Should Ms.Hemlata Prabhu’s contributions be honoured in the light of Ms.Sarabhai’s speech !?

‘Modi knows how to market himself’ - The Hindu

The following is based on the  above news report in The Hindu. Kindly click on the above link to read the report.

Should Ms.Hemlata Prabhu’s  contributions be honoured  in the light of Ms.Sarabhai’s speech !?

We are forced to agree with Danseuse Mallika Sarabhai when she states that art which had long been an organic medium of expression, is now reduced to the status of mere ‘entertainment’. One experiences this statement , while watching the ‘reality’ and other ‘shows’ on scores of TV channels.

This statement concerning  ‘art’ she had made during the  lecture on ‘Art, Education and Citizenship’ in memory of  Hemlata Prabhu at Jawahar Kala Kendra , Jaipur. Now what were the ‘contributions’ of the late Ms.Prabhu. (1) She dedicated her life to women’s education , had taught ENGLISH at  Jaipur’s Maharani College for 20 years , and went on to establish the Kanodia College in 1966. (All these activities in tune with the system of education introduced in this country by Macaulay.) (2) Ms. Parbhu was a pioneer  of the women’s  movement in Jaipur and led the anti-Sati movement there. – In Indian History, Rani Padmini’s act of sati, is valorized. This fact raises the question whether sati, an extreme act of renunciation ,if done voluntarily must be sweepingly condemned !!! (3) Ms. Prabu was co-founder of the Rajasthan chapter  of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.

Ms Sarabhai, laments the fall of ‘art’ from its high pedestal - to its  present status as ‘mere’ entertainment. She reminds us that Art,  like Dance and other media of artistic expression had served as a vehicle for transmission of culture and storytelling.  It also aided people to internalize the beneficial values.

Now how had this calamity befallen our arts ? What are the reasons or main reason for the same.? Ms Sarabhai is very specific about this one.!! She states that our exalted art forms became vulnerable and debased after we embraced the “Macaulay Model of Education”. Continuous exposure to this system of education has its intended effects ; those who have been exposed to it  have evolved into glorified clerks, fit to serve only the British Empire. (Except a few !!) Considering the subject of her lecture she had  driven home the point the inverse relationship between Art and ‘our’ modern form of education. The irony is that this lecture was organized in honour of a woman who had perpetuated and contributed to this system of education. This serves as an example, - how our contemporary society is caught in ‘rudder-less discourses’.

How ‘citizenship’ is connected to art and education, (which is the subject of the lecture) was addressed by Ms Sarabhai, through her criticisms on Modi.  The media (along with some political parties in Kerala) are obsessed  with Modi, and being hungry for Modi-related news, had captioned the news report “Modi adept at marketing himself, says Mallika Sarabhai”. This caption in no way reflects the main event and the lecture, which are actually the subject of this news item. This further demonstrates how news-reporting could be manipulated to suit current tastes and sentiments, without any real concern for the subject- here our original art forms  and its beneficial effects on society!!! The report must have provided more details about the  core contents of the lecture, rather than its political aspects.

 Media reporting can selectively inject ‘ideas’ into our consciousness, and unless we are constantly alert, we could be mislead. Since it affects our opinions, preferences  and decisions, media reporting can be likened  to a mines-field through which we have to cautiously and consciously negotiate our path. (Development (vikasnam) is the same everywhere, whether in Gujarat or elsewhere. Ultimately it back-fires.)

Shaky foundations, structure and super-structure of Western Knowledge !!!- an example.

Beware the nostrums of economists - The Hindu

The above is the link to the Editorial Article.

CANCER & MILLETS

Drop in millet cultivation by 50 per cent - The Hindu

The sociology of food cultivation and consumption.

