Taking The Lords name in vain ?

 The Statesman . Nov 25

There is no universally accepted way to interact with the Almighty. Some consider Him (or Her as the case may be) as a friend and do not hesitate to seek His help to overcome their worldly woes ranging from a tough exam to some coveted financial gain. Some hold the Almighty in deep reverence and leave it to Him to shape their lives. Some swear by elaborate rituals and others prefer a lack of adornment. I personally think highly of the Bhakti movement that first originated in South India in the 7th and 8 th century, CE, which strongly emphasized simplicity.

The Bhakti movement centred around the existence of one God, the equality of all worshippers, the non-necessity of elaborate rituals and the importance of humaneness and brotherhood. The omnipresence of God has always been widely accepted by most of humanity. However, His name is increasingly being misused by people the world over as a cover for their own dubious intentions. Several actions do not reflect true reverence for the Almighty. For example, it does not seem at all right when a suicide bomber is blowing up someone to bits or a mob is lynching people, all the while invoking the Almighty’s name.

It is certainly questionable that the path to salvation be littered with the corpses of fellow humans. In recent times, a few popular institutes of worship were found harbouring secret dens of worldly pleasures. While the gullible masses reverently sat outside chanting God’s name with their eyes gently closed and a prayer on their lips, steamy scenes were unfolding in the darker portals of the buildings. One so called ‘godman’ even had a pleasure cave resembling the typical luxury villas of gangsters on tropical islands. Perhaps only the sea, the sand and the blue skies were missing!

It is very unsettling to find people donning the special robes that identify them as ‘men of God’ and then indulging in a wildly hedonistic lifestyle away from the public gaze. A beautiful song asks the Maker how the devotee can ever face him on the day of reckoning , given the sins and trespasses committed – the lyrics run thus : “Maili chadar odh ke kaise , dwar tumhare aaoon”- “(Lord) how will I be able to face you at the end with this body cloaked in sin”? More shocking discoveries have emerged as priests of diverse religions have been accused of sexually abusing the followers of their faith.Surely, harming other devotees by molesting them against their will can simply never be the path to God. Moreover, whereas one would associate an ascetic with kindness or gentleness, it is noted that some ‘men of God’ can be particularly vicious and vengeful. Submit to their unwanted attention and all is well. If, however, you point out their malfeasances, they will hound you to the ends of eternity. In recent times a vengeful Bishop has hounded a sister right out of her convent and a disgraced Swami has used his influence to have his young accuser clapped into jail on charges of extortion.

Another dubious activity is grabbing land in the name of the Lord. One fairly popular modus operandi starts with putting a small photograph of a deity (even a rock with tika or tilak usually suffices) with a garland around it, on a pavement or under a tree and counting on peoples’ fearful superstition to not remove these items from there. This happened outside our colony. Someone put a picture of some deities under a shady tree with a large trunk. Soon worshippers started leaving coins there. Over a period of time, enough had accumulated to be able to create a tiled enclosure for the idols where people on the way to the bus stop just outside the colony duly stopped to worship.
Our colony already boasts of an actively functioning Gurudwara and Mandir since many years, so this was a ‘bonus’. No one objected to the status quo till a little shop came up adjacent to the ‘tree mandir’. Tea and tobacco items began to be sold here and it attracted a lot of middle-aged men who would sit there smoking and gossiping. The so called ‘mandir’ was now forgotten and a small commercial pavement hub (possibly the real lucrative intention?) developed. Several citizens who found the public footpath blocked and the presence of unwanted hangers-on near the bus stop a big nuisance complained to the municipal authorities to demolish the tree mandir and help them reclaim the pavement.Their requests met with stiff resistance, mainly from the hangers-on in the tobacco joint as well as some devout worshippers from the area. This story ended well with the tobacco shop and mandir ‘complex’ being ultimately dismantled. However, such scenes are a regular feature at many public sites. Such occurrences should alert us to the multiple ways religion can be put to self-seeking or nefarious use.

