प्रेम आलिंगन

आज धुंध को सूरज से लड़ते देखा,

ज़िद थी कि नहीं हटूंगी, यहीं रहूंगी|

सूरज क़ी रौशनी भी फिकी पड़ने लगी,

मानो ज़िद के आगे झुकने लगी||

फिर सूरज का धुंधला चेहरा देखा

आनंदमय, करुणामय, रसपूर्ण किन्तु सावधान!

धुंध क़ी चंचलता को निहारता, मुस्कुराता;

मानो प्रिया का नृत्य देखता||

देखा, फिर उनको फुसफुसाते

दिल क़ी बात एक दूजे को बताते|

ना जाने क्या समझौता हुआ

इनका व्यवहार मेरी समझ से परे हुआ||

देखा दोनों को आँहें भरते,

देखा मैंने धुंध को छंटते|

दो प्रेमियों के आलिंगन में

धुंध का अस्तित्व सिमटता गया||

देखा, देखा मैंने सारा दृश्य

पर ना जाने क्या रह गया?

जीत तो सूरज क़ी रौशनी क़ी हुई,

किन्तु चर्चा फिर भी धुंध क़ी रही||

ग़ुम हूँ मैं

हूँ मैं एक व्यस्त चौराहे पे

पूछता घर का पता जानकारों से,

ना जाने कहाँ ग़ुम हूँ मैं|

हर ओर एक राह, एक गंतव्य है

कुछ भी हालाँकि दूर नहीं,

लेकिन फिर भी कहीं ग़ुम हूँ मैं|

अँधेरा है, कहीं कुछ कृतृम रौशनी भी|

ये रौशनी भी मगर, अँधेरे से कम नहीं

राह दिखाना तो दूर, कुछ छुपाती है ये

इस रौशनी में भी, हाय! क्यों ग़ुम हूँ मैं|

खड़ा हूँ हाथ में मशाल लिए

भटकों को पथ दिखाता, बेफिक्र;

किन्तु कहीं ग़ुम हूँ मैं|

ग़ुम हूँ मैं उन राहों में

जो किसी नक़्शे में नहीं, और

जिस तरफ कोई आता-जाता नहीं

हाँ लेकिन ग़ुम हूँ मैं|

The seed is the same… Why not love each other!!

Many a times we come to hear/read about cruelty, corruption, crimes, and other form of actions that takes the whole humanity back in time (in terms of technological/mental/economical/conscience development). Most of us want such things to be eradicated. In fact, we want to remove all the evil from its very root. However, we are never able to find its roots.

And then, we come across many things that go antagonistically with these things. Revolution! We talk about revolution. We find hope in revolution. Yes! There is hope in revolution. There is always a ray of hope in the actions, which were never tried. And we have seen a number of revolutions all around the world.

Here I would like to present a small piece of information about one of the major revolutions ever that changed the world. I am talking about the Russian Revolution. On the basis of this revolution, World’s history can be divided into two parts (though there are many turning points). Russian Revolution for the first time presented a new socio-political system. The system existed before, but on papers only. Thanks to Karl Marx and his theory of communism. During the First World War, Vladimir Lenin took the eminence of converting Marx’s formulation of Communism into practical model. He led the Bolsheviks (majority faction of Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) to the government replacing the Tsardom of Russia, through a series of revolutions starting from February Revolution, to October Revolution followed by a Civil war. The series of revolution resulted in the formation of Soviet Union. Soviet Union was first of its kind’s state. It was an exemplary model of communism. Unfortunately, the Marxist revolutionary wave started by Lenin and accompanied by Leon Trotsky did not last long and was limited to the Russia only (Other similar revolutions in Germany and Hungary were unsuccessful).

After Lenin other communist leaders like Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev came into power in Soviet Union. Another major Communist leader I should not forget is China’s Mao Zedong.

However, there are many interesting facts about all these leaders.

1.       Stalin was Lenin’s ally in the Russian Revolution and played an important role in 1921’s Red Army Invasion of Georgia. It was since then he started introducing his own ideas into the revolution and going against his own leader, Lenin. Nevertheless, Lenin appointed Stalin as General Secretary of Communist Party of the Soviet Union next year. Later on, their relationship deteriorated and both criticized each other’s policies.

2.       Stalin ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1953, during which, he earned the image of being very cruel (Stalinism or click here is the word used for his cult of personality). Soon after his death, Nikita Khrushchev replaced him as the Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As soon as he got the power, he started an act famously known as de-Stalinization. He is considered for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. During his power reign, he also supported Mao Zedong to bring Revolution in China. Mao Zedong was the leader of China’s Revolution and architect of People’s Republic of China. He is also counted among the most influencing politicians (rather personalities) of the world of all time.

