Cutting off the chain of hate
By Mihir Shah
profound inversion of Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity is a beacon of light for all those who still dream of making a change in the world. more
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Hindus praise Jamaat Islami for flood relief in Bihar
Submitted by mumtaz on 20 October 2008 - 6:29am. Indian Muslim
By Andalib Akhter, IANS
Araria (Bihar): Hardev Dom and Chandara Bishnor had to literally rummage for food to stay alive after this district was hit by floods in the Kosi River. But thanks to the yeoman service rendered by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a Muslim organisation, they were not only given relief but also participated in Dussehra festivities.
"Forget Dussehra, we did not have enough food to eat. We can never forget the work Jamaat did in our village," says Chandara Bishnor.
At a time when distrust and suspicion among communities is running high, many Hindus in Bihar have only words of love and praise for the Jamaat that has been working to bring succour to those rendered homeless by the floods that began in August and went on till September.
Even Misri Lal, the village head, fondly recounts the Jamaat's help. Thousands of gift packets were distributed among the flood victims which included new clothes, sweets and 'tuhari' (a small amount given to children during festivals). And most of these were distributed in Purnea, Araria, Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura districts.
"While Hindus were celebrating the Dussehra festival across the country, thousands here suffered as their houses were destroyed or they had lost all their belongings. We distributed these kits to over 1,000 Hindu families so that they could celebrate the festival with happiness," said Ejaz Ahmad Aslam, secretary of the Jamaat.
A central team of the Jamaat headed by its vice-president, Siddique Hassan, and Aslam along with doctors and relief workers conducted an extensive tour of the flood-devastated districts.
A relief team headed by Qamarul Hoda, Bihar Jamaat president and Haji Nayaruzaman, his assistant, was set up and was specifically told not to discriminate among people on religious or caste lines while distributing relief.
"During Eid we also distributed kits among Muslim families that contained new clothes and food items just like we gave these packets to Hindus for Dussehra, particularly children staying in relief camps," says Hoda.
The Jamaat began its relief work on the second day after the Kosi wrought havoc on the state. It set up a dozen relief camps with facilities for food, medical help and clothing. Around 3,000 flood victims are still living in these camps.
(Andalib Akhter can be reached at andalib2001@yahoo.com) source
By Andalib Akhter, IANS
Araria (Bihar): Hardev Dom and Chandara Bishnor had to literally rummage for food to stay alive after this district was hit by floods in the Kosi River. But thanks to the yeoman service rendered by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a Muslim organisation, they were not only given relief but also participated in Dussehra festivities.
"Forget Dussehra, we did not have enough food to eat. We can never forget the work Jamaat did in our village," says Chandara Bishnor.
At a time when distrust and suspicion among communities is running high, many Hindus in Bihar have only words of love and praise for the Jamaat that has been working to bring succour to those rendered homeless by the floods that began in August and went on till September.
Even Misri Lal, the village head, fondly recounts the Jamaat's help. Thousands of gift packets were distributed among the flood victims which included new clothes, sweets and 'tuhari' (a small amount given to children during festivals). And most of these were distributed in Purnea, Araria, Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura districts.
"While Hindus were celebrating the Dussehra festival across the country, thousands here suffered as their houses were destroyed or they had lost all their belongings. We distributed these kits to over 1,000 Hindu families so that they could celebrate the festival with happiness," said Ejaz Ahmad Aslam, secretary of the Jamaat.
A central team of the Jamaat headed by its vice-president, Siddique Hassan, and Aslam along with doctors and relief workers conducted an extensive tour of the flood-devastated districts.
A relief team headed by Qamarul Hoda, Bihar Jamaat president and Haji Nayaruzaman, his assistant, was set up and was specifically told not to discriminate among people on religious or caste lines while distributing relief.
"During Eid we also distributed kits among Muslim families that contained new clothes and food items just like we gave these packets to Hindus for Dussehra, particularly children staying in relief camps," says Hoda.
The Jamaat began its relief work on the second day after the Kosi wrought havoc on the state. It set up a dozen relief camps with facilities for food, medical help and clothing. Around 3,000 flood victims are still living in these camps.
(Andalib Akhter can be reached at andalib2001@yahoo.com) source
Friday, October 17, 2008
Shashi Tharoor: Stop the Politics of Division
Nehru had warned that the communalism of the majority was especially dangerous because it could present itself as nationalist. Yet, Hindu nationalism is not Indian nationalism. And it has nothing to do with genuine Hinduism either. A reader bearing a Christian name wrote to tell me that when his brother was getting married to a Hindu girl, the Hindu priest made a point of saying to him before the ceremony words to the effect of: "When I say God, I don't mean a particular God." As this reader commented: "It's at moments like that that I can't help but feel proud to be Indian and to be moved by its religiosity -- even though I'm an atheist."
