सांप्रत समय में रथयात्रा की सीखः

आज का दिन अषाढी बीज अर्थात् अषाढ शुक्ल का द्वितीय दिन है। इस पवित्र दिन रथयात्रा के नाम से ज़्यादा प्रचलित है क्योंकि आज कई जगह पर भगवान जगन्नाथ, उन के भाई बलराम और बहन सुभद्रा की मूर्तियों को तीन सुशोभित रथों में स्थापित कर के नगर की यात्रा के लिये निकाले जाते हैं और भाव विभोर हिंदु जनता जगह जगह पर रथयात्रा का अभिवादन करती हैं।

समस्त भारत में जगन्नाथपुरी, उड़ीसा की रथयात्रा अजोड है। वहाँ लाखों लोग रथयात्रा के दर्शन के लिये उमड़ पड़ते हैं। तीन रथों की ऊँचाई ४४ फ़ीट, लंबाई ३५ फ़ीट ओर चौड़ाई भी ३५ फ़ीट होती है- ये प्रति वर्ष ख़ास प्रकार की लकड़ी से नये बनाये जाते हैं और हर रथ का वजन २८० से ३०० टन ( २८०,००० से ३००,००० किलोग्राम) रहता है। आश्चर्य की वात यह है कि इतने भारी रथ कोई यांत्रिक शक्ति से नहीं चलते। हज़ारों भक्त उन्हें बड़ी भारी रस्सी खिंच कर चलाते हैं।

यह कैसे संभव है? इसका रहस्य एक ही है- यह हज़ारों लोग- जो एक दूजों को न तो पहचानते है, न तो जिन का सामर्थ्य या शक्ति समान है वो एक ही ध्येय से एक ही ह्रदय से रथों को एक ही दिशा में खींचे चलते हैं- यहाँ न कोई उच्च है न कोई नीच; न कोई निर्धन है न कोई धनवान। बस सब भक्त हैं और सब की एक ही अभिलाषा है कि रथों को गन्तव्य स्थल पर अपने सामूहिक बल से और सामूहिक प्रयास से पहुँचाये।

हम में से जो लोग भारत को आगे बढ़ता देखना चाहते है, भारत में सब का विकास हो, सब को सुविधाएँ प्राप्त हो, हमारी संस्कृति और धर्म की रक्षा हो और हमारी सीमाएँ सुरक्षित रहे ऐसा चाहते हैं, जिन्हें प्रधान मंत्री नरेन्द्रभाई मोदी पर भरोसा है उन्हें यह रथयात्रा से क्या सीखना है?

आज से ले कर जब तक २०२४ का राष्ट्रीय चुनाव संपन्न न हो तब तक हम एक ही लक्ष्य पर हमारा ध्यान केंद्रित करेंगे- भाजपा और एन. डी. ए. को २०१९ से भी अधिकतर बहुमत से जीताना और राष्ट्रद्रोही और लघुमति परस्त कॉंग्रेस कल्चर को क़ायम के लिये हिंद महासागर में डूबो देना यह हमारा लक्ष्य है। रथों को खींचनेवाले हम है- हमारी शक्ति, संकल्प, तन-मन-धन सामूहिक होंगे- न कोई उच्च न कोई नीच; न कोई निर्धन, न कोई धनवान, न कोई बुध्धिमान न कोई सामान्य। अगर संकल्प शक्ति से लोग ३०० टन का रथ खींच सकते हैं तो हमारे लिये क्या असंभव है?

सं गच्छध्वं सं वदध्वं, सं वो मनांसि जानताम् ।

देवा भागं यथा पूर्वे संजानाना उपासते ।।

ऋग्वेद १०ः१८१ः२

(हम को मिलकर चलना चाहिए। मिलकर बोलना चाहिए। हमारे मन एक प्रकार के विचार करें, जैसे प्राचीन देवो या विद्वानों ने एकमत होकर अपने – अपने भाग को स्वीकार किया, इसी प्रकार हम भी एकमत होकर अपना भाग (कर्त्तव्य) स्वीकार करें ।)

समानी व आकूति: समाना ह्रदयानि व:।
समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति॥

ऋग्वेद ८ः४९ः४

(एक हमारा उद्देश्य हो, सुसंगत हमारी भावना हो। एकत्रित हमारे विचार हो, जैसे सब कुछ इस विश्व में एकता में है ॥)

आओ, छोटे मोटे भेदभावों को छोड़ो, व्यर्थ चर्चा और वाणी विलास में समय व्यतीत न करो और यह २०२४ के रथ को गंतव्य स्थान पर पहुँचाने के राष्ट्रयज्ञ में जूट जाओ।

अगर आप भारतमें हैं तो “Sampurna Bharatiya Bahumat” वोटसेप गृप के सदस्य बन सकते हो; अगर आप भारत के बहार हैं तो आप “NRIM2024” (Non-Resident Indians for Mission 2024) वोटसेप गृप के सदस्य बन सकते हो। आपका पुरा नाम, शहर, राज्य, देश, ईमेल और वोटसेप नंबर मुझे +1-732-754-1727 पर भेजने पर आप को यथोचित गृप में सम्मिलित किया जायेगा।

अगर आप चाहें तो यह पोस्ट आप के मित्रों और संबंधियों को फोरवर्ड कर सकते हैं।

धन्यवाद,

जून २०, २०२३

5-A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (Concluding part)

 (Vaisakh Shukla paksha Saptami, April 27, 2023.)

Gaurang Vaishnav, Tampa. FL

Part 5 of 5

Coming to Florida, Curtain Call, Farewell:

Asha and I met mother in Connecticut at my brother’s home in February 2020, upon our return from Bharat. Once we reached home in Florida, lockdown started and the only way we could meet her was through Zoom calls. As the lockdowns were extended, I was worried that I might not have a chance to see her alive. Fortunately, lockdowns were lifted, and we decided to bring Veenabahen to our home in Florida. We all knew that this was her last trip, and I told my brothers and sister that Maa wouldn’t be coming back to NJ or CT. With great difficulty and the help of my brother and Bhabhi who accompanied us, we brought mother to our home in Tampa on March 12, 2022. We had made all the arrangements to make her life comfortable, keeping her bed in the family room so she was closer to a bathroom and didn’t feel lonely as we would be in the kitchen which is next to the family room on an open floor plan. Asha and I had decided to spend all our time with Maa. She slept most of the time, up to 20-21 hours. At night I slept next to her on a sofa because she had to get up multiple times to use the bathroom and though she used a walker I wanted to make sure that she was safe walking. During her wakeful hours, she would talk about old times. She didn’t remember anything that happened in the last 50 years or so, but she would describe things that happened 70-80 years ago as if she was seeing it happening on a cinema screen. There were 20-25 incidents that she would narrate endless times but every time, there was not a change of a single word. I was amazed at how our mind stores memory and how it functions. She used to mention how she was unjustly charged with stealing family ornaments, and how she suffered- there was searing pain in her eyes, and we could see how deep that wound was. Perhaps, it was the first time she was talking openly about it. She told me many other things from the family history that I was not aware of. She remembered her younger brother who had died even before she was married. She kept talking about her cousin (mentioned before) who died of T.B. and how she was not allowed to visit him. She also kept questioning her mother’s decision to stop her schooling. It was an unfulfilled desire that was hurting her in the last stage of life. But she also talked about good times. Somehow Khar and Juhu Beach came to her mind often. In the middle of the night, she would ask me ‘Where is Bakul?’ Bakul is my brother who had health problems and was dearly attached to my mother. I had to tell her that Bakul was in New Jersey and then I would lie that he would come soon to visit her. I had planned to bring Bakul to our home in August.

We had developed a routine. After lunch, I would bring her wheelchair to the front door, open the doors and park her chair there. She could see cars in the street and swaying palm trees. This reminded her of Mumbai, and she would feel very happy.

