How can India be a Superpower by 2025

[sravna]

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Being a super power means the nation excels in almost all the spheres and stands well above the other nations in terms of influence it exerts in the state of affairs of the world. The U.S is considered a superpower and probably deserves to be so though of late its influence over the state of affairs of the world seems to be waning.

Our question is, can India become a superpower in 10 years? I think it can but it would be a very formidable task. I will give my views on what turns a nation to a superpower?

The very first requirement would be to believe that it is possible to become a superpower though I concede there should be a certain degree of realism to this belief. Fortunately, India has the potential to harbor this notion and make it a reality.

The first step in believing that India can become a superpower is that it has to undo all the negative perceptions about itself in a systematic way. I am of the view that many of the negative perceptions about India comes actually from poor understanding and projections of its strengths.

India core strength is its spirituality. In a starkly materialistic world, that strength seems to be misplaced and so seems to be not working. A good understanding of what being spiritual can do and how it can propel India very high, needs to happen.

Since India has indigenously developed wisdom in this area and due to the practice of such wisdom for a long time, it is easy to attune the India psyche to spirituality. That can really do wonders to the nation.

In essence, being spiritual is being both self confident and selfless. These two attributes when existing in the people of a nation can take it to great heights. No wonder ancient India existed in great glory.

The question is how can people be made to develop self confidence and selflessness? My view as I mentioned earlier is that Indian people have these latent in them and they only need to understand this and project them in the right way.

Self confidence happens when one's views are proved consistently right. That was the situation in ancient India as its views on reality and therefore the practice based on it resulted in a peaceful and happy society.

We need to start believing in our own wisdom instead of trying to borrow the psedo-wisdom of the west and then try to ape it. That is when we will rediscover the lost confidence in our own self. With belief in our wisdom ensues the practice of inestimable values that such wisdom teaches us. We will see ourselves grow greater and greater as we embrace our wisdom.

The above has to be brought about by a systematic effort so that we are tuned back to spirituality again. By doing this we would have laid a strong foundation for being a superpower.

The next step is to project that power externally as politico-socio-economic well being. This I think would be not as challenging as the first step and would naturally follow once our mind is in the spiritual frame.

So folks, I think the battle is really fought in the mind and the external prosperity is only a consequence. So let me conclude that if India begins to look inward and be able to practice it it can realize the enormous latent power that it has.

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

I would not like to stay in a country that is a Super Power.

I prefer an economically stable and civilized yet move with the times nation.

There are many European countries that are NOT super powers yet their standards of living and satisfaction is high...not to forget peaceful.

I dont think the Super Power tag actually does anything extra special for a nation.

Today in the newspapers here some person was writing about having a Noble Values competition where people can write and speak about noble values and emerge a winner!

He was saying that there are many competitions..like spelling competitions..singing competitions..beauty competitions..so why not a Noble Value competition?

I was smiling reading what that guy wrote becos a competition defeats the whole purpose of Noble Values!LOL

Why do we have to be competitive for everything..Noble values are not meant to be in a competition..what would anyone achieve? Will the 1st prize be a 'Holier than thou" trophy?

When the spirit of competition is too strong..values at times go out the door.

When we compete to be even be good in values we have anxiety..anger..jealousy etc.

Even a person who claims to be humble might be jealous of someone else who is more humble than him.

So if you ask me Sravna..there is no need for any nation to be the Numero Uno in all fields.

Why cant nations learn to live with the strength and weakness of each other to make Earth a mutual co existence?

What say you?

We Hindus have a tendency to live in the past and project the past into the future..its high time everyone learns to live in the present.

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

That is the beauty of being spiritual. You are focused only on your inner self and not really worried about the external and so any competition. It naturally brings the best in you and probably the best that anyone could hope for.

 

[BRAHMACHARI]

The USA was referred to as Super Power when the world knew it possessed Atom Bomb, after it bombed Japan and brought the WW2 to an end. If possessing a bomb were a criterion for Super Power status, many countries are Super Powers now. I wonder who awarded the certificate of Super Power to the USA! I reckon it was just a hype.

