World Peace 2005 Peace Prize Laureates

International ` Mohamed ElBaradei, Atomic Energy Director General of IAEA The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way. At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its Director General. In the nuclear non-proliferation regime, it is the IAEA which controls that nuclear energy is not misused for military purposes, and the Director General has stood out as a bold advocate of new measures to strengthen that regime. At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, this work is of incalculable importance. The vision underlying the IAEA stems from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In December 1953, he gave his famous "Atoms for Peace" speech at the United Nations. The vision was surprisingly concrete: the nuclear powers should "make joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials to an International Atomic Energy Agency". The most important task for the IAEA would be "to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind". The IAEA was in other words to receive potentially military nuclear material from the nuclear powers, and then distribute it for peaceful use to the countries that were most in need of it. The IAEA was formally established on 29 July 1957, for the purpose of preventing military use and stimulating peaceful use of nuclear energy. Implicitly in the IAEA statutes, but all the more explicitly in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, which was to mean so much to the IAEA, the five original nuclear powers are under an obligation "to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate goals of eliminating those weapons". This important point has been repeated on a number of subsequent occasions. Despite several arms limitation agreements, the traditional nuclear powers can by no means be said to have come much closer to this goal. Although the number of nuclear weapons deployed has been reduced, tens of thousands of them remain – about as many as when the NPT entered into force – as well as a continuing interest in the development of new weapon types. This is one main reason why further non- proliferation efforts have stalled. The nuclear powers must take their obligations under the NPT seriously. It is hypocritical to go on developing one's own nuclear weapons while doing everything in one's power to prevent others from acquiring such weapons. As ElBaradei himself has put it, it is like "some who have … continued to dangle a cigarette from their mouth and tell everybody else not to smoke". The number of nuclear powers in the world has risen. In addition to the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France and China, Israel, India and Pakistan have nuclear arms. Perhaps North Korea, too. This is not to say that there have been no positive developments. South Africa discontinued its program, thus becoming the first country to have developed nuclear weapons only to abandon them. All credit to South Africa! Belorussia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan renounced the nuclear weapons which the Soviet Union had left behind in their territories. Libya has reversed its policy. Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea and Turkey have given up ambitious programs. Nevertheless, proliferation continues. It has to be stopped. The IAEA has met with both successes and reverses in its struggle to prevent the spread of nuclear arms. Iraq illustrates both. Initially, the IAEA failed to uncover the extensive program which Saddam Hussein had developed

in the 1980s. That necessitated new routines. On the other hand, in cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) and the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the IAEA then managed in the 1990s to destroy such weapons of mass destruction as did exist. In the period prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the IAEA and UNMOVIC were under heavy pressure, despite which the inspectors carried out their task in Iraq in an independent, thorough and correct manner. As the world could see after the war in Iraq, the weapons that were not found proved not to have existed. In North Korea, the IAEA discovered that the North Koreans had lied about their nuclear program. Since then, however, it has not been given any opportunity to carry out the inspections in North Korea which are certainly necessary. With respect to Iran, too, the IAEA has had both ups and downs. Iran managed to keep its nuclear program concealed for 18 years. For the past two years, however, the IAEA has undertaken important work there with some degree of success. The tense situation in the country can only be resolved provided the IAEA is allowed to carry out the necessary inspections and its steps and resolutions are respected. Keeping pace with the many challenges with which it has been confronted in the last few years, the IAEA has managed to tighten up the control it exercises, also by carrying out special inspections at short notice. It has done a good job in a number of difficult contexts. At a time when international organizations have been heavily criticised, the IAEA has not only maintained but even in many respects strengthened its position. Its security control enables the organization to exercise functions that were previously the preserve of national authorities. In so far as it has encroached on national sovereignty, this control has broken new ground. Complete sovereignty in the nuclear field means complete insecurity for the rest of the world. The central figure in this strengthening of the IAEA has been Director General ElBaradei. He has himself put forward numerous proposals aimed at this objective. He is an active participant in debates on the future of the non- proliferation regime. While building on the important work of his predecessors, and of Hans Blix in particular, he has managed to strengthen still further the positions both of the Director General and of the IAEA. His recent re- election for a third term will open up new opportunities in the years ahead both for him and for the IAEA. Today's award is thus very much a tribute to Mohamet ElBaradei in person, but is also intended to recognise the 2,300 staff from 90 countries who currently work for the IAEA, as well as the many who worked there before. Many are here today. We salute you and thank you for your work. For the IAEA it has been and still is very important to help the poor countries of the world to participate in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Refraining from military uses should make it possible to help such countries with civilian uses. Such peaceful use has been controversial in many countries, however, and there has consequently been no increase in recent years. Nuclear energy currently accounts for about 16 per cent of global electricity production, but nearly all of this is in highly developed countries. Growth today is taking place principally in Russia, China, India and Brazil. The main reasons for the growth are energy shortages, high oil prices, the need to reduce CO2 emissions, and enhanced operational safety. Although opinions differ on the civilian use of nuclear energy, we should all be able to agree on the importance of ensuring that the use that does take place is made as safe as possible. If we do see further growth in this sector, control arrangements will become all the more essential. This forms a major part of the work of the IAEA. Incidentally, many of us may not pause to reflect on the prominent position of nuclear energy in the health services, especially in the treatment of cancer, as well as in connection with agriculture, the environment, and industry. The award to the IAEA and to ElBaradei is firmly founded in the history of the Peace Prize, and in Alfred Nobel's will, in which he mentions the "abolition or reduction of standing armies" as one of the three criteria for the award. Nobel would surely have agreed that in our day the struggle against nuclear arms must be even more urgent than opposition to "standing armies". This year's prize to the IAEA and ElBaradei links together the two principal major lines of thought that have governed selections for the award throughout its history. Again and again, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has stressed the need for a better organized world. This explains the many prizes to representatives of the Inter-Parliamentary Union before World War I, to representatives of the League of Nations in the inter-war years, and to individuals and organizations attached to the United Nations after World War II. In 2001, year of the centenary of the Nobel Prizes, it was therefore only natural to give the award to the United Nations and to its Secretary General Kofi Annan. This year it is 60 years since the foundation of the United Nations. The IAEA is very much a part of the UN system and consequently belongs under this most distinct of all headings in the history of the Peace Prize.

A second and almost equally prominent theme has been work for disarmament and arms control. Many Laureates have advocated disarmament and peace in general. Even in the nuclear field a number of prizes have been awarded: to Linus Pauling in 1962 for his work for a nuclear test ban agreement; to Andrei Sakharov in 1975 for

campaigning for nuclear disarmament and democracy; to Alva Myrdal and Garcia Robles in 1982 for seeking non- proliferation; to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1985, working across the east-west divide; and to the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat in 1995 for the important work they did for nuclear disarmament, especially at the expert level. It has been claimed that every tenth year the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the prize to someone seeking the abolition of nuclear weapons. With the awards of 1975, 1985 and 1995 in mind, it is difficult for the Committee to deny the charge. But such awards have, as you have heard, been made more frequently than once a decade. And it was not the case in 2005 that the Committee had zeroed in on this field in advance. It would be truer to say that when the Committee, after a long discussion of this year's 199 candidates, finally selected the IAEA and ElBaradei, we came to the realisation that once again the prize was going to someone who favours reducing the importance of nuclear arms in international politics. The atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago. Since then, the world has been united in the wish that nothing like that must ever happen again. Such weapons are so dreadful that they are meaningless in war. Naturally enough, memories of the atom bombs have been strongest of all in Japan, where people who survived the two atom bombs can still be found. The survivors have a special name, Hibakusha, and their own organization, Nihon Hidankyo. We salute them today. It is accordingly highly appropriate, even though it is a coincidence, that it is the Japanese ambassador to the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, who is at present the chairman of the organization's Board of Governors, and who will therefore receive the one half of the award on behalf of the IAEA. Let us recall the story of the little girl, Sadako Sasaki, who as an infant was exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima bomb. Suffering as a twelve-year-old from deadly leukaemia, she heard the Japanese legend which tells us that if you fold one thousand cranes you can wish for anything you like. And Sadako began folding a thousand cranes, wishing to get well. According to popular legend, she died when she had folded 644 birds; her classmates folded the remaining 356. Sadako was buried with a wreath of 1,000 cranes. Her classmates and friends had a granite statue of her erected in the Peace Park in Hiroshima. The statue shows Sadako as a young girl with her arms out, and with a crane in her hand. Thousands of folded cranes are left by the statue every year. Most of us dream of a future without nuclear weapons. We would finally be rid of the threat to mankind's very existence which the weapons represent. Those who do not dream of such a future tend to say that nuclear arms can not be uninvented, and maintain that if and when a war does break out, there will be pressure to develop nuclear arms again. The answer to this was given by Joseph Rotblat, the 1995 Laureate, for whom a memorial ceremony was held in London yesterday: Our long-term vision must be to put an end to war as such. We must banish war in the same way as the world has largely succeeded in banishing slavery, the commonest of social institutions. Presentation Speech by Professor Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo, December 10, 2005. Source: www.nobelprize.org

World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The World Environment Day theme selected for 2006 was Deserts and Desertification and the slogan is Don't Desert Drylands! The slogan emphasizes the importance of protecting dry lands, which cover more than 40% of the planet’s land area. This ecosystem is home to one-third of the world’s people who are more vulnerable members of society. The main international celebrations of the World Environment Day 2006 were held in Algeria. Adelaide, Australia was the main host for the World Environment Day 2000. The day's agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. World Environment Day is a people's event with colourful activities such as street rallies, bicycle parades, green concerts, essays and poster competitions in schools, tree planting, as well as recycling and clean-up campaigns. Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Ministers of Environment deliver statements and commit themselves to care for the Earth. More serious pledges are made which lead to the establishment of permanent governmental structures dealing with environmental management and economic planning. This observance also provides an opportunity to sign or ratify international environmental conventions.

President’s Page

It is, in my opinion, our duty to care. In particular by caring for Mother Earth we care for our generation and our children’s generations. We can not afford to behave like a monkey who is cutting the branch of a tree on which it is sitting. World Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. We can not afford to leave this humongous task to the United Nations or for that matter to the respective governments alone. Every one of us has to pitch in our might in whatever way little or big according to our capacity. Mahatma Gandhi way back 9 or 10 decades ago started emphasising the importance of caring for the environment and Mother Earth and all of its inhabitants – humans or animals; plants or atmosphere. We must ensure that whatever we do for our personal growth contributes to the sustainable and equitable development; promotes an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; so that all peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

The ancient Indian wisdom as encoded in the Vedas and Upanishads advocated a lifestyle for everyone which is based on respect for every stakeholder including all living beings, Mother Earth, the environment around and beyond it and thus ensured the sustainability and equity in every aspect and activity of life. Such a wisdom is not exclusive to ‘Indians’; it belongs to the entire humanity. Women have been highly revered in this ancient Indian wisdom and have been entrusted with the role of sustainability and equity representing the Mother Earth.

Time and again the seers and saints, philosophers and thinkers have risen and grasped the core of the ancient Indian wisdom and tried to spread the truth across the humanity at large. Some have taught the poor and uneducated while others have barred no one from their teaching. Sri Ramakrishna was one such seer who sought out pundits and particularly taught middle-class university men who could grasp his message and then could pass it on to the masses. Sri Ramakrishna and the movement which formed around him revived Indian education especially among women. This was a time when Indians, so long subjected to foreign domination, doubted the efficacy of their own culture. When Indians began to turn to Christianity and a Father in heaven, Sri Ramakrishna taught them to worship God as Mother and that women are her representatives.

Swami Vivekananda, who learned from him, saw for himself the freedom that education brought to American women. He concluded that there would be no chance to raise the spiritual consciousness of the world unless the conditions of women were improved. While living with American families during the first year of his lecture tour, he learned two things which influenced his future work: one was organisation – the division of labour; and the other was the potential of women who were educated and socially liberated.

At Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia we strive for global humanity thus serving true Gandhian values. It is, I consider, the duty of the fortunate ones to come forward and contribute to the rehabilitation of those affected by natural / man-inflicted disasters and amelioration of the underprivileged on ongoing basis. According to Mahatma Gandhi these fortunate people are trustees of the wealth in their possession which they must utilise for the benefit of the underprivileged and affected people. The practice codes of the various religious scriptures also encourage keeping aside a proportion of income for charitable causes.

