Women you are Blest!

        Free Press, Weekend, Sunday, March 07, 2010

              “Women you are blest. You have taken upon yourself the creator’s work and are his helpers. You open the way to recovery and ever renew the outworn world. Quietly, bravely is beauty’ form you carry within you the preserving force of universe and for the fallen, the broken, the deformed, the gracious touch of the lovely.”

        These noble words of great Indian poet Rabindra Nath Tagore most aptly articulate the real worth, dignity and place of the women. Philosophically speaking ‘every reality has two sides, whether it is good or bad, light or darkness, knowledge or ignorance and so on. One has no meaning without the existence of the other. Without tasting the acrimony of failure we will not know the syrupiness of success. To put it in context, man is incomplete without woman. Can we imagine a society or world for that matter, without women?

          A man is borne by a woman in her womb, with great care. She brings forth the new life, sacrificing her own comforts; she provides the best circumstances for the baby. The man, in his childhood, has a woman as his sister to play with him. When he grows up and becomes ready to be responsible in society, gets married with a woman; she gives him the real meaning of being a man, a complete man. She is always there to help man in every test and time till the end of life of a man. She is there at every crossroad of man’s life to give a hand to him, to be his aide. But is she only an aide? Doesn’t she have her own independent identity, her own penchant and dislike, her own independent existence? She is not created just to be a helper to man alone, but her existence is complimentary to that of man.

        If we skim through the timeline, it is very clear that women are beginning to comprehend their real dignity. They are not less in any matter. They have their own identity and full right to assert that. Mrs. Indira Gandhi probably meant this when she said, “to be liberated woman should feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity. Woman should be more interested, more alive and more active in the affairs of society, not because they comprise half the human race.” These words though spoken in the past are now being fulfilled. Woman is changing her susceptible image into the image of an able and independent being. There are numerous examples of women coming forward to assert their identity and are shining.

            She has been created by God with certain purpose and accordingly endowed with abilities and capacities. She has a compassionate heart with immense patience. Mother Teresa is one of the best examples of how a woman can feel for the suffering humanity. The present president of our country stands as in icon to indicate to the women of our country, that nothing is impossible for a woman that is possible for a man. Kiran Bedi, Medha Patekar, and several other ladies with “iron will” give a strong message that women have the aptitude not only to change somebody’s life but can give a new direction to society. With all the inimitable qualities possessed by a woman one would admiringly say ‘women you are blest.”

- B. Johnson Maria

“Watch thou thy thoughts”

           Published in Central Chronicle Feb 23, 2010

        Whatever a person does, is an extension and expansion of that person. If an artist draws a picture, it is the extension of his own thoughts, he expresses his very self. The way one talks, walks or behaves and executes his actions, through all these things a person expresses who s/he is. There is never a time when a person doesn’t express himself. Even when somebody is quiet or silent, s/he still conveys a message. We express ourselves through various ways, by our dressing style, by our walking style, by our talking style even by our writing style. There are experts for each of these fields to read and interpret our style.

          It is said ‘as you think, so you become.’ Our thoughts give direction to our actions and our actions give direction to our life. Good thought will result in a good life and conversely bad thoughts will result in a bad life. So one needs to pay a great attention to one’s thinking and thus the whole life as Great Greek philosopher Socrates would say, ‘Unexamined life is not worth living.’

        From where do we get our thinking? It is simple, human brain works like a computer. It processes huge amount of data everyday and analyses the same for its application. The computer works on the principle of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ means what input a computer is given; it will be the basis for output. So is the case with human beings. Whatever thinking we entertain so will be our actions. We cannot get good actions out of bad thinking neither can we get bad actions out of good thinking. Jesus says, ‘a tree is always known by its fruits. A good tree cannot bear bad fruits and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit.’ In other words, ‘a good person will not do bad deeds similarly a bad person will not do good deeds.’

         One may ask ‘how are our thoughts affected?’ There are various factors that affect our thoughts. We need to evaluate how we provide input to our mind. Our five senses play very important role in this matter. They provide a variety of food for our thoughts. Gandhiji had hinted when he presented it with three monkeys, two of whom were directly indicating to the input devices of man. Whatever we see with our eyes, it gives platform for our thinking. Watching television can be a simple example. If a child watches programs full of violence; do you think late on that child will turn into a pious and non-violent person? This is the case with everybody, not just children alone. One needs to constantly refine and examine so as to what one chooses to offer to one’s eyes and how that can affect one’s thinking.

       Our thinking also depends on what we hear. Similarly a great role is played by what we read. It is said, ‘reading makes a man perfect.’ But if person enjoys useless reading or unhealthy reading automatically his/her actions will be fruitless and leading to misery. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘even if somebody sits whole life reading all the good books of the world, s/he cannot finish reading all the books in whole life time.’ There where is the time to read bad and useless books? There are several people, no matter to what religion they belong; many of them have not opened their scripture for a long time. We get wisdom and God’s message in the scriptures and once we have God’s message for guiding our life then what else do we need?

