the largest unit-holder base to the private sector. Even foreign mutual funds are open to bid and given the financial clout of the UTI – Rs 50,000 crore in assets – and its organisational network – the widest in the country with the lowest operating cost — and the resultant goodwill will attract many buyers. Also, foreign mutual funds are active in the Bombay Stock Market picking up tidy profits riding on the crust of bull-bear clashes. At present the UTI is controlled by about half a dozen public financial institutions like IDBI. ICICI and others which have invested Rs 5 crore each. The central government pumped in about Rs 450 crore when there was a crisis following the crash in stock market and the real value of the shares the UTI was holding in 1999. The new AMC will be managed by a reputed fund manager, Indian or foreign, with 40 per cent holding and the original sponsors will stay put for three years. Interestingly, the Malegam committee has called for two finite actions. The UTI Act should be scrapped to ensure that the government does not guarantee the return on US-64 and other schemes. Two, US-64 should be immediately linked to the net asset value – a jargon for the real present value of shares purchased with unit-holders’ money – and the government should offer contingent liability if the present value is lower than what the UTI has offered for those holding up to 3000 units. Even in the case of those plans promising a fixed return, the UTI should get a thorough revaluation and adjust the returns accordingly. The idea is to pass on the burden on unit-holders even though the sinners are the decision makers of the UTI. It is now known that the UTI bought shares of companies at a higher price than the market rate in what is called negotiated deals. It also invested in unlisted companies. What is more, it heavily depended on share market for generating surplus despite the volatility there. Unit-holders looking for steady and safe return have to pay the price for the UTI’s folly. |
Afghan war’s South Asian sideshow NEARLY a month after it began, the Afghan war isn’t progressing the way it was expected to do. No knowledgeable person had anticipated it to be a “short, swift affair”, of course. Leaders of the USA themselves had taken care to point out that the war would be “prolonged and painful”. But hopes of quick defections from and disintegration of the dreadful Taliban were high. Had this come about, a broad-based post-Taliban dispensation could have been ushered in, and this in turn would have facilitated the induction of ground troops belonging to the US-led coalition. But nothing of the kind has happened or looks like happening anytime soon. On the contrary, the Taliban regime has displayed a degree of unity and cohesion that few had suspected. One reason for this, according to sources competent to speak on the subject, is the remarkable unity and mutual loyalty of the top leadership of the outfit. It consists of a closely-knit “Kandhari group” — led by Mullah Omar and consisting of the surviving 20 of the 30 original leaders — that had masterminded the Taliban takeover, with Pakistan’s all-out help. All of them are Pushtuns; there is no representative of any minority ethnic group. According to Mr Ahmed Rashid, a distinguished Pakistani journalist and an authority on the Taliban, no one in its highest echelon is likely to revolt against Mullah Omar. A “moderate” wing of the Taliban has emerged from among later recruits, tribal chiefs and traders who found it profitable to join the winning side. But none of them has been coopted into the top leadership. Some of them do occupy secondary positions in the power structure. In keeping with the time-tested Afghan tradition, some Taliban are surely purchaseable. But none has yet turned up to quote his price. Indeed, the Taliban’s morale, instead of plummeting, has soared, and not merely because of its success in liquidating the leading opposition commander, Mr Abdul Haq, who could have been a source of trouble to it. There is also the symbiotic relationship between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden; the latter, in Mr Rashid’s words, is acting as the “virtual Defence Minister” of the Taliban regime. Above all, however, the Taliban has been the beneficiary of the American missiles and “smart bombs” not being smart enough. These have gone off-target all too often, killing civilians, including women and children. This has happened not only in Taliban-held areas but also in places where the Northern Alliance is fighting the Taliban valiantly. In many countries, particularly in Pakistan, the cry has gone up that civilian casualties must be avoided and that air-strikes must be suspended during the Islamic month of Ramzan. The US Defence Secretary has, of course, rejected the latter demand. He has declared, pertinently enough, that Muslim countries have fought each other through the holy month time and again. But it remains to be seen whether President George W. Bush would like to pursue this policy in view of the mounting world opinion, especially in the Islamic countries. However, as the war in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan wends its weary way, the South Asian sideshow of this conflict is also hotting up, and this needs careful attention. There is no need to go into tedious details. Suffice to say that ever since Pakistan, shunned and isolated until then, became America’s “frontline ally” in the campaign against Osama and the Taliban, both countries