Mother Arrives

The Autumnal drums’ frenzy peaks,

the corn ears of ripening paddy

sway in the breeze in happy pregnancy

the earth moist and wet is now ready

to receive you goddess for your stay

for nine nights of fond revelry.

The city, the street corners and homes

resonate with prayers for your victory

you have come to trounce evil and

vile demons and celebrate the end of sin.

The Trinity created you to raise

the victory flag over evil and guile

teach us O’Mother the courage and

strength to fight the earthly demons

which we encounter at home and abroad

and infuse in us power to fight back

all onslaughts of untruth and deceit.

Teach us to walk on the path shown by you

grant us wisdom and light and bless

the earth with seeds of hope

fill the earth with your fragrance

fet this year be the year of plenty

turn the world into a beautiful event

for mankind to remember in tuneful

measures of joy and gratitude.

Sabita sahu

Devi Durga

Prafulla kumar Mohanty

Pray to God for ‘He is your father.’ This is the most common idea accepted by people everywhere. But one is tempted to ask ‘Why not my Mother?’ A child’s first encounter with reality starts with the mother but the mother is always a term denoting an image, she is never a reality, for, as Eric  Fromm puts it, mother is first of all ‘Father’s wife’. In social life too mothers are less equal although they shout for gender equality and fight patriarchy. All religions therefore, have male gods. The Mother Goddess is depicted as a diabolical energy often causing chaos. Indians have created many goddesses as consorts of gods. The goddesses make life easier to live, they mediate, consort but rarely are independent. Saraswati, Laxmi and Parvati the main consorts of the male trinity are benign energies but never supreme, they are powerful but their power can only run a structure or facilitate its smooth functioning.

But in India’s myth making, Goddess as an independent hegemonous functionary has been created by the Hindus to match the male gods in all respects. Durga is one such supreme Goddess who functions with extreme independence. She unfolds the idea that reality, the world of spacetime, is feminine. She is nature, Prakriti, which comprises three qualities Sattwa, Raja, Tama- brightness and purity, dynamic energy and dark languid dullness respectively. This material world with those gunas or qualities gets activated by the spiritual touch of the Rigvedic Purusha and the world moves with energy. The feminine principle is Nature’s Shakti  or energy which can create and destroy. This energy is also endowed with maya or illusion. Maya adds an unpredictable and mysterious element to reality. Durga  thus  is created as a Goddess with tremendous energy to shape up reality. Her maya destroys evil and ego. Whenever the human order loses its equilibrium by irrational ego-centric use of evil, Durga destroys the evil and restores Order. She is worshipped as Mahamaya, the Great Illusion, which includes the ultimate divinity Vishnu in illusionary sleep. She destroys Madhu-Kaitabha, Mahisa and Sumbha- Nisumbha   by her powers to restore divinity and order.

This saviour from evil, this protector from agencies of death is worshipped by men and women as the ultimate earth- power. When the paddy plants stand in neck deep water, when the clouds start receding Durga makes her earthly appearance in the autumnal serenity of nature. Durga is originally a non-Aryan goddess but her identification with Agni as the most devastating power is traced to the  hymns of Rigveda where the term durgagni is used(1.99).Whatever be the origin this female deity is worshipped with utmost austerity. The earthly image is made by the artists with care. The structure, the colour scheme and the consecration are done according to the shastras. Women and men observe the Navaratri and fast for purification of all evil elements.

In days of yore Durga puja was celebrated with devotion, purity and austerity. In Bengal and Odisha the  pandals meant for community worship were places of divine presence of supernal energy. The priests were sincere, the devotees were austere the artists genuine and the pandals meant for the public were sacred. The singers and dancers who sang the praise of the goddess were also true to their art. But slowly changes came. As the culture of poverty slowly gave way to the culture of comparative affluence the size shape and colours of the images, pandals and decorations changed. Commercialization of devotion replaced the austere with the pompous. Street pride, village pride and even bloc or city pride of garish display of wealth made the images more luscious, fashionable and sexy. The pandals changed according to the themes. The shapes changed from simple and authentic bamboo structures to majestic palaces-White House, Taj Mahal, Rashtrapati Bhavan and gothic gabled mansions etc- to psychedelic and hallucinogenic sets. The statue too changed from the idea of the Devi to temptress and vamps or killers. The organizers invested money to collect money. Often money was extracted from the rich by force. The gradual glamorization of the images and pandals was the natural outcome of commercialization of faith. The event managers and decorators with their bollywood imagination outdid their counterparts in Bollywood itself. Professional singers, dancers and players were brought to attract larger crowds so that the donation boxes will grow fatter and taller. People enjoyed the entertainment and the ostentations and loosened their purse strings. Austerity, Devotion, awe and faith have now taken the back seat.

