परिपक्वता

परिपक्वता की आधार अर्हताएँ मैंने प्राप्त कर ली है;

बाल सफेद हो चुके हैं,

धूप में कम ही निकला हूँ,

तथाकथित परिपक्वतावर्द्धक अभ्यास भी किए हैं, और

अपने दिल में रह रहे बचपने को दैनिक रूप से डांटा है।

लेकिन, फिर भी, मेरे साथ उलटा हो रहा है;

समझदारी को लेकर मेरा आत्मविश्वास घटता जा रहा है।

किसी आदमी को पहचानने का,

या परिस्थितियों के कारण और परिणाम जानने का,

दावा तो मैं पहले भी नहीं करता था,

लेकिन थोड़ा-बहुत भ्रम तो पाल ही लेता था।

अब मैं ऐसा कोई दावा नहीं कर पाता हूँ;

मुझे अपने झक सफेद बालों में कुछ काला दिख रहा है।

नीरज कुमार झा

 

Freedom

Freedom as an order takes the form of democracy. The idea of freedom is often invoked along with equality and fraternity. The parallelism is misplaced. The fact is that it is freedom that begets equality and fraternity, and that is to the possible best. Only utopianism or fantasising in place of philosophizing can sustain the ideas of eliminating inequality and forcing people to fraternal relations. When the idea of freedom remains essential to the democratic formations so regarded in the world, the citizens have and cherish a fair degree of respect and reward for each human being. There may be things abysmally wanting, but that is the best we can have in our present world. For betterment, we need to conceptualise and actualise more freedoms. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Seeing

Seeing is a very challenging job. Everything depends on how skilled people are in seeing. Seeing is not a natural act; one has to make great efforts for it. They go to their prenatal stage to fix lenses on their eyes to usurp visions, and there are agencies always active to place or replace lenses. Being yourself and seeing things as they are is being human.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Power of Social Media

The story of the times is the power of social media, i.e., the power of the commoners. Some say that social media is a mechanism for manipulating public opinion. But, the same persons, who are insulting the intellect of commoners, are also speaking on the same media and are heard and believed. They do have their role as they help the commoners to be more discerning and thus only add to their power.

But, the wisdom is that power is responsibility. Exercise of power bereft of the intent of good and the lack of innate humility in the exerciser is an act of coercion for sadistic pleasures. This is as true for an individual as for any collective. This does not mean that we should not contest evil. One must, but we keep reminding ourselves that while fighting evil, we must save ourselves from the evil cast.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Folks Against Freedom

Why do people disallow freedoms that they need badly or would relish heartily? 

The fact is not generally realised that such a tendency affects common progress adversely and ghettoises folks mentally and physically. The pain of deprivation is lingering.

The answer is that people are afraid of the abuses of freedoms by others. Indeed, the unsavoury elements are too numerous for the comfort of the gentle folks.

The answer is to promote humanism.

What is humanism?

Humanism is one of the two wheels of modernity, the other being rationalism.

Let us explore their meanings and what they do for us.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Democracy Today

 Democracy is the final stage of human evolution for the world as it exists today. The foreseeable future is about its expansion in the world and its refinement. The fall of Bolshevism was its last great victory, and the final decades of the 20th century were the times of high hopes. Liberalism was in the air, and globalism was seen as a fait accompli. And then, things took a rapid turn. The entrenched forces thriving on emotionalism, utopianism, and otherworldliness realised the threats to their privileges and joined forces. With the aid of the naive in the literati, the naive being the overwhelming majority in the category, they succeeded in blocking the greatest ever upsurge of the common persons. They pushed back the great liberating momentum in the very name of the people who were about to avail freedoms unimagined by the earlier generations and also by them. Now, the same literati is lamenting the democracy slide globally, the rise of extremism everywhere, and the decline of human agency as the mismanagement in the handling of the pandemic worldwide demonstrated, without realising its own folly in granting a new lease of life to the outdated forces. At this time, we must know that democracy is about the mental, intellectual, and moral upgrade which happens in the ecology of liberation. The upgrade and the ecology happen intertwined. 

Niraj Kumar Jha 

75 वर्ष

हम साक्षी हैं और सहभागी भी। इन पचहत्तर वर्षों में हमने दुनियाँ की महानतम क्रांति को जीया है। एक महान सभ्यता सदियों के दोहन और अवमानना के गर्त से गणतंत्र के रूप में पुनर्नवा हो उठती है और अपने ध्वज से सारे आकाश को आच्छादित कर देती है। यह सम्पूर्ण मानवता के इतिहास का सबसे अद्भूत अध्याय है। मानवजाति का छठा हिस्सा जो बारम्बार आक्रमणों, नरसंहारों, आंतरिक कलहों, अकालों, महामारियों, दोहन और दमन से दुनियाँ के सबसे दीन-हीन प्राणियों में गिना जाता था, न मात्र असाधारण रूप से जनतांत्रिक प्रणाली को अपनाता है बल्कि उसका निरंतर पोषण भी असाधारण रूप से करता है। सर्व-साधारण की गरिमा की इतनी शीघ्र व्याप्ति अन्यथा अकल्पनीय है।

भारत के ध्वज के मध्य में स्थित धर्मचक्र विश्व में पुनः गतिशील हो चुका है, जिसकी शक्ति है कोटि-कोटि जन का गरिमामय जीवन हेतु संघर्ष और इसकी दिशा है इस महान सभ्यता की सहस्राब्दियों की परंपरा से निःसृत ज्ञान। भांति-भांति के भ्रमों और बाधाओं को पार करता यह धर्मचक्र मानवता का त्राण करेगा, यह तय है। यह प्रत्येक भारतवासी से और हर मानव से स्वहित में अपेक्षित है कि वह इस चक्र का बल बने, अवरोध नहीं। धर्मविजय प्रत्येक प्राणी का जय है। हम इस महान अभियान में बराबरी से भागीदार होकर मानवता के भविष्य के इतिहास के सर्वाधिक उज्ज्वल अध्याय का लेखन करेंगे, यह भी तय है ।

नीरज कुमार झा

The Srilankan Crisis

I read a few articles explaining the crisis. They were ex post facto analyses, and the authors saw the crisis in terms of their ideological predilections except for the one factor which is factual and common to all, i.e., Srilanka falling into the Chinese debt trap by falling for their misplaced investments.

All other measures, which the analysts accounted for the Srilankan slip, were rather thoroughly rational and well-thought over.

In fact, one must not forget that nations too fail like business corporations. It depends on the quality of leadership and the times. Incompetent leadership can mess up even the best ideas. It is a matter of competence.

In a democracy, the quality of the leadership only reflects the quality of the general citizenry. Ultimately, the national good depends on the knowledge base of the society. It is a critical factor that people know and are eager to learn more about.

 

Niraj Kumar Jha