have been swept by unworthy feelings. There is preening and gloating in Pakistan over the price it has been able to squeeze out of the USA and its other allies. Hard cash, so welcome to the nearly bankrupt country, the promise of military hardware, and the suspension of the earlier demand for the restoration of democracy have become a shot in the arm for the military regime headed by General Pervez Musharraf. By contrast, there is an air of pique, disappointment and frustration in India. The political class, the media and the people in general are moaning. “Musharraf has upstaged us”. “India has been sidelined” are some of their anguished cries. Not only is this unbecoming for a big country recognised as an emerging global power but also the notion of General Musharraf being in a “win-win” situation is factually incorrect. He has already been forced to join the war against Pakistan’s own creation, the Taliban, and has been tersely told that he cannot “dictate” the composition of the post-Taliban dispensation in Kabul. He has also been compelled to take on the Pakistani jehadis which can cause serious problems in coming months although at present the General appears to be in control. America’s concern over the safety and control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, combined with hints that these weapons could be “taken out” if there was a danger that they could fall into “wrong hands”, speaks for itself. Where dignified silence would have served Indian cause better, leading members of the Vajpayee government continue to indulge in either breast-beating or bluster. They are threatening “hot pursuit” of Pakistan-backed terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir or to take “specific action” against Pakistan without doing anything and thus exposing the country to ridicule. Against this backdrop the key question today is whether or not the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, should meet General Musharraf on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly session on November 10. There is a strong feeling, especially within the Sangh Parivar, that no such meeting should take place because of the continuing cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Since the horrific outrage at the J & K Assembly on October 1 the Prime Minister himself has repeatedly declared that a resumption of dialogue with Pakistan is not possible for as long as General Musharraf “harps on Kashmir as the only issue” and cross-border terrorism continues. One can understand his difficulty in reversing this stance. But reversed it should be for a variety of reasons. In the first place, it is wrong for any two neighbours to refuse to talk to each other. Secondly, such a refusal becomes all the more dangerous when both neighbours are nuclear weapon powers. Thirdly, a brusque shutting of doors on a dialogue runs counter to the present government’s own past record. Even at the height of the Kargil war it had conducted brisk, back-channel negotiations with the Nawaz Sharif government. More strikingly, having flatly and firmly declined to talk to him “until cross-border terrorism had ceased”, Mr Vajpayee, on May 23 last, had shot off a cordial letter of invitation to General Musharraf while Pakistan-sponsored terrorism stalked Kashmir. Even after the fiasco of the Agra summit, the Prime Minister had repeatedly vowed to keep the dialogue going. On top of this all, there is steadily escalating pressure from friendly foreign countries for an immediate resumption of the ruptured dialogue. America’s stakes in this are the highest. It does not want anything to happen in the subcontinent that might “divert attention” from the primary mission in Afghanistan. That Mr Vajpayee would confer with Mr Bush at the White House a day before his arrival at the U.N. is no mere coincidence. General Musharraf’s demand, in the presence of the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, that the talks between him and Mr Vajpayee in New York should be on the basis of the “format” agreed to at Agra, is bound to cause some difficulty. Pakistan insists — on the strength of a draft agreement that allegedly carries some corrections in the handwriting of the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh — that an “agreed format” exists. India’s position, as usual, has been confused and confusing. At times it has said that nothing at Agra was “brought to conclusion” and therefore the two countries have to start on the basis of the Shimla Agreement and, the Lahore Declaration. Even so, this ought not be an insurmountable hurdle. Especially when Mr Vajpayee’s main purpose is bound to be to hammer home to the General the message that the whole world is now engaged in a global fight against terrorism. Pakistan’s military ruler has to be told that until this scourge is banished from South Asia also the Indo-Pakistan dialogue cannot produce the desired results and would, therefore, be pointless. In New York there should not be least attempt to issue a joint declaration. |
A former journalist as Chief Minister THE
