jabdakhata

There are obviously some vested interests who are taking advantage of the publicity received by Netaji in the wake of the demand for classifying the files about him to resolve the mystery associated with his disappearance. Some have tried to portray him as a Japanese stooge, while others complain that he was "enamoured by Hitler" and therefore "sided with the Nazis". Some try to portray him as a fascist dictator who (contrary to popular perception) would have established a ruthless regime of dictatorship and Nehruvian socialism had saved India from such an eventuality. By censoring him therefore Gandhiji and the Congress did a favour to the nation is what these writers would want us to believe. Needless to say that their attempts are at best feeble and weak and at worst pathetic attempts to depict isolated events and speeches as the whole of Netaji and thereby justify all the injustice meted out to him by Congress. Not only Nehru, but even Patel was anti Subhas as

Many genuine and sincere person have certainly rued the rampant corruption and commercialization prevailing in organized religions - be in Hinduism, Islam, Christianity or for that matter any other major or minor religious sects. We witness it in temples, mosques and churches, witness the degradation of the priestly classes who serve mammon with both hands and probably some of us feel saddened by the state. However this degradation is a continuous and evolving process. It is always there and in some form or the other. In Bible it has been narrated how Jesus blasted the "shop keepers" and drove them away from the Jewish temple. What he meant was deeply significant, that in spirituality there is no give and take - shop keeping or trading. One cannot sell religion or buy it from God. Therefore the organized religion which has become a force to satiate material desires does not belong to the realm of spirituality or religion. There is a beautiful story narrated by Girish Chandr

So we see a continuous evolution and development to suit the needs of the age. There never was a period which did not contribute to the cycle of spiritual evolution. The rich tradition of Rig Veda was still there. The Upanishadas ensured that the needs of the jnanis were taken care of and they upheld the tradition of Rig Veda by simply replacing the various names with one single name – the impersonal Brahman who manifests as Personal God or Iswara and who holds sway over the world using the force called Maya. Maya is also identified with Prakrti, the eternal nature and all natural forces. So the devas of Rig Veda become various Mayik phenomenon. Puranas evolved around the personal gods and divine incarnations and they also contained the Itihasa or history of the human race – genealogy of kings. Although in effect Puranas gave rise to sects but they catered to the spiritual needs of almost every section of the society, but their main source of inspiration has always been the Vedas –

It is not clear how Rig Vedic age transitioned into the Puranic age. Purana and Mahabharata goes hand in hand as both were composed by Krishna Dwaipayana (Vyasa). There are many Puranic stories in Mahabharata, albeit in some changed forms. This may be because the Puranic stories in their present forms have been told and retold by many sages and at some point there many have been inadvertent changes in the main story. However the basic theme remains the same, for instance the story of Indra and Vritra or the story of ocean churning. The story of Indra and Vritra goes back to Rig Veda. Even Mahabharata invokes Rig Veda in certain places like the hymns recited by Utanka to Indra or Upamanyu to Aswins. Even though in Mahabharata the Rig Vedic gods have undergone a transformation as Indra, Varuna, Agni, Rudra, Soma, Aswins, Maruts, Parjanya, Pushana are all there but some of them have been relegated to the status of Adityas and Vishnu and Rudra as Shiva or Mahadeva had come to the forefro

There was a small piece of news the other day that one prominent Indian IT Company is donating $35 mn to Carnegie Mellon University. That set me thinking, why do Indian corporates donate to US universities who obviously have more resources, than to Indian universities and institutes? Even if these universities have better infrastructures for doing research, isn’t it more apt for an Indian company to invest in human capital and research in its own country than in foreign lands? The reason however is not hard to find. It is the eternal principle of satisfying one’s master and to give something in order to get some favors. Indian IT industry is already plagued with problems of having to grapple with accusations ranging from sending people unethically on wrong visas to following unfair employment practices and they will have to try all means to satisfy the policy makers in US so that they return the favors. Indian industry is adopting such clandestine measures in order to gain foothold i