RELIGION, STRENGTH, COMMITMENT

Q. Most problems that exist today are in the name of religion. What's the future?

Sri Sri: The problem in religion is when the diehards say,"Oh! I cant say 'Allah' or 'Shiva' or 'Jesus'." Is your religion so weak that you will lose it just by saying "Om"? Or if you say "Allah", it wont take your religion away. i guarantee you no Go d will get angry with you.You accept technology and food from everywhere, isn't it? But when it comes to wisdom and singing, people seem to cringe. We have to break these barriers.


Sri Sri on strength and commitment:

"...When you want to do something, look at your own strength. Your weakness is that you start looking at others' strengths! When you are running, you can only look at the track below, not at who is next to you! Like a horse with blinders, look at your path only! Let anybody else do whathe or she wants to.
Also any job that you do, should be done with commitment.Otherwise, you will do th ejob when you enjoy it and stop doing it when you dont."


"You are only requuired to do what you want to do. You simply have to know that and you will get the strength.

Know that your life is more than your activity.

Life is not only about achieving - it is about contributing. "

Personally I found this true, and also a simple powerful fact...The next time you are bored or unhappy(even after you achieved something you had been personally longing/striving for), simply go and do some seva, do something for someone which will make him/her happy...for a child, for your friend, for a complete stranger, and then in a moment you will see your mood will be transformed from the happiness it will give you..nothing compares to it. So you know now what to do next time you are smitten by a heartbreaker, or feeling unhappy despite a personal win. O:-)

INDIA is more than we know !

INDIA

is not only a land of snake charmers, Miss Worlds, best sportsmen, technology, outsourcing, spirituality, and all contrasting views, but it is also a land where esoterism has emerged very boldly amidst a mixed cultural rainbow of all creeds, castes, mentalities, societies of people...the faith and the faithless, the poor-yet-happier and the rich-but-unhappy, the intellectuals and the street-smarts, the mythological legacies, thehardcore political dramas and ever-compelling excellence stunts in today's flattened world...this is India and much more.

This thought recurred to me after I viewed an article by a Mr. Rawat, excerpted in www.carolbowman.com


I should remark to sceptics, "The truth doesnot change according to out ability to stomach it." ~Flannery O'Connor

There are many more documented stories in Carol's site..and worth a look, to broaden our horizons and break our preconceived notions and "opinions" regarding the flow of things in this world.


Infact the second part of what I want to mention about is more explosive in its revelation....

but let me start with the man himself :

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -ALBERT EINSTEIN


Enlightenment: Interview (Excerpts) with Sri Ananda Giri

Sri Ananda Giri is one of the most prominent representatives of the Oneness Foundation. In this interview, from his tour in the USA, he is explaining the Golden Age Foundations view on the status of the world and the humanity of today, and how it can be changed. Radically.

"
What is the message and main teachings that you are bringing today to the spiritual seekers of America?

I have come to bring neither a new teaching nor a new philosophy of life; we already have received a huge number of teachings from different Saints, Sages, Mystics, Philosophers and great thinkers from different schools of thought. The world is full of philosophies, religions, esoteric teachings (revealed to the world), spiritual practices, techniques of self development, etc., that set forth beautiful theories and ideas of how we should live or what do we have to do, to find true "Happiness" in our lives. The question that I ask you is that after so much reading and listening to different teachings, is there any real change in our lives? Or, are we just changing techniques and philosophies, that keep us in rapture for a period of time, and after a while we find them impossible to follow and practice? Giving up finally the possibility to attain a real and deep change in our lives?

If you are not giving us a new teaching or technique, what should we expect from Foundation for World Awakening?

We, as a spiritual movement, ask you two questions:
1. Are you suffering? And,
2. Do you want to be free from this suffering?
If your answer is affirmative to both questions, we embrace you, and then our Foundation can help you.

What do you mean by "suffering"?

In many moments of our lives we found ourselves experiencing feelings of boredom, loneliness, depression, pain and conflict in our human relationships, lack of motivation, and sometimes meaninglessness in many of our daily activities.
These feelings make us suffer, because they come generally with anxiety and uncertainty, and we don't know if we will ever be free from these emotions and feelings.
Inside of us questions arise like: Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Will I find happiness and love in my life or is it just a dream? Where am I going? Is there any hope for a change or do I have to give up? What is living? Do I do what I really want, or do I feel like a slave of the impositions of society? Will I ever experience the real psychological and spiritual freedom? And so on and so forth...

