Often Believe Blindly

I started this series of article to showcase on the reasons behind our Tradition.

Moving on, today I like to share about one of most powerful of them. Sometimes if we keep practicing this, it will prove blind and meaningless. If we stop doing this, our life become meaningless. It is everyone's secret. Energy booster. Patience builder.  It is "Trust" or "Belief".

Yes, It is a tradition, Elders at home build this factor stronlgy in our mind at various steps of childhood. Actually without having this very faith, no goal can be achieved. It builds relationships, emotions, strength, help us going together, what not..!! I quoted it as one's secret. Yes every one of us having a habit of predicting something for the future and believe that it will happen at sure at crucial times. Logically it is foolish. But, Faith doesn't stand on logic. It just does its job.

Spiritually saying, Every result is associated with the doer "Belief". You have to believe before you do. or else it is never complete. Our tradition teaches you to give your 100% and just believe that god is with us.

Another factor which stops having faith in any result is the "feasibility". Before we believe in something, we need a previous experience of succeeding. But, unfortunately everything cannot be experienced in prior. Have to become blind at some point. Isn't it?.

Now a day, I have seen lot of youngsters denying to follow their culture with a reason "I don’t believe in all these”. If I ask why??, they say, there is no scientific reason behind it.!!! It is true that we are blindly following some rituals (Unfortunately). But lots of things are proven, which proves that that our ancestors were not fools to create such things. They are tried and tested then accepted ones.

if you need proof for everything around you, then will you ask your mother the proof of your father????. No, Right... So you just Blindly believe.!!!!!


Thanks for reading.. :-)

 

Bhagavadgita in Doubt!!!!

What others were doing when Bhagavadgita was told by Krishna to Arjuna. How Krishna managed to tell all those slokas in war field???

This is another question from same old enthusiastic friend, yes, he is now more of friend than colleague.. :-)

 So, What is your opinion, What others were doing? If Arjuna understood the very meaning of it why didn't Bheeshma and Dronacharya get its essence?

Firstly, Arjuna was not that much poor student who need that much detailed description from Lord. Actually, Bhagavadgita is written by Vedavyasa after the war, This is specially formed because of complete understanding of conversation happened between the two. This kaliyuga is specifically known for disturbed mind, meaning, the destruction  first happens in mind. Kali does attack on minds, That's it. rest happens automatically. To clean this dirty mind OR to keep this ever happening mind clean, a detailed form of conversation written by Vedavyasa. 

Scenario : Arjuna gets depressed as he has to face the situation where his own guru stands in opposition. Gets Emotional. Then Krishna makes him understand the situation and builds his mind to get ready as he must fight for the Good. So vedavyasa thought these are the key points which can tune our mind. Hence created a detailed report of it and named Bhagavadgita.

Secondly, The Big guns in opposition thought, it might be a usual conversation happened over Krishna & Arjuna. Moreover they knew these truth. only reason they stood for Duryodhana is they were under the shelter of Dritarashtra.

There are still many reasons, these are very few things which I producing here, as I already clarified that these are dealings of Deities. Difficult to understand. Here the Doubts should be clarified, but not to be used as reason to ESCAPE.

Thanks for reading.. I am Escapingggg :-) :-)

Special thanks to your comments friends.. It really encourages me, helps me to post further posts.

Ganapathi: The Most worshipped, most questioned.!!!!

One of the beautiful story from the puranas is Ganapathi-Paarvathi-Shiva story where ganapathi gets a replacement for his head. Ganapathi is most worshiped god among Hindus but unfortunately most questioned too..:-(

I was stunned to see a comment from other religion guy in Facebook, calling the above mentioned story as "Family drama" and had a daunting question "how you accept such a cruel Shiva as your god???". Further he dared to use vulgar/slang words to describe the story.

This Post of mine is not only the answer to such rubbish comments, but also enable the knowledge and essence behind story into your mind so that you can give slapping answer to that rather being in doubt.

Firstly,

There are 24 qualities (tatvas) that make up this wonderful universe. For those 24, there are Controllers/Deity for each. Likewise,

Ganapathi --- Deity of Ether ( Akasha tatva )
Paartvathi -- Deity of Speech ( Maathu )
Shiva --- Deity for controlling Mind ( Manassu )

Very briefly, Story goes like this.

