Enemy

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

I have often wondered about the word  enemy, especially the meanings, interpretations and uses of the word. If someone is a vegetarian he is the enemy of the beefeater; the temple goer and the mosque goer are enemies of the church goer; the mountain dwellers, treetop dwellers are the enemies of the plains, the Kali bhakts and the Durga bhakts are enemies and a Tamil speaker is an enemy of a Hindi speaker: the list is endless. But what really bowls me over is the war scene, the battle field where enemies face each other for mutual destruction. How is the soldier on the other side my enemy? If I am a patriot fighting for my country the soldier facing me is a patriot of a different country, yet we call each other enemy and kill. The Tiger is not our enemy yet we kill the tiger. The deer is not our enemy yet we kill to eat it. A tired soldier calls a flute player nincompoop and asks him to stop because he is fighting to protect him.  I hate a person because of his complexion, ideas, dress, language, food habits even the size of his house. Gandhiji was killed because he wanted the Hindus and Muslims to live together. The victor, the successful man are seen by the failures and the defeated with enemical eyes....

So what is this enmity? I fear the tiger, the soldier on the other side, the more successful corporate entrepreneur, a true lover, a powerful politician and think ill of them. Is it only fear of losing your self- glorified importance? Jealousy, rivalry, psychological inferiority also give rise to the feelings of antagonism. If the wife becomes famous as a dancer, her engineer husband gets jealous and entertains  ideas of divorce. If a politician becomes popular his rivals lose sleep and plot for his fall. If a lover is devoted and poetically elevates his love to divine heights, the beloved shrinks and protests trying to bring him down to the mundane levels of physicality or turns into stony unresponsiveness. If a mother is possessive the daughter revolts. If someone is honest and truthful he is friendless. People spread canards only against honest and hardworking men. If a country gets rich, neighbouring countries conspire with richer and stronger countries to block its progress.

In the mythologies too we see enmity which is irrational . Vishnu has his enemies, the gods too fight between themselves for ego or jealousy.  The sages meditating in the forest are attacked by the demons. Ram the apostle of virtue kills to protect others. Krishna in the name of saving the noble Pandavas causes the destruction of a  civilization. Family Quarrels continue beyond generations. For Rama's love Hanuman kills people who are in no way connected with his life. In history we have evidence of kings killing men and animals for mere entertainment. A man is asked to fight a lion for public fun; the people clap and cheer when the king's lion kills a brave fighter. Who is the enemy in these cases?  Mountains of a country never consider mountains of another country as enemy. But man attacks the other country. America sanctions smaller and weaker countries  when they  refuse to accept the supremacy of America. China treats India as enemy as it aspires to be the most powerful in the area. India and Pakistan are sworn enemies for no reason at all. Strangely your enemy's enemy is  a friend and enemies friend is your enemy. Turkey and Malaysia are India's enemies as they are Pakistan's friends. Why ? What logic can explain this idea of enemy/ enmity?

Perhaps  there is nothing called logic acceptable to Man for all time. Today's friend is tomorrow's enemy. Mutual suspicion in political relationship, business, religion and even  Marriage / Love is the only logic which motivates man and explains his enmity. Suspicion is the result of not only trust deficit but also the fear of extinction. We kill the tiger out of the instinct of fear and after killing we are proud of our achievement. Man is perhaps the only creature who is easily jealous, intolerant, unaccommodative and uncompromising. He hates almost everything that distracts him from his self conscious ego.  Hubris is built into human nature and everyman plays God in his life. Hence if his godhood is challenged, or mocked at or ignored he pushes himself to the brink to prove his godhood. If  he is destroyed because of his silly self pandering logic he does not care. He defies defeat and prepares himself for revenge. He cannot perhaps tolerate heights which make him look up. He must stare down at everything.

D. H. Lawrence famously said , "Tell me how many enemies you have  and I will tell you how great you are" fine,  for only  a great man has enemies, a minor man is always ignored. But why don't people gather around a great man in celebration of human greatness? No, that's not in a man's DNA. If he is too weak  he will throw expletives to the lonely walls  or dream of fighting lions like Santiago. But he will never accept greatness of body , mind, imagination and inventiveness for it makes him a beneficiary not the benefactor in the society. We hate the hand that feeds and gets  inside our weak minds. All this is true because man is not capable of true love. And we have to accept this bitter truth with humility.

KA

If anyone asks why the crows Ka

I'll not refer to the Rigvedic Ka

This Ka is kya, kyun, kaise I came

The crow is seeking  my answers.

If my face is swollen, eyes unfocused

if my mind wanders all over the world

lost, uncertain rolling rising brooding

the answer is what, why and how!

If I am  asked why do I miss you

my answer is why does life and death

chase each other  like night and day

why misses what and what misses how.

The Ka is never missed

the substance is lost everywhere.

