5125Th Birth Anniversary Of Lord Krishna
By D.K.Hari and D.K.Hema Hari, August 2013

 [bharathgyan@gmail.com]

 

The people of this country never had any doubts about the historicity of Krishna until the colonial invaders projected Krishna as a mythical figure cooked up by wonderful stories.

The story of Krishna is deeply embedded in the cultural fabric of India and the people of this land revere Him as a Divinity. The colonial hangover has however left a doubt on the historicity of this highly adored Divinity.

The science of Archeo-Astronomy has enabled us to go beyond the boundaries of conventional archaeology in tracing the historicity of some well known personages of this land, such as Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira and Shankara. Planetary configurations mentioned in the ancient scriptures pertaining to major events and personages connected, help us date events that happened around these personages, centuries and millenia ago, either manually or with more ease and accuracy, using Planetarium software.

As per the scriptures, Lord Krishna was born around midnight. That night was the eight phase of the moon known as Ashtami Tithi. The moon was near Vrshabha, the bull, i.e the Taurus constellation that houses the star Rohini. The star Rohini is known as Aldeberan in modern astronomy. The month was Shravana, one of the 12 months in the Indian calendar.

These details are clearly mentioned in the 10thSkanda, 3rd chapter of the Bhagavata Purana. The relevant sloka is,
Shravana vada ashtami, Rohini Nakshtra, uditam Lagnam

This detail combined with details of sky configurations for events that happened around Krishna’s lifetimes, namely the Mahabharata, leads us to the exact birth date for Krishna.

Courtesy Prof.Narahari Achar, Memphis University, USA
Such a search leads us to 27th July, 3112 BCE as Krishna’s date of birth in the Gregorian Calendar.

In Indian tradition, Krishna’s birth is also called as “Sri Jayanthi”. The word “Jayanthi” has an interesting connotation in Indian Astronomy. Indian astronomers have accorded special names to lunar phases occurring at certain stars.

The lunar phase occurring at Punarvasu star in Gemini constellation is called Jaya. The lunar phase occurring at Pushya star in the Gemini constellation is called Nasini. The lunar phase seen at Shravana star in the Capricorn zodiac is called Vijaya. Similarly, the phase of the moon occurring at Rohini star is called Jayanthi.

Krishna’s birth which happened when the moon was at Rohini star is called Sri Jayanthi.

Jayanthi also means celebrations and the word has thus come to be used to indicate birthday celebrations. Thus, the word “Jayanthi, over time, has also come to be used for the birthday celebrations of other great personages and we today celebrate Buddha Jayanthi, Mahaveer Jayanthi, Shankara Jayanthi, Shivaji Jayanthi, Gandhi Jayanthi, Ambedkar Jayanthi etc.

“Jayanthi” became popular because of association with Krishna.

Every year, for millennia, Indians have been celebrating Krishna’s birthday in the Shravana month, on Rohini Nakshatra, Krishna Paksha Ashtami (8th phase of the waning moon) based on these details in scriptures.

It is the year of birth however, which has been the missing piece in common knowledge.

Not only from Archaeo-astronomy, but also from a wholistic analysis of data across various disciplines, today we can conclude that Lord Krishna was born in 3112 BCE.

So, this year, 2013 CE, makes it the 5125th year since His birth, Sri Jayanthi. Let us celebrate this 5125th birthday of Lord Krishna, keeping in mind that India’s most beloved Divinity was indeed also a historical figure who had walked this planet about 5000 years ago.

While Divinity is a matter of faith, historicity is a matter of existence. With the unraveling of the dates for Krishna, what comes out for all to see is the beautiful blend of Divinity and Historicity in Krishna.  One does not preclude the other.

Nandi Bull - The Mysterious And Unknown Temple
By Tanya Raj, October 2013

[tanyaraj20@gmail.com]

I  got down from an auto rickshaw at the Temple Road in Malleshwaram –  one of the oldest settlements of Bangalore.  Took a seat outside the  ornate compound wall of the ancient Nandi Bull temple – Sri  Dakshina Mukha Nandi Thirtha Kalyani Devasthana – I wait for Renu,  who is running a few minutes late.  Opposite the road, stand the  golden domed Durga and Narasimha temples next to each other and a  Ganesha temple to the right.  The sound of chants, drum beats and  bells emerge from these ancient structures simultaneously as they  start their morning rituals.

