HOW DID CHRISTIANITY TAKE ROOT IN THE BEGINING? WHAT DOES IT SAY

 

Today Christianity has the most number of followers in the world numbering about 2.3 billion. The crucifixion of Jesus happened sometime around 30AD, but only about 350 years later Christianity was accepted by the Roman Empire.  So why did it gain so much following and so much prominence? For that we have to check the background of the Roman Empire which controlled all of Europe then. Augustus Caesar was the Emperor of Rome till 14 AD and thereafter the Emperor was Tiberius Caesar. Jesus Christ received no royal patronage as long as he lived.

The Roman Empire was built on blood and battle. War was an accepted part of life then and spared no one including the families. The families of those losing the battle and the other men who survived the war were either employed by the Romans as slaves or were sold as such. There was total oppression of the people. By the time of Christ, the so called Roman senate became redundant and was ignored by the Emperors. A slave’s life had no value and they are treated more like cattle than humans. They were forced to fight each other to death in order to provide entertainment to the people.

It is estimated that in the 1^st century AD at the time of Jesus the Roman Empire had a population between 50-60 million of which roughly about 10 million were enslaved.  

Even among the freemen there was a distinction. If they belonged to newly taken areas despite being freemen their rights are restricted. Only their children had the real rights freemen enjoyed. These were the conditions at the time of Tiberius Caesar. So the slaves faced utter repression and lived without any hope and even the newly added freemen too had restricted rights.  

So for about 25% of the Roman population life was not good at all and for the slaves it was sheer misery. Such a state of affairs does bring forth a reaction and that reaction came in with Christianity. Jesus’s father Joseph was only a limited freeman as he was a Jew.

From the absolute oppression at that time Christianity preached exactly the opposite; There is but one God and Jesus was the son of God, leave all violence and bear with anyone who oppresses you with calm and faith in God. Never raise a finger against those men and if they hit you on one cheek, then show them the other. Always help others and spread the word of God to them.  Love everyone despite whatever they do to you.

So Christianity is an extremely pacifist religion which does not know anything called aggression. It believes that everyone is equal before God and only by doing good deeds, preaching the people about the greatness and the kingdom of God a Christian would be pardoned by god for his sins. All the first `12 disciples of Jesus were Jews and therefore not full free men.

It is a great irony that followers of such a religion which preaches to love others unconditionally could go into the crusades on a killing spree. By doing that they have completely violated all the precepts set down by Jesus.

FOLLWING ARE SOME OF THE MAIN TEACHINGS OF JESUS

There are some important teachings of Jesus that may be difficult to follow for Christians but they form the core of his teachings:

1.       Luke 16:13-You cannot serve both God and money. Jesus makes it clear that it is not possible for us to fully love and serve God and money at the same time. 

2.       Luke 6:27-28, 35-Love and pray for your enemies-Jesus encourages and commands that his followers both love and pray for those who actively oppose what he and his followers stand for, and practice. 

3.       Luke 6:29-Turn the other cheek-When someone hurts you or insulted you, then simply take the beating or hurt and respond with kindness and love. 

4.       Luke 9:23-Deny Self, take up Christ-like suffering-His followers must deny themselves, take up the suffering for Jesus and follow him. Suffering brings life, denying self brings life, losing  life means finding it. 

5.       Luke 9:57-62, 14:26, 21:16-17-Following Jesus is more important than family. Jesus says “ If you want to be my disciple, you must by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yes even your own life, Otherwise you cannot be my disciple”.

6.      Mathew 7:12, Luke 6:31-Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is perhaps one of the greatest sayings of Jesus. Just treat others as you yourself would like to be treated. This psalm gives a perfect moral standing on which to base ones actions on others. We would not like any harm to come to us, so never harm anyone, we want to be happy, so make others happy and so on.      

7.       Mathew 7:13, 13:50, 25:46-Hell is real and most people are headed there. Jesus says “Do you pray every day for the unbelievers? Do you talk about God with them often and purposefully? Do you actually share the good news with them? 

8.       Luke 21:17-We cannot be loved & accepted by both Jesus and the World-Jesus said Everyone would hate you because you are my followers which means as per Paul “I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal I would not be Christ’s servant”. 

9.       Mathew 5:14-15-Forgive others, or God would not forgive you. Jesus said “If you forgive others who sin against you your heavenly father would forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others your father would not forgive your sins. 