1. Paarvathi wanted a guard when she was going for bath.
2. Using her powers, Out of dust on her outer body she made an idol & filled it with life.
3. She instructed not to allow anybody to pass him.
4. Ganapathi encounters Shiva, Ganapathi denied Shiva to pass him as per the strict command from his mother.
5. Shiva gets angry, fights with Ganapathi. Ganapathi looses his Head.

There is a speciality of every Puranic Scripts . That the reader can understand only as per his grasping quality. If he/she is poor in grasping, then result of it will make them to say it a Family drama....:-) Remember its not acts of humans, these are dealings of gods, it will be something unusual and interesting. Yes, in one viewpoint it is a drama to teach us the lesson of life.

But, Let's analyze. I am taking above steps and try to extract real logical sense out of it.

1. When you want to speak out, U need a medium/guard who can take care of your words and take it to destination. (Paartvathi -- Deity of Speech)

2. The medium is nothing but Space (Expression of words) which carries the your spoken words. Or It might be a messenger who carries your message. (Ganapathi --- Deity of Ether)

3. Space should be clear and far from disturbance to carry the sound as is. Or The messenger should be honest and follow the instruction given. 

4. More Importantly, It has to be agreeable with your Thoughts (Shiva). Thinking something and talking something else should not be the case.

5. If your expression of words (Ganapathi/parvathi) not go in sync with mind (Shiva), then you will definitely loose your head weight in future.

 

Anybody thought of this thought????!!!! If I summarize it, it provides a beautiful lesson that "Every word should be Mindful". Very meaningful.

And Now My answer to that unfortunate creature who don't have patience of knowing the meaning before commenting on it is "In Our Religion, even Family Dramas also teach lessons!!!!" Garvadinda garjisuve, Nanobba Hindu.

Stop pointing start praising. Thanks for Reading.....:-)

Field of Influence!!!

Whichever Hindu temple you visit, One thing you see in common. An Arch surrounding the icon. Filled with attractive designs made up of brass or silver or gold. It is called Prabhavali. Did you anytime question yourself that why size and shape of Prabhavali is  common irrespective of difference in icons. You find almost similar kind of design throughout the temples around the globe. what will be its size? what is the idea behind this Prabhavali?
 

To understand this we need some insights on Energy field created out of any living body. For example below figure depicts various fields created out of Human body. Starting from physical existence till spiritual presence it occupy a distance of 10 inches, where a body's spiritual aura ends. i.e. Your influence in space is of 10 inches from your body. Basically Prabhavali symbolizes this field of influence. Hence the Prabhavali around the icons placed exactly 10 inches apart.

Further, this mental and spiritual aura is directly connected to our mind and its thoughts. Its color varies from dark blue to red. dark blue representing pureness in the thoughts and red representing bad thoughts. scripts quote the who are spiritually elevated beings can sense this color of aura and judge A person.

Thanks for reading...:-)

Action - Devotion

What is Devotion (Bhakti). How should be our devotion.

Now A days, I constantly hear from my friends that "Devotion should be in the heart not in action!!!" I wonder how nicely they got this escape tag line.

Listen up my friends, Is it possible that "You still work for your company, when employer says I am very much thankful to you, heartly I welcome your dedication and I pray for god to bless you without crediting single rupee to your bank account!!!???" "No Action, Full satisfaction". Can life be actionless???

No. So as devotion, Devotion is both action and a thought. Please don't escape by rendering your own taglines. Every task has its own physical and spiritual importance in our religion. Devotion too. Often Devotion is mistaken with prayer, prayer needs devotion but by itself it is not devotion.

How should be our devotion towards god?? Who is called a supreme devotee?

I like to quote a beautiful observation from Ramayana, Hanuman's devotion towards Rama. Every other scripts refers it as pure form of devotion. His dedication was unimaginable. After war has been won by Rama in Lanka, Rama express his thanks to everyone who helped him all along. While deciding on ultimate contributor to this mission, unanimously Hanuman's name comes up. Rama without hesitating asks hanuman to ask for anything he wants!!! Anything.