The  morning is windy, with thick grey clouds hanging in the skies, above  the gulmohar lined street.  An old woman with matted locks of tied-up  hair sits underneath the canopy of an old banyan tree.  Her wrinkles,  as old as the banyan tree itself, stand testimony to the many seasons  of life she must have weathered.  Next to her, a flower seller is  busy packing small plastic bags with coconuts, incense sticks and  vermillion and placing it near the heaps of jasmine, roses and  marigold garlands.

Crows  make a cacophony along with the parrots and cuckoos, on the overhead  branches.  I finally spot Renu and get up to meet her.  We enter the  huge archway, with a giant Nandi Bull statue atop it and walk down a  few steps onto the cold and wet stone pathway leading to the inner  sanctum.

This  underground temple, which is said to be 7,000 years old, remained  buried under earth up until 16 years back.  It was found by labourers  digging the site for a building’s foundation and since then there  have been efforts to preserve this piece of heritage.  Another set of  stone steps lead us down to the main temple building housing the  Shivling at the far end, with a large black granite Nandi Bull  statue, resting on a stone slab on top.  Unlike other Indian temples,  this temple has no mandapa – a very uncommon feature.

In  the centre of this complex is a square pond, the corridors  surrounding it are supported with stone columns and adorned with  small brass bells suspended with chains from the ceiling.  We offer  our prayers at the altar and sit on the cold stone steps leading down  to the pond.  Some 15-20 water turtles swim in its murky green waters  that are occasionally disturbed by black fishes somersaulting out of  it.    A few turtles climb out of the water and onto the steps  displaying their moss laden shells.

"This  is a very Jagrit Mandir.  It is said that whatever you wish for here,  comes true," Renu tells me.  We both decide to take a chance and  throw a coin into the pond before making a silent wish.

As  I open my eyes, I notice a woman in pink salwar bend down at the  small Nandi Bull statue across the pond and whisper in its ear.   "What is she doing?" I ask Renu.

"It  is said that women should whisper their problems into the bull’s  ears and they reach God, whereas men are supposed to place their  index finger and thumb on the bull’s horns and see the Shivling  through it.  Devotees believe that this solves their problems,"  says Renu.

This  temple is unlike any other.  The large Nandi Bull on the stone slab  above the Shivling is unusual and unique.  A stream of water flows  out of the bull’s mouth and falls on the black graphite Shivling  through a hole in the upper slab.

We  approach the head priest of the temple – Ravi Shankar Swami – to  know more about the place.  He is a short, thin, middle aged man  wearing an orange dhoti, with sacred ash smeared in three horizontal  lines on his forearm, shoulders and back and a white thread (Janeu)  running across his bare body from right shoulder to left hip.

"Chhatrapati  Shivaji Maharaja’s father – Shahaji – used to come, pray at  this temple," he tells us.

"Where  is the water that is falling on the Shivling coming from?" I ask  him in English, which Renu translates into Kannada.

"No  one knows, is a mystery.  The water flows with the same intensity all  year round.  It falls on the Shivling which then flows into the 15  feet deep central pond.  An underground pipe connects the pond to the  outer well.  The well was used to water the fields in earlier days,  when there were no houses.  But no one knows where the water is  originating from," the Swami says.

I  look around this remarkable place; something I have never seen  anywhere and then look at the priest again.

"The  temple was underground for a very long time.  Since it has been  found, we have not changed anything inside the sanctum sanctorum.   The only changes that were made are to the outer walls and garden,"  says the priest.

"This  is a very unusual temple.  There is no mandapa covering the structure  and the Nandi Bull is on top of the Shivling, instead of, in front,"  I state.

"Yes,  and we have tried to keep everything intact.  Many people offer to  place marble and granite flooring, but we don’t allow that," says  Ravi Shankar Swami.

We  thank him for his time and go back to sitting near the central pond.   The peace and tranquillity of this place transported me back in time.   The stone pillars, pond and bells, everything seems to be telling  the stories of a bygone era.  After sitting here long enough, I could  almost hear the chants, mantras and bells from those ancient times  ringing in its every column.

How  to Reach:

The  temple is located on Temple Road at 15th  Cross in Malleshwaram (behind the Sai Baba Temple), Bangalore.   Sampige Road is the best route to get to this place which is open in  the mornings from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and in the evenings from 5 p.m.  to 8 p.m.  There are no admission costs.

