Saturday 24 December 2011

पिता के पास लोरियाँ नही होती


( केवल  सुयोग्य पिताओं को समर्पित कविता )

पिता, मोटे तने और गहरी जड़ों वाला
एक वृक्ष होता है
एक विशाल वृक्ष
और मां होती है
उस वृक्ष की छाया
जिसके नीचे बच्चे
बनाते बिगाड़ते हैं
अपने घरौंदे।
पिता के पास
दो ऊंचे और मजबूत कंधे भी होते हैं
जिन पर च़ढ़ कर बच्चे
आसमान छूने के सपने देखते हैं ।
पिता के पास एक चौड़ा और गहरा
सीना भी होता है
जिसमें जज्ब रखता है
वह अपने सारे दुख
चेहरे पर जाड़े की धूप की तरह फैली
चिर मुस्कान के साथ।
पिता के दो मजबूत हाथ
छेनी और हथौड़े की तरह
दिन रात तराशते रहते हैं सपने
सिर्फ और सिर्फ बच्चों के लिए, 
इसके लिए अक्सर
वह अपनी जरूरतें
और यहां तक की अपने सपने भी
कर देता है मुल्तवी
और कई बार तो स्थगित भी।
पिता, भूत वर्तमान, और भविष्य
तीनों को एक साथ जीता है
भूत की स्मृतियां
वर्तमान का भार और बच्चों में भविष्य .

पिता की उंगली पकड़ कर
चलना सीखते बच्चे
एक दिन इतने बड़े हो जाते हैं
कि भूल जाते हैं रिश्तों की संवेदना
सड़क, पुल और बीहड़ रास्तों में
उंगली पकड़ कर तय किया कठिन सफर।
बाहें डाल कर
बच्चे जब झूलते हैं
और भरते हैं किलकारियां
तब पूरी कायनात सिमट आती है उसकी बाहों में,

इसी सुख पर पिता कुरबान करता है
अपनी पूरी जिन्दगी,और इसी के लिए पिता
बहाता है पसीना ताजिन्दगी
ढोता है बोझा, खपता है फैक्ट्री में
पिसता है दफ्तर में
और बनता है बुनियाद का पत्थर
जिस पर तामीर होते हैं
बच्चों के सपने
पर फिर भी पिता के पास
बच्चों को बहलाने और सुलाने के लिए
लोरियां नहीं होती।


कवि: बी एस कटियार

Friday 18 November 2011

The Mystery of Marriage


#CASE 1

Getting married is like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want, then when you see what the other fellow has, you wish you had ordered that.

#CASE 2

At the cocktail party, one woman said to another, "Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger??" The other replied, "Yes, I am. I married the wrong man."

#CASE 3

Before a man is married, he is incomplete. Then when he is married, he is finished.

#CASE 4

Marriage is an institution in which a man losses his bachelor's degree and the woman gets her master's status.

#CASE 5

A little boy asked his father, "Daddy, how much does it cost to get married??" And the father replied, "I don't know son, I'm
still paying for it."

#CASE 6

Young son : "Is it true, Dad, I heard that in some parts of Africa, a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her?"
Dad : "That happens in most countries son."

#CASE 7

Then there was a man who said, "I never knew what real happiness was until I got married, and then it was too late."

#CASE 8

A happy marriage is a matter of give and take; the husband gives and the wife takes

#CASE 9

When a newly married man looks happy, we know why. But when a ten-year married man looks happy, we wonder why. Affair ?

#CASE 10

In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.

#CASE 11

After a quarrel, a wife said to her husband, "You know, I was a fool when I married you." And the Husband replied, "Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn't notice it."

#CASE 12

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classified : "Wife wanted". The next day, he received hundreds letters. They all said the same thing "You can have mine."

#CASE 13

When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing : either the car is new or his wife is new.

