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By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 2001)

Sri Sri (Srirangsm Srinivasa Rao) was a well-known firebrand Telugu poet in post-independent India. He claimed himself as one of the Digambara Kavulu (Naked Poets). In the 1960s and 70s, he and other Digambara Kavis defied the orthodoxy of their time by getting their work published in street corners by lesser-known personalities such as a rickshaw puller, even a prostitute.

When I was a student in Berkeley in the early 1980s, Sri Sri visited the campus. In his talk, he read his work first in Telugu, after which he translated the lines into English for the benefit of those like me who did not know Telugu.

Sri Sri was freely using imagery from Hindu epics in his firebrand poems asking people to arise and end the social oppressions and economic exploitations he saw all around. The similes he used were very Hindu: “Arise like the arrow from Vijaya’s Gandhiva; destroy your enemies like Kaali overpowering Mahishaasura.”

Later, at a friend’s place, hesitantly I asked him, “You are one of the revolutionary extreme-leftist poets who denounce religion as the opium of man. Yet in your poems you use themes from the very religion you denounce. How do you reconcile this contradiction?”

Sri Sri stared at me for a few seconds and said something along these lines: “I am an atheist. But as a poet, I recognize that the imagery from our epics is so deeply embedded in my people’s consciousness that nothing else will convey my passion and verve better. I cannot remain without using the similes, metaphors, and other imagery that are chiseled deep into our languages. No poet, however revolutionary he is, can completely insulate himself from his linguistic traditions, if he wants to reach his audience.” I admired him. Sri Sri died in late 80s.

Kaifi Azmi is another left-leaning poet, but in Hindi/Urdu mélange. Last December, in New Delhi, they released his selected poems translated into English. In the function, I read in newspapers recently that poet Kaifi Azmi peppered his talk with anecdotes and appropriate couplets to illustrate his points.

His poem on the destruction of the Babri masjid was poignant. Kaifi Azmi, a born Muslim, took imagery from Ramayana to drive his point as if he had talked to Sri Sri.

This is what Kaifi Azmi said: “On December 6, 1992 (the date on which Babri Masjid was razed years ago in Ayodhya), it was as if Shri Ram Chandra was returning after fourteen years of exile. Seeing what had been done in his name by others, instead of reclaiming his throne, Shri Ram Chandra decided to go back to the jungle.”

They may be speaking different languages. They may not even be aware of each other’s existence. But their minds work remarkably alike. END
 

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, (written in 2001)

Indian mystical poets have used imageries of religious conflicts of their time to stress the unity in man’s spiritual yearnings for liberating us from the shackles of religious bigotry.

In the middle of 18th century (1680 – 1758), near Bahavalpur-Multan area in the northwest part of the Indian subcontinent (in today’s Paki-stan) lived Bulleh Shah, the Sufi mystic. Puri and Sharang have translated Bulleh Shah’s mystical Punjabi lyrics (Bulleh Shah, Radha Soam Satsang Beas, Amritsar, Punjab, India, 494 pp). In Bullah’s time the strife in Northern India was between Hindus and Muslims, which survives to this day. Here is an example of Bullah’s outpourings:

I’m neither a Hindu nor a Mussalman;
I’m neither a Sunni, nor a Shia; I take to the path of amity for all.
I’m neither hungry nor satiated; neither naked nor clothed
I don’t cry, I don’t laugh; I’m not settled nor am I homeless;
I’m neither a sinner nor a saint… …
O Bullah, if in the heart lives the Infinite One,
one would renounce both Hindu and Muslim.
I’m neither a Hindu nor a Mussalman.

Around the 10th century(?), nearly two thousand miles away from A Bulleh Shah’s Bahawalpur, lived Shivavakkiyar in the Tamil country. Shivavakkiyar, a Siddha mystic, rebelled against the religious bigotry of his time. In his time in Tamil Nadu, the strife was not yet between Islam and Hinduism, but within Hinduism itself, the strife that lingers even today among the bigoted.

His Tamil works, all 4-line verses that rhyme and alliterate brilliantly, are easy to memorize and understand. Shivavakkiyar rises above the undercurrents of religious exclusiveness of his time camouflaging as spirituality. Here is a loosely translated example:

It is not Hari (Vishnu) nor is It Hara (Siva) because
It is beyond the black, and the white, and also the red;
It is not large nor is It small; Grasp It, and grasp It tightly
That Which is beyond all descriptions.

Nature has counterbalanced man’s tribal instinct to overpower, others militarily, economically, culturally, and even religiously, with his innate yearnings for spiritual freedom, as we see in Shivavakkiyar and Bulleh Shah speaking against the exclusiveness of organized religions.

Their idioms and vocabulary reflect the conflicts of their times — 10th(? century Shivavakkiyar transcending the Saivite-Vaishnavite hair-splitting in dogma in Tamil Nadu; and 18th century Bulleh Shah, transcending the Hindu-Muslim conflicts in northwest India.

Yet, their message is the same. It is probably because the similarity in these and other mystics’ expressions comes from the identity in their spiritual experiences. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, (written in 1999)

You know the story of the Seven Blind Men of Hindustan describing the elephant in terms of the parts they touched. The following is even better. Everyone in this story sees the same person, and yet has very different reactions.

Dr. Hariharan B. Palakkad*, the US-born freshly minted graduate from a US medical school, joined a hospital for his residency. When his photograph in profile, in medical attire with a stethoscope around his neck, with his name under his photograph, appeared in the hospital newsletter, this is what went through the minds of the other doctors in the hospital:

Dr. Jack Tipinsky: “Uh oh, one more foreigner.”

Dr. David Li: “Sigh, one more Indian. I need to be careful.”

Dr. Ahmad Khan, a Mohajir from Karachi: “Umm… one more Kafir Hindu.”

Drs. Ahluwalia, Trivedi, and Banerji: “Sssala, aur ek Madrassi.” — one more South Indian!

Dr. Anand Arumilli from Andhra Pradesh: “Okay, ఇంకొకటి అరవాడు!” (one more Tamil.)

Dr. Anbalagan, with Dravidian affiliation from Tamil Nadu: “Mmmm, இன்னொரு ஐயரா? — another Brahmin?  But I have learned to live with them, even though I cannot stand them…  but in a strange way, I cannot live without them either. Like the Jews-White Christian interactions in Western Europe and North America.”

Dr. Kasturi Iyengar: “Ooo-kay, one more Iyer.”

Dr. Raman, an Iyer from Tamil Nadu: “God, one more Palakkad Iyer guy from Kerala!”

Dr. Narayana Menon, or Nair, or Namboothiri: “ഓ ശരി, O yeah, one more പട്ടർ (Pattar)!”

On the day Dr. Palakkad was introduced to the staff, Dr. Natarajan Venkitaraman, the middle-aged doctor originally from Kerala, asked the new kid, “Hey, l’m from Kerala and I am from Palakkad. What is the B in your middle initial?”

“That’s a long story. Briefly, my father once told me that we belong to the Bharadwaja gotram. But I don’t know what it really means.”

Venkitaraman, the middle-aged Kerala Iyer doctor who belonged to the Kaushika gotram, thought, “God, one more Bharadwajan. They are everywhere.”

* Palakkad is a well-known region in Kerala, India. Note: The Hariharan in the story could as well have been a Reddy, a Gowda, a Nair, an Athavlé, a Ganguli, a Dwivedi, a Kuriakose, a Bukhari, or a Sodhi. The reactions would be analogous.

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A Delhiwallah working in Europe went to Egypt on business. At the hotel, his Egyptian business associate met him.  True to the traditions of that part of the world, he was effusively gracious.

It was a summer full moon and the skies were clear. The host asked the Indian if he wanted to see the pyramids under the natural full moon light. The Indian said yes.

Around midnight, the Egyptian drove his guest to the Giza pyramids.

The roads were empty. Therefore, as he was driving, the Egyptian zipped through several red lights. For the Indian, who was used to the insane Delhi drivers, this was too much. His stomach tightened every time his host ran a red light.

Finally, they came to another intersection where they had a green light. Strangely, the Egyptian slowed down. Puzzled by this, the Indian asked, “Why did you slow down for the green light?”

“Oh, you never know. Some crazy drivers may run the red light in the opposite direction.”

— Anecdotes from a Travelling Indian 
 

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman (written in 1999)

Stories in mythologies are often not cut and clean. This is because mythologies go beyond the simple black-and-white narratives and address the gray areas of our lives and the ethical dilemmas we frequently agonize over. Some of these stories have an enduring quality simply because human frailty, predicaments, and dilemmas are the same since the dawn of civilization.

Gennifer Flower, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Kodderick, and of course, the infamous Monica Lewinsky. The time and money the nation spent following the lurid details of Clinton’s travails brought X-rated movies into our family rooms. Our eight-year-olds, and even six-year-olds, lost their innocence.

But is there anything new about people having wealth, influence, or power “fooling around,” to quote Monica Lewinsky? These people always found willing partners for fooling around. For some, letting powerful and wealthy people “fool around” with them is a way to get ahead of others in life where winning is everything. The Tamil poet Kannadasan once cynically remarked, “No one ever asks a victor whether he played by the rules.”