Enjoying After Lunch sunshine at our home- April 2022

Sometimes, I would bring her wheelchair to the covered porch  (called Lanai here) in the back where she would gaze at the pond and feel elated. After dinner both Asha and I would sit at the dinner table and talk with her; we knew that so long as mother was sitting there, she would talk. If I brought her wheelchair to bed, she would go to sleep right away.

I had a habit of seeking mother’s blessing every day for a number of years. She would bless me with the words, “Pravutti Ochhi Karo”, meaning reduce your activities. This was in context with my engagement with VHPA, HSS, and GIBV which kept me very busy. I used to just smile and she also would smile. However, her blessings came true when she arrived at our home in Tampa. I was with her almost all the time and I had no time for any other activity (Pravrutti.)

I had expected mother to live to 100 because though she had all the issues, her constitution was strong. As a matter of fact, whenever anyone from the family called her and asked about her health, she would say, this mother is not going to go anywhere soon.

Even in her last days, she liked to be presentable (she didn’t like wearing gowns but there was no choice.)

Curtain Call

But fate had other plans. On May 7th, 2020, after dinner, while sitting in the wheelchair and talking, my mother suddenly stopped responding to Asha. I was nearby, putting dishes in the dishwasher; I went closer and saw that her mouth was drawn to one side. I asked, “Are you okay?” Veenabahen tried to answer but she made only unintelligible sounds. I immediately realized that mother had had a stroke. I tried to put her in the bed from the wheelchair, but she just slid to the floor. Asha supported Maa and Maa held Asha’s hand. I immediately called 911 and an ambulance arrived within ten minutes. She was taken to Advent Healthcare Hospital which is 10 miles away from our house. Mother was put on a ventilator – because her lungs weren’t working properly. We came home after four in the night. The next day (May 8),  when I reached the hospital at 12:30 PM, the doctor said that there was little hope.

As we were talking. Maa’s blood pressure, oxygen level, and heart rate soon began to drop. The doctor had told me that even if she survived, she would have had to live with the right side of her body paralyzed and loss of speech.  Since her lungs were not functioning even with the ventilator set at the highest level The loss of oxygen to the brain would have further complicated her quality of life. I had to make the hard decision to let her go rather than try to resuscitate her with CPR. I consented to the doctor to let her go peacefully. It was one of the most excruciating decisions that I had to make in my life. I was fortunate to be by her side in the hospital when she breathed her last, but I was frozen, and I couldn’t think of reciting Mahamrutyunjaya Mantra or any other prayer. I just stood there dumbfounded. They removed the ventilator and within moments my mother’s Aatma left her mortal body. She had a peaceful and dignified death. I trust that she is free from the constraints of a tired human body and will have a rebirth appropriate to her pious life. It was Vaisakha Shukla Paksha Saptami by our Hindu calendar when her Aatma transitioned.

Veenabahen had lived with Asha and me for a number of years in New Jersey after my Pitashree passed away in 1989 and I was privileged to take care of her all medical needs, but for the last few years, she was with other brothers. We were very fortunate that we made a decision to bring her to our home in Tampa from Connecticut. While we were hoping that she would reach the century mark, she left suddenly after being with us for only seven weeks. Those were the best weeks of my life as I could give her undivided attention 24/7.

She left behind a vast family of one daughter and five sons, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Farewell:

We cremated her body in Connecticut on 15th May. My sister and all of us brothers as well as spouses and a few grandchildren went to Rishikesh past February and immersed her ashes in Mother Ganga’s lap on February 7th.  

Asthi Visarjan in Ganga Maiya at Rishikesh

Final Prayers after Asthi Visarjan at Rishikesh

There is a famous water body in the foothills of Girnar mountain in Junagadh known as Damodar Kund. Since my mother was from Junagadh, we immersed some of her ashes in Damodar Kund;

Asthi Visarjan at Damodar Kund, Junagadh

finally, as Veenabahen was so fond of Juhu Beach, I took some ashes and immersed them in the Hind Mahasagar ocean at Juhu Beach.

Asthi Visarjan at Juhu Beach, Mumbai

I will be sprinkling a handful of her ashes today at the base of the Kesar mango tree in our backyard, as she loved Kesar mango.

While my mother Veenabahen had a tough and challenging first half of her life, her second half was satisfying and fulfilling. She enjoyed her stays in Karnavati as well as here in the USA. In Bharat, her favorite pastime was sitting outside our home on a Jhula with a cup of tea and reading the daily newspaper. In the USA, she divided her time between four homes, and everywhere, she found affection and love. Her health improved markedly and she enjoyed a variety of foods, dressing in nice sarees, and going out to meet friends and relatives. My nieces and nephews have been so fortunate that they received an abundance of care and affection from my mother. It was fun to see one of my nephews trying to explain to her a point in his broken Gujarati and my mother absorbing it with eagerness but also arguing where she didn’t agree. For all of us, 26 members of my immediate family in the USA, Diwali brought special joy because we all would get together at one of the brother’s homes, and one by one we would bow down to Maa seeking her blessings. She would put her hand over our heads and give us a premarked envelope that contained cash. This included Diwali and birthday gifts for all and additionally Makar Samkranti, Holi, and Navaratri gifts to womenfolk. While the amount was not big, each one of us felt as if we had won a million-dollar prize. This is one ritual that we all missed last Diwali and will continue to miss.

I conclude this extensive blog narrating personal details of my matushree; I wrote it to give an outlet to my innermost feelings. I have no doubt that every reader has such feelings for his/her mother and father. Please do not wait to tell them that you love them and that you value what they have done for you. Hari OM.

Concluded.

4- A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (in five parts)

(Vaisakh Shukla paksha Saptami, April 27, 2023.)

Gaurang Vaishnav, Tampa. FL

Part 4 of 5

Industrious, Relations Builder, Age getting Better of her:

One of her major accomplishments was that she put plastic book covers on every book that I have and that amounts to more than one thousand books. It was a treat to see her sitting on the floor with a stack of books around her, scissors, a roll of plastic, and scotch tape. She would even cut a strip of plastic and leave it in every book as a bookmark. She derived immense joy from doing this and I felt admiration for her love of books. At times she used to tell me- “Gauji (that was a special nickname for me that only she used to use) After I die, I will remain as a ghost in all your books.” I feel her presence whenever I pick up any book from my library, not as a ghost but as a loving guardian angel.

Veenabahen’s favorite hobby- Reading 2017

My mother was a people person. Keeping warm relations with everyone, even those whom she might have met once, was second nature to her. Whenever she went to Bharat, she would travel from Karnavati to Junagadh, Rajkot, and Vadodara and meet her elders and first as well as second cousins, even their children. In Karnavati, she had a long list of people to visit or invite to our home. Because she was getting old and still running around, my brother used to pull her leg; he would say, if Maa had a Neno car, she would put 100,000 miles on it within a year. So, once, she retorted, Yes, next time when I come here, I want to buy that car so I can go wherever I want.  I was always supportive of her desire to meet everyone and accompanied her when I was in Bharat with her. I think I have inherited this desire to keep relations with genuine warmth, which has been useful in my social work, from my mother. She was very considerate of others’ feelings and would never say anything deprecating of others. So much so, that when once in a while we said anything harsh about our grandmother who had been a cause of intense suffering for Veenabahen in the initial years of her married life, she would stop us and ask us not to say anything negative for our elders.

At Her 75th Birthday Celebrations in Connecticut with two granddaughters- in 1999

As mentioned earlier, my mother had special feelings for Mumbai. So, in 2008, when she was 84 years old, on our return travel to the USA, Veenabahen, my brother and I flew to Mumbai in the early morning giving us about 14 hours to explore Mumbai. A relative sent his car with a driver and the whole day we roamed to all her favorite places with which she had connections. This included Khar- the bungalow where she grew up, Juhu Beach, Parel, Khatau Terrace ( a chawl in Parel where she had lived earlier), Cottongreen a suburb next to Parel, where we lived for two years, Byculla, where she used to shop for vegetables at bulk price, KEM Hospital, Marine Drive, V.T. (now CST) station, Churchgate, Gateway of India, Nariman Point, Borivali, etc. I felt satisfied because she took a walk down memory lane and told me so many stories from her past.  

