Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Awareness, Will & Life's Force.

Awareness, Will And Life Force.

The primal life force ever resident within the body, emotions and mind of man is, when used or allowed to function, what I term willpower. Now we can see that the ever-present persistence of life force gives an overabundance of willpower and with it the ability to direct it from deep within. This ability to direct the willpower is the jnana, the wisdom we seek. We have but two choices: to gain jnana through learning the tried-and-tested, set patterns for living and conducting ourself or, through assuming a relaxed approach of ignorance, be guided by the "good" and "bad" and mixed emotional forces of the wills of others.

Therefore, the devotee seeks to gain the conscious control of his own willpower, to awaken knowledge of the primal force through the direct experience of it, and to claim conscious control of his own individual awareness.

Thus we can begin to see that our individual awareness, willpower and the primal life force deep within body, emotion and mind are, in fact, one and the same--that willpower, individual awareness and life force, their habits and usages, are but various aspects.

You will notice that, through our study together, these three aspects are referred to time and time again, individually as well as collectively. However, in the study of yoga it is important to keep in mind the totality of their sameness in order to fully identify your personal and continued experience of yourself as a being with unlimited will, constantly and fully aware of the primal life force flowing through body and emotions, as you, awareness, travel through the mind. This is the goal of the jnani, the one who has attained to wisdom, to the acquisition of divine knowledge and the personal experience of what he has learned.

A child in his early years becoming acquainted with living with his family on this planet will show tendencies toward a quiet, peaceful will or a provocative willfulness. The wise parent teaches the culture and etiquette of the household and the community at large, ever endeavoring to bring forth the inner knowledge within the child as to the wise use of his willpower, guiding him carefully away from impulsive, willful behavior so that, little by little, he becomes responsible for the action he causes, as well as its reactions. The unwise parent with no particular cultural heritage, completely vulnerable to his own instinctive impulses, overlooks this area of childhood training. Therefore, impulsive willfulness bursts forth from within the children, cultivating abilities to hurt themselves as well as others, and to upset the home, with no particular remedy in view.

This of course is the opposite to what we have in mind to obtain for ourselves. It is the attainment of that ever-collected mastery over our faculties through holding our inner perspective of them that keeps a heavy reign over the aspect of awareness called willpower, maintaining an even balance between the emotional-instinctive, the intellectual and the spiritual aspects of our being. It is through the study of raja yoga, while always holding a silent overview as to what you are learning and how it relates to your particular life patterns, that you will come to know that an inner change is taking place. Harness the powers of your will in the ways indicated. The reward is simultaneous with the effort employed. The results are immediate.

Source KHM

Each Test in Life is an Opportunity

Each Test Is An Opportunity

We carry with us in our instinctive nature basic tendencies to break the
divine laws, to undergo the experiences that will create reactive conditions until we sit ourselves down and start to unravel the mess. If we are still reacting to our experiences, we are only starting on the yoga path to enlightenment.

As soon as we cease to react, we have for the first time the vision of the inner light. What do we mean by this word light? We mean light literally, not metaphysically or symbolically, but light, just as you see the light of the sun or a light emitted by a bulb. Even in the Abrahamic scripture, it is given, "When your eye becomes single, your whole body shall be filled with light." You will see light first at the top of the head, then throughout the body. An openness of mind occurs, and great peace.

As a seeker gazes upon his inner light in contemplation, he continues the process of purifying the subconscious mind. As soon as that first yoga awakening comes to you, your whole nature begins to change. You have a foundation on which to continue. The yamas and the niyamas are the foundation.

On the spiritual path to enlightenment, each of your decisions is going tobe a basic decision, based on your knowledge of the laws of the mind. You must be aware that if you have not been tested by life through breaking its laws, you will in the future be so tested. You have to be aware that each test is an opportunity for either failure or success, and it is all up to you.

Circumstances will always present opportunities for failure, and your reasoning mind will always be able to say, "I could have done nothing else under the circumstances."

