3. Pak national freed from jail after 16 years, takes Bhagavad Gita home
A Pakistani man may really be involved in a full-blown emotional affair to stay away from his country in a prison in India. However, it is a matter of pride and satisfaction for Indians that a Pakistani national who was imprisoned for 16 years under Official Secrets Act & Foreigner’s Act, was released yesterday and eventually he left the country with a copy of Bhagavad Gita as confirmed by Ambrish Gaud, who works as a Superintendent of Varanasi Central Jail.
Ambrish Gaud told the media that in 2001, Jalaluddin came from Sindh province in Pakistan, and was jailed from the Cantonment area. He was caught near the Air Force office by the police with suspicious documents.
The cops had recovered maps of the Cantonment area including some other important places from Jalaluddin. A court had then sentenced Jalaluddin (Pakistani national) to 16 years of imprisonment.
Gaud explained, “He was imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act and Foreigner’s Act. He has been handed over to the local police. He has taken a copy of (Bhagavad) Gita with him.”
“When he was arrested, he had only graduated from high school. He completed his intermediate and did his MA from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). He also undertook an electrician course as well in the jail. He had been an umpire in the jail cricket leagues for the last three years,” he added.
A special team has taken the Pakistan national to Amritsar, where he will be handed over to the authorities at the Wagah-Attari border, after which he will return to his motherland.
2. Muslim schoolgirl from Madhya Pradesh learns Bhagavad Gita
Religion conveys the principles of ‘faith’ and sometimes, the faith may change based on the circumstances. We’ve seen quite a lot of people renouncing their religious teachings only to convert to some other religions, a change that has been happening since the olden days. Only you can change what you believe in and others shouldn’t inspire you to do so.
On the other hand, there are people who respect other religions without changing their religion. However, deep down inside, we all know that humanity is the best religion in the world. Case in point, a Muslim girl from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district set a perfect example by reading Bhagavad Gita. The class 8 student by the name of Mushariff Khan can recite shlokas from the Bhagavad Gita with energy.
She started learning Bhagavad Gita as part of memory retention training. She perfected the art of reciting shlokas and has made everyone proud. It is good to know that she learnt the best tenets of another religion. She has learnt by heart 500 out of the total 701 shlokas in the holy Hindu scripture, using the memory retention technique taught by her Abacus and Vedic Mathematics teacher Rohini Menon.
“Mushariff is one of my best students. I gave her three options to showcase her memory retention technique: memorising the entire dictionary, the entire Constitution of India or the Bhagavad Gita. To the surprise of us all, she opted for learning the Bhagavad Gita. She started learning when she was in Class VI and has so far memorised 500 Sanskrit sholkas,” Menon told this newspaper.
Menon further added that many other students also tried to by heart the shlokas but only Mushariff perfectly memorised 500 shlokas till date. Interestingly, she is interested to learn and understand the remaining ones.
“After doing the short course, I wanted to do something unique and different. I chose to memorise the Bhagavad Gita because my mother has always taught me that ‘out of your house, you are just a human being and not an individual following a particular religion’. My parents permitted me to learn the Bhagavad Gita as they wanted me to gain knowledge of every religion,” said Musharraf.
Proud of Mushariff’s achievement, her mother by the name of Zeenat Khan said, “Yes, we are Muslims. But we want to bring up our daughter in a manner that she grows up to be a noble human being ingrained with the best tenets of every religion.”
1. Urfi Javed respects Bhagavad Gita as well
Urfi, who hails from a conservative Muslim family expressed her opinions on marriage and love. Urfi Javed says she will never marry a Muslim guy. She also gave a clear-cut explanation as to why she will never marry a man of her religion. She further added that she is currently reading the Bhagavad Gita.
Urfi said she is receiving most of the hate remarks are from Muslim people. They hate her because Muslim men want their women to “behave in a certain way”. “I am a Muslim girl. Most of the hate comments I receive are from Muslim people. They say that I am tarnishing the image of Islam. They hate me because Muslim men want their women to behave in a certain way.
“They want to control all the women in the community. I don’t believe in Islam because of this. The reason why they troll me is that I don’t behave the way they expect me to as per their religion.”
Urfi was also asked if she will ever tie the knot with someone out of her community if she fell in love. To which, Urfi says, “I will never marry a Muslim guy. I don’t believe in Islam and I don’t follow any religion, so I don’t care who I fall in love with. We should marry whoever we want to.”
She also stressed the fact that religion should not be forced. “My father was a very conservative man. He left me and my siblings with our mother when I was 17 years old. My mother is a very religious woman, but she never forced her religion on us.
My siblings follow Islam and I don’t, but they never force it on me. That’s how it is supposed to be. You cannot force your religion upon your wife and children. It should come from the heart, otherwise neither you nor Allah would be happy,” says Urfi.
The actress is currently reading the Bhagavad Gita and expressed her interest to learn more about Hinduism. “I am reading the Bhagavad Gita right now. I just want to know more about that religion [Hinduism]. I am more interested in the logical part of it. I hate extremism, so I just want to extract the good part of the holy book.”