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Kathakali (Malayalam: കഥകളി, kathakaḷi; Sanskrit: कथाकळिः, kathākaḷiḥ) is a stylized classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters, elaborate costumes, detailed gestures and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present day state of Kerala during the 17th century and has developed over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.
HISTORY
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'.
Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called 'Manipravaalam'), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience.
As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to Nritham, Nrithyam and Natyam.
KATHAKALI PLAYS
Traditionally there are 101 classical Kathakali stories, though the commonly staged among them these days total less than one-third that number. Almost all of them were initially composed to last a whole night. Nowadays, there is increasing popularity for concise, or oftener select, versions of stories so as the performance lasts not more than three to four hours from evening. Thus, many stories find stage presentation in parts rather than totality. And the selection is based on criteria like choreographical beauty, thematic relevance/popularity or their melodramatic elements. Kathakali is a classical art form, but it can be appreciated also by novices—all contributed by the elegant looks of its character, their abstract movement and its synchronisation with the musical notes and rhythmic beats. And, in any case, the folk elements too continue to exist. For better appreciation, perhaps, it is still good to have an idea of the story being enacted.
The most popular stories enacted are Nalacharitham (a story from the Mahabharata), Duryodhana Vadham (focusing on the Mahabharata war after profiling the build-up to it), Kalyanasougandhikam, (the story of Bhima going to get flowers for his wife Panchali), Keechakavadham (another story of Bhima and Panchali, but this time during their stint in disguise), Kiratham (Arjuna and Lord Shiva's fight, from the Mahabharata), Karnashapatham (another story from the Mahabharata), Nizhalkuthu and Bhadrakalivijayam authored by Pannisseri Nanu Pillai. Also staged frequently include stories like Kuchelavrittam, Santanagopalam, Balivijayam, Dakshayagam, Rugminiswayamvaram, Kalakeyavadham, Kirmeeravadham, Bakavadham, Poothanamoksham, Subhadraharanam, Balivadham, Rugmangadacharitam, Ravanolbhavam, Narakasuravadham, Uttaraswayamvaram, Harishchandracharitam, Kacha-Devayani and Kamsavadham.
Recently, as part of attempts to further popularise the art, stories from other cultures and mythologies, such as those of Mary Magdalene from the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and William Shakespeare's King Lear and Julius Caesar besides Goethe's Faust too have been adapted into Kathakali scripts and on to its stage. Synopsis of 37 kathakali stories are available in kathakalinews.com.
MUSIC
The language of the songs used for Kathakali is Manipravalam. Though most of the songs are set in ragas based on the microtone-heavy Carnatic music, there is a distinct style of plain-note rendition, which is known as the Sopanam style. This typically Kerala style of rendition takes its roots from the temple songs which used to be sung (continues even now at several temples) at the time when Kathakali was born.
As with the acting style, Kathakali music also has singers from the northern and southern schools. The northern style has largely been groomed by Kerala Kalamandalam in the 20th century. Kalamandalam Neelakantan Nambisan, an overarching Kathakali musician of those times, was a product of the institute. His prominent disciples include Kalamandalam Unnikrishna Kurup, Kalamandalam Gangadharan, Kalamandalam P.G. Radhakrishnan, Rama Varrier, Madambi Subramanian Namboodiri, Tirur Nambissan, Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Kalamandalam Hyderali, Kalamandalam Haridas, Subramanian, Kalanilayam Unnikrishnan and Kalamandalam Bhavadasan. The other prominent musicians of the north feature Kottakkal Vasu Nedungadi, Kottakkal Parameswaran Namboodiri, Kottakkal P.D. Narayanan Namboodiri, Kottakkal Narayanan, Kalamandalam Anantha NarayananKalamandalam Sreekumar Palanad Divakaran, Kalanilayam Rajendran, Kolathappilli Narayanan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Narayanan Embranthiri, Kottakkal Madhu, Kalamandalam Babu Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Harish and Kalamandalam Vinod. In the south, some of whom are equally popular in the north these days, include Pathiyur Sankarankutty. Southerner musicians of the older generation include Cherthala Thankappa Panikker, Thakazhi Kuttan Pillai, Cherthala Kuttappa Kurup, Thanneermukkam Viswambharan and Mudakkal Gopinathan.
PERFORMANCE
Traditionally, a Kathakali performance is usually conducted at night and ends in early morning. Nowadays it isn't difficult to see performances as short as three hours or fewer. Kathakali is usually performed in front of the huge Kalivilakku (kali meaning dance; vilakku meaning lamp) with its thick wick sunk till the neck in coconut oil. Traditionally, this lamp used to provide sole light when the plays used to be performed inside temples, palaces or abodes houses of nobles and aristocrats. Enactment of a play by actors takes place to the accompaniment of music (geetha) and instruments (vadya). The percussion instruments used are chenda, maddalam (both of which underwent revolutionary changes in their aesthetics with the contributions of Kalamandalam Krishnankutty Poduval and Kalamandalam Appukutty Poduval) and, at times, edakka. In addition, the singers (the lead singer is called “ponnani” and his follower is called “singidi”) use chengila (gong made of bell metal, which can be struck with a wooden stick) and ilathalam (a pair of cymbals). The lead singer in some sense uses the Chengala to conduct the Vadyam and Geetha components, just as a conductor uses his wand in western classical music. A distinguishing characteristic of this art form is that the actors never speak but use hand gestures, expressions and rhythmic dancing instead of dialogue (but for a couple of rare characters).
ACTING
A Kathakali actor uses immense concentration, skill and physical stamina, gained from regimented training based on Kalaripayattu, the ancient martial art of Kerala, to prepare for his demanding role. The training can often last for 8–10 years, and is intensive. In Kathakali, the story is enacted purely by the movements of the hands (called mudras or hand gestures) and by facial expressions (rasas) and bodily movements. The expressions are derived from Natyashastra (the tome that deals with the science of expressions) and are classified into nine as in most Indian classical art forms. Dancers also undergo special practice sessions to learn control of their eye movements.
There are 24 basic mudras—the permutation and combination of which would add up a chunk of the hand gestures in vogue today. Each can again can be classified into 'Samaana-mudras'(one mudra symbolising two entities) or misra-mudras (both the hands are used to show these mudras). The mudras are a form of sign language used to tell the story.
The main facial expressions of a Kathakali artist are the 'navarasams' (Navarasas in anglicised form) (literal translation: Nine Tastes, but more loosely translated as nine feelings or expressions) which are Sringaram (amour), Hasyam (ridicule, humour), Bhayanakam (fear), Karunam (pathos), Roudram (anger, wrath), Veeram (valour), Beebhatsam (disgust), Adbhutam (wonder, amazement), Shantam (tranquility, peace). The link at the end of the page gives more details on Navarasas.
One of the most interesting aspects of Kathakali is its elaborate make-up code. Most often, the make-up can be classified into five basic sets namely Pachcha, Kathi, Kari, Thaadi, and Minukku. The differences between these sets lie in the predominant colours that are applied on the face. Pachcha (meaning green) has green as the dominant colour and is used to portray noble male characters who are said to have a mixture of "Satvik" (pious) and "Rajasik" (dark; Rajas = darkness) nature. Rajasik characters having an evil streak ("tamasic"= evil) -- all the same they are anti-heroes in the play (such as the demon king Ravana) -- and portrayed with streaks of red in a green-painted face. Excessively evil characters such as demons (totally tamasic) have a predominantly red make-up and a red beard. They are called Red Beard (Red Beard). Tamasic characters such as uncivilised hunters and woodsmen are represented with a predominantly black make-up base and a black beard and are called black beard (meaning black beard). Women and ascetics have lustrous, yellowish faces and this semi-realistic category forms the fifth class. In addition, there are modifications of the five basic sets described above such as Vella Thadi (white beard) used to depict Hanuman (the Monkey-God) and Pazhuppu, which is majorly used for Lord Shiva and Balabhadra.
NOTABLE TRAINING CENTRES & MASTERS
Kathakali artistes need assiduous grooming for almost a decade's time, and most masters are products of accomplished institutions that give a minimum training course of half-a-dozen years. The leading Kathakali schools (some of them started during the pre-Independent era India) are Kerala Kalamandalam (located in Cheruthuruthy near Shoranur), PSV Natya Sangham (located in Kottakal near Kozhikode), Sadanam Kathakali and Classical Arts Academy (or Gandhi Seva Sadan located in Perur near Ottappalam in Palakkad), Unnayi Varier Smaraka Kalanilayam (located in Irinjalakuda south of Thrissur), Margi in Thiruvananthapuram, Muthappan Kaliyogam at Parassinikkadavu in Kannur district and RLV School at Tripunithura off Kochi and Kalabharathi at Pakalkkuri near Kottarakkara in Kollam district, Sandarshan Kathakali Kendram in Ambalapuzha and Vellinazhi Nanu Nair Smaraka Kalakendra in Kuruvattor. Outside Kerala, Kathakali is being taught at the International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi, Santiniketan at Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, Kalakshetra in Chennai and Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad among others. PadmaSree Guru Chengannur Raman Pillai mostly known as 'Guru Chengannur'was running a traditional Gurukula Style approach to propagate Kathakali.
‘Guru Chengannur” is ever renowned as the Sovereign Guru of Kathakali. His precision in using symbols, gestures and steps were highest in the field of Kathakali. Guru Chegannur's kaththi vesham, especially the portrayal of Duryodhana enthralled the audience every time he performed. A master of the art, he found immense happiness and satisfaction in the success and recognition of his disciples.
Senior Kathakali exponents of today include Padma Bhushan Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Gopi, Madavoor Vasudevan Nair, Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, Kottakkal Krishnankutty Nair, Mankompu Sivasankara Pillai, Sadanam Krishnankutty, Nelliyode Vasudevan Namboodiri, Kalamandalam Vasu Pisharody, FACT Padmanabhan, Kottakkal Chandrasekharan, Margi Vijayakumar, Kottakkal Nandakumaran Nair, Vazhenkada Vijayan, Inchakkattu Ramachandran Pillai, Kalamandalam Kuttan, Mayyanad Kesavan Namboodiri, Mathur Govindan Kutty, Narippatta Narayanan Namboodiri, Chavara Parukutty, Thonnakkal Peethambaran, Sadanam Balakrishnan, Kalanilayam Gopalakrishnan, Chirakkara Madhavankutty, Sadanam K. Harikumaran, Thalavadi Aravindan, Kalanilayam Balakrishnan, Pariyanampatta Divakaran, Kottakkal Kesavan, Kalanilayam Gopi and Kudamaloor Muralikrishnan. The late titan actor-dancers of Kathakali's modern age (say, since the 1930s) include Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon, Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Chandu Panicker, Thakazhi Guru Kunchu Kurup, Padma Shri Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Padma Shri Vazhenkada Kunchu Nair, Kavalappara Narayanan Nair, Kurichi Kunhan Panikkar, Thekkinkattil Ramunni Nair, Padma Shri Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair, Mankulam Vishnu Namboodiri, Oyur Kochu Govinda Pillai, Vellinezhi Nanu Nair, Padma Shri Kavungal Chathunni Panikkar, Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair, Kottakkal Sivaraman, Kannan Pattali, Pallippuram Gopalan Nair, Haripad Ramakrishna Pillai, Champakkulam Pachu Pillai, Chennithala Chellappan Pillai, Guru Mampuzha Madhava Panicker, and Vaikkom Karunakaran.
Kathakali is still hugely a male domain but, since the 1970s, females too have made entry into the art form on a recognisable scale. The central Kerala temple town of Tripunithura has, in fact, a ladies troupe (with members belonging to several part of the state) that performs Kathakali, by and large in Travancore.
KATHAKALI STYLES
Known as Sampradäyaṃ(Malayalam: സമ്പ്രദായം); these are leading Kathakali styles that differ from each other in subtleties like choreographic profile, position of hand gestures and stress on dance than drama and vice versa. Some of the major original kathakali styles included:
Vettathu Sampradayam
Kalladikkodan Sampradyam
Kaplingadu Sampradayam
Of late, these have narrowed down to the northern (Kalluvazhi) and southern (Thekkan) styles. It was largely developed by the legendary Pattikkamthodi Ravunni Menon (1881-1949) that is implemented in Kerala Kalamandalam (though it has also a department that teaches the southern style), Sadanam, RLV and Kottakkal. Margi has its training largely based on the Thekkan style, known for its stress on drama and part-realistic techniques. Kalanilayam, effectively, churns out students with a mix of both styles.
OTHER FORMS OD DANCE & OFFSHOOTS
Kerala Natanam is a kind of dance form, partly based on Kathakali techniques and aesthetics, developed and stylised by the late dancer Guru Gopinath in the mid-20th century. Kathakali also finds portrayal in Malayalam feature films like Vanaprastham, Parinayam, Marattam, and Rangam. Besides documentary films have also been shot on Kathakali artistes like Chenganoor Raman Pillai, Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair, Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Kalamandalam Gopi and Kottakkal Sivaraman.
As for fictional literature, Kathakali finds mention in several Malayalam short stories like Karmen (by N.S. Madhavan) and novels like Keshabharam (by P.V. Sreevalsan). Even the Indo-Anglian work like Arundhati Roy's Booker prize-winning The God of Small Things has a chapter on Kathakali, while, of late, Anita Nair's novel, Mistress, is entirely wrapped in the ethos of Kathakali.
Similar musical theater is popular in Kasaragod and the coastal and Malenadu regions of Karnataka, viz. Yakshagana. Though Yakshagana resembles Kathakali in terms of its costume and makeup to an extent, Yakshagana is markedly different from Kathakali as it involves dialogues and method acting also the narration is in Kannada, wherein philosophical debates are also possible within framework of the character. As per records the art form of Yakshagana was already rooted and well established at the time of Sri Manavedan Raja. There is possibilities of its significant influence in formation of Kathakkali as the troupe of performers of "Krishnanattam" designed the basic costume of the art form already established in other parts of south India including Males playing the female roles (until more recently).
Kottayam thamburan's way of presenting kathakali was later known as Kalladikkoden sambradayam. Chathu Paniker,the introducer of Kallikkoden Sambrathayam, stayed in Kottayam for five years with Kottayam Thamburan's residence and practiced Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam. Then he returned to his home place. After a short period Chathu Paniker reached Pulapatta as instructed by Kuthiravattath nair. That was around the year ME 865. Many deciples from Kadathanadu, Kurumbra nadu, Vettathu nadu, Palakkadu and Perumpadappu studied kathakali(Kalladikkoden Sambrathayam ) By that time Chathu Paniker was an old man. Some years later he died from Pulapatta.
NOTED KATHAKALI VILLAGES & BELTS
There are certain pockets in Kerala that have given birth to many Kathakali artistes over the years. If they can be called Kathakali villages (or some of them, these days, towns), here are some of them: Vellinezhi, Kuruvattoor, Karalmanna, Cherpulassery, Kothachira, peringode, sreekrishnapuram Kongad and Ottapalam in Palakkad district, Vazhenkada in Malappuram district, Thichur or Tichoor, Guruvayur, Thiruvilwamala and Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district, Tripunithura, Edappally, Thekkan Chittoor in Ernakulam district and Kuttanad, Harippad belt in Alappuzha district besides places in and around Thiruvanathapuram in south Travancore and Payyannur in north Malabar.
AWARDS FOR KATHAKALI ARTISTS
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees - Kathakali (1956–2005)
Nambeesan Smaraka Awards—For artistic performances related kathakali{1992-2008}
KATHAKALI ATTAMS (ELAKI ATTAMS)
Attams or more specifically "elaki attams" are sequences of acting within a story acted out with the help of mudras without support from vocal music. The actor has the freedom to change the script to suit his own individual preferences. The actor will be supported ably by Chenda, Maddalam, and Elathalam (compulsory), Chengila (not very compulsory).
The following are only some examples. 'Kailasa Udharanam' and 'Tapas Attam' are very important attams and these are described at the end. Two of the many references are Kathakali Prakaram, pages 95 to 142 by Pannisheri Nanu Pillai and Kathakaliyile Manodharmangal by Chavara Appukuttan Pillai.
VANA VARNANA: BHIMA IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKA
Modern man looks at the forest, indeed the birthplace of primates, with a certain wonder and a certain respect. Kathakali characters are no exception.