But reckless hubris is followed sooner or later, as the Greeks believed and as Clinton found out, by an avenging nemesis. In politics, worse than being hated is being ridiculed.

Thanks to First Amendment rights, Clinton gave a new lease of life to late-night comedy. If Clinton’s Presidential library is to truly depict all eight years of his public life while in office, it will be the one having a section advising “parental or adult discretion” to visiting minors. As the nation got tired of the whole sequence of sordid events and the soporific trial, recalling a story in Vyasa’s Bhagavatam (written at least two millennia before Bill Clinton) would help young men and women everywhere:

An elderly sage was chasing his very youthful teenage son on the _shores of a lake where a bevy of young girls were bathing. The sage observed from a distance that when the youthful boy ran past them, the girls did not bother to stop playing or cover themselves.

But when the older father came along, to his horror, they scurried to cover themselves. Feeling offended, the sage stopped and confronted the young girls:

“Young maiden, you were shameless when a young man ran past you even as you were bathing half naked. But when I, an older man, dressed properly, pass by, you cover yourselves. Isn’t that strange?

“Oh, sage, ” they replied, “We are convinced of the innocence of your youthful son. But we are not quite sure of yours.”

Herein lies a message for all our young women – and men too!

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By Kollengode S. Venkataraman (written in 1999)

On November 15, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took the first step towards eventually granting dual citizenship for people of Indian origin (PIO) who are citizens of another country. The program proposes PIO cards that would eliminate visas for NRIs to visit India.

Further, under this plan, PIOs can acquire and transfer immovable property in India; can have admission to educational institutions, presumably on a preferential basis; and will be free to take part in government-sponsored housing schemes. This program would also make dividends from non-repatriable NRI investments tax-free.

PIOs are scattered all over the globe, from as close as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Middle East, to as far away as Fiji, the Caribbean, and Africa, in addition to Western Europe and North America.

True, a few descendants of poor PIO plantation and farm workers in Malaysia or the Caribbean, or South Africa will benefit from this program. But the major chunk of the beneficiaries will be the affluent PIOs from North America, Western Europe, and the Pacific Rim.

Given the historical trend for abuse in government programs in South Asia, the dual citizenship idea for PIOs with access to hard currencies will lead to corruption of the system.

Dual citizenship raises important ethical, moral, and even legal issues, even though many NRIs would welcome it purely from personal considerations. Dual citizenship is likely to make life more precarious for millions of middle-income Indians earning in rupees.

Consider the provisions for higher education in India, access to immovable properties, and investment opportunities for PIOs.

In Education: Facilities for higher education, especially in developing societies, are a critical national resource exclusively funded by tax money. As it is, the government-mandated reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes (SCs/STs), and the other backward classes (OBCs) leave only a handful of seats for students belonging to “forward” castes. Many of the latter, even if they have near-perfect scores in exams, cannot get admissions into good universities. Never mind that many students belonging to the SCs and OBCs come from economically prosperous and politically powerful families, and many of the “forward” caste students come from poor families. And most of the PIO students will leave India after their 4-year stint.

These economically and politically disadvantaged “forward” caste youth will now have to also contend with the PIO students with hard currencies brandishing their high-decibel audio systems, camcorders, and cellular phones.

How can a society prosper when it does not nurture competition, reward talents, and weed out incompetence is a simple question that all Indian politicians have learned to duck and obfuscate.

In Real Estate: The real estate values in posh Bombay/Delhi suburbs in dollars are close to those in New York or San Francisco. Giving access to PIOs to buy immovable properties will simply raise real estate prices even more. For millions of fixed-income people earning in rupees, owning their own 700 sq. ft flat will remain just a dream.

As it is, close to 50% of the income of an average Indian household goes to food. With home mortgage eating up another 30% to 40%, not much is left for anything else.

On Investments: The bulk of NRIs/ PIOs investing in India keep their hard currencies in the capital markets that can be withdrawn at short notice. India does not have effective self-correcting mechanisms that mature industrial nations have. When opportunities soften, as they surely will, these investors will flee with their hard currencies, leaving the Desi Indians in a hell hole.

In any case, the bulk of the middle-class people in India in fixed-income earning in rupees will become second-class citizens in one more dimension, as was the case during the colonial rule. What makes it worse for them now is that their masters this time are people of their own breed. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, (written in 1999)

In India, Hinduism bears the karma of untouchability and the rigidly hierarchical caste system; Islam bears the consequences of ravaging of temples by Turkish marauders and their minions in its name, and the compulsory tax Jizzia they imposed on Hindus for practicing their religion; the Catholic church bears the Indian cross of the Goa Inquisition.

St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, brought Christianity to India rather uneventfully twelve centuries before European missionaries arrived on Indian shores. But when the European missionaries came to India in the 17th century for “saving souls,” the “second coming” for Christianity in India was far from being uneventful. Caught up in temporal power in Europe, Christianity lost its own soul when, in 13th century it instituted on heretics the Spanish Inquisition that extended to all Iberian colonies, including the idyllic Portuguese colony of Goa in India.

Now, nearly seven centuries after the Spanish Inquisition, the Vatican seems to be ready for repentance. Bosco de Sousa Eremita of The Gomantak Times (Nov. 1, 1998) published from Panaji, Goa, reports that the Vatican may apologize for the Spanish Inquisition after a scholarly symposium during October of this year for what it calls a “Review of Conscience as part of celebrating 2000 years of Christianity.

According to the Gomantak Times story, P. P. Shirodkar, director of archeology in Goa, one of whose ancestors was among those tortured and killed in the Goa Inquisition, said, “The Vatican meeting will surely help assuage whatever ill will that exists between Christians and Hindus,” particularly in Western India. The Goa Inquisition first tried to check the practice of Hindu rituals among converts, but later was used “as a weapon to punish anybody,” he said.

Father Carmo Martins, spokesperson for Goa archdiocese, hailed the current Pope’s decision to “accept the mistakes committed by his predecessors.”

Jorge de Abreu Noronha, who edits a newsletter for the Goan community in Portugal said, “The Pope has done what the clergy and even the Catholic laity ought to have done, and the move boosts his image.” However, not everyone agrees on the latter part of the statement.

Teotonio de Souza, author of Jesuits in India: In Historical Perspective, commented, “If vengeance is served cold, the Vatican’s apologies are served colder still.”

Goans should be thankful that the Vatican apology, bitter as it is, is still better late than never. Why? Because the Catholic Church’s meandering bureaucracy took more than 350 years to exonerate its own Galileo Galilei, the astronomer, for his heliocentric theory.

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Reviewer: Usha Chandrasekaran, (written in 1999)

Book Review: 60-plus Ways to Drape Saris. Usha Chandrasekaran, an Upper St. Clair resident, reviews Chantal Boulanger’s recent book Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping. Email her at devi@devi.net. You can order the book from the author’s website http://www.devi.net

Every time we attend an Indian gathering, my mother gently prods my daughter to wear a sari, saying, “I started wearing sari when I was only twelve.” My daughter would smile and reply, “But Patti! I am afraid. I don’t know how to wear a sari without help!”

Imagine my delight when I got the book Saris: An Illustrated Guide to the Indian Art of Draping by Ms. Chantal Boulanger, a French author! It is a great gift not only to second generation Indians living outside India, but to their mothers and grandmothers as well!!

The book begins with the warning that learning to drape a sari by reading a book is not easy. Boy, was that an understatement! With a crisp introduction to the definition of terms, the techniques, and key words to the basic drapes, the author describes ten styles of wearing dhotis, more than sixty-six different styles of wearing saris and mundus. It is amazing that people could come up with so many creative ways of wrapping themselves so elegantly with a given length of unstitched cloth.

Boulanger has classified the various types of saris in six chapters, highlighting the variation in each type. Each chapter has briefly described the style and the reason for the differences in styles. The author has traveled extensively all over India, researching the various types, and even wearing them herself during her travels.

Once in a temple near Goa, the kaccha sari that she was wearing caused the local women to tease her because the way she wore it revealed a little more than it should. She learnt from them the right way to wear it. She learnt to wear the Kappulu sari from a woman crossing the road in Masulipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Along the way, the author has given very interesting titbits of information. Did you know that one can tell the social identity of the person by the way they draped themselves in saris? Or that the same type of sari may be worn in regions thousands of miles apart by people belonging to the same caste? Did you know that in the old days, cholis were worn by men?

Next time you see a Tamil Iyer woman wearing the traditional nine yards sari, note that the left part of her drape evokes a woman, and the right part, a man, giving a mobile illustration of the concept of Ardha-nareeswara!

The author has tried to be specific with elaborate illustrations for each kind of sari, describing the techniques of pleats, the kosuvam, Saris…… (Continued from page 10)

mundi and so on. She has portrayed them authentically, and the drawings are precise. I quizzed my mom, and we realized that she herself did not know that there are so many variations, even in her own neck of the woods.

I had a lot of fun trying to wear saris in the Bengali, Raipuri, the Manipuiri, and the Tondaimandalam styles. The author has even described several tribal saris like the Badaga, the Boro Mekhla and the Thoda.