Notes:

My  heartfelt thanks to:

-  Shri Ravi Shankar Swami, Head Priest of Sri Dakshina Mukha Nandi  Thirtha Kalyani Devasthana

-  Mrs. Renu Suhas for being my translator

-Mr.  Suhas Manjunath for translating the written inscriptions

Author  Biography:

A graduate from MatadorU’s Travel Writing course, I took a plunge  into my passion for travelling and writing after a long stint in Wall  Street companies.  I am a writer, have lived in India and United  Kingdom .   The variety of life keeps me alive and fresh and when I am not doing  anything, I can be found huddled up with a book in the remotest  corner of my house, letting my imagination take flight.

Rudra Tandava Of Ardhnarishwar
By Sandhya Jain, July 2013

 [jsandhya@gmail.com]

Kedarnath and Badrinath, two most beloved northern tirthas, have for the past two weeks witnessed an apocalyptic spectacle of pralaya with an enraged god and angry goddess stomping a dance of death in fierce tandem. As clouds burst, mountainsides crumbled, and torrential streams hurtled multistoried buildings, hydel projects, roads, humans and animals alike towards assured destruction, survivors and onlookers could only bow before the unmasked power of the elements.

Hopefully, puny men will stop believing they can “conquer nature”, play havoc with the divinity of earth and water, and expect benign gods. Not one corporate that lobbied energetically in Delhi and Dehradun for the back-to-back hydro projects choking the sacred Ganga could resist when Shiva and Parvati united as Ardhnarishwar and performed Rudra Tandava, crushing their grand delusions and constructions into nothingness. Gentle Vishnu, Badri Vishal, stood mute.

Some believe the Himalayas are the body of Shiva and Parvati as Ardhnarishwar; hence the divinity of the mountain range. The Himalayas look different in Nepal and India. The Nepalese side is harsh, rugged, male; the Indian side is softer, verdant, female. Actually, being the unity of Mahadev and Devi, the mountain is both, and the entire range is dotted with Shakti peeths special to both.

On a pilgrimage to Badrinath last year, a friend heard an unusual tale explaining Vishnu’s presence in Shiva’s abode. The guide was unable to tell the source of the narrative, but shopkeepers at the site were playing cassettes of this story.

The asura Utunga performed deep penance for thousands of years to please Surya, and sought the boon of immortality. Surya said such a boon could only be granted by Shiva, so instead Utunga asked for a thousand armours that no one could pierce to reach him; hence he is also called Sahasra Kavach (one with thousand protective covers).

Utunga conquered the three worlds and unleashed great tyranny on his subjects. The unhappy rishis urged Vishnu to help, but He was unmoved, telling Lakshmi that the kavach were so powerful that to attain the powers to kill Utunga, he would have to do tapasya for ten thousand years.

Lakshmi advised him to perform penance at Kedar Khand where Shiva and Parvati reside, as tapasya for a single day at that place was equal to hundred years elsewhere. So Vishnu appeared before their dwelling as a weeping child, moving Parvati to bring him inside her home though Shiva warned against it.

The child immediately took the form of Vishnu and revealed his purpose. Having brought him inside as a son, Parvati permitted him to do tapas there and the divine couple moved to the present Kedarnath shrine. Vishnu performed penance at the place which came to be known as Badrinath dham, in the form of Nar and Narayan. One day Narayan did tapasya and Nar fought Sahasra Kavach; the next day Nar performed tapasya while Narayan battled the asura.

In this way, 999 shields of Sahasra Kavach were pierced. The frightened asura sought refuge with Surya, who implored Vishnu to spare him while he was under his (Surya’s) protection. Vishnu obliged, but vowed to pierce the last shield and destroy Sahasra Kavach in the next yuga. In the dvapara yuga, Sahasra Kavach was born as Karna; his ishta deva was Surya. Krishna (Narayan) fooled him to give away his last kavach and Arjuna (Nar) slew him.

That is how the Pandavas are associated with both dhams. They went to Kedarnath to seek Shiva’s forgiveness for slaying their own relatives in the devastating war. And that is why Badri Vishal as son of Parvati could not stop her as she vented her divine wrath on disrespectful humans. The local people have suffered because they joined the ‘development boom’; the only penance is to restore the Himalayan vegetation to full glory over the next decade. No more dhabas near the Gangotri!