Now understand the weight of that boon. The giver is lord Rama, capable of giving anything and everyting. Omnipotent. Seriously, If I would have been there in place of hanuman, might have asked for a newly built 60 X 40 house in Jayanagar Bangalore. ;-) . But it was Hanumantha, Jeevotthama. (clever than anyone else) Instead of asking Owner's property he asked for owner himself. He says,

 || ಪ್ರವರ್ಧತಾಂ  ಭಕ್ತಿರಲಂ  ಕ್ಷಣೆ ಕ್ಷಣೆ  ತ್ವಈಶ  ಮೇ  ಹ್ರಾಸವಿವರ್ಜಿತಾ  ಸದಾ ||

"I need nothing than you!!! just Put in me some more devotion towards you so that I can praise you, serve you even more, forever".

What a classy answer, actually for the service he provided to Rama he could have demanded anything, but he just begs in front of supreme and he knows because of extreme devotion towards him made all this possible, only I can ask is some more of it.

But our devotion is name sake, We get everything but behave like employer in the example. Just praise not serve.

When situation comes where we enjoy the fruitful result of our efforts, somewhere we forget how this fruitfulness is achieved and sell out our valuable efforts to cheap attractive things. Finally nothing left behind than to realize.

See, in case of hanuman there was action (of serving god, destroying demons, bringing godess sita back home) and a thought (Need nothing in return, its just for your pleasure) to impress god. Devotion is an act of impressing the supreme being with our thoughts and service.

Escaping statements can make you smarter but service make you impressive.

So Actionnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading... :-)

Take-off your Shirt

We Often see a board hanging over at every corners of famous temples,

"Please Remove your shirts"

Instantly our mind pop-up a question "Why??.  God wont listen to person with shirt?" And the pop-up goes unanswered!! So what might be the reason behind!!!.

Its purely a concept of dressing sense, which has now become an answer-less tradition.
Think, What will be your dress code when you get a chance to meet your company CEO!! Will you go with a torn jeans or with a business formal??. "Nothing is just taken for granted".

Same applies when you are visiting temples. In our tradition, the meaning of well dressed is "Not to wear a dress which is Torn, or cut-join, stitched. because it symbolizes indecency". Since our shirts and pants are cut-joined pieces, wearing it is prohibited in front Supreme God. That's why usage of Non stitched Dhoti (Panche) is preferred in Hinduism. Seriously, Removing shirt and holding same shirt and going in-front of god doesn't make sense. Does it???? But Time and situation made us to do so!!

It's not the question of God's acceptance, it's matter of decency. and spiritually decency in dressing is this. It is possible only if you get a feel as if you are personally meeting someone special (not just a piece of stone).

 

I have done my job of sharing what I knew. Its completely left to you to implement. I have lot to talk about this, but getting a feel that this is not the right platform to raise my voice.

Thanks for reading..:-) 

Hidden History!!!

Today in no mood to touch tradition. :-) lets try to learn from History.
 
In one of my previous posts, I was talking about my colleague to whom I asked some questions about god. Surprisingly same Guy came back to me, and now it was his turn!!! The Question was, 

Is Mahabharata real?? Isn't it only the story of a king and his family. Where is common man and his life style explained in it? Once my sister also asked similar doubt.

I was feeling like he is taking revenge for my previous questions!!! Then I gave a second thought, It was a very thoughtful doubt and I always enjoy them.

I replied, Basically it is not a documentation of whole Dwapara yuga, So expecting such minute details of common man life style is ruled out. In-spite of that, every ups and downs of a common man and his family are been addressed here as pandavas face different role and responsibilities. All credit goes to Vedavyasa!!!!

Why I took this topic today: In the current world where we hear "A guy and a girl cant be just best friends". Our mind presumes that they might be in love!!! 

I want to quote an Example of one of the finest and beautiful relationship. A relation between most gorgeous among women and a most attractive amongst men. Draupadi and Krishna. But still they did not have a thought of marrying each other. Draupadi single-mindedly followed the advice that Krishna gave and never wavered from her devotion to her husbands. They just had an unimaginably pure relationship. we have lot to learn from it.!!!

