Harry Terhanian.com

My name is Harry (Hampartzoum) Terhanian. What has prompted me to publish this collection of Armenian proverbs is to create a web gathering of Armenians and other interested persons. As the Armenians are spread all over the world, there is a need to gather in a forum to live, share, and evolve our culture. Culture is something that is handed from generation to generation. Due to the tragedy of massacres, modern living, intermarriage, isolation, etc. there has been an erosion of transmission of Armenian culture. I want to make a small step at reversing this trend by sharing with all interested parties what I have learned from my parents and my travels. I hope that interested readers make available their knowledge of Armenian proverbs, stories, and wisdom so that I can swell the treasure of these pages for the enrichment of all. I will gradually add more pages as we progress. I hope to have a section of Armenian folk music, cooking, health, spirituality, marriage advice, and literary comment. Imagine learning culture by proverbs, stories, cooking lessons, music, poetry, discussion, and downright good old time one on one exchanges. Please join in the fun, open your heart and mind to share and embrace this wonderful culture.

If you are interested in submitting proverbs or stories, see possible errors that you want to correct, want to ask a question, or just want to send an email, please contact me at harry@uncleharrys.com. You can also call me at 425-558-4251.

Pure white became the darkest black

This is the title of a work written by Lucine Kasbarian. She very deftly explains the travails Armenians are experiencing with Turkish scholars and Turkish government officials who are attempting to deny the Turkish massacres of the Armenians. The title of her short articles speaks volumes about how the truth can be twisted and reworked into a complete lie just as a pure white cloth may be described in such a way as to make it seem a deep black color.

There is a website that helps people learn the Turkish language. It also provides information about Turkish proverbs, customs, holidays, music, tourist spots of Turkey, etc. There is also an open blog where people can discuss points of interest about Turkey. On the blog, there is an interesting dialog between Turks about the Armenian Question. A Turkish participant, whose blog name is “thehandsom” presents a point of view of the Turkish massacres of Armenians between the years 1890 and 1917 that is sympathetic to the Armenian’s claim that they were subjected to government sponsored genocide. The following is a sample of “the handsom” point of view in four parts.

“Armenian Question!
Part 1

“I know what happened to my nation..You call it what ever you like” Hrant Dink

As you know, there are some serious taboo subjects in Turkey.
If we want to write them down:
1- The position of the army.
2- In Turkey everybody is a Turk..There are no ethnic-cultural differences..(Kurds)
3- No massacres committed by us, especially against Armenians..
4- Turkey is a classless society..(so we don´t need communism)
5- Turkey is a secular country so Islamic culture is our enemy..

As you all know from the news and the articles you read about Turkey (of course, I am talking about political writings..Not about dudus ), almost every action trying to break these taboos are being punished and the people who have been having different views about those subject have been declared as public enemy!!
Turkish constitution have had many articles to defend above taboos..(Old articles 141-142 -class struggle/communism, article 163 forbids religious propaganda.. Article 125 bans Kurdish propaganda..Well just very recently a Kurdish writer/politician´s case was accepted by EU human rights court -Taraf journalist Orhan Miroglu, who was convicted of a crime for speaking Kurdish during an election campaign in 2007. Miroglu was sentenced to six months in jail followed by five years probation for using Kurdish expressions in his election speech in Mersin in 2007.)

Some people in Turkey think that our history is the history of rebellions against these taboos.. All those early Kurdish rebellions and the latest PKK, left wing struggles of 1970s and lately, the rebellion of Islamists (AKP etc).. (In fact, some people will argue that our republic was founded on these taboos).

All those revolts (Kurdish, 1970´s left wing, 1990s Islamist revolts) were ´crushed´ in true sense.. But after all those revolts, these groups learned one thing which is indispensable to be every body´s existence -at the same times indispensable to their own existence- and that is democracy.. All crushed left wing, Islamists, Kurds have realized and thoroughly learned the importance of democratic institutions..
Now it can be argued that almost all those subjects which were thought as taboos have been broken: Everybody knows that we do have classes in Turkey; not everybody is a Turk in Turkey we do have different ethnic citizens; we can live without thinking that Islamic culture is our enemy and in fact most of our traditions and cultural life was determined by Islamic culture..
Breaking of all these taboos have been making Turkey a more democratic state and a more democratic society!!

I would like to talk about our ultimate taboo, ´the Armenian Problem´.

Almost every Turk will accept the fact that there is almost no information regarding what happened to Armenians in our history and in our education system!! (I was reading a Turkish columnist in Milliyet the other day, he was confessing that when he graduated from our famous faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara..And he has been saying that he did not know anything about 1915. The title of his column was ´the truth lands on your shoulders, you can not live with lies´ -Turkish- . The paper is not a paper with extreme views..It is one of the most circulated papers from Dogan group)
After the beginning of modern Turkey, the question, ´what happened to Armenians?´ was never a subject in Turkish society until 1970 (until the beginning of terrorism from Asala).
About 100 years ago it was the period of time in which almost 1 in 10 people perished from Anatolia..
The events took place were so intense, so dreadful so unprecedented in those soils..
The level of brutality was so immense in a way that nobody in Asia minor/Anatolia/west Asia experienced before..
The basic rules of the war such as not killing people who are unable carry guns-women, children, old- unless there are very very special circumstances, broken. Old Anatolian/Ottoman/Turkish war/warrior ethics were violated..
Those people were not killed in battle fields, they got killed on the sides of the roads, edge of the towns, next to rivers, in the bushes where they were hiding, in mosques/churches by setting fire on them…
They got killed not only with arms and knives..they were killed with axes, with reaping hooks, with stones.. Series of these events which were so important to us , to our republic, but we don´t know anything about them.. And we almost are trying to forget it..(And we have been trying to punish anybody who dared to open the subject)
It is almost the case that apart from Turks, everybody knows something about it…As soon as we leave the borders of Turkey, almost everybody will have an idea about ´what happened to Armenians´. And they will ´name´ “what ever it is” too..

So in my opinion talking openly about the subject of Armenians will have a direct impact on pushing Turkey towards becoming a real democratic state..
It is not only just about learning some facts but also it is necessary for other ethnic-religious groups in Turkey. We can not afford another incident like this. We have to be in peace with our past. Being in peace with our history will have a positive aspect of becoming a better democratic state. All those variations in our society, all those different ethnic groups are our richness. Why do we need to deprive ourselves from this treasure?So, we will talk about this issue from with the aim and perspective of creating a better Turkey..:)

Since it is a gigantic and a colossal subject I want to split the writings into a few parts:

-Mental state of Young Turks -Brief history from late 17th century till 1915-
-Dealing with “Armenian problem”..mid 1914 till mid 1915/till 1916..Young Turks Enver , Talat.. Zeytun +Van Armenian rebellions.
-Where to go from here/ethics of theses/trauma for all of us etc..”

Part 2
“Mental state of Young Turks -Brief history from late 17Th century till 1914″

“Young Turks were the people who took the decision to deal with the Armenian problem at the time..In this part, I will try to explain their mental state and what they were thinking before taking those decisions which caused unprecedented level of catastrophe in those soils!!

Lets start this part 2 with some basic history:
As we all know, We, Turks, came from central Asia to Anatolia. And when we came the population was mainly Greek, Armenians, Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Jews etc..Mainly, Armenians + Kurds were in the east and Greek population was around the shores of Black sea, Aegean sea and in Istanbul. Of course all those cultures were mixed up throughout history..(We, Turks mixed with the those people as well, as according to the gene pool researchers, only 3% of the population are carrying the genes with central Asian origins)

When Turks captured Anatolia, Kurds kept living as a semi autonomous state because of the geography and Armenians did cope well with the situation and were living happily there. I mean there were some Armenians in Istanbul such as patriarchy, upper class and fully integrated with Ottomans. And there were Anatolian Armenians who worked and paid their taxes (mostly to both Ottomans and -illegally to- Kurdish tribes). And the ones living in Anatolia were the farmers, local businessmen, dealing with arts and crafts etc..

But when they came to 1800s the things started to change..
-Evil west started to stop using Silk Road..
-The nationalism was on the rise..
-Nations which were living with Ottomans for hundreds of years started to win ´their independence´ wars.(Well they call theirs as the independence war, according to us they were “ingratitude people” who were persuaded to knife us on our back)
-in 1838 with the agreements Ottomans had to sign, cheaper goods flooded into Anatolia and local businesses got effected..
-in 1839 With reforms and with the first constitution, ´Tanzimat´ , non Muslims got equality with the Muslims.. (They were not considered as equal before that date)
-Because the local economy collapsed and Last Kurdish rebellion was crashed in 1847, Kurds started to get more lawless and ´bolder´ against Armenians.
-Seyh Shamil lost his war against Russians (1859) and many Muslim refugees poured into Anatolia from Caucasus and they joined the Kurds in looting!! (I just remembered: there is also a dance called seyh samil in Turkey.. I used to have a girlfriend many years ago and she was one of the best seyh samil dancers I have ever seen:) )
Well of course, the time was the time revolting against Ottomans..Young and educated Armenians become revolutionists whereas Armenian in Anatolia complained their horrible situation to Istanbul.

When we came to 1890s, The peace treaty Ottomans signed with Russians in 1878 -after losing the war!-(then almost the same type of treaty was signed between Ottomans and UK in Berlin) and in that treaty, it said that ottomans will protect Armenians from Kurds and Caucasians-people from North Caucasus..But with those treaties, Ottomans lost huge lands, especially in Europe..(Practically, it was the end of Ottomans In Europe..Serbia/Bulgaria/Bosnia etc..all gone).

Eastern Problem-Hamidiye Battalions
Now, what happened just after this treaty was also shows the clear indication about what was going to happen to Armenians in 1915 (if they continued to be a problem - or if they kept asking for independence).
Sultan Abdulhamid II established a new fighting force in the east consists of Kurdish tribes in 1890: ´Hamidiye Alaylari´ . These battalions were formed to deal with ´the eastern problem´.
According to Armenian sources approximately 300.000 Armenian were massacred during 2 years between 1895 and 1897. Although some historians tell us that they were backlashes against Armenian revolts but many massacres took places where Armenian population was not bigger than Kurds and Turks. Most of the atrocities took place after Cuma prayers and some historians say that Armenians attacked the mosques. But in many places in which these massacres took place, Armenians were actually minority!! (No one can comprehend the logic of attacking mosques knowing that every one will be butchered in the backlash)

Btw..in 1890s also two Armenian revolution/terrorist groups emerged into political arena :Hunchaks and Dashnaks.. . Hunchaks were more radical and their aim was a complete independence. Dashnaks were not as radical as Hunchaks because they were with Young Turks until 1908 (and being blamed by Hunchaks as ´you collaborated with the enemy and that was the reason why they so easily butchered us´)
But in 1897 Hunchaks were finished in east of Turkey by Hamidiye Alaylari..
These groups looked at how Bulgaria/Serbia etc gained their independence. The idea was as follows :
Create trouble..Attack Turkish villages and Turks come back with heavy forces and commit massacres and then Western governments interfere (that was almost the case with each successful independence in Balkans) .. But Armenians did not calculate the facts very carefully as a-East of Turkey was not in Europe. b- their population was not greater than the others in many areas..They were minority ..

