From Social Network to the Human Network

Communication is an important aspect in life, be it among humans or non-humans. Among ants, birds and animals, though primitive we admit, is highly advanced, effective and hassle-free. There is no vindication, no fear, or limited to one’s own class or clan. Anyone who can decode it, can make use of it. That’s why when there is food available or when an enemy is approaching they raise their alerting voice. And the rest of the world follows it without any difficulty. There is no false news or wrong message being spread to deviate one from the path. But, the communication system involved amongst the most advanced beings, the humans is always under the scanner.

One of the recent metaphors for communication is net or inter-net, a tool of cyber technology. It has become a synonym for knowledge and wisdom, and even we have begun to speak about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Any resource for any issue, any solution to a problem, etc. is available at the click of the mouse. After all, many of our problems are similar in nature and therefore there is a commonality in the solution too. One helps the other. We are better connected with this facility. Kudos to the technocratic world, we have outlived our capacity. We have lost our creative wisdom.  

There are some important aspects to be noted in this metaphor. There is no centre here, rather there are multiple lines and intersections. Each inter-section though looks independent, without its relation with the other node has no life. Though there are several such cohesive and adhesive elements, there are also certain drawbacks. It can make a person ‘hermit,’ alienating oneself from one’s own creative potentialities, and from other’s well-being by treating other as ‘means and things’ to nurture one’s own selfishness and ego.

Our society is not a single entity, nor there is a single centre to say, “this way only,” rather there are multiple centres and nodes. Each node is connected to the other with a transcendental relationship. For example, the word ‘nation’ cannot be limited only to a geographical boundary nor to a particular language or culture. It is a sum total of a history, culture, language, interest, ideology, etc. ‘The Church’ is not a community of only Catholics, rather a sum total of a people who believe in Christ. In the same way, a religious congregation, a diocese or a community has a meaning in the relationship and well-being of every members of it.

When there is a dissent of voices in the community, or when a decision is autocratically enforced upon its members, the community sans to be so. It no longer remains as an organismic unit, like body and its parts. A complete body is that in which each limb is intact and communicate suitably. Thus, the metaphor of the body and limb is a better imagery for social networking than the internet, for, there is recognition of other’s face in a community which the latter lacks.

Today’s ministry of Communications in the Church in India though far better than a couple of decades ago, has not yet become a perfect model to be boasted about. The Church known for its cohesiveness has not yet effectively manifested. Admitted that Christians are minorities in the country and in some pockets sizeable number has not become ‘the salt’ and ‘the light’ which can give taste and guidance to the rest of the community. May be, the inner motives of different denominations are the blocking issues. But that is not an excuse either. In recent years the official highest body of Christians in India has made a difference in knitting various segments and streams of thoughts of the society. But that is not sufficient. The basic elements of the systems should take initiative in building bridges and then only the efforts of the higher level body will become more effective.

The Catholic Church, though have better structures, both in terms of networking and personnel has not sufficiently tapped and utilized its resources. In many parts of the country the hierarchy and including the several congregations are busy in constructing niches for themselves and for political and economic gains. Recent general elections and adherence to certain party ideologies by certain people of the hierarchy in different parts of the country cannot be forgotten, nor be forgivable. Many minorities of the country are looking for the Christian leadership, because they know that only Christians and their role in social well-being can bring a positive change in the country. Have we fulfilled this aspiration of the millions? Have we not failed in establishing bridges?

We need to be proud of our education and healthcare institutions. India has produced thousands of great think-tanks and social reformers through our institutions. This has made the country grow and develop in various sectors. The demand for admissions to our institutions is a visible proof for this. As we put our chest up, we need to reflect its present effectiveness. Economic well-being is not all that is primary. Though it is necessary, the future of the people is the most urgent need. The future is building a humane society filled with gospel values. Sacrificing these for the sake of establishing a structure is not being a Christian. Somewhere there is a lacunae created by our present welfare institutions. Our English medium schools, technical institutions, etc. are multiplying, but the quality and values that need to be cherished is being disintegrating day by day. We are losing our ‘Christian culture,’ sacrificing moral values for consumerist values. Somehow, we are falling into the trap of ‘-isms’ such as, ‘hermitism,’ elitism, standardism, superiorism, competitionism, etc. Should we not base our identity on ‘otherness’?

