Conversation with an old friend

 

It was an accidental meeting. 

First he avoided looking into my eyes and turned away. We had known each other for more than 2 decades and there was no way he would not have noticed me. I kept on looking at him. The next time he looked at me I smiled.  He gave me a sheepish smile.  Then after I made enquiries about his health, he slowly started speaking.

Now a days I find from your social media posts that you have developed a very negative opinion about our party.

Yes.

But you appeared to be supportive of our ideas and leaders when we were in the opposition and even when Vajpayeji was the PM.

Yes. When you were in the opposition, Congress had already hit its nadir.  Their leaders were not connected at the ground level.  They had already compromised on those values for which the party stood for prior to Independence. In fact Gandhi wanted the winding up of the party after Independence.  He foresaw the possibility of the party taking the credit for achieving freedom and thus destroying democracy.

Do you mean to say that Gandhi was a democrat?

As an individual, he was not.  He always gave importance for his inner voice. But in governance, he was insistent that it should be democratic.

Then how do you explain his interfering with the elections in Congress itself?

When his opinion and support was sought he took the stand that he could not go with someone whose path he had no trust in. He was outside the Congress.  The leaders of the Congress required him. That was it.

But how does all this come in the way of your present opposition to our party?

Because, after 2014, your party has openly taken to the path that was earlier followed by the Congress under Mrs. Gandhi.

How was Mrs. Gandhi different from her father?

Her father, in spite of his weaknesses, which he himself would admit here and there, would not like to stick to power at any cost.  Rather, he felt being in power was a burden.  I remember to have read somewhere that this was primarily why Gandhi preferred him to Patel. Nehru himself is believed to have issued a pamphlet using a pseudonym against himself and describing himself as a dictator, to avoid being re-elected President of the Congress.

It could have been a lie circulated to bring credit to himself.

But then, he was always concerned about criticism.  He wanted to be seen as a follower of Gandhian principles and a world leader.  Partly only because of this he failed to see through the Chinese game plans.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi was also sensitive to criticism.

Yes. She inherited it from her father. But, she lacked his confidence.  Hence, sought to reduce the stature of others of her father’s generation.  When she found that she was left without the footing of that generation, she sought to get a firm footing of her own, through nationalization and then she gained better control after the Bangladesh war.

Yes. But for her we may not have won that war.

If Sashtri had been there also we could have won.  Now, we have the habit of trying to put down Nehru with the success in Pakistan war and Bangladesh war.  It is preposterous to speak about Bangladesh and China in the same breath.  But the point is that even after getting an unassailable position after the Bangladesh war, she constantly was wary of the opposition, within the Congress and outside, which ultimately lead to the Emergency.

But how do you blame us of following her footsteps?  You are well aware that we were the ones who fought against the emergency.  The Communist fellows cowed down meekly.

Yes.  Some of your leaders and cadre fought against the emergency.  Some in the Communist party also. But some of your people also had a soft corner for her because, she was openly showing pro-Hindu leanings.  Her son, Sanjay was a great fan of your theories of ‘teaching the Muslims a lesson or putting them in place’.  The present bulldozer culture of some of your state governments reminds me of only the Turkman gate incidents.

But we are staunchly against dynasty politics.

When you propound a Hindu rashtra, which is unquestionably linked to varnashrama and has become embedded as caste system, how do you say dynasty could be done away with?

But some families have been looting the country like the Gandhi family at the centre, the Abdhullahs in J&K and the Karunanidhi family in TN.

But in these 10 years, have you been able to bring them to book?  Atleast establish primafacie cases? During the UPA you made such a big din about the 2G that you have not been able to establish the case in the last 10 year of your rule. I do agree that a hand full of people or families amassing wealth is bad for the economy and democracy.  Whether it is a ruling clan or a corporate body. A democracy with vibrant institutions like the legislature, Judiciary and press should ensure that such things do not happen.  For that matter, have not the second generation already started coming up in your party?  Then how can you blame the banyan called the Congress or similar old parties?  And whether Congress or your party or others, there is open alignment with the corporates.

