Spirituality Science-For Whom the Bell Tolls?

Washington National Cathedral Bell Tolls for 200,000 Covid-19 Victims

Spirituality Science-For Whom the Bell Tolls?

In the next day or two, the official number of people who have died from Covid-19 in the United States will pass 200,000 (the actual death toll passed 200,000 back in July). To mark the grim occasion yesterday, the Washington National Cathedral tolled its mourning bell 200 times in remembrance, once for each 1000 people who have died.

We toll this 12-ton bell for every funeral held at the Cathedral. Funerals mourn the loss, but they also celebrate the lives of our loved ones, and point us to the hope of resurrection.

This gesture cannot replace the lives lost, but we hope it will help each American mourn the toll of this pandemic.

The tolling goes on for more than 19 minutes and you hear a number of deaths equal to 9/11 every 17 seconds. I recommend listening as long as you are able, to remember those who have been lost, and to inspire action so that 200,000 more Americans don’t have to die before this is all over.

**For Whom the Bell Tolls? Spirituality Science-Biotic Interactions and Consciousness**

The objective of this presentation is to define ‘Spiritualism’ as an internal, mutually beneficial partnership, relationship, association, or bonding between individual living cells of the same organism, or between two different organisms. Spiritualism has to be explained in the context of biotic interactions and consciousness determines the nature and characteristics of such biotic interactions.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Dr. Heinrich Anton de Bary( 1831 – 1888 ), German Physician, Botanist, Founder of Modern Mycology, Microbiologist, Founder of Plant Pathology had coined the term ‘Symbiosis’.

Dr. Heinrich Anton de Bary had coined the term ‘Symbiosis’ in 1879. It describes the living together of unlike organisms; the intimate association of two dissimilar organisms from which each organism benefits. Symbiosis ( sym – together; bios – life ) refers to various kinds of close and permanent associations between members of different species and the term could also be used to describe the nature of social relations between different human beings.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? CARIBOU LICHEN – In 1866, Dr. Bary was the first to show that Lichens consist of a fungus and an alga in intimate association for mutual benefit.

WHAT IS A BIOTIC COMMUNITY?

A biotic community is a biological or natural community consisting of two or more interacting and interdependent populations of living cells or living organisms. No species, and no individual member lives in isolation from other species or other living members in a biological community. The life of the community and of all its members, and of all organisms in it requires energy. In a biotic community, Life and Death are not the final events. The dying process precedes the living process, certain members of the biotic community experience death while new members are born to take part in the life of the community

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, ENTIRE OF ITSELF:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? John Donne( 1572 – 1631 ), Jacobean metaphysical poet, author of Devotion Upon Emergent Occasions( 1624 ).

Ernest Hemingway’s novel “For Whom The Bell Tolls” gives this modern version of the quote from John Donne’s Meditation XVII, “Devotion Upon Emergent Occasions”:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Spirituality Science. Biotic Interactions and Consciousness

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent a part of the main.” In this blog post I would like to examine the biological basis for human existence and understand the nature of man and the status of man as an organism existing at a given place, and given environment because of mutually beneficial biotic interactions.

WHAT ARE BIOTIC INTERACTIONS?

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Science and Spirituality – Spirituality represents a biotic interaction like Mutualism

Living organisms interact with each other competitively and sometimes beneficially. Some of these interactions are temporary, casual and of minor importance whereas others are permanent, vital and of major significance. Many interactions are highly specialized and complicated involving adaptive changes in structure, function, behavior, and ecology. Some interactions create negative effects on the interactants, reducing survival or reproductive success; other interactions produce effects increasing survival or reproductive success. In some cases, members of an interaction are apparently unaffected. Biotic interactions could be divided into two categories; a. Intraspecific Interactions; interactions between the individual living cells that comprise the same multicellular organism, or interactions between members of the same species, and b. Interspecific Interactions; interactions between members of two or more different species. The biotic interactions may involve nutritional benefits, support of other metabolic functions, space in which to live, shelter, or protection, transport, or reproductive capability. Biotic interactions are significant not only because they influence individual species but also because they constitute the principal stabilizing, connective linkages among the various species contained in a biotic community. Individual members of any given species in a biological community persist in relative harmony because of biotic interactions despite individual gains and losses. As consequence of this web of interactions, the biotic community as a whole persists with all of its members ultimately contributing to its continuation. The consequences of biotic interactions could be positive, negative, or neutral. Mutualism is association of two different species that result in mutual benefit or gain. Facultative Mutualism or Protocooperation involves facultative interactions between plants and animals in ways that are general and indirect but beneficial to both species. The interactions that occur between soil bacteria and fungi and between them and higher plants growing in the soil are Protocooperative. In the zone of plant roots, soil bacteria and fungi interact with each other, some producing nutrients or metabolites required by others and all obtaining nutrients ultimately from root exudates and decaying organic matter. Plants benefit from the actions of this microflora by acquiring needed minerals, and nitrogen compounds. The important association of nitrifying bacteria in the process called Nitrogen Fixation, extraction of Nitrogen from the environment by the roots of leguminous plants is well-known. Collectively all microflora and higher plants, with associated soil fauna, participate in determining soil composition, soil structure, and soil fertility. Man exists in nature as a terrestrial organism because of these biotic interactions that transform the characteristics of soil and its ability to support life. Biotic communities that are based on Obligative Mutualism are characterized by stable, persistent, and interdependent associations between species. Coexistence in a given habitat is always required as this association is mandatory for the survival of each participant. This kind of association is perpetrated from one generation to the next. To guarantee coexistence of the partners, the species involved show relationships based upon structure, behavior, and life history. In lichens, the fungal member penetrates algal cells with feeding tubes or haustoria, thus effecting an intimate physical interconnection. This nutrient exchange helps the algal cells to develop resistance to drying or to extreme temperatures. Commensalism is an association in which one member benefits while the other remains unaffected. Physical Commensalism involves the need for living space and the examples are provided by woody plants that physically support numerous orchids and ferns. Nutritional Commensalism is well illustrated by the many organisms found in the alimentary tracts of man and other higher animals. Such microbial gut flora use host waste products for food and acquire water and a suitable climate in which to live. No harm is done to the hosts. In Parasitism, the smaller organism benefits at the expense of the larger organism. Both plants and animals are attacked by parasites. Many parasites cause disease and death of the host organism. Parasitism constitutes a considerable burden on a host population. Many disease-causing organisms are parasites carried from host to host by some other organism; for example Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. In such situations, the biotic interactions involve three necessarily coexisting species: the pathogen, the carrier or vector species, and the host. An intermediate host interposed between the target host and parasite adds ecological complications to host-parasite interactions: the parasite, host, and intermediate host must all be present in the same community in suitable numbers at the same time. Consumption describes organisms eating organisms. It is the most important class of biotic interactions. Herbivory describes animals eating plants. Predation refers to a large or strong animal that consumes a small or weak animal. Scavengers eat or consume dead or decaying organisms and organic material. Consumption is the basic food association( trophic link ) through which the composition dynamics and variation of biological community’s structure takes place. All organisms form links in the community food chains and food webs, the nutritional pathways characteristic of given biological community. Amensalism is an association between organisms of two different species in which one is inhibited or destroyed and the other is unaffected. There are two basic modes of Amensalism; 1. Competition occurs when two species utilize a common, limited resource such as food, space, and water, and in doing so, one species interferes with, injures, or deprives the other species. Competition may involve a larger or stronger organism that excludes a smaller or weaker one from living space or deprives it of food; Intraspecific Competition occurs when competitors are of the same species. Competitive interactions may lead to Competitive Exclusion or Competitive Displacement, and 2. Antibiosis, in which one organism is unaffected but the other is damaged or killed by a chemical secretion. The classic example of Antibiosis is the discovery of Penicillin antibiotic by Dr. Alexander Fleming who had observed that the bread mold Penicillium notatum had effects upon the growth of colonies of bacteria. Mutual Antagonism occurs when a biotic interaction between two species results in harm or death to both.

INTERACTIONS WITHIN MEMBERS OF THE SAME SPECIES: THE ROLE OF NEGATIVE INTERACTIONS :

Intraspecific Competition provides the ultimate force limiting abundance of a species in a community. Natural enemies could be present or absent but others of the same species are always present providing the Competition that insures against over exploitation of available resources and the irreversible destruction of a community due to overpopulation. Fighting and territorial defense are some of the overt methods by which Competition manifests itself. Territoriality, the dividing up of resources, mostly space, is a common means of defense against overcrowding. Instead of involving individuals against individuals, it involves groups of individuals. It also produces the response of migration of individuals and mass flight of large groups of individuals. Competitive Intraspecific Interactions between humans and Mutual Antagonism among human social groups may endanger human existence.

THE ROLE OF POSITIVE INTRASPECIFIC INTERACTIONS:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Man’s life journey begins as an Embryo which gets implanted into the maternal tissues by about 6 days after its conception. Thus, mother is the source of Food and Energy to establish human life. Man has no existence in absence of this positive Intraspecific Interaction between Embryo and Mother.

Man’s life journey begins with conception and implantation of the embryo into maternal tissues at about six days after conception. The prolonged period of gestation, the anatomical connection between developing fetus and mother, the psychological bonding and the extended period of dependence of newborn and the role of parental care reveal importance of Positive Intraspecific Interactions for human existence. Numerous interactions among individuals of the same species lead to the development of social groups. Parental Care and protection provides the basis for many aggregations of like individuals, and social units like families.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Tropical Orchids provide an example of Physical commensalism.

A medical historian described the proboscis of the female Anopheline Mosquito:"Down this tiny tube crept microscopic poison which swept away two of the mightiest empires( of Greece and Rome ) the world has ever seen." Half the morbidity of the human race until very recently due to Malaria transmitted by bites of female Anopheles Mosquito. — For Whom the Bell Tolls? A medical historian described the proboscis of the female Anopheline Mosquito:”Down this tiny tube crept microscopic poison which swept away two of the mightiest empires( of Greece and Rome ) the world has ever seen.” Half the morbidity of the human race until very recently is due to Malaria transmitted by bites of female Anopheles Mosquito.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? A tapeworm is a ribbon like parasitic flatworm that belongs to the Class Cestoda. The Pork Tapeworm or Taenia solium grows up to 33 feet long and lives in human small intestine which is about 20 feet long. I had dissected a human cadaver in which I found the Pork Tapeworm tightly coiled in the entire extent of the small intestine contributing to the death of my human anatomy specimen.

MAN’S BIOLOGICAL EXISTENCE AS THE HOST OF A BIOTIC COMMUNITY:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Escherichia Coli – Example of microbial flora of human gastrointestinal tract. Man exists as a natural host to a biotic community of trillions of microorganisms.

