Everyone in the village got "pilgrimage fever" and everyone got busy packing up some traveling clothes and food for the road. All except for Nasrudin, who watched them laboring away. Soon, all of the village: the men, women, and children, were heading out to Mecca. They were singing songs and shouting with great excitement about how they were off to find God.
They got about one mile away, when Nasrudin suddenly riding up on his donkey, shouting about some terrible emergency. They caught the donkey and made him tell them what the problem was.
"I'm trying to find my donkey! Where is my donkey?"
"Why, Nasrudin, you're sitting on top of your donkey," answered the villagers.
"Oh really. Is that so? And why are you all going on a pilgrimage to find God?"
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
A SUFI STORY
Junaid was going through the market-place of the town with his disciples. And it was his way to take any situation and use it. A man was dragging his cow by a rope, and Junaid said 'Wait' to the man, and told his disciples 'Surround this man and the cow. I am going to teach you something.'
The man stopped - Junaid was a famous mystic - and he was also interested in what he was going to teach these disciples and how he was going to use him and the cow. And Junaid asked his disciples 'I ask you one thing: who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or is this man bound to this cow?' Of course, the disciples said 'The cow is bound to the man. The man is the master, he is holding the rope, the cow has to follow him wherever he goes. He is the master and the cow is the slave.'
And Junaid said 'Now, see.' He took out his scissors and cut the rope - and the cow escaped.
The man ran after the cow, and Junaid said 'Now look what is happening! Now you see who is the master; the cow is not interested at all in this man - in fact, it is escaping.' And the man was very angry, he said 'What kind of experiment is this ?'
But Junaid said to his disciples 'And this is the case with your mind. All the nonsense that you are carrying inside is not interested in you. You are interested in it, you are keeping it together somehow - you are becoming mad in keeping it together somehow. But you are interested IN it. The moment you lose interest, the moment you understand the futility of it, it will start disappearing; like the cow it will escape.'
The man stopped - Junaid was a famous mystic - and he was also interested in what he was going to teach these disciples and how he was going to use him and the cow. And Junaid asked his disciples 'I ask you one thing: who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or is this man bound to this cow?' Of course, the disciples said 'The cow is bound to the man. The man is the master, he is holding the rope, the cow has to follow him wherever he goes. He is the master and the cow is the slave.'
And Junaid said 'Now, see.' He took out his scissors and cut the rope - and the cow escaped.
The man ran after the cow, and Junaid said 'Now look what is happening! Now you see who is the master; the cow is not interested at all in this man - in fact, it is escaping.' And the man was very angry, he said 'What kind of experiment is this ?'
But Junaid said to his disciples 'And this is the case with your mind. All the nonsense that you are carrying inside is not interested in you. You are interested in it, you are keeping it together somehow - you are becoming mad in keeping it together somehow. But you are interested IN it. The moment you lose interest, the moment you understand the futility of it, it will start disappearing; like the cow it will escape.'
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Who is afraid of the scams?
Anyone who knows the nature of the ruling class in India will not be surprised by the reports of numerous scams unearthing daily. After the introduction of the so called policy of liberalisation the cat is let loose among the pigeons with impunity. All the talks of honest politician , reputed journalists are sham .Now it is revealed beyond doubt that capitalism has assumed the highest stage and it has succeeded in planting its stooges in all the spheres of our public life. None is spared. If we examine the rulings of the Courts for the last two decades a perceptible shift against the common man can be seen. So there is no institution which can claim purity from this cranker of corruption .Perhaps the time has come for a true revolution capable of revamping the entire system from the scratch.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
On conflicts in life
Man has made everything a mess, yet claims that he is a superior being. For him land is a problem, relationship a problem, love, sex , religion are all problems. Why this madness? We have to examine together. Very often we forget that we are just one among the fifteen lakhs species living on this earth. But man utilises lion's share of the natural resources and destroy the dwellings of other creatures.. It is a fact that man possess a superior intelligence.Whether he is applying it properly or positively is a question to be answered.It is here all the great minds invested their wisdom. But when we look back at this twentyfirst century we still feel something is lacking. We are not able to stop wars, not able to treat our neighbour with civility. We have invented numerous religions and crores of gods. we shout from the roof top that we all believein God , the supernatural creator of this Universe, and prays to him to protect us from evils, diseases etc etc.At the same time we will do our best to disturb our fellow beings.