Gambhir Watts President Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia

Gandhi Talisman: "I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to Swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away." - Mahatma Gandhi

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Publisher & Managing Office Bearers : Editor: President Gambhir Watts Gambhir Watts [email protected] Vice President Dr Som Majumdar

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The Test of Bhavan’s Right to Exist

The test of Bhavan's right to exist is whether those who work for it in different spheres and in different places and those who study in its many institutions can develop a sense of mission as would enable them to translate the fundamental values, even in a small measure, into their individual life. Creative vitality of a culture consists in this: whether the ‘best’ among those who belong to it, however small their number, find self-fulfilment by living up to the fundamental values of our ageless culture. It must be realised that the history of the world is a story of men who had faith in themselves and in their mission. When an age does not produce men of such faith, its culture is on its way to extinction. The real strength of the Bhavan, therefore, would lie not so much in the number of its buildings or institutions it conducts, nor in the volume of its assets and budgets, nor even in its growing publication, cultural and educational activities. It would lie in the character, Dr K.M Munshi humility, selflessness and dedicated work of its devoted workers, honorary and Founder of the Bhavan stipendiary. They alone can release the regenerative influences, bringing into play the invisible pressure which alone can transform human nature

John Kenneth Galbraith A Friend of India and Global Visionary

I seek the indulgence of our readers to take the liberty of writing a first person singular article in place of the impersonal editorial in this issue. It has been my firm belief in a long journalistic career that an editor must be widely read, occasionally heard and rarely seen. Modern media have inverted the process: editors of the present are widely seen and heard but barely readable. I am giving a brief non-commercial break to that well-worn belief and habit. That preamble was necessitated by an innate urge asking me to combine personal tribute with Bhavan's homage to an outstanding intellectual of the past century who dared to differ with conventional wisdom and offer solutions to problems with courage and disdain for power. John Kenneth Galbraith's greatest John Kenneth Galbraith achievement was that he made economics readable and comprehensible by the layman, the victim of government's economic policy everywhere. It was beqause of his identity with the victims of economic policy that Galbraith was hated by academics and theorists and policy- advocates. Economists of his time were shy of admitting that Galbraith was an economic thinker of substance. True too. He was not merely an economist, but a brilliant writer of English prose, an undiplomatic diplomat, who dared to give truthful advice rather than camouflaged half-truths, a lover of art and culture and above all an original thinker unafraid of questioning doled out truths from experts of all descriptions. Although he wouldn't find a place in the pantheon of great economists of the 20th century, Galbraith had authored the most commonly used economic epithets in currency in countries, capitalist, communist and socialist. Incidentally, he was the first to talk of ideological convergence of capitalism and communism in terms of concentration of power and official thinking on the development process. Academics, bureaucrats and economic journalists all over the world owe their basic economic literacy to Galbraith who was possibly the most reader-friendly writer on what is known as the dismal science. Such frequently used expressions of politico-economic journalism as "The Affluent Society", "countervailing power", "the new industrial state", "corporate oligarchy" and "the military industrial complex" have become verbal weapons in the armoury of economy policy John Kenneth Galbraith was awarded the makers and journalists even today. nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Shri N.S.Jagannathan, a great editor and one of the finest writers Medal of Freedom, at a ceremony, at the on economic subjects in Indian newspapers, points out that the White House in the year 2000 cliches mentioned above are actually "expressions that explained to the common reader many a contemporary happening. Corporate oligarchy, for example, explains the Enron phenomenon of the last decade in which the top management was cheating the shareholders, the public and the Governments of several countries. Countervailing power illuminated the unstable equilibrium between capitalist management and the trade unions. Affluent society explained the coexistence in western economics, particularly American, "of economic prosperity at the top and chronic poverty at the bottom". More than 30-years ago, he warned the developing countries of the consequences of a constant flow of economic advice from the rich countries to the poor. He said, it was by "ill-fortune that much of the world's economic fate is sealed not, in local capitals or by the dynamics of local industry and commerce but what is done in Washington, what happens in the United States". He also foresaw the "military nexus" which would start a deadly arms race with the flow of weapons from the rich to the new states posing a grave threat to the survival on this planet of both the rich and the poor. It is relevant here to point out that the quotes in the above paragraph have a Bhavan connection. In 1982, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan organised the Rajaji memorial lectures delivered by Galbraith, which had later been published in book form from where most economic administrators took their policy directions and corrections. Galbraith greatly admired Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for its commitment

to culture and values and more specially for recalling to the world "the diverse and wise" words and deeds of the great people of the past. It was perhaps his last visit to India. Twenty years prior to that visit, Galbraith was US ambassador to India and the Chinese attack on India was acquiring alarming dimensions. Rumours were rife that the Chinese were poised to capture Assam and Orissa and march to Delhi. A deep lover of India, Galbraith advised the Kennedy administration to show gestures of support to India. I was a greenhorn journalist attached to a senior from The Hindustan Times to cover a press conference addressed by the Military Advisor to the US Government. I asked Galbraith why the US is so suspicious of John F Kennedy, John Kenneth Galbraith and India and yet wanting to support it now. Jawaharlal Nehru His answer was: "Because we don't want to see a friend humiliated". I asked him whether America considered India a friend. "Officially no, emotionally yes", was the reply. I visited him at his Boston residence in 1984 and discussed about India. He talked about his own experiences in India, his love for Kangra paintings, the ways of Indian bureaucracy, the greatness of Jawaharlal Nehru and so on It was a time when the democratic primary elections were on and television crews were loitering all over the place to ask whosoever they could about the possible winner of that day's poll. I noted that the television crew avoided Galbraith. I asked him why and he smiled. He said that six years earlier a horde of TV journalists raided his house asking him: "Professor, who do you think will win today's primary poll?" Galbraith told them that it was a silly question to ask. "Wait until 7 o'clock today and the result will be out". The electronic media stopped bothering him ever since. I asked him how so forthright a person as he could remain a consistent friend of politicians like John Kennedy who appointed him as Ambassador to India. "Perhaps", said Galbraith, "Kennedy thought that having a close friend like me in Washington would subject him to a lot of unwanted advice. He thought it would be safer if I was ten-thousand miles away from him". It did not stop him from advising Kennedy and Kennedy always took it. Incidentally, the most brilliant quote from Kennedy's presidential inaugural address was penned by Galbraith: "We must never negotiate out of fear but never fear to negotiate". Kennedy partially heeded Galbraith's advice against embarking on the Vietnam misadventure. Robert Parker, who wrote the biography of Galbraith says that he told Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, that despite all the "official crap"carried by the media, America would lose the Vietnam war. The biographer says that Galbraith was half-a-century ahead of his times. He loved India. The country bewildered him with its multitude and diversity. Being the brilliant phrasemaker he was, he coined the most evocative image of India by describing it as a "functioning anarchy". He was dismayed by the nature of politics in India, which sought to perpetuate what he called "the culture of poverty". The reason for India's social turbulence lay in its most palpable failure - education. Here is a message for the quota maniacs of today, who want to cover up the blame for fifty-five years of political and government neglect of education by crying for more and more reservations. He said: "There is no country with a uniformly literate population that does not have a relatively high and progressive living standard. There is no country with a generally illiterate population that does. Education is not something that economic development affords. Economic development is what education allows". Despite the superficial changes in global economic priorities and exchanges, Galbraith's ideas based on social justice and equality of opportunities will remain a rich legacy for future economic strategies and planners. Our own Amartya Sen can be said to belong to the Galbraith school of global economic liberalism. Both believe that economic development, divorced from the cultural and historical processes of a nation, is bound to create disparities and distortions. The Gross Domestic Product of a nation can never be the true index of economic well being of a nation. Galbraith was convinced that while flow of arms and advice is from the rich to the poor, the flow of wisdom must be in the opposite direction if the world has to live in peace, harmony and prosperity. The message of Galbraith is also the message of Bhavan.

- V.N. Narayanan Source: Bhavan’s Journal June 15 2006

Indus Seals and Vedic Culture - I In the earlier issues of Bhavan's Journal (BJ. 31-3 & 31-7) it -was explained how Indus seals recorded letters indicating a particular word or idea used in Harappan trade which was understood by the dealing parties living in distant lands such as India and Iraq. The size of these seals is generally around 2" x 1/2" and nearly impossible to write a sentence thereon. The communication through the seals was possible due to the common Vedic culture which had spread throughout Middle East before 5000 years. To understand this phenomenon it is necessary to have a brief review of history of these areas. It is now well established that the Ice Age prevailed on this earth before 12,000 years when the northern hemisphere was covered by tons of ice sheets and water level in sea had gone down by over 500 ft. Then the ice melted, several glaciers flowed through the river beds leaving behind fertile lands. Sea levels rose up to the present normal levels, weather became conducive to human habitation and man who was hiding in the dens and caves came out in the open, to move freely in the world. For 2000 years he roamed as hunter and then slowly took to farming, creating small villages and settlements, which developed into a society. In Europe such societies around Black Sea were disturbed by a major event that took place 7000 years earlier, resulting in sudden melting of ice sheets and rising of sea levels all over the world. The Mediterranean Sea water gushed through the Bosporus Strait towards the Black Sea which was till then a sweet water lake surrounded by human habitation. All these settlements were completely destroyed. This event has now been confirmed by under water exploration. These floods have been described in the Bible and also in the Puranas. Such events took place all over the world. Dwarka was submerged, Rann of Kacchh which was a sweet water lake turned salty, Ram's Setu was submerged. However, environments all over improved. Big rivers in Egypt, India, Iraq and China became centers of cultural progress. A powerful kingdom arose in Egypt around 3000 B.C. It built pyramids using forced labour of slaves captured from Arabia. Pictures on its walls tried to narrate some events. This was the beginning of writing. About the same time the people in South Iraq formed the town of Sumer. Another city called Susa came up in South Iran. Both these cities came together to form the kingdom of Elam mentioned in the Bible. The Elemites developed their own script using Egyptian pictures and introduced use of letters for an idea. They strived for improving this script and were successful in reducing the number of letters from 600 to 111. The letters were written on soft clay tablets pressed with nails and hence the script is called cuneiform. The tablets show recording of accounts using decimal system of numerals. Obviously, the Eremites or Sumerians could trade with India and understand Indian figures noted on the seals from the Indus valley. Subsequently the Elemites were overpowered by the King of Babylon from central Iraq around 2000 B.C. who retained their script and language for office use. Thus it spread throughout the Middle East till the time of King Darious of Iran in 500 B.C. Therefore according to Dr. S. R. Rao, Sumerian seals could be followed by the Vedic people around 1000 B.C. even after the Harappan culture disappeared. The warm weather in the Middle East was inviting. The desert was yet to appear and the land was green everywhere. Around 2000 B.C. the nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes traveled around the Black Sea and settled in Turkey forming small villages. Soon they formed a kingdom called Hittaite. The Hittaites had developed skills in smelting metals and preparing various items of copper, silver, gold and iron, which they exchanged with Babylon and amassed huge wealth. They were the first to extract iron in pure form and prepare weapons and tools. By 1500 B.C. they clashed and won the neighboring state of Mittani. In their treaty recorded on clay tablets, both have offered prayers to Indian gods named Indra, Varuna, Nasatya and Mithra. These facts are known from excavation at Bogazkoi in Turkey. Further a book in Sanskrit on horse management is discovered. It states the running rounds to be completed by a horse during training. Actual words are: Ek vartanam, Ter-Trivartanam Panja-Pancha Vartanam, Satta-sapta vartanam, Nava- Vartanam. This use of Sanskrit language confirms the presence of Vedic culture in the Middle East from 3000 B.C. to 500 B.C. and it is little wonder that the letters or monographs noted on the Indus seals were understood everywhere. From the same source in Turkey a tablet noting exchange of 20 pieces of silver is found. Another excavation of Mari in N. Iraq discloses tablets continuing an account of wine jars in a royal kitchen. The total is shown as follows. 70+17+3+2=Jars. These examples show a thorough knowledge of Vedic mathematics. With this background an attempt is made to decipher some symbols on the Indus seals. Around 1000 B.C. the Jews tried to

construct Hebrew script with the help of known Sumerian words describing an object. The peculiar feature of that object became a symbol or letter with a definite phonetic value. Thus the letter ‘alef’ meaning an ox in Sumerian was represented by his horns forming letter or U noted on the Indus seals. An ox was an object of exchange in trade. The King of Babylon is shown presenting an ox to the Persian king in the pictures carved in stone at Persepolis. It was a bull of exchange in trade. Sanskrit Balivarda changed to Bali-Ali Alef. Hebrew letter ‘beth’ has similar history. It is widely used even today to describe a vastu or a residence such as Bethlehem or Beth Sheba. It is shown as a square symbol on the seals. The Sumerian word is formed from Sanskrit Vastu - Basthu - Beth. Letter ‘gamel’ is shown as sign on Indus seals. In Sumerian it means a camel. Its Sanskrit version is Kramalaka meaning a path finder. The symbol shows the curved back kramalaka changed to kamalaka - camel -which is a beast of burden in a caravan - obviously the symbol means a caravan to Sumer. Hebrew letter Daleth means a door in Sumer shown as a or D on the Indus seals. It means devadar wood or furniture imported by Sumer from India confirmed by excavations. Here Sanskrit word dwar is at source forming Dwar-Dar - Dal -Daleth. Dar - Es salam proposes a salute at the door. Letter ‘heth’ has a deceptive appearance. It is shown on the seals as a comb some time reduced to letter E. Asko Parpola held it to be indicating female-gender. Actually Sumer imported elephant tusks used for ornaments and decorative objects. Here Sanskrit word Hasthi had changed to Hathi and heth letter E shows his trunk and two rows of legs. In Sumer the word Samekh meant a corn plant. Its symbol on the Indus seals was shown by several horizontal lines crossed by a single vertical line thus. Sumerians produced ample grains and reared animal herds. They traded in leather, wool, and grains. In pictures they are shown wearing leather coats. Therefore, exchange of wool with Indian cotton and sugar was their essential requirement. The Europeans did not know these products till the time of Alexander. They are described in Sanskrit rhyme as sasya shamala which changed thus Shamata - Shama Sama -Samekh. It was a meaningful expression for the Sumerians, as letter S. Thus the archaeological evidence corroborated by linguistic proofs confirms the meaning of some Indus seals. The spread of Vedic culture in the Middle-East before 1400 B.C. has been explained thus. Now let us see how it continued to prevail in this land and affected different spheres of its life. The Hittaites from Turkey and the Mittanies from North Syria honoured the Vedic deities while concluding a peace treaty in 1400 B.C. Their neighbour Egypt ruled the entire Palestine and had its naval base at Ugrait, a port in Lebanon. The peace agreement was broken and Egyptian King Ramses II seized an opportunity to interfere with the two warring nations and joined hands with the Mittanies. A fierce battle ensued at Kadej near Damascus in which the Hittaites crushed their opponents with the help of the iron weapons and superior iron- framed chariots. The Egyptians had to withdraw beyond the Sinai desert. This defeat forced the Egyptian Kingdom to shift its capital from Cairo to Amarana in the South. Building of Pyramids completely ceased. All the Arab slaves captured for the purpose were released. The freed Arab slaves returned to their motherland under the able guidance of Moses who gave them the Ten Commandments of God. This united all the slaves from twelve different shephardine tribes from the desert into a single faith called Judaism, probably derived from the Sanskrit root, Yuj, 'to unite'. The Armenians from North Syria also came as traders to Cannan. Their script was adopted as Kharosti in the Indus region by 600 B.C. Around 1000 B.C., a section of the Hittaits took to navigation, progressed towards Italy and settled down in the western province of Tuscany where they mined for different minerals and formed states called the Etruscans. Their wall paintings reveal Indian dress of the Vedic period. Another section settled down in the coastal region of Lebanon around port Ugrait. They built excellent boats and ships out of Cedar wood found in the surrounding forest. They became a naval power known as Phonecians who had their colonies all around the Mediterranean Sea. They worshipped God Ball and Goddess Nina. In Turkey, the Hittaites were succeeded around 1000 B.C. by the Freejeans from Bulgeria who were expert farmers. Their King Midas, was famous for his golden touch. They worshipped Goddess Amma and stone deities in temples discovered in excavation of their capital Konya. In 700 B.C., they were overpowered by the Lydeans from the South who worshipped Shivalinga or fallous stones and placed them on their graves. They were destroyed by Iran around 550 B.C. In Israel, a Hebrew state was organised around 1000 B.C. by King Saul and David mentioned in the Bible. It established the Jewish religion on a firm footing. A temple at Jeruslem became a centre of religious activities. They needed a script for recording their history and religion and hence an attempt to create a phonetic

