I live in a state in India which is ruled by communists. Like every religion the communists are also of varied sects and hues. The communists who have been ruling my state for a long time are of that sect which supports China on every issue. So they would not say a single word against the tortures of the Tibetans by the Chinese Communist Party-which rules the People republic of China. Arunachal Pradesh is a state within India. But once Mao Zedong declared that the five lands –Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh were representative of the five fingers of China’s palm. I do not know which palm he meant-right or left. Perhaps left-as they were created with the left hand of their creator. Among them Arunachal Pradesh is a state of India. China still holds her claim over this state. So here in India the Communists are also supportive of China’s Claim over Arunachal Pradesh. Mind that these very Communists are Indians! So this is natural that the communists of India are very much against the Tibetans struggling for their independence.

And what about the Government of India? The ruling coalition government is headed by the Indian National Congress or whatever is left as the dilapidated remnants of a great past. The Congress is ruling with the support of the communists. So this government would not say a single word against the Chinese tortures of the Tibetans. Even when the President of the IOC has chided the Chinese government on human right issue. Moreover there is none in this Congress like the undaunted Indira Gandhi-who –despite all her lapses, was a brave personality. In her time people would love to tell that there was only one man in her cabinet! But the bunch of politicians in the Congress now is afraid of China.

Tibet and India –from time immemorial were friends and there were spiritual bonds between these countries. Tibet was a religious state like the Vatican. And so she was more near to India spiritually than any other country in the world including China. Had Indira Gandhi been the first prime minister of India instead of her weak and visionless father she would not have supported Tibet’s forceful annexation with China.

Today there arise angers and protests from people in every place of the world against the cruel measures taken by the Chinese government to suppress the Tibetans’ struggle for freedom-India remains the exception thanks to the cowardice of the Indian National Congress –a party once a platform of voices of freedom raised by the great sons of India. The head of the states of the UK, Australia, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistsn, Georgia, Syria, Fiji, Serbia, Zambia, Sierra Leone and many other developed and developing countries have condemned China over her oppressive measures on the Tibetans. Raja Ram Mohan Roy while travelling in a ship got the news of American freedom from the colonial yoke and he became instantaneously ecstatic at that news and he celebrated the occasion. He initiated India with modernism. He was for liberty and freedom wherever it was suppressed whether it was in his own country or elsewhere. He would have been ashamed of today’s India or the India of Sonia Gandhi.

I am deeply anguished at what are happening in Tibet. Incidentally I had the occasions of meeting the Tibetan refugees in south India some years ago. It is heart-rending-this state of living in a land where one’s identity goes by the name ‘refugee’.

I can only let the people of Tibet know that I’m also a helpless prisoner of my sincerest emotion for these hapless people of this world –which is also my shelter. My flames of anger will only be doused when Tibet would be ruled by the Tibetans.

THE ROAD TO LHASA As a token of my reverence to the holy struggle of the Tibetans against the Chinese, I have become the member of BUDDHISTS AWAKENING.

There is no room for excess in this world

If we want to live a happy life, we must change our life-style. I know it well that I’m writing in vain as there’s no authority in this world to compel us to live in an alternative world. But first we must know how we are living and what for. Actually there there is no ‘what for’ in our life because we do not care to know what this life has been created for. So let us concentrate on our living system. But it will be convenient for me to discuss my point if I compare our life with that of our life, say, four hundred years ago.

At that time we did not have craze for cars, cell-phones, dinner or lunch in five-star hotels, no airplane to carry us in any place of this world in miraculously little time. There are so many comforts and conveniences now which we could not think of at that time.

But at the same time we have lost some-if not many, vitally valuable things. The most important of them are pure air, vast soothing nature, less populous places and noiseless world. Cities were always noisy and populous in comparison with villages, but not to that horrible extent as we experience in New York or Tokyo and in many other places of our world.

But we had not antibiotics, steroids, telephones and swift conveyances. These things we can not do away with in exchange of calm world and pure air. So let the the fruits of science, that are life saving, may be separated out as an indispensible modernity.

But why there are so much noises and pollutions in this world? It’s because of population explosion. The increase in population has affected everything in this world and life. We need more land to live, more food to eat and more of everything than that we needed four hundred years ago. But this situation with more population and the more of everyday needs has consequently created the needs and necessities of more other things which we did not have, require or ever dreamt of many years ago.

We did not have cell-phones, colas, videos, air conditioners, ATM or Credit cards, five star hotels, airplanes and hundreds of things and facilities-which it is difficult to write with the help of memory. The world has not only bulged with plenty but it has been metamorphosed into another world. It is another world-not because of more and many but because of more different needs and demands created by mores themselves. We now require a factory of small cars in West Bengal because it will save the unemployment problem to some extent-as per the Chief Minister. We have to turn agricultural land for industry. We require more fertilizers as we have to grow more crops in less land to feed more people. China needs to oust all the old people from Beijing for her requirement of space as felt needed for Olympic-2008. We require more diesel and petrol for increasing numbers of vehicles everyday. And so George Bush required invading Iraq. This is to cite a few examples.

