In the Offing

In the offing

Meaning

Imminent; likely to happen soon.

Origin

This is one of the many phrases of nautical origin. It is quite simple
to understand once you know that 'the offing' is the part of the sea
that can be seen from land, excluding those parts that are near the
shore. Early texts also refer to it as 'offen' or 'offin'.

Someone who was watching out for a ship to arrive would first see it
approaching when it was 'in the offing' and expected to dock before
the next tide. Something that is 'in the offing' isn't happening now
or even in a minute or two, but will inevitably happen before too
long. The phrase has migrated from its naval origin into general use
in the language and is now used to describe any event that is
imminent.

In its literal nautical sense, the phrase has been in use since the
late 16th century and the earliest citation of it that I have found is
a quotation from S. Argoll from 1610 which was reported by S. Purchas
in Purchas his Pilgrimes, in 1906:

"I came to an Anchor in seven fathomes water in the offing to sea."

The phrase wasn't commonly used until the beginning of the 18th
century, as in this example from Josiah Burchett's Memoirs of
Transactions at Sea During the War with France, 1703. This is,
incidentally, a classic example of the use of the long form of the
letter 's' in 18th century printing:

...fome other fmall Ships were feen in the Offing. Thofe Ships ftood
away with their Boats a-head, fetting fire to fome, and deftroying and
deferting other of their fmall veffels.

All of the 18th century citations of 'in the offing' refer to the
offing as a physical place. It wasn't until the mid 19th century, in
America, that our presently understood figurative meaning began to be
used. An early example of that comes in S. B. Beckett's Portland
Reference Book and City Directory, 1850:

We have known wives to forget that they had husbands when they
supposed that a tax bill or a notification to do military duty was in
the offing.

Consideration for others comes through Power of Thinking...........................

Consideration For Others

Consideration deals with the knowing principle. The opposite of consideration deals with the thinking principle.

"I know what he means, and I know it is the best thing for me, but I don't think that it is right for me to do right now."

That is how the thinking principle conflicts with the knowing principle within us. What does that create? It creates the individual, egotistical personality.

Consideration is a great principle to understand, and even a greater principle to unfold within yourself. If you can't be considerate of someone else's feelings, your soul is as if locked up in a little cage; and it can't get out, although it may be crying to express itself and hitting against that wall of the thinking mind which knows nothing at all about the qualities of the soul.

Knowing is the manifestation of your spiritual will. Consideration is also a manifestation of your spiritual will. When your spiritual will is awake, you have consideration for other people's feelings. When your spiritual will is awake, you give in on little things, and you have the power to hold firm on big issues, like keeping the restraints and observances of the ancient Sanatana Dharma. You have an inner culture awakened within you.

Have you ever asked somebody to do some little thing, and he says "no"? He refuses to do it because he didn't think of it first, because he considers within himself that if he did do it, he would be falling under your domination?

Why does he feel that way?

It is because he has very little control over himself and is caught up in the thinking mind. But if you ask another type of individual to do something, it is done almost the minute you ask, he is so in tune with you. He has consideration for your feelings. He has consideration to the point where he doesn't want to upset the vibration around himself or around you by creating a situation.

By using the power of the thinking principle alone, we create situations for ourselves to face at another time, because each situation is of the subconscious mind and will manifest itself in life at a later date. Consideration is born of knowing, and knowing is a manifestation of your spiritual will, and your will shines forth when your soul begins to unfold itself. So, in order to be considerate, you have to exercise this knowing principle until it becomes manifest in your life every minute of every day. This is how to cultivate consideration.

How do we exercise our power to know? We have to look at people and ask ourself,

"What do I know about my friends?

What do I know about the depth of them?

How deep are they?"

We ponder, "What do I know about what I am reading-not just what I think about what I read? What do I really know about anything that I pick up and hold in my hand?" The knowing principle is very, very great. We study our mind: "If my intuition is working, do I know it is my intuition? If my subconscious mind is influencing my actions, do I know that I am attached to that state of mind?"

What do you know? What do you not know? That is very important to know.

Going against what we know is a great pitfall. It is born from lack of consideration, lack of the ability to live in harmony with others, to fit into situations. Lacking consideration, we fail to fulfill the basic law of spiritual unfoldment:

"Never miss an opportunity to serve."

When we deliberately go against what we know, we create a burden that we don't want in our life, and we suffer under it. Then we ask, "Why do I feel so uninspired? I was doing so fine. I was so spiritual. I was feeling just wonderful. I felt all the life forces flowing through me, and all of a sudden it all stopped. Why did this have to happen to me? I thought I was doing fine. I was feeling so good." That's what is called a negative slump.

Key to Abundance.

Abundance

5 Keys to Abundance- Use it don't lose it.

Are you really open to abundance in your life? Recently on Oprah, I heard a shocking statistic: Over 70% of people who experience a financial windfall from such strokes of luck as winning the lottery or inheriting a large sum of money tend to be back to where they were financially within just a few short years.

Most of us think this would never happen to us. Our thoughts probably run along the lines of, "If I won a million, two million, ten million dollars [take your pick], it would change my life forever. All my worries would be gone. I'd be happy."

How can it be that what seems like an inevitable happy ending just doesn't turn out to be true for such a large majority of people? Are those who come serendipitously into wealth dumber than we are? Are they all spendaholics, compulsive gamblers, inept business people, or at the very least so codependent that they can't say "no" to family and friends who ask for handouts?

It's true that many of us who are not used to handling large sums of money are inept with it. It's also true that a lot of us are codependent enough to fall prey to wanting to be loved by giving everything we have. If we're already doing that, we'll probably do it more, not less, if given half a chance. And if some of us aren't spendaholics now, like kids in a candy store, we certainly might become crazed with buying the first time we have a wad of cash in our hands. But even these shortcomings and lapses in judgment don't explain the expected fate of 70% of us who would end up no better—and possibly worse emotionally due to shame—than before our sudden wealth.

Many of us don't budget at all, claiming that there isn't enough money to do so. We pretend we aren't choosing to use up our available resources with the argument (while our debts mount), "I work hard for my money. I should get to enjoy it." We fall deeper and deeper into debt, feel incredible stress, depression, and shame, and wind up having to work harder and longer. And still we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot arguing that we deserve to spend our money any way we want to. We treat ourselves like entitled brats, demanding that reality fit our fantasy. But underneath this façade of entitlement, we are deluded by what I call The Big Lie. More about that in a moment.

There is no one roadmap to creating abundance, just as there is no single roadmap to creating a loving relationship. To find a relationship, you can date online, join a club, hang out at your favorite pub, buy a dog, or ask friends to set you up. To make more money, you can find a better-paying job, go back to school, learn a new skill, ask for a raise, gamble, or play the lottery. Getting isn't the biggest problem for most of us, whether it's a relationship or money; the trick is to learn how to keep and build upon what we get.

Until we open up to abundance and become "spiritually fit" to receive, the truth is that we are just as likely to deplete our treasure chest the same way our neighbors do and just as likely to find ourselves continually short on cash and long on debt. So here are five keys to building, maintaining, and enjoying abundance:

1.Embrace the true meaning of abundance: Abundance is that which already exists. In an abundant state, we understand that we are dipping into an overflowing well. Abundance is everywhere. Equally, it is within us. We are abundant. We don't have to seek abundance. We can say yes or no to this belief. It is up to us.

2.Stop using the world as a reflection of your worthiness: The Big Lie I mentioned earlier is the belief that we are unworthy. Most of us decide base our worthiness on outside barometers such as who likes us, what kind of house or car we have, how much money we make, how much education we have, or what clothes we wear. As long as we measure our worth based on outside factors, we our happiness is at the whim of others.

3.Practice worthiness as though it's a skill: While some of us were born believing we were worthy, life experiences may have convinced us otherwise. To retrain our thoughts, we must change our behaviors. Ask yourself what you would be doing differently right now, today, tomorrow, next week, this year if you already believed you were entirely worthy. What behaviors and activities would you stop? Which ones would you start? Make a commitment to yourself to "fake it 'til you make it." Practice your new behaviors until they become second nature, replacing the old habits you are shedding. Change your actions and your thoughts are sure to follow.