Her Last years

As she turned 95 or so, we could see a distinct change in mother. The hearing aids that she was using were no longer good enough. She could barely hear, though there were times of exception. Her eyesight started failing and she lost more than 90% of the vision in one eye. The net result was that she stopped reading and her interest in TV ebbed.  She was becoming fragile, so she avoided going to stores, etc. She would always tightly hold the hand of whoever was nearby when getting into a car because she was deathly afraid of a fall, resulting fracture and then a stay in rehab. Fortunately, she never fell. She could still travel between New Jersey and Connecticut but with increasing difficulty. She started becoming aloof; she would insist on sitting with everyone after lunch and dinner, even though we would ask her to rest; she definitely felt good surrounded by her loved ones, especially the latest addition to the family, her great-grandson. But she wouldn’t be part of any conversation. Again, there were exceptions from time to time when she would perk up. Dementia was set in around 2018 when Veenabahen was 94 years old. There was short-term memory loss as well as some long-term memory loss too. She was OK recognizing all children and grandchildren but for anyone else, we would need to reintroduce the person and again in a few minutes she would forget. She pined for my only Masi alive who was more like a daughter to him because of the age difference. Though Masi called often from Vadodara, or as we would call her, mother constantly complained that “your Masi doesn’t care whether her sister is alive or not.”  Masi was planning to come to spend time with my mother but the pandemic intervened and that wish was never fulfilled.

…….Continued to Part 5 of 5

3- A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (in five parts)

 (Vaisakh Shukla paksha Saptami, April 27, 2023.)

Gaurang Vaishnav, Tampa. FL

Part 3 of 5

Back to Gujarat, Visit to USA, Citizenship:

 In 1960 with the creation of Gujarat state, we came to Karnavati (Amdavad) to start a new innings. I was in SSC with my sister in college. Next three years my mother remained very sick. There were good days and bad days. It was during these three years that I honed my cooking skills. I used to help my mother as well as my sister in the kitchen. In any case, in our families, boys were encouraged and expected to learn basic cooking. This came in handy in the later years of my life. One particular day when I came home from school mother was lying in her bed and was weakened by her anemia and her body was swollen. I felt that she wouldn’t survive, and I started crying sitting near her feet. When she saw me, she consoled me.

In Karnavati, she attended classes to learn how to preserve condiments (Aachar) for a longer time, and how to make jams, syrup, cake, etc. She used to travel by bus after taking care of the kitchen and other duties. Putting her creative abilities to use, she picked up a brand-new three feet diameter gutter connector from a construction site near our home. It was discarded because of a crack. My brother and I rolled that heavy porcelain piece home. Veenabahen made a big Sagadi out of it, by having a grill made to fit inside with the bottom being used to stock and fire coals. This Sagadi was used to make Dosa since it could hold a large Tawa. It was also used to make sweets from milk. This Sagadi had a long life and moved from place to place. Finally, after 35-40 years of use, we gave it away.

Veenabahen was very industrious. She never sat idle for a moment. She would clip cuttings from newspapers, and write down recipes or a bhajan when she came across one. She will do bookbinding, and use scraps to make beautiful art though sometimes we used to tease her for all the labor she put in.

As happens with all of us, I started valuing my parents more once I moved to a different town in a hostel when I went for my engineering studies. I could appreciate all the struggles she had gone through. From 1951 to 1965 my number three brother was very sick; he couldn’t hold down any food, had constant vomiting, bad temperament because of his health, and going to a doctor was almost a daily affair. With our father constantly traveling for job and children in colleges and school, Veenabahen bore the brunt of it. Only when my brother was operated upon for a constricted esophagus and his health improved dramatically,  my mother got the needed rest.

When I broached the subject of “going” to the USA back in 1969, she was not happy at all.  My father was understanding and told my mother that they shouldn’t come in the way of my aspiration, though he also wished that I could find a satisfying job in Bharat itself (I was working on a dam site in the midst of a forest in Public Works Department and was sick to my stomach with corruption and bureaucracy.) Mother’s refrain turned out to be prophetic- she said, those who go to another country from Bharat do not come back- when I promised her that I would return within five years.

Ten years after I arrived in the USA, my parents came for the first time to the USA. They stayed here for almost six months and that was our golden period. We did the usual circuit of Washington DC, Luray Caverns, New York, Disney World, Niagara Falls, White Mountains, etc.

At a Florida Beach with children and grandchild

Veenabahen loved traveling and writing a travelog. We have two or three notes full of her very detailed writings. She would remember everything- where we went, how we reached there, what we saw, what were unique things, etc. If we stayed with a friend or relative (which was common in those days), she would describe in detail what we had for dinner.  She would write long letters to my brothers and sister who were back home. We have preserved many of her letters. There used to be classic teasing in the car. Normally my father would sit in the front and Mother would be in the back seat with Asha. More often than not, he would forget to put his seatbelt on. I would always ask, and he would start looking for the belt. Veenabahen would intone from the back- “he is not wearing a seatbelt, demote him to the backseat!” Veenabahen was very observant. When she learned what the turn signals signified and how we knew whether the car in front of us was going left or right,  she said, there should be a separate signal for cars that were going to take a U-turn!

At our Boca Raton home- 1997

They were going to return to Bharat in mid-November so there was no chance of them seeing snow (we were in Connecticut.) As luck would have it, the night before they were to leave, suddenly there was a minor snowstorm and lots of snow blanketed our front yard and driveway. My parents were delighted to see the snow for the first time in their lives and my mother made snowballs to throw at us. The next morning when my brother and I were cleaning the driveway, Veenabahen said, you should throw burning logs on the snow (we used to have a wood stove) and it would melt, saving you all the labor!

In 1989 when we were traveling in a motorhome in the Montreal area, my father died suddenly of a heart attack in the motorhome itself. It was so quick and unexpected that we all were shell-shocked. With heavy hearts, we left his body with the attending physician to transport it to a morgue and returned to our campsite. Even in such distress, Veenabahen asked all of us to have something to eat. We were not ready for it. Finally, she said to at least take a glass of milk. We were hesitant, so she said, OK, I will have the milk with you, and we had no choice but to accede to her request. Such was her strong willpower.

At a garden in Hamilton, Canada with me -1989

At Le Jardin (Botanical Garden), Montreal, 1989

During the 90s, she divided her time between staying in Bharat for longer periods and in the USA with her children. She traveled so often that one of my brothers joked that when Ma entered the Air India plane, the pilot came out and offered her a seat in the cockpit.

In 2000, we decided that she should become a citizen of the USA. At age 75, she prepared for a Citizenship interview in English with the zeal of a high school student. My niece was a high schooler then. She would bring reading material for mother and prep her with mock questions. Veenabahen got through the interview without any difficulty. Her grasping power was amazing, and she had an engineering mind; I always told her that she would have made a very good engineer, had she been allowed to complete her studies.

Mother was very flexible, so every brother’s family wanted her to stay with them. She never used a “mother-in-law card” and if she had to draw the attention of one of the daughter-in-laws regarding cooking or anything else for that matter, she would mention it one on one in a friendly tone. While many elderly people have difficulty developing a taste for food here, be it Italian or Mexican food, Veenabahen took to Pasta, Pizza, Lasagna, Taco, Burrito, etc. like a duck takes to water. A funny thing happened one day. She would watch all food-related commercials on TV and if there was something new, she would want to try it. Once there was a commercial about shrimp being fried; assuming it was some vegetarian delicacy, mother said, next time, I want to try this. It gave us a point to make fun of her for weeks.