When Pandavas were living in the forest, one day, a flower, not seen before, wafted by the wind, comes and falls at the feet of Panchali. Exhilarated by its beauty and smell, Panchali asks Bhima to bring her more such flowers. To her pleasure Bhima is ready to go at once. But Panchali asks him what he shall do for food and drink on the way. Bhima thinks and says "Food and Drink! Oh, this side glance (look) of yours. This look of longing. This look of anticipation. The very thought fills me up. I don't need any food and drink at all. Let me go." He takes his mace and off he goes. Ulsaham (enthusiasm) is his Sdhayi Bhavam (permanent feature).
"Let me go at once in search of this flower," says Bhima. "The scented wind is blowing from the southern side. Let me go that way." After walking some distance he sees a huge mountain called Gandhamadana and three ways. He decides to take the middle one which goes over the mountain. After going further "The forest is getting thicker. Big trees, big branches in all directions. The forest looks like a huge dark vessel into which even light can not penetrate. This is my (Bhima's) way. Nothing can hinder me." So saying he pulls down many trees. Sometimes he shatters the trees with his mace. Suddenly he sees an elephant. "Oh! Elephant." He describes it. Its trunk. Sharp ears.
The itching sensation in the body. It takes some mud and throws on the body. Oh good. Then it sucks water and throws on the body. Somewhat better. Slowly it starts dosing even though alert at times. A very huge python is approaching steadily. Suddenly it catches hold of the elephant's hind leg. The elephant wakes up and tries to disengage the python. The python pulls to one side. The elephant kicks and drags to the other side. This goes on for some time. Bhima looks to the other side where a hungry lion is looking for food. It comes running and strikes the elephants head and eats part of the brain and goes off. The python completes the rest. "Oh my god, how ruthless!" says Bhima and proceeds on his way.
UDYANA VARNANA: NALA IN NALACHARITHAM SECOND DAY
Descriptions of gardens are found in most dance forms of India and abroad. These are also common in Kathakali.
Newly married Nala and Damayanthi are walking in the garden. When Nala was lovingly looking at Damayanthi a flower falls on her. Nala is overjoyed and thinks that this is a kindness nature has shown on his wife. Nala says "On seeing the arrival of their queen, the trees and climbers are showing happiness by dropping flowers on you." He tells her, "See that tree. When I used to be alone the tree used to hug the climber and seemingly laugh at my condition." Then he looks at the tree and says, "Dear Tree, look at me now. See how fortunate I am with my beautiful wife."
Both wander about. A bumblebee flies towards Damayanthi. Immediately Nala protects her face with a kerchief. He looks at the bee and then at Damayanthi. He says, "On seeing your face the bee thought it was a flower and came to drink the nectar." Nala and Damayanthi listen to the sounds coming out of the garden. Damayanti says, "It appears that the whole garden is thrilled. The flowers are blooming and smiling. Cuckoos are singing and the bees are dancing. Gentle winds are blowing and rubbing against our bodies. How beautiful the whole garden looks." Then Nala says that the sun is going down and it is time for them to go back and takes her away.
SHABDA VARNANA: HANUMAN IN KALYANA SAUGANDHIKAM
While Bhima goes in search of the flower, here Hanuman is sitting doing Tapas with mind concentrated on Sri Rama.
When he hears the terrible noises made by Bhima in the forest he feels disturbed in doing his Tapas. He thinks "What is the reason for this?" Then the sounds become bigger. "What is this?" He thinks, "The sounds are getting bigger. Such a terrible noise. Is the sea coming up thinking that the time is ripe for the great deluge (Pralaya). Birds are flying helter-skelter. Trees look shocked. Even Kali Yuga is not here. Then what is it? Are mountains quarreling with each other? No, That can't be it. Indra had cut off the wings of mountains so that they don't quarrel. Is the sea changing its position? No it can't be. The sea has promised it will not change its position again. It can't break the promise." Hanuman starts looking for clues. "I see elephants and lions running in fear of somebody. Oh a huge man is coming this way. Oh, a hero is coming. He is pulling out trees and throwing it here and there. Okay. Let him come near, We will see."
THANDEDATTAM: RAVANA IN BALI VADHAM
After his theranottam Ravana is seen sitting on a stool. He says to himself "I am enjoying a lot of happiness. What is the reason for this?" Thinks. "Yes I know it. I did Tapas to Brahma and received all necessary boons. Afterwards I won all ten directions. I also defeated my elder brother Vaishravana. Then I lifted Kailas mountain when Siva and Parvathi were having a misunderstanding. Parvathi got frightened and embraced Siva in fear. Siva was so happy he gave a divine sword called Chandrahasa. Now the whole world is afraid of me. That is why I am enjoying so much happiness." He goes and sits on the stool. He looks far away. "Who is coming from a distance. he is coming fast. Oh, it is Akamba. Okay. Let me find out what news he has for me."
ASHRAMA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KIRATHAM
Arjuna wants to do Tapas to Lord Siva and he is looking a suitable place in the Himalayan slopes. He comes to place where there is an ashram. Arjuna looks closely at the place. "Oh. What a beautiful place this is. A small river in which a very pure water is flowing. Some hermits are taking baths in the river. Some hermits are standing in the water and doing Tapsas. Some are facing the Sun. Some are standing in between five fires." Arjuna salutes the hermits from far. He says to himself "Look at this young one of a deer. It is looking for its mother. It seems to be hungry and thirsty. Nearby a female tiger is feeding its young ones. The little deer goes towards the tigress and pushes the young tiger cubs aside and starts drinking milk from the tigress. The tigress looks lovingly at the young deer and even licks its body as if it were its own child. How beautiful. How fulfilling."
Again he looks "Here on this side a mongoose and a serpent forgetting their enmity are hugging each other. This place is really strange and made divine by saints and hermits. Let me start my Tapas somewhere nearby."
A sloka called "Shikhini Shalabha" can be selected instead of the above if time permits.
AN ATTAM BASED ON A SLOKA
Sansrit slokas are sometimes shown in mudras and it has a pleasing and exhilarating effect. Different actors use slokas as per his own taste and liking. However, the slokas are taught to students during their training period. An example is given below.
Kusumo Kusumolpatti Shrooyathena Chathushyathe
Bale thava Mukhambuje Pashya Neelolpaladwayam
Meaning a flower blooming inside another flower is not known to history. But, my dear, in your lotus like face are seen two blue Neelolpala flowers (eyes).
A CONVERSATION BASED ON A SLOKA
Sanskrit slokas can also be used to express an intent. One such example is a sloka used by Arjuna addressed to Mathali the charioteer in Kalakeya Vadham. Sloka:
Pitha: Kushalee Mama hritha Bhujaam
Naatha Sachee Vallabha:
Maatha: kim nu Pralomacha Kushalinee
Soonurjayanthasthayo
Preethim va Kushchate Thadikshnavidhow
Cheta Samutkanuthe
Sutha: tvam Radhamashu Chodaya vayam
Dharmadivam Mathala
Meaning: The husband of Indrani and the lord of gods my father - Is he in good health? His son Jayantha - Is he strictly following the commands of his father? Oh, I am impatient to see all of them.
SWARGA VARNANA: ARJUNA IN KELAKEYA VADHAM
Arjuna goes to heaven on the invitation of his father, Indra. After taking permission from Indrani he goes out to see all the places in Swarga. First he sees a building, his father's palace. It is so huge with four entrances. It is made of materials superior to gold and jewels of the world. Then he goes ahead and sees Iravatha. Here he describes it as a huge elephant with four horns. He is afraid to touch it. Then he thinks that animals in Swarga can't be cruel like in the world and so thinking he goes and touches and salutes Iravatha. He describes the churning of the white sea by gods and demons with many details and how Iravatha also came out of the white sea due to this churning.
He walks on and sees his father's (Indra's) horse. It is described as being white and its mane is sizzling like the waves of the white sea from which it came. He touches and salutes the horse also. Then he goes to see the river of the sky (or milky way). He sees many birds by this river and how the birds fly and play is shown.
Then he sees the heavenly ladies. Some are collecting flowers, and one of them comes late and asks for some flowers for making garland. The others refuse. She goes to the Kalpa Vriksha and says "please give me some flowers." Immediately a shower of flowers occurs which she collects in her clothes and goes to make garlands chiding the others. "See... I also got flowers." After this he sees the music and dance of the heavenly ladies. First it starts with the adjustments of instruments Thamburu, Mridangam, Veena. Then the actual music starts along with the striking of cymbals. Then two or three types of dances are shown. Then comes juggling of balls. It is described by a sloka thus:
Ekopi Thraya Iva Bhathi Kandukoyam
Kanthayaa: Karathala Raktharaktha:
Abhrastho Nayanamareechi Neelaneelo
Popular belief is that kathakali is emerged from "Krishnanattam", the dance drama on the life and activities of Lord Krishna created by Sri Manavedan Raja, the Zamorin of Calicut (1585-1658 AD). Once Kottarakkara Thampuran, the Raja of Kottarakkara who was attracted by Krishnanattam requested the Zamorin for the loan of a troupe of performers. Due to the political rivalry between the two, Zamorin did not allow this. So Kottarakkara Thampuran created another art form called Ramanattam which was later transformed into Aattakatha. Krishnanaattam was written in Sanskrit, and Ramanattam was in Malayalam. By the end of 17th century, Attakatha was presented to the world with the title 'Kathakali'. Kathakali also shares a lot of similarities with Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam (a classical Sanskrit drama existing in Kerala) and Ashtapadiyattam (an adaptation of 12th-century musical called Gitagovindam). It also incorporates several other elements from traditional and ritualistic art forms like Mudiyettu, Thiyyattu, Theyyam and Padayani besides a minor share of folk arts like Porattunatakam. All along, the martial art of Kalarippayattu has influenced the body language of Kathakali. The use of Malayalam, the local language (albeit as a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam, called ), has also helped the literature of Kathakali sound more transparent for the average audience. As a part of modernising, propagating, promoting and popularizing Kathakali, the International Centre for Kathakali at New Delhi has taken up a continuing project since 1980 of producing new plays based on not only traditional and mythological stories, but also historical stories, European classics and Shakespeare's plays. Recently they produced Kathakali plays based on Shakespeare's Othello and Greek-Roman mythology of Psyche and Cupid.
Even though the lyrics/literature would qualify as another independent element called Sahithyam, it is considered as a component of Geetha or music, as it plays only a supplementary role to
Bhumau Talcharana Naghamshu Gaurgaura:
Meaning One ball looks like three balls. When it is in the hands of the juggler, it takes the redness of the hands, when it goes up it takes the blueness of the eyes, when it strikes the ground it becomes white from the whiteness of the leg nails. Once a juggled ball falls down. Then she, the juggler, somehow manages to proceed and remarks "See.. how I can do it".
At one time a garment slips from a lady's body and she adjusts the cloth showing shameful shyness (Lajja). Then the ladies go in for a Kummi dance. As Arjuna was enjoying this dance, suddenly somebody calls him. Arjuna feels scared. "Oh God, where am I?" he says and beats a hasty retreat.
TAPAS ATTAM: RAVANA IN RAVANA ULBHAVAM
[Background: Mali, Sumali and Malyavan were three brothers ruling Sri Lanka. During a war between them and Indra, Indra requested help from Lord Vishnu and as a consequence Lord Vishnu killed Mali. Sumali and Malyavan escaped to Patala. Kaikasi was the daughter of Sumali. She wandered in the forest. She belong three boys through a great sage called Vishravassu. (Vishravassu had an earlier son called Vaishravana who became the richest among all people.) The eldest boy of Kaikasi was Ravana followed by Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana.]
SCENE 1
When Ravana was a young boy (Kutti Ravana vesham), one day he was sleeping on his mothers lap in a place called madhuvanam. At that time Kaikasi sees Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (mythical aeroplane). She thinks “Oh, that is Vaishravana, technically a brother of my son who is sleeping on my lap. He is rich and strong. My son is so poor and weak. While thinking thus a drop of tear from her eyes drops on Ravana’s face. Ravana suddenly wakes up and sees his mother crying. When he knew the reason he could not bear it. He says he is going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that he will be strong and rich.
SCENE 2
(The tapas itself is shown as a part of autobiographical narration of adult ravana)
Ravana (adult Ravana, not kutti Ravana) is sitting on a stool. He thinks “Why am I so happy? How did I become so rich and strong? Oh yes. It is because of the tapas I did. What made me do the tapas? When I was a young boy, one day I was sleeping on my mother’s lap in a place called Madhuvanam. A drop of tear from her eyes falls on my face. I asked her why she was crying. She said she saw Vaishravana flying overhead in his vimana (plane). She told me Vaishravan was a brother of mine now flying in a plane. He is rich and strong. I am so poor and weak. When I heard this comparison between me and my brother, I could not bear it. I am going to do tapas to Brahma to get boons so that I will be strong and rich.
I made five different types of fires (while doing tapas gods are approached through Agni the god of fire). Then I started my tapas. I asked my brothers to stand guard and also keep the fires burning. Then I fully concentrated on tapas. Time passed but Brahma did not appear. I looked. Why is Brahma not appearing? I doubled my concentration. Time passed. Brahma is not appearing. Still not appearing? I cut one of my heads and put it in the fire. Waited, Brahma did not come. One more head rolls. Still no Brahma comes. Heads roll and roll. No Brahma. Only one head is left. First I thought of stopping my tapas. But no! Never! That will be an insult to me and my family. It is better to die than stop. Also when I die Brahma will be judged as being partial. With great determination I swung the sword at my last neck, when, lo and behold, suddenly Brahma appeared and caught my hand. I looked at him with still un-subsided, but gradually subsiding anger. Brahma asked me what boons I wanted. I asked for a boon that I should win all the worlds and have all the wealth and fame and that I should not be killed except by man. I also asked him to give boons for my brothers.
In the next scene Ravana asks Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana what boons they got. Unfortunately Kumbhakarna’s tongue got twisted while asking for boon and he got ‘sleep’ instead of becoming the ‘king of gods’. Ravana laughed it off. As for Vibhishana, he being a bhaktha of Vishnu, asked for Vishnu’s blessings and got it. Ravana laughs it off and also decides to conquer all the worlds and starts preparing his grand army for the big conquest of the worlds.
[This method of presentation with a peculiar sequence has a tremendous dramatic affect. The main actor redoes a small part of what happened to kutti Ravana vesham, and this gives a view of the high contrast between the boy and the man Ravana. Similarly the presence of Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana in the subsequent scene offers a good smile on the face of the viewer at the end of the play.]
KAILASA UDDHARANAM: RAVANA IN BALI VIJAYAM
[Background and Previous scene: After receiving the boons, and widening his kingdom in all directions, Ravana lives in Sri Lanka with great pomp and splendor. One day he sees Saint Narada approaching his palace singing songs in praise of him ‘Jaya jaya Ravana, Lanka Pathe’. Happily he receives Narada and seats him next to him. After telling Narada about the victory of his son Indrajith on Indra, Ravana tells Narada “Now there is nobody on earth or other worlds who can fight with me”. To this Narada replies “ Very true indeed, but there is one huge monkey called Bali who says he can defeat you. He even said that you are just like a blade of grass to him. Well let him say what he wants. You are unbeatable.” Then Narada says ‘let us go there and see him’. Both decide to go. But Ravana takes his famous sword called “Chandrahasam”. Then Narada asks the history of this sword. Ravana’s Attam Starts.]
Ravana says “I received this sword from Lord Siva. It happened thus. Once when I was conquering new places and expanding my empire I happened to be going across the Kailasa mountain. The plane got stuck on the mountain unable to move forward. I got down from the plane and looked at the mountain. (Looks from one end to the other first horizontally and then vertically.) So huge it was. Then I decided to lift it with my bare hand and keep it aside and move forward. I started sticking my hands under it one by one. Then I tried to lift it. It doesn’t move. I put more force and more force. It moved just a bit. I pushed harder and harder, slowly it started moving then again and again and it moved easily. Then I lifted it up with my hands and started juggling it (exaggeration evident).
“At that particular time Lord Siva was quarreling with his wife Parvathi. Why did they fight? The story is as follows. Parvathi had gone for enjoying swimming and bathing in some beautiful pond. At that time Siva opened his jata (disheveled long hair) and called Ganga for some entertainment after asking Ganapathi and Subramania to go for some errands. Somehow becoming suspicious, right at that time, Parvathi came back in a hurry with wet clothes and saw Siva with Ganga. Siva was wondering what to do and it was at that time that Ravana started lifting the Kailasa. When Kailasa started shaking Parvathi got scared and ran to Siva and hugged him. So the quarrel ended and Siva was happy. “As a reward Siva called me and gave me this famous Chandrahasa sword.”
