Childhood…!?!

My childhood was the time when I was innocent

when the world seemed to be fair

when my universe was around my toys…

My childhood was the time when I lived in dreams

when everyone was selfless

when everyone appeared to be a friend…

My childhood was the time when my life was full of colors

when sorrows never knocked my door

when smile was gift presented to everyone…

My childhood was the time when love was pure

when there were no obligations

when tenderness prevailed…

My childhood was the time which is long gone

tears flow from my eyes when I go back in my childhood…

My childhood will never come back but

the child in me will never go…

Stay tuned and C-H-I-L-D-L-I-K-E...!

Immersion...!?!

On the auspicious occasion of Anantchaturdashi, popularly known as Ganapati Immersion Day, I would like to share my view of a most heated discussion about the proposition of Janlokpal Bill by Anna Hazare. I chose this day to bring on this topic for two reasons –

1. I am receiving a lot of response from the near-and-dear ones as well as friends, acquaintances and readers, both verbally and in writing, about my perspective of this activity.

2. It is the most apt day the ‘Immersion Day’ to bid goodbye to many things.

With all due respect to Anna’s credibility, intentions and fortitude, I will like to put up few points and stories that may elucidate my point-of-view of the happenings. I will not repeat the discussions about the way of Anna’s movement or the validity and anticipation of its outcome as these points have been discussed so many times till the moment that it would be waste of energy and time to do so again.

In philosophical, theological, or moral discussions, CORRUPTION is spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. Practically, CORRUPTION is the abuse of power, position or resources by individuals and facilitating it for personal gain in any form, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes. Now learn and understand this definition of corruption and, while understanding that it is not about the volume (quantity) but the value (quality), just do a little exercise of own retrospection.

Buddha addressing to an enraged crowd pelting stones at a woman accusing her to be sinner, said…

‘Indeed you must punish the sinner but just make sure before picking up a stone that you yourself have not sinned in your life. Those only should go ahead who are not guilty of any sin however big or small it may be…’

Mulla Nasruddin was to be tried in the court. He was charged with undermining the state's security as he admitted that he went about, village to village saying that the so called wise men in the king's court were all ignorant and irresolute as well as lacking clarity. The king asked Mulla to present his point first. Mulla asked some papers and pens to be brought and distributed to the first seven savants. He then asked them all to write individually in their respective piece of paper, their answer to the question, “What is bread?"

When the answers were all written down, the papers were handed over to the king who read them aloud, “Bread is food," the first had written.

The second said, “It is flour and water"

The third had his own version, “A gift of God"

The fourth one said, “A dough that is baked"

The fifth had noted down, “It has different meanings according to what you mean by 'bread"

“It’s a nutritious material" said the sixth while the seventh had expressed “Nobody actually knows!"

Mulla then turned to the king and said, “When they actually conclude what bread is, it only then be possible for them to decide on other matters"

Mulla continued to the king, “How can you entrust things relating to assessment and judgement to such people who have disparities in agreeing on the food that they eat daily, yet who uniformly say that I am a non-conformist..."

In this story OSHO points out the futility of following blindly what has been said, merely reproducing whatever was passed on. What can one know when one actually does not know oneself, the very substratum of all that is known? The mystery of oneself, the very nature and character of oneself, has to be unraveled first. Lest how can one be acquainted with others?

With these two stories I would like to conclude this discussion wishing the entire human race in general and Indians in particular to –

• Be Aware of Oneself first
• Refrain from any activity that corrupts the being
• Stop engaging in the unethical conduct for any reason
• Developing a vision to the aspects of any activity in long run and finally
• Be the change you want to see…!

Stay tuned and CLEAN…!

Be Happy...!

This is a true story that I received in mail from a friend of mine and apart from similitude the attitude and faith part of it forced me to share it on my blog with all my readers. I hope you get the insight and inspiration…!

Around twenty years ago, I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find satisfying work, and I found this especially difficult, as I had a lot of experience and a Masters degree.

To my shame, I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had lost my apartment. I had been through five interviews with a company and, one day between bus runs, they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus barn like a zombie of disappointment.

Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet suburban neighborhood, I had an inner wave - like a primal scream - arise from deep inside me, and I thought, "Why has my life become so hard? Give me a sign, I asked, a physical sign, not some inner voice type of thing."

Immediately after this internal scream, I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl. As she passed, she handed me an earring and said I should keep it in case somebody claimed it. The earring was stamped metal, painted black and said 'BE HAPPY.'

