A random Hindi story to please your heart.

I had posted this article below to test something with the intention to delete it.  It is a nice story that would touch some hearts. I don't have the heart to delete it.

बहुत समय पहले की बात है वृन्दावन में
श्रीबांके
बिहारी जी के मंदिर में रोज
पुजारी जी बड़े भाव से सेवा
करते थे। वे रोज बिहारी जी की
आरती करते , भोग
लगाते और उन्हें शयन कराते और रोज चार लड्डू
भगवान के बिस्तर के पास रख देते थे। उनका यह भाव
था कि बिहारी जी को यदि रात में भूख
लगेगी तो वे उठ
कर खा लेंगे। और जब वे सुबह मंदिर के पट खोलते थे
तो भगवान के बिस्तर पर प्रसाद बिखरा मिलता था।
इसी भाव से वे रोज ऐसा करते थे।
एक दिन बिहारी जी को शयन कराने के बाद
वे चार
लड्डू रखना भूल गए। उन्होंने पट बंद किए और चले
गए। रात में करीब एक-दो बजे , जिस दुकान से वे
बूंदी
के लड्डू आते थे , उन बाबा की दुकान
खुली थी। वे घर
जाने ही वाले थे तभी एक छोटा सा बालक
आया और
बोला बाबा मुझे बूंदी के लड्डू चाहिए।
बाबा ने कहा - लाला लड्डू तो सारे ख़त्म हो गए। अब
तो मैं दुकान बंद करने जा रहा हूँ। वह बोला आप अंदर
जाकर देखो आपके पास चार लड्डू रखे हैं। उसके हठ
करने पर बाबा ने अंदर जाकर देखा तो उन्हें चार लड्डू
मिल गए क्यों कि वे आज मंदिर नहीं गए थे। बाबा ने
कहा - पैसे दो।
बालक ने कहा - मेरे पास पैसे तो नहीं हैं और तुरंत
अपने हाथ से सोने का कंगन उतारा और बाबा को देने
लगे। तो बाबा ने कहा - लाला पैसे नहीं हैं तो रहने दो
,
कल अपने बाबा से कह देना , मैं उनसे ले लूँगा। पर वह
बालक नहीं माना और कंगन दुकान में फैंक कर भाग
गया। सुबह जब पुजारी जी ने पट खोला तो
उन्होंने देखा
कि बिहारी जी के हाथ में कंगन
नहीं है। यदि चोर भी
चुराता तो केवल कंगन ही क्यों चुराता। थोड़ी
देर बाद
ये बात सारे मंदिर में फ़ैल गई।
जब उस दुकान वाले को पता चला तो उसे रात की बात
याद आई। उसने अपनी दुकान में कंगन ढूंढा और
पुजारी
जी को दिखाया और सारी बात सुनाई। तब
पुजारी जी
को याद आया कि रात में , मैं लड्डू रखना ही भूल गया
था। इसलिए बिहारी जी स्वयं लड्डू लेने
गए थे।
यदि भक्ति में भक्त कोई सेवा भूल भी जाता है तो
भगवान अपनी तरफ से पूरा कर लेते हैं।
शुभ-दिवस
राधे-राधे.
मांगी थी इक कली उतार कर
हार दे दिया
चाही थी एक धुन अपना सितार दे दिया
झोली बहुत ही छोटी
थी मेरी "कृष्णा"
तुमने तो कन्हैया हंस कर सारा संसार दे दिया

Frog, Transcendence,

The purpose of anything we do should be to understand our relationship to the origins of the cosmos.  This is what modern Physicists try. Somehow Physics does not employ mind and meditation as instrument in this.  Via deep meditation, peace and Transcendence can be perceived.

******

The question may be raised, "Since there are so many varieties of philosophers theorizing in different ways, which of them is correct?" The answer is that the Absolute Truth, Transcendence, is never subject to direct experience or mental speculation. The mental speculator may be called Dr. Frog. The story is that a frog in a three-foot well wanted to calculate the length and breadth of the Atlantic Ocean on the basis of his knowledge of his own well. But it was an impossible task for Dr. Frog. A person may be a great academician, scholar or professor, but he cannot speculate and expect to understand the Absolute Truth, for his senses are limited. The cause of all causes, the Absolute Truth, can be known from the Absolute Truth Himself, and not by our ascending process to reach Him. When the sun is not visible at night or when it is covered by a cloud in the day, it is not possible to uncover it, either by bodily or mental strength or by scientific instruments, although the sun is there in the sky. No one can say that he has discovered a torchlight so powerful that if one goes on a roof and focuses the torchlight on the night sky, the sun will then be seen. There is no such torchlight, nor is it possible.