Often, even under the circumstances, advanced souls are able to take the more difficult course through the natural exercise of humility. Decisions of this nature direct the conscious mind to the recognition of natural inner security.When you fail one of life's tests, all you can fail is yourself, the Self within you.

Source KHM

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Learn to assimilate

Learn to Assimilate

People always tend to identify, instinctively, freedom with abandon. But the type of abandon that seeks personal gratification always gets you "tied up in a knot." Abandon instead your personal fears and desires by bringing your mind under the dominion of concentration in everything you do, and you, the real you, will become freed, released from the bonds of your own mind. Concentrate your mind when you are feeling confused, and you will bring peace to its disturbed states. Peace is control, and control is freedom.

If everyone gave half as much thought to the digestive power of the mind as we do to our stomachs, there would be fewer asylums. Are you able to assimilate and understand everything you put into your mind? Or do you carry experiences with you for days, mulling over the past?

Some of the things that you see, hear, read about or think about impress you deeply. Other things do not. What kind of impressions do you carve upon your mind? Turning our backs on everything that may be unpleasant to us is not the answer, but if you observe your reactions as they are taking place and then later, the same day, turn a calm, detached eye to your experience, you will re-enter understanding through the controlled state of your meditation. Do not wait for muddy waters of the mind to settle down in their own good time when you feel confused. You will only hasten your evolution by making your mind silent and composed by using a dynamic willpower to restore order when you feel least disposed to do so. Draw upon your resources.

People like patterns. The subconscious has a natural tendency to resist change. It is slow to realize that life is constant change. That is why it is so easy to fall into a rut. It requires a daring, spirited nature to call forth unused resources, to step out of the routine into a fuller and freer life. It requires daring to leave behind confused states of mind and bring forth new knowledge or wisdom from a meditation. Control is always silent power. Emotion, confusion, lack of control is noisy weakness.

Learn to assimilate. When you are engaged in conversation, do as the wise men of India do--pause after a while and let your thoughts assimilate. Have a view of the direction in which your mind is going, and you will have a good control over the direction of your life's circumstance. Rely on the Self. Find the permanency within you that has never changed through the ages, and you will realize that change is only in the ever-changing mind.

Control your mind to the and you will realize your own natural state of Being, beyond all circumstances-the Self. You will go through many different tests to prove your own realization to yourself. Face each test graciously. Welcome each test and welcome each temptation that shows you the strength of your will over the chaotic senses. You have only to quiet all things of the mind to realize your identity with the eternity of God , the Spirit, the eternal Self within you.

Source: KHM

Changing your circumstances.

Changing Your Circumstances

You change your own circumstances all the time, whether you know it or not. Even your mind is different today than it was a week ago. The various experiences you have brought to yourself have made it that way. The point to realize is that you can gain an intricate control of the various things that change in and about you. Lean the thoughts and feelings of your creation in the right direction, and discover how quickly your circumstances will change their direction. This is the secret of self-control. This is the practice of yoga. Try it, and lose the habit of concern, for concern is only a by-product of a part of the mind being out of control.

What does the world offer us but an opportunity for action? It is the reaction that we sometimes get surprised by. The circumstances of your life are either pushing you toward greater understanding, if you are aspiring to realize the real Self, or they are pushing you toward confusion, if you have a tendency to react animalistically, making the personal self predominant. When personal concerns become the most important things in life, you are bound to suffer under the emotion of resentment, and resentment is just a confused state of mind.

The unfortunate thing is, resentment tends to attract even more circumstances worthy of even more resentment. So don't bother to resent, because you are only making yourself inferior to the person or the circumstance that you hold resentment for. That is right. Resentment, in all its heaviness, places your consciousness beneath that of the person you feel is imposing on you.

Be equal to whatever you meet! That is a better way to react to life. It is accomplished simply by meeting everything in understanding, by demanding understanding from within yourself. And if you feel that everything happening to you is a play of universal love and you are able to maintain that consciousness of universal love in yourself, then you are beyond the happenings of the world. Lifted in consciousness, you can see through and enjoy all the states of consciousness. The circumstances of your life will reflect this change.