What would happen if somebody comes and tells you that he has none of these questions, because he feels happy and in peace and that he has found everything he has searched for?

Not everybody is a spiritual seeker in this world. The truth is that only a selected group of people is in a real search in their lives. We as human beings are suffering from a severe illness, which is not necessarily lack of love, hatred ness, pride, greed, envy, covetousness or egoism, but we are suffering with an even greater illness, which is "lack of awareness" of what is happening inside us. Most of us walk in the streets without knowing, why we are going to our jobs, from where comes our urge to success, why should I go to the shopping malls every weekend, what makes me buy the latest car model that just appeared in the market, what is it that moves me everyday to action, why should I keep myself constantly busy, etc. If everything is fine and if I were really happy, for sure I would not have the necessity of keeping my mind constantly busy with ideas and projects for the future. If we contemplate for a moment we will see that real happiness and joy is only found in the present, but constantly we keep ourselves busy doing things for acquiring happiness and peace in the future, we are running after a moving train, which we can never catch.
The sincere spiritual seeker, first of all, is aware of this issue and feels the urge to find a way out of this stressing and anguishing situation. He has begun to see the lack of love and peace in his life, the lack of harmony in his family and personal relationships, and the lack of truthfulness because he is always involved in lies and hypocrisies in order to be accepted in this society. In the beginning, a spiritual seeker feels disgusted and sick of everything, and this is what really transforms him into a real and deep seeker of meaning, into a "Spiritual Seeker".

I am sure that many people who are reading this article would like you to go deeper and give us more clarity into what is the difference between Reformation and Transformation.


What we know today as change and personal development is basically Reformation.

Modern man has been greatly influenced by the paradigm of Science, which has come into fruition as an analytical and rational mind. We are perceiving the world, other people, things and nature from the standpoint of ideas, concepts, a mixture of concepts-ideas, or images that have been created in our minds through the past experiences that were significant in our lives. Therefore, any change that occurs in us is basically a change that manifests itself in the level of our concepts, ideas, beliefs and mental schemes.
The teachings we have received from great masters such as Christ, Buddha, LaoTse, Mohammed, Sri Krishna, Confucius and many other great Saints, Mystics and Sages, have been transformed into mere concepts and ideas, and that is the reason that, despite the clarity manifested by these great beings, it was and it is so hard to put them into practice and follow them wholeheartedly. There is always a conflict between the teaching and our inner nature. The teachings may be wonderful and we see the truth in them, and we know that if we could apply these great truths in our lives all the human problems and sufferings would be solved. But is almost impossible to follow them because our nature is different, and it is not natural for us to love unconditionally as Christ did, and it is not natural for us to feel detachment from desires as it was for the Buddha.
If we go more deeply we see that the inner nature of these great Masters was different, their Consciousness was different. For them, what they preached and taught was natural; it was part of their inner nature and drawn from their own experience.
A real inner change means Transformation, and it is not a change in the realm of concepts and ideas but in your inner world. Your whole perception undergoes a deep change; your consciousness has been altered.

Please, reveal to us in more depth the inner process that occurs in this journey of Transformation.

In this, the journey of Transformation, changes in the inner nature begin to occur. At the beginning of this journey very often there is an internal crisis, because our inner structures of thought start falling, and our ideas, concepts, creeds and mental schemes change.
Much of what we have created in our minds, images, conclusions, prejudices, our perceptions of the world, how we see ourselves, our friends, our family, and life itself, starts breaking down along with the security that we put on those images.
Slowly we begin to see reality, as it is, without masks, without false protections, we begin to perceive things as they really are.
In other words, what we start experiencing is not a growth or an accumulation inside of us, but a loosening of the attachments, images, concepts, ideas, sensations, to which we have been tied up and that has given us a false security until today. Remember, "Transformation is the journey of Liberation"; it means you begin to feel more light and free because you have given away a lot of unnecessary weight.

Therefore, if we are not experiencing this process of structures falling, does it mean we have not begun this journey?

Yes, that's right. That is why I have said that many who say that they are transformed and think they are spiritual beings are just fooling themselves, because they have been accumulating and building up, hence the unlearning process must be even harder.
Remember, this is the journey of humbleness and humility; it is not a competition to see who is more evolved.
Sri Kalki says in one of his Supreme Truths "Life is a process of learning and learning is unlearning". It means that if we are not unlearning (the falling of mental structures) everyday, Maybe we are not living at all!

