From ‘Celebration of the Cells. Letters from a Cancer Survivor’ by R M Lala

…John Greenleaf Whittier, the American poet:

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease

Take from our lives the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

With Dag Hammarskjold I can only say to God:

For all that has been – Thanks

To all that shall be – Yes.

Listen with your ears to the best things,

Reflect with a clear mind

Man by man for himself

-          Gathas Yasna …. Songs of Zarathustra

W.Stanley Jones puts it aptly. When you find a faith, he says, all your sums add up.

…..William Wordsworth:

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So it was when my life began;

So it is now I am a man.

A Japanese proverb says that ‘Time spent in laughing is time spent with the gods,’

From ‘Stranger to history. A Son's journey through Islamic Lands’ by Aatish Taseer

My travels in Pakistan had made me feel that the extremism had seeped much deeper than my father was willing to admit. I felt that Pakistan's problems were ....existential; that the original idea on which the country had been founded - the idea of a secular nation for Indian Muslims - had eroded .....forcing it to invent enemies to justify its failure..

‘To build Pakistan,’ Salman Rushdie wrote in Shame, ‘it was necessary to cover up Indian history, to deny that Indian centuries lay just beneath the surface of Pakistani Standard time. The past was rewritten; there was nothing else to be done.’

Even though the Prophet’s family had been the custodians of the Kaba, it was not his first choice as the new religion’s direction for prayer. Thomas Patrick Hughes wrote, in the nineteenth century:

At the commencement of Muhammad’s mission, it is remarkable that there is scarcely an allusion to the Ka’bah, and this fact, taken with the circumstance that the earlier Qiblah, or direction for prayer, was Jerusalem, and not the Ka’bah, seems to imply that Muhammad’s strong iconoclastic tendencies did not incline his sympathies to this ancient idol temple with its superstitious ceremonies. Had the Jews favourably received the new prophet as one who taught the religion of Abraham, to the abrogation of that of Moses and Jesus, Jerusalem and not Makkah would have been the sacred city …….

But the Jews did not welcome the Arabian prophet, Mecca itself only came in the last years of his life ……Prophet and his armies occupied Mecca and destroyed the idols in the Kaba. It was then – two years before the Prophet’s death – that the ancient pagan pilgrimage common to all the tribes of Arabia was recast in an Islamic mould…

…..Professor Palmer’s introduction to the Koran:

Here, then, Muhammed found a shrine, to which, as well as at which, devotion had been paid from time immemorial; it was one thing which the scattered Arabian nation had in common – the one thing which gave them even the shadow of a national feeling: and to have dreamed of abolishing it, or even diminishing the honours paid to it, would have been madness and ruin to his enterprise. He therefore did the next best thing, he cleared it of idols and dedicated it to the service of God.

....though the mosques were empty in Tehran, though I hardly heard the call to prayer, never saw a woman fully veiled or a man with a beard, unless he was a government man, the revolution had not been kind; it had brutalized its children. And where religious feeling had departed, new psychoses had crept in.

I .....was looking at an Iranian magazine with an Indian film star on the cover - the always amazing reach of Bollywood.....

That summer of 2002, I crossed the border [into Pakistan] ….We drove away from the border…. The country that opened up …. seemed so familiar that one expected the diversity of the Indian scene to reveal itself. And when it didn’t, it was unsettling. It really was an India for Muslims only.

The other feature of the landscape that troubled the eye was the absence of women. On the other side of the border, women had been riding bicycles – some in Punjab, with long plaits, had been on scooters and mopeds – but here, in crowded places, I could see thousands of men, many dressed like the officials at the border in salwar kameez, the same macho ease about them, but few women ….Their presence, slight as it was, seemed to be a matter of permission....

Karachi, though it was the closest thing to a representative Pakistani city, was not like Istanbul was to Turkey or Tehran to Iran, not a city where a fifth or a sixth of the population lived, .....a rough estimate put it at 16 million in a country of about 160 million. Pakistan....was largely rural. People had said to me, 'You dont know the soul of Pakistan till you know feudal Pakistan.'

There's a Sindi saying: "Love and revenge never get old."