script was made. Earlier, it was shown how certain ideas and objects described in Sumerian language were used to create a symbol for a definite phoneme. David Diringer in his book, Alephbet and Hans Jenson in Sign, Symbol and Script have identified the Sumerian and Hebrew words behind the phonetic symbols described below. The letter 'K' for Kaf was formed from the shape of a monkey shown by a cross with a long tail. It meant strong hands of a "kshatriya" or a royal authority like Kannan or a Kafir meaning foreigner. In the Indus trade, it might have been used for keshar from Kashmir or female hands wearing shell or bone bangles. The word Kaf has its origin in Sanskrit word Kapi, meaning a monkey. The letter 'O' Ayin has a long history. The Phonecians worshipped a male god, Ball and goddess Naina. Hittait rock paintings at Hattusas and Bogazkoi show Goddess Naina riding a lion, killing a demon and wearing a garland of human skulls. Her fearful eyes were picked up to denote the letter 'O' Ayin pronounced as omicron in Greek. Ayin was her name in Sumerian most probably borrowed from Sanskrit (1) Nayan-Nain-Ayan (2) to know -Gyan-Ghan Gh which was dropped. Subsequently, the Phonecians settled down in Higlaj/Singhlaj mountain, 200 miles west of Karachi and their goddess, Ayin, called Hinglamba or Naina Devi, is being worshipped throughout India. Therefore, symbol 'O' on the Indus seals must have indicated a homage to this deity through the term 'Om'. The letter M from the word Mem has its origin in the Hebrew word, 'Malik', used by Jacobite Christians to address their Roman landlords. It is formed by two adjoining hills indicated by the Sanskrit word, Mahalaya, changed to Malaya-Malaq-Malik. Asko Parpola treats it as a mountain. In Indus trade parlance it might be indicating the landlord receiving or sending goods noted on the seals. The letter J from the word, Zajin, in Hebrew indicates a shovel or a celt or an axe. It was derived from the Sanskrit root, Yudh, to fight and later it changed to Zuja-Zajin indicating armed soldiers probably protecting a caravan from India to Sumer. The letter N from the word Nun means a snake, a fish or an amphibian. The Sanskrit word Nahusha also indicates the same meaning. Another word, Nee-Nayati, means a journey. Therefore, it might be meaning a sea route instead of a land route. The letter L from the word, lamed, has a long history. Lions had a permanent habitat in Lebanon. It was a seat for the Goddess Naina. A pendant belonging to Prince Jerobam, described in the Bible, has been found in the excavation. It shows a picture of a lion with a raised tail, which was used to form the letter 'L'. The word, lamed, means a whip or a goad or an authority. The Sanskrit word' Al' meaning divine mother with 'Abhava'/fearlessness formed Leboy-Lamed. The letter P from the word 'pe' meaning a mouth is formed after the shape of a mouth or a face Pe-pesh also means to be present in person. Its form is like U/u with a long arm. This shape suggests the face of a horse. The best quality horses reared and sold by Iran formed an important aspect of the Indus trade. So the Sanskrit word Aswa-Aspa-spa-pa is at the root of its formation. The letter 'R' from the word, Resh, meaning a human head is depicted by drawing its actual figure or letter 'q' in reverse or Dr. S. R. Rao suggests Sanskrit 'Nru'-Naresh-Reesh as its basis. The letter T ‘tav’ presents the sign on life which is well expressed by the Sanskrit suffix tva such as 'Devatva'. The letter W-Wav meaning a tent peg was a conjunction derived from Sanskrit Naro-Wa-Kunjaro Wa. The letter S ‘shin’ meaning teeth is shown by two tusks of an elephant which formed an important item of the Indus trade with Sumer. Probably, it is derived from the words Hastin-stin-shin. Thus by 1000 B.C. the Jewish scholars devised 22 symbols representing definite phonetic sounds. They wanted to chronicle their history by using these letters, but could not do so because all the letters were consonants and no word could be formed without a vowel. The defect is inherited in modern Arabic specially devised for writing the Quran. Names such as, Babar, Humayun, Akbar, appear in Arabic as BBR, HMN, and KBR. They can be properly pronounced only after addition of vowels in the form of dots or Nukta at proper places. Similar difficulty was felt in writing the Hebrew. However, the idea was picked up by the surrounding nations and they started experimenting with the new script. The Hittaites added three vowels, A.E.U. to their picture script thus reducing their numbers. The Phoenician traders had to deal with several dialects for which they devised all the vowels and by adding them to the new script successfully they used them for writing. They were the first to make paper from papyrus reeds. Thus the 22 Hebrew letters formed found action for aff the semetic scripts such as Greek, Latin and other European dialects. However, in this process the original words and their Sanskrit source forming basis for these letters were forgotten and their corrupt forms came into use everywhere, creating a problem of spelling which is totally absent in Sanskrit and other vernaculars. Dr P.N. Phandke Source: Bhavan’s Journal December 15 2005 & February 28 2006 To be continued

The Theosophical Society

Mahatma Gandhi first came in contact with the Theosophical Society and its stalwarts Madame Blavatsky and Dr Annie Besant during his law student years in London (1888-91) and was greatly influenced by their work. Ever since then he remained in touch with the Society and had had regular correspondence with Dr Annie Besant.

About Theosophy The word ‘theosophy’ comes from the Greek ‘theosophia’ meaning ‘divine wisdom’. It has been called by different names - e.g. the Ancient or Ageless Wisdom, the Wisdom Religion, the Wisdom Tradition and the Perennial Philosophy. It is perceived as having many aspects and as being more than just a teaching. Some see it as a world-view that gives meaning and purpose to life; others see it as a spiritual philosophy that has been with us since time immemorial; others will say it is a way of life, a spiritual path that leads to peace and understanding; and yet others will say it is all this and more.

An essential principle of theosophy is its concept of a holistic world-view which emphasises the unity and interconnectedness of all life, the basic oneness of all peoples and all species of life. Its philosophy points to a divine spark in each of us that is always part of the Source from which it arises. The way of life implicit in its philosophy includes a high regard for all beings, and actions based on an increasing realisation of our oneness with all others. It leads to the unfolding of our greatest human qualities such as intuition, understanding, insight, love, compassion and creativity.

About The Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society is an international organisation founded in New York in 1875 by Helena P. Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge and others. To-day it has branches in about 60 countries. The Australian section of the Society was founded in 1895 and the current Sydney branch - The Blavatsky Lodge - in 1922. International Headquarters are at Adyar, Chennai, India.

Madame Blavatsky, who gave the world Theosophy in its modern form, drew together teachings from sources which included Plato, Confucius, the Vedas, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, the Kabbala, philosophers, scientists and other contemporary thinkers of her day. Her teachings weave a tapestry which depict the Cosmos as permeated with Spirit and Intelligence and divinely guided from within. She portrayed human beings as both earthly and divine, with vast potential still to be unfolded throughout future cycles of evolution. She also described the human being as sevenfold, with a capacity to develop increasingly higher expressions of emotion, concrete and abstract thought intuitive insight, compassion, realisation of unity and Spiritual Will. Furthermore, she described superphysical worlds or fields around and within us, from which intelligences and energies play upon us and all of Nature.

Theosophical teachings throughout history have explained life’s seeming inequalities as consequences of Karma, the Law of Balance and Harmony. This Law, or reharmonising process, gives us feedback on our actions and provides learning experiences. It expands our perspective to the possibility of many lifetimes through which we grow toward spiritual maturity. But perhaps most importantly, a way of life is implicit in Theosophy. It implies a regard for all life and actions based on an increasing realisation of our oneness with all others. Theosophical teachings also imply a life which allows our greatest human qualities to unfold such as intuition, understanding, insight, love, compassion and creativity. Anyone can begin to live a theosophical life at any time by seeking to live in harmony with all life, as the growing ecological awareness today demonstrates.

Source: The Theosophical Society in Australia http://www.austheos.org.au/ Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Australia has been invited by the Theosophical Society, Sydney to conduct the Friday Forums during August 2006 and present the essence of the Indian and Vedic Philosophy. The dates are 4, 11, 18, 25 August 2006 7:00pm – 8:00pm Venue: Meeting Room, Theosophy House, Level 2, 484 Kent Street, Sydney 2000.

India at Crossroads – Economic Globalization vs. Spiritual Globalization

“Our knowledge of science has already outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science, too few men of God… Man is stumbling blindly through spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of Life and Death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience.” - Omar N Bradley Indians in general are spiritual and live on ‘hope for better future’ as observed by the presence of slum dwellers living in inhuman conditions for generations, around 5- star hotels, posh localities and city’s railway tracts. Our faith in philosophy of past karma makes us insensitive and blind to the miserable living conditions of unfortunate brothers and sisters. Politicians exploit the misery of the poor for their own power games at the cost of economic development. After independence, we embraced communism with cosmetic changes and five year plans in the name of socialism but never critically monitoring the goals achieved. Poor people still live and die with hope. I recall visiting Russia behind iron curtain in 1981 to attend a Workshop. In the period of about 40 years, communism could provide a comfortable living condition for all the people irrespective of rich or poor, though unfortunately behind fear of ‘secret agent’ and loss of freedom. I do remember telling our Director, Dr. Sushila Nayar that Gandhian trusteeship is really in practice in Russia. She did not appreciate saying that it is implemented by force. As Marxist ideology was diluted with time, corruption and selfishness became rampant, people could not tolerate and revolted when the moment arrived. Now we have started embracing commerce driven capitalism and consumerism at the cost of spirituality without least inkling, where it will lead our country with vast population. When will we use our ancient wisdom to devise means and conditions for universal well being, with ‘Live and let live’ policy in place of competitive exploitation of one another? India is truly at cross roads to accept either economic globalization or spiritual globalization. Where as the economic globalization serves the interests of western industrialized countries, the spiritual globalization represented by New Age is truly for universal benefit. Deepak Chopra suggests that to survive, the human species must move from information and knowledge-based culture to a wisdom-based culture. Wisdom is knowledge and information that could heal the eco-system, resolve conflicts, bring about economic empowerment of the poor, and through leadership, training and empowerment of women, drastically reduce the incidence of diseases like AIDS. Chopra asks whether India is ready to lead the world into a wisdom-based civilization. Everything we need, we already have: Technology, education, cultural diversity, a collective imagination from a vibrant living mythology and a historical context which has drawn upon every possible spiritual and religious tradition – Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, Christianity.. the list is endless. These are the raw materials and ingredients for the perfect recipe for a wisdom-based society (TOI, Feb 2006). Dr. Pranav Pandya, Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya sees in the young graduates, crusaders for spread of the message of Hope, Harmony, Happiness and Peace amongst all humanity and says that the Time Spirit has decreed that India will have to play a very significant role in the ushering of the New Era. I realize this truth when I see the new generation of youth abroad saturated with affluence and consumerism, looking for a new direction, enthusiastically involving in Satsangh and social service activities of Spiritual Gurus Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Swaminarayan, Athawale, Chinmaya, Saibaba, Sri Ravishankar, Sri Goenka, Amritamayi inspired organizations and many more. Under guidance of Dr. Nagendra, Vice Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana has been doing excellent research on Yoga – The science of holistic living for better health and in disease management in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Johns Hopkins Univ. and Harvard University, USA. Recently held 15th International Conference on ‘Frontiers in Yoga Research and Its Applications’ at VYASA, Bangalore and World Conference on ‘Expanding Paradigms: Science, Consciousness and Spirituality’ at AIIMS, New Delhi are good examples of excellent research being done in India and abroad on Sudarshan kriya, Yoga, Pranayam and Consciousness with active participation of number of scientists from well known institutions. J. Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre, Mount Abu in collaboration with DIPAS and MDN Institute of Yoga showed Coronary Artery Disease Regression through Life Style changes and Rajyoga meditation. Vipassana or Yognidra under the name of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) is being used in management of stress related health problems at Massachusetts Medical Centre, USA. Swami Ramdev is teaching and doing research on pranayam and has become ‘5 am family physician’ bringing change in life style of millions of people watching TV every morning.