This brings us to the story of the iconoclasm at Dhari Devi’s temple, as highlighted by Pandit Sanjay Raut. It is said that in the British period, in 1882, there was a move to shift the Devi shrine, which immediately unleashed havoc in Kedar Valley; the goddess is the guardian deity of the Char Dham.

Dhari Devi (Kali) is a unique form of Parvati and Ganga (earth and water). Her open air temple on the banks of the Alaknanda in Srinagar, Garhwal district, is one of the 108 Shakti Peeth mentioned in Devi Bhagavat. It houses the ‘head’ of Devi. The body of Devi, in the form of a Sri Yantra, is housed at Kalimath temple in Rudraprayag district, in an exact NE-SW alignment, symbolizing Kali sleeping. The Kedarnath jyotirliñga is exactly north from Kalimath.

Uttarakhand’s woes began when, on June 15, 2013, under permission from the Supreme Court which has a tendency to rush in where angels fear to tread, Dhara Devi’s murti was removed to facilitate the construction of a dam against stiff resistance from locals who knew this would misalign the body of the sleeping goddess and agitate her. A few hours later, death and destruction rained upon the region.

Even the samadhi of Adi Sankaracharya was not spared as the Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, and Mandakini (three of the seven streams in which Ganga descended on earth) frothed at the sacrilege. Deforestation having destroyed the ‘locks’ in which Shiva controlled the power of the mighty river, nothing could be done but surrender till the goddess deemed fit to calm down herself.

Photographs beamed from the devastated region show the Kedarnath shrine wiped clean of all ‘development’, resembling its pristine serenity of five decades ago when not a single structure stood nearby to detract from its splendid isolation. This is how it was meant to be; the Pandavas and equal eminences went to all the holy tirthas on foot.

The gods have shown their will. But the debris of human mischief remains to be cleaned up – the destroyed infrastructure, cement, concrete, steel, bridges, heavy machinery, et al. It is a safe bet that the corporates and contractors behind the idea of ‘urja pradesh’ would have lost the courage to continue the projects in this volatile region. But they cannot be allowed to simply walk away. Having created the mess, they must be made to clean it up, even if they go broke in the process. The Supreme Court must ensure this, if only to atone for its own guilt in the environmental and spiritual genocide.

Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(Continued...) 

(My humble thankfulness to Dr. D K Hari & D K Hema Hari, Sri Tanya Raj  and Ms.Sandhya Jain for the collection)

(The Blog  is reverently for all the seekers of truth, lovers of wisdom and   to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the spiritual path and also this is purely  a non-commercial blog)

How Science Discovered The Historical Krishna
By Rakesh Krishnan Simha, September 2010

[rakeshmail@gmail.com]

Chapter :

Archaeology,  astronomy and literary sources have been used to establish the fact that Lord  Krishna was definitely a historical character.

"The  sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary  that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed  through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the  city. Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. He took  a last look at the mansion of Krishna. In a matter of a few moments it was all  over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the  beautiful city which had been the favourite haunt of all the Pandavas. Dwarka  was just a name; just a memory." – Mausala Parva, Mahabharata.

Does this account from the ancient Indian epic have a true  historical core? Did Lord Krishna, the youthful, playful God, indeed the  favourite Indian deity, walk the streets of ancient Dwarka? Did Krishna,  considered the Lord of the universe by a billion Hindus, rule the Yaduvanshi  clan thousands of years ago?

The reason why some doubt Krishna’s existence at all is  because of the web of lies spun by European Indologists who first appeared on  the scene in the 19th century. These scholars, some of who had never set foot  in India and did not even bother to study Sanskrit, questioned every belief the  Hindus had held for millennia. They concluded – and their traitorous Indian  followers faithfully accepted – that Krishna was a myth.

There are two reasons why the Europeans, mostly British,  debunked Indian history. One, these Indologists were not Indophiles; they did  not come to seek the truth. They were in fact racists and imperialists,  convinced of the need to invade India and create a class of people willing to  serve the British loyally. So the British wanted to destroy everything Indians  took pride in.

Two, these so-called scholars were also fired by the zeal of  spreading Christianity. When the Europeans first came into contact with learned  Indians and their historical texts, they were shocked to learn that Indian  history pre-dated their world by thousands of years. It clashed with their  religious belief that (their) God had created the earth 4000 years ago! For the  missionaries, destroying the historicity of Krishna was imperative if they had  any chance of establishing their religion in India. By labelling as myth the  Indian historical sources like the Vedas, Mahabharata, Upanishads, and  especially the Puranas, which give exact chronologies of Indian kings including  Krishna, the missionaries ensured that Indian history and tradition facilitated  the process of colonising the Indian mind.

