NEW DELHI -- In a bid to counter the opposition campaign, the BJP will celebrate November 8, the day high value currencies were demonetised last year, as "Anti-Black Money Day" across the country.

Announcing the party's decision to counter the opposition plans for observing the day as "Black Day", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said all prominent leaders, union ministers, state ministers and office bearers will participate in programmes across the country.

On November 8, the party will organise programmes highlighting all the steps the government has taken against black money. He said since the government was formed in 2014, from day one it had taken steps against black money.

"There was a parallel black money economy in the country. When the NDA government came to power (May 2014), Prime Minister Narendra Modi took steps to minimise and end it. On November 8, the BJP will celebrate 'Anti-Black Money Day' and mobilise people in favour of the steps taken against black money," Jaitley told reporters here.

The special investigation team (SIT) to go into black money, which was directed by the Supreme Court in 2011 and was not acted upon by the previous UPA government, was formed by the NDA, the Finance Minister said.

He said the government also brought in laws to check black money by giving a last opportunity to those who had stashed money abroad by offering them 60% for repatriating their assets.

"The account holders in Liechtenstein and HSBC have all been assessed and criminal action has been filed against them. The government has also worked internationally under the G20 framework and other fora, including an agreement with Switzerland, to get real time information on black money stashed abroad to evade tax.

"Agreements with Mauritius and Cyprus that allowed round tripping of money have been reworked."

Jaitley also hit out at the Congress over its plans to observe the day because the demonetisation decision was "ill conceived".

"Various account holders in banks which were illegal, cases were filed against them. Demonetisation was a big step towards it. It was a huge step for squeezing cash economy, cash-based transactions and widened the tax base. All the three steps were the positive results of demonetisation and along with GST it would make cash generation difficult."

Apparently referring to the opposition criticism, Jaitley said it was normal for political parties which had a number of opportunities to be in power earlier not recognize that the squeeze on black money and the other steps cannot be achieved through baby steps.

The Finance Minister said the BJP would carry forward the debate by the opposition to polarize people against black money through its own campaign.

Asked whether the Prime Minister would participate in the campaign, Jaitley said the details were being worked out.

Asked about Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's remarks that demonetisation was the biggest blunder, the BJP leader said he could not recall a single significant step taken by the Congress against black money.

"They have reconciled to India living with black money. I can understand their discomfort. The Congress had adequate opportunities to be in power and I cannot recollect a single significant step that they ever took against black money. The steps taken by the NDA government are not small," the BJP leader said.

He said the statements by the Congress and its leaders showed that they had not understood the objective behind demonetisation.

"Cash is bearer money in the system and its ownership is not known. It has an anonymous odour and anyone can use it. When cash gets deposited in banks, it gets into a lawful system. So for an entry into lawful system you are liable to pay tax. The entry into the formal system requires payment of tax and is not money laundering."

Referring to questions about money deposited after demonetisation to convert black into white, Jaitley said mere depositing of money doesn't make it legal. "Eighteen lakh people have been found to have deposited money disproportionate to their source of income."

"Confiscation of money was never the objective of demonetisation. Squeezing of cash and that used by terrorists and negating counterfeit currency were the objectives of the note ban. I think once the fundamentals of the objective are understood, they (the Congress) will appreciate it better."

The Congress led 18 opposition parties on Tuesday said they will observe November 8 as Black Day to protest against the "ill-conceived and hasty" decision of the government to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes a year ago.

Replying to another question, he said: "The government and the party feel that people are cleverer than you (Congress) and they are supporting us. This is not a one-off campaign and will continue to persist as part of the larger programme of the party."

Replying to a question on the Congress criticism of the government's Tuesday announcement of re-capitalisation of banks, he said: "Those who have destroyed the country are now preaching, Between 2008-12, there was indiscriminate lending by which banks were made hollow.

All across India, air quality plummets each autumn starting with the end of the monsoon season. Contributing factors include increased fuel burning, crop burning, and changing weather patterns. Then Diwali celebrations notoriously lead to spikes in air pollution, prompting bans on the sale of firecrackers this year in Delhi-NCR, with mixed results.

