<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0"><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857</id><updated>2024-09-29T10:32:33.550+05:30</updated><category term="religion"/><category term="buddhism"/><category term="feelings"/><category term="Reformers"/><category term="books"/><category term="caste"/><category term="friends"/><category term="hinduism"/><category term="love"/><category term="society"/><category term="thoughts"/><title type="text">सिक्खा पदम् समादियामी..</title><subtitle type="html"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default?redirect=false" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/><link href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" rel="hub"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><generator uri="http://www.blogger.com" version="7.00">Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>10</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><xhtml:meta content="noindex" name="robots" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"/><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-1376964546667652035</id><published>2014-09-18T04:46:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2014-09-18T04:46:29.870+05:30</updated><title type="text">Human Relations in India </title><content type="html">&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;A friend of mine is in a relationship with a boy. I don't know the guy, or how is he as a person, except that he is well settled having a good job. My friend is also an educated and self-reliant person having a good job.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;My friend's family somehow came to know this and was in a way informed by the girl only. They also know only this much about the boy. Both of them are adult, independent and mature people. But the day the family came to know about it, things changed drastical&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;ly, the melodrama of intense opposition, emotional blackmails, suicidal warnings and outright rejection from my friend's family. Things went so worse that she even got thrashed by her mother for having made her own choice.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;The only reason for all this according to them is the one bit of information that I haven't shared yet, that is, the girl belongs to a non-brahmin upper caste while the boy is a dalit, not just that, it would have been fine if the boy was christain or some other slightly lower caste, but the boy is buddhist!! For heaven's sake even a muslim would have been fine. But no Buddhist dalit. They are way too low a caste. That is the logic these people have.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;On knowing this, for advise on the issue, another common friend called an elderly educated socially inclined respectable brahmin person who shared good relations, and the first thing he said was again 'a christain or muslim would have been fine, but not this, they are a lower caste, she should have taken care in the first place'.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;&lt;img alt="" aria-busy="false" aria-describedby="fbPhotosSnowliftCaption" class="spotlight" height="448" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/314580_236992429686773_1493654550_n.jpg?oh=34844601d12f5f3ed61e850abec44482&amp;amp;oe=548D951D&amp;amp;__gda__=1418819476_cd5fe04700ebd24703e62a529db4657a" style="height: 509px; width: 726px;" width="640" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;Now I don't know the boy personally to have any opinion about the relationship or advise about ways to get married without consent of girl's family. But the background of the boy or the state of their relationship is not even in the picture. Even the economic conditions are not very different, and are mostly in favor of the boy. Its only the caste. Its only the so called society that wont approve of it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.563636779785156px;"&gt;I know a lot of people get troubled and irritated about my aggressive opinions and posts on the matter of casteism, they even accuse me of having prejudices, but what should I feel about such dirt in this society, why not feel insulted and infuriated. What should I think of the family of my friend or that brahmin uncle when I meet him that he has a deep rooted hatred and disgust about what I was born as? That given a chance any person in this country will have a bias against me to affect me adversely for undue reasons? Its not about that boy, its about the caste to which a lot of us are subjected to. I think I have full right to express my discontent with these kind of people and their societies and their so called cultures. And if they feel offended, let them, if they don't feel ashamed, they are shameless and I don't care about their shamelessness. All those who are against these kind of mentalities should not care about their mentalities getting offended.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/1376964546667652035/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/1376964546667652035" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/1376964546667652035" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/1376964546667652035" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2014/09/human-relations-in-india.html" rel="alternate" title="Human Relations in India " type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-5058399886450383582</id><published>2014-09-16T02:27:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2014-09-16T02:27:24.131+05:30</updated><title type="text">Arundhati Roy's claim to co-authoring Ambedkar's 'AoC' got partly removed</title><content type="html">&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;
For past few days, ever since Arundhati Roy published her 'introduction' to 'Annihilation of Caste', a speech authored and published by Dr. Ambedkar, Ms. Roy has been a center of criticism from all around dalit academia for misrepresenting Ambedkar's thoughts, contexts and attempts to unnecessarily pulling MK Gandhi into the debate. There also has been a mass marketing campaigning to overshadow the original work by the mere critic or should we say an over-stretched 'preface' for selling something already in public domain for a very high cost to the people who do not even bother about the subject matter. But the major furor arise when Navayan along with Amazon, Verso and few more online publications mentioned Arundhati Roy either as a sole 'Author' or as a co-author of 'Annihilation of Caste'. This is not just copyright infringement, this is complete robbery, that would have not been unintentional or overlooked by the publishers or at least the 'author' Arundhati Roy. Though I like some of her works, this does not mean her attempts at appropriating Ambedkar could be spared or overlooked. Being concerned about it, not having the direct means of urgently communicating Ms. Roy, I instead contacted the London based Verso publication. You can see how it was crediting Roy at a same level as Ambedkar, thereby suggesting the co-authorship of the entire work.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiRxVAnGmC5Y0hMEMI4FnWhhkI5Q1tzRPxo5eq02nsS7vIID7OKhKryXopjmeyWy9FjqXNfrltykXre6QW2YMDORhya-I9t3FQMLoubw5nVOZVYsv8X9WZCIHUG_vbepfoqd05l0dCIDl/s1600/verso1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiRxVAnGmC5Y0hMEMI4FnWhhkI5Q1tzRPxo5eq02nsS7vIID7OKhKryXopjmeyWy9FjqXNfrltykXre6QW2YMDORhya-I9t3FQMLoubw5nVOZVYsv8X9WZCIHUG_vbepfoqd05l0dCIDl/s1600/verso1.jpg" height="426" width="640" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Following is the complete email communication that took place with Verso, I am publishing with an intent to record the mistake of the publication, keep it in public domain, so that this does not go unseen and may help minimizing other such attempts.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
_____________________________________________________&lt;br /&gt;
"""&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"&gt;
On 14/09/2014 10:10, "Rahul Bhalerao" &amp;lt;&lt;a href="mailto:b.rahul.pm@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;b.rahul.pm@&lt;/a&gt;&lt;u&gt;..&lt;/u&gt;&amp;gt; wrote:&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;blockquote style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
---------- Forwarded message ----------&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