Turkish Nationalism-Western Hatred
Now lets start to look at Turkish nationalism or the birth of Turkish nationalism at the time.:
First of all, as fact, we have to mention that Turkish nationalism was a delayed nationalism at the time (comparing to Greeks, Arabs, Bulgarians, Serbians, Armenians etc). Turkish nationalism came as a delayed one ( and may be that was the reason it was more aggressive and trying to close the gap at the time?)
It was formed at the time when there was constant humiliation for Ottomans and losing the wars, land and its people..(btw..from 1870 till 1920, Ottoman empire lost 75% of her land and 85 % of its population)
It was developed at the times when Turkish people had fear of extinction..
End of the century, because of losing all those lands and wars, Turks accused non-Muslims.. (There were, of course, many good reasons for that..In Crimean war itself, around 1 million people were kicked out of Europe and had to come to Anatolia.. Of course, they did not tell Turks ´ah you go home then´. There were horrible massacres, shockingly dreadful ethic cleansings. The suffering was immeasurable!!).
There were capitulations for example..Powerful and rich European nations, dealing with Christians businessmen and ignoring the Turks and non-Muslim population who become capital holding class..Double standards of western powers against Turks -in many cases there were not christian massacres for example, but the western powers were persuaded that there was by christian minorities (at those times humanitarianism and human rights/democracy etc were associated with the west´s double standards and were seen as a way to carve Turkey. And as you can see, some of the Turks still believe this exactly with the same mentality today)…..
And all of these created a huge bad feelings against the non-Muslims..During Balkan wars , when Greek and Bulgarian army were advancing towards Istanbul, minorities celebrated their victory in Istanbul for example..All those incidents created a kind of furious Turkish nationalism which can be said , in effect, got squeezed between the glory of the past and humiliation of the current days at the time…

Heros or murderers / Leaders of Ittihat ve Terakki
And the beginning of 20Th century was also the rise of social darwinism. The ´concept of living together with all other nations and all other religious groups were non existing in those soils at the time -despite the fact that they all lived together for centuries-. The idea of oppressing the other nations/groups or exterminating the others for your own survival, or kicking them out were the acceptable way of thinking for their social Darwinism..
And we come to Ittihat ve Terrakki (young Turks/Jon Turks ):
They took the government in 1908 (and at the time they were supported by Dashnaks!! Much later, when Young Turks adopted the ideas of Turkish nationalism and got rid of the idea of reforming the Ottomans and living together with everybody , Armenians left young Turks).
Enver, Talaat, Cemal were the leaders of Ittihat ve Terakkli and representing the new soldier elite..
They were born into blood in Balkans, they lived with the blood and died with it..
They had nothing to do with old Ottoman ruling class with its cavalier principles..
They were ambitious and predatory..
They had no roots in the ottoman ruling engine, they went up the hierarchy with education and the army only.
They lived in violence and this violence was the violence what they saw in the Balkan uprisings or in the wars of Ottoman Empire..
They become nationalist so quickly without a serious theoretical back ground.,..
They were ´kill or get killed´ type social Darwinists..”

Part 3
Armenian Question - Medz Yeghern-Büyük Facia
´Murderers. You are all murderers who kill Armenians behind the front line. None of you can come and fight at the front line´ Ataturk..1915..Halep/Aleppo
Medz Yeghern-Büyük Facia´

I am going to copy some lines from one of my earlier posts (I think it is very important how and when the things happened.. The time period is one of the most important parts for our history but somehow it is missing in our history lessons )
-August 1914.. Young Turks attempt to persuade Armenian Revolutionary Federation to fight for Ottomans against the Russians in the east..It was not welcomed by the Armenians. End of cooperation between young Turks and Armenian Revolutionary Federation .
-October 1914.. Starting to process of getting non Muslims into the army ´amele taburlari´. Armenians are taken into different sections of the army to be used for non combatant works.
-December 1914.. Enver takes the command of the 3rd army. The army marches against Russians only about 3200 soldiers manages to complete the march -the rest got frozen to death without a fight- and they were taken as prisoners by the Russians. according to the first report from the army, the loss was 109.000 , later it becomes 90.0000 and then reduced to 75.000. in 2007 the army said that 60.000 people died without firing up a single bullet..According to the memories of some, the army was 173.000..This is called Sarikamis incident..
-19 February 1915.. Allied forces start to attack Dardanelles..
-25 February 1915.. They send telegrams to the army from Istanbul and tell them the weapons should be taken from Armenian soldiers. Later on, almost all of them were killed!!**)
-25 march 1915..Zeytun incident (Kahramanmaras today)..500 deserters of Armenians rebelled..
-19 April 1915..Van rebellion…Armenian mobs slaughter Turks around Van and some army units do the same to Armenians. (btw..**Because Armenians learnt what happened to Armenian recruits and they refused the army´s demand to have 5000 soldiers from them. And also almost everybody agrees the cruel Cevdet Bey, nicknamed “Nalband Bey” (Lord Blacksmith) - he had nailed horseshoes onto his victims´ feet- grossly mismanaged the situation) had a lot to do with this incident..
-24 April 1915..1st 235 Armenians from Istanbul is sent to Anatolia as exile..most of them not seen again.. (Since then April 24 is commemorated by Armenians all over the world as the day of remembrance of their victims)
-18 may 1915. Van is taken by Russia with the help of Armenians. Armenian mobs slaughter and sacks the villages around..
-27 may 1915.. The Temporary Law of Deportation (the “Tehcir” law) is announced
-31 August 1915.. Talat tells the German ambassador ´Armenian problem is solved´
-14 march 1919..The commission which was set up to investigate the war crimes by the Ottoman government says that during WW1 800.000 Armenians lost their lives.

I think what I will try to do is that I will try to go through that year from 1914 august to 1915 August in detail as much as I can..

August 1914 was the time the secret special forces unit called Teskilati Mahsusa was reorganized by Ittihat ve Terakki .
The main task of the committee was to organize the paramilitary units that would carry out activities in the Eastern Anatolia -specially against the Russians-..”activities to serve to unite the Turks inside and outside Turkey….implemented inside and outside of the country..”
Bahattin Sakir was appointed as the head of this spacial unit..
Three sources were mainly recruited:
1-Kurdish tribes 2-convicted prisoners 3-Immigrants from Caucasia and Balkans..

Though, in the beginning, the operations of Teskilati Mahsusa were considered as successful but at the end of the year they turned out into serious of defeats -the help of Armenians to Russians played a huge role of course-.
The operations most of the times aimed at Armenian civilians and sometimes even at Muslim population-that was the reason the army´s relation with the Units became sour..
When you consider one of the Ittihat ve Terakki leaders, Enver, lost the entire 3rd army against the winter conditions, the panic started to set into Ittihat ve Terakki hearts!
They began to lose their judgments about the situations!
There was a rebellion -actually ..it is debatable if it was a rebellion or not–.Zeytun rebellion in March 1915. 20 days later, Van rebellion..
And a few days after that in Istanbul 24 of April, influential and intellectual Armenians were sent to Ankara as exile..-most of them never came back-
Actually, the actual decision for deportation was taken the most probably at the end of March and it was decided that Bahattin Sakir would be dealing with the internal problems only´.
Teskilati Mahsusa was used for implementation of the deportation!!!

So what happened during the deportations?

The testimonies in the trials after the war and the documentations managed to remain to tell us that the central committee of Ittihat ve terakki discussed the issue and taken the decision after many broad and deep discussions and they thought they are solving the Eastern Question!!
The next thing of course was the implementation of these decisions..There are serious arguments and documentations about the idea that “the deportation was meant liquidation”!!!
-According to trials after the war, they presented many telegrams which made clear that the deportations meant liquidation and massacre.

-The department of Interior -Talaat Pasha- sent telegrams about the deportations of Armenians but at the same time sent the orders of liquidation to the regions with the party (party of Ittihat ve terakki) secretaries..

-The entire departments of Interior ministry were utilised..and Talat pasha was the coordinator of all these units..

-How party secretaries took these orders to the regions were again and again mentioned in the main trail and also governors who disobeyed these orders removed from their positions by these secretaries..

Some examples: Governor of Ankara Mahzar bey ´I received the orders of deportation from the interior and pretended not to understood..while the other governors started, I did not. Atif bey came..and gave the verbal order of liquidation of the armenians..I said No, Atif bey..I am a governor not a criminal; I can not do it´.
The governor of Kastamonu, Resit bey´ I wont have blood on my hands´ they both were dismissed..
Mutassir of Yozgat, Cemal bey, ´Necati bey showed him an official document about the liquidation of the Armenians, but when he was asked for the letter, it was not given. Then he said he would not implement it and he was dismissed a few days later..
Kaymakam of Lice, Abidin Nesimi, refused to carry out the orders and was called into Diyarbakir but during the journey, he got killed!!
The governor of Basra and some more were amongst the people who got killed because they refused to take part in these incidents.. (btw..when you look at the historical events and if a Turk was asked about who we should consider as our ancestors, who we should consider as our heroes, my personal choice would be these people who were murdered by Ittihat ve terakki because they refused the be part of these crimes against humanity. But if you are still considering Talat Pasha as your hero, then no words from me )

-During that summer the government specially interior ministry prepared many temporary laws regarding how the goods remained from Armenians would be used..There were almost none about how these goods will be compensated back to the Armenians..:(

-Talaat knew what was happening and what was going on as he was informed during the entire techir/deportation with the telegrams. He asked constantly how many Armenians left; how many of them arrived to the destinations..In some cases even the fate of some individuals were traced and followed by Talat..
-Germans and Americans constantly told Ittihat ve Terakki for their intention to help with the deportation but they were constantly refused…

-They constantly monitored the numbers..One of the ampric considration was 10% which meant that non muslims should be /would be distributed amongst the muslim populations with the maximum of 10%.. When there were 480.000 managed to arrive Syria at the begining of 1916 and the muslim population was about 2.000.000 at that area at the most, but later on the armenian population was reduced to 200.000 (I think Robert Fisk mentioned this in his book as well-I am not sure, I will check at some stage)….

Well I dont want to continue. Whenever I try to think to write of something about this subject and talk about the incidents, somehow I can not..

Anyway, the result of this ´deportation´ was Almost all armenians were curetted from Anatolia.

Even the Armenians who were residing in Istanbul, Tekirdag etc (the cities they were not in the military zone whatsoever) were subjected to this deportation.

As I meantioned before, In anatolia there was no tradition of moving a people, a millet/nation who was not very friendly with you because of the war.

Turks or Ottomans did not even consider to deport the Bulgarians when they were fighting between them and the Russians and they well knew they would lose the war but the idea of deporting Bulgarians was never thought of.

Ataturk never ever considered moving part of population because of rebellions during the independence war….

And there is still no logical explanation why you would move the women and childeren and the sick if your aim is really to protect them or your army..why not the men only? And what were the armenians in Istanbul got to do with the incidents in the east?

Numbers?
I dont think the numbers are that important..But almost 1.000.000 people were forced to leave according to the documentations..
Some says 100.000, 300.000, 600.000, some says 800.000 lost their lives..
I dont think we will ever learn the correct figure…

Lets finish this with a part of a poem from Nazim Hikmet (aksam gezintisi)
…
Bakkal Karabet’in isiklari yanmis.
Affetmedi bu Ermeni vatandas
Kürt daglarinda babasinin kesilmesini.
Fakat seviyor seni,çünkü sen de affetmedin
bu karayi sürenleri Türk halkinin alnina
…..