Air pollution consists of toxic gases and small, inhalable particles. Exposure to high levels of air pollution leads to acute and chronic diseases and even premature death. Particles 2.5 micrometres in diameter and smaller are also known as PM_2.5. These particles are the most likely to lead to negative health effects since larger particles cannot penetrate deeply into the lungs. For this reason, the level of PM_2.5 in the air is the most useful metric for understanding the health impacts of particulate air pollution.

This figure shows a summary of measured PM_2.5 data for September 2016-October 2017 for cities across India. The pie charts show the number of days in the past year that the average PM_2.5 level fell into the following three categories: Green days (PM_2.5 < 35.4 μg m^-3) are healthy or moderate, yellow days (35.5 μg m^-3 to 55.4 μg m^-3) are unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, the elderly or those with lung disease, and red days (PM_2.5 > 55.5 μg m^-3) is unhealthy for all. More details about the figure and data are available here.

The data show in concrete terms that Indians across the country are exposed to unhealthy air much of the year. Indeed, a 2017 report on the state of global air indicated that "...Bangladesh and India now have the highest exposures to PM_2.5, having experienced the steepest increases since 2010." Therefore, our results were not a surprise, however, these data for PM_2.5 were not available in many locations until recently. Many more monitoring stations have come online in the past year. Some previous estimates of PM_2.5 exposure in India were based on extrapolations from measurements of larger particles (e.g., PM₁₀), and can be improved now that additional PM_2.5 data are available.

Show me the data

The first step towards improving air quality is collecting reliable data and making it open and available, however, high-quality PM_2.5 data are still not available for many locations across India, including entire states and major cities. India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) conducts routine measurements of PM_2.5in some locations and established a national air quality index (AQI) in late 2014 as a simple means to communicate air quality data to the public. Collecting and maintaining data on emissions from pollution sources is a monumental task, and efforts by CPCB and local and state pollution control boards have been supplemented by university researchers and independent groups such as the U.S. diplomatic posts. Efforts by organisations like OpenAQ to aggregate and archive publicly available, ground-based data are important for analysis, and to help raise public awareness. Spatial and temporal resolution for air quality monitoring is improving, especially in the greater Delhi area, but more continuous monitoring coverage is needed across the country. Monitoring must eventually extend beyond the urban centres to understand the country-wide impact of air pollution.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

Social justice warriors of the future, however cynical they may be about the success of online campaigns, are unlikely to forget the month of October 2017 in a hurry.

What began as a familiar murmur of allegations of sexual harassment against a powerful Hollywood mogul, Harvey Weinstein in this case, at the beginning of the month, soon turned into a deafening roar, a revolt, no less. Women from the entertainment industry began going public with stories of personal humiliation. Each new day brought forth fresh tales of misconduct.

Soon, the electric pulse of the moment had traversed beyond the entertainment industry, on the wings of the hashtag #MeToo, on social media. Women, as well as some men, from all over the world, irrespective of their gender, sexual identity and socio-economic background, began to speak up — not only against the sex offenders but also against the pervasive culture of silence fostered by patriarchy that stifles the voice of the victims.

The onus of shame, as each individual's testimony made clear, laid with the perpetrators of these grievous crimes, not those who have suffered them.

It may take several decades for a mindset to change. The more regressive the thinking, the more stubborn the stain it leaves behind, but once the tables are turned, as the collective outpouring of empathy did in the #MeToo movement, it's hard to rein in those feelings, especially bitter and angry emotions, that were kept forcibly pent up for years, even repressed.

It's not surprising, therefore, that #MeToo has led us to the moment when we confront #HimToo: the names of those accused of sexual misdemeanor. That's precisely what the women who outed Weinstein did. They pulled the plug off the willful blindness of the world, they forced their colleagues to wake up and smell the putrid reality. Since last evening, Raya Sarkar, who calls herself "an attorney interested in prisoner's rights, reproductive rights and anti-caste jurisprudence", has taken a plunge on Facebook to unmask sex offenders in some of the most reputed institutions of learning across the world.

