OUR LANGUAGE POLICY HYPOCRISY

This appeared in the Indian currants magazine some 20 years back in my old name v.karthikeyan

OUR LANGUAGE POLICY HYPOCRISY


It is said that Japanese Premier Tojo while replying to US Presidency Harry S Trueman’s ultimatum of July 26, 1945 said that Japan would "Mmakusatsu" which in Japanese meant that his Government would 'consider it.' But the translators quoted him in English as saying that the Japanese would 'take no notice of it'. So atom bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
There could be several such undocumented and unnoticed bungles in international diplomacy. There are innumerable cases of individual injustice due to multilingualism or ambiguity and misinterpretation even in the same language. For example before the Russian Revolution an Assyriologist Netomelf was exiled to Siberia for life on a charge of blasphemy because he was not given a chance to explain that his book about
Nebuchadnezzar did not mean “Ne boch and Netzar (Russian for ‘No God and No Tzar’)
Once in UN, a translator translated "Out of sight-out of mind" into an expression the Russians understood as ‘invisible insanity’. During Napolean III ‘s coup d’etat one of his officers Count de Saint-Arnaud on being informed that a mob was approaching the Imperial Guard, coughed and exclaimed with his hand across his throat “Ma sacree toux!” (my damned cough). But his lieutenant understanding him to say “Massacrez tous” (Massacre them all ) gave the order to fire , killing thousands.
Every language suffers from syntactical and phonetical ambiguities in addition to these if there are situations wherein important negotiations are required to be made wherein the negotiators may get bogged down in the quagmire of too many languages and language interpreters. They can neither concentrate on the content nor can they be utterly confident about what they have negotiated. Hence there arises a necessity to bring down further, the number of languages; and if necessary evolve a global language, and this has to emerge from among the existing languages, as we know the experiments with artificially created languages such as Esperanto, IDO et, have failed for want of literature. A global language needs a pride of ancestry, must be in popular use at present, and possess worthy credentials to survive in the future.
A language, which qualifies to become a global language, must be primarily a significant one as per the criteria mentioned earlier. But mere number of users cannot be a sufficient or justifiable parameter to classify a language as significant , because if that were the case we may have in that list such unheard of languages as Wu in China , Xhosa in South Africa , Pashto in Afghanistan , Quencha in Peru .
Amore justifiable classification would be, in addition to the number of users of a language, its geographical spread, the wide range and variegated vocabulary to communicate and express as many ideas or events as possible in as many fields of human activity , it must have the syntactic plasticity, flamboyant flexibility suited to both simple and complex modes of expression, and an enormously evolved derivational morphology.
If there is a language that fits into all these criteria adequately, that is English. It stands as the unrivalled champion as a global language. It does not mean that it is superior to all other languages or it is without any weakness. Definitely it does not sound as sweet as French. In fact it does not have a word for ‘Punya’ the exact opposite of ‘sin. It has not a single word expression to counter many  social and psychological aspects of life, which many other languages even very insignificant ones have as has been wonderfully brought out be Howard Rheingold in the book titled “They have a word for it”. Here are a few of them; Tjotjog (Japanese) – harmonious congruence in human affairs; Mokita (Kirinina-New Guinea) –Truth everybody knows but nobody speaks; Yufen (Japanese)- an awareness of the universe that triggers feelings too deep and mysterious for words; Fucha (Polish)-using company time and money and other resources for your own ends; it does not have the grammatical subtleties of such insignificant languages as Chichewa, a language spoken by the unlettered tribes of East Africa which as per the studies of Benjamin Lee Whorf, has an extraordinary perspective on time through its two past tenses, one for the real or objective past and another for the subjective or mental past. The primitive tongues of Algonquin languages have four persons in their pronouns; the metaphysically marvelous language of Hopi Indians of Arizona reflects their excellent view of creation; instead of a noun for ‘wave’ they have only the participle ‘walalata(Waving). You may wonder why this long preamble about language and canvassing for according English the status of global language while discussing about a national language for India .
We as a nation talk of global trade, global thinking, global concern etc. But when it comes to language
especially with so many different linguistic divisions we talk of the importance of a national language and still hesitate to give the due importance to a global language at least as a link language; it is because from the earliest times we suffer from certain strong inexplicable prejudices. Our emotionally charged feeling of patriotic nationalism was pursued with a religious fervor to effectively drive away the colonial bosses. Like all ferventness which turns fanatical in function and perception and blinkered in vision, our nationalism too, failed to see and acknowledge the good that our colonial bosses have done.
Gandhiji managed to communicate all over India and to the world outside through his good English.
Dr.Ambedkar drafted a wonderful Constitution with his good English. But somewhere in the process even
Gandhiji was driven by extreme emotionalistic opposition to everything that was British. As a result he caught hold of a rocket without either a safe launching pad or enough space to zoom- the rocket was Hindi-Hindustani as a national language which he pronounced for the first time in 1934 when he founded the Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad at Nagpur. In fact this word was supposed to have been used as early as 1892 by Bhoodev Mookerji.Later in 1945 at the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, scholar K.M.Munshi wanted it to be the national language of India. Why all these men, who were very well aware that at least 40 percent of the Indian peasants, labourers etc. are contented with their mother tongue and are willing to serve the nation; why these honourable leaders who owed at least a sizable part of their prominence to the English language
(which enabled them to be preferred as negotiators with the Britishers) all of sudden had a superfluous hypocritical need to promote Hindi –Hindustani as a national language of administration when English was sufficient to deal with the administration requirements, especially more so, at a time when all the administrators were only people with an Engllish education.
In fact by adopting English as our only official language (I mean as higher administrative, inter-state and state-centre link language ) we will benefit on the global level and besides we will be manifesting our superior sense of understanding because on the one hand we would be opposing the western approaches of divide and rule, axe and annex policies of trying to homogenize various political systems, proselytize other faiths, colonize countries, marginalize smaller states, Balkanize united provinces; on the other hand we would be welcoming what the Britisher has tried to harmonize and grow i.e. the English language, by absorbing, assimilating and adopting words and expressions plundered from other languages and wonderfully injecting them not only in its literary forms but also in the layman’s lexicon. In this lies the strength and secret of the growth of the English language.
It is wrong to presume that a United Nationhood can be brought about be either unity of religion or race or language. The Arab world and Latin America are classical examples were despite all those unity, there are so many nations. Let English be our lingua franca. Let the Government stop wasting enormous time and money in imposing Hindi on the whole nation. We can divert that money and time on other pressing issues. Let not the regional linguistic chauvinists retaliate by making life miserable for Hindi-speaking people by putting up all important public notices and boards only in the regional language. These acts remind us of what Pascal wrote in his Pensees; “Man’s sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of strange disorder.”
Let us remember one thing while all of us feel the need for unity, what unity needs is feeling for all by all .Let us remember what the great seer Bahaullah has said:” If language can help create a sense of nationalism, it can equally well help create a sense of internationalism.”

