India's Revolutionary Icons who followed the paths of The Buddha

India's Revolutionary Icons who followed the paths of  The Buddha
It all began with Buddha... and these are some of the great Torch Bearer's of Buddha's Dhamma.... This Blog is a Scholarly Blog created to provide insights into the life, services and Social contributions of some of the Greatest of Indian Scholars, Humanitarians, Saints and social activists about whom the vested interests and Rotten Indian media do not write. Nor there is a State or center policies to restore and protect the stunning stories of these great men and woman...let me walk you through the greatness..!!

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Father of Nation of India Dr.Bheemarao Ambedkar

The first Law Minister of India and the Father of Indian Constitution Bheemrao Ramji Ambedkar (Dr.B.R.Ambedkar)spoke, wrote and demonstrated quite extensively and comprehensively than any other known living or dead humans of India as to how treacherous, dangerous this so called Indian hindu society and it's deadly cultures that spread discrimination and bigotry between each of thousands of heterogeneous groups. To find a way to bring them all these "heterogeneous mess of India", and to put them in single order to lead a happy, free and prosperous life, to make them behave like humans and to treat fellow humans DrAmbedkar crafted this finest of the fine Constitution that even Americans refer to it when they are in crisis. Ofcourse, Dr.Ambedkar was an American Scholar and Columbia Doctorate, he did learn lots about humanity and freedom while he was in America, but he also studied American Constitution, so a well learned scholar and genius DrAmbedkar fathered the Indian constitution in real sense, he is the Father of Modern India, while SakyaMuni Buddha was the Father of ancient and all time Father of India. Here is the dedication to the Father of India: http://fatherofnationi.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Anna Hazare or Hazardous Anna?, What is common between Anna, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar & Baba RamDev, They are all Casteists?

Great Scholar, Scholars & Humanitarians
Behind the upsurge of the anti corruption activities of Anna Hazare, there is a Right wing agenda inbuild that includes the casteist Swamis of India Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravishankar, what better combination has to appear together for us to grasp the gravity of this Right wing casteists agenda, Anna is a casteist and a racist who is throwing up the caste shit all over India, so that they can spread and extend the varnashrama sabotage further into next millennium. Professor Ram Puniyani explains in details what is the big deal about this so called anti corruption Upsurge, is it about corruption or something else....! ( the following article is copied from a email sent by the author)
Anna Hazare and Anti Corruption Upsurge

Ram Puniyani

The nation has witnessed a huge spectacle from a section of visible population with Anna Hazare’s fast for getting the Jan Lok Pal bill being drafted and implemented. His fast unto death was an event in which not only we witnessed the ‘Tsunami of Sentiments’ but was also used by media to create an atmosphere as if it a ‘second freedom struggle’. While one can see that the dissatisfaction of the people from the system was overflowing, one also registered that this is a response to the massive corruption scams which have been unearthed during last few years. While Government succumbed to the mass pressure and the media projection, the whole episode also raised many a questions about the message which the fasting and Jantar mantar protest gave.

In the whole event, the backdrop was provided by Hindu imagery of India as Bharat mata, a Goddess. One hoped that such issues needing of worldly grounding can have icons like Gandhi as the central projection. Gandhi as the central backdrop of the movement would not only have given a correct moral message but also had been equally welcoming to all the citizens of the country irrespective of their religion. Gandhi as the backdrop would also have reminded the leaders that corruption cannot be isolated from other political dynamics which is leading to gross injustices to the poor and marginalized of the society.

Unfortunately the criticism of elected leaders and the doubting of the democratic system itself were taken to the cynical extremes. People writing on their hands that ‘Mera Neta Chor Hai’ (My leader is a thief) was one such example where the attempt to denigrate the elected representative along with the electoral process could be discerned. One concedes that there are serious flaws in the electoral system, the money power, muscle power and Corporate influence, but to paint all the leaders in the same brush shows the warped understanding of a section of leadership of Jantar Mantar movement. At the same time all the voters were insulted by stating that people cast their vote just for the goodies they get in advance as if these goodies are the core deciding points of election. Surely our electoral system needs serious reforms but this type of projection also needs to be seriously questioned. 