Watch for those small incidents that imperceptively get under your skin and create an eruption a few days later. Little things that do not contribute creatively to your life are an indication that there is some kind of subconscious disturbance that you have not resolved. Look your nature right in the face in meditation, without squirming, and you will discover what the little disturbances are, some issue over which you are rationalizing, a small resentment or worry that is keeping a part of your mind confused, and thus necessarily, most of your circumstances confused.

Source: KHM

Sunday, July 20, 2008

To Live a Radiant Life.

To Live a Radiant Life

It is one thing to talk; it is another thing to demonstrate what is declared. Demonstration is a result of your awareness flowing through the superconscious area of the mind. The superconscious mind is actinic or radiant force, whereas the conscious and subconscious states of mind are manifestations of odic force, or magnetism. Excessive talk arises out of confused conscious and subconscious states of mind.

Find your actinic spiritual destiny in this life. Learn to live fully each instant, completely in the eternity of the moment. Become refined by constructive, rather than abusive practices. Become positive through the generation of good deeds, rather than those uncomplimentary experiences we react to and reenact. Yours is a new and positive destiny, one that is true, constant and free from want or dangers.

Life ahead for you can only become one of fulfillment and radiance as you adjust to dharmic principles. Follow these thirty-six gentle guidelines for living and meditate regularly in the morning when you awaken and just before sleep each night. That is all that is needed by the beginner on the eternal path to those enlightened heights of superconsciousness to which the subtle, individual, intelligent awareness of man aspires.

On and on through the mind we travel daily, once awareness has become detached from the limited area of mind it has been trapped in. The journey seems endless! It is. Seek on, seek on. Look in, look in. And on that solid foundation of good character, move into that place in the mind and live there, seeing no difference between the inner and the outer states of fluctuating awareness. Be that now for which you have been striving. The search is within.

Go within the mind. Go in and in and in and in and make fathomable the unfathomable depth of Being. You can do it. It has been done countless times over the past several thousand years. Give yourself the great benefit of believing in yourself and flow inward, inward-to the totality of it all.

Source :KHM

Restraints & Observances.

Restraints and Observances.

When we are children, we run freely, because we have no great subconscious burdens to carry. Very little has happened to us. Of course, our parents and religious institutions try to prepare us for life's tests. But because the conscious mind of a child doesn't know any better, it generally does not accept the preparation without experience, and life begins the waking up to the material world, creating situations about us--magnificent opportunities for failing these tests.

If we do not fail, we know that we have at some prior time learned the lesson inherent in the experience. Experience gives us a bit of wisdom when we really face ourselves and discover the meaning of failure and success. Failure is just education. But you shouldn't fail once you know the law.

There have been many systems and principles of ethics and morality established by various world teachers down through the ages. All of these have had only one common goal-to provide for man living on the planet Earth a guidepost for his thought and action so that his consciousness, his awareness, may evolve to the realization of life's highest goals and purposes.

The ancient yoga systems provided a few simple yamas and niyamas for religious observance, defining how all people should live. The yamas, or restraints, provided a basic system of discipline for the instinctive mind. The niyamas, or positive observances, are the affirming, life-giving actions and disciplines.

Life offers you an opportunity. As the Western theologian speaks of sins of omission as well as sins of commission, so we find that life offers us an opportunity to break the law as indicated by the yamas, as well as to omit the observances of the niyamas. If we take the opportunity to live out of tune with Hindu dharma, reaction is built in the subconscious mind. This reaction stays with us and recreates the physical and astral body accordingly.

Source KHM

Friday, July 18, 2008

Experiences of Life - A Class Room.

Experience Is A Classroom.

Each experience is a classroom. When the subconscious mind has been fully reconciled to everything that has happened, when you have fully realized that everything you have gone through is nothing more and nothing less than an experience, and that each experience is really a classroom, you will receive from yourself your innerversity personal evaluation report and it will be covered with the highest grades, denoting excellent cognition.