Secondly,
About the reality of the script. There are plenty of sub stories in Mahabharata. If you have a doubt on reality of the story, try to take essence of each sub stories quoted in it. Apply it in your life. Experience it. you will have answer by yourself..! Personally I learned a lot from character of Krishna and his thoughts, Karna and his bad mistakes!! sometimes I wonder on how beautifully each situation conveys a message of life.

There is a famous saying, Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.!

Thanks for reading..:-)

Forgetten Truth, A Money Maaya!!!

Today lets talk about Wealth.. Everyone's Pleasure "Money".


    Like Children's day, Teacher's day, Sports day, In our Tradition "Money" Day is also celebrated. Yes, I am talking about Akshaya tritiya. From years, It is believed that on this auspicious day the wealth will get multiplied, Never diminish (Akshaya)!!! so rush to the jewellery, hit or get, bring some gold home (as gold symbolizes wealth). Especially women, so eager to get the long time pending jewels to come home :-)

 You think Akshaya tritiya meant for this????!!!!

Certainly, your answer may be a hard "NO!". let me come to the actual reasons later, if it is a "Yes". Then, it is a big reason of worry. I said Akshaya means "Never diminish" right, you are not just bringing wealth to your home, along with it you bring, your never satisfying "Greed", "I", "Mine", selfish attachment with that wealth which takes you no where.!!!! this selfishness never diminish.

Do you really need that??? Come, lets list out the real, worthy facts about your "Money" day..

Historically,

  1. Yudishtira receives Akshaya paatre on this day by Lord Surya. (So the name Akshaya)
  2. More importantly, Scripting of Epic Story, Mahabharatha Started on this day by Ganapathi narreted by lord Vedavyasa.
  3. Most importantly, Lord Parashurama took birth same day.
  4. Krishna visits to Sudhama's home
  5. Finally, Its the day Kubera is appointed as the Wealth God after Lakshmi.

These are some of the reasons why it is so auspicious. If Know the background of each of these reasons. you realize that, it is not the money behind it. Dont know from where the Gold factor got attatched to this day!!!

Vedic scriptures say that knowledge gained or charity done on Akshay Tritiya is very fruitful.

Speciality of this day,
 Any personal work with a good intention is to be started, start straight away this day without consulting an astrologer.
 Like this, there are 3 more days which doesnt require a second thought to start a good work, and astrologically auspicious

  1.Yugadi.
  2.Vijaya Dashami. (Dasara)
  3.Half day of Bali paadyami. (Deepavali)
 
 Personally I feel, Giving is the real Wealth. No Money,No Gold can equalize the wealth of it.!!!! Develop a habit of giving on these festive days. You never get a feeling of loosing something, Instead you experience a breath of satisfaction in giving something.

I Wish your deposit of real wealth multiplies every day!!
Thanks for Reading.. :)

What to Offer God, who Has Everything within!!!!

Why we offer FIRE while pooja?? what pooja actually is? why fire is used most of the times while offering god??


We Know that the supreme god has everything and doesn't expect anything from us, but then why we must offer POOJA to him.?

Yesss!, He Needs nothing from us. It becomes our duty to offer something from our end to the person who is helping us every moment.!. Honestly telling, Don't offer something to god just because it is written in some holy script or somebody says to do it, Offer him because He is the reason behind everything.

Ok, Offering make sense, Now, What to offer? Why our religion scripted to use FIRE in the first place for Pooja? .

While offering someone, we follow an untold rule that, The thing which we are offering should be a equalizer to his current status. Meaning, if he is a teacher we get a book of his interest. For a sportsman may be a track suite etc etc. But What to gift A person who is omnipotent.??? 

Our ancestors found an Interesting thing which by itself shown characteristics of Omnipotent. The FIRE. 
It can Prepare and Destroy. Burn and Build. Every living being need this fire in the form of SUN. Everything needs its very presence.

Summary,
Fire is just a  representation of a simple yet powerful thing which a every individual (no matter you are poor or rich) can offer to a most superior one. While doing the pooja this should come to our mind, that "Even though I am unable to offer everything I have to you, but take this, and burn my ego destroy my selfishness prepare me to face worst of the situations build me for the best of the society"


Thanks for reading :)

Fasting a Testing!!