She was always ready to hop into a car if one of us was going shopping- be it for groceries or anything else. She would move from aisle to aisle and look at all products very closely. Mother was an avid viewer of Hindi TV serials, Crime stories, and cooking shows. I do not remember the names of most of the shows, but whenever she was at our home, I would sit with her and watch the serials that she would be watching to keep her company. Because of this, I became addicted to पवित्र रिश्ता, अगले जनम मुझे बिटीया ही कीजो, यहां मैं घर घर खेली, and आप की अंतरा serials on Z TV! She loved सी.आई.डी. and अदालत shows. Her other pastime was reading. We all brothers have huge libraries, so she never tired of reading books by well-known Gujarati authors.

….….Continued to Part 4 of 5

2-A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (in five parts) A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (in five parts)

 (Vaisakh Shukla paksha Saptami, April 27, 2023.)

Gaurang Vaishnav, Tampa. FL

Part 2 of 5

Live or Die? Her Versatility:

When Bharat became independent on August 15^th, 1947, Nawab of Junagadh had not signed the instrument of accession as he was pressured by his wily prime minister to join Pakistan, since they had a large number of Muslim citizens. This prime minister Shahnawaz was none other than the father of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. So, even as we witness today in Kashmir and West Bengal, Muslims went on a rampage and Hindus left Junagadh in a hurry to other parts of today’s Gujarat state. My mother told us that for those two and a half months, many of our relatives came to our small apartment in Rajkot and later all of them went to Idar in north Gujarat where one of my uncles was a teacher. By this time, my brother, the third child was born and was only a few months old. All these took a heavy toll on my mother’s health, and she felt that she couldn’t carry on like this anymore. There was an open well where they all were staying in Idar- it was actually a school building which was vacant- and one night when she went to the well to fetch water from the well, she decided to jump in the well. At that crucial moment, she thought about her three children and the metal pot slipped from her hands and made a large sound, amplified by the totally silent night in the foothills of the mountain. My uncle heard the sound and shouted if all was well. My mother ran to the house, banishing the thought of suicide.

One day, just about after five years of separation from her family, my grandmother asked Veenabahen to take three children and visit her parents. My mother practically ran to meet her parents (by now she was 24 years old), and it being a tight-knit neighborhood, within no time all her aunts, cousins, etc. crowded my maternal grandparents’ home. I am sure their joy was no less than that Kaushalya and Sumitra felt when Bhagwan Ram, Sitaji, and Laxman returned to Ayodhya.

Veenabahen persevered in most daunting circumstances; she had married into a decidedly financially inferior and more orthodox family. While she came from a small family, while here was a large joint family. She came from a nice big, three-story bungalow with a running water tap in the kitchen and several other places and electrical lights. At her in-law’s rented house, there were only a couple of water taps and there was no electricity initially.  Even though she came from a well-to-do family, she had frugal habits. As I grew older, I remember her making woolen blankets using old sarees, torn sweaters, etc. She would arrange everything on one saree and then start stitching the pieces with a huge needle. Sometimes, she would dye the heavy thread in color to match with the outer cover. I must have been 11 or 12 years old, and I remember helping her with full enthusiasm. I learned from her to use whatever was available and on hand. Since we had to move often because of my father’s government job, my mother became an expert at packing and boxing all belongings. Here I also became her right hand and, in the process, learned the art of compact packing.

I remember we went to a mega fair that promoted Gruh Udyog. She observed how to make cardboard from old scraps of paper; she boiled the scraps into a paste and tried to replicate what she had seen. She had limited success in this project. She learned how to keep vegetables fresh (there were no refrigerators) by putting an earthen pot in a larger half-earthen pot and putting water to surround the pot with vegetables. She was so innovative and frugal that when my ink pen (before the advent of bullpens) started leaking because of a crack in the body, she made a paste of some urad lentils that was quite sticky and coated the crack on the ink pen. Esthetically, didn’t look good but I had no hesitation carrying it to school because it was repaired by my mother.

It was around this time, that she started teaching me how to make tea- those were the days of primus stove, and sometimes Sagadi-अंगीठी  (I couldn’t find appropriate English word), so how to light them was an art that I learned. On the surface, preparing tea seems easy and mundane but there is a subtle art to it that separates a professional from others. Not to boast, but even today, when there is a gathering of friends or relatives at home, I take charge of preparing tea and getting compliments- this in spite of the fact that I have not touched tea or coffee in the last 39 years. It is all due to my mother’s Ashirwad.

Instilling Samskaars, hard way:

Our parents instill Samskaars in us in various ways. There is one incident that shaped my character. I was maybe 12 years old. I was playing cricket in the street, and I owned the ball, which was a big thing in those days. Suddenly the ball went into a ditch of sewage. We were taught not to go near such unclean areas. I couldn’t afford to lose the ball either. One of the players offered to retrieve the ball and wash it provided I gave him two annas (today’s 12 paise.) I couldn’t ask my mother for the money; we brothers had made a small temple in which from time to time our parents would put some coins to encourage our bhakti. I went to that temple and silently picked up a coin, came out, and gave it to the other guy and I had my ball back. It was my luck that at night while we were sitting on the porch (otta) that boy came and demanded a replacement of the coin as what I had given him was worn out and was not accepted by shopkeepers. My mother asked that boy and he narrated the whole incident. She was quite upset. My father was on a work-related trip, and she could have easily not talked about it with him as she had already admonished me. But she insisted that this was a serious matter and that she would inform my father. For the next two days, I was walking on needles and pins. My father was a very loving and calm person. He rarely raised his hand to any of the children. However, that night after coming to know of my “adventure” he beat me black and blue. His words still ring in my ears after more than sixty years. He said, if I do not punish you now, you will grow up to be a thief. Today you stole two annas, tomorrow you will steal 200 rupees (a big sum in those days.) When I grew up, I realized that Veenabahen had done me a big favor by reporting to my father. Seeds of non-stealing, not coveting what was not mine (मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम्‌ ) were firmly implanted in my thinking that night.

In 1958, we moved to Mumbai for a period of two years as my father was transferred there with hundreds of other government employees when Maha Dwibhashi Mumbai State was created. During that time, my mother’s health became much better and in retrospect, I could sense that for her it was a homecoming. She expressed a desire to study for the Shaalant examinations which was like earning a high school diploma for people who wanted to be a teacher in primary school. She was an avid reader and always curious to learn new things, but it was not practical with five children, with one of them terribly sick all the time. That was a disappointment to her.

….….Continued to Part 3 of 5

1- A Tribute to my Matushree Veenabahen Vaishnav on her first Death Anniversary (in five parts)

 (Vaisakh Shukla paksha Saptami, April 27, 2023.)

Gaurang Vaishnav, Tampa. FL

Part 1 of 5

The Beginning:

By the Hindu calendar, today marks one year of the passing away of my matushree, Veenabahen Vaishnav. How does one pay tribute to own parent? Is it even needed? I feel that a tribute is more to help the bereaved. As I reflect on the life of my mother, I am overwhelmed by emotions. Experiences and incidents of the last 68 years, that is from my age of 10 years crowd my memory jostling for a place. These are of a very personal nature and would be of limited interest to others. All the same, they may ignite your own memories of the time spent with your parents. It is a given that for each one our parents are the most looked up to and revered beings, even when they are not perfect; and who is?

I am writing this to help myself- to remind me of her legacy and impact on my life. My mother lived to the ripe age of 98 years, so there is no regret on that count. Ishwar gave us time to be with her when we six children had reached the ages between 57 and 80 years. Not many people are that fortunate.

Veenabahen Vaishnav February 22, 1924 – May 8, 2022

My earliest clear memory of her is from when I was five years old. I had fallen from a wooden stair and was bleeding profusely. She carried me like a mother carrying a toddler and walked to a nearby doctor. I remember how she would pacify us when we wanted to buy an expensive toy at a fair and we would gladly settle for a balloon or a cheaper toy. I remember her loving care when I suffered from typhoid (so prevalent in those days) when I was nine years old. She would sit next to my bed and put a napkin soaked in Eu De Cologne on my forehead to reduce my temperature. She would make light soup of mung beans with variations as that was the only thing I was allowed to have.

