The Great Sins of Lying - Barkha Dhar - Hindustan Times

My latest article, The Great Sins of Lying (18th July, 2014) has been published in the Inner Voice section of The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh.
Copyright (c) 2014 - present
Dharbarkha.blogspot

You As Your Guru - Barkha Dhar - Hindustan Times

My latest article, You as Your Guru (2nd January, 2014) has been published in the Inner Voice section of The Hindustan Times,  New Delhi, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Unmask Your Spiritual DNA - Barkha Dhar - DNA India

My latest article, Unmask Your Spiritual DNA has been published in the Inner Truth section of DNA India.
Daily News and Analysis (DNA) is an Indian broadsheet published in English from Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Bangalore and Indore in India.
Copyright (c) 2013 - present Dharbarkha.blogspot

The Glow Of Sincerity - Barkha Dhar - Hindustan Times

My latest article, The Glow of Sincerity has been published in the Inner Voice section of The Hindustan Times,  New Delhi, Lucknow and Chandigarh, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, 
Gurgaon, Bathinda

Copyright (c) 2013 - present Dharbarkha.blogspot

Desh ki 'Amanat'

जब जब नारी पे अत्याचार हुआ, हम हाथ पकड़कर  बैठे थे

कोई दर्द नही, कोई  भय नही बिन फिक्र के ऐसे लेते थे

जाने कौन घडी मै आज हमे इह्सास हुआ, कि अब चुप नही रहेगे हम

दिन प्रतिदिन ये नरसन्गार, ये बलात्कार, ये दहेज के सक्षात्कार को बदने नही देगे हम

ये आतन्क को हमने ही बडावा दिया है अब यही हमको खाने दोडा है

इस घिनोने अत्याचार ने आज आतन्क का मट्का फोदा है

ये हमारा देश है, ये हमारी बेहने और बेटीया है, ये देश हमारी माता है

इस देश की रक्षा करना हमी लोगो से आता है

कयूकी जन्तन्त्र लोगो के  लिये, लोगो से शुरु और लोगो का होता है

तो अगर ये हमारा है, तो हम इस्के कानून मे भागीदार क्यो नही है?

अगर ये कानून थीक नही तो हम ही इस्के झिम्मेदार है 

कयो नही हम इस्की प्रगती और बद्लाव के मददगार है?

आशा करता हू की इस भारत कि बेटी का सन्घर्श व्यर्थ नही जयेगा
आज हमारे भारत मे एक इन्सान पैदा हो जयेगा

Poem by Nitin Dhar

Copyright © 2012 - Present Nitin Dhar/dharbarkha.blogspot
Photo Courtesy:  Altaf Qadri/Associated Press

God's Tough Love

When we are beaming with success or luxuriating in wealth, we seldom feel miffed with god. In our affluence and prosperity, we take his blessings to be a mark of our good fortune. But what happens when we are ripped off of comfort and are faced with situations that challenge our faith in god? Losing a highly remunerative job, a loved one, or failing in life’s countless endeavors are examples of some unexpected mishaps. During privation, we often feel betrayed by god’s grace and his eternal love and begin to question his imperceptible plans for us. Here is a short story that would delineate our unfathomable relationship with god.    

Once upon a time, a survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small and uninhabited island. In his restlessness to save himself, he offered feverish prayers to the lord and desired that he be rescued. Every day the survivor scanned the horizon for help, but none of his efforts or prayers seemed to be paying. Days and months passed by and the exhausted sailor eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to defend himself from his unasked cast away. In his hut, the sailor had his little possessions that he had saved during the ship wreck. One day when the sailor came back to his hut after hunting for food, he found his little hut burning in flames and the smoke rolling up to the sky. The poor sailor had experienced the worst. In his anger and annoyance with the lord, he asked, “Oh lord, why did you have to be cruel with me?” Stunned with grief, the sailor asked, “lord, how could you do this to me?” and he slept feeling bitter and blue. The next morning when the sailor woke up, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that had come to rescue him. The weary sailor asked his rescuers, “How did you know I was here?” The rescuers replied, “We saw your smoke signal.” 

When it is dark and desolate, we can rarely imagine god’s mysterious and profound ways of loving us. His ways may seem abstruse yet they contain life’s refined and pragmatic lessons. When god puts us to a test, we may hold a grudge against him. In our failing faith, we may lose hope in prayers and believe that god’s heavenly warmth has left us stranded. We, however, forget that it is the god himself who wants us to be marooned, penniless, and shipwrecked, so that he could rescue us from our doubts and insecurities. It is god’s tough love that makes us strong enough to find a new purpose in our swamped and submerged life. Hence, from a fragile being during our gala times we turn into resilient individuals during our rough patch. It seems that God’s elusive plans are surreal, which cannot be questioned, but could only be surrendered to.

Copyright © 2011 - Present dharbarkha.blogspot

Video Courtesy:  Barkha Dhar

Learning From Anna Hazare

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India’s divine land has bore many sages. The transcendental teachings of these esoteric and learned saints and monks have enlightened us in different garbs. As miracle workers, some of these orange clad holy beings have been wandering high in the Himalayas, while some have been literary genius residing in the plains and sharing their spiritual knowledge through their profound speeches or writings. Few others have sustained the sanctity of society through their ideals of social service. 


In the diversity of their philanthropic mission, these sages have glorified humanity with love, selfless service, and contentment. The moral teachings of these saints are paragons that have helped us to upkeep our personal and social values and have sometimes even encouraged us to the path of self-realization. It would be iniquitous to deny that some of these ascetic qualities seem to be present in Anna Hazare who has created an enigma of social change throughout India. Anna’s values of simple living and high thinking have not only resurrected Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy. But have also awakened a nation to the savagery and malice of man against man in the form of dishonesty, bribery, and exploitation of the weak and vulnerable. 

Anna’s beliefs that ‘manav seva is madhav seva’ (service to man is service to God) imbibe similar principles as propounded by our ancient scriptures and swamis. Anna says that life is an illusion, which we often spend in self-indulgence. He believes that instead of internalizing the simple pleasures of life, we externalize them through obsession with material gains and selfish interests. Anna’s emphasis on moral values has indeed brought forth the essence of collective responsibility to social justice and has encouraged many to evolve out of caste bound prejudices. Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Anna encourages everyone to have purity in thoughts and actions. He asserts that the more we have the capacity to bear other’s scorn, the better individuals we become by transforming our egoistic visage and molding it to serve the mankind. 

Anna’s social movement imbues a monumental mission. It has kindled the need for change not just in polices and procedures, but has instilled the thought that ‘ask not what we can take from others, but what we can give to others.’ Such cognizance comes with self-introspection and with a conscious effort of limiting ourselves from an overwhelming desire for more, be it in terms of money, power, or earning privileges of life at the cost of oppressing the needy. Anna’s crusade for social change has certainly swayed the nation by his impulse for ‘parivartan,’ which he believes is initiated by altruistic actions to liberate ourselves from bigotry and injustice. With austere means of subsistence and abstinence from physical desires, Anna in many ways has truly lived up to the quote of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” 

Copyright © 2011 - Present dharbarkha.blogspot

Photo Courtesy:  Manish Swarup/AP