Does fasting make you weak?? or it strengthens your body?? It has anything to do with mental stability?


Wherever you are, whichever religion you follow, whatever your profession is remember this one of the golden rule "Reserve A day to brain and a day to your stomach of complete rest in a fortnight". I bet, every tradition has a statement alike. further I personally believe the first day of every fortnight should be a rest to brain, i.e, Don't try to learn anything new by intention. and 11th day of fortnight should be given rest to stomach and other digestive organs. Means a Fast. Everybody needs a rest!! so as your organs. nothing special to quote for this, but still there are some major reason to why we have to fast on the that day.

As per our Hindu religion, its called Ekadashi (meaning 11th day), It symbolizes to have control over 11 things. 5 sensory organs + 5 motor organs + Mind, to channelize towards your goal. Spiritually saying, towards God. Not eating food a complete day is the toughest thing anyone wants to do. Idea behind is, On this day whenever we think of the eating something, we forcibly made to think of God and control your hunger. This habit unknowingly builds an ability in us, and makes us to control our mind. In everyone's life there will be situation where we know that the path we are moving is not the right one but still we tend to continue same path due to the instantaneous pleasure it provide and forget the goal we want to achieve.

 Some follow fasting in the name of sankashta chaturthi once in a month. which is is also a good practice. but still I suggest to follow the above one!! :-)

And about the rest to our brain, I have not come across a specific reason why it has to be first day of fortnight yet. If anybody knows pls comment on this post or provide a link of reference.

Thanks for reading.. Happy Fasting.. :-)

Crazy Castes

Basically what is caste.? what is its very meaning? what might be its origin!!!

Think of a situation where there are no caste system built around us.! People are busy in minding their own business.  Definitely the interest of every individual varies. Also surprisingly for some, interests matches with some others. Consider 100 people around us divided into chunks depending on their likings , say 10 groups, some group likes to Teach, some protects, some are business minded, and some likes to do service and maintenance etc. It will then become usual practice to call the group of people to which they belong by their group name.!!!

Exactly in same way the caste system originated. In olden days the group of people who were teaching good things were called "Brahmanas", one who Protected the society called as "Kshatriyas" etc.. Gradually each group divided into many sub divisions depending on the thinking and occupation they do. Now we have whole lot of castes in-front of us as every subdivisions evolved it its own way.

So basically the word "Caste" refers to what you are doing, what is your status and contribution to society. its not just caste of your father defines yours. If one follows the way their ancestor used to follow then its perfectly fine, if not then you are out of that caste. It requires a common sense and mind of acceptance.

Now the situation has come where the question of caste come only at the time of marriages!!. Its my humble request to change your thoughts on the caste system built by our ancestors. Don't quarrel in the name of castes. Understand that we are divided by thoughts. Caste is just a System, should not become an Issue.!!

Think, which is your caste!!!!!??? do U really belong to the one you are claiming to be!!?
 
Thanks for reading.. :)

Success In Bheemasena's words.

Once discussing with my colleague I raised an unusual, rather a simple question "whether you believe in god?".
He paused for a minute and replied "sometimes yes, and sometimes No!!".. Most expected answer.. but still I reacted to his reply quite unusually, I said "what!!!, why is that so??".. He replied, "whenever I ask something to him he fulfills only few of them"... I seriously felt bad!!.. and my straight forward reply was, "See dude, you are servant of god not the other way!!, may be to prove this again n again he doesn't give everything you ask for!!!".

Problem

• Problem here is the "thought behind it". We just ask, if not fruitful we again ask, still if its not the expected one, we finally point out the god!!!. 

Solution

We forget that Actually the Result of every act is a product of effort and god grace. In Bheemasena's words,
the success is defined as a product of
    1.Goodness of the Intention.
    2.Actual Effort - you should try to reach your limits.
    3.God's Grace.
If one amongst the three is zero, the product is zero!!!

The message conveyed here is, before pointing to the god you must sincerely carry out your duty and then rest should be left to the supreme.

Aacharagala Vichara.

Sashtanga Namaskara to whom and Why???
(steping towards to know simple reasons behind our tradition)

Meaning

• Most superior way of saluting someone.

