Om Shanthi Om...

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Book Review: Living with Himalayan Masters

When my husband got this book, I got furious as I doubted if he has got plans to tread in spiritual path renouncing his family life due to my never ending demands and complaints….

But slowly I am realizing the truth that Spiritualism is not just about renouncing worldly pleasures and running to Himalayas or hiding in some place, escaping from our duties in search of peace. It is not also about only Idol worship. It involves advanced science of mind and body control and great learning. I would say this book is only for persons who are already into spiritualism understanding the right meaning of it. It would be very difficult to appreciate the great learning Swami Rama is sharing with us in this book, if we are so naïve to the world of spiritualism.

Swami Rama,the founder of Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, takes us back to his childhood days asking all questions like what these yogis do by mediating for so long? Why do they waste their time and energy sitting in some remote place of Himalayas? How did they learn all tantras and mantras and why should they learn this if they are yogis…and many more. His master was so nice to him and gave him time to realize and appreciate the essence of spiritualism by himself. He takes us through each phase of his life in a very interesting way sharing his experiences with great spiritual personalities.

Bharata, one of the Sanskrit names for India comes from Bharati( Bha-knowledge, rati-lover) meaning lover of knowledge. India has got great learned sages who have preached us many ways to achieve enlightenment. Unfortunately we just follow the unwanted part of it and fight for religions and caste which will take us nowhere. Swami Rama explains the various paths to attain enlightenment - Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Raja Yoga, Sri Vidya. He also explains the beauty of Himalayas and other spiritual places in India. I came to know the truth that these sages are highly learned people and they have immense power in them. Spiritualism is not meant only for people who are counting their last days; it is for each and every person who is really keen to live a happy meaningful life. It is the answer to the questions -Who am I? What is my responsibility in this world? What is the meaning of life?

It is a way to understand your inner self. The yoga system of Patanjali with meditation and vegetarian style of living can make a drastic change in our lives.

To summarize it is a book giving intricate details about the various paths of enlightenment in a very light way. It’s a must read for those interested in spiritualism.

Indian Names

Indians generally name their kids after their grandfather/grandmother/father/mother name or choose from god/ goddesses names as if they are their first close relatives!!!!
I personally feel having "Family Names" is a good concept as we can always track down our family tree…but now with the great influence of western culture and always having jobs away from home town, joint families and family get-togethers are a rare happening. I wish the concept of "Family" at least remains in long run. The great boon of Indians is their family values and traditions and this generation should understand the value addition of these and follow that rather getting influenced by just seeing the convenient part of western culture
In this IT era, our interaction with foreigners has increased a lot. It is a great challenge for me to pronounce a Chinese name properly and even few Indian names are tongue – twisters for foreigners. Here is what happens when the name is really long…..
An Indian guy named "Anantharaman Subbaraman" arrived at the New York airport and ended up waiting for his visa for about 2 hours for the authorities to call his name. He got fed up and went to them and asked why they haven’t called his name yet.
They said that they have been calling him for the last 2 hours as "Anotherman Superman"
Another example is the name of my spouse and brother. They have the same name Venkata Subramanian. I know by now both of them are so fed up with their long names. The space would not be enough in any form if they were to write their names with surname which is Venkata Subramanian Nagarajan(29 chars) and Venkata Subramanian Krishnamoorthy(34 chars)….oooffff even I need an energy drink now. :) Could you guess how many names you can form out of this name? Venkat, Venkata, venky, subu, mani, manian, venkatesh, venkatesa and recently nsubrama has joined the list which really sounds so funny…moreover with this name there is always a confusion of middle name and you have to give a detailed explanation of how to spell and call your name….
So future Indian parents please keep short and sweet names to your kids…:)