10.   Luke 12:8-9, Mathew 10:32-Deny Jesus before men, get denied by him before God-Jesus says “ I tell you the truth , everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of man will also acknowledge in the presence of Gods Angels.

VENEZUELA.- US MEDDLING.

 

Venezuela rests on the northernmost tip of South America with the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean in the north. On the west it is bordered by Colombia and on the east by Guyana and in the south by Brazil.  It has a land area of about 916,000 Sq. Km and had a population of 30 million. A vast majority of its people live in the North in its cities and its capital Caracas. 92.6% of Venezuela is Christian.

Venezuela was colonised by Spain in the year 1522 AD. It became independent from the yoke of Spain in 1811 AD itself and was part of the Columbian republic. It separated as a sovereign country in the year 1830. In the 19^th century Venezuela suffered from political turmoil and autocracy and was ruled by military dictatorships till the mid-20th century. From 1958 onwards, the country had a series of Democratic governments and the period had economic prosperity.

Economic shocks in the 1980’s and 90’s led to major political unrest. The collapse of confidence of the people in political parties was seen in the 1998 Presidential election. In 1999, a new constitution was made by the constituent assembly and was ratified. The government then started populist social welfare policies as the Oil prices were then soaring. The earlier years of the regime did see reduce in economic disparity and inequality. The poverty again started to increase rapidly from 2010 onwards. The 2013 Presidential election led to another crisis as it was disputed and there were widespread protests which continue to this day. First the Chavez and then Maduro administrations shifted from Democracy into an authoritarian state. Nicolos Maduro became the President of Venezuela in the year 2013 where he won 51% of the vote. The opposition contested the vote but it was rechecked and ratified by the SC.

Venezuela has the world’s largest known oil reserves and is fully dependent on exports of oil which was to the tune of 86% of its export share. Its economy was o dependent on oil that after the oil fell steeply from USD 100 to USD 40, Venezuela got into deep trouble and its economy got into recession. In 2015, Venezuela’s inflation had crossed 100%. Between 2014 and 2024 about 7.7 million people left Venezuela comprising of 25% of its population.

In 2016 Maduro declared an emergency and took more powers. The situation in Venezuela worsened further creating shortages even for food. In 2017 Maduro banned opposition parties form contesting elections. In 2017 the Trump government imposed mores sanctions on Venezuela and has frozen the USD 22 billion assets held overseas by Venezuela. These sanctions were responsible for a 59% decline in Venezuelan oil production compounding the crisis further.

Maduro won the 2018 election with a 68% vote share. However, that was challenged by Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France and the USA. What I fail to understand here is that how can other countries challenge and election in another country. It is like us challenging an election in the US, does not make any sense at all.   

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world estimated at 303 billion barrels. The US companies first developed the oil reserves in Venezuela but they were nationalised by the Venezuelan government in the 1970’s. Venezuela now earns only a fraction of the revenue compared to the revenue it earned earlier due to sanctions by the US. So the idea is to remove Maduro and install a pro US government so that they can grab the oil. Venezuela could export only USD 4 billion worth of oil in the year 2023 which is far far less than that of Saudi Arabia which is 181 billion USD. Place restriction on a country that is already in trouble and choke the exports of its main commodity so that the economy of the country is finished. The US is nothing l3ess on this than China on Taiwan. If the US does this, then why should not China grab Taiwan?

The following is what the Trump aide Stephen Miller tweeted on X.

American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.

The US gathered the largest military force in the region of the coast of Venezuela and also carried out multiple strikes on boats which the US claims as carrying drugs, of course without providing any proof. They are now out to grab Venezuelan oil in the guise of controlling drug trafficking.

The above tweet clearly means that the US is going to grab all that oil now. Just because the American companies developed the wells, they claim it as their own.

The USA has finished off Venezuela, and I think this is the worst type of robbery if it grabs Venezuelan oil. China should immediately garb Taiwan then. After all both are brothers going hand in hand. The only difference is the US makes noises about democracy, freedom of expression and so on. Ultimately what it does is this. China at least says Taiwan belongs to it and it is peopled by the Chinese. Nothing of the sort is between the US and Venezuela.

When the world becomes Unipolar this is what happens, might becomes right, because there is none to check that.  

MAJOR MOHIT SHARMA-AN EXTRAORDINARY SOLDIER

 

Yesterday, it was by sheer chance I saw the trailer of “DHURANDHAR”. In that it was mentioned that the story is based on real life incidents. I just wanted to check if that is true and what I found on that is real exciting stuff.

