Birthday Gift...

 

Value of Something 

A giant ship's engine broke down and no one could repair it, so they took it to a Mechanical Engineer with over 40 years of experience.

He inspected the engine very carefully, from top to bottom. After seeing everything, the engineer unloaded the bag and pulled out a small hammer.

He knocked something gently. Soon, the engine came to life again. The engine has been fixed!

7 days later the engineer mentioned that the total cost of repairing the giant ship was $ 10,000 to the ship owner

"What ?!" said the owner.

"You did almost nothing. Give us a detailed bill."

The answer is simple:

Tap with a hammer: $ 2

Know where to knock & how much to knock: $ 9,998

Lessons to Learn

The importance of appreciating one's expertise and experience ... Until

The words "it's easy" and "that's all", should be set aside. Why? Because maybe the experience is the result of struggles, experiments and even tears.

Like the picture above:

If i do a job in 30 minutes it's because i spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes.

(If I can finish a job in 30 minutes, it's because I spent 10 years learning how to do it in 30 minutes. You paid me for those 10 years, not 30 minutes).

This sentence reminds me of someone’s advice on respecting and wisely respecting the work of others.

There I also learned to see people ...

When they do not respect others, at the same time he has humbled himself.

Expertise and experience, that's expensive.

Unfortunately, our people still look down on that.

Class does not mean huge possession of money.

 Last year, I was at the Heathrow International Airport in London about to board a flight. Usually, I wear a sari even when I am abroad, but I prefer wearing a salwar kameez while travelling. So there I was—a senior citizen dressed in typical Indian apparel at the terminal gate.

Since the boarding hadn’t started, I sat down and began to observe my surroundings. The flight was bound for Bengaluru and so I could hear people around me chatting in Kannada. I saw many old married couples of my age—they were most likely coming back from the US or UK after helping their children either through childbirth or a new home. I saw some British business executives talking to each other about India’s progress. Some teenagers were busy with the gadgets in their hands while the younger children were crying or running about the gate.

After a few minutes, the boarding announcement was made and I joined the queue. The woman in front of me was a well-groomed lady in an Indo-Western silk outfit, a Gucci handbag and high heels. Every single strand of her hair was in place and a friend stood next to her in an expensive silk sari, pearl necklace, matching earrings and delicate diamond bangles.

I looked at the vending machine nearby and wondered if I should leave the queue to get some water.

Suddenly, the woman in front of me turned sideways and looked at me with what seemed like pity in her eyes. Extending her hand, she asked, ‘May I see your boarding pass, please?’ I was about to hand over my pass to her, but since she didn’t seem like an airline employee, I asked, ‘Why?’

‘Well, this line is meant for business class travellers only,’ she said confidently and pointed her finger towards the economy class queue. ‘You should go and stand there,’ she said.

I was about to tell her that I had a business class ticket but on second thoughts, held back. I wanted to know why she had thought that I wasn’t worthy of being in the business class. So I repeated, ‘Why should I stand there?’

She sighed. ‘Let me explain. There is a big difference in the price of an economy and a business class ticket. The latter costs almost two and a half times more than . . .’

‘Exactly,’ said the woman. ‘So there are certain privileges that are associated with a business class ticket.’

‘Really?’ I decided to be mischievous and pretended not to know.

‘What kind of privileges are you talking about?’

She seemed annoyed. ‘We are allowed to bring two bags but you can only take one. We can board the flight from another, less-crowded queue. We are given better meals and seats. We can extend the seats and lie down flat on them. We always have television screens and there are four washrooms for a small number of passengers.’

Her friend added, ‘A priority check-in facility is available for our bags, which means they will come first upon arrival and we get more frequent flyer miles for the same flight.’

‘Now that you know the difference, you can go to the economy line,’ insisted the woman.

‘But I don’t want to go there.’ I was firm.

The lady turned to her friend. ‘It is hard to argue with these cattle-class people. Let the staff come and instruct her where to go. She isn’t going to listen to us.’