Then Narada and Ravana leave to meet Bali. Ravana wanted to take the sword along with him, but Narada suggested that the sword is not required for teaching a lesson to Bali who is after all an unarmed monkey.
WIKIPEDIA
Nikon D800E Photos of a Gorgeous Blond Bikini Model Goddess in Gold 45 Revolver Swimsuit with wavy-blond hair and pretty blue eyes! Pretty, pretty smile! A tall, thin, fit, classic California beach babe! Please share the exalted goddess with your friends.
Here is some epic video I shot at the same time as the stills with the Sony Alpha NEX 6 camera with the 50 mm F/1.8 prime lens for nex6 e mount cameras bracketed to my Nikon D800E (cool bokeh!):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqVXRPAN0MQ (Sony NEX-6 with F/1.8 50mm Prime Nice Bokeh!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrAZEcBZxUQ (Nikon D800E with 70-200mm F/2.8 Nikkor LEns)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9phCXhm-bg (Sony NEX-6 with F/1.8 50mm Prime Nice Bokeh!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsQcSnPd2Uk (Sony NEX-6 with F/1.8 50mm Prime Nice Bokeh!)
With the black 45surf surfboard! It gets hot in the sand in the sun! Wearing a leather Buffalo Nickel Cowboy Hat! :)
Combine the shallow-depth-of-field with Sony NEX-6's latest face-tracking auto focus, and you can see how the moving video keeps the model's pretty blue eyes in focus, while blurring the background! The Sony Alpha NEX 6 has much better bokeh than the cameras I have been using! :)
She was tall, thin, fit, toned, defined, and beautiful!
Modeling the Gold 45 Revolver(TM) Gold'N'Virtue(TM) American Flag Bikini! Stars & Stripes Forever! :)
Nikon D800E Photographs of a Beautiful Sandy-Blonde/Brunette Swimsuit Bikini Model shot with the new Nikon D800 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens with the B+W 77mm XS-Pro Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating filter. I always, always shoot with a CP filter--even on cloudy days!
Shot in both RAW & JPEG, but all these photos are RAWs finished in Lightroom 4 ! :)
May the HJM Goddesses guide, inspire, and exalt ye along yer heroic artistic journey!
Modeling the black & gold "Gold 45 Revolver" Gold'N'Virtue swimsuits with the main equation to Moving Dimensions Theory on the swimsuits: dx4/dt=ic. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
Reading some of the Great Books of Hero's Journey Mythology! Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Melville's Moby Dick, and Shakespeare's Hamlet!
All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Google defines feisty as... adjective (informal):
Of a person, (typically one who is relatively small or weak) lively, determined, and courageous.
"a feisty heroine who's more than a pretty face"
I think the definition fits Eva pretty well. She is definitely the feisty alpha with Bruno.
The dogs are loving the snow and all the fun that it brings. It was a little cold for this photo session (-25c) but that didn't stop my clowns from having fun. I think Bruno is made for winter. His coat is coming in thick, and the high snow slows Eva down a bit so he can (almost) keep up with her in the yard. Hard to believe that he was only born in April.
There is a more complete series of this chase is in my photo stream. I've also uploaded a video showing just how excited and verbal she gets when the camera comes out for an outdoor photo session.
Photo © 2009, 2010, 2011 Angela A. Stanton, All rights reserved. Contact: angela@stantonphotostudios.com for further information.
My cat hiding under the bucket I use for gardening. =) The "dirt" between her eyes are actually some dirt hanging off of the edge of the bucket and is not on the cat. I suppose she has been hiding out under this bucket while we had some of those huge rains and she happened to be outdoors... we try to keep her indoors but she is too wild and wants out nearly all the time.
I'm on this theme and I can't get it out of my mind. What is beauty?
We are told that it comes from within, yet all around us screams that it is really what we look like. Are women really held to ideals of beauty? And, where do these ideals come from?
The foreign policy of a state can be defined as courses of actions that a state usually undertakes in its efforts to carry out national objectives beyond the limits of its own jurisdiction. Every state, regardless of size or sphere of influence, incorporates a foreign policy to advance national interest. In the context of Bangladesh, the dominance of national interest in the formulation of foreign policy is especially prevalent. Traditionally, the main objectives of the foreign policy of Bangladesh have been self-preservation, maintenance of territorial integrity, economic advancement and augmentation of national power. Past history in foreign policy has shown the need for a dynamic and proactive model of diplomacy. The foreign policy of Bangladesh needs to be reflective of the times and energy of the nation’s people in order to improve the quality of their livelihood.
The decision-making process should invariably take into account the changing realities, both in the domestic and international scenes. Bangladesh requires a foreign policy that can actively and promptly respond to the challenges of the 21st century including poverty, terrorism, food and energy security, education, population, health, human rights, social justice, environmental degradation and disaster management. Such expanded activities would serve to broaden the scope for bilateral and multilateral relations of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh occupies a strategic position as a land bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia and a trade corridor for landlocked countries like Nepal and Bhutan and the seven states of India’s northeast. It must therefore be strong enough to dominate its environment or risk becoming the victim of external threats, traditional or non-traditional.
Its security is also linked with the rivers flowing from the Himalayan belt on whose waters its survival depends. Although the geopolitical realities of Bangladesh portend various challenges, its strategic position and the economic rise of India can be utilized to providing transit rights to her South Asian neighbors, with the goal of becoming a regional economic hub.
Ever since achieving independence in 1971, the nature and substance of Bangladesh foreign policy has undergone comprehensive changes. The impact of globalization on Bangladesh, largely resulting from changes in information, communications and transport technologies as well as international laws and practices governing trade, commerce and investment, has had a profound impact on Bangladesh’s foreign relations and the conduct of its foreign policy.
Bangladesh's reform and opening up of the media, cable television, and rapid expansion of the cellular phone networks with a subscriber base of over 79 million and technological improvements constituted significant positive developments, as have developments in the pharmaceutical, textile and readymade garments (RMG) sectors.
Initiatives have been taken to combat corruption, undertake regulatory reforms and improve the business climate in the country. In the past two decades, with its involvement in the readymade garments industry and other export sectors, Bangladesh has become an attractive destination for trade and investment due to its excellent foreign investment opportunities.
Its substantial human resources, large amount of remittances from Bangladesh migrants working abroad, proactive civil society, the many achievements of its widespread human development program, its vast network of NGOs, and a rapidly expanding private sector, make Bangladesh a country with an extremely bright future. This has been the view of Goldman Sachs and many other financial institutions in the West.
However, Bangladesh’s economic and social potential will not be fully utilized unless a number of key foreign policy challenges are effectively addressed.
While some strong steps have been taken to counter terrorism, much needs to be done to stem the rise in religious intolerance and other forms of extremism. A major diplomatic initiative needs to be undertaken to improve cooperation with SAARC, ASEAN, OIC and the Gulf countries. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself has taken a deep interest in combating terrorism.
This was evident in February 2009, when the government enacted the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009 and Anti-Terrorism Act 2009. However, the government has yet to adopt a comprehensive national counter-terrorism strategy, or join the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units. Therefore, it is very important for the government to seek international cooperation in combating terrorism and terrorist financing at home and in the region.
The maintenance of harmonious relationships between Bangladesh and its neighbors, particularly India, is an imperative component of Bangladesh’s foreign policy. Inequitable distribution of resources, mistrust and misunderstandings have long plagued cooperation on contentious but critical issues. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on Track II and III diplomacy as civil society and people to people contacts may play an important role in creating harmony in India-Bangladesh relationship, which has traditionally been a source of frustration for citizens of both nations.
Some important initiatives need to be taken to improve the business and investment climate in the Bangladesh. In particular, we need to reform the existing foreign exchange regulations, in line with some of our neighbors in the region, most notably India, which could help in doubling our exports within the next two years. It is also important to improve the infrastructure in the country, not simply the supply and availability of gas and power, which of course remains of critical importance, but also the efficiency of Chittagong port, our road and railway systems and solve the ever-expanding traffic problems. Perhaps most important of all, is the need for a highly efficient, private sector- minded bureaucracy.
If domestic responses are not sufficient to effectively mitigate these issues, they may be addressed through foreign policy initiatives. Greater multilateral undertakings to improve the transport infrastructure, particularly with South Asian nations, may provide the impetus to improve the state of road, rail and maritime transport in Bangladesh.
A third major challenge is in the area of finding jobs for Bangladeshis overseas and simultaneously building a healthy and productive relationship with the Bangladeshi Diaspora all over the world.
Sensibly managed, exploitation-free movement of our workers, including in some cases permanent migration, will remain important for Bangladesh in the years ahead, given the important contribution of remittances to the growth and development of Bangladesh.
Recent studies have shown that in the next five years Bangladesh’s remittances can increase to 30 billion US dollars. If this is to be achieved then much more importance has to be given to leveraging the Bangladeshi Diaspora.
Both in the areas of attracting investment, leveraging knowledge and mobilizing the Diaspora to influence positive changes in the countries where they have moved to and also in the case of their country of origin, they can and should be encouraged to be much more proactive.
In order to drastically reduce poverty throughout the country, and become a middle-income country by 2021, Bangladesh must address these three major challenges. It is these three priority areas that must also drive the foreign policy and foreign relations of Bangladesh in the 21st century in general and during the next decade in particular. The country’s foreign relations and foreign policy will have to be seriously revamped, and it is here that the pivotal role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the missions abroad must be given much greater importance than has been the case during the past four decades.
Despite the existence of major challenges, Bangladesh’s foreign policy portends great opportunities, both in the form of reaping greater benefits from current initiatives and also from undertaking innovative diplomacy in traditionally ignored regions of the world.
The RMG sector is the mainstay of the economy and accounts for more than 75% of Bangladesh’s exports. Thus concerted foreign policy and advocacy initiatives must be undertaken to get a bill through the US Congress to extend duty free access for all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for their RMG exports. This is especially important since the United States allows duty and quota free access to all LDCs except those in Asia, whereas all other developed countries, as well as some developing countries, have extended duty free benefit to all LDCs without any exception.
Bangladesh’s diplomacy should be effectively geared towards improving Bangladesh’s image in international markets. Its focus should lie in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), particularly for the infrastructure and energy sectors. Since access to reliable power is of prime concern for most manufacturing firms in Bangladesh, a comprehensive effort must be undertaken to accelerate the process of energy cooperation in South Asia, obtaining support for nuclear energy plants and securing foreign assistance to develop efficient and renewable energy technologies.
Despite sharing a common history, culture and ethnic roots, South Asia has been a region plagued by conflicts and remains one of the least integrated regions in the world. Bangladesh, as a non-partisan, non-aligned nation can play a key role in mitigating long-standing conflicts, facilitate confidence building measures and sensitize the notion of common security and conflict avoidance in multinational platforms such as SAARC and BIMSTEC. Elongated peace and stability in the region is the panacea from SAARC becoming a forum of regional discussion rather than an architect of regional economic policy.
As one of the founding members, Bangladesh must once again play a pivotal role in influencing the regional powerhouse India to engender SAARC as a dynamic medium of the globalized economy. As such, Bangladesh’s foreign policy should continue to focus on strengthening SAARC as a platform for peace and prosperity in the region. Apart from SAARC, energy cooperation in the region and realizing the aims of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) requires a strong and sustained effort on the part of all the member states and also pressure and support from the private sector, civil society and the media throughout the region.
Remittances from economic migrants play a critical role in the Bangladeshi economy. In August 2011 Bangladesh received $1,078.15 million in remittance from migrant workers, which is an 11.85 % increase in remittance from the same period a year ago. MoFA and other relevant ministries should focus on boosting foreign remittances and attracting tangible and intangible investment from the Bangladeshi diaspora. The export of human resources to the Middle East and South East Asia creates a unique opportunity not only of manpower export but also of creating multi-pronged bilateral relations with the labor importing nations. If Bangladesh wants to increase its manpower exports, whether to countries in East Asia or the Middle East, it must think beyond the realm of manpower export and bilateral relations should cover trade and investment where possible, as well as training, orientation and assistance of migrants. Bangladesh currently has diplomatic missions in only around 46 countries. More importantly, Bangladesh does not have any diplomatic missions in South America and only around three missions in the vast and economically dynamic continent of Africa. Although recent initiatives have been undertaken by MoFA to open 19 diplomatic missions in these two continents, these developments must be properly administered, funded and effectively implemented. The rising economic powerhouses in South America, especially Mexico, Brazil and the resource rich countries of Venezuela and Colombia offer opportunities of bilateral cooperation in economic trade and development, which would remain unexplored in the face of an inadequate or non-existent foreign policy. Bangladesh is also lagging behind the regional powerhouses of India and China in establishing strong diplomatic relations in Africa. A young population and a vast array of resources have made Africa the new destination for foreign investment, and Bangladesh should expand its missions in Africa to endorse trade and economic relations. Special attention should also be given to the Nordic countries, and, Central Asia. The Nordic countries have been outstanding proponents of regional cooperation on technology, research and innovation. Nordic cooperation has led to Nokia, a Finnish company, to be one of the foremost mobile technology companies in the world. This shared vision makes Nordic countries an attractive option to establish bilateral relations in the context of technology and innovation. The Nordic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) has been established in Bangladesh to facilitate Nordic investment as well as to raise awareness of Nordic technology solutions in commerce and industry. Such initiatives should not be one way. Bangladesh must incorporate effective programs of technology sharing under its foreign services akin to the Indian Technical and Cooperation Program undertaken by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Such programs should have a commercial focus with the view of mutually beneficial technological initiatives as well as utilizing the local mobile phone subscriber base of 79 million to attract FDI. Active diplomacy is also required to intensify our relations with key countries and groupings, including the US, UK, France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, the member states of ASEAN, in particular Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Myanmar, and Australia, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Turkey. Bangladesh’s economic, social and political development is heavily dependent on its ability to address challenges and exploit opportunities pertaining to foreign policy. In order for this to be achieved, the country’s foreign relations and foreign policy would have to be fundamentally restructured. For this, the role of MoFA and the overseas diplomatic missions is crucial. Substantial investment must be made in upgrading the selection and training of Foreign Service officers, with special attention given to language, region and subject specialization, information technology, global security and social skills. Greater funding must be allocated to MoFA which should take a rational approach to distributing resources to diplomatic missions abroad. The whole of the Foreign Service should be doubled in size with a cadre of at least 600 professional diplomats. Globalization has rendered all fields, including the field of diplomacy to be extremely competitive. If the above mentioned challenges and opportunities are not accounted for, Bangladesh risks falling behind other nations in the competition of exporting labor, attracting FDI and getting elected to key international bodies. Since the economic development of our nation is contingent upon the effectiveness of our foreign policy, immediate action needs to be taken to revamp our foreign policy and expand and buttress our diplomatic missions. Farooq Sobhan is President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) and a former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh.
The writer is a former secretary to the Government of Bangladesh
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Independent Photos theindependentbd.com/components/com_gk3_photoslide/thumbs...
Workers are sorting out potatoes at a cold storage
Dhaka: Workers are sorting out potatoes at a cold storage at Sirajdikhan in Munshiganj on Thursday. Photo: Nabiulla Nabi See details
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Ban Ki-moon at a Special Convocation
DHAKA: President Md Zillur Rahman presenting a crest to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at a Special Convocation of the university on Tuesday. DU VC AAMS Arefin Siddique is also seen. PHOTO: NAYEM AHMED JULHAS See details
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FERRIES FACING SHOALS
MANIKGANJ: Shoals on Paturia-Daulatdia route in the Padma hampering navigability and for that reason two ferries cannot ply there together. The picture was taken from near Daulatdia ghat. PHOTO: MIZANUR RAHMAN KHAN See details
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BACK TO THE CAPITAL
DHAKA: People are returning to the city after the Eid holidays. PHOTO: NABIULLA NABI See details
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DEFYING RIVERINE DANGERS
DHAKA: Two launches leave Sadarghat launch terminal on Friday with home-going city dwellerseager to celebrate Eid with their relatives. PHOTO: TARIF RAHMAN See details
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Airport Rail Station
DHAKA: People trying to avail a train to go to their village homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha there with their dear and near ones. The picture was taken at Airport Rail Station in the city on Friday. PHOTO: NAYEM AHMED JULHAS See details
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Agitated people on Wednesday set fire to a train
NARASINGDI: Agitated people on Wednesday set fire to a train after the killing of the local mayor, Lokman Hossain. Independent photo See details
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The children’s park at English Road
DHAKA: The children’s park at English Road in the city has become a waste dumping place. The picture was taken on Tuesday. Photo: Tarif Rahman See details
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Cattle markets in the city
DHAKA: Cattle markets in the city began to do business as the Eid-ul-Azha is almost knocking at the door. The picture was taken at Gabtali on Tuesday. Photo: Mizanur Rahman Khan See details
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The Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance at Rochester, Michigan, August 3, 2008.