The lights in the Shop of Karabet are on..
That Armanian citizen never forgave
His father´s slaughter in Kurdish mountains
But he loves you
Because neither you did forgive those people,
Who blackened the foreheads of Turkish people
……

Next : Where do we go from here? since our theories -ranging and started with ´nothing happened; if something happened Armenians did it; They did /we did it too; They were so cruel we could not stop responding- did not persuade anybody in the world, what is next?

ps..I remember si++ was saying that no Ottoman officials were found guilty in the trials..
But according to the Official Gazette (Takvim-i-Vekayi),No. 3604.
“Their guilt has been determined by a unanimous vote ….. Talaat, Enver, Djemal and Dr. Nazim are sentenced to death” at July 5, 1919..”

Part 4
thehandsom
25 Jun 2010
“Armenian Question -IV- Final
Trying to invent a new history for yourself is a dead end./ what is next?
“In history, the denial politics and trying to invent a new history for yourself is a dead end. ”
Hasan Cemal (writer, journalist)

Let’s look again what I tried to describe so far regarding the Armenian problem:
- Turkey and its taboo subjects, and the necessity to talk about these taboo subjects from democracy point of view..
- Armenian problem as the ultimate taboo .
- 1 in 10 people perished from Anatolia, yet, we still did not want to open the subject.
- Level of brutality; killing people with axes; with reaping hooks; with stones; they got killed on the side of the roads, next to rivers.. etc.
- Violation of Anatolian/Turkish war ethics!!
Then we moved on to the end of 19th century and talked about:
- lost wars; displaced people; immigrants; Turkish nationalism; western hatred; the “Young Turks”;
The column number III was about the event itself and the time period leading to the decision of techir/deportation/liquidation (I have to admit..I could/should have written about those issues in a more descriptive way)
- The psychology of the rulers at the time, how they failed miserably on all fronts, and how they prepared everything for that “shameful event”. We learnt how they restructured the special unit Teskilati Mahsusa for this task a year earlier. We also saw the testimonies from the trials in Ottoman courts, how some of the governors refused to implement the orders from the central government, and those deportations meant liquidation and massacre.

We learnt that almost all of Armenians were deported, including women children and sick, including the ones living in the Western part of Anatolia - people who had nothing to do with the war.
And the result was:
- Almost 1.000.000 Armenians were subjected to forced deportation. We don’t know the exact figure but a large number of people were destroyed (the number of people who got killed ranges from none to 800.000)

Anyway, after this little summary, I would like to talk about what is now ahead of us
Is there any other example of a similar event in the history of the world?
It is unimaginable that the rulers of a country, which has 70 million people and wants to be a regional power, are biting on their fingernails every year on the 24th of April. Why: because they are wondering whether the president of the USA will use the word ´genocide or not!! If he does not use that word, everybody is happy and says ´thanks god, we have gone through another year. The president of USA uses many other heavy words to describe the events of 1915, but that doesn’t matter.. As long as he does not use the word ´genocide´ we are happy and content!!

And if other countries try to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide, we threaten them with economic sanctions.. And when they pull these recognitions back (or their president/pm makes a negative comment about that recognition or upholds that decision etc), we think of ourselves as successful.. But what sort of success is that exactly? Success in “how good of a bully we are”? Is it the case that we go to these countries and explain what happened and then changed their minds. No.. We don’t.. We threaten them..

Have we managed to persuade any country in the world with our thesis? The answer is a huge NO..
Lets look at what we have been saying so far to the world at different times:
“Nothing happened in 1915″
“it was a relocation”
“if something happened, Armenians did it”
“it happened but it was a reciprocation”
“They betrayed us and what could we do? We had to respond”
Do we Turks really believe that we can persuade anybody in the world with above rhetoric?
What do you think is coming next? What do you think we will be saying to the world 5-10 years later..?
We behave as if the world consisted only of Turkey. When we say “WHITE”, it does not matter if the rest of the world says “NO.. IT IS NOT WHITE BUT BLACK”.
What is known in the world about this subject is what the truth is, and just because we / Turks - are saying that ´nothing happened, is not changing the truth. That is a fact!!
The way we Turks react to this issue is, of course, a completely different ball game!! The level of our reaction alone makes many people think: ´Gosh, are they trying to hide something?´
People who watch us/Turks from the outside - when there is a debate about this issue - would not guess that we are talking about a historical event but they think that we were in war with Armenia RIGHT NOW and that Armenians are killing Turks.

Turkey is changing however…The change inside the borders of Turkey is immense. Changing the constitution; abolishing shameful 301; challenging the army´s role in Turkish politics; more freedom about almost anything; talking about minority rights; talking openly about Kurdish Problem without risking to go to jail etc might be seen as normal actions in the west but they are really important for Turkey. Apart from these positive changes, people are talking about these events; reading; learning about these things and the Armenian Issue is one of them. There was even a small group this year they had a remembrance day in Taksim square. Another positive change in Turkey is of course about ´the confidence in being able to face our own history´. We have been afraid of it for so long.. We have had a huge fear about our past. Humiliation of WW1; how big we were once and now we are not; questioning the credibility of our heroes; continuation of ideas from 1915 to our new republic; how could we do this; shame; anger. They are all in one package which we did not have enough confidence to face so far. But now, some people beginning to realise ´History of Turks without mentioning Kurds and Armenians in it will be like the history of America without the natives; history of Germany without the Jews´.
We simply can not invent a new history for ourselves..

The world is changing too and there is no way of continuing to live with the illusion that we are the only people in the world (well, that might be possible if we were like North Korea). So in my opinion, as far as the Armenian problem is concerned, I think we are approaching a culminating moment. I think that this issue won’t be a problem anymore in the coming years. (Obviously, we could not persuade the world with our thesis. Year after year, the number of countries accepting the event of 1915 as a genocide is increasing..)
I think there are some people in the Foreign Ministry who see that this is not a way in which we can continue. Something has to change. Something has to change because of the constant burden of humiliation the foreign ministry personnel face in first hand.
I think the resolution from USA House of Representatives´ Foreign Affairs committee, labelling the 1915 massacre of Armenians a “genocide” could be a turning point as far as the external elements are concerned (and of course, killing of Hrant Dink was its internal counterpart).
This can create a domino effect in many countries which were holding their decisions.. (I have to point out that Sweden came just after USA).
Considering in 2015 will be the 100th years of Armenian events in Anatolia, I think, we have to be ready for a barrage of decisions from many countries..”

“thehandsom” was maligned and ridiculed by other Turks who countered his point of view. The following is a sampling of several Turks who present a different view of the events from 1890 to 1917. They try to portray the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman empire and later the Young Turk Republic as disloyal and treasonous. They claim the Armenians massacred Turks mercilessly and that the government’s decision to “displace” the Armenians from Turkey to Syria and other destinations was justified and necessary.

The following is a reply to “the handsom” by “metaham2001″, who ridicules thehandsom’s point of view as a distortion of the facts by quoting from a “Turkish Scholar” named Mim Kemal Oke.

metehan2001
Jun 07
“1. Well, it is interesting to know that you don´t trust Ottoman Archives but trust Armenian Sources. Such an attitude is understandable for an Armenian nationalist but not for a Turkish citizen. because many eminent scholars claim that Armenians produced false documents with the Issue, but the Ottoman Archives are a really reliable source.
2. On the contrary of what you are saying in your reply, the organized Armenian attacks on Turkish people started in 1880´s. As you mentioned about the “chronological order”, let me give you the the brief story of Armenians´ plans, terrorist activities and attacks on Ottoman Muslims between 1890-1915:

“The Organization of the Armenian Separatist Movement:

The Revolutionary Committees and Their Methods of Struggle:

(……) With the budding of nationalistic feelings among the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire, the first stage was accomplished in the way of establishing an independent Armenia. Now it was time to realize as soon as possible the goals expressed in the two quotations above. Several societies began to be formed with the purpose of establishing an independent Armenia, first in Turkey and then also outside of Turkey. At the beginning, these societies kept their real purpose secret, and pretended to be charitable societies. From the perspective of our subject, the Hunchaks and the Association of Armenian Revolutionary Societies (Dashnaktsutiun) were the most important among these societies. The Hunchak Revolutionary Party was established on Marxist principles in 1887 in Switzerland by Avadis Nazarbekian, an Armenian from the Caucasus, a female friend of his named Maro whom he married later on, and by their student friends from the Caucasus. There were many Russian Armenians among the leaders and members of this organization. The headquarters of this Revolutionary Party was later moved to London. The Hunchak Revolutionary Party declared that its goal was to ´free the Turkish Armenia´ and Part IV of its political program makes clear the methods to be used for this purpose:
The only way of achieving our immediate goal is to start a revolution, that is, using force to upset all order in the Turkish Armenia, forcing the people to start a war against the Turkish Government with a general revolution.
The means of these activities are:
1. Propaganda: using the press, publications and oral means to spread the revolutionary ideas of Hunchak in the millet, and especially among the workers, establishing a revolutionary organization among them, and organizing revolutionary regiments.
2. Terror: using terror as punishment against Turkish administrators, secret agents, informers, and traitors. Terror must be a means and a weapon for protecting the revolutionary organization.
3. Raider regiments organization: military units kept ready to fight against … government forces. These regiments can serve as vanguard regiments during general revolutions.
4. General revolutionary organization: comprises several regular groups all of which are attached to each other to form a unity and a harmonious whole, all of which use the same tactics to advance in the same general and common direction, and all of which are administered and directed by a central committee.
5. Revolutionary regiments organization.
6. The declaration of a war by any state against Turkey should be considered as the most opportune time for the general revolution, for the immediate goal.
The Dashnaktsutiun Revolutionary Party came into being in 1890 in Tiflis in the Caucasus through the efforts of Christopher Mikaelian and his friends to unite brigands formed by Armenian nationalists in imitation of brigands which had been established in the Balkans. Whereas the Hunchaks supported the idea of an Armenia under the protection of Russia, the Dashnaks - at least during the first few years - wanted an independent Armenia. Pro-Russian Armenians did not want this; the independence of the Ottoman Armenia would mean closing the path to the Mediterranean, to Russia. The Dashnaktsutiun opened branches in Trabzon, Istanbul and Van and began to be organized throughout Turkey. According to the organizational statute of the Dashnaktsutiun which held its first meeting in Tiflis in the Fall of 1892, the areas covered by the activities of the organization were assigned to two bureaus responsible for the East and the West. The Western Bureau concentrated especially on propaganda and began to be influential in both public opinion and among decision makers in Europe by becoming organized first in Paris, and then in London, Brussels, Berlin, Leipzig, Geneva, Rome and Milan. On the other hand, the Eastern Bureau was in charge of planning and implementing terrorist and revolutionary activities in the Ottoman Empire. Thus, in spite of the difference in purpose, the Dashnaks had also adopted terror as their method of operation, like the Hunchaks.
It was not by chance that these revolutionary committees adopted terror as their method of struggle against the Ottomans. It was almost a conjunctural necessity for a nationalistic movement devoid of objective elements to adopt the most radical means for achieving its goals. We saw above that the elements constituting Armenian nationalism were unfounded. The most important point worth repeating is that the area they sought to ´free´ was not one like Bulgaria or Greece, a country defined and delimited by a relatively unified mass. In areas called real Armenia, Armenians were living as small islands among Muslims who constituted 87% of the general population. Even if all Armenians worldwide were to be brought to this area, they would not be able to constitute a majority in Eastern Anatolia. Thus, starting with this suspicion, the Armenian revolutionary committees thought terror was necessary from two perspectives. First, actions of individual terror and mass massacres would be the most effective way of making the Muslim inhabitants of the so-called Armenia flee. just as had been the case with emigrations from Rumelia, these Muslims would be forced to desert their homes if the ottoman State failed to protect their lives, and those who would refuse to emigrate would be subjected to massacres by the Armenian revolutionaries so that the area would eventually be left entirely to Armenians. Secondly, the Armenian revolutionaries knew that they would not be able to succeed in their cause by themselves; it was impossible to make substantial changes in the international political system without the intervention and approval of external powers. The revolutionary committees believed that the powers which controlled world politics could be attracted to this subject only through ´terrorism.´ Thus, if the people in Eastern Anatolia would be provoked enough through uprisings and if Muslims could be brought to the point of attacking Armenians, civil war would easily break out in this area. This or that measure that would then be taken by Ottoman security forces trying to stop the fighting between the Christian and Muslim subjects would be announced to Western public opinion as I massacres´ by the bureaus of propaganda of the revolutionary committees, and states would be invited to stop the ´bloodshed.´ The Great Powers which would thus be forced to take an interest in this subject would demand that the Ottoman State introduce certain regulations in favor of Armenians in order to prevent similar events from taking place in the future. Each step in reforms would bring Armenians closer to autonomy. To put it briefly, Western intervention was regarded as indispensable for the ´Armenianization´ of Eastern Anatolia and terrorism was regarded as the sole key to the door which would usher in that intervention under existing conditions.
The first of the uprisings which led to the second stage of the Armenian Question in the Ottoman Empire broke out in Erzurum in 1890. This was followed by the Kumkapi demonstration in Istanbul in the same year, the Kayseri, Yozgat, Corum and Merzifon events in 1892 and 1893, the 1894 Susan rebellion, the demonstration at the Sublime Porte and the Zeytun rebellion in 1895, the Van rebellion and the raid on the Ottoman Bank in 1896, the second Sasun rebellion in 1903, the attempt to assassinate Sultan Abdulhamid in 1905, and the 1909 Adana rebellion. It would be good to note certain points about these rebellions. The first point I would like to emphasize is the number of Armenians and Muslims who died during these events. Calculating roughly on the basis of differences in population between the 1890´s when the events started and 1915 when Armenians were relocated on account of the war, it will be observed that only a relatively - relative to their numbers in the general population - small number of Armenians lost their lives in this period. Armenians who were killed by revolutionary Armenians are also included in this estimate. Although it is impossible to give any definite numbers, the number of Muslims who died in this period should also be taken into account. It is recorded in some Armenian sources that in Zeytun alone 20,000 Turks were massacred. Even if these statements were considered to be exaggerated, it becomes clear that there were as many Muslims who lost their lives as there were Armenians during the Armenian uprisings. The second point I would like to stress is that Ottoman sources record that the Patriarchate harbored Armenian revolutionaries during these rebellions. It is especially noted that it was difficult to differentiate between selected young priests and revolutionaries. Third, the roles played by British and Russian consulates should be emphasized as well. When the Ottoman forces apprehended some revolutionaries, the consuls appealed to the Sublime Porte and argued that these Armenians were their own citizens, and that it was their legal right (protected by the capitulations) to be tried at the consulates and to serve their sentences - if found guilty - at the consulates. Records also show that these trials by no means contributed to the carrying out of justice, but that revolutionaries were smuggled out of the country under the protection of the consulates and were subsequently brought back to the Ottoman State to create new incidents after having been given new identities.”

(http://www.ataa.org/reference/question-oke.html)

Excerpts from THE ARMENIAN QUESTION, 1914-1923

By Mim Kemal Öke
Last modified:Jun 07

“metaham2001″ also posts a comment where he accuses “thehandsom” of not being a Turk, but rather an Armenian or a Kurd. He tries to intimidate him with a threat is making false statements that “insult” the Turkish people and nation which is a judicial offence in Turkey. He further says that “thehandsom” will inflame Turkish people to “abuse” him. Remember the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was murdered by a Turkish nationalist for the same reason. He discussed the massacre of the Armenians openly in Turkey as did other Turkish citizens such as Orhan Pamuk, a famous Turkish writer, who was prosecuted by the government for anti-Turk statements. Read the following:

metehan2001

I agree with you, si++. thehandsom pretends as a Turkish, but I bet he is not. In fact, he seems an Armenian nationalist propagandist in this forum, and a Kurdish nationalist in another forum. My personal opinion, he has not contributed any help in this website till now. He continuously and ironically abuses and insults Turks, the history of Turks and the State. On the other hand, our respected administrators just watch his game and do nothing for calling him to be more sensible. The administrators, please be fair, be reasonable! This is not something about speech of freedom. I personally respect all kinds of humanrights. I don´t have any problem with any nation or people (If they are not terrorists) and millions of Turks feel and think like me towards other people. As an educated, 50 years old man, I have seen many times, such people, like thehandsom, who are not just a simple, innocent, intellectuals. They intentionally serve for some organisations.
So, my request from the administrators: Please warn this man to be more sensible and more empathetic towards Turks too. If he continuously insults Turks and gives wrong information about Turks and Turkey, he will make some young Turks angry with him and they will start abusing him. I think that is the thing he wants in this site: He wants to prove that how nasty Turkish people are.
Maybe such heated debates on such sensitive matters can be stopped in TC. Otherwise many users like me starting to think that the administrators and some foreigner users of this site just watch and enjoy the tiresome and detestable game of thehandsom.”

Fortunately there are educated and articulate Turks like “thehandsom” who are willing to objectively look at the facts of the Turkish massacres of the Armenians. They are obliged to remain secretive about their identity so as not to jeopardize their life and livelihood in Turkey. Imagine how difficult it must be for Armenians who live in Turkey whenever the subject of the genocide of Armenians is openly discussed.

“Metehan2001″ is typical of nationalist Turks who adamantly deny that the massacre of Armenians was deliberately planned and executed by the Young Turks. They insist on proving that the Armenian population of Turkey was seditious which justified the Turkish authorities decision to “displace” the entire population of Armenians from the Eastern provinces. From his point of view, it was unfortunate that during the displacement Armenians perished due to marauding thugs and hardships of the journey. My mother was one of the “displaced” Armenians. She lived in Malatia with her family. She was only eight years old in 1915 when her father was arrested by Turkish gendarmes of Malatia and executed. Shortly after, the rest of her family including all the women and children were forcibly evicted from their home and property and forced to walk over 1500 miles to a desert town in Syria called Del El Zor. They were allowed to take only what they could carry.
By the time she arrived in Del El Zor, all her family members died, murdered or kidnapped. She only survived because her mother did everything possible to keep her before she died. Fortunately, my mother was picked up off the streets of the forsaken desert town by a Turkish family and saved from starvation and death. She became a “Turkish child.” After the end of World War I and the defeat of the Young Turks, the Turkish family that saved her were obliged to turn her over to a Christian orphanage. If the Turks did not lose the war, she would have been “Turkefied” like the many Armenian orphans who remained in Turkey and were not freed back to Christian missions.

My mother and her family were not Armenian revolutionaries. They were “second class” citizens of the Ottoman empire and later of the Young Turk Republic. They were “displaced” and massacred because they were an Armenian minority that was arbitrarily declared “enemies of the state.” My mother and her family were not enemies of the state of Turkey. They were law abiding citizens of Turkey. But, because of the ethnic, racial and religious affiliation, they were completely deprived of their property and murdered or forcibly expelled from Turkey with no more than what they could carry. During the expulsion they were completely at the mercy of Turkish soldiers or police who were ordered to keep them marching until the forsaken desert town in Syria. During the forced march, they were the subject of all kinds of unspeakable hardships including starvation, exhaustion, sickness and atrocities including rape, kidnapping, murder, theft, etc. The end result was that
most of the Armenians that were evicted from their homes and forced to march died of the various
unnatural causes. The families that marched were deprived of their men such as fathers, brothers, uncles who were all systematically massacred before the march began or quickly during the march. The elderly, the women and children either died of hardship, kidnapped or murdered during the forced march. Whoever miraculously survived the forced march and arrived in Del El Zor, found no relief. The desert town was infected with disease, unsanitary conditions, lack of food and clean water and more dangers of kidnapping, rape, murder and starvation. It was a hopeless situation for Armenians unless they converted to Islam or were shown some rare mercy by Turkish, Kurdish or Arabic families. Many Armenians perished in Del El Zor.

Any person that pretends that the Turkish massacres of the Armenians was not a genocide is a liar.
The apologists for the modern Turkish government can make many claims that there were tangible justifications for the “displacement” of the Armenian population, that Armenian revolutionaries committed atrocities on Turks, that the Armenian revolutionaries were helping foreign invaders of Turkey like Russia occupy Turkish lands, etc. However, this is not an excuse to attempt the total elimination of the Armenian population of Eastern Turkey as well as confiscation of all the properties legally belonging to the Armenian population including monuments, churches, etc.

Since the massacres of the Armenians, the future generations of Turks have been denied any access to the history of the genocide in their public schools. The Turkish government has pretended as if it never happened. It is only because of pressure from outside of Turkey that an attempt has been made to justify the Turkish massacres of the Armenians by a revision of history. This attempt will never succeed. “thehandsom” very eloquently makes this point.

Ahrantz seerehl seerd chee gah

ahntzrehvuh eench ahni kahreen, kuhraduh eench ahnee chahreen

geghdzuh soud guh khoseh vor juhstmahrdoutioun dzahdzgeh. Paiytz juhstmahrdoutioun vehrchahbehss geghdzoutioun guh haiydneh

A man who always lied was asked “Does truth exist?” He said, “Yes!”

A man who always told the truth was asked, “Does truth exist?” He said, “Yes!”

The liar was asked, “Do lies exist?” “You may qualify your statement for clarity sake.”
He replied, “Yes,” “Lies exist for the purpose of hiding the truth.”

The truthful man was asked, “Do lies exist?” “You may clarify your statement for clarity sake.”
He replied, “Yes,” “Lies will eventually reveal the truth.”

Both the liar and the honest man answered yes to both questions. The second question, however, revealed that the liar said yes to the first question to mask the truth rather than tell the truth. The motives of the two were revealed by their qualifying statements to the second question. Although they both answered yes to the second question, they had differing points of view about the outcome of a lie.
The liar sees the lie as a way to hide the truth. The honest man considers that a lie will eventually reveal the truth.

There is proverb in Armenian that says, “The clouds will never completely hide the sun.” The proverb reveals that the truth will eventually come out just as the sun will eventually shine through the clouds.

An sad example of the above is the Turkish government that adamantly refuses to recognize that their predecessors, the Young Turks committed a government organized genocide against the Armenians of Turkey from 1915 to 1918. The present government of Turkey should learn from Turkish proverbs the timeless wisdom that says, “A candle that truth kindles is not extinguished though the whole world tries to blow it out. (Bir sem (mum) ki hak yaka, dunya uflese sonmez)
Rather than attempt to rewrite history by denying the Turkish government sponsored the genocide
of Turkey’s Armenians, the present Turkish elected officials should admit the truth knowing well that “The sun cannot be plastered with clay.” (Gunes balcikla sivanmaz) What is so obvious cannot be hidden; truth will always prevail.