new Chief Minister of Uttaranchal, Mr Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, is a journalist-turned-politician and a seasoned party leader with an RSS background. Fondly called as “Bhagat da” he had been a Pracharak of the RSS for several years. Born in Mahargari village of Bageshwar district, Mr Koshiyari, a bachelor, began his political career as a student leader in Almora College in 1961-62 at the age of 19. After completing his postgraduation in English literature from Agra university in 1964, he served as a lecturer for a year at Rampur Inter College in Etah district. He quit his job to become a journalist and started a Hindi weekly, Parvat Niyush, from Pithoragarh. He is the editor of the paper. Mr Koshiyari has authored several books in Hindi — “Uttaranchal Pradesh Kyon”, “Uttaranchal Pradesh — Sangharash Aur Samadhan” etc, — and some of these have won him accolades. He also actively participated in the statehood movement of the former hilly areas of UP and held the post of General Secretary of the BJP’s Uttaranchal unit from 1988 to 93. Before the creation of new state he was the president of the BJP unit of Uttaranchal. He was nominated to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in 1997 and re-nominated in 1999. For the first time he became Power Minister in the Nityanand Swami government on November 11 last year. New Orissa Cong chief The peremptory removal of Mr Janaki Ballabh Patnaik from the post of President of the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) is bound to exacerbate problems in the faction-ridden party in the state. Mr Patnaik put in his papers recently after the AICC General Secretary in charge of Orissa, Mr Kamal Nath, told him to quit. The former did take the matter to the party President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, in protest against the cavalier manner in which a stalwart like him was being treated by a junior functionary like Mr Kamal Nath, but things did not work in his favour as Mr Patnaik was always considered a member of the old guard and on the wrong side of the high command. The OPCC has been in a comatose state for the last five years and successive party Presidents including Mr Giridhar Gomang and Mr Hemananda Biswal, both former Chief Ministers and handpicked by Mrs Sonia Gandhi herself, could hardly rejuvenate the rank and file of the Congress. Mrs Gandhi appointed Mr Patnaik as the party chief, prior to the last Assembly elections, as she had no choice. She might have felt that the time was opportune for her to get rid of Mr Patnaik now as no elections were round the corner. However, given his skills and potential for mischief and manipulation, it should not be a surprise if he creates fresh trouble for Mrs Gandhi and the party unit in Orissa. In this context, it is widely believed that even if Mr Patnaik is inducted into the CWC or rehabilitated elsewhere, he will not keep quiet as his roots are in Bhubaneswar and no incentives in New Delhi will compensate for the humiliation caused to him at home. Clearly, Mrs Gandhi has taken a “calculated risk”, much to the “delight” of Chief Minister Navin Patnaik, who faces no challenge to his government from the Congress despite his manifold failures and not-so-worthwhile governance. The replacement of Mr J. B. Patnaik with 45-year-old Sarat Patnaik is not likely to infuse dynamism in the party as he is not widely known in the state. A former chief of the State Youth Congress and two-time MP from Bolangir, the junior Patnaik is regarded as an upstart in party circles in Bhubaneswar. Moreover, he is regarded as an “outsider” in the state as he stays in Delhi most of the time. |
Language and its
depth THIS piece is a modest attempt to understand the sublime in its prodigious spread and depth, for as I’ve sought to aver in the earlier efforts, the feel, the touch, the perfume of sublimity leaves an abiding imprint on the mind at different levels. To begin with, let me define the sublime in the light of the word subliminal whose roots are, of course, in the sub-soil of the same world. It means “perceived by, or affected by the mind without one being aware of it”. This is clearly that state of consciousness where the sublime operates below the threshold of the waking, contemplating, polemic mind. It’s, in sum, a mystic and a Freudian concept. Freud in fact, denied the suprarational “reality”, though unconsciously and ironically, he was close enough to the sources of the inner truth which remains draped till the veil is lifted from the bridal face, to use a familiar Indian analogy, so wonderfully structured in similies and metaphors in the Sikh scriptures. In other words, whenever and wherever a person in one supreme, unconscious or sub-conscious moment, is lifted above his putative self, he’s, for that period, in that condition where a great poet like Wordsworth finds in a field of flowers that which “passeth understanding.” I’m, of course, referring to his much anthologised poem, “The Daffodils”. And I may add that when I was, in the summer of 1964, driven through the Lake District by a British Council lady, the pond of Wordsworth’s poem didn’t produce more than a common pleasing effect. I was experiencing, what the poet felt on his own pulse, only vicariously, by proxy, as it were. And, no wonder, the intensity of feeling was not there. However, before I advance further in this little argument, I may as well say a few words on the nature of the language per se. Our scriptures, volumes of grammar and aesthetics from Sanskrit to the other languages from the Dravidian to the Northern, from the Dravidian to Pali etc have enough even for the modern imagination. And the huge, insightful critical formulations offered by the 20th century western linguists only add to our primeval but perennial pool of knowledge. Briefly, from the Russian and French linguistic philosophers to the English and American, all have, in their own