Surpanakha - A modern daughter

Recently I came across a face book post about a daughter-mother conversation on Ravana and Rama. It goes like this

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A pregnant mother asked her daughter, “what do you want – a brother or a sister?”

Daughter: Brother

Mother: Like Whom?

Daughter: Like RAVAN

Mother: What the hell are you saying, Are you out of your mind?

Daughter: Why not Mom? He left all his Royalship & Kingdom, all because his sister was disrespected. Even after picking up his enemy’s wife, he didn’t ever touch her. Why wouldn’t I want to have a brother like him? She continues… What would I do with a brother like RAM who left his pregnant wife after listening to a “dhobi” though his wife always stood by his side like a shadow? After giving “Agni Pareeksha” & suffering 14 years of exile. Mom, you being a wife & sister to someone, until when will you keep on asking for a “RAM” as your son?

Mother was in tears.

Moral: No one in the world is good or bad. It’s just an interpretation about someone. Change your perception!

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Sounds very logical and emotional, right? As the Moral at the end says, it is just an interpretation of a Ramayana event, to fit someone’s prejudices and temperament. After all Ravana did what he did because he too interpreted Dharma as he wanted. Perhaps then we must accept that Ravana faced the consequences of his interpretation of Dharma.

But let’s ask a simple question. Did the girl in above example take all the facts about Ravana, Surpanakha into consideration before making above interpretation?

If the mother in above scenario read Ramayana herself, then her answer would be something in the lines of…

• A Ravan like brother would deny his sister (the girl in above scenario) marrying someone she loved, a Danava Vidyutjihva, from a different caste. A Ravan would honor kill Surpanakha's newly wed husband.
• A Ravana's sister would go around enticing men, even married men. A Ravana's sister would try to marry Rama, then Lakshmana when Rama rejects her, then again Rama when Lakshmana says no; all in an hour or so.
• A Ravana's sister would try to kill Sita (the very Sita our protagonist is so concerned about) when Rama rejected her. She would kill other women to marry their husbands; same as Muhammed killed the husbands to marry their wives/women.
• Then a Ravana's sister advises her own brother to have/kidnap Sita, a fellow woman & married woman, so he can avenge her Asuric lust.
• A Ravana like brother would not abstain from touching Sita out of respect for women. He does it out of fear for his life, as he got a curse from his own great grandfather, Brahma, that his head will explode if he touches a non-consenting woman. He got this curse because he raped Rambha who is his daughter-in-law by relation, same as Muhammed coveted Zaynab.

No mother in the world would want a son like Ravana because he would listen to his asuric/lustful sister, kidnap a married woman on his sister’s words and then end up destroying an entire Asura empire for his murkhatva. 

With Ravana like son and Surpanakha like daughter the mother would end up crying now and forever.

Herein lies a lesson for all Bharatiyas, who, sooner or later, will be facing their progeny overwhelmed by secular interpretations of the world around them. Read Ramayana and Mahabharata yourself and understand the Dharma for what it is. This will help guiding your own children away from Asuratva and eventual survival and progress of your own caste/race/lineage.

Dharma eva hato hanti, Dharmo rakshati rakshitah || 

(One who destroys Dharma is destroyed by Dharma,  One who protects Dharma is protected by Dharma).

Is Modi building a DhArmic BhArat?

The other day I was reading “AntarArtha DEvi BhAgavatam” and came across the definition of Dharma. It says, Dharma is the nourishing milk giving Cow with its four feet as – Satya, Saucha, BhUta-Daya and NishkAma-dAna/Karma.

This made me wonder if the current Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi is subtly building a DhArmic-RAshtra thru many English sounding schemes. Let us explore:

The first foot of Dharma is Satya.

