Hindus

"Whether people accept this music or not, I don’t give a damn. I know how good—and right—the group is. We all sell out to a point. And don’t get me wrong, I like living comfortably and having a nice car. But if money determines your art, then what’s the point?"

"What John McLaughlin did with the electric guitar set the world on its ear. No one ever heard an electric guitar played like that before, and it certainly inspired me. ...John's band, more than my experience with Miles, led me to want to turn the volume up and write music that was more dramatic and made your hair move."

""The Gita is the essence of all of these Upnishads. The knowledge of God is scattered throughout 1,180 Upnishads. The Gita, said by Shree Krishn, consolidates the Divine philosophy of all those Upnishads and gives a clear and precise understanding of several important topics" (Sharma, 2004)."

""Although there are similarities between Hinduism and the other religions of the world, and as Hindus we respect all religions, nonetheless, there are features of Hinduism which are not found in other religions and which make Hinduism great" (Nikhilanand, 2011)."

""The truth is that even if we met God face to face, we would not recognize His Divinity. That is why we must do devotion to purify our heart"."

""Swami Nikhilanand teaches a Hinduism where philosophy aids in the everyday, and theory meets practice" (Thomases, 2006)."

""Not only does Hinduism answer all our intellectual questions, but it clearly states that you can meet God in person. Now who wouldn't want to do that?" (Nikhilanand, 2011)."

""A distinguishing feature of Hindu philosophy is that is says God can be experienced, and in fact, that is the ultimate goal of a soul. This was one of the most compelling factors for me in my decision to adopt Hinduism" (Nikhilanand, 2011).Nikhilanand, S. 2011. All Religions Are Not the Same. Hinduism Today."

""Keep in mind that a mantra is not meant to give you worldly benefit. If you are taking any name of God or repeating any mantra, it should be with the goal of experiencing the bliss of the name and purifying your heart"."

"On the path of bhakti there are no restrictions of time or place for meditation. You can meditate anytime, anyplace. There is also no required posture for meditation. The only requirement is that you should be remembering Radha Krishn"

""Upon complete heart purification, God will Grace you. With His Grace, you will receive a Divine mind and senses. Then you will be able to see Him, know Him, and experience Him"."

""Whether we are singing God's name or repeating a mantra, the real benefit is only received when we join our mind with God"."

""Hinduism is amazing vast, yet monotheistic" (Giri, 2011)."

""God is absolute. He is one Supreme Being, formless, yet he can have a form. He is omnipresent" (Giri, 2011). Giri, Kalyani. Jan 17, 2011. Building Bridges Between World Cultures. The Times of India ."

""Supreme God has uncountable Divine powers. When most of them are dormant or inactive, then God is formless and is referred to by the term Brahman. When more of His powers are active, God has form, and is referred to by the term Paramatma" (Nikhilanand, 2011)."

"My name is not Savarkar, it is Gandhi and Gandhi never offers apology."

"Responding to the Ambassador's query about Lashkar-e-Taiba's activities in the region and immediate threat to India, Gandhi said there was evidence of some support for the group among certain elements in India's indigenous Muslim community. However, Gandhi warned, the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community."

"The interview was an unmitigated disaster. The first problem was that he chose to give his first formal interview in English and not in Hindi. This strengthened the impression that he represented the privileged denizens of Delhi more than the people of India. The second problem was that of all of Indian television’s English anchors Arnab had been chosen. Arnab has made belligerence the defining characteristic of his anchoring style, and once he gets a victim into his studio rarely lets him get away with vague answers. Nobody seemed to have prepared him for the kind of questions he would be asked. So he spent most of his answers talking in abstractions. Democracy is about processes, he said, and Rahul Gandhi is sitting here because he wants to empower the people. And most puzzling of all was his repeated assertion that ‘the system’ had destroyed his grandmother and his father and would probably destroy him. As Arnab’s questions became tougher and more direct Rahul’s answers became more abstract. When I finished watching the interview I watched it again on YouTube and found myself marvelling at how many times he repeated that ‘the system’ was what he was in politics to change. It was as if nobody had told him that ‘the system’ for ten years had been a government that was controlled by his mother with an iron hand. And that ‘the system’ had been created by his great-grandfather and perpetuated by his grandmother and father after that. By the time I finished watching this interview for the second time I was certain that the Congress would lose the election with or without a Modi wave."

"In the sycophancy department she surpassed her own high standards when she began to recount Rahul Gandhi’s virtues. Even I, who knew her eternal need to be counted in Delhi’s highest echelons of political power, nearly fell off my chair when she said, ‘Do you know I believe that Rahul Gandhi has the best of Rajiv in him and the best of Sanjay?’ I recount this remark here to draw attention to how much support dynastic democracy has in the drawing rooms of Lutyens’ Delhi. And it is not just socialites who endorse this distorted form of democracy but bureaucrats, journalists and men and women who like to think of themselves as public intellectuals."

