हास्यास्पद कहानी - Funny story - Racconto divertente

उस उच्चाधिकारी के पास सब कुछ था , कार से लेकर इलेकट्रानिक लाईटर तक |
फिर भी एक बेचैनी थी कि मिटने का नाम नहीं लेती थी | लगता था यह  चीज़ और खरीद लें तो शायद को शांति पहुंचे। … लेकिन शांति फिर किसी चीज़ की ओट में जा छिपती | बाद में उन्हें समझ आया कि उनकी आत्मा को आध्यात्म की तलाश है |

सूटेड बूटेड तन लिये , व्याकुल मन लिये उन्होंने उन प्रसिद्ध गुरु जी के वातानुकूलित आश्रम के कमरे में प्रवेश किया | गुरु ध्यानमग्न थे , थोड़ी ही देर में उन्होंने आंखें खोलीं | इन्होंने अपनी व्यथा बखान करना शुरू की |
गुरु ने उपदेश देना शुरू किया ,
      " बच्चा तू अपने सब बुरे काम छोड़ दे ( जिसमें सुरा और सुंदरी भी शामिल थे ) पाप मत कर , झूठ मत बोल , किसी को सता मत | "
      " गुरूजी , सब मंज़ूर है | "
      " अब कोई और शका | "
उन्होंने कुछ हिचकिचाते हुए कहा , " नऽऽहीं | "
      " बच्चा | शर्म मत कर | गुरु से क्या छिपाना ! "
      " बात यह है ," उन्होंने सकुचाते हुए कहना शुरू किया , " मेरा विभाग ऐसा है कि दूसरी आमदनी का रोकना बहुत मुश्किल है |
      न लो तो ऊपर से निचे तक सब नाराज़ | आजकल नौकरी तक को खतरा हो जाता है |  मैं बड़े सकट में हूँ प्रभो ! कोई उपाय बताइये | "
 

गुरूजी ने आंखें बंद कीं पांच मिनट बाद खोल कर बोले ,
      " ऐसा करना बच्चा !
        उस कमाई का कुछ प्रतिशत हमारे आश्रम में दान कर दिया करना |
        तेरे सब पाप नष्ट हो जायेंगे | "

कहकर गुरु डनलप के आसन पर आंख मूंद फिर ध्यान मग्न हो गये |

A high officer had everything, from a car to an electronic lighter.

Even though, he felt some kind of restlessness that didn't seem to disappear. It seems to him that if he bought something, maybe his soul would be fulfilled ... but then peace of mind came to seek refuge in every stuff he bought. At the end he realized that his soul was looking for spirituality.

Well-dressed (literally: suited booted = dressed in a suit and with boots, tn) and agitated, he went into a room of the air-conditioned ashram of a well-known guru. The guru was deep in meditation and immediately after he opened his eyes. The man started to express his sorrow.

Then the guru began to give his preaching:

        "My son, leave all your bad habits (which included women and alcohol), don't sin, 

         don't lie, don't annoy anyone."

        "Guruji, all this is accepted."

        "So now [tell me] any other worry."

He said hesitating: "N-n-no."

        "My son, don't be ashamed. What's there to hide from your guru!"

       "The fact is that" he started to say shyly, "in my department is so difficult to put an end to bribery (literally: the other income, tn). Not taking them will make everyone angry, from the highest official to the lowest ranks. Nowadays even work has become dangerous. I'm in trouble, my lord! Give me any solution."

The guru had his eyes closed and five minutes after having opened them he said:

         "Don't act like this, my son!

           Donate a percentage of this income to our ashram.

           All your sins will be eliminated."

Having said that, the guru came back to sit on his dunlop (british brand known, among the other products, for latex mattress, tn) seat and, having closed his eyes, he fell again in deep meditation.

Un alto ufficiale possedeva tutto, dall'automobile all'accendino elettronico.

Tuttavia aveva un'inquietudine che non voleva andarsene. Gli sembrava che se avesse comprato qualche altra cosa forse la sua anima si sarebbe appagata ... ma poi la pace era andata a rifugiarsi in ognuna di quelle cose. Dopo egli comprese che la sua anima stava cercando la spiritualità. 

Vestito di tutto punto (letteralmente: suited booted = con completo e stivali, ndt) e con l'animo afflitto, egli entrò in una stanza dell'eremitaggio con aria condizionata di un famoso maestro. Il maestro era immerso nella meditazione e un attimo dopo aprì gli occhi. Allora l'uomo cominciò a descrivere i motivi della sua sofferenza.

Il maestro iniziò a dispensare i suoi consigli:

         " Figliolo, abbandona tutti i malaffari (che comprendevano le donne e l'alcool), 

            non peccare, non mentire, non infastidire nessuno."

