To comprehend the incomprehensible

The farmers in the state of Maharastra commit suicide due to usury prevalent in that region. It is quite understandable that it is because of ill literacy associated with them .Moreover, state run cooperative societies do not come to their rescue. This is the condition of rural india.

Let us focus urban India a middle aged upmarket, tech-savvy sophisticated man pushes his family members to get killed before he commits suicide. He has the secured life , wife, children, bank balance . Above all, degree from prestigious university what pushed him to take this extreme step in his life . Surely, there must be something wrong in the way of life . Yes! greedy and avarice are the prime reasons. We will discuss further on this matter in my later blogs.

aSATYAMave jayathe

If king Dhirudhurastra had strong willed he would have averted the collapse of his empire in front of his eyes.This week the India INC. faced the dhirudhurastra of corporate world facing his empire crumbling. Both Dhirudhurastra are blind in their approach . Both had unbridled penchant for their sons. As a result, both had invited doomsday at their will.

These days it is very difficult to pass a good certificate to anybody . Today's mentor could turn out to be tommorow's tor"mentor".

Thirukazhukunram: A Mukti Stal

This sleepy small town is situated around 60 kms from chennai ,12 kms from chengalpattu and 17 kms from mahabalipuram. Pakshi theertham (Sanskrit) is the name given to this place. The place draws a thin crowd each day as the importance of this place has not been preached by the media. Unike Thiruvannamalai, which got the importance among the mass by the films like annamalai, arunachalam.Thirukazhukunram needs media publicity. Sanctity wise, this place is second to none as it is also called Dakshina Kailasam. The presiding deity is called vedagereeswarar (LORD OF KNOWLEDGE HILLS) and his consort is called thirpurasundari(literal translation is MISS UNIVERSE) trilok comprises of bhulok--earth, aakaasha----space, devlok-----celestial world as the godess has been acclaimed as beauty in all these lokha she is named as thiripurasundari.

Coming back to stala purana , there are two temples in this town at foothills the deity is called bakthavalaeswarar the same deity also perched atop the hills as vedagereeswarar. there are four hillocks surrounding the temple and the temple is situated in one of the hillocks.
The four hillocks represent each veda namely, rig,yajur,sama and atharvana . The stala vriksha (tree associated with the temple) is banana tree. The girivalam (cir ambulation) is performed on purnima every month the radius of this cir ambulation is around 5kms.

The story behind pakshi theertham goes back like this Due to the curse by the lord shiva two brahmaputras were taken to the shape of eagles and they would get the mukti(salvatio0n)at the end of the kali yuga till such time they would have to repent in the form of eagles. Every day two eagles comes to the temple around noon time (It is believed that they start their journey from benares in the morning they have the lunch at thirukazhukunram before heading towards rameshwaram in the evening and then they return to chidambaram for the night stay ) Before taking lunch they circle the temple two times and they are provided with chakkra pongal(jaggery rice) Of late, the arrival of eagles have been stopped because of ecological imbalance.
There is another unique incident associated with the this place is " conch comes out from a temple tank". One can see such coonchs at the temple office.This happens once in every twelve years synchronized with the planet Jupiter enters the kanni rasi(virgo) Around same time , the town wears a festive look of celebrating "lakshadeepam" the entire town every household and every establishment is illuminated with earthen lamps. The importance of this place is found in several ta mil hymns. A must visit for a solace searching person definitely the almighty showers you with that one.

How secure we are?

Of the 195 countries of the world ,192 are members of the united nation. Generally, we believe "might is right" dictum. To show off our mighty(ness) accumulation of arms invasion of other countries are regarded as the signs of "powerful" nations. There are four countries which do not have the security forces to defend their people. they are Iceland, Andorra,Monaco and Liechtenstein . All four countries are wealthy nations having a peaceful existence. Look at the sub continent India spends roughly 2.5% of its GDP towards Military expenditure yet citizens of this country feel unsafe. One could argue the geo politico reasons yes I agree.
Secured life should be sought within oneself if it is searched outside one has to feel like Indians in India. The other countries could make a derision on those four countries for not having "secured set up". For which I am again going to say the cliche its all mindset.
The more we talk of security we ultimately land in unsecured zone. Let the nature take its own course. Don't we see the difference between the fall from a 2nd staircase and the fall from the 40th floor?Of course, exceptions are there to testify but exception do not play major part of human life.

Snippets from arthasashtra

This treatise was written by kautilya during the maghadha rule of pataliputra. In this book he has given an insight into the state administration. This speaks about real politik.