 

[renuka]

The USA was referred to as Super Power when the world knew it possessed Atom Bomb, after it bombed Japan and brought the WW2 to an end. If possessing a bomb were a criterion for Super Power status, many countries are Super Powers now. I wonder who awarded the certificate of Super Power to the USA! I reckon it was just a hype.

Dear Brahms,

1)If a nation possesses weapons of mass destruction..It is a Super Power in destruction..eg USA

2)If nation possesses weapons of mass reproduction..It is a Super Power in creation..eg India.

So why worry.

 

[krish44]

dear renukaji
like the last post.lol

 

[sangom]

Dear Sravna,

US is the superpower today because almost the entire world transacts its trade in terms of US$ and hence, indirectly, gives all the money to the US for splurging or whatever it wants to do. In the past, during the cold war era, USSR was the second super power because it equalled US or even bested it in certain respects. The world's countries, excepting the non-aligned block, were arrayed on the side of either US or USSR, much like the Kurukshetra array. But that world order has gone now and borrowing power is the single criterion which decides super-power status today. China also has huge borrowing power but, rather foolishly, China has put all its eggs, so to say, in the one basket, viz., USA. Therefore, China, the creditor has to dance to the tunes of US; otherwise China will lose all its foreign exchange reserves and become bankrupt in no time!

When realities are like this, your talking about looking inward, spiritual power, and so on, looks really ludicrous. I give below my comments on some of your views:

India core strength is its spirituality. In a starkly materialistic world, that strength seems to be misplaced and so seems to be not working. A good understanding of what being spiritual can do and how it can propel India very high, needs to happen.

When did India have the "spiritual super power status" and what did/could it achieve thereby? Were Indians then aware of the world as people are today? Even if there was some text or texts being written about spirituality, how much % of the Indian population was aware of this, given the caste structure and its rigours?

Since India has indigenously developed wisdom in this area and due to the practice of such wisdom for a long time, it is easy to attune the India psyche to spirituality. That can really do wonders to the nation.

Let us not pretend something which we really don't have; what is the India psyche you refer to? Is it the 'brahmin psyche' or 'upper caste psyche' because the vast majority of the Indian people, who belonged to the Sudra caste/s did not have anything to do with the essentially brahmin-created philosophies/wisdom. This vast majority is, as yet, unaffected by all the "wisdom in this area" to a large extent; it is true that such people also participate in religious & temple activities today because the caste barriers have been mostly abolished but they have no acquaintance with the so-called 'spiritual wisdom' you are talking about, nor are they interested because their first priority is to live well and not to do idle philosophizing.

In essence, being spiritual is being both self confident and selfless. These two attributes when existing in the people of a nation can take it to great heights. No wonder ancient India existed in great glory.

History is testimony to the emptiness of the above statements. And, when did India exist in great glory, except in the imagination/dream of some people like yourself?

The question is how can people be made to develop self confidence and selflessness? My view as I mentioned earlier is that Indian people have these latent in them and they only need to understand this and project them in the right way.

Self confidence happens when one's views are proved consistently right. That was the situation in ancient India as its views on reality and therefore the practice based on it resulted in a peaceful and happy society.

Tell me one era when the whole of the area constituting the present day India was a peaceful and happy society and what evidence do we have for proving that? This is just your imagination. You live thinking of a very glorious and happy & peaceful India but refuse to even admit that no empire in the past covered the present day India. Plus, our highly spiritual brahmins had defined Sudra as one who is condemned to cry out throughout life because of his/her past karmas for which he/she was born in that low caste. How then do we imagine a peaceful and happy society, unless you confine yourself to the privileged ones and limit the geographical area to the largest known empire, viz., Ashokan?

 

[Vaagmi]

Dear Sri sangom Sir,

US is the superpower today because almost the entire world transacts its trade in terms of US$ and hence, indirectly, gives all the money to the US for splurging or whatever it wants to do. In the past, during the cold war era, USSR was the second super power because it equalled US or even bested it in certain respects. The world's countries, excepting the non-aligned block, were arrayed on the side of either US or USSR, much like the Kurukshetra array. But that world order has gone now and borrowing power is the single criterion which decides super-power status today. China also has huge borrowing power but, rather foolishly, China has put all its eggs, so to say, in the one basket, viz., USA. Therefore, China, the creditor has to dance to the tunes of US; otherwise China will lose all its foreign exchange reserves and become bankrupt in no time!

