Convert - ve to + ve.

We are very often faced with situations which we can not help, at times, we have to endure. The best solution to such situations is to convert such occasions to our convenience & advantage.

Here at Mussafah where we stay, the clinic is over crowded and it takes a minimum of two hours to see the doctor for consultation, it is frustrating to sit in the clinic which is not ideal place to spend such a long time. We had this enduring experience on two / three occasions earlier.

Hence I thought I would go to the clinic with my I-pod full of songs to my liking, so that I enjoy listening songs irrespective of the atmosphere. It worked, when I went last time, it took me more than 2 hours to come out; I enjoyed my music all the while.

We should try to change the situations to our advantage, so life can be made easier.

NAMASANKEERTHANAM 1

Every Sunday Jaya TV airs the programme Namasankeerthanam at 0430 UAE time (0600 IST). Namasankeerthanam is performed by Vittal Maharaj from Govindapuram near Kumbakonam. This programme starts with 30 minutes of Bhajan followed by 30 minutes of Upanyasam on Topics of Bhakti.

I am jotting down all the points I have heard this morning, so that my ideas are clear while writing as well I may be able to revise them at a later date. Once I write I will not forget it for ever. In case if some body bumps into this site, they may also be benefited if this topic is of interest to them.

1. Brahma's Life:

Brahma's calendar is entirely different that of human being.

According to Hindu calendar there are four Yugas, all four Yugas is 50 lakh Man years. Brahma's day ie 12 hours is 50 lakh Man years, so one Brahma day is 100 Lakh man years. One Brahma year is 100 x 364 lakh Man years. His life is 100 years, so his full life is equivalent of 100 x 100 x 364 Lakh Man years ie 364 X 106 years.

2. Nama Mahima:

When a Baktha prays to Lord, HE is so pleased with Baktha to the extent of helping him in all fronts. When Draupadhi, calls 'Govinda', He sends a sari of such a length, which Duchchasana was unable to strip her & gave up becoming tired. Lord helps her in war as being an ambassador & go to Kauravas for negotiations for their rightful Rajya. HE becomes the Ratha Sarathi of Arjuna during Kurikshetra war. He helps Uthira from Aswathama's Brahmastra in protecting Parikshit in her womb. When he returns to Vaikundam, he tallies his account for the Bakthi of Draupadhi & the help HE had rendered to Pandavas, he found that HE has only repaid the interest for her Bakthi, not the principal, this he laments to Udhava, before HIS departure to Vaikundam. Such is the value of Bakthi if done with full devotion.




3. Nama Smaranam:

Vittal Maharaj also advised that if one falls short of time, he can take the Nama at least while bathing, when one has nothing else to do. This is good practice which can easily be followed.

3. Vaikundam:

Sant Gnaneswar, saint from Maharashtra lived at Alandi, near Pune was one of the very famous Bakthas of Pandarpur Vittala. He says if you want to attain Mukthi, Please come to Pandarpur for a glimpse of Vittal & your seat is reserved at Vaikundam & you will be admitted as & when your soul sheds your body.

All the above are only for people who believe in GOD & have faith in HIM.

"ABHIVADEYE"

In varnasram, all male Hindus are entitled for Yagnopaveetham, ie Poonal. The ceremony is known as 'Upanayanam', meaning, ' bringing near truth'. During the ceremony 'Gayatri' is initiated to the boy. After the ceremony, the boy does the first namaskaram to his mother seeking Biksha and pronouncing ' Abhivadheye', which is an introduction of himself on his lineage. The question arises as to why he does the first namaskaram to his mother, and not to his father & other elderly personnel in the family.