The word avyakta, "unmanifested," in this verse indicates that the Absolute Truth cannot be manifested by any strain of so-called scientific advancement of knowledge. Transcendence is not the subject matter of direct experience. The Absolute Truth may be known in the same way as the sun covered by a cloud or covered by night, for when the sun rises in the morning, in its own way, then everyone can see the sun, everyone can see the world, and everyone can see himself. This understanding of self-realization is calledātma-tattva. Unless, however, one comes to this point of understanding ātma-tattva, one remains in the darkness in which he was born. Under the circumstances, no one can understand the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord is equipped with varieties of energies, as stated in the Vedic literature (parāsyaśaktir vividhaiva śrūyate). He is equipped with the energy of eternal time. Not only does He have the material energy which we see and experience, but He has also many reserve energies that He can manifest in due course of time when necessary. The material scientist can simply study the partial understanding of the varieties of energies; he can take up one of the energies and try to understand it with limited knowledge, but still it is not possible to understand the Absolute Truth in full by dint of material science. No material scientist can foretell what is going to happen in the future. The bhakti-yoga process, however, is completely different from so-called scientific advancement of knowledge. A devotee completely surrenders unto the Supreme, who reveals Himself by His causeless mercy. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā,dadāmi buddhi-yogaḿ tam. The Lord says, "I give him intelligence." What is that intelligence? Yena mām upayānti te. The Lord gives one the intelligence to cross over the ocean of nescience and come back home, back to Godhead. In conclusion, the cause of all causes, the Absolute Truth, or Supreme Brahman, cannot be understood by philosophical speculation, but He reveals Himself to His devotee because the devotee fully surrenders unto His lotus feet. Bhagavad-gītā is therefore to be accepted as a revealed scripture spoken by the Absolute Truth Himself when He descended to this planet. If any intelligent man wants to know what God is, he should study this transcendental literature under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master.

Who is God? Who so many religions?

Question: Swamiji, what is your definition of God? Is God the manifestation of our own superior self, or do you see him as a distinct entity?

Radhanath Swami Answers: In the Brahma Sutra, which is the summary, essence of the Vedas, Upanishads, Samhitas and Puranas, it describes at the very beginning the definition of ‘God’. Janmady asya yatah: God is the source of everything, from whom everything emanates.

The Vedic literature compares God to the sun. Sun planet is the source of all light and all heat, and nothing can live without it. The sun rays are absolutely non-different from the sun, in quality; they give off heat, they give off light, and they are of the same substance. And every sun ray is coming from the same source; so they are all related, they are all united. But quantitatively, there is difference between a sun ray and the sun planet, because the sun planet is not coming from the sun ray, rather the sun ray is coming from the sun planet. Similarly, the Upanishads explain nityo nityanaam cetanas cetananam, there is one Supreme Truth God – who is like the sun – from whom everything emanates, and there are limitless eternal truths – like the sun rays. Wherever there is life, there is part of God. So in the bhakti tradition, we are all like those sun rays. We are sat-chit-anand; just like God, we are eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss. What is that bliss? The potency to love with compassion. We are beyond birth and death, that’s the nature of the soul. But there are many of us, and we are all connected in our appreciation that we are coming from the same source, who we call Krishna. So Krishna is the supreme object of love and we have the supreme power to love and to feel loved.

The Bhagavat Purana tells, brahmeti paramatmeti bhagavan iti shabdyate. There are 3 principle aspects of that one truth revealed throughout history in all the great scriptures: Brahman, all pervading presence of God, Paramatma, the God who is personally within everyone’s heart as the witness and our constant friend if we just turn to him, and there is Bhagavan who is the supreme all attractive unlimitedly beautiful loving God; we call him Krishna. In certain traditions people aspire to enter into the atmosphere of that unlimited aspect of God, some yogis try to connect with that Lord within their heart, and the bhaktas want to completely offer our love to the supreme, all attractive, all beautiful person of God.

And this is one of the things that convinced me to follow this path of bhakti, because I found in it, not just a sentimental idea, but a really deep understanding of the unity of all religions, even in their apparent contradictions

Consciousness: blindspot of Physics

Consciousness is the primary issue in human life. Indeed, without consciousness, there are no other
issues. Consciousness and its corollaries are fundamental to every thought, word and action. Yet how
strange it is that no universally accepted, comprehensive theory of consciousness exists in Western
science. The reason for this is clear: until recently, science intentionally restricted its domain to
empirical investigations of the manifest objective world, while consciousness is intrinsically subjective and immanent.


However, without a practical theory of consciousness, science cannot adequately explain the world in
which we live. Consciousness is the most basic experiential fact of existence. Without a theory of
consciousness, Quantum Mechanics, in particular, and its other cousins in Physics have nowhere to turn but to mathematical theories of probability and chance to explain observations of subatomic energy transactions. Einstein famously expressed his discomfort with this by saying, “God does not play dice with the Universe.” Quantum Mechanics cannot predict the behavior of a quantum system until a macroscopic conscious entity interferes with it, decohering the indeterminate superposition of the quantum wave function into a definite classical result by the process of measurement and observation.