(edited on 20-May-16)

From ‘The Buddha's Sword’ by Gautam Sachdeva

“The seeing is

the only doing necessary”

-          Ramesh Balsekar

Ramana Maharshi ….. “Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating top. Its very speed cannot be followed by the eye and so it appears to be still. Yet it is rotating. So is the apparent inaction of the sage. This must be explained because the people generally mistake stillness to be inertness. It is not so.”

“Every since happiness heard your name,

it has been running through the streets

trying to find you.”

-          Hafiz

“The deeds are,

but no doer of the deeds is there.”

-          Gautama Buddha

An American tourist went to Cairo to visit the famous Polish rabbi Hafez Ayim. He was surprised to see that the rabbi lived in a simple, book-lined room, in which the only pieces of furniture were a table and a bench.

“Rabbi, where’s all your furniture?” asked the tourist.

“Why, where’s yours?” retorted Hafez.

“Mine? But I’m just passing through!”

“So am I,” said the rabbi.

The self, deluded by egoism, thinketh: “I am the doer.”

-          The Bhagavad Gita

“The present difficulty is that the man thinks he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the Higher Power which does everything and the man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles; otherwise he courts them. Take for instance, the figure in a gopuram (temple tower), where it is made to appear to bear the burden of the tower on its shoulders. Its posture and look are a picture of great strain while bearing the very heavy burden of the tower. But think. The tower is built on the earth and it rests on its foundation. The figure (like Atlas bearing the earth) is a part of the tower, but it is made to look as if it bore the tower. Is it not funny? So is the man who takes on himself the sense of doing.”

-          Ramana Maharshi

“Mere suffering exists,

no sufferer is found;

The deeds are,

but no doer of the deeds is there;

Nirvana is,

but not the man that enters it;

The path is,

but no traveler on it is seen.”

-          Gautama Buddha

From ‘A Goddess Among Us. The Divine life of Anandamayi Ma’ by Swami Mangalananda

In later years, Ma would advise that if spiritual practice was applied and continued, everything that was needed would manifest at the proper time. She would also say that any divine name that appeals to a person should be repeated regularly and, if the practice was sincere and steady, God, when necessary would send anything else that was needed. Ma… began her practice of repeating the name of Shiva. She described how this practice brought deep divine states, how the name became linked with the breath, and the various changes it produced in her consciousness. The asanas and kriyas that were needed to support this practice, spontaneously manifested in her mind and body at the required time.

There were several instances when Ma showed that the life of her body had no connection with the food she ate, or any other external factors. She often said that within all elements of nature there is an infinite supply of energy, and it is possible to be sustained even by light and air itself. She demonstrated this by going for long periods without any food at all, without exhibiting any diminutions of energy or strength.

….when asked why she didn’t seem to grieve over the loss of her husband, she replied, “How can I grieve? I can see clearly where the soul is and where it has gone!”

Close devotees, who tried unsuccessfully to manage the influx of people and allow Ma to rest for some time, asked her if the constant push of the crowd bothered her. She replied, “Are you annoyed if your own hand touches your leg or another part of your body? To me, there is only the One, and all are His manifestations. You and I are one, and the space between us is also myself.”

“Listen! Do not let your time pass idly. Either keep a rosary with you and do japa; or if this does not suit you, at least go on repeating the name of the Lord regularly and without interruption like the ticking of a clock. ….Invoke Him by the name that appeals to you most, for as much time as you can – the longer the better. Even if you get tired or lose interest, administer the name to yourself like a medicine that has to be taken. In this way you will at some auspicious moment discover the rosary of the mind, and then you will continually bear within yourself the praises of the great Master, the Lord of Creation….”

“The Self, or God, is unknowable to the ordinary intelligence, but He is not unknown to us as the life-breath. If one uses the rhythm of one’s breathing as a support in meditation, this increases one’s power. Therefore, one should daily sit in a meditative pose in a solitary place and turn the mind inward, and repeat the mantra in rhythm with one’s breathing, without straining, in a natural way. When through prolonged practice, the name becomes inextricably linked with the breath, the body quite still, one will come to realize that the individual is part of the One Great Life that pervades the Universe.”

