Saket Suryesh's Blog, page 8

The Grand Game of Shaming the Sanatana

Ever sat down in the dark of the night besides vast and violent river Ganga and watched a lonely earthen lamp floating its way into oblivion? When I look at the way world has changed in the recent centuries, and two leading younger religions overwhelmed the globe, I often feel, India as that singular, silent lamp floating amid turbulent waves in a hostile world. When I look at the way things happen all around, makes me believe even more on that. 
We mostly look at the small, mischievous gestures and wave it off as routine impertinence of the intellectual elites. But the meanings often are deeper and the game, much bigger. We always think a small piece does not matter, a little giveaway here and there, after all, life is but a criss-cross of well-meaning mutual compromises. But what we miss is the key term- mutual. Unless it is mutual, it is not compromise, it is subjugation, even if it means yielding an inch. That is what Five villages meant for the Pandavas in The Mahabharata. The five villages were neither just, fair nor needed. But the offer of the same and the rejection of the same by the Kaurav king Duryodhana (who incidentally thought he had dynastic right to rule and that Indians loved a corrupt dynast) provided a justification of great war which was no longer the war for throne; rather became a just war for Dharma . 
I have a strange feeling that the response of what the leftist-liberal-Islamist term Right-wing towards deliberate provocations of the former is not in line. As much as the provocations are not innocent banters, the responses too are way too feeble and miss a key point. Hinduism has always been a religion of debate and rationale. But you cannot debate with a noise, you cannot have dialogue with a slogan. Some five Thousand years back, Manu wrote his laws, which without reading many condemn for being too stringent. They say ritualistic Hinduism draws its inspirations from the rigid rules of Manu. The many who condemn Manu for the rigidity of his rules ignore two facts which demolishes the two carefully-crafted (and cunningly as well) narrative of anti-feminism and rigidity of rituals. Manu's daughter Devahuti - a wise, intellectual woman poetess (yes, we used to have them even before the west civilized us native pagans), married outside royal lineage with poor sage Kardama and wrote hymns in Rig-Veda , the first Veda which is praises to the nature and ritual sacrifices to fire. The second part is about the rigidity. Well, Devahuti's son, or Great king Manu's grandson Kapila became the founder of Sankhya philosophy which denounces ritual sacrifices as a way to attain spiritual liberation. It became a part of six major Hindu philosophy. 
Since we come from that world, we are culturally and historically steeped in that kind of thinking. We think debate is to learn, that banter is the amuse. But no. I have wandered far and wide, so let me quickly come to few things I have noticed in recent past. The day, Muslim day of mourning, Muharram was over, which is known for processions of blood-soaked bodies, beating themselves in sad memories of last relative of Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in one of the bloodiest battles known to humanity till then where even little kids were not spared by fellow Muslims, with no infidels around, in a battle of supremacy for the empire which the Prophet sought to build, perhaps not even realizing that this empire building will later day become a religion. Internet was flooded by pictures of the day, blood on the streets and the saddest, a kid being given a cut on the forehead to make him bleed. To think that to avoid 'accidental' hurt that may come to the kids in the wake of crowded Dahi handi, Indian courts have come to not only set the heights of Dahi Handi also has it fixed the age limit for participation. Not one person would demand, nor one court will prohibit kids from attending the Muharram procession, where the hurt is deliberate and the scene is inhuman. 
The intellectuals came out of huddle immediately and noted journalist, Sagarika Ghosh, noted for her rhetorical tweets declaring riots in India, declared- "I am celebrating a green Deepawali, what about you?" Note that Diwali one of the biggest Hindu festivals is still a fortnight away. When we do not know how you celebrate Muharram why would we be keen to know how you celebrate Diwali, or if you celebrate it at all. It is of no purpose except to provoke and some how create mistrust in Hindu culture and heritage. No self-respecting journalist will leave the cushy chairs in Delhi and check the status of the implementation of no-crop burning policy in Punjab and Haryana, which is major cause of pollution. 
This Diwali one they claim, is purely out of altruistic reasons, for the general good of the mankind, to fight pollution. During Dussehera there was interesting tweets which similarly or differently worded came from different quarters mentioning how great a saint Ravana was as he never touched Sita, without consent, even after kidnapping her. That did not even meet the requirement of altruism. There was no general public good being achieved. Just think why those posts came about? To make the Hindus question their own faith. Faith is the foundation on which religion stands. If you shake the foundation, it will be easier to move the mountain. 
Than I remember a JNU scholar (well, research student, they go by the name of scholar these days) wrote on Beef and its place in Hindu culture. She conveniently missed the point that the Rig-vedas were written 5000 years back. Hindus have grown, and Hinduism is not a religion which demanded stunted growth ever.  No, that is not us. So, assuming for a moment that beef was eaten 5000 years back, Hindus of this great nation understood the value of Cow as an important member of Hindu agriculturist family. Still, I try to put things in perspective. There are instances in Rig-Veda of making an offering of Cow to the gods. That means it is divine, that means it dear, that means it is so very critical, important and valuable to me, but I still am offering it to the Gods. Rig-veda has clear hymns mentioning that the Cow is one not to be killed. Wars were fought not over lands, rather over cows and were called Gavisti in the Rig-Vedic. The first great battle of Rig-Vedic Aryans which is also called as the Battle of Ten Kings, was fought over the armies of Ten kings coming together to steal the cows of king Sudasa. I am sure the researcher who wrote that knows that kings don't go at war for someone stealing the meals. Now think, what she wrote doesn't make sense, only provokes, will not convert people into beef-eating en-masse'. Why was this piece written? Some publicity is good publicity could be one reason. Secondly, anything denouncing Hinduism more likely to be published in Western media like Huff-Post. But then the question comes back to why? If majority of people in India do not eat Cow-meat, and we know Beef as an industry, has damaging impact on the environment. Thus here again, unlike Deepavali, there is no greater cause to hide behind. Then why was piece like that written?
Then we come to the Rohingya Crisis. Islamists were trying to carve out an entirely Muslim state out of Myanmar. They attack government establishment with the kind of brutality which ISIS demonstrates. The Burmese government responds with its full might. The same thing has been happening in Kashmir. But one has the consider the geographical shape and size of India and contrast it with Myanmar. In India, it was a small valley, where Islamists did do what they do with clinical precision, but it did not impact the huge part of a big nation, so we did not go the whole hog. Who knows in 90s if India had undertaken an operation similar to what Myanmar government took against the Rohingyas, when the first lot of Kashmiri Pandits arrived as refugees in Jammu, the problem would have been resolved then. That is a different debate but the common thread begins to emerge here. UN and Global community, Petroleum-funded and Vatican-backed, marching in unison urge India to offer humanitarian refuge to Rohingyas. They do not request China which is next door to do that. Neither Rohingyas show any interest in going to China. China has been so cleverly kept out of everything happening in Myanmar with which shares a border twice as compared to the India -Myanmar shared border (India- 1331 Kms, China - 2192 kms). China is a nation which is interested in looking into everyone's border, but is totally unconcerned about Myanmar crisis.
I have been troubled by these thoughts. There are people thoroughly funded to make destroy the basic cultural fabric of India. It is a danger which has many layers and many facets. The world as we look at it gives a grim picture behind all those fancy talks about multi-cultural world. The world today has broadly 32 Christian countries, 24 Islamic states and 6 Buddhist nations. Rest are secular states. Nepal used to be a Hindu nation, but ceased to be one since 2006. India is a secular Hindu-majority state. Nehru at Independence, insisted that India is a secular state and Jinnah argued that India essentially is a Hindu state. So they carved two arms out of India and both won, creating a Muslim state out of what Nehru said was Secular and Jinnah said was Hindu state. The Hindus of this nation, open-mouthed sat wondering. There are three ways to break a culture, a religion. Attack their sense of History, sense of Unity and sense of pride. As I have tried to show, it is being driven at all the three ends. Why would a Muslim political activist mock Hindu women fasting on Karwa Chauth? Does it serve any political purpose? No. Then why? because the Congress seemingly is a part of the grand plan, knowingly or unknowingly. So mock the heritage, deride the sense of history, laugh at the culture. Another is to create language divide, caste-divide, now even division of Gods. Where is it happening? Karnataka. Possibly for the powers-that-be, the partition of 47 was failed attempt. They hoped it to be supplemented by Junagarh, Hyderabad, Kashmir as Islamic fiefdom and some states in North East as Vatican state. Fortunately, Patel prevailed. 
 Because India as an open, proud, forward-looking society with an enviable past stands as a sore thumb. To the West, we are a sore thumb. India is a distant story to the western media. They would not know a Sikh from a Sheikh, and they preach. India has given refuge to Afghans, Iranians and all. But refugees do not walk in demanding the host to adhere to their rules. That is not migration, that is invasion. Every nation has a right to its natural hue. India has, so has Myanmar. A young girl is stripped off her title because she spoke of Rohingya atrocities on the locals and the great warriors of freedom of expression stand not only in silence, rather with a smile of satisfaction on their stupid faces. Little do they realize that unlike the US with 0.5 percent Muslim population for cultural melting-pot, this girl has lived in a country which has over the century seen an extended multi-religional, multi-faith land of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists extending from Afghanistan to Indonesia, slowly becoming islands of existence surrounded by Muslim only states like Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is always easy to judge from a distance, more so, if it is driven by an agenda. India is that earthen lamp floating into the deep darkness of the night on the dark blue waters of the holy Ganga. Let us be watchful, waters are turbulent. Let us grow stronger out of their disdain. Let us read more about our history and heritage and call out their lies. Let us be loud enough. Rather than mocking Pakistan funded khalistanis for raising funds for Rohingya Muslims, let us raise funds out of Hindu temples for displaced Myanmar's Hindus. 

