October 25, 2011
Health Care, Social Health Community
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Diwali is celebrated on the day of Amavasya but the festival is symbolized by inner happiness, lighting or Purnima.
Moon in mythology is symbolized by cool positive thoughts. Normally on the day of Amavasya one encounters negatives thoughts and on the day of Purnima positive thoughts.
Diwali is the only day in a year where one experiences positive thoughts on the day of Amavasya, hence some people believes Diwali symbolizes Diwali with inner Purnima and out Amavasya.
Diwali celebrations also coincide with the terminal phase of Chaturmas, the four months of negative state of mind.
The purification process in Chaturmas starts with 1st Navratre falling on Amavasya. During these nine days one undergoes mind, body and soul detoxification by not thinking negative, doing positive things and acquiring soul based knowledge.
The mind, body detoxification during Navratre ends with killing of Tamas (Kumbhkaran), Rajas (Meghnath) and ego (Ravan) and of consciousness (Rama) over the evil.
These benefits do not lead to inner Moksha or happiness until 20 days, the day of Diwali. In order to continue getting benefits of Navratre one needs to fast with positive state of mind every fourth day till Diwali.
On Sharad Purnima, the fast involves thinking positive with a cool mind to get health benefits. Four days later, on Karvachauth again, one fasts and worships the Moon with positive thoughts and acquires longevity benefits. Four days later on Ahoi Asthami again, one worships the moon and the stars with positive thoughts and acquires fertility benefits. On the day of Dhanteras one acquires a win over the fear of death (Yama). On this day, the fast involves deeper meditation ( samundra manthan) to get all the benefits of Samadhi.
At the end of the meditation in the state of Samadhi, one gets in touch with the consciousness or the God, the insight gets illuminated and a person experiences bliss, a state of ecstasy of inner happiness and that is what is called experiencing inner Purnima on the day of outer Amavasya and the festival is celebrated as Diwali.
Let us all worship this Diwali as a state of positive mental state. This one month of purification of thoughts helps one in combating the depression phase seen in winter.
Diwali is the only Amavasya where one does not do Shradh pooja. On Diwali Amavasya (falling in Chaturmas) one is allowed to start any new project. Even deaths on this Amavasya are considered auspicious (unlike on other Amavasya days).
September 28, 2011
Uncategorized
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One day someone asked me why do Muslims and Hindus fight with each other when they worship each other’s Gods. Hindus worship ALI in DIWALI and Muslims worship RAMA in RAMAZAN.
Diwali and Ramadan both have one thing in common and that is one month of spiritual Yagna.
In the Hindu spiritual Yagna, the process starts from first day of Navratri on Amavasya and ends on Diwali, again on Amavasya. The first 10 days involve intense spiritual practice and the rest 20 days entail receiving its benefits.
The first nine days, called Navratri are devoted to a process of purification and detoxification of mind, body and soul. During this period, a person is required to lead a Satwik spiritual life devoting first three days to activities, which reduce negativity in the mind and the body. For the next three days he is required to engage himself in positive behavior and activities and in the last three days he is supposed to read and learn about spiritual positive things in life.
Respectively, these three phases of purification are symbolized as worshiping the Goddesses Kali, Laxmi and Saraswati. The spiritual purification process involves eating only Satwik food, one which is offered to God, and following the principles of Satwik lifestyle, which include Satwik Ahaar, Satwik Vichar, Satwik Vyavahaar and Satwik Achaar. There is a custom of worshiping wheat and barley grass during this period. These are detoxifying when consumed in the form of juices. The Satwik fast observed during this period helps in cleansing the internal body.
Once the nine-day purification process is complete, on the 10th day, one gets the first benefits as symbolized by Vijaydashmi as one conquers Tamas (Kumbhakaran), Rajas (Meghnad) and Ego (Ravana). The victory over the Ego entails the ruling of Satwa (Vibhishan) and reunion of Mind (Lakshamana), Body (Sita) and Soul (Rama).
As per the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one is likely to get benefits over a period of time when one attains an ego-free mind.
The first benefit is seen on the fourth day after Vijaydashmi, on Sharad Purnima, a day known for health benefits. People on this day gather in the night and eat kheer rich in moon rays.