BT-Brinjal the bio war on India

Is it Government sponsored terrorism or government approved bio war?

I would like to bring to the common man’s reach certain activities which are going to affect him and the planet in the long run and of which he is totally unaware. These activities are going on either with the tacit connivance or active cooperation of those in power as well as the higher authorities and institutions of the academic world. This preamble leads naturally to two pertinent questions

What are these activities?
Where it is going on?

Answers
1. The controversial BT cotton.
The controversial BT Brinjal.
2.Taking place in several acres of the poor Indian farmars’ lands.

The people of this country and all those who are interested in the BIODIVERSITY need answers and clear cut explanations from the sponsors of this activity to the following: -

Scientific doubts and unanswered questions on BT BRINJAL are much more dangerous than BT cotton because it is going to enter into your digestive system

Beware of BT Brinjals

“Science without conscience is but ruin of the soul” wrote Francois Rabelais. We allow all types of havocs, to wreck the population, out of both ignorance and indifference. After the havoc takes place we give juicy explanations, have debates and start the blame game. The very thought of allowing untested BT Brinjals sends shivers down the collective spine of innocent millions who would be consuming it unaware of the possible dangers it can have on the health. Bureaucrats are either chicken hearted or operate with childish knowledge, media lacks the gall to oppose for fear of losing advertisement revenue from the perpetrators of these activities, at least scientist must extricate themselves from the shell of academicism and provide a welcome antidote by boldly spelling out the possible health hazards. Now that we have information explosion, let us use the full potential of our limbic brains and prevent the havoc instead of searching for cures and culprits after the havoc.

We have clear cut right not to allow BT Brinjals it as per

1] Cartagena Protocol, which demands an extra-cautious approach for testing GM varieties in regions where the crop originated.

1a] Peru, where potato originated, and Mexico, original home of corn, have a ban on genetic testing of these two. This comes from the fear that the alien gene, mostly sourced from other species, could escape (in some instances it indeed has) from the modified varieties, and contaminate the crop’s entire natural genetic diversity

2] Brinjal originated in INDIA-

2a] I.S. Bisht, a principal scientist at the Delhi-based National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, asserts that Solanum melongena L (the botanical name for brinjal) originated in the wild in India and adjoining areas—a view seconded by noted food historian K.T. Achaya, who also states that brinjal is an indigenous vegetable that originated from a wild ancestor. The bureau has acquired and conserved as many as 2,500 varieties of brinjal, 95 per cent of them from India.

2b] 4th century BC brinjal recipe from Ettuthogai, an ancient Tamil text: Smear green brinjal with gingelly oil. Roast it on charcoal and then peel it. Mash it when cold. Heat some more gingelly oil. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves, crushed pepper corns, ginger powder and chopped fresh ginger. Finally, add the mashed brinjal and cook briefly till well-blended. (Courtesy: Jacob Aruni)

2c] the history of the popular Sode Matha temple, in Karnataka’s Udupi district, is inseparable from the vegetable. Poisoned, Lord Hayavadana asked for a naivedyam prepared from a special type of brinjal called gulla. That variety is now widely known as ‘mattu gulla’, the former being the name of the village where it was first cultivated

2d] Brinjal is even older than Sanskrit, which had to borrow the word ‘vartaka’ and ‘vrntaka’ from the Munda language

3] Greatness of Brinjal. Dr. James S. McLester, well-known professor of medicine at the University of Alabama and one of the pioneers in treating nutritional deficiencies, says: "If a man would enjoy sustained vigor and would experience his normal expectancy ... he must eat a liberal quantity of good protein." Good protein means, of course, a complete protein-one containing all 10 essential amino acids and Brinjal has almost all the essential amino acids Arginine, Lysine, Tryptophan, Phenylalanine, Methonine, Crystine, Theonine, Cystine, Threonine, Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. It also has vitamins Thiamine , Riboflavin , Niacin ,Panthothenic acid, VitaminC , folic acid and minerals Calcium,Iron,Magnesium Phosphorus,Potassium,Zinc and Manganese. Eggplant is ranked among the top ten vegetables in terms of its antioxidant content and has fourteen different phenolic components, among them Chlorogenic acid amounted to 93 percent of total phenolic compounds.It helps to block the formation of free radicals and yields energy 82 kj. The roots of the eggplant are used against internal hemorrhage and asthma; the leaves and bark against dysentery. This plant is also effective in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia and in the control of cholesterol


4] Brinjal is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01 mg/100g.

5] Brinjal is high in histamines. A few proteins and at least one secondary metabolite have been identified as potential allergens. These three factors essential amino acids, nicotine and histamines make any gene inserted into BRINJAL really deadly to the person who consumes it as it can get into the vital body organs and cause damage to health much faster.


6] Genes inserted into GM food survive digestive processes and are transferred into the human body. They are known to have transferred themselves into intestinal bacteria too. Bt toxin had caused powerful immune responses and abnormal cell growth in mice. It has also been shown that all the Cry proteins in Bt crops have amino acid sequence similar to known allergens and are hence potential allergens.

7] Bt brinjal has been modified to produce an
unknown chimeric insecticide toxin containing Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac modified sequences

8] Bt brinjal produces into the vegetable cells a protein
inducing resistance towards at least kanamycin, a well known antibiotic

9] Is it necessary to have such crop in our system at the cost of economy of small
farmers, export, environment, biodiversity and health of living beings? The biased people may stack their claim that it is safer for human consumption as there may not be much pesticide residue. But the real thing is something serious one which was not touched while experimenting.


10] Bt toxins have never been authorized as such for mammalian consumption.
Artificial ones should not be either, before a more serious assessment.

