Saturday, May 21, 2011
AMERICA ISRAEL RELATIONS WORSEN
AUM
AMERICA AND ISRAEL ON COLLISON COURSE
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
Unbelievable but true it is that the United States of America and Israel are not bosom friends any more. The closeness that the two countries experienced since the birth of the only Jewish state in the world in the late 1940s on cessation of hostilities in World War II is conspicuous by its absence now. The change in the very warm and friendly relationship between the two countries is a direct result of the new Middle-East policy formulated by President Barack Obama. He extended his hand of friendship to the Muslim community to end the confrontation between the major Christian but secular state, USA and the Arab-Muslim countries of the Middle-East. Obama’s idea was to have bon-homie, peace and prosperity in the conflict region so that America does not have to do Policing time and again. Of course making peace overtures to the Islamic countries of the region did not go well with Israel as it hurt its vital interests.
The Jewish community in the United States, especially in the New York state is sizeable in numbers and economic prosperity and thereby exercises political influence. The changed Mid-East policy of USA has not gone well with the Jewish-Americans. The general perception is that Obama has shown this tilt towards Muslim interests because of his own Islamic background. Isn’t it a fact that his biological and real father is a practising Muslim from Kenya and was introduced as such at the Presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington DC. Further, Barack Obama spent the impressionable period of his life in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country. Perhaps that explains the tilt towards Islam in the new foreign policy of USA being promoted byBarack Obama now.
CONFLICT AREAS
The eye of the Islamic world is presently focussed on the manner and method that USA will adopt to implement the new foreign policy of keeping both Israel and Palestine on board in the formation of a new full fledged State with economically viable and militarily defensible borders. The real clash of political interest between Israel and Palestine starts here. America wants to create a new state of Palestine with boundaries that existed prior to the 1967 war between Arabs and Israel that the former lost. Under no circumstances is Israel prepared to cede the territory to Arabs that it had won in the 1967 Arab-Israel war of six days. Benjamin Netanyahu, the present Prime Minister of Israel has already declared the new boundaries of Israel, as proposed by America, as indefensible. The Palestinians wish to have Jerusalem as their capital whereas the Israelis already have the ancient city as their symbolic capital. Jerusalem is dear to heart of Muslims, Christians, and now Jews too. Eventually Jerusalem may turn out to be the main bone of contention. So, one may say that fruits will belong to the man who nurtured the plants and helped them grow into trees.
PERSONAL EQUATIONS
In a round of negotiations,it is the final word that matters. Likewise, it is the Supreme Court that will be the final arbiter of thousands of feet, hands and mouths to feed. Americans were cool, calm and collected when the chips were down and it was a matter of life and death. The Americanshad cheese in their custody what they wanted most.
Sri Benjamin Netanyah, PrimeMinister of the youngest powerful State of the world, Benjamin Netanyahu may find no reception organised for him because of some misunderstanding among the major negotiating powers. In the last two years, that is since Obama became the President of the United States, the relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu, Youngish looking President of the United States do not enjoy a close friendly relationship, what to say of being bosom friends where they can boast of breaking bread together when they move out of the negotiation room. Since the two Prime Ministers have come to the negotiation tables more to poke fun at each other and peep into his private life, if any. Even the Prime Minister of the youngest baby on the world stage has blessed the ongoing talks but did not display own car keys. While discussing the matters of state, it is the tiny tot that draws your attention and leaves the rest to the world community to work on the ticklish state.
In any case it is well known from day one that Barack Obama and Benyamin Netanyahuare not warm to each other. They are barely on nodding terms and hate to look into apple of the eye or find out what the grand child is doing. Even a beginner of military psychology will say that how can they negotiate since the bandage helps commence conversation. It would not be inappropriate for the Prime Minister of country X to say Hello to the Prime Minister of country Y so that there is some thaw in the otherwise cold conversation that had failed to commence.
NO SILVER LINING
The dark clouds are in abundance. There is no silver lining, though. If the doctors do that, the hospital building will collapse. It is said that mere touch of human beings who are blessed with holistic healing will go a long way in making or unmaking of a real hospital.
As of now, leaders of important countries of the world feel cheated on being left out. It is not the food that matters, it is the fact of being seen at the negotiating table that matters. After all it is the human society where one upmanship will remain in currency. It is applicable to men and women of all professions and this kind of politico-social mixing gives the prime minister or any other minister that all important aura that all of us crave for.
Benyamin Netanyahu has already rejected the call of Barack Obama to make the boundaries that existed in 1967 as the base for the negotiation to take off. He has reiterated that those boundaries for Israel are indefensible and, therefore, will render the State of Israel vulnerable even to feeble attacks of one-man army of some unimportant Islamist terror outfit. It appears that the situation will be back to square one and all concerned will go home for a homely reunion with own folks.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, Noida – 201303, INDIA. Mobile : 0091-9811173590.
Email – upvanom@yahoo.com and sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
Saturday, April 30, 2011
IMPEACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE IN INDIA
•
chitranjan sawant
•
chitranjan sawant
AUM.
IMPEACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE IN INDIA
By Chitranjan Sawant
Chief Justice of India knows very well that BHRASHTACHAR or Corruption of the worst order is eating into the vitals of India,that is Bharat. The three pillars of democracy - legislature, executive and judiciary have failed to stop corrupt practices from one part or from all parts collectively or severally.
There are a number of checks and balances in the judiciary to see that corruption is kept at bay. In good old days there was no corruption in higher judiciary. Corruption had touched only the periphery of the lower judiciary, mostly the ministerial staff. The judges were, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. The judges were not only well paid but also had no inclination to come in contact with touts, munshis or other suspicious characters who indulged in this sort of dubious game. The judges did not accept bribe that could influence judicial decisions. By and large, honesty prevailed in the temple of justice.
GODDESS OF JUSTICE WENT BLIND
The goddess of justice has a piece of black cloth tied over her eyes so that she does not see either the plaintiff or the defendant or the witnesses and is, therefore, not influenced by any party to the litigation. She is not blind though and has clear cut legal perception. She lets justice be done and also seen to be done.
Unfortunately there was a sudden flood of recruitment of judicial officers and judicial magistrates when the Executive and Judiciary were separated as per the constitutional directives. The judicial officers were recruited on such a large scale that the quality of judgements and ethics could not but suffer. Corruption of all sorts made big inroads into the judiciary. Since all concerned gained notoriety for receiving their shares of the bribe, there was no one to entertain a complaint against corruption. Members of the judicial system were thick as thieves because they were all beneficiaries of the corrupt system as stated earlier.
IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGES
The higher judiciary had been above board all along until the Executive meddled with the appointment of judges and had their own favourites appointed as judges of high courts and the Supreme Court of India to get favourable judgements in cases of political nature. In the cases where the Constitutional Law was involved, it was important for the government of the day in New Delhi to see that the Judiciary did not upset the political applecart. Indira Gandhi was a trail blazer and the first one to have the Supreme Court judges superceded to get her own man selected as the chief justice of India. The downhill run started from there and no one could stop this roll down.