This Bentley was displayed on the car club field by the Rolls Royce Club.
All of my classic car photos can be found here: Car Collections
Press "L" for a larger image on black.
Stand Back 10' or so for a Better View of the Large - all photos handheld and unaltered - click for larger - Reston,VA, taken upside down
Subject: Unknown Florist
Camera & Glass Info:
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Canon 70-200 F/4L USM
No Flash
Photo Info:
Focal Length : 200mm
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
Shutter Speed: 1/4000 sec.
Lens Aperture: F/4
ISO Speed : ISO-1600
Exposure Bias: -2 Step
Metering Mode: Pattern
Tripod Used : No / Handheld
Location Info:
Near Sawai Mansingh Hostipal
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
a road a highway a woodland path
all must welcome Luna's light
all photos handheld and unaltered - click for larger - Reston, VA
You can call it, Gambia but the real name is, "The Gambia"... a bit of attitude from the smallest country in continental Africa. The country's entire border is defined by its namesake river and, were it not for its outlet to the Atlantic would be surrounded by Senegal. Rivers are used to mark borders all over the World but usually the river IS the border. Gambia is unique in that the river and its banks essentially define the country rather than the border.
Like too many countries in Africa, The Gambia owes its strange borders to its colonial-era overlords which included Portugal, Great Britain and France at various times. The country follows the path of the Gambia River with borders falling between 10 and 15 miles north and south of the river banks. The river and region have unfortunate close ties to the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Gambia River was navigable by tall ships far into the interior of the African continent enabling a disproportionate number of slaves to have left Africa by this route. Though the active slave trade had long-since ended, Gambia only officially abolished slavery in 1906.
Sources
Google Maps
Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambia
An Allotment - defined as "a plot of land rented by an individual for growing vegetables or flowers" is a common sight in many parts of the UK and around the world, known under various names.
They give much pleasure to people who live in cities and who otherwise have no gardens. Also they have helped to fill a deep need during periods of hardship (in the UK and elsewhere during wars, for example).
This one was seen in the morning light on a flight approaching London's Heathrow Airport.
Led by the University of Buckingham, this event series included workshops and events around Dickens’s last unfinished novel, ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. These events contributed to an ogoing international project which explores this unfinished work through a reading group and blog developed from a digital re-release of Dickens's original monthly instalments, becoming a crowd-sourced whodunnit inquiry into which character the public believe committed the murder of Edwin Drood.
Illustration by Alys Jones | Part 3 of The Drood Enquiry
Kamera: Nikon F3 (1989)
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f1.4 (1970)
Film: Cinestill BWXX (Kodak 5222) @ ISO 200
Kjemi: Xtol (stock / 8 min. @ 21°C)
- Here are some clips clip from Paul Verhoeven´s classic satirical anti-fascist anti-american film Starship Troopers (1997) that these days somehow seems like it could be a contemporary «documentary» from Israel… and USA.
A movie everyone should see again.
«Service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know more?»
Starship Troopers: Propaganda (1997)
ISRAEL IS NOT A DEMOCRACY [Listen here]
by Chris Hedges (b. 1956), The Real News Network January 5, 2024
Israel's status as a bona fide democracy is often taken to be a self-evident truth, but a more critical look at the history and reality of Zionism calls this into question. After all, how can a democracy exist in a country constitutionally defined as an ethnostate that can only exist through the suppression and gradual elimination of its Others? Israeli historian Ilan Pappé joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on Israel as an inherently colonial, and therefore anti-democratic, project.
Ilan Pappé (b. 1956) is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, where he directs the European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-directs the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies. Prior to coming to the UK, Pappé was a historian and politician in Israel. He is the author of several books, including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley
Post-Production: David Hebden
TRANSCRIPT
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Chris Hedges:
The scholar, Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), who Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) called the conscience of Israel, warned that, "If Israel did not separate church and state, it would give rise to a corrupt rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult. Religious nationalism is to religion what National Socialism was to socialism," warned Leibowitz, who died in 1994. He understood that the blind veneration of the military, especially after the 1967 war that captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem was dangerous and would lead to the ultimate destruction of democracy. "Our situation will deteriorate to that of a second Vietnam, to a war and constant escalation without prospect of ultimate resolution," he wrote.
He foresaw that, "The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews, the administrators, inspectors, officials and police; mainly secret police. A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 million to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret police state. With all that implies for education, free speech and democratic institutions. The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel. The administration would have to suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab Quislings on the other. There is also good reason to fear that the Israeli Defense Force, which has been until now, a people's army would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation to generate and its commanders who will have become military governors, will resemble their colleagues in other nations." He warned that the rise of virulent racism would consume Israeli society. He knew that prolonged occupation of the Palestinians would spawn concentration camps for the occupied, and that in his words, "Israel would not deserve to exist and it will not be worthwhile to preserve it."
The decision to obliterate Gaza has long been the dream of Israeli fanatics, heirs of the fascistic movement led by the extremist Meir Kahane (1932-1990), who was barred from running for office and whose Kach Party was outlawed in 1994 and declared a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. These Jewish extremists who today make up the ruling coalition government are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians are being killed or wounded a day. They champion the iconography and language of their homegrown fascism. Jewish identity and Jewish nationalism are the Zionist versions of blood and soil. Jewish supremacy is sanctified by God as is the slaughter of the Palestinians who are compared to the biblical Amalekites massacred by the Israelites. Enemies, usually Muslims, slated for extinction are subhuman who embody evil. Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those outside the magic circle of Jewish nationalism understand. Millions of Muslims and Christians, including those with Israeli citizenship, are to be purged.
Joining me to discuss what the occupation of Palestine has done to Israeli society and what the results of the current murderous campaign in Gaza and the West Bank portends for Israel in the future is Ilan Pappé, Professor of History of the University of Exeter in Great Britain, who has described what Israel does to the Palestinians as incremental genocide. He has written numerous books including The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which his French publisher has ceased publishing despite a surge in sales since the October 7th attacks, part of the concerted campaign by Zionists and their supporters to discredit and censor narratives that are critical of Israel.
I'd like to begin with a look at post Israel, the Zionist project that begins in the 1920s, and see whether the project itself, even before the creation of the state of Israel had built within it the seeds of its own destruction.
Ilan Pappé:
Yes, I do think it did. And you are right in pointing to the 1920s because of course the Zionist movement existed before, but I think it's in the mid-1920s when it started to purchase land and evict the people who were living on that land. And that happened around 1926. It became a settler colonial project and not just a project for salvaging Jews from anti-Semitism or a national cultural redefinition of Judaism as nationalism instead of as religion.
The moment that happened, it was very clear that it's going to impose itself by force on an indigenous native population. And it was not just the classical settler colonial imposition of settlers from abroad imposing themselves on a native population, it also was kind of creating this idea that they can produce or establish a European state in the midst of the Arab world, very much like the white supremacists in South Africa. And there's two facts, that you are trying to implement a project of displacement and replacement of an indigenous population and that you are trying to create a cultural political entity that would alienate the area it belongs to and the area would alienate you were sold, I think had been sold in the 1920s. And we can see the effect of this to our days, no doubt.
Chris Hedges:
And yet there was always a tension within the Zionist project. I, you may have known him too, I knew Abba Eban (1915-2002), Teddy Kollek (1911-2007). When I was in Israel, they outlawed Meir Kahane's Kach Party. The people around Netanyahu now are of course the heirs to the Kach Party, later assassinated, this very right wing rabbi. And I want you to talk about that tension because it was there. I mean, Teddy Kollek when he was mayor of Jerusalem, when I was there, he was building sewer systems for... it was a different approach to colonization, or perhaps I have that wrong?
Ilan Pappé:
It was a different approach, but it remained colonization. If I'm a bit more abrupt about it, I would say that there was definitely an ideological stream within Zionism that believed that you could be a progressive colonizer or an enlightened colonizer. And yet from the colonized people's point of view, even if you provided some benefits in economic terms, in infrastructural terms, the colonization was still there. And the colonization was translated not only in terms of whether you provide sewages for Jerusalem or not, but by the fact that Teddy Kollek as the mayor of Jerusalem oversaw the ethnic cleansing of quite a large number of Palestinians from East Jerusalem in order to make space for building new Jewish neighborhoods, which should rightly be called Jewish colonies or settlements.
So in the end of the day, the Zionist vision, even in its most liberal version, meant that the Palestinians at best, at best could be tolerated as individuals in limited spaces within Palestine. That would be determined according to the Israeli notions of national security. And at worst, they're an obstacle that has to be removed. And as the time went by, most of the Israeli Jews said, "Why just be content with limiting their presence? Why not get rid of them altogether?"
Chris Hedges:
And yet these figures represented a secular strain of Zionism. And I want you to talk a little bit about Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who you knew, who I quoted it in the introduction, and he talks about this religious strain within Zionism where the land itself becomes sacred as particularly dangerous, I think he even uses the word fascistic. There is that split. And of course those of us, Abba Eban spoke better English than I did, Oxford educated, urbane. And so talk a little bit about that tension between secular and religious Zionism. And of course ultra orthodox religious Zionism has essentially proved triumphant.
Ilan Pappé:
Yes, I call this tension, which you rightly point to, the struggle between the State of Israel and the State of Judea. The State of Judea grows up among the national religious groups and becomes particularly potent after '67 and it's kind of headquarters, it's habitat if you want, the settlements in the West Bank, and before that, even in the Gaza Strip. And they become a force to reckon with and they combine exactly what Leibowitz was talking about, and he saw it in the making. I mean I say it in hindsight, to his credit, he saw it and kind of predicted it happening, but now we have the benefit of time to see that he was absolutely right.
So that State of Judea, what you can call the settler state, is a combination of a messianic kind of Zionism combined with fundamentalist interpretation of Judaism, a wish to create a theocracy in which also secular Jews are the enemy, not just the Palestinians. And they become stronger. They used to be on the margins and we used to think that they are not really relevant, but now they are a central power in Israel. And against them stands the State of Israel. That is the kind of pre '67 Israel that wanted to be a liberal democracy, a pluralist, secular, but is losing it in the struggle against the State of Judea.
But what is so interesting and frustrating about this struggle, it does not concern the Palestinians at all. As you probably know, and we forgot it because of the dramatic events that occurred after 7th of October, but until the 7th of October, we witnessed in Israel a kind of a mini civil war between those two states that I'm talking about, the State of Israel and the State of Judea when hundreds of thousand of secular Israelis demonstrated daily trying to defend the kind of Israel they want. But when Palestinian citizens of Israel ask them, "Can we join you? And can we also include a rejection of the occupation as part of our struggle for a better Israel?" They were chucked out of this movement of protest because it was not against the occupation, it's not against the semi apartheid or full apartheid of Israel, depends where it is. It is what kind of an apartheid Israel should we have? A liberal democratic one for the Jews or a theocratic one for the Jews?
But unfortunately it does not evolve around the main issue, the most important issue that we started our conversation with, that can you impose yourself militarily and violently on millions of people against their will?
Chris Hedges:
I want to talk about 1948, this is the war of independence. All settler colonial projects are implanted by violence as was the one in the United States. The difference is that I think by 1600, over a 100-year period, 56 million indigenous inhabitants in North, Central and South America were obliterated through either diseases or violence so that by 1600 you only had about 10% of the original indigenous population was there. That wholesale extermination essentially allows a settler colonial project to survive because there's physically no opposition. That's not true in Israel. You have about 5.5 million Palestinians living under occupation, 9 million living in the diaspora. This from the establishment of the state of Israel is a huge problem for Israeli leaders. How are they going to cope? The demographic time bomb is real in terms of Arabs having larger families. You have huge flight, a kind of brain drain from Israel. I think there's a million Israelis living in the United States. But let's look at 1948, how they deal with a problem. And then we'll go to 1967 when Israel occupies what is the remaining part of Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza.
Ilan Pappé:
Yes, as you rightly say, settler colonial projects have always these two dimension, geography and demography, or if you want space and population, you want the space without the population. And the more space you take, the more unwanted population you have. So the Zionist leadership exploited the end of the mandate, the circumstances that developed in the region and in the world three years after the Holocaust to implement a massive ethnic cleansing that left half of the Palestinian refugees and expelled half of the Palestinian population, destroyed half of the Palestinian villages, more than 500, and demolished most of the Palestinian towns.
So within the borders that were kind of established after 1948, that is Israel today without the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel was unable to fully complete the ethnic cleansing, but it had a relatively small Palestinian minority that did not endanger the demographic majority of the Jews. So you could even have a demographic state because you always knew that democracy and demography would go hand in hand. Although because of the paranoia of Ben-Gurion until 1966, although the Palestinians in Israel had the right to vote and to be elected, they were under a very harsh military rule as it is.
Now, it's not surprising that David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), the big architect of the ethnic cleansing of 1948, was trying to pressure the government of Israel. He was out of effective politics already in 1963, but he was trying after June '67 to convince the Israeli government to get out of the West Bank, almost saying to them, "I was able to get rid of about 1 million Palestinians, and now you are incorporating even a larger number of Palestinian under your rule." The kind of leadership that followed him, some of them were young generals during the '48 war and some other politicians like Levi Eshkol (1895-1969) and you mentioned also Abba Eban and Teddy Kollek, they decided there is no need for massive ethnic cleansing in order to keep the demography in such a way that it doesn't endanger the Jewish democracy.
So what did they do? They decided to keep millions of people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip without the right to take part in the Israeli political system. When some people said to them, "Okay, that's fine, but can you in return give the Palestinian the right to determine their future in a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip?" They didn't accept that either. So they really believed that they could somehow contain the Palestinian national ambition and resistance within that idea of a West Bank and a Gaza Strip that is our enclave controlled by Israel, maybe with some autonomy for the Palestinian inside, and convince the world that this is the best solution and even call it a kind of a two-state solution. Of course, it had nothing to do with a two-state solution.
So historically speaking, it's the same problem all the time, as you rightly say, Chris, it's having the territory without the people, but because of circumstances and things that changed, '48 is not '67 and '67 is not 2023, and because of that, the methods of maintaining this balance between territory and population changes. But the vision is the same one, and the purpose is the same one, and the failures are the same one. The massive expulsion didn't work. The idea of keeping people without citizenship rights is not working, and even putting them under siege as we have seen on the 7th of October is not working. And whatever the Israelis have in mind for Gaza, I can assure you, without knowing how it would unfold, it's going to be a huge failure, which unfortunately will have an incredible human cost, mainly for the Palestinians.
Chris Hedges:
Leibowitz really takes the 1967 war, which sees Israel seize the remaining land by Palestinians as the dividing point. He defines himself as a Zionist. He seems to argue that the pre 1967 borders known as the Green Line could work. But '67 for him and the refusal on the part of the Israeli leadership to give up the occupation, or after '67, move back to the pre '67 borders, really, he argues quite passionately is in many ways the death now of Israeli democracy, civil society. Can you explain that?
Ilan Pappé:
Yeah. Well, first of all, I would say that I think that as we started our conversation, the seeds for this end or implosion from within had been sold much earlier in the 1920s. But let's go along with this thesis, although I think it was doomed to fail from the very beginning. But there's no doubt that the occupation of 1967 accelerated these processes by which you had a legal system, a political system, and the culture system that justified a daily violation of the human rights and the civil rights of the Palestinians, at least inside Israel. In the pre '67 Israel, there was an attempt all the time to improve the situation of the Palestinian citizens in Israel. And as we said, they had the right to vote, they had the right to be elected, and finally they even were allowed to create their own national parties and so on.
But at the same time, the direction in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was going towards a different kind of a future, a long and never ending building of two mega prisons, one in the West Bank and one in the Gaza Strip maintained by at least hundreds of thousands of Israeli had to be daily involved in maintaining this mega prison of policing millions of people. And the idea, and I think that's where Leibowitz, which was different from Kollek and Abba, even for instance, Leibowitz warned them that their sense that they might separate, there will be this democratic liberal pluralist Israel within the pre '67 borders, and there will be something less admirable, less fortunate, but hopefully manageable beyond the Green Line, beyond the borders of Israel. And he warned rightly so that you will not be able to contain it, that it would spill over into Israel, and you will not have, in the end of the day, two entities, namely a liberal democratic Israel next to an occupied Palestine.
No, in the end of the day, you will have one apartheid system that may have varieties in the way it controls the lives of Palestinians, but in essence, as indeed Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International eventually understood recently, would have to be ruled through segregation, discrimination, and oppression. And it doesn't matter whether we talk about Tel Aviv and Haifa or we talk about Nablus and Gaza, it became one organic country where the people who are Palestinians are subjected to a variety of legal regimes and military regimes that violate the basic civil and human rights.
Chris Hedges:
And I just want to say that Israeli Arabs, even though pre '67 there were moves to incorporate them in the side, nevertheless did not serve in the army or the intelligence units. That's correct, right?
Ilan Pappé:
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Hedges:
Yeah. So Leibowitz, it's not just that the occupation for him is not sustainable, but it's what it does, how it deforms Israeli society. And I wonder if you could speak to what happened. I'm especially interested in why you believe these Zionist fanatics and bigots and crypto-fascists, these people surrounding Netanyahu, why they became ascendant?
Ilan Pappé:
Well, I think that there are two crises here at work. One crisis is what you can call the Zionist left, this attempt to, if you want, to square the circle to somehow say to yourself, I can be both an occupier and a socialist or a liberal. This failed to work on so many levels. First of all, the Palestinians were not impressed by that. They understood, as I once put it, that when a Zionist has a boot on your face, it doesn't matter whether he holds the Book of Marks or the Bible, what matters is the boot. And I think that's one reason the Zionist left was not working. Secondly, there was a sense among the Israeli Jewish electorate that this is a deception actually. And there was something in it, they said, "You actually think like us, but you would've liked it to be nicer. You would've liked the world not to be fully aware of it. You don't want to lose international legitimacy. It's not because you have different moral approach, but you have a more functional approach to it." And that did not convince the Jewish electorate.
So one crisis was this, what I call the failure to square the circle and take universal values and say that they can coexist with the values of colonialism and oppression. The second and no less important is the failure or the collapse of the idea that you can redefine Judaism as nationalism. There was an attempt to create a Jewish culture, a Jewish identity, which is secular, and it didn't work. There are some successes. There is a Hebrew culture, no doubt. I myself dream in Hebrew. Hebrew is my mother tongue so I'm fully aware of the success of Zionism to create a Hebrew culture. But the Hebrew culture is not a substitute for Judaism. It creates a culture around language, but doesn't have the power that a religious affiliation has.
And what happened was that while the religious Jews had a clear idea what Judaism is, Israeli Jews never knew what does it mean to be an Israeli Jew? As you probably know, in our idea, on our identity cards, our nationality is not Israeli. No, Israeli has an nationality identity that is an Israeli. In my idea, it's written that my nationality is Jewish. And in the idea of my neighbor who is a Palestinian Israeli, it says that his nationality is Muslim, not Palestinian or Christian, which I mean, they try to impose this idea that they can play with religious identities and even impose it on Christians and Muslims. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. And I think anywhere you look at the world and attempt to create a state identity that is equivalent to a religious identity in the modern world is not working. It is not working.
And this crisis has led to the return to Judaism as a religion by many Israeli Jews, including the Arab Jews who were anyway more traditional. And then they asked themselves similar things that are happening in political Islam. Can we translate the Jewish scriptures into political documents of our day? Can we impose the imperatives of the religion on the public domain, on the state policy, both the domestic one and the foreign one? And for secular Israelis, this is something they cannot coexist with. But they don't really have a very good answer. So what does it mean to be a Jew if it's not to be a religious Jew? What is a secular Jew? What is a secular Muslim for that matter? Or secular Christian? And that's a crisis that maybe also exists in other places, but there's no, this pressure cooker that Israel is where these questions become vital and existential.
Chris Hedges:
When Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 400 BC) talked about the expansion of the Athenian Empire, he wrote that, "The tyranny Athens imposed on others, it finally imposed on itself." To what extent is the tyranny that Israel has imposed on occupied Palestinians now being imposed on itself?
Ilan Pappé:
Well, we had clear indications, especially... I mean, they were there before, but I think the 7th of October was a pretext for this tyranny to be directed towards freethinking Israeli citizens who are also Jewish by definition. We have a clear case of a history teacher in Petah Tikva who all he did, he shared with his students, pupils rather, some alternative views to the ones they hear in the Israeli media. And he was arrested for few days before he was released. Any attempt by Palestinian citizens of Israel or anti-Zionist Israeli citizens to express doubts or even say that you have to understand the context of the 7th of October is regarded by the police as incitement to terrorism. So inevitable, as any historian would know, this can never be contained towards one group of people, and eventually you use these powers against your own people, and it depends who is the one who uses the power.
There's some very important critical sociologists in Israel, which I am not one of them, but they followed the way that the upper echelons of the Israeli Security Service, the upper echelons of the army, are now populated by what I call the State of Judea, namely settlers, national religious settlers are now occupying very important position. You have, of course, the ultimate example, and this is the terrorist from the Judea state, Itamar Ben-Gvir (b. 1976), as the Minister of Internal Security. So even at the top, you have someone who doesn't hesitate to use the same means against free thinking Israelis, regardless of who they are, Jews or Arabs, as he wants to use them against the Palestinians. But he may be a bit of a joke even in the eyes of his own subordinates, but there are more serious people below him who supposedly are part of the civil service and are not politically elected, but they come from this ideological hotbed that sees people like myself, if you want, as dangerous as any Palestinian, and that is something that is now spreading in Israel.
Chris Hedges:
Let's talk about October 7th, both the micro impact and as a historian, the macro impact?
Ilan Pappé:
Well, the micro impact is a bizarre, really and I'm trying to get my head around it, although I can begin to understand this. Let's start with the Israeli Jewish society. There is this almost impossible mixture of total disbelief in the ability of the Jewish state to defend you or even provide you with the most fundamental services. So it's a total breakdown in the confidence of the State to provide for you, not only defend you because the military failed, but the way the state was not there after the 7th of October. I don't know how much people are aware of it, but the State did not function for about two months in terms of providing social, economical... it was all done by the civil society. The government did not function at all in terms of helping people who were evicted from the north or the south.
So on the one hand, there is this breakdown in believing in the State. On the other hand, there is a total support for the genocidal policies in Gaza. It's a contradiction, but one can understand where it comes from, and that's one of the micro kind of impact you have, that you will have an even more intransigent, inflexible, theocratic, fanatic Israeli Jew society in the post 7 October Israel.
As for the Palestinians, I think some big questions would be asked also by the Palestinian national movement because it's a big responsibility to stage an operation when you probably know beforehand what the Israeli reaction would be. It always reminds me of the two... I had a webinar with some people from Lebanon and we talked about it, and I think there are similarities. People say to me, "But Hamas was kind of building on the legacy of 2000 when Hezbollah bravely succeeded in pushing the Israeli army outside of Lebanon." So there is an example of an Arab paramilitary group being a match to the might of the Israeli Army. But I said, "Yes, but there's another legacy, that's a legacy of 2006 when Hassan Nasrallah (b. 1960), the leader of Hezbollah, said, 'Had I known that Israeli reaction to the abduction of three soldiers would be the destruction of Beirut, I would not have ordered that operation.'"
So he did talk with responsibility of when you strategize, you have responsibility also for your own people. It would be interesting to see in the micro level, first of all how the Palestinians are reacting to the Israeli retaliation, beyond of course their ability. And I think they were able to galvanize public opinion to show that however one condemns or doesn't condemn the service of October, it does not weaken the basic growing solidarity with the Palestinians.
Now let's talk about the macro. The macro is that Israel is not going to defeat the Hamas that easily, and is going to be stuck there. And in order even to maintain some sort of success, victory, they would have to stay there for years in direct occupation. And this could easily escalate into an uprising in the West Bank and attack from the north by Hezbollah, and who knows, even undercurrents in the Arab world that would change the Arab tolerance of Israel that we have seen so far. This can escalate to regional war. On the one hand, that's the bleak scenario.
The more positive scenario in the macro one is that the civil society that is now very much pro-Palestinian and even supports boycott and divestments from Israel, may succeed in convincing some governments in the Global North, and definitely in the Global South, to move beyond actions of civil society into sanctions and pressure on Israel, and maybe have a total new perception about the need to pressure Israel to give up its supremacist policies, its oppression, and so on.
It's too early to judge which of the two processes will unfold. They may even unfold in conjunction, namely, the more violent the region would become, the more willing maybe the international community would be willing to change its basic perceptions of what is the essence of the problem and what is the way out of it.
Chris Hedges:
But isn't the key Washington? I mean Israel, along with the US, is already on this issue, they're pariah states, as we saw with the vote in the UN. As long as there's unconditional support from Washington, Israel can resist any kind of pressure, can't they?
Ilan Pappé:
Well, that's a very big question because I think that the Global South also has power. I taught in a Chinese university recently in September, and it was very clear that China, for instance, is still reluctant to be involved in the question of Palestine because as you know, Chinese foreign policy, contrary to the way it's portrayed in America, is interested in economic gains more than anything else. And rightly so, Palestine is not an economic bonanza these days. So I don't think they're likely to be involved too much in it.
But I do think that there are other powers on the international map that could challenge the American hegemony on the question of Palestine, that's one point. And secondly, yes, America is still a key, but something is happening in the American civil society. Israelis and pro-Israelis in America like to call it the rise of new anti-Semitism, which is a very superficial analysis of the fact that the younger generation of Americans, A, is much more knowledgeable than the previous generation what goes on in Palestine. B, is far more committed, some people would say naively, but they are more committed to moral dimension of foreign and security policies. And that includes large chunks of the young American Jewish community. So I'm not sure that also this determinist view of an American policy is the right approach, either. I do think there's a chance of a different American policy as well.
But I do think Chris, probably the best way to do it is by saying there are two coalitions now when it comes to Palestine. One I call global Israel. Global Israel is still governments in the Global South, multinational corporation, military industries, security industries, communities of Christian Zionists and Jews who more or less continue to provide Israel immunity for almost everything it does, almost automatically, kind of a faith. And against that is global Palestine. And global Palestine is made of civil societies. Some governments in the Global South who are not only pro-Palestinian, but they really believe that the struggle for justice in Palestine connects very well with their own struggles against injustice in their own societies. And this is the younger generation of the world.
And I think that this is a battle that goes beyond a Palestine, connects ecological issues, poverty issues, rights of minorities issues with Palestine, and therefore I don't think the balance of power is just America versus the rest of the world. I think there are much more complex two global coalitions, which are relevant not only to Palestine, but I see the relevance mainly in the case of Palestine because I'm interested in it. But I'm sure they can be also exposed in other places of contention and where conflicts are still raging.
Chris Hedges:
Let's close by looking at Gaza. First I want to talk about intent. The UN says that half of Gazans now face starvation. I was in Sarajevo during the war, that was 300 to 400 shells a day, four to five dead a day, about two dozen wounded a day. This is just by comparison, I don't want to minimize what happened in Sarajevo, I still have nightmares about it. But that's nothing compared to what's happening in Gaza in terms of the level of bombing. What is the intent? Is the intent to create a humanitarian crisis of such extremity that the international community is forced to intervene and become a partner in ethnic cleansing? Well what? You know the mindset of the people around Netanyahu better than I do.
Ilan Pappé:
Well, first of all, I think that there was really here an inertia of revenge to begin with, rather than a very careful planning. And not everything should be attributed to clear and systematic planning. As the days went by, it was clear to at least one group within the policymakers who thought that the war gives a pretext to get rid of Gaza, a more systematic planning. So the end result, as far as they're concerned, is the depopulation of the Gaza Strip from as many Palestinians as possible either to Egypt or to other parts of the world, because Gaza, if it's not sustainable now, it wouldn't even be less sustainable in the future. I think there is one component among the Israeli policy makers who believe that they have the power to do it.
There is a more, I don't know, even call them more moderate, I'll call them more pragmatic people like Benjamin Gantz (b. 1959), Gadi Eizenkot (b. 1960), also depends. I mean, they joined the government in the last moment from the opposition. I don't know how influential they will be for the day after. But if they're still influential on the day after, they would like to see... They have a certain end game in mind, which is to annex part of the Gaza Strip directly to Israel, which what will remain is a very small piece of land with a huge number of people living in it and hoping that someone else would run the domestic affairs of Gaza, whether it's the PA or a multinational force.
However, they don't think that it's even possible to discuss the day after scenarios before they fulfill what they promised to the Israeli public, which is something they cannot fulfill. And that's one of the reasons for the carnage that we are seeing, that they could have this victory photo, kind of triumphant photo that shows that the Hamas is nowhere to be seen in Gaza, or at least nowhere to be seen as a military force. I don't think they can achieve it, but they still believe that they can.
And until that happens, they continue relentlessly doing it by the way, [by that, even endangering more the lives of the still 130 and so Israeli hostages still held by the Hamas in the Gaza Strip]. They claim that the two objectives of what they call the land maneuver is to destroy the Hamas as a military power and to salvage the hostages. It's very clear from the way they're acting, they have given up on the hostages, but they still believe they have the power to get this picture that they want, either a dead Yahya Sinwar (b. 1962) or an expelled Sinwar, the scenario of Lebanon 1982 Arafat leaving to Tunis with the rest of the Palestinian leadership. These are the scenarios they have, and all the means seems to be justified in their eyes to achieve that.
Chris Hedges:
And you are arguing they won't. So what happens when they don't achieve that?
Ilan Pappé:
That's what I meant before that what happens is that they are going to be stuck there for much longer than they think, involved in a guerilla warfare which is much longer than they think, endangering every day an escalation that could bring other factors as other actors into that conflict with dire consequences also for Israel itself. Can you imagine, Chris, what would've happened if in the 7th of October Hezbollah would've coordinated with the Hamas a similar attack on the north? Remember, the main military problem for Israel was that most of its army was in the West Bank helping to defend the settlers and helping them with their ethnic cleansing. So there was not enough soldiers in the North and not enough soldiers on the Gaza border to prevent a operation like the one the Hamas conducted. Imagine what would happen if the Hezbollah would've joined in, how Israel would've got out of that. And somehow this lesson is not being learned by the Israeli policymakers.
So I think that they are going to take Israel into a very dire future, even for the Israelis themselves, in terms of casualties, in terms of international isolation, in terms of economic crisis. And relying all the time on the American Congress, it's not the best and most solid pillar in the world to build a future for a younger generation and tell them that they live in the best place the Jews could be in the world right now. They're sort of digging their own hole here because they don't want to see what the problem is and what price they have to pay if they really want to build a different future.
Chris Hedges:
Great. That was Ilan Pappe, professor of history at the University of Exeter in Great Britain, author of the Biggest Prison on Earth: The History of the Occupied Territories and the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. I want to thank the Real News Network and its production team, Cameron Granadino, Adam Coley, David Hebden, and Kayla Rivara. You can find me at ChrisHedges.substack.com.
This article first appeared on The Real News Network and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
What is oral cancer?
Cancer is defined as the uncontrollable growth of cells that invade and cause damage to surrounding tissue. Oral cancer appears as a growth or sore that does not go away. Oral cancer — which includes cancers of the lips, tongue, cheek, floor of the mouth, hard and soft palate, sinuses, and pharynx (throat) — can be life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated early.
What are the signs and symptoms of oral cancer?
The following are the common signs and symptoms:
* Swellings/thickenings, lumps or bumps, rough spots/crusts/or eroded areas on the lips, gums, or other areas inside the mouth
* The development of velvety white, red, or speckled (white and red) patches in the mouth
* Unexplained bleeding in the mouth
* Unexplained numbness, loss of feeling, or pain/tenderness in any area of the face, mouth, or neck
* Persistent sores on the face, neck, or mouth that bleed easily and do not heal within two weeks
* A soreness or feeling that something is caught in the back of the throat
* Difficulty chewing or swallowing, speaking, or moving the jaw or tongue
* Hoarseness, chronic sore throat, or changes in the voice
* Ear pain
* A change in the way your teeth or dentures fit together – a change in your "bite"
* Dramatic weight loss
If you notice any of these changes, contact your dentist immediately for a professional examination.
I recently noticed a whitish patch in my mouth. Is this oral cancer?
