Sept. 11, 2001-2002

[Guest guest]

For all of our members who are American -- or for anyone who simply

feels bad about a few thousand people (of all different colors,

religions and nationalities) being killed for the crime of going to

work in a country that some fundamentalist zealots don't much like:

Let us all offer our prayers to Devi for the triumph of peace, love

and understanding -- or at least for fewer innocents killed by "holy

warriors" (of every nation and ideology, including the U.S.) who

aren't into all that sissy stuff.

 

Not long after the terrorist attacks last year, I chatted with a

friend in Brooklyn -- a young woman (named Nataliya) from St.

Petersburg, Russia, who now lives in New York City and was at work in

the neighborhood when the towers crashed down. (She ruined an outfit

and lost a job -- her office was 86-ed by the flying rubble -- but

otherwise escaped unharmed.) Anyway, she knew that I'd been a

journalist in Russia for a while; and in fact, we'd met through a

common admiration for "Russia's Bob Dylan," the singer-songwriter

Boris Grebenshikov (our own Nora's a fan too, it turns out!). So

Nataliya told me that, in the wake of the attacks, she was listening

to a certain one of his songs again and again, and that it made her

feel a lot better. I tried it, and it worked for me too.

 

It's called "When the Pain Goes Away," and it was written in 1991, as

the old USSR was falling to pieces without any particular government

structure in mind to replace it. The song is not about that loss per

se (Grebenshikov was an underground artist, perenially harrassed by

Soviet authorities), but rather it's a more general rumination about

loss and hope in uncertain times. Below is a quick translation I did

on the train this morning. It lacks the beauty of the original

Russian's cadence and rhyme, and it's better when actually heard sung

in Grebenshikov's smoky tenor, so those of you so inclined can listen

along by downloading the song here:

 

http://aquarium.sama.ru/MESTA/mp3/1991_Arhiv_tom3/11.mp3

 

Here's the translation:

 

WHEN THE PAIN GOES AWAY

 

When the rain goes away; the rain that calms us,

When the shadows depart from above our land,

I'll awake here, let me awake here

In the tall grass, holding your hand.

 

And let our home be free from sadness

Under the shade of ancient trees --

And we'll know then all that eludes us;

I'll start to wait when the pain goes away.

 

So let the rain fall, let the snow fly,

Let Death sing its songs high above our land.

But I want to know, I just want to know

Will we still be who we are, when the pain goes away?

 

**********

 

On behalf of the Shakti Sadhana Group, Nora and I extend our warmest

wishes and deepest condolences to all who lost friends and loved ones

in the tragedy of one year ago.

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

[Guest guest]

OM Devi Bhakta

 

<<Let us all offer our prayers to Devi for the triumph of peace,

love and understanding -- or at least for fewer innocents killed by

"holy warriors" (of every nation and ideology, including the

U.S.)>>

 

Many of those 'innocents' were Canadian. Without being too

political, in a television interview aired on Sept 11, 2002, the

Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister of Canada, suggested that the

root causes of the of the September 11 attacks were global

poverty and an over-bearing American foreign policy.

 

We in Canada would like to see some substantial change in US

foreign policy that would significantly reduce the frustration levels

in many third world countries arising from the current US foreign

policy.

 

<<But I want to know, I just want to know

Will we still be who we are, when the pain goes away?>>

 

Yes, we will still be who we really are. We will still have the

defining reality of Divinity. And perhaps with some honest and

rigorous self-analysis, we will be closer to accepting and

realizing that Divinity.

 

"You are the master of your mind, and you have to keep it pure.

Your responsibility ends there, the rest is God's [Goddess's]

business" - Swami Vijnanananda

 

"The mind is susceptible to suggestions. It learns whatever you

teach it. If through discrimination you can impress upon it the joy

and fullness of life in the spirit and the folly of worldly attractions,

then your mind will devote itself more and more to God

[Goddess]. --Swami Brahmananda

 

"As is one's thoughts, so one becomes. This is an eternal

mystery." Maitri Upanishad

 

OM Namah Sivaya

 

Omprem

[Guest guest]

Namaskar OmPrem ji:

 

I apologize for my slow response; I'd failed to realize on first

reading that your note was addressed specifically to me!

 

Re: the Sept 11 attacks, you wrote: "the Prime Minister of Canada

suggested that the root causes of the of the September 11 attacks

were global poverty and an overbearing American foreign policy. We in

Canada would like to see some substantial change in US foreign policy

that would significantly reduce the frustration levels in many third

world countries arising from the current US foreign policy."

