REMEMBERING GURU NANAK DEV JI

 

REMEMBERING GURU NANAK DEV JI

                        (16^th April 1469 – 22 September 1539)

On this auspicious day of Gurpurab, let us have a pious look at his message in the Japji which is regarded as the key to the Adi-Granth and an epitome of its doctrines.

            God, the creator of the universe, is indefinable. Even countless definitions will fail to encompass His attributes. It can rightly be said that only God Himself  can tell humanity  what He is. 

In such a situation , it is a blessing to read Guru Nanak Ji’s very short hymn called the Mul Mantra.   It begins like this:

“The Only Infinite One; The Only Supreme Being; The eternal; The universal Spirit; The Creator; The All-pervading; The Sovereign ; The Harmonious; The Immortal; The Embodiment; The un-incarnated; The Self-existent; The Enlightener; The Bountiful.”   

            Add to these attributes the following easier descriptions:  

“God is one; Truth is His Name; He is the Creator; The Fearless; Without Enmity; The Immortal; The Unborn; Self-illuminated.

By the Grace of the Guru; Recite. “Truth is the beginning; True before ages began;  True at present; Nanak True He shall ever be; By thinking alone, He cannot be conceived; Even though one may ponder hundred thousand times; By observing silence either, He cannot be attained, Even though one may remain in constant meditation; The hunger of the hungry for God cannot be appeased, Even though one may pile up loads of worldly riches; One may use hundreds or thousands of devices, not one can help to reach God. How shall then one justify oneself? How then screen of falsehood be torn?  

The great Guru says: All are subject to His supreme Will. Nothing is outside the sphere of His will. Nanak, if His will is realised , no one ever shall take pride.

The Great Guru adds:

“By hearkening the indwelling name of God, man achieves wisdom, saintliness, courage and contentment; He understands the real nature of the earth, the power that supports it, and the firmament; He obtains a knowledge of the islands, the continents, upper and nether regions; and conquers the fear of death and transmigration.”

God’s devotees are ever happy. By hearkening His name , their sufferings and sins are wiped out.

Furthermore:

“A man whose mind is satiated in God acquires wisdom, consciousness and understanding; He acquires the inner knowledge of all spheres of the universe; He does not suffer the punishment of transmigration, and does not fear death, and achieves salvation. Such is the result meditation on immaculate God, if one worships Him with full concentration of mind. “

And finally, let me mention once again the Great Guru’s unforgettable words about God:

“God is infinite, so is His description. His creation is infinite, so is His bounty. His observation is infinite, so is His perception. The limits of the secrets of His heart cannot be fathomed. The limit of His creation cannot be ascertained. It is not possible to know the beginning or end of it. Countless have longed to comprehend His limits. But His limits cannot be ascertained. No body knows the limits. The more we say, the more there remains to be said of Him. “

Before I conclude, let me admit that for this brief write up  I am gratefully indebted to several sources. My sole aim was to let the readers know the great message of Guru Nanak Dev Ji which enables each one of us, irrespective of who we are and where we are, to lead an utterly peaceful life.

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30^th November 2020                                                                              G. R. Kanwal       

NEOLIBERALISM

 

 

NEOLIBERALISM

Neoliberalism is an extended form of liberalism.  Whereas liberalism pleaded for generous freedom for market economy and lesser interference of the State i.e. the government in power, in business and industry and either removal or slackening of those rules which restricted the private sector to work freely in its  own way, neoliberalism demanded still more liberal attitude on the part of the government.  It demanded more and more privatisation and less and less government role in the economic systems.

The votaries of the private sector asserted that public sectors i.e. sectors  under government control were less efficient and did not have an competition amongst  themselves, hence they did not serve the interests of the consumers to the expected extent. Moreover,  they were short on quality, variety and competitive prices.  Private sector is market-oriented, competitive and most customer or consumer oriented.

So the supporters of neo-liberalisation wanted further lessening of the government control and interference.  This policy gave rise to maximum privatisation inside the country as well it gave further push to globalisation which had start ed with liberalisation. In short, the private sector demanded and  got more freedom to export its goods and also more import the material and tools required by it from foreign countries.

