Tuesday 27 August 2013

A Family Member: Acharya Vinova Bhave

Vinoba Bhave
Acharya Vinoba Bhave, the sarvodya leader, will lways be remembered for his Bhoodan movement. He initiated this movement for collecting land for distribution among landless agriculturists. His method for obtaining gift of land was unique. Usually people were so impressed that they gladly parted with their excess land.
 Vinoba traveled extensively in the rural areas on foot. During this padyatra, he would approach a farmer who had more land than he could cultivate. He would ask him" How many brothers are you." if the farmer said three, Vinoba would tell him, You can take me to be your fourth brother. You will now have to give me my share of land as a brother." In the same way, he would ask some rich farmer about the number of son he had. if he answer was two or three sons, Vinoba would claim to be his third or fourth son and request him to part with his share of land. it need not be emphasized that very few people disappointed this brother or son. Vinoba ji , then distributed the land among  the lan less

Monday 26 August 2013

Render Unto Others, what is theirs: Swami Vivekanand

This story relates to the time when Swami Vivekanand was travelling in America. He was walking in a garden. An English woman approach him and said " If you do not take it otherwise, can I ask you a question"

" Please do ask without any hesitation" replied swamiji. The woman said " Swamiji, you are wearing India clothes but your shoes are not Indian. Why are you wearing them?"

Swamiji replied with a disarming smile, " These shoes have been given by local people and hence I wear them. I shall leave them here when I go."

The woman was crestfallen. She thought she would be able to denigrate the Swami by teching him a lesson in Indianess. His reply completely flummoxed her and she could know the smallness of her own mind in trying to run down a great Savant on such petty matters.

Etiquette:- Swami Vivekanand

All religions conference was held in Chicago in America in 1893. Swami Vivekanand had gone there to speak on Hinduism and its philosophy. He was to address the conference on 11th September . When he rose to speak, he found the slogan " Hindu religion- a dead religion" inscribed on the board on the dais.Unperturbed, he began his address with words, " My American sisters and brothers" The entire audience was so enthused by his address that they greeted Vivekannand with loud applause and clapped for a couple of minutes.The reason for the enthusiastic applause was that this oriental Sanyasi had given the first place to woman and then address them as a members of large family of human race. The audience did not know that in our culture women always have a higher place and the saying that this whole world is one large family in ingrained in our ancient culture.
This created a lasting impression on the assembly. Though only five minutes were allotted to each speaker, the president , Cardianal Gibbons requested Swamiji to continue speaking. He spoke for more than twenty minutes and the large gathering heard him with rapt attention about the basic tenets and philosophy of Hinduism.
Swamiji became very popular in America. People adored his simple attire and gracious manners. The newspapers brought out articles about him on the front page saying that such an intellectual giant had never visited their country in the past. Thousands become his disciples.

Not only that , people were eager to listen to him everyday. If there was noise in the hall, the people were quitened down by the announcement that Swamin Vivekanand will address them if they observed silence. The whole gathering would then sit with bated breath to listen to him. Such was the magic of his name.

In his speeches during his sojourn in America, Swamiji laid stress that goodness of Hindu religion. He asserted that the religion has the capacity to absorb all that is good in other religion. What he wanted to convey was that there is no dogmatism in Hinduism and it looked upon all religion with the same respect. The Indian culture and psyche was based on the concept of human brotherhood, tolerance for others and large hardheartedness. The Hindu religion does not denigrate other peoples' thinking. in this way, this great son of India, unfurled the flag of Indian culture in the far off land of America. Where the people become aware of the lofty ideas of Indian Culture for the first time.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Mother, You are the Last Refuge:-Ramakrishna Paramhansa

Ramakrishna Paramhansa
Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa was the very embodiment of piety and love. His heart was full of the milk of human kindness.

One day, Mathura Babu, an affluent person, came to see him and suggested Swamiji to go boating with him on the river. They crossed the river and went to the locality called Kalai Ghata near Rana ghat. This locality was inhabited by very poor people. Paramhansa burst into tear as he saw the miserable condition in which these people lived. Most of them were famished and clad in rags. The sawant a devotee of Maa Kali. He started wailing in loud voice. "Mother see how your children live. Inspite of your presence, your sons and so much misery in your world."

Mathura Babu had a deep understanding of Swamiji's feelings. He came back to the city and bought food and clothes for the famished people of that locality. Paramhansa was still in tears and praying to Maa Kali. He regained his composure as Mathur Babu fed the poor and distributed clothes. Then, he raised hands to the sky and said " Mother, You are the last refuge!"

Monday 19 August 2013

Guatam Buddha's last message : The Light is within!

You must have read about Prince Siddartha, who later come to be known as Buddha,' the Enlightened one'. Born into a princely family, Siddhartha was deeply affected when he saw a sick man, an old person and a dead body. He left his palace, his young wife and one year old son, to live the life of mendicant and find out the way to  Nirvana. After undergoing many fasts and penance he realized that the only way to alleviate one's misery is to follow the eight fold path of righteousness. From the day of this realization, he come to be know as Gautam Buddha. He laid great stress on truth and no violence.

