‘Deepawali’ or ‘Diwali’ is certainly the most magnificent of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of ‘lights’ that’s marked by four days of celebrations, in which the country is illuminated with brilliance and dazzles everyone with its’ joy. Diwali is celebrated on a nation-wide scale on Amavasya – the 15th day of the dark fortnight of the Hindu month of Ashwin, (October/November) every year. Amongst Hindus, across many parts of India and Nepal, it is the homecoming of Lord Rama after a 14-year exile in the forest after his victory over Ravana. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (dipa), thus its’ name, ‘dipawali’. This year it falls on 17th October. (more…)

If I look down memory lane, I come across a faded memory of the postman who used to knock our gate and simulatneously ring his bycycle bell to announce his arrival. I or anyone else in the house used to run towards the gate to find out what the postman had brought for us. ‘Telegram hai sahib’, he used to say. And the word telegram sent a chill down the spine and horrible thoughts came to the mind in a flash of a second. Who? What? Why? When?  Where? Oh  Rama – bless me!!!  It was a….. (more…)

Ravana

Dussehra is also called ‘Vijaidashmi’ and ‘Dus Hara’ meaning cutting of ten heads. Dussehra is observed all over India as well as Nepal. This festival has a significance of celeberating  victory of Shakti over mahishasura and also that of Lord Ram over Ravana. The festivities are observed by  aplying ‘Tilak’ on the forehead, payers, observance of religious rituals like burning Ravana effigyand keeping fast for eight days.

It is a unique festival celebrated all over India for different reasons & with different ways of celebration. We all celebrate this festival to mark the victory of good over evil. This festival is mainly important to the Hindus and is celebrated for 10 days.

Vijayadashami is celebrated on the tenth day of the bright fortnight of the Hindu autumn month of September end or beginning of October and is the grand culmination of the 10-day annual Navaratri  festival. (more…)

Shri Asaram Bapuji

A true incident.

Bapuji had arrived in town and was at the Ashram. We reached the Ashram at 10.30 am and parked my car opposite the main gate under the trees and adjacent to the dried out bushes. This was the first time I had ever gone to this Ashram. It was a tin-top hanger type shed with a small house visible behind it and some portion was still under construction. All over the floor there were blue plastic sheets spread out for people to sit on. When we reached inside the ‘pandal’ there were around 100 people present. I got the ‘Darshan’ of Bapuji at 12.30pm, the sermon went on for about 2 hours followed by ‘prasad’ before dispersing.

When we came out of the Ashram on to the main road, there were about a dozen cars parked here and there, but my car……. (more…)

In this time of recession, the real estate market bubble has burst. Gone are the days when people used to invest some amount in plots, houses or flats and reaped a fairly good harvest in a short span of six months or a year.

In India, today there are no buyers available. At the same time the sellers are not reducing the price of the property they are holding, hoping against hope that the prices would one day rise. But the prices have not risen in the past two years.

The concept  of ‘own-sweet-home’ is now no longer in operation. When there are no buyers in the market – then what are all the people doing?  I asked a friend who promptly replied “Compared to buying – renting is cheap”. Mathematically, a smart move, I think. (more…)

Never criticise a Saint 

I was looking for something and I stumbled on this site,  and I  know now that some people are deliberately writing against Sri Sri Ravishankar’s work  Only they know how, why,  by whom they have been motivated to do this? I have only one question to the people who are questioning the abilities of a Saint. What is their awareness level in the spiritual path? Have they  achieved enlightenment in religion and have reached  the highest echelon?  If so, only then will I listen to  their  comments .

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual and humanitarian leader. It was very disturbing to read people talking against  his teachings and against his organisation in a blog which has also been commented by others. This is highly inappropriate and people should desist from making irrational comments against any saint. (more…)

India is known as the holy land  where  Lord Krishna explained the mysteries of life and death in the battlefield of Kurukshetra to Arjuna in  the great Bhagvata Gita, when the war of Mahabharata was fought.

Bhagwat Gita, is the most revered book in Indian mythology and its preachings are the main subject being taught in most of the Ashrams. The lessons in the chapter of Bhagwat Gita in the Mahabharata Magnum Opus  are the complete knowledge of life  and are the true guidelines for exemplary conduct and behaviour.

The people round the globe associate India with yoga, meditation and spiritualism. If one talks of spiritual channels alone, the market is huge in India.There are more than ten TV Channels which are doing the job of propagating religion 24×7 in hindi and english  alone. (more…)

We had to take our flight to Seattle on 19 Aug and that very evening we went to the market to pick up  medicine from the chemists shop in Vasant Kunj, Delhi  which I needed to carry to States for the duration of my stay there. After buying the medicine, we headed home. There were only two steps down to the road from that shop. When I was about to get down the first step, the cell phone in my sis-in-laws’ purse rang.  I was momentarily distracted and I missed the first step and my foot landed on the second. I was disbalanced, would have fallen down and taken the early morning flight minus my nose, but for the gentleman who was entering the shop and held me by the shoulder. (more…)

I distinctly remember it was the year 1995. My daughter had just appeared for her graduation final exams. She said, “Pa”, as she proudly addresses me “Yes “, I said. “Pa, I think you have spent more than 450,000 rupees on my education alone so far”.

I was taken aback. Never ever thought of that, and why should I. I had only performed my duties towards both my kids.

“Why, how did you ever come to think of that?” I asked.
“Nothing, it just occurred to me”, she replied. (more…)

A couple of weeks ago I had an irritation in my left nostril, the left ear and slight cough also. Oh my God, I was scared that I had contacted swine flu. The day before I had gone to receive a friend at the airport, a Lecturer from Pune University

Pune has been in the news for many days with all news channels giving the news – Swine Flu spreads in Pune – from dawn to dusk. They have also been giving live telecasts of interviews from residents of Pune who cannot even spell the name of the disease. ‘Breaking news’ became ‘repeating news’. (more…)