way, asserted the primacy of language making it the only reality permeating human consciousness. George Steiner, to quote only one example, affirms that it’s language, and language alone that makes us human, So, the sublime too can only be defined or understood if we understand the medium itself. Yes, we all have had intimations of the sublime in certain moments of truth or little epiphanies. One can quote only from one’s experience truly, for experience is the premise of all our responses. I could perhaps count half a dozen such uplifting moments in a life of a Biblical score and more. But I shall confine the statement first to a couple of them. One such moment I remember, invaded my consciousness when one morning sitting in the congregation in the Jhelum City gurdwara. I saw a young woman on the opposite side where the ladies sat in silence, imbibing the Gurbani Kirtan. I was then 16 or 17, and “the woman in white (a newly-married bride, I later learnt) must have been in her early twenties. The face, oval, white and pink, the noble forehead with the golden dark hair tightly drawn, a Bottichelli face, in sum, had that beauty which is nearest to what we call the sublime. If, as John Keats says, “Beauty is truth, and truth beauty,” then, I saw, in that moment what, in the end, remains indescrible, or, indeed, ineffable. I never came to know her name even, and I never thought of pursuing her. The moment had been there in its full beauty and blessedness, and that was enough. The second such moment I pick up from the basket of memory blossoms is the one that I experienced 50 years ago on top of a Mussorrie hill, surveying the earth and the skies and the wonders of nature around at a time when the sun was setting, and an orange mantle had covered all that the eye could see. The moment passed — and it become a part of my “secondary imagination” later. I was again, reminded of Wordsworth’s great line, the mighty world of “eye and ear”. Well, why did I make this little detour from the language grid is not difficult to understand. For, I’m now approaching that part of the language which itself remains half-asleep, and often slides into complete silence. All words are divine, say the scriptures, and poets like Whitman and Puran Singh were all inebriated when words begin to sing in, and then sing out. In his great last poem, Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot again talks of the mystery and divinity of words, of silence, of what in an earlier poem, “Gerontion,” he calls “word within the word”... Thus, when we begin to use words for conscious “effects”, and become insincere in the process, we are, in fact, abusing the language. That’s how “the equivocal man” is made, a person of Orwell’s doublethink and doublespeak. All politicians are not Gandhis, and cannot be, and that’s why the world of politics is full of such equivocators and turn-coats. They have turned words into commodity, and done dirt on a divine gift. Even some of the depraved among them, as I said in a previous piece, may feel a feather-touch of the sublime perhaps once in life though, to be sure, there are always only a pack of men and women indulging in the harlotry of words, a cabal of cads and loudmouths. The sublime remains, whole, white and true where it belongs. |
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Americans are ruthless, say
Kashmiris AS images of Afghan children being extricated from the rubble of bombed buildings and of the injured lying in hospitals are stirring passions in Kashmir, the difference in Indian and U.S. attitudes towards Muslim sentiments has not gone unnoticed in Kashmir. The Indian government had declared a unilateral ceasefire against the militants in Kashmir for the holy month of Ramadan last year, a truce that eventually lasted six months. The USA on the other hand, has refused to halt its air strikes against Afghanistan during Ramadan, likely to begin on November 17. The people in Kashmir had greeted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s declaration of the truce as a “splendid gesture.” That it collapsed because of hardliners in New Delhi and because the militants failed to respond positively is another matter. The talk on the street is that the Americans are ruthless. “We wasted an opportunity delivered to us by Vajpayee for six months but America is not willing to give any chance to the Afghans,” opined Javed Butt, a university
student. Ishaq Ahmad, another student, supported him. “These two attitudes call for a fair debate. The Asian leaders are different from (those in) the West. We have a more humane approach than the
West”. Bilal Ahmad, a graduate who works as a newspaper vendor, feels that “America is displaying the arrogance of its military might, India had shown signs of its humility. That gesture (the Ramadan truce) has not gone unregistered and its value is becoming evident when we watch the American arrogance.” The people of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India, have sympathy for Muslims elsewhere in the world. There have been sporadic protests against the US strikes in parts of the Kashmir valley despite the ambivalent attitude of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to the air strikes. The APHC is divided between its loyalties to Pakistan and the demands of the Muslim “ummah” (brotherhood). Thus, its call to ignore a general strike called by some militant outfits to protest against the U.S. strikes was rejected by the people at large, a significant sign in itself.
