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Wednesday,
December 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Border flashpoint Rajnath’s nightmare Support yes, intervention no |
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Pressures on India’s foreign policy
Eating crow
Time to check road accidents
1960, Chemistry: WILLARD LIBBY
US study aims to help male cybersex addicts
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Border flashpoint Tension along the Indo-Pakistan border is reaching flashpoint. Both countries are deploying armed corps, tanks and missiles on the international border and the Line of Control in the Kashmir valley. Junior Army spokesmen are exuberantly briefing mediamen, particularly the television crew, of the intensity of firing, the bunkers destroyed and the number of combatants killed. All this may be a political rhetoric or military-diplomatic manoeuvre but the common man is in panic. Television pictures show both Indians and Pakistanis fleeing their villages with whatever possessions they can salvage. For those with a long memory it is 1947 all over again and it is very painful and hurting. Those in the line of fire want to know if there is an alternative and if so why that option is not in operation. There is one but it is being blocked by the war-like mood being built in both countries. In Pakistan the ruling military junta is under siege not only from the military but also from religious fundamentalists that there should be no surrender to outside pressure on the core issue of Kashmir. Public opinion has been so whipped up that even liberal journalists are chorusing the tune of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed that every Pakistani citizen owes a duty to fight for the freedom of all Kashmiris. This reflects the success of the regimentation of the minds of ordinary people. India has to fight against this and seeking a ban of these organisations or freezing their bank account will not do. This is proved by what happened in the first few days of the week. The Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned and its assets blocked but it airily declared that it will remain above the water and not much damage will come its way. For good measure it changed the leadership of the party and recruited some Kashmir-based militants to the top policy council. It is all a cosmetic change but gives it an immunity from any government attack. This is what the old adage says that one should change without changing the focus of attack. Where does all this leave India? It is risky to offer a government, particularly a big and problem-ridden country like India, any advice. But two pieces are in place. Pakistan is under tremendous international pressure and let it work. Give the neighbour a long rope to hang itself. Two, there is seeming opposition within that country for the support to fundamentalist forces which wreak havoc in the country. Three, try to resolve the issue with India and avert another war and devastation. India has a lot to gain by waiting out and allowing Pakistan problems to come to a boil. Yes, keep the diplomatic pressure on the USA, the UK and the EU and hope for the best. Last, avoid war at all costs. Nobody will gain but Indian people will suffer. And they should not. |
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Rajnath’s nightmare The Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta has put Mr Rajnath Singh in a spot of bother. With his eyes firmly on the assembly elections the Chief Minister had taken the moral high ground by sacking ministers not belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party on charges of corruption or involvement in criminal activities. Loktantrik Congress chief Naresh Aggarwal was the first to feel the heat of political morality as practised by Mr Rajnath Singh. However, the Lokayukta's severe indictment of the conduct of three ministers has come in handy for the opposition parties to expose the Chief Minister as a phoney political moralist. The Lokayukta has found substance in the allegations that the three controversial ministers were guilty of abusing their position for making money through bogus real estate transactions. Had the indicted ministers not been political heavyweights the Chief Minister could have used the Lokayukta's findings to his advantage by sacking them. It is the timing of the submission of the report that has put him in a quandary. The opposition parties are demanding that the report be made public. By turning down the legitimate demand he would damage his recently cultivated political image of a relentless campaigner for the removal of tainted ministers. As of today he is merely going through the motion of seeking the views of the Lokayukta. This is a ploy to buy time for his crafty mind to work over-time for finding a way out of the political predicament. There is no question of action being taken against Mr Lalji Tandon unless of course the BJP high command is willing to take the risk of a split in the party in the politically most crucial state. Since Mr Tandon's alleged acts of corruption are likely to be glossed over, the other two ministers named by the Lokayukta too need not lose sleep. The only person who should be spending sleepless nights is Mr Rajnath Singh. He clearly needs more time than is available to him before the crucial assembly elections for sorting out the political mess his BJP colleagues have created. The only development that can help him buy time is the escalation of tension between India and Pakistan. The Chief Election Commissioner has been quoted as having said that assembly elections may have to be postponed in UP, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur in the event of the current Indo-Pak conflict getting out of hand. The Lok Sabha elections could not be postponed, in spite of the BJP rooting for it, during the Kargil conflict because the Constitution does not allow President's rule at the Centre. But assembly elections can wait if the situation so demands. In a manner of speaking, the BJP's future in UP and the three other politically less important states may be determined by the post-December 13 related developments. |
