Violence

The message of Gita is not violence, but the duty to defend, to do one's duty and to protect one's honour. Culture is about that. Defence is a natural instinct, but duty of a given position and honour are cultural additions. Law recognises fairness of defensive violence. Human rights activists take non-violence to a ridiculous extent of leaving the innocent vulnerable while taking up cudgels for the terrorists. The state action against terrorism and a border incursion fall within violence that Gita would sanctify. MG has conceded as much. Men naturally also fall into different categories, with some predisposed to violence. What we see in animals as difference in species (domestic and wild, say), we see within the species in humans. There would not have been so much emphasis on non-violence if it is an inherited trait.

August 24, 2014 ·

Non-violence:

What is non-violence and who has to practice it?

Violence is part of nature (the birth of the universe itself, volcanoes, storms, tsunamis, ferocious animals, horns for even milder animals, fangs for snakes, etc.) and compassion is a human derivative. We stress non-violence because there is an instinctive resort to violence (beating children to ensure submission, happenings in some assemblies, etc.) and a counterstroke is necessary as violence often fails. Violence is part of life process. One life has to depend on another, sentient or otherwise.

The Hindu thinking sanctioned violence as a policy in war and to quell evil. A kshatriya dying in war is eulogised and one dying of old age or infirmity is decried.

Non-violence as a principle (pancha-sila) was a later day development. It is possible that Jain and Buddhist philosophies caused the shift. For our day-to-day life, non-violence is necessary.

The idea of sama-dana-bheda-danda places danda at the last, and it is as it should be. In SBI, sama was preferred by dana at the cost of efficiency and customer service. A tough and firm stand would have achieved results in most cases, but everyone adopted a body language of meek surrender. The management was to blame, not the unions. A union man told me that they go to the mgt. with 10 demands with only 4 or 5 as the goal, but the mgt. concedes all 10. Being fair and firm wins the day, provided you are authentic, principled and exerting for the bank. But, to try danda as a policy would undermine HR.

When working in credit, there was objection to norms for inventory and receivables citing special situations where the norms were strangulating. We explained that norms were for normal times and for abnormal times, norms would be relaxed. So also, non-violence is a guiding principle, not a mandatory provision.

Mahatma Gandhi readily agreed that violence was justified in certain circumstances.

Non-violence as an absolute and inviolable policy is for recluses and gnanis. We have made up our minds not to have anything to do with such crazy things. So, violence is an available option provided we can battle it out.

May peace prevail by violent or non-violent means!

Mahabharata:

"Usanas has said that scriptures are no scriptures if they cannot stand the test of reason."

January 16, 2017 ·

Killing

“Killing is present everywhere in the food chain that runs throughout the animal kingdom.”

I am writing this in reaction to a post that draws attention to the cruelty to animals prior to being killed for food. There is an appeal to a person in public sphere (I see nothing to celebrate in them). Most of these persons will do something only if it means pleasure, money, attention, or fame. I have not seen any of them doing something for public good out of their personal wealth. Rare are persons like MS.

An animal that is being killed has no choice. People kill not only for food but also as a religious offering. The method of killing also is scripturally dictated and the pain to the poor thing is not in the least in consideration. (“If the blood being the soul was eliminated form the flesh, then the killing would not have been a true killing. .. To eat the flesh of animals, all that man had to do was drain the blood away”). The sacrifices performed were also cruel execises in killing.

What happens in advanced countries?

“In factory farms, right now, millions of animals spend a life of agony crammed together in spaces that prevent them from any movement, before being killed as hastily as possible. According to food industry ideology, this takes place with the ‘consent’ of the animals themselves, who are supposed to feel more secure in such conditions.”

I wonder how much we alleviate the suffering of animals by being a little kind to them before being killed. Do the bulls like having to work in the field and on the road, or are they as much amused by jallikkattu as we are? They sense death and that agony must be perhaps more painful than any comfort we may afford while transporting them to the slaughterhouse.

Can we altogether stop it?

“.. such killing is practically unlimited, based on alleged social need (the vegetarian diet cannot be imposed by law). On the other hand, all attempts at moral justification fail miserably, even by a civilisation that prides irself on giving moral justifications for everything. The conflict rings loud and clear. Bit it has to become part of general awareness. Indeed, the issue is regarded as distasteful and is avoided. It is left to professional agitators like Elizabeth Costello to raise it in academic circles, as J M Coetzee, her chronicler, recounts. The reaction is a series of muffled coughs of embarrassment.”

(The quotations are from Ardor by Roberto Calasso).

May 17, 2016

Terrorism

Terrorism and the response to it
Is terrorism (violence) justified? Is revenge justified? Is capital punishment justified? Are there incontrovertible amnswers to these? It would appear that for the first two questions, the answer is simple and straight. May not be.
We are familiar with the arguments on these issues and I do not have a proposal that will throw fresh light. But, my purpose here is to dwell on the response to the violence that refuses to die down.
More innocent people die as a result of such violence, and yet all protection is for those who waste public money even otherwise.
What about the cost? How far can we afford it – the anti-terrorist measures? Not that there is a choice, but will it bleed the economy heralding success to the terrorists? They want to destablise the establishment and exploit the anarchy.
Is there any way to weaken terrorism? Who is thinking of it?
If ideology is not inspiring terrorism, what does?
In mythology, it was told that if you kill one rakshasa many more crop up. Is that coming true in respect of terrorists?
In films (Tamizh for instance), we have a villain looking like one, but behind him there will be another having a ‘respected’ position and will be exposed at the climax. Is a similar situation prevailing in regard to terrorism?
How far 

are the guardians of the state in collusion with these for personal or political gains?
Are we heading for scary days

Jun 22, 2004

Does the soul exist?

Let us assume it does not. What do you attribute your experience to you? who experiences?

The body cannot explain consciousness, ego and experience. There is an I in us that seems constant though the body keeps changing. Soul is the experiencer. But the experiences themselves are transitory and not substantial. That is the principle of maya.

 

Thoughts and mind complicate life for us. ‘Nature abhors vacuum’ – Niels Bohr. Mind is no exception. If we push away some thoughts others rush in. So if we fill it with God, then the Satan is kept away. But good thoughts or God thoughts are only the first step. We have to transcend thoughts to dwell in our real being, which is bliss, Ananda. So long as we live a life of wants and think thoughts of such wants and non-fulfilment, life is a misery. Even the happiness of getting a rarity fades away. We grope or progress, but the real achievement is in finding that inner self in which awareness there is no otherness and no want. The body becomes immaterial. But such a state is hard like a razor’s edge walk.