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The advertisement menace

cable TV came to India in early 1990s.

Until them  in my leisure time I used to read books deep into the night. I have been a voracious reader. I picked up books like Dracula, Love Story, To kill a mocking bird,  Arthur Hailey books, PG Wodehouse, Northcoote C Parkinson, most of Bertrand Russel, Dan Brown,  John Grisham, vintage  John Steinbeck  Agatha Christie, charles Dickens, Daphne Du married, Conon Doyle, Jim Corbet's Man-eater hunting novels and so many classics  like Gone with the wind.. It always refreshed  the mind and I enjoyed every moment of reading.

As I said, then we got cable TV. Initially it was giving interesting short serials (at the cost of books though) with hardly any ads. But as time rolled on ads kept interfering with viewing and then it became nauseating. I stopped watching TV except for a few live international events.

Smartphone came as a relief.  In the beginning there were no ads.But then ads started appearing and now they are killing the  internet too. Some popular social networking sites have lately become unbearable. Then there is issues like privacy breach.

Where do we go from here?

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Yogi Ramcharak

In 1904 , in his book "Fourteen lessons in yoga philosophy and Oriental occultism" Yogi RamCharak maintained that human body had an electromagnetic field. And 'infallible' scientists mocked him for this . In the fifties scientist discovered that human body has indeed an electromagnetic field.

Yogi RamCharak was none other than chicago based
William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932).  He was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and author, as well as an occultist and an American pioneer of the New Thought movement.

This book is available for FREE online download. It will answer all your questions about the unknown -- thought reading, human aura and it's colours, life after death, the third eye and much more. A five star book in style, communication and content.

***

Of books and knowledge

Lot of people love to read novels. Whether you turn pages, read a tablet, a good book can be a perfect relaxation aid and source of information. 

There are all sorts of story  books -- from DRACULA to JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL. Lately research based novels have gained popularity. These books, while telling a story, inform you about so many things. Arthur Hailey was perhaps amongst the first such writers. Take for example his HOTEL which gives you a good idea about how hotels industry runs..

One book of this genre is ROBIN COOK's  "TOXIN".  Try to get hold of it. It gives you a horrendous picture of the backstage activities of the fast food joints. It is an eye opener book which anybody who loves to live a healthy life must read.

***

Time, the enigma

Einstein maintained that there was a relationship between  time and  space. He had also said that time travels backward beyond the speed of light.

There is a famous humourous Limerick on this time/space relationship.

"There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day,
In a relative way,
And returned on the previous night"

This Limerick first appeared in an issue of the London humor magazine “Punch” in 1923.

Social Injustice

The world has widespread inequality. This ineqality could have been accepted had it not been that it has resulted in gross injustice.

Injustice is the scourge of any civilization. From ancient times  right-thinking people have raised their voice against it.

Cyrus the great is generally considered the world’s first to believe in human rights.
In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great conquered the city of Babylon. But rather than rape and pillage, Cyrus freed the slaves, declared freedom of religion and established racial equality.

In the millennia following, there have been many who wanted all humans to be equal. Among them are Martin Luther King jr, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

And the lesser known  Rosa Parks.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

***

Michaelangelo

***The Fall of Constantinople came with  the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by an invading Ottoman army on 29 May 1453 commanded by the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II, who defeated an army commanded by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos
The Ottomans  conquest was due to the use of newly discovered power of gunpowder (which powered formidable cannons).

The Greeks fled with their timeless books on art and literature and came to Italy.

That was the  beginning of the golden period of art in Europe : THE RENAISSANCE.

One of tbe immortal figures of the Renaissancs was MICHAELANGELO. Among his timeless creations is the PIETA

The Pietà is housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères.

***

Contaminated food

why do we have to eat contaminated food  ?

Take for example a loaf of your daily bread.  it is made of wheat flour . wheat is grown in the farms where heavy amount of pesticides and fertilizers get into the wheat. Now they have started adding those poisonous  herbicides also . Then in the Flour Mills the best nutrients portions of wheat  get removed and refined flour is made available in the Bakery. At bakery they add preservatives, taste enhancers, antifungal agents bleaches and quite a few other things. By this time it is not the bread we used to eat in the past. On the wrapper you read that the bread is fortified with mineral and vitamins !

Now take the example of table salt. The commercial table salt is generally made out of processes you cannot imagine . Here is a link. read it to know what you are eating.

https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/dangers-of-salt/amp/?espv=1

These are just two examples.

Why is humankind  committing suicide ?

Why are all these products not banned completely ?

***

Jakhu Temple

JAKHU  TEMPLE

Jakhu Temple is an ancient Hanuman  temple in Shimla.

It is situated on Jakhu Hill, 2.5 km from the Ridge, Shimla at a height of 8,000 feet. It offers a breathtaking view of the himalayas.

At this  ancient  Hanuman temple  every year a big festival is held during Dussehra.

You can reach the temple by foot over a steep climb from Ridge  or can hire a pony. Taxis also take you there.

Legend has it  that hindu deity Hanuman ji stopped here to rest while he was searching for the Sanjivni Booti to revive Lakshmana during the war with Ravan.

Shimla was the summer capital of the viceroy during the Raj period. Earlier, most of the area occupied by present-day Shimla city was dense forest in the 18th century. The only habitation was the Jakhoo temple and a few scattered houses.

The area was named after a Hindu goddess, Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of Kali.

***

Hare Krishna People

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known also as the Hare Krishna movement  is a spiritual movement of Bhakti Yoga. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada . Its core beliefs are based on  the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana.