From: Rahul Bhalerao &amp;lt;&lt;a href="mailto:b.rahul.pm@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;b.rahul.pm@&lt;/a&gt;&lt;u&gt;..&lt;/u&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Date: Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 2:38 PM&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Subject: Critical mistake in crediting the author in your publication&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
To:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="mailto:verso@versobooks.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;verso@versobooks.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Cc: Joint Secretary Ministry of IB &amp;lt;&lt;a href="mailto:sanurag@ias.nic.in" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;sanurag@ias.nic.in&lt;/a&gt;&amp;gt;, "GnowTatnra&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Pvt. Ltd." &amp;lt;&lt;a href="mailto:rahul@gnowtantra.com" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;rahul@&lt;/a&gt;&lt;u&gt;..&lt;/u&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Dear Sir,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
It has come to our notice that on Verso Publication's website, you&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
have published one of the greatest works of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
"Annihilation of Caste" with introduction and critic by Arundhati Roy.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Here is a link on your website:&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/1800-annihilation-of-caste" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;books/1800-annihilation-of-&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;caste&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
On the page, the book is said to be authored by both Dr. Ambedkar and&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Arundhati Roy. Whereas, the fact of the historical matter is that,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
"Annihilation of Caste" is originally authored by only Dr. Ambedkar&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
published on May 15, 1936, when Ms. Roy was not even born. By&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
declaring both of their names in the author list at the same level, it&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
appears the Verso Publication is giving a very wrong impression that&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
the work is co-authored by both of them. It indeed is an insult to the&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
great Founder of Modern India, whose scholarly work is incomparable&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
with the severely criticized 'Introduction' by Ms. Roy.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
I am sure this must have been a mistake from your side to mix up the&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
two works. You should either credit only Dr. Ambedkar for the original&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
work with 'preface' kind of work by Ms. Roy, or you should credit only&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Ms. Roy for the 'Introduction' without actually claiming to publish&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
'Annihilation of Caste'. If not any of this, the 'Authors' section&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
should clearly distinguish the two works and their authors. Ms.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Arundhati Roy can never and should never be projected as a co-author&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
of the original great work.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
There is already a furor among Indian Academia about this grave insult&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
imposed by the Verso Publication, though the actual people who may get&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
offended may not be very active on online forums. Please correct this&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
before furor spreads widely and the people being offended take steps&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
to bring a complete ban on the publication in India.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Regards,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Rahul Bhalerao,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
Director, GnowTantra.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
PGP13, IIM Kozhikode.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
__________________________&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Leo Hollis &amp;lt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:leo@verso.co.uk" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;leo@verso.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; wrote:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Dear Rahul Bhalerao&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Thank you very much for your very helpful email. I am the editor at the&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Verso London office. I would like to clarify a mechanical error that you&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; have highlighted, and we have already sought remedy for these mistakes.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; These errors have resulted from a computer feed from our system to the US&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; amazon information system.&amp;nbsp; As you will note there are inconsistencies which&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; we will aim to rectify in the next day or so.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; To clarify, we are publishing the Navayana edition of 'Annihilation of&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Caste' by Ambedkar with an introduction from Roy. We have also acknowledged&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Anand as editor.&amp;nbsp; This is how the project was presented to us by Navayana&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; and how we&amp;nbsp; plan to proceed. As you will note all these are correctly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; annotated on the front cover of the book itself.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; So to reassure you: this is our website page:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/1800-annihilation-of-caste" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.versobooks.com/&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;books/1800-annihilation-of-&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;caste&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; On&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://amazon.co.uk/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank"&gt;Amazon.co.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;, we actually need to add in the Roy Introduction :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1781688311/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&amp;amp;pf_rd_s=center-2&amp;amp;pf_rd_r=0221DBQ7CZK0PTETCZ41&amp;amp;pf_rd_t=101&amp;amp;pf_rd_p=455344027&amp;amp;pf_rd_i=468294" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;product/1781688311/ref=s9_&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&amp;amp;pf_rd_s=center-&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;2&amp;amp;pf_rd_r=&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;0221DBQ7CZK0PTETCZ41&amp;amp;pf_rd_t=&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;101&amp;amp;pf_rd_p=455344027&amp;amp;pf_rd_i=&lt;wbr&gt;&lt;/wbr&gt;468294&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; If there are any further queries, please do let me know&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&amp;gt; Leo&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;_____________________&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Dear Leo Hollis,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Thank you very much for the apt correction. I can assure you that this&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;correction is being well-received among the concerned academic and&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;social communities. I would request you to please cascade the changes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;on the other related print and digital publications as far as possible&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;in your capacities.