Tehelka did free its content 
.
This is in continuation to the earlier post on Kumar Suresh Singh - http://www.tehelka.com/story_main18.asp?filename=op061706the_One.asp.
What a person!
"If there is reduction in illness but at the same time it is an offset by an increasing crime rate, we haven’t done anything to improve the health of society"; Uncommon Wisdom by Fritjof Capra
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Last several months, after the birth of our baby I have been struggling to convince my wife on the use of Bach Flower Remedies.
I came across Bach Flower Remedies first through my uncle, several years back, who practices the same in USA. I bought a book to study the same, but never did, till recently when my new born baby was sufferring from Colic pains, in his 3rd or 4th month.
I tried Rescue Remedy on him, after having tried Colic Aid, and Bonnisan, and the results were dramatic - in my view (not my wife’s though). He passed trapped wind after every few seconds, by the second dose, till he was comfortable and slept well.
These remedies are said to be a form of Spiritual Medicine, which works on the emotions of the patient, curing him before disease sets in. Here is what Dr. Edward Bach,who discovered these remedies said, "Disease is a reaction to interferences. This is temporary failure and unhappiness and occurs when we allow others to interfere with our purpose in life and implant in our minds doubt, or fear or indifference."
My wife continues to insist on not using this form of medicine, insisting that I should allow the child to develop and find his way around with the emotions he develops instead of interfering with them.
This is a difficult one to beat. However, my arguments are based around my study of Dr. Fritjof Capra’s book titles Uncommon Wisdom, which has detailed discussions between leading Psychiatrists and Cancer Therapists, who debate upon the topic of "what is health?", and "whether our modern system of allopathic medicine has created health or no". (There is another book which talks in much more detail called "The Web of Life"; I’m yet to grab a copy). The argument is that by the allopathic forms of medicine, we may be removing physical illness but causing emotional imbalance in the baby (or for that matter any adult as well).
We affect an individual by what he/she eats, and I’m sure we do not have enough research available on the negative affects of powered milk as opposed to using mother’s milk only for the first 6 months. Even if there is research, our modern lifestyle, does not permit such attention to a new born.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Hynotherapy, Psychotherapy are all practices to impact the emotions of a person.
Our behaviour with a child (or any adult), the living environment, the food we eat, the energy, thoughts and attitude of the parents and other people around, the cleanliness of the air we breathe around us, all of these are known to affect our state of mind. And need I re-iterate that the mind affects our body?
Dr. Bach goes a step further to suggest that when we are interfering with our purpose in life, it creates an emotional imbalance, being caused as a result of an imbalance between the soul and the body.
If we are affecting the emotional being of a person by all this including the medicine we may be using, why can we not use a remedy made in the homoeopathic way, from natural wild-growing flowers.
This is my approach.
Meanwhile, I will continue to work on convincing my wife and using the remedies now and then in an emergency on my baby! Ofcourse, I’ve been using it on myself for some time now.
Jerry,
Interesting article this week on the Gambling and Baksheesh spirit of Diwali, but I’m afraid you’ve gone overboard with twisting ancient Hindu philosophy to prove your point. Here are some insights for you:
1. Let me quote something from a book in Hindi called ‘Anamdas ka Potha’ that I read a few years back (I’ll write the same in Roman Hindi, and hope you can find someone to translate the same for you if you do not speak Hindi, for my attempt to translate in English is bound to alter the true meaning): "Char purusharth hain - Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha. Inmein pehle teen sadhan hain; antim, sadhya hain. Pehle teen mein Dharma sabse bada hai. Uske anukool reh kar hi Artha ka uparjan karna chahiye. Artha pradhan nahin hai - Dharma ka avirodhi reh kar hi purushartha hai. Dharma ke viruddh jaane par tyajya hai. Kama, Dharma aur Artha ka avirodhi reh kar hi purushartha hai." . Very briefly my attempt at bringing the meaning out in English - Moksha is the purpose. The first three are methods or enablers (if you’ve been to Khajuraho ever, this will come out starkly to you).
So we are spiritual people, and it is best that we remain that way. It is a known fact that if India and China start living the way - the Earth does not have enough to sustain us all. The need of the hour is for us to evolve to the next level of spiritual consciousness, and accumulate wealth (Artha), while ensuring it is on the side of Dharma (so far so good), but keep our eyes/vision on Moksha - or the Oneness of all of us on Earth, including the Mother Earth itself (Think Gaia!). Sony’s new Chariman is showing a way ahead!