Our sweet,short trip to Singapore

Our plan to visit Singapore came true this year...
We boarded Indian Airlines 957 at 00:30 hours on 20th may’07 and landed in Changi Airport – Singapore at sharp 7.15AM. We were greeted by our agent with a good smile and he dropped us in Summer View Hotel. After refreshing we decided to explore Chinese food for breakfast. We were happy to see a Chinese restaurant with caption “Purely Vegetarian”, but after entering inside we were confused they had chicken, mutton, prawn etc….i am still not sure as per Chinese what goes as “vegetarian”. After a long explanation to them about "vegetarian food" we successfully got a cup of vegetable noodles. They serve noodles in a big bowl with lots of soup. Now I came to know that these restaurants are for people who wish to become vegetarians. So just to make them feel they are still having non-veg the names of dishes will sound like chicken fry noodles, mutton soup etc, but everything will be made out of TOFU.
We started off for city tour at 11am. We saw the Singapore cricket club, parliament, Supreme Court, Indian national army monument, suntec city, Merlion park, china town and little India. It almost looked like a sister city of Chicago with so many sky scrapers. Roaming around for 3 hours under scorching sun we were so tired by the time we were dropped back in Little India. We again walked for 10min to reach “Komala Vilas” to have good south Indian lunch. Yes the food was good, but I didn’t like the customer service there. I sincerely feel Indians should improve their customer service in hotels set up abroad not just to keep up our country’s name but also to help people who are really interested to try our food. I think they are not bothered as in every place these hotels are crowded by Indians and they earn much more than their targeted income. Still it would be good if they can at least have a menu card, with brief explanation about each food item and hand over the same with a pleasant smile……
We returned back to hotel by 4pm took rest for some time and got ready with great expectation for our Night Safari…We boarded the tram with a strict rule of no flash photography. They took us through animals of Asia, Africa, America and Indo Malayan region. The Fishing cat trail was a scary but interesting trekking. On exiting we felt as if we are walking out of a jungle bidding adieu to wild animal friends. Safari was wonderful.

The next day we started off fresh to Sentosa by 7.30am. With the previous days experience we carried 3 bottles of water with us. We couldn’t find a drinking water tap in any of the place. They had only bottled water (1.25$) or other carbonated drinks. We took MRT from Buggies station to Harbor front. We always grab a cup of fresh juice from one Chinese fruit juice shop. I was not familiar with half of the fruits they had in their shop as those are not available in normal juice shops of India. My favorite was peach with honey. They also had asparagus, aloe Vera and there was a separate shop for herbal juices.
Enjoying the fresh juice we got down at Harbour Front. From there we took cable car to Sentosa. The aerial view of Singapore was awesome especially the port and sentosa entrance. We were the early birds in Sentosa that day as we reached by 9am. There was no long queue anywhere so we could quickly cover major attractions one by one. The butterfly park, 4D magic show, herbal garden, merlion, dolphin show, animals show, underwater world were wonderful. By the time we were out of our excitement and started feeling hungry it was 3pm. We finished our lunch and went to the southern most point of Asia and spent some time in Palawan beach. The highlight was the “Songs of the sea” – an excellent laser show.

The next day we started off to Jurong Bird Park. The park was so green and we enjoyed watching all varieties of birds. We took small breaks here and there due to light showers. The highlight was the Eagle show, I got so scared when a big eagle flew very close to me…the eyes of it really looks like a villain.  it was 4pm by the time we came out of bird park so couldn’t go to zoo. Came back to hotel took some rest and started with full josh to do shopping in Mustafa – the largest shopping mall of Singapore. For every small article they have a huge collection of all brands and varieties. As we get all stuff in India now for a cheaper price we didn’t do much shopping there, being so lazy to carry more stuff on our way back…we spent three hours in the mall and came back to Little India and had food in “Ananda Bhavan”.
The next day we started off early to “Singapore Zoo”.
There are so many interesting things to be learnt from animals and birds.
Yes I am not joking, the team work of elephants, parental care shown by Penguins (check out “March of the Emperor’ movie), kangaroos, the struggle of fawns to stand up in its own legs within 20 minutes of its birth, all these made me wonder if we humans can compete with them in these aspects. There are certain bad aspects too – laziness of lion (don’t know why it was called “King of the jungle”), eating their own species in extreme hunger situation, polygamy etc. we walked a lot seeing all trails and it was good fun especially with orangutans. They are more like us  or we are more like them. When the trainer says smile, it gives a big smile with its horrible big teeth. They snatch food from each other, hit them, the very next moment hug and start playing with each other. The highlights were the elephant show and animal show. We started off from zoo by 6 pm and went to china town and purchased few varieties of herbal tea. The shop keeper was so good and tried explaining us the features of each variety with great difficulty in English. We walked around the town for couple of hours and came back to hotel.
We missed the cruise ride, singapore science centre,DHL Balloon ride. hope to make it up in our next trip:)
The next day with so much of difficulty we forced ourselves to leave the beautiful city.
If they can maintain that small city in such an excellent way, we can do much better if only our politicians can learn the best policies followed by them and implement it in their motherland.
Refer this site to plan your singapore trip.