Man exists in nature as a natural host to a biotic community of trillions of microorganisms. At birth, the stomach and gastrointestinal tract are usually sterile. With the first intake of food and contact with other humans present in the environment, bacteria commence colonization of infant’s digestive tract. These microorganisms perform functions beneficial to the host. The microbes are provided with a protected place to live and their environment is rich in nutrients. This mutual beneficial, symbiotic relationship is always present during the entire course of life after birth. The human body consists of about 100 trillion cells and it carries about ten times as many microbes in the intestines. The microbial flora include enteric bacteria, bacteroides, enterococci, lactobacilli, and clostridia. The small intestine contains low numbers of bacteria, about 100,000 to 10 million bacteria per millilitre of fluid. In the large intestine, the bacterial members can reach 100 billion per millilitre of fluid. It is estimated that these gut flora have around 100 times as many genes in aggregate as there are in the human genome. The metabolic activities performed by these bacteria resemble those of an internal organ of human body. The microbes are important to the health of humans. These bacteria are useful for efficient processing of food, absorption of water, absorption of nutrients like Magnesium, Calcium, and Iron. They perform a variety of useful functions such as synthesis of essential vitamins like Biotin, Vitamin K and production of short-chain fatty acids. The gut flora may produce hormones to direct the host to store fat. They train the host immune system to respond only to pathogens and thereby prevent the growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria. They stimulate increased growth of human gut cells and stimulate the growth of indigenous bacteria. Gut flora have enzymes that human cells lack for breaking down complex sugars called polysaccharides. The gut flora help in digestion of unutilized energy substrates and may contribute up to 60 percent of the weight of the feces for human excretory function. Microbial flora of the gut can influence the phenomenon known as “Oral Tolerance” which may reduce overreactive immune response like those found in allergies and auto-immune disease. Gut flora play a major role in metabolizing dietary carcinogens and hence have role in prevention of cancer. Human existence demands the play of these biotic interactions for its own benefit and for the benefit of the biotic community as its natural host.

SPIRITUALITY – THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL INTERACTIONS:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Sweetness is the name of this Biotic Interaction. This Interaction has the characteristics of Spiritualism or Spiritual Interaction.

The term ‘spiritual’ describes the nature of a relationship, partnership, an association, or bonding between two living entities based upon characteristics such as compassion, sympathy, cooperation, mutual assistance, tolerance, voluntary subservience, devotion, and functional subordination to provide some benefit to the members participating in the biotic interaction at a given place and in a given environment. Depending upon size, complexity, and structure and functions of the Whole Organism, Spiritual Biotic Interactions and Spiritual Relationships are also based upon thoughts and feelings of sympathy and compassion that are attributes of mental functions and emotional makeup of the partners interacting. The Spiritual nature of biotic interactions is reflection of the Spiritual nature of the Creator of the living entities who has provided different modes of interactions using inspiration and imagination. Hence, Spirituality as a biotic interaction describes an internal, mutually beneficial partnership between individual cells of the human organism and the Whole Organism that represents it as a Human Individual.

THE STATUS OF MAN IN NATURE:

The First Book of Moses, The Old Testament Book of Genesis describes the story of Creation; in Chapter 2, verse 7, it narrates man’s creation: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

For Whom the Bell Tolls? The Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 27:”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

MAN IS A CREATED BEING:

Man is a created being as he always exists as one of its own kind of unique, original, and distinctive object. Man always arrives from a previously existing egg cell and yet his genome has not existed before, and would not exist again. Man exists as an object that is created using the powers of inspiration and imagination that keeps man as an Individual with Individuality without any choice of his own.

Spirituality-Soul-Consciousness and God-Connection — **For Whom the Bell Tolls? Spirituality Science. Biotic Interactions and Consciousness. The Man is constituted as a Spiritual Being.**

MAN IS A SPIRITUAL BEING:

The status of man in nature describes man as a created object; a new object, one of its own kind, distinctive, and unique. The principle of Creation involves use of inspiration and imagination as opposed to the view proposed by Theory of Evolution. The fundamental issue is about understanding man’s status in nature. Did man come into existence by gradual changes caused by random and unguided events called genetic mutations? Or, does man actually exist in nature because of his relationship with other objects present in his living environment? What defines man’s existence? What establishes the reality of man’s physical existence? Should we focus on the changing form? Alternately, should we give attention to an unchanging relationship that is a prerequisite for the existence of all life forms? If an object cannot come into its state of existence, how could that object get a shape or form? In the context of a discussion about man’s existence in nature, I state that man is a created object, and hence man exists as a Spiritual being. The term Spiritual describes the nature of this connection between man and His Creator. Soul is the immortal part of man as distinguished from his body; it is the vital principle which moves and animates all Life. Soul may represent essence of a human being, it could be the quality which confers individuality, humanity, and the moral nature of man. I divide man into two categories; the first category is called the ‘SELF’ which represents man as a physical, mental, and social being; and the second category is called the ‘KNOWING-SELF’ which represents man as a moral, rational, and spiritual being. These two categories function together and the functional unity of the human person is an attribute of a neurobiological function called Consciousness. Man’s physical being is represented by a changing external or morphological appearance and while the physical Identity is constantly changing, the unchanging Individuality is supported by man’s spirituality or the nature of his constant spiritual relationship.

THE ETERNAL REALITY OF SOUL’S IMMORTALITY :

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Ajanta Caves near Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India, Fresco-type wall painting Man’s spiritual dimension describes man’s humanity, moral nature, individuality, and Consciousness.

Religious thinkers have further defined Soul as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity. People of all races, cultures and religions would like to investigate the nature of this God-Connection as they perceive the world and the universe in which they exist as a fact of Creation. I need to find evidence that would fundamentally deny the fact of Creation.

MAN IS A SOCIAL BEING:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? French philosopher Auguste Comte(1798-1857) coined the term Sociology. He believed that the scientific study of social organization would make possible reconstitution of the social order based on principles of moral progress.

Apart from being a created Physical being, man is recognized as a Social being as he displays social instincts and social behaviors in all of his activities. A rudimentary understanding of Sociology or Theories of Social Science would clarify this matter. Social instincts and Social Behaviors are seen in all animals including bacteria. At a cellular level, the social function is called ‘Association’. Man is association of trillions of cells. Each human organ and organ system represents association of cells that display functional subordination to perform selective tasks. Life is just impossible without social structure and organization.

MAN IS A MORAL BEING:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Man is a Spiritual being and is endowed with Moral nature. James Tissot in his painting captures essence of man. The Book of Matthew, Chapter 27 verses 3-5 narrate the story of Apostle Judas Iscariot and his moral failing that caused dissolution of his biological existence-“When Judas who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said,”for I have betrayed innocent blood.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”

Man is an individual who exists in a social group. At the same time, man is a Moral being, as he displays moral behavior even when he is corrupt. Man displays the ability of Repentance for his thoughts, for his actions of commission and omission. Man has ability to admit his sins, express remorse and may often punish himself for his sinful conduct. Man experiences grief for his actions that are sinful. Man actively searches for solutions for his sinful conduct. Man cannot sustain his biological existence if he had morally failed. A famous example would be that of Apostle Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus.

MATTER, ENERGY, AND KNOWLEDGE :

Greek philosopher Aristotle had observed that corporeal substances are composite of two principles, form and matter. What is called matter is potentiality, what is called form is actuality. The totality of things have been divided in various ways. The three fundamental distinctions are 1. the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, 2. the distinction between the material and the spiritual, and 3. the distinction between the lifeless and the living. When we make distinction animate/inanimate, living/non-living, and inorganic/organic, a question arises about the nature of that distinction. The difference, is that one of kind or degree? The Mechanistic View claims continuity of nature in terms of universality of purely mechanical principles. I have defined Life as ‘Knowledge in Action’. Please view the blog post at https://bhavanajagat.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/what-is-life-life-is-knowledge-in-action/

I define Life as organization of matter with implanted supernatural Knowledge. Establishment of supernatural Knowledge in matter describes operation of ‘God Principle’, Spirit, or Soul. Life comes into existence when matter and energy come together with establishment of ‘God Connection’.

LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS :

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Amoeba proteus, unicellular, protozoan organism is conscious or aware of its own state of existence. It has the abilities of Motion, Nutrition, and Reproduction. All of its living functions are goal-oriented. It responds to its environment and survives adverse environmental conditions by a process called encystment.

The basic characteristic of a Living Cell or organism is presence of consciousness. I recognize a cell as a Living Cell if it displays functions that characterize presence of awareness or consciousness. The Living Cell or Living Object need not be aware or conscious of the Subject who may be investigating or observing the properties of that Object. The Living Object need to be aware of its own existence and its condition called Living. Atoms and molecules display their properties and interact according to the Laws of Physics and Chemistry. Living organic molecules show individualistic behaviors under experimental conditions that could be repeated and be verified. The Living Cell is very selective and it responds in a variable manner to physical and chemical stimuli. It can communicate or send signals to other Living Cells present in its environment. It responds according to its internal condition in relation to the environment in which it exists. The interactions of non-living physical matter are not goal-oriented. The interactions of Living matter are goal-oriented and they specifically achieve the purpose of sustaining, preserving, defending, and continuing the Living functions.

MAN IS A MORTAL, PHYSICAL BEING:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Man is a mortal being who must eventually die. When Lazarus died and was laid in a tomb for four days, Jesus performed a miracle and Lazarus came back to life from death. The Book of John, Chapter 11, narrates this event. In verses 41 and 42, Jesus said,”Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people who are standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” The risen Lazarus had eventually died.

LIFE AND DEATH IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? When does Life begins? When does Life ends? Life always comes into a state of existence from a previously existing Living Cell. Life and Death is a continuous process and is recognized by the presence of Consciousness and Individuality.

When does Life begins? When does Life ends? Every Living Cell is derived from a previously existing Living Cell. Life has not experienced the final event called DEATH. Life continues its act of Living through a function called Reproduction. A given species is considered to be totally extinct only if there is no surviving member to represent that particular species. Death is a programmed event and it gives meaning to the Identity of a Living Object. Dissolution of a single Living Object should not obscure the fact that Life is a continuous process. Life continues as Living Objects get new Identities. It is very reasonable to expect that Life would continue after the death of a given Living Object. People all over the world are a witness to that simple and direct observation. During the Life-Death continuum, the connection between the Creator and the created Living Object is manifested by the biological function called awareness or consciousness. Presence of Soul is evidenced by the presence of consciousness. As long as the Soul is functioning and is united with the physical being, the presence of consciousness could be detected and could be verified.

