Karanjia and His Blitz
“'You do not have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.' So read the sign
outside Russy Karanjia's office in Blitz. He passed away on February 1, 2008,
exactly 67 years after he founded one of India's most powerful publications...
'Free, Frank, and Fearless' roared our masthead'” writes P. Sainath, who worked
with Karanjia's Blitz as its deputy editor for over a decade.
A much-acclaimed and award-winning journalist, P. Sainath is currently the
Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu. But he honed his talents and toned his
writing during those years with Russy Karanjia.
Blitz was India's first weekly tabloid started in 1941 focussed on
investigative journalism. “We were not always fearless. We were sometimes too
free for our own good. And we were obnoxiously frank. But Blitz was always
readable, thanks to an editor with an unrivalled instinct for what would make
news to an incredibly diverse readership...,” P. Sainath adds.
So that is what Blitz was - ever engaging and spicy with racket-busting
reports, giant political scoops, courageous exposes and irreverent stings
embellished with quality visuals. In the 1980s, it was a major Indian tabloid
published from Mumbai with a circulation of 6,00,000.
It was in the mid-seventies that the suave and feisty, most respected and most
feared Karanjia carried a story on Baba denouncing and deriding His divinity.
But what he had written was all hearsay.
Someone told him, “Why don't you go and check it out for yourself?” He liked
the idea and like a true journalist made a visit to Puttaparthi.
The result was the article 'God is an Indian' in Blitz. Interestingly the date
of publication was a 9/11 – September 11, 1976.
What is more significant is the message that this piece brought out, and that
is where we see not just its seamless connection with the other important 9/11s
(9/11 – Part One and 9/11 - Part Two) but also the absolute relevance of those
words even now, when we seem to be groping in the dark, and more often than not
stumbling and fracturing ourselves in our quest for world peace.
The U-Turn and How it Happened
Mr. Karanjia was extremely fortunate to be granted an exclusive
two-and-half-hours no-holds barred interview with Baba. This self-professed
atheist and Marxist, as they say, 'came, saw and was conquered'. In the
introductory chapter of 'God Lives in India' (he later compiled his articles on
Baba in Blitz into a book) he writes:
“To Baba's devotees, the Avatar has come to provide a solution, and a cure,
to a world living in terror of a nuclear holocaust. The false dichotomies
created by Western thought like God and Man, Purusha and Deva, simply do not
exist in Indian scriptures which prescribe the assimilation of God in man and
man in God as the basis of religion.
Baba personifies this philosophy. As He told me, 'God is man and man is God.
All of us have something of God, the Divine spark, within us. All men are
Divine like Myself with the Spirit embodied in human flesh and bone. The only
difference is that they are unaware of their godhood.'
For the doubting or confused minority to which section I then belonged, Baba
has this message:
'Those who want to secure pearls from the sea have to dive deep to fetch
them. It does not help them to dabble among the shallow waves near the shore
and say that the sea has no pearls and all stories about them are false.
Likewise, if a person wants to secure the love and grace of the Avatar, he
must dive deep and get submerged in Sai Baba. Then only will he become one with
Me and carry Me in his innermost heart.”
Karanjia continues further and records:
“I have still not dived deep enough into this ocean of love and devotion to
secure the grace. My experience of Baba is limited to a brief encounter in
Bombay followed by a long dialogue at Puttaparthi. Nevertheless, the encounter
was a fantastic, almost shattering one.”
Describing this 'shattering experience', at one point he writes:
“Baba not only radiated powerful emanations of what I can describe as
spiritual love and grace, but went on to amaze me with the knowledge of the
most intimate developments affecting my life and work.
He appeared also to know beforehand the questions I planned to ask. As soon
as I began asking one, He would stop me with a gentle tap on the knee to begin
answering it. I never completed a question. Still I got all the answers.”
That's how life-altering the experience was for Mr. Karanjia and the questions
he asked spanned a variety of topics, right from 'why God takes human form' to
'what troubles man today', from 'why Baba creates rings and watches' to 'what
is the surest way to save the planet now', from 'why Baba does miracles' to
'what is the secret of this triple Sai incarnation', and so on.
The Problems Today and Their Way Out – Baba Answers
Here are just a couple of questions, those that directly pertain to the 9/11
discussion I have been dealing with till now in this 3-part article.
Karanjia: The existing situation driven by evil forces to destruction as You
have correctly analysed it, appears to suggest the inevitability of another
Mahabharata-type war. Does this mean that the salvation for which You are
working can be consummated only after a destructive war?
Baba: The evil must and shall be removed before such a catastrophe takes place.
There will be minor wars and skirmishes… of course these cannot be helped in
the existing state of affairs.
But today as I told you, the evil is so widespread that humanity itself would
be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust in the event of a world war. It is to
prevent such a catastrophe that this Avathar has come, that is, to raise human
consciousness above the existing syndrome of anger, hate, violence and war, and
save the world from disaster.
This can be achieved only by the re-establishment of the brotherhood of mankind
through the Vedas, Shastras and all religions with their evangel of dharma;
this will liberate the human race from the chains of karma.
I always say: Let the different faiths exist, let them flourish, let the glory
of God be sung in all the languages in a variety of tunes. That should be the
ideal. Respect the differences between the faiths and recognize them as valid
so far as they do not extinguish the flame of unity.
Karanjia: What is the solution to this escalating conflict between wealth and
power on one side, and poverty and weakness on the other?
Baba: The transformation of both into a single co-operative brotherhood on
terms of equality without competition or conflict. This can result only from
truth and love. The main issue is to fuse the two classes into one single
class. The problem, however, is one of bringing them together on a common base
or platform.
Wealthy people live isolated in a certain state or condition. The poor also are
similarly isolated in another state or condition. How do we bring them together?
I do so in many subtle ways by breaking the barriers of wealth and poverty and
creating a feeling of equality and oneness between the poor and the rich. In
this ashram you find them living and working together, even performing menial
labour on terms of complete equality. Here there are no distinctions
whatsoever, or any special facilities for the rich. They live, eat, work,
worship and sleep like the poor. All live like a community of workers to share
the common austerities of the ashram.
Despite our rigorous discipline, industrialists and businessmen want to come
here. Why? Because they secure peace of mind beyond physical comfort which no
wealth or power on earth can purchase or provide.
Thus we open to them a wonderful new world of spiritual treasures and they must
sacrifice material wants and comforts. My mission is to show them the way to
peace of mind which everybody, rich and poor alike, desires. In that process of
spiritual evolution, the seeker learns that this blissful state cannot be
purchased for money in a shop or gifted to one by anybody but oneself. It can
come only from the universal source of divinity, the in-dwelling God that
embraces poor and rich alike.
This concept creates a common fellowship, a brotherhood of give and take
between the wealthy and the poor. Those who have too much are obliged to give
up their unnecessary wants, while those who have too little get their needs
fulfilled.
After all, in spiritual terms, all mankind belongs to one and the same class,
caste or religion. The divine principles in each and all of them derive from
one and the same God. This fundamental oneness has to be made manifest to them
through direct contact with spiritual realities and the persuasive expanding
power of love, till they become part of the universal religion of work, worship
and wisdom.
My mission is the re-establishment of the spiritual law of one God, one
religion, one language embracing one humanity.
I preach only one religion of love for all, which alone can integrate the human
race into a brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God.
I know only one language of the heart beyond the mind or the intellect which
relates man to man and mankind to God, thereby creating mutual understanding,
co-operation and community life in peace and harmony.
On this basis I want to build one humanity without any religious, caste or
other barriers in an universal empire of love which would enable My devotees to
feel the whole world as their family.
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