As a Hindu, I relish pointing out that i belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the only true religion. Hinduism asserts that all ways of belief are equally valid, and Hindus readily venerate the saints, and the sacred objects, of other faiths. Hinduism is a civilisation, not a dogma. There is no such thing as a Hindu heresy. If a Hindu decides he wishes to be a Christian, how does it matter that he has found a different way of stretching his hands out towards God? Truth is one, Vivekananda reminded all Hindus, but there are many ways of attaining it. read it all
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Today (October 15) is Valmiki Jayanti.
How to respond to crises
14 Oct 2008, 0027 hrs IST, MARTIN BUCKLEY
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
The Ramayana is an epic story of love and loss. Its characters are, in some ways, heroic ideals but the story also tries to show us how we should respond to crises that destabilise us and bring out the worst in us.
Even the evil characters in the Ramayana are touched by redemptive qualities. Even the good characters make mistakes sometimes tragic ones that bring heartbreaking consequences in their wake. more
14 Oct 2008, 0027 hrs IST, MARTIN BUCKLEY
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
The Ramayana is an epic story of love and loss. Its characters are, in some ways, heroic ideals but the story also tries to show us how we should respond to crises that destabilise us and bring out the worst in us.
Even the evil characters in the Ramayana are touched by redemptive qualities. Even the good characters make mistakes sometimes tragic ones that bring heartbreaking consequences in their wake. more
Monday, October 13, 2008
Mallika Sarabhai: The louder the drums of religion and ritual, the farther the sight of the spiritual
Nature is spiritual and feminine, she is shakti
The Asian Age Ocober 13, 2008 Op-Ed
The louder the drums of religion and ritual, the farther the sight of the spiritual.
My first experience came at the end of a personal crisis. I had been going for healings for a suspected brain tumour to a Phillippine physicist-turned-faith healer. The sessions made me cry — old hurts, unknown angst, whatever. After one of the sessions, I was walking in my garden and the sky was so beautiful that I raised my arms, opening them to the world. And I became an open vessel through which I could see light and energy channelling through and going into the earth — I was an upturned wine glass-shaped receptacle. Some years later I danced with my mother for the first time, both of us playing Meera, she the inner face, and I the outer. And I felt myself floating above the stage, looking down at two bodies, convinced we were one being.
Nature is spiritual to me, and nature is feminine. She is shakti, my personal shakti. I light a lamp every morning and try to bring a stillness to my world and my thoughts, feelings and concerns, to get back in touch with the stillness from where all my frenetic energies flow. It is that shunya that is my trigger and my space to take a deep breath.
I find myself turning to that inner me/shakti/space at strange times; in times of great gratitude for being alive, and the realisation of being a channel through which others can be helped, given a hand; when I experience great beauty as in music; when I am losing my resolve to fight for what to me is the truth; when my dog comes and lays her head on my lap and looks at me with such trust that my breath catches; and of course when I need all my faculties to be concentrated to find solutions to difficult or painful situations.
Places of religion, in general, revulse me, as does the behaviour of people there, devotees and God-dalals alike.
The closest I have been to finding beauty and serenity in a place of worship is in some old churches and cathedrals in Europe, filled with haunting music.
But I cherish my few seconds of inwarding every day.
— Mallika Sarabhai is a well-known classical dancer
source
The Asian Age Ocober 13, 2008 Op-Ed
The louder the drums of religion and ritual, the farther the sight of the spiritual.
My first experience came at the end of a personal crisis. I had been going for healings for a suspected brain tumour to a Phillippine physicist-turned-faith healer. The sessions made me cry — old hurts, unknown angst, whatever. After one of the sessions, I was walking in my garden and the sky was so beautiful that I raised my arms, opening them to the world. And I became an open vessel through which I could see light and energy channelling through and going into the earth — I was an upturned wine glass-shaped receptacle. Some years later I danced with my mother for the first time, both of us playing Meera, she the inner face, and I the outer. And I felt myself floating above the stage, looking down at two bodies, convinced we were one being.
Nature is spiritual to me, and nature is feminine. She is shakti, my personal shakti. I light a lamp every morning and try to bring a stillness to my world and my thoughts, feelings and concerns, to get back in touch with the stillness from where all my frenetic energies flow. It is that shunya that is my trigger and my space to take a deep breath.
