Officially India’s population crossed the one billion mark last week. It may be remembered that some UN agency had unilaterally declared that this landmark was recahed last Agust. Of course, they made it very conveniently coincincide with the 15th August. The story was fist taken-up by the New York Times - and of course the whole of the foreign correspondents’ corps, which is affliected by what the French call “mouton, de Panurge” instinct - which means that the whole herd follows the herd leader; even if it jumps from the cliff - followed suit. And all the major European newspapers, including France’s Figaro (I was holidaying in Almora to the displeasure of my editor) Le Monde, and Libéraion did full page stories on how “India already poor and aflicted with debilitating problems (corruption the unibiquous caste systeml French love to talk about etc) had even more mouths to feed.

The West has lost the truth. We have lost the Great Sense, the meaning of our evolution, of why so much suffering, why dying, why getting born, why this earth, who are we, what is the soul, what is reincarnation, where is the ultimate truth about the universe... But India has kept this truth. India has preserved it through seven millennium of pitfalls, of genocides and attempts at throttling her santanam dharma. And this will be India's gift to this planet during the next century: to restore to the world its true sense. to recharge humanity with the real meaning and spirit of life. India will become the spiritual leader of the world, as India’s Great Sage, Sri Aurobindo, had predicted nearly a century ago :

New Delhi, May 8 : The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will hold its own function on May 13 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 1857 revolt. The celebrations, being held separately, assume political significance because the RSS and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not been invited to the official function being held at Red Fort here May 11. BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said: "They have not invited the BJP saying that we never participated in the freedom movement. This way you should not have invited the Communists also." The invitees to the function, which will be addressed by RSS chief K.C. Sudarshan, are all RSS outfits. These include Rashtravadi Muslim Morcha, Puru Sainik Seva Parishad, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat and Bharat Tibet Parivar. Syed Shahnawaz Husain, convenor of the Muslim Morcha, is the only BJP leader invited to the celebration, party sources said. --- IANS