148th anniversary of the Blessed Day when Bapu was born. Updated to address loss of life and massive trauma in Las Vegas

Oct 04 2017

148th anniversary of the Blessed Day when Bapu was born. Updated to address loss of life and massive trauma in Las Vegas.

Two Attachments: Unable to add. These  included News Item about the horrific events that erupted in Las Vegas and Speech of the martyred Hon. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy delivered after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Sen. Kennedy was assassinated a mere 63 days later.

Good morning, my friends, colleagues and brothers and sisters around the globe.

The events that have been streaming past us during the past two or three days from Las Vegas have been very difficult to endure and come to grips with especially when I am trying to send out a series fo essays that pay homage to the Apostle of Satyagraha who was also assassinated. I am attempting to respond as best as I can to the terribly upsetting facts that are being uncovered. I am attaching a report on the ghastly, catastrophic events that changed the lives of hundreds of people. This captions expresses how I experience the cataclysmic life shattering events.” Mass Shooter’s Fire, blood and death spewing eruption from the 32nd Floor re-enacts Gotterdammerung.

In brief- the events of Oct 1:

• The victims: At least 58 people were killed and more than 500 hurt.
• The suspect: Stephen Paddock, 64, lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada. His motive is unknown.
• The location: It happened during a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The shooter fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
• With at least 60 fatalities (including the perpetrator) and 527 injuries, this incident surpassed the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting as the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history.

The mental images and the visual presentations of the killing zone brought to mind metaphorically the concepts of fire, death and destruction depicted in Götterdämmerung- pronunced in a guttural manner- Gutterdrammeruung- Twilight of the Gods is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Ring for short)” In Wagner’s music drama he three Norn’s, daughters of Erda, gather beside Brünnhilde's rock, weaving the rope of Destiny. They sing of the past and the present, and of the future when Wotan will set fire to Valhalla to signal the end of the G. Without warning, their rope breaks. Lamenting the loss of their wisdom, the Norn disappear.

I found it helpful to review speeches especially if the word welled out of the heart of the speaker at times of great pain and were fraught with serious civil disorder especially when our United states of America appears to be more divided than ever.. I selected the speech delivered by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy when our revered brother the Rev. Dt. Martin Luther King was assassinated. This speech was delivered on a back of a Flatbed truck. Although all major cities had riots, Indianapolis remained calm after RFK's speech. Sadly, 63 days after this speech, RFK was assassinated.

“it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is, there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another…”

“Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, [to respond with] compassion and love”

My favorite poem, my favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own de-despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. (Applause)

We can do well in this country.

We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will-we will have difficult times in the future.

It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land. With- (Interrupted by applause) Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much. (Applause)

Sadly 63 days after this memorable speech, RFK got assassinated.

I want to share these eloquent words of President Abraham Lincoln in his First Inaugural Address on March 04, 1861 when he called to us to form a more perfect Union… “I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Our Martyred Sixteenth President Lived 4 years and 41 days from the day he delivered this speech. In fact only a mere 41 days after the magnificent Second Inaugural Address and roughly 17 months from the Immortal Gettysburg Address. The latter address is the most quoted speech in American History even though his personal assessment of its worth was very modest, “…"the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history” He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as a result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". President Lincoln concluded the 3 minute long speech of 272 words with this assertion that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation.

I pray that the deaths of 59 of our innocent fellow Americans, maiming and traumatizing of hundreds if not thousands of others [there are 27 gun deaths a day, a rate of 31 per million Americans] will be the impetus to come together and say collectively “ Enough is Enough “ and we commit ourselves to resolve as enjoined by our Martyred Sixteenth President, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. It behooves, no the sacrifices of so many our fellow Americans: friends, family neighbors demands that we commit ourselves to the cause he was committed to until he took his last breath. I humbly commend his prayers and those of millions of our fellow Americans to the blessings of our caring and merciful Almighty God. From Presidnet Lincoln’s mouth to God’s ear. May it please God that this should come to pass.

