The distinct Understandings

Whatsoever these organizations teaching meditation and better living actually teach you.

Something real or just arbitrary thoughts of something that may happen if you stick to them.

After a long fight of pushing oneself to understand these teachings, one is said to come out as a new person.

Yet, these teachings end up the very moment one falls in a situation to choose between love and fear, the fear wins; and the very core of the teaching one attained dives into the ocean of Darkness.

The Art of Giving

The article is a real long one though, yet is more than worth than it seems here....

The Art of Giving

"Rivers do not drink their own water, nor do tree eat their own fruit, nor do rain clouds eat the grains reared by them. The wealth of the noble is used solely for the benefit of others! Even after accepting that giving is good and that one must learn to give, several questions need to be answered.

The first question is: When should one give?

We all know the famous incident from Mahabharat. Yudhisthir asks a beggar seeking alms to come the next day. On this, Bhim rejoices that Yudhisthir his brother, has conquered death! For he is sure that he will be around the next day to give. Yudhisthir gets the message. One does not know really whether one will be there tomorrow to give! The time to give therefore is now.

 

The next question is: 'How much to give?'

One recalls the famous incident from history. Rana Pratap was reeling after defeat from the Mughals. He had lost his army, he had lost his wealth, and most important, he had lost hope, his will to fight. At that time, in his darkest hour, his erstwhile minister, Bhamasha, came seeking him and placed his entire fortune at the disposal of Rana Pratap. With this, Rana Pratap raised an army and lived to fight another day. The answer to this question how much to give is: Give as much as one can!

The next question is: 'What to give?'

It is not only money that can be given away. It could be a flower or even a smile. It is not how much one gives but how one gives that really matters. When you give a smile to a stranger that may be the only good thing received by him in days and weeks! "You can give anything but you must give with all your heart!" One also needs answer to this question whom to give? Many times we avoid giving by finding fault with the person who is seeking. However, being judgmental and rejecting a person on the presumption that he may not be the most deserving is not justified. Give without being judgmental!

Next we have to answer: 'How to give?'

Coming to the manner of giving, one has to ensure that the receiver does not feel humiliated, nor the giver feels proud by giving. In giving, follow the advice 'Let not your left hand know what your right hand gives? Charity without publicity and fanfare is the highest form of charity.' 'Give quietly!'
While giving, let not the recipient feel small or humiliated. After all, what we give never really belonged to us. We come to this world with nothing and will go with nothing. The thing gifted was only with us for a temporary period. Why then take pride in giving away something which really did not belong to us?
Give with grace and with a feeling of gratitude.

"What should one feel after giving?"

We all know the story of Eklavya. When Dronacharya asked him for his right thumb as "Guru Dakshina, he unhesitatingly cut off the thumb and gave it to Dronacharya. There is a little known sequel to this story. Eklavya was asked whether he ever regretted the act of giving away his thumb. He replied, and the reply has to be believed to be true, as it was asked to him when he was dying. His reply was "Yes! I regretted this only once in my life. It was when Pandavas were coming in to kill Dronacharya who was broken hearted on the false news of death of his son, Ashwathama, and had stopped fighting. It was then that I regretted the loss of my thumb. If the thumb was there, no one could have dared hurt my Guru?
The message to us is clear. Give and never regret giving!

And the last question is: ‘How much should we provide for our heirs?'

Ask yourself 'are we taking away from them the gift of work? - A source of happiness?
The answer is given by Warren Buffett:
"Leave your kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing!"
 

The conclusion here comes by the quote of Saint Kabir:

"When the wealth in the house increases, when water fills a boat, throw them out with both hands!"

This is the wisest thing to do!

The TERI Yuva Meet, February 2011

Starting from day 2, I’ll be writing about the whole event but before all that my achievement: got our team’s poster selected for the “Youth Express” and even presented a play on it. Talking about the experience: awesome and yes there is an award for the best student participant and I’m forgetting the name of it (Green globe award, got it later), surely is the prestigious one and just in the hope to get it.

