Bridging Ideal and Practical Worlds, Russia-Ukraine Crisis Part 5

               Once again, I am in the U.S. and this time, the circumstances surrounding are completely different. At the outset, I arrived on the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, birthday of the lord Ram and began my work on his cause on the very day of Ram Navami. It is all a rare coincidence and one for my record in this space, one which is worth remembering. Sometimes, the life dedicated on a mission knowingly and unknowingly will yield returns to the world in times to come. Life's struggle will bring change in the world for its sustenance. The plane landed amid the winds and climates of change. The time for a change has come and the consolidation of the small, small work and belief will create a giant tide which sweeps one and all towards a good path.

                 A moral wrong is wrong and only the righteousness will stay on for eternity. Let us emerge from the shadow of evil, perform our ablutions and establish His kingdom. Let His ideals be the priority and everything else comes secondary. This is the message to put in this space on arrival which coincided with His festival and whose work is carried out by many devotees like me. I was born on a Tuesday, a day favored by Hanuman, a staunch devotee of Rama, and the meaning of my name is Vayu Putra, who is once again Hanuman. I can only be in His service which is the real purpose and meaning of this life. I would like to reminisce about this auspicious beginning amid a sea of surrounding challenges. This should be the fitting beginning of a new world enlivened by His principles. A principled, moral life is the greatest inheritance we can pass on to the future and not the materialistic belongings.

             Let us all remember the iconic ideals of Lord Ram and try to practice and achieve in our own lives. For my own self and to mark the occasion, I will try to start another blog dedicated to this subject. I don’t know how much it will help me in my pursuit in this country but let us stick to it. We are living in very challenging times amid the funeral pyres in the overflowing cemeteries due to the devastation caused by a minute evil. Let us defeat the evil virus and keep the future ones at bay by following His path. Nothing can overwhelm us if we are glued to righteousness. The evil will come to light and grow in proportion due to the growing misdeeds. This will be eliminated by the manifestation, reinstation and practice of good ideals. On this monumental occasion, amid the loss of lakhs of many near and dear ones, let us make a paradigm shift for ourselves and the future. A mission should propel, ideals should drive and shield should protect us from any harm, evil. There is no better shield or protection than that which is given by Rama. When He is protecting you, the whole world will also protect you. SriRama Raksha, Sarva Jagadraksha.

                With this prayer and remembrance of Him in the covid world, let us get back to the practical world. Marking the significance of yet another rotation to this great country after 5 years, I had laid out the divine coincidence of highest importance. If this travel can reinforce the above immortal order, the purpose is more than met. But in general, let me lay out the lesser objectives, the purpose to be on the same page. I am in the U.S. as part of my work which elevates seniors to client locations. This change in location means change in income, change in learning outcomes, change in effort and change in responsibilities. It is a different story that I am equally responsible in offshore as well and kept far greater efforts to reach here.

              The objective is - I would like to work here for the next 6 months to 1 year or more. I would like to use this as an opportunity to solve some of my financial problems. I would like to get the support and understanding from everyone in the next 6-12 months or more. The country failed me thrice and not anymore. I came here to adapt and succeed. (I brought two power adapters with me as well – which I somehow didn’t bring on earlier three occasions. This is an indication that I am here to adapt.) Don’t throw me away, force me to retreat in a few days, months.

                In a practical world, I can create chaos, disturbance, terror, havoc, whirlwind, thunderstorm, tornado etc. etc. When the plane is facing turbulence, you fasten the seat belts and brace up for commotion. Let us fasten the seat belts and prepare to face the incoming rough weather. I can also appear like someone whom you want to get rid of very soon. But please bear with me, cope up with my disturbance and do me a favor which has eluded me in the last three outings. Ask my poor native country which tolerated me like it tolerated foreigners for many centuries. Now they are left for peace for a week and I would like to give this peace to them for many more months. Ask my poor native country how it has achieved success for me by tolerating me at the same time.

               India is a big witness to many of my atrocities, tears and history will not forgive me even if my country does. I am like a Ravan-manifested, the devil incarnate in human form who played with their emotions and made them numb, habituated to it for the past many years. The latest is my travel to the U.S. leaving many of them in bad feelings. But practically, this is how it works – my high gives them low and their high gives me low. I also appeal to people of India not to expect me to return immediately as I am on a divine mission and purpose. Please take care of yourself without me and leave me alone as I get some foreign help in the meantime. I know, every right-thinking Indian will wish me success which I truly deserve. I also feel, I traveled as democratically as possible and no one needs to be offended.

               While you always imagine the ideal world, the practical world is very different and full of challenges. But let us work to bring the imaginary idealism of yesterday into a practice of the future. For example, who would have imagined in their wildest dreams that I would be in the U.S. on a job. It became a reality and the idealism mentioned above will also be a reality. Let us strongly believe in this belief and become the change we believe.

               Turning on to another chapter in the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the war is becoming bolder by each passing day. Nearly five million people are displaced from Ukraine as war refugees which is a very sorry state of affairs. Russia is infiltering defenseless Ukraine and the situation isn’t appearing as it is receding any soon. Even Russia lost its soviet-era flagship carrier ship which only aggravated the situation further. This is a very alarming situation to be either in Ukraine or in Russia, one which is bearing needless aggression and another which is committing needless war crimes. The situation has long crossed the limits of undoing the destruction and it is now traveling far beyond getting things back. Just for instance, there are thousands of graveyards – around 15,000 Russian soldiers and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians lost their lives. The unofficial count might be higher.

               This is a stark violation of human rights and the right to a peaceful life. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering these two countries are going through in addition to the stigma, scars associated and there is a need to empathize with them. This speaks of the gravity of the situation in other worlds and the need to prepare ourselves to avert humanity from these kinds of dangers. Imagine the morale of 1.5 lakh Russian soldiers who are in the war for two months. They either have to kill innocents or get killed. These are still early days of an imaginative long war and Ukraine is a big nation. Before the valiant Ukrainians fight tooth and nail the incoming Russian soldiers and losses mount any further, there must be efforts from all sides to make peace between the two sides. This is much needed and instead of equipping them with arms to deteriorate the situation further, let us strive to calm things and bring truce.

                This is with regards to the U.S. which should stop supplying arms, provoking the war further. Supply, if you can give restrain, calmness, peace and not do some aggravating maneuvers. It is a different story how this country is spoiling the world by innovating, inventing deadly weapons and supplying them all over the world. How can you do research on something to kill and compete with other countries on patents. The same has been propagated to India as well which is becoming a major arms exporter. The business in India has grown 6 times since 2014 and registered 11 thousand crores of arms exports. The future looks bleak with these kind of reports and tell us if they can export disarmament.

                 Russia invented the ‘Iconic’ AK-47 rifle and supplied all over the world its ‘glorified’ invention. Now it is in a war holding the same rifle killing innocents. There must be a treaty in this century to stop inventing, producing the weapons of destruction which infuriate and escalate a small war into a major crisis. Like the U.S., which is a recent nation, the weapons of destruction is also a recent phenomenon of 1-2 centuries old. Let us nip this bud and try to spread non-violence. Spread peace or else sit idle and make way. With that, let us hope there will be a truce between Russia, Ukraine and hope the world is a much better place to live and not to suffer, struggle.