4.Recognize what your jealousy is telling you: Jealousy is what we experience when we don't believe we will have (or deserve to have) what someone else has. Therefore, jealousy comes from a belief in lack. If we put the first three keys into active practice, our jealousy will dissolve into gratitude for that which already exists. Gratitude doesn't mean that we become complacent. It means that we strive, not from fear and lack, but from the joy of thriving.

5.Be generous now: If you wait until you "have enough," whatever that means to you, the message you are telling yourself is that there is lack within and around you. Abundance thinking is a leap of faith for many of us. Faith, by definition, is only validated once we have made the leap. My friend had promised to tithe to his church and then "cheated" because he was broke. One day of scarcity led to the next until he woke up one day and realized that he was not trusting abundance (or God) at all. He was waiting for proof. How could waiting for proof be an act of faith? That day he took a deep breath and emptied the change from his pockets into the church's coffers. Immediately he felt the peace that goes along with keeping an agreement with oneself, no matter how difficult it is. He also felt strength in choosing to decide to have faith. Almost immediately, his phone began ringing off the hook with work offers. For him, this was wonderful evidence. But
even more lovely, he didn't even need the evidence at that point. Since he already trusted, he was less fearful about the ups and downs of business and felt more relaxed about experiencing abundance however it presented itself.

Will you get rich by practicing these five keys? Nobody knows what the Universe has in store for us. But you can begin to define rich in new ways that give you appreciation for the abundance that already exists. You are already a wealth of knowledge, support, energy, artistry, compassion, and ideas. How can you maximize and share your abundant wealth today?

Me & God

Me and God - Heart Touching Inspirational Story.. Worth Reading....


A Good Lesson for those who never lose Hope and who dont want to quit in Life...

One day I decided to quit...I quit my job, my relationship, my Spirituality... I wanted to quit my life.

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God. God, I said. Can you give me one good reason not to quit His answer surprised me...

Look around, He said. Do you see the fern and the bamboo

Yes, I replied.

When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.

I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth.

Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo. In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.
But I did not quit on the bamboo.

He said.

In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would not quit. He said.

Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots.

Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle. He said to me.

Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots

I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you.

Don't compare yourself to others. He said. The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful.

Your time will come, God said to me. You will rise high

How high should I rise I asked.

How high will the bamboo rise He asked in return.
As high as it can I questioned

Yes. He said, Give me glory by rising as high as you can.

I left the forest and bring back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.

He will never give up on you!

Lesson from the story:

In life never lose hope and never give up or quit in life and Success will come to you later in life...

Never take some one for granted,Hold every person Close to your Heart and in esteem because you might wake up one day and realise that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones." Remember this always in life.

The Power of Appreciation

The Power Of Appreciation

Have faith in human integrity, in that unfailing "still small voice of the soul" which each who listens for can hear. We are essentially pure souls temporarily living in a physical body. We can and should use our God-given gift of free will encased in love to make a difference in the world today, even if it is in a small way. All of us making the same difference together do so in a big way. disciples should be grateful to their gurus, husbands to their wives, wives to their husbands, parents to their children, children to their parents, students to their teachers and teachers to their students. It's far more effective to praise others and appreciate what we have than to find fault and complain about what we don't have!

Gratitude and appreciation are the key virtues for a better life. They are the spell that is cast to dissolve hatred, hurt and sadness, the medicine which heals subjective states of mind, restoring self-respect, confidence and security. Shall we review them one at a time and consider a practice, a sadhana, for each?

First, gratitude.

It is a feeling within the heart that we cannot suppress for long when overcome with abundant memories of all the good that has come into our lives. Most often, people remember the bad happenings, perhaps because they make the deepest impressions in the subconscious and are not expected. Good happenings are expected and therefore tend to be overlooked.

The sadhana here is to take out paper and pen and list all the good that has come into your life during the past five years. The list will grow as memory is stimulated. Should it not be possible to think of even one good thing, then write the affirmation several times,

"I am a spiritual being of light maturing in the ocean of experience."

Soon a good memory will come up, followed by more. Feelings of loving appreciation will begin to flow toward those who participated in the good times. Forgiveness then wells up for the bad times. Amazingly, one day when I was pondering over thoughts and gratitude, the following wisdom from the divine flashed into my mind "If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

Now let's look at appreciation.

Turning our thanks toward the people in our lives. The sadhana of appreciation is to approach those you are grateful to and tell them, to their face, while looking deep into their eyes, how much you esteem and value them. Be specific. Find details to share so they know this is not a shallow compliment. Explain what each one has done to inspire this loving confrontation and convince each in turn that you are sincere. The look of a full smiling face, eyes shining and heart full of love, perhaps followed by a big hug, is convincing enough in itself. Words of appreciation are words people do not often hear. These loving confrontations do not happen nearly often enough among friends and relatives in today's world.

Loving appreciation is a life-changing force just waiting to be used. Express appreciation to community leaders, business associates, spiritual mentors, family members and friends as often as you can. Loving appreciation is a magic formula that works both ways. When we commend another, we are automatically uplifted.

&

Make use of the Power of Appreciation liberally.

You Can Make the Difference.................

You Can Make A Difference

Here's a true story to show how effective a timely expression of appreciation may be. A young man tried the above practice on his rather gruff employer, whose heart melted when he heard the words, "One of the things that I appreciate most about you, sir, is your brilliance as an inventor. You have so much to teach me." After saying that and more, the youth urged the astonished elder to pass on the voicing of appreciation to another person. The man sat with his only son that same evening and awkwardly told him how much he appreciated his many fine qualities.

"I never take time to say such sentimental things," he said, "but rather tend to keep to myself and be demanding and harsh because of the pressures of work. But please know that I do love you." The youth began sobbing and confessed, "Father, thank you so much. You can't imagine how glad and relieved I am to hear that. I was planning to commit suicide tomorrow because I thought you didn't care about meany more, or even like me. Now I won't." You never know how much difference your appreciation will make.

To prepare yourself for this sadhana, stand before a mirror and look at your face, right into your eyes, and say aloud, as if talking to another person: "I am grateful to you and appreciate your being in my life." Then describe to yourself in many sentences all the good you have done during the past five years. You can jog your memory by reading from your list of goodness that you made earlier. You will soon see the reflection in the mirror soften and begin to smile as it absorbs the happy feeling of your appreciation. Once this art is perfected between you and you, you can begin to appreciate others in the same way. Don't be shy. No one is shy when angry. Why be shy when we are happy and lovingly grateful?

There is a brave new world on the horizon for followers of dharma, one in which we are kindly to each other, trusting and aware of one another's feelings, a world in which we acknowledge our debt to others and express our thanksgiving, first in our silent heart and then outwardly. Gratitude is one of life's richest resources, containing the power to change people's lives. Its opposite is a disease that erodes all contentment and fills our life with emptiness and despair. Take heart. These sadhanas on gratitude and appreciation have worked wonders for many. Yes, each one of us can make a difference. The world is changing, and we can make it change for the better, or we can leave it in the hands of those who make changes for the "badder." It's our choice.

I appreciate you, our reader of Living with Siva, you and other men and women, boys and girls who are strengthening Hinduism in hundreds of remote communities, upholding the Sanatana Dharma, being a beacon light to others on the path. It is you who are inspiring us to produce this series of books on contemporary Hinduism, giving us so many ideas and cheering us on. You are making a great difference by simply living the dharma, aspiring for self-transformation and speaking on these high principles that are so important to us all and to the future of humanity.

Just a little bit of kindness is so easy to express. Just a little bit of kindness heals the mind. And in this day and age, when so many are frustrated, troubled and need a little bit of help, appreciation and encouragement, your kindness can help. Your criticism, your gossip about them, hurts them and also hurts yourself. But the kindness that you express in what you do is healing unto you, too. So, see yourself as a being that always expresses kindness. What you think about, you become.

AND MAKE THE DIFFERENCE WITH WORDS OF APPRECIATION AND KINDNESS.

Jagad Guru Sri Adi Sankaracharya

Jagad Guru Sri Adi Sankaracharya


The greatest teacher of the Vedanta philosophy was Jagad Guru Adi Sankaracharya (AD788-820). By solid reasoning he extracted from the Vedas the truths of Vedanta, and on them built up the wonderful system of knowledge & wisdom that is taught in his commentaries.


He unified all the conflicting descriptions of Brahman and showed that there is only one infinite Reality. He showed that as man can only travel slowly on the upward road, all the varied presentations are needed to suit his varying capacity.


