Thus Spake (or wrote) my friends, saints, and authors
[| Every Breath | Communism | Finding Faults | University Graduate | Rabbi, Acolyte, and Sweeper | Checking Corruption | 26th Generation | Pajama and Scripting |Answer to the Same Question | Tariq Ali |]
Every Breath
Thus spake Swami Prajnanandaji while teaching Kriya Yoga (Oct 2005, Sydney) on how we can use each breath of ours to make progress towards uniting with the Divine.
Communism
I have been wondering as to the reasons behind the prosperity of the West. It's hard to understand how England transformed itself from the conditions portrayed in the novels of Charles Dickens to what it is today. There is always the suggestion that it stole wealth from its colonies. This partly explains its wealth but then what explains its social security system, minimum wage, universal education and healthcare? It is not perfect but far more advanced than what we have in developing countries (what India had before is another story).
One of my good friends, Shri Savyesh Gupta is of the opinion that the capitalist economies greatly expanded their social welfare agenda under the communist threat of universal employment. Thus communism is directly responsible for the generous social welfare states. It is one of the best explanation I have come across.
(Note: I always forget the meaning of bourgeois -- ((according to Marxist thought) being of the property-owning class and exploitive of the working class) -- so here it is as a reminder to me and to others with a memory like mine.)
Finding Faults
They say if you point one finger at someone, three point back at you. This is as direct as it can be but most of us still don't get it. To root out the evil of criticising others many attempts have been made, here is another one which is appealing too.
A poor villager had a cow but there weren't many in the village who needed milk products. One day the villager got some butter and went to the nearby city to try his luck. He came across a baker who was willing to buy butter in exchange for bread and a little cash. The baker requested a kilo of butter everyday. The villager delivered the butter punctually, even though it meant walking a long distance everyday. The baker was moved by the villager's sincerity and often would give a little something as a reward. As time went on the baker suspected that the villager was not bringing full one kilo of butter. He started weighing it daily and found that it was normally less than a kilo. After a few days he gathered courage and told the villager, "I admire your punctuality but I have to say that the butter these days in not full one kilo but less."
The villager replied, "Sir, I am too poor to buy standard weights and measures, I just use the bread you give me as the measure to weigh the butter."
Thus Spake Dr Rajeev Ramakrishna (husband of Dr Sheela Ramakrishna) who heard it from a Ramakrishna Mission monk in Bangalore.
University Graduate
A university graduate went to visit his parents living in his native village. One day his mother sent him to get cooking oil from the local oil mill. When the graduate reached the mill the miller was busy. As he waited he saw that the oil was extracted by crushing seeds between two heavy turning stones. The stones were being turned by a bull yoked to the stones and moving around in a circle. The bull had bells tied around its neck. As the bull moved, the bells made a sweet sound.
When the miller was available the graduate purchased oil and asked the miller, "Why have you tied bells around the bull's neck?"
The miller replied, "My business takes me to different parts of the mill. I cannot always keep an eye on the bull. From the sound of these bells I know if the bull is moving or not."
The graduate was impressed by the cunning of the miller and he further asked, "What if the bull stands at one place and keeps moving its neck to make the ringing sound?"
The miller replied, "The bull is not a university graduate yet!"
Thus Spake Shri Prakashbhai Mehta who heard it from a monk.
Rabbi, Acolyte, and Sweeper
A sweeper enters a synagogue for routine cleaning but finds the rabbi and his acolyte in prayer. He patiently waits for them to finish their prayers.
The sweeper hears the rabbi say, "Oh Lord! I am nothing." The acolyte repeats, "Oh Lord! I am nothing." The rabbi again says, "Oh Lord! I am really nothing." The acolyte repeats, "Oh Lord! I really am nothing."
This continues, after a while the sweeper repeats after them, "Oh Lord! I am nothing, Oh Lord! I am really nothing." On hearing this, the acolyte turns around, taps the sweeper on his shoulder and asks, "Who do you think you are to claim that you are nothing?"
Thus Spake Shri Kieren O'Callaghan who might have made this up on his own or heard it from I don't know whom.
Checking Corruption
There was a king who had the habit of taking bhang, a preparation of the leaves and flowers of the hemp plant, an intoxicant which affects much differently compared to alcohol. After eating bhang there is a strong urge to eat something sweet. Rabri, an extremely tasty milk and sugar preparation, is the favoured sweet of bhang eaters. The king used to get a kilo of rabri from a shop in the city for after his bhang hit.
One day the king suspected that the shop is sending less than a kilo of rabri so he appointed an inspector to verify the weight. On his first day of duty the inspector ordered the shop to send only half a kilo of rabri to the king and a quarter of a kilo to his house. After a few days the king even suspected the inspector so he appointed another inspector. The second inspector ordered the shop to send only a quarter of a kilo to the king and split the remaining quarter between him and the shop. The king, though intoxicated most of the time, did realise that something is not right and appointed another inspector.
