What are you wearing?

It seems that I cannot retire from political writing. The latest issue that has caught my (and the country's) attention is the Hijab Ban by the Karnataka Government. I believe that whatever could be said about the issue has already been said - either in courts of law or on news channels or in newspapers etc. Therefore, this post probably does not have anything new to offer. Even though I am a lawyer, I am not going into the legal niceties of the ban. 

Instead, I am going to present 3 arguments against the ban. This style is reminiscent of my college debating days and perhaps I would be able to do justice to my younger rebellious self.

1) Education is God

Universal education/literacy has been an illusive dream for India. The State has consistently made efforts to make school education attractive to parents and children. Primary education has been made free and compulsory. The State provides uniforms, books, materials etc. free of cost. No child is left behind. The schools also provide mid-day meals to ensure proper nutrition for the children and to incentivise parents to send their children to school. Particularly, for the girl child, the Central Government came out with the flagship program - Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. We should also not forget that a school is a sanctuary for children, protecting them from child labour. Thus, education is the God of practical life - it protects, it nurtures, it propels and without it, we are utterly clueless. Thus, the State has always worked towards universal education by removing barriers and incentivising parents. The Hijab ban is a retrograde step - as it creates an impediment for certain children. They (and their families by implication) are compelled to choose between their personal/spiritual God and the God of practical life; a choice no child should be burdened with. Such a choice will only limit access to education. Thus, for this reason alone, there should not be a Hijab ban.

2) Anti-Hindu

The move has been touted as anti-minority - a specific attack on Muslims by a majority Hindu leaning BJP government. I am not getting into that. Whatever the motivations, in the long run, the move is potentially anti-Hindu. You will find various articles that would say that Hinduism is a way of life. Hinduism is all pervasive - it effects all aspects of your life. If you're an ardent Hindu, you will find that Hinduism has prescriptions regarding what to eat, what to wear, how to worship, who to befriend, who to marry etc. The Dharma Shastras cover almost the entire spectrum of life (and death and beyond). Because of this all pervasiveness, the public and the private life of a Hindu is determined (or at least affected) by her religion. 

Now, the ultimate goal of the Hijab ban is to create secular public places/spaces devoid of religious presence. While all of this looks great in imagination, it is almost impossible to achieve in India due to the pervasiveness of religion in our life.  Let me illustrate. You have today started with a head scarf. Tomorrow the argument could be that schools should not have holidays on religious festivals, as that is anti-secular. The argument could be extended to say that Hindus cannot wear yajnopavita or kada or rudraaksha to schools. It could further be extended to school uniforms as they stand today - Is shirt-pant Christian? Is salwar-suit Hindu or Muslim? Lets move to food - should mid-day meals contain eggs, as they have protein content and the dietary restrictions of the children be ignored? 

Morning assemblies of schools are also not immune to religious interference. I have heard morning assembly prayers of schools that contain requests to God for strength (among other things). Any student of the University of Delhi would attest that on Basant Panchmi, Goddess Saraswati is worshipped by students on University grounds. That will also have to stop. Holi also cannot be celebrated on Government college grounds. 

The purpose of the above is not to engage in whataboutery. It is meant to illustrate the pervasiveness of religion and the near impossible task of removing it from our public spaces. What will you retain? What will you remove? Where do you begin? Where do you stop?

I have said this before and I am repeating myself. I believe that India is at Nash equilibrium. To make someone better off, we always end up making someone worse off. There is a somewhat comfortable interference that religion has in our everyday life and there is a somewhat comfortable tolerance for it as well. The moment you stoke the fire of discomfort, there is a possibility of everything becoming uncomfortable.

And because Hinduism is a way of life, the stripping of activities (if done objectively) would effect them the most.

3) Better things to do

This is 2022. Don't we have better things to do? We are still battling a pandemic. I am certain there are more pressing things to read or write or legislate on. This year we celebrate 75 years of independence. Over this time, there has been much talk (and progress) on women empowerment, equal pay-equal work, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao et al. If after all this, we are back to deciding what young girls should wear to school, then it begs the question - What have we achieved? I mean, really? Kuch aur nahi hai kya karne ko?

Tilak and Dhoti Kurta - April 2016, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi 

Quite distressing to imagine that there could be a ban on wearing this

[Photo credits: Aarti Kumar]

Basant Panchmi

Many years ago, I had written a poem on the occasion of Basant Panchmi. Today is also Basant Panchmi. So here is another composition to the Goddess. I pray that the Goddess grants the boon of विवेक (the ability to discriminate between true and false) to all of you.