#CASE 14

A woman was telling her friend : "It is I who made my husband a millionaire. "
"And what was he before you married him?" the friend asked. The woman replied, "A Billionaire. "

Saturday 29 October 2011

THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS


    Kapil was looking visibly upset today. I thought it better to let him speak on his own so I kept mum. I knew that it was difficult for him to remain silent for long. He waited till we got seclusion at our workplace. He started at once.


Sir ! I want to ask you a personal question.Please answer it honestly .
Kapil , you are like a Betaal from Vikram & Betaal Stories , whose every question has to be answered by Vikramaditya. So, feel free to ask any question Mr. Betaal ! As for the honesty in answering is concerned, it has to be evaluated by you. Any way , what is your question ?

Sir , I rarely find you worried even during crisis , while I remain worried about smaller things in life all the time. Then , I seek your help to resolve them. Since morning , I have been thinking on this , then I decided to ask you directly the secret of freedom from worries. Please share your secret with me .


" Kapil ! You have raised a very fundamental question, which is also the oldest dilemma of mankind !There is one fundamental difference between animals and mankind , called Mind . Because of this , human beings get new problems and are also able to solve some of them . Each problem , until it is solved , causes worry to mind, rather we can say that , worry forces mind to find the solution.

Nature in its constant churning , gives mankind its daily stock of problems , worries ,new questions and paradox etc. The human mind in its constant endeavour to overcome them thinks, imagines, theorises its solutions, resulting in the development of science, technology, religion, literature, philosophy etc.

The relatively fast development of so many systems to tackle various basic issues related to human existence in last two centuries led to an unfounded belief that man can control almost everything in nature . But , every person at some point of life, is compelled to think that against the forces of nature , the man made systems are nothing more than castles of sand and life has more miseries than happiness. The Tsunami disasters in south east Asia in December 2004 and then in 2011 in Japan with nuclear disaster, record breaking floods everywhere and frequent Earthquake in many parts of world, are examples of this.

To answer this basic dilemma, that , who is more capable human effort or somebody else, every society got its own theories. Most of the philosophies ended on accepting the existence of a supernatural power which controls entire nature and its habitat including human beings. This supernatural power is called GOD in all religions. Except perhaps Buddhism, all religions believed in existence of God. And all religions developed their own system to deal with eternal problem of worrying human mind through this concept of God.

Sir, that I understand , but I wanted to know in a very simple way the secret of being free of worries.


Kapil , I was coming to that point but before that I wanted to stress the complex nature of your question. Let me make it simple. The freedom from worries is commonly interpreted as PEACE (शांति). Since eternal time, people have been searching this PEACE OF MIND. You cannot find it in any market. Further , even my telling you about peace , will not bring  peace to you or anybody else.

The ancient Indian literature describes PEACE as SHAANTI (शांति)  , which is loosely translated as the state of equality Sama(सम) and the reverse state is known as ASHANTI
(अशांति) meaning Turbulence . Now , all of us know that this world is full of ASHANTI everywhere. The Indian religious literature simplifies it in this way , ASHANTI does include SHANTI , only prefixed A is to be removed.

Suppose , you need a glass full of water to quench your thirst, but you find yourself sitting near the sea-shore, wondering what to do with immense saline seawater within your reach but no potable water being available nearby . You need to first remove salt to make it worth drinking. Once you know the method to separate the clear water from seawater, your worries for clear water are over , not for once but for forever, because you found an unlimited water source.

In the same way, every ASHANTI has hidden in it an equal source of SHANTI which needs to be separated from its packing. Just as you are not going to use a soap without unpacking it , similarly Shanti or peace is to be found only from the packet of underlying worry or Ashanti only.

You may also understand it as a duality of electron & proton or coexistence of hydrogen and oxygen in water molecule , which require special efforts to exist independently. Further , peace has to have many forms just as worry has.
Is it not ironical that worry is a state of mind and so is the peace also and both exist together in the same mind ? That is why, like worry ,peace also has some adjective with it like world peace,peace of mind , internal peace, planetary peace( Grah Shanti) etc.

