Amartya Sen, Religious Identity & Conflicts

In his essays and lectures, Amartya Sen emphasizes again and again that all individuals belong to different groups. The fact that Paole is a teacher does not entail that being a teacher is his only identity. Besides being a teacher, he is also affiliated to diverse groups that give him some sort of identity. He is a hockey player, political activist, poet, Christian, childless parent, Indian etc. Affiliation to different groups give him identity which if a particular identity is prioritized over others, Sen argues, his identity would be wrongly misconstrued. This multiple affiliation by an individual leads Sen to argue that mono-categorisation of a person's identity is unhelpful and can easily play into the hand of a religious fundamentalist. Is Prof. Sen correct? 

I think as a non-religious person Sen fails to see how much religious worldview shapes the identity of a person. Key questions like where am I headed? How do I obtain moral learning from? What is the purpose of my life? etc are very significant matters in the life of a person. For a practising Christian or a Muslim these questions are answered through the sacred text. Unlike a non-religious person for whom where there is no particular source from where all these answered can be derived, a Christian or a Muslim search deep into their respective Scripture to get the answer. Departure from this practice would make him or her a non-practising Christian or a Muslim. 

Once a Christian or a Muslim learns an ethical pattern from the Scripture, he or she will apply the learning in all the domain of his or her life. Thus religious affiliation effects the person to live out his or her religious conviction. This religious affiliation takes priority over even national affiliation or family affiliation. This is the nature of religious affiliation. Religious affiliation does not always come into conflict with national or family affiliation. But sometimes it does. For example, even when former USSR adopted atheism as its official religion, faithful Christians refused to comply with the state's law.

Does this entail that a clash of civilisation is inevitable? No. But that is not the point of inquiry here. In this post I seek to underline that religious identity of particularly the Christians or the Muslims is the most primary identity and will continue to remain so.

Bamboo Stem Plantation

The valuable Bamboo plant has many uses. It can be used to carry water, as building material, for making furniture, craft work and to control erosion on riverbanks. But bamboo is always in short supply because it is not usually cultivated by farmers. It just grows wild. Most types of bamboo grow shoots from underground stems called rhizomes. These shoots grow into tall above-ground stems.

If you want to propagate bamboo it is important to follow the correct method. Take cuttings from tall trunks in a clump that is not more than three years old. You will get the best results if you take cuttings from the middle part of the trunk. A trunk 10 metres high will give about four cuttings.

Each cutting should have two full, undamaged internodes and a half internode.

Planting

Plant the cuttings as soon as they are cut because they are sensitive to shock, which can result in poor germination or complete failure. Light sandy loam soils are best for bamboo growing.

Allow plenty of space for the cuttings to develop. Plant them vertically, with the half internode above ground. Apply a seal of moist clay to the top cut edge of the bamboo without covering the hole. The clay will act as a disinfectant. Pour two cups of water into the top of the bamboo cutting. Keep adding water regularly until roots and green shoots develop at the nodes.

Other Method

You can also use longer cuttings with four to six internodes (see diagram below). Plant these horizontally, after making a hole in the middle internode. Keep this hole filled with water until the nodes produce roots and new growth. Cuttings can also be made from aerial shoots that develop on the tall trunks. These cuttings must have at least two and a half internodes.These methods can be used to establish community forests or in reforestation programmes. Let’s keep growing bamboo!

 NB: This material is lifted from Tearfund's publication Footsteps no. 23. The link is given below: 

http://tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Footsteps+21-30/Footsteps+23/Growing+bamboo.htm

Daniel, Chris & Pumpkin Man

Chris stayed with us for few months. And carving a pumpkin man is one of the few tricks we learn from him. We also taught him how to make aloo subzi. This is a joy of interacting with people of other cultures; we learn from one another.

Death of Savita Halappanavar, Abortion and Christian Belief

On October 28th, 2012, Savita Halappanavar died of multiple organ failure. Her husband was reported to have said that if she had been allowed abortion, she would have been alive today. May be so! However, what is not clear is that even if the doctors had invoked their Christian belief to refuse abortion, the doctors were supposed to do every possible things they could do to save her life, even if it means harming the very life of the foetus. So in the process of trying to save the mother's life, if the foetus dies, that does not go against Christian's belief. Anyway, the exact event leading to the death of Savita may become clearer later -- or let's hope so! And once it's clear I trust that the government would take appropriate measure. 

For now I wish to examine if curbing abortion or allowing abortion is more appropriate from the justice point of view. There is this proponent of pro-life on one side and proponent of  pro-choice on the other side who are debating on the matter. Proponent of pro-choice argues that the woman should have the right to choose whereas proponent of pro-life argues that the foetus should have the right to life. In this debate, I see that the question whether the foetus is a human person or not is inevitable. If the foetus is found to be a human person, then the question arises whether the woman has the right to terminate the human person inside or whether the right of the human person inside to life trumps over the right of the woman to terminate.And when it is put this way, it boils down to the fact that even if a human person is parasitic no human person has the right to take away other person's life. 

So back to the question: is the foetus inside a human person? Well, how do we define a human person? It's complex! But to settle a philosophical question let's ask whether it's the fertilized egg that is called a human person or whether it's the development of consciousness that makes the egg a human person or whether it's the egg that is born that should be called a human person. Now if it's the consciousness that makes an egg a human person, then we get into problem regarding the status of those adult who are brain dead or who are in the worst stage of coma. And it would be rather bizarre to consider that only when the foetus lands on the earth then we confer the status "human" on that nine months old foetus! The most intelligible way to me is to hold that it's the fertilized egg that should be called "thou"; the "it" ceases once the egg and the sperm meet. 