THE SOUL AND GOD CONNECTION:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? All types of Living Cells with or without nucleus represent thermodynamically unstable systems. Without a continuous input of energy a Living Cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. Biological existence is possible because of an association or connection, or partnership between energy seeker and energy provider.

There has been no clearly defined and universally accepted metaphysical conception of the term Soul. It is a term rarely used with precise definition in philosophy, religion, or common life. In this discussion we face the problem of using words to which no definitive meaning is attached. If I make an attempt to define the word ‘God’, you may even speculate that I may belong to a new religious order. We need to come to a consensus even if an entity called ‘God’ does not exist. We need to formulate a view, a hypothetical view about Soul and test that hypothesis by countering it with a skeptical hypothesis. The Science called Physics deals with the properties, changes, interactions, etc. of matter and energy in which energy is considered to be continuous. In the ultimate analysis, matter is representation of its energy content. The Science called Biology deals with Life and Life processes. While Life is made up of physical matter, Life processes are not explained by simple mechanistic interactions. However, I am willing to use the principles, the methods, and the tools used by Physics. Molecular Biology explains biological events by studying the molecules within cells; the molecular basis of genetics – Nucleic Acids and its relationship to energy cycling and replication. If this universe is seen as matter and energy, I would define God as the Controller of Force/Power/Energy. All living things are essentially made up of the same kind of living matter and yet they appear to be different. Life could be attributed to ONE common principle which has ability to be simultaneously different. Each living object comes into a state of existence as a new object, as an original object, one of its own kind, unique, and distinctive. This morphological variation is an attribute of the organic molecules that establish the phenotype or the physical identity of that living organism. Physics provides those powerful tools to see the molecules and to recognize their individualistic behavior. Life comes into existence using a creative principle, and creative mechanisms that need inspiration, and imagination apart from the use of simple mechanistic laws. If Life is governed by the Law of Individuality, I would define God as a Creative Force/Power/Energy.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Life is a condition that describes Synchronized Existence, synchronization of activities, the connection between energy dependent life functions and its Source of Power.

Majority of these life forms that we know and have studied, have synchronized their state of existence with an event that produces alternating periods of light and darkness while that source of light is not being turned ‘on’ and ‘off’. Rather we are forced to experience the effects of an illusion. Sunrise and Sunset is the reality that govern majority of Biological Rhythms that control the life processes. Illusion is the necessary condition for the biological existence of Life. If Earth’s rotational spin generates this illusion, God uses Force/Power/Energy to cause illusion. In the universe that exists today, to the extent we have verified; there are no two identical celestial objects that exhibit the same rotational spin. In this context, it may be said that the Force/Power/Energy called God has created Earth to provide a home to the life forms that He has created as Individuals. These life forms have ability called reproduction and yet lack the ability of producing two identical new objects. Sexual or Asexual reproduction always results in production of new Individuals which could be easily verified by using the Biometric Identification Technology. Even the clones, sharing identical genomes, in reality exist as individuals. This Individuality when investigated by the tools supplied by Physics, it is discovered that the organic molecules behave as Individuals and man is not able to modify that behavior. Under the same experimental conditions, the molecules behave as individuals. When we examine the nature of this biological existence, it indicates that life processes are supported by the provision of energy from an external source. The Living Cell is a thermodynamically unstable system. This means that without a continuous input of energy a Living Cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. This lack of energy independence would direct us to define God as the Power/Force/Energy which delivers Compassion/Mercy/Grace which helps energy acquisition by energy dependent living organisms. Life forms on planet Earth exist depending upon an extraterrestrial source of energy or Cosmic Power/Force/Energy. Life exists because of its ability called ‘Association’. The act of associating, the state of being associated; the companionship, the fellowship, and the partnership is the defining feature of the State or Condition, or Act of Living. Association or partnership between energy seeker and energy provider could be described as God-Connection. Organisms that are single do not live as single cells but develop association with other single cells to form distinct Colonies. Organisms that are multicellular represent organization of individual cells that are associated having common interests, purposes, sensations, etc., Since association has a purpose, in the context of biological existence, the association or connection, or partnership between the energy seeker, and the energy provider is a meaningful event and not a simple, mechanical, physical event governed by the Laws of Interactions between Matter and Energy. There are Four Fundamental Interactions and they do not regulate or define this Interaction between Living matter and the Cosmic Force/Power/Energy. Living matter uses and exploits energy in a creative manner to build organic molecules and to break down organic molecules. The life processes are very similar and yet the results are totally different. While using energy mostly following a similar metabolic pathway, each organism supports its identity and individuality.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? WHO HAS ESTABLISHED THE CONNECTION BETWEEN AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS? The creative mechanism to trap Solar Energy describes implanted Knowledge to formulate the connection between autotrophs and heterotrophs.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? In mitochondria, many substances(food) are oxidized and ATP, the energy-storing chemical of the Cell is produced. The most important equations for living things are mutually inverse. Respiration of humans, and Cellular Respiration represents the reverse of Photosynthesis.

SOUL AND DEATH:

The idea of ‘Soul’ always comes in the context of Death. If man is immortal, we will not be spending our time and energy discussing to verify the existence of an immortal principle. The human subject has a limited life span and it arouses a sense of curiosity about the existence of something that could defy Death. I am trying to define the word ‘Soul’ in a manner to promote an understanding that ‘Soul’ is immortal if we look at man as an Association of individual living cells. We need to establish the Identity of that Individual for whose purpose or interest this Association of Individual living cells exists. If we think of Death as a final event, it is not supported by factual evidence. In this Association, death is a daily event. We simply fail to acknowledge this daily event as there is an immortal principle that is escaping this death experience. The Individual thinks that he is alive and sustains his Individuality without getting overwhelmed by the dying process that is continuous. While the human organism is changing its external appearance and identity all the time, the Individuality survives if ‘Soul’ the vital, or operating immortal principle is functioning. The issue or question about ‘transmigration’ of Soul would not arise if every living organism exists strictly as an Individual with an Individuality. As stated before, the man has no choice and he must always exist as an Individual even when we use Reproductive Genetic Engineering Technology to produce identical clones with the same genome. Dissolution of matter may not change the Law of Conservation of Energy. If Soul is defined as the God Connection that gives the ability of energy acquisition, the Soul when removed from a physical object to which it has given Individuality, would operate as per the commands of the Controller of Force/Power/Energy. It provides the possibility of carrying the impressions of a previous state of existence into a new state of existence with a new identity and Individuality. During the life span of a given Individual, association of cells in which death is a daily event, Soul is a continuous principle as its purpose and interest is to maintain Individuality of that Individual.

SOUL AND THE LIVING CELL:

I define man as a physical, mental, social, moral, rational, and spiritual being as I define the term ‘health’ as the physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual well-being of the man in his environment and community and not merely as absence of disease. This definition of ‘health’ would help me to provide ‘comprehensive health care’ in my role as a Primary Care physician. Specialists and Super specialists provide health care in specific areas involving an organ or an organ system.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Jean Paul Sartre had stated that Nothingness(Non-thing or Neant) is a condition of not having Being and yet it is supported by Being. Nothingness comes into the world by the Being-for-itself. The Conscious Knowing-Self or the Essence of man is preceded by the Subjective Reality of physical Existence.

I attach my ideas to some ideas expressed by others. Sartre is a well-known person. He had won the Nobel Prize for literature but declined to accept it. I may not totally agree with him and his views about consciousness. He had stated his view in a manner that people can easily understand. He makes distinction between objective things and human consciousness. He claims that consciousness is a ‘non-thing'(‘neant’ or nothingness ) and its reality consists in standing back from things and taking a point of view on them. Because consciousness is a non-thing, it does not have any of the causal involvements that things have with other things. If you stand before a mirror, the reflection exists only if it is supported by the presence of a physical being or thing. If the physical thing is taken away, the reflected image is gone but the reflective surface retains its ability to reflect the images of things.

THE BIOLOGICAL MEMBRANE AND CONSCIOUSNESS:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? The Biological Membrane is not a simple physical barrier separating the Living Cell from its environment. The Protoplasm or Cytoplasm, the Living Matter uses its Biological Membrane with a sense of awareness or consciousness which recognizes the fact of its existence and the fact of something present in its environment.

In a Living Cell, consciousness reflects its ability to know its external environment and its internal condition or internal environment. The Living Cell knows, it is aware of its state, fact, and act of its Living. The Living Cell makes contact with its environment by using a cell membrane, a biological membrane, or a bio-membrane. If you carefully look at some of the functions of this membrane, you would discern that the Living Cell has consciousness or awareness of these functions. The Biological Membrane behaves in a conscious manner and it is not a simple, physical barrier between the Protoplasm, the Living Substance and its environment. If the term ‘soul’ describes a vital principle, or a source of Knowledge, it provides information with which these functions could be performed. Some molecules and ions can freely move across this Bio-membrane and some are actively pumped in or out of the Cell that involves expenditure of energy. The Living Cell has ability to recognize condition of its nucleus, if the DNA is damaged, the Cell can initiate a process and cause its own dissolution.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Red Blood Cells display functional subordination to serve the purpose of the Whole Organism. Functional differentiation, and Functional Unity are important to support the existence of the Subject or Individual who is in reality association of trillions of cells.

In multicellular organism, the consciousness works both at the level of each individual cell and to establish the functioning of the organism as an individual unit. Without functional unity, the organism cannot maintain its biological existence. Cell differentiation is the process by which the individual cells use adaptation to perform specific tasks. Red Blood Cells perform specific tasks.

THE NEURO-BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Reticular Formation of Brain Stem has connections with almost all other parts of the Central Nervous System and it helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the CNS. It is important for Behavioral Arousal, and the Capacity for Consciousness.

