Hindus From India

"I feel a very strong and divine aura in his presence. I feel at peace in his presence. I forget about all my worries and difficulties. He truly loves people unconditionally. That is why he is able to counsel and take part in their difficulties and problems. Their problems become his problems. I can see it in him."

"I know Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s commitment and dedication to his religion and to humanity. I am guided by Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s words that religion does not grow by the quantity of followers, but by the depth of spirituality."

"Live in the present moment. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift."

"People around the world are starting to realize that power and material objects do not yield peace. They are turning to spirituality and religion to fill a void in their lives. Religion and spirituality is the key. Your sadhus are setting an example of content, co-existence and selfless service. There is an ideal for all of mankind. His name is Pramukh Swami Maharaj."

"Your faith in God should be like the fragrance of a flower, which can be felt by others around you."

"I loved him. He was so very kind to me. My association with him was far too short but he left an indelible imprint on me and my family. I also received his personal blessing, something that I feel has protected and guided me. He is the kind of leader that is so needed in the world today. Kind-hearted, warm, and approachable. Empowering and validating of others. Never calling attention to himself but to the contributions of others. He was a brilliant thinker (he solved a riddle that had plagued me for 20 years in about 2 minutes) who never flaunted his intellect but instead used it to illuminate, motivate and inspire. I loved his humor. Even as an American with no facility for Hindi or the Gujarati dialect I could observe his impact and watch the smiling faces and hear the laughter of his followers as he told touching and humorous personal stories. I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I had to know him personally. My life is richer because of it and I have been forever changed. My heart is with you all."

"When I look into his eyes, they are filled with integrity. I saw in his eyes that he is a man who has not come ahead by eclipsing others. He has come forward by always placing others before him."

"Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s humility and selfless love have touched my heart."

"True spirituality lies in serving others selflessly."

"Unity in diversity should be the basis of our social life. This can be achieved only through love."

"Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s life is an example of spiritual beauty. That beauty shines throughout India and the world as he continues to guide mankind on the path to spirituality. He loves unconditionally and forgives. Revenge and vengeance are never to be seen in his life. This is illustrated in his credo: “In the joy of others lies our own…”"

"Blessed with the kind of wisdom and faith that transcended boundaries, Pramukh Swami Maharaj spent his life using the power of his inner goodness to lift others up. He was a trusted ear and revered voice for countless people, and the lessons of his humility stirred not only the hearts of his followers, but also of men and women across the globe who were fortunate enough to have crossed his path. By paying tribute to a man who believed in the worth of all people and dedicated himself to serving those in need, we are reminded of the ways our common humanity will always bind us together – and of the enduring obligation we have to love and care for one another in the world we share. May the memory of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj continue to guide you, and may his legacy give us the courage to be our best selves."

"Pramukh Swami didn’t just teach virtues – he lived them every day. That’s what made him a Guru to millions of devotees around the world. From the Akshardham Mandir in New Jersey to the countless temples that he blessed in the United States, Pramukh Swami built a global faith and community founded on Vedic values. Bill was fortunate enough to visit with his Holiness, both here in the United States and at the Akshardham Mandir in Gujarat. In meeting many of his followers, I’ve been touched by his wisdom as well. Pramukh Swami’s deep sense of devotion led him to spend his life revitalizing communities in need...His example helped his followers find more harmony – both with others, and within themselves. And we hope that humanity will build upon his legacy for generations to come."

"Mr Raghuram Rajan is an outstanding man who understands central banking. He is probably only one in the world among the crowds of professors at central banks that actually has a good grip on monetary policies and what you can or cannot achieve with them. He should get the Noble Prize in economics but the others are all money printers at heart, all of them."

"Incidentally, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, has single-handedly brought a huge slowdown to the Indian manufacturing sector and exports. As a doctor, he has believed that the best way to bring down the temperature of a patient (i.e., inflation) is to kill him (investment starvation)."

"If Rajan gets one more term you can safely say bye to all investment and therefore high growth in this country … he’s from [University of] Chicago so he is not fit for this country … there they believe that more free market the better but in India market failures take place and you’ve got to correct for that."