Quantum Physicists have started enlarging the scope of modern science by using consciousness-based approach, the essence of yoga, in contrast to the existing matter based approach. Our research funding agencies are more enthusiastic to look westward and support high tech driven research. It is time to look inwards and support projects related to Spiritual science with India’s strong knowledge base and Spiritual Gurus with mass support. Let us not wait to welcome consultants from abroad to teach us yoga, meditation, pranayam under different names. Based on the ancient wisdom, let India define, practise and propagate the Art of simple living in harmony with nature and concern to the whole humanity replacing Star culture and consumerism dished out by aggressive marketing. It is the last opportunity to survive from the trap of economic slavery for next 50 years. Millions of people throughout the world are practising yoga and holistic living. The trio Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Nagendra and Dr. Pranav Pandya may take the initiative to bring all the noble people preaching yoga, pranayam and meditation on one platform to mobilize masses to bring transformation in the country to embrace and lead the World in Spiritual globalization.

Prof. B. C. Harinath 07/03/2006 Director JB Tropical Disease Research Centre & Coordinator, BIC & Arogyadham Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences Sevagram – 442 102, MS, India . To Our Readers CAN INDIA DO IT? This year's annual issue of Bhavan’s Journal (published by Bhavan HQ) as usual promises to be a collector's item. The special August 2006 issue will have as its theme "CAN INDIA DO IT?" featuring contributions from the best thinkers and writers of the country on different aspects of life and activity in the country. Set in a broad canvas of history of the past and the vision of the future, the issue will analyse the great moments of success as well as the most palpable failures since independence. Keeping in view the fact that our readers are no less eminent in their chosen fields, we invite their contributions also on any of the following questions which we are posing to our specialist contributors. Please keep in mind the constraints of space and the need to accommodate as many contributions as possible. Reader contributions should not exceed 200 words. The questions posed to the experts are: 1) Can India claim in providing spiritual leadership to the world in the 21st century? 2) Can India become an economic superpower? 3) Can India achieve the twin aims of education: excellence in higher learning coupled with 100% literacy for its population? 4) Can the criminal justice system deliver speedy justice to ordinary citizens and protect the victims of state, law and crime? 5) Can the electoral system ensure free and fair poll and make elections free from caste and vote bank politics? 6) Can India achieve gender equality in terms of job opportunities and professional excellence? 7) Can India afford the cost of becoming a nuclear and space power? 8) Can India and Pakistan ever have normal and friendly relations? 9) Can India win the war against terrorist and sectarian violence? 10) Can India achieve full employment? 11) Can there ever be an end to the disparities between the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, industry and agriculture, etc.? 12) Can India's culture survive the onslaught of Western influences? 13) Can Indian politics free itself from the shackles of caste, religious, ethnic and language conflicts? 14) Can India's I.T. eminence last? 15) Can corruption in administration and public life be ended or brought under control? We also invite our readers to answer YES or NO to the above questions and choose one of the above questions for their considered opinion. Please send your views to [email protected] by 15 July 2006. These responses will be sent to Bhavan HQ for inclusion in the annual issue of Bhavan’s Journal.

Is Unity in Variety The Plan of the Universe?

Every human being is an embodiment of an ideal, and has a mission to perform in life. As long as the human being keeps to that ideal, that person prospers spiritually, socially and economically. With the Hindus that ideal is spirituality. In no other faiths, in no other sacred books of the world, so much energy is spent in defining the idea of God. Hindu seers tried to define the idea of soul so that no earthly touch might mar it. Spirit must be seen as divine and must not be identified with the physical man. The same idea of unity, of the realisation of. God, the omnipresent, is preached throughout. It is a human idea that God lives in heaven. If one believes in God, he can see Him even now. Religion begins when one has realize something. It is not believing in doctrines or giving intellectual assent or making declarations. If there is a God, one must see Him. If one is in doubt whether there is a God, he should struggle to see Him. One should spend the whole of his life for this one object. Knowing God and spirituality are the two great ideas of Hindu Dharma. There are various grades of mind. One may be a matter-of-fact, common- sense rationalist; he does not care for forms and ceremonies, he wants intellectual, hard, ringing facts. Then there are some believers, who will not allow a picture or a statue in their place of worship. But there maybe another man who is more artistic. He wants a great deal of art - beauty of lines and curves, colours, flowers, forms; he wants candles, lights, and all the insignia and paraphernalia of rituals, that he may see God. His mind grasps God in those forms, as others grasp Him through the intellect. There is a devotional man, whose soul is crying for God, he has no other idea but to worship and praise Him. Then again, there is the philosopher, standing outside, mocking at them. All these various minds, all these various types, are necessary. If there is ever going to be an ideal religion, it must be broad and large enough to supply food for all these minds. It must supply the strength of philosophy to the philosopher; the devotee's heart to the worshipper; to the ritualist it must give all that the most marvellous symbolism can convey; to the poet, it must give as much of heart as he can take in, and other things besides. To look for such a broad religion, we shall have to go to the Sanatana Dharma which is called Hindu Dharma. The Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, has been perfected by countless seers and incarnations of God to uplift humanity. In every religion there are three parts. First, there is the philosophy, which presents the whole scope of that religion, setting forth its basic principles, the goal, and the means for reaching it. The second part is mythology, which is philosophy made concrete. It consists of legends relating to the lives of men or supernatural beings, and so forth. It is the abstractions of philosophy concretised in the more or less imaginary lives of men and supernatural beings. The third part is ritual. This is still more concrete and is made up of forms and ceremonies, various physical attitudes, flowers and incense, and many other things that appeal to the senses. All religions have these three elements. Some lay more stress on one, some on another. God is the centre of all religions. We are all human beings, though we are not equal in our brains, our powers, our bodies. One man is stronger than another; one man has more brain - power than the other. These make a difference between us. Yet we know that the doctrine of equality makes an appeal to our heart. No two people are alike, yet we are all human beings. There is an abstract humanity which is common to all. So it is with this universal religion, which runs through all the various religions of the world in the form of God, it must and does exist through eternity. Unity in diversity is the plan of the universe. As men we are separate from animals; but as living beings, man, woman, animals; and plants are all one with the whole universe. That universal existence is God, the ultimate unity in the universe. In Him we are all one. At the same time, in manifestation these differences must always remain. We see so many different natures. There are thousands and thousands of varieties of minds and inclinations. A thorough generalisation is impossible, but for our practical purpose, it is sufficient to have them characterised into four classes. First, there is the active man, the worker; he wants to work, and there is tremendous energy in his muscles and nerves. His aim is to work in order to build hospitals and schools and do charitable deeds. Then there is the emotional man, who loves the sublime and the beautiful to an excessive degree. He loves to think of the beautiful, to enjoy the aesthetic side of nature, and to adore love and the God of love. He lives with his whole heart the great souls of all times, the prophets of religions.

Then there is the mystic, whose mind wants to analyse its own self, to understand the workings of the human mind, what the forces that are working inside, and how to know, manipulate, and obtain control over them. Then there is the philosopher who wants to weigh everything and use his intellect beyond the possibilities of all human philosophy. A religion to satisfy mankind, must be able to supply food for all these various types of minds. We need a religion that will be equally acceptable to all, it must be equally philosophic, equally emotional, equally mystic and equally conducive to action. And this combination can be found in Sanatana Dharma; so the Sanatana Dharma can be termed as universal religion. And this religion is attained by what we call Yoga - union. To the worker it is union between men and the whole of humanity; to the mystic, between his lower and higher self; to the lover, union between himself and God of love; and to the philosopher, it is the union of all existence. This is what is meant by Yoga. Yoga is a Sanskrit word, and these four divisions of Yoga have, in Sanskrit, different names. The man who seeks after this kind of union is called a Yogi. The worker is called a Karma Yogi. He who seeks the union through love is called the Bhakti Yogi. He who seeks it through mysticism is called the Raja Yogi. And he who seek it through philosophy is called the Jnana Yogi. Yoga is a vast subject, but the central idea of Yoga is to have one method of acquiring knowledge. From the lowest man to the highest Yogi, all have to use the same method, and that method is what is called concentration. In doing worldly deeds or in worshipping God or in making anything, the stronger the power of concentration, the better will that thing be done. This is the one call, the one knock, which opens the gates of nature and lets out floods of light. This, the power of concentration, is the only key to the treasure house of knowledge. It is imperative that all these Yogas should be put in practice. Mere theories about them will not do any good. First, we have to hear about them and then we have to think about them. We have to reason the thoughts out, impress them on our minds, and meditate on them, realise them, until at last they become our whole life. No longer will religion remain a bundle of ideas or theories, or an intellectual assent, it will enter into our very self. By means of intellectual assent today we may subscribe to many foolish ideas, and change our minds tomorrow. But true religion never changes. Religion is realisation, not talk nor doctrine, nor theories, however, beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging. It is the whole soul's becoming changed into what it believes. That is religion. A Yogi is a man who is not satisfied with the little things of this world. His idea is to go beyond the daily routine of eating, drinking and so on. Not even the teachings of thousands of books will satisfy him. His soul wants to go beyond all that into the very heart of Being, by seeing Reality as it is - by realising it, by being it, by becoming one with that universal Being. To him, God is the life of his life, the soul of his soul. God is his own Self. Nothing else remains which is other than God. What at last truly remains is God Himself. - Om Prakash Dubey Source: Bhavan’s Journal May 15 2006.

Integral Yoga Integral yoga aims at liberation and perfection of one's divine nature. What was once vague and indefinable becomes crystal clear and capable of appropriate expression in speech and action. Manifestation of our inner being that had evaded description is what it is all about. The union of the body, mind and spirit achieved by regular practice of yoga paves the way for a novel approach to life's problems. Striving to achieve life's ambitions initiates action with a divine and originating impulse. Being at peace with oneself and with the world through complete relaxation triggers the driving force that starts to achieve. Effort, the basis of all achievement, generates a one-point approach and a sense of purpose. Intertwining the physical and the mental planes through yoga conditions the body and mind. It brings about the ability to endure under adverse circumstances and the will to change the world for the better. Placing the body in prescribed positions for extended periods of time with complete relaxation sharpens the mental faculties and the reflexes. Introspection occurs in these relaxation techniques. A hidden reserve of activity and energy is opened out. In all relaxation poses, being conscious of all the vital parts of the body a certain indefinable energy manifests itself. There is a keenness to challenge existing conditions that are deplorable and effect changes for the better. Calm, peace, quiet and silences are what one achieves through yoga in a positive way. They help us to get strength, energy, and mastery over reflexes. These are indispensable for perfection. Yoga confers these attributes that help in overcoming obstacles through receptivity and development of the power to contain. Life's fulfillment and transportation into something beyond are achieved by integral yoga in order to bring about harmony and tranquility. Throughout its practice, there is God visualisation, consciousness and identity with the universe. Some exceptional experiences are felt by the practitioner of integral yoga: 1. Stifling emotions and thought in relaxation poses. 2. Increase in flexibility of the limbs that are trained to locate themselves in specific positions. 3. A stoic resignation to the inevitable. 4. Will it and it happens; For instance: (a) In asanas like dhanurasana and chakrasana, you want the backbone to crack - it does. The ligaments are loosened. (b) In Nadhi Shodhana Pranayama, during alternate nostril breathing, one discovers that the rectus abdomini recedes during internal breath retention. (c) In Vajrasana (the thunderbolt poses) you become aware of the metabolic changes which occur. You become conscious of the benefits like relief from gas, acidity and sluggishness of the liver. In short, integral yoga can combine to advantage aerobics, calisthenics and isometrics so that the benefits of each form of exercise are experienced over a period of time. Conquering the mind and spirit is probably the most important result of practicing this type of yoga. - K. Janakiraman Source: Bhavan’s Journal, May 15 2006

Bhavan’s Institute for Indian Arts and Culture presents Yoga classes at the Olympic Park Centre. The Yoga Classes is based on 3000 years old Empirically Proven wisdom of Fusion {Hatha, Tantrik + Rajas (Zen Meditation)} The practice of Fusion Yoga will not only bring about improvement in health, it will also eliminate all types of stress. . The classes will focus on areas such as Introduction to Fusion Yoga, Essence of Zen Meditation, Correct Breathing Techniques, Chakra (Body's Energy Centre) Energy Enhancement etc.

Timings & Sessions Mon, Wed & Thu: 7:30am - 8:30am, 12:00 noon - 12:30pm, 1:00pm - 1:30pm, 5:30pm - 6:30 pm

Visit www.bhavanaustralia.org for more information.

Sara Chapman Bull - I The American Mother of Swami Vivekananda

Meeting Sara Bull was the turning point in Vivekananda’s American career. ‘In Sara Bull, Vivekananda’s cause found a mother. There was none other with her sense of responsibility, foresight and wisdom.’ Sara bull’s home in America became a recognised school of comparative philosophy; with special care taken that Indian and Vedantic subjects should have an adequate place.

From the beginning of her contact with the Indian mind, she had felt a curiosity as to the quality of the mothers of men so trained. Sara Bull was eagerly interested in the education of Indian women. Indian women have never been read more sympathetically or regarded more hopefully, than by this truest and best of friends.

