"Mera Bharat Mahan" will simply saying so do

Question:
Hi everybody!!!
Many of us say that "I LOVE INDIA".. just let us spare a minute on this 'statement'.
Let's suppose a boy says to a girl "I Love You".. It means, as we all know , that the present youth is even ready to die for her.. But somebody says "I Love India" is their any hope that he strives for the development of this great motherland?.. I feel no(may be very few people feel to help it), but almost everybody just says "I Love India"..do they mean it?

If there is any body who doesn't think of developing INDIA(our motherland) please think twice before you say you are an INDIAN... This is not to accuse somebody but just an effort to create conciousness among a few people that only for the sake of earning, many intellectuals(IITians,NITians,MBAs and many more) are leaving this great mother land!!! Is this what they mean by "I love my India?"

My Reply:
What you said about the attitude of most Indians to just say “I love India” and do nothing for its improvement is very true. This is what I call “Independence day Patriotism”… on some Independence day or Republic day, we see the some patriotic movie, listen to some patriotic songs and will be filled with that feeling, as talk big. But the next day, it is business as usual, buying goods and avoiding bill to save Rs. 1.

It is same story in all fields. But it will be a very immature to brand it as hypocrisy and hurl abuses at that guy (the way commies do). What we have to note here is that there is some element of patriotism in that person, but it is not big enough to overcome the selfishness. No good comes out by just branding individuals as stupids, instead effort must be made to understand the behavior from a the ideas point of view. We have to learn to analyze people as set of ideas instead. The fact that he feels motivated on some days or that he proudly says “I love India” implies that he does have some seeds of patriotism in him. But the idea of self-interest also is there in him, and this proves stronger than the instinct to be a good citizen.

If we understand things from this perspective, we no longer individuals as hypocrites- saying that the love India and doing noting for it, but see them as a complex set of conflicting ideas of self-interest and patriotism. Have thus understanding the root of the problem, we can handle it much better.

People often complaint that Indians are selfish are thus we do not have much development. It is not really true. Selfishness is a basic human instinct and I don’t think that Indians are more selfish than Europeans or Americans. Where we fail is not at selfishness, but in realizing that our self-interest is best served by the serving the common good.

This fact is most apparent in US. They are probably some of the most self-centered individuals. But they realize that their self-interest is in better position when they act together as a nation- as America than as an individual.

This is what we should make people realize- that their help themselves better by helping the nation. By doing so we are transforming a weakness into a strength. Actually I feel that there is nothing called weakness (don’t ask me why, this conviction is based on Vedanta). A weakness is just a strength inappropriately applied, hence instead of wasting time in endless criticism, give just change the orientation of that weakness and it becomes a strength.

Our one more failure is in bridging the gap between idealism and practicality. A great ideal if it is not practical is as good as nothing. Practicality which does not aim at idealism is just blind and equivalent to anarchy.

Most people think of some big big things when one talks about serving the country. Some try for it and fail, some do not even try as it sounds too big for them and then just leave it and pursue their own goals. Instead the approach should be that we should try to find ways about how one can help the nation being in his place, than expect him to come here and help as we think is correct manner. If you want to go to US, very good go ahead, but this and this is the way you can help India by pursuing your goal. If you want to start a business, again this and this is the way you can help India. If you just want to sit in home, ok this is the way you can help India by just sitting in home (the concept of “svalapapmasya dharmacha..” in Gita)

Also, lets realize that no work in inferior. To join DRDO is not default greater wa to serve India than to join say GE. It depends on your attitude and your willingness to serve. I am reminded of an anecdote: once Kennedy visits NASA station. He sees a guy standing there, appearently very proud about what he does. Kennedy asks this guy what he does, he replied “I help in sending US satellites into space”. Kennedy taken aback by the answer enquires what exactly his contribution is. This guy tells that he is the sweeper there and his duty is to clean the place. Greatness does not lie in doing big things… any fool may happen to do them. Greatness lies in doing even the smallest of the work with greatest dedication.

