Church calling shots in politics

Members of downtrodden and defeated communities are condemned to end up fighting with each other while the victors are occupied deciding their fate. Vanquished communities are unable to take the initiative on their own behalf, which is the dismal fate of Hindus today. In fact their in-fighting highlights attempts by individuals within the retreating Hindu community to reach accommodation with the victors. Interfaith dialogue and associated clandestine engagement with the church and its surrogates represent treasonous adaptation, intended to obscure the reality of warfare and subjugation. But this egregious conduct is completely predictable in the aftermath of defeat and evidence of such behaviour universal.




In 1816, Nepal was defeated by a British army and the Nepalese ended up as mercenaries, mainly used against fellow Hindus in India. The hapless Sikhs were also reduced to the role of British mercenaries after suffering defeat at the hands of imperial forces, having descended into utter chaos after the death of the astute Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In recent decades, both these communities were unceremoniously discarded since they had apparently outlived their usefulness to Britain. But even now these victims of exploitation as mercenaries pine for a return of the humiliation of servitude and harbour keen hatreds against the communities they were misused by imperialist Britain to discipline.



The political and economic agenda of the conquered society is dictated by victors in the aftermath of defeat. The direct and indirect dimensions of control over the vanquished include holding sway over the prevalent intellectual climate and the country’s institutions. The nature of the interaction between the defeated and the conquerors is under their careful purview as well. Focus on questions that expose the crimes of the conqueror become illegitimate and innocuous issues like the similarity of their social and religious customs dominate public discourse and curtailing reflection on hard truths. Contemporary inculturation, sponsored with supreme deviousness by church conspirators, represents precisely such a disingenuous phenomenon. Indeed this form of insidious infiltration behind enemy lines is intended to disembowel the foe while caressing its navel in bed.



Almost without exception, collaborators are identified among the defeated to help superintend their own community on behalf of the victors. In the process, a spurious impression is created that the conquered enjoy honour, even autonomy. But these illusory privileges are rationed for the select few, who serve the interests of conquerors. The distinction is between the few house niggers, the collaborators, and field niggers, who toil pitilessly. This is the origin of the house nigger syndrome of India’s Rajas, the Zamindars, tasked to collect and deliver revenues and Indian administrators who served the Raj. In contemporary Europe and the US today, one always observes Indians eager to betray their own for paltry personal gratification.



This is why the on-going advocacy of engaging with Christian churches is quite unreal. In full flight before the Christian evangelist enemy that has entered deep inside their homeland and is waging outright warfare, some Hindus are nevertheless determinedly preoccupied with lethal distractions like inter-faith dialogue. And they are apparently also exercised about how to engage in civilised debate among themselves while their proverbial grandmother is being auctioned!



Christian nations, whom their national churches serve unfailingly as instruments of conquest and subjugation, have pretty much ended Hinduism in the critical Northeast of India, expunged by force of arms. And a war has been waged without pause since Independence, with well-armed Christian terrorists now threatening to expand into adjacent regions. Hindu worship is virtually impossible in these regions, which only nominally belong to the Indian Union. Christianised communities of the Northeast unambiguously proclaim their dislike of India because of its Hindu ethos.



The evangelical churches failed to install their preferred candidate as Prime Minister earlier, but executed India’s first veritable coup d’etat by neutering India’s Prime Minister and its Cabinet government through surrogates. India’s executive authority is now in the thrall of the mendacious National Advisory Council (NAC), with its scandalous composition of practised Hindu-baiters, able to dictate to the Prime Minister on any matter it chooses. The Communal Violence Bill is the product of diabolical machinations of evangelists to de-legitimise opposition to their conversion activities by denouncing it as Hindu aggression. The rationale being insinuated that its enactment will influence Hindu-Muslim antagonism is a deliberate ploy to divert attention from the essential purpose of allowing the church acquire carte blanche.

Evangelists in India today are intensifying their age-old war against polytheists to accelerate their primordial political goal of world domination. This is the reason why even repugnant Islamic Jihadis like of the former ISI chief, General Hameed Gul and Laskhar-e-Taiba leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed are preferable adversaries. They unapologetically declare to the whole world their intention to kill and enslave Hindus en masse, the connotation of their ambition to restore Muslim rule across the entire sub-continent.



In parts of southern India, churches are mushrooming on a startling scale before our very eyes and the dominant political parties of Tamil Nadu are in essence instruments of Christian domination, incited to annihilate all that is sacred to Hindus. And Hindus, ignorant and self-seeking as ever, do not know that, historically, the Church regarded the establishment of bishoprics, in the shape of a physical church, as the political and military boundary of territory under the control of the ruler sponsoring them. Assiduous attempts are being made by the church to repeat the success of Christianising Nagaland and Mizoram and turning tribal communities across India against the Indian Union. New church buildings are designed to overawe local inhabitants by crude display of a political footprint and economic allurement in order to attract converts.



In Nepal, the church was able to use the contrivance of a Christian Maoist leadership to overthrow a decadent monarchy and greedy court elite easily, by exploiting widespread socio-economic unrest in the country. Of course India allowed itself to be manoeuvred into playing the role of midwife because India’s rulers are at best oblivious to all things Hindu and unwilling to recognise that a non-Hindu India will be a foreign country. This is the embittered legacy left by Jawaharlal Nehru and his patron, Mahatma Gandhi, who managed to wound Hinduism more than any invading iconoclast.



Contemporary India is ruled by a Catholic dynasty, which is facilitating the final assault against Hinduism. They are the rulers of choice of Western imperialists, led by the US, who perceive a consummate opportunity to change the religious demography of India permanently in favour of Christianity. And these American churches are nothing but neo fascist plunderers. An alarmingly large number of Christians, disproportionate in relation to their overall numbers in India, have been implanted by the dynasty, alongside fresh converts, careful to obscure their newly-established Christian identity and political loyalties, to destroy all vestiges of Hindu India.

Of course India’s secular elites, who have joined the genocidal campaign against Hinduism, are streetwalkers and possess no Hindu identity whatsoever and are merely available for deployment as shock troops of the ruling dynasty. This is the most shocking fifth column anywhere in the world, with endless permutations of assumed fidelities, from illiterate communist sympathies to supposed liberal sentiments, but all united as foes of Hinduism on behalf of Western imperialism and its chosen Catholic family.



The irony is that pre-eminent Christian nations are currently embarked on renewed imperial crusades in the Middle East and have already laid waste Iraq and Libya. During the earlier repudiation of Algeria’s national elections, Western intelligence agencies, led by the French secret service, pacified the country by instigating the killing of anything up to 500,000 civilians and cynically blamed it on militant Islam. In the case of India, the church is one of the crucial vehicles being used to destabilise it because the country is too complex to seize politically in one fell swoop, compared to a country like Egypt, or invade militarily.



What is occurring is an escalating seizure of key institutions in India although control of elite schools and institutions of higher learning was facilitated by a deracine Nehru, allergic to any manifestation of Hinduism. The English language media and its owners have already been subverted because they belong to a handful of business families, with whom foreign intelligence agencies established ties without difficulty. Individual journalists are routinely purchased and mostly emanate from Anglicised educational establishments that socialise them to espouse disdain for their national culture and the faith of their ancestors.



Yet supposedly intelligent Hindu religious leaders and activists are hell-bent on inter-faith dialogue while total war is being waged to erase Hinduism and cognate religions. Do Hindus not understand that proselytising is completely irreconcilable with inter-faith dialogue? Unabated no Hindus will be left to conduct dialogue with unless the duplicitous church is generously offering to end religious conversion when only a few Hindus remain to display as curiosities? It is equally perplexing that the Catholic Church in particular is considered a worthy partner for dialogue despite its deep animus against Hindu and violation of all decencies when any self-serving opportunity can be found. The disgraceful use of state subsidies for pilgrimages to Jerusalem is but one example.



This is the same church that today stands exposed as the biggest paedophile organisation in world history, also responsible for criminal mistreatment of children of unwed mothers, even while its criminal clergy was busy assaulting tens of thousands of children sexually. The monstrous treatment of babies forcibly removed by the church authorities from mothers and their subsequent fate shocks even the most hard-hearted. Catholic orphanages were truly a taste of the hell with which priests terrorised their congregations. They were finally deserted even by their unquestioning defenders, with the traditionally devout Irish people turning against them to support their government’s decision to break diplomatic ties with the Vatican. And some Hindus still look for crumbs from this Vatican table of gross iniquity, by seeking dialogue with them, which would be akin to Jews honouring unreconstructed Nazis.



Rahul Gandhi is the candidate of the Vatican and other sectarian church denominations to become Prime Minister of India. They look to him as their protector while the final assault against the Hindu citadel advances. In a parallel development, the Chinese, lacking any traditional source of cultural and spiritual sustenance of their own, are succumbing at remarkable pace to Christian evangelical allurements by converting, much like South Korea earlier.