But austere or ostentatious Durga is worshipped by Indians of the eastern states and other states with great enthusiasm. People –  young and old- look forward to  observing the Puja with celebratory joy. The present times, however, are marred by politicization of the festivities much to our shame.

But Durga will visit the earth as Mother every year and people will celebrate the victory of good over evil.  May the puja this year bring peace and joy to everyone.                                                                        

A Silent Wish

Do not veil me with silken

threads, nor crown me

with titles, do not address me

as deity even, for I am a fragile

fragmented being waiting

for my redemption.

I know I am incomplete

without you and my journey will

revolve and evolve into nothingness

till the arrival of new Messiah

to join the broken pieces

in a redemptive order.

The silent untrodden time

that stilled my years are now

winged like a butterfly to

collect pearly nectar to spread

and paint colours on life’s canvas.

An ever silent wish to love you

more than what the heart contains

and depart from you

without bidding adieu.

Challenges To Religion

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty


We cannot say the exact date of the beginning of religions but a safe guess is when agriculture started in different parts of the world theist religions started. Biblical Judaism mainly focused on the shepherds and peasants. Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism created cosmological myths to bolster up an agrarian value system and a social life veering around villages, domesticated animals and agricultural produce. The Hindu imaginary had a three layered universe in which the earth was below heaven and above a subterranean life system. They believed in a Brahmanic energy similar to the élan vital but also conceived of several gods in an asymmetrical structure which slowly became unwieldy and polytheistic. Christianity and Islam, however, believe in a personal God and a non- urban system of life management. These religions and myths continue to dominate modern man’s belief and even lifestyle. But this is being challenged by two other systems: Politics and Science. As the One God idea is not accepted by all in Hinduism, one authoritarian ruler is also not accepted in politics. The monistic ideals had created monarchy but slowly monarchies have given way to democracy where every individual is sacred and divine. Science has given rise to a myth-breaking logic which can demonstrate the inadequacy and unsustainability of certain beliefs. Technological revolution has changed man’s life-style which now is more urban than rural- agrarian. The other challenges to religion come from Humanism.

Human organisations, such as the Maurya empire in India, the Pharaonic Egypt, Chinese Communism and the European empires, enforced another kind of ‘religious’ discipline. The modern Organizations like the Railways, Army, Indian Space Research Organization (or NASA and others) and such like Organisations are self-contained belief systems. They have their by-laws or constitutions, worldviews, duties and work ethic well crafted so that an individual is bound to be devoted to those values or ideals pursued where he finds his earthly salvation. Most organizations function like religions. They give us a system of ‘moral‘ laws made by a god or few godlike experts in the interest of men and women of the world. Hindus believed that divine laws were revealed to men in the Vedas. For the Jews it was the Bible. But the modernists and humanists would argue that Buddhism, Nazism or Liberalism were natural laws which have evolved in course of time. In the political evolution democracy has emerged as the most advanced and acceptable ’religious’ system. Democracy gives the individual a feeling of freedom and sanctity. Man can exercise his choice and pursue his vision but he must follow the constitution and obey the rules and regulations as is done in a religious system. The sub systems of democracy like election management, party line campaigning, booth management and strategy planning etc are like the elaborate yajna rituals and austerity practices. Except the spiritual goals of religions these sub systems give all other things. Spirituality is also often independent of religions. In a democracy there is no provision  for soul and immortality which most religions believe in and practice ways of attaining spiritual essences. Otherwise, these sub systems are self- sufficient units of absorbing an individual's total self and the ‘citizen’ soul. The hold of religion therefore gets weakened by the social, educational and political systems which claim soulful attention.

