XLVI Con. Pat.

Inaugural Address

June 30, 1998

Members of the 46th Congressus Patriaë, all those here today who have served in the 45th Congressus Patriaë, fellow Patriens, and people around the world reading this text on the Internet: Namasté. Jaya Saraswati Mata. Om Namah Shivaya. As you all know, unless you have been stuck in a cave doing some extremely intense sadhana, the year 2000 is just one and one-half years away. And this newly-inaugurated 46th Congressus Patriaë shall be the vehicle to lead Patria on into the new millennium, only eighteen months from today. But this new Congress intends to ignore, to the greatest extent possible, all the bogus "new millennium" hype. Two thousand is only a number, nothing more. And since Jesus Christ was actually born in 4 or 5 BC, the millennial event has passed anyway. The coming of the year 2000, whether or not it causes every computer on this planet to crash big-time, is the most-hyped single event in the last 1000 years! However, Congress can promise you one thing: during the course of this Inaugural Address you will hear no more mentions of the new millennium. You may hear a few references to the 21st century or the year 2000, but you can rest assured that the very word "millennium" has been duly expunged from the text of this Address.

Just four years ago when we last gathered here for an Inauguration ceremony, the Internet consisted of a mish-mash of freenets, primitive text-only browsers, gophers, FTPs, and some obscure but up-and-coming thing called the World Wide Web. It was difficult to imagine just four short years ago, that Patria or any Micronation could share its history, ceremonies, cultural events and national pride through the medium of the personal computer. Just four years ago Patria and the many other unrecognized but sovereign realms could not reach out to other nations, both Macro and Micro, with the click of a mouse. And so, the Inner Realm extends special greetings to everyone who visits this special Inaugural page on the Internet.

We have gathered here amidst a changing world, a world crying out for spiritual attunement as the 21st century (and that dreaded m-word) draw nigh. Here in Patria this new consciousness is birthed with the love and blessings of the Divine Mother. This Inauguration ceremony, and the fruits thereof, indeed the entire four-year journey that is the 46th Congress, have been offered to Her holy feet. The Goddess has many names and many forms, not all of them Hindu of course, and we the devotees of Patria throw ourselves into Her arms, bow at Her feet, and seek Her protection. This ceremony today affirms that the Goddess is alive and Shakti is awakening even as the dark forces of this Kali Yuga continue to hover all around. Patria trusts in the Divine Mother to protect and shelter this Inner Realm. Even in the meanest streets of Castoropolis, just a short walk from this Capitol building, where criminals rule and outlaw and disorder, not law and order, prevail, the devotees await the coming of Mother Kali, with her terrible, blood-dripping sword and garland of skulls. And She will come in this Administration, to take back the streets and destroy the enemies of Dharma in Patria's midst, just as She destroyed Shumba, Nishumba, Chanda, Munda, Mahishasura and the host of other demons who dared rise up to challenge Her power.
 
During the election campaign, Patriens were asked to take their choice: transformation or transcendence. But today, let us say that in the 46th Congress we can have both transformation and transcendence. There will be growth on a higher plane, and there will be mundane, living-in-the-world stuff too. Just as in the 45th Congress there will once again be some curious juxtapositions of bhakti and beer-drinking, dharma and DXing, bhajans and bhangra, often with little or no transition between them. Living in this world, not cloistered in temples and ashrams, is a special challenge. We the devotees of this Inner Realm are inspired thus to take these dharmic teachings out into the world, where they are most needed. To turn the peoples' hearts and minds toward Sanatan Dharma is to transform their lives. This entire world is your ashram, these streets are your yoga mat, and even the filthiest, most drug-infested tenement can be your altar and your place of puja.

Of course all spiritual paths, and even atheism and agnosticism, are honored and validated in Patria. But let there be no misunderstanding that this realm is founded on the bedrock of Sanatan Vedic Dharma and Patria shall defend the dharma of - to quote the masthead of Hinduism Today - a "billion-strong global religion in renaissance". Let the word go forth to friend and foe alike that Patria stands ready aye ready to support any friend of dharma and oppose any foe or any adharmic demon to pave the way for the triumph of Sanatan Vedic dharma and the establishment of Ramrajya - in the literal sense as the kingdom of the Lord - in the four years to come.

