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. 

New Dawn

Of late, I have learnt to rise
From the bed of languid hopes

Early to sniff at the crimson dawn

That has just begun to lavish

On me the indefatigable joys of being.

Just now I have started putting on

New shoes that bites me delicately

But I don’t bother, I am not scared,

My new rendezvous with life has

Taught me to forget the poison

Fruits of familiar trees, the vile

Canker now cannot touch my feet

Nor the slush of affluent weeds

Can transfix me on unpaved roads,

I’ll wipe off memories of horrible lure

And create my own memories in the

New space making my short life’s

Long span my identity.

I'll make my moments long
Eternities of dreaming truth
Which my years have snatched away
In empty beats of hollow melodies,
Played by hands that rooted me
To a worldly sense of security.

I greet my new dawns with new songs
The late opened litanies of joy. 

Sabita Sahu

Mobile Fixation

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Whichever corner of the world you go, you will see someone walk on the road, his ear glued to a tiny instrument which 'connects' people. The world today is abuzz with human gossip. In a picnic scene you will notice men and women busy with their phones. In the legislature or even class rooms people watch forbidden things. The internet makes the world a superstring of valuable connectivity. In the malls, corridors, pavements, cars and buses and even on bikes and bicycles one hand and one ear are in the close conspiracy of personal whispers. In the parks or lonely places lovers laugh, cry and sulk over the mobile phone. Businessmen, rickshaw pullers, even housewives and five year olds play with the phone to keep the game of life alive. No student of T.S.Eliot will ever nod with the line- My people, humble people, I can connect nothing with nothing. No, the poet was wrong. Today the mobile phone can save lives, avoid wars, feed old immobile people and grow your business. Now that India is moving fast towards the digital mode, the Prime Minister advises the poor villagers to do e-banking, money transfers and almost everything that a person needs with the mobile phone.

The internet has now the entire knowledge sphere at its command. If you are a researcher, the cut and paste job has been made easier. If you are a genuine lover of knowledge, this tiny universe of a phone can give you all the knowledge you need without the physical toil of sitting for hours in a library. The modern world does not care for depth or width- information is all. You need headlines, a few snatches of a masterpiece, see a painting of  a Van Gogh and you become an authority. The lecture you deliver to a learned audience is on the wall, you need not practise standing before a large mirror like Bill Clinton, you need not take notes or mug up things. You just look at your mobile and dole out all the wisdom your audience needs. You can ask for all goods and services by touching the screen as if you are holding Alladdin’s lamp which grants all your wishes, legitimate, illegitimate even banal. You can send messages which you alone can decipher, you can buy and sell Gods’ creation without moving from your chair. You can live alone away from your loved ones. You will never be bored or hungry, the changing seasons, time's mutation will never disturb you. With the mobile in your hand your personal universe is in your grip.

But is it really so? Don’t you feel that the world is more than a few data, equations, pictures and information? Your reality becomes virtual, your imagination is an offshoot of biochemical algorithms. Your view of the world is data- centric. And you too are a datum for others.

Yes, the mobile phone is a dear friend in an emergency. When you need transport, service, help, especially that of a doctor or to inform a friend of impending disaster the mobile comes as a god-send. But beyond that it is a obsessive toy which makes you a child who constantly lives in  wonder not like Alice but like a lost child who finds solace from a non – welcoming reality.

I know people who after charging the phone pray let not anything go wrong with the phone; let not the networks fail. The mobile phone is a boon to the modern man. No argument. But it is not the be all and end all of life. The children today, particularly the school kids, have stopped reading books. The museum or art gallery does not hold any attraction for them. The teacher is also expendable-Google sir will give us lessons. It has made the young persons self immersed; they have no time for anything. Social media absorbs their intelligence; their creativity is confined to a few wisecracks.

Make the mobile your friend, not your lover, not your soulmate.Listen to your own authentic voice instead of listening to or reading the voices of others. Be yourself, not a mirrored image.

Mission Of My Life

I know I can never reach up to you

Nor can I ever touch you, for

You have built your castle so high

That shames the towering clouds

In the blue expanse of the sky.