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Regards,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;Rahul.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"&gt;"""&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
___________________________________________________________&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now the publication is showing the proper credits:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyEYpgKNSVqpHr1GnaKlde1v6PBk9PKXw8WI5rb-TkagLgNHAPy3teCPEFUzC0X8X5gzPTyItuvFGjkgX_RBQky_I18_gkQhL26u5bS9Yk94_tfzO1QgZ1ns2w_rK2MKQ1poQcWTbkC8Gd/s1600/verso2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyEYpgKNSVqpHr1GnaKlde1v6PBk9PKXw8WI5rb-TkagLgNHAPy3teCPEFUzC0X8X5gzPTyItuvFGjkgX_RBQky_I18_gkQhL26u5bS9Yk94_tfzO1QgZ1ns2w_rK2MKQ1poQcWTbkC8Gd/s1600/verso2.jpg" height="448" width="640" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I am going to send similar mails to other publishers as well, whichever are reachable. I also request other to keep doing so, in case some of them don't listen to individual voice. In order to counter the brahminized scholars from appropriating the sacred text of anti-manu revolution, we need to be alert and actively critical.&lt;/div&gt;
</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/5058399886450383582/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/5058399886450383582" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/5058399886450383582" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/5058399886450383582" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2014/09/arundhati-roys-claim-to-co-authoring.html" rel="alternate" title="Arundhati Roy's claim to co-authoring Ambedkar's 'AoC' got partly removed" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" height="72" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggiRxVAnGmC5Y0hMEMI4FnWhhkI5Q1tzRPxo5eq02nsS7vIID7OKhKryXopjmeyWy9FjqXNfrltykXre6QW2YMDORhya-I9t3FQMLoubw5nVOZVYsv8X9WZCIHUG_vbepfoqd05l0dCIDl/s72-c/verso1.jpg" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-4793420882923990081</id><published>2014-09-10T01:56:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2014-09-10T01:56:13.399+05:30</updated><title type="text">15th Aug, Independence Day, a Beggar and a Tea</title><content type="html">&lt;div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
(Reblogging from &lt;a href="http://bit.ly/1pMxif3" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
On this 15th August, afternoon, I was sipping on a tea at a roadside 
stall, sitting on a bench, waiting for a colleague, when I heard an aged
 female voice over my head, 'चहा पाजतु का दादा' ('would you help with 
some tea'). Before I could realize that there was a fairly old couple, 
woman having a limped leg, and old man, mostly her husband in 70s, were 
asking the two cab drivers for some tea, the cab drivers responded, 
'पाजतु ना' (sure why not). I generally have a strict rule of not heeding
 to the pleas of beggars (and I have my moral position on that 
considering the beggar mafia openly ruling the streets in Mumbai), but 
once in a while some one catches your attention and you just can't help 
stopping yourself from doing something if not just giving away 2 rupees.
 This time the instant assurance of the cab driver to buy them two cups 
of tea caught my eye and especially ear. The old couple did not look 
exactly like beggars, their clothes were fine for someone from rural 
area, just helpless people out of home, out of money and without any 
support at all. The driver asked her about her situation, whether she 
has a family etc. to which the woman told him about her only son, a 
drunkard, who is selling off every vessel and nut of the house for his 
liquor, his beaten up wife has left the house and prefers staying at her
 parents, even the land and farm in the village are on the way to get 
sold, the son has lost so much of himself that he even runs after his 
father with a knife in hand for money for his drink. So finally, they 
have been thrown out to roam on streets and beg for 2 rupees as the old 
man could not get any physical work, while woman was already on one leg 
and a stick in hand. Quite a heart-touching story it was, and for most 
of it, it looked real.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I was silently appreciating the cab drivers kindness of lending the tea 
for two, just then he said something to the woman, something so drastic,
 unimaginable, sudden and sharp, that it took that moment to a 
completely different level for me. "Now listen to me, do one thing, both
 of you, there's a railway-station nearby, just go there. Walk a few 
yards beyond the platform and then just sleep on the tracks. And ohh 
yes! bring your son too and make him go under the train before you go." 
Cruel. Disgusting insults on two lives of more than 70 years by someone 
in his 30s, in exchange of two 'cutting chai' Rs 6 each. Realization of 
why one poor showed some pity on another poor, for being able to insult 
in such a way and enjoy the authority to do so for just 12 bucks was 
worse than my own cruel rule of ignoring beggars and a little guilt that
 follows at times. But that was not the end. The woman was adamant for 
continuation of her son's life, as well as her own. Death was not an 
option for her, life, no matter what it meant had to be lived. I didn't 
understand the need of her 2-3 sentences of adamant denial to the man 
who advised death, but appreciated the will to survive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Once this was settled, the drivers gone, and couple calmly sipping the 
tea, I initiated a talk with the woman with no specific plan. As she 
went on about her helplessness, and as she said 'our nature is of giving
 not begging, but have to do it', it had both a reflection of a decent 
past, a little bit of pride, and huge hollowness of everything before 
survival. With an intent to help in a more meaningful manner, I asked 
her to stop roaming around like beggars at this age, asked if she knew 
anything about any charitable organizations nearby. On knowing that the 
couple knew nothing of the sorts, I gave them options where they could 
find some help. At least a roof, and some food on daily basis. This 
included some charitable orphanages, Temple trusts, rich spiritual 
shrines nearby, including a Balaji temple, Gurudwara, Sai Baba temple, a
 list of social and govt organizations who could help, and were within 
few minutes distance by train, the nearest of them being a Buddha vihar 
at a 5 mins of walking distance. She looked intrigued and willing to 
consider those suggestions over the option of begging on streets. But 
then something happened that took me on another mental journey 
altogether.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
This woman, defeated by life, defeated by the conditions, betrayed by 
her own blood, having been asked to die in exchange of two cutting chai,
 having lost the meaning of her life if anything was there, came closer 
and in a slightly lowered voice, repeated the list of places I 
suggested, took names of all the gods, whose named trusts I suggested, 
went on adding gods from her own list, and said she will go to any of 
them, Balaji will do, even Sai Baba will do, "but I will NOT go to the 
Buddha temple!" Shocked and taken aback, I tried to recompose and asked 
"why not, its just there, beyond this street" but "No, not that. No 
Buddha temple!"&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My friend had arrived, he called me out, and off we went. I kept looking
 back for a while, not sure if indeed physically turning my neck or just
 in my thoughts, but her words kept coming back.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Its not that I didn't get what she meant, she certainly did not know a 
thing about Buddha's teachings, so there was no way I could take it as 
an offence against Buddha, also since I wasn't selling her any religion 
or preaching there, merely advising on what places she could go, being 
an atheist actually listing most of the temples, her choice of any of 
them had no bearing on what I should have felt. But why would a woman, 
in her condition, rather than making a simple choice of where she should
 go, takes efforts to let me know where she would NOT go, no matter 
what. So all my educated and intellectual friends, please spare a moment
 to think over it why this would have happened. Why for a poor Hindu 
(ahh well there were enough signs on them to suggest that, so don't 
bring up the stereotypical allegation of stereotyping religion. 