         " Maestro,  tutto ciò è ben accetto."

         " Adesso [esponimi] qualche altro dubbio"

Egli disse esitando: "N-n-no"

         "Figliolo, non vergognarti. Cosa c'è da nascondere al tuo maestro!"

         "Il fatto è che", egli cominciò a dire timidamente, " nel dipartimento dove lavoro porre fine alle bustarelle (letteralmente: gli altri guadagni, ndt) è molto difficile. Non prenderle farebbe arrabbiare tutti, dalle alte cariche fino ai ranghi inferiori. Oggigiorno perfino il lavoro è diventato pericoloso. Mi trovo in grandi difficoltà, signore! Mi dia una soluzione."

Il maestro aveva gli occhi chiusi e avendoli aperti dopo cinque minuti disse:

         "Non fare così figliolo!

          Dona una percentuale di quei guadagni al nostro eremitaggio.

          Così tutti i tuoi peccati verranno eliminati."

Detto ciò il maestro tornò a sedersi sulla sua stuoia dunlop (marca britannica produttrice, tra l'altro, anche di materassi in lattice, ndt) e, chiusi gli occhi, si immerse nuovamente in meditazione.

The rise of Hindu Right

 

Since India is going to face the 2014 general elections, today I would like to write a short retrospective history of the major opposition party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party - Indian People's Party) and of the ideology that supports it. Founded in 1980, this can seem a relatively young party, but actually one has to consider it as the new "politically correct" form of an old ideology in indian contemporary politics, namely the Hindu Right. 

Dating back at the time of indian Indipendence, there was a strong opposition to the democratic and secular idea of India endorsed by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Indipendent India. Contrary to this modern ideology, many cultural and political traditionalist groups began to emerge in the public debate. 

The most influential of this groups is the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - National Volunteer Organization), which had already been founded in 1925 but tragically hit the headlines in 1948, when Mahatma Gandhi was killed by Nathuram Godse, a brahmin associated with the organization. The RSS, officially a cultural association, is a paramilitary organization imbued with conservative values and a strong and hierarchical structure .

The ideology that is behind the RSS is known as Hindutva (translatable as "hinduness"), a concept which relates nationalism with hinduism, stating that the real indian identity is only the hindu one. Developed by V. D. Savarkar, a conservative ideologist, this concept is in deep contrast with any secular and inclusive idea of India - like that of the Indian National Congress - because its main aim is that of the preservation and protection of hindu value system. The kind of hindu culture designed by Hindutva polarize it against other social and religious components of indian nation, especially from the Muslim, creating and stirring up disorders and communal violence. 

Under the aegis of RSS, during the decades an entire universe of associations and movements has been formed, all united under the collective name of Sangh Parivar (Family of Associations). The core groups of the Sangh Parivar are - in addition to the RSS - the VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad - World Hindu Council) and the BJP (nowadays, whereas in the past other political parties were part of the association, like the Bharatiya Janata Sangh). In short, in the Sangh the RSS is the cultural branch, the BJP is the political one and the VHP is the religious arm.

To sum up the ideology of Hindutva, I think this quotation by D. R. Goyal's history of the RSS is very telling and meaningful:

Hindus have lived in India since times immemorial; Hindus are the nation because all culture, civilisation and life is contributed by them alone; non-Hindus are invaders or guests and cannot be treated as equal unless they adopt Hindu traditions, culture, etc.; the non-Hindus, particularly Muslims and Christians, have been enemies of everything Hindu and are, therefore, to be treated as threats; [...] those who talk of national unity as the unity of all those who live in this country are motivated by the selfish desire of cornering minority votes and are therefore traitors; the unity and consolidation of the Hindus is the dire need of the hour because the Hindu people are surrounded on all sides by enemies; the Hindus must develop the capacity for massive retaliation and offence is the best defence; lack of unity is the root cause of all the troubles of the Hindus and the Sangh is born with the divine mission to bring about that unity.

Source: Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: the History of the World's Largest Democracy, 

Macmillan, 2007, p. 646

 During the decades, Hindu fundamentalism has gained more and more strength, especially among the uneducated masses and the new emerging middle class - who had abandoned the Congress socialist model of economy in favour of more market-oriented policies - that were looking for a political representation built upon identity lines. The reasons for this rise are plenty and context-related. Between them, the most striking one is the parallel decline of the National Congress in the late 80s and in the 90s, when the newly-formed BJP was building and consolidating political consent thanks to both propaganda and violent actions. 