I didn’t get angry. The word ‘cattle class’ was like a blast from the past and reminded me of another incident.

One day, I had gone to an upscale dinner party in my home city of Bengaluru. Plenty of local celebrities and socialites were in attendance. I was speaking to some guests in Kannada, when a man came to me and said very slowly and clearly in English, ‘May I introduce myself ? I am . . .’

It was obvious that he thought that I might have a problem understanding the language.

I smiled. ‘You can speak to me in English.’

‘Oh,’ he said, slightly flabbergasted. ‘I’m sorry. I thought you weren’t comfortable with English because I heard you speaking in Kannada.’

‘There’s nothing shameful in knowing one’s native language. It is, in fact, my right and my privilege. I only speak in English when somebody can’t understand Kannada.’

The line in front of me at the airport began moving forward and I came out of my reverie. The two women ahead were whispering among themselves, ‘Now she will be sent to the other line. It is so long now! We tried to tell her but she refused to listen to us.’

When it was my turn to show my boarding pass to the attendant, I saw them stop and wait a short distance away, waiting to see what would happen. The attendant took my boarding pass and said brightly, ‘Welcome back! We met last week, didn’t we?’

‘Yes,’ I replied.

She smiled and moved on to the next traveller.

I walked a few steps ahead of the women intending to let this go, but then I changed my mind and came back.

‘Please tell me—what made you think that I couldn’t afford a business class ticket? Even if I didn’t have one, was it really your prerogative to tell me where I should stand? Did I ask you for help?’

 The women stared at me in silence.

‘You refer to the term “cattle class”. Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money,’ I continued, unable to stop myself from giving them a piece of my mind.

‘There are plenty of wrong ways to earn money in this world. You may be rich enough to buy comfort and luxuries, but the same money doesn’t define class or give you the ability to purchase it. Mother Teresa was a classy woman. So is Manjul Bhargava, a great mathematician of Indian origin. The concept that you automatically gain class by acquiring money is an outdated thought process.’ 

I left without waiting for a reply.

“Class does not mean huge possession of money. ”

‘There’s nothing shameful in knowing one’s native language. It is, in fact, my right and my privilege. I only speak in English when somebody can’t understand Kannada.’

Source: “Three thousand Stitches” by Sudha Murty. 

GLASS OF MILK:

 One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water! 

She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it so slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?"

You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness."

He said ... "Then I thank you from my heart."

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Many years later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to her case. After a long struggle, the battle was won.

Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, and then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words ...

"Paid in full with one glass of milk"

(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that your love has spread broad through human hearts and hands."

The Calamity is a wake-up Call

Finally we are out of the jaws of Taukte cyclone. If you look at the frequency and severity of the number of cyclones happening in the Arabian Sea, we can observe that, there is a considerable increase in the last few years, which means that Arabian Sea also started showing terrific signs of climatic change hazard. That means, considering the increase in the carbon footprint and also due to other man made reasons, they are going to increase only; that means that our lives are going to be in Jaws of such intense cyclones more often; which means that the probability that many of our near and dear ones losing life due to the effects of climate change is going to rise.

This time and the last few times, our prayers have been answered by nature, but that may not be always the case. These calamities has to be seen as a wake-up call for us to take swift action. If we we ignore such wake-up calls, we may take ourselves to a point where no corrective action can revert the situation. If you really look into the statistics, that "no-revert" point is actually very close. it's actually staring at us point blank. It's like Now or Never situation.

My suggestion to all all those who have earnestly prayed for safety from the cyclone is to take strong promises that we will preserve our mother nature. It should be from an individual level. The time, where we can think that, the Government or other NGOs will do that, is all over. It's all over guys. So wake up at least now. The attitude to such a wake-up call situation could be: 1. We escaped this time, and we would escape similarly always. 2. I don't pray for my life and that of my dear ones; everybody will die one day; So I am not going to change my lifestyle. 3. Nature has given enough warnings. So let me take intense action and make it the priority of my life. Nature has answered my prayers many times. So it's my responsibility to act my part in the corrective process.