India, That is Bharat- Part 4- Vedic Chronolgy

(This is the 4th Part in the Series after:

Part 1- Geographical Formation of India - Read Here
Part 2- The formation of Rig Vedic India- Read Here
Part 3- The vedas - Read Here )


The Chronology of Vedic India
We now try to establish the chronology of the formation of the Vedic World. Historians lament that the Vedic Indians were terrible in keeping the records (as against the Egyptians and Greeks). The reason behind this could be a very long history before the establishment of proper monarchies wherein the Monarchs might be interesting in keeping their histories, real or invented, preserved for the posterity. Another reason could be the inherent nature of Vedic thought, which was more concerned with spiritual exploration and search, than about empire building. The affiliations of later scholars also did not help much. Christian scholars found it hard to accept a world before Genesis, which was around 4500 BC. Communist scholars, which India had post-independence, had their own agenda in deriding the history which can only be called the Hindu history of India, much to their chagrin. 
 Many contend that the Aryan History began around 1700 BC (European point of view). This is a point which is widely contested and as we dig deeper, we find it to be incorrect, derived merely because we have 900 BC as the time of Atharva-Ved  and by assigning equal duration to each Veda ( Max Mueller formula) , we arrive at 1700-1900 BC for the Rig-Veda compilation. Now, we have two issues here. One, the history of Aryans goes beyond their first arrival into India; two, even the time estimated of their arrival into India around 1700 BC is unscientific. 
Going by amazing analytical works of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in to the Aryan history, which sets the dates based on the Rig-Vedic references (Cross-referenced to Persian writings) and Astronomical details in Rig-Veda, we begin reaching somewhere. He fixes the date for the compilation of Taittiriya Samhita in what is refers to as Krittika period, that is 2350 BC. Rig-veda obviously, being older, must go to somewhere around 3000 BC. What Tilak further posits is that while Rig-Veda might have been compiled around 3000 BC in India, it was written for centuries earlier as it has the references to the earlier habitat of the Aryans, that is Arctic. This thought aligns with the idea of Shri A K Majumdar . 
This takes into account the rule of Manu, The First , or Adima (Adam) in Uttara Kuru ( Siberia or Arctic ) till around 8000 BC. Some of the hymns of Rig-Veda were written during those times which refer to six-month long day and night. A devastating winter forced them to move, as they settle down in central Asia crossing  Roosam (Russia) by 4000-5000 BC, before again splitting in parts and moving in various directions and some reaching India around 3000 BC. Those moving west-ward settled in Egypt and Greece. Dyaus of Aryans became Zeus in Greek, Dyauspitar (Father of the Gods) became Jupiter . Atharvans light up the sacrificial fires in India and Athravas in Iran ( Ariyanna - Land of the Aryans)  to ward of chief of evil spirits, Vritra , in India and Veretra in Iran. There was huge moral fall, devastation and general lawlessness in the new Aryan settlements, considered as the beginning of Kalyug- the Age of moral decline which as per Hindu thought continues . This was around 2900 BC. Brahma at this time, disappointed, directs his sages, who were the fountainhead of intellectual morality, to go ahead, marry and take civilization forward. Essentially, he asks the sages to join the mainstream and work with the society to bring the order back. 
Around a century down, the first Monarchy will be formed, headed by Manu-II , while the Brahma of the time, had retreated back to the Uttara Kuru (Siberia) , named after the illustrious leader from the Arctic days, also called Swayambhu Manu . Between 5000 to 3000 BC, the Aryans were spread across Asia, and Vairaja dynasty ruled in Central Asia, called Brahmavrata . 
Aryan Vairaja Dynasty (Brahmavrata, Central Asia) [There is some dispute here. There are some who say Brahmavrata was around Bithoor, in UP, near Kanpur. However, the absolute silence of Rigveda on Ganga, makes one doubt this contention.] 
King Virat: 2950 BC to 2930 BC Swayambhu Manu , ruled from 2930 BC- 2900 BC
Manu  and his wife, Satrupa , had two sons- Priyavrata and  Uttanpada who, it is said , between two of them, ruled the seven islands of the world ( Bhagwat Purana ). This was probably the first example of a federal government and first reference to the seven continents. There were independent kingdoms, all ruled under the same policies and rules, with Manu Samhita as a singular constitution governing them, run independently. Even within Aryavrata (Indian State, or Jambu-Dwipa) we shall see that there were multiple kingdoms, all together as a singular entity called Aryavrata and later, Bharat-Varsha.    
He also had three daughters- Akuti, Devahuti and Prasuti.  Devahuti was learned woman and also contributed hymns to Rig-Veda. Prasuti was married to the king Daksh (This is considered to be the first marriage to be solemnized), while Akuti to Sage Ruci and Devahuti to a very poor Sage Kardama who lived on the banks of Saraswati.

Sage Kardama and Devahuti had Nine daughters and a son, named Sage Kapila, who is considered to be world's first Philosopher and the founder of Sankhya philosophy. His philosophy was near atheist and believed in liberation through spiritual emancipation. He did not believe in higher Gods and Vedic sacrifices. He believed the understanding of the Self as the way to liberation.  

Priyavrata had ten sons, out of which three denounced kingdom and became Sages. Priyavrata divided his kingdom among the remaining seven as- Jambu-Dvipa (India) to the eldest Agnidhara, Plaksha (now submerged part of Africa), Salmali (Likely modern-day Somalia), Kraunch-Dweep (Australia), Saka-Dwipa (Europe), Pushkara-Dwipa (North America), Kusha-Dwipa (South America). 
Agnidhara ruled over the Indian Peninsula as Viceroy of Priyavrata from 2875 to 2850 BC. 
Agnidhara was followed by the Prince Nabhi who ruled from 2850 to 2840 BC and then handed over the reigns to son, Rishabh Dev. Rishabh Dev denounced the kingdom and became a sage in 2825 BC in search of what he called Pure Wisdom. He was later hailed as first Jain Tirthankar. 
Bharat ascended to the throne in 2825 BC. India came to be called Bharat-Varsha after him. The dynasty declined after Bharat. 
Uttanpada dynasty had 14 kings but none of them noteworthy.  The Indo-Aryans: The Solar Dynasty (The Surya-Vanshi)-

Under the guidance of Vishnu and under the military command of Indra, Aryans moved towards India. Marichi, the eldest of the Seven Seers, Saptarishis, who were asked by Brahma, the great Aryan Patriarch, to get into the worldly ways, had a son, Kashyap, who conquered the mountainous, Kashyap-Meru (Kashmir). He married daughter of King Daksha, of Kanakhla (Haridwar), Aditi, and had twelve sons, of which Indra, Varuna, Vivaswan and Vishnu were the most illustrious. Brahma had by then settled back in Siberia at Siddhapuri (Sidrov). Vivaswan, a poet and thinker, had a great son, Manu, who came be known as Vivaswat Manu. 

Vaivaswat Manu , ruled from 2800 BC- 2790 BC. He built the city of Ayodhya, on the banks of river Sarayu , which had Eight parts, Nine gates and and iron treasury (Atharva Veda). 




He founded solar dynasty ( Suryavanshi)  had 58 great kings, with names like Ikshvaku, Prithu, Satyavata (Trishanku), Harishchandra, Dilipa I, Bhagiratha, Sudasa, Raghu, Dasaratha and finally, the greatest of the Kings, Sri Ramchandra of  Ayodhya. 

The Lunar Dynasty (The Chandra-Vanshi)-

Sage Atri, who was the second of the Seven Seers, had Som as the son. Som conquered the Central Asia and North-west India. Som begot an illicit son with Tara , the wife of Sage Vrihaspati, named Buddha. He married Ila and founded Lunar dynasty ( Chandra Vanshi).  This dynasty had 50 Kings and ended with Duryodhana. This was followed by Pandu dynasty with the coronation of Yudhishtira in 1388. This dynasty ended in 1372 BC. 

