Protest fast not condoned by AM + 3 more

Baba

Protest fast not condoned by AM

Namaskar, 

In India, news comes regularly of how one or another social reformist is undertaking a protest fast. This is ongoing because of the dogma of Gandhism etc - it is a psychic disease in India. The defective Gandhian way of thinking is that by fasting one will melt the hearts of those exploiters. But Baba mocks this idea by branding it as utopian. Those exploiters and wrongdoers will not be sentimentally swayed by seeing people perform protest fasts. Rather those wrongdoers will be pleased that their opponents are destroying themselves by fasting for days on end.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/

How to fight injustice & exploitation

Baba guides us to protest and fight social injustices by adhering to the principles of Prout. Then we confront the problem directly through mass education, economic policies and programs, social awareness and all kinds of ways outlined throughout His vast body of Proutistic teachings. So we are to wage a ceaseless war against exploitation by abiding by Proutistic principles - not succumbing to the detrimental Gandhian approach of fasting and ruining the body.

That is why Baba guides us to stand up and fight against injustices - not starve oneself and die. And that fight against injustice should be carried out in all kinds of ways - intellectually, morally, physically, socially, collectively etc - along all kinds of avenues. It is a dynamic approach that will buckle the knees of those very exploiters.

Jail: only circumstance for protest fasting

There is one and only one condition when one should fast against injustice. And that is when one has been placed under arrest and put in jail. And if while in jail one’s very life is threatened due to food poisoning - and all the jail authorities are corrupt etc, then in that unusual circumstance one’s only option may be to perform a protest fast. Outside of this circumstance, one should never resort to fasting to oppose injustices.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/

1. Jail is very different - one has limited means to protest when in solitary confinement - so fasting in that circumstance is different. If you are in a jail cell then you cannot communicate with others or organise, so there are limited means of what one can do.

2. When outside one should engage in mass awakening - that is the Proutistic method. When in solitary confinement in jail then one cannot do mass awakening.

3. This issue came up many times, when Baba was in jail. The margiis outside wanted to fast in protest, but Baba banned this practice.

So nowadays, when some in AMPS have taken to fasting to promote unity etc, while their aim is noble, they should be properly educated about Baba’s guidelines. And instead of doing a protest fast, they should arm themselves with the teachings of Prout. Then surely they will get success.

Bring revolution through Proutistic ideals

4. Some Wts fasted to pressurise margiis to engage in work and donate money for building construction and bringing maximum new people to dharmacakra. Then Baba scolded Wts and ordered them to stop their fast. Baba told them that is not the way - better to convince and inspire, but not ruin one’s own body by fasting.

5. If Baba would have allowed this then fasting would have been going on all the time for one or another issue. Baba is against such type of penance - this body is of Parama Purusa and one should not destroy it. Rather Baba just instructed us to fast 2 or 4 times per month as per our normal health rules.

6. In Prout’s teachings on revolution, Baba has given various steps to bring revolution but fasting is not one of those steps.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/

7. Protesters and sympathizers should start a Prout study circle for their inspiration and understanding.

Conclusion

Fasting as a means of protest is not accepted in Ananda Marga. In the last 40 years in AMPS there has not been any fasting on that front. Otherwise - if that were our approach - then around the world always margiis would be doing this or that protest fast. But this is not our way. In Ananda Marga, we do not accept this dogmatic Gandhian method. To fight injustice and exploitation, we are to follow the ideals outlined in Prout. 

Prout philosophy guides us, “Remember – you have to serve humanity. You have to dedicate yourself to the cause of humanity as a whole. Your life is valuable; your time is all the more valuable. You should not waste a single moment. The task is glorious. The task is novel. Lead the life of a warrior and constantly fight against evils. You will be victorious. So march ahead!” (1)

In Him,
Dhyanesh

~ In-depth study ~

Baba forbids protest fasting

Years ago in the late 1970’s, one DS Dada was posted in Muzaffarpur and during that time there were 15 family acaryas in Muzaffarpur as well. And those family acaryas were constantly bickering and quarreling on all sorts of points. They were disunited and not talking to one another. To unite them, the local DS started a protest fast. News of this reached Baba and right away He sent word that DS Muzaffarpur must give up his fast immediately as he was just abusing and misusing his body by this tactic. By this everyone understood that in our Ananda Marga protest fasts are not appreciated. They are forbidden by Baba.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/

The approach of trying to achieve unity by any type of fasting protest is not condoned by Baba. Excess fasting - i.e. more than what is allotted in Sixteen Points - is harmful to the body. And when the body becomes compromised and broken, then one cannot perform the work that is needed. So doing an extended fast for unity - or fasting for any social cause - is a misguided approach.

The dogma of Gandhism is prevalent in India whereby they try to solve all sorts of social problems by fasting protests. But this is not appreciated by our Ananda Marga. And this is well demonstrated by this above story.

Utopian Gandhian approaches never work 

  Ananda Marga philosophy states, “Some people are of the opinion that only humanistic appeals and no other approach can affect a change of heart. Although the principles of such people may be high, in reality the soil of the earth is extremely hard. Their appeals to do good cannot easily gain support.”
   “What are humanistic appeals, or satyágraha? They are simply a special means of using violence to create circumstantial pressure. We can, in fact, call them the intellectual’s method of using violence. They are a way to make people eager to move along the path of human welfare without resorting to actual violence, relying on legal enforcement, or becoming angry and adopting the path of bloodshed. Or, in simpler language, they are a way to compel people to move.”
   “What is circumstantial pressure? Does it not aim to vibrate the individual or collective mind with the wave of collective welfare through the application of force? In fact, this approach is an attempt to touch the aspect of the human mind which is very tender and capable of responding to humanistic appeals. Thus, those who have finer sensibilities and rational judgement readily respond to humanistic appeals, or satyágraha.”
  “This sort of appeal does not hold much value for those with crude minds. To vibrate the minds of such people it is, and will forever remain, necessary to influence their minds by giving them a rude shock. Otherwise one will have to wait indefinitely for the sensitive violin strings of some secret recess in their hard minds to be similarly vibrated by high-minded appeals to do good. And meanwhile the existence of the helpless, exploited people, on whose behalf these appeals are being made, will have been reduced to dust.”
   “That is why no matter how much importance was given to the benevolence of the human mind by the Gandhian and Bhudan movements, or how saintly their propounders may have been, selfish and mean-minded people will never accept their principles. The bleeding sores on the feet of marching protesters will never be able to soften the minds of ruthless exploiters. Gandhism may be an excellent utopian model, but in the harsh reality of the world it is absurd and self-righteous.” (2)