क्षमा

रूठ गया था जग से,

उठ रहा था विश्वास तुम पर से,

पर आज क्षमा कर दें देवी,

नहीं दिख रही थी तुम्हारी छवी। (१)

तुम्हें सीमित कर दिया था पत्थर मे,

तुम तो थी प्रत्यक्ष, माँ के रूप मे,

पालन पोषण कर तुमने बडा किया,

डाट फटकार कर तुमने सीधा किया। (२)

अध्यापिका बन जगत ज्ञान कराया,

गुरू बन मोक्ष मार्ग दिखाया,

हर अक्षर है तुम्हारा आकार,

संपूर्ण उपलब्धि है तुम्हारा उपकार। (३)

सुहृद बन गुरू से मिलाया,

ज्ञान की किरण से अंधकार भगाया,

आरती मे सुन्दर साज़ सुनाया,

भक्त बन प्रेम करना सिखाया। (४)

पत्नी मे भी तुम ही समाई,

विभिन्न रागों कि पहचान करवाई,

साथ बिठा कर यज्ञ कराया,

मधुर स्वर मे भजन सुनाया। (५)

वकालत मे भी साथ न छोड़ा,

विपक्ष के तर्क को तुम ने तोड़ा,

सत्य ही प्रिय है, यह तुम्हारा ही आशीष है,

तुम ही सत्य हो, सारी हार मेरी है। (६)

 

वाक भी तो हो तुम,

हर कविता हर गीत है तुम्हारी धुन,

कहने को करता हूँ मैं अर्चना,

पर है तो सब कुछ तुम्हारी रचना! (७)

तुम हमेशा थी मेरे संग,

परंतु मैं न देख पाया तुम्हारे अनेक रंग,

मूढ ही रहा, भूल गया कि यह है माया,

तुम हो सब, मैं सिर्फ एक साया। (८)

पर आज क्षमा कर दें देवी,

और मान ले मेरी एक विनती,

प्रयास से दिखती हो दूसरों में,

अब दर्शन दे दो हृदय मे! (९)

*****

I was upset with the world, 

Was losing faith in You,

But, today, forgive me Devi,

I could not see Your reflection. (1)

I had limited You to stone,

You were in front of me, as my Mother,

You raised and nurtured me,

You scolded and corrected me. (2)

As my teacher, You gave me worldly knowledge,

As my Guru, You showed me the path to liberation,

Every alphabet is Your form,

All achievements are Your blessings. (3)

As a dear friend, You introduced me to my Guru,

As a ray of knowledge, You dissipated darkness,

As Aarti, You played many instruments,

As a devotee, You taught love. (4)

You are present even in my wife,

You helped me appreciate various Ragas,

You made me do Yagya,

You sang beautiful Bhajans. (5)

In advocacy, You did not abandon me,

You defeated arguments of the opponent,

It is Your blessings that Truth is dear (to me),

You are Truth, all defeat is mine. (6)

You also are voice,

All poems and songs are your tunes,

It appears that I make an offering (to You),

But everything is Your creation! (7)

You were always with me,

But I could not see your various forms,

I remained a fool, forgot that this is an illusion,

You are everything, I am only a reflection. (8)

But, today, forgive me Devi,

And agree to my one request,

With effort, I see You in others,

Now, let me see You in my heart! (9)

*****

Apologies for recycling the same photo :)

Born again

Never lose faith, you shall ascend;

In the darkness, the Moon will guide you.

2021 was a tough year for me. I know it to be tougher for others. This is to your determination.

The other night, when I could not sleep and when my mind was whirling with unnecessary thoughts, a rather interesting thought arose - Would I like to be born again? Would I like to repeat the life that I have led? Or would I like to came back, perhaps, in different circumstances?

My immediate answer was - No. That answer led to a consequential thought - If 'life' was not worth repeating, did that imply that 'life' was not 'worth it'? That unsettled me. Was my life really not 'worth it'? I sat up. Why did I feel that 'life' was not 'worth it'?

The answer was standard - life is a struggle, the world sorrowful. Shakespeare rightly said that the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. The same is true for life. When asked to assess our lives, our instinctive reaction would be to focus on the misery. Mostly, we are ingrates (at least I am).

However, even reasoned analysis would suggest that life contains a good amount of misery. In the  भगवद्गीता (Bhagwad Gita), भगवान कृष्ण (Bhagwan Krishna) describes the world as an abode of misery. (दुःखालय - Chapter 8 - Verse 15). In the womb, we face great pain. In the शिवापराध क्षमापन स्तोत्रम् (Shiv Apradh Kshamapan Stotra), भगवान आदि शंकराचार्य (Bhagwan Adi Shankaracharya) describes the misery faced by the baby in the womb, as she is placed between the digestive fire and bodily waste (Verse 1). Once out, we face all kinds of troubles. Life is an endless struggle. A battle against misery. In fact, in the गर्भोपनिषतद् (Garbhopanishad), it is said that in the womb, the baby remembers all her past lives and the collective misery and thereafter resolves to take refuge of the Lord when she comes out of the womb. The baby does not want to be born again. She also desires freedom from the continued misery. However, on birth, माया (Maya i.e.: ignorance) envelopes her and she forgets all her past lives and the associated misery. 

