The real meaning of Diwali

 

Diwali celebration is attributed to the return of Lord Rama from the forest where he spent fourteen years. But according to puranas this is not correct. It so happened that since no festival was celebrated in Ayodhya for fourteen years, on his return, all festivals were celebrated.

The real story

Initially Diwali used to be puja for Narayan and Lakshmi.  Later it changed to Ganesh and Lakshmi puja. Let us see how this change happened.

When Raja Bali won all three worlds and took the throne of Lord Indra, the latter panicked and went to Narayan. Knowing Bali’s weakness on giving ‘Dan’(charity), Narayan took the form of Vamana and sent Bali to patal lok. In patal, Bali was praying to Narayan, who became happy and had to agree to the request of Bali to go with him to patal.

So that year, Narayan was not present with lakshmi during Diwali puja. That is how Ganesh and Lakshmi puja started, which still continues.

Narayan’s return

Lakshmi was desolate without Narayan. She too decided to cash in on Bali’s weakness for ‘Dan’. She made Bali her brother on ‘Bhaiduj’ festival. When Bali asked what she wanted as a gift, she requested to release Narayan from patal. Then Lakshmi granted boon for Bali that he will rule all three worlds on Diwali.

Significance of gambling on Diwali day

In his previous life Bali was a gambler. Once while going to a prostitute with flowers,he tripped on a stone and fell on a nearby Shivling. He died on the spot and though he was destined to go to patal for his sins, he was given Lord Indra’s throne for one day for his merit in putting flowers on Shivling. When he sat on the throne, it struck him that for one good deed he got the throne for a day. So, to gain more merit, he offered one by one, everything in the Heaven’s treasury. In the evening when Indra came, the treasury was empty, and because of all the merits that Bali gained, he got Indra’s throne.

When Bali released Narayan from patal, Lakshmi gave the boon that Bali will be worshipped during Diwali and to commemorate his life as a gambler, gambling is allowed on Diwali day.

Puja during Diwali

During the Samudra mandhan ( churning of ocean, the Ksheera sagar), on the day Lakshmi appeared, Diwali is celebrated. Whoever lights lamp with oil (where Lakshmi resides), the Goddess blesses them and resides in their house for one year.

On the day Lord Dhanvantari appeared, Dhanteras is celebrated.

On Naraka Chaturdasi day, Mahakali puja is done.

Mantras in your life

Mantras have beneficial effects on the health of the body and positive effects at mental and emotional levels. The earliest mantras were composed in Vedic Sanskrit in India, and are at least 3500 years old. In the simplest form, the word ॐ (Aum, Om) serves as a mantra, it is believed to be the first sound which was originated on earth. Aum sound when produced creates a reverberation in the body which helps the body and mind to be calm.

Chanting mantra (japa)

Mantra japa is a practice of repetitively uttering the same mantra for an auspicious number of times, the most popular being 108.  Japa is assisted by malas (bead necklaces) containing 108 beads and a head bead, called 'meru'. Thumb and middle finger are used to count each bead while repeating the chosen mantra. After doing 108 repetitions, if another round of chanting has to be done, the mala is turned around without crossing the head bead and the cycle is repeated.

One or several mantras?

Even if one chants just one mantra throughout life with complete devotion, it is enough to uplift his/her life. But some people, like me, are drawn to several mantras. I feel strong connection to many mantras and got the clarification when I saw several past lives involved in spiritual pursuit. Each mantra activates a particular kind of energy in a different part of the body.

How to find time to chant many mantras?

If you are a one mantra person, there is no problem. But if you are attracted to many mantras and want to chant them all, there is problem with time management. I have found a way to do this. I have a mantra that I chant while cooking. Before starting to eat meals, I do Reiki and chant three mantras. In the morning and evening when I do puja, half an hour to forty minutes are spent in chanting different mantras. While doing yogasanas, during holding each pose, instead of counting minutes, I chant mantras. Then while performing routine duties, chanting will go on at the back of the mind.

I find this a very soothing practice. Our mind’s function is to think. Now a days there are too many stimuli around to give impetus for thinking to start, whether it is from the news paper you read, television shows or from Facebook and whatsapp messages. Instead of thinking about those things, which will only corrupt the mind, isn’t it wonderful to engage the mind in Divine mantras?

The purpose of different mantras

We can’t have a single program in the computer to accomplish different functions. With Word, you can have a word document, but to prepare a lecture presentation, you need to install Powerpoint in your computer. Each mantra has been chanted for millions of times by Sages and made powerful. They hold tremendous vibration that will be transmitted to your body while chanting, to bring about a particular result.

Ultimately, it must be your choice, according to your inner voice, whether you should adopt one mantra or many mantras, and which one.

Finding the purpose

As I entered the forest at dawn,

I gasped at the beauty of leaves so bright

The stately trunks, girths so broad,

Their skin glistening and smooth

 

The air was filled with fragrance divine,

From those colorful flowers all around

I spent hours roaming along,

Listening to the songs of birds abound,

Making a pledge to come again,

To bask in the beauty that I long for.

 

An year later as I trudged along

In anticipation of that dazzling sight

My feet stopped,

As I took in the heart wrenching sight

Of dead wood, dried leaves and rotten flowers.

 

I lost my strength, knees locked tight,

Sitting on a rock, letting flow my tears.

As my eyes dried up and I closed them,

The events in the past year flashed through.

 

I sensed the roots drawing water and nutrients,

The trunk doing the transportation,

Leaves making food for the whole tree,

Flowers engaged in ensuring lineage.

 

Then one day, as the trunk noticed the leaves,

Rustling in glee and dancing in the wind,

Remorse filled it up, as it craved to be like the leaf,

Stopping the duty that was the trunk's.