Therefore, you can understand peace in as many forms as you or anyone can think. Further one person's peace may be another's worry e.g. drinking wine, listening loud music, strengthening of army etc."


O.K. Sir, now I got your point. You want to say that to be at peace depends on one's individual attributes. In other words, every person has to find his kind of peacefulness by exploring into the causes of his worries. And nobody can help in this private matter , because peace lives alongside worry in the same mind. I also feel that one cannot follow the same path to attain peace as followed by somebody else. But still I would like to know from you how I can attain my peace .

" Perfectly understood Kapil ! The way to attain peace always goes via equally deeply disturbed state of mind and there are various examples of this, including the famous case of Lord Buddha. When worries attack you from all sides on a grand scale, you are bound to get the similar magnitude of peace also later on. It is said that the lasting peace is born from the womb of war only. We have example of Second World War , most ferrocious war in human history, resulting in the longest global peace period of 66 years till now and still continuing...

There is one more mathematical truth related with peace. Just as proton and electron are equal in an atom the peace or SHANTI period is almost equal to ASHANTI just as day is equal to night . These are just two facets of the time. Therefore , deep peace is attained only after undergoing deep turmoil of the similar magnitude. And after deep peace, the turbulence has to follow again in a cyclical manner."


Sir, that means that even trying to achieve peace is equally a futile exercise. It will come on its own at its destined time in magnitude equal to the turmoil preceeding peace. Do you agree with me ?

Absolutely agree with you Kapil ! Just as any kind of attempt to get Sun Rise before twelve hours from Sunset is useless, in a similar way , the peace cannot be attained forcibly before its scheduled time.


But Sir , intellectual people and many institutions go on attempting to bring peace in world . Why they don't understand the futility of such attempts ?

In our example of Sun-rise and Sun-set , the duration is small and every human being has seen it happening it thousands time , so nobody will believe in an early Sun rise. But the cycles of War & Peace are of long years , the minimum cycle being 30 years and its multiples, therefore, a person does not have much chance to experience it many time in life. That way , the authentic information on such cycles is not available , so people go on trying all the time . And when peace arrives at its designated moment, people say that it was brought by their efforts. It is like conducting an 11 hours-ritual after sunset to get a sunrise !


Then Sir , Is there any way to know the timing of peace and turmoil for human beings ?


Yes ! But now we end our discussion at this point. We shall deal this issue in next sitting
.

Monday 24 October 2011

जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना


















जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना

जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना
अँधेरा धरा पर कहीं रह न जाए
नई ज्योति के धर नए पंख झिलमिल,
उड़े मर्त्य मिट्टी गगन स्वर्ग छू ले,
लगे रोशनी की झड़ी झूम ऐसी
निशा की गली में तिमिर राह भूले,
खुले मुक्ति का वह किरण द्वार जगमग,
ऊषा जा न पाए, निशा आ ना पाए

जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना
अँधेरा धरा पर कहीं रह न जाए
सृजन है अधूरा अगर विश्‍व भर में,
कहीं भी किसी द्वार पर है उदासी
मनुजता नहीं पूर्ण तब तक बनेगी,
कि जब तक लहू के लिए भूमि प्यासी,
चलेगा सदा नाश का खेल यूँ ही,
भले ही दिवाली यहाँ रोज आए
जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना
अँधेरा धरा पर कहीं रह न जाए। 

मगर दीप की दीप्ति से सिर्फ जग में,
नहीं मिट सका है धरा का अँधेरा,
उतर  क्यों  न आयें नखत सब नयन के,
 नहीं कर सकेंगे ह्रदय में उजेरा
कटेंगे तभी यह अँधरे घिरे अब,
स्वयं धर मनुज दीप का रूप आए
जलाओ दिए पर रहे ध्यान इतना
अँधेरा धरा पर कहीं रह न जाए।
गीतकार  - गोपालदास नीरज


Tuesday 11 October 2011

What is missing in Management Education - I ?

