Panchaamritam 252

                            Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Chennai

PANCHAAMRITAM 252

Pancha is five in Samskritam, Amritam is nectar

Poornima / Kali Yugaabda 5114 / Nandana thai 13 (January 26, 2013)

ONE The internet is a little more than two decades old, and it has been fashioned largely in the United States. So do the startlingly old Hinduism and the exceedingly young make for strange bedfellows? Or might one well argue the extreme opposite, namely that the internet and Hinduism exist in a marriage that appears to have been made in heaven?   As is commonly known, Hinduism is a highly decentralized faith. Unlike Muslims and Christians, Hindus do not uniformly adhere to the precepts of a single book. Hinduism has neither a historical founder nor a Mecca; and its Shankaracharyas represent competing schools of authority. Only Hinduism can match the internet's playfulness: the religion's proverbial "33 crore " gods and goddesses, a testimony to the intrinsically decentered and polyphonic nature of the faith, find correspondence in the world wide web's billion points of origin, intersection, and dispersal. Furthermore, the aspiration to create linkages across Hindu groups worldwide and create something of global Hindu consciousness, has a fundamental relationship to India's ascendancy as an 'emerging economy'  Hindus have been particularly conscientious in mobilizing members of the perceived Hindu community through the internet. From a report by Shri Vinay Lal in THE TIMES OF INDIA 20th January, 2013. TWO The onset of margazhi sees the elderly of Chennai step out of their homes, sabha-hopping and soaking in the music and dance. In fact, a few concerts / performances in the city are attended almost exclusively by senior citizens. Yet, when Sanjay Dattatri, who runs the Old Is Gold store  in Adyar,  visited sabhas, he found that very few of them were wheelchair-friendly. Sanjay wrote to over 15 Sabhas  offering free wheelchair service to the elderly.  “This is the only time of the year when senior citizens have something to look forward to culturally, and it is ironic that there are so little facilities geared to making this comfortable for them,” says Sanjay. He is also in talks with wheelchair companies about expanding this idea to other areas. (For details, call 96770-87612); Sanjay’s e-portal:  www.oldisgoldstore.com . Based on a report by Smt Lakshmi Krupa  in THE HINDU, December 15, 2012. (Idea: Shri Raghuram) THREE Former Supreme Court Justice Honorable K T Thomas has to say about RSS and the government’s smearing campaign to tarnish its image. He said that he admired the discipline exhibited by RSS whose mission is to protect the national security. He observed that during Emergency Period (1975-77), RSS was “the only nonpolitical organization which worked fearlessly in subterranean sector … the result, that this country, Bharath, could be liberated from the pangs of a dictatorship. We owe very much to this organization for sacrificing many lives and many of the pleasures of life for the purpose of regaining what our leaders have gained this country, mainly the fundamental rights of this country.”  He said “I find many instances of official activities governmental and political where security is given less prominence than vote bank, I am really disturbed. That is a matter on which the country should stand unanimously and uniformly with strident voice declare that we will not tolerate.”  He continued by saying that, “I am a great admirer of this organization. The discipline exhibited everywhere and even today the manner in which the flowers are offered gave me the real impression that the discipline is given the real impetus to your working and performances. Discipline is needed for a nation. Discipline is a fundamental thing for the growth of the nation. Whichever nation has progressed, you will see that where discipline has been inculcated in the citizens. In that matter, RSS is a model to me also.” FOUR For more than six decades Raja Ram Tiwari has been helping those who were lost in the Mela crowd find their families and rejoin them. , Tiwari started this voluntary service at the 1946 Magh mela, which happens at Sangam every year between the 12-yearly Kumbhs and Ardh-Kumbhs. The 86-year-old man, was  trained as an advocate. Umesh Chand Tiwari, the 38-year-old shopkeeper from Allahabad  son of Tiwari, now continues the service. The records Tiwari has maintained since show he helped some 870 men and women find their near and dear ones in 1946. Then a few friends joined him from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and the bureau got organised into the Bharat Seva Dal. It’s one essential service at the fair that the government has left to the care of Tiwari’s team of volunteers. They get just the space, the tents, electricity and water from the administration. The rest of the money is cobbled up from well-wishers. Tiwari helped find a illiterate dumb woman find her family by observing her act of pointing to a green tree. Green is Hari in Hindi. Tiwari got the clue and announced the name over public address system several times. That brought the husband to the Lost and Found tent of Tiwari. Based on a report  in THE HINDU, January 19, 2013. (Idea: Shri N. Satagopan) FIVE The great sarod master Khan Saheb Allauddin Khan (1862-1972) WAS BORNIN EAST BENGAL (now Bangala Desh). He was associated with Amritlal Dutta, a close relative of Swami Vivekananda. He lived in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh and was engaged in Sangeet saadhana foer years. Even at an advanced age, he used to walk everyday  all the way from his house ‘Madhina Bhavan’ to mother Shri Saradhamba temple atop a hill and immerse in sangeet sadhana there. “Do you know,  Saradamba nurtured me with the milk of Her divine grace just as a cat would do to her kitten?” the Khan, known as Baba, said once to Smt Karunamayi, a student of one of his disciples.. He gave his daughter the name Annapoorna, who later married the renowned Sitar artiste Pandit Ravi Shankar.  (The year 2012 was the 150th birthday year of Allauddin Khan). Based on an article by Smt Prema Nandakumar in DINAMANI, December 11, 1998.