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FORGIVENESS

 

FORGIVENESS

According to any dictionary, to forgive is to stop feeling angry with somebody who has done something to harm, annoy or upset you. Forgiveness is thus willingness to forgive somebody who has committed some punishable wrong. In law, forgiveness is not a right but may be an expectation from a merciful judge.  In religion, forgiveness is a legitimate  hope, for God is described as generously merciful.

Another name for forgiveness is mercy.  In his play The Merchant of Venice, British poet and dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616) asserts most beautifully:  

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,/It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,/Upon the place beneath: it is twice beless’d;/It blesseth him that gives and him that takes/’T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown;/His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,/The attribute to awe and majesty,/Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;/But mercy is above the sceptred sway,/It is enthroned in the heart of kings,/It is an attribute to God himself,/An earthly power doth then show likest God’s/When mercy seasons justice.”

 The heart of a perfect worshipper of God is described as the home of purity, compassion, forgiveness and peace.

 It is painful to see that most of us do not believe in forgetting and forgiving. We behave as takers of revenge. As a result, both we and those who receive our revenge suffer badly. Both continue to lose peace of mind, until the day when we  wake up to realise that revengefulness is mutually destructive.    

According to Mahatma Gandhi(1869-1948)  forgiveness is an attribute and adornment of bravery…True bravery refuses to strike; it will suffer all infliction with patient cheerfulness. (Harijan: March 23, 1947). Again, he writes in a letter to Indian political leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhavererbhai Patel (1875-1950):  “We should never return blow for blow. Forgiveness is the ornament of the strong.“

The great Lord Gautam Buddha (563 B.C. – 483 B.C.) exhorted his disciples to avoid ten evils two of which were: (i) Carp not, but look for the good side of your fellow-beings, so that you may with sincerity defend them against their enemies. And (ii) Cleanse your heart of malice and cherish no hatred, not even against your enemies; but embrace all living beings with kindness.  

Finally, here is a poem entitled Yussouf  by an American Romantic poet, James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) on the eternal theme of forgiveness. Yussouf , an Arab Chief, was known among all the tribes of his time as an embodiment of goodness and hospitality.  The poem , which is self-explanatory ,reads as follows:

A stranger came one night to Yussouf’s tent,

Saying : “Behold one outcast and in dread,

Against whose life the bow of power is bent,

Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;

I come to thee for shelter and for food,

To Yussouf, called through all our tribes, ---The Good.

‘Tis  tent is mine,’ said Yussouf, ‘but no more

Than it is God’s; come in, and be at peace;

Freely shalt thou partake of all my store,

As I of His who buildeth over these

Our tents His glorious roof of night and day,

And at Whose door none ever yet heard Nay.’

So Yussouf entertained his guest that night,

And, waking him ere day, said : ‘Here is gold;

Depart before the prying day grows bold.

As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,

So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.

That inward light the stranger’s face made grand

Which shines from all self-conquest.

Kneeling low,

He bowed his forehead upon Yussouf’s hand,

Sobbing; “O Sheik, I cannot leav thee so;

I will repay thee; all this thou hast done

Unto that Ibrahim who slew thy son !”

‘Take thrice the gold,’ said Yussouf, ‘for with thee

Into the desert, never to return,

My one black thought shall ride away from me;

First born, for whom by day and night I yearn,

Balanced and just are all of God’s decrees;

Thou art avenged, my first-born, sleep in peace!’

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          G.R.Kanwal:                     20th November 2020

 

 

INDIRA GANDHI’S VIEWPOINT ON DEMOCRACY

 

INDIRA GANDHI’S VIEWPOINT ON DEMOCRACY

On this 103^rd birth day (19^th November 2020) of the former Prime Minister Mrs. Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), here is her viewpoint on democracy expressed in a speech dated 21^st May 1970.

