Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Inspiring Videos-2: "I have a dream" - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
Grateful thanks to 'superjsuh' and YouTube.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Milestones-10: January 12
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863 in Calcutta and attained mahasamadhi on July 4, 1902.
The Government of India in 1984 declared and decided to observe the Birthday of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day every year from 1985. It felt that the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.
To understand the impact of his powerful life, I am reproducing a passage from the wonderful book, "Eternal Values for A Changing Society" by Srimat Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj:
The Intensity of Vivekananda's Brief Life
"Swami Vivekananda's span of earthly life was hardly forty years, but within this short period, he lived an intense life, first as a student in school and college, then as the foremost disciple of his great Master, Sri Ramakrishna, then as a wanderer across the length and breadth of India, and lastly as the spiritual teacher of West and East. His public teaching commenced with his speeches at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893; and he passed away on 4 July 1902. He spent four intense years in the United States and England, and five equally intense years in India delivering his message of a universal and practical spirituality, and setting in motion a movement as an effective conduit for the furtherance of his message.
Everywhere, he taught man to realize his divine heritage. The innate divinity of man was the constant theme of his teachings. This teaching cuts across all divisions based on political or religious affiliations. Its assimilation by man will make for a character at once deep and broad. He held that spirituality was the core of every religion; dogmatic exclusiveness and intolerance are no part of true religion. The more spiritual a man, the more universal he is. He held that the modern age stood in urgent need of this education from religion, by which men will learn to make their love of God flow into the love and service of all men. He worked hard to give this spiritual orientation to the world's religions, so that they may be transformed into wholly constructive forces and become capable of redeeming modern man from his inner impoverishment in the context of external enrichment".
For further reading:
Biography of Swami Vivekananda from Vivekananda Vedanta Network:
http://www.vivekananda.org/biography.asp
Swami Vivekananda: Life and Teachings from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/swamivivekananda.htm
Swami Vivekananda, an article from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda
National Youth Day from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/national_youth_day.htm
Full text of the book, Vivekananda, A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/vivekananda_biography.htm
Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/reminiscences/reminiscences_of_sv.htm
Full Text of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (9 Volumes):
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm
Grateful thanks to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math; Advaita Ashrama; Ramakrishna Vivekananda.info and Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863 in Calcutta and attained mahasamadhi on July 4, 1902.
The Government of India in 1984 declared and decided to observe the Birthday of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day every year from 1985. It felt that the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.
To understand the impact of his powerful life, I am reproducing a passage from the wonderful book, "Eternal Values for A Changing Society" by Srimat Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj:
The Intensity of Vivekananda's Brief Life
"Swami Vivekananda's span of earthly life was hardly forty years, but within this short period, he lived an intense life, first as a student in school and college, then as the foremost disciple of his great Master, Sri Ramakrishna, then as a wanderer across the length and breadth of India, and lastly as the spiritual teacher of West and East. His public teaching commenced with his speeches at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893; and he passed away on 4 July 1902. He spent four intense years in the United States and England, and five equally intense years in India delivering his message of a universal and practical spirituality, and setting in motion a movement as an effective conduit for the furtherance of his message.
Everywhere, he taught man to realize his divine heritage. The innate divinity of man was the constant theme of his teachings. This teaching cuts across all divisions based on political or religious affiliations. Its assimilation by man will make for a character at once deep and broad. He held that spirituality was the core of every religion; dogmatic exclusiveness and intolerance are no part of true religion. The more spiritual a man, the more universal he is. He held that the modern age stood in urgent need of this education from religion, by which men will learn to make their love of God flow into the love and service of all men. He worked hard to give this spiritual orientation to the world's religions, so that they may be transformed into wholly constructive forces and become capable of redeeming modern man from his inner impoverishment in the context of external enrichment".
For further reading:
Biography of Swami Vivekananda from Vivekananda Vedanta Network:
http://www.vivekananda.org/biography.asp
Swami Vivekananda: Life and Teachings from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/swamivivekananda.htm
Swami Vivekananda, an article from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda
National Youth Day from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/national_youth_day.htm
Full text of the book, Vivekananda, A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/vivekananda_biography.htm
Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/reminiscences/reminiscences_of_sv.htm
Full Text of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (9 Volumes):
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm
Grateful thanks to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math; Advaita Ashrama; Ramakrishna Vivekananda.info and Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Gandhiana-15: "Gandhiji and Smoking"
...
A relative and I became fond of smoking. Not that we saw any good in smoking, or were enamoured of the smell of a cigarette. We simply imagined a sort of pleasure in emitting clouds of smoke from our mouths. My uncle had the habit and when we saw him smoking, we thought we should copy his example. But we had no money. So we began pilfering stumps of cigarettes thrown away by my uncle.
The stumps, however, were not always available, and could not emit much smoke either. So we began to steal coppers from the servant's pocket money in order to purchase Indian cigarettes. But the question was where to keep them. We could not of course smoke in the presence of elders. We managed somehow for a few weeks on these stolen coppers. In the meantime, we heard that the stalks of a certain plant were porous and could be smoked like cigarette. We got them and began this kind of smoking.