Fasting for health & spirituality

Ananda Marga Caryacarya says, "On and around the times of new and full moon, one may observe that the gaseous and aqueous factors in the body rise up into the head and chest, creating an uncomfortable feeling. Therefore, if a person does not take food at these times, these factors will be drawn down from the higher portions of the body to the lower portions, thereby alleviating the uncomfortable feeling." (3)

Ananda Marga ideology guides us, "You should not depend on food too much. This is why I have prescribed fasting on four days a month for some people and two days a month for others, and personally I have proved by fasting for five years and ... months at a stretch that if people try, they can remain without food. If one's dependence on food decreases, one will gain more freedom in a particular aspect of life." (4)

Ananda Marga ideology states, “So upavása is a necessity in the eleventh moon, púrńimá (that is, full moon), and the new moon. In Ánanda Márga, I didn’t prescribe these four days’ upavása for grhiis—that is, non-wholetimers, non-avadhútas; they are to fast only two days, two eleventh moons. And for workers, avadhútas, they are to fast how many days? Four days. Because they will have to engage themselves more in higher works, in the intellectual and spiritual [realms]. That’s why they should fast four times in a month—and others twice. But, if others so desire, they may fast four times—I won’t say anything—but it is not compulsory.” (3)

References
1. Prout in a Nutshell - 18, Your Mission
2. Human Society - 1, Social Justice
3. Caryacarya - 3, Procedure for Fasting
4. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 7, In Kali Yuga, Strength Lies in an Organized Body
5. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 48 (Pure), Why Upavása - 2

*        *        *

The below section is an entirely different topic, unrelated to the above material.
It stands on its own merit as a point of interest and ideological awareness.

*        *        *

== Section 2: Important Teaching ==

Way to be superman

Ananda Marga ideology says, "Spiritual thirst is the speciality, or rather the special characteristic of human beings. And there lies the difference between man and the other animals. Where there is no spiritual thirst in a man, physically he may be like a man, but actually, psychologically, he is not a man. So this special determination of human beings should always be encouraged so that a man may develop from an ordinary human being to a superman." (1)

Reference
1. Ananda Vacanamrtam -12, The Four Kinds of Approach

== Section: Important Teaching ==

Mental balance & extravaganza

  Ananda Marga philosophy says, "Now everywhere, in cent per cent of the cases, there is wastage of human psychic potentiality. The psychic potentialities of human beings are immense, but people do not utilize them because most of their valuable time is wasted in undesirable thoughts, in psychic extravaganza...wasted in petty or useless activities. How much time do people really get to devote to worthwhile tasks?"
  "This psychic extravaganza should be checked either by physical approach, or psychic approach, or by spirituo-psychic approach..."
  "I have already said that the scope of rationality and rationalization should be increased more and more, and for this, unnecessary waves should be removed from the plane of physicality. From the psychic sphere also, unnecessary waves are to be removed. This will remove many burdens from the mind. 'I must not bother about petty things, because that will waste my time' - people should remember this. This removal or rather withdrawal of unnecessary and undesirable thoughts emanated from the mind will help you in rationalizing the major portion of your mental faculty, so this must also be practised." (1)

Verily, in Baba’s above guideline He he clearly sets forth some key concepts:
(a) One should think of Parama Purusa all the time - i.e. all the 24hrs;
(b) When engaged in any type of mundane work - personal, family, social etc - then one must think and ideate that it is His work.

When a person adheres to these aforementioned principles then that is proper use of one’s psychic potentiality; failure to follow these principles results in misuse of one’s psychic potentiality, i.e. extravaganza.

Next Baba guides how to treat one who suffers from this type of improper thinking or extravaganza:
(a) Firstly, one should be removed - or remove oneself - from that physical environment;
(b) Next, such negative thinking must be removed from one’s own mind;
(c) Then one must goad the mind to Parama Purusa.

In result, one will have proper sadhana and be free from worry.

References
1. Yoga Psychology, The Cult of Spirituality – the Cult of Pinnacled Order

== Section: Prabhat Samgiita ==

बाबा! आज तुम मेरे घर आये, तुम्हें शत शत प्रणाम

प्रभात संगीत 3233 एसेछो आमार घरे, कृपारो पसरा हाते कोरे...

भावार्थ

हेे परम पुरुष बाबा! तुम अपनी करुणा के साथ मेरे घर, कृपा की टोकरी भर लाये। तुम्हारा आगमन मेरे मेरी पुकार से नहीं हुआ, वह तो तुम्हारेे अनन्त प्रेम के कारण ही हुआ है। हे  मेरे प्रभु ! तुमने मेरे घर आने का अपार कष्ट किया है। तुम बहुत दयालु हो। मेरी अपनी कोई योग्यता नहीं है, न ही मैं अच्छे कार्य करता हॅूं और न ही साधना ही ठीक ढंग से करता हॅूं। फिर भी गहरी आशा लिये मैं अपने हृदय से तुमको याद करता रहता हूूं,  बाबा! आज तुम मेरे घर आये, तुम्हें शत शत प्रणाम। ।

बाबा! विशाल आकाश  और तारे तुम्हारे पवित्र नाम का गायन कर रहे हैं, और कह रहे हैं कि तुम ही प्रेम के सागर, परम  रक्षक हो, और तुम सबको मदद करते हो। बाबा! तुम हर जगह, हर समय सब पर अहैतुकी कृपा करते हो। ए परम सत्ता! तुम ही सम्पूर्ण विश्व  पर नियंत्रण करते हो। नीले आकाश  में धूमकेतु और नीहारिकाएं तुम्हारी सेवा करने के लिये, तुमको प्रसन्न करने के लिये, तुम्हारे लिये ही अपनी चमक विखेरते हैं---।  बाबा! आज तुम मेरे घर आये, तुम्हें शत शत प्रणाम।

