Thursday, July 24, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
sleeping buddha
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Sunday, July 20, 2014
quote of the day
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Friday, July 18, 2014
BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS
1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.
5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
10. Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
H.H. Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal
The Least Expected of Brahmins
H.H. Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal
(excerpted from His speeches reproduced in the book, "Hindu Dharma",
published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan)
(excerpted from His speeches reproduced in the book, "Hindu Dharma",
published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan)
Whether or not the present Hindu society changes and whether or not it can be changed, it is essential to have a class of people whose very life-breath is Vedic learning. I do not speak thus because I am worried about the existence of a class called brahmins. Nothing is to be gained if there is such a caste and it serves its own selfish interests. If a caste called Brahmins must exist, it must be for the good of mankind. The purpose of the Vedas, the purpose of the sound of the Vedas, is the well- being of the world. That is the reason why I feel that, hereafter at least, there ought not to be even a single Brahmin who does not chant the Vedas. The only remedy for all the ills of the world, all its troubles, is the return of Brahmins to the Vedic dharma.
In this context, I should like to tell you the least expected of Brahmins. I am prepared to ignore the fact that they have neither the courage nor the spirit of sacrifice necessary to come back to their dharma. But they can at least make their children take to it. In the next generation there must not be a single Brahmin who is not conversant with the Vedas. You must work for this goal and make sure that your sons learn these sacred texts.
If you are averse to making your sons mere vaidikas and are anxious that they too should lead a life of comfort like you (what you think to be a life of comfort), I am prepared to come one step further down to make the following suggestion. You would not perhaps like your children to take up Vedic learning as a life long vocation and would like to give them an education on modern lines so as to prepare them for office or factory work or to make them doctors, engineers and so on. I am prepared to go with you so far. But I would ask you to perform the upanayana of your son when he is eight years old. He must then be put in a veda class held for one hour in the evening after school hours. He must be taught the Vedas in this manner for ten years.
This is the least that Brahmins can do to preserve the Vedic tradition. Arrangements to impart Vedic learning to children must be made in every Brahmin household. I know that there are not enough teachers, a sad reflection on the state of our dharma. Considering this and the likely economic condition of parents I would suggest that Veda classes may be conducted for all the children together of a locality or a neighbourhood. Children of poor families can be taught on a cooperative basis.
Step by step the boys will be able to learn the mantra part of the Vedas and also learn the prayoga to conduct rites like upakarma. I speak here about ‘prayoga’ or conduct or procedure of rites, because in the absence of purohits (priests), everyone should be able to perform Vedic rites himself.
The sound of the Vedas must pervade the world for all time to come. Everyone must sincerely work towards achieving this end. It is your duty to ensure the good of not only the Brahmin community, not only all the castes of India, but of all the countless creatures of the earth. It is a duty imposed on you by Iswara – it is a divine duty.
It is important to perform this duty we owe to the people of the present. But it is equally important that we perform it so as to be saved from committing a crime against future generations. “As it is nobody cares for the Vedas”, you are likely to tell me. “Who is going to care for them in the coming years? What purpose is served by all these efforts we take now to keep up their study?”. I do not share this view. When the wheel keeps turning, that part of it which is now down has necessarily to come up. Modern civilisation with its frenzied pace is bound to have its fall after attaining its peak. We have been carried away by the supposed comforts made possible by advanced technology. But one day we will realise that they do not give us any feeling of fullness and that we have created only discomforts for ourselves through them.
The example of America is enough to drive home this point. People there are believed to have attained the acme of luxury and yet feel empty within. They are anxious to dispel the disquiet created by modern comforts. Americans who have some degree of awareness have been drawn towards Vedanta, yoga, devotional music and so on. Others want to forget sensual enjoyment somehow. They swallow all kinds of tranquillisers and are immersed in a deep stupor.
This fate may overtake our country also. We are always tempted by the feeling that there is some worldly pleasure yet to be savoured and we know no rest until we have done so. After draining the pleasures to the dregs we will discover the impermanence of it all. This is the moment when we will turn to matters of the Self, to the quest of enduring bliss. When we realise the peace and harmony that society derived from Vedic practices, we will be keen to take to the path shown by them. If we of this generation create a break in the chain of Vedic study kept for ages from generation to generation, we shall be committing the sin of denying our descendants the opportunity of learning the Vedas.