What is Satya for a society like BhArat? It is nothing but the true essence, nature, spiritual character of BhArat and BhArat alone. This is exactly how Sri Modi described BhArat in his Idea of India speech on the floor of Indian Parliament. In summary, Modi’s definition of Satya (or Idea of Bharat) is - SatyamEva JayatE (Only Truth Prevails), PaudhA me bhI paramAtma hota (Plant life too is the god-consciousness), AppO deepO bhava (Just be a light unto yourself), Tena Tyaktena Bhunjitha (Renounce and Enjoy), Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah | Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu, Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet | (May All become Happy, May All be Free from Illness. May All See what is Auspicious, May no one Suffer.), Naari, tu Naarayani (Woman, you are none other than Narayani/Goddess), Janani Janma-bhoomi-scha Swargadapi Gariyasi (one's mother and motherland are dearer to him/her than heaven) and so on…

We have heard many of these Satya-vaakyas throughout our life as we celebrated our Bharatiyata. None of the Abrahamic ideologies like Islam and Christianity, nor the modern ideologies like Communism, Socialism and Secularism talk about Satya/eternal-Truth in these constructs. In fact, all the non-Bharatiya ideologies stand against more than one of the above “Ideas of Bharat”. Thus Modi’s definition of Satya is nothing but Veda-Dharmic Satya!

Second foot of Dharma is Saucha.

Bhagavatgita explains that Saucha as combination of Subhrata, Swachata, Sundarata and Pavitrata. Subhrata means getting rid of filth and corruption amidst us. Swachata is the process of adopting the set of practices that help maintain health and prevent corruption. Sundarata is the body of aesthetic knowledge that makes our surroundings and society a celebration. Finally Pavitrata brings the sense of reverence towards our own surroundings, society and nation.

If we closely observe various schemes initiated by Modi Sarkar, we can see the ground work to bring Saucha to Bharatiya society and consciousness that will eventually lead to the Satya (Idea of Bharat) described above. Programs like Toilet construction, Swacha Bharat, Smart Cities, Model villages, Namami Gange and religious-tourism circuits are all part of this Saucha-Bharat initiative.

When completed, these programs together will increase the Saucha-Quotient of India to Vedic-Bharat levels.

Third foot of Dharma is BhUta-Daya.

BhUta-Daya consists of two parts. The first aspect of BhUta-Daya is reverence and kindness towards and protection of flora-fauna of Bharat. This is stemmed from the root consciousness of Vedic-Bharat that says “PaudhA me bhI paramAtma hota”. The Bharatiya concept of BhUta-Daya cannot be found in any of Abrahamic ideologies that are ruling rest of humanity. All these Abrahamic ideologies view the nature as something meant for human consumption (God created earth for human consumption).

This is the angle from which we must see the Beef Ban and anti-Cow-Slaughter movements. When Hindus agitate against Cow-slaughter, they aren’t denouncing only cow-slaughter but supporting goat/chicken slaughter. Cow is the symbol of all animal-world in Hindu lore. It is same as Indian parliament being the symbol of our democracy and any attack on the parliament is seen as an attack on Indian democracy and dealt accordingly. So when a Hindu is agitating against cow-slaughter, one is agitating unnecessary consumption of animal meat/products. As someone said, a Bharatiya killing an animal out of hunger is a reflection of poverty of the nation, a Bharatiya killing animal for taste is one living in lowest level of human consciousness a.k.a ignorant (For one can get same/better taste in vegetarian food) and finally a Bharatiya killing an animal for pleasure is nothing but an Asura to be punished/killed.

Following is an info-graphic of eco footprint of various types of food. A conscious society will prefer to satisfy its food security covering minimum eco-footprint.

 

Modi Sarkar’s stand on these issues are to enforce better living conditions in animal farms and to ban export of animal products. We have to understand that the indigenous breeds of cattle and flora-fauna are natural evolution over millennia to survive and sustain in indigenous climatic conditions. Foreign imports can give only temporary reprieve and can never be a permanent solution.

The second part of BhUta-Daya is to develop our forestry, natural eco system so it facilitates and nurtures next level of human evolution. The impact/results of this can be seen only in long scales of time often going beyond hundreds of years. Modi Sarkar’s focus on environment, renewable energy and economy and river-cleaning projects like Namami Gange project has the potential to create such a mutually supporting and sustaining eco-system.

Fourth foot of Dharma is NishkAma-Karma/dAna.