In a public post, she has crowdsourced names of members from academia who have allegedly been involved in sexual misconduct with their colleagues or students.

The list begins with historian Dipesh Chakravarty and has, till the time of writing this piece, altogether 60 names, present or past faculty of institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadavpur University, Film and Television Institute of India, and so on.

Only the most disingenuous will feign shock at the length of the list. Sexual exploitation must be the oldest tool in any trade that involves parties placed in a unequal power relationship. Academia is no different, as a blog post by C. Christine Fair on HuffPost on 19 October, which was later taken down, highlighted.

Among the men Fair accused in the piece of sexually abusing her, several are academics, including Nobel Laureates and Ivy League professors, whose actions allegedly scarred her and prevented her from pursuing a career in the sciences productively.

Fair not only recounted in detail the heinous attacks heaped on her person in different circumstances, she also went a step ahead and called out those who were responsible for causing her harm. Her actions would have resonated with many women in academia — from the past, present and future — who have suffered a fate no less wretched.

Some of these women may have raised their voices, knocked on the doors of justice, held their silence for fear of jeopardising their careers or, worse still, simply abandoned their ambitions for another path. In an eloquent and hard-hitting Facebook post, Priyamvada Gopal of Cambridge University, in the UK, revealed, the complexity of what we are staring at:

Whether the grievances of women in academies, or other professional spheres, get due redress or not, one thing is abundantly clear: those who dare speak up against sexual harassment are usually made to bear the brunt of their 'audacity'. In a typical illustration, India saw such a phenomenon play out a few days back, as allegations against Khodu Irani, the owner of a bar in Pune, poured out from women on social media.

Even as stories of Irani's obnoxious behaviour piled up, through anecdotes backed by screenshots, it was invariably the women who were subjected to a trial by fire: a litany of whataboutery, ifs and buts, whys and wherefores, dragged the discourse down to the appalling pits of victim-shaming. If that's the arsenal with which men want to hit out at women speaking about a deeply hurtful private experience, it's not so unusual for women to also want to out and shame their abusers in public.

While a trial by social media may, by no means, be an ideal or legitimate route to justice, it's hard not to see its temptation, especially in a society like India.

While a trial by social media may, by no means, be an ideal or legitimate route to justice, it's hard not to see its temptation, especially in a society like India. Recently, the judiciary of this nation set a shameful example by acquitting a rape convict on the ground that the victim's denial of consent wasn't loud enough — her "feeble no", the honourable Delhi High Court decided, was ambiguous.

With such a precedent set by "due process", it's not all that difficult to imagine victims taking the law into their own hands and seeking out a version of their wild justice. And social media, with its ever-amplifying reach, is the ideal platform to unleash it.

And yet, to bypass the due process, however imperfect its results may turn out to be, is to also allow room for manipulation and vendetta to muddy an already murky situation. As an appeal by a group of activists on Kafila pointed out, the men who are listed on Facebook are being called sexual harassers "with no context or explanation," and with those "who have been already found guilty of sexual harassment by due process" being "placed on par with unsubstantiated accusations". As the statement goes on to elaborate,

It worries us that anybody can be named anonymously, with lack of answerability. Where there are genuine complaints, there are institutions and procedures, which we should utilize. We too know the process is harsh and often tilted against the complainant. We remain committed to strengthening these processes. At the same time, abiding by the principles of natural justice, we remain committed to due process, which is fair and just.

The road to justice is a rocky one, especially within a system that often feels designed to derail it due to the forces of patriarchy that overwhelm it. But the good fight, which is embodied in the spirit of equality that feminism wants to usher in, aims to usher in change within the parameters of legitimacy, rather than by endangering it.

The focus, as the principles outlined by the feminists in Kafila put it, should be making the judiciary and other allied arms of the state machinery stronger, rather than weaken it by running kangaroo courts and dispensing an informal 'justice' that is unlikely to bring the real offenders to book. A more effective way ahead may perhaps involve approaching all possible formal channels of complaint, then persist in raising hell — till the bubble that protects male privilege finally shatters.