As this process of unlearning begins to occur in our lives, when does this unlearning process end or, we must be completely void? And if it is so, does it mean that we should lose the notion and memory of ourselves?

The answer to the first question is yes. We must be completely void and until this occurs we should go on unlearning what we have accumulated in our lives. Our purpose of incarnation in this planet is to begin our Spiritual Awakening, and there is no other reason for being here. I see that you do not understand the unlearning process, and I am going to explain it further. If we go deeper into the world of memories, feelings and experiences of the past, we will see that the remembrance of some past experiences carry with it a strong emotional charge and others do not. This emotional charge affects us now in the present. Through our life we have had positive and negative experiences that made a strong impact in our memory, like the first years of our life, childhood, years at school, University period, etc. These past experiences determine our present conduct and behaviour, and how we perceive the circumstances of our daily life. To be able to experience the present as it is, without an emotional charge from our past, and to feel really free in our daily decisions, we must be liberated from our past experiences that carry a strong emotional charge. Therefore, the unlearning must occur at this level, this does not mean you would forget who are your parents and your friends, and that you are going to lose your memories; but you are not going to be attached to them. Attachment to these images that are charged with strong emotional feelings is what keeps you enslaved, and keeps you away from freedom and from being spontaneous in the present. Through this unlearning you are liberated from your past traumas and bad experiences such as fear, anguish, creeds accepted blindly by you and that you have never questioned, and ideas of ourselves that limits us just to certain activities, which makes us feel we are not able to realize our real self, and does not let us apply the whole creative potential that we have inside of us.

If I am aware of the necessity to begin the journey of Transformation, what is the next step I should take?

After being aware of the necessity and the desire to change, you should see that every intent and effort to change your inner nature might just produce reformation and not bring the true Transformation into your life. If we go deeper into the nature of our mind, first we will see that our mind is constantly planning and programming events, keeping under control and order the situations and events that are going to occur in the day, in the week, in the month, in the year or even in the rest of our life. If a change must occur in our inner world we must realize that every change in our feelings, perceptions and emotions have the characteristic of being natural and spontaneous in nature. Every experience is spontaneous; it is not planned or organized. I do not plan to get mad at my wife, husband or friend, neither do I plan to feel glad or happy today. I do not program to feel depressed on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and be happy the rest of the week. Therefore, the nature of the experience and of the inner world (feelings, emotions, sensations and perceptions) is spontaneous and natural.
After seeing the necessity of a change and Transformation, I should also realize that the key to success is not in my hands and in my own efforts, because something spontaneous must occur, an extraordinary experience must occur, a transcendental experience, a divine and mystical experience must be given to me to get the state of Transformation and Liberation.

...

Where and when was this movement born?

Foundation for World Awakening was born in 1991, in Madras, India.

How many followers do you have around the world?

Over 15 million.

Where are the followers of this Foundation?

Ceylon, United Kingdom, Sweden, Ukraine, Argentine, Chile, Uruguay, Russia, India, Brazil, United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Ecuador, Singapore, China, Australia and other countries from the former Soviet Union.


What are the statistics concerning the growth of the movement?

It is growing in such an astonishing manner that we can no longer have an accurate statistics. From what we know, it is the fastest growing movement in the world.

What do you think is the reason for such an incredible growth?

Today we are experiencing a unique phenomenon on earth. And each man and woman that walks on this planet must discover it. The coming of Sri Kalki is very important and is a milestone in the evolution of man and of our planet. Our beloved Sri Kalki is the source of the innumerable insights, realizations and the source of the highest mystical experiences that are awakening the mystic within the hearts of the seekers.


You talk about the beginning of a new Age, and that we are at the dawn of this Age, is this the so-called Age of Aquarius by the astrologers?

It is the dawn of a new Age, The Golden Age; the Age of Aquarius is a small age inside the Golden Age. All the changes that are beginning to occur in our planet are representative of the dawn of this new Age, changes in the level of perceptions in man; perceptions of himself, of the Universe and the Creator; changes that make us enter into different stages of growth and comprehension of reality. From the standpoint of astrology we can see a new planetary and zodiacal cycle for this planet Earth. Behind these observations there are profound meanings that will become clearer as we experience the trends that will affect our lives completely. So this is a phenomenon that affects not only the planet but affects YOU. You will feel it in every cell of your body.