"It took this election campaign for ordinary Indians to notice what was going on. They noticed because Modi told voters that they were choosing between a ‘kaamdaar’ and a ‘naamdaar’. A working man and a prince. It did not help that the ‘naamdaar’ then mocked Modi and made fun of everything about him. Modi’s ‘hugplomacy’, ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’, demonetisation. Modi’s demonetisation, he said, was done to steal their money and give it to his rich friends. The country’s Chowkidar, he said too many times, was a ‘chor’. He forgot that he was demeaning not just a political opponent but the Prime Minister of India. Ordinary voters were appalled that the heir to India’s most powerful political dynasty should talk this way. He sounded arrogant, entitled and insulting and reminded them that there were too many political heirs in Indian politics"

"Rahul Gandhi has a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject."

"Singh and I had developed a warm and productive relationship. While he could be cautious in foreign policy, unwilling to get out too far ahead of an Indian bureaucracy that was historically suspicious of U.S. intentions, our time together confirmed my initial impression of him as a man of uncommon wisdom and decency…. What I couldn’t tell was whether Singh’s rise to power represented the future of India’s democracy or merely an aberration.... In fact, he owed his position to Sonia Gandhi…more than one political observer believed that she’d chosen Singh precisely because as an elderly Sikh with no national political base, he posed no threat to her forty-year-old son, Rahul, whom she was grooming to take over the Congress Party... He feared that rising anti-Muslim sentiment had strengthened the influence of India’s main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)... In the dim light, he (Singh) looked frail, older than his seventy-eight years, and as we drove off I wondered what would happen when he left office. Would the baton be successfully passed to Rahul, fulfilling the destiny laid out by his mother and preserving the Congress Party’s dominance over the ‘divisive nationalism’ touted by the BJP?"

"The Shehzada of the Congress said recently that our Rajas and Maharajas back in the day were ruthless. They snatched or took away the humble assets of the poor at their whim. The Shehzada insulted the revered Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Rani Chennamma, whose good governance and patriotism still fill us with national pride and honour. Does he not have any knowledge of the contribution of the royal family of Mysuru who we all regard very highly and are proud of? ... The Shehzada’s was carefully calibrated, on purpose, to appease a certain vote bank. He did not utter a single word on the atrocities committed by the Nawabs, Nizams, Sultans, and Badhshahs (on their peasants). The Congress seems to have forgotten the grave excesses perpetrated by (Mughal emperor) Aurangzeb, who destroyed thousands of our temples... The Benaras Hindu University (BHU) could not have been established without the help of the king, who ruled the city back in the day. Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda had helped Baba Saheb Ambedkar pursue his higher studies abroad. The Congress’ Shehzada knows nothing about this and is making public statements that are aimed at advancing the party’s vote bank politics. The Congress is in an alliance with parties that glorify Aurangzeb. They don’t talk about kings who destroyed our pilgrimage sites, looted them, killed our people while also slaughtering livestock... Since the Congress came to power in Karnataka, the law and order situation in the state has been on a free-fall. The incident in Hubballi (the daylight murder of a sitting Congress corporator’s daughter) shook the country’s conscience. When the bereaved family sought action, the ruling Congress, yet again, preferred appeasement over justice. They do not value the lives of our daughters like Neha (Hiremath). All they care about is their vote bank."

"I have spent more than 32 years in the Congress and when the Ram Mandir decision came, after getting advice from his wellwisher in America, Rahul Gandhi in a meeting with his close aides said that after the Congress government is formed, they will form a superpower commission and will overturn the Ram Mandir decision just like Rajiv Gandhi overturned the Shah Bano decision."

"Tradition dictates you should first win from Raebareli before challenging for top!"

"When a man is touching 50 and has never had any productive job in his life, he cannot elicit respect from me as an individual... If you stand in the capital of India and say you support “Bharat ke tukde honge” (India will be broken into pieces), I don’t have an iota of respect for such individuals."

"The fact that he chose to belittle the Prime Minister is not surprising, in fact expected... After failing to connect with the people of India, Mr Gandhi chooses a platform of convenience for beating his political opponents.... Indian democracy gives opportunity to merit and is not beholden to dynasty... A failed dynast today chose to speak about his failed political journey."

"Stop jumping with joy every time a crime happens, Mr Rahul Gandhi. The state has already assured strict and prompt action. You divide the society in every manner possible for electoral gains and then shed crocodile tears. Enough is enough. You are a MERCHANT OF HATE."

"Rahul Gandhi has no right to use the Gandhi surname. He has reached the level of a fourth-class citizen. Can such a person be born in the Nehru family? I have doubts about it. His DNA should be examined."

