During testing times, truth-lovers sometimes have to walk alone; Tagore's Ekla Chalo Re
I think the current period has become a great test for truth-lovers, truth-seekers and truth-tellers in the USA. I pray to Almighty God to give strength and courage to these truth-lovers, truth-seekers and truth-tellers in the USA. Those who endure this period without losing their dedication to the truth, will, I am sure, emerge much stronger in their dedication to the truth. I look forward to celebrating, somewhere down the line, the return of truth in the USA.
India's national motto is "Sathyameva Jayate" which means "Truth alone triumphs" and comes from one of the Upanishads, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyameva_Jayate. It is a revered mantra for most Hindus, even if many of them fail to live up to its calling. I am sure that in the USA too, truth will eventually emerge triumphant and this dark period where truth is painted as fake/falsehood, will go away.
During the period that the Sai university came under the HIJACK of the dream-instruction medium who was a former warden & respected elder, with the vice-chancellor becoming his ardent follower/believer, from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014, I (and few other loyalists) had to really struggle to refuse to believe the elder & ex-warden medium and to not give in to the herd mentality which accepted this elder & ex-warden medium as those in power at the Sai university had accepted him!
Of course, I had to quit the Sai university which I did in March 2012. But Puttaparthi is a small town and so I had to make a lot of effort to distance myself from most of my erstwhile colleagues as they had come under that sway or were at least not daring to openly reject the elder & ex-warden medium. That change of company made it easier for me to stick to the truth. It was one of the greatest tests of my life to walk away from my former colleagues and walk alone for a year or two, and then join a few others almost all of whom were not from the Sai university, who also were walking on the path of truth by rejecting this elder & ex-warden medium during this period of around three and a half years!
That test of fire has immensely hardened my resolve to follow the path of truth. Truth is one the biggest values of my life. I hesitate very much to even say a white lie, though I do so at times, say while joking with children, or to get out of some idiotic bureaucratic government paperwork in India where I am told by the govt. employee to say the white lie as their paperwork procedure cannot handle the truth that I am telling them. But I have not knowingly lied on any not-insignificant matter at least for the past decade.
Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel Laureate in Literature (won in 1913), wrote a famous poem in Bengali called Ekla Chalo Re. I think Ekla Chalo translates to Walk Alone, and Re is an interjection (exclamation). So in colloquial English one could translate it to 'Walk alone man!'.
Here is the English translation of the poem from https://thinkloud65.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/ekla-chalo-re-rabindranath-tagore-music-without-borders/ [Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekla_Chalo_Re]
If they answer not to thy call WALK ALONE,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O you unfortunate,
open thy mind and SPEAK OUT ALONE.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O you unfortunate,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track TRAVEL ALONE
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O you unfortunate,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart
and let it BURN ALONE.
------
The article also links to a video of a noted playback singer of today singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPqdlR_X1Vk, around 5 mins. The audience has some top Indian govt. ministers then (perhaps 2009 or a few years earlier).
I did recall Tagore's Ekla Chalo Re line many times, when I had to walk alone on the path of truth in the Sai university HIJACK situation from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014.
While India has its fair share of liars and fakes, there have always been some thought-leaders in India's millennia old history who have celebrated truth and inspired truth-lovers of India.
India's national motto is "Sathyameva Jayate" which means "Truth alone triumphs" and comes from one of the Upanishads, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyameva_Jayate. It is a revered mantra for most Hindus, even if many of them fail to live up to its calling. I am sure that in the USA too, truth will eventually emerge triumphant and this dark period where truth is painted as fake/falsehood, will go away.
During the period that the Sai university came under the HIJACK of the dream-instruction medium who was a former warden & respected elder, with the vice-chancellor becoming his ardent follower/believer, from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014, I (and few other loyalists) had to really struggle to refuse to believe the elder & ex-warden medium and to not give in to the herd mentality which accepted this elder & ex-warden medium as those in power at the Sai university had accepted him!
Of course, I had to quit the Sai university which I did in March 2012. But Puttaparthi is a small town and so I had to make a lot of effort to distance myself from most of my erstwhile colleagues as they had come under that sway or were at least not daring to openly reject the elder & ex-warden medium. That change of company made it easier for me to stick to the truth. It was one of the greatest tests of my life to walk away from my former colleagues and walk alone for a year or two, and then join a few others almost all of whom were not from the Sai university, who also were walking on the path of truth by rejecting this elder & ex-warden medium during this period of around three and a half years!
That test of fire has immensely hardened my resolve to follow the path of truth. Truth is one the biggest values of my life. I hesitate very much to even say a white lie, though I do so at times, say while joking with children, or to get out of some idiotic bureaucratic government paperwork in India where I am told by the govt. employee to say the white lie as their paperwork procedure cannot handle the truth that I am telling them. But I have not knowingly lied on any not-insignificant matter at least for the past decade.
Rabindranath Tagore, India's Nobel Laureate in Literature (won in 1913), wrote a famous poem in Bengali called Ekla Chalo Re. I think Ekla Chalo translates to Walk Alone, and Re is an interjection (exclamation). So in colloquial English one could translate it to 'Walk alone man!'.
Here is the English translation of the poem from https://thinkloud65.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/ekla-chalo-re-rabindranath-tagore-music-without-borders/ [Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekla_Chalo_Re]
If they answer not to thy call WALK ALONE,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O you unfortunate,
open thy mind and SPEAK OUT ALONE.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O you unfortunate,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track TRAVEL ALONE
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm,
O you unfortunate,
with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart
and let it BURN ALONE.
------
The article also links to a video of a noted playback singer of today singing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPqdlR_X1Vk, around 5 mins. The audience has some top Indian govt. ministers then (perhaps 2009 or a few years earlier).
I did recall Tagore's Ekla Chalo Re line many times, when I had to walk alone on the path of truth in the Sai university HIJACK situation from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014.
While India has its fair share of liars and fakes, there have always been some thought-leaders in India's millennia old history who have celebrated truth and inspired truth-lovers of India.
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