The enlightened one lay on his death bed. He was being looked after by his ardent discipline, Anand, Bhadrak, another devotee came to see the master. He could not help weeping loudly at the thought that Gautam would be passing into eternity soon. Buddha heard his sobs and enquired from Anand, "who is weeping?"
 "Tathagat, Bhadrak is here to see you," said Anand.
"Then, call him," replied the compassionate Buddha.

Bhadrak fell at his feet and brust into loud sobs. Buddha asked him the reason for his sorrow. "O Master, who shall now show us the light when you are gone. That is why I weep, " Bhadrak replied in a voice choked with emotion.

Buddha lovingly placed his hand on Bhadrak's head and said "Bhadrak, the light that you seek is within you. Do not search for it anywhere. Only the ignorant seek it in the temples, holy places, caves and forest and thus wander aimlessly. In the end, they get only disappointment. On the contrary, those whose thoughts speech and  deeds are pure and in harmony with each other, find the light within their own self.
"Be your own light" should be the guiding motto.
This is the last message of Gautam Buddha and he had devoted hs entire life to its preaching

The Price of Shiddhi:- Ramkrishna Pramhansa

 
Ramkrishna Pramhansa
Once a great Yogi come to see Ramkrishna Pramhansa. After a strenuous effort and practice of sixteen years, this yogi had attained the prowess of walking on the water. To impress Paramhansa, he came walking on the river Ganges on whose banks, Ramakrishna lived in Dakhineshwar. He asked Ramakrishna about his prowess and told him that it took him sixteen years to attain this "Siddhi". "It is worth only two paise" replied the Savant. "You have wasted sixteen years of your life for nothing. Any boatman could have brought you here for two paise" Pamahansa added and was lost in reverie.

Saturday 10 August 2013

Population Explosion and India

   The Population explosion is one of our major problems. India is in the grip of population explosion. it is very badly affecting all our development activities. The prolonged high birth rate and considerable decline in mortality rate have made India an over populated country.The problem is becoming more and more alarming with passage of time. In term of population India is second largest country after China. The infant mortality rate has come down to 80 from 126 per thousand on the other hand life expectancy has considerably increased. This phenomenon has resulted in the rapid growth of the population of younger people. Similarly there are 35% of total population  and more men and women over sixty years of age. Consequently, the clash of ideas and interests between the young and the old has become a common thing.


   There are about 15 million births every year in India.  With this high fertility and decline in mortality our population will cross the population of China in year to come.The enormity of the problem has been realized but commensurate steps towards population control have not been taken by government so far. The measures taken till date to address the colossal problem are really not adequate at all. Meaningful population control program should take account of such socio-economic factors as age of marriage, female literacy, rate of mortality, status of women and poverty because they have strong bearing on our population explosion. 

     The growth of our population at the rate near to 2% is really alarming high. Every minutes we have 30-35 additional mouths to feed. if this baby boom continues soon our country will be most populated country in the word and China will be relegated to the second position. This baby boom  reduces the quality and standard of living and increase the problems of unemployment, housing, health family welfare, education and many such others. The problem becomes all the more worse because of illiteracy ignorance, superstitions, religious and communal prejudices and tropical climate of the country. it is because of this climate that there is so much fertility among women. Here a girl of 15-16 years of age is mature enough to deliver a child, if married. Most of the people in villages and slums in the cities are totally ignorant of the evil consequence of a large and unplanned family. Because of lack of proper awareness and age old dead traditions coupled with superstitions, he people in villages believe in divine dispensation in the moulding of their families and refuse to plan them. Small farmers, agricultural labourers etc have large and unplanned families because of the economic value of the children. The more the children, the more hand to earn for the family.

     To have the desired aims and objects in regard to population control and family planning the status of the women should be improved to the extend that they are well educated and informed and economically self dependent, so that they have control over fertility. It is a fact that female literacy has a strong co relation with higher age marriage and lower birth rate. Birth rate can be brought down by 12 per thousand if the mean age of marriage is raised to 20 among women. it has been observed that seven years of schooling leads three and half year delay in marriage and also lower infant mortality. late marriage should be encourage and child marriage should be dealt with strictly. Marriage registration should be made compulsory and no marriage should be considered legal without it. Moreover, there should be uniform civil code as far as marriage and divorces are concerned, and no discrimination should be exercised on the basis of religion, cast creed etc. two children norm should be adopted and there should not be any violation of it. 

     Persuasive methods should be use to limit a family to two children, but need be coercive methods may also be used . Unless population is controlled neither poverty can be eliminated nor the living standard be improved. More funds should be allotted  for family planning, mother and child care and birth control programs under the five years plans. More and more sterilization facilities coupled with increased monetary incentives should be provided in villages and towns. Couples accepting family planning with one or two daughters should be provided proper insurance cover  ensuring their welfare in the old age. Security and protection in old age should be ensured to such couples by the government and the society. A strong system of incentives and disincentives should be adopted to check this explosion in our country.