Hindus are the sole remaining repository of an alternative world-view, which eschews the default urge for political and military domination that European peoples and their churches, embodying exactly such an impulse, seek to destroy. Only those who would sup with evil incarnate can wish to engage in dialogue with the Vatican or other evangelical church fraternities, all vultures readying to feast on the Hindu carcass.

Reangs: Victims of religious persecution in Mizoram

By Ram Madhav




They are popularly known in the North-East as Reangs. They are the non-Christian tribe, whose original name is Bru. They inhabited the southern parts of the Christian dominated State of Mizoram. Being non-Christian in a Christian State had its price. Repeatedly subjected to persecution at the hands of the Mizo population as well as the political dispensation. The Reangs—or the Bru people—were finally hounded out of the State during prolonged communal strife in 1997.



It is 14 years since they had become refugees in their own land. Escaping from the marauders thousands of Reangs—men, women and children—fled into the neighbouring State of Tripura. For the last 14 years they have been living there in 7 different relief camps. A total population of nearly 35,000 these Reang refugees today lead a pathetic life. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are supposed to be the responsibility of the Union Government. However the Government at the Center is too busy placating the gun-weilding terror groups in the North-East and it has no time for these hapless Reang refugees.



The Tripura State Government tries to do its little but that is grossly insufficient for the thousands of Reangs. They live in most inhospitable mountainous region in the North Tripura district along the Mizoram border. There is no water or electricity facility. Thousands of thatched huts dot hill after the hill in the region. Obviously there are no schools or hospitals. For living they depend mostly on the forests in the region. Able men and women venture into the forests and fetch firewood or teak and sell it in the nearby town to make some earning. But that too is not possible during mansoon months and in any case very few among the refugees can endure such physical labour under such bad conditions. The ration that they get is shockingly low—Rs. 5 per day and 450 gms of rice per day for elders and half of it for the children. How on earth can anyone survive with Rs. 5 a day?



A total of around 35,000 people survive on that meagre ration in these inhospitable jungles today. There are seven camps in total. Details of the refugee population in the camps are as follows:



Camp Families Persons



1. Nayasinha Pada 3,052 17,668

2. Asha Pada 982 5,000

3. Hazachera 770 3,000

4. Kaisaka Pada 599 3,800

5. Khakchang Pada 208 1,300

6. Hansa Pada 312 1,925

7. Naisau Pada 231 1,500 



The travails of these Reangs began the day they demanded a separate Autonomous District Council for them in Mizoram. Sometime in the middle of 1997 organisations like the Young Bru Association (YBA) and Bru Social Cultural Organisation (BSCO) started talking about this Council. No sooner had this demand reached Mizo organisations the retaliation began. Groups like Young Mizo Association (YMA) and Mizo Zyalai Powl (MZP), a local Christian Mizo group, started threatening the Bru people to withdraw the demand for autonomous council.



Thereafter began the assault on the hapless minority Reangs. Their houses were attacked and ransacked, burnt down, looted, cattle were killed, elders were harassed, women folk abused and all this happened in front of the Government which chose to turn a blind eye. It is a known fact that several such autonomous councils exist in the states of the North-East for various tribes. In that sense there was nothing unconstitutional about the demand of the Reangs. In fact there was a reason behind Reangs making this demand. For a long time they had been facing acute hardships at the hands of the majority Mizos in the areas where they traditionally lived. This discrimination reached its crescendo when the lists containing the names of the Bru people as voters had been mysteriously burnt down in a fire accident. In the subsequent re-enumeration names of hundreds of Bru people were deliberately omitted. This forced the Bru leaders to go in for the demand of autonomous council in order to protect and preserve their identity.



Yet they had to face the brunt of the Mizo people and run away into the neighbouring State of Tripura seeking refuge. For the last 14 years they have been living in the jungles of the Kanchanpur sub-division of Tripura north district. Tripura Government under Shri Manik Sarkar does extend a lot of support to these refugees. In June this year a devastating fire had destroyed the thatched huts of these refugees in the densely populated Nayasinh Pada refugee camp 24 Reangs lost their lives while thousands became home and hearthless. The Tripura State Government immediately arranged for relief and rehabilitation. District Collector Ms Soumya Gupta camped in the forest for ten full days to ensure that the refugees are properly rehabilitated. When I visited the camp in August this years the refugees were full of gratitude for the Government and especially the District Collector.



What struck me the most was that in the meager rations that they receive. The Reangs have saved enough money collectively to build two temple—one for Bhagwan Shiva and the other for Bhagwan Ram. They were building those temples through their own contributions and voluntary labour. The District Administration is arranging for schools, water, rough roads etc.



However the central issue of their repatriation remains unanswered. The Central Government shows least interest in the plight of these refugees. Various international agencies too visit them from time to time but do little. For example representatives of the European Union visited the camps after the fire disaster. Many promises ensued. But nothing ever reached them. Their leaders understand that they shouldn’t expect anything from these international bodies as they are non-Christians and their tormentors are Mizos. Whatever help they get is from the Tripura State administration and organisations like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram only. Even after the recent fire accident also the Kalyan Ashram has arranged for substantial relief material to help the victims.



Apathy of the Central Government and reticence of the Mizoram Government make solution to the problem of the Reangs difficult. Last year the Mizoram Government succeeded in dividing the Reang leadership and buy over a section of the leaders. It came up with an oral repatriation plan according to which the people who return to Mizoram would be provided Rs. 80,000. Representatives of the Central Government force the refugees to accept the offer and return to Mizoram.



However the Reang leadership is genuinely concerned about this offer. Firstly it is just an oral offer. Secondly except the meagre sum of Rs. 80,000 the Mizoram Government is not giving any other assurance to these people. For example they want to go back to the constituencies and districts where they can create enough numerical strength to ensure their own safety. But the Government refuses to allow them to change their native district or constituency. The Reangs know nothing exists in their native villages for them. They had to flee those villages precisely because they lacked any support. Now they are being forced to go back to the same places. The Government is not even assuring return of their old property. That means they have to go back and work as labour in the very fields, which perhaps they owned some 20 years ago.



The Reang leaders want a proper repatriation and resettlement plan. It should be properly written and documented. Talks for drafting this plan should be held in a free and fair manner. So far the tripartite talks between the Mizoram Government, Central Government and the Reang leaders used to take place in Aizwal only. In an intimidating atmosphere in Aizwal the Reangs fear that they can’t get justice. The talks should take place in Agartala or Guwahati so that there can be free and frank discussion.



The political rights of the Reangs need to be safeguarded in any such agreement failing which the entire community would loose its identity. Failure of the governments for years in finding a solution to their pathetic plight led to some Bru youngsters turning to the gun. They had a brush with terrorism through Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF), which made matters worse. While those who opted for the gun had been won over by the Mizoram Government through various offers and an MoU, while those who wanted a peaceful and democratic settlement faced the brunt of it by way of sidelining of the real problem that the refugees face.



The Reangs are another case of religious persecution after the Kashmiri Pandits. Both have been persecuted for being a religious minority in their respective states. But there is a major difference. The world knows about the plight of the Pandits. They have some rights in their State in which the majority of them live. Although refugees for almost same period the Reangs have not been successful in selling their story to the outside world. Hence they suffer.... mostly silently in a remote corner of our country.



(The writer is National Executive Member of Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh).

The Buddha and His Predecessors

1. The Buddha and the Vedic Rishis




1. The Vedas are a collection of Mantras, i.e., hymns or chants. The reciters of these hymns are called Rishis.

2. The Mantras are mere invocations to deities such as Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma, Isana, Prajapati, Bramba, Mahiddhi, Yama and others.

3. The invocations are mere prayers for help against enemies, for gift of wealth, for accepting the offerings of food, flesh and wine from the devotee.

4. There is not much philosophy in the Vedas. But there were some Vedic sages who had entered into speculations of a philosophical nature.

5. These Vedic sages were: (1) Aghamarsana; (2) Prajapati Parmesthin; (3) Brahmanaspati, otherwise known as Brihaspati; (4) Anila; (5) Dirghatamas; (6) Narayan; (7) Hiranyagarbha; and (8) Visvakarman.

6. The main problems of these Vedic philosophers were: How did the world originate? In what manner were individual things created? Why have they their unity and existence? Who created, and who ordained? From what did the world spring up, and to what again will it return ?

7. Aghamarsana said that the world was created out of Tapas (heat). Tapas was the creative principle from which eternal law and truth were born. From these were produced the night (tamas). Tamas produced water, and from water originated time. Time gave birth to the sun and the moon, the heaven and the earth, the firmament and light, and ordained the days and nights.