What are the changes that we will experience?

Many changes are occurring right now in our planet, starting with the physical changes manifesting in the ecological environment that surrounds us. Climatic changes, changes in ocean currents, and strong changes in the atmosphere that affect the Earth and all the living species in it.
As these changes are manifesting and many more are to come, something begins to happen to us at a psychological level, the creeds we have, the social, economical, political and cultural systems begins to shake and collapse. You just have to open your eyes to see that we are coming near a cliff, we are in crisis and in a society that sooner than later is going to break down. Society is a blend of ideas and beliefs, perceptions kept alive for some time, and today it is in crisis. Our social, economical and political system is based upon ideas and beliefs; there is absolutely nothing real in which we have put our hopes and securities. Looking back in history we see that each ideology in some moment has fallen down because a new one takes form, the new is more real and closer to what man perceives as truth at that given moment.

Then, what is this new idea or ideology that man is going to develop as a new perception?

This time it is a completely new and distinct change. If we see and analyze the current situation of young men throughout the world we can appreciate with more clarity the phenomenon that is occurring today. The teenage period is characterized by an idealistic feeling, there is a profound search for truth and there is born a deep longing to keep their ideal alive. Seeing the actual state of teenagers we find that they are living in confusion, where all the ideas have lost power, and there is a general sense of boredom, meaninglessness and a total loss of identity with society.
This phenomenon that we see very clearly in this example is what brings us to an even deeper change, because a new idea does not attract us anymore. We had very bad experiences with ideologies that lead us to move to a non-believing state. If you go inside your heart you will discover that you do not want another idea that will control your life for a brief time, after which you will have to change it again. We are frustrated with it and we want something more permanent and real.
Therefore this is the moment where each one of us must move from ideas and beliefs to a personal discovery of the real truth.

What is it that we have to discover?

Basically there are three discoveries that must happen to you. In the first place, you must begin to discover yourself and know who you are. Secondly, start discovering the secrets and the great mysteries behind creation that are revealed to you as you begin to discover yourself. And the last and most important one is to begin the greatest and more wonderful journey that man has ever undertaken, which is to meet God personally.

What do you think about the future of the planet and man?

There is a truth of Sri Kalki that says: "Spiritual Regeneration is the cause of physical and psychological degeneration". It means that every change and difficulty we are experiencing today has its roots in the spiritual plane, therefore man is entering into a new state of consciousness, where it will no more be difficult for him to love and have peace in his life, because this will be his natural state.
...
What will happen to our society after many people have begun their journey of Transformation?

Imagine for a moment a society where each one of us will take care of everyone else. We will be a society where the sick, the poor, the handicapped will receive help and love from the rest...At last we will be a universal family where there will be no divisions between countries, religious groups, social and economical classes, because we would not be wearing our masks that are born from fear, we will know each other, not from lies, but we will relate with others from true love. Where the welfare of the rest will be more important than personal welfare there man will meet with what has been his quest and dream, which is to feel himself as a part of a whole, and to be able to experience a real communion with his existence, the Universe and the Whole.

"

The research has culminated into ONENESS UNIVERSITY. www.onenessuniversity.org
Why I chose to speak about it suddenly today..perhaps because this in itself is the highest form of technology that the Universe manifests...have we noticed, that to change the grand , visible, gross schema of undesirable things in world (be it HIV/Cancer/mutation), we plunge towards the SOURCE, the SOURCE being the smallest units of every creation...and thence forth sprang molecular biology, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and on. So to know this Creation, we need to know ourselves first. And this process is called SELF-KNOWLEDGE. And Foundations like Art Of Living and Oneness University have made some groundbreaking research, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sri Amma Bhagavan have brought our minds and collective consciousness together, and we are lucky to be living in such times, when information is at our fingertips, consciousness of individuals are rising, and the world is transforming into a knowledge-based, one single planet.
I can recommend thats,
" Even if you're on the right track , you'll get run over if you just sit there."
Let us not sit back and get run over..let us "Turn our faces to the Sun, and the Shadows (of past civilisational mistakes) fall behind us"

-just a bit of observation-

Swastiastu ! (its in Indonesian lingo...figure it out, meaning is beautiful)
Here are some IT facts to digest, for people who are religious abut technology fads...something like being part of the 'revolution'...or maybe savingt he world from obsolence by being part of the latest buzzwords..(and of course I m proud to b on blogspot, the best blogging site !)



