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By far the most preferred service is the Government Service. No wonder maximum applicants try their luck for the slots even though more promising and lucrative jobs are available in other sectors. Closer look at the preference despite lesser remuneration is quite revealing. There was a time when jobs were readily available. Even a matriculate got good fix-up. A fifth class pass girl could get a job in primary school. Then there was some upgradation and 8th pass could enter the Government service as teacher, policemen and other vacant slots. The JBTs (Junior Basic Teachers) used to be mostly middle pass. Then there was further accretion qualification-wise fix-up when Matriculation outbid other qualifications in..... more |
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Spiritual unity of mankind It is
generally said that in present time, the world has
already assumed the form of a global village. But this is
only half the truth.......more You have to
admire the politi-cians, for their persistence, in
peddling dreams, especially at the time of elections.
Short of producing god Almighty to canvass....more A country has many defining moments in its history and India is now facing one such moment. Since the nuclear tests in May.. ......more |
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EDITORIAL By far the most preferred service is the Government Service. No wonder maximum applicants try their luck for the slots even though more promising and lucrative jobs are available in other sectors. Closer look at the preference despite lesser remuneration is quite revealing. There was a time when jobs were readily available. Even a matriculate got good fix-up. A fifth class pass girl could get a job in primary school. Then there was some upgradation and 8th pass could enter the Government service as teacher, policemen and other vacant slots. The JBTs (Junior Basic Teachers) used to be mostly middle pass. Then there was further accretion qualification-wise fix-up when Matriculation outbid other qualifications in many slots. Matric pass could go for LMSF (Doctor) training and MBBS used to be far and few. The only college that turned out medical graduates was located in Lahore. Then it was the turn of F.A. and F.Sc (12th standard) followed by graduation. And then the post-graduate replaced others. No wonder one can see graduate cops and post graduates becoming teachers starting from the lowest grade. The last t eachers list released by Service Selection Board had some with doctorate qualification. Surprisingly even two B.Es (Bachelor of Engineering) were amongst the successful aspirants for the Government service. Likewise there is a race even for class IV jobs which too command a good premium because of the quota culture. Not that such lowly job as peon or daftari or helper command any respect. Not the least. Most of aspirants might be already fixed up in some or the other job but as soon Government jobs comes handy, they refuse all other options. It is the experience that a practising medical graduate would like to become Government doctor, a private school teacher a Government teacher, a private nurse as well as Government hospital nurse. There are many instances when handsome fixation is already there is lucrative slots but as soon Government job comes handy they just call it a day and lose no time in joining even at half the salary. Such is the temptation. So is the significance of being Government employees. One can as well include public sector undertakings which is the next preference while self employment the last one. Now let us see why Government job remains so attractive despite lesser return when compared to the private job. This aspect is specific to J&K State for the time being but may be true of other States as well. There was an employee in the then lowly grade of 70-6-130. But he got a good matrimonial offer from the daughter of a well practising advocate, the girl herself being postgraduate and in employment. Those who arranged could convince the other side that 70 rupees is only token amount. It has the back up income of more than a 1000 bucks at the minimum. This there is the attraction number one. Second one pertains to private work before during and after working hours. Not necessarily private job but even a permanent shop. That is a common feature amongst them all with very few exceptions. Teachers going for mass tuitions, doctors for private practice, para-medicals for respective pursuits, clerks for financial companies and those helpers always in demand. The third attractive feature of Government service is short working hours which can be further exposed to short-cuts or total cuts. So much so that many of the Government employees went for terrorist training to other side of the border and yet continued drawing full salary without sign of any 'A' mark on the attendance register. Fourth is the better matrimonial prospects, the bridegrooms preferring Government employee to the business class. Fifth, long list of holidays which is indeed the luxury of the privileged Government employees. Sixth, the right to strike work for as long as three months on fully salary. Finally, the pension, Government service is most beautiful thing. It pleases the eye and edifies the mind! |
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Spiritual unity