बाबा! मैंने जो भी जीवन में पाया हैे वह तुम्हारी ही कृपा है। मेरे पास मेरी कोई योग्यता ही नहीं है , तुमने ही कृपा कर अपनी अपार करुणा से मेरा पूरा अस्तित्व ही अपने अनन्त  प्रेम से भर दिया है। दुर्भाग्य से मैं तुम्हे  कुछ नहीं दे पाया। हे बाबा! आज मैंने तुम्हारे चरण कमलों में, अपने पूरे अस्तित्व के साथ, ताजे फूलों का गुच्छा अर्पित किया है। बाबा! आज तुम मेरे घर आये! मैं अपने आप को तुम्हारे प्रति समर्पित करता हॅूं।

== Section: Important Teaching ==

All religions: full of rampant hypocrisy

Ananda Marga ideology states, “Átmánátman viveka will teach you that the Singular Eternal Entity in the form of Consciousness should be your only object of ideation. You will see the colours of religion fade before your eyes as the pure white effulgence of dharma shines with ever-increasing brilliance.”

“All the “isms” prevalent in today’s world can easily be included in the category of religions. All the defects of religions exist in the “isms” too. None of the political, social or economic “isms” are free from superstition none are straightforward; all are full of rampant hypocrisy. In all “isms”, doctrines and religions, the scriptural authority is supreme. There is no scope for the functioning of the five types of conscience, no place for service, love or devotion. With the help of falsehood and immorality, these “isms,” doctrines and religions slander and make accusations against each other. They make attractive promises to the people while hiding their own internal sins. In fact, false piety is not the path of dharma, leading to welfare, but the opposite of dharma, the negation of welfare. They can be likened to asses wearing lion skins: take away the lion skins and their their true form will be revealed. They have no other purpose than to grab votes and usurp power. The mentality to grab the votes first and then serve the people is not the true spirit of selfless social service; rather, it is the mentality of power craving materialists.”

“You will have to advance with the true spirit of genuine social service, because the very characteristic of dharma is to promote the cause of welfare. Dharma and welfare are inseparable.” (1)

Reference
1. Ananda Marga Ideology and Way of Life - part 7, p.533

== Section 3: Links ==

Postings to Read

How to handle emotional people

• https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2020/07/how-to-manage-emotional-people.html

Right surrender: take action

• https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2017/11/pseudo-surrender-and-god-will-do-2-more.html

Sadhana all lessons needed

• https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2013/06/why-to-control-lower-cakras-first.html

Wrong moon calculation could ruin fasting

• https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2025/11/wrong-moon-calculation-could-ruin.html

Story: describing His beauty & charm

• https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2014/04/as-pure-as-ganges-baba-story.html

“Bill of rights, World Government” + 3 more

Baba

This email contains four sections:
1. PS #3658: Today, that Hari of the divine world has taken advent
2. End Quote: “Bill of rights, World Government”
3. Our duty is to help those who have lagged behind - Ananda Vanii
4. Links

“Bill of rights, World Government”

“The formation of a World Government will require a world constitution. A charter of principles or bill of rights should be included in such a constitution and encompass at least the following four areas. First, complete security should be guaranteed to all the plants and animals on the planet. Secondly, each country must guarantee purchasing power to all its citizens. Thirdly, the constitution should guarantee four fundamental rights – spiritual practice or Dharma; cultural legacy; education; and indigenous linguistic expression. Fourthly, if the practice of any of these rights conflicts with cardinal human values then that practice should be immediately curtailed. That is, cardinal human values must take precedence over all other rights. All the constitutions of the world suffer from numerous defects. The above points may be adopted by the framers of different constitutions to overcome these defects. (1)

Reference
1. PNS-12, Requirements of an Ideal Constitution

== Section 2 ==

Today, that Hari of the divine world has taken advent on this earth
Everyone is His kith and kin; all are His own

“Bánsharii bájiye jáy sahás nayane cáy, goloker hari áji gokule liilá racáy..." (P.S. #3658)

Purport:

Today, the Hari of the divine world has manifested His liila in the land of devotees. With His sweet grace He is moving all around playing His divine flute, (omnkara sound) - showering His charming smile and gracious eyes upon all. With reddish lips, He is beckoning each and everyone. He is saying: “Come close, come to Me - quickly, as soon as possible, come running, so we can play together.” Today that Hari of the divine world is showering bliss on everyone. We are so graced.   

Everyone is His kith and kin; all are His own; nobody is alien. No one is far; everyone is close. All are His most intimate ones. By His grace every bhakta gets Him in their thinking, japa, and meditation. Every bhakta resides in His mind; everyone has a place in His heart. By His causeless grace, now the current of the yamuná river of devotion is very high and strong. His divine rasa is overflowing & splashing in ecstasy. With His fathomless grace, the garland of waves is swaying to and fro. All are ensconced in His bliss.
 
For crushing the dus't'a (demonic people), for saving & nurturing the virtuous & dharmic people, and for destroying the nefarious and deadly demons, He takes advent again and again on this earth. With the rumble, twang, and beating of His kettle drum, He challenges demons. He comes as Mahasambhuti. There is no one else in this universe who has such infinite and countless qualities like He. That Hari of the divine world is the abode of all heavenly attributions. Today, that Hari of the divine world has taken advent on this earth. He is with us.
 
The Lord of the universe has come today with gracious splendour, and He is showering His divine liila upon all devotees. He is most loving and ever-gracious. That divine Hari is calling, “Come one, come all....”