Till now, we have only seen in movies about Indian agents participating in covert operations in other countries impersonating as someone else. I always overruled it as a bit of fantasy rather than reality. But the life of Mohit Sharma completely changed that view.

Mohit Sharma was born at Rohtak in Haryana in the year 1978. His parents later shifted to Delhi  where he studied and he completed his school studies in the Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad till 12^th standard in 1995. Mohit was very good at playing the guitar, mouth organ and the synthesiser accompanied by which he sang songs of Hemant Kumar.

He got admitted to an Engineering college in Maharashtra, but he had a passion to join the services so he left it and joined the NDA in 1995 itself. During his NDA tenure, he excelled in many fields. He was a champion horse rider, a boxing champion in the featherweight category and was also one of the top swimmers. While in the IMA, he was one of the best cadets and had an opportunity to interact with KR Narayanan who was then the President of India.

He passed out from IMA in Dec 1999 and was allotted to the Madras Regiment and was posted at Hyderabad. From there he went to serve with 38 Rashtriya Rifles in Kashmir as a part of counter insurgency operation where he won his first gallantry medal in the year 2002.

Then he served as a para commando which was an elite force in the army in 2003 in Kashmir. He was involved in many counter insurgency operations in Kashmir which involved in infiltrating militant outfits for intelligence under secret identities. In one such operation he infiltrated the Hijbul Mujahideen under the identity of Iftikhar Bhat while keeping a heavy beard and dressing as a local for his cover. During the operation he gathered intelligence on Hizbul Mujahideen and has also assassinated 2 high ranking members of the group. There he received his 2^nd gallantry award in 2004. He later served as an instructor of Commando training at Bangalore till 2006.

In the year 2009 his unit was deployed in the Kupwara district of Kashmir and was engaged in the operations against terrorists on a continuous basis. Based on intelligence about an infiltration attempt by terrorists, his unit launched an operation to flush them out. He was tasked with heading the Bravo assault team against terrorists in the dense Haphruda forest. By that time he was already respected as a fearless soldier with great tactical acumen by his colleagues and had spent more than 4 years in Kashmir.  

His team was ambushed by militants who rained fire on it from 3 directions. The fire left 4 immediately critically wounded in the initial burst. In sheer bravery, major Mohit disregarded the continuing fire crawled and rescued 2 of the 4 wounded soldiers, which made his team fight with renewed resolve. The terrorists then started to break up the team. Mohit realised that he advanced under the hail of bullets, lobbed grenades at the enemy and killed 2 terrorists, but in the process he sustained a serious bullet injury on the chest, yet he refused to withdraw and continued directing the assault motivating his commandos to hold their ground and press forward. When the situation worsened and the terrorists were winning, he surged ahead regardless of his life and I absolute bravery he eliminated 2 more terrorists before succumbing to his injuries.  He was just 31 years old when he died.

For his act of sheer bravery and valour Major Mohit Sharma received the Ashok Chakra posthumously on 26^th January 2010. His wife Major Rishima Sharma (nee Sarin) received the award from the President. She is currently a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Service Corps. She is the daughter of retired Colonel Mohanlal Sarin of the same Corps. Her brother also serves in the artillery as a Colonel. She comes from the Gurdaspur district in the Punjab. She was the first woman officer to serve as an Agniveer recruiter in 2023. The couple had 2 children.

It is rather ironic that after such a brave soldier’s death, his parents have criticised the NOK law f the Services which completely side lines the parents and grants full rights to his widow. His parents have taken this to the Supreme Court and tried to tarnish Risihma Sharmas name.

The parents also went to the court to stop screening of the film “Dhurandhar” but the SC ruled that the film is not based on Mohit Sharma’s life which is why it is released now. A man who most gloriously died for the country had the misfortune of being the centre of such controversy created by his own parents which is very unfortunate indeed.  

MARS THE RED PLANET.

 

Mars had fascinated many an astronomer and there had been many science fiction novels about Martians visiting us. The HG Wells “War of the Worlds” is a classic work creating a fascinating tale about the Martians despite it not being a nice one. 

I always fondly remember the Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs which I read a long time ago and found the fascinating. It used the low gravitation of Mars which is about one third of the earth and gives higher muscle power to a guy named John Carter from Earth who accidentally gets transferred to Mars. 

