NavDharmyug

गोवध- निज पुत्र का भाग तज कर मनुज पुत्र का पोषण किया। सम संतुलन सबको दिया मस्तक पर धरा धारण किया। रहट खींचा, खेत सींचे,  धर्म का संबल दिया। अन्न, प्रेम, सात्विक मित्रता, सब कुछ तुम्हें निश्छल दिया। पुत्रवत स्नेह से तुमने पुकारा पास जब मातृवत आई मैं दौड़ी मन में लिये विश्वास तब। जिह्वा के मिथ्या लोभ में हा, वध मेरा तुमने किया, इक मूक पशु को मारकर मानवता को बस लज्जित किया। मैं तो तुम्हारे स्वाद पर, मिथ्या दंभ पर अर्पित हुई इस पाशविक बलिवेदि पर मनुजता ही तो बस लज्जित हुई। माता रही मैं शिव-पुत्र मानव तुझसे मेरा क्या द्वेष था, शत्रु बनाया मुझको अपना यह देखना बस शेष था। जिस देश पर बनता था सदियों पहला ग्रास मेरे नाम पर। मेरे ही भक्षण को है आतुर वह राष्ट्र है संग्राम पर। कौड़ियाँ फेंकी हैं किसने जीत की और हार की। युद्ध है यह धर्म का या प्रेरणा संहार की। कहता है जो पशुवध राष्ट्र का अधिकार है, स्वातंत्र्य है अभिशाप उसका, उस मनुष्य पर धिक्कार है।       - साकेत

I have been pondering about the sense of despondency, the sense of shame which has been imposed on the Hindu thoughts in Indian society. Every act of faith has to be explained, justified. When partition happened, Muslims fought and obtained an independent Nation, while the other large chunk of population, which, in spite of numerical supremacy, was subjugated for centuries, got India. In line with inherent openness and flexibility of Hinduism, India became a secular nation. This is a matter of pride, since it acknowledged the basic secular nature of Sanatan Dharm . However, as things would evolve, vested political interests considered India as unfinished agenda standing in the path of a religious empire being built world-wide. Through a well-calculated intellectual conspiracy of neglect and vilification, it came to a stage that modern Hindus where embarrassed of their religion and apologetic of their faith. This neglect also resulted in the religion being left to the guardianship of ...

Author: Julian Barnes Publisher: Knopf Pages: 163 Genre: Literary Fiction Published: August, 2011 Rating: Makings of a Classic Excerpt: "...What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?  'History is the lies of the victors' I replied a little too quickly. 'Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated. Simpson?' Colin was more prepared than me. 'History is a raw onion sandwich, Sir.' 'For what reason?' 'It just repeats, Sir. It burps. We've seen it again and against this year. The same story, same old oscillation between tyranny and rebellion, war and peace, prosperity and impoverishment.' 'Rather a lot for a sandwich to contain, would you say?' We laughed far more than was required, with an end-of-term hysteria.  'Finn?' ' History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of...

Solitude is an essential part of writing life. Writing is a lonely profession. One ought to step on this path if one is able to survive through the long, voluntary spells of solitude. We must not confuse loneliness with solitude. Loneliness throws one down the dark abyss; solitude is the pair of wings that intellect provides to lift the soul out of those depths.  The best of the art emerges out of a certain tranquility of mind, a quietude of being. It borrows wisdom from market-places, it derives truth from the people, but the truth which is visible to the writer, is often not visible to the very people from whose life he derives and distills it. What separates the characters of a story and its writer is the ability of the writer to pull himself back from life, to stand away and apart, to have a distinct vantage points, to watch it with an odd sense of detached empathy. The difference in this vantage point, from one writer to another is the reason stories written about th...

“ Too proud art thou to kill these sweet-tooths. But take care lest it be thy fate to suffer their poisonous injustice!... ..Because thou art gentle and of upright character, thou sayest: “Blameless are they for their small existence.” But their circumscribed souls think: “Blamable is all great existence.” … …Thy neighbours will always be poisonous flies; what is great in thee- that itself must make them more poisonous, and always more fly-like. Flee my friend into thy solitude- and thither, where a rough strong breeze bloweth. It is not thy lot to be a flyswatter. ”  – T hus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche When politics fails to find answer, philosophy offers the way. A noise in the aftermath of a disgusting crime is unavoidable. However, too much of noise has its own problem. It drowns saner thoughts and it falls on its own head. Two soldiers have been martyred and beheaded on the border. Pakistan’s infamous BAT division infiltrated, attacked, killed an...

We are living in an extremely cause-heavy world where causes - real and imagined cloud our minds. I saw this in the case of the movie - Beauty and The Beast . There the quarrel of the social commentators was that it explored the gay angle of one of the characters only briefly, only fleetingly. There can be nothing more absurd than that. You are demanding more from an artist than possibly he can offer. Art is a profession of lonely persuasion, and it serves the purpose its creator desires it to serve. Nothing more and nothing less. It is sad and unfortunates that the liberals, which in Indian context largely translates to Leftists, insists that art is nothing but a vehicle that should be provided to them for their political agendas and narratives to ride on. It is like insisting that the reference to the Negroes in the " The Great Gatsby " should have been expanded to cover racism in detail. The brief episode was merely to substantiate the character and nothing more. Jus...

Sometimes truth is so simple that it escapes the eyes of the clever. Clever people are naturally inclined to search the subtle, to investigate the infinite. Unfortunately they oftentimes end up being victim of their own ability. This we saw in wise people declaring 98 percent and no less possibility of Hillary Clinton becoming the US president. Closer home, we saw the wise predicting the same in UP, in Punjab and in Goa. The municipal elections of Delhi have concluded and the results are out. The results of the election are as under: Total seats contested: 279 The tally Party-wise is: BJP: 181 AAP: 48 Congress: 30 Others: 20 To be honest, past MCDs ruled by BJP have dismal record of performance with ghost employees, ghost schemes and absolutely disheartening corruption. The common sense and sense of the wise political analysts predicted rout for BJP and either a spectacular victory for Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party or a return of Congress. The results have amazed ...