Some of the saris with several pleats, tucks, and turns were downright difficult to follow, especially to try them from just the drawings. The easiest, of course, is the Nivi style, the way we wear the modern sari today, that originated in the Andhra region. I felt that addition of photographs might have been more helpful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a must for all Indian homes – especially the ones outside India – for our daughters to understand and appreciate the dying art of draping saris. With many traditional styles of wearing saris disappearing, this book not only glorifies the past but also preserves the art of creatively draping saris for future generations.

Watch out readers! Next time you see a woman draped in a unique style of sari in an Indian gathering in Pittsburgh, it might just be me. END

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Book Review: Indian Food – A Culinary Corner Historical Companion by K. T.
Achaya, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994, 322 pages. Reviewer: Premlata Venkataraman

Getting ready for Diwali is never easy. But in the midst of making – and if you are an adult man, mostly eating – burfis, halwas and other delectables, has it ever crossed your mind how our ancestors ever came up with these complicated recipes? If it hasn’t, it’s probably because they were always there as far as your or your nani’s (patti’s, or ajji’s) memory goes. Then again, probably it has, as you struggle to re-create Indian holidays with the convenience of refrigeration, canned foods, and ready-mix powders. The mystery is now solved in the book I quite accidentally ran into that tells the history of Indian cooking, starting, not surprisingly, from the Indus Valley civilization and the Vedas.

Indian Food-A Historical Companion by K.T.Achaya of Bangalore is a well-researched, comprehensive book – over 800 references, exhaustive glossary of non-English words and Latin words, author index, and subject index. This book, a feast coming out of Achaya’s labor for satisfying the author’s culinary curiosity, is the culmination of a project funded by the Indian National Science Academy. It describes the origin of food materials and their preparations covering the whole of India. Without the author’s first name, biographical sketch, or photograph, I have assumed Achaya is a “she.”

Achaya has used a multipronged approach in trying to find how old some of the unique Indian preparations are. With the help of talented people — mostly women — and historical sources in Sanskrit, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali, and others, the author cites the earliest references for food items, some versions of which are popular even today in our diet. She traces how foods from far away shores arrived in India and were integrated into to our cuisine. She elaborates the various regional cuisine, the influence of Moguls, Persians, and Europeans on the Indian diet. Interspersed with the narration are food factoids like the paan reaching India from southeast Asia. I found these factoids quite fascinating.

Achaya, for example, tells us that

• in Vedic India animals were sacrificed, with different parts of the meat offered to different Gods of the Hindu pantheon,
• the battle against meat eating in Vedic India was won by the Jains and the Buddhists out of their enlightened idea of jiva-karunyam (compassion towards living creatures, mainly animals), much like anti-smoking campaign of our times, and
• thirty-one types of alcoholic drinks (with authentic Sanskrit names) fermented/distilled from grains, fruits, and flowers were known.

Take the simple papad we routinely snack on. Its origin, both in etymology and preparation, Achaya tells us, is in parpata, created from powdered pulses mentioned in the 3,500-years-old Vedic literature. Similarly, the Vedic vatika is the precursor of the all-Indian vada we relish in all its variations, dunked in rasam or dahi, or eaten with chutneys. The dosai, a variation of the Dravidian appam made even today in South India, and sevai, the steamed rice noodles, another Dravidian delicacy, are ancient. Achaya cites references in the Sangam period’s Tamil literature (first few centuries before and after Christ). But the popular idli is, strangely, a much later addition to the Indian cuisine.

She traces the origin of the popular milk-based Bengali sweets — Rasgolla, Sandhesh, Rasmalai — prior to sixteenth century. How? Because Mukundram Chakravarti in his 16th century book Chandimangala describes them. Similarly, Gujarat’s Lavanyaswamy (~ 1200AD) mentions vadi, laddu, kheer, sukhadi, talwat, and edhami, prepared in Western India with great relish even today.

Green chili, so beloved in our cooking, is an import from South America just a few centuries ago. That is perhaps why more traditional Indian food (as those prepared for shraddha) used black pepper.

Also included are excerpts from Sanskrit cooking manual Manasa Ulasa (literally, Mental Pleasure) attributed to the Chalukya King Someshwara (1100s AD) that elaborates vegetarian and nonvegetarian food preparations fit only for kings, Nemichandra’s Lilavati (1170 AD), and Basavaraja’s (1700s AD) Siva-tattva-ratnakara describing the royal kitchen and banquets.

Do you want to know about good eating manners and the placement of food items in the Bengali thali-kathori style, or on the banana leaves common in the South India? Read Achaya.

Given that Indians are annoyingly picky about the food they eat – specially when others make them – Achaya has presented the endless variations of Indian cooking without being judgmental, without showing her preferences and betraying her prejudices. This makes the book a storehouse of objective information. It is simply fascinating to read the cuisine of Kashmiris, Dogra Rajputs, Parsis, and Bohra Muslims, and Goans, to mention a few, in the book.

Your kitchen library may include books from the popular Joy of Cooking to Meenakshi Ammal’s utilitarian Cook and See (literal translation of her Samaittup-paar in Tamil or its equivalent. Still, Achaya’s book will be an interesting addition because going beyond the smell, look, taste, feel, and texture of food, it traces their very origins. The book is fit to be part of your family heirloom. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, Written in 1998)

“Sycophancy has no place in the [Congress] party. We must say what we mean. We must mean what we say,” declared the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi on April ’98 while addressing the Congress Party delegates after being ‘coronated’ as the president of the 113-year old party.

She is also the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party without being a member of Indian parliament. Indira Gandhi was the only other person having this dubious distinction. This means, as the leader of the largest party in the opposition, she has the chance of being invited by the President to form government if Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government falls. And with Vajpayee hanging precariously with the vainglorious Corruption Queen Jaya as his coalition partner, there is good chance of the government falling before completing its term.

Therefore, it is natural if people in India expect the person who has the constitutional opportunity and the political odds of becoming the next prime minister to be Indian, at least in appearance and ethos. Indians can sigh in relief. Why? Because, finally, Sonia has become a true Indian.

How? In the very meeting where she castigated sycophancy, according to Indian papers, she accepted a laaarge flower garland from sycophants shouting Sonia Gandhi Zindabad and listened quietly as “majority of the senior and senile party leaders vied with one another to genuflect before her for her decision to take over the Congress party.” A quintessential product of sycophancy herself true to the Congress tradition, she surrounds herself with cronies. India subsumes everyone! But then, as political leaders all over the world are no different

In India — and in many other parts of the world — what one practices doesn’t have to have any semblance to what one preaches. It can be, and often is, even the opposite. Example:

Indians single-mindedly pursue wealth and power by fair and foul means as people do everywhere. But unlike others who go about their pursuits full blast without caring for anything else, many Indians routinely talk about nishkamya karmam (discharging one’s duties without desiring the fruits of action) and the evils of materialism. Keeping in line with this spirit of her compatriots, Sonia, if not in her Hindi, at least in her hypocrisy, has finally become an Indian. Welcome to the parivaar (family), Sonia!

Two inconvenient footnotes: 1) Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv’ vidhwa and Indira’s bahu, waited for more than a decade till her husband became the Prime Minister to take Indian citizenship. 2) She became the primary member of the Congress party only two years ago.

Several of you are naturalized citizens of this great land. Granted, for a variety of reasons, your aggression is confined to the politics in your temples or social groups. Even if you are politically active outside, how many of you, as naturalized citizens, can even think of getting elected to your local borough councils? END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, (written in 1998)

Interviewer: How can your musical experience, so deeply rooted in religion, transcend the barriers of creed and touch people of every faith?
Pandit Jasraj, the well-known classical singer: Music is a contagious disease that knows no barriers of caste, color, or creed. Recently, I was in Pakistan. After the recital, people with raised arms said: “apne bhajan gaaya aur Allah ka darshan karvaya.” (You sang bhajans and showed us a glimpse of Allah.) – The Times of India, April 21, 1998

In the part of India that is today’s Andhra Pradesh, Annamacharya, a poet-cum-philosopher in the bhakti tradition, lived in 15″ century in Talappakkam, a village near Tirupati. He composed songs in Telugu and Sanskrit, believed to be in the thousands, almost all of them addressed to, or on, Venkateshwara of Tirupati.

Lyrical beauty, pulsating meter and rhythm, and lilting alliteration are the characteristics of Annamacharya’s songs that listeners easily discern. Not so easy to grasp without some familiarity with classical Telugu and Sanskrit is the poet’s expansive idea of the Divine.

In the Bhakti approach to the Divine, as we see in the compositions of Annamacharya — and several others before and after him — one’s social identity (read “caste”), knowledge, power, pride, and wealth are irrelevant. Some even assert that one’s social identity and clinging to these traits are not only irrelevant, but also unnecessary fetters that one should unload as one moves along in one’s spiritual journey.