Religious premises or financial collections can sometimes be used for dubious activities.

Caretakers of religious precincts may lose sight of their sacred duties and mislead, extort or bully the trusting worshippers. The gullible public may save themselves from many a rude shock and bewilderment were they to keep their minds open and alert and not approach religion and religious authority blindly. Many true ascetics, who could have been excellent role models for us, chose to lead austere lives in fairly remote places, well away from humanity, to reflect on life and God.
Intuitively, they knew that the deepest and most important thoughts are likely to arise when one is sitting quietly with scant worldly distractions in the lap of God’s most beautiful creation, Nature.

Seeing that we don’t often have access to many real prophets around us it may well be time to think more profoundly about the Lord ourselves and make our own judgements about how to comport ourselves in an ethical and wise manner.

Links To Ophthalmic Publications

 

JOURNAL: ORBIT

1.       Rare Orbitocranial Tumour in an Adult

Anjali Mehta , MBBS, DO, DNB & Mithilesh Chandra , MD, FIC

Orbit :The International Journal on Orbital Disorders, Oculoplastic and Lacrimal Surgery

Volume 28, 2009 – Issue 5

LINK:        https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/01676830902920652?journalCode=iorb20

JOURNAL : INDIAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY

1.       Sudoriferous cyst of the orbit of adult origin after trauma

Anjali Mehta, DNB, Aparna Rao, DO, and Apoorva Khanna, MBBS

Indian J Ophthalmol. 2008 May-Jun; 56(3): 235–237.

PMCID: PMC2636125

PMID: 18417827

LINK :       https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636125/

  

2.         An unusual variation in the anatomy of the uncinate process in external dacryocystorhinostomy

Anjali Mehta, DNB and Nitin Puri, DO

Indian J Ophthalmol. 2008 Sep-Oct; 56(5): 413–416.

PMCID: PMC2636146

PMID: 18711272

 LINK:        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636146/

3.       Unusual markings on an intraocular lens postoperatively

Anjali Mehta

Indian J Ophthalmol. 2012 May-Jun; 60(3): 241–242.

PMCID: PMC3361829

PMID: 22569395

LINK :      http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3361829


JOURNAL : DELHI JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY 

1  Ductal Cysts of Lacrimal Glandular Tissue 

Anjali Mehta, Sudipta Ghosh, Aparna Rao
DJO 2007 Jan-Mar; 12(4): 89-92

LINK : ttps://www.djo.org.in/pdfs/DJOvol12no4.pdf

Seeking Space For Conversation

The Statesman, Aug 15 , 2019

When growing up, one of the simple joys of life was talking: long, animated, often uninhibited exchanges punctuated by smiles, laughter, gasps or even silence.  A friend was someone you could talk to about everything under the sun. I remember sitting up late at night conversing with friends till sleep overtook us, or discussing ideas passionately over a single long drawn out cup of coffee in a restaurant where the waiters thought it more important to let friends talk rather than earn an extra buck with a new set of customers.  People talked, argued, laughed, reasoned, teased, cajoled, and admonished. The act of talking was a relief, if not an outright pleasure.

Although we are in the midst of an explosion of social media, this unfettered, meaningful communication seems to be difficult to achieve. The reach of our conversation has increased, but its quality and our satisfaction has reduced.

Much of the talking that was done face - to- face is now over social media apps. A lot of the warmth and the nuances of good conversation, the non - verbal cues are lost in the exchange. This leads to greater miscommunication and misunderstandings as the expressions and tone cannot always be correctly inferred. Communication on social media thrives on brevity as attention spans are limited. Excellent conversationalists suddenly find themselves challenged by the need to constantly abbreviate and summarize. Some are not technically conversant with tools on social media and have a limited understanding of emoticons thus making their conversations sound sterile and robotic.