Moving on to the first day, more than expectations can deliver and overwhelmed with the amount of work some organizations can do to promote youth action in fields like climate change and sustainable development. Sometimes it gets me confused whether these activities are actually meant for this purpose or is just a show for the money being spent over a to be said CSR activity. Hope the latter is not happening. Just hope coz that all we can do.

Our play: I felt I was the director of the play or I was actually trying to be one, well someone has to take the initiative, so it was me; from the idea of the poster to the direction of the play and yea the younger child who misses out the traditional education and comes back to the village and is not able to save the life of a dying man bit by a snake, he feels the education he got in the city is worthless if it could not even help someone.

What more to that i actually made it up to the top 2 students, didn't win the award, yet more than content with the level i reached and the amount of experience I've got.

the major advantage most of the people get of such meets is that they get to know more people, while what I personally feel and I did even speak it during a session is that "why are we wasting more resources by organizing such events at prestigious locations where there are numerous resources being thrown without even we demanding them. 

supply and demand are still a question for how to go sustainable and who stands responsible, is it the people or the industry.

The Extra Sentiments, rolling

Wonder people are more emotional or I've just been a little more extra sentimental.

Just asked my friend sitting next to me while watching "No one killed Jessica", and realized the power of being human has been lost.. I had those tears which the movie was supposed to bring while no one else even thought for it. People were still shouting and laughing on the humor parts..but hope keeps US alive, as it has always done.

I'll still Keep Running...

Cultural Existence

All of us have seen cultural shows at various festivals, but where does all this culture originate from; where does this heritage comes from?
It indeed is a pity that cultural representation has now only become an item of entertainment, show biz is where the culture exists and that too for entertaining people, while it's origins lie in making the masses aware of the darkness of the society, moods of the weather, feelings of us humans, but no more it is seen the same way.
Time is changing, so is the culture too.....
:(

A visit to a government school.....

Poor situation of education systems in the country.



A case report on Government Senior Secondary School, Mangali

AS soon as arrive at this place, I find students passing their time by doing “shararat”, as told by another student.

Visited the male faculty room and found the teachers smoking “bidi”.

Infrastructure:

The school building is fine enough for running such a school.

The school has direct satellite connection called the EDUSAT- A Haryana Govt. and ISRO project on providing quality education through online classes.

The school has computer lab with an LCD projector.

The school even has a silent generator.
Such things are not so common in such schools, hence need a mention.


To pity:

No maintenance of the building.

The EDUSAT equipment lie in dust with the explanation from teachers that they don’t have any computer teacher to handle it, the EDUSAT room is now used as a space for having lunch for teachers.

As the computer teachers are not available, so the computer lab lies in a waste too.

The school has no management and hence no one ever brought fuel to run the generator, and the Rs/- 3lakh generator lays a waste too.



Ask any of the teachers and they state that the students don’t study; they say that the students don’t even wish to study.

Sit with the teachers in the so called staff room built in a science lab, and they discuss the poor performance of the student and not the efforts they should put in.

There is a complete failure of the education system in these government schools, no attention is paid to the students and everything is blamed on the attitude of the students.



Moreover the so called teachers say that students come here only to get the money, and yes students are paid to come to schools; not the general class students but all the SC/BC/OBC’s are paid over 200 rupees a month just to come to school and that is the reason stated by the teachers for their presence in the school.

Physical punishment is a thing of today only i.e. 2010; you can find students being beaten by wooden sticks and then running weeping to their homes.

Class time:

Took the first class; an English lecture for the 9th standard pupils.

They don’t even have text books. The books they have are called guides and those are the only ones they use; this so called guide only has a brief summary of the chapter and the questions and answers; wait, they missed the chapter in the guides.

And to the pity, the kids don’t even know how to read, pronounce and rewrite those English words, and one of the student shouts from behind “ji kala akshar bhains barabar”: that is they don’t know what it means.



I just wonder the government or the authorities ever realized the situation and something good happens; only prayers and local efforts I can do.

Purple