 

The roots sensed the trunk's remorse,

Thought of its whole life buried under,

Deprived of the wind and Sunlight,

And stopped doing its duty.

 

The fate of leaves and flowers was doomed,

Without the food and water coming up

From the roots through the trunk

And the forest died a painful death!

 

Five season later I happened to cross the path,

Of the forest that had died,

And wasn't I surprised to see,

The Heavenly beauty once again.

 

As I stood near the tree,

With my hands around the slender trunk,

I felt the whispers, 'Welcome back, my friend,

We won't disappoint you again,

We know the purpose of life now,

Each one is different  and our happiness lies,

In doing our duty to the fullest.

Manipura Chakra Meditation, Dr Beena Rani Goel, 18 September 2020

Bhagwad Gita - It Is Your Own Story

 

During my hostel days in PUC, we used to have an hour of ‘Bhagwad Gita’ class on Sunday mornings. The lady who took it had least interest in Gita and it used to be a boring class. When she started in her monotonous tone “Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre” I would be dragged into the land of sleep and it used to be a struggle to keep my eyes open. Needless to say I gained absolutely nothing from those sleepy hours.

Same words with magical effect

Recently I started listening to Manoj Kaimal’s talk on ‘Bhagwad Gita’. And when he started “Dharmakshetre Kurukshetre”, I was captivated. He explained that the word ‘Kshetre’ means field (the war field in the setting of Mahabharat yudh) and also temple. This refers to our body. It is in our hands to make this physical body into a war field or a temple. I felt as if nectar started pouring into my inner core. It was very fascinating how every incident and words were compared to things in our daily life in such a way that it made a deep impact. From then on I was waiting eagerly for his Monday evening discourses.

Parikshit and the dead snake

Parikshit was the last king of Chandra Vanshi, the grandson of Pandavas and son of Abhimanyu. One day Parikishit was in a forest for hunting and he felt thirsty, so he went to sage Shamik. Sage was engrossed in his meditation and he didn't listen to King Parikishit. Such a humiliation prompted Parikishit to put a dead snake around Shamik's neck. After some time Shamik's son came to his father and on seeing a dead snake around his neck, he cursed Parikishit that he would be dead in seven days by getting bitten by a snake.

In our daily life when we get irritated by people, mindlessly we throw dead snakes at them. For example, while you drive when somebody doesn’t allow you to overtake, some abusive words may be uttered. We think these words are harmless (the other person hasn’t even heard it, right?), just like that dead snake. But we need to remember that every action of ours is going to come back to us. Once this fact sinks into our psyche, we will be very careful with our words and actions.

When you are in your own shoes

Arjun had single handedly fought and defeated the Kaurav sena with great warriors like Bhishma, Dronacharya etc. when he was in the guise of Brahannala. His mind or hands didn’t waver even once. But when he was in the battle field of Kurukshetra, in his real identity, he was trembling and his bow, Gandiva slipped from his hand.

When we confront difficult situations in life, standing in our own shoes, we get blinded and can’t see any solution. If we can just step aside, mind becomes calm and receptive to the solution that already existed.

Is your intellect blindfolded?

To face our life in a balanced way, we need to let our mind direct us under the guidance of intellect. Manoj beautifully described the reason why things get into a mess . Our mind is Dritharashtra, who was blind from birth and intellect is Gandhari. Gandhari chose to spend her life time blind folded. Same way we keep our intellect blind folded and let the mind run amuck and complicate our lives!  

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PS:  If anybody is interested to listen to Manoj Kaimal, it’s Rm 30 per talk, which can be paid through PayPal. Whoever is interested can mail at mkaimal@gmail.com. And Manoj will help you with payment and then send a Dropbox link to download the talk.

Dentist- the sacrificial lamb of the millennium (Covid-19 effect)

It is interesting to take a look at the life expectancy of dentists. A 2007 article by Randy Lang, “Stress in Dentistry - It could kill you!” in ‘Oral Health’, reported that dental literature confirms dentists are subject to a variety of stress-related physical and emotional problems. He elucidates:

STUDIES AND STATISTICS

* The suicide rate of dentists is more than twice the rate of the general population and almost three times higher than that of other white collar workers.

* Emotional illness ranks third in order of frequency of health problems amongst dentists, while in the general population it ranks tenth.

* Coronary disease and high blood pressure are over 25% more prevalent among dentists than in the general population.

* Dentists suffer psycho-neurotic disorders at a rate of 2 1/2 times greater than physicians.

* The #1 killer of dentists is stress-related cardiovascular disease.

* The dental profession in North America loses the numerical equivalent of one large dental school class each year.

And then, CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that the dental professionals were 23 times more likely to have IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis) than the rest of the population. IPF causes scarring of the lungs. Something in their workplace environment may have been poisoning them, investigators said, although they don’t know what.

Starting from a disadvantageous position

So a dentist’s life is starting with a disadvantage, and literally they are in a unique position. Majority of hours are spent bending over a patient in an awkward position, their necks often bent or crimped, their backs strained while trying to peer into the depths of their patient’s mouths and holding tools for long periods of time. Now with the microscope dentistry, they are forced to sit in a taut straight back position which can be very bad for the spinal health.

Covid-19, the last straw that may break the camel’s back?

Now with all the precautions and preparations that a dentist is supposed to adhere to while attending a patient, it looks like they are the sacrificial lambs of the millennium. Let us take a closer look. 

First of all, take a look at how a dentist has to wear the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) here . While sealed inside the PPE, one starts sweating profusely. Just watch the above video at 10.59 minute to see his wet shirt in this much short time of showing how to wear and remove the PPE. When the dentist works for hours in the clinic, imagine the wet clothe inside the PPE!