There is an enormous communication gap between our institutions, hierarchy, and people. We are treating each one as an independent entity needing no cohesion. This selfish gene from us should to be removed. Only when drops are united river finds life, so too is the society. For this we need to bring back the basic Christian community model of the Acts of the Apostles, ‘where one person’s need was everybody’s need.’ Sharing our resources with those who are in need is the real need of the hour. Add to this, shunning the individuality and wearing the robe of inter-dependence without any malice can give us a real success. Let’s hope for a healthy and vibrant human community.



Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

Colour Colours the Reality

In our childhood we have studied that there are seven colours in the Rainbow. There are three primary colours - red, yellow and blue; three secondary colours – green orange and purple and six tertiary colours obtained as a result of mixing the first two groups. All other colours are combinations and shades of these. According to the psychophysicists, human being can perceive almost 10 million colours. Depending on the viewing conditions, the perception varies. However, what I want to reflect is not the scientism behind it, but the phenomenology of colour in the socialism. 

If someone is asked a question, “which is the natural colour?” obvious answer would be “White.” However, white is not considered the basic colour. In the spectrum, white is the result of seven colours of the rainbow. On the other hand, the most hated colour is, “Black.” Can anyone call ‘black’ as a colour? It is colourless or at least the absence of colour. Scientifically, when a ray of light is absorbed and not reflected back, it is called ‘black’. Therefore, neither white nor back are colours!? Yes, very much debatable. I am not going into it.  

White is the colour some people are proud about and think that it is ‘pure’ and ‘black’ as impure and vice-versa. The world has seen many wars, fights, bloodshed ever since human beings began to reflect over ‘colour.’ In the past, some colours enslaved and colonized the other. The shame is, this even continues in today’s postmodern globalized society! Can one colour be superior to another? If one colour were to be superior to the other, the whole equilibrium of the nature would collapse. 

The colour dominance depends on the light availability, its absorption and reflection. Light availability in the Polar Regions and the Tropical Regions is not the same. The pigmentation in the mineral rich and natural places like dense forest regions and arid desert landscapes varies. Temperate and cold regions have different equation. Therefore, claiming one colour to be superiority in one region and applying it to all other regions is a sweeping generalization and argumentum ad ignorantiam (fallacy of appeal to ignorance). Can anyone say a brown cow is superior to the black-spotted red cow? Absolutely no. If so, why should some human beings are to be considered superior or inferior to the other? Superiority should be gauged not with colour but with the internal traits – ones character, nature, personality, culture and behavior. In other words, your greatness is measured not with the kinds of attire you have, but with your ‘softness of heart’. 

Colour garnishes the reality. Often, multi-colour is preferred over unicolour. If the nature had only one colour, like the Arctic region (in fact not the case there) full of white ice, there would not be any creativity and life. The more colours in the nature, life bubbles out with joy. Varieties of trees and their flowers, colourful birds and animals, varieties of climate and landscape speak wonders of creation. This verily applies to human society. Varieties of cultures, people, habits, way of life, languages, relations, traditions etc. add life to the earth. The more varieties accepted by each other, there emerges a better harmony and peace. The world becomes habitable and in its real sense can be called ‘the earth’. If not accepted, the earth becomes a battle field, a hell. 

