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श्री  विश्व निकेतन SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN

Ashadha Krishna 10, Vik. Samvat 2077, Yugabda 5122:16 June, 2020: SM 2006 (For Private Circulation Only)


1. FESTIVALS : RAM MANDIR CONSTRUCTION BEGINS IN AYODHYA WITH 'RUDRA ABHISHEK' CEREMONY 2. OXFORD JOURNAL LOOKS TO SRIMADBHAGAVAD GITA FOR 'COVID LESSONS'
3. USA'S TALLEST SHRI HANUMAN JI INSTALLED IN DELAWARE 4. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN SURGEON PERFORMS FIRST DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANT ON COVID-19 PATIENT IN US
5. HSS USA PRESS RELEASE ON CURRENT US SCENARIO 6. SHIVAJI STRIVED FOR CREATING A HINDU EMPIRE- BHAIYYAJI JOSHI
7. UNLOCK 1.0+ PLACES OF WORSHIP REOPENED AFTER 75 DAYS 8. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BHARATIYA AMERICAN SOIL PROFESSOR NAMED RECIPIENT OF 2020 WORLD FOOD PRIZE
9. HSS USA SEWA MAKES MASSIVE DONATIONS TO GURUDWARAS 10. PENANG HINDU ASSOCIATION PROVIDES SUPPORT TO NEEDY
11. HINDUS MAKE MASKS FOR AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY 12. IAF ARPIT FOR EVACUATION OF CRITICAL PATIENTS
13. 500-YEAR-OLD TEMPLE FOUND SUBMERGED IN ODISHA’S MAHANADI 14. BHARATIYA TWO-WHEELER MANUFACTURERS BEAT BACK CHINESE COMPANIES IN AFRICA
15. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN HIV SCIENTIST GITA RAMJEE PASSWS AWAY DUE TO CORONA VIRUS 16. BHARAT'S FOREX RESERVES SURGE TO ALL-TIME HIGH OF $493.48 BN
17. UN WEATHER ARM WMO PRAISES IMD FOR ACCURATE PREDICTION OF CYCLONE AMPHAN 18. SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN & FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Article:

RACIAL DISCONTENT AND DHARMA

 

1. FESTIVALS : RAM MANDIR CONSTRUCTION BEGINS IN AYODHYA WITH 'RUDRA ABHISHEK' CEREMONY: About 25 priests led by Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, spokesperson for Mahant Nritya Gopal Das who is President Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, participated in the ''Rudra Abhishek'' ceremony, followed by an ''aarti'' held at the Kuber Tila temple in Ayodhya on 10th June morning to mark the beginning of temple construction. The ceremony was held to pray Bhagwan Shiva and seek his protection from any obstacles that may come in the way of temple construction. The preliminary work on the temple site will begin now though the actual construction will start much later. --GoTop


2. OXFORD JOURNAL LOOKS TO SRIMADBHAGAVAD GITA FOR 'COVID LESSONS': “Now, in the midst of a pandemic, the Bhagavad Gita is more relevant than ever — the healthcare worker is Arjuna, hospitals are battlegrounds for the war against the virus and misinformation, the lack of a cure or an effective containment strategy, and a system that has failed us. Amidst this chaos, the healthcare worker is being guided by dharma and a deep sense of purpose to do what is right and not become paralyzed by the outcome,” says the article "Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita (the ‘Lord’s Song’), from India during these difficult times" by Ankur Kalra, MD, FACP, FACC, FSCAI, Erin D Michos, MD, MHS, Kavitha M Chinnaiyan, MD in The European Heart Journal, a peer-reviewed journal of cardiology published by Oxford University. The article called the healthcare workers today’s Arjunas, comparing the Kurukshetra battlefield to hospitals.
"COVID-19 has challenged clinicians’ professional commitment to their communities and to humanity, accompanied by a sacrifice of their own safety and of the safety and needs of their families. It has become a litmus test of our character, our focus, our strength, and our passion to care for the sickest, in the sincere hope that even amidst despair and desperation, we are somehow making a difference in every life," the article adds. --GoTop