Clearly, Quantum Mechanics is missing something; just as clearly, what is missing is a workable theory of consciousness. The sometimes bizarre concepts and calculations of quantum theory all depend on the existence and actions of an observer. Any observer must be conscious, and therefore the consciousness of the observer is critical to the outcome of any quantum experiment. However, so far Quantum Mechanics still treats the observer’s consciousness as a ‘black box,’ as if consciousness were proscribed from serious scientific inquiry.


The role of consciousness in Quantum Mechanics is crucial; for as Schrödinger found, without exact knowledge of consciousness it is impossible to predict the outcome of any quantum transformation with better than probabilistic accuracy. The actual quantum state remains a mystery until decoherence of the Quantum Wave Function occurs when a conscious entity interferes with it by measuring a quantum phenomenon, either with the bodily senses or a technological extension of those senses. Thus it is impossible to understand the ontological implications and actual mechanism of quantum decoherence without extensive, detailed and deep knowledge of consciousness. In addition, Quantum Mechanics has no clear information on the Universal Quantum Wave Function itself, because like consciousness, it is empirically unobservable and therefore immeasurable by definition, being outside the ontological domain of manifested objective existence. Science knows of its existence and can estimate its properties only by mathematical inference.

It turns out that the sages of India have investigated the nature of consciousness in a great amount of detail about five thousand years ago in a quite systematic, complete and practical theory in literatute such as Vedanta sutra, Srimad Bhagavatam etc. These theories are quite compatible with Quantum Physics.  Schrödinger himself was motivated by Vedanta in forumulating his theories; see this link.   The material is presented in these texts in a quite non-dogmatic manner, with the rigour of modern Science. It is my hope that these texts can be studied by modern Physicists to improve our models of Consciousness.

Obesity epidemic, yoga, immunity

Obesity is the biggest health epidemic of America.  About one third of the country is obese leading to other health problems and medical complications. 

There are multiple early stage companies that are working on a solution, but no solution is good enough. There is a company Arena Pharmaceuticals that tries to inhibit the stomach cell metabolism with mixed results and significant risks. The company develops oral medications that target G-protein-coupled receptors. In addition, there are other companies like Vivus and Orexigen.

The medical authorities of America have no practical answer to this problem of obesity.

While there are genetic factors involved, clearly one's eating habits and life-style do contribute to it. If one can magically eat less, the chances of obesity reduce. If one can live on one or two meals a day, obviously the obesity proneness decreases.


The fundamental problem to solve for obesity is to satiate the hunger without eating. The wisdom of the Yogis of India has been that just doing slow and deep breathing automatically reduces hunger.  Please try this for ten or twenty minutes and decide for yourself.  I have been able to reduce about 20 pounds of my lean figure with just deep breathing (called Pranayama Yoga) over six months.



The most challenging problem in medical science is in understanding immunity and improving immunity. Hundreds of billions dollars have been spent in researching immunity, but no real progress has been made. Nor is there a good research lead to pursue for immunity. It is anecdotally known in the Yoga world that Pranayama Yoga actually increases immunity (and even intelligence).  Please experiment for yourself to verify this.



Interestingly, in a book called Srimad Bhagavatam written about five thousand years ago, Lord Kapila articulates this: "pranayama dahet doshan". It means Pranayam Yoga decreases disease (and improves immunity.  I wonder how He came up with that.sitting under a tree with  practically no medical equipment.

Modern corporations suggest taking deep breaths to relive stress.  Pranayama is a part of Yoga; it  is just taking deep breaths.

Perils of medical hospitals in America

The post below is an effort to summarize the problems with modern procedures in America. I love the science of modern medicine. It just an effort to share ideas with like-minded people so that medical procedures and science become better.


The number of blood tests and other procedures medical professional do in hospitals during the night is ridiculous.  This directly disturbs the patient's circadian rythms.

About two days ago I had to spend the night in hospital to accompany my wife in a relatively stable condition due pregnancy issues.  We reached sometime like 11pm.  The medical professionals admitted her at 12am.  Then after doing tests, she was asked to go to sleep.

Somehow at 2AM, she was woken up for a blood test.  Then, there was another pregnancy related test that was ordered for her at 4AM.  They put some device on her for monitoring and at around 3AM the device slipped off her leading to beeps and nurse having to interfere.  Practically my wife and I had no sleep.  Since the doctor had wanted the report at 4AM, I suspect she had disturbed sleep too.  This kind of test-based medicine is not really helping the most important healing: sleep. I understand that late-term pregnancy is a tricky thing with the patient potentially being in labor; but if patient really goes into a labor, the patient would not be sleeping.