She was aware of the importance to the future of people, of all the higher forms of intellectual activity. Seldom is such warmth of conviction and enthusiasm held in such exquisite restraint by depth of experience and Sara Bull ca. 1894 at her sanity of judgement. Cambridge House Saint Sara, as her closest friends called her, was an accomplished pianist but only dabbled in painting herself. She promoted Japanese as well as American schools of painting, turning her stable into a residential studio for the artists. She held exhibitions there for the artists who stayed there from time to time. She said, ‘There is but one art, since art is the outward expression of the human spirit. But there are different avenues of expression for different temperaments.’ Sara contributed to the Tuskegee Institute, Booker T Washington’s first college for black Americans and to Jane Addams’ Hull House, an educational community for working women immigrants. Sara also worked hard to promote an Indian scientific genius at a time when Indian scientists were suppressed by the English government. She was a scholar of Norwegian literature and wrote several books and articles about famous Norwegians.

Most importantly, Sara founded one of the first schools of active exchange of Eastern and Western thought in America. For a few years her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts housed the Cambridge School of Philosophy. It was partly a residential school within close proximity to Harvard. The university’s professors and students made up the bulk of its scholars, including visiting professors from around the world. Sara saw to it that there would always be in residence at least one of her best practitioners of the Vedanta philosophy of India, monks of the newly formed Ramakrishna Order.

More about the life of Saint Sara will be published in the second instalment of this article. Those interested may like to read the book on Saint Sara as listed at the end of this article.

The following sections relate to Sara’s contribution to leading Swami Vivekananda to the Parliament of World Religions. …………………………. It seems it was Sara's plan to go from California to Chicago in time for the opening of the World's Fair, on May first, when her mother's death at the end of April changed her plans and the family had to return to Oxford for the funeral. Sara's family went back to Chicago after her mother's funeral. Perhaps Sara went to join them later. On June 8, 1893, Emma wrote to Sara from Chicago: We were so glad to meet your father and all the party last night at the Fair. He was looking so well, and seemed to be enjoying the Fair. Do you think you will come back? I wish you might while we are here.In Chicago, Sara's family met Sarah Farmer, a friend of Sara's mother, who had gone there to help her father to display his inventions in an exhibition stall. Sarah Farmer had bought some property for a business venture in l890.This venture was to be the focus of Sara Farmer and Sara Bull's future work. When Sarah Farmer began this project, she had appealed to Amelia Thorp for a donation.

Miss Farmer later told Sara that Amelia, putting her hand on Miss Farmer's head, had blessed her and inspired her to make a universal spiritual retreat out of the hotel. Miss Farmer transferred her gratitude for Amelia Thorp's inspiration to her daughter, Sara. The friendship of these two women, now sealed as though by a divine 'laying of hands,' drew upon their combined spiritual strength to bear a tangible result in the next year.

The World's Fair of 1893 The World's Fair was in celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. It opened on six hundred and fifty acres of landscaped grounds on the shore of Lake Michigan. There were forty-nine buildings that housed innumerable exhibits. On May 2, it was published in the Daily Inter-Ocean: ‘As the Swami Vivekananda whole of Greek life was symbolised in the Acropolis, so in the drama at Jackson under the Swami’s Pine Park yesterday the whole life of America and of other civilised nations was GreenAcre 1894 portrayed...’

The President of the United States opened the fair and spoke of the Fair representing the results of American enterprise of a young nation, and the triumphs of a vigorous, self-reliant and independent people. One of the most interesting features of the Fair was the Parliament of World Religions, which began on September 11 and lasted seventeen days.

It seemed to the Parliament Committee headed by Dr. Charles Bonney and Dr. Henry Barrows that it would be well to end the World's Columbian Exposition by bringing the representatives of the world's great religions together in a grand ecumenical conference. This Parliament of Religions would proclaim to the world that the great religions stood united against the material forces of the time. Barrows and other Missionaries saw this as an opportunity to consolidate the Christian Church. They planned to show their superiority making a circus of the delegates of the other religions of the world that they predicted would appear very primitive compared to their own 'civilised' and cultured orators.

The foreign delegates, some in spare tribal dress, some in kingly robes did make a colourful show. Many of the delegates signed up with lecture bureaux and toured the country earning their stay in America and funding projects back home. Surprising to the Missionaries, these delegates had a fresh point of view of American problems about religion and morality. After the Parliament they found it lucrative to preach to the new country, which was in the uncomfortable process of forming an American ideal, after their high expectations had collapsed in the Civil War and economic failure. They all contributed to the broadening of the collective consciousness of the American mind. The Parliament turned out to be one of the most significant events in the field of inter-religious dialogue and understanding in history.

The Hindu Monk

The Oriental delegates received attention, as much for their display of colourful dress, as what they had to say, that is if their English, spoken with foreign accents, could be understood. One exceptional person, who reversed the tide of public opinion in favour of the Oriental religions, was 'the Hindoo Monk of India,' Swami Vivekananda. His eloquent speeches were reported in the press throughout the world. The media capitalised on the sensation he caused, noting that he added an entirely new dimension to the proceedings by introducing a 'universal' touch to the subject of religion in a departure from the traditional rigid approach.’ When other participants talked of this religion or that,' observed a journalist, 'the Hindoo monk talked of religion as such—religion with a capital R—which is common to all of humanity. The Swami exhorted those assembled at the Parliament, and through them the whole world, to give up their 'frog in the well' attitude pertaining to their respective faiths, for, he said, it goes against the very basis of religion and spirituality and eventually gives rise to all manner of fanaticism. He said in his address at the end of the proceedings: If the Parliament of religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart.

The Swami's success gave impetus to a movement of serious and sincere study of comparative religions in America. The Swami's teaching was the inspiration for William James' famous book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. James wrote to his brother about the Fair, 'Everyone says one ought to sell all one has and mortgage one's soul to go there. . . . People cast away all sin and baseness, burst into tears and grow religious, etc., under the influence. . .' Vivekananda, summarised his master's (Ramakrishna) teachings as follows: ‘Do not care for dogmas or sects or churches or temples: they count for little compared with the essence of existence in

Swami Vivekananda at Greenacre under the Swami’s Pine, each man which is his spirituality, and the more this Sara Farmer sitting next to him on the right, 1894 is developed in man the more powerful he is for good. Earn that first, acquire that, and criticise no one, for all doctrines and creeds have some good in them. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words, or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realisation. Only those can understand who have felt. Only those who have attained to spirituality can communicate it to others, can be great teachers of mankind. They alone are the powers of light.'

Swami Vivekananda considered Sara Bull to be divinely inspired. At times he was reluctant to accept her advice and vehemently rebelled against it but he always found her to be right and apologised afterwards. Sara did not hesitate to advise him about his work, and how he should conduct it. When she thought it was time for him to retire, she told him in no uncertain terms to quit. Swami Vivekananda visited America three times, although it is usually counted as two, since the second time came after a short interval of a couple of months spent in Paris and London. He initially was motivated to seek aid from America to ameliorate the condition of the poor in India whom he painfully witnessed during his wanderings throughout India after the death of his guru. While teaching in America, he realised that he had a mission in the West as well as India: that he must create a tidal wave of spiritual consciousness in the world. From his Master he learned that you cannot teach religion to an empty stomach, so he began to raise funds in America to help educate Indians so they could provide for themselves. What did he have to give America in return? Vivekananda gave the liberating message of Sri Ramakrishna. He went round the country from city to city, town to town, lecturing often without food or sleep. He found Sri Ramakrishna's message was just the solution to the dilemma the Western world was confronted with in the wake of Darwinism and the Industrial Revolution: the war between capital and labour and the dichotomy of science and religion or humanity and God. Americans seemed to be forced to make a choice and they tended to be in favour of humanity in preference to God. Sri Ramakrishna’s message could dissolve their dilemma: serve God in humanity.

This article comprises of excerpts from the book: Saint Sara The Life of Sara Chapman Bull the American Mother of Swami Vivekananda by Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, published by Sri Sarada Math, Dakshineswar, Calcutta. This book is available at: Vedanta Book Agency, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon NSW; Phone: 9745 4320.

Heroines of Peace The Nine Nobel Women

The Nobel Peace Prizes at their best set before us an array of great human spirits. The nine women Prizewinners clearly belong in this list. They come from a variety of backgrounds and represent a variety of forms of peace making. The earliest of these heroines of peace was the Austrian baroness who inspired the Prize, while the most recent was the Indian from Guatemala who rose to leadership overcoming poverty and oppression. They include the woman regarded as the greatest of her generation in the United States; the scholar and reformer who was the acknowledged intellectual leader of the American peace movement; two Northern Irish advocates of nonviolence who made a dramatic effort to resolve the longstanding violent conflict in their land; a saintly missionary working in the slums of Calcutta; a Swedish social reformer who became a cabinet minister and ambassador; and a Burmese intellectual who led the opposition to a brutal military dictatorship. They were not only of different nationalities and different classes, but of different faiths; among them were Catholics and freethinkers, a Buddhist and a Quaker. They worked against war in peace societies and in political life, as humanitarians and defenders of human rights. This small group of nine Laureates represents the diverse paths to peace which the Norwegian Nobel committees have recognized over the years. But they are most interesting in themselves; each has a fascinating story to tell. The purpose of this paper is to consider the lives and peace efforts of these nine laureates, picturing them as the members of the Nobel Committee described them in presenting them with their prizes at the award ceremonies. Thereafter we shall reflect on what, if anything they had in common. In the Appendix are some notes on the contributions of other women, the wives and mothers of the men who won the Prize. But first a few words about Alfred Nobel's intentions regarding women and the Prize and how the Norwegian committee have followed his wishes in this respect.

Nobel, The Norwegian Nobel Committee, and Women Prizewinners The story has often been told of how Nobel had long been interested in peace but how it was his friend the peace activist Baroness Bertha von Suttner, who drew his attention to the international movement against war which was becoming organized in the 1890s and secured his financial support for her peace activities. In January 1893 he wrote her that he planned to set up a prize to be awarded "to him or her who would have brought about the greatest step toward advancing the pacification of Europe." In the will he drafted a few months later Nobel included a generous bequest for Baroness von Suttner's Austrian Peace Society and provided for prizes to be awarded every three years for intellectual and scientific achievements. These included efforts to promote the establishment of a European tribunal and were to be granted to the most deserving, whether "a Swede or a foreigner, a man or a woman." In the final draft of his will, Nobel omitted the last clause, as well as the bequest for the Austrian Peace Society, but he set up a prize for peace as one of his five prizes, and he clearly expected the Baroness to receive it. Four awards were made, however, before she finally received the prize in 1905. In 1901 and 1902 she was not even on the Committee's short list. In 1903 the Committee put her on the short list, but despite the support of most of the other peace leaders, who called her their "commander-in-chief," she was again passed over. In 1904 she lost out to the Institute of International Law, which added insult to injury, since when Nobel's will was being implemented, the Baroness, with her special knowledge of her friend's intentions, had strongly protested to the executors that Nobel had wanted the Prize to go only to individuals.

In a speech earlier that year Nobel Committee Chairman Jörgen Lövland, in referring to the awards to the veterans of the peace movement, had spoken of "the men who had done this work." Small wonder that the Baroness just about gave up hope and was much surprised when the gold ring finally came around to her in 1905. This was due to the special effort of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, the great writer, who was a member of the committee. When the Baroness came to deliver her Nobel lecture in the spring of 1906, Chairman Lövland, now foreign minister, spoke at the banquet about the great influence of women in history and how they could change the ideas of war and give men higher aims. It was however, twenty-six years later before the second woman, Jane Addams, was honored with the Prize. Addams had first been nominated in 1916 for her efforts to bring the First World War to an end and repeatedly thereafter. In 1923 the Committee's adviser recommended her in his report, and she had a distinguished list of supporters, including Woodrow Wilson, John Dewey, Felix Frankfurter, Robert LaFollette and Sidney Webb, but no Prize was awarded for that year. Four more times she was on the short list before she shared the divided Prize of 1931 with Nicholas Murray Butler. In the presentation speech, made in her absence, Professor Halvdan Koht said, "In honoring Jane Addams, we also render homage to the work which women can do for peace and human brotherhood." Apparently that was enough homage for the next fifteen years until in 1946 Emily Green Balch shared the Prize with John Mott of the YMCA. This time it took years for the next women laureates, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, even though the committee had had its first woman member since 1948. During the thirty years Mrs. Aase Lionaes served on the Committee, chairing it the last ten, the Williams-Corrigan award was the only one to women. Since then the committee has done better, honoring Mother Teresa in 1979, Alva Myrdal in 1982, Aung Sang Suu Kyi in 1991, and Rigoberta Menchú Tum in 1992. In the first 45 years of the Prizes, only three went to women, and of the 96 awards since 1901, only nine women have been Prizewinners. The committee's archives are open for research up to the Second World War, so we know that a number of women made the short list: The Quaker Priscilla Peckover and Annie Besant, theosophist and social reformer, both from England; from the United States, the peace activist Lucia Ames Mead, Belva Lockwood and Carrie Chapman Call and Elsa Brändström, the Swedish humanitarian. Others who might have been considered in the period included Dr. Aletta Jacobs of the Netherlands, feminist and activist; the activist Helene Stöcker and the artist Käthe Kollwitz of Germany; Christian socialist Muriel Lester and author Vera Brittain of England; and feminist and writer Oliver Schreiner of South Africa. In the years following the Second World War, there were several well qualified women candidates who were not named. In 1947 there was a proposal with the Cold War in mind, to share the prize between Eleanor Roosevelt who had done distinguished work on human rights in the United States and Alexandra Kollontai, the Soviet diplomat who had contributed to ending the Soviet-Finnish War. In 1948 Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary, who began her peace campaigning during the First World War, was nominated by a number of European parliamentarians. While it is true that during all these years it was difficult for a woman to rise to prominence in a male world, the Norwegian Nobel committees were apparently not without prejudice.