3. USA'S TALLEST SHRI HANUMAN JI INSTALLED IN DELAWARE: The largest Hanuman statue in the USA, that is 25 feet in height has been built in Delaware. It is the tallest statue of a Hindu God in the country. It has been carved from a solid block of black granite and took over a year to complete the work. The statue is the second largest religious statue in Delaware after Our Lady Queen of Peace statue at Holy Spirit Church in New Castle. --GoTop


4. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN SURGEON PERFORMS FIRST DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANT ON COVID-19 PATIENT IN US: A double-lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient was performed by surgeons led by a Bharatiya-origin doctor Ankit Bharat in the United States. The surgery is believed to be the first of its kind since corona virus pandemic began in America. In her twenties, the Chicago patient was on a ventilator and heart-lung machine for almost two months before she underwent this complicated operation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. The 10-hour procedure was challenging as the corona virus had left her lungs full of holes and almost fused to the chest wall, Dr Ankit Bharat, who performed the operation, said. Dr Ankit Bharat is chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of Northwestern`s lung transplant programme. --GoTop


5. HSS USA PRESS RELEASE ON CURRENT US SCENARIO: Shocked, troubled, and saddened by the painful killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh-USA stands in solidarity with our fellow citizens, especially African American brothers and sisters, who are demanding justice for George Floyd and reform of our justice system so that the law is fairly applied and enforced. History tells the tragic tale of racial injustice and selective enforcement of the law in this country for too long. Thus, we stand against racism and discrimination. We condemn police brutality while expressing gratitude to the hardworking and caring police officials who believe in protecting the community. HSS supports the peaceful protests, as practiced, and promoted by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., and hence we do not condone violence, arson, and looting. We are committed to universal (Dharmic) values such as vasudhaivakutumbakam (the entire world is one family) and ahimsa (non-violence) and celebrate diversity. We firmly believe that all lives are equal. --GoTop


6. SHIVAJI STRIVED FOR CREATING A HINDU EMPIRE- BHAIYYAJI JOSHI: “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj dedicated his life to the interest of the nation and Hindus. The goal of his life was to create a Hindu empire. He did not have any selfish interest. He placed national interest above other things,” said RSS Sarkaryavah Bhayyaji Joshi while speaking during Facebook live programme to mark the anniversary of coronation day of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, celebrated as ‘Hindu Samrajya Din’.
“His national vision is reflected in his letter to Mirzaraje Jaisingh. He never thought of caste, religion, or sect while entrusting various responsibilities to people. He always took decisions depending upon quality and performance of an individual. Hence, his idea of Swarajya included people from all walks of life,” he said. --GoTop


7. UNLOCK 1.0+ PLACES OF WORSHIP REOPENED AFTER 75 DAYS: With places of worship being allowed to re-open after nearly 80 days of lockdown, several temples, mosques and churches throughout Bharat cautiously opened their doors to devotees. The Venkateswara temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh opened for darshan at 6 am on 8th June with a restriced entry. The Srisailam temple in Kurnool district has decided to allow only 3000 devotees per day. In Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, many of the prominent places of worship remained closed over concerns over the pandemic. The Eidgah mosque in Lucknow opened with the Shahi Imam leading the morning prayers in a group of five. In Tamil Nadu religious places continue to remain closed. In Karnataka, places of worship opened to the public, with restrictions in place and new protocols like the use of sanitizers. Many devotees thronged at religious places in the national capital following the social distancing and sanitization measures put in place by the management committees. The holy Sikh shrines saw religious fervour and devotion when people reached in early morning to offer prayers at Gurudwaras. The devotees continued to reach all gurudwaras later in the day also.--GoTop

 
8. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BHARATIYA AMERICAN SOIL PROFESSOR NAMED RECIPIENT OF 2020 WORLD FOOD PRIZE: Dr. Rattan Lal, a professor of soil science at Ohio State University and founding director of the university's Carbon Management and Sequestration Center has been named this year’s recipient of the World Food Prize. “Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,” World Food Prize Foundation president Barbara Stinson said in an online ceremony June 11.
Dr. Lal has developed and promoted the idea that healthy soil must not only have the usual nutrients, including Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, but must have depleted Carbon restored by leaving crop residue.
Dr. Lal, 76, was born in Bharat and studied soils from his earliest days at Punjab Agricultural University. His pursuit of higher education led him to Ohio State University for a doctorate. He established the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center in 2000.
The World Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines. --GoTop