Again after four days on the day of karvachauth one gets benefit of the longevity of the spouse which gives safety to the family. On this day all married women fast and prey for their husbands.
Four days later on “hoi ashtami†one prays for the longevity of their children. This ensures old age protection for the family.
Four days later again on “dhanteras†one gets the benefit of wealth. On this day, people worship silver items. On this day no dealings are done and people spend only to invest in silver and gold items for future needs of the family.
By this time the person, who has indulged in the process of purification, learns the true purpose of his or her existence. The inner ignorance and darkness goes away and one gets the true meaning of wealth and that is inner happiness. This day is called Diwali where on the day of amavasya (darkness) one gets internal light (Diwali).
Diwali, therefore, is a one-month long spiritual Yagna with nine days of purification and 21 days of acquiring spiritual benefits out of it.
Ramadan similarly involves a deep intense purification process of mind, body and soul. Among Christians, the similar spiritual purification process is celebrated as Easter.
July 14, 2011
Health Care, Social Health Community
26,510 Comments
More blasts in Mumbai… yesterday Mumbai was hit by serial blasts yet again
What is it that makes people kill others? Why is there so much of unrest or turmoil in the mind of people that they can kill others. We need to understand the psyche behind the mind of a terrorist.
“We are what deep rooted desires are†is an old saying in the Upanishads. The reality can be shaped by altering the way one thinks. This principle is often used by terrorist camps to brainwash new young terrorists who are used either as suicide squads or for other terror attacks.
According the Bhagwad Gita, the human nature is a mix of Rajas, Tamas and Satva gunas or nature. This is the era of Tamasik-Rajasik society. People like to read and hear stories full of rape, anger, aggression, terrorism, extra marital affairs etc. Today the hero plays a negative character in a movie and yet always ends up with the sympathy of the viewers. In the Rajsik and Tamsik era, the collective consciousness of the people is towards negative mentality and tolerating corruption. Hence, building a suicide squad is easy in these times. “Satya, Tapas, Pavitrata (purity) and Daan†are the four pillars of dharma. The first three are absent in Kalyuga, where the only prevalent and accepted behavior is Daya and/or Daan (charity).
Many years back, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had adopted an army of children aged 4-5 years and trained them over the next ten years as Shastra Pandits. After their training, these children spread the message of Indian Shastras all over the world. During these years of hard work, the Vedic knowledge was affixed to their consciousness.
Similar squads can be prepared on any subject. A boy born and brought up by dacoits would only know that this profession is a noble one. Youngsters, similarly trained for decades in terrorism will only perform violent acts. Over a period of time, the mind gets conditioned for the said act on which they are trained.
Even Chanakaya used the concept of ‘Vishkanya – the poisonous girl’ and justified its use to kill the enemies. Today many terrorist groups are using the same concept through ‘HIV Kanya’.
We often wonder what makes such people take courage and risk their lives during terrorist attacks. The answer is simple. It’s the same psyche which applies to army soldiers during a war or to doctors who treat serious infections with high incidence of cross infection or to film stars who attempt to shoot risky scenes themselves and to a journalist who covers live news from the warfront or other dangerous areas. At that time, the only psyche is to achieve something new or to do something which is unusual.
Each one of us is born with some needs. These may be physical (food, clothing, shelter and other body needs), mind, intellect and ego (brain washed totally in one aspect) or at the level of soul (trained to do the jobs in the name of the God). Most terrorist camps fulfill the basic physical needs of their trainees.
Some will exploit the needs on the basis of a sacrifice. Many movies have a storyline where the hero is willing to sacrifice his or her life to fulfill the needs of the family, for example, marriage of sister or treatment of the ailing mother. Some movies have also shown a hero ready to become a negative man to fulfill the needs of the family after he was found to be suffering from an incurable nearing death illness.
Our history also plays a role in this aspect. The way our movies project people like Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, it makes one think that if they succeed in their terrorist attack they can achieve what they want and if they die they would be revered in history just as Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and others are revered today.
If we want terrorism to stop, then the negative mind in the collective consciousness of the people should change. We must shift our status from that of lower leader to a higher leader. We must learn to control violence in our own minds first. We must learn to control our shadow self and behave the same whether or not we achieve success in life.