Women constitute fifty percent of the human population, yet in majority of the nations including in the highly developed Western countries they are not treated with dignity. Why we hesitate? .Numerous studies conducted by sociologists reveal that before the formation of families women enjoyed more security than men. So only to protect him, man began to claim right over a particular woman and formed a separate unit. In due course he subjugated her as his maid and sex mate. To a great extent the formation of the family regulated the standard of living of human beings. It is strange the advent of civilisation and the inventions of religions more and more curb was imposed on woman.
As man kind reached the peak of civilisations more restrictions were imposed on the satisfaction of his natural instincts. In a family set up he is free to have sex with only his wife.When he comes out of the family he happened to meet so many women. Frequent acquaintances with them developed a liking for them which in due course transformed into libido him. Thus there arises an inner conflict in him between the oath of loyalty towards his wife and the necessity of satisfying the animal instinct. He forgets the soceity , the religious teachings and indulge in forbidden sex. The same man, however, may not allow his wife to have this freedom. The result is that the familial bond is broken nad all the hell let loose.
Another area of conflict is the relationship between man and woman outside marriage. Whether it is not possible for such a couple to have a good relationship without indulging in sex? Why the society is too much concerned and poking its nose into their privacy.Perhaps soceity cannot think that men and women have not got enough maturity to maintain a relationship without sex. Anyway it is our collective failure. In today's life women not are confined to their house alone. They also take equal responsibility in enhancing the income of the family. If the husband or wife thinks that the other partner may have sexual relationship with friends of the work place the peaceful co- existence in the family is ruined. Moreover if the fellow workers themselves suspect and indulge in gossiping about the nature of the relationship between two individuals of the opposite sex, then again conflicts arose. So how to overcome this situation. Close all the doors against the co-workers or fight everybody to the finish? Both these steps seem extreme and not intelligent. The better way is to have a clear understanding of the soceity we live in and have an awareness about our own self and act accordingly. There is no easy soultions to complicated problems, except living moment ot moment.
Women constitute fifty percent of the human population, yet in majority of the nations including in the highly developed Western countries they are not treated with dignity. Why we hesitate? .Numerous studies conducted by sociologists reveal that before the formation of families women enjoyed more security than men. So only to protect him, man began to claim right over a particular woman and formed a separate unit. In due course he subjugated her as his maid and sex mate. To a great extent the formation of the family regulated the standard of living of human beings. It is strange the advent of civilisation and the inventions of religions more and more curb was imposed on woman.
As man kind reached the peak of civilisations more restrictions were imposed on the satisfaction of his natural instincts. In a family set up he is free to have sex with only his wife.When he comes out of the family he happened to meet so many women. Frequent acquaintances with them developed a liking for them which in due course transformed into libido him. Thus there arises an inner conflict in him between the oath of loyalty towards his wife and the necessity of satisfying the animal instinct. He forgets the soceity , the religious teachings and indulge in forbidden sex. The same man, however, may not allow his wife to have this freedom. The result is that the familial bond is broken nad all the hell let loose.
Another area of conflict is the relationship between man and woman outside marriage. Whether it is not possible for such a couple to have a good relationship without indulging in sex? Why the society is too much concerned and poking its nose into their privacy.Perhaps soceity cannot think that men and women have not got enough maturity to maintain a relationship without sex. Anyway it is our collective failure. In today's life women not are confined to their house alone. They also take equal responsibility in enhancing the income of the family. If the husband or wife thinks that the other partner may have sexual relationship with friends of the work place the peaceful co- existence in the family is ruined. Moreover if the fellow workers themselves suspect and indulge in gossiping about the nature of the relationship between two individuals of the opposite sex, then again conflicts arose. So how to overcome this situation. Close all the doors against the co-workers or fight everybody to the finish? Both these steps seem extreme and not intelligent. The better way is to have a clear understanding of the soceity we live in and have an awareness about our own self and act accordingly. There is no easy soultions to complicated problems, except living moment ot moment.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
On love
What is "love"? It is one of the most loved and perhaps the post misunderstood word in all the languages. Its synonyms ranges from the "attachment", a mother shows towards his children, to the lusty physical passion a youth feels towards a member of the opposite sex. So how we deal with love and still remain balanced is a moot point to be examined here.
