Our self-respect died at Lynas in Gebeng, Pahang

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

"It is common experience that Englishmen lose in character after residence in India and that Indians lose in courage and manliness by contact with Englishmen. This process of weakening is good neither for us two nations, nor for the world" -- Young India, September 22, 1920.

The rare earth processing plant at Lynas in Gebeng, Pahang has not exhibited any technical glitches, said Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) chief executive officer Dr Ahmad Ibrahim.

He said there was no obstacle preventing processing works to be carried out at the plant.

“ASM research found that there were no technical problems for Lynas to operate because sources, which would be processed from China and Australia, are the same sources which had been processed at the 50-year factory in France.

“Imagine that the factory has operated nearly 50 years in the tourism city, La Rochelle, in France, and is still strong and certified as safe... the factory in Gebeng is using similar technology,” he told Bernama after an interview with Radio 24 at Wisma Bernama here today.

La Rochelle, of France’s Rhodia group, is a pioneer in the rare earth business in that country.

It is the only integrated industrial company that carries out manufacturing operations and supplies raw materials via the rare earth factory in China.

On June 25, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Lynas Advanced Materials Project tabled its report at the Dewan Rakyat, recommending that a temporary operating licence be issued to enable the factory to begin operations.

Among others, the report also recommended that the factory could process raw materials in stages and in limited amounts, and be continuously supervised by enforcement agencies. — Bernama

This Gandhian quote aptly describes how the British, despite being less in numbers, resorted to corrupt means to rule over millions of Indians and how the Indians, sitting in positions of power, helped the colonial masters to rule. Ninety years later, apply it to the travesty of justice in the Bhopal tragedy case and you will find that the situation has not changed. The only difference is that British have been replaced by Americans and corrupt Indians by our present-day politicians, ironically, belonging to the same Congress party which fought against the British.
 
I would say that the situation has deteriorated compared with 1920 and we the people of India are also directly or indirectly responsible for the mess. After all, it's we who elect governments. Union Carbide and Warren Anderson only took advantage of the corrupt government machinery and judicial system to get away with a genocide which left thousands dead, and lakhs sick and disabled, and inflicted untold miseries on millions.
 
The catastrophe was not only because of the deliberate criminal negligence of Union Carbide but also due to the institutionalised corruption in the country, which kills thousands every year by usurping funds allocated for flood/drought relief, medicines and ration for the poor, building of infrastructure, creation of employment ... kickbacks, scams ... the list is long. And, it's no secret with the country's top leadership accepting that only 10 paise of a rupee sanctioned by the government in Delhi reaches the grassroots.
 
It was indeed outrageous to see Anderson walking away freely with the help of our politicians who sold the country's self-respect without thinking about the dead and their families. But the matter, besides corruption, which is of greater concern is our enslaved mindset which finds anything American (read western) is perfect.
 
Remember how we and our media go ga-ga over success of an Indian in America or every time an Indian-American wins an election or is chosen for a high post in the administration. President Obama's administration also has many Indian-Americans. Also remember, how we observe NRI (non-resident Indian) divas with fanfare and count NRI investment in India as major achievement. But the Indian diaspora in America, said to be influential both in numbers and capabilities, has done little so far to show its concern for Bhopal or to pressure the US government for Anderson's extradition.
 
Obama also claims to be inspired by Gandhi. He had recently said that given an opportunity to dine with a historical personality, he would choose Gandhi. But what would have President Obama said, if Gandhi in that dinner raised the question of Bhopal? I am sure Obama would have taken the same stand as taken by Dow Chemicals which now owns Union Carbide: "500 dollars as compensation for every Indian victim are enough."
 
India Inc is also silent, limiting itself only to a set of recommendations asking the government of India to see that Bhopal-like incidents are not repeated.

All the rhetoric about India being an economic powerhouse and emerging world power is meaningless if we are unable to save our honour. It's only a tool to make us fools. A garb to allow multinational companies (MNCs) access to the large Indian market and plunder the country's wealth.
 
Undoubtedly, a few coming out of IIMs/ IITs and likes have got into good positions in the "open market system" but it's a matter of research how many of them have tried to change the system and how many became part of the corrupt babudom-netas-corporate nexus.
 
No wonder the Bhopal trial took 25 years and at the end the culprits walked with a minor punishment. The main perpetrators got away cocking a snook at India and its poor masses. Our netas escorted Anderson to the airport to ensure his safe exit. But the worst part is that the privileged class in India still looks at Americans with reverence. It doesn't matter to this class when the Americans' dogs shamelessly stroll over Bapu's samadhi at Rajghat before their President's visit or our beloved ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam is strip-searched at the airport.
 
It's high time we need to ask ourselves: Will Bhopal become an election issue? Will we vote out the leaders who auctioned India's self-respect? Are we ready to boycott anything and everything with the American tag as a protest? Are we ready to stop taking or paying "suvidha shulk" for out-of-way favours? Do you consider India as a family? If yes, please rise to defend your family's honour and help it get justice.
 