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Support yes, intervention no Ever since he took office as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe has assiduously tried to present an India-friendly profile. He went to the extent of suggesting the construction of a bridge over the Palk Straits connecting the two countries, to be called (what else?) Hanuman Setu. He was true to this Indophile image even during his three-day visit to India from December 22 to 24. There were apprehensions in some quarters that the bonhomie might lead to seeking a role for India in the ongoing ethnic crisis, but these have proved to be misplaced. In fact, Mr Wickremesinghe himself clarified that he did not envisage Indian mediation in Sri Lanka. This was at variance with his earlier statement in Colombo that he wanted India to get involved in the peace process. It was underlined by both sides that while Delhi would be "fully supportive" of the measures outlined by Mr Wickremesinghe, there was no question of mediation. In fact, even the role of facilitation would remain with the Norwegians. That is how it should be. India has had a bitter experience during its earlier involvement in the Sri Lankan crisis and most islanders continue to be deeply suspicious of India's foreign policy objectives. The latter can play a more constructive role by acting as a dependable friend of the country rather than as an activist. To facilitate that it has offered liberal cooperation in the field of energy, telecommunications, and petroleum and also for sharing expertise in the reforms process. But perhaps the best gesture is to provide 25,000 tonnes of wheat every month on concessional terms to cater to one-third of the Sri Lankan requirement. A food crisis is brewing in Sri Lanka and if India can prevent it, it would sow the seeds of a fresh crop of friendship. The mercurial relationship between the two can stabilise if the man on the street sheds his misgivings about Indian intentions. As far as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister is concerned, he has his role cut out if he is to win back the confidence of the LTTE. When he was in the Opposition, he instigated even Buddhist monks to rise against the concessions given by Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga to the Tamil rebels. He will have to do a lot to convince the latter that he is a changed man. He is trying to woo the populace with a flurry of activities which can revive the economy of Sri Lanka. In this regard, he has started working on a South Asian common market. At the same time he is lifting the economic embargo on LTTE areas and allowing a free flow of medicines and food. A calm Sri Lanka is in India's interest as well. Meanwhile, India has agreed to explore the feasibility of the bridge proposal sympathetically. If it comes about, it will be physical as well as emotional link indeed. |
Pressures on India’s foreign policy The tragedy of Indian foreign policy is that more than 50 years after Independence, the country’s efforts at pursuing wider objectives in the region and the world are being dragged by a legacy of Partition, animosity with Pakistan. It was Z.A. Bhutto’s startling success that, despite having lost the Bangladesh war and half of the country in 1971, he was able to win more than 90,000 Pakistani PoWs’ release while keeping the Kashmir issue alive. Some 30 years later, as India repeats the exercise of recalling its High Commissioner in Islamabad, the dispute over Kashmir remains an albatross around India’s neck. For the last 12 years, terrorist violence in Kashmir, obviously fanned from across the border, has been a recurring theme, the bus journey to Lahore and the Agra summit notwithstanding. Although Pakistan has traditionally been more obsessed with Kashmir than India, Islamabad has hampered New Delhi’s attempt at flying high as a world player. This represents, to an extent, India’s failure to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris combined with the Pakistani establishment’s single-minded aim of harming Indian interests, stemming partly from jealousy and partly from the compulsions of keeping the failing nation-state together on a hate-India platform. The dramatic events of the past few months have merely served to complicate an already complicated picture. The horrific terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11 led the USA to create a new benchmark in the post-Cold War world. As the sole surviving super power, it began the exercise of building a coalition to achieve its ambitious aim of fighting terrorism, beginning with Afghanistan, the home of the Taliban hosting Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. President