USD is solidly backed up by an economy which is the powerhouse of the entire world. US has natural advantages which no other country has. These are: size and geographic spread, perennial rivers, regular rains, vast tracts of plain farmland owned by individuals and corporates which make them economically viable as sound business assets, an industry which is in the van guard of inventions always and a comparatively smaller population size. It is a dreamland where everything is cut out for the best results. soviet union was never a match to US except in destructive power and that takes care of 80 % of the qualification required to be a super power. When soviet union shrunk it lost its super power status too. China has invested in US Treasury notes not because they have any special love for US but because that is the only instrument which gives a reasonably good yield considering the tenor and is backed by a sovereign guarantee which will never fail-there will not be even an opportunity to test it. And China enjoys a leverage with US because of that investment like all large investors have with their client. This in short is the story of the super power called US.

When did India have the "spiritual super power status" and what did/could it achieve thereby? Were Indians then aware of the world as people are today? Even if there was some text or texts being written about spirituality, how much % of the Indian population was aware of this, given the caste structure and its rigors?

Let us not pretend something which we really don't have; what is the India psyche you refer to? Is it the 'brahmin psyche' or 'upper caste psyche' because the vast majority of the Indian people, who belonged to the Sudra caste/s did not have anything to do with the essentially brahmin-created philosophies/wisdom. This vast majority is, as yet, unaffected by all the "wisdom in this area" to a large extent; it is true that such people also participate in religious & temple activities today because the caste barriers have been mostly abolished but they have no acquaintance with the so-called 'spiritual wisdom' you are talking about, nor are they interested because their first priority is to live well and not to do idle philosophizing.

You are discounting the alchemist called Time completely. It is an admitted fact that when the civilizations elsewhere in the world were primitive-(so primitive that the men/women there did not even know that they can take a complete and good bath in a river by immersing themselves in the water-they rather sat on the banks and took water from the river and bathed) indian civilization had not only known what is the effect of a bath but also knew the importance of treating the rivers with respect. The fine high level thought processes which have thrown great insights and brilliant understanding of the universe were unknown in those civilization for a long time after the advent of vedas and upanishads. I do not know what Sravna means by spiritual super power. But I am certainly aware of the great strides my ancestors in this land had made when their contemporaries elsewhere were just aborigines who did not have a civilization worth the name.

You may ask "if that were the case what happened to your civilization?"

While my ancestors were great thinkers they had a disadvantage which all thinking people have. Thus while they too organized themselves into countries and fought with each other their armies never indulged in wanton destruction of land and environment. Thus a serious war may be raging in a place and yet the villages in the country away from the war zone would continue to go about their business as usual producing and consuming goods and services. It is chinese who invented the gunpowder and it is European tribes who invented the guns in which the gun powder was used to let lose destruction on innocent citizens of countries. This paradign change in the doctrine of warfare could never be mastered by Indians and this was so even as late as the time of Hyderali and Tippu sultan who left a trail of destruction and misery wherever they marched with their armies.

Coming to your haranguing against the brahmins and brahminism of Indian society, I would like to say this:
Every society has elites who become that by their abilities and talent. Indian society also had such elites who were not dead weights on the society but contributed to the society's welfare and growth in a major way. Thanks to this elitism we have today some of the finest insights and brilliant thought outputs unmatched by any other such contribution anywhere else in the world by contemporaries. If you look at it from the narrow constraints of caste you will certainly miss the larger picture. every society had the equivalent of caste-names may vary like slaves, serfs, ghettos etc., There were ghettos to which a particular community was condemned in European cities in the known history. They were issued ID CARDS and were to come into the city where the main population lived at a fixed time and get back to their quarters in the ghettos before sun-fall. So elitism is not the exclusive disease of India. Every society had it and the names and colors were just different. This is not to justify anything. Just to say that it is natural for the civilization to have such elitist organizational subdivisions in the society.