8. Brahmanaspati postulated the genesis of being from non-being. By the term non-existence, he denoted apparently the infinite. The existent originally sprang up from the non-existent. The non-existent (asat, nonens) was the permanent foundation of all that is existent (sat, ens) and of all that is possible and yet non-existent (asat).

9. Prajapati Parmesthin started with the problem: "Did being come out of non-being?" His view was that this was an irrelevant question. For him water was the original substance of that which exists. For him the original matter--water--came neither under the definition of being nor under that of non-being.

10. Paramesthin did not draw any distinction between matter and motive power. According to him, water transformed itself into particular things by some inherent principle to which he gave the name Kama, Cosmic Desire.

11. Anila was another Vedic Philosopher. To him the principal element was air (vayu). It possesses the inherent capacity for movement. It is endowed with the generating principle.

12. Dirghtamas maintained that all living beings rest and depend ultimately on the sun. The sun, held up and propelled by its inherent force, went backward and forward.

13. The sun is composed of a grey-coloured substance, and so are lightning and fire.

14. The sun, lightning, and fire formed the germ of water. Water forms the germ of plants. Such were the views of Dirghatamas.

15. According to Narayana, Purusha (God) is the first cause of the universe. It is from Purusha that the sun, the moon, the earth, water, fire, air, mid-air, the sky, the regions, the seasons, the creatures of the air, all animals, all classes of men, and all human institutions, had originated.

16. Hiranyagarbha. From [a] doctrinal point of view he stood midway between Parmeshthin and Narayan. Hiranyagarbha means the golden germ. It was the great power of the universe, from which all other powers and existences, divine and earthly, were derived.

17. Hiranyagarbha means [=refers to] fire. It is fire that constituted the solar essence, the generating principle of the universe.

18. From the point of view of Vishvakarman, it was quite inadequate and unsatisfactory to hold that water was the primitive substance of all that is, and then to derive from it this world as a whole by giving it an inherent power of movement. If water be the primitive substance which is endowed with the inherent principle of change, we have yet to account for that from which water derived its being, and derived the motive power, the generating principle, the elemental forces, the laws and all the rest.

19. Vishvakarman held the view that it was God which was the motive power. God is first and God is last. He is earlier than the visible universe; he had existed before all cosmic forces came into being. He is the sole God who created and ordained this universe. God is one, and the only one. He is the unborn one (aja) in whom all the existing things abide. He is the one who is mighty in mind and supreme in power. He is the maker--the disposer. As father he generated us, and as disposer he knows the fate of all that is.

20. The Buddha did not regard all the Vedic Sages as worthy of reverence. He regarded just ten Vedic Rishis as the most ancient, and as the real authors of the Mantras.

21. But in the Mantras he saw nothing that was morally elevating.

22. In his view the Vedas were as worthless as a desert.

23. The Buddha, therefore, discarded the Mantras as a source from which to learn or to borrow.

24. Similarly, the Buddha did not find anything in the philosophy of the Vedic Rishis. They were groping to reach the truth. But they had not reached it.

25. Their theories were mere speculations, not based on logic nor on facts. Their contributions to philosophy created no social values.

26. He therefore rejected the philosophy of the Vedic Rishis as useless.





2. Kapila— The Philosopher



1. Among the ancient philosophers of India, the most pre-eminent was Kapila.

2. His philosophical approach was unique, and as philosopher he stood in a class by himself. His philosophy was known as the Sankhya Philosophy.

3. The tenets of his philosophy were of a startling nature.

4. Truth must be supported by proof. This is the first tenet of the Sankhya system. There is no truth without proof.

5. For purposes of proving the truth, Kapila allowed only two means of proof--(1) perception, and (2) inference.

6. By perception is meant mental apprehension of a present object.

7. Inference is threefold: (1) from cause to effect, as from the presence of clouds to rain; (2) from effect to cause, as from the swelling of the streams in the valleys to rain in the hills; and (3) by analogy, as when we infer from the fact that a man alters his place when he moves that the stars must also move, since they appear in different places.

8. His next tenet related to causality--creation and its cause.

9. Kapila denied the theory that there was a being who created the universe. In his view a created thing really exists beforehand in its cause, just as the clay serves to form a pot, or the threads go to form a piece of cloth.

10. This is the first ground on which Kapila rejected the theory that the universe was created by a being.

11. But there are other grounds which he advanced in support of his point of view.

12. The non-existent cannot be the subject of an activity; there is no new creation. The product is really nothing else than the material of which it is composed: the product exists before its coming into being ,in the shape of its material of which it is composed. Only a definite product can be produced from such material; and only a specific material can yield a specific result.

13. What then is the source of the empirical universe?

14. Kapila said the empirical universe consists of things evolved (Vyakta) and things that are not evolved (Avyakta).

15. Individual things (Vyakta Vastu) cannot be the source of unevolved things (Avyakta Vastu).

16. Individual things are all limited in magnitude, and this is incompatible with the nature of the source of the universe.

17. All individual things are analogous one to another, and therefore no one [of them] can be regarded as the final source of the other. Moreover, as they all come into being from a source, they cannot constitute that source.

18. Further, argued Kapila, an effect must differ from its cause, though it must consist of the cause. That being so, the universe cannot itself be the final cause. It must be the product of some ultimate cause.

19. When asked why the unevolved cannot be perceived, why does it not show movement which would make it perceivable, Kapila replied:

20. "It may be due to various causes. It may be that its fine nature makes, it imperceptible, just as other things of whose existence there is no doubt, cannot be perceived; or because of their too great a distance or proximity; or through the intervention of a third object; or through admixture with similar matter; or through the presence of some more powerful sensation; or the blindness or other defect of the senses or the mind of the observer."

21. When asked, "What then is the source of the universe? What makes the difference between the evolved and unevolved part of the universe?

22. Kapila's reply was: "Things that have evolved have a cause, and the things that have not evolved have also a cause. But the source of both is uncaused and independent.

23. "The things that have evolved are many in number, and limited in space and name. The source is one, eternal and all-pervasive. The things evolved have activities and parts; the source is imminent in all, but has neither activities nor parts."

24. Kapila argued that the process of development of the unevolved is through the activities of three constituents of which it is made up, Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. These are called three Gunas.

25. The first of the constituents, or factors, corresponds to what we call as light in nature, which reveals, which causes pleasure to men; the second is that [=what] impels and moves, what produces activity; the third is what is heavy and puts under restraint, what produces the state of indifference or inactivity.

26. The three constituents act essentially in close relation; they overpower and support one another, and intermingle with one another. They are like the constituents of a lamp, the flame, the oil, and wick.

27. When the three Gunas are in perfect balance, none overpowering the other, the universe appears static (Achetan) and ceases to evolve.

28. When the three Gunas are not in balance, one overpowers the other, the universe becomes dynamic (sachetan), and evolution begins.

29. Asked why the Gunas become unbalanced, the answer which Kapila gave was [that] this disturbance in the balance of the three Gunas was due to the presence of Dukha (suffering).

30. Such were the tenets of Kapila's philosophy.

31. Of all the philosophers, the Buddha was greatly impressed by the doctrines of Kapila.

32. He was the only philosopher whose teachings appeared to the Buddha to be based on logic and facts.

33. But he did not accept everything which Kapila taught. Only three things did the Buddha accept from Kapila.

34. He accepted that reality must rest on proof. Thinking must be based on rationalism.

35. He accepted that there was no logical or factual basis for the presumption that God exists or that he created the universe.

36. He accepted that there was Dukha (suffering) in the world.

37. The rest of Kapila's teachings he just bypassed as being irrelevant for his purpose.





 3. The Bramhanas



1. Next to the Vedas are the religious books known as the Bramhanas. Both were held as sacred books. Indeed the Bramhanas are a part of the Vedas. The two went together and were called by a common name, Sruti.

2. There were four theses on which the Bramhanic Philosophy rested.

3. The first thesis was that the Vedas are not only sacred, but that they are infallible, and they are not to be questioned.

4. The second thesis of the Bramhanic Philosophy was that salvation of the soul--that is escape from transmigration--can be had only by the due performance of Vedic sacrifices, and observances of religious rites and ceremonies, and the offering of gifts to Brahmins.

5. The Brahmins had not only a theory of an ideal religion as contained in the Vedas, but they also had a theory for an ideal society.

6. The pattern of this ideal society they named Chaturvarna. It is imbedded in the Vedas, and as the Vedas are infallible, and as their authority cannot be questioned, so also Chaturvarna as a pattern of society was binding and unquestionable.

7. This pattern of society was based upon certain rules.

8. The first rule was that society should be divided into four classes: (1) Brahmins; (2) Kshatriyas; (3) Vaishyas; and (4) Shudras.

9. The second rule was that there cannot be social equality among these four classes. They must be bound together by the rule of graded inequality.