Annamacharya’s song enta matramuna evvaru talachina made popular by several musicians also reveals the Universalist in the poet. Here are the excerpts from the translation of the song courtesy of Saraswathi Chelluri of Monroeville):

Whoever thinks of You in whatever way, that is what You are to them.
Vaishnavites worship you as Vishnu.
For the Vedantins, you are the Parabrahman, the Ultimate Reality.
Saivites think of you as Shiva. Kapalikas worship you as Kalabhairava.
For Shakti worshippers You are the Goddess of Power and Energy Herself.
Devotees worship You in a multitude of forms.
When small-minded people define You in narrow terms, that is how You appear to them.
For those who see You in expansive terms, You are the Omniscient One.
Like a lotus that always adjusts itself to the level of water in the pond, You appear to people appropriate to their mental state.
Your compassion is instantaneous, like water springing forth when one digs on the banks of Bhageerati (a descriptive name for the Ganga).
If You are Venkateswara Himself, then You are the One that will take care of us. I will only bow to You; that is the Absolute Truth…

The central idea for this song is the compact assertion in the Vedas, ekam sat viprah bahudah vadanti — Truth is one; the wise speak of It by various names — as we see in countless the compendium of Bhakti literature.

In recent times, the famous Ramdhun that was dear to Mahatma Gandhi contains the memorable line isvara allah tere naam, which literally means “Isvara and Allah [or for that matter, Yahveh] are but Your names.

Even though the bhakti poets were intensely devoted to their personal deities, (examples: Tulasidas and Tyagaraja to Rama, Poet Arunagiri to Kartikeya, and Virasaiva poets to Shiva many of them, like Annamacharya, are also universalists and expansive in their understanding of the Divine.

Why this apparent contradiction? It is probably because they, more than anyone else, recognized that all of man’s attempts to define the Infinite are nothing but confining the Infinite.

Jnaneshwar, Maharashtra’s 15″ century poet-cum-philosopher expresses this idea nicely in Jnaneshwari (original in Marathi). He says:

“People attribute a name to Me, who am nameless; action to Me, who am beyond actions; they attribute color to Me, who am colorless; hands and feet to Me who is beyond them; … … family to the familyless; form to the formless; they create Me, who is self-born; they decorate Me with clothes and ornaments, who am beyond clothing and ornaments…… I, who am the universally immanent Atman, they say, kill one in anger and support one in love…… (Jnaneshwar by R.D.Ranade, Publishers: State University of New York Press, 1994.)

While the bhakti poets were ecstatic about their experience upon glimpsing the Infinite as we see in their works, they also recognized that logic, however incisive, and lyrics, however brilliant, are hopelessly inadequate in conveying to others their ecstasy. Tirumular, the Tamil Saiva sage (5th or 7th century), wonders in Tirumandiram about this dilemma using a vivid imagery: “How can a mother convey to her prepuberty young daughter the intimacy she, the mother, had with her husband ?” (Tirumandiram by G. Varadarajan, Palaniappa Brothers, Madras, canto 2944, in Volume 3, 1985)

Thus, it appears, the Bhakti poets’ writings are only inducements goading us to seek and experience the Divine with our own efforts, on our own way, on our own terms. END

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Kollengode S Venkataraman, Written in 1998)

In the wake of the mad cow disease in England and the massive recall of 25 million pounds of hamburger patties in Nebraska, lacto-vegetarians might think that they are safe because the milk products they consume comes from herbivorous cows. Well, think again. Left to themselves, cows are herbivorous, we all know. However, as a commodity traded in the Chicago Board of Trade, cows are not left to themselves.

If you have a sensitive stomach, we suggest that you skip this article and opt for living in ignorance. However, if you read further, your stomach may turn, but you will be a better informed consumer.

According to a US News & Word Report article (September 1, 1997 issue), ranchers feed their cows not only hay, soybeans, grains, alfalfa, antibiotics and hormones to fatten the cows and increase their lactation, but also other innocuous waste products — corncobs, rice husk, peelings of fruits and vegetables, for example

And some not-so-innocuous items such as chicken droppings (rich in protien and cheap), slaughter house wastes such as the blood, bones, intestines (they are nutritious, and it costs to get rid of them). And they also feed the mortal remains of millions of cats and dogs “put to sleep” by veterinarians and animal shelters, well ground so that the herbivorous cows with no canine teeth can masticate what they eat.

In other words, the Homo Sapiens have made cows into cannibals.

Biologists know that these animal products, when not processed properly, can have harmful bacteria that can cause disease in humans; in addition, they may contain intestinal parasites, veterinary drug resi-dues, and toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium.

In August, FDA ordered a halt to feeding all slaughter house waste products to cattle and sheep as a safety precaution. This Fall, the journal Preventive Medicine published a paper pointing to the potential dangers of recycling chicken waste to cattle.

What can one do about this? For the present, not much. But when government sees a big public health risk, the long, strong arm of the Feds will dictate what ranchers can feed their cattle, and more impor-tantly, what they can not. If we feel strongly about this, we have to first agree!?) on what needs to be done, and mobilize public opinion around it. After all, if public opinion in the last twenty years could force workplaces to be free from cigarette smoke and girlie pinups without any legislation, anything is possible.

But laying the road for transforming the possibilities to realities is slow, arduous work that often culminates in dead ends. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman, (written in 1998)

The recent Indian parliamentary election cost tax payers Rs. 700 crores! The election was thrust upon the unwilling voters because the Congress Party irresponsibly toppled two national governments in two years. During the campaign, alignments were formed and broken and re-formed purely on expediency. With a hung parliament after the election, this shameless practice continued. Example: The Congress party, after toppling Gujral’s government because of the indictment of Gujral’s coalition partner DMK in Rajiv Gandhi’s murder, was wooing the same DMK for forming government after elections.

The Congress Party is so bereft of vision that it hides behind the silk pallu of Sonia Gandhi, whose only qualification for public life is that she is the bahu of Indira, and vidhwa of Rajiv. The Indian media extolled Sonia Gandhi’s chemistry in connecting with people. But the chemistry, it turned out, was more alchemy. It did not transform into votes as happened in UP, MP, and the South. In her hit-and-run campaign whirlwinds, she never answered her critics. She indulged in vague generalities avoiding reporters. When the Kerala Press Club invited her, she did not go.

Every political party (except perhaps communists) in India has indulged in communal politics exploiting the caste- and religion-based insecurities of voters. Like a thief avoiding public attention to himself by shouting “thief, thief” as he runs, Congress and the United Front partners were calling the Bharatiya Janata Party “communal.” Generally, people showed their anger against the party governing the state. In states where the Congress Party did well, Congress was not ruling. In Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi got a beating. But Jayalalitha, the Queen of Corruption, was politically resurrected. The state, facing a proverbial puranic dilemma, voted against the ruling party.

One Good Sign: Politicians are rascals, we know. But even the rascals talked about accountability. Leaders in many states where their party did poorly assumed “moral responsibility” and resigned from leadership. One hopes this idea percolates more.

Election brings out the best sloganeering in India. A Hindi graffiti near Ranchi airport is a sample:

Jab tak rahega samosa mein aloo, tab tak rahega Bihar mein Laloo!

As long as in Samosas potatoes are, So long will Laloo be [in power] in Bihar!

Laloo survived. Graffiti in a village near Warangal (A.P.):

“If the minister comes asking for votes, chase him from the village.” One hopes they did just that. Yet another good one:

With BJP, Ram Rajya. With Congress Party, Rome Rajya.

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman

While the followers of the Abrahamic religions traditionally bury their departed, a very large majority of Hindus practice cremation to take care of their dead. Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains (and also Indian Zoroastrians living outside India) also cremate their departed. After cremation, Hindus sprinkle the ashes into rivers, or an ocean or sea. With Pennsylvania House of Representative Dr. Arvind Venkat’s help, we now have a spot on the Allegheny River to sprinkle the ashes.

Indians started arriving in the US in small numbers starting in the 1960s as graduate students and trainee physicians.  After their studies, many stayed, taking up jobs in hospitals, universities, or in corporate research labs.  Then, during the IT boom starting in the 1990s and Y2K, a large number of Indians landed in the US. Today, we are totaling over three million. Even in Southwest Pennsylvania, not a magnet for Indian immigrants, Indian-origin people today are over 20,000.

In earlier years, Indians who cremated their departed took the ashes to India and sprinkle them in the water bodies of their choice.  But as our numbers grew, this was not practical because of time and resource constraints. 

Many who read this may wonder, why cremation at all for Hindus. One idea I find illuminating for cremation for taking care of the dead is the Indic beliefs in rebirth. Our body is only a temporary residence for our Atman (indwelling spirit, or any other name you want to give), put together by Brahman (the All-Powerful Transcendental Thing, Mother Nature, or any word you want to give). 

Nature has designed our body, the dwelling place for our Atman, with a unique combination of the five elements (earth, water, air, fire, and space). During gestation and after birth, the same five elements nurture us throughout our life. When we end our life here, we leave behind the five elements one by one.

We come out of nothing; we also want to leave behind nothing. That is why, after cremation, we sprinkle the ashes into a sea or ocean, or into a flowing river. After this, there is not a trace of anything that is uniquely identifiable with us.

So, here in Pittsburgh, we have been sprinkling ashes into local rivers, often at early sunrise, not to get the attention of city officials or law enforcement personnel.  Many of us were — I certainly was — wondering if we were violating any local regulations.