Adi Shankaracharya taught that Three things were the great gifts of God :

[1] Human body.

[2] Thirst after God

[3] A Teacher(Master/Guru) who can show up the light. When these three great gifts are ours, we may know that our redemption is at hand. Only knowledge can free and save us but with knowledge must grow virtue.


Books cannot teach God, but they can destroy ignorance; their action is negative. To hold to the books and at the same time open the way to freedom is Adi Shankara’s great achievement.


…His whole life’s work is nothing but that, the throbbing of the beauty of the Vedas and the Upanishads- All in a matter of just within 32 years & was undoubtedly an incarnation of Supreme.

Yours in Divine Friendship.

J.K

How to be Happy

How to Be Happy.

Look in the mirror. You have created your face through your many thoughts that have accumulated through this lifetime. Ask yourself,

"Am I happy, or am I looking for others to make me happy?"

Allow yourself to be kind; allow yourself to express the qualities, the beautiful qualities, of your soul. Your happiness then will come from within yourself, along with a deep contentment and inner peace and joy. Only a moment of thinking kindly about someone, and making a plan that will enable you to help your fellow man, even just a little bit, will awaken from your soul that deep, inner satisfaction, that depth of security you are really seeking.

On the other hand, if you allow your mind to dwell in the realm of critical thinking, in the realm of gossiping, without the thought of helping others, you will feel insecure, unhappy. Nothing that could happen will bring you an inner satisfaction. You will be constantly desirous of acquiring, and that which you do acquire will not be satisfying to you.

Why? Because there will be no love in your heart. If you find yourself in that state of mind, turn the energies around and find the quietness within you through being kind, being generous, being helpful. The doing brings its own reward. Only in the accomplishment of being big enough to understand the experiences of life that others go through, being tall enough to overlook the many, many things that you could take issue with and perhaps retaliate for, only in acquiring that depth which comes from your soul, can you truly find inner happiness and peace.

Go out into the world this week and let your light shine through your kind thoughts, but let each thought manifest itself in a physical deed of doing something for someone else. Lift their burdens just a little bit and, unknowingly perhaps, you may lift something that is burdening your mind. You erase and wipe clean the mirror of your own mind through helping another. We call this karma yoga, the deep practice of unwinding, through service, the selfish, self-centered, egotistical vasanas of the lower nature that have been generated for many, many lives and which bind the soul in darkness.

Through service and kindness, you can unwind the subconscious mind and gain a clear understanding of all laws of life. Your soul will shine forth. You will be that peace. You will radiate that inner happiness and be truly secure, simply by practicing being kind in thought, word and deed.

A sure indication of the manifestation of the soul nature on the physical plane is consideration for other people's feelings, consideration for other people's state of mind, which means appreciating their good qualities and overlooking their qualities that need improvement. Someone who is considerate is understanding. Those who are not considerate don't understand and don't understand that they don't understand. They don't understand, and they are not considerate and not appreciative, because they are wrapped up in their individual ego. Yet they expect everyone to be considerate of them. Ane always Remember...............

Happiness is within you and you have to bring it out to express for the benefit of others.

The Holy" Aum Namashivaya."

What Is the Holy Namah Sivaya Mantra?

Namah Sivaya is among the foremost Vedic mantras. It means "adoration to God Siva," and is called the Panchakshara, or "five-letters." Within its celestial tones and hues resides all of the intuitive knowledge of Saivism.

Aum.

Namah Sivaya is the most holy name of God Siva, recorded at the very center of the Vedas and elaborated in the Saiva Agamas.

Na is the Lord's concealing grace,

Ma is the world,

Shi stands for Siva,

Va is His revealing grace,

Ya is the soul.

The five elements, too, are embodied in this ancient formula for invocation.

Na is earth,

Ma is water,

Shi is fire,

Va is air, and

Ya is ether, or akasha.

Many are its meanings. Namah Sivaya has such power, the mere intonation of these syllables reaps its own reward in salvaging the soul from bondages of the treacherous instinctive mind and the steel bands of a perfected externalized intellect.

Namah Sivaya quells the instinct, cuts through the steel bands and turns this intellect within and on itself, to face itself and see its ignorance. Sages declare that mantra is life, that mantra is action, that mantra is love and that the repetition of mantra, japa, bursts forth wisdom from within. The holy Natchintanai proclaims, "Namah Sivaya is in truth both Agama and Veda. Namah Sivaya represents all mantras and tantras. Namah Sivaya is our souls, our bodies and possessions.

Namah Sivaya has become our sure protection.

"Aum Namah Sivaya."

The unfoldment of Humanity.

The Unfoldment Of Humanity


This is the story of man's evolution through the mind, from the gross to the refined, from darkness into light, from a consciousness of death to immortality. He follows a natural pattern that is built right in the nerve system itself: memory, reason, will, direct cognition, inner light perceptions of the soul, which awaken a universal love of all mankind; psychic perceptions through divine sight; and the heavenly refinement of being in the thousand-petaled lotus.

During each age throughout history, one or another of the planets or chakras has come into power. Remember when the Greek God Cronus was in supreme power? He is the God of time. Mass consciousness came into memory, or the muladhara chakra, with its new-found concern for time, for a past and a future, dates and records. Next the mass consciousness came into the svadhishthana and its powers of reason. Reason was a God in the Golden Age of Greece. Discourse, debate and logic all became instruments of power and influence. If it wasn't reasonable, it wasn't true. Next the chakra of will came into power. Man conquered nations, waged wars, developed efficient weapons. Crusades were fought and kingdoms established during the period. Our world was experiencing force over force. Direct cognition, the anahata chakra, came into power when man opened the doors of science within his own mind. He cognized the laws of the physical universe: mathematics, physics,
chemistry, astronomy and biology. Then he unfolded the mind sciences by penetrating into his subconscious mind, into the chakras where he had previously been. With man's looking into his own mind, psychology, metaphysics and the mind religions were born.

Now, in our present time, the mass consciousness is coming into vishuddha--the forces of universal love. The forerunners of this emerging Sat Yuga, popularly called the New Age, are not worshiping reason as the great thing of the mind or trying to take over another's possessions through the use of force. They are not worshiping science or psychology or the mind religions as the great panacea. They are looking inward and worshiping the light, the Divinity, within their own body, within their own spine, within their own head, and they are going in and in and in and in, into a deep spiritual quest which is based on direct experience, on compassion for all things in creation.

As the forces of the vishuddha chakra come into prominence in the New Age, it does not mean that the other centers of consciousness have stopped working. But it does mean that this new one coming into prominence is claiming the energy within the mass consciousness. When this center of divine love gains a little more power, everything will come into a exquisite balance. There will be a natural hierarchy of people based on the awakening of their soul, just as previous ages established hierarchies founded on power or intellectual acumen. With that one needed balance, everything on the Earth will quiet down, because the vishuddha chakra is of the new age of universal love, in which everyone sees eye to eye, and if they do not, there will always be someone there to be the peacemaker. Look back through history and you will see how these planetary influences, these great mind strata of thought, have molded the development of human society.

Believe in yourself.............

Believe in your heart that something

Wonderful is about to happen.

Love your life.

Believe in your own power,

And in your own potential,

And your own innate goodness.

Wake every morning with the awe Of just being alive.

Discover each day the magnificent,

Awesome beauty in the world.

Explore and embrace life

In yourself and in everyone

You see each day.

Reach within to find your own specialness.

Amaze yourself and rouse those

Around you to the potential

Of each new day.

Don't be afraid to admit

You're less than perfect;

This is the essence of our humanity.

Let those who love you help you;

Trust enough to be able to take.

Look with hope to the horizon of today,

For today is all we truly have.

Live this day well.

Let a little sun out as well as in.

Create your own rainbows.

Be open to all your possibilities,

And all miracles.

Always believe in miracles.

God's Grace............

ALWAYS REMEMBER:

God doesn't call the equipped; He equips the called. Your worst days are never so hard that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace!

True Love

When you Love someone truly,

you don't look for faults,

you don't look for answers,

and

you don't look for mistakes.

Instead, you fight the mistakes,

you accept the faults

and

overlook the excuses.

Each day of the week is dedicated to.................