10. The Brahmins to be at the top, the Kshatriyas to be kept below the Brahmins but above the Vaishyas, the Vaishyas to be below the Kshatriyas but above the Shudras, and the Shudras to be the lowest of all.

11. These four classes were not to be equal to one another in the matter of rights and privileges. The rule of graded inequality governed the question of rights and privileges.

12. The Brahmin had all the rights and privileges which he wished to claim. But a Kshatriya could not claim the rights and privileges which a Brahmin could. He had more rights and privileges than a Vaishya could claim. The Vaishya had more rights and privileges than a Shudra. But he could not claim the rights and privileges which a Kshatriya could. And the Shudra was not entitled to any right, much less any privilege. His privilege was to subsist without offending the three superior classes.

13. The third rule of Chaturvarna related to the division of occupations. The occupation of the Brahmin was learning and teaching and the performance of religious observances. The occupations of the Kshatriya was fighting. Trade was assigned to the Vaishyas. The occupations of the Shudras was service of the three superior classes. These occupations assigned to different classes were exclusive. One class could not trespass upon the occupation of the other.

14. The fourth rule of Chaturvarna related to the right to education. The pattern of Chaturvarna gave the right to education to the first three classes, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. The Shudras were denied the right to education. This rule of Chaturvarna did not deny the right to education to the Shudras only. It denied the right to education to all women, including those belonging to the class of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas.

15. There was a fifth rule. According to it, man's life was divided into four stages. The first stage was called Bramhacharya; the second stage was called Grahastashram; the third stage was called Vanaprasta and the fourth stage was called Sannyasa.

16. The object of the first stage was study and education. The object of the second stage was to live a married life. The object of the third stage was to familiarise a man with the life of a hermit, i.e., severing family ties, but without deserting his home. The object of the fourth stage was to enable a man to go in search of God and seek union with him.

17. The benefits of these stages were open only to the male members of the three superior classes. The first stage was not open to the Shudras and women. Equally the last stage was not open to the Shudras and women.

18. Such was the divine pattern of an ideal society called Chaturvarna. The Brahmins had idealised the rule and had realised the ideal without leaving any cracks or loopholes.

19. The fourth thesis of Brahmanic Philosophy was the doctrine of Karma. It was part of the thesis of transmigration of the soul. The Karma of the Brahmins was an answer to the question, "Where did the soul land on transmigration with his new body on new birth?" The answer of the Brahmanic Philosophy was that it depended on a man's deeds in his past life. In other words, it depended on his Karma.

20. The Buddha was strongly opposed to the first tenet of Brahmanism. He repudiated their thesis that the Vedas are infallible and their authority could never be questioned.

21. In his opinion, nothing was infallible and nothing could be final. Everything must be open to re-examination and reconsideration, whenever grounds for re-examination and reconsideration arise.

22. Man must know the truth--and real truth. To him freedom of thought was the most essential thing. And he was sure that freedom of thought was the only way to the discovery of truth.

23. Infallibility of the Vedas meant complete denial of freedom of thought.

24. For these reasons this thesis of the Brahmanic Philosophy was most obnoxious to him.

25. He was equally an opponent of the second thesis of the Brahmanic Philosophy. The Buddha did admit that there was any [=some] virtue in a sacrifice. But he made a distinction between true sacrifice and false sacrifice.

26. Sacrifice in the sense of self-denial for the good of others, he called true sacrifice. Sacrifice in the sense of killing an animal as an offering to God for personal benefit, he regarded as a false sacrifice.

27. The Brahmanic sacrifices were mostly sacrifices of animals to please their gods. He condemned them as false sacrifices. He would not allow them, even though they be performed with the object of getting salvation for the soul.

28. The opponents of sacrifices used to ridicule the Brahmins by saying, "If one can go to heaven by sacrificing an animal, why should not one sacrifice one's own father? That would be a quicker way of going to heaven."

29. The Buddha wholeheartedly agreed with this view.

30. The theory of Chaturvarna was as repugnant to the Buddha as the theory of sacrifices was repulsive to him.

31. The organization of society set up by Brahmanism in the name of Chaturvarna did not appear to him a natural organization. Its class composition was compulsory and arbitrary. It was a society made to order. He preferred an open society and a free society.

32. The Chaturvarna of the Brahmins was a fixed order never to be changed. Once a Brahmin always a Brahmin. Once a Kshatriya always a Kshatriya, once a Vaishya always a Vaishya, and once a Shudra always a Shudra. Society was based on status conferred upon an individual by the accident of his birth. Vice, however heinous, was no ground for degrading a man from his status, and virtue, however great, had no value [=ability] to raise him above it. There was no room for worth, nor for growth.

33. Inequality exists in every society. But it was different with Brahmanism. The inequality preached by Brahmins was its official doctrine. It was not a mere growth. Brahmanism did not believe in equality. In fact, it was opposed to equality.

34. Brahmanism was not content with inequality. The soul of Brahmanism lay in graded inequality.

35. Far from producing harmony, graded inequality, the Buddha thought, might produce in society an ascending scale of hatred and a descending scale of contempt, and might be a source of perpetual conflict.

36. The occupations of the four classes were also fixed. There was no freedom of choice. Besides, they were fixed not in accordance with skill, but in accordance with birth.

37. On a careful review of the rules of Chaturvarna, the Buddha had no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the philosophic foundations on which the social order was reared by Brahmanism were wrong if not selfish.

38. It was clear to him that it did not serve the interests of all, much less did it advance the welfare of all. Indeed, it was deliberately designed to make [the] many serve the interests of the few. In it man was made to serve a class of self-styled supermen.

39. It was calculated to suppress and exploit the weak, and to keep them in a state of complete subjugation.

40. The law of Karma as formulated by the Brahmins, thought the Buddha, was calculated to sap the spirit of revolt completely. No one was responsible for the suffering of man except he himself. Revolt could not alter the state of suffering ; for suffering was fixed by his past Karma as his lot in this life.

41. The Shudras and women--the two classes whose humanity was most mutilated by Brahmanism--had no power to rebel against the system.

42. They were denied the right to knowledge, with the result that by reason of their enforced ignorance they could not realize what had made their condition so degraded. They could not know that Brahmanism had robbed them completely of the significance of their life. Instead of rebelling against Brahmanism, they had become the devotees and upholders of Brahmanism.

43. The right to bear arms is the ultimate means of achieving freedom which a human being has. But the Shudras were denied the right to bear arms.

44. Under Brahmanism the Shudras were left as helpless victims of a conspiracy of selfish Brahmanism, powerful and deadly Kshatriyas, and wealthy Vaishyas.

45. Could it be amended? Knowing that it was a divinely ordained social order, he knew that it could not be. It could only be ended.

46. For these reasons the Buddha rejected Brahmanism as being opposed to the true way of life.





4. The Upanishads and Their Teachings



1. The Upanishads constituted another piece of literature. It is not part of the Vedas. It is uncanonical.

2. All the same, they did form a part of religious literature.

3. The number of the Upanishads is quite large. Some important, some quite unimportant.

4. Some of them were ranged against the Vedic theologians, the Brahmin priests.

5. All of them agreed in viewing Vedic study as a study of nescience or ignorance (avidya).

6. They were all agreed in their estimate of the four Vedas and the Vedic science as the lower knowledge.

7. They were all agreed in questioning the divine origin of the Vedas.

8. They were all agreed in denying the efficacy attributed to sacrifices, to the funeral oblations, and the gifts to the priests which are the fundamentals of the Brahmanic philosophy.

9. This, however, was not the main topic with which the Upanishads were concerned. Their discussions centred round Brahman and Atman.

10. Brahman was the all-pervading principle which binds the universe, and [they maintained] that salvation lay in the Atman realizing that it is Brahman.

11. The main thesis of the Upanishads was that Brahmana was a reality and that Atmana was the same as Brahmana. The Atmana did not realize that it was Brahmana because of the Upadhis in which it was entangled.

12. The question was, Is Brahmana a reality? The acceptance of the Upanishadic thesis depended upon the answer to this question.

13. The Buddha could find no proof in support of the thesis that Brahmana was a reality. He, therefore, rejected the thesis of the Upanishads.

14. It is not that questions on this issue were not put to the authors of the Upanishads. They were.

15. Such questions were put to no less a person than Yajnavalkya, a great seer who plays so important a part in the Brahadarnyka Upanishad.

16. He was asked, "What is Brahmana? What is Atmana " All that Yajnavalkya could say, "Neti! Neti! I know not! I know not! "

17. "How can anything be a reality about which no one knows anything?" asked the Buddha. He had, therefore, no difficulty in rejecting the Upanishadic thesis as being based on pure imagination.