 In fact, nature does not want you and me to protect her. If we don't behave responsibly, our story will be done forever and nature will be as much a better place without you and me. Nothing is going to happen for nature. The air, the water, the rivers and animals will have a better place without us

So, if we wish to survive as a species, we should make the correction in our lifestyle the highest priority of our lives. At the micro level, what exactly is the correction, is yet another big topic to ponder. But the first and foremost, is the shift in attitude, taking the "U" turn before the time expires for that too. 

The Beautiful Little Tea Cup

Love this story or not, you will not be able to have tea in a tea cup again without thinking of this.
There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups.Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked "May we see that? We've never seen a cup quite so beautiful." 

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, "You don't understand. I have not always been a teacup.There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, "Don't do that.
I don't like it! Let me alone," but he only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet."
Then WHAM!
I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was made to suit himself and then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!"
I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet."
When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! "Ah, this is much better," I thought.
But, after I cooled he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. 
The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 
"Oh, please, stop it, stop, I cried." He only shook his head and said, "Not yet."
Then suddenly he puts me back in to the oven.
Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. 
I begged.
I pleaded.
I screamed.
I cried.
I was convinced I would never make
it. I was ready to give up.
Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, "What's he going to do to me next?"
An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself." And I did.
I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful. I'm beautiful!"
Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember. I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled.
I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. 
I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held.
Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."
God knows what He's doing for each of us. He is the potter, and we are His clay.
He will mould us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect plan.
So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life
seems to "stink", try this.
Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter.

My Master Sends Me to Heal Someone

One fine morning my master and I were sitting outside our cave when suddenly he said, “You have to catch a bus. The bus route is seven miles from here, so hurry up.” He often told me to get up and go somewhere on the spur of the moment. Sometimes I wouldn’t know why, but I would find out when I reached there. I rose and picked up the pot of water I always carried. He said, “Take the bus to the Haridwar railroad station. You’ll get a ticket and from there go to Kanpur. Dr. Mitra is bedridden and is constantly remembering me. He is having a brain hemorrhage and is bleeding out of his right nostril, but his wife will not allow him to go to the hospital. His brother-in-law, Dr. Basu, knows that it is a hemorrhage, but there are no facilities there to perform brain surgery.”

I asked, “What shall I do?”

“Just give him a love pat on the cheek. Don’t consider yourself a healer. Think that you are an instrument and go there, for I have promised him and his wife that we will always help them. Go as quickly as you can.”

I said, “I’m surprised to find that you make promises on my behalf without my knowledge.”
I was reluctant to go on such a long journey, but I could not disobey. I went to the bus route, which was seven 115 miles away from the cave, and stood by the side of the road until the bus for Rishikesh/Haridwar picked me up. The drivers would always give a swami a ride when they saw one on the roadside. I got off the bus at the railway station at Haridwar with no money, and I had only half an hour until the train was to leave for Kanpur. I looked at my watch and thought I might be able to sell it to buy a ticket. Approaching a gentleman at the railway station, I asked if I could exchange my watch with him for the money to buy a ticket. Surprisingly he said, “My son could not come with me, so I have an extra ticket. Please take it. I don’t need your watch.”

I got into the train and met a lady who was also going to Kanpur and who was a close relative of Dr. Mitra. She had heard about me and my master from Dr. Mitra and his wife, and she gave me something to eat. We traveled all night and in the morning the train arrived at Kanpur. There was so much rush at the railway station that it took me ten minutes to get through the gate. Outside the station I suddenly met a man who knew me well. He had his car parked nearby and had been waiting for someone, but that person never turned up—he had missed his train at Delhi. This man wanted to drive me to his house, but I insisted that we go to Dr. Mitra’s instead.

When we reached there I knocked on the door and entered to find three doctors examining Dr. Mitra. Mrs. Mitra was delighted to see me and said, “Now that you have come, I hand over my husband to you.” This is called Indian blind faith in sadhus.