Today no one subscribes to the view that man plays his allotted role in the cosmic scheme of things.Man today is empowered by technology, secularism and liberalism. In the 21^st century man can speak with some conviction ‘’yes I can’ which is taboo in religion. All these challenges from science, politics and social humanism threaten religion existentially. Those religions which  have regimented the rituals and papal or shrine authorities over social behaviour may face revolt from inside or may adapt the changes and become more liberal. But we are moving towards a stage where the individual emerges as the measure of things and human will moderated by opportunities will determine ways of life.

Ready For The Tenth Heaven

Standing under the vast sky

I now raise my arms, not in despair

but in a welcome stance

to  receive the splendour of the stars

to enlist me as another twinkler

although from earth, long subdued

by ignorance and timidity.

Sharing the unsaid truth

of unmoving time from your

unarticulated chants thus long,

not like the waves beating retreat

in foamy defeat to strike again.

after a deep breath I too am

prepared  to climb the rock solid

silence of  the years gone by.

Now my lips are unzipped

to chant the old mantra in new voice

the truth that holds the universe

and binds in love;

listen to my flowing ballads,

this celebrant’s silent verse

meditated over the decades

will open up the rocks to hold

the unspoken truth with joy.

Yes, I know  my time is short

but I’ll join you and lift up

your sagging spirits with

the balm of my sincere love

and matching your steps march

your dream tenth heaven.

sabita sahu

Power

If you abuse power, you are powerful. A person who obeys rules, respects constitutional provisions and acts accordingly has no power. Only when you defy, disregard and disobey, you emerge as an alternative center of power. Had Indira Gandhi obeyed the Allahabad High Court order disqualifying her election, she would have been an ordinary mortal. But she, defied, punished the judicial authority by political power and emerged as a very powerful person. She perhaps, illustrated Lord Acton’s statement that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but to my mind power is basically a defiant energy which does not accept a superior authority under which we bow down our heads. If god is the most potent authority or the limit of all imaginable things it is tempting to challenge him. Lucifer or Satan therefore is equally feared as God because the power to harm is more in Satan.

But in all religions we are taught, the most powerful is the most benign, generous, kind and loving. That powerful being is God. This power which we call divine is a moral power. The moral power decimates the ruthless physical power and creates an order of peace, tranquillity and even joy. But this order is always an unreachable goal perpetually chased yet never reached. Heaven and god are imaginaries of possibilities. Any person who displays qualities of a superior moral force is seen as god by us. The Buddha, Christ and Gandhi gave us concrete blueprints of a divine order, reachable and practicable. But Christ and Gandhi were killed by the alternative energies demonstrating that political- physical power is tangibly more powerful. The kings wielded political and (physical) military power as the chosen agents of god to rule over the earth,i.e, their area of command. Rama, perhaps, is the greatest symbol of moral power in poetic imagination. In history we read of Ashoka, Bikramaditya and Akbar as kings who wielded moral authority. But one may ask with a straight face without being cynical, how many have they killed with their “moral power?”. If you have to kill to enforce morality, the other kings or so called leaders can also justify mass killing in the name of ideology. Stalin, Mao Tse Deng - if not Hitler and other dictators-can also justify the power of ideology, killing the opposition to establish their sense of order. Can we therefore ever accept power as an order force? No, power negates the virtues of compassion, love and charity which are basic human values expected in the person enjoying a position of power.

 Power is a divisive force. It divides people into two groups- the ruler and the ruled, the master and the slave, the wisest and the most foolish. In modern democracies, be they the Presidential or the Parliamentary forms, the moment we utter the word ‘power’ the country is divided into two groups: the power group or the ruling class or the Treasury bench and the opposition. The ruling group is also not a homogeneous unit. Internal conflicts, aspirational rivalries, competitions to be number one goes on in the ruling group and also in the opposition. The man at the top is always tense to retain his power for there is space for only one man at the top. Power also compels a further division between the person wielding power and his conscience. Power at times prompts the authority to sign an order or resolution against his own better judgement. Thus power creates a threefold division. It can never unite. The so called unity comes under threat of power, out of fear not love.