Also on HuffPost

The Taj Mahal is not new to controversies. Much before Yogi Adityanath and Sangeet Som's vehement rhetoric, the Taj was the subject of books that went to the extent of trying to claim that the Taj was a Shiv temple originally. PN Oak was one of the people who spent a great deal of time and effort in trying to prove this. Indeed it was the name used by Oak in his work for the Taj Mahal, 'Tejo Mahalay,' which was recently used by a group of young men when they decided to recite prayers in the gardens of the Taj until they unceremoniously kicked out. The men were from Yogi Adityanath's Hindu Yuva Vahini and went to pray in the complex as a precursor to Adityanath's forthcoming visit- his first ever- to the Taj.

In recent years, theories such as that of Oak, have resulted in small video clips being circulated that try and use 'evidence' to make a case for the 'Tejo Mahalay.'

All this would be amusing were it not for the fact that a veritable industry has sprouted around this charade. Wiki historians, WhatsApp policy analysts, Facebook sociologists and YouTube anthropologists have spread so much misinformation that I have lost count of the number times that educated people have asked me to 'seriously consider this theory.' Of course this led me to question their education more than the myths around the Taj Mahal, but nonetheless, this also points to the manner in which a deep insecurity has taken over large sections of the population.

Why target monuments?

The first and most obvious answer is that historical monuments tend to symbolise the culmination of some individual or group's political and financial power. In the case of the Taj, it additionally represented the love of a man for his wife. Beyond this, however, monuments are also important because they tend to anchor communities in a certain cultural and civilisational context. In other words monuments, art and literature amongst other things root people in a certain sense of self.

Things like art and literature have more ephemeral lives as they can be destroyed and of course, can also fade from memory due to neglect or a change in aesthetic norms. The names of spaces, places and cities can also be changed. Monuments, however, are not so easy to ignore. They are often giant albeit mute symbols that complicate myopic historical narratives and act as an example of a past when some 'other' was in power. In this case, the perceived 'other' is the Muslim and the 'victim' the Hindu. Of course, theories (backed with evidence) of how the Mughals were equally, if not more concerned, with power rather than simply religion, generally fall on deaf ears as do any arguments that show how 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' are not stable and fixed categories that have remained the same over the course of history.

Since 'alt-theories' of the Taj originally being a temple have not yet made Supreme Court judges sit up and take them seriously, one course of action is to institutionally ignore them so that the Taj, like countless other monuments, fall victim to natural degradation and eventually becomes a ruin. The other alternative is to try to co-opt such symbols and monuments, and attribute a new interpretation or new history, à la Oak while ignoring their rich and complicated pasts.

PULL: Thankfully, due to national and international protection, the option of simply destroying the Taj Mahal seems to be off the table, at least for now.

Yogi Adityanath's recent statement in which he deemed the Taj acceptable because it was the product of the labour of the sons of 'Bharat Mata' is one such example. Perhaps the Yogi had a revelation that beauty often emerges from upheaval and violence. Perhaps he has become, God preserve us, a socialist. However, what seems most likely is that he has realised that his virulent rhetoric will serve no purpose other than causing disrepute in the international community. Of course, the destruction of monuments is something that the international community is intimately familiar with.

Just like Sangeet Som deemed the Taj to be a monument 'built by traitors,' leaders of ISIS and the Taliban made similar claims about Sufi Shrines, churches, temples, churches or the Buddhas in Bamiyaan in order to justify their destruction. The traitor, in those cases, was merely replaced by the 'kafir.' Thankfully, due to national and international protection, the option of simply destroying the Taj Mahal seems to be off the table, at least for now. The destruction of religious or historical sites is about severing the past from the present. By wiping out monuments these organisations are essentially levelling the historical landscape so that there are no more physical reminders of a complicated and often contradictory past.