Do you not see that we have been bringing legislations to ensure a curb on corruption?

I find that your legislations are mostly to serve your own party than to bring long term solutions to the real problem. 

How do you say that?

Demonitisation, PM CARES Fund, Electoral Bonds, Change in committee to appoint Election Commissioners by giving the entire power to the PM with 2/3 strength, attempts to change the collegium system so that similar exercise could be done in the matter of appointing Judges, etc are purely for putting your selves on a higher footing from the others so that the level playing field is taken away.  I am reminded about someone like Mr. Gurumurthy saying that in order to win more medals in the Asiad or Olympics, we should include those games in which we are better at. That is precisely what your party has been doing in terms of legislations.  Bringing in your own rules of the game or game itself. The next in your agenda is to go in for delimitation by which the south and east will become irrelevant for your majority, because, these regions think differently.

You are questioning the competence of the elected party with a majority to make laws.

Laws have to be made in continuation to the earlier ones.  Just because I have a majority I cannot rubbish all the earlier events or legislations and create something out of the blue.  That will destroy the concept of ‘rule of law’. That is what anarchy is about and how people like Hitler liked to interpret democracy.

But this so called ‘rule of law’ has been inherited from the British. Why should we hang on to it?

Many of the present day laws have been continued from the British. But even when British made laws which were against our interest, there have been protests, often violent, against them.  Thus, it is an evolution that has taken place.  To say that we will repeal all that has been done from the British period is to go back to Sati, non-marriage of widows, non-inheritance of property by women, untouchability, etc.

We want to go back to the golden age of our ancestors where these discriminations were not there.  It is the British and left historians who portrayed as if these were there in the Hindu society.

First of all, there is no proof that man ever lived without discriminations, in one form or the other.  Secondly, clock cannot be set back in time. Third, there are enough recordings by our own people regarding such bad practices and from time to time there have been attempts to reform from within.  Putting all the blame ofn the British will not cut much ice.  Lastly, even if such an ambition is genuine, the tone and tenor of your present leadership is not promising in that regard.

How do you make such a bland and blanket statement? You are biased.

Yes. I have become biased because I saw that even after being elected to power, you keep on speaking as if you are in the opposition.  Your tallest leaders speak the language of regional party leaders or even leaders of some splinter groups or pressure groups.  You people have forgotten that once elected, you have to speak and act on behalf of all people.  Not ‘your people’ alone.

But every other party which gets elected, works only for their supporters.  You are proposing an utopian theory.

Agreed. In practice, it had been so.  But in public and while speaking and acting in capacities of elected posts, people were expected to behave according to their positions.  That is why I have not had any objection to Vajpayee, but do not accept Mrs. Gandhi.

Now you are coming back to the same thing.  I think there is no point in talking to you.  You cannot be convinced.

Yes, I would better not be.

That is why I avoided speaking to you. After the next elections, people of your type will either change or will be forced to.

 

After he left, I was left ruminating:

I was reminded of what Kuldip Nayar wrote in his book on the Emergency (The Judgment).  While waiting for the train just before the election results were to be announced (in 1977) he says, suddenly a thought flashed in his mind, ‘what if she comes back’?.  

I would better believe in God.

Waiting for the Avathar

 

Kurudhipunal is one of the master pieces of Tamizh writer Dr. Indira Parthasarathy.  It has the incidents of Keezh venmani as its back drop.  It won the Sahithya Akademy Award in 1977.  In the novel, two protagonists discuss about the sorry state of affairs concerning the poor and downtrodden.  One of them says that a revolution is in the offing.  The other one says, it will not.  He says that people of this country are so used to waiting for some avatar to come and save them that they will not organize and revolt themselves. 

They believe that a Rama, a Krishna, a Buddha or a Gandhi will come to save them.  After Gandhi, they believed in Nehru, then in Indira Gandhi, some in JP, some in Morarji Desai, then in Rajiv Gandhi and now in Modi.  At the state levels also things are no different. This is also the reason why feudalism still survives.