IANS. |
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Afghan women remain sidelined A
decade ago, most Afghan women living in cities such as Kabul and Herat could choose any profession and could wear what they pleased. But women were the first targets of the Taliban after it began taking power over most of Afghanistan in the early 1990s. Today, women have to wear the burqa, the long veil that covers them from head to toe, as soon as they leave the house and have to be accompanied by close male relatives when in public. For the last eight years, education has been accessible only to boys and men. As a result, only 13 per cent of Afghan women are literate. Women are not allowed to work or be treated by male doctors. They are beaten in public if they break the unbearably restrictive Taliban laws. “Sixty per cent of the Afghan population is women, and one-third of Afghan women are widows, but they are totally sidelined, more so in times of war,” says Karachi-based researcher Ayesha Khan, who is working on a paper on Afghan women and conflict.
Gemini
Breakfast boosts memory
For anyone in need of a memory boost, breakfast is, indeed, the most important meal of the day. According to a study by Canadian researchers, taking in calories after an overnight fast — be they from carbohydrates, protein or fat — boosted the participants’ performance on memory tests. The fact that fat and protein enhanced short-term memory was a surprise. Carol E. Greenwood said calorie intake after a period of fasting, regardless of the source, may be the key to a short burst in memory capacity. That means having a doughnut at that morning meeting may help people remember what went on in the meeting, according to Greenwood. But, she added, “we wouldn’t want you to have a doughnut all the time.” That is in no small part due to the health effects of high-fat, nutritionally sparse diets but also because carbohydrates generally brought longer-term benefits to participants’ memory than either fats or protein did. She said people should opt for carbohydrates, such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, rather than simple sugars found in the morning-meeting doughnut.
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Without doing good the jiva goes to the domain of death. They attain neither this nor that; full of evil, remorse and suffering is their share. With no regard for duty, full of self, without knowledge, meditation and without Name, how can God be found? Whatever you sow that you reap; without virtue life remains barren. O man, be afraid of unconscious sin. Praise to him who gathers virtue. Why perform an action which must cause remorse in the end. Destroy the inner evil by serving others. By serving others and giving bounteously the sea of life is crossed. Shun evil company, Like poison it destroys life. Those who keep bad company suffer eternal pain. The cultivation of evil breeds evil. Trading in evil, mind and body become evil. — Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Dakhni Omkar, Sri Asa M.1, Asa M.3, Anand Sahib, Gujree M.5, Parbhati M.1, Sri Rag M.1 *** In his (the sun's) view the earth is all equally cultivated like a garden. *** How blind that cannot see serenity! *** A single gentle rain make the grass many shades greener. *** Heaven is under our feet as over our heads. — Henry David Thoreau, Walden *** The wise man says always, "It is Thou, O Lord, It is Thou"; but the ignorant and the deluded say, "It is I, it is I". — Sayings of Sri Ramakrisna, 100, 101, 107, 114. |
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