Life worse than death for Hindus in Pakistan-III


Traumatised faces glow after some help from NGOs

The Government of India might have shown reluctance to grant asylum to the agonised Pakistani Hindus living in refugee camps at Majnu Ka Tilla and Bijwasan in Delhi for the last three months, the local Hindus wholeheartedly came forward to help them. Soon after the news of their plight spread, a number of voluntary organisations, lawyers and social activists stepped in to arrange for food, sanitation and even education for them. Noted spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji also met them and assured every possible help.


After decades long persecution in Pakistan these traumatised Hindus had entered India in September 2011 with no plans to go back. Though their visa has expired on October 6, 2011, they are adamant not to return. Some human rights activists also have come to their rescue. “We have moved applications for long-term visa and subsequently the Indian citizenship. They need to be granted the status of refugees immediately so that they can earn livelihood, as under visa extension nobody is allowed to work. In such cases for applying Indian citizenship it is mandatory to stay here for at least 7 years,” said senior advocate and general secretary of Human Rights Defense (India) Shri Rajesh Gogna. He pointed out that over 5000 Pakistani Hindus, presently staying in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Delhi, are waiting for asylum and Indian citizenship.


“It is purely a matter of human rights and not the religious one. Protecting the Hindus living in any part of the world is the duty of Government of India. Israel had enacted a law during the forties allowing the Jews living in any part of the world to settle in Israel at any stage of life, provided one is not involved in any criminal activity. There should be a similar law for Hindus in India. If we can offer red carpet to Bangladeshi infiltrators why can’t we do it for the Pakistani Hindus who are the sufferers,” asked Shri Gopal Agrawal, vice president of the HRDI.


The refugees are overwhelmed with the support they are receiving in India. “We are surviving only because of the help from generous people here. We have food and shelter and our children too are studying. Now we need help from the Government,” said Rukma Devi (70), one of the refugees. The refugees are keen to educate their children. There are daily classes in the camps. Not only the children, but the elders are also learning Hindi and mathematics.

Many people as well as organisations including the Akshardham Temple Trust, Bharat Swabhiman Trust of Swami Ramdev, Art of Living of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Ghaziabad-based Shiv Shakti Trust of Devi Maa, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Arya Samaj, Sewa Bharati, VHP, etc. have provided generous help. The HRDI had adopted them in the very beginning and is fighting for their cause. Recently, a delegation of the refugees met senior BJP leader Shri LK Advani who assured every possible help. They are also planning to meet the leaders of other political parties. “Our overall objective is to ensure protection and safety of the 30 lakh Hindus presently living in Pakistan. The Government of India must take concrete steps for their safety,” added Shri Gogna.

Delhi High Court stays refugee deportation


The interim relief granted by Delhi High Court on December 21 has generated a hope for the refugees. The Court directed the Centre not to deport them till it decides the matter. Taking note of a PIL seeking grant of asylum or Indian citizenship to these Pakistan nationals, the High Court sought the response from the Centre by February 29. “Let notices be issued to the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of External Affairs for response by February 29,” said a bench of acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.



The PIL was filed by Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha leader Rakesh Ranjan. “The Constitution of Pakistan is based on religious preferences and the Hindus have remained denied of any civil, political or fundamental rights there. The forcible deportation of these people will not only be against the centuries old cultural heritage of India but also against Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees fundamental right to life and liberty to every person residing within the boundaries of India,” he said in the petition.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dera Dhuni Baba volunteer Naveen Jain, who has been looking after their needs since the very first day, observes that the women and girls have blossomed in this short stay in India. “When they had arrived two months ago, they used to cover behind black chadors; the volunteers literally tore these ‘masks’ off and told them to live and breathe freely. They have adapted beautifully,” he said adding that those who were habitual of saying Qasam Khuda Ki and some other similar words with every dialogue, now greet everyone with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Namaskar’. “Earlier these women were very frightened. But now they freely serve the Ashram and also offer puja daily. Now they also look healthy,” he said.



The women also feel a change. “Now we can freely wear mangalsutra and use bindi, which was a distant dream in Pakistan. The greatest thing which makes us secure is that everybody around us seems our own, therefore no question of fear,” said Geeta (23). These refugees do not want to become a burden on the local people. They want the government to allow them to work, as majority of them are skilled labourers and are able to earn their livelihood. “Dozens of us are trained drivers, electricians, motor mechanics, etc. and the rest can work as agricultural labourers,” said Sagar Rai.

Krishna worship and Rathayatra Festival in Ancient Egypt?

http://bibhudev.blogspot.com/2011/03/krishna-worship-and-rathayatra-festival.html

Krishna worship and Rathayatra Festival in Ancient Egypt?

Note: This article has been published on the Iskcon News site, the Graham Hancock website, eSamskriti and the Viewzone Magazine

An interesting piece of information caught my attention during my journey across the sacred sites of Egypt during early 2010. During the light and sound show in the magnificent temple complex of Karnak, I heard a voice booming over the loudspeakers: “I am Amon-Ra...The waters of the Nile sprout from my sandals.” This immediately reminded me of the Vedic Creator God Vishnu. In the typical depiction of Vishnu in Hindu iconography, the sacred river Ganges is always shown emerging from the toe of the Vishnu, while in Egypt, we find a very similar imagery associated with Amun. But who was Amun? I knew that Amun was the presiding diety of Karnak, and he was worshipped there as the Creator God, along with his wife Mut, and his son Khonsu.

The next day, while discussing about the light and sound show with my tour guide, he suddenly gave me another piece of information that I was not aware of, and that took me completely by surprise: “Amun was always depicted in funerary art and temple inscriptions with a ‘blue skin colour’ and having two feathers in his headdress.”

Now, if anyone ever travels to India, and he talks to the people there about a god having a blue skin colour, with a couple of feathers in his headdress, and from whose sandals or toes a ‘sacred river’ emerges, he will get a single answer: Vishnu, or more correctly Krishna, for it is Krishna who was always depicted with two ‘peacock’ feathers in his headdress. This realization has significant implications. Krishna is an exclusively Indian diety, whose demise in 3102 BC signified the start of the present Kali Yuga in the Vedic Yuga system. Amun on the other hand, was not worshipped in Egypt prior to the establishment of the Temple complex at Thebes. He is mentioned in the creation myth of Hermopolis as one of the four pairs of divinities who were present in the Primeval Waters of Nun. As Amun-Amaunet, he represented the ‘hidden’ properties of the Primordial Ocean. However, he was not a part of the Egyptian Ennead, the Divine Company of Gods, who were the primary deities of worship. But suddenly at Karnak, sometime during the Middle Kingdom, Amun usurped the position of Atum, as the head of the state patheon. He became the self-engendered Creator God; an early Twelfth-Dynasty inscription in the jubilee chapel of King Senusret I (c.1965 – c.1920 BC) at Karnak describes Amun as ‘the king of the gods’. Current evidence indicates that the construction of the temple complex at Luxor and Karnak may have started as early as the Middle Kingdom (c.2055 – c.1650 BC), although the buildings visible today date from the reign of Amenhotep III (c.1390 – c.1352 BC), the great temple builder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. What could have trigerred his precipitous rise to the head of the Egyptian pantheon from relative obscurity as a diety of the Primeval Ocean? And how did a whole new patheon of deities, along with associated symbolisms, rites and rituals, with gigantic temple complexes dedicated to them, suddenly spring up in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom?

The blue colored Amun The blue colored Krishna

I was also taken aback by the descriptions of the annual Opet festival that used to be celebrated in Karnak, during the season of the flooding of the Nile. In this grand festival, the idols of Amun, Mut and Khonsu were placed on sacred barques, which were carried in a splendid, joyous procession down the Avenue of the Sphinxes, along the 2 mile road that connects the temples of Karnak and Luxor. The celebrations have been depicted in detail on the walls of the Great Colonnade at Luxor. At Karnak, the idols of the Thebian triad were first ceremoniously washed and magnificently dressed with colorful linen and precious jewellery and placed on sacred barques (boats). The pharaoh then offered his obeisances to the barques, which were then carried by the priests, accompanied by musicians, and soldiers carrying standards decorated with brilliant plumes and streamers. Elegantly decorated horse drawn chariots, would also accompany the procession. Huge crowds of people gathered along the road, blowing trumpets, dancing and singing, clapping, offering prayers, burning incense sticks and generally raising a tremendous din. Nubian musicians and female acrobats entertained the crowd. The barques rested along the way at six way-stations that were built by Queen Hatshepsut. Once the idols reached Luxor Temple, the coronation rites of the king were repeated in a sacred ritual, which effectively transferred the power of divine ruleship from Amun to the pharaoh. The idols rested in Luxor for a period of time and subsequently came back to Karnak, in another procession along the river Nile. Although the Opet festival was initially celebrated over only 11 days, later it was extended to nearly 24 to 27 days. The festival not only symbolized a restoration of the divine right of the king to rule, but also signified a rejuvenation of the creative forces of the cosmos, through the sacred rituals and boisterous celebrations.