            “The concepts of democracy, of socialism and of secularism are not yet clear in the minds of our people. We see in growing number of people, and sometimes in young bright people, the desire to take a shorter cut,  try and reach our goal more quickly, not realising that no matter what path we take, what steps we take, they all require a price to pay. It is a question of choosing how much or what type of a price we are willing to pay.

            It was after considerable deliberation that we chose the path of democracy --- not because it is the quickest path, perhaps it is not, but because it is the path which helps the people to grow to political maturity.  And we felt that that was most important for our people --- for them to feel involved in what is happening in the country, to participate in the development of the country.  This can only be done if they have certain choices open to them. And this is a system which gives them that choice. But democracy, as all other systems, has its dangers. And today we see that anger of the majority in some places trying to, or wanting to, change certain minorities.

            There can be no democracy if you are looking backward. There can be no democracy if you have a communal outlook and you have barriers between man and man, citizen and citizen.  There can be no democracy if you do not have socialism because democracy and inequality cannot coexist; democracy and injustice cannot coexist. A society in which somebody is thinking of himself as higher and somebody else as lower, is not true democracy. You can give it anything, any name you like. But that is not the true meaning of democracy.

            Democracy can work only if each person becomes a soldier in making democracy real to the people. “

                 

  G.R.Kanwal                                              19.11.2020

 

THUS SPAKE NEHRU

 

THUS  SPAKE  NEHRU

‘Thus Spake Nehru’ is about Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India. He was born at Prayagraj (then Allahabad) on 14th November 1889 and passed away on 27^th May 1964 in New Delhi. His birthday is celebrated as Children’s Day in India. 

            According to English author Mary Howitt (1799-1888) Gd sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race ---- to enlarge our hearts; and to make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affections; to give our souls higher aims; to call out all our faculties to extended enterprise and exertion; and to bring round our firesides bright faces, happy smiles, and loving  tender hearts.

            Indian poet  Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) says in Gitanjali , his Nobel Prize winning anthology of songs, on the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shots and dances.  They build their houses with sand and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep.  They know not how to swim; they know not how to cast their nets.  Pearl fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children get their pebbles and scatter them again.  They seek not for hidden treasures.

            Pt. Nehru believed that children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the nation and the citizens of tomorrow .  Only through right education can a better order of society be built up.

            Nehru’s range of interests was very wide. It extended over history, statecraft,  science, religion, literature and natural history. He had an open and full mind on a number of subjects. Prejudices, bigotry and dogmatism found no place in his philosophy of life. He was a dreamer of a brave new world, with people having  a scientific temper rather than irrational beliefs.   

            Given below are some of his precious views and observations, generated by his vast study and day-to-day experiences. For quoting them here, I sincerely acknowledge my fulsome indebtedness to the publishers of Pt. Nehru’s two great books – An Autobiography and The Discovery of India.      

1.ON THE MOON. (From Ahmadnagar Fort, 13^th April 1944). The new moon, a shimmering crescent in the darkening sky, greeted us on our arrival here. The bright fortnight of the waxing moon had begun. Ever since then each coming of the new moon has been a reminder to me that another month of my imprisonment is over. So it was with my last term of imprisonment which began with the new moon, just after the Deepavali, the festival of light. The moon, ever a companion to me in the prison, has grown more friendly with closer acquaintance, a reminder of the loveliness of this world, of the waxing and the waning of life, of light following darkness, of death and resurrection following each other in interminable succession. Ever changing, yet ever the same, I have watched it in its different phases and in its many moods in the evening, as the shadows lengthen, in the still hours of the night, and when the breath and whisper of dawn bring promise of the coming day. (Discovery of India).

2.ON PRISON HUMOURS. One begins to appreciate the value of the little things of life in prison. One’s belongings are so few and they cannot easily be added to or replaced, and one clings to them and gathers up odd bits of things, which in the world outside, would go to the wastepaper basket. The property sense does not leave one even when there is nothing worth while to own and keep. Sometimes a physical longing would come for the soft things of life ---- bodily comfort, pleasant surroundings, the company of friends interesting conversation, games with children….A picture or a paragraph in a newspaper would bring the old days vividly before one, carefree days of youth, and a nostalgia would seize one, and the day would be passed in nostalgia. (An Autobiography).                