At first, I got angry - yeah, yeah, I thought. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energy into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided, then and there, to make a list of 50 things I was grateful for.

At first it was hard, then it got easier. One day, I decided to up it to 75. That night, there was a phone call for me at my friend's house from a lady who was a manager at a large hospital. About a year earlier, I had submitted a syllabus to a community college to teach a course on stress management. She asked me if I would do a one-day seminar for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job.

My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing ovation and many more days of work. To this day, I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude to gratitude.

Incidentally, the day after I found the earring, the girl asked me if anyone had claimed it. I told her no, and she said, "I guess it was meant for you then."

I spent the next year conducting training workshops all around the Seattle area. Then I decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived previously. I closed my one-man business, bought a plane ticket and got a six month visa from immigration.

One month later, I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small, beautiful cottage, two miles from a paved road in the highlands of Scotland.

'THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE' has been my motto for years now and, yes, it completely changed my life...!

Stay tuned and E-N-D-U-R-E...!

Prayer...!?!

If you find that this poem by Rabindranath Tagore reads more like a prayer chant from a religious book, you won't be far from the truth.  The original Bengali poem which Tagore himself translated as below, was titled "Prayer".  It is really a plea for freedom from dogma...!

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,

let my country awake...!

Stay tuned and A-W-A-K-E...!

Three Stories...!?!

India was on fire with candles for last couple of weeks and on the occasion of Ganapati Festival, is feeling more triumphant than ever. This is just to make the people of India a little aware of the disposition of the professed victory over government and with Teacher's Day just around the corner, a sincere effort to get them on the REAL path…!

1. MEET JOHN DOE (1941)

A English movie written by Richard Connell and directed by Frank Capra goes something like this…

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement. At last everyone, even Ann, takes her creation seriously...but publisher D.B. Norton has a secret plan…

2. MAIN AZAAD HOON (1989)

A Hindi movie written by Javed Akhtar and Directed by Tinu Anand has following theme...

A newspaper reporter exploits an ordinary man for few rupees to pose as a man who is fighting against the corrupt politicians and prints imaginary stories in his name to improve the circulation of her newspaper. People take him for real and he becomes a powerful leader of poor man. One day the paper prints a letter in his name that he is going to end his life fighting corruption. This puts the ordinary man in a fix. He knows that at this juncture he can't refute the accuracy of all those stories. He also realizes that he is the sole hope of millions. Finally, he buckles under moral pressure and jumps from an incomplete multi-storied building and ends his life…

Source – http://www.imdb.com/

3. DR. SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN

THE PHILOSOPHER PRESIDENT OF INDIA (1962 – 1967)

“It is wrong to think that man is in the grip of determinism either of Karma or biology or environment. He is endowed with the power of choice. He can rebel and protest against unjust social order. The ethical basis of democracy is faith in the significance of man. The human person is not a mere wave on the ocean of history which fancies that it pushes the flood while it is carried on by it ... Man can cause new currents to surge up in history. It is from history that we learn nothing. Will man learn lessons from history and live with responsibility towards future?

The saga of scientific progress is spectacular and breath-taking. But morally the world has not registered an inch of progress since the birth of man. Man’s greed and selfishness increased in proportion to his material advancement. Consequently there is no guarantee that he will make a right choice and make the world safe for future. This should not be deemed as pessimism and that the world is steadily heading towards a certain doom. One bright thing about man, which ought to be borne ever in mind, is that he is different from nature and hence utterly unpredictable. No external force or necessity can ever drive him to the wall. He is essentially free, living in a dark cozy cell. He is the king of infinite time and space. His potentialities are unlimited. He can transcend his own limitations if only he wills…”

The end-product of evolution, according to Dr. Radhakrishnan, is a morally evolved society shaped evenly by freedom and responsibility. He calls it Brahmaloka. It is his equivalent of Gandhi’s Ramarajya. His ideal man is a holy man; a saint, not a genius or a man of power. His ideal man reshapes human institutions with freedom coupled with responsibility with compassion which embraces all. He does not work merely for his own salvation; he accepts to uplift the entire society around him. Thus he works for Sarvamukti – liberation of the community as a whole. He transcends his own limitations. Hence, he is unique and uninvolved.