Amazingly enough, an exactly similar festival is still celebrated every year in the tiny coastal town of Puri, in the state of Orissa in eastern India, after the onset of monsoon in the month of July. Here, in the yearly Rathayatra festival, the idols of Krishna (or Jagannath), his brother Balaram and his sister Subhadra are carried in three magnificent chariots pulled by thousands of devotees along the 2 km (1.5 mile) road that connects the Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha Temple. I had the good fortune of being able to witness this grand spectacle last year. An immense collection of humanity had descended on Puri on this day from all over India. The actual festival, of course, had started nearly two weeks earlier when the idols of Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra were given a ritual bath and redecorated. On the day of the Rathayatra, the idols were installed on the three massive chariots, nearly 45 feet high, which had been constructed for the three deities. The chariots were kept outside the Jagannath Temple walls and the endless stream of devotees blew conch-shells and played trumpets as soon as the idols were brought out of the temple and placed in the chariots. Then the King of Puri paid his obeisance to each of the chariots. He sprinkled sacred water on the chariots, and swept the chariots clean with his golden broom. The chariots then started making their way along the Grand Avenue one by one, pulled by ropes by the thousands of devotees. Needless to say a considerable din ensured. There was loud chanting and singing, beating of drums and blaring of trumpets, as the procession slowly made its way to the Gundicha Temple. The chariots stopped at many points along the way, in order to provide an opportunity to the devotees to catch a glimpse of the idols inside the chariot and offer their prayers. It is said that one who observes the face of Jagannath during the Rathyatra festival gets absolved of all past sins. I did not accompany the procession the entire way to the Gundicha Temple. But what happens is that, after the procession reaches the Gundicha Temple, the idols rest there for a period of 7 days. After this they return back to the Temple of Jagannath, in another joyous, noisy procession known as the Ulta-Rath. The entire celebration, starting from day of Jagannath’s bathing ceremony, till his return from the Gundicha Temple, lasts for 25-26 days, nearly the same as the Opet festival of Karnak and Luxor.


The Opet Festival The Jagannath Rathyatra

The similarities between these two ancient festivals are obvious and striking. There was no doubt in my mind that the Opet festival of Karnak is identical in form and spirit to the Rathayatra festival of Puri.


As per Vedic accounts, the festival of Rathayatra has been celebrated in India for thousands of years, although the current Temple of Jagannath only dates from the 12th century CE. The festival has been mentioned in multiple Puranas, which are Vedic historical documents of unknown antiquity. The Skanda Purana states that the first Jagannath Temple was established in Puri in the Krita Yuga, which, as per the currently accepted Yuga Cycle doctrines, began at around 10,900 BC. Since Jagannath refers to Vishnu i.e. the Lord of the Universe, he was worshipped in different forms in the different Yugas. In the Kali Yuga he is worshipped in the form of Krishna. The Skanda Purana also specifies the date of the Rathyatra festival. In many other Vedic documents such as the Narada Purana, Padma Purana and the Ramayana, the virtues of worshipping Jagannath have been extolled. The festival is, therefore, indubitably Vedic in origin.


That would imply that this ancient festival, along with the cult of Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra was transferred from India to Egypt, sometime prior to 2000 BC!

Amun, Mut and Khonsu -
The Thebian Triad Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra -
The 'Puri' Triad


That is a phenomenal idea. Although we know that Indian traders had extensive trade relations with the first Pharaohs of dynastic Egypt in 3000 BC, and sold them cotton, muslin, spices, gold and ivory, such a major influence of India on Egyptian religious systems has not been explicitly identified by historians till now. Some scholars have, however, pointed out the similarity between the culture of Egypt and Eastern India. Peter Von Bohlen, a German Indologist, mentioned that there are elements of folk art, language, place names and rural culture of Bengal (the state adjacent to Orissa and included in it in ancient times) which have an affinity with their Egyptian counterparts. However, when you consider the fact that an entire patheon along with associated ceremonies and rituals seems to have been exported to Egypt from India, it appears that the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Emperors of India must have maintained very close relations since ancient times. This ‘pantheon’ transfer would have been possible only through express royal patronage. But when and why did this happen? Who all were involved?

We know that when the Hyskos invaders of Egypt were finally evicted from the country after 200 years of occupation, the pharaohs Kames and Ahmes had fought under the banner of their new-found god - Amun. This event which took place in 1580 BC, signified the beginning of the 18th dynasty, which is acknowledged as the greatest royal families of Egypt. Amun became the supreme protector god of the monarchy and the state and his priesthood gained immense power. Magnificent temple complexes dedicated to Amun were established in Thebes. Is it possible, therefore, that this 'pantheon transfer' from India to Egypt was also accompanied by a transfer of armed forces which resulted in the defeat of the Hyskos invaders and the reunification of entire Egypt under the Pharaohs?


Interestingly, the people of Egypt themselves claimed to have come from a land called ‘Puanit’ (corrupted to ‘Punt’) located on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Punt was referred to as the 'Gods land' or the 'land of gods and ancestors'. Punt can be reached leading off the Red Sea, in a south-east direction, and is described by the scholar Dr. Adolf Erman as ‘a distant country washed by the great seas, full of valleys, incense, balsum, precious metals and stones; rich in animals, cheetahs, panthers, dog-headed apes and long tailed monkeys, winged creatures with strange feathers to fly up to the boughs of wonderful trees, especially the incense tree and the coconut trees.’ These descriptions strongly suggest that Punt may be a reference to India. The ancient maritime trade routes, popularly known as the Silk Route, led from Egypt in a south-east direction, to the flourishing ports on the western and eastern coasts of India. Along these ancient routes, Egyptian and Indian ships plied back and forth since unknown antiquity, carrying precious objects of trade such as gold, ivory, myrrh, incense etc.

The Silk Route

Col. Henry Steel Olcott, a former president of the Theosophical Society, explained in the March, 1881 edition of The Theosophist that, “by the pictorial hieroglyphic inscription found on the walls of the temple of the Queen Haslitop (Hatshepsut) at Der-el-babri, we see that this Punt can be no other than India. For many ages the Egyptians traded with their old homes, and the reference here made by them to the names of the Princes of Punt (King Parahu and Queen Ati) and its fauna and flora, especially the nomenclature of various precious woods to be found but in India, leave us scarcely room for the smallest doubt that the old civilization of Egypt is the direct outcome of that the older India." The expedition of Hatshepsut to the land of Punt was done primarily with the objective of acquiring incense and a number of exotic goods, which she dedicated to Amun, the presiding diety of Thebes. Does that not indicate that ‘Punt’ and ‘Amun’ may somehow be connected? Is it possible that Hatshepsut felt that by bringing these items from the land of her forefathers, and from the place where Amun himself had originated, she would be performing a great service to her ‘father’, Amun, and thereby acquire his blessings.

That India may be Punt, should not come as a great surprise, since it is now widely accepted that Hindu traders colonized Ethiopia. The earliest Ethiopian tradition says that they came from a land situated near the mouth of the Indus, and this has been confirmed by the testimony of Eusebius and Philostratus. In the seventh century, St. Isidore made a summary in his Encyclopedia of knowledge derived from ancient Greek and Latin authors, many of whose works have now disappeared. Regarding 'Ethiopians' he says in his Etymologiarium (IX.2.128): “They came in ancient times from the River Indus, established themselves in Egypt between the Nile and the sea, towards the south, in the equatorial regions. Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760-1842) an Egyptologist has observed (Historical Researches - Heeran p. 309): "It is perfectly agreeable to Hindu manners that colonies from India, i.e., Banian families should have passed over Africa, and carried with them their industry, and perhaps also their religious worship." "Whatever weight may be attached to Indian tradition and the express testimony of Eusebius confirming the report of migrations from the banks of the Indus into Egypt, there is certainly nothing improbable in the event itself, as a desire of gain would have formed a sufficient inducement."


Many questions are raised here. If Punt is India, then when did the ancient Egyptians migrate to the shores of the Nile from Punt? If we assume that the migration took place sometime around 3000 BC, at the beginning of the ‘Kali Yuga’, then who built the Giza Pyamids? Since the Pyramid complex at Giza has now been dated to around 10,500 BC (Hancock and Bauval), and since this magnificent pyramid complex is entirely devoid of any hieroglyphic engravings or inscriptions, which is very unlike the Egyptian pysche, it raises the question whether the Giza Pyramid complex was built by the ancient Egyptians or by others before them. Is it possible that was it built by a ‘race of giants’ who built similar megalithic structures around the world, including many of them in Mesoamerica? Maybe the arrival of the ancient Egyptians to the shores of the Nile from the distant Punt displaced this ‘race of giants’ and a new civilization was initiated? Whatever be the truth about ancient Egypt, it is clear that we are barely scratching the surface of it in the present times.