The sixth great king of the dynasty, Yayati (2700-2650BC), had Five sons, and each founded great dynasties. Puru, Yadu, Druyhu (Bhoja of Malwa), Truvasu (Western India, later known as Yawanas, they eventually settled in Greece) and Anu (He too went westwards and founded Mlechcha Pradesh). Around that time, a great Bharat clan King, Sudasa ruled in North-west India, over the tribe of Tritsu (some say, Sudasa was a non-Aryan king, but was supported by Indra in the battle of 10 Kings. Also we do not know if Indra as a person supported him or was he benefited in the battle due to massive rains, Indra being the rain God. It is also said that Anu drowned in the river during the battle). 

He once defeated the joint army of Anu and Druhyu, and at another time and more significantly, he defeated a joint army of Ten Kings, who had stolen his Cows and were taking them across the rivers. In the first great fight of Vedic India, he killed 6000 soldiers in what is known in Rig-Veda (7th Mandala) as the Battle of Ten Kings (Dasrajnya) in which the King Puru too perished along with Janmejaya.
The Rig-Veda celebrates his victory- 

"The Tritsus in whose ranks Indra entered, went onward like downward streaming waters; their enemies leave all their goods to Sudas. Sixty hundred of Mounted Anu and Druhys perished; Sixty six heroes fell before the righteous Sudas.. The four horses of Sudas, the courser worthy of praise, richly adorned, stamping the ground, will bring race against race to glory. Ye strong Maruts, be gracious to him as to his father Divodasa, preserve him to the house of Pijavana, and let the power of the righteous king continue uninjured."

However, the great Lunar dynasty continued further, now with areas of influence settled; other great names adding to a distinguished dynasty like Dushyant, Bharat, Shantanu and Bhishm. Bhishm and Dhritrashtra were not full-kings, rather were Regents, Bhishm had opted out of it, and Dhritrashtra was not considered qualified to rule given his physical deficiency, being blind in the time when the King was also supposed to be a Military commander. 
After this volatile period of  Yayati,  we have Initial Aryan Kingdoms settled as:

Bharata- Upper GangaYamuna (and rajasthan)- Matsyas and YadusUpper Yamuna and Ganga- PanchalaEastwards from Sarayu- KoshalaEast and North of Ganga- VidehaOn Ganga: Kashi and AngaSouth Ganga: Magadha
Magadha Empire:

From here, from this mystical, mythical world, as we move closer to the modern world, we find the Kingdoms consolidating and settling down, in the first large Monarchy of India, the Great Magadha Empire :
Brihadratha dynasty- 1304 BC- 779 BC, Starting from the reign of Brihadratha , father of Jarasandha . Brihadratha was the eldest of the Five sons of Chedi King Uparichara Vasu, who ruled somewhere around modern-day Bundelkhand.  Pradyota Dynasty:779-665 BC (King Somapi to Ripujanya) Sishunaga Dynasty: 665- 405 BC (10 Kings)Nanda Dynasty: 405- 312 BC (Nanda -1 ruled for 40 Years and his Eight sons for 53 Years)Chandragupta Maurya: 312 BC 

{Alexander arrived in 323 BC. Coronation in 312 BC gives Chandragupta time to establish and drive the Greeks out, establishing his Kingdom. Dhana Nanda ruled for 40 years and his 8 sons 53years as per Vishnu Purana. This places Nanda Dynasty establishment at 312 + 93= 405 BC. Shishu Naga dynasty had a chain of 10 Kings (Vishnu Puran), giving average of 25 years rule to each (accepted average is between 23.2 to 25 years for each king), it gives us 250+405=655 BC as the beginning of Shishu Naga Dynasty. Brihadarath dynasty had 21 Kings as per Vayu Purana, with 25 years for each king, it takes us to 25x21=525, meaning the beginning of the Magadha Empire at 779+525= 1304 BC. Max Duncker settles the foundation of Magadha in 1418 BC, while another reference takes it to 1280 BC. Both 1280 and 1308 seem correct, if we consider 1280 BC as coronation of Brihadaratha and 1308 as Coronation of Jarasandha and 1418 BC as the Coronation of Sahadev, as writer takes on or the other of the three as founder of Magadha empire.} 
After this the world becomes more plausible, and India, that is Bharat, becomes more recognizable, beyond the deliberate attempts to disfigure it made by vested interest. Keep reading. 
References: 

1. The Hindu History By A. K. Majumdar, Published, 19202. The Ancient History of India - By Professor Max Duncker (Translated by Evelyn Abbott), 18813. The Orion or Researches into The Antiquity of The Vedas- By Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 18934. The Arctic Home in The Vedas- By Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1903

Book Review: The Fall - By Albert Camus

The Fall - By Albert CamusPublished: - 1956 (Penguin)Amazon Link: Click HereGenre: Fiction/ Philosophical/ Classic


What is the purpose of literature? - Entertainment? fun? happiness? Revolution? Sharing of knowledge? Quest for knowledge?


I found the best answer in Matilda of what good literature is and should be, a book for children by Roald Dahl
" So Matilda's strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone."


I would think this all comes together in literature. But the most important thing for a good literature is that it depicts the writer's search for truth. He (or she) might make you laugh, cry, have fun while he searches for the truth; but if you play along with complete faith, you will find yourself embarking on an invisible journey which moves across the pages of the book. 
More often than not, the writer does not know the answer. Sometimes he pretends to, but he does not. He would not be writing the book if he knew the answer. He writes because he is groping in a darkness which is even more pessimistic and pathetic than the bleakness in the reader when he picks the book. That is because the writer has hit the starting point of discovery where he realizes that he does not have the answer and he needs it to make sense of life. It does not matter what the genre or style of the book be. 
It is always worthwhile to read a book written by the writer with such an intention. Such books will always contain the message which never ages with time. The Fall  by Albert Camus is one such book. It is just a matter of coincidence that I read The Fall right after I finished Nausea. It seems as if this book and the earlier one were written by the same man. But then the tired, spirit of man, in search of salvation is always the same; always struggling, inching towards an ever-elusive meaning of life, the soul remains same whether it is Sartre writing Nausea, Dostoevsky writing Notes from the Underground or The Fall by Albert Camus.
There is something utterly serene about a cloudless, moon less night. More so, if one is looking at the sky from a mountainous area. There is darkness spread all around, the unpolluted, untainted darkness as if the Gods would have spilled the ink while writing some Epic. And then there are small points of hope- bright, little stars shining through the darkness. The lights coming from them is straight, precise and purposeful. It does not spread in an ugly cumbersome manner on the darkness around. Almost like a surgeon's knife it cuts through its own path. The darkness and the light do not touch, disfigure one another. 
This is precisely what one feels reading The Fall. The story spreads itself over the conscience like a dark, black night in the mountains, and stars are like sharp and splendid aphorisms which shine in the darkness. The story is studded with them. Nietzsche compared aphorisms with long legs which helps us walk easy in the uneven lands. In short sentences, immense truth is held. The prose is immensely fulfilling. The story is a conversation of Clamence , a lawyer, in a  Dutch bar with a stranger. Though calling it a conversation will not be entirely correct. It is more of a monologue, a struggle, a search for meaning. Unlike Dostoevsky's hero, Clamence , on the other hand, is a very successful man in every measure of societal success. He is upwardly mobile, socially-conscious man to a fault. But he is haunted by a vacuousness which threatens to engulf his life. He believes that what he is living a charade. 
The power of writing and power of truth manifests itself in the fact that many will find inside them the echo of this emptiness, the sense of something less in our being, which Clamence embodies. A brutally honest book and extraordinarily thought-provoking. Clamence is an man sinking in discontent, unhappy with self and with the world he lives in. He was absolutely a perfect man- the paper-book version. He fought the cases for Women and children, supported causes, but he felt, he lived a life of pretense as he says- 
" In the course of an extensive study of myself, I have laid bare the duplicity of the human animal."
The man is troubled by the truth, he is tired of living an unreal life. The political correctness elevated him socially, but in the end he sits wondering if it was worth it? 
" I realized that modesty helped me to shine, humility to triumph and virtue to oppress. I made war by peaceful means and in the end obtained all that I desired through unselfishness."
This line, in its structure, explains how tired Clamence is of contradictions and lies of his life. He laments, he struggles but it is all in vain. He wishes a woman may drown in the held, so that he could feel good about himself. This sad saga continues, in his life, in our lives. 

" Aren't we all the same, continually talking, addressing no one, constantly raising same questions, even thought we know the answers before we start? "

Can we save ourselves and the world before it is too late? The world of reason and debates is collapsing, the lines are drawn and the world insists that we take a side. This book does not answer the questions, rather leaves you with many. It leaves your spirit awaken and your mind burning with an intense desire to mean something. Extremely well-written, intensely thought-provoking book, A meaningful, must Read. 
"We don't say any longer, as we used to in the more innocent times: "There's what I think. Now what are your objections?" We have reached the age of lucidity: dialogue has been replaced by Communiques. 'Here's the truth,' we say. 'You can argue with us if you wish, we don't care, but in a few years, the Police will come and show you I'm right.'