Psychologist and Counselors speak about the ‘Colour Therapy’ to treat the ‘unresolved’ brokenness of the self. It is a therapy where by a disorder or ailment is identified with an unpleasant colour. As a treatment, a colour which is pleasant and healing is filled within or the person is immersed in the healing colour. Thus, the unpleasant colour is taken away or abandoned. This heals the person. If a culture or a tradition is not a soothing one, unpleasant or if it is not making one a ‘human being’ it needs to be discarded and a culture / tradition which makes the person ‘truly human’ is to be imbibed. Years of unpleasant and subjugated life will only add agony and not happiness. Increased dose of pleasant colours will make life palatable. 

Colour blindness or Chromatopsia is disease whereby the person is unable to detect a particular colour. It can vary in number of colours. In our social life, many are not just blind to colours but also blind to the reality. Having eyes and sight is not able to see and judge. Even within the family, children do not recognize parents and parents their children and often from such families elderly parents end up in the ‘old-age homes’. What a pity! One community of people, do not recognize the other community. Many are blind with culture and tradition. Some see only the traditional language and letters inscribed in the scriptures and are unable to translate them into the vernacular language and culture and end up as fundamentalists. This is not just the case with some religions, but seen within one’s own religion and culture too. Religion, instead of binding (re-ligare = to bind) the scattered, scatters the bounded. Should I call such religions as salvific? 

I do not want be a Christian if my religion does not allow me to relate with a Muslim.

I do not want to be a Muslim, if my religion does not allow me to relate with a Hindu.

I do not want to be a Hindu, if my religion does not allow me to relate with a Buddhist.

I do not want to be a Buddhist, if my religion does not allow me to relate with a Jain.

I do not want to be a Jain, if my religion does not allow me to relate with a Sikh.

I do not want to be a Sikh, if my religion does not allow me to relate with an indigenous.

I prefer to be an atheist, an agnostic, a Carvāka, an Epicurean, a Materialist and Irreligious, if my religion does not allow me to relate with the last, least and the lost of the society hailing from any traditional background.

I prefer to be blind than to see.

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

Picture source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/colours-important-trademarks-fashion-in-season-2019-a7705261.html

"I am coming, accept me and my offering"

His feet are beautiful who walks barefoot;

and not the one who walks with shoes.

His hands are beautiful who mucks in mire;

and not the one who counts the qwerty keys.

His lips are beautiful who sings the song of lament;

and not the one who sings the song of vengeance.

His eyes are beautiful who is blurred by the blurry world;

and not the one who shines with glittering eyebrows.

His back is beautiful who is bruised with marks of scourges;

and not the one who brushed in the gym.

His heart is beautiful patched by scars of thorns and marks of lance;

and not the one who wraps in the coat of gold.

It ain't a fashion parade, nor a fuller's museum.

It ain't a bundle of joys, nor a trap for prey.

It's he who tills the land, feeds the hungry.

It is he who walks miles and miles with feet uncovered. 

It is he who feeds the multitude with a grain of seed.

It is he who is bruised and broken with lashes out.

It is he who is lynched for your glory and pride;

murdered and killed for your whims and fancy.

Where's my freedom and my will?

Am I your servant to wash your dirty linen?

Am I a burden to you and all?

Have I no dignity, right, equality and sovereignty?

If not here, should I be there in the nether world?

Questions, Questions, Questions a thousands

and none to answer.

Let me be silent now, drink my tears and eat my spittle;

For I am happy in my mother's lap.

Let me look up to the sky and say, 

"I am coming, accept me and my offering."

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

I want to Study: An Inspirational Success Story

The Recent news from Rewari of Haryana shook the conscience of the education department. The news was about the Right to Education. About 80 girl students fearing harassment in travelling a long distance to attend the higher education after Matric sat for the hunger strike. On the fifth day, the education department came up with a written assurance of opening a Plus Two school for them. Well done the daughter of India. I was in goose bumps reading the news which enabled me to pen down these few lines.

Some want to educate themselves and be somebody in the society, while the others want to be where they are! It is funny and surprising that for over ten years government did not feel the need to address the situation in spite of the repeated request for the up gradation of the school, nor it heard the cry of eve teasing on the way to high school. Some raised the voice and closed their senses willingly and unwillingly. 