Gloves

In the above video, you will see that the dentist has to wear two pairs of gloves, the first is one size smaller. Even with the correct size glove, how I used to wait for the moment of finishing the dental work so that my hands could be freed and the skin could breathe!

Wearing a pair of gloves one size smaller is unthinkable for me, but the practicing dentist has no other go. He/she has to tolerate the hands being cramped for hours together. This is added to the high incidence of carpel tunnel syndrome among dentists due to repetitive motions and the demands on their hands.

A study was published in 2011 on the ‘Effects of Wearing the Wrong Glove Size on Shoulder and Forearm Muscle Activities'. Almost all subjects mentioned that their hands felt fatigued in the gloves that were one size smaller—a sensation that would likely increase if the gloves were worn for longer periods.  Wearing the wrong glove size led to decreased forearm muscle activation, that resulted in increased shoulder movements. Myofascial pain syndrome in the shoulder may be caused by the continuous operation of inefficient shoulder and forearm muscle activation patterns while wearing gloves of the wrong size during tasks that require manual dexterity.

Healthy hands are important for many activities in our life and if their health is non-optimal, dentists have a compromised life!

Masks

Dentists are more prone to acquire infections through saliva and aerosols. Surgical masks (SMs) are used by dental professionals to reduce microorganisms shedding from the mouth, nose, and face of the patient. Dental clinics are places with a high concentration of various infectious microorganisms, present on the surgical mouth masks used by dental professionals. A recent (2020 February) study performed for the assessment of bacterial and fungal contamination on the used surgical masks among dental professionals found that most of the micro-organisms isolated from the used surgical mouth mask were potentially pathogenic. Dental professionals should change the mask after each dental operatory procedure, especially those beyond 2 hours. Double-layered surgical mask or 95% efficiency for aerosol particles of 3.0 to 5.0 μm in diameter should be provided to patients as well to prevent cross-contamination.

Continuous use of face mask causes reduction of oxygen in the blood, reduction of oxygen to the brain, one starts feeling weak and it can even lead to death.

While wearing the PPE, in 15 to 20 minutes the mask and the clothes get wet. One cannot drink water or use the toilet till the PPE is removed, which may be after several hours. On a lighter note, all lady dentists have to forget about wearing saris and other Indian dresses and hair styling during the clinic hours!

References:

https://www.oralhealthgroup.com/features/stress-in-dentistry-it-could-kill-you/

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/ministry-puts-dentists-in-high-risk-category-87123

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/03/10/dentists-keep-dying-of-this-deadly-lung-disease-the-cdc-cant-figure-out-why/

https://www.dentalproductsreport.com/view/tackling-taboo-topic-mental-health-dentistry

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7113990/ J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Feb; 9(2): 759–763.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/indhealth/49/5/49_MS1235/_pdf

In communion with the Goddess

A famous Indian saint, Neem Karoli baba once remarked, 'Thousands of people have come to meet me. All their requests can be categorised under 20 headings, it is not a long list. Like 'When will I get married?'
'Please bless my daughter to get a job'
'Baba, bless me to have a son.'
Nobody came to ask for God. They asked for garbage (materialistic pursuits) and I granted them that.'

Purpose of temple visit

The purpose of visiting temple is also similar for majority of people. I could always feel the cloud of such aspirations, and it used to be sort of a mild distraction. During the lockdown period I was mentally at the temple of the Goddess whose mantra I was chanting daily. And what a different state my inner self experienced! It was just ecstatic. As the temple was locked, there was no crowd and no mental cravings floating in the atmosphere.

Totally by Grace of the Goddess

For 80 days at a stretch I was lucky to have this experience and it gave me an opportunity to expand my spiritual horizon. At 4 am every day I was there at the temple, cleaning the premises, chopping my head (ego), then chanting and praying so that Devi could fill me up! Then at dusk time repeating the same process, this period became like my 'Sanyasashram'. Though my stepping into 'Vanaprasthashram' in 2005 was a voluntary one, slipping into this was totally a gift from the Heavens.

Sign from flower

On June 8th, the 79th day of my special sojourn, while I was collecting flowers for puja, I was awestruck to find a flower like this:


This was the specific flower I offer to Goddess and usually it's pistil is always hidden inside the petals. But in one flower on this day, it had come out and was standing up towards the Heaven, to convey a message to me!

Manifesting goals and changing your destiny

For every person who is successful in ‘manifesting goals’ or ‘changing the destiny’, I find nine people who have miserably failed, in spite of following various techniques very sincerely for long periods of time.

I just typed ‘Manifesting goals’ on Google search and I was really amused by the amount of information and the number of videos that popped up. It is really interesting to have some idea on this:

1.       In this video, I share a few insights into some simple practices that you can do to help you manifest your goals

2.       Guided Meditation/hypnosis for Manifesting your goals and dreams by connecting with your SOUL ENERGY

3.       How to manifest your goals FAST

4.       The three step goal setting and manifestation formula

5.       How to manifest your goals by scripting

6.       Manifesting goals  through law of attraction

7.       No.1 secret to faster manifestation

8.       Three days manifestation technique

9.       Manifest your ultimate goals and destiny

..... and on and on and on...

What is the purpose of your incarnation?

For a moment let us pause and think about the purpose of our incarnation. The Earth is a school and we are here to learn certain lessons. Each lesson once learnt, is planned to take us to higher or deeper lessons. When we don’t learn, or refuse to learn from an experience, it keeps repeating, intensifying with each repetition. We are here to experience and enjoy this materialistic world, without getting totally pulled into its drama. The fact that we are souls having a human experience here should finally become an experiential fact. In the materialistic world, nothing succeeds like Ego and in the world of consciousness, nothing fails like Ego.

Where do we stand (as humans) in the Universe?