My Tryst with A Great Freedom Fighter

We live in a world of dwarfs. All great battles have already been fought; all great thoughts have already been debated; all great arguments have already been settled. We live in a world where terrorists and murderers are called freedom-fighters, while all they have on offer is another cage which they claim to be holier and more beautiful. Nationalism has been made, by the crafty, conniving, so-called conscience-keepers, nasty and patriotism, petty. It is no wonder that the youth of this nation is so disenchanted with the world around him. We like it or not, we identify ourselves with the world we live in, the society that sustains us, the country that is our custodian. When we badmouth and belittle them, we abuse our roots. Devoid of our roots, we are nothing more than helpless, floating balloons in a hostile, or at least, indifferent skies. We struggle to settle our feet on the slippery ground which is fast turning into quagmire. We shout at the poor auto-rikshaw driver who has brushed past our car and feel masculine; we call anyone with different view Behenji and Bhakt and are urgently drunk on our fake intellectual spirit. 
We look for inspiration in Che Guevara Tee-Shirts, Posters with pitch-black structures on Blood-red backgrounds and think it is revolutionary. We stand naked devoid of pride in the past and hope in the future. In such a scenario, I picked up the Autobiography of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. I did not have much hope from it, in terms of literary content or historic significance. After all, the man gets no more than couple of lines in our history books. Reams and reams of paper have been written about the quiet and clever political maneuvers of the political freedom fighters. They were educated in Britain, had good English, and came from rich backgrounds which matched the affluent lifestyles of the British Colonial rulers in India. 
The lovers of the motherland, who operated in silence, in sadness, in desperation, in poverty, made the British uncomfortable. The generation of intellectuals, the British created and left behind, were at an equal unease with them. Unlike the vast and rich expanses of Anand Bhavan which was kind of base for movement funded by rich merchants, Bismil grew up in abject poverty in the area of Bundelkhand, under the Gwalior royal Kingdom. The family literally struggled for one square meal, braving droughts and scarcity with the poise of the prices and calm of the kings. Today, when I read intellectual braves questioning why we should celebrate the glory of our motherland given the poverty, the mis-governance over the years, the corruption, on India's independence day; I am totally confounded by the love, unmoving, unchanging and unyielding, which Bismil preserved in his heart. 
Not only was India much worse in 1897, June when Bismil was born in a poor Brahmin family, merely Forty years after the failed Mutiny of 1857, crushed cruelly under the heavy boots of the British empire. In an India as it was then, in a world as it was then, Bismil would still pray:
"यदि देश हित में मरना पड़े, मुझको सहत्रों बार भी,तो भी ना इस कष्ट को, निज ध्यान में लाऊँ कभी। हे ईश भारतवर्ष में शत बार मेरा जन्म हो,कारण सदा ही मृत्यु का देशपरक कर्म हो। 
(If I were to sacrifice a thousand lives,  I will still not be concerned of my welfare; Oh God, may I be born in my Bharat in every birth And meet my end doing my patriotic share.)
When I read this book and I considered that there were many people today who are more of English-readers than the readers of Hindi books. I felt saddened that I could not find any English translation of this great book by such a great man.  I could however gather the reasons for that. Once we encounter the real patriots, we will be easily be able to differentiate them from the fake who have crowded the political space since the Independence of India, bestowing the highest awards on themselves. Do not get me wrong. Bismil did not hate Congress leaders. He, in fact, advised the revolutionaries to work under the leadership of Congress. But then, he could not have imagined how his memories would be wiped out from the collective memory of his countrymen by the same Congressmen to maintain their sole proprietorship over the India's freedom movement, for political gains. His trust for his nation was incorrigible, as he went to the gallows, with his head held high, at the age of Thirty, singing
शहीदों की मज़ारों पर लगेंगे हर बरस मेले वतन पे मरने वालों का यही बाकी निशाँ होगा 

(The nation will celebrate the memory of martyr's every year,That and only that will be the mark of martyrs which the nation shall bear.)
He could not have imagined that in 1946 when the Congress leaders would be busy in mechanization to land themselves position of political power after the exit of the British, his own mother will live a life of penury, resulting in an eventual wiping off of the family, in public neglect and silence. When a writer writes something, he has reasons in his mind. When Bismil wrote his autobiography, languishing in Gorakhpur Jail, awaiting his death sentence, only reason he had was that the nation may learn from his life and build upon it. When I translated it, my only reason was that I wanted his life to be learnt by as many people as possible. I wanted my fellow Indians to know about the India where a staunch Arya Samaji Bismil had a Patriotic Muslim who would sing Vande Mataram proudly to the gallows, Ashfaqullah Warsi as his best friend, whom he considered almost his younger brother; a world in which a staunch leftist Bhagat Singh would kill a British officer to avenge a Right-wing leader Lala Lajpat Rai. This is an honest, inspiring and gripping story of human spirit soaring so high as if to kiss the sun. It is also an honest account of betrayals, sadness and still hope for a nation. A nation, any nation, survives on hope; this is the story of unyielding hope in the nation and offers the same to anyone who might spare time to read it. Do share it, review it, for it is a story which ought to be read by every India. 
(Amazon Link of "The Memoirs of A Martyr" - A Translation)

Rohingyas, and the Fault-Lines of Indian Society

The matter of Rohingya Refugees, having traveled across the air-conditioned conference rooms, have now reached the Supreme Court of India. The debate is shrill, spilling on the streets where a certain Maulana Warsi in West Bengal, which under Mamata Bannerjee has become a sanctuary to the Islamic fanatics, threatened killing of Hindus unless the Rohingyas who have entered India illegally are granted asylum. The rogue state of West Bengal has decided to oppose the Union's decision of deporting the illegals. Those who had feigned ignorance and murmured unintelligibly in broken words, when pushed, under the tinkering of Champagne glasses, on their own countrymen pushed out of Kashmir, suddenly found voice when talking of illegal foreign immigrants from Myanmar. The voices would rise in fury, the Bandhgalas were all open as elegant, Muslim liberals took to breast-beating and the in-your-face allegiance to Ummah suddenly took away the carefully-crafted charade of nationalism from the face of many. 
The nation, with a revival of Majority faith, justifiably so, after centuries of subjugation by was shocked to this sudden surge of support for the foreigners, merely on account of shared faith. While attempts were made to hide this coreligionist affection with humanitarian cause, it was too obvious to remain unobserved. The refugees had traveled across the length of Bangladesh, ostensibly created for the Muslims without pausing for a bit; to eventually settle down in the nation, supposedly meant for those non-Muslims left behind after Muslims had obtained their own land, to create their own Islamic nation in 1947. Once in India, illegally, they decided to settle in the most sensitive of the Areas. The grand plan to infiltrate the nation, to turn the demographic skew was easily detectable. 
While India has been home to Afghan, Jew, Chinese, Tibetan and Iranian refugees for centuries, the selective placement of illegal refugees, the coordinate campaign gave the game away. It was just a matter of time when the guards would go up. The Rohingya supporters were alarmed by unexpectedly strong opposition to the Rohingya Muslims. As Maulanas thronged the streets threatening to kill, with impunity, under the protection of state government, the majority Hindus, on a reflex hardened their position. It gives us an inkling to what might have happened in Myanmar too. You can not over the overwhelming numerical supremacy for long. 
The fury and fanaticism of Muslims lead them to believe that they are meant to rule over other religions, even when in minority. This faith in divine right to decide not only how they ought to live, rather how other ought to live in their presence is much visible in the Refugee crisis in Europe. The problem is that mostly they do not migrate, they invade. The belief in the inherent human goodness, democratic principle of the host nation, to propagate their own undemocratic and absolutist idea gave them the strength and courage to file petition in the Supreme Court. The court which had thrown out the petition submitted on behalf of Kashmiri Pandits on the ground that the case was too old, decided to entertain it and asked the Government to respond, in a clear case of Judicial overreach. 
Many cast disbelief in the Myanmari Buddhists claim that Rohingya Muslims were attempting to force Islamic way of life on the native Buddhists. However, when we look at a Mullah threatening to kill Hindus in West Bengal or a Politician threatening to do the same in Hyderabad, in a country where they are around 20 Percent of the Population, one tends to believe in the Myanmar's Buddhist population claims. You cannot continue hitting above your weight and expect no retort. And you cannot invoke the benevolence and good sense of the majority when faced with vengeful wrath. 
The Rohingya refugees filed the petition and are represented by the most powerful and cosliest set of lawyers in Fali S Nariman, Prashant Bhushan, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhawan, Ashwini Kumar mostly moonlighting as Congress Politicians. This powerful and expensive battery of lawyers further raises doubts about strong international lobby working towards some sort of designs of Islamist conquest of India. We are fortunate that India and the world at large is now awaken to the threat which is now worldwide. This international angle is also evident from the fact that as the matter came into Indian Supreme Courts, the International Human Rights lobby including the UN has gone into an overdrive pushing India to accept these illegal immigrants who were thrown out of Myanmar primarily because of the reactionary violence unleashed the Myamanr Junta in response of attempt of ARSA to establish an Islamic state. It is really curious that neither the International bodies nor the UN, in particular has ever made a request to China which shares border with Myanmar to accept the refugees on humanitarian ground. The nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan had the History of Buddhist heritage before they were run over by supremacist Islamic faith. We can also count Pakistan and Bangladesh in the list as Hindu faith nations converted to Islamic states. No wonder History does not comfort us. It is actually an act of defending the inherent Indian culture and way of living as the Government, thankfully, unmoved by petty politics of it, has taken a position opposing the settlement of illegal refugees. Out of 40000, some would be innocent, but do you really need 40000 people to make a terror strike? We need to ponder and protect our Indianness at all cost. The leaders who think all our freedom-fighters were NRI, and those who took decades to apply for Indian citizenship will never understand the meaning of Indian-ness, but it is critical to understand that for saving and defending a shared ethos of India.   