We were a middle-class family with limited means and luxury was absent from our day-to-day life. On the 26th of January and the 15th of August, my school would have a parade and we were to dress in ironed white shirt and shorts. My mother would wash my uniform the day before and when it was not fully dried and a bit damp, she would fold it carefully and place it under the mattress. In the morning, we had “ironed” shirt and shorts.

Marriage was a big transition for Veenabahen. She was born in  1924  in a village near Junagadh, our native, but spent the first eight years of her life in Mumbai before returning to Junagadh. She cherished her childhood in Mumbai and even to her last day, she recalled her home in Khar (a western suburb of Mumbai). My paternal grandfather was relatively well-to-do, so all her needs were fulfilled. She was very fond of going to school and when she entered the sixth standard, she was dreaming of high school. Of course, in those days in Junagadh, which was ruled by a Muslim Nawab, very few girls made it to matriculation. There was this fear of harassment by unsocial elements and also orthodoxy in the community. To her great dismay, her mother forced her to leave school during that year- the reason given was, “I need your help in kitchen and household work.” Knowing about those times, I also understand that typically, when a girl entered puberty, her movements were restricted under one or the other pretext. Veenabahen recounted several times how she cried for days on end. It saddens me to this day to think how many bright girls’ hopes of getting an education would have been crushed.

When my mother got married, she was only 17 years old. There was a sizeable difference in her and my father’s age- 14 years to be exact. Both her in-law’s home and her paternal home were on the same street and only a stone’s throw away. That was a blessing, but good times do not last forever.

A Painful Chapter

Here starts the most painful chapter of my mother’s life and I know that my relatives and even some of my siblings wouldn’t approve of me writing about it, but her life story would be incomplete without talking about it. It had such an impact on my mother’s life that to her dying day, 75 years after the incident, she would bring it up, sometimes with tears in her eyes. About a year and a half into her marriage, when my elder sister was already born, there was a theft of some gold ornaments from my grandmother’s home. These ornaments belonged to one of my Fais (father’s sisters) and were there for safekeeping. Everyone searched every nook and cranny in the house but there was no trace of it. My mother was the only daughter-in-law in the family as other uncles were not married, one married uncle lived separately, and one windowed aunt lived on and off with her maternal relatives with her children.

What happened next was just out of Hindi cinemas of the ’50s to ’70s. My grandmother, who was a strict disciplinarian and had also suffered major setbacks in her life, accused my 19 years old mother of stealing the ornaments. For days and months, my mother was mentally tortured with all kinds of accusations, and as she narrated to us, once my father told his mother, “What do you want me to do?” because he knew that my mother was innocent. Grandmother was a judge, jury, and executioner so she said, forbid her from visiting her parents and relatives for five years and see how the stolen gold comes back. My father kept quiet; in those days, separating from a joint family was not common. Besides, my grandmother had to manage debt when my grandfather died, leaving her with young children. Before my father’s marriage my eldest uncle, at age 32, had drowned in the sea while trying to save a colleague and the family had suffered further emotional and financial hardship. All these factors must have weighed on my father’s mind, so he maintained silence though there was a nonstop verbal barrage from early morning to late night. Finally, my mother told my father that she would abide by the diktat of her mother-in-law and would cut off all relations with her family for five years. She figured that that was the only way out to maintain peace in the family.

At age 20

Mother Accepts Unusual Punishment:

So, one day my mother went to her parent’s home, took off her meager jewelry, and told them that they should consider her dead for the next five years. My maternal grandfather wanted her not to go back but my mother said that the future of her younger sister (who was almost the same age as my sister) would be impacted adversely, which was common societal norms in those days. One can only imagine the psychological damage that this did to Veenabahen. At that time my parents lived in another city where my father was a teacher but they would often come to Junagadh but there was no joy in my mother’s life. During that time, her cousin brother of her age, whom she was very fond of, became sick with TB; she came to know about it but couldn’t go to visit him. When he died, she couldn’t go to meet her aunt to offer condolences. I was born during this “captivity” of my mother. Now there was a tradition in our community and in our town that when the first son was born in a family, a guy with a Dhol would go around in the neighborhood (which was mostly all from our caste) and beat the Dhol. People would come out and inquire about who gave birth.  So, when I was born the guy with the Dhol was commissioned.  Since my maternal grandparent’s house was nearby, my maternal grandmother sent my three-year-old Masi (my mother’s sister) to go out and find out who had given birth to a son. My Masi came back and announced that some Pravinabahen (my mother’s name before marriage) had a son! What a tragedy that they had to learn from a third party about their grandchild’s birth. During this period my maternal grandfather had a heart attack. My mother saw a car near her parent’s home- in those days there were only a very few cars in Junagadh and in our neighborhood, a car meant a British doctor’s visit. So, my mother was highly concerned; later, she found out the truth but at that time my grandmother had gone on a “Yaatra”, so there was no question of seeking permission or doing anything behind her back. My mother kept crying and was consoled by my aunts.  Think of your daughters and sisters today who are 20 years old to understand the cruelty of this situation.

….….Continued to Part 2 of 5

A Writeup on Shraddha

Namaste. Today (September 10, 2022) is the start of Shraddhpaksha. One of our very active senior members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) ‘s Governing Council has compiled the following beautiful writing which would be useful to all. Please feel free to share it with others.
Out of sheer modesty, he has asked me not to put his name in the write-up. However, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please respond here and he will reach out to you.
Dhnayavaad.
Brotherly yours,
Gaurang G. Vaishnav
Tampa, FL
732-754-1727

Namaste

1. Shraddh Paksha this year is from 10 Sep through 25 Sep 2022. It is a beautiful way to remember our ancestors for three generations and value one’s roots. Please request the priest at your local temple for proper observances.
2. If you are unable to establish a connection with the priest/temple, here is a simple but important ritual: Take a shower/bath and offer a glass of water in the direction of the sun in the morning in the loved ones’ memory. Let the fingertips touch the water being poured out. Another part of the tradition is to put a pinch of sesame seeds in that water. Read on for further background.
3. Shraddh is performed on the same lunar date (tithi) as the one when the person passed away. ((Example: If an ancestor passed away on the tenth day of the lunar calendar, his/her shraddha is observed on the tenth day in the aforementioned shraddha period). Shraddh is done for three generations (of the deceased): Parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
4. How to find the tithi and its corresponding date? Once you have the date of death, enter the date, place, and time of death of the departed person in a tool such as http://www.drikpanchang.com/…/hindu-shraddha-tithi…
5. Many people who have migrated to the USA might have been too young when they came and may not have the exact dates of death for three generations. The workaround is: If you miss the date or do not know the date, you can do it on the makeup date which is the last day of the Shraddh period (this year on Sept 25th, 2022).
6. Big Work-Around: Someone I know just offers tarpan every day during the sixteen-day Shraddh period to cover all his bases as an act of gratitude to his ancestors! We may have never met our great Grandparents, but we still carry their genes. Blessings from Pitras are also believed to bestow well-being in our family.
7. It is also a good occasion to perform acts of generosity that may please the departed souls. Some examples include local soup kitchens, support-a-child, Ekal Vidyalaya, Akshay Patra, serving at an old age home, etc.
   Compiled from various sources by a senior Governing Council member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA.)
   <.www.vhp-america.org>, <officeadmin@vho-america.org, 732-744-0851