3.       With Nikita’s help, Mao engineered the People’s Republic of China, and laid the foundation stone of China’s economic development.   Between 1954 to 1959, Nikita transported about 7% of Soviet’s national income to China, which is considered as the greatest transfer of technology in the history of world. However, things never remained same, differences arose and that turned Mao to go against the Khrushchev. Their relation was spoiled to the extent that Soviets destroyed an atomic bomb with papers instead of providing it to China against their plan.

4.       Nikita Khrushchev Controlled the Soviet Union until 1964, before his own party members kicked him out of the power. Leonid Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev after a long planning with the party workers. About Zedong Mao, though he is viewed as a great intellectual, poet, philosopher and visionary, he remains a controversial figure until now.

5.       Today only China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea are the communist countries. And all of us know how much do we appreciate their policies.

6.       Here is the definition of today’s communist state: A state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state.

      I noticed a common thing in all the communist leaders mentioned here, which is their family background. I would suggest all the readers to go through the links. Except Marx (only a theoretician), who is known to hail from an enlightened background, everyone is from a poor background.

I am not saying that the poor can’t rule, or they are not able to handle the state. But, the reason of them to emerge as ruler should not be the ‘Power’; hunger for the ‘Power’. All of them had the urge to rule and transform the current situation according to their own ideologies (which was backed by an intellectual known as Karl Marx). As summarized by the Marx himself in the first chapter of “The Communist Manifesto” as “The history of all hitherto (so far) existing society is the history of class struggles”. As capitalism replaced feudalism, socialism would in turn replace capitalism. And XYZ system would replace socialism. And the vicious cycle will never end.

The cycle is never going to end, because the root cause of all the revolutions is same. And the reason is non-acceptance of the current system. When this non-acceptance turns into revolution, society changes, nobody knows for how long.

This will go on, until the seed is the same. We cannot evolve from a seed of non-acceptance. We cannot evolve from the seed of hatred. We can’t evolve from a seed of ‘hunger for power’. We cannot develop within from a seed that itself has come from the fruits of evil. An evil will always give rise to another evil. If we wish to uproot the evil, we need just need to discard the seed of evil and work on the seed that brings the good.

Why not use the seed of ‘Love’.Love brings no evil. Anything coming out of love will be lovable. So why not love each other and spread the seeds of ‘Love’ all around. Want to bring a revolution? Bring the revolution of 'LOVE'.

Today on the Valentine’s Day, I appeal everyone to sow the seeds of ‘LOVE’.

Don’t they have conscience??

We have recently seen a number of scams and scandals that came into picture. Loads of money was involved in those scams. I was having a healthy discussion over it with my friend Tarun, when I came to know about one of our friends, who attended an NDTV Talk show. There he asked a question to the renowned Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam. He asked “Sir, if we look at the amount involved in the 2G spectrum scandal, it is so big that if it would have distributed among whole population of India, it would have accounted for about 1500 rupees per head. So how can these people do this? Don’t they have conscience?”

“Don’t they have conscience?”

A big question! How can a person or a group of individuals do such an act? If the amount was simply distributed among the poor citizens, it could have provided millions of families’ their food for months. Don’t they have any place for Gandhi Ji’s poor man? If you remember “Gandhi Ji ka Jantar”, which is printed on every textbook of NCERT (I hope everyone has read that at least once).

After a long discussion, we came to the common ‘semi-conclusion’, “OK, it is so! This is already happening; we cannot just ignore it and cannot undo it. We cannot control or affect everybody’s intentions and conscience. We cannot blame them either. A Raja has said, “Sometimes I feel alone. I do not want complaining heads but supporting hands.” So, without understanding anyone, we cannot just blame him or her. ‘What can we do about it’, is the next question.”

What can I/we do about it?

Well, being the unit of the whole society I can be honest, sincere and trustful at my place. And, everything that I desire in somebody in the same or at a different position. This is definitely in my hands. So, this is what I can do in minimum for the ‘society I want to live in’. If I fail to do this, I cannot blame others around me because that will be just being biased towards myself and closing eyes for my own faults, and making the unit of the society itself corrupt. Only after I achieve this I shall be in the position to change others around me.

I am not sure if I am doing hundred percent for it, but I am damn sure that my percentage is increasing everyday.

Finally, we came to the following conclusion that I want to share with everyone:

“If they don’t have conscience, I do. And, I can well use my conscience to improve things around me. So does everyone. I cannot bring a revolution and change everyone at the once, though I can work in a direction and make things move and change slowly and gradually.”