Considering this thought progression I don't think it is justice to do away with law on abortion. If such a law is done away with, many human persons would face clinical death every day. The death of Savita Halappanavar is unfortunate. But doing away abortion law is not the answer to rectifying the system. Justice to Praveen and Savita lies elsewhere; not in doing away the abortion law.

Did Eating Pork Trigger Buddha's Death?

Pali Canon has three main sections: 

1. Vinaya Pitaka

2. Sutta Pitaka

3. Abhidhamma Pitaka

And Sutta Pitaka consists of five collections, among which Digha Nikaya (DN) is the first. This Pali Canon is traditionally considered to have been settled at the first Council at Rajagaha three months after the death of Gotama the Buddha. In Pali it is Siddhattha Gotama, Sutta (discourse) and Nibbana whereas in Sanskrit it is Siddhartha Gautama, Sutra and Nirvana. For this reason I shall use the Pali version instead of Sanskrit!

Mahaparinibbana Sutta: The Great Passing The Buddha's Last Days of the Digha Nikaya records an interesting event. The Buddha was now around 80 years old. And after having stayed at Bhoganagara, Buddha told Ananda that they leave for Pava. At Pava Buddha gave a discourse on Dhamma to Cunda, the smith, who came to seek an audience with the Buddha. Then Cunda invited Buddha and his order of monks for a meal. Cunda went home and had a fine meal prepared with an abundance of ' sukara-maddava'. ( Sukara= pig, Maddava= gentle/soft.) Maurice Walshe, in his translation of the DN to English, uses the phrase "pig's delight" to translate "sukara-maddava'.

Butddha  came the next day with his order of monks to Cunda's house. After being seated for a meal, Buddha said, " Serve the 'pig's delight' that has been prepared to me, and serve the remaining hard and soft food to the order of monks." Buddha and the monks are to eat just once a day; gluttony as it is in other religious/philosophical tradition was not considered proper. And after a moderate meal Buddha told Cunda, " Whatever is left over of the 'pig's delight' you should bury in a pit, because, Cunda, I can see none in the world with its devas, maras, and Brahmas, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its princes and people who, if they were to eat it, could thoroughly digest it except the Tathagata". ( 'Tathagatha' refers to Buddha himself here.) 

Having eaten the 'pig's delight' Buddha had a "bloody diarrhoea'  and he had severe pain as if he were close to death. Buddha, of course, as an 'enlightened one' was not upset with Cunda for the meal. Rather he taught his disciples that if anyone would serve a meal after which a Tathagatha attains supreme enlightenment or nibbana, that giver's deed would be profitable and fruitful. Sometime later the same Sutta records  Buddha traveling to different towns, but it also records Buddha as repeating " I am tired and want to lie down". One may infer that the 'bloody diarrhoea' had token its toll on Buddha's health, considering that he was in his 80's. However, even before eating of this 'pig's delight' Buddha was well aware that his time was near. Ten pages before the record of his eating of 'pig's delight', Buddha had told Mara, the Evil one, similar to the Serpent of the Bible, that three months from then on he would take the final Nibana. So when the time arrived for Buddha to pass away, whether the 'pig's delight' triggered the death or not, he would have entered his last phase on this earth. 

Besides the above point, the other matter that emerges is whether Buddhist can eat meat/pork or not. Commenting on this point, Maurice Walshe writes that Buddha tells that monks were not to eat meat if they knew or suspect that the animal was killed specially for them. Buddha had in fact rejected  proposal to forbid meat eating as such. Since the monks were living on alms, if they had refused meat they would be embarrassing the household that offered them food or otherwise starved if they refused meat altogether. Eastern Theravada Buddhists have been mostly non-vegetarians! 

NB: Quotations in the post are from The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya, trans. by Maurice Walshe, (Wisdom Publication; Boston), 1995.

Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray is No More

Bal Thackeray ( 23rd Jan, 1926- 17th Nov. 2012) is no more. As a fearless politician, he courted controversy so much so that one Deccan Herald put is " Bal Thackeray: The tiger roars no more." Since a dead man is in no position to defend his views and position on various matters, I am not going to engage with him on those matters. As a political party, however, Shiv Sena will be in the news. And both bouquets and brickbats will be showered on it. And the same applies to other political parties as well. 

How much ever fearless and brave one might be or how much ever rich and powerful one might be, one cannot escape DEATH. If we sit back and reflect, we shall realise that death is just so close to us all the time. Due to its closeness, some people are sucked in to their death while walking on a road or going on a train/bus or playing games and similar mundane activities. And only when someone close to us passes away, we normally reflect on the preciousness of the moment that we now have. What am I doing with my life now? How helpful have I been to people around me? What will happen to me after I die? These questions are profoundly important. And yet many a times we ignore them. 

In my experience knowing who Jesus Christ is has been profoundly helpful in answering these questions that confront -- or should confront, every human person. The answers that come about open up one's mind so clearly that it's as if a huge cloud of mystery or darkness has been moved away. The reason why it is so is because Jesus Christ has been the only person on the face of the earth who has conquered death. Everybody goes through death, including Jesus or Lazarus. But even those who died and came back to life die again. No one lives forever. Jesus Christ is the only one who died yet was raised to life, and is not going to die anymore. And this Jesus, who is living, gives to those who come to him a new sense of direction; a purpose of life that is meaningfully meaningful. 

Getting the right answer about death can give the right answer to this life here and now.