ISKCON as of 2017 is a worldwide confederation. It has more than 850 temples and centres, including 60 farm communities, 50 schools, and 90 restaurants spread over the world.

Pushkar

Pushkar is a hindu pilgrimage town  in  Rajasthan, India. It is about 10 km from Ajmer city. It is located on the shore of Pushkar Lake which has many Ghats where pilgrims bathe.

^[3] Pushkar is also significant for its Gurdwaras. One of the bathing ghats is called Gobind ghat built by the Sikhs in the memory of Guru Gobind Singh.^[5]

Pushkar is famous for its annual fair (Pushkar Camel Fair).

In addition to the animal trading market, Pushkar in parallel holds a festival of folk music and dances, ferris wheels, magic shows, horse and camel races and various other traditional sports and team entertainment competitions. 

It is held over seven days in autumn marking Kartika Purnima according to the Hindu calendar.

The most famous among Pushkar temples is the red spired Brahma Temple built during the 14th century CE. It is considered a sacred city by the Hindus .

***

OF STARS ANF THE SKY

OF STARS AND THE SKY

There is a faint star formation called "seven sisters" in the constellation of Taurus which you can't see if you live in a city . You cannot also see that dim star 'Alcor' in the constellations of 'Ursa Major' (in Vedic astronomy it is that dim star called "arundhati" close to the northern formation of "Sapta Rishi") unless you have perfect young eyes.

Star watching is fun on a very clear moonless night sky.  You can see  so many stars and constellations -  Your Sun sign may be there if you know where to look for it. The milky way sweeps across the starry sky from the south to the north. And there are occasional shooting stars too !

The constellation of  Oriental hunters in the west is always visible throughout the world and the stars in its "belt" are so bright ! The two brightest stars there  are 'Beta Orionis' and 'Alpha Orionis'.This constellation is named  after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology

The twelve popular 'sunsign' constellations move along the sky everyday in the ecliptic which the Sun, Moon and planets all traverse.

Your birth chart or Horoscope is nothing but a split second photograph of these constellations and the planets 'overlapping them' at the precise moment of your birth.
And your rising sign is the constellation on the eastern horizon at that moment of your birth.

There is a relationship between the star and you which science has yet to know. The whole game of matter and energy is built around electromagnetic fields which science is slowly discovering (For instance science did not know that human beings have their own electromagnetic field until 1950s ! ) So it will take time for science to discover Astrology and retrieve it from the hordes of so called astrologers and reinvent it.

You must find sometime away from the routine and on a clear night lie in the open under the stars and gaze at them. It works like meditation , energising you and taking you to another level of existence.

***

SURKHANDA DEVI TEMPLE

Surkanda Devi is a temple situated in  Tehri District Uttarakhand India. It is at an altitude of about 3,030 metres, or 9976 ft. It is near the hill station of Dhanaulti . From the last motorable point,Kaddukhal, one has to walk on foot for three kilometers uphill to reach the hill top temple. 

Those famous words

There are WORDS that are frozen in history . Uttered at the right moment by famous persons, these words become timeless gems. Here are a few!

'PECCAVI'! This was a one word telegram sent to England by Gen. Charles Napiere when he annexed
the Sind province (now in Pakistan) to the English domains in India. In doing
this he had exceeded his brief that he would only quell the rebellion and
come back. PECCAVI, a Latin words, means ' I have sinned' and the PUN
was intended to convey, in one word, a moment of contrition and a
conquest !!

And what do we see here ! An absolutely naked man running down a busy city-road shouting 'EUREKA.!
EUREKA ! '( I have found it, I have found it !). He is on his way to the palace of king Heroin the second. The man is none other than the great ancient Greek scientist Archimedes and he has just 'accidentally' made a discovery while sitting naked in a bath tub trying to figure out the solution to a problem tormenting his king !The sheer serendipity of such simple discovery made him forget that he was stark naked !

Next we arrive in ancient city of Rome. The great Roman dictator Julius Cæser has just been stabbed in the recorded
history's most infamous act of betrayal. And you can feel the anguished dismay in the exclamation of Julius Cæser as he says "ET TU BRUTE !" (And you too Brutus !) as he looks back and collapses after being stabbed in the back by his most trusted friend Marcus Brutus and dies.
'ET TU BRUTE' has come to symbolise an act of betrayal of trust !

VENI, VIDI, VICI  IS a latin phrase meanung "I came; I saw; I conquered" attributed to Julius Caesar  after he had achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela. The phrase is used to refer to a swift, conclusive victory.

You can add more phrases !

***

CRISIS IN PRIORITIES

CRISIS IN PRIORITIES

Mindblowing amount of money is being spent in search of water on Mars; on Space Ships to the outer limit of our Solar system ; on the relationship of the massive gravitational pull of Black Holes to the radiations that manage to escape it. And so on . . .

All this would have been OK had there been enough money to burn. Research on an alternative to Internal Combustion Engine - a hundred odd years old anachronism- is crying for massive funds . Similar has been the fate of solar energy: scientists continue to be stuckup with photovoltaic cells. No money for this while they are burning trillions of dollar in search of the so called God Particle somewhere in switzerland.

One particular field that needs massive funds for research is the  human mind . There have been recurring mindless shootings in school , restaurent and holy places in many parts of the world.

With the  alarming pile up of nuclear weapons human survival is at stake. What will we achieve by finding out the mysteries inside the enigmatic Black Hile if we perish  in a nuclear holocaust.

The villain here is the EGO. Wars are the result of super egos. Amassing money to a nauseating level has ego behind it. Even religions are not immune to this.