If judgements could be influenced by prime minister and other central ministers, then they could be bought by other litigants too. The big business houses and tycoons were not far behind in buying the judiciary unashamedly. Judges too had a free run in making money and asking litigants for favours of sorts like receiving an air conditioner or other accessories of computers or sleek laptops.In one case when the police raided the house of a businessman, it found a case file along with a draft judgement that the judge himself had given to the client in lieu of a small monetary gain.It goes without saying that the hon’ble high court judge had dictated the judgement that went in favour of the businessman-client from whose house the police had recovered all sorts of contraband goods and the case file of the high court concerned. Judiciary was put to shame.
The Chief Justice of an important high court had spent public money in buying presents and gifts for his daughter's wedding and was caught accepting financial favours from the rich clients. He was not only removed from the bench deciding judicial cases but was also subjected to impeachment proceedings in the Indian Parliament. It was a foolproof case against the sitting chief justice and he was sure to be impeached successfully.
Lo and behold! the Congress party in Parliament decided, under the leadership of late Rajiv Gandhi, to abstain from voting on the motion of impeachment. The motion fell as the requisite number of votes in favour of impeachment could not be cast owing to abstention of the Congress members.
Thus a dishonest judge saved himself from the first impeachment despite overwhelming and unassailable evidence against him. Corruption at a high level was condoned by those who were at the helm of affairs of the Indian National Congress leading to gross miscarriage of justice. The counsels, advocates, litigants and passers by – they all take interest in such cases of miscarriage of jusice and ask themselves whether they will get justice in their own pending cases in an atmosphere where corruption is rampant. Moreover, if the said chief justice of the high court was let off on a technical point because a political party chose to refrain from participating in the voting system, what would happen to corrupt judges of the higher judiciary in future.
Who will bell the cat, even if a bell has been procured? None, my lord, none.
chitranjan sawant
•
chitranjan sawant
AUM.
IMPEACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE IN INDIA
By Chitranjan Sawant
Chief Justice of India knows very well that BHRASHTACHAR or Corruption of the worst order is eating into the vitals of India,that is Bharat. The three pillars of democracy - legislature, executive and judiciary have failed to stop corrupt practices from one part or from all parts collectively or severally.
There are a number of checks and balances in the judiciary to see that corruption is kept at bay. In good old days there was no corruption in higher judiciary. Corruption had touched only the periphery of the lower judiciary, mostly the ministerial staff. The judges were, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. The judges were not only well paid but also had no inclination to come in contact with touts, munshis or other suspicious characters who indulged in this sort of dubious game. The judges did not accept bribe that could influence judicial decisions. By and large, honesty prevailed in the temple of justice.
GODDESS OF JUSTICE WENT BLIND
The goddess of justice has a piece of black cloth tied over her eyes so that she does not see either the plaintiff or the defendant or the witnesses and is, therefore, not influenced by any party to the litigation. She is not blind though and has clear cut legal perception. She lets justice be done and also seen to be done.
Unfortunately there was a sudden flood of recruitment of judicial officers and judicial magistrates when the Executive and Judiciary were separated as per the constitutional directives. The judicial officers were recruited on such a large scale that the quality of judgements and ethics could not but suffer. Corruption of all sorts made big inroads into the judiciary. Since all concerned gained notoriety for receiving their shares of the bribe, there was no one to entertain a complaint against corruption. Members of the judicial system were thick as thieves because they were all beneficiaries of the corrupt system as stated earlier.
IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGES
The higher judiciary had been above board all along until the Executive meddled with the appointment of judges and had their own favourites appointed as judges of high courts and the Supreme Court of India to get favourable judgements in cases of political nature. In the cases where the Constitutional Law was involved, it was important for the government of the day in New Delhi to see that the Judiciary did not upset the political applecart. Indira Gandhi was a trail blazer and the first one to have the Supreme Court judges superceded to get her own man selected as the chief justice of India. The downhill run started from there and no one could stop this roll down.
If judgements could be influenced by prime minister and other central ministers, then they could be bought by other litigants too. The big business houses and tycoons were not far behind in buying the judiciary unashamedly. Judges too had a free run in making money and asking litigants for favours of sorts like receiving an air conditioner or other accessories of computers or sleek laptops.In one case when the police raided the house of a businessman, it found a case file along with a draft judgement that the judge himself had given to the client in lieu of a small monetary gain.It goes without saying that the hon’ble high court judge had dictated the judgement that went in favour of the businessman-client from whose house the police had recovered all sorts of contraband goods and the case file of the high court concerned. Judiciary was put to shame.
The Chief Justice of an important high court had spent public money in buying presents and gifts for his daughter's wedding and was caught accepting financial favours from the rich clients. He was not only removed from the bench deciding judicial cases but was also subjected to impeachment proceedings in the Indian Parliament. It was a foolproof case against the sitting chief justice and he was sure to be impeached successfully.
Lo and behold! the Congress party in Parliament decided, under the leadership of late Rajiv Gandhi, to abstain from voting on the motion of impeachment. The motion fell as the requisite number of votes in favour of impeachment could not be cast owing to abstention of the Congress members.
Thus a dishonest judge saved himself from the first impeachment despite overwhelming and unassailable evidence against him. Corruption at a high level was condoned by those who were at the helm of affairs of the Indian National Congress leading to gross miscarriage of justice. The counsels, advocates, litigants and passers by – they all take interest in such cases of miscarriage of jusice and ask themselves whether they will get justice in their own pending cases in an atmosphere where corruption is rampant. Moreover, if the said chief justice of the high court was let off on a technical point because a political party chose to refrain from participating in the voting system, what would happen to corrupt judges of the higher judiciary in future.
Who will bell the cat, even if a bell has been procured? None, my lord, none.
Friday, April 29, 2011
IMPEACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE IN INDIA
•
chitranjan sawant
•
chitranjan sawant
AUM.
IMPEACHMENT IMPOSSIBLE IN INDIA
By Chitranjan Sawant
Chief Justice of India knows very well that BHRASHTACHAR or Corruption of the worst order is eating into the vitals of India,that is Bharat. The three pillars of democracy - legislature, executive and judiciary have failed to stop corrupt practices from one part or from all parts collectively or severally.
There are a number of checks and balances in the judiciary to see that corruption is kept at bay. In good old days there was no corruption in higher judiciary. Corruption had touched only the periphery of the lower judiciary, mostly the ministerial staff. The judges were, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. The judges were not only well paid but also had no inclination to come in contact with touts, munshis or other suspicious characters who indulged in this sort of dubious game. The judges did not accept bribe that could influence judicial decisions. By and large, honesty prevailed in the temple of justice.
GODDESS OF JUSTICE WENT BLIND
The goddess of justice has a piece of black cloth tied over her eyes so that she does not see either the plaintiff or the defendant or the witnesses and is, therefore, not influenced by any party to the litigation. She is not blind though and has clear cut legal perception. She lets justice be done and also seen to be done.
Unfortunately there was a sudden flood of recruitment of judicial officers and judicial magistrates when the Executive and Judiciary were separated as per the constitutional directives. The judicial officers were recruited on such a large scale that the quality of judgements and ethics could not but suffer. Corruption of all sorts made big inroads into the judiciary. Since all concerned gained notoriety for receiving their shares of the bribe, there was no one to entertain a complaint against corruption. Members of the judicial system were thick as thieves because they were all beneficiaries of the corrupt system as stated earlier.
IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGES
The higher judiciary had been above board all along until the Executive meddled with the appointment of judges and had their own favourites appointed as judges of high courts and the Supreme Court of India to get favourable judgements in cases of political nature. In the cases where the Constitutional Law was involved, it was important for the government of the day in New Delhi to see that the Judiciary did not upset the political applecart. Indira Gandhi was a trail blazer and the first one to have the Supreme Court judges superceded to get her own man selected as the chief justice of India. The downhill run started from there and no one could stop this roll down.
If judgements could be influenced by prime minister and other central ministers, then they could be bought by other litigants too. The big business houses and tycoons were not far behind in buying the judiciary unashamedly. Judges too had a free run in making money and asking litigants for favours of sorts like receiving an air conditioner or other accessories of computers or sleek laptops.In one case when the police raided the house of a businessman, it found a case file along with a draft judgement that the judge himself had given to the client in lieu of a small monetary gain.It goes without saying that the hon’ble high court judge had dictated the judgement that went in favour of the businessman-client from whose house the police had recovered all sorts of contraband goods and the case file of the high court concerned. Judiciary was put to shame.
The Chief Justice of an important high court had spent public money in buying presents and gifts for his daughter's wedding and was caught accepting financial favours from the rich clients. He was not only removed from the bench deciding judicial cases but was also subjected to impeachment proceedings in the Indian Parliament. It was a foolproof case against the sitting chief justice and he was sure to be impeached successfully.
Lo and behold! the Congress party in Parliament decided, under the leadership of late Rajiv Gandhi, to abstain from voting on the motion of impeachment. The motion fell as the requisite number of votes in favour of impeachment could not be cast owing to abstention of the Congress members.
Thus a dishonest judge saved himself from the first impeachment despite overwhelming and unassailable evidence against him. Corruption at a high level was condoned by those who were at the helm of affairs of the Indian National Congress leading to gross miscarriage of justice. The counsels, advocates, litigants and passers by – they all take interest in such cases of miscarriage of jusice and ask themselves whether they will get justice in their own pending cases in an atmosphere where corruption is rampant. Moreover, if the said chief justice of the high court was let off on a technical point because a political party chose to refrain from participating in the voting system, what would happen to corrupt judges of the higher judiciary in future.
Who will bell the cat, even if a bell has been procured? None, my lord, none.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
GURU IS DEAD ;LONG LIVE GURU
AUM.
GURU IS DEAD: LONG LIVE GURU
By Chitranjan Sawant
The mortal man from Puttaparthi became an international celebrity as one who possessed super-natural powers. Known to his large number of devotees as Sri Satya Sai Baba, the individual gained a reputation of one who possessed healing powers. The sick and wounded, the broken hearted men and women who had suffered at the hands of fellow men or were victims of natural calamities flocked to him in droves from all over. It was not for nothing. His ever present smile and a gentle pat on the back gave the required healing touch. The beneficiaries of his healing touch spread the word of his super-natural powers far and wide. His own sleigh of hand brought out a Rolex watch or a bhabhoot, puja ash, for the devotees who stood askance for days. The meek man from an interior Andhra village who had walked the dusty roads to park himself at Puttaparthy as a teenager was now the Miracle man.
His devotees treated him as BHAGWAN or as a God. The detractors say rubbish. If he could not live or die as per his wish, what kind of a godman was he? He was just a mortal man like anyone else.
NO MUNDANE FAMILY
THE BABA WAS LONESOME. HE HAD NO WOMAN THAT HE COULD CALL HIS WEDDED WIFE. Devotees would call a reference to the godman having had or not having had sex, a sacrelige. The question is quite pertinent, though. When he left his village in Andhra Pradesh as a teenager to have a look at the world at large, he was not known to have had a liaison with the opposite sex. The question of having same sex relationship just did not arise.
Thereafter he was drawn to a life of spiritualism and lifted his body and soul to a higher plane where sex became meaningless. As he gained higher position as a Guru, his life was an open book. The devotees could read any page. All pages reflected a clean and healthy life befitting a Guru who had gained eminence.
Notwithstanding his higher status in spiritualism and a large following of devotees all over the world, Shri Satya Sai Baba was as forlorn as ever and had no personal experience of what the birds and bees did. Indeed it goes to his credit that he remained above board till he breathed his last.
PHILANTHROPIST WAS HE
Sai baba did for the common man what the government of the state or at the centre could never dream of. Building super-speciality hospitals, providing perennial sources of drinking water, feeding the poor and needy and providing higher education to the neglected sections of the human society was always on the top of his agenda. Sai baba's plans were not on paper only but took off the drawing board stage and were executed on the ground. Sai Baba himself died in a super-speciality hospital that was built for free treatment of the poor. There was no discrimination whatsoever in registering medical or surgical or any type of cases and providing absolutely free diagnosis, medical or surgical treatment. No wonder, the common man called him God who had taken an avatar to serve the poor and the needy.
I shall not be naive to say that the life of Sai Baba was free from blemish. In the initial days of ascendancy on the ladder of becoming a godman, he would make objects like Rolex watches, jewellery, Bhabhoot or puja ash materialise out of nowhere. His detractors called it just a sleigh of hand like that of many magicians .Another criticism levied at the Baba's door was that he presented the Rolex watches to foreigners and bhabhoot to the poor Indians. It may be said in his defence that he could not have presented more Rolex watches than the company produced in Switzerland. One may safely say that Sai Baba was generous to a fault and just gave away to the poor what he could lay his hands on at the given time.
Puttaparthy, the small dusty place that he chose to live in and grant Darshan to devotees became a tourist resort in due course of time. It was duly beautified and made green. The cricket ground, the hospital, the educational institutions, the shopping centre were a class apart. These compared favourably with similar places in developed societies in the western world.
The devotees who hailed from developed countries were given more comfort than the devotees who hailed from the developing countries. The devotees did make mild complaints against this discrimination but the devotion displayed by them drowned complaints of this nature.
The teenager who came barefooted and empty handed rose to the highest rung of the spiritual ladder and became a god man. Now he is gone forever. Millions of men and women who became a part of his following are now forlorn. People from all walks of life are now on their way to Puttaparthy to attend the funeral and grieve for the Guru. His physical presence will be missed by the devotees but his spiritual ideas will continue to inspire the meek and the broken hearted and encourage them to rise again to fulfil the role assigned by Param Pita Parmatma. As the mortal remains of Satya Shri Sai Baba are consigned to the care of Mother Earth, we raise our hats, bow our heads in a reverent salute to the Miracle Man who was loved and respected by millions of men.
Mobile-9811173590.
GURU IS DEAD: LONG LIVE GURU
By Chitranjan Sawant
The mortal man from Puttaparthi became an international celebrity as one who possessed super-natural powers. Known to his large number of devotees as Sri Satya Sai Baba, the individual gained a reputation of one who possessed healing powers. The sick and wounded, the broken hearted men and women who had suffered at the hands of fellow men or were victims of natural calamities flocked to him in droves from all over. It was not for nothing. His ever present smile and a gentle pat on the back gave the required healing touch. The beneficiaries of his healing touch spread the word of his super-natural powers far and wide. His own sleigh of hand brought out a Rolex watch or a bhabhoot, puja ash, for the devotees who stood askance for days. The meek man from an interior Andhra village who had walked the dusty roads to park himself at Puttaparthy as a teenager was now the Miracle man.
