Dharma - solid/fluid duality

The was the title of one of my discussion sessions in Nottingham Mandir (contact me for details) was Dharma - the internal Kurkshetra. It started with the simple question: What is Dharma? How would you define it? The group came up with several definitions: duty, that which sustains the natural order of the universe, internal peace and righteousness. What I really want to put out there is an idea that emerged which baffled about half the participants.

What do I want to do with my life?

What do I want to do with my life? A question I have been asking myself a lot post results day.. I go to university in September, I graduate, I get a job, get married, settle down with family and kids and then live out the rest of my life. Seems like an ideal, normal life. In reality I’m not even 100% sure what course I want to do at university! Let alone after. In a book I recently read (Sadhana of Service by Eknath Ranade) the author encourages the reader to find a focus or an aim in their life as soon as possible and dedicate their whole life to that purpose. As Swami Vivekananda said:

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.”

Happiness is a mood, not a destination.

Sat working on my presentation in the lounge while my sister was watching television was rather distracting but at one moment I heard a speech by one of the characters in the American programme she was watching that caught my attention. "Happiness is a mood. It's a condition, it's not a destination. It's like being tired or hungry -- it's not permanent, It comes and goes and that's ok. And I think if people thought about it that way, they'd find happiness a lot more often."

Just Do It

This week concludes the SIP experience and ends quite an exhilarating 7 weeks in terms of personal development, practical experiences and tangible progress which I have made.

Due to the nature of my project, sometimes it has felt as if my personal objectives have been hijacked by the objectives of the project but I guess this was the real skill in how can I ensure than I remain committed equally to both. In particular, I have struggled with personal objectives such as weekly bhojan at a Sangh family’s home, researching a current affairs topic and completing the community emersion programme whereby I was expected to visit another community programme outside of Sangh.

Fear

Over the past week and throughout our lives we have all seen things which made us think “that’s wrong. That should not be allowed to happen.” But have we done something about it? Have we tried to change it?

The attitude of “what’s the point?” “What difference can I make?” is quite common.

Why?

I think it’s partly because people feel they are on their own when they want to change something or make a difference in the world. Truth is (as I’ve learnt though my SIP experience) there are probably a lot of people who would like to get involved in the some way but don’t know how to go about doing it.

The practice of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

After posting the previous blog, I thought deeper into the subject. Do I as an individual, practice Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, literally becoming engrossed into it? Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam means to me a world where everyone can work together for the progress of the society they live in regardless of race, religion and gender, if one requires help, then one would receive it and these actions should be performed with a pure heart and without any doubts.

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - “The whole world is one family”

This statement is far from becoming a reality. Many wars are happening across the Middle East, especially with the recent Syrian and Yemini uprisings. The civil war in Sudan, which lead to the formation of North, and South Sudan. Post war attacks are still occurring in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So many crimes, upsets and tragedies make this statement somewhat difficult to believe. Now, the latest spark of violence that’s happening literally on our doorsteps are the UK Riots. Something that began with a peaceful protest over the controversial killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan has now lead to violent sporadic outbursts of violence across major cities in the UK.

Streets have become vandalised, shops looted and people’s livelihoods have been destroyed, all for what? To steal a few trainers from Footlocker? Or grab a 32“ LCD television from Currys? I think there a number of reasons, that have resulted in these riots, lack of education, Police becoming less authoritative but most importantly, lack of family values.

We are a civilized nation.

On 25th May 2001 peaceful protests began in Greece. By the 29th of June they had turned violent; bins were set on fire, police were attacked with stones and Molotov cocktails. But why were they protesting/rioting in the first place?

Reasons for the Greek riots:

1. Austerity measures. The Greek government planned to save 30 billion euros in one year through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.
2. The people were angry. Politicians mismanaged the economy, why should the public have to pay?
3. High unemployment:
1. Over 40% of young Greeks are unemployed.
2. 15.8% of Greeks are unemployed in comparison to the Eurozone average of 9.9%.
4. Failing industry (negative growth for the past three years)
5. Failing economy -4.5% growth in GDP in 2010
6. Many commentators also said it was partly due to underlying social tensions i.e. the rich-poor divide.

Inception - The power of words

The inspiration behind this blog is a Karyashalla (workshop) at SSV 2011. Four teams (of about 18) were given the task of crossing a hall without any of their members touching the floor. They had 15 mins and three chairs. Their brief was “get as many people across as possible”. For those of you who are familiar with this the most common technique is to take two people across using the chairs and then for one person to come back using the chairs then take another person across and so on. Indeed, this is what all the teams did for the first 5 mins (n which time they got 5 people across in total). As this time one of the instructors paused the activity and pointed this out to the teams and emphasised that they only had ten mins left and at their current rate they would only get ten more people out of 70 over. The reaction of the participants was to continue to work as they were but to try to speed up. From an external view point the solution was clear.

Riots in Croydon

Having never lived through anything like this that I can remember, yesterday was one of the most heart pounding experiences I have ever been through. My first day back from SSV started very relaxed as I slept for a good while, recovering from the lack of sleep from the past 10 days. I woke up to an empty house and got on with my normal routine through the day.

My sister then called when she was on her way home from north London almost ordering me, saying I'm not allowed to go to the gym or to town for the next few days. I didn't argue and turned on the news to see what was happening and sat in disbelief as I saw pictures of youths trashing shops and standing off with police. I then got a call from my dad asking me to pick him up from work, which is near enough to these riot areas. Driving to him wasn't a problem but getting back was when the trouble started.

