"Long   years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge...At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."                            

                                                 - Nehru, on Midnight of August 14, 1947.

"Our Tryst With Destiny"

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.

--Guru Rabindranath Tagor, National Poet, Freedom Fighter.

Had he lived, Subhas Chandra Bose could have given a new turn to Independent India's political history. But he lives on eternally in the Indian mind, more famous after his death.

"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides, and my windows to be closed. Instead, I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

To forgive and accept injustice is cowardice."

"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness... It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

(Hitler's) Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness."

"Happiness does not come from money. It can come from taking pride in one's work and recognizing its contribution to society as a whole. So it is of primary importance that in a society, especially one under foreign rule, there are jobs for people to work and feed their families. Only then we can fight for other rights such as freedom.

The title Mahtma (great-soul)  has deeply pained me a number of times. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence (ahimsa) are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could."

"Although I admire much in Christianity, I am unable to identify myself with the orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, and fills my whole being. Please do not flatter yourselves with the belief that a mere recital of that celebrated verse in St. John makes a man Christian. My position is that it does not matter what faith you practice, as long as the soul longs for truth.

I am not against violence; I am against injustice. In fact, I have done my part in the World Wars, thus being a willing party to the warfare.

A handful of army, however powerful, cannot rule millions of citizens who are uncooperative. So as long as we fought against the British (violent or non-violent means) we would have won the freedom."

"India could have won freedom about ten years earlier than it did through some violence against the British. But we were not only fighting the British, but also our own causes of poverty, unemployment, and untouchability. A nation becoming free after a violent struggle is bound to capture power in few hands and the suffering of India's large masses would not have changed if we became free by violent means.  I wanted people of India to partner with the English people after independence, so a peaceful transfer of power was necessary.

Satyagraha (non-violent struggle) is not same as making peace. It is still a fight that has to be fought as bravely as a soldier in a war -- just the weapon is different.

I do not believe in any war.

"Poverty is but the worst form of violence.

God is because Truth is.

Mother Cow is in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth. Our mother gives us milk for a couple of years and then expects us to serve her when we grow up.

Mother cow expects from us nothing but grass and grain. Our mother often falls ill and expects service from us. Mother cow rarely falls ill. Our mother when she dies creates expenses of burial or cremation. Mother Cow is as useful dead as when alive!

untouchability is a crime against God and Mankind."

With the aid of flow charts, always painstakingly prepared over the previous night, a large screen and a laser pointer, President Kalam confronted the MPs of each state with development indicators. Few dared to ask questions, but the president himself had a poser. "Wherever I go I meet a lot of children," he told one group, "and each time I ask them, 'who is your role model', sometimes they say it is a scientist, or a teacher or their mother or father. But why is it nobody ever tells me that my MP is my role model?" There were no answers.

Then he sang the 'Song of Youth' for the youth of India:

·         Intense love does not measure; it just gives.

·         Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.

·         Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beatiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other.

·         Give until it hurts.

·      Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.

·         The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved.

·         We have been created to love and to be loved.

·         If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.

·         Do not allow yourselves to be disheartened by any failure as long as you have done your best.

·         If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.

·         If we pray, we will believe;
If we believe, we will love;
If we love, we will serve.

·         We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

                                                                     -Mother Theresa

"Take the case of Narendra Modi. It was not according to the spirit of Lord Ram, Lord Shiva or Lord Krishna, but according to the theory of Isaac Newton that he responded to Godhra riots.

Hitler's Mein Kampf was the source of Guru Golwalker's (RSS founder) inspiration.

Hinduism is a way of life. It is a distinct culture, marked by politeness, hospitality, an intricate web of courtesies, values and relationships. 

Whatever else Hindutva is, it is not Hinduism."

                                                                                           -SWAMI AGNIVESH

"If one wants the pleasure of licking honey off the edge of a razor, one must be prepared for the pain involved in doing so. Similarly, if our happiness depends on the pleasures of sense, we should be prepared for the sorrows that are inevitably connected to them.