11] Scientists discover influenza's Achilles heel: Antioxidants
As the nation copes with a shortage of vaccines for H1N1 influenza, a team of Alabama researchers have raised hopes that they have found an Achilles' heel for all strains of the flu—antioxidants. In an article appearing in the November 2009 print issue of the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) they show that antioxidants—the same substances found in plant-based foods—might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on our lungs.
________________________
If it is so will Brinjal work as it is ranked among the top ten vegetables in terms of its antioxidant content and has fourteen different phenolic components, among them Chlorogenic acid amounted to 93 percent of total phenolic compounds




Political questions
1.India is having well planned system, at least that is what we all thought till recently, how come this BT cotton or BT Brinjal enter so many acres of our soil by passing so many existing research, administrative and security system.
Here I am tempted to quote from an article titled GENE DREAM written by NIKKI VAN DER GAAG in the excellent magazine THE NEW INTERNATIONALIST , “ Biotechnology actually reduces the world's biodiversity by promoting certain species over others. Of the world's 220,000 plant species, only 150 are grown commercially and just 20 provide over 90 per cent of the world's dietary energy. We are already massively over-dependent on a fraction of the species available. Genetically-engineered (and transnational-controlled) seeds will reduce this active stock even further. 5 Farmers in countries such as India are setting up their own seed banks in order to preserve the existing variety of seeds rather than having to use those promoted by the biotechnology corporations, for whom the Third World is a huge potential market”.

Think of the Data from the past
In the late 60s and early 70s due to cotton pest Baruch district’s economy suffered.
Are we interested in repeating a BARUCH OR GUNTOOR on the poor farmers?

What has happened to the consciousness of our academicians? Are they suffering from what MANWELL and BAKER called the PARALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS i.e. failure to speak out the truth out of fear of consequences, out of ambiguity or ambivalence about the definitions or interpretations of ethical problems, and, of course engaging in cover up. If this becomes the case then in the long run the very importance of academic excellence and scholarship will be eroded. After all to disseminate facts you don’t need paradigm-busting ideas of scholars or tags of PhDs to your name. All that you need is a heart felt concern for the future of the planet.

Finally I would like all concerned citizens to ponder over the following
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION of the RIGHTS of POSTERITY
Which was drafted by the UK council for posterity initially by a gentleman called Professor Scorer and a group of other concerned people like ecologist Herbie Girardet, Tanya Schwarz of the Forest Peoples’ Support Group, Guy Dauncey environmental consultant and Nicolas Albery of the Institute of Social Inventions.


UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF POSTERITY
(DRAFT, JULY 1989)

Whereas our descendants’ generations, although likely to prove far more numerous than ourselves, have no voice or vote in any of our political systems, we therefore declare that all the generations yet to come, for as far into the future as human life survives on this planet, are entitled by natural justice to the following rights, which those alive today have a duty to respect and uphold:

1.The right to inherit a planet that has been treated by its human occupants with the utmost respect. And more particularly:
2.The right to inherit a planet with oceans, lakes and atmosphere undamaged by human activity, with safeguards for planet’s climate, such as rainforests, still intact.
3.The right to inherit a planet with an undiminished diversity of species.
4.The right to inherit adequately maintained reserves of fossil fuel and other mineral resources.
5.The right to be born into world of human-scale societies, unravaged by population excess.
6.The right to inherit a world unmarred by nuclear or chemical wars, incidents or wastes.
7.The right to expect that previous generations will have cleaned up their pollution, repaired their
damaged environments, on land, sea and in the air ( including outer space), and protected places of natural beauty.
8.The right to inherit political, legal, technological and social systems that respect individual human dignity, such as those laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
9.The right to inherit the full uncensored cultural heritage bequeathed by former generations, as expressed, for instance, in their art, history, literature, libraries and museums.
10.The right of future generations to have their interests considered and, where appropriate, represented by a competent advocate, in any present day tribunal or assembly that is deciding courses of action that might have harmful log-term consequences.

Scientific doubts and unanswered questions on BT COTTON especially in terms of long term damage to the top soil and the allergic reactions.

1. The gene flow through pollen grains of BT cotton will take place and this will affect other cotton varieties as well as allied species in due course and affect biodiversity.
2 . BT genes produce toxins that kill the early larval stages of insects. The nature of the toxin is not made known to us i.e. endo-toxin or exo-toxin.
3. The exo toxin is highly hazardous and it couples with ATP( Adenosine Triphosphate) and affect the energy metabolism and it may even cause the death of higher animals.
4. The root exudates of the plant will also carry the toxin into the soil and it will have its effects on the soil and soil borne organisms.
5. Since soil contains many useful organisms this chemical may affect the useful organisms and thereby interfere with the biodiversity in the soil.
6. Since the cotton seed is used in feeding cattle and cotton seed proteins are used in biscuit making, it is most likely that this toxin may carry over in food cycle and have its unspecified effects which could be detrimental to health especially that of the children who eat biscuits.
7. Cotton seed oil is used in cooking and we don’t have any information whether this oil is contaminated with this toxin.
8. We don’t know what is the amount of toxin present in unit area. Even if one microgram of toxin is present in one square centimeter of the plant surface that will ultimately amount to several kgs of toxins and this will be ploughed in situ and its effect on the environment is not known..
9. Besides this toxin is capable of killing only early larval stage it is not effective against other stages of insect larva .The grown up larva that feeds on these material will develop resistance and it will interbreed in the nature system and produce new races of insects that may not be tackled by existing means of control thereby it will create a great loss to the economy. “The results of genetically engineered crops are at best mixed and at worst disastrous. Both weeds and insects in the surrounding areas have been known to develop immunities which turn them into superweeds and superpests”.
10. In North Zone crop will be over before start of summer and dust storm will come and it may carry the BT containing dust particles of cotton residue and leaves.


Balayogi
balayogiv@gmail.com
A letter from a leading scientist Na ruteh shrantasya sakhayay devaha-God does not help inactive people” - Rig Veda (4.33.11)

SUNDARAMURTHY V.T,
‘Sri Vaishnava Sri’
23, Maniyakarar Street, Veerakeralam, Coimbatore-641 007, Tamil Nadu, India
E- Mail :<> Phone: 0422-2473853

October 23/24, 2009

To
Honorable Shri.Jairam Ramesh,
Union Minister,
Ministry of Environment & Forests,
Paryavaran Bhavan,
CGO Complex, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi - 110 003
E-Mail: “Hon.Shri .Jairam Ramesh”< jairam@sansad.nic.in> ,


Respected Sir.