Sometimes common sense prevails), a Sikh charity is all right, any 
imaginary god is fine, government is fine, even a Muslim sage is fine, 
but not a very own Indian real person of the stature of Buddha whose 
teachings have shaped major part of our accommodating non-violent 
culture, not so fine? Put your grey cells to work and make me understand
 the contradiction to the intellectual Indian's constant rhetoric that 
Buddha is very much Hindu and very much a part of the same system, just 
another 'panth'(branch), in the same family of spiritual and cultural 
traditions against the practicality of this unusual separatism.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
No, its not just Buddha. Of course he does not fit as well as the 
intellectuals try to fit him into the Indian Hindu nationalist spiritual
 rhetoric. But there is something deeper than that. If you know even a 
little bit about rural Maharashtra, Buddha means only one thing, the new
 God of the 'untouchable' people, the 'untouchable God'. By all means 
the emotional journey over the sad life of a poor old couple, took me 
through several planes and suddenly dropped in the pile of castes. 
Making me realize that even beggars could have a false-pride, note that 
its not your good romantic self-esteem, its an outrageous, unnatural, 
hollow pride. And my dear friends, I know some of you who love me a 
little extra would be jumping to put the credit of bringing caste into 
this, but no, it was forced. Forced by the woman thrashed on the roads, 
by her own son, still having a hollow sense of pride and separatism 
based on a very 'important(?)' aspect of her life, the caste. Being 
unnecessarily looked down or rejected by the people with possessions is 
not at all new for someone from depressed class, but being looked down, 
for no reason from someone with no possessions, no powers, no resources 
and no knowledge, only on the basis of a false sense of caste-pride and 
that hollow dignity was all new experience that intellectual educated 
Indians will rarely understand. No my dear friends, its not that a 
beggar cannot look down upon someone, its not that a beggar cannot have a
 self-esteem, every researcher and every sage who lives on donation 
amounts and free alms is a beggar, so any beggar with apt possessions in
 various moral and ethical forms can and should have the dignity, 
self-esteem, self-respect, but when its based on something as stupid and
 as ugly as caste, its not a self-esteem, its a farce, ugly farce, 
that's going on for generations after generations. Its everywhere, and 
each one of the depressed class human, and not just human but even their
 God, is facing it every day. I could give number of examples of 
casteist attitudes and insults thrown towards people I know personally, 
experiences of my own, but don't want to dilute the intensity of this 
one experience, they are more of a regular offences, everybody likes to 
turn blind eye to them. But no matter how much you deny, caste is 'the' 
en-slaver of Indian mind, just remember how you got married or how in 
future you would and you would know what I mean. The society and the 
mind of Indians are still not free from this mental gutter which does 
transform itself into physical plagues on a regular basis. The freedom 
is a long awaited dream and far away target. Hope the real freedom will 
rise some day. May the old couple get to any one of the place and spend 
their remaining life in peace and in search of meaning, not just bread 
and pride.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[P.S. So my educated intellectual friends, no matter what your opinions 
are, on what basis they are formed, and no matter how much you declare 
yourself not guilty of being part and fuel in this entire scheme of 
caste based discrimination, atrocious culture and separatism, if you 
utter a word about caste being just a political tool, not a social evil 
as much, it being only irrelevant and non-existent or a non-significant 
problem, and claim that your religion(whichever it is) has no base for 
this menace, and its the dalits/untouchables that are responsible for 
its existence, just imagine the level of sanity that would be attributed
 to you. If there is any anger or bitterness in my words, its not 
against the poor lady, she is just another slave of the system, so the 
anger is against this system, against this culture. Also this is not 
just a random rambling, yes there would be proactive opponents who would
 ask what's the use of all these rants. But before going into the 
usefulness of words against actions and before some outrageous 
good-for-nothing person asks about the evidence of action(the usual 
'what have YOU done'), let me remind that I am not obliged to answer 
that, this is a collection words and thoughts based on personal 
experience without any specific target, apart from a simple objective of
 expression and hope that even if some of the people realize how deep 
rooted the imprints of caste and its false pride and divisiveness are on
 the Indian mind, even if only a few realize how much disservice this 
attitude of forced separatism with false superiority is doing towards 
overall economic, social and spiritual growth of the people of this 
country and people who follow this culture, even if only one person at a
 time changes his/her mental attitude on reading such snippets of 
experiences, it would be enough for this much writing effort. You don't 
inhale each breath with a plan to change the world, with every breath 
its only the oxygen that matters, rest goes on independently. Hope sane 
people get sane message to ponder upon from this slightly painful but a 
lot more disturbing experience. (uff, see how many defenses one has to 
be prepared with even before talking about such topics in a supposedly 
free speech society!)]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/4793420882923990081/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/4793420882923990081" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/4793420882923990081" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/4793420882923990081" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2014/09/15th-aug-independence-day-beggar-and-tea.html" rel="alternate" title="15th Aug, Independence Day, a Beggar and a Tea" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-4673908846923977642</id><published>2011-07-23T13:54:00.001+05:30</published><updated>2011-07-23T13:55:29.954+05:30</updated><title type="text">What is so wrong with Bhagwad Geeta?</title><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Here's a discussion I had with someone over Bhagwad Geeta on TOI   forum (Stop reading now if you don't want to go to the end, it may   mislead):&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mukunda &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;(Bengaluru) replies to Siddharth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;21 Jul, 2011 02:50 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ok,lets   read ch 4 verse 13. catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasah   tasya kartaram api mam viddhy akartaram avyayam "According to the three   modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four   divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the   creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being   unchangeable." 1st line"catur-varnyam maya srstam" 4 varnas are  created  by Me(Paramatma),2nd line "guna-karma-vibhagasah" where the   vabhajan\categorization is based on one's guna composition and karma   composition. 