To the official opposition in the 46th Congress, the forces of spiritual growth and the voices of Hindu dharma reach out and ask the National Union to join Patria's journey into a new consciousness. For those who supported the voices of the right, the voices of law and order, we feel your pain, we hear your concerns. We too are most troubled by the decay, the rot, the crime, the drugs, and the poverty both material and spiritual that have infested our Inner Realm's capital, and the spiritual parties must do more than just trust in the Divine Mother's power to repeat Her demon-slaying feats of the Devi Mahatmyam on the streets of this city. In this new Congress both the SRM and the Chakra Party pledge to work with the law-and-order forces, to achieve through non-violent means a safe, law-abiding Inner Realm where our people, especially our women and children may walk the streets free from harassment from beggars, drug dealers, mistakenly de-institutionalized psychiatric patients, prostitutes, and roving gangs of teenage thugs. We too desire, again through non-violent means, a capital city that is a sacred space and a holy shrine of dharma, not a decaying, rotting, filth-strewn and graffiti-splattered slum that if not for the mailboxes and license plates could easily be mistaken for one of the worst neighborhoods in Detroit or Chicago. And so, this Congress reaches out to the right wing, to say that although we disagree with your methods we agree with your goal of taking back our Realm's capital and restoring this sacred city of Kashipura to its former glory.

To make Kashipura once again that "shining city on a hill", to borrow a phrase from Ronald Reagan - or from one of Reagan's speechwriters - is a challenge that requires more than just enforcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew for all teenagers and putting more police on the streets. Taking back the streets will not be accomplished by throwing a few litterbugs and jaywalkers in jail in the hope of deterring the murderers and rapists. The death penalty only cheapens human life and has virtually no deterrent value. Sending young offenders to boot camps is a band-aid solution that has failed to reduce recidivism wherever in Canada and the United States it has been tried. The restoration of Patria's capital city, the battle against crime, and the inculcation of dharmic values to our children and teenagers are clarion calls to all the devotees of Sanatan Dharma to take their practices out of the ashrams and temples and bring yoga to the inner city. Not boot camps but yoga camps. Not through strict discipline and curfews, but by practice of yoga sadhana and study of the sacred scriptures, will our troubled youth regain the self-esteem, the trust in their inner power, and the faith in the divine within themselves to reach for their yoga mat and their meditation cushion instead of a gun and a knife, to listen to sacred Sanskrit bhajans instead of violent rap music, to study the Bhagavad Gita and Devi Mahatmyam instead of pornographic books and magazines, to dress in saris instead of miniskirts and dhotis instead of baggy jeans, to wear malas of sandalwood and rudraksha instead of rapper-style gold chains, to breathe deeply and clearly through yogic pranayama instead of inhaling tar into the lungs by dragging on nicotine sticks, and to practice brahmacharya and abstinence instead of giving in to peer pressure to have sex at an early age.

Chances are, if you walked from your home in this capital city, or rode on the subway to attend this Inaugural ceremony, you were approached by some sleaze-bag who tried to sell you some drugs. The scourge of drugs and the low-life dealers who prey on children and teenagers must, by whatever means necessary, be wiped from the face of Patria. To all the drug dealers in this Federal District of Castoropolis, especially to those who hang out only short meters away from this very Capitol building, the message is clear: get out of Patria NOW!; you are not welcome here. Notwithstanding the zealousness with which this Realm intends to prosecute the war on drugs, the right of consenting adults to use marijuana in the privacy of their homes and to cultivate small amounts of it for their personal use shall not be infringed. If cigarettes must be smoked in Patria, let them be full of the cheap and pleasant high of cannabis, rather than the smelly and deadly low of nicotine.