In the human Brain Stem, several neurons, and nuclei which are in an area called Reticular Formation are functionally adapted to compose the contents of human consciousness. The Reticular Formation gives the Capacity for Consciousness. The contents of this consciousness are read in the cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres and described as Cortical awareness. Most philosophers, most of the psychologists, and several of the religious thinkers pay attention to this Cortical awareness and describe that as human consciousness. We tend to ignore the fact that there would be no Cortical awareness unless there is a Capacity for Consciousness. Most recently, the surgeons had removed the complete left cerebral hemisphere from a child to stop convulsive seizures. The child is alive, fully conscious, and hopefully would continue to live in future with some neurological deficits. Just like the human heart which has four different muscular chambers and each has a function of its own; we need to understand consciousness by knowing its components. We need to use separate terms to distinguish these different components. There would be confusion if a term is used without attaching a specific meaning. Cortical awareness is important and is very interesting and yet man can exist and survive with minimal cortical awareness. We have seen children with severe degrees of mental retardation, and they can keep their biological existence if they retain the ability to Compose Consciousness. I want to designate the upper Brain Stem as the Seat of Consciousness and the word consciousness itself must describe the functions of the Brain Stem which are most important for man’s biological existence. A man is clinically dead in absence of these Brain Stem functions involved in the Capacity of Consciousness. In Clinical Medicine, the term conscious is often used to measure the degree of Arousal or Cortical awareness and hence this subject matter would remain confusing for a long time. If a subject is unconscious, I would not issue a ‘death certificate’. In Clinical Medicine, the term used is ‘Brain Death’ and when Brain Death is diagnosed, the human person for all practical purposes is dead. I would suggest that we must use the term ‘Unconscious’ specifically to indicate the Brain Death which is diagnosed by testing the Brain Stem Reflexes. If the human person is viewed as a single physical thing or object, integration of functions is achieved at the Brain Stem( Reticular Formation), and he maintains his individuality throughout his physical existence only when this part of the brain is functioning. If you like the term individual soul or Jeeva Atma, its existence is reflection of this function. To see a reflection, we need two things; the physical object and a reflective surface. Ability to reflect objects may depend upon presence of Knowledge. It is not known if this particular kind of knowledge exists as organic molecules; however, it is very well understood that most of the knowledge to perform a variety of biological functions is contained in organic molecules and the most well-known group of these organic molecules are known as DNA. There are Viruses which can function with RNA. Hence, there is still possibility of finding organic molecules that could be associated with the functional ability called consciousness, awareness, cognition, recognition, responsiveness, perception, memory, intelligence, and association. The most important aspect of ‘association’ is ‘God Connection’ and without this function of ‘association’ man cannot keep his biological existence.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? Consciousness is awareness of existence, the facts that relate to the state or condition of existence. Behavioral Arousal and Cortical awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations is an important component of total Biological Existence.

IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY:

For Whom the Bell Tolls? The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 12. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna :”Na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme JanadhipaH;Na chaiva na bhavisyamaH, sarve vayam ataH param.” For each of us our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never at any time did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

The issue of spirituality, the nature of Soul and consciousness must be explored in the context of arriving at an understanding of man’s Identity and Individuality. If man is viewed as an association of trillions of cells, we need to know the Identity of that Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells. The purpose of consciousness at cellular level is to foster functional unity of the multicellular organism and to establish it as an Individual. In a multicellular organism, cells have short lives as individuals. The Subject or the whole organism has a life span of its own and it has effects on individual cells. Multicellularity is accompanied by adaptive subordination of all cells to the requirements of the organism as a whole. To achieve proper numerical balance between functionally related cell groups, the death of many cells is necessary for other cells to reach maturity. This programmed cell death plays an important role in embryological development. Such programmed cell death events are essential if the organism as a whole is to develop its normal final form. Waves of genetically driven cell deaths are critical to the proper modeling of organs and organ systems. We need to know and understand that death of cells is a must to establish the Identity and to sustain the Individuality of the human being. The dying process helps man to understand his Individuality. The Individuality is preserved while death is a daily event at the cellular level. The phenotype or the morphological appearance of the human Subject undergoes constant change during the Life journey and yet the Individuality remains unchanged. We recognize the death of this human Subject when his Soul departs from his body. Soul may be stated as an entity which is regarded as being immortal or spiritual part of the person. The Spirit of a dead person generally refers to a principle separate from the body and leading existence of its own. If Soul is viewed as a Non-thing or Nothingness, it comes into the world of existence by entering the physical being at its conception which becomes conscious or aware of its existence. This consciousness has also existed in a previously existing Living Egg Cell which is the Mother of Life, Energy, and Knowledge. Consciousness by its very nature is immortal, it is eternal, and it has no birth or death. We recognize the arrival and departure of the new product during the Life-Death continuum where the Individuality is unaffected by the changes that are caused by the powerful influence of Time.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

BHAVANAJAGAT.ORG

For Whom the Bell Tolls? THE MAN LEADS A TRANSIENT, CONDITIONED, MORTAL EXISTENCE. BUT, SOMETHINGS ENDURE, FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 1 CORINTHIANS 13:13. Image by Janetateher.

My reflections on Jewish Holiday Rosh Hashanah-The King must grant me a day to rest

On Sunday, September 20, 2020, I ask the King of Heaven and Earth to grant me a day to rest as promised.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No.22-Vikas Regiment

**My reflections on Jewish Holiday Rosh Hashanah-The King must grant me a day to rest.**

Genesis 2:2-3 New King James Version

²And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Rosh Hashanah

Begins sunset of Friday, September 18, 2020
Ends nightfall of Sunday, September 20, 2020No work is permitted.

The Month of Elul – August 21 – September 18, 2020
Fast of Gedaliah – September 21, 2020

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, and a day of judgment and coronation of G‑d as king.

Rosh Hashana is not just the anniversary of Creation. It is also the anniversary of the beginning of God’s rule over mankind.

Although one might be led to believe that the primary theme of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is apples and honey or nice clothes and good meals or a day off work, it simply isn’t the case. Although they, too, are important, Rosh Hashanah is essentially a celebration of God as King of the World. Period. It is also the day that God judges the world and seals each and every person’s fate for the coming year.

Why is Rosh Hashanah the day when our coming year is decided? It is the anniversary of the creation of the world and the beginning of the Jewish new year. As we say in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, “This day is the beginning of Your works, the commemoration of the first day.”

However, the meaning of “creation of the world” is not as clear-cut as it may seem. Notice how on Fridays, the daily prayers include the following excerpt from Psalms: “God will have reigned, He will have donned grandeur.” (Psalms 93) This verse is recited because it is on a Friday that God completed His work and began ruling over His creations.

Why is mankind so vital for the success of God as king? It is because of the free choice that we have. Human beings can make choices in life. We know what is right and what it wrong, what is moral and what is not, which choices will please Him and which choices will anger Him. We choose whether we are going to follow the Torah or not.

God is a king, not a dictator. A king is generally a figure that the people have chosen to accept upon themselves. Before the creation of man, there was no one to accept God. Animals and vegetation cannot make choices. They cannot declare God as king. They have no mitzvot (commandments) to observe. Only with the creation of man did God become king in every sense of the word.

We see from here that Rosh Hashanah is not just the anniversary of Creation. It is also the anniversary of the start of God’s rule over mankind. Our thoughts and prayers should be focused on Adam, the first human creation who was also the first of the king’s subjects. We have to reaffirm the choice that Adam made when celebrating the acceptance of God as our king and before whom we stand in judgement.

Adam symbolizes Rosh Hashanah in another way as well. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, they acknowledged before whom they sinned. We also sin; we sin all the time. Rosh Hashanah is the time to recognize our sins and to recognize before whom we have sinned.

On the day of judgment, let us pray that our slates are cleaned up, that we may start afresh and that we are blessed with a great new year. Indeed, may He answer our prayers and bless us with a good year in the great merit that we generate on Rosh Hashanah by declaring God as our one and only king!

By: Rabbi Ari Enkin, rabbinic director, United with Israel

Bharat Darshan- The Legacy of the Communal Award of 1932

In my analysis, the national entity called the Republic of India has not attained its full political independence from the British Raj on August 15, 1947. India is a slave to the British Policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ and India never gained full independence for it embraced the Communal Award Policy of 1932 imposed by the British Prime Minister McDonald.

The McDonald Award was based on the British theory that India was not a nation, but is a conglomeration of racial, religious and cultural groups, castes and interests. The British knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Society and knew that Indian society had a tendency to gravitate towards localism and regionalism and the reason was obvious: India was a self-sufficient country based on self-sufficient units and there was very little interaction between the two. The British were very much aware that a sense of nationalism is always an antidote to imperialism. We can also say that the British had a single point agenda to strike down the nationalism and to create parochial loyalties among the smaller communities. This was one of the reasons that British came up with the concept of separate electorate, as Elections are a powerful means for the allocation of power and therefore, Thus, McDonald award was to debilitate national unity by creating different spheres of interests. It was dangerous and Gandhi knew it. The new challenge was to combat with the feeling of separatism. This award started a policy of appeasement and quota, which is still killing India, slowly.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No.22-Vikas Regiment

Bharat Darshan-The Legacy of the Communal Award of 1932. On this day in 1932, in his cell at Yarawada Jail near Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest of the British government’s decision to separate India’s electoral system by caste.

On August 16, 1932, the British Prime Minister McDonald announced the Communal Award. Thus it is also known as McDonald Award. The Communal Award was basically a proposal on minority representation in the conduct of elections to choose public officials.

Major proposals were as follows:

The existing seats of the provincial legislatures were to be doubled.
The system of separate electorates for the minorities was to be retained.
The Muslims, wherever they were in minority, were to be granted a weightage.
Except North West Frontier Province, 3 % seats for women were to be reserved in all provinces.
The depressed , dalits or the untouchables were to be declared as minorities.
Allocation was to be made to labor, landlords, traders and industrialists.

Thus, this award accorded separate electorates for Muslims, Europeans, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo Indians, Depressed Classes, and even Marathas. (Some seats in Bombay were given to Marathas)

The depressed classes were given seats which had to be filled by election from the special constituencies in which only they could vote.
However, they were eligible to vote in the general constituencies as well.
The labor, Commerce and Industry, Mining and Planting, Landholders were also given special electorates.
Sikhs were 13.2% of the population in Punjab. Here they were given 32 seats out of the total 175 seats.

McDonald as another manifestation of British policy of Divide and Rule

The McDonald Award was based on the British theory that India was not a nation, but is a conglomeration of racial, religious and cultural groups, castes and interests. The British knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Society and knew that Indian society had a tendency to gravitate towards localism and regionalism and the reason was obvious: India was a self-sufficient country based on self-sufficient units and there was very little interaction between the two. The British were very much aware that a sense of nationalism is always an antidote to imperialism. We can also say that the British had a single point agenda to strike down the nationalism and to create parochial loyalties among the smaller communities. This was one of the reasons that British came up with the concept of separate electorate, as Elections are a powerful means for the allocation of power and therefore, Thus, McDonald award was to debilitate national unity by creating different spheres of interests. It was dangerous and Gandhi knew it. The new challenge was to combat with the feeling of separatism. This award started a policy of appeasement and quota, which is still killing India, slowly.

Reaction of Gandhi on Communal Award

It was declared by Gandhi for more than once that the separate electorates for the depressed class was an attempt to divide and detach the depressed classes from the main body of Hindus. It seemed to him the these Firangies are going to break the country on the basis of the communities and so, he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister that if the award, so far it was related to the Depressed class, is not changed, he would sit on a fast unto death. On 16 September 1932, Gandhiji sat on the fast unto death in the Yarawada Jail, in which he was lodged at that time.