The Indian is bound by the belief in the concept of Karma.  Karma of his past binds his present.  But he does not realize that his Karma of the present determines his future.  He does not realize that Karma is both - doing as well as not doing, or refraining from doing or avoidance of action itself.  It is plain sluggishness and basic fear that is at the root of this inertia. 

He has for his support the story of Ajamila in the Bhagavatha, to emphasise that even if he is on the wrong path, surrender to the Lord will redeem him ultimately.

He does not realize the concept of surrender.  He does not realize that such a surrender, is after realizing the error in the action undertaken thus far.  It is not an insurance against planned execution of misdeeds. Such a distorted view has given rise to people conveniently planning diabolic moves, annihilating all other adversaries through cunning means and being merciless.  Then they think that going to Rameswaram, to Gaya or to Kashi and having a dip in some holy waters will absolve them of all their ill deeds and take them straight to heaven.

All the oceans of Neptune cannot wash away the guilt of such murderous designs.

Real way to come out of the circuitous designs imposed by base instincts embedded within us is prescribed in one of the main Thirukkurals:

“மனத்துக்கண் மாசிலன் ஆதல் அனைத்து அறன்
ஆகுல நீர பிற."  

(All virtues stem out of a mind cleansed of dirt.

All else are mere posturing.)

Cleansing the mind is a process.  It is continuous and difficult. It cannot be done simultaneously along with satiating ones craze for power, wealth and pride.

This is what realized people have repeatedly told us.

This is the real inner revolution. 

The outer revolution on the social side spoken about by Dr. Indira Parthasarathy does not necessarily mean a bloody revolution.  It is a conception change in the thought process.  It underlines the need to organize at a particular level to achieve a common goal.

The average Hindu is afraid and apprehensive of the Muslim, Christian or a Sikh precisely because the Hindu is not organized as in the case of the others.  It is also not a fact that the other religious denominations are all organized as one.  There are sects and sub-sects within each.  Yet, each such sub-sect or Church caters to its members.  It is also open to others and even tries to woo the others.  It does not shut its gates.  Only dictum is that the new comer should follow the dictums prescribed. The movements within the Hindu fold like the Sri Ramakrishna Mission, ISKON, Satya Sai Seva Samithi, Brahma kumaris, Yogoda Satsangh, etc have taken cue from the organizations in other religions and have tried to have a common platform for a particular purpose.  They are not aggressive organizations, but try to inculcate the concept of brotherhood and attempt to alleviate sufferings of the poor and down trodden.

But, trying to organize Hinduism as one, is the latest attempt – on political lines. And in this attempt, instead of organizing on the basis of humanitarianism, it is attempted by having some common enemies.  To strengthen the inner wheels, what is getting consolidated is the caste-based identity.  Since the castes are inherently opposed to each other and have superiority and inferiority complexes foiled into one, once the common enemy factor is lost, these inner wheels will fall asunder. Due to this reason, the common enemy factor should be kept reinforced by these new social scientists. Humanitarian approach that is the fulcrum for real bonding is lost in the face of animosities. This is no revolution at the social level either.  We will be slipping back to old stone age.

The best course would be to be conscious of what one is doing, the purpose and whether it is to hurt others.  Present hurt cannot be a reply to a past hurt, whether actual or perceived.  We are only creating another karmic cycle then.

At the feet of the Mahakavi

 

YOGA SAKTHI

By Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar

(an attempt by me to render in English at the request of a friend)

 By the strength of thine grace

the heaven and earth are ruled!

But is my penance with pain

and heart squeezing love

bound to drain out like water

poured out on a desert sand?

 

Won’t even a thought arise in your mind

would you so foolishly lend me this earth?

 

Proclaiming you as my refuge

and having struck on that in my mind,

Oh mother I cried out

to give me huge wealth and

to protect it, great righteousness.

 

But do you not hear those pleadings

and is it fair to let Truth slip off?

 

Oh Kali, great Chamundi,

Mistress of Aumkara and queen of my heart,

Shall I be teased around for days on end?

art not that the heart’s desire be achieved

at thine lotus feet

where I surrendered myself?