Then we have the issues of leadership of the whole event. We saw Anna Hazare as the Supreme commander with associates like Baba Ramdev trying to moralize the nation in the politics which is not so hidden by now. Baba Ramdev is a partisan of a particular type of politics which bases itself on religion and Baba in the clothes of a yogi is playing the role, which does not promotes democratic values. Baba was accompanied by RSS leader Ram Madhav. Sri Sri Ravishnker was also there. Both these Godmen are for the construction of grand Ram Tmeple at Ayodhya, and that should be enough to tell us their political leanings. Others in the core committee surely have more objectivity but one does not know as to how much influence they could exercise on the tilt being given by Annaji, Ramdev, Ravishanker and Company.

Anna Hazare, in the centre of the whole event also projected his pro right wing politics by praising Narendra Modi. One learns that Annaji has worked in his village in an authoritarian way, keeping the caste and gender hierarchical notions intact in Ralegaon Siddhi. His praise for Modi does let the cat out of the bag. Narendra Modi has successfully created and image of honest administrator but those who know the state better like Malika Sarabhai, Chunibhai Viadya, Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah have pointed out that in Gujarat the villages are suffering the rot, poverty levels are abysmal, people are migrating to cities in large numbers and their lands are being given to the coterie of Industrialists who are in the good books of Modi. Lakhs of villagers are yet to get the compensation for the land which has been taken away from them. The very definition of corruption needs to be looked at while talking of Gujarat, as Industrialists are plundering with
both the hands and state exchequer is the major victim of Modi’s policies. Instances of this abound, the massive subsidy to Nano being one major example. 

Same Narendra Modi not only refused to appoint the Lokayukta in his state and there are multiple unadvertised scams which are away from the media glare. There are criminal accusations against this person who has been called as the Nero by the Supreme Court, and who is authoritarian to the core. With such a role played by Modi in the Gujarat carnage, with blood on his hands, if someone can praise his work, it is not out of naivety, and it is part of the political agenda of that person. Same Anna Hazare had praised Raj Thackeray, the architect of violence in the name of language. As per Annaji, Raj Thackeray’s ideas are correct but violence should not be resorted to, forgetting that violence is a just an outcome of these political formulations which Modi and Thackerays have.

The massive mobilization and channelization of middle class angst is at one level indicator of the deeper levels of frustration in the system. In this whole upsurge there was a spontaneous expression of dissatisfaction and also a planned mobilization all across to take advantage of the situation to enhance the politics of those who have rode on the wave of section of society mobilized earlier also. One recalls that Jaya Prakash Naryan’s movement was much more broad based still it came to be controlled by the RSS, and its Swayamsevak Nanaji Deshmukh became the central person. The JP movement, irrespective of its noble intentions gave respectability to the organization, whose member had killed Father of the nation, and which till that time was looked down upon. Same way V.P.Singh’s tirade against corruption was swept away by the politics of those who were out to demolish Babri Masjid. Sitting on the waves of anti Corruption movement, both time RSS and
its political progeny became stronger to the extent of becoming the second largest party in the country.

Ironically in the whole episode while the ruling party and politicians as such were being humiliated the other component of the corruption phenomenon, the Corporate World and the industrial houses were really the beneficiaries of the way anti corruption drive was projected. Corporate World got exonerated by default, of all their crimes of getting around their ways through corrupt route. During earlier decades when the economy was controlled by state, the so called license-permit raj, it was said that corruption is due to state control of economy. Now with globalized economic scenario, the corruption has gone up to unimaginable levels, and the role of Industrial Houses as being the equal party to the game remains hidden from the scene.

Corruption is the big scourge to the system. We do need to look beyond the leaders and parties to realize that Corruption is primarily due to lack of transparency of the system, lack of accountability of the elected representatives and the very nature of our economic system and injustices inbuilt in the social system. While one lauds the tremendous response to the anti corruption movement, one can just hope that the sectarianism of Anna Hazare should be totally bypassed and the religious tilt of the imagers should be done away with. One hopes that while working on the Lok Pal Bill, the collective leadership of the movement will take note of these points to ensure that this movement does not meet the fate of two similar earlier one’s and that Right wing divisive forces are kept at bay.