Notes for Prabhat Samgiita #3658:

Note 1: What is liila

“There is a subtle difference between liilá and kriid́a. When the cause of an effect is easily discernible it is called kriid́a, but when the cause is unknown and only the effect is easily discernible it is called liilá. This creation is the liilá of Parama Puruśa because human beings do not know why He has created it. With the help of their intellect they are eager to know the cause of creation, but will they ever be successful in this quest? They want to solve the riddle of creation, but they have no notion about the cause. So whatever Parama Puruśa does is all His liilá, It cannot be called His kriid́á. I have already said that when one discovers the relation between the cause and effect it is called kriid́á, but when one can see only the effect and not the cause, it is called liilá. For human beings having only a small unit mind the creation is the liilá of Parama Puruśa, but to Him it is His kriid́á.” (1)

Note 2: Who is Hari

“In Sanskrit, one name of Parama Puruśa is Hari. Hari means “who steals”, “who takes away all your sin without your knowledge”. In Sanskrit, the root verb hr means “to steal”. Now the relationship between the Lord and His devotee is very sweet, and extremely, purely, personal. Parama Puruśa loves His devotee, and the devotee also loves His Lord. Now the accumulated mountain of sin attached to the devotee is unbearable for the Lord. He wants to remove that mountain of sin from His devotees. He may say: “Oh, devotee, give your sins to Me.” The devotee will say: “No, Lord, I am ready to give You everything, I am ready to give You my soul, my spirit, everything, but how can I give my sins to You? I cannot.” But Parama Puruśa loves His devotee, so without the knowledge of the devotee, He takes away his sin. Now to take something from a man without his knowledge is stealing. So Parama Puruśa steals – that is, He takes away sin from His devotee. And that’s why He is called Hari.” (2)

Note 3: It does not mean that someone is actually playing a flute
with all the humans and cows dancing around him

“There is another expression of bhakti which occurs when devotees realize that all beings are created from ánanda, exist in ánanda and return to ánanda. This realization causes a radical change in their outlook – no longer can they differentiate between rich and poor, highborn and low-born. They observe an ocean of ánanda flowing within and around all created beings. “Rasa vae sah” – all are flowing in the same rasa, the same ocean of bliss. In that divine flow the devotees see Parama Puruśa dancing with each entity. In philosophy, this dance is called “rásaliilá” [divine play in the flow of bliss]. It does not mean that someone is actually playing a flute with all the humans and cows dancing around him. Rather, it means that all the entities of this beginningless and endless universe are floating in the ocean of cosmic bliss. There is no place for sorrow since sorrow only exists where petty interests clash and vie with each other. When the devotees clearly understand this they become established in “bhaktiránanda rupáca”.” (3)

Note 4: Next you will hear the sound of flutes

“Then in the next phase, as if somebody is dancing with ghuṋghur [ankle bells]. (You know, ghuṋghur – you use it during the táńd́ava dance. In Sanskrit it is called nupur.) Next you will hear the sound of flutes – as if somebody is playing a flute. Then the sound of the ocean, you know? A particular sound is created by the sea. And then, in the fifth phase, taḿ, taḿ, just like bells, the sound of bells. And finally, the sound is just like ooṋṋṋ – the oṋḿkára in pure form. And after that there remains no sound, because after that there ends the realm, the scope, of Saguńa. After that there is the scope of Nirguńa. In the realm of Nirguńa there cannot be any sound, because there cannot be any expression. Not even divine expression, not even supra-psychic expression.” (4)

Note 5: in Devotional field what is Yamuná

“Yamuná. Just as there is a Yamuna River in the physical sphere, in the subtle psychic sphere also there is a certain flow which leads microcosms towards Parama Puruśa.”(5)

References:
1. AMIWL-11, To Know Him Is to Be Free from All Fetters
2. AV-34, The Best Mental Engagement
3. AV-7, Devotion Is the Life-Force of a Devotee
4. AV-30, The Sound of God
5. AV-30, Appendix

== Section 3 ==

Our duty is to help those who have lagged behind - Ananda Vanii #24

“The marching together of all in unison is termed as the society. Instead of despising those who have lagged behind, help them to advance. This alone will be your social Dharma.

Note: The above is one of Baba’s original Ananda Vaniis. These original and true Ananda Vaniis are unique, eternal guidelines that stand as complete discourses in and of themselves. They are unlike Fake Ananda Vaniis which are fabricated by most of the groups - H, B etc.

== Section 4 ==

Links

Some recent letters

Just see - Islamic dogma imported into AM with big pomp & show

Distortion: Proof of wrong thing in AM books


Other topics of interest

Baba story:  Why Nagina did not go

Cowards can't be bhaktas

Child Slavery #2 + RE: OUTLANDISH

Baba

This email contains two distinct letters:
1. RE: Outlandish Claim by Dada K
2. Child Labor and Slavery #2


Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 09:46:17 +0200
From: Amrit Lalloo <amrit.lal...com>

RE: OUTLANDISH CLAIM BY DADA K

Namaskar,

I heard many fake Baba stories but this one by Kalyaneshvarananda takes the cake, else, he must be joking?

I don't for once believe Ac. Kalyaneshvarananda 's outrageous story about " Baba asking Ramanandajii to meet RSS chief in Nagpur and propose if AM and RSS can work together to fight with common enemies as they are very powerful and that Baba instructed us not to speak anything against RSS, although they may criticize AM."

Who are the common enemies of both AM and RSS ? Is not dogmatic RSS a "common enemy?" 

This is a "once upon a time story." It is akin to Baba asking CPIM to work together with AM to destroy capitalism (see note 1).

This bogus story completely undermines Baba and his mission. It is the most ridiculous story ever told. All be it,

wise Kalyaneshvarananda is the PRS of the Kolkotta faction. This is the calibre of our so-called leadership.

Hiding my head in shame,

Amrit


Note 1: In India and in many places, the communists are in bed with the capitalists. For show, communists abuse capitalists to collect votes from the poor, but internally they are very close. This is quite prevalent - especially in India. Here we should keep in mind that both capitalists and communists are materialists.


From: Dada Kalyaneshvarananda
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 13:20:37 +0530

Namaskar.

I wish to add a few points for dear Tarak's information.

1.In India RSS is supposed to represent Hindu interests. Once Baba asked Ramanandajii to meet RSS chief in Nagpur and propose if AM and RSS can work together to fight with common enemies as they are very powerful. I was present in that meeting in 1968 along with a few margiis. We met the then chief Mr. Golwalkar, who was a bright person, but did not agree with the proposal for their own reasons. But Baba instructed us not to speak any thing against RSS, although they may criticize AM.