George W. Bush brought within his compass all terrorism with a global reach. The September 11 attacks had a traumatic effect on India as well because the budding new relationship of friendship and cordiality was interrupted by Washington’s need of Pakistan to fight the anti-Taliban and anti-Al-Qaeda war. General Pervez Musharraf having wisely chosen to join the American campaign despite having brought the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, Washington’s attention span was diverted from India and from India’s preoccupation with fighting terrorism in Kashmir. New Delhi, it seemed, was suffering a double reverse: seeing Pakistan, a sponsor of terrorism in Kashmir, joining up in America’s war against terrorism and an obvious American disinclination to be diverted from its Afghan operations by addressing Indian concerns. Although the bloody October 1 terrorist attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was condemned by the USA (as well as President Musharraf), it was the December 13 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi that qualitatively changed the picture for India. New Delhi’s feeling of hurt was the greater because of the initial American response. While condemning the attack, Washington asked New Delhi to associate Pakistan in a joint probe even while Islamabad was accusing India of staging the attack, which killed several Indian security and watch and ward personnel, providentially foiling the terrorists’ plan to take parliamentarians hostage. Indian leaders’ initial response to the attack on Parliament was emotional, but as New Delhi mulled the options, it was clear that merely repeating the mantra of its patience not being limitless was inadequate. In his reply to the debates in the two Houses, Prime Minister Vajpayee sought to tone down the war rhetoric while emphasising the diplomatic options without ruling out the use of force. These options — perhaps the first instalment — were unveiled after President Bush disappointed New Delhi by describing the Lashkar-e-Toiba as a non-state entity based in Kashmir, rather than in Pakistan, seeking to harm President Musharraf as well as India even while taking steps against it. The Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad was recalled and rail and bus services to Lahore were indefinitely suspended from the new year. It was a calibrated response to send signals to Washington and Islamabad. President Bush responded by publicly asking President Musharraf to rein in the two terrorist organisations — the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistan’s initial response has been less encouraging. New attempts by India to seek a reconciliation with Kashmiri separatists by beginning a new round of talks have been frustrated for the present by the crisis in Indo-Pakistani relations. The Indian dilemma is that crossing the Line of Control in Kashmir runs obvious risks of escalation while acquiescing in what has become an intolerable situation is no answer. Besides, the Indian room for manoeuvre is circumscribed by the American agenda in Afghanistan. There are domestic compulsions for the Vajpayee government to show results. MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party have already registered their demand for a firm military riposte to the attack on Parliament even as the next Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are casting their long shadow on national politics. Mr Vajpayee’s capacity to withstand pressures for a military response will depend on the vigorous nature of American diplomacy in persuading Pakistan to address India’s legitimate concerns, instead of playing to the national gallery by scoring debating points. In whatever manner the present Indo-Pakistani crisis is resolved, there is no substitute for urgently seeking a reconciliation in Kashmir. Despite the BJP’s inhibitions, the government needs to follow a two-pronged approach: talking to the separatists and accepting the demand for giving the state the autonomy on the basis of which it acceded to India. Alienation of the Kashmiri people is the breeding ground for dissidence although the foreign hand in instigating, planning and executing terrorist acts has been amply proved. Pakistan views it as a low-cost operation to bleed India, and New Delhi has to make the cost of this stratagem prohibitive. The Vajpayee government faces its biggest challenge as the Prime Minister tries to balance the diplomatic and military options while keeping his head above water. |
Eating crow Having been in government service all my life, I have acquired, it now looks pretty clear, two odious traits: miserliness and a moralistic fervor. As a rule, I count the contents of my valet every morning before putting it in my hip pocket, and do mental calculations of money spent the previous day, and tally the total and square the account. I love the feel of the crisp bank notes that I keep in my purse, deriving the kind of pleasure Moliere’s Miser may have got counting his gold coins. With memory losing its sharpness as age advances, quite often there are frantic moments of anxiety, when it appears I have less than the right amount in the purse, and feel I have been shortchanged or sheared. Only after the elusive transaction is recollected, that the peace of mind is restored. In the meanwhile, I have blamed all and sundry. I seem to be convinced that the world is full of