Young India

I am clueless about ways to approach intellectual class of young India. Why majority of them are so alienated from their roots and do not want to understand it, even when situation permits them to do that.

I see the following reasons:

- Education system

- Globalization

- Materialistic view towards life

- Superficiality in thinking

- Attraction for easy money

- No possibility of reading due to surfing etc

- Hopeless political system

- Lack of ideals

I see following remedies

- Proper counselling from school days

- Involvement in social work as part of education (eg. Effective implementation of NSS)

- Compulsory army or disaster management training

- Yoga, Sanskrit, Trade, Farming should be integral part of education

- Earn and learn Or gurukul system of education

- No student organizations and elections during college days

- No rat race for merit. Grades instead of percentage

I am confident that the situation will definitely change for good and hibernating minds will be ignited.

BACK to village

It will sound ridiculous if one start talking of village centric economy in this era of globalization. We are all awed at western model of development and just not ready to accept that every nation has its own strengths and weaknesses and Bharat has to use its strength to thrive which is human capital. Globalization was the concept arises after industrial revolution when excess product has to be dumped somewhere and the cycle has to continue at the expenses of other nations. Without bothering to their needs multinational companies with their robust marketing literally imposed their product that too with their terms and conditions. Indian policy makers never gave a thought about developing domestic market with the resources available to us.

I agree that exchange of technology and/or funds should not be restricted but unchecked globalization will only help the mightier as we can experience now. Western view of looking a human being just as commercial entity or a bundle of desires is heading at least us to nowhere. We as Hindu do agree the necessity of worldly things but never thought it to be ultimate aim of one's life. Our huge population is cited as hindrance in our progress but it can made our asset if our resources are channelized properly.

Leaders of first generation after independence was western educated and had no clue about our traditional commerce before foreign invasion. Only Gandhiji asked Congress to go back to village but our beloved then prime minister literally understood the meaning as neglecting villages and instead created islands of prosperity in terms of cities and villages where still our 70% population is living are allowed to live with their own fate.

Its our duty of urban youths who are enjoying all the fruits of Independence and all the opportunities in terms of education,health care, entertainment etc at the cost of majority of our brethren who are less fortunate to share the resources with them. If we could develop a model of village centric economy then we do not have to depend on external factors for our own growth. We have to take initiative in this direction for sustainable development of our beloved country.

Conversation between an atheist and a spiritual person

1. do you think a human being can become god..

The answer to this question depends on the definition of the ‘god’

1a. if yes, what would you like to change in you to become god?

To know myself only as pure consciousness (soul), and body as an instrument to achieve this goal. The notion of caretaker of everything and detachment from people and things is the key to become god.

1b. if no, what inhibits for a human being to become god..

According to ‘Dwaita’ school of thought there is always duality and one can not become god, though he has all the attributes of ‘god’

According to ‘Adwita’ you are always equivalent to god, only your ignorance makes you human being.

2. what are attributes god has which a human being does not (overlapping question but might bring up some different points)..

God is pure consciousness filled everywhere. It has its own laws which we are not aware at the moment. Or only esoteric practitioners are aware and not everyone.

3. is god 'an entity which u can define' or 'state of knowledge of the answer "koham?".."who am I?"'.. from your perspective

God is never an entity. But as it is pure consciousness, it can take any form. All prophets, our mythological figures, saints, and enlightened entities are nothing but the human beings with awareness of their true nature. Even all the gods and godesses (Shankar, Vishnu, ganapati, brahma, durga, kali etc) are manifestation of GOD. God is beyond them. According to me those all were human beings like us. We have this tendency to worship to everyone who has supernatural powers. But every one of us has that ability as well. (We have devi and devata as common word for them and parameshwar or paramatma for pure consciousness.)

‘Who am I’ is the natural quest of human being. ‘Aham brhamsmi’ is the ultimate understanding. But this understanding is not just mentally but one should feel it in totality. The patanjali yogsadhana is the science of unfolding it.

4. what role does god play in your life.. directly and spiritually?.. [directly like when one forgets to pray in the morning he gets a flat tire while going to work kind of role.. ]

Direct role: Concept of god keeps us always aware that there are many things already accomplished in this world without you and very few things you can control on your own. The ex. cited above is very lower level of god-human relation. May be for the people, those totally unaware of their true nature and confined themselves to body.

Indirect role: There is law of ‘karma’. Not a single karma goes unnoticed. Prarabdha (fate) is the accumulation of our past karma. Pryatna (karma in present life) decides our prarabdha of next life and partially in this life as well.

Spiritual role: Our progress from body to consciousness is facilitated by understanding the unified soul which is in all of us and outside as well.

Vivekanada said all this very precisely. At given moment all kind of people will be there in the society. According to him, karmyog, or dnyanyog, or bhktiyog or any combination of it can help a person to transcend this body depending on his/her background and understanding. We can not mould all in one manner. This aspect was totally ignored by Semitic religions and understood by sanatan dharma, That is the reason we have innumerable sects in India.