3.ON BHARAT MATA. Sometimes as I would reach a gathering , a great roar of welcome  would greet me : Bharat Mata Ki Jai ----“Victory to Mother India.” I would ask them unexpectedly what they meant by that cry, who was this Bharat Mata, Moher India, whose victory they wanted? My question would amuse them and surprise them, and then, not knowing exactly what to answer, they would look at each other and at me. I persisted in my questioning. At last a vigorous Jat, wedded to the soil from immemorial generations, say that it was the dharti, the good earth of India, that they meant. What earth? Their particular village patch, or all the patches in the district or the province, or in the whole of India? And so question and answer went on, till they would ask me impatiently to tell them all about it. I would endeavour to do so and explain that India was all this that  they had thought, but it was much more. The mountains and the rivers of India, and the forests and the broad fields, which gave us food, were all dear to us, but what counted ultimately were the people of India, people like them and me, who were spread over all this vast land. Bharat  Mata, Mother India, was essentially these millions of people, and victory to her meant victory to these people.  You are parts of this Bharat Mata, Mother India. I told them, you are in a manner yourselves Bharat Mata, and this idea slowly soaked into their brains, their eyes would light up as if they had made a great discovery. (Discovery of India).     

4.ON RELIGION. Words are well known to be, by themselves, very imperfect means of communication, and are often understood in a variety of ways. No word perhaps of  any language is more likely to be interpreted in different ways by different people as the word ‘religion’ (or the corresponding words in other languages). Probably to no two persons will the same complex of ideas and images arise on hearing or reading this word. Among these ideas and images may be those of rites and ceremonials, of sacred books, of a community of people, of certain dogmas, of morals, reverence, love, fear, hatred, charity, sacrifice, asceticism, fasting, feasting, prayer, ancient history, marriage, death, the next world, of riots and the breaking of heads, and so on. (An Autobiography).  

5.ON SCIENCE. There is no visible limit to the advance of science, if it is given  the chance to advance. Yet it may be that the scientific method of observation is not always applicable to all the varieties of human experience and cannot cross the uncharted ocean that surrounds us….The applications of science are inevitable and unavoidable for all countries and peoples of today. But something more than its application is necessary. It is the scientific approach, the adventurous and yet critical temper of science, the search for truth and new knowledge,  the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of the new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on pre-conceived theory, the hard discipline of the mind – all this is necessary , not merely for the application of science but for life itself and the solution of its many problems. (The Discovery of India).   

6.ON MAN. How amazing is this spirit of man ! In spite of innumerable failings, man, throughout the ages, has sacrificed his life and all that he held dear for an ideal, for truth, for faith, for country and honour. That ideal may change but that capacity for self-sacrifice continues, and because of that, much may be forgiven to man, and it is impossible to lose hope for him. In the midst of disaster, he has not lost his dignity or his faith in the values he cherished. Plaything of nature’s mighty forces, less than the speck of dust in this vast universe, he has hurled defiance at the elemental powers, and with his mind, cradle of revolution, sought to master them. Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is something of the devil in him. (Discovery of India).

7.ON ‘A TRYST WITH DESTINY’. Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.  At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.  It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity. (Speech to the Constituent Assembly, New Delhi, on the eve of Independence, August 14, 1947.)

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                                                                                                G.R.Kanwal : 14^thNovember 2020

                                                                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

A NATION’S STRENGTH

 

A NATION’S STRENGTH

‘A Nation’s Strength’ is a short poem written by the American poet, essayist and  philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.  He was born in 25^th May 1803 at Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and passed away at Concord, Massachusetts, United States, on 27^th April 1882.

Emerson was a student of theology, believed in the unity of man, nature and God, and blended romanticism with transcendentalism , which means  going beyond the limits of human knowledge, experience or reason, especially in religious and spiritual matters.