A good example of ‘VI-KARMA’ !!!!(ACTIONS which are proscribed)

Drilling holes in the Thirst Economy - The Hindu

The above is the link to the Op-Ed article written by P.Sainath

CAUTION – MEN AT WORK ! - ABOUT KARMA

SMOKE & FIRE

We all have heard it being said that, there is ‘no smoke without fire’. That is, a conventional fire is necessarily accompanied by smoke.  The smoke gives us the visual signal,  thus revealing the fire.

KARMA – GITA 18 :48

This simile about the smoke and fire is effectively used, to  illustrate the connection between  action/movement/work /karma  and its ill-effects (dosham)  in the Bhagawad Gita, in Chapter 18:48.  Similar to how smoke covers fire, all actions are necessarily covered with its defects or faults. That is any action is accompanied by its  ill-effects.  Fire and smoke,  thus action and ill-effects. Fire also provides heat and light and ashes , like-wise actions may provide ‘fruits’, and if one had performed actions desirous of the fruit, one is bound to alternate between births and deaths. In general, the Gita states that  all karmas have ill-effects.

Dr. S.Radhakrishnan has translated the above verse into English as follows :- “One should not give up the work suited to one’s nature,  O Son of Kunti (Arjuna), though it may be defective, for all enterprises are clouded by defects as fire by smoke”.(p.368, Pub. Harper Collins). ‘Enterprises’ is the translation of the Sanskrit word “Samarambham’  in the sloka, which actually means ‘all actions’. The Gita is thus vehement about any kind of movement/action/work, that ultimately it will have only negative consequences. A parallel thinking we can find in ‘modern’ science.

Stuck to knowledge gained in middle-school.

we are a generation whose brain is clouded with Newton’s  Laws of Motion, especially the Third Law. Our naive minds got hooked to the axiom “ For every action there is an equal and opposite  reaction”.  Our tethered  minds went round and round  these and similar  kinds of  ‘base’ scientific facts, learnt in middle-school. Scientists and engineers amongst us tended to develop applications based on these basic scientific facts .eg. rockets used in space exploration , aeronautics, automobiles etc . When we reached  senior classes ie in college,  our brain was too clouded to fully appreciate higher scientific facts and ruminate over them ,like the Second Law of Thermodynamics. If we had fully apprehended the consequences of this law, maybe, we would have exercised much restraint in our movement/actions. Individually as well as  collectively in this ‘modern’ world.

ENTROPY – A ‘CATCH-22’ Situation

And the Second Law expressed in complicated scientific jargon is this “The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards thermodynamic equilibrium—the state of maximum entropy”  And what is entropy ?. In simple language it means “a measure of disorder in the universe or of the availability of the energy in a system to do work.^{”  (Definitions source :Wikipedia)}  Maximum entropy means less energy for doing useful work. Thus the Second Law of Thermodynamics clearly  means that the available energy for doing useful work keeps on reducing in the Universe, leading to heat death of the Universe. Another law ie.The Law of Conservation of Energy  states that the sum total of the energy in the Universe is Constant, but the Second law adds a ‘catch’ to it, ie the energy available for useful work, let us put it as ‘concentrated energy’,  will keep on diminishing. A ‘CATCH 22” situation !!!!

 SNEEZING, SAP RISING IN THE TREE, BLOOD CIRCULATION - MOVEMENTS

Now for any movement or action we have to expend energy. This will necessarily lead to entropy increase. Thus it becomes evident that the Second law has got implications for man-kind. Even a plain sneezing will lead to entropy increase !!!! Even putting together and typing this matter. And let us also not be fooled by the hype of “green technology’, after having knowledge about entropy and Gita 18:48.

ONLY NEGATIVE-EFFECTS !!!!

Gita 18: 48 and the Second Law  clearly shows that movements/actions are having negative net-effect.  That means we must be conscious about all kinds of movements.  Lesser  the movements, that much better for mankind. Each one should self-regulate his movement, but if self-discipline is absent, movement will have to be regulated from outside. That is Governance. (In machines there is speed-governor)

The sociological implications of  the combined strength of Gita 18:48 and Second Law , I have not touched here. !!!!!