In Hinduism, each day of a week is dedicated to a particular God in the Hindu pantheon. Apart from the special Vratas and Upvaas, many Hindus also fast on a particular day in a week. Each day in a week has a specialty and there are numerous folklores associated with the fasting observed on the days of a week.

Sunday

Sunday is dedicated to Lord Surya (Sun God). Those who undertake fast (upvaas) on the day only take a single meal. Oil and salt is avoided. Red is the color of the day and red flowers are offered to Surya. (more details)

Monday

Monday is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is said that Lord Shiva is easily pleased. Therefore many people observe Upvaas on Monday. Those devotees observing fast only eat food once. People visit Lord Shiva shrines and conduct pujas, especially, Ardhanarishwara puja. The mantra ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ is chanted continuously. Siva devotees also read Shiva Purana. Unmarried women observe the Vrat to get good husbands. Others observe it for a happy and prosperous family life. (more details)

Tuesday

Tuesday is dedicated to Durga, Goddess Kali and Lord Hanuman. Most devotees visit Devi and Hanuman shrines. Those people who fast avoid taking food containing salt at night. (more details)

Wednesday

Wednesday is dedicated to planet Mercury and Lord Vithal, an incarnation of Krishna. Green color leaves, especially Tulsi leaves, are used in Pujas. The day is highly auspicious for starting new ventures and it is believed that those who observe the Vrat are bound to get blessed with fortunes. People also give alms on the day. (more details)

Thursday

Thursday is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and his incarnations. Pujas are conducted using milk, ghee etc. Food is only eaten once and that too containing milk products. People read Srimad Bhagavad Purana on the day. (more details)

Friday

Friday is dedicated to Mother Goddess – Mahalakshmi, Santhosi Ma, Annapuraneshwari and Durga. Sweets are distributed on the day. Those devotees observing the Vrat make it a point to eat at night. (more details)

Saturday

Saturday is dedicated to alleviating the bad influence of Lord Shani. The Vrat on this day is mainly observed by those people who believe in Hindu astrology. Black is the color of the day and people visit Shani shrine or Navagraha shrines. Food is only consumed once on the day. (more details)

It must be noted here that the deity worshipped on a particular day might vary from region to region and community to community. The result of all upvaas or fast depends on the person. It is good, if all the members in the family can undertake a Vrata together.


Miracles do happen by observing a particular Vrata and the greatest miracle is Brahman realization. All rituals and observances are path towards understanding the Supreme Soul and this will automatically alleviate all sufferings.

Source &
Courtsey: HINDU BLOG

God gives you...........................

God doesn't give you the people you want, He gives you the people you NEED - To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into the person you were meant to be.

Accept this "TRUTH" and abide by the law of Supreme nature in Life.

J.K

ABC of Life & A TO Z of Life.............................

"The ABC of life " & A TO Z OF Life??........

"If you know the "Art of Loving", no one needs to teach you "The Art of Living", you will learn it by yourself and it's True.

Awareness, Belongingness and Commitment hold the key to success. That’s the ABC of life. In any field you need the ABC. Are we aware of what we are telling ourselves? whereas A TO Z holds the key to contended and happy life.

This level of awareness is vital for a society because this is what can prevent a crime. With this level of awareness, it is impossible for a criminal to commit a crime. There was a thief. He went to meet a saint. He told the saint that he had a compulsion to steal. The saint said, “I am not going to tell you not to steal. But when you steal, do it with awareness.” Three months later, the thief came back to the saint and said, “With awareness, I could not steal.” It is the same with anger. It comes with a burst, you lose it. But what have you actually lost? You lost awareness. You smile starts shrinking. I measure success by the smile. How strong your smile is will show how secure you are. And that is what, I think, indicates success in your career.

To be able to smile through any situation in life, you need a little knowledge about yourself, about your mind and your consciousness. You need to learn a little bit about your breath. We need to know a little bit about all the layers of our existence, that is, body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and the self. This is what I call Art of Loving, learning a little bit about yourself, the seven layers of our life. And that makes us be in the present moment and it helps us to maintain the innocence that we are all born with, and feel at home with everybody, anywhere.

Breath and mind

Neither at school nor at home does anybody teach you what to do when
you are upset or angry or depressed. Learning something about our breath is
very important. Our breath has a great lesson for us which we have forgotten.

For every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath; for every rhythm in the breath, there is a corresponding emotion. So, when you cannot handle your mind directly, you can do it through breath. The rhythm in breath can help you get in touch with the depth of yourself, your soul, your consciousness.

The ABC of life brings expansion, WHEREAS A TO Z BRINGS COMPLETION, It brings an awareness of existence, belongingness to the whole creation and commitment to human values in life. This will help broaden our vision and deepen our roots. can arouse a passion, and that passion can become an impulse to destroy. But to be creative you don’t need to arouse a passion, you need to be focused and most importantly, you need to be aware. Now, how is one to bring up one’s awareness? You start with simple and small things in life. Things that seem insignifi cant like hearing the birds singing, seeing the sunset and so forth.

This would bring up your awareness. Awareness nurtures intellect. Belongingness nurtures the heart. And commitment nurtures life. The problem is that creators are only a few and they succeed because they have a lot of commitment. If we are observing the ABC, then we can make a big change in society and if we adopt and observe A TO Z. we make the whole change. Ask yourself the question, do all people in the world belong to me? The day you ask that your spiritual journey has begun. With this context of awareness, you can understand cosmology.

Sankalpa

In some temples, there is a tradition called sankalpa. They remind you how
old this universe is, and then from there they bring you into this moment.
Cosmology brings awareness. Other methods for raising awareness are
meditation, breathing and pranayama. You need energy and you will not get that only from food and sleep. Meditation and a silent state of consciousness will also give you energy. C is also for commitment and compassion. Smile more. A bit of humor can keep you out of trouble. Look into the mirror everyday and smile. The higher you go up in the corporate ladder, the I measure success by the smile. How strong your smile is will show how secure you are. And that is what, I think, indicates success
in your career.

Now let's have a look at the A TO Z of Life:-




LIVE LIFE FULLY & REMAIN HAPPY & CONTENDED

The most memorable New Year gift in the recent past is a lovely "Live Life Fully" kit (a one-page document!) that my dad (Mr.J.Kannan, a Freight Forwarding veteran) gifted to me a few daya ago. I am simply dumbstruck by this document and thought it would make great sense for me to post it here for the benefit of the ROW (Rest of the World). Here it goes...
Live Life Fully.


WITH:

ACCOMPLISHMENT

BLISS

CONTENTMENT

DECORUM

EXUBERANT

FIDELITY

GRATITUDE

HUMILITY

INTEGRITY

JOY

KINDNESS

LOVE

MAGNANIMITY

NOBILITY

OPTIMISM

PRAGMATISM

QUEST

RESPECTABILITY

STATURE

TOLERANCE

UNI VOCAL

VERSATILITY

WISDOM

(E)XALTATION

YUM

ZEST

&

WITHOUT:

AGILITY

BIAS

CONTROVERSY

DELUSION

ELUSION

FEAR

GRUDGE

HATRED

IMPURITY

JEALOUSY

KINDLE

LAXITY

MOROSE

NEGLIGENCE

OBSTINACY

PROVOCATION

QUID PRO QUO

RETALIATION

SOUR

TIMIDITY

UNCONCERN

VIOLATION

WAGGING

(E)XPEDIENCY

YELL

ZELOTYPIA


Make it to "Live Life Fully" Dear one's.


With Love,Reverence & regards

Your's in Divine Friendship.



J.KANNAN

How are The Agamas Significant To-day ?

How Are the Agamas Significant Today?

While the Vedas, with myriad Deities, bind all Hindus together, the Agamas, with a single supreme God, unify each sect in a oneness of thought, instilling in adherents the joyful arts of divine adoration.

God is love, and to love God is the pure path prescribed in the Agamas. Veritably, these texts are God's own voice admonishing the samsari, reincarnation's wanderer, to give up love of the transient and adore instead the Immortal. How to love the Divine, when and where, with what mantras and visualisations and at what auspicious times, all this is preserved in the Agamas. The specific doctrines and practices of day-to-day Hinduism are nowhere more fully expounded than in these revelation hymns, delineating everything from daily work routines to astrology and cosmology.