Pranam JI
I salute and bow my head Sir for having taken a decision not to hurry up with a transgenic crop and having given an opportunity to the public and stake holders to open their minds to give their unbiased views on such crops.
Sir your earlier statement that ‘GM crop is acceptable but GM food is not’ is the best one made by keeping the health of 120 cores of Indian and finest bio diversity of our country in the mind. As one of the citizens of this Nobel Country with the base intelligence I submit the following for your kind notice.

The Genetic improvement of crops by conventional and biotechnology approaches involves the addition of genetic variation to varieties and cause changes in the plant genome that result in unintended effects on crop traits. But the screening processes help to have the varieties with desirable traits.The dwarf gene in wheat and Rice besides making them highly fertiliser responsive laid the foundation for Green revolution and prevented starvation death of billion people around the world particularly the Indian sub continent.Thanks to Dr.Norman Borlaug. The fertilizer responsiveness made the mankind to over do in the system to cause an irreversible damage to the Agro system. Similarly with cotton where we advocated the use of pesticides saying that they have “Tonic effects” and increase the productivity. But over, indiscriminate use led into collapse of the system with unintended health hazards to human beings. These are all due to existence of very little knowledge on the biochemistry and changed plant metabolism under these situation and mono culture which replaced the existing polycrop system in those days.

The 21 stTechnological Century provides us various tools to study and assess the biological mechanism with ease. The Chinese group of scientists have elicited how the Bt- gene has modified the nitrogen metabolism and increased the free amino acid, soluble protein, nitrate reductase and the glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity in cotton (Chen, D.H. et al.Field Crops Res. 87: 235- 244 2004). Such of these basic informations will aid for developing appropriate agronomy which may not go against the wellbeing of the system and will help to keep our system intact to some extent.
The transfer of genes into plants is one of the breeding methods like hybridization and mutagenesis and cannot be ignored or discarded as this mode help to transfer specific gene into the matrix of the plant cell for getting a desired effect with in short time span. The advance made in the field of gene transfer enabled the mankind to introduce the Bt-gene to the crop easily (Perlak, F.J et al..Proce. Natl. Acad.Sci, USA 91: 7217-7221, 1994) and get quick benefit as against other methods. But there are some known and unknown implications that are woven with this method and crops developed.

It has been conclusively established that the BT material exudes Bt proteins through roots into the soil and gets accumulated to interact with the soil fauna. The insecticidal toxin binds tightly to clays and humic acids and persisting in various soils for at least 234 days like DDT. We took several decades to ban the use of DDT in our India as it has caused several irrevocable Ecological and health hazards. The same effects are likely to descend to our dynamic agro system with transgenic crops.They besides creating the ecological problems that are associated with monoculture agriculture may result in cumulative effects of toxins in soils. The Scientists of Indian Institute of Agriculture Reseach (IARI), New Delhi have brought to light that the transgenic crop (Bt) has reduced the total mineral-N+ NO3 -N) in soil by 14 % and enhanced P besides reducing Dehydrogenase activity, and respiration of our own soil indicating that there is reduced activity of soil microflora (B. Sarkar et al., J. Agronomy & Crop Science
194, 2008.). About seventy five percent of total area under cotton in our country is under the transgenic materials and we do not know what is happening in our soil in these areas in our system. If the soil ecosystem and its species dynamic are affected it is difficult even to imagine what type of catastrophe will embrace our country and her finest biodiversity.

The Bt materials are known to carry unknown fragments of RNA and DNA genetic material and new proteins, but whose biological effects particularly toxicity and allergic action for humans and animals are not fully brought to light. It has been reported that the unintended DNA and RNA fragments in genetically modified maize may bring some “unexpected turbulences” (Rosati et al. Plant Molecular Biology, 67: 271- 281(2008), and whether the presence of these fragments are specific to certain Bt genes are not known. It has been reported recently that orally administered DNA is known to interact with the Immune system and if it is so what will be the effect of food containing the unintended DNA is also not known. Scientists have evaluated the gut and peripheral immune response to genetically modified maize in mice and found recurrent changes in the immune system (Finamore et al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008) like T-cells). Such  changes in the number of a special type of lymphocytes ( T-cells are known to be involved in the modulation of inflammatory response and associated with asthma or with untreated food allergy in children. Alterations of the Immunopheno types induced by the transgenic maize were associated with the increase in some cytokines (like Interleukin 6 (IL-6), Interleukin 13, Interleukin 12p70 and MIP-1) which are important in the human immune response (Finamore et al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008). It is note worthy that Scientists have also traced fragments of synthetic transgenes in the blood of piglets fed with transgene food.( Mazza et al. Transgenic Research ,14: 775-784,2005) and feared that these may interact with the immune system .

Laboratory animals fed GM foods have developed stomach lesions, intestinal damage, and proliferative cell growth in the walls of the stomach and intestines. The only published human feeding experiment has revealed that the genes inserted into GM soya crops transfer into the intestinal bacteria and continue to function even after stopping to eat GM foods and this indicates that the GM proteins continuously producing in the human bodies.

GM soya and GM corn both contain at least one new unexpected allergen not found in natural crops.

Mice and rats fed GM food had resulted in smaller and partially atrophied livers and in some heavier which could signal inflammation.
Both male and female animals displayed troubling reproductive problems when fed GM soya Over half of the babies of mother rats fed GM soya died within three weeks, compared to 10 percent of the non-GM soy offspring. The GM babies were smaller and were unable to conceive in a subsequent study. Male rats and mice fed GM soy had altered testicles, including fewer young sperm cells. (American Academy of Environmental Medicine & Respected most honored sir,

I am very happy at my 70 that you have kept up your finest decision “GM crop is acceptable but GM food is not”and saved the population, environment biodiversity and country and provided health security to your kith and kins.

I do not know how to express my gratitude and thank you. Your action equals to Sri Rama’s action.Jai Shri Ram!

India is no more a laboratory and her finest people are not Guinea Pigs or Laboratory animals.

Let our scientists to make critical study of our crop diversity and feed not only the human living in this divine country and also other needy people in other countries as it has potential to feed two planet Earths “With Assured irrigation, India's food grains output can increase SIX times and enough to feed two planet Earths”!(United Nation).