After after beginning to address our current pain and bereavement we are experiencing today I would like to make the transition and share this first of my six essays that pay homage to Bapu- Mahatma Gandhiji which I shared with  H.E. the Prime Minister of India. Bapu- he Father of our Nation Bharat that is India was martyred 9 months and 15 days after India was granted Independence and according Panditji [Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru] kept its “Tryst with Destiny”

आः नो भद्राः कर्तव्यो यन्तु विश्वतः [Sanskrit in the Devangere Script]

Aa no Bhadraha, Yantu Vishwataha

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

Namaskar Pradhan Mantri Ji

Good evening,

I offer these messages that Bapu left behind as a precious heirloom for all posterity. This is a sampler of the great insights of Bapu. I may decide to post my essays on Bapu when I get more time. This post includes a Foundational material for a MED TALK modeled along the TED talk model about Gandhi Darshan presented to Pre- Medical Students at Connecticut. College in New London. CT. USA

“My Life is my Message”

Mahatma Gandhiji, [Bapu]10 02 1869- martyred 01 30 1948. [The Father of our Nation Bharat that is India was martyred 9 months and 15 days after India was granted Independence]

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, in the present-day Indian state of Gujarat.

1. Policy Screening Test.
2.          Before you do anything, stop and recall the face of the poorest, most helpless destitute person you have seen and ask yourself this, “Is what I am about to do going to help him.”
3.  
4.        “My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunities as the      strongest…No country in the world today shows any but patronizing regard for the weak...True democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the center. It has to be worked from below, by the people of every village.”
5.  
6.        Even if you are a minority of one, the Truth is the Truth.
7.  
8. Mahatma Gandhiji [Bapu]
9.  
10. I offer the 11 observances that were part of the Constitution of Satyagraha Ashram founded by Bapu:

• Adherence to the Truth,
• Non – Violence,
• Chastity,
• Control of the Palate,
• Non-stealing,
• Non-possession,
• Physical labor,
• Swadeshi,
• Fearlessness,
• Removal of Untouchability,
• Tolerance of all faiths and creeds.

1. “The Roots of Violence: 1. Wealth without work, 2. Pleasure without conscience, 3. Knowledge without character, 4. Commerce without morality, 5. Science without humanity, 6. Worship without sacrifice, 7. Politics without principles.” Foundation provided in Srimad Bhagvatam Skanda XII, Chap 2

Mahatma Gandhiji [Bapu]

1. The core values are rooted in the Bhagvad Gita. Particularly verses 8-12 of Discourse XIII

"Humility; “Pride-lessness”; Nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance."

The Attributes of a Sthitaprajna [Conscientious person] inculcated through Verses 54 to 69, Discourse II and the verses 47-53 starting with the most influential verse for Bapu Verse 47: Karmanevaadhikaraste, ma phalesu Kadaacana… are also the basic character building blocks of Bapu’s life and work and because as he put it, his life is his message, is the enduring message for the ages.

“The Gita is the universal mother. She turns away nobody. Her door is wide open to anyone who knocks. A true votary of Gita does not know what disappointment is. He ever dwells in perennial joy and peace that passeth understanding. But that peace and joy come not to skeptic or to him who is proud of his intellect or learning. It is reserved only for the humble in spirit who brings to her worship a fullness of faith and an undivided singleness of mind. There never was a man who worshipped her in that spirit and went disappointed.

I find a solace in the Bhagavad-Gita that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad-Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there, and I immediately begin to smile during overwhelming tragedies -- and my life has been full of external tragedies -- and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavad Gita. “Bapu

VM                 

1. Words to remember and live by
2. A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.
3. Mohandas Gandhi [Bapu]
4. A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. Bapu
6. A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Bapu
7. A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Bapu
9. A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. Bapu
10. A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. Bapu
11. 
    