Dynasty in Indian DNA? Rahul Gandhi got it Totally Wrong

          Rahul Gandhi, the dynast of a dynasty which has to its credit a history of great luxury and elitist life, recently claimed in a speech at UC Berkeley in the US that Dynasty is the way things are done in India. His own dynasty  started from an immensely rich Lawyer in Pandit Motilal Nehru, during the poorest days of colonial India,  who not ensured that whenever his son landed into British Prison, he would get enough conveniences; long after he was gone in 1931, the connections with Gandhi did ensure that his son is installed as the first Prime Minister of the freshly-free nation, as a selected candidate against the elected one in Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. While India matured as a democracy from the first selected leader to slowly move towards able, elected leaders, the sense of entitlement within the family grew over the years, as they kept bestowing the highest honor of the nation, Bharat Ratna on to themselves, generation after generation. Within this deep faith in dynastic right to rule is hidden the innate disdain for democratic values. What Rahul Gandhi said in America is because of his immense faith in his right to rule this great nation, merely because he belongs to a family. The incessant arrogance and violent aggression of the Congress comes from this belief. This is what was evident when Mr. Gandhi claimed that he was ready to become the PM of India in 2019. Under his leadership, the party he heads has floundered and is almost in dust; his own constituency is one of the least developed in India; his performance in opposition has been a laughing matter to the citizen as he would prop the people to die in violence and happily sail away for foreign vacation. His career is an example of lackadaisical intent and undiminished sense of entitlement.
          Western world has for long used the idea of Casteism in Indian society to bash India as a whole, primarily as a way to create some kind of one-upmanship. Historical facts have been trampled and mangled with cruel and cunning craftiness by the colonial academics and later by the Leftist and Congress academics, driven by their anglophile leader, Jawahar Lal Nehru, out of whose shadow they never could come out. Let us look at what history tells us about dynasty politics.
The Rulers of the Vedic World:           The Vedic world is a term which hangs like a broad umbrella which spread itself over a federal society of multiple habitation, some monarchy and some democratic Janapada. The Vedas were kind of constitution which connected theses habitations together. The Janapadas anyways had the leaders elected by the people.  Even in the Monarchies, the monarch was chosen for Military prowess, as a defender of the people. This was a position to be won with valor. He gets the taxes or Bhaga in return of his services. It was a purely meritocratic organization as Military everywhere is, even in today’s world owing to the nature of work it does. While the society was divided on the basis of occupation, the occupations were not strictly hereditary. We find that one of the Madala in the Rig-Veda written by Vishwamitra- a man of warrior class and another by Vashishtha, a man of unknown birth. It stands to logic that in the times of RigVeda, the occupational knowledge and skill would flow from generation to generation, within a family, in the absence of any structured mechanism of dissemination of knowledge across the society where men were just stepping out of the forest into a world of domestic stability. Still occupations were open to all men, who could have the skills for it. 
Says  Rigveda in Mandala 9, Hymn 112:
A bard am I, my father is a healer, And my mother grinds corn on the quern; Striving for wealth, with varied plans, We follow our desires like kine. Flow, Indu, flow, for Indra’s sake.
(Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith)
Ved- Vyasa – the learned master and compiler of vedas and the writer of holy epic Mahabharata was the child of a union between Brahmana sage Parashara and a fisherman's daughter Satyavati. His humble birth never prompted even the later day Brahmins to ever attempt to appropriate his credit as the compiler of the work which forms the backbone of Hinduism. RigVeda also has the story of Sage Kavasha  who participated in the Yagya  on the banks of Saraswati. When found that he was the son of a slave woman, he was thrown out of the society. But then he wrote hymns in the honor of Varuna and was brought back into the society as revered sage. The intellectual class, the Brahman, meaning the learned one, was given most respect. The warrior was granted legitimacy of power by the intellectual. The intellectual was apolitical albeit a moral force.
The King, though rising on the strength of his power would not be elevated merely on brute power. He needed to have defined qualities, as says Atharva Veda:
“Firm the heaven, Firm the Earth, Firm the universe; Firm are these mountains on their base, So steadfast should the king of the people be.” (6.88.1)
It requires the King of the people not be a fickle-minded person. A man who is not firm in the mind  and does not have fortitude of spirits is not fit to rule. Furthermore, the king would need the approval of the Samiti and Sabha. While the Sabha was more like the House of Elders, Samiti was the House of Commons, accessible to everyone. The appointment of a person fit to become a King, as a King depended on the approval of these two social entities. The people will come together and formulate policies of governance for the universal good. This is beautifully captured in the last hymn of RigVeda
“Assemble, speak together; let your minds be all of one accord, As ancient Gods unanimous sit down to their appointed share. The place is common, common the assembly, common the mind So be their thoughts united.” (Ralph TH Griffith)
The public vote in the direction of common good was considered without discrimination. It was this Samiti which, together with the Sabha chose the king. They were considered to be the highest authority, higher than the king. As the Atharva Veda (7.13.1) chants on behalf of the King:
“May the Samiti and Sabha, The two daughters of Prajapati, Concurrently aid me.”
The king was duty bound to protect the Sabha and Samiti and prays that he may speak agreeably to them, at the same time, they satisfied with his abilities and intent would grant approval to his ascendancy to the throne. Mahabharata also illustrates the significance of choosing the Right King, rather than preferring the Right birth. The story begins with the council choosing Pandu over Dhritrashtra and ends with a war on account of a vile man intent on becoming a king merely on account of his birth. The whole story of destruction arises out of the insistence of Duryodhana to become the sovereign ruler in accordance of dynastic right, while the weight of Dharma rests with Yudhishthir  who is just king. Yudisthir is the King which Yajurveda recommends when it says, in the ceremony of Rajasuya :
“As a ruler, from this day onwards, Judge the strong and the weak, Impartially and fairly; Strive unceasingly to do good for the people And above all, protect the country from all calamities.”

I know Rahul Gandhi, whose mother could bring herself to becoming Indian citizen only in early 80s years after living in India, is busy reading Gita.  I suggest he reads some more about Indian history and heritage, not to beat RSS, rather to know the country to which he wants to proclaim himself as Prime Minister in 2019. He must also read it to understand how as per Indian thought and Wisdom, he does not qualify to become the next Indian Prime Minister. This Berkeley will not tell him, nor will the sycophantic Darbaar of his will tell him. His Coterie derives its power and hope for the continuance of the same from the continuance of this dynasty, however denigrating for our democracy it might be. No, Mr. Gandhi, Indians are not dynastic by DNA, even if people do have natural maternal (or paternal) instinct to install their offspring in the positions they vacate, especially pronounced when they know the limitations of their ward in terms of earning a place for themselves in the society on their merit. That is not how democracy works. This not how India works. We deserve better than a dimpled-dynast who think he has some divine entitlement to rule this great nation and thinks the nation owes it to him on account of some flaw in the collective DNA which supports dynastic politics, to handover the throne on platter while he celebrates foreign vacations, while setting Indian masses to outrage and suffer and leaving them behind. 