Science must find a way to curb this EGO as spiritualism seems to have failed.

***

The Riddle

How were the great pyramids made ? what machinery was used to lift such enormous blocks of stones and to give them such a  perfect shape and  finish?

How did the ancient Indians , Greeks and Babylonians know such accurate details about the universe and about the smallest of particles and their inter relationship. How did they measure the diameter of the earth and other planets so accurately .

All religions refer to a deluge ?  Science brushes this under the. carpet by calling it 'local floods'. Civilizations are not wiped out in local floods. It is time there is a Nobel prize for prehistoric archeology. A city called old Dwarka  is lying buried in the waters of Arabian sea off the coast of Gujarat. Other such sites have been located.

Science must find an  answer to this. Mysteries of other universes can wait.

Your palm

YOUR PALM

Here is a Sanskrit verse :

"Karaagre Vasate Lakshmi Karamadhye Sarasvati | Karamoole Tu Govinda Prabhaate Karadarshanam"

Meaning:

"At the Top of the Hand Dwells goddess Lakshmi and at the Middle of the Hand Dwells Goddess Saraswati, At the Baseof the Hand Dwells Sri Govinda; Therefore one should  look at one's Hands first thing in  the  Morning on getting up".

The ancients in India, Greece and many other civilizations maintained that Gods dwell in your hands The index finger belongs to Jupiter the middle finger to Saturn, the third finger to Appolo or the Sun and the little finger to Mercury.

So if you have a  very long Jupiter finger you are a natural leader, if you have a very long middle finger you are a saturnine character, if you have a very long Apollo finger  you are a creative artist and if the little finger is too long you are a good public speaker.

There have been many palmist the world over who contributed much to the study of this subject -  William G.Benham, Comte de St Germain , Noel Jacquin and the most important of them all - CHEIRO. But the most detailed guide for palmistry is  the voluminous book by William G.Benham.

***

The Pilani Temple

Birlas, the industrialist and philanthropist family of 20th century India established a number of grand temples all over India. At their Birla Institute of Technology in Pilani they constructed a grand Saraswati Temple in marble.

Saraswati is the Goddess of knowledge and learning.

A unique feature of this temple is that the outside walls have carvings of famous persons from all over the world in marble.

Nadi vigyan

*NADI VIGYAN (the science of pulse reading)

Nadi Vigyan is the ancient
science of medical diagnosis by an analysis of the pulse.

You place the first three fingers (leaving out little finger) in such a way that the index finger is closest to the base of the thumb. Pulse beats will be felt on the fingertips of these three fingers. The nadi vaidya checks the strength (and weakness) of the beats from the manner in which blood is coursing through  on each of these fingers. It is a profound study and it is exceedingly difficult to master.

The very elementary principle of ayurveda is that VAT (the AIR element) is diagnosed from the index finger, PITTA (the HEAT element) is diagnosed from middle finger and SHLESHMA (loosely speaking you can call this cough element) from the ring finger. This is of course a very elementary explanation.

Dr. Brahaspati Dev Triguna of Delhi had taken this science of nadi-diagnosis to an exceptionally high level, difficult for a vaidya in the modern times to ever reach.

Dr.Triguna was by far the best nadi vaidya in the world. He seemed to possess a divine gift (SIDDHI) for pulse reading. He was a devout worshipper of God Shiva and there was a shiva temple adjascent to the hall where he saw his patients. On occasions when I reached his clinic much before the opening time I had found him seated in the shivalaya, deep in meditation.

Here is a link to more about Dr. triguna on his visit to USA :

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-03/news/vw-9301_1_pulse

Nadi vigyan (pulse reading)

*NADI VIGYAN (the science of pulse reading)

Nadi Vigyan is the ancient
science of medical diagnosis by an analysis of the pulse.

You place the first three fingers (leaving out little finger) in such a way that the index finger is closest to the base of the thumb. Pulse beats will be felt on the fingertips of these three fingers. The nadi vaidya checks the strength (and weakness) of the beats from the manner in which blood is coursing through  on each of these fingers. It is a profound study and it is exceedingly difficult to master.

The very elementary principle of ayurveda is that VAT (the AIR element) is diagnosed from the index finger, PITTA (the HEAT element) is diagnosed from middle finger and SHLESHMA (loosely speaking you can call this cough element) from the ring finger. This is of course a very elementary explanation.

Dr. Brahaspati Dev Triguna of Delhi had taken this science of nadi-diagnosis to an exceptionally high level, difficult for a vaidya in the modern times to ever reach.

Dr.Triguna was by far the best nadi vaidya in the world. He seemed to possess a divine gift (SIDDHI) for pulse reading. He was a devout worshipper of God Shiva and there was a shiva temple adjascent to the hall where he saw his patients. On occasions when I reached his clinic much before the opening time I had found him seated in the shivalaya, deep in meditation.

Here is a link to more about Dr. triguna on his visit to USA :

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-06-03/news/vw-9301_1_pulse

YOU ARE DIVINE

YOU ARE DIVINE.

"Tat Tvam Asi" is a Sanskrit phrase, translated  as 'Thou art that' . It is one of Grand Pronouncements in VEDANT. It occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad .The meaning of this saying is that the Self - in its original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate Reality that is the ground and origin of all phenomena."
---wikipedia

It is said that there is a latent energy locked up at the base of the spinal column of all men and women. When this energy  gets released it travels upwards through certain energy points and ultimately reaches  the most intense energy point at the top of the head. At the final stage the person becomes divine.Tat Tvam Asi.

This is the kindergarten explanation of the Kundalini Yoga which tranform an ordinary person to a person of extraordinary perception.