One would argue that life is also filled with brighter things. Some small - like seeing a peacock next to your car, or a rainbow when you're at the temple, or beautiful flowers lined by the side of the road. Some bigger - like finding love, or becoming a parent, or the presence of your Guru, or the comfort of a true friend. 

Thus, life is an ebb and flow of good and bad times - ये जीवन है, थोडे गम है, थोडी खुशियाँ. There is great contentment and happiness in accepting that there will be good times and that there will be bad times. But the initial question remains - Does that make life 'worth it'? Misery reduces the worthiness of a life. Even if one has to experience misery, there must be something good that must come out of it. Is that 'good' worth the misery? For this, we must know the 'good' that we are chasing. Because, to my mind, a lot of the misery is caused by our own indecisiveness and confusion regarding our wants. We don't know what we want. We don't know what we are working towards. There is no goal. There is no plan. There is misery.

12 years ago, in one of my regular sense of life posts, I had said life can't be a torture (that) we have to bear. Back then, I had hoped that all of us would find our purpose. After a decade, my thoughts are the same. Life can't be a torture.

Life must have meaning. A purpose. A drive. Perhaps, working towards that purpose would make life (and the misery associated with it) 'worth it'. The achievement of the purpose is not that important. What gives meaning to life is the continuous pursuit towards something. Bhagat Singh fought for independence and died for independence, but independence was not achieved in his lifetime. Even though the goal was not achieved, the life was meaningful. A life spent towards a goal is a meaningful life and that life is worth the misery. Imagine yourself looking back at the timeline of your life - would you say that you lived well? If the answer to that is yes, then life was worth it. Also, the joy is in the pursuit. Once the end is achieved, then what do you do? Therefore, never underestimate the journey.

It is can be quite tiresome to firstly, find purpose and then to pursue it with all your energies. But, what else can one do? If we don't continuously search and work towards the purpose, then life would be a waste (as misery was experienced without a goal). I hate waste. I hate wasting waste, that's why I make compost. Life is precious (which is different from worthy). We must also make it worthy.

You may ask me - Are all purposes created equal? Or are some purposes more equal than others? You should be concerned only about your purpose (स्वधर्म). For instance, I believe that my calling is to help others, to fight for justice and to bore you with my writing. These pursuits make life purposeful (for me). At the end of my life, if I have made reasonable progress towards these, I would feel a sense of contentment. Or at least I hope that I would! We don't know when life is going to end. Thus, the worth of our life must not be gauged only at the time of our death, but at any point in our life. We must never give up the pursuit.

So therefore, we have a purpose and we are working towards that purpose. We also have made peace with the fact that good and bad times go hand in hand. Now, you look at your life and you find that you worked very hard towards your goal and think that your life is somewhat worthy. Let me know ask - Would you like a second chance to do things better? My instinctive answer would be - Yes. All actions are imperfect and therefore there is always a scope for improvement.  

And hence the world will never truly satisfy us. In the post linked above (and many others), I have advocated that this world cannot satisfy us. No world has the capacity to make us happy. No amount of second chances will make us happy. We will keep desiring to come back. To achieve a little more of this world. We will forget the (earlier) misery and come back for more (misery). Come back and again examine these issues of purpose of life.

This is why, the भज गोविन्दं (Bhaja Govindam) says:

पुनरपि जननं पुनरपि मरणं

पुनरपि जननीजठरे शयनम् ।

इह संसारे बहुदुस्तारे

कृपयाऽपारे पाहि मुरारे ॥ २१॥ 

Again birth, again death and again lying in mother's womb - this samsara process is very hard to cross over. Save me, Murari (O destroyer of Mura) through Thy infinite kindness.

[Translation by Swami Chinmayananda]

In this light, the desire to not be born again is a positive idea. The positivity is driven from the desire to end misery once and for all, rather than escaping misery. When I said that I didn't want to be born again, I basically meant that the misery was too much to bear. Escaping misery is not a solution to misery. Thus, finding purpose and meaning in life helps deal with misery. But it will not end it. 

Then, what will?

मोक्ष (Liberation) promises दुःख की निवृत्ति और निरतिशय सुख की प्राप्ति (the cessation of misery and the realisation of unparalleled happiness). This state is not in heaven, but here and now. It is also not contingent on the achievement of any object, but it is to be realised in the heart cavity (हृदय गुहायाम्).

We must hasten slowly towards मोक्ष (Liberation) - one step at a time. But until then, we don't have to let our depressions suck us. There are going to be imperfections. Like I said before, all action is imperfect. Still, we must act. We must move towards our goal. There will be bad times. There will be failure. But we don't have to suffer. There is much joy in life - in the small and big things. We just have to recognise. We have to be grateful for what we have. We have to march forward. 

Onwards and forwards - to make life worth repeating, but to not repeat it.

ॐ

Zindagi Kuch Toh Bata (Reprise) - Jubin Nautiyal

Jeete Hain Chal - Kavita Seth

Photo Credits: Mokshi