12. Bapu- Mahatma Gandhiji.
13. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
14. Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. But an act of justice. It is to guarantee fundamental human rights, the right to dignity, and a decent life. As long as there is poverty, there is no freedom. – 
15. Nelson Mandela 07 18 1918 - 12 05 2013

VI Gandhi Darshan- by Jannap.

Self-help citizen, dream merchant Published in Education, Sept. 23, 2015

This is a wonderful presentation. It provides a review of the powerful message in the speech Bapu delivered on 02 06 1906, more than a hundred years ago. I am very grateful that this information is provided in concise, coherent and accessible manner for us to read and reflect on to allow us to experience the transformative and potentially restorative effects by strengthening our self-examination and encouraging each of us to face the truth of our relationships and seek reconciliation. I will be glad to share my essay on Bapu.VM

[Oxford Dictionaries] Hindus attach great importance to a darshan, or view, of a saint or holy image. There are sensory and interpretive aspects to Darshan. [It is not what you think you see that matters but what you perceive that you are in the presence of that matters. VM]

VII Gandhi Darshan by Velandy Manohar, MD

Basis of MED TALK in the model of TEDTALK presented to Premedical Students before their graduation an entry into Medical School at Connecticut College, New London, CT. Power Point Presentation available.

1. Exemplifying the Five Key Concepts Swaraj, Swadeshi, Satya, Satyagraha, and Sarvodaya steadfastly securely, and unwaveringly anchored in A-hinsa [Non-violence] in one’s life can engender the darshan of Mahatma Gandhi. 

Ahinsa [avoidance of harm or injury] is the means and Satyam [truth] is the Ultimate end of every act infused with Satyagraha. To be effective Ahinsa must always remain within our grasp and be adopted as our sole means to the attain the end of Swaraj in our lives. If we take care of the means, we are bound to reach the end sooner or later.

Ms. Rosa Parks when she sat firmly down, Dr. King when he stood defiantly up, Mother Pollard when she kept walking even though her feet be tired during the Bus Boycott, and Messrs. E. Blair Jr [Now Jibreel Khazan], F.E. McCain and D.L. Richmond non-violently refused to leave the whites only lunch counter in the Greensboro Woolworth in February 1, 1960 embodied these noble transformative concepts-Satya, Swadeshi, Swaraj and A-hinsa. After 6 months of unwavering Satyagraha on July 25, 1960 F.W. Woolworth desegregated their lunch counter.

2.      ¨ The only motive is to serve my country, to find out the Truth, and to follow it. If, therefore my views are proved to be wrong, I shall have no hesitation in rejecting them.

         ¨ If they are proved to be right, I would naturally wish, for the sake of the Motherland, that others should adopt them.

3.      ¨ In ‘Hind Swaraj’ Gandhi combined rejection of the liberative contribution of modernity with an attempt to integrate these positive elements with a liberating re-interpretation of tradition.

         ¨ With his critique from within the tradition, Gandhi becomes the great synthesizer of contraries within and across traditions.

4.      ¨ For Gandhi civilization was by definition a moral enterprise: "Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty “

         ¨ Unacceptable were the two points - ‘might is right’ and the ‘survival of the fittest’.

         ¨ Also, colonial imperialism, industrial capitalism, and rationalist materialism.

5.      ¨ Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj presents us with an idealized version of Indian culture that is completely counterpunctal to the ‘modern west’.

         ¨ Here we pick out three seminal themes: ¨ Swaraj, ¨ Swadeshi and ¨ Satya.

6.      ¨ Swaraj as ‘self-rule’ and as ‘self-government’

         ¨ The first as self-control, rule over oneself, was the foundation for the second, self- government. In this second sense, local self ~government was what Gandhi really had in mind.

         ¨ Gandhi very decidedly gives priority to self-rule over self-government, and to both over political independence, Swatantrata.

7.      ¨ Essential to both meanings Swaraj, was a sense of self-respect [autonomy and personal integrity that is precisely Gandhi’s answer to colonial rule.

