TERROR STRIKES THE IT CAPITAL!!!

The IT capital of the country was rocked with the ugly head of terrorism raising its head in the city on a calm afternoon this Friday ( 25th July). All the television channels started to beam live pictures from the sites of the blasts.

In a matter of about 15 minutes, there were 6 blasts in different parts of the southern and central Bangalore.
With the phone lines jammed in most parts of the city, the common man was not able to contact his near and dear.

What has happened to the silicon valley of India? Has it become the new target of terror? Who is responsible for this? Was this a mere warning or a sign of something more ominous things to come?

The answers lies in the questions itself.

With man today going from strength to strength in constantly rediscovering newer technologies to try and make life simpler is forgetting that he is also responsible for making this world a much more dangerous place to live in. in his quest to have a better standard of living on the materialist plane, man has lost the baton on leading a peaceful life.
It may be that the so called organizations may be responsible for the blasts like what the police always claims after every scene of man made disaster. But then every one gets so engrossed with the media news that they forget or rather choose to ignore the fact that underneath it is every single citizen who is responsible for this.

Everyone wants everything in this world……and that’s where lies all the problem.

When one has to be contempt with what he has got, rather than going for every single luxury that exists on the surface of the earth. One may say that I am being too skeptical and that I too enjoy the luxury that the modern marvels have provided. Yes I do enjoy some of the luxuries that exits in this world today. I am not averse to modernization, but in the quest to achieving greater heights in medicine and technology, we should not loose contact with our roots. My point of contention is that while man at one end is getting what he needs, the man at the other has to loose something. Cause, that is how the law of nature works. With the survival of the fittest proving right in every sphere of life, man has to struggle in his everyday life. But then he is the master of his own destiny. It is in his very hands to see to it that he does not end up making his life an everyday struggle. When man has to continuously develop and improve the standard of living, he must also take into consideration that the development is overall, in all spheres of the globe.

After all, we all have to live in ONE WORLD!!!!

Imagine an Ideal World!

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.

• Lyrics of Imagine, By The Beatles.

What GOD looks like........

There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and he started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Once again she smiled at him. The boy was delighted ! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"
Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." But before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Ideal World

Let us now steer away from some spirituality. We have all seen and heard people complaining that life is not fair, and that they do not deserve this fate. Blaming that the world is not good, it is not ideal. So what would be an ideal world? How would it be to live in such an Ideal world? How would it differ from this world? What is not ideal about this world?

What is not ideal in this world?

Corruption, Violence, Poverty, Hunger, Deforestation, Global Warming, Discrimination, etc.

How would it differ from this world?

Well, to put it simply it will be white compared to our black-n-white.

How would it be to live in such an Ideal world?

    There will be no worry. Everyone will perform as is expected of them. Driving will be easy because will everyone will follow the traffic rules. No crime will be committed, therefore, no lawyers, no police, no army, no corrupted politicians, etc… Life will be smooth and everyone will be happy. Earth will be green, people will prosper. No one will go hungry. Land will be fertile.

But would people really enjoy such a life. Will such a life not become a mechanical one? In some sense, I feel such an ideal life will lead to a non-ideal world. It is a cycle. Think about it!! There are two ways of looking at this picture: 1. This is a cycle from Ideal world - non-ideal world – ideal world – and so on, 2. This is the ideal world – things are as they are supposed to be.

Let's sit up and think about this. Ciao.

 

CUP OR COFFEE...

A group of alumni, highly established in their lives, got together to visit their old university Professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned
with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic,
glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -
telling them to help themselves to hot coffee .

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If
you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving
behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want
only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and
stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the best cups and were eying each other's cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the
cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life
doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to
enjoy the coffee in it."

Don't let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead

GOD

What is GOD? My question is important. I do not ask 'Who is GOD?,' instead I ask 'What is GOD?.' 'Who is GOD?' is a religious question, while 'What is GOD?' is a spiritual question. Religion is a way of life – not the way of life. Religion is 'getting answers', while Spirituality is 'experiencing answers'. I feel 'What is GOD?' is a more important question than 'Who is GOD?.' So how do we answer this question?

'Sahasra Seersha Purushah' – thus starts the Purusha Suktam. The Purusha Suktam extols the personality of the Supreme Being, the Almighty God. What does the first verse in this Suktam mean? By literal translation, it means 'One with thousand heads'. The Suktam goes on to praise the purusha as one with thousand hands and feet and eyes. Does this mean God has thousand heads, hands, feet and eyes? What is the significance of the number 1000? It is well known that in Hinduism the holy numbers are 18, 108, 1008, or numbers like 11, 51, 101, 1001, etc. Why then 1000? Large numbers are often used to represent uncountable. The meaning of the beginning verses of the Purusha Suktam is, to me, means God is everyone. The Vedas extol the qualities of an ideal person. Humans need to strive to attain those qualities.