The Vedas- India, That is Bharat- Part-3

[In the Part-1 of this Series, I had tried to cover the story of formation of what we call India, from the sage of split of Super- Continent, Gondwana and the early settlement of Aryan Civilization- Read here (India-That is Bharat- Part-1)

In the Part 2 of this series, I covered the the Rigvedic World, the world from where the Vedas emerged (Read Here- India, That is Bharat- Part 2).]
 There are times when we feel exasperated with a tendency among the intellectuals to degrade Hinduism, to create a sense of embarrassment among the people of this country- about our history and heritage. For past more than five centuries, we have been ruled by people who were culturally different and numerically lesser than the people they ruled. Their success rested on creating a belief among the natives that they were not good enough to rule themselves. That we deserved to be ruled. What this required was to erase, wipe out and doctor our history. It is really unfortunate that the practice continues. Those who argue vehemently that the book which was written as the words of God (and the Only God), words beyond reproach, verification and debate, were misinterpreted; the same people, when it comes to vilify Hinduism will resort to selective quoting and selecting mention of the word Manu-vaad and Veda . The sad thing is we, as Hindus, and as Indians, know so little about our own ancient history. We have such little knowledge of Vedas than anyone can come, throw them at our face and we cower in this cunningly crafted narrative of shame and embarrassment. Vested interests will claim that a book written in 6th Century AD is misunderstood, because we must interpret it with our times; but will insist that literature written somewhere in 2000 to 3000 BC should be judged with the most modern eyes and quoted verbatim, even when the latter is gold standard of metaphoric and aphoristic writings. 
To draw equivalence, firstly all Vedic literature is presented as words of God. This basic premise is the most devious. Let me say what I think. Veda is not a word of God and Hinduism is not a religion of Book.  There was no man who woke up suddenly, gathered men about him and asked for unquestioned obedience because he told them what he claimed to be the words of God. There was not one single man who created these words, so that they would become binding on you and me and enable him to create an empire. Veda , which means knowledge is not a book of Dos and Don't for the followers to strictly adhere. Veda is struggle for the search of spiritual meaning for man just out of the caves, and trying to deduce, determine and establish his own place in the wide world. For a man at that stage of human evolution, Vedas were much ahead of their times- in terms of subtlety of thoughts and clarity of idea, not to mention, for exemplary and exquisite eloquence.  Vedas were never words carved in on a dead stone. 
Vedas were words of wisdom writ on the quivering surfaces of flowing waters, shimmering through the dark ages. 
The History of Veda:
Vedas are not the books written by one person. Veda grew and expanded and moved with the times. While writing came to Vedic Aryans supposedly by Fourth Century BC, first references were found of writing with Kalam (the pen) and the Mashi (the Ink) in the Buddhist inscriptions of 200 BC. Vedas preceded written words, but followed the spoken words, which the Aryans called Vac , which was celebrated in the Taittiriya Brahmana as - 
"Vac is the imperishable one (Akshara), first born of the cosmic order (rta), the mother of the Vedas (Vedanam-mata) the navel of immortality."
Veda is not one book. There are four Vedas, actually the fourth one, The Atharva Veda, written in 900 BC, nudged its way into reckoning later on, by around 600 BC. Initially all knowledge was said to be three-layered, namely
- RigVeda - SamVeda - Yajurveda

The three layers are Bhu ((the Earth), Bhuvah ( The in-between) and Swah (The heavens). AtharvaVeda came later and had the most elegant verses. Yajurveda totally ignores Atharva Veda when it proclaims:
"I take refuge in the word as the RigVeda In the mind as the Yajurveda and In the breath as Samaveda."
Rigveda was the oldest of the four Vedas, the first literature. Without words, the world was incomprehensible. Then we had words which could describe the things and make the world comprehensible. Since Rigveda came about much before writing, the Vedic Aryans would depend on verbal transfer of knowledge. Rigveda mostly had hymns on the forces of nature. They were written by man who was for the first time coming on to a situation where he could imagine not being overwhelmed by Nature for the first time. His happiness is palpable when he speaks- 
"When men set forth the earliest utterances of speech (vac), giving name to things, then was disclosed a jewel, treasured within them, most excellent and pure."       - Rig Veda
So happy was the Aryan Indian then, that not only did he readily shared it with his fellows, he demanded that his friends remember what he shares with them about the nature. He contends forgetting that shared knowledge a sin as grave as the murder of a friend or a Brahmin (The Intellectual-philosopher, the seeker of knowledge). So much so, that it came out as a RigVedic prayer:
"Come again, Lord of Speech,  Together with divine mind; Lord of Good, make it stay in me,  In myself, what is heard."
RigVeda would turn out into a collection of Ten Books (Mandalas), when Panini first structured the spoken words of Prakrit into Samskrit - World's first scientifically structured language in around 400 BC. For a while the Vedas would continue to propagate through oral traditions only. RigVeda was composed on the banks of Saraswati, right at the time when Aryans were trying to figure out a life which resembled more to their Harappan adversary's domesticated, agrarian world. They were still far from becoming the eastern civilization in the plains of Ganga and Yamuna . The Rig Veda has around 84 mentions of the River Sarasvati , also known as the lost river, and only 3 of the Ganga, the former fades away in the favor of later, by the time, we reach at Atharva Veda in 900 BC. The martial Aryans were not yet very well-settled into the superstitious, ritualistic world of the Indus civilization, who would pray for favors of the Gods to support their agriculture, to protect them from the nature. Baffled Aryans would call on the Agni to:
"Destroy with your heat the workers of magic, Destroy with your power, the evil spirits; Destroy with your flames the  idolaters Burn into flames those scoundrels." - Rig-Veda
RigVeda (In the praise of knowledge) has 1017 Main hymns and 17 Supplementary Hymns. These were written in praise of nature, in a way to please the nature and environment and get its support in sustaining lives. Mandala 1, 8, 9 and 10 are the result of collective effort of sages of different families. Remaining 6 Mandalas of the Samhita (Anthology) were from defined family of sages. 
Yajurveda details sacrificial rituals, some of which Aryans might have borrowed from the Indus people, with their magnificent temple and common baths. 
SamVeda covers the chants which go with the vedic rituals. 
The words with which Vedas were told from one generation to the other were called Shruti (The heard). There were interpretations and meaning which were beyond the verbatim transfer, which stayed in the mind of the teachers who passed it on. That was termed as Smriti (the remembrance). 
The Rigveda was passed orally from generation to generation, as it also grew. It was not a static piece of unalterable document, unlike the books of later day, religions of book. Mandala after Mandala would get added (not always by the Brahmins,  but also by Philosopher-kings like Vishwamitra). These iterations made these writings stand the test of time, and also made Hinduism what it is - The eternal or Sanatana. As Rigvedic Poet (who calls himself Karu or Artisan and not some messenger of God), writes about the evolutionary nature of Rigveda itself:
"With sacrifice and wish have I brought Indra.. Him magnified by ancient songs and praises, by lauds of later time and days yet recent."
Indra and Varuna , who were the most celebrated Gods in the Rigvedic period would slowly give way to the Trinity of Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh. While Indra is the valiant Military commander, a destroyer of the castles of the Panis (the mercantile class of the Meluhhans) , Varun is a humor-less God of severe justice. Maximum number of hymns in Rigveda are however, addressed to Agni- the Fire-God. Agni would not only save them from the wild beasts at nights; it would also clean up forests and provide them with cultivable lands. 
Samveda carries much less value in comparison as it mostly repeats the hymns of Rigveda, (except 75) and re-arranges them in order for Soma sacrifice. 
After the Vedas, comes the Brahmanas. Brahmanas explains and connects the Hymns of Rigveda with the rituals. Brahmanas of Rigvedas explain the duties of the Hotri - or the priest who recites the hymns, Brahmanas of Yajurveda, the duties of actual sacrificer. As time passed, Brahmanas further expanded with more detailed explanation of the allegorical representations and metaphorical meanings of the Vedas. Separate books came to be written, as these Vedas were studied and deliberated upon in the forests. These books were called Aranyaks (Aranya- Forest). The last and most lofty of the books in the Vedic traditions is Upanishads literally meaning "to sit down near one." These were interpretations and philosophical meanings being derived from the Vedas. While multiple Upanishads later came into being, there are Thirteen Upanishads dating to 3rd and 4th Century BC which are said to be representing the basic Vedic knowledge. Out of these, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad  is said to be the oldest one and is also the longest one. 
I shall be covering more on these topics in this series. I believe it is very critical for all Indians to read and understand at least the basic of Vedas to prevent the falsification of the History of Hinduism and thereby the History of India. For instance, the instances of Cow sacrifice is quoted from Rigveda in the modern world to justify beef-eating; while in the modern times, there are environmentalists propagating vegetarianism for environmental reasons. What is ignored that as the civilization moved from Rigveda to Atharva Veda, Cows became the pivot of economic well-being of the society. Wars were fought over Cows ( Gavisti). Also customs like Sati are quoted to deride denounce Hinduism and even Atharva Veda is quoted to prove that Sati was a part of Hindu Vedic world. It is an eye-opener to know that the oft-quoted verse from Atharva-Veda ought to be read in conjunction with the later part of the hymn. The later part takes it to conclusion as it speaks of Widow-remarriage. Furthermore, Federalism, democracy, secularism- which we consider as modern-day concepts, were found clearly represented in the Vedic India. Even the philosophical points like The Will and Self which caught the fancy of Western World with Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and later day philosophers, were well understood by that Vedic Hindu sitting outside his thatched hut, right on the fringes of the forest, in the Indus valley and later, in the lush Gangetic, doab planes of India. 
References: 1. Gem In the Lotus: Abraham Eraly ( Amazon Link )2. A History of Sanskrit Literature: Arthur A. Macdonell.( Published in 1900)