cheats and ruffians, who are out to hoodwink me. My suspicions have always proved to be unfounded, and I have invariably ended up looking sheepish, but somehow the habit never leaves me. Which made me eat humble pie, the other day. I was counting the money as usual in my valet the other day and recollecting the depredations on its contents, and my heart missed a beat. I had a distinct memory that at the end of the day I had two notes of Rs 500 left in it, besides other notes of smaller denominations. But now it had only one left. Oh, my God! This was the biggest valet robbery I had faced so far. My mind was in a whirl. Although the earlier suspected shortages had been traced to my memory slippages, this seemed a clear theft. For I had not gone out at all the whole day yesterday, and there had been no occasion to spend the money. At home only once did I take out the valet, to give a hundred rupee note to Mr Soni for sending a speed post parcel to my daughter in Lucknow. Soni had come back and returned Rs 60. There was no memory loss this time. It was a case of misappropriation or theft, burglary or day light robbery. I was livid. With thefts and robberies and blue murder reportedly being committed by domestic servants day in and day out in the town I live, the needle of suspicion pointed straight to Deepak. He had entered my room in the day to arrange the clothes received from the dhobi. No one else had entered my room except the jamadar, who never opened the wardrobe. It’s him. I was certain. My mind wavered though. He had been with us for the last three years. My wife, Savitri, who also took a dim view of the morals of most servants, had been singularly full of praise for Deepak’s honesty. I thought I should first check with her and consult her before quizzing Deepak. For I was sure Deepak was not going to admit his guilt easily. But she was in her puja room, and I could not contain the righteous indignation welling up inside me. And then time is of the essence in all investigations, I told myself. He was pottering about in the kitchen. I called him. He presented himself instantly in the obsequious manner of a politician going to be administered the oath of ministership by the Rashtrapati. Showing him the open valet, I spoke sternly like a police inspector interrogating a burglar: “What have you done with my five hundred rupee note?” “Which five hundred rupee note, sir?” he feigned total ignorance as expected. “There were two five hundred rupee notes in my purse yesterday. Now there is only one.” “ I have not touched your purse sir”, he pleaded, his eyes beginning to get moist. “Now, look. I don’t want any drama. And I don’t want to tell Bibiji about it. Just tell me what you have done with it, and we shall forget about it.” “But, sir, I have not taken it at all”, and he broke down. This was getting out of hand, and wanting to clinch the issue, I said: “I will have to hand you over to the police.” He said through tears: “You send me to jail, sir, but I have not done it.” My wife heard the din, and rushed out of her puja, and severely chided me for such uncharacteristic intemperance. She said I might have given it to somebody. I told her that I only gave a hundred rupee note to Mr Soni. “But you gave a five hundred rupee note to him. I saw it myself,” Deepak said. I overruled him saying he had returned Rs 60 along with a post office receipt for Rs 40. It couldn’t be that both he and the post office man would make a mistake. But the boy said: “Sir, you ask Soni Sa’ab to check with post office.” It was so embarrassing, but five hundred rupees was not a small amount, and I wanted to test the boy’s honesty. Besides, these five hundred rupee notes look almost the same as hundred rupee notes, and anyone can make a mistake. Neither Mr Soni, nor anyone of us had any hope in the matter. Soni said he had taken it to be a hundred rupee note, but he was willing to go back to the post office and ask. Savitri and I surmised that even if it was a five hundred note, as Deepak asserted, the counter clerk was not going to own it, given the general standard of people’s morality. Half and hour later, Soni walked in with four hundred rupee notes, a serene smile playing on his face. The post office counter clerk told him that he was in the process of taking out the notes from his chest when he left taking only sixty rupees, and that he had been waiting for him since yesterday. The boy’s face lit up, and I apologised to him. But would the wound I had inflicted heal? In my holier-than-thou attitude, I had presumed Deepak and the office clerk to be dishonest. Kabir’s rapier like words came to mind: Bura jo dekhan mein gaya... mujhse bura na koi. (I searched the wide world for an evil person. I found none more evil than myself.) |
Time to check road accidents
