00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled 'Adivasi' or 'The Earliest Inhabitants'.
00:07 This issue of Outlook looks at the politics of appropriation and resistance in the wake of recent developments in the states like Jharkhand and the Union Territory of Ladakh.
00:18 With the general elections due this year, it remains to be seen how the Adivasis,
00:24 who form more than 8% of the total population, participate and how the identity politics shape up in the future.
00:33 From the Overlap, a section that looks at news and emerging events from Outlook's special lens.
00:40 Who is Ram vs. Whose Ram? By Mrinal Kaul. Mrinal Kaul is a Sanskrit scholar teaching Indian philosophy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
00:51 Will the quotidian Ram in our mind and body be replaced by the victorious, powerful Ram outside in an inert stone house?
01:00 In a certain outlying sylvan setting of some Ramnagar, Ramchandra heard a daily greeting at his friend.
01:08 "Ram Ram Ram Khilavan" to which came a quick reply "Ram Ram Ram Chandra"
01:14 And soon enough, this inquiry into the well-being of each other transformed into a sense of daily duty.
01:21 It had to, that is how it is. All of us living in India have been a witness to such a quotidian Ram.
01:28 But what did they mean to communicate in this mirrored cultural alliteration?
01:32 And who is this Ram and where is he? In many parts of India, the truth of Ram is invoked when carrying bodies to crematoriums.
01:42 That is, in death is seen the truth of Ram. And yet other times, the victory of Ram is celebrated seeking hegemonic power for him.
01:52 But whose Ram is he? In South Asia, Ram is a potent cultural trope.
01:58 Right from the poetic hero in the Ramayan of Balmiki, to the popular hero of Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas,
02:05 to the impersonated pure compassion of Bhavabhuti's play Uttar Ramcharita, to Mulla Sadulla Panipati's Muslim Ram in Masnaviye Ram Vasita,
02:16 to Kabir's universal Ram and to skeptic philosopher Ram of the Maharamayan, also known as Yoga Vashistha,
02:25 and all the way to the BJP's political Ram.
02:29 The Adhyatma Ramayan hails Ram as a metaphysical reality, Brahma, while the poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal's Ram is the spiritual leader of India, Imam-e-Hind.
02:41 Unlike Balmiki's Ramayan, the philosophical Ram of the great Ramayan, Maharamayan,
02:48 sets on a pilgrimage as a teenager and emerges deeply introspective about the futility of life,
02:55 exactly like the young prince Siddhartha, Buddha once did, and broods concluding,
03:01 "I do not belong to anyone. Nobody belongs to me. I will die like a lamp bereft of oil.
03:08 After abandoning everything, I will abandon this body."
03:12 Remember, it is the Maharamayan, the story of Ram's metaphysical life.
03:17 The exasperated Ram, a fresh skeptic, is perturbed by his own ignorance and seeks knowledge from his teacher, Vashistha.
03:26 He is an introspective and reflective Ram, and this pilgrimage is an exercise of self-questioning.
03:33 The dialogue begins and Vashistha appreciates the rational skepticism of Ram, saying,
03:39 "Even the word of a child is accepted if it is in accordance with reason.
03:44 Otherwise, the word of even the Brahma, the creator of the world, is to be abandoned like a piece of straw."
03:52 Ram begins questioning himself, seeking answers from Vashistha.
03:56 The knowledge of scriptures is a burden to the unwise, and wisdom is a burden to one who is full of attachment.
04:04 To one who is restless, his own mind is a burden, and to one who has no self-knowledge, the body is a burden.
04:13 "Though I am a hero, this craving makes me a frightened coward.
04:17 Though I have eyes to see, it makes me blind.
04:20 Though I am full of joy, it makes me miserable. It is like a dreadful goblin."
04:27 "I do not regard him as a hero who is able to battle successfully against a mighty army.
04:32 Only him I consider a hero who is able to cross the ocean known as the mind and the senses."
04:40 "Shame, shame upon those who are bound to this body, deluded by the wine of ignorance.
04:46 Shame on those who are bound to this world."
04:49 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.
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