60 years of independence

INDIA
I feel I should live a successful and happy life which should give me immense joy when I look back at it, during my 60s...This holds good for any country too....
Is every Indian happy on this grand historical day of the country....stepping into 61st year of independence....I am sure you would be hearing a big NO from at least 80% of Indians...remaining 20% might be deprived from so many things that they don’t get a feeling of living in independent India.
Are we happy looking at our history since Independence. I really doubt if our syllabus is updated with at least the 10 years of post-independence happenings. Can our ministers show any state/national plan which was executed successfully on time in the last 20 years...Do we have a clear plan for the next 20 years....
All NEWS channels, even economists, industrialists predict India is shining, growing, would be a super power in 2020....(???!!!) It would be a day dream unless the basic building blocks of the society changes. Only when Castes and Corruption are eliminated from our social block we can think of development. We have misused our freedom to a great extent, being lead in that path by our "so called" great leaders of the nation who ruled/are ruling after independence. Freedom to encroach others land, freedom to kill/fight anyone at any place, freedom to break rules, freedom to give/receive bribe, freedom to threaten people to vote for them....Are we proud of having such a freedom...
Inspite of all these drawbacks India's GDP growth is 9% (2005/06). Thanks to the hard work of all Entrepreneur's whose ...Though the cheap back office work in IT is a major contributor, gradually Knowledge and Business consultancy services is also growing.
But what is government's contribution in infrastructure development. It sounds so silly when you hear news like "if you have broken rules in construction, you can pay penalty and escape from government's clutches"...few questions to the government.
-- Why can’t you enforce strict rules and stop corruption. Is it because all politicians are thriving only on their earnings gained through corruption?
-- Why can’t you improve the education system in government schools to make them par with private schools or fund economically downtrodden people rather running behind reservations?
-- Why don’t you think of mass production using the extensive man power we have in the country...
-- Why don’t you learn the good things from western countries apart from blindly following their unwanted cultures?
--why don’t they take any action on controlling the ever growing population....
When great persons like Dr.Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh with their great position and power can only give lengthy inspiring speeches, I can only write lengthy blogs cribbing about our country.... One aspect which I could feel happy about is though we fight among ourselves we don’t indulge in terrorism or poke our nose in others business as some of the super powers do….Wish it continues...
Hope to see a better India in near Future. Vande Mataram....

Music Energy

The best way to prepare yourself to face a hectic day in India is to listen to your favourite songs on your way to office. I usually enjoy listening to FM Radio everyday morning and I am a great fan of Vasanthi(best RJ for the year). I like her for maintaining liveliness throughout her program and the smart topics she chooses everyday for discussion.
But today was the first day i listened to my favorite songs in my ipod....
wow it was great...especially when i heard "Kaatzrin mozhi..." i forgot i was surrounded by hundreds of people rushing to office to face just another day of their life...
i could hear even the sounds made by the smallest instruments in spite of the Bangalore's noise pollution...
The best way to beat the blues of Bangalore traffic is to listen to music when you travel...rather cribbing about it....
Make the best use of music energy.....