Once this kundalini shakti crosses a certain point in its journey upwards,  it starts giving you power of clairvoyance, telepathy and much more. But it also elevates you mentally to a point where you seek nothing from the world - neither recognition nor fame. So you do not yearn to  exhibit the powers you have come to possess.

So when a person walks into your presence after you acquire a certain level in meditation which  releases the kundalini,  you can clearly see that person's  AURA surrounding his/her body and know his/her state of mind . AURA is an electro magnetic field of that person in a colour that defines the man and that  colour varies from person to person

To know about what is  the real meditation you have simply to go through a thin book by a great saint of modern times. The book is  RAJ YOGA by Swami Vivekanand. It has the English translation of the the YOGA SUTRA of the greatest exponent of meditation - PATANJALI. 

And to know about  the mysteries of your real self there is a classic by none other than an American - William Walker Atkinson  - who wrote under the pseudonym of yogi Ram Charak - FOURTEEN LESSONS IN YOGI PHILOSOPHY AND ORIENTAL OCCULTISM

***

HOMEOPATHY

**** Once upon a time , if you fell I'll,  your doctor would try one first-line treatment before all others : BLOODLETTING. He would open a vein with a lancet or sharpened piece of wood, causing blood to flow out and into a waiting receptacle. If you got lucky, leeches might perform the gruesome task in place of crude instruments.

Hahnemann, a doctor in Germany,  was dissatisfied with the state of medicine in his time, and particularly objected to practices such as bloodletting. He claimed that the medicine he had been taught to practice sometimes did the patient more harm than good.

So  Hahnemann gave the world a new system of medicine.   : HOMEOPATHY

TWO ANTS AND THE ELEPHANT

Two ants and the elephant

Two ants were walking on the body of an elephant and chatting.

"Did you hear about what that psychic ant says ?"

" yes I know. He says there is a huge animal called elephant in this place. Well if that animal is here we should be able to see him!"

Yes unless we see a thing we can't believe. The ants walking on the body of an elephant can't see him so all talks about an elephant's existence are humbug for them.

There is a similar limitation with science. It denies everything that it cannot 'see'.

In 1904 yogi Ram Charak ( Google search to know him - he was an American !) in his fascinating book "Fourteen lessons in yogi philisophy and oriental occultism"
maintained that human body has an electromagnetic field. He was mocked by science community until, in the 1950s , scientists discovered that his  assertion was true.

Today we all use that electromagnetic field to move our smartphone touchscreen. (Incidentally that electronic magnetic field is most intense in our fingers and there is a reason why you should eat with your fingers. But that discussion will be for another time.)

In the millions of years of existance of planet Earth it is stupid to maintain that ours is the first advanced civilization. But science needs proof. So when our own civilization is wiped out in the future, in a cataclysm caused by either a thermo nuclear war or a shift in the Equinox, what proof will there be that there were Robots, jet aeroplanes, internet and countless other wonders.

According to Hindu system  Time moves in cycles. It maintains that there have been so many cycles before our time. Read this:

"Yuga in Hinduism is an epoch or era within a four-age cycle. A complete Yuga starts with the Satya Yuga, via Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga into a Kali Yuga. Our present time is a Kali Yuga, which started at 3102 BCE with the end of the Kurukshetra War (or Mahabharata war).(wikipedia)

Mythology is often a distorted version of facts.When a DELUGE or cataclysm takes place after each cycle (We call it PRALAY) a new civilization picks up the ropes again. Survivors of the Deluge pass down stories of the preceding civilization and this gets distorted and fantacised as time rolls on.

So when there is a story of Sri Ram returing, from Victory over Ravan, in a fast journey over airways, it is difficult, in a less advanced period that follows, to conceptualise the aircraft. So they imagine its shape as  a pushpak Viman(see the image).

There are mythologies in other parts of the world too , from the lost civilization of Greece and elsewhere.  There may be scientific facts hidden there too . But there will be no proof .

The CATCH-22 situatiin continues. The ant keeps denying the existence of the elephant .

***

GITA PRESS GORAKHPUR

THE GITA PRESS

At the age of five years that day I surreptitiously entered my  Grandfather's room when no one was there.We were visiting him during the summer holidays.

A book lying on the table caught my attention because of the multicoloured cover painting.and I started turning over  its quarto size large pages. It was the annual number of the religious magazine KALYAN . There were mind blowing full page pictures in vivid colours - of Krishna with Radha,  of Ram going into exile with Sita and Lakshman,  of Arjuna in a chariot driven by Krishna and so many more.

That was my first introduction to the cultural magazine Kalyan and the Gita Press Gorakhpur.

In the year 1923 a team of three persons set about the task of making available to masses at a very affordable price the great works of hindu religion and culture. They established a printing press at Gorakhpur, a city in north India, and Sri Hanuman Prasad poddar became its lifetime  chief. Sri Poddar  launched the monthly religious cultural magazine  KALYAN in 1927.

From an initial circulation of a few hundred for the first issue  it print order  has since touched nearly three lakh.  In the last 90 years over 65 crore books from Mahabharata, Ramayana, Ram Charitmanas and Shrimad Bhagwad Gita to books on numerous fasts and rituals observed in Hindu homes have been published in more than 14 languages .

Gita press Gorakhpur is the torch bearer of hindu religious cultural literature.

Naina Devi Temple

NAINA DEVI TEMPLE

At an altitude of over 6500 feet lies the lake city of Nainital in the hills of Uttarakhand in Himalayas. At the upper end of the vast green lake of Nainital is an ancient Devi temple  It is believed that this Naina devi temple  is one of the  Shakti Peeths,  of the goddess Sati.