Nielsen//NetRatings
TOP blogging sites in September 2007


AudienceGrowth
September 2006 September 2007 YTY

Blogger 19,751 ---- 29,596------ 50%
Six Apart TypePad 7,525------10,992 --------46%
WordPress.com 2,673 10,424 290%
tmz.com 6,000 10,293 72%
LiveJournal 3,685 4,160 13%
Xanga.com 5,528 3,008 -46%
Perezhilton.com 1,234 2,203 79%
Engadget 1,503 2,021 34%

Gizmodo 763* 1,891 148%
Thatsfit N/A 1,726





TOP search engines in September 2007

Engine-- Searches-- Growth-- YTY Share
Google ---3,994,158--- 41.3%---- 54.0%
Yahoo! ---1,443,244--- 9.3%---- 19.5%
MSN -----890,685 --- 71.5%---- 12.0%
AOL ---- 444,493 --- 24.0%--- 6.0%
Ask.com--158,969 --- 4.5% --- 2.2%


TOP social networking sites in September 2007

Site ---------------------Audience Growth(Sep 2007) YTY
Myspace.com------------58,581 --------------------------24%
Facebook ----------------18,090 ------------------------133%
Classmates Online-------13,313 ---------------------------0%
Windows Live Spaces----10,275-------------------------- 32%
AOL Hometown ----------7,685------------------------ -23%
Reunion.com -------------4,845------------------------ 3%
LinkedIn -----------------4,075------------------------ 131%
AOL People Connection--- 4,017------------------------ -34%





(ahem...my blogger.com still reigns....mmmmm)





Quoting Steve Ballmer, "MS Search capabilities are goung to dunk the other guys" !!
....goodness gracious !where are we headed mates?? Maybe I dont have the legendary expertise and experience as Stevie, but perhaps being in a desert too long can be illusioning as one's focus gets blurred in terms of the difference between a "blurred being in the zone"guy and a "fresh outsider's view of the larger picture"guy ..so as far as I perceive it...certain startegies at MS have become an ill-boding, just the oxymoron way certain other strategies have enhanced the Company's adoptability( like a base ecosystem of Windows based GUI's to market and grip the zillions of people around, and then to deploy marketing strategies and eye-candies heavily on these old cash cows...the same way as wine does...(but again Software != Wine), and of course sharing code (Windows XP code, .NET, etc))...plummeting back to strategies that look like the silence before a storm , I see Steve's strategies in pushing MS into minds and souls of people, rather too aggressive and pushy, that also in 2 risky scenarios

>> more and more number of bugs and patches that bog down the acceptability of newer MS products in a fight by users who insist old is better (the same way that Vista SP2 has been postponed, and support for XP2 has been retained)

>>2nd scenario, overly diverging the previously efforts of the teams across the world, causing a pattern I would classify as "concave lens diverging parallel rays of a light beam"...Steve you are the lens , dont you see it ?? The effect shall be the opposite of what a convex lens like other competent search engine giants(their biggest competitors) are doing, "convex lens converges parallel beam" ...the over all effect, the efforts are not being focussed, the upto-an-extent-justified-but-not-effective-in-long-run strategy of diversifying should also be folllowed with a laser focus on the divesified products, and more importantly, not just retaining the value of an array of relatively-older product arsenals, but to actually improve them aggressively...andthe golden rule to learn is to LISTEN . Listen to the loud noises blogs are making from people in startups, analysts who care to write about your Organisation, your products. Listen. And then strategize, it WILL go a long way and save much last-minute bug fixes, and patches which we are so unpopular about. And here I emphasize upon the gem of our evolution...our ability to "create". And creation happens only when we are inspired, or in more gross terms, when neccesity knocks on the door...so let your teams INNOVATE and thats where a see a silver lining in this new directionof efforts MS is headed towards..MS is listening, through the ears of their Evangelists..and thats a good sign. Tomorrow is a day when consumers drive "user-geerated.editor-less.useful.neccesity-driven.scalable" technologies loudly, and dont you want to make sure you are basking in the glory then Mr. Ballmer , because you listened. And because your focus had shifted from only "dunking" competitors in a dodge ball game, into an alternative parallel strategy , just as stronglt focussed on letting your best developers run free to play amidst the ecosystem of infrastructure you have created, and to be "inspired" to create, instead of JUST COMPETING to stay even. Its not just about staying even. And maybe someone rightly said too.."A good software is not when you have no features left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Remember Joel Spolsky's blog on USABILITY http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html and its cardinality moral.