So, I wanted to approach local elected officials on this matter. But I did not know how to approach. And where to begin for dealing with the proverbial American City Hall bureaucracy’s labyrinth.     

Then, in 2022, Dr. Arvind Venkat became the first Indian-origin elected member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the Harrisburg General Assembly, elected from District 30. When I broached the subject with Rep. Dr. Venkat at the end of 2023, he listened to the situation. Initially, he was not sure if it was possible at all to get approval from local/county/state governments. He was in the early days as a first-term member of the Harrisburg General Assembly. He told me he would look into it and asked me to send a request with some background information. 

Som Sharma,  our student-teacher of Vedanta and a long-time resident here active in interfaith gatherings for over 40 years, and I submitted a request to Rep. Dr. Venkat in January 2024. It had information on the number of cremations done annually in our area and the religious significance of sprinkling the ashes into flowing water bodies. Rep. Dr. Venkat, in the middle of learning the ropes as a freshman member of the Harrisburg legislature, took time to follow up on our request.

Six months later, after many inquiries among city, county, and state officials, in July 2024, the Office of Films and Event Management, a division of the Department of Public Safety in Pittsburgh Mayor’s Office, clarified to us that “activities such as this do not require a permit from the City of Pittsburgh so long as they are small ceremonies.” 

So, we can perform our very last duty to our departed without any anxiety about whether we are violating any local regulations. The city officials have recommended a spot along the Allegheny River, close to the David Lawrence Convention Center. Here are the key excerpts from the letter:

“In regards to the scattering or immersing of ashes into the City’s inland water ways, activities such as this do not require a permit from the City of Pittsburgh so long as they are small ceremonies.

“The City of Pittsburgh does not regulate the scattering of ashes, but it is strongly recommended any scatterings follow all posted Environmental Protection Agency guidance on the subject.

“Recommended locations include the river walk at the bottom of 10th Street under the David L Lawrence Convention Center. If there is to be larger (30+ individuals or exclusive use of public property) ceremony or event associated with the scattering, please check with the Office of Film & Event Management at ofem@pittsburghpa.gov to determine if a special event permit may be required.”

The Three Rivers are our lifeline. Please be sensitive and do not add large amounts of biodegradable materials — such as flower garlands, etc — into the river along with the ashes. You may add only a few rose/flower petals along with the ashes to solemnize your last duty to your departed.  For the official letter from the Mayor’s office, click here.  

And now, with the city hall clarifying that small ceremonies like this do not require a permit from the City of Pittsburgh, we can perform our very last duty to our departed without any anxiety about whether we are violating any local regulations.   

We all owe our thanks to Rep. Dr. Arvind Venkat for taking up our request in the early days of his first term, something many elected officials rather would not do before they even get their feet wet in holding any elected public office. Please feel free to send Rep. Dr Venkat your Thank You note here. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman… … … Written in October 1995

The Pittsburgh Patrika is an experimental newsletter attempting to reach people who trace their heritage to the Indian subcontinent, or who are curious about people from the Indian subcontinent. This is “experimental” for several reasons: First of all, this newsletter is a forum for airing and sharing your views, ideas, and even frustrations on any matter of topical and not-so-topical interest. People from the Indian subcontinent here have quite a diversified background, and yet, are so very alike. When we look through our patina of sophistication, we often see that our pleasures and pains, anxieties, problems, concerns, expectations, hopes, and even griefs, are similar. The Pittsburgh Patrika’s intention is to entertain and inform people who share a certain value system and are curious about what is going on in our midst.

We have opinions — strong opinions, we admit — on war, peace, and societal issues, which, of course, include the relevance or otherwise of the ubiquitous caste system, and how it is being replaced by the equally sinister “American class” system. And then, spousal abuse, raising children in these “modern times,” dealing with “old-fashioned” parents, intercaste, interracial, interfaith marriages, (and with prenuptial agreements, we may add no-faith marriages as well), And then, divorce, reproductive rights, religion, spirituality & religiosity, conspicuous consumption & ecology, taxes, tax evasion & tax shelters, NRIs, IRAs … … The list is endless.

If you feel strongly on any of the above, and are willing to express your opinion in writing, you now have a forum to air it.

Mostly living in suburban homes (4BR, 2.5 Bth, 2 Gar.) we are resourceful. Word of mouth, effective in disseminating information — the spicy and racy variety, in any case — does not always go far enough and on time. We are sophisticated and cerebral, some of us think, and we don’t need the security blanket that social herding gives. Therefore, many of us are not inclined to become part of any religious or social group till we hit middle age, or a rough patch in life such as having teenage children (usually both), or our unique marital problems.

Even then, whether we admit or not, we are interested in what is going on within the Indian diaspora, what we accomplish in our professions, and how our children do in arts, sports(!) and studies. Don’t we always pay extra attention to news items on seeing typical Indian names — Ahluwalia, Menon, Rao, Athavlé, Verghese, Singh, Misra, Patel, Panigrahi, Kannappan, Chaturvedi, Banerji, Reddy, or for that matter, Sathyavageeswaran of the OJ Trial fame as the subject of stories? These stories can be Spelling Bee contests, sports, school valedictorians, new professionals in hospitals, R&D labs, corporations, faculty members, and students in colleges, and yes, rarely, cases involving misdemeanors and even felonies . With your participation, we will have opportunities to hear about these.

Our rich artistic heritage is diverse: Hindustani & Karnatic music; Odissi, Kathak, Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, and Kathakali dance traditions; Madhubani & Thanjavur paintings, carvings in wood, granite, or marble; bronze castings and stucco work, jewelry and textiles. The panorama is fascinating. And thanks to the temples in the area, SPICMA-CAY, and the Center for Performing Arts, artistes from India routinely visit us to entertain and educate us. Who can remain unmoved after listening to a brilliant music concert on the vocal, veena, venu, sitar, or sarod, or after watching a scintillating dance recital? And one may add parenthetically, who can remain without groaning after suffering through pitiful performances by artistes promoted in exuberant terms — what choice of adjectives in glossy, multicolor pamphlets?

We are fortunate to have in our midst people having a good grasp of our performing arts. The Pittsburgh Patrika will have regular features reviewing music concerts and dance recitals. Also, occasionally, we will have opportunities to hear from these artistes themselves on the contemporary arts scene.

Living in the midst of three universities, intellectuals, and social thinkers on the Indian subcontinent, or from the Indian subcontinent routinely pass through Pittsburgh. Knowing their views is necessary to keep ourselves abreast of contemporary India, and to differentiate between the reality of India and its decades-old frozen romantic images that are deeply engraved in our memory.

The Pittsburgh Patrika is an attempt to fulfill some of these motivations. It also wants to be a reasonably well-written and tightly edited newsletter. Your articles, reviews, suggestions, and ideas — particularly from the youth growing up here — are essential for meeting these ambitious targets.

In short, this newsletter is a forum for expressing and critiquing ourselves. Obviously, it will last only so long as you find that it serves some of these purposes. The Pittsburgh Patrika looks forward to an exciting time interacting with the Indian diaspora. It will greet you four times a year, in April, July, October, and January.

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An Acharya Under Arrest

By Kollengode S Venkataraman (January, 2005)

The most sensational news during the Deepavali holidays in India was the arrest by Tamil Nadu police of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendera Saraswati, 70, in Andhra Pradesh on Deepavali day (Nov. 12) over the murder of one Mr. Sankararaman. Sankararaman was with the Kanchi Math as his assistant to Chandrasekhara Saraswati, the previous Kanchi acharya, who died a few years ago when he was one hundred years of age. According to Indian newspapers, Sankararaman, continued to work at the Math, now for Jayendra Saraswati, and developed disagreements with the new acharya on many matters in the Math. Four years ago, he left the math (he was asked to go, by one account), and he worked in the nearby Varadaraja Perumal temple.

In September of 2003, Sankararaman was stabbed to death inside the Perumal temple. Five people, arrested for the murder, during police interrogation, pointed their fingers at the Kanchi Math and implicated Jayendra Saraswati himself for the murder, which led to the arrest. Later, on Nov 23, two prime suspects recanted their earlier statements. Two days later, they recanted their recantations!! The details of the arrest and its aftermath are available almost as a running commentary on the following website:

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/nic/0034/index.htm

The Kanchi Math, traditionally known for its austerity, has a large following inside and outside India. Therefore, understandably, people who revere the Math were in shock.

According to the police and prosecution statements made before courts, there was “incriminating evidence” in terms of money trail and cell phone calls traceable to the Kanchi Math, and to “the acharya himself.” Many people both inside and outside the Math’s sphere of influence _ felt that the modus operandi of the acharya’s arrest (if not the arrest itself) could have been different. But when seen in the context of Tamil Nadu’s social and public life, shaped and dominated by the Dravidian Parties (the DMK, or the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Anna-DMK, a breakaway group from the DMK, and their forebears, the DK, or Dravidar Kazhagam), nothing should surprise anyone on matters of lack of probity and restraint in public life in Tamil Nadu. Just consider these:

* Years back, Jayalalithaa, now the ADMK chief minister of Tamil Nadu, was the leader of the opposition party when DMK’S Karunanidhi was the chief minister. In the open session of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, an elected member of the legislature pulled the pallu of Jayalalithaa’s sari in the assembly hall in the heat of political “debate.”

