BEING AND BECOMING

Atishay was so passionate to get up early in the morning that he was struggling to sleep. He was thinking that the next morning would be a dawn to me. I'll start a new journey of life with all the disciplines one is capable to bring in. Yesterday he read a book which gave him the clue about the benefits of witnessing an early morning. He thought, "how many days he spent without witnessing a happy morning? May be I was too busy with worklaods that I forgot to realize what actually the life is all about". But he was now ready to awake, ready to dance with the tune of nature. He was anxiously waiting for that next morning, but he actually forgot to live, to feel the moment! He spoiled his night in hope that an unknown-uncertain future is his best moment to come. He was afterall not aware that there is nothing like future or past. It is always a transition of present. But he was dancing in illusion of "Proustean" time, submerged in the ocean of fairytale that

सच और झूठ के दायरे में एक छोटा सा फर्क है, झूठ हर एक दिन जीता है, सच हर पल मरता है।  झूठ के महल शानो शौकत में जीते हैं, और सच्चाई का दामन वो मैला आँचल है, जिसके रहगुज़र में अनदेखी तन्हाई के सिवा कुछ नहीं मिलती।  किससे कहोगे कि मेरे पास एक सच है, जबकि झूठ के मंदिर में वो हर एक दिन पूजा करते हैं!  लोग कहेंगे कि इस सच का हठ छोड़ दो, भीड़ जिस ओर चलती सच्चाई वही है, जो वो गढ़ती है।  जीना है तो सच की हठ छोड़ दो, जिओ और हमें भी जीने दो।  जीने की तमन्ना में हम एक गुनाह हर रोज करते हैं, हर रोज मरते हैं, हर रोज मरते हैं!

हमारे मित्र ने एक किस्सा सुनाया, कि एक बार बचपन में उसे उसके एक शिक्षक ने कविता याद करने को कहा। कविता का बोल था, धीरे धीरे रे मना धीरे सबकुछ होय, माली सींचे सौ घड़ा, ऋतु आये फल होय। हमारे मित्र ने सारी ताकत लगाई, पर ये कुछ छंद शब्दों की तुकबंदी उसके जुबां पे ना आयी। शिक्षक ने पूछा, इतनी छोटी सी कविता तुमसे याद नहीं होती? हमारे मित्र ने जवाब दिया, इसी में तो लिखा है, धीरे धीरे रे मना धीरे सब कुछ होय, अब भला मैं जल्दी कैसे याद कर लूं? शिक्षक ने बजाय ये समझने के की कविता का अर्थ तो इसे मालूम है, उसे दंडित किया, बल्कि ये भी वक्तव्य दिया, एक तो कविता याद नहीं होती है, उपर से जुबां भी लड़ाता है! इस शिक्षा पद्धति ने हिंदुस्तान को कोई आइंस्टीन और इमैनुएल कांट जैसा विचारक नहीं दिया, नाहि शुश्रुत या चर्वाक को जन्म दिया। जन्म दिया मशीनों की एक बड़ी फौज जिसका कर्म और धर्म बाज़ार है, जहां इंसानियत को हर एक दिन खरीदा और बेचा जाता है। इस व्यवस्था को अंग्रेजो ने अपनी बुद्धि से जन्म दिया और सींचा ताकि मनुष्य के नाम पर क्लर्कों की एक बड़ी तादात इकट्ठी की जा सके। भारतीय नौकरशाही व्यवस्था के बारे में कह