 

You're correct to note that this forum is no place for political

debate, but I did open the door, I suppose, by posting a Sept. 11

commemoration in the first place. And so all I can say is yes, most

thinking people in the world would, obviously, agree with the Prime

Minister's assessment. However, we would be foolish to expect the

current U.S. administration to provide such enlightened leadership.

The best of that bad bunch is Gen. Colin Powell, who seems the only

cabinet member able to comprehend political factors more complex and

millennial than the opinion polls of Bible Belt conservatives.

Unfortunately, however, Powell, as a career military man, will

ultimately follow any order his commander-in-chief hands down.

 

Bush II's conservative position is essentially that what offends the

Muslim fundamentalists is not the U.S.'s foreign policy, but the

U.S.'s very existence. According to that reasoning, they argue, any

concession will not be taken as a peace offering, but as a sign of

weakness -- and thus an invitation to further attack. Like it or not,

that is the governing belief of the U.S.'s current leadership. Well,

that and -- as we can see in the latest developments at the UN --

Bush II's desire to beat up the man (Iraq's Hussain) who made a

monkey out of his father. And the 2004 elections are still a long

march away. Thus my original conclusion: "Let us pray."

 

*** Yes, we will still be who we really are. We will still have the

defining reality of Divinity. ***

 

This is certainly so. But I think that Grebenshikov (an initiated

Tibetan Buddhist, by the way) was trying to offer a more immediate

and temporal kind of comfort.

 

I am glad to see you back, OmPrem.

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

[Guest guest]

I would hope that this explains some of the exegencies about the Saddam crisis a

bit better than most other people's suppositions. Please read from Debka below:

 

Washington's Envoy Slips into Baghdad

 

Washington's Envoy Slips into Baghdad

 

The United States last week delivered a secret ultimatum to Baghdad, a

warning not to use non-conventional weapons on any account in the coming

conflict. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's intelligence sources have learned that a

secret high-level emissary entered Iraq under cover to put Baghdad on

notice that if non-conventional weapons were wielded by Iraq, the US

would not hesitate to level its cities with a nuclear bomb.

 

Washington acted after discovering that Iraq had smuggled two or three

nuclear devices at least into the United States for detonation by

sleeper cells planted by Iraqi intelligence.

 

The American ultimatum included a demand for accurate information

forthwith on:

 

*

The location of these sleeper terrorist cells wherever they are planted,

whether in the United States, Israel or anywhere else in the world - and

the sites where the nuclear devices are hidden.

 

*

The whereabouts of terrorists and radiological weapons heading for the

United States or any other targeted country.

 

*

The terrorist cells armed with orders to set off a biological weapon,

especially one containing anthrax, smallpox or a chemical weapon such as

nerve gas

The US officials impressed on their Iraqi counterparts that any attempt

to withhold even a smidgen of vital information would result in

Washington making good on its threat.

 

US vice president Dick Cheney, alluding to this threat in an appearance

on NBC TV, warned Iraq against deploying "a single weapons system", when

he really meant a single terrorist.

 

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's sources report the United States took the unusual and

politically risky course of dispatching a special envoy to Baghdad,

where he could have been in harm's way, on following intelligence

information that came in from the joint headquarters of US and Russian

special forces in Moscow. Since August 21, this command center has been

overseeing a manhunt in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and

Uzbekistan for a squad of Iraqi agents. (See item on nuclear hunt for

Iraqi agents, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 74, August 23).

 

The original presumption of intelligence officials at the headquarters

was that the Iraqi teams were sent to buy enriched Uranium-235 to boost

Iraq's nuclear stockpile. But early last week, this evaluation was

ditched in favor of another: that the Iraqis were sent to take

possession of complete nuclear weapons systems already purchased by

Baghdad.

 

Iraqi officials professed innocence to the American emissary, assuring

him they had no intention of using any nuclear device as a terrorist or

military weapon. Their stock of weapons of mass destruction, they said,

was meant to protect Iraq from a non-conventional weapons attack by

Israel or Iran.

 

Iraq admitted obliquely for the first time that it has the bomb. But

when the US emissary brought up the nuclear manhunt now under way, his

Iraqi interlocutors clammed up.

 

The White House, Pentagon and CIA no longer doubt that Iraq has joined

the nuclear club. Nonetheless, the US administration continues to insist

publicly that it has no idea if Baghdad has the bomb and refers to 1998

intelligence assessments that Saddam Hussein is six months away from

building an atomic device.

 

US and Israeli intelligence believe Iraq has between seven and 12 atomic

bombs, and at least 15 to 40 nuclear shells of various sizes. Iraq also

has five to eight cannon capable of firing the nuclear-tipped shells to

a distance of hundreds of miles.