Indian civilization ultimately ended up as a colony only because of the lack of hunger for expansion in the Indian psyche and its inability to come to wanton destruction to bring an enemy to heel.

India has everything that US has-land, rivers, fertile farmlands, a regular monsoon, hardworking people, a brilliant elite section which is second to none in the world, a heritage and culture which is unique and which gives a moral higher ground to it. What was not there earlier is there now-the organization of the entire homogeneous landmass into a nation, thanks to imperialists who ruled us from London. so it is only a question of time before India becomes a superpower if that is really something to achieve. That is a billion Dollar question. any who wants to become a super power? what is so great about that? when you can affect and influence every major decision in the world forums, when you can mediate in a devastating war without sending a single soldier to that theatre of war or firing a single bullet from your gun, who wants to become a super power? I think India should never bother about the label. It is better to be a "developing country" for ever. LOL.

 

[sarang]

 

[sravna]

Dear Shri Sangom,

What I mean is the Indian psyche understands spirituality better because of having lived in an environment where spiritual teachings were practiced. I do not see any problem with using spiritual teachings today even though discriminations occurred against some people in the past.

All are not born with same natural inclinations and there are bound to be some who are not spiritually inclined. In the past, Indian society functioned by people complementing each others inclinations. Those who were not spiritually inclined were not a threat to the peace of the society unlike today. So it now becomes necessary to address this issue.

The way we can address this issue is by making those who are not concerned about spiritual values, to make them see the necessity to embrace them at least to the extent they don't remain a threat to the progress of the society. That way we can bring down problems such as corruption, violence, crime and various other anti social activities that greatly push back India's progress.

By making people see the significance of spiritual values we can as I argued in my earlier post make them see the greatness of the country and so be proud of it and so be inclined to really work for the progress of the country. So by promoting spiritual values in people we can remove the impediments to progress and can also give a great thrust in the direction of progress.

 

[renuka]

Dear Shri Sangom,

What I mean is the Indian psyche understands spirituality better because of having lived in an environment where spiritual teachings were practiced. I do not see any problem with using spiritual teachings today even though discriminations occurred against some people in the past.

Dear Sravna,

As far as I know..Religion is a vehicle for fulfilling desires.

Tell me what is the percentage that is actually leading a "spiritual" life per your definition?

Diwali is around the corner..as it here in Msia the date of Diwali has been changed to Oct 22nd instead of Oct 23rd becos the Hindu Sangam decided that it should be Oct 22nd! ...why I brought in Diwali is..the magazines here are now full of Vashtu points and tips on how the welcome Goddess Lakhsmi in and everyone only thinks of money even when it comes to religion.

To a great extent..no one is going to think of spirituality ..everyday is just praying for prosperity and desires.

I do not go to temples becos I feel a temple is the most chaotic place possible becos everyone comes there to empty their hearts and ask God for something or the other.

The thought wave traffic would be maddening. Is there peace in a temple?

Tell me..how spiritual can one feel when in a temple?

Its better to go sit near a waterfall all alone hearing the sounds of nature becos nature does not ask God anything.

Nature just goes along the flow and does not make any upstream demands.

So if you ask me..I dont think its 100% right that Hindus/India are/is brimming with spirituality and that would aid in being a Super Power with a heart as you make it sound.

I dont think the world was ever 100% peaceful at any one given time..its a constant battle everyday..problems of a country needs to be addressed logically and not drag in spirituality to confuse the masses.

Modi is very much a business man as one member said..that would be great for a country's economy ..Gujratis have marketing skills..after all even Gandhi was marketing Ahimsa!

The problem now is everyone wants Modi to market Hindutva too..lets see how Hindutva is marketed!

 

[sarang]

India will be a benevolent, spiritual, neutral, welcoming and tolerant power as in the past. It will not aspire to control other nations politically, or militarily. It has enough inner strength to tide over distracting influences. It has its own economic model - produce and trade; speculation and gambling as with stock markets or boosting the image of a company by hype for short term financial gains is alien to indian culture. We need strong agriculture, strong manufacture and ethical trade for distributing wealth to all.