September 16, 1932

Gandhi begins fast in protest of caste separation

On September 16, 1932, in his cell at Yarawada Jail in Pune, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest of the British government’s decision to separate India’s electoral system by caste.

A leader in the Indian campaign for home rule, Gandhi worked all his life to spread his own brand of passive resistance across India and the world. By 1920, his concept of Satyagraha (or “insistence upon truth”) had made Gandhi an enormously influential figure for millions of followers. Jailed by the British government from 1922-24, he withdrew from political action for a time during the 1920s but in 1930 returned with a new civil disobedience campaign. This landed Gandhi in prison again, but only briefly, as the British made concessions to his demands and invited him to represent the Indian National Congress Party at a round-table conference in London.

After his return to India in January 1932, Gandhi wasted no time beginning another civil disobedience campaign, for which he was jailed yet again. Eight months later, Gandhi announced he was beginning a “fast unto death” in order to protest British support of a new Indian constitution, which gave the country’s lowest classes—known as “untouchables”—their own separate political representation for a period of 70 years. Gandhi believed this would permanently and unfairly divide India’s social classes. A member of the more powerful Vaisya, or merchant caste, Gandhi nonetheless advocated the emancipation of the untouchables, whom he called Harijans, or “Children of God.”

“This is a god-given opportunity that has come to me,” Gandhi said from his prison cell at Yarawada, “to offer my life as a final sacrifice to the downtrodden.” Though other public figures in India–including Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambdekar, the official political representative of the untouchables–had questioned Gandhi’s true commitment to the lower classes, his six-day fast ended after the British government accepted the principal terms of a settlement between higher caste Indians and the untouchables that reversed the separation decision. The British Policy of Divide and Rule survives to-date as Electoral Quota System.

Bharat Darshan-The Legacy of the Communal Award of 1932.. Scheduled caste/Scheduled Tribe quotas born with Brits, took on life of their own after 1947.

The Battle of Right Against Might to evict the military occupier of Tibet

In my analysis, I describe the India-China Standoff along the Himalayan Frontier as “The Battle of Right against Might” to evict the military occupier of Tibet. I want world sympathy.

The Battle of Right Against Might to evict the military occupier of Tibet.The Pangong Lake in Leh district of Union territory of Ladakh bordering India and China. (File Photo by Prakash SINGH / AFP)

China is on the horns of a dilemma. Can it afford to risk losing the sovereignty over a part of its proud belt and road project? That would not be the end of the saga of sovereignty. At stake would be Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, the Muslim province to its west which Mao Zedong captured rather curiously in 1950; it was formerly known as East Turkestan.

5-point road-map gives political impetus to efforts to ease border row: Chinese envoy

Sun Weidong blamed New Delhi for trespassing on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and altering the status quo, in a lengthy statement issued by the Chinese embassy three days after the two sides finalised the roadmap during a meeting of external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow.

Rezaul H Laskar | Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

The Battle of Right Against Might to evict the military occupier of Tibet.The Indian side has blamed the tensions on the LAC on unilateral efforts by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to alter the status quo in the Ladakh sector. It has also blamed the latest flare-ups on the LAC on “provocative military manoeuvres” by the PLA.(AP PHOTO.)

Chinese envoy Sun Weidong on Monday said the five-point road-map agreed to by India and China to address tensions on the disputed border provides “political impetus” to efforts to ease the situation, even as he blamed New Delhi for trespassing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and altering the status quo.

Sun made the remarks in a lengthy statement issued by the Chinese embassy three days after the two sides finalized the five-point road-map during a meeting of external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the margins of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Moscow on Thursday.

There was no immediate response to the Chinese envoy’s remarks from Indian officials.

Despite the road-map, sharp divergences remained between the two sides, with experts pointing out that the joint statement issued after the Jaishankar-Wang meeting made no mention of the restoration of the status quo on the LAC as it existed in April.

Sun said the five-point consensus – which includes following the top leaders’ consensus, easing tensions, maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas, continuing diplomatic communications, and expediting work on new confidence-building measures – “is an important step towards the right direction, and will provide political impetus to ease the border situation and promote the bilateral relations”.

He added, “I hope and believe that as long as the two sides earnestly implement the consensus reached by the two foreign ministers to the frontline troops and adhere to the correct means of dialogue and negotiation, the two sides will find a way to overcome the current difficulties.”

The Chinese envoy contended that “public opinion in India” was generally positive towards the five-point road-map, and was of the view that “both sides have demonstrated political will to resolve the border situation”.

However, Sun referred to statements by relevant Indian ministries that Indian troops “pre-empted” Chinese military activity on the south bank of Pangong Lake, and contended this “obviously revealed that there are illegal trespassing the LAC and status quo change in the border areas (sic)”.

He noted that sections of the Indian media had quoted government sources to disclose that the “Indian Army fired shots on two different occasions”, and said, “For the first time since 1975, the calm in the border areas was broken by gunfire.”

Sun further noted that Wang had reiterated during his meeting with Jaishankar that the “imperative is to immediately stop provocations such as firing and other dangerous actions that violate the commitments made by the two sides”, and that it is “important to move back all personnel and equipment that have trespassed”.

He added, “The frontier troops must quickly disengage so that the situation may deescalate. The Chinese side supports enhanced dialogue between the frontier troops on both sides to solve specific issues, and will stay in touch with the Indian side through diplomatic and military channels.”

The Indian side has blamed the tensions on the LAC on unilateral efforts by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to alter the status quo in the Ladakh sector. It has also blamed the latest flare-ups on the LAC on “provocative military manoeuvres” by the PLA.

The external affairs ministry has said the PLA engaged in such manoeuvres during August 29-30 to change the status quo on the south bank of Pangong Lake and Indian troops responded with “appropriate defensive measures”. The Indian Army has accused the PLA of firing in the air when Chinese troops were prevented from closing in on an Indian forward position on September 7.

The Chinese envoy said the “way ahead for [a] solution is very clear” – he pointed to the agreement reached by the two foreign ministers that as the situation eases, the two sides should expedite work on new confidence-building measures to maintain and enhance peace and tranquility in the border areas.

Sun said the top leadership of the two countries had reached a series of consensus, including the basic judgement that China and India are partners rather than rivals. “Therefore, we need peace instead of confrontation; we need to pursue win-win cooperation instead of zero-sum game; we need trust rather than suspicion; we need to move our relationship forward rather than backward,” he said.

He reiterated Wang Yi’s observation that it is normal for China and India to have differences, but it is important is to put these differences in a proper context vis-a-vis bilateral ties. “At present, the challenge we’re facing is to fight the epidemic, revive the economy and improve people’s livelihoods,” he said.

India-China Standoff. The Battle of Right Against Might to evict the military occupier of Tibet. “Our biggest worry is that they have laid optical fiber cables for high-speed communications,” the first official said, referring to the Pangong Tso Lake’s southern bank, where Indian and Chinese troops are only a few hundred metres apart at some points.

**India-China Standoff. The Battle of Right Against Might to evict the military occupier of Tibet.**

India will play the Tibet Card as soon as the United States and Great Britain recognize the One-India Policy in Kashmir

In my analysis, India will play the Tibet Card as soon as the United States and the United Kingdom recognize the One-India Policy in Kashmir. India is not waiting for China’s affirmation of the One-India Policy in Kashmir, Sikkim, or Arunachal Pradesh. All said and done, China indeed fears India’s Tibet Card.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

Why China Should Not Fear India’s Tibet Card?

India’s options when it comes to Tibet are limited.

By Abhijnan Rej August 18, 2020

**India will play the Tibet Card as soon as the United States and Great Britain recognize the One-India Policy in Kashmir.**

In an apparently important development, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Tibet on Friday amidst unabated tensions with India over an ill-defined boundary between the two in eastern Ladakh. As the crisis between the two countries crossed the hundred-day mark early this month, during his visit “Wang praised Tibet’s achievements under President Xi Jinping, especially in securing the border with India,” the South China Morning Post reported.

India accepted Tibet as part of China through a 2003 agreement that saw a quid pro quo recognition by China of the Himalayan region of Sikkim as Indian territory. However, growing tensions since the deadly June 15 clash between the Chinese and Indian armies has led many in New Delhi to suggest that India play the “Tibet card” as retaliation to growing Chinese intransigence on the disputed boundary and beyond.

As early as 2010, New Delhi’s commitment to a “One China” policy has been contingent on Beijing maintaining a “One India” stance – official recognition that Arunachal Pradesh (but also, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh) form part of the Indian state.

Since then, joint statements between the two countries have not included any explicit reference to Tibet as part of the People’s Republic. Famously, in 2014 then-Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj bluntly told Wang: “Mr. Minister, we support the One China policy. However, we expect you to also have a One India policy.”

Such rhetorical games aside, as The Diplomat’s contributing author Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan recently noted, the Modi government in unlikely to radically revisit India’s position on Tibet, for example by officially recognizing the Dalai Lama as a foreign political figure. A move along those lines would be tantamount to reneging on the 2003 agreement in Beijing’s eyes.

That, in turn, could pave the way for China de-recognizing Sikkim as Indian territory – or, more alarmingly from New Delhi’s point of view, Beijing asserting that all of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Ladakh, are disputed territories. Note that China already considers Arunachal Pradesh as part of “South Tibet.” As strident symbolism, last year it destroyed 30,000 world maps made in China for export for failing to mark the territory as such.

Beyond Beijing’s token territorial assertions, India remains worried that China no longer feels the need to play by the old book. One of the two scuffles between the Indian and Chinese militaries on May 5 was in the Naku La region along the boundary between Sikkim and Tibet, something New Delhi has considered settled in spirit, if not on paper. Beyond this, India continues to worry about a Chinese army presence in Gilgit-Baltistan – a part of Kashmir India claims and Pakistan administers – because that forecloses the possibility of any Indian military action to take it back without drawing China in.

And then there is the fear, on both sides, that the other will resort to war with proxies to assert territorial claims, or at the very least muddle strategic calculations. China most likely remembers that following the 1962 war between the two countries, India set up a guerrilla force of Tibetan rebels.

What probably rankles Beijing (which, under Xi Jinping, seems to wear historical grievances on its sleeves) even more is the fact that covert action against China in Tibet in the 1960s was often a result of active Indian and American collaboration, even when New Delhi – as a matter of official policy – espoused non-alignment. On India’s part, it has long harbored suspicions that separatists in the eastern state of Nagaland have been trained and funded by China in the past. Were India to go down the road it paved almost 60 years ago, China could easily return the favor.