  Thanks to my company's sponsorship , I have undergone few management development programs ( MDP )at premier institutions like MDI Gurgaon etc. In the present week , I am undergoing a week long MDP called Transformational Management alongwith 22  colleagues at Hotel Fortune ,near Chhatarpur Temple in New Delhi , being conducted by International Management Institute , New Delhi.

    On the inaugural day, we had the priviledge of attending two  sessions conducted by  Dr. Pritam Singh , the Director General of IMI  and a renowned management guru of international stature.

   Based on my 23 years experience in Power sector after doing my engineering graduation , I have found  that there is a gross disconnect between the management education preached in the airconditioned controlled environment and the real war like situation  at site , where all this education is supposed to be practiced.

   So , when I raised this issue with Dr. Pritam Singh during tea-break , he immediately responded that it was true with any other education also, say engineering. He said that unless any training is practiced, it would not deliver. 

    To this point I retorted that engineering or technology deals with machines , whose behaviour is well established irrespective of its managers and handlers. For example , an electrical equipment does not change its behaviour for an electrical engineer or a layman and it is basically a linear system responding to a certain set of rules. So, a burnt transformer has to be repaired as per procedure and even a Prime Minister's instruction or presence cannot make it work.

   My point was that , it is easier to handle machines than human beings ( the most complicated and non-linear machine in this world). Unfortunately, in case of machines , there is no dichotomy in theory and practice. An electrical motor works everywhere  on the earth in the same fashion and as per theory written in the electrical engg. book.

    That is why, I always thought that something serious is missing in delivery of modern management education.   

What is missing in Management Education (II) ?

     The Indian philosophy believes in the duality of Maya and Bramha  ( माया और ब्रम्ह ) e.g. the body  and the soul or say electrical appliance and electricity or say motorcar and its driver. It says that one cannot work in isolation to another and both of these should work in tandem to be of some significance.   


  In my previous post , I had raised the issue that something is missing in management education. The word management includes MAN . Unless the management  theories take care of this MAN in his all manifestations , they cannot be effective. 

   Let me  explain through an example. An average Indian citizen is least bothered about the cleanliness and sanitation in public places. All management theories imported from West failed here to ensure it. But , everybody knows that there is also an exception to this. The temples,mosques and churches are cleaner in India than any other public place. Because India has a  legacy  of  a God-fearing country.

   So, when ceramic tiles with images of god and goddesses are placed in public place stairs , people would not spit Paan-Peek पान पीक   . Somebody told me that it still happens if light is not there. Further, we  Indians cannot organise for any important issue , but millions will gather for one month long Kumbh Mela without any cost implications, just for the sake of God. 

   Therefore, the MAN in Management is to be understood in its three dimensions of Desh, Kaal and Paatra ( देश , काल और पात्र ) translated as place,period and person. An Indian citizen responds to religious significations more than atheist western management theories. Since the world class IIMs  and IITs treat these issues as taboos in their curriculum, these institutions have not been able to make noticeable difference in Indian society's functioning and its productivity level.
   It is unfortunate that while practicing western secularism , we abandoned the positive attributes arising out of God-fearing mentality. We abandoned the religion , which resulted in elimination of God-fear ( the supreme of all positive fears ) and that has caused an overall chaos and crisis in every field of public and private life in India.

   So,  it is my firm belief that in Indian context, unless god-fear ( irrespective of which religion you belong ) is instilled in our teachings from nursery to Ph.D. level again , every type of education is to resemble a beautiful mummified deadbody without soul and hence ineffective in making any dent in Indian scenario.   

   I will write  an interesting personal experience on this issue in my next post.    

What is missing in Management Education - III ?

       In my last two posts , I had tried to explore the missing element in management education. It is sad that we are ignoring our rich knowledge base given by our ancestors and trying to ape western practices with huge cost implications.

