Death…..what is it……is it a passport to another world…..

Understand the meaning of death, it is painful to hear but it is important that one realizes. Having born, one day, we all have to say good bye. The only question is WHEN? So there is nothing dreadful or horrible about it to speak or write in my blog.

Very recently (23rd June 2009) my mother’s soul bid good bye to this world and during her last hours, I was sitting next to her and watched her breathing. Her state was in a kind of coma and her eyes were closed. I could hear and see her breathing……which had some kind of rhythm for 10 to 15 minutes and then you hear a continuous sound - breath is trying to escape from the body - which lasts for three to four seconds and then the rhythm starts again. This was observed from morning around 8AM till afternoon 4:30PM and I went upstairs. At around 4.50pm my sister called from down ….to inform……

It was extremely painful to see my mother in that condition ….. Though I had stayed away from Chennai for the past 15 years… except for seeing her during my vacation…… the feelings did not die….

In contrast to what happened when my father passed away in 1985, I was only 25 years, did not feel the pain or even shed a drop of tear that time…. Could be I was young… Could be my feelings were not kindled so much … may be was not attached so much to my father….could be many reasons….but…

It was difficult to accept my mother’s loss…in the beginning ……. ….but I had accepted the truth and moved on with the life………

I like Kaviyarasu Kannadasan’s songs……following are some of Kannadasan’s songs which give me the inspiration and at the same time the much needed solace as well.…. …….

Ninaippadhellam nadandhu vital (If everything happens as we think...)
enge Vaazhkai thodangum, adhu enge evvidham mudiyum
idhu Dhaan Paadhai, idhu Dhaan payanam, enbadhu Yaarukkum theirYadhu
Paadhai elLaam Maarividum payanam mudindhu vidum
Maaruvadhai purindhu konDaal, mayakkam thelindhu vidum
Where life starts, Where and how it ends,
Is this the path? Is this the journey? Nobody knows
Paths keep changing, (Life’s) Journey comes to an end
If (one can) understand the changes, All confusions will be cleared (one will have a steady mind)

Following is from another song… starting mayakkama ….(Giddiness)
Vaazhkai endRal Aayiram irukkum,Vaasal ThoRum Vedhanai irukkum
Vandha thunbam edhuvendraalum, Vaadi ninDral Oduvadhillai
edhayum Thaangum idhayam irunDhal, iRudhi varaikkum amaidhi nilakkum
In life there are thousands of things, Every door (meaning house) step will have worries....
Whatever problems comes, if (one) sits idle (without hope) problems wont run away (disappear)....
If you have a strong heart, There will be peace till the end

Oh GOD ….. Are you seeing this?????????????

Yesterday’s news : Gali Janardhan Reddy, MLA from Karanataka, presented diamond-studded crown worth Rs.42 Crore (close to 8MUSD)… wow…. (crown weighs 20 kg).. to Lord Venkateshwara in Tirupati…

What does this show???

This shows utter lack of culture of true charity in India.

We all have been reading/hearing about Warren Buffet and Bill Gates giving away billions of dollars towards charity and Microsoft man says he will give more. There are many details available in Chronicle of Philanthropy about those who gave away millions of dollars towards charity like, Andrew Carnegie , John D Rockefeller etc.

What we Indians are doing. One side we talk about poor, want to bring in National Food Security act and on the other side, we see an elected MLA presenting 42Crores worth of diamond studded gold crown to God.

Even today more than 50% of Indians are still struggling to get 1 meal a day.

And we proudly say that we have the Richest God, yes indeed a very rich God in a very poor country.

When we will awake………………………………………….

Unholy alliance

Sometimes, you would like to watch some interesting debates and of course the speakers have to be good. Two weeks back the topic was Religion vs Politics in NDTV – though the topic is an interesting one, the people who participated in the debate did not really answer the questions.

One of the arguments was that in olden days, each king had his own guru or the religious leader referred as Raja Guru and it is believed that the king listened to him.

I feel otherwise, in the olden days, it was the minister who was powerful. Further, raja gurus were there only to perform poojas and rituals for king’s family and kings were taking the decisions on their own, of course ministers would have been consulted, as and when required to be.

Citing the example of raja guru, the so called self styled gurus of these days are trying to raise their voice or influence the common people or their respective followers to believe in something what the guru is thinking. One of the example is, Ramdev talking about the black money stashed away in Swiss banks – I simply wonder how and why does he have to speak on these things when he can teach pranayam and yoga in which he is really good. Is there any truth in it, what is the proof and how does he know the figures – because as per Swiss Laws, Swiss banks are not allowed to reveal the details of the accounts unless and until it is proven by a country that the person holding the account is guilty and the country needs to know the account. This process is quite cumbersome and it is next to impossible to achieve this.
(Then what is the solution – you may ask – there are solutions)

In my view, one (especially those who are in public life) must speak only when s/he is hundred percent sure of what s/he is talking about. Just because people are sitting in front and they have little or no choice these gurus are talking all things which comes to their mind.