We Indians have all he potential. What we require is a change in attitude. To quote Sister Nivedita, “Instead of passivity, activity; for the standard of weakness, the standard of strength; in place of a steadily yielding defense, the ringing cheer of the invading host. Merely to change the attitude of the mind in this way is already to accomplish a revolution… We no longer dream of submission, because struggle itself has become only the first step towards a distant victory to be won”.

Knowing 'that' by knowing which everything is known

Quest to know what is Truth can be said to be one of the definitions of Moksha or "Realisation". One may ask the universe is infiite, so how can one ever know the whole of truth. But Vedanta resolves this problem by answering that "know that by knowing which everything is know". Chandogya Upanishad explains this concept beautifully and clearly. Found this simplified version of the Chandogya Upanishad. This website has many good stories.

-------------8<---------------

Long ago in India, there was a boy named Sveta-ketu (shway-ta-kay-too). He was already twelve years old, but he had not yet gone to school. Probably he had no brothers or sisters and there was so much work for him to do at home, helping his parents, that there had been no way for him to go to the house of a learned teacher, which is where the pupils studied in those days. A boy had to live with the teacher and study with him the various branches of knowledge that were taught at that time.

The father of this boy said to him one day, "Sveta-ketu, go to school. You are a brahmin, of a wellborn family, and no one in our family line has failed to live up to that. A brahmin must be educated and learn how to behave nobly in every respect."

So Sveta-ketu went off to the local teacher's house and studied the great books, called The Vedas, and similar subjects, for twelve years. In that time, of course, he had been able to master many things, so he had quite a good opinion of himself. He walked proudly and smiled very little. When, at the age of twentyfour, he had come back to his parents, they were very happy to have him home again. But his father noticed the proud attitude in the boy and decided that there was only one word for Sveta-ketu: conceited!

One day he said, "Well, my boy, since you consider yourself a very serious person and well educated indeed, let me now test your knowledge. Did you ever ask your teacher for that instruction by which one hears the unhearable, perceives the unperceivable, and knows the unknowable?"

"How, sir," the young man answered, very much surprised, "can there be any such instruction?"

"Why, in this way, my boy: by knowing the nature of one lump of clay, we can know the nature of everything made of clay, can we not? The shapes of other things, such as a pot, a toy elephant, etc., are just names, given to help us talk about them. The reality in them is just the clay, is it not?"

"By knowing the nature of a nugget of gold, the nature of all gold things is known; likewise, by knowing the structure of a nailfile, we understand everything made of iron. The shapes and names we use for convenience. The reality is just the gold, or the iron."

"Yes, Father," said Sveta-ketu. "Surely my revered teachers did not know this; why did they not tell me? So, you please tell me about that."

His father agreed, and the instruction he gave his son, remembered by him and passed on to generations of students, takes up a large part of one of the Upanishads. Let's hear the beginning and a few other portions of that teaching.



"In the beginning, my boy," said the father, "there was just Being and nothing else. Some people said there was Nonbeing and nothing else, and that Being came out of that. But they were foolish! How could Being be produced by NonBeing?"

"It was just the opposite, son: in the beginning, there was just Being and nothing else. That Being felt lonely. It thought, 'Well, let me become many. Let me produce other things.' And so It produced the different elements of this universe, one after another." In this way, Sveta-ketu's father went on to explain to him the various stages of creation.

"There is more to growing up than you may think. Facts, gathered from books and teachers are all very well, but wisdom is to know that they all come from one source."

You are That!

Sveta-ketu's father continued:

"Every night, when they go into a state of dreamless sleep, all creatures enter again into that Being from which they have come. Then, why do they not know it?"

"When the bees make honey by collecting the nectar of different trees and reduce them all to one juice, these nectars cannot say, 'I am the nectar of an orange blossom,' 'I am the nectar of a mango blossom,' etc. In the same way, my boy, all these creatures, though they have entered that Being, they cannot say what they are. When they return again to the waking state, whatever they are in this world -- a man, a tiger, a wolf, a boar, a worm, a fly, or a mosquito -- that is what they become again. They do not know that they have come back from that Being."