His devotees treated him as BHAGWAN or as a God. The detractors say rubbish. If he could not live or die as per his wish, what kind of a godman was he? He was just a mortal man like anyone else.
NO MUNDANE FAMILY
THE BABA WAS LONESOME. HE HAD NO WOMAN THAT HE COULD CALL HIS WEDDED WIFE. Devotees would call a reference to the godman having had or not having had sex, a sacrelige. The question is quite pertinent, though. When he left his village in Andhra Pradesh as a teenager to have a look at the world at large, he was not known to have had a liaison with the opposite sex. The question of having same sex relationship just did not arise.
Thereafter he was drawn to a life of spiritualism and lifted his body and soul to a higher plane where sex became meaningless. As he gained higher position as a Guru, his life was an open book. The devotees could read any page. All pages reflected a clean and healthy life befitting a Guru who had gained eminence.
Notwithstanding his higher status in spiritualism and a large following of devotees all over the world, Shri Satya Sai Baba was as forlorn as ever and had no personal experience of what the birds and bees did. Indeed it goes to his credit that he remained above board till he breathed his last.
PHILANTHROPIST WAS HE
Sai baba did for the common man what the government of the state or at the centre could never dream of. Building super-speciality hospitals, providing perennial sources of drinking water, feeding the poor and needy and providing higher education to the neglected sections of the human society was always on the top of his agenda. Sai baba's plans were not on paper only but took off the drawing board stage and were executed on the ground. Sai Baba himself died in a super-speciality hospital that was built for free treatment of the poor. There was no discrimination whatsoever in registering medical or surgical or any type of cases and providing absolutely free diagnosis, medical or surgical treatment. No wonder, the common man called him God who had taken an avatar to serve the poor and the needy.
I shall not be naive to say that the life of Sai Baba was free from blemish. In the initial days of ascendancy on the ladder of becoming a godman, he would make objects like Rolex watches, jewellery, Bhabhoot or puja ash materialise out of nowhere. His detractors called it just a sleigh of hand like that of many magicians .Another criticism levied at the Baba's door was that he presented the Rolex watches to foreigners and bhabhoot to the poor Indians. It may be said in his defence that he could not have presented more Rolex watches than the company produced in Switzerland. One may safely say that Sai Baba was generous to a fault and just gave away to the poor what he could lay his hands on at the given time.
Puttaparthy, the small dusty place that he chose to live in and grant Darshan to devotees became a tourist resort in due course of time. It was duly beautified and made green. The cricket ground, the hospital, the educational institutions, the shopping centre were a class apart. These compared favourably with similar places in developed societies in the western world.
The devotees who hailed from developed countries were given more comfort than the devotees who hailed from the developing countries. The devotees did make mild complaints against this discrimination but the devotion displayed by them drowned complaints of this nature.
The teenager who came barefooted and empty handed rose to the highest rung of the spiritual ladder and became a god man. Now he is gone forever. Millions of men and women who became a part of his following are now forlorn. People from all walks of life are now on their way to Puttaparthy to attend the funeral and grieve for the Guru. His physical presence will be missed by the devotees but his spiritual ideas will continue to inspire the meek and the broken hearted and encourage them to rise again to fulfil the role assigned by Param Pita Parmatma. As the mortal remains of Satya Shri Sai Baba are consigned to the care of Mother Earth, we raise our hats, bow our heads in a reverent salute to the Miracle Man who was loved and respected by millions of men.
Mobile-9811173590.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
mother earth and human children need Harmony
AUM
MOTHER EARTH AND HUMAN CHILDREN NEED HARMONY
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
We celebrated the Earth Day today by planting additional trees in vacant spaces around our residential areas. Awareness about the planet Earth was created. Men, women and school going children, who happened to be at home because Jesus was crucified this day a little over two millennia ago, and they were enjoying this one-day holiday. This happened to be the Earth Day today, 22 April.
HYMN TO HUMMING
The Atharva Ved has a hymn – BHOOMI MATA PUTRO AHAM PRITHAVYAH –and it means that the planet Earth is our Mother and we the human beings are mother earth’s children. It is the mother who looks after her children for the first few months for feeding, cleaning and protection from hostile elements, and when the children grow up, they look after the ageing mother. Of course, what the Mother Earth is worried about is the continual digging, overdrawing of sub-soil water, building too many bunds over rivers, deforestation on a large scale, illegal mining, hunting of rare species of animals in deep forests and above all nuclear tests by atomic scientists that destroys both flora and fauna.
The hill tribesmen and women and those inhabiting deep forests hymn tunes about their being a part of pristine Nature and their humming and singing is so natural. So is group dancing. It is learnt that the content of folk songs and rhythmic style of dancing where movements are executed so effortlessly entitle the males to have female partners of their choice. The human habitat in the jungle is in tune with the pristine music emanating from rustling of leaves, murmur of rivulet waters, chirping of birds and, of course, roar of tigers in the vicinity. The humans are in harmony with the Nature – be it animals or the rare home-grown vegetables. The front or backyard of the ghotals serve as small plots for vegetable farming. There all bachelors of the tribe do community live and discuss merits or demerits of nubile girls of the said tribe. Life ambles along with perfect peace and mother Earth has no problems to solve.
PROBLEMS GALORE
Human beings take pride in being a part of a civilised society. When being civilised means shunning violence or not causing pain and or inflicting misery on a fellow human being or even on animals or birds and bees, it is fine from all angles. However, when human civilisation means denuding the earth surface of rich forest cover, mining in mountains or carrying out nuclear tests under water in oceans, then problems come up like hydra-headed monsters poised to swallow Man and his creations. This situation beggars solutions and over shadows all worldly achievements of human beings.
Earthquake, Tsunami, deluge or drought, world wars and nuclear accidents are phases of our march to human destruction. Is the human race possessed by a Death-Wish and is voluntarily moving forward on the road of self-destruction. Mankind lived a simple life until World War I when science made a tremendous progress in inventing new and effective weapons that could kill a large number of people in one go. Of course, the concept of nuclear weapons was not known till then but new ways of destruction of the enemy forces in biological and chemical warfare was a distinct possibility. The German scientists had worked on such weapons of mass destruction successfully. On termination of the Second World War, it was a vanquished Germany that had eminent scientists who were taken to America and motivated to design and develop atom bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were the worst sufferers of this new atomic warfare. Anyway, the civilised society of human beings had made progress that spelt disaster for fellow human beings in other parts of the globe. Was this the progress that the humans were looking for?
Certainly not. This progress in science meant death and destruction that no one wished for.
The UNO or United Nations Organisation was formed on cessation of hostilities in 1945. The grand idea of this high profile international organisation was to eschew violence in solving mutual problems cropping up among independent nations due to clash of political or economic or cultural interests. It is true that UNO has been able to avert global wars of the magnitude of world wars but it is equally true that the United Nations failed to eliminate shooting wars completely.