Who is to be blamed? Government? Education Department? Officials? Parents? Eve teasers? Village Sarpunch? Villagers? Children themselves? Should we blame our system? Each one of us is to be blamed. But some are to be blamed more and some less. 

Government officials say that they would consider the demand of the people. But the children are not satisfied with their oral recitation of assurances. This is just because, the people have lost faith in the functioning of the government. How will the people have faith? When the government gives only bold headlines in the newspapers and TV for the publicity sake and not doing anything at the ground level, funds meant for the education are diverted to the vested interest of the authorities, schools are closed for various reasons or the existing schools are used for the political publicity, the people will lose their faith in the authorities. 

Another jolt is on the minority educational institutions. For many political parties, they are money making institutions, centers of conversion and places of anti-social activities. A watchful look at the institutions where they are established will show that they actually cater the education of the last, least and lost. But the colour blind eyes of the officials find them as nuisance to the up growing elite and fanatically oriented institutions. Therefore, in order to put a check on these, government is back footing the funds, permission and needed recognition. Other kinds of harassment are uncountable. 

Consider the present education policy. School is not supposed to fail any student till the Matric, nor the teachers can give any kind of punishment for not doing the homework. What kind of psychological markup is promulgated here? “I don’t need to study, anyhow I will pass.” If we see the children of elite, majority of them are not studying in government schools. Rather they are in the highly reputed schools of the country spending thousands of rupees per day. It is Okay. But why are the ordinary people deprived of high standard education? There is a psychological reason for it. If the minority is educated and become somebody in the society, they will be a threat for the existence of the elite. Therefore, ‘it is better that they are where they are. Push them to periphery and do not allow them to reach the centre,’ is the ideology at work. 

Another reason that we have not yet become a developed country is the stigmata that we are carrying on our shoulders. It is the stigmata of “I am not able to do it”. For the centuries, we have been telling to ourselves that we are “like this only”. Our elders said the same thing, “We are fit for washing the dishes only. We are not supposed to study. Girls any way go to their in-laws house and so why to teach them? Women are for the sake of men….” We need to come out from this and boldly assert ourselves, “Yes, We Can. We Will. We are Able.” The power of positive thinking has enabled those girls from Haryana to take a revolutionary step and demand for right to education. Today their cry is heard. India needs several such daunting girls today. 

Did those children ask for something extraordinary? Did they demand gold, silver or wealth? They just asked, “We want to study without fear.” They asked for their right. Child has the right to ask for the basic necessity from its parent and it is the duty of the parent to provide what is moral and just. Government is the parent of every child. It has the duty to provide quality education and make the child grow in wisdom and knowledge. Today several children in our villages and slums are earnestly requesting the same, “provide us teachers, provide us education, provide us knowledge, provide us schools, provide us schools of higher learning, provide us opportunities to excel, provide us jobs, provide us our basic rights….” May our parents listen to us. 

For the news see, (See the news published in various national dailies, http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2017/may/16/haryana-girls-fearing-harassment-sit-on-hunger-strike-for-school-upgradation-1605377.html). 

Also Published in 

http://velivada.com/ on 2017/05/18 entitled "I Want to Study: An Inspirational Success Story". 

http://velivada.com/2017/05/18/want-study-inspirational-success-story/

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

Fear of Existence as the Suppression of Integration

The Article is first published in the following site. 
http://velivada.com/2017/05/17/fear-existence-suppression-integration/

Fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain or threat. The fear could be real or imagined, often accompanied with increased autonomic activity. Seeing a rope lying on the floor at dusk one jumps over, gasping for breath, thinking that it is a snake which is about to bite. It takes few minutes before to know that it was in fact the rope. The imagined snake is verily, the stationary snake or it may be elsewhere! Some Psychologists claim that the fear is not real, only an imagination and while the others claim the contra view. Medically, it is an autonomic reaction to cope with an impending threat. Whatever may be the case, I am not reflecting in this line of thought. What I do draw from here is a reaction emerging from this threat. 