So overwhelming is Agamic influence in the lives of most Hindus, particularly in temple liturgy and culture, that it is impossible to ponder modern Sanatana Dharma without these discourses. While many Agamas have been published, most remain inaccessible, protected by families and guilds who are stewards of an intimate hereditary knowledge. The Tirumantiram says, "Nine are the Agamas of yore, in time expanded into twenty-eight, they then took divisions three, into one truth of Vedanta-Siddhanta to accord. That is Shuddha Saiva, rare and precious."

Please also like to go through the post on Agamas under the title "The Hindu Scriptures Pt V ( Theological Discipline & Doctrine of worship, posted earlier by me.

Well Directed Will Power

Well-Directed Willpower

Everyone has willpower. It is inherent to the makeup of the physical-astral-mental-emotional body. The center of willpower is the manipura chakra, located at the solar plexus. Unlike other energies, the more willpower we use, the more willpower we have to use.

Actually, by exerting our willpower, we store up new energy within the manipura chakra. This happens when we work a little harder than we think we can, do a little more than we think we can do. By putting forth that extra effort, we build up a great willpower that we will always have with us, even in our next life, the next and the next. Willpower is free for the using, actually.

When we relate willpower to actions and compare actions to dharma or adharma, we find that adharmic, or unrighteous, actions bring uncomfortable results, and dharmic actions bring comfortable results. If we act wrongly toward others, people will act wrongly toward us. Then, if we are of a lower nature, we resent it and retaliate. This is a quality of the instinctive mind: "You strike me once, I'll strike you back twice. You make a remark to me that I don't like, and I will put you down behind your back. I will make up stories about you to get even and turn other people's minds against you." This is retaliation-a terrible negative force. When we use our willpower to retaliate against others, we do build up a bank account of willpower, to be sure, because we do have to put out extra effort. But we also build up a bank account of negative karma that will come back on us full force when we least expect it. When it does, if we remain locked in ignorance, we
will resent that and retaliate against the person who plays our karma back to us, and the cycle will repeat itself again and again and again.

Those living in the higher nature know better. Belief in karma and reincarnation are strong forces in a Hindu. South India's Saint Tiruvalluvar said it so simply, "Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold. Just as the Earth bears those who dig into her, it is best to bear with those who despise us" (Tirukural 155-151).

Nevertheless, we see society tearing itself apart through retaliation. Respectable organizations retaliate against their leader, against each other. Countries divide and retaliate. Political parties retaliate. Vindictive law cases are professionally handled retaliation. To retaliate means to pay back injury with injury, to return like for like, evil for evil, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It seems to be a part of humankind, though it is a negative part of humankind.

It does not have to prevail. It is not spiritual. We would say it is demonic. We would say it is asuric. We would say it is unnecessary behavior, unacceptable behavior, a wrong use of willpower. People who have a lot of will can, if they wish, retaliate very, very well. They can ruin another person. But remember, the force will come back on them three times stronger than they gave it out, because their strong willpower will bring it back with vigor. This is the law.

Back to Square one

Back to square one

Meaning

Back to the beginning, to start again.

Origin

There are three widely reported suggestions as to the origin of this
phrase: BBC sports commentaries, board games like snakes and ladders
and playground games like hopscotch. Let's examine them in turn:

BBC Commentaries:

In order that listeners could follow the progress of football games in
radio commentaries, the pitch was divided into eight notional squares.
Commentators described the play by saying which square the ball was
in. The Radio Times, the BBC's listings guide, referred to the
practice in an issue from January 1927.

Commentaries that used a numbering system certainly happened and
prints of the pitch diagrams still exist. Recordings of early
commentaries also exist, including the very first broadcast sports
commentary (of a rugby match). That commentary, and many others that
followed, referred listeners to the printed maps and a second
commentator called out the numbers as the ball moved from square to
square. However, at no point in any existing commentary do they use
the phrase 'back to square one'.

Despite this, the BBC issued a piece in a January 2007 edition of The
Radio Times that celebrated 80 years of BBC football commentary. In
this, the football commentator John Murray stated with confidence that
"Radio Times' grids gave us the phrase 'back to square one'" and that
"the grid system was dropped in the 1930s (not before the phrase 'back
to square one' had entered everyday vocabulary)". This confidence is
despite the fact that, although it could be true, it is nothing but
conjecture. What is a fact is that the BBC broadcast a more measured
view in the popular etymology series Balderdash and Piffle, in
collaboration with the OED, in 2006. This questioned the claims that
the BBC commentaries were the source of the phrase and that it was in
circulation in the 1930s.

It's not the first time that BBC commentators have talked balderdash
and piffle and I doubt it will be the last. Private Eye made something
of a cottage industry out of printing examples of such in their
Colemanballs columns and books. (see over the moon).

Board Games:

Many people report that the phrase refers to Snakes and Ladders or
similar board games. The earliest citation of the phrase in print is
currently 1952, from the Economic Journal:

"He has the problem of maintaining the interest of the reader who is
always being sent back to square one in a sort of intellectual game of
snakes and ladders."

Despite that comment, it isn't a feature of Snakes and Ladders that
players are sent back to square one. Of the many examples of such
boards that exist, only a few have a snake in the first square. For
the phrase to have come from that source people must have had occasion
to use it, and that appears not to be the case with Snakes and
Ladders.

Hopscotch

This playground game is played on a grid of numbered squares. The
precise rules of the game vary from place to place but usually
involves players hopping from square to square, missing out the square
containing their thrown stone. They go from one to (usually) eight or
ten and then back to square one.

The game's name derives from 'scotch', which was used from the 17th
century to denote a line scored on the ground and, of course, hopping.
It was referred to in the 1677 edition of Robert Winstanley's
satirical almanac Poor Robin:

"The time when School-boys should play at Scotch-hoppers."

All of the above explanations are plausible enough to gain supporters.
As is usual with phrases of uncertain origin, most people are happy to
believe the first explanation they hear. There's no real evidence to
put the origin beyond reasonable doubt, and so it remains uncertain.

Whatever the source, 1952 is surprisingly late as the earliest
printing for a phrase that was certainly in the spoken language much
earlier than that. There are many believable hearsay examples from at
least thirty years earlier. Perhaps a printed source from before 1952
will yield the truth?

Unlock the Secret of Memory &.............

Dear All,

A very lengthy one with 18K content but worth it to
read and you will like it and benefit by it. Read it
leisurely at your convenient time,but don't miss.

J.K

"Bring in impressions that are pure, then your mind
will RELAX."

Memory figures prominently in all practical realities
of life and plays a great role in the process of
attaining Enlightenment. From practical point of
view, if your memory is weak, you encounter many
difficulties in your work place and also in whatever
else you have to do.

Generally people are resigned to the idea that as time
passes and one ages, memory weakens. This idea is
based upon a materialistic concept of the mind. If the
mind is a product of the brain , and the brain is a
part of your physical body, then as the body ages, so
must the mind. It is quite natural, therefore,
according to this idea, to forget things as one ages.

But when you gain philosophical insight,you understand
that the mind is not the same as brain, the brain is
just a medium through which the mind operates.Mind
flows, so to speak ,through the brain as electricity
flows through a electric bulb. with this
understanding,you are more relaxed about the potential
health of your mind as the years pass by, and such
relaxation is the key to maintaining a healthy
memory.

In a world that forever presents diverse situations,
your relaxations should be unconditional, as people
generally would like to condition their relaxation-
say for instance, I shall relax if nobody says
anything bad to me,shall relax if nothing negative
happens-to go further people even say- How can I relax
when things go wrong, and scream and shout. Thinking
this way is certainly an error. You must learn to be
internally relaxed no matter what happens in life.
With this kind of relaxation, when you understand that
you are essentially the Self, and as such are not
involved in the world, your mind possesses great
potential to culture it. Your mind has the power to
maintain the health of your nervous system and mend
any damage that has been done to it. Further , when
the 'karma' that maintains your present embodiment is
over,your mind will have the power to project a whole
new body and nervous system. If you truly understand
this potentiality that lies hidden in your mind, you
would realise that you have amazing powers of mental
retention.

A healthy memory implies that you should be able to
recollect an experience from the past without
distorting it, that you recall it was. Suppose you are
thinking back to some of the wonderful days of
childhood and your mind lingers there with a sense of
nostalgia. Although you may remember many details
clearly, still your memory is weak-why, because, you
forgot the full implications of those so-called
wonderful experiences.

while you are recalling the delights of many childhood
situations that were pleasing to your mind,you are
choosing to ignore the negative feelings and
experiences that constantly frustrated you. If you had
a clear memory, you would not be fascinated by your
past, you would not want to go back to it, no matter
how wonderful it might have seemed.