It is fact that there cannot be single species in the world which does't want to love or to be loved.Ordinarily love is associated with passion.One wants to possess the person or thing one likes.In order to give some legitimacy to this desire for ownership , one invokes the phenomenon of love. Such love born out of desire breeds jealousy or fear of loss. If we do not get the desired we feel dejected and if possible try to destroy the object or the person. However, once the desired person or thing has become our "own" love gradually shrinks. . So this is simply self- gratification and cannot be termed as love. If we truly love a person, it should be a detached one.Only love for love's sake and not for anything else.
Another aspect of love is that we should be able to respect the person whom we love. For example can we love our parents if we don't have respect for them? If a man loves a woman or vice versa there definitely should be an element of mutual respect.Love born out of other considerations are not likely to last long. But unfortunately most of our socalled love relations are based on give and take.They are quantitative rather than qualitative.So unless we are able to find something respectable in the person whom we like there is no possibility of true love emerging out of that companionship. This does not mean that we shall be able love all the persons we respect.In official life we have to respect our superiors irrespective of their personal integrity. In such situations we are not expected to go beyond the official decorum.The moment the person ceases to occupy the post we discard him.On the contrary, if we are able to respect a person who is supposed to be "inferior' to our status that relationship can be called love. Because we respect his quality and not the position. When we examine our our so-called love relations on these yardstick we could realise that ninety nine percentage of our love affairs are shallow and born out of desire to own or based on greed or other motives.
It is fact that there cannot be single species in the world which does't want to love or to be loved.Ordinarily love is associated with passion.One wants to possess the person or thing one likes.In order to give some legitimacy to this desire for ownership , one invokes the phenomenon of love. Such love born out of desire breeds jealousy or fear of loss. If we do not get the desired we feel dejected and if possible try to destroy the object or the person. However, once the desired person or thing has become our "own" love gradually shrinks. . So this is simply self- gratification and cannot be termed as love. If we truly love a person, it should be a detached one.Only love for love's sake and not for anything else.
Another aspect of love is that we should be able to respect the person whom we love. For example can we love our parents if we don't have respect for them? If a man loves a woman or vice versa there definitely should be an element of mutual respect.Love born out of other considerations are not likely to last long. But unfortunately most of our socalled love relations are based on give and take.They are quantitative rather than qualitative.So unless we are able to find something respectable in the person whom we like there is no possibility of true love emerging out of that companionship. This does not mean that we shall be able love all the persons we respect.In official life we have to respect our superiors irrespective of their personal integrity. In such situations we are not expected to go beyond the official decorum.The moment the person ceases to occupy the post we discard him.On the contrary, if we are able to respect a person who is supposed to be "inferior' to our status that relationship can be called love. Because we respect his quality and not the position. When we examine our our so-called love relations on these yardstick we could realise that ninety nine percentage of our love affairs are shallow and born out of desire to own or based on greed or other motives.
Friday, November 12, 2010
on friendship again
Right from the childhood an individual began to earn friends. By the time he/ she became a mature adult the person might have come across countless friends. As man is a social being at onetime or other he had to seek the support of other individuals to face a crisis in his life. So he is required to maintain good rapport with a few individuals, apart for his close relatives. But most of us complain that we are not able to find genuine friends nowadays to share our joys and sorrows. To an extent there is substance in this. But we will rarely examine the reasons. Even if we do , we will fix the fault on the other and escape. On the contrary, a dispassionate attempt to find the reasons will first point the fingers against ourself.
when an individual meet the other only at the periphery he/she is knowing him / her only partially.One is afraid to allow the other to reach his/her centre.There is a fear that if the other person came to know more about you, he/ she may exploit you. In a fear dominated relationship there would be no mutual trust. Once you suspect your partner no meaningful relationship is possible. In our soceity friendship is perhaps the only relationship which can be formed without preconditions or terms. All other relationships viz, father, mother, husband. wife ,son , daughter and even lover, have the elements of possessiveness. Possessive relations are conditional and fear oriented. A husband cannot disclose everything concerning him to wife or vice versa because other may use it against him /her at a later time. A true friendship is unconditional. He/ she can be a cunsellor, a judge , a guide or a source of great inspiration. Every individual at one time or other may have to turn to a friend for a kind advice ,help or a soothing consolation.A sincere friend will also step in to offer help unrequested.For all this mutual trust is very essential.There definetly should be a willngness to make sacrifice , for the cause of a friend.. Another requisite for maintaining a good and prolonged friendship is keeping on communicating frequenlty even on the matters we think not so important.Don't tell anything to your friend through a third person , particularly if it is in the nature of a complaint. Make it sure that you never disclose anything to a third person that your friend might have told you confidentially. That will cause irreparable damage to your relationship. Don't criticise your friend in front of others. You can vent your thoughts during your private meetings. In history there were examples of sincere friendships between great minds, like Dr.Johnson and James Bosewell, Jean Paul Satre and Madam Simon Beauwar etc. which were towering.
