22 INDIA
Taslima back in India, wants
her visa extended
Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasreen, targeted
by Islamic fundamental-
ists for her controversial
book “Lajja” is back in
India and has sought
extention of her visa.
She was forced to
leave India after radicals
protested against her pres-
ence in West Bengal in
November, 2007. She
came back to India recent-
ly and has been put up at
an undisclosed place.
The medico turned
Going for the
Haj yatra on foot
Ahmed and wife Haseena will travel from Mehsana to Mecca
Visiting well known
shrines on august days by
walking is a very old
Hindu ritual, but for a
change, A muslim couple
from Mehsana in Gujarat
has decided to walk right
upto Mecca. Ahmed
Sheikh – 49 and his wife
Haseena – 45 will cover
the distance of 6,000 kilo-
meters from their home
town to the holiest of the
Muslim shrines in Saudi
Arabia in 9 months.
They have planned to
start on February 28 and
expect to reach Mecca in
around nine months. They
would be passing through
5 countries in their ardu-
Now, a singing saree
from Andhra designer
Saree loving Indian
women now can also
enjoy their favourite
music or songs, thanks to
an innovation brought in
by P. Mohan.
The designer from
Dharmavaram town in
Anantpur district of
Andhra Pradesh concep-
tualised “Swaramadhuri”
– the singing saree with
UK DFID to help 8 million Indian
slum dwellers with better facilities
£14.5 million aid to be used in 20 cities
Gareth Thomas, UK min-
ister for International
Development recently
announced £14.5 million
aid to help bring better
facilities for 8 million slum
dwellers in 20 cities in
India.
The DFID funded pro-
gramme will support gov-
ernment of India’s flag-
ship Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal
Mission (JNNURM) pro-
gramme.
Speaking at a high
level meeting on the future
of cities across India and
Africa, the International
Development Minister
said that the £14.5m fund-
ing would help to target
poverty in some of India’s
most overcrowded cities.
The programme will
provided clean drinking
water to slum households,
give better sanitation facil-
Taslima Nasreen
ous trek.
The couple was waiting
for their wish to perform
the Haj yatra for ten years,
but money is a problem.
They decided to walk right
through. They got their
passport just recently.
“It is a test of patience.
Haj is an imperative duty
for all Muslims who have
the resources to carry it
out,” he adds. On passing
through terrorist regions
and inhospitable terrain,
Sheikh says, “We are car-
rying the message of peace
and love for all the people
on our way. There is no
fear of anything. God is
with us.”
eight micro speakers on
the border, while a 2 GB
memory chip and a small
digital music player is put
on the “Pallu”. The device
is capable of playing 200
songs or can enthrall the
wearer for 4 hours.
P. Mohan has earlier
also designed sarees with
small LED bulbs, and called
them ‘lighting sarees’.
ities through improved
sewerage, waste manage-
ment and drains.
Slum households will
also benefit from a legally
secure claim to their
home, through tenancy or
ownership.
Addressing the meet-
ing, Gareth Thomas said,
“People often don’t realise
that despite being an eco-
nomic success story in
many ways, India still
faces huge poverty and is
home to one third of the
world’s poor.
Poverty is particularly
bad in larger cities. That’s
why this funding is so
important - it will make a
huge difference in helping
to meet the basic needs of
some of India’s poorest
people.
Films like Slumdog
Millionaire have helped to
give British audiences a
writer has requested for a
permanent residency in
India, but the government
has not taken any decision
on that. Her wish to visit
Kolkata will also remain
unfulfilled, as officials feel
it will spell trouble.
Living a life in exile
since 1994, Taslima has
stayed in France, Sweden
and the USA also. She is
in India for five years, but
here also she met with
opposition from radicals.
KND is new
Parsi high
priest in India
Kaikhusro Navroz
Dastoor Meherjirana, a
respected Parsi scholar
was recently anointed as
the Parsi high priest
(Vada Dastur) of India at
Navsari in Gujarat.
Popularly known as
KND, he used to present
musical recitals on All
India Radio’s Vadodara
station in Gujarat.
Based in Mumbai at
present, he is also an
advocate, he has
authored two books on
banking laws. He is also a
student of Indian classi-
cal music.
A follower of the
Kirana gharana of Ustad
Abdul Karim Khan, and
particularly of the late
singer Gangubai Hangal
of Hubli, KND said “It
will be my endeavour to
attend to the controver-
sial problems of the com-
munity with all love, sin-
cerity and understanding,
and without an iota of
malice or hatred. Only on
failing that I may take the
help of my legal experi-
ence of half a century,” as
he spoke to an English
daily.
brief insight into the reali-
ty of how difficult daily life
is for people in slums. It is
right that we take action
to help those people who
need it most.”
DFID support will
form part of a £6 billion
Indian Government proj-
ect. As well as providing
basic services to the poor
in 20 Indian cities, it will
help local governments
and partners to deliver
vital services to a further
43 cities – helping some
45% of the total slum pop-
ulation.
The Minister
announced the funding at
a high level seminar which
brought together academ-
ics and key partners, like
the World Bank, to discuss
how Government thinking
on cities in developing
countries could be
improved.