3rd and 4th line states how He is the non doer and   unchangable. Sri Krishna says that each living entity is categorized   into one of the 4 varnas based ONLY on their previous records of Gunas   and their Karma. NOWHERE He mentions about janana\birth as the basis of   categorization (example: a son of a brahmana is not a brahmana(by   birth), but he becomes a brahmana by his gunas and karma), where as   caste system is a system which is categorized purely based on   birth(example: a son of a brahmana is automatically placed in the   general merit(due to birth in a brahmana family) and a son of a   scheduled caste is placed as a scheduled caste(due to birth in a   scheduled caste family)). now can you please explain your statement   "Gita encourages caste system. How can we allow a book that doesn't   consider all humans as equal and believes that the humans are divided in   4 castes." Gita states that you earn your varna due to your previous   deeds and guna records. this system is present everywhere. you dont ask a   school dropout person to become an IAS officer. he has to earn this   position by doing required action(passing IAS exam) and also including   his guna composition. NOTE: its very easy to read anti hindu articles on   the internet and comment by taking bits and pieces. but Satyameva   Jayate, Truth alone triumphs. regards, mukunda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agree (6)Disagree (6)Recommend (5)Offensive&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Siddharth&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; replies to mukunda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;11 hrs ago (02:36 PM)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If   Varna is NOT determined by birth then tell me how many people were   there in our entire history that were the born in the house of shudras   but became Brahmins by their deeds? You just can't name it. Because a   son of brahmin is always considered a brahmin and it is assumed that he   did good deeds in his past life. and same goes for the shudras. Hence,   encouragement of caste system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agree (1)Disagree (0)Recommend (0)Offensive&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rahul Bhalerao&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (bglr) replies to mukunda&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;21 Jul, 2011 10:41 PM&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why   doesn't Geeta clearly say that it is not the birth that determines   varna? why make ambiguous statements? Previous deeds/karma means what?   The deeds/education/skills acquired in this birth or the popular   interpretation of previous birth's karma? If deeds decide varna then   just like deeds can keep changing why can't a varna change? If it is   only the deeds that determine varna, why are the atrocities based on   varna justified? Let the incompetent be poor, why do we need to torture   them? Why doesn't it acknowledge the scientific and philosophical truth   that all human beings are equal? Are all these confusions left like  that  so that it can be interpreted to justify the injustice in the name  of  varna and dharma? We don't know of practical goodness of the bright   interpretations of Geeta but we certainly know the dark side of it,  that  varna is birth based and has caused injustice for thousands of  years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agree (5)Disagree (5)Recommend (3)Offensive&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;mukunda&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; replies to Rahul Bhalerao&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;11 hrs ago (02:48 PM)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Namaste   Rahul,answers to your queries are below 1:"Why doesnt Geeta clearly  say  that it is not the birth that determines varna? why make ambiguous   statements?" ans: its not ambiguous, in fact Sri Krishna clearly states   the definition of varna as based ONLY on guna and karma.example:   definition of sphere is : a sphere is a perfectly round geometrical   object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round   ball(wikipedia).here the sphere is defined by categorically placing it   in the shape of round and in 3D space. now i would definitely look   foolish if i state that its ambigious since it doesnt state anything   about squares or rectangle shapes(apart from circular/round). it doesnt   include any other shapes since it does not categorically fall in any   other shapes. likewise, when Sri Krishna is clearly telling varna is   based ONLY on guna and karma, asking the question of janma is irrelevent   since this definition is not proof by negation/proof by shortlisting.   in ch 18 verse 41, Sri Krishna reaffirms about the varnas   "brahmana-kshatriya-visam "O Arjuna, the karma/acitivities of the   brahmanas,ksatriyas,vaisyas and sudras are clearly divided according to   the gunas/qualities born of their own nature" 2: "previous deeds/karma   means what? " again Sri Krishna defines karma as sanchita karma   prarabdha karma aagama karma. 1. sanchita karma (karma in storage, karma   already done) 2. prArabdha karma (karma that has begun to bear   fruit,karma being done) 3. AgAmi karma (karma resulting from future   activities). this is a very huge topic to cover here. 3:"If deeds decide   varna then just like deeds can keep changing why can't a varna change?  "  ans:varna does change; a brahmana can become a shudra and vice  versa.  example: Brahmarishi Vishwamitra was a kshatriya Raja/king and  his  original name was Kaushika. He was a Kshatriya who became a  Brahmana due  to his deeds(becoming a Brahmarishi). since nobody is born  to any  varna, they can change varna depending on their karma and guna.  regards,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rahul Bhalerao&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mukunda,   it is good that you brought the point of altering Varna! I suggest you   take a look at the research paper 'who were shudras' by Dr. Ambedkar.   There are number of cases where you see varna being changed in   mythological history. But the question remains the same, first of all   why divide the society in general, and second how did this division   became so robust, rigid and remained based on birth for all the   practical reality of 3 thousand years? What was it in the religion that   caused an apparently mere labor hierarchy into a rigid system of varna   and caste that is present in all its glory? Start reading all these   mythological scriptures in more un-religious manner and you find the   answers.  Just like any other society in world, the priest class of   brahmins secured unequivocal powers in the times of darkness through   religion. Your own Upanishads are the story of competition between   kshatriyas and brahmins. Off-course it is not just the Gita that made   the varna/caste system the way it is, there has been a steady and well   thought process behind it with all the conflict of interests doing their   part of the job. Brahmins corrupted Vedas to gain religious sanction   for their authority. Kshatriyas in competition with brahmins to control   the society made their own versions by posing themselves as the   incarnation of Gods. And again brahmins proved their superiority by   reciting the brahmin authority through God's own mouth. In order to make   sure that the powers of one generation remain reserved for rest of the   coming generations of the same class, Varna had to be made rigid. If   only Karma was the determinant of one's destiny, then what is the   explanation for all the rigidity over thousands of year? Why didn't   these apparently  great thoughts resulted in a great society?   