Sharing my write-up which was provided a space on the great platform of erudites. This is an article, “Bhakti Movement: Societal Transformation through Literary Spiritualism.”
This is written in the background of era of Bhakti Movement in India from 7th century to 19th century. It highlights the positive points of bhakti movement and whether they are still applicable in today’s or future world.
History, if read with no previous perceptions or judgements, always gifts a few take aways. These are the virtues and principles of sustenance for the society. Any society in this world, if makes a genuine notes of it’s and other society’s past, can manage and overcome the hardships, bottlenecks, the matters of conflict, the ill conditions, sufferings, times of danger, negative issues prevailing in society etc. in a better manner.
History was what was present, the present thoughts, results, solutions and possibilities of past human. History is just the reflection of thoughts.
It depends, if one learns from it and progress or just treat it as a dull, lifeless subject of no importance in present world. This will hold true till man lives. Great societies sustained as they assessed and learned from their past, adopted, modified and corrected in the present context.
India lost one of the true gem today. He was not only a brilliant, polished actor but also a great and humble human being. He got numerous awards namely Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour for his contribution to the field of arts in 2011 and many others like National Film Award, Filmfare Awards etc. He was Mr. Irfan Khan.
I wouldn’t go into his personal details rather would like to write from the perspective of a fan, an admirer who observes and learns from him and his life. Today, my first reaction to the news of his passing away was a shock. I was aghast and sorrowful. Thereafter still engrossed in this state, some thoughts came into my mind as if Mr. Khan himself was enlightening me with few takeaways just as he used to communicate via his movies.
Time: Is it precious?
He was 53 and is no more at such a young age. It is saddest thing. But what should we learn from this? He exhibited how to live, invest and enjoy each moment of life.
I wrote “live” and “enjoy” as he was the person who never used to spread his sufferings to others. He always laughed out loud and cracked jokes in order to manage and maintain smile and happiness in the lives of people.
I even wrote “invest“. It is because its true that he had less time to perform on the stage of life. Yet, he bought each moment of that drama. He worked hard with full dedication, investing and utilizing each second constructively.
We must learn this quality. Why to be anxious and remorse about what future do we have or how much life we have or how much uncertainty is there in the life to come? Just live this moment, give your 100 percent to this very moment. There must not be the repentance of even a single second like “had we put a little more effort, things would have been different.” As I always say life is a blessing by the Almighty to us. We are special that we are born as humans. Then why to waste such a precious gift?
Perseverance and Positive Mindset
Mr. Irfan khan wanted to be a cricketer but due to some reasons he couldn’t (heard). In the year 1988, he starred a small role in a movie named, “Salaam Bombay!” But he got his breakthrough after starring in movie “The Warrior” in 2001.
No, I am not saying that in between these years, there was no good work done by him. I am sure there might be. But what I am trying to highlight is, it could not be a cake walk for him. He was a man with normal looks, not a celebrity looks for sure. He was also not a person with some support in Bollywood industry, I guess. Yet he not only survived but thrived and shone. He must have gone through many highs and lows, failures and successes. But this man who walked confidently through the narrow lane of failures leaped to the apex of success and fame. All due to his positive attitude and never say never attitude.
His constant pursuit led him to perform in both Bollywood and Hollywood movies. He did the challengable roles, the roles which were not an easy tasks to do.
And so, today he is amongst the top well acclaimed actors.
How many of us embrace our failures, learn from them and walk again? How many of us stand again after a fall? For those who do, don’t worry for sure one day life will present you all awards for your positive journey.
Dedication: Do we have
Mr. Khan’s dedication as we have already seen above, that how committed he was for his work.
Let us visualize his last days. He was detected cancer in the year 2018. He underwent his treatment for the same. He was a born fighter. He was fighting with this disease. While he was having treatment, he had to come back to India to complete one of his movie named, “Angrezi Medium”. He was going through chemotherapy during the days of shooting. He was a great actor, he could have denied it. But not only he completed his movie. He also maintained his humourous, casual habit of making fun and spreading laughter for free within his vicinity.