Among Dasavatharam, Lord Vishnu takes Vamana Avathar to protect Indra, King of Devas, since Asuras have won them & taken their Kingdom. Devas are in exile now. Vishnu is born to Athithi & Kashyapa Prajapathi as second son, as brother of Devendra, known as Vamana, meaning short. He is also known as 'Upendra', which is one of Sahasranamams. All the Hindu rituals for a boy since birth are conducted by Athithi & Kashyapa Prajapathi right from Namakarnam, Annaprachanam, and Upanayanam etc. Before proceeding to meet Bali Chakravarthy, King of Asuras to conquer, Vamana seeks his mother's blessings. Athithi is astonished to hear from GOD seeking her blessings, as HE is the one who blesses the whole world. HE informs her that HE is going for an important work, which will alleviate the problem of his brother, Devendra. Because of the simple fact that LORD himself is seeking the blessings from HIS mother, it is a custom that the first namaskaram is offered to mother, especially after Upanayanam, which is known as 'Dwija', second birth to an individual.

More over Abhivadheye is offered only to mother among ladies; however, among gents it is offered to one & all.

Baghavat Gita

Baghavat Gita


Gita teaches all of us the way of working.

I have recently heard a few lectures on Gita & understood the real meaning of the centre theme, which I would like to share with one & all.

The theme of Gita is as follows:

1. Do your work, as you have been destined for:

All of us are provided with some work, depending on our qualification, ability, luck etc. So we should do our work sincerely, with 100% devotion, however menial, as considered by society ie, sweeping the roads, cleaning toilets etc.

2. Do your work without any attachment:

When you do your work in the office, don't get attached to the work you perform, forget the office affairs after office hours since attachment will lead you to misery, if your work is not giving you the expected result. For example, you are working in a tender in your office, in case, if your company do not get the job you will feel very sad as you were very much involved in preparation of the tender. If you are not attached with office work, the loss or gain in the office affairs will have no effect on you, which will have a great effect on your mental health.

3. Do your work without expecting any fruit:

The result of your work is not at all your concern as long as you follow the set procedures. Do not expect any desired results from your work since the results may or may not be to your liking.

A person was devoted to helping lepers to rehabilitate them in their lives. He was in his death bed & he was lamenting that the people, whom he had helped to come out of leprosy are not helping the lepers & there are many lepers still left in the world. So his expectation from the personnel to whom he had helped has brought him only misery instead of feeling happy over the fact he had rehabilitated so many lepers.

4. Do your work realizing that you are not doing the work, HE does the work:

This is the most important aspect of Gita. When ever we do any work, we think that we do the work, which is not the reality. GOD does everything for us, we are only an instrument in HIS hands. This thinking has to be inculcated in our minds, which will make us very humble, our ego will dry up fast. Arjuna realises this after Lord Krishna disappears after his work is over in the Earth. When Arjuna departs, Lord Krishna hands over to him few ladies to be accompanied during his journey. On the way Arjuna meets some warriors who try to steal the ladies from Arjuna. He is unable to lift Kandeevam & fight against the opponents. Somehow he escapes & returns to Hasthinapura & informs Yudhishtira about the incident. He then narrates that it was all because of Lord Krishna who was guiding him, he was able to fight & win the war, now that He has disappeared, and he is not even able to lift his bow. This incident very clearly indicates the above statement.

Gita & Inshah Allah !

All the religions teach the same. It is for us to understand.

Gita preaches us :

1. Do your work, for which you are destined irrespective of its nature, without any attachment, not bothering about its result.

2. Realise that you are not responsible for the work, you are being directed by GOD.



You might have observed among Muslims, they very often use the term "Inshah Allah", which means, " GOD willing", meaning, whatever happens it is only by the will of Allah.

How two different religions teach us same philosophy, but we do not understand this, thinking that our own religion is best.

Forgiveness!!!

Forgiveness.


We all have read & are reading or hearing Upanyasams of Indian mythologies such as Mahabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavatham etc at some time of our life. The most important aspect of reading such books is to learn lessons out of it & apply them in our day to day lives. We should bear in mind the story aspect is only to make it interesting to read & remember.