Religious leaders who want to enter in to politics should first read Arthashastra by Kautilya and understand that politics is different and religion is different. I am not arguing that a religious person can never be a good politician but if a religious leader wants to enter politics s/he should do it openly instead of making comments here and there, which is of no use to anyone and it only creates confusion.

Quote from Chanakya – before one starts any work, one should ask questions like why, where, how and what is the reason etc and one should think deeply and then only one should start that work. (I don’t want to write about Chanakya and fill this place – though I recommend one to search the net if one wants more info on Chanakya).


(same is also told by Thiruvalluvar in his Thirukurral-
Enni thuniga karumam thuninthapin ennuvathu enbathu izhuku)

Event Dont Hurt Us - Only our attitude towards them - The Art of Living

The Art of Living -The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, a new interpretation by Sharon Lebell.

Above is the title of the book which I have read few years ago. This book is basically a interpretation of the sayings (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus) and principles of Epictetus, (they say Epictetus walked the talk, a Roman empire slave lived around AD 100 - more info on Epictetus, one can get from Wikipedia). This book explains how to live a meaningful and happy life and still be a good person.

Some of the excerpts from this book, which I liked.

'If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes'

'The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.'

'Forgive yourself over and over and over again. Then try to do better next time.'

'Give your best and always be kind.'

Approach life as a banquet,

'Events don’t hurt us, only our attitude towards them does.'

Whereas society regards professional achievement, wealth, power, and fame as desirable and admirable, Epictetus views these as incidental and irrelevant to true happiness.

True happiness is always independent of external conditions…your happiness can be found within.

Good book which can be your bedside companion. Sure there are many good books but this is also one among them in my opinion. My bedside companion (for the past ten years) is Lights from Many lamps (more about this book at a later date).

Following is from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus -
A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path--he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock,but rather feel your own incapacity.

SANITATION CRISIS WHEN WILL IT PEAK IN INDIA??

Many people in India - I would say the vast majority - would ask what is the meaning of HYGIENE.

I am not exaggerating. If you bother to go and spend few days (say at least one day) on the road in India.

In my view India is struggling with a sanitation emergency and the days are not far off as per the reports that almost more than 50% of the ground water are contaminated with human waste and industrial effluent.

What is the remedy?? Who is responsible?? When we will realise?? Are we waiting for a wake up call??

Lots of questions, but no answers. I wonder,

This is not the first time - sanitation and personal hygiene has been mentioned by Swami Vivekananda in his book East & West. V S Naipal in his book Wounded civilisation (second book of India Trilogy) has also mentioned about the same issue. Many people have raised this issue on many occasions and at different forums. Even M G Gandhi has written about this in his book My Experiments with Truth....

BUT WHO CARES?

We have been taught when we were young that we must keep our body clean and our house clean - but nothing is taught about how we should keep our surroundings where we live. Everyday without fail we clean the house and go dump the waste/garbage in the street (as there are no bins in many suburbs and villages). The municipality or the panchayat cleaner - comes only during the festival season (say Deepavali or New Years eve) to collect his Baksheesh. There is no feeling that the street belong to us - there is no feeling that the village belong to us. We don't bother to clean our streets and we dont care what happens to the waste as long as it does not stay inside the house. The open drainage all around the suburbs (growing urbanisation) is a growing menace but no one wants to speak or do anything about this.

Not only that there are no propper toilets and drainage facilities in India, as per reports more than 75% of the Indian population do their morning rituals in the open area. There are not enough public toilets in the cities and in the suburbs. Even if it is there no body bothers to use it as they dont want to pay any money, which will be used for maintaining these facilities. Who will tell this to who.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO INDIA?? CAN WE DO SOMETHING??
SURPRISINGLY NONE OF THE POLITICIANS STATNDING FOR ELECTIONS BOTHER TO RAISE THIS ISSUE!!!!

We all proudly say that India Shining India raising... but the other side of India is definitely not shining

Come on Indians - Wake up - Best wishes for all our future generation.......May be we need a Sharukh Khan or a Aishwarya Bachan to speak...............

the other side

I received below story from my friend.

A Father was reading a magazine and his little daughter every now and then distracted him. To keep her busy,he tore one page on which was printed the map of the world. He tore it into pieces and asked her to go to her room and put them together to make the map again.

He was sure she would take the whole day to get it done. But the little one came back within minutes with perfect map... When he asked how she could do it so quickly,she said,"Oh... Dad,there is a man's face on the other side of the paper... I made the face perfect to get the map right." she ran outside to play leaving the father surprised.