Just because your memory is not clear and
comprehensive, it shows you only one aspect:"How
wonderful it was". It does not show you how helpless
and limited you were as a child. If yon have a clear
memory,however, you will remember everything in its
true perspective.

As you evolve, you learn to handle your memory
intelligently and artistically. There are certain
things that it is a virtue to forget. If some one has
harmed you, you should, with philosophical
understanding, forgive him.Each time you see him, you
should not face him with the memory of his negative
deed, rather you should face him with an open mind.
However if the level of the mental energy is lowered
due to distraction and inertia, you are drawn to
recollecting the negative happenings in your
life.When you go to sleep you start clearly
remembering those days when you were miserable, and
negative thought start pouring into your mind like
the rains of monsoon and its not healthy
memory.According to Raj Yoga ,that type of memory
creates painful thoughts-thoughts that will generate
pain and envenom your mind.

On the other hand, if you promote purity and harmony
in your mind, if the mind is harmonised through good
association,reflection and meditation,positive
memories will flourish.These are memories of your
experiences of harmony,of inner fulfilment, of divine
grace. This form of memory is highly advanced and
elevates your personality.

Devote some time every day,without fail to focusing
the mind. This is important because if you have not
dedicated time to focusing the mind or allowing your
attention to develop, then forgetfulness become
normal. When you are inattentive,you naturally
forget.When you develop a keen attention,you will not
forget the things that are important in practical
life.Concentration,meditation, repetition of
mantras,good association are all effectively related
to memory culture. In addition to keen attention,you
should also develop a clear sense of idea
association-say for example , you have to remember a
number like 539,it is helpful to build an association
with each number. If you are philosophically oriented,
you may associate the number 5 with the five elements.
Similarly, the number 3 may remind you of various
triads:there are three gunas, there is subject,object
and their interaction, there is past, present and
future. None is a number that possesses a unique
mathematical constancy, no matter by what number you
multiply it, the numbers in the product of that
multiplication add up to 9. For example:-

9x2 = 18
1+8 = 9
9x4 = 36
3+6 = 9

Similarly, if you are a student required to remember
various key points about geography, or history or any
subject, you may try to come up with a symbolic
letter that represents each point and then form those
letters into a word that you can easily remember.

Different types of jobs require different types of
memory skills.Do not make your mind into a garbage can
that keeps all types of unnecessary memories-Your
memory must be selective.Remember things that ought to
be remembered and forget things that ought to be
forgotten.Generally people do the opposite,they
remember things that are unnecessary and forget things
that are necessary and important-the net result the
life is in turmoil.

Therefore by adopting simple methods such as above,you
can train the practical aspects of your memory.But the
greater goal before you is cultivation of a
healthy,mystic memory.

What the Yogic scriptures say, let's see:-

"If the food is pure,your mind will be pure(This I
myself has written in an article posted in my blog
titled."THOUGHT MANAGEMENT- A LIFE TIME GIFT" way back
on27th Feb 2006,for the benefit of the readers.(I
would also suggest readers to read this article in
conjunction with the one I have referred to and for
the convenience of the readers,I re-produce the same
at the end of this article. Food refers not only to
the food you eat, but also the impression you gather
through your senses. If you bring in impressions that
are harmonious , if you have a life style of
uncluttered simplicity, then you are bringing in
impressions that are pure and your mind relaxes- and
in a relaxed mind you recollect, "I am Truth and not
this personality " and you begin to recollect
positive impressions and mystical experiences from
your past. This helps a person to attain intutional
revelations of the 'Self'- and this is the highest
recollection possible and with this the memory reaches
its climax, and with this all limitations are
destroyed,karmas annihilated and become "Absolute
Self".

Source:International Yoga Guide.

AND NOW READ THE BONUS PART

THOUGHT MANAGEMENT: A LIFE TIME GIFT

Let me begin the topic with a stanza: -

The intake of food effects your moods and affects your
thinking
The thinking effects your mind and affects your
vibrations
The vibrations effects your path and affects your
living and
The right vibrations will lead you to right thinking
and living.

-JK-

To summaries above: -

The “inputs” determines the “output”
Have good inputs of food
Good inputs of thoughts and associations, to bring
about
Good vibrations to lead you to the right destination
of life
In the right manner and through right and righteous
path.

This is not a philosophical concept but a practical
solution for a better, harmonious and happy living.

Every thing we see and experience in today’s world is
as a result of: -

What you think
Why you think
How you think
And
When you think

Many of you must have read and studied a lot on
various topics on Management and have earned degrees
and doctorates in various subjects in management as
there are number of leading management schools and
institutes imparting coaching in management subjects
across the globe- yet it is desirable to know some
thing about” THOUGHT MANAGEMENT”

No management institutes/schools can impart coaching
in thought management for simple reason that there is
an institute of thought embedded in every human being,
generating thoughts and all that’s needed is to manage
these thoughts through channelising in the right
direction within the mind and body before braining it
out in the form of actions. That’s why it is being
emphasised that one need not attend to any management
institute/school to know and learn on THOUGHT
MANAGEMENT. It is a self-study and self-mastering
subject and once you master it you are the emperor
your kingdom (i.e. your body and mind) with all things
you would like to achieve to better your living under
your control and command.

Now before trying to manage the thoughts, let’s
understand how to create vibrant, stimulant, creative
and precious thoughts within us.

Please always remember the “inputs” determines the”
output” formula.

Morning wake-up: The way you begin your day determines
the way you live your day. The first one hour from
time you wake up little early in the morning are most
valuable moments with profound influence on the
remaining of your day and if this precious time is put
to use with wisdom and self discipline you will think
only purest of thoughts and link only the finest of
action, and at the end of this precious hour, you will
notice and rejoice to understand that you are going to
have a great and marvellous day ahead of you.

Intake of food: -Do not ever put anything less than
the best into your body while eating. This will enable
you to increase your energy level, maintain perfect
health and keeps your moods in perfect harmony. The
following items are a must in your daily diet menu: -

Fresh Fruit Juice: Start the morning with a glass of
fresh fruit juice. It Increases high-energy level
keeps you active and helps to maintain an “Offbeat”
mood.

Daily intake of normal food: Make it less greasy to
maintain a high level of motivation and effectiveness.
Add green vegetables in your daily menu-this will keep
your bodily systems light and cool. Avoid root
vegetables as far as possible (with an exception to
white and red radish) as it makes you lousy, feel
heavy and could lead to gastric related issues. Home
made fresh vegetable soups (not the one ready to boil
and use stacked in stores) recommended before supper
and to end the supper, some fresh fruits of your
choice like apple, plantain, oranges etc. This will
keep your digestive system in undisturbed condition
and you will bodily feel quite light.

Living Environment: Keep your living environment
serene and moderately creative. Get up in the morning
with good memories and experience of life. Earmark a
tiny and cozy corner exclusively for you without any
interference and disturbance (could be in a corner of
your bedroom, living room or prayer room) for
concentration and meditation. This place must be put
to its desired use twice in a day first thing in the
morning as you wake up and last thing i.e. before you
retire to sleep. Now coming to meditation, according
to me there is no hard and fast rule, as so many
teachers/tutors of meditation has devised their own
methods- ultimately it is gradually and in a phased
manner bringing your concentration to the focal point
between the center of your two eye brows (called
meditation point) keeping in mind a divine/serene
object and slowly bringing to the meditation (focal)
point, retain it there as long as you are able to and
then relax mentally and bodily. You will have a
feeling of floating with no feeling of body weight.
For sitting posture too, there is no hard and fast
rule as it depends upon physical /health conditions,
age factors etc. What matters are concentration, focus
and keeping up of regular timings and these cannot be
subject to any compromise.

Maintain good and friendly association so that it
matches for you to achieve your life’s goal. Change
yourself to circumstances and environments rather than
trying the other way.

Work place: You spent a quite a lot of your time in
the work place and therefore it is essential that this
place remains conducive and congenial to work.
Maintain excellent rapport and relationship with all
i.e. your sub-ordinates, colleagues, and superiors and
boss- in spite of what they are and what moods they
are in. Always bear in mind that you have taken steps
to change your way of living for good and not to
change others minds and moods. At the end of the day
you must return home happy contended and justified
with your actions and reactions at work place.