There can be no doubt that while the Taj Mahal is certainly a monument that is the result of Islamic influences amongst others, it is not a Muslim monument. Indeed the broadly Indian influences such as the use of the motif of the lotus speak of a range of inspirations, which in turn is precisely what irks the likes of Som and Adityanath. Indeed, it is precisely this complicated past that also offers an insight into some the broader issues that animate the Taj Mahal controversy. The controversy around this monument is merely symptomatic of a wider malaise that is linked to questions regarding Muslim belonging in India.

PULL: This blanket condemnation of everything that is 'Muslim' as un-Indian- be it language, culture, clothes, spaces and places and even food, will only result in further alienation.

Those who say that the Taj is not a part of India's cultural heritage also question the loyalties of Indian Muslims. However, in the debate about Muslim patriotism, the key point that is often glossed over if not ignored is that it is not simply a question of whether the Muslims can be patriotic or nationalistic but it is about how these feelings are conveyed. According to this worldview, being patriotic is not enough but what Muslims must also accept is how to express their patriotism. The rites and rituals, symbols and history that animate this patriotism must also conform to some standard. While controversies about the recitation of the Vande Mataram illustrate one aspect of the debate, the Taj Mahal also is symptomatic of this phenomenon and herein lies the contradiction.

Monuments, much like other cultural symbols, anchor or root communities and allow them to develop a sense of selfhood and belonging. So it seems patently absurd that on the one hand the loyalties of Muslims to India are called into question while on the other, the symbols through which Muslims can organically root their belonging in India are deemed to be un-Indian. This blanket condemnation of everything that is 'Muslim' as un-Indian- be it language, culture, clothes, spaces and places and even food, will only result in further alienation. Perhaps, however, this is exactly what Som and others of his ilk want.

The fundamental issue then is about defining the idea of India and dictating the terms and conditions under which loyalty to this idea can be subscribed to. The Taj Mahal is one manifestation of this entire debate. Many of our current political leaders and their organisations seem intent on manufacturing a sense of historical victimhood to detract from the very real issues that confront us today. It seems that even one of the seven wonders of the world, a monument built to symbolise love and a living example of the confluence of different cultures is able to completely destabilise their fragile sense of self.

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

Essential HuffPost

In response to the Opposition parties' decision to observe November 8 -- the day demonetisation was implemented last year -- as the 'Black Day', the government has decided to celebrate the same as 'anti-Black Money Day'. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that on November 8 this year, all BJP leaders, including union and state ministers, will spend the day attending and organising various programmes which will promote Centre's actions on black money and corruption related issues in the country.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has appealed to the medical regulators of the country to amend the code of conduct so that doctors are not made to participate in hangings. Usually, a doctor is present at the site where the state carries out an execution to check for signs of life etc. The IMA, following a 2012 World Medical Association resolution said that being a part of executions goes against the grain of a a doctor's job as a healer.

In Maharashtra, 100 farmers who had applied for loan waivers turned out to have the same Aadhaar number. Officials told reporters that now they'll have to check the details of these people manually, which will take a long time and delay the process of waiver.

Main News

The Supreme Court has asked the government to clarify by Monday that they will not resort to coercion regarding the linking of Aadhaar number to various services till a constitution bench makes a decision on the scheme's legitimacy,The Telegraph reported.

The Donald Trump government has made the process of renewing non-immigrant visas like H1-B and L1 more difficult with a new directive that says that the applicant has to bear the burden of proof even when he/she is applying for an extension. A majority of Indian IT professionals working in the US use these visas, reports The Times of India.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that Army operations will continue in Jammu and Kashmir, even though the Centre has appointed an interlocutor, reports The Hindu.

Off The Front Page

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that she will not be coerced to link her Aadhaar number to any services. Saying that this was an assault on privacy, he dared service providers to snap her phone connections etc if they deemed fit.

In order to accommodate an increased number of domestic flights on new routes, the aviation ministry has requested airlines to schedule more flights in the 'red eye' hours i.e prior to 5am.

In an exclusive investigation, The Indian Express followed the trail of nine coal trains that run through Goa everyday, leaving a trail of pollution and destruction behind. You can read the report here.