This whitish patch could be leukoplakia. Leukoplakia, a condition caused by excess cell growth, can form on the cheeks, gums, or tongue. Leukoplakia is commonly seen in tobacco users, in people with ill-fitting dentures, and in those who have a habit of chewing on their cheek. This condition can progress to cancer. Red patches in the mouth (called erythroplakia) are less common than leukoplakia but have an even greater potential for being cancerous. Any white or red lesion in your mouth should be evaluated by your dentist.
Who gets oral cancer and what are the risk factors for oral cancer?
According to the American Cancer Society, men face twice the risk of developing oral cancer as women, and men who are over age 50 face the greatest risk. The rate of development of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx began to decline in the late 1970s and has continued to decline throughout the 1990s in both African Americans, and white males and females.
Risk factors for the development of oral cancer include:
* Cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoking — Smokers are six times more likely than non-smokers to develop oral cancers.
* Use of smokeless tobacco products (for example, dip, snuff, or chewing tobacco) — Use of these products increase the risk of cancers of the cheek, gums, and lining of the lips.
* Excessive consumption of alcohol — Oral cancers are about six times more common in drinkers than in non-drinkers.
* Family history of cancer
* Excessive exposure to the sun — especially at a young age
It is important to note that more than 25% of all oral cancers occur in people who do not smoke and who only drink alcohol occasionally.
Other Oral Cancer Facts
Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer among men.
About 75% to 80% of people with oral cavity and pharynx cancer consume alcohol.
People who smoke and drink alcohol have an even higher risk of cancer than those who only drink or only use tobacco products.
The risk of developing oral cavity and pharynx cancers increases both with the amount as well as the length of time tobacco and alcohol products are used.
Survival
The overall 1-year survival rate for patients with all stages of oral cavity and pharynx cancers is 81%. The 5 & 10-year survival rates are 56% and 41%, respectively.
How is oral cancer diagnosed?
Your dentist will conduct an oral cancer screening exam, which is a routine part of a comprehensive dental examination. More specifically, your dentist will feel for any lumps or irregular tissue changes in your neck, head, face, and oral cavity. When examining your mouth, your dentist will look for any sores or discolored tissue, as well as check for or ask you about the signs and symptoms mentioned above.
Your dentist might perform an oral brush biopsy if he or she sees tissue in your mouth that looks suspicious. This test is painless and involves taking a small sample of the tissue and analyzing it for abnormal cells. Alternatively, if the tissue looks even more suspicious, your dentist might recommend a scalpel biopsy. This procedure usually requires local anesthesia and might be performed by your dentist or a specialist referred by your dentist. These tests are necessary to detect oral cancer early, before it has had a chance to progress and spread.
How is oral cancer treated?
Oral cancer is treated the same way many other cancers are treated; that is with surgery to remove the cancerous growth followed by radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy (drug treatments) to destroy any remaining cancer cells.
What can I do to prevent oral cancer?
You can take an active role in preventing oral cancer or detecting it early, should it occur.
* Conduct a self exam at least once a month. Using a bright light and a mirror, look and feel your lips and front of your gums. Tilt your head back and look at and feel the roof of your mouth. Pull your checks out to view the inside of your mouth, the lining of your cheeks, and the back gums. Pull out your tongue and look at all surfaces. Examine the floor of your mouth. Look at the back of your throat. Feel for lumps or enlarged lymph nodes in both sides of your neck and under your lower jaw. Call your dentist’s office immediately if you notice any changes in the appearance of your mouth or any of the signs and symptoms mentioned above.
* See your dentist on a regular schedule. Even though you might be conducting frequent self exams, sometimes dangerous spots or sores in the mouth can be very tiny and difficult to see on your own. The American Cancer Society recommends oral cancer screening exams every three years for people over age 20 and annually for those over age 40. During your next dental appointment, ask your dentist to perform an oral exam. Early detection can improve the chance of successful treatment.
* Don’t smoke or use any tobacco products and drink alcohol in moderation. (Refrain from binge drinking.)
* Eat a well balanced diet.
* Limit your exposure to the sun. Repeated exposure increases the risk of cancer on the lip, especially the lower lip. When in the sun, use UV-A/B-blocking sun protective lotions on your skin as well as your lips.
Laugenmaus und Laugencroissant mit Kürbiskernen vom Bäcker Gauker, Tübingen. 牛角面包 .
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define: croissant
croissant (de lune) .- zunehmende Mondsichel - French croissant
in der Schweiz auch Gipfel(i), in Süddeutschland teilweise Butterhörnchen, oder Hörnchen genannt, ist ein französisches Gebäck aus Plunderteig.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunderteig
... kommt von „pludern“ (aufgehen, lockern). Auf Englisch heißt Plundergebäck „Danish“ oder „Danish pastry“.
„Danish pastry“ has more
In Vienna, Danish pastry ("Viennese bread") is referred to as "Plundergebäck" or "Golatschen", and its origin may well be the Turkish baklava, like the Strudel. Both the croissant and Danish are laminated doughs, and as such are categorized as Viennoiserie products.
Plunder im Sinne von „mehrere Plunderteilchen“, (auch „Deutscher Plunder“, " Plundergebäck " ) enthält mindestens 30 % Butter, etc. ...contains at least 30% butter.
In Süddeutschland und der Schweiz ist eine beliebte Variante das Laugencroissant, bzw. Laugengipfeli .
Lye croissants in Southern Germany and Austria.
Variante d'Allemagne du Sud : croissants à la saumure (Laugencroissant).
Erfindung aus Österreich oder Frankreich ?
====================================
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant
Das englische und französiche Wikipedia hat die Lösung des Konfliktes:
À Paris, les premiers croissants sont vendus au no 92, rue de Richelieu, entre 1837 et 1839, quand les Autrichiens August Zang et Ernest Schwarzer y ouvrent la Boulangerie Viennoise.
À partir des années 1950, le croissant est un élément traditionnel du petit déjeuner en France, et de la Roumanie peu de temps après (autour des années 1990-2000).
Der Bäcker August Zang aus Österreich hats efrunden, jedoch seine Bäckeri in Paris eröffnet.
The "birth" of the croissant itself – that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of Kipferl, before the invention of Viennoiserie – can be dated with some precision to at latest 1839 (some say 1838), when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris.
This bakery, which served Viennese specialities including the Kipferl and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators (and the concept, if not the term, viennoiserie, a 20th-century term for supposedly Vienna-style pastries). The French version of the Kipferl was named for its crescent (croissant) shape.
Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time after, and was mentioned in several works of the time:
. de
Kipferl, Vorgänger des das Croissant ist in Österreich dokumentiert worden, zumindest im 13. Jahrhundert in verschiedenen Formen zurück.
Die Kipferl kann glatt oder mit Nut oder anderen Füllungen (Manche halten die Rugelach eine Form der Kipferl) erfolgen.
Die "Geburt" das Croissant selbst – das heißt, die Anpassung von deutlicher Form von Kipferl, vor der Erfindung des Frühstücksgebäck – kann mit einiger Präzision bis zu neuesten 1839 (manche sagen 1838), datiert werden, als Offizier der österreichischen Artillerie, August Zang, eine Wiener Bäckerei ("Boulangerie Viennoise") in der Rue de Richelieu 92, in Paris gegründet wurde.
Diese Bäckerei, die Wiener Spezialitäten wie die Kipferl und Wiener Brot serviert, wurde schnell populär und inspirierte französische Nachahmer (und das Konzept, wenn nicht der Begriff, Frühstücksgebäck, 20. Jh. Bezeichnung für angeblich Vienna-Style Gebäck).
Die französische Version von die Kipferl wurde für seine Form Halbmond (Croissant) benannt.
Zang selbst kehrte nach Österreich zurück, im Jahr 1848, um ein Presse-Magnat zu werden. Aber die Bäckerei blieb für einige Zeit danach beliebt und wurde in mehreren Werken der Zeit lobend erwähnt:
Foto: 1909
Die ursprüngliche Boulangerie Viennoise im Jahre 1909 (auch wenn es jetzt Philibert Jacquet gehörte, steht "ZANG" über der Bäckerei drauf).
Die Bäckerei ist auf der linken Seite und ein Teesalon rechts.
The original Boulangerie Viennoise in 1909 (when it was owned by Philibert Jacquet). The bakery proper is at left and its tea salon at right.
Ab 1950 ist "der Halbmond" , das Croissant, ein traditioneller Teil des Frühstücks in Frankreich .
.it
Il cornetto (detto anche croissant, brioche o kipferl) è una specialità alimentare dolce o salata a forma di mezzaluna, la cui origine è tradizionalmente considerata austriaca.
"From time to time the sea breeze lifts the corner of her flowing skirt and shows her shining, superb leg; and her foot, like the feet of the marble goddesses that Europe locks up in its museums, faithfully imprints its form on the fine sand."
I had some damaged optical fiber cables at home, at which I decided to take a capture of a single FC-PC cable on a Longman dictionary.
I reckon that I should have focused on the "fibre optics" phrase better than this, but I guess I was too lazy to reposition the cable.
Rainy day at the BMW M Tour event in Half Moon Bay. I was pleasantly surprised at how sharp the 17-85mm was.
Continued from Part I of The Upside of Humiliation: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52272860962/in/datepos...
From a lecture on his person: “The grief of the event, his witnessing of it, never left him for a single second his entire life. Not for an instant. So let’s look at grief for a moment. What is it? It is an emotional and psychological experience that we undergo after some loss. It applies to all kinds of losses. But then there is a term bereavement. Which is a specific type of grief. It is what you undergo when you lose a loved one.
We will still use the word grief for the purpose of this lecture. Grief is an individualized process. You cannot generalize it. Everybody’s reaction and endurance of it is unique. There can be no time limit set for how long it should be felt. The stages defined by psychology in the West are denial, anger, bargaining (with God), depression, and finally acceptance.
There are two kinds of grief, acute and prolonged. Acute is a shock, the pain is sharp but transient. The Sufis call it a meaning making tone. When you start making sense of things. Prolonged grief is an emotional crisis, almost like a paralysis.
It’s a numbness, a social withdrawal, total pain. It causes dysfunctionality. Grief has four components; separation distress, traumatic distress, guilt and remorse and social withdrawal.
But Hazrat Zain ul Abideen’s (as), the unmatched social reformer of his time, a political reformer, his reaction and way of dealing with pain, for him the answer lay in three verses in the Quran. For what someone might face as a test once in a while over a lifetime, he underwent it all in nine days.
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّبِرِينَ
And surely We will test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good news to the patient ones.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 155
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa lunabluwannakum: And We test them, Allah takes an oath on Himself, We will test you and we will place you in a trial, testing your steadfastness and your reach in Allah’s Tauheed, His One-ness…
Bi shayin: just a little, which will tell of most of it (your steadfastness) and the duality (of your reach in Tauheed)…
Min al khauf: from something of fear that comes from things that you hate that are external for e.g. fire, drowning, an enemy etc…
Wal joou’: and from something that comes from the things that you despise that are internal like greed and (excessive) hopes and miserliness and such…
Wa naqsim minal amwaal: and a little bit of loss of possessions which make your hearts incline towards them naturally…
Wal anfus: and a little bit of loss of something that belongs to your self which make you feel strength and pride because of them, from your children and your siblings and your relatives and your clan…
Was samaraat: and something of fruits, which are dependent on possessions and children, which grant honour and your showing off of your domination upon the enemy.
Wa bashirr: And give them glad tidings, O Akmal Ar Rasool, The Messenger who perfects The Messengers (peace be upon him and his family)…
As Saabireen: the patient ones among the ones who are certain in Tauheed and they…
ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَبَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۭ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَجِعُونَ
Those who, when strikes them a misfortune, they say, "Indeed, we belong to Allah and indeed we towards Him will return."
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 156
Alladina ida asabathum museebatun qalu: are the ones who when affliction touches them, they say with collective union in their tongue…
Inna: Indeed, We are a shadow…
Lillah: of Allah Al Wahid, The One One, Al Ahad, The One and Only, Al Mutajjali, The One who reveals and unveils with His Perfect Names and His Exalted Attributes in this world…
Wa inna: and indeed we are, after our returning in the Afterworld…
Ilayhi: towards Him and not towards anyone other than Him from the shadows (of association)…
Raji’oon: the ones returning, the ones who make the returning of the shadow towards The One who created the shadows.
Subhan Allah!
أُو۟لَٓئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَتٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌۭ ۖ وَأُو۟لَٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُهْتَدُونَ
Those are the ones, on them are blessings from their Lord and Mercy.
And those are the guided ones.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 157
Ulaika: They are the ones, happy, steadfast in the place of Tauheed, who are cleansed from the imprisonment of time and space, being and not being.
Alaihim: Upon them, not upon other than them from the people of ranks, is…
Salawaat: His Inclination and His Focus, which rise from the Ocean of His Essence, flowing from the streams of Attributes and Names towards the Cosmos of Appearance to grow Divine Recognition and Truth which make one reach towards the Giver of the Eternal Blessings and towards an enjoyment that lasts forever, pouring upon them forever…
Mir Rabbihim: from their Lord who brought them to the Place of Honour…
Wa rahmatun: and Mercy which covers them, and no one other than them, in abundance.
Wa ulaika: And they are the Al Wasiloon, the one who reach..
Hum ul muhtadoon: as the guided ones towards the True Origin and the True Abode.
I was left speechless.
There was an incident in the lecture about Imam Zain ul Abideen’s (as) blessed person which created a reflection. As if I could see the verses through his being. At one point the Imam (as) was imprisoned by his arch enemy Marwan. Zuhri, the Supreme Justice of the court of the time went to see him. Seeing his condition, shackled in chains, hardly any food and water, he fell on his feet and crying, expressed how something like this could happen to one of the sons of the one who brought the faith to this world.
Imam Zain ul Abideen (as) only said this: “It is enough for make me feel proud that in Karbala my father was beheaded and left without a burial, without even clothes, his body trampled by horses. It is enough to make me feel proud that my aunt and my sisters were made to sit bareback on camels for a thousand miles without a veil, when no one even set eyes on their shadow before and I was dragged behind them in markets through cities.”
It was the word he used in Arabic, fakhar, that I knew. It exists in Urdu but I still had to look it up to make sure I was translating it right: something that makes you proud!
And I thought about what Allah Subhanahu had said to Hazrat Bayazid Bastami (ra) when the means to gain what he had been told: his ilm, knowledge, his taqwa, restraint, piety and mindfulness, and his sakhawat, generosity had not granted him his heart’s only desire, Nearness, closeness, qurb!
“Bayazid, Come to me by way of that which I am not,” Allah Subhanahu had said.
“But what is it that you are possibly not?” The saint had asked, baffled.
He received the answer, “Humility and humiliation.”
Everything the Imam (as) was describing sounded like nothing but the purest and deepest humiliation a human being could possibly experience. Yet he was proud of it. I wondered, just like the martyr sees Allah in his final moment of life in this world, hence his title shaheed, the witness, was the Imam (as) and his blessed family seeing Allah Al Baseer, The Seeing One, throughout the time of their pain? Like their father, Imam Ali (as) who never prayed a sala’t where he didn’t see his Lord?
Perhaps that was why even in those 10 days of Karbala, never did any person of the household of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) miss a single raka’t of the 1,000 they prayed every single night. When I, if I haven’t eaten properly the night before, find myself tired and making excuses to shorten my dawn prayers, which are hardly of length to begin with.
Imam Zain ul Abideen (as) said to Zuhri, “You believe me to be helpless?”
He looked down and Zuhri narrates, ‘I looked at the Imam’s (as) hands and the shackles were broken and he said to me, Put them back on again.’
Zuhri said I placed the chains around his wrist and asked,
“What was that Ya Imam (as)?”
He replied, “This is surrender to the Pleasure of your Lord God. We only do that which is His Pleasure and nothing else.”
Was it any wonder they were the ones Chosen Ones whose capacity was deeper than oceans?
يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ ۗ
He chooses for His Mercy whom He wills.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 74
Tafseer e Jilani
Yakhtassu bi rahmatihi: He chooses for His Mercy, a Mercy Expansive, All Encompassing, a Mercy which is a collection of Excellence and Perfection…
Mayya sha’u: whom He wills from His Chosen Worshippers, honoring them with His Bounty from Himself, according to their capacity, whose (that Mercy’s) depth cannot be known and its boundary cannot be estimated.
I realized then that my humiliation, it could never make me feel fakhar. It was a courtesy of my nafs. I chose it every time. Almost always, it misguided me by making me believe I was softer and kinder than others, hiding from me all the while that it was just proud. It thought in secret for me to only discover later, I was imagining I was better than the other. Like Iblis!