That transfer is certainly impossible but that was a fantasy. Edgar Rice Burroughs really gives rein to his full imagination in that first Mars series novel named “Princess of Mars”.   

Mars is a desert like planet with a thin layer of atmosphere, that too consisting of Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen. This is the only planet in the solar system where we sent rovers to roam the landscape. We have found strong evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer with a thicker atmosphere billions of years ago.

                               MARTIAN LANDSCAPE

Mars was named by the ancient Romans in the name of their God of war as the Planet appeared red which reminded them of blood. Iron minerals in the Martian dirt oxidize (rust) to give it its red colour.  

Although Mars is unlikely to have any life forms today, there are strong indications that life exited once on Mars.

Mars has a diameter of 3390 km which is about half the size of Earth. Mars is 228 million Km from the Sun (average). The distance of Mars from the earth varies from just 54 million Km to 225 million Km as both the earth and Mars are orbiting the Sun.  

Mars rotates on its axis in about 1 day just like the earth, but the year on Mars is a little over double that of ours. Surprisingly even the axis of rotation of Mars is tilted somewhat similar to earth giving it seasons. 

Mars has 2 moons: Phobos (20 odd Km across) and Deimos (13 odd Km across), both of which are too small and were probably captured asteroids unlike our moon. They are uneven in shape with Deimos being more distorted.

Mars has a very large canyon which is 4800 Km across and is 320 Km at the widest, and 7 Km at the deepest.

Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system named Olympus Mons. It is 3 times taller than Mount Everest.

     OLYMPUS MONS-TALLEST VOLCANO IN THE SOLAR                                                         SYSTEM

There are a number of evidences that water existed in plenty on Mars at about 1 billion years ago. There is water on Mars today but it is only found as ice under the surface in the Polar Regions.

Mars has very thin atmosphere which mostly consist of Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and Argon. It does not offer any protection against the hits of asteroids, comets and meteorites not to speak of Cosmic rays.

                                 MARTIAN LANDSCAPE

The Martian temperature varies between 20 degrees Celsius and -153 degrees Celsius where nothing can survive.

In one billion years, Earth too would become as uninhabitable as Mars but for different reasons. The Suns luminosity would increase by 10% by then, causing global temperature to increase, the oceans would start to evaporate and our atmosphere would lose Oxygen which would wipe out most complex life forms and leave a dead desert planet which Mars is today but only much hotter. Anyway 100 crore years are far too many to be worried about, because the human species was born only 300,000 years ago.

Look at the terrain of Mars in the following video filmed by one of the Rovers, it is almost similar to the Earth but the difference is it is barren and is without water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_RPd0rblI

 

 

SHAKUNTALA DEVI-MATHEMATICAL GENIUS.

 

All of you might know about Shakuntala Devi as she was very famous for her mathematical exploits. Some mathematicians are off the beaten track and Shakuntala Devi was one of them.

She was born at Bangalore into a Kannada Brahmin family in 1929. Her father worked as a trapeze artist, lion tamer, tightrope walker and a magician. Theirs is a most unusual family that had nothing going for mathematics. Then how did she come across mathematics?

Her father discovered her ability at the age of 3 when he was trying to teach her a card trick. On that, her father left the circus and started taking her on road shows where she displayed her ability at calculation. At the age of 6 she demonstrated her mathematical ability at the University of Mysore. She did all this without any formal education whatsoever.  

That her father took the chance to leave his livelihood for her was because he must have seen that she had something special in him.

In 1944, at the age of 15 Shakuntaladevi moved to London. She then travelled to many countries of the world to display her mathematical talents.

In 1988 she travelled to the US and was examined by Professor Jensen of University of California at Berkeley. Jensen tested her in various tasks, among them included calculating the cube root of 61,629,875 and the 7^th root of 170,859,375. She gave the answers to them before Jensen could copy them down in a note book.  

In 1977, at the Southern Methodist University she computed the 23^rd root of a 201 digit number in 50 seconds. Her answer was confirmed by the US Bureau of Standards using the UNIVAC 1101 computer which took 62 seconds to compute the right answer.

In 1980, at the Imperial College, London she multiplied 2, 13 digit numbers in 28 seconds. This entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1982.

Shakuntala Devi returned back to India in mid-1960’s and got married to an IAS Officer from Calcutta, Paritosh Banerjee. She wrote a book on Homosexuality in 1977 which gave a call for de criminalization of homosexuality and acceptance of it. The idea was revolutionary at that time as then homosexuality was considered to be a perversion and an anomaly while the Supreme Court accepted it today.   