Environmental Issues- Madhav Gadgil & Kasturi Rangan Committee’s Report on Kerala, S.India - KARMA

We belong to a generation that have failed to protect our own ( the present) and future generations of our  land, from impending calamities. For without discrimination, without any critical understanding, we have perpetrated the  same destructive knowledge (Aasuri)  imbibed from an alien civilization. The  pitiable state of our existence is reflected in the fact that our generation is not able to fall back on the knowledge resources, bequeathed on us, by our ancestors. A deliberate psychological campaign was unleashed, especially in academic circles, washing away our trust and confidence in traditional knowledge, which naturally belonged to us. We look down upon such knowledge as not practical for this age, and not yielding monetary and materialistic gains. We are diseased !!!!

Madhav Gadgil 

The  main news in today’s (April 18^th)  Malayala Manorama  (Malayalam) paper , is about the fragile nature of Kerala’s  ‘geographical’ environment.  The report says that 1/3 rd of the land mass of Kerala is ‘environmentally/ecologically  FRAGILE’.  It is not  clear whether the  environmental audit had covered the whole land mass of Kerala or only those areas classified as belonging to the Western Ghats and its immediate precincts. Anyway, overall,  the picture is one of anxiety, regarding the basic material  needs  essential for living. ie clean air, water and food and other basic necessities like stable climactic patterns, power and availability of building materials.

Kasturi Rangan

Though Kerala is not highly  industrialized like other Indian States and other industrialized nations,  still we have reached the brink. The reason is that we are following  the consumptive patterns of highly industrialized nations without adequate social controls. Even the ‘well-governed’ industrialized nations are not able to sustain their lifestyles with resources raised from within. All this points to the reality , that we cannot have any succour from  ephemeralistic modern knowledge and systems.  Our only hope of  reversing this suicidal trend , before we veer off the cliff, is to fall back upon traditional  methods of living based on traditional knowledge. Our traditional knowledge is post-modern , and we as a civilization have the exclusive credit of analysing  human nature and conduct (action/karma) derived from a full and proper understanding of the coming into being of the COSMOS.  Ah ! we understand the whole picture !!!!

Drinking water being transported

PAUL’S (St.) APOLOGIA FOR THE OBJECTIONABLE PARTS of PURUSHA SOOKTHA , FROM THE RIG VEDA.

Poison was spread in the minds of modern Indians, by various vested interests including the Missionaries ,that the hyms of Purusha Sooktha were  the root cause of the spread of  and vice like grip of the caste-system over the people of India. Considering the  chronic economic woes of Europe, its moral depravity , one manifestation of the same is its greed and   aggression on other cultures, leading to two devastating wars,ie The World Wars-- considering all such matters, Caste-system  is an excellent institution and had served our civilization very well.

1 CORINTHIANS 12.12 – 12.31, NEW TESTAMENT

“[12]For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

[13] For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 
[14]For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

[15] If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 
[16] And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 
[17] If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 
[18] But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 
[19] If all were a single organ, where would the body be? 
[20] As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 
[21] The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 
[22] On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, 
[23] and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 
[24] which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, 
[25] that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 
[26] If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 
[27]Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

 [28] And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. 

[29] Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 
[30] Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 
[31] But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

The FOLLOWING  is from  the Purusa Sukta of  Rig Veda, RV X,90, (translated into English by M.Rogers)

(11.) When they divided up the Man,                 

into how many parts did they divide him ?

What did his mouth become? What his arms?

What are his legs called? What his feet?

(12.) His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms

became the warrior-prince, his legs

the common man who plies his trade.

The lowly serf was  born from his feet.

(13.) The  Moon was born from his mind; the Sun

came into being from his eye;

from his mouth came Indra and Agni,

while  from his breath the Wind was born.

What a coincidence !!!???? Looks like Paul’s  APOLOGIA of the Purusha Sooktha!!!!

Watch from 3.40 to 4.08 minutes.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-NHJffUIIo