If power is a moral force, it envisages an Order where the master- slave division does not exist. Democracy is nearest to this moral power creating an Order. But here too we see vaulting ambition manipulating the order. Power personalises, privatises the world. If the man in power uses power as a sacrificial energy a moral order can be established. But man always abuses power, he should learn to renunciate and use power with love. Power should be a creative energy in the hands of a man of love. The aristocratic value equation is Power= Good. The good of others, the good of all. But man tends to move centrifugally towards his own perceived values.

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Little Angel

Dedicated to the memory of "SARA"

How strange it is !!

You were ‘Are’ Yesterday                        
Now you are ‘Were’ today.

Its’ just nine springs you

Grew up in love and laughter

Raising hopes and dreams, but

Suddenly you took to bed in ‘NIMHANS’

For the forks, scalpel and knives

To dissect to order your brains!

O’ how tormenting it must have been

For you little angel, how could you

Curtain that pain, your face was

The same cherubic glow: Alas!

God won the battle and left your

Parents in a pool of tears.

Now no one will ask you

How are you?

Neither, Pikulu bhai nor family members

Will say-“you ‘ll be alright ‘Sara’”

Your uncle will never bring again

Your favourite fried fish.

You left everybody with a ‘?’

O’ beautiful angel

Let the heavens be blessed

To have you as a gift

Richer than they can ever have!!


Sabita Sahu

GodMen Gone

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

I don’t blame Gurmit Ram Rahim or Asharam Bapu or the Brahmacharies and Babas before them, for our history is replete with such names. Our desire to jump the life to come, if the present one could be made fruitful by any means- even miracles, magic and fraudulent means are welcome. Hindus read that God is nirakara and nirguna; God has no shape or form or attributes, but ,they go to the temples to bow down before an artist’s creation identifying the mask with the face. This stone, wood or jewelled icon does not speak, he only hears if at all, but we pour our grievances paying a token of our worth, a flower or fruit, to appease the speechless god and ask for everything- from child, promotion , wealth to another’s fall and death as if god will avenge for us. If something happens coincidentally, we cry full throated praise from house tops. If nothing happens we wait, perform yajnas, observe fasts and try all rituals and follow casual advises of persons who in their lives are often beggars of fate .

This weakness of men is exploited by some clever men who play midwife between god and man. Often they are equipped with true knowledge, intution and creativity like Shri Aurobindo but mostly the imposters carry the day. Lechers, sex-crazy godmen play Rasalila in real life as Krishna’s avatar. The gullible people savour the simulated drama as real and are motivated to see divinity in the imposters. A few magical tricks, a few induced fulfilment of their desires make them slavish robots of the godmen and they are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for them. Their rationality is often mortgaged to a few gifts or magical tricks of these cheats. Our desire to have what we often do not deserve makes us fall at the feet of the so called godmen . These tricksters and self serving men are like the directors of chitfunds and ponzi companies who lure the poor to invest their money believing their promise of doubling or trebling the invested amount in one year. The super clever politicians hold out another ideology before the common man promising them the whole paradise if they join their faith. Following one man of miraculous powers started with the religious leaders. The world has seen the Buddha, Mahavir, Christ,Mahammad and many variegated editions of the great masters who have enslaved or enraptured men and women to their faith. Once a faith is accepted the bhakt or devotee is ready to kill and die to save his faith and guru from all rational attacks.

In a large democracy like India with so many political and religious gurus, another class has also flourished- the godman who performs god like miracles  holds sway over the politicians and bureaucrats. The politicians protect the godman to get the votes of his large followers. The godman lives a lavish life shaming the epic description of luxury in literature . He moves in planes or two crore Mercedes and rapes and kills with impurity. The vote bank at his command is his insurance against rational attack on his faith and ways of llife. Since democracy is a game of numbers the politicians buy the support of these godman make them god substitutes for a large number of people. The godman build their empire and exploit the poor and emotional half-heads.

This has no place in a democracy. Let there be Rule of Law, good and compulsory education and no votebanks in the name of faith.  No man can ever be god. If gods are allowed to breed private armies to attack the state, the state will disappear. All the small and big godman be, first of all, depoliticized. Their seven star life style itself should be questioned by the state. At the same time let the common man be educated in the latest scripture, that is, The Constitution of India at all levels. Sectarianism and indirect sacerdotalism should be crushed by the state without discrimination. May the common man, the Aam Adami, be made powerful by proper administration, education and Rule of Law enforced rationally.