I said, “I am not a healer. I have just come to see him.” I went over to Dr. Mitra’s bed, but he was not allowed to sit up because of the bleeding from his nostril.

When he saw me he asked, “How is my master?” I gave him the gentle pat on his right cheek. After a few minutes there was no more bleeding. One of the doctors explained that the slap which I had given him on the cheek closed the opening in the blood vessel and that it was now sealed.

I did not know what I had done, but I followed my master’s instructions. Dr. Mitra’s sudden recovery quickly became the talk of the town, and hundreds of patients started searching for me, so I left the city later that day and reached Hardwar the next morning. From there I went to the place where my master was staying. I told my master teasingly, “I know the secret and can stop a hemorrhage in anyone.”

He laughed at me and said, “The doctor who gave you that explanation is quite ignorant. There are various modes and levels of suffering, but ignorance is the mother of all.”

On several occasions I had to leave suddenly according to my master’s instructions without having any knowledge of my purpose and destination. I had many experiences like this. I came to the conclusion that the ways of the sages are mysterious and beyond the ability of ordinary minds to understand. I would just do and then experience. Experience would give me knowledge. One who is free from the conditionings of the mind knows past, present, and future alike. These conditionings are called time, space, and causation. The ordinary mind cannot fathom these conditionings, but the great men do. It becomes difficult for ordinary men to understand this science, but it does not take extraordinary ability for those who are on the path.

I once asked my master, “Is it possible for a man in the world to get freedom from all conditionings of the mind, or does he have to live in the Himalayas his whole life to develop powers such as yours?” He said, “If a human being remains constantly aware of the purpose of his life and directs all his actions toward the fulfillment of that purpose, there remains nothing impossible for him. Those who are not aware of the purpose of life are easily caught by the whirlpool of miseries.”

It is a law that one cannot live without doing his duties, but it is also true that duties make the doer a slave. If the duties are performed skillfully and selflessly, then the duties do not bind the doer. All actions and duties performed with love become means in the path of liberation. Performing one’s duty is very important, but more important is love, without which duty creates bondage. Fortunate is he who serves others selflessly and learns to cross this mire of delusion.

A human being is fully equipped with all necessary healing powers, but does not know their usage. The moment he comes in touch with the healing potentials within, he can heal himself. All the powers belong to only one God. A human being is only an instrument.

-This is an excerpt from the book "Living with the Himalayan Masters" By Swami Rama.

The Crux of Living in Balance

The pain caused as part of our prabdha karma cannot be mostly avoided. Every human being has to go through it. The pain is caused by the emotional swing attached with the events happening in our life. The intensity of pain can be modified depending upon the knowledge level we are living or in other words the perspective with which we see the event. some of us might amplify the pain and other may be able to nullify it. Even though at the higher spiritual level we say that, these are all drama and illusion and nothing is actually happening; while we are going through it, its almost impossible to view with that perspective unless we have woke up.
But the actual problem happens after the event has passed by. The memories which the event had created will start playing in our minds and we will underplay ourselves, lose confidence and find it difficult to get back to our feet and face the life again. This is the suffering attached to the event and its a mind construct working on memories. This is the place we have to apply the knowledge that whatever has happened is a lesson for us and it has passed by. With that knowledge we should strive to stand on foot with the base as love and kindness.We are love and compassion. We might have displaced from the center because of the event and its emotional turbulence, but still the knack of life is to bring back ourselves to our center with the knowledge of life. This is the crux of living in balance. 

Creation is So Perfect

When I start knowing the deeper secrets of life, I am amused by the perfection with which the creation has been done. I just can bow down before the creator or praise the creator with words falling short by seeing a glimpse of the perfection around me. The imperfection we see around in the form of diseases, murder, suffering and what not, is also designed so perfect for perfect reasons. If we breakdown perfection even at the tiniest level also we can see perfection and if we breakdown imperfection even then see perfection at the tiniest level. But it seems that the creator hides lot of secrets about the drama we see, behind the veil so that the actors could never imagine that they are just actors on the stage. Once the actors realize that they are acting, the show is done for him and we say he is awake. He has then moved beyond the dualities and the cycle of birth and death.Oh God...