You are in your world living loving

playing laughing without ever missing

the need of the night or death-

I have no world to miss anything

I have nothing to miss except the Ka

my Alter ego in life, death and night.

Sabit Sahu

Fearmongering.

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Those who thought civilization has conquered fear should think again. By killing the dinosaur, tiger and other animals and keeping the hapless ones in our zoos and making them fun exhibits the same people guiding civilization definitely thought fear was overcome.  By controlling all pandemic epidemics we thought fear was gone. The fear of war too has now been made less horrific. But terrorism has revived all myths of fear. The Covid 19 ( corona virus) however has taken us back to our primal fears of death. After the atomic deluge in Hiroshima mass death  became the most fearful thing that could happen to man. But now most countries have WMD (weapons of mass destruction) as  'deterrents'. Attack by brute force whether planned or accidental however, cannot be ruled out despite civilizational efforts. The United Nations, however, has proven effete- at best it is a debating club and at worst a financial burden  on nations. Fear perhaps, cannot be eradicated however man tries to muster courage. Fear is the beginning of wisdom but modern fear may not grant time to ponder, cogitate, analyse and devise counters. Today fear is like denatured rain, may fall on any human space.

But more than the fear of death by virus or atomic weapons a new fear grips the world now. The fear of fake news which many fear mongers manufacture out of thin air. Lies are spread at lightning speed by the new technological toys in our hands. Lies certainly are more exciting than truth or facts. If I say the Taj is a magnificent monument, it may not excite anyone, for almost everyone accepts the Taj Mahal  as a monument of beauty and also as a heart warming symbol of love. But if I say after all the Taj is a mausoleum  built by a ruler exploiting a dominated population, there  will be excitement. The statement is not a lie or truth, it is somewhat different from the unarticulated feelings of most people. The statement, however, innocuous it may be suddenly stirs up the nerves of controversy for which people have time. Who made the statement? If it is a Hindu, the conclusion  immediately will be that it is a 'hate speech'. It is meant to offend the muslims. The pomp of the Mogul Emperor is challenged and mocked at by a non-believer. This is a mischievous communally charged statement.... and so on. The social media will start buzzing and others will join in to create chaos. In fact any statement that one makes about a public figure, monument or person it will go viral in the social media. You may ask why should someone's statement is discussed at all? If people in a free democracy are free to express their opinion let them speak, why twist the statement and squeeze out communal juice out  of a statement ? This will happen because people would see religion in it. And religion is the greatest  dividing factor in the world.

But how to explain fearmongering taking out a meaning out of nothing? In India the Citizenship Amendment Act has been passed  to give citizenship to the persecuted minorities of the neighbouring Islamic countries. CAA is an Act to give citizenship to others  and it has nothing to do with the present Indian citizens. But lies were spread to create fear in the minds of a community  which challenges the government by illegally occupying a public road in Delhi in the name of saving the 'constitution'. The lie of Indians losing citizenship is so potent a truth for the organisers of the protest that they are not prepared to accept any assurance by any authority. How to explain this? Perhaps lies are more trustworthy and people decide their course of action on those lies, sacrificing values of their own as well as those of the communities of the country. Also they flout laws clinging on to the lies.

Drona in the Mahabharata heard that his son Aswasthama was dead.  He asked others and also Krishna, who said cryptically "Man or elephant Aswasthama is dead".  After hearing that he gave up his arms and was killed. Now the question is why didn't he enquire whether man or elephant had died? Krishna truthfully said about the death of Aswasthama, the elephant. But he added the lie about man, Awasthama. The lie was accepted by Drona. Man immediately believes lies and acts. ISIS motivated the people to die for religion with lies. Man is prone to believing lies with which he fearmongers. The social media is now a convenient medium to spread lies which lead to disastrous consequences. Social media users become town criers of lies. The sinister hidden evil in man comes out to create lies not to save life's dignity but to destroy human goodness. Fearmongers sadistically enjoy the crisis they create by their lies. If the Internet is not regulated by strict adherence to civilizational norms lies will develop a life of their own and vanquish truth to submission. Fearmongering be damaned.

The Wooden God

Water came up to your threshold

your Twenty Two steps drowned

your flag was torn you know why

your people blew apart in the dark

houses became burial for children

but your enigmatic smile unfaded

you sat on the gem stone, as if

nothing is wrong with your world.

People burn lamps day and night

your lidless eyes never blink

prayers , supplication appeals

flow around your demanding notice

but do you ever work or bother

what your children live for and how

storms, hurricanes, famine, festivals

go on yet you never meet the fates

of people you created fatefully.

Now get ready for revolt

shouts of down down will drown

the prayer songs and jingle bells

know your world or see your place

leave us as orphans or Father us now.

Sabita Sahu

I Protest

I do not live in a sealed world

no signboards are on display here

I spread  the message of equality

in gender, religion and politics.