Various legends explain how the Shakti Peetha of naina devi came into being.

According to a legend when Sati immolated herself (that would be a long story for later)   grief striken  Shiva picked up the remains of Sati's body, and performed the Tandava, the celestial dance of destruction.

Bhagwan Vishnu was requested to intervene to stop this destruction.  Vishnu used the Sudarshana Chakra, which cut  Sati's body into pieces. Parts of the body fell all over the Indian subcontinent and formed sites which  came to be known as Shakti Peethas today.

The Eyes of devi (Nain is the sanskrit word for eye) fell at the site  thus known as Nainital (tal being the sanskrit word for lake).

***

Kausani Calling

A few miles from Kausani on the banks of Gomti , Baijnath Temple of God Shiv ji is a venerable shrine of Uttarakhand. Legends have ot that  Shiva ji  and Devi Parvati were married here on the confluence of Rivers Gomti and Garur Ganga

Kausani is a town in the mountains of uttarakhand. situated at an altitude of 6200 feet. It is 32 miles from Almora city  and is famous for its breathtaking scenic splendour and its 300 km-wide panoramic view of snowy Himalayan range of Trishul, Nanda Devi and Panchchuli.

Mahatma Gandhi was here once for 14 days at the Anashakti Ashram while writing his book  ‘Anashakti Yoga’. He called  Kausani the 'Switzerland of India' due to similarity in spectacular landscapes.

***

KASAR DEVI

Almora ia a city in the mountains of Uttarakhand India. About ten kilometres from the town, at a somewhat higher altitude, is the temple of Kasar Devi.

"This temple has been found to be of special importance because the region around this temple has enormous geomagnetic field. This is because this temple comes under the Van Allen Belt. The causes behind the formation of this belt have been researched by NASA for the last two years. Two other famous places which have been found to have similar high magnetic field (Van Allen Belt) are Machu Picchu in Peru and Stonehenge in England." WIKIPEDIA

The temple itself dates back to the 2nd century CE. There is a gateway on the main road from where winding serpentine steps go up , right up to the temple. There are deodar and pine trees all around. It is very breezy up there.

***

Mira Bai

Today is Mira Bai Jayanti. Here is one of her celebrated poems  for Sri Krishna).
(Giridhar is another name of Bhagwan Sri Krishna)

मेरे तो गिरिधर गोपाल दूसरो न कोई।
Mere tho giridhar gopal doosro na koi
There is none other than Giridhar Gopal for me

जाके सिर मोर मुकुट मेरो पति सोई।
Jaake sar mor mukut mero pati soi
Who wears the peacock feather on his turban, my husband

तात मात भ्रात बंधु आपनो न कोई॥।
taat maat brat bandhu aapno na koi
All other relationships like father, mother, brother, friends, none for me (but my husband, Giridhar Gopal)

छाँड़ि दी कुल की कानि कहा करिहै कोई।
chaandi lai kul ki kaani kaha karilai koi
.......? What can anyone do about it

संतन ढिंग बैठि-बैठि लोक लाज खोई॥
Santan dhing baiti bhaiti lok laaj khoi
The wise .... sit in bliss lost to all worldly ways

चुनरी के किये टूक ओढ़ लीन्ही लोई।
Chunari ke kini took audh linhi loi
I want not my scarf, but you

मोती मूँगे उतार बनमाला पोई॥
Moti moonge uthar banmala poi
Nor the pearl and coral necklace but your garland of wild flowers

अँसुवन जल सींचि सींचि प्रेम बेलि बोई।
Asuvan jal seenchi seenchi prem beli boi
The waters of my tears weave a wreath of love

अब तो बेल फैल गई आणँद फल होई॥
Ab tho bel pheli gayi aanand phal hoi
Now that wreath has borne the fruit of joy

दूध की मथनियाँ बड़े प्रेम से बिलोई।
dood ki mathaniya bade prem se biloi
Churning the milk with love

माखन जब काढ़ि लियो छाछा पिये कोई॥
maakhan jab khadiliyo chaach piye koi
You do get the butter and someone else gets to drink the buttermilk

भगत देख राजी हुई जगत देखि रोई।
Bhakt dekh raaji hui jagat dekhi roi
The devotee sees this and is willing while the world is upset

दासी “मीरा” लाल गिरिधर तारो अब मोही॥
Daasi meera laal giridhar taro ab mohi
Your servant, Meera, oh beloved Giridhar, you are MINE, now!!!

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Holika Dahan

HOLIKA DHAHAN

In the evening before the Holi festival bonfire are made to celebrate HOLIKA DAHAN. There is a story surrounding this.

Once upon a time, there lived a demon king named Hiranyakashyap who had tormented the world with atrocities.

"I am the only God" he had proclaimed  "Worship no  God other than me".

Prahlad was his son. The child Prahlad was a devotee of Sri Vishnu bhagwan. His father did not like this at all. He ordered the child  to give up his faith in Sri Vishnu and stop worshiping him. "There is no God other than me" he would say.

Prahlad continued with his prayers and meditation. As the story goes Sri Vishnu one day appeared before him and granted him the boon that he will live a long life and no one could ever kill him.

Hiranyakashyap finally decided to kill his son. His several  efforts however failed..

Hiranyakashyap's sister Holika had a demonic boon that she could not be burnt by fire. So it was decided that Holika would enter a bonfire with Prahlad  in her lap to burn him to death.