So coming back to the question, What is GOD? God is the ideal human being, the human being with all the ideal values. So attaining these values is the goal of life. This is exactly what the non-theistic religions are about. They talk about being good and ideal and do not mention about an external GOD.

Speech Vs Silence

Hi all,

This is a contribution by our friend....Anand aka Andy.....

Speech dissipates energy, Silence conserves it.

Speech needs Company, Silence needs Solitude.

Speech is outside, Silence is inside.

Speech makes you self-centered, Silence makes you God-centered.

Speech is heard by creatures, Silence hears the Creator.

Speech receives appreciation, Silence receives adoration.

Speech seeks to conquer others, Silence helps to conquer oneself.

Speech is mind bound, Silence is soul bound.

Speech demands respect, Silence commands it.

Speech is self-expression, Silence is self-experience.

Speech asserts ego, Silence effaces it.

Speech is Human, Silence is Divine.

GOD....

Dear All,

Who is GOD????????????????????????????

This is one question that I am sure that would have rung in everyone’s mind at some point of time or the other. It is a very simple and a straight forward answer…well that’s what I thought, but then can God be defined at all. We mortals can only explain God, if at all we can, in terms that are familiar to us and the knowledge of God in which we were brought up by our parents. Some call Him the all powerful Super power that pervades over all of us. Some call Him as the unseen yet indispensable part of ones life. But we cannot pin point and say that God means this or God means that. After all do we need to define God at all. All that we need to know that there is an entity called God and that we need to remember Him and be thankful to Him for all the things in life. I did not specify that we need to thank him for only the good things in life. I will explain later as to why we should and why we should not.

As of now suffice it to say, that God is Omni-present, Omni-potent and Omni-scient.

Or in simpler terms God can be perceived as anything or anyone that you Love the most and revere the most in your life. To begin our quest into understanding (or should I say experiencing God) it would be best to start seeing God in every instance, situation or person that you come across.
I am sure this will provoke more interest and inqisitivenes

Life and its Small Miracles.

The Lord says, among all species, to be born as a human is the rarest and the most gifted births. It is only a human who can identify himself with God and understand the essence of life. It is said that a human birth is the highest ranked in the order of evolution and is just a step away from recognizing his true nature. The purpose of human existence is to realize his true nature and yearn to merge with the Divine and attain eternal bliss. God fills a life with experiences that are good, some bad, some disturbing and some totally unnerving. These experiences shape up individual's thinking

God provides man with a life filled with small but sweet experiences that act on the human, developing him into a more complete and helps him lead a more fulfilling life. Take the example of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, India, whose life was molded by the happenings around him. In his youth he was influenced by the western culture, their polish and their lifestyle. But later, he was influenced by the realities of life in India and he began to lead a life of an average Indian. Examples are galore when one looks at the way situations have molded the human beings. Hitler would not have been a name to reckon with if he had not gone through the hazards in his childhood. Abraham Lincoln would have been an ordinary American, had he not been influenced by the happenings. One can go on quoting examples from the past and the present about people who otherwise lead normal life rise to become heroes, leaving their mark in history and in the hearts of people across the globe.

Getting influenced by the happenings around one is like a double edged sword. One can get mis-led if one gets wrongly influenced by the situations. What brings man down to abyssal depths of sin is the influence of the dark and the polluted forces of nature. Man gets easily carried away by the ever inviting hand of sin, veiled in the garb of a saint. Everything looks all good and rosy for him in the beginning and he falls for it. But as time rolls by, he realizes that what seemed to him as a bed of roses, is actually a coffin of thorns.

Man has to understand that though getting influenced by the situations around him, but use his discretionary powers vested upon him by God to differentiate between the positive and the negative. Life offers man both the good and the bad. It all depends on him as to how he utilizes it and makes the best use of the circumstances. One can use a knife for killing some one or use the same for operating and saving a life. Man is bestowed with the unique attribute of discrimination. One has to use it wisely and ensure the development and evolution of all around him.

When one talks of small miracles in life, these are the ones that we often forget to remember and cherish. These are moments that pass us by without us giving a thought about it. How many of us remember the smile on the face of a poor man when we gave him a packet of food to eat? How many of us remember that tears of gratitude of an old woman, who barely had anything to cover her shivering body, in the middle of the night, when we gave her a blanket to face the chill nights?

Let this space here be a window to let go some of those small miracles that has enriched our lives....that has made us into better human beings....