INDIA LAUNCHES NUCLEAR SUBMARINE

INDIA LAUNCHES NUCLEAR
POWERED SUBMARINE FOR TRIALS

NEW DELHI — India launched its first nuclear-powered submarine in a ceremony in southern port city of Vishakhapatnam on Sunday, becoming one of just six nations in the world to have successfully built one. After years of relying on rented Russian submarines, the government unveiled the 367-foot Arihant, which means “destroyer of enemies” in Hindi. The new vessel is part of a broad effort by the Indian government to create a military that matches India’s rising global stature. It is said the launch is an important technological step putting India in a small group of nations capable of designing and building nuclear-powered submarines.

Arihant is powered by a nuclear reactor, and will be armed with ballistic missiles, it will carry a crew of about 100 men and it would be capable of carrying nuclear weapons, however Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who attended the ceremony, said that it was not built to threaten India’s neighbors.“We do not have any aggressive designs,” he said. “We seek an external environment in our region and beyond that is conducive to our peaceful development and the protection of our value systems.”

India has not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, arguing that the current list of accepted nuclear powers does not reflect reality. But after years of isolating India because of its nuclear program, the United States has moved in recent years toward closer ties, and in 2008 the Bush administration agreed to trade civilian nuclear power equipment with India in exchange for greater monitoring. India agreed to allow international inspection of its civilian nuclear reactors. Pakistan, India’s neighbor to the west, also has nuclear weapons, and the two countries have fought three wars since the partition of British-ruled India produced the two nations in 1947, making the region perhaps the most dangerous nuclear flashpoint in the world.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

We, the conditioned souls, have fallen in the ocean of nescience, but the human body fortunately provides us a good opportunity to cross the ocean because the human body is like a very good boat. When directed by a spiritual master acting as the captain, the boat can very easily cross the ocean. Furthermore, the boat is helped across by favorable winds, which are the instructions of Vedic knowledge. If one does not take advantage of all these facilities to cross the ocean of nescience, he is certainly committing suicide.

All of human society is in such a dangerous position that to be rescued it must abide by the standard instructions of the Vedas. The cream of these instructions appears in the form of Bhagavad-gītā.
One should not take shelter of any other instructions, for Bhagavad-gītā gives direct instructions on how to fulfill the aim of human life. Lord Śrī Krishna therefore says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekam śaranam vraja: [Bg. 18.66] "Give up all other processes of religion and simply surrender to Me."

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 6 - Chapter 7 - Verse 14"