2. Like Ac. Raghunath and many others, several good margiis were once RSS strong cadre. They came to AM for Sadhana and were charmed by Baba's personality. One such person was Shri V. M. Deshapande who later settled down in Mumbai. He had many friends in RSS and they always used to chide him that why AM does not call itself Hindu. He would answer them logically, but sentimentally his friends were never satisfied. He was also not understanding that most of the Shlokas Baba explained in His Pravacans are either from Vedas or Upanisadas or Giita or Shiva's treatise, which Hindu's consider as their heritage. Astanga Yoga is also considered as Hindu heritage by Hindu religion. Once Baba went to Ahmedabad where Vinayak Deshpande was working as Income Tax Officer. Without any reference, Baba said in a field walk, Vinayak, do you know that Ananda Marga is pure Hinduism. Vinayak Deshpande felt relieved of a great tension.

3. More than 99% margiis and workers in AM in India come from Hindus. Because Hindu was never been a religion- the Persians named the civilization beyond river Sindhu (Indus) as Hindu, as in Persian the word Sindhu is pronounced as Hindu. When militant Islam entered India, to combat it, the Hindus unconsciously been addressed and was accepted as a religion.

There are several dogmas in Hinduism -the biggest being the casteism. Baba asked us to fight with it through intercaste marriages, which are now so common in AM.

Ac. Kalyaneshvarananda Avadhuta

(To read earlier letter on this topic see link appended below.)

====

Date: 25 Jan 2014 13:32:58 -0000
From: "jayashrii"
To: ananda-marga-universal-forum-1@yogasamsthanam.net
Subject: Child Labor and Slavery #2

CHILD LABOR AND SLAVERY #2

Namaskar,
This is an issue of exploiter and exploited.

TO GRATIFY THEMSELVES THE RICH CHEW THE HUMAN BONE,

AND SUCK HUMAN BLOOD

"These days, a person who possesses wealth is respected and revered whereas a person without money is a person honoured by none. The poor, whoever they may be, have to woo the rich just for the sake of earning their livelihood. Human values have become meaningless, for human beings have become the means for the rich to earn money. The rich, having purchased the human mind with their money, are busy playing a game of chess with the other members of society. Bereft of everything, people toil round the clock to earn a mere pittance. Today the motto of people is, “I have to send some food particles into the apathetic stomach after somehow taking a dip in the muddy water amidst hyacinths.”"

"Those who are at the helm of society, constantly suspicious of others, forever count their losses and profits. They have no desire to think about the plight of humanity. Rather, to gratify themselves they are ready to chew the human bone, and suck human blood. For the self-centred there is no place for feelings of mercy, sympathy or camaraderie. The railway stations and market places are full of half-clad beggars and lepers desperately stretching out their begging bowls, earning their livelihood in the only way they know. They are fortunate if anyone contemptuously flings them a copper coin. The old blind beggars sitting all day long on the steps of a bridge automatically lift their bowls whenever anyone walks past. But their hungry pleas fall on deaf ears. On the other side of the social coin, sumptuous dishes are being prepared to entertain the rich dignitaries. These contrasts ridicule the present human society."

"Today, those who occupy high posts are also respected. Dignity is attached to post or rank. A station master will take great pains to prepare the railway minister's visit, but will never trouble himself with the inconveniences faced by the ordinary passengers. Luxurious houses are built for high-ranking officers while the poor live in shanty towns, barely protected from the elements. I don't say that large houses should never be built, but that everyone should be provided the minimum requirements. “I admit that both rice and tasty dishes are necessary for people, but I shall not demand a sumptuous dish from the goddess of food until I see that India [the entire world] has been overflooded with an abundance of rice.”" (AFPS-2, Social Values and Human Cardinal Principles)

India’s child maids face slavery, abuse and sometimes rape
By Simon Denyer

NEW DELHI — She was just 14 years old when she was picked up from her poor village in eastern India and promised good wages as a maid in New Delhi. Instead, she was forced to work for free as a virtual slave in a wealthy middle-class household.

When she plucked up the courage to complain to the “placement agent” who had found her the job, “he beat me and then he raped me,” the girl, now 17, said in an interview in this capital city. “He said if I ever tried to run away from home, he would kill off my family and burn down my house.”

Every year, hundreds of thousands of girls are trafficked from rural India to work as domestic servants in middle-class homes in India’s fast-growing urban areas. They are expected to work at least 15 hours a day for food, lodging and salaries well below the legal minimum monthly wage of about $125. Many end up cut off from their families, abused and treated like slaves. Some are sexually assaulted.

India erupted in outrage at the gang rape last month of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi. But in the same city, experts say, a vast network of child trafficking and abuse operates with society’s implicit sanction and official apathy. As India strives to become a modern and developed nation, the problem serves as a reminder of the exclusion of a vast swath of the population from the benefits of a rising economy and the broad indifference of many middle-class Indians to the rights of the poor.

“The trafficking of young children, especially girls, under the garb of placement agencies is the biggest organized crime in India today. And the worst part is, it is right there in the open, in our homes, and yet invisible,” said Bhuwan Ribhu of the child rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

One of the six suspects in the gang-rape case, a purported 17-year-old, was himself trafficked at age 11 from a poor village in northern India to a life of child labor in the capital, where he worked in a roadside restaurant and as a bus driver’s assistant, police have said. He soon lost touch with his parents.

Law widely flouted

Many middle-class Indians believe they are helping poor families by giving their children work. But according to municipal law in New Delhi, which has enacted some of India’s strictest child labor laws, they should be jailed. Employing people younger than 18 in a hazardous job, as domestic service is defined, has been a non-bailable offense since 2009.

But the law is widely flouted, said Ribhu, who added that on rare occasions police carry out “rescue operations” of underage servants after complaints from parents or activists.

“Almost all of the domestic maids are either minors, or started work as maids before they were 18,” Ribhu said.