Later, she said that her husband was a homosexual and that was why she wrote a book on the subject. In 1979 they got divorced. Later her daughter Anupama Banerjee claimed that Shakuntala Devi lied about her father being a homosexual in order to promote her book.

I joined SBI as a Probationary Officer in 1982 and when I posted this in my batchmates group, I got a new insight on her. Raghu Bagalwadi, mya batch mate who is originally from Karnataka like her narrated an incident with her that proves she is not a good human being at all. Raghu left the SBI and became the Chief General Manager of IDBI and was at their Head office at Mumbai. Shakuntala Devi had an account with one of the branches of IDBI at Mumbai. One day a cheque was presented in clearing on her account and his Branch Manager (who never heard of her) returned the cheque. Actually Raghu had no business to mollify her, but since she is famous and on top of that she is from his home state of Karnataka, he went to her house to meet her and apologize. But to his surprise she used most unruly language and expletives on him. Posting that he said all geniuses need not be good persons despite us assuming so.    

She contested as an MP in the Loksabha elections in 1980 against Indira Gandhi in and lost with a huge margin and came ninth with just 500 votes and Came 9^th.

She died in 2013 aged 83 with respiratory problems.  

THOMAS HOBBES

 

Thomas Hobbes was born in England in the year 1588. Those were the times when the whole of England was trembling with the news that the Spanish armada was about to attack them. 

The name of his father was also Thomas Hobbes. He was a Vicar in a church but was crude and was always ready to quarrel or fight. One day he fought with someone and ran away from home. 

Thomas Hobbes joined school at the age of 4 and later joined the Oxford University at the age of 15. He did not like Oxford and considered it to be a den of drunkards and rowdies and resented it. He completed his education when he was 24 and started teaching to the son of Henry Cavendish the famous scientist. He met Galileo, Descartes and others. He used to write down the dictations of Bacon.  

In the meantime it appeared that there was likely to be a civil war in England. He felt that he may come to trouble due to his political opinions and ran away to Paris. He stayed at Paris for 11 years as a refugee. In the meantime King Charles was beheaded in England and Cromwell came to power. During that period Hobbes wrote his famous book the “Leviathan”. The political and philosophical ideas expressed in that book angered the expatriate English living in Paris as well as the French theologians. He then ran away to England.  

After sometime Charles II became King in 1660. Hobbes was the tutor of Charles II in his exile at France. With that in mind Charles II gave refuge to his earlier guru. However, his feud with the church continued and it branded him as an atheist. 

Hobbes lived up to a very old age. He is tall, and is of iron will. He was playing tennis in his 75^th year and was singing songs. He was a master in both Greek and Latin. At the age of 84 he wrote his autobiography. In his 86^th year he translated Homers Iliad and Odyssey into English. He was writing when he was 90 years old and finally died in his 91^st year.  

Philosophically Hobbes was a Materialist and Utilitarian. As per his Epistemology he is an Empiricist. He never criticized religion intensely. He believed in a God. But he said that God as not the creator of the Universe and said that we can never know him by logic and therefore Philosophy should not hypothesize on the concept of God.     

The most important book written by Hobbes was the “Leviathan” published in 1651. This is his philosophical treatise on politics. It defines as to what is the State? Why and how it was formed? Which is the best form of Government? He has dealt with all these in his Leviathan. Leviathan means a whale. In the modern age this is seen to be the first political treatise and it influenced many later philosophers and their philosophies. Yet today its value is only historical. 

Hobbes said, whatever is there in this world is only matter. Whatever we see or perceive is only motion. Matter and motion together is the total reality. Even man is a combination of atoms that are moving. 

There is no first cause for motion and it is eternal. There is no empty space and all the space is filled with matter. The space between the matter is filled with ether. 

How do we acquire knowledge? Motion itself is the reason for knowledge. All knowledge acquired by us is only through our sense organs. 

The colors we see, the sounds we hear, the feel we have with touch, the smells we have with the nose and the taste through our tongue are not the qualities of the external things. The sensations we get are the impressions made by the external things on our sense organs. Therefore the qualities of the external things we perceive do not intrinsically belong to them, but they are merely the impression made on our senses. Therefore the world that is seen with our senses and the actual world is different.     

Every living thing craves for pleasure and rejects pain. Our body loves some things whereas it dislikes some. Therefore it seeks those things that give pleasure and avoids things that don’t. This is the Mechanical materialism on which Hobbes built his philosophical edifice. 