    Even the religious preachers have infected this disease. An interesting , personal real life example is narrated here :


The Missing Mathematics of GITA - I



In the winter of 2007 , one morning , at my place of posting in a sleepy town of Bihar ( Darbhanga) , my neighbor called on me and suggested to accompany him that evening in a local 3 day Satsang called Gita Gyan Yagya, where apart from the local preachers, one TV channel type preacher from Delhi was also invited. After learning that the discourse is to be centred around GITA , I expressed my dilemma.



I said that I have already undergone many hours on Gita by such monotonous preachers on TV and there is no point in attending another one on a chilled evening under a tent with open surroundings. But , I told him that I can accompany him , not as a part of audience, but if allowed to speak on my understanding of GITA . Then he briefly discussed my point and after getting convinced , he told me that he would talk to organizers for a time slot that evening.



I reached there at 8 PM . And as happens routinely in such get-togethers , while preacher after preacher was delivering his rote learning in a monotonous somnolent speech , people were sitting struggling cold , some of them yawning, talking on mobile , taking a nap etc.



I was called on the dais at 9 pm with 15 minutes time and was introduced as project manager of Powergrid project at Darbhanga( perhaps that was the reason enough to allow me speaking ! ). Sitting among the professional preachers, who memorised entire Gita by rote while I remembered hardly 3-4 shlokas from Gita ( I had read entire Gita long back), I planned a debate . I humbly told them that neither I am an expert on the academic side of Gita nor I am a professional preacher or an orator. I said that I relate more to the people sitting in the audience than persons on the dais and my speech will have that point of view.



My candid confession immediately established my rapport with the audience and people started listening me, leaving their other activities. I asked the preachers to answer some questions which I was raising as a representative from audience.



I started “ Like this 3 day satsang on Gita , in entire India , thousands of conventions are held every year by many Gurus and preachers , which are attended by millions. There are similar discussions and write ups in print and electronic media also. There must be lakhs of speakers on the Gita and thousands of books written on it. And these activities are happening for years and increasing day by day in India. That is, when everybody already knows in India that Gita says do your work with utmost sincerity( Karma Yoga ) and leave the result in the hands of God. And everybody accepts this theory in India at least.



My first question is about this national paradox : A country, where GITA originated and with lakhs of its full time exponents all the time explaining to the public the virtues and benefits of Gita's doctrine, still this country remains  the most dishonest , corrupt, unethical , lazy , dirty and shying away from even routine works and responsibilities. Whereas developed countries in Europe , the Scandinavian countries of Sweden,Norway and our South East Asian countries like Singapore etc are living in excellent ways without any trace of Gita and its preachers. ”



I asked the preachers to find the answer for this paradox ! It simply means that either the audience is not communicating and connecting with preachers or there is some flaw in the doctrine of Gita itself. Further I told that had there been any flaw in the Gita , then it would not have survived for 5000 years and it would not have inspired millions of people in these 50 centuries . 

 


The audience was now listening in pin-drop silence. I fired another question, citing my own experience in an AC compartment train journey, where I had politely asked a bearded Mahanth of a Mathh , who was quoting Gita all the time, to answer honestly that whenever he faced a crisis, did he remembered and applied Gita's solutions. He candidly accepted that he did not !!




I repeated my question to the preachers on the stage. I said that answer here also, must be in negative !



I continued that when the exponents of Gita themselves are the disbelievers in Gita , then audience can be pardoned for not connecting with Gita. My engineering institute had a moto “ Gyanam Bharah Kriyaam Bina ज्ञानम् भार: क्रियां बिना " meaning knowledge is burden if not applicable . So , prima faci , it was proved that the present practice of Gita preaching is nothing but an exercise in futility as it is out of sync with the present age and it is a religious burden.



