- Brilliant!! http://t.co/FD5GjgE #
- Thomas Jefferson said, “A little Rebellion now and then is a good thing. It’s a medicine necessary for the sound health of the Government” #
- haha… http://t.co/qXRRP1w #
- From arresting Anna on day 1 to parliament saluting him on day 12… a big VICTORY.. #
- Wonderful Pics… http://t.co/rvluLjU #
- The only thing undemocratic in a democracy is when the government refuses to do what people want it to do? http://t.co/vzty2Aw #
- A.N.N.A – A NEW NATION AWAKENS #
- Five reasons why thousands are fasting with Anna Hazare http://t.co/AOFUwf8 #
- There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. – Nelson Mandela #
- Loved this article from Mr Vaidyanathan.. must read.. http://t.co/jCT5PCe #
- Why has Anna struck such a chord with the middle class!! My views http://t.co/7CYpGuF #
- http://t.co/3PA8uKV Must Read for everyone who has their doubts regarding Anna Hazare's movement … #janlokpal #
The Importance of Keeping Faith: In Life, God, Destiny, Yourself
I am personally against the idea of God and the existence of a super being. Yet I am writing this article about the importance of keeping faith, be it faith in your religion and God, in life itself, or in yourself. Life can be strange, and it can make people change, and it has been the same with me. I have always been flexible and ready to change myself and my thinking about any aspect of life, and the last couple of years have certainly made an impact in the area of faith.
I was a god-fearing and ritual-following kid in my childhood. I can still recall a few instances where I followed superstitious rituals without questioning them only because my family used to follow them. But as I started to grow up, I saw my parents struggle in their finances, health, and business, day after day, year after year. I witnessed my father starting and closing down one business after another, and saw him being deceived by good friends and business partners. I saw my mother doing everything from handling multiple jobs, teaching us brothers and taking care of the entire household only to get sick with asthma, arthritis and later cancer. And all this while they had complete faith in GOD. This was enough to break my faith in the existence of God or any super being.
But I now think that I was too naive back then to understand the deeper meaning in what all was happening. All these years of struggle have made my parents what they are today. The tough times were life’s tests which made them stronger. And what I totally missed was how this childhood shaped me. It made me tougher, mature, and filled me with a desire to take on challenges in life continuously. And perhaps my childhood is the reason for my compassion and empathy towards the less privileged and weaker sections of our society.
Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death
Life is a series of steps and milestones. Important events, whether positive or negative, mark these steps and our lives take a turn in a new direction. We always welcome the positive events, like marriage, a new job, or profits in business. But more often than not, we regret the negative events like the death of a near one, some major illness or some financial loss. We hold onto them and blame ourselves, others, situations, and sometimes even God.
What we forget is that everybody goes through these tough times. When we are going through these times, it is very easy to loose perspective and see only ourselves as the victim. In such times, having faith is very important. The faith which tells us to hold on, to keep our cool and maintain our strength and to wait patiently for better times. Even these negative events always have something positive in them, which we can not see at that point in time.
My mother says that cancer was the best thing that happened to her, but she never thought about it this way when doctors broke the news to her. But her treatment brought us closer as a family and helped clear a lot of doubts and misconceptions about many different people. It also made her see her priorities clearly as death was staring her in the face. It was only from her faith in God that she could gather the courage to fight cancer and emerge victorious, and three times at that. Similarly, we might not always be able to see the good coming our way in the future during a mishap or a disaster. We just have to keep our faith alive to be ready for whatever future riches life has in store for us.
As Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford commencement speech, it is impossible to connect the ‘dots‘ looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backwards. And so, in times of crises, it is very important to have faith that the dots will somehow connect in the future. The faith and trust could be in your destiny, God, life, karma or whatever.
For me, life was kind of shallow all those years I had lost faith. Each setback used to seem like a big conspiracy against me. And as humans, it is very easy to get into this mindset. And we only end up destroying our chances of future successes by holding on to these so-called setbacks. In Hindi, there is a popular saying, “Jo Hota Hai Achhe Ke Liye Hi Hota Hai“.. Now I realize it is not without reason we keep on hearing it so often from our elders.
Can we become a Hazare or a Gandhi? That would solve much more than corruption
We have seen a tremendous response to the peaceful protests triggered by Anna Hazare’s indefinite fast. People from all over the country, and even Indians living abroad, have shown their support for Anna Hazare and Jan Lokpal Bill by peacefully assembling and holding protest marches. He has united India across religions, caste, language or any other divisive factor. It is heartening to see India united for something other than cricket.