Now, following a sustained campaign, the government says the compensation will be increased from a measly Rs 25,000 per person given by Union Carbide to Rs 10 lakh, hoping this would cool the tempers. The question is not only about compensation but justice. Talking about money, there is plenty if 1.25 lakh billionaires in this country decide to adopt one victim family each and take care of their health and livelihood. However, I have serious doubts that they would do such a thing.
 
The only way to bring the defaulting company and our netas to their knees is the UNITY of the masses working with a firm resolve to fight for justice come what may. This reminds me of another Gandhian aphorism: "Unity consists in our having a common purpose, goal and sorrows. Best promoted by co-operating to reach the common goal, by sharing one anothers' sorrows and by mutual toleration. (Young India, February 25, 1920).
 
The question of corruption is more important than anything else because it is the source of all evils be it Bhopal or farmers' suicide or scores of scams we see every year. And we the privileged ones are also responsible for it -- we either remain silent over the issue of corruption or become partners in the crime but cry foul only when the fire reaches our houses. Otherwise, "apna kam banta, bhad mein jaye janta".
 
Any solution? Again I would refer to Gandhi: "The reforms required are more from within than from without. A perfect Constitution super-imposed upon a rotten internal condition will be like a whited sepulchre (Young India, June 24, 1926)."

There are so many different ways to pray; in Rumi's words, "there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Recently I wrote about being drawn into silent inner prayer, but there is another form of prayer that meets me early each morning.

Walking beside the wetlands I see an egret's wings rise brilliant white from the water. It flies and settles further off in the grey early light, and I am awakened in a quite differently way than from my first cup of hot tea. After its white, white wings I see the world more distinct, the wild roses more brilliant and pink as they spill over a fence. I sense, smell, hear and see in a different way: I am more present.

I have always loved and needed to walk in the early morning. After waking up, first meditation and hot tea, then going outside, feeling, sensing the world before the day's demands begin. Even when I lived in the city I would run or cycle in the early morning, needing this connection, this seeing the world around before life's business too often drowned out any quiet. For the last 20 years I have lived amid nature -- an unexpected blessing -- and taking the same walk every morning, each day would be different, the light, the call of the birds, the way a leaf moved in the wind. Recently we moved, not far, but my early walk is different, beside a wetland rather than amidst the trees, and so the landscape of this morning meeting is very different. And yet the essence of this early prayer is the same: this meeting with the sacred around me.

While meditation takes me inward into an essential inner silence and emptiness, this early morning walking is a prayer. In prayer there is a meeting: I meet and bow before the One in Its many colors, sounds and smells. Of course, many mornings I forget, and take my own thoughts with me on my walk. But then I am reminded, like today when the egret's wings flashed white, and I awake from myself and see more clearly -- the colors, the sounds, the beauty, the divine. Once more I am attuned to how "The world is charged with the grandeur of God."

Any prayer in which there is a real meeting, a real relationship with the divine, is always changing. Just as each day is different, sometimes fog (we live beside the ocean), sometimes the sun breaking through, sometimes bright light, so the states of prayer change. Sometimes this meeting in the morning is more intimate, my heart sings, I feel a deep oneness with what is around me. More recently I have felt a calling, as if the earth needs me, needs my attention. It wants to draw me into deeper awareness: to meet it not just on the surface, amidst the brilliance of its colors and sounds, but in its interior soul, in the depths of its sacred self.

In these moments there is a sense that my morning walking prayer is not just for me, but also mysteriously for something within nature: that this meeting in prayer is needed by the earth. These early mornings are for me a deep remembrance of the sacred in creation, in the world around. It is a very private time -- no one else is around -- I try not to allow the thought-forms or demands of the day in. But there has come a deepening sense that this remembrance is also needed by the earth -- that it is calling for my awareness of its divine nature -- that it needs my prayer.

We always think that our prayer is about us, our need for the divine. And of course this is true: prayer is born from need. Each morning under the need to remember, to reconnect with a wonder that is around me there is also a deeper truth, that the divine needs our remembrance. In so many ways the divine calls out to us -- throughout our day, throughout our life. And our prayer is a response to Its call. As Rumi says, "I never knew that God too desires us."

And now the earth is calling. I can sense it in the early morning, in the white flashing of the egret's wings, in the fragrance of the wild roses. The earth needs us to remember its divine nature: it needs our prayers. Something sacred in the world is dying and needs our attention. How long can it survive our culture's desecration, our pillage and pollution, our deep neglect of its divine nature? Just as the world helps me to awaken every morning, we are needed to help the world awaken from this nightmare we call materialism. The soul of the world is calling to us. Our prayers for the earth are needed.