The third inspector asked the shop to send only a tiny bit of rabri. He smeared that rabri on the king's lips. When the king came out of his intoxication and complained that he hadn't eaten any rabri, the inspector pointed to the rabri sticking to his lips and said, "My Lord, how can this be. I have personally made sure you have eaten a kilo of rabri and what's more there is still some sticking to your lips."
Thus spake Shri Rajive Bajpai of Lucknow, UP, India, to explain how hard it is to root out corruption by policing it.
26th Generation
In January 2003 I went to Sydney to pick up our friend Shri Raj Kumar and his family who were returning from India. It took them maybe an extra half an hour to come out. I forget the details but it had something to do with a fine or confiscation of a wooden article by the quarantine department. When they came out they told me that such and such happened causing the delay. I said not to worry, it's only money after all and the important thing is that they have arrived safely. To this Biji, Raj's mother, added that this is so true and that there is no end to worrying about money. She then illustrated her point thus.
There was a very wealthy businessman in Delhi. When the time came for him to retire and leave his wealth and business to his children, he reflected with supreme satisfaction, "I have earned enough to provide for the next twenty-five generations." Listening to this his wise counsel asked, "Sethji, then what is to become of the twenty-sixth generation!"
Thus spake Biji on worrying for financial security of future generations.
Pajama and Scripting
In India, particular sorts of persons are snubbed by the question: "Are you a man or a pajama?" I had an instinct about which types of persons can be snubbed by this question but I never knew what it exactly meant till very late in my life. During my sabbatical at Kansas State University, in 1999, I used to have discussion on assorted topics with Professor Sameer Madanshetty. One day we were discussing the present day career oriented approach to life.
To succinctly capture the issue, Sameer said, "You must have heard our Indian saying, "Are you a man on a pajama?", another version of it is, "Are you a person or a CV?""
After this, not only I had a way to describe the resume-building type of personalities but I also understood the Indian saying. The question, "Are you a man or a pajama?" is a frown on a person who in only a utilitarian object devoid of all human sensibilities. Much like the person converting every action to a CV entry.
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English is a foreign language to me. Like most Indians I have learnt it from written prose and technical jargon. I often have difficulty communicating with those who haven't learnt it the same way as me, e.g., with McDonalds' staff. They always ask, "For here or to go?" It takes me a few seconds to grasp the question and then I give a long answer like, "I will drink it here" or "I will take it with me." This creates a great confusion for them, they don't comprehend my response. They only expect to hear, "To go" or "For here".
When I mentioned this to Sameer, he responded, "What people use these days is not a language but scripting."
In software context scripting languages are the languages like Perl and Python. These languages are easier to use and more flexible than computer programming languages like C or Java. I was aware of this but it was a news to me that scripting is also an established concept with linguists. It is used to describe a small and commonly used subset of a language. That is, it is a fact well-known to linguists that many people communicate with only set phrases. This linguists call scripting.
The scripting phenomenon explains a lot. Using scripting for communication can at best enable one to think and echo ideas already embedded in the script. Script users become adult versions of children who reply to all question with a simple "because". Children don't see any necessity to go beyond that. A script user-base enables marketers and opinion makers to provide both questions and answers in a script form. Users never question the validity of this set-up. To question is to go beyond their scripting environment, which they cannot do.
Thus spake Professor Sameer Madanshetty of Kansas State University on human behaviour.
Mahatama Gandhi Looking for the Answer to the same Question
During the Indian Independence Struggle Gandhiji visited UK on several occasions. On one particular occasion he went for a visit to a school. It was a bit cold and Gandhiji was wearing his trademark loincloth. Little children were a bit troubled at the sight of an old man wearing so little and in such cold. The children asked Gandhiji why he was not wearing warm clothes. Gandhiji replied that he didn't have enough money to buy proper clothes. The children offered to give him money.
Gandhiji said, "I am not alone, I have brothers and sisters who also dodn't have enough to wear."
The children said, "We will purchase clothes for them too."
Gandhiji replied, "I have three hundred million brothers and sisters in India who all want for proper clothes."
The children said in amazement, "But what could have made so many people lose their clothes all at once?"
Gandhiji answered, "This is exactly the question to which I am here to get an answer."
Thus spake Professor Milind Sathye at the Temple to me on Thur 10 April 2008.
Rough Music
Meanwhile, `good' Muslims are being paraded on TV arguing that violence is not advocated in the Koran and therefore the bombers are wrong. The implication here is that, if the Koran permitted them, such actions would be fine.
p. 86, Rough Music: Blair / Bombs / Baghdad / London / Terror, Tariq Ali, Verso, London, 2005 (ISBN 1-84467-545-9).
I get an excruciating pain and I get nauseous when I see on TV, enemies of humanity--Bush, Blair, and Howard--visiting a mosque and grand standing about their religious tolerance. Whom do they hope to fool? I have been screaming in my own clumsy way what Tariq Ali says in the above quoted part from the concluding chapter of his book exposing the ridiculousness of religious arguments in education and politics.