seeking help from those who fan it, keeping it in the family, zia

India seeks regional cooperation from S. Arabia they must know that this 'interlocator' is the one funding the wahabi extremists in Pakistan
Let’s keep it in the family, why not, Zardari is doing it too



Zia Mohyeddin column - I was curious to know how this could happen in a country generally considered to be a prized democracy. "The fault" he said after a while, "lies with us, Brahmins. We should have woken up to the fact that the world was changing around us a hundred years ago but we didn't. You must understand that Hinduism possess an astonishing capacity for compromise from time immemorial. It has lived in a state of compromise between pantheism and theism, materialism and spiritualism democracy and autocracy life affirmation and life negation." He paused, "I must not bore you with our philosophy"

"No please go on," I urged.

Tendon explained patiently that the Brahmins became the highest representatives of priesthood, about 2500 years ago, The Brahman divinity was the Hindu supreme god under the name given by the Brahmins. They performed all the rites but they showed no interest in the higher development of religion of the people. They were not occupied with ethics; power was the only object of their thought. Hindu thought was governed by the notion that man must devote himself to the aim of seeking redemption from the world. The early Brahmins were worldly people who had a family to look after. So they lived for their families and their possessions until their sons grew up and established their own households. They then resigned from the world and devoted their lives to asceticism and meditation.

With the passage of time the Brahmins claimed for themselves power which was of the same nature as that of the gods. They believed that the sun would not rise if they failed to celebrate the sacrifice of fire in the early morning. They supplicated the gods to bestow on those who provide the sacrificial gifts, wealth and great success in all their undertakings. He quoted a hymn from the Vedas:

"If I oh Indra, were like

thee the only lord of wealth,

then would he who sang

my praises be the owner of cows."

Tandonjee's discourse was fascinating. I thought I had gleaned enough about the Hindu philosophy from the works of Nirad Chaudhuri, but I was wrong. I must take up a translation of the Upanishads.. Trouble is that one lifetime is too short a span.