Who We Are

Who we are is more meaningful than anything we ever do. Who we are represents the frequency at which we are vibrating. Its our energy dimension. Even if we didn't speak a word, even then, the energy has the power to alter the surrounding beings into its higher vibration. In science we may call it resonance. It was said that the energy field of Buddha could be sensed kilometers away. That's the power of energy. 

Faith..

Faith? People often equate it as faith in religion and rituals. But to me, faith is far, far away from religion. Faith starts when we accept some energy beyond our physical dimension. We at a subtle level realize that there is something beyond in intellect; something beyond what we  can grasp through the five sense organs. It does not have much nexus with religion. Religion just offers some guidelines at the lowest level to orient oneself to that higher dimension. It starts from reading scriptures about people who had experiences. Initially our mind will deny their reality and say that they are just fiction. Then similar experiences gets into us and we slowly believe that there is a possibility  of such an experience.  Then we start practicing and start seeking it and mostly fails and fall back many times. Life's experiences takes us more and more inward and slowly the experience start inside us also. Then by the grace of the divine, we fall in that notch of divine orientation and finally merge into that as a water droplet merge into ocean.

If faith stays at the level of concepts and scriptural knowledge without experiences, it can fall like a deck of cards in wind. Faith has to become part of you. Then you have elevated yourself. 

You are that...

Now, in Kerala, with regard to Sabarimala temple issue, the big debate is between believer and non-believer. To the non-believers, I would like to comment that, if at all, you haven't experienced the soft touch at the bottom of your heart by any of the life's experiences, please keep your heart open. Keep the heart open and not the intellect or mind. Please don't close yourself thinking that there is no such experience beyond the intellectual rational mind. If so, you may be missing the greatest treasure life is offering you. If you haven't yet experienced tears overflowing with the experience of that(no words can describe it), then, there is something called "that". It can happen when you listen to a touching music, or it may be due to the resonance of nature's beauty(when you are in the middle of ocean, or forest or mountain ranges etc.), or it can be just plain, pure unconditional love. Please be open; don't close. That's all needed. Nothing more is needed because each one of us is hardwired with that essence in your core. "You are that". Just wipe out your spectacles. That's all needed. There can be infinite ways in which it can happen. It does not have any religion, caste, language or anything physical. Its beyond that. Please keep yourself open. That's all.

The Verdict is near

The supreme court verdict regarding the temple entry of young women in Sabarimal temple has got its own role in the overall evolution of human race. Its not just a case of so called gender discrimination. Actually it is not at all. The human mind has reached to a place where it has completely been overshadowed by intellect and rational thinking. The mind fails to grasp beyond intellect and hence it cannot accept what is beyond it. But the fact is that there are many things beyond the intellect or rather,what is inside the intellect domain is much much lesser than what is outside. The sad part is that, with that limited intellect, the mind tries to authoritatively state and impose a rule of law for something which is beyond the intellect.But there are reasons for what is happening now. My intuition says that, the mind has reached a point beyond the self sustaining system of the world. It has gone beyond control of the self sustaining mode. In that case the system has its own mechanism to bring things in control. Anything cannot expand infinitely. After an expansion there will be contraction or may be a destruction. Now the system has entered into its self correction mode. If you look at the happenings around the world you can correlate it. The nature has also entered into to correction mode. You can see it as natural calamities happening around the world. Many natural phenomenons which are beyond logic and the grasp of science is happening around the world. The decisions from the supreme court is also in orientation to it. Peace will be at stake in every aspects; be it inside or outside. The real knowledgeable people will not be heard. They will hide inside. Their knowledge will not be seeked for. And they will never wish to come out and speak for truth. They will surrender. They know that nobody has to protect truth. Truth has the immense power to protect itself. Because truth is;and truth will be;everything else is not.