- By Irwin Abrams, Antioch University Source: www.nobelprize.org

• If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. • Woman is the incarnation of ahimsa. Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering • Woman is more fitted than man to make explorations and take bolder action in ahimsa. - Mahatma Gandhi

We will include a profile of each of the nine women Nobel laureates starting with July 2006 issue.

Kiren Bedi: Combination of Courage & Compassion

The Super Cop, Dr. Kiran Bedi, is perhaps the most dynamic lady police officer in India, maybe the world over. Decorated with the famous Magsaysay Award, she has many firsts to her credit. She was the first Sub-Divisional Lady Police Officer in the country way back in 1975. In 1995, the then US President Bill Clinton invited her to the White House for breakfast meeting. In January 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi bestowed upon her a similar honour. She was 26 then and led the Delhi Police contingent at the Republic Day Parade. A tough officer, known for discipline and perfection, she was nicknamed as, "Krane Bedi", when she was DCP (Traffic) in 1981-83. She refused many a request for pardon and advised all those who telephoned her to pay the fine and get their cars released for wrong parking: She has not learnt to surrender howsoever high one may be, if she is right. It was because of these qualities that the U N Secretary General Kofi Annan picked her for a two- year United Nations assignment. Kiran Bedi has been greatly influenced by the ‘ordinary human beings’, the great thinkers and writers like Hazrat Mohammed, Mahatma Gandhi, Guru Nanak and the words spoken by Lord Shri Krishna in Bhagwad Gita. Appreciating her work, the Dalai Lama felt that her compassion, concern and total commitment to social issues have earned her unusual distinction. Dalai Lama said: "I have myself believed deeply and strongly in the need to treat people who are imprisoned as part of our own society. Unfortunately, society in general and prison authorities, in particular, treat prisoners as outcasts. I, therefore, admire and laud Kiran Bedi's noble attempts." In an interview for Bhavan's Journal Dr Kiran Bedi said: The profession of a police officer came to me in 1972 both by destiny and choice. I learnt through my training as also with the blessings of my parents to undertake every assignment with "willingness" and "devotion". I made up my mind that I needed no supervisor (although seniors were there) and worked with sincerity, devotion coupled with discipline. It has paid dividends and built up my reputation. I work hard and expect others also to work hard. We are all the time talking of police image. Image is closely linked with work and performance. It cannot be given a cosmetic treatment and can be backed up only by hard work. The police administration in India requires substantial changes in the framework. The policing in India is still based on age-old colonial heritage. It means control and control based on Police Act of 1861. It has a system consisting of Home Secretary and a District Magistrate. You will be surprised to know that even after 59 years of Independence; the country has not amended the 1861 Police Act in spite of very profound recommendations of Police Commission headed by a distinguished ICS Officer, late Dharam Vira. Tihar assignment proved to be a big milestone in my life, as also a great spiritual transformation. The Tihar Jail was renamed Tihar Ashram and is one of the largest prisons in the world spread over an area of over 200 acres. It houses as many as 9700 or even more inmates (men, women, adolescents, children, Indians as well as foreigners). They could be un-convicted alleged offenders, convicts and others. When I joined it in May 1993, it was a limping and languishing institution condemned by one and all. I am happy to record that within a short period, fundamental changes were brought about giving a human face to administrative structure creating an exemplary system covering all areas of prison management. I introduced many innovative and imaginative reforms, like facilities of petitions by prisoners, panchayats, adult education, higher education, Indira Gandhi Open University Centre and innumerable others. The underlying idea was to be a responsive and sensitive administration. I think I succeeded immensely as the process is still on.

- R.K.Bhatnagar Source: Bhavan’s Journal May 15 2006

Shree Krishna Janmastami

Shree Krishna Janmastami - the birth celebration of the unborn...Shree Krishna Janmastami is the celebration of the divine appearance of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who personally appears periodically in this material world to re-establish religious principles, to deliver His devotees and to destroy those creating disturbance in the universal order. Krishna appears in other forms also, which are innumerable, but this festival celebrates His arrival in his original form. This form as a two-armed beautiful cowherd boy, with bluish hued skin, plays a flute and enjoys family and village pastimes with His most intimate and loving devotees. Although, being God, He is Lord of all the worlds, He prefers to interact as a village cowherd boy and His Vaishnava followers aspire to one day join Him in His eternal blissful pastimes in His own home, Vrindavana. This is the essential religious sentiment and mood of Janmastami.

Krishna appeared in His original two-armed form just over 5000 years ago in Vrindavana, which is south- west of Delhi in India, and this village of Vrindavana is a replica of the eternal spiritual abode called Goloka Vrindavana, and it is considered non-different from the original abode of the Lord. Goloka translates from Sanskrit as 'the planet of the cows', in which Krishna engages in sweet pastimes as a young cowherd boy, and Vrindavana means literally 'the forest of Vrinda Devi', Vrinda being another name for Tulasi Devi who is the personification of the sacred plant Tulasi which devotees wear as beads around their necks, chant on, and put her leaves on every offering to the Deity form of the Lord. Tulasi is a very dear servant of Krishna and therefore her descent in this world as a plant is also considered divine, and cows which are also very dear to the Lord are considered very special and therefore always highly regarded in traditional Indian spiritual culture.

Janmastami is the major annual festival for Vaishnavas that could be likened to Christmas in the Christian calendar, signifying the Lord's so-called 'birth' in this world, though the Lord never actually takes birth in a material body as we do but comes in His own eternal spiritual form. The celebration takes place in August or early September each year, according to the lunar calendar. Janma means 'birth' and astami is the number eight in Sanskrit, as Krishna appeared on the eighth day of the lunar cycle, at midnight in the dark half of the month of Sravan. This corresponds to July 19th in the year 3228 BC. He appeared as the child of Devaki and Vasudeva who prayed for His appearance in their family, though His eternal parents are Nanda and Yasoda, who Krishna was taken to after birth to escape the plan of the evil king Kamsa who wanted Him killed. He exhibited His pastimes for a little over 125 years, in Mathura, Vrindavana and Dwaraka respectively, and disappeared on the new moon night of Phalgun. His departure marks the beginning of the current age of corruption known as Kali-yuga. Traditionally devotees fast until midnight, the hour of Lord Krishna's appearance, having spent the day performing devotional activities in honour of this most auspicious occasion.

Typical festive activities include Cooking 108 (or more) different delicacies for offering to the Lord at midnight. (All the foods and drinks are then served to all the guests and celebrants). Darshan (viewing) of the Lord in His specially decorated Deity form on the flower-laden altar Abhiseka (public bathing) of the form of the Lord using various fruit juices and milk products Bhajans (devotional songs) sung to traditional tunes accompanied by traditional instruments. Dramas re-enacting the pastimes of Lord Krishna

Dance in the traditional Indian style (Bharata-Natyam), sometimes with modern innovations, portraying the Lord's pastimes. Readings from the scriptures, particularly the section of the Srimad-Bhagavatam describing the Lord's unique birth and the intriguing events leading up to and following His arrival Kirtana (group chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra) which is a daily affair in temples, but on a festival day devotees consider more and more the Kirtana Krishna's appearance isn't ordinary, as He describes personally in the Bhagavad-gita chapter 4 verse 9: "One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna." Simply by understanding Krishna's nature makes us eligible to return to Him, but that understanding isn't quite so simple. This He also states in the Gita "Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be" (Bhagavad-Gita 9.11). Many people throughout history, and still today, completely misunderstand Krishna to be an ordinary human being just like us, although perhaps more intelligent they concede. This is because Krishna must be understood from a person who knows the process, not by mental speculation, just as any mundane subject can only properly be learnt by a student when both he and the teacher are qualified. As one may attend school, college or university to become learned, Krishna recommends the same process to properly learn higher spiritual truths: "Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire submissively from him and render service unto him. The self-realised souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth" (Bhagavad-Gita 4.34).

Such a person is very rare to find in this world of the 'cheaters and the cheated', but we are very fortunate that such a person sacrificed everything to bring these teachings to the Western world. That person is His Divine Grace, A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Better know as Srila Prabhupada to his followers, he traveled from Krishna's village of Vrindavana in India to New York City in 1965 to benefit all humanity with Krishna's message. After his departure from this world in November 1977 he left us his legacy in the form of many volumes of books, dutifully translated from the original Sanskrit works of Srila Vyasadeva (an incarnation who compiled the whole cannon of Vedic literature). For the first time in history these works were available in English (and now in many other languages), allowing people outside of India access to the teachings therein, which reveal the path of Bhakti- Yoga as the means to understand the nature of the Lord and our position as loving servants in relation to Him.

Following are some of the quotes from Srila Prabhupada in relation to Krishna Janmastami... "One has to learn how Krishna takes birth. It is not ordinary birth. Had it been ordinary birth, then why we should observe the Janmastami ceremony? It is divyam, divine, transcendental. Everything of Krishna is divine. And if we think Krishna as like us, then according to the statement of the Bhagavad-gita, immediately we become a mudha. Avajananti mam mudha manusim tanum asritam [BG. 9.11]" (Srila Prabhupada lecture, Bombay, November 13, 1974).

"In the Bhagavad-gita the Lord says, Janma karma me divyam yo janati tattvatah: "Anyone who understands about My birth and appearance..." Lord does not take birth. He is Aja (who never takes birth); Ever-existing. Ajo 'pi sann avyayatma bhutanam isvaro 'pi san, sambhavami yuge yuge. We are observing the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna. So therefore what is the mystery? He does not take birth. Still, we are observing the birth anniversary of Krishna, Janmastami. So this is to be understood, tattvatah, in truth. Yo janati tattvatah. Krishna says, Veda says that Na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate. "The Supreme Lord God has nothing to do." Why He shall do? ….. (Srila Prabhupada lecture, Los Angeles, June 12, 1972)

- Vijay Gopikesha, ISKCON Sydney.

Reflections on God Gene

The claim of a renowned scientist that he has identified the "God gene" has attracted considerable academic attention in recent months. Dr. Hamer, the author of "The God Gene" is a leading scientist at the National Institute of Health, Washington.This gene previously identified and named as Vesicular Monoamine Transported (VMAT2), is associated with the voluntary and involuntary movements of the body through the release of mood altering chemicals. These chemicals also render protection from neurotoxin effects and behavioural abnormalities. Dr Hamer, a molecular geneticist who studied 2000 persons through a series of questioner and genomic analyses, came to the conclusion that the tendency to be spiritual is part of genetic make up. According to him, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed, all probably had the VMAT2 gene, as they all experienced mystical experiences or underwent radical alterations in consciousness. Dr. Hamer was extending his earlier studies of attributing behaviour patterns in smoking and addiction to a cluster of 9 genes associated with the metabolism of monoamines in the brain. He found an association with a single, nucleotide polymorphism which consequent on replacement of Cytosine to Adenine, showed a marked reduction in self-transcendence in the person concerned. This indeed is a remarkable finding especially when one looks at the unique effect emanating from the mutation of one single nucleotide out of a total of over 3.4 billion nucleotide bases contained in the human genome. The book "The God Gene" has attracted extensive media attention since its publication a year ago. Dr. Hamer has argued that spirituality has an inherited genetic component. The scientist accepts the probability of other genes and other single nucleotide polymorphisms also having a role in explaining the experience of transcendence. He further stresses that spirituality is purely a personal phenomenon while religiosity is institutional with its maximum effect drawn from the environment. The presence of the 'God Gene' is not a prerequisite for a person's belief in God. Some of the critics of Dr. Hamer's proposition, who include scientists, ethicists, and theologists have openly deplored the contention that VMAT2 gene and its expression as evidenced by the increase in certain chemicals particularly monoamines have no functional correlation with spirituality and religion. The results presented by Dr. Hamer are detrimental to the accrued faith of common religionists, evangelists and diehard cultists. They argue that the expression of monoamines should not be sought to be explained in terms of spiritual experiences and that spiritual experiences cannot and should not be reduced to the effect of a bunch of addictive chemicals or measured in terms of grossly physical indicators. The true experience, the ineffable bliss and peace that go with it, is far more than any chemical effect and surpasses all imaginable realms of mundane speculations. How can spirituality and transcendence be reduced to the effect of a bunch of unpredictable chemical reactions that go on within the human brain? Although novel to western concepts, age-old Indian philosophy accepts the existence of inherited traits or vaasanas in humans. Vedaantists ungrudgingly accept vaasanas, but fail to consider the fallacies of interpretation of vaasanas and their implications. Vedaanta accepts the presence of divinity in every being, be it scientists, atheists, theists or secularists or even non- humans. Spirituality should not be attributed solely to a single or a group of genes; on the other hand divinity is present in every phenomenon including all known and unknown genes, and every conceivable and sentient experience. If one single gene or a cluster of genes alone is the true God gene, then in what realm do the remaining genes dwell? Beyond God - an apriori nonsensical point of view. Similarly, can genes and genomes of other creatures- animals and plants, stellar bodies and physical, chemical and magnetic forces, lie beyond or besides God? Although not quite explicitly, the mention of a gene that may control spiritual inclinations in man had occurred during the Vedic period, more than 3,000 years ago in some of the Indian scriptures. The causal body or the kaarana sarira that Vedic literature spoke of, is analogical to genes. The causal body reflects vaasanas or traits comparable to genes in which are encoded inherited features. These vaasanas (a term which cannot be literally translated as genes) are responsible for the functioning of mind and intellect, and are comparable to the building blocks (or genes) of modern-day genetics. However, vaasanas would lie beyond the comprehension of sense organs unlike genes which always are conceived through data and descriptions collected by sense organs. The Infinite can be perceived, but not through sense organs and it is in this sense that science and vedaanta disagreed with each other. The Vedic culture categorically accepts the fact that every being is divine in nature. Further refinement of the Vedaantic tenet takes one to the concept of 'consciousness', which is nothing but the all-pervading Brahman, formless, attribute-less, pure and transcendent, in other words, God. The scientist gropes in the dark with respect to

this comprehension and his misgivings persist, in the absence of data obtained through sense organs. In reality, the gene is also God, like everything else, but not God in its macrocosmic sense. The role genes play in spirituality is a fascinating question to be seriously addressed. Psychologists, neurologists and evolutionary biologists have offered only very rudimentary insights into how behavioural instincts emerge in the brain and how behaviour is modulated by environmental factors. The take home message is that the understanding of spirituality through the genetical and neurological basis if ever possible would go a long way in eliminating or at least lessening parochial and mindless misadventures of fundamentalism that is a blemish on several present-day religions and cults. Such an understanding would make religions a little more tolerable and Dr Albert Einstein’s comment that “religion with out science is blind, and science without religion is lame”, all the more relishable.