There has never been a systematic attempt to determine the scale of the problem. The government says 5 million children are employed in India, but activists say the real number could be 10 times that. A senior official at India’s Home Affairs Ministry, which oversees the police, estimated that as many as 4 million children work in domestic service nationwide and that up to 4,000 placement agencies operate in New Delhi and its suburbs alone.

But the official, who insisted on anonymity to speak candidly, said it was often hard to get his fellow bureaucrats to take the issue seriously because so many of them employ children at home.

A tool of control

Sometimes, placement agencies demand a one-time fee for supplying servants, a sum often docked from the girls’ wages by their employers. Other times, the employer pays the wages directly to the placement agency, which might give a portion of that money, or none at all, to the girl.

One 18-year-old interviewed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from former employers, said she received no money for four years of work as a maid for doctors and businesspeople. Another, whose statement forms part of a court case filed by activists in an attempt to force New Delhi authorities to regulate the industry, said in her testimony that she was paid $45 a month but was essentially imprisoned for years and never allowed to telephone her family.

When she complained to the placement agent, she said, he raped her. Ribhu said traffickers often use rape — which can ruin a young woman’s marriage prospects by robbing her of her “honor” — as a tool of control.

“I could not bear the pain and fell unconscious,” she said. “When I awoke, I found myself in a pool of blood. When I came out crying, he told me he would sell me off and never send me home if I didn’t keep quiet.”

The Washington Post generally does not name rape victims.

Activists have made progress only by taking such cases to Indian courts. New Delhi’s high court has led the way by ordering authorities to raise the minimum age for domestic service and requiring placement agencies to be registered. But the fine for failing to register ranges from just 50 cents to $5, and monitoring of registered agencies is nonexistent, activists say.

After two years of unpaid work, and after being raped on two occasions by her placement agent, the 17-year-old girl from eastern India was rescued by a Bachpan Bachao Andolan activist who was working undercover at New Delhi’s railway station.

The girl was at the station because the trafficker had promised to take her home to her village but had secretly bought tickets to the teeming commercial capital, Mumbai, where he apparently intended to sell her off into a life of further slavery or prostitution.

A year later, the girl is still in New Delhi, hiding from the trafficker. Small and shy, with her hair tied back in a bun and covered in a patterned scarf, she has an unassuming manner that masks a determination to see her tormentor put behind bars.

“The first thing I want is that man should be punished for what he did to me,” she said. “Then I want to see the money I am owed in my hand. The third thing is to go back home safe and sound.” (Courtesy of The Washington Post)

THEY ARE ENEMIES OF SOCIETY

Here again is Baba's point that on such issues Prout has its own stand.

"All natural resources are meant to be used for collective welfare. No one has a monopoly over these resources. Some people argue, “When others by their manual labour earn money to provide themselves with food and clothing, why should I not be considered a member of the toiling masses when I earn by my intellectual labour?” In reply I will only say that by dint of intellect you may acquire as much of the boundless wealth in the intellectual or psychic realms as you like. Nobody can object to this. But if the intellect is used to appropriate limited mundane resources such as houses, land, food, clothing, money, etc., will this not deprive hundreds of thousands of people of their basic necessities? You may certainly earn your living by using your intellect, but your salary should be commensurate with the needs of your family, plus sufficient extra to take care of future contingencies, and not a penny more."

"It must always be remembered that the value of money lies in its proper use. If more money is accumulated than necessary, it loses its value due to lack of use. To the extent that you keep money idle and valueless, you become responsible for the injustices done to ragged, hungry people. You will have to give value to your accumulated money by utilizing it to provide opportunities for others. So in my opinion, those who do not know how to make good use of money, which is a medium of exchange for mundane resources, are enemies of society." (Human Society-1, Social Justice)

Namaskar,
In Him,
Jayashrii

(To read earlier letter on this topic see link appended below.)

Note 1: LINK TO EARLIER LETTER ON KALYANESHVARANADNA

http://anandamarganewsbulletin.blogspot.com/2014/01/greedy-priests-marriage-tax-part-3-two.html

Note 2: LINK TO EARLIER LETTER OF EXPLOITATION OF DOMESTIC ASSISTANTS

http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/2014/01/other-side-of-story-slavery.html

Other Side of the Story + Slavery

Baba

OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY + SLAVERY

Namaskar,

This is an issue of exploiter and exploited.

"What a dangerous outlook! What a rosy philosophy of capitalism! God save humanity from such perverted philosophy. Man’s desire for worldly pleasure does not cease until he finds a really great ideal. His hunger is insatiable. The wolf in him seems to say over and over again, “I am hungry, I am hungry.” His mouth is agape all the time and the fools of the earth, resigned to their belief in predestination, are swallowed by it. These wolves eat up their flesh and blood and cast away their insipid bones. Are we to support this wolfish philosophy? The dirty-clothed laborers, their faces lined with hard labor and fatigue, are not human beings in the eyes of those who have Mammon by their side."

"The characteristic of a vested interest is that it has no other thought but itself. The selfish man is the eater, the others are his food. His needs are never-ending. Out of his salary the poor man has to pay his house rent, support his family, educate his children, provide milk for his baby, marry his daughters. Are those necessities only for the people of the upper classes? Are these not the minimum necessities of life? Yes, but these thoughts of the poor are no concern of the rich! Such thinking involves some sacrifice, does it not? From where would objects of luxury for the rich come, if hunger were not the hard task-master of the poor? Let the daughters of the poor collect cow-dung forever and their sons be slaves in the households of the rich. What a fine arrangement! The high hopes of the poor?–pooh! pooh!! Aren’t they all moonshine?"

"No two things in the world are alike. So I do not suggest recasting everything into one mold. Still, for humanism and justice, equitable distribution of the resources of the universe is indispensable; co-ownership of the world’s resources is the birthright of every individual. Even a small attempt at depriving someone of this right is gross selfishness. Except when a special favor becomes necessary to give certain individuals impetus and inspiration, all persons must be given equal rights and opportunities in all spheres. Every individual must have equal rights regarding food, clothing, housing, medical aid and education — those things that are absolutely necessary for existence." (Human Society - 1, Social Justice)

ANOTHER SIDE TO THE STORY

here is another side to the story which generated much public intrigue in the week or so.