An article by Pandit Vijay Kant Shastri ji of Amritsar is quoted below for your perusal.
श्राद्ध कर्म माहात्म्य
“श्रद्धया यद्दीयते तत् श्राद्धम्”अर्थात श्रद्धा पूर्वक अपने पितरों के लिए जो भी दान इत्यादि पुण्य कर्म किए जाते हैं,उसे श्राद्ध कहते हैं ।मनुष्य के उपर तीन ऋण हैं । देव ऋण, ऋषि ऋण और पितृ ऋण। माता पिता ने जन्म दिया, पालन पोषण,रक्षण किया ।हमारे जीवन की सभी आवश्यकताओं को पूरा किया । माता पिता की सेवा सम्मान एवं पितरों का श्राद्ध करके ही हम इस ऋण को उतार सकते हैं ।यही मानव जीवन का धर्म है,नही तो हमारा जीवन पशु के समान है ।श्राद्ध करने से पितरों की कृपा प्राप्त होती है ।पितरों की कृपा के बिना परमेश्वर एवं साधु-सन्तों की कृपा भी प्राप्त नहीं होती । जिन मात पिता की सेवा की, तिन तीरथ स्नान कियो न कियो पितरों के आशीर्वाद से सन्तान सुलक्षणा एवं यश मान कीर्ति को बढाने वाली होती है ।माता पिता का सम्मान एवं पितरों का श्राद्ध करने से जीवन की बाधाएं दूर होती हैं । अगर पितर रुष्ट हो जाएं तो कुल को श्राप दे देते हैं ।जिससे सन्तान नहीं होती, अगर हो जाए तो माता पिता को अत्यंत कष्ट देने वाली होती है ।जिससे माता पिता का जीवन नर्क बन जाता है ।भगवान राम ने भी अपने पिता दशरथ जी का श्राद्ध विधि पूर्वक किया था ।जो मनुष्य सभी ऋणों से उऋण होकर इस संसार से जाता है ,वह मोक्ष को प्राप्त होता है ।इसलिए देव पूजन, शास्त्रोक्त जीवन एवं साधु सन्तों का आशीर्वाद, पितरों का श्राद्ध करने से मनुष्य क्रमशः देव ऋण,ऋषि ऋण एवं पितृ ऋण से मुक्त होता है ।यही शास्त्रोक्त एवं आदर्श मानव जीवन है ।अन्यथा मनुष्य और पशु में कोई अन्तर नहीं ।पितरों को स्मरण करने के लिये ऋषियों ने पितृ पक्ष की व्यवस्था की है ।जिस प्रकार हम अपने सभी त्यौहार मनाकर प्राचीन इतिहास को स्मरण करते हैं,उसी प्रकार हमें पितरों को श्रद्धा पूर्वक स्मरण एवं उनके निमित्त दान पुण्य करके आशीर्वाद प्राप्त करना चाहिए ।इससे जीवन में सुख समृद्धि आती है । सन्तान आज्ञाकारी एवं अच्छे संस्कारों से युक्त होती है। आओ सभी मिल कर श्राद्ध कर्म एवं सनातन संस्कृति को पुनर्जीवित करें l
श्राद्ध कर्म: कब, क्यों और कैसे?
भारतीय शास्त्रों में ऐसी मान्यता है कि पितृगण पितृपक्ष में पृथ्वी पर आते हैं और 15 दिनों तक पृथ्वी पर रहने के बाद अपने लोक लौट जाते हैं। शास्त्रों में बताया गया है कि पितृपक्ष के दौरान पितृ अपने परिजनों के आस-पास रहते हैं इसलिए इन दिनों कोई भी ऐसा काम नहीं करें जिससे पितृगण नाराज हों। पितरों को खुश रखने के लिए पितृ पक्ष में कुछ बातों पर विशेष ध्यान देना चाहिए।
पितृ पक्ष के दौरान , जामाता, भांजा, मामा, गुरु, नाती को भोजन कराना चाहिए। इससे पितृगण अत्यंत प्रसन्न होते हैं भोजन करवाते समय भोजन का पात्र दोनों हाथों से पकड़कर लाना चाहिए अन्यथा भोजन का अंश राक्षस ग्रहण कर लेते हैं जिससे ब्राह्मणों द्वारा अन्न ग्रहण करने के बावजूद पितृगण भोजन का अंश ग्रहण नहीं करते हैं।
पितृ पक्ष में द्वार पर आने वाले किसी भी जीव-जंतु को मारना नहीं चाहिए बल्कि उनके योग्य भोजन का प्रबंध करना चाहिए। हर दिन भोजन बनने के बाद एक हिस्सा निकालकर गाय, कुत्ता, कौआ अथवा बिल्ली को देना चाहिए। मान्यता है कि इन्हें दिया गया भोजन सीधे पितरों को प्राप्त हो जाता है।
शाम के समय घर के द्वार पर एक दीपक जलाकर पितृगणों का ध्यान करना चाहिए।
हिंदू धर्म ग्रंथों के अनुसार जिस तिथि को जिसके पूर्वज गमन करते हैं, उसी तिथि को उनका श्राद्ध करना चाहिए। इस पक्ष में जो लोग अपने पितरों को जल देते हैं तथा उनकी मृत्युतिथि पर श्राद्ध करते हैं, उनके समस्त मनोरथ पूर्ण होते हैं। जिन लोगों को अपने परिजनों की मृत्यु की तिथि ज्ञात नहीं होती, उनके लिए पितृ पक्ष में कुछ विशेष तिथियां भी निर्धारित की गई हैं, जिस दिन वे पितरों के निमित्त श्राद्ध कर सकते हैं। गीता में भगवान ने कहा है पितरों के तृप्त होने पर मैं ही तृप्त होता हूँ ।
श्राद्धों में पितरों के सम्मान की सरल विधि
1.प्रातः उठकर सभी पितरों को प्रणाम करें
2.प्रतिदिन ताम्बे के पात्र से तिल मिश्रित जल से पितरों का तर्पण करें ।
3.गाय, कुत्ते, कौए को प्रतिदिन रोटी खिलाएं ।
4.अतिथियों की भरपूर सेवा करें ।
5.पितरों की श्राद्ध तिथि को भावपूर्ण होकर ब्राह्मण को भोजन कराएं
6.किसी का दिल न दुखाएं,घर के बुजुर्गों का आशीर्वाद लें और संयम पूर्वक रहें ।

श्राद्ध का आधुनिक स्वरूप वृद्धाश्रम में जाकर बुजुर्गों की सेवा करें, दान पुण्य से उन्हें प्रसन्न करें ।उनके चेहरे की खुशी ही आपके पितरों की प्रसन्नता है । ऊँ शान्तिः

विजय कान्त शास्त्री प्रभाकर एम.ए.बी एड. रिटायर्ड प्राध्यापक संस्कृत एवं हिन्दी विभाग ज्योतिष एवं कर्मकाण्ड विशेषज्ञ ।

Republicans’ Jan. 6 Responsibility The GOP has a duty to condemn the riot and those who refuse to acknowledge it.

Mr. karl Rove is a staunch Republican who has masterminded campaigns of past Republican presidential candidates. – Gaurang

Wall Street Journal

OPINION •

COMMENTARY

By Karl Rove

Jan. 5, 2022 6:15 pm ET

We’re in an acrimonious period of partisan tribalism and have been for some time. Both parties are guilty of overwrought denunciations of their political opponents. My criticisms are often aimed at Democrats; on the anniversary of Jan. 6, I’m addressing squarely those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral College’s results, and violently attempted to overturn the election.

These apologists say those who stormed the Capitol were innocent patriots, tourists visiting the seat of the national government to petition their elected representatives peacefully. We’re told that these harmless, ordinary Americans are being persecuted as political prisoners. Let’s stipulate that while the thousands who went to the Capitol a year ago were wrong to insist the election was stolen, most weren’t violent as they exercised their First Amendment rights to gather peacefully on the Mall—just as I had seen liberals gather to protest both inaugurations of President George W. Bush.

But last year there were several thousand protesters willing to use force to disrupt Congress in its constitutional duty to receive and certify the electoral vote. Some went to Washington with that purpose in mind. Others were swept up in the moment’s savagery, led astray by stronger wills with dangerous motives. The leaders of this group were intent on committing violence, some having planned to do so for weeks. Many wore tactical gear. Some came armed with chemical agents, flagpoles, batons and sticks.