Fear of existence is the reaction drawn by the existence of the other who pose an imagined or real threat to the one who is frightened. The resulting reaction can move in two directions: either can challenge the other or can integrate the other. When it is challenged, the end result is devastating. When the other is accommodated, the fear changes into joy and peace. 

The inbreeding fundamentalistic tendencies, the growing anti-social hidden activities and agendas, ‘white-washed’ developmental projects of the state and the country are nothing but few traces of the alienation of the other. The existence of the one threatens the existence of the other. And this is the existential reality. 

Often it is understood as the dictum goes, ‘the might is right’. Powerful are the rulers and the powerless are the subjects to be enslaved. Be that, it might be. A question very well can pose here is, “to what does the present authority is threatened of?” Is it that it has no power to lord over, or is it that the purpose is to have a holistic development, or has it got any other agendas to accomplish? The very simple reason could be, the fear of the existence of the minority. Sounds very strange!

Muslim population in the country is just 14.2%, while the Christian population is just 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, Buddhism 0.8% and Jainism 0.4% according to the 2011 census. However, the threat posed to majority religion that form 80% of the total population is mostly by the first two minority groups. This is very clear from the number of atrocities and persecution done against Muslims and Christians. 

This difference in opinion towards the minority religion is due to the threat the majority religion is now facing, the threat of its existence. This threat is inflicted from three sides: i.) Materialism and agnosticism of the postmodern time and thus the declining religiosity, ii.) Growing world-wide minority population and strength creating certain uncertainty, iii.) Literary revolution which is creating a social awareness. 

The religion once ruled the whole nation without much struggle is at the verge of division and separation. Several vested interested groups and people are claiming to be the real custodians of the religion. At the same time, agnosticism moved by the postmodernism and materialistic culture is growing. While the other minority religions having distinct commander-in-chief guide the integrity of it, the majority religion of the county lacks it. Too many deafening and inhuman practices are being questioned by the educated society. And therefore, many opt to be ‘skeptics’ or ‘agnostics’. The literary revolution brought by Christian missionaries is yielding its fruit in the country. The opening of several educational institutions in the urban and villages have opened the windows to the new waves of thinking. Higher education has become need of the hour. What has made here is the growing rationality amongst the people to judge right from wrong (or at least from dangerous thinking). The existential awareness of the situation coupled with the education is not ready to accept anything for granted. The perceived threat here is not by the thousands of educated people but by a mere 2% educated think-tanks of the society. It is this minor percentage of educated among the total educated who bring out any change in the society. It is these 2% who think ahead of 20 years and bring out new vision for the society. Till 200 hundred years ago ordinary people simply followed word to word what the influential people said may be with or without reason. Today, even an ordinary person looks for justification of the such claims made.

Along with this the ruling elite is trying to silence the voices of the common man. The existential fear can be seen here in three ways: by ignoring the weak, by silencing the voices and by diverting the attention. As long as the oppressed people’s movements, voices and struggles are weak and imperceptible, the fearing elite will tend to ignore the weak. At times they will give an impression as if nothing wrong has happened or everything is normal. They will give such statements as if there is no hell on earth, everything is in its heavenly bliss. 

If this does not work, then they will go for the second option – silencing the oppressed. The main target group of silence is the leaders of the oppressed. Often, the demand for justice is brought into fore by some emergent charismatic leaders. Now the elite class will stifle the movement by neutralizing the leadership by hook or crook. They will allure them with money, power and position and if this plan fails, then the path chosen is physical elimination. This is followed by silencing the potential leaders of the group, if needed. 