Callousness toward domestic workers
By Rama Lakshmi

New Delhi: The diplomatic row over the Indian deputy consul in New York who was accused of underpaying her nanny may have been resolved, with her leaving the United States. But many Indians say the episode has laid bare the callous attitude toward domestic workers in the world’s most populous democracy.

According to a US indictment, Devyani Khobragade paid her Indian nanny $573 per month, a “legally insufficient” wage, and made her work more than 100 hours a week. Khobragade, who was charged with lying on visa documents about the babysitter’s salary, has maintained her innocence. Her arrest prompted widespread outrage among the Indian government and public.

“The fact that the domestic worker’s rights were violated was completely eclipsed by the shrill outcry by the government over the treatment of its diplomat,” said Ananya Bhattacharjee, who heads a domestic workers’ group called Gharelu Kaamgar Sangathan, based in the affluent New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon. The group had counselled the family of the nanny, Sangeeta Richard, after she filed a legal complaint.

“We had to try very hard to remind everybody that there are two Indian citizens involved in this case, not just one,” Bhattacharjee said.

Domestic workers have few legal protections in India. Activist groups say they are paid extremely low wages, have no fixed hours and no right to a weekly day off. About 40 per cent of the world’s 53 million domestic workers are employed in Asia, but most countries in the region have not enacted laws to regulate their labour, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. The report says domestic workers in Asia frequently experience physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Even though exploitation of domestic workers in India is rampant, researchers say, it is only when things turn truly gruesome that the issue makes the headlines. In November, the wife of a federal lawmaker was arrested on charges of torturing a domestic worker to death in a New Delhi suburb. In October, another woman was arrested for severely beating her 15-year-old maid in the Indian capital. That month, police arrested an Indian airline stewardess for locking up her underage maid in her home every time she went to work.

In 2010, the children’s rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Movement) filed a petition in the New Delhi high court asking for protection of domestic workers’ rights and regulation of placement agencies for the workers. The court ordered the city to formulate a policy, but the government still has not done so.

When news of Khobragade’s arrest, strip search and brief incarceration broke last month, Indians were appalled. India’s national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, called the actions “despicable and barbaric.” The government launched retaliatory measures, including removing security barricades at the US Embassy and shutting down all “commercial activities” at the popular embassy club.

Khobragade was formally indicted Thursday. But her government had already transferred her to a post at its mission to the United Nations, giving her a higher level of diplomatic immunity. On Friday, hours after Khobragade left the United States, India expelled an American diplomat.

“India has once again proved that the government is only for the big people, not for poor people like me,” said Paru Varui, 30, a domestic worker who cooks in four homes in Gurgaon and earns about $180 a month. She has been a domestic worker since she was 8 and took part in a demonstration here last month seeking justice for Richard.

“The government protects its own officer with all its power, but what about people like me who have been fighting for our rights for years?” she demanded. “My country has not found the time or the will to even pass a law, let alone enforce it.”

An unknown number of domestic workers in India are victims of human trafficking. According to India’s Labor Ministry, more than 400,000 legal complaints about children trafficked for domestic labour have been filed from 2008 to 2012. However, only 25,006 cases have been prosecuted, yielding 3,394 convictions.

Activists say Richard did not have the option of returning to India to recover unpaid wages through its court system.

“There is a legislative and policy vacuum here,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, national secretary of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. “I have never heard of anybody being arrested and going to jail in India for not paying minimum wages to a worker.”

The majority of Indians, he said, “do get away with such things and with impunity.”

On Sunday, the Indian television news channel NDTV 24X7 reported that the Foreign Ministry wants the government to designate the Indian maids accompanying diplomats abroad as government workers, so that they are not subject to the laws of a foreign country.

US officials flew Richard’s husband and children to the United States last month because a legal case was initiated in India to “silence her and attempts were made to compel her to return to India,” according to Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. (Courtesy of The Washington Post)

SLAVERY

Here is a related situation.

 

The Delhi child servant scanda
By Gethin Chamberlain

It was the 13-year-old maid’s desperate cries for help that finally alerted neighbours to her plight. She was standing, sobbing, on the balcony of the upmarket Delhi apartment. Her employers had locked her in, she said, and gone on holiday. Finally rescued by a firefighter, she told a tale that prompted a widespread display of national revulsion.

Her employers – middle-class doctors Sanjay and Sumita Verma – had “bought” her from an agency, which had in turn bought her from her uncle. She was hungry, she said, because they barely fed her. She received no pay and was regularly beaten. Their latest act of cruelty had been to lock her in and go on holiday to Thailand.

The couple claim that they thought the girl was 18 and deny mistreating her, but they were roundly vilified and have been refused bail. In court the couple were accused of “subjecting the victim to a treatment which can be best described as torture”.

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the story is why it has caused such fury in a country where, after all, the sight of a youthful servant rarely raises a flicker of curiosity. Delhi’s thriving middle class would crumble without its army of domestic servants, whose presence enables couples to go out to work and continue to boost an economy projected to be the largest in the world by 2050.

The most liberal members of that society think nothing of employing a maid, a driver, a sweeper, a cook, a gardener and a couple of house boys who sleep on the roof, or in tiny shared rooms.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are at least four million domestic servants in India, including about 100,000 children working in and around Delhi. While it has been illegal to employ anyone under the age of 14 since 2006, that has done little to hinder the placement agencies which routinely hire out trafficked children.

A good maid might earn 3,500 rupees (£43) a month, if she is very lucky, or about half the legal minimum wage for an unskilled worker in Delhi. The less fortunate are bought from brokers and kept as unpaid skivvies – simply fed and given somewhere to sleep.

A company called Domestic Help in India is one of thousands of agencies supplying staff. Based in Gurgaon, near Delhi, the company charges employers 16,000 rupees to arrange the hire of a maid for 11 months. Its website is packed with adverts for staff, who can be selected on the basis of age (15 and upwards), religion and gender. Gurpreet, a maid/cook, has two years’ experience and costs 3,000 rupees a month. Harjett, who has one year’s experience, is available to anyone in Delhi for just 2,000 rupees a month. Those less comfortable with the way the system operates often try to assuage their feelings of guilt by hiring staff at above the going rate.