We bother about our small pains and sufferings, relentlessly discuss and feel why we are the ones suffering! Instead try to be like him. World is already full of sorrows. Why not to share love, care and joy even if we ourselves are at pain. Pain subsides when we pass on smiles to others. For sometime we forget the pain and enjoy our life while making others happy. Try to do that someday and feel the pleasure and inner satisfaction.
We learned many virtues from this man of big heart. He was a great actor and has for sure enlisted his name in the book of golden names. His presence will surely be missed today and in future. But the best tribute to him will be to enlighten the virtues of this man inside each of us. And this thing applies to anyone who has gone far from us. If we wish to pay tribute to such a dear person, imbibe his or her good qualities and live a quality and motivating life of which that person would feel proud of!
Mr. Irfan Khan, the whole world will miss you. A gem has shifted his abode on earth to the home of Almighty! May your soul rest in peace!
Some college friends were chatting amongst themselves. They all started a game where each one had to define “modernity aspects” in their life.
There were numerous viewpoints of modernity ranging from shopping brands, having stylish phones, using slangs, doing adventures, getting drunk, having numerous relationships, nuclear families, increasing divorces and break-ups, exploring new places, being loud mouthed, having short temper, maintaining a classy lifestyle, intolerance etc.
There were few more opinions like being educated, application of knowledge, having healthy lifestyle, better jobs etc.
One answer surprised everyone in the group. A simple minded girl said, “The aspects of modernity in her life are having patience, relaxed mind, very less anger, no shouts or slangs or foul words in language, tolerance towards others, respect for all humans, animals and nature, employing knowledge in life, stepping in other’s shoes and understanding their life, non aggressive and non-violent debates, even if the opponents are howling at the top of their voices, dedicated and trustworthy relationships, healthy lifestyle, no alcoholism etc, taking adventures, having fun and enjoying every part of life.”
There was an absolute silence. Everyone in the room was aghast with her points. Ultimately out of curiosity and restlessness, one of her dear friend asked, “Don’t you feel that’s not modernity but boring old fashioned pattern of living?”
“Who defined it?”, asked the girl.
Her highly impatient friend now said,” Everyone does the opposite these days. These characteristics are no longer practiced or applicable. They are dead now.”
“No, they aren’t. It’s just people have started blindly following what everyone else is doing, without understanding whether that thing is necessary or not. We humans are behaving as per others perception. Shout, cheat, be angry because that shows one is courageous. Have drinks, maintain many non serious relationships because that shows how cool one is. Maintain brands, classy lifestyle or speak slangs or foul words, tell lies every second for no reason, be egoist, do not respect others as all this signify high status and superior attitude. This is the reality. We have to be broad minded and analytical. Understanding real meaning of quality modern life is absolutely necessary”, replied the innocent girl.
To her amazement, her dear friend asked, “But how can one with less temper, being patient, soft spoken, having less arguments, maintaining low pitch be modern?”
“Just have a look around yourself. What do you find? People are stressed, full of anger, hurt, sad, shattered, extremely impatient etc. They aren’t relaxed and calm. Style, class, status are exhibited when fewer individuals practice it amongst many. When individuals are few and different, they outshine. How many people have you seen happy inside-out, soft spoken, social and successful but not egoist, intelligent but not arrogant, efficient non-violent debators etc? Handful right! So, who is having higher standards? It’s pretty difficult and adventurous to be calm and pleasing person among shouting, fighting, lying, arrogant dark images. That’s why it’s stylish to be different”, answered the naive girl.
Her friend asked, “Two final queries, how can one imbibe these qualities? And secondly, can one sustain in modern society with these attributes?”