Each of these higher grades is important, for when you put them together they will unfold a consciousness of understanding, making you eligible for your graduation certificate of visually seeing the clear white light within your head while sitting in a darkened room. Yet, if you have failed a class, or several classes, not only will the marks show, but it will also take you longer to graduate. If you haven't taken from each experience its sum of understanding, subconsciously you remain in the classroom reacting to the lesson you are learning, even though the experience may have occurred fifteen or twenty years ago.

So, we have to end each of these experiences in understanding. We have to be promoted to the next deeper grade of awareness so that, with the universal love born of understanding, we can close the classroom doors behind us and receive our diploma. When we receive this first diploma of the clear white light, we are given the greater knowledge and wisdom of what this great experience of life is all about. How do we realize what life is all about? By having lived it fully we fully realize that the past is nothing more and nothing less than a dream, and a dream is comprised of pleasant experiences and nightmares. Both are just experiences, neither good nor bad, right nor wrong.

But you must remember that even the greatest souls have had nightmares, confusions, heartbreaks, disappointments, losses, desires that have been unfulfilled and experiences that they have not been able to cognize. And then they have come to a point in their lives when their inner being started pushing forward to the conscious plane. In other words, they have had just about all the experience necessary to graduate out of the instinctive-intellectual world, or consciousness.

The great, intuitive superconscious nature begins pushing forward to the conscious plane, stirring up within the subconscious the remnants of the past. As those remnants come up, they have to be faced and cognized through meditation, thus creating the foundation for understanding the basic laws and principles of life. Then comes the dawn of the clear white light.

Source : KHM

Friday, July 11, 2008

Hindu outlook on Giving.

What Is the Hindu Outlook on Giving?


Generous, selfless giving is among dharma's central fulfillments. Hospitality, charity and support of God's work on earth arises from the belief that the underlying purpose of life is spiritual, not material.


Nowhere is giving better unfolded than in the ancient Tirukural, which says, "Of all duties, benevolence is unequaled in this world, and even in celestial realms. It is to meet the needs of the deserving that the worthy labor arduously to acquire wealth." Even the poorest Hindu practices charity according to his means. In this unselfish tradition, guests are treated as God. Friends, acquaintances, even strangers, are humbled by the overwhelming hospitality received.

We share with the less fortunate. We care for the aged. We honor swamis with gifts of food, money and clothes. We encourage the spirit of helping and giving, called dana, within the family, between families and their monastic and priestly communities. Many devout Hindus take the dashama bhaga vrata, a vow to pay ten percent of their income each month to an institution of their choice to perpetuate Sanatana Dharma.

This centuries-old tithing practice is called dashamamsha. The Vedas wisely warn, "The powerful man should give to one in straits; let him consider the road that lies ahead! Riches revolve just like a chariot's wheels, coming to one man now, then to another.


Source KHM

Fight Fire with Fire

Fight fire with fire

Meaning

Respond to an attack by using a similar method as one's attacker.

Origin

When we 'fight fire with fire' we are likely to employ more extreme methods than we would normally do. That was also the case with the actual fire-fighting that was the source of this phrase. US settlers in the 19th century, who originated the phrase, attempted to guard against grass or forest fires by deliberately raising small controllable fires, which they called 'back-fires', to remove any flammable material in advance of a larger fire and so deprive it of fuel. This literal 'fighting fire with fire' was often successful, although the settlers' lack of effective fire control equipment meant that their own fires occasionally got out of control and made matters worse rather than better. One such failure was recorded in Caroline Kirkland's novel, based on her experiences of frontier Michigan in the 1840s, A New Home - Who'll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life (written under the pseudonym of Mrs. Mary Clavers):

The more experienced of the neighbours declared there was nothing now but to make a "back-fire!" So home-ward all ran, and set about kindling an opposing serpent which should "swallow up the rest;" but it proved too late. The flames only reached our stable and haystacks the sooner,

The method has continued to be used however and foresters now routinely create roads or unplanted areas to act as fire-breaks in woodland that is at risk of fire.

The term 'backfire' is now more often applied to plans that fail in a way that weren't intended. It wasn't used in that negative sense until the early 20th century and probably derives from the popping explosions that used to be commonly heard from the exhausts of faulty motor vehicles, not from forest 'back-fires' which ran out of control.