The war on drugs has failed, for it has only put small-time dealers and innocent people who enjoy an occasional joint in jail while ignoring the real criminals. To keep Patria's children off drugs, the Inner Realm must fight a far more insidious enemy than the scuzzily-dressed high-school dropouts who sell coke and crack on the streets of Castoropolis. The battle must be waged against the business-suited college-educated executives who, from their boardrooms in America, shamelessly conspire to hook our children on the deadliest, most addictive drug on the face of the earth. That drug, as you all know, is nicotine. The cigarette industry is dealing in human lives, mostly young lives, for financial gain. The merchants of death who peddle these filter-tipped weapons of mass destruction are laughing all the way to the bank while millions of people cough their way to an early grave, bound to a drug that is far more addictive than heroin. Tobacco is a hard drug in every sense of the word: the heaviest toll of lives and the hardest addiction to break. If there is a gateway drug of any kind, it is nicotine. Keep children from starting to smoke and they will be less likely to experiment with the so-called hard drugs. Let Patria's message to Big Tobacco be clear and unequivocal: keep your nicotine-stained hands off Patria's children!

The people of Patria have a right to be protected from the bizarre, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous behavior of the mentally ill on our streets. Deinstitutionalization has failed and has failed miserably. Deinstitutionalization has only served to create an underclass of feral creatures foraging on our streets. In this Administration, schizophrenics and others released from psychiatric hospitals who disobey orders to take their medication or who fail to report for prescribed treatment, who forage and sleep on the streets when hostels, shelters and the like are freely available, will be locked up for their protection and for ours. The psychiatric survivor community must be made aware that living in the community is a privilege, not a right. To help the mentally ill achieve this privilege is another challenge for our pandits and yoga teachers, to bring yoga out of the ashrams and into the psychiatric hospitals and the psychiatric survivor communities. Smoking cessation programs must also be brought into this community, for as a conservative estimate 90% of current or former psychiatric patients are slaves of nicotine. The Inner Realm is committed to fighting mental illness with both medication and meditation, with Prozac and pranayama, with psychotherapy and sadhana.

To those who support the economic right wing, the voices of Hindu dharma also reach out to you. We agree that more and bigger government is not the solution to any of today's problems. We the people of Patria are the solution, through free enterprise and less dependence on the so-called entitlements of the nursemaid welfare state. Those who truly practice the teachings of Sanatan Dharma have such inner strength that they will never stoop to beg the government for a handout. Those who faithfully commit themselves to their yoga sadhana need never suckle the teats of social assistance. Charity begins at home, within the family and in our temples, churches, mosques and synagogues - not in the bureaucracy of government and the myriad of so-called social programs. The spiritual forces are just as committed as the secular right wing to ending welfare as we know it, to ensuring that through mandatory work and training programs - workfare if necessary, but not necessarily workfare - today's permanent welfare underclass becomes tomorrow's middle class and today's welfare cheques become tomorrow's pay cheques.

If there is to be a "bridge to the 21st century" - and this Congress is loath to borrow that phrase of Clintonese jargon - let the 46th Congress build this bridge just like the bridge to Lanka built by Hanuman and his army of monkeys to rescue Sita, destroy the demon Ravana, and restore Lord Rama to the throne of Ayodhya. Let Patria's bridge assure the triumph of Sanatan Dharma and the establishment of a divine kingdom under our Queen, Mother Saraswati. Let it be a bridge to a land of new blessings and new promise under the shelter of Jagadamba Mata, the Mother of the universe.

Inauguration Day is a time to cross over the river of fear, to put out commitments, to follow your bliss, to trust your inner voice, and to dare to dream. Fear not when doing right, fear not when acting on your inner voice, fear not when standing in the fire of transformation. This is your opportunity to grow, to act on your dreams and to live the teachings of Sanatan Dharma in your daily life.

Finally, Inauguration Day is a call to return to faithful and diligent practices of yoga sadhana, to devote our hearts to the Lord through Bhakti Yoga, to devote our minds to the Lord through Jnana Yoga, to devote our strength to the Lord through Karma Yoga, and of course to devote our entire body to the Lord through Patria's national sport of Hatha Yoga. On this day let us once again affirm the transformative power of yoga practices, with these words of Rabindranath Tagore:

"Life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure, knowing that thy living touch is upon my limbs.
I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.
I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.
And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions, knowing it is thy power that gives me strength to act."

Thank you all for being a part of today's sacred proceedings. The 46th Congress is today born and today we place this new Congressus Patriaë into the hands of the Divine Mother as we seek Her blessings and Her protection. God bless Patria! Jai Ma!!

©1998.  The above text is an official transcription, preserved in the Archives of Patria.

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