 

If they are granted not, rid me of this life

For, don’t you know, Oh dark blue one,

that with sorrow unending, my life shall not dwell?

 

Craving and churning food all day long,

weaving many petty and stupid tales,

weak at heart, embroiled in sorrow,

tormenting others with one’s own deeds,

greying and withering with passing days,

getting taunted by harsh words and then to die,

would a lot of mean and funny mortals do,

You thought I shall also fall away so?

 

I shall ask some boons of thee,

that thou shall give me straight away.

All effects of my past ill deeds

shall perish without arising.

I shall be made into a new life

with all my sorrows vanquished.

Intelligence made sparkling bright

and let me be in bliss for ever.

 

With the shoulders strengthened,

physical tire and illness driven out,

with a firm body that could withstand

even a slicing by a sword blade,

with a beaming face for all time,

like a lotus seeing the rising Sun;

teaching ways to overcome narrow sectarian paths,

exalted virtues of penance shall be granted.

 

Success in all endeavours

undertaken shall be granted

There shall be treasures for great deeds

and there shall be contributions from all around;

There shall be to the heart’s content

soothing music with energetic beats;

My singing and notes shall invigorate

vibrant grand pleasures of poetry.

 

To turn just stones to diamonds;

copper into glittering gold bars;

ordinary grass into rice fields;

pigs and boars as fierce lionesses;

and various ways of conquering earth

the nation that knew these techniques

shall have an unburdened great learning

for intelligent and a virile victory!

 

And make out of various alloys

Rich and variant things by labour;

Towards achieving these goals and to shine

To make the country proud

To quell the lethargy I may be strengthened.

Oh, mother would that be so daunting?

The dark falsities enclosing my mind

shall at once vanish all together.

 

Doubts shall vanish

Fear shall be vanquished

Repeatedly I seek thee –

That like lord Krishna took care of Partha,

So shall thee take direct charge of me

And million times I shall pray thee

That I shall be granted the leadership of the universe.

 

Long live the Mother,

Long live her grace.

 

Aum Kali, the great Chamundi,

Mistress of Aumkara and queen of my heart.

 

 

Every Pournami or full moon is beautiful.  

For those in love, it gives a new high.  For those in search of higher truths, it throws light towards enlightenment. The later are in love for the eternal.

Every enlightenment hands over a message.  It is received by the perceiver, on behalf of the entire humanity.

Once it is announced, then starts all trouble.

Those who are around the enlightened, throw up a wall around that person, in the name of protecting that person and the revelation.  And then they claim ownership over that person and the teachings.  It is up to them then to interpret it.  No one other than in that circle are entitled to interpret it.

Then on another full moon, another person has to get the message all over afresh again.  And the drama continues.

World over, in the name of religions and pontiffs, what has happened is only this.

I remember an incident (somewhere in the late 80s) when I had visited the Kanchipuram Sankara Mutt along with some high dignitaries with whom I had laid a precondition that I will not remove my shirt or bow before any one, unless I felt the urge within.

We could converse with the Sri Jayendrasaraswathi and Sri Vijayendrasaraswathi, (who were the second and third in rank then) even with my shirt on.  But when we went to the dining hall, I was warned by a Brahmin serving food that unless I remove my shirt, food will not be served.  I had gone as a part of a delegation and there were much old (of more than 80 years) and venerable persons (One of them having been a close associate of Jayaprakash Narayanan) in the group. It was already 30 minutes past 2 pm and my refusal to remove my shirt would have lead to my walking out of the dining hall and I was sure that the others will find it embarrassing or they will also have to walk out along with me.  Hence, I had to bow to the demand.  My friend, to whom I had conveyed my condition, later approached me and said, ‘did you see Khomeni coming in the form of a Brahmin with a karandi (Ladel) in hand?’ (I should clarify here that my friend was himself a Brahmin)

Another day, I was at the Coimbatore Airport.  T.M.Krishna was also waiting for his flight.  He had written an article a week ago in the The Hindu demanding that the Muslim community also adher to certain rational norms (or something on those lines).  I told Mr. Krishna that even though his article was well intentioned, since he did not belong to that community, he may be mistaken. I also mentioned that inspite of all his efforts in fighting irrationalism in Hinduism, EMS was not appreciated when he tried to comment on Muslim practices. Mr. Krishna perhaps misinterpreted my reasoning as a rabid Hindu view and said that fanatics were there in all religions.  Before I could explain further, my name was called and I had to leave to catch my flight.

When in the millennium edition of the Indian Express T.J.S. George had written that the Western theologians depreciated the Oriental Religions by putting them on a lower pedestrian and to demonstrate that had quoted Dante as having placed Prophet only in a lower pedestrian, his argument, which was in favour of the Muslim religion was not understood and consequently a lot of copies of the news paper went up in flames.

This is what Arundati Roy also meant by her statement quoted at the beginning of this blog.

The really spiritual people have to come together against these vested interests.

Let the full moons enable and enlighten again.

The life and the message

 

When we take up the name of persons whom we revere, we think twice before we do it to see whether we are competent to take up the name.

But day in and day out, we use the name of Gandhi, both to claim his legacy as well as to denigrate him.

He was one person who had the guts to say that his life is the message.

His life for that matter, was an open book.  He was his own bitter critique.  And as a result of his perpetual self-criticism, he changed his views and said that which-ever was the latest and if in contradiction to an earlier one, it is to be taken an as his reviewed stand on any issue.

But that such contradictions were not generated out of opportunistic views, would be evident from his letters to close confidents like C.F.Andrews or his public debates in articles or speeches.

One primary criticism was that he was dictatorial and adamant.  The second, he was, to a point, particularly in getting convinced with sound logic and reason, at least to his own best judgment, before accepting anything.  But, when it came to politics, we see that he was more than once vetoed by the Congress party.  Considering that there could be no better alternative in the said situation, he had to keep quite.  The partition was once such big event.  That he was dictatorial, becomes untrue due to this reason itself. That he was open to suggestions, he would argue out his case and most patiently try to make the other person see his view point and never, ever, raised his voice to be heard or to suppress other voices.  Yes, when he felt helpless and that he was not able to compromise beyond a point, with the reality and what his inner self told him was the right path, he subjected himself to a fast.  For lesser mortals, such fasts were instruments to black mail.  But, for someone to undertake an indefinite fast, or a specifically declared 21 day fast, etc, are not gimmicks as of the present day.  It was a conversation with his God.  It was a way to come out of his spiritual dilemma as to ‘how far one could go if the path to be undertaken was diagonally opposite to what the inner self dictates’. He had declared that it was a moot point, as to how far one could go on like that.  It was one reason why he quit the Congress itself.

That those who were around him were not able to ignore his pangs, exhibited in the form of such fasts, was only due to the fact that they were bound to him due to his magnetism of ‘purity and truth’.

Cleanliness, purity and truth, were synonyms for him.  They were not to be exhibited, or practiced during specific dates or times.  It was a condition of life to be practiced and refined perpetually. 

If he were to be really understood for his ‘sadhana’, it could be done so only by understanding the personality of Acharya Vinobha Bhave, whom Gandhi had said was his Guru who had come in the form of his disciple.  The disciple was one of the foremost from the Brahmin community, who threw away his caste, his educational qualifications and threw himself into the sarvodaya movement, demonstrating what it really was, by carrying the human excreta of others on his own head. 

Compared to that, later, most unfortunately, people who do not clean their own toilets or who engage others to clean their own clothes and undergarments, come out in public and pose for photos with brooms in hand and clear pre-planted garbage in some public places. 

But Gandhi, never sought publicity.  He never ran after journalists, whether Indian or Foreign.  He had his own instruments to get in touch with the masses and if anyone wanted to test him or question him, he always made himself available.  More than anything else, he could speak even through his silence.

He never prepared himself for such meetings with journalists. Appointments were given and kept in the midst of his routine work – whether spinning on the charka, whether when going through the daily correspondence or whether when going for his routine walks.  If anyone missed an appointment due to being late for some reason, he never found fault with them, but accommodated them in the nearest possible slot which was next available, without putting away the appointment given to anyone else.  It is to be noted that he did not go out of the way to cut any one else's appointment, to accommodate a late comer, however big he or she might be.