However, the truth is always difficult to suppress. Using  archaeological, scriptural, literary and astronomical data, scholars and  scientists are coming round to the view that Krishna was definitely a  historical character.

Archaeological  Evidence
The Rosetta stone, or the key, to the Krishna story is  Dwarka. The strongest archaeological support comes from the structures  discovered in the late 1980's under the seabed off the coast of modern Dwarka  in Gujarat by a team of archaeologists and divers led by Dr S.R. Rao. An  emeritus scientist at the marine archaeology unit of the National Institute of  Oceanography, Goa, Rao has excavated a large number of Harappan sites,  including the port city of Lothal in Gujarat.

In his book The Lost City of Dwarka, published in 1999, he  writes about his undersea finds: “The discovery is an important landmark in the  history of India. It has set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about  the historicity of Mahabharata and the very existence of Dwarka city.”

Conducting 12 expeditions during 1983-1990, Rao identified  two underwater settlements, one near the present-day Dwarka and the other in  the nearby island of Bet Dwarka. This tallies with the two Dwarkas mentioned in  the epic. The underwater expeditions won Rao the first World Ship Trust Award  for Individual Achievement.

Another important find by our divers was a seal that  establishes the submerged township's connection with the Dwarka of the  Mahabharata. The seal corroborates the reference made in the ancient text, the  Harivamsa, that every citizen of Dwarka should carry such a seal for  identification purposes. Krishna had ruled that none without the seal should  enter it. A similar seal has been found onshore as well.

In his book, Search for the Historical Krishna, N.S.  Rajaram, a mathematician and former NASA scientist, writes that names of people  and places contemporaneous to Krishna are found on some Harappan seals. For  example, words like Paila (Ved Vyasa's pupil), Akrura (Krishna's friend),  Vrishni (Krishna's clan), Yadu (Krishna's ancestor), Sritirtha (old name for  Dwaraka) are found on seals, some of which go back 5000 years.

Literary  Evidence
The west coast of Gujarat was the traditional land of the  Yadavs, or Yadus. According to the Bhagavad Puran, Krishna led the Yadavs  thousands of kilometres west to establish Dwarka, so they could start a new  life, safe from their many enemies in the Gangetic Valley.

The Mahabharata says, Dwarka was reclaimed from the sea.  Rao’s divers discovered that the submerged city's walls were erected on a  foundation of boulders, suggesting that land indeed was reclaimed from the sea.

Of course, there are thousands of references to Krishna in  other Hindu as well as Buddhist texts but Dwarka is the key. For, one cannot  separate Dwarka from Krishna. If the city existed, then it is true that Krishna  ruled over it. See pictures of Dwarka and Bet Dwarka

Astronomical  Evidence
Dr Narhari Achar, professor of physics at the University of  Memphis, Tennessee, has dated the Mahabharata war using astronomy, using  regular planetarium software. According to his research conducted in 2004-05,  the titanic clash between the Pandavas and the Kauravas took place in 3067 BC.  Using the same software, Dr Achar places the year of Krishna’s birth at 3112  BC.

Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician in the UK,  after examining the astronomical, archaeological and linguistic evidence,  agrees with Dr Achar’s conclusions. Dr Pandit, who is also a distinguished  astrologer and has written several books on the subject, traced the route of  Krishna’s journeys to shoot the documentary, “Krishna: History or Myth?”

Dr Pandit says there are more than 140 astronomy references  in the Mahabharata. Simulations of the night sky on the planetarium software  show the stars as they would align over the Saraswati river in northern India.  These simulations have been combined with geographical descriptions to arrive  at various dates. According to historian S.M. Ali, the author of Geography of  Puranas, “The geographical matter contained in the Mahabharata is immense. It  is perhaps the only great work which deals with geographic details and not  incidentally, as other works.”

Travel to Kurukshetra where the Great War between the  Pandavas and Kauravas took place. Vandalising  History
Of course, none of the evidence is good enough for the  ossified historians that lord over India’s academia, regurgitating the lies  written by the Christian missionaries. Disregarding all new research, academics  like Romilla Thapar, R.S. Sharma and Irfan Habib have consigned Krishna to  mythology.