I ticked all the boxes of transgressors; wicked, disobedient, hypocritical, angry, ruled by my tabyat, impatient. The only thing I had going for me was that I always felt deep regret. I instantly apologized. I yearned to be forgiven so repentance poured forth from me.
The lecture on Muharram continued: “Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) said that in the first instance of the difficulty, patience must be exercised. Not hours or days later. Not thinking one needed time to “process.” In the first instant. Meaning what? That the family of the Prophet (peace be upon him and them) understand that every relationship is through and from Allah alone. It is never yours to lose. Nothing is yours. It all belongs to only Him.”
When I had first started feeling confused about the coldness of the behaviour of someone who seemed to be walking on air days ago around me, it was Qari Sahib who happened to say something in a class that made my heart calm.
“Before you rely on someone,” he was quoting Ghaus Pak (ra), “Kissi pe bharosa karne se pehle uss se dosti karo. (Before you rely on someone, make sure they are your friend!) And how do you know anyone for sure? Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) says through three things; either live next to them as their neighbor so you know how their days and nights are timed, travel with them so their character is revealed or engage in business with them to see their morals.”
The verse from my last video appeared before my eyes: it was always easy to rely on God. He had already said He was my Friend. And His Beloved (peace be upon him and his family).
And Imam Ali (as) for whom specifically, the verse descended.
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَهُمْ رَكِعُونَ
Your only Friend is Allah and His Messenger, and those who believe,
and those who establish prayer and give zakat and they are those who bow down in prayer.
Surah Al Maida’, Verse 55
Tafseer e Jilani
Inna walliyyukum Allah: Indeed, Allah is your Friend, The One who is in charge of your matters as related to all kinds of ordinary love…
Wa Rasooluhu: and so is His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family), who is His Vice-regent second to Him, also in charge…
Walladina aamino: and those who brought faith in Allah with a special love (extraordinary) because of their following the Prophet (peace be upon him) and they…
Alladina yuqeemoona: are the one who are forever…
As salat: in prayer that brings one close to Allah’s Essence…
And yu’toona az zakata: and they give charity which cleanses their batin, inner being, from focus on anything other than Allah…
Wa: in the state of…
Hum rak’ioon: bowing in their prayer.
Huzoor Ghaus Pak (ra) says the verse is revealed for Maula Ali (may Allah gives honour to his countenance), when a beggar asked him (for alms) while he was in ruku’, bowing in prayer, and he loosened his ring so that it dropped (for him to take).
No wonder all my friendships fizzled into thin air one by one. How else was I going to learn that Innama, only three were my friends!
At first when I started to apply the rule of Wahjurhum hajran jameela, my nafs only brought me further humiliation in every encounter. The rule had been given. The key word was “avoid” and then it appeared again, “with gracious avoidance.” My nafs decide to ignore exactly that word. It would say to me on random days, “Well if we’re having a lunch and inviting four people, can’t we invite a fifth?”
It would sound reasonable enough so I would. Then would come the slap of humiliation from the other end. On another day it would say, “If we’re going to the same place an hour away, might as well driver together.” I would agree and a harder slap would come. “We’re in the area,” it would suggest, “let’s stop by and say hi.” And the humiliation would further intensify.
Until I understood why only because of the kindness of my guide who guides all guides!
In those days, one night I would read Al Fath Ar Rabbani and in it Ghaus Pak (ra) would say: Knowledge without the application of deed will only take you back to creation again and again.
Basically towards humiliation instead of towards dignity.
I realized what I was doing or rather was made to realize it because I was constantly reiterating the verse of avoidance in the lectures with the kids. I would circle back to it all the time. But I was tweaking the rule. Hence, the rest of its application was rendering it void. It wasn’t even that it was without result. It was having the exact opposite effect. Instead of bringing me into safety, my nafs was forcing me into harm.
So I reminded myself:
Wahjurjum: leave them and turn your attention away from them…
Hajran jameela: with beautiful avoidance, smiling, cheerfully,
without inclining towards their false delerium (confusion and reduced awareness)
and without consideration for them or looking after them
and without speaking to them
and with tawakkul, reliance upon Allah and entrust the matter of avenging them to Him. For indeed, He is Enough for you regarding their supply of misdeeds and ridicule.
It took me two weeks to apply the rule correctly. For 14 days I burned in the hell of my own creation. But each time I brought the blame upon myself because of another verse that lives with me every single day of my life to the point that I memorized it to utter in the prostrations of my namaz:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآءُوكَ فَٱسْتَغْفَرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ
وَٱسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ ٱلرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ تَوَّابًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا
And if they, when they wronged themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah,
and the Messenger (peace be upon him) asked forgiveness for them,
surely, they would have found Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah An-Nisa’, Verse 64
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa lau annahum: And if they, without doubt, due to the intensity of their ghaflat, forgetfulness and hypocrisy…
Id zalamu anfusahum: that which befalls you of affliction, (which is) harmful, not submitting to you (O Beloved)…
Jaa’uka: they must come to you as the ones who repent, the one who are apologetic because of that which happened from them…
Fastaghfarullah: then they ask for forgiveness from Allah (being) sincere and regretful…
Wastaghfara lahum Ar Rasoolu: and The Messenger (peace be upon him) also asks for forgiveness for them through intercession and praying before Allah, asking for the acceptance (of the person by Him) after they have come as the ones who are apologetic…
Lawajadullaha: surely, they will find Allah (to be) and they will testify to Him being the One who grants Bounty and Mercy…
Tawwaban: (and find Allah to be) The One who accepts their repentance…
Raheeman: The One who is Merciful to them and grants them ability to do this (go the The Messenger (peace be upon him).
I was ghafil, forgetful, (of the rule). I was a hypocrite. I had lied to my nafs so I trained it to lie to me. Except now when it spoke I believed it and those lies only harmed me. I believed them just like once it believed me.
Sigh!
I had quoted the above verse on forgiveness countless times. But this time different words were hitting me like arrows as I read it in repetition:
My affliction came upon me from my own self because I didn’t submit, not to Allah Subhanahu, but His Beloved (peace be upon him and his family).
When I appeared before him then, tired, sad, needing release from what I had done which had imprisoned me, I needed to be
1.apologetic
2.regretful
3.repentant
4.sincere
5.then again feeling regret
6.then again being apologetic
A common friend had asked me when I finally started refusing invites, “Will you not ever meet again?”
“No,” I said, “We might. But I’m not thinking about it.”
I knew I would never take any steps to initiate contact. My friend became silent. She asked if I needed an apology for a shift to happen, hinting that it seemed unlikely. I smiled.
“I’ve had this experience many times before,” I said, “I hold no grudge. You will only find me smiling and cheerful,” I laughed, feeling again that pang of gratitude that I did not have to act cold. My heart still liked them. I did not need to distress it with a false sense of dignity.
Pir Naseeruddin Naseer (ra) says the person who does something wrong and does not apologize or express regret, their heart is sealed. Since it is the exercise of a choice, the person, perhaps unconsciously, becomes defiant. Disobedient. The Quran defines such a person as a fajir and Maula e Kayinaat (as) said to his son just before his passing;
و ایاک و مصادقۃ الفاجر فانہ یبیعک بالتاقۃ
And avoid the Fajir, the one who is defiant about his disobedience and insistent upon it,
for, without doubt, he will sell you for nothing.
The elusive “sell me for nothing” line was now crystal clear. Anyone entirely governed by their tabyat, acquired nature, was in a constant state of fear or sadness. Whereas the Friends of God never felt either because they controlled their tabyat while we were controlled by ours.
أَلَآ إِنَّ أَوْلِيَآءَ ٱللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Verily, the Friends of Allah, there will be no fear upon them and not they will grieve.
Surah Yunus, Verse 62
Tafseer e Jilani
Ala Inna auliya Allah e: Al Munkhalaeena, the ones who are detached from the demands of being human in total, Al Munsalekheena, the one who are far from the requirements of desires of their selves in totality...
La khauf-un alayhim wa la hum yahzanoon: there is no fear upon them nor do they feel grief because fear and sadness, they only come from the effects of the tabyat, (the secondary nature that is acquired from outside), and the pursuit of that which fulfills it.
Not to mention the layer of forgetfulness, likely the top layer of the tabyat. My being existent or non-existent for them, it was the same.
And suddenly I was free! Not from one relationship or two but all that held no sincerity towards me. Smiling and cheerful!
And of all things I was the one in a place, courtesy of the hadith of my Nabi, who is Rauf and Rahim (peace be upon him and his family), where I might be rendered love from my Lord for executing a command perfectly.
إنَّ اللهَ تعالى يُحِبُّ إذا عمِلَ أحدُكمْ عملًا أنْ يُتقِنَهُ
Indeed, Allah The Exalted One loves when one of you does a deed exactly as it should be done.
The hadith brought home the point of the verse that when every single person was in the same boat of khusr – loss. The only possibility of separation from that state, any distinction, was a deed, salih, good.
وَٱلْعَصْرِ
إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسْرٍ
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ
(Allah takes an oath) upon time,
that the human being is surely in a state of loss,
except those who believe and do righteous deeds…
Surah Al-Asr, Verses 1-3
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wal Asr: Then Allah Suban Ta’ala takes an oath upon time and the ages, the meaning of which is about the Eternal Essence of Allah, from the beginning till the end, Timeless and Everlasting.
Innal Insaana: Indeed, the human being, created such to have a natural propensity towards the nature of ma’rifa, the Recognition of God and imaan, faith according to his share of the Lahoot, the Realm of the Divine, where there is no time and space…
Lafe khusr: is in a state of loss, immense and humiliating failure, as a result of their busyness in that which is useless due to the requirements (and needs) of his physical being, as related to his share of the world of Nasoot, the life in this world.
Illa: Except the Muqinoon, those who possess inner certainty…
Alladina Aamino: about the One-ness of Allah Subhan Ta’ala and are conscious, through their steadfastness, in their behaviour continuously in His Kingdom and about His Authority.
Wa: And with this faith and certainty…
Amilos Sualihaat: they do good deeds which points towards their ikhas, sincerity and their yaqeen, absolute conviction, and niyyat, intention.
“When someone makes a particular action beautiful, Allah falls in love with that person,” a friend who is a scholar told me. “But the problem lies in us humans defining beauty itself. As long as my fitrat, the core being of a human being as created by Allah remains saleem, pure, then I will have a proper consciousness of beauty. I will call a beautiful thing beautiful and an ugly thing ugly.
But if my nature gets corrupted, then things become the opposite. If my tabyat, which is acquired by my habits and environment, overpowers the fitrat, ugly things become beautiful for me and beautiful things become ugly. What is beautiful loses its worth. That is the problem with the corruption of the soul. That is why one of the meanings of Islam is keeping the fitrat safe. That is why in the Hereafter Allah says what will save you is your qalb, your heart within the heart which recognizes Him, if it is saleem.”
I looked up the verse he quoted:
إِذْ جَآءَ رَبَّهُۥ بِقَلْبٍۢ سَلِيمٍ
Remember when he came to his Lord with a pure heart.
Surah As Saffat, Verse 84
Tafseer e Jilani
Remember, O Messenger who completes the Messengers (peace be upon you and your family), the time when…
Id ja’a Rabbuhu biqalbin saleem: when he, the Prophet Ibrahim (as), came to his Lord with a heart perfect, intact from all of the inclinations false and opinions untrue.
In another lecture I came upon the most interesting definition of freedom from within my faith, of being free as a human being.
“What is freedom?” the scholar asked his audience. “The first question one has to ask is freedom for what and freedom from what. If you cannot answer these questions, you don’t understand what freedom is.
Freedom is defined as removing the obstacles from my path of prosperity and evolving. But removing others from my path of freedom is easy. The problem arises when I am the block in my own path of freedom. That is the challenge. What if I am the hurdle in my spiritual or socio-economic or moral progress.
The Quran addresses both social freedom and individual freedom through the context of sending Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family).”
The he quoted the verse:
لَقَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ
يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَتِهِۦ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ
وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَبَ
وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ
وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَلٍۢ مُّبِينٍ
Indeed, Allah has bestowed a favour upon the believers, when he raised in their midst an apostle from among themselves,
to convey His Messages unto them,
and to cause them to grow in purity,
and to impart unto them the Divine Writ as well as wisdom,
where as before that they were, indeed, most obviously, lost in error.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 164
I had translated its tafseer so I went back to it.
Laqad Mannallahu: By the Name of Allah, He bestowed a great Favour…
Ala al Mo’mineen: upon the ones who are sincere…
Id ba’atha fi-him: when he raised him, the Prophet (peace be upon him)), from amongst them for their guidance…
Rasool an: as a Messenger to be their Murshid, guide, who was brought up…
Min Anfusihim: in them to guide them with different types of guidance.
Yatlu alihim: First of all, he recites to them (the Quran) and makes them listen…
Ayati hi: to Allah’s Verses, which indicate towards the One-ness of His Essence.
Wa Yuzzakihim: Secondly, he purifies them from the evils whisperings of Satan and those desires that lead one astray from the Path of Allah’s One-ness.
Wa Yuallimuhim: And thirdly, he teaches them…
Al Kitab: the Book, which explains and clarifies to them the means to cleanse the overt, the zahir, as well as everything which is related to the apparent world.
Wa: Then fourthly he teaches them…
Al hikmat; the wisdom that purifies their inner being, the batin, from the inclination towards anything other than Allah, (both people and things), and which connects them to Sidrat al Muntaha, the Lote Tree, near which is Jannat ul Mawa, Heaven.
Wa in Kanu Min Qablu: And they were before the unveiling of these four stations…
Lafi Dalalin Mubeen: in clear waywardness and severe humiliation.
At the end then Ghaus Pak (ra) prays: “Ya Allah! By Your Bounty, save us from the sleep of those who are heedless.
I re-read each word carefully. Through the perfect being of Ajmal Ar Rusul alone, the most beautiful Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) because he is the noor who brings, reveals, unveils and clarifies it, the Book cleanses the overt. Through the wisdom he alone teaches, the inner is purified.
But before both he does the tazkiya, the purification of thought.
As Qari Sahib says, “For purity to enter, the vessel must be pure!”
I counted the number of times the verb hada’, to guide, appeared in the verse. Only through his guidance, seeking it, staying in it, came the safety from the whisperings of Satan and one’s own desires, unending and dictated by the nafs.
In another verse, I saw an additional meaning of what malice in the breast is: selfishness, duality.
I was noticing how Mankind was entirely blanketed in self-centeredness courtesy of the addiction to technology. For the first consequence of any addiction, be it sick love, eating, watching tv or holding a phone 24/7, is selfishness. The second cause of wickedness of the heart, was duality. Which Ghaus Pak (ra) defined as hopes and expectations associated with others.
وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِى صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهِمُ ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۖ
وَقَالُوا۟ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى هَدَىٰنَا لِهَـٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِىَ لَوْلَآ أَنْ هَدَىٰنَا ٱللَّهُ ۖ
And We will remove whatever is in their breasts of malice.
Flows from underneath them the rivers.
And they will say, "All the praise (is) for Allah, the One Who guided us to this, and we were not to receive guidance if not (had) guided us Allah. Certainly, came Messengers of our Lord with the truth."
Surah Al-Araaf, Verse 43
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa: After they have entered the Heaven of Tauheed, One-ness…
Naza’na ma fi sudoorihim min ghill-in: after We erased from their breasts, duality and selfishness
Tajri min tahtihal anhaar: (the Heaven) under which flow rivers of Ma’rifat, Knowledge of God and Haqaiq, Realities of the Essence of God, sprouting from the Ocean of the His One-ness.
Wa: After their unveiling due the dissolving of their identity and they triumph in the Everlasting Existence of Allah…
Qaalu: they said, with the capability of their tongues as inspired by Allah, that they may become steadfast on gratitude…
Alhamdo: praise and admiration that rises from tasleem o raza, surrender and acceptance…
Lillah alladi hada-na li hada: for The One who made us reach the status of contentedness and the Place of the Honour of meeting Him…
Wa ma kunna li nahtadiya: Which we would not have reached if we had stayed in the company of our desires and the darkness of our selves…
Lau la an hada-na: were it not for his Lutf, Kindness and Endless Generosity and Vast Mercy.
I memorized the second verse instantly to utter in my prostrations.