We now focus far too much on the speakers’ background and affiliation and too little on the content of the speech. Suspicion runs deep in today’s polarized world and distrust abounds. Recently, when the question arose of whether doctoral dissertations in universities should come under political scrutiny it led to a justified public debate. On one hand was the academics’ view that being experienced, they could better identify the critical and in-depth studies needed in their field of expertise. On the other hand were politicians who wanted to put their stamp on academia by allowing funding for only those theses which they deemed to be of ‘national importance’. Such citizens that simply just debated this topic were deemed to be anti -government. Similar conundrums have existed for ages: for example, should scientists who have a deeper understanding of the subject decide climate change policies or should politicians? Most conversation now has acquired a political flavor. People are uncomfortable plumbing the depths of a topic as what they say is made out to have a deeper political meaning, even if none exists.

Conversations are open to a large group of people and this attracts trolls also. These trolls disrupt meaningful conversations. If at first the trolls do not succeed, their involvement with the conversation becomes increasingly abusive and hostile till the speaker is either forced to defend himself or get angry and distracted or simply block/report the troll. The end result is that the original idea gets totally deflected, lost in an obfuscating smoke of negativity. It also makes one very uneasy to find that one’s conversations are monitored.

There exists a conversational overload. If you subscribe to several platforms like Face book, Whatsapp, Instagram etc, a substantial amount of your time could be taken up in interacting with friends or colleagues or just anyone else who may have posted something that catches your attention. In attending to too many conversations at the same time, we are unable to let a worthwhile conversation blossom. 

Finally, it is difficult to converse with the many ‘anonymous ‘people ubiquitous in every group. In ordinary conversations on social groups, it is not easy to talk as naturally and freely as one would like to as there remains an air of formality with strangers - nameless, faceless individuals who would also end up getting addressed in the conversation. 

Given these challenges to wholesome conversations, there is a great deal to be said about engaging in good old face - to - face interactions more frequently. Also in order to have a more meaningful conversation, conversing in smaller groups on WhatsApp is better, where the thread is not lost due to random forwards. Larger groups should be used for professional discussions and invitations to programmes or putting out useful information for the public at large.

In bygone times, it was known as the Art of Conversation, where the personality of the persons engaging in conversation shone through. The joy of a deep conversation, in a safe environment with the right people is almost therapeutic- it is satisfying, stimulating, and rejuvenating. Nowadays people always seem to be in a rush so conversations are also getting abbreviated. Into the realm of healthy discussions there have crept in undesirable changes reflective of the times we live in .So is there not some innovative way of reclaiming the art of good conversation and rediscovering its lost joy?

Everything Counts

As a child I held this rather unshakeable theory that God is inherently fair. If He/She let trouble come a person’s way, it was certain to be compensated by rewards later, evening it out. God also likely allocated resources equally. On the surface, if a particular child seemed luckier than others in terms of intelligence or material resources, they were probably facing their own battles in other spheres, unknown to the rest. Philosophical adults that we encountered taught us that monetary wealth cannot buy happiness and true riches pertain to intangible things like the soul, joy and friendship.

As an adult, I ponder more about this equality and try to put my finger on what it is that we as people have been granted in equal measure? We are all blessed with an outer casing, the body; but the makeup industry, the busy offices of plastic surgeons and the touched up photographs on social media testify to common dissatisfaction with what we have been given. Advancing age with all its physical changes only compounds this. Under this shell, is the core essence of a person – the soul. Though all our souls are supposedly derived from a universal divine soul, how deeply we are in touch with this soul whilst alive, is a matter of conjecture. True equality comes with death - when our souls are believed to merge back with the original common one.

If equality inheres in us, there must in all likelihood be at least a faint hint of this possibility if not an overt phenotypical manifestation during our sojourn on Earth.