           ¨ For Gandhi freedom in its most fundamental sense had to mean freedom for self-realization. But it had to be a freedom for all, for the toiling masses, and the privileged classes, and most importantly for the least and last Indian.

8.      ¨ Clearly, the foundation of Swaraj in both its senses had to be threefold:

• self-respect,
• self- realization and
• Self-reliance.

         ¨ This is what Gandhi tried to symbolize with the charka and khadi, both much misunderstood symbols today.

         ¨ Manchester cloth Vs home spun khadi

9.      ¨ For Gandhi real rights are legitimated by duties they flow from, for both are founded on Satya and Dharma.

         ¨ The modern theory of rights reverses this priority and founds rights on the dignity and freedom of the individual.

         ¨ But comprehensive morality can never be adequately articulated or correctly grasped in terms of rights alone.

10.    ¨ It is this commitment of the individual to his ‘Desh’ that was Gandhi’s Indian alternative to western nationalism.

         ¨ The village Gandhi idealized was not just a geographic place, or a statistic, or a social class.

         ¨ It was an event, a dream, a happening, a culture.

         ¨ As he used "the term ‘village’ implied not an entity, but a set of values"

11.    ¨ Satya: Truthfulness, honesty, transparency, accountability, expanding conscience, awareness and responsibility; justice with compassion; taking responsibility for past mistakes; pluralism;

         ¨ understanding of the multiplicity of truth; humility and respect for others’ truths; holding on to relative truth but continuing quest for further truth; attempting to arrive at a consensus on key issues; quest for truth.

12.    q Gandhi called the Indian movement for Independence as Satyagraha, that is to say, the Force which is born of Truth and Love or non-violence.

           q Satyagraha was a combination of reason, morality and politics

13.    ¨ Sarvodaya is upliftment or welfare of all.

         ¨ Gandhi's first encounter with this noble notion was in the form of the book titled Unto This Last by John Ruskin, which he read in South Africa in 1904.

The impact of this reading was so powerful that it proved to be a life changing experience for Gandhi, “I determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book.

14. Ruskin’s ideology was based on three fundamental tenets;

         • That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.

         • That a lawyer’s work has the same value as the barber‚s in as much as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work.

         • That a life of labor, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is the life worth living

15. Sarvodaya is a social ideology in its fundamental form. Emancipation of disparity between social classes was its objective. Sarvodaya could be best implemented by political will and state machinery. It would affect in letter and spirit the singular objective of Sarvodaya; inclusive growth and progress. For Gandhi and for India, this meant grassroots level uplift which began from the villages and from the most deprived classes,

16.      ¨ Satyagraha was a combination of reason, morality and politics.

         ¨ Mahatma Gandhiji defined ‘passive resistance’ as he called it then as "a method of securing rights by personal suffering “.

           ¨ It appealed to the opponent’s head, heart and interests"

         ¨ Gandhi was the first leader to bring non-violence to centre stage in the struggle for freedom with the British.

         ¨ He understood adopting "methods of violence to drive out the English" would be a "suicidal policy".

         ¨ Hind Swaraj was precisely intended to stymie such a soul-destroying venture.

18. Thus one of the most remarkable re- interpretations of Hinduism that Gandhi affected was that of the Gita, a text intended to persuade a reluctant warrior on the legitimacy and even the necessity of joining the battle. Gandhi reworks its ‘Nish-Kama Karma’ and Nish-Pala Tyaga to become the basis of his ahimsa and Satyagraha!

19.    ¨ An ecological understanding is now propelling us to a new and deep realization of our interdependence. We have only one earth, we must learn to share and care.

           ¨ Thus, regarding the economy and polity, Gandhi would have the village as his world; but regarding culture and religion, it was the world that was his village! Surely, here we have a viable example of thinking globally and acting locally.