On top of this sits massive, though asymmetric, improvement in infrastructure along the India-China Tibetan boundary, which could facilitate military action by either side; the official reason Beijing provided for Wang’s Tibet visit on Friday was to take stock of “border infrastructure.”

The Tibet card for India – beyond relatively staid diplomatic signalling – is limited. At the same time, the India-China history clearly demonstrates how frontiers for both countries remain major, shared vulnerabilities. Both realize this. Therefore, for the time being, mere optics – such as Wang’s visit to Tibet – will have to make up for the lack of genuine options that carry a bite.

India will play the Tibet Card as soon as the United States and Great Britain recognize the One-India Policy in Kashmir.

Abhijnan Rej

Abhijnan Rej is an independent New Delhi-based security analyst, researcher, and consultant.

Rej’s professional interests span geopolitics and international security. On the geopolitical side, he works on Indian foreign policy and grand strategy, great-power politics, and emerging powers in the international order. On the strategic front, Rej works on Indian national security problems related to China, Pakistan, and the Indo-Pacific, conventional and nuclear deterrence, and Indian defence policy. He is currently co-authoring a book on the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, as well as developing a long-term research agenda around the fundamental sciences, emerging technologies, and defence strategy.

Rej was previously Senior Fellow, Strategic Studies, at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. He also has significant work experience as a quantitative researcher in academia and the corporate sector. He has published in The Washington Quarterly, War Room, War on the Rocks, The Interpreter, The National Interest (online), and Global Policy (online) along with more than a dozen occasional papers, briefs, reports, and book chapters. Rej has written for virtually all major Indian English-language media outlets, and has been quoted by the Economist, Reuters, Voice of America, CNBC, The Nation, The Australian, China Global Television Network, and Dawn, among others.

India is not yet ready to play the ‘Tibet Card’ for India needs Boots on the Ground

In my analysis, India is not yet ready to play the ‘Tibet Card’. India has not yet resolved the security problems imposed by the First Kashmir War of 1947-48. India was aware of China’s policy of expansionism and yet had no troops available to send a military expedition to Tibet in 1949. To play the Tibet Card, India needs Boots on the Ground. Giving political asylum to the exiled Tibetan leader is a good gesture but it will not undermine China’s ability to occupy Tibet.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

**India is not yet ready to play the Tibet Card. To play the Tibet Card, India needs Boots on the Ground.**

The Tangled History of the ‘Tibet Card’

It is impossible to understand the transformation of a population into a political “card” without understanding Tibet’s early 20th century.

By Ben Hales August 13, 2020

India is not yet ready to play the Tibet Card for India needs Boots on the Ground. An Indian official greets the Dalai Lama, spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet, on the latter’s arrival at a military camp on the frontier of Assam April 18, 1959 in India. In the center is Mr. P.N. Menon of the Indian department of external affairs, who represented Nehru.

The Dalai Lama and the “Tibet Question” now seem to have returned to the Indian agenda, after the Tibetan religious leader was marginalized in recent years, and even let slip that India pushed against any meeting of his with President Xi Jinping in 2014. Indeed, scarcely a month after the now-famous Galwan Valley clash, policy experts were already suggesting India play the “Tibet Card” for leverage against China — that is, promoting an independent and free Tibetan state, undermining Beijing’s geostrategic position, and perhaps finding a definitive solution to the Sino-Indian border dispute in the process through supporting a (likely) friendly buffer.

It is impossible to understand the transformation of a population into a political “card” without understanding Tibet’s early 20th century. Before the People’s Republic of China, the Tibetan regime in Lhasa, with pan-Tibetan spiritual reach but limited practical power, considered its relationship with China to be essentially one of dynastic clientage. Through an agreement between Sakya Pandita Günga Gyeltsen (1182–1251) with the Mongol Empire before the Mongol conquest of China proper in 1279, the argument ran that Tibet, and specifically the Dalai Lama from the mid-17th century on, held a “priest-patron relationship” with dominant outside powers, effectively serving as religious tutor while remaining governor of an internally autonomous principality. This assertion, as John Powers noted, is replicated in exile literature today, much of which blends Tibetan with English-language material to support its assertions.

Chinese dynastic historians past and present have disagreed. Chinese primary material consistently interprets the relationship from the 13th century as a classic tributary one with the Chinese Yuan (Mongol) Empire, as per China’s long history as a center to which external regimes submitted. In many ways, these parallel histories of Tibet could be allowed coexist before the fall of the Qing. After all, Beijing also conveniently interpreted the 1793 trade mission of Sir George McCartney from Britain to China as a tribute mission. China’s representatives in Lhasa (ambans) considered governors by the Qing and ambassadors by Lhasa, could in some ways be both.

Qing decline turned a modus vivendi into a problem. Britain, aiming to secure India’s boundaries, decided to cultivate Tibet as a buffer state between the British Raj and Russia. Through both the Younghusband Expedition (1904) and negotiations culminating after the Qing collapse in the 1914 Simla Convention, British India demarcated a still-contentious border. In the process, the British (to quote Lord Curzon) “regard[ed] the so-called suzerainty of China over Tibet as a constitutional fiction.” As the 1911 Revolution toppled the Qing, resulting in Lhasa, with no patron to minister to as a priest, declaring independence, Britain played an early form of the “Tibet card,” leveraging its recognition for Yuan Shikai’s new government in Peking (today’s Beijing) in return for accepting Tibetan participation at the Simla talks and a maximal degree of autonomy for “Outer Tibet” (roughly the present Tibetan Autonomous Region). The result was de facto Tibetan independence 1911-1950.

Pro-PRC sources since 1959 have routinely portrayed notions of Tibetan difference as instigated by foreign imperialists, yet the proto-“Tibet Card” sketched above — the perception of Tibet as a zone for international contention and Tibetan self-assertion — truly took its modern form as a result of Chinese state action during the early 1950s itself.

The early Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had adopted a nationalities policy that accepted secession, stating in Article 14 of its 1931 constitution, “The Soviet government of China recognizes the right of self-determination of the national minorities in China, their right to complete separation from China, and to the formation of an independent state for each national minority.” But by 1949, when the CCP actually came to power, founding the PRC, reconstituting a strong, multinational polity over as much of the former Qing empire as possible became a priority.

In 1950 Chinese troops defeated Tibetan forces at the Battle of Chamdo and negotiated the 17-Point Agreement. In force from 1951-1959, the Agreement stipulated gradual socialist transformation, “step by step in accordance with the actual condition in Tibet.” “Actual conditions” became a catch-all term for Tibet’s special status. While in Han-majority regions of China traditional elites were subjected to land reform, struggle sessions, and often executions, those same indigenous elites were in Tibet co-opted as “progressives” into the CCP’s state-building project even more than they were in normal ethnic minority regions.

Considering routine discussions of the Dalai Lama as a “wolf in monk’s robes” today, the extent to which he was painstakingly cultivated by the PRC in the 1950s can appear jarring. He enjoyed personal correspondence with Mao Zedong, toured interior China to view its development from 1954-55, appeared as a Tibetan delegate to the National People’s Congress in 1954, and was appointed chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region (PCTAR) in 1956, all as a religious leader in an atheist, communist state. Among the declassified folios of Western diplomatic agencies, it is clear this program was perceived to be working. One 1954 U.K. Foreign Office report noted, “Their [The Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama] praise of the new regime undoubtedly is genuine, and their followers probably will accept their glowing reports on the ‘New Order’ at face value.” For a while, it truly seemed that a “Tibet Card” as a geopolitical weapon would be stillborn.

It was not to be. As mentioned above, Tibet as defined by the PRC under the 17-Point Agreement was permitted a moderate and gradual transformation; however, Tibet as defined by the PRC in 1950s did not encompass the 25 percent of China’s landmass inhabited by ethnic Tibetans. These minority regions from 1955 were to be brought in line with interior China, experiencing socialist transformation in the push toward the communalization of agriculture. In one area specifically, Kham (approximately western Sichuan in Chinese cartography), Melvyn Goldstein has noted that this push for homogenization, including gun confiscations and coerced land reforms organized by zealous “left” tendency communist cadres, sparked an uprising. Driven back, Khampa refugees and rebels congregated around Lhasa, their reports destabilizing the delicate warming between some members of the Tibetan traditional government and the PRC state. The Dalai Lama’s circle was particularly horrified by the aerial bombing of monasteries such as Lithang held by rebels as fortified strong points.

As this continued, India — the future holder of the “Tibet Card” — was growing concerned. Despite reiterating his support for Tibet-within-China when he relinquished residual British rights to Tibet in 1954’s Panchsheel Agreement, Jawaharlal Nehru’s government was piqued that this endorsement didn’t buy PRC border concessions, and from mid-1954 began to clandestinely fund an organization of Tibetan exiles in India, Jenkhentsisum (JKTS). Congregating at Kalimpong in particular, figures such as Gyalo Thorndup (the Dalai Lama’s brother) interacted with dissidents within Tibet, from Alo Chondze to the Lord Chamberlain Phala, to agitate against continued Chinese control. This, plus growing violence in Kham by the later 1950s, caught the attention of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who supported JKTS and provided supplies to what became Chushi Gangdruk, a Pan-Khampa resistance group operating throughout Tibet. Even as Nehru urged the Dalai Lama in a 1956 visit to India to return to Tibet rather than claim asylum, the poisoning of the Sino-Tibetan relationship was underway, drawing in India and the United States.

By the late 1950s, parallel histories had returned. The PRC was growing increasingly frustrated at Indian hosting of secessionist actors and the passive refusal of the Dalai Lama’s government to aid in the crackdown on Chushi Gangdruk, while an exasperated Tibetan traditional government saw promised protections of Buddhist institutions broken and the light touch of the 17-Point Agreement fragmenting in favor of a brewing counterinsurgency. Disillusionment trickled down to the wider Tibetan population. Earlier concern within the U.K. Foreign Office around a “genuine” conversion of the Dalai Lama to the CCP’s cause was replaced by glee in 1958 as they related the abolition of Tibet’s traditional forced labor corvée. This happened after an incident in Gyantse in September 1957, where a traditional government official beat a young Tibetan CCP cadre-in-training for failing to perform it. Rather defending a representative of the CCP’s “New Order” who was being forced to perform his feudal dues, “liberated” peasants stood by and watched, throwing “an interesting light on the esteem in which the Communist neophyte is held in Tibet today.” Considering the continued need for TAR’s comprehensive securitization today, it seems little esteem has been garnered for the CCP since.