The earliest usage of 'fight fire with fire' that I've found in print is in the US author Henry Tappan's 1852 reminiscence A Step from the New World to the Old, and Back Again:

Smoking was universal among the men; generally cigars, not fine Havanas, but made of Dutch tobacco, and to me not very agreeable. I had some Havanas with me, and so I lighted one to make an atmosphere for myself: as the trappers on the prairies fight fire with fire, so I fought tobacco with tobacco.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Life's obstacles.

How Do We Overcome Life's Obstacles?

Just as a small leaf can obscure the sun when held before our eyes, so can the past cloud the present and hide our divinity. With Vedic methods, or tantras, we remove impediments to reveal the ever-present inner light.

An ancient Upanishad defines twenty obstacles, upasarga, to spiritual progress:


Hunger.

Thirst.

Laziness.

Passion.

Lust.

Fear.

Shame.

Anxiety.

Excitement.

Adversity.

Sorrow.

Despair.

Anger.

Arrogance.

Delusion.

Greed.

Stinginess.

Ambitiousness.

Death.

&

Birth.

Another obstacle is the intellect which, unguided by intuition, merely juggles memory and reason as a way of life. The experience of these impediments creates reactions that combine with the sum of all past impressions, samskaras, both positive and negative. Residing in the subconscious mind, these are the source of subliminal traits or tendencies, called vasanas, which shape our attitudes and motivations. The troublesome vasanas clouding the mind must be reconciled and released. There are beneficial tantras by which absolution can be attained for unhindered living, including ayurveda, jyotisha, daily sadhana, temple worship, selfless giving, the creative arts and the several yogas.

The Vedas explain, "Even as a mirror covered with dust shines brightly when cleaned, so the embodied soul, seeing the truth of atman, realizes oneness, attains the goal of life and becomes free from sorrow.

Source KHM

Duties of Parents.

What Are the Main Duties of Parents?

The fundamental duty of parents is to provide food, shelter and clothing and to keep their children safe and healthy. The secondary duty is to bestow education, including instruction in morality and religious life.


Assuring the health and well-being of their offspring is the most essential duty of parents to their children, never to be neglected. Beyond this, parents should provide a good example to their children, being certain that they are taught the Hindu religious heritage and culture along with good values, ethics, strength of character and discipline. Sons and daughters should worship regularly at puja with the parents, and the Hindu sacraments should all be provided.

Education in all matters is the duty of the parents, including teaching them frankly about sex, its sacredness and the necessity to remain chaste until marriage. Children must learn to respect and observe civil law and to honor and obey their elders. Parents must love their children dearly, and teach them to love. The best way to teach is by example: by their own life, parents teach their children how to live. The Vedas declare, "Of one heart and mind I make you, devoid of hate. Love one another as a cow loves the calf she has borne. Let the son be courteous to his father, of one mind with his mother. Let the wife speak words that are gentle and sweet to her husband."

Source KHM

Ayurveda & Jyotisha

How Are Ayurveda and Jyotisha Used?

Ayurveda is the Hindu science of life, a complete, holistic medical system. Jyotisha, or Vedic astrology, is the knowledge of right timing and future potentialities. Both are vital tools for happy, productive living.

Ayurveda, rooted in the Atharva Upaveda, deals with both the prevention and cure of disease. Its eight medical arts, with their mantras, tantras and yogas, are based on spiritual well-being and encompass every human need, physical, mental and emotional. Ayurveda teaches that the true healing powers reside in the mind at the quantum level. Wellness depends on the correct balance of three bodily humors, called doshas, maintained by a nutritious vegetarian diet, dharmic living and natural healing remedies.

The kindred science of Vedic astrology, revealed in the Jyotisha Vedanga, likewise is vital to every Hindu's life. It propounds a dynamic cosmos of which we are an integral part, and charts the complex influence on us of important stars and planets, according to our birth chart. Knowing that the stars enliven positive and negative karmas we have brought into this life, in wisdom we choose an auspicious time, shubha muhurta, for every important event.