Mother does not say you should believe in Mother or in a God in heaven. It is enough to believe in you. Everything is there in you.

When love overflows and is expressed through every word and deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion.

When we take everything as God's will, all our burdens are taken away.

To know the Self, one should starve the ego.

There is no point in blaming God for evil and the problems in the world. God has shown us the right path to follow and is not responsible for the miseries we create by not following it.

Science air-conditions the external world, whereas spirituality air-conditions the inner.

"Knowledge devoid of devotion is like chewing stones."

We cannot change all the situations in life, but we can change our attitude towards them."

                                                          -Matha AmritanandaMayi Devi

"Nostalgia? Not for me. I live in the present. I dont feel nostalgic about anything. For example, I dont feel nostalgic about Kerala, my home. As a child, I used to swim in the river with my cousins. Should I feel sad and nostalgic because I cannot do it now?

I should be realistic and be happy about what life has given me, rather than ponder over the impossible. To a large extent, I get to satisfy many of my longings through films. I have swum and bathed in not one, but many, many rivers. I have been to many jungles, even stayed in them. I would not have experienced any of these things had I not come into films."

                                                              -Mohanlal, Acclaimed Actor. 

"...Insecure? I would have been if I lived in a shell or in an ivory tower.  Im surrounded by my work. Besides, I know that whenever my slide downwards begins, it will take some time, I wont just fall down from the top position in one day. I dont spend sleepless nights, I dont get tense. I sincerely believe that if you are working, it will work for you. Otherwise, you could be shattered. 

If people have liked me in my films, its because I could kill like an ordinary man, I could slip on a banana peel, I could hide behind a girl to save my skin from a villain, I could do all that a common man could and would do. Honestly, I dont mind doing anything on the screen.

I believe that you can never be too good for the things you are best at.

Once you learn to accept a truth or a lie, it ceases to exist. So, if I accept that I have a fat nose, it will stop bothering me. If I accept the fact that I am a big star, it will vanish. So I have been working just like that since I entered the industry and I haven't thought of anything. 

I think there is no one who believes in cinema more than Kamal Haasan."

                                                                  -Shah Rukh Khan

"Hate can't be won over with hate, it can only be achieved by love..

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

TAGORE: I was discussing with Dr. Mendel today the new mathematical discoveries which tell us that in the realm of infinitesimal atoms chance has its play; the drama of existence is not absolutely predestined in character.

EINSTEIN: The facts that make science tend toward this view do not say good-bye to causality.

TAGORE: Maybe not, yet it appears that the idea of causality is not in the elements, but that some other force builds up with them an organized universe.

EINSTEIN: One tries to understand in the higher plane how the order is. The order is there, where the big elements combine and guide existence, but in the minute elements this order is not perceptible.

TAGORE: Thus duality is in the depths of existence, the contradiction of free impulse and the directive will which works upon it and evolves an orderly scheme of things.

EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.

TAGORE: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization?

EINSTEIN: Even the elements are not without statistical order; elements of radium will always maintain their specific order, now and ever onward, just as they have done all along. There is, then, a statistical order in the elements.

TAGORE: Otherwise, the drama of existence would be too desultory. It is the constant harmony of chance and determination which makes it eternally new and living.

EINSTEIN: I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it.

TAGORE: There is in human affairs an element of elasticity also, some freedom within a small range which is for the expression of our personality. It is like the musical system in India, which is not so rigidly fixed as western music. Our composers give a certain definite outline, a system of melody and rhythmic arrangement, and within a certain limit the player can improvise upon it. He must be one with the law of that particular melody, and then he can give spontaneous expression to his musical feeling within the prescribed regulation. We praise the composer for his genius in creating a foundation along with a superstructure of melodies, but we expect from the player his own skill in the creation of variations of melodic flourish and ornamentation. In creation we follow the central law of existence, but if we do not cut ourselves adrift from it, we can have sufficient freedom within the limits of our personality for the fullest self-expression.

