Human Par Excellence: A B Vajpayee(1924-2018)

HUMAN PAR EXCELLENCE: ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE (1924 - 2018).


My memory goes back to 2003 when I had shared a platform with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It was the year in which Bangalore University in collaboration with ISRO had organized Indian Science Congress in the BU Campus. As is custom, the Prime Minister of India inaugurates the Congress every year. I as BU VC  along with the PM, Governor T N Chaturvedi, the CM Sri S M Krishna, Vasundararaje Scindia, then Central Minister of Science and Technology, ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan  and  host of other dignitaries were on the dais. In my welcome speech I recited a few lines from Vajpayee's poetry, especially the one I have liked most: " Lord, do not take me so high that I cannot hug my people on the ground".

He was a tallest human being, a poet, a great parliamentarian, an extraordinary orator, and a debater with dignity hurting none, not even the opponents. His achievement as Prime Minister is too well known: Nuclear tests, The Lahore summit, Kargil War, National Highway Project, Foreign Policy, Economic Reforms, and so on, and faced difficult situation with calmness and dignity such as India Airlines hijack, attack on Parliament, Gujarat Violence. He was a real jewel of India-Bharata Ratna.

May he attain sadgati.

Man who saw God and got transformed into a new human being.

Om Swami (2014): If Truth Be Told, a monk's memoir. Harper Collins. Pp.253. Rs.499.

ಕನ್ನಡ ಅನುವಾದ: ಬಿ ಸ್ ಜಯಪ್ರಕಾಶ ನಾರಾಯಣ (೨೦೧೬): ಸಾಫ್ಟವೇರ್ ನಿಂದ ಸಾಕ್ಷಾತ್ಕಾರದ ಕಡೆಗೆ, ಸನ್ಯಾಸಿಯೊಬ್ಬನ ಆತ್ಮವೃತ್ತಾಂತ. ವಂಶಿ ಪಬ್ಲಿಕೇಷನ್ಸ್. ಪು. ೨೮೫. ರೂ. ೨೫೦.


Of late I have been seeing here and there , in the magazines, writings of one Om Swami on the topics of spirituality, and our ancient wisdom. I was wholly impressed by his clarity, sincerity and thoroughness. I was wondering who is this Swamy suddenly appearing out of the blue as it were. Last week I had a visitor at home who asked me to suggest him a book that impressed me most. Having replied I asked him the same question. He suggested the above book, an autobiography of a monk. I got the book online and started reading and finished it almost at a stretch in spite of my age and ailments, such is the power of his writing, of his honesty.

 It is a story of a man(Amit Sharma) from Haryana who at his eighteenth year heads to Australia, gets his bachelor degree in Business and an MBA  from Sydney and with his knowledge of computer programming sets up business in software in Australia and later in Canada, UK, US and India , becomes a multimillionaire at the age of 26, and by the age of 30, having provided for his parents and sibling comfort through out their life , gifts all his wealth to a third person, heads to Himalayas to see God that was his goal right from his early childhood. Having studied all the scriptures already, finds gurus in the Himalaya, does vigorous sadhana with rigorous discipline in the caves, often in most  excruciating circumstances. In much less than 10 years God appears in front of him, hugs him and disappears. He was, to use a cliche, never the same man again. The scintillating experience of merging with infinity, of being one with all beings, living and nonliving. It was an indescribable 'experience', impossible to put it in words, as, an Upanishad says, no word and mind can reach it, much less comprehend and even approximate It. Yet, the author was able to script It in few words that is spell binding.

Some quotes from the end pages: " ..... to be enlightened means to live in the light of love, compassion and truthfulness." "Your knowledge of rituals and the scriptures, the time you spend in place of worship, the money you raise for religious causes - such things, I am sorry to tell you, have absolutely no connection with God unless the heart is open to the divine."  "...... objective of religious acts is to purify yourself and cultivate compassion and gratitude." : "We need both spirituality and science." ".. truth is not a one-size-fits all. It's a personal matter, a private affair. Einstein found it in a laboratory. Buddha found it under a tree. Edison found it in a light bulb, ....."  "A sense of fulfillment comes from walking your own path. For some it may be meditation, for others it may be music, dancing, painting, writing or reading. Find what makes you happy and pursue it." " I've given you my truth. Go, discover yours."