On the assigned day a great crowd gathered to witness the royal punishment. Prahlad was taken into a blazind bonfire by Holika. Because of the devine protection Prahlad remained unharmed by the fire.  Holika, to the amazement of all those watching , was burnt to death inspite of her boon.

Holika Dahan has  came to  symbolise the victory of good over evil.

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DWARKA OF SRI KRISHNA

Dwarka – The lost city of Sri Krishna

There is an entire city submerged under the Arabean sea just off the western coast of India in Gujrat . It is known as “Dwarka” and at the longest point it stretches for five miles. This city provides evidence of a highly advanced civilization in the ancient world… nine thousand years back in the legendary Dwapar yuga of bhagwan Sri Krishna.

Google seach to know much more

Where are those birds ?

There was a time when trees and shrubs in our backyard were full of twittering birds. Where have all those birds gone ? Even the common sparrows are rarely seen now !
I have not seen a parrot for
ages. The woodpecker used to be there too, always at work ! It has also vanished.

We saw this  peacock some years back in the driveway of a house !

Gangotri Dham

GANGOTRI DHAM

Legends have it that holy river Ganga descended from heaven at Gangotri.

Gangotri Dham is in uttarakhand Himalayas  at a height of 3,100 metres (10,200 ft).

River Ganga is known as Bhagirathi here.

Bhagirath was a great king in hindu mythology who did Tapasya for long years and succeeded in bringing Ganga from heaven to earth.

According to Hindu mythology, Goddess Ganga took the form of a river to absolve the sins of King Bhagiratha's predecessors, following his severe penance of several centuries.

Neem karoli baba

Neem Karoli Baba was a 20th century saint of India, considered to be an  incarnation of Hamumanji .

His ashram is at Kainchi on Bhowali Almora  road in Uttarakhand.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of facebook, influenced by Steve Jobs, visited Neem Karoli Baba's ashram in Kainchi in October 2015.

SHARAD PURNIMA

KOJAGARI PURNIMA

Sharad Purnima or Kojagari Purnima greetings to all. . Legends have it that Lakshmi , the Goddess of auspiciousness and wealth,  goes around in the night sky,  looking for people below who are awake. `Ko jaagarti' means, ' Who is awake?
The true meaning of this is "who are spiritually awakened". On Sharad Poornima due to the moon's proximity to the earth meditation results in hereightened consciousness.

GOMUKH

Gomukh literally means the mouth of a cow.  Cow is considered the most holy animal in Hinduism.

This Holy  Gomukh is high up in the snowy mountains of Uttarakhand India . River Ganga first emerges here in Gomukh.

Ganga is known as  Bhagirathi until it meets river Alakhnanda at Dev prayag.

NAVRATRI FESTIVAL OF INDIA

Navratri is celebrated in india in various ways. 

In Northern  India the Ramlila play is enacted during Navratri.

In western India Garba nights are organised to celebrate navratri.

In Eastern India Navratri is celebrated as the Durga Puja festival.

All the three celebrations are seen all over India.

Today is Dashehra (Vijay Dashmi) festival , the culmination of Ram Lila with the victory of Ram over Rawan which symbolises tbe victory of good over evil.

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COMMON MAN'S FAST FOOD

Puffed rice is made from rice and served as a popular and inexpensive fast food in India,   In the Indian subcontinent, it is known as mamra, porri , arsi porri, murmura muri or laiya.

PEARLS OF WISDOM

Inspite of so much wisdom from great philosophers from all over the world over thousands of years the world is full of hatred and greed. Representatives of God set their rules and rule the people. The need of the time is sanity. sanity

Mira Bai

MIRA BAI

Meera Bai was the most famous female Hindu spiritual figure. Her compositions are still popular throughout
India ("mero ♡ to ♡ gridhar ♡ gopal ♡ doosaro ♡ na ♡ koi"). Her poems follow the Bhakti tradition and she was devoted to love of Bhagwan Sri Krishna

" Folklore says that her
love for Krishna was
epitomized by her final
disappearance in the temple of Krishna in Dwarka. She is believed to have entered the sanctum of the temple in a state of singing ecstasy after which the sanctum doors are believed to have closed on their own and when later opened, the sari of Mirabai was seen enwrapped around the idol of Lord Krishna symbolizing the culmination of her union with her Lord."  (wikipedia)

Durga Puja

प्रथमं शैलपुत्री च द्वितीयं ब्रह्मचारिणी । तृतीयं चन्द्रघण्टेति कूष्माण्डेति चतुर्थकम् ॥ 3 ॥  पञ्चमं स्कन्दमातेति षष्ठं कात्यायनीति च । सप्तमं कालरात्रीति महागौरीति चाष्टमम् ॥ 4 ॥  नवमं सिद्धिदात्री च नवदुर्गाः प्रकीर्तिताः । उक्तान्येतानि नामानि ब्रह्मणैव महात्मना ॥ 5 ॥

In navratri Durga pooja pandals have come up all over india. This is a view of a pandal in Chittaranjan park New Delhi on 16th october 2018.

ADDICTION PROBLEM

G+is shutting down. With mass scale security leaks others may soon follow. What will the addicts do ?

OF DOSA BHATURE AND RAS MALAI

Of Dosa Bhature and Ras malai

There was a restaurent in chennai where they served a three feet long dosa in late 1970s. I think It was somewhere near the university area. But the dosa was paper thin and I did not quite enjoy it. I preferred that thicker, smaller, tastier real dosa that was served to me in a small restaurent just outside Madras  central railway station .