Give direction to the scientific community to stop working with insertion of alien particularly toxic genes into our crop plants.Let them try the TILLING /ZINIC-NUCLEASE methods for manipulation of genes with in the species itself for getting the desired traits as these may not trouble our system.
Thanking you sir,
Yours Faithfully,
V.T.Sundaramurthy

Beware of BT Brinjals

Beware of BT Brinjals

“Science without conscience is but ruin of the soul” wrote Francois Rabelais. We allow all types of havocs, to wreck the population, out of both ignorance and indifference. After the havoc takes place we give juicy explanations, have debates and start the blame game. The very thought of allowing untested BT Brinjals sends shivers down the collective spine of innocent millions who would be consuming it unaware of the possible dangers it can have on the health. Bureaucrats are either chicken hearted or operate with childish knowledge, media lacks the gall to oppose for fear of losing advertisement revenue from the perpetrators of these activities, at least scientist must extricate themselves from the shell of academicism and provide a welcome antidote by boldly spelling out the possible health hazards. Now that we have information explosion, let us use the full potential of our limbic brains and prevent the havoc instead of searching for cures and culprits after the havoc.

We have clear cut right not to allow BT Brinjals it as per

1] Cartagena Protocol, which demands an extra-cautious approach for testing GM varieties in regions where the crop originated.

1a] Peru, where potato originated, and Mexico, original home of corn, have a ban on genetic testing of these two. This comes from the fear that the alien gene, mostly sourced from other species, could escape (in some instances it indeed has) from the modified varieties, and contaminate the crop’s entire natural genetic diversity

2] Brinjal originated in INDIA-

2a] I.S. Bisht, a principal scientist at the Delhi-based National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, asserts that Solanum melongena L (the botanical name for brinjal) originated in the wild in India and adjoining areas—a view seconded by noted food historian K.T. Achaya, who also states that brinjal is an indigenous vegetable that originated from a wild ancestor. The bureau has acquired and conserved as many as 2,500 varieties of brinjal, 95 per cent of them from India.

2b] 4th century BC brinjal recipe from Ettuthogai, an ancient Tamil text: Smear green brinjal with gingelly oil. Roast it on charcoal and then peel it. Mash it when cold. Heat some more gingelly oil. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves, crushed pepper corns, ginger powder and chopped fresh ginger. Finally, add the mashed brinjal and cook briefly till well-blended. (Courtesy: Jacob Aruni)

2c] the history of the popular Sode Matha temple, in Karnataka’s Udupi district, is inseparable from the vegetable. Poisoned, Lord Hayavadana asked for a naivedyam prepared from a special type of brinjal called gulla. That variety is now widely known as ‘mattu gulla’, the former being the name of the village where it was first cultivated

2d] Brinjal is even older than Sanskrit, which had to borrow the word ‘vartaka’ and ‘vrntaka’ from the Munda language

3] Greatness of Brinjal. Dr. James S. McLester, well-known professor of medicine at the University of Alabama and one of the pioneers in treating nutritional deficiencies, says: "If a man would enjoy sustained vigor and would experience his normal expectancy ... he must eat a liberal quantity of good protein." Good protein means, of course, a complete protein-one containing all 10 essential amino acids and Brinjal has almost all the essential amino acids Arginine, Lysine, Tryptophan, Phenylalanine, Methonine, Crystine, Theonine, Cystine, Threonine, Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine.

4] Brinjal is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01 mg/100g.

5] Brinjal is high in histamines. A few proteins and at least one secondary metabolite have been identified as potential allergens.


These three factors essential amino acids, nicotine and histamines make any gene inserted into BRINJAL really deadly to the person who consumes it as it can get into the vital body organs and cause damage to health much faster.

6] Genes inserted into GM food survive digestive processes and are transferred into the human body. They are known to have transferred themselves into intestinal bacteria too. Bt toxin had caused powerful immune responses and abnormal cell growth in mice. It has also been shown that all the Cry proteins in Bt crops have amino acid sequence similar to known allergens and are hence potential allergens.

7] Bt brinjal has been modified to produce an
unknown chimeric insecticide toxin containing Cry1Ab and Cry1Ac modified sequences

Bt brinjal produces into the vegetable cells a protein
inducing resistance towards at least kanamycin, a well known antibiotic

Bt toxins have never been authorized as such for mammalian consumption.
Artificial ones should not be either, before a more serious assessment.

8] I would like to add here a very meaningful letter written by a scientist with conscience to the MINISTER concerned on this issue:-


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“Na ruteh shrantasya sakhayay devaha-God does not help inactive people” - Rig Veda (4.33.11)

SUNDARAMURTHY V.T,
‘Sri Vaishnava Sri’
23, Maniyakarar Street, Veerakeralam, Coimbatore-641 007, Tamil Nadu, India
E- Mail :<> Phone: 0422-2473853

October 23/24, 2009

To
Honorable Shri.Jairam Ramesh,
Union Minister,
Ministry of Environment & Forests,
Paryavaran Bhavan,
CGO Complex, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi - 110 003
E-Mail: “Hon.Shri .Jairam Ramesh”< jairam@sansad.nic.in> ,


Respected Sir.

Pranam JI
I salute and bow my head Sir for having taken a decision not to hurry up with a transgenic crop and having given an opportunity to the public and stake holders to open their minds to give their unbiased views on such crops.
Sir your earlier statement that ‘GM crop is acceptable but GM food is not’ is the best one made by keeping the health of 120 cores of Indian and finest bio diversity of our country in the mind. As one of the citizens of this Nobel Country with the base intelligence I submit the following for your kind notice.

The Genetic improvement of crops by conventional and biotechnology approaches involves the addition of genetic variation to varieties and cause changes in the plant genome that result in unintended effects on crop traits. But the screening processes help to have the varieties with desirable traits.The dwarf gene in wheat and Rice besides making them highly fertiliser responsive laid the foundation for Green revolution and prevented starvation death of billion people around the world particularly the Indian sub continent.Thanks to Dr.Norman Borlaug. The fertilizer responsiveness made the mankind to over do in the system to cause an irreversible damage to the Agro system. Similarly with cotton where we advocated the use of pesticides saying that they have “Tonic effects” and increase the productivity. But over, indiscriminate use led into collapse of the system with unintended health hazards to human beings. These are all due to existence of very little knowledge on the biochemistry and changed plant metabolism under these situation and mono culture which replaced the existing polycrop system in those days.