of mankind It is generally said that in present time, the world has already assumed the form of a global village. But this is only half the truth. Modern technology and communication have, of course, greatly reduced distance of the world. But the closeness thus produced is of a purely physical nature. Modern technology may have bridged certain gaps, bringing the world materially closer together, but the task of bringing unity into the spiritual world has yet to be accomplished. What is spiritual unity? Let us take an illustrative example. When you live a crowded settlement, the walls all around give you a sense of limitation. You experience the friction of living in close contact and you suffer from mental tension. Later, when you emerge from that dense human settlement into open, natural surroundings, you immediately feel that your tension has evaporated and you have once again become serene and relaxed. You feel that you have joined a limitless universality. The feeling of separateness is replaced by an all-pervasive feeling of unity. You immediately become part of a world where there are no boundaries. A sense of universality prevails. We have all had this experience at one time or the other. It shows us what spiritual unit is. It is, in fact, the raising of one's existence to a higher plane. The moment you achieve this, you feel you are emerging from a limited world to become a citizen of a universal world. Disunity now disappears, giving way to unity all around. Although, physically, all human beins appear to be different, spiritually they are one. It is as if spiritual unity between human beings already exists; it does not have to be externally imposed. We have only to make people aware of its existence. Once the outer, artificial veils are removed, what remains will be pure spirituality. In reality, the various sets of circumstances that confront man in this world lead to drawing of different veils over man's natural propensities. For instance, the veil of material greed produces self-centredness; the veil of jealousy causes him to see himself as being separate from others; the veil of prejudice causes him to discriminate between human beings, and so on. These veils, in fact, tend to block man's natural urge towards spiritual unity. The need is to remove these artificial veils in order that the true, inner reality be brought into focus. The aim of all religions, basically, is to encourage this spiritual unity within man and between man and man. No religion is at variance with another so far as this goal is concerned. The language in which this is set forth may vary from one religion to another, but, without doubt, the main concern of all religions is to produce spiritual unity within and between all human beings. Without spiritual unity, there is little hope of creating peace and harmony throughout the world. And where there is no peace and harmony, the dream of human progress will for ever remain elusive. Now, what is Islam's contribution to spiritual unity? The subject is too vast for more than just a few basic points to be briefly touched. The most important factor in Islam's contribution is its concept of monotheism - of there being only one God. According to Islam, the God, or the ultimate reality of this universe is only one - called Allah in Islam. It is implicit in the concept of oneness of Godhead that differences and multiplicity would appear to exist in reality, yet there is an underlying unity. In this way the concept of divine unity engenders spiritual unity. All human beings are one, because they are the servants of one God. All human beings are one, God's family. God is indeed the greatest reality of the universe. And when it is acknowledged that there is only one greatest reality, it is but natural that all other creation should acquire the character of unity. The Qur'an states that "There is no changing in God's creation." According to the Prophet of Islam 'every child is born with an upright nature.' We learn from this that unity is found among all human beings at the level of nature creation. Nature forms the common constituent in all the varied objects of nature in the physical world. That is to say that the same unity which exists in the external world at the physical level, has existed among human beings at the spiritual level from the outset. But man tends at times to be oblivious of his own nature. This is no less true in the sphere of unity. Today people are unaware of their spiritual potential. In such a situation, the easiest way to bring about spiritual unity is only to make men aware of it, spiritual unity will come into existence of its own accord. The Qur'an says, "O Men, have fear of your Lord, who created you from a single soul. From that soul He created its mate, and through them, He scattered the earth with countless men and women." (4:1) This shows that men and women have been created from the same substance. Their being physically one, of necessity, demands their spiritual oneness. Making a similar point, the Prophet Muhammad said that all human beings are brothers. This gives rise to the concept of a common brotherhood, and without doubt, it is this sense of brotherhood which generates the strongest feeling of oneness and togetherness among different people. That is to say that when all human beings in this world are virtually blood brothers, they must, as this concept necessarily demands, live as brothers in spirit too. Any other way of living is a deviation from the reality. I would like to refer here to an incident which illustrates this theory. In 1893, Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago to participate in the Parliament of Religions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica puts it as a 'sensational appearance'. On that occasion all the speakers in the conference followed the common practice of addressing the audience as "Ladies and gentleman." But when Swami Vivekananda took the stage, he addressed the gathering thus: "Sisters and Brothers of America." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the hall resounded with a long burst of applause. Of all the delegates of the conference, Swamiji received the most ovation. The reason for this was that the form of address, "Ladies and gentlemen" produces a sense of alienation and strangeness, whereas the phrase "Sisters and Brothers" introduced a note of affinity and familiarity. By using this phrase Swami Vivekananda touched the hearts of all those present, whatever their creed and colour. Their natural feeling of unity was awakened, and then what ensued fulfilled the best of expectations. All of a sudden, the gaps between them were bridged. They all began to feel themselves what they really were, and for a moment, physical division disappeared, replaced by a rare spiritual unity. - CNF |
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