“History”, says Radhakrishnan, “is a matter of unique individuals involved in unique events. It is those, who stand outside history that make history.” Dr. S. Radhakrishnan thought of an ordered society in which equality, liberty and fraternity are a really realized reality, a society, a haven of freedom, dreamed of by Rabindranath Tagore in his famous lyric beginning “Where the mind is without fear…!”

Source – TRIVENI – devoted to Art, Literature, History and Culture. Its main function is to interpret through English the creative writing in different languages in India to the people of all states and to the world outside.

Stay tuned and B-E A-W-A-R-E...!

Atharvashirsha...!

Here is word-to-word meaning of Shri Ganapati Atharvashirsh for everyone to understand and then recite...!

O Lord Ganesha

I Pay my deep homage to you, the Lord of the Deva-Gana

You are the first facet of the Bramha-Tatva to arise

You have alone created this Entire universe

You alone can maintain this universe

You are indeed the all conquering supreme Lord

Indeed you are the "ATMA" II 1 II

Speak noble fact

Speak complete Truth II 2 II

Protect me

Protect the one who Describes you

Protect all who hear about your characteristics

Protect me & the disciples who are under Tutelage

Protect me from the obstacles (which arise during Rituals)

From the east (Similarly)

Protect me from the West,

From the North

From the South

Protect me from above & below

Protect me from all directions II 3 II

You are the constituent of speech

You are Joy & Immortal Consciousness

You are Truth, Mind & Bliss... one without a second

You are none other than divinity

You are Knowledge of Gross & Subtle types II 4 II

All the Universes manifest due to you
All the Universes are sustained by you

All the Universes get destroyed in you

All the Universes finally get merged in you
You alone are Earth. Water, Fire, Air & Either

You are the 4 types of speech & the root source of sound II 5 II

You are beyond the 3 'GUNAS', (Satva; Pure, Rajas: Activating & Tamas: Dull)You are beyond the 3 Bodies; (Gross, Subtle & Casual)

You are beyond Past, Present & Future (3 State of Time)

You are beyond 3 states of being; (Awake, dream & Deep Sleep)

You always Reside in the "MULADHARA" Chakra

You are the trinity of Power; (Creative Maintaining & Destructive Powers)

Sages always Meditate on you

You are the creator. Sustainer, Destroyer, The Lord of 3 worlds, Fire, Air, Sun, Moon, You are all inclusive & all Pervading II 6 II

After Describing the Characteristics & Cosmic Attributes Of Lord Ganesha, Atharvan Rishi Gives us the Sacred "GANESH VIDYA" i.e. the Mantra which Reveals the Sacred Form of Lord Ganesh. The Letter "GA" is to be enunciated, following by "NA" This one word Mantra is then Potentiated with the "PRANAVA" "OM". This is Sacred Mantra. (In order to make it Simpler, Atharvan Rishi Present the above easier FASHION, Remember that Knowledge was transmitted orally in those days.)

"GA" is the first part, "Na" is the middle & end "UM" formed by the bindu is conjoined with the foregoing & all of them form the Sacred word. This Mantra if pronounced properly, has the power of revaling The Divine Lord Ganesh, The sage who receives the Mantra is Ganaka & the Metre is "NICHRAT GAYATRI" The Diety is Ganapati. Om 'GANG' Ganapati My salutation to you II 7 II

Saying Thus, The Devotees should bow to the Lord.

Mediate on the single Tusked Lord, with bent Trunk

May He Grant Knowledge & Inspire me II 8 II

The "SAGUNA" Form of Lord Ganesha is presented in the above Shloka I salute the Lord with 1 tusk (Right side) Who has 4 hands; Upper Right carrying binding rope; Upper left hoalding goad; lower left carrying Broken tusk & the lower right blesses us, the mouse on his banner is also his vehicle. He is blood red in colour; Pot-Bellied; He has elephant ears & wears red clothes. He is smeared with red sandalwood & decorated with red flowers. He is eternally blessings his devotees & was existing before Cosmos. He is beyond "PRAKRITI" & "PURUSHA" & is ever creating universes. One who meditates on him constantly, is a Supreme Yogi II 9 II

Salutations to you Lord of all Deities, Ganas & all beings (Salutations To) The Post-Bellied one with 1 Tusk who destroys all obstacles, son if Shiva The Divine Lord who grants, Boons (We bow to you) Taking your name II 10 II

Stay tuned and we will talk about a movie tomorrow...!

Om...!?!