Suggested Readings:
1. Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the Myths, Religions, Pyramids and Temples
2. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt
3. The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind

French, American & Brit

The train was quite crowded, so a U. S. Marine walked the
entire length looking for a seat, but the only seat left was taken by a well dressed, middle-aged, French woman's poodle...

The war-weary Marine asked, 'Ma'am, may I have that seat?'

The French woman just sniffed and said to no one in
particular 'Americans are so rude. My little Fifi is using that seat.' The Marine walked the entire train again, but the only seat left was under that dog. 'Please, ma'am. May I sit down? I'm very tired.

She snorted, 'Not only are you Americans rude, you are also arrogant!'

This time the Marine didn't say a word; he just picked up the little dog, threw it out of the train window, and sat down.
The woman shrieked, 'Someone must defend my honour! This American should be put in his place!'

An English gentleman sitting nearby spoke up, 'Sir, you Americans often seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing.
You hold the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your cars on the wrong side of the road.

And now, sir, you seem to have thrown the wrong bitch out of the window.

teachers and Educators

A number of girls at an expensive boarding school were beginning lo use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back. Finally the headmistress decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the maintenance man who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers, and then there are educators!

mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani in his 27 storied home...

Mukesh bhai gets up from his bed room on 15th floor,
takes a swim in the swimming pool on 17th floor,
has breakfast on the 19th floor,
dresses up for office on 14th floor,
collects his files and office bag
from his personal office on 21st floor,
wishes bye to Nita Ambani on 16th floor,
says ‘see you’ to his children on 13th floor,
and goes down on 3rd floor
to self drive his 2.5 Crore Mercedes to office, but then he finds out that he has forgotten the car keys upstairs.
But on which floor?
15th, 17th, 19th, 14th, 21st, 16th or 13th?

He phones all his servants, cooks, maids, secretaries, pool attendants, gym trainers, lift attendants etc. on all the floors. There is a hectic search and lot of running around on all the floors, but the key is not traceable.

Fed up, after half an hour of frantic search, Mukesh bhai leaves in a huff in a chauffeur driven Ikon car.

At 3.30 pm late in the afternoon it is discovered that 4 days back, a temporary replacement maid had washed Mukesh bhai's pant and hung it to dry on a string in the balcony of 16th floor, with car keys in the pant pocket. The key had blown away somewhere in the high winds at 16th floor level and was never found.

This was detected because of Nita Ambani's habit of checking clothes given for ironing personally. Meanwhile, after 3 days of the incident, Nita Ambani with all irritation writ large on her face, complained to Mukesh bhai asking him where he was roaming till 3 am last night.

Mukesh replied that he was at home all night. “Then why did the helicopter land in the terrace at 3 am?
I was so much worried. I could not sleep whole night," quizzed Nita.
"Oh that helicopter”.
That helicopter came from Germany , sent by Mercedes people to deliver the duplicate car key"... mumbled Mukesh.

Moral of the story: Stay in two room kitchen flat only. ....... Least problems at Home ;)

India is still a developing country !!!

An Old Story:
***********


The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:
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The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Mayawati states this as `injustice' done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.


Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India,


..AND

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers,

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India is still a developing country !!!

India on the radar of Anglo-American imperialism

By Dr Gautam Sen

THE collapse of a country often occurs suddenly though warning signs will be visible to careful observers. Almost no one expected the mighty USSR to implode in 1989 and become marginalised rapidly, virtually overnight. The banal psychology of the instigator of the chain of events, President Mikhail Gorbachev, was poignantly underlined when he triumphantly named an utter nonentity, the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as the leader he admired most. More recently, European leaders were bowing and scraping before an idiot ruler one day, but within weeks he was fighting for his survival and Libya for its sovereign future. Many other countries have been similarly suborned and divided by the intervention foreign interests, taking advantage of local difficulties, including Yugoslavia, the Sudan and Indonesia, to name only a few. The fate of India within the compass of its current borders is not inviolably guaranteed either, a harsh truth its conceited and incompetent rulers might have understood after Partition itself, the loss of territories to China and truncated sovereignty in J&K and the North-east. Instead, quite staggeringly, Sonia Gandhi and her retainers are engaged in a virtual campaign to eject Gujarat from the Indian Union by relentless hostility toward its elected representatives.

Intervention to take advantage in a country that appears ready to fall apart is opportunistic. The moment such an opportunity arises all bets are off, earlier sentiments irrelevant and historic friendships immediately erased. The motive for such foreign intervention is to prevent other third parties emerging stronger through their own involvement and of course neighbours feel compelled to enter the fray to settle outstanding territorial claims. The collapse of the USSR, over which the remarkably incompetent Gorbachev presided, led to a NATO-sponsored attempt to consolidate its Cold War victory by seizing control over a Russia reeling in chaos. Western international economic agencies and academics from American and European universities were also active trying to wreck the Russian economy. These diabolical designs were accompanied by the implantation of their preferred candidate, the drunken, buffoon, Boris Yeltsin, as Russian President. It failed in the end because Russia is a formidable foe. The on-going attempt to divide Libya to corner its oil producing regions remains an on-going reminder of imperials instincts, evidenced earlier by the conquest of Iraq by Anglo-American imperialists.

India has always been on their radar too since Britain’s expulsion from it in 1947. Britain had hoped to leave behind a broken backed India of warring regions and princely states beholden to the wishes of London. Eventually, Pakistan and the dispute over Kashmir were to become the long-term vehicle to keep India on the run and permanently off balance. In addition, their local protégés within India were mobilised to harass the nascent Indian State to prevent its consolidation as a viable and self-sufficient entity. The most lethal fifth column turned out to be Indian communists, simultaneously serving both Anglo-American and Chinese imperialism, which had become an ally of the latter against the Soviet Union by the 1960s. Indian communists sided with China in 1962 and Pakistan, the US and China when India sought to end genocide in East Pakistan, revealing a level of venality and treasonous conduct that should have prompted the execution of its entire national leadership. Their treasonous machinations to challenge the Indian Union in assaults coordinated with Islamic Jihadis, without commensurate response from the Indian State, is a spectacle to behold. As one senior Indian intelligence officer has recently observed, these anti-national forces have infiltrated every institution of State and civil society and enjoy the empathetic ear of India’s dominant political leader.

In the decades after Indian Independence, foreign interests, particularly the Anglo-Americans, inserted themselves into every social, economic and regional fissure in India and deployed them against it. Spurious divisions and human rights abuses are the excuse to pillory India and weaken its national resolve. Evangelists, the original sponsors of the Dravidian movement and its leaders, all known British agents, just like the communist leadership after 1941, are being used to demoralise India and divide its voters along numerous axes. Today, the monstrously distorted politics of alleged or real caste divisions have become deeply embedded in every facet of Indian life. Apparently, legislative measures are planned in some countries abroad and by the UN to denounce Hinduism as synonymous with demoniac caste oppression and fascism, apparently, a final push, to break India. The Indian Congress, India’s first family and the anointed crown prince are vocally supporting this conspiracy by, helpfully, fabricating cases against Hindus for terrorism. Unfortunately, the grave wounding of India, particularly on the issue of caste, is being aided by Hindu organisations in the US and the UK and some activists of India’s own Hindu organisations. They have shockingly succumbed to bribery and a disgraceful desire for crumbs from the tables of White Christians, hell-bent on India’s destruction.

The Indian State apparatus is the most vitally unavoidable structure for the welfare and long-term survival of the nation. Once its ability to act is compromised many dire evils are liable to overtake it. The ability to engage decisively with events, issue commands that are respected and obeyed are of paramount importance because without it other governance structures are in danger of collapsing in the face of threat and assault. Even a cursory reading of history immediately highlights the terrifying consequences of paralysis at the heart of decision-making and serial errors of judgement. I choose random the failure of ancient Carthage’s political elites to act decisively in the face of Roman invasion, which then resulted in the permanent erasure of Carthage from history, i.e. its extinction. A similar phenomenon occurred when Nadir Shah invaded India and left behind in his wake utter devastation because the Mughal imperial family and its generals were at odds with each other and decision-making paralysed. Ever since Indian independence the Anglo-Americans have waged relentless war against the Indian State and its political leaders, by sponsoring subversion from within and using Pakistan. They were soon joined by China and it is no surprise that these four countries remain firm allies as far as antagonism to India is concerned.