In his textbook for Class X, Sharma writes, “Although Lord  Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, the earliest inscriptions  and sculpture pieces found in Mathura between 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest  his presence.” What brilliant deduction. Going by Sharma’s logic, any fool can  dig at a random site, and upon failing to discover an artefact, declare Krishna  never existed. Sadly, millions of Indian school children are being taught such  lies. Thapar, in fact, says the Mahabharata is a glorified account of a  skirmish between two “Aryan” tribes, with Krishna merely playing the role of an agent provocateur.

And what do they do when confronted with the new evidence?  They withdraw into their parallel dystopian world and argue it is not clinching  evidence. But, of course, they will accept as truth the myths of other  religions.

Dr Rao says further digging and diving, in tandem with  India’s vast treasure trove of historical facts will further corroborate key  dates of our eventful and glorious past.

As the Upanishads say, pratnakirtim apavirnu – know thy  past.

Himalayan Tragedy- Is Kalidasa Prophecy Coming True
By Dr. Kusum Vyas, July 2013

 [kusumvyasusa@gmail.com]

Chapter :

Long before the scourge of commercialization took root, the Himalayan sanctuaries were places of pristine beauty and rich biodiversity, revered by followers of five major religions.

Ancient texts illustrate a deep ecological awareness. The Mahābhārata says, “The Himalaya is adorned with rivers, inhabited by lions, tigers, birds, bumble bees, swans and cakoras, in lovely lakes adorned with lotuses”.

4th Century poet Kalidasa in Kumarasambhava describes the Himalaya as a “treasure house of precious minerals, biodiversity, sages and the source of Ganga”. 

On June 16th, the world watched in horror as flash floods decimated the Uttarakhand region of the Himalaya. Untold numbers were swept away or buried. Thousands of victims languished without food and water awaiting rescue, some dying before help arrived.

Within a matter of hours, the catastrophe transformed a region fabled for spirituality and pristine beauty to one of death and devastation. One month after the catastrophe, entire villages and towns remain buried in sludge and silt waiting for life and hope to return.

While bad weather and voracious construction activity appear to be the immediate causes, they are not the underlying factors. The prevailing narrative reflects that the calamity was a man-made disaster triggered by unbridled development. We believe that the calamity was the result of “violation of natural laws by selfish human beings” as warned by Kalidasa.

Looking deeper we see the progression of misplaced and unchanged priorities, prior warnings notwithstanding. Uttarakhand is reaping the consequences of ecocide perpetrated over decades by leaders who talk about conservation but promote harmful projects.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but this is no time to point fingers. Once the manic burst of media frenzy and political spats has subsided and the whirlwind slowed, the disaster should be a call to action.

An action plan drawn on the lines of World Bank and Global Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (GFDRR) must be implemented. It must undertake an apolitical study of the region – including the impact of dam construction and unchecked growth-- to define standards and policy. This needs to be done on a war footing.

Back in the days of Kalidasa, the Himalaya was a “treasure house” of lush nature. If there were any buildings, they were simple, thatched huts. India's population was less than one percent of what it is today; there was no railway and the average Indian never ventured more than 50 miles from home.

The region now hosts an annual influx of foreign tourists running into millions. Natural landscapes have become unregulated concrete sprawls developing rapidly at the expense of local ecology. Unbridled hydropower mania too is trampling the region. Naked capitalism has usurped spirituality as the region’s raison d'être.

The consequences are deforestation and loss of natural habitat, near extinction of the indigenous flora and fauna, leading to soil erosion, flooding and landslides. Had forests been maintained, death and destruction would have perhaps been significantly lower.

Indigenous people, coexisting harmoniously with nature for centuries, have long decried the encroachment into their habitats. Their cries have fallen on deaf ears. Nature warns us that it cannot indefinitely ignore the ravages of mindless pillage. India must designate the region as protected, halt construction and restrict visitors. Such a quota already exists for Amarnath.

Measures that appear to be bitter pills presenting political risks in the short term will yield rich political dividends in the future.  The difference lies in the measure of vision and collective will. The painful images of the devastation must be the catalyst for change. The time to begin is now. Let us heed the tears of Kalidasa.

Om Tat Sat
                                                        
 

(My humble salutations to Sri Rajesh Krishnan Simha and Dr Kusum Vyas  for the collection)