Now that I have driven a few points home(at the expense of constraining my urge to nature's call, until I am done!), I feel like I could do with a short break until I get to sharing my DIGGS about an insightful blog born somewhere, or a beautiful thought born in my unpredictable mind that can change the world ;-) ...maybe who knows ?

Meaning of Life

I have a only one question for today :

"What is the purpose you were created and manifested in this body, in this lifetime ?"

?

interesting view

This post makes sense
http://ubshreenath.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6447FDAF06658642!503.entry

m waiting for the rest of the story.

Faith moves mountains..faith shall protect heritage Bridge

This is what I dug up just now...http://www.indolink.com/Religion/r091702-130924.php

It says :

Space images taken by NASA reveal a mysterious ancient bridge in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. The bridge currently named as Adam´s Bridge is made of chain of shoals, c.18 mi (30 km) long. The bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age suggests that it may be man made. The legends as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago. This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in Tredha Yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago). In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme. This information may not be of much importance to the archeologists who are interested in exploring the origins of man, but it is sure to open the spiritual gates of the people of the world to have come to know an ancient history linked to the Indian mythology.

Hang on to your mouse, as you follow this link into another discovery:

http://www.jaspari.info/2007/05/legendary-skeleton-from-hindu.html

(thats a bit of our mythology..how many proofs do you need to validate the oldest culture, Karunanidhi...we vest you power with our votes, we shall take it away too! Exercise your power for more demanding problems plaguing this country, dont dissipate your energies in opportunities that also have alternate solutions. Perhaps we under-estimate or overlook some facts in the incessant noisy commentary that has diseased our distracted minds...calm your mind and ask one question Karunanidhi : Where did technology originate in this world ? Was it in hard disks in Silicon valley, or CERN's picturesque Geneva, or did it flourish in India !!! long before America was discovered, even longer before the Japanese adapted their martial arts from Kalaripayattu (in Kerala, India) or the Chinese borrowed umbrella concept from India...when was this ? I see the answer in an era..when some of the geratest epics were documented as 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata'......AND THE TECHNOLOGY ? Kunti mothered her 100 Kaurava sons via a technology boon that we use today to create "test tube babies" ..and that was technology long before anyone else imagined it in any other country or continent. Karunanidhi will overlook it I know, because he is "pressurised" by his colleagues and superiors, infact he will also overlook the facts so sublimely documented in Bhagavad Gita each of them with NEVER-ENDING knowledge value. And what of when Hanuman wished to reach the other end of Ocean to Lanka...how did Hanuman make the leap ? He was skilled in practical aspect of what we term now as "Projectile Motion" . And how do we validate He really crossed the ocean? Because Hanuman noticed the star clusters in a fixed sequence across the Heavens during the journey...the same fixed sequence as is observed when you make an arial journey across India to Sri Lanka today by your favourite airline . And you seek validation of the Ram Setu, do you ? Go visit one of the miracle rocks, infact go visit the Patna Jain Temple where news reports recently revealed one of the miracle rocks that floated on water with SRI RAM's name at the time the Bridge was being constructed by the thousands Sri Ram's soldiers ! Do you need more proofs ? I know you know...because you want just an EXCUSE, to proceed the Setu Samudran Project, not REASONS, but EXCUSES.