But we were far from being satisfied with such things as these. Our want of independence began to smart. It was unbearable that we should be unable to do anything without the elders' permission. At last, in sheer disgust, we decided to commit suicide!
But how were we to do it? From where were we to get the poison? We heard that Dhatura seeds were an effective poison. Off we went to the jungle in search of these seeds, and got them. Evening was thought to be the auspicious hour. We went to Kedarji Mandir, put ghee in the temple-lamp, had the darshan and then looked for a lonely corner. But our courage failed us. Supposing we were not instantly killed? And what was the good of killing ourselves? Why not rather put up with the lack of independence? But we swallowed two or three seeds nevertheless. We dared not take more. Both of us fought shy of death, and decided to go to Ramji Mandir to compose ourselves, and to dismiss the thought of suicide.
I realized that it was not as easy to commit suicide as to contemplate it. And since then, whenever I have heard of someone threatening to commit suicide, it has had little or no effect on me.
The thought of suicide ultimately resulted in both of us bidding good-bye to the habit of smoking stumps of cigarettes and of stealing the servant's coppers for the purpose of smoking.
Ever since I have grown up, I have never desired to smoke and have always regarded the habit of smoking as barbarous, dirty and harmful. I have never understood why there is such a rage for smoking throughout the world. I cannot bear to travel in a compartment full of people smoking. I become choked.
.....
Excerpt from 'An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth' by Mahatma Gandhi.
A relative and I became fond of smoking. Not that we saw any good in smoking, or were enamoured of the smell of a cigarette. We simply imagined a sort of pleasure in emitting clouds of smoke from our mouths. My uncle had the habit and when we saw him smoking, we thought we should copy his example. But we had no money. So we began pilfering stumps of cigarettes thrown away by my uncle.
The stumps, however, were not always available, and could not emit much smoke either. So we began to steal coppers from the servant's pocket money in order to purchase Indian cigarettes. But the question was where to keep them. We could not of course smoke in the presence of elders. We managed somehow for a few weeks on these stolen coppers. In the meantime, we heard that the stalks of a certain plant were porous and could be smoked like cigarette. We got them and began this kind of smoking.
But we were far from being satisfied with such things as these. Our want of independence began to smart. It was unbearable that we should be unable to do anything without the elders' permission. At last, in sheer disgust, we decided to commit suicide!
But how were we to do it? From where were we to get the poison? We heard that Dhatura seeds were an effective poison. Off we went to the jungle in search of these seeds, and got them. Evening was thought to be the auspicious hour. We went to Kedarji Mandir, put ghee in the temple-lamp, had the darshan and then looked for a lonely corner. But our courage failed us. Supposing we were not instantly killed? And what was the good of killing ourselves? Why not rather put up with the lack of independence? But we swallowed two or three seeds nevertheless. We dared not take more. Both of us fought shy of death, and decided to go to Ramji Mandir to compose ourselves, and to dismiss the thought of suicide.
I realized that it was not as easy to commit suicide as to contemplate it. And since then, whenever I have heard of someone threatening to commit suicide, it has had little or no effect on me.
The thought of suicide ultimately resulted in both of us bidding good-bye to the habit of smoking stumps of cigarettes and of stealing the servant's coppers for the purpose of smoking.
Ever since I have grown up, I have never desired to smoke and have always regarded the habit of smoking as barbarous, dirty and harmful. I have never understood why there is such a rage for smoking throughout the world. I cannot bear to travel in a compartment full of people smoking. I become choked.
.....
Excerpt from 'An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth' by Mahatma Gandhi.
Inspiring Lives-45: "A Mother's Promise: Barack Obama's Biography"
Grateful thanks to 'BarakcObamadotcom', Barack Obama and YouTube.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Role Models-6:
Role models are important to bring about big and lasting changes. Most societies have progressed because they have had generations of role models who demonstrated good behaviour and discipline - 'Infosys' N.R. Narayana Murty
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Gandhiana-13:
Create - always create; to create is noble, uplifting, inspiring; but the moment you seek to gratify the senses by merely enjoying the creative powers you begin to cheat creation and to destroy all those higher spiritual forces within you. It can end only in disappointment.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Gandhiana-12:
Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Milestones-9: November 30, 09
Winston Churchill
A colorful and interesting personality. I have heard (mostly from my father) and read a lot about him. I recall whatever I could remember now and record them, with a little brush-up from Wikipedia and other sources from the Net.
Two-term Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who lead his country to victory in World War II. He occupied several other important positions in the British Govt like Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty. He was born on November 30, 1874 and he died on January 25, 1964 at the ripe old age of 90. He was a scion of a noble family with anscestors like the Duke of Marlborough and their ancestral home was the Blenheim Palace.
He was an imperialist through and through. My dad was an admirer of him. I heard many interesting things about him. Only later I read about him and had some of his famous books in my possession and read a few of them like Great Contemporaries, The River War, A History of the English Speaking Peoples and a few volumes of his Second World War series.
He vehemently opposed the appeasement policy of Asquith and I remember his famous quote: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, knowing that it will eat him last". That is what exactly Hitler would have done. You cannot compromise with evil. Your duty is to fight it.