It is not that there is a sudden and steep rise in fatal road accidents in Chandigarh. It has been exactly proportionate to the increase of vehicles on these roads. It is also not sudden that many a youngster are dying on Chandigarh roads of head injuries because they were not wearing helmets. Such accidents were taking place earlier too. The changed scene is that our readers now get to know of every such case because the media would not allow any fatal road accident to go unnoticed. Not that the media has become suddenly very conscious of it but that pullouts on Chandigarh have space to ensure that all such accidents are highlighted. Similar accidents are taking place in all towns, villages and cities but mostly get buried in the FIR files of the police. Past 10 years record of Chandigarh indicates that every year 110 to 122 people have been dying in road accidents. Interestingly, majority of deaths in these accidents have been because of head injuries essentially caused for not having worn helmets. The doctors at PGI say that the chance of saving a head is anything between 90 and 95 per cent if one is wearing a proper helmet. The helmet should have the ISI mark besides of a proper shape and has to be tied with a strap. If a road user wears a helmet-looking object just to save his or her skin from a traffic police constable then chances of survival are nil in case of an accident. There are no deterrent laws for not wearing a helmet or a seatbelt except for a fine of Rs 100 in each case. Following up the fate of fatal road accidents it was revealing to note that in majority of the cases the alleged accused were acquitted. Take the following four accident cases that were registered in different police stations. In all these cases, the court acquitted the accused giving them either benefit of doubt or because eye-witnesses did not support the prosecution case. When the police sought legal opinion, the Director Prosecution commented in all four cases that the same were not fit for filing an appeal. The accident cases were registered under IPC Sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (simple injury) 338 (grievous hurt) and 304-A (attempt to murder). In the first case, a Chandigarh Transport Undertaking bus driver Darshan Singh was charged with rash driving that led to the death of a scooter-rider, on November 29, 1997. But the court, for want of evidence acquitted the driver. In another accident case of October 14, 1993, two buses were involved that led to the death of two persons, which included a driver of one bus, Gurbachan Singh, and a girl, Sheetal. The other driver, Kuldip Singh, was accused of and charged with rash and negligence driving. But he was eventually acquitted because the charges could not be proved. In most of these cases the eyewitnesses which in all probability are persuaded by the police to come forward and help to strengthen the prosecution case fail to corroborate the charges with their witness account. All the FIRs in such cases portray ditto language even when the witnesses are different as are the accident cases. This indicates that the hands of the police are tied because of the loopholes in the system of accountability of drivers on the roads. The law does provide certain clauses like IPC 279, 337, 338 and 304-A, for booking the alleged accused in case of an accident. But the law is silent when it comes to unpardonable follies committed by the injured or the dead in an accident or the one who may be a guardian of the road victims. For instance, this correspondent herself is witness to one such accident, which happened in Chandigarh’s Sector 16 in front of a temple. A three-year old boy in a playful mood charged out of the temple gate straight on to the main road oblivious of any traffic hazards. While this correspondent came to a screeching halt, 20-year-old Sunil Kumar, riding a scooter on a very normal speed could not save the child from hitting despite having applied the brakes. The child inevitably suffered head injuries. While the police constables on duty began manhandling Sunil Kumar, the public too even while picking up the injured baby was up in arms against the scooterist. It was after nearly 10 minutes that the parents of the child came running from inside the temple. Obviously, they were not aware about the whereabouts of their child and were informed about the accident. Now the law does not look into the negligence on the part of the parents for having let a three-year old baby cause the accident out of his innocence. Why should the parents not be held responsible for creating a situation for a fatal accident? The trauma and agony that Sunil Kumar had to go through for no fault of his actually has no scope of compensation in the eyes of law. Similarly, in another case scooter driver, Vinod Kumar, was killed in an accident with a tractor, driven by one Amarjit Singh, on March 20, 1994. Again for want of proper evidence and proof of rash driving he too was acquitted giving him benefit of doubt. In yet another case, one CTU driver was acquitted even though a pillion rider, Sanjeev Kumar was killed on September 13, 1999 because eyewitness account did not support the prosecution. Here are some of the recent cases in which young people have died not only because of the rash driving by others but also because they themselves defied the law by not wearing helmets. The doctors are of the opinion that if there is no head injury, the chances of survival are more than 90 per cent. On April 26, 2001 Konika died of a head injury in a road accident precisely for not having worn a helmet. Similarly, Seema also died of a head injury in a road accident in August 2001. Once again she too was not wearing helmet. Case of Charandeep Singh and Rahul is different. Both were minors and yet riding a scooter without wearing safety helmets. Both died on the spot. Then, Sushma, a young mother, lost her life not only because a CTU driver is accused of rash and negligent driving but also because she was not wearing a helmet and hence suffered head injuries. Most of the cases of road accidents are dealt