So, it is like cell-divisions. The more require more to be sustained.

But now this abnormally growing of mores like the abnormally growing cells makes life not so much happy as it should be with more. We have cleaned Germany and England of tuberculosis bacteria. But we have attracted AIDS. There was a phenomenal increase in diabetic patients in the world. We have to periodically check our cholesterol and triglyceride level as we are afraid of heart attacks-that are frequent in the developed countries. We have disturbed ecological balances and push thousands of people to suffer from death and diseases. The wild life now lives in showcases. Hundreds of people die or become crippled everyday in road or sky accidents. As there are more of everything, –so more appear there to snatch a portion as their shares. One is inclined to have more boyfriends and girlfriends and so stand the risk of being unfortunate getting a happy conjugal life. The cell- phones help us to contact persons in any place of this world instantaneously. These instantaneous connections help also the criminals to commit crimes successfully.

So what is the way out? I think we must detect the root of this cancerous life first. It is not difficult to detect but it will be difficult to accept. We must restrict our physical demands and comforts to the minimum. For this we must be aware of exactly what is more or excess. And we must check the population growth.

There is no room for excess in this world.

Ramdulal Sarkar-Bengal's first millionaire

Dum Dum in north Calcutta is a thickly populated place now. It is now very difficult for the pedestrians to walk through the main road of this place. The pavements, like all the pavements of Calcutta streets, are occupied by hawkers. But the place was not so 240 years ago. The whole area was covered with dense forest. There were stray villages here and there. It was never safe to travel through this place after sunset. The place was a habitat of tigers, snakes and various wild animals. But the most dangerous were the dacoits who were very cruel and never hesitated to kill the helpless persons even for trifle things. This was a time when the Muslim rulers were fallen into degeneration and the law and order broke down. The East India Company was yet to settle with power to rule Bengal. It was also the time when Raghuji Bhonsle, the king of Nagpur (in western India) and his minister Bhaskar Pandit with their people attacked Bengal frequently to plunder and loot everything from the villagers of Bengal. They were known as borgis and the people of Bengal became very much afraid of those dreaded people.

At this time Balaram De lived in a small village named Rekjani near this place. He was a very poor man. He was a teacher in a primary school and earned so little that it was very difficult to maintain even his small family. His was not a singular case; most of the teachers in Bengal were to pass their lives in utter poverty. But the tyranny of the borgis compelled him to leave his village in 1752. He fled his village with his pregnant wife. On the way there was a vast barren land. It was like a sea of land and no living being could be traced in that lone place. It was there the wife of Balaram felt labour pain and delivered a male child. Balaram could somehow save the child and reached Calcutta.

The name of this child, who was born in such an unusually helpless condition and in acute poverty, was Ramdulal. Ramdulal lost his parents in his childhood. He had no shelter and no money. One day he with his younger sister went to his maternal grandfather Ramsundar Biswas for shelter. But his grandfather was also very poor and had to raise his family even by begging from others. Ramdulal’s grandmother was compelled to work as a cook in the family of Madanmohan Datta-a business man. Ramdulal had to live in this family. It goes without saying that all of them passed their days with single meal a day and sometimes that was also difficult to manage. So after some days his grandmother took him to Madanmohan Datta. Madanmohan gave him shelter in his house. Ramdulal worked in the house as a servant and got the opportunity to study under the private tutor who taught the children of Madanmohan. At that time the students didn’t have slate or paper to write on. They used leaves of banana and palm trees for writing. But for Ramdulal it was also difficult to buy or manage the leaves. So he took the used leaves of his master’s children, washed them in the water of holy river of Ganga and dried them to write on. With utmost sincerity and industry Ramdulal learnt to read and write Bengali in a short time. He also learnt to speak in English . He always thought of giving some comfort to his grandmother who lived in utter poverty. So after acquiring some basic education he started working as an apprentice in the office of Madanmohan. After sometime Madanmohan, finding his industriousness, and his efficiency, employed him to collect money from the bills of his business. His salary was fixed as Rs 5. It was a very difficult and laborious job. But Ramdulal worked with heart and soul for his master. Now Madanmohan became very satisfied with his performance. So he thought of giving him a greater responsibility. He asked him to collect bill money from a person of the English army in Dum Dum. I have already said that though Dum Dum was not far from Calcutta but the place was covered with forests and it was a habitat of dreaded dacoits. There was no means of transport. One had to walk all through to reach Calcutta from Dum Dum. This time Ramdulal collected Rs 5000 in cash and started for Calcutta in the evening. It was unthinkable for an individual to cross that jungle at night. After some time he thought of taking shelter in a house on the way. But after a second thought he changed his decision as he thought that it might lead him to a dacoit’s house. So he put off all his clothes and became naked to wear an appearance of a fakir. Then he hid the bag of the money in the hollow of a banyan tree hidden behind some aerial roots of the tree. Then he sat beneath the tree. After some time he heard some persons talking among them and gradually they seemed to coming towards him. Ramdulal instantaneously understood that the people were dacoits. So he closed his eyes pretending to meditating in that lonely place. Ramdulal was right. They were really dacoits. They stopped near Ramdulal and asked him who he was. Ramdulal opened his eyes and laughed loudly. The dacoits felt as Ramdulal wanted them to feel about him –an abnormal fakir. So they went off. In the morning Ramdulal started for Calcutta and reached his master’s house.

Madanmohan became very pleased with him and promoted him for a more responsible job as a manger of the department that oversaw the job concerning shipping. His salary was doubled at Rs 10. He had been saving regularly from his salary of Rs 5 and invested the amount in a small timber business. Whatever he had earned from this investment he gave it to his grandmother. After some time Ramdulal acquired some knowledge about ships and the related business. He visited the office of Tala-sahib where there were biddings for sunken ships in auctions. He acquired sound knowledge about the values of these ships and the goods they contained. One day Madanmohan sent him with Rs 14,000 to bid for one ship. But auction was over before Ramdulal reached the place. But there was another ship which had sunk in the mouth of the river Ganga and biddings were going on the ship. Ramdulal had some idea about the ship earkier. So Ramdulal made a bid of Rs 14,000 for the ship. He won and bought it. After a short while an Englishman arrived who had had an intention to bid for that particular ship Ramdulal bought. The Englishman asked him to sell the ship to him for Rs 14,000. When Ramdulal refused he threatened Ramdulal with dire consequences if he did not sell. But Ramdulal did not budge under his threat. So the Englishman began to bargain with Ramdulal. At last after much bargaining, the Englishman agreed to offer Rs 100,000. Ramdulal went home and gave his master the entire amount of one hundred thousand and told him how he got it. Ramdulal could easily hide the affair from his master to appropriate the money for his own use. But he was a different kind of man and was honest to his core. Madanmohan was spellbound at the instance of such honesty of a young man who was a servant for Rs 10. It took him some time to come to sense to speak to him. But when he spoke he told Ramdulal “I have no right for this amount which God has given to you for your honesty and trustworthiness”. He only took Rs 14,000 and returned the balance to Ramdulal.

Ramdulal then started business with this money. He earned much money from his business and gradually spread his business in various fields. After some years he bought four ships and started business with the American business world. At that time he was known as the Rothschild of Bengal in American business circle and he was much respected by them. In recognition of his service one Salem (a port near Boston) house dealing with Ramdulal named one of their ships ‘Ramdulal De’ which made several voyages from Salem to Calcutta. With his innate acumen and instincts in business matters Ramdulal became the biggest businessman in all wholesale businesses of Bengal. He became the head of business confederation of Bengal.

In spite of all his wealth and position Ramdulal De (Sarkar) remained the same person without any pride. He was the symbol of true humility. He never forgot Madanmohan. He loved to remain as a servant of Madanmohan. Even when he was regarded the richest businessman of Bengal (perhaps of India) he visited his master every month. With his modest and most ordinary clothes as suited to a servant of Rs 10, he would enter the house of Madanmohan leaving behind his footwear outside the house as was the custom of servants at that time and prostrated before him with his deep respect. Before leaving the house he would beg his monthly salary of Rs 10 from his master. He took it as a blessing from his master.

He established a guesthouse in Belgachhia in north Calcutta for the poor. One thousand poor people ate there everyday. He donated Rs 100,000 in the famine fund of Madras. None –who came to him for help never returned empty handed. He donated Rs 70 in his office everyday. He never became a witness in any legal battle. If any person came to him to stand witness for him in the court-he settled the case by giving out all the money concerning the dispute, to the aggrieved person.

Ramdulal De (Sarkar) died at the age of 73 in 1825 on the bank of the holy Ganga. He left behind him his two sons, Ashutosh (Satubabu), and Pramathanath (Latubabu) and a property worth Rs 123, 00,000. This was 200 years ago.

Ramdulal De (Sarkar) was a rare personality. He was a true Indian and appeared to be one of those we find in the great epic- the Ramayana.

February 21, 2008

©Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry

Am I fast coming to a scheduled end? Or am I faltering to find a beginning after being disgusted of all conceivable completeness of life given to me without caring for an understood concept of mine as to what course it would take to evolve me? At this point of my age when I am supposed to have an experience of a performed life in a portion of time, I find myself left in an undefined existence. It is an existence restlessly needing a pivot to know, to feel what is all about. It is suffering to live in this amorphous meaninglessness.

I have never lived a life. I have always been driven to myriad ways by thousands of impulses of moments that have spilled over from a fullness of single time. This life has no tale as it is an aggregation of assorted moments.

But I am not for, as I feel, to be couched in some solidity either for a grasping or for a restraining contour. Solidity is always preferable to amorphousness. But solidity is something as already performed; and however complete, it is tagged with a sense of past. It is a product in the past, may even be a symbol of the existing present, but it is never in any way a help to a future. Here in my restlessness, I am affranchised from this fragmentation as well as from a built concreteness. I have been languishing being in this amorphousness and amidst this is the travails of a face to surface to find which has been covered since the beginning.

"Alone who stares at future's covered face…"