--
Issues in Secular Politics
II April 2011
www.pluralindia.com
Response only to ram.puniyani@gmail.com

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WESTERN BUDDHISTS TO LEARN FROM AMERICAN JEWS By PPLakshmanJi

I read with great interest "A Challenge to Buddhism" by Ven.Bhikkhu Bodhi that I was fortunate to read on the internet. 
We all know and revere Bhikkhu Bodhi. His talks and writings are always inspiring and  provocative. His distress evident in the above-mentioned article will be shared by all those who read it.
Of late we have been hearing a lot about the expression  "Engaged Buddhism". I find the expression mostly among the Mahayanists rather than among the Therawadis in the Western world. Mahayanists also use the expression "Humanistic Buddhism". To everyone who is not a Buddhist, it simply means Applied Buddhism or practical Budhism.
There has been  challenges to Buddhism in all eras. To my mind, there is no greater solution, no enduring remedy to the challenges in any era than the creation of Buddha's disciples known as Arhants who would advice and give lead to people to solve their problems as and when they arise, regardless of color, race, creed or nation. Whatever the problems - social problems like injustice or natural catastrophies like earthquake or global problems like climate change 
-  the cutting edges of weapons in Buddhist armory to counter them always lay in individuals in the first instance, and subsequently in their organizations, with or without the support of governments. Therawada Buddhism which I am more familiar with has had a monastic order in place since Buddha'.s time where trained monks are turned out in large numbers, year after year, in Therawada countries -  Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia.  Many of the trained monastics become bodhisatvas (seekers of enlightenment), few if any become fully enlightened worthy ones known as arhants who are worthy to advice and lead. Finding arhants is like mining for diamonds.
Many of the social service organizations, Buddhist or other,  fail because of the absence of arhants, the fully enlightened ones, to lead them. The fully enlightened arhants emerge out of the multitudes of monks, worthy to advice and worthy to lead..  
 
There have been a plethora of institutions with long histories of social service like the CARE, the American Peace Core, Red Cross, YMCAs, and many others. Bhikkhu Bodhi has mentioned American Jewish World Service (AJWS) which is relatively a new organization like the Islamic Relief USA and others, all of which "aiming to alleviate suffering, hunger, illiteracy and disease, worldwide". On the other hand,  organizations with limited goals also take birth like the Armenian Relief Society with its limited goal of serving the humanitarian needs of the Armenian people worldwide, who still suffer from the effects of its underreported holocaust of early 20th century. I wonder what make AJWS exceptional. 

Has AJWS  tested its declared objective of social service on the soils of Israel's next door neighbors or in the  Arab sector inside Israel itself?  Some material on the internet gave me the impression that AJWS perhaps took birth out of cognitive dissonance among American Jews suffering from psychological conflicts between incompatible beliefs and attitudes.  
The highly efficient style of working of organizations like AJWS backed by media support can make favourable impression of them even if they do not have enlightened leaders and violate one or more of the five precepts that the Buddhists always practise in all their endeavours.
Social service is the objective of most organizations, but they have besides social service something which make them distinct. For instance, the U.S. after taking thousands of lives in Japan with their nuclear armory seek to create a better image of the U.S.with its Peace Core volunteers, YMCAs seek to spread Christian messages behind their altruism,  what if AJWS seeks to show Jewish presence in world service, no matter that the Jews are only 0.2 percent of a world population of 7 billion.   
 
I wish to draw the attention of my readers to an organization which I had in  mind when I wrote earlier in this piece about arhants and searching for them like mining for diamonds. 
The organization is called Fo Guang Shan (FGS), which means literally "Buddha's Light Mountain", and its organizer is Master Venerable Hsing Yun, born in mainland China in 1927. Master Venrable Hsing Yun founded FGS in 1967 in a remote quiet area in the hills of  Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. It is a Mahayana Buddhist order promoting Humanistic Budddhism, a modern Chinese philosophy. Humanistic Buddhism aims to make Buddhism relevant in the world and in the people's lives and hearts. It is a monastic order and not a theoretical school of thought per se.
In May 1997, Hsing Yun got the gates of FGS closed to the general public in order to give a cloistered atmosphere to the temple residents.
But, following the plea of the public headed by the President of Taiwan, FGS reopened the gates in December 2000. In the last 40 years since its inception, FGS has been remarkably successful in extending its services beyond Taiwan,  setting up temples and organizations in 173 countries and encompassing more than 3,500 monastics. FGS also created an affiliate in 1992, Buddha's  Light International Association (BLIA),  
which has now over 100 chapters in the world.  The monastic order represented by Fo Guang Shan and Buddha's Light International Association has now over a milliom followers worldwide. It has been said  "In Master Venerable Hsing Yun, Buddhism has found a reformer, an innovator and an educator. Under his strong  leadership, Buddhism has extended beyond traditional temple life to integrate and further enrich the modern city dwellers."
 
 P.P.Lakshman
December 18, 2008
 
 

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Ravana & the depiction of 10 Heads? What is the Rationale?

Ravana's ten heads represent the ten crowns he wore as a result of his being the sovereign of ten countries.