The number of people who have protested have been humungous by any standards. In Delhi and Mumbai each, more than a lakh people marched on 21 Aug 2011. Even in Bangalore, I have been hearing news of around 25000 or more people assembling daily. Similar stories are coming from other cities too, even smaller ones. While I don’t doubt that Anna has immensely resonated with the masses and given hope to millions of frustrated Indians, I also feel that going to a protest site is a very ‘easy and convenient‘ way of showing one’s support to Anna. A real test of commitment to Anna and his Gandhian methods of protest would be if we inculcate many of his preachings in our daily life.
Anna’s protest has been based on Gandhian principles of fasting and satyagraha. He has advocated the right of citizens to protest peacefully. He has asked people to pray for the ministers and the government. Gandhi ji also used fasting as a tool for punishing oneself so as to melt the hearts of your opponent and win him over to your side. But a big question to ask is, “Can the common man live by these principles?”
Truth
Can we truly live by Gandhian principles?
Gandhi’s whole philosophy is based on truth. In our everyday lives this would translate to questions like these
- Can we live our lives truthfully and honestly, at home and at work, in public and in private, with friends and with family?
- Can we pledge to follow the rules of the law and live like ideal citizens? Can we wear helmets every time we go out on a two-wheeler and can we not jump signals even if the roads are empty? (In the current movement, I have seen people on two-wheelers carrying the tricolor but without a helmet..)
Sacrifice
Gandhian methods of satyagraha and living a simple life resonates from the principle of sacrifice as a means to purify the opponent. In real life, this principle would translate to questions like –
- Can we pledge to not give any bribe to a cop, babu or a politician?
- Are we ready to suffer delays and other harassments which might occur when we refuse to pay bribes?
- Are we ready to sacrifice our personal comfort for the greater goal of a just society?
- Can we persist making these sacrifices and suffering even while others around us might not be doing so?
Love the Opponent
According to Gandhi, non-violence doesn’t only mean such in action, it is also meant in thoughts and words. To understand this, we need to ask ourselves questions like –
- Can we truly remove the thoughts of hatred from our minds for those who have been unfair to us?
- Can we love everyone alike, even our opponents, and demonstrate it in thought, word and deed?
- Can we hate the sin and not the sinner, and stand up against the sin but continue to love and forgive the sinner?
Hazare, Gandhi and the Tiranga Waving Kids - A Perfect Pic
Equality and No Discrimination
The whole of Gandhi’s life and Anna Hazare’s work in Maharashtra has emphasized on the removal of untouchability and discrimination on basis of caste, language and social factors. The people of Ralegan Sidhi (Anna’s village) call it as a family and not as a village.
- Can we treat our fellow citizens as brothers and sisters and part of the same family?
- Can we look beyond our caste, language, economic status and love and treat each other alike?
- Are we ready to practice what Gandhi said, that we are all children of the same God, and any kind of discrimination would be reprehensible to Him?
What I am trying to say that while it is very easy and convenient to show and voice our support in Anna Hazare in a rally, it would be very demanding and challenging to practice what Anna is following in his daily life. We might have to suffer some short term difficulties and make some sacrifices, but we all know in our hearts that the long term benefits of such a life are always good and more fulfilling. And leave alone corruption, we would remove all or most of the ills that plague our society if we live by the principles by which Anna, and other Gandhi followers live by.
There is a famous Chinese proverb which I think has a very deep meaning which says – “Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.” Can we answer YES to the questions I have listed above? Please leave your views and responses as comments below.. If there are any other questions you might want to add to the list, add them as comments too 🙂
5 Reasons why Anna Resonates with the Masses
In my previous article, I had a doubt about how the public will react to Anna’s second fast unto death. I was more skeptical about the response to his Jail Bharo call. But I am glad all my skepticism has been proved wrong. The public has responded, and how. Tens of thousands of people have come out on the streets in support of Anna Hazare. People have courted arrests in hundreds and in Delhi, police has to convert a stadium into a jail to keep those arrested. There were around 100,000 people marching to India Gate in Delhi and around Azad Maidan in Mumbai. Now can the government arrest them all?