I find myself turning to that inner me/shakti/space at strange times; in times of great gratitude for being alive, and the realisation of being a channel through which others can be helped, given a hand; when I experience great beauty as in music; when I am losing my resolve to fight for what to me is the truth; when my dog comes and lays her head on my lap and looks at me with such trust that my breath catches; and of course when I need all my faculties to be concentrated to find solutions to difficult or painful situations.
Places of religion, in general, revulse me, as does the behaviour of people there, devotees and God-dalals alike.
The closest I have been to finding beauty and serenity in a place of worship is in some old churches and cathedrals in Europe, filled with haunting music.
But I cherish my few seconds of inwarding every day.
— Mallika Sarabhai is a well-known classical dancer
source
Fourth World War against terrorism by pursuing truth and justice
The Reign of Evil: A Spiritual Perspective
The American Muslim, Oct 11, 2008
These ideologies have been the most virulent ones in an age dominated by closed ideologies. One can argue that Neo-Conservatism is a perversion of every major religion known to humankind since our emergence a few million years ago and that its very attractiveness qualifies it therefore as the most dangerous threat to global civilization. Whether this is true or not, we must recognize that ideas are power and that countering ideologues and their resort to terrorism and terroristic counter-terrorism cannot be countered by waging a war against evil.
We can win the Fourth World War against terrorism only by pursuing the open search for truth and justice, by perfecting the institutions of society to facilitate both economic and political justice through broadening access to individual property ownership, and by relying on the spiritual power of love as the most powerful motivating force in pursuing the fruits of compassionate justice, which are peace, prosperity, and freedom. Read it all
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Hatred Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (HIDS):A serious pandemic
The Hindu October 08, 2008 Open Page
A serious pandemic
Vaidya Shankar
Hatred Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (HIDS) is probably the most serious pandemic in our world today, potentially deadlier than even AIDS. The disease may be ‘active’ or in remission, but it is extremely difficult to cleanse oneself of this affliction completely. Once infected, all the immunity mechanisms built in the human mind over the years can be rendered useless. Learning, education, value system, etc., are all laid to waste by this malady. The ceaseless ch urning of the infected mind and the burning of the heart weakens the noble human spirit and demonises it. HIDS has claimed more lives than any other calamity known to man. Though man has been battling with reasonable success all kinds of adversities including diseases and natural calamities, he has not even begun the battle with this deadliest of all afflictions, which can exterminate mankind, nay, all life on this planet. Hatred can spread very fast indeed. Thanks to modern communication systems, an incident miles away can provoke hatred reactions and genocide within hours, if not minutes at several other localities. And even after it subsides, it leaves behind so much hatred, bitterness and such terrible scarring. It is imperative for the educated people from all faiths, regions and communities to wake up, or be prepared to face the catastrophe. Expansive thinking, unity of purpose, integrated and harmonious co-existence are to be propagated instead of divisive theories. The nobility of non-violence and the sacredness of mutual respect have to be drilled again into the vulnerable human minds.
The sacrifices of Abraham Lincoln, Gandhiji, Mother Teresa and Father Damien, and the teachings of Lord Krishna, Jesus Christ, the Buddha and Prophet Muhammad have to be indoctrinated again to resurrect the nobility in man. read
A serious pandemic
Vaidya Shankar
Hatred Immunity Deficiency Syndrome (HIDS) is probably the most serious pandemic in our world today, potentially deadlier than even AIDS. The disease may be ‘active’ or in remission, but it is extremely difficult to cleanse oneself of this affliction completely. Once infected, all the immunity mechanisms built in the human mind over the years can be rendered useless. Learning, education, value system, etc., are all laid to waste by this malady. The ceaseless ch urning of the infected mind and the burning of the heart weakens the noble human spirit and demonises it. HIDS has claimed more lives than any other calamity known to man. Though man has been battling with reasonable success all kinds of adversities including diseases and natural calamities, he has not even begun the battle with this deadliest of all afflictions, which can exterminate mankind, nay, all life on this planet. Hatred can spread very fast indeed. Thanks to modern communication systems, an incident miles away can provoke hatred reactions and genocide within hours, if not minutes at several other localities. And even after it subsides, it leaves behind so much hatred, bitterness and such terrible scarring. It is imperative for the educated people from all faiths, regions and communities to wake up, or be prepared to face the catastrophe. Expansive thinking, unity of purpose, integrated and harmonious co-existence are to be propagated instead of divisive theories. The nobility of non-violence and the sacredness of mutual respect have to be drilled again into the vulnerable human minds.