9. HSS USA SEWA MAKES MASSIVE DONATIONS TO GURUDWARAS: Spearheaded by Southern California Bharatiya American motelier Pravin Patel, the HSS and SEWA USA partnered a massive grocery donation drive on 22nd May wherein several thousand pounds of goods were given away. The beneficiaries were the Riverside Gurdwara, Santa Ana Gurdwara, Gurdwara Buena Park, and those in need from the cities of Artesia, La Palma, and Cerritos.
Dr. Amit Desai of HSS spoke of the aims of his organization and Sewa International, reminding everyone of the Sanatan tradition, “Seva Paramo Dharma.” He also remembered the teachings of the Sikh gurus, expressed continued willingness to work with the gurdwaras, and applauded their service of providing food to those needing it the most. --GoTop


10. PENANG HINDU ASSOCIATION PROVIDES SUPPORT TO NEEDY: Penang Hindu Association distributes groceries , other basic food items such as milk powder, medicines, medical items and wheelchairs to more than hundred single mothers, needy families, senior citizen homes, orphanages, poor patients in hospital and medical items for the hospital during the spread of corona virus on the island. On the humanitarian ground, PHA was also able to extend help to refugees and jobless foreign workers stranded in Penang island and on the mainland Malaysia with basic necessities to families of all races. PHA provided packed lunch to medically unfit poor families and hot meals to the Persatuan Penganut Thiru Arut Praskasa Vallalar, Penang. PHA provides nutritious food to malnourished or medically unwell lactating mothers who are unable to breastfeed their children. This help was only made possible with the kind assistance given by the public and well-wishers in the form of foodstuff and cash donations. --GoTop


11. HINDUS MAKE MASKS FOR AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY: Volunteers of HSS Australia in Queensland are stitching and distributing masks to taxi drivers, rideshare drivers and others in need. To provide maximum protection to the wearer, the volunteers made these masks of vilene fabric, polyethersulfone as filter and 100% cotton finished off with 6mm elastic bands and nose crimp. These masks were of three layers as well as five layers. Most #masks are washable and reusable. --GoTop


12. IAF ARPIT FOR EVACUATION OF CRITICAL PATIENTS: Indian Air Force (IAF) has designed, developed, and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT) in order to airlift critical patients from high altitude area, isolated and remote places. These patients with infectious diseases including COVID-19 could be airlifted through this evacuation system. The IAF is inducting a total of 7 ARPITs as of now. The indigenously designed system has been developed as a lightweight isolation system made from aviation certified material at a cost of Rs 60,000, which is very less as compared to the imported systems costing up to Rs 60 Lakh.--GoTop


13. 500-YEAR-OLD TEMPLE FOUND SUBMERGED IN ODISHA’S MAHANADI: The 60-feet ancient temple that remained submerged in Mahanadi in Odisha, believed to be around 500 years old, was located recently during an exercise of documentation project of submerged temples in the rive valley, said Anil Dhir, project coordinator of the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in Odisha.
The temple was found in the mid-river near Baideswar in the Padmavati area in Cuttack.
The temple dates back to the late 15th or early 16th century, considering the construction style of the Mastaka and the materials used for the construction.
The temple was dedicated to Gopinath Dev. The region used to be known as “Satapatana” in the early days. However, with the river changing its course due to catastrophic floodings, the entire village was submerged.--GoTop


14. BHARATIYA TWO-WHEELER MANUFACTURERS BEAT BACK CHINESE COMPANIES IN AFRICA: Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors two-wheelers are called BodaBoda in Africa and are mainly used for commercial purposes to transport people and goods. In the face of strong opposition from them, as many as 200 Chinese two-wheeler manufacturers, initially present in the continent, are now down to 40. They shared almost 90-95% of the market ten years back and now Bharatiya companies remarkably have almost 50% of the market. Bajaj Auto sold almost a million vehicles on the continent in the fiscal ended March 2020. TVS said Africa provided structural growth opportunity owing to the “rising demand for last-mile connectivity in rural and semi-urban areas.” --GoTop