The world body has come up with numerous agreements to save the natural wealth of the world that all human beings could share in future. If the natural wealth of Mother Earth has been of little use to the present generation, it should still be saved, protected and preserved for our children and children’s children. If a vast majority of human beings start taking interest in preserving and protecting the natural wealth of Planet Earth, the wanton destruction of hills and dales, forests and agricultural lands, water resources and oil reserves will be stopped and may be abandoned. Thus the natural wealth placed by God in the hands of humans for the welfare of Mankind will be preserved and used judiciously. Indeed that will be some sort of victory of a civilised society over the barbarian instinct of causing death and destruction. It is the saner element among mankind who is convinced that wars do not solve problems of human beings but only aggravate them. So, why not sit around a table and talk out the knotty problem. No one will vote for a war. Everyone will vote for Peace. The United Nations Organisation is precisely meant for that.
SECURITY FOR PROSPERITY
Notwithstanding the existence of UNO, member nations possess and maintain large standing armies to defend their country. Of course, UNO will prevent a local skirmish from developing into a war but a nation needs its own defence forces to ward off the initial onslaught of the invading nation. Wars cause a lot of death and destruction as well as damage to Mother Earth. The warring nations may be urged by the world peace outfit to save mother Earth from damage beyond repairs. After all, all of us have to have our habitat on Earth till we colonise Moon and have more elbow room for all human beings.
Security means making of modern weapon system and that means establishing factories that cause pollution and destruction of natural resources. A sense of security brings in prosperity of material wealth but it also means loss of morality and lapse of honesty in dealing with fellow human beings. Therefore, it is for leaders of the civil society to strike a happy balance and see that man makes material progress for prosperity without debasing loftiness of human nature. Above all, Man must continue to entertain the lofty ideal of having harmony between Mother Earth and her children who are all human beings.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, Noida – 201303. Mobile : 9811173590.
Email : upvanom@yahoo.com and sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
MOTHER EARTH AND HUMAN CHILDREN NEED HARMONY
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
We celebrated the Earth Day today by planting additional trees in vacant spaces around our residential areas. Awareness about the planet Earth was created. Men, women and school going children, who happened to be at home because Jesus was crucified this day a little over two millennia ago, and they were enjoying this one-day holiday. This happened to be the Earth Day today, 22 April.
HYMN TO HUMMING
The Atharva Ved has a hymn – BHOOMI MATA PUTRO AHAM PRITHAVYAH –and it means that the planet Earth is our Mother and we the human beings are mother earth’s children. It is the mother who looks after her children for the first few months for feeding, cleaning and protection from hostile elements, and when the children grow up, they look after the ageing mother. Of course, what the Mother Earth is worried about is the continual digging, overdrawing of sub-soil water, building too many bunds over rivers, deforestation on a large scale, illegal mining, hunting of rare species of animals in deep forests and above all nuclear tests by atomic scientists that destroys both flora and fauna.
The hill tribesmen and women and those inhabiting deep forests hymn tunes about their being a part of pristine Nature and their humming and singing is so natural. So is group dancing. It is learnt that the content of folk songs and rhythmic style of dancing where movements are executed so effortlessly entitle the males to have female partners of their choice. The human habitat in the jungle is in tune with the pristine music emanating from rustling of leaves, murmur of rivulet waters, chirping of birds and, of course, roar of tigers in the vicinity. The humans are in harmony with the Nature – be it animals or the rare home-grown vegetables. The front or backyard of the ghotals serve as small plots for vegetable farming. There all bachelors of the tribe do community live and discuss merits or demerits of nubile girls of the said tribe. Life ambles along with perfect peace and mother Earth has no problems to solve.
PROBLEMS GALORE
Human beings take pride in being a part of a civilised society. When being civilised means shunning violence or not causing pain and or inflicting misery on a fellow human being or even on animals or birds and bees, it is fine from all angles. However, when human civilisation means denuding the earth surface of rich forest cover, mining in mountains or carrying out nuclear tests under water in oceans, then problems come up like hydra-headed monsters poised to swallow Man and his creations. This situation beggars solutions and over shadows all worldly achievements of human beings.
Earthquake, Tsunami, deluge or drought, world wars and nuclear accidents are phases of our march to human destruction. Is the human race possessed by a Death-Wish and is voluntarily moving forward on the road of self-destruction. Mankind lived a simple life until World War I when science made a tremendous progress in inventing new and effective weapons that could kill a large number of people in one go. Of course, the concept of nuclear weapons was not known till then but new ways of destruction of the enemy forces in biological and chemical warfare was a distinct possibility. The German scientists had worked on such weapons of mass destruction successfully. On termination of the Second World War, it was a vanquished Germany that had eminent scientists who were taken to America and motivated to design and develop atom bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were the worst sufferers of this new atomic warfare. Anyway, the civilised society of human beings had made progress that spelt disaster for fellow human beings in other parts of the globe. Was this the progress that the humans were looking for?
Certainly not. This progress in science meant death and destruction that no one wished for.
The UNO or United Nations Organisation was formed on cessation of hostilities in 1945. The grand idea of this high profile international organisation was to eschew violence in solving mutual problems cropping up among independent nations due to clash of political or economic or cultural interests. It is true that UNO has been able to avert global wars of the magnitude of world wars but it is equally true that the United Nations failed to eliminate shooting wars completely.
The world body has come up with numerous agreements to save the natural wealth of the world that all human beings could share in future. If the natural wealth of Mother Earth has been of little use to the present generation, it should still be saved, protected and preserved for our children and children’s children. If a vast majority of human beings start taking interest in preserving and protecting the natural wealth of Planet Earth, the wanton destruction of hills and dales, forests and agricultural lands, water resources and oil reserves will be stopped and may be abandoned. Thus the natural wealth placed by God in the hands of humans for the welfare of Mankind will be preserved and used judiciously. Indeed that will be some sort of victory of a civilised society over the barbarian instinct of causing death and destruction. It is the saner element among mankind who is convinced that wars do not solve problems of human beings but only aggravate them. So, why not sit around a table and talk out the knotty problem. No one will vote for a war. Everyone will vote for Peace. The United Nations Organisation is precisely meant for that.
SECURITY FOR PROSPERITY
Notwithstanding the existence of UNO, member nations possess and maintain large standing armies to defend their country. Of course, UNO will prevent a local skirmish from developing into a war but a nation needs its own defence forces to ward off the initial onslaught of the invading nation. Wars cause a lot of death and destruction as well as damage to Mother Earth. The warring nations may be urged by the world peace outfit to save mother Earth from damage beyond repairs. After all, all of us have to have our habitat on Earth till we colonise Moon and have more elbow room for all human beings.
Security means making of modern weapon system and that means establishing factories that cause pollution and destruction of natural resources. A sense of security brings in prosperity of material wealth but it also means loss of morality and lapse of honesty in dealing with fellow human beings. Therefore, it is for leaders of the civil society to strike a happy balance and see that man makes material progress for prosperity without debasing loftiness of human nature. Above all, Man must continue to entertain the lofty ideal of having harmony between Mother Earth and her children who are all human beings.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, Noida – 201303. Mobile : 9811173590.