Risky life

With the little rainfall that showered few days before all the electric posts in Bangalore have inclined to another 10 degree.
Its really painful and scary to see those slanting poles which poses a great threat to fall at any time.
Hope the ministers in charge of it and the sub contractors who implement it realize that even their kith and kin who are staying here are posed to the same threat as the normal people. why cant they assure 100% quality in such very important infrastructure facilities...
Hope a great revolution happens and corruption in India completely vanishes.

A very Special Day–June 28th-Appa/Amma Wedding Day

In the world of continuous cribbing to have better things, and as the better thing always seems to be in others hand, we need to sit back and relish few of the best things that has been gifted to us in your life. Beautiful nature, your birth as a capable human being, air, water etc…
Out of all, the greatest gift is our “Parents”. Good the creator decided not to give control to us in selecting our Parents. I am so grateful to the Almighty for gifting me with wonderful parents.
My parents are my first best teachers and my source of great inspiration. Even now I have a new lesson to learn from them everyday.
The 20th century parents in India were not so broad minded and they were torn between their tradition and the incoming western influence. As my father was in army we had strict rules at home, right from waking up early, being clean, following healthy diet etc. (we always had enough reasons to break these rulesJ).
My Dad is my first hero – be on the day when he gets me ice cream for scoring first rank, taking us for our favorite movie adjusting his work schedule (which was a very rare event in our family), taking me with him during his morning walks, encouraging me to go for my basketball match when I had four stitches in my forehead, motivating me to make my own decisions in my life – right from selecting my dress to deciding my higher studies to selecting my partner, being strict to me but in a nicer way when I do mistakes, giving full freedom to my thoughts and actions which few dads were doing in 20th century. I admire him the most when I listen to his childhood stories and his great struggle to come up in his life. I would be surprised when he promptly asks “Are you ok Sumi?” when I have a very slight cold or I am little upset that too over phone. The only thing which I disagree with him is his tensed way of doing things. I am still not able to compete with him in being perfectionist in all the tasks I do.
His aim was to give the best to his children and he has given more than that to us.
My Mom – she is the binding force of our family. As my Dad was in military he stayed in his camp areas which usually would be in north India, whereas we stayed with our mom in south India. I could experience the pain which my parents were undergoing for more than 10 years for our sake when I stayed in US for 8 months away from my husband. At least I had the luxury of online chat, mail etc but her only means of communication was snail mail which would take two weeks to reach my dad and it would be more than a month when she would get a reply for her mail.
Still my mom managed the situation in an excellent way. She is the best finance manager I have ever seen. Without all the current facility of internet, phone banking she used to keep track of her accounts in a perfect way. On any day any time she could give the mini statement of our bank account including her investment, would be profit/expenditure details... :) really amazing, even with all these facilities it is a great struggle for me to manage my finance!!!! I could discuss anything under the sky with her, be it a simple Recipe or Ragas, Yoga or politics. The best part I admire in her is her great adaptability. I disagree with her attitude of worrying too much for small things, which she has stopped doing it nowadays. This is to say them how special they are not only on this day but on everyday of my life. I don’t have words to praise and thank you - Dad and Mom for all that you have done for me. I am what I am only because of you.
Wishing you Many Many More Happy Returns of the Day....:)

Sivaji-The Boss:)

We had good fun watching "Sivaji-The boss" movie last week. Shankar has given a strong message this time also but in a very light way...Rajini is at his best in this movie...Rehman's background music was great especially the one for Rajini's first fight - it is a mela of all musical instruments.....
vivek's comedy was good...and you have "thathuva padal" as below.

Sega Fight-a
Sivaji Right-a

Vaada Vaada Vaangikkada
Vaayil Beeda Pottukkada
Poda Poda Polachu Poda
Podava Vaangi Kattikoda

Sachin Adicha Sixer Thaanda
Sivaji Adicha Puncture Thaanda

Singam Kooda Jujubi Thaanda
Sivaji Vaayil Jilebi Thaanda

Power Ranger Jetix Thaanda
Pathu Viral Jimmix Thaanda

Paayum Vegam Jetli Thaanda
Punch Vacha Idli Thaanda

Dhik Dhik Dhik Dhik ..
Nenjil Dhik Dhik ..