From ‘a living faith. My quest for peace, harmony and social change. An autobiography of Asghar Ali Engineer’ by Asghar Ali Engineer

Likhte rahe junoon ki hikayat-i khoonchakaan

har chand is mein haath hamare qalam hue

-          Mirza Ghalib

Endlessly writing passion’s blood-drenched tales

My hands, my self became the instruments of the story’s telling.

Ye charagh jaise lamhein kahin raigaan na jaayein

Koi khwaab dekh dalo, koi inqilab lao

-          Rahi Masooom Raza

May these flame-like moments not go waste

Witness a dream, usher in a revolution!

Investigation of the Bombay Riots

I undertook an investigation of the Bombay riots of 1992-93…… It was simply horrible to visit the sites of rioting and massacre. The general complaint from the people I met was about the role of the police. In some cases it was blatantly partial. It was in the Deonar area that an inspector pulled out some young Muslims from their houses and asked them to run and then shot them dead. He was later suspended though he pretended to be mentally deranged……

In Maharashtra, the police have been highly communalized (with honourable exceptions) thanks to Shiv Sena propaganda. Its mouthpiece Samna (which means confrontation) uses very strong communal and abusive language and most of the lower level policemen read it regularly and are deeply influenced by its communal propaganda …..

In the world, every nation preserves and protects its heritage but in Saudi Arabia what exists is also destroyed for fear that it would be worshipped.Even graves of all except that of the Propht and his three companions, have been destroyed. And as for the Prophet’s grave, no one can kiss it or even pray facing it. When I stood in front of the Prophet’s grave and recited verses from the Qur’an, the police came and caught my neck and turned my face to the other side!

What is more surprising is that while the entire Islamic heritage has been destroyed, just opposite the Prophet’s Mosque a shopping centre has been constructed and ironically it has been named after Abu Dharr, one of the Prophet’s companions who was strongly against accumulation of riches and was an advocate of simple life like that of the Prophet himself. Legend has it that Abu Dharr never shook hands with those who were wealthy. Now, one can also see gold and jewellery shops all around the Prophet’s mosque. Is this not sheer hypocrisy in the name of Islam! One wonders.

If followers of the two different religions speak the same language, differences are bound to get minimized. Darashikoh, Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s son, also makes the same point in his book Majma’ul Bahrayn (Comingling of Two Oceans – Islam and Hinduism)

…..there were prominent people from Tehran, including some Ayatollahs …..Another Ayatollah …..said, ‘we do co-exist with other faiths but we cannot accept pluralism as it implies validity of other faiths.’ ….I then said that it is an un-Qur’anic statement that except Islam all other faiths have no validity. The Qur’an clearly says that all Prophets have been sent by Allah and they all bring Truth from Him. How then could we say that other religions are invalid and pluralism is not acceptable? ….the Ayatollah….said that although all Prophets come from Allah, their followers had distorted the original teachings and hence these religions ceased to be the original Message from Allah. To this I retorted that it was not for human beings, but only for Allah to decide what has been distorted and what has not. The Qur’an clearly says that although we may differ, we should not condemn others but only exceed each other in good deeds and leave it to Allah to decide as to who is right and who is wrong.

He also told me that until the Second World War no one in Holland (perhaps also in other European countries) would take bath every day. For months they did not take a bath. It was only after 1945 that the tradition of daily baths started

….there is a saying in Russian that one must have his breakfast to his heart’s content, share the lunch with his friend and give dinner away to his enemy!

……Sarmad who was a contemporary of Aurangzeb …He had supported Dara Shikoh who was inclined towards Sufism, and hence Aurangzeb wanted to kill him. He obtained a fatwah from the ‘ulama on the grounds that he did not recite the kalimah (profession of Islamic faith) fully. Instead of saying ‘la ilaha illallah’ (there is no God, except one God), he would only say ‘la ilaha’ (there is no God).

………one of Sarmad’s disciples …..said, ‘is it a lie to say illallah?’ ‘No,’ said Sarmad, ‘it is the highest truth. But for me it would be a lie.’ ‘Why is that?’ the disciple had questioned. ‘Because, I have not been able to really deny the many gods of desire still sitting in my heart. How can I then say illallah? I am still worshipping so many idols of desire and not free of them,’ was Sarmad’s answer. He was then beheaded.