Email : upvanom@yahoo.com and sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
Monday, March 21, 2011
European Misappropriation of Sanskrit led to the Aryan Race Theory
AUM.
ARYANS AND SANSKRIT ARE INTER-RELA
By Chitranjan Sawant
While congratula
I shall not blame the Europeans but appreciate their love of learning an ancient language, Sanskrit and a new script named Devnagari. Indeed it was the script that had attracted Max Mueller to learning Sanskrit in initial stages and then,of course, he blossomed into an Indologist of repute. The very fact that Sanskrit still attracts so many men and women from different vocations in life is a proof in itself that question-a
I appreciate the way writer of this article, Rajiv Malhotra has made the current article readable. His selection of simple words and their arrangemen
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
ARYANS AND SANSKRIT ARE INTER-RELA
By Chitranjan Sawant
While congratula
I shall not blame the Europeans but appreciate their love of learning an ancient language, Sanskrit and a new script named Devnagari. Indeed it was the script that had attracted Max Mueller to learning Sanskrit in initial stages and then,of course, he blossomed into an Indologist of repute. The very fact that Sanskrit still attracts so many men and women from different vocations in life is a proof in itself that question-a
I appreciate the way writer of this article, Rajiv Malhotra has made the current article readable. His selection of simple words and their arrangemen
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Sunday, October 31, 2010
PATHIK FROM PESHAWAR
PATHIK FROM PESHAWAR COURTED MARTYRDOM
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
The Vedic world knows him as Pundit Lekh Ram, Arya Musafir. Once he made up his mind that the Vedic Dharm was the first and the last word to guide human behaviour from A to Z, there was no going back on it. He was a man of determination and possessed perseverance. Once the goal was set, he left no stone unturned to reach there. He was a clear headed man who knew how to determine what the aim was and once the aim was set, maintenance of aim was no problem to him. There was no deviation from the aim and it had to be achieved, come what may. Of course, he had to tread on the toes of others but he did not mind it. If others did, he would say – I don’t care. Pt Lekh Ram had a many-faceted personality but the overriding element was principles, precepts and preaching of the Vedas based Dharma as propounded by Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the great religious and social reformer of the 19th century India.
DEVELOPMENT OF LEKH RAM : MAN AND MISSION
Born in 1858 in Saidpur in district Jhelum, now in Pakistan, he inherited knowledge of languages and the unparalleled spirit of “Giving” and not Grabbing from the soil and tradition of the village. Just to quote one example, Lala Dewan Chand, the great Arya philanthropist and martyred freedom fighter, Khushiram Ji were also born and brought up in Saidpur. Pt Lekh ram was initially named as Lekh Raj but later in his writings he preferred the name Lekh Ram.
Pt Lekh Ram had had a taste of various sects of Hinduism and teachings of Guru Nanak Dev until he found his moorings in the teachings of the Vedic Dharm after he have had a number of meetings with Swami Dayanand Saraswati at Ajmer on 17 May 1881. Under a false notion, Lekh Ram Ji used to consider himself as Brahm but after a meaningful exchange of views with Swami Dayanand Saraswati, he became a votary of the Vedic Trinity. Now he knew that he was a Jeevatma and Parmatma as well as prakriti were separate and different entities.
This meeting between Rishivar and Punditji was of great significance to the Arya Samaj. The Arya Samaj got a committed writer of Life of Dayanand Saraswati, his life and thought based on interviews with people who had met the great reformer. Pundit Lekh Ram had started his mission of collection of authentic material to write the biography of Rishivar on 11 December 1888, five years after the Rishi’s untimely and sad demise. Pt Lekh Ram took great care that fact and fiction did not intermingle and finally gave the Arya Samaj a biography of its founder that is par excellence. It was a biography based on interviews recorded at the spot where events had taken place. Obviously, Pt Lekh Ram travelled a lot all over the place where Swami Dayanand had gone, lectured, written his memorable treatises and faced worldly problems generated by jealousy, superstitions and miscalculations.
In the scheme of collection of facts and holding interviews, Pt Lekh Ram did not ignore his mission of teaching and preaching tenets of the Vedic Dharm. He did a fine balancing act between writing of biography and delivering of Vedic sermons. The latter was done at his own cost lest the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Lahore took it as an infringement of its financial guidelines. Pandit Ji chose to forego the Dakshina for the period he was not collecting facts for the biography and delivering sermons instead.
Another facet of Pandit Ji’s personality emerged during these extensive travels. He became a consummate writer of Travelogues in the Urdu language, possibly the first one. The essays on travel were published under the caption “Safarnama”. Sadly, not much has survived of that unique piece of literature. Here I am reminded of Lord Francis Bacon, the famous essayist of the English language, who wrote a line “Travel makes a man perfect”, and this perfection could be discerned in the travels and writings of Pt Lekh Ram.
Pt Lekh Ram had a close relationship with Peshawar, the capital city of the North-Western Frontier Province NWFP). He was posted there as a sergeant in the Police Dept but did not let his profession interfere with his Vedic Dharm. When things came to a pass, he preferred to resign from the government service rather than let the profession have better of him. As an Arya Samajist he did not let low cast men be looked down upon. Once when he was posted in a police station where the Station House Officer was a Muslim Pathan and an orderly was a Mazahabi Sikh (of low caste), he made it a point to shake hands with him to obliterate casteism. This used to happen much to the chagrin of the Thanedar Saheb who was a great believer in his high caste. Pandit Ji used to do Namaste to others as he believed in the Aryan way of greetings. However, soon the dept and the Vedic missionary parted ways when he hung up his police uniform for good. It may, however, be mentioned that while in the police service he published and edited a weekly named, Dharmopadesh. Later he was the editor of Arya Gazette that carved a niche in the world of journalism. While collecting material for Swami Ji’s biography, he published a timely weekly called Arya Vijay.
Pt Lekh Ram was always available to the new generation for advice and guidance. ‘TEHRIR AND TAQREER’, THAT IS WRITING AND DELIVERING SERMONS MUST NEVER CEASE – that was his counselling to all Arya Samajists. Indeed writing new articles or books meant an intensive study of the subject and thus the preachers who deliver the sermon will be knowledgeable. It should be an ongoing process in this Arya Samaj movement so that the mission of Swami Dayanand Saraswati touches new heights day after day.
Pt Lekh Ram Ji used to do self study and also some writing whenever he got time off the work as a Vedic missionary. One late evening as he was busy writing, oil in the lamp was exhausted. Shops were closed. So he walked along the railway line to the Kothi of Mahatma Munshi Ram as enough light was available in his Dewankhana. Thus he achieved the intended target of writing for that evening. Man with a mission knew how to achieve the aim surmounting problems, both major and minor.
Pt Lekh Ram was the moving spirit behind the Arya Samaj, Peshawar, now in Pakistan. He collected funds to have an impressive building erected as the epicentre of the Ved prachar activities. The impressive Arya Samaj bhawan had a pride of place among religious institutions of Peshawar.
