Indians

Indians

India is the only country in the world has two names: Bharat in Hindi and India in English. 

During my first visit to US in 1996, I had asked a question to an American, we are Indian but why do you call some of your population Red Indian? They are redskins and are natives of North America, he replied. They might had migrated from Asia? The natives/primitive tribes are called Indians generally. Somebody mentioned that as per Oxford Dictionary - 1900 century - Page no. 789, "India" word means Poor - Old fashioned - Criminal people. Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly believed that the Antilles were the islands of the Indian Ocean, known to Europeans as the Indies. Christopher landed on Caribbean Island and identified it Indies. Somebody argued that India' has everything to do with the word 'Indigenous' and very little to do with the word 'Indus' because the Persians who came through Indus did not call it India and the Europeans in whose era the name 'India' caught up, did not come through Indus! However popular belief is that the name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi which translates as "The people of the Indus". We were exploring the options. 

River Sindhu (Indus/Hindu) originates from the vicinity of Mansarovar in Tibetan Plateau (West Tibet) and flows through India (J&K: Ladakh, Gilgit, Baltistan) and Pakistan. One of it’s tributaries Nara was flowing through Kutch and was meeting the Sea at Narayan Sarovar, but after the high magnitude earthquake of 1819, a barrier Alladam Bund (80 km long, 6 km wide and 6 m high) was created by the nature, stopped the flow of the river. However, Kutch is getting the under current water of Sindhu in the pockets of Nakhtrana where agriculture is very rich even today in the so called desert district. 

Are we Hindu or Indian?

Before independence, we were popularly known as Hindustan. But after creation of Pakistan, we have preferred the name Bharat/India. With word Hindu, the identity of the religion attached. Those who believe in many deities, believe in the theory of rebirth, believe in idols worship, believe in rituals, follow the umbrella religion of Hindu are called Hindu and for them India is Bharat, their mother land. Within Hindus, there are people who don’t believe in idol worship and pray the formless God. Adweta philosophy believes in the theory of One God. There are others who were worshipping nature, living in forest and were unaware of the theories of Hinduism. There were many who changed their faith, followed the faith of the Kings, followed Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Chritianity. The invaders whenever came, came in small numbers and were mostly single. Over the years, they married and settled here and merged into the main stream of Indianism. 

Hindu, Sindhu or Indu....HSI...people may argue but at the end of the day, the island belong to the permanent residents whether the natives or the invaders or the immigrants.

India is our mother land, 

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा
हम बुलबुलें हैं इसकी ये गुलिस्तां हमारा ll

Jai Hind.

Punamchand
15 January 2018

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The path of the lord is for courageous

The path of the Lord is for the Courageous 

One of our senior colleagues once said, ‘hare ko harinam’. He believes that the path of spirituality is for the losers or for the olds. At young age, one should use the life and energy for the material world. 

Hindi Poet Randhari Singh Dinkar, in his poem ‘Hare ko Harinam’ prays for the bravery : राम, तुम्हारा नाम कण्ठ में रहे; हृदय, जो कुछ भेजो, वह सहे; दु:ख से त्राण नहीं मांगूं।मांगूं केवल शक्ति दु:ख सहने की; दुदिर्न को भी मान तुम्हारी दया, अकातर ध्यानमग्न रहने की। Gujarati poet Pritamdas in his famous Bhajan wrote: હરિનો મારગ છે શૂરાનો, નહિ કાયરનું કામ જોને, પરથમ પે’લું મસ્તક મૂકી, વરતી લેવું નામ જોને. (The path of the lord is for the courageous. One has to surrender the ego before praying that Almighty). 

What is this path? Rama, Krishna, King Janak, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Muhammad, Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Tulsidas, Mirabai, Narsinh Mehta, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramkrishna, Gandhi, and millions have walked on this path. 

It is a path to know thyself, the easiest but the most difficult task. The Almighty exist all time everywhere, still beyond the reach of the human senses. HE exists but we can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t touch. One may acquire knowledge of many subjects but is unable to know the Self. Sings Shivoham, but search for the Shiva, Rama, Almighty somewhere in the sky. What a puzzle?