In Defense of the Guru

A great Guru, a master, a true Teacher needs no defense. He is not running a shop which needs defending. But a real Guru represents something bigger than his person. A real Guru holds within him knowledge distilled across the centuries. That is why he will be attacked, that is why he needs to be defended. A Learned master will not hand you over stale, second-hand knowledge. He will equip you with an ability to find your own facts, test your own truths, so you could breath in a free air and find for yourself the invigorating fragrance of truth. Truth comes in various forms and hues. What is true for me, may not be true for "Not-me".
Indian philosophy for centuries has searched the truth thus. A true teacher will not set up a Dera and tell you the rules to follow. He will set you free. He will tell you " This is my way. What is your way ?" and will also tell you that there is nothing called " The Way ". A true teacher will not set himself on a pulpit and speak at you. He will speak to you, in whispers, in silences and at times, he will speak even through his absences, in a way that you have never been conversed with before. You hear him when he is not speaking to you and you tell him your darkest fears when you are not telling anyone. He will not put you in his awe, He will make you comfortable. He will not throw his palms in the air and miraculously create ashes out of thin air; he will make the divine rise from the ashes. He will not charm you with magic, he will open the vistas of the magical within your soul to you. He will not throw complex word and confound you with indecipherable meanings; He will explain to you the deepest secrets of nature and life in a way that you would understand. His worth is not known by mysteries and surprises; his worth is known by sympathy and simplicity.
There are people who spend time in memorizing Vedic texts, memorizing rituals. They miss the truth for facts. They cannot be your Guru. They are those scholars that in whose voice, Nietzsche contends, frogs of stale water croaks. They are those who, Swami Vivekananda  says, go into the Mango Orchard and count the trees, twigs and leaves. He further says "Religion is the highest aim of a man, his highest glory, but it does not require leave-counting." The second condition for a spiritual teacher which Swami Vivekananda puts is- 
"He must be sinless ." He says " It is impossible from first to last that there can be any spiritual light in that soul which is impure."
The Katha Upanishad says " Atman (the knowledge of self) when taught by an inferior person, is not easy to comprehend, because it is diversely regarded by disputants. But when it is taught by him who has become one with Atman, there can remain no more doubt about it. " 
We are a generation in a hurry. Therefore we are short-changed. We want to achieve salvation in a hurry. We must know there is no salvation without struggle. A small-time, smooth-talker will not tell you this. He needs you to follow him. He derives his power from the mob. That is not Sanatan, that is not the Hindu faith. Hinduism is not an empire-building religion. The success of Hinduism is not in numerical supremacy, the success of Hinduism is in spiritual emancipation. Bashing Hinduism has become an industry. When you attack Hinduism, you can be your worst self, release the worst of your being and still claim to be modern and liberal. Such is the way things are. They would want you to believe that every fall of any self-proclaimed God-man is a fall for Hinduism.It is not. Since when in Hinduism has the word of a man, any man, untested of reason, unverified on facts, have become a law. 
Let me say it for those who would care to listen. Let us learn to wait, let us not make an error in desperation. A true teacher will arrive not by our desire, rather by the design of the divine. We must learn not to be in a rush. Those who take to teaching as a path to power, a way to wealth, are in rush too. They need mob around them, and they cannot wait. Mobs will beget mob. Pretense of power will bring more power. They have no patience, nor intellect to reach out to the truth, for themselves, for us. They do not have truth on their side. They will offer you heaven without hunger, Truth without tenacity, the fantastical without a just fight. Could Krishna not have offered salvation to Arjuna without the difficult and painful episode in which he lost friends and foe alike? Could he not have thrown his arm in air and offered salvation to the Pandavas ? He could have but the job of a real Guru is to teach the right path, the just, the moral- the  Dharma , not to facilitate easy success. But that takes time, both for the Guru as well as the Disciple. Swami Vivekanandasays " We must all wait till the Guru comes and then worship him as God." Therefore anything less than the purest will not do for a Guru. Guru is the mirror in which we can see the self and clean our soul. A mirror with a crack or laden with dust will not serve the purpose.
The Sanatan  comes from the inherent human desire to search the truth. It is the human quest of meaning. It is not a promise of magic, not an assurance of empire. But people will try to find equivalence. They have tried to do it with the Vedas, making them sound like dead, immovable fossils from the past, which they are not. They have tried to equate it with stagnant knowledge of the books which cannot be questioned, debated or challenged. Hindu scriptures are about inferences and initiation, not about dictum and decisions thrown at the larger masses by those claiming to be intermediaries of God. God will never need other people to talk to us. He talks to us all the time, sometimes we listen. People will tell you otherwise because never have they gone deeper. They have neither talent nor the intent to do that. They want to shock you into submission. One must always be wary of such people. Anything resembling this should be rejected. Read scriptures, read history and interpret them for yourself. Be ready to be a student and who knows, you might become a teacher. When you cut your roots and float aimlessly, because being rootless is fashion, you set yourself up to be fooled. Bring heritage into fashion. When your search for the divine is not driven by a quest for knowledge and emancipation, rather is driven by greed and necessity; you put your soul on the stall to be bought by the next missionary, the next God-man. Don't sell the magnificent so cheap. When you steer away from your ancient identity, which is eternal and ever-growing; when you mock the Vedas, the scriptures without trying to understand them; you leave a vacuum- A gaping abyss between yourself and the divine, for these fraud and fake intermediaries of the God drive into, on their obnoxiously jazzy luxury cars. There is a history of men using spiritual cloaks to hide their imperialistic greed. That has nothing to do with Hinduism. Don't let people fool you. Tell yourself, we need a Guru, but we are not in a hurry. Be prepared to wait for him, ready your soul to welcome him when he comes. Gather knowledge, challenge knowledge, refine it. Your Guru might well be inside you. There are no Godmen in Hinduism, tell this to those who attack you and there is no messenger. The Atman and Parmatman, the Self and the Divine, both are within my soul and I shall unite the two. That is what my Vedas tell me.  These Bling-Babas are not mine, nor are the representatives of Hinduism. Check references from the history to find who they resemble the most. They claim to have conversations with the God, they lay down the rules for the lesser mortals to follow, they do not debate or reason, the dictate and direct. They are the Anti-thesis of what Hinduism represents. Do not let people tell you that they are representative of regressive Hinduism. They are not, Hinduism cannot be regressive, it is an ever-flowing river of continuity. Let not the narrative drive you into embarrassed submission of a guilt over your glorious heritage. Hold your head high for you are the child of greatness, O' Children of Bharata!!