Varna/Caste system as we know and as has existed for thousands of years,   is the greatest poison in our society. Now please don't make the  futile  claims of how great system it used to be and how it must have  benefited  people. Buddha has already condemned this system very  strongly even  2500 years ago. No matter how hard you try to sugar coat a  poison, it  will still have its effect. The effect is what we have  witnessed but the  poison is still we deny.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the way, we don't  have  problem with round shape being defined specifically and  interpreted in  one single way without any ambiguity, because there is  no way it could  be interpreted differently, neither there has been any  proof to any  interpretation of it being a square. That is mathematical  conformance.  Coming back to your Varna and Karma and geeta etc., we do  know for sure  that Varna is indeed practiced based on birth, we all  know about the  interpretation that the karma of past birth causes one  to be born in  particular Varna, and the belief that a particular Varna  person has  particular qualities suitable for that Varna only. All these  are well  propagated interpretations supporting the rigid system (not  flexible as  claimed by you) and accepted throughout the Indian society  (irrespective  of the caste they belonged to or religious practices they  had). We  don't say Brahmins or Kshatriyas established and manipulated  the Varna  system for their benefit because they are inherently a  cunning race, no,  but they did do it certainly and cunningly because  they happened to  have powers in their hands which made them corrupt.  Now that we know the  truth of this evident corruption, at least now we  can stay away from  everything that has caused this corruption in first  place. This is the  precise reason why no anti-caste movement has ever  called for a crusade  against brahmins or upper castes but have  condemned and  burnt all these  scriptures that have given opportunity  for corruption and caused all  the misery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Out of my 7 questions,  only first three were  attempted to be answered to some extent, which  are appearing  non-satisfactory from the above reply. The core of the  matter lies in  later 4 questions which are not answered by Geeta  admirers but better  answered through the theory of religion based caste  formation for power  politics which is well explained by Dr. Ambedkar.&lt;/p&gt;</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/4673908846923977642/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/4673908846923977642" rel="replies" title="7 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/4673908846923977642" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/4673908846923977642" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-is-so-wrong-with-bhagwad-geeta.html" rel="alternate" title="What is so wrong with Bhagwad Geeta?" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>7</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-1669010708344152453</id><published>2011-07-13T01:37:00.003+05:30</published><updated>2011-07-13T02:02:01.297+05:30</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="buddhism"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="hinduism"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Reformers"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="religion"/><title type="text">Gods' Religion or Religion's Temples</title><content type="html">Father says demolish all the temples, the son goes on demolishing a mosque for building a temple!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is an English translation of an excerpt from 'Devancha Dharma ki Dharmachi Devle' by Prabodhankar Thackerey. Originally in Marathi, I happened to have read it long back and being awfully astonished by the stark difference between Prabodhankar and his son Bal Thackerey. Luckily found it &lt;a href="http://dgroups.org/ViewDiscussion.aspx?c=51ecc6ec-9dc9-4aff-b399-8130698414ab&amp;amp;i=fdcf46fc-66b4-4a1e-94fe-6cc79dddca0e"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*Prabodhankar* says:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The all round degradation of Hindus is seen today and Hindu society is unfit for the term ‘society’. Hindu religion is a great Brahminic humbug and Hindu culture is a cracked dented pot with no base. Even during the great famine in whole of India, the Bhats are well fed because of generosity of Bahujans. And the non-brahmins are being crushed in the frank misdeeds of Brahminic terror.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our religion is no religion at all. It is a humbug to crush the non-Brahmins under the Brahminic burden. In Brahminic humbug the first item of our slavery is the temple. Temples have come to Hindu religion recently. All our gods were shelterless for thousands of years say since 7000 BCE, time supposed to be date of Vedas. Till the end of Buddhism from India, say around beginning of Christian era, there were no temples in India.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Before discussing the methods of disposing of the gods and their temples, it is essential to see their origin from Semitic people, who were also, nomads like Aryans. They seem to be originators of temples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Broadly speaking, there were no temples in India till 2nd or 3rd century A.D. Old shattered Brahminism defeated new reformist Buddhism and in second century CE, the old editions of ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ were conflated for Brahminic hegemony and ‘Manusmriti’ was created. But even then there were no temples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since Ashoka times, there were caves and temples for Buddhist Bhikshus with images of Buddha. That is the origin of our Hindu temples. In eighth century CE appeared Adi Shankara, the savior of Brahminism. He purified the Scythians and made them Rajputs to kill in mass genocide all the Buddhists. He destroyed Buddhist monuments and banished the Buddhists. He created untouchability among the remaining Buddhists, for the first time in India. He destroyed Buddhist images and established there the Shiva-Lingas and converted some Buddhist images and renamed them as those of Shiva. Thus Buddhist Viharas became Brahmin temples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Manusmriti, Puranas and temples are the triple noose around the necks of Hindus society. It is because of these three things that the Brahmins maintain their hegemony. If you destroy these three things Brahminism would vanish.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The temples had become the dens of misdeeds till the time of Mohammed of Gazani, who found tremendous wealth just by breaking a Shiva-Linga. Temples are life of religion, the Bhats shout. When omnipotent Somanatha could not protect himself, why the Brahmins fed on kings’ treasury should fight, they ran away. If somebody shows us one single Brahmin fighting for god in the history, we will give him our publications free for one year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hindus knew there can be no self-upliftment by worshiping the stone, even then they flock to temples. The secret lies in 18 Puranas created for feeding of Brahmins. All slaves are so mad of god and especially of the amorous ‘*Bhagwat*’, that they prostrate in front of Brahmins and drink water washings of his feet. Many say Puranas are obscenity, I say they are latrines. All lands given to temples are meant for the Brahmins and ornaments of gods are in necks of Brahmin women all the year except on festival days.