Opinion

On HuffPost India, Sandip Roy writes how with his rechristening of GST as 'Gabbar Singh Tax', Rahul Gandhi is taking a leaf out of Narendra Modi's political playbook which is crowded with a lot of acronyms.

On The Indian Express, Aditi Bhowmick explains how employing for female teachers and having more women role models can help draw and keep more girls in school in India.

Living in an ashram on the banks of the Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayas it sometimes takes me an extra few days or even more to catch up with world events. With no television, the news is limited to that which I see on Google News or Huff Post while drinking a cup of tea in the morning, or what shows up in my Facebook feed when I open it about once a week.

It has, therefore, taken me this long to see the wave of #metoo rising in the West and slowly but surely causing crucial ripples here in the East. My life of 46 years has bridged not only the Western and Eastern hemispheres geographically but also Western and Eastern models of understanding and responding to ourselves and our world.

The tragic rape and subsequent death of a young woman in Delhi five years ago tore open the tightly sealed cultural box of sex crimes and sexual harassment in India, and out of it flew a newfound openness to discuss what had previously been taboo. "Yes, it happens. and no, we don't talk about it" was pretty much the modus operandi until Nirbhaya occupied the front page of newspapers and our collective conscience.

More and more organisations are now forming to drag this monster out of the closet of our collective denial and into the daylight of our collective awareness and action. Women's empowerment training programs in villages and cities are growing to provide not only sewing and handicrafts but also karate.

In fact, this is one of the reasons that our Global Interfaith WASH Alliance is working so ardently for the provision and use of toilets. When millions of girls and women in the rural villages don't have a toilet at home and have to go into fields and forests to heed the call of nature, they are easy prey for not only wild animals but also for men who act like wild animals. Toilets in their homes provide safety and security along with the obvious health and hygiene benefits.

Yes, social norms must be fiercely and courageously examined and, where necessary, rewritten.

Recently, I had the great honour of being on stage with Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi to address an auditorium of college students on the wide prevalence of sexual abuse and the necessity of addressing and preventing it. I could barely believe the words were coming out of my mouth in India, in public, with dignitaries on stage and a hall full of people. This is a program that could not and would not have taken place ten years ago as the issue was not being discussed in public fora. So there is some progress, but much is left to be done.

Me Too

I could share many #metoo experiences from the first 25 years of my life in America, ranging from those situations where I had the ability, physical strength and the presence of mind to prevent or stop it, to those situations where I did not. Suffice it to say, for the purposes of this article, that yes, I get it. Fully. Yes, it is rampant. Yes, it is outrageously unacceptable. Yes, action must be taken: legally, legislatively, professionally, academically, and culturally. Yes, social norms must be fiercely and courageously examined and, where necessary, rewritten.

While my first 25 years were steeped in the land, culture and social norms of the West, including its models and philosophies of psychology and healing, the last twenty-one years of my life have been spent immersed in the East, in a deeply traditional ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas.

You Are Not This Pen

Each morning in the universal prayers at five o'clock we chant, "Sansaara ko swapnavat jaano." The world is but a dream. "Mahalon mein raakhe, chaahe jhopadi mein vasa de. Jaahi vidhi raakhe Raama, taahi vidhi rahiye. (Wherever God puts you, whether it's a mansion or a shack (literal and metaphoric), recognise that it is all Divine blessings and be grateful for them.)"

A sexual assault, verbal or physical, does not change the nature of my deepest, highest, most true Self. But it does impact my ability to experience my Self.

The teaching of Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahma, I am God, all is God, there is nothing but God is a fundamental tenet of Vedantic teaching. Om Brahm, Om Brahm, we are taught to chant with each breath and each step: left, right, left, right, Om Brahm, Om Brahm. There is nothing but God. It is all God.

Within my first few weeks at the ashram, my Guru held up a pen in front of me and told me, "You are not this pen." I laughed in anticipation of a punch-line that surely was coming, as one giggles on the first "knock, knock." We may not know who's there yet, but we know it will be funny, and our laugh begins bubbling to the surface even before the punch-line is delivered. Obviously, I wasn't a pen. What else? What was the punch-line?