There are many governments of the world that have recognized the Turkish massacre of the Armenians. The government of Turkey reacts by threatening economic and political reprisal to those governments. But Turkish wisdom says “The eyes of a bat are hurt by light.” (rencide olunur dide-i huffas ziyadan)This proverb implies that the guilty and the ignorant dislike the truth.

At their best, proverbs contain pearls of universal truth. Turkish proverbs are no different. More wise men of Turkey must step forward and rely on their own ancient proverbial wisdom to admit the butchery of the Armenian people was instigated and organized by the Turkish government with the goal of eliminating the Armenian from Eastern Turkey. The truth is that up until 1915, there was a slow and relentless genocide of the Armenians in Anatolia. In 1915, the Turkish government decided to finish the job by carefully organizing a genocide to finally rid the interior lands of the Armenians. It is said in Turkish, “The hangman does not know the word “mercy.”" (zalim merhamet bilmez) The Turkish government showed no mercy to the Armenians in 1915.

It should be remembered, “Do not provoke the curse of the oppressed; it will take effect sooner or later.” (alma mazlumum ahini; cikar aheste, aheste)

One of the greatest Muslim philosophers, named El Ghazali, wrote “The Revival of Religious Sciences” (Arabic: احياء علوم الدين‎ Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din or Ihya’ul Ulumuddin). In this book he speaks about a Muslim companion of the Prophet Muhammed named Hudhayfah. He had three qualities which particularly impressed the Prophet Muhammad; his unique intelligence, quick wit, and his ability to keep a secret even under persistent questioning. The Prophet Muhammad was to utilize the special strengths of each companion. A primary problem the Muslims encountered were hypocrites who had superficially accepted Islam while simultaneously plotting against the Muslim community. Because of Hudhayfah’s ability to keep a secret, Muhammad told him the names of the hypocrites, a trust not bestowed upon others. Hudhayfah was commissioned to watch their movements and follow their activities. The hypocrites, because their secrecy and intimate knowledge of the developments and plans of the Muslims, presented a greater threat to the community than external enemies. From this time onwards, Hudhayfah was called The Keeper of the Secret of the Messenger of Allah, remaining faithful to his pledge of secrecy.

Hudhayfah said, “at the time of the Prophet Mohammed, there were things which made the man who repeated them a hypocrite as long as he lived. Now, however, I hear these same things repeated ten times a day, and no one seems to mind.” A certain learned man said, the person closest to hypocrisy is he who deems himself free thereof. Hudhayfah also said, hypocrites are more numerous today than they were at the time of the Prophet. At that time they used to conceal their hypocrisy; now they are not ashamed to reveal it. Such hypocrisy militates against the reality of belief as well as against its perfectness. It is something concealed and subtle: the farthest removed from it are those who are constantly afraid of it, while those who deem themselves free of it are they who are nearest to it.”

El-Ghazzali relates a story of a man who told Hudhayfah, “Verily I fear I am a hypocrite.” To which Hudhayfah replied, “Fear not. If you were a hypocrite you would not have feared hypocrisy. Verily hypocrisy does not fear hypocrisy.”

The attempt by the modern Turkish government to deny the massacre of the Armenians of Turkey was a genocide or planned and organized systematic extermination is the example of detestable hypocrisy. There are educated Turks who also find such hypocrisy disgusting. Yet, if they voice their opinion, they will be prosecuted for denigrating the Turkish people and government.

Turkish wisdom says, “The candle of the tricky person is soon burned out.” (hilekarin mumu cok surmez) Yet, the Turkish government has maintained its innocence of genocide for over 90 years. In fact, Turkey accuses the Armenians of treasonous activity that justified Turkey’s “population transfer” of Armenians that results in the murder and forced death of 1.5 million Armenians. It is said in Turkish, “The crooked person who is not caught is more upright than the bey (nobleman).
(tutulmayan ugru (hirsiz) beydan dogru)

Material prosperity, military strength, fear-mongering and other forms of intimidation, false scholarship that attempts to alter the truth of historical record will not make a wrong right or exonerate the responsibility of genocide. The modern Turkish government must recognize and accept its responsibility for the past crimes against the Armenian people who were brutally massacred. The few survivors were forced to leave their ancient homeland of Western Armenia.

The Turkish government should learn the wisdom from the ancient wisdom, “The ship of a liar does not sail or literally, if you descend a well with the rope of a liar, you will remain in the well.” (yalancinin ipi ile kuyuya inen, kuyu dibinde kalir)

Object Oriented Process for Software (Development) - OOPS

It is said in the Bible that man is made in the image of God. This statement implies that by carefully studying ourselves we can understand many things about God. We can use such a process to begin to understand the mystery and complexity of the universe. A question that has always fascinated man is “How did this universe come about? There are many speculative theories about the origin of the universe. One that is invoked today is called the Big Bang Theory. Rather than imagine something that we can never prove definitively, it is better to begin with our own experience and rational sense to understand the mystery of creation. One glaring anomaly of modern scientific theories that attempt to explain the origin of the universe is that they claim there is no intelligent person guiding it.

Man is developing new inventions every day. One example of this is the creation or development of a computer program. A popular methodology used by major software corporations for computer program creation is Object Oriented Process for Software
(Development) also known as OOPS. A careful analysis of this methodology will reveal that creation is not something that takes place by accident or without superior intelligent guidance. No one who knows about OOPS would dare say that the creation of a computer program happens randomly without the guidance of an intelligent person. With this said, we can analyze all the complicated steps required to create a computer program.

The purpose of OOPS is to employ a rational methodology that can avoid or quickly correct mistakes of logic or design in the process of program development. OOPS requires that each stage of development must be rigorously verified to be free of mistakes of logic or design before going to the next stage.

The creation of a computer program begins first by defining a problem. When there is a problem, there is a desire to find a solution. A program manager will consult experts in different areas of disciplines that are related to the problem. The expert consultants will brainstorm possible solutions and present their conclusions to a core group of programming experts under the guidance of a project manager. The project manager is responsible to create a functional specification for the features of the product and each proposed solution is evaluated based on the following factors:
-the feasibility of solving problems based on computer science
-resource constraints such as manpower, money, time
-review of competitors
-study existing market competition, determine how to differentiate the new product,if necessary hire an outside company to do market research to determine what specifications of a new product will appeal to public demand
-make sure the new product aligns with the overall strategy of the company.
Based on the above factors, a decision is made to produce a new product around which all the team of experts rally to make it operational.

1- The first step after the determination is to define the functional specification for all features of the solution. The team comes up with a “high level” design of the solution. The program manager or team leader creates a plan how each particular feature of the solution will work.

In other words, the OOPS process begins with intelligent people who define a problem and use their rational powers to find a solution. Right from the beginning of the creation or development, there is guided intelligence without any trace of accident, hazard or random combinations. Each step is guided by intelligent decision making of a team of experts.

In a typical software program there may be from 3000 or more functions or features. Let us examine just one feature of the Internet Explorer (MS). In this program there is the Tool option. When you mouse over it there is a drop down window that shows a menu option called pop up blocker. If you mouse over or click on it, you will see two options from which to choose. The first option is the turn on or off the pop up blocker. If you turn it on, you can proceed with the second option. This feature permits you to choose a particular website whose pop up you can accept whereas all others are blocked. There are many features like the pop up one in the Internet Explorer (MS).

Once the functional specifications are created, there will be a review meeting where all the stake holders of the product will examine the function’s specifications. The meeting will be attended by the program manager, software architects, the development manager, the development lead, the test manager and senior developers.

The program manager’s responsibility is to convince all the stake holders that this feature or functionality should be implemented as part of the final product. This is an example of a very minor feature of a program.

2- In the next step, the development manager or lead will work with a product architect to create an architecture and design document. These are technical documents. The architect already has an overall product design which is the “big picture.” He knows the product’s “eco-system,” or how everything works together. He understands how the feature will impact the entire system. The architect updates the architecture document or creates one. Once this is completed, the software development or lead will create the design of that particular feature.

Now the architecture document (or specification) and the design document are both ready for review.

3- A meeting of the technical team will be called to make a review of the design and architecture. It will go on until everyone is convinced. If necessary #1 and #2 can be repeated again for other features that integrated with the one in question. After everything is done and everyone is satisfied intellectually that the features are ready for the next step, the implementation phase begins.

4- In the implementation phase or stage, the developers take the design document and start coding using computer language, mostly object oriented language. Once the coding is completed , there is a code review of the implementation which is a very rigorous and tedious process. Even though this system is checks and balances is so thorough, any software consultant will admit that there has never been a new system that has been launched without “bugs.” In fact, there has never been a “bug free” software. Every man-made program is only near perfect. Software companies continually upgrade their programs to eliminate defects. But, the upgrades often create new defects and unforeseen issues.

After the code review is completed, the test phase begins. The test or quality control engineers will perform many different types of testing such as functional, integration, security, performance, stability and reliability. These are called high level categories. If the tests certify that the feature is ready for release, then it goes to the next phase. What we have detailed is the process that is followed for only one feature. There can be a minimum of 3000 features in a typical program.
5- Once all the features are completed, they are “bundled” into the “release build” which means the features are grouped together to form a product is labeled, branded with a catchy name, and obfuscated (or purposely confusing the arrangement of the binary files so that software pirates cannot reverse engineer the program). Then the product is made into a DVD (or golden CD) and given to the manufacturers who put it into their hardware and test it to make sure it is compatible. When this step is completed, the advertisement, business deals, marketing and launch date are organized to go public with the product.

After every launch of a new product, there is a post-mortem evaluation of what went well and what did not go well. This evaluation examines the resource, service and process gaps.

In conclusion, OOPS is a software development process. It provides a structured approach to solving a problem by creating a software program. It has many checks and balances in place to insure that the program functions exactly the way the end user would like it to perform. At every step of the process, intelligent persons are required to advance it. Nothing is left to hazard or random combinations and permutations. In other words, the whole process from start to finish is intelligence driven by highly educated persons whose conscious intervention keeps the process moving coherently and according to a design plan.

Creation of a system that orders matter with function and design requires intelligence and guidance at every step. It is not a random process that happens haphazardly without the intervention and guidance of intelligent persons. Anyone who has engaged in a creation and development project knows irrefutably that chance, random permutations and
combinations would never result in a finished product that satisfies the end user and functions in a predictable way.

However, when educated persons speak about the creation of the universe, they develop a selective amnesia and make claims that the universe developed without the intervention of a supreme intelligent being. Their own experience in life contradicts such a conclusion.