It’s totally subjective matter.

EACH SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

THE GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THIS DIVINE WITHIN BY CONTROLLING NATURE, EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL.

DO THIS EITHER BY WORK OR WORSHIP OR PSYCHIC CONTROL OR PHILOSOPHY – BY ONE OR MORE, OR ALL OF THESE AND BE FREE.

THIS IS THE WHOLE OF RELIGION.
DOCTRINES OR DOGMAS, OR RITUALS OR BOOKS, OR TEMPLES OR FORMS, ARE BUT SECONDARY DETAILS.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Yogic life style 1

Yoga is much happening word everywhere especially outside India. Thanks to all kind of gurus but more to western life style. No doubt just by initiating on this path will lead to introspection and subsequent modification in day to day habits. Majority of yoga enthusiastic are confined to postures for physical fitness and/or breathing techniques for relieving stress due to modern life style. There is nothing wrong in it. We should be pretty clear the goal before taking yogic practice.

But yoga is not limited to this physical aspect only. By name goes, the root word is 'yuj' means meeting,bonding,connecting to super-consciousness. Meeting of soul confined in our body to the universal soul. To understand, to experience our true nature and to live in this world unattached with all worldly things. You can read scriptures to understand this stage mentally but the experience is subjective thing and individual has to strive for it. Indian sage Patanjali compiled all the yoga sutras from the Hindu philosophy and explained systematically and scientifically the steps to attain the stages of samadhi or salvation. Everybody is capable to follow it as assured by the saying 'Every soul is potentially divine' by Swami Vivekananda.

Yogic life style would be buzz word of future for the scientific world for sure if you see the amount of funding available for aging research and growing interest about extending the human life span using latest technological development. This approach to tackle the problem has one major flaw. We want the cake and want to eat it too. Man want to live forever without caring for natural laws governing his existence along with the nature. Today man is living for average of 60 years with the help of modern medicine. You cannot find a single healthy individual beyond 30 years living without any medication. Indian sages has assured minimum life span of 120 years for everyone with their own example. Modern science is now realizing that they are fighting a loosing battle. We are finding new therapies and diagnostic tools with investment of millions of dollars and human efforts but mutations in both human and pathogenic genome is creating newer diseases or new versions of old one. Though natural mutations are necessary for evolution, majority of hazardous one are the fallout of our lifestyle. If mankind want to live extended peaceful life with all the comforts and technology created by him then he has to accept the yogic way of life. Yoga is universal philosophy and does not demand to renounce your faith. We all can coexist with inherent diversity. Scientific community should give serious thought on this line earliest possible.

RSS, A Vision in Action

RSS, a much malign name in Indian media, has to take concrete steps to come out of its present lethargy for the sake of future of the country. I propose following steps:
1) RSS first has to accept that there is a flaw in current functioning, without which there would be no possibility of rectification.
2) RSS has to come out of shadow of BJP and project itself beyond politics not by mere words but by deeds. Hindu society is in need of such apolitical organization.
3) Instead of talking about muslim and chrstian threat all the time, RSS leaders should try to focus on problems of hindu samaj, especially about untouchability and other outdated customs.
4) RSS should not control even morally (or otherwise) its sister oganizations as those are now mature enough to proceed on their own.
5) RSS should concentrate only on Shakha activity which is a unique nation building system. If the root is strong then the branches has to be with full of life. RSS has to take blame for not providing 'true swyamsevak' for all walks of life in enough numbers. If we could do that then we do not have to worry about individual problems.
6) RSS shakha should reflect the area it belongs to and should modify the day-to-day programs accordingly. 'Param waibhaw' should not be mere theoratical concept for swyamsevak but also a practical one.
7) Media can be used positively by RSS, as nowadays nothing goes unnoticed. As RSS has now swayamsevaks from all age groups and social/financial strata we can involve youth and retired groups with equal efficiency at shakha level for local problems along with routine shakha work.
8) Intellectual/financial resources from urban India could be effectively channelized to rural Bharat. RSS is in better position than any NGO to do this. Swyamsevak of right frame of mind only can actually bridge this divide effectively.
9) People could able to experience the philosophy in practice. If we believe in our Hindu values in todays era of globalization then mere word won't help. We should have urban as well as rural models of ideal society.
10) Many swayamsevaks are of this frame of mind but they cannot change the ongoing RSS system on their own. But a swayamsevak only can change the present system of RSS. Every one has to take lead by introspection.

Why am I blogging?

Punekar by nature cannot live without commenting and arguing about anything and everything under sun. I am no different. I believe (as everyone:-)) that i have something to offer and i have decided to pen down everything on this blog. It may be irrelevant and/or may be repeatition of the topics but will be easy to document and trace back for reference.
My thrust areas are Hindu philosophy, Yogic life style, RSS, Village centered sustainable development, Mobilization of intellectual urban people for social cause. I will appreciate input by everyone to help me to move ahead on my path.....

Debate

Dear Friends,

Here is the platform for discussion.