My Guru did not laugh, though. This was not a joke. He looked very deeply at me and said, "Today you laugh because you know you are not a pen. But you still identify as the physical body and mind. You think you are your body, you think you are your emotions, you think you are your history and identity. But you are no more your body than you are this pen. Someday you will laugh the same way when I tell you are not your body as you do when I say you are not a pen." Aham Brahmasmi, Om Brahm. It is all God. There is nothing but God. The rest is an illusion, we are taught.

The practice of Neti Neti is an ancient meditation technique to attain the experience of the supreme Self, the Supreme Soul. "I am not my clothing," we begin. Okay, everyone agrees with that. Then, eyes closed, seated in meditation posture, we go deeper and deeper, silently at our own pace, in our own mind. "I am not my skin beneath the clothes. I am not the blood flowing beneath my skin. I am not my organs." We know this, of course, because when our skin peels, we do not experience any loss of the self. When we donate blood or receive a blood transfusion, we are neither losing nor gaining any aspect of our identity. I could donate an organ to you and, while that would be deeply generous, I would still be here and you would still be there. So "I" does not get transferred in the kidney.

Then, deeper. I am not my cells or the hormones or neurotransmitters released from them. I am not the electrical transmissions along the axons of my neurons. Therefore, I am not my emotions or my thoughts which are chemical, electrical patterns of energetic transmission in my brain. If I were my thoughts then I would cease to exist in those rare moments of thoughtlessness or between my thoughts. If I ceased to exist between my thoughts, who would think the next one?

So we practice this on and on until there is nothing left to discard. No layers are left of the onion of our self. In that space which the Buddhists tend to refer to as emptiness (shunya) and the Hindus tend to refer to as everything-ness (purna), I have an experience of the true Self, borderless, formless consciousness.

My Brain Too

And yet.

My experience of the Self comes to me through my brain. In order to peel the layers back, in order to go deeper and deeper, to extricate myself from the chains of my false identities, I need, ironically, my brain. It is my brain that processes the mantra, my brain that permits me to shut down some parts of it while activating others so I may have the experience of oneness with the world.

Just as our eyes are not the rainbow but are the medium through which we experience the rainbow, just as our ears are not the mantras but are the medium through which we hear the mantras, similarly, our brains are not "I" but are the medium through which we can experience "I."

Our brains are impacted by sexual assault

A lesion in my optic nerve will not render the rainbow any less beautiful, but it WILL impact my ability to see and enjoy the rainbow. An infection in my tympanic membrane will not impact the powerful alchemy of mantras being chanted by priests, but it WILL impact my ability to hear them and therefore my ability to be healed by them. A sexual assault, verbal or physical, does not change the nature of my deepest, highest, most true Self. But it does impact my ability to experience my Self. There is something about being violated in this way that cuts through to the very core of how we experience ourselves and therefore how we experience our Selves. Something gets forever shifted, a note in the symphony of Self gets forever tweaked.

It is an injury that doesn't heal like a black eye or broken nose. It is an injury to the very experience of who we are and how we process our existence on Earth.

Changing the Experience of Our Self

And yet.

In the West, we tend to glorify our issues. They become our identity. We have taken the statement required in 12-step meetings into our core consciousness. "I am an alcoholic." "I am an addict." "I am bulimic." "I am a rape survivor." The list of possible identities is nearly endless, and they are insidiously enticing. Bill W. instituted a practice of verbal admission to cut through the denial preventing us from overcoming addiction. It was not meant to become the very core of our identity.

If our experience happened more than seven or eight years ago, even if it was grossly physical and violated every inch of our bodies, inside and out, there is not one cell left to which it happened. Every cell of the body sloughs and regenerates. The skin is quickest at every few days. Some organs take seven or eight years. Rarely, though, is it our liver or spleen that was touched, grabbed, groped or penetrated. The parts of our bodies that were, if the inappropriate behaviour was physical, have long since sloughed off and been replaced.