Man is made in the image of God. He is a secondary creator. God creates the primary elements and man can rearrange them to create functional objects. Both types of creation, primary and secondary, require an intelligent being to produce a functionally designed object that works predictably.

paghduh guh jubdhee mahrtotz vuhrah yehp gheen yehv ahmouseen chen guhrveel, ahnkhehlknehruh bahsdohnyah chounehn, ahghuh chor, ahrduh gahnanch, gheen, yehrehkhah yehv dahreekohdnehr ahbahhohv yehv ouragh gahbreen

hahkamahnknehr gahn vohr huhreshdak huhresh guh tahrtzuhneh

juhnshuvadz mahrtotz dahrabahnk dahss–neh, ohrmuh bahdeejuh kehzee guh hahss-neh

sehruh guh lahtzuhneh (ahrtzounk), tzahvuh guh khosatzuhneh

There are lessons to be learned when we carefully observe world events. The truth stares us in the face at all times. The symptom of everyday life is to ignore it and continue our mundane affairs, which revolve around trying to exploit the resources of nature for personal sense gratification.
The material world is an expansion of God’s infinite energy. It cannot be owned or controlled by finite men with their dreams of mastering it for their profit and pleasure.
Man comes into this world and is conditioned by having a material body that is subject to the forces of nature. He tries to dominate nature, but is instead subjected to the laws of nature and the sufferings of repeated birth and death. Throughout his life, he is constantly reminded of nature’s infinite power and uncontrollable forces that upset all of his plans to dominate and enjoy. Such overpowering events are constant reminders that man is not sovereign in this world. There are forces that are controlled by higher powers that are superior to man for whom we have no recourse but to submit. We experience these forces in our own body and in nature.
I will give a few examples of the overpowering forces of nature that man is forced to submit to and tolerate. The only recourse is to try and reconstruct after the damage is done. This, of course, is completely contrary to man’s will and desire, but he has no choice.
1. Tsunami in Southeast Asia – December 26, 2004 – nearly 230,000 deaths
2. Hurricane Katrina – 2005 – 1836 deaths and 81 billion dollars in damage in Louisiana, USA
3. Earthquake in Haiti – 2010 – 230,000 dead
4. Iceland Volcano eruption – 2010 – disrupted air travel across the Atlantic for weeks
5. Gulf Coast Oil leak – 2010 – this the most devastating environmental disaster in USA history and it is still not ended
Man can simply observe such overpowering disasters. He attempts temporary relief work, starts varieties of public and governmental institutions and policies to address the terrible suffering caused by nature’s devastating power. But, government has no solution how to pacify the insurmountable nature. This question is discussed in the Bhagavad-gita because it is of up most importance for man’s survival.
Without a correct and comprehensive understanding of the purpose of life in this world, man cannot plan how to have a successful life. With wrong answers, man is forced to suffer helplessly by violating the laws of nature due to ignorance. There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gita that helps to shed light on this question,
“Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.” (Bg 13, 21)
According to Vedic philosophy, living entities and material nature are both eternal or without beginning and endless. The living entities are eternal souls with individuality and limited free will. Their free will is limited to either accepting or rejecting God’s instructions. Depending on which way they decide, there are consequences. By accepting God’s instructions as the guiding principles of life, one gradually becomes free of the influence of the three modes of material nature (goodness, passion and ignorance) that condition us to be attached to the temporary body and its temporary pleasures and pains. By rejecting God’s instructions, one becomes entangled by the reactions to activities that breach natural laws. Possible consequences of such errant behavior are natural cataclysms, body ailments, trouble caused by other living beings and repeated birth and death in an endless cycle because the soul is eternal. The soul can be eternally liberated or eternally chained to a cycle of repeated birth and death.
God’s instruction as revealed by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita and other bona fide scriptures like the Bible, Koran, etc., give an explicit detail of forbidden activities that will result in adverse reactions and prescribed duties that free one from the cycle of suffering. The Bible, Koran and Torah have the Ten Commandments and other codes to regulate human behavior. The Vedas have four regulative principles to avoid and four to do:
To avoid
1- No meat eating including red meat, chicken and fish
2- No illicit sex outside of marriage
3- No gambling or philosophical speculation
4- No intoxication
To do
1- Read and discuss Holy Scriptures like Bhagavad-gita, Bible, Koran, etc.
2- Eat only sanctified vegetarian foods that have been offered first to God
3- Chant and meditate on God’s names (holy mantras)
4- Volunteer for service in a temple or house of God in the association of holy people
Further, the Vedas recommend nine favorable activities to develop spiritual consciousness, daily hearing, chanting and remembering the glories of God, serving, praying, worshiping, becoming the servant, making friendship with and surrendering completely to God. Any one, several or all of these principles will cause one to develop spiritual consciousness, which means one acts with the knowledge that God is a supreme controller and proprietor of nature. God has a plan how the living entities can live in this world happily and at last attain liberation from the suffering of birth, old age, disease and death.
The plan of God for suffering mankind entails first recognizing that God is the supreme controller and owner of nature and everything in it. Once man recognizes this fact, he can learn to use everything in nature to serve the purpose of God rather than trying to usurp God’s creation for his selfish purposes. This change of world view is the beginning of real human life. If we use things to serve God’s pleasure, nature and time, which are both controlled by God, support and cooperate with man to help him reach the goal of life.
The root cause of sin is deliberate disobedience of the laws of nature through disregarding the proprietorship of the Lord. Disobeying the laws of nature or God’s instructions, brings ruin to a human being and society. Endowed with free will, man needs to be educated how to properly exercise it. Making decisions based on knowledge and certitude that we are subordinate to God’s will and that we cannot achieve anything without the approval of God, helps us to determine right action from wrong. Ignorance of this fact leads us to make fundamental mistakes and violate natural laws that bring about misfortune and suffering.
The Bible states a law of God, “Thou shalt not kill.” This sounds simple and unequivocal. Yet, it is the subject of speculation. It is generally understood to mean one should not murder another human being. Yet, the word kill refers to any kind of killing, not only murder. Misinterpreting this direct law of God causes continual suffering because following a wrong conclusion about killing could destroy any hopes one has of living peacefully and achieving genuine love of God. One cannot disobey God and receive His favor and protection throughout life. To avoid speculation, one needs to understand this
law of nature from an authority in Vedic knowledge. The Manu Samhita, considered the law book of the Vedas state in chapter 5 that there are very restricted conditions under which one may eat meat, but never the meat of cows. Those conditions are limited to animals that are permitted for sacrifice by priests. One is never permitted to just kill or purchase meat for consumption outside of ritually slaughtered animals. If you read the following texts, you see that meat eating is severely restricted and, in fact, not encouraged.
27. One may eat meat when it has been sprinkled with water, while Mantras were recited, when Brahmanas desire (one’s doing it), when one is engaged (in the performance of a rite) according to the law, and when one’s life is in danger.
31. The consumption of meat (is befitting) for sacrifices,’ that is declared to be a rule made by the gods; but to persist (in using it) on other (occasions) is said to be a proceeding worthy of Rakshasas.
37. If he has a strong desire (for meat) he may make an animal of clarified butter or one of flour, (and eat that); but let him never seek to destroy an animal without a (lawful) reason.
38. As many hairs as the slain beast has, so often indeed will he who killed it without a (lawful) reason suffer a violent death in future births.
39. Svayambhu (the Self-existent) himself created animals for the sake of sacrifices; sacrifices (have been instituted) for the good of this whole (world); hence the slaughtering (of beasts) for sacrifices is not slaughtering (in the ordinary sense of the word).
45. He who desires to please himself by injuring peaceful beings will never finds happiness, neither living nor dead.
46. He, who does not seek to cause the sufferings of bonds and death to living creatures, but desires the good of all (beings), obtains endless bliss.
47. He who does not injure any (creature), attains without an effort what he thinks of, what he undertakes, and what he fixes his mind on.
48. Meat can never be obtained without injury to living creatures, and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to (the attainment of) heavenly bliss; let him therefore shun (the use of) meat.
49. Having well considered the (disgusting) origin of flesh and the (cruelty of) fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let him entirely abstain from eating flesh.
50. He who, disregarding the rule (given above), does not eat meat like a Pisaka, becomes dear to men, and will not be tormented by diseases.
51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the slayers (of the animal).
52. There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though not worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the bulk of) his own flesh by the flesh of other (beings). (Manu Samhita, Chapter 5)
The laws of Manu were spoken and preserved in oral tradition long before the appearance of Lord Krishna, which was over 5000 years ago. After the disappearance of Lord Krishna, the age of Kali (hypocrisy and quarrel) began 5000 years ago. Because people in this age have poor memories, Manu’s laws were written. The first recorded texts of the laws of Manu date about 500 B.C. However, with the advent of the age of Kali, more restrictions came into effect because of the lack of qualification of the brahman class. “Five things are forbidden in the age of Kali – horse-sacrifice, cow-sacrifice, acceptance of sannyasa, offering flesh to the forefathers and begetting a child in the womb of the wife of one’s elder brother.” (Brahma-vaivarta Purana, Krsna-jnama Khanda 185.180). Almost all the rituals in which meat was required to be offered were eliminated. The only possibility for ritual meat in this age of Kali is the following: license is given to meat eaters to sacrifice a black goat once a month on the new moon night. It is strictly forbidden to purchase a commercially slain animal for consumption. The person who wants to eat meat must kill the goat on a dark (or new) moon night under the supervision of a priest who instructs him to repeat the following mantra before cutting the throat of the goat, mamsa khadatiti mamsah. The Sanskrit mamsah means, mam – me, and sa – he. “I am killing this animal; I am eating him. In my next life, he will kill and eat me.” Before the animal is sacrificed, this mantra is recited into the ear of the animal. “You are giving your life, so in your next life you will get the opportunity of becoming a human being. And I, who am now killing you, will become an animal, and you will kill me.”
The purpose of the ritual and the repetition of the mantra is to contain unrestricted meat eating by forcing the meat eater to kill the animal himself and witness the horror of the act as well as to repeat the mantra that reveals the consequences of such an act. Such regulation is meant to discourage the meat eater by making him understand that he will be held accountable for such unnecessary killing. Unrestricted meat eating is strictly forbidden in this age.
It is not only the person who eats the meat that becomes implicated by eating the dead animal, but also those who assist in the process.
51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the slayers (of the animal).
52. There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though not worshiping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the bulk of) his own flesh by the flesh of other (beings).
From the Vedic point of view, people who eat meat or participate in providing it, especially cow, are condemned to suffer for their brutal acts. This point was emphasized over five humdred years ago by Lord Caitanya, the incarnation of Lord Krishna in this age of Kali, to Chand Kazi, a Muslim scholar of the Koran. He explained a statement in the Bhagavad-gita ( 18. 44),
“The duty of vaisyas (businessmen and agriculturalists) is to produce agricultural products, trade and give protection to cows.” Thus, in Vedic society, it is imperative to protect cows, not eat them. It is forbidden to kill a cow or a bull in this age. Lord Caitanya told Chand Kazi in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrita (Adi-lila, Chapter 17, verse 166), “ Cow killers are condemned to rot in hellish life for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of the cow.”