Back home to be with your lovable and loving ones:
Once you are back home after completing the hectic
commitments of the work place, it is essential and be
prepared to have an interactive session with your
family members. Narrate your days experience/incidents
with your wife and child (ren), get feed back from
them, Ascertain from them their homely/work
place/school/college experience and place your
suggestions and opinions if they need from you.
Discuss your and their future plans and visions and
find a way out to reach the goals set forth by every
one in your family (Mind you that this is also a team
work and effort and not from commercial /trade point
of view but purely from bonded blood knit relationship
scenario) Keep in mind that a meal a day together with
your family members should form a habit-come what may
and this together eating meal should be filled with
fun and enjoyment. Otherwise what’s the purpose behind
life and living, supposed to be with caring and
sharing? Please do not make your life with mundane
hectic and herculean activities unrelated to family
relationships, affinity and harmonious living. Please
ensure to spend at least an hour after joint dinner
with your family, (particularly with your wife and
child (ren), engaging all of them in useful and
fruitful discussions relating to present and future.

With the above suggested principles and activities, in
routine manner good thoughts will be generated in the
mind for simple reasons that you have tuned your body
and mind in perfectly good harmony.

Now we are coming to the fag end of the subject i.e.
how to retain and manage such good thoughts. Adhere to
the following guideline principles in your day-to-day
living and experience the amazing and marvellous
changes that will shake up your undesirable and
unwanted thoughts and wake up memorable and good
thoughts.

Do not lose the touch with the purpose of living.
Do not lose touch with harmony.
Do not lose touch with humanity.
Do not forget what good, life is all about.
Do not forget to have amity and happiness with your
near and dear
Ones.
Do not find fault with others, instead rectify the
faults in you.
Accept all that comes to your life as it is, without
grudge or greed.

And last but not least

Count your blessings and not disguise.

J.KANNAN

Post script:-

I dedicate this article to my wife Vijayalakshmi
Kannan and son Kannan Sriram, two of my richest life
time possessions and mentors.

Deciding on a better way

Deciding on A Better Way

The wise person chooses his actions according to dharma, which is quite specific as to how we must behave. Those who connive to retaliate after a misunderstanding comes up should know they are carving a destiny of unhappiness for themselves by digging a pit of remorse, self-condemnation and depression. They will fall into it in the far-off future.

Some might ask, "Does nonretaliation mean that one should not protect himself, his family, his community?" We are talking about revenge, not self-defense. To oppose the actions of an intruder to one's home or community at the time of the intrusion is very different from tracking him down later and vandalizing his home in retaliation. We cannot hurt another without getting hurt back in the future through some other way, generally through other people not even associated with the person we hurt. Those who offend us or commit crimes against us, we can be sure, will receive justice in an unerring manner through the law of karma. If the matter is a serious one, we can seek reconciliation through the laws of the land. In criminal cases, justice can be sought through the courts. It is not wise to take matters into our own hands and be the instrument of punishment, for by doing so we reap the same negative karma as the offender. Retaliation on a wide scale can
be seen in cases of mob violence, terrorism and guerrilla warfare.

Therefore, it is wise to cultivate the powerful force of compassion, of righteous response, forgiveness, of admitting our own mistakes, of not lying our way out of a situation just to make ourself look good or putting others down so we can stand taller, so that we can save face. That is a face you would not want to save. It is a face not worth saving.

Those who accept the truth that retaliation is not the proper way to live, but are unable to stop trying to get even, are on the road to correcting themselves, especially if they feel remorseful about their impulses and actions. Through divine sight the soul perceives unwise actions, performed when in the lower nature, as a hindrance to spiritual progress. Penance received from a guru or swami and well performed by the devotee propels the soul into its natural state of bliss. All help is given by the divine devas to those seen performing a sincere penance. Gurus of every lineage receive the verbal confession of devotees and give out the appropriate penance, prayashchitta. They recognize divine absolution, knowing the penance has been fulfilled, when the inner aura is as bright as a new-born child's, the face happy and the testimony about the results of the penance discloses true atonement.

An Inspirational & Heart tpouching........

An Inspirational and Heart Touching Story- "Family".


I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please," was my reply. He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you." We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way saying good-bye. But at home a difference is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old. Later that day, cooking the evening meal, my son stood beside me very still. As I turned, I nearly knocked him down.

"Move out of the way," I said with a frown. He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken. While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said, "While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, but the children you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor, you'll find some flowers there by the door. Those are the flowers he brought for you. He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue. He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise, and you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small, and now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed, "Wake up, little one, wake up," I said. "Are these the flowers you picked for me?" He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree. I picked 'em because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue." I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers, especially the blue." Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it,we pour ourselves more into work than to our own family - an unwise investment indeed, don't you think?

So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER, (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU!

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.

He jumped out of the car, grabbed some kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam he went on. That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

"Please, mister, please. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do," pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."



Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child said to him.

The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk back to his jaguar....a long, slow walk. He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.


Lessons from the story: -

"God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart. Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It's your choice: Listen to the whisper - or wait for the brick."

JK

The nature of vedic Texts.

The Nature of Vedic Texts.

The holy Vedas, man's oldest scripture, dating back 6,000 to 8,000 years, are a
collection of four books:-The:-

Rig,

Yajur,

Sama,
&
Atharva.

Each has four sections:-

Hymns,

Rites,

Interpretation
&
philosophical instruction.


The oldest and core portions of the Vedas are the four Samhitas, "hymn
collections." They consist of invocations to the One Divine and the divinities
of nature, such as the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Fire and the Dawn-as well as
prayers for matrimony, progeny, prosperity, concord, domestic rites, formulas
for magic, and more.

They are composed in beautiful metrical verses, generally of three or four
lines. The heart of the entire Veda is the 10,552-verse Rig Samhita. The Sama
and Yajur Samhitas, each with about 2,000 verses, are mainly liturgical
selections from the Rig; whereas most of the Atharva Samhita's nearly 6,000
verses of prayers, charms and rites are unique. The Sama is arranged for
melodious chanting, the Yajur for cadenced intonation.

Besides its Samhita, each Veda includes one or two Brahmanas, ceremonial
handbooks, and Aranyakas, ritual interpretations, plus many inestimable
Upanishads, metaphysical dialogs. In all there are over 100,000
Vedic verses, and some prose, in dozens of texts. The Tirumantiram confirms,
"There is no dharma other than what the Vedas say. Dharma's central core the
Vedas proclaim."

Congested Energies.

Congested Energies

What is resentment?

Resentment is pranic force, subtle energy, that is congested.

What is love?

Love is pranic force that is flowing and uncongested.

When someone performs an injustice toward us, he is giving us a conglomerate of congested prana. If we were able to look at it in the astral world, we would see it as a confused mass of disharmonious colors and shapes. If we are unable to remain detached, we become upset and resentful. Instinctively this prana is held by us and only released when we find it in our heart to forgive the person. At the moment of true forgiveness, the congested prana is transferred back to the person who harmed or insulted us.

Now we can see that when we resent or hold something against someone, we are actually astrally connected to him and, in fact, holding back the karma that will automatically come to him as a result of his harmful act. If we forgive the offender, we release the congested energy. Then the unfailing karmic law begins to work. In other words, his actions will cause a reaction back on him, and we won't be involved in the process at all.

That is why the Tirukural, a wonderful book written 2,200 years ago, tells us, "Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering and refrain from unrighteous retaliation. Let a man conquer by forbearance those who in their arrogance have wronged him" (157-8).

However, it would not be wise to accept the transgressor back in your life until true remorse is shown and resentment on his part is dissolved through apology and reconciliation. Otherwise, wisdom indicates he might just commit the same hurtful acts again. Question was asked recently what we mean in sutra 270 which says monastics forgive hurts quickly and inwardly, but not outwardly until the offender reconciles. The devotee who asked the question said he has taken a lot of physical and emotional abuse, as well as verbal abuse, from his family. He had forgiven them inwardly but wanted to know what their relationship should be, now that he had reached middle age. We forgive inwardly because we know the experience is the result of our karma that we have put into motion in the past. But we hold a friendly, firm wall between ourselves and the offenders, which means a friendly distance, because we know that it is their kukarma, too, which must be reconciled
with
apologies and with the assurance that the offense won't happen again.

