63 years of Independence:India’s achievements

It has been sixty three years since our motherland broke the shackles and unfettered herself from colonial presence.These sixty years have not been easy.Every day,every year has been a story of relentless hard work and perseverance of each and every Indian trying to carve out a niche for their motherland in the international platform. Exactly sixty years hence when have entered the eighth year of the new millennium and have celebrated our sixtieth independence day,we can proudly count on the achievements of our country. On the eve of independence the situation was grim and serious in the country.

We were a free country but there were some glaring areas of concern.Our per capita income was growing at a scanty rate of 0.5% per annum.Industrial growth was not up to the mark.The life expectancy at birth was barely 36 years.The literacy rate was shockingly low and we had more than half the population below the poverty line.Our country was looked upon with contempt by the west and India was considered a country that was totally backward which lacked in all areas of development be it social,economic or political. The condition was highly critical and grave and thus it was a real predicament for our countrymen to set things right and make a superpower out of rubble but the resilience and hard work of Indians deserves credit.

Today things have changed.India is seen as emerging power of the world in the field of technology,economy and culture.With the GDP growth touching levels of 9% per annum and a booming sensex the economy seems to be growing at an unprecedented rate. There has been considerable development on the social front as well.The literacy rate has improved significantly with almost three-fourth of the population considered literate now.Health facilities have improved both in terms of infrastructure as well as in terms of skilled personnel.Life expectancy at birth is almost 62 years now.Unemployment levels have gone down and thus has the poverty level.

Schemes such has the ‘JAWAHAR GRAM SAMRIDHI YOJANA’,'INDIRA AWAS YOJANA’,'INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SCHEME’,'MID-DAY MEALS AT SCHOOL’ have helped to create a pool of opportunities for the rural people and has also motivated them to take part in the development process of the country. In the field of science and technology as well as in the industrial arena we have attained great heights.Indian space research is already on the verge of entering an elite group with ‘Chandrayaan’,India’s lunar mission already on the cards.The Indian business houses have started to rule the world.With the growing spate of international acquisitions by India’s biz houses,the world seems to be feeling the strength of Indian industry.

The Indian IT industry has already been able to reverse the trend of outsourcing swinging it in the country’s favour.The supercomputer ‘Eka’ built indigenously in India testifies to India’s growing technical skill.The modes of communications have improved to a respectable level in the last couple of decades.We have kissed the peak of glory in almost every area. Well, apart from all these developments there seems to be something else that deserves special mention.

The greatest feat of all that has been achieved all these years is change in outlook of the average Indian.Today an Indian can proudly say that my country provides me opportunities to pursue what i want which was indeed a rare spectacle some 20 years back.Today India’s opinion is of considerable signifance on all the burning issues that the world faces today.India is looked upon with reverence by the arrogant west and we are a source of inspiration for the developing world. Our achievements have been exemplary over the last sixty years,but there still seems to be long way to go.

Hence at 60th Independence day ,lets resolve to work more harder and to contribute & accelerate the path of growth.

Jai Hind

Karma and its relation to past

Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today. What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind?

Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery?
Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot? Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies? Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle? Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed?
Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births?

Either this inequality of mankind has a cause, or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident. In this world, nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth. According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma.

In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate. Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality: "What is the cause, what is the reason, O Lord," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?" The Buddha’s reply was: "All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states." He then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect. Certainly, we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time, we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents, we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalized by the karmic energy needed for the production of the fetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being. The accumulated karmic tendencies, inherited in the course of previous lives, at times play a far greater role than the hereditary parental cells and genes in the formation of both physical and mental characteristics. The Buddha, for instance, inherited, like every other person, the reproductive cells and genes from his parents. But physically, morally, and intellectually there was none comparable to him in his long line of Royal ancestors. In the Buddha’s own words, he belonged not to the Royal lineage, but to that of the Aryan Buddhas. He was certainly a superman, an extraordinary creation of his own Karma. According to the Lakkhana Sutta of Digha Nikaya, the Buddha inherited exceptional features, such as the 32 major marks, as the result of his past meritorious deeds.

The ethical reason for acquiring each physical feature is clearly explained in the Sutta. It is obvious from this unique case that karmic tendencies could not only influence our physical organism but also nullify the potentiality of the parental cells and genes – hence the significance of the Buddha’s enigmatic statement, - "We are the heirs of our own actions." Dealing with this problem of variation, the Atthasalini, being a commentary on the Abhidharma, states: "Depending on this difference in Karma appears the differences in the birth of beings, high and low, base and exalted, happy and miserable. Depending on the difference in Karma appears the difference in the individual features of beings as beautiful and ugly, high-born or low born, well-built or deformed. Depending on the difference in Karma appears the difference in worldly conditions of beings, such as gain and loss, and disgrace, blame, and praise, happiness and misery." Thus, from a Buddhist point of view, our present mental, moral intellectual traits are action of the past.

Are Indians doing enough for the country...?