This led us to a deeper question. Is it the same Gita which was delivered in Mahabharata 5000 years ago ? If it is the same , then why it is not effective in this age ? Is it not an all time great classic ? But again, most of us agree that it is the same Gita of 18 chapters and it has mesmerised peoples of all ages in the past. Then what is lacking in Gita at present ? What makes it lack lustre now ?






The organisers had allotted me 15 minutes and the entire program was to be wound up by 10 PM . I had already taken up 30 minutes but organizers were helpless as the audience was listening in rapt attention. Here , an engineer was asking fundamental questions on Gita's very existence to the religious preachers, to which they had no answers !



Then somebody from audience shouted “ Have you found that missing link in Gita and if yes then tell us. ” I said “ Yes ! I know but will you listen for another 45 minutes , because I will not be here again ?” And the audience roared in unison “ Yes , as long you speak , we are ready to listen .”



Organizers were now in a trap. They had casually allowed a dark horse speaker , who had now hijacked the show and they were unable to do anything as the audience was clearly enthralled .



The Missing Mathematics of GITA - II




After getting assurance from audience , I started .....



" As you are showing extra ordinary interest, I would also like to tell you how I found that missing link. Surprisingly, the clue for the missing link lies in the Gita itself. I got that idea when somebody once asked me why a person would work if he should not think of the remuneration ( Phal) and leave it to God , as Gita says do karma and leave the result to the God.



And his comment made me think for days. It is very natural for a human being to expect the result of the action immediately. So, when somebody kills a person , everybody expects killing the killer immediately. A worker cannot be simply wished away after he completes the work and he will ask for his wages payment.



Suddenly it appeared to me perhaps Gita has been misquoted in modern times. Then , I again read entire Gita and I found that modern preachers , film songs and bhajan writers have over simplified the original doctrine of Gita and very few people read and understand the original text.



Gita never says that do your action and leave the result to the God , rather it says that between any action and its result , there must always be a time delay. So, Gita says don't expect instantaneous results every time. Further , it says, that though the result of the action would always be proportionate , but because of time lag , at the time of delivery of result , it may not appear to be proportionate for various factors. This may confuse people.



For example , a person committed a murder and was immediately arrested and put in jail. The court proceedings may take some years. In the mean time, he becomes a good person in jail premises. Everybody likes him . But after 2 years, one morning court awards him death penalty. Now , a person who is not aware of his previous misdeed of murder may find a dichotomy in his present situation and death penalty.









This is a very simple and crude example of time lag between an action and its result. Every human being indulges in various actions every moment and the results of these actions are always following in a sequential manner like in a conveyer belt. We see that in an accident , some persons unexpectedly survive , some do not. That is because for most persons bad action results in an accidental loss but for few people , simultaneous arrival of good results of previous action results in their survival .




Because of complex nature of delivery of results at various moments and in mixed quantities, Gita advises the common man, not to worry and waste time in understanding this complex system , but have faith in the delivery system and keep working in the best possible positive way.




To explain it , I always give an example from salaried class people. They never get the gross salary , their PF and other things are deducted and PF etc is paid after decades. Now , if everybody starts asking what happens to that PF, how it is managed etc. then it would be very difficult for government to run a PF scheme. The PF system runs because we have faith in the system.




Once , when I was giving this example , a person remarked that in PF system also , people are given a time frame and the expected amount and there are some guidelines also. Then only people get convinced about that system. 
 



I got his point. In total absence of a time-frame , a person will not act at all. This is very natural. So even if God descends on Earth and asks to follow Gita , people will not act. In absence of a time mechanism , the teachings of Gita become useless.



     After that, restlessly I started thinking that there must be a way or method , which lets you know the probable periods of Karma Phal delivery and its approximate quantity . Otherwise, Gita cannot appeal the general public and learned persons in particular. And after few years , after I undergone a basic course in Astrology in Delhi , it striked me that only Shastra available for such knowledge of timing is JYOTISH SHASTRA or Hindu Astrology ! 
 