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

Being spiritual is adopting a certain way of life. It is not about not having desires but knowing when your desires have to be controlled. It is about not infringing upon others rights for your own indulgence. Everyone can be spiritual and there is nothing supernatural about it. What you think is what makes you and by being spiritual you can have control over the external world and achieve what you want to be.

That is exactly the reason it is necessary for people to first set right how they think and all their reasonable desires would just follow.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

Being spiritual is adopting a certain way of life. It is not about not having desires but knowing when your desires have to be controlled. It is about not infringing upon others rights for your own indulgence. Everyone can be spiritual and there is nothing supernatural about it. What you think is what makes you and by being spiritual you can have control over the external world and achieve what you want to be.

That is exactly the reason it is necessary for people to first set right how they think and all their reasonable desires would just follow.

Dear Sravna,

I dont believe in controlling anything. Controlling is just a form of suppression.

We can only shift the attention to a less detrimental method to strike a balance.

For example..sometimes when I get a craving to eat something say like Chocolate..I eat some a small bar but I make sure I up my exercise the next day to make sure my calorie expenditure is more and wards off the effect of eating a chocolate. So here I give in to my desire but at the same time I make sure my desire does not affect me totally.

So Sravna..nothing can be 100% controlled..that is only suppression..the desire remains.

One has to go beyond desires and that is not an easy state for most people.

I surely do not think that being spiritual one can control the external world...that is not being spiritual in fact that is just adding burden to ourselves ..cos no sane person can control the external world.
Only insane people can control the world..becos they create their own ideology and their own world and expect everyone to follow it.

Insanity is a criteria for a politician.No truly sane person can be a good politician. Some streak of Insanity has to be there.At least 1%!

I do not believe in setting the brains of others right ..there is no such thing as only one way of thinking...the day that happens all of us will cease to be humans..we will be inanimate objects.

Sravna I wonder why you are getting unduly attached to the idea of spirituality?

Dont you realize that too is a desire? As you feel desires need to be controlled..so why not 'control" your desire of spiritualizing everything?

Why cant you accept the world as it is?

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

Controlling is the first step towards transcending. So that first step even if not the ultimate solution, has to be taken. If that step is not taken you end up destroying yourself and others.

Desiring to be spiritual is not a desire that is harmful because you are able to tide over your desires that can harm you. Unlike other desires the more you desire to to be spiritual, the more fulfilled you become.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

Controlling is the first step towards transcending. So that first step even if not the ultimate solution, has to be taken. If that step is not taken you end up destroying yourself and others.

Desiring to be spiritual is not a desire that is harmful because you are able to tide over your desires that can harm you. Unlike other desires the more you desire to to be spiritual, the more fulfilled you become.

A desire is still a desire..even in Geeta the word used is Kama for desire..it does not differentiate between good desire and bad desire.

In fact being attached to a "good" desire is the most difficult to give up becos one becomes addicted to the idea of being good and will not want to move beyond.

Have you see how easy it is sometimes for a criminal to make a 180 degree turn?

He can give up everything so fast and even go beyond good ..the reason? Becos he has been addicted to being bad and he knows addiction of any kind does not take anyone anywhere so he does not even get addicted to good..in fact he transcends even good and reaches the Ultimate.

He has no one to show too..he has no reason to even prove anything.

But with the person who is addicted to good..he never wants to let go of it.

So Sravna...there is a risk of even being too good.

BTW no one can fully control..one needs to understand how to handle a situation.Controlling is just sweeping stuff under the carpet.

 

[sangom]

Dear Sri sangom Sir,

< Clipped >

And China enjoys a leverage with US because of that investment like all large investors have with their client. This in short is the story of the super power called US.

Knowledgeable writers like Mohan Gurumurthy, say that the US is having the leverage because China has to ensure that it gets its dues back, at least without interest. I also tend to support that view because that is the reality in the world today!