- Prof Vishwanath Kurup Source: Bhavan’s Journal April 15 2006

SUPPORTED BY BHAVAN AUSTRALIA

Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form. Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendent of Bharata, and a predominant rise in of irreligion at that time I descend Myself. To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium. One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna. - Bhagavad-Gita:verses 2.6-2.9

Father Thomas Kocherry – A Profile

Father Thomas Kocherry is visiting Australia(from India) this month and has been invited to speak at the New South Wales Parliament House on 19 June. A brief profile of Father Kocherry is published below. Save the Ocean Very few people would have a longer or more intimate relationship with marine conservation than Father Thomas Kocherry. He started his very vocal agitation against the exploitation of the sea’s resources far back in 1981. He has a very clear agenda. Leave the ocean to the traditional owners, the fish workers. Catholic Priest and Gandhian There is no short cut to change, says Father Thomas Kocherry. Catholic priest and social activist, he says the divine dimension of life is in giving to others, so I give my time and energy to these struggles and I get peace and joy. In the age of extremism, Father Thomas Kocherry stands out as an inspiration for non-violent struggles across the globe against globalization. When Gandhism is on the decline in India, this Catholic priest uses it as his main weapon against oppression. He has marched on the streets of Pakistan to Seattle to Senegal protesting against the displacement of fish workers. He’s won a series of international awards and turned down prestigious awards on moral grounds. He is a renowned environmentalist and is one of the most vocal critics of globalization.

Spiritual life Thomas Kocherry is an active member of a Religious Congregation of Priests and Brothers, called "The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer", or "The Redemptorist Congregation”. This is an International society spread over 65 countries with branches in Australia as well. Father Thomas Kocherry teaches “the theology and the spirituality of People's movements” at the Indian Theological Association, ITA.

International Awards In 1997 the PEW foundation announced Thomas Kocherry as the recipient of an award which carried $170,000 for marine conservation. However, Thomas Kocherry declined the award because the PEW award is founded by the Sun Oil Company, which is one of the biggest polluters in the world - polluting the Amazon area, Valenzuela, Philadelphia. The FIAN International Institute for Socio-economic Human Rights Protection, Germany, awarded Thomas Kocherry with a gold medal in the same year.In March 1998, the Earth Society Foundation, New York awarded Thomas Kocherry with the EARTH TRUSTEE AWARD (a plaque and citation) for his contribution in preserving and promoting marine ecology. This award was presented to him during the Earth Day celebrations at the United Nations on 2oth March 1998. In 1999 he won Sophie Prize from Norway of $100,000. This award was shared by Herman Daly from USA. This is an award given every year to those who contribute to alternate politics and development, where every human in the world is equal and has a right to live.

First experience with traditional Fisher People Father Kocherry had first hand experience of the hardships faced by traditional fishers when he lived and worked as one of them from 1972 to 1979. He established tuition classes, health care and childcare facilities for the fish- workers that he was working with. But more importantly he worked to organize them and make them a political force. He started his agitation against trawler ban as early as 1981. Trawlers are, even today, destroying large parts of the ocean floor. Greenpeace has documented the devastation on their websites and on a number of campaigns. This has been an ongoing struggle as there are powerful interests involved. In 1991 India introduced a new policy called Joint Venture Policy. This was to open up the seas to the foreign companies that would have displaced the traditional owners of the sea. He brought all the fisher workers together under one banner and managed to get the government to withdraw this policy. The government set up a committee called the Murari committee (which included representatives of the fish workers) and this committee came up with the unanimous recommendation that the all the licenses be cancelled. It also recommended that the entire fishing policy in India be reconstituted. The government accepted the recommendation in 1997. This has been his most obvious victory. But for Father Thomas Kocherry, this was just the beginning. He continues to liaise with Fish workers organizations from around the world and is a leading figure in fighting for the conservation of marine resources.

- Courtesy of Siddharth, Indus Age

BURY THE PAST

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said: Be not a slave of your own past -plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overtake the old. We must learn to live in the present. We must attend to our present needs, resolve our present problems. We can hope and pray and plan for the future - but we must learn to leave the past alone. This is why Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead." To dwell in the past, to obsess about the past, to refuse to let bygones be bygones is akin to death. Have you heard of Burke and Hare? Chances are that many of you have not! They were notorious rather than famous. They were two crooks who realised that they could make a fortune by digging up fresh graves, stealing the dead bodies buried therein and selling them to medical schools which needed corpses for their anatomy classes. (This was in the 1820s.) "Ugh!" you are likely to say. "What a dreadful thing to do!" You are right, of course. It is terrible to contemplate. But are we any better? Can I suggest to you that many of us are grave robbers without actually being aware of it? Let me say to you, every time you dig up an old grievance, every time you relive the wrongs that you suffered in the past, every time you revive an old animosity - either by thinking about it or talking about it - you too are digging up an old grave. And you know very well what you are likely to find in it... Life is too precious to be spent in such pursuits. The past is over and done with. It is gone with the wind! Therefore, I say to you, release it once and for all! Let it go! This is the best way to handle all your failures, disappointments, hurdles, and grievances - release them, let them go! We can do this simply by erasing the slate of our mind. We can refuse to think of them and just deny their existence in our mind. You see, the only existence they have is in your mind! The present is beautiful, valuable, full of life, wonder and interest. It offers a glorious prospect for all of us. How foolish of us then to waste our energy and spirit in clinging on to the dead past! Therefore, leave the past! Set it free! Why should we demean ourselves, devalue our life digging out graves, poking and prodding dead bones of past mistakes and failures? Let the past be in the past. Repeat to yourself the words- I am made for this day. It is the happiest day of my life- it can be the most successful day, if God so wills! To live fully in the present, we have to be free from the burden of the past. If we do not heal past wounds and let the past go, we will be trapped in the past. And when we are trapped in the past, we cannot enjoy the present. The past is like old, uncleansed residue that needs to be wiped out and released. For many of us long-forgotten sorrows, anguish and pain, frustrated ambitions and thwarted dreams lie locked up and stored in the dark, deep recesses of our memory. We must be courageous, seek God's help and release these dark forces. As Alan Cohen says, "The road to healing begins not with a blind leap outward, but by a gentle step inward." Let us, by all means, learn from our past mistakes. This is a constructive, creative way of dealing with the past. But holding on to the guilt, shame and anger of the past is defeatist and destructive. "I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, have nothing good or bad in them, save insofar as the mind was affected by them," wrote the philosopher Spinoza. When you heal the past, your life will surely take on new meaning. There was a woman who had led a life of immorality and crime. Her past was indeed unsavoury but she had resolutely turned over a new leaf, and was bravely attempting to walk the straight and narrow path. " But the authorities continued to trouble her, often suspecting her of committing crimes which had nothing to do with her. "How can I get away from my yesterdays if you shove my past into my today?" she lamented. "I have tried to let the dead past bury the dead. But the State of California wants to make my past my present!" God deals very differently, even with persistent sinners who seek His mercy and His forgiveness. Does He not say to us in the Gita, "Renouncing all rites and rituals come to Me for single refuge. Grieve not, for I shall release you from all bondage to sin and suffering."

A similar promise is given to us in the Old Testament - "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." A young woman was censured by her priest, for not coming to the confessional for a long time. When finally she came, he told her sternly to confess her sins of yesterday, last week, last month, and last year. She replied, "I have none!" The priest reprimanded her, "You are either a great saint or an awful liar!" Perhaps the woman had confessed her sins to God and found full forgiveness! Have you ever tried to talk to embittered people? They dwell insistently on the wrongs of the past. They cling on to the tiniest details of their bitter memories. They smother themselves in self-pity. They take great pride and a gloomy satisfaction in listing and numbering every offence that was ever committed against them. They are ever ready to tell everyone how much . they have suffered, how badly they have been hurt. They nourish their hatred and resentment as if they were precious possessions. Alas, the very idea of forgiveness does not appeal to them -they feel that they have been so hurt, so offended, so wounded, so deeply injured, that they are exempted from the need to forgive. But it is just these people who need to practice forgiveness! They are virtually choking under their own pent up resentment and hatred, that they are doing themselves irreparable harm. Their hearts are so filled with ill-will and rancour that they lose their capacity to love. Bitterness about the past is not merely negative - it is destructive and self-destructive.

- J.P. Vaswani Source: East and West Series March 2006

MAY I KNOW THEE!

Though thou hast been my comrade, Birth after birth, I have known thee not! Though thou hast played with me This game of hide and seek, A thousand times, I have known thee not! Though thou hast been with me In life and death, In pleasure, pain, In loss and gain, I have known thee not! O, remove the veils from my eyes, That I may know Who thou art - My only Beloved through the ages, My guardian, my guide, Through the endless cycles Of birth and death! - J. P. Vaswani

Public Debate on India’s Nuclear Programme

The illustrious founder of India's nuclear programme, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha was a visionary par excellence to have drawn up a viable blueprint for Atomic Energy way back in 1955. Today we are at the crossroads to debate this very issue as we widen our international collaboration amidst acronyms like NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty), FMCR (Fissile Materials Control Regime), IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna-The U N 'Watchdog') etc. The debate has come literally to the streets with major political parties raising hue and cry, again with bombastic words like, 'buckling under US Pressure', 'Sell out of our national honour', 'overlooking national security' and so on. While the chairman, AEC (Atomic Energy Commission), Shri Anil Kakodkar, has made a public statement to educate the layman, it has become handy for various shades of political opinion to embarrass or arm-twist the government. In this article we try to pin point the correct technical nuances without attaching to any political viewpoints. India is a populous country. A country which was almost written off a few years back as a perennial bowl of poverty, has now overtaken many, especially the western world, by surprise as a strong, viable nation with a very sound economical base compounded with an enormous pool of scientific, technical and other professionals, Green Revolution to overcome food shortage, White Revolution to overcome dairy products shortage, major thrust and advances in space and Nuclear Technologies- all these made such transition possible. Let us focus on what the current nuclear debate is all about. India embarked on an ambitious nuclear power programme as per the blue print of the founder. This programme was going on side by side with their commitment to R&D related to nuclear science, engineering and technology. It is this R&D which created self learnt know-how and translation into practical technology to design and test nuclear devices. India has been a peace loving nation committed to poverty alleviation via all technologies (civilian nuclear power included). It has to keep its own option to provide minimum deterrent to hostile neighbours and world at large by demonstrating its ability to master nuclear devices. Accordingly, under the authority of our democratic Government, they could successfully test and demonstrate this aspect in 1974 and 1998 at Pokhran (Peaceful Nuclear Experiment). Our own industrial base was lacking in early days and so we had to depend much on global market for inputs to our civilian nuclear power programme. The notion of 'untouchability' put us at a disadvantage, but it also gave us a challenge to overcome our shortcomings. This is what happened since 1974 when India had to concentrate on indigenous efforts to create a wide industrial base to support our nuclear power programme. While we could achieve this by our sustained hard work after some delay, it hampered the induction of nuclear power to national grid in a big way as was planned in earlier days! For example, the Department of Atomic Energy coined the slogan '10000 Mwe by 2000 AD' in early nineties (1990) when a dedicated organisation NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) was established by DAE (Department of Atomic Energy). Despite all its earnest hopes and steps, DAE could not meet this target of 10,000 MWe by 2000 AD. Upon review, it has now identified this could be possible by the year 2010 AD. Meanwhile, it was also realised that supply of natural uranium to support our own national design PHWR (Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors) may not take us beyond this capacity. Our nuclear power programme is to make use of thorium (in fast breeder reactors) in decades to come. We have one of the richest thorium reserves in the world. However, realising the immediate need to enhance electricity generation, international collaboration, if any, was worth considering. But help doesn't come without strings attached. It is within this conflicting scenario, Indo-US action nuclear collaboration was reached in July 2005 and subsequently the PM made a detailed statement in Parliament in addition to various remarks in Press briefings or conferences. For industrial growth, energy availability (production) is the key factor. For quality of life of individuals, energy consumed per capita is the factor. We have presented these details in two tables in the Appendix. These figures are from a compilation made in USA by the Department of Energy. We can observe some salient points as follows: Energy produced came from conventional fossil fuels (coal, oil etc.) which are getting depleted as the reserves are limited. Nuclear and Hydro sources are alternatives. In some countries, (especially France), nuclear power is quite significant. Even in countries like Sweden, abundant in hydro sources, nuclear power option is kept open - indicative of a bigger role of this source in future. As regards per capita annual energy consumption, we see that for all industrialised and affluent nations, it is 5000 KWh or more. In a developing nation like India, one of the major problems is demand of energy surpassing available supply