2. I have had the good fortune to have spent some intellectually stimulating evenings with Prakash Lal Tandon (the first Indian Chariman of HLL, and one of the leading Economists in India), and during one such evening, I raised a point with him: "Uncle, film producers who produce TV serials and porn or sexually explicit movies claim that ’sex sells’ and this is what people want, so we produce it - what are you thoughts on this?". He said, "The world today has to have a constraint upon personal freedom in the form of social discipline, in order to create social harmony. People have to think not only to think of individuals but of society."
We’re not in the most healthy position that we’re in as a race on Earth. The reason, I believe, has been that we have divorced Spirituality from all walks of life. Please read Spirituality as distinct from Religion (which is a discussion which would need a separate platform for). If life has a purpose, then we’re (us humans) not getting where we probably want to. Would you agree?
The point I am making is that you have contorted Ananda - Bliss - and lowered it to blast crackers - representative of ‘indulgence’ in everything possible.
3. It was Krishna, who advised, Bhima, that ‘extracting from more nature - more than you need will create imbalance on Earth’. Ofcourse, you know he delivered the Gita as well . So while Krishna is about indulgence, the induslgence is of a different kind - not only of the spiritual kind - I’m sure he also meant, Sex, Wealth, Power, Intelligence, Love…but probably above all…"pursuit of bhakti - love - for the Divine".
Wealth is great! It is a positive thingie. Indians seem to ridicule the same - yes I agree. But going the other way and suggesting, what you are - "Noisy crackers are objected to by crackpot environmentalists who see pollution everywhere and deny that life on this planet is about joy and its pursuit" - is not healthy either - as I’m sure when things come from a person in your position - people buy it more.
With power comes greater responsibility - this was the message of Spiderman in the movie.
4. So far as Baksheesh goes…well don’t even mention it these days. It seems the richer people get, the smaller their hearts become. Even I got stuck in one of my family member’s ideas of ‘the appropriate’ amount that ‘these people’ deserve. "These people" are none other than the dhobi, the postman, the car cleaner, the aaya, and the Municipal Corporation appointed sweeper. I think it is sick how we city people are. It is not just my family issue. It is my neighbours, our Resident’s Welfare Association (RWA), and all around the country, if not the world. The attitude to giving something on Diwali is actually not about ’sharing’ but nearly ‘giving by force’, and let me assure you this energy gets across to the people ‘recieving’. I think it lowers te receivers dignity, in most cases - as a result of the rather sick attitude to giving that most people have.
In the end, my take on countering your ideas (I must say I agree with many points - but certainly not the message you are sending out):
- ‘Sharing’ has a different flavour to it - one of giving - as a means for ones own (spiritual, mental, and I believe, even material) growth.
- Pursuing material progress is most certainly an aim all humans must have (including, may I say, Indians), but there has got to be a deep understanding that we are all One; else we will continue to screw up people the world over for our personal and collective (organisational, national; civilisational) selfish benefits.
- India is in a unique and rather envious place, of seeing material progress and yet under spiritual guidance of the numerous spiritual Gurus that we have across the country. I think we are the light of the world, and need to show the world a new way of purusing material progress sustainably for all of humanity, just as we did over and over again a few thousand years earlier, with our most ancient civilisation and some of the deepest human thought the world has seen, and more recently, as shown by Gandhi.
Would love to hear your views on the points I raised. And yes! I’ve hardly ever written to Newspapers, so would be nice if this can get published in some form in Indian Express - in any appropriate column.
Warm Regards,
Rahul Dewan
p.s.: In case you want to see what I do, visit: http://www.srijan.in/fileadmin/user_upload/srijan_introduction.pdf
And more on what I think at: http://danceofshiva.blogsome.com/; http://blogs.srijan.in/rahul
Yesterday evening, while I had got a small gift for the muslim mother-son family in our block, with whom most block people keep fighting, I was not being able to gather courage to go and give it to them, in face of possible arrogance and snobbish attitude that I might face, given that I have had one of the worst fights with them some years back; and also the fear that they may think that I am dishonouring their religion - then among this clutter of thoughts - I quietened my mind, and asked it a question ’should I go and give this gift’, and the answer was a resounding ‘yes’, and the immediate thought of Sikhs sharing gifts with Hindus (while I do not see much difference between a Sikh and a Hindu, it has somewhat creeped into our society a bit) came up, and then a "why not with Muslims? Share your joy and festivities and love with them too".