The blood test could have been avoided as she had a similar test less than a month ago. Even if it was not absolutely necessary, could it not not have waited till 7AM?  Does it have to disturb the patient's sleep patterns.  If one reads cancer research journals, disturbed sleep (irregular circadic patterns) is actually a carcinogenic progenitor; it increases chances of cancer.

When I challenged the nurse on the importance of this test now, she said it is really important if one is one blood thinners --- which my wife was not. The nurse could not answer me when I asked her how often people use blood thinners.  This is "fear psychosis" based medicine. It turns out that waking up patients for blood tests in the middle of the night is pretty common in the JFK medical center in NJ; I have had pretty intense association with the hospital. I suspect that this hospital is not alone in this mindset.

A background about my wife. She is rather timid, not wanting to upset any medical personal should they be not nice to her. For example, some nurse injected some narcotic (hydocodeine I think) too fast (less than thirty seconds) into her in 2009 and she had to endure very very severe chest pain for six hours as the drug was not meant to be injected that fast.   She does not like me challenging medical procedures. I suspect a large number of patients have this mindset.

This got me thinking about the problems facing current medicine:

• Business pressures have overtaken science.  This is acknowledged by my doctor friends
• Medical interns putting in 90 hrs a week is not really a sign of a healthy medical system
• In my experience, nurses are many unable to think holistically  
• The nurses etc. are highly stressed. Especially the nurses working in hospices.
• Via the charities Yoga Foundation and Share You Care, I have been involved in destressing the nurses in hospices
• Too much medication (partly because patients demand it)
• Many of the doctors I have interacted do acknowledge being overwhelmed by stress, meaning the risk of medical errors has gone up.

In addition, the medical science is having no good answers to the following problems:

• obesity.  one-third of America is obese. Obesity is epidemic
• depression.  
• cancer.  There is practically no clue on what is causing cancer and how it can be cured.  Current therapies just kill cells hoping to eliminate cancer, which is not a bad thing.
• depression.  National Institute of Health reports that about 5% of America is clinically depressed on a yearly basis; life-time statistic is about 15%. See the image below:

The medical community is not having really good leads on the research problems of obesity and depression.  There efforts, but nowhere are we close to a realistic solution.

Ghosts, poltergeists and dealing with them

I have always wondered if ghosts exist and why some people report encounters with ghosts and other paranormal stuff that I do not perceive with my scientific brain.  If one searches in Youtube for "poltergeists caught on tape", some of the videos seem real. i doubt that all the videos are made up.

So I started asking my trusted friends if they have had any experiences with ghosts. I tend to ask these questions only to people who meditate for an hour and half or more, so that I have a better chance of getting closer to the truth.  My Brazillian friend Marina is a good person to talk to on these things.

Interestingly,  a saintly man Srila Prabhupada reports that he had to deal with ghosts. Here is the story:

Ghosts and Fearlessly Chanting the Maha Mantra

Srutakirti das: Being with Srila Prabhupada was always relishable. I especially enjoyed when he gave us a glimpse of his life before coming to America. Sharing his pastimes was a wonderful expression of his love for us. Srila Prabhupada also took great pleasure in describing different aspects of his life with his disciples. One afternoon he began describing to Paramahamsa and me about his life as a sannyasi.
"While I was living in Vrndavana," Srila Prabhupada said. "Sometimes I would go to Delhi for a few days to make arrangements with my publisher. I would stay in one room during these periods. During the winter, it was so cold. I would have to crack a thin layer of ice with my lota in my bucket of bath water. Then I would bathe with that water."
At Bhaktivedanta Manor, a few ladies came to visit Srila Prabhupada on a number of occasions. They knew His Divine Grace was a very saintly person. They were hoping that he could help them solve their predicament. They described to Srila Prabhupada how poltergeists had inhabited their flat. They had tried many things to rid their home of the pesky spirits, but nothing worked. They informed Srila Prabhupada that different items were being broken, while being tossed around the rooms. One of the women asked Srila Prabhupada if there was any particular prayer or mantra they could chant to force the entities to leave the premises forever. It was no surprise to his disciples when Srila Prabhupada advised them to chant the Maha-Mantra. He sweetly told us of his own experience with the "supernatural." He described that when he was a grihasta, he bought a large haunted house in Calcutta for a very good price.
"No one would buy the place," Srila Prabhupada said smiling. "It was a very nice, big house, but because it was haunted, everyone was afraid. So, I bought it and lived there. Sometimes, I remember sitting down and you could see things moving about in the house. I would sit in my chair and chant 'Hare Krsna.' One time, one of my servants came up to me and said, 'Swamiji, how can you stay here with these ghosts?' I told him there was nothing to worry about. Just chant Hare Krsna. So, I was living there and so many things would go on, but nothing frightened me."