They broke through barricades and assaulted approximately 140 police officers, in some cases with an officer’s own shield or gear. They smashed doors and windows, illegally entered the Capitol, ransacked offices and searched for leaders of Congress, and made dire threats about what would happen if they found them. More than 725 people have been charged so far, and law enforcement is searching for hundreds more suspects who appear on video or social media, some recorded attacking police officers. At least 163 people have pleaded guilty, and 71 have been sentenced. Only one defendant’s charges have been dismissed. Many of the most serious trials have yet to be held, as lawyers prepare defenses or negotiate plea deals.

So, on this anniversary, here’s a simple thought experiment: What if the other side had done it? What if in early January 2017, Democrats similarly attired and armed had stormed the Capitol and attempted to keep Congress from receiving the Electoral College results for the 2016 presidential election? What if Democrats claimed that Donald Trump’s razor-thin victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin resulted from extensive voter fraud and should be rejected, despite having failed to establish in a single court that extensive fraud had actually occurred? What if some of these Democrats breached the Capitol defenses and threatened violence against the Republican speaker, Paul Ryan, and Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell? What if they insisted that in his role as Senate president then-Vice President Joe Biden had sole authority to seat Hillary Clinton’s electors from any contested states and thereby hand her the presidency?

If this happened, would some of my fellow Republicans have accepted it as merely a protest? Would they have called patriots those charged with violent acts against our country, its laws and Constitution? Would they have accepted such extralegal means to change the outcome of a presidential election?

No they would not. I’m certain of that. If Democrats had done what some Trump supporters did on that violent Jan. 6, Republicans would have criticized them mercilessly and been right to do so. Republicans would have torched any high official who encouraged violence or stood mute while it was waged and been right to do so. Republicans would have demanded an investigation to find who was responsible for the violence and been right to do so.

To move beyond Jan. 6, 2021, we must put country ahead of party. For Democrats, that means resisting their leadership’s petty habit of aggravating partisan fault lines by indiscriminately condemning all who came to Washington that day.

We Republicans have a heavier burden. I’ve been a Republican my entire life, and believe in what the Republican Party, at its best, has represented for decades. There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy. Love of country demands nothing less. That’s true patriotism.

Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads and is author of “The Triumph of William McKinley” (Simon & Schuster, 2015).

https://apple.news/AtCQZ0gAKShGe9HZuBZAkTA

Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT)- Discredited

Gaurang Vaishnav

Namaste. In the 2020 Fall semester, I took an online course- Reconstructing Hindu History- The Commissions with the Hindu University of America. I had to write two papers. I want to share with you my midterm paper on Aryan Invasion Theory. We all know and talk about the hoax of the Aryan Invasion but many times we do not have time or occasion to study it. The course, taught by Dr. Raj Vedam was exceedingly interesting and complex. This paper just scratches the surface but it should be useful in creating more interest in the subject. I owe a debt of gratitude to Prof. vedam for opening doors to a vast field of knowledge with his painstaking research, lucid style of presentation and immense patience answering all our questions, well past the scheduled end of every class.

Dhnayavaad.

Gaurang G. Vaishnav

Part 1 of 4

• Abstract: Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) or Migration Theory (MT) has been around for a few centuries. Motivated people with their own agenda have a stranglehold on this false narrative and they do not allow alternative proofs and theories to be considered seriously. Here we briefly examine the alternative theories that turn AIT on its head.

• Keywords: Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), Dravidian, Christian Missionaries

• Introduction – We will see the reasons for the propagation of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT). We will also see what unbiased researchers have to say about the problems with AIT.

I have depended on the works of Michel Danino, David Frawley, Koenraad Elst, Bansi Pandit, Stephen Knapp and the Hindu Wisdom portal. I have read prior works of all these authors except that of Stephen Knapp. My impression is that while they have a deep love for Hinduism and Bharat, they are not biased toward them in their presentations. They look at the AIT from a researcher’s eyes, one who is seeking truth. They are also fighting a well-entrenched group of researchers who have formed a closed group determined to continue to propagate AIT.

• I intend to present; How Aryan Invasion Theory came about; What the proponents of AIT say; Literature survey; Bias and unwillingness to change opinion in face of new discoveries; Political implications.

Main section – Western archeologists, anthropologists, philologists and historians have postulated the Theory of Aryan Invasion (AIT) and nurtured it with circular arguments. Perhaps, Max Muller is the main culprit. Many of these scholars were Christian Missionaries and their reasoning was influenced by the Christian concept of the beginning of life on earth. Since it was generally believed that the world was created around 4000 BCE, they outright rejected anything that was supposed to have a beginning before 4000 BCE. Max Muller arbitrarily assumed the time interval of development of each Veda at 200 years. Knowing that Buddha lived around 500 BCE and that the Vedas were composed prior to Buddha, Max Muller calculated the date of the arrival of Aryans in India as 500 BCE + 200 years (per time interval) x 5 (time intervals) = 1500 BCE Thus, Vedic astrology that pointed to thousands of years before 4000 BCE was discarded as myth.

The Vedas speak of wars between forces of light and forces of the dark. We know that to be allegorical, pointing to the war between the virtues and evil but these “scholars” took its literal meaning and came up with the theory of Aryans from outside attacking and banishing the Dravidians to the south. However, Current archaeological data have revealed that the Indus Valley culture was not destroyed by any outside invasion, but by natural causes, such as seismic events and floods.¹

PART 2 of 4

AIT also talks about Aryan hoards coming on horse and chariots. Since Rig Veda mentions horse and chariot, and AIT assumes that there were no horses in India at that time, AIT tells us that the Aryans brought Veda from outside or wrote Vedas after they settled in Bharat.

David Frawley says that Early investigators based the non-Vedic claim for the Indus Valley culture on the absence of horses and chariots at the sites, such as are prominently mentioned in the Vedas. However, horses have been found, as well as wheeled toys that suggest the use of carts And chariots much as in the Vedas… There is nothing in the Vedas making the horse or the chariot a special possession of the Vedic people. They are rather part of the general culture of the region. We should also note that the chariots are not the vehicles of the nomadic people, nor do they function well in mountain or desert terrain from which the so-called Aryan invasion occurred.²

Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, in his book, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization categorically states that the decline of this ancient civilization was due to natural causes and not because of destruction by invading nomads. He makes a clear rejection of the Aryan invasion theory, which the distinguished British anthropologist, Edmund Leach,(1910-1981) has termed a theory born out of European racism.³

J. F. Jarrige and R. H. Meadow in the August, 1980 issue of Scientific American called “The Antecedents of Civilization in the Indus Valley” mention that recent excavations at Mehrgarh (Pakistan) show that the antecedents of the Indus Valley culture go back earlier than 6,000 B. C. in India. An outside influence did not affect its development. Astronomical references established in the Vedas do indeed concur with the date of Mehrgarh. Therefore, sites such as Mehrgarh reflect the earlier Vedic age of India. Thus, we have a theory of an Aryan invasion which is not remembered by the people of the area that was supposed to have been conquered by the Aryans.⁴

The AIT was turned into a political tool in order to question the Indian identity of the Indians, and thereby weaken the claims of Indians to own their own country. This political use of the AIT continues till today, especially at the hands of what Hindu nationalists call “the anti-nationalist forces.” Christian “liberation theologians,’ Islamic missionaries, assorted separatists and like minded anti-Hindu or anti-India activists are still highlighting the AIT in order to:
(1) Mobilize the lower caste people against the upper caste people
(2) Mobilize Dravidian-speakers against speakers of Indo European (IE) languages, esp. through the Dravidian Separatist movement started by the Britishers in 1916.
(3) Mobilize the tribals who have been given the new name “aboriginals” (ādivāsi) as part of this strategy against the non-tribals, who are to be treated on a par with the European invaders of America and Australia.
(4) Mobilize Indian politicians towards delegitimizing Sanskrit that “foreign language brought by the Aryan invaders” as India’s culture language and as a school subject in order to further dehinduize India and weaken her cultural unity.
(5) Mobilize the world opinion against the “racist Aryans”, meaning the Hindus, since they are the “Aryan invaders wo imposed the caste system as a kind of Apartheid to preserve the racial purity and dominance”, never mind the fact that the association of “Aryan” with “race” is a strictly European invention unknown to Hindu tradition.⁵

Professor, Dr. Raj Vedam

PART 3 of 4

“It is important to examine the social and political implications of the Aryan invasion idea:

First, it served to divide India into a northern Aryan and southern Dravidian culture which were made hostile to each other. This kept the Hindus divided and is still a source of social tension. Second, it gave the British an excuse in their conquest of India. They could claim to be doing only what the Aryan ancestors of the Hindus had previously done millennia ago. Third, it served to make Vedic culture later than and possibly derived from Middle Eastern cultures. With the proximity and relationship of the latter with the Bible and Christianity, this kept the Hindu religion as a sidelight to the development of religion and civilization to the West.

