Editor,
In the name of development nature is dying. Man is not allowing the leaves to sing. Trees, stones and rivers are crying. Nature is pleading for her survival on earth and longs for freedom of space to shine and bring forth her happiness. Every seed of rejuvenation is bleeding; every bit of air, grass, flower is yearning for life. Clean streams and rivers are now overflowing with innumerable toxic waste. No doubt nature admires humans for their achievements, but choking down the green world will only bring hurdles and turbulence. Let us therefore give a bit of our hearts to protect nature.
Yours etc
Christine Nongbet
Corruption on SPTS buses
Editor,
On April 06, 2016 at around 7 pm, I boarded the SPTS bus bearing Registration No ML O1-6820 which was supposed to go towards Mawiong via Mawlai Iewrynghep. When the conductor collected the bus fare I paid him ?10, but he did not return me ?5 as change since I disembarked halfway. Politely I asked him for my change but he rudely replied that it wasn’t a Mawlai bus, although the bus plied through Mawlai. The conductor further threatened and mocked me. He made me feel as if I was depriving him of the legitimate fare. The concerned authorities should take note of such misdemeanours and issue Travel Slips or Change Tokens so as to avoid such psychological assaults on bus passengers. This is actually daily corruption of public money which if added up for a whole year would amount to about ?1825 approximately per passenger. Imagine how much money is collected illegally from just about 100 passengers if they are denied their rightful change. SPTS buses are deployed to ease public travel, hence, some strong measures must be taken to curb grassroots level corruption and to prevent wastage of public money. I hope those concerned with the running of SPTS buses take note of this letter and punish the culprits.
Yours etc.,
Eddie Kharjana,
Shillong-8
Religion kills humanity
Editor,
It is shame that religious prejudices that cannot tolerate free thinking have killed another blogger of Bangladesh. Nazimuddin Samad who used to campaign for secularism on Facebook. He wrote, “I have no religion”. In recent past, matchete-wielding killers took the lives of Niloy Chatterjee, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das for speaking against religious prejudices and hatred. We can see that all religions carry with them inherent problems of creating divisions and hatred among us. They create walls within the society and in this way disturb social harmony. With its emphasis on rituals and static approach, religion contradicts the essence of spirituality.
Religion is such an institution on whose name ‘sati’ can be performed, untouchability can be practiced, Dabholkar, Pansara, Kalburgi and Nazimuddin Samad can be killed. Beheading of people who belong to different ghar other than ISIS (a permanent ghar-wapasi?) can be video recorded and broadcasted. Religions confine themselves to mechanical rituals and thus obstruct the spiritual path of realising the One. Sri Aurobindo in ‘Letters on Yoga’ said, “The religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue.” The Mother said, “God gives Himself to His whole creation; no one religion holds the monopoly of His Grace”. She also explained why religion throttled spirituality. She said, “The first article of these established and formal religions runs always, ‘Mine is the supreme, the only truth, all others are falsehoods or inferior’. For without this fundamental dogma, established credal religions could not have existed. If you do not believe and proclaim that you alone possess the one or the highest truth, you will not be able to impress people and make them flock to you. This attitude is natural to the religious mind; but it is just that which makes religion stand in the way of the spiritual life.
The articles and dogmas of a religion are mind-made and if we cling to them and shut ourselves up in a code of life made out for us we will not know the truth of the Spirit that lies beyond all codes and dogmas, wide and large and free. When we stop at a religious creed and tie ourselves with it taking it for the only truth in the world, we stop the advance and widening of your inner soul”. Sri Ramkrishna and Swami Vivekananda hammered hard at the walls of religion to make us realise its inherent problem. Swami Vivekananda worshipped and touched the feet of a four-year-old, poor, Kashmiri, Muslim girl. With this singular act he defied divisions of religion, region, race, caste, class, creed, gender and generation to hoist the flag of humanity. Actually, Swami Vivekananda did a Sri Ramkrishna who himself practiced Islam, Christianity and other religions to live his words – ‘many opinions, many paths’. They tried to make us realize that confinement to a single religion could throttle humanity. Oceans of human blood could have been saved had we realised the limitations of religions. It is a pity that the juggernaut of religious prejudices is still marching forward in this 21st century. Shani Shingnapur temple with its women-phobia is just one example of it. The need of the hour is to realize the teachings of the great souls for taking us, in the words of Tagore, “Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit”.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata