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e-Anjali,
Issue 9, April 29, 2005
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Letter to the Editor:
Dear
Editor,
It is impressive to see ideas are pouring in to
formalize some course of action to reverse what is
happening to the Hindus in Kerala (and in India).
This is an uphill battle against the mighty MONEY
POWER. The idea of educating underprivileged people in
remote areas seems to be the central theme of "Aekal
Vidyalaya". Some thoughts in this
direction may be worthwhile.
Just looking for ideas to prevent "Hindu Drain".
Dr. Surendran Nair
Detroit
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P. Parameswaran
Director, Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram
"Samskrithi
Bhavanam", Thiruvananthapuram-1
A new challenge needs a new response. A new response
needs a new vision. The times that we are passing through pose new
challenge for which we have to invoke new response, inspired by a new vision
of the future.
According to the Hindu calendar, we have entered into
52nd Century of Kali Era (yugabd). Vast
and pressing challenges are pressing upon humanity, forcing it into
unpredictable twists and turns. So much is taking place, within so short
a time that human psyche everywhere is
experiencing, tremendous shocks and it is at a loss to know how to adjust
itself to the rapidly changing scenario. Old systems and values that
sustained them are crumbling before our eyes, without our being able to
replace them with new ones of assured security or validity. Clashes of
civilizations and far reaching paradigm shifts
are taking place, leaving the common man dazed. No part of the globe is
immune to this contagion. Only some are less affected and some are worst
affected. It is a challenge of unprecedented magnitude and intensity that
we are facing. Sri Aurobindo called it an
‘Evolutionary crisis'. Depending upon our perceptions, we may
define it differently, but there is no denying the fact
that what is at stake for humanity is its own survival. It is this
realization that makes a radically new response inevitable and urgent.
Similar situations have arisen earlier also, invoking
different kinds of responses. During the first quarter of this century,
when European imperialism enveloped the whole world, exploitation of
colonized countries became rampant and bloody wars were
let loose on country after country, people were anxiously looking
for a vision and a philosophy on which they could count for deliverance.
It was at this juncture that the Marxian
ideology provided a ray of hope for the exploited and the downtrodden.
That explains the tremendous impact it made and the way it brought vast
areas of the globe under the communist influence. 'Das Capital' and the
'Communist Manifesto' became the temporary gospel of liberation and
triggered off the October Revolution of 1917. Not withstanding its severe
limitations both in theory and practice, it did meet an urgent need and
played a vital role in setting the balance right between the exploiting
and the exploited countries of the world.
Gradually that too lost its corrective momentum.
Absolute state power led to absolute, all round corruption. Degeneration
set in and thinking mind everywhere began to search for alternatives.
Different countries and cultures began to explore different routes, each
according to its own characteristic predispositions. It is interesting
and instructive to see how the American mind responded to the emerging
situation. It found that Communism was faltering and failing thanks to a large
measure to its own policy of containment and confrontation but it could
not rest assured that unmitigated Capitalism with its competitive and
consumerist thrust could provide a sustainable alternative. It was cruel
to the weak and thoroughly amoral. Hence it
naturally turned to its Christian past with its moral and ethical
anchors. In the year 1982, April 5, the American Senate unanimously
adopted resolution - 'Senate Joint Resolution 165', which
authorized and requested the President to proclaim 1983 as the 'Year of
the Bible'. In compliance of the Senate Resolution,
Ronald Regan, the then President of America, officially affixed his
signature to the title 3 Proclamation 5018 of February 3, 1983 which
states; 'In witness where of I have here unto set my hand, this day of
February in the year of our Lord 1983 and of the independence of the
United States of America the 207th’.
What was the logic that the Senators advanced for
such a demand? To give just a few. 'Of the many
influences which have shaped the United States of America
into a distinctive people and nation, none may be said to be more
fundamental and enduring than the Bible. For centuries
the Bible's emphasis on compassion and love for our neighbors has
inspired institutional and governmental expression of benevolent outreach
such as private charity, the establishment of schools and hospitals and
the abolition of slavery. Many of the greatest national leaders -
among them President Washington, Jackson, Lincoln and Wilson - have
recognized the influence of the Bible on our country's development. The plain spoken Andrew Jackson referred to the Bible as
no less than 'the rock on which our Republic rests'. Today our beloved America
and indeed the world is facing a decade of
enormous challenge. As a people we may be tested
as we have seldom, if ever been tested before. We will need resources of
Spirit, even more than resources of technology, education and armaments.
There could he no more fitting moment than now to reflect with gratitude,
humanity and urgency upon the wisdom revealed to us in the writing of
Abraham Lincoln called, ' The best gift the god has ever given to man.
But for it, we could not know right from wrong’.
It is only natural that at the moment of crisis and
helplessness men turn towards the divine for guidance and deliverance,
Today as we are into the 52nd century of
the Kali era, the era of our (Lord) Bhagwan Sri
Krishna--more
or less the same thoughts come to our minds also.
Ours is a Nation, many times older than America.