1959 is world famous as the year Tibet’s strained relationship with the PRC snapped. After the Dalai Lama was to attend a function with only one bodyguard by PRC officials, widespread rumors among the local population that His Holiness was about to be kidnapped resulted in mass demonstrations in Lhasa and then a popular uprising from March 10-14, displacing some 70-80,000 Tibetan refugees across the border and creating the modern Tibetan-in-exile as the paradigmatic “victim diaspora,” with their own state-within-a-state centered in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. The 1950s also crystallized the “Tibet Card” as we know it now, pulling Indian, American, and Chinese actors to the Land of Snows to offer support for different and conflicting visions of the Tibetan future.

The return to the rhetoric of the “Tibet Card” today is hardly a novelty, but a continuation of moves and mistakes made nearly 70 years ago.

Ben Hales is an MPhil Modern Chinese Studies postgraduate at the University of Oxford and a Hudson Institute Political Studies Summer Fellow. He has written for numerous publications, including Oxford Political Review and Human Rights Pulse. His dissertation on the TIbetan experience in 1950s has recently been selected for publication by the Oxford University History Society.

**India is not yet ready to play the Tibet Card for India needs Boots on the Ground.**

America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act

In my analysis, President Clinton’s Economic Policy to formulate a Balanced Budget is not consistent with LORD God Creator’s Economic Plan for the man in his golden years of his life. The issue is not that of Austere Spending or Deficit Spending Plans of the US Federal Government. God’s Plan clearly demands that the dignity of the man must be upheld in his Old Age when the man needs rest from daily labor to support his mortal existence.

Americans will give attention to my words after they fail to resolve the Economic Crisis through either Liberal or Conservative Spending Plans to revive the National Economy.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

**America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act**

America’s Social Security crisis is getting worse amid the coronavirus pandemic

Dhara Singh· Reporter August 7, 2020, 6:48 AM

Dhara Singh

Reporter Dhara Singh covers retirement and housing on the personal finance team. She worked previously as a full time analyst at JP Morgan Chase’s Asset Management arm and has experience writing for technology site CNET.com

Experts are warning that the economic effect of 55 million Americans filing for jobless claims and other issue amid the coronavirus pandemic will make the country’s Social Security crisis even worse.

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which funds Social Security benefits, could deplete sooner than the projected 2035 date as fewer people pay into the system and the U.S. dollar continues to weaken.

“The coronavirus lockdown and current engineered artificial depression has made the Social Security system to be impaired as early as 2032,” Peter Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, a non-profit academic think tank, told Yahoo Money. “Changes are going to have to be made, whether it’s lower benefits for recipients or different qualifications, such as a higher age to qualify.”

Nora and Anthony Szeluga sit at the counter of Perison's diner in the Broadway Market in Buffalo, New York. (REUTERS/Eric Thayer) — America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act. Nora and Anthony Szeluga sit at the counter of Perison’s diner in the Broadway Market in Buffalo, New York. (REUTERS/Eric Thayer)

A third of Americans depend on Social Security benefits for retirement, according to statistics from the Social Security Administration, with the average benefit hovering around $1,500.

The current economic situation, however, could affect how much money a person receives down the line.

“You don’t want millions of people to think: ‘I was going to get $1,500 a month and now I’m going to get $1,350,’” Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Yahoo Money. “People [need] to have some degree of certainty about what they would look to get.”

‘It’s a game of musical chairs’

Today, workers pay 6.2% of their taxable earnings up to $137,700 into the system. But as of 2035 onward, beneficiaries who’ve consistently paid this amount are expected to receive only 76% of their scheduled benefits, according to the SSA.

Economists have said it’s unlikely that the government will have a reasonable solution anytime soon.

“This isn’t helped by the fact that traditionally Social Security has been a third rail issue where people who seek public office don’t have an incentive to attack this issue,” Earle said. “It’s a game of musical chairs where people want to dance around until it’s staring them in the face.”

America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign stop in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 4, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden has stated that he plans to tax high-income earners in order make sure the program remains on solvent ground, and provide higher benefits to those who have already received Social Security for 20 years.

His plan also keeps the minimum benefit to stand at 125% of the poverty level for those who have worked at least 30 years, and tweaks the cost-of-living adjustment so that it places greater weight on items that matter more to senior budgets.

President Trump hasn’t outlined a specific proposal related to Social Security. The campaign has yet to respond to request for comment.

“I think, politically, it’s a no-win proposition because if you say everything is fine, then politicians are fed graphs and equations and anyone who says they’ll act now will face the wrath of the electorate,” Earle said.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that the issue revolves more around borrowing.

“Both candidates say Social Security will be promised, but it gets wrapped up in a broader issue of borrowing,” he told Yahoo Money. “Because the government can borrow in 0% interest rates, the concerns about the deficit are pushed on the back burner.”

America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on August 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

‘We will need to get funds from other sources’

Another reason why there are concerns about Social Security’s solvency is that the U.S. dollar is continuing to weaken while the government passes more stimulus bills.

“With each additional dollar that comes out, it becomes a classic supply-and-demand scenario that more dollars lead to less [value],” Earle said. “This is why the Federal Reserve has a guarded view of the economy.”

Earle alluded to how a weak dollar could prolong “sluggish” growth and thereby reduce the longevity of the Social Security program. His comment coincided with recent efforts by Democrats and Republicans to pass another round of $1,200 stimulus checks, which are still ongoing.

**America’s Economic Crisis cannot be resolved without the repeal of the Clinton’s Welfare Reform Act. The stimulus bills are weakening the U.S. dollar. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)**

So how will the government likely solve this depletion issue? There are a handful of options.

“Everything and anything such as personal income taxes, corporate taxes, tariffs that are posed to China — and if that’s not enough, they’ll issue Treasury bonds and use that to pay Social Security,” Zandi said. “The [same] way we [feed] the State Department salaries.”

Other methods include raising the minimum working quarters or raising the retirement age, said Chad Parks, CEO of Ubiquity Retirement and Savings.

“They can probably raise the 40 quarters to that of 60 or 80 quarters, which is kind of harsh,” he told Yahoo Money. “Otherwise you can push up the retirement age to receive full benefits.”

He also said that the government could consider slightly raising the Social Security tax rate.

“The Social Security tax rate is 6.2%, and so if they can raise that by 1%, it has a really big aggregate difference,” Parks said. “It will help the program.”

And while both sides of the political aisle come up with a solution for solvency, Zandi says near-retirees should focus on the other two pillars of the three-legged retirement stool.

“In the long list of things people should worry about, this would be on the bottom,” he said. “There are so many things like ‘Can I get a job?’ or ‘Am I saving enough between stocks and bonds to live in retirement?’ There’s a boatload of questions people should be asking themselves and they should be saving as much as they possibly can.”

Dhara is a reporter Yahoo Money and Cashay. Follow her on Twitter at @Dsinghx.

Bharat Darshan defines Indian Identity. Truth Triumphs in Ayodhya

**Bharat Darshan defines Indian Identity. Truth Triumphs in Ayodhya. Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir, the Temple of God in Ayodhya.**

Indians associate the name “RAM” with the concept of Truth or ‘Satya’. For the vast majority of Indians, the Truth involves the simple demonstration of the correspondence between the man’s words and his actions. While the name “Ram” may denote the personification of the Final, Ultimate, or Absolute Reality, for all practical purposes, Indians make the basic assumption and have expectation that the man must uphold the principle of Truth in his own utterances and actions.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

Bharat Darshan definines Indian Identity. Truth Triumphs in Ayodhya. Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir, the Temple of God in Ayodhya.

In pics: Clad in golden dhoti-kurta, PM Modi performs bhoomi pujan rituals for Ram temple in Ayodhya

The prime minister’s first stop in Ayodhya was the 10th-century Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya wherein he offered special prayers.

hindustantimes.com | Posted by Sparshita Saxena
Hindustan times, New Delhi

Bharat Darshan defines Indian Identity. Truth Triumphs in Ayodhya. Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir, the Temple of God in Ayodhya. Prime Minister Narendra Modi performs ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ ceremony of Ram temple at Ram Janambhoomi site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.(ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the holy city of Ayodhya on Wednesday for the momentous foundation laying ceremony of Ram Temple, the Temple of God. Dressed in a golden-colored traditional dhoti kurta, the prime minister’s first stop was the 10th-century Hanuman Garhi temple wherein he offered special prayers.

PM Modi was presented with a headgear, silver ‘mukut’ and a stole by Sri Gaddinsheen Premdas Maharaj, head priest of the ancient Hanuman Garhi Temple.

The prime minister then went on to offer prayers to Ram Lalla and performed ‘sashtang pranam’ at Ram Janmabhoomi.

PM Modi also planted a Parijat sapling, considered a divine plant, ahead of foundation stone-laying of Ram Temple, the Temple of God.

Surrounded by seers, the prime minister took part in the rituals and performed Bhoomi Pujan for the Ram Temple, the Temple of God.

As per the priest at Ram temple Bhoomi Pujan, nine bricks were kept at the site of the ceremony which were sent by the devotees of Lord Ram from around the world in 1989.

Soil from more than 2000 pilgrimage sites and water from more than 100 rivers was brought for the rituals.

After performing the rituals, the prime minister released a commemorative postage stamp on the ‘Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir’ and took to the stage to address the nation on the groundbreaking occasion.

PM Modi began his address by chanting Jai Siya Ram and thanked all citizens of the nation as well as Indian diaspora across the world on the pious occasion.

“A grand temple will now be built for our Ram Lalla who had been staying makeshift tent till now. Today, Ram Janmabhoomi breaks free of the cycle of breaking and getting built again – that had been going on for centuries,” the prime minister said.

https://bhavanajagat.com/2010/06/05/defining-indian-identity-listen-to-the-heart/

Bharat Darshan definines Indian Identity. Truth Triumphs in Ayodhya. Bhoomi Pujan for Ram Mandir, the Temple of God in Ayodhya. SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE – CHIDAMBARA RAHASYAM: LORD GOD IS JUST ONE AND THE SAME AND YET MAN KNOWS HIM BY DIFFERENT NAMES. IN INDIAN TRADITION, THE NAME RAMA IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OR THE ULTIMATE REALITY. LORD RAMA IS THE SOURCE OF KRUPA OR COMPASSION FOR HE HAD THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFE JOURNEY IN HIS PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION AS A HUMAN BEING.