The city of Pathans, both Hindus and Muslims, had influenced the dress code of Pundit Lekh Ram. He would wear a tight pyjama, a shirt, a waist coat and a turban tied in the typical frontier style. While talking of dress code, I must make a mention of an incident in Jullundur. Pt Lekh Ram was staying with Mahatma Munshi Ram and the latter had started wearing a Dhoti by then as a pracharak. One day Pt Lekh Ram told him “Lalaji, you are an energetic man and a tireless worker of the Arya Samaj. It is a loose-fitting wear of the slovenly easterners and does not befit us”. Mahatma Munshi Ram just laughed it away. The writer of these lines is fond of tying a Dhoti as a pracharak, be it a visit to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, a travel to Tibet or addressing a gathering of cadets. My Indian dress earned me a new name, “Dhoti Wale Brigadier Saheb”. I am with Mahatma Munshi Ram on this point and not with Pundit lekh Ram. No disrespect meant to him; I revere him.
Pt Lekh Ram was always there where he was needed most. Whenever he heard that a Hindu or a group of Hindus were about to convert to Islam or Christianity, he would rush to that spot to convince them not to cross over. More often than not he was successful in his mission. It is said that once he was going on a similar mission to a mofussil town but entrained in an express train that did not stop there, so Punditji just leaped out of the train as it slowed a little at the platform. Although he was hurt but he reached his destination on time and his mission of retaining a group of Hindus in the family fold was a great success. The veracity of this story stands confirmed by independent sources of the time.
CLASH WITH QADIANIS
A major part of Pt Lekh Ram’s time and energy was spent in countering the Ahmedias and their Head, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani, who were always out to attack the Hindus in general and the Arya Samajists in particular. In retrospect one may say that the Ahmedias who clashed with the Hindus on behalf of the Muslims, were not considered to be true Muslims. In Pakistan the Ahmediyas are listed as non-Muslims. What a shame for the Mirza, who deputed a man to assassinate Pt lekh Ram, to be called a non-Muslim. The Ahmedias are hounded out by Sunnis all over the place. And it was one of them who lived with Pt Lekh Ram and dined with him expressing a wish to be converted a Vedic Dharmi. The drama was staged by that wretched fellow for a few days and one night he surreptitiously plunged his long knife into his abdomen. Pt Lekh Ram became a martyr in the cause of the Vedic Dharm on 6 March1897 at a young age of 39 years. The Mirza unashamedly owned having plotted this heinous crime of murder in cold blood.
Lahore was shocked. The Hindus and Sikha mourned Pt Lekh Ram’s assassination in thousands. The Arya Samajists of all shades displayed a rare sense of unity at the cremation ground in Lahore. Lakshmi Devi Ji, the widow of Pt lekh Ram who had the bliss of marital life for just four years, took a pledge to continue working for the cause that her husband had died for. She donated the entire money of his life insurance to the cause of the Vedic Dharm. She made this sacrifice notwithstanding the advice of many well wishers like Mahatma Munshi Ram to save some money for a rainy day. She was so inspired by the martyrdom and Vedic ideals of her late husband that she wished to donate every paisa that she had and did so. Later, at one of the convocation ceremonies of the Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar , venerable Lakshmi Devi Ji donated all her gold and jewellery for the flagship of the Vedic Shiksha. Her sacrifice and the martyrdom of her husband bore fruits in various activities of the Arya Samaj and the Gurukul. Of the money donated by her, a Foundation for education of brilliant but poor students was established. We are proud to narrate that the first beneficiary of this munificence was a young boy from Saharanpur who was transformed into an illustrious Vedic scholar. The world knows him as Pt Budh Dev Ji Vedalankar, later known as Swami Samarpananand Ji.
Swami Shraddhanand Ji, among others, had paid glowing tribute to the martyred Pt Lekh Ram thus: He was a DHARMVIR AND A KARMVIR. Indeed a fearless fighter for the cause of the Vedic Dharm. He was a true believer in Param Pita Parmatma and the Lord loved him.
Pundit Lekh Ram is a torch bearer removing darkness for others. His martyrdom inspired other Aryas to follow into his footsteps. Swami Shraddhanand, Mahashay Rajpal and many others of the Hyderabad satyagrah attained martyrdom for the cause of the Vedic Dharm. Indeed they walked fearlessly on the path of martyrdom for the Vedic Dharm paved by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati himself.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, Noida – 201303. INDIA. Mobile : 0091-9811173590.
Email : upvanom@yahoo.com sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
The Vedic world knows him as Pundit Lekh Ram, Arya Musafir. Once he made up his mind that the Vedic Dharm was the first and the last word to guide human behaviour from A to Z, there was no going back on it. He was a man of determination and possessed perseverance. Once the goal was set, he left no stone unturned to reach there. He was a clear headed man who knew how to determine what the aim was and once the aim was set, maintenance of aim was no problem to him. There was no deviation from the aim and it had to be achieved, come what may. Of course, he had to tread on the toes of others but he did not mind it. If others did, he would say – I don’t care. Pt Lekh Ram had a many-faceted personality but the overriding element was principles, precepts and preaching of the Vedas based Dharma as propounded by Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the great religious and social reformer of the 19th century India.
DEVELOPMENT OF LEKH RAM : MAN AND MISSION
Born in 1858 in Saidpur in district Jhelum, now in Pakistan, he inherited knowledge of languages and the unparalleled spirit of “Giving” and not Grabbing from the soil and tradition of the village. Just to quote one example, Lala Dewan Chand, the great Arya philanthropist and martyred freedom fighter, Khushiram Ji were also born and brought up in Saidpur. Pt Lekh ram was initially named as Lekh Raj but later in his writings he preferred the name Lekh Ram.
Pt Lekh Ram had had a taste of various sects of Hinduism and teachings of Guru Nanak Dev until he found his moorings in the teachings of the Vedic Dharm after he have had a number of meetings with Swami Dayanand Saraswati at Ajmer on 17 May 1881. Under a false notion, Lekh Ram Ji used to consider himself as Brahm but after a meaningful exchange of views with Swami Dayanand Saraswati, he became a votary of the Vedic Trinity. Now he knew that he was a Jeevatma and Parmatma as well as prakriti were separate and different entities.
This meeting between Rishivar and Punditji was of great significance to the Arya Samaj. The Arya Samaj got a committed writer of Life of Dayanand Saraswati, his life and thought based on interviews with people who had met the great reformer. Pundit Lekh Ram had started his mission of collection of authentic material to write the biography of Rishivar on 11 December 1888, five years after the Rishi’s untimely and sad demise. Pt Lekh Ram took great care that fact and fiction did not intermingle and finally gave the Arya Samaj a biography of its founder that is par excellence. It was a biography based on interviews recorded at the spot where events had taken place. Obviously, Pt Lekh Ram travelled a lot all over the place where Swami Dayanand had gone, lectured, written his memorable treatises and faced worldly problems generated by jealousy, superstitions and miscalculations.
In the scheme of collection of facts and holding interviews, Pt Lekh Ram did not ignore his mission of teaching and preaching tenets of the Vedic Dharm. He did a fine balancing act between writing of biography and delivering of Vedic sermons. The latter was done at his own cost lest the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Lahore took it as an infringement of its financial guidelines. Pandit Ji chose to forego the Dakshina for the period he was not collecting facts for the biography and delivering sermons instead.
Another facet of Pandit Ji’s personality emerged during these extensive travels. He became a consummate writer of Travelogues in the Urdu language, possibly the first one. The essays on travel were published under the caption “Safarnama”. Sadly, not much has survived of that unique piece of literature. Here I am reminded of Lord Francis Bacon, the famous essayist of the English language, who wrote a line “Travel makes a man perfect”, and this perfection could be discerned in the travels and writings of Pt Lekh Ram.
Pt Lekh Ram had a close relationship with Peshawar, the capital city of the North-Western Frontier Province NWFP). He was posted there as a sergeant in the Police Dept but did not let his profession interfere with his Vedic Dharm. When things came to a pass, he preferred to resign from the government service rather than let the profession have better of him. As an Arya Samajist he did not let low cast men be looked down upon. Once when he was posted in a police station where the Station House Officer was a Muslim Pathan and an orderly was a Mazahabi Sikh (of low caste), he made it a point to shake hands with him to obliterate casteism. This used to happen much to the chagrin of the Thanedar Saheb who was a great believer in his high caste. Pandit Ji used to do Namaste to others as he believed in the Aryan way of greetings. However, soon the dept and the Vedic missionary parted ways when he hung up his police uniform for good. It may, however, be mentioned that while in the police service he published and edited a weekly named, Dharmopadesh. Later he was the editor of Arya Gazette that carved a niche in the world of journalism. While collecting material for Swami Ji’s biography, he published a timely weekly called Arya Vijay.
Pt Lekh Ram was always available to the new generation for advice and guidance. ‘TEHRIR AND TAQREER’, THAT IS WRITING AND DELIVERING SERMONS MUST NEVER CEASE – that was his counselling to all Arya Samajists. Indeed writing new articles or books meant an intensive study of the subject and thus the preachers who deliver the sermon will be knowledgeable. It should be an ongoing process in this Arya Samaj movement so that the mission of Swami Dayanand Saraswati touches new heights day after day.
Pt Lekh Ram Ji used to do self study and also some writing whenever he got time off the work as a Vedic missionary. One late evening as he was busy writing, oil in the lamp was exhausted. Shops were closed. So he walked along the railway line to the Kothi of Mahatma Munshi Ram as enough light was available in his Dewankhana. Thus he achieved the intended target of writing for that evening. Man with a mission knew how to achieve the aim surmounting problems, both major and minor.
Pt Lekh Ram was the moving spirit behind the Arya Samaj, Peshawar, now in Pakistan. He collected funds to have an impressive building erected as the epicentre of the Ved prachar activities. The impressive Arya Samaj bhawan had a pride of place among religious institutions of Peshawar.
The city of Pathans, both Hindus and Muslims, had influenced the dress code of Pundit Lekh Ram. He would wear a tight pyjama, a shirt, a waist coat and a turban tied in the typical frontier style. While talking of dress code, I must make a mention of an incident in Jullundur. Pt Lekh Ram was staying with Mahatma Munshi Ram and the latter had started wearing a Dhoti by then as a pracharak. One day Pt Lekh Ram told him “Lalaji, you are an energetic man and a tireless worker of the Arya Samaj. It is a loose-fitting wear of the slovenly easterners and does not befit us”. Mahatma Munshi Ram just laughed it away. The writer of these lines is fond of tying a Dhoti as a pracharak, be it a visit to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, a travel to Tibet or addressing a gathering of cadets. My Indian dress earned me a new name, “Dhoti Wale Brigadier Saheb”. I am with Mahatma Munshi Ram on this point and not with Pundit lekh Ram. No disrespect meant to him; I revere him.
Pt Lekh Ram was always there where he was needed most. Whenever he heard that a Hindu or a group of Hindus were about to convert to Islam or Christianity, he would rush to that spot to convince them not to cross over. More often than not he was successful in his mission. It is said that once he was going on a similar mission to a mofussil town but entrained in an express train that did not stop there, so Punditji just leaped out of the train as it slowed a little at the platform. Although he was hurt but he reached his destination on time and his mission of retaining a group of Hindus in the family fold was a great success. The veracity of this story stands confirmed by independent sources of the time.
CLASH WITH QADIANIS
A major part of Pt Lekh Ram’s time and energy was spent in countering the Ahmedias and their Head, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani, who were always out to attack the Hindus in general and the Arya Samajists in particular. In retrospect one may say that the Ahmedias who clashed with the Hindus on behalf of the Muslims, were not considered to be true Muslims. In Pakistan the Ahmediyas are listed as non-Muslims. What a shame for the Mirza, who deputed a man to assassinate Pt lekh Ram, to be called a non-Muslim. The Ahmedias are hounded out by Sunnis all over the place. And it was one of them who lived with Pt Lekh Ram and dined with him expressing a wish to be converted a Vedic Dharmi. The drama was staged by that wretched fellow for a few days and one night he surreptitiously plunged his long knife into his abdomen. Pt Lekh Ram became a martyr in the cause of the Vedic Dharm on 6 March1897 at a young age of 39 years. The Mirza unashamedly owned having plotted this heinous crime of murder in cold blood.
Lahore was shocked. The Hindus and Sikha mourned Pt Lekh Ram’s assassination in thousands. The Arya Samajists of all shades displayed a rare sense of unity at the cremation ground in Lahore. Lakshmi Devi Ji, the widow of Pt lekh Ram who had the bliss of marital life for just four years, took a pledge to continue working for the cause that her husband had died for. She donated the entire money of his life insurance to the cause of the Vedic Dharm. She made this sacrifice notwithstanding the advice of many well wishers like Mahatma Munshi Ram to save some money for a rainy day. She was so inspired by the martyrdom and Vedic ideals of her late husband that she wished to donate every paisa that she had and did so. Later, at one of the convocation ceremonies of the Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar , venerable Lakshmi Devi Ji donated all her gold and jewellery for the flagship of the Vedic Shiksha. Her sacrifice and the martyrdom of her husband bore fruits in various activities of the Arya Samaj and the Gurukul. Of the money donated by her, a Foundation for education of brilliant but poor students was established. We are proud to narrate that the first beneficiary of this munificence was a young boy from Saharanpur who was transformed into an illustrious Vedic scholar. The world knows him as Pt Budh Dev Ji Vedalankar, later known as Swami Samarpananand Ji.
Swami Shraddhanand Ji, among others, had paid glowing tribute to the martyred Pt Lekh Ram thus: He was a DHARMVIR AND A KARMVIR. Indeed a fearless fighter for the cause of the Vedic Dharm. He was a true believer in Param Pita Parmatma and the Lord loved him.
Pundit Lekh Ram is a torch bearer removing darkness for others. His martyrdom inspired other Aryas to follow into his footsteps. Swami Shraddhanand, Mahashay Rajpal and many others of the Hyderabad satyagrah attained martyrdom for the cause of the Vedic Dharm. Indeed they walked fearlessly on the path of martyrdom for the Vedic Dharm paved by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati himself.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, Noida – 201303. INDIA. Mobile : 0091-9811173590.
Email : upvanom@yahoo.com sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________
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