Our national mind has been molded over the
centuries, by a vast amount of spiritual literature, starting from the
Vedas and the Upanishads and also the Ithihasas
and the Puranas and the classical Sanskrit and
regional literature. If one were to ask whether the quintessence of all
these could be distilled into any single text,
the answer could only be: Yes - the Bhagawad
Gita. What Bible could be to the Christian
world, Bhagawad Gita
is to the Indian (HINDU) world. Indeed it is
much more.
What the Gita really means to mankind has been eloquently described by Swami Vivekananda in one of his lectures, "The
teachings of Krishna
as taught in Gita are the grandest the world
has ever known. He who wrote that wonderful poem was one of those rare
souls whose lives send a wave of regeneration through the world. The
human race will never again see such a brain as his who wrote the Gita (Complete Works- Vol
VII-22).
The Gita is a universal
scripture, though its apparent context would indicate a smaller
framework. But its teaching knows no limitation
of time or space. It is equally valid for all time and climes.
Aldous Huxley the well known thinker and philosopher has
stated – "The (Gita) may be
described, writes Anand Coomar
Swami, in his admirable 'Hinduism and Buddhism', as a compendium of the
whole Vedic doctrine to be found in the earlier Vedas, Brahman and
Upanishads and being therefore the basis of all later day developments,
it can be regarded as the focus of all Indian religion.
But this focus of Indian religion is also one of
the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the perennial philosophy
ever to have been made. Hence its enduring value not only for Indians but
for all mankind".
What Gita holds out for humanity has been most aptly and scientifically placed before
us by Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo
in his introduction to 'Essays on the Gita'. He
writes “We of the coming day stand at the end of development which
must lead to such a new and larger synthesis. We do not belong to the
past dawns, but to the noons
of the future. A mass of new material is following into
us: we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic
religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning
of Buddhism, but to take full account of the potent though limited
revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and beyond that, the remote
and dateless past which seems to be dead is returning upon us with an
effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of
mankind but now breaking out again from behind the veil. All this
points to a new, a very rich, a very vast synthesis, a fresh and widely
embracing harmonization of our gains, is both an intellectual and a
spiritual necessity of the future. But just as the past synthesis have
taken those which receded them for their starting point, so also must
that of the future, to be on firm ground, proceed from what the great
bodies of realized spiritual thought and experience in the past have
given. Among them the Gita
takes a most important place. "Such is the Bhagavad
Gita, the scripture universal. It is intensely
personal, but also national and universal at the same time. It appeals to
every aptitude and temperament, answers to every need and occasion, both
individual and collective. So far as Bharat is concerned, that is the one book that has
had continuing appeal to the national mind down these centuries. During
all phases of our freedom movement, our national leadership, of various
views and hues has regularly depended upon the appeal of the Gita to rally the masses behind them; to all of them
it had been the unfailing source of strength and inspiration.
Even in the post-freedom period
stalwarts like Swami Chinmayananda have kept up
the same tradition with arduous devotion. It will be only in the fitness
of things that we as a nation decide to observe the first decade of the 'Krishna
era' as 'the Gita Decade' and take the message
of the 'Song Celestial' to every nook and corner, nay every hearth and
home in India
and even abroad. If a 'Secular' country like America
could officially declare 'a Bible -year'
there is no reason to fear that India's
secular credentials will be affected adversely by such a step. After all the GITA is much more
secular than the Bible in its catholicity and universality.
Will the cultural, social and religious organizations
of Bharat take a leaf from America
and rising to the occasion, chalk out a truly ambitious program to
galvanize the people for a mighty national Yajna?
Will the Government shed their pseudo-secular pretences and boldly
come out in support of such a magnificent effort? This is indeed a
challenge and opportunity.
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VIP Profile
Sri Jayachandra Raj
Sri Jayachandra Raj is a former research scientist at Center for Development
Studies at Thiruvananthapuram. He possesses 6
post graduate degrees in the field of Economics - Science of economics
planning (1978), Monitory Economics (1979), Rural Banking (1980),
Econometrics (1981, Research Methodology and Analysis (1982) and Fiscal
Policy (1983).
Sri Jayachandra Raj has published 2215 papers in the field of Economics
to this date. His research paper on economics of two
wheeler bike tax in Kerala was presented in the legislative
assembly and was accepted for implementation in July 1994. Conducted
more than 800 economic surveys related to research and work. He was
involved in the revenue re-organization of the state and co-authored
books on low cost economics of housing. Based on his research article
in “VIJNANA KAIRALI”
– A financial analysis on wastage of human capital resources,
Kerala High court changed its ruling and increased UPSC
age bar to 28. He was the Technical Coordinator for Computerization of
local village offices of Kottayam District.
These efforts lead to the overall computerization of these offices
across the state. He also
has profound knowledge in Vedic Astrology.
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Souvenir
Announcements
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Convention Announcements
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NATIONAL
COMMITTEE MEETING IN CHICAGO
SATURDAY MAY 21, 2005
12:00 NOON
at
Crowne Plaza
Hotel O'Hare International
5440 North River Rd, Rosemont, IL 60018
If you would like to
reserve Hotel accommodations for the meeting, please contact Mr. Aravind Pillai at 847-297-1187.
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Please contact Mr. Aravind Pillai at 847-297-1187 if you have any
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