What Sabarimala Offers??

-It offers a tool to have a glimpse of self realization for the believer. The realization of "Tatvamasi" or "Thou are that" or "Aham Brahmasmi".

-What are the rules in the path?
During the 41 days of severe austerity, the man elevates himself to God. For that he should live a life of celibacy with complete surrender to the divine. He will wake up early morning before sunrise; have showers at least twice a day to keep his physical body clean, he will keep his thoughts as pure as possible and keep his mind clean, Actions will stick to dharma, keep away from alcohol, cigarettes;He will not shave, he will not cut his nails, he will not trim his hair;he will stick to one or two black clothes,eat only satvic food, having darshan at temple twice a day, take part in satsangs, walk bare footed, and so on. And most important transmuting sexual energy into satvic form by practicing celibacy. This is one of the toughest part for a man. It not only include sex, but any downward-pulling desire.

Why all these severe rules?
All these are done to elevate his energy state in every possible dimensions to a level of "tatvamasi". "Tatvamasi" means 'you are that'. You and God are one. Its the highest possible state for a human being. Its not by the darshan that this achieved. Its through the process that this is possible. Its not a vedic way, its a tantric way. Its one of the easiest way offered in the Indian spirituality tailor made for the modern man or Kali Yuga. That's why Ayyappa is also called Kali Yuga varada. The greatest beauty of the Indian spirituality is that there are many different ways to reach God. Depending upon your inclination, you can choose any of them. The process is actually stripping down what you are not and making you the "satva". All the illusionaries are stripped off and reality is shown. The process offers to strip off the Ego which is the beginning of illusion of who I am.

Why 41 days?
If a man practice anything for two cell cycles, it gets deeply imbibed in him. That's why the practice is for 41 days considering one flat cell cycle to be 21 days.

who benefits?
Anyone who practice with belief. Belief is the driving force for practicing this tough austerity. The change is not happening in the God; it is happening in the man who practice. Even if you practice there is no guarantee of any experiences. Its highly personal depending of who you are. But the ever increasing number of Bhaktas can be taken as a direct proof of the experience.

The Tantra
The mantras, the consecration, the deity, the place, the ambiance, the practice rules, the yogic posture; everything has been beautifully and subtly interwoven for the Bhakta to have experience of "Tatvamasi". The energy emanating from the idol reverberates in the devotees who come to its presence if he is an receptive state.

The other side
Are all these so called bhaktas, following these austerities strictly? The answer is a clean no. But still, there are a very few people who follows the rules very strictly and have darshan. Actually, the temple is for them. For others, they may have lighter experiences according to how they practice. But temple is not a public place and it is for the believer and it is only the believer who benefits.

The rituals are evolved out of principles and hence have to be followed. Sabarimala Temple is not a tourist destination and should not be, and hence its sanctity should be preserved.

Levels of Understanding

Anything in this world can be understood at different depths. For example, a small plastic cup can be understood at the surface level as a material for holding water, which is green in color, having a particular texture and so on..On a slightly deeper level it can be understood that it is made of plastic, whether is food grade or not, whether it will crumble when hot water is put into it and so on..On an ever deeper level it could be understood the type of plastic it is made of and if we go even deeper what is the molecular structure of the plastic, what are elements present in it, what is the chemical bond between the atoms and so on.. So when we say that we know something, it depends on what level you know that. At the surface level if we understand it and we believe that we know it, then we may not be correct. I took an example of a very common tangible object of plastic cup to explain this. But this fact becomes highly complex when we deal with intangible things. Especially when it comes to energy dimensions like thoughts, feelings, consciousness etc. At the surface, anything is easy to understand and as one go deeper and deeper, it becomes an ocean and the deepest level everything is composed of the same thing. So that may the reason why a man of slightly deeper knowledge becomes more humble and as he understand deeper and deeper he will become more and more humble. This knowledge may help one to be non egoistic and help to keep ones feet grounded

Absence of Love - Root cause of all sufferings

Sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize the meaning of something. Love is one such thing. You know millions just live and die even without seeing the tip of the iceberg of so called love. Its said that there is only form of energy in this whole of universe, and that's love. Either love is there or its absent. That one energy form transforms and transmutate into all the positive forms and energy and the absence if it take the form and energy of all negative aspects. Hate, fear everything is the absence of love.