Therefore, modern spiritual teachers, whether in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism are misleading their faithful by engaging them in meat eating which will result in massive suffering in this life and the next. The ritual killing in Islam and Judaism to obtain hallal (or hillal) meat is also misleading because it includes cows. Judaism continued the pre-Kali yuga dietary rules of the Vedas without reference to restrictions in this age to cow sacrifice as well as ignoring the Vedic purpose of gradually eliminating all animal sacrifice through severely restricted animal sacrifice. The Old Testament indicates very severe restriction on animal flesh consumption. In Genesis 9, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it and of man; of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.” In these verses, the God of the Bible restricts man from eating animal flesh with blood still in it. This is impossible. Therefore, meat is strictly forbidden unless there is no blood in it. The God of the Bible says He will require a reckoning for the blood of the every animal man eats.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad writes about Lord Jesus Christ in his commentary on the Srimad Bhagavatam (7.15.10), “Animal sacrifice in the name of religion is current practically all over the world in every established religion. It is said that Lord Jesus Christ, when twelve years old, was shocked to see the Jews sacrificing birds and animals in the synagogues and that he therefore rejected the Jewish system of religion and started the religious system of Christianity, adhering to the Old Testament commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” At the present day, however, not only are animals killed in the name of sacrifice, but the killing of animals has increased enormously because of the increasing number of slaughterhouses. Slaughtering animals in the name of religion or for food is most abominable and is condemned herein. Unless one is merciless, one cannot sacrifice animals as a religious act or for food.”
In the case where there is a famine and no other food available, the Vedas permit eating animal flesh for survival, but not otherwise.
The tragedy of modern life is that the common people are being misled into sinful acts in the name of religion by religious leaders and politicians who are ignorant or purposely ignore the laws of nature as given by God in the different scriptures. When the deep meaning of “Thou shalt not kill” is realized, one refrains from unnecessary killing. Saint Paul wrote, “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:21-23 NIV)
We should have faith that God loves all His creatures. Therefore, we should not kill if we can avoid it. The principle of “ahimsa - nonviolence” is not to cause harm to others verbally, physically or by withholding information about God’s instructions for man. Unnecessary killing will bring disaster upon mankind as we are seeing today. Therefore the four regulative principles of Vedic life, no meat, no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling are meant to help us avoid breaking the laws of nature and thus suffering. By living according to the correct understanding of God’s instructions, we can avoid unnecessary suffering and bring about a pacification of nature by which man can live peacefully. Without pleasing God, we become a victim of our own misdeeds by breaking the laws of nature for which there will be a reckoning.

ahrahntz ahkaghaghee ahl, guh loussahnah
(aklohr)

ahghcheek ouhnehtzogh mohruh tzehrkuh dzoghuh (tuhrahmahbahnag) guhlah

ahstvahdz ahmehn shnorhk mee mahtoun chee dahr

koghuh yehv vahjahraganuh yehrgoussuh gaghohtehn, “Ahstvahdz bah-habahn.”

There was once a shopkeeper. One night, as he closed his shop, he said a prayer, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I pray may the devil be cursed and may My Lord protect my shop from any and all thieves. Amen.” At the same time with the fall of night, a thief was leaving his house. He prayed, “My dear God, I am Your most wretched slave. I have no recourse but to steal for a living to feed my poor family. Let me steal from the greedy shopkeeper. Protect me , Oh Lord, that I may return tonight with enough food to feed my wife and children.”

The question to ask is, “Whose prayer will God satisfy?” It is not an easy thing to be God. Imagine how many prayers He must hear everyday that beg for outcomes that are beneficial for one and detrimental to another.

When materialistically inclined persons pray to God, they ask Him to satisfy their desires. They ask God for desirable things or goals they want to achieve even if it causes loss to another person. Such people want God to become their order supplier. The truth is that God will satisfy our desires to the extent that we deserve, but not as much as we may desire. Pious activities rendered in previous lives and this life result in positive reactions that we are destined to receive. The opposite is also true. Therefore, whatever good or bad we encounter in this life is a result of our previous activities. We are subject to such a destiny as long as we remain mired in material desires, motives and attachments.

Only God knows what deeds a person did in previous lives and this life. His supreme accounting and system of justice determines the outcome. In the example of the shopkeeper and the thief, it could be that the shopkeeper stole from the thief in a previous life. In the present life, the shopkeeper’s destiny will be that the thief will rob his store. Or, it may be that the shopkeeper was a genuinely pious man in previous lives and this life and the thief a bad man. Therefore, God may protect the shopkeeper from theft. The intricacies of karma or the law of action and reaction are very complicated to understand because we do not know the karmic history of each person. Only God knows.

There is another story from the Nasraddin Hodja tradition that presents a different point of view. The Hodja had two daughters. One was married to a farmer, and the other to a bricklayer. One day he visited the one who had married the farmer. She said to her father, “My husband has finished planting wheat. If it rains in the next few days, we will have a bumper crop, and my husband has promised to buy me a new dress. I am praying for rain.”

The following day the Hodja visited his other daughter who was married to the bricklayer. She said to her father that her husband had just finished making a large number of bricks. “He laid them on the ground to dry. If it doesn’t rain in the next few weeks, he will make a lot of money by selling them. And he has promised to buy me a new dress. I am praying that it doesn’t rain.”

Later, the Hodja thought to himself, “The sower prays for rain, the bricklayer for dry weather, and God will give to each his wish.”

Will God give to each his wish? The Middle Eastern story of the Hodja gives the impression that God is an order supplier. But there is a piece of the puzzle missing. Every human being has the ability to desire by his free will. One can desire anything they want. The quality of the desires depends on one’s perception of reality which can range from ignorance to enlightenment. In ignorance, one desires material benefits that are by nature temporary and eventually taken away from us by nature and the passage of time. With enlightenment, we learn to develop spiritual desires
that are free of selfish interests and aimed at the unique purpose of pleasing God. The results of such desires are permanent and can never be lost.

As stated above,”The truth is that God will satisfy our desires to the extent that we deserve, but not as much as we may desire.” However, there are many people today who give seminars in which they instruct people who want to believe that the universe can be ordered to supply the desires of ordinary men. One simply needs to pay money to learn the technique of how to think positively and order the universe to supply. The following is an introduction to a course that promises such rewards, “How To Use Universal Laws To Your Advantage - It is vitally important to understand how universal laws work. Only by complying with these laws will you effortlessly achieve health, happiness, love and abundance.” The attempt to adjust to or manipulate laws for self benefit without paying attention to the law maker and His intention behind the laws is atheism. Laws are made to stop certain types of behavior which are deemed detrimental and encourage other types of behavior which are desirable. In the particular case of universal laws, detrimental is considered anything that takes one’s attention away from God such as selfish sense gratification. New Age teachers purport that man can learn to conform to universal laws so that he can obtain desirable outcomes of desires. This is a more sophisticated method to obtain temporary enjoyment such as sustained sense pleasures, longevity, fame, wealth, power, beauty, etc. But, all these material successes will end as everything material does.

When the teacher doesn’t explain the difference between material and spiritual desires, he misleads the student to think that God or the universe is his order supplier. Material desires are only satisfied to the extent that we deserve by the law of karma. Spiritual desires are satisfied to the extent that they are genuinely free of self-interest and solely for the purpose of pleasing God. Such pure desires are not subject to the laws of karma (action and reaction). This is vividly explained in the Bhagavad-gita,

“One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results (temporary material pleasures).”

“Bewildered by the modes of material nature, the ignorant fully engage themselves in material activities and become attached. But the wise should not unsettle them, although these duties are inferior due to the performers’ lack of knowledge.”

“Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.”

“Those persons who execute their duties according to My injunctions and who follow this teaching faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive (materially self-interested) actions.”

“But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and do not follow them are to be considered bereft of all knowledge, befooled, and ruined in their endeavors for perfection.”

“Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes (goodness, passion and ignorance). What can repression accomplish?”

“There are principles to regulate attachment and aversion pertaining to the senses and their objects. One should not come under the control of such attachment and aversion, because they are stumbling blocks on the path of self-realization.” (Bg 3. 28-34)

The dualities of attachment and aversion (love/hate), happiness and distress, desire and lamentation, etc. are the result of actions inspired by selfish acts aimed at dominating and controlling persons and material objects for personal gratification. One can understand with proper guidance that nothing in this world belongs to any individual person, but that everything belongs to God, the Supreme Lord. Acting in such consciousness of God, one does not falsely claim proprietorship for oneself, family, ethnic group, nation, or humanity, etc. With such elevated consciousness one realizes that it is impossible to be happy independent of the cooperation of God because the eternal constitutional position of the living entity is to become subordinate to the desires of of the Lord.

There was once a mendicant saint who entered the capital city of a king who was very proud of his material opulence. The king was very meticulous about the his possessions especially his royal palace. One day he noticed that some poor people had set up a tent in the shade of his palace’s outer walls. He became upset that such rag tag people were daring to live under the shade of his palace walls. The king issued a royal order that anyone who dared infringe even on the shade of his palace walls would be put to death.

When the saintly mendicant heard this stern decree, he decided to camp out under the shade of the king’s palace walls. News of the saint’s defiant act was reported to the king. He became outraged. Accompanied by many of his royal guards, he walked outside his palace to confront the saint. He saw the holy man reclining under the shade of the palace walls in a very relaxed mood. When the angry king approached, the saint smiled and and welcomed him with the words, “Hail to the mighty king of kings, may God protect and bless you with long life.” The king was not impressed. He began to shout, “Why do you defy my royal order? How dare you recline under the shade of my palace walls. I will have your head cut off, you insolent beggar!”

The saint calmly looked at the king without even the slightest trace of fear. He said, ” My dear king, how can you pretend that these palace walls belong to you?”

“Of course, they belong to me. Everything belongs to me in my kingdom,” said the king.

“Did it belong to you before you were born?” asked the saint.

“It belong to my father.”

“And before that, who did it belong to?”

“My father defeated Shah Abbas whose dynasty ended when he was killed.”

“And when will your dynasty end?”

“Stop talking nonsense you fool.”

“Oh king, the truth is that you are temporarily staying in this palace like a renter. One day another person will replace you and then another and another. Your dynasty will also end like all the others before you. Your claim to proprietorship is an illusion,” said the saint.

The king remained silent. The saint looked deeply into his eyes and a glow of compassion passed from the saint to the king. The king reflected a moment, then said, “Get out of here before I have you killed.” The saint smiled and walked slowly away.

The saints words were poignantly true. We come to this world for a short time and pretend that we
own and control material possessions. For example, there is an interesting story about the Armenian Zeytoun Bible that is the subject of litigation.

“Armenian Church Sues Getty Over ‘Magical’ Bible

Originally posted Jun 2nd 2010 9:12 AM PDT by TMZ Staff

The Western branch of “the oldest organized Christian Church in the world” is suing the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A., demanding the return of 7 pages from a “magical” 750-year-old bible that was allegedly stolen during the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1918.

In documents filed yesterday in L.A. County Superior Court, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America claims The Getty “acted in complete disregard” for the Church’s rights in 1994 when it bought “stolen” pages of the Zeyt’un Gospels Bible.

The Church claims the Zeyt’un Bible was created for Constantine I by “the master illuminator T’oros Roslin” in 1256, and is one of Armenia’s most valued national treasures. The Church believes the book “wielded supernatural powers.”

When the Turks invaded Armenia in 1915, the suit claims, descendants of a royal Armenian family fled with the Bible, with whom it was thought to be safe. Yet, when the Bible was returned to Armenia following WWII, 7 key pages were missing … pages that turned up at The Getty.

The Church claims it learned the Getty Museum had the pages in 2007, but the Getty has refused to return it. Now, the Church is asking the court to order the pages returned, and for damages of $35 million.”