At the failure of both the above plans, the third trick is put in to practice – diversion of the attention. It is scientifically proved that human memory is often short-termed. After a few days of the incident however brutal it might, the event is forgotten or at least bears less significance. Similarly, the fearful class when it senses mass movement, opts for a radical movement. It is a well-thought out diversions and distractions into the scenario that the original thrust of the movement and struggle are diluted. They effectively bring out ‘development-ism’, ‘regional autonomy’, ‘constitutionality’, ‘amendments’, ‘law and order’ etc. weapons to divert the issues. 

A genuine well-being will have no opposition whatever situation it might be or at least it will survive all the odds posed against it. The sixth sense of the beneficiaries will perceive the goodness by which it is implemented without having any issues. But today, most of the welfare schemes of the government however excellent, are not reaching to the ordinary people because of the motive with which they are prepared. We can note this very well in our own families. If the mother is full of vengeance towards a person, the child who sucks her breasts will constantly fall sick. From a positive thought, a positive vibration or aura and from the negativity only a destructive aura is created. 

The genuine integration safeguards every culture, tradition, ethnicity, identity, class and structure. The democracy and the constitutional rights are well protected in a genuine integrated system. The government has no moral right to imposes something on certain section of the society just because it needs to come under mainstream culture. One section of the society cannot uphold that it is the mainstream culture and others as primitive. Drawing one into other is not the integration, but the murder of culture. It is this psychological threat of existence of one’s superiority that takes up the drastic step to eliminate the other.

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

__________________________________

Picture Source:    http://energeticsinstitute.com.au/fear-of-life-fear-of-anger/

Youth Leadership Seminar, Chandil

"Indian Democracy gives us opportunity to become leaders. Durga Oraon, made use of this opportunity under the banner,"PIL" to make a corruption free Jharkhand. In order to make our country free of corruption, we need not pick up weapons, need not become lawyers, need not become IPS officers. I need to become aware of my rights. I need to acquire knowledge. Then I become a leader to myself. Once I become a leader to myself, I become a leader to my family, my village, my state and my nation. Everybody cannot become PM, CM, professor or priest. This does not mean that we cannot live a secure and honourable life. Only those people can live an honourable life who honour the law and order. We need to wear helmet while riding motor bike not because the police fine you, but you need to wear for your own safety." These words were said by Mr. Indrajit Mahanta, the Superintendent of Police (SP)Saraikela-Kharaswan district. He was addressing in a "youth Leadership and community building seminar" at Chandil Parish in Jamshedpur diocese, on Sunday, 15th September 2013.  

Fr. Raphael Monteiro Welcoming Mr. Indrajit Mahanta IPS

Mr. Indrajit Mahanta IPS delivering Leadership tips

I was the main resource person for the one-day seminar. Theme of the seminar was, "Youth Leadership and Community Building." The key leadership qualities addressed during the seminar were: Honesty, communication, confidence, commitment, positive attitude, creativity, ability to inspire, character, courage, competence, focus, generosity, service, responsibility, Vision, self-discipline and relationship. 

The programme started with the solemn Eucharistic celebration presided over by me and con-celebrated by the parish priest, Fr. Raphael Monteiro. 

Me, preaching the sermon during the mass

Me, conducting the session

Leadership and community building seminar was delivered by means of various action songs, games, and group activities. Br. Nathanael Moochahari of Tejpur diocese and Br. Anuranjan Tigga of Ambikapur diocese were assisting resource persons. 

Br. Anuranjan Tigga and Nathanael Mochahari

Br. Nathanael Mochahari conducting group session

There were about hundred youth participants. Each and everyone contributed for the success of the seminar. At the end of the seminar a well thought out action plan was prepared. 

group task

group activities

action song

group discussion

action song

 Fr. Dileep Marandi, the diocesan youth director was present on the occasion. At the end of the seminar, addressing the youth, he reiterated to have regular meetings, strategies and concrete action plans. He promised all the possible help to the youth group. 

Welcoming the Diocesan youth Director, Fr. Dileep Marandi

Fr. Raphael Monteiro, the parish priest organized the whole programme. President of the youth group proposed vote of thanks. 

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta