D. KUMAR -DHANRAJ- BARAHIYA: January 2011

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi .(called world father)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was one of the most respected spiritual and political leaders of our century. He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. After studying law in London, he returned to India in 1891 to practice. In 1893 he accepted a one year contract to do legal work in South Africa. At the time South Africa was controlled by the British. When he attempted to claim his rights as a British subject he was abused, and soon saw that all Indians suffered similar treatment. Gandhi stayed in South Africa for 21 years working to secure rights for Indian people. He developed a method of direct social action based upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth called Satyagraha.

In 1915 Gandhi returned to India. Within 15 years he became a leader of the Indian nationalist movement. Using the tenets of Satyagraha he led the campaign for Indian independence from Britain. Gandhi was arrested many times by the British for his activities in South Africa and India. Altogether he spent seven years in prison for his political activities. More than once Gandhi used fasting to impress upon others the need to be nonviolent.

India was granted independence in 1947, and partitioned into India and Pakistan. Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace but gave in to the demand of Muslims for a land of their own. On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping bloodshed in India – he was helpless in stopping the massacre of Hindus in Pakistan. After 5 days the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

Gandhi tried to lead a life as suggested by the Gita. What follows is his interpretation of that book.

The Object of the Gita

The object of the Gita was to show the most excellent way to attain self-realization. That matchless remedy is renunciation of fruits of action. This renunciation is the central sun around which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve like planets.

The body has been likened to a prison. There must be action where there is body. No embodied being is exempted from labor. And yet all religions proclaim that it is possible for man, by treating the body as the temple of God, to attain freedom. Every action is tainted, be it ever so trivial. How can the body be made the temple of God? In other words how can one be free from action that is from the taint of sin? The Gita has answered the question decisively. “By desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, that is by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul.”

But desirelessness or renunciation does not come from talking. It is attainable only by a constant heart churn. Right knowledge is necessary for attaining renunciation. Learned men may recite the Vedas from memory, yet they may be steeped in self-indulgence. So that that knowledge may not run riot, the Gita insists on devotion accompanying it and has given it the first place. Knowledge without devotion will be like misfire. Therefore, says Gita, “Have devotion and knowledge will follow.”

The devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness. It certainly is not blind faith. The devotion of Gita has least to do with externals. A devotee may use, if he likes, rosaries, forehead marks, make offerings, but these things are no test of his devotion. He is the devotee who is jealous of none, who is a fount of mercy, who is without egotism, who is selfless. Who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery, who is ever forgiving, who is contended, whose resolutions are firm, who has dedicated mind and soul to God, who causes no dread, who is not afraid of others, who is free from exultations, sorrow and fear, who is pure, who is versed in action, and yet remains unaffected by it, who renounces all fruit, good or bad, who treats friend and foe alike, who is untouched by respect or disrespect, who is not puffed up by praise, who does not go under when people speak ill of him, who loves silence and solitude, who has a disciplined reason. Such devotion is inconsistent with existence at the same time of strong attachments.

No one has attained his goal without action, says Gita. While on one hand it is beyond any dispute that all actions bind, on the other hand it is equally true that all living beings have to do some work whether they will or not. Here all activity, whether mental or physical, is to be included in the term action. Then how is one to be free from bondage of action, even though he may be acting? The manner in which the Gita has solved the problem is unique. “Do your allotted work but renounce its fruit – be detached and work – have no desire for reward and work.”

He who gives up action, falls. He who gives up the reward, rises. All acts that are incapable of being performed without attachment are taboo. Thus murder, lying, dissoluteness and like must be regarded as sinful and, therefore, taboo. Man’s life then becomes simple, and from that simplicity springs peace. When there is no desire for fruit, there is also no temptation for untruth and himsa.

The verse that follows from Surah 5 of the Quran should then be made taboo, if Gandhi’s teachings are to be followed, for avoiding murder and sin.

88. Then what is the matter with you that you are divided into two parties about the hypocrites? Allâh has cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they have earned. Do you want to guide him whom Allâh has made to go astray? And he whom Allâh has made to go astray, you will never find for him any way (of guidance). 89. They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliyâ’ (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the Way of Allâh. But if they turn back (from Islâm), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliyâ’ nor helpers from them.

God is: Gandhi’s Argument

There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the sense.

But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how he rules. Yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. That law which governs all life is God. I may not deny the law or the lawgiver because I know so little about It or Him.

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That power or spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through senses can or will persist, He alone is.

In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, and Light. He is love. He is the supreme Good.

The realization is preceded by an immediate faith. He who would in his own person test the fact of God’s presence can do so by a living faith.

Self-Actualizing

Similar are the writings of – American 20^th Century Psychologist A.H. Maslow which follow. Self-actualizing people are, without one exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves. He described eight ways in which one self-actualizes.

First, self-actualization means experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly, with full concentration and total absorption. It means experiencing without the self-consciousness of the adolescent. At this moment of experiencing, the person is wholly and fully human. The key word for this is “selflessly,” and our youngsters suffer from too little selflessness and too much self-consciousness.

Second, let us think of life as a process of choices, one after another. At each point there is a progression choice and a regression choice. To make the growth choice instead of the fear choice a dozen times a day is to move dozen times a day toward self-actualization. Self-actualization is an ongoing process; it means making each of the many single choices about whether to lie or be honest, whether to steal or not to steal at a particular point, and means to make each of those choices as a growth choice.

Third, to talk of self-actualization implies that there is a self to be actualized. There is a self, and let the self emerge. Most of us, most of the time, listen not to ourselves but to outside voices of authority, tradition, advertisements, news reports etc.

Fourth, when in doubt, be honest rather than not. Looking within oneself for many of the answers implies taking responsibility. That is in itself a great step towards actualization. Each time one takes responsibility; this is an actualizing of self.

Fifth, A person who does each of these little things each time the choice point comes will find that they add up to better choices about what is right for him or her. One comes to know what his destiny is, who his wife or husband will be, what his mission in life will be.

Sixth, Self-actualization means using one’s intelligence. It means working to do well the thing that one wants to do. To become a second rate physician is not a good path to self-actualization. One wants to be first-rate or as good as one can be.

Seventh, peak experiences are transient moments of self-actualization. They are moments of ecstasy which cannot be bought, cannot be guaranteed, and cannot even be sought. One must be, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “Surprised by joy.” Breaking up an illusion, getting rid of a false notion, learning what one is not good at, learning what one’s potentialities are not – these are also part of discovering what one is in fact.

Eighth, finding out who one is, what he is, what he likes, what he doesn’t like, what is good for him and what bad, where he is going and what his mission is – opening oneself unto himself. Repression is not a good way of solving problems.

The distinction between the self and non-self is broken down. There is less differentiation between the world and the person. We know that it is possible for a person to get more pleasure out of food through having his child eat it than through eating it with his own mouth. Just as beloved people can be incorporated into the self so can be beloved causes and values. To identify one’s highest self with the highest values of the world means a fusion with the non-self. When you see yourself moving successfully toward truth, justice, beauty and virtue you will be loving and admiring yourself. So also may a person with great talent protect it and himself as if he were a carrier of something which is simultaneously himself and not himself. He may become his own mentor.

D. KUMAR -DHANRAJ- BARAHIYA

Thursday, January 20, 2011

LORD KRISHNA

Deobrat

Mahatma gandhi

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

MITHILA PAINTING

mithila-bihar

Sunday, January 2, 2011

NEW YEAR-2011