"Improving the opportunities across the board is extremely important to sustain the legitimacy of wealth. If a whole horde of people, whole sections of society don't feel they have the opportunities, then the focus is going to be on those who have it and who have made it and say that is illegitimate."

"I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying - "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". We are a little bit that way."

"If you are an outsider looking at India, learn to filter out both the irrational exuberance and the excessive pessimism. We're subject to both. You will become manic-depressive if you follow our moods."

"A 007 James Bond image is very dangerous for a central banker to have."

"Indeed, if what you do offends me but does not harm me otherwise, there should be a very high bar for prohibiting your act. After all, any ban, and certainly any vigilante acts to enforce it, may offend you as much, or more, than the offence to me. Excessive political correctness stifles progress as much as excessive license and disrespect."

"Not taking risks one doesn't understand is often the best form of risk management."

"On the retail side, I particularly want to emphasize the use of the unique ID, Aadhaar, in building individual credit histories. This will be the foundation of a revolution in retail credit."

"Promoters do not have a divine right to stay in charge regardless of how badly they mismanage an enterprise, nor do they have the right to use the banking system to recapitalize their failed ventures."

"Expectations are high. Clearly I am not a superman. There is a little bit of euphoria in India. I have a wife and two kids."

"What is it for which we worship the name of Bankim today? what was his message to us or what the vision which he saw and has helped us to see? He was a great poet, a master of beautiful language and a creator of fair and gracious dream-figures in the world of imagination; but it is not as a poet, stylist or novelist that Bengal does honour to him today. It is probable that the literary critic of the future will reckon Kapalkundala, Bishabriksha and Krishnakanter Will as his artistic master- pieces, and speak with qualified praise of Devi Chaudhurani, Ananda Math, Krishnacharit or Dharmatattwa. Yet it is the Bankim of these latter works and not the Bankim of the great creative masterpieces who will rank among the Makers of Modern India. The earlier Bankim was only a poet and stylist the later Bankim was a seer and nation-builder."

"A great and vivifying message had to be given to a nation or to humanity, and God has chosen this mouth on which to shape the words of the message. A momentous vision had to be revealed; and it is his eyes which the Almighty first unseals. The message which he has received, the vision which has been vouchsafed to him, he declares to the world with all the strength that is in him, and in one supreme moment of inspiration ex- presses it in words which have merely to be uttered to stir men's inmost natures, clarify their minds, seize their hearts and impel them to things which would have been impossible to them in their ordinary moments. Those words are the mantra which he was bom to reveal and of that mantra he is the seer."

"Another great writer who led me on It this stage was Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. I had read all his novels but had never been able to understand why he had been honoured as a rishi. I myself was a novelist and had already written several humane stories. I thought that a novelist dealt with the dimensions of human character and mapped the heights it could scale and the depths to which it could sink. Why should we foist the title of a rishi on this poor fellow? That way rishis will be available a dime a dozen. My doubts about Bankim Chandra being a rishi were removed when I read the second volume of his Collected Works in Bengali. His insights into the innermost core of Hindu culture were a revelation. His Ramayaner Alochona made me see the monstrosities of modern Indology, more than ever before."

"In his later years Bankim was convinced that with rare exceptions the European scholars were deeply prejudiced against India and that racial arrogance was a mainspring of their academic judgements. They took great pains to prove that only the Buddhist texts, hostile to Hinduism, contained some truth. The rest of India's literary heritage was either false or borrowed from other cultures. The Ramayana to such men was but an imitation of the Iliad, the Gita an adaptation of the Bible, Hindu astronomy borrowed from the Chinese and the Greeks and their script was learnt from the Semitic race. Such conclusions derived from a method based on a clear principle: anything favourable to Indians found in Indian texts were either false or interpolated. The heroism of the Pandava brothers was but a poet's imagination, but the legend of Draupadi's five husbands was true for it proved that Indians were polyandrous and hence barbarous. (1988:180)"

"The only resolute defender of Hinduism in this intellectually hostile atmosphere was Bankim Chandra Chatterji. He was well-versed in Western literature and philosophy and his knowledge of Hindu Shastras and history was deep as well as discerning.... “If the principles of Christianity,” he wrote, “are not responsible for the slaughter of the crusades, the butcheries of Alva, the massacre of St. Bartholomew or the flames of the Inquisition... If the principles of Christianity are not responsible for the civil disabilities of Roman Catholics and Jews which till recently disgraced the English Statute Book, I do not understand how the principles of Hinduism are to be held responsible for the civil disabilities of the sudras under the Brahmanic regime. The critics of Hinduism have one measure for their own religion and another for Hinduism.”"