I don’t know how long will it take

To break your meditation, no Menaka I

But pray step out from under

The canopy of silence to spread

Your message of Truth, Love and God.

After my appeal the stars have

Given up their comfort zones

To embellish the blanket of grass

To listen to the meditating Hermit

In bright silence the Om of love.

I know  the road is tough and long

With weeds and canker, hateful rancour

Of centuries of hate and banter

But I’m sure you will lure

With your magic of soft and pure

Thoughts and  practice of silent love

To show the path ahead to me and all.

I know you will hang on the Cross

Face bullets and arrows only for me

To see that I live in peace and glory

Achieving goals of our love.

Come forward  my soldier

Fight the hate, fight the arrows

Of man’s violent heart and mind;

If you get shot I will be there

To hold you in my loving arms

To fight the battle divine and bold.

Even if you fall never worry,

My lap will unfold and carry you

To your final rest,

If rest you must.

This is the Mission of my love,

My goal and My Salvation 

sabita sahu

Freedom Of Speech

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

The Indian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. In all democracies of the world this freedom is respected except in the communist countries. You are free to express an opinion or take a call on any situation. But is this absolute? Ezra Pound’s free expression landed him in the jail. Another great American mind, Noam Chomsky gained national acknowledgement of his genius for his rational intensity and uninhibited expression on the ideological process of indoctrination of America in Vietnam and the Middle East. But in India freedom of expression is like a river in spate, it hurts, inundates and dries up on its own. The law or the constitution has no control over any form of expression. When M.F Hussain's paintings were vandalized no one dared to speak. Ultimately the man left India, took citizenship elsewhere and died unlamented and unsung. China today claims all territories contiguous to their land as theirs. If anyone opposes on principles and facts China challenges to the battlefield, as if military power is the ultimate arbitrator of all issues.

What disturbs the rational mind is the impunity with which opinions are expressed about persons, religions and political rivals. Last  month in Rameswaram the memorial of APJ Abdul Kalam was inaugurated. The next day some’ great visionaries’ found fault with the presence of the Bhagbat Gita near the statue of Kalam. The charge was BJP is communalising an icon who is above all religions. The Bhagbat Gita is a great poem, not necessarily a Hindu Scripture. Germans, Americans and many nations read the Gita and research on it. It is a view of life and reality and definitely one of the best literary works of the world. Why should doubts be expressed in polarising terms on such an innocuous issue?

Intolerance has crossed all constitutional limits in India. Jawaharlal Nehru University can celebrate the ‘martyrdom ‘ of Burhan Wani, a Hijbul terrorist and also of Afzal Guru a terrorist who masterminded an attack on India’s most sacred temple- The Parliament, slogans like – Afzal we are ashamed that your killers are still alive- can be shouted in a choric fashion and no eyebrows will be raised. But when the Kargil Victory Day is celebrated in Hyderabad Central University the temporary memorial could be demolished post midnight in a clandestine manner. The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir can shout if Article 35-A is abrogated there will not be anyone in Jammu and Kashmir to lend a shoulder to the tricolour. Politically loaded statements can be made  without  disturbing the rational balance of the Indian mind.

Yes lynching is condemnable in the name of the holy cow or in the name of ideology  but how many people condemn the lynching of RSS workers in Kerala? Rational judgement and constitutional propriety should not be taken recourse to selectively. But this is what happens in India. The free thinkers like Dhabolkar are killed. No one is prepared for a public debate. If Kamal Hassan finds fault with the Mahabharata defeat him with logic and a sound reading of the text. But no, people will threaten him. Similarly Madhur Bhandarkar has made a film on the 1975 emergency in India. He was hounded by congress workers- why? Watch the film and criticize on his wrong reading of History- if any- and comment on the flaws in other artistic or technical areas. Madhur Bhandarkar also has the same right of self –expression as any other creative person.

We notice two trends in India today. A cultural aggression and a defeatist attitudinal dynamics attacking with nervousness all citadels of life.These come to clashes and create only noise pollution. The rationalist intellectuals now should interfere and call a spade a spade. People must be made to understand that there is a limit to freedom of expression. If that Rubicon is crossed the constitutional values will be in jeopardy.