The 21 stTechnological Century provides us various tools to study and assess the biological mechanism with ease. The Chinese group of scientists have elicited how the Bt- gene has modified the nitrogen metabolism and increased the free amino acid, soluble protein, nitrate reductase and the glutamic-pyruvic transaminase activity in cotton (Chen, D.H. et al.Field Crops Res. 87: 235- 244 2004). Such of these basic informations will aid for developing appropriate agronomy which may not go against the wellbeing of the system and will help to keep our system intact to some extent.
The transfer of genes into plants is one of the breeding methods like hybridization and mutagenesis and cannot be ignored or discarded as this mode help to transfer specific gene into the matrix of the plant cell for getting a desired effect with in short time span. The advance made in the field of gene transfer enabled the mankind to introduce the Bt-gene to the crop easily (Perlak, F.J et al..Proce. Natl. Acad.Sci, USA 91: 7217-7221, 1994) and get quick benefit as against other methods. But there are some known and unknown implications that are woven with this method and crops developed.

It has been conclusively established that the BT material exudes Bt proteins through roots into the soil and gets accumulated to interact with the soil fauna. The insecticidal toxin binds tightly to clays and humic acids and persisting in various soils for at least 234 days like DDT. We took several decades to ban the use of DDT in our India as it has caused several irrevocable Ecological and health hazards. The same effects are likely to descend to our dynamic agro system with transgenic crops.They besides creating the ecological problems that are associated with monoculture agriculture may result in cumulative effects of toxins in soils. The Scientists of Indian Institute of Agriculture Reseach (IARI), New Delhi have brought to light that the transgenic crop (Bt) has reduced the total mineral-N+ NO3 -N) in soil by 14 % and enhanced P besides reducing Dehydrogenase activity, and respiration of our own soil indicating that there is reduced activity of soil microflora (B. Sarkar et al., J. Agronomy & Crop Science
194, 2008.). About seventy five percent of total area under cotton in our country is under the transgenic materials and we do not know what is happening in our soil in these areas in our system. If the soil ecosystem and its species dynamic are affected it is difficult even to imagine what type of catastrophe will embrace our country and her finest biodiversity.

The Bt materials are known to carry unknown fragments of RNA and DNA genetic material and new proteins, but whose biological effects particularly toxicity and allergic action for humans and animals are not fully brought to light. It has been reported that the unintended DNA and RNA fragments in genetically modified maize may bring some “unexpected turbulences” (Rosati et al. Plant Molecular Biology, 67: 271- 281(2008), and whether the presence of these fragments are specific to certain Bt genes are not known. It has been reported recently that orally administered DNA is known to interact with the Immune system and if it is so what will be the effect of food containing the unintended DNA is also not known. Scientists have evaluated the gut and peripheral immune response to genetically modified maize in mice and found recurrent changes in the immune system (Finamore et al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008) like T-cells). Such  changes in the number of a special type of lymphocytes ( T-cells are known to be involved in the modulation of inflammatory response and associated with asthma or with untreated food allergy in children. Alterations of the Immunopheno types induced by the transgenic maize were associated with the increase in some cytokines (like Interleukin 6 (IL-6), Interleukin 13, Interleukin 12p70 and MIP-1) which are important in the human immune response (Finamore et al. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 56:11533-11539, (2008). It is note worthy that Scientists have also traced fragments of synthetic transgenes in the blood of piglets fed with transgene food.( Mazza et al. Transgenic Research ,14: 775-784,2005) and feared that these may interact with the immune system .

Laboratory animals fed GM foods have developed stomach lesions, intestinal damage, and proliferative cell growth in the walls of the stomach and intestines. The only published human feeding experiment has revealed that the genes inserted into GM soya crops transfer into the intestinal bacteria and continue to function even after stopping to eat GM foods and this indicates that the GM proteins continuously producing in the human bodies.

GM soya and GM corn both contain at least one new unexpected allergen not found in natural crops.

Mice and rats fed GM food had resulted in smaller and partially atrophied livers and in some heavier which could signal inflammation.
Both male and female animals displayed troubling reproductive problems when fed GM soya Over half of the babies of mother rats fed GM soya died within three weeks, compared to 10 percent of the non-GM soy offspring. The GM babies were smaller and were unable to conceive in a subsequent study. Male rats and mice fed GM soy had altered testicles, including fewer young sperm cells. (American Academy of Environmental Medicine & LIA Foundation, Source: Examiner)

The Bt materials are known to interfere with the non target species, wellbeing of predators (Hilbeck, A., M. et al Environmental Entomology 27, 460-487. 1998) and parasites. It is also feared that vector-mediated horizontal gene transfer and recombination to create new pathogenic organisms The Bt protein is moving up trophic levels of food chain and contaminates the bee hieves.Whether our hives in and around the major honey producing state Punjab surrounded by 13.5 lakh hectares of cotton crop do have pollen grains of transgenic cotton is not known. It is also known fact that DNA can persist in the field plot for at least a year (Meier & Wackernagel, Transgenic Research 12, 293-304 2003)