"The impact of Vivekananda in his own country was far more momentous. He had taken over from where Bankim Chandra had left. Among the writers and thinkers of modern India, Bankim Chandra had fascinated him the most. During his lecture tour in East Bengal in 1901 he is reported to have advised Bengal's young men to 'read Bankim, and Bankim, and Bankim again.' Small wonder that Bankim's AnandamaTha inspired revolutionary organisations fighting for India's freedom and his Vande MAtaram became the national song par excellence when the awakening brought about by Vivekananda burst forth in a political movement soon after his death in 1902."

"And Bose's tragedy came to serve this turncoat (Nehru) in yet another context. He hated India's hallowed national battle-cry, Vande Mataram. It was couched in Sanskrit which he had never understood and never honoured. But worst of all, it offended the Muslims whom he wanted to please and pit against "Hindu communalism". So, while the name of Netaji was still stirring the people, he pleaded that Vande Mataram should be replaced by Jai Hind, a cocktail phrase hurriedly coined by the Azad Hind leaders in the heat of an emergency. I myself heard him, in several crowded meetings, asking his audience to shout Jai Hind more loudly than they had done. He himself gave the lead by raising his voice to the highest pitch. I also heard him singing qadam qadam baDhâyê jâ, the marching song of the Azad Hind Fauj, and expressing dissatisfaction when people failed to repeat the refrain in the right tune. He suffered from no qualms in fattening himself on the fame of a "fascist"."

"A younger contemporary of Maharshi Dayananda had meanwhile dived deep into the ocean of Indian culture and come up with a vast and variegated treasure. That was Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894)....It was also Bankim Chandra who restored the Mahabharata to its rightful place as a profound elaboration of what the Veda had said in the form of mystic mantras. The Gita which had been subjected to sectarian interpretations for several centuries past, was rescued by Bankim Chandra from the quagmire of casuistry. This great scripture had been interpreted by many ãchãryas either to support sannyãsa or to bolster bhakti. Its central core of karmayoga had been consigned to oblivion. Bankim Chandra was the first in modern times to restore the lost balance, so much so that in his ÃnandamaTha it was the sannyãsin who took up the sword in defence of Dharma. In days to come, the Gita was to become the greatest single inspiration for revolutionary action. Many a freedom fighter mounted the gallows with the Gita in his hands and Bankim Chandra’s Vande Mãtaram on his lips. But the greatest achievement of Bankim Chandra was the rehabilitation of Sri Krishna of the Mahabharata. This highest Hindu image of the seer, the statesman, and the hero had been made to sing and dance with the gopîs for far too long. Some devotees of Sri Krishna’s dalliance with the gopîs had gone to the extent of saying that Krishna had ceased to be Krishna as soon as he left Vrindavana. Bankim Chandra did not fall foul of this portrayal. Instead, he quietly brought back the Krishna who had sided with the just cause in a controversy involving Dharma, who had befriended Draupadi in moments of her great distress, who had guided the Pandavas through every twist and turn of fortune, who had given the Gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, who had rescued Yudhisthira from a fit of unmanly remorse, but who had nonetheless bowed before Bhishma as that paragon of valour, virtue, and wisdom lay on his deathbed."

"Bande Mataram, apart from its wonderful associations, expresses the one national wish—the rise of India to her full height. And I should prefer Bande Mataram to Bharat Mata-ki-jai, as it would be a graceful recognition of the intellectual and emotional superiority of Bengal."

"[In the original edition of the novel Sitaram, the Fakir says:] Son, I hear that you have come to found a Hindu dominion; but if you be a slave to popular prejudices you will fail to achieve your aim. If you don't consider Hindus and Muslims as equals, then in this land inhabited by both Hindus and Muslims you will fail to keep your kingdom intact. Your projected Dharmarajya will degenerate into a realm of sin."