You are discounting the alchemist called Time completely. It is an admitted fact that when the civilizations elsewhere in the world were primitive-(so primitive that the men/women there did not even know that they can take a complete and good bath in a river by immersing themselves in the water-they rather sat on the banks and took water from the river and bathed) indian civilization had not only known what is the effect of a bath but also knew the importance of treating the rivers with respect. The fine high level thought processes which have thrown great insights and brilliant understanding of the universe were unknown in those civilization for a long time after the advent of vedas and upanishads. I do not know what Sravna means by spiritual super power. But I am certainly aware of the great strides my ancestors in this land had made when their contemporaries elsewhere were just aborigines who did not have a civilization worth the name.

I feel this is all simply gloating in one's own imagination, like that old Muslim woman in Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer's novel "nruppuppaakkoraanENDaarnnu (ந்றுப்புப்பாக்கொரானேண்டார்ன்னு = My grandfather owned an elephant!) although she was on the verge of begging for a living! We have no scientifically provable evidence that the civilizations elsewhere in the world (so, you agree, they were also civilized, don't you?) did not know about "good bath". May be their climate made them think differently about cleaning their bodies in different ways and periodicities. You must have heard of the joke about the low caste man who imitated his Namboodiri landlord and bathed thrice a day; since his body had accumulated so much of the thorn-like stem of the paddy, due to his constant handling of the harvested crops, he had such intense itching that he died!

About, the "high level thought process of "my ancestors in this land" does contain many instances of rank foolishness/idiocy also; but due to the alchemist Time, uselessness of learning the nearly dead language, sanskrit, which does not help in earning the daily bread, etc., it is possible to gloat over a tremendous past, which is only in the gloater's imagination! I may add here that these howlers were not pointed out by western scholars, but by our own equally Indian heretics like Buddha, Charvaka, Brihaspati and so on.

You may ask "if that were the case what happened to your civilization?"

While my ancestors were great thinkers they had a disadvantage which all thinking people have. Thus while they too organized themselves into countries and fought with each other their armies never indulged in wanton destruction of land and environment. Thus a serious war may be raging in a place and yet the villages in the country away from the war zone would continue to go about their business as usual producing and consuming goods and services. It is chinese who invented the gunpowder and it is European tribes who invented the guns in which the gun powder was used to let lose destruction on innocent citizens of countries. This paradign change in the doctrine of warfare could never be mastered by Indians and this was so even as late as the time of Hyderali and Tippu sultan who left a trail of destruction and misery wherever they marched with their armies.

Is it not more honest to admit that the great Indian thinkers, unlike the equally capable thinkers of China or Arabia, did not have the ability to probe nature and invent? Why cover up our inability with so much verbose floweriness?

Coming to your haranguing against the brahmins and brahminism of Indian society, I would like to say this:

Every society has elites who become that by their abilities and talent. Indian society also had such elites who were not dead weights on the society but contributed to the society's welfare and growth in a major way. Thanks to this elitism we have today some of the finest insights and brilliant thought outputs unmatched by any other such contribution anywhere else in the world by contemporaries. If you look at it from the narrow constraints of caste you will certainly miss the larger picture. every society had the equivalent of caste-names may vary like slaves, serfs, ghettos etc., There were ghettos to which a particular community was condemned in European cities in the known history. They were issued ID CARDS and were to come into the city where the main population lived at a fixed time and get back to their quarters in the ghettos before sun-fall. So elitism is not the exclusive disease of India. Every society had it and the names and colors were just different. This is not to justify anything. Just to say that it is natural for the civilization to have such elitist organizational subdivisions in the society.

Therefore it goes to prove that unlike the elites of other societies, the ancient Indian society as a whole, could not make any progress, may be because of the stranglehold of the brahmins and other elite castes. Instead of accepting this reality, and trying to justify, by hook or by crook, the evils of caste system, we will only further blacken our faces. At least at this very late stage, let us wake up from the Rip Van Vinkle stage and dreaming about some lost glory,

Indian civilization ultimately ended up as a colony only because of the lack of hunger for expansion in the Indian psyche and its inability to come to wanton destruction to bring an enemy to heel.

The Indian conquests in South-east asia have to be swept under the carpet and the history of the Cholas, Ashoka, etc., should be re-written to say that Ashoka never conquered Kalinga, etc.!