Copernicus introduced the idea of heliocentric universe, leaving Earth as just one planet among the others orbiting the Sun. The seventeenth century realization that the stars were heavenly bodies like our own Sun, located at incomprehensibly far distances, changed completely the position of our Sun and of ourselves in the cosmos. The Sun was just another star like the others, endlessly travelling its lonely path through space.  During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, astronomers found that our Sun was a member of a huge star system, the Milky Way.

With improved measurements of distances outside of our Galaxy, this huge 100,000 light-year wide system turned out to be just one among multitudes of others, such as the nearby (over two million light-year distant!)  Andromeda galaxy. In modern cosmology, Copernicus’ ideas have been extended to the ultimate in that our home location in the universe does not appear to be special in any way. In this situation, where do you think we stand?

It doesn’t help to think of humans as something special. We are part of this Universe, just like any other being. Generally speaking, other beings take as little as possible from the earth and contribute to the best of their ability; we extract much more than needed and are not bothered to put in maximum contribution.

Imagine a common place scenario

Scene 1:

 It may be easier to understand our need to manifest from where we belong. Imagine a household, the parents, a daughter and a son. The kids are small and need a lot of attention from the mother. They all have aspirations to do different things during the weekend. After a hectic week, the mother wants to spend time with her friends. The father wants to play badminton the whole morning and ‘loosen up’ with friends in the evening over a beer party. The daughter wants to go for her dance class in the morning and the son wants to go for his football game. Children are not old enough to go by themselves and either the mother or father has to accompany them.

Imagine that all four of them are trying to manifest their wishes, how do you think it will work out? Each one of us is not a separate entity; we are just dots in the infinite matrix. Or a single piece of the huge  jigsaw puzzle that is the Universe. If we try to manifest something which doesn’t synchronize with others around us, or the other puzzle pieces, it is difficult for it to happen.

Scene 2

The father is a daily wage earner and at the end of the day he brings rice, dal and some vegetable, which his wife will cook for dinner. The son demands chapatis and the daughter dosas. Tell me, will it be possible to fulfil their demands?

At the soul level we decide what experiences we want to go through during this life time and according to that we decide our place of birth, parents, capabilities  and the surroundings. As we incarnate, we start comparing our lives with those of others and we get into a groove of perpetual dissatisfaction and sadness because we are unable to have what they are having, whether it is opulence, career, or relationships.

Look for happiness inside

We can reach a place of bliss and peace only by realising that they reside inside of us, not by accumulating or achieving things. Whatever is destined to come to us, which we decided at the soul level, will come to us. We have created the present destiny through the previous karma. Realising this at the intellectual level will be of no help at all. It has to reach the experiential level, beyond which we are rooted in a blissful state. This takes years of understanding and sadhana, which makes it possible to just do our karma in a state of surrender and peace.

Finallly, it may help us and the Universe if we can switch from our ‘Want based approach’ to ‘Need based approach.’

References;

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-09534-9_33

Are you being rebooted?

I am not in the habit of taking nap daily. After the lockdown, I am forced to take a nap once in two days or so because I feel so sleepy. When I work on computer in the afternoon, I will fall asleep while typing something. When this happened a couple of times, I saw that my work was not progressing and decided to hit the bed. One day my mobile phone almost fell off my hand as I was sitting and checking the messages. During chanting with mala in the hand, the mala slips down multiple times.  Then I tried reading a book, and realised that the page was not progressing even after half hour because after reading a few sentences I would fall asleep, and then when I open my eyes, I would have forgotten what was read, so go back to the same sentences and so on.

While in these sleeping episodes I was totally transported into a very deep state which was rather unique. After ten days of same pattern, it set me thinking. I decided to take a close look at it from different perspectives.

Astrologically speaking..

2020 marks the opening of a new world era signified by rare outer planetary alignments. It is a significant year that requires a new set of rules and assumptions about time and reality. During January until December 2020 we will experience the very rare triple conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto (first time since 1284!).The meeting of Saturn and Pluto signifies a key turning point in the journey of transition and fundamental changes to the world as we know it. Jupiter, planet of expansion and growth, entered Capricorn on December 3, 2019 and will remain until December 19, 2020. Jupiter will conjoin with Pluto exactly on April 5th, June 30th and November 13^th to start a new 13-year Jupiter-Pluto cycle. Two strong energies meet, with one wanting to go to the heights (Jupiter) while the other draws to the depths (Pluto).

Saturn in Aquarius: Change is in the Air!

(March 22, 2020 – March 7, 2023): In the airy climate of Aquarius, Saturn works hard at forming a bridge between ideas of the past that have proven their usefulness and the unfolding concepts for the future. The emphasis is on reordering structures and boundaries, making connections, distributing information, and developing innovations to achieve a better future for humankind. As the co-ruler of Aquarius Saturn is the “planetary Gatekeeper for the New Age” preparing the planet and all its inhabitants for the new consciousness.

It is important for us to realize that now is the time to open our hearts more deeply than ever before and there’s no point in fighting it.

2020

This is the only year we are likely to live through wherein the first two digits will match the second two digits.  May be we can consider this a special privilege. 2020 tells us to be prepared for what is coming our way. Emotional and physical changes are about to enter our lives and we need to be prepared both mentally and physically.

A quantifiable physical change in the Universe follows when there is an energy shift. This shift may be around you as in the environment or in other individuals, and it can also occur inside you.  5D ascension timeline is happening now.

During the process of spiritual awakening, we become aware of more dimensions than the one reality we are living in and the one that we know so well. As the higher dimensional energies start calling us we start resonating with them and go on our quest to find out more about who we truly are. We learn about universal energies and different frequencies and what ascension truly means: an energetic shift from 3D to 5D by raising our frequencies to a much higher level and transmuting low frequencies of fear into unconditional love up to a point where no fear / trigger is left. We come across a lot of information and are learning a lot about ourselves, the Universe and humanity.