At Rashtra level, NishkAma-Karma translates into a corruption free and efficient governance system. The administration is represented by people working in and representing various arms of Rashtra. They are expected to work towards the glory of Bharat without narrow-minded translations and comparisons of their services and sacrifices into monetary gains. For example, recently there was a social media outrage about an IAS officer’s salary being higher than that of a soldier posted in Siachen. This is not only a ridiculous argument but also an insult to both the soldier’s karma/action as well as that IAS officer’s. Karma of any Bharatiya, be one is a teacher, soldier, doctor, riksha-puller or a farmer, is no higher or lower than anyone else's.

Modi’s focus on minimum government maximum governance and SabkA sAth, sabkA vikAs are the foundations of this NishkAma karma awareness. It enforces the sense of belonging and awareness among BhAratiyAs that their individual success/action/well-being comes from collective success/action/well-being.

NishkAma-dAna in this context represents the state support to poor and down-trodden. Not every action/profession can result in monetary results. There could be many reasons. But we cannot condemn a small farmer or daily-laborer or unemployed post-graduate for their poverty. The nation as a whole has to offer them a basic level of social security that ensures that no Bharatiya goes hungry, unhealthy or lack an opportunity to succeed.

This is where Modi Sarkar’s schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Universal Social Security, Universal Health and Life Insurance scheme and MUDRA bank etc come into picture. All these schemes, as they gain traction, will form foundation of Nishkama-dAna aspect of Dharmic Bharat.

Conclusion

Seen from this perspective, we can safely conclude that Sri Narendra Modi is establishing foundations for a Dharmic Bharat whose viswarUpa may appear in a decade where Bharat grows to become a $20T economy and Bharatiyas get to enjoy first-world Human Development Indices with minimum environmental foot print and without compromising on their natural Dharma that is Sanatana Dharma!

At this juncture it is important for all Bharatiyas to not get distracted by secular propaganda and become part of Sri Narendra Modi’s Yajna in regaining our Viswa Guru position sooner than later.

This is the single most service every Bharatiya can do to oneself, to our motherland and entire humanity! 

Swasti!

Sa-Varna and Sa-Kula Marriages

Bhagavan Sri Krishna in BhavatGita says that catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah; “the Varna of an individual is determined by the combination of Guna & Karma”, including the karma of past lives. If an individual is given an option to choose one’s Varna, s/he would choose the Varna that resonates her/his Guna (temperament, attitude) and karma (Buddhi karmaanusaarinaa! In other words one makes one’s own fate). There is no escape from this. Probably that's why Bhagavan continues his statement with tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam; “thus determined, even I cannot undo that”.

Now if we look around, any individual with absolute freedom to choose one’s  life partner, would choose someone that resonates with his/her own Guna & Karma; in other words Sa-Varna marriage. That's why we see the so-called love marriages to be of Sa-Varna in nature to the extent that IT people marrying IT people, doctors marrying doctors etc., of course for convenience and mutual compatibility. In a Sa-Varna marriage the Guna plays dominant role while Karma follows it. 

When the society gave the education and work/social profession suitable to one's own Varna, there was no need for love-marriage because parents found them to be not against the system.

Coming to Sa-Kula marriages, these are mostly arranged by families or outsourced to parents by young for, again, convenience. Parents, in addition to looking at basic socio-economic comfort zones, rely mostly on already established Kula-definitions; which themselves started based on some Varna a long, long time ago.

In a Sa-Kula marriage, parents/families rely more on Karma (the reason why a soul chooses a specific life in a given cycle) than Guna because they assume the Karma (or initial conditions) have more influence on a certain outcome than an individual's choices/perseverance. This is no different from the secular and modern liberals thought process concerning things like IITs and Ivy Leagues. Getting into an IIT, the initial condition, is good enough to determine one’s social recognition, irrespective of one's intellectual aptitude or social contribution. This is just a less risky option for individuals. This is same as an Indian preferring an Indian spouse than say an African spouse; Kula being a much more specific preference group.