Who will, when begin to walk on this path? In childhood like Shankaracharya? In youth like Vivekananda? Most of them have walked on the path of the lord in the pick of their youthfulness. After removing the sucrose from the sugarcane stem, what to do with the bagasse? 

Vedanta Sutra says, the path begins at the mode of mind: athato brahm jigyasa! (now is the time to inquire about the absolute truth). In the various forms of life lower than human life the intelligence does not go beyond the range of life's primary necessities--namely eating, sleeping, mating and defending. In the human form of life, however, one should be intelligent enough to ask what he is, why he has come into the world, what his duty is, who is the supreme controller/source of everything, etc, so many questions: athato brahma jijyasa.

Like every other exams, one needs some preparedness to begin with. It is called shadhan chatusthya (four means of salvation):

1. Viveka (discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the permanent and the impermanent, between the Self and the non-Self); 2. Vairagya (dispassion for the pleasures of this world and of heaven); 3. Shad Sampat: Sama is eradication of desires; Dama is rational control of the senses; Uparati is turning the mind away from desire for sensual enjoyment; Titiksha is the power of endurance; Sraddha is intense faith in God, master and scriptures; Samadhana is fixing the mind on Brahman or the Self; 4. Mumukshutva is intense desire for liberation or deliverance from the wheel of births and deaths with its concomitant evils of old age, disease, delusion and sorrow.

There are two types of Gunas: Pakya and Aapya. Pakya to leave and Aapya to gain. Raga (attraction, see positive), Dwesha (repulsion, see negative) and Moha (dullness), are the boils over our personality are Pakya, to be dropped not by pressure but by understanding their uselessness. Simplicity, thinking of pure consciousness Atma and repetition of this knowledge till the mind merges into the pure consciousness are the three gunas one has to acquire by practice. 

Once the runway is ready, one may takeoff the plane into the Ocean of the Supreme Being, the Self, the Atma, the pure consciousness, the Brahman. 

It is the path of the Lord for the Courageous. One shall walk when young, because the sugarcane stalk without sucrose turns into the bagasse. 

Punamchand

14 January 2018

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Kem Chho? केनेषितं।

How could fire fires the fire?
How could fire lights the fire?
How could pincers holds the hand that is holding it?
How could Eyes see it’s eye?
How could ears hear it’s ear?
How could nose smell it’s nose?
How could mind think of it’s mind?
How could the 5 action senses and 5 knowledge senses realise the source of their light/power/strength?

HE is not object of seeing. HE is no an object of hearing. HE is not an object of thinking. Therefore, when to describe HE, the BRAHMAN, the mouth shuts, the eyes close, and the mind goes in silence.

One of the 108 Upanishads is Kenopnishada. A Upanishad that presents the straight question and straight answer. It was probably composed in 1st millennium before the Buddhist and Jain cannons. 

The first verse starts with the word केनेषितं। by whom? 

केनेषितं पतति प्रेषितं मनः; केन प्राणः प्रथमः प्रैति युक्तः ।
केनेषितां वाचमिमां वदन्ति; चक्षुः श्रोत्रं क उ देवो युनक्ति ॥ १ ॥

(In simple words: By whom the mind thinks? By whom we breath? By whom, we speak? By which deva, the ears hear and eyes see?)

Kena suggests that Brahman is not Upashya, therefore it can’t be worshipped. It is that which hears the sound in ears, sees the view in eyes, speaks the words of speech, smells the aroma in breath, comprehends the meaning in thought. The Atman-Brahman is in man, not that which one worships outside.

And we follow the wisdom of Kenopanishada in our day to day life without understanding it’s meaning. Gujarati will say kem chho?, Hindi will say, kaise ho? Marathi will say, aapan kasa ahet?, English will say, how are you? Everybody is asking the first question of Kenopanishada? By whom, with whose power, you are in existence? And we, instead of realising the Brahman, reply as per the condition and mood of our senses. 

Therefore, next time when someone asks you, kem chho, kaise ho, kasa aahet, how are you, etc; be awake, take a deep dive into the Ocean of Brahman and think, केनेषितं। HE is beyond thinking. HE is YOU, अहं ब्रह्मास्मि। अखंड, एकरस, अत्र तत्र सर्वत्र। 

ऊँ शांति। शांति।। शांति : ।।।

Punamchand

4 January 2018

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