It is well known fact that 500 species of insect pests have already developed resistance to conventional insecticides, pests can also evolve resistance to Bt toxins present in transgenic crops (Altieri.M, The Ecological Impacts of Agricultural Biotechnology, An ActionBioscience.org original article,2001) despites the usage of refuge crops that is being recommended for cultivation of transgenic crops. The recent report says that the transgenic cotton in tribal area of Dungarpur, in Rajasthan has been plagued by insects including bollworm at varied levels.
The removal of one species of insect pest from the given eco niche either by nature or man will pave the way for an Ecological Succession of another one as evidenced earlier in our cotton system (Sundaramurthy, V.T., Outlook on Agriculture 31: 95-106, 2002). The second such Succession has already set in our cotton growing regions where the crop is devastated by the mealy bugs. The main concern with transgenes that confer significant biological advantages is that they may transform wild/weed plants into new or worst weeds.
The Brinjal is native of India belongs to the family Solanaceae, has more than 2000 local varieties, more than 31 improved varieties were released by IIHR, Bangalore, IARI, New Delhi, Agricultural Universities and State Agriculture Departments (Yawalkar K.S, Vegetable Crops in India, 1992) cultivated on 550,000 hectares in different interesting eco niches having different soils and fertility, temperature, rainfall and water yielding 25- 30 tonnes of fruits\ha and infested by about 12 species of insects. This vegetable meets the demand of local market and also export. The shoot and fruit bores (Euzophera particella and Leucinodes orbanalis,) are the most important pests.It is a good achievement made by our scientists of the Private Sector who developed transgenic variety to ward off these borers. It is likely to result the same effects as that of other Bt-food crops as detailed in this mail (vide Attachment). It is every likely hood that some of the transgenic materials may go harmoniously with environment and health of living beings.
Considering its role in reducing the use of toxic pesticides and residue before allowing the Brinjal to enter into our system we should have informations on the compositions of fruits, such as various carbohydrates,proteins, lipids, and their composition, terpenes, alkaloids, nature and content of fibres, presence of any new compounds or metabolites that may affect the general physiology of human beings, induce drug resistance and resistance to pathogenic organisms, and its effects on the intestinal fauna.But it is safe to have a detailed informations on the calorific value, nature of toxins that are produced by the inserted genes,its effects on the in take and digestion, feed conversion and efficiency ratios and digestive disorder if any. The morphology and function of internal organs particularly liver, haematology particularly the prothrombin, platelet count, haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit value, and biochemicals such as glucose total albumin, lactose dehydrogenase, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase , alanine, aspartate aminotransferases ,sodium, potassium and calcium levels, and reproduction in the test animals. Its effect on, production and composition of milk in cow also needs to be ascertained as the refuse are used as feed in the rural areas. The data on these aspects collected either at different meteorological zones ( We have about 110 such zones in our country) or fruits produced at these area are to be used as the expression of genes including the alien one is controlled by temperature and nutritive status of soil.It is not sound to relay on data collected with the fruits grown at one single experimental area
The reactions of this variety to other pests and soil borne diseases may also be documented at various ecological zones of our country.
Honourable Sir, with your kind permission I submit to bring to your kind notice the reality that is going on in our rural areas.
‘The crop brinjal is not cultivated in large areas contiguously like cotton. It is in small patches and so adoption of mechanical control (pinching) measure is easy and a distinct possibility. In the fruiting stage, only the affluent farmers apply pesticides and not the small farmers cultivating local varieties. It is a practice even now in villages to remove the borer damaged portion of the fruit for feeding the cattle.Undamged portion is reserved for human consumption’
We have the best diversity in this crop and loved by all.The mothers in Gudiyatham area near Vellore in Tamilnadu used to visit her daughters not with costly presents but with a basket full or at least a few fruits ( as told to me by my friend after submitting the mail) of local variety of Brinjal to please them. This is a good example for the social binding that this crop has with the Indian population. Let us not destroy such age old bindings in the name of science. These crops I think need no sophisticated technology to improve further as has been demonstrated earlier by our scientists in the Public and Private Research Establishments in the country. If at all it needs any improvement let our scientists introduce drought, saline tolerant and yield increasing genes. The cultivation of GM crops in several countries does not mean that it should be accepted in our country with 120 cores of population and varied interesting biodiversity.
Sir, since insertion of Bt gene into plant system is somewhat easier and does not involve huge budget every one is dabbling with this materials with out making proper analysis on its impact on the system.The gene transfer is one of the finest tools that is being used to improve the quality of food materials in number of countries. They have succeeded in developing the carotene rich Rice variety, Flood-Tolerant Rice, Superhybrid Rice, folate rich Lettuce , drought-resistant tomato with more lycopene and antioxidants, Grapes with quality wine, shatter-resistant brassicas, Inserting weed genes to protect crops from global warming , mass production of HIV Microbicide in plants and attempts are under way to enrich food with essential nutrients omega-3 fatty acid in tomato and okra (Bharati Vidyapeeth University's Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA) in India). The novel approach zinc finger nuclease in Biotech is used for targeting specific genes in plants for their manipulation to get the desired effects. The Government should encourage such new approaches in improving the quality and yield of food crops as mere food security with out conferring health security through food may not help the population to prosper under changing scenarios.The Government besides developing an Independent Post -Monitoring System should encourage ‘improvement in transgenic methods that will minimize risks; research to identify transgenic plant traits that would provide environmental benefits; research to develop transgenic plants with such traits; research on the environmental impacts of transgenic crops’ in the country by providing adequate funds.
I end this mail by inscribing the statement made by our beloved
Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh ji:
“We need to strike a balance between using the potential of biotechnology to meet the requirements of hungry people while addressing concerns about interfering with nature”
to save Indians as Human beings.

Thanking you Sir,

With Respectful Regards
Respectfully yours
Sundaramurthy V.T.

Post Script:
I was given to understand that A Brand of GM CHIP has entered into our south Delhi despite a ban on this.”

Balayogi
balayogiv@gmail.com

Real Perception

Real and true perception has more to do with involvement and sensitivity with total intensity and intense totality. I have many examples for this in real life experience and from our Itihasas, Puranas and history. Let me avoid the examples and get into the question of perception.


1] Our tool of perception the brain is a very delicate, susceptible but extremely capable instrument. However, in normal modes of our perception, we are often subject to certain errors of perception basically because our brain’s bio chemistry itself has a propensity to get conditioned and use those conditioning as tool of perception or very often presume assumptions as perceptions. These are known as classical and inevitable errors of perception. For example if you are sitting inside a train in a station waiting t o proceed on a journey and the train alongside starts to move, you automatically feel for a moment as if your train is moving. Whereas if you were sitting inside the station master’s room and see the same phenomenon then you won’t feel so , because then, you would not be expecting to move. So your expectation created the conditioning of your brain and you assumed as if you were moving, the feeling is almost real. It happens to all normal human beings. So in a way all perception is conditioned and intentional.[ a detailed account of this is available in COLIN WLSON’S excellent book ‘NEW EXISTENTIALISM’ ]

2] It is not often our perception but the scale of observation and frames of reference which create the phenomenon. The scale of observation depends on man; it is he who creates it. In nature, different scales of observation do not exist. There is only one immense, harmonious phenomenon on a scale which, in general, escapes man. The structure of man's brain necessitates dividing into arbitrary compartments and cutting up into isolated pieces. With the aid of several instruments science creates more phantasmagoria: "on our scale of human observation, as pointed out before, the edge of a razor-blade is a continuous line. On the microscopic scale, it is a broken but solid line. On the chemical scale we have atoms of iron and carbon. On the sub-atomic scale we have electrons in perpetual motion which travel at the rate of several thousand miles per second. All these phenomena are in reality the manifestations of the same basic phenomenon, the motions of the electrons. The only difference which exists between them is the scale of observation" [Human Destiny, Lecomte du Nuoy- a marvelous book that everyone must read – if I remember correctly this comes in 34th page.