In Nagpur there was a restaurant next to Liberty Cinema.This restaurent in late sixties served the best tea in Nagpur and delicious south indian snacks. A lovable cheerful silver haired Nayyar was the owner. Old Nagpur people will recall how crowded this restaurent was !

https://joshignj.blogspot.com/2016/11/nayyar-restaurant.html?m=1)

During the  1970s the best Chhole bhature in Lucknow were served by a tiny roadside kiosk at Sri Ram Towers in Ashok Marg. There was no seating arrangement there and yet the place was crowded all through the day. So many people carried his bhatura packets to their offices for lunch time indulgence ! I even carried them home quite often.

Ras malai is  a delicious sweet dish and the L.M.B. restaurent in Jaipur, once upon a time, was  famous for its Ras Malai . They served very special Ras malai to me in early eighties. But  the most delicious Ras malai enjoyed by me were at a small restaurent at Chetak circle in Udaipur. Heavenly taste !

https://joshignj.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-sweet-tooth.html?m=1

I find that an expensive restaurent does not PER SE guarantee good food. And sometimes the tip-oriented waiter has mischief up his sleeves .  Here is my personal experience :

https://joshignj.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-third-reason.html?m=1

Parting Advice : Enjoy your snacks . Never offend a waiter !

***

SOUNDS WE NO LONGER HEAR

Sounds we no longer hear !

Once upon a time there were Table Clocks. Once every day you had to wind them up to enable them to keep running. In the pin drop silence at mid night one could hear the clock running - Tick .Tock .Tick. Tock. . .. This sound has passed into history.

The  old rotary dial phones required you to connect  a number by rotataing the dial and releasing it a number of times. This produced a typical CLICK... WHRRR ...... sound. We have silent push buttons phones now.

There was a symphony in how the wheels of those massive black railway steam engines moved and how those Hisss and Pufff sounds filled the railway platform as the engines pulled the trains out of the station.

There was a time when as you entered an office   your ears would be greeted with the sound of all those typewriters working at the same time.  These machines were noisy. The Clak...Clak... of each key, the zzzzip of the carriage return, the ggr-r-r-r-r-r-r of the manually rolling the paper up and down…. It was quite a  sound in a busy office. Traditional typewriters are part of history now.

There was one sound that even  most Senior citizens  may not have heard. That was the sound of Telegraph offices' vintage Morse Code Machines  sending the telegraphic  messages - gutttt . .  grrrrr . . . gutttt. . .gutttt.. . .
... grrrr .... That was before the Teleprinters came.

And finally those sounds of the Nature. With urbanisation and pollutions birds and bees  are disappearing. Certain animals are also not seen eg the washerman's donkey. How many of you have heard the cawing of a crow, the braying of the donkey , the humming of the bees, the KOO... KOO... of the koyal or the tuk.. tuk.. of a wood pecker at work ! In the fifties, in smaller town, you could even hear the calls of the Jackals !

How time flies !

***

NATURE'S SUPER SECRET

NATURE'S  SUPER  SECRET

At the ultimate level your body is just a system of ATOMS and nothing else - an interplay of mass and energy.

A similar mass and energy is our UNIVERSE . It is so much more powerful. The electromagnetic fields of all these masses - and they include the mysterious BLACK HOLES, affect all other heavenly body.

All living beings are born under the influence of massive electro magnetic fields of this universe. Whether the atomic structure of living beings is affected by these influences is a matters that was settled in affirmative in the ancient times. But a sudden shifting of equinox wiped those advanced civilizations by way of a DELUGE. The TRUTH got swept away in the deluge.

Modern science is still in the process of developing and is still at a nascent stage. It does not have tools yet for finding out this relationship. It may find an answer to this in the decades to follow.

But the  equinox has again reportedly started shifting and the sea levels are slowly rising. By the time Science affirms the relevance.of Astrology to human life another deluge may wipe out the present civilization..

It seems that the NATURE has a design. It does not want humans to know the  ultimate truth !!

OF HEALTH AND HEALING

OF HEALTH AND HEALING

AYURVEDA is an ancient Indian medical science. It maintains that  the living beings are healthy or sick on account of interplay of three vital forces working in the body. It treats the body to restore the  balance of these forces WITHOUT DAMAGING  any organs.

Homeopathy maintains that inbalance of certain minerals in the body result in ailments and by supplying those minerals in microscopic doses the system gets restored to normal health.

These systems are  NON INVASIVE. They don't damage any human organs in the process of treatment .

Healing one human organ  should not  results in damage to other organs. If in treating heart the medicines damage liver and kidneys it is not true healing.  True healing would be when healthy cells don't die , when healthy organs don't get damaged. But lately , with modern allopathic system  it is not so. The side effects are, more often than not, quite severe.

There is no doubt that the modern system  of medicine has  contributed a lot to alleviate human suffering. Yet it is time the world took serious note of the old medical systems. Fifty years back Yoga was brushed aside by modern medical science as a total HOAX. Today it is part of the rejuvination plans. Likewise it is time medical science took a note of the alterlnative systems of medicines to understand how their treatment plans avoid damage to human organs.

Medical science should not confine itself to corporate balance sheet. It has social responsibilities too.

#AYURVEDA # health # homeopathy #Allopathy # tridosha #VatPittaCough
#MedicalScience #kidney #liver #yoga
#SideEffect

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The Importance Of Being An Apple

IMPORTANCE OF BEING APPLE

It has been a long journey since God advised  Adam not to eat apple and Khalil Gibran rejoiced in apples "through all the seasons"  For whatever reason , apple has always been  Centre stage in legends spun around it in ancient and later times. Even Newton had to sit under this tree of knowlege to discover the law of gravity !