- B. Johnson Maria

A Visit to the Monument of Love

(11-02-2010 to 14-02-2010)

        Only God’s love is eternal. No human beings can make their love eternal whatever way they try to do so. However when one comes across the Tajmahal of Agra, one is tempted to think that even human beings have a desire to make their love eternal even they don’t exist eternally. Tajmahal simply keeps the love story of Mumtaj and Shajahn ever alive.

           Though I was born hardly 80 km. away from this monument of love, but whenever I visit it, it gives me always a new insight and new meaning about love. This was a coincidence that we were there on the eve of the Valentine’s Day and what more special can be on this occasion than to be near the world known monument of love. Though our train was late by four hours but our enthusiasm and excitement was not reduced. We stepped down at Agra Cant station at 8:30 in the morning. The bus was ready to receive us. Straight we headed to the Pastoral center of Agra situated at Wazirpura road. There we were fascinated to see the old church built by the emperor Akbar around 600 years back. It is known as Akbar’s Church. After quick breakfast we moved to the great monument. Since we were quite early so we didn’t have to stand in log queue. Each time I go to Taj I find the number of visitors increasing. Everyday is like a festival there. We see people of different languages, different countries, different cultures all together different background. Seeing such a scene one can with ultimate firmness say that love knows no boundaries. All admire it.

           After exploring this beauty we moved on to another beautiful monument the Red Fort. We got a guide here to explain things about it. He told us many things and very interesting to know. After seeing the Red Fort, we came back and had our lunch and immediately moved to Fatehpur Sikri. It is another monument about 40 km away from Agra. It is actually the tomb of a Sufi sage Chisti. Here also people from all faiths come. It was here that Akbar built a mosque, a church and a gurudwara. It was here that he founded an ideal religion known as deen-e-elahi, a mixture of all the prominent religions of India. It is said whoever makes a wish wholeheartedly on this tomb, it is always granted. But those who have direct contact with God don’t need a mediator. After seeing this historical place we came back, had our supper and moved to the railway station. Indeed it was a memorable tour.

- B. Johnson Maria

Looking through the "Third Eye"

Concern of Every Individual

Central Chronicle Feb. 09, 2010.

Also in Free Press "Weekend" issue, Feb 21, 2010

                 All the created things, animate or inanimate, vegetative or aquatic or belonging to any form or category are interdependent on each other for their existence and subsistence. They directly or indirectly contribute to the growth and co-existence of others on this planet. All play their roles to keep this nature and environment in equilibrium. These facts we learn at our primary schools and are very much familiar with it. But the fact worth-noting here is that we, as human beings don’t apprehend the grade of responsibility that falls on us towards the wellbeing of the nature. Many great heads and organizations talk a lot on this issue trying to draw attention to the plea of the nature. There are also organizations and individuals who take concrete steps to do something concretely for the health of the nature but their contribution is like mite of the poor widow in the donation box.

               The Holy Bible says, ‘God created everything and saw that everything was good and beautiful, and at the end He took a little clay and formed the man (representing all human beings) and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. God gave man the dominion over whole of His creation and asked him to be the ‘steward’ to take care of the creation. He put man in the Garden of Eden. But man disobeyed God and faced the consequences.’ Even today human beings disobey the Creator and heartlessly exploit the creation and off course unaware of the repercussions. The frequently occurring natural calamities and disasters remind us of our responsibility towards nature but perhaps we think it to be the job of the experts and environmentalists and not of every individual. The truth is that every one of us individually is responsible to protect the environment and ensure healthy existence of humanity and other species of beings.

         According to Indian spirituality we are made of five elements namely earth, water, fire, wind and sky which are also five elements actually present in the nature. Alternatively, one can say that we are created out of nature thus our very existence is because of the nature. So when there is imbalance in the nature, will not be our existence in danger? Is it not our own responsibility to take care of the nature, to ensure our own existence? If the earth is polluted, the air remains no more pure and the water becomes noxious with chemicals and turned into undrinkable, can we still expect a pure and healthy human race?

             Apart form physical crisis; there will be also spiritual and religious crisis. Man claims to be rational, spiritual and wisest among the creation, but from where do we get this wisdom? We have Vedas and great epics containing wisdom handed down to generations. But remember this wisdom was the outcome of the deep contemplation and reflection of the ancient sages who sought it amidst the nature. Our religious sense and civilization have their origin in the nature. If there will be no trees and forests, will the spiritual seekers seek wisdom and peace on the busy crossroads? What do we have in stock to pass on to the coming generations, the looted nature? God dwells in the nature, we know it well. If the nature is destroyed then where do we stand?

- B. Johnson Maria

The author can be contacted at

johnsongwlr@gmail.com