Vegetarian crocodile

Ananthapura Lake Temple, Kasargod. Babiya - The Vegetarian Crocodile. This crocodile named Babiya is found in Ananthapura temple in Kasargode ,kerala, India. There is a legend about this crocodile. He is considered to be the guardian of this lake temple. When that crocodile dies, another one automatically takes guard and appears mysteriously. It is also said that the crocodile has been living for the past 150 years as only one crocodile is seen at a time. This is a harmless, pure vegetarian crocodile and does not even kill the fish in the lake. The priests feed the crocodile after the Ucha Pooja / Noon Pooja with gruel of rice and jaggery. The crocodile comes there at that time, has the food offered and again goes back to the cave which is present close by. There is Lord Krishna temple towards south-west of main
temple. The main attraction here is the crocodile present in the lake. Around 67 years back the British had killed the
crocodile. However one more crocodile appeared next day.
Nobody knows the source of crocodile since there are no
rivers or lakes near by. The crocodile is harmless. Everyday Specials:1) "MOSALE NAIVEDYA" (Rice to Crocodile) is prominent offering here in temple.
— at Ananthapura Lake Temple, Kasargod.

Healing by meditation

One of my friends mentioned that he had some cancer related activity and somehow the situation seems to have improved significantly due to practising Pranayama meditation.  Pranayama is a slow and deep breathing excercise. It is one of the most powerful meditation techniques I know of.

The mind and the seat of consciousness (called soul in religious circles) have the ability to heal our body. While medicines help, it is quite well acknowledged by modern medicine that mind has a significant role in healing. For example, many cases patients get cured by placebos, which are dummy medicines. Similarly,  valid and proven-effective medicines don't work sometimes because of the mental condition of the patient. Please recognize the important role mind pays in healing. Mind can overpower the scientifically tested medicines!

One can accelerate healing by having the mind chant mantras. Or by the mind telling the broken hand to heal. There are some evidence based studies for this phenomenon.  One can experiment for themselves to validate this hypothesis.

A stressed mind would mean slower healing. A calm mind means all the life and mind  energy can be focused on healing.   In this sense, the health benefits of meditation are indeed significant. Based on experimentation and reading of various Yogic texts, I am fairly convinced that strong meditation is a very powerful cure for any disease in any common condition. Lord Kapila discusses, in Sankhya yoga section of Srimad Bhagavatam,  how meditation can cure diseases.

I had managed a small surgery with no painkillers after surgery with just meditation and homoeopathy. The doctor said that, in her twelve years of service, she has not seen such an example.

Somehow, modern medical practice is blind to this. If you go a hospital in America, it is typical that the mind gets no rest. The mind is engaged by television from 8am to 10pm.

Different food stuffs have different impacts on our health. If you eat a heavy to digest food, the digestive system and overall body are stressed negatively effecting healing.  For gastro intestinal diseases, it would make sense to rest the digestive system by fasting or regulated eating. My sicknesses have always been related to bad eating. Somehow modern medicine does not focus on this.  The amount of healing missed is stupendous!

Actually,  it has been my experience that the Yogic or Vedic understanding of human body and mind is complementary to modern medicine. For example, the consensus in medicine is that one will die or get into serious trouble if breathing is stopped for more than four minutes.  There is enough anecdotal evidence of Indian yogis stopping breathing for ten minutes to thirty minutes or more. My friend Gaur Natraj told me he could voluntarily stop breathing for 6 minutes. I have heard or read of very convincing accounts of upto thirty minutes in voluntarily stopping breathing (and heart). These techniques when studied deeply should enhance significantly medical understanding of the human body. 

To summarize, modern practice has two blind spots: effect of food on health and power of mind as an active curing agent. Modern medicine and science will significantly improve itself by studying Yoga.

On a different day, I will discuss how obesity is the biggest health challenge and how Yoga offers a very natural solution. Similarly, National Institute of Health says 5% of America is clinically depressed and one sixth of the country experiences depression over a lifetime. There is no good medical solution. Yoga offers a very viable solution to this.  The reader is encouraged to verify it for themselves while clinical experiments by NIH are ongoing in this aspect.

Supreme intelligence of Indian sages (rishis)

SB 4.8.33 One should try to keep himself satisfied in any condition of life whether distress or happiness which is offered by the supreme will. A person who is able to endure in this way is able to cross over the darkness of nescience very easily

SB 4.8.34
Every man should act like this: when he meets a person more qualified than himself, he should be very pleased ; when he meets someone less qualified than himself he should be compassionate toward him; and when he meets someone equal to himself he should make friendship with him. In this way one is not affected by by the threefold miseries of thos material world.

Even atheists would benefit by reading Srimad Bhagavatam.    We should marvel the intelligence of Lord Vyas who wrote this five thousand years ago sitting under a tree.

Somehow even with our cell phones and other scienctific improvements we have not   been able to write such an insightful book.

Over a period of time, our core intelligence is degrading compared to yesteryears.  While cell phones are aiding our memories, our fundamental intelligence is going down.

I pray that fellow Indians take pride in the rishis of India and actually read about them and spread the peace message of India to the whole world.