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since the Somanatha got the kicks of Mohammed, the temples have become dens of ganja smoking *gosains*, lazy beggars, rowdy goons and well fed-parasitic Bhats. The temples have not contributed anything to progress of Hindu religion or society or justice more than any brothel has done. When 96 percent of population is craving for education, the army of Bhats is feeding on temple property.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bhats being the born fathers of temples prohibit others to the temples. The dirty stream of Brahmin non-brahmin conflict has its origin in temples. Those touchable and untouchable Hindus who wish to finish this conflict must hammer first on temples. In the name of democracy, as radical reformer, I declare without caring for anybody’s feelings, that these are not temples but the dens of Satan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In democratic atmosphere today nobody can oppose human rights. Democracy should enter the temples now. People craving for political freedom must destroy all institutions of slavery. We are suggesting three methods of disposing of the Hindu temples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First, Boycott the temples thinking them as dens of Satan. It is slow process and may take centuries as the Brahmins have accumulated enough wealth that will last them for next thousand years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Second, ignoring customs and traditions all Hindus including untouchables should, in the name of ‘*hindutva*’, capture these temples. But this is not for reformers. For us, it is preferable to shun away from these centers spreading venom of social hate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lastly, the temples got corrupted because the Bhats entered there. They entered because of stone gods therein. If you remove all gods and put all of them from all over the country in one single museum in a city, you can use the empty temples and their property for public good. You may form a committee of Hindus to decide how best these can be used as libraries, research laboratories, hospitals, orphanages, lecture halls, observatories, gymnasiums, community common dining halls and other public purposes. If the Hindus can not show this courage, they are not only unfit for ‘swaraj’ but also are unfit for living.</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/1669010708344152453/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/1669010708344152453" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/1669010708344152453" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/1669010708344152453" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2011/07/gods-religion-or-religions-temples.html" rel="alternate" title="Gods' Religion or Religion's Temples" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-8372095630320261443</id><published>2010-05-09T17:25:00.005+05:30</published><updated>2010-05-10T13:10:51.406+05:30</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="caste"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="religion"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="society"/><title type="text">An angry Brahmin!</title><content type="html">Yesterday, on visiting Mathura-Vrindavan, I got one more insight and perspective about the caste society in India. The Brahmin guide, who was picking stories from mythology and engaging people, suddenly got very angry when some visitors raised objections over the service of the tourist agency. I was amazed to see a priest who was giving some calm spiritual speech getting angry so quickly. During the later casual chat, he mentioned that he could not help getting angry, because he was born in a brahmin family. His claim about himself was that a brahmin cannot control his &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;krodh&lt;/span&gt; (anger).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is interesting to know how people believe that their behaviors are attributed to their castes. That too, an anger being associated with the people who control the spiritual aspects of the religion and the only one to have the right to be the priest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Later, many of the priests insisted on making people worship the way the priests want(i.e. mostly by donations!). But how could I follow them? Being a true atheist, I was there to only see what is there and how it functions.</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/8372095630320261443/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/8372095630320261443" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/8372095630320261443" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/8372095630320261443" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2010/05/angry-brahmin.html" rel="alternate" title="An angry Brahmin!" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-8845412307201415876</id><published>2008-04-23T00:13:00.004+05:30</published><updated>2008-04-23T00:52:44.442+05:30</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="feelings"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="friends"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="love"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="thoughts"/><title type="text">Thinking is injurious to friendship!</title><content type="html">At the mid-night hour, random thought came to my mind..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Its always good to think twice before you talk, but when you don't need to think while talking to someone.. thats when you have found a real friend.. and probably  a real love too!"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a saying, "think before you talk, don't talk before you think". Thats actually good, because that prevents you from hurting someone or give  wrong impression of yourself. But when it comes to friendship, the rule seems to invalidate itself. How could you hurt your beloved friend? Your instincts should never allow you to do that. Even if it happens, you will surely regret and the true friend will certainly understand. This would strengthen the bond even more. A friend knows you inside out, how could you make wrong impressions? Friends don't mind you eating their cakes. Friends don't mind you turning their requests down. Friends don't mind having different opinions. And friends don't mind putting own life for each other.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So why bother? Actually when you think, its because you are concerned about the worldly  rules and customs. Friends simply don't need them. A true love has to be completely free. Free of all the boundaries! Limitless!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Believe me, its really difficult to find someone that you don't need to think before talking to, but if you do find someone, be assured, thats the real one!</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/8845412307201415876/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/8845412307201415876" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/8845412307201415876" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/8845412307201415876" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2008/04/thinking-is-injurious-to-friendship.html" rel="alternate" title="Thinking is injurious to friendship!" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-5083894355930506045</id><published>2008-04-21T00:47:00.005+05:30</published><updated>2010-05-09T17:24:48.776+05:30</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="books"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="feelings"/><title type="text">Paper is more patient than man</title><content type="html">Today I got my hand on 'The Diary  Of A Young Girl", Anne Frank, and I missed a heart bit only on the second page on reading this.. it was so true..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;There is a saying that 'paper is more patient that man'; it came back to me on one of my slightly melancholy days, while I sat chin in hand, feeling too bored and limp even to make up my mind whether to go out or stay at home. Yes, there is no doubt that paper is patient and I don't intend to show this cardboard-covered notebook, bearing the proud name of 'diary', to anyone, unless I find a real friend, boy or girl, probably nobody cares. And now I come to the root of the matter, the reason for my starting a diary: it is that I have no such real friend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;    Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a girl of thirteen feels herself quite alone in the world, nor is it so. I have darling parents and a sister of sixteen. I know about thirty people whom one might call friends--I have strings of boy friends, anxious to catch a glimpse of me and who failing that, peep at me through mirrors in class. I have relations, aunts and uncles, who are darlings too, a good home, no--I don't seem to lack anything. But it's the same with all my friends, just fun and joking, nothing more. I can never bring myself to talk of anything outside the common round. We don't seem to be able to get any closer, that is the root of the trouble. Perhaps I lack confidence, but anyway, there it is, a stubborn fact and I don't seem to be able to do anything about it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Apologies for such a long quotation, but I could not crop any of this part. It is so touching.. even after "I don't seem to lack anything", there is something lacking. No, I did not feel 'alone in the world' when I was a boy of thirteen, I had bestest of my friend circle that time. I can certainly describe that as 'the best days of my life'. But the reason I felt so much for these lines is that, it feels awfully true at twenty-four. The scene of 'I sat chin in hand', resemble to my confusion whether to call someone or not and end up not calling at all. I have so many contacts and friends, but they all seem to be limited to work, jokes and phonebook, where is the real one? The problem seems to come from inside, somewhere.. 'I lack confidence', to be closer. Perhaps, it's not just me. I think, everyone has this utter need of a 'closer than heart' and almost everyone lacks it. May be our own walls of 'self' don't allow us to get any closer. The question is, how to bring the walls down, how difficult is it for a human to connect to other human? Why do people are so less patient even to listen to what other person has to say and express? Really, 'paper is more patient than man!'.</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/5083894355930506045/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/5083894355930506045" rel="replies" title="1 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/5083894355930506045" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/5083894355930506045" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2008/04/paper-is-more-patient-than-man.html" rel="alternate" title="Paper is more patient than man" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-167012692920305596</id><published>2008-04-15T01:38:00.006+05:30</published><updated>2008-04-15T02:40:40.656+05:30</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="buddhism"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="religion"/><title type="text">Buddha says..</title><content type="html">&lt;span class="userchat"&gt;"This world is sustained by the laws of Nature, hence there is (seemingly&lt;wbr&gt;) no creator of this universe (Brahma). If Brahma is the creator of world, he would be responsibl&lt;wbr&gt;e for the sufferings&lt;wbr&gt;, found throughout and suffered by all living beings."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/167012692920305596/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/167012692920305596" rel="replies" title="1 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/167012692920305596" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/167012692920305596" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2008/04/buddha-says.html" rel="alternate" title="Buddha says.." type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1303489295202821857.post-2544671527976006478</id><published>2008-02-01T01:27:00.000+05:30</published><updated>2008-02-02T12:10:30.395+05:30</updated><title type="text">नमो तस्स भगवतो अरहतो सम्मासंबुद्धस्स</title><content type="html">I already have two blogs. Then whats the occasion for the third one?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My &lt;a href="http://rahulpmb.blogspot.com/"&gt;first blog&lt;/a&gt; started as a general personal blog. But later it turned out to be more centric towards work and technology related stuff. Now, few technology related &lt;a href="http://planet.fedoraproject.org/"&gt;planets&lt;/a&gt; are currently fetching this blog. Being on a &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_aggregator"&gt;planet&lt;/a&gt;, I cannot put everything, mostly off-topic posts. So, my subjects for this blog have been narrowed down to a great extent. Of course there are ways to filter posts depending upon the tags, and given that I do extensive tagging for my posts, it should not be a problem. But most of the planets are not doing the filtering itself. Even I don't wish to spam them with personal stuff. I need a special place for it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://mazikavita.blogspot.com/"&gt;Another one&lt;/a&gt; was created for sharing my fun with poetry. Its not very active these days. Mostly because I am not giving time for poetry now. I hope to be able to do that soon. Being of specific nature, I cannot write everything on this blog as well. I need to write something that is not poetry but not even a dry work or science and technology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I felt an utter urge to have one more blog, just for life (as in large and small) related things. Something more personal, nearer to heart, more spiritual or even just for fun.  Let me embrace a new 'Sikkha'.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;सिक्खा पदम् समादियामी!</content><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/feeds/2544671527976006478/comments/default" rel="replies" title="Post Comments" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/1303489295202821857/2544671527976006478" rel="replies" title="0 Comments" type="text/html"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/2544671527976006478" rel="edit" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1303489295202821857/posts/default/2544671527976006478" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/><link href="http://samadiyami.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html" rel="alternate" title="नमो तस्स भगवतो अरहतो सम्मासंबुद्धस्स" type="text/html"/><author><name>Anonymous</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/06579625117208816377</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image height="16" rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail" src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" width="16"/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>