He lives in his ashram at the foothills of Himalayas. His blog, omswami.com, where he writes every week, gets more than a million views annually, says the blurb. The latest I saw was more of a dialogue, question and answers, than a discourse.  It was fresh and profound. He is all over the globe, sharing his experience and conducting meditation camps.

Kashinath is no more

ನಟ, ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕ, ನಿರ್ಮಾಪಕ, ಸಂಗೀತ ನಿರ್ದೇಶಕ ಕಾಶೀನಾಥ ನಿಧನ.
ಒಂದು ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಮನೋ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ ಮತ್ತು ಸಿನಿಮಾರಂಗದ ಕಾಶೀನಾಥರ ಬೇಟಿ ನನ್ನ ಮಿತ್ರ ವೈಎನ್ಕೆ ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಆಯಿತು. ಅವರ ಒಂದು ಸಿನೆಮ - 'ಅನುಭವ' ಇರಬೇಕು - ಸೆನ್ಸಾರ್ ಬೋರ್ಡ್ ಅಶ್ಲೀಲ ಎಂದು ತಿರಸ್ಕರಿಸಿತ್ತು. ಪರಿಣಿತರ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಪಡೆದು ಪುನಃ ಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಲು ಕೇಳಬೇಕೆಂದು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸಿ ಕಾಶೀನಾಥರು ಒಬ್ಬ Expert ಗಾಗಿ ವೈಎನ್ಕೆ ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ ನನ್ನ ಹೆಸರು ಸೂಚಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ನಮಗೆ ಸಿನೆಮ ತೋರಿಸಿದರು. ನಾನು ಸುಧೀರ್ಘವಾದ ವಿವರಣೆ-ವಿಶ್ಲೇಷಣೆಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಬರೆದು ಇದು ಅಶ್ಲೀಲ ಅಲ್ಲವೇ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಬದಲಾಗಿ ಇದು ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಅನುಭವದ ನವಿರಾದ ಹಾಗೂ ಹಾಸ್ಯಲೇಪಿತ ನಿರೂಪಣೆ, ನೋಡಲು ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಸೂಕ್ತ ಸಿನೆಮ ಎಂದು ಬರೆದ ನೆನಪು. ಸೆನ್ಸಾರ್ ಮಂಡಳಿ ನನ್ನ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡು ಬಿಡುಗಡೆಗೆ ಅನುಮತಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿತು. ಸಿನಿಮಾದ ಶೀರ್ಷಿಕೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನನಗೆ 'ಕೃತಜ್ಞತೆ' ಯನ್ನ ಅರ್ಪಿಸಿದ್ದರಂತೆ, ನಾನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಟಾಕೀಸ್ಗೆ ಹೋಗಿ ಆ ಸಿನೆಮ ನೋಡಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ.

ಅವರ ಸಹೃದಯತೆ, ನೇರ ನುಡಿ-ನಡೆ, ವಿನಯ ತುಂಬಾ ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಅವರ ನಿಧನದ ಸುದ್ದಿ ನನ್ನ ಅವರ ಒಂದು ಒಡನಾಟದ ನೆನಪು ತಂದಿತು ಕಂಬನಿಗಳೊಡನೆ. ಅವರ ಕುಟುಂಬಕ್ಕೆ ನಷ್ಟವನ್ನು ಭರಿಸುವ ಶಕ್ತಿ ದೊರಕಲಿ. ಅವರಿಗೆ ಸದ್ಗತಿ ಸಿಗಲಿ.