NAMASTE

I greet you today with the Sanskrit word Namaste. Greetings are important, especially the thought that they convey. Hello conveys the thought that I recognize you or that I am here, but it is essentially free of any feeling; in many cases the friendlier Hi replaces it. I use Hi in most of my correspondence. However, Hi does not have deep meaning. Namaste on the other hand has depth; it means I bow to you.

That’s a beautiful thought to have in mind as we greet people. It has us defer to them and they in turn defer to us. The greeting imbues a sense of humbleness to all who say it.

For those who want the greeting of an organization to reflect power, then Namaste is ideal. Every saint, guru, prophet, and enlightened master in all religions preached and practiced humility. Humbleness is a requirement of the journey to the Godhead; it also enables a person to better serve his fellow man. Humbleness leads to spiritual power.

In a society where sports competitiveness has reached the level of wishing harm on one another, where competitors plot to injure each other outside of the event, and where the crowds cheer when an opponent is maimed in contact sport; an infusion of humbleness can do a lot to return a sorely needed sense of love and understanding for our fellow man.

Financial and professional competitiveness exhibit the same ruthlessness and wish for the undoing of others exhibited in sports. Businesses attempt to literally destroy the competition. Employees in their quest for promotion and advancement often deliberately work to denigrate those who appear to stand in their way of advancement.

Why this drive to outdo each other? Why the desire to win at al costs? Because the prize is money. Even fame takes second place to money; it becomes an instrument to earn even more money. Our grossly materialistic society makes the accumulation of money its highest goal. We live in a society that looks upon its fellow men and women as competition to be done away with instead of as brothers, sisters, sons and daughters to be loved, respected, and cared for.

It’s time to say, “I bow to you” to the man who has undertaken the responsibility of marriage and fatherhood. It is time to say, “I bow to you” to the wife and mother who devotes her life to nurturing the family. It is time to say, “I bow to you” to our elders. It is time to say, “I bow to you” to those who serve us and to those whom we serve.

An excellent start to negotiations with out “enemies” would be the greeting of Namaste.

The traditional way of giving the greeting is to hold your hands in front of the chest as in prayer, look in the eye of the person and bow slightly as you utter the word Namaste. If you can’t bring yourself to strike that pose then just say Namaste. If even uttering the word makes you feel self-conscious, then say Namaste silently to your self as you greet people.

In order to change the world we have to change ourselves, and a major step in that direction is to realize the divinity of all people and bow to it.

Namaste!

RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT

The feminine nature is responsive. It reacts to various influences to its senses and psyche and exists in a continuous state of responsive readiness. The female psyche in all species is responsive; a trait that enables it to provide the nurturing needed for survival. Since Western society has become increasingly female oriented it has naturally increased its focus on responsiveness.

Western governments are now judged by their level of responsiveness. In America the responses to 9/11, hurricane Katrina, the housing collapse, the machinations of the financial markets, and the BP Gulf oil spill significantly affect the evaluation of governmental effectiveness. Government activity down to its smallest levels such as cities and townships has become increasingly responsive. In addition to responding to fires, burglaries, and public safety matters, local governments now respond to domestic disputes, weather anomalies, academic performance, landlord tenant disputes and a host of day-to-day activities.

This increase in responsiveness does not seem to produce many positive results, but instead has created devastating negative conditions. By any measure, our responsive society is deteriorating. The incidence of divorce, adultery, incarceration, depression, and a plethora of physical maladies have increased. Academic performance, marriages, and morality have all declined. A closer look at the proper functioning of the responsive woman will indicate why society is experiencing these negative conditions.

A woman is designed to be responsive in order to enable her to provide the nurturing requirements of the race. She can only do this in a safe and secure environment that provides her with the wherewithal to function. The responsibility of the male is to provide the environment and means for women to bring forth life and nurture the race.

In the traditional home a woman would begin her nurturing when she awoke in the morning and continued it until she fell asleep at night. She emitted nurturing love to her entire environment. She did not worry about rent payments, matters financial, or her security. Men took care of these matters and many unseen matters such as developing the ethics that provide for the moral conduct that enabled women to live in a safe and secure environment. Manly responsibilities required planning, organization, structure and courage.

As the modern woman became “liberated” and had the opportunity to earn her own money, provide for her retirement, safety, and well-being she devoted less time to nurturing and more time to her own survival. This unnatural environment produced depression, the number one ailment of the Western woman.

Taking another look at our responsive governments we find that they lack planning. Six months appears to be a long-range plan for our government. It planned how to depose the Hussein government in Iraq but had little concept of what to do afterwards. This action is akin to a person desperately wanting a divorce but having no concept of what he or she will do afterwards. The present administration wants the government to do everything, which results in complete responsiveness and zero planning. A life of responsiveness is a life of happenstance, which will ultimately lead to its collapse.

The responsive woman who functions naturally and successfully is part of a team called a family, which is the fundamental unit of existence. In the mating ritual of all species of life the female indicates that she will provide the nurturing if the male will provide the environment and wherewithal for her to do it. That’s the deal. It’s very simple. That arrangement has provided for the propagation and preservation of the species since the beginning of time.

Western governments try to function without gender differences. They enact laws, which are an ineffective substitute for ethics. What we call primitive societies had very few laws. They did have ethics, which provided the basis for moral behavior and the mores and customs that held society together.

Western society not having extended family has created institutions for the care of people. Old age homes, orphanages, foster care, homes for unwed mothers, did not exist in most of the non-Western world. Even prisons were rare. Institutions cannot provide what the extended family does for human beings.

You have heard these arguments from me before and I won’t go into the details of the failure of each of our institutions. The point is that nurturing love can only be given by women living in a safe and secure environment that contains the wherewithal to adequately provided for the needs of the race. Only men can provide that environment.

The genderless society has substituted “care” for nurturing love and governmental institutions for manly responsibility. The result is a society yearning for love and security. It suffers from angst and is going mad.

To the men who read this essay, you can either decide to do nothing and be part of this responsive goalless society and suffer the consequences, or you can decide to step forward and become an instrument of change. Change is on the horizon, are you going to be in the forefront of this change or are you going to be one of the responders?

E.G.