The well-regarded scientific study by Dr Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen conducted over four decades found a universality of facial expressions for the basic human emotions irrespective of race, culture, geographical location and literacy. This had originally been predicted by Charles Darwin and interestingly, they had initially thought that Darwin would be proved wrong! Humans use the same facial muscles to convey basic emotions like anger, happiness, shock etc .This holds true even for remote tribes that have never been in contact with humans from outside (in Ekman and Friesen’s case they studied the Fore tribe of Papua, New Guinea). Cultural and circumstantial influences may mask or modify expressions but the underlying facial muscles called into play when experiencing a particular basic emotion, are the same.

Does this also mean we are fundamentally equal in our ability to communicate? If we consider a spectrum of people ranging from those with various types of autism, those with personality traits like introversion, to orators speaking effortlessly to vast audiences, we find that this particular skill is differentially distributed. A subgroup of this may be our ability to smile. We all acquire this fine social tool after a few weeks of settling into the world as newborns. The smile of a baby is adorable even though it may lack teeth. But those who have facial paralysis or Parkinson’s disease for example, can only convey their joy through the expression in their eyes.

Is it the ability to love and be loved? Love is one of the finest, most exhilarating and nuanced emotions. Though there are several of its variants to indulge in, ranging from parental to filial to romantic, yet sadly one finds hatred to be a strong driver for many people and love gets consigned to the shadows. Or is it the ability to feel per se that homogenizes us? We find that many of us are losing this capacity and being ‘thick skinned’ is becoming a common enough adjective.

Does drawing breath render us equal? As long as we are alive, we all breathe. Spiritually advanced persons and those who practice yoga regularly often have an impressive control over their breathing. For the rest of us, our breathing quickens and slows in tandem with our moods and activities and we don’t really have mastery over it.

I intuitively think what really makes us equal is our ability to contribute to shaping the world. We are all assistant co - creators. Speaking metaphorically, the world is like an enormous clay mound waiting to become a beautiful vessel on the Potter’s wheel - an analogy often used in religious works. Building on this, I feel while the Master Potter (God) keeps the base spinning we all add our imprints to this mound of clay representing Earth. It is so huge that we get glimpses of only a part of it.

Everyone is equally important because everyone shapes the world. Each human is special; he/she interprets the universe through an individual outlook derived from influences of parents, teachers and friends and life’s myriad experiences. Hence the output is also customized.

Every action, effort or powerful thought acts like a touch or pat on the clay. Whether we lovingly shape it or punch holes in it is entirely our choice. We can throw on more clay or gently chisel away some based on our perception and energy. It doesn't matter because sometimes it is a rough edge that makes the design stunning or a subtle touch that makes a significant improvement.

Occasionally the patterns are so exquisite that everyone sits up and takes notice.

The impact of our actions can be localized or globalised and independent of the public position we hold. The students participating in the March for Life campaign in the US or the little Swedish schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg, fighting for climate change protection, have demonstrated that you don’t have to occupy a high office to effect great change.

We can condition ourselves to be engaged and creative assistant potters. Masterpieces executed by painters, sculptors and other artistes are treasures lasting centuries. Social workers facilitate upliftment of many humans less fortunate than themselves, enabling and empowering them to make meaningful contributions in turn - a positive ripple effect.

You can even shape the world by just being. As Milton said in the concluding line of his famous poem ‘they also serve who only stand and wait’. A baby is totally dependent, able to interact in a very limited way with its environment; yet can have a tremendously powerful effect. He/she can generate love, and can influence the work and lifestyle choices of parents and family significantly.

Everything counts.

To come back to my childhood belief, it would be reasonable to assume that the invitation to shape the world is open to all. We cannot at all judge whose contribution is lesser or greater as we do not know the Grand Design. Moreover the shape keeps changing a little every second. Our mind’s eye aided by our imaginations, can only guess at the overall shape. Many religious texts including the popular Srimad Bhagavad Gita, advise us to refrain from worrying needlessly how our contribution fared overall. It is perhaps more important to fully and responsibly enjoy this privilege we have received.