Fourth, it allowed the sciences of India to be given a Greek basis, as any Vedic basis was largely disqualified by the primitive nature of the Vedic culture.

This discredited not only the ‘Vedas’ but the genealogies of the ‘Puranas’ and their long list of the kings before the Buddha or Krishna were left without any historical basis.

The ‘Mahabharata’, instead of a civil war in which all the main kings of India participated as it is described, became a local skirmish among petty princes that was later exaggerated by poets. In short, it discredited the most of the Hindu tradition and almost all its ancient literature. It turned its scriptures and sages into fantasies and exaggerations.

This served a social, political and economical purpose of domination, proving the superiority of Western culture and religion. It made the Hindus feel that their culture was not the great thing that their sages and ancestors had said it was. It made Hindus feel ashamed of their culture – that its basis was neither historical nor scientific. It made them feel that the main line of civilization was developed first in the Middle East and then in Europe and that the culture of India was peripheral and secondary to the real development of world culture.

Such a view is not good scholarship or archeology but merely cultural imperialism. The Western Vedic scholars did in the intellectual sphere what the British army did in the political realm – discredit, divide and conquer the Hindus. In short, the compelling reasons for the Aryan invasion theory were neither literary nor archeological but political and religious – that is to say, not scholarship but prejudice.”⁶

Michel Danino has written extensively highlighting how AIT is prejudiced and not tenable in view of all available evidence.

“The discovery of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa set off a virtual comedy of errors. At first, archeologists and historians who had accepted the invasion theory concluded that this civilization was “pre-Aryan” and therefore pre-Vedic, since it was clearly more ancient than the supposed arrival of the Aryans in India about 1500 BCE. To make it fit in with the invasion paradigm, they also assumed that its creators must have been Dravidians; then they declared that a few skeletons found at Mohenjo-Daro provided evidence of slaughters committed by the advancing Aryans- “Indra stands accused”, declared the British archeologist Mortimer Wheeler, Indra being , of course, the chief of the “Aryan” gods.

Thus, was born one more myth, that of a blood-socked end to the Dravido-Harappan civilization at the hands of the fierce Aryans! But it was shabby archeology: the U.S. archeologist G. F. Dales proved in 1964 that the owners of the said skeletons had lived at different periods; moreover, neither weapons nor any signs of war were found at the supposed sites of the “mythical massacre”, as he called it: “Despite the extensive excavations at the largest Harappan sites there is not a single bit of evidence that can be brought forth as unconditional proof of an armed conquest and the destruction on the supposed scale of the Aryan invasion.”⁷

PART 4 of 4

Conclusions:
• As one reads more and more research work of scholars who have questioned the AIT, it becomes clear that the purveyors of AIT are scholars who have an ulterior motive which has religious, political and cultural overtones as well.

A strong lobby of homegrown researchers has to be created to take on the vested interests. Exposing the mischief makers, especially of the Leftist variety is important. Government of the day has to be pressurized to evaluate sitting members of ICHR and weed out the biased “researchers.”

Here is an example of the extent of the reach of the AIT proponents. When I looked up Wikipedia for Michel Danino, this is what I found:

Peter Heehs noted one of his another works:- Sri Aurobindo and Indian Civilization, to lack in linguistic knowledge which was made up by attacks on colonial orientalists and half-informed invocations of nationalist orientalists.[6] Heehs also criticized Danino’s other works for appropriating Sri Aurobindo in his campaign against the Indo-Aryan migrations and for distorting Aurobindo’s speculative views as assertions.[6] Danino selectively cherry-picked quotes from his draft-manuscripts and ignored his published works, which were far nuanced.[6] Others have accused Danino of pursuing a sectarian Hindutva oriented scholarship based on historical negationism.[7][8][9]

More work needs to be done to educate people of Bharat, especially students to the ugly reality of AIT. The government should be pressurized to correct the textbooks by giving equal space to theories that question AIT. More research should be encouraged to establish Outward immigration theory and also counter every false narrative wherever it occurs. This will need a number of astute volunteers with deep sense and study of history. They would act as the front for the researchers who cannot or should not indulge in “street fight” for the fear of being labeled Hindutva propagandist.

There are other aspects that discredit AIT such as Genetics and Astronomy which I have not touched upon here due to space limitation of the term paper.

My final term paper was on How can Hindus succeed in correcting Aryan Invasion Theory and other misrepresented aspects of Hindu History? I will post it here soon.

References:

1. The Hindu Mind: Fundamentals of Hindu Religion and Philosophy for All Ages – By Bansi Pandit B & V Enterprises 1996. page 312-315).

2. God, Sages and Kings Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization by David Frawley 1991p. 252

3. Hindu Wisdom.info/aryan_invasion_theory

4. Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence – By Stephen Knapp p. 42

5. Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate by Koenraad Elst Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, 1999 p.19-22

6. http://www.hinduwisdom.info/aryan_invasion_theory9.htm Hollow Earth Theory and ther Aryan Invasion by Dean De Lucia/Dharmapada Dasa

7. The Invasion That Never Was- By Michel Danino, Vivekananda Kendra Prakasan Trust, Chennai, Second Edition 2011 p. 80

The Hindu University of America has many interesting courses. I urge you to check them out at <https://www.hua.edu/academics/programs/> and take advantage of this opportunity to equip yourself with better tools to protect, preserve and propagate Hindu Dharma.

Pre-Election Day Musings by Dr. A. V. Srinivasan

My friend, Dr. Srinivasan was encouraged by Dr. Suresh Kumar’s poem (published on this blog) to write down his own musings. Here they are!

Glad to see the poem by Suresh published.

I was also trying to get myself distracted and considered several alternatives to turning on the TV until about this time tomorrow! None of my ideas work!

I thought I would climb one of several great trees in my front yard; mind said OK but it is cold and windy and the body’s answer was “you are kidding right”!

Then I thought why not take some beginner’s lessons online in Bharata Natyam! Wonderful idea said the mind but the body’s answer was the same with an added note: “Don’t embarrass yourself in front of your wife!!”

Then it occurred to me “why not follow Suresh’s example and thought of Sir Walter Scott’s poem about “the man whose soul so dead …” and tried my hand at it but could not complete beyond:

There in the USA breathe men, that forty percent, whose souls are so deadand who never to themselves hath said, my country comes first, …

Then it occurred to me that I should simply meditate and as I began all the swing states began to dance with colors of blue, purple and red!!!

None of those things worked as you can clearly see!!

Then suddenly as I was going here and there in my old files on my laptop I found the final draft of a book I had written on “Hindu Scriptures”!!

I am trying to read it but decided only to read but not edit because I may inadvertently replace some words with such words as Michigan, electoral college, Pennsylvania or Florida or deplorable,etc.

I will just read and share it with both my friends.

24 hours!!
Dr.Amrutur (Sheenu) Srinivasan

www.avsrinivasan.com