3] Recently there was a report of a very great Violinist in USA playing the violin one day in a street corner and no one even bothered to notice him. In normal course people struggle to get tickets for his shows. Why this happened? In addition to all that was mentioned earlier about perception what is more important is not recognizing the artist but recognizing the music he produced with an aesthetic sense, even had he been an ordinary unknown artist any person with an aesthetic sense would have bothered to listen. This incident therefore indicates not only indifference but insensitivity to aesthetics.

4] With all these artificially created scales of observation, has science succeeded to unveil the mystery of substance? With every step science has been revising its hypotheses. Maybe (if not surely) even the basic phenomenon, the motions of the electrons, must be revised and adapted to the only one immense, harmonious phenomenon on the pramana scale of observation in its relation to microcosmic Nyava (and macrocosmic Hyang Vidhi), which is indeed Goethe's Weltseele (Welt Ather.)

5] Most often our perception is one-dimensional it cannot perceive from different perspectives much less through different modes of perception I mean multi-sensory and multi-pronged that is having macro vision and ensuring comprehension of even the minutest details of every micro element in the thing perceived. This is not possible to be taught and it has not been even attempted to be taught in known and documented history. But it happens automatically when the trinity of Intuition, Senses and Reason gather together and it is these that produce discoveries, inventions and creations.

6] There is a clear manifestation of this trinity in all forms of bakthi oriented literature and music.

7] If by intuition (or inspiration) we mean a sudden, direct and valid initial conception of a new system occurring spontaneously in the mind of the conceiver; by reason, a constant, logical mathematical, syllogistic (or dialectic) process of thinking of the idea through in its inductive, deductive, analytical and synthetic aspects; and by sensory experience, a perception of the sensory phenomena related to the idea and a sensory verification of it through empirical evidence (experimental, observational, statistical and practical), then all three types of mental activity are necessary for the discovery, creation, or invention of a significant cultural system. NEITHER INTUITION NOR REASON, NOR EMPIRICAL EXPERIENCE ALONE IS SUFFICIENT. Innumerable scientists have spent their lives in an empirical (sensory) study of phenomena without achieving any notable discovery. Multitudes of teachers of philosophy, logic, and mathematics have failed to conceive any new philosophical, logical, mathematical or other system. There have been millions of intuitive daydreamers, who, having stumbled upon an idea, have failed to clarify, develop, verify and apply it in constructing an original system. TRULY CREATIVE THINKERS HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE IN POSSESSING AND EXERCISING ALL THREE TYPES OF MENTAL ABILITY.

8] On the whole our perception is inherently extremely vulnerable and  influenced by environmental, cultural, social, religious, academic and many other forms of conditioning.

9] Because all our perceptions which emanate from our thoughts are , as the great JK used to say are caught in the vicious circle, a vicious circle which justifies the statement that all our knowledge is limited.

10] The vicious circle is like this every situation in life we 1] act or react 2] this action or reaction gives us 3] some knowledge or/and experience 4] this knowledge or/and experience is stored as memory in the form of 5] thought next time when we encounter similar or dissimilar situation we act or react based on the store house of these collective thoughts/knowledge. The grand perception can happen only when we get out of this vicious circle.

Message from a friend

Perception.. ..something to think about... Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about one hour.. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule. 4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.. 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. 10 minutes:A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.45 minutes:The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.1 hour:He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

Sanathana dharma

Defined in brief, devoid of lengthy treatise or jargons, all aspects of life of a HINDU, I mean a correct Hindu in heart and soul not the show offs, require no labeling by or from anyone, no justification by or for anyone, no approval from anyone, no abstract theories or explanation by anyone, no debate or critical analysis or evaluation based on any -ism, nor even any fanatical following based on any specific methods of life style. One can revel in all these aspects of life of a Hindu and they reveal their splendor by merely living a life of constant self enquiry based on any or many levels /methods of perception available and accessible to the heart, intellect and soul of the individual. This life of self enquiry will manifest the various levels of metamorphosis of one’s spiritual evolution wherein the reverse process of life takes place. That is as we grow through the inevitable multiple and different forms and conditionings, we acquire huge carapace of irrelevant loads of activities to our life thinking that each one is important, indeed they may be /are at different stages of life important, but not vital, the self enquiry strips us of the carapace of important/relevant conditionings of the past and makes us notice the essence of every aspect of life.

Sanathana dharma is perhaps the best known way which gives sketchy guideline for this process of soul’s slow but sure search for spiritual enlightenment /evolution/improvement. The crux of the matter is to grasp the essence of spiritual vibrations in every aspect of life in our own way and leave out the extraneous factors, however greatly revered by tradition or promoted by religious institutions or eulogized by the elite. Everything in any process of growth is just a step, important and inevitable, but not a stop. It is so with mother’s milk [our biological aspect of life]; it is so with learning of alphabets, words and numbers [our intellectual aspect of life]; it is so with hugging, kissing and cajoling as babies [our emotional aspect of life]; it is so with our learning and understanding of different concepts [ our philosophical aspect of life]; it is so with all forms of worship, devotion and all its concomitant rituals and religious practices [ our spiritual life] and so on. This is the inherent wisdom. A normal human being has to go through a process to grow in everything or into something but ultimately grow out of it . There may be exceptions like a Adi shankara, or a Bhagawan Ramanamaharishi.

We can neither avoid the steps nor get struck to them. That’s why I cannot accept the snobbism of so called intellectuals parroting pet slogans like religion without rituals, god without religion or religion without gods, spiritualism without god or religion etc. In fact I have books titled in each part of the slogan.

Not only Hinduism but Bharath matha itself is an enigma wrapped in mystery for any one who has not lived it, one must grasp the spirit of it, which is imbued with spiritualism and jeevan. That’s why a true Indian can live anywhere with anything or even without anything. Whereas most of the westerners cannot live even without a specific brand of tissue paper or at least any tissue paper. Unfortunately no westerner has so for understood properly nor can understand either of the above [Hinduism or Bharath matha] fully unless they live it shedding all their conditionings with their heart and soul