We are all very much caught up in the Maya world, where we fight / quarrel with each other for unworthy reasons & never forget the bad incidents in our life, it gets replayed in our mind again & again. Another aspect is that we tend to forget good things easily. World will be an easy place to live if we develop the habit of "Forgive & Forget".

I am writing this because I came across a piece of incident in Bhagavatham which caught my attention with respect to "Forgiveness", which I would like to share with you all.

The Mahabharata war has ended after 18 days of fierce fighting between Pandavas & Kauravas. Pandavas have won the war. Almost all the Kauravas are killed in the war. Only persons left are Aswathama & Kripachariyar. Aswathama feels that he would revenge Pandavas which would make Duryodana happy, hence he approaches Duryodana & tells his plans to Kill Pandavas five sons, Duryodana pleads with him not to do so, since Pandavas & Kauravas belong to the same Kuruvamsam, at least Pandavas Children will offer tharpanam & other ceremonies due to dead personnel, which will render them moksha. But Aswathama ignores Duryodana & killed all the five children of Draupadhi, wife of Pandavas at night when the children are sleeping. Draupadhi comes wailing & her sorrow is unbounded. Arjuna takes an oath that he would catch the assassin & kill him; he starts his chariot with LORD KRISHNA as Sarathy. They chase Aswathama & catch up with him. In the meantime Aswathama releases Brahmastra to kill Arjuna, which he knows only to apply, but not to retrieve, as his father Acharya Dronachariyar has taught the art of applying & retrieving only to Arjuna. Krishna asked Arjuna to apply Prathi Brahmastra & retract both Brahmastra, otherwise meeting both astras would have ended up in burning of the entire Prabanjam; such is the power of Brahmastra. Krishna could have stopped Brahmastra, but he did not do so since Aswathama would insult that Arjuna sought the help of Krishna in fighting with him, since Krishna did not take Ayudham during Mahabharata war. They caught hold of Aswathama & brought him to Court of Dharmaputhra. All the Pandavas are agitated after seeing Aswathama & pray for his killing.

But Draupadhi, who has lost all her five children, prays for his pardon since she sees him as Acharya Dronacharya's son who has taught Arjuna the art of holding Kandeevam. He is a Brahmin & should not be killed, she does not want Aswathama's mother to suffer the loss of a son at this old age, which she is undergoing now. She prostrates before Aswathama as Guru's son.

But Bheema shouts that at any cost Aswathama should be killed, which he would do. Arjuna looks at KRISHNA for advice. HE tells that Aswathama should be killed since he has killed them in sleep & at the same time he should be spared since he is the son of their Guru. KRISHNA has always been confusing, never gives a direct answer, one will know, while going through these epics. Arjuna knows HIS heart as he is very close to HIM. He understood that HE is not in favor of killing Aswathama.

Dharma knows that he should not praise his wife in presence of one & all, but still praises her noble thinking, appreciates her qualities. It was decided to release after humiliating him by cutting his hair & removing a pendant "Chintamani" embedded in his forehead.

Though Draupadhi has lost all her children through Aswathama, she pardoned him, which goes to show how one should forgive in life. We all feel that this is extreme, how this is possible in real life. Yeah, it is true as common men it may not possible for us to behave like Draupadhi in extreme cases, which may not also happen in our lives, but if we bear this in mind, we should be able to tackle small tussles that we come across in our day to day life.

By forgiving, our mind will be free of worries & peaceful, otherwise we will be always thinking that "he has called us like this. He has done this to us etc". Let us all try to 'Forgive & Forget" & see its effect on us.

Radhe Krishna!

HAPPINESS!!!!!!