He  visited England in in 1833 , met English romantic poets S.T. Coleridge (1772-1834) and William Wordsworth (1780-1830) who were great admirers of nature’s inevitable   influence on the  moral character of human beings.   

            In his above-mentioned poem, Emerson emphasises that a nation’s strength,  greatness and sky-high progress depends not on its hoarding of gold  but on its brave, truthful and tireless men who continue to work while others go  to their beds and enjoy a comfortable sleep.

             Emerson does not tell us how we can have such men in any nation, but it is not difficult to imagine that he hints at educational, social, economic  and  political systems evolved and pursued  by both realistic and idealistic minds at the local, state, national and global levels.

            The great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) , shows a similar way in his poem entitled Where the Mind is Without Fear which runs as follows:

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high: Where knowledge is free: Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth: Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action----Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

            Now let us have a look at Emerson’s poem. It will need no great  effort to arrive at the conclusion that both the poets have an identical vision about a nation’s real strength.

“Not gold, but only men can make/A people great and strong--- /Men who, for truth and honour’s sake,/Stand fast and suffer long.  Brave men who work while others sleep,/Who dare while others fly,/They build a nation’s pillars deep, / And lift them to the sky. “

 

KABIR’S TWO SYLLABLES OF LOVE

 

KABIR’S TWO SYLLABLES OF LOVE

The mystic poet Kabir Das (1440-1518) is known for his rhymed couplets , known as dohas in Hindi. Though he had no schooling, he was a  master poet in this genre. All his couplets which run into hundreds are full of spiritual connotations. They are often quoted both by the educated and the uneducated to illustrate some idea of worldly or unworldly life. His language is simple and easily memorable.  He speaks to man in the street but is no less meaningful to intellectuals. A number of his couplets have found place in Adi Granth , the holy scripture of the Sikhs. Rabindranath Tagore has translated some of his poems into English under the title 100 Poems of Kabir (1915) . Similarly, the Indian godman  Acharya Rajneesh Osho (1931-1990), has shed light on his teachings in a couple of books, one of them being The True Name.      

Kabir was a weaver by occupation. In Persian, his name means great. He spent his early life in a Muslim family, but adopted the Hindu Bhakti poet Ramanand (1400-1476) of the Vaishnavism sect as his guru.

Besides dohas, Kabir composed Bhajans which carry several layers of meanings pertaining to worldly and philosophic comprehension of life. In fact, all hiss poetic outpourings serve as a  treatise on how to live a peaceful social life.

Kabir is a poet of love for all mankind. He is a liberal humanist. What he tells his  readers is the painful outcome of evils like lust, greed, selfishness and impatience. The virtues on which he lays stress are love, compassion, humility, patience, charity , forgiveness, contentment, and absence of vindictiveness.  In one of his couplets he says: When you came into this world, you cried aloud while those who welcomed you burst into laughter. Now do not do any such deed as will make you a fit target of their ridicule.

The title of this write-up is  kabir’s Two Syllables of Love. What  does it mean?  A very simple formula of getting close to God; i.e. there is no need to read innumerable scriptures to understand  God and become worthy of His companionship. God is love and love is God. Any human being who has learnt two and a half words of love and practises them throughout his earthly life becomes eligible for the love of God. All-out devotion to God is the only way to attain redemption and escape from the cycle of births and deaths.

English poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in one of his sonnets: Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds., or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken….Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending sickle’s compass come; love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.

It is the above-quoted Shakespearean philosophy of love which the saint poet of India Kabir Das practises personally and recommends to others. His poetry is a plea for eternal love for mankind and  endless devotion to God. To understand the philosophy of this poetry, no body needs to study multiple secular or sacred books. What he really needs is the true comprehension of only two syllables of love to live a perfectly  peaceful life in this world.   

8^th November 2020                                                                             G. R. Kanwal         

        

LIBERALISM

 

LIBERALISM

Liberalism is a prominent feature of democratic societies. The word liberal means  broad-minded, enlightened, un-biased, un-prejudiced, tolerant, flexible, non-restrictive, permissive, humanistic, advanced, progressive, forward-looking, reformist, etc.