However, writing on an expatriate website that offers advice to foreigners moving to India, Shawn Runacres, managing director of the Gurgaon-based Domesteq staff placement agency, says there should be no need to feel awkward if staff are treated well. “Throw out the guilt – remember you are providing much-needed employment at fair rates and excellent working conditions,” she says. “The very thought of no longer having to make beds, cook, dust, wash dishes and do laundry sounds like heaven and, for those with children, if you add to all these things the possibility of affordable, on-tap childcare, it becomes irresistible.” Speaking on Friday, she said she was convinced that the market for domestic staff would continue to grow as India’s economy expanded, not least because of the challenges posed by living in India. “There are many more challenges to your daily life,” she said. She doubts that it would be possible to live without staff. “You would spend your entire time just trying to keep yourself fed and your home in some semblance of shape. You can’t just get water from the tap; you have to clean your water. You can’t just eat fruit off the tree or out of the market. Is it a luxury? No, not in India. It is absolutely a staple of life.” Runacres’s agency – which does not employ children and promises fair wages and dignity of labour – pays well above the average. Others are less scrupulous.

Bhuwan Ribhu, national secretary of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), said child labour was now common in the cities, particularly involving girls aged 12 to 18, while boys aged 10 and upwards are more common in the countryside. “India cannot and must not grow at the cost of millions of childhoods,” he said.

Many children are trafficked from poor states such as Bihar and West Bengal through the thousands of illegal agencies operating in the cities. Last year the movement raided a placement agency to rescue six girls and uncovered evidence of 400 girls who had been trafficked.

Ribhu says people cannot resist a cheap deal. “Well educated or not, people try to maximise their profits by employing kids. They do not pay proper wages. The probability of children leaving employment whenever they want is very low, and they may be exploited, beaten and made to work long hours,” he said.

While many people in India may have been appalled by the Delhi case, he said, there were thousands of others who continued to employ children. “Children work because they are the cheapest form of labour, and in these situations they are victims of slavery. They are abused, not only economically but physically and sexually, as the exploiters also have little fear of law enforcement,” he said.

Patricia Lone of Unicef says domestic labour is one of the most dangerous forms of child labour because of the potential for abuse, particularly for girls. “It is a huge problem in most countries in south Asia because of the levels of poverty.”

Sometimes it is parents unable to support their children who pack them off to work; other times it is the children themselves who seek to pay their own way, she says. “But it is related to poverty, which forces parents and children to put themselves at risk.”

The outcry over the Delhi maid was encouraging, said Ribhu, in that it opened people’s eyes to the reality of what is going on. But he is not getting too excited about the arrests. They were, he said, an anomaly in a country where many people simply do not understand that using children as servants is wrong.”Recently, I was in a mall where I saw a couple with a 10- or 11-year-old girl taking care of their baby while they were eating. When I confronted them, the lady replied that: ‘She is in such a good condition here – she would starve to death in her village. Who will go feed her there? And she has even been taught English’,” he said. “When I asked her if she realised that she was committing a crime, she replied that the girl was being kept just like her own daughter and she is ‘even brought to the mall … can anyone in her village even dream of such a luxury, of going to the mall?’ “I explained as nicely as possible to her husband that if I were to call the police to their house, they would be arrested, and if the girl was ‘like their daughter’, why was she not eating with them at the same table? And he had no answer.” (Courtesy of The Guardian)

PROUT HAS ITS OWN STAND

Here again is Baba's point that on such issues Prout has its own stand.

"What a wonderful capitalistic argument! Perhaps some academic stooge on the payroll of these self-seeking capitalists may even try to concoct a philosophy to support this proposition. God save humanity from such perverted philosophies! People’s physical longings are not satisfied until they come in contact with a truly great ideology. Till then, people’s wolf-like hunger is insatiable, as if they are incessantly repeating, “I am hungry, I am hungry.” Their jaws are always open, and the foolish people of this world resign themselves to their own fatalistic beliefs and fall into them. The ferocious wolf-pack devours their flesh and blood and casts away the unpalatable bones. Should we support this wolfish philosophy? The day-labourers, porters and gate-keepers around us who wear dirty rags and have fatigue etched on their faces are not considered human by those who are rolling in luxury."

"It is a characteristic of vested interests that they never bother to think of anyone except themselves. They must eat and the rest of humanity only exists to be eaten. They want increasingly more objects for their gratification. Those who earn three thousand rupees a month think that this is an extremely meagre amount, but they never stop to consider the needs of those who earn a negligible thirty rupees a month. A poor man has to pay his rent, maintain his family, educate his children, buy milk for his babies, and save something to put towards the cost of his daughter's marriage, all out of thirty rupees. Are these needs only applicable to the upper stratum of society? Are they not the minimum necessities of life? Rich people do not want to consider the needs of the poor, because if they do they will have to make some sacrifices. Where will their luxuries and comforts come from if hunger does not burn the bellies of the poor? Is it not a fine idea if the daughters of the poor go on collecting cow dung forever, and their sons work like slaves in the houses of the rich for generations together? Is this not a fine arrangement? As for the high hopes of the poor, aren't they ridiculous? Aren't they out of touch with reality?"

"No two things in this world are identical, so I am not suggesting that everything should be recast in the same mould. However, for the sake of humanism, for the sake of social justice, equitable distribution of all the wealth of the universe is indispensable, and co-ownership of the world's resources is the birthright of every individual. Even the slightest attempt to deprive anyone of this right amounts to gross selfishness. As long as certain difficulties, both great and small, exist in the practical world, however, it will not be possible to grant perfectly equal opportunities to everybody in all instances. Apart from this, all people should be granted equal rights and opportunities, except where it is necessary to inspire some people to undertake activities which will directly benefit society, or as a temporary reward for their distinguished contribution to society. In addition, every individual must have equal rights concerning things such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical care, which are absolutely essential for existence." (Humans Society - 1, Social Justice)

Namaskar,
In Him,
Jyotiish