* A few years later, when Jayalalitha defeated Karunanidhi in elections, she got even with Karunanidhi. Under her orders, police took the 70-plus-year-old Karunanidhi, now the ex-chief minister, in his underwear in the middle of the night and put him in jail.

* In early 2003, the Chennai police, under orders from the ADMK government, roughed up several reporters and the editor of The Hindu, the largest-circulated and the oldest English daily of Southern India, because the paper criticized the government for its rising intolerance in dealing with its political opponents. Ironically, the police actions ordered by the government only proved the point the paper was making.

The timing of Jayendra Saraswati’s arrest (Deepavali Day), and the way the police went about arresting him in great haste will be discussed in a hundred different ways. One wonders whether the Tamil Nadu police would have, under analogous circumstances, arrested, say, the bishop of the Chennai archdiocese on Christmas or Easter Sunday, or an imam of a big mosque in Chennai on Milad-i-Nabi or Ramzan.

But all these diversions do not, in any way, reduce the horror of the Kanchi Math and its chief getting implicated in a murder case.

Many politicians, including Jayalalitha, were, no doubt, close to Jayendra Saraswati. He was socially active and tried to change the way his religious Order functioned. This was difficult for him given the burden of the rigid orthodoxy of a thousand-year-old Math.

People now attribute Jayendra Saraswati’s troubles to his well-publicized political connections. Whether he sought politicians or the politicians sought him, he is not the only one guilty here. On this yardstick, the heads of other Saivite and Vaishnavite sects in India, not to speak of the maulvis, and imams, and the heads of a plethora of Christian denominations, are also culpable. In an environment of increasing criminalization of politics in India, the confluence of politicians, criminal elements, and religious leaders, not to speak of the sleazy Indian film industry types, gives a deadly combination for white-collar and even violent crimes.

In the coming months, the case against Jayendra Saraswati will be played out in courts by prosecutors trying to paint him with the blackest brush, while the defense attorneys try to prove his innocence. From what has come out in papers, it appears that the Tamil Nadu police would not have arrested the acharya without a strong prima facie case

But given the corruption and sloppiness of the criminal justice system in Tamil Nadu, only one thing is for sure: There will be many sharp twists and turns as the case unfolds in courts and in the media, and it will be a long while before justice is done.

Already, there are talks of moving the case outside Tamil Nadu given the sensitivity of the case. Besides, the state assembly elections are due next year. In the elections, the DMK (now allied with the Congress Party) would like to unseat their arch-enemy ADMK’s Jayalalithaa. A long, drawn-out case on Jayendra Saraswati will become the perfect political football.

Political pundits say, Jayalalithaa, who was close to Jayendra Saraswati till recently, by preemptively arresting him, has taken the wind out of Karunanidhi’s political sails for the next election. She simultaneously mollified the Dalit, Christian, and Muslim voters and helped herself among the Dravidian parties’ vote banks.

No matter how the scandal unfolds, the followers of the Kanchi Math are dismayed, even as its detractors within and outside the Hindu faith privately wallow in seeing the head of the Math hauled over burning coals.

The case will slowly wind through the court system. But in the court of public opinion, the Kanchi Math is already gravely damaged. The Kanchi Math has a tougher job setting its house in order towards regaining its credibility. This will be neither easy nor anytime soon.

The Kanchi Order has to learn to be open in the way it is run, and at the barest minimum, keep their financial dealings transparent. After all, their income (except income from investments and fixed assets) comes from the generosity of the faithful public.

If the Kanchi Math does not rise to the dire needs of the occasion and change its method of operation, it will destroy itself, or at the very least, become irrelevant. Its followers’ shock will turn into disillusionment, even betrayal. The Math has learned to use cell phones and computers. So, it sure can introduce modern management practices based on scrutiny, accountability, and transparency in governing itself, if it hopes to become credible again. A very long, difficult road lies ahead for the Math.

There is a bigger question though: Is the Kanchi Math the only culprit among Hindu and other religious organizations in matters of irregularities? •

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Hindu Religious Organizations Need Reforms

Kollengode S Venkataraman, January 2005

As a species, we are reactive organisms. Only the most exceptional among us are capable of proactively changing the status quo even in our personal lives. No wonder, even the institutions we build tend to be reactive. As we have seen time and time again, organizations change the way they operate only in response to huge problems — financial crisis or scandals, usually both. Religious institutions are no different.

Hindu religious institutions, when they become rich, seem to forget that their assets are not in their ornate buildings, jewelry in gold, diamonds, & precious stones, ostentatious floats, and huge bank accounts.

Their real asset — in fact, their only asset— is the trust/faith devotees have in them. After all, devotees donate money to them out of blind faith. Lack of transparency in money matters and organizational details is the starting point for all scandals. When they abuse this trust in matters of money and people, we need to hold them accountable.

US-based Hindu religious organizations, particularly larger temples, are not known for their transparency on money matters and other dealings. These temples’ financial statements are open only till they owe money to banks. Once they clear their debts, a pall of secrecy insidiously settles in.

This can change only if donors, big and small, demand at the very least, information on how their money is spent by the temples’ governing bodies. But this is unlikely to happen any time soon because of donor apathy. Besides, in the case of larger US temples, donors contributing over 90% of temples’ revenue are dispersed all over continent, and don’t have any voice in the affairs of the temple. Eventually, a handful few, often outside the formal organizational chart, end up having disproportionate influence on temple’s temporal affairs.

Besides, on organizational matters, US-based temples buy peace among quarrelling ethnic subgroups by yielding to regional/ethnic pressures, and self-inflicted compulsions of dogma. The governing bodies often hide behind saffron-robed India-based heads of orthodox religious institutions, and others steeped in the ritual part of the faith. These God-men have their own agenda as they try to get a toehold in the lucrative and resourceful North American Hindu organizations.

Many of these Godmen are either unfamiliar with, or do not want to recognize, the diverse composition of US temple-goers, their needs, and the compromises they continuously make. These people struggle to reconcile their traditions and faith with the mainstream ethos, while raising their children in their “newfoundland.” Members of the governing bodies of these temples, for their part, use these God-men as their armor to fend off internal opposition, real and perceived. Soon, these India-based God-men exert enormous influence on US temples’ organizational matters. Scandals in religious organizations start innocuously as policy disagreements among members that morph into irregularities in their internal affairs and billow into scandals. Then these religious organizations, like any other organization, try to buy peace through money and favors, failing which, through intimidation, blackmail, and litigation. And when these also do not work, and if one can get away with it, through violence.

In this matter, Hindu religious organizations are not alone. In the 1980s, the Vatican Bank and Banco Ambrosiano were involved in financial shenanigans involving billions of dollars. Recently, in the US, many Catholic archdioceses filed for financial bankruptcy after pedophilia cases came out against scores of parish priests. The Rev. Jim Bakker’s and the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart’s tryst with prostitutes is another story. The real problem with religious organizations today is their moral and ethical bankruptcy.

So, it is time the faithful donating money to temples started demanding, at the very least, financial transparency from temples and religious heads.

On organizational matters and finances in Hindu temples, skepticism, not implicit faith, is the need of the hour. Often, among Hindus, people’s implicit faith is erroneously founded on the fear of Godly wrath, believed, and often subliminally reinforced, by what people hear second- and third-hand on events in other people’s personal lives. This is a deplorable way to inculcate and reinforce faith.

Don’t get me wrong. Implicit faith, rituals, and catechisms are wonderful, even necessary, in the early stages of one’s life-long spiritual journey. But they are only means to a greater end, not ends in themselves.

When religious organizations are built around rituals and dogma, and are confined to them, they become like any other organization, given to venality, pride, exclusivity, hatred, aggression, and desire for control.

Mercifully, in India, throughout ages, reformers have repeatedly reminded us that the true basis for religion is freedom from ignorance, anxiety, fear, and bondage. Thiruvalluvar, the Tamil sage, over 2000 years ago wrote:

“Grasp and hold on to the One who is free from all attachments, so that you can free yourself from even that grasp.”

US-based Hindu temples would be doing themselves and everybody else a favor if they do some introspection on these. But will they? END

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by Kollengode S. Venkataraman, Written in October 2004

It is hard for me to realize that The Pittsburgh Patrika is entering its 10th year. And it is going strong. In a city which has churches over 200 years old, companies making profits for over 100 years, and with The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the country, and even with Indian temples and gurudwaras into their third decade, The Patrika’s trajectory may not seem a big deal. But consider this: The Pittsburgh Patrika has no political, social, or religious affiliation; and has not sought grants and other resources from any public or private organization, endowments, and foundations.

I say this only as a statement of fact. In a way, we wanted it like this simply because it is one sure way to have editorial independence in publishing this magazine in our spare hours. Of course, having a full-time job in Corporate America to bring food on the table also greatly helps!

And we’ve mailed the magazine all these nine years for free — at least till now — every three months. And mailed on time, whether it rained, shined, or snowed, even in Pittsburgh’s blinding blizzards.