The very purpose of our life is to realize love. I took the word realize because, it cannot be understood or comprehended. It has to be realized or experienced. We get the glimpses of it every now and then in our day to day experiences. Mother and Guru are close living experiences of love. Its not a highly complex thing. Its what we all are. Its so close, rather we are that, its that simple, but still we fail to experience it. We oversee it. We are made of love. There is nothing beyond love.But still we fails. Love is the only truth. Its the present moment. Its the now. Not in the past;nor in the future. But still we fails.

What I understand is that, because of the development of technology, we have completely become blind. We teach our children science, maths, computers etc. But we fail to teach them love. We completely ignored it. If at there is a root cause for any problem in this world, its because of the absence of love.

Clean Up Year - 2017

Some how, by seeing the things happening around the world, I have a gut feeling that collective consciousnesses has entered into a cleanup mode. Many institutions and people around the world, which have been nurtured because of the negative ambiance have started facing the heat. The "Agni Pareeksha" has begun. Many will get burnt and become ashes in the process. Institutions, people with values will start getting noticed and will come to the limelight for the first time after so many tiresome years of negativity. The fall will be the catchword. And in the process, finer things will crystallize for the better.

Drive

t has been about two yeas that I have started driving from Chenganur to Malayalapuzha and back daily. Close to sixty kilometers a day. In the initial days, I justified my decision of buying a diesel car because the monthly commutation would anyway come more than 1500 km a month and  a people say its only economical if you have more than 1200 KMs to commute per month. But even then, it pricked me at the back of my heart that I am spending too much on daily commutation and moreover becoming a reason for the increasing carbon footprint and in turn for the haphazard climatic change happening globally. So as an initial step I started driving car with least fuel consumption. car gurus usually says with few tips you can increase the mileage of the car by over 20%. I am experimenting. Also in a short period of time, I may find some way to stop this long distance driving business and find an alternate way of settling down. I have sent my wishes to the universe and now its duty to respond. Since the condition of my lower back is also deteriorating, I may soon choose an auto gear shift car which will reduce the burden on my back and the knees while applying clutches especially in bumper to bumper traffic. I have kept my eyes on the recently launched Ignis of Maruti- the AMT version. Also I may switch back to the petrol version of the car considering the pollution factor, and decreasing margin between the price of petrol and diesel in India.

Made in Japan to Made in China

There was a time, when we see the tag "Made in Japan" on a product, we have a feeling that quality of the product is assured. That status was only for Japanese products. How did they develop that? They developed it through strict quality processes through which their product undergo. The range of quality tests which are conducted for the product for the expected and the unexpected conditions
through which the product may operate is so wide that their products excelled in performance, reliability, compactness and easy to use. When such a high standard of quality is expected, then the quality has to start at every level of product development. It includes, the planning, designing, materials used, levels of automation, people involved etc and the rigorous testing through which the product undergoes. Thus came the great japanese products from Toyota, Suzuki, Hitachi, Sony, sharp, Nissan and list goes on.

But the problem is that, when there is such a strict product development process, the cost of the product will naturally go up.Thus came the competition from Chinese market.Along with that one more change happened.Product life reduced because technology started evolving very fast and companies need to release updated product in short time periods. Products started becoming obsolete so fast. Also the purchasing power of the consumers also changed. Consumers wanted newer
versions of the product and they dont expect that the product will last life long and they are ready to spend more for upgradation. So companies were forced to reduce the cost even by compromising on quality and reliability.so manufacturing slowly started moving to China where the labor is cheaper and quality standards are lower which is the perfect match for the manufacturing industry and thus came the new tag "Made in China"

Ram Setu - A Civil Engineering Marvel