And religions asides, here is what Sri Sri has to say about India and Spirituality:

"

SPIRITUAL INDIA: People ask me how can India have so much spirituality and yet be so poor. I have my own explanation to this. India has one-third the land of America and thrice its population. It has six major religions, many dialects and over a thousand years of foreign rule.
That India is still existing as a country is a miracle. We could have gone the Yugoslavia way a long ago. Yet, it’s because of spirituality that India still exists.
Tell me, today there are more hospitals, how come there are more diseases? The health of society has gone down in the last 40 years. Are the hospitals responsible for this? No, it is because of the lifestyle. You still feel the villages in this country have lots of ethics, human values are greater there. Do you know 27% of the European population suffers from depression? In another eight years they expect the figure to reach 48%. Do you know 50% of the students in Washington DC drop out of school? The crime rate in the US is unbelievable. 33% of college students there have gone to jail or done some crime one time or the other. In face of these statistics India seems a much better place. It could be much better I agree. But there is an air of spirituality in India. Even in the freedom movement Mahatma Gandhi could do what he did because he was such a spiritual person. There were many more intelligent people than him around. Motilal Nehru and others were more well-read people. I agree moral degradation is happening, but it is because of no spirituality. Nobody taught us in school how to manage our mind when we are upset. Nobody taught us that your breath and your emotions are connected. That we are surviving is a miracle, let’s accept that. Then we are progressing economically - it’s only you people who tell us this, that GDP is growing. On the happiness front I would say we can do better. If we do better in the moral plane we could do even better.
SUPERSTITION: There’s nothing wrong in chaos. Many times creativity, bliss comes out of chaos. We need to learn to live with chaos. You should not dismiss something as superstition without probing into it. We should accept that there are many things in the world we do not know, have no explanation for. Whether a phenomenon is valid, whetherit could be explained, we need to probe into it before we can pronounce judgement on it.
You should accept the possibility of something you don’t understand. We can’t view everything with a communal prism, something like sea water tasting sweet. As for me there are many things which have no logical explanation. So you have to accept there are things beyond logical explanation. You go to Kulu, Manali and there are these devtas (deities) who answer people’s questions. You think about something and they’ll come and touch you on the left or right. In Karnataka there’s this devi’s panchloha statue that bends down and writes on a table that is covered in flour. A Japanese came and thedevi wrote in Japanese for him - a multilingual devi! Instead of brushing away such incidents as superstition a scientific mind should probe into them. You should keep your mind open.

"

This is an excerpt from his address to Indian Express reporters

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/The-first-sign-of-intelligence-is-not-to-talk/183521/0

I like your blog Anoop :-)

http://amazedsaint-intutions.blogspot.com/

ALIVE with ideas

My blog is alive now...because

today I shall link more neurons to my blog that will take you onto links you will be addicted to !! and it will create a farm of ideas in your heads, as you follow each of these links...given that you are an inquisitive person who thrives on intellectual orgasms...do you ? You do , I know that , and thats why you are reading my blog, because like me, you know the value of information, you adapt the value of knowledge in multiple domains of your unpredictable life...and because you know....WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK (well, I have a video to share on this concept, which will spark your untouched mental faculties...I can vouch on that) ....so lets think knowledge and lets share ideas...

How do you know what my blog is saying...you read it with eyes, isnt it? and the brain maps it ...and how do you interpret it...the brain of course..and how do you leverage the information for your use..the brain again (adaptation and survival instincts) !! so now, here's a link to FOOD FOR THE BRAIN... http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/08/22/10-habits-of-highly-effective-brains/

Lets play a small game here :

http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/20/brain-puzzle-for-the-whole-brain-the-blind-beggar/

that was just a teaser...here are the nuclear bombs :-) http://www.sharpbrains.com

http://intelligencetesting.blogspot.com/

ok brain games apart, lets get to other hierarchies...occupation, right ? :-) gone are the offline pre-internet job hunting days...now is the time you checked out 2 blessed sites to cool your heels... http://www.blogswithjobs.com/ and http://beginnersguide.com/careers/

infact why dont we cool off much more than just heels :-) there you go..

http://dbcs.typepad.com/

http://www.blueskyresumesblog.com/2007/10/choose-the-job-.html

http://www.hrworld.com/features/interviewing-cheat-sheet-092507/

http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/

On a technology front there are openings here... http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoogroupsjobs/

I liked the tone of it..
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/management-and-militarism-just-who-are-we-fighting.html


..well lets play on the turfs of some of my favourite sites now

http://jasonhaley.com/Blog/default.aspx (good technical listings)

http://www.selfgrowth.com/socialnetworkingwebsites.html (social sites which made it to the finsh line...for now)

http://altsearchengines.com/ (a new trend of search engine technology...that focus on an old paradigm "BE THE FIRST IN THE INDUSTRY , OR BE THE BEST"..they just focussed on the latter o:-)

infact these caught my personal attention http://www.quintura.com/ (good concept, excellent UX )

http://www.hakia.com/ (search for meaning)

http://www.grokker.com/ (good U-X)

http://www.scitopia.org/scitopia/ (Integrating Trusted science + technology research= book search))

www.geekipedia.com (good technical articles)

http://archanaraghuram.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/vedic-mathematics-and-sulbasutras/ (Archana Raghuram delves into Vedic Maths..besides that, she has an insightful blog)

http://www.go2web20.net/ (a great repository for Web2.0 explorers, my personal favourite :-) :-))

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/miscellaneous/the-ten-videos-to-change-how-you-view-the-world.html (you will love this !)