Such grandeur on the part of a half-naked-fakir, sitting for most of the part of his life in hut like ashrams, or on some public places or in the jail, is something, that cannot be created by PR work.

Though he never used severe language against those opposed to his views or movement, his words were clear and concise.  They carried the weight of his soul and hence, he need not have to repeat them, but those around him were affected by it and repeated it like a mantra.

There are umpteen instances where those who approached him had done so with doubts, cynicism, mixed feelings, antagonism or curiosity, but were all drawn to his simplicity, clarity, child like honesty and indomitable spirit.

If at all he was not having a ready reply to a question posed to him, or if the question had been tormenting him too and he had not been able to get an answer to it himself or if he felt that the questioner would not understand the answer from his point of view, he never tried to browbeat the questioner by any methods of arguing, shouting, evading, posing a counter, etc.  He simply kept quiet.

Self confidence is often criticized as egotism.  But, real ‘ego’ is the effulgent self which cannot be destroyed by fire, water or anything else.  And those who do not know its greatness are bound to confuse it with the arrogance of the mind.

When we think that such a man’s name and legacy could be used for advertisement, self-projection, symbolism or even for articulation of his complete anti-thesis, we can only blame ourselves, for not having taken the pain to go through his life, which he truly called as his message, in-spite of the entire life being recorded live, elaborately, by himself and those around him, almost on a day to day basis.

Thirukkural 108 (retold in English) in the light of Avayar

#Thirukkural is one of the seminal works in Tamil Literature.  Though it is referred to by various authorities and scholars, it has not gained as much in-depth attention as it ought to have got in respect of determining Social and personal values.  Even within Tamilnadu, it is not in common use by the ordinary citizens and students, as much as any other work of its nature would in any other language.  

The Thirukkural consists of 1330 couplets of  seven words in two lines each.  It is divided into 133 chapters, which are in turn divided into #Aram (Righteousness or #Dharma) consisting of 38 Chapters and 380 couplets, #Porul (Wealth or #Artha) consisting of 70 chapters and 700 couplets and #Inbam (Bliss or #Kama) consisting of 25 chapters and 250 couplets.  

Apart from the depth of the subjects handled in the above said 1330 couplets, the tightly woven style and the crisp manner in which it has been delivered, the relevance of the subject to every day life is very note worthy.  In spite of that, if it has not gained as much attention as the #Arthasashtra, or The #Prince, or the #Art of War, it has been felt that it did not have an easily understandable English translation in couplet form.

In an attempt towards this, on a path which very many have already travelled, I also embarked almost 23 years ago.  

During the travel, however, I felt that the couplets could be re-classified into Aram, Porul, Inbam and #Veedu (Dharma-Artha-Kama-Moksha) with the 108 Chapters of Aram and Porul itself in the light of a poem by Saint #Avayar.  I have explained it in the preface.

Smt. #M.A.Susila, a Tamil Scholar, Writer, Translator of great works including that of #Dostoevsky and a Retired Professor has been kind enough to go through my attempt and approve of it with a large heart. 

Shri. #C. Rajendiran of the #Voice of Valluvar family has given his good wishes.

I owe a lot to Dr. N.V.K Ashraf and Shri. V. Gopalan for their valuable guidance and help in finalising the translations. 

While attempts are on to get it published in such a manner that it could be easily available for those within Tamilnadu as well as outside, at an affordable price, I am giving below my preface and the review of the work by Smt. M.A.Susila, for those interested in the subject:

Review and Preface to Thirukkural 108 Retold in English

-Manimohan
Coimbatore

The Great Ganges

 

If someone asks whether the #Ganga is polluted or pure, the answer will depend upon which part of the Ganges, one is asking about.  Till the great river reaches Rishikesh, it is pure.  After that, pollution starts. (I don’t know whether it has started to be polluted from Rishinkesh itself now)  The one who is at Allahabad or Varanasi may say that the River is sacred, but cannot deny that it is polluted at the same time.  The one who has not traveled beyond Rishikesh with the river may not agree that it is polluted at all.  Someone living on the banks of the river with all its pollution, may feel frustrated that in spite of crores of rupees spent to clean it up, the menace continues.  If he is not getting any benefit out of the river, but is only affected by its pollution, he may say that it is better that the water body be dried up so that atleast the stinging pollution and its ill effects could be done away with.