when an individual meet the other only at the periphery he/she is knowing him / her only partially.One is afraid to allow the other to reach his/her centre.There is a fear that if the other person came to know more about you, he/ she may exploit you. In a fear dominated relationship there would be no mutual trust. Once you suspect your partner no meaningful relationship is possible. In our soceity friendship is perhaps the only relationship which can be formed without preconditions or terms. All other relationships viz, father, mother, husband. wife ,son , daughter and even lover, have the elements of possessiveness. Possessive relations are conditional and fear oriented. A husband cannot disclose everything concerning him to wife or vice versa because other may use it against him /her at a later time. A true friendship is unconditional. He/ she can be a cunsellor, a judge , a guide or a source of great inspiration. Every individual at one time or other may have to turn to a friend for a kind advice ,help or a soothing consolation.A sincere friend will also step in to offer help unrequested.For all this mutual trust is very essential.There definetly should be a willngness to make sacrifice , for the cause of a friend.. Another requisite for maintaining a good and prolonged friendship is keeping on communicating frequenlty even on the matters we think not so important.Don't tell anything to your friend through a third person , particularly if it is in the nature of a complaint. Make it sure that you never disclose anything to a third person that your friend might have told you confidentially. That will cause irreparable damage to your relationship. Don't criticise your friend in front of others. You can vent your thoughts during your private meetings. In history there were examples of sincere friendships between great minds, like Dr.Johnson and James Bosewell, Jean Paul Satre and Madam Simon Beauwar etc. which were towering.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Is America a falling empire?
This has refernce to 'Obama tours Asia as US influence wanes' ( Nov 10).Never in history an empire had flourished a long period. America is an empire built on a capitalist agenda by the capitalists out of the ruins of Second World War albiet its claim as a democratic entity.It had weathered so many storms since then. Nearly forty years of Cold War and the frequent misadventures in different parts of the world had taken a heavy toll on its economy. During the Soviet era , it was able to garner enough resources from friendly nations on the promise of keeping the ' bogeyman' at bay. The collapse of the Soviet Union caused the downfall of receipts therafter on this score.
The two Gulf Wars and the recent recessions created a deep chasm in the economy and its recovery seem elusive in the near future. In Obama, the US citizens saw a messiah for change. The nations in the world over too expected a shift in the directions of US policies. Given the inbuilt influence of the multinational companies in formulating the domestic and international policies , the President's hands are tied. But he had to fulfill the promises he gave to the people during the election,which brought him to power. . . Already unemployment and poverty are on the increase. So Obama had to look upto new allies for attracting investments towards his country.Naturally he had to shed the ertswhile image of the boss of the empire dictacting terms. Nor is he in such a position now. Hence his visit to Asian countries are seen more as a mission to garner more job opportunities in US than in settling disputes between allies or lending economic incentives to the visiting nations. His gift of the gab helps him a lot to this end.So to term his visits either as a failure or success will not do justice to the mission he embarks on.
S. Viswanathan Nair, Chaarvakom, Vellayani Nemom PO Trivandrum 695 020
The two Gulf Wars and the recent recessions created a deep chasm in the economy and its recovery seem elusive in the near future. In Obama, the US citizens saw a messiah for change. The nations in the world over too expected a shift in the directions of US policies. Given the inbuilt influence of the multinational companies in formulating the domestic and international policies , the President's hands are tied. But he had to fulfill the promises he gave to the people during the election,which brought him to power. . . Already unemployment and poverty are on the increase. So Obama had to look upto new allies for attracting investments towards his country.Naturally he had to shed the ertswhile image of the boss of the empire dictacting terms. Nor is he in such a position now. Hence his visit to Asian countries are seen more as a mission to garner more job opportunities in US than in settling disputes between allies or lending economic incentives to the visiting nations. His gift of the gab helps him a lot to this end.So to term his visits either as a failure or success will not do justice to the mission he embarks on.
S. Viswanathan Nair, Chaarvakom, Vellayani Nemom PO Trivandrum 695 020
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