Friday, June 15, 2012

An oxymoron example?

Perhaps this post could be an example of oxymoron, but isn't the world full of oxymoron?
 
Time and again, events happen proving money or lack of funds per se is the most important entity for the survival of a company or an individual.. and so I felt worth posting this video again.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7rvupKipmY&feature=related.

 But hold on, that is not the only case happening in this amazing world. Look at this,  and those who deliberately pursue their interests shunning away the need of money.



Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzitB1xyoc

As the old lady reflects, "It is hard to convey the difficulty in living that way" and I could add that "It is also hard to experience the joy she enjoyed unless one experience it oneself".


Monday, June 11, 2012

Putting into practice - the toughest

I am always inclined towards ideals mentioned in Bhagavat Geeta, and "wanted" to practice it in my life. Especially the main essence "To work for the cause and do not work expecting the results". Though it is in my thought all the time, it seems the recent events proved that it is actually NOT. So what is that?

There was a idea submitting competition called IIDA in Tampere, Finland which invites ideas from students and researchers about product or service innovations.
The first time I had participated in it was on March 2009, when I just joined the college. Unfortunately I could not submit my idea & business plan within the contest deadline (as I started working on it only a week back). But gave it a try still by sending my idea a day after the deadline. The organizers told that it is not possible to accept it and promised to send feedback though. I also got the feedback as promised.

Again, I came up with a good idea  (in my opinion though ;-) to submit for this year (2012) contest and worked on it well ahead.. But this time I had noted the deadline date as April 14th while it was April 12th. When I tried to submit my idea, the form threw error.. Deadline over!Ah, same story again this time!
Still I sent my idea through email on April 13th and got the reply that mine will be considered. From then, I used to check often news and updates about that contest and look forward to results. I did this so often, that I got really obsessed about it.
I have neither worked on improving my idea nor implementing some prototype of it, in the coming weeks.

On the day of result, I found that I am not one among winners/runners. I did not feel bad, for I was not looking for winner/runner prize, but a platform or support from them to build up my idea and help me in implementing it.

My introspection later, made me understood that the obsession I had over this contest, had prevented me from working on my concept and try implementing by my own. Though I believe, in working for the cause and not results, I had not put that into practice. That was the reason, I wasted my energy in knowing about the contest news and results and did not channel it properly to the actual cause of my work.

I pray God to bestow me His grace and make me put the ideals into practice. In Sanskrit there is a word called "Anushtanam" which means, incorporate it one's lives. I am keep reminding myself with this word, which would hopefully get me to the right track.

Monday, June 4, 2012

MahaPeriyava Jeyanthi 2012

Today June 4th, 2012 marks Tamil month Vaikasi and Nakshatra (Star) Anusha is auspicious as it marks the Jayanthi (birthday) of HH Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal also widely known as "MahaPeriyava".

He is one of the Matt Guru of Kanchi Sankara Matt. Though I could not meet him even once, I am drawn towards His teachings through various books and articles.
From my limited knowledge, I have to say that His teachings are far more simple, that He gives common man examples to explain many spiritual questions.

On this auspicious day, I would like to share with you two of such examples, whose mere simplicity will let us believe in the concepts He relate them to.

Once a group of His devotees came to see him and request him to send some well versed pundit to perform poojas, and other rituals in their city. They complained that the only one pundit in their location though he performs pooja well, does not know the meaning for the mantras and poojas he is doing. So the younger generation are not interested in taking part in those."
On hearing it, Periyava told, "Yes what they say is  true and and has to be acknowledged. At that time, a postman brought some posts to the mutt and delivered it to Periyava and waited for his darshan.
Periyava read some posts and asked the officials and the post man standing there, "All these letters have the word PIN. Do you know what is PIN?". They thought for sometime and later told that they do not know". He replied that PIN means Postal Index Number.
He continued saying, "Even those people who wrote PIN and the number might not know what does PIN correspond to. Postman though he delivers letters based on the PIN does not know what it corresponds to. However, if the sender writes the number correctly, it will reach the correct destination, though the sender and the postman do not know what PIN corresponds to.
Similarly, you might not know the meaning or reason behind these mantras and practices. But if you pronounce it correctly and perform it with Shraddha (determination) it will yield the result it is destined for."

This explanation clears the misconception, that it is better to abstain from telling these mantras without knowing meaning. This example clearly sends a message to follow the rituals laid out by our ancestors which provides nothing but good for us.
It is equally important here to quote that Hindu Dharma also encourages people to strive towards knowing the meaning behind these rituals as discussed in this post (http://meinall.blogspot.fi/2011/06/guiding-verse-of-my-life.html)

So while the first thing is to tell Shlokas with belief, further goals should be to find the reasoning by ourselves.

The second example is about preserving our Vedic knowledge and resources. MahaPeriyava elucidates that our ancient Vedic knowledge is rich in analysis of various subjects like Vimana Shastra (Aeronautical), Pakshi Shastra (Birds science), Astronomy etc. Varahamihra has compiled all of them and gave a book named "Bruhat Samhita". Though we personally could not gain understanding of these knowledge, texts and literature, our future generations could be interested in knowing them.
He explains the importance of it with a simple example. Once, a blind man was walking on the road holding a lantern during night. Another man came on  his way and seeing the blind man carrying a lantern (which is of no use to him) asked him, "Why are you carrying the lantern, when you cannot even see things around?". The blind man replied, "Though I am not having vision, I am carrying it because you have vision. If I am not carrying the lantern, then you would have stumbled upon me during this night time." Thus He explains the importance of preserving our ancient knowledge and pass it on to the future generations, though we are not interested in them.

This raises me the question, "In what ways we can preserve and pass our ancient knowledge?" If you have any thoughts please share them here.