Countdown: 30 days

I’m an eleventh-hour person. Even if I’m given a month to submit a 10-page assignment, I will wait for the last week to start it. I might even follow my teacher around negotiating an extension on the deadline. Eventually, I will be scrabbling to finish it a night before the submission.

I have, but myself, to blame for it and I understand it when others procrastinate. However, you would think that if 601+ people are made responsible to write their country’s constitution in 2 years, the cut-off date wouldn’t be such a problem.

But no, even as the countdown flashes just a month till the constitution-writing deadline, much of it remains unwritten. In fact, we don’t even have a draft ready. Only three out of eleven thematic committees of the Constituent Assembly (CA) have submitted their full reports at the Constitutional Committee. Compiling the reports alone is expected to take a month.

So will our elected CA members achieve their purpose by May 28? “Neta haru lai ek arka sanga jhagada gardai ma fursad chaina” (these politicians are too busy fighting each other) is a sentence you won’t miss if you listen to the political chit-chats of the ‘common people’. The parties are yet to resolve differences on key issues including the form of governance, army integration and state restructuring. The sense of euphoria, of hope… of change brought by the April Uprising and the elections thereafter have long been replaced by frustration or worse, a sad acceptance of the situation. The completion of the constitution was not just a political process, Nepali people fought for this revolution and it symbolizes victory of the cause.

Consensus is the magic word but even if all the parties come together and work, a month is too short for the kind of constitution the people had hoped for or even for a short version for that matter. The simplest way out now is to extend the tenure of the CA. The Maoists, as usual, are already throwing a tantrum- they won’t allow an extension of the CA unless the government is formed under their leadership (someone should remind the Maoists that the people chose them to form the government, they chose to resign and quit). NC, on the other hand, is pitching for another election altogether. As unrealistic as it is, another election would mean that all the resources spent till now on the CA will be a waste. All this, at a backdrop of Maoist running para-military trainings and threatening of Jana Andolan III. The streets of Kathmandu are already marked by processions hoisting a red flag around.

I am not a political analyst and I don’t know enough to make correct judgments here. But I am a Nepali citizen. I had voted for change, for stability, for development and right now I am disappointed watching our so-called leaders in a power-hungry blame game. If the parties could unite ‘against’ monarchy can’t they once again unite ‘for’ the people and live up to their commitments?

Written by: Paavan Mathema for Speak Out.

Just spent 3 hours of my life reading about the Gayatri Mantra.

A lot of us, good old Hindu’s, are told to recite the Gayatri mantra. And me being the unquestioning simpleton that I am did what I was told. But after a few years (yes... I took me few years) of off-on recitation I began to question as to what the Gayatri mantra actually meant, where it came from, and why the hell( pardon my language) am I parroting this random Sanskit shlok. ( yup…I just used my own name in a sentence…did I blow your mind..Or Did I blow your mind!!!)

Gayatri Mantra is a highly revered mantra, taken from a hymn in the Rig-Veda ( which is the oldest and the most scared of Hindu texts) (3.62.10). The mantra is repeated and cited very widely in vedic literature,and praised in several well-known classical Hindu texts such as Manusmriti, Harivamsa,and the Bhagavad Gita.

Originially, the mantra was recited only by Brahmin males as part of their daily rituals. However, with the help of the modern Hindu reform movements the mantra is chanted by all and its use is now very widespread. It is bad analogy but think of it as a equivalent (in terms of popularity) of the Lord’s Prayer for Christians.
One thing I learnt from the little “research”of the Gayatri mantra is that, no one has the answer to my questions. No one really knows what it means.
The meaning of the mantra itself has changed over the years. Because the mantra is written in old Sanskrit (a beautiful language which, unfortunately, has one of its legs dangling in the grave and another on a banana peel) there is the obvious problem of translation. The Gayatri is also subject to personal translation. Because the mantra extends and reaches to encompass everything (seriously Everything) it can be translated to mean whatever I chose it to be.
Here is the gayatri mantra and some of its translations.

Devangri:
ॐv भूर् भुवः स्वः
तत् सवितुर्वरेण्यं ।
भर्गो देवस्य धीमहि ।
धियो यो नः प्रचोदयात् ॥

English:
Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah
tát savitúr váreṇyam
bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
dhíyo yó nah pracodáyāt

Word to Word: see more in http://www.swamij.com/gayatri.htm
AUM/OM: Absolute reality. That which encompasses the three states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, represented by AUM, the three levels of gross, subtle, causal, the three levels of conscious, unconscious, subconscious, and the three universal processes of coming, being, and going. Absolute silence beyond the three levels is the silence after AUM.

Bhur: Physical realm or plane; earth.
Bhuva: The subtle or astral plane.
Svah: The higher, celestial plane.
Tat: That, the essential essence.
Savitur: Bright, luminous, sun-like, inner power of spiritual light, which brings one to Self-realization.
Varenyam: Finest, best, choicest, fit to be sought.
Bhargo: Destroyer of obstacles. Effulgence
Devasya: Divine, resplendent, shining
Dhimahi: We meditate.
Dhiyo: Our being of intelligence, intellect, understanding, mind/heart
Yo: Who, which
Naha: Our
Prachodayat: May enlighten, direct, inspire, guide, impel
Some translations include: see more in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Mantra

• Sir William Jones:
"Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the god-head who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress toward his holy seat.”

• Swami Vivekananda:
"We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds.”

• Two interpretations by S. Radhakrishnan:
1. "We meditate on the effulgent glory of the divine Light; may he inspire our understanding”
2. "We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may he inspire our intelligence."

• The Arya Samaj interpretation:
"O God ! Giver of life, Remover of all pain and sorrows, Bestower of happiness, the Creator of the Universe, Thou art most luminous, adorable and destroyer of sins. We meditate upon thee. May thou inspire, enlighten and guide our intellect in the right direction”

• Brahmo Samaj interpretation:
"We meditate on the worshipable power and glory of Him who has created the earth, the nether world and the heavens (i.e. the universe), and who directs our understanding.”
• William Quan Judge
"Unveil, O Thou who givest sustenance to the Universe, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, that face of the True Sun now hidden by a vase of golden light, that we may see the truth and do our whole duty on our journey to thy sacred seat."

This kind of relativity is in line with the modern tradition of “ do what you want …how you want …as long as you have faith..and are good person…or even not have faith and are a good( whatever that means) person”.
For me, however, the best translation of the mantra is provided by some person known as shantimayi at http://www.shantimayi.com/gayatri_sm.html. The translation goes as:
Throughout all of existence
"That" essential nature
illuminating existence is the
Adorable One.
May all beings perceive with subtle intellect
the magnificent brilliance of enlightened awareness.

All it says, to me, is that there is something more than us and having recognized that we hope attain knowledge and awareness to understand it through our capabilities.

I think I can live with it. I probably won’t recite it 7 times in row..but every once in a while I can acknowledge there is something greater than me …and recite the Gayatri mantra with the knowledge and awareness of what I am saying.