Proprietorship in the material world is temporary and thus illusory. We may believe we own something, but such thoughts are far from the truth. We come in this world empty-handed and we leave empty-handed. The one thing that can sustain us during our short life and after death is faith in God and His instructions. Lord Krishna says, “For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next…One who acts in devotional service, renouncing the fruits of his actions, and whose doubts have been destroyed by transcendental knowledge, is situated factually in the self. Thus he is not bound by the reactions of work…(Bg 4. 40-41)

Reactive work or actions that are performed for self-interest without the desire to please God will always result in entangling reactions by the laws of karma or action and reaction. Such actions bind us to remain in the cycle of birth and death. Take for example the the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which is an interminable dispute about ownership of land. Two people claim ownership of the same piece of land. Can they resolve this dispute peacefully? If they both understand that only God is the ultimate proprietor, then they may be able to resolve the dispute. If they both claim proprietorship, the problem will never be resolved. They are in an impasse until one or the other prevails militarily.
Previously the Ottoman Turks decided to eliminate the entire Armenian population in Anatolia. They succeeded to massacre more than three quarters of the Armenian population. Although there are few Armenian families left in Anatolia and very few remains of the Armenian civilization that existed there for 4000 years, still the Armenian people continue to exist with their culture, religion and sovereign country. Massacre or genocide has never been an effective means to erase the existence of a people. The Armenian Question is still a nemesis for the Turkish government one hundred years after the attempted extermination of the Armenians by the Turks. Rather than accept responsibility for the wholesale butchery of the Armenians, the modern Turkish government refuses to acknowledge
the systematic, Ottoman government planned and executed genocide.

By nature, people like to carry out the order of a competent and intelligent person. If the mind of an individual is out of control, one becomes the servant of lust, anger, greed, and illusion and serves their whims. If however, one can control the mind and senses, then it is possible to understand that God’s instructions are the best guide for living a productive and peaceful life.

The mind is the focus of the yoga practice. Lord Krishna says, “As the strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence.” (Bg 2.67) Later Arjuna tells Krishna, “The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krishna, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind.”
The mind should be directed by the superior intelligence. However, the mind can be diverted to the senses that become engaged in sense gratification and it is overwhelmed by the temporary sensations of happiness and distress. A human being has five highly developed senses and anyone one of which can detract the mind from the form-direction of the superior intelligence. In material existence one is subjected to the influence of the mind and senses. The pure soul becomes entangled in the material world because the mind is influenced by the false ego. Ego means “I am.”
It is that subtle aspect of every individual that attempts to identify itself or affirms a personal identity. When one identifies the “I am” with matter and affirms “I am this body, this family, this ethnic group, this nation, this car, this house, this bank account, this woman’s husband, this child’s father, this music, this type of behavior, this clothing style,this etc.” then the individual wrongly identifies with temporary material things and becomes wrongly directed toward dominating and enjoying such things. The real ego is identifying oneself as the eternal servant of God as Lord Jesus did. By dedicating Himself to serving the will of His Father. Jesus demonstrated the correct identification of self or real ego. He engaged solely in serving His heavenly Father and was liberated or resurrected from the dead and rose to heaven to the right side of His Father for eternity.

The mind should be trained so that it will not be attracted by the glitter of material nature. The senses should be engaged in positive acts of devotion and avoid as much as possible or minimize sensual actives that excite the senses and inflame the mind to excessively gratify oneself. Alcoholic drinks, drugs, pornography, gambling, meat, obsessive desire to get rich and own many gadgets, the attempt to accumulate power, prestige and fame, quest for domination and control over others are all different aspects of the false ego’s attempts lord it over nature and enjoy. A general rule of life is
“the more one is attracted by sense objects, the more one becomes entangled in material existence.”
The Vedic wisdom says “For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from sense objects is the cause of liberation.” (Amrta-bindu Upanisad)

A example of a controlled mind detached from sense objects that leads to liberation, is Lord Jesus, who fasted for forty days in the desert. The devil appeared before Him and tried to tempt Him to forsake His Father God and trust him. Lord Jesus was offered three temptations:

1. The devil said “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” (Mt 4:3 - 4) Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Materialistic persons often challenge devotees to show some miracle so that they can be convinced to become a believer. The devil similarly challenges Lord Jesus to show a miracle so that he may believe in Him. He asks Jesus to use His Godly powers for himself by turning stones to bread to satisfy His hunger. Jesus’ answer was profound. The life of a servant of God is one of inspiration and faith based on the word of God. If one follows the word of God simply for a living or for a material purpose, his faith can easily be shaken by material adversity. Lord Jesus demonstrates that the life of a true believer is guided not by a material motives, but by faith and adherence to the word of God.
There is a beautiful prayer in Bengali by the 17th century saint Narottam das Thakur that says, “My only wish is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from his (spiritual master’s) lotus mouth.” The spiritual master is the representative of God who repeats the His words or the revealed scriptures without any change.

Lord Jesus as the son of God is not tempted by the devil’s challenge because He takes shelter in the words of the Bible. Devil like people demand to see a miracle before they are willing to believe in God. The life of a believer however is based on faith in the word of God which becomes more and more steadfast by following the teachings through self control, daily practice and good associations of other believers. When one is guided daily by the words of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, one sees the hand of God guiding him at every step. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, God gives the knowledge by which one comes to Him to the sincere believer who endeavors honestly to follow His inst ructions. God’s mercy to His servant is to give the intelligence by which one makes the right decisions to stay on the path leading to Him and not be sidetracked by temporary temptations for sense gratification. There are three things that can tempt a person: profit, distinction and adoration.
These three desires are prominent in the life of a person who has strong desires for sexual enjoyment. To make oneself more attractive, one seeks profit or money, distinction and eventually worship. The wife of Mao Zedong, Jiang Qing, once said that better than sex is worship (receiving worship). Dictators such as Hitler, Mao, Stalin and others demanded worship which gave them an intense thrill.

Lord Jesus was not interested in sense gratification nor its concomitant factors such as profit, distinction and adoration. He was more interested in serving the will of God than serving His own bodily needs. Lord Krishna says, “…without sacrifice one can never live happily on this planet or in this life: what then of the next.(Bg 4.31) Jesus was immune to the devil’s temptations because of His unflinching determination to serve His Father.

2. Next, the devil demonstrates his ability to cite scripture (the Bible) and use it to tempt Jesus.
He quotes, “He will give his angels charge of you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” (Psalm 91) Satan took Jesus to the highest point of the temple and challenged him to hurl himself down. Jesus refused to put God to the test. (Mt 4:5 - 7) He also quoted a Bible verse, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” ( Deuteronomy 6:16) The devil like many people today wants God to reveal Himself without having the humility and surrender to the will of God so that such a revelation can happen. The process to create a favorable exchange between the student and the pure teacher is explained by Lord Krishna, “Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service to him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.” The student must have preliminary qualities such as humility or submissiveness to show he is free of false prestige, then he can ask important questions and render service to the teacher. Such qualities as submissiveness, important questions and service encourage the teacher to reveal confidential knowledge to the student. Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual teacher is the secret of advancement in spiritual life. Unless there is submission and service, inquiries from the learned teacher will not be effective. One must be able to pass the test of the spiritual master, and when he sees the genuine desire of the disciple, he automatically blesses him with genuine spiritual understanding.

The challenging attitude of the devil disqualified him to receive spiritual knowledge from Jesus. Both the teacher and the student must be qualified by following the spiritual path which requires self-control, discipline, self-sacrifice and a soft heart of compassion, freedom from fanaticism and unreasoned opinions not based on scripture. The basic discipline to follow is avoiding the four activities of sinful life: illicit sex, gambling and philosophical speculation, meat eating, intoxication. One must replace these sinful activities with spiritual endeavors: regularly reciting the holy scriptures and discussing them, eating only sanctified vegetarian foods offered first to God, reciting and glorifying the names of God and engaging in acts of devotion under the guidance of a genuine spiritual teacher. A teacher or disciple who smokes, drinks, eats meat and philanders cannot understand, teach or comprehend higher order spiritual truths. The devil failed the test.

3. The devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” The false ego has two aspects: one is the desire to dominate and control nature and men, and two is to enjoy what one controls and in the process become strongly attached to the temporary things or people one enjoys.Thus, an eternal individual soul becomes hopelessly entangled with the temporary material objects and mortal persons that he pretends to dominate.

The devil tries to tempt Jesus with dominion and control of all the kingdoms of the world. Such a desire is the root cause of man’s false ego, which is an attempt to own and control part or all of God’s creation. If one has a wrong concept of proprietorship thinking “something belongs to me” when in reality everything belongs to God, such a person will endeavor to “steal” God’s property. Everything in creation is meant to be used for the pleasure of God. When we use things for our own selfish pleasures, we commit sinful activities and become prisoners of our own lust and greed and the laws of material nature entangle us in the cycle of birth and death.

When the devil asks Jesus to serve him instead of God, he offers the false promise of dominion over God’s creation. Such a desire is “criminal” and thus punishable if one acts on it. Sinful life begins by forgetting God’s dominion over everything and attempting to own, control and enjoy separate from Him. Our life of suffering begins when we believe such a false premise and use it as the guiding principle of our life.

The correct premise about the purpose of life is the following. Like Adam and Eve, we wrongly used our limited free will and chose to disobey God’s instructions. Our free will is limited to accepting or rejecting God’s instructions. By accepting to follow God’s instructions, we are protected by Him and can live eternally in His transcendental abode without anxiety and fully immersed in the loving acts of reciprocal exchanges with God and His eternal servants. By rejecting, we come to the material world of birth and death where we are given an opportunity to pretend we are a “little god” who tries to establish dominion and control over some small part of the temporary material creation and attempt to enjoy it separately from God. But the truth is that the material world is actually a prison where the inmates are given a chance to correct their false mentality of selfish proprietorship and illicit enjoyment through self-realization. The beginning of self-realization is understanding that one’s real identity is not the temporary changing body, but the eternal soul within the body that manifests as consciousness. When the consciousness is contaminated with false concepts, the individual tries to compete with God for dominion in the material world. When the consciousness is purified, the individual becomes the servant of God and employs everything material in the service of God for His pleasure. The eternal individual soul within the body is the servant of the eternal individual God who accompanies him as the witness and overseer of everything he does.

Jesus demonstrates that the false of promises of the devil can be rejected when we are trained properly in understanding our real position in this world. We have come here because we turned against God by disregarding His instructions. This errant mentality can be corrected at any time and we can adjust our thoughts and activity to use everything in creation in the service of God without entertaining any false concepts of ourselves as anything but the eternal servant of God. Just as a cashier in a bank receives the cash box in the morning. He proceeds to accept deposits and pay out
disbursements all day. At no time does the honest cashier think that the bank’s cash box belongs to him. AT the end of the day, the cashier fills out the credit and balance sheet and returns the cash box intact and with the correct balance. At the end of the month the cashier receives a salary for services rendered. If the cashier takes some money from the box for his own enjoyment, he becomes a thief and is prosecuted. If he works honestly never considering wrongly that the bank’s money belongs to him, he is never entangled in legal actions and can live peacefully and without anxiety. Trouble and anxiety is caused by attempting to take something that doesn’t belong to us.

The temptation of Jesus by the devil is very instructive because it demonstrates the ways and means to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death in the material world. Understanding and following the example of Jesus the son of God and other great saintly persons in Vedic history is the only way we can free ourselves of illusory concepts and rightly be situated in the service of God and eternal salvation.