Asian Voice - Saturday 20th February 2010
In divine light
Arjuna, the inner disciple
Yudhisthira is frightened seeing the
might of the Kauravas just as the Great
War was about to begin on the battle-
field of Kurukshetra. He felt his army
was much smaller and subject to defeat.
Arjuna and Sri Krishna console him.
Arjuna tells Yudhisthira that he has the
‘Pasupata Astra’, which if he uses,
could destroy the whole Kaurava army
in the blink of an eye. Rather, he would
engage in ordinary warfare and achieve
victory the hard way, slowly and with
great difficulty.
In this small episode, Vyasji unrav-
els to us two ways
to enlightenment –
one, a shortcut and
i m m e d i a t e
approach and the
other, a slow and
steady process. The
first is a secret
method, fraught
with dangers of
many imbalances
of the body-brain
system, given
directly by a master
to only certain dis-
ciples. The second
is a slow and steady
method which can
be taught freely.
When Pandu
and his wives were
in the forest, Kunti
successfully used
the mantra given to
her by
Durvasa to give
Rishi
birth to both,
Yudhisthira and Bhima. Nonetheless,
she could not invoke Indra to give birth
to Arjuna. Pandu performed severe aus-
terities by standing on one foot, signify-
ing balance and voluntary suffering.
After a period of one and half years,
Arjuna was born. Arjuna was born an
advanced soul; not only is he one of the
five Pandavas, he also represents the
student or disciple.
The aim of all disciples is to reach
the stage of ‘pratyahara’ or freeing of
attention from the attractions of the
sense organs. In the twelve years of van-
vaas (exile), Arjuna has worked hard on
his attention. The name of his bow is
‘Gandiva’, which represents the
diaphragm and his arrows symbolise
attention. Every small disturbance,
emotional or mental, immediately
affects the diaphragm and makes our
breathing chaotic, fragmenting our
attention. By practicing rhythmic
breathing, we bring our diaphragm into
rhythm and balance, sharpening and
making the attention one-pointed.
When we are able to hold a sustained
arrow of attention within us, we have
reached pratyahara. This is the greatest
moment in our spiritual quest and at
this moment the inner guru appears to
the disciple and guides him to higher
paths of yoga. In the Mahabharata, Sri
Krishna becomes Arjuna’s charioteer
and guides his chariot between the two
armies or no-man’s land, symbolising
the state of pratyahara. It is here that
the immortal knowledge of the Srimad
Bhagwad Gita is given to the deserving
disciple.
Arjuna represents the emotional
centre and before this centre can com-
municate with the divine, it must be
purified. Dhritarashtra gave to the
Pandavas the barren country of
‘Khandavprastha’. This comes from the
word ‘khand’ which literally means a
small part (or something that has been
By Rajen Vakil
destroyed). For a disciple, it signifies
chaos in all the centres of the body-
brain system. From Khandavprastha,
the Pandavas established
‘Indraprastha’, the city where the ener-
gy of the senses rules. Ordinarily, the
five senses work with the energy of sen-
sitiveness or excitement, creating chaos
in our lives. Here, the disciple shifts
from sensitiveness to sensitivity, estab-
lishing the state of Indraprastha within.
Let us study an event during this
phase of the Mahabharata. One day,
Agni (the God of fire) asked Sri Krishna
and Arjuna if he
could burn the
Khandava forest
and satisfy his
hunger. Every
time he tried to
burn it, Indra
sent rain and
quelled the fire.
Agni then asked
Sri Krishna and
Arjuna for help.
Arjuna asked
Agni to start
burning the for-
est and as soon
as Indra sent
rain, Arjuna cre-
ated a canopy of
arrows which
stopped the rain
from cooling the
fire, allowing
Agni to satisfy
his hunger. In
return Agni gave
Arjuna a special
chariot with horses and the ‘Gandiva’
with two quivers, which would never be
short of arrows. This whole episode
symbolises how Arjuna purified the
emotional centre. The Khandava forest
symbolises our sub-conscious, full of
samskaras. The spiritual fire of tapa
burns this chaotic forest. Once this is
done, we have freed our attention from
the momentum of past samskaras and
that is how we can get the Gandiva, rep-
resenting rhythm and balance of the
breath, and the quivers of arrows, repre-
senting quality of attention.
From the Yoga perspective, in our
solar plexus area there are the two
chakras, Manipura and Kundli.
Manipura is active and holds the energy
of excitement (sensitiveness). Kundli is
inactive but holds the energy of sensi-
tivity. The yogi slowly stops the working
of the Manipura and activates the
Kundli. Karna represents the Manipura
chakra and Arjuna, the Kundli chakra.
Both are in the solar plexus signifying
that the source of energy is the Sun.
Karna is the son of Surya, but he is also
Angaraj, signifying solar energy wasted
in excitement and bodily pleasures.
Arjuna is the son of Indra or lightning
(solar energy in a concentrated form).
When the Manipura withers, the Kundli
opens up and we are freed from excite-
ment, and now energy takes on a con-
centrated form allowing us to invoke
and thereafter, hold the divine presence.
When emotions are purified and
attention becomes one-pointed, the
emotional centre is filled with the pow-
erful energy of love, leading to real
shraddha or faith. From this point
onwards, our spiritual progress would
be very fast.
(Edited by Chintu Gandhi.
Illustration by Siddharth Ramanuj.)
The author can be reached by
emailing 3srb@live.com