The turning point in this process was the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the final act of a long dispute about a sixteenth-century mosque in the Uttar Pradesh town of Ayodhya. To shorten this long story, is enough to say that the VHP, with the complicity of right-wing hindu parties, had for long begun to allege that the site of the mosque was the Ram janmabhumi (the exact place of birth of hindu god Rama) and therefore started to mobilize people in order to protect this holy site from muslim presence. Their activities have been conducted up to the demand for the demolition of the mosque, event that was finally achieved on 6th December, thanks to the connivance of the government of Uttar Pradesh, led by Kalyan Singh, a BJP politician. 

From then on, the BJP has showed an hidden dual identity. On the one hand, the party is a democratic organization, loyal to the values of the Republic and open to the political debate. But on the other hand, in the background, it's working in order to polarize the nation on communal lines, stirring up the grivances of many parts of the hindu community, using other religious community (especially muslims) as scapegoats.

The other shocking anti-muslim action orchestrated by the BJP is known as the 2002 Gujarat riots. It was triggered by the Godhra train burning, caused by an explosion which occurred soon after a trivial argument between a group of hindu boys and some muslim street vendors at the station platform. Even as the investigations has proved that the explosion was not malicious but accidental and not related to the argument, some RSS members started to spread the rumour that the explosion, in which 58 people lost their lives, was the outcome of an attack carried out by muslims against hindus. The effect of this false rumour was a wide and sudden burst of communal violence against muslims, which lasted for weeks and extended to all north-west India, claiming thousands of lives. At the time the Chief Minister of Gujarat was Narendra Modi, a BJP politician raised in the ranks of RSS, who has been accused of connivance in the event. 

It's curious that Mr. Modi is now the ufficial candidate for premiership at next 2014 indian general election representing the right-wing coalition, the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) led by the BJP. Contrary to his recent political history, now he has been presented by his party as the pure and polite face of hindu right against the Congress, portrayed as corrupt and scandal-hit.

 

Gayatri Mantra

Gayatri Mantra is one of the oldest Vedic hymns, traditionally called shloka (verse), composed in gayatri vedic metric style and attributed to the rishi Visvamitra. It can be interpreted as an invocation to the vedic deva Savitri, a solar divinity. According to the latter attribute of god Savitri, the hymn can also be viewed as an prayer to the Sun, with all its cosmologycal implication, that is to say the creative power of making the universe exist. We can find the Gayatri Mantra in many other vedic texts, as in the Bhagavad Gita or in the Manusmirti. It is also related to one of the most important samskara (hindu brahmanical rites of passage), the upanayana, in which the devote becomes part of the twice-born brahmanical society. The opening formula Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha has a lot of symbolic meanings and is called the Mahavyarhti, "the great utterance".

By the way, besides its story and old significance, Gayatri Mantra is still popular today among hindus and during the centuries has been variously interpreted by many intellectuals, guru or member of religious movement, like the neo-Hinduism movements from the beginning of twentieth century.
Here I report the devanagari verses and their IAST translitteration:

ॐ 

भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।

तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑ण्यं ।

भ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि। ।

धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त्॥ ।

Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ

tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ

bhárgo devásya dhīmahi

dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt

This can be roughtly traslated literally as:

 "May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god:

   So may he stimulate our prayers."  

(The Hymns of the Rigveda, 1896, Ralph T. H. Griffith)

Regarding the actual meaning of the verses, as I mention before there are lots of different versions of the hymn.
Personally, I feel Swami Vivekananda's and S. Radhakrishnan's paraphrases to be more likely and so I quote:

• "We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds." (Swami Vivekananda, 1915)
• "We meditate on the effulgent glory of the divine Light; may he inspire our understanding." (S. Radhakrishnan -1-,1947)
• "We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may he inspire our intelligence." (S. Radhakrishnan -2-, 1953).

I will like to share also the free traslation of Sir William Jones, one of the first indologist who was a real admirer of Indian tradition, because I appreciate his poetic choices of words and expressions:

• "Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the god-head who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress toward his holy seat." (William Jones, 1807)

......I hope you can enjoy it........

Nel paese degli Dei - देवते के देश में

Un po di storia dell'India, ecco a voi un video-documentario sul paese degli Dei.
Nel sito potete trovare anche altri importanti riferimenti al paese.

La Vita è Illusione - जीवन माया हे

Si narra che un giorno, nell'India rurale del VI secolo, il monaco e filosofo indiano Shankara,
fondatore di uno dei sei darshana (=le filosofie religiose classiche), detto Advaita Vedanta (=Scuola del non-dualismo), venne attaccato da un elefante imbizzarrito e, spaventato, cominciò a scappare.
In quel momento, i suoi critici lo ammonirono dicendo che, se egli riteneva che ogni manifestazione fenomenica della realtà fosse fuorviante ed ingannevole, allora  non avrebbe dovuto aver paura dell'illusorio elefante !
Ma il filosofo, a queste parole, ironicamente rispose:"Ma anche la mia fuga è illusoria!"