Our bodies have healed, but our brains have not. It is in our brains, in the patterns of electrical, chemical and magnetic energy, that we store this pain and the identification with it.

We now know that our brains can be changed

What the rishis, sages, mystics and prophets of the world's religions have been telling us for thousands of years, scientists are "discovering" today. These patterns of thought and behaviour exist in two-way communication with how we think and act. Not only do our brains create/impact/direct what we think and do, but what we think and do creates/impacts/directs the neuronal patterns in our brain. Changing our behaviour, changing our breath, changing our thoughts, changing our beliefs, changes our brains. Changing our brains changes our experience of the self and the Self.

Meditation by survivors is not the solution to sexual misconduct. But it is, I have found, the bridge between knowing #metoo and living as #metoo.

For me, the pendulum between violated body and untouched soul has been a journey not of either/or, but of yes/and.

Yes, we must join together and do everything we can to hold this in the light of our collective, cultural awareness and insist that laws, rules and norms all change. And, through our spiritual practice, we can live with the experiential awareness that, yes #metoo and yes, the "me" to whom it happened, is not the deepest, highest, truest experience of I.

Yes, #metoo, and yes, Aham Brahmasmi

The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.

Coming out about your sexual assault is like joining the worst sisterhood ever. Jillian Corsie

The Taj Mahal has been at the centre of controversy over the last few weeks. And even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visits the most famous historic monument in the country, reports suggest that there are no takers for the monument under the government's 'Adopt A Heritage' project.

The Times of India reports that while Qutub Minar, Jantar Mantar, Purana Qila, Safdarjung's Tomb and Agrasen ki Baoli in Delhi, Odisha's Sun Temple, the Ajanta Ellora caves have found private players who would maintain the monuments, the Taj Mahal is still waiting for adoption.

The Adopt A Heritage project started by the government assigns the responsibility of heritage sites and monuments "to private sector companies, public sector companies and individuals for the development of tourist amenities. They would become 'Monument Mitras' and adopt the sites. The basic and advanced amenities of the tourist destinations would be provided by them. They would also look after the operations and the maintenance of the amenities".

Tourism secretary Rashmi Verma told the Times of India that the Taj Mahal would still be up for adoption in case a private entity wanted to take it up for adoption.

Meanwhile, Adityanath has already reached Agra was his much publicised visit to the heritage structure.

IANS reported that a cleanliness drive has already been launched at the monument for Adityanath's visit.

Indian Express, meanwhile, reported that the CM will lay foundation stone for a tourist pathway from Taj Mahal to Agra Fort.

His visit comes close on the heels of controversy after controversy regarding the monument. First, the Taj Mahal, which is arguably one of the most visited tourist spots in India, was left out of the Uttar Pradesh government's official tourism booklet. It was later added to it.

This gaff was followed by BJP leader Sangeet Som's highly controversial opinions of the Taj Mahal, where he said it was a blot on the Indian culture because it was built by 'traitors'.

Recently, Haryana Minister Anil Vij called it a beautiful graveyard.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday sought for a report from the Uttar Pradesh Government over the alleged harassment of a Swiss couple in Agra.

Swaraj added that she would also reach the hospital the couple is admitted in.

In a tweet, she said, "I have just seen this. I have asked for a report from the State Government. My officers will reach them in the hospital."

I have just seen this. I have asked for a report from the State Government. / 1 https://t.co/NbJk4BF5iS via @TOICitiesNews

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) October 26, 2017

In a report surfaced in a newspaper, a couple from Lausanne in Switzerland was allegedly brutally thrashed by a group of youth in Agra's Fatehpur Sikri on Sunday.

The duo was reportedly seriously injured in the attack and is currently admitted in a hospital in Delhi.

The Swiss pair has alleged that they were followed by a group of people while ambling near the railway station.

Later, the group started passing comments at them and forced the couple to stop and take selfies. The group's harassment soon turned violent and they suffered critical injuries.

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