We all hear very often that one should be happy all the time, it is a journey, not a destination etc, etc. Unfortunately many of us do not know what is exactly happiness, is it that you get a admission in good college, you pass with flying colors, get a good job with fat income, getting married to a beautiful spouse, flying overseas, visiting various places etc, but these things can not happen everyday of one’s life. Does that mean that we can not be happy on other days apart from such important happenings mentioned as above? This is where I am trying to explain what happiness is. On a day today basis, one has to seek happiness, ie indulge in activities, which will bring you happiness, you play a game of tennis , badminton , you will feel extremely happy, go for an early morning walk , enjoying the chillness of the air, listening to birds chirping will bring you immense pleasure. Watch a good television programme which brings you happiness, watch a sport, such as cricket match, tennis etc, get involved in the match, appreciate the events by venting your feelings out by way of clapping, shouting etc. What I am trying to tell here is that one should do what they like the most which does not affect others, and enjoy life, which will bring real happiness, don’t overdo anything. Don’t sit & brood, keep yourself busy by doing something, at least sleep for a limited time so that your mind is afresh when you wake up. So one has to seek happiness, it will not come by itself by having a lot of money, property, family etc. If everybody in the family is enjoying by their acts, then it will be easy for the family to be happy as a whole by doing some joint events. People may be doing all the above events without knowing that they are happy, an awareness of the above fact should be developed, so that they would utter when somebody asks how are you, we always say, ‘chaltha hai’, instead of that one should say I am happy, very fine, this will psychologically improve the individual’s mental happiness unknowingly.

LONELINESS !

We are living now at Abu Dhabi with our children staying away far off in the west.

This state of living alone is frustrating.

It is felt very much during the weekends during fridays & saturdays of every week. We have nothing to do during weekends here especially in this hot climate.

Gulf & Middle east is not new to us, we have lived in Muscat for 10 years, when our children were studying. We had a lot of friends in those days, all those friends were maojorly due to our children. We used to meet with our friends everyweekend at parties.

Nowadays we hardly have any friends, it is also difficult to befriend any body new at this age. Most of the week ends we go to movies, it is a sort of time pass for me atleast since I never used to go for movies, now I am viewing all the new releases.

We have located a new park at Abu Dhabi which is quite new, which we will go regularly from now on weekends.

At least if the children were staying with us we would be busy with them although there will be a generation gap. I do not know how far this practical especially in the present days when every body is going places.

The problem would be more aggravated if we return to India for good since my wife would be busy with her own Bhajan group, whwere as I would be left alone since I have been a naomad for the past 20 years, living outside India. Although there will be suggestions from others to keep myself occupied in some activities which will keep me busy, I will have to explore that yet.

Considering all these factors joint family system is far better than the nuclear ones.

Awareness-2

AWARENESS (2)

This is like Dhoom 2.

Last month I wrote a post on the same subject, ‘Awareness’, of course that was in a different context, it was on our real physical surroundings in which one has to be cautious.

This post which I am writing now is a terminology which is quite often used in Art of Living (AOL) sessions. When I heard it in the beginning, it was quite abstract, was not very clear what the teacher is trying to convey.

Let us try to analyze this terminology.

The definition of ‘Awareness’ as per wikipedia is as follows:
In biological psychology, awareness comprises a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply understanding, just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.

In other words it is our perception or feeling to an event in our day today life.

Our perception is based on our knowledge & understanding.

At this point of time, I would like to bring certain view points on the terminology, knowledge & awareness. Generally we take it both meaning the same, but actually there is a subtle difference, let me explain this by an example:

We all know that smoking is injurious to health, it will lead to cancer etc. This is knowledge. Doctor also knows this, but you might come across doctors smoking heavily. Why so, they are in a helpless situation since they feel smoking is unavoidable, don’t feel like giving up. This situation leads to unawareness (feeling of inability to give up). So knowledge alone is not good, unless you put forth in practice. Practicing knowledge becomes awareness.

Let me narrate another incident that happened in our office a couple of days before to explain more in detail about ‘Awareness’.

We go for inspection of different sections of the company on a monthly basis after giving prior notifications well in advance so that the section’s designated representative is also present with us during the inspection so that if there is any discrepancy it can be sorted out immediately on the spot.