India - That is Bharat- Part II- Rig-Vedic Times

This is the second part of the series that I am trying to put together, trying to get a glimpse inside the Ancient History of our nation- India. As I write this, I am much troubled by the politically tweaked, hollow history taught to us which haunts us as the citizens of this great land which has been the northern star to the world that for a long time walked in the wilderness during the dark ages, while the Sun, that the Aryans would call Savitr or Surya , had already dawned on this land. This land which had not only discovered speech and language, as the celebrated fulcrum on which civilized mind rested (called Vach by the Vedic Aryans); but had already started on a journey of spiritual and philosophical journey, which the West would join only several thousand years later. 
There were disputes around Aryan Invasion Theory. Some objected to my post which hinted to the same, although I had mentioned under due protest against the term 'Invasion' a much misleading term in the context of the period it refers to. When the Aryans arrived, even according to what I would call Aryan Migration theory, in around 2000 to 1800 BC, few centuries after the Harappan arrived  and settled down in Indus Valley as Meluhhans who had come earlier in 2500 BC, the lands were aplenty and Aryans had not arrived with the intention of settling down, adopting the agrarian nature of the earlier inhabitants. It was only in terms of cattle that the riches were measured even till the time of Atharva Veda. Furthermore, there was a definite intermingling of tribes and assimilation of practices as Shiv from the Meluhhans became the Greatest of the Gods for the Aryans, as cattle-rearing and agriculture became important and the same rituals which Aryans, the warriors, looked condescendingly in the Rigveda, became a part of settled agrarian lives of the Vedic Aryans in Atharva-Veda as they moved from the Indus-valley nurtured by the great river Sarasvati and became the celebrated Children of Ganga . 
The insistence on calling this migration of races as invasion of Aryan is malicious on two counts- One, it does not as explained, in anyways qualifies as invasion, Two, I am not yet sure that there is enough proof of it. Mostly we go by the hints of the Aryan name in the Middle-East, for instance, the reference to the Aryan heritage of Darius , The Great; and in the writings of Herodotus . But to my mind, it could have cut both ways. Aryans could have moved westwards from East, following the trade route of the Panis or the traders of Mohenjo-Daro. 
The fact that unlike the Greeks, Aryans were not much concerned about the proper recording of History does not help much. It is still in our interest to know as much about our own roots as we can. If one takes away the sense of structure from the British; the Audacious adventurous spirit of the Americans and heritage of history from the Indians- this would amount to taking away the very soul of the civilization.  While Aryans wrote excellent literature in form of Veda, it was more in the form of spiritual study than academic recording of the events. Vedas was a way of newly settled race, which had since then always been on the move, to understand the self, the nature and the equation between the two. 
The society was as yet formed of Janapads, which was some sort of tiny replica of modern republic. The monarch was not there, though Military Commander was an early Aryan character. Aryans were much surprised by the fact that unlike their commander, Indra, the Harappans had no Commander. No wonder, they were over-whelmed by the military superiority of the Aryans. Weapons made of Iron, an unknown metal to the Harappans, and Horse-carriages too must have made a difference in their wars. Monarchies were in the nascent stages. As the idea of property and ownership began firming up, Commanders quickly became Monarchs entrusted to enforce the rules of morality and justice. 
We find that the west of India (then-India, now Afghanistan) was ruled by Darius, the Great, in 500 BC. However, Herodotus does mention the Indians who never came under the rule of Darius and who lived in the East. While India was divided in various tribal kingdoms then, the entity as Bharat was still known as singular entity to the world spread from East to West (1900-2000 miles or 16000 Stadas) and North to South (22000 Stadas or 2750 Miles) as per Megasthanes accounts (350 to 290 BC). These references were not given by the modern thinkers termed as Hindu-wadi intellectuals with disdain by the leftist intellectuals. 
Indian history is largely a matter of inference and interpretation. Unfortunately, our writers, for some reasons, who took pride in belittling our own history and heritage, not only have argued that there has never been any entity bound together as a nation before the British colonial rule, rather have in various other ways, have tried to inflict insults on the memories of the past, already much faded under the rule of the minority for several hundred years, first the Islamic raiders and then the British. Thus when it comes to the references of Beef, they would go down to the earliest of the Vedas, when the Military Aryan tribe was still laughing at the Agriculturist Harappans , and  when it comes to understanding the Hymns of the Vedas, they translate it literally, even when the writing is demonstrably metaphorical. We learn much of our heritage from Vedas or Words of Knowledge or wisdom. English word wit is said to find its origin in the word Veda. 
Vedas or Samhita (literal meaning- Collection) are the collection of Rhythmic and poetic Sanskrit hymns. There are four Vedas - Rig Ved, Sam Ved, Yajur-Ved and Atharva Ved.  Rig Ved (The knowledge of Thanksgiving) is the oldest of the Veda, written in the Initial stages of the civilization, somewhere around the plains of now-extinct river Sarasvati in the North-west of the country. While the compilation of Rig Ved is estimated to be around 1700 BC, it is quite possible that this is the time when the various hymns were getting compiled by the learned people who got together to tabulate the wisdom which celebrates largely the co-existence of Human with nature. This refers to the time when Humans of the Aryan Race for the first time were finding the nature not as an eccentric evil, rather as a benevolent nourishing force. Ved-Vyasa , the sage credited with the compilation of the Vedas was in all likelihood not one person, rather multiple people who read and collated these hymns celebrating the forces of nature like the Sun , Varun (the God of water), Rudra (The God of Death and War), Agni (the Fire God) and even Usha (the Goddess of the dawn). This Veda is primarily of thanksgiving prayers addressed to various Gods.  There are ten books which makes up for Rig-Veda. Out of these ten books or Mandalas, Nine are clearly attributed to different Sages- Dirghatmas (Angira), Nodhas, Gritsamada,
Vishwamitra, Vamadevas, Atris, Bharadwaj, Vashishtha and Kanva. The Tenth Mandala is a collection of hymns by various sages. Each of these families, came to be distinguished by distinct symbols- Vashistha had knot of hair on the right side, Atri had three knots, Angiras had five locks. 
The oldest man, the father and progenitor of the Aryans is said to be Manu. Manu is the Aryan equivalent to the Greek Prometheus. He is the first man to create Fire. For a man just out of the Jungle, Fire was something, which made nights productive, the wild hospitable and the land arable. Without Fire, no civilization was possible. From the Fire, came the first five tribes- Yadus, Charvakas, Druhyu (or Gandharis who would later become a tributary to the King Darius of Iran in 500 BC), Anu and Purus. 
The Vedas break into Samhita (Verbatim rendering of the hymns), Aranyaka (Rituals and ceremonies), Brahmanas (Notes on the rituals) and Upanishads (Philosophical and spiritual unraveling of the meaning of the prayers and the rituals) . The eight Brahman clans who are credited with compilation of Rig-veda are Jamadagni, Gautama, Bharadwaj, Vishvamitra, Vashishtha, Kashyap, Atri and Agastya. Jamadagni came from Bhrigu , Gautama and Bharadwaj from Angiras. 
By the time, the battle of ten kings happen (Somewhere in 1600 BC) at the banks of river Ravi, of the King Suda of the tristu with other ten Aryan tribes tribes, Agriculture and cattle-raising was a part of Vedic Life. A daughter is called Duhitar (Milk Maid), a beloved Princess is Mahishi ( also meaning buffalo), assembly of tribes is Goshthi and a war is usually for the cattle and called Gavisthi. Greatest number of invocations in the Rig-Veda is for the Agni - the Fire God- the destroyer of evil which keeps the Rakshasas away in the darkness of the night and fills the night with light. 
The Rig-vedic Aryan would pray to the Agni in the dark of the night- 
"We call on Agni, who gives food, with solemn songs, thy rising gleam shines far into the sky, To thee, rich youth, is every sacrifice offered; be kind to us today and for the future.  ..Shine most beloved of the Gods, let winged smoke ascend,  Bring thyself to us, thou whom the Gods once gave to the man upon the Earth... Give us treasures, gladden us; Shine and protect us from sin by knowledge; destroy our enemies, protect us; Protect us from the murderers and cruel birds of prey; ..No one can approach thy darting, strong, fearful flames; Burn the evil spirit and every enemy."
The Battle of Ten Kings in 1600 BC will change the political scenario as the Bharat king Suda (After whom India was named as Bharat) won under the guidance of Vashishtha, defeating the alliance of ten tribes (which also included the Panis or Businessmen from Harappan descent). Six Thousand of mounted Anus and Druhyus perished and sixty-six heroes fell. Bharat later would merge with the Purus and be known as Kurus.  This marked the firming up of the federation of Aryan in the plains of Ganga  and Yamuna . This is where later on Atharva Ved , the last of the Vedas be written in 900 BC and this shall be the stage on which Ramayana and Mahabharata will unfold. As the dust settles after the Battle of Ten Kings, Bharat are settled on the West of Vipasa (Beas) river, the Matsyas (who would later move to modern day Rajasthan on Western India) and Yadus settle on the banks of Yamuna; Panchals (a coalition of five tribes) between Yamuna and Ganga; On the banks of Sarayu, the Kosala; Towards North East of Ganga, the Videha; Kashi, Anga and Magadha along the Ganga. 

Reference: Ancient History of India- By Evelynn Abbott (1881)

Another One of Those Dreadful Days

I am in Pune. There are rains. Rains came to Delhi and passed it by. I too ran off to Pune. I do not know why. There is such a severe stench of mendacity in the air which settles around this time of the year. A pretense of significance of my life in other lives around me, a pretense of significance of my life, in its own solitude. 
The city, which is always green and lush,  is violently green today. The airfield, the roads, the buildings- are all clean and washed and shiny. I did catch some drizzle outside the airport. Just a slight drizzle, failing miserably to clean the cobwebs on my soul. A soul that has aged years in last year. I finished Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre on the flight. 
The novel is a philosophical story wrapped around the search and eventual futility of existential meaning. I am always contemplative around the birthday (this I wrote last birthday - Why I Hate Birthdays? ) . This birthday is even worse. While people claim that Forties is the new Twenties (some would even contend that Fifties is the new Thirties), I find even Forty-five an age where Birthdays are more dreadful and depressing than death. A sense of the Earth slipping away from under the earth, the sense of failure and futility sits heavy on the soul. 
"I wanted the moments of my life to follow one another in an orderly fashion like those of a life remembered. You might as well try to catch time by the tail." wrote Sartre. By this age, I know there is no order, no rhyme and often, no reason. I write, but not as much as I would want to. Health has nose-dived, after a vertical spike with two Half-Marathons run two years back. 
A novel sits half-written. It brushed too close to real life and I developed cold feet. What will I leave as legacy? What am I walking towards, stumbling from one night to another? Where is the resolution? Will it be a book? Struggling writer Antoine in Sartre's novel says- 
'It would have to be a book: I don't know how to do anything else. ...I don't know of which kind but you would have to guess, behind the printed words, behind the pages, something which didn't exist, which was above existence. ...It would have to be beautiful and hard as steel and make people ashamed of their existence. .But a time would have to come when the book would be written, would be behind me, and I think that a little of its light would fall over my past."
Sartre's hero finds optimism in the end, wading through the depressing pessimism across the story. I do not know what it will take to wipe out the obdurate pessimism in my life. But till it is their, Birthdays will continue scare me, annoy me and even in a depressing way disgust me.