Hope Shankar's dream which is every Indian's dream comes true soon.....

Cheeni kum

Maestro is back with his melodies in "Cheeni Kum". It always feels great to listen to the melodies of Illayaraja. Shreya goshal’s voice adds feather to the maestro’s work.
It’s a great treat to all music lovers but actual "Cheeni Kum" for south Indians as we have already listened to these songs. Hope we get to hear more classics from Illayaraja.
I watched "Life in Metro"…I wonder if the life style in India has become so bad or the director could only look at the other side of our society. What was his point in taking this movie – bringing awareness to this generation youth and family persons? He might have done it in a much better way!!!!!
I didn’t enjoy the movie at all as there were no aspects of fun in the movie. Eagerly waiting for Shivaji – The BOSS, for two reasons, first one is I am a great fan of Shankar movies for its grandness and its theme, second I liked the acronym BOSS which stands for – Bachelor of Social Service….wow great idea Sankar-ji….

Dream come true...

The best part of my stay in US was my dance classes. i enjoyed each and every moment of my dancing...I still remember my childhood days dance class where my teacher(Smt.BalaSubbalakshmi) used to make us dance a single step for more than 20 times. it is because of her effort and my mothers motivation that i developed great interest in dance, but I couldnt complete the course as our family shifted to other place.
Finally after 17 years I could continue my dance in US. Meenakshi my guru here was very supportive and encouraging. with all her motivation I learnt new dances with full enthusiasm . hats off to all my dance class mates. we had good fun in all our classes...
March 2nd,2007 is a very special day in my life now - the day i performed my solo maiden dance performance in Madison,US.
http://www.kalaanjali.com/events/event_details/2007/03/02/index.html
I wish I could continue this great art throughout my life.
Jaya TV is doing a great work to promote classical dance through their "Tha ka dhi mi tha" program. Hats off to them.

Bhagavad Gita for busy people

For those who dont get time to read the full version of Bhagavad Gita here is the link to get the gist of it.
http://hinduism.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=hinduism&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dlshq.org%2Fdownload%2Fgita_busy.pdf

my favourites from Bhagavad Gita:
Thy right is to work only but never with its fruits. Let not the fruit of action be thy motive,nor let thy attachment be for inaction. Perform action, being steadfast in Yoga abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is Yoga.

Control Raga-dvesha, obstructors of the spiritual path. Do your own duty well. Control
desire and anger-the enemies of wisdom. Master first the senses. Kill this enemy-desire by
restraining the self by the Self and by knowing Him who is superior to intellect.

With the self unattached to external contacts he finds bliss in the Self: with the self engaged in the meditation of Brahman he attains endless bliss. The enjoyments that are born of contacts are only generators of pain, for they have a beginning and an end, O son of Kunti (O Kaunteya); the wise do not rejoice in them.

Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone, let him not lower himself; for the Self alone is
the friend of oneself and this Self alone is the enemy of oneself. The Self is the friend of the self
for him who has conquered himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, this self stands in the position of an enemy like the external foe.

Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is moderate in eating and recreation, who
is moderate in exertion in actions, who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness. Little by little let
him attain quietude by intellect held in firmness; having made the mind established in the Self, let him not think of anything.

Brilliant Parallel :)

OLD VERSION...
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance). Opposition MP's stage a walkout.Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes Special Reservation for Grass Hopper in educational
Insititutions & in Govt Services.
The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden' Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion dollar company in silicon valley.100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...
As a result loosing lot of hard working ants and feeding the grasshoppers India is still a developing country...... Can any one dare to bring India out of this clutches...

nenju porukuthilai intha nilaiketa manitharai ninaithu vital.
solladi shiva shakthi nila sumayena vazhnthidal purihuvayo...
valamai tharayo intha manilam payanura vazhvatharke....

Gods Debris

Excellent article I read recently. Check out the below link
http://images.ucomics.com/images/pdfs/sadams/godsdebris.pdf

It gives a new perspective about the existence of god and our belief on the super power.