An orthodox Hindu family is not complete without its jyotisha shastra or ayurveda vaidya. The Vedas beseech, "Peaceful for us be the planets and the moon, peaceful the sun and rahu.

Source KHM

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Discipline & success.

Discipline And Success.

It is very important to decide exactly what you are going to meditate on before beginning. Then stay with the decision throughout the meditation and make every effort to avoid the tendency to become distracted and take off in a new direction.

The Shum language as a tool for guiding the meditator is very helpful because the individual's awareness is precisely held within the chosen area. This is similar to how we must discipline ourselves to be successful in outer activities. To become distracted is unacceptable. Successful people finish what they begin. It is possible to learn to meditate extremely well but be unsuccessful in practicing it if the meditator allows himself to become sidetracked once the inside of the mind has opened. To be successful, one has to be very, very firm with oneself when beginning a meditation. Each meditation must be performed in the way it was intended to be performed when the meditation was begun.

To be successful in meditation, we have to bring the mind into a disciplined state. Undisciplined people can never be told what to do, because they will not listen. Their awareness is wafted around by every little fancy that comes along. Those who really want to make progress in meditation and continue to do so and better themselves year after year after year have to approach this art in an extremely positive and systematic way. Here, again, the Shum language can be a great help.

Thousands of devotees have come and gone since the beginning of my mission in 1949. Each one of them was determined to go deep within and realize the Self, but many gave up along the way. This was because at times the shakti power became very strong within them and their inner nerve system was not ready to receive the impact. Others were successful because they were more disciplined, and when their inner power came up, they enjoyed its intensity by holding it steady within the spine. They rested in the bliss of awareness aware only of itself. They then continued the meditation as planned after the power began to wane.

Source KHM

Family Unity & Harmony.

How Is Family Unity & Harmony Maintained?

In the Hindu family, mutual respect, love and understanding are the bedrock of harmony. By not fighting, arguing or criticizing, members cultivate a spiritual environment in which all may progress.

For a harmonious joint family, it is vital to make the home strong, the center of activity and creativity, kept beautiful and clean, a sanctuary for each member. While striving to increase wealth, the wise families live within their means, content with what they have. Activities are planned to bring the family close through shared experiences.

A gentle but firm hierarchy of respect for elders is maintained throughout the family. In general, the younger, in humility, defers to the elder, allowing him or her the last word. The elder is equally obliged to not misuse authority. Older children are responsible for the safety and care of their younger brothers and sisters.

Disputes among children are settled by their mother, but not kept a secret from the father. Actual discipline in the case of misconduct is carried out by the father. When disputes arise in the extended family, responsibility for restoring harmony falls first to the men. However, any concerned member can take the lead if necessary. The Vedas say of grihastha life, "I will utter a prayer for such concord among family members as binds together the Gods, among whom is no hatred.

Make unstinted and earnest efforts to make unity and maintain harmony in the family and respect the Head of the family.

Chop-Chop

Chop-chop

Meaning

Be quick; hurry up.

Origin

This little reduplicated term has its origins in the South China Sea, as a Pidgin English version of the Chinese term k'wâi-k'wâi. The earliest known citation of chop-chop in print is from the English language newspaper that was printed in Canton in the early 19th century - The Canton Register, 13th May 1834:

We have also... 'chop-chop hurry'.

A slightly fuller account was printed two years later, in a monthly journal which was produced by and for American missionaries in Canton - The Chinese Repository. In January 1836 it contained an article headed 'Jargon Spoken in Canton', which included:

"Chop-chop - pidgin Cantonese phrase for 'Hurry up!'"

The adoption of the chop-chop pronunciation was influenced by the long-standing use of 'chop' and 'chop-up' by English seamen, with the meaning 'quick' or 'hurried'. This usage dates back to at least the 16th century, when it was commonly used in the strange expression - 'chopping-up the whiners'. This referred to gabbling through prayers in order to get them finished quickly. For example, from Philip Stubbes' The anatomie of abuses, 1583:

Which maketh them [Reading ministers] to gallop it over as fast as they can, and to chop it up with all possible expedition, though none understand them.