 

[sravna]

A desire is still a desire..even in Geeta the word used is Kama for desire..it does not differentiate between good desire and bad desire.

In fact being attached to a "good" desire is the most difficult to give up becos one becomes addicted to the idea of being good and will not want to move beyond.

Have you see how easy it is sometimes for a criminal to make a 180 degree turn?

He can give up everything so fast and even go beyond good ..the reason? Becos he has been addicted to being bad and he knows addiction of any kind does not take anyone anywhere so he does not even get addicted to good..in fact he transcends even good and reaches the Ultimate.

He has no one to show too..he has no reason to even prove anything.

But with the person who is addicted to good..he never wants to let go of it.

So Sravna...there is a risk of even being too good.

BTW no one can fully control..one needs to understand how to handle a situation.Controlling is just sweeping stuff under the carpet.

Dear Renuka,

It seems my definition of "good" seems to differ from yours. When one is bad or wicked he shows no balance. As one becomes good, the balance begins to happen and as one becomes better and better the balance becomes better. Good means not just being compassionate or kind always but knowing when to be those because that would improve the prospects of the whole. Wouldn't you say god is good even though there seems to be so many evil acts from the creation for which he was respnsible. But the idea is he sees the big picture and events occur in such a way that all benefit eventually.

So the logical conclusion of one who is good is one who is perfectly balanced in thoughts. The intermediate stages of good where one is overwhelmed by positive thoughts need to happen.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

It seems my definition of "good" seems to differ from yours. When one is bad or wicked he shows no balance. As one becomes good, the balance begins to happen and as one becomes better and better the balance becomes better. Good means not just being compassionate or kind always but knowing when to be those because that would improve the prospects of the whole. Wouldn't you say god is good even though there seems to be so many evil acts from the creation for which he was respnsible. But the idea is he sees the big picture and events occur in such a way that all benefit eventually.

So the logical conclusion of one who is good is one who is perfectly balanced in thoughts. The intermediate stages of good where one is overwhelmed by positive thoughts need to happen.

Dear Sravna,

Good is still at one pole..to balance good even bad has to exists.

One is totally balanced only when one is whole and complete that is beyond both good and bad.

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

As I said it is in the way that we define good and bad that we differ. It is logical to define good as something we are when we attain a certain level of balance in thinking. That is when we can start doing activities that are considered good. So the logical conclusion would be when we attain perfect balance in thinking.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

As I said it is in the way that we define good and bad that we differ. It is logical to define good as something we are when we attain a certain level of balance in thinking. That is when we can start doing activities that are considered good. So the logical conclusion would be when we attain perfect balance in thinking.

Dear Sravna,

As long as the mind exists..there is no such thing as a balanced mind or perfect balance in thinking.

 

[sravna]

Yes Renuka, you are right only when mind becomes one with the soul there is perfect balance in thinking. But I was only trying to put across my perspective of good

 

[CHANDRU1849]

A Superpower is a country which has steady economic development, less unemployment problem, peaceful living, freedom of thought, oneness among people, good medical care etc. Scandinavian Countries, Singapore, Japan, S. Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are probably the real superpowers.

Militarily US may be a superpower but of late, terrorists are also able to handle sophisticated weapons with precision. 9/11 is a perfect example.

India becoming an economic superpower in the near future is highly speculative, since more than 60% of the people belong to BPL category - Below Poverty Line.

 

[psvraman]

First of all I do not understand why India should become a super power or focus on or make efforts in becoming one when almost 40% of our population do not have access to meeting their basic needs like affordable proper housing, nutrious food, reasonably good medical care , education that can equip their children with employable skills and adequate job opportunities.No nation can boast of its status as a super power when the sanitataion is poor, majority of the roads are full of pot holes and 6 hours darkness in the vast rural areas where only we produce food grains for our survival.But still the spiritual foundations laid by our forefathers make the vast majority of our people believe not in individual excellence, but in helpful attitude to the less fortunate.In the name of freedom and democracy we have become more conscious of our right to assert individual liberty instead of respecting community need.Let first discipline come to us as a nation.Many qualities like strong work ethics,punctuality we should have learnt from the Westerners.Instead things like drugs,public display of affection,divorces,live-in relationships etc. have been absorbed in our society.We are a nation of intelligent people.Once we address our basic needs and make life livable for vast majority of our population , we can move to the Super Power status in no time.

