The Monk Who Keeps Inspiring

 

Vivekananda is a universally respected figure, a Hindu monk who transcended boundaries between the West and the East, between Hinduism and other religions. His spirituality, bounded by rationality and yet deeply religious, resonates even today.

Ruth Harris, a Professor of Modern History at Oxford, authored a book ' Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda last year. I was in a session with her at a literary festival in Jan this year. The hall was packed and every story about Vivekananda was received with a hushed awe by a well-read and cultured audience.

Vivekananda believed in gender equality and the audience was elated to know that he had an openness of a different kind when he said then if there is rebirth, he would like to be reborn as an American woman. He was so impressed by the dignity and hard work of women in the USA. He influenced Freud and Gandhi and his broad thinking married seeming conflicts. He railed against colonialism but did accept the elements of Western civilisation that were inspiring. He was a proud Hindu monk but loved meat. He was aware of the communal tensions but talked of an Indian civilisation based on Hinduism and Islam. He preached the greatness of  Hinduism, especially its philosophical underpinnings, to the public everywhere but considered all religions noble in their own ways. His speech in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 continues to stir hearts even now.

On Jesus Christ, he said in Los Angeles in 1990: "And three years of his ministry were like one compressed, concentrated age, which it has taken nineteen hundred years to unfold, and who knows how much longer will it take." 

And on Hinduism, in Chicago in 1893: "I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We not only believe in universal toleration but we accept all religions as true."

And on the scriptures in Almora in 1898:"We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas nor the Bible nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran."   

      

Roman Emperors

 

Dictators and emperors have been some of the most cruel and craziest individuals in human history. Modern ones like Idi Amin, Hitler or Pol Pot have got drunk with power and committed terribly heinous acts. In ancient times, some of the Roman generals and emperors were extraordinary in lives of debauchery, violence and plain madness so much so that they defy imagination.

Julius Caesar(pic on top):

He was strictly the first among equals of the First Triumvirate that ruled Rome. Some of his  acts include:

- He was against luxury and he sent inspectors to dining rooms to catch people eating illegal fine dishes.

- His public spectacles involved armies of infantry, cavalry and elephants fighting. The wild beast hunting parties went on for five days.

- His sexual escapades were numerous and had no rules. He was referred to as 'every woman's husband and every man's wife.'

- As a consul, he stole gold and replaced them with bronze.

Nero:

The infamous Nero (pictured above) fiddled while Rome burnt and his acts defy cross all limits.

- At night he would attack people going back from dinner, kill them with a knife and drop them into sewers without any reason whatsoever.

- He took a fancy to a boy Sporus, castrated him and married him. He was passionately fond of his mother Agrippina too. Subsequently, he also tried to murder her by various means and finally sicceeded in doing so.

-He once got disgusted by the old-fashioned buildings in a part of the city and set fire to them which lasted for a week. While the fire was raging, he sang ' The Fall of Troy'.

Caligula:

He was the third Roman emperor, ruled for less than 4 years and was insane, to say the least.

- He made his high officials run on foot beside his chariot for great distances in their togas.

- He had a wild animal retinue and once decide to feed them the meat of prisoners and watched it standing in the colonnade.

-He had sexual relations with hostages, his sisters and wives of all his nobles as he fancied.

- He had a cruel face and even after that, practised in front of a mirror to make his expressions more fearful.

Marcus Aurelius, much later, was the wise and thoughtful one.

 

Budget Journeys

 

Sir C.D. Deshmukh (pic above), the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1843, was the finance minister from 1950 to 1956 and presented the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of the Union Government, called the budget in 1951-52, effectively the first year after India became a republic.  

A quick comparison of this budget with the latest one shows how much changes in 70 to 75 years.

The revenue receipts in 1951-52(FY 52) were expected to be 370 cr INR and the expenditure 375 cr with a deficit of 5cr.

Cut to estimates for 2023-24 (FY 24). The revenue receipts are INR 26.3 lac cr. A jump of 7108 times. But expenditures have increased even more relatively. The total expenditure budgeted is INR 45 lac cr i.e. 12,000 times.

Inflation and growth - both have played their parts.

Amongst other interesting items, the Government in FY 52 was planning to import 2 million tonnes of wheat from the USA, the balance of payments was positive at 66 cr INR.

The number of taxpayers was however not insubstantial in the context then. Against a population of 45 cr, we had 6 to 7 lac income taxpayers. 

In FY 19, we had 6.7 cr taxpayers (including companies and firms) with about one lac of individuals reporting more than 1 cr income.

The defence used to have a very high proportion of expenditure earlier. Out of 375 cr in FY 52, defence accounted for 180 cr. In FY 24, it is expected to be 5.96 lac cr ( 3311 times of FY 52) out of the total of 45 lac cr.

Propaganda for Kings

 Krishnadevaraya was a powerful king who ruled in Vijaynagara in modern Andhra Pradesh from 1509 to 1529. He ruled over a vast kingdom that included an area encompassing Bengal to Karnataka. 

Allasani Peddana was a great Telugu poet and fancied himself as 'Andhrakavitapitamaha' or the Creator of Telugu poetry. He was in Krishnadevaraya's court. 

We get disturbed by propaganda and exaggerated hero worship when we see it with political leaders. In te age of democracy and equality it seems so baffling. We treat mere men as Gods. This probably has a genesis in the way in a feudal society we treated our kings. They were arbiters of justice, commanders of the army, divine inheritors who lived in the fanciest of palaces. They also had poets eulogising them to the skies.

Peddana's classic 'The Story of Manu' begins with a encomiums to the glory and prowess of the king. Some of it will embarrass even our most praise-hungry modern leaders.

" For one rich in such qualities,

for an expert rider adept at handling any sort of horse,

for one who is quiet at heart,

whose brilliant fame turned all space white,

whose sword is like a snake filling its belly with the life breaths

of enemies trembling the darkness caused by dust

kicked up by his horses' hooves in one continuous charge,

for Karma reborn, a paragon of the art of giving,

for one who is loyal to good people,

for the lover of lady poetry,

for one whose fame rolls like waves to the end of space,

makes the sun redundant,

who captured the son of the Kalinga king 

in less than half a minute,

whose mind, with all its thoughts and words, rests at the feet

of Lord Venkatesvara, the ultimate source of kindness."   

Art and Human Beings

 

Art plays an important role in modern human societies. Mona Lisa's face may be amongst the most recognised faces in the world. The Dancing Girl of Mohenjo Daro ( pic above) is in one small piece brings a vivid representation of that civilisation for us. The Nataraja is the iconic distillation of the glory of Southern India.

The cave paintings in France and Spain (image below) show us how evolved humans were in art even in the ice age. Initially, the people refused to accept that it could be from that era. But as it was proved that the paintings of horses, bison and mammoths were done by the primitive people it became clear that even in basic, pre-historic conditions art came naturally to humans and it may have allowed them to connect to a superior state of being as it does now.

Through art, we can fuse reality and imagination in a way that can outlast us. It connects us to a cosmic sense of existence that makes our mundane lives more acceptable.

Modern education in India with its emphasis on STEM, science-based disciplines and almost complete discarding of art from the curricula, and including literature too; produces graduates bereft of a sense of grandeur and universal spirit. It does not help that the broader society at best engages with commercial movies as the highest form of art. There are hardly any patrons or even artists or literary figures that can infuse the spirit of art in society. All this adds to a mechanistic, transactional life. Time we addressed this.