An article appeared in Tehelka 17/June/2006. Some excerpts from the same for helping me record information about this great person for my own sake and that of the readers of this blog.
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Kumar Suresh Singh discovered the legendary tribal Birsa Munda for the world, and India. But the recent death of this pioneering intellectual went completely unmarked.
…
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Beyond the above I could not type, and then the Tehelka edition, probably, found its way into the Kabadiwala’s bag. 
Why the hell doesn’t Tehelka free access to it’s past issues online?
Sudhir Kulkarni is certainly one of my favourite writers. His articles on Islam in relation to India, more recently, the issue of ‘Vande Mataram’ made ‘optional’ to sing because of protests from Muslims, and how he believes Communists and Islamsists in India concieve India - as a Civic territorial body, without bringing its oldest in the world, living culture and tradition, I thought were quite well articulated backed with facts from other Islamic countries.
Now this article on the CEO of Sanyo, Tomoyo Nonaka, who is redefining Sanyo, by focussing its energies on ‘Thinking Gaia’ a theory promoted by Dr. James Lovelock, which claims that (Mother) Earth is a living being, shows that his thinking is diverse, deep and inclusive.
Here is the link to the article in Indian Express:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/13741.html?
PHPSESSID=a9b08bb929b0f0aee727cacd49254b6e
The inner growth is very still and very silent. You are growing, and even you cannot be aware of it unless something totally new happens and makes you aware that you have reached some space that was unknown to you. And that can happen any moment. On your part great patience is needed, and a trust that the whole existence is in support of all those who are trying to grow spiritually. It is not you who are trying to grow spiritually; it is existence who, through you, is trying to reach to its utmost heights.
- OSHO
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/11546.html - a fantastic story of a sort of a farmer co-operative without the bureaucratic hassles of a co-operative - famers are using a 2002 amendment in the Companies Act to their advantage and formed a Pvt Ltd company run co-operatively, replete with Directors, CEO, others to their advantage - and are loving owning a company.
I’ve written to the journalist wo wrote this story to help us get in touch with the NGOs which helped these farmers come together and manage the leagal maze. We’d like to setup something similar in Delhi, starting with Microfinance operations for the community of people living on the fringe of our urban society - helps at homes, car cleaners, chowkidars, aayahs, others.
I wrote this to a person who I came in touch on Ryze.
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Dear Dr. Alam,
It seems you wanted to connect with me. My apologies on not being able to call you up, inspite of my intention to do so. Work has been quite pressing last few weeks.
Just got a chance to get online to read your posts in the god-talk network, which I have posted at the end of this message for your reference.
Having read the same, I am sorry to say it is very dissappointing that this comes from a PhD holder. I’ve wanted to sit and meet you and try and question your thinking and beliefs for quite sometime now. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to get this discussion on my list of priorities. Anyway, for now, I am going to take you head on.
Firstly, the use of the word Allah, as a preference of over using God, itself has deep root in your thinking, which I believe is the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism. During my visits to several countries I’ve (and so have my relatives observed this) noticed car bumber stickers and wall hangings saying "There is no God but Allah". This reference to God in one particular language (Arabic) and refusing existence of the same spiritual force, in any other language, is an example of extreme fundamentalism. I am afraid, inspite of using His references as ‘Allah/God’ your references of God as Allah in an earlier post, and in this as well, shout out of the same fundamentalism.
Secondly, does Allah command? This judgmental God/Allah is someone who does not appeal to me at all. There are many more beautiful definitions or experiences of God which have been talked about in books and by different spiritual messengers who have been born and continue to be born.
This brings me to another point. In your belief, all messengers stopped after Muhhammad. This is a very sad state of thinking. The topic of the discussion where you posted this message was "Pagan Christ", a book written by someone, and having read a review by another person, I observed the key message being that "any human being could become the Christ; christdom existed as a latent energy in all humanity, and the church worked to suppress this truth about christ’s message".