3D

This is the material world of fear. Energetically, this is a place of very low vibration, enhancing the illusion of separation, duality and free will. There is only one timeline (reality) available here and we live with the construct and illusion of the ego-mind of linear time. Through the illusion of duality we experience light and darkness, good and bad, joy and despair, better and worse. We have the choice to act as saints or demons. That is actually the only choice we have on this plane: Love or fear, light or darkness.

4D

The magical dream world sets in here and it is also called the Astral Plane. It is a dimension that is less dense and much more fluid than the third dimension, but still has only one timeline (reality). It hosts the illusion of duality, the ego, and thus fear is able to exist here.

5D

This is one of pure and unconditional love, with absence of fear. We totally start living from the heart. Here it is possible to tap into the collective consciousness through the altered mind, and learn more from there. The astral realm is a place where light and darkness come into conflict easily. Dark magic has its place here, dream walkers for example can influence us on this plane easily when we are still full of fear and have not learned yet to set healthy energetic boundaries, i.e. when we are able to create our own light and sustain it so that it simply absorbs the darkness. The body is lighter and of a different cellular structure. Our higher self gets fully integrated into our physical body and takes over the guidance. But before the higher self can be fully anchored into the physical body, the healing of all bodies (the mental, the emotional and the physical; healing = remembering our wholeness) has to be completed. Therefore, your higher self will slip in and out for a while until it can move in permanently. You will know when your higher self is integrated, when you do not question the universal flow and simply trust your journey. You do not feel the need to interfere or control that flow anymore. In 5D everything comes without an effort as we have rediscovered that the Universal energetic flow always guides us perfectly. We start connecting through our hearts and feel the connection and love instantly.

It is time for us to emerge as butterflies from our cocoons.

An upgradation

So, a definite upgradation is in the offing for the whole world in general and for individuals specifically. How much will come through your way will depend on how deeply you have been on your spiritual path in the last few years.  When you are upgrading your computer, after installing the software you need to reboot the computer right? This may be Nature’s way of rebooting us by making sure there is more sleeping time. So how many of you have been on the spiritual path seriously and are finding that you are feeling too sleepy?

References:

https://cosmicintelligenceagency.com/enter-2020/

https://www.romper.com/p/pisces-2020-horoscope-predicts-a-turning-point-new-sense-of-purpose-19494038

https://thewakeupexperience.eu/3d-4d-and-5d-the-dimensions-and-their-differences/

Can you feel the Nature smiling?

Look around and notice things

Today morning I was pleasantly surprised to notice the accelerated growth of plants nearby. We are fond of gardening and take care of and observe plants very closely. I could sense their happiness in the absence of pollution- pollution not only from the vehicles, but also from the talks steeped in negativity when people meet. I find this a positive outcome of the current lockdown.

Yesterday evening I saw a cat sitting in front of our gate, as if in meditation because it has gotten used to the lockdown for humans. I took its photograph, then walked slowly towards it to take another picture. It turned around, looked at me and stood there calmly.

Two days back I was watching a group of cows on the road. It was just an ordinary scene, but I could sense intensely what they were feeling- a sense of calm and contentment. 

Humans, a separate entity?

When we look at the living beings around, they seem to know the art of coexistence. The animals eat only what they need, plants and trees are giving back to Nature many fold of what they are taking. Humans, the most intelligent beings, have been caught up in a morbid spiral of Wall Street greed. We want (as opposed to need) several huge meals a day. The normal values of blood sugar, blood pressure and body temperature are lowered so that a huge number of people can be classified as having a medical condition and brought into the net of daily medication, an assured income for the prescribing doctors and drug companies.

Our wardrobe is bursting with the number of dresses, and each dress made with enormous amount of cloth. Our vehicle is a status symbol and needs to be updated periodically with costlier and fancier ones.

It is time to take responsibility

The time has come to take responsibility for our actions. The Nature was coughing, gasping for breath, but nobody noticed. Animals were killed ruthlessly to satisfy our taste buds and overuse of plastics killed tons of animals and fish. The Nature was forced to take action, make humans realise that actions have consequence. So an invisible virus came into the picture, man started coughing and  all the hell was let loose! Panic overbuying of things and extreme fear and panic is spreading. This is not going to resolve the situation.

Can we do something?

Let us calm down and take stock. Once born, everybody has to die, death being the only certainty in life. So let us not fear death. We cannot eradicate all disease causing germs from our environment. They are also part of the eco system. But we can increase our immunity by remaining calm, joyful and by helping others, instead of seeing them as enemies and trying to grab things for ourselves while depriving others. Let us also eat nutritious home cooked meals and avoid overconsumption of factory made food products.The greatest lesson for us is that economic growth is not the only thing in life. There is much more to this beautiful life. Let us go inward and experience that fulfilment.

Get a glimpse of past life

Cosmetic spirituality

It is very interesting to find every other person on spiritual path  now a days. At  the same time there is too much confusion. They are not experiencing the mental peace and stability expected out of the spiritual practice.

First thing first

When I start training dentists, I stress the importance of being a good human being to become a good professional. It holds true in the spiritual path too, but nobody gives importance to the first steps, 'Yama and Niyama' of the Eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga. It used to intrigue me how such people progress on their spiritual path. I have seen many dishonest persons who do rigorous meditation to reach 'Realization', but don't make any progress.

My doubt as to why they do so got clarified recently. When we discussed that telling truth and being honest are pre-requisites to get Realization, he told, 'No, I don't think so. Angulimal was a thief and murderer. Valmiki was a downtrodden person. But they did become great personalities, right?' I was shocked to hear this, but didn't have anything in response then.