The simple girl with a broad smile said,” It’s very easy to imbibe. Just keep your eyes and focus on judging yourself rather than others. Criticize and correct yourself. Introspect, change, grow and work upon yourself each day. Compete with yourself to overcome lures and wrong habits. Each individual on this Earth has a positive point, start searching for that very point, try and understand other’s life, respect and tolerate relationships as you are also tolerated by others. It’s a mutual effort to be happier. Spread smiles for free, people need it.
And for the second question will these characteristics sustain in present societies. Yes of course, it will perfectly shine and succeed. These are the golden gems of all time. These characteristics were established and made to sustain in any era. Do you know we celebrate 30th January as Martyr’s day in India. It’s the death anniversary of the great Mahatma Gandhi. You know why he is called great because he helped India to achieve its freedom on the foundation pillar of unity and non violence. These characteristics do not make one dumb and exposed. Rather these give a person valuable insights to surpass any blocks or situations. The ones who practice it become more learned and proactive, becoming a brighter people with sharper minds.
In a world full of numerous lives, humans often feel lonely in crowd. Loneliness is becoming a potential future threat for the civilization. In many research globally, it is often concluded that non communicable diseases are emerging as most encountered ones.
But have you ever imagined what is the reason behind this? The major issue with most of us is that we are not internally happy or we consider our lives as a baggage or we aren’t satisfied with ourselves, our life, or those surrounding us. This in turn make us more aloof and lonely. We feel sad. This emotional low triggers our physical fitness. Due to our prolonged, continuous stressed and depressed condition, we give invitation to someone. Not humans, but to the diseases and illness. And it’s a vicious cycle, until and unless we help ourselves, we just keep on walking in the darkness.
The above image holds a truth. We are not alone. Believe it, we do have a lot of well wishers. It is just people (all of us) are so preoccupied and engrossed in our not so busy lives that we have no time for others. Sometimes it is irony that we have time for technology and gadgets but not for real living humans and nature.
In India, there was a very good culture where everyone used to wake up before the rising sun. Left for work by the sunrise. Each one performed all the tasks dutifully and cheerfully. Then took out the time to cherish the handmade chapatis and sometimes raw onion or any local vegetable with some jaggery (gud). Thereafter by sunset all were back home. Had dinner. Thereafter people sat in groups outside of their houses. They had discussions, chats amongst themselves. Also, they used to sing songs, crack jokes and had fun during this sociological interaction. This is still practiced in few parts of real rural villages of India.
This lifestyle of rural India was the essence of physical well-being and long lives of people. They had a social life apart from individual life. Today, our life is much easy and sorted, but we have missed an essential component of our life – the social aspect.
There is this proverb “Man is a social animal.” Yes, we are and our mind, heart and soul needs interactions to be happy and lively. It charges our discharged batteries just like a charger.
Year 2020 is approaching. Why not we just adopt a small part of rural Indian lifestyle? Let’s interact wholeheartedly. Okay, we can’t spend each day sitting outside of our homes. But we surely can call or meet one person. Don’t talk for hours. Just tell the person that you remembered him or her today. Make the person happy and glad. Let the person feel special for that day. Let the person live the real life that day. Let the person know that there is someone who is around and that he is not alone. Life is a circle, start and take the initiative. One day no wonder you will also get a call to feel special.
Come let’s go back to our valuable, natural, scientific and worthy rural lifestyle to be healthy and cheerful once again.
ELSA Meet was organised on 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 17 November, 2019. The topic covered was “Contemporary Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi”.
Many distinguished literary scholars discussed many issues related to the topic. Following is my perspective on the same.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was not a man of values but a whole lot of values were born as a collection and in collaboration inside a man. It is often said that Gandhian values are old fashioned and are worthless with the changing politics. But there seems a loophole in this sentence itself. We hear some illicit practices in Indian political arena such as horse trading, defection of politicians, freebies, electoral corrupt funding, political funding, casteism and class-based politics.
Was this type of India imagined by the great nation makers or the citizens of India?