This is completely consitent with all Indian faiths. Kabir and Sai Baba, both inspite of being muslims, are reverred as God himself in our country by Hindus and Muslims (although there are more Hindus who have adopted Sai Baba than Muslims; Muslims have infact ignored him and his message). I had a discussion with a muslim girl colleague of mine, who differentiated between Muhammad and say Sai Baba (or Guru Nanak, Satya Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Eckhardt Tolle, others) as being ‘the chosen one’ and ‘Pir’. This is the problem with Islam. You reject anyway that this massive humanity can raise itself to Godhood, and the last human being who did so, was Muhammad himself.
Going by such fundamentalism, and while I have not read the Quran, it seems it even says if you are not a muslim, then you cannot go to heaven.
Did Gandhi go to heaven?
Also, where is this heaven?
Thirdly, you mention "…only submission to the communications of the commands of Allah is the most virtuous…". I have a different version of ’submission’. You version maybe of subservience; my version is called ’surrender’. To understand ’surrender’, you’ll have to dwell in a lot of Vedantic reading. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s, ‘Celebrating Silence’ is a good place to start.
I would highly recommend that to open your mind a bit, you read a non-Indian, non-Hindu writer - Neale Donald Walsch - and his triology - "Conversations with God - I, II, III". If you read it with a questioning mind, rather than a "subservient" mind, you will rise to a new level of spiritual consciousness. This is the best service to Allah/God that you could offer.
No one made Adam; no ones a sinner; we’re just here to experience - this endless cycle creation and destruction; the Big Bang and the eventual collapse of the universe will go on cyclical in this eternal game; You are here to experience yourself as Krishna. Krishna was again a human form, who was self-realised about his divinity. Then there are others like us who have a chance to do so in this human form - raise our consciousness to that of Muhammad, or Jesus, or Guru Nanak, or Buddha, or Al-Hallaj, or Rumi, or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, or Eckhardt Tolle, or Andrew Cohen, or Ramana Maharishi, or Bahaullah, or Sai Baba, or Kabir, or Neale Donald Walsch, or Dr. Jaya Row, the list is endless.
Someone said "there are more spiritually self-realised people in India than probably the whole world put together". You’ve been born here for a reason. Be a seeker. For that you need to question all your beliefs and your premises. Even from the mere purpose of leading a healthy mental and emotional life, I think it is good to question, and discover Truth yourself. If you die not discovering it, my belief says you will get another chance, and another birth (also this is not merely belief now; there is a stream of medicine in Hynotherapy becoming extremely popular, and within it is a sub-stream of past-life regression; it maybe a good idea to read some material on that; there is a book called "road Less Travelled", by a leading psychiatrist of USA, and he mentions a premise in human evolution has to be the cycle of re-birth).
You have written "…n my quest for enlightenment…". Well, if you have the right spirit, experience enlightenment, not by subservience, but by questioning, finding, exploring. In India, ou have an opportunity to do so, like no other country.
God (or the Universal Force) instilled this quality to ‘question and think’ in us. Subservience is the worst form of disrespect to the Almighty.
Regards,
Rahul
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Dear Jack and Debra,
The main premise in all sects of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God
This is what is wrong as per the communications in Qur’an.As a Muslim/obedient one to the commands of Allah/God,Jesus Peace be on him was a messenger of Allah.This has been pointed out in the commands of Allah to Muhammad.Those who consider Jesus as son of Allah, are falling in a polytheistic trap and pious Christians never understood him as a son but a messenger.
and was sent down to teach of God’s love, His Plan, and His Ways, and to save us from our sin through his Crucifiction.
This is a false idea that he died for our sins.He was sinned by many in his times and those who sinned are accountabel to their sins. Allah will grant mercy to those He will.The birth of Jesus was like to the birth of Adam,who was created from clay.
Please read Qur’an and we will learn more as only submission to the communications of the commands of Allah is the most virtuous.
I have stated in previous posts that a great reference for many is Kenneth C. Davis’s "Don’t Know Much About the Bible". It goes into great detail regarding each section of the Bible and clarifies many of the questions we Christians have about it’s passages and their meanings. Some other great books that have helped me in my quest for enlightenment are:
Dear Jack and Debra,
I would like to also suggest reading from Maurice Bucaulle book on Quran,Bible and Science.
Please forgive me for being upfront.
I would have liked to write in more detail.
Seeking guidance for all and praying for the repvilege to all for seeking guidance from Allah.
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