“When all the ‘I’s’ around have same concept of ‘being’ and ‘being conscience’, the concept of ‘we’ becomes beautiful.” :)

The Master is never wrong

The Master is never wrong. Never doubt a Master what he says. I’ll site a few examples in support of this statement ‘The Master is never wrong’.

If you have watched the movie “The Kung-fu Panda”, Master Oogway guides Master Shifu to hand over the ‘Dragon Scroll’ to a clumsy Panda called ‘Po’. He was nowhere in the competition for being the ‘Dragon Scroll’ holder, still Oogway chose him to be the one. At that moment, Shifu was confused and could not follow exactly what Oogway meant. But, as soon as he started training Po, he realized that something can be done about it. Somehow, he managed to train him with a few skills of Kung-fu. Even then, he was not sure of Oogway’s decision. However, when it came to the ‘Dragon Scroll’, it was only ‘Po’ who got the point, and understood the secret of ‘Dragon Scroll’ as there was nothing really to see and to understand. However, there was something to realize that ‘there is nothing to be understood’. It is just you and ‘you’ who you need to understand. ‘Po’ realized the secret ingredient of tasty food prepared by his father ‘Ping’ the goose, which was ‘nothing’. He stood up with the ‘nothing’ and proved to be the real warrior that Oogway foresaw in him. And, he managed to defeat the snow leopard ‘Tai Lung’ and saved the ‘Valley of Peace’.

The second example comes from the life of Sri Sankaracharya, when he visited Gokarna. At Gokarna, he met a Brahmin named Prabhakara, who asked him to cure his deaf and dumb son. Without giving a second thought, Sankaracharya asked the boy, “Who are you? Whose son are you? Whence do you come and whither do you go?” Everyone was surprised what he is doing. Or, he is gone mad! But, the boy immediately replied, “I am neither a man, nor a Deva, nor a Yaksha; neither Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya or Sudra; neither Brahmachari, Grahastha, Vanaprastha or Sanyasi. I am Bliss Absolute.” Soon the boy became one of Sri Sankaracharya’s disciples, and was then known as Hastamalaka.

Another example is from puranic ‘Hindu’ mythology. As the demon Gajmukhasura, gained powers from the boon of Lord Shiva to be unbeatable, he started troubling humans and Devas. ‘Indra Deva’ then visited Lord Shiva for help, and asked him to control Gajmukhasura’s blowing activities that he was carrying out, out of his raised ego and powers. Lord Shiva then ordered ‘Ganesha’ to beat him and stop his mischievous acts. Ganesha was a kid then. Everyone was simply amazed that what Shiva is about to do. How can a kid fight a monster like Gajmukhasura, and defeat him. But, everything was so perfectly planned and thought of that Ganesha killed the demon and brought ‘Triloka’ to the peace.

So now moral of the story, never doubt a person who is the ‘Master’. Once you start having faith in master, everything is solved. However, the only challenge today is to find a ‘Master’.

Is it ‘DEATH’?

When ‘Thoughts’ stop striking your mind,

You are ‘Not sure’ what’s going in surround,

And there is ‘Darkness’ all around;

Is it death?

When the ‘Hope’ seems fading away,

Nothing in vicinity gives you the ‘Way’,

And your ‘Senses’ leave you midway;

Is it death?

When ‘Uncertainty’ is the only possession,

The ‘Darkness’ becomes your obsession,

And your ‘Being’ projects no reflection;

Is it death?

No! Dear, it cannot be:

Death comes with certainty,

Uncertainty can’t be the death.

From emptiness, life begins,

With darkness, light exists,

From the zero, numbers emerge,

With nothing, things appear.

It’s a beginning, beginning of a new ‘LIFE’.

Intelligence

On a lonely street, I was walking towards my room back from nearby market place. The dark street and drunken me. And nothing else I was able to make out there. I had a few eatables in my hands, as after a few pegs I realized that I am hungry and need something to eat. So, I had gone to buy something to eat from a shop that remains open that time.

Suddenly, something appeared in front of me and jumped across the street. Recollecting my awareness, I found that it was a dog, which jumped over to the municipality trash bin. Possibly the dog was also hungry like me, and hoping to find something to eat in that trash. As soon, I realized what is happening around me, I immediately thanked GOD, that it was just a DOG. A DOG, with a very low intelligence. Had it been a monkey, which is more intelligent than dog, he could have snatched my eatables rather than going with an uncertainty of finding rotten eatables from the trash. Had it been a hungry human, he could have put me into trouble.  That is how the situation could have changed with the intelligence of the individual.

Oh My God!! Is it all what intelligence has done to humans?? I thought again.

Of course this is not all intelligence has given to the mankind. However, this is one of its major contributions. I somewhere felt ashamed about this, that we the intelligent beings are not worth trusting, but a DOG is.