and of course faced with limited natural resources for inputs. Unless this gap is narrowed down, if not overcome, the dream and projection of national growth rate will stay only academic. India is planning, based on available resources and technology, a growth rate of about 8 % and this is crucially linked to energy production figures. India has planned many power plants based on hydro, fossil fuel fired and nuclear. Indo-US agreement envisages clear demarcation of India's nuclear programme into civilian action and non- civilian. The accord is mainly to boost the energy generation through nuclear power reactors to be supplied by USA. This demarcation was necessitated because US acknowledges India as a sovereign nuclear power and also equally a responsible state adhering to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. This is so because India has already declared after 1998 nuclear test to put unilateral moratorium for further tests. So it is now upto India to determine logically and technically as to which areas or facilities are governed as civilian or not as needed by the agreement. The Chairman, AEC has rightly spelt both now and in his several press interviews earlier that it is for our government to segregate the facilities which will come under IAEA (watchdog) safeguards. One of the references made was towards Prototype Breeder Reactor (PBR) at Kalpakkam. As he has pointed out, this is our ongoing R&D activity aimed to harness thorium utilisation in the long run and how we manage men and materials for such projects is solely our right and concern with no room or scope for outside advice or interference. He also rightly emphasised that the need of the hour is to deliver more energy (electricity) to our natural production through nuclear reactors. In this context, Indo-US collaboration is welcome. This in no way will hamper or dampen our own activities and priorities. Moreover, our long term strategies are governed by our own needs for national security and energy. The point he wanted to highlight was that the segregation of civilian and non-civilian programme is very detailed and need careful working out by concerned experts without any political overtones there of. It is a tough task, but perhaps not an impossible one. But in our current political set up, based on coalition experiment with outside support by non-participants in cabinet responsibilities such a statement is usually blown out of proportion to derive political mileage. Our government, independent of party / parties which govern us is our custodian of national interest. Naturally, a good government will take only good intentioned decisions and as in any major decision, one invariably faces obstacles while implementing. Let us not forget that once a policy decision and guidance are known, it is best to leave to experts in the field to implement. This is not our local budget where rollback is enforced by political pressure which is otherwise detrimental on economic grounds. The nuclear issue has wider manifestation. Let us hope that we continue to march ahead with our national interest in mind- but keeping our mind open to international partnership in the current age of mutual respect among interdependent comity of nations.

- Dr M.P Navalkar and T.V. Subramanian Source:Bhavan’s Journal, April 15, 2006

Life is what you make it - Madhukar Joshi

Madhukar, that is myself, the third child of the total five in the family of Dr. Joshi was born in the month of September 1939 in Bombay. Being the first son in the family it was natural that I was pampered a lot. But after a lapse of 4 years my younger brother was born and yet another after a lapse of four more years. They being more handsome and younger to me they got more love and attention and I was left to the servants and their children became my friends. In the first year of school I was found to be exceptionally brilliant and promoted to third year, but when I was in 5th year I failed, thanks to my friends. My parents had no time for me except to give good lashing every time I was found on the wrong footing. From this year on I had a private tutor till I passed out 11th standard, Secondary School Certificate Examination in second grade. Joined First Year Science since all my friends were going to Science Stream and in college could not follow anything. Somehow managed to pass out and changed to Intermediate Arts and finally passed B.A with Economics from Bombay University in the year 1960. In schools I had studied through Gujarati medium and for two years in Marathi medium whereas 2 years of B.A. was through English medium and had a real hard time and secured pass class though I enjoyed Economics. By this time my father was civil surgeon and we were living in big bungalows with 2 full time orderlies and maid servant etc. We children never had to do any work, preparing the beds or taking water buckets for bath or shopping or folding the clothes etc. It is a fact that by this time all believed that I was no good for further studies and my father got me a job as a clerk in an industry. I went to work for 3-4 days and found it humiliating and decided to study further. I joined Government Law college for LL/B. Sneha, whom I married in December 1962, had taken admission in Wilson College for First Year Arts and I was in love with her though this was not known to her till 1960 when I passed out my graduation. I had known her from her childhood as her parents and my parents were friends, being Govt Officials and were transferred to 2-3 places together like Dharwar, Baroda etc. My father was made her local guardian in Bombay since her parents were at Bangalore and thus our friendship turned to love. I passed in second class LL.B in the year 1962 and again took up job in same industry but this time as a Department Assistant - two steps above that of a clerk. I am sure that no one - neither my father nor anyone from my family expected me to rise in status and I was shocked when Sneha's parents agreed to marry her to me. I think this must be as they knew my parents well. Was this a gamble on their part or did they see something in me which gave them confidence that their daughter was in safe hands? Our marriage was celebrated at Hindalge near Belgaum on 11th December 1962 and we from the bridegroom side were given accommodation in palatial bungalow of Raja of Sawantwadi. The contrast is worth noting when we came to Thane and had to take on rent an accommodation of 2 rooms only. The toilets were common and at a distance. Like me or still better, Sneha was also brought up in a comfortable life and never had done any manual household work. But she took up all work with a smiling face and enthusiasm. Till our marriage, I was totally ignorant of these problems and may have been even selfish. But when I saw her doing everything and not a word of dissatisfaction or complaint I got a severe pang in my heart. I loathed myself for spoiling life of Sneha who would have got more handsome and rich boy from wealthier family to marry. This was the turning point of my life as I made-up my mind to become a successful person and to provide a decent life to my wife whom I loved more than my own life. Appeared for open test to secure admission in 3 years part time post graduate Diploma in Industrial Management from Bajaj Institute of Management, second to IIMs only. There were only 30 seats and I did secure admission. Embolden by my new success and zeal I passed out in the year 1967. No doubt, these three years were real tough as we did not have any social life - the classes were from Thursday to Sunday and the new house where we had shifted did not have electricity for a number of months. We also had our first child, Milind, in 1964. But the stars were changing and immediately in Jan. 1968 had a new job with Sandoz with better salary and working conditions. I was appointed on probation of 12 months but confirmed in 6 months only. We also had our second child Madhavi.

By middle of July 1972 I joined India's first Petrochemical Industry at Baroda and by March 1975 shifted to another Joint Venture of Government of India and Weavers Co-Operatives which was setting up a plant to manufacture Polyester Filament Yarn. I set my goal to achieve number one position in Materials Management. My initiatives, hard work, knowledge, honesty and total commitment resulted in my progress and when I left the organization in October 1996 I was General Manager (Materials Management). In fact, I was Head of the Department since 1980 reporting directly to the Chairman & Managing Director. I was sent to Japan and again to Saudi Arabia on company's work. I was on various committees and was a faculty at M.S.Uni. of Baroda teaching at Adult Education Centre. I also became President of Gujarat Council of Educational Administration and Management. 1 took up to athletics and ran several mini marathons of 14 and 21 kms. I secured 1st position in All Gujarat Veteran's Athletics for 5 KM run at the age of 54 years. In 1997 I became a Consultant to a business concern and from 1999 to 2005 managed successfully the business of chemicals as my son left for Australia with his family. Meanwhile Sneha had studied at M.S.Uni. and got her B.Ed., M.EcI. and Ph.D. and ultimatelv became Professor and Dean in the same Uni. She retired by end October 2005 having held many senior and prominent positions. Now we both are here on PR and our both children with their respective families are also settled here. Maybe this is the beginning of a new chapter - ke sara sara. Sometime I wonder as to how a person like me who himself did not hope and certainly his family members — parents, etc did not expect much from him and never expected him to rise to a respectable status in life, could achieve so much? I believe - MY GENES MADE ME DO IT.

Reproduced from My Genes Made Me Do It writing competition - Seniors Week 2006, City of Canada Bay Council

Mahatma Gandhi Father of the Nation The greatness of Mahatma Gandhi was not simply that he freed India, but that he himself practiced the Truth. The people of India named Gandhi 'Mahatma' meaning 'Great soul'.

Home in India, he taught Truth in a community of all cultures and beliefs, practiced it locally and made ready to fight with it nationally. Mahatma knew that Truth is in all men, making them united. During his years of traveling, he taught three things: Truth, nonviolence and simplicity. The first great struggle of nonviolence against the British almost succeeded, but violence appeared. Gandhi stopped the struggle. The British arrested him. The second great struggle against the British lasted for three years, and ended with Gandhi in jail where he fasted against the ill-treatment of the lower-caste (untouchables). Mahatma gave a new name- HARIJANS-God's people to the untouchables. From his simple community of Truth and nonviolence, he looked at a world of war. He led a third struggle against the British, and again was put in jail. India became free. But the man who freed the country, the man who lived through nonviolence, fell into violence, and the man who had the power of Truth died from the power of a bullet. By Aishwarya Joshi Grade 6 – Canterbury Public School

2006 Arts of Asia

Lecture Series

2006 lunchtime lecture series, Tuesdays 1-2 pm Domain Theatre, Art Gallery of New South Wales

Across cultures the female aspect of the divine has been worshipped as the great goddess who manifests as a loving mother a compassionate saviour or rage personified. In two terms of eleven lectures experts in art history and religious studies use ancient texts, temple icons and popular practice to unveil the many manifestations of the goddess. Focusing on Hindu and Buddhist traditions the extensive cast of characters include: Shakti meaning power and energy is the name given to the great goddess Durga the fierce warrior goddess who rode to battle on a lion to defeat the buffalo demon where the gods had failed Parvati the benevolent consort of the Hindu god Shiva whose energies transformed him from ascetic to family man Prajnaparamita the Buddhist personification of wisdom Tara the graceful Buddhist saviour goddess richly adorned with jewels Guanyin the white-robed Chinese goddess of mercy and compassion

With our extensive program of exhibitions and events the Art Gallery of New South Wales with the support of VisAsia is the leading centre for the appreciation of Asian art in Australia. Please join us for a stimulating and enriching journey.

Lecture Schedule – All Lectures will be 1-2pm at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Term 1 (7 March – 30 May 2006) Term 2 18 July – 26 September

2006 Prajnaparamita: the perfection of wisdom in 18-July Buddhist religion and art Chaya Chandrasekhar, curator of Southeast Asian art David Templeton, independent scholar and PhD candidate 25 – July Tara: Texts and icons in India and Tibet Monash Asia Institute, Monash University Christina Summer, curator of decorative arts and design, 1-August Dakini: sky dancer and divine envoy Powerhouse Museum Michael Allen, honorary research associate, Department of 8-August Kumari: the living goddess of Nepal Anthropology, University of Sydney Swami Shankerdev, Saraswati, yoga authority, medical An introduction to tantra: paths to enlightenment 15-August doctor and author and Jayne Stevenson, author and film through sound and image maker 22-August Mothers, runs and the feminine Guanyin: depicting Tonia Eckfield, fellow, Center for the Art of East Asia, Buddhist goddesses of temporal and heavenly realm university of Chicago Andrew Alter, senior lecturer, ethno-musicology and hugh From Sarasvati to Benzaiten: a goddess of Music and 29-August de Ferranti, associate professor Japanese studies, her transformation in South and East Asian cultures University of New England 5-Sptember Shakti: the power of Shiva Alan Croker, architect Rachel Dwyer, reader in Indian studies and cinema and 12-September Bollywood images of goddess chair of the Centre of South Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Kalpana Ram, senior lecturer, Departmentof anthropology, 19-September The goddess as lived and loved in India Macquarie University 26-September Offerings to goddess: Hindu puja ritual Acharya Rami Shivan, Australian Council of Hindu Clergy

Lectures: $25 $18 members. Discounts are available for full term or full year bookings. Bookings: Art Gallery Society 02 9225 1878; www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Holy and Wise Let noble thoughts come to us from every side – Rigveda, 1-89-I

Learning And Thought Tzu-Kung asked: What is a gentleman? The Master said: He puts words into deeds first, and follows these up with words. The Master said: Learning without thought is naught; thought without learning is dangerous. - Confucius Trustfulness I told God that I had done all that I could and that now the result was in His Hands; that if this country was to be saved, it was because He so willed it! The burden rolled off my shoulders. My intense anxiety was relieved and in its place came a great trustfulness! - Abraham Lincoln The True Mosque Fools laud and magnify the mosque, while they strive to oppress holy men of heart, but the former is mere form, the latter spirit and truth. The only true mosque is that in the hearts of saints. The mosque that is built in the hearts of saints is the place of worship of all, for God dwells there. So long as the hearts of the saints are not afflicted, Gold never destroys the nation. - Jalal-Ud-Din Rumi

O Lord of all the world, I seek not wealth, Or servants or women fair or words of fire, Grant to me faith in Thee, birth after birth, Unflinching faith seeking nought, Lord of mine - Sri Chaitanya deva

The Word In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the World was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. - St John

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor - Bishop Desmond Tuttu

Behold the Creator’s justice: As are a man’s actions, so is his recompense. - Adi Granth

True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice – Martin Luther King

Open yourself, create free spaces; release the bound from his bond. Like a newborn child, freed from the womb, be free to move on every path - Atharva Veda