If you raise evil eye

on her rising breasts

I protest.

If you bar her from temple

for her procreative fluids

I protest.

If you imprison her

in your routine duty

I protest.

If you treat her as a slave

rape her without her consent

taking her for granted

I protest.

If the old age home is

the address of your parents

who made you

what you are

I protest.

But if you discount my entity
throw at me your lamplight laws

I'll rise in my fury

as the new climate to

blast your towers of glory

and spit fire on your eyes,

forgetting my role

you have assigned to me:

No, I am Nature in uniform

respect me as I am.

Sabita Sahu

Jungle Jamboree

 Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Jungle is the lungs of the world as fertility is the heart of the earth. Nature creates beauty, grace, symmetry and also chaos in artistic  fashion to display the variety  and plenty of life forms. But the Jungle is the primal creation containing her entire assets of insects, reptiles, canine, bovine and human to celebrate Nature's grace in a razzmatazz -  as if the creation of vegetation and movable life  is in a ceremonial dance and song of celebration. Nature has created the jungle for oxygen, food for all and also space to grow and expand. Trees stand like "greenrobed senators" to cogitate hermit like how to maintain harmony out of a plethora of voices, noises and sounds. The wild beasts too are a part of the jungle. The tiniest insects, the bulkiest animal - elephant- the strongest- lion, tiger- the wiliest fox and the most intelligent man- all are in the jungle living together with fear, joy hunger and alertness. Each species has different taste, habit and way of life. The birds sing and soar, the monkeys sit on the branches, tigers  are on the prowl, the deer and other fourleggeds steer clear of the wild and get domesticated by men who  use them to get more out of life. Each creature irrespective of size, shape and intelligence fends for life in its own way. But man being more comfort loving and capable of group strength tried to harness the beasts for his own use.  No creature except man cuts the jungle to burn wood or to build shelters. He watches  the dance of the peacock in the morning while the birds sing the morning prayer to the maker, the other animals watch with gleeful eyes. But man greeds for  the plumes and devises weapons. The dark night in the jungle is eerie, made more mystical by the cricket while the lovelorn chataks whine. But man is  awake to kill the mighty beasts for his bonfire.

Jungle has its own life. Like a rustic maiden decked with wild flowers  and leaves it sways in the lapping wind of spring in rhythm with the tuneful choir. In the rains the trees stand mute like waiting lovers looking at all sides and in winter like standing corpses wait for funeral , for the June sun. The animals follow the mood of the jungle and run, pause and stay still. At times like the town crier they announce the oncoming of danger, running away to temporary lairs. But man ignores all those moods of the trees and animals and plans and plots for his security, comfort and the luxury of the fruitioning trees, denying a share to others. Nature has no meaning for him. He tries to learn the language of the birds and beasts, sun, moon  and stars and thinks of conquering them all. He eats his jungle mates, entraps them to submission, nets the birds and drives away the others from their rightful habitation. He clears Khandab Forest for agriculture, for the Maya palace and for villages and cities. 

                    

Man became powerful by trading the jungle kingdom. He ate and sold the meat of other animals to the other jungle eaters everywhere. He built houses- not wooden cabins only, large Buckinghams. He also killed and exploited men who were less intelligent and weak. He invaded kingdoms for cows, for water, for  nature's womb resources- gems, oil, gas and fossils. He multiplied, grew, reached the top of the Everest, crossed the Atlantic. The dinosaur  became extinct, the tiger, lions, rhino are all now endangered species. It's man who is now the master. Jungles are now gone - almost. The Oxygen forest near Brazil, the lungs of the civilized world was burnt. The Australian Bushfire alarmed man but undaunted he moved on. His knowledge of the world was used as the  engine of destruction. He can now destroy the planet in three minutes- the time it took to create the earth after the Big Bang. He has poisoned the air. New York, Beijing, Delhi all are now chocked. In winter and rain his concrete jungles are buried under snow, drown under water. Ebola, Zika and now Corona sink his heart. He ignores the warnings of fellow men who are Scientists; calls conferences to rescue the jungle which he has replaced by steel and concrete. Big guns don't agree. Some leader says forests are our only resources; we will make furniture, paper, rubber and anything that our fancy takes on. Man has already made holes in the Ozone layer. But how does he care? He blames the others of destroying nature. He argues what if the rose is gone, see our paper roses. What if the air is poisoned, we have our air- purifiers. Our masks can protect us. Our medicines are like ambrosia, we will attain immortality. Our roof gardens give us beautiful flowers and oxygen. We can eat  artificial meat, milk and pills for hunger. We can. We will and shall go on.