Hoping we are stimulated and shall keep coming back to these useful posts asap..We will share knowledge , just as we share the air we breathe and the Earth that we belong to (are we conscious to realise , WE BELONG TO THE EARTH, THE EARTH DOES NOT BELONG TO US . http://www.thepetitionsite.com/).

BUT "Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein.

I3 2007 Snaps

atlast I received few snaps from the I3 Convention, taken with other MSP's ...do check them out..and the panel looks as lively as it really sounded there :-)

Navratri at Ashram

Hey beautiful people,
I'm back again after a transformation over the weekend of Navratri...and its been a fulfilling experience in many many aspects...not to do injustice to the mystery, I shall reveal a little but certainly cannot express the experience completely, because just like we cannot describe electricity(unless yu would like to savor the experience of answering nature's call in public next to an electric transformer :-D ...a typical Indian scene) , or love (unless yu are yourself smitten) or even joy (no comparisons), so also certain things can only be experienced ....
In short, I had a blessed experience on Friday at Ashram during the Chandi Homa, organised by GuruJi for all of creation, with so much love and efforts, that I know why it happens to be the biggest festival around the Ashram...people flocked in multitudes of 20-50 thousands...and the entire panorama was awashed with rain , music , singing, dancing, serving and seva, and of people of all age groups from the smallest villages in Karnataka to the largest cities in other countries, gathered together to receive the blessings of the holy calendar of Navratri when GuruJi himself blessed all with his Presence and unconditional Love. In fact , he played the Veena and the Sarang on Thursday evening...just like a beautiful mystical angel speaks to us through music....and Vikram bhaiya enthralled us with a flute performance...crowds swayed to the tune of his charming notes as he played us along with the flute...
The Chandi Homa on Friday was an experience that not only the people who were present there, were lucky to have experienced, but definitely wall others who had the luck to view the telecast.....and as it concluded , people were bathed in the holy water via sprinklers at the ceiling of the Yagnashala...and soon before the rains drizzled upon us , in indication that the offerings of prayers were accepted and the God were pleased...towards evening after much seva and a youth meeting to focus young energies towards meaningful projects for the underprivileged, we all congregated at the Yagnashla again, and this time when GuruJi arrived with the Dandiya (after a lot of coaxing all those days that GuruJi didn't join us for Dandiya), and the moment his gliterring dandiya sticks struck, the clouds broke up in an out pour of celebration too....it was an immensely divine moment as bhajan (devotional song) after bhajan poured out of the lips of noteworthy devotees like pearls, and as we danced in bliss...just as Gopi's did when Sri Krishna played his heart out on His flute, in Vrindavan....the entire crowd was lost in a continual moment of "coming back to the Source" (that's what Navratri is all about)...the entire gathering resonated with claps and songs.....and then we meditated when GuruJi led us through a short meditation experience...
I can only say this to those who haven't experienced the joy of being at Ashram ....only after I joined Art Of Living, I smiled first time like never before, danced like never before, sang like never before, and my heart flowered like never before.
The bhajans sung at Ashram are now more rocking than any rock concert I have experienced, and the commitment and loving attitude I see among the people there is exceptional...I would strongly recommend anyone who is blue or dejected with life or job or bogged down with stress, must rekindle the Chaithanya of life with a visit, unconditionally. Its like a place beyond Earth, on Earth...a very very individual experience for anyone...an experience of a journey from the ever-changing external play of joy and sorrow, to the unchanging divine love that resides deep within at peace with every atom and every molecule in this Universe.

do check out this interview excerpts...its goooood !
http://niranjani.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/gurujis-address-at-financial-express/
http://niranjani.wordpress.com/2006/09/26/navratri-going-back-to-the-source/
http://niranjani.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/effortless-meditation/