• Involves Heart, Head, Eyes, Mind, Words (tongue), Legs, Hands and Knees – since namaskara (prostration) is done with these eight parts, it is known as “Ashtanga Namaskara”
  

•  Two hands, Two legs, Two arms, Chest and Forehead, touch the ground while saluting.
  For ladies its just a Panchanga namaskara (Two hands, Two legs and Forehead). 
   

To Whom:

1. Supreme God
2. Parents
3. Gurus (Teachers)

Concept Behind It:

• Mentally,It is an act of being extremely thankful to them, since whatever we are now is all because of them.
• Phisically, It is an act of showing "I am no way greater than you, so I am grounding before you"
• There are other ways to salute someone, but sashatanga refers to the most important contributors for our life.

Why,

• To the God, Since he is the creator of this Universe & Providing every need of our life.
• Parents, Doesnt need a reason to give I guess :-)
• Finally Guru, Ppl say Knowledge is power. A teacher empowers us by sharing valueable knowledge, in every step of our life. Induces the thirst to more and be knowledgeable.

Note: There is a must and should rule that for above 3, the salutation must be always "Sashtanga Namaskara". For other it can be panchanga or just abhivadana.


Intention of this post is to bring it to action. Its not just for Information!!!!

Reference: Krishnamruta maharnava.

Java Special : String.

String in java, favourite topic to any interviewer and can be used to test your understading about java string internals.

Unlike in C/C++ java string are not just a stream of characters, instead an object of class java.lang.String.

String objects are immutable they can be shared!!

Example:

String str1 = "string";

String str2 = "string";

String str3 = new String("string");

String str4 = new String("string");

As shown in figure, the string literals will go and reside in String constant pool. Hence when you are assigning a string value to string object it will search in this space if any matching string is found, the object is made to refer same point. In our case str1 and str2.

While, if you choose to use new,  there is turnaround. It behaves as usual object creation and above figure depicts the same. Look at following equivalent expressions,

Using "==" - comparing references

str1== str2 // true, points same location in memory

str1== str3 // false, 2 different locations

str3== str4 // false

Using .equals() - comparing contents

str1.equals(str2) // true, equlas is designed to check the contents of String

str3.equals(str1) // true

str3.equals(str4) // true

what is Immutability with String?

Once a String is constructed, its contents cannot be modified. Otherwise, the other String references sharing the same storage location will be affected by the change, which can be unpredictable and therefore is undesirable.

Ex,

String str1 = "string";

str1 = "hello";

Here, instead of modifying content of str1 to hello, a new string will be constructed and str1 will be assigned with location of hello, leaving "string" dereferenced in memory.

 

why string is immutable?

• Being immutable guarantees that hashcode will always the same, so that it can be cashed without worrying the changes.That means, there is no need to calculate hashcode every time it is used. This is more efficient.
• Imagine StringPool facility without making string immutable , its not possible at all because in case of string pool one string object/literal e.g. "Test" has referenced by many reference variables , so if any one of them change the value others will be automatically gets affected.
• By making java.lang.String final, Java designer ensured that no one overrides any behavior of String class.
  

Abstract Class vs. Interfaces in Java

Hi All, This time I am back with a most controversial topic among java beginners. Yes, Its Abstract Class v/s Interface.

 Most of the developers prefer using Interfaces over abstract class for the following reasons.

1. Any Class can be modified to implement the Interface, not necessarily the hierarchical type.
2. Loosely coupled.
3. Interfaces enable safe, powerful functionality enhancements.
4. Overcome effect of absence of Multiple Inheritence

With these advantages it also bring one big difficulty that "Once an interface is
released and widely implemented, it is almost impossible to change". so Interfaces need to be designed more carefully than an abstract class.

Installing VLC player in fedora

Any video player needs codecs to play the videos on linux, Unfortunately default installation of fedora wont provide it...

First You Need to install a codec,

1. Get Rpm Fusion,
• Run this command
  

  su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm'

2. Get Livna

• su -c "rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm"

3. Get gstreamer codec

• su -c 'yum install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-ffmpeg vlc'

4. Optionally I Prefer Amarok music player, here is the command

• su -c 'yum install amarok'

Thats It.... Vlc Should be listed under the Application Tab...