On one day in one section, the concerned person of the section was not present, he did not inform us anything about his absence. He was not answering his mobile too. All other members of the team requested that the inspection be completed. According to the code it is mandatory for the section representative to be present; hence I declined & cancelled the inspection. This was the second time in the past three months he was defaulting. I wrote to my boss about his attitude in ignoring the inspections. Next day I got an apology mail from the section rep that he regretted his action & sought a fresh date. Every body came & congratulated me that I cancelled the inspection. At that particular moment I started bloating, feeling high in my ego. Then I very well remembered ego should be avoided at all costs, this knowledge combined with feeling of humility brought me the awareness, which is very often talked about in our follow up sessions.

Hence awareness is a feeling of the knowledge which you have acquired.

Matrimony Search

Matrimony Search

I will give a piece of advice to all those who are looking for a suitable bride or bridegroom, whether it is parent or individual, through many matrimony portals that are available today in the web. This is out of my own experience.

When you register, please do it with whole heart, do not do a half heated attempt, I mean, please fill in all the columns of the portal, do not leave anything blank unless it is not directly applicable to you or your ward. Please imagine, when some one is surfing through various profiles, the profiles with least information will attract least attention. Please give out all your interests & hobbies in detail, these days youth are looking for people with interest in life, gone are those days when money making ability was the only consideration. Parents! please ask your children to write their own details instead of you writing about your ward’s quality, you will not do justice to that, leave it to them; they will do a better job. Please provide all details such as horoscope, photo, contact details such as phone etc without fail, which will make things easier & faster too.

Photo, is a very important feature of the matrimony. Pl upload photos taken by professionals, that will be good looking, do not upload pictures taken in a casual manner. Nowadays, before any serious discussion starts, photo is the breaking point. So if you are expecting good success rate, please upload good photos. Upload as much photos as possible. Be practical, do not argue, “I am what I am, I do not want to pose for a special photo for matrimony”. These days marriages are getting delayed due to various extraneous reasons; let us not add to that.

For ease of operations, please use gmail, since this will keep all your mails of one contact in the same folder which will make one’s life easy for handling correspondence. Otherwise, you will run helter-skelter in searching the correspondence. At one glance you will be able to glance through all correspondence provided you always handle correspondence only thro’ you gmail id.

Yet another secret, please do not sit tight if there is no response from the other party, send a gentle reminder, it works, people wake up, shake themselves up as they want their wards to be married. These days people hesitate to contact since all are scattered, priorities are different, hence to ensure success early days, better be serious & follow rigorously.

In other words, it should be run like an office, you should keep tables of correspondence with details, which makes easy for follow up.

Birthday Boy!

My 59th birthday was celebrated on 20th March with our friends from Dubai. My friend Sivasankaran had come with his wife & in-laws to grace the occasion on that day. It coincided with Prophet Mohammed's birthday, so it was a holiday for all of us in Gulf.

I had bought a kurta pajama a year before when I went to Pune to meet Vivek, which I wore on that occasion. That's what you see beside. That Pajama was too lengthy, which I was not used to, this is the new fashion it looks.

The lunch was designed bearing in mind all are interested in light food, hence the menu was Aval Payasam, Dhahi vada, Brinjal Pitle, cabbage curry, rasam, appalam ( fried), grated carrot etc.

After prostrating before the elders seeking their blessings on the eve of birthday lunch was commenced in a typical tamilian fashion, ' Gents first'. Sivasankaran was enthralled by Dahi vada, gobbled a few vadas.

You can see the lunch in full swing.


The appalam was eaten with payasam after soaking it fully which gives a fine taste. Dahi vada was heavy too, but ok once in a way!
Rasam was excellent, every body appreciated it, so lunch was grand.