I am really glad that the public has risen to the call given by Anna Hazare. But what is special about Anna Hazare that he has galvanized the whole nation when most of us didn’t know him at all a few months ago. How is one man able to dictate terms to the government? How has he cut across the social and economic divides of the populace which is so deeply entrenched in our society?
History of Work Done
He is an ex-army man who fought in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and later build his village into a model village, self sustained and free of all social ills. People from all over the world have come to see the amazing work he has done. He has not married and devoted his entire life to his village, and later in his fight against corruption. After that he has fought corruption in Maharashtra and he was one of the active crusader behind forcing the Maharashtra government to bring in the Maharashtra RTI act, one of the first in the country. He has given his life for the service of the nation since the last 35-40 years..
Clean Image
He has devoted his life to social activism, mostly in Maharashtra. He developed his village Ralegan Sidhi into a model village which people from all over the world come to see. It is considered a model of self sustainable living and of environmental conservation. The World Bank Group has concluded that the village was transformed from a degraded village in extreme poverty to one of the richest in the country.
More than a lakh people march from India Gate to Ramlila Grounds on 21 Aug
No Personal Assets or Motives
Anna Hazare lives in a small room attached to a temple in his village since 1975. He has no assets and has a bank balance of Rs 67,000. Whatever land he has is being used for development purposes for his village. His only source of income is the pension which he gets from the Army. He has devoted his life for the betterment of his village, and after that fighting against corruption. He has never done anything for his personal motives.
Gandhian Principles
What is most heartening is to see Anna Hazare following Gandhian principles and using the same methods of fasting and Satyagraha for his cause. In a generation which has come to doubt Gandhi and the relevance of his principles in modern times, this was ample proof of the relevance of his methods irrespective of time and generations. He has called to our souls in the same peaceful manner that Gandhiji did.
Given Hope to Millions of Frustrated Indians
More than anything else, the one reason why Anna has resonated with the masses is because he has given hope to millions of frustrated Indians. Everybody knows there is corruption in every nook and corner of the country. But the BIGGEST problem is that nobody can do anything about it. Everybody is helpless in the regard that there is nobody to complaint, and even if they complaint, they end up being harassed by the same people. Anna has given people hope and shown them a way which might lead to a corruption free India. That is why he caught the government totally unaware!!
It won’t be wrong to say that Anna Hazare has come as the Messenger of Hope in the current state of our country. He has managed to turn all the cynicism and pessimism into an enthusiastic and optimistic revolution by the people of India.
My weekly tweets archive for the week ending 2011-08-22
- Now this is utmost shame for a PM… when students refuse to take degrees from him.. http://t.co/JhOFypu #
- Let us all gather outside our local MPs house, sing bhajans and send Get Well Soon messages with flowers… #janlokpal #annahazare #
- I was at Freedom Park today.. A huge sea of crowd is there.. People are going on the roads with tricolor on their… http://t.co/ldMios0 #
- Wonderful!! http://t.co/vK4HVkY #
- http://t.co/qLbqokS #
- http://t.co/xnStmdN – 4 saal ho gaye 🙂 #
- Anna enters the classroom – Many schools have given assignments to students to write about Anna's movement and… http://t.co/MY3ulLB #
- Wonderfully written!! http://t.co/SvefK7c #
- Need web developer / designer as a volunteer for Beyond Carlton: http://t.co/YyhjfyR #
- SaleRaja completes 4 years today… and Perspective.. .Read on http://t.co/0JnGBXd #
- One man inside a jail has arrested the Government #
- Pics from the Dandeli ride over the long weekend http://t.co/2oB4mxy #
- It all started here 🙂
Hardly anybody knew Anna at the time of this rally (26 March) … Someone has rightly… http://t.co/TZFyjeE # - 5000 students in #freedompark #Bangalore # janlokpal #
- "Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you." – Herbert Gesser #
- India in Pictures.. in the last 65 years http://t.co/dZ9chFq #
- As today unfolds, read this poem I posted today!! http://t.co/67Jcv3M #
- 'I do not agree with what u have to say, but I will defend to the death ur right to say it' -Voltaire
Twitter… http://t.co/VBSAwnR # - See this if you feel you are weak in an area and not capable of doing any task,.. http://t.co/m82cs3t #
- The government can put section 144 in Delhi, but not in every street of the country. They can arrest Anna Hazare,… http://t.co/lf0f2oO #
- Back to the internet world from total wilderness… Stayed amidst the forest when even the telephone network was… http://t.co/JgaP6Xt #