The sacrifices of Abraham Lincoln, Gandhiji, Mother Teresa and Father Damien, and the teachings of Lord Krishna, Jesus Christ, the Buddha and Prophet Muhammad have to be indoctrinated again to resurrect the nobility in man. read
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Goa village sets example of communal harmony
Youths belonging to Hindu and Christian communities in village Loliem came together to clean a century-old Hindu crematorium which was a picture of neglect and careless use over the years. The village is just four kilometres from the Goa-Karnataka border and 90 kms from Panaji. more
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Actress Nagma threatened by radicals for joining the Church
BJP legal cell had sent out a lawyer's notice to popular actress Nagma for allegedly hurting the sentiments of other religion ---Christian Meenger
Nagma was born Namratha Sadhana in an ordinary Muslim family in Punjab. She debuted in a Hindi film titled 'Baaghi' in which she acted along with Salman Khan. She shot to fame in south India when she was paired with Tamil superstar Rajnikant in 'Basha'. 'Kadhalan', where she acted along with Prabhu Deva, was another blockbuster film. Some of her major hits in Telugu were 'Gharana Mogudu' with Chiranjeevi in 1993, 'Allari Alludu' with Nagarjuna and 'Major Chandrakanth' with N T Rama Rao and Mohan Babu. | GoogleSearch for actress Nagma on The Christian Messenger |
For a brief while, Nagma was part of 'Art of living' course. The actress is currently a major star in Bhojpuri movies where she found success as a leading lady. She was successful when paired against "Big boss" reality show participant Ravi Kishen. read
Nagma is a citizen of a democratic country so a party like the BJP has no right to dictate terms like which religion she should follow, what dress she should wear or what food she should eat--Prabhu Das Thapa.
(ANTS) Matigara, Siliguri, West Bengal..............................................................
God’s hand was on me all along: Nagma
October 01, 2008 | 23:07:47
POPULAR actress Nagma opened up about her faith and mission in her life for the first time to the media in an exclusive interview with The Christian Messenger.
This newspaper’s founding editor Robin Samspoke to her for close to five hours in an exhaustive interview concerning her faith, the recent issue over her testimony at Nalumavadi in Tamil Nadu, the rising violence against Christians, her personal life and plans for the future. Excerpts:
This newspaper’s founding editor Robin Samspoke to her for close to five hours in an exhaustive interview concerning her faith, the recent issue over her testimony at Nalumavadi in Tamil Nadu, the rising violence against Christians, her personal life and plans for the future. Excerpts:
When did you come to realize the saving power of Jesus Christ?
I was born on Christmas to a Muslim mother and a Hindu father. I went to a convent school from childhood. I was exposed to Christianity from a young age. I went to Mount Mary Convent School
.......................
While reading the New Testament, I realized the importance of baptism and also of joining a church. Therefore, I immediately joined Pastor Shekhar Kalyanpur’s New Life Fellowship in Juhu, Mumbai. I took baptism on Jan 4. Since 2007 was a year of rest I decided to take a break from films and continued my Bible study fervently.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Barack Obama's religion: Intellectual search of faith
In 1981 Barack Obama was 20 years old, a Columbia University student in search of the meaning of life. He was torn a million different ways: between youth and maturity, black and white, coasts and continents, wonder and tragedy. He enrolled at Columbia in part to get far away from his past; he'd gone to high school in Hawaii and had just spent two years "enjoying myself," as he puts it, at Occidental College in Los Angeles. In New York City, "I lived an ascetic existence," Obama told NEWSWEEK in an interview on his campaign plane last week. "I did a lot of spiritual exploration. I withdrew from the world in a fairly deliberate way." He fasted. Often, he'd go days without speaking to another person.
For company, he had books. There was Saint Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop who wrote the West's first spiritual memoir and built the theological foundations of the Christian Church. There was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher and father of existentialism. There was Graham Greene, the Roman Catholic Englishman whose short novels are full of compromise, ambivalence and pain. Obama meditated on these men and argued with them in his mind.
more from Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe | NEWSWEEK
For company, he had books. There was Saint Augustine, the fourth-century North African bishop who wrote the West's first spiritual memoir and built the theological foundations of the Christian Church. There was Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher and father of existentialism. There was Graham Greene, the Roman Catholic Englishman whose short novels are full of compromise, ambivalence and pain. Obama meditated on these men and argued with them in his mind.
more from Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe | NEWSWEEK
Published Jul 12, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Jul 21, 2008
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