Going thru the life trajectories that we have gone thru in our lives and those of people around us, we can sufficiently understand and appreciate this rationale. Only a handful of us moved beyond the life-changes that are destined by our initial conditions be it in social, economic, spiritual or nationalistic planes of mind.

For example, say I am an Indian and my spouse is an African. When someone asks our children about their background and my children respond with Indo-African (mixed blood), neither my children nor the society get worked up. But secular minds get worked up if/when my daughter says she is a Nishada because she is mix of Brahmana-Sudra parents! English words are good, Samskruta words are bigoted/outdated to a secular mind.

Sa-Varna marriages (a.k.a Love marriages) bring a new dimension in to social discourse; what happens to the children of these marriages? Their parents created a new “initial condition” for these children. So it is only natural for these children to face problems (in some cases) when they want to rely upon the existing Kula-structures and those families are apprehensive if a Sa-Kula marriage would work for the child as his/her initial condition is more Guna based than Karma based. Often such Sa-Varna children ending up blaming the Kula-structures instead of understanding this simple logic.

Author’s note: This opinion is written as part of a discussion on Bharat Rakshak Forum. Request readers to visit the forum to get complete discussion and participate.

A proposal on Agricultural Industry Employment & Farm Subsidies

For a nation to be strong, it has to find an efficient way to provide employment to all its citizens in a way that their incomes are above poverty line (so can be taxable, if needed) and contribute towards national self-reliance, wealth accumulation, and power projection.

Recent economic earth-quake reset certain economic rules that have been prevalent for the past century and half. This proposal is based on the ground rules that, India must:

1. Be able to achieve food security for its huge population.
2. Develop renewable energy sources (in the absence of proven oil and gas reserves)
3. Be environmentally conscious
4. Work towards improving Gross Happiness Index

So that, the end result will be a happy, healthy, environmentally-sound base-economy that can offer high level of employment opportunities to its citizens.

Farm-Subsidy program

The subsidy structure allows that small farmers get the most benefit.

• 1st acre – Rs 2000
• 2nd acre – Rs 1000
• 3rd acre – Rs 750
• 4th acre – Rs 250

Total: 2000+1000+750+250 = 4000 = Rs 1000 per acre on average.

Note: This proposal was originally made in 2010. Adjusting to inflation, these amounts should be anywhere between 150-200% of these amounts.

This plan envisions to provide a subsidy of Rs 1000 per acre-month (pro-rated) for all the farming families up to a maximum limit of 4-5 acres per family. For example, if a farmer has 1.5 acres of land, s/he will be eligible for Rs 3000 farm subsidy per month and if a farmer has 10 acres of land her/his eligibility will be limited to Rs 4000 per month.

This subsidy if not 100% free. One can either opt to return this money interest free or pay it thru the harvest up to 30% of the yield, whichever is lower. For example, if a farmer owes the government Rs. 18,000 (12 x 1500) and have a total harvest of say 8 tons of rice in that year, s/he can either pay the Rs 18,000 in cash or submit 2.4 tons (30% of 8 tons yield) of rice at Food Corporation of India (FCI), whichever is profitable to the farmer.

This plan also acts as crop-insurance, because in the event that the farmer got only 3 tons of harvest in a particular year, s/he would return only 0.9 tons of harvest and the loan is closed. The farmer will take a new loan next year towards next year’s harvest. 

Employment Scheme in Farm Sector

From CIA Fact Book on India:

• India Total Land = 2,973,190 Sq.KM = 734,691,248 Acres = 73.47 Crore Acres
• Irrigated Land = 558,080 Sq.KM = 137,904,571 Acres= 13.79 Crore Acres
• Arable Land (48.83%) = 1,451,809 Sq.KM = 358,749,736 Acres = 35.87 Crore Acres 
• Non-Arable Land= 1,521,381 Sq.KM = 375,941,511 Acres = 37.59 Crore Acres

Out of this available land area, taking out the populated areas such that:

• 100 Cities (population: 20L-1Cr) = 90,000 Sq.KM = 22,239,484 Acres = 2.22 Crore Acres
• 1000 Towns (population: 50K-20L) = 25,000 Sq.KM = 6,177,635 Acres = 0.62 Crore Acres
• 600000 villages (1 sq km) = 600,000 Sq.KM = 148,263,229 Acres = 14.83 Crore Acres