A Reflection on SSV

Having returned home from SSV and rather than looking back particularly at my personal experiences of the varg, there was one particular point of interests from a few which I felt strongly about.

Firstly, as a Praveen Varsh swayamsevak , i defiantly realised the step up in the quality of the bauaddhik and of the ‘char cha’ sessions. Despite only briefly doing so, we were actually able to take a step back and see Sangh for what it is. What is its structure, its ideology and distinguish the relationship between shakha and Sangh. Although the discussions still left me with many questions in my mind, I was still glad that such topics were at least attended to.

Analysing current levels of Hindu representation in Politics

Think Policy

“Have looked to create a Hindu focused initiative concerned with gathering opinion data on key policy matters and providing a platform for informed opinion”

Web: www.thinkpolicy.wordpress.com

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(Draft) Report: http://issuu.com/hersh.thaker/docs/report

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Please share your views and opinions on this draft report

Open publication - Free publishing - More data

What is our id, super ego and ego?

“Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the psyche”. The first day at the second Abhyas Varg involved a talk given by Sachinji Nanda on the psychological aspect of the mind rather than the brain. So we have an id, which stimulates our desires but is part of our unconscious mind. The super ego works to prevent these desires getting to our conscious state and mind, which then allows us to behave in a socially acceptable manner. Through childhood our super ego is built up through our parents influence, the lifestyle we live and the environment we are surrounded by. The ego is both conscious and unconscious and this is where our decisions are made by separating what is real and unreal.

Democracy in the spotlight

Having spent the last week, as one MP in the commons put it, ‘the Westminster bubble’ I felt it would be good to write a short reflection to look back on my short stint in the crazy world of politics.

The week began through attending a meeting held in parliament to welcome the BJP delegation which consisted of; President Nitin Godkari, President of the women wing Smriti Irani, Leader of opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly Vasundhra Scindia and many other prominent figures in the party. It was great to see that there was some degree of support from English and Indian parliamentarians for the BJP, along with a genuine interest to enquire about their fundamental ideas and policy. It showed that, especially in Britain we are more likely to take them for what they are rather than what the media portrays of them. Nitinji on several occasions stated something along the line of ‘judge us for what we do and not on how we are portrayed’. Of course, Narendra Modi’s supposed part in the Gujarat riot has created a stigma of the BJP with the usual “far right Hindu Party”. Yet, the party which controls 9 states in Bharat and has been involved in national government has never advocated any action which discriminates against minorities. As well as successfully putting this point across Nitinji succinctly laid out some of his parties key priorities, which was rural and agricultural development along with improving waterways.

Is Gujarati really that important to our society and us?

Is Gujarati really that important to our society and us? 

Why do we speak in Gujarati? Is it because our grandparents can’t understand English very well? Is it because when at home our parents insist we speak in Gujarati to them? Or do you feel as though it’s part of who we are?

The future is our youth?!

Last Sunday I attended an event called, “You Choose”, this is an initiative which allows local residents of Tameside to have a say on the projects that they wish to see take place in their respective communities. Each project had to advertise themselves to the residents for 3 minutes and it is their vote that decides the distribution of funds given by the local council.

Some facts about Hindu's in the British political system

1. The Hindu population in Britain is approximately 623,000

2. Harrow (19%), Brent (17%), Leicester (15%) have the highest population of Hindu’s

3. 52% of the Hindu population reside in London

Bhajans: Boring or bonding?

Beginning SIP (Sangh Internship Program) has made me become more aware of the environments that I am in. The 1^st Abhyas Varg (development workshops) taught us to observe our surroundings, engage in conversations by actively listening and influencing the context of the discussion. This may seem simple and straightforward but taking that step back and noting how you react in these situations is very intriguing.

As part of SIP, we are to visit a different swayamsevak’s house each week. The swayamsevak I visited wasn’t exactly different, as am always at their house every so often and the enticement of idli sambhar was too much to resist!

The world – as we don’t know it

At the start of my Abhyas varg I was given the task of “Paying it forward” with £30 in Birmingham city centre. The whole context of this task made me look at the world in a different way. Instead of thinking “what do I want to do next?” my thought process changed to “Who can I help next?”

Have we become desensitised?

What happens when we see a situation but do not react in a positive, helpful manner? Is it because we have become desensitised?

This is something I experienced when at the first Abhyas Varg last weekend. The story written by Ursula LeGuin is one that evokes great feeling and imagery and makes us to question deeply our personal morality. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" is a short story that allows us to feel changing emotions because of the twist. It starts off as a wonderfully described city, with bright colours and happy feelings, but as we read on we are told there is one child who suffers to ensure the happiness of others. The citizens have taken it upon themselves to visit and see this child and witness the squalor is lives in. Some feel anger, others feel sympathetic and there are the few who carry on with life as though they have not seen anything. Is this because they are now desensitised to the situation? There are very few who are unable to handle knowing something that terrible is happening but rather than finding a solution to change it, they simply walk away, leaving behind society and family, walking away alone. But then is it any less immoral to walk away, despite knowing this continued evil is occurring?

The Art of Listening

Communication is undoubtedly a skill we need to master in order to do well in any field we choose whether it is verbal or written. We will go through our education careers developing our own writing style and we will still be learning through our working careers, the art of writing is something we all consciously feel the need to improve. The same goes for spoken communication – we accept the importance of clear and concise verbal communication and even Sangh goes in some way to help individuals develop this.

So what is my point?