We had a Satsang too on that day. My friend had brought a VCD of ' Vishaka Hari ' , a very young lady, belonging to the clan of Sri.Krishna Premi performimg a descriptive , musical kathakalakshapam on ' Sita Kalyanam ', which lasted about 3 hours. It was so nice we all missed our aftrenoon siesta especially on a hoilday afternoon after such a sumptuous lunch. She quoted from different epics, including Tulasi ramayanam, Kamba Ramayanam, Songs of different poets, but her main forte was Thyagarval, whose compositions she sang giving the meaning & the nuances of his composition. It was the most interesting event of the day, which we all enjoyed very much.

In the evening, we went to a park nearby & spent sometime walking around, returned home at 9 Pm. We ordered some food from outside & ate that with home made Thayir sadam, which a Tambrahm can never miss especially if brought up from south.

Our friends left for Dubai at 10PM for a long 90 min journey back home.


So it was a nice time we had on that day on the eve of my 59th birthday!

Awareness

One Saturday evening we were driving to drop our Bachelor friend off at Hamdan street, Abu Dhabi and returning to Al Wahda mall for our weekly shopping at Lulu Hypermarket. Things were expensive in the local super markets, hence we went to Abu Dhabi to shop in bigger supermarkets, especially Lulu, which was comparatively cheaper. We were driving through Muroor road & I took a right turn at Al Falah street signal, which turned out to be wrong one. Hence I drove straight & took a right turn to Airport road to get back to the Mall. I had to take a U-turn & hence I was waiting near the signal in the lane adjacent to the median. My wife was sitting behind & she told me that I can not take a U-turn here as there was a board depicting a crossed ‘U’. I was shocked to hear that, I did not observe that at all. I was not conversant with this rectangular signal stations based on American systems, I am more used to round abouts, which is British based. Fortunately I took a left turn & went straight ahead. By mistake, had I taken a U-turn at that place, it would be a chaos since I would be driving in the opposite direction. Thank God, my wife saved me on that day. The lesson to learn here is to be aware of your surroundings & environment, be watchful always!

The Mush Affair

Mush affair!We all always worry about what others will think of us, if I do this or that, but the reality is that no body is bothered about what you do, They have no time to think about themselves, where is the question of noticing what you are after as long your action do not affect them.I will narrate an incident which happened recently to drive my view.I have been sporting a moustache for more than 20-25 years. I have been longing to remove the moustache for a long time, but I was wondering what others would think of me if I remove the moustache, it will look odd. What will I answer if they ask as to why I removed my moustache etc. Such thoughts were preventing me from shaving my moustache.On two or three occasions, I gathered my courage to shave off, but finally I could not pull it through as I was more worried as to what others would think or what I will answer.Once I had a holiday for 5 days continuous for Ramadan , I thought I would shave my moustache on the evening of the day prior to commencement of holidays, so that by the time I go to my office after 5 days, my moustache would have grown , no body would know I had shaved off my moustache. But alas! Even this time I could not succeed due to my thinking some body would notice me in the mall or in public, so I missed that opportunity too.Finally, one day my wife was returning from home country after a short visit to our native place. I wanted to pose a different look to her, so I decided that I would remove my moustache, which is easy to do. So on the evening of her return, unmindful of what others would think of me without moustache, I shaved off my moustache to receive my wife with a flower bouquet etc.On that day flight was delayed, she came out at 0300AM with sleepy eyes, I gave her the flowers & welcomed her. She smiled & did not utter single word about my missing moustache until we reached home & asked her whether she noticed any change in my face, she said, “yeah, you are minus your moustache”.Next day I went to office with my hand over my upper lip, trying to avoid any body seeing me, of course I could not hold it on for ever. But to my great surprise, nobody’s body language even hinted that they observed my facial change, it was normal as usual. It was my misconception what others would think. So the moral of story is ‘do as you please as long it does not disturb others, don’t worry what others would think’.The climax of the event is, when I asked my wife next day whether I should continue shaving my moustache, she said “I like you only with your Moustache”.So I am restoring Moustache to please my better half!!