The destruction of a State occurs because of internal collapse and external aggression. The current situation in India combines features of both. India has been a divided country historically except when held together by overwhelming force under some Mughal rulers and superior political cunning, of the kind especially deployed by the British for several generations. The great present danger for India is the rise of regional political forces that do not possess any national vision. They are self-righteously parochial, inward-looking and interested almost exclusively in personal power and wealth. When they espouse an ideological perspective it derives from pure opportunism. Their banal ideological strains are ready for misuse by the enemies of India, keenly alert to any opportunity for causing mischief and, ultimately, the demise of the Indian Union. Regional political forces are highly likely to do a deal with such enemies of India in a moment of grave national crisis at the expense of the integrity of the nation, a reality numerous separatist movements across the country already highlight. Maoists and Islamic Jihadis are working together assiduously on behalf of Anglo-American and Chinese imperialism to destroy India. They are ably assisted by a swathe of India’s liberal intelligentsia, many recently discovered to be on the pay of foreign intelligence agencies waging war against India and killing its citizens. This fifth column also enjoys the personal patronage of India’s supreme leader as members of India’s real decision-making organs, by-passing the Union Cabinet. The latter and its occupants are shameless ciphers.

The only real problem for India’s external enemies and their internal allies is the existence of its formidable armed forces. Observers of the treatment of India should note with alarm that these are being systematically undermined even as vast sums are spent on the import of an array of weapons from abroad. The patriotic sensibilities of young officers and fighting men and women are being systematically corroded and the most senior officers increasingly selected for their political loyalty to India’s first family rather than professional merit. The banning of rakhi within the armed forces, which passed without vigorous protest from India’s seasonal nationalists, is an illustration of the vicious warfare being waged against India’s warriors. India’s first two Param Vir Chakra awardees, Majors, Somnath Sharma and Piru Singh, made the supreme sacrifice with the teachings of the Gita in their hearts and Sri Ram on their lips. In addition, the misuse of human rights ruses, sponsored by foreign intelligence services, to harass the armed forces, also promoted with alacrity by India’s English media, is merely a vehicle to reduce effectiveness in situations of armed combat in which civilian casualties are unavoidable. The spectacle of rampant corruption at the highest levels of Indian society, shielded by the Indian Prime Minister himself, constitutes a further grievous danger since it must inevitably affect their commitment to fight and die for their country. In the end, the integrity of India’s armed forces depends on the survival of legitimate political authority within the country, without which it cannot engage in integrated combat and will be left rudderless.

Ordinary Indians may somehow imagine their country is immune to the dangers of a new partition or the loss of national sovereignty, but the signs of peril are flashing bright. The contemporary attempt to perpetuate the Nehru dynasty, turning the Indian Republic into a quasi-monarchy, has prompted a non-holds barred contest that is reducing the most critical political and administrative structures of the Indian polity to a hollow shell. The vital decision-making apparatus of government, the Indian Union Cabinet and the office of the Prime Minister have virtually ceased to exist. In its place, retainers of the first family and any section of society that might be organised to support it are running amok. Along with the purchased mainstream media, opportunistic professionals (e.g. academics from US universities advising Rahul Gandhi) and political entrepreneurs are straining to influence events in favour of the crown prince and his family. So absurd is the situation that his semi-literate, octogenarian Italian grandmother can determine matters of state alongside cynical political retainers of the likes of Manish Tiwari and Ahmed Patel. Their interest in the welfare of the Indian State and society is deeply suspect and their capacity for subversion enormous. Any self-respecting country would have immediately sanctioned their judicial incarceration and worse.

The priority accorded by the Indian political elite to the fortunes of the Nehru dynasty progressively unloosened the fragile socio-political ties that bound India after Independence. Securing Indira Gandhi’s personal rule was achieved by curtailing meaningful expressions of democracy in the Congress party, which her father had managed by force of personality as a prominent leader of Indian Independence. Indira Gandhi placed family retainers in positions of power and the Congress party lost touch with its far flung support base in the country. It increasingly became opportunistically beholden to narrow political constituencies whose sectarian interests and identities were cultivated and accentuated to ensure divisive political loyalties. The final act of this sombre drama is now being played out. The narrow political appeal of the Congress party is precariously perched in the hands of a truculent Islamic Ummah and a rural-urban lumpen proletariat, wantonly enticed through bribery. This alliance is haunted by failure because a divided India is readying to descend into political chaos. A resulting shrill cry of desperation is emanating from India’s first family, appealing to the basest instincts and most extreme demands of constituents. The extraordinary attempt to identify Hindus as the chief perpetrators of terrorism in India, almost exclusively the responsibility of Islam, is but one sign of this despair.

Squandering national wealth to earn personal goodwill

Criminal UPA profligacy


THE UPA government has gifted away Rs 9003 crore ($ two billion) of the tax payers’ money to foot the bills of the European countries. The money is being given to New Arrangement to Borrow (NAB) fund of the International Monetary Fund, set up in March this year to bailout the European Union economies which are in the grip of a huge cash crunch. Years of reckless spending, poor domestic saving and living on credit have brought about this situation for many EU countries, which are otherwise considered developed. NAB has a corpus of $500 billion for this purpose. The corpus was increased 10-fold since setting up to meet the worsening debt situation in Europe. In order to rope in more donors, especially the growing economies like India and China, the membership to the ‘prestigious’ NAB was expanded, to include 13 emerging economies. Originally, the NAB was controlled by the G-7.

The government needed the Parliament’s consent to make this generous gift. And it adopted a mean device. It included this amount as one of the items in the table of the supplementary demands of the general budget. The move was introduced on August 2 and was probably cleared the same day. No case study, no debate, no explanation. Not one party or MP, including the leftists, raised any question, though the report appeared in a small section of the media. At least the enormity of the amount involved should have made them wary.

The donation of such a huge amount without batting an eyelid shows the arrogance of the UPA government. At a time when the fiscal deficit is burgeoning, when the money available for infrastructure and development programme is dwindling, this grand gesture appears haughty. According to government’s own admission, 70 per cent of India’s population is in need of food security, which means that millions in the country are starving, finding it difficult to make two ends meet.

Is it the conspiracy of silence or a ridiculously low level of economic understanding that has made our political parties indifferent to this big give-away. In no other country such huge donation to another country would have gone unnoticed and undebated in parliament. Even the US President cannot gift away the US aid without justifying it in the House and the Congress. Surprisingly, even the left parties which celebrate the collapse of capitalism in the West did not raise any question about India supporting the lavish lifestyles of the European countries. Remember, the IMF was supposed to have been set up to aid the developing nations in their effort to eradicate poverty.

The money was given without any pre-conditions. Whenever the IMF or the World Bank had given loans to the developing countries, severe restrictions and conditions that squeezed the borrowing countries dry were imposed. Even today, India is repaying in millions of dollars every year, the loan it took from these international financial institutions.

What galls one the most is the fact that the bankrupt countries, whose economy donors like India and China are trying to help, are refusing to learn a lesson from their crisis. In several of these countries people have rioted against the government, demanding continuation of privileges and entitlements, which the bankrupt governments were in no position to give. Greek is one such nation. Already a recipient of $300 billion, this Mediterranean nation is demanding more. The added problem for Europe is that since the formation of the ambitious European Union (it has 19 members), their economies have been inter-linked and inter-dependent. A classic case of Italy catching cold if Portugal sneezes or France shivering in chill if it snowed in Germany.

In the credit ratings of international agencies, India has a status of BBB– along with Portugal and Iceland, whereas most European countries even in their pauper situation enjoy better rankings. It makes no logic for UPA to rob our piggy bank savings to give money to the richer nations. Either India’s credit ratings have to go up or theirs should come down for a transaction like this.

It may be recalled that the US was in a financial crisis in July, unable to pay bills without extending the debt ceiling. Which the US Congress allowed after much trouble, keeping the government in suspense. The US House and Senate allowed this only after the government committed to reduce spending by $900 billion over a decade. This extension only means that the Americans can continue to spend and borrow and live on potential future income until the collective debt of the nation reaches an estimated $20.1 trillion (which is 85 per cent of its GDP) by the year 2020.

Under Manmohan Singh, the Indian government has been at its profligate best, handing out cash to other countries. Afghanistan has been the biggest recipient of UPA charity. In May this year the Prime Minister promised $500 million taking to $ two billion Indian aid to Afghanistan since Karzai came to power. It even thrust money into the coffers of an unwilling Pakistan after an earthquake. The money was given through an international aid agency as our western neighbour refused to accept India’s magnanimity directly.

While helping the neighbours and smaller nations is part of international diplomacy, India has never leveraged on them. Internationally donors look at aid, donations and even lending as a means of increasing clout and influence. Indian regime, with flimsy political mandate is distributing money without any visible return leverage.

Some of the tax havens where black money from India has been stashed away are in Europe. India could well use this occasion to bargain for the return of the booty. Instead the government is busy explaining to the Supreme Court that its direction on tracing and bringing back the loot is not possible to implement.

The politicians who are today tirelessly singing the chorus ‘Parliament is supreme’ must demand an answer from the government on its munificence. It is after all the treasure of the hard working and law-abiding Indian tax payers.