TOTAL Populated Ares = 715,000 Sq.KM = 176,680,347 Acres = 17.67 Crore Acres

And permanent Forests of about 27% of total land area

• Permanent Forests/nature = 806,381 Sq. KM= 199,261,164 Acres = 19.93 Crore Acres

From the non-irrigated arable land area of 35.87 crore acres, Government of India can assign 5 crore acres to 1 crore below poverty line families and offer them Rs 1000 per acre per month subsidy for first 5 years on the pre-condition that they grow:

• Other type (teak, deodar, other forest type) – 1 Acre
• Permanent Crops (fruit orchids, bamboos, Eucalyptus, type) – 1 Acre
• Bio-diesel (Jatropha, palm oil etc) – 2 Acres
• Arable (vegetables etc) – 1 Acre

Definition: 

• Arable land - land cultivated for crops like vegetables, wheat, maize, and rice that are replanted after each harvest
• Permanent crops- land cultivated for crops like citrus, coffee, and rubber that are not replanted after each harvest; includes land under flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees, and vines, but excludes land under trees grown for wood or timber
• Other - any land not arable or under permanent crops; includes permanent meadows and pastures, forests and woodlands

Given the fact only 20% of the land is used for regular farming, it is highly possible for these farmers to achieve water self-sustainability by following efficient rain-water harvesting techniques.

This plan will automatically bring 1 crore families (~4 crores population = 4% of total population) out of poverty immediately while adding:

• 10 million acres of new forest lands
• 10 million acres of commercial timber
• 20 million acres of bio-diesel = ~3 billion gallons of bio diesel saving ~$3B oil imports from 5th year. The best part is this is green energy and renewable. 
• 10 million acres of additional food produce.
• 100 million carbon credits (2.5 credits per acre for the first 3 categories) = 100 million megawatts of electricity production = India can add another 11000 MW of thermal power generation without violating Kyoto protocol.
• If allowed to rent the land to establish Sterling Energy Systems’ solar power dishes at 3-4 units per acre (so they do not over crowd the land) the farmers can earn additional rent at least another Rs 500 per acre.

Thus India can achieve all the stated objectives: 

1. Poverty alleviation
2. Food Security
3. Energy Security
4. Forests & Environment
5. New Economy (eco-friendly employment creation)
6. Cultural preservation - the tribal population is given economic security without threatening their unique cultures built around environment.

Program Cost

This program envisions a budget outlay of Rs 108,000 Crores split between

1. Farm Insurance Program: Rs 48,000 Crore for 1Cr small farmers
2. Agriculture Sector Employment Program: Rs 60,000 Crore for 1 Cr BPL families

Return on Investment

1. Even in the worst case, the Farm Insurance Program will return a 30% of the total outlay, equal to 14,400 Crores. The actual subsidy component will be between Rs 33,600 Crores to Rs ZERO. This covers all the small farmers in India.
2. As mentioned above, the Agriculture Sector Employment Program will self-finance itself after five years creating 1 Crore permanent jobs. It is calculated that a Rs 1000 Crore investment in industrial economy would create 15,000 permanent jobs. In this proposed program an investment of Rs 3,00,000 Crore (5 years x 60,000 Cr) is creating 1 Crore permanent jobs compared to 45 Lakh permanent jobs the industrial economy would create for the same amount of investment. 

Program Risks:

1. The farm subsidy program needs National-Id in place so the program is not misused and the target population receives the benefits directly to their account IN CASH.
2. Close integration is required between Farm Land registration, National Id program, and Farm Subsidy programs.
3. The FCI channel can be abused (already highly corrupted channel) during crop collection.
4. Unemployment Program has to be devised in a way that the land is allotted to Tribal populations only and not sold/resold to politically motivated groups

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Author's note: This proposal was originally made in Bharat Rakshak Forum in 2010 under Alternative Budget Scenarios thread. I request readers to participate in the discussion.