Then his famous quotes about Dunkirk, where Britain escaped from near catastrophe. "Never in the history of mankind, so many owe to so few" and "You cannot win a war by evacuation."
When he assumed office of the Prime Minister during World War II, he promised his people: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat"
The surprise of surprise was immediately after leading his country to victory in WW II, his party lost the election and Clement Attlee succeeded him as Prime Minister, but for which India's Independence might have been delayed. For, Churchill was not for granting independence to India.
However, after India's independence, accepting political realities and realizing the importance of India in Asia, he wanted to have India on their side. He praised Jawaharlal Nehru as the Light of Asia.
Towards the end of his life, probably there was an offer for lordship and he toyed with the idea of the title, "Lord London" but his son, Randolph Churchill, successfully dissuaded him.
Also I remember his visit to USA during World War II and some well-known anecdotes:
Referring to Hitler's threat that he would wring Great Britain like a chicken, Churchill said using Americanism: "Some chicken, some neck".
Churchill was staying as a guest of President Roosevelt in USA. Roosevelt once entered his room and was embarrassed to find Churchill naked/semi-naked (probably after a bath). Churchill made it easy for Roosevelt by joking that "Britain has nothing hide from the USA".
He was a prolific writer and his books were read avidly. It was said that his publishers paid him on per word basis. His books fetched him Nobel Prize for Literature.
A stutter in early youth. He overcame this handicap and became a famous orator. He had a great command over the English language and could sway people by his speech. Once in Parliament the opposition members levelled many charges and allegations against him to which his simple reply was: "All of them were "terminological inexactitudes". Nobody could immediately follow what that meant. Had he openly said "they were all lies", there would have been a great uproar.
If you surf the Net, you will find a lot of interesting anecdotes about him, in addition to his famous quotes.
For a detailed article on Churchill from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
His speeches and podcasts from Historical Podcasts:
http://historicalpodcasts.googlepages.com/winstonchurchill
The Churchill Centre and Museum's Website:
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/
Grateful thanks to Historical Podcasts, Churchill Centre and Museum and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A colorful and interesting personality. I have heard (mostly from my father) and read a lot about him. I recall whatever I could remember now and record them, with a little brush-up from Wikipedia and other sources from the Net.
Two-term Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who lead his country to victory in World War II. He occupied several other important positions in the British Govt like Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Admiralty. He was born on November 30, 1874 and he died on January 25, 1964 at the ripe old age of 90. He was a scion of a noble family with anscestors like the Duke of Marlborough and their ancestral home was the Blenheim Palace.
He was an imperialist through and through. My dad was an admirer of him. I heard many interesting things about him. Only later I read about him and had some of his famous books in my possession and read a few of them like Great Contemporaries, The River War, A History of the English Speaking Peoples and a few volumes of his Second World War series.
He vehemently opposed the appeasement policy of Asquith and I remember his famous quote: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, knowing that it will eat him last". That is what exactly Hitler would have done. You cannot compromise with evil. Your duty is to fight it.
Then his famous quotes about Dunkirk, where Britain escaped from near catastrophe. "Never in the history of mankind, so many owe to so few" and "You cannot win a war by evacuation."
When he assumed office of the Prime Minister during World War II, he promised his people: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat"
The surprise of surprise was immediately after leading his country to victory in WW II, his party lost the election and Clement Attlee succeeded him as Prime Minister, but for which India's Independence might have been delayed. For, Churchill was not for granting independence to India.
However, after India's independence, accepting political realities and realizing the importance of India in Asia, he wanted to have India on their side. He praised Jawaharlal Nehru as the Light of Asia.
Towards the end of his life, probably there was an offer for lordship and he toyed with the idea of the title, "Lord London" but his son, Randolph Churchill, successfully dissuaded him.
Also I remember his visit to USA during World War II and some well-known anecdotes:
Referring to Hitler's threat that he would wring Great Britain like a chicken, Churchill said using Americanism: "Some chicken, some neck".
Churchill was staying as a guest of President Roosevelt in USA. Roosevelt once entered his room and was embarrassed to find Churchill naked/semi-naked (probably after a bath). Churchill made it easy for Roosevelt by joking that "Britain has nothing hide from the USA".
He was a prolific writer and his books were read avidly. It was said that his publishers paid him on per word basis. His books fetched him Nobel Prize for Literature.
A stutter in early youth. He overcame this handicap and became a famous orator. He had a great command over the English language and could sway people by his speech. Once in Parliament the opposition members levelled many charges and allegations against him to which his simple reply was: "All of them were "terminological inexactitudes". Nobody could immediately follow what that meant. Had he openly said "they were all lies", there would have been a great uproar.
If you surf the Net, you will find a lot of interesting anecdotes about him, in addition to his famous quotes.
For a detailed article on Churchill from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
His speeches and podcasts from Historical Podcasts:
http://historicalpodcasts.googlepages.com/winstonchurchill
The Churchill Centre and Museum's Website:
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/
Grateful thanks to Historical Podcasts, Churchill Centre and Museum and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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