EINSTEIN: That is possible only when there is a strong artistic tradition in music to guide the people's mind. In Europe, music has come too far away from popular art and popular feeling and has become something like a secret art with conventions and traditions of its own.

TAGORE: You have to be absolutely obedient to this too complicated music. In India, the measure of a singer's freedom is in his own creative personality. He can sing the composer's song as his own, if he has the power creatively to assert himself in his interpretation of the general law of the melody which he is given to interpret.

EINSTEIN: It requires a very high standard of art to realize fully the great idea in the original music, so that one can make variations upon it. In our country, the variations are often prescribed.

TAGORE: If in our conduct we can follow the law of goodness, we can have real liberty of self-expression. The principle of conduct is there, but the character which makes it true and individual is our own creation. In our music there is a duality of freedom and prescribed order.

EINSTEIN: Are the words of a song also free? I mean to say, is the singer at liberty to add his own words to the song which he is singing?

TAGORE: Yes. In Bengal we have a kind of song-kirtan, we call it-which gives freedom to the singer to introduce parenthetical comments, phrases not in the original song. This occasions great enthusiasm, since the audience is constantly thrilled by some beautiful, spontaneous sentiment added by the singer.

EINSTEIN: Is the metrical form quite severe?

TAGORE: Yes, quite. You cannot exceed the limits of versification; the singer in all his variations must keep the rhythm and the time, which is fixed. In European music you have a comparative liberty with time, but not with melody.

EINSTEIN: Can the Indian music be sung without words? Can one understand a song without words?

TAGORE: Yes, we have songs with unmeaning words, sounds which just help to act as carriers of the notes. In North India, music is an independent art, not the interpretation of words and thoughts, as in Bengal. The music is very intricate and subtle and is a complete world of melody by itself.

EINSTEIN: Is it not polyphonic?

TAGORE: Instruments are used, not for harmony, but for keeping time and adding to the volume and depth. Has melody suffered in your music by the imposition of harmony?

EINSTEIN: Sometimes it does suffer very much. Sometimes the harmony swallows up the melody altogether.

TAGORE: Melody and harmony are like lines and colors in pictures. A simple linear picture may be completely beautiful; the introduction of color may make it vague and insignificant. Yet color may, by combination with lines, create great pictures, so long as it does not smother and destroy their value.

EINSTEIN: It is a beautiful comparison; line is also much older than color. It seems that your melody is much richer in structure than ours. Japanese music also seems to be so.

TAGORE: It is difficult to analyze the effect of eastern and western music on our minds. I am deeply moved by the western music; I feel that it is great, that it is vast in its structure and grand in its composition. Our own music touches me more deeply by its fundamental lyrical appeal. European music is epic in character; it has a broad background and is Gothic in its structure.

EINSTEIN: This is a question we Europeans cannot properly answer, we are so used to our own music. We want to know whether our own music is a conventional or a fundamental human feeling, whether to feel consonance and dissonance is natural, or a convention which we accept.

TAGORE: Somehow the piano confounds me. The violin pleases me much more.

EINSTEIN: It would be interesting to study the effects of European music on an Indian who had never heard it when he was young.

TAGORE: Once I asked an English musician to analyze for me some classical music, and explain to me what elements make for the beauty of the piece.

EINSTEIN: The difficulty is that the really good music, whether of the East or of the West, cannot be analyzed.

TAGORE: Yes, and what deeply affects the hearer is beyond himself.

EINSTEIN: The same uncertainty will always be there about everything fundamental in our experience, in our reaction to art, whether in Europe or in Asia. Even the red flower I see before me on your table may not be the same to you and me.

TAGORE: And yet there is always going on the process of reconciliation between them, the individual taste conforming to the universal standard.

At the end...

" Lal salaam. Phir milenge (Red salute. See you later)," Vishwanath says. And adds softly, " Bacche tho... (If I live...)"

I turn back to wave. Vishwanath and Sagar are standing where we left them, two silent sentries of communism, fighting a fight they will not live to win. They raise their fists in salute..."