बादशाहों की मुअत्तर ख्वाबगाहों में कहाँ
वह मज़ा जो भीगी-भीगी घास पर सोने में है,
मुत्मईन बेफिक्र लोगों की हँसी में भी कहाँ
लुत्फ़ जो एक दूसरे को देख कर रोने में है!
मकतबे इश्क में इक ढंग निराला देखा
उसको छुट्टी न मिली जिसको याद हुआ!
कौन ये ले रहा है अंगडाई
आसमानो को भी नींद आती है
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Idea of a new political party
I believe that it is time for a new political party in India, with a different view towards the problems around. Not only this, there has to be an approach that will take this party to the people.
It might be something like RSS minus the religious jingoism, for e.g. education, social justice should be the first pieces to start with rather than fighting elections.
The reader is requested to put his views on this.
It might be something like RSS minus the religious jingoism, for e.g. education, social justice should be the first pieces to start with rather than fighting elections.
The reader is requested to put his views on this.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Interviewing Swami Vivekananda
(Excerpts from the Interview published in Prabuddha Bharat, April, 1899)
Swami Vivekananda explains his view on reconverting people to Hinduism, who had converted to other faiths.
On the question- "On this matter of receiving back into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your opinion that they should be received?"
"Certainly, " said the Swami, "they can and ought to be taken."
He sat gravely for a moment, thinking and then resumed.
"Besides, we shall decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans first came, we are said -I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian - to have been six hundred millions of Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more. Again the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or the descendant of these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities of any kind. As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is still going on. In my own opinion, this statement not only applies to aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also to all those castes who find a special origin in the Puranas. I hold that they have been aliens thus adopted. Ceremonies of expiation are no doubt suitable in the case of willing converts, returning to their Mother-Church, as it were; but on those who were alienated by conquest -as in Kashmir and Nepal- or on strangers wishing to join us, no penance should be imposed."
The question came- "But of what caste would these people be, Swamiji? They must have some, or they can never be assimilated into the great body of Hindus.Where shall we look for their rightful place?"
"Returning converts, " said the Swami quietly, "will gain their own castes, of course. And new people will make theirs. You will remember that this has already been done in the case of Vaishnavism. Converts from different castes and aliens were all able to combine under that flag and form a caste by themselves- and a very respectable one too. From Ramanuja down to Chaitanya of Bengal, all great Vaishnava Teachers have done the same."
"And where should these new people expect to marry?" I asked.
"Amongst themselves, as they do now." said the Swami quietly.
The next query drew blood, "Would you leave these new-comers, Swamiji, to choose their own form of religious belief out of many-visaged Hinduism, or would you chalk out a religion for them?
""Can you ask that?" Swamiji replied. " They will choose for themselves. For unless a man chooses for himself, the very spirit of Hinduism is destroyed. The essence of our Faith consists simply in this freedom of the Ishta."
Swami Vivekananda explains his view on reconverting people to Hinduism, who had converted to other faiths.
On the question- "On this matter of receiving back into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your opinion that they should be received?"
"Certainly, " said the Swami, "they can and ought to be taken."
He sat gravely for a moment, thinking and then resumed.
"Besides, we shall decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans first came, we are said -I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian - to have been six hundred millions of Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more. Again the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or the descendant of these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities of any kind. As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is still going on. In my own opinion, this statement not only applies to aboriginal tribes, to outlying nations, and to almost all our conquerors before the Mohammedan conquest, but also to all those castes who find a special origin in the Puranas. I hold that they have been aliens thus adopted. Ceremonies of expiation are no doubt suitable in the case of willing converts, returning to their Mother-Church, as it were; but on those who were alienated by conquest -as in Kashmir and Nepal- or on strangers wishing to join us, no penance should be imposed."
The question came- "But of what caste would these people be, Swamiji? They must have some, or they can never be assimilated into the great body of Hindus.Where shall we look for their rightful place?"
"Returning converts, " said the Swami quietly, "will gain their own castes, of course. And new people will make theirs. You will remember that this has already been done in the case of Vaishnavism. Converts from different castes and aliens were all able to combine under that flag and form a caste by themselves- and a very respectable one too. From Ramanuja down to Chaitanya of Bengal, all great Vaishnava Teachers have done the same."
"And where should these new people expect to marry?" I asked.
"Amongst themselves, as they do now." said the Swami quietly.
The next query drew blood, "Would you leave these new-comers, Swamiji, to choose their own form of religious belief out of many-visaged Hinduism, or would you chalk out a religion for them?
""Can you ask that?" Swamiji replied. " They will choose for themselves. For unless a man chooses for himself, the very spirit of Hinduism is destroyed. The essence of our Faith consists simply in this freedom of the Ishta."
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