In multi-cultural and multi-religious societies, it is an indispensable feature,  where pluralism and inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness are the key to peace and prosperity.

The opposite of liberalism is fanaticism, conservatism, fundamentalism, rigidity, etc.

 Liberalism allows quick social and political change. It stands for modernisation, nationally as well as internationally.

In a liberal  society individuals enjoy freedom of thought, speech, expression and action according to their culture, religion, social, economic and political beliefs.  They have the right to dissent, oppose and protest in a peaceful manner. 

            A liberal society is a tolerant society.  It is constitutionally, socially, economically and  culturally a free society where an individual enjoys a number of rights guaranteed by its  laws. By and large such a society is democratic and secular.

            The rights of an individual in a liberal society are natural rights. For example, freedom of thought, speech and expression are as natural as his/her birth on this planet. By nature, every person is unique.  He/she thinks according to his/her mindset with which he/she is born.

            The economic aim of liberalism stands for  removal of legislative restrictions on freedom of trade and industry. It implies maximum freedom to traders and  business community  and minimum control and interference of government. It believes in the theory of free exchange of goods in a competitive market.

            Free trade or economic liberalism is now the order of the day. It allows all countries to specialise in producing products in which they have a comparative advantage. It also allows the maximisation of world production, making it possible for each consumer in the world to consume more goods than he/she could do without free trade. One of the advantages of free trade or economic liberalism is that it raises the level of national income. Globalisation in recent times is also an upshot of economic liberalism.  It has internationalised the exchange of  goods and services.

            The business and industrial enterprises of foreigners in any country today have become possible only because that country permits liberalism in Its economic systems. 

Most of the developed  and developing countries now follow the policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. The advantages are cost and qualitative competitiveness well as the utilisation of the maximum utilisation of domestic resources. Moreover, it has unified the world, decreased isolation and increased inter-dependence which is good for world peace. There is also upgradation and  modernisation of infrastructure of each liberal society. The foreign exchange through exports too has gone up.  

CAPITALISM

 

CAPITALISM

Capitalism is an economic system.  It is the opposite of socialism and communism.  It is also different from mercantilism. In the capital system of economy the business and industry of a country are controlled by private players. Its main motive is profit, the lion’s share of which goes to capitalists who invest money and establish businesses and industries. As a result they  become richer and richer, while the workers become poorer and poorer. Some capitalists have monopolistic businesses and industries and face no competition, because there are no rivals.  Otherwise, competition is a good check on quality and pricing.

In capitalism, a government has very few enterprises in its own hands. For example in India, railways are controlled by the Government, but most of the other industries are in private hands.

The revenue of the Government comes from taxes , like income tax, sales tax, GST, etc., levied on business companies, manufacturers, and even individuals who earn a lot of money through any means.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) is considered to be the main supporter of capitalism. In his book The Wealth of Nations, he offers the view that the real wealth of nations is not gold or silver but the land and its resources. This is a deviation from mercantilism where  the emphasis is on exports to other countries and thereby increase  of the country’s stores of gold and other precious metals. In modern times, this system is almost extinct.      

In capitalism, private players enjoy a lot of freedom regarding pricing and payment of salaries and wages, etc. There are only a few laws whereby prices are controlled a little bit as in the case of some medicines.  There are also laws like company law to exercise some control over business enterprises. Labour laws and minimum wages act, employees provident act,  also exercise some control over the profit motive of the private players, yet there remains a conflict between the owners of private owners of trade and industry regarding scales of pay, rates of wages and other service benefits.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) calls capitalism the main cause of class struggle. He was the father of communism. He wanted the working  classes to unite themselves and  achieve dominance in society. He believed that workers are exploited. They don’t get the wages which they deserve. Moreover, there is inequitable distribution of the products of his labour by the owners of the means of production. He therefore pleaded for communism according to which the state, i.e. the government should control the means of producing everything on behalf of the people and every individual should be treated equally.