As self-pleasure is the most sought by humans, man naturally becomes selfish. All humans have equal freedom and mostly have equal strength and mental ability. 

However, there are also differences between different humans. Because the goal of humans is happiness to self they compete with each other for riches and respect. In this fight the better human wins. However, this leads to strife for the vanquished. Even the victor is not safe from an even more powerful person than him. Thus, there is always insecurity and strife among humans and no one feels safe. In the process, what humans looked for in the first place; happiness is totally lost. 

But then, what to do in order to get a secure life? Every individual has to curtail his freedom and rights and accommodate others. 

Now how to regulate that freedom additionally given to others? It may be misused by the person to whom it is given. So they need to give it to a person who can protect the group. That person to whom this additional power is given becomes the headman and later the king. This is a Social Contract. He is supposed to discipline the group.  

 

 

 

       

 

GORBACHEV & YELTSIN'S MESS----PUTINS TENURE A SAVIOUR FOR RUSSIA.

The Soviet Union broke up more because of Gorbachev than anything else. It was that single man alone who destroyed the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev’s buzzwords then were GLASNOST which meant openness that allowed greater freedom of speech and information &  PERESTROIKA which meant restructuring that involved in reforms to the Soviet Economy. 

These policies of his were aimed at making the Soviet Union better, but instead they led to its disintegration and dissolution. 

There were shortages of consumer goods in the Soviet Union at that time, no doubt but not anything else.. therefore Perestroika was very much needed by them for making everything freely available. 

But the blunder Gorbachev had done was to simultaneously bring in Glasnost. 

When the economy undergoes a big structural change from a communist state-controlled economy to a democratic one, there would initially be chaos and unless that transition takes place under a firm hand, there is bound to be a setback for the state. 

Instead of doing that Gorbachev simultaneously went for Glasnost, another radical reform, that of freedom of expression. 

The combination of those both resulted in a Molotov cocktail that exploded in the face of the Soviet Union. 

With structural change shortages increased exponentially and there were queues for everything. 

The basic premise of Gorbachev of bringing both together was totally wrong. There is nothing wrong in liberalizing the economy, but it is most short sighted not to estimate the chaos the transition may create. bringing in Glasnost simultaneously is a most bull headed idea anyone could have had.  

The Soviet Bloc of countries was East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. 

The Soviet Union had control over these countries and put up puppet governments there. 

Uprisings of the people in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956 & Czechoslovakia in 1968 was put down by the governments with the support of the Soviet Union. 

The Soviet Union alone had a population of 286 million as per the 1989 census. The other Soviet bloc countries together had a population of 110 million in 1989. 

That means the Soviet Bloc as a whole had a population of 396 million while the US then only had a population of 250 million. 

Firstly Gorbachev let the Soviet bloc countries go free as they wished without militarily intervening as they broke away. 

Then he went a step ahead and let the Soviet Republics break away and did not use the military to stop them. 

When they broke away he tried to form a union of the Republics of the USSR which failed miserably. 

As the economy crumbled and the Republics broke away, the end of the Soviet Union had arrived and as he had no choice this destroyer resigned in Dec 1991. 

For this work of his destroying their most powerful foe and turn it into a chaotic nation, the West gladly and gratefully awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. 

If there is a most undeserving Nobel Prize, this is one. This guy smilingly destroyed his country. It is coincidental that Gorbachev was partly Ukrainian. 

Would we let Kashmir break away and keep our army in the barracks? That was what Gorbachev did. He should be called the butcher of the Soviet Union who cut the country into pieces. 

Boris Yeltsin became the first President of Russia after Gorbachev quit, but by that time the rot that was unleashed by Gorbachev had set into the system and there was no coming back.

Incidentally in the Presidential election Yeltsin secured 57% of the votes cast while Gorbachev’s preferred candidate Nikolai Ryzhkov got just 16% votes. However, the forces unleashed by Gorbachev continued to rock Russia. 

What Gorbachev achieved was the following: 

GDP decline in post-Soviet nations was substantial and averaged roughly 51%. From 1990 to 2000, GDP decline of Republics shown below:  

63% in Armenia

60% in Azerbaijan

35% in Belarus

35% in Estonia

78% in Georgia

41% in Kazakhstan

50% in Kyrgyzstan

51% in Latvia

44% in Lithuania

63% in Moldova

40% in Russia

50% in Tajikistan

48% in Turkmenistan

59% in Ukraine

This is what has happened to Russia and the other Soviet states because of the breakup. 