EUREKA I screamed !!! All questions and doubts immediately vanished in thin air after this idea. Astrology exists in India from immemorial times, even before Gita was delivered and it is based on mathematics and astronomy.




The mathematics is the core and backbone of science and technology , hidden from public eyes but very much visible to the scientists and technologists. The existence of science and technology happened only after development of Mathematics. Gita too has its own mathematics , which when, it was created made a wide spread appeal on Indian society. And based on that mathematics called astrology, it was accepted , worshipped and lasted for 5000 years. Gita's author always assumes that you are aware of basics of astrology.



Gita talks passionately about the theory of Karma ( human action ) and its Phal (result) and says that while you should , rather you have to do Karma because of environment you are trapped in , but don't expect its Phal and leave it to God. Now , modern man gets stuck up , why one should not ? Then what is the need of action ? etc.



Gita is like an electronics / computer technology theory book , discussing a marvellous and fascinating subject yet it is either abandoned or worshipped but is not practiced in modern daily life . The reason being the absence of its mathematical support of astrology for validating its confident use.







The Missing Mathematics of GITA - III



Once when I was explaining the need of knowing astrology for actual understanding and applicability of Gita , some body raised a question why Gita does not have any reference to astrology .




I said it was not required at that time and for that you will have to study the history and social conditions of that time as described in Mahabharata .All of us know that Gita was written as a poem ( Gita - Songs ) about a very deep meaning subject, as a literary work, much after the war ended .




If we study Mahabharata even today , we find many instances of astrological references. The stalwarts of both sides of Kauravas and Pandavas are seen quoting via astrology using Nakshatra & Planets . Using Astrology , they confidently knew even the result of the impending war.




Particularly, Bhishma and Karna were very well sure about the defeat of their side before start of war despite being the stronger side, because of the knowledge of Nakshatra based astrology. Later, Bhishma postpones his time of death for this reason only. We also know that Sahdev, youngest of the Pandava brothers was a practising astrologer , whom even Duryodhan consulted !





This only proves that astrology was a very well known and widely practised subject , though in literate and educated society. When Gita talked about Nishkaam Karma, then society was already knowing and practising it via Astrology. And it is next to impossible to do Nishkam Karma ( desireless action ) without understanding astrology.




It is astrology , which informs you that some situations in life , are beyond the control of human actions and you have to undergo the loss and pain at some particular moments, despite your best intentions and efforts at that moment. Man has not been designed to win always. This , when seen repeatedly, will result in Nishkam Karma automatically, as happened to Bhishma and Karna. Their side did not win but Individually they won their name in history.




That is the reason , Gita does not include any astrological reference , because its author thought it too elementary to mention it in that Age, even to include it as an appendix .




It was like, taking for granted that a person sitting in a shop knows basic arithmetic or a professional today in India is supposed to know English, computers etc. It was a very normal assumption that any person studying Gita knows some basics of astrology , so that he does not raise why & when for its theory.





And once a person is astrologically aware, Gita assumes a larger than life size and becomes an all time great Classic and becomes The Constitution of God . Further, we know that Gita survived all through 5000 years in India except last 200 years, which were also the years of decline in astrological education. These 200 years are nothing but the period of Western Industrial Revolution and its influence in all segments of Indian life.





Gita deals with inner needs of human beings , talks about soul and mind , happiness and unhappiness , reasons behind these and finally how to detach oneself from them. These are eternal subjects which were and shall remain the subjects close to any human heart in future as well. And so Gita and its mathematics called astrology, the Hindu Astrology ,will never lose their appeal, though it may diminish for some time ,as happening now, because of onslaught of materialistic achievements. ”





With that I ended my speech. It was already 10:30 PM . The audience was sitting in a total freeze all through this. The main organizer ostensibly appreciated my point while concluding the session but visibly he looked disturbed, because an outsider had stolen the limelight of their annual event .


 
The event was covered by next day's newspaper also              ( 22/12/2007 Dainik Jagran).