 

[Vaagmi]

Dear Sri sangom Sir,

And China enjoys a leverage with US because of that investment like all large investors have with their client. This in short is the story of the super power called US.

Knowledgeable writers like Mohan Gurumurthy, say that the US is having the leverage because China has to ensure that it gets its dues back, at least without interest. I also tend to support that view because that is the reality in the world today!

I beg to differ even if this were Gurumurthy’s view. It is like declaring that US may become bankrupt anytime now and so the entire investment by China in short term US treasury notes is likely to remain just junk. So China also goes down with US in the bankruptcy route and so it is in jitters. LOL.I leave it to the judgment of the readers here to decide whether this can be anywhere near the truth. (India also has a major chunk of its forex holdings invested in USD treasury notes like many other world economic giants and yet there does not appear to be any jitters as yet visible and no hasty withdrawals though the “tapering” is very much on the horizon)

You are discounting the alchemist called Time completely. It is an admitted fact that when the civilizations elsewhere in the world were primitive-(so primitive that the men/women there did not even know that they can take a complete and good bath in a river……………... But I am certainly aware of the great strides my ancestors in this land had made when their contemporaries elsewhere were just aborigines who did not have a civilization worth the name.

………….About, the "high level thought process of "my ancestors in this land" does contain many instances of rank foolishness/idiocy also; but due to the alchemist Time, uselessness of learning the nearly dead language, sanskrit, which does not help in earning the daily bread, etc., it is possible to gloat over a tremendous past, which is only in the gloater's imagination! I may add here that these howlers were not pointed out by western scholars, but by our own equally Indian heretics like Buddha, Charvaka, Brihaspati and so on.

I respect your right to hold on to that view. I leave it at that.

While my ancestors were great thinkers they had a disadvantage which all thinking people have. Thus while they too organized themselves into countries and fought with each other their armies never indulged in wanton destruction of land and environment. ……….

Is it not more honest to admit that the great Indian thinkers, unlike the equally capable thinkers of China or Arabia, did not have the ability to probe nature and invent? Why cover up our inability with so much verbose floweriness?

I do not know what verbose floweriness is. But I know that those “equally capable” thinkers from China needed heavy input of opium to expand their minds to do the thinking and in the process they sold their country in return for the opium supplied to them. You appear to have a lot of respect for the Chinese for all the probing they did into the nature and all their inventions. It would have been nice if you had listed a few of them. .

Coming to your haranguing against the brahmins and brahminism of Indian society, I would like to say this:
Every society has elites who become that by their abilities and talent. Indian society also had such elites who were not dead weights on the society but contributed to the society's welfare and growth in a major way. Thanks to this elitism we have today some of thehe known history. They were issued ID CARDS and were to come into the city where the main population ………….Just to say that it is natural for the civilization to have such elitist organizational subdivisions in the society.

Therefore it goes to prove that unlike the elites of other societies, the ancient Indian society as a whole, could not make any progress, may be because of the stranglehold of the brahmins and other elite castes. Instead of accepting this reality, and trying to justify, by hook or by crook, the evils of caste system, we will only further blacken our faces. At least at this very late stage, let us wake up from the Rip Van Vinkle stage and dreaming about some lost glory

It is again your right to hold on to that view. Readers here will judge.

Indian civilization ultimately ended up as a colony only because of the lack of hunger for expansion in the Indian psyche and its inability to come to wanton destruction to bring an enemy to heel.
The Indian conquests in South-east asia have to be swept under the carpet and the history of the Cholas, Ashoka, etc., should be re-written to say that Ashoka never conquered Kalinga, etc.!

More details needed to answer this claim of glory. And I was under the impression that Kalinga was very much part of India and was won by asoka. But your story of the past glory which you do not want to sweep under carpet tells a different glorious truth. I would correct myself if you can give facts. Thanks.