20.   ¨ For Gandhi, "individuality" must be "oriented to self-realization through self-knowledge... in a network of interdependence and harmony informed by Ahimsa “

         ¨ Nor was this to be an interdependence of dominant-subservient relationships so prevalent in our local communities and global societies. His Swadeshi envisaged a more personalized and communitarian society on a human scale

21. Gandhi wanted education—reconstructed along the lines he thought correct—to help India move away from the Western concept of progress, towards a different form of development more suited to its needs and more viable, for the world, than the Western model of development.

22. It is not clear whether he was against the spirit of modern science and technology, or whether his opposition to Western-type modernity was confined to the way science and technology had been used to exploit non- European societies. In the vast body of responses contained in his collected works, one finds ample evidence on both sides

23. Satyagraha and Sarvodaya (uplift of all) are Gandhiji’s most significant and revolutionary contributions to the contemporary political thought. Gandhiji’s originality lay in the way he fused truth and non-violence in both theory and practice. Leave alone the ‘hand-spinning austere living syndrome’ dubbed as Gandhism, the broad lessons Gandhi taught boils down to heroic self-reliance and fearlessness, perched on truth, non-violence, voluntary cooperation and an abiding concern for the poor masses. [Key Slide]

24.    ¨ Dignity of manual labor.

         ¨ The good of the individual is contained in the good of all.

         ¨ Each can and should serve society by his own labor and profession in the field of his choice.

           Every campaign that Mahatma Gandhi thought, planned was at the core rooted in AHINSA [Non- Violence]-So also were his everyday interactions with people around him:

“I learnt the lesson of non-violence from my wife, [Ba], when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will, on the one hand ‘and her quiet submission to the suffering my stupidity caused cured me of my stupidity…in the end Ba became my teacher of non-violence.”

“The same inviolable connection exists between means and ends as exists between the seed and the tree.”

“Nevertheless, Ahinsa is the means and Truth (Satyam) is the end. Means to this to be effective must always be within our grasp. If we take care of the means, we are bound to reach the end sooner or later. When once we grasped this point, final Victory is beyond question. Whatever difficulties we encounter, whatever apparent reversals we sustain, we MAY NOT give up the quest for the Truth.” [Ms. Rosa Parks, Mother Pollard and Dr. King understood this.]

“It is the acid test of non-violence that in non-violent conflict there is no rancor left behind and in the end, those who were regarded as enemies are converted into friends. That was my experience with General Smuts. He started with being my bitterest opponent and critic. Today he is my warmest friend.”

This is General Smuts’ tribute, “It was my fate to be the antagonist of a man for whom even I had the highest respect. That clash on a small stage brought out certain qualities of Gandhiji’s character, which have since been displayed in his later large-scale operations in India, and they show that while he was prepared to go all out for the causes he championed, he never forgot the human background of the situation, he never lost his temper or succumbed to hate, and preserved his gentle humor even in the most trying circumstances. His manner and spirit even then, as well as later, contrasted markedly with the ruthlessness and brutal forcefulness, which is in vogue today.”

 

Beti Bacchao, Beti Padhao, Beti Khilao,

Abhi Naari Shakti Phir Aage Badhao!

Vande Mataram, Jai Hind, Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan!

Samaano Mantra, Samiti Samaani; Samaanam Manasah Chittameshaam; Samaani Va Aakuti; Samaanaa hrudayaani va; Samaanam astu vo mano yataa vasu sahaasati [Transliteration of Sanskrit benediction]

“Common be your prayer; common be your end, common be your purpose; common be your deliberation. Common be your desires; Unified be your hearts; unified be your intentions, perfect be the union amongst you.” RK Veda, X, 191- 3 and 4.

I welcome your responses to this advocacy letter and the contents.

Respectfully,

Ab to Aajnaa di jeeye. [ Please permit me to withdraw from your presence expressed in Hindi]

Velandy Manohar, MD

Distinguished Life Fellow, Am. Psychiatric Association.

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities - Ayn Rand