Democracy vs Communism or Donald Trump vs Xi Jinping. Mutual Antagonism defines the US-China Rift

In my analysis, the US-China rift has nothing to do with either President Donald Trump or President Xi Jinping. The US-China relations formulated by Nixon-Kissinger in 1971-72 are fundamentally flawed. I name Nixon-Kissinger initiative to befriend China as the “Original Sin.” The relations between Democracy and Communism can only be described as ‘Mutual Antagonism’.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

By Ishaan Tharoor
with Ruby Mellen

**Ishaan Tharoor of The Washington Post. Today’s WorldView of July 24, 2020.**

The U.S. ramps up its confrontation with China

China’s flag flies behind barbed wire at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on July 23. (Philip Pacheco/AFP/Getty Images

Under President Trump’s watch, the United States is engaged in an intensifying cycle of confrontation with China. Earlier this week, U.S. authorities ordered the shuttering of the Chinese Consulate in Houston on the grounds that it was an espionage hub for Beijing. The Justice Department also said a fugitive Chinese scientist with ties to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, has been given sanctuary in the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. Separately, the Commerce Department announced sanctions on a new group of Chinese companies for their alleged involvement in China’s “campaign of repression” against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, including the use of forced labor.

It’s just another week in the spiraling U.S.-China relationship. At a news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin hinted at retaliation, saying that “in response to the U.S.’s unreasonable actions, China must make a necessary response and safeguard its legitimate rights.” He described the U.S. allegations of espionage as “malicious slander.”

The Trump administration only further upped the ante. On Thursday, in what was billed as a “major” foreign policy speech, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke of the dangers of “Communist China” to the future of the “free world.” He branded Chinese President Xi Jinping a “true believer in a bankrupt totalitarian ideology” in pursuit of global Marxist “hegemony.” Pompeo scolded those within the United States and elsewhere in the West who had chosen the path of “timidity” and acquiescence to China’s perceived manipulation of the global system and plans for further domination.

Speaking in California at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum — named after the president who first opened U.S. relations with the People’s Republic — Pompeo conjured a world shaped by an ideological war dividing the West and China. He declared that “if we want to have a free 21st century,” then “the old paradigm of blind engagement with China” could no longer continue, a reiteration of the administration’s view that its predecessors were too soft in their approach to Beijing.

But the United States’ top diplomat stopped short of outright calling for regime change. He said the Communist Party “fears the Chinese people’s honest opinions more than any foreign foe” and that it was incumbent on the West to better “engage and empower the Chinese people.”

Pompeo’s critics in the United States are familiar with the script — a sort of belligerent posturing that has included the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaigns against the regimes in Iran and Venezuela. But Pompeo, who conducted a quick trip this week to Europe, where he met a leading Hong Kong dissident in London, is seeking to harness growing global consternation with Beijing and echoed calls from some hawkish corners for a newfangled “alliance of democracies” to better counter China.

This comes at a time when China is asserting itself in bolder and more provocative ways than before, from draconian crackdowns at home to recent expansionist maneuvers in the seas to its east and along its mountainous border with India. Inside China, some nationalist commentators are openly discussing the idea of an invasion of Taiwan, even as the United States expands arms sales to the island democracy that Beijing views as its own.

While the Trump administration has essentially abdicated a position of global leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, China’s authoritarian rulers have hardly boosted their own image. “If there is a silver lining to the current crisis maelstrom, it may be that Beijing has pulled back its own curtain, giving the world an unsolicited preview of unconstrained Chinese might,” Kurt Campbell and Mira Rapp-Hooper wrote in Foreign Affairs. “By leaving a power vacuum in the world’s darkest hour, the United States has bequeathed China ample room to overreach — and to demonstrate that it is unqualified for a position of sole global leadership.”“

By choosing unprovoked aggression over enlightened generosity, China has squandered that historic opportunity and possibly also revealed its true character,” wrote Arvind Subramanian, a former chief economic adviser to the Indian government. “Soft power, China appears to believe, is for wimpy democracies.”

But either Trump or his Democratic opponent Joe Biden — should the latter emerge victorious in November — will have to take stock of the risks of the current path of escalation. “Closing the consulate does not appear to be part of a coherent strategy to deter or compel China to alter its behavior,” Jessica Chen Weiss, an expert on Chinese foreign relations, told my colleagues. “It looks more like a ‘shock and awe’ strategy to distract U.S. voters from the Trump administration’s disastrous response to the pandemic.”

Kurt Tong, a former U.S. consul general in Hong Kong, argued during a webinar this week that the United States needs to pursue “concerted diplomacy,” rather than rhetorical broadsides, to remind China of its own overreach and miscalculations. He waved away Pompeo’s insistence on plunging the world into a grand ideological struggle. “China is an authoritarian state,” said Tong, but “the U.S. isn’t going to succumb to authoritarianism because China is abusing its own population.”

“Both sides should practice some ideological humility,” wrote Jie Dalei, a professor of international studies at Peking University, as part of a compilation of U.S. and Chinese academic voices on the current state of affairs. “One does not have to change [or] become the other to be able to coexist. In fact, the existence of multiple competitive ideologies is the normal state of affairs throughout most of human history. The domination of one ideology in the global marketplace of ideas is the exception rather than the rule.”

Ishaan Tharoor

Washington, D.C.

Columnist covering foreign affairs, geopolitics and history. Education: Yale University, BA, honors in history and ethnicity, race and migration. Ishaan Tharoor is a columnist on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, where he authors the Today’s WorldView newsletter and column.

The Struggle for Free Tibet begins in Kham Province, Eastern Tibet

The Struggle for Free Tibet naturally begins in Kham Province of eastern Tibet. China annexed Tibetan territory during 1955-57 and the demand for the meaningful autonomy in Tibet includes the restoration of Tibet’s original borders.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment

Tibet in mind: Why China chose to close US Consulate in Chengdu amid other options

Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province in western China, is an important post for the US since it covers consular affairs in several provinces including Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Myanmar and western sector of the India-China border.

Geeta Mohan, India Today, New Delhi. July 24, 2020.

**Chinese President Xi Jinping chose to order closure of US Consulate in Chengdu because this post is strategically significant for the US. (Photo: Reuters)**

In a diplomatic tit-for-tat response to the US order of shutting down the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, two days on, Beijing has ordered the US Consulate in Chengdu to be closed down within 72 hours. Besides ordering closure of the US Consulate, China has also responded to US allegations that Chinese officials were indulging in acts of “espionage”. China has now accused American diplomats of engaging in activities which are “inconsistent” with their “identities”.

“Some personnel from the US Consulate General in Chengdu have engaged in activities inconsistent with their identities. China has made representations and the US side is fully aware,” Wang Wenbin, Spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, said at Friday’s media briefing while commenting on the closure of the US consulate.

However, while China has decided to shut down the US Consulate in Chengdu, it has asked Washington to reconsider its decision that could lead to greater escalation.

“The current situation between China and the US is something China does not want to see, and the responsibility rests entirely with the US. China’s Consulate General in Houston is still operating. We urge the US to withdraw its erroneous decision,” said the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.

He added, “We once again urge the US to revoke its decision and create necessary conditions for the return of bilateral relations.”

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said, “I’m very confident that we’ll proceed in a way that makes clear that it’s not okay to use your diplomats to engage in industrial espionage, it’s not okay to steal intellectual property, it’s not okay to engage in those kind of behaviors. That’s the reason we did it (ordered closure of Chinese consulate). We did it to protect the American people, and we’re going to make sure that that happens.”

STRATEGY BEHIND CHENGDU

Meanwhile, closure of the US consulate in Chengdu is being looked at as a strategic decision by China, amid earlier speculations that the US Consulate in Wuhan could have been the one to be shut. There were also speculations that is Beijing wanted real escalation, then the US Consulate in Hong Kong and Macau could have been evicted.

Strategic affairs expert Professor Stobdan observed, “This is further escalation after Taiwan and Hong Kong.”

By choosing Chengdu, Beijing would be dismantling a strategic infrastructure of Washington DC in the Chinese mainland.

Speaking to India Today TV, Rajeshwari Rajagopalan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF, said, “The tit-for-tat reaction where China has asked the US to close its Consulate in Chengdu is a fairly normal reaction. I am sure the US had considered this possibility when it made its decision on Houston.”

WHY IS CHENGDU SO IMPORTANT?

Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province situated in western China, is an important post since it covers consular affairs in several provinces and regions including Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Myanmar and western sector of the India-China border.

It was opened in October 1985 by former US President George Bush and has ever since been an important part of the intelligence warfare.

Traditionally, most of Sichuan is a part of undivided Tibet, and has the restive Kham area which is the western part of Tibet (outside TAR). All activities and resistance against China, including self-immolation take place there. Although Lhasa is quite far away, this is the critical and rebellious part of Tibet.

It is significant since in the past, the western sector of the India-China border was controlled by the Chengdu military district.

Former Indian intelligence official, Jayadev Ranade, says that this would hamper access for Washington.

“The shutting down of the US Consulate in Chengdu by China is well thought and severely minimizes US access to Tibet. It will also curb US efforts to assess China’s annual agriculture production,” he said.

If this consulate shuts down then the source of information will dry up for the US to a great extent.

The consulate was also the scene of a major political incident in 2012 when Wang Lijun, former vice-mayor and police chief of Southwest China’s Chongqing, tried to defect after being demoted by Chinese administration for revealing to the United States consulate details of British businessman Neil Heywood’s murder and subsequent cover-up. But, after 30 hours of remaining in the consulate, he finally left the building out of his own volition.

Washington National Cathedral Bell Tolls for 200,000 Covid-19 Victims

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Genesis 2:2-3 New King James Version

2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Rosh Hashanah

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Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

McDonald as another manifestation of British policy of Divide and Rule

Reaction of Gandhi on Communal Award

September 16, 1932

Gandhi begins fast in protest of caste separation

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5-point road-map gives political impetus to efforts to ease border row: Chinese envoy

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Why China Should Not Fear India’s Tibet Card?

India’s options when it comes to Tibet are limited.

By Abhijnan Rej August 18, 2020

Abhijnan Rej

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The Tangled History of the ‘Tibet Card’

By Ben Hales August 13, 2020

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America’s Social Security crisis is getting worse amid the coronavirus pandemic

Dhara Singh

‘It’s a game of musical chairs’

‘We will need to get funds from other sources’

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In pics: Clad in golden dhoti-kurta, PM Modi performs bhoomi pujan rituals for Ram temple in Ayodhya

The prime minister’s first stop in Ayodhya was the 10th-century Hanuman Garhi temple in Ayodhya wherein he offered special prayers.

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By Ishaan Tharoorwith Ruby Mellen

The U.S. ramps up its confrontation with China

Ishaan Tharoor

Washington, D.C.

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Tibet in mind: Why China chose to close US Consulate in Chengdu amid other options

Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province in western China, is an important post for the US since it covers consular affairs in several provinces including Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Myanmar and western sector of the India-China border.

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²And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

By Ishaan Tharoor
with Ruby Mellen