15. BHARATIYA-ORIGIN HIV SCIENTIST GITA RAMJEE PASSWS AWAY DUE TO CORONA VIRUS: World-renowned virologist Gita Ramjee has become the first Bharatiya-origin South African to have died on March 31 after contracting the novel corona virus. Ramjee, 64, was the Clinical Trials Unit Principal Investigator and Unit Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) offices in Durban. In 2018, Ramjee was presented with the Outstanding Female Scientist Award in Lisbon by the European Development Clinical Trials Partnerships (EDCTP) for her lifetime commitment to finding new HIV prevention methods, which are conducive to the lifestyles, circumstances and perceived risk factors that South African women are faced with. --GoTop


16. BHARAT'S FOREX RESERVES SURGE TO ALL-TIME HIGH OF $493.48 BN: Bharat's foreign exchange reserves surged by 3.43 billion dollars to reach a fresh all-time high of 493.48 billion dollars in the week ended 29th May. The government sources say that foreign currency assets, a major part of the overall reserves rose by 3.50 billion dollars to 455.21 billion dollars. --GoTop


17. UN WEATHER ARM WMO PRAISES IMD FOR ACCURATE PREDICTION OF CYCLONE AMPHAN: United Nation’s weather arm World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Secretary-General E Manaenkova lauded the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in his letter dated June 2 for its “accurate prediction” of Cyclone Amphan."WMO secretary-general used the information from the bulletins to communicate with the UN secretary-general about Amphan…..” the letter said. Amphan was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern part of Bharat and Bangladesh in May 2020 with winds up to 185 km per hour. --GoTop


18. SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN: Pravas: Saumitra Gokhale, samyojak Vishwa Vibhag returned to USA. Visitors: --GoTop


FOOD FOR THOUGHT: All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become. - Gautama Buddha


JAI SHREE RAM


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RACIAL DISCONTENT AND DHARMA
Avatans Kumar

In Basant of 1994, I had to face the biggest dilemma of my adult life to date. I was accepted in more than one graduate program of foreign universities across two continents, and I had to make a choice. I sought counsel from some of my closest gurus and acharyas in JNU's linguistics department. To make things easier for me, they were all unanimous in their recommendation. Following their advice, I ended up in a large swath of cornfield -- a sleepy campus town of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois -- that August. One of the primary reasons for them recommending an American university over others was racism. In their judgment, and they were all 'foreign returned' high-profile professors in their own right, the US ranked much lower on the racism spectrum.
Almost a quarter-century later, and after a full two-term presidency of a bi-racial black president, the US is still grappling with the question of race, racial prejudice, and individual as well as institutional discrimination of blacks and other minorities. There are individual, psychological, and cultural reasons for racism. Society, media, judiciary, the education system -- they all play a pivotal role in shaping racism. Just as in Hinduphobia, it is entirely possible that much of the racism manifests itself at the subconscious level and most people are not aware of it unless it is pointed out as such. Historically, most blacks were sold in open markets to their owners and brought to America as slaves. During slavery, most southern states of the US had Black Codes to regulate slaves. After slavery was legally abolished, not much changed for the 'emancipated' slaves; neither could they return to their ancestral homeland from where they were uprooted without consent, nor did their owners get out of their hair. In the absence of institutional slavery, however, people found other measures to perpetuate their racism just as some European colonisers found a way in the institution of Girmitiya (indentured) labour of its subjects. In the US, Jim Crow laws were one such measure. There were separate drinking fountains for blacks and whites. Blacks could not eat in public and could not go on the streets after dark. Blacks had separate schools as well.
Rampant discrimination even after the abolition of slavery sent blacks flocking to cities in big numbers looking for greener pasture. Farming during the 1920s was increasingly getting mechanised. Those blacks who found employment as sharecroppers for subsistence wages and did household chores for their masters were suddenly rendered jobless. City life was miserable for most of these migrants, yet they urged those who were left behind to migrate to cities of the North - "Your neck has been in the yoke. Will you continue to keep it there because some "white folks nigger” wants you to?" (Terry Jones, 1974)
The root of racism in the US lies in the basic institutions - in workplaces, banking, housing, education, judiciary, etc. Often, individual and institutional racism seem one and the same. However, it is crucial to recognise the differences. Racism is neither isolated nor self-sustaining. A racist individual depends on the institutional framework for his/her racist behaviour, and institutions need willing individuals to perpetuate discrimination.
Stokley Carmichael and Charles V Hamilton, in their book Black Power (1967) talk about two kinds of racism - overt and covert. For them, the acts of individual racism committed by individual whites against individual blacks are overt racism. The overt racism mostly involves acts by individuals that cause "death, injury, or the violent destruction of property." They are also more visible through media reporting, etc. The covert racism, on the other hand, is less identifiable but no less harmful and destructive. This kind of racism -- the institutional racism -- authors observe, "originates in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and receives far less public condemnation than the first type."
Institutional racism establishes and sanctions unequal treatment for a given race or people. To understand institutional racism and how it permeates American society, it is essential to understand that, to a certain extent, every major institution in the US functions based on some amount of racial discrimination.
What happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis on the fateful evening of May 25, 2020, can be called a blatant act of racism of both kinds - individual as well as institutional. The 46-year-old Texan had moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for employment and to start a new life after a run-in with the law that saw him incarcerated for five years. One of the store clerks of the Cup Food store in Minneapolis had called the cops on suspicion of Floyd passing a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd died after Derek Chauvin, a white officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for close to nine minutes. All this while, Floyd was handcuffed and face down in the street. In the last three minutes of this ordeal, Floyd's body remained motionless and lifeless. A few bystanders filmed this episode on their smartphones. Some of them tried to intervene, as well. But three other Minneapolis Police Department comrades - a Somali, a Hmong, and a Latin American - watched from the sidelines as Floyd begged for mercy saying "I can't breathe." The incident sent a shockwave across America and the world. The angered protestors filled the streets and alleyways of their towns and cities, and "I can't breathe" became the catch slogan of the protests across the globe. "We are deeply saddened and outraged by what happened to George Floyd in front of our store," Cup Foods owner Mahmoud Abumayyaleh wrote on his Facebook wall. "The tragic cold-blooded murder of Mr George Floyd is one of the countless examples in which African-Americans have been treated as less than human," said Vishal Agarwal, a Minneapolis resident whose family has been involved in post-riot cleanup and fundraising. Anger then turned into violence as the radical leftist Antifa and other vested interest groups soon appropriated what started as a just and peaceful movement. Most of these radicals are affluent, educated, 'progressives'. Among those arrested by the police for the ensuing violence were two lawyers who allegedly threw Molotov cocktails, also known as petrol bombs, into a police car. Colinford Mattis is a New York University and Princeton University graduate while Urooj Rahman is a Fordham University graduate. "The far Left's strategy to turn this into a class war deploying violent means has hurt the movement," opined Ram Prasad, a Chicago-area based behavioural science specialist. "There is a lot of dissonance people are having to deal with. They find cops at fault, but they also find fault with violence and destruction," said Prasad.
In the time of such dissonance, a call to Dharma is the most logical step. Dharma, a central tenet of the Hindu faith, is the universal Truth that connects individuals to the rest of the world in a quantum way. The Mahabharata defines Dharma as something that sustains and upholds the people as well as the universe we live in. Dharma is a means of securing the good of all living beings. This goodness comes from love and compassion. The ethical ordering of Dharma is geared towards maintaining natural harmony. One man's conduct towards another is contingent on retaining this harmony with the universal law of man's being.
Dharma sees conflicts and dissonance as 'burdening of the earth'. Such conflicts, according to Dharma, are a product of one's relationship with one's self as well as other elements of the cosmos. Hence a solution to such conflicts must also arise from that relationship. The ultimate Dharma, however, lies in us as individuals transcending ourselves. This transcendence can only be achieved through numerous acts of our daily living, including acts of kindness and compassion towards each other's sufferings and navigating complicated relationships in this quantum universe.
Dharma also recognises that each individual has different physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities as well as varying levels of development. Dharma calls upon individuals to follow the righteous path and do the righteous deeds based on her/his abilities for the overall wellbeing of our society. We all need to embrace Dharma to root out inequality, injustice, disharmony, and discrimination from our community.
Inaction is not an option.
(The writer is a JNU and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumnus and writes frequently on the topics of Indic Knowledge Tradition, language, culture, and current affairs) https://www.organiser.org//Encyc/2020/6/10/Racial-Discontent-and-Dharma.html --GoTop


SHRI VISHWA NIKETAN vishwav@bol.net.in http://shrivishwaniketan.blogspot.com