Mahatma Gandhi is credited to be one of the nationalist leaders to play an important role in India’s freedom struggle. Often addressed as “Bapu”, the father of nation, his preaching and values are of utmost importance. One of such important value, which he mentioned in Seven Social Sins in Young India was “Politics without principles.”
Not being directly involved into politics, he was one of the best political guru who exhibited excellent political neetis during early 20th century. If his decisions, the pathway of his quest towards attaining freedom, are analysed with an open mind, then the sharp and witty politician can be seen.
Politics in any nation helps it to get shaped in a refined manner. Even after years of independence, politics in India still plays a major role. And so does “Gandhian Political Style” which was excellent in attaining freedom struggle is also most efficient today if applied very wisely. There are many citations of his political decisions. Few of which are discussed over here.
In 1915, when he returned to India from South Africa, he was a famous personality and so was invited to join the political front. Yet he, without getting lured, chose to travel the whole of India to explore its conditions and study the scenario from scratch for a year. Like today’s pseudo neo politicians, he could have easily joined any leading front and would have bargInained for high status in the party.
Second example is he always worked for and with the sufferers directly. In Champaran, Kheda, Ahmedabad mill strike etc., he always closely worked with masses. Masses have always been the key to the success of any struggle or event. Also, he took one goal at a time and left it only when it was achieved unlike the pseudo neo politicians, just introduce or rename the names of numerous schemes that sadly either do not start or just hang like pendulum sluggishly during beginning years itself.
Thirdly, when he saw the up-surging demands of separate electorates for minorities, he in spite of facing criticism, changed the functioning of the Congress politicians. He saw the liking of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar among the masses and so adopted the concept of “Harijan.” He introduced the concept, “One should do all work by oneself.” He very ardently followed it to the core of his heart.
A leader is a great leader when he brings in change as per the need and legitimate demand. When he introspects and if finds wrong functioning, he adapts the new system whole-heartedly. One’s growth and improvement stop when the person considers oneself and one’s decisions as ultimate over all others. And we do find this as a common ill habit among shallow politicians.
His speeches and their words were free from irresponsible statements, foul language, sharp criticism, egoist authoritarian decisions etc. He always had soft pitch and a decent way of conversation both with the supporters and opponents. The status of language in speech has degraded to the lowest of all time in India. Most of the time in debates, discussions, interviews and above all on the floor of Parliament, monkey-like behaviour and unmeaningful baseless foul or false statements are encountered. And this is not over, the shame is that on the next day one word of apology is published in media and actions are again repeated.
Gandhi, even if he was the “Chanakya of Politics,” his actions and decisions always ended at great aims focussing on societal benefit, self-reliance and Indian rural industry upliftment. But now parochial and self-focussed aims overpower the Pseudo neo politicians. Their objectives are always the gratification of self needs.
He was considered as the person who tried his best in bringing in Hindu-Muslim unity. For this he took many initiatives, one of them was Congress Khilafat Movement. This was the first time after a long period where Hindu-Muslims worked in sync and harmony. Divide and rule based on caste, religion, race, colour, class is the new culture of neo politics. There is absence of ethics or value system now a days.
Political field once valued and seen with respect is now considered as the worst profession. It is often stated that people with shrewdness and wrong practices can enter this field. There is no room for the intelligentsia, a person with aims of societal benefit and a person working as clean as white colour. Gandhi never gave up on ethics, value system, morals, upliftment of society, non-violence and simple living and high thinking. If a survey is done about how many youth see political field as their future objective, the sad fact is that only a handful will agree. Out of those 70-80% will be pseudo neo politicians and the remaining would be blank about how to join the field and their success rate.
It is ironical that India with a rich cultural background and political heritage is devoid of “politicians with values and principles.” To take the nation to highest peaks of success, it is essential to have more and more quality, intelligent, well learned and broadminded young politicians with high valuable goals.
The need of the hour is to have more and more open-minded political Gandhis in the nation as the Gandhian values are not archaic or old fashioned but well framed, everlasting set of virtues similar to the constitution of India.
The Journey to Learn 