with either in the Accident Tribunal or Lok Adalat. A perusal of some of the cases revealed that a large number of them get settled out of the court. Mostly, the accused is forced to shell out compensation money to the victim’s family. In very few cases punishment ranging from a few months to one year has been given. The overall follow up of road accidents indicates that our law lacks deterrent punishment to the accused. Also there is complete silence about the punishment to be given to the persons who create situations, which could cause fatal road accidents, like the parents of the three-year old child or the road-users who were not wearing helmets or the lack of directive for the heavy vehicle operators or the absence of any training to all the drivers on the road — be it the public or those from the government. |
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US study aims to help male cybersex addicts About 6.5 per cent of male Internet users are compulsive cybersex fans, with online fantasy lives so intense that their off-line relationships may suffer, according to a new study. “We know a lot of people are using the Internet for sexual activity. We need to figure out how people get in trouble with it,” said Dr Al Cooper of the San Jose, California, Marital and Sexuality Centre, who conducted the survey in conjunction with MSNBC. Cooper, who had conducted a series of surveys probing the growing world of Internet sex, said his latest study was aimed at identifying those at risk for cybersex “addiction”. Culling through some 40,000 responses to a poll posted at the MSNBC site, Cooper examined a random sample of some 7,000 male respondents and further narrowed the group down to 384 who indicated they had problems with online sexual activity. These respondents reported that they engaged in cybersex for an average of about 5.7 hours per week, or twice as much time as the rest of the sample. Spending more hours trolling the Internet’s porn sites and sex chat rooms was only one signifier of online sexual compulsion, Cooper said. Most of those who reported cybersex addiction said they went on-line to relieve stress, rather than for entertainment or sex information. “People do it again and again and again, instead of running or talking to their partner”, Cooper said. “There are alternate ways of relieving stress that are probably healthier”.
Reuters Winning Oscar may be bad for your health Oscars for screenwriting should carry a government health warning because winning one can shorten the victor’s life, according to Canadian research published recently. Greater success and wealth may follow, but screenwriters who win the coveted prize have a life expectancy 3.6 years shorter than the nominees who lose. “Winning an Academy Award for screenwriting is associated with a loss of life expectancy”, said Donald Redelmeir of Sunnybrook and Women’s Hospital in Toronto. The researchers can’t explain why winning an Oscar shortens a screenwriter’s life, but they suspect it could be linked to lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and late nights. By contrast, Academy Award-winning actors and actresses live longer than nominees, but their behaviour is under greater public scrutiny, which may account for the difference. Redelmeir and his team studied all 850 screenwriters nominated for the prize, analysing their careers and lifespans. Their research, reported in the British Medical Journal, showed the winners had longer careers and worked on more and better-rated films, but they died earlier than the losers. “While all Oscars are 34.29 cm tall and probably bring increased feelings of self-worth, they may translate differently in actors and screenwriters into those factors that increase or decrease life expectancy”, George Davey Smith, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Bristol in Southwestern England, said in a commentary on the study.
Reuters |
Jesus (is) to my mind, a supreme artist because he saw and expressed Truth. *** It is the courage of a Jesus, a Daniel, a Cranmer, a Latimer and a Ridley who could go calmly to suffering and death. — Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, 20.11.1924; 10.11.1921 *** Two thousand years ago, Divinity incarnated upon this planet to show to all humanity the glorious path to everlasting life by actually living the divine life upon this earth. *** In Jesus, we see perfect holiness, goodness, kindness, mercy, gentleness and justice. — Swami
Shivananda, Bliss Divine *** May Thy life be made manifest in mine, dear Master. — Charlotte Skinner,
The Marks of the Muster *** Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. —The Gospel According to St. Matthew, IV, 19 *** The truth shall make you free — The Gospel According to St. John, VIII, 32 *** Thou who hast not cleansed the dirt from thy heart, why wearest thou the outer garb of a hermit? And thou who in the unfolding lotus of thy heart Hast not enclosed thy Lord, Why hast thou adopted complete renunciation? —Sri Guru Granth Sahib,
Rag Gujri, page 525 **** Three things go together in spiritual discipline; A) Renunciation B) Charity c) Self Control Three requisites are essential for all-advancement: A) Courage B) Enthusiasm C) Joy —From the discourses
of Sathya Sai Baba. *** Be thy own torch; Rise up and become wise. *** Shine out for thyself As thy own light — Paul Richard,
The Eternal Wisdom, Vol. 1 |
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