Almora once upon a time

"Almora once upon a time"

Once there was a famous Dr Khazan chand in Almora town. He had an old T model ford, the only car in the hill town. It was a weather beaten old car which used to make huge noise. This contraption was famously known as KHAZAN CHAND KA CHHAKRA.

In those days the mall road in Almora did not have any shops. The mall road has now shops on both sides of the road.In those days there was just an open hill on one side of the road and a slope on the other side. It was all open for a distant view of far away himalayan snow peaks.

All buses then  used to pass through the main mall road. But traffic was light and it was possible for children to use it as their  play ground.

The most popular sport was the rolling of an old cycle tyre along the smooth road with the help of a short stick and running behind the fast moving tyre.. It was a game of keeping the tyre moving along the road by constantly tapping it with the stick as far away  as the old chungi (Toll) post.

There used to be a big tree on the road at chausar. It was at this spot that stairs went down to where Dr Murli Manohar Joshi lived much later. Under this tree a kakri (kheera) seller used to sit, doing good business. Unlike the kheera of UP plains, those kheera (cucumber) used to be very big in size. His  masala (spicy) salt was also very tasty.

Buses to Almora used to have two classes - upper and lower. Two front rows were upper class. These buses would start from Haldwani/Kathgogam in   the morning and would take the old longer route via Ranikhet arriving in Almora late  in the evening.

In those days there used to be a halt for lunch midway at Garam Pani, a little ahead of Neem Karoli Baba's Kainchi asram which was opened later.. Several restaurents here used to offer hot meals of poori, aloo ke gutke, kheera (cucumber) raita and an assortment of other dishes.

The subsequent  opening of the new, much shorter,  route via khairna bridge destroyed the lunch time business at Garam paani since people arrived at Almora by lunch time.

**

MAN IS HIS OWN ENEMY

MAN IS HIS OWN ENEMY"

One can write a book on this topic. Human follies are endless.

I will confine today to just one folly.

If you buy a PAPITA (papaya in english) today, 99% chance is that it will be  without seeds. A
few decades back each ripe papita had dozens of black seeds. It is MAN who has genetically  modified this nature's  gift. It is no longer the papita that nature provided as a medicine. It is a changed and pesticides ridden fruit.

And these experiments have just begun!! By the end of this century the whole nature will be genetically modified.

***

The romance of letters

The romance of letters

Travelling through time, as we grow up, is an interesting experience . As you look back in time you see the sharp contrasts in how we have lived our daily life in the distant past.

Recently my niece went to Britain for higher studies. The momemt the plane landed there we got the message of her arrival , with photographs, on our mobiles.That's the magic of smartphones.

In 1952 my fufajee went to England. In those days  there were no mobiles, no internet and travel by air was uncommon and prohibitively expensives and so were the international telephone calls. He went by ship and took a long time arriving there , posted a letter which arrived here after so many more days.

But those were the days of the fine art of letter writing. His letter described his journey by ship, the people on board, the food he ate and so many other experiences. It was a delightful eight page letter on light blue writing pad sheets in his beautiful handwrting. We read that letter, and those that followed, so many times over the years.

we don't write family letters anymore ! Those were the days when the call  of   P.O.S.T.M.A.N.N.N . . . .
made us rush out in excitement !
we seldom see a postman now. He is a vanishing species. The telegram man has already passed into history.

Letters have a great value as historical records. Here is Mahatma Gandhi writing about the condition of the third class railway compartment as he travelled in one.

https://www.catalign.in/2012/10/gandhis-3rd-class-railway-travel-during.html?m=1

And there was a time, earlier still,  when there were no toilets in railway bogies! One had to rush out at a station to attend to a call of nature and rush back in time to catch the train before it moved out of the station. Here is the historically important and very funny  letter that resulted in introduction of toilets in train bogies.This 1909 letter from Okhil Chandra Sen to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in West Bengal is credited with  installing toilets on India's trains. The image presented here is the version displayed at India's Railway Museum.(see photocopy of the letter below)

Alas there will now be no such  letters to preserve for posterity !

# letter #postman #telegram #railway #Britain #England #Gandhi #OkhilChandraSen #1952 #mobile #railway #toilets #1909 #WritingPad

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HAS MAN A FUTURE

HAS MAN A FUTURE

When I was a kid there were no fertilisers. There were no pesticides in use in agriculture. All that was grown was Organic. There were no chemical colours or preservstives in food nor any taste enhancers.

In one lifetime of scientific "progress" the world has changed. Apart from food loaded with harmful chemical, we have contaminated air , contaminated soil and contaminated  water.

The last fifty years has also seen how plastic menace has spread like wildfire. GM crops is another disturbing development.

Has Man a future ? Is human race moving towards extinction on this planet ?

DONT TRUST US

DON'T TRUST US

Long time back  Delhi city bus service was called Delhi Transport Undertaking (DTU).

People used to wait endlessly at the bus stops for these WILL 'O THE WISP buses. For long hours the bus would not come and at times would not stop at all at the bus stop and go racing past it.

These DTU buses never ran on schedule, never stopped where the queue was and where packed, as the saying goes, like sardines. Delhi walas had a name for these buses - Dont Trust Us (DTU)!

The driver of the bus would invariably stop the bus either several meters before the queue  or some distance ahead of it with the result that the queue was always broken. Even when the bus stopped near the head of the queue there was such  a mad rush to get in that  the queue had no meaning. Law abiding commuters were always left behind and so were most women.

In most cases there would be no queue to begin with unless some public spirited person tried to form one.

Here is a video aptly showing the state of affairs.

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