Scenario 1 Evening at the dinner table a small family & friends gathering, sat us, discussing the pathetic state of Indian polity, the bureaucracy, rampant corruption, and how the government has not drafted its policy properly for vision 2020. Ladies are more concerned about growing commodity prices and increasing the syllabus of our children. The trauma that they face every day in dealing with their day-to-day expenses. Oh yeah!!! The cuisine served is good but the Kebab could have been crisper... Mrs. Sharma has purchased a new sari - a very elegant one and nice fabric.. It's from a shop in a mall, which has opened last week...Few of our ladies have planned to visit the mall next week. My good friend Mr. Singh is telling how he imported a car by frisking duties- His brother is in Customs..Some senior positions. Mr. Gupta is quite excited and asks if he could get some help in case he wishes to do so!! The talks are endless..... We have had some drinks over the discussion. It's Time for dinner.

Scenario 2. Oh!! Woke up late... It was 2.0 A.M when we came. I have to rush to the office... By the time we are ready, it's already 9.00 AM. Not enough time for Breakfast will take in the office. Has to drop wife in between. She is also ready... Huge rush on the roads... These silly buggers (the politicians/bureaucrats blah blah...) They couldn't do enough to make this road wider and manageable in the last 20 years... Oh. There is an accident on the road.. The guy is bleeding. For god sake, somebody helps him and drops him at the hospital. Pity for the poor chap... Our police - don't know if they could come in time? Have to deposit the Advance Tax..Need to think, how can I save it? Need to call the C.A in the afternoon. Hectic day in the office. It was month-end and target pressures are killing us. The big deal is on the way only if the management approves for some consideration the customer's wants. He is stuck at 5% while the company wants it at 3%. Let's see what happens. Coming back to home. It's around 9.30 PM. Passing through, came across the place, morning accident had taken place. A police constable in mid 50's standing at the site, his lathi in his hand, no place to sit. He has been there since morning. Very tired. Wife just came. Don't feel like making food. Children have slept. They had called for pizza. Took a drink. Can't handle it enough. Read in the newspaper the next day, the boy who met with an accident, died as he could not be taken in time to the hospital. Nothing can happen in this country!!!!! Had applied for US-Visa.The same is approved. Will leave with my wife next month. Maa -Papa will stay back.. can afford so many people with new jobs in the US. They will be visiting us every year.. We have a good tenant to take care of them!!!!!!!!!! And yes I will be sending them regular paychecks...

Knowledge isn't an external phenomenon

Knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man "knows", should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what a man "learns" is really what he "discovers", by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge. We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. 

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always your own mind. The falling of an apple gave the suggestion to Newton, and he studied his own mind. He rearranged all the previous links of thought in his mind and discovered a new link among them, which we call the law of gravitation. It was not in the apple nor in anything in the center of the earth. 

All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in the human mind. In many cases, it is not discovered, but remains covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off, we say, "We are learning," and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance of this process of uncovering. The man from whom this veil is being lifted is the more knowing man, the man upon whom it lies thick is ignorant, and the man from whom it has entirely gone is all-knowing, omniscient. There have been omniscient men, and, I believe, there will be yet; and that there will be myriads of them in the cycles to come. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge exists in the mind; the suggestion is the friction that brings it out. So with all our feelings and action — our tears and our smiles, our joys and our griefs, our weeping and our laughter, our curses and our blessings, our praises and our blame — every one of these we may find, if we calmly study our own selves, to have been brought out from within ourselves by so many blows. The result is what we are. All these blows taken together are called Karma — work, action.

Every mental and physical blow that is given to the soul, by which, as it were, fire is struck from it, and by which its own power and knowledge are discovered, is Karma, this word being used in its widest sense. Thus we are all doing Karma all the time. I am talking to you: that is Karma. You are listening: that is Karma. We breathe: that is Karma. We walk Karma. Everything we do, physical or mental, is Karma, and it leaves its marks on us. When we look at someone with the expectation or draw inspiration from an ideal source, we should see the power of our own inner strength and believe in our Karma, to accomplish, what we desire ..!!

M.F Hussain- Liability or a Asset

Alas!!! Once again, we the Indians have entered into a debate on the reasons of Mr.MF Husain's becoming citizen of some align land.

I feel surprised ,when people defend him in the name of democracy ,freedom of expression but more surprised when people opposes him in the name of religion. What I know is, that freedom of expression does not allow one to hurt the sentiments of millions and on the other hand ,know that the religion is not fragile,which would break into pieces by a art work of Mr.Hussain. People debating have not actually seen those art work and have only heard of it.. But they are jumping to make opinion in favor or against..... of such art. Frankly I have not been able to lay my hand on these paintings hence know not ,as how to react on them ?????

For me we have larger issues than this.... What is more surprising ,when the intellectual gets into these kind of debates and form their opinion. The attempt is to label themselves as some super saviour of the definite school of thoughts in favour or against ,which would establish them in different league. The logic is clear-increasing TRPs.... What has been done, 30 years before is not the point of discussion ,but what will happen after 5 years is the larger issue.So Indians, lets move forward....