To be affectionately detached-that is a power. That is a wisdom. But detachment does not mean running away from life or being insensitive or passively accepting harm to yourself or loved ones. When we have the ability to let go, through forgiveness, we are warmer, more friendly, more wholesome, more human and closer to our family and friends.

Just the opposite happens if we remain attached by resenting what happened in the past. Take the example of a teenager who sees a promising future ahead of him, then experiences begin to happen in his life, some of which are unpleasant. If these are not resolved, negative prana begins piling up within his subconscious mind, vasanas are made, and the future begins to diminish from view. Year after year, as he grows older, the past gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and the future gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, there is so much resentment that the once joyful adolescent grows into a depressed and bitter adult. Eventually he develops cancer and dies lonely and miserable.

To have a happy future with your family and friends, don't ignore difficulties that come up between you. Sit down with them and talk things over. Stand on your own two feet, head up and spine straight and bring it all out in the open. Let them know how you feel about what they said or what they did.so many things are swept under the carpet, not talked about and left to smolder and mold there. But now, in today's world, we must clean up the mess in order to go along into a happy future. The basic foundation of Sanatana Dharma is ahimsa, nonhurtfulness, physically, mentally and emotionally. We must always remember this.

Look at the other side.......

Look at the Other Side..

A Father was reading a magazine and his little daughter every now and then distracted him. To keep her busy,he tore one page on which was printed the map of the world. He tore it into pieces and asked her to go to her room and put them together to make the map again.

He was sure she would take the whole day to get it done. But the little one came back within minutes with perfect map... When he asked how she could do it so quickly,she said,"Oh... Dad,there is a man's face on the other side of the paper... I made the face perfect to get the map right." she ran outside to play leaving the father surprised.

Moral of the Story:

Friends,There is always the other side to whatever you experience in this world. Whenever we come across a challenge or a puzzling situation,look at the other side... You will be surprised to see an easy way to tackle the problem..

Who is the Best ?

Subject: Who is the best ?(For lighter vein reading pl.)

Three world famous magicians were in the bar drinking and boasting about their achievements.

The first one said, "During my latest show, I made three women from the audience disappear, it was so convincing that their relatives started panicking, no one could find the trick".

The second one said, " Hey, that is nothing, during one of my open air shows I made the Municipality building disappear and the entire town was searching for it".

The third one sighed and said," Both of you are so local, I went to Paris and made the Eiffel Tower disappear for a full one hour, it was live on the TV, entire France was searching for the building & no one had a clue".

Just then an Indian walked into the bar and the three magicians suddenly turned quiet, gave each other fugitive glances and started to slip towards the door.

A Bartender watching this got curious and asked one of the magicians, "Hey what happened ? Who is that guy ? ".

One of the magicians whispered, " He is the World's greatest magician, he has done the biggest disappearing trick of all times, we are all mere amateurs compared with what he has done. His name is Ramalinga Raju. He has made USD 1.5 billion disappear from his company's balance sheet in front of everyone's eyes, and the entire world is still looking for it "

Its all about Management Consultants.....

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road.Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt. The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Cerutti shoes, Ray-Ban sunglasses, TAG-Heuer wrist-watch, and a Pierre Cardin tie, gets out and asks the Shepherd:

"If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?" The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the large flock of grazing sheep and replies:"Okay. "

The young man parks the car,connects his laptop to the mobile-fax,enters

a NASA Webster, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60

Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a

10 page report on his high-tech mini-printer.

He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."

The shepherd cheers,"That' s correct, you an have your sheep." The young

man makes his pick and puts it in the back of his Porsche.

The shepherd looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will

you return my animal to me?" The young man answers, "Yes, why not".

The shepherd says, "You are a Management Consultant from a top-notch

consultancy like McKinsey,etc. .".

How did you know?" asks the surprised young man.

"Very simple," answers the shepherd.

"First, you came here without being called.

Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, And

third, you don't understand anything about my business...

Now can I have my DOG back?"

Wax Poetic.

Wax poetic

Meaning

Speak in an increasingly enthusiastic and poetic manner.

Origin

'Waxing poetic' has nothing to do with bees, candles, or polishing
cars. The verb 'to wax' is 'to grow'; the opposite of 'to wane', which
is 'to decrease'. Grow and decrease have largely superseded the
archaic terms wax and wane in almost all modern usages, apart from the
waxing and waning of the moon. The other remaining contemporary uses
of 'wax' with the meaning of 'grow', survive in various expressions
like 'wax poetic' and 'wax lyrical'. These are often explained as
deriving from the imagery of the waxing of the moon. In fact, the word
is extremely ancient and was used to mean grow in many contexts prior
to it being used to describe the monthly increase in size of the
visible moon. King Alfred, in the translation of Pope Gregory's
Pastoral Care, which he commissioned in AD 897, used the Old English
version of the word - 'weaxan'.

There are numerous examples of the use of 'wax', meaning 'grow', in
mediaeval texts. For example, The Geneva Bible, 1560:

"But he that shulde haue bene vpright, when he waxed fat, spurned with
his hele."
[the 1611 version has it in more modern English as "Jesurun waxed fat,
and kicked."]

It isn't until much later that 'wax' began to be used to refer to
flowery and poetic speech or writing. This occurs in various phrases,
like 'wax lyrical', 'wax poetic' and 'wax eloquent'. Of these, it is
'wax poetic' that is still most commonly used. 'Wax eloquent' was the
first of this group of phrases to be used to describe someone becoming
increasingly expansive and expressive in speech. That dates from the
early 19th century, for example, this piece from Bracebridge Hall, a
collection of essays and literary sketches by Washington Irving, 1824:

"The whole country is covered with manufacturing towns... a region of
fire; reeking with coal-pits, and furnaces, and smelting-houses,
vomiting forth flames and smoke." The squire is apt to wax eloquent on
such themes.

Ironically, far from 'waxing eloquent', Irving was suffering from
writer's block in 1824, following a family bereavement, and struggled
to finish enough essays as to be worth publishing.

'Waxing poetic' came next. The first example that I can find in print
is in Sir Henry Morton Stanley's How I Found Livingstone, 1872:

"One could almost wax poetic, but we will keep such ambitious ideas
for a future day."

Stanley seems to have been an enthusiastic waxer. His book also
contains "I waxed indignant", "Farquhar and Shaw waxed too wroth", "I
accordingly waxed courageous" - all at a time when he reports that the
sun "waxed hotter and hotter".

'Wax lyrical' followed in the early 20th century; for example, Gilbert
Cannan's translation of Jean-Christophe in Paris, 1911:

"He had the genius of taste except at certain moments when the
Massenet slumbering in the heart of every Frenchman awoke and waxed
lyrical."

Time for me to wane lyrical and stop.

Very useful Tips by Warren Buffet.-2009

Dear All,

Very useful tips to follow and implement.

J.K



We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism.

Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations.

Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health.

They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future.

This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older.

This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.

Hard work :

All hard work brings profit; but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Laziness :

A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.

Earnings :

Never depend on a single source of income.

Spending :

If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.

Savings :

Don't save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.

Accounting :

It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.

Auditing :

Beware of little expenses; a small leak can sink a large ship.

Risk-taking :
Never test the depth of the river with both feet.

Investment :

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health..

Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life..

Warren Buffet

Clean the window of the Mind.

Clean the window of the Mind.

A young couple moves into a new neighbourhood. The next morning, while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbour hang the wash outside. That laundry is not very clean, she said, she doesn't know how
to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.

Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her
neighbour would hang her wash to dry, the young woman
would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:
"Look! She has learn ed how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said: "I got up early this morning
and cleaned our windows!"

And so it is with life:

"What we see when watching others depends on the
purity of the window through which we look. Before we
give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our
state of mind and ask ourselves if we are ready to see
the good rather than to be looking for something in the
person we are about to judge. "

And that's why it is said that "Men are from Mars, while women from Earth."!!!

J.K

An important thing...........

An important thing to remeberand follow in life always.

"Never take some one for granted. Hold every person close to your heart and in esteem, because you will wake up one day and realise that you have lost a "DIAMOND", while you were too busy collecting stones.

"Remember this always in Life."

J.K