विद्यां ददाति विनयं, विनयाद् याति पात्रताम्। पात्रत्वात् धनमाप्नोति, धनात् धर्मं ततः सुखम्॥   हमारे पूर्वजों ने विद्या को कुछ इस तरह से समझा था: विद्या विनय देती है, विनय से पात्रता आती है, पात्रता से धन आता है, धन से धर्म होता है, और धर्म से सुख प्राप्त होता है। आज मैं विनय को यदा कदा ही पाता हूँ, और पात्रता के बारे हर कोई कहेगा मैं पात्र हूँ इस पद को सुशोभित करने के लिए, इस काम को करने के लिए, लेकिन जब विषम परिस्थिति आती है वो मैदान छोड़कर भाग निकल जाते है! नौकरी तो सब करते हैं पर इंसानियत के सबब और सबक से कोषों दूर, अहं और अहंकार का दामन थामे हुए इंसानों ने प्रकृति को प्राकृतिक संसाधन बना दिया। हम खुद जानवर होते हुए भी "अन्यता" का भाव से ओतप्रोत हो कर, प्रकृति पे विजय प्राप्त करने के उद्देश्य से, उन्हें संसाधन समझकर उत्पीड़न और दोहारोपन करने लगे। प्रकृति से भला हम अलग हो ही नहीं सकते थेे, बल्कि हम अपने अलावा सभी व्यक्तियों को वो जानवर समझना बेहतर समझा, जिससे अपने उद्देश्य के पूर्ति के उपरांत उनका कसाईघर में होना भी उपयोगी सा प्रतीत होता है। आज धन पात्रता से नहीं

The political journey of Mahatma (Gandhi) though started from South Africa, however, his spiritual journey owes much  to the literary stalwarts like Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau, and Emerson. What did really transform him, was his ability to share a space with the greatest thinkers, poets, and storytellers of that era. One of them was David Henry Thoreau. It is a well established fact that Gandhian method of Civil Disobedience was originally imagined by Thoreau, however, a wise Man like M.K. Gandhi, without being a 'Professor of Ideas', became truly a philosopher (Bilgrami, Gandhi: The Philosopher), an activist who practically implemented those ideas in toto, sometimes with flexibility, and elevated the scope of 'Potentiality into Actuality' (Georgio Agamben, Homo Sacer). Thoreau in his introductory remarks rightly says, "There  are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live" (Th

It was 4 years ago I joined LL.M. at Faculty of Law, University, and in second semester, I came to know about two great thinkers of our time, Upendra Baxi and Marc Galanter. Prof. Baxi with his pen wrote some of the finest works, including Sociology of Law, Indian Supreme Court and Politics, The Future of Human Rights, and The Human Rights in a Posthuamn World, etc. Interestingly it was Prof. Baxi who brought a paradigm shift in learning and unlearning of Law, particularly in context of Indian Jurisprudence. His style of writings, though he admits that it is bit complicated, "I have worked in the 'Belly of the Beast'", he remarked when I had opportunity to ask the question about his language two years ago. His writings are more or less value neutral but very provocative. His pen transcends conventional juristic craftsmanship in search of "Sociology of Law" what Dean Roscoe Pound and Prof. Julius Stone tried to establish, and perhaps Upen (people fondly ca

"The President, or the Governor or Rajpramukh of a State, shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of his office or for any act done or purporting to be done by him in the exercise and performance of those powers and duties" (Art. 361, The Constitution of India). The black letter law suggests that in order to facilitate the free excersize of Executive powers and duties (functions) of the President of India or the Governor of the State, their actions are not answerable to any Court. However, the discretion excersized by these Constitutional Authorities is not immune from the domain of judicial review. Every discretion excersized in arbitrary manner is susceptible to judicial review. In  Rameshwar Prasad v. Union of India (2006), the Apex Court declared the imposition of President's rule U/A- 356 of the Indian Constitution as unconstitutional. In one of paras, while dealing with the role of Governor, the Apex Court r

Today, in the journey of hope and despair my cogito (Rene Descartes) stays a few minutes with Ludwig Wittgenstein. An Austrian genius who once asked Butrand Russell, "Do you think I am a complete idiot. If I'm, I would become an astronaut, if not, I would be a philosopher"? Why am I interested in a person who lived in here almost 70-100 years ago? Can't I find one who leaves his millionaire father's business to join a  school to teach and to meditate about the meaning, if it exists, of life and death? Can't I find, in contemporary time, a linguist philosopher for whom "Problems" are the life what it means to be, otherwise a "problemless" world would be a nihilistically paranoid situation? Perhaps I can find a million saints who has a trillion way to deceive the truth, but not a one melancholic philosopher who is interested in forgetfulness, to sense the world outside it's meaning, outside the structure of language, in silence, in void