During my meditation, I got the answer. There are two aspects: one, Angulimal and Valmiki did not project themselves as good human beings. They admitted they were doing sins, then stopped it completely and walked the path shown by Buddha and a sage.

Second, an ignorant person committing a sin is not the same as a learned person. A chandal and a Brahmin committing  murders will get very different karmic result, because the chandal doesn't know the implications of his karma whereas a Brahmin is fully aware of this. People on the spiritual path committing sins are going retrograde in their journey.

Thoughts, words and deeds

For a spiritual person, thoughts, words and deeds need to be in alignment. They can't afford to think something, talk contrary to that and do something exactly opposite. Sadly, this is very prevalent. Some gurus feed their disciples satwik food, then they will go out with friends to McDonald's. Supposedly enlightened persons announce they do free courses and before the course is over, the participants are forced to 'donate' amounts/ jewellery/ other valuables, which in many instances are higher than the amount that would have been a reasonable fee.

We can just satisfy ourselves with the reasoning that this is how it is in Kaliyuga.

The Denmark countryside

A chance encounter in Tiruvannamalai

 Our New Years are spent in Tiruvannamalai, where the January 1^st is ushered in through meditation. There were two Danish ladies staying in our adjacent room. I was making a jasmine flower garland sitting outside my room when they were also sitting nearby. One of them was fascinated by the way I was stringing the flowers. I showed her how it was done and made two small garlands for them too. We got friendly and when we told that we will be visiting our daughter in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of them told she lives in Denmark too and we must visit them. It was taken as just a friendly remark.

It was followed up

We kept in touch and when the time was nearing for our visit to Denmark, she was asking about our dates to visit her house in Farso. Now it was clear she really meant what she told and we started planning a side trip from Copenhagen to her place for a week. 

We boarded the train from Copenhagen by about 4 pm and when we arrived at 9.45 pm, our friend was waiting with her daughter to drive us to her farm in Farso. After a long drive on reaching her house, we were surprised to see that she had kept a lavish dinner ready for us. It was almost 1 o'clock when we went to sleep after enjoying the delicious dinner.

Totally planned up

In the morning when I looked out of the window I saw the beautiful vast farm around. Our stay in Farso was so meticulously planned out by our friend and her husband. Their daughters and grand children joined us for lunch on the next day and we had a great time. For dessert she had made rhubarb crumble which was so delicious!

On the third day after breakfast we all started for Jesperhus park, which was reached after crossing the ferry. Amazing time was spent at the park till the evening.

Jesperhus

Jesperhus, a 20-acre family-owned resort around Legind Bjerge, south of Nykøbing Mors, Denmark, has a resort, a flower park, and an indoor zoo. This largest flower park of Scandinavia is filled with perennials, roses, various summer flowers of the world, succulents and giant flower figurines.

 The H.C. Andersen Fairytale Garden is based on 6 of the writer's fairytales. The characters displayed in the garden are made from flowers, houseleeks, and fiberglass. Walkways are lined with more than 100 perennial herbs. The Oriental Garden is designed with an Asian theme, and features palms and thousands of succulents.

There were bumpy boat ride, trampoline to jump, swings, car rides and toy train to enjoy in the park.

Huge wind mills

Then we went to the beach side and saw huge wind mills. Denmark is the leader in wind mill installation; it was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers such as Vestas and Siemens Wind Power. Danish inventor Poul la Cour experimented, taught and constructed wind power subjects around the year 1900. In Denmark's electricity sector wind power produced the equivalent of 43.4% of Denmark's total electricity consumption in 2017. It had the 6th best energy security in the world in 2014.

In a few years, wind turbines will supply the equivalent of 60% of Denmark’s electricity consumption A significant part of the explanation for this lies in the plans currently being executed by Vattenfall, both offshore, nearshore, and onshore. Presently, the first four of 49 poles are being constructed on the bottom of the North Sea. Once completed, Horns Reef 3 will be the largest offshore wind turbine park in Denmark to date.

Cooking in the garden, visit to the school

One day lunch was Indian dishes- vegetarian pulao, baingan bharta and cucumber raita. It was fun roasting the brinjals for baingan bharta in the garden and we all enjoyed lunch on the sunny afternoon.

After the lunch our visit to the school where our hosts’ daughter works was planned. 

She trains dyslexic children. Since 1993, public schools in Denmark, Folkeskolen, have been obliged to differentiate education according to students’ needs in general and not by transferring students to special needs education. The general objectives of supplementary and special education state that children with special needs should be taught in mainstream schools as far as possible. If differentiated teaching is not sufficient, pupils can remain in a mainstream school class and receive special education in one or more subjects as a supplement to ordinary teaching. All pupils are offered vocational training. Young people with special educational needs are offered a more comprehensive vocational training programme than others, and they might also be offered a work-training programme of longer duration during their last years of schooling.

It was very interesting to know their examination system. A series of national tests were introduced in spring 2007 in order to provide teachers with a tool for better overall assessment of pupils’ academic level. The tests are individual and computer-based and take approximately 45 minutes. The national tests are innovative as they are constantly adapted to the level of the individual pupil. If the pupil answers the first question correctly, the following question is automatically made slightly more difficult. If the answer is incorrect, the next question is automatically made slightly easier. Therefore, all tests will differ. When the test is completed, the computer will print out a text describing the pupil’s academic level in the subject tested, exempting teachers from correcting the test assignments. Denmark has established several institutions and monitoring groups with the aim of evaluating the quality of support systems for learners and the outcome of schooling.