"...this novel was written not to differentiate between Hindus and Muslims...In statesmanship Muslims undoubtedly were better than contemporary Hindus...one who possesses, among other virtues, dharma, no matter if he be a Hindu or a Muslim, is the best."

"Woman is the crowning excellence of God's creation, the shadow of the gods. Man the god's creation only. Woman is light, man is shadow."

"Prose must be written in language that is well understood by its readers. The world would hardly miss those literary works that are mastered by only half-a-dozen pundits."

"[N]o study is likely to be fruitful of results if carried on without a system. The majority of those who pursue knowledge for its own sake pursue it after an aimless and desultory fashion."

"The supreme service of Bankim [Chandra Chatterji] to his nation was that he gave us the vision of our Mother.... It is not till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes shape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can dominate the mind and seize the heart that ... the patriotism that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born... It was thirty-two years ago that Bankim wrote his great song and few listened; but in a sudden moment of awakening from long delusions the people of Bengal looked round for the truth and in a fated moment somebody sang Bande Mataram. The Mantra had been given and in a single day a whole people had been converted to the religion of patriotism. The Mother had revealed herself."

"Do not lose your reverence for the past; it is on the past that you must plant your foot firmly, if you wish to mount high in the future. You are not a race of savages who have no past to remember. You cannot dissever yourselves in a day from the associations and influences of a past which extends over at least five hundred centuries. You cannot annihilate in a day a past national existence which has survived the annihilation of hundreds of empires, of hundred systems of religion, and which has surveyed unconcerned the downfall and ruin of many kindred civilizations. I have to make my warning so emphatic because the general tendency of European scholars, who have so great an influence over you, is to decry your past history, to call for its virtual erasure from your memory, and to lead you in the opposite direction."

"We used the Mantra Bande Mataram with all our heart and soul, and so long as we used and lived it, relied upon its strength to overbear all difficulties, we prospered. But suddenly the faith and the courage failed us, the cry of the Mantra began to sink and as it rang feebly, the strength began to fade out of the country. It was God, who made it fade out and falter, for it had done its work. A greater Mantra than Bande Mataram has to come. Bankim was not the ultimate seer of Indian awakening. He gave only the term of the initial and public worship, not the formula and the ritual of the inner secret upasana [worship]. For the greatest Mantras are those which are uttered within, and which the seer whispers or gives in dream or vision to his disciples. When the ultimate Mantra is practised even by two or three, then the closed Hand of God will begin to open; when the upasana is numerously followed the closed Hand will open absolutely."

"When a man is in doubt what to do, he goes wherever he happens to be first called."

"He was always imprisoned by his conscience, yet he did make compromises for public consumption."

"His self-righteous posturing is a cover so dexterously used by him to pursue his ambition, to hog the limelight by any means."

"He is remembered for his support for backward classes and the Mandal Commission. He tried to implement the Mandal recommendations in August 1990 which was to reserve 27% seats in government jobs to backward classes. He faced severe protests from across the country. A student called, Rajeev Goswami’s self-immolation made the situation worsen, and he was forced to resign from the post of Prime Minister."

"He floated his own party called the Jan Morcha which merged with Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S), and with all small parties; he formed the first coalition party called National Front. It fought the general elections in 1989 with the support of BJP and managed to defeat the Congress with a small majority. The National Front came to power and he [V P Singh] became the Prime Minister."

"He made big news as PM by visiting to the Golden Temple asking forgiveness for Operation Bluestar, released militants in exchange of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter, and had tussle with Reliance giant Dhirubhai Ambani."

"As Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet, he made bold to arrest some of the business bigwigs, but it was the very segment that looked down on his ‘classless’ agenda that began rushing to buy his paintings. The zamindar who gave away all his land was fighting for the rights of the farmers. The man who had, in his first ever trip as PM, walked barefoot to Amritsar, Punjab, to “add a healing touch” was to be held responsible for so many immolations due to his steadfast execution of the Mandal Report for the backward classes."

"He confounded his critics by never seeking office after he was ousted, but remained in public life by campaigning for causes he believed in."