Not only #Sanathana dharma, but all great religions have high spiritual aspects at their pinnacle, but have been infested by numerous pollutants down the stream.  Whether the sages of the Himalayas, the Sidhas of the Vindhyas or the Prophets of different parts of the world, they have revealed what has been glimpsed by them at great altitudes. Spirituality has been the hallmark of all searches. 

Sage after sage have repeated that all rivers lead to the sea.  But, yet, like babes quarrelling that one’s mother is superior to that of others, the so called followers quarrel with others.  None of them are actually following the real Masters.  Instead of travelling down the lane, they have put up tents on the ways and started bickering over territorial rights. Every religion has been called a way.  But when one stops travelling, there is stagnation and pollution. 

‘Ekam sat, vipra bahuta vadanti’, will be repeated like a mantra.  But the next moment, there will be a quarrel that it can mean so only in some specific religion or language.

Whenever there is a quarrel over whether sanathana dharma is great or not, I am reminded about two stands regarding Brahminism (which was how Sanathana Dharma was referred to in Tamil Nadu).

One was by #E.V.R.Periyar.  He said that he was not against Brahmins, but was against Brahminism.

The other stand was by the great Tamil writer #Jayakandan.  He said he was against Brahmins, but was for Brahminism.

Now, both the above statements may appear to be contradictory.

But on a closer examination of the back ground against which each of them spoke, one will understand that what Periyar meant by Brahminism was the degenerated practices injected by the Brahmin cult, which included castisim (or varnashrama), discrimination against women, etc.  When he said that he was not against Brahmins, he meant that he was not against those individuals, whom he saw as victims of their faith, but was only against their faith system as such.

On the contrary, Jayakandan says Brahminism as the quintessence of Upanishadic teachings.  He felt that it was the pinnacle of the Hindu faith system.  His argument was that the degeneration was caused by the people who practiced it, or rather did not practice it, but only paid lip sympathy to it.

Now, we come back to the question of whether the Ganga is clean.

While Jayakandan stands at Rishikesh, Periyar stands at Allahabad or Varanasi.

Once we understand their stand points, we can reconcile the seemingly contradictory stands.

Once, we resolve that there is pollution and that it has to be cleaned up, there is no more need to quarrel.

If one is going to argue that there is no pollution, then he is ignorant.  There is no point in arguing with him. If one is to argue that even if there is pollution, because it is sacred, we have to put up with it, then again there is no point in arguing with him.

There has not been a greater proponent of the greatness of Hinduism or Vedantism or Sanathana Dharma than Swami #Vivekananda.  Yet, there has not been a greater critique than him, to point out the ills of our system.  He called for a root-and-branch reform.

If we have to safeguard a system, the pollutants of the system have to be removed first.  In Ayurveda, medication is started only after a purging of the stomach. 

But the problem is that we continue to delude ourselves or allow others to delude us for their gains.

If someone calls for a root-and-branch reform today, we say that they are out to destroy.  ‘How can the root be changed and then the plant or tree survive?’ That is our emotional take.  We presume that we are rational too.

“I feel our country has an uncanny way of bringing out extremes in her people.  I suppose, it is because Indians have been both afflicted and enriched by centuries of migrations.  Loyalty to different rulers has dulled our capacity for a single allegiance. Instead, we have developed an extraordinary ability to be compassionate and cruel, sensitive and callous, deep and fickle, all at the same time.  To the untrained eye, we may appear colourful and picturesque, to the critical eye, we are but shoddy imitations of our various masters.”

  These are the words of #A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, in his book, ‘Wings of Fire’.

Unless we are able to come out of this psychological mess, we may not be able to make much headway, socially or spiritually.