Over the years, The Patrika’s writers have freely commented on many social, economic, political, and even religious (Hindu, Christian, and Islamic) topics of interest. Our readers have felt that some of our writings were uncomplimentary to some segments of our society, or even to Mainstream America. Some of the articles were quite frank, even blunt, and we’ve always welcomed reader feedback.

Through all this, our advertisers — large and small — continue to use The Patrika to reach their potential customers with their goods and services.

We are thankful to our advertisers for their trust.

We say this for this simple reason: In the absence of subscriptions, advertisers are the only reason we exist. Today we reach over 2000 homes, from the mere 400 people in our database when we started in 1995. With escalating costs and a growing mailing list, we are wondering if we can continue to mail the magazine for free.

At this juncture, I look back at what we said in our first issue. Here are the excerpts from the leading article under the caption, “Why This Newsletter?”:

“The Pittsburgh Patrika is an experimental newsletter… … for airing and sharing your views, ideas, and even frustrations on any matter of topical and not-so-topical interest…… People from the Indian subcontinent here have quite a diversified background, and yet, are so very alike…

We have opinions — strong opinions, we admit — on war and peace, societal issues, spousal abuse, dealing with recalcitrant children and old-fashioned parents, intercaste, interrace, interfaith marriages, (and with prenuptial agreements becoming common, we may also add no-faith marriages as well), divorce, reproductive rights, religion, spirituality and religiosity… … The Patrika’s intention is to entertain and inform people ……on all these topics”

On Indian Performing Arts: “Our rich artistic heritage is diverse, Hindustani and Karnatik music, Odissi, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, and Kathakali dance traditions…… The panorama is fascinating… Artistes from India routinely entertain us [here]. Who can remain unmoved after listening to a brilliant music concert …… or after watching a scintillating dance recital? And one may parenthetically add, who can remain without groaning after suffering through pitiful performances of artistes promoted in exuberant terms in glossy multicolor pamphlets?”

We went on to say there is a need for a platform for discussing these and many other issues:

“The objective of The Patrika is to fulfil some of these motivations. It also wants to be a reasonably well-written and tightly edited newsletter.

In short, this newsletter is for expressing and critiquing ourselves. Obviously, it will last only as long as ……it serves some of these purposes.

The Patrika looks forward to an exciting time in interacting with the Indian Diaspora. It will greet you four times a year… …”

These excerpts are from the first issue in October 1995. Taking stock of what we declared and what we delivered in the last nine years, we are pleased.

The first issue had only twelve pages, including the cover page, and we did not even staple the pages to save cost. And it had no advertisements.

In the last nine years, it was an exciting journey for The Patrika, and for me personally. Honestly, I harbored the lurking doubt that this magazine would suffer infant mortality (maybe one or two years), if not a neonatal death (after the first issue).

Personally, I never knew that I had the temperament to run a micro-business seeking advertisements, working with writers, editing/finalizing stories, learning the rudiments of accounting, designing, and maintaining a database. And simultaneously learning several software — layout, creating artwork for advertisements, learning to incorporate graphics — for putting together this magazine. And working with printers (for whom we werea a small job), and learning bulk-mailing protocols following USPS guidelines. Most humbling for me was working with small businesses to fulfil their advertisement needs.

A few of you even gave us small contributions though we did not solicit them, to encourage us. This indicated to us that we were doing something right. Thank you very much for your encouragement.

The Patrika is entering its tenth year only because of its advertisers, contributing writers, well-wishers, and readers. We look forward to more exciting times in the years ahead..END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman Written in 2003

Throughout its unrecorded and recorded history, India has given a long lineage of teachers who injected refreshing ideas whenever society got bogged down in excesses in rituals and dogma. History bears this out even though many among us axiomatically believe in the opposite.

The Upanishad teachers broke away from agamas that bound people with endless propitiatory and compensatory rituals and showed the way for people to realize their spiritual identities by intuition and effort.

Vardhamana Mahavir and Gautama the Buddha (5th and 6th century CE) rejected the authority of the Vedas and the priests who thought they “owned” the Vedas, and developed their systems based on karma and self-effort.

The early Tamil Bhakti poets in sixth century AD and later were the first among the “vernacular” poets of India who rose against the Sanskrit/Brahminical orthodoxy of their times, and made Godhead within the grasp of all across the entire caste spectrum.

Shankara (eighth century AD) rejected the emphasis on rituals and arcane dogma as seen in his Viveka Choodamani (Crest Jewel of Discernment). Though he formalized the idea of a personal deity (Saguna Brahman), he recognized that personal deities are only tangible manifestations of the Nirguna Brahman (the Divine Being beyond attributes).

Basaveshwara (11th century) in the Karnataka-Andhra area spoke against ritualism and caste stratifications that afflicted people. His idea of God, represented by the abstract image of Linga, transcends all man-made attributes and comes close to Shankara’s Nirguna Brahman.

Centuries later, Guru Nanak (15th century) spoke in a similar vein in Punjab using the idiom of his language and the social, historical, and political context and conflicts of his time.

Ramanuja (11th century) was another Free Spirit along this line as we see in the following story confirmed from many sources:

After his great-grandfather Alavandar’s demise, Ramanuja became a sannyasi (monk). To complete his studies, Ramanuja went to Tirukkottiyur Nambi, who initially refused to accept him. Ramanuja went to Nambi several times again with the same purpose. But Nambi turned him away each time. Finally, seeing Ramanuja’s persistence, Nambi relented and took him as his disciple.

At the end of the teaching, Nambi taught Ramanuja a sacred mantra and told him, “You can transmit this mantra only to the most distinguished among your disciples, and not to others.

“Swamy, what is the benefit of this mantra?’

“By mentally reciting the mantra daily, you can realize moksha (release from the bondages of life).”

“But if I reveal it to others, what will happen?”

“Misfortune would strike you.”

Next day, Ramanuja climbed to the top of a gopuram (tower) of the temple in Tirukkottiyur and gathered the villagers under the tower. Then he loudly recited the secret and sacred mantra for all to hear!

Ramanuja’s guru Nambi chided him for revealing the mantra to all.

Ramanuja replied, “Swamy, I only wanted the whole world to benefit from this mantra, so that you become their benefactor, even if I am going to face misfortunes in life.”

Ramanuja went on to live a full life, established his school based on devotion and surrender, and passed away when he was 120 years old.  Similar stories abound in Hinduism and Sikhism — for that matter, in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well. Jesus and Mohammed are rebels by the standards of their time — even by today’s standards.

But the irony is, no matter what reformers at different epochs come and tell us, eventually mankind gets mired in rituals and dogma again and again. How does this happen? We can only speculate:

People of extraordinary intellect, courage, and insight into human predicaments have appeared in all societies throughout history.

They spend a great deal of time searching for the abiding ideas that sustain mankind. These Seekers of Truth, after their long, lonely struggles (Gautama struggled for over two decades before becoming the Buddha) get deeper insights into our conditions. They articulate their ideas using the idioms and imagery of their times that resonate well with people who found institutions around their masters’ teachings.

After the time of these great masters — the Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Mohammed, Shankara, Ramanuja, Nanak, Vivekananda, or Gandhi — people who succeed them are no match for their masters’ intellect, insight, courage, or even charisma. Lacking substance, they cling to their masters’ forms in the honest belief that adhering to forms would eventually lead them to their substance. But it rarely happens.

With the passing of the organizational mantle further down the generational line, religious organizations inevitably get more disengaged from the spirit of the teachings of their original masters. One effective way to continue to influence their now-expanded numbers of followers is to build dogma and theology around the teachings of their founders; better still is to build myths around them, who, by now, have been deified already, as we see in every religion, Christianity included.

Once we reach this stage, religious organizations become unresponsive to changes in society. They become “traditional,” or “orthodox,” without realizing that their original masters were all rebels in their times. This is one of the great ironies in the history of religions.

Luckily for Man, another Free Spirit comes along, and the cycle repeats all over again. Yada yada hi dharmasya……… (Whenever injustice rises in society, I make myself appear again to restore justice and order – the Gita). END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman  Written 2003

When Bill Gates of Microsoft, the software behemoth, was in India European heads of state don’t get. Only the other Bill – Bill Clinton – in November on a four-day trip, he got media coverage that even many seemed to have received more coverage in Indian media. Look at the captions of some of the news items in the Times of India:

Titles of relevant stories:

• Bill Gates begins high-powered Indian visit
• Gates meets PM; briefs on AIDS prevention initiatives
• $100m just a drop, says Bill Gates (on the enormity of the AIDS epidemic in India and his $100 million contribution.
• India to be world’s tech hub, says Bill Gates
• Gates says personal fortune will go to philanthropy

Titles of trivial Stories:

• Bill Gates impressed with Jubilee Hall [of Hyderabad, India]
• Bill floors developers; (Software developers, and not the real estate types)
• Will Bill’s visit benefit Hyderabad?
• Gates to be accorded state guest status
• Making Bill Gates feel at home
• Catch him live, Bill’s at your Gates.

The Absurd Ones:

• Catering to Bill Gates’ tastes
• Is Bill Gates cute and sexy?
• Blame Bill Gates’ largesse on Leo, an astrologer’s interpretation of Gates’ interest in charities, and how India got Bill’s largest chunk.