Fully automated cow farm

From the school we went to a fully automated cow farm. About 250 cows were managed by two people. The temperature inside was controlled. When it became windy, the blinds would automatically come down. There were rotating brushes onto which the cows can press their body where it needs to be scratched. There were robots to do the milking, the quality of the milk is assessed and the optimal quality milk would go to one chamber and the suboptimal to another chamber. Once the milking is over the cow is given a sweet laddu and nudged to leave the chamber. The milked cows are tagged so that if by chance they enter the milking chamber again, they are not milked again.

The floor had a flat grill and continuously moving robots were throwing the waste materials down from where they were pumped to the field growing grass to feed the cows. In case of any system failure, the computer on site dials the phone number of the care taker, who would then reach to tackle it.

A morning for meditation

One day after the breakfast we all sat down for meditation and it was a deep experience. Meditation when done in a group of likeminded people always takes the vibration to a high level. They took us to the hospital where the husband worked as a nurse and we took a round there, with all ultramodern facilities.

An Indian meal for the family and friends

One day’s dinner was cooked by us for our hosts, their family and friends. We had very interesting conversation over the dinner table.

To the harbour and the boat

On the last day morning we went to the harbour and inside the boat owned by one daughter of our friend. During school holidays of children, the family sets sail and visit other places, which is highly educative for the kids.

In the evening they drove us to the railway station and we took the train back to Copenhagen after a memorable vacation with our dear friends. It was amazing the way they treated and took care of us!

References:

https://stateofgreen.com/en/partners/state-of-green/news/denmark-is-heading-towards-60-wind-energy/

https://www.european-agency.org/country-information/denmark/systems-of-support-and-specialist-provision

Gymming, Yogasana and Qigong

Going to gym is more of a status symbol now a days. Though I am not a regular gymming person, during travels, gyms are frequented. Somehow I always felt it fell much shorter than the yogasana practice. Of course it has several benefits like cardiovascular fitness, access to equipment, opportunity to make friends, increased energy levels and helps to establish a healthy routine. I find the muscular appearance of gymming persons very repulsive (it is a very personal opinion, I know so many who swoon over such a bulging body).

 Every day I practice yogasanas and pranayama and have recently started some Qigong and Tibetan rites. 

Qigong which combines meditative and physically active elements, is the basic exercise system within Chinese medicine. 

Today morning I started with Qigong first and the experience was amazing. Inside of the body which felt dense in the beginning started expanding and became light and one with the surrounding. Immediately I could feel the difference between gymming, yogasanas and qigong from the aspect of the five elements.

Gymming basically is targeting the muscles, it is concerned with the Earth element. Yogasanas take care of the muscles and the internal organs. The twisting asanas help to rejuvenate liver, spleen, stomach etc., Shirshasana brings new energy to the brain. So it is involving the Earth, Fire, and water elements. Qigong affects the air and ether elements also which explains the expansive feeling I got. Of course if yogasana is followed by pranayama, it takes care of air and ether elements. But I experienced a difference here. The qigong felt more thorough, as if it was permeating even the minutest spaces in the body!

Cambodia- a slice from the past

Visiting Cambodia and the Angkor Wat temple was a dream in the recesses of my heart and finally we arrived there on the afternoon of  26^th February 2018. When I deplaned and noticed the small, clean airport, the memory laden breeze that carried fragrance of the glorious past touched my face, transporting me to the Khmer Empire.

We took a tuk tuk to reach the Siem Reap pub hostel where we had booked the room. Tuk-tuk is a two-wheeled carriage pulled by motorbike that can fit anywhere from two people to entire families, and they are a ubiquitous sight throughout Cambodia. Its official name is remorque, or “trailer” in French, but they are colloquially known as tuk-tuks. Once we reached the hostel, we fixed one tuk tuk to take us around for the remaining days of the one week stay.

Siem Reap hostel was a nice place to stay, the staff was friendly. It had a small pool, though we didn’t use it, which had interesting instructions.

Phnom Bakheng

In the evening we went out to the Phnom Bakheng, the state temple of the first Khmer capital in the Angkor region that is surviving as one of the world’s greatest architectural treasures. The Temple of Phnom Bakheng was constructed between the late ninth and the early tenth century by Yasovarman I as the centerpiece of his new capital, known as Yasodharapura. 

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, a status emphasized by the temple's location atop a steep hill 65 m above the surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of seven levels, representing the seven heavens. At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern. These five represent the five peaks of Mount Meru.  In the sixteenth century, an attempt was made to construct a large seated Buddha around the central shrine, which has since been dismantled. Originally, 108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on the various tiers; most of them have collapsed. Each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone." Today, Phnom Bakheng is a popular spot for panoramic views of the Angkorean landscape, often enjoyed by visitors at sunset. We reached there by about 5 pm, there was quite a big queue already and then we saw this board:

Abandoning the plan to go to the top, we selected a place to watch the sunset and were rewarded by a beautiful view.

Angkor Wat

Next day early morning we started on the tuk tuk and reached the Angkor Wat temple by 7 am. View of the temple complex across the huge water body was indeed breathtaking! 

Angkor Wat, Cambodia's famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring 162.6 hectares. It was originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the God Vishnu for the Khmer Empire and was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the 12th century. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire.

Angkor Wat translates to "City of Temples" or simply "City Temple." New temples and ruins are being discovered nearly every year. Khmer bricks were bonded together almost invisibly by using a vegetable compound rather than mortar. 

It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat more than 5 kilometres. Its walls are adorned by numerous devatas.

Angkor Wat is unusually oriented to the west, a direction typically associated with death in Hindu culture. Bas-reliefs at Angkor Wat read counterclockwise, another indication that the temple is associated with funeral rituals. Cambodians are so proud of their ancient monument, that they put it on the Cambodian flag in 1850.