WATCH a recent short video Cry of the Earth: 

Scientists have found the Higgs Boson, also known as the God Particle, which, they say, is responsible for giving matter its property of mass and subsequently size and shape. It could also help explain how the universe began. The Indian media has rightly pointed out that Indian scientist Satyendra Nath Bose whose research laid the foundation of the discovery has not been given due credit. Even many of us were also unaware of the contribution of Bose till it was highlighted by the media. Not only Bose, contribution of many Indian scientists has been overlooked. The knowledge in the Vedas and ancient Indian scriptures has also not been given due recognition, though many scientists, including western, have taken inspiration from them. From discovery of decimal system and zero to geometry, physics, medicine, astronomy and biology among other things -- the ancient Indian scriptures have almost everything. The Vedas are treasure of knowledge and not just religious texts. They have blended the empirical science with the spirituality. While the empirical science is required for the growth and survival of the mankind, the spirituality is essential for awakening the human conscience, which in turn helps in conserving the Nature on which depends the very existence of the world. 

Scientists who discovered God Particle, after spending over 10 billion dollars, claim that they recreated the situation when the universe was formed but the big question is that can we restore the Nature which has been and is being destroyed by the man in the quest for material growth? Yes, it can be done and that too without spending even a penny, if we start seeing the God in every particle around us. As Vedas have declared and reiterated in Geeta, God resides even in the minutest of particle in the universe. Superficially, it may appear to be a religious notion but in fact through Vedas, ancient researcher whom we refer as Rishis, have tried to communicate that everything in the Nature is the God, hence its our moral obligation to protect and preserve it. The laws of Nature apply on everyone including human beings. These law balance the entire universe. However, human beings are defying these laws and in the process destroying Nature. All living beings are dependent on the Nature. Its destruction means destruction of the God and Self. There are certain ills like caste system which are attributed to Vedas. The answer is that anything, even if it is religious texts, which defies the basic fact that the God resides in every particle should be discarded. Instead of letter, the emphasis should be on spirit.  

Considering the pathetic situation prevailing today, I often feel that the `Jungle Raj' is better than the `Kanoon Ka Raj'. In jungle, all living beings follow the law of Nature but human beings do not follow the law of Nature and always try to break away from Kanoon Ka Raaj (rule of law). That's the reason why we do not have peace and orderliness in the society despite having number of laws. In Jungle, one will never find one living being looting, killing and raping fellow living being. There are no dowry deaths, honour killings, female foeticide, riots, farmer suicides, hunger deaths while tonnes of food grain is allowed to rot, terrorism, smuggling, scams....All the living beings follow the laws set for them by the Nature. The laws of the Nature take care that the need of every living being is fulfilled. But the greed in man has created a situation where 20% of the population has hold over 80% of the resources. This 20% population is responsible for destruction of the Nature or the God and the remaining 80% suffer on account of it. Only the balance science and spirituality in our lives can ensure welfare of all. The spirituality does not necessarily means renouncing the world and meditate. Its about realising the God within, that is, to awaken the conscience, and to see the God in all living beings. Its difficult but not impossible to be selfless. In fact, its the "selflessness" which makes human being different from animals. Swami Vivekananda defined God in one line "Service to man is service to the God". Mother Teresa said "There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread." 

Following is the speech of Mahatma Gandhi on existence of god delivered at Kingsley Hall, London,  on October 17, 1931. The speech, in my view, has the most simple and suitable definition of the God.  

"There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of god to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules, or why, and how He rules. And yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. 

In my tour last year in Mysore, I met many poor villagers and I found upon inquiry that they did not know who ruled Mysore. They simple said some god ruled it. If the knowledge of these poor people was so limited about their ruler, I, who am infinitely lesser in respect to God than they to their ruler need not be surprised if I do not realize the presence of God, the King of Kings.

Nevertheless, I do feel, as the poor villagers felt about Mysore, that there is orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is not a blind law, for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. And thanks to the marvelous researches of Sir JC Bose, it can now be proved that even matter has life. 

That law then which governs all life is God. Law and the lawgiver are one. I may not deny the law or the lawgiver because I know so little about it or Him. Just as my denial or ignorance of the existence of an earthly power will avail me nothing. Even so, my denial of God and His law will not liberate me from its operation. Whereas, humble and mute acceptance of divine authority makes life’s journey easier even as the acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it easier. 

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together; that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That informing power of spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is. And if this power is benevolent or malevolent, I see it as purely benevolent. For, I can see that in the midst of death, life persists. In the midst of untruth, truth persists. In the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. He is love. He is the supreme good. But, He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect, if He ever does. God to be God must rule the heart and transform it. He must express himself even in smallest act of His votary. This can only be done through a definite realization more real than the fives senses can ever produce. 

Sense perceptions can be and often are false and deceptive however real they may appear to us. Where there is realization outside the senses it is infallible. It is proved not by extreme extraneous evidence, but in the transformed conduct and character of those who have felt the real presence of God within. Such testimony is to be found in the experiences of an unbroken line of prophets and sages in all countries and climes. To reject this evidence is to deny oneself. This realization is preceded by an immovable faith. He who would in his own person, test the fact of God’s presence can do so by a living faith and since faith itself cannot be proved by extraneous evidence, the safest course is to believe in the moral government of the world and therefore in the supremacy of the moral law, the law of truth and love. Exercise of faiths will be the safest where there is the clear determination summarily to reject all that is contrary to truth and love. 

I confess that I have no argument to convince through reason. Faith transcends reason. All that I can advise is not to attempt the impossible."