Talk about ingratiating!

Bill had one-on-one meetings with the Indian president Abdul Kalam, prime minister Vajpayee, and several members of his cabinet, and he also addressed India’s power elite.

Bill got the coverage for a good reason. In the five decades after independence, India was saddled with Nehru’s controlled economy for solving India’s problems, which, in reality, drained India’s national treasury and stifled people’s enterprise.

In this background, the birth of India’s software industry without any support from anyone twenty years ago was God-sent. It was primed by young Indians from ordinary middle- and lower-middle-class families that, in the Indian social context, are not known for their entrepreneurial instincts. The software industry gave India the desperately needed stimulus that irreversibly changed the paradigms of Indian enterprise.

Till the Indian software industry came into being, Indian industry was, and mostly still is, in the vice-like grip of traditional mercantile families. In India, even today, in publicly traded Indian companies, as in politics and even in performing arts, succession in leadership continues to be endemically hereditary. Given this background, the software industry brought refreshing changes in the Indian corporate culture.

Besides, the Indian software industry was born in the wild without the government acting like a midwife. In the early days, the Indian politicians and bureaucrats had no idea of this new industry that required no huge capital, was very labor-intensive — a different kind of labor, though — and yet was very profitable. Not knowing anything about the industry, the netas (leaders) and their babus (bureaucrats), thank God, did not even know how to screw it up.

With Indian software export earnings nearing $10 billion (with India’s total exports over $50 billion, it was 20% of its exports), no wonder the Indian elite and the middle class see software as the vardaan (boon) from the Gods.

So, it is understandable Bill Gates got the attention he did during his 4-day Indian Digvijayam. That Bill is an object of derision among software developers here in the US and elsewhere was irrelevant to his adoring Indians.

But the Indian media went overboard in the way it fawned all over Bill, often behaving as if they were Bill’s PR arm.

During his stay in India, the Indian media gave wide coverage to Bill’s 100 million dollar donation to fight the scourge of AIDS in India that focuses on women taking preventive steps independent of their partners. In India, over four million people are HIV positive, and over a million people have full-blown AIDS.

I agree one should not see a gift horse in its mouth. But what got under my skin was a story in The Times of India (November 12, 02). The title of the story by Kalpana Jain blared: Gates Gives India More than Africa for AIDS. The story praised the Gates Foundation’s $100 million donation as the single largest grant given to any country so far:

“The grant for the AIDS program in Africa, which has the highest rates of infection, is $50 million, half of that announced for India. The only other grants that are over $100 million have been for global funds such as the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the UN-initiated global fund to fight AIDS, malaria, and TB. The $100 million grant comes in addition to the $41 million in grants given earlier to India.”

So, as if India got a contract against stiff global competition, Kalpana Jain says that India clinched the largest grant from the richest individual for fighting a disease. That democratically elected Indian governments belonging to parties of all shades of ideology and its all-powerful bureaucracy should have done more to fight AIDS is the unmentioned subtext.

Kalpana, let me first begin by telling you that Africa is a continent, and India is a political nation-state. Without appearing supercilious and condescending, I can say that comparing Africa and India is preposterous. Africa’s problem is horrendous as a consequence of centuries of political exploitation by Europeans and Arabs; economic exploitation by Europeans, Arabs, and people from the Indian subcontinent; and spiritual exploitation by missionaries and the mullahs. And to this add Africans’ endemic internecine warfare. Besides, unlike any country in Africa, India

• stakes its claim for membership in the UN Security Council,
• has nuclear capabilities for both military and nonmilitary applications,
• has a standing army of over one million soldiers on active duty,
• has developed unmanned military spy planes,
• sends satellites into orbit for military and meteorological applications,
• has indigenously developed nuclear-tipped ballistic and surface-to-air missiles,
• brags that Indian healthcare professionals are now the backbone of the healthcare system in the US, UK, and Canada,
• boasts that its IT professionals are software gurus worldwide, has produced Nobel laureates in the sciences, and so on.

Yet India is incapable of addressing the basic pani-roti-langoti-dawa (water-food-basic healthcare) issues of her citizens.

While India is justifiably proud of its hoary past going back over five millennia, in the fifty years after independence, it did not fulfil its obligations to all its citizens, namely, providing them with skills and enabling them to live with dignity.

We can even make a case that all of India’s social and economic problems, including the explosion of AIDS, stem from the neglect of the basic duties and obligations of the state.

So, Kalpana Jain, it is a matter of great shame that India received more from Gates for fighting AIDS than what the entire continent of Africa got from Bill Gates for AIDS.

End Note: Gates, father of three sons, told this to his elite Indian audience about his foundation (New York Times, Nov. 11, 02): “I realialized about 10 years ago that my wealth [estimated at over 40 billion  even after the collapse of Wall Street] has to go back to society. The fortune, the size of which is hard to imagine, is best not passed on to one’s children. It is not constructive for them.”

Will the Indian industrial tycoons and political heavy weights falling head over heels to have a darshan of Gates try to put this idea into practice? Don’t bet on that. The Indian power elite routinely fall at the feet of sannyasis, swamis, pirs and lamas — Mother Teresa is the latest addition here — seeking their blessings. After politely listening what these swamis say on how they should conduct their temporal affairs, this power elite nonchalantly walks away going about its business as usual. END

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By Kollengode S Venkataraman (October 30, 2001)

Living our busy lives, we want to reduce complex issues to a manageable size. The media condenses this for us into blurbs, 15-or 30-second news segments, or neat 12″x3″ bumper stickers, whether it is issues relating to abortion, fetal tissues, nuclear umbrella, WTO, or terrorism. That we set aside countless hours to watch the gladiatorial sports of our choice and temple fights is beside the point.

We also live in a society built on individual responsibility; so, we want people to be accountable. No matter how complex the issues are, we pillory people for failures or deify them for successes, often ignoring other factors/players contributing to the unfolding of events.

Take sports talk shows. Listeners and the hosts alike berate individual players for the failures of their teams, or shower confetti on them for successes. I pity Michael Jordan’s basketball teammates. In spite of their high-caliber talents, they all go unnoticed.

The corporate world is no different. Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca was, and GE’s John Welch is, deified as demigods. The other Michael Jordan of Westinghouse, under whose regime the mighty Westinghouse Corporation was reduced to a tombstone along the parkway, is vilified. How many people know that a series of missteps by Jordan’s predecessors led to the company’s slow, but inevitable death.

In politics too, the story is the same. President Reagan was glorified for destroying the Soviet “Evil Empire.” But the USSR had already deteriorated from within because of the Marxist theology that unsuccessfully tried to refashion society defying human psychology. As they say in India, as the crow perched on the tree, the overripe fruits just fell. The crow had nothing to do with the fruits’ ripening.

Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gadhafi were demonized by the media as incarnations of evil. Eliminate them, and we’ll have peace. The latest in this list is Osama bin Laden.

But Osama and the Taliban are partly America’s creation. So much in context are drowned in public discourse. These voices try to say Osama is only a figurehead for a network of people maniacally committed to their irrational beliefs. One has to be patient to understand the issues these voice raise. Bumper stickers and glitzy graphics-laden war stories oversimplify — even trivialize — the issues.  

To counter terrorism, the Bush administration has invoked two extraordinary egal powers: The first one allows the Justice Department to tape, under clearly defined conditions, conversations between attorneys and their clients accused in certain criminal cases. The parties would be informed that their conversation would be taped, and the information thus gathered cannot be used against the accused (but can be used in prosecuting others). The second seeks powers to institute military tribunals to prosecute terrorists as in wars. These have ignited a heated debate among lawyers, even among traditional conservatives.

US seeking these extraordinary powers has ominous forebodings for those risking their lives fighting for democracy in repressive regimes that are now allied with US against terrorism.

During the Cold War, the US was hell-bent on defeating Communists all over the place. Using the litmus test of anticommunism, the US forged political alliances and rewarded certain governments with economic goodies and military cover.

Many despotic regimes used their anticommunist bogey to get L support during the Cold War. Examples: The regimes of South Korea, South Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina… …  These countries’ despots never hesitated to use their anticommunist planks and the accompanying US support to quell all legitimate internal dissent. The rulers brutalized their citizenry for decades and continue to do so.

Now, in the post-9-11 world, the US has declared a global war on terrorism that may well go into the next decade. In the altered new world order, President Bush has asked countries to decide “whether you’re with us, or with the terrorists.” In this eerie this-or-that-but-nothing-in-between world reminiscent of the Cold War, totalitarian countries-Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Cold War enemies China, and Russia (!) for example-have joined the US’s anti-terrorism coalition.

These repressive nations can, and will, use their antiterrorism bogey freely to scuttle legitimate internal dissent. These societies are feudal to begin with, and the absence of a long tradition of civil liberties in these countries makes it even easier for their rulers. Now, they would also say, “Look, even the US is doing this.” They would foist “terrorist” labels on their domestic dissenters to summarily execute them, the same way repressive Cold War allies dealt with dissenters by foisting “Communist” labels on them.

If this happens, as is likely, it would be deja vu all over again. END

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