"Suppose there is a hidden treasure of gold lying buried in a field. People who do not know about it will walk again and again over that treasure and will not find it. Just so, all of us go, day after day, into the embrace of that divine Being but do not realize it. The Self of this whole universe is the same as the Seed from which it came. And you, O Sveta-ketu, are That!"

"But, sir," asked the son, "that Being has no name or form. So, how could this universe, with all its objects having all these names, come out of that?"

"Bring me a fig from our figtree," his father suggested. Sveta-ketu went out and came back with a fig from the tree.

"Now break it."

"Yes, it is broken."

"What do you see now?"

"Seeds -- hundreds of them."

"Now break one of the seeds, son."

"That is difficult, sir. But here, it is done."

"Do you see anything inside?"

"No, sir, there is nothing inside."

"Sveta-ketu, just because you cannot see it, that does not mean that there is not a fine principle at work in the seed, which is the cause of the whole fig tree. Believe me, my boy, the Self of this whole universe is the same as the tiny seed from which it came. And you are That!"

Now Sveta-ketu was puzzled and had a doubt in his mind: if some principle, called Being is the cause of all this world, why do we not see that? So, he asked his father, who replied:

"Here is a lump of salt. Put this lump in a vessel of water, and I will see you again in the morning." His son did so. Next morning, when he came, his father asked him to bring him that lump of salt. Sveta-ketu looked into the vessel, but of course the salt had dissolved.

"Taste some water from the surface of the vessel," said his father, "and tell me how it is."

"Salty," Sveta-ketu said.

"Now taste a little from the other side and tell me how that is."

"Salty, Sir."

"Now carefully pour off most of the water and try a little from the bottom of the pot." This done, Sveta-ketu replied that it tasted salty too.

"You could not perceive the salt with your eyes, you had to apply the sense of taste. So, also, in this body of ours -- that Being is not perceived by eyes or tongue or any of the senses, but it is here nevertheless. It has to be discovered by a different means."

( Later he will explain the means: meditation and discrimination.)

"The Self of this whole universe is the same as the tiny seed it came from. And you, O Sveta-ketu, are That!"

---------------------->8--------------

Spiritual Renewal the Hindu Way

Three excellent and must read articles by Arun Shourie on "Spiritual Renewal the Hindu Way":


1. The Indian Way of Seeking The Almighty

2. The Buddha's Garment

3. Signs of Renewal

Buddha - a Vishnu's incarnation??

It is well known that Hindus revere and worship Buddha as an Avatara of Vishnu. Many commies rubbish this and paint it as a "brahmin conspiracy" to end Buddhism. I don’t understand how worshipping a Saint and revering his teaching can be branded as "brahmin conspiracy". But hey, we are talking of commies here, so don’t expect logic. This was a nice reply posted by another guy on orkut which nicely summarizes the hindu attitude.

----------------8<---------------

Reminded of a dialogue from Fountainhead:

"Howard, why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you."

"Well that's it! Why don't you hate me atleast?"

"Why should I?"

"Just to give me something. I know you can't like me. You can't like anybody. So it will be kinder to acknowledge people's existence by hating them."


The commie talk about the so called "brahmin conspiricy" is also typically like this, which with some changes may sound like this:

A: You Hindu, why do you hate Buddha

B: No I dont hate Buddha

A: Why dont you even hate him. You are supposed to hate him. He has pointed out some mistakes in your previous systems.

B: Yes he did, but why should I hate him for it; in fact I am very thankful to him for his great teaching

A: But how can you accept his teachings, you cannot. You are a Hindu and not a Buddhist, so you cannot revere him and at the same time also revere Hindu philosophers.

B: But I do revere him, whether you like it or not. Infact I feel he is divinity personified who came to guide us.

A: But you cant, I know you cant. I know that you are supposed to hate Buddha, but you are implementing a big conspiricy by not hating him.

--------------------->8-----------

BTW, you can check out the BIG thread about the Hinduism vis-a-vis Buddhism on orkut here: http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=428&tid=18673492