LET US ALL BECOME NOBLE-RIGHTEOUS-HONORABLE, in one word, AN ARYA, आर्यः

Sanskrit word 'arya' 'is an adjective that stands for nobleness, righteousness, honorable etc put together, as a quality of an arya person. Applied in its noun form, an 'Aryah' (आर्यः) indicates a noble-rightoeus- honorable person. It was never a race signifying word as what seems to have come to mean today. But the errorneous interpretations made in those days of limited knowledge and limited technology divided people on Aryan-Dravidian-indegenous etc imaginative and unexisting 'races'. AIT has been proved completely wrong and so the racial existence of 'Aryan, or "Dravidian" or "Indegenous" races in India. There is no special DNA or gene marker indicative of a race-separation among India's so called indegenous, southern or northern Indians. Essentially the suffix "n" in the commonly employed term "Aryan", is technically an error. It can just be 'Arya' in English or in Sanskrit, 'आर्यः' Let us implore everyone to become noble individuals, the Arya or an Aryah. Everyone, whatever your faith be, say Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews or atheism, whatever be your political beliefs, communists, socialist, royalist or capitalists, whatever be your status, rich or poor, clever or dumb, weak, meek or bully, everone can evolve, can become Noble or say Arya. In the current 'identity' driven divided society and in the heightened 'Oppressor-Oppressed' divide, the wisdom of this ancient tradition is a ray of hope for the world. In one word, that ancient wisom, that ancient tradition is called "Hinduism". Hinduism means, "Include-everyone", Respect all Beliefs", "Other is not other". "World is one family" "Let Everyone be happy and Healthy", Hinduism knew from the time immemorial, how to celebrate individuality of each person and each group. Idea behind this blog is to bring out those ancient ideas, bring out innate goodness and potentials by highlighting various known and unknown facts from within the ancient land of India. He has special facination for the erstwhile but now nearly extinct Pagan communities of the world. He feels connected with them on account of shared importance they both attach to nature-worship.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Oscars: Tale of Two ‘Best Pictures’; Oppenheimer-Gandhi: Love and Disdain Shared by Both Individuals -- By Nilesh M Shukla

 Oscar Awards for 2024 were announced on 10th March. ‘Oppenheimer’ won 7 Oscars including the ‘Best Picture’ award. It certainly deserved it. 41 years ago, on 11th April 1983, ‘Gandhi’ won 11 Oscars including the ‘Best Picture’. And certainly it too deserved it.


Curiously  contrasted personalities they both were! One “Father of Atomic Bomb '' and another “Apostle of Non-Violence and Peace”! And yet, their stories made it to earn ‘Best Picture’ Oscar. However unusual it may appear, when you deep dive into the real life of these two seemingly opposite poles, they stand out in sharing exactly the same object of love and exactly the same class of people who disliked them. A duo, otherwise so vastly diverse that bracketing them together is nothing short of blatant oxymoronic pairing.

Posters of Blockbuster Oscar ‘Best Picture’ winners and images of books on the Bhagavad Gita. Its  text is considered a holy scripture by about a Billion Hindus of the world. It is even considered by many thinkers as a Bible of humankind because it does not profess any religious rituals but merely consists of a dialogue about life, about way to  think and conduct. It is just a small book consisting of 700 verses in Sanskrit language and takes less than 180 minutes to chant/read them. It has charmed and captivated many brilliant minds; Ralph W Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Annie Beasant, Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, T S Eliot, Romain Roland etc to name a few.



Among the most celebrated scenes of the film 'Oppenheimer' the two are prominent; the bedroom scene and other, the detonation scene. In both, the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer is seen quoting from the Bhagavad Gita. The same Bhagavad Gita, something in which the apostle of peace, aka the champion of nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi is equally invested. He is in fact famous for commentary on it (The Gospel of Selfless Action or The Gita According to Gandhi, By Mahatma Gandhi, compilation of his 1926 discourses, published by Navajivan Publication House). The sacred Sanskrit language scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, unites an American scientist and an Indian lawyer! 


These both remarkable individuals did share exactly the same suspicion from their respective governments. The Government of America headed by president Harry Truman suspected Oppenheimer to be a communist and at worst, a suspected traitor who shared classified info. His disdain for the physicist becomes apparent when he not only calls him a “crybaby” but also instructs staff to keep him away from the White House. On their part, the British colonial government of India, headed by Queen Elizabeth II was deeply suspicious of Gandhi due his agenda for freedom of India. Her Prime Minister, Winston Churchill never hid his disdain for him. In a file related to reports on the Bengal Famine, he penned down his disappointment in his own handwriting, “Gandhi is still alive” dismissing that there was a famine, thus exhibiting guttural disdain for the Indian Freedom Fighter and utter disregard to 3 million Indians who died of starvation due to British administrative order that had created 1943 Bengal Famine, bearing a uniquely dubious distinction of being the only one known in history as the “man-made famine”. (Order of the British government to ship away 100% of all grains produced in the fertile lands of India, not leaving anything for Indians to eat. Churchill was so recklessly indifferent to crippling famine that when an Australian ship with relief supplies docked at Kolkata port, it was blatantly ordered not to unload and was diverted to Europe)


Besides suffering suspicion and hatred from their governments, they both also stand out together in suffering the very same rejections by the one very same organization, the Nobel Prize Foundation of Sweden and its member organizations that select Nobel laureates. The Physicist Oppenheimer was nominated 3 times for the Nobel, in 1945, 1951 and 1967 but was rejected every time. The Leader of the Non-Violent Freedom Struggle, Gandhi was nominated 5 times, in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and in 1948 and rejected each time. (However, to be fair to the Nobel committee, much later in 1999, the Nobel Prize Organization did realize their error of judgment and published an apologetic admission under the title of “Mahatma Gandhi, the missing laureate” at:  https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/mahatma-gandhi-the-missing-laureate/  )


Oppenheimer deployed atomic energy as a weapon. Mahatma Gandhi deployed the peace instinct of humans as a weapon. Stark opposites. That this unusual duo could still merge at several places does transform a true oxymoronic into a curious non-oxymoronic pair, with shared admirers and haters in equal measures and makes it a curious tale of two films. 




----    ----    ----     ----






2 comments:

Sunil Kothari said...

Nice comparison of two personalities or rather two approach towards one goal. Both seeming achieved goal with flying colors then, but is it fact in today?
One’s creation is the reason of arms race for ‘peaceful’ purpose and others creation could actually be seen as weak approach achieving its goal too late…
Comparison of both personalities done above superb! Well done …

Nilesh M Shukla said...

Thanks.