The lecture continued: “The Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) has been sent to cleanse your overt and inner beings. So in fact he has been sent to free you from your own self that shackles you.”
I went back to my notes from my lecture for the kids and looked up the list of what emanates from my self to remember exactly the definition of those “shackles:”
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفْسُهُۥ ۖ
And certainly We created man and We know what his self whispers to him.
Tafseer e Jilani
Wa: And We…
Na’alamu: We know him from that point…
Ma tuwaswisu: (as to) what whispers and makes up a rambling story…
Bihi nafsohu: from his own self and sways his heart (from that point) until now from
1.those kinds of delusions and false imaginings
2.and those things that descend upon him as animalistic desires
3.and those thoughts that are imprisoned by the chains of rituals
4.and shackles of inherent habits that are inherited
5.as a result of useless ponderings which are mixed with unthinking paranoia.
I began to look up the verses the scholar had quoted to emphasize that there was only one original source of tazkiya, purification. There was only one human being that Allah Subhanahu had chosen, appointed, named in all His Other Books and announced that he in turn, determined and then commanded, solely, what was intrinsically beneficial and what caused harm for the self.
The lecture continued: “Ma’roof is that which my fitrat knows and recognizes as good and munkir is that which my iftrat knows is sinful and wrong. So the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) does not command anything that the fitrat dislikes and only commands that which it already knows as good.
For the Quran repeatedly uses the words “transgression of boundaries” in the context of the injustice we do to our own selves. Not the injustice we perpetrate on others. Not the injustice others impose on us. The focus is always brought to one’s own nafs al Ammara. Similarly he only forbids that which the fitrat already knows is harmful for it. Nothing else! There is no conflict in his instruction and order for the soul.”
Then he quoted the verse which I translated with Qari Sahib:
ٱلَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ ٱلنَّبِىَّ ٱلْأُمِّىَّ
ٱلَّذِى يَجِدُونَهُۥ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِى ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَٱلْإِنجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ
وَيَنْهَىٰهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتِ
وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْخَبَـٰٓئِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَٱلْأَغْلَـٰلَ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ
فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِهِۦ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ ٱلنُّورَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ مَعَهُۥٓ ۙ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
Those who follow the Messenger, the Ummiyy Prophet (peace be upon him) whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Injīl ,
and who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair,
and makes lawful for them good things,
and makes unlawful for them impure things,
and relieves them of their burden, and of the shackles that were upon them.
So, those who believe in him and support him, and help him and follow the light sent down with him, - those are the ones who are successful.
Surah Al Ara-af, Verse 157
Tafseer e Jilani
Wahum: And they are…
Alladina yatti’buna As Rasool: the ones who follow the Messenger (peace be upon him), the one who was sent with the Essence of One-ness (Al Mursil bi Tauheed)…
An Nabiyya: the Prophet, Al Mutammim li mukarim il akhlaq, the one who was sent to complete the nobleness of manners (upon Allah’s Akhlaq, His Attributes)…
Al Ummiya: the one who is Al Muttahaqiq, the one who was made inevitable, Al Makhsoos, the one who was made uniquely special with Ilm il Luduni, the Divine Knowledge, which was taught to him from his Lord without acquisition (from other means), without effort, without any formal training from any teacher, and he is…
Alladi yajidoonahu: who they find in all of the books of the faiths…
Maktooban: written about in those books, about his being sent and his religion and his name and his appearance and all of his attributes…
Ayndahum fi Torat wal Ineel: in the Torat and in the Injeel, Bible, that when he will announce his Prophet-hood…
Ya’monohum bil ma’roof and yanhahum ayn al munkir ya
yahillu lahum tayyebaat: who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair, and makes lawful for them the good things, which they forbid upon their own selves…
Wa yuharrimu alaihum al khabais: and makes unlawful for them impure things, which they made lawful for themselves…
Wa aidan: And also…
Yada’u anhum israhum: relieves them of their loads i.e. the burdens which they carry by leaving the world and detaching from it, which was more than their strength to bear, just like they cut their bodily parts by which they sinned and just like they cut the cloth they wore if it became soiled and other than this…
Wa; he also made them free…
Al aghlaal: of their shackles i.e. the painful difficulties…
Allati kanat alaihim falladina aamino bihi: which came upon them. So those who believed in him, (the Messenger peace be upon him), when he was sent and gave his invitation (towards the One-ness of Allah)…
Wa azzaruhu: and they honoured him in the way that he was deserving of honour and glorification…
Wa nasaruhu: and they helped him, supporting him in his religion…
Wstaba’u an Noor: and they followed The Light, which is the Quran…
Alladi unzila ma’hu: which is sent with him from Allah to help him and to testify…
Ulaika: these are the ones who are the fortunate and radiant and accepted by Allah. They are the Al Muwwafiqoon, the ones given the ability to follow him.
Humul muflihoon: It is they who are the successful ones i.e. Al Muqassaroon, the ones who are confined by Him in success and triumph with victory.
Subhan Allah!
It was exactly what the scholar said. There was no conflict in what he ordered and what was intrinsically a source of ease. The hurdle was indeed one’s own self every single time that pulled on in the opposite direction of what was naturally good for it. In the form of hesitation, reluctance, delay, refusal, denial!
The lecture continued: “Imam Ali (as) says it most beautifully in the exact opposite manner of the mantra of the West which is ‘We are all born free.’ Because Islam gives one the right of social and individual freedom like nothing else for it is a freedom given by God Himself.
لا تكُن عبدا لغيرك، وقد خلقك الله حُرًا
Don’t be a slave to any other because indeed, Allah Subhanahu, has created you free.
Those who themselves are as individuals enslaved by their nafs, they are the ones who try to enslave others as well. Only the likes those who are free, like Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family), free others. Like Hazrat Bilal (ratu), Hazrat Anas (ratu), you, me. If I am free from my nafs I want everybody to be free. And if I am enslaved by it, I want everybody to be enslaved by it as well. And then become enslaved to me.”
I realized that once I decided I would adhere to a rule, my nafs surrendered itself never because of my own “determination.” I had written once before, because I learnt it from Maulana Rum (ra), that the nafs holds the aql prisoner. Reflection, consideration, they’re all impossibilities because the nafs does not bow to that which it imprisons. On top of it the ghaflat, perpetual state of forgetfulness, allows for a permanence of the dire state.
Masnavi Shareef: “Your nafs has made itself your lord and master. The one who slaughters it is your aql, the power to reflect. But it becomes hostage to the ego and prays for blessings from the Divine without struggling for them. But the price of receiving that blessing without trial is the killing of the ego, for it is the root of all wrongdoing. And that is impossible without a guide.”
رزق جانی کے بری با سعی و جست
جز با عدل شیخ کو داؤد تست
How can you ever gain blessings from your own struggles and endeavours?
Without the assistance of the Spiritual Master who intervenes for you like Hazrat Dawood (as)?
نفس چوں با شیخ بیندگام تو
از بن دندان شود او رام تو
When your nafs, your ego, sees you in the footsteps of your guide, it will have no choice but to become obedient to you.
عقل گایے غالب آید در شکار
بر سگ نفست کہ باشد شیخ یار
The aql, your powers to reflect, will only conquer the enemy, your ego, in this battle
when you are accompanied by your Sheikh.
My nafs allowed me to follow the rule of the verse of avoidance only because of the attention of someone upon me. A Master, A Master of Masters. A Master of the Universe!
As I wrote the piece and translated from the Arabic word by word the exegesis of the verses, I started honing in on Allah’s Names and Attributes to deepen my understanding of them. So that when my heart uttered them in my namaz, my qalb felt something. That Station of Ma’rifat, Recognition of The Divine, if not saw, then at least heard something. If not from the Realm of the Unseen, then from my own tongue.
And I remembered that the Prophet who perfected the Message (peace be upon him and his family) saying:
لا یستقیم ایمان احدکم حتی یستقیم قلبہ
و لا یستقیم قلبہ حتی یستقیم لسانہ
و لا یستقیم لسانہ حتی تستقیم اعمالہ
“None of you can persevere in your imaan, faith, till his qalb, the Seat of Recognition of Allah, becomes steadfast.
And his qalb cannot be unfaltering until his tongue becomes correct.
And his tongue cannot be correct until his deeds become unwavering.”
Ghaus Pak (ra) says; “Anything that I have been bestowed in my life as a blessing only came to me by way of the Ahl e Bait – the blessed household of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family).”
This comes from someone who is in fact one of the most extraordinary members of that household himself. The one who is the unquestioned conduit of spirituality for the Universe till the end of its existence. After Damascus I knew with certainty that the same held true for me. Everything I was ever bestowed in my entire life only came to me by way of the Ahl e Bait (as).
My heart was flooded by that love in the city called Paradise by Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him and his family) himself. The first time, the second, every single time. Upon each return I felt like I entered a womb, the only word to describe my feelings. I was loved and cared in a way I had never experienced in my life. Hence if that life were to hit reset, if I was also allowed one thing that wasn’t a part of the first one, I would request that I be born in Damascus and live there forever.
Iqbal said, and I have quoted him umpteenth times in my pieces, that heaven and hell are here in this world. Ghaus Pak (ra) says the same. His definition of hell is unforgettable: deprivation, humiliation, doubt, desires, endless hopes. All due to the nafs causing paranoia and delusions.
Fi naari jahannuma (Surah Tauba, Verse 109): in the fires of Hell i.e. a deep valley, very wide, full of the fire of deprivation and humiliation.
And doubt!
لَهُم مِّن جَهَنَّمَ مِهَادٌ وَمِن فَوْقِهِمْ غَوَاشٍ ۚ
وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ
For them Hell (is) their resting place and their covering as well. And thus We recompense the wrongdoers.
Surah Al-Araaf, Ayaat 41
Lahum min jahannama: Hell is the torture of imkaan, possibility which is doubt.
Mihaad: They will burn in these fires of their false desires…
Wa min fauqihim ghiwash: covered with the fires of their power and wealth and claims of being great and possessing abundance.
Wa ka daalika najzi ad-dualimeen: The zalimeen are the ones who transgress the boundaries of Allah due to their nafs which are drowning in the addiction of their senses, their paranoia and their delusion.
In a lecture on a day, Qari Sahib quoted the iconic line in the Quran about the faith that all Muslims know; La ikrahu fi-deen.
“There is no compulsion in embracing Islam and none in practicing it. Pray, don’t pray. Give zaka’t, don’t give it. Forgive or hold a grudge. Lie or tell a truth. It is all up to you. Be clear on the influence of your own nafs upon your own self.”
We studied the tafseer of the verse by Ghaus Pak (ra). I wanted to understand what it meant. And of course I was rewarded for the effort. For when translations called Taghut, “false deities and gods,” Ghaus Pak (ra) called the nafs al Ammara, bringing the matter from the “other” back upon one’s own self.
لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ ۚ
فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدِ ٱسْتَمْسَكَ بِٱلْعُرْوَةِ ٱلْوُثْقَىٰ لَا ٱنفِصَامَ لَهَا ۗ
وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
There is no compulsion in the religion. Surely has become distinct the right (path) from the wrong. Then whoever rejects false deities and believes in Allah, then surely he grasped the handhold - firm, which will not break for him.
And Allah (is) All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 256
Tafseer Jilani
La ikraha: There is no force and there is no threat and there is no compulsion...
Fi deen: in compliance in the religion of Islam and being obedient of it, after the appearance of the ultimate truth because…
Qad tabayyana: indeed, it becomes clear and indeed, it is made distinct…
Ar rushd: the right path and guidance…
Min al gayye: from allurement and misguidedness.
Fa man yakfur bit taaghute: So anyone who denies the truth by believing in false idols, which is the nafs al Ammara which misguides from the Path of Truth…
Ya yu’min billah: and brings faith in Allah Al Hadi, The True Guide, towards the Straight Path…
Faqad-is-tamsaka: surely he attached himself to, and in fact, grasped and clung…
Bil urwatil wusqa: to the strong rope which is the Rope of Allah Subhanahu, hanging from the Permanence of His Essence to the Everlasting-ness of His Names and Attributes…
Lan fisama: It (the rope) will not break and it will not disconnect…
Laha: from itself ever.
Wallahu: And Allah Al Hadi, The Guide, is for all…
Samee’un: The All Hearing with His Essence the words of everyone…
Aleem-un: All Knowing of everything and the interests of all which have been placed inside them.
“So reflect,” says Ghaus Pak (ra), “O you are perishing, where do you place yourself in this?”
The marker of distortion and disruption in faith was the nafs. And the savior: connection of Allah Subhanahu’s Names and Attributes woven inside the rope that brought attachment to Him.
While I wrote the piece, my reflections were all concentrations upon the namaz. I began to write down each line in it to understand the sequence of the meaning.
The beginning is a seeking of refuge in Allah Subhanahu:
Audobillah e min as Shaitan ar rajeem – I seek refuge from Satan the accursed.
Then comes Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim – the first invocation of Allah’s Names.
It was followed by the Surah Al Fateha, the preface of the Quran. In it the first three lines of the Surah were praise of Allah Subhanahu. The first line also being the expression of gratitude:
Alhamdolillah e Rabbil Aalmeen – All praise is for Allah, the Lord of all the Universe.
The second and third verses both invoked His Names, the same ones:
Ar Rahman Ar Rahim – The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful.
Then Maalik e Youm iddin – The King of the Day of Judgement.
After came the submission; We only worship you and We only ask You for help.
And finally the prayer, which was for guidance!
But in that ask was a secret. The Sirat e Mustaqeem for which guidance was sought, that Straight Path, the verse reveals, was the one walked upon by those someones who were blessed by Him – siraat alladaina an’amta alayhim.
From the verb, I learnt a new Name of Allah: Naeem.
I heard a scholar say once: “Allah Subhanahu did not come to Earth and walk that path Himself. He sent others to show it and those who followed them and those after who followed them until in a meadow of grass, footsteps became outlined. A path leads to the Path.”
The greatest conflict within the faith today exists because people refuse to follow anyone else. But they don’t know, their aql imprisoned by their nafs will never surrender to anything except precisely when they follow another.
As my attention upon the words in the namaz intensified, I began to wonder that was actually being said by me in the part called the Tashahhud.
Part III Continued on: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52274085984/in/datepos...
My good friend Lalenya needed me to shoot some photos for a trivia night she and the host are doing. Here's a shot showing how smart she is and the topic of choice is "Defining Deviance."
Nikon D800 Photos of Pretty Asian Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess with Black Surfboard.
Beautiful!
Some video of the goddess:
Shot in both RAW & JPEG, but all these photos are RAWs finished in Lightroom 5.3 ! :)
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A Gold 45 Goddess exalts the archetypal form of Athena--the Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. A Gold 45 Goddess guards the beauty of dx4/dt=ic and embodies 45SURF's motto "Virtus, Honoris, et Actio Pro Veritas, Amor, et Bellus, (Strength, Honor, and Action for Truth, Love, and Beauty," and she stands ready to inspire and guide you along your epic, heroic journey into art and mythology. It is Athena who descends to call Telemachus to Adventure in the first book of Homer's Odyssey--to man up, find news of his true father Odysseus, and rid his home of the false suitors, and too, it is Athena who descends in the first book of Homer's Iliad, to calm the Rage of Achilles who is about to draw his sword so as to slay his commander who just seized Achilles' prize, thusly robbing Achilles of his Honor--the higher prize Achilles fought for. And now Athena descends once again, assuming the form of a Gold 45 Goddess, to inspire you along your epic journey of heroic endeavour.
Nikon D800 Photographs of a Beautiful Wavy-HAired Brunette Swimsuit Bikini Model shot with the new Nikon D800 and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens.
A Gold 45 Goddess guards the wisdom of dx4/dt=ic -- my physics theory which appears on all the 45surf clothes. Yes I have a Ph.D. in physics! :) You can read more about my research and Hero's Journey Physics here:
herosjourneyphysics.wordpress.com/ MDT PROOF#2: Einstein (1912 Man. on Rel.) and Minkowski wrote x4=ict. Ergo dx4/dt=ic--the foundational equation of all time and motion which is on all the shirts and swimsuits. Every photon that hits my Nikon D800e's sensor does it by surfing the fourth expanding dimension, which is moving at c relative to the three spatial dimensions, or dx4/dt=ic!
May the Hero's Journey Mythology Goddess inspire you (as they have inspired me!) along your own artistic journey! All the Best on Your Epic Hero's Journey from Johnny Ranger McCoy! Catch those photons as they surf the fourth expanding dimension!