“There are so many books dealing with the Vedic mantras and sacrifices, volume after volume produced by Indian and foreign scholars”, the suggestion is likely to be made, “Surely future generations can read them and learn the Vedas thus”
Before I speak about this I have to answer another important question that goes to the very heart of Vedic tradition. It is this: “What do you mean by saying that the sound of the Vedas protects the world? The mantras are certain sounds expressed in the form of words. These words have their own profound meaning. Could we not learn the mantras from books? Why should there be a class of people specially devoted to the chanting of the Vedas? If the meaning of these scriptures is to be preserved there is no cause for worry since there are books to serve such a purpose. There is no need for an exclusive caste functioning on a hereditary basis and charged with the duty of preserving these texts. But the question of the meaning of the Vedas apart, why should there be a class of people whose duty is to chant the Vedic hymns and preserve the sound in the form it has come to us from time immemorial?”. This question must be answered.
In this context, I should like to tell you the least expected of Brahmins. I am prepared to ignore the fact that they have neither the courage nor the spirit of sacrifice necessary to come back to their dharma. But they can at least make their children take to it. In the next generation there must not be a single Brahmin who is not conversant with the Vedas. You must work for this goal and make sure that your sons learn these sacred texts.
If you are averse to making your sons mere vaidikas and are anxious that they too should lead a life of comfort like you (what you think to be a life of comfort), I am prepared to come one step further down to make the following suggestion. You would not perhaps like your children to take up Vedic learning as a life long vocation and would like to give them an education on modern lines so as to prepare them for office or factory work or to make them doctors, engineers and so on. I am prepared to go with you so far. But I would ask you to perform the upanayana of your son when he is eight years old. He must then be put in a veda class held for one hour in the evening after school hours. He must be taught the Vedas in this manner for ten years.
This is the least that Brahmins can do to preserve the Vedic tradition. Arrangements to impart Vedic learning to children must be made in every Brahmin household. I know that there are not enough teachers, a sad reflection on the state of our dharma. Considering this and the likely economic condition of parents I would suggest that Veda classes may be conducted for all the children together of a locality or a neighbourhood. Children of poor families can be taught on a cooperative basis.
Step by step the boys will be able to learn the mantra part of the Vedas and also learn the prayoga to conduct rites like upakarma. I speak here about ‘prayoga’ or conduct or procedure of rites, because in the absence of purohits (priests), everyone should be able to perform Vedic rites himself.
The sound of the Vedas must pervade the world for all time to come. Everyone must sincerely work towards achieving this end. It is your duty to ensure the good of not only the Brahmin community, not only all the castes of India, but of all the countless creatures of the earth. It is a duty imposed on you by Iswara – it is a divine duty.
It is important to perform this duty we owe to the people of the present. But it is equally important that we perform it so as to be saved from committing a crime against future generations. “As it is nobody cares for the Vedas”, you are likely to tell me. “Who is going to care for them in the coming years? What purpose is served by all these efforts we take now to keep up their study?”. I do not share this view. When the wheel keeps turning, that part of it which is now down has necessarily to come up. Modern civilisation with its frenzied pace is bound to have its fall after attaining its peak. We have been carried away by the supposed comforts made possible by advanced technology. But one day we will realise that they do not give us any feeling of fullness and that we have created only discomforts for ourselves through them.
The example of America is enough to drive home this point. People there are believed to have attained the acme of luxury and yet feel empty within. They are anxious to dispel the disquiet created by modern comforts. Americans who have some degree of awareness have been drawn towards Vedanta, yoga, devotional music and so on. Others want to forget sensual enjoyment somehow. They swallow all kinds of tranquillisers and are immersed in a deep stupor.
This fate may overtake our country also. We are always tempted by the feeling that there is some worldly pleasure yet to be savoured and we know no rest until we have done so. After draining the pleasures to the dregs we will discover the impermanence of it all. This is the moment when we will turn to matters of the Self, to the quest of enduring bliss. When we realise the peace and harmony that society derived from Vedic practices, we will be keen to take to the path shown by them. If we of this generation create a break in the chain of Vedic study kept for ages from generation to generation, we shall be committing the sin of denying our descendants the opportunity of learning the Vedas.
“There are so many books dealing with the Vedic mantras and sacrifices, volume after volume produced by Indian and foreign scholars”, the suggestion is likely to be made, “Surely future generations can read them and learn the Vedas thus”
Before I speak about this I have to answer another important question that goes to the very heart of Vedic tradition. It is this: “What do you mean by saying that the sound of the Vedas protects the world? The mantras are certain sounds expressed in the form of words. These words have their own profound meaning. Could we not learn the mantras from books? Why should there be a class of people specially devoted to the chanting of the Vedas? If the meaning of these scriptures is to be preserved there is no cause for worry since there are books to serve such a purpose. There is no need for an exclusive caste functioning on a hereditary basis and charged with the duty of preserving these texts. But the question of the meaning of the Vedas apart, why should there be a class of people whose duty is to chant the Vedic hymns and preserve the sound in the form it has come to us from time immemorial?”. This question must be answered.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
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