It is really interesting to read how archaeologists rediscovered the remains of an invisible kingdom deep in the jungles of southeast Asia that may have been the template for Angkor Wat. 

Bayon

The Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia. The Bayon Temple complex was built under the direction of the Mahayana Buddhist ruler Jayavarman VII, who ascended to the Khmer kingdom's throne at Angkor in 1181 A.D. He erected the site for Buddhist worship, although it later was renovated and used as a Hindu temple. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak.

The Bayon was the last state temple to be built at Angkor and the only Angkorian state temple to be built primarily as a Mahayana Buddhist shrine dedicated to the Buddha. The similarity of the 216 gigantic faces on the temple's towers to other statues of the king has led many scholars to the conclusion that the faces are representations of Jayavarman VII himself. Others have said that the faces belong to the bodhisattva of compassion called Avalokitesvara or Lokesvara.

The original name for the Bayon was Jayagiri (or "Victory Mountain"). After French occupancy, it was later named Banyan Temple due to its religious significance and Buddhist imagery (the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment under the Banyan tree). When the local Khmer came to work at renovating Banyan Temple, there was a mispronunciation in Banyan, which was pronounced Bayon. The name then stuck. The outer wall of the outer gallery features a series of bas-reliefs depicting historical events and scenes from the everyday life of the Angkorian Khmer.

Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, originally called Rajavihara ,built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. It was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors.

The temple's stele records that the site was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with an additional 80,000 souls in the surrounding villages working to provide services and supplies. The temple had amassed considerable riches, including gold, pearls and silks. It was abandoned and neglected for centuries after the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century. In the early 21st century when the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began, it was decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque." 

According to pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing temples and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it". 

But work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain "this condition of apparent neglect”. The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm. 

Neak Pean

Neak Pean at Angkor is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Jayatataka Baray, built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. Neak Pean was originally designed for medical purposes (the ancients believed that going into these pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease). Four connected pools surrounding the central pond represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. Each is connected to the central water source, the main tank.  

Some historians believe that Neak Pean represents Anavatapta, a mythical lake in the Himalayas whose waters are thought to cure all illnesses. The name is derived from the sculptures of snakes (Nāga) running around the base of the temple structure, neak being the Khmer rendering of the Sanskrit naga. They are Nanda and Upananda, two nagas traditionally associated with Lake Anavatapta.

Preah Khan

Preah Khan was built in the 12th century by King Jayavarman VII, with the goal of honoring his father, King Dharanindravarman II. Preah Khan translates to “Holy Sword” in Khmer, named by Jayavarman VII in honor of his battle victory against the invading force of Chams, who belonged to a kingdom in what is now Vietnam, in the year 1191. The temple of Preah Khan is one of the largest complexes at Angkor, a maze of vaulted corridors, fine carvings and lichen-clad stonework.

This majestic temple complex is surrounded by a moat and it was the centre of a substantial organisation, with almost 100,000 officials and servants, simultaneously serving as a city, a temple, and a Buddhist university. Its aesthetics are very similar to nearby famous Angkor temple Ta Prohm, with vegetation and trees seeming to swallow the ruins. 

Like Ta Prohm it is a place of towered enclosures and shoulder-hugging corridors, but unlike Ta Prohm, the temple of Preah Khan is in a reasonable state of preservation thanks to the ongoing restoration efforts of the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Food in Cambodia

Consuming food is a spiritual act for me and I do it with deep reverence. In this aspect there was some set back in Cambodia due to the following points:

You can see the items on the menu card below. One day while roaming in the market, we came across kids wearing T-shirts with  'Eat a bug' written on them, carrying trays of fried bugs to sell. 

I have to mention that we got amazing banana split to sample! 

Cultural program

One evening was spent watching the cultural program and it was just like being in Heaven for me. I enjoy dance and it was such a joy watching the fine performances.

See the dancer's hand and finger movements in the video below. As a dancer I know how tough it is to get those finger movements. It is so amazing!

Angkor Wat- archeological information

Angkor Wat, the great temple of that name, and the city in which it is set, are one of the great marvels of the world – but where did it come from, and what were its origins? When exploration began in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was quickly obvious that there was strong Indian influence. The numerous inscriptions were written in an Indian script and many of them were in Sanskrit, the sacred language of the Hindus. Furthermore, the temple was established to Vishnu, a Hindu deity, and also included statues of Buddha. There was clearly strong Indian influence, but did this also imply an Indian invasion?

The cause of the Angkor empire's demise in the early 15th century long remained a mystery. But researchers have now shown that intense monsoon rains that followed a prolonged drought in the region caused widespread damage to the city's infrastructure, leading to its collapse. The Angkor Wat Discovery is the somewhat controversial concept that refers to the visit of French naturalist Henri Mouhot to Angkor Wat in 1860 and the publication of his travel notes in 1863. These memoirs had an umprecedented reception in Europe and Mouhot was credited with the discovery of the "lost city of Angkor". Researchers believe the Angkor civilization was established in A.D. 802. The Angkor civilization was booming in the early 1100s when construction began on the Angkor Wat temple site. The last major stone temple at Angkor was constructed in 1295, and the latest Sanskrit inscription dates to the same year. The last inscription in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, appears a few decades later in 1327. And the excation continues.

When you visit Angkor Wat, be in your heart centre. And you can sense the glory and the splendour of the bygone era, just like I could feel!

References:

https://www.siemreap.net/visit/angkor/temples/baphuon/

https://www.wmf.org/project/phnom-bakheng

https://www.tourismcambodia.com/attractions/angkor/neak-pean.htm

https://www.world-archaeology.com/features/angkor-wat-origins-cambodia/

https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/02/huge-900-year-old-statue-discovered-during-excavations-at-angkor-wat-temple-6822873/