  Most  of the countries are so far capitalistic. Communism has not been able to succeed as much as it was expected. The biggest blow was struck by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The most important capitalist country in the world today is the United Sates, and the most important communist country is China.

FEUDALISM

 

FEUDALISM

As a social system , feudalism stands for an agreement between the warrior nobles and the people whom he engaged to work for him in agriculture, military service, court matters or any other field where they could be useful. This system existed in Europe in the middle ages, though it continued to exist in a different form even till the late eighteenth century in France  

The warrior noble was the holder of the land, but its possession was in the hands of his subordinates. He was responsible to protect them from external aggression, whereas his subordinates were bound to  render him military service within the land owned by him. The land owned by him was called fief. It was a rented area for which the payment was made through work and not money. Thus, the area owned by the noble warrior was called fiefdom. The people who served him were known as vassals. The word vassal in this context implies a person in the Middle Ages who promised to fight for and be loyal to a king or other powerful owner of land , in return for being given land to live on. The word ‘feudal’ has also some connection with the word ‘fidelity’ which means the quality of being loyal or faithful to somebody. It is important to note that the agreement arrived at between the noble warrior and his vassals was like  a legal agreement and its violation was a breach of trust .

Feudalism was certainly an exploitative system. It was a fore-runner of capitalism because the vassal got less than what he deserved and the noble warrior was a greater beneficiary.  It created many problems and protests in the European countries in which it existed for about six centuries.  

According to Marc Bloch (1939), the feudal system was a combination of the legal, economic, military and cultural customs that flourished in Medieval Europe between the 9^th and 15^th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships that were derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

Economist Adam Smith (1723-90) and political philosopher Karl Marx (1818-83) criticised  feudalism in their own way. Smith regarded it as an inherited socio-economic system in which the inheritors possessed social and economic privileges and obligations. It was a system in which wealth derived from agriculture was not arranged according to market forces but on the basis of customary labour services owed by serfs to land-owning nobles.  For Marx, feudalism was he power of the ruling class i.e. aristocracy by which they controlled arable land  and thus created a class society based upon the exploitation of the peasants. Consequently, it led to a conflicting power relationship between capitalists and wage-labourers.

Feudalism had a near death blow when the feudal system about land was replaced by business corporations and agrarian societies were transformed into industrial societies. Today, it has no existence worth the name in any part of the world.   

NARCISSISM

NARCISSISM

                                                     

The synonyms of narcissism are self-love, self-admiration and self-adulation.  However, a person who is narcissistic may also be called vainglorious, egotistic, haughty, boastful and conceited, especially about his physical appearance. A more dignified word which is used positively as a personality trait is self-esteem or self-respect.

             The word narcissism has a mythological background. It is derived from the Greek myth, according to which Narcissus who was a very beautiful young man fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. When he died, he was changed into a flower called narcissus. In India, this flower is known as Nargis.  It is a spring time flower, yellow and white, and has some varieties including daffodil.

            Narcissism, which signifies excessive love of oneself, is used negatively. It makes the narcissist autocratic, selfish, arrogant, reserved and introvert. It has a psychological complication, which, if allowed to remain un-tackled, may create dangerous situations in statecraft. Such people become dictatorial and reflect hardly any democratic spirit. Loving oneself too much means treating others, even one’s colleagues, as inferiors and unequal.  Moreover, it is to overlook the hard reality that physical beauty withers with age. It is not for ever; it is spiritual beauty which is everlasting.

To love one’s self is not bad; but to love it beyond moderation is disagreeable. To celebrate oneself is to appreciate God and to express your gratitude to Him.

The self-love of adolescents is natural. When they arrive at the age of adolescence, they fall in love with themselves which is good because if they don’t love themselves, they will love none else. That’s why indulge in too much self-adornment. But this is a temporary phenomenon; they outgrow it. A narcissist remains a narcissist for ever; so, he/she is dangerous in the practical fields of life where he/she has to deal with large publics.