"Their strategy was simple. Moral domination. Nehru was a thinker. But Rajiv, Sonia, and Rahul are no intellectuals. They took a different route. They redefined morality. Secularism included. Anti-Congress was new immoral. Pro-Hindu became anti-Muslim. India was morally polarized. Morality is subjective. No one can say with guarantee what is pure morality. Masses were forced to choose between moral standards (Secularism, unity in diversity, inclusive etc.) and quality of life (development). People who wanted quality of life were made to feel guilty. Hindus who wanted to celebrate their religious freedom were made to feel guilty. Muslims who wanted to be part of mainstream India were made to feel guilty. They filled India’s psyche with fear, hate and guilt. They hated all indigenous, grassroots thinkers. They hated Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, P.V. Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now Modi. They are the land grabbers of Sainik Farms and Adarsh Societies of India. They run NGOs. They run media. They coin useless and irrelevant jargon to confuse the masses. They have designations but no real jobs. They are irrelevant NRIs who want us to see a reality which doesn’t exist. They want a plebiscite in Kashmir. They defend stone-pelters. They want Maoists to participate in mainstream politics. They want Tejpal to be freed. Yaqub to be pardoned. But they want Modi to be hanged. They are the hijackers of national morality. Secularism included. They are the robbers of Indian treasury. They are the brokers of power. They are the pimps of secularism. They are the Intellectual Mafia."

"There is a word 'Shakti' in Hinduism. We are fighting against a Shakti."

"Narendra Modi wants people to sit on their phone the entire day and chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. And while you do this, you die of hunger."

"The surprising thing is that the so called defenders of democracy like US and Europe seem to just be oblivious of the fact that a huge chunk of the democratic model has come undone in India. While the opposition is fighting that battle, US and Europe are not doing enough to restore the democracy in India. The inaction may be because of the trade and money they are getting."

"Modi ji, you said the war against corona will be won in 18 days. You asked people to bang thali, light up candles and show mobile phone torch… but corona intensified. Please stop event-bazi now and arrange for vaccines for all. And provide income support to the poor."

"The country needs vaccines against coronavirus. You also raise your voice for this — everyone has the right to have a safe life. Speak up for vaccination for all."

"India needs quick and complete vaccination - not BJP's usual brand of lies and rhyming slogans to cover up vaccine shortage caused by Modi government’s inaction."

"Rising COVID numbers are worrying. Vaccination must pick up pace to avoid serious outcomes in the next wave."

"Lord Ram is the manifestation of the best human qualities. He is the core of humanity embedded in the depths of our minds. Lord Ram is love and he can never appear in hatred. Lord Ram is mercy and he can never appear in cruelty. Lord Ram is justice and he can never appear in unjustice."

"Ahimsa (Non-violence) will return to Assam if the Bhartiya Janata Party government comes to power once again."

"I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy."

"Modi has anger inside him and he has got anger for everybody not only for me. I attract that anger because he sees a threat in me. His anger is his problem, not my problem."

"Rahul: My position was that I report to the Prime Minister. Whatever I felt I had conversations with the Prime Minister. Whatever I felt about the issues I made it abundantly clear to the Prime Minister. I was involved in the legislation, RTI legislation. And now I have helped pass the Lokpal Bill. I bring you back. The real issue here is participation of people in politics. It is bringing youngsters into the political system, it’s opening out the political system. That's where nobody wants to talk. Everybody is perfectly happy with 500 people running the entire system in India. Nobody, none of you want to raise that issue. The fundamental issue. How do we chose candidates?"

"Arnab: Well Mr. Gandhi now you see. The other question is, should you have spoken up much much earlier? You know you didn't. Everyone wants to know today why you didn't speak up during 2G. Why didn't you speak up during Coalgate? Why didn't you speak up? I think it was June 2010 that TIMES NOW broke the CWG scam and railgate. You could have spoken up. And you can't take the defence that you were not very actively there. You have for some time been effectively in-charge of the 2014 re-election campaign."

"Rahul: Yes I know that but I am saying that it is not my job. My job is when I see issues of corruption, take action on it. That's what I do."

"Arnab: There is no case being followed against Mr. Virbhadra Singh."

"Rahul: Anybody who is corrupt should be punished. I am not a judge. So if there is a legal process and there is a result of the legal process, absolutely they should be punished."

"Arnab: Are you open to taking action on Ashok Chavan and Virbhadra Singh? Have you seen the papers yourself? Will you examine them Mr. Gandhi? Will you examine it?"

"Rahul: I think that riots, as all riots, were a horrible event. Frankly I was not in operation in the Congress party."

"Arnab: On behalf of you party."

"Rahul: First of all I wasn't involved in the riots at all. It wasn't that I was part of it."