He is now prepared for the new choir of the jungles which he has created . When unseasonal rains come he will dance in the bunkers. When snowflakes fly in the air and tower tops disappear he can sing with oboes in sealed AC halls. His frozen food will outlast the long untimely winters. If the temperature touches 80 degree centigrade he can fly on the mooncrafts to Uncle's craters. The new Jungle Jamboree is about to start. The ahs wohs  will now come to deafening pitch, he will  listen to taped music which will make the  cadavers take capers in the air. No  no , no  deluge, the new Jungle Paradise without breath, taste, smell - only a grand jamboree of eerie  silence.

Remake Me

I am not born to

flow like a rivulet

collecting canker and dirt
in smelly choked flow

losing my energy

on rocks and stones.

Why didn't you make me

Saraswati reborn in grace?

I would have flown

long and wide winding

bending, feeding man

for long centuries moving

towards the glow

of civilization.

Birds, creepers would have

grown big and forest like

vast fruity bountiful,

but you have made me

a lingering half stream dying

before knowing my end.

I am not dead yet

still lingering in the desert

you created around me

I am still pure, sweet and limpid

come bathe in me and see

how I will make the desert green

my immortal flow will compel

you to shift your abode

covering me on either side.

Sabita Sahu

Religion in India is Divisive

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Religion is the opium for  the damned - said Bernard Shaw. But hardly anyone agreed. Centuries have gone by. Science and rational ideas have changed many a mindset. Despite Descartes and Secularism blind faith has swept the world. Superstitions and ritualistic practices have enslaved men and women of all faiths. Temples and Mosques are destroyed only to be built again. The aggressors and believers in different faith systems come to a clash for which any odd thing is provocation enough to fight, kill and burn the works of centuries. Countries where the population believes in one religious faith do not have any real conflict to worry about. Those are states with one God regimen. The others are theocratic states where minorities lose their identities in no time. The Muslims and Christians never see eye to eye on anything. The clash  of Civilizations is an unpalatable reality in the modern world.  The Islamic State , inspired by religious persuasion, has during the past thirty years, done more harm to civilization than wars. Hatemongers roam the world without fear. But India is in an undeclared crisis after the creation of the Islamic State of Pakistan - a state carved out of greater India in 1947 along religious lines. The British for their own amusing mischief supported the two nation theory and made partition of India a Trozan Horse of a parting gift. India a Hindu majority state has more than 16 percent of Muslims and the two communities are never at peace with each other. Religion instead of being a uniting factor has now become a dividing energy which is more carnal than spiritual. The world too is in a state  of unease only because of religion. Should we now not question the veracity of religion? Does man need religion today.

Religion is a system of moral practices inspired by human incomprehension of the  larger world of nature around. Since the human condition is so very painful religion promises to relieve that pain. The limitations of man, his weakness, fear  and uncertainties of the morrow have an assured counter in religion. A passive surrender to an Almighty gives some confidence to face the real challenges of life. But the Gurus or the interpreters of religion do some clever fearmongering only to collect a large number of supporters  and use them as a power group. This power starts with spirituality but practically it becomes a political power to consolidate empires. During the last two centuries science has given man more power to heal and kill.  These gifts of science too are now used by the religious 'dictators'. The state, even if it is democratic exploits the beliefs of the people by adaptation or promise of protection.

Therefore we see more temples and mosques, longer queues in temple, more faith business and more money for the states. All our places of religious worship are all veritable hotels. The temple cities are tourists hubs. And now modern night life is created in a big way  to attract more tourists. Is it ever possible to separate religion from our socio- political life? Could we isolate the Vatican, the Kaba, Jagannath temple, Ram Mandir from the state management ethics of present day politics? The answer is No. But what is the reality, especially in India?

India stands divided by votebank politics for the groups of different faiths fight for power-not spiritual but political . India being a democracy religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution and that freedom is exploited by power groups. All parties agree that religion should not be mixed with politics. They swear by a secular Constitution and practice votebank politics. The majority in Indian population believes in the Constitution, freedom of choice and expression and free market economy. But the political minorities create all confusion. Religious identity of  the turban and topi has made the Indian society chaotic. All institutions, the police, bureaucracy , courts of law and other branches of civil administration, even the army is powered by religion. Politicians openly support religious groups and everything is questioned on religious lines. Is it now time to think of "banning" all religions to private spaces?

In the now world one small Island country, Iceland, has demonstrated to the world that  society, civilization and political administration can be  safely made vibrant without religion. One may worship whatever faith he/ she has but it shall not be recognised in the administrative process of civilizational management and progress. India badly needs a similar political attitude. Let people go to their temples, mosques or clubs but that should not invade public space. Can the Indian Parliament pass  such a law as Iceland did? I know it is easier said than done but it must be done to save the Indian society. Science should predominate education, all religious festivals and processions should be banned, there should be one uniform civil code and no citizen will mention religion in any kind of form. The identity of an Indian should be Male/ Female and nothing else. Does anyone have the gumption to enforce it in  India?