Gorbachev very successfully impoverished and finished off the Soviet Union as no US President ever could. 

Russia under Boris Yeltsin faced catastrophic economic deterioration: hyperinflation, production drop and poverty, rising crime, political chaos, rampant corruption and decline in living standard’s which led to widespread public disillusionment. 

Yeltsin followed Gorbachev’s footsteps. While Gorbachev destroyed the Soviet Union, Yeltsin did the same to Russia. It is like Russia jumping from the frying pan into the fire. 

The Russian GDP sank by about 50% during his tenure and had all the ills mentioned above. 

Putin was the de facto ruler of Russia since the year 2000. Out from the chaos created by Yeltsin came Putin. 

He became PM of Russia in 1999 under Yeltsin and when Yeltsin resigned became the de facto ruler. 

He got elected as the President in the year 2000 and was re-elected in 2004. 

As the Presidential tenure cannot cross 2 consecutive times, he became the PM in 2008 under Dmitry Medvedev and was re-elected President in 2012. 

During Putin’s first Presidential tenure, the Russian economy grew at an average rate of 7% which was truly welcome after the mess created by Yeltsin. 

But during Putin’s Presidentship, the Russian political system has transformed into an authoritarian dictatorship with a personality cult. 

Charges of corruption and human rights violations had been there as well as intimidation and censorship of media. However, Russia sank into the quagmire of corruption during the tenure of Yeltsin himself and that merely continued under Putin. 

However, Putins greatest achievement had been to steady a Russia that was rapidly going downhill at a fast rate both in law and order, poverty and on the economy. 

Russia’s GDP had been USD 517 billion in 1991. From there it dropped to 195 billion USD in 1999. Looking at that, one can see how Russia has fallen into a horrible hole. 

Currently the Russian economy performs far better than it did before. Unequivocally the credit for that goes to Putin. 

Russia desperately needed a strong man in 1999 and Putin fit the bill perfectly. For any country, lawlessness, decline in economy and increase in poverty are far worse than a dictatorship that can deliver on the economy.

MUSINGS ON HINDUISM.

 

The question always puzzled me no end. Initially when I was a child I thought Hinduism was merely idol worship which we do in temples and the mantras that were chanted at rituals.  I was brought up mostly in the house of my paternal great grandmother where I studied till my Intermediate as my parents were at Vizag. Great granny was a pious lady and throughout the day she read and re read both Ramayana and Mahabharata one after the other in succession throughout the year again and again. She had very comprehensive works on both the epics running into some 15 volumes each and of course I read them as well when I came of age.

She used to send me and my younger brother to the nearby Shiva temple (despite she herself being a Vaishnavaite) accompanied by one ayah named Ramachandramma who brought us up as my parents stayed ay Vizag. However, those trips to the temple did not really make me religious. After sometime I started reading Astronomy, and the more I read it, the more I was convinced that a humanlike God just did not exist.

The fountainhead of Hinduism lies in the Vedas. As you well know they are 4 in number 1) Rik, 2) Sama, 3) Yajur & 4)Atharva. In fact a Veda itself consists of 4 portions; 1) Samhita, 2) Brahmana, 3) Aranyaka & 4) Upanishads.

Vedas worship the Nature and were the source books of Hinduism. The Samhita & Brahmana portion mostly extolls various gods by defining and praising them despite having a philosophical streak here and there. They also set forth a number of sacrifices and rituals to be followed along with the procedure for performing them.

The Aranyakas mark a transition from ritualistic to philosophical thought and they try to interpret and fuse the rituals to the relevant philosophical thought. Thereafter come the Upanishads which are the concluding portion of the Vedas. These are intensely philosophical. They take back the age of the Earth to some 432 crore years which happens to be amazingly close to the actual figure calculated by astronomers which is 450 crore years.

No other religion in the world even remotely approaches Hinduism on the longevity of the Earth. A day for Lord Brahma who is the creator of the Universe is known as the “Kalpa”  and is equal to 864 crore years which is just one day for Brahma. His day consists of half of that or 432 crore years, during which he creates the Universe and his night is the time of “Pralaya” when the Universe gets destroyed completely. Next day of his (after 864 crore years) Brahma restarts producing the Universe all over again.    

Every Kalpa or 1 day of Brahma has 1000 cycles of the 4 Yugas; Satya, Treta, Dwapara & Kali. Satya Yuga lasts for 17,28,000 years, Treta for  12,96,000 years, Dwapara for 8,64,000 years and Kali for 4,32,000 years.                Thus a Mahayuga lasts for 43,20,000 years.

Each Kalpa is divided into 14 Manvantaras or periods each lasting for 71 cycles of the 4 Yugas. The title ‘Manu” is given to each person that presides over the Manvantara. Thus, there are 14 different Manus.

The Upanishads are highly sceptical and allow many streams of thought. Such scepticism allows Hinduism to be very tolerant to other ways of thinking. The Hindu orthodox Brahmins certainly did oppose Buddhism & Jainism when they came in and criticised them, but that opposition was merely confined to heated debates and never went on to become any type of physical threat to another person. In its tolerance, Hinduism went ahead and accepted Buddha as the 9^th reincarnation of Vishnu.  

The Rigveda itself was supposedly started forming in about 1500 BC and it concluded probably by 1200 BC. The other 3 Vedas were composed later between 1200 and 900 BC. However, India had no script then, and the Vedas were carried by oral rendition and byhearting by certain families of Rishis. They are passed down orally from generation to generation when finally they were written down in Sanskrit in the Brahmi script between 1000 and 500 BC. Today, the Vedas are found in the Devanagari script.

To support and protect the purity of the Vedas as they were then orally being passed down due to lack of script, the 6 Vedangas emerged to create a rigid system for passing them down. They are 1 Siksha –Phonetics, 2. Vyakarana-Grammar, 3. Chandas-Meter, 4. Nirukta-Etymology, 5. Kalpa-Ritual & 6. Jyotisha-Astrology/Astronomy.   

The Rigveda consists of 1028 hymns known as Suktas. Following is the list of Gods to whom the maximum number of hymns are addressed:

Indra 250, Agni 200, Soma 123, Ashvins 56, Varuna 40, Maruts 38, Mitra  28, Ushas 21, Vayu 12,Vishnu 12, Savitr 11 and so on.        

 

What are the most important Gods of Hinduism as we practice today? They are Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara. Amazingly both Vishnu and Rudra were just minor Gods in the Vedas and only a few hymns were addressed to them. The Brahman of the Vedas does not denote the Brahma, the creator, but Brahman the Absolute. That was because the Vedas were pure nature worship and gives precedence over everything to Brahman which is Brahman the Absolute. The Brahman is said to be beyond all thought and can never be defined by anyone. One can only say this is not Brahman, that is not Brahman only by negation but never by affirmation. The moment anyone starts defining Brahman, they only end up with Ishwara or the Personal God and never Brahman.     

The mightiest God of the Vedas was Indra and Rigveda extolls him in 250 hymns out of its 1038 hymns. Then come Agni, Soma( God of drink), then come the Ashwins who are gods for sunrise & sunset, then Varuna the god of Sky and Oceans, then the Maruts or wind gods and so on. As you can see, the Vedas are unfettered pure nature worship. In the Rigveda, Vishnu gets only 12 hymns, and Rudra gets 7 hymns.

The early Vedic society was egalitarian and believed that everyone is equal. The political unit was then “Jana” headed by a “Rajan” who was a protector and not a hereditary ruler. He was assisted by the tribal assemblies of Sabha (Council of Elders) and the Samiti (Peoples Assembly), However, the kingship became hereditary and all powerful during the later Vedic age and elaborate rituals like Aswamedha and the Rajasuya were performed to affirm his authority.   

The Varna system came into Hindu society depending on the type of work being done by different classes and was not rigid initially, but later it developed into a rigid class system that actually discriminated based on the work done by a class.

There was some gender equality in early Vedic society, with women participating in rituals and even in war in a few cases. However, social restrictions on women were slowly enforced during the later Vedic period.  

A number of women appear in the Rigveda; Indrani, Urvasi, Apala Atreyi, Godha, Ghosa Kaksivati, Romasa, Lopamudra, Visvavara Atreyi, Sachi Paulomi, Saswati Angirasi, and these women were quite outspoken and confident and were not diffident to express themselves. Of course, this outspokenness disappeared in the later Vedic age.

The following Rishis are prominently mentioned in the Vedas; Vasishta, Vishwamitra, Bharadvaja, Agastya, Kashyapa, Angiras and Bhrigu.