The seafaring usage of 'chop up' referred specifically to a sudden change in the wind and the waves. This also gives us of the term 'choppy' for turbulent water and is a constituent part of the expression 'chop and change'. 'Chop-up' was recorded by Sir William Monson in Naval Tracts, 1642:

"The Wind would chop up Westerly."

One of the many other meanings of the word chop is 'to eat; to snap up' - i.e. 'to take into the chops' (the jaws/cheeks/mouth). It would be a reasonable conjecture that this was the source of the word 'chop-sticks'. Reasonable, but not correct. It is the 17th century sailor's slang use of 'chop' to mean 'quick' which lead to chop-sticks. The nimbleness of the Chinese in their eating without the aid of forks caused the seamen to coin the term 'quick-sticks' or chop-sticks'. William Dampier recorded this in 1699 in A New Voyage Round the World:

"At their ordinary eating they [the Chinese] use two small round sticks about the length and bigness of a Tobacco-pipe. They hold them both in the right hand, one between the fore-finger and thumb; the other between the middle-finger and fore-finger... they are called by the English seamen Chopsticks."

This is in line with the original Chinese meaning. The Chinese name for chop-sticks is k'wâi-tsze, which translates literally as 'nimble boys' or 'nimble ones'.

Apart from in travelogues of the Far-East, there is little recorded mention of chop-sticks in English until the mid 20th century. The term 'quicksticks' however, did make it back to Britain in the 19th century, as an imperative meaning 'hurry up; do it without delay'. John C. Hotten recorded this in A dictionary of modern slang, 1859:

"Quick sticks, in a hurry, rapidly; 'to cut quick sticks', to be in a great hurry."

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Fulfilment of Marriage.

What Is the Fulfillment of a Marriage?

Children are the greatest source of happiness in marriage. Householder life is made rich and complete when sons and daughters are born, at which time the marriage becomes a family and a new generation begins.


The total fulfillment of the grihastha dharma is children. Marriage remains incomplete until the first child is born or adopted. The birth of the first child cements the family together. At the birth itself, the community of guardian devas of the husband, wife and child are eminently present. Their collective vibration showers blessings upon the home, making of it a full place, a warm place. It is the duty of the husband and wife to become father and mother. This process begins prior to conception with prayer, meditation and a conscious desire to bring a high soul into human birth and continues with providing the best possible conditions for its upbringing. Raising several children rewards the parents and their offspring as well.

Large families are more cohesive, more stable, and are encouraged within the limits of the family's ability to care for them. Parents, along with all members of the extended family, are responsible to nurture the future generation through childhood into puberty and adulthood. The Vedas exclaim, "Blessed with sons and daughters, may they enjoy their full extent of life, decked with ornaments of gold.

Source KHM

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Reconcile marital problems.

How Are Marital Problems Reconciled.

When problems arise in marriage, Hindus study the scriptures and seek advice of family, elders and spiritual leaders. A good marriage requires that the husband be masculine and the wife feminine.


Success in marriage depends on learning to discuss problems with each other freely and constructively. Criticizing one another, even mentally, must be strictly avoided, for that erodes a marriage most quickly. Under no circumstance should a husband hit or abuse his wife, nor should a wife dominate or torment her husband. It is important to not be jealous or overly protective, but to have trust in one another and live up to that trust. Problems should be resolved daily before sleep. If inharmony persists, advice of elders should be sought.

A reading and reaffirmation of original marriage covenants and an astrological assessment may provide a common point of reference and a foundation for mutual sacrifice and understanding. The husband who does not take the lead is not fulfilling his duty. The wife who takes an aggressive lead in the marriage makes her husband weak. She must be shy to make him bold. Couples keep a healthy attitude toward sex, never offering it as reward or withholding it as punishment. The Vedas say, "Be courteous, planning and working in harness together. Approach, conversing pleasantly, like-minded, united.

Source KHM