1. Always have a close eye on our "friendly" nations . In the world of diplomacy nothing is sure. When pandit Nehru blindly befriended china by following panchsheel .He was snubbed by the Chinese masters. When people revolution took place in china, it was evicted from the permanent membership , that membership was offered to India by other permanent members Nehru declined it citing the reason not at the displeasure of china. Now, India is trying its level best to get the permanent membership which is being thwarted by the Chinese. Not only that China considers India as a "potential nuisance" as a result it even plays regional card to bar India from entering ASE AN league.
2. Whenever there is a dip in the revenue collections to the state exchequer create new god and construct new temples. Kautilya says people have the herd mentality one should capitalise on that for the welfare of the state. In the recent times, we do see such mentality in the 70's when santoshi mata films were released people started talking about santoshi maa ..santoshi maa... after sometime it fizzled out.
3. Try to "entice" the disgruntled individuals , groups from the enemy camp. the reason behind it as they could be used as a "source " in the later times. In ramayana, Lord ram was about to launch an attack on Ravana .Ravanna's brother Vibhishana changed camp to lord Rama. Lord Ram knew that vibhishana was bitten by "power bug" so in order to acheive his ascendancy to the throne vibhishana thought it would be better for him to side with Lord Ram. In the modern times, we see cultural attache in every attache they actually do this to "buy" the disgruntled elements. Bombard them with wine,women and other worldly matters.
   
4. Use reformed convicts service. Make them to establish their asharam at the outskirts of the cities to monitor the activities of the those who act against the state. It is based on the principle "diamond cuts diamond" . How a wild elephnat is domesticated ? by using the services of a domesticated elephant.
   

Everything is transient

The sage bharadwaj had a disciple to whom he taught everything about human life in spite of that there seemed to be a vacuum in the mind of the disciple about the life. The sage intuitively understood the student's predicament he came to the conclusion there was no use of teaching theoritically so he asked his student to go to another sage living in a different place. The student reached the said place and found out that the place did not look like an ashram , on the contrary, he found a palace. Once he entered the palace, he came to know it was King janak palace(King janak is known as karma yogi since he discharged his duties without any attachment ) When the student entered the palace he saw the king was enjoying the dance and music. He got bewildered for a moment about the king's behaviour. on seeing the student's arrival to the court , the King said that he would teach the life lesson tommorrow without even asking the student for what purpose he came to his court.(The great sages have the power of clairvoyance) The student was accomodated in a luxury room the hospitatlity was at the highest . The next morning king came to his room and asked him did he sleep well? the student said" there was no shortcoming in the facilities but how could I sleep when a big sword was swaying above the head tied to a tiny thread suspended from the ceiling that made me to stay awoke through the night". The king said now you have understood thelife lesson . the life is full of uncertainities death can happen anytime,anywhere no body could say anything. Further he said , this time too, about his last evening enjoyment of dance and music, without the student asking any question about it . The king said" i did enjoy the dance and music with a thought in my mind that death could occur anytime,anywhere . So my dear young man , never have an attachment to the earthly matters remain like a lotus in the water.
When a question was posed to Sri Ramkrishna Paramahamsa about negotiating mundane life with spiritual life he said" treat yourself as a servant in a rich man's house you have the accessbility to car and other gadgets at the bottom of the heart you are also aware that these things do not belong to you then you can discharge the duties without grief.

The mixture of HE and SHE

"There is little bit of pakistani in every indian and there is little bit of indian in every pakistani". This statement was made by Pakistan's president Asif ALl Zardari .This write-up has nothing to do with politics. The underlying meaning of the statement was we both share same ancestors. As the noted writer, Salman Rushdie rightly titled his book "MIDNIGHT CHILDREN". Now, the question is are men and women different in the eyes of god?. No. In the eyes of creator, Both are equal. Actually, you can see a feminine force in every man and vice-versa. Nobody behaves uniformly at every stage. To elucidate my point let me quote an example which I consider timely- suited. The husband has just received pink slip from the office he is crest fallen he thinks that the doomsday has arrived with this mindset he reaches home and cries about the unpromising future. (This brings about the feminine force in a man) At this juncture, wife infuse confidence "come on darling, you have immense talent don't consider this as a failure take it as an experience".(This brings about the masculine force in a woman) . Based on this analogy only hindus worship shiv lingam. There is no sakthi without sivam and vice versa.But, the members of other faiths make deragatory remarks about the practice. What we can say, Father forgive them, they Know not what they do...........